JOAN JETT METRO, JULY 24 Joan Jett always seemed like a good idea–a tough girl rock ‘n’ roller in a male-dominated world–though she’s rarely produced the product to justify it. Caught in a 70s time capsule, Jett’s touchstone songs–“I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” “Bad Reputation,” and “Light of Day”–haven’t had the resilience of dopey rock […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 43
Issue of Aug. 4 – 10, 1994
Posted inArts & Culture
Blood of Abraham
Initially you might be inclined to chuckle over the fact that this LA hip-hop combo proudly espouses its Jewish heritage within a predominantly black musical form. The two races have a less than harmonious past despite the ridiculously apparent similarities of their oppression. But Blood of Abraham succeed because they aren’t joking. Their convictions thankfully […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The White Man’s Burden
Dear Reader: Art Jones [“Bigot for Hire,” July 22] is a friend of mine. I would trust him with my life. I doubt if Grant Pick knows anyone he can say that about. Art and I agree that the United States has been irreparably harmed by the rise of multiracialism, the end of the hegemony […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Number 3: I’m With the Band
There’s been a mistake. Flank Treat is playing tonight at the Pixlar with that other band, Drove OverBill. Somehow my name is not on the list. The longhair in the box office pretends to have never heard of me. He must be new. In town. Someone will hear about this later, but in the meantime […]
Posted inNews & Politics
All the Trimmings
Dear Reader editor: Your Neighborhood News article (July 15) regarding a Chicago resident’s frustration in dealing with Chicago’s Bureau of Forestry is similar to my own experience. Last fall the 800 block of West Wrightwood was repaved. Previous to the repaving, the trees along the block were trimmed in order to accommodate the machinery. In […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Building Boom
In which Chicago architects identify the buildings they’d most like to blow up.
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading Up on Feng Shui
Dear editor, I read with great interest Bonnie McGrath’s piece on feng shui (Our Town, 5/27/94). References to this fascinating, ancient philosophy have been showing up over the last several years in respected publications and periodicals, and several small volumes are in print. Feng shui masters, also referred to as geomancers, spend years studying and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Midori
Celebrated prodigies face a tough challenge easing into adulthood. For every Itzhak Perlman there’s been a Eugene Fodor, unable to live up to early promise. In 1982 11-year-old Japanese violinist Midori was invited to perform with the New York Philharmonic, and she became the first Asian prodigy certified by the West’s musical establishment, praised for […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Porcelain
Porcelain, Eclipse Theatre Company. Everything in Chay Yew’s Porcelain works to isolate murder suspect John Lee, a gay Asian teen from London’s East End who endures all the invisibility of minority men in a xenophobic land. Accordingly, the crime scene is a Bethnal Green lavatory where gays, bisexuals, and closet cases engage in risky “cottaging”–sharing […]
Posted inMusic
Been There, Done That
BLUR PARKLIFE (SBK) Under the heading of Things That Annoy Me, overdone British accents would have to be right up there near the top of the list. On Blur’s latest album, Parklife, Damon Albarn’s accent is just about as grating as that of Q101’s shrill and omnipresent Samantha James. I don’t have anything against British […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Vince Lane’s True Character
To the Editor, Chicagoans are indebted to the Reader and Ben Joravsky for a masterful job of exposing CHA chairman Vincent Lane as the malicious and incompetent despot he has always been (Neighborhood News, 7/22/94). Clearly, Lane’s singular focus regarding former CHA maintenance supervisor David Coleman is on ruining the lives of Coleman and his […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Standing in the Gap: a one-woman preservation campaign
From the outside, the old Victorian three-flat at 3241 S. Indiana seems ready for the wrecker’s ball. Well over 100 years old and one of only three houses on the block, it’s squeezed between a grassy lot and a parking lot. Across the street is the Illinois College of Optometry, which apparently is eager to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain, Stage Actor’s Ensemble of Chicago, at Dancetech. Michael V. Gazzo’s 1955 tale of a shell-shocked Korean war vet’s descent into heroin addiction as he struggles to reintegrate with his troubled family is antiquated in any case, but director Stephan Turner’s decision to update A Hatful of Rain to the present day […]
Posted inArts & Culture
All Chicks Go to Florida
All Chicks Go to Florida, Minimum Wage Theatre Company, at Cafe Voltaire. If art imitates life, maybe people with boring lives shouldn’t write plays. Jack Prather’s All Chicks Go to Florida is yet another aimless bit of Gen-X anomie that follows the antics of three dopey guys and the women who dis them. Clumsy, childlike […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hip Hideouts of the Dells
Dear Reader, There are a thousand cool places up in the Dells. Thank God Heather McAdams only knows of ten [“Hester Duzz Da Dells, July 1]! I’m looking at the Wisconsin Dells Travel and Attraction Guide right now and all I can do is shake my head. On the one hand I am happy Heather […]