By Michael Miner Ford Heights: Protess Protests Two weeks ago I devoted my column to the rancorous residue of the Ford Heights story–four men going free after a total of 65 years in prison for murders they did not commit. The rancor was roughly triangular: Medill professor David Protess irritated with three former students who […]
Tag: Vol. 26 No. 8
Issue of Nov. 28 – Dec. 4, 1996
Posted inMusic
Ad Hoc String Quartet
Ad Hoc String Quartet The Ad Hoc String Quartet has been around for only six years, but it’s already earned admiration as an energetic supporter of local composers. At this recital–the latest in an irregular series, hence the foursome’s name–the Ad Hoc takes up the causes of Robert Kritz and Kimo Williams, whose String Quintet […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Physicists
The Physicists, A Red Orchid Theatre. Like his contemporary Max Frisch, Friedrich Durrenmatt possessed the love of geometry and profound fear for mankind possible only in one well acquainted with scientific laws. Though Tom Stoppard has explored mathematics more inventively in Travesties and Arcadia, a chilling apocalyptic undercurrent flows through this absurdist tragedy, set in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Inferiority Complex
Mrs. Klein at the Royal George Theatre Center By Adam Langer The curtain call tells the story. After the lights fade on the final scene of Nicholas Wright’s sometimes engaging but often drearily mechanical drama, Amy Wright steps forward meekly. Wright–who plays Paula, a young, troubled psychoanalyst desperate for the attention of famed Viennese analyst […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Stage: pet project
Dozens of dogs, cats, and other animals watched and listened while their owners sat onstage with them and told stories about how they met. It was the open-mike portion of last year’s Holiday Bar-K, an annual cabaret-style event at Randolph Street Gallery that includes videos, performances, and a consultation with a pet psychologist. Remarkably, “there […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
Not one to get sucked into cardinal-mania downtown, I couldn’t help but admire the homegrown shrine that sprouted on the steps of Cardinal Bernardin’s North State Parkway mansion. Passing it in a car during a gray afternoon, I was cheered by the bright colors of the store-bought frosted glass candles and the single metallic balloon […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Protect the Children
It is unfortunate that the author of your November 8 article “Sins of the Mother” is blinded by the same assumptions that prevent our child welfare system from keeping children safe. She describes the travails of Denise, a mother of two young DCFS wards. Denise has a history of failing to feed her children, leaving […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bobby Baker
British painter turned sculptor, performance artist, and mother of two, Bobby Baker uses the raw materials of domesticity–shopping carts, plastic bags, powdered sugar–as weapons in her witty, subversive performances. Poking holes in our notions of gender and value, she asks what divides housework from “real” work, domestic life from artistic life. In How to Shop, […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: I’m a single straight woman in my late 20s, and I’d like to be in a relationship. Oh, yeah: I’m also a virgin. From my teenage years through early adulthood, abstaining from sex wasn’t a big deal for me. I wasn’t ready for it, and I wanted to wait until I was in […]
Posted inFilm
Love on the Borderline
At the center of this thoughtful, remarkably insouciant coming-of-age drama by the young French up-and-comer Catherine Corsini is Marc, a nice-looking teenager unsure of his sexuality and frustrated with his stifling provincial existence. When his promiscuous yet good-hearted older half sister Viviane returns after a long absence on the road, she becomes the object of […]
Posted inMusic
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez By now Pierre Boulez’s annual residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an eagerly awaited event, an opportunity to hear treasures from the 20th-century trove interpreted by one of its most influential and clearheaded promoters. In the next four weeks, the indefatigable Boulez, who’s scaled back his composing in favor of conducting, will […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sports Section
It was a cold and dreary November afternoon, the sort that puts one in mind of Thanksgiving Day football: muddy fields and messy uniforms, players like Alex Karras and Dick Butkus, Mike Lucci and Doug Buffone, Charlie Sanders and Walter Payton, Mel Gray and Mike Singletary. Something between rain and snow was falling, a sort […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pericles, Pince of Tyre
PERICLES, Prince of Tyre, Greasy Joan & Company, at Facets Multimedia International Performance Studio. Shakespeare’s late romance breathlessly and with only fitful eloquence charts the misadventures of the young and very embattled prince of Tyre. But unlike the similarly themed Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale, there’s little magic or urgency in this 1608 potboiler; understandably, […]
Posted inMusic
Chavez
CHAVEZ It’s a wonder to encounter a band that manages to be striking without doing much that you’d call innovative. New York’s Chavez–a foursome of indie-rock vets–blends well-worn elements from a variety of rock styles into a cohesive, engaging whole. On the new Ride the Fader (Matador), singer-guitarist Matt Sweeney (ex-Skunk), guitarist Clay Tarver (ex-Bullet […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
Church Key 11/29, Phyllis’ Musical Inn Ex-God’s Acre singer-guitarist Peter Houpt contributes the most–and the most heartrending–songs to this local country-rock sextet’s debut, Evet’s Cafe (Loose Booty). Here’s hoping his emotional healing is accompanied by the further coalescing of the band’s promising instrumentation, which includes pedal steel, accordion, mandolin, and fiddle. Republica 11/29, Metro British […]