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Onstage / Performing Arts Mamet alert: Race runs on

Posted by Deanna Isaacs on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:49 PM

1328303990-race3_pic-by-erik-y.-exit_magnum.jpg

Eric Y. Exit

If you're a fan of Mamet-speak and you haven't yet made plans to see Race, here's some news: the Goodman Theatre announced today that it's adding two performances to the run, February 12 and 19. The play's not perfect—it needs a stronger ending and should run straight through without the momentum-busting intermission—but don't let that stop you: the first act of director Chuck Smith's terrific production is a rocket-fueled trip no Mamet aficionado should miss. Justin Hayford reviewed it for the Reader. A video montage of scenes from Race is posted after the jump.

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Film Now playing: Chronicle

Posted by Ben Sachs on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:37 PM

Three teenage boys in a Seattle suburb gain the powers of telekinesis and super strength after encountering a mysterious alien life force, but instead of using these gifts to fight crime, they direct them against familiar teen problems like loneliness and abusive parents. As pulp sci-fi this Fox release is pretty good, but it’s also commendable for its sensitive depiction of adolescent behavior: even the bullying scenes avoid the caricature of most studio films. The story takes the form of one boy’s video diary, and though the fake DIY aesthetic is used more imaginatively here than in Cloverfield (2008), it still feels like a gimmick. Josh Trank directed a script by Max Landis (son of director John Landis).

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Film Now showing: Big Miracle

Posted by J.R. Jones on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 5:10 PM

This above-average children’s drama from Universal manages to hit all the right notes as an inspirational story and provides a savvy, even cynical account of an international media event. In October 1988, as the Bush-Dukakis presidential campaign neared the finish line, three gray whales were discovered trapped beneath rapidly forming ice in the Beaufort Sea, north of Alaska, and as the national networks converged, the rescue effort pulled in such disparate actors as Greenpeace, Eskimo whalers, an oil company, the U.S. defense department, and icebreaking ships from the Soviet Union. Screenwriters Jack Amiel and Michael Begler adapted Tom Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event—the subtitle has been scrapped from the movie’s advertising, but the balance of sweetness and skepticism is what sets this apart. Ken Kwapis directed, making good use of John Krasinski, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Baker, and Tim Blake Nelson. Trailer follows the jump.

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Crickets / Music It is time to watch the "Dance (A$$)" video

Posted by Miles Raymer on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:22 PM

Big Sean teaches us the Spanish word for ass

Big Sean teaches us the Spanish word for "ass"

For the past couple of days I've been in Michigan dealing with a family situation that's reasonably heavy. It was a hastily put-together trip, and neither my sister nor myself brought any CDs or iPod hookups; because my family lives in a rural area that requires a lot of driving around, I spent a lot of time listening to the radio. One of the highlights of the trip was the opportunity to spend some time with WJLB, "The D's Hip-Hop & R&B" and one of my favorite radio stations in the entire country. Right now they're playing Big Sean's "Dance (A$$)" remix with Nicki Minaj approximately every five minutes or so, which is great because that song is, along with Nicki's "Stupid Hoe", one of the funnest, raunchiest things in pop music right at the moment.

From what I've heard from my friends, a lot of cases of Early Onset Februaries have been diagnosed around town, despite the recent heat wave. Luckily there is a cure, which is to make that motherfucker Hammer Time and repeat as necessary. To that end I've provided the "Dance (A$$)" video after the jump.

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Mudville / Sports 'In the rematch, bet on Goliath'

Posted by Ted Cox on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 4:01 PM

Wikimedia Commons
Bill Belichick

"Defense wins championships," goes the conventional wisdom, and it applies to football as well as basketball, and by extension to baseball (where it translates as pitching) and hockey (where it's a hot goalie). And the New York Giants clearly have the better defense going into Sunday's Super Bowl XLVI. Yet there's another old gambler's saying that applies equally well to the New England Patriots, who saw their pursuit of a perfect season four years ago dashed by the Giants in a Super upset: "In the rematch, bet on Goliath."

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Onstage / Performing Arts Why didn't Bruce Norris play the game?

Posted by Tony Adler on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:28 PM

Clybourne Park
Michael Brosilow

Winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Clybourne Park may have been the worst thing that could've happened to former Chicagoan Bruce Norris. The 51-year-old playwright and actor had spent years designing a life that left him free to be as sharp-tongued, difficult, misanthropic, and iconoclastically brilliant as he wanted—and he clearly wanted, quite a bit. Thanks to the occasional role in a movie (The Sixth Sense) or TV series (Law and Order), Norris was able to maintain the economic independence he needed to write scabrous satires like The Pain and the Itch, which revolves around a four-year-old girl's genital rash. And he was nurtured, often in spite of himself, by a cadre of supporters at Steppenwolf Theatre. Artistic director Martha Lavey put her company's considerable resources and prestige behind him. Amy Morton directed two of his scripts there, including the world premiere of Clybourne Park. And another Steppenwolf director, Anna Shapiro, has finessed his tirades and tolerated his provocations through no less than five projects.

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Music / Post No Bills A new direction for Viennese electronica kingpin Patrick Pulsinger

Posted by Peter Margasak on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 1:59 PM

Patrick Pulsinger

In the 90s Patrick Pulsinger was a kingpin of the Austrian electronic-music scene, both as a producer (Sluts 'n' Strings & 909) and a label owner (Cheap), so I was surprised late last year to see his name on a new recording from contemporary classical label Col Legno. Besides Feldman captures a live performance during the Wien Modern 2010, a cutting-edge multi-arts festival in Vienna. The concert was part of a series called Feld(man) Forschung that Pulsinger curated. He assembled an unusual quartet to perform a piece that considers brilliant American composer Morton Feldman as a thinker and composer, without touching his actual music.

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Food Chain / Food & Drink One Bite: Burmese pickled tea salad

Posted by Mike Sula on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 1:24 PM

Mike Sula
Junta-backed pickled tea salad

Unlike citizens of the great states of Virginia, Indiana, and California, we in Chicago have no place to eat Burmese food, which is a shame for all sorts of reasons, only one being we have no access to the wonderful tea salad known as laphet thote.

Until now.

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Crickets / Music 12 O'Clock Track: Extra Life, "Righteous Seed"

Posted by Leor Galil on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Nearly four years ago Dan Friel of Parts & Labor recommended I check out Brooklyn art-rock act Extra Life at the now-defunct After the Jump Festival, and I'm glad I took his advice. The group played an acoustic set as a two-piece, and that unusually sparse setup highlighted the hypnotic somersaulting vocals of front man Charlie Looker and the lighter tones of his complex and beautiful arrangements, which on Extra Life's visceral, caterwauling full-band recordings sometimes get buried. I was instantly hooked.

Today's 12 O'Clock Track is "Righteous Seed," a thundering, boisterous, and slightly creepy cut from Extra Life's forthcoming third full-length, Dream Seeds. I'll have this song on repeat till the day Northern Spy releases the album.

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shanmcf: Man, I miss picking up the @Chicago_Reader, glad to see the story on my alma mater. But wonder why they didn't bother to quote a student...
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shanmcf: Feature story on my alma mater: Roosevelt University's big, shiny tower - and the massive debt. http://t.co/I7Gean5H via @Chicago_Reader
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ChicagoFilmie: Now playing: Chronicle: Three teenage boys in a Seattle suburb gain the powers of telekinesis and super strength... http://t.co/sCdOaTuC
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ariel_hodges: Mamet alert: Race runs on: If you're a fan of Mamet-speak and you haven't yet made plans to see Race, here's som... http://t.co/g4yvDIWT
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chicagonewsnow: Mamet alert: Race runs on http://t.co/J0769VbO #chicago
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