Regarding Maura Troester’s review of And Baby Makes Seven by Paula Vogel at Footsteps Theatre [February 18]: To unquestioningly use the pronoun he in reference to a director whose first name is Dale–particularly when that director is also co-Artistic Director of a theater producing “plays from a women’s point of view”–demonstrates a lack of curiosity, […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 22
Issue of Mar. 10 – 16, 1994
Posted inArts & Culture
Wipe That Smile
Wipe That Smile Victory Gardens Studio Theater I don’t presume to know what effect Kay Osborne hoped her play Wipe That Smile would have on its audience. But since this story of a Jamaican family’s descent into poverty and crime is billed as a tragedy, I doubt she assumed it would leave them rolling in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
A sign hanging behind the front desk of the Sheil Park recreation center at 3505 N. Southport reads: –WE HAVE A DREAM–THAT ONE YEAR FROM NOW, WE WILL SEE A LOCAL PARK REGISTRATION PROCESS THAT IS REVOLUTIONARY AND EMPOWERING IN SCOPE AND UTILIZES MODERN TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS TO PRODUCE A CLEARLY DEFINED CITY-WIDE STANDARDIZED PROCESS WHICH […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Too Much of Too Much
Dear editor: Neil Tesser’s “Critic’s Choice” is always a good source of information about who’s playing where (although why he ignores local gems like Bobby Broom’s Big Deal Trio and the Chuck Hedges Swingtet I’ll never know), but I have to question Mr. Tesser’s assessment of the Bop Shop’s new, two-band setup in his January […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Body Snatchers
For my money, Abel Ferrara’s remake of a remake–namely Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, based on Don Siegel’s classically paranoid 1956 SF adaptation of Jack Finney’s effective novel The Body Snatchers–doesn’t match the Siegel original, though it’s a lot scarier and more memorable than Kaufman’s low-key, new-agey version. Kaufman shifted the action from […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
EUGENIUS 3/11, LOUNGE AX The pedigree of this Glaswegian four-piece traces back to the Vaselines, a semilegendary band with a posthumous reputation that rests largely on Nirvana’s cover of its song “Molly’s Lips.” Eugenius also possesses musical ties to both fellow Scots the Pastels and the Olympia, Washington, trio Beat Happening, combos that crafted killer […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Touched by ‘Philadelphia’
Editor: Will you accept one more letter regarding the movie Philadelphia and Larry Kramer’s review of it [January 14]? I’m gay, and I saw the movie and really enjoyed it. It touched me. I told many friends both gay and straight about it, and they enjoyed it, too. Larry Kramer doesn’t speak for me, or […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Man Who Would Not Stop Singing
His name is Bennett Solomon. He can’t help it, he just feels good.
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In January in New York a 33-pound, two-foot-long border collie named Apple swallowed a 12-inch carving knife in the course of snacking on devil’s food cake at the home of her owner, Eric Fuchs. According to Fuchs, two days after doctors surgically removed the knife, Apple was back home “ready to play.” Uh-oh […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Women Defending Themselves
Dear editor: After my first reading of Bryan Miller’s article “Guns & Women” [February 4] I decided not to write in complaining about the article’s misrepresentation of self-defense classes or the article’s irresponsible attitude toward self-defense. After all, at least the “Guns & Women” article portrayed women defending themselves in a positive light. However, MRL’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
All’s Well That Ens Well
All’s Well That Ends Well Humble Ambitions at Cafe Voltaire What emerges in this staging of Shakespeare’s rarely performed All’s Well That Ends Well are good intentions encumbered by too many contemporary interpretations and conceptual motifs for Humble Ambitions’ modest resources to support. And what might have seemed simple ingenuousness comes across as pretentious chaos. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival
The Women in the Director’s Chair International Film & Video Festival, now in its 13th year, has an early program on Sunday, March 13, and then runs from Thursday through Sunday, March 17 through 20. It highlights shorts as well as features by women, including documentary, animated, narrative, and experimental works. Screenings are at Chicago […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bill Morrissey
In “Ellen’s Tune,” a soft and whimsical tribute to his wife, folkie Bill Morrissey captures his appeal with typically shambling aplomb: “Nothing up my sleeve, no bag of tricks / Glad she goes for lyrics, not guitar licks.” For some reason, I kind of feel guilty about liking Morrissey; probably because it’s easy to scoff […]
Posted inNews & Politics
East Meets West
To the editors: Due to my geographical dyslexia, in my article in Our Town about Wai Lun Choi (March 4) I mistakenly located Master Choi’s studio on Irving Park just east of Damen. In fact, Master Choi can be found at 2054 W. Irving Park, just west of Damen, on the north side of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: antiquity meets photography
Photography may have roots much older than its 155-year history, a clever exhibition at the Smart Museum of Art suggests. “An Eye for Antiquity,” on loan from the Tampa Museum of Art, is 80 photographs from the eclectic collection of nearly 3,000 amassed by Mr. and Mrs. William Zewadski, who, after acquiring classical Greek and […]