Sleeper ranges from an intimate portrait of two failing marriages to an abduction along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border before exploding on the set of an extreme right-wing television talk show, following several characters whose fates interlock. One is Bobby Guffin (played by Brant Jones), a highly-paid, idealistic medical consultant who is trying, one hospital at a time, to bring better health care to all Americans. He eventually becomes so burnt-out that he takes a job abroad hoping it will bring him fulfillment, but instead it ends with his abduction by a would-be extortionist. Bobby’s wife, Teri (played by Whitney Thomas Eads), struggles to keep her marriage alive after the death of their young child, and then turns to political activism after her husband disappears.

The other key American character is Rachel (played by Melissa Muguruza Weaver), an ambitious journalist in the Bill O’Reilly mold who rises from local radio news to top-rated celebrity host. Rachel’s husband Chuck (played by Dan Welsh) is a religious ex-football star who does not want to leave their home in Florida to live in a “sinful” city like New York. (At one point she jubilantly announces to her husband, when a Senator she’s been badgering resigns, that she has more power than the American electorate.)

Pulled into the plot against his will is Mahid Yousef (played by Jordan Fehr), a Muslim man from Afghanistan, living in London, whose cousin Kadir (played by Drew Eberly) involves him in the plan to kidnap Bobby and trade him to a French NGO for money. Mahid and Bobby personify a clash of cultures, as Mahid lectures Bobby about his limited perspective (in five languages, no less) and they stumble onto common ground personally and politically. Eberly and Fehr, as part of their extensive studies to prepare for their roles, have been learning several long scenes written entirely in Urdu (the lingua franca of Pakistan.)

Sleeper is directed by Matt Slaybaugh (director of Dirty Math, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, How to live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and others) and features an outstanding ensemble cast, including Brant Jones (Skyscrapers of the Midwest), Jordan Fehr (Hum, Skyscrapers of the Midwest), Drew Eberly (Richard the Third, Skyscrapers of the Midwest), Dan Welsh (Richard the Third, The Internationalist), as well as Franklin Grace, Whitney Thomas Eads, Melissa Muguruza Weaver, Sarah Gehring and Stefan Langer.

Writing about the play for the New York Theatre Review, playwright Taylor Mac says, Sleeper takes a piercing look at how hard it is to be a nuanced thinker in a world where brazen viciousness is just so much more attractive and empowering.” The play was originally presented by Small Pond Entertainment on July 20, 2008 at Manhattan Theatre Source, New York City and was published in the 2009 edition of New York Theatre Review.

This production is generously supported by grants from the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council and The Columbus Foundation whose support will help bring playwright David Ian Lee to Columbus to participate in the opening of the play.

Available Light is a fellowship of artists dedicated to building a more conscious and compassionate world by creating joyful and profound theatre and serving our community. We engage our community by staging provocative works that examine our culture, expose its shortcomings and reveal the beauty of humankind. We enrich the American theatre by seeking potent processes and vital forms that enable artists and audiences alike to live the life of the imagination. For more information, please visit avltheatre.com.

SCHEDULE

Thursday, February 16 at 8p (with post-show talkback)

Friday, February 17 at 8p (with post-show talkback)

Saturday, February 18 at 8p

Sunday, February 19 at 2p

Thursday, February 23 at 8p (with post-show talkback)

Friday, February 24 at 8p (with post-show talkback)

Saturday, February 25 at 8p

All performances are held at:

Columbus Performing Arts Center

Van Fleet Theater

549 Franklin Ave.

Columbus, OH 43215

TICKETS:

$20/$40/$100 general admission pre-order/Pay What You Want at the door

For tickets, more information and directions: http://avltheatre.com or 614-558-7408

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HOUDINI IS HAPPENING WITH HUGH

Hugh Jackman can’t stay away from Broadway. The part-time Real Steel/Wolverine tough guy is, apparently, incapable of curing his song-and-dance lust. So now that The Boy From Oz is a distant memory and he’s finished up with Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway, he needs a new reason to belt out the big numbers for matinee audiences. Enter Houdini, in the works for a couple years now with Jackman in mind for the lead and, at one point, set to feature music from Danny Elfman. Jackman is still the man in the title role but now the score will come from Stephen Schwartz (Wicked), the script from Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) and Jack O’Brien (Hairspray) will direct. And rather than a straightforward biography approach, Houdini will tell the story of a conflict the legendary magician encountered in the form of a trio of women known as “Spirtualists.” The women had convinced scores of followers, including editors at Scientific American and The New York Times, that they could communicate with the dead. Houdini, on the other hand, was less than convinced. If audiences believe – and they probably will – this could be the big hit of the 2013 season. Start planning your New York visits now.

FRANCO’S GAY STREAK CONTINUES

James Franco is no stranger to playing gay. On screen he’s been James Dean, Allen Ginsberg, Hart Crane, Harvey Milk’s boyfriend Scott Smith and an ambiguous stoner in the comedy Pineapple Express. So here he goes again, this time tackling the role of legendary contemporary artist Robert Mapplethorpe for an upcoming biopic. The controversial artist, who died of AIDS in 1989 and whose frankly homoerotic photographs caused a firestorm of censorship efforts among cultural conservatives in the late 1980s, is almost tailor-made for a big screen story. And given the artist’s huge personality and bravado, the actor who plays him should be equally unafraid, which makes it a perfect fit for Franco. The upcoming film, among the first to receive grants through Tribeca Film Institute’s “All Access Program” and directed by documentarian Ondi Timoner, will be produced by Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Eliza Dushku and her brother Nate Dushku, who was, at one time, expected to play Mapplethorpe. More news to come as production rolls on.

DIRECTORS IN FLUX: PEIRCE TALKS CARRIE, VAN SANT REPLACES DAMON

Post-Columbine, it’s been impossible to get a high school outcast-gets-revenge movie anywhere near a studio’s production slate. But then there’s Carrie, a project that’s almost magically exempt from any discussion of media blame when real kids go on real life murderous rampages. Based on the modern horror classic written by Stephen King, the original film starring young Sissy Spacek was a deep dive into a terrifying world of religious mania, telekinesis and involuntary manslaughter (lots and lots of it). Naturally, a remake is in the works and Boys Don’t Cry director Kimberly Peirce is in talks to take the helm. Hope she gets it; she’d be a great fit. Meanwhile, on the boys side of Hollywood, Gus Van Sant looks to be stepping into Matt Damon’s shoes as he takes over an untitled production that Damon was scheduled to direct. Co-starring with John Krasinski is still on tap for Damon, who also co-wrote the script – one that people who’ve read it are calling “Capra-esque” – in which the two actors play rival corporate executives whose values and greed are called into question. And Van Sant was the first and only director Damon called to take over, a no-brainer since the pair has worked together off and on ever since Good Will Hunting.

2012 TAKES ON NEW MEANING FOR 2012 DIRECTOR

Gay director Roland Emmerich’s end-of-the-world thriller 2012 ended with humanity’s final survivors fleeing for safety in giant arks, so it’s not like he’s ever at a loss for outlandish outcomes, but which candidate will be safely ensconced in the White House – not just in real life, but in make-believe TV-land, too – when the director’s new 2012 Presidential campaign-themed TV series wraps up its first story arc? That’s the first question you might ask about this pilot, picked up by ABC, which focuses on a young astrophysics student (why not?) whose destiny becomes linked with the election. The next question might be what it’s going to be called, because there’s no title just yet. And that’s just the start. Who’s going to star? How fast can they get it moving and on the air? And most importantly, what’s going to happen to the story after the January 2013 inauguration? Stay tuned as this game of TV dice-rolling shakes out.

Romeo San Vicente plans to vote early and often.

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by Chris Azzopardi

Joan Rivers has never been one to question her actions. But today, she’s doing just that: “I’m listening to Katy Perry and I don’t know why.”

Besides being a firework herself, Rivers has little in common with the ubiquitous pop tart. There’s this, though: They’ve both kissed a girl and – as the legendary queen of snark (and facial reconfigurations) admits in our recent chat – liked it. So much, in fact, that she’d be up for some more lez loving. But for now Rivers is focused on promoting her wacky reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best, now in its second season on WE TV.

In our interview, Rivers dished on the new installment (what if her daughter Melissa actually were a gay man?), how her humor’s always been “gay,” and her face – before she redid it.

Chris Azzopardi: I’m a big fan – but I’m sure every gay man tells you that.

Joan Rivers: No, no. No gay men tell me that.

CA: I don’t believe you.

JR: Well, every now and again.

CA: You know, I’m glad this isn’t a face-to-face interview because, since you’re a member of the Fashion Police, you wouldn’t approve of my outfit today.

JR: You wouldn’t approve of what I’m wearing right now, either! I’m wearing a stolen hotel bathrobe. One of those white bathrobes that say, “Don’t take these.” Somewhere along the line I did.

CA: Do you always take things from hotels?

JR: Yes. Always those little shampoos, little soaps, all those cute little things. Sewing kits – you can’t get enough of those! (Laughs)

CA: Which celebrity needs a little more gay fashion influence, and a little less?

JR: Oh, I don’t know. Every week it changes so much and Melissa (Rivers), the exec producer, throws a hundred pictures on the table and you start from scratch again, so it’s always changing.

CA: You’ve been doing press interviews for a long time. You must get the same questions. What are you sick of talking about?

JR: No, you get different questions because they come from different people. It’s like an audience: always different every night. That sounds funny, but it’s true.

CA: What are we in for with the second season of Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?

JR: There’s an uber-WASP friends of ours who turns Jewish; Melissa breaking up with the boyfriend; taking (my grandson) Cooper to New York, and he gets lost. All of which is true. Things happen that are just fabulous. If you liked the first season of Joan Knows Best, you’re going to love the second season.

CA: You get more plastic surgery during the first episode, “Skintervention.” And Melissa does not approve.

JR: No, she totally doesn’t. But you know, it’s a business where we all have to look good. You look at anybody – I mean, Jane Fonda running around with a whole new face and body and pretending she’s done that through eating apples? You wanna go, “Oh stop it!”

CA: You didn’t get that face from eating apples?

JR: I got this face from eating artichokes and apples and having a great diet. Yeah, right. All the above – plus a great doctor!

CA: And the freebies you take from hotels.

JR: That helps, too. That makes you happy.

CA: What do you think you’d look like without plastic surgery?

JR: I imagine I’d look a lot like my sister, and that worries me – because she looks good! (Laughs)

CA: You’ve wasted all that money, Joan.

JR: It could well be. I could have myself really nice outfits.

CA: What don’t they tell you about plastic surgery?

JR: Oh, I don’t know. I don’t listen. I have a friend who wanted to know everything the doctor was going to do. I don’t want to know. He doesn’t ask me how I write jokes and I don’t ask him how he operates. The less I know, the better.

CA: Right. That’s with a lot of things. Like Katy Perry.

JR: I’m trying like hell. She’s very pretty but I don’t get the music.

CA: You’re not in a teenage dream?

JR: No, not in a teenage dream. (Laughs)

CA: What do you listen to?

JR: I hate to tell you: show tunes. You could sing it and I could tell you where it’s from. Yeah, show tunes my whole life. My housekeeper goes, “Ew, here comes the score of Bells Are Ringing. Err!”

CA: Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best is in its second season and –

JR: It’s done. Thank god! But things never stop happening, that’s the trouble.

CA: With you they don’t, because you’re a workaholic.

JR: Yeah, you’re right. I just went down to Williamsburg, Va. with Judge Judy and I thought, “Where are the cameras?” It might be in the third season. Things are always happening.

CA: You recently joked about wishing you could replace Melissa with a gay son. How would the reality show be different if that were true?

JR: Well, it’d be a lot of different. We’d have a whole episode devoted to Judy Garland. There’d be nothing to discuss here.

CA: Maybe even a whole season.

JR: A whole season on, “Was Judy happy?”

CA: What does Joan know best?

JR: Being a good grandma. (Cooper) will appreciate me after I’m dead a lot more. Right now I’m grandma, but later on when he’s in college with his friends, he’ll get how fun grandma was. She was not cool – that’s the wrong word – but she was crazy.

CA: Is anything off limits when the cameras are rolling?

JR: No. If you’re going to do a reality show, you have to show your real reality, otherwise it’s gonna be stupid. And they know, people are not that – well, I shouldn’t say that, because look at the Kardashians. So people are not, usually, that stupid.

CA: Anyone you won’t make fun of?

JR: No. If you’re in the public eye, you’re in the public eye. And you have no right to say, “I’m off limits.” Nonsense. Then you’re in the wrong business. Go work at Kmart and no one will care and you can have the most private life of anyone in the world.

CA: In the ’80s you became the permanent guest host on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Why don’t we have a woman hosting a late-night talk show on a major network currently?

JR: Because there just isn’t anyone good enough. Somebody that was great would be on. I don’t know what that means, but that’s what it means.

CA: How about Kathy Griffin or Chelsea Handler?

JR: Chelsea: I’ve never seen so I have nothing to say about her. Never watched the show but once and I thought, “This sucks.” And I don’t know if Kathy would want to do it, or even has the right equipment for it. It’s a very different hat to put on.

CA: So you’re saying it has nothing to do with gender but rather talent?

JR: It’s the talent. That’s why I think Jimmy Fallon is genius. He’s got what Carson had. He’s a fan, he lets his people be funny; he doesn’t compete with his guests, and he just sits back and lets the guest do it. He’s amazing.

CA: What about Ellen DeGeneres?

JR: Ellen is the most boring white woman in the world.

CA: But the most exciting lesbian in the world?

JR: Oh, that’s right. I forgot about that. One of the funniest episodes of her sitcom was when she announced it by mistake over the microphone.

CA: When I saw your 2010 documentary, A Piece of Work, I was really surprised by how much of a softie you can be.

JR: Everybody is. You show so many different things on stage. My act is one kind of talk. In real life, I can be something else. We’re all so different in different ways.

CA: So what’s Joan like off-camera?

JR: I like to cry a lot.

CA: What makes you cry?

JR: What doesn’t? Christmas carols make me cry.

CA: In Driftwood, you played Barbra Streisand’s –

JR: Lesbian lover!

CA: Would you go lesbian again?

JR: If Babs is available. She was an amazing kisser! We still both laugh because that was our first scene – for both of us. She was still in high school.

CA: You were aware of your gay following early on, while performing at clubs in Greenwich Village. Why did you connect with gay people so instantly?

JR: I didn’t purposefully connect with them. It was always there. I worked all through college decorating Lord & Taylor windows, and all the window display men were gay. We loved each other.

I think my humor has always been a gay kind of humor. Gay humor is the smartest humor in the world. And gay audiences make a show. If I look out in an audience and there are six gay men in the front row, I know we’re going to have fun tonight.

CA: You used to get a lot of flack for some of your jokes – especially ones about AIDS. Is it easier to joke about taboo topics like that now?

JR: Oh, of course. But that’s the way you get people to pay attention. You know, I did the first AIDS benefit when it was still called “gay pneumonia.” We were in such danger that we had men on stage carrying guns because we got death threats.

CA: You ruffled some feathers recently when you told the Advocate that gay actors should stay in the closet because they were committing career suicide.

JR: You are. If I knew Tom Cruise was gay when I was a 7-year-old girl, that would’ve been it. I would’ve put my fantasies on somebody else.

CA: Tom Cruise is gay?

JR: Oh, I don’t think so. Do you?

CA: You tell me. You’re the celeb guru.

JR: I don’t know. You hear so many rumors circulating. But I think in certain professions you can’t come out and be America’s romantic idol. Ricky Martin was brilliant in how he handled his career.

CA: But with the social climate changing, do you still believe that to be true?

JR: You’re not talking about that. You’re talking about somebody that young girls are going to pay money to see and fantasize about. I think it’s a very difficult position for somebody to be put in. It’s unfortunate, but it’s life.

When I was a child, I was madly in love with an actor named Van Johnson – mad about him, had his picture up. In third grade I did a whole notebook on Van Johnson. Then I grew up, he was still adorable but he was gay and he was wearing mascara and I thought to myself, “If I had known then, I wouldn’t have loved Van Johnson. I would’ve fallen for John Wayne.”

So I think it’s a very difficult choice for an actor to make if he’s going to make his living as a romantic lead for young girls to adore. Or women. Well, men like to challenge women. Men love to challenge a lesbian: “Oh, I could turn her around.” That’s a good challenge for a man.

CA: As someone who’s had a gay following for years, what do you think of people claiming that Lady Gaga and Kathy Griffin pander to gay audiences and aren’t actually genuine?

JR: I don’t know and I don’t care. How about that? Couldn’t care less. I worry about myself. I love my gay audiences. They’ve been with me forever, they’ll stay with me forever, and I’m very happy. It’s that simple.

Don’t miss a night with the Queen of Nips & Tucks when Joan Rivers graces the stage on Friday, March 2 at the Capitol Theatre, 77 S High St, 614.469.1045, www.capa.com. Laugh ‘til your stitches pop with the iconic Ms. Rivers in her uncensored, not-safe-for-QVC live show. Botox not included. 7:30p; $58.85-81.35.

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Challenging Notions of Dis/Ability Art

by Erin Hoppe

The 2012 Accessible Expressions Ohio (AEO) exhibit may be the most diverse art show you see this year. The work is mischievous, clever, thought-provoking, beautiful and whimsical. The 78 artists involved tell their stories through camera lenses, watercolor, tempera, pencil, metal and more. But until you know the stories or backgrounds of the artists you’d probably never guess each happens to have a disability.

Accessible Expressions Ohio is an annually adjudicated, statewide exhibit and tour of visual art that began in 1996. The show is open to Ohio artists of all ages and levels of professional experience, with any disability. It includes hundreds of artists and is viewed by tens of thousands across the state. As a program of VSA Ohio, the state organization on arts and disability, AEO provides a professional opportunity for artists to raise awareness about disability and the importance of access and inclusion.

If you talk to any of the involved artists, most prioritize their lives as artists and reluctantly put their disability at the forefront. To these artists their disability is not their defining characteristic. It may mean they have an adaptive tool that’s been fashioned to hold a paintbrush because they cannot. It may mean they have persevered to overcome stereotypes. It definitely means they have found people and creative ways to support their dreams. But it does not mean they hold themselves to a lower standard than any other artist.

Each piece of art and biography portrays an incredible image of talent, passion and strength. But don’t take my word for it. These artists speak for themselves. Chris from Athens lives life with a persistent mental health condition; he describes his photography as “the surreal, the marvelous and the absurd, in countless juxtapositions, paradoxically renders our lives more accessible.”

Ricci from Cincinnati has been an artist for 30 years, but abruptly lost her sight three years ago. As an artist, it is her “objective to create ‘public art’ to reach the masses and in a transcendental way achieve serenity among the hustle and noise of the city beat. My being is my art and both are powerfully present.”

Paul from Columbus says, “I have for the last several years have been extremely interested in the relationships of people, in relationships to themselves, the photographer and the environments in which they find themselves. I deal with the emotions of darks and lights, contrasts and shadows. I deal with daily struggles in life and bring my fight with depression and bipolarism to my work.”

The creativity on display may be an outlet for healing, a source of income, or an exploration of form that results in new perspective for both artist and viewer. The process of creation, while primarily individual, is tied to layers of social construct and experience. You will see both internal expression and external interaction in this art. It is our hope that this show will challenge notions of dis/ability and inspire your own creativity and acts of inclusion.

The entire 88 piece Accessible Expressions Ohio 2012 exhibit will be on display at the Westerville Community Center (350 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, OH 43085) from March 3^rd through 31^st. After that it will divide into groups and tour across Ohio through the end of the year. For tour listings, updates, and images, visit www.vsao.org.

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by Mackenzie Worrall

“Most people probably daydream about winning an Academy Award, but I spend a lot of time imagining my funeral or how I’d look in a body cast. I don’t even get scared. I just like to imagine them, all these potential emergencies.” (Holding Still For As Long As Possible, Zoe Whittall, Anansi, 312 pages, $18.95 paperback)

Less and less often do I come across a gay book that’s all about coming out, or parents, or first times. Gay and lesbian characters have moved on to what’s next. Much like us, after we come out, deal with our parents, and our first time, and then ask of ourselves, “What’s next?”

Zoe Whittall, I am proud to say, asks that question for the fictional trans person. Holding Still For As Long As Possible is a wonderful novel about anxiety, your 20s, and the line between friends and lovers. Yes, there is a trans character. Barring the fact that you heard it from me or that you, Beyoncé forbid, keep up with the Lambda Literary Awards, you wouldn’t know until Ms. Whittall tells you a substantial amount of the way through the book.

Personally, I related more to this story and how it addresses anxiety and listlessness. In relationships and anxiety, every little thing becomes a menacing, big thing. With any luck for Ms. Whittall, her novel will also become a big thing.

In her busy award-accepting schedule, she found time to talk to me about Holding Still.

MACKENZIE WORRALL: Your portrayal of anxiety is very honest and real. And I think the juxtaposition with the honest portrayal of lesbians helps prove both points. Do you have experience with anxiety yourself?

ZOE WHITTALL: Yes, I experienced anxiety disorder in my twenties. It’s something I’m always recovering from, and it definitely informed Billy’s character, although her symptoms and mine were a bit different, and her path to recovery was also quite different. Irrational fear, or any fear really, is something I’ve always been fascinated with.

MW: Why use Billy as a washed-up child star? What does that add to this experience?

ZW: Well, what does any aspect of a character’s story add to the experience of reading about them? I wouldn’t characterize her as washed-up; I’d describe her as someone who experienced fame, albeit on a small Canadian scale, and decided that it wasn’t for her. I think washed-up child star implies that the celebrity still wants to be famous and just can’t hack it as an adult.

I think there was an interesting period in the mid 1990s where female musicians were super interesting to the mainstream public – in a problematic way – and I liked being able to give Billy that background and kind of poke fun at that time in pop culture.

MW: Very rarely do I see a book with a transsexual character go more than 10 pages without commenting on it. And for you going up to 50 pages at a time without talking about it; I must commend you. Josh is real, and not steeped in patronizing explanations. I think that he may be the most loveable character. Did this novel evolve around him?

ZW: Thanks. I’m glad to hear that. It was important to me that Josh being transsexual not be a plot point. It’s funny, I am working on the film adaptation of the book right now, and my co-writer, Lisa Foad, and I decided that the movie version should be Josh’s story. It makes the most sense from an action point of view. And while Josh is a huge part of the novel, and his job really informs the theme of emergencies and anxieties around mortality, the book started as Billy’s story, and grew to include Amy and Josh. I see it as their book.

MW: What research did you do for this? What was that like?

ZW: I interviewed dozens of paramedics about their work life, trying to figure out the emotional repercussions of the job, and to hear the fascinating stories from the road. I also went on several ride-alongs and got to see some exciting things – a dead body, for one.

I had a few trans male friends read it over to make sure Josh was reading as authentic to them as a trans guy. I also asked a lot of questions of my younger friends – ones who would have been the same age as Josh, Billy and Amy – to make sure I was getting the cultural references right.

MW: So queer Canada. Dish. What’s the scene like? What is literary queer Canada like?

ZW: The Canadian scene is really varied, depending one where you live, just like in America. It’s one thing to be queer in Toronto with its vibrant nightlife and several queer communities, and quite another to be a lez in Moose Jaw or rural Newfoundland. Queer literary Canada is very small. We have a lot of lesbian novelists who are quite popular in the mainstream literary world, like Emma Donoghue, Helen Humphries, Camilla Gibb, Anne Marie MacDonald and more, so that’s awesome. But writers who actually write about contemporary queer lives are quite rare. Of course there’s Ivan Coyote, Kristyn Dunnion, Michael V. Smith, Mariko Tamaki, Billeh Nickerson, to name just a few.

MW: You’re pretty up-and-coming. Next project?

ZW: Thanks. I am new to the American market but I’ve published seven books and have been doing this for a while. I’m currently working on a fourth novel about a family whose husband/father is arrested for a serious crime and the repercussions this has on the family while they await the verdict.

MW: Plugs, book recommendations, and fashion advice?

ZW: My favourite books of the year were The Antagonist by Lynn Coady and Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Good Squad, How Should a Person Be by Sheila Heti. I’m also in love with the band Dance Yourself to Death, who just released an EP called Fang.

Zoe Whittall is the author of two literary novels – the Lambda award-winning Holding Still For As Long As Possible and Bottle Rocket Hearts She won the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Award in 2008. She lives in Toronto.

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Artists Jessica Larva, Aimee Sones and John Javins will open your eyes and rouse curiosity about how power works in your life.  Their exhibition at the OSU Urban Arts Space called ‘Tracing Lines’ brings into focus the real presence and impact of power lines, cell phone towers, electrical plants and turbines that we depend on, but try to forget.

Carefully collecting sculptures, paintings, prints and photographs by twenty artists as well as 40 photographic images contributed by people from all over the globe, Javins, Larva and Sones capture the largest objects of our infrastructure and imbue them with elegance, as if to make them more manageable to our eye.  Through various art mediums, these “inspirational lines” (as they are referred to on the project’s website) are made to feel closer to us in part because of the sorbet-colored sunset sky they silhouette, or the quaint apartments they connect.

“We all want cellphone service, but we don’t want the cellphone tower,” says Larva, an art and technology graduate who currently teaches at Ohio Dominican.

“We want the function without the machine,” adds Sones.  Despite our best efforts to bury the evidence of industrial entities, structures like cell phone towers and power plants have made an inevitable introduction into our landscape.

The artists-turned-curators made initial connections as friends-of-friends and studio mates while pursuing their masters in art at Ohio State.  Aimee Sones’ experience growing up near an oil refinery outside Los Angeles has informed her artwork, and Jessica Larva’s photographs taken on a trip to Egypt in 2009 reiterated her interest in how infrastructure connects different cultures.  Javins, a sculptor and photographer, grew up alongside a generations-old family business in the gas industry in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Javins and Sones noticed how their common aesthetic interest in urban effigies like telephone lines were also cropping up on screen-printed t-shirts at popular stores like Urban Outfitters, and even on wall vinyl decorations for the living room.  “A lot of people are dealing with this [imagery].  Clearly there’s something going on,” says Larva.

A quote from Brian Hayes’ text entitled Infrastructure seems to encompass the main precept for their exhibition, which primarily aims to increase awareness about the infrastructure that surrounds us.  Hayes writes, “the common sights of the built environment—the power lines, water tanks, street lights, manholes, traffic signals, cellular-telephone towers—that we pass by every day and yet seldom really notice… many of us would go out of our way to avoid seeing them.”

While considering themselves followers of industrial landscape photographers like Edward Burtynsky and Bernard and Hilla Becher, (the “forefathers of this subject in photography”) Larva, Sones and Javins note that their intentions diverge from the political and environmentally charged objectives often associated with artists who conduct research in science and engineering fields.

“What makes us different from a lot of those people is that we aren’t going for the same political critique that they are.  For us it’s more about broadening information about…what these things are, how they work for us and how we depend on them,” Javins says.

In addition to bringing beautiful images of our industrial world to the gallery, the artists have developed educational programming in conjunction with the exhibit to help encourage what they hope will be a pool of knowledge based on our questions about infrastructure.  For example, during a monthly children’s art activity at the Urban Arts Space, the artists charged young participants with the task of imagining their own story about how electricity reaches the light switch.  While encouraging creativity, they did not only anticipate wild and “fairy like” narratives.  Instead, Aimee Sones feels that, “Collectively, maybe we can come up with a better solution.  How do you really engage the next generation?  What are they going to do?”

Javins, Larva and Sones have corresponded with CEOs and vice presidents of power companies and have visited area power plants to learn about the process of coal burning, and are hoping to create an opportunity for the public to join them on a visit before the show closes.

“We’ve been working hard to cultivate relationships with people in the industry so that we can do this with their blessing and without the difficulties,” says Javins.

“Difficulties” include general hostility towards photographers who hang around industrial sites—they are often reported to the police for suspected terrorism or ushered out of county lines.  The idea with Tracing Lines is not necessarily to make judgments, but to support dialogue about the topic of our infrastructure by bringing it into our conscious focus.  Because of the environmental concerns targeted at the electric and gas industries, Larva adds, “I think it’s really easy in this subject matter to get into a negative critique… we don’t that to be the only conversation.  You see these things, you try not to see them; but they are around in our environment.  They wouldn’t be here if we didn’t depend on them.”

Seeing the exhibition, you realize that it wouldn’t be possible if the artists scoffed at the sight of the industrial artifacts.  They are in fact fascinated with our industrial landscape, and beautifully document it through the artwork in the exhibition.

Javins notes, “So much of what we engineer is a single use piece of architecture.  When that use is over with, there’s almost no record of it.”  He considers his work with as a kind of discipleship following the Bechers, who were famous as documenters of industrial “crucibles” like glass insulators and coal mine tipples.  He makes a point to mention that the industrial objects being documented are some of the most complex structures humans have created, and that they deserve our attention whether we agree with them or not.

In the midst of the exhibition’s installation, the combination of constant activity in the gallery and the artists’ excitable energy reminded me that there is no reason to ever be bored if we consider how much we take for granted.

I’ll leave you with a fitting, Mother Goose-ian take home message from Javins, who kindly asks, “Rather than just thinking about your next social interaction, think about what’s happening around you.”  At the very least, on the way to your next social function, remember to think about the machines that are making it possible.

‘Tracing Lines’ is on view at the OSU Urban Arts Space through March 24th, 2012.  Join the artists and curators for an exhibition reception this Saturday, January 28th from 6 to 8pm.  Exhibitions are always free, with gallery hours Tuesday through Saturday 11am-6pm and extended hours on Thursday until 8pm.  For more information about programs and exhibitions at the OSU Urban Arts Space, visit uas.osu.edu.

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Listen to cellist David Finckel talk music for just a few moments and you can’t help but get caught up in his enthusiasm.

“Great music is the sound of life itself and, God knows, life is filled with everything.  That’s what makes it interesting.  That’s what makes it a human experience, and music is no different.”  That’s Finckel in a phone interview in late December from his New York office, where he and his pianist wife Wu Han have served as artistic directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004.

On Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 8 p.m., Finckel, Wu Han, and clarinetist David Shifrin return to the Southern Theatre for the new year’s first Chamber Music Columbus concert.  That all-volunteer organization has been presenting the best of the world’s chamber music to Central Ohio since 1948.

“To return to this organization and to this theatre, especially, in Columbus, is always a pleasure,” Finckel says.  “I love coming there to play.  I love the town.  I love the theatre and the organization I think is one of the finest in America.  We feel so fortunate to have been able to come so many times.”  As cellist of the renowned Emerson String Quartet, Finckel has come to Columbus in 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1989.  Finckel and Wu Han have performed as a duet under the auspices of Chamber Music Columbus in 2006 and 2010.  “Yeah, I do have a lot of different little bands I can come with,” Finckel quips.  Chamber Music Columbus brought clarinetist Shifrin here in 1987 with pianist Jeffrey Kahane and violinist Joseph Swensen.

On their January 28^th concert, Wu Han, Finckel, and Shifrin will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat major, for piano, clarinet, and cello, op. 11; Max Bruch’s Four pieces for piano, clarinet, and cello, from op. 83; and Johannes Brahms’ Trio in A minor for piano, clarinet, and cello, op. 114.  WOSU classical music host Jennifer Hambrick will conduct a pre-concert interview with the performers at 7 p.m., onstage at the Southern Theatre.

In honor of their musical artistry, their administrative prowess, and their educational mission, Wu Han and Finckel were recently named “Musicians of the Year” as part of the 2012 Musical America Awards.  As an educator, Finckel always insists that students become familiar with the personalities of the composers, suggesting that they know at least one “defining anecdote” to inform their performance.

In anticipation of bringing us Beethoven’s Trio, op. 11, Finckel recalled the composer’s reputation as a legendary piano improviser.  At some formal occasion, Beethoven’s keyboard inventiveness had brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience.  “He looked up and saw these people sitting there with tears running down their cheeks,” Finckel related.  “All of a sudden without any warning he took both his arms, banged this huge loud chord on the piano.  Everybody jumped.  He stood up, laughed at all of them, and left the room.  That somehow is very characteristic of his music where you often find him leading the listener to some quiet corner and then making a huge surprise.  The element of the unexpected in Beethoven’s music is so important.”

For Finckel, one of the unexpected delights of performing with friend and colleague David Shifrin has been the different perspective introduced by the clarinet.  As Finckel explains, “Playing with a clarinet in partnership is very different from playing with a violin because it has a very different sound.  But it has a sound which is, for me, equally expressive and which presents certain challenges and opportunities in terms of timbral blend and dialogue, and it also leads a cellist, at least a cellist who’s listening, … to new ways, new avenues of expression.”

“There’s no instrument that can make a line so long and beautiful as a clarinet,” he continues.  “The range — the tonal range and the dynamic range — of the clarinet is phenomenal.  It can play softer and louder than just about any instrument.  So you find ways to increase those possibilities as a string player and it’s been so good for my playing to have thrown myself into this program, this repertoire.”

About Shifrin himself, Finckel continues, “David … is one of the great artists, one of the great interpreters, one of the great musicians. … I swear, every time he plays this music, even in rehearsal, he sounds as though he’s rediscovering it for himself. … He’s always finding new ways of looking at a phrase.  It’s a continual process of discovery and evolution working with him, and I have to say, in every way these are just some of the greatest musical experiences of my life.”

Introducing more people to the delights of chamber music is never far from Finckel’s thoughts.  “Audiences have sensed that they have no less intense an experience going to a chamber music concert as opposed to when they go to a symphony concert,” he says, “but there’s also the feeling of inclusion.  Without a conductor sort of between the orchestra and the audience, the musicians have an opportunity to connect directly.  In a good chamber music performance where you’re in a good hall like the Southern Theatre, I think that the audience feels like they are part of the ensemble, … an essential component.”

Come and hear exactly why he’s so enthusiastic, when Chamber Music Columbus presents pianist Wu Han, cellist David Finckel, and clarinetist David Shifrin, performing music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Max Bruch, and Johannes Brahms, on Saturday, January 28, 2012, at 8 p.m., with pre-concert interview, 7 p.m., at the Southern Theatre, 21 East Main Street at South High Street, Columbus.  Tickets $40 (Main Floor), $35 (Loge and First Balcony), $15 (Second Balcony), and those 25 and under and students half price.  Tickets are available only through the CAPA Ticket Office (614-469-0939) and TicketMaster.  For information, call Chamber Music Columbus at 614-267-2267 or check out the Chamber Music Columbus Web site at http://www.CMColumbus.org.

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As of this past June, I was no longer the Gallery Director of ROY G BIV Gallery for Emerging Artists.  I spent two and half years doing everything I could to keep our nonprofit arts space alive (constantly promoting and installing our monthly exhibitions, soliciting donations and memberships, fundraiser planning, amongst a whirlwind of other essential duties).  My position entrenched me firmly in the local arts scene as an ambassador and fervent patron of Columbus creativity. Then, suddenly, I uprooted.

I wanted control of my daily schedule in order to create more personal time, so now I dance the two part-time gig jig, which has ironically left me with little personal time and energy at the end of each day.   I’m more financially stable than before, but my art life – the life that I spent losing myself at Way Yes shows, talking to writers at Filigree release parties, and meditating with artwork at the Canzani Center – that life has slowly diminished in exchange for… I don’t know what.  I thought I’d have more time for my own photography, but the constant give-and-take of seeing and experiencing other people’s artwork has dwindled alongside my artistic output.  When I left ROY, I left the local arts scene behind.

Not that I don’t continue to support ROY G BIV – I still volunteer (when I can) as an organizer, curator, and artist – but my professional obligation, to be an outgoing representative of the local arts scene, disappeared after I stepped down.  I no longer felt compelled to visit as many local arts exhibitions and music shows as I could.  I had found a rock and hid under it, barely maintaining my connection to the local arts scene by clicking “Maybe” to the stream of Facebook invitations to my friend’s shows… and I’ll admit to making up excuses when I see those same friends the day after.  I stepped – and stayed – out of the loop.

This “loop” is the constant hubbub of our creative community, the endless list of art exhibitions, music shows, and performances.  This loop sustains because enough citizens attend and financially lubricate the bearings of their own “loop”.  Enough citizens buy each others’ albums, buy each others’ artwork, get counted as foot traffic at each others’ openings, be each other’s stage crew, provide criticism and feedback to each other… you get the point.

Support, both moral and financial, is reciprocated and success permeates that support system (aka, the arts community).  I learned at ROY G BIV was that just “being there” for artists – meaning attending their exhibitions and gigs, providing substantial feedback, and once in a while, buying their artwork and album – is enough to encourage them to keep doing what they love (and maybe, just maybe, convince them to make their art their primary source of income).  I’ve learned from my time out of the loop is that it’s easy to make promises that you’ll “be there” but it’s challenging to make the time to actually “BE THERE.”  However, the rewards of “being there”, and not resigning to vicariously experiencing what your friends are creating to share with the world, far outweigh the comforts of being a cultural hermit.

My New Year’s resolution is to step back into the loop.  And stay there.

For those of you in this loop – I look forward to joining you again, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long.

For those of you out of the loop – I invite you to join me.  I hope to dance with you at my first HeatWave.  To sit next to you at the next PechaKucha. To bump shoulders with you at the next Gallery Hop.  To be stunned with you at my friend’s January 7th directorial debut at Studio 35 of his film “So It Was With Us.”  To roll with your questions at ROY G BIV’s next Artists’ Talk (the last Saturday of every month).  To listen to you read at the OSU Urban Arts Spaces’ next Paging Columbus.  To buy a better handmade edition than yours of sovroncourt’s latest album at his next show.  And so on…

See you there.

From a former square…

- Justin Luna

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Featuring Artists from Upper Arlington and Beyond

By Lynette Santoro-Au

Venus of Tinkerbell by John Donnelly

Sure, you could spend 2012 ignoring your resolutions, breaking them or honoring them, but what fun would that be? You could lament your credit card bill or start yet another diet, but who really wants to burden themselves with that? How about getting up and out and exposing yourself to some great art? Get your calendars out and take note of these diverse shows in our Concourse Gallery.

In January the Concourse Gallery partners with Marcia Evans Gallery to share the works of contemporary local, national and regional artists. The Marcia Evans Gallery is a unique and exciting space showcasing contemporary original art by artists that are up and coming and well known. Artists include Trevor Boyle, John Donnelly, Michael Halliday, Karen LaValley, Barbara Mink, Annette Poitau, and Linda Wesner.

Each year we open our Concourse Gallery season in partnership with a local gallery. This is a great way, we feel, to expose our community to local art outside of our community’s borders and a wonderful way to bring a new audience to an established gallery’s offerings. We’ve had great success with this endeavor in the past and look forward to showcasing artists from the Marcia Evans Gallery January 5-27. Join us for a reception January 12 from 5p-7p. Meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments.

Self Portrait by John Donnelly

Among the artists represented by the Marcia Evans Gallery in Columbus and featured in the exhibit is John Donnelly. In 2005, John was awarded the Edward Frey Award for the best in show at the 60th annual May show in Mansfield Ohio Art Center for his “Vesuvius Portraits.” In 2001, he was awarded an Ohio Individual Artist Grant. John received his BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in 1981 and Temple Abroad in Rome, Italy in 1980; his MFA from Indiana University in 1986 and was awarded to study and produce art at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1984. John continues to study and paint both here and in Italy. He has been a professor of art at Mount Vernon Nazarene University since 1989, where he primarily teaches painting, drawing and printmaking. His artwork is in numerous private and corporate collections. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he currently lives in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

In the spring we get in the groove with Visual Rhythms which runs from April 25-June 15 and features paintings by Leah Gray and glass by Mary Ellen Graham. Leah Gray’s expressive paintings evoke nature’s visual rhythm; repetitious patterns, growth structures and color formations. Inspired by the unfolding of nature’s beauty, Mary Ellen Graham takes molten glass to the most liquid state, just before collapse, where the form freely flows and the colors are their most vibrant, spontaneously caught as a moment in time.

In the summer we’ll turn the focus to artists living and creating in Upper Arlington with our Celebrating UA show. Our show takes place in conjunction with shows in the galleries of our Northwest Arts Partners: Dublin, Delaware and Worthington and runs from June 20-August 17. Each of the participating partners will participate in a progressive reception on June 28. We are looking for two-dimensional and three-dimensional work from artists living and creating in Upper Arlington. Deadline to apply is April 20, 2012.

The Concourse Gallery is located in the Municipal Services Center 3600 Tremont Rd. Concourse Gallery hours are M-F 8a-5p; admission is free. For more information please visit the Concourse Gallery online at www.uaoh.net/exhibits; email arts@uaoh.net; or call 614-583-5310.

Lynette Santoro-Au is the Arts Manager for The City of Upper Arlington’s Cultural Arts Division, a member organization of the Columbus Arts Marketing Association. CAMA’s mission is to promote awareness of and participation in the arts and cultural opportunities in Greater Columbus through collaborative marketing and public relations projects, and to provide professional development opportunities for members. For more information visit http://www.camaonline.org.

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By Chris Azzopardi

Meeting Denis O’Hare should be scary as hell. But today, in the back of homo-hotspot Saint Felix in West Hollywood on his day off, O’Hare doesn’t project the eeriness he does as a horny True Blood vamp and mysteriously deformed man who just suffocated a potential homebuyer on American Horror Story.

So far during the debut season of the smash FX show, O’Hare, who plays Larry Harvey, has dosed a house in gasoline, killed the-man-of-the-house’s mistress and fought fervently for a home that’s become a tough sell – and not just because the economy is sucking.

“Murder House,” as it’s called, is a freaky L.A. residence with a dark past and a new family: the Harmons, a threesome hopeful for a new start. But what’s up with the neighbors, including Jessica Lange’s crazy super-mom Constance? And who’s this Larry guy and why is this house so important to him?

O’Hare leans back after taking a sip of his cranberry/orange/seltzer water concoction – his “incredibly demanding diva drink” – and tells us. “I don’t think he’s evil. He’s acting out of a particular desire for something. For me, all characters have a justification for their behavior; they always think that what they’re doing is necessary for a reason. Even Phantom of the Opera has a real reason: He was in love with someone, he was scarred, he wants love and revenge.”

O’Hare, at this very moment, just wants some food. He orders a smorgasbord of nibblers that he eats in between talk of Ryan Murphy’s AHS, the upcoming season of True Blood and the new foster child he’s caring for with husband Hugo Redwood, who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Holding his phone up, O’Hare flips through photos of his family, looking for the one of the kid flashing his happy-as-can-be grin. Like O’Hare’s partner, the actor’s nearly-1-year-old baby’s black, and when he comes upon one pic – of the boy atop O’Hare’s lap and a friend’s child, who’s white, sitting on Redwood – he finally breaks into a maniacal smirk.

“We’re the right wing’s worst nightmare,” O’Hare says. “Wrong colored baby on the wrong person’s lap – oh my god!”

And you thought Larry was scary.

Before getting the call from Ryan Murphy desperately wanting O’Hare to take on Larry, the actor was already doing creepy on True Blood as the ancient former vampire king of Mississippi, Russell Edgington.

Premiering this summer, season five sees the return of the Master of Nutcases, as the 2,800-year-old bloodsucker makes a return to the set after skipping out on the last go-’round. What’s to become of him after rising from the cement he was buried under?

“Nothing I can share,” O’Hare says, noting a recent lunch he had with out True Blood mastermind Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under. “We talked about what’s going to happen and I was definitely surprised. It’s good stuff. It’s always good stuff. With him, and with Ryan (Murphy), they don’t go to obvious places. They go where you wouldn’t expect them to go.”

And so does O’Hare. The actor, who’s actually so down-to-earth and non-creepy that he offers to share his food during our hour-long chat, is good at playing bad. He was relentless at getting Sandra Bullock kicked out of the country in rom-com The Proposal, and played way against type in Milk as Sen. John Briggs, who proposes a California ballot initiative to outlaw gay and lesbian teachers. Recently, O’Hare had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene in the Hoover biopic J. Edgar, a chance to work again with Clint Eastwood (O’Hare starred alongside Angelina Jolie in Changeling as, what do you know, a psych ward bad guy).

O’Hare, who turns 50 in January, got his start where most actors do: on the stage. Growing up in Michigan, he was in choir and, in 1974, landed a chorus part in a community theater production of Show Boat. Then it was Broadway, where he played in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins in 2004, scored a Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out and was part of the revival of Sweet Charity.

In January, O’Hare heads back to New York – and back to the stage. He’ll be doing An Iliad off-Broadway through March, when he returns to L.A. for True Blood.

The best part of being back in N.Y.? Seeing the family. He married Redwood, an interior designer, over the summer, and the two have been caring for their foster child since April.

“I could’ve gone to my grave without having kids, but I came around to liking the idea,” O’Hare admits, noting he warmed up to the thought after seven years of talks with Redwood. “As a gay man, I find my biggest stumbling block was my own homophobia, my own sense of feeling that gay people shouldn’t have kids. I felt pressure from society that we’re not supposed to have kids” – not to mention, he says, that once you do, it’s like wearing a gay yamaka – “and I was also shy about being a spokesperson for gay adoption.”

And now he’s the gushing father who’s looking for just the right pic to show off the kid’s smile. His foster child laughs a lot, but how could he not? “I speak to him in bad French,” O’Hare says, “and he dies.”

O’Hare’s encounters with gay couples and their kids helped him shake off his internalized homophobia, something he says is difficult to diagnose in ourselves, and he finally accepted the idea of having his own with Redwood. “It’s been normalized for me,” he says, deliberating. “But it’s like being married.”

“It’s so hard to say the word ‘husband’ at first. I say ‘partner,’ and then suddenly realize if I say ‘husband,’ it might be aggressively political – but then it’s like, what the fuck? What else am I gonna say? He’s my husband. We are legally married.”

And how do other people react? “People are a little shocked at first, but they’re gonna get the fuck over it and pretty soon it’ll be normal – because it should be normal!”

Part of it, however, is that O’Hare doesn’t want everything about him to be “gay.” Especially not his acting.

“For me, an actor is an actor. Years ago someone said to me, ‘How do you feel about being a gay actor?’ I said, ‘I’m not a gay actor. I’m an actor. I’m Irish. I’m an atheist. And a bridge player. I ride my bike. Oh, and I’m gay.’”

He fits right in on the set of American Horror Story, one of the gay-friendliest projects he’s ever worked on. No surprise there: This is a Ryan Murphy production, after all. “I’ve met more female lesbian gaffers on Ryan’s show than I’ve ever met anywhere else in my life!” O’Hare says.

Because Murphy’s schedule is nuts, with Glee now in its third season, he doesn’t come around the AHS set often. But when he does, “he’s a great spirit” – no pun intended – “on the set. He’s the kind of guy who believes in a world of possibilities. He makes things happen.”

“Crazy” is what O’Hare calls the set, shot in the Paramount lot in L.A. right behind the infamous Hollywood Cemetery (as if the show wasn’t creepy enough).

“We never really know what we’re doing until the day before,” he says. “Everyone’s cool with it. The scenes, even when they’re intense, are fun.”

When O’Hare was sent the script directly from Murphy back in March, just a few weeks before shooting, he was immediately intrigued. The show takes cues from many of his favorite horror classics and the legendary names behind them: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi and Martin Landau.

“What I think is great about the show is that Ryan’s kind of consciously quoting from great works,” he says. “‘Don’t go in the basement’ is one of the biggest horror tropes, or ‘don’t open the door’ – they’re all horror tropes, and he’s using all of them in a really cool way. And I hear some people say, ‘Well, it’s unrealistic. Who’d stay in the house?’ That’s just a given. Let’s just let them stay in the house.”

Now he’s starting to sound a lot like Larry, who’s so insistent that the Harmons stick around you wonder what the dude’s got up his sleeve. “I think Larry has a very clear overarching goal, which is redemption and release,” O’Hare says, “and that is all tied up in the house.”

For O’Hare, the role requires three-and-a-half hours of makeup, transforming the actor’s face into the questionable burn victim and leaving O’Hare with half of his hearing and sight. On the first day of shooting, Murphy walked him through Larry’s limp and shriveled arm. “He’s got the vision in his head, so he had to be very clear about what we should to do,” O’Hare says, “and I like that about him – he’s a very clear director.”

That helps, but with True Blood, O’Hare knew what he wanted for Russell Edgington.

“I felt no need to make Russell act gay, because he is gay,” he says, adding that because the vamp’s so ancient, homosexuality didn’t even really exist then, “and I know as a gay man I don’t have to demonstrate that I’m gay. The fact that I’m sleeping with a man is the demonstration.”

And that’s gay?

O’Hare smiles big and non-creepy. “Not always, but for the most part.”

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