TIGER AT THE GATES, Greasy Joan & Company, at the Chopin Theatre. “The Trojan War will not take place.” So declares the original title (La Guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu) of Jean Giraudoux’s 1935 tragicomedy. In his variation on Homer’s Iliad, the Trojan prince Hector barters for peace, to no avail: the Greeks want […]
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 31
Issue of May. 7 – 13, 1998
Posted inArts & Culture
Deeper Shade of Blue
DEEPER SHADE OF BLUE, Footsteps Theatre Company. In the sisterly spirit of Beth Henley and Wendy Wasserstein, Footsteps Theatre’s coartistic director Jean Adamak has penned and staged a convincing portrait of four friends who work together making greeting cards, women so lifelike they could have stepped from the seats to the stage. Beset with a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reality Bites
Realty Bites By Erika Erhart I have no idea how much mon-ey is in the bank and I’m not sure if I can borrow against my 401(k), but I thumb through the Tribune’s Sunday real estate section and next thing I know, I’m on the phone with a realtor. I was surprised someone was in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Tightwad, or The Miser
THE TIGHTWAD, OR THE MISER: A NEW FACE ON AN OLD FARCE, CenterLight Sign & Voice Theatre, at the Griffin Theatre Company. Admiring Moliere for his plots is kind of like reading Shakespeare for the songs. But the plot is pretty much all that remains in Mark Elliott and Joe Huber’s adaptation of The Miser. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Music Notes: Dutch jazz does the polyglot
Dutch jazz seems to give Kevin Whitehead an appetite–he’s keen on using food metaphors to describe it in his recent book, New Dutch Swing. “In Holland, as Americans discover to their horror, frites–French fries, chips–are served with mayonnaise. There is also something called patatje oorlog: fries with ketchup, and mayo, and satay sauce, three big […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: I was reading your column recently and noticed the letter from Dodging Bullets, the woman who has a colostomy bag and an inconsiderate boyfriend. I am not qualified to give advice on her sex life, but I may be able to help her lose the colostomy bag. I work for American Medical Systems […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Down With the Ship
How Titanic’s warped take on class conflict makes Americans feel like the egalitarians we aren’t.
Posted inFilm
He Got Game
He Got Game Colleagues of mine have called this Spike Lee’s best feature since Malcolm X, though I don’t see how one can embrace that film without undervaluing the book it’s based on. But He Got Game is certainly Lee’s best narrative film in years, and the fact that it’s based on an original script–as […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
Cock E.S.P. 5/9, Fireside Bowl There are folks spending a lot of money to convince us that the logical endpoint of indie rock is a market glut of plodding, vaguely tormented riff rockers. But in small dumpy rooms everywhere, the idiom is getting a real Viking funeral from noise artists, many taking their cues from […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Pushed Into the Web/ Lost Tribe of Palestine
By Michael Miner Pushed Into the Web “Is Photojournalism Dead?” asked the cover of American Photo magazine in September 1996. The answer, more apparent now than then, is no. Photojournalism survives in cyberlimbo. If you’re willing to put up with second-rate reproductions tediously displayed, you’ll find distinguished photo essays mounted noncorporeally on the Internet. “I’m […]
Posted inArts & Culture
True Books
250 Things You Can Do to Make Your Cat Adore You, by Ingrid Newkirk (Fireside, $11). Synopsis: Newkirk, the founder of PETA, outlines your moral obligations to your cat. Cleaning the litter box every day is not enough–do it after each use. Serve vegetarian cat food, of course–better if you bake it yourself. Representative quote: […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Under Milk Wood
Under Milk Wood No one expected much when Barto Productions’ Under Milk Wood opened in the fall of 1991 at Wrigleyville’s Cafe Voltaire. Over the years Dylan Thomas’s 1953 verse comedy, about the waking and dreaming lives of the inhabitants of a mythical Welsh fishing village called Llareggub (“buggerall” spelled backward), had daunted many theater […]
Posted inMusic
Jim Trompeter Quintet with Scott Wendhold & George Garzone
JIM TROMPETER QUINTET with SCOTT WENDHOLT & GEORGE GARZONE Chicago pianist Jim Trompeter can’t be accused of going easy on himself. A few times a year he gets to lead his own group at the Green Mill, which gives him the chance to showcase his buzz-saw technique, overflowing melodies, and stretched harmonies. So what does […]
Posted inFilm
Let the Music Do the Talking
Jazz ’34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing Rating *** A must see Directed by Robert Altman With Jesse Davis, David “Fathead” Newman, Ron Carter, Christian McBride, Tyrone Clark, Don Byron, Russell Malone, Mark Whitfield, Victor Lewis, Geri Allen, Cyrus Chestnut, James Carter, Craig Handy, David Murray, Joshua Redman, Curtis Fowles, Clark Gayton, Olu Dara, Nicholas […]