Event for Remembering Mathew Wilson at the Equitable Building plaza, August 28 By Justin Hayford On an August day so beautiful it could almost restore your faith in Chicago summers, in the vast public plaza in front of the Equitable Building on Michigan Avenue, photographers and cameramen lug expensive equipment, tape down cable, check light […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 48
Issue of Sep. 5 – 11, 1996
Posted inNews & Politics
Petty Crime
August 3, 4:25 AM, 4100 Block of West Marquette.Arson. Man notified police that two men had brandished a shotgun and stolen his car. Police found burned-out car in alley a few blocks away. The officers questioned man again, and he admitted to setting the fire himself as a protest against the rates charged by his […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Grandmother in Four Acts, the Dusky Woman, and Excuse Me, What Are You?
GRANDMOTHER IN FOUR ACTS, the dusky woman, and excuse me, what are you?, at the Famous Door Theatre Company. Any of these three one-woman shows could easily have devolved into yet another “poor little me” whimper, but writer-performers Lisa Wax, Judith Greer, and Donna Jay Fulks all acknowledge that life’s sorrows are fundamentally ridiculous and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Northside/Southside
Northside/southside, Sun Partners, Inc., at the Theatre Building. This revival of Kathleen and Robert Lombardo’s play-within-a-play musical exploration of two women from very different parts of Chicago does little more than provide a bit of entertainment and tell a superficial story. We first meet Kimberly and Janet backstage preparing for a cabaret show. Then the […]
Posted inMusic
Paul Plimley
PAUL PLIMLEY Some musicians bust onto the scene out of nowhere, while others slowly build up a body of work that eventually cannot be ignored. Until a few years ago, Canadian pianist Paul Plimley was the proverbial tortoise, toiling diligently in Vancouver, the wonders of his unique approach barely known to the rest of the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
They’re Right, They’re Left, They’re Gone
By Michael Miner They’re Right, They’re Left, They’re Gone As phenomenon, as chutzpah, as shake and bake, the Republicans’ convention whipped the Democrats’. It was old news that the Democrats, to keep and get back power, had decided to sound like Republicans. But to keep and get more power the Republicans turned into Democrats. Jack […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Family Plots
Orphans CT20 Ensemble at Bailiwick Arts Center Kingerera Great Famous Door Theatre Company By Adam Langer As the family unit of wife, husband, two kids, and a dog has lost ground, American playwrights have had to look elsewhere for their subjects. As divorce skyrocketed and even Albee-esque husband-wife sniping was fast becoming outdated, theater looked […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Pride and Prejudice
Prejudice By Derrick Mathis Taking the el to the south side, I kept thinking of my mother back in LA. I was going to march in the Bud Billiken Parade and knew that King Drive would be lined with hundreds of women just like her. I imagined I’d be marching in front of my family–aunts, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Ridiculous Rhino Reporting
Chicago has an international reputation for racism, corruption, and stupidity. Thank you Reader for furthering the tradition–by sending Jack Helbig, your sports reporter? to cover the Rhino Fest [August 23]. If this guy were more mainstream–he’d be a power tie. Larry Adler La Grange
Posted inArts & Culture
The Rhinoceros Theater Festival
The Rhinoceros Theater Festival Founded as a component of the Bucktown Arts Fest but now independent of that event, this annual summer showcase of fringe theater, performance, and music has relocated farther north over the past few years. This year’s edition, which runs through September 23, is housed at the Lunar Cabaret and Full Moon […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Heroic Dudes and Gals
What stinks in Chicago? You twerps at the Reader do. The attitude of most Reader writers is that they are radical, progressive, and at the cutting edge of truth. Yeah, the Reader is so radical that it can be picked up at any yuppie hangout or shopping center. The Reader is so progressive that it […]
Posted inMusic
Jerry Douglas & Peter Rowan
JERRY DOUGLAS & PETER ROWAN Nashville session players don’t get much respect outside country music’s inner circle. Jerry Douglas, master of the Weissenborn (a hollow-necked slide guitar) and dobro, for example, has lent his talents to over 1,000 recordings–odds are that if you have a handful of contemporary country records, he’s on at least one […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
Attempting the time-honored tradition of buying bleacher tickets from a scalper, I find a seller, agree to a high price, and hand over the cash. Then I notice that one ticket is dated for the previous day’s game. The guy with my cash takes off running. “You fucker!” I shout, running after him down the […]