Driving Ambition Something called Tirekicking Today reached our desk and we wondered what need it could possibly fill. The newsstands are stuffed with fat, glossy car magazines; can this eight-page newsletter delivering “news and views on the world of automobiles” at 50 cents a page be anything but self-indulgence? Yes, says James Flammang. He and […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 39
Issue of Jul. 7 – 13, 1994
Posted inMusic
Spot-Check
DAMBUILDERS, SLEEPYHEAD 7/8, LOUNGE AX Aggressive Boston pop quartet the Dambuilders piques curiosity on two fronts on its recent Encendedor (East-West). First is the convincing manner in which it incorporates the violin playing of Joan Wasser, eschewing the prog-rock excesses of Jethro Tull and instead integrating the instrument both contrapuntally and in warm harmony with […]
Posted inArts & Culture
White Oak Dance Project
A decade ago, only one word was needed to sell a dance concert: Baryshnikov. Today, mention that Baryshnikov will perform as a member of the White Oak Dance Project and you hear: “Baryshnikov? Isn’t he old?” Yes, but his dance is perhaps better now than ever. The amazing leaps of his classical ballet days are […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Feminist in Your Face
HUMAN INTEREST Erika Rothenberg at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, through July 9 Los Angeles-based artist Erika Rothenberg transgresses the norms of the dominant culture to point out established patterns of inequity. Her show “Human Interest,” at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, attacks the white middle class, whose mores are dictated by the Judeo-Christian ethos, and an entrenched patriarchy whose patterns […]
Posted inArts & Culture
King Sunny Ade & His African Beats
Nigeria’s King Sunny Ade still owes his fairly abundant U.S. name recognition to a brief (1983-’85) tenure on Island Records that coincided with the beginning of American attention to all the unrelated “exotic” non-Western musical styles that have been lumped together for middle-class North American consumers under the loathsome marketing tag “world music.” In a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Proclaimers
On their first two albums, This Is the Story and Sunshine on Leith, the Proclaimers–Scottish twins Charlie and Craig Reid–essayed a nice blend of folk idealism, melodic smarts, strong voices, and a bit of not-quite-punkish but serviceably defiant small-C Christian attitudinizing. Fans–I was one–pointed to the often high-level political analysis (“Throw the “R’ Away,” for […]
Posted inMusic
Ain’t No Gangstas Here
NAS ILLMATIC (COLUMBIA) JERU THE DAMAJA THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST (PAYDAY/FFRR RECORDS) The geographic superiority phase of the rap wars is over, and everybody won. In all the precincts that were part of the conflict–east coast and west coast; Long Island and New York City; Mount Vernon and New Jersey; Brooklyn, the Bronx, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Suture
As far as I know this is something of a first, at least since the 20s or 30s: a movie predicated on film theory playing in a commercial theater. Written, directed, and produced by American independents Scott McGehee and David Siegel, this odd black-and-white ‘Scope thriller (1993) about identity and social construction concerns a young […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Auters
Evidence that the British are very different from you and me is in fine supply on the Auteurs’ Now I’m a Cowboy. The group managed to get its debut, New Wave, short-listed, as they say, for the British Mercury prize, a fairly prestigious award for album of the year given by an independent group of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Elementary Journalism
Dear editor: The Amundsen High School Local School Council calls your attention to two errors in the article May 6, 1994, Neighborhood News section about George Schmidt and his candidacy for the Chicago Teachers Union presidency. In the first paragraph, second column, your writer Ben Joravsky states, “Only recently he was drummed out of Amundsen […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: chewed-up, spit-out flags
Many unfamiliar flags have been flying over Chicago during the World Cup season, but the most unusual two were made right here by artist Stephen Velky. His renditions of the American flag and the gay pride rainbow flag may at first look comfortably familiar. But as their bumpy texture and sickeningly sweet smell attest, these […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Constance Beavon
Mezzo-soprano Constance Beavon was an art historian before she switched careers, and at this free Art Institute recital titled “In Harmony With Silence” she uses her expertise to highlight musical contributions to the French symbolist movement (which also inspired the painter Odilon Redon, who’s currently the subject of a comprehensive exhibit at the museum). The […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Generation X and Generation Bop
It’s great to see after so many years a Reader column for music, even if it carries the rather narrow subheading Rock Etc. Perhaps since jazz is only 2 percent of the so-called buying public beneath the large alternative toenail of rock, antirock, pre and post Steve Albini rock, and Rock Etc–jazz and new music […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Passionate Conviction
WEST SIDE STORY Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Goodman Theatre In an interesting coincidence, two of the summer’s major musical revivals climax with the same tableau: a woman kneels over her prostrate lover, just felled by a bullet. The image sums up the telling contrasts between West Side Story and A Little […]
Posted inMusic
A Guarantee From God
CHANT Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos (Angel) Panic is setting in at EMI records. Chant is slipping. The collection of Gregorian chants by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos, recorded on EMI’s classical label, Angel, which has sold more than one million copies since its spring release, is losing ground on […]