We met Logan Fenley riding north on the number 11. His wrapped, snapped, and capped getup blared warning for blustery blasts to give right-of-way. But our Fashion Chiefs, ever wary of the smoldering ember, wondered if the tough talk reduced to a mere smokescreen. Fenley turns out in what fire fighters call turnout gear: charcoal […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 20
Issue of Feb. 24 – Mar. 2, 1994
Posted inNews & Politics
WBEZ’s Dysfunctional Family
To the editors: As a musician who has both performed on WBEZ and played at fund-raisers for WBEZ, I have followed with more than a little interest the recent revelations about changes at the station. During fund-raisers everyone from the on-air hosts to station management likes to refer to the station and its listeners as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Spinanes
On the surface, there’s not a whole lot to the Spinanes–no feedback, no flailing hair, not even a full-fledged band. A slender duo who combined would be barely the size of Meat Loaf, the Spinanes are Rebecca Gates (vocals, guitar) and Scott Plouf (drums). Like many bands today united under the banner Less Is More, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Urban Bush Women
What do urban bush women want? Well, judging by this New York group of seven dancer-singers and a percussionist, they want to be heard and seen, they want to sing and move, they want to celebrate cheerleaders and drum majorettes, African culture in its American guises, women in all their varieties. Urban Bush Women honor […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dr. Goat: Goat Doctor–Four Short Plays
DR. GOAT: GOAT DOCTOR–FOUR SHORT PLAYS Iguana Productions at Cafe Voltaire Another day, another bad play. Seems I’ve been saying that to myself a lot lately. And to be honest, I’m really tired of it. Chicago’s supposed to be a great theater town. And so it is. It’s a great town to do theater. But […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Arguments Against Handguns
Dear Reader editors: Bryan Miller’s article on women and guns [February 4] was the most persuasive polemic I’ve read in favor of widespread handgun ownership. Its glaring weakness was that it didn’t do justice to the strong arguments against handguns as a deterrent to crime. The quotes from the NOW and gun control leaders were […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Ex & Tom Cora
The Ex are a striking model of form following function. Forming in Amsterdam 15 years ago under the sway of left-leaning English punk bands like the Pop Group, Crass, and the earliest Mekons, they learned their instruments as they went along, espousing anarchist virtues and squatters’ rights and practicing a punishing, numbed-out postpunk throb. Over […]
Posted inArts & Culture
My Other Heart
MY OTHER HEART Northlight Theatre You can’t disguise the conventional by slapping a couple of puppets on top of it. Martha Boesing’s My Other Heart, directed by Russell Vandenbroucke at Northlight, is a sturdily correct, by-the-numbers sort of play that peeks out rather shamefacedly from behind forced pageantry, shadow play, and badly integrated puppetry. Which […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Great AIDS Conspiracy
I haven’t seen the movie (and probably won’t), but based only on what I know of the plot and everything else I’ve heard about it I assume most of the vitriol contained in Larry Kramer’s scathing review of Philadelphia (January 14) is entirely justified. The first time I saw the previews it was obvious to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tito and Me
The chuckling style and nostalgic tone may be pure Neil Simon, but the content of this 1992 autobiographical feature by Goran Markovic is something else again–a fascinating, pointed, satirical look at growing up in Yugoslavia in the mid-50s, obviously given more edge by the fact that it couldn’t have been made until fairly recently. The […]
Posted inMusic
Life Is a Rock (but Y107 Can Still Roll You)/Schmitsville
Mike Disney at Y107/All 70s! All the time!
Posted inNews & Politics
Renters’ Penalty
Dear Sir: Unless there is also an Illinois income tax reduction based upon rent, tenants will be severely penalized by any shifting of school funding from the real estate tax to the income tax as favored by Dawn Clark Netsch (January 7). Surely she must have thought of this. Stuart Simon Chicago
Posted inArts & Culture
Byther Smith
Chicago still has a lot of blues musicians scuffling in the clubs waiting for their big break, and guitarist Byther Smith may well be the sleeper of the bunch. Smitty can be unpredictable, but when he’s on, his guitar work is vintage early-60s Chicago fire–eccentric arpeggios laid over a base of sustained phrases and aggressive […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hooray!/Sitcom
HOORAY! Factory Theater SITCOM Zeppo Productions at Factory Theater Conceived as a send-up of the 70s PBS kids’ series Zoom, this could have been a simply dreadful show in the wrong hands. But happily director Amy Seeley and her actors make Hooray! more than a mere parody of a sitting duck: touchy-feely, sickeningly sweet kids’ […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Weapons Research
Dear Editor; Bryan Miller in her piece “Guns & Women” [February 4] has unfortunately bought the line of the National Rifle Association and the gun manufacturers that women have been arming themselves at a rapid rate. In fact, gun ownership by women did not increase by 53 percent from 1983 to 1988. Surveys by the […]