Posted inMusic

Burns Sisters Band

BURNS SISTERS BAND Throughout the 70s the five Burns Sisters gathered a following as lesser-known pop divas, their spiffy, ethereal act garnering a handful of hit singles as well as appearances in Louis Malle’s Atlantic City and Woody Allen’s Radio Days. But they disbanded in the early 80s and moved to Ithaca, New York, to […]

Posted inNews & Politics

Not-So-Brilliant Mistake

Dear editors, In his startling negative review of Elvis Costello’s recent Rosemont appearance, critic Rick Mosher tries to come off as the authority on the talented performer [August 23]. However, by concentrating on giving us a blow-by-blow rundown of Costello’s career, Mosher fails to capture the real spirit of the show. Mr. Mosher, people were […]

Posted inNews & Politics

Straight Dope

What is the origin of the phrase “in like Flynn”? I have heard it alludes to the sexual exploits of the actor Errol Flynn but have a difficult time believing a reference so graphic could have become a common catchphrase. –Joe Lubben, Oberlin, Ohio Just shows how out of it you are, Joe. Most people […]

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Neil Young with Crazy Horse

NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE Neil Young’s albums with Crazy Horse come in two varieties. Sometimes he simply uses the group as a backup band for whatever tangent he happens to be pursuing. At such times they acquit themselves adequately but unremarkably–when was the last time you listened to Life or Sleeps With Angels? But […]

Posted inArts & Culture

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Tripaway Theatre calls it “Shakespeare’s most unpopular comedy.” No question, the play is full of in-jokes that, four centuries later, are DOA. But Tripaway’s open-air revival of this courtly comedy (offered last weekend in Lincoln Park and this weekend in Bucktown) deserves an audience. Director Karin Shook refuses to succumb to the creaky plot–four scholar-courtiers […]

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Everywoman’s Wild Ride

Ann Magnuson The Luv Show (Geffen) By Monica Kendrick It’s easy to forget that there was once a time when little girls didn’t dream of becoming stars, when women weren’t allowed onstage at all and female parts were played by men–centuries before Andy Warhol and John Waters. It wasn’t until the turn of this century […]

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Wrinkles in Time

Her Bailiwick Repertory By Carol Burbank Kim Yaged’s bittersweet love story is everyone’s fantasy. We leave our first, tempestuous relationship, grow separately, and years later are reunited with promises of passion and a healthier, happier union. It could happen. Or maybe not. This is the puzzle of Her, and its most promising aspect. Yaged weaves […]

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In Store: wear in good health

In January 1989, at the age of 25, Lisa Kaplan-Melnick was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. Soon after she started chemotherapy she suffered from nausea, mood changes, and swelling. Within three weeks her hair fell out, and she found herself having to shop for something she never thought she’d need. “When I was buying a wig, […]

Posted inNews & Politics

Sound Salvation

To the editors: I am writing to point out an error in Matt Murphy’s reply to Peter Margasak’s article on the ILF [Letters, August 16]. Mr. Murphy claimed there is “only one major radio station [that] pays any attention to local bands and that for only a half hour a week.” In fact, there are […]

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Gray Areas

Roy DeCarava at the Art Institute of Chicago, through September 15 By Stephen Longmire Not long ago I was wondering what it would take for a photograph to show the photographer’s love for the people portrayed. Roy DeCarava’s best pictures–such as Sherry, Susan, Laura, Wendy, a 1983 study of the artist’s wife and (presumably) their […]

Posted inMusic

Milt Jackson

MILT JACKSON I’d have to guess that anyone this far into the music section–in fact, most anyone who has even opened the music section–knows about Milt Jackson, the sad-faced vibraphonist who fronted the Modern Jazz Quartet. Just as the long-lived MJQ has introduced more listeners to jazz than almost any other musical enterprise, so has […]

Posted inNews & Politics

News of the Weird

Lead Stories In July police in Brooklyn accused Gail Murphy, 47, bedridden on her stomach while recovering from hemorrhoid surgery, of shooting her husband to death because he had gone on a six-hour fishing trip. Said a police investigator, “She felt that her husband didn’t demonstrate that he cared for her on that particular day.” […]