Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni. ✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Daniel Beaty stars in Emergency, his critically-acclaimed, award-winning, one-man show that explores the concept of identify and personal freedom. Using the African-American experience as the foundation, via a slave ship that sails in front of the Statue of Liberty--and through acting, poetry and song, Beaty portrays a cast of over forty characters, ranging from a homeless man, a scientist and a young boy, to ask the question, "How free are we?"
Emergency runs Thursday, Jan. 5 at 6:30pm and Friday, Jan. 6 at 7:30pm at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl.; tickets are $15-$40. For more information, call 773-947-0600.
According to my albeit unscientific calculations, I watched right around 400 new movies in 2011 (with a smattering of vintage films thrown in, but only if I saw them on the big screen), either in the theater or as a screener. Dear lord, what is wrong with me? Actually, nothing, since I'm simply doing the two-fold job that was given to me: to point you, the reader, in the direction of worthy films, and steer you clear of the crap ‐ not always an easy task since people seem to flock to the crap at an alarming rate regardless of the countless warnings from me and others.
But in 2011, guiding folks into theaters playing damn fine films seemed like an easier job than it has been in recent years. I wasn't always pointing you in the direction of a multiplex, but there was never a time when someone would ask me what's worth plunking down money to see at any given point during the year that I couldn't point them to at least half-a-dozen great films, many of which were made for very little money. If you had given me a list at the beginning of 2011 of all the films that I would see in the coming year, I doubt if many, if any, of the below titles would been have predictable as my year-end favorites. I love when that happens.
The Addams Family is in Chicago for a short run at the Cadillac Palace Theatre. The musical is based on the characters first brought to life by the cartoonist Charles Addams in 1933, and subsequently adapted for television in the 1960's TV show and brought to the silver screen in two films in the early 90's, and is now in it's second year on Broadway.
The music itself leaves something to be desired; I can't say that I'd want to listen to a cast recording of songs like "Trapped," "Full Disclosure," or "What If," but the piece is inventive and whimsical, and features some astounding acrobatics, particularly in Act II. Douglas Sills brings a Spanish accent to Gomez, the charming patriarch of the family, and Sara Gettelfinger's interpretation of Morticia put me in the mind of Bebe Neuwirth.
The story centers on Wednesday Addams (Cortney Wolfson) and her love interest, Lucas Beineke (Brian Justin Crum). Lucas comes from a "normal" family from Ohio, and Wednesday is anxious about how her family will react to their engagement. This works as a plot device to keep the action moving forward, but I found the love story to be the least interesting aspect of the piece, and the characters of Wednesday and Lucas to be less than compelling.
Our friends The Woodsugars made this video (Staring Ever Mainard, Mike Lebovitz and Ben Johnson) and shared it with us, so we are returning the favor. Happy post-holidays!
Bernie Mac was undoubtedly one of Chicago's most beloved entertainment figures; from a successful stand-up comedy career to his award-winning, self-titled sitcom to his big screen movies, he rose from local cult status to crossover superstardom. Here, filmmaker Robert Small discusses I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac (premiering on Comedy Central, February 2012), which pays homage to the late comedian and actor's Chicago roots, career and family life, and also tells why his legacy should never be forgotten.
Impress These Apes 2011 season winner Jo Scott will be doing a one night only remount of her solo show "Thankful" this Thursday on a double bill with Chemically Imbalanced Comedy's Artistic Director Farrell Walsh's "A Happy Ending." It all goes down this Thursday night at iO, 3541 N. Clark St., at 8pm in the Del Close Theater. Scott's solo show "satires who we love, what we love, and the things we do to them," while "A Happy Ending" is a sketch exploration of darker impulses. Tickets are available over the phone (773.880.0199) or in-person at the box office.
There was a time when it would have seemed absurd that a two-year-old Swedish film was getting an American remake simply because the perception was that hardly anyone in America actually saw the version with those pesky subtitles. But let us not forget that it was only last year when Let Me In was released only two years after the Swedish Let the Right One In freaked many of us out in new and exquisite ways. Some, including myself, saw the remake as a slightly better version of the film because the story was better told, while the atmosphere was left largely intact. Enjoying a remake takes nothing away from the original film or the source material. That's an important thing to remember.
So here we are, a year later, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a film that most Americans didn't see until 2010, has been remade by no one less than David Fincher, the recent Oscar nominated director of last year's The Social Network. Without making any radical adjustments from director Niels Arden Oplev's original film or, from what I'm told by those who have read it, from the book by Stieg Larsson, adapted here by the great Steven Zaillian, Fincher has managed to create a largely faithful, dense mystery peppered with wonderfully realized characters (in most cases) and location shooting in wind-swept Sweden that will have your reaching for your scarf and wool cap for fear of frostbite.
George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber; La Cage Aux Folles. Photo: Paul Kolnik.
Jean Poiret's La Cage Aux Folles, the Tony award-winning Broadway musical centering on the story of a gay couple--Georges, manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub that features drag performances and Albin/Zaza, the club's main attraction--has always been a popular, fan favorite; however, the show's current revival, directed by Terry Johnson and starring George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber, respectively, isn't really that much to sing or dance about.
I have officially been online dating and writing about it for three months now. THREE MONTHS! A QUARTER OF A YEAR! It seems like an impossibly long time and yet in retrospect, I feel like a "agreed to the terms" of Match and possibly sold my soul just moments ago. But going back over my carefully documented journey on Gapers Block, I realized I've learned quite a bit of occasionally unflattering and often extremely useful things about myself, dating and life. Also I realized many things I thought to be truth three months ago have disappeared, new truths have appeared in their place. I have a feeling none of this is permanent.
Below is a list of "lessons learned" over the past three months. I think more appropriately these are actually temporary truths believed to make me feel better about my aimless existence on Match and in life; no doubt I will have a whole new belief system next year.
But the one epitome of all truths learned the past three months seems to be I am a giant confused ball of dating, kitschy metaphors and calorie-heavy beers and that is a lovely mess.
The symbiotic relationship between fashion and music is undeniable -- and at Power 92's Surround Sound of Fashion, the two were definitely displayed in a big way.
This annual showcase for fashion designers and aspiring models, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Windows of Opportunity, an organization that provides scholarships for economically disadvantaged youth, was held last weekend at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph. Twenty male and female models competed in a runway show for a chance at a number of prizes, including an exclusive photo shoot.
The annual VH1 DIVAS specials are the ultimate showcase of superstar songstresses from the world of pop, rock and R&B -- and this year, Chicago will be represented in a major way.
In "VH1 DIVAS Celebrates Soul," soul/R&B music will honored for its influence "on the 21st century's music and pop culture landscape" with performances by three of Chicago's own: the legendary Mavis Staples, "Queen of Funk" Chaka Khan and Academy and Grammy award winner, Jennifer Hudson, who, coincidentally, were also honored here in the city last week via Deeply Rooted Dance Theater's Chicago Women of Song. Additional performers on this year's line-up include Kelly Clarkson, Estelle, Mary J. Blige and Florence + the Machine.
Before my review begins, it should be noted that this film technically opens today only in certain IMAX theaters across the country. Certain portions of the film were actually shot in IMAX, so this isn't one of those fake IMAX situations. In those theaters before the film, audience members will be treated to the first few minutes of The Dark Knight Rises. The official, non-IMAX release of Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol is next Wednesday, Dec. 21. Got it? Good.
By maintaining a fairly streamlined story, some incredible stunts and effects sequences, and having the most colorful and interesting team of any of the previous Mission: Impossible films, Ghost Protocol (the franchise's fourth installment) is at least as strong as the much-revered first M:I film, and I think better. Continuing the tradition of having a different director for each chapter of this Tom Cruise-starring vehicle, Ghost Protocol has enlisted the exceedingly capable Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, The Iron Giant) to direct his first live-action movie. Bird has this crazy reputation of caring about fleshing out the characters he's put in charge of, and it's nice to see an emphasis placed on developing the team members as people and not just action props.
I have promised myself to not make this a dating advice column mainly because I suck at dating. I've spent the past year making out with strangers in bars and deleting weird facial hair guy-cute?'s number from phone; these are not exactly stellar bachelorette moves here.
But what I have gotten pretty darn good at this past year is making myself happy or at least trying really really hard to make myself content. And the single biggest contributor to this new found sense of non-misery is realizing that my happiness does not depend on anyone else.
It sounds oddly kitschy and yet almost counterintuitive; the idea that you just need to find "the one" is something every rom-com tries to Katherine Heigl into us at every blockbuster. But the truth is nobody, not even that perfect-on-screen good ole boy/girl next door, is going to make you happy if you yourself are a steaming pile of pity and dread.
A boat heads east on the Chicago River through the State Street bridge in 1910.
Independent Chicago publisher City Files Press just relased a new photography book documenting the reversal of the Chicago River. The Lost Panoramas: When Chicago Changed its River and the Land Beyond draws from nearly 22,000 photographs made between 1894 and 1928 for the Sanitary District of Chicago. The result is a gorgeous volume chronicling the development of the engineering marvel, its context and its effects. As Booklist reviewed, "Williams and Cahan profile the players, elucidate the technological innovations, track the politics, and document the beneficial and catastrophic consequences of this massive and hubristic tinkering with nature."
Check below the fold for a video providing an overview of the book as well as some additional sample photographs.
The antidote to your holiday spirit as arrived: A tortuous mother-son relationship, a massacre at the hands of a clown, and the scariest stop-motion short ever created are all on display at the Chicago Cinema Society this Saturday. A rare 35-millimeter print of Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre (1989), The Last Circus (2010), and the Sundance Film Festival-nominated short film "Bobby Yeah," (2011) will be screened.
Poet and artist Lee Groban, a well-known fixture on the Chicago arts scene, passed away Dec. 9 after a long battle with congestive heart failure and emphysema. He was 64. There will be a memorial service at Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 W. Lake St., from 1pm to 4pm on Sunday, Dec. 18.
Groban's best known work is The Cure for Insomnia, an 87-hour-long film based on his epic poem by the similar name A Cure for Insomnia, which he co-produced with John Henry Timmis IV. It holds the Guinness world record for the longest film, and was first played in its entirety at The School of the Art Institute from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, 1987. The poem was a continual work in progress; Groban claimed it was well over 5,000 pages at the time of his death.
Here is Groban reading a portion of A Cure for Insomnia and sharing some philosophy with a group of people on the street in New York this summer.
Chicago comedy duo Awkward Spaceship is on the front page of BuzzFeed today with their newest video, "Doctor Who Yo Mama Jokes." They drop jokes about Time Lord technology, Captain Jack Harkness, and even the Face of Boe. If those references mean nothing to you, you can go back and watch Awkward Spaceship's "If Computer Problems Were Real," while you add all of the David Tennant episodes of "Doctor Who" to your Netflix queue.
Candy Lawrence is everywhere: from Chicago Underground Comedy, where she is a regular cast member, to queer showcases across the city: her rubber face is becoming increasingly recognizable among Chicago comedy fans. The best part about Candy Lawrence isn't any of her performances; it's that she doesn't seem to have any idea how good she is.
For many, Young Adult is going to be an exercise in defying expectations. You'd be surprised how many people like or dislike a film based on their preconceived ideas of what it is they're walking into, based on such things as trailers, word of mouth, reviews, etc. If a movie isn't "what they expected," they somehow think that's the basis for judging its worth. And often they punish a film in their minds because it didn't live up to some internal standard that has little to do with its actual entertainment value. Here's an idea: walk into a movie with zero expectations; walk in open minded, able to let the film wash over you and, dare I say, surprise you in the process. It's a great thing, trust me.
Come to Schubas (3159 N. Southport Ave.) on Saturday to watch GB staffer J.H. Palmer (me!) mortify herself publicly, along with a crowd-pleasing lineup of victims (or performers, as they prefer to be called), and special guests the Blue Ribbon Glee Club. Mortified is a unique reading series that plumbs the comic depths of journals, diary entries, and other ephemera that were written when participants were under the age of 21.
A new TV series titled "The Mortified Sessions" made its debut earlier this week on the Sundance Channel, featuring the youthful and embarrassing written thoughts of celebrities like Ed Helms, Eric Stonestreet, Cheryl Hines, and Mo'Nique. Don't settle for watching it on TV, come see the real thing! Buy your tickets before they're gone. Show starts at 7:30pm, but get there early -- this show is standing room only. Tickets are $12 and can be purchased online or call 773-525-2508.
I recently had the pleasure of previewing Memoria (Memory), a new installation at the Hyde Park Art Center of new works by Puerto Rican/Chicago-based artist Bibiana Suárez that reveals the shifting nature of memory, place, and identity within the Latino community.
The opening reception is Sunday, Dec. 11 from 3pm to 5pm.
Over lunch one day, a co-worker regaled our department with the best "how we met" story I have ever heard. She met her beautiful Spanish husband in the airport at the money exchange hut. She attempted to help him via her one year of Spanish language study and he attempted to thank her in newly learned broken English. When she said "I'm from the States," his still novice English-hearing ears heard "I'm Swedish" and so the Spaniard began to woo the "Swede" in broken English. The Swedish/American lady and the Spanish gentleman fell fast for each other and within the year she was his media naranaja.
Over the next decade they followed each other around the world, got married and created one of the most beautiful babies to grace the playgrounds of Chicago. It is the kind of perfect fairy tale that makes Catherine Heigl drool.
Of course this perfect story prompted my other coworkers to quickly pipe in with their own "how we met" stories and lunch quickly turned into a bit of a contest to out-cute each others' first meets. Each story had its own little twist, oddity or pleasantry. Although none of them outdid meeting a Spanish lover in an airport; something that in my Midwest, adventure-starved mind resembles a Lifetime movie starring a young Antonio Banderas circa 1986. But each story did reflect a certain type of truth about the couple itself.
All of this "couple" talk made me ponder how my own potential Match meet story would mesh into this labyrinth of romantic (and most likely idealistic) first meet stories. And more what would a Match meet story say about a potential future relationship.
Drew Peterson: Untouchable, the made-for-TV movie starring Rob Lowe, makes its official debut on Lifetime on January 21 at 7pm. The movie, which the Peterson defense team tried to keep from being made, "follows the fascinating tale of police officer Drew Peterson's fall from grace after the mysterious disappearance of his fourth wife." Here's the official synopsis:
Charming Chicago-area officer Drew Peterson (Lowe) seemed virtually "untouchable" in more ways than one when it came to his womanizing ways, having been married three times before landing the eye and affection of Stacy Cales (Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory), a woman half his age. As Peterson's relationship with Stacy blossoms, his relationship with third wife Kathleen Savio (Cara Buono, Mad Men) unravels in a bitter divorce -- until Kathleen is inexplicably found dead in an empty bathtub. Soon after making Stacy his fourth wife and having their first child, Peterson's jealousy and controlling ways begin to strain their marriage. Suddenly Stacy disappears, leaving her two children, and Peterson's older children behind. Peterson insists that Stacy left him for another man but in the wake of her disappearance, new questions are raised about Kathleen's death and her case is re-opened, drawing national media attention to Peterson and the strange cases of Kathleen and Stacy. Peterson seems to bask in the media attention, professing his innocence and announcing his engagement to yet another younger woman. But when authorities take a closer look at the circumstances surrounding both cases, a different kind of spotlight is placed on him as more questions arise. Are Kathleen's death and Stacy's still-unknown whereabouts just a tragic coincidence? Or is there more there than meets the eye?
Peterson remains in jail awaiting trial for the alleged murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found drowned in a bathtub in 2004. The death was originally ruled accidental, but the case was reopened after the disappearance of Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, in 2007.
Feel like you don't have enough conceptual film in your life? Do you, like I, desperately wish you could've hung out at The Factory? Or maybe you did. Or, maybe you're just looking for something to do tomorrow night and sitting in your regular bar doesn't sound appealing.
If this sounds like you, I've got a pretty badass-looking event for you: To coincide with the launch of the Art Institute's upcoming "Light Years: Conceptual Art and the Photograph 1964-1977" exhibition, the Evening Associates of the Art Institute of Chicago (a young professional affiliate group) will be hosting a viewing party on December 9 to watch Andy Warhol's conceptual film Empire, which will be projected in its entirety on to the exterior of the Aon building. The party will include a DJ, drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and a special sneak preview of the new "Light Years" exhibition, which opens this Saturday.
(left to right:) Bill Kurtis, David Leonardis & Alfred Llahí Segalàs, Prince Héritier de Tanna.
David Leonardis is a gallery owner, a TV show host, an art entrepreneur and man in charge of the late Howard Finster traveling folk art exhibit. Leonardis began his career in the arts first working for a gallery so he could afford Finster prints, to befriending Finster, to now working on this traveling exhibit as well as raising funds to maintain Howard's permanent residence, the Howard Finster Vision House Museum, in Georgia. The Village of Long Grove, IL is playing host to the late Howard Finster exhibit, now through January 31. On his TV show, the "Chit Chat Show", Leonardis will turn the microphone around and interview Elysabeth Alfano of "Fear No Art" next.
From blues and gospel to jazz and R&B, when it comes to female singers, Chicago has certainly produced some of the best; this week, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater pays homage to the music of these singing sensations in Chicago Women of Song.
"Originally, it was going to be called 'Women of Song,' " said artistic director, Kevin Iega Jeff. "When we began to work more with The Publicity Works, we began to focus more on Chicago women."
There isn't a whole lot opening this week, but a lot of what is opening is pretty good stuff. However, I did want to direct your attention to a particularly fun event happening at the famed Music Box Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2pm. Camp Midnight presents "A Very Carrie Christmas," hosted by the always-entertaining Dick O'Day (the alias for film critic Richard Knight, Jr.), who will screen and provide commentary for Brian De Palma's great 1976 horror classic Carrie, based on the novel by Stephen King.
All of the campy details about the day's activities and details about buying advance tickets can be found on the Music Box's website, but the one reason you absolutely must show up is the special appearance of Carrie's mother, Margaret White herself, Piper Laurie, who will take part in a Q&A and who knows what else. There will also be a costume parade, sing-a-long, photos with "Margaret" and "Carrie," and the whole shameless event should be a ton of fun. If I weren't out of town this weekend, you couldn't keep me away. Now, on to more serious business...
YouTube's movies section includes a few with Chicago ties that are free to watch in their entirety, such as The Front Page, a 1931 film version of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's Broadway play set in Chicago. It was later remade as His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy.
Last week, my sister-friend and I were chatting about the trials and tribulations of a budding relationship when she said something that gave me an eerie "eureka" moment.
Sister-friend said, "I feel like there's so much pressure to be normal." To which I responded "Totes."
Normal. It is an adjective I have grown to hate and yet one which I feel like I am in constant pursuit. In the beginnings of relationships, it seems to be the only thing that matters. It becomes even more pertinent when online dating because of the speed of rejection and the surplus of other people who play normal better than you.
According to my albeit unscientific calculations, I watched right around 400 new movies in 2011 (with a smattering of vintage films thrown in, but only if I saw them on the big screen), either in the theater or as a screener. Dear lord, what is wrong with me? Actually, nothing, since I'm simply doing the two-fold job that was given to me: to point you, the reader, in the direction of worthy films, and steer you clear of the crap ‐ not always an easy task since people seem to flock to the crap at an alarming rate regardless of the countless warnings from me and others.
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