An Apology for the Course & Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening Theater Oobleck at Odum By Justin Hayford The more it’s tapped, the more Theater Oobleck’s well of creativity seems to replenish itself. A decade ago, this scraggly band of political and literary renegades arrived from […]
Tag: Vol. 28 No. 24
Issue of Mar. 18 – 24, 1999
Posted inNews & Politics
She’ll Always Hav Beijing/ Out of the Loop/ News Bites
By Michael Miner She’ll Always Have Beijing A really great job in journalism beats any job in the world, and you’ll happily shoulder the misery that always comes with it. For the sake of her terrific job, Margaret Davis lived illegally in a firetrap tenement high-rise and trudged up and down six flights of stairs […]
Posted inMusic
Vienna Waltz Ensemble
VIENNa WALTZ ENSEMBLE On a trip to Czechoslovakia in 1991 Greg Sarchet made an unexpected discovery: much of the live music in cafes, taverns, and restaurants was performed by a combo of two violins and a double bass. As a bassist, he’s always on the lookout for pieces that spotlight his instrument, and on subsequent […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Winter’s Tale
THE WINTER’S TALE, Stone Circle Theatre Ensemble, at the Athenaeum Theatre. Produced only two years ago in this same space by Shakespeare’s Motley Crew, the Bard’s tale of jealousy and reconciliation now returns. Heavy with wishful thinking, Shakespeare’s penultimate comedy shows how wrongs committed by one generation might be set right by their unwitting children. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Artists Formally Known as Oui Be Negros and The Playground
THE ARTISTS FORMALLY KNOWN AS OUI BE NEGROES, Oui Be Negroes, at the Playground, and THE PLAYGROUND, at the Playground. Del Close’s death changes nothing. The battle still rages in improvisation circles: Is improv an art form in itself or just a tool for creating more traditional theater? Both sides of the debate are likely […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Irish…And how They Got That Way
THE IRISH…AND HOW THEY GOT THAT WAY, at the Mercury Theater. As commercial flag-wavers go, this musical revue is diverting and informative enough. But given Ireland’s rich literary tradition and turbulent history, one might have expected something better, especially since the script was penned by Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes. Instead this is a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Caught in the Net
Captured at www.amazon.com Daddy’s Cap Is on Backwards by Bil Keane Synopsis: The heartwarming comedy of the popular Family Circus comes to life in a new collection of cartoons and comic strips from the syndicated series. Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers! From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1999. Ever since […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Women in the Director’s Chair International Film and Video Festival
Women in the Director’s Chair International Film and Video Festival The 18th annual Women in the Director’s Chair International Film and Video Festival, featuring narrative, documentary, animated, and experimental works by women, runs from Friday, March 19 through Sunday, March 28. Screenings are at the Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson; HotHouse, 31 […]
Posted inFilm
The Bicycle Thief
The Bicycle Thief An unemployed worker (Lamberto Maggiorani) in postwar Rome finds a job putting up posters for a Rita Hayworth movie after his wife pawns the family sheets to get his bicycle out of hock. But right after he starts work the bike is stolen, and with his little boy in tow he travels […]
Posted inMusic
Jacobites
JACOBITES What do you do for a second act when the bedroom rock band you formed with your little brother and a couple high school buddies churned up some of the richest soil of a musically fecund age? The Swell Maps, led by Nikki Sudden and his brother, the late Epic Soundtracks, have gotten props […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
According to Northwestern University’s Roger Schank, the Internet is the greatest invention of the past two millennia. He says it will do away with, among other things, shopping malls and newspapers. “Life (and human interaction) in fifty years will be so different we will hardly recognize the social structures that will evolve,” he writes on-line […]
Posted inMusic
Wolter Wierbos
WOLTER WIERBOS There isn’t much Dutch trombonist Wolter Wierbos can’t do. He’s played precise chamber jazz with Maarten Altena, garrulous open-ended freebop with Gerry Hemingway, and throbbing postpunk with the Ex. Yet you can pick his distinctive personality out of even the busiest melee–he’s the European answer to great, boundary-busting Americans like Ray Anderson and […]
Posted inMusic
Blue Note New Directions Band
BLUE NOTE NEW DIRECTIONS BAND No factor played a greater role in the success of Blue Note Records in the 50s and 60s than the stable of musicians the label assembled. Most of the players participated in many of one another’s projects, with respected leaders acting as valued sidemen; and the hundreds of albums that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jesus-The Wonder Years
JESUS–THE WONDER YEARS, Corn Productions, at SweetCorn Playhouse. The smugly sanctimonious will hate this play, but everyone else should come unto the SweetCorn Playhouse to see the second installment in the company’s “Passion Follies.” This troupe brags, “We’re not a theater, we’re a party”–and the results back up the boast. Industriously irreverent yet strangely innocent, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
My roommates and I are having an argument about electroshock therapy after watching Jack in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. What actually happens when someone gets zapped through the brain? Jack convulses for a number of seconds after he gets zapped, but one of my roommates contends that would not actually happen and there […]