On the night of August 11, I attended a baseball game that had me sitting quite literally on the edge of my seat from the first pitch on. Indeed, that was the day Wilson Alvarez pitched his no-hitter for the White Sox; but that was done in the afternoon, against the Orioles, in Baltimore. The […]
Tag: Vol. 20 No. 50
Issue of Sep. 26 – Oct. 2, 1991
Posted inArts & Culture
An Old Wound Ripped Open
THE CHICAGO CONSPIRACY TRIAL Remains Theatre I am an orphan of America. I live in Woodstock Nation. It is a nation of alienated young people dedicated to cooperation versus competition, to the idea that people should have a better means of exchange than property . . . –Abbie Hoffman That nation, Hoffman confessed on the […]
Posted inMusic
Days of Rose’s whining
There are about half a hundred funny things about Guns n’ Roses’ superhyped pair of new albums, Use Your Illusion I and II, the band’s first real output since their 1987 debut. One funny thing is that the first record starts off with a song called “Right Next Door to Hell,” which takes its title […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rage of the Ages
RAGE OF THE AGES Alternative Productions at Chicago Dramatists Workshop Is humanity good or evil? Playwright William Rosen, who studied philosophy at Northwestern, puts his training to the test in his latest work, Rage of the Ages. Rosen explores this unfathomable question, which has spawned treatises, in a myriad of ways–so many, in fact, that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Vandy Harris
What gives Chicago’s tenor saxophone players their big sound and aggressive energy? Is it our windy city’s lusty, big-shoulders heritage rising from the cement and fog? Whatever the reason, Vandy Harris hits hard; his sound is as clean and solid as stainless steel, and his energy and technical facility are great. Moreover, he’s a violent […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Ivan Dee Makes a Mark/Sox Celebration
Ivan Dee Makes a Mark In August of 1974, a floundering city magazine called the Chicagoan introduced its new editor. He was Ivan Dee. “Ivan,” wrote publisher S. William Pattis in a letter to his magazine’s readers, “is that special kind of editor who brings intelligence, taste and integrity to a publication. A native Chicagoan, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rambling Rose
During the Depression, a sexy orphaned teenager (Laura Dern) from a sharecropper family moves in with a well-to-do southern family (including Robert Duvall, Diane Ladd, and Lukas Haas) to take care of the kids and help with the housework. Adapted by Calder Willingham from his own autobiographical novel and directed by Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl), […]
Posted inArts & Culture
What Happened to Santiago
Tommy Muniz stars in this lovely film from Puerto Rico about a recently retired, lonely widower whose life is rejuvenated when he unexpectedly falls in love with an enigmatic younger woman (Gladys Rodriguez) he meets during one of his strolls in a local park. The woman agrees to see him on the condition that he […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Somebody’s Child
To the editors: The article on “Cookie” [August 30] was one of the more poignant articles I’ve ever read. It was not the account of how another homeless person met her fate, rather a eulogy, a tribute to this lady and the beauty of both her spirit and her soul. Cookie lived to survive as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In the Shadow of a Smile
IN THE SHADOW OF A SMILE Shattered Globe Theatre at the Project Once in a while an artist exposes more of himself than he intended. Sometimes when previously subconscious material surfaces, the work gains authority; the images in Pina Bausch’s or Karen Finley’s performances, for example, may be disturbing, but their psychological truth makes them […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: words and pictures by Jeffrey Wolin
“We’re out at the lake having a good time when this white dude pulls his dick out in the middle of the parking lot, starts to take a leak. So I walk up to him. Hey man, I say, could you pee in the woods? There’s women and kids here and you’re in plain sight.” […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sorry Girls, He’s Married
To the editors: In your August 23 issue at page 27 you erroneously stated that Angela Schreiner is the “ex-wife” of Larry Schreiner. She is very much his legal wife. Leon M. Despres W. Washington Michael Glab replies: Sorry about the mistake; Larry Schreiner and several of his friends characterize him as “divorced.”
Posted inMusic
Truth, love, peace, and get it on
It’s conventional wisdom that modern soul music arose out of the marriage of the sacred and the profane that occurred in the 50s when Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and others melded traditional gospel with secular lyrics. The revolutionary music that resulted was a source of widespread enthusiasm, but it also bred consternation, and not only […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Action
ACTION Crazy Horse Theatre Company at Cafe Voltaire Four characters in a room. Four angst-filled characters, especially the guys–one a slightly psychotic wiseass with a penchant for smashing kitchen chairs, the other a hypnotized, helpless fool. Lots of outbursts followed by deadly, red-faced silences. Each character spinning around the others, contemplating his or her own […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Satisfaction Guaranteed
To the editors: Some comments on the petulant attack by Achy Obejas on our comedy and music review, Dream House (August 23). You should’ve seen the sour and beleaguered reviewer, visibly flinching during the laughter. It must’ve felt terribly isolating, and more than a little disappointing, to sit sulking among an audience that found ample […]