Natural Affection, North Lakeside Players, at the North Lakeside Cultural Center. Director Sara Rosen deserves some sort of prize for mounting the least heartwarming Christmas play in the English language. William Inge’s overlooked drama–it tanked on Broadway in 1963 and has never before been produced locally–condenses two days in the hardscrabble life of resourceful Sue […]
Tag: Vol. 33 No. 8
Issue of Nov. 20 – 26, 2003
Posted inArts & Culture
Revenge Is Bitter
Soul of a Whore Viaduct Theater In Angels in America, Tony Kushner sees the tail end of the Reagan 80s as a time when “history is about to crack wide open.” In Denis Johnson’s Soul of a Whore, the concluding play in his trilogy about the troubled Cassandra clan set in the late 90s and […]
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First Nations Film & Video Festival
The seventh annual First Nations Film & Video Festival, showcasing work by contemporary Native American artists, runs Friday through Sunday, November 21 through 23, at the American Indian Center of Chicago, 1630 W. Wilson; North Park University, 3225 W. Foster; and Truman College, 1145 W. Wilson. Tickets for all programs are $5; for more information […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Parallel Lives: The Kathy and Mo Show
Parallel Lives: The Kathy and Mo Show, Awaken Performances, at the Viaduct Theater. This 1986 off-Broadway show put writers Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney on the map, though Najimy–perhaps best known today as the voice of Peggy on Fox’s King of the Hill–has shown decidedly more staying power than her collaborator. The script apparently still […]
Posted inNews & Politics
City File
What goes around comes around. “The additional stress of caring for an elderly family member alone does not account for [elder] abuse,” according to “Violence Prevention News” (Fall). “Steinmetz (1978) found that ‘only one child out of 400 raised in a nonabusive home was abusive to his or her parent after reaching adulthood, while one […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Color of Music
“It’s like van Gogh,” River Grove painter Cherie Salerno cracks about the trouble she’s had with her right ear. A tumor in Salerno’s right eardrum turned that ear deaf and required two major surgeries, but that hasn’t kept music from being the primary inspiration for her whimsical semiabstract paintings. Salerno is synesthesia in action–she hears […]
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Funny Ha Ha
With its credits handwritten on paper and its abrupt ending, this low-budget romantic comedy (2002, 90 min.) by Boston writer-director Andrew Bujalski asks not to be taken too seriously. But like his heroes Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes, Bujalski has a knack for the genuine moment: using rudimentary lighting and a lively ensemble of nonprofessionals, […]
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Local Lit: Rob Christopher’s mix-and-match debut
“Andy went out drinking with his friends from work one night and they stayed out very late. It was about 4:30 in the morning when he was finally walking up Broadway on his way home. The neighborhood was completely silent. Just north of Aldine, a very cute young guy appeared from a side street. He […]
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Dance COLEctive
Margi Cole’s new work, Hues, tumbles its seven performers together in rapidly shifting combinations like bits of colored glass in a kaleidoscope. Reflecting with her young dancers on words like human, humanity, and humility, Cole came up with a vocabulary of movement for the work aided by videotapes of their kinetic speculations. The result, set […]
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Rodney Crowell
On his last album, 2001’s The Houston Kid (Sugar Hill), longtime Nashville hit maker Rodney Crowell began to make music for himself. Between 1978 and 1997 Crowell released nine albums of commercial country, among the best of which was 1988’s Diamonds and Dirt, an artful blend of honky-tonk, rockabilly, and Merseybeat. But in the late […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Ciao for Now/What’s With the Face-Lift?/Foul!
Ciao for Now For a taste of vintage Conrad Black, visit the hollinger.com Web site and read his lordship’s most recent (2002) statement to shareholders. It’s great stuff. He lays the blame for “financial results that are apparently absurdly unsatisfactory” on everyone and everything but himself. Growth was stymied by the “bad faith of the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Datebook
NOVEMBER 21 FRIDAY In his new book, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating: How to Choose the Best Bread, Cheeses, Pastas, Chocolate, and Much More, foodie Ari Weinzweig says, “You don’t have to be born French or be an insufferable food snob to discern the difference between a well-made farmhouse cheese and a bland, rubbery, factory […]
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Isley Brothers
If Ronald and Ernie Isley are less visible on the oldies circuit than their 60s and 70s contemporaries, it’s because they’re still right up there on the R & B chart. With a discography that includes early rock ‘n’ roll (“Twist and Shout”), Motown (“This Old Heart of Mine”), psychedelic soul (“That Lady”), and seminal […]
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Celebration on Ice
Celebration on Ice, Drury Lane Theatre Evergreen Park. An era is ending. This eclectic extravaganza on ice is the swan song for Tony De Santis’s Evergreen Park theater, with its Martinique restaurant. The show is perfect for that, a collection of flag-waving, crowd-pleasing variety acts characteristic of the warmly kitschy fare that for years has […]