Blow Hard
“Free” jazz pioneer Fred Anderson turns 80 in March, and the five-day celebration at his club, the Velvet Lounge, begins…
Ad Categories: Culture
Shopper: Barneys New York
A little boom amid bust
Dutch Treat
Rouw siert Electra (Mourning
Becomes Electra)
Eugene O’Neill’s take on the Oresteia trilogy (a.k.a. the House of Epic Dysfunction, wherein son loves mother, murders father; wife murders husband, is avenged by children; and so on) is stripped down to its primal essence by the renowned Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Raw, merciless, and pungent with sexuality, this production incorporates TV, video, and plenty of nudity. In Dutch with English supertitles.
Behind the Patch
The new Field Museum exhibition, Real Pirates, gives us the lowdown on the golden years of the 1700s.
Battle of the Bands
We pit three large-ensemble jazz bands in a Chicago versus Chicago versus New York face-off
Three Things to Contemplate
while idiling on the Kennedy
Talk of Our Town
Two Chicago theatres have liberated Thornton Wilder’s warhorse of a play from its nostalgic conventions to deliver productions both radical and real. Why now?
Knight Moves: How Filmmakers Turned Chicago into Gotham City
FROM FEBRUARY 2009: With imagination, verve, and a hefty package of financial incentives, the makers of the latest Batman epic turned Chicago into Gotham City, giving our town a starring role in razzle-dazzle chases and heart-stopping stunts. Now, the movie stands as a contender for Academy Award hardware. What’s the payoff here?
Bird by Bird
On the eve of a major release (Noble Beast, out January 20th on Fat Possum), musician-on-the-verge Andrew Bird, 35, opens up about pseudo fame, bipolar lifestyles, and what it takes to write the perfect pop song
Ex-Rated
The Ex Files
Can’t agree on how to celebrate V Day? Split the difference between a romantic dinner and ignoring the holiday altogether with Letters/X 6, Groundup Theatre’s guffaw-worthy annual roundup of Dear John letters recast as monologues, sketches, and songs performed by both people and puppets (yes, puppets). Cheap-date warning: The performance is free, although donations are accepted. The show runs 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and…