In 1988 Matt Black and Jonathan More–better known as the mad sampling duo Coldcut–began hosting a pirate-radio program called Solid Steel, which now occupies a weekly two-hour slot on the BBC. The influential breakbeat-heavy mix show, rooted in hip-hop and electronica, incorporated live performances, audio collage, and live remixing, more or less serving as the […]
Tag: Vol. 31 No. 9
Issue of Nov. 29 – Dec. 5, 2001
Posted inArts & Culture
Renaud Patigny
Belgian pianist Renaud Patigny is well-known in Europe as an indefatigable advocate for the boogie-woogie tradition–last summer he organized Brosella Boogie Woogie, ostensibly Belgium’s first festival “devoted to boogie and blues piano.” All but one of the tracks on his current disc, Tribute to the Giants (AUR), are note-perfect re-creations of recordings made by masters […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories The FBI recently contacted several psychics who participated in Stargate, the U.S. government’s long-running “remote viewing” program, hoping that they would be able to predict the targets of future terrorist attacks, according to a November report in the Times of London. Diversionary classes offered aboard the USS Peleliu, a navy warship stationed in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Who Let the Dog Out?
U.S. marine Valentine Underwood had been accused of rape and his superiors knew it, but that didn’t stop him from getting off base and to the party where he raped and murdered two women. Why can’t a grieving mother make the government pay for its mistake?
Posted inMusic
Damon Short Tries It at Home/The View From the Coasts/Postscript
Damon Short Tries It at Home Percussionist Damon Short released his own first album, Penguin Shuffle, in 1988 in an edition of 1,000–and the 500 copies still sitting in the back of his basement provide a constant reminder of how well that went. He let the local Southport label handle his three terrific subsequent recordings, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Film: Fritz Lang’s proto-terrorist
Did Fritz Lang introduce a character to world cinema who prefigured the rise of Osama bin Laden? The two parts of Lang’s tinted, silent Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler premiered in Berlin in 1922. The title character is a nefarious psychiatrist, hypnotist, and master of disguise who preys upon decadent aristocrats in posh gambling dens. He […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Super Punk
Super Punk, Ruling Theatre Company, at ImprovOlympic. This two-man sketch-comedy effort, directed by offbeat improv pro John Lutz, shows definite promise. Inflecting straightforward scene work with clever inversions and non sequiturs, writer-performers Mike Betette and Phillip Mottaz gently confound expectations, steering clear of blue, shock, and idiot humor. Onstage they have a wry, relaxed rapport, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Rosemont Theatre. Midway through this big-budget blitzkrieg of simulated Christmas cheer, an overenthusiastic Santa Claus reads a letter purportedly penned by two children in New York City. “Something terrible has happened,” they write, referring not to the recent terrorist blow but to the fact that their puppy is missing. Rarely […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Case of the Missing Point
The Glamour House Victory Gardens Theater St. Nicholas Victory Gardens Theater Extraordinary acting overcomes ordinary material in the studio space at Victory Gardens. But unfortunately the same is not true of its main-stage show. My mother refuses to read Agatha Christie stories because she claims their resolution always depends on a piece of evidence the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Robert’s Rules of Ardor
Robert’s Rules of Ardor, Great Beast Theater, at Heartland Studio Theater. Robert Patrick, gay prankster playwright, deserves the occasional retrospective. Spanning four decades, this bill moves back in time, reveling in his wordplay and flamboyant self-caricature. Fortunately, Patrick’s comedies mirror their times as well as his obsessions. The most recent offering, the doggedly earthy Evan […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: inside the Harlem Renaissance
Until the early 1930s, Carl Van Vechten wrote for a living. After graduating from the University of Chicago and moving to New York City, the Iowa native covered music, dance, and theater for newspapers and wrote several novels, including the wildly controversial Nigger Heaven, about a romance between two biracial lovers who can’t fit in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Damon Short & Jim Baker
Jim Baker can be heard pretty much every week in town–if not at the Sunday-evening jam session at the Velvet Lounge, then with Chicago bands including his own trio, groups led by saxophonists David Boykin and Guillermo Gregorio, and Ken Vandermark’s Steam and Territory Band. Even so Baker attracts less attention than he merits. He’s […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jazz Rhythms
One of the pleasures of the annual Dance Chicago festival is the opportunity to see less familiar groups on bills with older, more established performers. And one of the most impressive new companies on “Jazz Rhythms”–one of four programs closing Dance Chicago 2001 this weekend–is Culture Shock Chicago. Headed by Viola Elkins, it features amateur […]