In the theater, a dramaturg is a person tasked with combing through stacks of plays in search of any that might be worth doing. Bedford Off Broadway’s Blame It On Beckett, running through March 17, explores what happens when an aspirant to that role collides with the cynical incumbent dramaturg of a nonprofit theater company.
Heidi Bishop, played by Abby Lefebvre, is the wide-eyed newly minted MFA disrupting the scattered coffee cup office world of Jim Foley, a role inhabited by Larry Watson. Jim brushes off Abby’s entry as “a meeting with Mary Poppins,” but when smitten company president Mike Braschi (Jeff Robinson) hires her as an intern, Jim’s life begins to change.
The play’s title is reference to the author of Waiting for Godot, and a dig at innocents like Abby who view theater as life’s highest calling while mistaking him as an exemplar.
“You’re too young to like Beckett,” Jim tells her early on, adding that she only thinks she does because a college professor filled her head with silly ideas.
Further, Jim has decided, via years of reading mediocre works, that there are no worthy new playwrights. Anything worth doing will come from a recognized name or someone with connections. “This office is where great theater goes to die,” he believes, and the dramaturg’s only job is to reject submissions as quickly as possible.
This is advice that Abby decidedly doesn’t heed. From there, the play rollicks forward.
The final character in the play’s quartet of actors is Tina Fike, played by Karyn Russell Merriman. Tina is the company’s star, a veteran playwright whose presence leaves Heidi tongue-tied. Tina and Jim’s connection is seemingly the reason he enjoys his job, as the two thrust and parry while completing her latest work — its success will be critical to all concerned.
Written by John Morogiello and directed by Joe Pelonzi and Declan Lynch, Blame It On Beckett is filled with funny lines. Many are Jim’s; Watson stands out as the play’s star. Nonprofit theater only exists, he complains at one point, to make do-gooders feel better about wasting their money, adding he’d like to see a play written by the NRA.
Jim’s back-and-forth with Abby is hilarious. Asked if her degree intimidates him, he replies, “The only thing that threatens me is that sweater.” However, Abby’s blend of guilelessness and ambition will complicate things for Jim and cause some serious moments in Act Two.
As it’s a play about an obscure job in a niche part of the theater world, some of Blame it On Beckett’s best touches are meta and self-referential. For example, one of the rejected scripts mentioned in the play was written by Morogiello. Another funny moment has Jim telling Abby that no one would ever consider turning their office discussion into a play (like the one they are currently acting in).
Another wonderful element is the many subtle references to Godot, like the company’s “big-name bait” Literary Manager who never comes to the office, the many cigarettes Jim futilely tries to light, the director of Tina’s play, and the employee who’s on maternity leave whom Abby hopes to replace. Like the invisible character in Beckett’s play, none arrive (or ignite). Of course, there’s also the mountain of scripts on Jim’s desk with no hope of seeing a spotlight.
It all adds up to a sophisticated romp that’s snarky, sharp and at times touching. However, the show is aimed at mature audiences, something Director Pelonzi stressed in a recent phone interview.
“There are definitely adult themes,” he said. “To be honest, though, we did clean up some of the language, because there are certain things that we can’t say on stage here. But it’s still pretty edgy. It’s definitely a lot edgier than the normal shows we do in Bedford.”
Blame It On Beckett When: Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 17, 2 p.m. Location: Bedford Old Town Hall, 3 Meeting House Road, Bedford Tickets: $15 ($12 seniors/students) at brownpapertickets.com Note: Not appropriate for children
Featured photo: Larry Watson and Abby Lefebvre in Blame It On Beckett. Courtesy photo.
I read a science fiction/martial arts novel once where the main character, in classic Kung Fu tradition, searches out a reclusive martial arts master and begs him to train him. The old man reluctantly agrees, on the condition that the young man doesn’t ask any questions. His main teaching method is to jump out, surprise his student, then beat him mercilessly with a stick.
Eventually the young man learns the most important lesson in martial arts — how to develop the instincts to avoid trouble.
Making pancakes is a little like that.
There are a few things you can do to improve your pancake-making — cooking over a relatively low temperature, for instance, so the surface doesn’t cook too quickly, leaving the inside under-done. Or letting the pancake batter rest for a few minutes before cooking it, to let the ingredients get themselves in the right frame of mind.
But ultimately, it comes down to developing Pancake Instincts. You won’t be able to really know, intellectually, when a pancake is ready to flip. It’s only after you’ve made three or four in a batch that you will get an instinctive feeling for when a pancake is ready to turn over. There’s an old piece of wisdom that the first pancake isn’t very good. There’s something to that; it will definitely not be your prettiest one.
Be kind to yourself and don’t get discouraged. You’ve got this.
As we move into maple season, our thoughts turn to pancakes. Here are a few to widen your pancake vocabulary.
Classic Pancakes. Photo by John Fladd.
Simple Straightforward, Classic Pancakes (With Blueberries If You Want Them)
Basically the King Arthur Baking Company recipe you’ll find at kingarthurbaking.com.
2 eggs, room temperature
1¼ cup (283 g) milk, also room temperature
3 Tablespoons (43 g) melted butter. Have you ever noticed that there is a measuring guide printed on the side of a stick of butter? It’s almost always calibrated in tablespoons; just count down three lines and cut through the stick with a sharp knife. Unwrap your pat of butter and melt it in the microwave.
1½ cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons (25 g) sugar
Frozen wild blueberries, or unfrozen, or regular-sized ones, or chopped strawberries or mango — I’m not here to fruit-judge you; I just happen to like the frozen wild blueberries
Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together. Set them aside.
In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, or in your blender, beat the eggs, milk and butter together, until they are light and frothy.
Mix the dry and wet ingredients until just combined, then set the batter aside for 10 or 15 minutes, while you heat your skillet or pan over medium-low heat, until it seems hot enough. You can test it with a drop of batter, or a few drops of water. If the water dances around, or the micro-pancake cooks, the pan is ready.
When your pan is properly heated, drop a generous amount of butter, maybe a teaspoonful, into the pan. Many well-intentioned pancake enthusiasts will tell you, “Hey, if you’re using a nonstick pan, you don’t need to add extra butter; there’s already butter in the recipe.” At best, these people are over-thinking things. At worst, they are unhappy and want to deprive you of this small bit of pleasure, so you can keep them company in their discontent. There is nothing that you can fry that isn’t better fried in butter. This is a stand I will defend passionately. Do this for each pancake.
Spoon two to three tablespoons of batter into the butteriest part of the pan. If you are making blueberry pancakes, sprinkle the berries over the raw batter. They will thaw and warm up when you cook the other side of the pancake.
When the first side has cooked enough — it’s OK to lift a corner and peek; it isn’t cheating — flip it over and finish the other side, and fry it until it is the shade of golden brown that you like.
As you finish two or three pancakes and have them stacked on a plate, call the least patient person in your house to come get them. These are delicious warm and stacked, but even better still hot and crispy around the edges. True, your family will not all be able to sit together at a table with a checked cloth and take joy in each other’s company, but pancakes wait for nobody.
These are your classic, platonic ideal pancakes. They are rich and buttery — because you cared enough to add the extra butter — and ready for you to add even more butter and syrup.
(Yes, more butter. If you wanted to eat healthy, you’d be having half a tomato and some Swedish crispbread. You knew what you were getting into when you decided to make pancakes.)
A glass of cold milk is perfect to cut through the doughy sweetness.
Moroccan Pancakes. Photo by John Fladd.
Moroccan Pancakes (Baghrir)
These are hand-held crumpet-adjacent pancakes from Morocco. If you make them once, you’ll make them many times.
1½ cups (252 g) semolina flour
¼ cup (32 g) all-purpose flour
2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (474 g) water
2 teaspoons yeast
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Add all the ingredients to a blender, and blend for a minute or so to get everything thoroughly mixed and to beat some air into the batter.
Leave the batter alone for 30 to 45 minutes, to give the yeast time to lighten it up.
Heat your pan over medium-low heat. When your batter has rested, pour enough batter into the pan to make a 4- to 5-inch pancake.
Wait.
This part takes patience. These particular pancakes are only cooked on one side. As your pancake cooks, bubbles will form on the surface and remain open. When the surface of the pancake has cooked all the way through — you’ll be able to tell by the color; if it’s still a little doughy inside, the surface will be a little bit yellow (from the semolina), and it will lighten in color when it has finished — and is covered with bubbles, remove it from the pan and finish its brothers.
These are excellent hot from the pan with butter, honey or jam — the holes are perfect for holding onto them — but they are good cooled down, too. They are a little yeasty and very slightly sweet. They are crispy on the bottom, and chewy, with a little extra texture from the semolina. These are very good for sharing with a friend over tea.
Orange Pancakes. Photo by John Fladd.
Simple Orange Pancakes
This is one of the easiest pancake recipes you will ever make. Don’t let its simplicity fool you; they are delicious and worthy of you.
Use your favorite pancake mix, but replace the milk or water called for with orange juice. Add the zest of an orange, and ½ to 1 teaspoon of orange extract.
As promised, these are deliciously orangey, but they’re not overly sweet. If you are generous with the butter or other fat when you fry them, you should get some crispy edges, which are one of the few, uncomplicated joys in this often exhausting world.
Dutch Baby. Photo by John Fladd.
Dutch Baby
This is a jumbo, pan-sized pancake that is useful for impressing people who underestimate you.
½ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
3 eggs, room temperature
¾ cup (170 g) milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons butter
Preheat your oven to 425ºF, with a medium-sized cast iron skillet on the center rack. You’re going to want the pan to be rocket-hot when you pour the batter in (see below).
In a small mixing bowl, mix together your dry ingredients — the flour, sugar and salt.
In a blender, purée the eggs until they are light and a little foamy.
Add the milk, flour mixture and vanilla, then blend again, until everything is well mixed.
Remove the skillet from the oven.
Here’s the thing: You’re probably not used to using a frying pan in the oven; no one is. Because you’ve learned, probably the hard way, to use a kitchen towel or an oven mitt to take something out of the oven, you’ll remember to do that. It’s after you’ve set it down on your stovetop and your brain has moved on to the next step that you’ll get annoyed that the skillet’s handle is in your way, and absentmindedly grab it to rotate the pan. The pan that is 425ºF hot. If you have any small children in your house, it is at this point that they will learn some fascinating new words.
Set the pan down, and melt the butter in it. It will sizzle and foam in a really satisfying way. Pour the batter into the hot pan.
Return the skillet to the center rack of your oven and bake for about 20 minutes (though you should start checking on it at about 15).
Take your giant pancake out of the oven when it is golden brown and a little puffy. Set it down on your stovetop, or your granite countertop — if you want to show off and you’re 100 percent positive it’s real granite — and garnish it with yogurt and fresh berries
This is an outstanding brunch dish. Instead of making 15 or 20 normal-sized pancakes to feed a few friends, you just have to make one. A Dutch Baby is the rare intersection of fanciness and comfort food. It tastes very much like a thick crepe, a little sweet and eggy, with a satisfying chewiness, without being tough.
Crepe Cake. Photo by John Fladd.
Crepe Cake
This is a Dutch Baby’s fancy sister. It is simply a pile of crepes layered with a cream cheese frosting. It’s one of those dishes that seems complicated, but if you follow the recipe carefully it will turn out well and you’ll be deservedly really pleased with yourself.
Crepes:
½ cup (114 g) water
1 cup (227 g) milk
4 eggs
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
⅛ teaspoon salt
Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
12 ounces (340 g) sweetened condensed milk (almost all of a 14-ounce can, without scraping down the sides)
8 ounces (1 package) cream cheese at room temperature
Add the crepe ingredients to your blender. This is weird, but you should do it in the order listed above: first the water and milk, then the eggs and melted butter, and then the dry ingredients. This keeps the flour from gelatinizing on the bottom of the blender jar. If you float the dry stuff on top, they will get pulled into the mixture smoothly and make you feel like a professional.
Turn off the blender and let the batter rest while you make the frosting.
With an electric mixer — either a hand mixer or a stand one — beat the butter and condensed milk together for a shockingly long time, seven to nine minutes, at the highest speed. After this time, the mixture will be very, very light and fluffy.
Cut off tablespoon-sized chunks of cream cheese and beat it into the butter mixture at a slightly lower speed, until it is thoroughly incorporated. Set it aside. It’s tempting to chill it in the refrigerator at this point, but you want it to be smooth, fluffy and spreadable when you put the cake together.
Heat a nonstick pan over medium-low heat. When it’s hot enough, grease the pan with butter. This is the only time you will do this. Yes, this is a violation of the Always Add More Butter rule, but crepes can be finicky; they seem to prefer not to be fried in extra butter. Who can understand the mind of a crepe?
Pour ¼ to ⅓ of a cup of batter into your pan. When it seems done — again, it’s OK to lift a corner and peek — flip it over and cook the other side. The easiest way to do this is to lift a corner with a spatula, then flip it with your fingers.
When it has cooked on both sides, transfer it to a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone mat to cool. Do not stack warm crepes together; it will be very difficult to separate them later. Once they have cooled, it’s fine to stack them, so you don’t run out of counter space. You should end up with 10 to 15 crepes.
When all the crepes have cooled, take a moment to feel good about yourself. Crepes can be really intimidating, but you have overcome them.
Choose a serving dish that you want to present this cake on, then place your Alpha Crepe on it. Frost the top of the crepe with your cream cheese frosting, starting from the middle and working your way out to the edges.
Stack your Beta Crepe on top of the first, and repeat the process. Keep doing this until you run out of crepes. Somewhere along the line you will find a particularly good-looking crepe. Save it for the top of the pile.You will probably have extra frosting left over at the end. Save it for French toast or something.
Chill your crepe cake for several hours in your refrigerator to firm up the frosting layers.
When you are ready to serve your crepe cake, run a sharp chef’s knife under hot water. This will help you make neat, non-squooshed cuts. It might help to stab the middle of the cake, then work your way down from there. Run the knife under hot water for each cut you make. If you want to be extra fancy — maybe you’re on a date or trying to show up your sister-in-law — garnish the plate with a few berries or mint leaves.
The two elements of this cake really make themselves known. The frosting is soft, sweet, and a little tart from the cream cheese. The crepes are eggy and really delicious, with a firm resistance when you bite through them.
In your heart, you always knew you were fancy.
Buckwheat Pancakes. Photo by John Fladd.
Old-School Traditional Buckwheat Pancakes
¼ cup (57 g) warm water
1½ teaspoons yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cup (227 g) cold water
½ cup (60 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (120 g) buckwheat flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons molasses
2 Tablespoons melted butter or margarine
½ teaspoon baking soda, dissolved in ¼ cup (57 g) of water
Mix the quarter cup of water with the yeast and sugar. Set it aside for 10 minutes or so. This is called “activating” the yeast. The little granules of yeast that have been sleeping in your refrigerator, or in their little envelopes, have been taking a nap. This will wake them up and get them excited about fulfilling their destiny.
When the yeast mixture looks foamy and excited, mix it in a container with a cover with a cup of cold water, the flours and the salt. Mix them thoroughly, then cover the container and store it in the refrigerator overnight or, if you’re having Breakfast For Dinner, several hours before you plan to eat.
In the morning, remove the container from your refrigerator and mix in the rest of the ingredients.
Let the batter sit on your counter for half an hour or so, to come up to room temperature. The cold from your refrigerator has allowed the flours to build up a little bit of gluten — buckwheat flour doesn’t have much to begin with, so the all-purpose flour had to tutor it overnight — but it has also made your yeast sleepy again. Bringing the temperature back up will give the yeast a last chance to pump out some carbon dioxide and live life to the fullest one more time before facing the frying pan.
Heat a skillet or frying pan over medium-low heat.
Drop a generous blob of butter or margarine into the pan, and when it is thoroughly melted, scoop 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter into the pan. It will be light and unexpectedly stretchy. You might hear it sizzle a little bit, or you might be too busy kitchen-dancing to “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Or that might just be me.
When a few bubbles have formed along the edge of the pancake and remained open, flip it and see if it is dark enough on Side A. If it isn’t, you might have to re-flip it for a few seconds, once the B Side is done. (This is one of those examples of building a pancake instinct we’ve talked about.) Stack them on a warm plate, covered with a kitchen towel until you’ve finished making the batch.
Eat these while they are still hot, with too much butter, and Bourbon Maple Syrup (see below).
These pancakes have a deep, rich, slightly sweet flavor. They give you a wholesome, hunkering down in a log cabin during a blizzard — or, in our case, Mud Season — feeling. The crispy edges play off the chewy interior in a way that can leave you quietly happy.
Are there other recipes for Buckwheat Pancakes that don’t take 10 hours of planning ahead? Absolutely. Will they taste as good? Maybeee? Will they fill you with pride and a feeling of accomplishment? It’s doubtful.
Bourbon Maple Syrup
Warm half a cup of dark maple syrup, then stir in a tablespoon of good bourbon. The sweetness of the bourbon is a good match for the maple and gives it a slightly boozy backbone.
On Wednesday, March 13, at 9:30 a.m. Gov. Chris Sununu was scheduled to issue a proclamation on the historical and continuing importance of French in New Hampshire’s culture, according to a press release, at the New Hampshire Statehouse (107 N. Main St. in Concord). Special guests were slated to include Mustafa Soykurt, Consul General of France in Boston, and Marie-Claude Francoeur, Delegate of Quebec in Boston. The event was scheduled as part of the Executive Council meeting.
Nominate nurses
The Foundation for Healthy Communities (FHC) announced in a press release that nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 Clint Jones Nursing Award. According to the release, this annual award recognizes a registered nurse practicing in New Hampshire who exemplifies the practice of compassionate, quality nursing care and demonstrates a commitment to excellence in the nursing profession.
The Clint Jones Nursing Award was developed in honor of Clint Jones, who worked with extraordinary enthusiasm and commitment at the Foundation and several other New Hampshire organizations, to encourage people to pursue nursing careers in hospitals, schools, long-term care facilities and community practices, according to the press release. Selection criteria include demonstration of excellence and enthusiasm in the delivery of patient care; communication with patients, their families and health care colleagues; commitment to nursing as a career, and inspiration to other nurses and health care professionals as a role model, according to the same release. Registered nurses who have practiced for at least one year but not more than six years are eligible to be nominated.
The Foundation will work with the recipient’s nominator to schedule a celebration at their health care facility during National Nurses Week, May 6 through May 12. The recipient will be recognized at the NHHA & FHC annual meeting, Oct. 20 through Oct. 22.
The nomination form can be found at bit.ly/3Tn75Nd. The deadline for nominations is Monday, April 8. Questions can be addressed to [email protected].
Second term
Lori Harnois was confirmed by the Governor and Executive Council for a second term as the director of the Division of Travel and Tourism Development (DTTD) at the Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA), according to a March 7 press release. In a statement, BEA Commissioner Taylor Caswell stated that “under Lori’s leadership, New Hampshire’s tourism industry has set records nearly every season for visitation and visitor’s spending.” The statement continued that “her collaborative nature has helped strengthen relationships with key tourism leaders from around the state. Her work in the state has elevated New Hampshire on a national level by being elected to serve on the U.S. Travel Association Board of Directors.”
The same press release stated that Harnois developed and administered programs aimed at growing the tourism industry within the state, specifically increasing visitor spending and jobs, advanced strategies to support business and workforce recruitment, and that her overall responsibility of the strategic direction of DTTD, including all campaigns, led to her confirmation. See visitnh.gov for information on New Hampshire tourism.
Law protects your data
According to a March 6 press release, Gov. Chris Sununu signed SB 255 into law to protect consumer data. Under the new law, according to the same release, New Hampshire is now the 14th state to pass comprehensive consumer privacy protections to ensure that Granite State consumers can view personal data collected by companies, see how it is held, and have that information deleted upon request. Sununu said in a statement that “this law provides transparency about what information is collected, why, and confidence that in the age of AI, steps are taken to protect that data.”
Moms and infants
Dartmouth Health and the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are taking a significant step toward addressing maternal mortality and morbidity with the launch of the New Hampshire Perinatal Quality Collaborative (NHPQC), according to a press release. The NHPQC aims to improve access to high-quality perinatal care and significantly reduce disparities for pregnant individuals and infants in the state, according to the same release.
Patricia Tilley, the DHHS associate commissioner, said in a statement that “every New Hampshire resident should have access to the best prenatal care, postpartum care and birthing services they need to stay healthy. The Collaborative’s work will help make that a reality.” Sally A. Kraft, MD, MPH, Population Health Officer at Dartmouth Health, said in a statement, “The NHPQC will support New Hampshire hospitals and our communities in an effort to improve conditions inside and outside of hospitals and clinics, so everyone has a fair chance to be as healthy as possible.”
The NHPQC’s first meeting was held March 4. This collaborative effort has been made possible through funding from DHHS and the support of an anonymous organization, which has donated funds to support until June 30.
The Library Arts Center in Newport (libraryartscenter.org) is holding its 2024 Peeps Diorama Contest, featuring shoebox-sized dioramas with the marshmallow chicks (and bunnies and more), according to the website. The entry deadline is Thursday, March 21 (with drop offs starting March 15). The Peep dioramas will be on display March 23 through April 4. See the website for hours, entry rules and more.
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) (84 Silk Farm in Concord) has opened applications for its 2024 farm share program, according to a press release. This program provides funds for community members in New Hampshire with limited incomes to purchase certified organic CSA shares at discounted prices where NOFA-NH contributes 50 percent of funds toward each farm share and recipients contribute 25 percent while farm partners donate 25 percent, according to the release Eligible New Hampshire community members can apply for the program through Sunday, March 17 at nofanh.org/farm-share-program.
The Old House & Barn Expo runs Saturday, March 16, and Sunday March 17, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester featuring lectures, exhibitors, demonstrations, a scavenger hunt for kids and more, according to nhpreservation.org, where you can purchase tickets for $12, $7 for seniors and students (tickets cost $15 and $10 at the door); kids 12 and under get in for free.
The Library Arts Center in Newport (libraryartscenter.org) is holding its 2024 Peeps Diorama Contest, featuring shoebox-sized dioramas with the marshmallow chicks (and bunnies and more), according to the website. The entry deadline is Thursday, March 21 (with drop offs starting March 15). The Peep dioramas will be on display March 23 through April 4. See the website for hours, entry rules and more.
The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH) (84 Silk Farm in Concord) has opened applications for its 2024 farm share program, according to a press release. This program provides funds for community members in New Hampshire with limited incomes to purchase certified organic CSA shares at discounted prices where NOFA-NH contributes 50 percent of funds toward each farm share and recipients contribute 25 percent while farm partners donate 25 percent, according to the release Eligible New Hampshire community members can apply for the program through Sunday, March 17 at nofanh.org/farm-share-program.
The Old House & Barn Expo runs Saturday, March 16, and Sunday March 17, at Saint Anselm College in Manchester featuring lectures, exhibitors, demonstrations, a scavenger hunt for kids and more, according to nhpreservation.org, where you can purchase tickets for $12, $7 for seniors and students (tickets cost $15 and $10 at the door); kids 12 and under get in for free.
Legend has it that Michael Clarke joined The Byrds because he looked like Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, not due to his drumming skills. The similarly named Birds, In Theory, a local band celebrating their debut album at The Shaskeen on March 9, has a close but slightly different story.
Its drummer, Nick Matsis, admits that he had more enthusiasm than talent when he joined high school pals Tim Dacey and Shawn Murray to form the pop punk band Eagle Jesus. The name changed, to a riff on the conspiratorial belief that birds are fake creatures created by NASA, when Dave Maloof came on as drummer post-pandemic and Matsis moved to bass.
The band’s sound coalesced with a seasoned new member behind the kit, offering a sonic fury favorable to fans of Green Day, Blink-182 and Bowling for Soup. It was a change that delighted Matsis.
“I can’t drum to save my life and that guy is a machine,” Matsis said self-deprecatingly by phone recently. “I taught myself drums playing Rock Band on the Xbox.”
A song from the forthcoming record Aviary jokes about this, along with the dichotomy between the band’s more and less polished musicians. “Guys, Where Are We?” includes a few moves that Maloof and lead guitarist Dacey handle with ease; rhythm guitar player Murray and bassist Matsis, not so much.
“That’s the only song we really changed time signatures in,” Matsis said. “We would get lost playing it at first because me and Shawn aren’t great at changing time signatures, and Tim and Dave are classically trained. So they’re like, ‘Guys, what are we doing? Where are we?’”
Other standout tracks include the slow-burning breakup song “Cover Story” and “Tourniquet,” which builds into a rager and showcases Dacey’s shredding blended with Matsis’ chugging rhythm guitar, and Maloof and Murray locked in on rhythm. This new freedom enhanced the making of Aviary.
As a trio, “we just couldn’t get as fancy as we wanted in the writing process,” Matsis said. “Dave, he’s a big Travis Barker fan; he can get in there and play anything as fast or complicated as he wants. Having that in the recording room was amazing, because he was getting that stuff done in one or two takes…. It made it so much easier.”
Birds, In Theory cites a variety of influences. Matsis is a big fan of Balance and Composure, particularly the Pennsylvania band’s 2011 LP Separation. “Shawn’s more into pop punk and indie, Tim used to be in a death metal band,” he said. “Dave’s into anything from Blink-182 to instrumental prog metal. It’s definitely a range.”
Their lyrical mood is informed by bands like The Wonder Years and Car Seat Headrest. “‘Tourniquet’ is about watching someone you thought you knew kind of change over time, and ‘Reflections’ deals with not wanting to take your emotions out on the people around you and just trying to communicate that it’s not them,” he explained. “A lot of our songs are more down, emotionally charged. Maybe not in the most positive way, but we like to make them fun.”
With a new record to celebrate, they’ll top the bill at The Shaskeen, but they’re also part of many multi-band events in the area.
“We’re lucky that we’ve been close-knit with a lot of people over the last few years and we played so many shows,” Matsis said, “That’s fun for us because we like playing with our friends and seeing our friends play.”
Beyond that, “My only hope is more new bands come around,” he continued. “This is actually our first time playing with Promise Game, so that’s exciting … I just hope the kids keep coming out and making music because there’s only so many 31-year-olds like us that can still get out there.”
Birds, In Theory w/ Promise Game, Cozy Throne and Oziem When: Saturday, March 9, 8 p.m. Where: Shaskeen Pub, 909 Elm St., Manchester Tickets: $10 at the door, 21+
If I ran the Oscar ceremony — which will this year air on Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. on ABC — my goals for the annual event would be: (1) to convince people to watch movies, (2) to convince people to watch these, the nominated movies, and (3) to give the presenters and winners enough space to say funny or touching but mostly funny things.
To the last point, see Steven Yeun winning a Golden Globe this year (where he realizes his life mirrors the plot of Frozen) or Adam Sandler winning anything — this year’s People’s Icon, 2020’s Indie Spirit award. That’s what you want at an award ceremony. Maybe just give Adam Sandler some kind of award every year — at least you’d have all of New Hampshire tuning in.
To the movie-watching goals: The Oscars stand as the answer to everyone who complains nothing but superhero movies gets released anymore. Here are a bunch of movies, only two of which are Marvel-related — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (nominated for visual effects; available for rent or purchase and on Disney+) and Spider-Man: Across the Universe(nominated for Animated Feature Film; available for rent or purchase and on Netflix) — that were in theaters (or will be, in a few cases) and are now largely available for your viewing pleasure in your house.
My case for movie watching and for the Oscars itself, would go something like this:
• Oscar nominates popular movies! Including those aforementioned Marvel-character films, four of the films in the 2023 box office top 10 are nominated for Oscars, the other two being the two sides of the summer movie-going event known as Barbenheimer — Barbie (nominated in seven categories; rent or purchase and on Max) and Oppenheimer (nominated in 13 categories; rent or purchase and on Peacock). Also nominated are top-20-box-office earners Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One(nominated for Sound; rent or purchase and on Paramount+) and Elemental (nominated for Animated Feature Film; rent or purchase and on Disney+). See? You’ve heard of those movies. You may not have liked Elemental — and I’d agree with you in that — but you’ve heard of it.
• Oscar nominates fun movies!Barbie, my favorite movie of 2023 and my pick for Best Picture, is super fun — from its detailed attention to the toy-doll-ness of Barbie and her world to absolutely everything to do with Ryan Gosling’s Ken, including the song “I’m Just Ken,” which is nominated for Original Song and will likely be performed during the broadcast. Other fun films include Original Song nominee Flamin’ Hot (on Hulu & Disney+), the Eva Longoria-directed true-or-whatever story behind Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; its self-conscious tall-tale-ishness is goofy fun. The Creator (nominated for Sound and Visual Effects; rent or purchase and on Hulu) is a very wide-tent futuristic tale about AI robots and humanity’s difficult relationship with them. My pick for Animated Feature Film would be Nimona(nominated in that category and available on Netflix), a very fun underdog quest movie that my older elementary-and-up kids have watched multiple times (as the shape-shifting girl warrior Nimona would say, “metal”). I haven’t seen it yet but Godzilla Minus One (nominated in Visual Effects) is the first Godzilla movie to ever receive an Academy Award nomination and I am generally pro-Godzilla-movies.
• Oscar nominates movies that make you appreciate your streaming services!Rustin, featuring the nominated lead actor performance by Colman Domingo; Nyad, nominated for Annette Bening’s performance in lead actress and for Jodie Foster’s very good performance in supporting actress; Society of Snow(an International Film and Makeup and Hairstyling nominee), and May December, nominated for original screenplay, are all Netflix movies (where you can still find them), as is Best Picture nominee Maestro(also a nominee in six other categories). Napoleon(nominated in Costume Design, Visual Effects and Production Design), the bloated biopic that isn’t a terrible watch, and Killers of the Flower Moon, a solid Martin Scorsese movie (nominated in Best Picture and nine other categories, including the outstanding Lily Gladstone for best actress), are both Apple Films, and while they had an initial theatrical run they are now available to Apple TV+ subscribers to watch (as well as for purchase).
• Oscar’s Best Picture list includes some comedies!American Fiction(five total nominations; available for purchase) and The Holdovers (five nominations; rent or purchase and on Peacock) are both solid, laugh-out-loud for-grown-ups comedies. Past Lives(two nominations; rent or purchase and on Showtime) also has its funny moments, even though it is a quieter almost-love story. I heartily recommend all three.
• Oscar, of course, nominates serious films for when you want to get serious and watch films.The Zone of Interest(nominated in five categories; available for purchase) is a harrowing movie about a really horrifying thing (the Holocaust and the willing participation of one family therein) and yet it was also excellently well done and totally worth seeing. The same could be said of documentaries Four Daughters (rent or purchase and via Kinko Film Collection), about one Tunisian family’s difficult history, and 20 Days in Mariupol(rent or purchase and via PBS.org), about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the two strongest of the three documentary nominees I’ve seen. They are difficult to watch yet important and well done films. The Eternal Memory(for rent or purchase and on Paramount+) is also heartbreaking — the tale of a couple trying to hold on to each other even as one is losing his connection to himself from Alzheimer’s. Of the other documentaries Bobi Wine: The People’s Presidentis available on Disney+ and To Kill A Tigerdoes not yet appear to be available.
Back to the best picture nominees: Anatomy of a Fall (nominated in four other categories; available for rent or purchase) is a serious drama that examines the unknowability of a relationship via a murder trial. The previously mentioned Killers of the Flower Moon is at its strongest when it is telling the story of the Osage and attempts to steal their oil money. Poor Things (11 total nominations; available for purchase) is maybe my second least favorite Best Picture nominee (after Maestro) but perhaps this is a movie I need to give a second look to. And even if I don’t ultimately love — or even like — it, arguing about your serious films is a fun part of the movie fan experience.
• Oscar reminds you that interesting movies can come in all sizes. The 15 movies nominated in the three shorts categories — animated, documentary and live action — are a good reminder that film is a storytelling medium that creators can use in all sorts of ways. See shorts.tv/theoscarshorts for updates about watching the packages of films at home. Individually, films you can watch now include all the documentary nominees — The ABC’s of Book Banning (Paramount+), The Barber of Little Rock (via The New Yorker), Island in Between (via The New York Times), Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó (Disney+) and The Last Repair Shop(Disney+), my favorite of the ones I’ve seen from this very strong bunch, which is about kids, their musical instruments and the people who fix them. In the animated short category, I could find Letter to a Pig(for rent via Vimeo), Ninety-Five Senses(find it via docplus.com) and Pachyderme(for rent via Vimeo). In the live action category, I found The After (Netflix), Invincible(for rent via Vimeo), Knight of Fortune (for rent via Vimeo), Red, White and Blue(for rent via Vimeo) and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar(Netflix).
• Oscar can remind you of all the other movies you can see. Go to abc.com/shows/oscars and print out your ballot. Sure, you can use it on March 10 to predict the winners and place your friendly snack-based bets with your fellow Oscar watchers. But you can also use it as a “what to watch” guide the next time you’re fruitlessly scrolling through your streaming services. And then head to filmindependent.org/spirit-awards for their list of 2024 nominees — you’ll find some overlap (American Fiction and Past Lives are also in their Best Feature category) but you’ll also find new movies to check out. Ditto the Screen Actors Guild Awards (sagawards.org), which has more overlap but also TV nominees; the Bafta Awards (bafta.org), Oscar’s British equivalent, and the Golden Globes (goldenglobes.com/nominations/2024) with its drama, comedy and “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement” categories. Watch these movies, watch other movies, just keep watching movies.
The Fremen help Paul Atreides, gifted with both visions of the future and preternaturally good hair, fight the weirdos of House Harkonnen in Dune: Part Two, a movie about sand and vibes.
Previously on Dune: Paul (Timothée Chalamet) and his mom Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), who is pregnant, had to run off and hide in the deserts of Arrakis, the planet from which comes Spice — a space fuel that can also make your eyes blue. House Harkonnen, which had controlled Arrakis but was stripped of the Spice trade by the Emperor, attacked the Atreides base on Arrakis and killed Paul’s very hot father Leto (Oscar Issac), previously head of House Atreides and Duke of Arrakis. The Harkonnen are now back in charge of Arrakis but are fighting an insurgent war with the Fremen, the indigenous people of Arrakis who would like all of these Spice-hungry imperial families to just go home.
Paul and Lady Jessica are hanging out with the Fremen in part because that’s the only way they can survive the desert, in part because some of the Fremen think Paul might be their messiah and in part because Paul has been dreaming about Chani (Zendaya), a Fremen girl who he’d like to ask “hey, how you doin’?” Stilgar (Javier Bardem), leader of that particular tribe or whatever of Fremen, is pretty sure Paul is the messiah and says increasingly crazy things about following him. Chani is not impressed with all this religious fervor her maybe-boyfriend is inspiring — and how much worse it could be in the fundamentalist south of the planet — but she doesn’t seem to let that get in the way of sharing a tent with Paul. Meanwhile, Lady Jessica, a member of the order of magic-y religious-y ladies called the Bene Gesserit, spends a lot of time talking to her unborn daughter, who talks back and can also talk with Paul sometimes via dreams (I think?). Jessica has been made a Reverend Mother of Arrakis, which is helping her push this whole “Paul is the Messiah” thing which she does a bit out of genuine belief maybe but mostly out of a sense that it will help him survive and gain the power that comes with a Fremen army.
Also meanwhile, the Harkonnens are finding themselves losing Spice production equipment to the Fremen rebels. When Glossu Rabban Harkonnen (Dave Bautista) can’t get the Fremen in line, his way-crazier, even creepier younger brother Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler) shows up to bomb stuff and be super evil.
Further meanwhile, the Emperor (Christopher Walken, whose character has a more elaborate name but who I always just thought of as “Emperor Christopher Walker”) is watching all this drama from afar, afraid that the other families will find out he was behind the fall of House Atreides. His daughter Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh) helpfully narrates some of this information; she mostly hangs around and looks concerned until the end when it becomes clear that she will have more to do next time if there is a next time.
Which I suspect there will be, as Dune: Part Two, for all that I will forget most of that plot by the time Part Three shows up, made $82 million in its opening weekend, according to IMDb. And I predict it will likely match Dune: Part One’sbig Oscar nomination haul next year — Part One had 10 nods, with six wins: Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects, Original Score, Cinematography and Film Editing. I fully expect it to be very competitive in those categories again, as well as Costume Design and Makeup and Hairstyling (two categories it was nominated in in 2022 but didn’t win). Will it get Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations like it did last time too? Maybe, why not — it straddles the line between beautiful art and movie that gets its own commemorative popcorn box. Part Two looks beautiful, just as Part One did, but maybe feels like even more of a feat because this world isn’t brand new and we get more of the shades-of-brown Arrakis and the black-and-white Harkonnen home world. It’s lovely and creepy, according to what it needs to be, and I really did find myself dazzled by little details like the Bene Gesserit robes given to Lady Jessica or the fancy if kinda stupid headpieces worn by Princess Irulan. I mean, a lot of this doesn’t hold up to deep thought — it’s 10,000 years in the future and we’re still doing billowy capes? — but don’t ask a lot of questions and it looks great.
I feel like Part Two is also an improvement on Part One’s glacial pace. Sure, a merciless editor could have tightened this puppy up a good hour and we wouldn’t have lost anything, but I didn’t mind spending time in this world. The push and pull between Paul’s desires for Freman support but uneasiness with Fremen worship is moderately interesting and I am not too bothered by the generally chilly relationship between Paul and Chani because they’re both fully Movie Stars. Which I guess is how I feel about all of the characters. Everybody looks great — does not in any way resemble a human person and not just a game board piece — but they look great and hold your attention while on screen.
It’s all fine, is what I’m saying, Dune: Part Two is fine — like, better than average for a popcorn movie if not dazzling me with brilliant story or dialogue. But is that really why most of us are here? The big worms are cool, the “waaah”s on the soundtrack are unsettling and the sand looks so much more photogenic than sand is in real life. B
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some suggestive material and brief strong language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Denis Villeneuve with a screenplay by Denis Villeneuve and Jon Spaihts, based on the novel by Frank Herbert, Dune: Part Two is two hours and 46 minutes long and released in theaters this time by Legendary Features Productions and Warner Bros.
