Welcome to Sarajevo Rating * Has redeeming facet Directed by Michael Winterbottom Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce With Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, and Emira Nusevic. By Matt Roth Weaving historical events into a fictional narrative always involves a major pitfall: important events risk becoming a hazy backdrop to the cliched struggles of boring […]
Yearly Archives: 1998
Posted inMusic
Ed Thigpen Quartet with Antonio Hart
ED THIGPEN QUARTET WITH ANTONIO HART Drummer Ed Thigpen’s last few appearances in Chicago have only confirmed what audiences understood from his first noteworthy appearances in Chicago, with Oscar Peterson in the 50s and early 60s: with his immaculate stick work and split-second accents, he defines tasteful drumming without sacrificing the fluid dynamics and deep […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Succulence
SUCCULENCE, Pod Productions, at Second City, Donny’s Skybox Studio. For years Chicago’s comedy scene has been dominated by straight, white, middle-class, not particularly rebellious or introspective men. But there are only so many sketches one can write about dissatisfied husbands, exasperated Cubs fans, and jerks trying to pick up women in bars. After a while […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Shut Up and Laugh!
Shut Up and Laugh! Let me make a New Year’s resolution for you: take some bigger risks with your theatrical dollars in 1998. Lord knows Chicago is full of dicey, hole-in-the-wall performance spaces–which often provide a hefty artistic return on a meager admission charge. You can start your year with one of the biggest, most […]
Posted inMusic
Cradle of Electronica
Raymond Scott Soothing Sounds for Baby: An Infant’s Friend in Sound (Basta Audio/Visuals) He turned on the car radio and that same feeling returned. Those electronic sounds did something strange to him, touched some subconscious place in his brain, made him squirm. Made his gums itch. When Ren & Stimpy licensed Raymond Scott’s music from […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Saturday Stories
SATURDAY STORIES, A Red Orchid Theatre. Jimmie Cumbie’s collection of monologues disguised as a play concerns an apartment building that apparently rents only to heartbroken singles. Over the course of a rainy, dismal Saturday, each tells his or her sorrowful tale of love gone wrong. Some are quite moving, as when one resident muses on […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mind Games
Bored out of my mind from stuffing envelopes eight hours a day, I started poring over the classifieds. One ad caught my eye. Earn $10/hr. receiving incoming calls in your own home! Make your own hours. If you are a people person and like giving advice, call…
Posted inArts & Culture
Lecture Notes: someone’s in the kitchen with Nikita
Today conveniences like double sinks and dishwashers are considered standard in most new homes. But in 1959 such amenities were still a novelty, at least until House Beautiful presented its Pace Setter House for that year. Readers already anxious about keeping up with the Joneses were confronted with a centrally located 30-by-12-foot kitchen outfitted with […]
Posted inMusic
Mark Naftalin
Mark Naftalin It’s hard to believe that musicians like Mark Naftalin, who personified the youthful embrace of blues and R & B by white musicians and audiences in the 60s, are now approaching elder statesman status themselves. Naftalin, a Minneapolis-born keyboardist whose early influences included such Chicago masters as Big Maceo, Otis Spann, and Sunnyland […]
Posted inMusic
Tim Mulvenna
TIM MULVENNA The unaccompanied drum recital was a staple of 70s free music. Andrew Cyrille was first to go on record by himself, with What About? (BYG) in 1969, and he and fellow explorers like Milford Graves and Han Bennink turned the seemingly limited setting into a boundless format, expanding the kit with ancillary percussion […]
Posted inMusic
Karl Montzka Organ Band
KARL MONTZKA ORGAN BAND Though they haven’t received half the press, the Montzkas would come second only to Von and George Freeman in a Chicago jazz-sibling rivalry. When keyboardist Karl locks rhythms with drummer Eric, they make a great case for nature and nurture: having grown up in the same household, presumably listening to much […]
Posted inNews & Politics
House Blend
Will the eclectic Logan Beach Cafe change under new management?
Posted inNews & Politics
Oberman All Wet
mitchell.qxd Dear Editor: This letter is in response to the letter of Martin Oberman, as president of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, in your December 12, 1997, issue. In his letter, Mr. Oberman criticizes IVI-IPO’s focus “on paper qualifications and political considerations” in endorsing judicial candidates. At the same time, Mr. Oberman claims that judicial […]