By Michael Miner Worthless Opinions? The public doesn’t buy America’s community newspapers for the wit and wisdom of their pundits–but then that’s not why most of us buy big city dailies either. People like to know what’s going on. Even so, a daily forum of forceful cogitators turns the passive experience of learning what happened […]
Tag: Vol. 28 No. 34
Issue of May. 27 – Jun. 2, 1999
Posted inArts & Culture
Sondheim Pure and Simple
Saturday Night Pegasus Players If You Ever Leave Me…I’m Going With You Apollo Theater By Albert Williams “Hope I can give you one of these every year for the next forty years at least,” Stephen Sondheim wrote to his father on the occasion of his 60th birthday. It was July of 1955, and the gift, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Passion of Henry David Thoreau
It’s quite a coup for Northwestern University’s theater department to have secured a world premiere by Joyce Carol Oates: this student production is a curiosity that borders on an event. It’s also a literary love letter from one American writer to another. In The Passion of Henry David Thoreau Oates pays complex homage to the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jeff Ryner’s American Parade
JEFF RYNER’S AMERICAN PARADE, Pillar Studio, at the Lunar Cabaret. Peter Handler’s cool satire of war American-style has a wonderful premise: Jeff Ryner, the lone fatality in a Desert Storm-type skirmish, is elevated to the level of a national hero and laid to rest with all the trimmings–including a nationally televised funeral and countless navel-gazing […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
JACK LOGAN 5/28, SCHUBAS Working-class hero Jack Logan made more than 600 home recordings before a pal in R.E.M. recommended him to his first record label in 1994. As prolific as Robert Pollard but more willing to edit, he’s released five more LPs since. His latest, Buzz Me In (Capricorn), features the most elaborate arrangements […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hidden Meaning
To: Joravsky Re: “Sign of Trouble” [May 7] You failed to mention one of the most important points. South Loop School is in a cul-de-sac, unseen from Roosevelt and State. What purpose would a school sign serve, other than support the interim (I say, interim) principal’s transparent attempt at self-promotion? Anonymous for a good reason
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar Sidebar
Photographer Jack Delano worked for the Farm Security Administration, traveling across the country documenting rural life during the Great Depression. In 1941 he was sent to Puerto Rico for a three-month assignment. After the war he returned to the island and made it his home for the next 50 years. “The Art of Jack Delano,” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Winners
An antidote to the sensationalism and banality of music biopics like Shine and Hilary and Jackie, this exquisitely crafted documentary concerns four violinists and a pianist, most of whom seemed destined for a degree of success they either didn’t achieve or couldn’t sustain. Nineties interviews with Philipp Hirschhorn, Berl Senofsky, Mikhail Bezverkhny, Gidon Kremer, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reasonable Accommodation
To the editor: Neal Pollack did an excellent job in describing the ridiculous situation involving the blind street musician Gary Jones and the CTA president Frank Kruesi [May 14]. It’s good to know that a political mercenary who clearly never missed a meal in his life has the time to pursue peanut salespersons, small vendors, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Prisoners of War
A central Illinois county on the road between the coasts has an impressive record of intercepting trucks carrying marijuana and cocaine. But does putting mules and low-level dealers away for life really make a difference in the country’s battle against dr
Posted inArts & Culture
Within the Dream
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 […]
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 […]