From their beginnings as a funny, sometimes snotty band with a fondness for odd instrumentation and strange beats, Camper Van Beethoven has progressed into a strong live outfit, postpunk’s leading absurdists. But no one expected the explosive power of last year’s Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, and now comes an equally powerful Key Lime Pie, the […]
Tag: Vol. 19 No. 4
Issue of Nov. 9 – 15, 1989
Posted inArts & Culture
John Scofield Trio
Any list of the decade’s best guitarists ought to include John Scofield, and if the heading is jazz guitarists, he’d better be near the top. Traditional jazz fans will argue this fact, and that’s a compliment to Scofield, who has showered his music with influences ranging from Wes Montgomery and John Coltrane to the Beatles […]
Posted inMusic
Little Charlie and the Nightcats–The Big Break
THE BIG BREAK Little Charlie and the Nightcats Alligator AL 4776 I avoided listening to this record for a long time. Call it reverse prejudice or whatever, but I’d had it up to here with white-boy blues bands and their lead singers named “Little This” or “Something Slim” posing in pseudoghetto garb–porkpie hats, secondhand leisure […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Circus of Blood, Smorgasbord of Pain/Haunted Houses, or Is Everyone Pleasantly Addicted!?
CIRCUS OF BLOOD, SMORGASBORD OF PAIN Prop Theatre at the Garage In Circus of Blood, Smorgasbord of Pain, Prop Theatre presents for our edification five stories meant to drive us mad with tension and fear. Unfortunately the show’s trio of authors have badly miscalculated, and instead of inspiring fear, these pathetically adolescent and pathologically sexist […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Teechers
TEECHERS Stage Left Theatre Teechers is an adolescent revenge fantasy; the target is the educational system. You undoubtedly know the genre: Teenagers trapped in a school full of dull, indifferent teachers have become alienated and hostile. Recognizing that no one really gives a damn about them, they cling to each other for support. Then along […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Cultural Affairs Affair; No One Evr Went Broke…; …Underestimating the Adventurousness of the American Public; Can Melman’s Minions Pump New Life Into an Old Room?; Stage vs. Screen; Signs of Contention
David Perkovich, artistic director of the young Interplay theater company, has snared the rights to three major new plays. Meanwhile the Goodman is planning a revival of The Iceman Cometh.
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Is it true the black doctor who invented blood plasma bled to death in front of a hospital because the white doctors refused to admit him? –Anonymous, Kansas City, Missouri For the real story on this classic legend Cecil is indebted to Scot Morris of Omni magazine, who wrote about it in his book Omni […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
Dept. of Guilt Intensification: The state Department on Aging reports that 94-year-old Fannie Chanin of Wilmette gets up at 6 AM to lead a daily exercise program at a group-living facility for the elderly–after going through her own one-hour exercise routine. “We are justified in favoring our own species over others,” writes Nathaniel Comfort in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bleak Week
GERMAN DANCE: LIVING MEMORIES WITH A FUTURE at MoMing Dance & Arts Center October 31-November 5 In an extraordinary week of extraordinary dance, with the extraordinary title “German Dance: Living Memories With a Future,” MoMing was filled to the rafters with curious and enthusiastic multigenerational audiences–including many local dancers–for the first time within my own […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Monster Mash
COMEDY OF HORRORS Commons Theatre I can just see Paul H. Thompson writing Comedy of Horrors. There he is at his typewriter–a copy of Shakespeare’s collected plays to his right, a stack of old copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines on his left. Behind him on the TV–it’s late on a Saturday night–flicker the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
For People Who Like to Smoke; Mastery of War
For People Who Like to Smoke Jim McCormick smokes. He’s 69 and he’s smoked for 55 years. He says he likes to smoke. He says, “I actually believe I can outrace a doctor. I think I’m in very good health.” He eats well–that is, prudently. And he takes vitamins. “I’ve been taking them for 32 […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Dirty Drawing
To the editors: I found your column of 9/1/89, for the most part, in good taste, and written in a way as to try to actually give “the straight dope” on a rather strange topic. However, the graphic was extremely offensive . . . and confusing. The picture of a fat woman supposedly seductively dressed, […]