In this epic drama, which suffuses dark themes with humor and a grand spiritual agenda, the head guard at a southern prison in 1935 comes to doubt the guilt of a convicted child murderer newly arrived on death row. Much of the three-hour movie takes place in the prison, but the resonant characterization, expansive plotting, […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 9 – 15, 1999
Posted inArts & Culture
The Old Settler
The Old Settler, Organic Theater Company, at McGaw YMCA Child Care Center. In the 1940s Harlem setting of this play, “old settler” means a woman 40 or over with no husband and no prospects. John Henry Redwood’s award-winning drama centers around African-American spinster Elizabeth (Valarie Tekosky) and her sister Quilly (La Donna Tittle). To help […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar
Friday 12/10 – Thursday 12/16 DECEMBER By Cara Jepsen 10 FRIDAY What would Karl Marx make of modern Manhattan? That’s what historian Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States) explores in his one-man, one-act play Marx in Soho, in which the old radical decries contemporary capitalism and attempts to show that his theories […]
Posted inNews & Politics
To All the Guys I Was Before
Would exploring my previous life help me figure out my place in this one?
Posted inMusic
Combination Platter
Combination Platter In 1963, in his native Buenos Aires, Guillermo Gregorio performed an original composition entitled “On the Piano, In the Piano, Around the Piano.” He and a partner clomped back and forth around the instrument to follow the score, striking the keys, scraping the internal strings, even thwacking the wooden body. Playing a recording […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Ex
THE EX Rock bands rarely age gracefully, and punks are especially bad at it: the Buzzcocks are a greatest-hits act without any hits, X sounded downright arthritic on its 1993 “comeback” album, and Steve Jones wore leopard-print stretch pants on the Sex Pistols’ reunion tour. But two decades after the Ex played their first gig […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hat and Soul
What’s worse than waiting in line for a driver’s license? Waiting in line and then being turned away.
Posted inArts & Culture
Possible Worlds
Possible Worlds, Airscape Productions, at the Chicago Cultural Center. The idea that multiple realities can exist at the same time has fascinated dedicated scientists like Richard Feynman, pop writers like Michael Crichton, and combinations of the two like Canadian playwright-mathematician John Mighton. But Mighton uses this heady mindscrew of an idea to explore a rather […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Killing Them Softly
I thought Renaldo Migaldi’s article “Natural Born Killers” (Reader, Section One, 11/26/99) was beautifully written, and especially considering the controversial nature of the subject matter remarkably measured, reasoned, and compassionate. His descriptions of the hunting with the dogs was marvelous, as he joined his father in his “killing a few consciousnesses” in the Michigan countryside. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Hit and Run
By Susan Messer It’s the noon hour, a warm fall day, and I’m out running. My standard route, two or three miles around town. I pass within a few blocks of the big high school. During lunchtime the streets belong to the teenagers, young thrill seekers drag racing down the streets, hanging out of car […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rashomon
RASHOMON, Theatre Volution Outreach, at the Viaduct Theatre. In this era of delicate multiculturalism, an all-white cast tackling Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Japanese tale (made famous by Akira Kurosawa’s film) can expect a level of scrutiny unknown a few decades ago–especially when the production is based on Englishman Ivor Benjamin’s 1988 adaptation, complete with faux-Japanese ritualization. Such […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories According to a November Boston Globe story, some fine restaurants in New York and Boston have taken to adding genuine gold flakes to certain dishes. Boston’s Riba restaurant recently offered “risotto of summer’s golden squashes with leaf of 24-carat gold.” Said the owner, “It’s so thin and weightless that by the time you […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Free Speech Rocks! (When Oprah Calls the Tune)
By Michael Miner Free Speech Rocks! (When Oprah Calls the Tune) The Insider turns on the dilemma facing a tobacco-company scientist who wants to go on TV and reveal the industry’s lies. He finds out that trade secrets and a confidentiality agreement are more than a match for truth and the public interest. A federal […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mix Master
Recording engineer Jim Reeves manned the sound board for some of the biggest stars of the rock era, but he’s finally found his own balance working out of his Evanston studio.
Posted inNews & Politics
Petty Crime
November 17, 6:35 PM, 600 block of North Michigan. Indecent exposure. Man entered movie theater and began jumping from seat to seat. He undressed, then quickly put his clothes back on and fled. November 18, 4:25 PM, 4500 block of North Kenmore. Assault. Man driving white BMW tailgated woman’s car. Woman made gestures at man. […]