The Cultured Tourist at Carol Ehlers, through February 20 National Exposure VI at ARC, through January 30 Depth of Field at Peter Miller, through February 13 By Fred Camper In 1864 Marcus Aurelius Root listed some of photography’s “benefits” in a book described by critic Vicki Goldberg as “the first American …brief for photography as […]
Tag: Vol. 28 No. 16
Issue of Jan. 21 – 27, 1999
Posted inArts & Culture
Archie Shepp & Mark Isham
ARCHIE SHEPP & MARK ISHAM One look at this bill is enough to make any informed listener check the ingredients in the cold medicine he took the night before. What is Archie Shepp, saxist and former black-power firebrand, doing onstage with Mark Isham, new-cool trumpeter and New Age-inspired film composer? They’ve come together as part […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories In November South African inventor Charl Fourie introduced a $1,000 flame-throwing apparatus for cars designed to thwart car jackers. A gas canister in the trunk feeds tubes that run under the forward doors, and a spark ignites a flame that shoots out about seven feet. The device is legal in South Africa, which […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Equal Interest
EQUAL INTEREST The name of this trio announces the group’s democratic nature in part by concealing the identities of its members: reedist Joseph Jarman, violinist Leroy Jenkins, and pianist Myra Melford, three of the most idiosyncratic improvisers in modern music. These former Chicagoans dazzled a HotHouse audience in November with a performance that was paradoxically […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Some Strange
Some Strange, Dirtybowl Productions, at Stage Left Theatre. Like many young playwrights, Jason Walter-Tinker hasn’t yet grasped the concept of editing himself. And like many twentysomethings on Chicago’s theater scene, he’s yet to realize just how tough it is to translate the postcollegiate experience to the stage, though a recent production of John Boston’s Ramblers […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Hey, Faggot: I am a 30-year-old breeder female and have a boyfriend/lover who is 50. We met on the Internet about four months ago and in person about six weeks ago. I have always been attracted to older men because they are more caring and respectful toward the needs of the woman, as I also […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Fame–The Musical
Fame–The Musical Halliwell’s Film Guide calls the 1980 movie Fame a “cleverly shot and edited slice of life which unfortunately features people whose language and personalities are fairly repellent.” But that’s actually the strength of the material conceived by David De Silva–coproducer of the original movie, consulting producer of the spin-off TV series, and the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: looking behind the Taliban’s iron veil
Since the rise of the conservative Islamic Taliban regime in 1996, the lives of women in Afghanistan have changed dramatically. Women who had held professional jobs for years were told they were no longer allowed to work outside the home. In public they were now required to wear a burqa–a cumbersome head-to-toe garment with an […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
DIANE IZZO 1/22, METRO; 1/30, Museum of contemporary art When I was called to help judge a local Lilith Fair talent competition at Metro last year, I gratefully threw points at those few performers out of the 21 female-dominated acoustic acts who didn’t make me feel like I’d been sentenced to community service. First-runner-up Izzo […]
Posted inNews & Politics
AMA’s Lundberg Crosses the Line/Once an Enemy…/News Bite
By Michael Miner AMA’s Lundberg Crosses the Line Republicans out to clear Bill Clinton from the territory need to touch up their wanted poster. Too many good folk don’t buy the picture of a duplicitous predator who sneers at their Bible-based values. Shucks, everyone lies about sex–about how well, how often, and with whom. Even […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Troubles in Mind
Translations Seanachai Theatre Company at the Theatre Building Remembrance Famous Door Theatre Company at the Theatre Building By Albert Williams Thirty years ago this month, a demonstration supporting Northern Ireland’s unification with the Irish Republic erupted in violence when the demonstrators–members of the People’s Democracy, a leftist student group–were greeted by a mob of pro-British […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Devil Inside
Therese Raquin Greasy Joan & Company at American Theater Company By Carol Burbank Gruesome murders have always fed the popular imagination: bloody spectacles make us aware of our moral fragility, as we speculate with a shiver about who killed JonBenet Ramsey, for example. Are there more bodies under that cellar floor? Why would anyone do […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Grant Good: Peter Bad
Dear Reader, Peter Margasak, huh. He’s Wyman’s replacement, right? Yeah, “Post No Bills,” that’s really clever. Peter, was that your brainstorm or your editor’s? I guess it really doesn’t matter, unless of course your life is so lame that you actually rely on Critic’s Choices to give you something to do. But I do have […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In Print: David Wakler’s mysterious ways
From priest to attorney to mystery novelist–you wouldn’t describe David Walker’s resume as typical. But there is a certain continuity to his vocational history: an interest in language, the study of character, and the truth behind things. Walker mentions one thing that priests and attorneys have in common: both spend their time “dealing with people […]
Posted inArts & Culture
True Books
All You Need is Love…and 99 Other Life Lessons From Classic Rock Songs, by Pete Fornatale and Bill Ayres (Fireside, $11). SYNOPSIS: The Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eyes” and 99 other popular tunes are plumbed for life lessons and deep emotional truths. Includes questions to guide self-analysis. Representative quote: “When you sense that someone has lying eyes […]