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Polygamy vs. gay marriage
Re Steve Cohen’s review of the Opera Company’s Dark Sisters—
I always love to read Steve’s music reviews, but have to take him to task for two points.
Gay marriage was very much heard of in 1953 by those who were in them and by the invisible-to-straights gay world at large. Comparing the micro-world of polygamy in any way to millions of consensual same-sex relationships in this country alone is grotesque and disturbing.
Lewis Whittington
Center City/ Philadelphia
June 20, 2012
Angels in America
Re Steve Cohen’s review of Angels in America at the Wilma—
I thought Tony Kushner wore well: he is too smart not to combine issues— with his main issue, which is still relevant, unfortunately— along with good old zaniness.
One point missed in looking at Angels all these years later: the nutcase character is right-on concerning another nagging problem that has not gone away: the environment.
Dilys Winegrad
Narberth, Pa.
June 20, 2012
Art Safari to Kensington
Re Martha Ledger’s review of the Art Safari to Kensington and port Richmond—
Chris Davison, who as you pointed out has New York and Los Angeles galleries, doesn’t have a gallery representing him in Philadelphia. Pffft. He’s case in point of what you wrote at the top of the piece, Martha: that artists work here and show in New York.
The small number of commercial galleries and the failure of Philadelphians to collect here has created a situation that has forced the artists to do for themselves. And I gotta say, they do a great job of making lemonade out of lemons. But getting people to the out-of-the-way places is rugged.
Thanks for this wonderful capture of the safaris and Philly’s fabulous alternative art scene. I’m also thrilled to get notice for our efforts in the Broad Street Review.
Libby Rosof
West Philadelphia
June 20, 2012
Editor’s note: The writer is co-founder of theartblog.org and co-creator of the Art Safaris.
American painters in the Barnes
Re Marilyn MacGregor’s essay on American painters at the Barnes—
Glackens, Sloan and two other members (Everett Shinn and George Lucks) of the Ashcan Eight began as illustrators for the Philadelphia Press newspaper. Glackens, Sloan and Barnes all attended Central High School around the same time.
You can see a sample of Glackens’s work for the Press here.
It’s called Spanish Soldier Attacking a Plantation Sugar Mill Held by Cubans, circa 1894.
A sample of Sloan’s work is here. It’s called Tea Leafs (1896).
I actually put together a compilation of the art of the Philadelphia Press— about 200 drawings. Many more Sloans and some Glackens are included.
Joseph Glantz
Levittown Pa.
June 20, 2012
Reasons to stay home
Re Steve Cohen’s review of Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty —
reasons to be pretty is Facebook/Twitter theater in all its tedious banality. It astonishes me that there was any division of opinion as to the play’s merits. The characters— even the fellow who name-drops great literature like his chum drops his pants— muddle through life with barely a clue. At least his is a somewhat quiet desperation; his companions shout theirs at the tops of their lungs.
In an age in which posters to social network sites think their every move and thought must be shared, reasons is a good argument for staying home with a good book.
Tom Goodman
Center City/ Philadelphia
June 17, 2012
Having seen the Philadelphia Theatre Company production of reasons to be pretty, as well as the New York version, I can understand why Steve Cohen is puzzled by Ben Brantley’s comment in the New York Times that Steph is the person Brantley feels sorry for.
I enjoyed the Philadelphia production, but it has some stumbles, starting with the casting. Marin Ireland (Steph) from the Broadway cast is a wonderful actress, but she is not conventionally beautiful (nor is Alison Pill, who played the role originally off-Broadway). So when Thomas Sadoski (Greg) says her face is “regular,” it is wounding— not just because her boyfriend says it, but also because he is telling the truth. Her face is “regular.” And his saying out that out loud exposes her to that reality.
When she is trying to get back at him by insulting his looks, it doesn’t work because she knows that what he said is true, and what she is saying is not. Marin Ireland and Alison Pill are great actresses and able to convey that. That’s why Brantley feels sorry for her.
In the Philadelphia production, the actress in that role, Genevieve Perrier, is very cute. And when she gets dressed up, she’s a knockout-- there were gasps from the audience when she showed up in that dress and makeup. In New York, her dress and makeup were not as well done. (On purpose, of course.)
So when Perrier’s character gets all angry about being called “regular,” which she is not (and she knows she is not— there is no way she doesn’t get compliments from men), it becomes about her insecurities rather than being about how people are judged by their appearance. Which is a different emphasis entirely, and a much less interesting one.
Perrier’s Steph just seems neurotic, overreacting and mean. She doesn’t seem vulnerable at all.
The Philadelphia production also loses the effectiveness of the ending, which makes it seem, as Cohen says, that Greg has grown up because he has finally rid himself of Stephanie. But Greg’s journey is (or should be) more interesting than that. It should be clear that Greg truly loves Steph, but he lets Steph go because he knows that he isn’t the right person for her right now, and the way that he’s grown up is that he realizes that if he really loves her, he must reject her and let her go. The Philadelphia staging doesn’t make that clear at all.
Mike Ming
Penn Valley, Pa.
June 24, 2012
My Fair Lady in Ambler
Re Steve Cohen’s review of My Fair Lady at Act II in Ambler—
Kudos to you, Dan, for the positively positive review of this production. I have brought 32 friends/relatives to Act II in five visits as an audience member and enjoyed every performance. All my guests had their favorite song or scene but agreed it outdid the original. Thank you!
Merle Holman
Wynnewood, Pa.
June 12, 2012
Ray Bradbury remembered
Re Kathleen Erlich’s Ray Bradbury remembrance—
My sister, Kathleen Erlich, is a wonderful artist herself. This was a great article, and I hope others who enjoyed Ray Bradbury find it inspiring. Wonderful article!
Patricia Cummings
Weston, Wis.
June 14, 2012
Tom Purdom’s tribute to Bradbury as a science fiction writer was well put. It brought back memories of some Bradbury stories I hadn’t read in a long time.
Eric Hamell
Germantown, Philadelphia
June 26, 2012
The Met’s Ernani
Re Steve Cohen’s review of the Met’s Ernani in HD-Live—
I agree with everything except for the tenor Giordani, who sounded like he had a cold this cold Saturday afternoon, when the show was taped. His voice was “cloudy.” Oh, to resuscitate Corelli or Del Monaco, to whom Cohen compared Giordani favorably. Carlo Bergonzi didn’t do it for me— too light a voice. This role requires a trumpet voice.
Furlanetto, Angela Meade and Hovorovstosky were fabulous.
Donald Miller
New York
June 19, 2012
The Barnes vs. Chartres Cathedral
Re “The Barnes vs. Chartres Cathedral,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
Dan Rottenberg ignores the fact that Albert Barnes intended his collection to be seen and studied, and opened it to public view as early as 1923. The condemnation of philistine critics who found Cezanne, Picasso, and Matisse degenerate— an episode that, until the theft of the collection itself, marked Philadelphia as the quintessential hick town’— understandably led Barnes to exercise due caution in welcoming local arbiters of taste.
But he did create an educational institution for the benefit of the general public free of cost, and to public visitation after his death on the same terms.
The analogy to Chartres that I quoted was meant to be just that: an analogy. If Chartres today is marketed as a tourist attraction, you can take it up with the Vatican. What I meant to suggest is that museums, by their nature, dehistoricize what they display, and inevitably offer it as an object of consumption.
The Barnes in Merion was a unique encapsulation of the spirit of modernism, and the excitement of the moment of vision in represented. It was also, in itself, a unique expression of the Progressive vision of democracy and the capacity of art to further it-— the vision Dewey and Barnes achieved together in their extraordinary collaboration. All of this lies in ruins, no less tangibly demolished than the ruins of Penn Station
Robert Zaller
Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
June 4, 2012
I think the comparison to Chartres is apt, not from a historical perspective, as you describe, but as a piece of visual history, an institution that has significance and meaning as a visual phenomenon.
Chartres’ visual codes were put in place for a populace that was largely illiterate. People without literacy can far more readily “read” art than literate ones can. Barnes’ aim was to restore visual literacy to literate people in Philadelphia.
But alas, sometimes the most educated of persons can also be the most resistant to learning to “see.” This is why Barnes shut the door to those he felt weren’t really interested in his educational portion.
After years of trying to explain the Barnes philosophy to many intelligent and educated people, I am concluding that he was right! Some people will just never “see”!
Another way the Chartres analogy is appropriate is that in an increasingly secular world, the way of art for many people is increasingly replacing the way of traditional religion. The Barnes in Merion was our Chartres! For those who found meaning in this way of art, the move to the Parkway seems sacrilege indeed.
Victoria Skelly
Wayne, Pa.
June 6, 2012
Dan Rottenberg replies: Just as the Barnes today may be the negation of Barnes’s vision, so Chartres Cathedral today is the negation of its founders’ vision. But where is it written that one person or group’s vision must hold sway in perpetuity?
Robert Zaller replies: The Church teaches dogma; Albert Barnes didn’t. Everything changes with time, and we can’t see Modernism the way it was 80 or 100 years ago. I don’t think Barnes expected that, though; he wanted people to be able to see modern art as embodying certain fundamental principles that were also visible in (say) African or Renaissance art. It’s not the only way to approach the subject, but it is one way, and it can be fruitful. It didn’t lose its utility or value; it was pushed out of the way, simply for purposes of commercial exploitation.
If you like, Chartres died a natural death after 800 years, though I suspect the Pope would disagree. The Barnes Foundation was a victim of murder.
Victoria Skelly replies: Much has been written about how the architects were hindered in designing this new building, bound as they were to the dictates of a historically significant education program. Please remember that Judge Ott required this— and for good reason.
Of course, if the education program were truly understood by the city’s leaders, and if they really intended to preserve it, then they never would have moved the collection in the first place. The visual codes of the Merion site extended out of the rooms into other rooms and into the garden. These codes or “relationships” have now been disrupted with the move, and thus one could say that a portion of the education program has been lost with it.
Going green
Re “How green is my carbon footprint?” by Maralyn Lois Polak—
I loved it! I think the eco-profiteers have caught on to this game, as evidenced by the billions that recently disappeared in the bankruptcy of a government-sponsored solar panel project.
When we are cajoled (coerced?) into another green change for our own good (example: new light bulbs), I always wonder: Who is profiting from this change? Have the environmental costs of the manufacturing changes and new machinery been included in the cost/benefit analysis? It’s almost enough to make me a Luddite!
Jack Jacobowitz
Center City/Philadelphia
June 7, 2012
Il Postino
Re Steve Cohen’s review of Center City Opera’s Il Postino—
Cohen’s comment begs the question: Who made you an expert on Hispanic music?
Salsa and merengue are popular dance forms, but are in no way representative of the huge variety of music found in the Hispanic world. In fact, Metro Catan used some of that music in other works, with considerable success. If none of it is in Il Postino, it is simply because of his artistic choice.
Would you aim a similar comment at I Pagliacci because there’s no tarantella in it?
Valentin Fernandez
Southwest Philadelphia
June 6, 2012
Steve Cohen replies: Because this production was the calling-card introduction to a Hispanic opera festival, I would have preferred a piece where more than two of the characters were Hispanic, and where the composer used less of a generic Italian style. I wasn’t campaigning for salsa or meringue per se, just for more from the huge variety of Hispanic music.
Alternative weeklies
Re “Let us now praise gutsy publishers,” by Dan Rottenberg (Editor’s Notebook)—
As a veteran “underground” newspaper guy, I always admired the true forum that was the Welcomat under your stewardship. In many ways, the Internet is the next “underground,” and a guy with your vision is the right person at the helm of the BSR.
Keep on truckin.’
Bob Ingram
Burleigh, N.J.
May 30, 2012
Editor’s note: The writer was formerly editor of the Drummer and of the South Street Star.
I share your feelings about the Welcomat’s late publisher, Susan Seiderman. But you left out one aspect of her tenure that I found particularly impressive. When you published something she violently disagreed with, she followed your advice and sent a response to the Letters column. It was her paper; she could have censored the contents; but she stuck to the principle that governed it.
Tom Purdom
Center City/ Philadelphia
May 29, 2012
How about a few kind words, now and then, for the first alternate newspaper in the city— the Different Drummer, edited by Don DeMaio.
As I recall, its writers could express themselves with obscenities.
Andrew Kevorkian
West Philadelphia
May 30, 2012
The Island
Re Marshall A. Ledger’s review of The Island—
I am dismayed by Marshall Ledger’s statement that our governments are “too dysfunctional and purposeless to genuinely oppress anyone.” We have our disappeared (think Gitmo), our innocents on death row (those who have thus far survived), and 25 percent of the imprisoned on earth (from a population of only 5 percent), jammed into quarters that almost make Robben Island look better, many of whom have been deprived of their rights to know charges, confront witnesses or have competent legal defense— and these enormities are suffered by a prison population that’s overwhelmingly black.
Prof. Mary E. Hazard
Center City/ Philadelphia
May 30, 2012
Marshall A. Ledger replies: I grant that our system doesn’t always do right by its citizens. But the difference in scale and degree between Apartheid and oppression here makes any comparison insulting to the Winstons and Johns of South Africa.
Heart attack, Part 6
Re “Coming out of surgery,” by Bob Levin—
Is it really kosher for a Jew to get a pig’s heart valve?
Keep writing, Bob. That will mean you’re still alive.
Carol Alice
Vancouver, Wash.
June 1, 2012
Once at a party at my house when Maralyn Lois Polak told us a story about the first time an Israeli rabbi approved of pig valve implants to save Jewish lives, our friend John Jonik exclaimed, “Oink Vey!”
Merilyn Jackson
South Philadelphia
June 6, 2012
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