CAST ON A HOT TIN ROOF, at the Royal George Theatre Center. The concept is simple: a five-person ensemble improvises the “world premiere and final performance” of a play, its plot based on audience input. The execution is a little trickier, since the story the performers come up with must mimic the well-known mannerisms of […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 48
Issue of Aug. 26 – Sep. 1, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
Brand Nubian
In late 1991 Brand Nubian’s standout MC Grand Puba lit out for a solo career, DJ Alamo in tow, in apparent disregard for the title of the Afrocentric crew’s sole album, One for All. Puba’s two subsequent Elektra albums were disappointments–though slightly more rewarding than the pair Sadat X and Lord Jamar would release as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Gallery Tripping: putting the arty in party
For the past year or so Becca Mann and a revolving cast of friends have shared a little house in Bucktown. It’s the kind of place you get jealous of when you visit, even though you might not really want to live there: originally designed as a daycare, it has no pantry but two bathrooms […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Datebook
AUGUST 27 FRIDAY Some claim the women’s movement is irrelevant these days, but the ongoing battle over reproductive rights and class-action sex discrimination lawsuits at major financial firms suggest otherwise. This weekend the Veteran Feminists of America take a look at past struggles and plan for the future at a conference cosponsored by UIC’s Center […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Jazz Festival
The Chicago Jazz Festival offers performances at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park (100 N. Michigan), Harris Theater for Music and Dance (205 E. Randolph), Symphony Center (220 S. Michigan), and on three stages in Grant Park: the Jazz on Jackson Stage (Jackson & Lake Shore Drive), the Jazz and Heritage Family Stage (Columbus & […]
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On Stage: Kevin O’Donnell helps the House keep the beat
Last fall, after speaking on a panel at Columbia College on how to manage a career in the arts, Kevin O’Donnell got on the elevator with House Theatre artistic director Nathan Allen, playwright Phillip Klapperich, and some other members of the young company. Making small talk, Klapperich asked the musician where he played around town. […]
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Asma Gull Hasan
“I have never been ashamed to be Muslim, not even after 9-11, and not now,” states Asma Gull Hasan in the introduction to her new book, Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey (Element). The 29-year-old Hasan, a Colorado-bred graduate of Wellesley and New York University Law School, has become something of a Muslim […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
What’s the deal with not taking a shower, using the phone, or standing too close to the TV during a thunderstorm? If people were electrocuted by lightning in their homes on anything like a regular basis surely we would hear about it more often than we do. Is this just one of those stories our […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Home of House
Chicago’s Trax Records reissues a treasure trove of early house nuggets.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Junk Men Cometh
Dan Peterman: Plastic Economies at the Museum of Contemporary Art, through September 12 Derek Webster at Intuit, through October 2 Recycling–or in some cases not recycling–is the subject of Dan Peterman’s seven large installations at the Museum of Contemporary Art. A midcareer retrospective, the show confirms that this internationally recognized Chicago conceptual artist is an […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Homework
Writer-director Kevin Asher Green makes an impressive debut with this quiet black-and-white character study of a New York ballet student (Paz de la Huerta) being silently devoured by anger, self-doubt, and fear of her own body. Seriously bulimic, she divides her time between a cerebral but randy boyfriend (Evan Neumann) and the unforgiving physical demands […]
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Calendar
Friday 8/27 – Thursday 9/2 AUGUST 27 FRIDAY Some claim the women’s movement is irrelevant these days, but the ongoing battle over reproductive rights and class-action sex discrimination lawsuits at major financial firms suggest otherwise. This weekend the Veteran Feminists of America take a look at past struggles and plan for the future at a […]
Posted inNews & Politics
An Unimpeachable Source; It Would Have Written Itself; News Bites
An Unimpeachable Source In a pristine world there’d be no corporate relationship between the Tribune and the Chicago Cubs. Or between the Tribune and the Tribune Company’s dreams of empire. But the Tribune is entangled. A mayor angry at it over whatever John Kass snarled or the editorial page pronounced can turn his guns on […]
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Playtime
My all-time favorite movie, this 1967 French comedy by actor-director Jacques Tati almost certainly has the most intricately designed mise en scene in all of cinema. Dave Kehr had it right: “Tati attempted nothing less than a complete reworking of the conventional notions of montage and, amazingly, he succeeded. Instead of cutting within scenes, Tati […]
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Jazz Institute of Chicago Jazz Club Tour
On Wednesday, September 1, the Jazz Institute of Chicago holds its 21st annual club tour from 6 PM to midnight. Promotional buttons (which include admission and transportation) can be purchased at the clubs for $15 in advance, or $20 the night of the event. Buses arrive outside each club every 15 minutes and travel three […]