Quentin Tarantino’s a genius when he twists the tropes of genre films. But when it comes to the subject of motherhood he’s as hamstrung by convention as the next guy.
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 33
Issue of May. 13 – 19, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
The Rocket Man
THE ROCKET MAN, House Theatre of Chicago, at the Viaduct Theater. In the 90s it was all the rage to produce shows that both parodied and honored eccentric subgenres and cult classics: horror movies, Texas cheerleader murder stories, Russ Meyer’s soft-core porn. These productions could be fun but were often too ironic, as the artists […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jamie Cullum
As soon as he shows up on the covers of America’s three national jazz magazines, which could be in the next couple months, British singer-songwriter-pianist Jamie Cullum should reap the rewards of his genre-blending approach to jazz and pop. That is, he’ll become a lightning rod in the ongoing debate about the commercialization of jazz–and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Human Rhythm Project
When CHRP founder Lane Alexander got a grant from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum a few months ago, he formed a company–BAM!–and set out to learn “new rhythms” from other tappers. He had no specific agenda, he says; he just wanted to shake things up. And during CHRP’s concerts honoring National Tap Dance Day, his new […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Sad Excuse for a Story
Disappointment would be a vast understatement after reading Zak Mucha’s incredibly misleading article, circling around the evidently horrible experience he had with training in labor organizing, specifically with Service Employees International Union [“Which Side Are They On?” April 16]. However, stunning and even more disappointing is the Reader’s apparently new policy of allowing disgruntled individuals […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Festival Seating: George Romero’s gore with guts
According to George Romero it’s no coincidence that his 1968 zombie epic, Night of the Living Dead, became a hit just as the antiwar movement was peaking. “It’s a film about revolution, a revolutionary mass taking over a resistant one, which we were hoping the 60s would be,” says the 64-year-old director, who, along with […]
Posted inArts & Culture
French Disconnection; Miscellaneous
The movie hounds of the Alliance Francaise Cine-Club will have to survive without the club’s volunteer programmers, Avisheh Mohsenin and Kai-Duc Luong, who have quit in protest.
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
One more endangered skill. Michael Bordenaro quotes Bill Rodon Hornof of Chicago’s 2RZ Architecture on the way parametric design software is changing personnel needs in architects’ offices (Focus, April): “We can’t have drafters because we rarely draw sections and perspectives anymore, the program does that. We need trained architects who can look at a design […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Wrong School
The May 7 City File stated that Daniel Drezner is a political scientist at UIC; in fact, he’s at the University of Chicago. My apologies. Harold Henderson
Posted inNews & Politics
Doggy Treat
Never work with children or dogs. It’s classic advice for actors who want to avoid being upstaged, and it holds true even if the dog is played by a human. In Buffalo Theatre Ensemble’s current production of Sylvia, the title pooch is portrayed by Allison Latta, who scampers away with the show. This bittersweet domestic […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Datebook
MAY 14 FRIDAY Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who won a Pulitzer in 1970 for breaking the story of the My Lai massacre, returned to the spotlight with his May 1 New Yorker story on the torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. Today he visits his alma mater, the University of Chicago, to give the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Let’s Compare Equipment
To the editor: I found John Dugan’s article “He Has Built It. Will They Come?” [May 7] a poorly framed and unresearched view of our profession. While I wish Dan Dietrich and Wall to Wall the best of luck in this difficult business, I cannot overlook the numerous errors, editorial speculation, and basic lack of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Secret Admirers
The New, More Thrilling Secrets Boy Girl Boy Girl at Live Bait Theater, May 7 and 8 David Kodeski has spent the last five years creating beguiling monologues out of books and diaries he’s found in thrift shops. And fittingly, the inspiration for Boy Girl Boy Girl’s debut performance was the August 1957 issue of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Drury Lane Went South, or So They Loaded Up the Yucks and Moved to Beverly
My biggest complaint about Second City is that ensemble members don’t stay around long enough. These days we’re lucky if an actor performs four shows in a row before being lured to LA or New York. This guarantees a steady parade of energetic, eager actors in their 20s and 30s. But it also contributes to […]