What’s a young Democrat to do when his folks love Bush?
Tag: Vol. 34 No. 4
Issue of Oct. 21 – 27, 2004
Posted inArts & Culture
Operation S
There’s no easier way for a draft-ager to piss off dad (or our Francophobe president, if your name’s Jenna) than to learn and howl the lyrics to the eponymously titled debut from Paris synth punks Operation S. All in French–save lingua punca like “paranoia mafia” and “so sexy”–the record serves as an overdriven answer to […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Zastrozzi, the Master of Discipline
George F. Walker’s swashbuckling 1977 parody of 19th-century romanticism is wrapped in a florid tale of murder, revenge, and virtue imperiled. Among the generic dramatis personae are a Byronic antihero (so sensitive he has nightmares when he’s awake), an effete aesthete with a messianic mania, a slinky seductress, an intractable virgin, a ruthless henchman, and […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
Friday 22 JEAN-MICHEL PILC Follow Me (Dreyfus) is the first solo piano outing by Paris native (and current New Yorker) Jean-Michel Pilc, and it has a sense of space that’s usually lacking when his trio revamps standards. He still freely reharmonizes, reconfigures, and revitalizes warhorses, but there’s no mad dash to the finish line on […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Filipino-American Film Festival
Presented by the Filipino-American Network, this festival of work by Filipinos and Filipino-Americans runs Friday and Saturday, October 22 and 23, at Northside Preparatory High School, 5501 N. Kedzie. Matinees are $6, evening programs are $10 ($8 for seniors, students, and children 12 and younger), and a festival pass, good for admission to all events, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pyretown
Despite an appealing performance by Elaine Rivkin and Samuel C. Ball’s superb scenic design, John Belluso’s awkward fusion of love story and health-care polemic remains lifeless. In this midwest premiere, director Tim Farrell exacerbates the script’s problems by focusing on a peripheral character, a conscience-stricken HMO doctor (overplayed by Melissa Carlson), instead of its central […]
Posted inArts & Culture
University of Chicago Humanities Open House
“Myth, Truth, and Lies” is the theme of the U. of C.’s 25th annual humanities and arts open house, which offers lectures, tours, and musical performances by faculty and staff. Presentations take place on Saturday, October 23; all are free, but advance registration is required (limited day-of-event registration will be available at Swift Hall, 1025 […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Gitmo Riddle
How do you defend people beyond your reach from a president who seems beyond the law?
Posted inArts & Culture
Rufus Reid Quintet
In the early 60s Scott LaFaro raised the bar for jazz bass with lines so nimble they seemed better suited to a horn, but most players who’ve aspired to match his speed have had to sacrifice tone to get it: the sheer size of the instrument makes it especially difficult to shape each note fully […]
Posted inArts & Culture
DanceAfrica Chicago 2004
In all the years I’ve been going to DanceAfrica Chicago–since 1991–I’ve never seen anything like Sidi Goma before. A group of musicians and dancers from the Indian state of Gujarat, it’s made up of African-Indian descendants of slaves and traders who came to the far western corner of India eight centuries ago. Its dozen members […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Chosen
Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel, published the same year as the Six-Day War, deals in part with the rifts among Jews over Zionism. And Aaron Posner’s adaptation–developed in collaboration with Potok and presented by Steppenwolf’s youth-oriented Arts Exchange program–provides an impassioned overview of those issues. But Posner focuses more on Brooklyn in the 1940s and the […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Dance-Floor Agenda
Kudos on the Jerkstore grand opening piece in your Chicago Antisocial column from the October 15 edition of the Reader. It was an interesting read from start to finish, and Mr. Jashnani’s ordeal with the authorities was a story that needed to be told. Thanks for giving the public the lowdown on this. I would […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Crafty Protester
In which our heroine quits bitching and starts stitching.