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 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 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, […]