Medusa’s Rising To something less than the great dismay of certain neighbors, the hundreds of skinheads, skate-rats, 708 weekend warriors, and punkettes of every description who used to swarm around the intersection of School and Sheffield every weekend night are now gone. The attraction was Medusa’s, the venerable juice bar, dance hall, and punk club […]
Tag: Vol. 22 No. 7
Issue of Nov. 26 – Dec. 2, 1992
Posted inArts & Culture
Simple Men
The third feature by Hal Hartley (The Unbelievble Truth, Trust) stars Robert Burke as a small-time computer criminal who’s just been betrayed by his girlfriend. He teams up with his younger brother (William Sage) to look for their runaway father, a radical activist, and in the course of their search they meet a couple of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Vermeer Quartet
Though dependent on close and durable artistic camaraderie, a string quartet, after having been around for a long time, is bound to change its personnel once in a while. The infusion of new blood can be felicitous, waking the quartet to other ways of interpreting works in its repertoire. The Juilliard Quartet is a prime […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading: Voices From the Lost City
Joseph Mitchell’s stories pang us twice–once for the old-timers who lost the New York of their youths, and again for ourselves, for the loss of a world that Mitchell took for granted.
Posted inMusic
Magic Slim–Highway Is My Home/J.B. Hutto–Slideslinger
HIGHWAY IS MY HOME Magic Slim Evidence 26012 SLIDESLINGER J.B. Hutto Evidence 26009 Some blues artists have virtually patented certain musical trademarks–melodic lines, rhythmic patterns, even harmonic combinations or fluctuations in timbre and tone–that retain their freshness no matter how many times we hear them. Elmore James’s “Dust My Broom” riff, Howlin’ Wolf’s modal single-chord […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Mark J. Davis, 28, was charged with trying to break into a dentist’s office in August in Aurora, Ohio. In his van police found dental tools and orthodontic devices, and in his home in nearby Willoughby they found photo enlargements of women’s mouths as they were undergoing dental work. In Davis’s pockets were […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Dining and Whining: Chicago Magazine’s Overcooked Conflict
An extra dollop of disclosure and Chicago’s first couple of cuisine might have escaped the sticking they just got from Newsweek. A busily researched, bouncily written little item headlined “Food Fight” showed up in last week’s issue next to a picture of Berkeley’s famous “Naked Guy.” Despite this competition, the story caught the eye of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pump Boys and Sermonettes
SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN Northlight Theatre Goodman Theatre’s A Christmas Carol may have Bob Cratchit and his brood trilling “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and The Sound of Music at Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre might have the Trapp Family Singers warbling “Do Re Mi” and “Edelweiss” before they hightail it across the Alps. But for […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Same Old Blues
To the editors: Re: “Club Owners Sing the No-Cover Blues” [The Culture Club, November 13] May I suggest that Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Pellegrino bring some new and exciting bands to their clubs instead of blacklisting bands if they perform at Brother Jimmy’s or blaming Mr. Goldman for a drop in revenue and audience in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
So Long, Superman
“Superman is dead. Long live Superman,” shouts a 30-ish guy, fist clenched, arm waving wildly in the cold night air. A kid of about ten calls back, “I’m glad he’s dead. He’s boring!” A pack of fans hisses at the kid. “Watch it, someone tells him. “You’re talking about the man of steel.” The fist […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Financial Planning
To the editors: The election being over, it now seems open season on Carol Moseley Braun. Michael Miner joins the pack already loosed by the Sun-Times and the Tribune [Hot Type, November 13]. The Tribune, in commenting on the Braun endorsement interview, later described the candidate as woefully lacking comprehension of the issues. This from […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: William DeMichele’s illustrated women
Angel squats with her fair-skinned back to the camera. Her shaved head is turned away, but two graceful wings extending down the length of her back, one on either side of her bare spine, tell who she is. In the picture by New York photographer William DeMichele she looks poised for flight. In his series […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Scary Stuff
To the editors: [Re: Hitsville] For industry spectators bored with such games as deciding whether Mariah is a more histrionic banshee than Whitney, or whether Madonna crotch-grabs a more impressive handful than Michael, I offer an up-to-the-minute Music Critic Pop Quiz. Can you name all four famous entities that Bill Wyman, in recent columns, characterized […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gallery Notes: two artists with a singular vision
When Rene de Costa introduced Joan Brossa and Nicanor Parra to each other at a reception in Madrid, he expected something to happen. An embrace, an argument, some name calling, maybe some flattery. Something. De Costa, a professor of Romance languages and literature at the University of Chicago, and his colleague Sonia Mattalia were hosting […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Rate the Critics
To the editors: Re: Bill Wyman’s “editorial” about the state of Chicago’s rock critics [Hitsville, November 6]: here’s my assessment: Greg Kot: nerd boy Jim Derowhatever: fat boy Dave Hoekstra: old boy Bill Wyman: barely boy Jae-Ha Kim: rock ‘n’ roll god. The end. Frank Stephens N. Avondale