Friday 11/30 – Thursday 12/6 NOVEMBER 30 FRIDAY Since 1989 the Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care has helped pass a managed care consumer bill of rights, launched outreach and organizing campaigns for children’s health care access, pressured hospitals to end discrimination against medicaid recipients, and created hot lines for the uninsured. The coalition of […]
Tag: Vol. 31 No. 9
Issue of Nov. 29 – Dec. 5, 2001
Posted inMusic
Clubbing for Shut-Ins
Daft Punk Alive 1997 (Virgin) Tall Paul Mixed Live (Moonshine) Detractors of the house diaspora frequently complain about the music’s site specificity–its reliance on set and setting, rather than anything inherent in the notes or rhythms, to make an impact. Somewhat confusingly, its partisans say the same thing about it with a different spin: the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Midnight Circus
The Midnight Circus has always framed its variety acts with a narrative, however rudimentary. But The Flower Thieves, its most recent effort, features an actual book by G. Riley Mills and Ralph Covert and Covert’s original score, which he performs onstage. Far from upstaging the action, these elements enhance the tale of a melancholy monarch […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Frames
Dublin’s Frames have made three albums for major labels since 1991, but I have no recollection of hearing about any of them. So on the strength of their new For the Birds, on Chicago’s Overcoat label, I checked out some of the earlier stuff, and after repeated listens finally figured out what I’d been missing. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Rude, Crude, and Ready to Party
The fun never ends when Jenny Jones’s guests come to town.
Posted inNews & Politics
Everybody Out of the Water
It’s a public pool, but someone seems bent on keeping the public from using it.
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, etc. concerts A TIME FOR LOVE Benefit concert for the American Red Cross with Hollis Resnik, Alexandra Billings, Sue Conway, Becca Kaufman, Bob Breuler & Amy Morton, Audrey Morris, Tom Oman, Michael Laird, Ester Hana, Jason Antone, Beckie Menzie, Honey West, Nan Mason, Tom Michael, Robin Kay, Patti Morabito, Dan Stetzel, Suzanne Petri, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
DJ Food & DK, Four Tet
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 […]
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, […]