A failed attempt at playing plitics leaves UIC stuck betwen two warring factions.
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 23
Issue of Mar. 12 – 18, 1998
Posted inNews & Politics
Spy vs. Spy/ BEZ’s Numbers Racket/ New Life, Past Lives
By Michael Miner Spy vs. Spy An anonymous stranger called and said he had something I needed to see. Later the doorbell rang. The mysterious courier had vanished before I could open the front door, but a manila envelope now stood in the mailbox. Journalists, needless to say, live for moments like this. The envelope […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Puzzle Pieces
Baltimore, Basketball and Beyond Clifford Owens Meeting Darrow Kym Olsen and Trevor Martin at Tough, March 6 and 7 By Justin Hayford Minutes before the opening of Tough Gallery’s first ever performance series, “Tough Nights,” I found myself standing before an ancient toilet tucked behind an enormous pile of wood and drywall scraps. A sign […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Man or Astro-Man?
Spanish-TV psychic Walter Mercado drags genderfuck into the age of Aquarius.
Posted inArts & Culture
Hopscotch
HOPSCOTCH, Drama to Dredge Theater Company, at Voltaire. Performed as recently as last August in this same subterranean space, Israel Horovitz’s 40-minute actors’ exercise deserves a long rest, especially at Voltaire. The current revival, however, is more sexy and natural than Big Deal Ensemble’s overcooked staging then. Horovitz tersely depicts a seemingly casual meeting that […]
Posted inMusic
Illinois Jacquet Big Band
ILLINOIS JACQUET BIG BAND For the last 15 years or so, saxist Illinois Jacquet has led a jazz big band with undisguised zeal and undiminished fervor. And why not? Everything about the jazz orchestra–from the power of the horns to the familiarity of the arrangements that support and prod his solos–must feel right to Jacquet. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Brendan Behan: Confessions of an Irish Rebel
BRENDAN BEHAN: CONFESSIONS OF AN IRISH REBEL, at the Mercury Theater. Shay Duffin’s one-man tribute to Brendan Behan–housepainter, poet, playwright, protester–is a toast to a terrific talker. “Too young to die but too drunk to live,” as the Daily Mail said, Behan was killed by liver disease in 1964, at age 41. But Behan was […]
Posted inNews & Politics
West Side Stories
I’ve always felt that I was much loved. People loved me. My mother loved me. My father loved me. And when he sat me on his knee and blew smoke in my ear I knew that he loved me. Didn’t I tell you that one? Well, today it would be considered child abuse. But when […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Critical Distance
pendleto.qxd To the editor: Though Patrick Z. McGavin’s article on the Chicago Film Critics Association (“Circle of Friends,” Our Town, March 6) accurately reflects my misgivings about the organization, it leaves the mistaken impression that a main reason I’ve dropped out is due to the board’s refusal to take a stand on free-speech controversies that […]
Posted inFilm
Love and Death on Long Island
Love and Death on Long Island A reclusive, old-fashioned, intellectual novelist and widower living in London (John Hurt) stumbles accidentally into a screening of Hotpants College II at his local multiplex and becomes hopelessly, obsessively enamored of one of its young American stars (Jason Priestley). Fan magazines and the purchase of a VCR fail to […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Is Illinois a high-tax or a low-tax state? Either one, depending on how you choose to spin the statistics. “Illinois Tax Facts” (December) reports that on a per capita basis, Illinois total 1994 taxes were $2,474.50, above the midwest and U.S. average. But per $1,000 of income–a more reasonable standard–Illinois total taxes were $110.32, well […]
Posted inMusic
Raw Power
AC/DC Bonfire (East West) In a fat book somewhere, preferably called “GODDAMN ROCK,” there should be a patient eulogy for AC/DC, explaining how the band wowed us with an overkill of wattage and captivated our adolescent selves with a fiery juggling act of bawdy lore, forlorn sentiment, and songs about oh what a rocking band […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Millions From Heaven/ Group Dishes Poop
Philanthropist Charles Beck goes from blip to major player with a hold plan to share his wealth.
Posted inMusic
Lullaby for the Working Class
LULLABY FOR THE WORKING CLASS On the band’s new album, I Never Even Asked for Light (Bar/None), in his best bored Stephen Malkmus drawl, Lullaby for the Working Class guitarist Ted Stevens sings, “Critics will always make categories to keep their words moving in circles.” He might be responding to all the No Depression tags […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
While busily working one afternoon (aka staring at the clouds), my coworker told me that a cloud can weigh as much or more as a 747. I think she’s nuts and that this is impossible. Please set her straight. –JMG, via the Internet Hope you didn’t put serious money on this. The maximum takeoff gross […]