Lead Stories At a January runway show in Milan, Italy, British designer Vivienne Westwood introduced several new fashions from her “Man” collection: her male models wore frilly cuffs, bloused sleeves, and bonnetlike scarves, as well as form-fitting knit turtlenecks and jumpers over fake breasts. Westwood–who in the 70s helped popularize “punk” fashion like ripped T-shirts, […]
Tag: Vol. 32 No. 18
Issue of Jan. 30 – Feb. 5, 2003
Posted inArts & Culture
Gallery Tripping: little whittled wonders
The carpenter Levi Fisher Ames left Monroe, Wisconsin, to fight for Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Injured in the war, he returned home in 1865 and–unable to continue with heavy labor–turned to the more delicate work of crafting musical instruments. In his spare time, through long northern Decembers, he carved hundreds of detailed miniatures in wood, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Lifeline Theatre. This is as sophisticated a children’s show as you’re likely to see. Adapted for Lifeline from a popular picture book, it boasts a clever script, snappy songs, and an enthusiastic young cast with the chops to come off well even while singing doo-wop in barnyard drag. The […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Film: Vicki Z.’s new horizons
“I’m really moved by landscape–by the changing of the light as it comes into contact with earth and rocks,” says Victorina Z. Peterson, who shot ten experimental 16-millimeter films on the coast of Maine during the 1970s and early ’80s. “I wanted to find a vocabulary that matched that kind of energy.” A painter before […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Final Angel
Final Angel, Fine Arts Enterprises, at Theatre Building Chicago. Stephanie Lenore Kuehn’s metaphorical dreamscape is based on an actual assault on Chicago actress Lynn Green. Kuehn invokes the myth of Persephone–who was taken to the underworld and raped by Hades–as an archetype representing death and transformation. We meet Lil after she’s been raped, rocking with […]
Posted inNews & Politics
They’ve Got Her Covered
Between support from City Hall and an unofficial “incumbent protection arrangement,” 33rd Ward alderman Villa Colom is dug in deep.
Posted inArts & Culture
Rita Warford & Janice Misurell-Mitchell
As U.S. military action in the Middle East appears increasingly likely, vocalist Rita Warford and flutist Janice Misurell-Mitchell have decided to come together for a program called “Music, Women & War.” (Given the state of the world with the boys running it, I for one am more than happy to consider other perspectives.) Joined by […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
I went onto the Drudge Report today and read something that must be a bunch of shit or a complete hoax: “MAG: 25% OF NEW HIV-INFECTED GAY MEN SOUGHT OUT VIRUS, SAYS SAN FRAN HEALTH OFFICIAL.” Is there any truth to this? The link was E-mailed all over my office today, and it makes gay […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Russian Ark
This Alexander Sokurov feature (2002) is one of the most staggering technical achievements in the history of cinema–a single shot lasting 95 minutes while moving through 33 rooms in the world’s largest museum, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (which also encompasses the Winter Palace). Part pageant and museum tour, part theme-park ride and historical meditation, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wise Decisions
Judgment at Nuremberg Shattered Globe Theatre at Victory Gardens Theater Opening night of Judgment at Nuremberg was unusual. There wasn’t just the usual ragtag crowd of critics, Jeff committee members, and dutiful actors’ friends wearing scuffed shoes, their eyes red from attending too many openings in too few days. No, there was a group noteworthy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Nick Warren
Nick Warren’s Reykjavik #024 is the latest two-disc volume in the seemingly unending series of bland trance and progressive-house mixes churned out by London’s Global Underground imprint. But Warren, a Massive Attack associate and leading member of club hit makers Way Out West, diverges from the label’s tired formula. Most of #024 is midtempo and […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
ARRIVALS 1/31, FIRESIDE BOWL On its second album, Exsenator Orange (Thick), this south-side quartet serves up cold meat-and-potatoes Chicago punk. Singer-guitarists Isaac Thotz and Dave Merriman spit out melodies a good deal more complex than the saccharine hooks of whatever pop punkers are hot on MTV this week. But the Arrivals lack the precision and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Branson Family Comedy Christian Cavalcade
The Branson Family Comedy Christian Cavalcade, Noble Fool Theater Company. Having benefited from the city’s largesse in securing a high-profile renovated space downtown, the least the Noble Fool and its tenants can do is provide a few laughs. But that’s apparently beyond Harvey Finklestein’s Institute of Whimsical, Fantastical, and Marvelous Puppet Masterage. To call this […]
Posted inMusic
Britain Breaks Its Silence
OT Crew “Dubplate” Dizzy Rascal “I Luv U” When it comes to per capita rap talent, Great Britain ranks somewhere between North Dakota and Yemen. Brit-rap has seemed moribund since the early 90s, when rave culture, as Simon Reynolds put it, “swallowed hip-hop whole.” The MC was largely relegated to a supporting role–his job was […]