Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel, about a dystopic future in which books are outlawed and firemen employed full-time as book burners, offers a compelling critique of TV culture and our society’s ongoing discomfort with critical thinking. But it translates well to the stage because Bradbury knows how to tell a great story and create complex characters: […]
Tag: Vol. 32 No. 3
Issue of Oct. 17 – 23, 2002
Posted inArts & Culture
Sue Garner
Sue Garner started making records under her own name in 1998, after playing bass for most of the 80s and 90s in New York art-rock bands like Fish & Roses and Run On. Her songs have often grappled with homely personal subjects such as her maternal longings and the difficulty of making art and paying […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Linda Thompson
The circumstances surrounding Linda Thompson’s retirement from music in 1985 were as bizarre as they were unfortunate. One of the most important voices in British folk rock, Thompson had just moved on from her divorce from guitar hero Richard Thompson to release her first solo album, the mediocre One Clear Moment, when she began suffering […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Music listings are compiled by LAURA KOPEN and RENALDO MIGALDI (classical, fairs and festivals) from information available Tuesday. We advise calling ahead for confirmation. Please send listings information, in-cluding a phone number for use by the public, to Reader Music Listings, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611, or send a fax to 312-828-9926, or send E-mail […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude, Wing & Groove Theatre. There are several brawls in Schadenfreude’s new late-night sketch show, along with pointed political commentary, rock music, a raunchy mnemonic to remember the names of important aldermen, and Justin Kaufmann’s infamous sparkly underwear. The show is loud, funny, and outrageous, and it knows its audience: hip urbanites in their 20s […]
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Modernity’s Blessings And Curses
The Other Dance Festival at Hamlin Park, through October 18 Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago at the Merle Reskin Theatre, October 12 and 13 There were three pieces before intermission on the first program of the Other Dance Festival, and every one of them ended with a dead body. (Yeah, so does Giselle, but there […]
Posted inMusic
Canadian Stars And Bars
Tragically Hip In Violet Light (Zoe) The Tragically Hip probably never sought the title of World’s Greatest Bar Band, but that’s how folks sometimes refer to them. Outside of Canada, that is. In their native country, the Ontario stalwarts are known simply as the World’s Greatest Band. Over the course of 18 years and eight […]
Posted inNews & Politics
If They Only Had a Brain
Jeff Grabowski found a way to help feed the poor. Then the city’s Connie Buscemi got wind of it.
Posted inArts & Culture
Attack of the World Wide Weird
Attack of the World Wide Weird, Wrecking Crew, at Chase Cafe. Producer-director Michael Flores boasts that the Wrecking Crew’s comedy is not that of “Johnny Carson’s monologues.” But judging by the personalities portrayed (Martha Stewart, Anna Nicole Smith) and scenarios enacted (Survivor, various CNN shows), the folks in Attack of the World Wide Weird watch […]
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Heaven
Much as A.I. Artificial Intelligence can be considered a posthumous message from Stanley Kubrick, conveyed by a sympathetic interpreter with a style of his own (Steven Spielberg), this can be regarded as the last word from Krzysztof Kieslowski, though delivered by German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and true to his own manner. There […]
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How To Eat Fried Worms
How To Eat Fried Worms, ComedySportz. Thomas Rockwell’s play–a faithful adaptation of his children’s book–centers around a bet that Billy (Joey Bland) can’t eat 15 worms in 15 days. The stakes are high–$50, the price of a minibike. As Billy acquires a taste for night crawlers, his opponents look for ever more clever ways to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Aly Bain & Ale Moller
Aly Bain and Ale Moller have both spent their careers exploring the links between musical styles. Bain fiddled for over 30 years with Boys of the Lough, whose repertoire included Scottish, Irish, and Northumbrian folk tunes as well as those of his native Shetland Islands. As a member of Frifot, Filarfolket, and the Nordan Project, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Herculean Deeds
For the last two decades, Bob Hercules, co-owner of Chicago’s Media Process Group, has worked in commercial television so that he could afford to make documentaries like Did They Buy It?, a study of American media coverage of Nicaragua’s 1990 elections that won the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1991 Gold Plaque. Hercules, who lives in […]
Posted inMusic
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
In 1996 guitarist Makoto Kawabata formed Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. as a one-off studio project with a simple, clearly defined goal–to make the ultimate trip record. Since then, matters have gotten well out of hand for this “soul collective.” The Japanese ensemble’s touring itinerary is intense–this show is part of its […]