I’m rarely moved by publicity material, but a quote in the Amati Quartet’s demands notice: “A concert by the Amati Quartet,” reads the personal, hand-signed letter, “was one of the most thrilling concerts I have ever attended.” The author? No less than master violinist Yehudi Menuhin. That’s serious backing, in string-music terms. And indeed, the […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 28
Issue of Apr. 18 – 24, 1996
Posted inArts & Culture
Art People: Tom Friedman’s object lessons
“It’s usually disgusting when your pubic hair gets stuck to the soap,” says artist Tom Friedman, but once after bathing he “found it beautiful–the curves on the white background of the soap.” This experience led to an artwork, soon to be exhibited at the Art Institute, in which the artist’s pubic hair is arranged in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The New Yorkers
The New Yorkers, Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre. This is the Cole Porter musical said to be “lost” for 65 years. Boasting a cast of 100 (including Jimmy Durante) and three bands, it proved too expensive for Depression-era Broadway. Recently re-created by Manhattan’s Musical Theater Works and now reprised in Anthony Stimac and Dyanne Earley’s plucky revival […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Shattered Globe Theatre. You might call them The Libertine’s outriders: two separate stagings, one before and one after the much-publicized Steppenwolf production, of the periwig-and-polonaise fable of good men undone by their bad-boy habits: Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les liaisons dangereuses. The non-Equity Shattered Globe ensemble does remarkably […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reading: Hang the Jury?
After speaking to jurors and lawyers, and investigating several trials in depth, author Stephen J. Adler thinks the jury system is in crisis.
Posted inArts & Culture
Guillermo Gregorio
Composer and alto saxophonist/clarinetist Guillermo Gregorio creates music of spatial and temporal luxury. Born in Buenos Aires 54 years ago, Gregorio has lived all over the world (he currently resides in Michigan City, Indiana) and possesses a broad slate of experience. Though he’s worked with an Argentinean Fluxus group, performed the work of 20th-century composers, […]
Posted inMusic
Lounge Ax Seeks Schulter in a Storm
The alderman who oversees the city’s business-license structure, the 47th Ward’s Eugene Schulter, says that he’s been hearing “horror stories” from businesses all over the city. One of concern to music fans involves Lounge Ax. According to the city’s liquor commission, the club, which has been presenting live music almost every night for the past […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sex Talk: Jimmy Doyle
Cranky, cracked, queer, cuddly Catholic comic Jimmy Doyle has the knack. He knows how to confide in an audience, how to entertain even while stripping his soul bare–revealing his deepest fears, his most tender vulnerabilities, his tortured childhood, suicidal mom, insensitive blue-collar dad-and entertain us at the same time. In his current show, part of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago
When I saw Muntu’s Woloba in December 1994, it happened to be on the same weekend I caught the Ruth Page Nutcracker at Arie Crown. Both were full-length narrative ballets suitable for family viewing, but the values they revealed about their respective cultures couldn’t have been more different. Perhaps because ballet is an inherently aristocratic […]
Posted inNews & Politics
From Our Archives
Perhaps we’ve missed something, but one question remains unanswered for us: has everyone gone mad? We’re talking here about children flying planes! Rachel Carter started flying at a mere seven years old, when she probably had all her baby teeth and hoped to pass Santa and his reindeer. Isn’t it enough that in the waning […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: beauty in Japanese cabinets
While apprenticing with Martin Puryear in the mid-80s, David Jackson was browsing through the sculptor’s library one day and came across a book about the traditional Japanese cabinetry known as tansu. Though Jackson had studied sculpture at the School of the Art Institute, he had already developed an interest in Japanese folk art. “Joinery, teahouses, […]