Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer, is well-known for being a “literary” act. The description is fitting: front man Dan Bejar’s lyrics feel like symbolist poetry, with lines of varying lengths crammed with allusions to history, film, and—especially—pop music stacked on top of each other like records in a wobbling tower. Furthermore, Destroyer albums tend to commit […]
Author Archives: Tal Rosenberg
Posted inFilm
The madness to Jim Carrey’s method
Chris Smith’s documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond looks at Carrey’s immersive screen performance as Andy Kaufman.
Posted inArts & Culture
isabelle frances mcguire cliche prairie gallery pilsen
“I’m a Cliche” at Prairie Gallery uses yeast and fermentation to explore issues of identity.
Posted inArts & Culture
Isabelle Frances McGuire’s bread and butter is their art
“I’m a Cliche” at Prairie Gallery uses yeast and fermentation to explore issues of identity.
Posted inArts & Culture
Bill Walker, Dapper Bruce Lafitte, and the virtues of angry art
A review of two concurrent, improbably similar solo shows of artists working in different time periods and locations
Posted inMusic
Punctuation geniuses Migos put exclamation points on hip-hop
The chief innovation Atlanta trio Migos have brought to rap music is using words as punctuation. (Period). Quavo, his cousin Offset, and his nephew Takeoff don’t merely rap or sing or rap-sing, they pepper their bars with stray words or onomatopoetic sounds that aren’t just stylistic quirks or sound effects (boom), but integral components of […]
Posted inBlogs
The inaugural Chicago Art Book Fair isn’t for art-book people—it’s for everyone
No Coast Editions launches the city’s first fair for both art people, book people, and art-book people.
Posted inFilm
Sights to see at CIMMfest
The Chicago Movies & Music Festival makes its November debut with feature films about David Bowie, queer punk, New Orleans piano, gospel quartets, Ozzfest, Malian traditional music, and lots more.
Posted inMusic
Sights to see at CIMMfest
The Chicago Movies & Music Festival makes its November debut with feature films about David Bowie, queer punk, New Orleans piano, gospel quartets, Ozzfest, Malian traditional music, and lots more.
Posted inArts & Culture
Faye Driscoll gives a welcome flip of the bird to all things stuffy
Expect to have fun at Thank You for Coming: Play.
Posted inMusic
Randy Newman is still scathing after all these years
By now it’s common knowledge that Randy Newman’s sweet, Pixar-accompanying musical style is a facade for lyrics infused with sardonic, acerbic social commentary—much in the same way that Steely Dan’s gleaming jazz-rock is a veneer for profiles of losers, outcasts, and hucksters. In fact, in his use of American tropes for populist purposes that both […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ten best bets for fall visual arts
Chicago Architecture Biennial Aside from the main exhibition taking place at the Cultural Center, this year’s biennial boasts a number of smaller satellite shows, including new “anchor sites” in various neighborhoods; “Past Forward: Architecture and Design at the Art Institute,” an installation devoted to the museum’s collection; and many related productions at smaller galleries. Read […]
Posted inBlogs
George Takei on his childhood in Japanese internment camps, his career after imprisonment, and, ugh, Donald Trump
The actor, artist, and activist speaks in Chicago in connection with “Then They Came for Me,” an art exhibit about Japanese internment during World War II.