PBS has refused to show Randy Holland’s powerful, illuminating feature-length documentary video (1993) about South Central Los Angeles, no doubt because it offers an analysis of unemployment and oppression that implies an active conspiracy–an analysis offered mainly by people who live there. If this sounds dubious in a few particulars, it’s still the most cogent […]
Tag: Vol. 24 No. 7
Issue of Nov. 24 – 30, 1994
Posted inArts & Culture
Tish Hinojosa
Born into a family of Mexican immigrants and raised in south Texas, Tish Hinojosa was exposed to a wide variety of sounds as a kid, and her organic absorption offers a stirring testimonial to America’s hybrid tradition. Nominally a country artist, she aimed for Nashville in 1983, only to leave dejected and frustrated a few […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Australian Rules football player Russell Prowse was ejected from a Melbourne game in May and severely reprimanded by the league. He’d attempted to defuse a potential brawl by grabbing opponent Scott Cameron and kissing him flush on the lips. Prowse’s gambit worked: Cameron reportedly staggered back, a hush came over the players, and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Elizabeth Futral and Tracy Mould Watson
Soprano Elizabeth Futral is a rising star in the operatic firmament; she recently scored a major triumph as Lakme with the New York City Opera, made a recording with baritone Thomas Hampson, and sang in an arena concert with Placido Domingo, all to enthusiastic critical acclaim. She has gained this recognition so quickly due (along […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On the Waterfront
ON THE WATERFRONT, American Blues Theatre. It might seem unfair to compare American Blues Theatre’s production of On the Waterfront with the classic 1954 film. How could James Leaming hope to escape the formidable shadow of Marlon Brando? How could the mob boss be any more terrifyingly sleazy than Lee J. Cobb? Joe Cerqua’s moody […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Boys’ Life
BOYS’ LIFE, Sleeping Dog Theatre Company, at the Neo-Futurarium. Howard Korder’s misogyny has never been clearer than in this 1988 comedy, which divides the world into boys and bitches and pretends to be a critique of aimless, immature white males even as it revels in them. Boys, after all, just wanna have fun. It’s those […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mariotti: Time Out or Benched?/News Bites
Mariotti: Time Out or Benched? The Sun-Times is hunting for a sports columnist–has been for months. The paper’s been turned down by Diane Pucin of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mike Downey of the Los Angeles Times, and Melissa Isaacson and Sam Smith of the Tribune. No one wanted the job more than Smith. The Tribune sports […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Candide
Is Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, an adaptation of Voltaire’s philosophical satire, an opera or a musical? The controversy has dogged this remarkable hybrid ever since its debut on Broadway in 1956. Certainly Bernstein’s background—celebrated conductor of the classical repertoire who crossed over to musical theater with Wonderful Town and West Side Story but failed in his […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Next Dance Festival
After gobbling up your Thanksgiving dinner, this weekend you can gobble up a feast of dance by four different choreographers during the second, and final, weekend of the Next Dance Festival. Claire Bataille’s duet Nice Work, If You Can Get It, set to Gershwin, has the same straightforward, good old American, slightly old-fashioned flavor as […]
Posted inMusic
Singing Between the Lines
Sheila Jordan Green Mill, November 18 and 19 Whatever your image of a jazz singer, chances are Sheila Jordan doesn’t fit it. She’s not willowy, she’s not sultry, and she’s not black. She’s short and square, with pale skin and a wide toothy grin. Walking down Michigan Avenue at lunchtime, she could easily be mistaken […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Why is it that every single organ and component of the human body gets cancer except the heart? I have heard about cancer of everything from the brain to the blood; it seems no appendage is safe from the ravages of the big C. Yet I have never heard of anyone getting heart cancer. Am […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ashtray Boy
Plenty of rock bands are bicoastal, but Ashtray Boy is the only one I know of that’s bihemispheric. In Sydney singer-guitarist Randall Lee lives and plays with one rhythm section, and in Chicago, the home of his record company, Ajax, he plays with another. Lee’s songwriting traits–a broad stylistic range and an even broader streak […]
Posted inFilm
Pregnant Pa’s
* MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN (Has redeeming facet) Directed by Kenneth Branagh Written by Steph Lady and Frank Darabont With Kenneth Branagh, Robert De Niro, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce, Aidan Quinn, Ian Holm, Richard Briers, and John Cleese. * JUNIOR (Has redeeming facet) Directed by Ivan Reitman Written by Kevin Wade and Chris Conrad With […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The City File
Most Chicago public high schools have accepted Mayor Daley’s offer of metal detectors–but that doesn’t mean they use them, report Elizabeth Crouch, Debra Williams, and Dan Weissmann in Catalyst (November). “Clemente High in West Town accepted the detectors–‘to stay on the mayor’s good side,’ says [local school] council chair Cindy Rodriguez–but didn’t set them up. […]