ChicagoImprovAnarchy all too accurately re-creates the forced levity, awkward flirtations, and sing-along brainwashing of the summer camp experience in this whirlwind improvised montage. On the night I attended, the players’ disaffection with “Camp Anahkig” rang so true that I could have sworn they were doing community service. But otherwise nothing much happened beyond dutiful send-up […]
Tag: Vol. 34 No. 40
Issue of Jun. 30 – Jul. 6, 2005
Posted inNews & Politics
With Friends Like These . . .
To the editor: The Tribune’s initial omission of the FBI torture report at the core of Senator Durbin’s protest got deserved Zorro-like rapier slashes in Reader headlines: “Tell ‘Em What to Think: But don’t tell ’em what they’re thinking it about” [Hot Type, June 24]. Now, to cover the political as well as journalistic dimension […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Agence France-Presse reported in May on the popularity of gimmick restaurants in Taiwan, as currently evidenced by the lavatory-themed Marton in the city of Kaohsiung. The name is a play on the Mandarin word matong, meaning “toilet,” and the restaurant’s decor employs toilets as chairs, urinals as light fixtures, and bathtubs topped with […]
Posted inNews & Politics
I have Seen the Future and It Is Fucking Scary
NextFest puts a bright face on cloning, artifical intelligence, and environmental villainy.
Posted inArts & Culture
Harold Lloyd: The Man on the Clock
Presented by the Music Box and the Silent Film Society of Chicago, this series of double features ($10.50 admission) showcases new prints from the silent and early sound career of slapstick master Harold Lloyd. Screenings are Friday through Thursday, July 1 through 7, at the Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, and all silent programs feature […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Savage Love
Not long ago, a certain woman went from being my brother’s fuck buddy to being his girlfriend. From what I can tell, she’s GGG (or maybe he is) and they have a creative sex life. I’m in my mid-30s; my brother and his girlfriend are in their early 40s. So here I am, finding this […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beyond Bond
A new breed of spy novel questions the very conventions of the spy novel.
Posted inArts & Culture
Puff Piece
Lifeline’s musical treatment of E.F. Benson’s Queen Lucia is as it should be: lighter than air.
Posted inNews & Politics
Snips
[snip] Back when the Supreme Court was a force for good. Princeton University economist Orley Ashenfelter and colleagues evaluate the impact of Brown v. Board of Education in a National Bureau of Economic Research paper: “When we examine the income of male workers in 1990, we find that southern-born blacks who finished their schooling just […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
‘S Perilous; A Pair for the Pier
A partnership with Hershey Felder’s successful one-man Gershwin show is just Steve Robinson’s latest play to keep the WFMT radio network up and humming.
Posted inArts & Culture
Queen Lucia
In the first of the 1920s Lucia books, British humorist E.F. Benson pits his childish, snobbish heroine–Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas, undisputed queen of culture in the little village of Riseholme–against a far superior outsider. When opera singer Olga Bracely moves to town, she unwittingly steals the spotlight from Lucia, sparking an epic battle between the two. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Taming of the Shrew
First Folio Shakespeare Festival sets its outdoor production in an 1890s Colorado mining town. While I have to confess that the silly “Wild West Shrew” concept bugs me, the company deserves credit for maximizing the setting’s comic potential. There are some rewardingly goofy antics with a stuffed squirrel and some rich supporting characters, especially Ronald […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Secret Visitor
Why you didn’t hear a peep about the first whooping crane to land in Chicago in more than a century.
Posted inArts & Culture
Make Believe, The Narrator
The members of the local quartet THE NARRATOR–vocalists-guitarists Sam Axelrod and Jesse Woghin, bassist James Barron, and drummer Nate Heneghan–clearly draw inspiration from Chicago’s post-rock and emo scenes, but they skillfully avoid the wankiness and the melodrama that can make those subgenres so tiresome. A 2003 single and an explosive 2004 EP, Youth City Fire, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Taste of Chicago
In addition to all that food, Taste of Chicago features music on several Grant Park stages: the Fox Bandstand (Jackson & Lake Shore Dr.), the Fun Time Stage (Michigan & Balbo), the Taste Stage (Columbus & Jackson), and the Petrillo Music Shell. For more information, call 312-744-3315. THURSDAY 30 Fox Bandstand 11:30 Janesville 2:00 Rob […]