Rather than take the easy path through Latin-jazz territory–simple montuno grooves that emphasize brass and percussion, or familiar tunes done up with Latin accents–saxist David Sanchez keeps pushing back its boundaries. Instead of a trumpet or trombone, he features another saxophone in his elegant, compact sextet–the alto of Miguel Zenon, an inventive but restrained player […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 52
Issue of Sep. 23 – 29, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones
Singer Joey Ramone, bassist Dee Dee Ramone, and guitarist Johnny Ramone have died in such quick succession that their demise almost seems staged, as if some celestial voice had counted off “1–2–3–4!” This profile by Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields follows the punk pioneers from their early days as glue-sniffing losers in Queens to their […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Bitten by the Fuckdog; What Concert?; The Wake That Wasn’t
Bitten by the Fuckdog The last time we heard from former Chicagoan Gary Cole, in 2001, he was launching StageDirect, a business that films fringe theater shows and markets videos internationally; Chicago’s Neo-Futurists are among the troupes he’s taped. That venture hasn’t taken off financially yet, he says, but it hasn’t been foremost in his […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
BLACK KEYS This rust-belt duo’s third album, Rubber Factory (Fat Possum), was recorded in a makeshift studio the guys set up in an old tire plant, which is almost too bad in a way; it’s funnier to imagine deliberately crude rattlebag stuff like this being generated bit by bit in some high-end digital emporium. Probably […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Macha
This Athens band gets a fair amount of props for their use of gamelan and other non-Western instruments (what exactly is a “Bollywood viola”?)–but not so much for using them on desultory third generation New Order synth-pop, as their new Forget Tomorrow (Jetset) all too often does. There are signs of change a-comin’, though: something […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sex and the Second City
The tribulations of married life have been mined again and again in the theater. And this new musical, produced by Second City Theatricals, covers much of the same territory as plays like I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. But Sex and the Second City is belly-laugh funny. Its sparse character development doesn’t even matter, […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Good Times at Cabrini
This summer a spontaneous reunion spurred a series of gigantic street parties for people who called the project home. No plans, no permits, no problems.
Posted inArts & Culture
Mark Helias’s Open Loose
The compositions bassist Mark Helias brings to his latest album, Verbs of Will (Radio Legs, 2003), sound deceptively simple; from the warm, low-down blues of “How ‘Bout It” to “Give Up the Ghost,” an appealing blend of fatback heft and west-coast cool, his melodies are never convoluted or busy. That’s plainly by careful design. Apparently […]
Posted inFilm
Fun With the Undead
A couple of British TV writers work over George Romero’s zombie classics for a laugh.
Posted inArts & Culture
Cineme International Animation Festival
The second annual Cineme International Animation Festival runs Friday through Sunday, September 24 through 26, at the Illinois Institute of Art, located in the Chicago Merchandise Mart at 350 N. Orleans. Four programs of short animations will be screening Friday from 10 AM to 5:30 PM, and another four will be screening Saturday from 10 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
This Is Our Youth
In the 80s, novelists Jay McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis drew a connection between the 60s counterculture and the Reagan-era revolt against consumerism. Playwright Kenneth Lonergan had considerably more time to ponder the mysteries of the 80s before writing this 1996 play, set in 1982. But he couldn’t come up with any more compelling ideas […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lyric Opera of Chicago
To open its 50th season the Lyric chose Don Giovanni, that rare unclassifiable opera from its time: equal parts comedy, drama, and tragedy. The philandering don and his story appealed to Mozart, who loved dirty wordplay, but he gave equal attention to his portraits of the other characters: the long-suffering servant Leporello, the wronged women, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Shaun of the Dead
George Romero’s zombie trilogy has generated an endless parade of remakes and rip-offs, but this clever British spoof comes closer than many to the bitter satire that makes his movies so distinctive. TV writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright fully exploit the core gag of most horror comedy, as the title hero (Pegg), a feckless […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Backward Charge
Comics get the high-culture treatment at the Cultural Center, but the white walls don’t make them art.