If You Are Here, This Is for You Brian Ora Coya at Hotel Kafka, July 30 and 31 By Justin Hayford On the second (and last) night of Brian Ora Coya’s traveling one-man show, If You Are Here, This Is for You, I arrived at Hotel Kafka 15 minutes early–so I had to wait in […]
Tag: Vol. 27 No. 44
Issue of Aug. 6 – 12, 1998
Posted inNews & Politics
Band of Gypsies
How two musical soul mates found each other, then lost each other–then found each othe again.
Posted inArts & Culture
Steam Heat
Undercover in the House of Love Bailiwick Repertory By Carol Burbank It’s been a busy season for obscenity debates, as simpleminded moral certainty shines its harsh light into libraries, theaters, movie houses, and bedrooms across the nation. Even powerful heterosexuals like President Clinton are now squinting into its beam. A play representing Jesus as gay, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Underground Film Festival
Chicago Underground Film Festival The fifth annual Chicago Underground Film Festival runs Tuesday through next Sunday, August 11 through 16, at the Theatre Building, 1225 W. Belmont. Tickets for all programs are $6, except for the screening at 7 on Tuesday, which is $15 and includes admission to the opening-night party. A $50 pass will […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dearly Departed
DEARLY DEPARTED, Encore Players, at the Second City, Donny’s Skybox Studio. David Bottrell and Jessie Jones’s two-act comedy, about a dysfunctional extended family brought together by the death of their shiftless pa, could easily have been loathsome and painful–an evening of cheap laughs that invites us to scoff at pretty much powerless people on the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Into the Great Unknown/ Opting Out of Op-Ed/ News Bite
By Michael Miner Into the Great Unknown Ayoung writer acclaimed for a triumph of the sympathetic imagination, Natasha Tarpley of Hyde Park now goes to work for Fortune magazine. Her reasons for turning to orthodox journalism are the traditional ones: travel, new experiences, and that’s where the money is. Girl in the Mirror came out […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wang Dang Doodle (The Life Story of Koko Taylor-Queen of the Blues)
Wang Dang Doodle (The Life Story of Koko Taylor–Queen of the Blues), Black Ensemble Theater. There are plenty of good years left for Koko Taylor, but since she’s one of Chicago’s living treasures, a Black Ensemble biographical pageant is not premature. And unlike most music revues, featuring singers in street clothes warbling sentimental selections from […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bailiwick Directors’ Festival
Bailiwick Directors’ Festival Bailiwick Repertory’s tenth annual showcase of directorial projects features one-acts ranging from established classical and contemporary selections to untested material. This year’s edition, in which several different plays are presented each evening, finds 18 directors chosen from “numerous applicants . . . identified only by their social security numbers, not names, so […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sinister Rambling
In Perpetuity Throughout the Universe Frump Tucker Theatre Company at Bailiwick Arts Center By Adam Langer I believe everything I read, and I think that makes me a better person. –Nigel Tufnell, This Is Spinal Tap Montage. It’s the name of a sinister publishing house in Eric Overmyer’s 1986 play, In Perpetuity Thoughout the Universe, […]
Posted inFilm
Waterproof
Waterproof Screenwriter Barry Berman (Benny & Joon) makes his directorial debut with this thoughtful tale of a prodigal daughter returning home to a southern hamlet. Tyree (April Grace) is a cabbie and single mother in Washington, D.C.; when her 11-year-old son gets roped into a holdup and shoots a Jewish store owner (Burt Reynolds), she […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Seeker: A Thrift-Shopper’s Diary
I rarely shop behind the counter, where most thrift stores keep their “valuables” –the usual collection of knives, jewelry, CDs, overpriced glassware, and Precious Moments figurines. But I always take a minute to scan the stuff anyway. I like to know I’ve seen everything. This time my eye is caught by a nine-inch-high 50s-style plastic […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Register Correction
billock.qxd Dear editor: In a July 24 Critic’s Choice, Ted Shen compares Susan Graham favorably to other classically trained singers because she “keep[s] her sights set on opera” rather than pursuing “pop fame and fortune.” I can’t help thinking how much less tragic it would be for a real artist like Graham to gain mainstream […]
Posted inFilm
Revenge Is Bitter
Buffalo ’66 Rating * Has redeeming facet Directed by Vincent Gallo Written by Gallo and Alison Bagnall With Gallo, Christina Ricci, Anjelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Kevin Corrigan, Mickey Rourke, Roseanna Arquette, and Jan-Michael Vincent. By Jonathan Rosenbaum Vincent Gallo has proved himself a good actor in many films–in Arizona Dream, The Funeral, and several Claire […]
Posted inMusic
Laurel Aitken/ New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble
LAUREL AITKEN/NEW YORK SKA-JAZZ ENSEMBLE A hero from ska’s illustrious past and an enticing prospect for its future share the stage this week when 71-year-old Laurel Aitken rolls through town with the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble. The Cuban-born Aitken, who immigrated to Jamaica as a child in 1938, is rightly known as the godfather of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Anarchists Anonymous
derek.qxd To the editor, This is Derek from Some Chicago Anarchists, responding to your article from a couple of weeks ago about our group and our Haymarket activities [July 3]. We’ve discussed this story at length and have come to a consensus about it. While we were generally pleased with the objective tone of the […]