TRACERS Tracers is valuable primarily because it defies the stereotypes about war. The play was developed by men who fought in Vietnam; the scenes are cut from the fabric of their own experience. John DiFusco, a Vietnam vet, invited six actors and a writer–also vets–to join him in improvising on their experiences in Vietnam. What emerged was a loosely connected series of scenes that revolve around six soldiers as they slog through a tour of duty in Vietnam....
SWEETIE **** (Masterpiece) Directed by Jane Campion With Genevieve Lemon, Karen Colston, Tom Lycos, Dorothy Barry, Jon Darling, Michael Lake, and Andre Pataczek. Subject: Although Sweetie concludes with the dedication “to my sister,” it is important to note that the film’s story is not at all autobiographical; the character of Sweetie was inspired by a real person, but a man, not a woman, and certainly not a relative of Campion’s....
Dirk Wales says he loves numbers. “I know where I am with numbers. No tricks. Dependable. They never try to fool me.” He also says he hates numbers. “I once fell in love with a woman who loved numbers, money. She thought about it all the time.” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Wales has only been “seriously making photographs” for four or five years....
This festival of films and videotapes from more than 25 countries continues at Facets Multimedia Center, 1517 W. Fullerton, through Sunday, October 23. Single tickets are $2.50 for adults and children; a pass good for five films is $10. For more information call 929-5437. Saturday, October 22 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » TOMMY TRICKER AND THE STAMP TRAVELLER The best of the children’s films that I’ve previewed for this festival, Michael Rubbo’s delightful Canadian fantasy-adventure about stamp-collecting excels in several departments....
On the recent Grammy telecast, pianist Evgeny Kissin looked the stereotype of a prodigy: cherubic, wild-eyed, gawky, and slightly bemused by all the fuss over what’s come naturally to him for most of his 20 years. Of the current crop of keyboard wiz kids–from Moscow and elsewhere–Kissin alone has shown an inner fire equal to all the outward pyrotechnics. His talents will be tested in this Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert. Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto is a ferocious and majestic tour de force, and its intricate, almost perfect chassis needs the services of a virtuoso of Rudolf Serkin’s caliber; Kissin may be worthy....
It’s been too long since the propulsive, witty music of blues guitarist Eddie C. Campbell has been heard in Chicago. (He’s been living in Europe, gigging regularly and touring in a stage adaptation of William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun.) Campbell specializes in jaunty, irresistibly danceable rhythms overlaid with lithe guitar lines, often placed so tightly in the pocket of the beat that his lead guitar almost doubles as a rhythm instrument....
GHOSTS Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » They were perfectly right to be frightened. Ibsen made Ghosts the occasion for an attack on everything hypocritical, everything repressive, everything bigoted, everything mean and dark and joyless—that is to say, everything sacred—in bourgeois society. The Danish playwright Erik Bogh knew what he was up against, if not what he was talking about, when, according to Zesmer, he characterized Ghosts as “a repulsive pathological phenomenon which, by undermining the morality of our social order, threatens its foundations....
“I don’t want to create imaginary sound worlds,” says Greg Bendian. “I want to create sounds you can taste. Sounds you can walk into.” Bendian, whose skills have been sought out by such new-music bigwigs as Leo Smith, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, and (most recently) Cecil Taylor, is an unusual percussionist: able to dart and weave–and thus to fit in to the protean music conceived by many of his collaborators–he can also bring weight and volume to the effort....
In 1916 Edwin Craigin, an obstetrician addressing a medical meeting, pronounced, “Once a cesarean section, always a cesarean section.” The issue of reducing the number of first, or primary, cesarean sections is murky, since whether to do one is basically a judgment call in an emergency. So health planners have focused on secondary, elective operations as a more obvious target in reducing spending. A February 1990 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that less than 10 percent of women with previous C-sections subsequently deliver vaginally and 35 percent of all C-sections performed in the U....
Much as history is written by survivors, film history is frequently written by distributors. So the greatness of the serials of both Louis Feuillade and Jacques Rivette must remain a postulate for Americans who can’t see them, and the towering importance of the fascinating ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch is usually something U.S. viewers can only read about. Rouch was a pioneer in working with sync sound and in mixing fiction and narrative with documentary, usually through the creative intervention of the subjects being filmed–aspects that were to fundamentally influence the French New Wave....
The roster alone tells most of the story: a front line of trumpeter Lester Bowie and saxists Arthur Blythe and Chico Freeman, supported by a rhythm section of pianist Kirk Lightsey, the incomparable bassist Cecil McBee, and drummer Don Moye. And as indicated by their 1987 Jazz Fest appearance–and especially by their brand-new album on Black Saint–the music will be supercharged, richly layered, and cohesive. (The conceit behind the group’s name is that each member is “leader” in his own right, but the lack of any discernible ego clash almost belies that concept....
MOVIE QUEENS Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The present time is the early 80s; after a long separation, Adele and Meg have left semiretirement to star together on Broadway. For the famously feuding golden girls it’s no easy reunion. Though Adele has been a recluse for many years on a Caribbean island, she’s still playing the grande dame–late for rehearsals, succumbing to drink and self-pity, feeling old and scared that her comeback will go nowhere....
Lead Story In August in Zanesville, Ohio, two fire fighters fought each other instead of the fire at Connie Rider’s house. The assistant chief had warned one of his men, who was carrying a fire hose, not to get too close to a downed power line. When the man continued to approach it, the assistant chief pulled the hose to stop him. The two men fell to the ground scuffling while a bystander grabbed the hose and fought the fire....
Lead Story The University of Washington chapter of Theta Xi fraternity was expelled from campus and suspended by the national office in January for hazing. Police found pledges with white grease and peanut butter on their bodies wearing only underwear in the proximity of stolen sheep that were, according to police, “overheated and agitated.” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Jennifer Connor, 18, a New York woman with a high hairdo, was diagnosed in November with hearing loss and a serious ear infection....
ONCE IN A LIFETIME Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » This is what Jerry, May, and George have in mind when they strike out for Hollywood in 1927. The Jazz Singer has just been released, and with it has come the end of silent films. This looks to be a golden opportunity for the road-weary vaudeville trio: they expect to make it big teaching film actors how to talk....
Now something of a legend among true aficionados of arty rock, Czechoslovakia’s Plastic People of the Universe were born in 1968 during that fleeting moment of glasnost-before-its-time known as the Prague Spring. Despite jailings, police beatings, periodic confiscations of their gear, and other assorted indignities, they’ve been punching away ever since. Though their name and appearance might suggest a bunch of aging Hawkwind wannabes making aimless space noise, the Plastic People–to judge from the tapes I’ve heard–actually play impressively rich music arranged with mature, clearheaded discipline....
Like many younger Jews, Mimi Rosenbush and Beverly Siegel have abandoned assimilation and taken up the traditions of their mothers and fathers. Out of their experience the two Chicagoans have produced an impassioned one-hour documentary called Return Trips that reflects their belief that devotion to Judaism can be a transcendent force for good. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Along the way, says Siegel, Schwartz turned nonobservant, though his leadership in the Workmen’s Circle kept him focused on the moral tenets of Judaism....
To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Mr. Hall certainly has the right idea about what we can expect from the higher intelligences that regularly visit this planet. Is it coincidental that our bungling, intellectually repressive government also neglects our space program? Of course not. Strieber and Steiger et al aside, it is self-evident that any civilization enlightened enough to attain viable interstellar travel must function on a fundamentally different basis than ours and thus have much to offer us....
THE BRIDE WHO IS A STRANGER Anyone who goes to see it hoping for an easily accessible dramatic exploration of the AIDS crisis and its social ramifications will be sorely disappointed. The Bride Who Is a Stranger is not that kind of work. And it’s clear that directors Justin Hayford and Audrey Heller never intended it to be. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » As in a dream, every element, every action, every event represents something else....
While in Los Angeles last weekend, I overheard the Lakers described as a team of destiny. The person making the statement was one of those typical El Lay know-nothings, complete with a sweater thrown over his shoulders and the sleeves knotted around his neck. He went on to talk about how, it being the last year of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s career, the Lakers were natural champions, and it’s a sign of how insulated the city is that it took the person he was speaking to a good 30 seconds to say, “Yes, but what about the Chicago Bulls?...
