kim.qxd Michael Miner was right to call attention to the Sun-Times’s conspicuous absence from the recently concluded national convention of the Asian American Journalists Association in Chicago (Hot Type, August 14 and 21). But when it comes to the cause of minorities in journalism–Asian-American or otherwise–the Reader is hardly one to criticize others. “Sun-Times: Appearances […]
Author Archives: Ben Kim
Posted inMusic
In a Perfect Word
Dana Bryant Park West, November 2 By Ben Kim In the last decade poetry has seized the only means of survival in our entertainment-dominated culture: it has become entertainment. Rap suggested an emerging generation’s interest in words, albeit only those spoken to it; writer and reader became performer and spectator. The poetry slam, which recast […]
Posted inMusic
Automatic for the People
Pulsars Double Door, October 4 By Ben Kim The Pulsars, Chicago’s preeminent new-wave revival band, are as much about cars as stars–that is, “Cars,” the hit new-wave song by Gary Numan, and the Cars, the hit new-wave band from Boston. Numan was a British synthesizer pop star playing android. The Cars were an American rock […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: One Danny Yoon saves face
No more chopstick art,” says 26-year-old multimedia artist One Danny Yoon with a laugh. “I’m sick of it. That and Bruce Lee.” Other Asian-American artists have turned to incorporating hanbok, or traditional Korean dress, and other cultural symbols to sum up the experience of growing up Asian in America. But Yoon’s current work focuses on […]
Posted inMusic
Dying for Attitude
N.W.A Greatest Hits (Ruthless) Has ‘Gangsta’ Rap’s Popularity Started to Slip?” a Wall Street Journal headline recently asked. The article ventured that “changing musical tastes and a national aversion to rap’s increasingly violent culture–epitomized by the death of star rapper Tupac Shakur–may now be slowing gangsta rap’s spread.” Even though its market analysis–rap as a […]
Posted inMusic
A Canada State of Mind
Hayden Lounge Ax, July 12 My friends in Toronto aren’t much different from my friends here in temperament or circumstance–they’re mostly creative types struggling to get by, gamely trying to live up to their pre-diminished expectations. Yet the Canadian folks seem to inhabit this never-never land with a grace and equanimity distinctly absent in their […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Parents in the Crowd
Dingle’s Jeff Gramm figures this is the first and maybe last time his father will watch him rock
Posted inMusic
The Sound of Borders Breaking
Cornershop Double Door, November 25 The postmodern artist of color in the West is expected not only to have inherited the same heap of pop junk and exhausted formalisms as everyone else, but to lay claim to something untainted as well. This has been less of an issue in rock music, which has marginalized artists […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Rock Fans’ Corner
To the editors: I am writing in response to Dylan Posa’s letter in the August 9 issue, which was in response to my letter in the July 12 issue, which was in response to Bill Wyman’s “Truth or Dare: Madonna’s Big Lie” (June 21). Dylan, your published letter was as intimate as a personal note, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Pop Psychology
To the editors: Reading Bill Wyman’s “Truth or Dare: Madonna’s Big Lie” (June 21), I was impressed not only with his skill in shooting down her myths, but also with the seeming passion behind his gunning. But I also sensed he was lecturing a crowd who “should know better” than to fall for Madonna: his […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Not Cool Enough
To the editors: Kudos to Bill Wyman for hyping rappers 3rd Bass (Critic’s Choice, May 3). The 3rds have proven that they’re not just the best white rappers around (well, tied with the obnoxiously brilliant Beastie Boys), but that they’re among the best rappers period. Mr. Wyman, I trust you wouldn’t have spotlighted 3rd Bass’s […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Making McCartney Mean Something
To the editors: At the end of a rock and roll year that was saturated with leap-from-the-grave comebacks/reunions and triumphant final campaigns (not to mention historic levels of post-Beatlemania, with every fogey, wanna-have-been, and lifestyle columnist dutifully recalling “twenty years ago today”), I’m glad Bill Wyman had the guts to write about McCartney (“Let Him […]