After almost 17 years of performing their trademark 30 plays in 60 minutes, the Neo-Futurists have lost none of their snap. In fact the rotating current cast, which includes veteran Heather Riordan and founder Greg Allen, writes plays that are funnier and more inventive than they’ve been in the ensemble’s previous incarnations. Of course, since […]
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 14
Issue of Dec. 29, 2005 – Jan. 4, 2006
Posted inArts & Culture
The Sound of Music
The Light Opera Works production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic has a fine orchestra and lavish sets, and the harmonies are sublime, especially when the nuns sing. But none of this compensates for the paper-thin characters offered by the cast, with the exception of Jamie Axtell as the talent scout/unapologetic mooch Max and, sometimes, Winifred […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Nature, Remystified
Shona Macdonald’s abstracted landscapes at the Chicago Cultural Center are precisely detailed and otherworldly. Each of the more than 100 shapes in Isles #1 looks like a different protozoan, and variable shadings add to their strangeness. The forms in Mountains, Craters, Shells seem to rise together out of emptiness: as if in an alchemical reaction, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Matthew Dear
Nu-‘lectro darling Matthew Dear grew up in Texas, and he moved to Detroit too late to have firsthand knowledge of the time when Motor City techno defined and refined the sound heard on dance floors around the world. But though he first got known as a microhouse artist–his 2003 full-length debut, Leave Luck to Heaven […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Unscripted Entertainment
Victory is never a sure thing, but what was great about the Sox’ victory is that it never even felt like one.
Posted inArts & Culture
Safes
In 2003 I sang the praises of the three O’Malley brothers and their intense, engaging style of garage-ish rock, which blends power-pop hookiness with a rockabilly fierceness. It’s been nice to see the love spread since then: on the strength of their debut, Family Jewels (Failed Experiment), and a follow-up 2004 EP, Boogie Woogie Rumble […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wolf Parade, Jason Forrest
WOLF PARADE, JASON FORREST It’s been a banner year for the Canadian rock scene. After the Arcade Fire’s Grammy nomination and a slew of hot albums from quirky, dramatic pop ensembles like the Dears and the Constantines, many more American indie kids can now correctly identify what side of the country Montreal is on. But […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Mistakes, I’ve Made Two
Sandra the Huntress gets back in touch, Reserve loses a star
Posted inNews & Politics
Way to Go, Tough Guy
Faced with a choice between saving face and saving lives, what did our mayor pick?
Posted inArts & Culture
Combating Cast-Off Culture
Artists’ novel and attractive solutions to social and environmental issues
Posted inArts & Culture
Zero Boys
For a band from Indianapolis whose sole original LP was less than 23 minutes long and only available sporadically in the years after its authors blipped across the early-80s hardcore radar like vodka-mad porcupines, the Zero Boys were amazingly influential. By the time 1982’s Vicious Circle was rereleased by Panic Button in 2000, I’d already […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
The Aristocrats; Miscellany
Wesley Kimler starts his own art club–and not everybody’s welcome.
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
OK, before asking my question, I have to admit that I got the idea for it from an episode of Beavis and Butt-head. Anyways, can I hop in a box, have a friend take me to the post office, and send myself to far-off destinations? If I can, would it be cheaper than airfare? I’m […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Diplo, Books
Musique concrete–music made from recordings of everday sounds–alienated the cold-war-era European bourgeoisie, but when the premise was unwittingly revisited decades later by American sample junkies like Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad, it turned out that what didn’t quite work as art music worked great as pop. Composing with found sounds is old hat now, in the […]