Pinball Machines
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Our complete pullout guide to the CHICAGO JA ZZ FESTIVAL Section 3 CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY | THIS ISSUE IN FOUR SECTIONS FRIDAY, SEPT 2, 2005 | VOLUME 34, NUMBER 49 Ivan Brunetti arrives p 18 End Game Gary Stern is the Movies only guy Alex de in the la Iglesia’s world dark comedy still El crimen making perfecto pinball machines. p 26 Miner on the anatomy of a hoax, Joravsky on the Park Grill’s woes, Lynn Becker PLUS on Mies’s Crown Hall, Liz Armstrong on getting weird shit in the mail, and more. Section One Letters 3 Architecture 14 Mies’s Crown jewel Columns Hot Type 4 Our Town 18 Ivan Brunetti’s big break The story behind the story of the Kodee Kennings hoax Reviews The Straight Dope 5 Movies 26 How do karate guys break those boards? Alex de la Iglesia’s El crimen perfecto Theater 28 The Works 8 TimeLine Theatre Company does Making the Park Grill pay Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen Chicago Antisocial 10 Books 30 September 2, 2005 Liz’s mailbag Dave Zirin, What’s My Name, Fool? Plus The Sports Section 12 Ink Well Sox fans have feelings too. This week’s crossword: Crossing the Finish Line ON THE COVER: ELIZABETH M. TAMNY (PINBALL), SHEILA SACHS (INSTRUMENTS) End Game Gary Stern at his factory in Melrose Park aped to the door of a small room next to the factory floor at Stern Gary Stern is the only Pinball is a memo telling employees they have to sign up to play T the company’s latest game and test it for bugs. “If you don’t sign guy in the world still up,” it says, “you obviously don’t want to work at a pinball factory.” Gary Stern, owner of the company and author of the memo, is inside playing Elvis. The room is dark, and only the flashing lights of making pinball machines. the game’s playing field illuminate his face. Asked a question, he says, “Shhhh. This is serious business.” When he makes a good shot, a plas- tic figurine of the King shakes its hips, and the machine plays the By Seth Porges | Photographs by Marty Perez hook from “All Shook Up.” He laughs. continued on page 20 2CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 | SECTION ONE CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 | SECTION ONE 3 m Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 312-828-9926 SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 f VOL 34 | NO 49 Letters @ [email protected] Publisher Michael Crystal Editor Alison True tone of the article, posted under the Managing Editor Kiki Yablon heading High Jinks, is clearly Senior Editors Michael Miner |Laura Molzahn | Kitry Krause Where Hypocrite meant to entice us to find their Associate Editors Martha Bayne | Anaheed Alani stunt clever and amusing; instead I Philip Montoro | Kate Schmidt Indymedia Hackers am thoroughly disgusted. It does Assistant Editors Jim Shapiro | Mark Athitakis Staff Writers Steve Bogira | John Conroy | Jeffrey Felshman not seem that the men who Harold Henderson | Deanna Isaacs | J.R. Jones | Ben Joravsky Puts It Your cover story [“But Can He responded to the chat room invite Monica Kendrick | Peter Margasak | Tori Marlan | Bob Mehr Hack Prison?” August 19] does a were looking to commit statutory Jonathan Rosenbaum | Mike Sula | Albert Williams Copy Chief Brian Nemtusak Dear editor: good job of documenting the sorry Justin Fleming rape or a crime of any kind. Rather Editorial Assistants Pat Graham | Renaldo Migaldi In response to the criticism of state of “radical” politics these days. of Protest- it seems that they were just men Joel Score | Laura Kopen | Mario Kladis | Michael Marsh the Chicago Independent Media I can just see all these left- and Warrior in with a mild kink looking for some Tom Porter | Jerome Ludwig | Tamara Faulkner | Patrick Daily Stephanie Manis | Robert Cass | Kerry Reid | Todd Dills Center (chicago.indymedia.org) in right-wing computer nerds trying Letters, August clean fun with a consenting adult. Katherine Young | Ryan Hubbard | Miles Raymer last week’s letter by a Protest- to figure out how to shut down Web 26: “While the The Reader, after it has made a for- Typesetters Vera Videnovich | Kabir Hamid Warrior [August 26], we would sites they don’t like. Talk about social justice tune in advertising revenue from Archivist Eben English like to call attention to our editori- hypocrisy. Jeremy Hammond trum- movement phone sex and other adult-themed al policy, which is on our Web site: pets himself as being the defender covers their services, now sees fit to mock the Advertising Director Don Humbertson “The collective that maintains of the “free Internet.” What he faces with people who patronize these services. Sales Director Ginger Wade the CIMC website can hide posts seems to mean is that the Internet bandannas But Ms. Rickert and Mr. Display Advertising Manager Sandra Goplin if the material is far outside of, or should be “free” as long as he agrees when speaking Erdman didn’t just lure them to Assistant Display Advertising Manager Katie Platz in conflict with, the principles of with the content in question. their truest phone; they then proceeded to Online Advertising Coordinator Renate Durnbaugh the project and this website. convictions or humiliate them with messages that Display Representatives Jeff Martin | Christine Thiel Gary Baldwin Examples of material that may be shriek about insulted them with stock phrases Brad Winckler River North Sales Development Manager Susan Zuckert hidden include newswire posts “persecution” recorded on a sampler. All of this is Senior Account Executives Denice Barndt | Angie Ingham that are racist, sexist, homophobic, whenever their lurid and debasing for all con- Evangeline Miller | Ryan A. Norsworthy | Geary Yonker or that clearly fly in the face of our message, cerned, but where Rickert and Account Executives Michael J. Anderson | Nichole Flores Julie Mueller | Tim Tomaszewski mission to serve as a space for the It’s Not Easy means, motives, Erdman descend into the truly Advertising Project Coordinator Allison Hendrickson exchange of news, dialogue, and and associa- creepy is in recording the voice mail Advertising Assistants Katie Hennebry | Jennifer K. Johnson opinion that advances economic Being Lefty tions are called and releasing a CD. I am pretty sure Kieran Kelley | Sarah Nishiura and social justice. into criticism, that after Steve Allen, the FCC does “In addition, posts that serve as While I typically find extreme those of us who not approve of phone calls being Art Director Sheila Sachs commercials for for-profit compa- activists on both ends of the politi- have gone out unknowingly used for entertain- Associate Art Director Godfrey Carmona nies will be removed. We respect cal spectrum to be, at best, annoy- into the street ment purposes. Are we supposed to Art Coordinator Elizabeth Tamny and support a diversity of opinion, ingly cute but rarely informative with our find their illegal behavior funny? Production Director David Jones Production Manager Bob Cooper but our site, as well as other sites (god, everything was so very black- support for the Look, I understand that there is Associate Production Manager Nickie Sage in the Indymedia network, have and-white when I was younger U.S.’s prose- something pathetic about people Production Artists Jeff Marlin | Jennifer McLaughlin unfortunately been increasingly too!), Mr. Fleming [Letters, August cution of a war trying to meet sexual needs over Mark Blade | Benjamin Utley | John Cross | Andrea Bauer targeted by quantities of right- 26] and the rest of his ilk need to be against terror the phone with strangers. But Dustin Kimmel | Josh Honn | Mike Browarski Nadine Nakanishi wing disinformation and hatred- aware of, or at least acknowledge, haven’t seen the what’s disgusting is the willingness Editorial Design Jardí + Utensil promoting messages. We would one very glaring difference between need for such of people like Rickert and Erdman appreciate it if such persons would activists on the left and right: protections.” to embarrass others simply because Operations & Classifieds Director Mary Jo Madden instead use [other Web sites], or groups such as [ProtestWarrior] they are vulnerable. Simply put, Controller Karl David Wilt set up their own ...rather than haven’t been infiltrated by the FBI, they are bullies. And Ms. Rickert’s Classifieds Manager Brett Murphy subjecting our readers and posters weren’t subjected to preemptive attempt to justify this sadism is Classified Representatives Sara Bassick | Danette Chavez to their objectionable cant.” arrests prior to political conven- lame, to say the least. Bill Daniel | Kris Dodd | Chip Dudley | Andy Hermann However, when we find post- tions, weren’t threatened with Suppose Rickert and Erdman Janet Lukasiewicz | Jeff McMurray | Amy O’Connor | Scott Shehan Kristal Snow | Bob Tilendis | Stephen Walker ings which violate our editorial grand jury subpoenas, and on and had posted a picture of a young Matches Coordinator Jane Hanna policy they are not erased; they’re on and on. And Justin, please drop stud and enticed gay men to call Back Page Representative Chris Auman merely moved into the “hidden the “center-right” appellation. with their fantasies and then be Operations Assistants Patrick O’Neil | Alicia Tomaszewski articles” section of our Web site. There is nothing even remotely cen- held up for mockery. It is hard to Receptionists Monica Brown-Fielding | Dorie T. Greer Those articles can be viewed by trist about anyone who supports the imagine that such an article would Robert Jacobs |Dave Thomas | Stephen Walker Bookkeeper Marqueal Jordan selecting the “hidden articles” link current administration. have been allowed to be published. on the lower right of our home But what exactly is different? Circulation Manager Perry A. Kim Jake Daab Circulation Fred Adams | Sadar Bahar | Neil Bagwell page.