Qi Gu Jiang at Walsh Gallery, through April 4 Robert Rahway Zakanitch at I Space, through April 4 By Fred Camper From Warhol’s pop icons to Malevich’s absolutist abstractions, much of modern painting has continued the Western sacred tradition in secular form: in some sense such works are compositionally closed, the picture’s rectangle represented as […]
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 25
Issue of Mar. 26 – Apr. 1, 1998
Posted inNews & Politics
Bad Example
horwitz.qxd Dear Chicago Reader, I would like to comment on your March 20 cover story on Mike North. After reading the story, I feel you are glorifying a real loser. I have listened to the Score since its inception, and I have often been appalled by the comments coming out of that lowlife’s mouth. Here […]
Posted inArts & Culture
African Film Festival
African Film Festival The fourth annual African Film Festival, presented by the film and video department at Columbia College, runs Friday through Sunday, March 27 through 29, with some repeat screenings the following weekend. Tickets are $3; children and family film programs are $2 for parents and $1 for children; six-ticket passes are $15, $12 […]
Posted inMusic
John Brim
JOHN BRIM John Brim is revered among blues collectors for his 50s-era recordings on labels such as Chess, Checker, and Parrot–sides that bristle with sexual innuendo (“Ice Cream Man”) and emotional tumult (“Be Careful”). The crudity of his style, along with his steadfast refusal to be patronized by revivalist hucksters, has kept him mired in […]
Posted inMusic
Yungchen Lhamo
YUNGCHEN LHAMO The brutal repression of Tibetan culture by the Chinese is well-known to us now thanks to Hollywood, but Yungchen Lhamo suffered from it directly. Although her name means “Goddess of Melody and Song” and her grandmother always encouraged her to live up to it, at the age of 11 she was forced to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater I’ve never liked Talley Beatty’s The Stack-Up. For some reason, this 1982 piece sets my teeth on edge. Yet one of the advantages of a troupe like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater–a regular visitor to Chicago, now in its 40th year–is that I can see this dance year after year […]
Posted inMusic
Skatalites
SKATALITES Rare is the musical reunion that works, particularly when the impetus is a renewed interest in the group’s original work. As the first great ska band, Jamaica’s Skatalites have been the subject of renewed interest several times since disbanding way back in 1965–most notably during England’s 2-Tone craze in the early 80s, but also […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Pits
The Cherry Orchard Court Theatre An Ideal Husband Court Theatre In the theater, as in life, there are two ways to judge someone’s intentions: by what he says and by what he does. As we all know, the two rarely agree. And talk is cheap. It’s especially cheap in the plays of Anton Chekhov. Not […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Neil and Marilyn
A famous critic and a controversial rock star frolic amid the shattered remains of journalistic integrity.
Posted inMusic
Calexico
CALEXICO Most of the time drummer John Convertino and bassist Joey Burns work as a self-effacing and flexible rhythm section for hire, equally at home playing spare indie pop with Barbara Manning, loose boogie rock with Giant Sand, eccentric old-timey music with Michael Hurley, or off-kilter country with Victoria Williams, with whom they’re currently touring. […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
COWS 3/27, EMPTY BOTTLE I live on the top floor of a turn-of-the-century house that doesn’t have a single 90-degree angle left in it. Last month somebody tore down the even more crooked house next door to build five town houses in the same space. Sometimes, when I think the vibrations from the jackhammer might […]
Posted inMusic
Linda Chesis
LINDA CHESIS Although there are plenty of female flutists in orchestras–the flute supposedly being the wind instrument of choice for young girls–only a few have cracked the glass ceiling to emerge as concert soloists. This recital, sponsored by the Chicago Flute Club, brings to town a woman who’s as good as celebrated fellows like Jean-Pierre […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Miss Lonelyhearts
MISS LONELYHEARTS, A Sense of Urgency Productions, at Profiles Theatre. Director Edwin Wilson and writer Robert Dorjath had a great idea when they decided to adapt Nathanael West’s 1933 novel for the stage. After all, Miss Lonelyhearts is so tightly written–the published version runs less than 100 pages–that a good adapter wouldn’t lose much in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
Keeping track of public opinion, if any. Joseph Schwieterman and Brian Maddox of DePaul University on the results of their national survey on railroad policy (“Railgram,” February): “Don’t expect citizens to have even a rudimentary knowledge of historical events shaping today’s industry. When asked when Amtrak established service, more than a third responded with dates […]