MACBETT, Division 13 Productions and Greasy Joan & Company, at the Chopin Theatre. Director Joanna Settle clearly has an exacting vision; it seems no element escapes her notice in this production of Eugene Ionesco’s dark, absurdist romp through Shakespeare’s Macbeth. On Andrew Lieberman’s sublimely garish set–a severe expanse of wood-grain paneling and featureless carpet that […]
Tag: Vol. 30 No. 11
Issue of Dec. 14 – 20, 2000
Posted inArts & Culture
God’s Mistake
GOD’S MISTAKE, Corn Productions, at the Cornservatory. There’s something brave, and a little foolhardy, about a comic writer who decides to produce a serious work. If writers of the stature of Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen have a hard time pulling it off, you’d hardly expect Robert Bouwman–the Tiff half of the local drag comedy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Survivor! Christmas
A Survivor! Christmas, Zeppo Theater Company, at the Beat Kitchen. The third in Zeppo’s series of end-of-the-year musicals is yet another sparkling foray into giddily obvious humor. Writer-director George Brant ties his send-up of the real-TV hit into the holidays with a premise that’s both hilariously stupid and ingenious: the contestants compete on Christmas day […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Johnnie Bassett
JOHNNIE BASSETT In the 60s, Detroit-based guitarist Johnnie Bassett worked with Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Tina Turner, and Little Willie John, as well as more elemental bluesmen like John Lee Hooker and Washboard Willie. He even played on some of Smokey Robinson’s first recordings with the Miracles. But in the middle of that busy decade, Bassett […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Oh, the Humanities!
Dear Reader, Here is another comment on Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Junket Bonds” (11-17-2000): the popular movie reviewers seem to lack the requisite humanities background to make intelligent comments on movies. Richard Roeper’s choice to take Siskel’s place with Roger Ebert is questionable on these grounds. Siskel, rest his soul in peace, left a good deal to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Wind Will Carry Us
This ambiguous comic masterpiece (1999, 118 min.) could be Abbas Kiarostami’s greatest film to date; it’s undoubtedly his richest and most challenging. A media engineer from Tehran (Behzad Dourani) arrives in a remote mountain village in Iranian Kurdistan, where he and his three-person camera crew secretly wait for a century-old woman to die so they […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pocket Opera Company of Chicago
POCKET OPERA COMPANY OF CHICAGO In 1992, frustrated that major houses were reluctant to stage his epic operas, University of Chicago composer John Eaton got small, forming what’s now called the Pocket Opera Company of Chicago. The shifting lineup of about a dozen freelance singers and musicians performs inexpensive, portable productions with simple costumes–sometimes just […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Robbie Fulked Up
To the editors– It’s always interesting to observe what types of prejudices are still openly acceptable in our society. In his recent account of lunch and a tax audit in the suburbs [December 8], Robbie Fulks derides “office drones, potbellied bozos with pagers on their Dockers, anhedonic single moms” (really, Robbie–“anhedonic”?), “and desperate pink-collar climbers.” […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Zack
ZACK In Chicago power-pop bands tend to fly so far below the radar it’s a wonder they don’t crash into someone’s three-flat. Anyone out there remember Green? Lava Sutra? Didn’t think so, and ten years from now any mention of the Hushdrops or the Joy Poppers will probably draw the same blank stares (if it […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Urgent! If you care about democracy and Ani Difranco, read now!
John Hodgman, 12/18/00, 01:48 AM -0600, URGENT! IF YOU CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY AND ANI DIFRANCO, READ NOW! From: “John Hodgman” Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 01:48:04 -0600 Dear Friends, By the time you receive this, the so-called “Electoral College” will have met to crown the next king of America and hand our nation over to […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Shirt is Real
Kelly Kleiman’s review of The Khe Sanh Bagman [December 8] refers to an “apocryphal” Chicago police T-shirt from the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that states, “I kicked your father’s ass in 1968 and I can kick yours too.” There is nothing “apocryphal” about that T-shirt. I own two of them, and occasionally sleep […]
Posted inArts & Culture
North Mississippi Allstars
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS Guitarist Luther Dickinson and his brother, drummer Cody–two-thirds of the North Mississippi Allstars–spent their youth learning from hill country elders like bluesman R.L. Burnside and fife player Otha Turner. Not surprisingly, the Allstars’ only full-length CD, this year’s Shake Hands With Shorty (Tone-Cool), samples Turner on its opening track, and seven of […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Angel of Death Row/Guilty Until Chosen President/You Can’t Judge a Judge by His Coverage
By Michael Miner Angel of Death Row Governor Ryan delivered a stem-winder a couple of weeks ago. Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, who thinks it was “extraordinarily powerful,” E-mailed Ryan’s prepared text to various Tribune editors with a note saying–as Zorn paraphrased himself later–“Look, isn’t this great! We’re making a difference. You should have been there.” […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
Who is my neighbor? “Most of us, if pressed, would acknowledge that we belong not only to the community of our birth but also to the human community as a whole and that we have obligations of some sort to that community,” writes University of Chicago professor of law and ethics Martha Nussbaum in “Toward […]