In 1847, at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican War, soldiers from the Fourth Regiment Illinois Volunteers sneaked behind enemy lines and emerged with the Mexican commander’s leg. It wasn’t as grisly as it sounds: the leg was artificial and the general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, wasn’t wearing it at the time. […]
Tag: Vol. 29 No. 39
Issue of Jun. 29 – Jul. 5, 2000
Posted inArts & Culture
Coaster
Coaster, Cave 76, at Chicago Dramatists. Given the mind games and mysteries playwright (and Reader contributor) Adam Langer has favored in the past, his latest work seems positively straightforward. A romantic comedy about a hapless travel-guide writer, Coaster is less concerned with action than Langer’s Film Flam was. And though the playwright’s cynicism still rears […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
SCOTT FREE 6/30, BORDERS ON CLARK Borders’s PrideTunes 2000 series, a monthlong run of performances by gay and lesbian artists, closes with a bang this year: Chicagoan Scott Free dazzled me a couple years ago with his debut, Getting Off, a potent one-man eruption of fiercely articulate lust and rage hot enough to fry the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Scooby-Doo Mystery Theatre
Scooby-Doo Mystery Theatre, New Millennium Theatre Company, at Boxer Rebellion Theater. Bring your jammies and a bowl of cereal to this grown-up but authentic reenactment of the Saturday morning classic, expertly adapted and directed by Chad Wise. Wise piles the whole gang–Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and of course Scooby–into their pink and green flowered Mystery […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Country Music Festival
TASTE STAGE 12:30 PM Dr. Mark & the Sutures This suburban band was formed in 1987 by “physicians and businessmen who enjoyed and played music as a hobby” to provide entertainment at a neighborhood block party. 2:30 PM Jon Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts featuring Kelly Hogan A fitting choice to kick off the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Taste of Chicago
FRIDAY, JUNE 30 Taste Stage NOON One Chance 1:15 Ian Crockett Band 2:30 Vida Blues 3:45 Tony Ocean 5:00 Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel 7:30 Hackberry Ramblers FUNTIME Stage 2:00 Dan LeMonnier 5:30 Dave Kinnoin FOX BANDSTAND 11:45 Deja Vu 2:15 Uprights 4:45 Beatle Brothers PETRILLO MUSIC SHELL 6:30 Patti LaBelle SATURDAY JULY 1 TASTE STAGE […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Snow Palace
THE SNOW PALACE, SummerNITE, at the Theatre Building. Polish playwright Stanislawa Przybyszewska wrote only three plays in her short life–she was 34 when she died in 1935–but her place in European theater has been assured by The Danton Case, an epic five-act study of French leader Georges Danton and the Reign of Terror. In 1986 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Big Deal/Pyramid Scheme
Producing giants SFX and the Nederlander Organization are joining forces in teh north Loop: What’s with the lame lineup?
Posted inArts & Culture
Films by Andy Warhol
These two early films by Andy Warhol display many of his characteristic themes, but they’re more experimental than most of his mid-60s films. In the 33-minute Inner and Outer Space (1965), Warhol’s fascination with looking and being looked at leads to a terrible sense of spiritual emptiness. It makes early and remarkable use of both […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Rise and Fall of the Mound People
The ancient mounds of Cahokia constitute the largest earthworks in the Western hemisphere. You’d think something this hard to miss would be easier to figure out.
Posted inNews & Politics
Dwight Yoakam
DWIGHT YOAKAM I understand that Dwight Yoakam is a busy guy. South of Heaven, West of Hell, a western he directs and stars in along with Bridget Fonda, Vince Vaughn, and Billy Bob Thornton, opens later this year, and this fall he’ll also be releasing an all-new album. But that’s really no excuse for his […]
Posted inNews & Politics
From the Ground Up
How farming changed a city couple’s whole concept of poop, pee, and decay.
Posted inArts & Culture
Grant Park Chorus
GRANT PARK CHORUS Rachmaninoff is probably best known for his extravagant piano concertos, but for my money a few of his atmospheric, achingly spiritual orchestral and choral works rank higher in his oeuvre–namely The Bells, the Symphonic Dances, and All-Night Vigil, the last of which makes up the Grant Park Chorus’s entire program at both […]