LITTLE CAESAR Organic Theater I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen the movie Little Caesar, which came out in 1930 and starred Edward G. Robinson as Rico. And I’m certain I never read the novel by William Burnett. But the story of a brutal thug who campaigns to become Chicago’s gangster chieftain is familiar. The […]
Tag: Vol. 17 No. 37
Issue of Jun. 30 – Jul. 6, 1988
Posted inNews & Politics
A Mason’s Grace
To the editors: Cecil Adams’ column of 3-11-88 belied its title. What he provided was not The Straight Dope on Masonry but rather a rehash of tired old slanders against a commendable institution. Considering the size of your circulation, that was patently unfair. Had Mr. Adams done even the most basic research (e.g. one trip […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Channel This, or Die, Yuppie Scum!; Time in a Battle
CHANNEL THIS, OR DIE, YUPPIE SCUM! Second City E.T.C. Company TIME IN A BATTLE Organic Theater Company and Cat, Horse, & Phoenix Productions at Organic Theater If improv comedy were ever to become an Olympic event, with the audience as judges, the scorecards flashed after each skit would never show the usual 8.5, 9.2, 9.9. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Our Intelligent Audiences
To the editors: I think your capsule description of James Sherman’s new play [The Escape Artist, Reader’s Guide to Theater May 27] is “completely awful”! First of all what is the point of your anonymous reviewer describing Sherman’s previous play, The God of Isaac, as awful but successful. Is it just to demonstrate that Sherman […]
Posted inMusic
Bernsteinmania
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Orchestra Hall June 16 and 21 Leonard Bernstein’s 70th birthday is coming up, and his recent appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have occasioned many ringing praises–in the press, at Orchestra Hall, and at a $75-a-plate birthday dinner at the Museum of Science and Industry. The performances themselves, however, made it […]
Posted inNews & Politics
This Ain’t No Love-In
To the editors: Patricia Stoll, in an article regarding the recent confrontation at UIC during the celebration of Israel’s Independence Day, apparently has the simplistic view that the Palestinian Arab-Israeli conflict is merely a repeat of the civil rights movement in the sixties [“Demonstration,” May 6]. Stoll states that she is “for peace” and “for […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Da
Hugh Leonard’s adaptation of his autobiographical play of the same title, partially based in turn on his book Home Before Night, offers a charming mix of childhood memoir and speculative wish fulfillment. An Irish playwright living in New York (Martin Sheen) returns to Ireland to attend the funeral of his father (Barnard Hughes), and then […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Lost in Austin: fighting drugs, decay, and the city bureaucracy on the far west side
For a decade or so, the section of Austin that Marceline Rideaux calls home has been deteriorating. When the dope dealers took over the main intersections, Rideaux and her neighbors decided they’d had enough. “They were dealing right out in the open,” says Rideaux, who, at age 60, has lived in Austin for 15 years. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Del-Lords/Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
This is a weird combination, though not a bad one. The Del-Lords play a generic brand of all-American rock, the kind that is often associated with Bruce Springsteen and the sound tracks of commercials for beer. In fact, a very bad beer company offered these boys a lot of bucks to pose with their product […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Gathering of Scots
It seemed an inauspicious day to be wearing a kilt: hot and sunny, with highs in the 90s. Yet there stood a bearded young man in a heavy woolen green-patterned tartan kilt, tam-o’-shanter, tweed jacket with white cuffs peeking from the sleeves, thick woolen knee socks with garters, and a swath of plaid cloth pinned […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Dr. Doom
The ozone layer is shot. The rain forests are vanishing. The population bomb has detonated. It’s just another day at the office for Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute.
Posted inArts & Culture
Fred Simon Group
Fred Simon is (a) a committed composer who draws equally from jazz, the Beatles, and European impressionism for his inspiration; (b) a strong pianist, with Keith Jarrett sitting on one shoulder and Joni Mitchell on the other; (c) an improviser whose skills continue to sharpen with each new project. After a decade of Chicago visibility […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Art Facts: Nancy Spero arrives from the periphery
Nancy Spero has always gone against the grain. When New York and abstract expressionism dominated the art world, she lived in Paris and painted people–prostitutes, lovers, mothers and children. When the slick, faceless art of pop and held sway, she developed her own hand-printing technique to produce “political manifestos.” At a time when other artists […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Cartoon Collector; Tribune Changes; A Writer, Not a Lover
Cartoon Collector A new magazine arrived in the mail a few days ago that suited us perfectly. On the cover of volume one, number one of Bull’s Eye, “the magazine of editorial cartooning,” was a drawing done in 1920 by Daniel Fitzpatrick (Pulitzers in 1926 and 1955), the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch cartoonist we grew up […]