Neil LaBute’s Bash: Latter-Day Plays, opening this week at Circle Theatre, is a trio of one-act monologues by characters whose normalcy masks the occasional nasty surprise–a little dose of bloody vengeance or murder. But that’s typical of LaBute. The playwright and screenwriter has been attracting and alarming audiences since his 1997 Sundance Film Festival breakthrough […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 48
Issue of Aug. 26 – Sep. 1, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Poetry Fest
The tenth annual Chicago Poetry Fest features two days of readings by some 80-odd local poets. Saturday’s “Chicago Poetry Squared” portion is outdoors on the 4700 block of North Lincoln (“bring your lawn chairs or blankets”) and open to all ages. Sunday’s “Chicago Poetry Unleashed: Tone It Up” is at Weeds, 1555 N. Dayton, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Art of Recycling
Old paint, bike parts, table scraps–if it’s something you don’t want, Kevin Kaempf can probably turn it into something you do.
Posted inArts & Culture
Hero
On the eve of China’s first dynasty, a mysterious man (Jet Li) explains to a warlord how he eliminated three assassins, but his story keeps changing as the warlord questions him; each version of the events is signified visually by a dominant color. Like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, this 2002 feature by Zhang […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Scum Rises to the Top
Dear Mr. Michael Miner, Apropos of your piece in the August 20 Reader on journalistic privilege, the Fitzgerald investigation/grand jury proceedings, and the Valerie Plame case: I’m divided; I agree that there is little or no moral, legal, or constitutional cause for covering for “Bush’s scum” (your term, but I concur), even under current journalist-protection […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sonore
Most all-saxophone groups, from ROVA to the World Saxophone Quartet to New Winds, improvise from written material, using arrangements that approximate more-standard instrumentation–one musician articulates something like a bass line, while others play riffs and someone solos. Sonore, a new trio made up of three of improvised music’s strongest voices–Germany’s Peter Brotzmann, Sweden’s Mats Gustafsson, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Correction
In a Section Two article that ran on August 6 about Miami Flavors Homemade Ice Cream and Sweet Shop, “Tomato and Avocado on a Waffle Cone, Please,” I wrote that Koren Grieveson was the sous-chef and pastry chef at Blackbird in 1999. In fact Grieveson was exclusively the sous-chef. I apologize for the error. Kathie […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Get the Lead Out
To the editors, I would encourage a follow-up to Harold Henderson’s article of 20 August 2004, “The Bad Earth,” that explores phytoremediation and phytoextraction, the use of plants that fix heavy metals and toxins as a means of contaminant cleanup. The same reasons he enumerated for not eating root or leaf plants in lead-compromised soils […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Viva! Chicago
Viva! Chicago Latin Music Festival offers performances on two stages in Grant Park: the Ford Motor Stage (Jackson & Lake Shore Drive) and the Petrillo Music Shell (Columbus and Jackson). For information call 312-744-3370. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28 FORD MOTOR STAGE 10:40 Buscando Estrellas 11:40 Manoso Musical 12:25 Latin Experience Band 1:10 Caliente 1:55 Mike Roman […]
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Lost Sounds
The Lost Sounds provide proof, in case anybody still needs more, that interbreeding is the way of the future. Formed in Memphis in March ’99 as a trio–with Jay Reatard and Rich Crook, formerly of ultraprimitive garage howlers the Reatards, and Alicja Trout, who’d collected a pile of analog synths during her stint in the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Reference Check
Having read the “No Law Against That” article [August 20], I saw a quote from a former boss of Mr. Vasilopulos. Jim Nemeth used to work for me. I would like to add this about Jim: “He was, and is, a nice guy.” Jason Krause N. Clinton
Posted inArts & Culture
Lee Wells
Lee Wells’s photographic portraits at the Lobby Gallery seem to have the hearts and souls cut out of them. In one series he paints various sizes of white rectangles over his images, and their placement seems strangely arbitrary. Much of the pretty face of the young blond in The Girl is obscured by rectangles, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
TRG Music Listings
Rock, Pop, Etc. Concerts ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, LOS LONELY BOYS, UMPHREY’S MCGEE Wed 9/1, 7 PM, Rosemont Theatre, 5400 N. River Rd., Rosemont. 847-671-5100 or 312-559-1212. TONY BENNETT Sat 8/28, 8 PM, Pavilion, Ravinia Festival, Green Bay & Lake Cook Rds., Highland Park. 847-266-5100. BODEANS in an acoustic performance; see Spot Check. Thu 8/26 and […]
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In Performance: Michael Martin’s shot at credit in the straight world
When Michael Martin was 15 the Watergate scandal broke, and he developed an obsession with Richard Nixon and secret transcripts. Thirty years later that obsession has ripened into Verbatim Verboten, an evening of (mostly) covertly recorded private conversations transcribed and performed for our delectation: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman bickering on their cell phones, Prince […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wonderful World
WONDERFUL WORLD, Infamous Commonwealth Theatre, at the Athenaeum Theatre. The cloying quirkiness of Richard Dresser’s 2001 Humana Festival script reveals a playwright determined to become the next Nicky Silver. But Silver has a vague understanding of psychology, while Dresser’s dysfunctional households are built of shtick and schmaltz. A young woman is nearly hysterical at the […]