Visions of Michigan Avenue crowds knocking around in your head? These holiday craft and art fairs may provide some respite, and handmade frames, blown glass, and knitted caps can make a refreshing alternative to ties and fruitcake. Events are given in chronological order and are free unless otherwise specified. One of a Kind Show and […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 10
Issue of Dec. 4 – 10, 2003
Posted inNews & Politics
Hair Today: Gone Tomorrow?
Rob Williams was a respected and decorated police officer until he disobeyed an order.
Posted inArts & Culture
VGM Mix Tape #8 Release Party
The video-game industry of the late 70s and early 80s gave rise to a twee, minimalist style of musical accompaniment that was shaped by the limits of technology and that rewarded coding expertise as much as compositional talent. Video-game sound tracks have since become studio-recorded opuses nearly as lavish as their movie counterparts, but to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright’s last record, 2001’s Poses, was a paean to hedonism, chronicling his appetite for junk food, cigarettes, and sex. But this summer Wainwright announced that he was simplifying his life and making his way back from what he described to the New York Times as a trip to “gay hell.” His new album, Want […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Shock Troops in the Beetle War
Our allies in the battle with the Asian longhorn crawl up trees just like their prey.
Posted inArts & Culture
Man From Nebraska
Man From Nebraska, Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Tracy Letts’s latest script opens with several scenes of stark, devastating silence and closes with a tense, apprehensive exchange full of pregnant pauses– clever parallels to the wide-open spaces of the play’s midwestern setting and concessions to the fact that what can’t be verbalized is better left unsaid. Rick […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wayne Wonder
Wayne Wonder didn’t lead the recent charge of dancehall artists crossing over on the American charts–Shaggy, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, and most notably Sean Paul have been battering the gates for a while now. But this 18-year veteran of the Jamaican music scene scored one of the biggest hits of the current wave this spring […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa
During last year’s edition of this 24-hour improvised marathon, T.J. Jagodowski reportedly capped off a burst of wild late-night improv by throwing cold cuts at his fellow performers backstage and passing out from exhaustion. At hour 22, Keegan-Michael Key started hallucinating but finished his set. Yet both jumped at the opportunity to repeat the feat […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Christmas Carol/A Christmas Carol/Harvey Finkelstein’s A Puppet Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol, Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, A Christmas Carol, Goodman Theatre, and Harvey Finkelstein’s A Puppet Christmas Carol, Live Bait Theater. What’s astonishing about Dickens’s evergreen is the simplicity of its message, which is more humanistic than religious: Christmas is a much-needed occasion to affirm our ties to our “fellow passengers to the grave.” […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
Is your boss doing it? Employer-assisted housing “is rapidly gaining momentum,” reports Samantha DeKoven of the Metropolitan Planning Council in “Ideas@Work” (October), published by the Campaign for Sensible Growth. “Lake Forest College, Loyola University, University of Chicago and Wheaton College have encouraged employees to live in nearby communities through a variety of programs. The City […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
I was listening to the radio today and Rick Santorum was mentioned. The first thought that popped into my head was, “Santorum? That frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex?” and not, “Santorum? That conservative prick?” Your column has worked the new meaning so far into my […]
Posted inArts & Culture
A Phony License? Who Knew?/The Future of Metropolis
A crackdown on storefront theaters leaves WNEP founder Don Hall and company out in the cold.
Posted inArts & Culture
Here Comes a Regular
Here Comes a Regular, Factory Theater, at Stage Left Theatre. In this comedy with music, five regulars–men in their late 30s–gather in a bar to grouse about women. Frank’s live-in girlfriend of three years has unexpectedly dumped him. Steve’s wife cheated on him with his boss. And Dan’s wife is gorgeous but cruel. They love […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Datebook
DECEMBER 5 FRIDAY “The city takes its own pulse at this meeting in a very real way,” says David Perry, director of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, which sponsors today’s Great Cities Winter Forum. “It’s different from the typical university forum. Here the university and the city engage in a conversation […]