“So “The State of Jones” was born with a near-perfect Hollywood pedigree — though no one is prepared to shoot the movie. Hollywood has been wary of period dramas since pictures like Universal’s “Frost/Nixon” and the Paramount film “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” did better on the awards circuit than at the box office [...]
That the Senate was even voting today on a bill that would allow gun owners to carry a concealed weapon across state lines makes the mind reel, and that it was barely defeated is enough to make you think, “Yeah, sure, waterboarding, makes sense to me. Get me a towel and some water.” The right [...]
“Waiting for Godot frankly jettisons everything by which we recognise theatre. It arrives at the custom-house, as it were, with no luggage, no passport, and nothing to declare; yet it gets through, as might a pilgrim from Mars. It does this, I believe, by appealing to a definition of drama much more fundamental than any [...]
Powell’s Books is shuttering its South Loop location. The Chicago Symphony’s CSO-paraphernalia/music gift/CD store the Symphony Store is moving into Symphony Center. Tower Records already closed all of its stores, the Virgin Store is no more, and places where you can idle away hours rifling through CD racks and perusing shelves are getting scarcer by [...]
Lithuanian composer and conductor Mindaugas Piecaitis discovered a rich vein of Orthodox Christianity in the videos of Nora, the piano-playing cat. The enterprising musician didn’t stop there, but turned them into a Concerto for Solo Nora and Orchestra, the so-called Catcerto, amplifying the stray scents of Holy Minimalism, which usually don’t call forth those of [...]
“There was an interview going on with Itzhak Perlman, a noted violinist, punctuated with examples of him playing the violin. He was saying that he’d been playing since he was a baby and that the music was a vehicle for him, and I thought, This man is lucky. He didn’t have to ask, What am [...]
The rotary-valve trumpet-wielding Zach Condon brought Beirut to Pitchfork for a sort-of “greatest hits” set this year, proving that the band is even better live – tighter, more aggressive – than in the studio. My setlist is below. Nantes (from The Flying Cup Club – youtube) Mimizan (from Dark Was the Night – youtube, with [...]
The LA Times reports that County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich wants to change the “focus” of the Los Angeles Opera’s upcoming festival around Wagner’s Ring Cycle. His actual statement isn’t online, but the Times quotes him as protesting that the “countywide festival is an affront to those who have suffered or have been impacted by the [...]
South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has been laughed at by pretty much everyone who’s read the emails between him and his Argentinian mistress. Looking in on anyone’s romantic letters is invariably funny from the outside, or at least amusing as you imagine the feelings and desire running around and between the words themselves. But what [...]
The Grant Park Music Festival celebrated an important milestone last week when it turned 75. With free orchestral concerts every week, that’s certainly something worth getting excited about. To put concrete stamp on the event, a lavish coffeetable book (Sounds of Chicago’s Lakefront: A Celebration of the Grant Park Music Festival) telling the story of [...]