There are so many curves and anomalies in this unpredictable and at times cryptic low-budget independent feature, made by Chicago actor Michael Gilio, that I’m tempted to call it an experimental film masquerading as something more conventional. If it’s a comedy–and I’m not sure it is–there are far too many close-ups, though this is very […]
Tag: Vol. 32 No. 2
Issue of Oct. 10 – 16, 2002
Posted inArts & Culture
Pushin’ Up Roses
Pushin’ Up Roses, Nomenil, at Frankie J’s MethaDome Theatre. Allen Conkle, cofounder of the outrageously campy and depraved Nomenil, recently had a crisis of artistic faith. His main collaborator–Courtney Evans, who wrote most of the company’s scripts with him and then acted the stuffing out of them–moved to Nashville earlier this year. Unsure if he […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Improvanov: Anton Chekhov Unscripted
Improvanov: Anton Chekhov Unscripted, Free Associates, at the Royal George Theatre Center. This show’s premise is that Chekhov’s plays can be reduced to five basic elements: a case of unrequited love, an unfulfillable dream, a character with an elaborate philosophy, a disruptive visitor, and an overarching sense of doom. Plug something in for each element, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Science of Love
The Science of Love, at Noble Fool Theater Company. Husband-and-wife comedy shows are a tricky proposition, based as they are on the premise that an audience will be keenly interested in other people’s love lives. Newlyweds Kristy and Jethro Nolen present a series of scripted sketches and monologues plus improv bits (directed by Jack Bronis) […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, etc. concerts RYAN ADAMS, TEGAN & SARA Sold out. Tue 10/15 and Wed 10/16, 8:30 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield. 773-472-0449 or 312-559-1212. JASON AJEMIAN, JOHN KANNENBERG, LOAM, PRESSBOARD, PHILIP VON ZWECK perform as part of the Stasisfield.com showcase. Fri 10/18, 9 PM, Deadtech, 3321 W. Fullerton. 773-395-2844. BECK, FLAMING LIPS Sold […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Apples in Stereo
Robert Schneider is great at simulating past musical styles. On the Apples in Stereo’s 1997 album, Tone Soul Evolution, the singer-songwriter-producer fashioned an ornate tribute to 60s orchestral pop, while on 2000’s The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone he streamlined influences from both Todd Rundgren and Sly Stone into a sharp facsimile of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite
The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, CollaborAction Theatre Company, at Storefront Theater. Every component of Quincy Long’s 1997 comedy is so obvious it seems there has to be some deeper meaning to the script. You can feel it approaching in the first act, as three drunken out-of-work loggers cut a rambling path through the northern […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Five of a Kind
This year’s edition of the Highland Park Historical Society House Tour is a one-man show for a hometown boy. Architect Robert E. Seyfarth was born in Blue Island in 1878, but moved to Highland Park in 1912. Between 1909, when he opened his own office, and his death in 1950, Seyfarth designed 54 Highland Park […]
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Trinity Irish Dance Company
Traveling in Ireland last summer I was struck by the nicely calibrated mix of reserve and friendliness I found in most people. You can see the same union of opposites in Irish step dancing: the upper body and arms are held stiff and straight as pokers while the legs take on a life of their […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Bruce Kang Always Gets His Man
True Stories From the Files of the City’s Top Korean Gumshoe
Posted inArts & Culture
Blank Expressions
Scott Short: Full Color Reproduction at Standard, through October 26 William Scarlato: Beyond the Mundane at Wood Street, through October 26 Among those who deny the artist’s traditional role as creator of meaning, few are as thorough and severe as Scott Short. His seven works at Standard are greatly enlarged painted copies of the output […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Stories L. Dennis Kozlowski, former chief executive of Tyco International, spent $135 million in company funds (without authorization, claimed Tyco officials in September) on personal luxuries, including two New York City apartments ($24 million) and a house in Boca Raton, Florida ($29 million); in addition to the infamous $6,000 shower curtain, he bought a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wallace Roney Quintet
In the 80s, when the neoclassicists commandeered jazz, many young musicians began to emulate their 60s predecessors. Wallace Roney internalized the style of Miles Davis so fully that at Davis’s last recorded performance–the disastrous 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival concert, when he could barely play more than a few minutes at a time–Roney was called upon […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Annette Krebs With Chris Forsyth & Ernesto Diaz-Infante
German guitarist Annette Krebs doesn’t play chords, lines, or riffs when she improvises. In fact, her guitar makes none of the noises you’d expect from that instrument. As with an ever increasing number of improvisers who use their axes as pure sound generators, Krebs makes miniature aural gestures, delicate shapes that disappear almost as quickly […]