This summer, downtown Chicago has been handed over to the Transformers 3 movie shoot–to film scenes glorifying Loop devastation and the the deaths of rank-and-file Chicagoans. As citywide media goes ga-ga for gargantuan robots, I’m wondering whether $20 million is the going rate for ceding civic pride?
There are many ways to enjoy an open-air concert date in Grant Park. Spending two hours trying to avoid being eaten by a surprise third wheel’s life-threatening lizard feet is not one of them.
So my big bugbear question of the week is to ask why Chicago media–both straight and gay–who so clearly love to go on and on about heteros taking their clothes off and gay men dressing up as women, have no clue what to do when the ones showing skin up on stage are queer.
Has the shock value of Rosemary’s Baby paled over time? Or do you just have to be Roman Catholic to be scared by its simplistic pseudo-religious themes?
Three months almost to the day since the first wave of my technological migration, I’m proud to complete my transition to the modern age. Give or take a couple years.
Had Jennifer Hudson’s show (and showmanship, for that matter) been as electric as Robin Thicke’s, the sour notes in the second-half of the double-billed evening would have been easier to swallow. Surprisingly, neither were.
Buddhist dharma (and the teachings of every other religion I can think of) would suggest we all have an intrinsic nature of being beyond the mundane world we take for granted as reality. But as the price for coming to hang out on Earth for awhile, we forget our ineffable–or if you will, Divine–natures. We spend our lives never recognizing the true sum of what we are.
Earlier this year, the longtime local weekly, asked if I’d be interested in contributing to the paper. Beginning this week, I’m doing just that.
Spending last Friday afternoon at the Art Institute of Chicago, I had the unexpected pleasure of witnessing an artist-in-residence performance by a member of Natya Dance Theater. The Natya troupe performs Bharata Natyam, an ancient, highly expressive dance tradition from Southern India. And an awesome one to watch, too.
Last night the folks over at Chicago’s groovy car-sharing company, Zipcar, hosted a movie benefit at the opulent, old Music Box Theatre Southport Avenue. The main feature: Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.