Both condemning and confirming class snobbery, Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 smash hit fuses Romeo and Juliet with Punch to produce a topsy-turvy romp. Rudy Hogenmiller’s respectful revival for Light Opera Works aims at nothing more than fidelity to Gilbert’s wit and Sullivan’s joy. No one on this busy stage confuses looking funny with being amusing; […]
Tag: Vol. 34 No. 14
Issue of Dec. 30, 2004 – Jan. 5, 2005
Posted inArts & Culture
John Repp
In John Repp’s second full-length collection, The Fertile Crescent, the past rear-ends the present, leaving the poet to sift the wreckage for whatever meaning he can find. It’s work he doesn’t relish. “I’m sick / of points,” he says in one place, and in another, “I don’t want to be in this poem. I want […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Seventh Victim
Though not directed by an auteurist-approved figure (Mark Robson has never attracted any cult to my knowledge), this is the greatest of producer Val Lewton’s justly celebrated low-budget chillers–a beautifully wrought story about the discovery of devil worshippers in Greenwich Village that fully lives up to the morbid John Donne quote framing the action. Intricately […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Andy Bey
Every year when I fill out Down Beat magazine’s critics poll ballot, I have a hard time coming up with three nominations for the best male vocalist category: Andy Bey is blessed with such flawless intonation, breath control, and artistry that all other competitors seem unworthy, and on each recording since his 1996 comeback album, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Whimsy in the Water; It’s All About Us
Whimsy in the Water Children were giggling at the 41 photographs in Arthur Tress’s “Fish Tank Sonata,” chosen from the 71 images collected in his book of the same name. Tress creates fanciful still lifes by arranging props inside an antique fish tank, which he hauls to various locations to photograph. He’s divided his images […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lang Lang
Bartok’s Second Piano Concerto opens with a rush up the keyboard and a brassy fanfare, and the excitement almost never lets up. Stravinsky’s Petrushka is evident in the bright, rhythmic opening theme, and Liszt is apparent throughout the work in the extensive use of octaves, glissandi, repeated notes, and the dark, resonant bottom of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Sketch Comedy Film Festival
The fourth edition of this annual comedy showcase, presented by Lukaba Productions, features more than 80 local and out-of-town ensembles, including folks from New York, LA, Seattle, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver. Some well established, some new to the scene, they represent a remarkable range of styles and viewpoints. Chicago […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Underachiever
Janet Desaulniers blew a book deal with Knopf, and boy is she glad.
Posted inArts & Culture
A Spinet Is a Two-Man Piece
It was one of those freak things that never should have happened. We had just had lunch at the Workingman’s Club, and while I was backing out of the parking space, a wino wandered up to the truck to tell us that he’d been a furniture mover back in the old days. “Is that so?” […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Floods, Feuds, and a Smidge of Good News
Some of the year’s juciest arts-biz stories revisited
Posted inArts & Culture
Detroit Cobras
Formed in the Motor City in 1995, the Detroit Cobras can claim they were garage back when garage wasn’t cool–when, of course, it was actually coolest. And they’ve wavered little from their original formula, building a catalog that’s mostly covers of 50s and 60s R & B, rock, and girl-group obscurities. Rachel Nagy’s husky, molasses-thick […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Churn
Paloma, my brother’s wife, stomps her way down the aisles of the ShopTime Grocery, smoking a cigarette. So far, three male clerks have asked her to put it out. Paloma is tall like a man. Six feet easy. And she always wears high heels. Always. Her hair reminds me of a mink coat mama used […]
Posted inArts & Culture
White Dirt
“I can’t move my neck,” Vassie said, sensing the party going on behind his shoulder. He knew he was in Rachel’s apartment because he could see the Clash poster over the wicker chair and the ferret’s cage in the corner, but he couldn’t turn to see who else was in the apartment. When Vassie got […]