SIDE BY SIDE–LOST LIVES: PAINTINGS BY ED FRAGA at the Chicago Cultural Center, through December 30 Like most art of the 20th century, surrealism has its Achilles’ heel. Its typical strategies–plumbing dreams and the unconscious for themes and imagery, juxtaposing familiar images in unexpected, even irrational ways–can be devastatingly subversive, challenging our habits of mind […]
Tag: Vol. 23 No. 9
Issue of Dec. 9 – 15, 1993
Posted inFilm
A Perfect World
On the run from the Texas Rangers in 1963, an escaped convict (Kevin Costner) develops a close friendship with the seven-year-old boy (T.J. Lowther) he takes hostage. A good two-part character study with a terrific performance by Lowther and fine work by Costner, which should help resuscitate his image after too many Boy Scout projects, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story The London newspaper the Guardian reported in October that Great Britain’s Department of National Heritage is likely to outlaw the December 18 start-up of a new satellite TV service, “TVs on TV,” an all-transvestite channel that originates in Germany. A spokesperson said the voyeur audience would probably be at least ten times the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Haymarket Revisited
One of the most important confrontations in the history of American labor took place around here somewhere. Jeff Huebner searches for the spot.
Posted inFilm
Sexual Discourse
THE PIANO *** (A must-see) Directed and written by Jane Campion With Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin, Kerry Walker, Genevieve Lemon, Tungia Baker, and Ian Mune. Given how sexy and volatile it is, it’s no surprise that The Piano is a hit. It’s also no surprise, given the strong-arm tactics of the […]
Posted inMusic
Fresh Prints
Publishers: The Next Generation/John Zee of Subnation, Amy Flammang of Pure
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading: The Politics of Pornography
A new kind of sexual language has emerged–it’s a peculiar mix of feminist rhetoric and legal discourse, a language that plays on fears and promises control.
Posted inNews & Politics
New Music
To the editors: I belong to a quiet fraternity which holds that the serious music of our time is as important as the concert music of the baroque, classical, and romantic periods, which together constitute almost the entire standard repertoire of our mainstream musical establishments. Compared to those earlier periods, as much music of the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Crime Is His Specialty/More Commentary on WBEZ
Crime Is His Specialty The police and FBI also categorize crime, but Jim Agnew’s methods make theirs look crude. Violent crime, nonviolent crime, murder, robbery, arson–this ancient breakdown doesn’t come close to meeting the standards of Agnew’s new magazine. “Consider the presidency: I put that down as a crime category,” said Agnew, who devoted two […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Right Ho, Jeeves
RIGHT HO, JEEVES City Lit Theater Company at the Chicago Cultural Center “We shall soon have Christmas down our throats,” P.G. Wodehouse once said. In that merry but wary spirit, City Lit Theater Company has turned to the British humorist for a holiday entertainment not overly bedecked with boughs of holly. Right Ho, Jeeves is […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Phair Comment
To the editors: Mr. Wyman, you are a piece of work. In your November 19 [Hitsville] reminiscence of the Liz Phair Metro show you describe “Casey Rice matter-of-factly tuning Phair’s guitar as she chatted with the crowd” as a highlight of the concert! Gee, I recall seeing the Who in 1980 and not once did […]
Posted inArts & Culture
How Are the Kids?
A 1990 collection of six fictional shorts, made in diverse corners of the globe and addressing the international rights of children, here having its U.S. premiere. It’s an uneven package, but the filmmakers include the team of Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mieville, the late Lino Brocka, and Euzhan Palcy (A Dry White Season). The jewel […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sly Fox
SLY FOX Bowen Park Theatre Company at Synergy Center Larry Gelbart’s cynicism ill suits the holiday spirit–and thank God. Sly Fox, a wicked 1976 updating of Ben Jonson’s wry masterpiece Volpone, is a sharp tonic in the season of schmaltz. Chock-full of bawdy irreverence, nasty double crosses, and justifiable misanthropy, it’s a sort of curmudgeon’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Art Facts: ten friends hanging at the Bop Shop
When artist Joseph Crosetto opened the quirky, eclectic Art-O-Rama on West Irving Park Road in 1989, he was weary of dealing with curators and gallery owners and wanted to provide a showplace for artists like him who had struggled to exhibit their work. But soon Crosetto realized he had little time to paint, and that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Kerouac: The Essence of Jack
Jack Kerouac died in 1969, but when the man calling himself by that name took the stage of the Julian Theatre in San Francisco’s North Beach district in 1986, even those who had known Kerouac personally swore that the king of the beats had returned from the dead. His resurrectionist, of course, was Vince Balestri, […]