An You Ready for Herman van Veen?
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Eight years ago van Veen appeared on Broadway and two years later he returned to New York for a brief engagement at Carnegie Hall. At the time the critics either loved or hated him. “There was no in-between,” remembers van Veen, who has learned not to let critics overly influence what he does onstage. “I always have to go back to my own truth,” he says. “It may not be the most interesting, but it is the only story I can use.” As van Veen prefers it, his approach to performing cannot be easily categorized. “In the U.S.,” he says, “the media always want to know what is your point. I don’t have a point. Everything nowadays is labeled. I think that is beautiful, but I think life is different.” Though van Veen has recorded 51 albums in Europe (none of which have been released in the U.S.), he has not trodden the path traditionally taken by recording superstars. Instead of saturating the radio and television airwaves with his vocal presence, van Veen has developed audiences rather methodically, touring in Holland and Germany and spreading out to France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, and more recently Denmark and the UK. His interests and talents go well beyond the stage, however: he has developed a cartoon duck called Alfred J. Kwak, the star of an animated TV series that has been sold throughout Europe and in Japan. (Turner Broadcasting has discussed picking up the series in the U.S.), and he also is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF; recently he appeared at the United Nations singing a song he composed for the UN’s World Summit for Children.
The Sportscorner at 956 W. Addison has been transformed into a new bar for these recession-racked times. As of today it’s called Club Wrig, and customers will pay a flat $10 admission for unlimited draft beer and drinks (no name brands), sandwiches and snacks, free pool, and whatever is tuned in on the television sets around the room. Manager Brad Altman thinks it’s the ideal spot for Wrigleyville people who are short of money but still want somewhere in the neighborhood to enjoy themselves. Altman insists he can make money with the $10 charge: “We’ve got it costed out so that well make more than if it was a regular bar.” He hopes the new concept will make Club Wrig more of a neighborhood establishment. “It never did much business as the Sportscorner,” he concedes, “except when there were baseball games.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/J. Alexander Newberry.
