A dapper salesman in a Madrid department store (Guillermo Toledo) lives a life of consumerist splendor, parading around in the latest fashions and bedding his beautiful clerks in the furniture department, but after he’s passed over for a promotion his resentment draws him into a tangle of criminal intrigue. Spanish cult director Alex de la […]
Tag: Vol. 34 No. 49
Issue of Sep. 1 – 7, 2005
Posted inNews & Politics
End Game
Gary Stern is the only guy in the world still making pinball machines.
Posted inNews & Politics
You Can Fool All of the People Some of the Time; Credit Report; Ray Nordstrand, 1932-2005
In the history of hoaxes, the Kodee Kennings story is a doozy.
Posted inNews & Politics
The Poor, Poor Park Grill
Even if they end up paying property taxes, they still have a ridiculously good deal.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Reader’s Guide to the 27th Annual Jazz Festival
As usual the Chicago Jazz Festival is recognizing a few big-name anniversaries–40 years of the AACM, 70 of Down Beat magazine, and what would’ve been Charlie Parker’s 85th birthday–and celebrating a handful of jazz greats both living and dead. (This year it’s Roy Haynes and Eddie Johnson in the former category and Tony Williams, Charlie […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Political Arena
Lefty sportswriter Dave Zirin argues for sports as a force for social change.
Posted inNews & Politics
Hypocrite Hackers
Your cover story [“But Can He Hack Prison?” August 19] does a good job of documenting the sorry state of “radical” politics these days. I can just see all these left- and right-wing computer nerds trying to figure out how to shut down Web sites they don’t like. Talk about hypocrisy. Jeremy Hammond trumpets himself […]
Posted inArts & Culture
African Festival of the Arts
The African Festival of the Arts features live performances on two stages in Washington Park, 51st & Cottage Grove. General admission is $10. For information call 773-955-2787. Friday 2 Main Stage 4:30 Spirits 5:30 Jean Paul Samputu 6:45 Vickie Winans with the Apostolic Church of God Choir 7:45 Pimenta Malagueta & the Samba1 Dance Group […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Merzbow
For almost 25 years and more than 200 albums, Tokyo noise patriarch Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow, has maintained an unflinching devotion to sonic brutality. Anglo noisemongers like Whitehouse and Boyd Rice have linked violent sounds to sexual power, black humor, or antisocial aggression, but Akita treats them as a source of pleasure in […]
Posted inNews & Politics
It’s Not Easy Being Lefty
While I typically find extreme activists on both ends of the political spectrum to be, at best, annoyingly cute but rarely informative (god, everything was so very black-and-white when I was younger too!), Mr. Fleming [Letters, August 26] and the rest of his ilk need to be aware of, or at least acknowledge, one very […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Antibalas
Fela Kuti never exhausted the possibilities of Afrobeat as a music–never even came close. Maybe that’s because his re-Africanization of funk was often primarily a vehicle for exhausting the possibilities of being Fela. So the lack of a charismatic front man is kind of a lucky break for this New York outfit–Fela himself may be […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Sweet Nothing
Mies van der Rohe’s gloriously simple Crown Hall isn’t just restored–it’s improved.
Posted inNews & Politics
Where Indymedia Puts It
Dear editor: In response to the criticism of the Chicago Independent Media Center (chicago.indymedia.org) in last week’s letter by a ProtestWarrior [August 26], we would like to call attention to our editorial policy, which is on our Web site: “The collective that maintains the CIMC website can hide posts if the material is far outside […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
I recently watched a karate/tae kwon do demonstration of breaking boards, and once again I wondered: What is the important part in making the board break? Is it the speed with which the martial artist moves his hands/feet/elbows, according to the laws of physics, meaning any other trained sportsman who achieved that same speed could […]
Posted inMusic
Dirtbombs
Mick Collins has been trying for ten years to get people to stop calling the Dirtbombs a garage band. Their recent singles compilation, If You Don’t Already Have a Look (In the Red), includes covers of the Bee Gees’ “I Started a Joke,” Soft Cell’s “Insecure Me,” and Yoko Ono’s “Kiss Kiss Kiss.” (“Fuck you […]