Chicago Tribune April 24, 2015 The latest installation at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, a hip Bridgeport gallery and performance space, may look like another sculptural project at first glance. Neon bent into a glowing blue hand, a demure lightning bolt on its palm, hangs above a stack of reclaimed speakers that recalls a Tetris-like wall of castoff […]
Travel Feature Chicago Tribune August 10, 2008 Say what you will about the healing properties of mud baths, saunas or lavender-scented candles, but soaking in a stainless-steel tub filled with Czech beer put my body and soul at ease. I was in the brick-lined cellar of Prave Pivni Lazni (original beer spa), run by the […]
Interview Chicago Tribune January 12, 2007 “The Payoff Mix,” a Frankenstein according to one of its creators, was a song that raised questions that still haunt artists and record labels. In 1983, New York producer Steve Stein and his friend Douglas DiFranco, a studio engineer, created the tune, a technically precise and occasionally humorous reworking […]
Feature Chicago Tribune October 16, 2006 The building at 1825 W. Wabansia Ave. looks commonplace by current Bucktown standards. A hollow two-story structure ringed by Dumpsters and construction barricades, it’s another example of the rehab frenzy that has brought million-dollar homes to this gentrifying bohemian ‘hood. But that will all change once the wind turbines […]
Feature Chicago Tribune June 9, 2006 Like many filmmakers, David Zeiger was inspired by the Iraq War. Between the questionable battlefield buildup and the current drawn-out conflict, Zeiger was driven to show how American soldiers cope when they’re sent to fight in a war that much of the public–and some of the soldiers themselves–consider unjust. […]
Feature Chicago Tribune July 16, 2006 It seems as though there has never been more attention, airplay or talent agents focused on Chicago hip-hop music than there is now. Once maligned for being the biggest urban center in the country with the fewest marquee rappers — none for much of the ’80s and ’90s — […]
Feature Chicago Tribune June 10, 2005 When Spoon singer-songwriter Britt Daniels began writing songs for the band’s latest album “Gimme Fiction,” he was already focused on the end. As in The End. “I was thinking about the apocalypse,” he said. “There are a lot of people in Texas and in the Bible Belt who believe […]
Feature Chicago Tribune November 2004 Anthony Kiedis, singer for the multiplatinum funk-rock Red Hot Chili Peppers, released his epic autobiography, “Scar Tissue,” this week. It’s full of the type of wild stories — watching his father deal coke to a football player as a kid, trading in a guitar signed by all of the Rolling […]
Concert Review Chicago Tribune November 2004 Though many rappers rely on flashy diamonds and street credibility to get attention, underground rap kingpin Daniel Dumile needed just a mike and a metal mask to rock the Abbey Pub Monday night. Performing as the mysterious MF Doom, a character named after a Marvel comic book antagonist, Dumile […]