Contrary to the rumors, there is no Axe Street manifesto of political correctness. Nor is there a board of directors, a corporate structure, a millionaire backer, a profit motive, or a bottom line. “We wanted to have a gallery that had a political impulse,” explains M.J. Marchnight, one of the six founding members of the […]
Tag: Vol. 18 No. 39
Issue of Jul. 13 – 19, 1989
Posted inNews & Politics
Andy Warhol’s Big Joke
To the editors: The controversiality of Andy Warhol is, by no means, an indication that his works are important, or that he is an artist [“Andy Warhol: A Long, Close Look,” June 2]. What is disturbing is not the banality of Warhol’s work. Modern art forms, even if they only deserve to be called “expression,” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Death of a Cell-Man
SCHUMACHER Playwrights’ Center In the opening scene of this play, Schumacher presents a short seminar on salesmanship. The phrase “Make that big sale!” is projected overhead, along with Schumacher’s five steps for doing just that: contact, introduce, match/mirror, sell more, and close. Let’s take these one at a time, shall we? Contact. Pick up the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: Fred Johnson’s banner career
Fred Johnson likes to tell stories, and one of his best is about a building he used to work in. Back in 1941, Johnson’s employer, O. Henry Tent and Awning, moved from the corner of Wilson and Clark to bigger headquarters a few blocks away. For Johnson, who painted circus-sideshow banners, this was good news: […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Bishop Speaks
To the editors: I was appalled by the inflammatory and obscene letter which appeared in your July 7 edition of the Reader, allegedly written by a “longtime employee of the Diocese of Chicago.” The fact that you would print an anonymous letter is, in my mind, a dubious editorial practice. Let me suggest that the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
On Money and Mental Health
Clinical social workers are fighting psychiatrists and psychologists for a piece of the insurance-reimbursement pie.
Posted inArts & Culture
An Evening of Cheever
AN EVENING OF CHEEVER Windy City Theater Company at Pilsen East Center for the Arts You’d never know from the Windy City Theater Company’s show that John Cheever was one of the great short-story writers of this century. All of his cleverness, all of his wit, all of his grace–everything that made his stories wonderful […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The One-Shoe Enigma
To the editors: At last Cecil took on that great mystery of the universe, the single shoe phenomenon! Even though his reply (Straight Dope, April 7 to Anonymous of St. Paul, Minnesota) lacked serious scientific scrutiny, at least it acknowledged this curiosity, about which the scientific community has been suspiciously silent. As a life-long observer […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Doctor in Spite of Himself
A DOCTOR IN SPITE OF HIMSELF Rally Theatre Company Funny how hard it is to be funny. One comic actor can convulse an audience with mugging, pratfalls, slow burns, double takes, and throwaway wisecracks–while another can do exactly the same shtick and look as stiff as a corpse. He’s unfunny, and he may never be […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Coke and Eggs
To the editors: With regard to the Friday 16 June cover story “The Coke Generation,” does author Kitry Krause have any information which documents the effects of cocaine upon the human sperm and egg cells prior to conception? In other words, is there evidence to suggest that cocaine alters the DNA structure of sperm and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Any Bonds Today?
ANY BONDS TODAY? Galerie Productions at the Village Theatre Unlike World War I, World War II was not a matter of a few Americans meddling in someone else’s fight. Germany had declared war on us, Japan had attacked us; the United States was fighting its own fight, on two fronts yet, and everyone was needed […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Joe Ely Band
Joe Ely, a rockabilly yeller and a sensitive balladeer, looks like a slightly less innocent Gene Vincent (at 41, he should). He came from Lubbock, Texas, played in the Flatlanders, finally got a record deal in 1977, and toured with the Clash and the Kinks. MCA, a pond-scum label, dropped him, cruelly, in 1984: since […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Bank
To the editors: Why is Albert Williams (June 23 issue) so stumped by the Goodman Theatre’s choice of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum? I agree that, ideally, a large, not-for-profit artistic concern like the Goodman should be bringing us aesthetically challenging material, but I am not surprised at their choices […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Why does head hair (as well as beard hair, I think) grow indefinitely, whereas hair on the rest of the human body grows to a certain length and then stops? –Kim Mattingly, Washington, D.C. Foolish creature, what makes you think scalp hair grows indefinitely? Didn’t you ever listen to the title song from Hair (“Don’t […]