Among the jazz albums that were issued this year, or reissued, or compiled and/or repackaged on compact discs, were the following: Bird–The Motion Picture Soundtrack; the three-CD set of The Complete Charlie Parker on Savoy; Bird at the Roost, volumes one through four; Bebop and Bird, volumes one and two; Bird Songs (Parker tunes played […]
Tag: Vol. 18 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 22 – 28, 1988
Posted inArts & Culture
I Can Get It for You Wholesale
I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE National Jewish Theater You would definitely count the spoons after dining with Harry Bogen. A loathsome weasel who sells out everybody but his mother, Harry is the overachieving antihero of Jerome Weidman’s 1937 novel I Can Get It for You Wholesale. In 1962, Harold Rome added music and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Carne Vale
CARNE VALE Three Ring Productions at Econo-Art Theatre Lots of people who excel at something are never asked for an autograph. So why do celebrities seem so much more important? Simply because they get their names in the paper and their faces on television. That is what makes them seem larger than life. Andy Warhol […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Was Salome a Jewish Princess?
To the editors: George Grass’ witty review of the Lyric’s Salome (December 9, 1988) was seriously marred by the phrase “Jewish princess.” In discussing a work where all the characters have Jewish origins, the phrase can only have satiric intent. The phrase “Jewish princess” is an ethnic slur as ugly and offensive as any other […]
Posted inMusic
Traveling Wilburys–Volume One
TRAVELING WILBURYS VOLUME ONE Traveling Wilburys Wilbury Records 25796-1 There was a time when the rock ‘n’ roll super session seemed almost meaningful. Clapton and Winwood–together! Beck and Stewart and Truth! Crosby and Stills and Nash and Young! It was thought that opposites–John and Paul-style–could somehow attract, calm each other’s excesses, and produce good music. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
When Christ Came to Chicago
Last summer religious fervor ran rampant when The Last Temptation of Christ settled in at the Biograph. The cream of Chicago piety demonstrated outside while the uncertain or even frivolous of faith partook of the blasphemy within. The night everyone remembers is when the subject of the movie, lightly disguised in granny glasses and an […]
Posted inNews & Politics
On Abolishing Therapy
To the editors: Your interview with Jeffrey Masson [December 2] shows him to be the renegade, bad-boy critic that he is. Masson correctly points out the potential in the therapeutic relationship for abuses of power. However, Jungian analysts have long been aware of, and struggled with, the dangers inherent in the unequal power relationship between […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Year to Remember
If it’s remembered at all, 1988 will be remembered as the year we remembered things that happened in other years.
Posted inNews & Politics
Yucky!
The Clybourn Question: What do you get when you cross yuppie with tacky?
Posted inNews & Politics
Limited Resources
To the editors: Thank you for the fine feature article on Ken Dunn, Chicago’s garbage crisis, and the Resource Center’s efforts in recycling [November 11]. I am sure that your article has alerted more people to the need for a citywide recycling program–one which would bring city garbage disposal costs back under control while providing […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sandra Bernhard
Beyond her hostile-blase, I’m-so-hip image cultivated on television, Sandra Bernhard turns out to be a terrific cabaret singer, with a potent sense of drama and an ability to stay true to a song musically while reshaping it into a new and personal story. On opening night of her current Chicago engagement, comedian-singer Bernhard’s too-few musical […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Candyland: The Saga of Helen Brach and Her Pet Poodle Sugar
CANDYLAND: THE SAGA OF HELEN BRACH AND HER PET POODLE SUGAR Live Bait Theater Around Christmas, a lot of theaters–you know who you are–whip up something cute and confectionary in order to sponge up their share of disposable holiday income. I’ve often wished for some sort of poetic justice to be visited upon these mercenaries, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
How Good Is West Virginia?
To the editors. It was refreshing to read that Ted Cox (The Sports Section, 12/2/88) opposes a playoff system for major college football. Without such a playoff, teams from 17 schools can finish the post-season on a winning note. That said, Cox’s claim that only regional bias can explain West Virginia’s being ranked number three […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
When people want to express total pointlessness, they sometimes say a thing is as silly as “arguing over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.” This argument is supposed to have taken place between Byzantine theologians or medieval scholars, or somebody. But I’m beginning to think the fathers (and mothers) of […]