THE NEW YEAR 7/15-16, SCHUBAS Matt and Bubba Kadane have been playing the same strain of minimalist indie rock since the mid-90s, first in Bedhead and, since 1998, in the New Year. Now a sextet, the band is back with its second full-length, The End Is Near (Touch and Go). The songs still move slowly […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 42
Issue of Jul. 15 – 21, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
Clown Head
CLOWN HEAD, Scratch Media, at Theatre Building Chicago. Writer-director Greg Silva’s eclectic multimedia confection recounts the saga of Jeffrey, a lonely young LA comic who imagines a magical circus, Club Paradise, that gives him a place in the sun. At first the fun house mirror provided by Club Paradise exaggerates Jeffrey’s real-life problems with parents, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Treasure Island I: Unbalanced and Misleading
Dear editor: The June 25 article “The Battle for Treasure Island” gave an unbalanced and misleading report on the current labor dispute between Treasure Island Foods and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). The article ignores the eight-page complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Treasure Island’s owners (Maria and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Splintered Idylls
SPLINTERED IDYLLS, Tangerine Arts Group, at the Preston Bradley Center for the Arts. It took Tennyson almost 30 years to complete his epic poem Idylls of the King, a sweeping take on Arthurian legend packed with themes and symbols: the work is like a massive tarot deck in which every knight, castle, tree, and chalice […]
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Kevin Cole & Heidi Kettenring
Fresh off a pair of triumphant concerts at Ravinia, Kevin Cole unveils a new program of American pop classics, What Can You Say in a Love Song (That Hasn’t Been Said Before). Cole has carved a reputation as perhaps America’s finest Gershwin pianist–at Ravinia he played the Concerto in F as well as the solo-piano […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tony Lindsay
Like his two earlier novels, Tony Lindsay’s Chasin’ It is set on Chicago’s south side and examines spirituality, family ties, redemption, and black pride. A pulp thriller reminiscent of the novels of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim, it depicts the life of Terri Parish, a drag queen, ex-convict, and crack addict who turns tricks downtown. […]
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Chicago Tap All-Stars II
This year on the Chicago Tap All-Stars program you got your Vegas act, your basic rhythm tappers, and your upstart who wants to tell stories through tap. The Vegas act–Chicago natives Jay and Connie Fagan, a brother and sister who appeared at the Suncoast Hotel & Casino earlier this year–specializes in good-natured rivalrous patter. When […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Corporation
Absorbing and instructive, this 2003 Canadian documentary tackles no less a subject than the geopolitical impact of the corporation, forcing us to reexamine an institution that may regulate our lives more than any other. Directors Mark Achbar (Manufacturing Consent) and Jennifer Abbott and writer Joel Bakan cogently summarize the history of the chartered corporation, showing […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lip
LIP, at the Neo-Futurarium. Lisa Buscani’s performance career–from Neo-Futurist to slam poetry champ to Big Goddess to nun (in the New York edition of Late Nite Catechism)–has given her an enviable web of connections. For her local homecoming she’s curating a festival of monologues at the Neo-Futurarium. In her own piece, Idiot, Buscani focuses on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Earma Thompson
When pianist Earma Thompson sidles into “After Hours,” the second track on her newly released duo album, it sounds as if the song–a staple of the jazz and blues piano repertoire for six decades, recorded by Oscar Peterson, Pinetop Perkins, and Ray Bryant, among others–was written just for her. Thompson finds a tempo that’s devastating […]
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Wanna Buy a Play?; Stickups at the Storefronts; Return of La Lautman
Prop Thtr’s Scott Vehill and Chicago Dramatists’ Ann Filmer bring the national new-play trade show to town.
Posted inArts & Culture
Living Inside Myself
LIVING INSIDE MYSELF, Bailiwick Repertory. In this solo show, writer-performer Jamie Black–a man who was born a girl–looks at how he came to recognize his gender dysphoria. Since the female-to-male transition has rarely been explored–most people who’ve written about being transsexual have been women who were once men–this is potentially interesting. Black is brave to […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Vagina vs. Caveman
Any play suggesting that a woman needs a workshop to help her find her clitoris strikes me as insulting, but Eve Ensler’s collection of humorous and, um . . . touching vignettes, The Vagina Monologues, has become a showbiz phenomenon. Now Metropolis Performing Arts Centre, in its first opening since Arlington Heights decided last month […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Von Freeman
When Chicago tenor saxophonist Von Freeman turned 80 a couple years ago he was feted in grand style, with birthday concerts at Symphony Center and the Chicago Jazz Festival, an honorary doctorate from Northwestern, an award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and a street renamed in his honor. But he refuses […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mercan Dede
A lot of electronic music producers look upon the music of the Middle East as useful sample fodder–nothing evokes exoticism as instantly as a melismatic minaret wail or a twangy oud figure tossed into the mix. Talented Asian producers like Karsh Kale, Bally Sagoo, and DuOud work at a higher level, thanks to a real […]