When he’s not busy with local dance/pop group the Way Moves, Bob Marsh travels his own road making weird, giddy music that evokes a world cracked in pieces, or better yet, life as seen from the interior of a padded cell. While his work can be every bit as jagged and beat-heavy as your average […]
Tag: Vol. 16 No. 52
Issue of Oct. 15 – 21, 1987
Posted inArts & Culture
Seduced
SEDUCED Immediate Theatre Company Sam Shepard must have been listening to Randy Newman’s Sail Away when he wrote Seduced. Some of the album’s songs are ordered in the stage directions; and the ones he didn’t use resonate in the play’s world. Like these lines from “The Dream I Had Last Night”: I saw a vampire […]
Posted inNews & Politics
South-side hardball: black residents and white bankers team up in a $20 million investment agreement
Robert Teresko, president of the Beverly Bank, smiles stiffly and looks nervous as he walks into the conference room to face the public and sign the agreement. “This agreement establishes a good working relationship between community and bank,” Teresko begins. “Through our discussion, we’ve come up with unique products that will benefit the entire market […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Byther Smith
Byther “Smitty” Smith, long the house guitarist at the legendary Theresa’s Lounge on the south side, combines a fiery guitar attack with a voice that’s as intense and darkly emotional as any on the contemporary scene, and to which the minor key shuffles he favors bring a heightened sense of urgency. Although Smitty has been […]
Posted inFilm
Addicted to Blood
NEAR DARK *** (A must-see) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow With Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, and Lance Henriksen. Well, the leaves may be turning wondrous shades of red and gold, but the real proof that autumn is here is that we’re once again being swamped by a flood of horror pictures. They show up in a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Snow
SNOW Stormfield Theatre Company and Pegasus Players There are two really important lines in Snow: “Long live the revolution!” (delivered by Lenin, usually while standing on a table) and “But it was already [pause] too late” (Trotsky, in an aside to the audience). I know these lines are important because they’re repeated so often. I […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sonia, a Psychic
Her clients include a lawyer, a cop, a doctor, a therapist. What do they see in her? What does she see for them?
Posted inNews & Politics
The Sports Section
On the last day of baseball’s regular season, the first Sunday in October, Reggie Jackson was running wind sprints in the Comiskey Park outfield before the game. He ran in that easy yet almost muscle-bound manner that is particular to him, in which his shoulders roll from side to side like the prow of a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Reading Notes: Wendell Berry, a farmer and a poet
Not many farmers today use horses instead of tractors, fewer still are also college professors, and hardly any can claim to be accomplished writers into the bargain. Wendell Berry, Kentucky poet and farmer, belongs to this rare breed. In an age of specialization, he combines three vocations at once and succeeds in making a life […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Story of Otis Redding
THE STORY OF OTIS REDDING Black Ensemble Otis Redding died when he was 26 years old. Until his death, his life was consumed by two passions–music and his family. There was no legendary drug use or drunken rages, no rivalries with other singers, no tempestuous love affairs. There was not even much fame and fortune–Redding’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Titus Andronicus
TITUS ANDRONICUS Organic Theater Company Thomas Riccio, the artistic director of the Organic Theater, says he wants to bring performance art and traditional theater closer together. He envisions a hybrid art form that will rely more heavily on visual images and symbolism, and provide an alternative to the naturalism that dominates Chicago stages. Riccio’s production […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chester String Quartet
Musical life on the northwest side has perked up considerably ever since North Park College launched its inexpensive chamber music series. Featuring some of the city’s finer instrumentalists, these recitals typically offer an edifying mix of selections from both the standard and contemporary repertories. The program for this season opener is a good example; one […]
Posted inNews & Politics
I Judged the Meat Meet
First I saw it: a low-lying cloud of gray smoke to the southeast, dimming the outlines of the Field Museum. Then, as I walked through the park, I smelled and heard it: the odor of hundreds of barbecue fires and the thrum of electric guitars and bluesy vocals. The event: Ribfest. My role: first-round judge. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: how to keep house for a bunch of apes
Peter Clay doesn’t remember exactly when his obsession with apes began. “It’s hard to get back to the very beginning and figure out exactly ‘How did this happen to me? Why am I a housekeeper for apes as a profession?’” Clay has kept house for apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo great-ape house for nearly […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Schools: Raise Taxes Now
. . . and four other recommendations for the rehabilitation of public the schools.