Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Oprah Winfrey may be Chicago’s biggest tourist attraction. Sure there’s the lakefront, the Bulls, the Art Institute, Magnificent Mile, Wrigley Field and Gino’s East. But how many of them can really make you feel better about yourself?
Crispin Glover, a character actor, also is quite the character. He once lived in an apartment painted all black, kept an operating table rumored to have been used for gynecological exams in his living room and gave new meaning to the word “hyper” when he greeted David Letterman with a kick-boxing move that got him booted from the show.
Doug Banks is a big man in radio. Literally. At 6-foot-3, the disc jockey on WGCI-FM (107.5) is Chicago’s No. 1 afternoon radio personality. You know who we’re talking about – the friendly, funny guy with the rat-a-rat-tat machine-gun laugh who keeps you company from 2 to 6 p.m. on weekdays.
Moxy Fruvous sings about Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Seuss, eats fried buttery brain and once spent a whole day busking, only to net a Canadian dime and a Kleenex – used, no less. “That’s all right,” guitarist-vocalist Michael Ford said, laughing. “Pretty pathetic, huh?”
Chris Isaak used to joke that he had less screen time in the three films he’s been in so far than in the video for his breakthrough single, “Wicked Game.” Those days are gone. The San Francisco-based singer-actor stars as the father of a young boy believed to be a reincarnated Buddhist teacher in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Little Buddha” (now playing in Chicago at the Fine Arts). Last year, Isaak took a break from recording for filming in Nepal and Seattle.
When the producers started auditions for the film “Backbeat,” they saw more than 100 actors for the role of the “forgotten Beatle” Stuart Sutcliffe, at least 50 actresses for the part of his German girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr and dozens of other actor-musicians for the other members of the Fab Five. But when it came time to cast the role of 19-year-old John Lennon, they saw only one actor – Ian Hart.
“You won’t get your money back if you don’t like it,” David Lee Roth said, laughing. “But I think people at my shows enjoy themselves no matter what because they see I’m having a great time.”
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! What would Alice say if she heard you were going around the country talking about safe sex and birth control? “She’d probably say, `Good for you,’ ” said Maureen McCormick, the actress who portrayed Marcia Brady on “The Brady Bunch.” “Marcia may have been a virgin, but obviously I’m not.”
Candy-coated. Saccharine. Gaggingly syrupy. Celine Dion’s heard it all from critics who hate her music. “I’m used to getting some critics who like me and some who can’t stand me,” says the French-Canadian singer, who was sweet enough to call us from Quebec. “Thank goodness there are more people out there who like syrup.” Since 1990, when Dion released her first English-language album, “Unison,” Dion has won a loyal following of fans who fell in love with her smooth vocal delivery on such songs as “Where Does My Heart Beat Now?” After her duet with Peabo Bryson on the Grammy Award-winning “Beauty and the Beast” a couple of years ago, she became a bona fide star.
Until releasing his latest album, Nick Heyward hadn’t had a fantastic day for a long, long time. A decade ago, Heyward fronted the English pop band Haircut 100, whose debut album, “Pelican West,” spawned a trio of hit singles (“Love Plus One,” “Favourite Shirt” and “Fantastic Day”). At the height of the group’s success, he trimmed himself from Haircut to pursue a solo career.
Making as much noise as Sonic Youth and relying as heavily on guitars as My Bloody Valentine, England’s Swervedriver throws in a touch of reggae that mutates their sound just so. Sometimes uneven live performers whose songs tend to drone on a la the Grateful Dead, Swervedriver fares much better with its current CD “Mezcal Head”: strong lyrics and punkish guitars played LOUDLY.
The best comedy, says Betrice Berry, is outside the Dunkin’ Donuts at the corner of Clark and Belmont.
Sooyoung Park’s theory is there’s a time and place for everything. When he majored in math in college, he didn’t worry that school was holding back his music career. And when Seam’s singer-songwriter-guitarist felt ready to tackle music full time, he put grad school on hold.
She’s not a former actress, TV reporter or radio personality. So what’s Bertice Berry doing with her own talk show?
Pop singer Chris Isaak makes a one-night stand here tomorrow.
It wasn’t just its homebase that differentiated Fluid from its Sub Pop label mates. It was, according to guitarist James Clower, a matter of attention – or lack thereof. “I don’t want it to sound like I’ve got sour grapes, because I don’t really,” Clower says. “But (Seattle’s) Sub Pop (Records) kind of blew us off because we lived in Denver and all its other bands lived there. They didn’t want to have to deal with us. That’s one of the reasons why we decided to switch labels.”
Which came first for the Gin Blossoms? The hit single “Hey Jealousy,” or the record company’s campaign to change the group’s image with a new video, new promo photos and a new album cover? The hit single, oddly enough.
“In a sense, we do take mischievous pleasure doing what we’re doing,” said vocalist Michael Hutchence. “But we’re not trying to tease our fans, really, because this (club tour) is part of an ongoing world tour. We’ll be back. Why we chose to play in clubs for our first trek of our U.S. tour is really quite simple. It was time for us to get back to the basics, which meant getting back into the clubs we started our careers in.
Chinese-American. The hyphen between the nationalities says it all to playwright Elizabeth Wong, whose latest piece, “Kimchee and Chitlins,” is running at the Victory Gardens Studio Theatre.
“All Kinds of Love” isn’t the “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” that’s for sure. When Carl Reiner created the classic ’60s TV series, his married couple – Rob and Laura Petrie – weren’t allowed to sleep together in the same bed, much less dally with next-door neighbor Milly.