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.
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Thursday, April 25
Kathleen Waterloo is opening her exhibition of new encaustic paintings tomorrow, June 1, at Addington Gallery in River North. These works made of layered wax infused with pigments are references to charts and graphs the artist sought out and encountered while working on the series.
— MartinJon
Dana Caspersen with Hubbard Street Dancer Alejandro Cerrudo in Quintett rehearsal. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
Glenn Edgerton, Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, finds inspiration in the power of choreographer William Forsythe's Quintett. Created in 1993 soon after the death of Forsythe's wife, Quintett is a personal, powerful work of solos, duets, and trios. "I see it more as an expression of life and a joyful ode to life," Edgerton said. Hubbard Street Dance Chicago will perform the American premiere of the work as part of the dance company's summer series.
— Britt Julious
Well, this looks like as much of a train wreck as everyone expected. The trailer for "Mob Wives Chicago," the local spinoff of VH1's popular New Jersey-based reality show, has been released, giving viewers an introduction to the women involved. The cast includes Nora Schweihs, daughter of feared hitman Frank "The German" Schweihs; Renee Fecarotta Russo, niece of hitman "Big John" Fecarotta; Pia Rizza, daughter of a dirty cop turned informant; Christina Scoleri, daughter of a mob fence and thief; and Leah Desimone, daughter of alleged Outfit "associate" Wolf Desimone. As the Beachwood Reporter notes, the connections to the Outfit get pretty thin toward the bottom of the lineup.
Get More: Mob Wives Chicago, Mob Wives Chicago
"Mob Wives Chicago" debuts June 10 on VH1.
— Andrew Huff
With the WNBA, along with athletes like Mia Hamm, Michelle Wie and Venus and Serena Williams, women's sports have a global presence and impact on young girls; in Elizabeth Stanton's Through Her Eyes Project, that impact is featured via a multimedia exhibit of film shorts and over 50 photographs, designed to showcase girls and women from developing countries and the physical, social and other beneficial aspects of participating in sports and sports-related activities.
An opening reception of Through Her Eyes Project will be held at the Chicago Art Department, 1932 S. Halsted, Friday, June 1 from 6pm to 9pm; the exhibit runs Saturday and Sunday, June 2nd and 3rd, from noon to 5pm. For more information, visit the website.
— LaShawn Williams
Ah Chicago! A town with many proud legacies; from championship sports teams, to shiny bean-shaped monuments and deep dish pizza, it's truly one of a kind. However, woven among the cultural tapestry that comprises Chicago, is the dark, blood-stained thread of corruption. It's a tradition well documented with every imprisoned official and unearthed scandal. TimeLine Theatre Company's new drama, My Kind of Town, reflects some of that seedy underbelly in its humanizing story of injustice, torture and innocence. The company is also offering several platforms for communal discussions with experts about today's culture of law and order as a whole.
Written by veteran investigative journalist John Conroy, My Kind of Town revolves around one imprisoned man's fight for justice. The play is inspired by real-life stories of victims, police officers, prosecutors and families who've been affected by allegations of torture and corruption.
— Janna Dons
Bruce Nauman's "Cast of the Space Under My Chair" is a pretty good rebus for a lot of postwar art. A cast concrete block bearing the rectilinear impression of nondescript legs and a seat, it disposes of concerns with high-tech functionality, high-fashion prettiness, or high-concept intangibility. Precious without being at all special or unique, it recalls a moment and a space that can be recorded but not retrieved, just an oddly pointless fossil of the industrial-design era. Much the same could be said of the thrust of contemporaneous Pop, Minimalist, and Fluxus artwork, currents which have resurfaced in the last decade.
— A/C
Saturday, May 26, my bedroom--Uptown
— Mark Addison Smith
I hate sequels that require you to have seen the previous chapters in a franchise to understand the third (or even second) installment. Each film, sequel or not, should stand on its own as a piece of film. Now I'm not talking about a series like the Harry Potter films where the movies are an ongoing story that was established before the films were put into production. But in the case of Men In Black III, this is a story that is basically made up as it goes along, so the potential for creating new and interesting plots using a couple of the same characters from movie to move is there.
But the committee that came up with the script (or sections of the script) for MIB3 leans so heavily on previously established relationships and circumstances that it doesn't leave room for much in the way of creativity. This film is so spent for new ideas that it actually relies on the age-old going back in time scenario to move itself forward. What the hell am I talking about?
— Steve Prokopy
Anytime there is a production mounted with people and subject matters not regularly seen on stage or screen, it gets the carp running and audiences flowing (see: Tyler Perry, both stage and movie incarnations). Except, the audience looks "different" than the regular attendees, and is "coming out" to see themselves reflected in spaces normally not reserved for their stories.
During the '88 Miss Saigon on Broadway debacle, producer Cameron Macintosh defended his "reverse color blind," stating the two reasons why white performers were the predominant hiring preference over performers of color (particularly Asians): 1) their weren't many "qualified," and 2) most theatrical productions are about families, and of course families are made up of one race, and the overwhelming majority of playwrights, August Wilson the exception, are white (and male). The answer to the conundrum as defined by Macintosh, people of color must write, produce and present their own work, and market to their own communities.
— Alice Singleton / Comments (3)
Seventeen(!) entries make up the review That's Weird, Grandma (TWG), staged by Barrel of Monkeys (BOM), an education-arts theatre company whose mission includes fostering and supporting the creative voices (in an open teaching environment) Chicago Public School students since 1997.
BOM sponsors a six-week residency in creative writing for grades 3-5, culminating in the staged works held at the Neo-Futurarium. At the end of each residency, a collection of stories is selected for performance. This season's collection included vignettes from the sublimely ridiculous to the poignant reflection of loss.
— Alice Singleton / Comments (4)
by Harrison Sherrod
In Gerhard Richter Painting, documentarian Corinna Belz trains her lens on one of today's most celebrated contemporary artists. Richter, who has long held a reputation for being withdrawn and reserved, allows the cameras full access as he labors in his studio on a new series of abstract works. A rare opportunity to see Richter in his natural habitat, the film captures his signature process, which involves using an oversized squeegee to apply thick coats of paint that he later wears away to achieve a unique texturized look. Richter's meathod is simultaneously spontaneous and calculated, and it's unclear (even to his assistants) why he favors one brushstroke over another. Despite Belz's attempts to prompt rumination on Richter's part, specifically about the meaning of his paintings, he is no less of an enigma at the film's conclusion. Interestingly, memory and the passage of time, themes commonly attributed to Richter's work, are equally central to both his abstract and photorealistic paintings.
— A/C
Cher Horowitz walks down a hallway wearing a yellow plaid skirt and matching cropped jacket. The outfit -- part schoolgirl innocence, part precise tailoring and professional realness -- is a perfect summary of a film (and a decade) that can be best defined by its lack of classification. Clueless, a film more often recognized for its banter and "Before They Were Famous" celebrities, was radical because it refused to play by the rules. Director and writer Amy Heckerling's film based on Jane Austen's Emma was less a contemporary update and more of an independent, one-of-a-kind "world creation" of youth, debauchery, language and style.
In their first collection as THE MALL, Ready-to-Stare jewelry designer Alysse Dalessandro and vintage seller Matt Kasin (aka the Gaudy God) created and curated a an Etsy-based concept store of highly aesthetic and idea-driven handmade accessories and vintage clothing inspired by the film as well as other '90s teen cult classics such as Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion and Spice World. This is not nostalgia, for nostalgia elicits a desire to return to the emotions born in a past era. Rather, THE MALL understands and utilizes the films as important cultural references that are as valuable and inspirational now as they were more than a decade ago. The two will debut their collection this Friday at a launch event at ZaZaZoo Nail Salon.
— Britt Julious
Whenever you hear the name "Madea," the hilarious, no-nonsense, advice-giving matriarch in Tyler Perry's plays, you immediately think of--Tyler Perry; however, when it comes to his productions, there is definitely another name you should also know: Cheryl Pepsii Riley. Here, the New York-born singer and actress, who co-stars alongside Perry in Tyler Perry's Madea Gets A Job, discusses messages, music and of course, Madea.
You're coming to town this week for Tyler Perry's Madea Gets A Job--how has the tour been going so far?
It's been wonderful; actually we were there at the beginning of the tour a couple of months ago and we're coming back. Chicago has always been so good to Tyler Perry; you guys always come out and support.
— LaShawn Williams / Comments (1)
Humor Me Podcast is what happens when you get one comedy nerd and her friends together before, after and during shows and events. Each month, I will crash my talented friends and peers and force them to talk with me about, well, whatever I want. Listen to us nerd out about comedy, music, entertainment, life, and everything in between. Because forcing people to Humor Me is fun.
For my first podcast, I hung out with Kelsie Huff in the bathroom backstage at Comedy Sportz after 100 Proof Comedy. She headlined that night, and her bits about troll dolls and Moms resonated with me -- so much so that we called my own mother to talk about her new cookbook. We also talked about her new short film, Lucy, her frozen yogurt addiction, and her long-running, all-female show the kates. Listen below, or download the mp3.
Themesong by the Swimsuit Addition. Post-production by Cold Bones at Swingset Sound. Special thanks to ComedySportz for the use of their bathroom.
— Nellie Huggins / Comments (6)
This Friday Chicago Slam Works presents "Dead or Alive," an event where dead poets (played by living poets) go head-to-head with live poets in a bizarre twist on the traditional poetry slam. CSW Director J.W. Basilo answered a few questions to help clarify Friday's activities.
So, people will be impersonating dead poets?
To an extent, we're doing what we can to embody those dead poets, but not forcing anybody to copy the mannerisms -- the person being Frank O'Hara is going to have a Frank O'Hara-esque energy, but not necessarily impersonating.
Why dead poets vs. living poets?
We've all been indoctrinated with dead poets, and sometimes the stuff you're taught in school doesn't really convey what's going on -- are those dead poets really that much better (than current poets)? Can modern poetry stand up to the canon? What would it look like if you got bonafide performers to read poems written 100 or 200 yrs ago, what would it look like? Marc Smith [founder of the Uptown Poetry Slam] frequently performs Sandburg and Yeats, and all of a sudden it becomes a whole new ball game, he gets it (the poem) in his body, brings it to life.
How will the show be set up?
We're staging a mock team slam, with living poets vs. dead poets battling it out, there will be judges who vote for either Dead or Alive, and the competitive thing is just kind of a wink to slam roots.
The whole idea behind CSW is to try to take poetry and performance poetry and put it in venues it doesn't often get represented. A lot of people think performance poetry can't work in a theater setting or appeal to people who aren't poets, and by putting it in theaters and giving it production value we're not tricking people but saying: "see, if we give it as much energy and respect as a Becket play, we're able to be just as engaging and emotionally important."
— J.H. Palmer / Comments (2)
Friday, May 18, Kopi Traveler's Cafe--Andersonville
— Mark Addison Smith
For parishioners, the church serves as a place of praise--a sanctuary for salvation--where people go to receive support from the pastor and the congregation; however, sometimes unbeknownst to the congregation, the pastor may need a little support, too.
In Carla Stillwell's Bodies, the latest production by the MPAACT, Rev. Joseph Black successfully manages his "church family" but within his own family, things aren't exactly running so smoothly. With questions surrounding the reverend's brother's personal life, the play tells the story of just how far a family will go to protect its name.
Bodies opens tonight at 7pm at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln; regular shows run Thursdays through Sundays through June 24. Tickets are $21-$30; for more information and show times, call 773-404-7336.
— LaShawn Williams
Mother's Day has come and gone; however, for many, when it comes to moms, as the saying goes, "Every day is Mother's Day."
Through spoken word, dance, and videos by poets and performance artists including Boogie McClarin, Patience Rowe, Maya Odim, Sandra 'La Pixie' Santiago, and Nikki Yeboah, Sage Morgan-Hubbard's "interactive, multi-media choreopoem" Mixed Mamas, highlights the peaks and valleys of the various aspects of motherhood, infusing "humor, beauty, movement and oral histories" along the way.
Morgan-Hubbard, a respected poet in her own right, will also perform an excerpt of her one-woman show, an autobiographical work that explores a range of societal differences and experiences via the ethnicities of the four women who comprise her own mixed heritage.
See Mixed Mamas May 25-27 at Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield; Friday and Saturday shows are 8pm and 7pm on Sunday. Tickets are $5-$10; for more information, call 773-281-0824.
Photo: Sage Morgan-Hubbard
— LaShawn Williams
On Monday, May 21, Northwestern University's Evanston campus will host a fleeting work of art, erected by students, staff, and faculty and removed by nature. The construction is a recreation of conceptual artist Allan Kaprow's seminal sculpture/performance work, "Fluids," and will entail stacking approximately 375 blocks of ice to build a monumental structure on the Plaza outside the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at 40 Arts Circle Drive.
Kaprow coined the term, "Happening" to describe an event or situation performed in the name of art. He first conceived of "Fluids" in 1967 and intended it to be staged again by others--creating a shared experience in art through separate happenings. This will mark the first time the project has been reenacted in the Midwest.
— Janna Dons
The cool cats over at FugScreen screenprinting studios have a conundrum (albeit a pretty good one to have): too much art, not enough space. So they're opening a gallery in Logan Square this July to exhibit the best work that's run through their hands by their cohorts. With a focus on poster and street art, Galerie F has a unique ethic: fully functional six days of the week, all day long, with no appointments required. In other words, an "open door gallery". This is important to them because they want to be accessible -- they want people to be able to wander in and browse at their own pace. And as cool as Chicago's plethora of artist-run, DIY spaces are, you just can't do that at most of them.
— Kelly Reaves
— Kelly Reaves
(L to R) Bear Bellinger, Adrian Aguilar and Jenny Guse. Photo by Jeremy Rill.
Rent will forever be defined as playwright Jonathan Larson's magnum opus, to date the ninth longest running stage production in history. Sadly, the night of final dress rehearsals for its off-Broadway debut, Larson succumbed to an aortic dissection, the direct result of a misdiagnosis of Marfan's syndrome. Larson's anthem, "Seasons of Love (How Do You Measure...)" certainly confirms his awareness of time itself-ticking, moving and sifting through the grates of this lifescape we cling to so tenaciously; it makes perfect sense that Larson would scribe the pebbles of his own (shortened) hourglass.
— Alice Singleton
Hey everyone. First a note of apology. Due to my insane travel schedule this week and next, I'm going to be missing a fair amount of press screenings of some of the bigger and/or more important films being released this month. For example, this week I don't have reviews for Battleship or What To Expect When You're Expecting (I know how broken up most of you are about the latter; probably no more so than I am). Next week's big release, Men In Black 3, I actually will get to see for review, but there may still be one or two that escape my grasp. Anyway, there is still plenty to choose from this week. Let us continue...
While I would never call myself a Sacha Baron Cohen apologist (the guy doesn't have to apologize for his style of humor), I will say that I've liked most of what he's done in the TV and film world, which includes everything he did with his Ali G character on both sides of the pond to Borat to his supporting work in Talladega Nights, Sweeney Todd and Hugo. Cohen isn't always going for the big laughs in his work, but when he does, he tends to try harder than just about any other comic actor today. He doesn't always succeed, but I don't think he'll ever be accused of phoning in a performance.
— Steve Prokopy
[title of show] is a big ol' ball of popcorn! Pure entertainment, leave your worries in the theater lobby and enjoy the joy. Not a profound moment to be had in its 95 minute-run, and there are no political or social takeaways beginning at minte-96, but the cast members voices are strong, the musical numbers are gripping, and though the story is not O'Neil or even Sondheim, it's also not a garden-variety telling of a tale. What Busby Berkley did for Great Depression audiences, [title of show] gives its audience members respite from the daily grind of worry and anxiety. Sit back, relax and head-bop along.
The plot is simple enough: [title of show] is a play within a play; a writer (Matthew Crowie) and his lyricist-friend (Stephen Schellhardt) blithely decide to meet a three-week submission deadline and write the "best musical ever!". Along with their respective actress best friends Susan (McKinley Carter) and Heidi (Christine Sherrill), we're taken on a lyric-laden path of the highs and (sometimes really) lows of a Broadway-bound dream. Warning to those who find discomfort in a cast that crosses "the fourth wall": this fourth wall is smashed to smithereens, before the first song.
— Alice Singleton
By David Pritchard
126 years ago this month, workers and reform activists in Chicago were reeling from the aftermath of what remains the most influential and memorialized event in American labor history. On the evening of May 4, 1886, a spontaneous protest took shape at Haymarket Square (Randolph and Desplaines, Fulton River District) as labor leaders learned of police and corporate aggression against striking workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company on the previous day. The strikers had every intention of remaining peaceful; few that night had any idea they were marching into history.
The legacy of May 4, 1886, still resonates with labor activists and allies today. Here, handwritten notes and transcripts of condemned strikers' speeches adorn a statue commemorating the Haymarket Affair near the corner of N. Desplaines and W. Couch Place.
Back then, Chicago was acknowledged as the center of the American labor movement. The major issue of the time was the eight-hour workday, which national labor groups had adopted as a cause célèbre two years prior. Horrors! Anarchy might surely reign!
— A/C / Comments (1)
"Animal Furnace," Chicago-born standup comedian Hannibal Buress' first comedy special, debuts on Comedy Central this Sunday, May 20 at 10pm. According to the press release,
[Buress] brings his celebrated deadpan wit to life's absurdities with stories of his three-cop jaywalking bust in Montreal, a bloodless airport shoot-out, and various late nights with questionable women. In front of a live audience at the Gramercy Theatre in New York, Buress re-imagines hardcore rappers as real estate agents, skewers grown men who can't hold their liquor, and, as an enterprising reporter actually wrote, performs "comedic jokes related to personal stories, current events, the streets, and even food."
An unrated DVD will be released on Tuesday, May 22. The DVD includes a short documentary, "A Week To Kill," which follows Buress around New York and Chicago the week before the show taping.
Here's a little taste of "Animal Furnace":
— Andrew Huff
In the spirit of artistic collaboration, The Coop and Gapers Block have teamed up to produce 8x8, an experiment in writing and design.
Eight Chicagoland designers (Jesse Hora, Andy Luce, Chad Kouri, Ina Weise, Letterform, Ryan Sievert, Paul Octavious and Kyle Fletcher) were paired with eight local writers (Patrick Somerville, Claire Zulkey, Kevin Guilfoile, William Shunn, Wendy McClure, Scott Smith, Gapers Block political editor Ramsin Canon and Book Club co-founder Veronica Bond) to create collaborative works, with text informing and influencing art and vice versa. The results of this experiment are presented in limited edition poster form, with writing and design back to back.
The posters make their debut at a reception Friday night, May 18, from 6pm to 10pm at The Coop coworking space, 230 W. Superior St., 2nd floor. Refreshments will be served, and sets of the posters will be available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting Open Books.
— Andrew Huff
The Funny Story Show is Chicago's new hybrid stand-up/storytelling showcase and will debut on May 18th at LooseLeaf Lounge . The Funny Story Show is hosted by Caitlin Bergh, a winner of the Moth StorySLAM .
Shows will take place every third Friday of the month at 7:30pm, and feature six comics who have been invited to tell one story each. There are no rules except the story has to be funny.
The show will wrap with the funny story challenge, in which two audience names are pulled from a hat and each person will have 5 minutes to tell a funny story on any topic. The winner (by audience applause) will be invited back for a featured spot the next month.
Scheduled to perform at the debut are comedians Kelsie Huff , Chris Condren (Atomic Comics), Lisa Laureta , Peter-john Byrnes (Mayne Stage), Mollie Merkel (The Andy Kaufman Award) and Andy Fleming (Shine Box Comedy).
Admission is $5 suggested donation and doors are at 7 p.m.
More information here.
— Nellie Huggins
The Chicago Park District released the schedule for the 2012 Movies in the Parks series. Starting with a screening of Vertigo in Belmont Harbor on June 11 and running till simultaneous showings of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in Hamilton Park and Marquette Park, respectively, on Oct. 26, 176 screenings will occur in parks throughout the city, all for free. See a full schedule here, and follow the Facebook page for updates.
— Andrew Huff
In Shattered Globe Theatre's Her Naked Skin, the year 1913 finds Great Britain's suffragette movement in full force, as women in every class distinction take to the streets, and eventually to its "ladies'" prisons, in protest to demand the right to vote, to serve politically, to make their own life choices, to stand toe-to-toe with the male populace.
The suffragette's fight is far from dainty, as Britannia's iron jawed angels are met with crushing blows from the resistance of Parliament, the fists of intolerance at rallies, the frequent arrests and finally revolving door imprisonment at Holloway, where inmates are met with equal treatment at the hands of hostile matrons, sexually abusive guards, and a physician who smashes through their teeth and lungs to force feed hunger strikers — for humanitarian reasons, of course.
Photo by Kevin Viol
— Alice Singleton / Comments (1)
Tuesday, May 8, Red line platform at Fullerton
— Mark Addison Smith
As coincidence would have it, the day before I saw Collaboraction Theatre's presentation of Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, a close friend shared her teenaged son's physician's advice: "If you want to get a teenaged boy to talk to you, throw him in the car and drive around; he'll spill everything that's going on in his head."
Oy vey.
Precisely what dad Ky (Sean Bolger) does to son Denny (Ethan Dubin), though their Saturn sedan is more paddy wagon than therapist sofa in Dan LeFranc's two-man drama (2010 winner of the New York Times Outstanding Playwright). Divorce does strange things to families, first splitting them apart and at the same time placing the pieces of what's left in what can take the form of a Salvador Dali nightmare — all over the (confined) place, and throw in some added parts, damaged in a completely unrelated familial implosion.
— Alice Singleton
Previous Entry: My Chicago Bucket List: Learning Resilience from Preteens
Next Entry: Run a 5K
Number 31: Ride a Bike in the City and Try to Not Die or Be Permanently Damaged
As I shimmy through 2012, this bucket list is becoming less and less things to check off a list and more and more scary things to do that freak me out of my comfort zone and into the magical. And considering the stalemate of boring I mucked around in for much of 2011, this is exactly what I needed.
My latest venture out of my comfort zone involved a Craiglist impulse buy of one red Schwinn Beach Cruiser. Ten minutes of Craigslist scrolling led me to Annie, a hefty 40-pound cruiser meant either for really slow city biking or possibly razing buildings. The first time I sat on her and attempted to pedal, I shook... she squeaked... and we swerved down Paulina Street in Rogers Park like drunk Dutch man after Cinco de Mayo.
But five miles of SLOW shaky pedaling later, I was officially a city biker; something I thought was reserved for the school children and hipsters. And it felt great and strangely liberating.
— Niki Fritz
Through television, feature films such as First Sunday and Friday After Next and his nationally-syndicated radio show (heard weekday mornings on Chicago's "Power 92"), Rickey Smiley regularly brings on the laughs; this week, the multi-talented comedian is bringing his talents--and the laughs--to Chicago via an entirely different "experience."
— LaShawn Williams
Travis Dow moved to Chicago in 2001 to pursue music and acting. He quickly joined the acclaimed Katie Todd Band as lead guitarist and vocalist. In 2003, Travis enrolled in Chicago's I.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) and eventually performed with two of their Harold teams: Pestering Chester and Captain Sweatpants. Later, he enrolled in ComedySportz's training center and eventually performed for their BattleProv program.
In February, Travis received a diagnosis of Burkitt's Lymphoma, a rare type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Burkitt's is highly aggressive, but responds well to very intensive treatment. Travis is currently undergoing such treatment at City Of Hope in LA.
Even with the help of moderate health insurance, their expenses are overwhelming. Therefore, the music and comedy communities of Chicago are stepping up to help.
The Travis Dow Benefit will be held on Friday, May 18 at 8pm at Uncommon Ground Edgewater, 1401 W. Devon Ave.
Scheduled performers include Music from Katie Todd, The Damn Hoovers and Al Rose, and improv from Jeff Hedges, Nick Johne, Scott Levy, Mike Meyers, Laura Schneider Lazzara, Sarah Pfouts Sullivan, Kieran Sullivan and Kat Timmons.
A $15 donation at the door gets you an evening full of fantastic entertainment. You can view the facebook event here for more information. If you are unable to attend, but would like to contribute, you can visit the Support Travis Dow webpage here.
— Nellie Huggins
— Kelly Reaves
To talk about my personal history with the Dark Shadows source material seems slightly pointless even to me, but let me see if I can bring it around to the subject at hand, which is director Tim Burton's more comedic approach to the televised story of Barnabas Collins, a New England vampire protecting his family (more like his descendants) while fending off those who would do them harm. I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode, having watched the nightly reruns that aired in the city in which I grew up. It wasn't until years later that I understood that "Dark Shadows" was a soap opera shot live on tape, thus the reels of mistakes that humorously plagued the show.
But the original Barnabas, Johathan Frid (who passed away last month), remains one of my all-time favorite vampires, with his buttoned-down manners and fierce devotion to old-fashioned morals and sensibilities. And the best thing star Johnny Depp does with his revamped portrayal of Barnabas is to capture this reserved side to the elder Collins and put him in direct conflict with the times (in this case, the early 1970s).
— Steve Prokopy
Coming to Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts in west Pilsen is a group show entitled 19th State of Mind. The title of this show refers to the 19th state to enter the union, Indiana, and the state of mind of the people who have grown up in this industrial, depressed area. A large portion of this show features the artists from CISA (Crazy Indiana Style Artists). I got to sit down and talk to Ish, a long time member of CISA, he spoke about the idea that Hammond, although not a "big city" like Chicago, has an inner city quality and, for some, long term effects that are directly related to the waning industry that the area was built on.
— MartinJon
Gapers Block's house illustrator, Phineas X. Jones, is well known for his amazing Octophant, the mascot for his poster business. Visitors to Grant Park this summer will encounter the fantastical creature as an advertisement for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, posted on the art nouveau Van Buren Street entrance to the Metra Electric station.
— Andrew Huff
Chicago Live!, the live news/radio show produced by the Chicago Tribune in partnership with The Second City, kicks off its spring 2012 season tonight at the UP Comedy Club on North Avenue.
Hosted by veteran Chicago reporter, author and radio/TV personality Rick Kogan, Chicago Live! is a weekly stage and radio show that gathers top news makers and guests from the arts and entertainment and pop culture worlds. The hour-long show features Chicago-centric news interviews as well as comedy sketches from The Second City.
Tonight's episode features guests like Lookingglass Theatre Company artistic director Andrew White, Chicago River Canoe & Kayak founder and director Ryan Chew, Forest Preserve District of Coook County superintendent Arnold Randall with River Trail Nature Center animal handler Ryan DePauw, members of the 2012 Chicago Tribune All-State Academic Team, and musical guests, The Blisters.
— Janna Dons
Thursday, May 3, Red line to Argyle
— Mark Addison Smith
In one of my favorite Black Star tracks, "Thieves In The Night", rapper Mos Def challenges listeners to "separate the real from the lie." Maneuvering comfortably in the classic techniques and processes of analog photography, New York-based artist Mike Schreiber works to achieve exactly that by creating images which resonate globally with music lovers and photography aficionados alike. Whether it is of musicians who regularly occupy the headphones and speakers of millions of music fans, or the people on the streets of Cuba and Jamaica, Mike's portraits place emphasis on the humanity of his subjects. His photographs remind us that these people are just that-people. He does not attempt to make them into caricatures of themselves or play into a larger-than-life persona. Mike pushes in the antithetical direction with the goal of making a photograph that brings out, as he puts it, a version of themselves that "their mother would recognize."
Fittingly titled True Hip Hop, Mike's recent book reflects the results, experiences and anecdotes of a career that has brought him and his camera in front of everyone from B.B. King to Voletta Wallace, the mother of the late Notorious B.I.G. In light of his upcoming debut exhibition in Chicago and book signing at The Silver Room, I spoke with Mike about his signature style, starstruck moments and what it means to be a photographer's photographer.
— A/C
Hell, at the Intuit, is a bright collection of work that takes a hard look at the evils of life. The artists that are in this show obviously deal, or dealt with, these ideas regularly in their daily lives rather than, like most of us, deep inside ourselves. Being so familiar with the material, they are able to conjure up imagery that most artists would feel might be too overt, and for them it very well may be. Without a formal arts education to decipher for them a random group of rules, they are free to examine art however they feel.
— MartinJon
by Andrew Daglas
Let's face it: When you think of mirth, excitement, and song-and-dance numbers, you think of MBAs.
At least, that's the hope of the more than 80 Northwestern graduate students behind the comic variety show Special K! Produced and performed by matriculators at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, the revue hits the stage this week at the Norris University Center in Evanston. Nightly shows were from May 2-5, with two shows tonight. The assemblage of amusements -- including live-action and digital skits, song parodies, a short film, and a riff on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment -- represents the culmination of months of extracurricular work.
So what's funny about business school? Plenty, according to second-year marketing major Chris Reynolds, one of the creative directors. He says the show mines humor from human relationships and heightened emotions, not accounting textbooks. Audiences who don't know their fixed assets from a hole in the ground can still relate to the tension of working with peers in close quarters, or of striking out on an uncertain career path.
— A/C
— Kelly Reaves
You know what's great about being a college student? Those sweet discounts that you wont see again until you're a senior citizen. Before you start counting down to your 55th birthday though, the Neo-Futurists are throwing another discount on the collegiate buffet of deals.
This summer, students of the colleges and universities listed below can receive $5 off admission for Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes on their school's dedicated weekend. This is the longest running show in Chicago, going on more than 23 years, and is a must see for any one living in or visiting Chicago.
Every performance is truly unique as the cast runs through an ever-changing menu of 30 short, ensemble-written scripts, whose order is ultimately chosen by the audience. Scenes can be funny and absurd, personal and touching, and wildly clever. The performers have combined such an array of concepts the audience is constantly kept on their toes. You wont find a show quite like this anywhere else.
— Janna Dons
The reason a super-group comic book like The Avengers is so much fun is because its members spend as much time clashing into each other as they do the foes they fought every month. Someone asked me recently to compare director and co-writer Joss Whedon's The Avengers with the X-Men movies, and the reality is, you can't — not fairly at least. The members of the X-Men came together under a common struggle (mutant rights), and are all trained by the same methods as each other (for the most part). But The Avengers are like puzzle pieces that were never meant to go together, and with the exception of Captain America (Chris Evans), they don't even really see themselves as heroes, let alone ones fighting a common enemy.
The story of The Avengers gives these solo acts that unifying enemy: an alien army brought to earth by Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) adopted brother Loki (the magnificent Tom Hiddleston, easily my favorite performer in the film). But before Whedon even gets to that point, he gives us micro-stories about where the lead characters sit in the grand scheme of their own lives.
— Steve Prokopy
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, Anime Central (ACen), the Midwest's largest anime convention, does not so much arrive as it does engulf. Even in the convention-prepped, O'Hare-adjacent village of Rosemont, where hotel rooms outnumber residents, a noticeably odd blood type runs through the city's veins for three and a half days as it receives a transfusion of 24,000+ niche hobby fans of all ages, heights, weights, costumes, handicaps and weapons.
River Road's adjacent lineup of Stephens Convention Center/Hyatt/Rosemont Blue Line/McDonald's is Anime Central's chief corridor, a mile-long stretch of costumes and con-goers spilling off sidewalks and into police-managed traffic, tromping to and from restaurants, cars and area hotels, many of whose convention-dedicated room blocks sold out months ago.
— Tim Rolph / Comments (1)
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger talks about Frank Gehry's life and work in a new book.
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