The Deep Blue Sea, Bailiwick Repertory. The complexity of Terence Rattigan’s characters and their moral dilemmas generally compensates for the dated depiction of gender relations in this 1952 drama: the less-than-successful painter Hester would sooner commit suicide than compromise her vision of romantic love. Her attempt to gas herself when her lover, an alcoholic pilot, […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 15
Issue of Jan. 13 – 19, 2000
Posted inNews & Politics
Among Pagans
By Matthew Sideman A flickering candle on an altar was the main source of light in a meeting room at the Lincolnwood Radisson, the site of the sixth annual Fellowship of Isis convention. A woman facing the altar and clad in purple robes said she was going to lead the several dozen people seated behind […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Letter to the Editor
The last time that the Reader ran a story by Richard Meltzer, I dutifully tried to plow through it, with no success. Now I had the same experience with “The Wisdom in Our Underwear, Final Notes on the Only Century We Had Until Last Week (My Century, Your Century, Bobo Olson’s Century),” also by Meltzer […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dueling Harolds
Dueling Harolds, ImprovOlympic. Essentially a rehash of Improv-Olympic’s Friday night The Cage Match, this latest foray into ComedySportz-style improv lacks the depth and humor of Improv-Olympic’s late-night offerings, which are more challenging. The show’s competition format–two teams are awarded points by judges for using their own suggestions, introducing the other team’s theme into their Harold, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ursula Oppens with Gerardo Ribeiro and Stephen Balderston
URSULA OPPENS WITH GERARDO RIBEIRO AND STEPHEN BALDERSTON In certain circles, a classical pianist hasn’t arrived until she’s played all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and Northwestern professor Ursula Oppens is in the midst of a three-year series of recitals that will cover the whole cycle. Better known as an exponent of new music, so […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Letter to the Editor
Decade’s best (random order). 1. As Good as It Gets–James Brooks’s Magnum Opus. The perfect love story of the 90s (or any decade). 2. Like Water for Chocolate–Played at Fine Arts for several months. Sublimation concept brilliantly portrayed in human terms. 3. Dead Man–Huge crowd at M.B. on opening night (you’re responsible for once, an […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In Performance: Chicago Ear and Eye Control’s instant sound tracks
At the first Chicago Ear and Eye Control six years ago, Ken Vandermark and several musicians substituted their own improvised music for the original sound track of Kurosawa’s film Yojimbo. Shortly afterward a woman wrote Vandermark what he calls “my first hate letter.” “Her perspective was that Yojimbo was a classic, a great piece of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Problems of Their Own
Sociologist Mary Pattillo-McCoy puts race back into analysis of the black middle class.
Posted inNews & Politics
Letter to the Editor
In my January 7 piece on the ten best movies of 1999, I incorrectly implied that Divorce Iranian Style first played locally at the Film Center. In fact it surfaced originally at the 1998 Chicago International Film Festival, where, festival programmer Jim Healy informs me, it tied for best documentary. Apologies to the festival for […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Relatively Smart
Einstein’s Dreams Clock Productions at National Pastime Theater By Justin Hayford To say that Albert Einstein was a dreamer is a monumental understatement. After all, the prep school dropout and lowly patent clerk reinvented the universe just by musing over it. “I built a mathematical laboratory, set myself in it as if I were sitting […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Joe Morris
JOE MORRIS Phenomenal guitarist Joe Morris released his debut album in 1982 and hasn’t stopped moving since. With his dry, brittle, effects-free tone, his acute awareness of the pulse, and his dogged avoidance of traditional solo structure, he’s become the most original stylist of the last decade. But for years he’s also made a concerted […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Frode Gjerstad with Hamid Drake & William Parker
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 […]
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 […]