Katie Webster, the “Swamp Boogie Queen” is one of blues and R & B’s most respected veterans. Her Louisiana career extends back to her 1959 work with the Ashton Savoy band, and her early recordings on various Lake Charles and Crowley labels are prized by collectors. She’s at her best when her thunderous boogie piano […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 14
Issue of Jan. 17 – 23, 1991
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading: Ronald Reagan Remembers!
A 726-page trip down Selective Memory Lane. I’ve read it so you won’t have to.
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In July mail carriers in France announced they would make no more deliveries in Cap d’Agde, a resort town of 30,000 people and Europe’s largest “naturalist” community. Citing “embarrassment” at having to walk through town to face people shopping and gardening in the nude, the carriers began dumping all mail outside of town, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Johnny “Clyde” Copeland
Guitarist Johnny “Clyde” Copeland is sometimes billed as the “Texas Twister.” That gives a good indication of his high energy, but it might be misleading in terms of his style. Copeland isn’t just a tear-down-the-walls partier but also an artist of emotional depth; beneath his joyful sound lurks a seriousness of purpose reminiscent of Percy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: Marcia Routburg, a special parent
At 6:15 AM, Marcia Routburg wakes her daughter. Esther, nine, weighs only 30 pounds and is slightly longer than a yardstick. Her vision is minimal; she doesn’t speak or walk; and her muscles are atrophied and spastic. Routburg changes Esther’s diaper and then dresses her in a small but stretchy outfit, pulling the clothing over […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Once Around
Holly Hunter’s best performance since Broadcast News: here she plays an Italian American still neurotically tied to her parents (Danny Aiello and Gena Rowlands) who’s looking for romance in her hometown of Boston. It’s a comedy with tragic undertones well scripted by Malia Scotch-Marmo and effectively directed by Lasse Hallstrom (My Life as a Dog); […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hard Times: The Heidi Chronicles Chronicles/Prelude to a Production: Everybody in the Pool!/Hubbard Street Bound for Broadway
Can Libby Adler Mages raise $228,000 by February 20? If so, she’ll be a coproducer of Lend Me a Tenor and Prelude to a Kiss.
Posted inArts & Culture
Spoon River Anthology: Revisited
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: REVISITED at the Heartland Cafe Graceland Cemetery is a great place to get calm. Visiting the democratic dead in their Victorian mausoleums or contemporary crypts puts all your problems into perspective; it’s hard to get worked up over the mayoral election or even the mindlessly evil Persian Gulf crisis when you stare […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Stage People: 275 pounds of character
Dan Frick’s chest, arms, legs, and face are smeared with green makeup, applied for his role as a speaking slave in Lyric Opera’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He also has on a truly hideous black wig, baggy orange Bermuda shorts with makeup-covered straps, and sandals over yellow socks. He’s been wearing this getup […]
Posted inFilm
The Family That Preys Together
THE GODFATHER PART III *** (A must-see) Directed By Francis Ford Coppola Written by Mario Puzo and Coppola With Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Sofia Coppola, Eli Wallach, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton, and Joe Mantegna. Let’s agree from the outset that the conclusion of the Godfather trilogy is not giving audiences everything that they expected based […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Harry’s Christmas/Aria da capo
HARRY’S CHRISTMAS and ARIA DA CAPO Blueprint Theatre Group at the Firehouse A late-night series can allow a company to experiment with pieces that are not suitable for the main-stage season. It can also give inexperienced directors and actors a chance, let the company test material on an audience, or simply give more people an […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Doonesbury in the Desert: The Censored Strips/Shoot-out on the Phi-Math Frontier/Last, Best Hope
Doonesbury in the Desert: The Censored Strips The Tribune substituted old Doonesbury strips for the ones Garry Trudeau had written for this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are the ones the paper killed. Trudeau’s mistake, in editor Jack Fuller’s eyes, was to presume that January 15 and 16 would pass without war in the Persian […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Every now and then I hear someone complain about being slipped a “Mickey” in a bar. But none of my bartender friends has any idea what a Mickey is or how to make one. How about some background and a recipe? –R.B., Las Vegas, Nevada Bartenders in Las Vegas don’t know how to make a […]