This 2005 documentary vividly chronicles the career of actor-writer Charles Busch, the cross-dressing star of such camp hits as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, and The Lady in Question. Video makers John Catania and Charles Ignacio follow Busch from his raggedy East Village beginnings to his mainstream success on Broadway and later forays […]
Tag: Vol. 35 No. 36
Issue of Jun. 1 – 7, 2006
Posted inNews & Politics
Cat-astrophe
Dear Reader, I’m writing regarding your cover story on Joe Taft and his rescue for big cats, titled “His Wild Kingdom” [May 19]. While I’m always happy to hear about the prospect of organizations dedicated to making lives better for those creatures our society deems disposable, I was shocked to read that “despite the abuse […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Michael Zerang With Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Colligan
I can’t think of a more misleading title than “Illusion of Progress,” which is what local percussionist Michael Zerang and German reedist Peter Brotzmann decided to call the half-hour epic that opens their recent duo disc, Live in Beirut (Al Maslakh). Not only does the piece cover a lot of ground, ranging in mood from […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
It’s Not an Art Fair If There’s No Drama; Do the Arts Have a Home at Hull House?; The Acquiring Mind
A Nova employee accuses Michael Workman of bad business.
Posted inArts & Culture
Love Scenes
The annual GLBT-oriented Pride Series kicks off with this one-man show about the joys of monogamy. Written by David Pumo and performed by Moe Bertran, it’s made up of monologues by six New Yorkers of differing social rank. Bertran’s air of earnest sweetness appeals, but Pumo’s sanitized, saccharine depiction of gay relationships bears little resemblance […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Blues Festival
The Chicago Blues Festival features live performances on six Grant Park stages: the Route 66 Roadhouse (Columbus and Jackson), the Mississippi Juke Joint (Columbus and Van Buren), the Front Porch (Jackson and Columbus), the Louisiana Bayou Station & Social Club (Columbus between Jackson and Monroe), the Crossroads (Jackson and Lake Shore Drive), and the Petrillo […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Lady Chaplin & Her Tramp: The Life & Art of Charlie Chaplin
There’s too much unprocessed life and not enough art in Michael Stock’s play. Chaplin’s career is recalled by his last wife, the frenetic Oona (Eugene O’Neill’s daughter), who talks about a clumsy chain of sex scandals (including statutory rape), FBI intimidation, four mainly miserable marriages, forced exile, unhappy children, and tabloid trifles. Jonathan Pereira as […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Pat Martino Quartet
Pat Martino’s new album, Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery (Blue Note), is a throwback: the Philadelphia guitarist honors one of his earliest influences on the CD, replicating both the sound and style of the classic records Montgomery cut for Riverside in the early 60s. (Martino’s unusually well equipped for such deep study of an […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Straight Dope
I hate shaving every day. What would happen if I used one of those temporary hair-removal products on my face? What about the permanent ones? –Dan, Merrick, New York, via e-mail For a minute there I thought I had the perfect solution–castration! No more shaving, and as a bonus you don’t go bald and are […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Symphony Orchestra With Thomas Quasthoff
A superb interpreter of German art song, bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff has an extensive vocal range and the ability to change color and mood to express the full meaning of every word. He’s performed with all the world’s major orchestras and has been collaborating regularly with Daniel Barenboim since making his CSO debut in Brahms’s A […]
Posted inMusic
Boy Meets Band
Ian Adams wasn’t looking to lead a new group after quitting the Ponys, but the right one found him.
Posted inArts & Culture
Drinking & Writing Volume III: To Cure a Hangover
Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda explore possible morning-after cures in this goofy, unflinching lecture-cum-performance about the unpleasant consequences of the bibulous life. Self-loathing prose from John Cheever and Charles Bukowski–two monumental drinker-writers at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum–is intertwined with tales of the writer-performers’ experiments in thwarting a hungover “poor sense of well-being” (quite […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Duchess of Malfi
Yes, she’s the title character, and it’s her secret marriage to a commoner that triggers the play’s extravagantly long daisy chain of murders. But the duchess isn’t the real heart of John Webster’s Jacobean classic. That would be Bosola, the hapless soldier who finds himself committing horrific crimes out of–well, it’s complicated, but it has […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Circus Freak
Looking for a subject to pull her out of the “women’s fiction” ghetto, Sara Gruen immersed herself in the world of performing animals and sideshow freaks.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Mystical Other
Marie “Big Mama” Roseman’s quilts are undeniably visionary, but sometimes you’d think “outsiders” were the only artists with vision around here.