26 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Letters

continued from page 3 No More Find it! Where That Came From

Dear sirs: Z Michael Miner’s excellent overview of the issues involving Great Lakes water resources [“They Need It. We Waste It,” January 13] left out one pertinent fact: The New Reader Classifieds 90 percent of all the water chicagoreader.com | section 4 in the five lakes is the result of runoff from receding glaciers during the time when the Ice Age ended. Thus in the intervening 10,000 years only 10 percent of the water volume of the Great Lakes is due to rainfall and inflow from rivers and streams. The inadvisability of any large-scale diversion of Great Lakes water to both future freshwater supplies and to commercial navigation is obvious. All of us who are residents of the Great Lakes basin, whether Canadian or American, should take an active role in advocating for the passage of the Great Lakes- Saint Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact by contacting our respective elected representatives. Chet Alexander Alsip PS: This is not a new issue. While vacationing in a number of western states in 1982 and 1984 (both election years) I read and heard of a number of candidates for public office who advocated diverting Great Lakes water to the west. One proposal envisioned the construction of a pipeline from the western tip of Lake Superior at Duluth, Minnesota, that would supply water to the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming.

Weekly Wackadoo

Hola, I must tell you of my intense pleasure, which is your weekly columnist gone wackadoo ... a certain Lizzy A [Chicago Antisocial]. Is it just moi? Or is she amazing and exquisite? The latter suffices, methinks. Either way, please be assured of something: I pick up the Reader every Thursday for one reason—Liz Armstrong and her stimulating and colorful take on pop/art culture. I love that Bitch and her attitude! Peace, Thom Printers Row CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE 27 Reviews Movies Art Theater

Eugene Jarecki’s Yutaka Sone TimeLine Theatre Company’s at the Guantanamo: Why Renaissance Honor Bound to We Fight Society Defend Freedom

REVIEW BY J . R . JONES REVIEW BY BERTSTABLER REVIEW BY JUSTIN HAYFORD a 27 a 29 a 30

Movies

WHY WE FIGHT sss WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY EUGENE JARECKI RATINGS ssss MASTERPIECE sss A MUST SEE ss WORTH SEEING s HAS REDEEMING FACET • WORTHLESS Bringing the War Home Eugene Jarecki, the director who stuck it to Henry Kissinger, puts it to the people in Why We Fight.

By J.R. Jones ugene Jarecki made a name replacing the villain at the movie’s for himself on the art-house core are a half-dozen private indi- E circuit a few years back with viduals Jarecki picked up along The Trials of Henry Kissinger, a the way, and their very human stinging indictment of the former relationships with America’s mili- secretary of state as an architect tary machine demonstrate the and instrument of President depth of the problem. Nixon’s rapacious foreign policy. Jarecki borrowed his title from But in talking with audiences at the series of short indoctrination screenings, Jarecki began to feel films Frank Capra directed for the his 2002 film had missed the U.S. military during World War II. mark. “I was surprised how much For Capra the title was a state- people wanted to talk about ment, and a decidedly uncritical Henry Kissinger the man rather one. (“This isn’t just a war,” a nar- than the system he represents,” he rator announces in one short. says in press notes for his new “This is a common man’s struggle film, Why We Fight. “This time, I against those who would put him wanted to make a film that would back into slavery.”) Jarecki turns not offer a simple villain, but the title into a question, posing it instead invite viewers to look to nearly everyone he interviews Why We Fight more broadly at the system itself.” and providing a much-needed Why We Fight makes good on through line for his bulging narra- screech of the wheels the moment support himself and go to col- though the second was later dis- this ambition, opening with tive. “We fight for the principle of when the train turned a corner lege—there’s a poignant sequence proved, were the basis for the President Eisenhower’s prophetic self-determination,” President and Sekzer first glimpsed the in which he packs up his cheap escalation of U.S. involvement in 1961 farewell speech, in which he Johnson declares in a speech about World Trade Center belching black knickknacks, with their child- Vietnam—introduces Sekzer’s identified the military-industrial Vietnam. “We fight because it’s smoke. “I’m just thinking to hood memories, and takes them memories of serving as a helicop- complex as a threat to democratic necessary, and because it’s right,” myself, How did my son get out of to a storage center before ship- ter door gunner in that war. governance, and following this says smiley Bill Kristol. But those there?Well, I don’t know how, but ping out. On-screen the recruiter “From the perspective of a heli- premise through 9/11 and the are the short answers. The long he got out of there. There’s no two who signed Solomon up confides copter,” he says, “you’re up x-num- Iraq war. Jarecki looks at the one, articulated mostly by author ways about that. He can’t be in that it’s hard to win the recruits’ ber hundreds of feet, and you’re arms industry’s cozy relationship and CIA vet Chalmers Johnson there. Because anybody who’s in trust. But as Jarecki revealed dur- shooting at little dots that are with Congress and visits one of ( Blowback: The Costs and Con- there is gonna die.” After a clip of ing a recent local appearance, running around. You’re not shoot- the neocon think tanks where the sequences of American Empire ), is President Bush’s bullhorn moment cadets at a West Point screening ing at somebody face-to-face. It’s Bush Doctrine was hatched. He that we fight because our domestic at Ground Zero, Sekzer tells of Why We Fight laughed aloud almost like they’re not real human revisits Dick Cheney’s career with economy has been structured Jarecki, “Somebody had to pay for at some of Solomon’s mistaken beings. They’re objects.” From Halliburton and the administra- around war since World War II. this. Somebody had to pay for 9/11. impressions about what he’d be here Jarecki introduces Ahn tion’s massaging of the facts in the But for some of the people draft- I want the enemy dead. I want to doing in the army. Duong, who came to the U.S. at case against Saddam Hussein. He ed into the film, the answer to see their bodies stacked up for Fluidly edited by Nancy age 15 after her family was evacu- listens respectfully to political Jarecki’s question lies closer to what they did, for taking my son.” Kennedy, Why We Fight inter- ated from Saigon in April 1975. commentators both right home. Wilton Sekzer, a retired If Sekzer’s motivated by mis- weaves these personal stories not Her story might seem like a facile (Richard Perle, William Kristol, New York City cop, recalls riding placed vengeance, 23-year-old only with history but with one rebuke to Sekzer if not for the fact John McCain) and left (Gore the elevated train into the city from William Solomon is simply mis- another, yielding some choice that she’s now a navy explosives Vidal, Charles Lewis, Dan Rather) Queens the morning of 9/11. placed. His mother’s recent death ironies. A clip of President expert, part of the team that as they review 60 years of Jarecki combines his voice-over has left him without any family, Johnson announcing attacks developed the “bunker-buster” American realpolitik and weigh in with footage of Sekzer on the train and he’s enlisted in the army against two American ships in the bombs heralded at the beginning on the current conflict. But itself, re-creating down to the because it’s the only way he can Gulf of Tonkin—attacks that, continued on page 28 28 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE

Movies

continued from page 27 Iraq indicating that scores of civil- of patriotism, of a deep desire for perspective. But the war in Iraq ment and remind us that in a of Operation Iraqi Freedom. ians were killed by U.S. precision revenge for what happened to my had nothing to do with the war on democracy no one can shrug off Not every character pays off weapons in the early days of the son,”he says. “But I was so insane terrorism.” Of the private individu- responsibility for the war. When emotionally: war. The point may be valid, but it with wanting to get even, I was als Jarecki brought into the film, Jarecki heads into flyover country Why We Fight Jarecki’s treat- feels rhetorical. willing to believe anything.” Asked Kwiatkowski has been the most for some quick man-on-the-street WHERE ment of two More effective are those charac- if he regrets his request, Sekzer is public; since stepping down as an interviews, the answers he gets Landmark’s U.S. fighter ters with an actual story arc—like forced into the excruciating posi- officer on the Iraq Desk in April are obscenely disengaged. “I think Century Centre pilots who ran Sekzer, who responded to Bush’s tion of parroting the administra- 2003 she’s made the rounds of we fight for ideals and for what & Century 12 the first bomb- assertion of an Iraq-Al Qaeda link tion’s line: “No, because I acted national media alleging that the we believe in,” says one man, and CineArts 6 ing mission of by asking the military to inscribe under the conditions at that time. Pentagon’s Iraq intelligence was glancing nervously at the camera. WHEN Daily Operation Iraqi his son’s name on a weapon head- Was it wrong? It was wrong, but I manipulated by a group of neo- “I hope that’s what it is.” Another Freedom is ed for Iraq. In no short time he got didn’t know that.” conservative Cheney appointees replies, “I’m not sure if we’re fight- notably stilted. Identified only as a message reporting that a 2,000- The last of Jarecki’s key subjects, calling themselves the Office of ing for the oil or not. We could be, Fuji and Tooms, they recount their pound guided bomb had been Karen Kwiatkowski, recounts sim- Special Plans (her charges were we could not be. The government secret mission but shrug off the dropped in loving memory of his ilar disillusionment. Now retired, dismissed by the Senate Select has more knowledge than I question of why they fight. “It’s not son and “met with 100 percent she was a lieutenant colonel in the Committee on Intelligence). know.” Perhaps if more people ours to decide,” says one. “We do success.” When the president later air force working for the Pentagon Despite Jarecki’s varied success had to sacrifice life and limb—or what we’re told.” Jarecki ultimately denied any link between Iraq and when it was hit on 9/11. “It was a in bringing these six people’s sto- sacrifice anything at all—the rea- yanks the rug out from under them 9/11, Sekzer was stunned. “The very dramatic and terrible thing,” ries to life, their stories personalize sons to fight, or not, would regis- with statistics and footage from government exploited my feelings she says. “And it does change your our current geopolitical predica- ter more clearly. v CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 17, 2006 | SECTION ONE 29 Art

YUTAKA SONE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY Snow Job Arty partier Yutaka Sone delivers a winter meditation fit for the mall.

By Bert Stabler ntroducing Yutaka Sone before a talk at the art star’s I Renaissance Society opening, curator Hamza Walker pleaded eloquently for the cultural reha- bilitation of “bankrupt” and “exhausted” natural icons. But Sone’s installation, “Forecast: Snow,” comes closer to perform- ing last rites for its subject than redeeming it. This Japanese native now living in LA interprets snow through cliched, nonde- script paintings and drawings of snowflakes, skiing-related diora- mas, a snowman on skis, fake snowballs, a pine forest “planted” in snowbanks, and several snowflake sculptures that evoke nothing so much as giant design- er paperweights realized in crys- tal, marble, and, to keep it real, papier-mache. The show is like a combination craft store, gift bou- tique, and sporting goods store. It puts us at the mall, the place where snow has diplomatically Y replaced faith-based imagery as a

symbol of “the holidays.” SANCE SOCIET In fairness Sone said during his talk that his aim is only to enter- tain and perhaps enchant the Y OF THE RENAIS

viewer. At that he’s fairly success- TES ful: in an essay Walker calls Sone’s UR CO work “straight-up fun ...no Snowman, ski-lift sculpture (detail), untitled acrylic painting, and giant crystal snowflake from “Forecast: Snow” strings attached.” And after all, as we’re told, Japanese art isn’t ham-handed drawings and learning institution he attended stacked furniture inspired by a just plain bad painting Ski policed for distinctions between maquettes, the carved pieces had plus his childhood home—a scene in the Spielberg movie, by Madonna is being used this fine and commercial art the way to have been entirely outsourced tongue-in-cheek expression of his having it fabricated mechanically season on Aspen lift tickets. Western art is. But much Japanese even though he also said he partic- psychology in which blank spaces from digital code. In a thoughtful It’s obnoxious for Sone to come art, from ukiyo-e woodcuts to ipated in the final detail work. Like represent repressed memories. But comment on sweatshops, he later off as Jeff Koons without the irony. manga to film, has used snow and Sone’s artisan-made marble carv- Sone’s clean, had the piece re-created in wax by But you can’t be too hard on an other natural phenomena in stun- ings of Los Angeles freeway inter- WHEN Through simplified, Thai craftsmen, in grass by a New international celebrity who makes ning and moving ways regardless changes, shown at the LA Museum Sun 4/9:Tue-Fri styleless York artist, and in toilet paper by a snow cactuses with kids. He’s obvi- of its intended audience. If Sone’s of Contemporary Art in 2003, his 10 AM-5 PM, Sat- models don’t New Mexico prison inmate. ously just a party dude—or at least installation isn’t beautiful or ugly, ski dioramas evoke nothing so Sun noon-5 PM approach Sone may not view his mission that’s the persona he presents. He tragic or funny, what is it? much as the intricately carved ele- WHERE Renaissance Kelley’s for the way Kelley and Pfeiffer do once videotaped himself and his It’s about knickknacks—and the phant tusks prized by 19th-century Society, Univ. of elegance, theirs. If skiing recurs in the friends throwing a series of birth- best knickknack is a fancy knick- European and American collectors Chicago, 5811 insight, or Renaissance Society exhibit, it’s day parties—and perhaps because knack. The most striking objects in of chinoiserie. There’s a lot to look S. Ellis, 4th flr. even cyni- central to his next one, “X-Art of the work’s “exuberance” or “Forecast: Snow” are two delicate at, but not much to see. PRICE Free cism. Instead Show,” which opens February 16 at Fluxus-like “economy of gesture,” marble carvings, one of a ski lift The diorama format does pre- INFO 773-702-8670 they’re the Aspen Art Museum in this self-indulgent, banal claptrap and one of the San Moritz ski sent challenges for the artist. A MORE U. of C. physics generic win- Colorado. There families will be was acclaimed worldwide. Like resort. Like the carved marble and model suggests lowbrow handi- professor Heinrich ter-themed invited to build “snow cactuses” many other inbred worlds, the art crystal snowflakes, these were fab- craft and/or an alienating institu- Jaeger gives a free marketing with Sone on the museum’s world is often more likely to reward ricated by workers in China. But tional or corporate purpose. Still, lecture on the sym- awaiting a grounds, and on Sunday, after charisma (especially in nonthreat- unlike traditional master artists in many artists have used these metry of crystals product to Sone’s Aspen Powder Cactus ening males) than ability, subtlety, the West or Japan, who closely aspects of the form to great and Sun 2/26, 2 PM. shill. Nor Band performs, two giant dice intelligence, or even hipness. Sone supervise or supervised their fabri- often amusing effect. Mike Kelley is Sone’s will be transported to Buttermilk likes snow, he likes skiing, he likes cators, Sone visited the factory in his (also all-white) architectural approach to subcontracting of any Mountain by helicopter and art, what the hell. At least the “four times a year,” he said during model Educational Complex incor- real interest. Paul Pfeiffer created rolled down a snowboarding Chicago show lacks an inflatable his talk. And judging from his own porated structures from every Poltergeist, an off-white diorama of half-pipe. To top it all off, Sone’s motorized snow globe. v

Give it away!

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