Lerner and Labor: A Decomposing Relationship From the annals of the undead . . . The Lerner newspapers’ composing room at 7519 N. Ashland expired at the end of the workweek Saturday, September 3. Survivors were consoled in the traditional way, which is to pat them on the back and wish them luck finding another […]
Tag: Vol. 17 No. 49
Issue of Sep. 22 – 28, 1988
A Fresh Start in Alaska
To the editors: Tom Riccio, former artistic director of the Organic Theater, moved to Fairbanks, Alaska a month ago to take over the theater department of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He told Reader columnist, Michael Miner [September 9], Fairbanks is made up of two kinds of people: “Fundamentalist Christians and liberal granola crunchers, which […]
Chicago Latino Film Festival 88
The fourth annual edition of the Chicago Latino Film Festival will show 50 films, virtually all of them subtitled, from 19 Latin American countries, Spain, and the U.S. (including several independent works from Chicago). All screenings will be held at the Three Penny Cinema, 2424 N. Lincoln, from Friday, September 23, through Sunday, October 2. […]
On Stage: all things crass and kitschy
“If you’re an angel and you’re coming to earth, and you want to pick a body to be in, why not put a little flair into it? You know? Why go out and be some doof?” says Kevin Kling of one of the characters in his play Lloyd’s Prayer. “I wouldn’t. I’d pick somebody that’s […]
A Piece of Lakefront
The state has agreed to sell 30 acres of lakebed to Loyola University for a campus-expanding landfill. Some say it’s a good deal for everyone. Others say it’s a blatant betrayal of the public trust.
Chicago Pro Musica
The Grammy Award-winning Chicago Pro Musica offers Chicago-area premieres of two important works by local composers that were given their enthusiastically received world premieres last weekend at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The extraordinarily high quality of the pieces and their performances at Krannert make this […]
That Wasn’t Garbage, It Was Postmodernism
To the editors: Mr. Tom Boeker is an aggressive ignoramus. And if this is not enough, he is self-indulgent. . . . I could have continued in this style, so familiar to those who have read any of Mr. Boeker’s reviews. Unlike him, however, I shall explain my position, and articulate the reasons why Mr. […]
Talking to Myself
TALKING TO MYSELF Northlight Theatre Talking to Myself, Northlight Theatre’s staged “story theater” version of Studs Terkel’s memoir, has–like the book–a sweet poignancy. A boy discovers the world around him, and that discovery helps mold the man. It’s an old story, a classic, maybe even an archetype. But when a story is so well known, […]
Welcome to Chicago
“Nobody hustles me. I don’t get hustled. I’m a New Yorker.” My friend was grasping a tattered white envelope and waving it in my face. We were having a beer in a local bar that smelled like the inside of an old tin can. Mike’s raspy voice was full of excitement. He was about to […]
Art Slashing
To the editors. The silliest thing I ever read in the Reader was about Nan Goldin being “violated” (her word) because somebody made a few paintings inspired by her photographs [Hot Type, August 19]. She was so “violated” that she wants these paintings destroyed! It doesn’t seem like there was much problem over the economic […]
Housing for Hispanics: in the Reagan era, it takes a genius
“There are a lot of vacant lots. We can build family-size housing and fill those vacant lots,” says Hipolito Roldan, in the tone of a man certain of his facts. “You can put a lot of work and a lot of money into rehabbing a building, and it really doesn’t show that much from the […]
Department of Incomprehensible Sarcasm
To the editors: As a devout theatrical gadfly, I breathlessly await your every issue. There is no more enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning than poring over your reviews, charting the rise and fall of Chicago’s teeming theatrical millions. You cannot imagine how many scintillating conversations have begun with: Did you see the Reader’s […]
Pere Ubu/John Cale
While “art rock” is usually neither, Pere Ubu and John Cale are both. Sure, the first time you hear Pere Ubu’s plump, stately David Thomas crooning like an aroused mountain goat in hot pursuit of Allen Ravensteine’s spooky synthesizer fills, these newly revitalized Ohio veterans might seem like long shots to get your mojo working. […]
Art Crime
To the editors: Though being an artist myself (a writer) and can empathize with Nan Goldin’s outrage [Hot Type, August 19], I would think that even she is going to an extreme in requesting that Jacek Siudzinski’s copycat paintings of her photographs be destroyed. One, even though they rip her off, I would think that […]
The world’s most advanced rock star
Who could have predicted that black stars would so dominate the 80s pop firmament? Any accounting of the decade’s most important acts would have to include at least three black acts in the top, oh, four or so, by my reckoning–Prince edging out Bruce for number one, the two of them followed closely by Run-D.M.C. […]