Sandra Dawson at Idao Gallery, through December 22 Sylvia Safdie and John Heward: Memory and Making at Gallery 312, through December 23 Lying nude on a dark slab, his hands resting behind his head, he looks like a man sleeping, except that his eyes are open. The bed seems to float in a tan sea […]
Tag: Vol. 25 No. 9
Issue of Dec. 7 – 13, 1995
Posted inArts & Culture
Johnny 100 Pesos
A heist-gone-awry thriller with ironic political overtones, Johnny 100 Pesos is based on an actual hostage crisis that took place in Chile in 1990. What starts out as an attempted robbery of a black-market currency exchange in Santiago turns into a hostage situation and media circus when the hapless bandits are mistaken for terrorists. The […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Sports Section
A team in mere disarray would be an improvement at this point. The Bears’ defense is inept, rendering their offense useless even on its good days, and the coaching staff is clueless. The season is in tatters. At one point the Bears were 6-2 and making plans not merely for the playoffs but to take […]
Posted inMusic
Two Paths to Crossing Over
Shaggy Cubby Bear, October 29 Terence Trent D’Arby Metro, October 29 Since reggae artist Shabba Ranks’s mainstream success three years ago, dancehall has been searching for its next ambassador. At first, fans had pinned their hopes on Buju Banton and Terror Fabulous. But Banton has pushed aside crossover dreams and firmly ensconced himself in Rastafarian […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
ONE RIOT ONE RANGER 12/8, SCHUBAS Low-impact old-timey country from Columbus, Ohio. Considering that former Great Plains keyboardist Mark Wyatt is in the band, it’s no wonder that One Riot One Ranger’s business card carries the humorous disclaimer “Faux cowboy at its best.” From playing Duke Ellington’s “Caravan” as a bluegrass breakdown to penning a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Restaurant Tours: do-it-yourself-dining
Why go to a restaurant to make your own meal? It seems to defy logic, but a microtrend of do-it-yourself eateries in town is catering to the hands-on crowd. A bright, good-natured sprawl called the Mongolian Barbeque opened this summer in Wrigleyville, where it’s quickly attracted a following of avid stir-fryers. It originated in London–where […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sheila: Ex Libris
Sheila: Ex Libris, at the Organic Theater Company Greenhouse, South Hall. Always on the lookout for a good gimmick, the folks who brought you Sheila’s Giant Wall of Plot Twists now present Ex Libris, an evening’s worth of improvisation based on suggestions culled from a cartful of books. This premise isn’t half bad. Asking audiences […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar Photo Caption
The exhibit In the Eye of the Storm: An Art of Conscience, 1930-1970 tracks the art of social commentary in America from the Great Depression to the Vietnam-era. Yet art collector Philip Schiller, a Chicago attorney, says he wanted to avoid work that was strictly political, favoring a broader consideration of life and times. Shown […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Stage: Matt Besser’s guerilla theater
The moment was pure Matt Besser. Performing two years ago in the Upright Citizens Brigade’s partly improvised comedy Conference on the Future of Happiness, he was distracted by a gray-haired man in the audience who was quietly taking notes. Still in character, Besser stepped off the stage, waltzed over to the man, and after a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae
The Trial of One Short-Sighted Black Woman vs. Mammy Louise and Safreeta Mae, ETA Creative Arts Foundation. Marcia L. Leslie’s political play about racial stereotypes and their history, given the form of a passionate if somewhat predictable courtroom drama, speaks to a neglected audience: black women. A struggling black businesswoman is suing the all-giving, malleable […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Christmas Twist
Illegitimate Players, at the Bailiwick Arts Center. What The Naked Gun did for–or rather to–detective films, this seasonal send-up does for the family classics of Charles Dickens: it stretches the contrivances permeating his work to ridiculous lengths. In Doug Armstrong, Keith Cooper, and Maureen Morley’s script, skinflint Scrooge turns out to be the uncle of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ghost of Christmas Past
Everyman Steppenwolf Theatre Company Theaters in Chicago go a little nuts at Christmas, trying to figure out what audiences want. While a few mount shows that spoof or sneer at the holiday (Reckless, A Christmas Twist, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues), most gamely swim along in the wake of Goodman Theatre’s Christmas Carol, looking for material […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Louisa May Alcott in Little Women
When Chicagoans Beth Lynch and Scott Lynch-Giddings cast Louisa May Alcott as a character in her own novel, they found an intriguing solution to a sticky problem: the sweetness and untrammeled celebration of family ties in Little Women, the coming-of-age story of a tomboy and her sisters during the Civil War, might be a little […]