More musical crimes have been committed in the name of Gram Parsons than I have room to list here, so the promise of another band dipping its toes in the same warm creek as the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers doesn’t necessarily fill me with anticipation. And last year’s Beachwood Sparks, the debut album […]
Tag: Vol. 31 No. 5
Issue of Nov. 1 – 7, 2001
Posted inArts & Culture
Les Savy Fav, !!!
“What we don’t know / Could fill a truck / What we don’t know / Cannot hurt us,” declares Tim Harrington at the start of Les Savy Fav’s new Go Forth (Frenchkiss). Well, actually it can, as the Brooklyn quartet and the rest of country have discovered in recent months. But the song was recorded […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tunnels
In the post-postrock era, when electronic jazz induces trance as often as dance, I’m becoming almost nostalgic for the fusion years. A great many albums that sounded trite within a few years of their release now strike with power and in some cases integrity, and even records by mediocre bands have aged well compared to […]
Posted inMusic
(International) Noise Conspiracy
In the liner notes to their 1999 singles collection The First Conspiracy, this Swedish garage band identified themselves as “a secret society, an underground, a group of urban terrorists aiming to question and attack every instance of our culture.” When the Canadian Web site World Wide Punk subsequently asked Dennis Lyxzen, the band’s front man […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Ask a Doctor
I want to respond to Rose Spinelli’s article on the dispute within the chiropractic field [October 26]. She forgets to include the perspective of what she dismissively calls “traditional”–that is, science-based allopathic–medicine. If she had done this the dispute between the straights and the mixers would be seen in a different light. For one thing, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Benjamin Matthews, William Warfield, and Rober Sims
At 81 bass-baritone William Warfield might not have the stamina or the nearly flawless delivery of his younger days, but he retains the remarkable sense of drama that has made him an audience favorite for five decades. Though his debut recital in 1950 garnered impressive notices, he was ignored by the Metropolitan Opera (a racially […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A City Without Art
It’s hard to picture Chicago without artists. But if affordable studio and living space continues to dwindle, we may have no trouble picturing it at all.
Posted inNews & Politics
Know Your Bridges
Dear Jonathan Rosenbaum: Richard Linklater and the publicity staff of Waking Life may insist that their film contains “no geographical references,” but aside from the “incidental,” allusive representation of Austin that you noticed (via a shot of the state capitol building), another concrete, unequivocal example exists in the film. The bridge that Speed Levitch and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Festival Seating: writers and artists ponder the unthinkable
Words failed and images overwhelmed many witnesses of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But organizers expect many of the 300-odd authors and artists scheduled to speak at this year’s “Words & Pictures”-themed Chicago Humanities Festival to try to respond to the attacks and their aftermath. Artist Art Spiegelman […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Birol Topaloglu
The ongoing struggles of Turkish Kurds to retain their ethnic identity provide a dramatic and highly visible example of the conflict between regional cultures and nation-states. But the plight of the Laz, though far more obscure, is no less compelling. The Laz are a small ethnic group clustered along the Black Sea in northeastern Turkey […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Truth About Florida
Greetings, and thanks for mentioning the stifled National Opinion Research Center report on Florida ballots [Hot Type, October 19]. It may be the case that the only way the public will see this information is if it is subpoenaed as part of a congressional investigation or as evidence in a legal dispute. The news sources […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Humanities Festival
The 12th annual festival, which runs through November 11, offers dozens of lectures, readings, and discussions by writers and scholars on the theme of “Words & Pictures,” as well as movies and musical and theatrical performances (see listings in this section and in Section Three). The following events take place at these locations: Alliance Francaise, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In Print: it’s so bad it’s good
Freelance copywriter Chris Bittler was in the middle of a long and tedious catalog gig three years ago when his mind began to swim with ideas for nonsensical products. “There were a lot of qualifiers in the particular products that I was working on that would kind of set me off–things like ‘batteries not included, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Little Night Music and Pacific Overtures
A Little Night Music, Porchlight Theatre, at the Theatre Building, and Pacific Overtures, Chicago Shakespeare Theater. With its tender, hummable songs and wry comic tale of sexual intrigue and midlife romance, composer Stephen Sondheim and director Harold Prince’s A Little Night Music–scripted by Hugh Wheeler, based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night–was […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago International Children’s Film Festival
The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, now in its 18th year, continues Friday through Sunday, November 2 through 4, at City North 14 and at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton. Tickets are $6 for children and adults, $4.50 for Facets members; various discounts are available for four or more tickets. Professional actors will be […]