Broken Spokes, Bailiwick Repertory. Sibling rivalry is a common enough theme, but playwright Willy Conley’s exploration of the tumultuous relationship between two brothers places this shopworn scenario in an entirely new light: in his Broken Spokes the brothers’ inability to communicate is complicated by their hearing impairment. Jackson, hyperactive and aggressive, wears a hearing aid; […]
Tag: Vol. 28 No. 3
Issue of Oct. 22 – 28, 1998
Posted inMusic
Jon Jang
JON JANG Jon Jang has become the Johnny Appleseed of Asian-American jazz. Through his finely etched compositions and translucent recordings, and especially his Pan Asian Arkestra–with its perfect balance of big-band jazz, Eastern themes and timbres, and avant-garde expressionism–the Chinese-American pianist has done more than any other musician to help this music blossom into a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
Chicago International Children’s Film Festival The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, now in its 15th year, continues Friday through Sunday, October 23 through 25, at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, and Pipers Alley, 210 W. North. Tickets are $4.50 for children and adults, but various discounts are available for four or more tickets. For […]
Posted inMusic
Anthony Brown’s Asian American Orchestra
ANTHONY BROWN’S ASIAN AMERICAN ORCHESTRA When it comes to integrating Asian musical traditions with jazz–the mission of the Asian-American jazz movement, which is headquartered in the Bay Area–no one has better credentials than percussionist and composer Anthony Brown. Brown even seems to have been born to the task–he’s the son of African-American/Native-American and Japanese parents–but […]
Posted inFilm
Reflections From the Social Dystopia: Films by Arthur Lipsett
Arthur Lipsett, a Canadian filmmaker most active during the 60s, is almost unknown in the U.S., but his films rank among the most powerful experimental work I’ve ever seen, documents of industrial dehumanization colored by a deepening sense of personal despair. In Free Fall rapidly edited footage of sun through trees is more fragmented than […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
Best foot forward. Vinton Thompson, a world authority on spittlebugs, has been named associate provost at Roosevelt University. In the September issue of the “Renaissance,” the school’s newsletter, he jokes, “There are lots of parallels between academia and spittlebugs. Spittlebugs are economic pests, and one is always looking for strategies to deal with the pests.” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In the Hands of an Angry God
The Chump at Live Bait Theater By Justin Hayford I hate to sound like Ralph Reed, but solo performers seem to be a godless bunch. Of course, Western culture has been a relatively godless place for a good century, ever since Darwin and Freud gave God the old one-two, knocking him out of natural history […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Victor Crown Affair
Peter Fitzgerald’s entourage went overboard trying to silence a pesky reporter. What was the question that drove them nuts?
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
I’ve always been intrigued by the ancient custom in China of binding women’s feet. I’ve never seen an actual picture of what they end up looking like but have heard them referred to as “lotus blossoms.” Do they end up looking like a claw or just little tiny feet? Was this an attempt to further […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Common Causes
Common Causes By Tessa Dratt “God didn’t mean for me to be poor,” Georgia told me once when I complimented her on her leather jacket. “Folks keep giving me things,” she said and laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. There is something about Georgia, who comes to clean my house on Fridays, that makes […]
Posted inMusic
The Pioneer’s Spirit
Pine Valley Cosmonauts Salute the Majesty of Bob Wills (Bloodshot) By Linda Ray When a Tulsa Tribune reporter asked him what he thought of rock and roll in 1958, country legend Bob Wills said, “Why, man, that’s the same music we’ve been playin’ since 1928!…We didn’t call it ‘rock and roll’ back when we introduced […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Days of the Week
Friday 10/23 – Thursday 10/29 OCTOBER By Cara Jepsen 23 FRIDAY The image of the lazy welfare mother may have inadvertently been fostered by liberal policy makers in the early part of this century. Though most poor women were workers, progressive reformers played up the motherhood angle to pack the maximum emotional wallop. The charity […]
Posted inMusic
Two Great Tastes That Sound Great Together
Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach at the Chicago Theatre, October 16 By Tim Sheridan Maybe it’s fear of mortality that has some folks freaking out about the recent musical marriage between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach. Despite the new martini craze, many thirtysomethings associate Bacharach with their parents–whom they’re trying desperately not to become right […]
Posted inFilm
Pleasantville
Teenage siblings from a broken family (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) find themselves transported via a mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts) to the “perfect” town of a 50s black-and-white sitcom called Pleasantville; eventually they bring about changes in the town and TV show, introducing rain, fire, reading, rock, jazz, and above all color. The directorial […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TIF Tiff
tobin.qxd To the editor: We are responding to two small but important inaccuracies in your Neighborhood News article (October 9) on the proposed Gateway Mall and displacement of Pivot Point. 1. The tax increment financing (TIF) district was amended, not created, when Rudy Mulder took over the project in 1995. The TIF was declared nearly […]