Going Up, LeTraunik Productions, at TurnAround Theatre. Not so long ago, most white male adolescents aspired to play the guitar, the better to express their thoughts and feelings–for males were allowed to be introspective, even sensitive, in those days. Some have continued into adulthood–like the Green brothers, John and Rich, who open John’s musical memoir […]
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 38
Issue of Jun. 25 – Jul. 1, 1998
Posted inFilm
Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son
Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son Ken Jacobs’s rarely screened 1969 landmark of the American avant-garde is both a study in the dreamlike possibilities of rephotography and a film about watching movies. It begins with a 1905 short of the same title, a bizarre little narrative in which a large crowd tumbles through a doorway, leaps […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
I was mugged. All of a sudden, this five-foot-two chick was taking my wallet. Later, I couldn’t even tell the police what she had been wearing, but I remembered her voice, so deep and strange, sort of artificial. Or maybe it was my ears–my hearing may have been thrown off by the circumstances. I tried […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: nice day for a black-and-white wedding
When Steve Gross enrolled in the photography program at Columbia College nearly 20 years ago, “Nobody would admit to photographing weddings,” he says. “Back then, I didn’t want to be associated with weddings either. It wasn’t artistic.” Gross’s career began in the Air Force as the unofficial photographer for his base in Frankfurt, West Germany, […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: I’m a straight, middle-aged woman, still out there in the dating jungle. Sitting in a movie theater recently on a first date with a single, straight, middle-aged man, I was presented with his observation that a lot of formerly straight women come out as lesbians in middle age. His theory for this alleged […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Head Hunters; Hurting the One She Loves; Have a Cigar
By Michael Miner Head Hunters; When the Bulls run to glory, so do the daily papers. Can the circulation uptick be measured in the tens of thousands? I asked Mark Hornung. “At least the tens of thousands,” said Hornung, who’s vice president of circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times. “Bill Adee is the greatest thing since […]
Posted inMusic
Ire Land
X at Guinness Fleadh, Arlington International Racecourse, June 20 By J.R. Jones The VH-1 Stage didn’t look inviting. A square, open tent about a hundred feet on each side, it was divided in half by a chain-link fence; behind the fence stood the stage, flanked by wide banks of speakers that cut off one’s view […]
Posted inMusic
Schramms
SCHRAMMS The low-key charms of the Schramms owe a lot to the somber grad-student mien of front man Dave Schramm–his unadorned stage presence proves that sometimes the most charismatic pose you can strike is no pose at all. As an early member of Yo La Tengo and an effective sideman for people like Freedy Johnston, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The House on the Lake by the Woods near the Ocean
THE HOUSE ON THE LAKE BY THE WOODS NEAR THE OCEAN, Curious Theatre Branch, at the Lunar Cabaret. Beau O’Reilly is a superb solo performer who can turn every pause and stutter into a dramatic moment. In his own hands even his weakest material can seem the work of an Olympian intellect. The downside is […]
Posted inMusic
Patricia Barber
PATRICIA BARBER As she turns more of her attention to songwriting (both music and lyrics), regional treasure Patricia Barber uncovers new facets of her art–no easy feat when you consider the deep, dark dazzle that’s marked her performances and recordings in the 90s. Barber can rebuild and inhabit virtually any tune she tackles, spinning steel-lace […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sports Section
For one brief moment, my thoughts and Michael Jordan’s were remarkably similar, though he later expressed them much more preciously than I ever would. There were 1.1 seconds to go in game five of the NBA finals at the United Center. The Utah Jazz were leading 83-81, but after a time-out the Bulls had the […]
Posted inMusic
George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band
GEORGE GRUNTZ CONCERT JAZZ BAND Swiss pianist George Gruntz has chosen the Ellingtonian model for his sleek but blustery big band, and his success reminds you how few bands exploit that model today. Throughout jazz history most large ensembles have succeeded either by presenting exciting and innovative writing or by collecting enough star soloists to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: a different route to healing
When Kabuika Kamunga won a bicycle in a raffle in 1993, she wasn’t sure she would remember how to ride it. The last bike she’d owned was an orange-and-green cruiser she’d ridden as a child growing up in Zaire. It all came back to her, though, and she ended up riding her new bike everywhere. […]
Posted inMusic
Regina Carter
REGINA CARTER Regina Carter offers the perfect blend of beauty and brains–and how often can a guy make that statement without being labeled sexist? I offer the description in specific relation to Carter’s violin work, which glistens with conservatory tone but bristles with sharp, pungent logic. Other jazz fiddlers have plied their improvisations with tough […]