The eighth annual edition of the Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival concludes this weekend at Chicago Filmmakers, 1229 W. Belmont. Tickets cost $4-$5.50 per show or $25 for six screenings. For program information and updates, call Chicago Filmmakers at 281-8788. THE DAYS OF GREEK GODS An archival collection of Richard Fontaine’s physique films of […]
Tag: Vol. 17 No. 52
Issue of Oct. 13 – 19, 1988
Posted inNews & Politics
Guns on the lakefront, lead in the water: should the Lincoln Park shooters be banned?
As is often the case with this sort of dispute, the first shot was fired away from the public view. “The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency sent us a letter saying it appears the Lincoln Park gun club was violating the law,” says Nancy Kaszak, general counsel for the Chicago Park District, which owns the property […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Independence
INDEPENDENCE Footsteps Theatre Company at Raven Theatre There should be a statute of limitations for the effects of an unhappy childhood. A point at which you no longer hear the internalized voice of a heavy parent quietly whisper, “You’re gonna mess this up too.” Consider the alternative: no matter how far you travel in time […]
Posted inMusic
Fear of rocking: Camper Van Beethoven and the limits of absurdism
On the basis of fairly extensive experience with Santa Cruz, California, I report that the students of the University of California there can be divided cleanly into four distinct groups. In steeply descending order of group size, they are: those who like it there and take drugs; those who don’t like it and take drugs; […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jimmy Page
People like Jimmy Page were influential with rock’s proletariat in a way that intellectuals like Dylan or Joe Strummer could never hope to be. Part of this was an ability to cloak himself in an effete ethereality (in contrast to Robert Plant’s cartoon sexuality) that typified him as the great bodacious rock star of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago International Festival of Children’s Films
Now into its 13th year, this festival of more than 100 films and videotapes from more than 25 countries runs at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, Friday, October 14, through Sunday, October 23. Single tickets are $2.50 for adults and children; a pass good for five films is $10. For more information call 929-5437. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Collage Project
THE COLLAGE PROJECT Trilogy Productions at Victory Gardens Studio Theatre The Collage Project is made up of three one-act plays by Jeff Helgeson. It wants very much to be more than that. It’s a thoughtful effort, but the final product is less than the sum of its parts. Despite the solid performances here, some fine […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Shout
THE SHOUT Live Theatre The technique of story theater, developed in Chicago by Paul Sills, helps a work of fiction make the perilous passage from page to stage without failing apart. It provides the glue that holds the dialogue and the narration together. Without that glue, a piece of fiction is likely to collapse onstage […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Department of Offended Feminists
To the editors: What was the purpose of Chris Petrakos’ “To Women” [September 9]? If the author meant to emphasize that ignorance and misogyny still exist in the eighties, he only partially succeeded. What proved to be most disturbing about Petrakos’ treatment of this idea was his devotion to articulating George’s views on women. Instead […]
Posted inMusic
Serkin and Solti
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at Orchestra Hall September 28 and October 1 The word “legendary” is thrown around so often in the arts that one hesitates to use it even when it seems deserved. Yet two of the figures who opened the Chicago Symphony’s 98th season in a special nonsubscription fund-raiser on September 28 are legendary. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sly & Robbie
Sly Dunbar (drums and percussion) and Robbie Shakespeare (bass) are generally recognized as the greatest professional rhythm section in reggae. As their reputation has grown, they’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to jump from backing big reggae acts, like Black Uhuru, to backing even bigger international rock acts, like the Rolling Stones. Though they’ve hardly […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Romeo and Juliet
ROMEO AND JULIET Goodman Theatre At the very end of the superb first act of Goodman Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet, as the young lovers kneel so Friar Lawrence can sanctify their love with matrimony, Larry Schanker’s lyrical, folkish score strikes a single shimmering dissonant note–not a harsh or mournful signal of doom, but a nervous, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
How to Touch Michael Dukakis’s Left Hand
At 5 PM on a Tuesday, have someone tell you that a person you want to interview will be speaking at a Dukakis fundraiser that night. Call the Dukakis office, where someone tells you it’s $1,000-a-plate at the Chicago Hilton and Towers and closed to the press. Consider asking, “And what if you bring your […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Club Dates: the eclectic boogie of Souled American
At a rock ‘n’ roll cattle call last year in Austin, Texas, one band really caught the ear of Robin Hurley, managing director of Rough Trade, England’s independent record label. Over three days, he heard many of the 100 or so bands that had shown up to perform for company bigwigs, but Souled American, a […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago Sinfonietta
CHICAGO SINFONIETTA at Orchestra Hall September 27, 1988 The Chicago Sinfonietta, which prides itself on being an affirmative action organization, is the latest in a long line of midsize orchestras that have sought recognition despite the lengthy shadow of the Chicago Symphony. It faces formidable odds. As far as I can recollect, no other professional […]