This weekend: Chicago
Posted: August 23, 2013 Filed under: Art & architecture, Chicago, Food, Movies, Music | Tags: Bayard Rustin, Bruce Springsteen 1 CommentSummer in Chicago is drawing to an end, but there are great outdoor and indoor activities in my city this weekend.
Festa Italiana
Summer is the time for street and neighborhood festivals. This is one of my favorites. It’s in little Italy, the old Italian neighborhood near the UIC campus. Festa Italiana runs through Sunday on Taylor Street between Racine and Ashland. There’s food from all the great Taylor Street restaurants and entertainment ranging from Italian-surnamed crooners to new bands such as This Must Be the Band, Acoustic Generation and my favorite band name, Inbound Kennedy.
The highlight of the festival, for some, will be the meatball-eating contest. Personally, I’m grossed out by food-gorging displays. The winner will be the person who eats eight meatball-slider sandwiches in two minutes. (That is disgusting.)
Lill Street Art Festival
The Lill Street Art Center (which started out on Lill Street) is celebrating its 10th year in its Ravenswood location, at the corner of Ravenswood and Montrose. The opening reception tonight will celebrate Best Served Hot: Ceramics for the Coffee Ritual, cosponsored by Intelligentsia Coffee. Saturday will include an open house and block party. Lill Street Art Center offers classes, a gallery and studio space for artists in ceramics, metalsmithing and jewelry, painting and drawing, printmaking, textiles, glass, digital arts and photography. I treasure a few pieces of ceramic jewelry from Lill Street.
Movies
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, you should watch the documentary about Bayard Rustin, the strategist and activist who organized the march. He was a key adviser to MLK until he was asked to leave (or was pushed out) because of his political past (socialist) and sexual orientation (gay). The film is Brother Outsider (available on DVD and streaming). It’s an excellent view of Rustin’s background, leadership and his activist life after 1963. President Obama will award a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rustin posthumously. It’s bloody well time.
The Huffington Post has a good article on Rustin by Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental College.
Anna Karenina, the gorgeous Joe Wright version of Tolstoy’s tragic novel with a script by Tom Stoppard, is showing occasionally on HBO right now. If you haven’t seen it, do. It’s creatively staged–and staged is the right word because much of it is set in an old theater. The railroad scenes, as ice-encased trains arrive in Moscow or St. Petersburg, are not to be missed.
Eats
Have you been to Big & Little’s? It’s a fine place to stop for a fish taco, a fried oyster or shrimp po’ boy (my favorite) and many varieties of burger and sandwich choices. Also foie gras & fries or truffle fries. Yum. Delish. Not fancy. Big & Little’s is at 860 N Orleans, just north of Chicago Avenue. There’s a tiny parking lot and you can sit inside or outside (as I did today) or carry out. Cash only. It’s been featured on the Food Network’s Triple-D (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) and on Chicago’s Best on WGN and on Check Please on WTTW.
Wish I was at the Jersey Shore
I often wish that and I occasionally go to that neighborhood we call Springsteenville: Freehold, Asbury Park and West Long Branch, New Jersey. This is one of those weekends. There’s a Bruce Noir Film Festival in Asbury Park. The five films being shown are those he’s mentioned in interviews or in songs.
Since I can’t be there, I’ll find another way to watch them. The films are:
- — Gun Crazy (1950; on which Springsteen based his song “Highway 29” from the Nebraska album)
— Badlands (1973; based on the Charles Starkweather murder spree story, which Springsteen tells in the song “Nebraska”)
— Out of the Past (1947; a Robert Mitchum film about a private eye)
— Atlantic City (1980; a Louis Malle film with script by playwright John Guare, starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon)
— Thunder Road (1958; Robert Mitchum plays a bootlegger trying to save the family moonshine business from big-city gangsters; lots of great road footage as Mitchum drives a “tanker,” a car modified to carry alcohol in the fuel tank)
Lit pick: Nana, Emile Zola and Second Empire Paris
Posted: August 22, 2013 Filed under: Art & architecture | Tags: Art Institute of Chicago, Emile Zola's Nana, Julia Gray, Mr Selfridge Leave a commentI just finished reading Nana by Emile Zola, a deliciously risqué novel about Paris and the demimonde at the end of the 1860s. I haven’t read anything by Zola since college but I was inspired to read it by the current exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.
After touring it or the second time, I’m totally under the spell of Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity. As everyone who has written about the exhibit has said, it’s a delectable feast of paintings of the Impressionism period by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Tissot and others, drawn from the Art Institute’s own excellent collection, and featuring exceptional works from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The art is enhanced by beautifully displayed archival gowns and accessories of the period. Most important, the exhibit signage weaves a compelling story about societal and cultural change of the period from the 1860s through ca. 1890 and its impact on women’s apparel and lives.
At one of the Art Institute lectures on the exhibit, the speaker talked about other artists of the period and mentioned the writings of Emile Zola and especially his novel Nana, which features lavish descriptions of the costumes, décor and customs of the Second Empire in Paris. (Image: Cover of the original French edition, courtesy of Wikipedia.)
I had never read Zola’s novel, so I downloaded it to my Kindle when I got home that day. From the first chapter, I was amazed at Zola’s attention to detail of women’s costumes and the décor of the period.
The protagonist, Nana, is a young up-from-the-streets courtesan who becomes famous as “la blonde Venus” playing the lead in a fictional operetta, where she appears clothed only in a head-to-toe veil. She can’t act and can’t sing. But she is beautiful, voluptuous and charismatic. Nana is irresistible to wealthy Parisian men of all ages. In the beginning, she wants to find a man who can help support her and buy her suitable gowns and jewelry. But her tastes expand to include mansions, horses, servants – all requiring more and richer men. She becomes more and more grasping, profligate and promiscuous and ruins each of the men in turn until finally creating her own downfall.
The story is vivid, dramatic and quite erotic (without X-rated detail). Most of the chapters in the book detail the happenings at a given event. The opening night at Théâtre des Variétés. A midnight dinner party at Nana’s home. A day at the races, when a filly named Nana owned by one of her admirers miraculously wins the race despite early odds against it. An engagement party for the daughter of Nana’s chief “sugar daddy,” who is about to go bankrupt. The crowd scenes–masses of fashionable people gossiping, chattering, flirting—are especially noteworthy. The first half of the book is a little slow but the second half is full of energy and speeds to the denouement.
You could say that Nana prefigures the celebrity culture of the 21st century. The book is about wealth, sex and society and shows us how the fashionable set lived in Paris in the last few years of the Second Empire. The book was a huge success when it was published in 1879.
Nana on screen
Does Nana sound like a movie? It’s been made into movies four times. I started to watch the one that was available online (streaming on Netflix) and decided I’d rather finish the book. It is the 1982 Italian version (everyone speaks English) directed by Dan Wolman. This Nana is very racy (lots of female nudity) and very loosely based on the novel. I would like to see the 1926 version by Jean Renoir; I’m looking for a DVD.
Also by Zola
Zola, a prolific writer, wrote another book that’s related to the Impressionism/fashion exhibit. Titled Au Bonheur des Dames or The Ladies’ Paradise, it’s set in the world of a department store, an innovation of the 19th century as detailed in some of the Impressionism/fashion displays. The store is modeled after Le Bon Marché (still in business today and owned by LVMH Luxury Group) and details the operations of the department store. Retailing is a part of my business background and so these stories fascinate me. I’ve written about my retailing life in this article about Mr. Selfridge, the PBS series that has a strong Chicago connection. Season two will be showing in 2014.
And one more reading suggestion
Julia Gray, a Chicago writer, has written an excellent article on the strange copyright issues connected to the photography of Vivian Maier, whose work has become famous since her death in 2009. Check out the article at Gapers Block. Gray’s article also describes how Maier’s film, negatives and other photographic possessions were bought in rental storage locker auctions, mainly by three people who have profited from her work in various ways.
Weekend focus: Chicago
Posted: August 17, 2013 Filed under: Chicago, Movies, Music, Politics, Theater Leave a commentIt’s Air and Water Show weekend
I can hear the airplane acrobats flying very very close to my roof. If you come to the lakefront for the show, take public transportation. Traffic will be bad before and horrible after the show each day. And parking is impossible in that neighborhood. Trust me. It’s my neighborhood and I know.
Photo by Runaway Wind from thechicagoist.com. For five reasons to go even without the Blue Angels, see DNAinfo.com.
Movies
The Act of Killing. This is a new documentary about the genocide in Indonesia in the late 1960s. It’s not your standard-issue genocide doc. No blood. But it’s a very surreal, gripping film — I’ll write more about it later. It’s showing at the Music Box for a few days. This film will generate lots of buzz, heated conversation, and certain award nominations
Twenty Feet from Stardom. This great music doc about female backup singers is showing at Landmark Century Centre for at least another week. I wrote about it recently. It’s a grand, joyful story about these terrific performers whose voices made all the difference for many big-name musicians. But they never really got the credit or success they deserved. This film showcases their personalities and their voices.
Picasso Baby. Another plug for this intriguing performance video by Jay Z. It will only take 12 minutes of your time to find it and view it. And it will make you think about performance art and celebrity.
Theater
Invasion is showing at Silk Road Rising in the Methodist Temple building on Washington and Clark. It’s an imperfect but thought-provoking play about Arab-American identity and assimilation.
Reading
Don’t miss the Peter Maass article on Edward Snowden and how documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras “helped Snowden spill his secrets.” As she went about her work, she was subjected to incredible surveillance by the US government. The article is in tomorrow’s New York Times Magazine and has been available online for several days. It’s an excellent article with examples of how journalists are pressured by their own governments. Poitras has been working with Glenn Greenwald, who broke the Snowden story in The Guardian.
Movie Night: Springsteen and I, 20 Feet From Stardom, Picasso Baby
Posted: August 15, 2013 Filed under: Movies, Music, Rock and roll 5 CommentsTwo music documentaries made me very happy lately. Twenty Feet From Stardom will appeal to a broad range of movie and music fans. The Springsteen film is more for music fans. I’ll also add a lagniappe: a 10-minute performance art video from Jay Z.
Springsteen and I
Springsteen and I is a crowdsourced film, composed mostly of home videos contributed by Springsteen fans who describe what the music of Bruce Springsteen has meant to them. The director, Baillie Walsh, a British music video and film director, apparently isn’t a Springsteen fan. These facts promised something less than a satisfying film experience. Ridley Scott was listed as a producer, however, which made me feel a little more confident. I didn’t have high expectations for this film, but as a Springsteen obsessive, I could hardly miss it.
It turned out to be a fun and interesting film with many delightful film clips, punctuated by concert footage, and finished off with a mini-concert. At the end of the film, we learn that Bruce has seen the film and invited a small group of contributors to meet before a concert. Since he has seen their film statements, he knows who each person is and he comments to each of them about their experiences when they arrive. Springsteen is a performer of magical qualities, but he is not a slick, eloquent speaker. He often stumbles a bit and has a silly giggle. So it’s fun to see him struggle to tell his fans how much their stories mean to him.
The film is full of funny and poignant stories. Like these.
A woman sitting in her car asks, “See all these CDs?” (25 or 30 of them are lined up across visors on both sides of car.) “These are all Bruce Springsteen CDs…. When my three boys are in the car, they know we’re going to listen to Bruce Springsteen and nothing else.… And my proudest moments are when they sing along with me – because they know the words too.”
A couple sitting on a park bench remember when he, an Elvis impersonator, was invited up on stage from the pit section. Elvis takes the microphone for not one, but two, songs and was starting on a third when Bruce gives him the evil eye and he hands the mic back. Bruce thanks him by saying “Philly Elvis! I don’t know where the f**k he came from.”
A woman in Denmark talks about how she was touched by seeing Bruce and his wife Patti perform together. Her favorite song is “Red-Headed Woman,” which Bruce wrote about his wife. I’ve never heard it sung live, but I have it on a bootleg. In this case, the director inserts a music clip where Bruce introduces the song with a little lesson on the performance of a certain sex act. I don’t think that’s what the Danish fan intended, but you can find the lyrics here.
A Londoner who is not a fan accompanies his hardcore fan wife to concerts all over Europe. He pleads with Bruce to play shorter concerts.
John, a groundskeeper at the Copenhagen stadium where the band will play, speaks movingly and in a rough-around-the edges style (and in excellent English) about how important Springsteen’s music has been to his life. He’s one of the fans who meets Bruce at the stadium. Bruce recognizes him when he walks in and he takes a leather cuff off his wrist and puts it on John’s. “This a sign of brotherhood,” he says.
My friends asked why I didn’t submit my own video. I did bare my soul about what his music means to me here and here.
About the time the film was playing in Chicago, Springsteen appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. He was named first in the 50 Greatest Live Acts in 2013. I could have written that myself, after having seen 30-some live concerts. He is an amazing performer and this film gives you a real sense of how that affects his fans.
Twenty Feet from Stardom
Bruce Springsteen 
Merry Clayton 
Darlene Love
If you’re having a bad day, this would be a great movie to see. And if you’re having a fine day, this will make it even better. Twenty Feet From Stardom is the story of the backup singers who provided the essential background sound for some of the greatest acts in rock and roll history. The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, Michael Jackson, Elton John. Several of the singers are profiled in the film and there are many interview clips from the stars they worked with. You’ll see Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Claudia Lennear, Lisa Fischer and Tata Vega, among others. Most of the backup singers did not succeed as solo acts, despite the incredible quality of their singing voices and performance style. One of them, Darlene Love, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, probably the highest level of success for any of them.
Despite the disappointments of the “20 feet” distance, this is a joyous film. You see the stars performing in their younger days and today when they still love what they do. Most of them came from families with strong church and gospel singing backgrounds and that celebratory sound comes through in every note.
This 90-minute film is playing right now and continues through next week at the Landmark Century Centre in Chicago and at one cinema in Highland Park. (Screen shots above by Nancy Bishop.)
Picasso Baby
This is my lagniappe. It’s an 11-minute video of a song from Jay Z’s new album, Magna Carta Holy Grail. Don’t tell me you don’t like hip hop or Jay Z. This is a mini concert in which you can see his charm and charisma up close. In the short intro to the film, he talks about a concert being performance art. The smaller the venue, the more the audience affects the performance. This performance was filmed at Pace Gallery in New York’s Chelsea district.
Photo copyright Uptown Magazine.
The video is about five minutes of Jay Z singing and interacting with a few dozen artists, musicians and fans (only cool-looking fans), one at a time. The first part of the song references art, artists, museums and celebrity but the second, angrier, part talks about crime and punishment. The rest of the film features final comments from the participants, who are identified on screen as they speak or move.
Participants include actor Alan Cumming, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, actor Adam Driver, artist Andres Serrano, performance artist Marina Abramovic, writer Judd Apatow, actors Jemima Kirke and Rosie Perez, and many other familiar faces. Abramovic is the artist who performed “The Artist Is Present” at the Museum of Modern Art. People waited in line for hours to sit in a room with her, while she stared at them. She has an intense, mesmerizing stare, so I can see that this worked.
The song ends with this line: “What’s it gon take for you to see, I’m the modern day Pablo, Picasso, baby.”
Watch Picasso Baby here.
Weekend focus: Chicago
Posted: August 10, 2013 Filed under: Chicago, Movies, Theater | Tags: Chicago Film Lovers Exchange 2 CommentsWhat’s better than a gorgeous summer weekend? Here are some things I’m checking out and you can too.
Farmers markets on Saturday. Corn, tomatoes and peaches, yes.
Movies. Lots of things in theaters, but if you’re staying home, I strongly recommend two political films that are streaming on Netflix and Amazon. Brother Outsider: The Story of Bayard Rustin, is a biopic about the little-known civil rights and gay activist who was a force in organizing the MLK 1963 March on Washington. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing still holds up as a story about race relations and attitudes in Brooklyn. My film group discussed it this week (Hi, CFLXers!) and found it still very potent.
Community events. Ginza Festival at Midwest Buddhist Temple. Japanese food (grilled teriyaki chicken is a specialty), artisans and entertainers (taiko drummers, classical and folk dance). Saturday and Sunday.
Theater. I recommend Slow Girl at Steppenwolf — a thought-provoking, quiet play with terrific performances by William Petersen and Rae Gray. Also Inventing Van Gogh at Strange Bedfellows. Here’s my review of the latter. And I recommend Rooms: A Rock Romance at Broken Nose Theatre. I loved that one.
I don’t recommend Belleville at Steppenwolf. I know it got great reviews, but to me it was tedious. And the knife thing? Really. That was Chekhovian overkill.
Want to argue with me about anything? Come on. You must disagree with some of my opinions. Comments, please!
The art of fashion: Punk, Impressionism, Ebony
Posted: August 7, 2013 Filed under: Art & architecture, Chicago, Punk rock | Tags: fashion, Gapers Block Leave a commentThree important exhibits this summer are threading art, fashion and social issues into fascinating museum experiences. I keep trying to decide that one or another is my favorite but each one is equally discerning and compelling in its own way.
Punk rules
I wrote recently about seeing the exhibit Punk: Chaos to Couture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Of course, I’m tempted to say this is my favorite of the three because I love punk rock and its alienated, disruptive, DIY and disheveled nature. Punk, especially Brit punk, was critiquing the evils of society in the 1970s—the ones that we see even more vividly today. Poverty, economic and educational inequality, and the evils of the establishment.
Most especially, one of my favorite bands of all time, The Clash, is represented in the exhibit by a quote from its late lamented frontman Joe Strummer, explaining what the band wore: “We didn’t have the backing of the Sex boutique (like the Sex Pistols) so we rented a warehouse in Camden Town and painted it. We got all covered in paint….”
Some of my favorite things about the exhibit were the facsimile of the bathroom at CBGB, the famous punk club on the Bowery; and the DIY Bricolage section, which used trash materials in costuming. The exhibit was intended as an immersive experience with almost-loud music, music videos and other multimedia examples of the period. (Photo copyright Metropolitan Museum of Art.)
From punk to Paris
Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity at the Art Institute of Chicago is an elegant tour of the fashions and social customs of the late 19th century as displayed in impressionist paintings from the collections of the Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum and Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the three museums that organized the exhibit. The exhibit is highlighted with gowns similar to those worn in the paintings displayed and properly accessorized with footwear, gloves and chapeaus. The exhibit takes us from the elaborate, fussy, long-trained gowns that required corsets and cautious walking to day gowns and walking ensembles that freed the 19th-century woman from some of the strictures of corset, bustle and fabric. (Photo courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.)
Museum legends and signage describe the changes in styles and social customs that accompanied and, indeed, enabled the fashion changes. Other displays show period examples of accessories such as fans, lorgnettes, jewelry, hats and footwear.
We can also see examples of fashion magazines and catalogs with announcements of the openings of important new fashion emporiums in Paris, including Le Bon Marché, La Samaritaine and Printemps.
The Art Institute has an ongoing series of lectures (some are members-only) about the exhibit and the period. They are free and provide invaluable insights to enhance your enjoyment of the exhibit. See the Art Institute calendar for information.
The world’s largest traveling fashion show
Chicago has another stunning exhibit of art and fashion at the Chicago History Museum. Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of the Ebony Fashion Fair runs until January 5, 2014.
I reviewed this exhibit for Gapers Block and you can read my article here. The exhibit is a gorgeous display of almost 70 of the 8,000 gowns and ensembles from the costume collection of the Johnson Publishing Company.
The Ebony Fashion Fair exhibit presents the history and style of the traveling fashion show that began in 1958, brought visibility to African-American designers and models, and helped Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Company reach larger audiences.
It’s a stunning exhibit of fashion and history and shows how the fashion fair recognized and encouraged changes in socioeconomic and elite status for African-American women. The fashion fair was produced and directed by Eunice Johnson, whose husband was John H Johnson, the visionary founder of Johnson Publishing, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.
The exhibit shows the original garments by designers such as Yves St. Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Pierre Cardin, Emanuel Ungaro, Christian Lacroix, and Patrick Kelly, on stunning African-American mannequins. The garments are sleek, dramatic, vibrantly colorful and often exotic. The exhibit also tells the story of Eunice Johnson’s persistence in gaining access to the fashions she wanted to show (cash helps) and how she brought high fashion events to African-American audiences. More than 5,000 fashion shows in 180 cities all over the US were produced as charitable events, raising more than $55 million for civil rights projects and scholarships.
While you’re at the history museum, you can also still see the Vivian Maier exhibit that I wrote about here. It runs through January 5, 2014.
A tale of three cities: Mostly Manhattan
Posted: July 31, 2013 Filed under: Art & architecture, Punk rock, Theater | Tags: Irish Repertory Theatre, Movies, theater 3 CommentsNew York was fascinating as always, despite being beastly hot. My favorite thing about New York is always tramping uptown and downtown, east side and west side. Unfortunately, since temps were in the high 90s, my tramping was focused on finding cool buildings for respite or walk-thrus. In my next tale, I visited friends in Connecticut and I finished up with a family wedding in Brooklyn in the neighborhood known as DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).
Manhattan
First we’ll take Manhattan, as Leonard Cohen sang (or sort of sang). The highlight was my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its special exhibit on Punk: Chaos to Couture, which runs until August 14. I also saw two very good plays – one at Irish Repertory in Chelsea, my regular favorite New York theater, and the other a Richard Greenberg drama on Broadway.
Punk: Chaos to Couture was the Met’s 2013 Costume Institute exhibition and it celebrates both the look that punk musicians adopted in the 1970s in the UK and the US and the impact it had on couture (meaning clothes-not-going-to-be-worn-by-the-average-woman). Original punk clothing was shown, especially that worn by some performers and some designed by Vivienne Westwood for her London punk boutique. Couture by name designers of that period and later decades is also shown. The exhibit was visually and aurally appropriate with period music and videos.
The DIY (do-it-yourself) nature of the punk scene was celebrated in the organization of the exhibit. The section DIY Hardware displayed the use of safety pins and metal ball chains in both punk and couture looks. DIY Bricolage used trash materials in costuming. Here we had the use of bottle tops, plate shards, plastic shopping bags and Tyvek envelopes to create wearable garments. Best of all, black trash bags were shredded or chopped to make glamorous gowns. Really. They were couture and I would wear one of them.
Most of the couture seemed fakey to me, especially that from the last two decades. The use of safety pins or other metal and shredded and torn fabric doesn’t make sense outside of its musical context.
Gibraltar. At Irish Rep, the two-character play Gibraltar, “an adaptation after James Joyce’s Ulysses,” was being presented in its tiny basement studio. I felt like I was at home in a Chicago storefront venue. The play was written and performed by Patrick Fitzgerald, along with Cara Seymour as Molly Bloom, and directed by Terry Kinney, one of the Steppenwolf founders. It’s beautifully done, retaining Joyce’s language, and leading us through many of Leopold Bloom’s errands and encounters on Bloomsday. (I was a month or so late for Bloomsday.) It ends with Molly’s monologue, usually called the Eight Beatitudes. Beautiful lighting and sound design make this scene magical.
The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg is a family affair set in a large old Central Park West apartment in two acts on two Christmas Days, 1980 and 2000. Judith Light and Jessica Hecht give fine performances as sisters-in-law in a family in decline. The dialogue is charming, funny and vivid and we glory in their lives in act one and grieve for them in act two. It’s a terrific play. (Greenberg also wrote Take Me Out, The Violet Hour and Three Days of Rain.) The revolving set displays five rooms of the apartment, designed as only Santo LoQuasto can furnish a room.
Stamford
Stamford was a short visit, punctuated by shopping (I learned that Stew Leonard’s is a destination, not a supermarket), eating, visiting, exploring Stamford and Greenwich, and going to a movie. We saw The Way Way Back with Steve Carell and Toni Collette. Carell is Collette’s obnoxious boyfriend, a character you love to hate. The movie is funny and sweet, one of those coming-of-age stories about the Collette character’s 14-year-old son. Sam Rockwell (remember him in Seven Psychopaths?), a very talented actor, manages to give it an edge and keep it from lapsing over into sentimentality. His performance is the treat of the movie.
Brooklyn
Short story. Family wedding at a lovely old temple with a lively reception in DUMBO. The bride and groom were darling and it was nice to see friends and relatives. Just before we reached the reception, we passed an intersection that offered a fabulous view of the bridges (Brooklyn and Manhattan) and we walked back to take lots of photos. I took this one with the Empire State Building playing a cameo in the distance.
Storefront theaters shine in Chicago
Posted: July 24, 2013 Filed under: Chicago, Punk rock, Theater | Tags: Bailiwick Chicago, Broken Nose Theatre, CBGB, Jackalope Theatre, Nelson Algren 1 CommentI’ve been seeing a lot of theater lately and I wanted to post my last three reviews for Gapers Block. Two of these shows close in the next week, so hurry up and see them. We have an unbelievable wealth of theater talent in Chicago. These plays are worth your time – and these small theaters will appreciate your support.
My next post will get out of Chicago and report on my visit to New York, featuring one off- and one on-Broadway show.
Mahal at Bailiwick Chicago: It’s a Family Affair
Mahal by Danny Bernardo is a story about a Chicago Filipino family, the first play with that ethnic focus, to my knowledge. Bailiwick Chicago is presenting it at Stage 773 at 1225 W Belmont, formerly the Theater Building. The Stage 773 owners have upgraded the space, especially the entrance and lobby area, to be very attractive and contemporary—a great improvement.
My review begins:
“Mahal is a family story. A Filipino family with strong roots in the Philippines adjusts to life, love and loss in its new country. The family members – father, two sons and a daughter – are each recovering in their own way from the recent death of their mother. (Some family members call the mother’s phone number to hear her voicemail greeting – and leave messages for her until the mailbox fills up.)”
Bailiwick Chicago presents Mahal until August 2 at Stage 773, 1225 W Belmont Ave. Read the review here. Photo of Kevin Keyes and Jillian Jocson by Michael Brosilow.
The Casuals at Jackalope Theatre: Exploring Life in the Atomic Era
The Casuals is set in 1955 Nevada and involves personal as well as political issues. It’s a new play by Jackalope Theatre Company with script by Chance Bone and Andrew Burden Swanson, and direction by Jonathan Berry. Here’s how my review starts:
“Some things about The Casuals might make you uncomfortable–nuclear testing, for instance. Government agencies that hide the truth (and insist you don’t ask questions). Stories that may be lies or truth. A mother who tells her son how his father died a hero. An uncle who tells his nephew’s wife how his brother really died.”
The Casuals runs until July 28 at DCASE Storefront Theater, 66 E Randolph St. Tickets are cheap: $10-$15.
Read the review here. Photo by Alex Hand: Watching an atomic test.
Rooms: A Rock Romance at Broken Nose Theatre
I hardly ever get to indulge my love for rock and roll at the theater. So I was very excited to get to review this show, which includes a scene set at CBGB, the famous New York rock club. Rooms features a talented live band and some straight-up rock as well as a little punk. My review starts this way:
“The sign outside the theater says, “This is a rock musical. It will be loud.” And it starts loud with a four-piece rock band playing preshow music including the classic ‘Seven Nights to Rock.’
“Rooms: A Rock Romance is a fairly traditional musical, punctuated by some great rock and punk rock songs performed on stage with a band. It is, at its heart, a love story about two people with different visions of life. Monica (Hillary Marren) wants to be a rock star, to travel and perform all over the world and Ian (Matt Deitchman) is a musician who prefers to stay at home in his own room with his guitar.”
Broken Nose Theatre will present Rooms until August 11 at the Collaboraction Pentagon space in the Flat Iron Arts Building, 1579 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Read my review here. Photo of Matt Deitchman by Taryn Goodge.
Broken Nose Theatre, by the way, takes its name from the way Nelson Algren describes my favorite city in his book, Chicago: City on the Make.
“Yet once you’ve come to be part of this particular patch, you’ll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real.”
Happy anniversary to me
Posted: July 18, 2013 Filed under: Rock and roll | Tags: Bruce Springsteen 8 CommentsToday is the one-year anniversary of Nancy Bishop’s Journal. When I started this a year ago, I had no idea I would write so prolifically or find it so invigorating to do so. I’ve written 65 posts, most of them op-ed column length of 700-800 words. Topics have been divided fairly evenly among theater, movies and music, although I’ve been posting more theater reviews lately, since I’m also contributing to Gapers Block, the Chicago website.
Speaking of music, I haven’t written about Bruce Springsteen lately. (How can that be?) So I have a special anniversary treat for you. Bruce and the E Street Band are nearing the end of their European tour. His fans follow setlists on Twitter every night in lieu of being there to hear him live. Last night they played in Limerick and the Limerick Chronicle celebrated that as front-page news. Bruce’s heritage is Irish and Italian, so he has always been very popular in those countries. (Thanks to kbutler333 Kathleen Butler for the Twitter pic.)
When he played in Rome last Thursday night, his fans got a special treat and I’m sharing it with you to celebrate my anniversary. The song is “New York City Serenade,” a Bruce rarity that thrills his hard-core fans. This really isn’t just for Springsteen fans. It’s a beautiful ballad that starts with a great piano intro by Roy Bittan, the long-time E Street Band keyboard player and Bruce collaborator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAe0IPLqgjE
The song is buried as the last track on Bruce’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, released in 1973. It’s never been played very much and rarely played in concert. He played it the other night with the Roma Sinfonietta on stage.
Thanks to my nephew Brad for sending the link.
Molière to Levon on stage & screen
Posted: July 14, 2013 Filed under: Movies, Music, Theater | Tags: Court Theatre, Levon Helm, The Artistic Home, The Band, The Last Waltz 3 CommentsMore theater suggestions, one from a Gapers Block review, plus two music films. My rock and roll and film commentary is coming back. I’m working on something now about rock lyrics — and an essay on art and fashion is on the horizon.
Molière in Hyde Park
Not only is the Court Theatre’s new play showing in Hyde Park, Court’s home territory. Director Charles Newell has set this new production of Molière’s marvelous Tartuffe in modern dress in Hyde Park/Kenwood. (His name was really Jean-Baptiste Poquelin; Molière was his stage name.) The delicious touch is that Newell has cast the same ensemble of actors, mostly African-American, to play Tartuffe as performed The Misanthrope, the first play in the Court Molière Festival. Tartuffe is the religious fanatic hypocrite who almost takes over Orgon’s family and wealth.
The acting is superb and the cast does a splendid job with Moliere’s witty dialogue. The mansion setting and contemporary costuming are beautiful … with the possible exception of Mariane’s and Valère’s outfits. Mariane, Orgon’s daughter, wears some silly-looking pink frocks (to emphasize her youth?) while Valère, her love interest, wears shorts he would never wear on the streets of Hyde Park and a White Sox cap that doesn’t know where to go.
The two-hour-plus-intermission play is immensely entertaining. The translation by poet Richard Wilbur is the gold standard and isn’t hurt by some modern interpolations. The Tartuffe run ends this weekend.
Beaten at The Artistic Home
Beaten is a new play by Scott Woldman at The Artistic Home, a storefront on Grand Avenue. It’s a family drama about three generations of women living in the same home and provides meaty roles for Kathy Scambiatterra, Kristin Collins and Kathryn Acosta as grandmother, mother and daughter.
My review begins:
“Put three generations of women in a house together and you’re sure to have an eruption of personalities; eventually, long-kept secrets slip out and lies are undone. Beaten, a world premiere drama by Scott Woldman, gives the Artistic Home actors a searing and emotionally charged script, and they all come through with fine performances.”
I also noted that the play “was inspired by a 2009 workshop at Chicago Dramatists where female actors expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of challenging parts for women; when asked to name their dream roles, all named parts written for men. Playwright Woldman listened.” (Photo courtesy of The Artistic Home; Scambiatterra and Acosta.)
The play runs at The Artistic Home, 1376 W Grand Ave, until August 11.
Read the complete review here.
Two new music documentary films
20 Feet From Stardom is about the mostly anonymous female backup singers behind some of the greatest bands of the 20th century. The 90-minute film directed by Morgan Neville features singers such as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Claudia Lennear, plus interviews with some of the musicians they performed with. It’s at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema now but it’s probably one of those films that will disappear from theaters after a short run.
Ain’t In It for My Health is a film about Levon Helm, the late great drummer and singer with The Band. You’ve heard him on songs like “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Levon died last year of throat cancer and was a musician until the end although he lost his voice in 1998. His Midnight Rambles at his home and studio in Woodstock, NY, were famous. The Levon film had three showings at the Music Box last month and I missed all of them so now I have to find it elsewhere or wait for the DVD to be released.
You can find Levon’s music on levonhelm.com and if you want to see him in top form, watch the 1978 documentary The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorcese.
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