DARK PONY and REUNION, RowHouse Theatre. Outdoor theater often offers the noisy challenges of sirens, planes, junkyard dogs, and elevated trains–all nonnegotiable distractions in RowHouse Theatre’s Uptown backyard, where six very nice trees shelter a suitably small stage. Early works by David Mamet, these two terse but never cryptic one-acts focus on fathers and daughters. […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 36
Issue of Jun. 8 – 14, 2000
Posted inArts & Culture
No One As Nasty
NO ONE AS NASTY, Victory Gardens Theatre. When a character shares the stage with an alter ego, the counterpart is often smarter, kinder, and funnier. Susan Nussbaum handily upsets this convention in her most recent play, presented as part of Victory Gardens’ Access Project. Janet (Lusia Strus) is a drily witty, erudite woman in a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Some people believe that wearing a tinfoil helmet will protect them from mind-control rays (or other forms of secret coercion). But if their intent is to create a “Faraday cage” to protect the brain from intrusive electromagnetic rays, wouldn’t it be more effective to use something a little more solid–say, an infantry helmet? And even […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Driving a Bargain
DRIVING A BARGAIN, Overdog Productions, at the Athenaeum Theatre. Playwright-director Keir Graff strikes a consumer nerve in his portrayal of the endgame that’s accompanied every automobile sale since the the dawn of car dealerships. Would-be buyer Kevin Huntley (Reid Robinson) and down-on-his-luck car salesman Rod Austin (Robert Buscemi) square off in what escalates into a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Obituary: John Nash Ott
“You know, in baseball you think that all science is eliminated: Newton’s laws don’t apply, everything else is separate.” Syd Thrift, vice president of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, waxes wry from a hotel room in Kansas City, where his team is in the midst of a three-game series with the Royals. Back in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar
Friday 6/9 – Thursday 6/15 JUNE by MIKE SULA 9 FRIDAY Guests are invited to sing to and sign the birthday card for Affie, an 11,000-pound African elephant living at the Brookfield Zoo, who is celebrating the big three-oh today. At that age most pachyderms don’t mind putting on a few pounds, and her keepers […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dust in the Wind
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1987 Taiwanese feature is less powerful than the preceding A Time to Live and a Time to Die (showing at the Film Center Tuesday and Thursday, June 20 and 22) but much better than his subsequent Daughter of the Nile (which isn’t included in the center’s current retrospective). It follows two young lovers […]
Posted inArts & Culture
O.C.Y.C.’s Midnight Is the Day I Go Crazy
O.C.Y.C.’s Midnight Is the Day I Go Crazy, O.C.Y.C. Productions, at Heartland Studio Theater. O.C.Y.C. isn’t really funny in the traditional sense, though the troupe’s most recent sketch revue, Midnight Is the Day I Go Crazy, has its laugh-out-loud moments. But troupe member Amy Gard parading around the stage in a bear suit throwing confetti […]
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, in-cluding 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 inFilm
The Communal Balancing Act
In a recent review in the Times Literary Supplement, American sociologist and historian Richard Sennett examined the failure of socialism in the United States and argued that Americans seem to have a different take than people in England and continental Europe on collectivity itself. One reason he suggests for this difference—that slavery confused and perhaps […]
Posted inNews & Politics
“And the winner is…oh, never mind.”
By Martha Bayne The country picking of the Pine Valley Cosmonauts set a mellow tone for this year’s Firecracker Alternative Book awards, but on the edge of the empty dance floor one man in khaki pants pogoed vigorously up and down. The rest of the crowd–a hundred or so authors, editors, and publishing professionals–lurked in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories In May Sunday school teacher Rob Vaughn debuted his Christian Wrestling Federation in Mesquite, Texas, with 12 grapplers (including “Apocalypse” vs. “Jesus Freak”) entertaining about 400 fans. Vaughn said the action is similar to that of mainstream pro wrestling, but without the profanity and sexual content. Another difference, according to the Dallas Morning […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The Purloined Menu
Zealous is spacious and monochromatic, backlit by translucent bays that emphasize the upscale airport lounge look. The flight attendants, in matching gray suits, are obsequious yet slow, presenting with grave earnestness the predinner “amusement,” which fits securely into a turbulence-resistant tray tabletop. The menu jets from cuisine to cuisine with alarming speed. Our attendant described […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Billy Flynn Blues Featuring Rusty Zinn & Pee Wee Madison
BILLY FLYNN BLUES BAND FEATURING RUSTY ZINN & PEE WEE MADISON Guitarist Billy Flynn was mentored by such Chicago stalwarts as Jimmy Dawkins and Hubert Sumlin, and in 1984 he joined the Legendary Blues Band, formed by some of Muddy Waters’s sidemen who defected en masse in 1980. He’s comfortable in an amiable 50s shuffle, […]
Posted inMusic
An Itch to Scratch/Calling All Turntablists
An Itch to Scratch Any healthy music scene thrives on competition, but only in the world of hip-hop do performers duke it out in elaborate contests and wear the victory crown as if they were prizefighters. For 14 years the Technics DMC World Champion-ships, sponsored by the British organization Disco Mix Club, have offered DJs […]