To the editors: I’m shocked and stunned by the Bill Wyman-Jae-Ha Kim critic’s war currently taking place in the pages of your fine weekly. While I agree with Wyman in principle, I must admit he does come off as whiny and somewhat vindictive in his critique of Ms. Kim’s writing [July 19]. Could he be […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 45
Issue of Aug. 22 – 28, 1991
The City File
“Soon after I started liking it here, …I began adopting the habits of a native Chicagoan,” writes native Philadelphian Dennis Rodkin in New City (August 1), “such as spitting in the empty el seat next to me so I could get some privacy…. Once I’d begun to feel that Chicago really was my home, I […]
Shut Up and Pay
To the editors: To me, (and undoubtedly to countless others) Mr. Alan Melzer in the August 9 Neighborhood News article came across as a chronic complainer with too much time on his hands (despite his claim of being too busy to look through his parking tickets). He knowingly parked at broken meters–where cops are able […]
Department of Terrible Insults
To the editors: This letter is in protest to the terrible insults made against Federico Garcia Lorca in the review of Asi que Pasen Cinco Anos [Once Five Years Pass] in your newspaper the Reader [March 29]. It is obvious that Mr. Valeo has no idea of who Lorca was and sadly enough will never […]
Dream House
DREAM HOUSE at Puszh Studios Most writing workshops seem to begin earnestly, with writers honestly critiquing each other’s works and offering ideas for improvement. Inevitably, allegiances develop. If one writer gets significant praise from another, he or she may be reluctant to criticize that person’s work. As a result, rationalizations for bad work often abound. […]
How to Mobilize Joe and Jane Mainstream
To the editors: As a longtime participant in social-change movements, I read Harold Henderson’s article [“Picking Up the Peace Movement,” August 9] with interest. I think we who struggle for social justice have lost sight of some important facts: 1. Mainstream people resent a tone of moral superiority; 2. Mainstream people like to win, and […]
Field & Street
The prairie opening in the middle of Cap Sauers Holdings is the most beautiful place in the state of Illinois. I suppose some people will argue with an assertion that unequivocal, but those people are wrong, and I can prove it. Most of our beauty spots are vistas for the one-eyed. You have to direct […]
On the Beach
In a front yard in Lakeview, a boy runs full speed with a yellow plastic bucket in his hand, dips it in the water, whirls and lets loose, just in time to catch his brother full across the chest with a resounding smack. Both scream, dive after more water, take off. Standing silently on the […]
Ex-Slacker
With his $23,000 “independent film from nowhere,” Richard Linklater is going places.
Geography of a Horse Dreamer
GEOGRAPHY OF A HORSE DREAMER Wild Life Theatre Company at the Heartland Cafe Studio Theatre In D.H. Lawrence’s 1933 short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner,” a boy discovers that he can forecast the winning racehorse by working himself into an ecstatic trance astride his toy steed. Cody, the clairvoyant in Sam Shepard’s Geography of a Horse […]
On Exhibit: Jo Aerne’s antiwar messages
“You’re a technician, you don’t hear the screams.” Chicago artist Jo Aerne took this quote from a Vietnam vet she heard on a radio talk show and had it copied on a stack of black four-by-five-inch stickers in plain white Helvetica lettering. This is just one of about 100 sticker designs she’s been handing out […]
Landmark perturbation: home owner struggles with the ghost of Walt Disney
About ten minutes after June Saathoff signed the papers on her new house 21 years ago, the broker told her she had just bought the house Walt Disney was born in. “If I had known then what I know now, I’d have grabbed the check out of his hand and run,” said Saathoff. “I’m supposed […]
Lee Konitz
To alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, jazz has always been an adventure. He acquired his dedication to pure melodic improvisation early, as a founder of cool jazz along with pianist-teacher Lennie Tristano, and he’s sought out a unique and wide range of challenges in the 40-odd years since–big and small bands of varying shades, pioneering solo […]
Lynda Barry at Home: The Good Times Are Breaking Her Heart
Inquiiring minds want to know: How did the Chicago production of Lynda Barry’s The Good Times Are Killing Me become a “staged reading”?