Even worse than the cigarette smoke and the late hours, says jazz singer Kimberly Gordon, are the men. “I am constantly surrounded by them,” she groans, “though of course I’m dateless.” Sometimes she needs a break from male nightclub owners, bartenders, musicians, and, of course, customers–especially the drunk, lecherous ones who leer from the audience […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 8
Issue of Dec. 2 – 8, 1993
Posted inFilm
Searching for Taiwan
THE PUPPET MASTER **** (Masterpiece) Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien Written by Wu Nien-jen, Chu Tien-wen, and Li Tien-lu With Li Tien-lu, Lin Chung, Cheng Kuei-chung, Cho Ju-wei, Hung Liu, and Bai Ming-hwa Let’s start with three central and related facts, the first about Taiwan, the second about Taiwanese cinema, and the third about us. (1) […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
Conversation between a waitress and a customer, overheard in the Peter Pan restaurant at Narragansett and Belmont: “Play-Doh? When you said Play- Doh, I thought Play-Doh! I don’t use Play-Doh, it’s Silly Putty I use.” “The stuff that comes in the plastic egg?” “Otherwise they would be always wet. I’d have one infection after another. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Whose Environment Is It Anyway?
Nobody’s. That’s why it’s such a mess. Q & A with economist Peter J. Hill, a proponent of “free market environmentalism.”
Posted inArts & Culture
Ruby in Paradise
All three features by Florida-based independent Victor Nunez (Gal Young ‘Un, A Flash of Green) are good, but this one’s a beauty: his first original script, it details the everyday adventures and encounters of a woman in her early 20s (Ashley Judd) who flees the Tennessee mountains for a Florida resort town, Panama City Beach, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Sports Section
Along about midway through the season–on November 7, against the Los Angeles Raiders, to be exact–the Bears fell into a routine. They would fall behind early, make adjustments on defense to stem the tide, kick a couple of field goals to get back in the game, and then try to steal a victory in the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Restaurant Tours: Soviet emigres bring new life to the Loop
Soviet cuisine, like the ex-nation itself, is influenced by a diverse blend of traditions and cultures. At the Russian Tea Cafe, which opened around the corner from Orchestra Hall in late September, the extensive menu travels from familiar favorites–stroganoff, shashliki, and blinis with caviar and sour cream–to Russian Jewish offerings and modern specialties from Uzbekistan, […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
AFGHAN WHIGS, 12/3, METRO Greg Dulli’s unsavory portraits of men with insatiable libidos have the critics slobbering. On a few tunes from the Afghan Whigs’ new album, Gentlemen, the narrator cops to his rotten attitude toward women, but more often it’s presented uncritically and without excuses–on “Be Sweet” he sings “I got a dick for […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Where’s Greeley When We Need Him?/Wages of Sin/Cardinal Knowledge
Where’s Greeley When We Need Him? Father Andrew Greeley’s last appearance as a Sun-Times columnist was the morning of Halloween. Going away wasn’t his idea. Mark Hornung, editor of the editorial pages, told us, “It was time for some new and different voices.” For 12 whole days Hornung might have been right. Then Steven Cook, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Terrance Simien
Terrance Simien sometimes sounds as if he’s trying to do for zydeco what the Nevilles have done for New Orleans R & B: create a universal music from an indigenous–albeit heavily commercialized–African American art form. Simien’s wheezing, melodic accordion provides his most consistent acknowledgment of roots, and his rhythms often retain zydeco’s hiccupy backwoods danceability. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
At a time when some theater companies are wondering where they are going to find a new audience when their mostly over-60 subscriber base moves on to Miami or Phoenix, the Neo-Futurists’ Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind continues to attract huge, loyal, enthusiastic audiences from the very demographic group that has proved […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Kast and Company
Maggie Kast has been choreographing dances as striking as her long, prematurely white hair for 30 years. But after all this time she’s still remarkable for her childlike sense of wonder, and the way she transfers this quality to her movements. Her work is also intriguing in its degree of variety; she packs her whole […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Small Domestic Acts
SMALL DOMESTIC ACTS Bailiwick Repertory In the lighthearted satire He’s Having Her Baby, produced earlier this year at Circle Theatre, Joan Lipkin (with coauthor Tom Clear) fashioned an alternative universe exactly like ours but with the traditional gender roles reversed. Women dominate the power elite; men are left with all the nothing, dead-end positions (secretary, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story In September Larry Michael Key dashed out the door of a Redmond, Washington, courtroom upon being sentenced to 60 days in jail for violating the terms of previous drunken-driving sentences. Judge Will O’Roarty leaped from the bench, and with his judicial robe flapping behind him, pursued Key out of the building, down the […]