Gary Shteyngart’s 2002 novel, The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, charts the rising panic of hapless Vladimir Girshkin as he drifts, stateless, from the USSR to the Lower East Side to the cartoonishly Slavic city of Prava, a crumbling post-Soviet capital of opportunists, wastrels, and thieves. Manic, absurd, and mournfully comic, the book gives coming-of-age tropes a […]
Tag: Vol. 34 No. 15
Issue of Jan. 6 – 12, 2005
Posted inArts & Culture
Intercourse
The tone of this whimsical Polish show is about as far from its gruesomely clinical title as it can get. Kuba Pierzchalski and Rachel Karafistan of Cosmino Teatr enact the dynamics of male-female relationships in a wordless 45-minute performance piece that begins with the woman alone in a double bed and ends with the man […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Bears Are the Bulls of Football
A new coach, an unfulfilled promise, and the record to prove it.
Posted inNews & Politics
Our Lists, Ourselves
The ubiquity of Sideways on year-end lists says more about critics than about the movie–and so does the backlash against it.
Posted inArts & Culture
Straight-Jacket
Rock Hudson’s sham marriage inspired this diverting comedy set in the 1950s, when Hollywood was being terrorized by politicos in search of perverts, pinkos, and potheads. Secretly gay matinee idol Guy Stone (Matt Letscher) takes the advice of his butch manager (Veronica Cartwright) and weds his producer’s starstruck secretary (Carrie Preston), but his heart lies […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Besides Sideways
This critics’ darling has its virtues, but there were at least 50 better films released in 2004.
Posted inArts & Culture
Sunday Double Header
A dirty puppet is one of the many funny–if not quite original–touches in B.R.A.T. Productions’ sketch-comedy show, Poppy Seed Lane. There are also gay Republicans, a George W. Bush impersonator, an embarrassing secret that’s revealed on an airplane trip, and some hilarious carols, each explaining why the racist singers are looking forward to a white […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Please Stop Writing About Liz
In regard to the recent string of Liz Armstrong letters [November 26, December 24], WHO GIVES A FUCK??? Find something better to write about instead of paragraphs of big words and needless praise. She already has a big enough head. Ted Brogan Chicago