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The Jungle Brothers set themselves apart from other “positive” rappers like Boogie Down Production and De La Soul by flaunting a mystical streak a mile wide. Their appealing mishmash of back-to-nature vegetarian sentiment, inspirational Afro-Christian rhetoric, and sexy humor sets a peaceful, conciliatory tone that’s refreshing enough to make tough dudes like LL Cool J and Ice-T suddenly sound passe. It also helps that in their best moments, the JBs–who owe even more to the Last Poets than do most modern rappers–sometimes forsake the standard boom-box beat in favor of something a little jazzier (is that a Pharoah Sanders sample I hear?...

In 1971 Dartmouth prof William Christie settled down in Europe, hoping to make his mark on the early-music scene there. Two decades later the expatriate is the head of the French ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Founded in Paris around 1979 and named after a work by the Baroque master Marc-Antoine Charpentier, the vocal and instrumental group is arguably the most eloquent and elegant interpreter of 17th- and 18th-century music. Its performances are based on thorough research; and Christie, for his role in reviving interest in Baroque vocal technqiues, has been voted “musician of the year” a couple of times by French critics–a distinction not often bestowed on foreigners....

To the editors: Bryan Miller’s June 9 piece on the Episcopal Church and its new Book of Common Prayer came to my attention only a week or so ago. It left me wondering how many of the seemingly balanced and informative Reader stories I’ve read over the years, on subjects I didn’t happen to know a lot about already, were in fact as distorted and tendentious as this one. Indeed, I felt moved to write you to that effect, but judged that it was probably too late....

NATURE AND SENSUAL APPETITE Poison Nut Productions Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » In Nature the pivotal role is Humanity, the play’s everyman. And to anchor Nature in its era, director Ann Faulkner imagines that Humanity also mirrors the impetuous, lusty young Henry VIII–Humanity’s choices provide an allegory for the sacred and profane options that Henry would have faced. This useful conceit also offers an antidote to the excessive abstraction of Rastell’s set speeches....

In its fifth year and gaining wider support and recognition, the New Music Chicago Festival–a week-long showcase of the city’s diverse and fascinating musical talents–is well on its way to becoming a local institution. At what other times do Northwestern University composers pay attention to their peers at the University of Chicago? Or are the works of established veterans played side by side with those of young Turks? There are all together ten concerts and lectures–featuring the music of 41 composers–scheduled for this edition....

…answering the musical question, “When you close the Last Exit, what’s left?” Sonny Sharrock’s slashing, flayed, sometimes anarchic flights made him a sort of demigod among guitar fanatics, who heard him with Miles Davis and Pharoah Sanders and thought that perhaps Hendrix had come back as a jazz musician. A few years ago, after a long hermitage, Sharrock returned to public performance and recording (and quite mixed reviews); among the settings for his raw and raucous (and often joyous) music is the band Last Exit, which also stars saxophonist Brotzmann....

STILL WATERS Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The Reverend Myrtle, an ordained minister, is the daughter of a country preacher (the denomination is not specified, but clues point to her being Presbyterian). Since her father’s death some years earlier, she has filled the pulpit of his church–protocol for a “supply” preacher (analogous to a substitute teacher), particularly since World War II has made menfolk somewhat scarce in this part of rural Michigan and women have assumed many formerly male occupations....

To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » He is so condescendingly smug about his opinions (I’m sure the editors and the writers of the two dailies hang on to his every word. Do they call him before they make any major decisions?) that he must not realize how much of an ass he is. I have seen several articles where he nitpicks at my sister Jae-Ha Kim, a writer for Chicago Sun-Times, while gushing at any other writer whose name he can remember....

DANIEL BARENBOIM at Orchestra Hall Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The origin of the Goldbergs is almost as colorful as the variations themselves. It seems that Bach received a request from Count Keyserling, a Russian ambassador to Saxony, to compose a series of variations on an aria to be performed over and over again to help cure his insomnia. They were to be played by his harpsichordist, Johann Goldberg, a student of Bach’s....

VASSILISA THE WISE The tales of Vassilisa date back nearly a thousand years and have been passed down orally in Russian households from generation to generation. In his adaptation Louis H. Anders III (author of The Raccoon Agenda and Joe’s Handy Guide to Revolution Made E-Z) mixes in some quirky contemporary references, adds a large portion of goofiness, and comes up with an entertaining and uplifting bit of theater for kids of all ages....

Two strangers, a man and a woman, share a bench on the corner of Addison and Halsted. Their parcels lean against their thighs. Hers: bubble wrap squashed into a plastic Jewel sack. His: a filthy blue gym bag with an obscure corporate logo. She gazes eastward, searching for signs of the Addison bus. He squints westward, seeking not transportation, but something else. Both are hot, tired, and sick of waiting....

To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Archaeological investigations during the course of the 20th century have consistently supported the historical accuracy of both the Old and New Testaments. As archaeologist Nelson Glueck has written: “It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has controverted a biblical reference.” And he states that scientific investigation has revealed “the almost incredibly accurate historical memory of the Bible, and particularly so when it is fortified by archaeological fact....

When artist Joseph Crosetto opened the quirky, eclectic Art-O-Rama on West Irving Park Road in 1989, he was weary of dealing with curators and gallery owners and wanted to provide a showplace for artists like him who had struggled to exhibit their work. But soon Crosetto realized he had little time to paint, and that he had become “a gallery director instead of an artist, which is really not what I wanted....

Beckoning to the Lost Generation “Newspapers have always had a problem with young readers,” Guzzo told us. “Usually when they start having families and laying down roots, that’s when they become newspaper readers on a regular basis. But the baby boom generation–never knowing what it was like to be without TV and, more importantly, being the generation that postponed getting married, having kids, buying the house–don’t have the same stake in their communities and in the issues newspapers traditionally have covered as staples–education, taxes, the pretty basic newspaper issues....

I thought my obsession was licked, but circumstances this summer drove me back to Bingo Palace after ten years on the wagon. Mike had taken a job in San Francisco, and I’d have been alone were it not for the mammoth ants that defiled my countertops. I begged Mrs. M., my landlady, to investigate. She referred to the wild cherry branches that had been in our kitchen the previous summer, home to several finger-sized caterpillars that ate the cherry leaves....

Friday 30 Here’s a passage we’ve been puzzling over for some time: Keistas, nesuprantamas disonansas tarp sios vargu ir tamsumo juros atrode nauja brangi baznycia. Aisku buvo, kad ji, tokia daili ir didele, pakliuvo cion kazin kaip, kazkokiu fatalisku zmoniu nesusipratimu, padariusi jiems didele nuoskauda, isciulpusi ju visas sultis palikusi jiems tik skurda–bent simtmeciui. Imagine our relief to hear that the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture, 6500 S. Pulaski, is offering a six-week class in Lithuanian!...

“Life was hard for Ruthie Mae,” said the bulletin handed out at Ruthie Mae McCoy’s burial service, on April 30, 1987. Death didn’t give her any breaks, either: on the evening of April 22, 1987, the 52-year-old McCoy was shot four times and left to expire on her bedroom floor, on Chicago’s west side. The following evening, a concerned neighbor phoned police and asked them to check on McCoy. A half dozen cops and several CHA security guards gathered outside McCoy’s door....

I decided to go in search of the gyrfalcons last Friday. I wrote a column about them in January. Two of them have been hanging around the cooling lake at Commonwealth Edison’s LaSalle nuclear power station since Christmas. The obvious attraction is the waterfowl that spend the winter on the lake. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » As a further bonus, the Chicago Audubon Society’s Rare Bird Alert (708-671-1522) reported that a merlin had been seen near the cooling lake....

HANG LOOSE, MOTHER GOOSE Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » To do that Hang Loose comes up with some inventive ways to work its audience into its act, which is appropriate for a story that celebrates resourcefulness. The involvement isn’t just a onetime thing like the famous “Do you believe in fairies?” moment in Peter Pan; it comes as part of the plot. Judging from the results, this is how a lot of kids want children’s theater to be....

Western Lake County’s charm is that it hasn’t been suburbanized by Chicago–yet. There are some telltale signs that it’s starting to be–a funky hot-dog stand now boasts a turquoise awning and neon lighting, and an old schoolhouse has been converted into a pricey furniture and gift shop–but the place still looks and feels like a good-old-fashioned farming community. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » A few minutes north is Wiech’s Inn, 2924 W....