Here in the U.S. we may view music as a transaction between artist and consumer, but in the slums of Cuba it’s a communal experience, with nothing but the tap of a foot dividing the listeners from the performers. For this jubilant French documentary, director Karim Dridi uses a single handheld camera and boom mike […]
Tag: Vol. 32 No. 3
Issue of Oct. 17 – 23, 2002
Posted inArts & Culture
Local lit: beyond the black cloud
Paul McComas founded Rock Against Depression in 1995, hoping “to both honor the work and legacy of Kurt Cobain and educate his young fans about how to avoid his outcome.” A writer, performance artist, and musician, McComas and his band–which had until then specialized in punk originals and covers of old X songs–learned a bunch […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Closer
Closer, GroundUp Theatre, at the Duncan YMCA Chernin Center for the Arts. Telling the truth is the ultimate manipulative device: people supposedly want to hear the truth, yet it’s often brutal and stultifying. Truth is power, and power is absolutely central to Closer, a taut investigation of attraction among four young British professionals. Patrick Marber’s […]
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
EYES ADRIFT 10/18, SCHUBAS On Eyes Adrift’s eponymous Spinart debut, Krist Novoselic, Curt Kirkwood, and Sublime’s Bud Gaugh are less a three-man band than friendly participants in a three-way tug-of-war. Kirkwood yanks the music into Meat Puppetsy terrain, but there’s also a dollop of modern-rock oomph here, the sort designed to fill rooms bigger than […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Pope (and Other Four-Letter Words)/What a Difference Half a Century Makes
It’s the 40th anniversary of Lenny Bruce’s Chicago arrest for obscenity, and the Cultural Center’s throwing a party in his honor. Who the fuck would want to miss that?
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: unearthing a newly found Neutra
Richard Neutra, the California architect often credited with introducing the International style to American architecture, only spent a couple years in the midwest, but they were formative ones. He was fascinated by the innovative commercial architecture of the Chicago School, and worked briefly for Holabird and Roche, the Chicago firm responsible for the first steel-skeleton […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
I’ve heard that Andrew Jackson did quite a number on the Cherokee, forcing them to relocate from as far as Georgia to what is now Oklahoma. Some have even accused Old Hickory of genocide, citing the thousands of Cherokee who died on the “Trail of Tears.” What I want to know is, how does Jackson […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Women’s Performance Art Festival
The Stockyards Theatre Project presents its third annual showcase of woman-centered drama, storytelling, dance, improv, stand-up comedy, and other forms. The festival runs October 24-26 at Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield. Performances are at 8 PM; each evening features a different lineup of seven to ten pieces (scheduled times for individual presentations each night are […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Zoink! Another Goof-Up!
Zoinks! Another Goof-Up! Dear Chicago Reader, I just want to respond to some factual errors in Kim Wilson’s recent review of my play Thriller Theater Five [October 4]. She lauded the return of cast member Ryan Gowland as Fred, but it is in fact Ryan’s first performance with Thriller Theater. Last year his role was […]
Posted inArts & Culture
New Music Northwestern
Northwestern University’s school of music recently revamped its contemporary music activities, and one of its major changes is the addition of “New Music Northwestern,” a series of concerts by graduate students in its Contemporary Music Ensemble and local pros, organized by composer Amy Williams. The daughter of a Buffalo-based percussionist fond of the avant-garde, Williams […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Calendar
Friday 10/18 – Thursday 10/24 OCTOBER 18 FRIDAY In 2000 the nonprofit Beyondmedia collaborated with Visible Voices, an advocacy group for female former prisoners, to produce What We Leave Behind, a documentary about 42 women recently released from jail and the effects incarceration had on them and their children. An excerpt from the video, along […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mammy! What a Blunder!
Mammy! What a Blunder! Sir: Saw the ad for the Chicago International Film Festival in the Reader [October 11], and while I agree the Lewis Milestone-Al Jolson movie is a classic, the picture you published is not from Hallelujah, I’m a Bum! but from Jolson’s 1936 film The Singing Kid. Best, Ivan Bunny Colitz N. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pick Up Performance Company
David Gordon has been making dances for more than 40 years–and has been married to Valda Setterfield for almost as long. Now the two of them appear in an evening-length piece, Private Lives of Dancers, that reiterates many of the themes running throughout his work, including a fascination with showbiz despite (or perhaps because of) […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dragons 1976
With no chording piano or guitar to clutter things up, horn-bass-drum trios are ready-made for unfettered blowing: think Albert Ayler’s trio circa ’64. But they also tend to create sturdy structural foundations to compensate for the stripped-down resources–witness Sonny Rollins’s suddenly much-revived 1958 “Freedom Suite,” where simple themes give the players a strong rhythmic trajectory. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beck
Because Sea Change forgoes the cheeky postmodernism that has been his calling card since Mellow Gold, a lot of writers have decided that we’re finally getting a glimpse of the real Beck Hansen. If that’s true, he’s one ho-hum dude. Rolling Stone master of hyperbole David Fricke writes, “It’s the best album Beck has ever […]