The theater component of “Del Corazon: Mexican Performing Arts Festival 1994,” sponsored by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, kicks off this weekend with two shows by this bilingual, family-oriented San Francisco company. One of the oldest Chicano theaters in the U.S.–and the only one that tours regularly–the group purveys a distinctive mix of performance […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 26
Issue of Apr. 7 – 13, 1994
Posted inArts & Culture
Kahil El’Zabar, Malachi Favors, Billy Bang
A reunion of sorts: Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio had its genesis in the mid-80s, pairing the versatlie percussionist with Art Ensemble of Chicago bassist Malachi Favors. Their first recordings were with, alternately, trumpeter Lester Bowie and violinist Billy Bang before they settled down with saxophonist Ari Brown. This performance could well summon up the spare […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In January at the Lake Como Fish and Game Club near Syracuse, New York, Brian Carr beat out three dozen competitors in the annual ice-fishing derby, with 155 catches. The temperature that day was minus 30, and prize money for the top three anglers was $8, $6.50, and $5. The Continuing Crisis In […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Time of Your Life
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE Raven Theatre When it’s revived with the hard-earned optimism and solid sentiment it deserves, The Time of Your Life remains a theatrical tonic. Wryly wedding moonshine and melodrama, William Saroyan’s 1940 Pulitzer winner is profoundly democratic, dedicated to the daily decency of ordinary folk and to life’s goodness; it comes […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ballet Chicago
Hansel and Gretel, Ballet Chicago’s first full-length ballet, premiering at this year’s Spring Festival of Dance, is everything a ballet should be: gorgeous, charming, magical. Choreographers Daniel Duell and Gordon Peirce Schmidt intelligently incorporate the moral and psychological underpinnings of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale , making a ballet as meaningful as it is beautiful. […]
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Human Rights: the invisible scars of torture
All immigrants have some difficulty adjusting to a new culture, but some of William Gorman’s clients have a harder time than most. Gorman is a UIC psychologist who works with victims of torture. Gorman’s clients often develop problems with substance abuse, have trouble trusting people, and even suffer from guilt for surviving at all. “The […]
Posted inNews & Politics
BAT to BAT/A PLay That Will Live in Infamy/Tribune Changes?/A Writer and a Gentleman
BAT to BAT Every journalist who despairs of a life of passive witness is heartened by the Heisenberg principle. The premise that we inevitably affect what we observe is the license we need to make a few waves deliberately. Only the rare reporter has no desire to impinge; many more swagger through corridors of power […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beck
As the growing decadence and ultimate deciine of alternative rock is charted over the next few years, it’s possible that Beck’s recent appearance on 120 Minutes, where he was interviewed by guest host Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, will be remembered as a watershed event. Beck, a 22-year-old from LA, was riding (and still is) […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Twenty Bucks
Perhaps the most intriguing fact about this clever, touching, and well-directed independent feature is that the script was written by the late Endre Bohem in 1935 and revised by his son Leslie only a few years ago–a form of generational continuity reflected in one of the delayed revelations of the plot as well. The story–set […]
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LaDonna Smith
Perhaps best known for her striking performances with guitarist Davey Williams and for coediting the obsessive improvised-music journal The Improvisor, LaDonna Smith has the rare ability to make free improvisation and extended technique corporeal as well as cerebral. Smith’s solo performances–primarily on the viola, with occasional forays on the violin–are wild and woolly excursions into […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
When I look at dinosaur skeletons in museums the thing that always impresses me is their incredible size. It has occurred to me that perhaps these animals could grow to such enormous size because effective gravity was lighter then. If earth spun faster at the time of the dinosaurs then centrifugal force might have counteracted […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Crushing the Kennedy: the story of a really stupid idea
For most north-side residents, the decision to dump several hundred tons of concrete behind the city’s largest public high school ranks among the stupidest ideas to come out of City Hall in a long time. To sum up, last month the Daley administration began allowing an influential out-of-town contractor to dump concrete in a lot […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Stories On the Walls
It’s night, and the first floor of the building is dark and deserted. But as you make your way up the stairs, the pounding of Native American drums begins to echo through the hallways and the faint smell of turpentine enters the air. On the third floor the drums get louder, the turpentine scent stronger. […]