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RECKLESS In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Wakefield,” a disaffected man leaves his wife and moves into an identical house a block away. So complete is the change that Hawthorne suggests Wakefield might as well have run off to the South Seas. Alienation can go no further. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Rachel hooks up with Lloyd, a good samaritan who works with the handicapped. Himself on the run–after walking out on a wife with multiple sclerosis and running over his baby’s head with a snowblower–Lloyd persuades Rachel to move into the home he shares with his paraplegic deaf companion, Pooty....

I don’t know how they went over in Chicago, but in California, where I lived during the Go-Go’s heyday in the early 80s, the band was uncritically loved by all but the most drearily hip. Unlike some girl groups I could mention, like for instance the Bangles, the Go-Go’s wrote their own songs and, more important, their own hits; and despite the occasional banality of the lyrics and the palpable vapidity of lead singer Belinda Carlisle, the five-woman band’s vocal attack–as distinctively redolent of its LA environs as that of spiritual ancestors the Beach Boys–and its pop energy (along with some surprisingly potent riff-making by guitarist Charlotte Caffey) were so winning you forgot about the rest....

Chrystal Marshall is taking a break from a weekend workshop given by Master Mantak Chia, who travels around the country teaching the Healing Tao, an offshoot of the ancient oriental philosophy of Taoism. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » One of Chrystal’s goals is to stop her menstrual cycle with the help of the Healing Tao. Master Chia’s followers say that menstruation fritters away energy that could be put to better use....

THE RUFFIAN ON THE STAIR Profiles Performance Ensemble at Red Bones Theatre Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Ruffian concerns a pair of losers: an ex-prostitute and a petty thug, Joyce and Mike, flatmates who sometimes share a bed and who treat each other with that odd combination of dependence and bored contempt that typifies Pinter’s couples. Into this Pinter-esque purgatory steps Wilson, a young hoodlum bent on revenge for the (perhaps) accidental death of his brother, which he blames–justly as it turns out–on Mike....

The remarkable Writing in Water (1984), which runs less than half an hour, consists of a collective account by a family and their neighbors in rural Kentucky of a visit by an old friend who has clearly lost his mind. Beautifully articulated, this tape gradually constructs two stories at once–an oblique narrative of a man going to pieces, and an equally fascinating and challenging portrait of how the family and their neighbors deal with it, practically and emotionally....

Fame is funny. During the last decade, reedman Bob Mintzer has been a savvy modernist, known in jazz circles for his strong sound (blending tonal elements of two contrasting tenor-sax models, Wayne Shorter and Michael Brecker) and his busy, muscular solos. Along the way, while leading a series of big-band dates for the small DMP label–of his own arrangements in the “contemporary jazz” vein–he’s also established a reputation on the college and high school band circuits, where his charts are highly prized....

Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore have been playing together for more than 20 years. Last year, Rounder Records released the almost legendary Flatlanders album, the original 1971 recordings of the seminal country rock group (Joe Ely was in it, too). The ensuing decades haven’t exactly lavished money or fame on any of the three (Ely’s best off, and even he’s still playing clubs), but along the way they’ve all made their mark: Ely as the country’s finest proponent of slashing roadhouse rock ‘n’ roll; Hancock as an extremely sensitive songwriter (he wrote Ely’s famous “She Never Spoke Spanish to Me”), and Gilmore as a gifted writer (“Dallas”) and a heart-melting singer of almost atavistic force....

Friday 9 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Mandy Patinkin’s unlikely hit album–an offbeat collection of cabaret songs–was called Dress Casual, but tonight the star of stage (Evita) and screen (Yentl, The Princess Bride, Dick Tracy) will be hosting a decidedly noncasual affair: Marshall Field’s annual fashion extravaganza A Cause for Applause. The pricey event–tickets are $35-$100–will include a showing of fall trends, a tribute to designer Bob Mackie, and a performance by Patinkin....

CIRCUS OF EUGLENA: AN ORGANIC REVIEW Now what are they to do? Far too many come up with the same answer: they stage a Second City-style revue. Through improvisation, they create a few humorous skits. Then they find a bare stage somewhere, put a few chairs on it so it looks almost exactly like the stage at Second City, and perform the skits, each one ending in a blackout. It’s a formula that has grown stale at Second City, but it persists there because Second City is Second City–landmarks are not supposed to change....

IN THE SHADOW OF A SMILE But sometimes such exposure only serves to make clear the artist’s confusion and undermines his intent. Adam Langer’s new play In the Shadow of a Smile, disarmingly subtitled “a play about exposures,” presents images of voyeurism, violence, and pornography. But watching the play didn’t teach me anything about the social ills it addresses; instead, it seemed to expose a playwright as insensitive to these issues as the characters in his play....

IN THE WILDERNESS Organic Theater Company Greenhouse Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Sitting in a rough-hewn wooden chair, with no props except a few candles and a book of letters written by a distant relative at the turn of the century, Porter leads us on an intentionally uneventful adventure–its very ordinariness is the greatest obstacle. In Troy, Ohio–an arch-Republican town where the mayor still dresses in mourning over George Bush’s defeat–she meets her childhood friend, Johnny Bravo, now rich and wholly predictable....

NANA SHINEFLUG AND MARY WARD Local choreographers Nana Shineflug and Mary Ward, who recently showed new works at the Dance Center of Columbia College, seem to share an interest in the mystical, making it the subject as well as (presumably) the desired end of their dances. Yet neither takes a solemn approach–just the opposite. They seem to ask: Can humor and mysticism intersect? What theatrical illusions can I exploit or explode to humorous effect?...

In late 1988 Bailiwick Repertory unleashed a frighteningly funny two-scene comedy by Christopher Durang. A memorable, in-your-face action portrait of two “walking wounded” New York zanies, Laughing Wild (from the Beckett phrase “laughing wild in the severest woe”) was twisted in all the right ways. Complete with its original demented duo, it returns for a four-week engagement as a benefit for Season of Concern (Actor’s Equity’s campain to raise funds for and awareness of AIDS)....

Let’s Put on a Radio Show No doubt you’re familiar with the mind of Lynda Barry. If you listen to WBEZ at all attentively, you know Glass and Covino, too. “I do these reports where I kind of hang out with people and try to capture what their lives are like on tape,” says Glass. “Like last year I spent a month and a half at Lincoln Park High School.”...

To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » (a) Business groups refused to support any funding mechanism to increase recycling programs and market development. Everyone agreed that without additional dollars to help local governments expand their recycling programs and find new end-users for the materials collected, the legislative package was little more than bankrupt platitudes. (b) The City of Chicago would not agree to any meaningful recycling goals, nor would many of the business groups....

Night after night, week after week, voices tore the thick summer air and crashed through bedroom windows all along the block. And then, together, “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” Days, North Clifton is an easygoing street. Big, old trees line much of the block. Neighbors nod hello from their porches. They water their patch lawns and struggle to pick up the garbage left by Belmont Avenue barhoppers. Yet the boys were winning control of the street....

Lead Story Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » A gun battle at the Notre Dame des Neiges Trappist wine-making monastery in France in November left one monk wounded. Because the monastery had been burglarized twice before in 1990, the monks had armed themselves with shotguns. After an alarm sounded, one brother fired a shot into the air, flushing out the burglars, and another blocked the burglars’ exit....

In the often stodgy world of classical music, exclusivity is usually the rule. Young British violinist Nigel Kennedy apparently didn’t know that and has garnered a reputation as an outstanding performer in jazz and rock circles as well. His jazz gigs include an LP, Strad Jazz, touring with Stephane Grappelli, and violin arrangements of Ellington classics. His rock gigs include recording with Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, and Talk Talk. This week Chicago will get to hear Kennedy’s amazing diversity in two appearances sponsored by Chamber Music Chicago....

What would you be prepared to do in order to appear on television and maybe win thousands of dollars? You might be willing to bone up on useless facts for Jeopardy!. You might even consider humiliating yourself on The Dating Game. But would you videotape any of the following events on your home camcorder: (a) Your child trapped inside a suitcase? (b) Your pet cat wandering about with its tail on fire?...

Six years ago the major media were caught off guard by the political potency of Harold Washington’s movement. Election day left them gaping. Now, judging from their initial coverage of the February 28 mayoral primary, they may be underestimating the movement again. First is the assertion that Daley won by a landslide. This is true in a relative sense: Daley did beat Sawyer 55 percent to 44 percent. However, to the extent that “landslide” implies invincible popularity, it is a misleading description of the primary vote....