Dutch reedist Ab Baars knows how to play the sly games that his country’s senior jazzmen–especially Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink–have made a stock-in-trade. As a longtime member of Mengelberg’s ICP Orchestra he’s developed an instinctual ability to turn on a dime, and his occasionally comic decisions–like dropping a surprising snort or sourly intoned quote […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 4
Issue of Oct. 23 – 29, 2003
Posted inNews & Politics
Bears Need a Doctor
Barnaby Dinges [“Teachers or Touchdowns,” October 17] was brought in to give the $560 million spent on Soldier Field a positive spin. If that money had been spent on schools there’d be no need to hire a publicist; wise investments need no PR spin doctors. I agree with Mr. Dinges, we need a great city […]
Posted inArts & Culture
!Veracruz!–Cirque de Salsation
!Veracruz!–Cirque de Salsation, !Salsation!, at Teatro Luna. In scenes addressing white privilege, the California election results, underfunding of Chicago schools, cultural appropriation, and the importance of embracing one’s heritage, this Latino ensemble aims to be political and timely. However, their sometimes sharp insights are buried within sketches too keen on easy laughs. Surprisingly, the ensemble […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Misery
Misery, Pyewacket, at Heartland Studio Theater. The writing in Stephen King’s 1987 best seller is frequently overwrought, amateurish, and metaphorically jumbled. With its tissue-thin characters, creaky plot conventions, and enough descriptive prose to make Dickens look like Hemingway, Misery earns its title several times over as romance novelist Paul Sheldon is rescued from a car […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Balsa Heart
The Balsa Heart, Side Project, at the Side Studio. The fifth and final one-act in this collection is the evening’s best, though that isn’t saying much. Stephen Cone’s November Boy is a lovely, honest look at two aging men coming to terms with mortality. The script can be vague, and Liz Warton’s staging is awkward, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Remembering Ted
I was among the many fortunate people whose life was graciously touched by freelance arts writer/critic Ted Shen (a regular contributor to the Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, and Chicago magazine). He passed away from apparent heart failure on October 9. And as I still recover from the shock, I want to let others know that […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Site seeing: the city’s new war room
Ed Tracy never served in the military, but he knows about military preparedness. Two weeks before the opening of the Pritzker Military Library he commanded a construction crew and a staff of two as they readied the 5,000-square-foot Streeterville space for inspection. While workers vacuumed plaster dust and the receptionist–a former marine corporal–fielded a call […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, Etc. Concerts ALKALINE TRIO, REGGIE & THE FULL EFFECT, FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES, NO MOTIV All-ages. Thu 10/30, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence. 312-666-6667 or 312-559-1212. IAN ANDERSON 18 & over. Sun 11/2, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield. 773-472-0449 or 312-559-1212. ASCAP CABARET: COMING HOME Chicago Humanities Festival performance […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bus 174
Jose Padilha’s searing Brazilian film plays like a synthesis of Pixote and Dog Day Afternoon, documenting a June 2000 incident in which a thwarted bus robbery in Rio de Janeiro turned into a nationally televised hostage crisis. Swirling around this terrifying ordeal are despairing reflections on race, class, police corruption, media sensationalism, and social inequality. […]
Posted inNews & Politics
What Might Have Been
In the Reader article in your October 17 edition [“Teachers or Touchdowns”], Barnaby Dinges was quoted as stating that Friends of the Parks was opposed to the new Bears stadium because we are “elitists” who “don’t want anyone else enjoying their lakefront.” Mr. Dinges’s spin on Friends of the Parks couldn’t be farther from the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Universal Wolf (A Vicious New Version of Little Red Riding Hood)/The Love Talker
The Universal Wolf (A Vicious New Version of Little Red Riding Hood), and The Love Talker, Box Theatre Group, at the Cornservatory. A resolute spinster tries to free her sister from a woodland deity’s spell in The Love Talker. Deborah Pryor’s gothic fable is attractive to young actors for its Jungian themes if daunting for […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jeff Chan Quartet, William Roper’s Purple Gums
This year’s Asian American Jazz Festival brings in several San Francisco-based players with a deep interest in the Chicago jazz tradition. The first of the event’s two nights stars Jeff Chan, whose most recent album, In Chicago (Asian Improv), was recorded here in the summer of ’02 with local bassist Tatsu Aoki (the festival’s founder) […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mark Manders
For the past 17 years Dutch installation artist Mark Manders has built an intriguing body of work about blocked messages and emotion. His current project, “Isolated Rooms,” which continues the themes of an ongoing project called “Self-Portrait as a Building,” consists of 14 wryly austere pieces–8 at the Art Institute and 6 at the Renaissance […]
Posted inMusic
Music by the Numbers
Music Guide (Zagat Survey) Rock criticism might still be a viable organism, but it’s hard to tell: how do you know if something is moving on its own when people keep dragging it around and kicking it? Neal Pollack has devoted a whole novel to the proposition that writing about music is a pathetic waste […]