This remarkable and beautiful 160-minute family saga by the great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien (Goodbye South, Goodbye, Flowers of Shanghai) begins in 1945, when Japan ended its 51-year colonial rule in Taiwan, and concludes in 1949, when mainland China became communist and Chiang Kai-shek’s government retreated to Taipei. Perceiving these historical upheavals through the varied […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 34
Issue of May. 25 – 31, 2000
Posted inArts & Culture
Lear’s Shadow and 30 On Thursday: Edinburgh Benefit Performances of Plays From the Archives of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind”
Lear’s Shadow and 30 On Thursday: Edinburgh Benefit Performances of Plays From the Archives of “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” Neo-Futurists. At one point in Lear’s Shadow, Greg Allen dons a large, flat steel collar. Dropping a Ping-Pong ball onto the surface, he proceeds to roll it around the circular track of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Too Many Time Machines
Too Many Time Machines, Runamuck Productions, at TinFish Theatre. In his nationally syndicated strip Washingtoon, cartoonist Mark Alan Stamaty targets not only the three-ring circus of national politics but the media. And as a writer and illustrator of children’s books his approach is much the same; he doesn’t narrow the range of his views for […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
GROOVIE GHOULIES 5/26, FIRESIDE BOWL It’s a law of nature: there must always be good new Ramones records in the world. If the Ramones won’t make them, somebody else will. This two-man, two-woman California quartet’s sixth and latest, Travels With My Amp, isn’t as good as Road to Ruin but it’s a lot better than […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: a disturbing body of work
Mark Li-cheng Wu’s morbid mod-els are ready for their close-ups. But Wu’s not a fashion photographer. He’s a pathologist, a doctor who examines abnormal cells, tissues, and organs for signs of diseases ranging from cancer to tuberculosis. Like all pathologists, the Northwestern University Memorial Hospital doctor uses photography to document the organs and tissues that […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Color Code
[Re: Neighborhood News, May 19] During the 1940s and ’50s, with the University of Chicago at its behest employing such tactics as Conservation Community Councils and new parks to reduce the number of residences that could possibly be occupied by black people, the Hyde Park community made a concerted effort to figuratively and literally distance […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Brilliant Traces
Brilliant Traces, Morningstar Theater Company, at Center Theater. You see, there’s this guy who lives in a remote snowbound cabin in Alaska, and one stormy night a girl in a wedding gown stumbles through the door–yes, it’s Brilliant Traces once again, Cindy Lou Johnson’s romantic parable of spiritual hibernation and awakening. The manic Rosannah and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
West Side Story
In May of ’43, Vince was transferred from downstate to an air base in Orlando, Florida. He was to teach celestial navigation, so fliers would be able to navigate by the stars. He called me and said he was going, and I went into Mr. Hanna’s office and told him Vince was shipping out, so […]
Posted inFilm
Unsatisfied Men
Beau Travail Rating **** Masterpiece Directed by Claire Denis Written by Jean-Pol Fargeau and Denis With Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Gregoire Colin, Richard Courcet, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Adiatou Massudi, and Bernardo Montet. By Jonathan Rosenbaum Maybe freedom begins with remorse. [Pause.] Maybe freedom begins with remorse. I heard that somewhere. –from the narration of Beau travail […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Getting the Record Straight
In my May 12 story about the Smoking Popes, I misreported a transaction involving the band’s second album, Born to Quit. As far as I’ve been able to determine, the band’s label, Johann’s Face Records, sold the album directly to Capitol Records with the band’s approval. My apologies to Johann’s Face. J.R. Jones
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
“If there were justice in the world, Chicago would be treated to a Ninja squad of federal test police,” says an editorial commentary in Substance (April). “The reason for an outside squad is that just about every insider (including the city’s most prominent pundits, professors, and testing ‘experts’) in Chicago has been bought off at […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Zephyr Dance
Blindness was the spur for Frozen Straight On, Zephyr artistic director Michelle Kranicke’s new sextet. Hoping to explore both physical and emotional handicaps, she often blindfolded her dancers as they worked on the piece–and the result embodies both strength and vulnerability. The opening is full of wild, thoughtless-looking but well-organized movement, phrases that include turning […]
Posted inFilm
A Chinese Ghost Story
This 1987 fantasy from Hong Kong spawned two sequels, an animated remake, and the Swordsman films, and though aficionados debate their relative merits, the original is hard to top for stylistic boldness, vivid pictorialism, and dramatic power. Adapted from a venerable Chinese ghost tale, it follows a naive tax collector (Leslie Cheung) as he seeks […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Let’s Fight Fair
Dear editors: As a not-for-profit institution dedicated to public-service broadcasting, Chicago Public Radio/WBEZ welcomes a constructive discussion of its music service. While we are proud of the music we present, we can always learn from those music lovers and musicians who offer advice about enriching what we currently do. As long as the debate concerns […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Comedy Festival
THURSDAY, JUNE 1 8 Fresh Mugs “A” stand-up showcase at Subterranean hosted by Greg Proops. 8 Fresh Mugs “B” stand-up showcase at Monologue hosted by Judy Gold. 8 Noble Fool Theater Company’s “The Baritones” at Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted. 8:30 “Second City 4.0” at Second City Mainstage, 1616 N. Wells. 8:30 “History Repaints […]