In film and painting, dance and theater, even most forms of music, the deep, wise, elderly artist is a touchstone, a hero. But a mature rock ‘n’ roller is an oxymoron. The only honorable option for an aging rock star is to retreat to some island somewhere and grow old gracefully, but instead there’s a […]
Tag: Vol. 21 No. 22
Issue of Mar. 12 – 18, 1992
Posted inArts & Culture
Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land
About two-thirds of the way through this long, elaborate, and emotional performance, principal creator and performer Bill T. Jones performs a twisting, tonrmented dance interpretation of the story of Job, his accompaniment consisting of a wailing wall of searing sound produced by jazz composer Julius Hemphill and his saxophone sextet–and of a real-life minister reading […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chekhov, Steve and Leo
CHEKHOV, STEVE AND LEO New World Repertory Company at the Red Lion Pub Mr. Frish’s chemistry class has only two students in it by midterm–an uninspired drone named Linda Magill and a Chilean exchange student named Tino Machete, who seems to move in a cloud of testosterone. But Machete is more than a vaquero too […]
Posted inNews & Politics
More on School Choice
To the editors: Ben Joravsky’s article on TEACH America [February 14] said that school choice will inevitably result in “less money for public school teachers which would lead to more strikes and chaos. . . . Under it, Chicago’s poor would have little more choice than they have right now.” This point of view fails […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rerun Planet: The Abduction of Linda Zonehai to the Planet Video Spongo and the Shockingly Dead Aftermath/Girls We Have Known
RERUN PLANET: THE ABDUCTION OF LINDA ZONEHAIR TO THE PLANET VIDEO SPONGO AND THE SHOCKINGLY DEAD AFTERMATH BNC Productions at Dreamerz GIRLS WE HAVE KNOWN Griffin Theatre Company One of the great disappointments of my childhood came about the day I discovered, after years of following NASA’s manned space program religiously on TV (the walls […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Angry San Francisco parents protested to public library officials in January after learning that among the local groups allowed to use the library for their meetings was the North American Man-Boy Love Association, an “educational” group that promotes sex between men and boys. NAMBLA had held its meetings at the library, while children […]
Posted inArts & Culture
King of Chess
Though writer-director Yim Ho (Homecoming) disowned this film after producer Tsui Hark took over the direction, it is still one of the most interesting and original Hong Kong pictures I’ve seen. Adapted from two different novels called King of Chess, by Chung Ah Shing and Cheung Hay Kwok, the story alternates between a rather bitter […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Changing the City Colleges
To the editors: The President’s Advisory Council of Harold Washington College [“Comment: How to Save the City Colleges,” January 24], is comprised of people from business and the community, as well as representatives from the college’s student body, faculty, staff and administration. Our task is to provide the president with recommendations, when implemented, that will […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Politics: Our Man in Washington
Dan Rostenkowski is an astute political juggler. But sometimes both he and his audience are so mesmerized by the performance that they forget the purpose of the game.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Ballet Giant’s Midget Ticket Sales/The Money Men Behind Othello/Rose Records Tries Selling Live Music/Less Coffee, More Music
Donald Leibsker and Edward Stone went primarily to commodities traders and fellow attorneys to finance the restoration of Orson Welles’s Othello. Now they’re aiming for the low-budget big time.
Posted inNews & Politics
Real Catholics
To the editors: Before addressing my main reason for writing, let me commend the Reader for running your article on priest-pederasts [May 24, 1991]. This was a well-researched, though frightening, article and its publication was in every sense a public service and a fine example of unbiased reporting. I hope that this will help prod […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Southwest Slugfest
National Policy vs. Neighborhood Politics in the New Third Congressional District
Posted inArts & Culture
Dirty Dozen Brass Band/Sun Messengers
They’ve come a long way, baby, flaunting their contradictions time and time again. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band–which was named for its home venue (and in fact comprises just eight blissfully meshed players)–started by resurrecting the traditional New Orleans brass-band format. But even as these guys provided the model for the 1980s revival of that […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Al Hofeld and the Litigious Society
To the editors: After you spend “More Than 30 Seconds With Al Hofeld” [February 21], you realize that this lawyer’s fame and fortune were made with precisely the kind of litigiousness that has burdened our economy and made it uncompetitive. He is not the solution. He is part of the problem. According to one study, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
My Cousin Vinny
Two college students from New York (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) are wrongly accused of killing a clerk in a convenience store in Wahzoo City, Alabama, and one’s Brooklyn cousin–a rookie lawyer (Joe Pesci)–arrives with his fiancee (Marisa Tomei) to defend them in what proves to be his first court case. While it’s easy to […]