To the editor: Whatever one may think of Solomon Burke’s latter-day success as a “crossover” artist, he’s hardly just a “minor R & B or soul ‘legend’” as Keith Harris labeled him last week [Section Three, January 16]. Burke, whom Atlantic Records’ Jerry Wexler has called “the best soul singer of all time,” was in […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 18
Issue of Jan. 29 – Feb. 4, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
Badi Assad
When Badi Assad sends her voice soaring on the melodies of her native Brazil, it sounds as natural as a bird’s. Even while she accompanies herself with complicated rhythms or intricate fingerwork on acoustic guitar, she never sounds as if she’s working; she reminds you why it’s called playing music. Like her older brothers Sergio […]
Posted inArts & Culture
On Exhibit: Bert Menco’s second-generation nightmares
War was something artist Bert Menco’s parents never wanted to discuss. “I guess subconsciously they suffered from survivor’s guilt–I think that’s why they don’t talk about it very much,” he says. Both of his parents were Jews who lost most of their family after the Nazis invaded the Netherlands in 1940. Menco has spent much […]
Posted inArts & Culture
B-Fest 2004
Inaugurated in 1981, this annual 24-hour marathon of B (and Z) movies runs Friday through Saturday, January 30 through 31, at Northwestern Univ. Norris Center, 1999 Campus Dr., Evanston. There is no entry to the festival between 2:00 am and 8:00 am Saturday. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, and $10 after […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
I’m an 18-year-old senior in high school. I met a girl at a party one night and we ended up going out for about a month. During that time we never went further than me fingering her, because she didn’t want to. We had both had sex before, she with her boyfriend of eight months […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jose Merce
Jose Merce, one of Spain’s most popular flamenco singers (from Jerez, a storied city for flamenco artists), has worked in a distinctly contemporary vein since the 70s, adding electric bass, keyboards, and drums to his recordings and embracing topical subject matter and metaphors–like declaring that what a tired heart needs is new batteries. But on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ned Broderick
Decades after Ned Broderick fought in Vietnam the war still influences his work, as evidenced in his paintings, sculptures, photographs, and collages at 4Art. Many are fragmented or twisted oddly in space, and most reverse expectations in one way or another–suggesting an unstable world where aggression can surface at any moment. The plaster torso in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sports Section
Out the window as I write this, the city looks like the interior of a snow globe. It reminds me that when I walked up the back steps returning from the corner store, it seemed as if I’d never again be able to sit on the porch and read the morning paper. But my thoughts […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Moscow
MOSCOW, Bailiwick Repertory. Three gay men, inexplicably trapped in an empty theater, struggle to unravel the mystery of their plight–and to pass the time, placing this musical squarely in absurdist territory. Unfortunately, the audience too is imprisoned by this existential drama: first you wonder why you’re there, then whether you can leave. In writer Nick […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Tales From the Terminal
A wannabe rap star. A guy who just wants to hug his mom. A woman stuck for hours, with hours more to go. At the Greyhound station on Harrison, riders wait, wonder, peddle, and ponder.
Posted inMusic
Spot Check
DIALS 1/30, BEAT KITCHEN On the six tracks of its self-released debut, Sick Times, this Chicago quartet combines garage and new-wave elements into a sound that refuses to be pinned down as merely referential or retro; Emily Dennison ties it all together with snaky organ lines. Guitarist Patti Gran also plays with New Black, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Music Lessons
Dear Mr. Hayford: Re: your review, Mozart and Salieri [“Stretched Thin,” January 16]: “untrained”? Mozart had years of technical training by his father Leopold, the court composer/kapellmeister at Salzburg. Let’s hope your knowledge of the theater is greater than this. Yikes! Amber Ladeira W. Gunnison Justin Hayford replies: You’re correct. I meant to refer to […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Father’s Love
Pedro DeJesus might have a chance of beating Toni Berrios for state rep–if it weren’t for Toni’s dad and his arsenal of political weapons.
Posted inNews & Politics
Forget Council Wars. Say hello to John Stroger and the County Board Battle.
Chicago is forever stuck being the Second City, which is annoying. But at least New York is far away, and sometimes we can forget it. Cook County is worse off. The county has always played the Second City role to Chicago, and the county can never get away from the city. How can the county […]