v. 1.29/Readings From Cyberspace
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 48
Issue of Sep. 5 – 11, 1996
Posted inArts & Culture
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre. “Mediocrity is not a mortal sin” is the refrain of “Brotherhood of Man,” the faux-gospel showstopper that climaxes this 1961 musical, and this revival of Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows’s satire on big business proves the point. Some performances are bland (Sam Samuelson as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Annie & Edward
ANNIE & EDWARD, Van Chester Productions, at the Heartland Studio Theater. Sean Farrell’s two-character one-act begins in limbo, with a man and woman sitting on chairs at opposite ends of an empty stage. This is a dangerous place to start a play, especially for a young writer with literary or intellectual pretensions. The temptation is […]
Posted inNews & Politics
It Took A Village
To the editors: Because of several omissions, the article on the mosaic project in Neighborhood News [August 23] gave the impression that it was initiated by Truman College. In fact, this project was a collaboration between a number of organizations and individuals which need mention to enlarge the context and to assert an exciting model […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
Look out! He’s got a car! Of the 249 on-the-job deaths in Illinois in 1995, the number due to shooting: 26; the number due to “transportation incidents”: 78 (Illinois Department of Public Health). Most entry-level jobs in metropolitan Chicago are not in the suburbs, according to a July report from the Illinois Job Gap Project […]
Posted inFilm
Wings
A lovely and nuanced character study of a once-famous World War II fighter pilot named Nadezhda Petrovna (Maya Bulgakova) who becomes a provincial schoolmistress, raising her adopted daughter as a single mother. Larissa Shepitko’s 1966 black-and-white feature is stately and reflective in tempo in a way that reminds me of some of the late films […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: rocket man
In the late 1940s and early ’50s, the U.S. “space program” consisted of little more than a few captured German V-2s, and trips to the moon were still popularly regarded as the idle dream of adolescent boys. But a number of rocket engineers were already busy designing the spaceships of the near future. When their […]
Posted inNews & Politics
You Stink!
Congratulations on your recent “What Stinks!” article [August 23]. Once again, the Reader has proved itself to be the premier spunky and witty, irreverent voice of Chicago! Thank God Dr. Reader continues to have its fingers firmly on the pulse of the hippest people and aspects of this great city, and that its writers are […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Around the Coyote
Around the Coyote Running through September 8, the seventh annual edition of this Wicker Park/Bucktown weekend festival claims to be the nation’s largest studio walk and arts exhibition, showcasing emerging artists in all media–including theater and performance, as reflected in the following schedule. Coordinator Jonathan Pitts has organized some 40 theatrical offerings into programs loosely […]
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 […]
Posted inMusic
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 […]