High Tension The boy had a close-cropped head like a bullet and tensely muscled jowls that came down to a narrow chin. There was something tight and peculiar about the set of his cheeks, as though he were missing molars. His arms were covered with crudely drawn tattoos–a heart, a three-pointed crown, and other signs I couldn’t read because they were covered by his short-sleeved, blue-and-white-checked shirt. The girl was pretty....
Influence Peddlers Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » One of the latest bands to emerge from this culture is Chicago’s own Number One Cup, whose models are indie titans Superchunk and Pavement; on the band’s 1995 debut, Possum Trot Plan, the gem “Divebomb” is mired in a loose stew of lo-fi muck and half-baked songs. All of which makes the new Wrecked by Lions (both albums are on the small Rhode Island label Flydaddy) a rather dramatic turnaround....
Only six years after the end of the Civil War, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed all the Chicago Historical Society’s records. So when Ted Karamanski was researching his 1993 book, Rally ‘Round the Flag: Chicago and the Civil War, he had to piece together the missing history from newspaper accounts. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Unfortunately, “the coverage was partisan and unreliable,” he says....
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Despite the rich tradition of children’s theater in Chicago, shows like this one are rare. With brisk pacing, a handful of can’t-miss musical numbers, and a strong emphasis on storytelling, Eric Lane Barnes’s adaptation of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1939 children’s classic never gets bogged down in moral pronouncements. Instead it offers its lessons on multiple levels: the nondidactic approach encourages children to recognize the power of positive thinking and perseverance, while some quirky cultural references–to frivolous technology, Ralph Nader, and 60s hippie-speak–allows adults to laugh at outdated mores in general....
Lead Stories Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » At a September meeting of Christian Coalition leaders in Atlanta, founder Pat Robertson said the religious group should heighten its influence by modeling itself after the notorious political machines of Chicago and New York’s Tammany Hall and that God will personally select the Republican best suited to advance the coalition’s agenda in the next presidential campaign. At the beginning of his remarks Robertson had said he assumed he was talking only “in the family” and if any members of the press were present, “would you please shoot yourself?...
Srdjan Dragojevic’s 1996 antiwar film was a hit in its native Serbia, which is probably a good thing: as one critic has noted, Serbs were kept so ignorant of the war that most didn’t even know their militiamen were shelling Sarajevo. While not very inventive cinematically, the film is full of energy, and not merely of shootings and explosions: its anarchic narrative makes the characters seem wildly unhinged, and Dragojevic illuminates the absurdity of nationalist wars by depicting behavior that borders on the surreal–or the insane....
Dear Reader editor: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The drivers’ services facility employees are to be applauded for their courteous handling of the situation–Ms. Frank got a temporary driver’s license which is more than she deserved under the circumstances. Everyone experiences the delays that Ms. Frank describes and hopefully Mr. White’s administration will take heed and do something about it. No one, however, warrants preferential treatment because of their religion....
White Winged Moth Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » By laying the guitar down, on the table or the floor or whatever was handy, musicians like England’s Keith Rowe and Fred Frith and Chicago’s own Kevin Drumm and Jim O’Rourke have upended familiar notions of what can be done with the instrument. You can add to this small group Dean Roberts, who performs under the name White Winged Moth....
By Tori Marlan Many of her neighbors there were elderly, and as she got to know them, she became increasingly concerned for their welfare. “Several of them had very serious problems,” Binder recalls. “They should have been in some kind of retirement home or assisted-living situation. But they all said, ‘What would happen to my animals?’” So she began helping them walk their dogs and change their cats’ litter boxes....
ANDREA MARCOVICCI Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » British-born chanteuse Mabel Mercer was–to cop a phrase from Cole Porter–“the essence of, the quintessence of” cabaret artistry in the New York nightclub scene of the 40s and 50s. Her elegant yet conversational style has influenced stars from Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday to Johnny Mathis and Bobby Short, and now Andrea Marcovicci, a specialist in vintage American song, pays tribute to her on the forthcoming collection Some Other Time (Cabaret Records)....
ANTHONY DAVIS & JAMES NEWTON Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Pianist Anthony Davis and flutist James Newton have kept busy with their own projects since they last recorded together, nearly a decade ago: Davis’s opera Amistad received its world premiere at the Lyric Opera last season, and Newton has been working on his arrangements of Ellington material (begun for an album called The African Flower in the mid-80s) in anticipation of the 1999 centennial of Duke’s birth....
Friday 7/3 – Thursday 7/9 Legend has it the 500 Jews who settled in Kaifeng, China, in the tenth century came from Turkey, where they had encountered the same anti-Semitism that made their ancestors flee so many other countries. In Kaifeng, then the capital of China, they met with unusual tolerance and were even given Chinese surnames by the emperor, who encouraged them to preserve their customs. According to scholar Xu Xin in his book Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, the greatest threat to their culture was assimilation....
Friday 12/5 – Thursday 12/11 6 SATURDAY Until recently no other newspaper got more mileage out of covering itself than StreetWise. But an editorial overhaul by Brendan Shiller has since turned a good idea, poorly executed, into an actual newspaper. But if you’re still partial to those fascinating vendor profiles, filmmaker Bill Glader’s video documentary Inside StreetWise features four inspiring stories from people who have used the paper to turn their lives around–a man working his way through paramedic school, a woman supporting her young daughter, a former CPA with a brain tumor, and a former addict turned reporter....
Ellie Wallace By Fred Camper Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » In one statement Wallace writes that she’s “not interested in glorifying the object, [but] simply knowing it well.” In another, however, she says that her goal is “to celebrate the ordinary,” writing that she feels “a connection with icon painters”–“although I do not consider the paintings themselves holy, what I put into them and what I get back out of them certainly is....
Going Global Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » That fall the show moved to the Organic, filling first the small Greenhouse and then the main stage, and eventually it wound up at the Ivanhoe, where it’s been doing strong business since January 1995. “We’ve already got bookings for December,” says Doug Bragan, the theater’s owner. (The show charged $8 a ticket at Live Bait, which doubled when it moved to the Organic; now it fetches $25 a seat....
Next Generation Project These voices batter our ears and minds all day long, always promising. The journalistic voice, for example, is tough, promising to go behind the scenes and see the way things really work. It’s not surprising that such voices have penetrated everywhere, even into dance. Popular dance, not surprisingly, is dominated by the sweet voice of advertising. Chorus-line dancers talk about “selling” to the audience; bright smiles and hyperkinetic movement are part of the candy-bright colors used in advertising....
LaDonna Smith & Davey Williams Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » In the mid-70s, a wave of American free improvisers responded to the gauntlet thrown down by the Europeans over the previous decade. Musically eclectic and deeply invested in the politics of self-production, this far-flung battalion included saxophonist John Zorn, cellist Tom Cora (then Corra), synthesizer player Bob Ostertag, pianist Wayne Horvitz, guitarists Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, and Davey Williams, and LaDonna Smith, who plays violin and viola....
Dear editor: As the former principal of the school I feel that I need to clarify the inaccuracies given by Lidia Franco. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » (1) The students had made continued progress in reading and math as per the published last eight years of ITBS scores. (5) Stowe had won a Region 2 CSI $10,000 grant for staff development. The CSI design team teacher members were congratulated for their commitment, dedication, and teamwork in writing the grant proposal....
Ralph Lemon performed here last in 1992, Bebe Miller in 1990. Both were engagements mainly devoted to company works at the Dance Center of Columbia College, but both were memorable in part for the choreographers’ distinctive solos. Lemon’s commissioned piece on the African-American experience, Solo, was actually something of a departure for him: the opening in particular was far from subtle, as he entered wearing a mask with huge, rubbery lips and mashed a banana into his mouth....
Like much of the cuisine of South America, Brazilian cookery never quite caught on in these parts. There were some noble attempts, such as Rio’s in Albany Park, which put out a truly authentic spread for nearly ten years before shutting down in the early 90s. Rio’s drew on Chicago’s small Brazilian community but little more, possibly because the cuisine is too focused on beef for the diet-conscious and the seafoods are usually stewed in coconut milk, which is high in saturated fat....
