On Ivy’s second album, 1997’s Apartment Life, the New York trio pulled off a small miracle, nailing the kind of effortless effervescence most power poppers can only aspire to. Multi-instrumentalists Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger (also a member of Fountains of Wayne) and Paris-born vocalist Dominique Durand (Chase’s wife) alternated between Motown-on-the-Mersey firecrackers like “The […]
Tag: Vol. 31 No. 3
Issue of Oct. 18 – 24, 2001
Posted inArts & Culture
In Print: at the movies with Carl Sandburg
For his encyclopedic book Hollywood on Lake Michigan: 100 Years of Chicago and the Movies (1998), Arnie Bernstein tracked down almost 700 films made in Chicago. His new book is an excavation of another sort: in the archives at the Chicago Historical Society, the Harold Washington Library Center, the library of the University of Illinois […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Just Shoot Me
A reenactment of the historic invasion of Grenada? Paintball? It sounded like a good time–until the first time I got killed.
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
Did people really run away to join the French Foreign Legion? –David Vermont Thinking of enlisting, are we? You might want to give this a little more thought. Here’s a rundown of the pertinent facts about La legion etrangere: (1) Yes, people really do run away to join it. That’s the whole point. The French […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Fresh Ayers
To the editor, Please, please, please continue with your recent weekly updates on the delightful and uber-groovy Herr Doktor Professor Bill Ayers. In these dark and troublous times, laughs are hard to come by and comedic resources like Bill (And Bernardine! Give us more Bernardine!!) are vital to sustaining troop morale. This week’s Ayers quote […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Solo Select
No one would call Jim Carrane or Paul Turner a smooth, polished performer. Carrane moves awkwardly, lurching from one spot to another as he stammers out his lines. Meanwhile Turner embodies the stiff John Wayne aesthetic of rural maleness, moving only the muscles in his face and hands when he speaks. But each monologuist compensates […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Fred Hampton Jr.’s Unfinished Business
Bethel Mennonite Community Church serves a neighborhood with the deceptively quaint name of University Village/Columbus Circle, but outside its doors at Laflin and 14th Street lie the ABLA Homes, the sprawling and decrepit public-housing project. The 11 AM Sunday service is about to begin, but only 17 worshippers are scattered among the 80 metal chairs, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar
Friday 10/19 – Thursday 10/25 OCTOBER 19 FRIDAY When UIC’s conference on The Vulnerable Citizen: Surveillance and Privacy in Everyday Life was being planned in January, no one dreamed just how relevant its subject matter would be by October. “We were more focused on surveillance than terrorism,” says Institute for the Humanities assistant director Linda […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Don’t Take Their Word for It
To the editor: This letter is in reference to the recent review of Storytellers 2001 [October 12] currently showing at TinFish Theatre and does not represent the opinion of TinFish management. We certainly appreciate your efforts to send a reviewer to our off-night, short run October show. Unfortunately for us the reviewer found absolutely nothing […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tiny Tales of Terror
Tiny Tales of Terror, Bailiwick Repertory. This hour-long Halloween-season anthology is somewhat mistitled: its six tales are tiny all right, but none even pretends to be very frightening. Mostly written by Eric Appleton, with one apiece from Jason Demma and John Weagly, they’re more like the comic relief you find sandwiched between scares in a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Fontline Battles/Muzzles All Around/News Bites
Fontline Battles The redesigned Tribune looked so willfully gray and awkward when it appeared last March that its homeliness suggested a philosophical statement. I told someone it seemed Amish. The typefaces were ungainly and commonplace, and there was too much type on every page, none of it arranged with grace. The Tribune didn’t look like […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Cross-Examination
Dear Editor: Last week, your reporter John Conroy wrote a lengthy article that editorialized at length about the Cook County state’s attorney’s office (“A Hell of a Deal,” October 12). Unfortunately, many of his statements are without foundation or squarely at odds with the facts. In the first few sentences, the article states that state’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Undone
Undone, About Face Theatre. In the boho slam-poetry world of the late 80s and early 90s, Cin Salach was queen. Perky, always smiling, with punky short hair and a smooth, hypnotic voice, she could make anything she wrote sound intelligent, deeply felt, and spiritual. Because she was fun to watch and listen to, no one […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mad Shak Dance Company
The inspiration for artistic director Molly Shanahan’s newest piece was a sign in the window of a house on Sheridan Road in south Evanston: “Keep out,” it said. “A senior needs your help.” Intrigued by its mysterious mixed message, she started to think about the ways we “put ourselves forward.” Also aiming for choreographic boldness […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Joe McPhee & Raymond Boni
Prior to his late-90s revivification here in the U.S., upstate New York multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee spent a lot of time in Europe, where he made some of his greatest recordings, like Old Eyes & Mysteries (Hat Art, 1979), Topology (Hat Art, 1981), and Oleo (Hat Art, 1982). Among his most frequent collaborators overseas is the […]