Layered complexity

Romare Bearden arrives at the cultural center

05/05/2010

A traveling exhibit that gathers more than 75 of artist Romare Bearden’s works arrived at the Chicago Cultural Center this month, allowing a fascinating glimpse at the visual worlds created by one of the 20th century’s most important black visual artists.
Read More...

The man behind the colors

Doc examines a Chicago legend

04/28/2010

Film
You’ve probably seen him — the tall, lanky man with white hair, deep-set eyes and a perpetual grin clad in wild, brightly colored suits is a Chicago fixture.
Read More...

Sushi 'pub' keeps it simple

Masu Izakaya focuses on small-plate offerings

04/21/2010

Food Review

Masu Izakaya is named for the square boxes, or masu, that Japanese drinkers perch their glasses of sake in. Once used to measure out rice, the boxes catch the liquid that spills over the glasses’ sides from overgenerous pours. At the end of the night, drinkers swallow the lukewarm accumulated slosh.
Read More...

A new standby

Flaco’s Tacos is great for friends, affordable and tasty, if inconsistent

04/14/2010

It’s a world where diners are getting more and more finicky about their Mexican food. A master like Rick Bayless and his famous Frontera Grill and Topolobampo on North Clark Street have set a standard — providing guidance for knock-offs like Adobo Grill (in Old Town and Wicker Park) and Zapatista on South Wabash.
Read More...

All in the tragic family

Art house giants come together for strange cinema

04/07/2010

Film
Clashing titans pack cineplexes across the country this week, but juggernauts of another variety can be found starting this Friday at the Music Box Theater, when a long-awaited collaboration between two art-house giants finally opens.
Read More...

The strains of family history

Modern and WWII-era Poland the setting for award-winning novel

03/31/2010

Book review
Brigid Pasulka was recently awarded the 2010 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for her debut novel A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True, the melancholy weaving of two strains of a Polish family’s history.
Read More...

Battling cancer with art

Cultural center shows off Chicagoan Hollis Sigler’s introspective work

03/24/2010

Visual art
Chicago artist Hollis Sigler learned she had breast cancer in 1985 and her 15-year struggle with the disease inspired a powerful and surreal outpouring of paintings on display through April 3 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Read More...

Genetic theater

On the ‘DNA trail’ with Silk Road

03/17/2010

Theater review
The set says science. DNA strands, the deoxyribonucleic acid better known as the building blocks of life, line the back wall of the stage. It is a fitting nod to the concept that undergirds the new Silk Road Theater Project production, “The DNA Trail: A Genealogy of Short Plays about Ancestry, Identity, and Utter Confusion.”
Read More...

Which witch runs this city?

Play sets sights on urban development, with a twist

03/10/2010

Theater review
The Mir Theater, in association with Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs Theater, delves into the oddly intersecting worlds of urban planning, the mob and witchcraft - yes, witchcraft - with a new staging of "Beautiful City."
Read More...

Questions left unanswered

Scattershot script does in Hoffman-directed play

03/03/2010

Theater
A Goodman Theater world premiere, "The Long Red Road" is largely set on a South Dakota reservation, but it needn't be: its atrocities have no clear kinship with the historical pains of the Native American people.
Read More...