FRODE GJERSTAD WITH HAMID DRAKE & WILLIAM PARKER To most folks Norwegian jazz begins and ends with ECM Records stalwarts Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal, the leading progenitors of the pastel-toned one-world fusion the label is notorious for popularizing. Alto saxophonist Frode Gjerstad, a staunch free-jazz proponent with a rangy sense of melody, should know–he’s […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 15
Issue of Jan. 13 – 19, 2000
Posted inArts & Culture
Chi Lives: Mark Rath turns the page
Mark Rath recalls a business meeting in Burbank with the chief engineer of NBC in the mid-80s, back when he was working for Sony. The man looked at Rath’s tie, grabbed a pair of scissors, and severed the offending appendage from his neck. “He said, ‘Don’t ever come in here with a tie,’” Rath says. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music listings
Music listings are compiled by LAURA KOPEN and RENALDO MIGALDI (classical, fairs and festivals) from information available Tuesday. We advise calling ahead for confirmation. Please send listings information, including a phone number for use by the public, to Reader Music Listings, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611, or send a fax to 312-828-9926, or send E-mail […]
Posted inMusic
Pop, Pop, Fizz
Now That’s What I Call Music! 3 (Universal) Totally Hits (Arista) Best of Rap City (Virgin) MTV Party to Go 2000 (Tommy Boy) The Source Presents Hip Hop Hits Volume 3 (Def Jam) By Douglas Wolk Year-end hit compilations are meant to be stocking stuffers, but as annual summaries of American mass musical taste, they […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories Erik Sprague, 27, a doctoral student in philosophy in Albany, New York, has had his teeth sharpened, his tongue forked, bumps implanted in his forehead, and “scales” tattooed on his body in order to look like a reptile, according to December wire service reports. Sprague, described as an excellent student by a professor, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Horror Chambre of Perfection
HORROR CHAMBRE OF PERFECTION, Mammals, at the Space. In the creepy 1959 film The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, a power-crazed surgeon proposes a complete facial transplant for his daughter, whose countenance has been disfigured. Playwright Bob Fisher, inspired by this retro thriller, has made his version a commentary on cosmetic vanity, and the Mammals’ […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Siege on South Peoria Street
The race riots that exploded in Chicago after the war usually targeted blacks moving into white neighborhoods. But on November 8, 1949, mobs attacked their own.
Posted inFilm
True Grit
Rosetta Rating **** Masterpiece Directed and written by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne With Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne Yernaux, Olivier Gourmet, and Bernard Marbaix. By Jonathan Rosenbaum I saw Rosetta three weeks ago, and haven’t recovered from it since. In fact, I didn’t see any film since the Dardennes’, except films for work. It moves […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Nigel Wade Yanks the Football Away/ Switched at Birth
By Michael Miner Nigel Wade Yanks the Football Away From the age of three, Jump Start’s Robb Armstrong wanted to create a comic strip. At five he began practicing by drawing pictures of Charlie Brown. “I kidded myself,” says Armstrong. “I said, ‘His head is a circle, and he just has lines for the eyes […]
Posted inMusic
TLC
TLC Few records in recent memory embody the contradictions of contemporary R & B better than TLC’s Fanmail (LaFace), a ping-pong match between keep-it-real-ism and materialism. At the start, T-Boz, Left Eye, and Chilli get down with the fans who’ve sent in letters over the years, cooing, “Just like you, I get lonely too,” but […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reader to Reader
Posted on an apartment bulletin board after the newly functional front gate–which was also newly very loud–had been silenced by a little well-placed padding, which someone kept removing: WHOEVER DID THIS REMOVE THE SECOND TIME THE FORM ON THE FRONT GATE DOOR. THE FORM IS FOR AGAINST THE NOISE DING DONG BANG METAL LOUD DURING […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Avanti!
Avanti! This 1972 release is the most underrated of all Billy Wilder comedies and arguably the one that comes closest to the sweet mastery and lilting grace of his mentor, Ernst Lubitsch. Jack Lemmon arrives at a small resort in Italy to claim the body of his late father, who perished in a car accident, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Being Andy Kaufman
He seems to be everywhere these days. So why is he still so hard to find?
Posted inArts & Culture
The Tree, the Mayor and the Media Center
The Tree, the Mayor, and the Media Center What a pity that one of Eric Rohmer’s best features should have fallen between the cracks and never received a U.S. release. But what a piece of luck that the Museum of Contemporary Art should launch its series “Living Spaces: Films on Architecture” with a swell pair […]