All movies are free. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are by DVD projection and begin at dusk (approximately 7:45 PM). RBarnyard PG, 90 min. a Wed 8/22, Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph, 312-746-5494. Buscando a Leti Presented by the Chicago Latino Film Festival. In Spanish with subtitles. 96 min. a Mon 8/20, 7:30 PM, Harrison Park, […]
Tag: Vol. 36 No. 47
Issue of Aug. 16 – 22, 2007
Posted inArts & Culture
Drinking & Writing Volume III: To Cure a Hangover
Sean Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda of the Neo-Futurists bring back the third installment in their long-running series of occasional performance-lectures about the bibulous lives of writers. (Though the series premiered in 2002, this volume–focused on the morning after the night before–debuted last summer.) Usually the two perform in bars, not theaters, but they’ve scored the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
FAT WORM OF ERROR
This Massachusetts band is a stumbling, mush-mouthed, amoeboid creature out of a childhood nightmare, devouring everything in the fridge. And once it’s full, it carefully barfs it all up, one thoughtful convulsion at a time: baby animal growls, boingy guitar chatter, seasick feedback, zizzing bass, tongue-choked hyperventilation, and janky clanking percussion that sounds more like […]
Posted inNews & Politics
A Pessimist’s Perspective
Dear Reader editors and staff, Sorry about the news. I hope you are too. In the press release for the sale of the Reader President Bob Roth (or whoever wrote the release) says:”. . . we’ve been able to make careers doing work we love and to establish papers that are vital parts of the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Underground Film Festival
The 14th Chicago Underground Film Festival continues through Sunday, August 19, with screenings at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, and Elegant Mr. Gallery, 1355 N. Milwaukee. Tickets for single screenings are $7; a $50 pass admits you to ten. For advance tickets visit brownpapertickets.com; for more information call 773-341-6727 or visit cuff.org. friday17 Cutting […]
Posted inArts & Culture
PORTUGAL. THE MAN
Portugal. The Man’s debut, Waiter: “You Vultures!”, was one of the best experimental pop albums in forever, a blend of taut beats, muscular hardcore, and dreamy keys held together by the emo-ish tenor of front man John Baldwin Gourley. Those elements are all present on the recent follow-up, Church Mouth (Fearless), though they’ve been toned […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Marvin Tate
Writer, spoken-word performer, and snow-globe artist Marvin Tate went big and bold as the front man of D-Settlement, a large, chaotic funk party of a band. On his first solo album, Family Swim (IVR), he takes a different tack entirely: with multi-instrumentalist and regular collaborator LeRoy Bach (of Wilco and 5ive Style fame) he creates […]
Posted inNews & Politics
The Treatment
friday17 AU REVOIR SIMONE Though I liked this all-female Brooklyn trio’s 2005 brief debut, Verses of Comfort, Assurance, and Salvation, I wasn’t blown away. But I don’t think they wanted me to be; their sirenlike electronica has an insinuating delicacy that’s designed to work its way slowly under your skin. The follow-up, The Bird of […]
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A/V Xplo
The A/V Xplo festival showcases visual art and live music in several Chicago clubs. Tickets for individual shows are $12, $10 in advance. For more information go to avxplo.com. THURSDAY16 Double Door | 1572 N. Milwaukee773-489-3160 or 312-559-1212 7:00 Nurses Alan Astor Brenmar Miles Tilmann Trio in Stereo Rue Royale Midstates Theory Anesthetic FRIDAY17 Subterranean […]
Posted inArts & Culture
MIKA MIKO
If the video footage on their MySpace page is any indication, Mika Miko’s second coming to Chicago will deliver us all unto punk heaven. Los Angeles hasn’t spawned a rowdy cabal with this much teen spirit since the Dangerhouse days; it’s as if these five girls walked out of a Bags/Eyes/Dils show and immediately started […]
Posted inNews & Politics
News of the Weird
Lead Story Security camera footage taken one May afternoon at the Union Station mall in Kansas City revealed that a small boy had wandered away from his mother, noticed an elaborate half-completed mandala rendered on the floor in colored sand by a visiting group of Tibetan Buddhist monks, and begun to dance around on it, […]
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RABBINICAL SCHOOL DROPOUTS, LAMAJAMAL
The California big band known as the RABBINICAL SCHOOL DROPOUTS actually does seem to play at a lot of weddings and bar mitzvahs, which is hard to square with their sound. Recalling Zappa at his giddiest and least scatological, the Dropouts seem to have developed a klezmerist form of Sun Ra worship, decked out in […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Men and Their Music
More than just a human jukebox, Ron Hawking brings as much appreciation as impersonation to his Rat Pack impressions, especially of Frank Sinatra. As in the eight-year hit His Way, Hawking’s earlier musical memory album, his songs here are energized by a terrific band and a female backup duo. Paying the highest compliment–imitation–to the singers […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Chicago Dancing Festival
Free is good, but it’s really good when the goods are top-shelf. Seven dance troupes with great reps take the stage on this program, which includes Alvin Ailey’s classic Cry. Created in 1971 for Judith Jamison, who succeeded Ailey as company director after his death, it’s performed by Dwana Adiaha Smallwood. And the Ailey-like Complexions […]
Posted inArts & Culture
National Flag Burning and Alternative Lifestyle Awareness Day: The Musical
In this new satire by Kenneth Paul Drews and Dan Filowitz, set five years in the future, liberals have taken over the country and a small band of Les Miz-style conservative rebels makes plans that include infiltrating the New York Times, which has become a propaganda machine. What starts as a send-up of conservative fears […]