George Dunne’s Farewell (to the tune of “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”) When George Dunne’s foes are smiling, sure it’s not a pretty sight. O, I hate to leave the action of an intraparty fight. But laughter is contagious, and I’ll have the last, I guess. For without me on the ticket, they are making […]
Tag: Vol. 19 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 21 – 27, 1989
The Dismal Science
To the editors: I knew I liked Ann Markusen from watching her struggle with the fuddy-duddys on the economics discussions John Calloway schedules every so often on Chicago Tonight. I didn’t know just how much I liked her till I read her page-one article, “City on the Skids” (Reader, 11/24/89). Economics has been viewed as […]
How to Get on Sneed’s Good Side
For all you pols, publicity-seekers, and just plain readers out there who have been wondering how Sun-Times gossip Mike Sneed tells the good guys from the bad guys, here’s an instructive little chump-to-champ story, told in Sneed’s own words. January 28, 1988: “Little Louie . . . Ah, clout! Isn’t the Mayor’s Office of Employment […]
An Idea Whose Time Has Gone
To the editors: I read with interest Ann Markusen’s recent article, “City on the Skids” (November 24). Chicago certainly has been growing much more slowly than the U.S. as a whole, and something does need to be done about it. However, Ms. Markusen’s solution, corporate welfare/centralized planning, is hardly what we need. Indeed, it would […]
Giving Shelter: a west-side boy comes home
You might imagine the director of an institution named the Chicago Christian Industrial League to be a grim, black-frocked fellow, passing out bowls of greasy soup. But the director of the Chicago Christian Industrial League at 123 S. Green St., a bright and homey place, is Rick Roberts, a genial, energetic young man who wears […]
The High-Fiber Arts Center
To the editors: Holly Greenhagen’s coverage of “Hats, Helmets, Headgear” in the November 17 issue of the Reader was fine exposure of a rare exhibit. The Textile Arts Centre (TAC) however is not a wearable art gallery. The TAC is a not for profit art institution which promotes and presents fiber art. The TAC offers […]
Tav Falco’s Panther Burns
What exactly Tav Falco is I’m not sure. He certainly is an aficionado of southern muck rock, and he fronts a band, Panther Burns, that plays a potent, eerily corporeal strain of mucked-up rockabilly (muckabilly?). But he’s also at least part performance artist (he used to call himself Tubeman and play blues classics on police […]
Operartion Clean Sweep
It was a year when Drug War hysteria had Americans looking for bogeymen under every bed. But not everyone was delighted with the CHA’s unannounced raids on Chicagoans living in public housing. Despite cheerleading from our town’s daily media, some of the people on the receiving end of the city’s grim “crime-busting” adventure told me […]
Steppenwolf’s New Home: A Site Is Not a Stage; Two Trib Writers Get a Dramatic Reading; Arts People Love the Guv; Opera Company Jumps on “Carousel”; Jerome’s to Showcase Singing Staffers; Cheever Volume Still in Court; Music
Out of the Tribune newsroom comes Celebrity Beat, a play by Marilyn Preston and Cheryl Lavin. After bouncing around town for a couple of years, it’s being considered by Bailiwick Repertory.
A Major Year for Walter Parkay
1989 was a MAJOR year for me. The year was tougher. I was tougher. My eyes grew steely, my pecs perked. My time had come for a power-climb to the top of the decade. I felt like a steroid in a locker room. Things went well at first. My clothes were big, my hair was […]