WITHIN THE DREAM, Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, at Victory Gardens Theater. MPAACT’s production of Deidre Searcy’s multimedia play testifies to the steady improvement of this small, dedicated company. Although the decidedly undancerly troupe still struggles with demanding, often vague choreography meant to signify emotional or symbolic moments, the actors have begun to […]
Tag: Vol. 28 No. 34
Issue of May. 27 – Jun. 2, 1999
Posted inNews & Politics
Savage Overstatement
Dear Reader, I read Dan Savage’s recent article “Clique…Clique…Bang!” [May 14] with intense interest. He makes many true-to-life points about the “casual cruelty of the popular kids” and the indifference shown by schoolteachers and administrators. I was nodding my head through and through, my interest even more intensified by the reprint of the Harris kid’s […]
Posted inNews & Politics
West Side Stories
One day not too many years ago, I was at work and this man comes in. He walks right past the sign that says Authorized Personnel Only, and he walks straight over to my desk in the middle of the office and says, “Were you in second grade at the Ericson School?” I hadn’t been […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Theater People: the man behind the hits
A rip-roaring mix of swashbuckling, crotch kicking, bullwhip cracking, and body slamming is taking place on the stage of Columbia College’s Getz Theater. The crowd shouts at and taunts the fighters. “Go on girl!” yells one woman. “Kick some ass!” In the center of the packed auditorium sits David Woolley, who can barely conceal his […]
Posted inNews & Politics
See the Signs
To the editor, The article “History of Abuse” by William K. [May 21] touched on a topic usually overlooked or misunderstood by the public, especially the media. I was impressed with the honesty of the author and also the Reader for placing such an important issue on the front page. Current statistics suggest that one […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
“Landlords must accept Section 8 vouchers and certificates from tenants,” according to a recent press release from the city’s Human Relations Commission, “unless the landlords have a legitimate non-discriminatory reason not to do so.” The city’s fair-housing ordinance prohibits discrimination based on source of income, and Section 8 vouchers and certificates, which often serve as […]
Posted inMusic
Acid Mothers Temple/Spaceheads
The sprawling psychedelia of the Japanese collective Acid Mothers Temple–more formally known as Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.–makes the neohippie trappings of their countrymen in Ghost seem downright subtle. On their recently released second album, Pataphisical Freak Out MU!! (P.S.F.), about 15 of the 30-some “famous and unknown musicians, artists, dancers, farmers, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Principal Complaint
Dear editor: I am writing this letter in reaction to an article published in your paper on April 30. The title was “A Matter of Principals” by Linda Lutton. This article is with regard to Senate Bill 652, “Vallas versus the LSCs.” In this article an LSC teacher representative at Stowe elementary school describes horrific […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
As a patriotic American I am quite familiar with the “new-car smell” all new cars seem to have. What causes that smell, and are there any recorded incidents of dealers or manufacturers spritzing a car with an extra touch of that smell to entice buyers? –Robert Crawford, San Antonio, Texas Had some trouble with this […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Angry, Hungry, Horny & Tired
Angry, Hungry, Horny & Tired, WNEP Theater Foundation, at TinFish Theatre. Men are by nature whiners and cowards. Stick a guy in a relationship and the truth is revealed: caught in the throes of love, even the biggest alpha male degenerates into a simpering pile of impotent mush. At least that’s the premise behind WNEP’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Love Letter
A tender and sometimes very funny romantic comedy set in a New England seaside town, this is also something of a parable about what overheated summers can do to romantic imaginations. An unsigned love letter falls into the hands of various individuals who make creative assumptions about the author and intended recipient; many of them […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Days of the Week
Friday 5/28 – thursday 6/3 MAY By Cara Jepsen 28 FRIDAY The pre-Stonewall south-side gay scene centered on jazz bars like the Cabin Club, which boasted a troupe of transvestite dancers. Lesbian writer Lorraine Hansberry used to hang out at another place, the Kitty Kat club, which appears in the 1961 movie version of her […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Blues Festival
THURSDAY JUNE BEST BUY SHOWCASE STAGE Noon Roger Connelly & the Blues Merchants 1:00 PM Big John Dickerson From Minneapolis, brass-leavened R & B and blues in the uplifting style of onetime Chicago mainstays Big Twist & the Mellow Fellows. (BD) 2:00 PM Johnny Drummer See below. 3:00 PM The Southsiders 4:00 PM J.B. Ritchie […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Magma
MAGMA Not to belittle punk’s largely successful efforts to dismantle prog rock’s pretensions, but there are a few things about the prog era that seem rather lovable now–most of all its tolerance, if not outright encouragement, of serious eccentricity. And no prog band was more seriously eccentric than the French band Magma. An underground legend […]
Posted inMusic
Low
LOW When I first heard Low’s 1994 debut, I Could Live in Hope, I dismissed the band as a Galaxie 500 rip-off–another quiet, mixed-gender trio who’d probably worn out a few copies of the Velvet Underground’s third LP between rehearsals. (Producer Kramer had even treated the album to the same reverb bath he gave Galaxie […]