Blame it on Sesame Street.
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 11
Issue of Dec. 23 – 29, 1993
Posted inArts & Culture
Cardinal Knowledge, or Felonious Monks
CARDINAL KNOWLEDGE, OR FELONIOUS MONKS Second City E.T.C. We may be deep into the season of peace on earth, but you’ve got to draw the line on goodwill somewhere–at bad comedy, say. After a happy remission in Disgruntled Employee Picnic, or The Postman Always Shoots Twice, Second City E.T.C. has relapsed into silly, soft, half-baked […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Less Talk, More Music
BLUES IN THE NIGHT Northlight Theatre 1940s RADIO HOUR Opera San Benedetto It’s the sketchiest of stories, established with the barest minimum of dialogue: in 1930s Chicago, four lonely people in a seedy hotel pass a steamy night by singing the blues. As conceived by Sheldon Epps, Blues in the Night doesn’t really explain how […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Commercial Correctness
The New Rule of Moviedom: If you don’t know about it, how important can it be?
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar Photo Caption
This marks the fifth year that artist Lee Kay has exhibited his pastels-on-foam-core portraits in the Speed Queen at 3355 N. Halsted. Why a laundromat? “They leave the bright lights on at night and I thought, what a great place to show some stuff,” says Kay, who lives across the street. (He’s also shown his […]
Posted inMusic
The Gospel of Jive According to Wayne Williams
Wayne Williams/From student cop to king of pop
Posted inArts & Culture
Over Evil
MUNTU DANCE THEATRE OF CHICAGO at the Katherine Dunham Theatre of Kennedy-King College, December 9-12 I first saw African dance when the National Dance Company of Senegal performed at the Auditorium Theatre, just before Christmas six years ago. And I was hooked–by the energy, the daring, the rhythms, the up-front theatricality. At the same time […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Catskills on Broadway
If laughter ever became a crime, this show would do hard time. It’s a loving and detailed homage to the deft comics who honed their timing, mugging, and crowd-control skills in the raucous resorts of the Catskill Mountains. I caught the show in February at Miami Beach’s immense Jackie Gleason Theatre, where almost everyone in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Restraint of Funnies/Sleeping in Washington/Christmas Cheer
Restraint of Funnies Can this implacable advance be stopped? In 1988 the Daily Herald of northwest Cook County expanded into Du Page. In 1991 it pushed farther west and penetrated Kane. Circulation in 1983 was just under 60,000. Today it’s more than twice that. But the Daily Herald confesses to having an Achilles’ heel–its comics […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
What time is it on the north pole? I mean, suppose I lived in Texas and I traveled straight north until I reached the north pole. I would look at my watch and determine what time I had arrived. But suppose just as I was mouthing the words, someone from New York arrived and said […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Toxic city: site fright holds up a new school for Little Village
The site had been selected for three years, the building plans had been approved months ago, and the city was set to break ground on December 1 for one of its more worthwhile construction endeavors–a new school for the southwest-side community of Little Village. But in its haste to relieve the neighborhood’s horribly overcrowded schools, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
And a happy new year to you too. Southern Illinois University veterinarian David Lane on holiday hazards to pets, from ornaments to spicy dressing: “I always see a surge in vomiting dogs around Christmas.” Some of us can just go home for the holidays to experience this. In January the Brookfield Zoo will offer a […]