CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY | THIS ISSUE IN FOUR SECTIO NS | FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006 | VOL 35, NO 42 DETheLifADeand DeLIatEShoftheT MANALIVE Will Chicagolet another Adler andSullivan building bite thedust? p12 Thefirst black womanon Everest p18 Theconspiracy againstJay Mariotti P4 Cexonsex,Bruce Norris’s ugly AmericansgotoAfrica, property taxhellinAndersonville,the world’sbesthugger, andmore Section One Letters 3 Our Town 18 The first black woman to conquer Everest; Columns the last bait shop on the lakefront Hot Type 4 Reviews A plot against Mariotti? Music 26 The Straight Dope 5 Cex, Actual Fucking Boob-enhancing supplements Theater 28 The Works 8 Bruce Norris’s The Unmentionables Skyrocketing property taxes in Andersonville at Steppenwolf Chicago Antisocial 10 Plus Boutique of the Week 19 Hugged by Amma Michelle Tan does retail July 14, 2006 Architecture 12 Free Shit 21 Adler and Sullivan’s diminishing legacy; Classical music at Saint James Cathedral the lake house from The Lake House Ink Well 31 This week’s crossword: World Figures The Life and Death of the Deadliest Man Alive How a south-side Irish boy came to be Chicago’s most notorious martial-arts master OR) OL A (C UT RD IK WA ED John Keehan, aka Count Dante, and students as pictured in a 1976 issue of Black Belt magazine; the count in cosmetologist mode circa 1967 By Dan Kelly n the 60s and 70s John Keehan was one of the most best as Count Dante, the persona Keehan used to sell Keehan, The Search for Count Dante, inspired by his own notorious figures in American martial arts. He ran dojos membership in his Black Dragon Fighting Society, as well experience in martial arts, as well as his brief acquaintance I and had sidelines in salons and porn shops. He took a as a pamphlet, World’s Deadliest Fighting Secrets, that with Keehan. Growing up in the Harold Ickes Homes pet lion cub for strolls by Lake Michigan. He trained promised to teach readers how to maim, disfigure, and kill. near Chinatown, Webb raised pocket money by collecting minorities and caught flack for it, and after one fight—part Ever since his death in 1975, Keehan’s life has been deposit bottles, scrubbing out Chinatown trash cans, and of Chicago’s “dojo wars” of the 60s and 70s—he was impli- wrapped in rumor and parody, but Oak Park filmmaker taking other odd jobs, and on September 4, 1964, he cated in the death of one of his students. He was also a Floyd Webb is striving to untangle truth from fiction. For spent part of that hard-earned income to attend the fierce self-promoter: comic-book readers might know him the past year he’s been working on a documentary about Second World Karate Championship continued on page 22 2CHICAGO READER | JULY 14, 2006 | SECTION ONE CHICAGO READER | JULY 14, 2006 | SECTION ONE 3 m Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 312-828-9926 JULY 14, 2006 f VOL 35 | NO 42 Letters @ [email protected] Publisher Michael Crystal Technology, IIT) was designed duct some focus groups to Editor Alison True by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. determine that sports-section Managing Editor Kiki Yablon Gross That is incorrect; Hermann readers wanted columnists to Senior Editors Michael Miner |Laura Molzahn | Kitry Krause Hall, like the library building insult, rip, and deride the Associate Editors Martha Bayne | Anaheed Alani and Selfish directly to its south, was teams, athletes, and events they Philip Montoro | Kate Schmidt designed in 1962 by Walter were covering? At least Assistant Editors Jim Shapiro | Mark Athitakis | David Wilcox Small communities that—feel- Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Lincicome was/is a very talent- Web Editor Whet Moser ing they have no better alterna- Merrill when SOM was the ed, clever writer, and he eventu- Staff Writers Liz Armstrong | Martha Bayne | Steve Bogira John Conroy | Jeffrey Felshman | Harold Henderson tive claim to fame—host master architect for the cam- “Will his ally toned down the nastiness Deanna Isaacs | J.R. Jones | Ben Joravsky | Monica Kendrick overeaters’ competitions pus. Walter does not at all con- stomach stay (e.g., the Doug Flutie columns). Peter Margasak | Tori Marlan | Bob Mehr |Jonathan Rosenbaum [“Overeating for Fun and sider himself to be a “Miesian” stretched out, But Mariotti is just awful. Mike Sula | Albert Williams Profit,” June 30] are truly disciple. And the true die-hard and if so, who Michael Miner, what exactly Copy Chief Brian Nemtusak pitiful. The man in the crowd Miesian disciples/devotees do would want happened several years ago Editorial Assistants Pat Graham | Renaldo Migaldi | Mario Kladis Michael Marsh | Tom Porter | Jerome Ludwig | Tamara Faulkner decrying the prize money Pat not consider the building to be to be his life when Mariotti was out the Patrick Daily | Stephanie Manis | Robert Cass | Kerry Reid Bertoletti wouldn’t get when truly Miesian, although on the partner and door at the Sun-Times and Todd Dills | Katherine Young | Ryan Hubbard | Miles Raymer he vomited up those dozens surface to many it certainly try to feed then was back as the principal Tasneem Paghdiwala of tamales (“That’s $2,500 he does look like part of the Mies him?” columnist? Were there Typesetters Vera Videnovich | Kabir Hamid just put in the trash”), like the genre—“black is beautiful.” Polaroids with farm animals Archivist Eben English many spectators and contest- Though the roof is hung from involved? Please bring in Ed ants, seems not to care about massive transverse girders Gold to do a weekly skewering. Advertising Director Don Humbertson the value of the food itself. above the roof, like Crown Hall, George Kovacs Display Advertising Manager Katie Falbo While not organic or free- the east and west facades of the Ukrainian Village Online Advertising Coordinator Renate Durnbaugh range, the tamales he spewed building are cantilevered from Display Representatives Sandra Goplin | Christine Thiel forth and those his fellow the internal columns, which Brad Winckler overeaters glommed on could cannot be seen from the out- Senior Account Executives Denice Barndt | Evangeline Miller Geary Yonker have been many meals to a side. And that, the “purists” Her Daily Account Executives David Dincolo | Nichole Flores | Jeff Martin homeless man. But feeding say, is sacrilege. Greg Saint-Victor | Tim Sullivan | Laura Swisher | Dan VanKirk the poor, that would be good Harold Melvyn A. Skvarla Advertising Assistants T.J. Annerino | Kieran Kelley news, and good news is unfor- Urbana Sarah Nishiura tunately still no news. Hey, this [Harold Henderson’s Competitive eaters squander Fred Camper replies: new blog, Daily Harold, at Art Director Sheila Sachs considerable resources and Thanks very much for the chicagoreader.com] is a discov- Associate Art Director Godfrey Carmona effort to get to competitions correction. ery! I always enjoy Harold Art Coordinator Elizabeth Tamny and to stretch their stomachs Henderson in the Reader, Production Director Sean Phelan and not throw up (publicly). wherever he is squeezed, and Production Manager Bob Cooper There’s nothing remotely “ath- he’s in some pretty tight corners Associate Production Manager Nickie Sage letic” about competitive eaters, Who Needs sometimes. Now he can expand Production Artists Jeff Marlin | Jennifer McLaughlin |Mark Blade Benjamin Utley | John Cross | Andrea Bauer | Dustin Kimmel so Bertoletti ought to come up a little. He’s an excellent blogger. Josh Honn | Mike Browarski | Nadine Nakanishi with a more realistic assess- Ed Gold? I like his style. It has a begin- Editorial Design Jardí + Utensil ment than “Even though I’ve ning, middle, and end; it’s witty; been kicking ass no one’s look- A rousing “hear hear” for letter and it’s eclectic. I’ll come back Operations & Classifieds Director Mary Jo Madden ing for me to be a real threat to writer Mike Koskiewicz’s com- and visit regularly! anybody.” Martial artists are ments [July 7] on Michael Controller Karl David Wilt Kristin Lems athletic and kick-ass, and Miner’s Hot Type column on Classifieds Manager Brett Murphy Evanston Classified Representatives Sara Bassick | Danette Chavez overeaters aren’t, not by any Ozzie versus Mariotti [June Bill Daniel | Kris Dodd | Chip Dudley | Janet Lukasiewicz stretch of the imagination. 30]. “Two-bit hack” is a bit Jeff McMurray | Amy O’Connor | Scott Shehan | Kristal Snow He doesn’t know if, once he kind. Miner writes that he’s Bob Tilendis | Stephen Walker graduates and has to get a “been writing about Mariotti Correction Matches Coordinator Jane Hanna restaurant job, he’ll be able to since he arrived in Chicago 15 Operations Assistants Patrick O’Neil | Alicia Daniel Receptionists Monica Brown-Fielding | Dorie T. Greer give this waste of time as much years ago.” Well, perhaps he In my article on bike messengers, Robert Jacobs |Dave Thomas | Bob Tilendis time as he does now. Will his has, but it sure seems as though “Fresh Air! Speed! Poverty! Bookkeeper Marqueal Jordan stomach stay stretched out, and Mariotti has gotten a free ride Servitude!” [June 23], I referred Circulation Manager Perry A. Kim if so, who would want to be his from media critics ever since he to the International Workers of Circulation Fred Adams | Sadar Bahar | Neil Bagwell life partner and try to feed him? joined the Sun-Times as their the World, which, as a union Kriss Bataille | Mark Blade | Michael Boltz | Jeff Boyd Will a normal meal ever give answer to Bernie Lincicome, member pointed out to me, is Michael Bulington |Bill Daniel | Tom Frederick Kennedy Greenrod | Nathan Greer |Scott Harris |John Holland him the satisfaction winning at then the Tribune’s resident both wrong and redundant. The Josh Hudson | Sasha Kadukov |Thomas Kolinski overeating does now? basher.