2CHICAGO READER | JUNE 2,2006 | SECTION TWO The Business [email protected]
It’s Not an Art Fair if There’s No Drama A Nova employee accuses Michael Workman of bad business. By Deanna Isaacs
rt-fair follies, junior edition: says the organization values the collec- local artist and curator Dirk tion but will release photos to the stu- A Knibbe says working on the sec- dents who took them. They can be ond annual Nova Art Fair, where he claimed, preferably before June 30, at was programming and operations the new Van Buren headquarters. director, was an incredible experience, but as soon as it was over, things The Acquiring Mind turned ugly between him and founder Michael Workman. “One minute we’re Doug Seibold’s Evanston-based Agate running an art fair together, I’m flying Publishing, best known for a couple of to Miami, I’m getting health insurance, very successful and well-received nov- I have a bonus coming, and I have a job els by African-American writers, is that I’ve made a commitment to; the acquiring another small local press, next I have no job, I’m out a thousand Susan Schwartz’s Surrey Books, which dollars of due pay, and he’s threatening puts out food and entertainment me with criminal charges if I come tomes, in a sale that will close June 30. back to the office.” Seibold says he was attracted by Workman says he fired Knibbe Surrey’s extensive backlist, and expects because he was responsible for a the acquisition to double Agate’s rev- “whole realm of problems,” and “I enues while more than tripling its cata- caught him taking money out of the log. He thinks the move will make his ticket drawer.” According to Knibbe, “I company stronger, more diverse, and took $60 out of the till to pay someone more able to keep publishing literary and I left a receipt for it. It was petty fiction like Jill Nelson’s Sexual Healing cash. Why would I think that was a and Denise Nicholas’s Freshwater problem?” Workman says it wasn’t Road, the publisher’s two most success- petty cash and Knibbe only wrote a ful titles. Sexual Healing sold 30,000 receipt because he was aware that “I copies in paperback and hardcover and saw him taking it.” got a great pop on subsidiary rights: a
Nova’s “fashion train,” which had NI book-club edition, world Spanish
volunteer models in garments from TAT rights, UK rights, a film deal, and local boutiques lurching through CTA mass-market paperback rights, which cars during a joyride around the Loop, were purchased by Pocket Books. was one of Knibbe’s responsibilities. In Freshwater Road, which came out late TE MARIE DOS
the weeks following the fair, he says, ET last summer, has sold 12,000 copies in people were “screaming at me because YV three printings, plus a book-club edi- they’re owed money or their checks Dirk Knibbe, Michael Workman tion; Simon & Schuster bought the have bounced, and [Workman’s] bad paperback rights. business is on my name.” Fashion-train dealing with Ponder, Starbuck, and though its arts and culture center on The closing came as no surprise to Seibold says nonprofit publishers— curator Sarah Ponder, who says she had others, he was “just trying to figure out Wilson Avenue, home to its once-popu- Richard Stromberg, who ran the Hull like the Dalkey Archive Press, which one check bounce, and City Soles owner what’s the right thing to do.” Holding lar programs in photography and ceram- House photography program for years found it couldn’t afford to stay in Scott Starbuck, who says over five hun- Nova at Lakeview’s City Suites Hotel ics, closed at the end of April for budget- but had an acrimonious split with the Chicago—suffer by being dependent on dred dollars’ worth of footwear he worked “really well,” he says (though he ary reasons. The association invested association after it announced the sale the largesse of funding agencies and loaned to the show came back dam- couldn’t provide a specific attendance over $1 million in the Wilson center, of the Broadway facility. He predicted patrons. “When that money isn’t there, aged, confirmed they’d been attempting figure), but next year he might do with- which it opened two and a half years ago this outcome, noting among other it creates a difficult situation, regard- to contact Workman for several weeks out the hassle and expense of extra pro- after selling the long-standing Jane things that the Wilson location was less of how excellent their publishing in order to collect expenses or reim- gramming like the fashion train. He Addams Hull House Center for the Arts right across the street from Truman program is. There’s not a Ruth Lilly bursement, but he hadn’t returned calls. says Knibbe is a “disgruntled worker on Broadway. According to Wood, “we’d College, which also offers public arts hiding under every mushroom. I’m (Last week, the day after I called trying to get a pound of flesh.” Knibbe hoped we’d be able to recruit people in classes. Stromberg is now concerned applying a different model, and that is Workman to ask about the situation, he says Workman paid him what he was the community to participate; we were about a collection of photographs taken to try to assure our future by being got in touch with Ponder and delivered owed last weekend, and he’s now ready unable to develop that clientele.” He says by his former students and has asked commercially successful.” He’s kept a check to Starbuck.) to move on. classes have been integrated into the rest Hull House to give it to the nonprofit overhead low, working out of his house Workman, who’s been in Miami of the organization’s services, which Chicago Photography Center at 3301 and handling almost all the editing and working on the show he’ll be doing Do the Arts Have a include community centers, public hous- N. Lincoln, which he helped establish. marketing himself. The company now there in December under the name ing for senior citizens, and after-school So far Hull House has refused. “What issues about 12 titles a year, and with Bridge Art Fair, admits to having a “few Home at Hull House? programs, and a decision will be made we’re not doing is giving it to Richard the addition of Surrey he expects to little cash flow problems, like every Hull House Association president “in the near future whether to open an to display in his gallery,” says official publish at least twice that amount next small organization does,” but says he Clarence Wood says the venerable insti- arts center in some of our space at our Mischelle Causey-Drake, “because it’s year. He’ll be at Printers Row this took care of them. As for the delay in tution isn’t leaving the arts behind, even new facility at 1030 W. Van Buren.” art that belongs to Hull House.” She weekend. v
Everything you need to know about eating outside is inside alfresco The Reader’s Guide to Outdoor Dining
Special pullout in the center of this section CHICAGO READER | JUNE 2,2006 | SECTION TWO 3
Film listings are compiled from information available Monday. but must include a phone number for publication. Commentary by Occasionally bookings change after our deadline; we suggest you Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR), Lisa Alspector (LA), Fred Camper (FC), call ahead for confirmation. Most films are screened in 35-millime- Don Druker (DD), Pat Graham (PG), Andrea Gronvall (AG), J.R. ter and most videos are projected. Where possible, exceptions are Jones (JJ), Joshua Katzman (JK), Dave Kehr (DK), Peter Keough Movies noted below. Submissions to the film listings are always welcome, (PK), Hank Sartin (HSa), Henry Sheehan (HS), and Ted Shen (TS).
Looking for our Restaurants section? This week it’s in the Alfresco outdoor-dining guide, which starts on page 19.
rhythms—aching stillness relieved by sharp flurries of action—survive here.” With Simone Signoret (in one of her best Critic’s Choice performances), Paul Meurisse, Jean- Pierre Cassel, and Serge Reggiani. In French with subtitles. 145 min. (JR) a Music Box.
Art School Confidential The team R responsible for Ghost World—director An Inconvenient Truth Terry Zwigoff, screenwriter/comic book artist Daniel Clowes, and John Malkovich’s production company—reunites for this bit- movie of Al Gore lecturing on global warming may ter satirical comedy. An ambitious and vir- sound dull beyond measure, but this documentary by ginal young artist (Max Minghella) arrives A Davis Guggenheim is hugely dramatic, arguing that at art school in search of sex and fame, but the world’s governments have little more than a decade to the careerism he encounters causes him to avert a planetary disaster. Speaking to a small audience in a Aaltra Benoit Delepine and Gustave de despair and betray his talent, especially black-box theater with a giant screen behind him, Gore Kervern’s 2004 Belgian comedy in black- when the model he loves (Sophia Myles) presents a series of photos, charts, and graphs that clearly and-white ’Scope follows a couple of feud- goes after one of his classmates. It’s a fas- show how the earth’s rising temperature has fostered a ing farmers who wind up paralyzed in cinating and provocative muddle: social series of deadly heat waves and tropical storms that will wheelchairs after being run over by a trac- satire, self-hatred, misanthropy, and only worsen unless we drastically curtail our use of fossil tor and who travel together to Helsinki to misogyny become hard to disentangle as a fuels. The frequent detours into Gore’s life story are dis- confront the company that built the trac- subplot involving a serial killer comes to tracting, yet he proves more engaging here than he ever did tor. I saw this alleged crowd-pleaser the fore. With Malkovich, Matt Keeslar, Jim in office—intelligent, prescient, drily funny, and passionate- around the time it came out and can barely Broadbent, Steve Buscemi, and Anjelica ly committed. PG, 96 min. Reviewed this week in Section 1. remember it now. In French, German, and Huston. R, 102 min. (JR) a Century 12 and a Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark’s Century Centre, Finnish with subtitles. 90 min. (JR) CineArts 6, Esquire, Pipers Alley. River East 21. —J.R. Jones a Facets Cinematheque. A/V Geeks North Carolina collector Skip Akeelah and the Bee Coming on the Elsheimer will present two programs of R heels of Spellbound and Bee Season, educational films and other relics; the one Chicken Little After dragging its and stale ethnic humor (dominated by El the lovers spend the entire movie deceiving this small gem about a South Central LA at Heaven Gallery will be followed by an R heels for a decade, Walt Disney Brendel as a Swede), there’s a remarkable each other, then fall into each other’s arms. girl with a gift for spelling restores luster open screening for people with similar Pictures ventures into the brave new world sequence toward the end in which Gaynor This dud is even more contrived: to the family genre. Keke Palmer gives a items in 16-millimeter, VHS, or DVD. of computer animation with this feature- wanders through an expressionistic McConaughey still lives with his parents at breakout performance as the title charac- a Chicago Filmmakers; also Sat 6/3, 9 PM, length story about a chick that, irony of Manhattan, contemplating suicide to the age 35, so mom (Kathy Bates) and dad ter, whose prodigious talent is nearly deep- Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee, 2nd ironies, is way ahead of the curve. strains of Second Rhapsody (a sequel to (sportscaster Terry Bradshaw) hire a coun- sixed by her lack of self-esteem and her floor, 773-342-4597. Animation fans will find this worth the Rhapsody in Blue that was truncated by selor (Sarah Jessica Parker) who specializes harried, widowed mom (Angela Bassett), wait—the marvelously detailed characters the studio). 106 min. (JR) a Gene Siskel in romancing guys until they leave the nest. who dismisses spelling bees as an Beyond the Screams Martin are soft and supple—though apparently Film Center. New print. (What keeps them from moving back in extracurricular activity they can’t afford. Sorrondeguy directed this lively and there’s no story-generating software that after she ends the charade isn’t explained.) Laurence Fishburne plays Akeelah’s coach, thoughtful presentation of the Latino can tap into the dark recesses of a child’s Depth & Z-Axis Motion Three experimen- The movie’s notion of humor is exemplified an academic burnout with a tragic past, punk scene as a political movement. psyche as cannily as Uncle Walt once did. tal films: Ernie Gehr’s silent Serene Velocity by Bradshaw’s extended nude scene, which and though his theatricality can be dis- Dating back to the late 70s, Latino punk The title bird mortally embarrasses its (1970) and Ken Jacobs’s Opening the might be termed “roughing the viewer.” tracting, he drives home the story’s moral was reenergized in the early 90s (partly father by mistakenly telling the whole town Nineteenth Century (1990), both in 16-mil- Tom Dey directed; with Zooey Deschanel, about ambition and self-reliance. Writer- in response to anti-immigration bigotry) the sky is falling, but the tables are turned limeter, and Jacobs’s Krypton Is Doomed providing occasional relief as Parker’s acrid director Doug Atchison exalts teamwork and continues to thrive in Chicago and Los after spaceships land, dispensing giant, (2005), screening by DVD projection. 66 roommate. PG-13, 92 min. (JJ) a Brew & and community to the point of corn—Capra Angeles especially. Jose Palafox of Bread spidery creatures straight out of H.G. Wells. min. a Northwestern Univ. Block Museum View at the Vic. in the hood—but the movie’s uplift is unde- and Circuits argues eloquently that “art Mark Dindal directed; among the voice tal- of Art. NU professor of physiology and neu- niable. With Curtis Armstrong, J.R. and culture have to be tied into larger ent are Zach Braff, Garry Marshall, Don robiology David Ferster will lecture. A Foreign Affair An archetypal Billy Villarreal, and Sean Michael Afable. PG, 112 political action,” and Revolucion X obliges Knotts, Patrick Stewart, and Amy Sedaris. Wilder plot, pitting idealism (a naive Iowa min. (AG) a Chatham 14, Ford City, Lake, with ironic lyrics like “I’m making my G, 77 min. (JJ) a Fri 6/2, 7 PM, Haas Park, The Devil and Daniel Johnston Like congresswoman, played by Jean Arthur) Lawndale, 600 N. Michigan, 62nd & future with the border patrol / Beating 2402 N. Washtenaw, 312-742-7552. R Chicago phenomenon Wesley Willis, against cynicism (an ex-Nazi chanteuse, Western, Webster Place. Mexicans is too much fun.” 27 min. (FC) Screening outdoors as part of a double fea- singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston became embodied, of course, by Marlene a Sat 6/3, 1 PM, Metzli Gallery, 556 W. ture with The School of Rock (see separate a cult figure in the pop-music under- Dietrich) in the ruins of postwar Berlin. American Dreamz Paul Weitz is mad as 18th St. Two more documentaries com- listing). F ground largely because of his mental ill- Caught between is John Lund, an hell, and he’s not gonna take it anymore. plete the program: Skin Deep and Land ness. Raised by West Virginia fundamen- American officer. Wilder’s strategy is to The director of American Pie has set out Belongs to Those Who Work It. F The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown’s mega- talists and racked by manic depression, play a bubbly romantic comedy in a mise- to make a merciless satire of American selling novel might have made a great Johnston tirelessly promoted himself in en-scene of destruction and despair. As media culture along the lines of Network, The Breakfast Club John Hughes’s 1985 ten-hour miniseries: its elaborate riddles the 80s with homemade cassettes whose usual, it’s more clever than meaningful, but his ideas are so commonplace that film seems meant to explain 80s young- and clues could have been properly romantic longing and demonic fantasy but this 1948 film is one of his most satis- nothing registers except the bile. Hugh sters to yesterday’s youth, and comes to the teased, the cliff-hangers savored, and the were embraced by alternative icons like factory in wit and pace. With Millard Grant does his self-loathing scumbag rou- comforting conclusion that they’re just as sudsy relationships given an appropriate- Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth. This engross- Mitchell. 116 min. (DK) a Music Box. tine as the host-producer of an American alienated, idealistic, and vulnerable as the ly vulgar treatment. Alas, this Ron Howard ing documentary by Jeff Feuerzeig careful- Idol-style reality show, and Dennis Quaid baby boomers of the 1960s. The chosen for- adaptation is like a speed-dating session, ly distinguishes between the singer’s fans, Friends With Money Jennifer plays a thinly veiled George W. Bush, try- mat is the Broadway encounter group, in covering two millennia of religious and who celebrate his illness, and his friends R Aniston comes into her own with ing to pump up his approval ratings by which a circle of cross-sectional characters art history. A symbologist (Tom Hanks, and family, who’ve had to live with his this funny and sensitive comedy about serving as guest judge for the final (one from every major high school social stiff) and a cryptographer (Audrey Tautou, destructive behavior. But Johnston’s child- four lifelong friends. The ones with episode. Misguided comedic riffs on Al group) get together to swap dreams and blank) careen across France and the UK ish, repetitive tunes prove that he’s no money—Joan Cusack, Frances Qaeda and the Iraq war add to the sense anxieties and come out with a better under- trying to uncover the secrets behind a Brian Wilson (or even Roky Erickson), McDormand, and Catherine Keener—all that Weitz is out of his depth. With Mandy standing of themselves and the world they Louvre curator’s murder, with a mad which makes you wonder whether have husbands and careers; Aniston Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Klein, live in; needless to say, these kids wouldn’t monk (Paul Bettany) and a fanatical cop Feuerzeig is examining the singer’s works as a maid, smokes dope, and can’t Jennifer Coolidge, Sam Golzari, and so much as speak to each other in real life. (Jean Reno) in hot pursuit. Screenwriter exploitation or participating in it. PG-13, sustain a relationship. In her third feature Willem Dafoe. PG-13, 107 min. (JJ) With Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Akiva Goldsman ( A Beautiful Mind) pelts 109 min. (JJ) a Beverly Arts Center. Nicole Holofcener (Walking and Talking, a Webster Place. Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, the viewer with so many factoids and alle- Lovely & Amazing) leapfrogs between and Ally Sheedy. 97 min. (DK) a Sun 6/4, 4 gations about the early Catholic church, District B 13 Luc Besson ( La Femme characters with wit and grace, gathering An American Haunting I’m guessing and 8 PM, Marshall McGearty Tobacco goddess worship, the Crusades, painting, N Nikita) produced and cowrote this them in various clusters and adroitly Donald Sutherland agreed to do this Lounge, 1553 N. Milwaukee, 773-772-8410. cartography, and code breaking that the kick-ass 2004 thriller, which takes place in showing how money or the lack thereof tedious horror flick because he heard Sissy DVD projection. F movie’s big revelation turns out to be nei- and around some strangely depopulated really does inflect their lives and interac- Spacek was on board, and Spacek agreed ther grand nor shocking. PG-13, 148 min. ghetto high-rises outside Paris in the year tions. With Greg Germann, Simon to do it because she heard Sutherland was The Break-Up Vince Vaughn (who (AG) a Century 12 and CineArts 6, 2010 and involves drug-dealing gangs, cor- McBurney, Jason Isaacs, and Scott Caan. on board. They play an elderly couple in N collaborated on the story) plays a Chatham 14, City North 14, Crown Village rupt cops, and a nuclear device. This is R, 88 min. (JR) a Esquire, 3 Penny. 1818 Tennessee whose daughter goes all Chicago tour guide who’s into sports; 18, Davis, Esquire, Ford City, Gardens 1-6, every bit as silly and adolescent as you’d Linda Blair on them after Sutherland’s Jennifer Aniston’s character works in an Gardens 7-13, Lake, Landmark’s Century expect from Besson, and about as contem- Goal! The Dream Begins A young Mexican kicked out of the local church for the crime art gallery. The unlikely couple meet at Centre, Lawndale, Lincoln Village, porary as The Perils of Pauline. But I was illegal from the LA barrio (Kuno Becker) is of usury. Because the narrative is incoher- Wrigley Field; by the time the opening Norridge, River East 21, 600 N. Michigan, delighted by the balletic and acrobatic recruited by a scout for Newcastle United ent, there’s no way to generate any sus- credits are over they’re sharing a condo 62nd & Western, Village North. stunts, some of which evoke Tarzan. Pierre and rises to international superstardom in pense, so director Courtney Solomon but she’s ready to call it quits. This Morel directed; with Cyril Raffaelli, David this guileless 2005 sports drama from ( Dungeons & Dragons) is reduced to the strange comedy is nothing but curveballs Deep Sea 3D The immersive quality of 3-D Belle, Tony D’Amario, and Bibi Naceri. In Disney. Utilizing a sizable budget, director standard multiplex stratagem of startling after that; like director Peyton Reed’s pre- is particularly well suited to undersea doc- French with subtitles. R, 85 min. (JR) Danny Cannon deploys the score and dra- us with blasts of noise. PG-13, 90 min. (JJ) vious Down With Love, it has to do with umentaries, and this one, directed by a Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark’s matic helicopter shots of a high-powered a Webster Place. real estate and the way we live. It’s full of Howard Hall (Into the Deep ), offers a close- Century Centre, River East 21. action film, with mixed results. If you can pain and quirky characters standing at up look at such fantastic creatures as the abide booming orchestral punches during Army of Shadows Jean-Pierre oblique angles to one another, and while fried egg jellyfish, the mantis shrimp, the Down in the Valley A rebellious work- verbal confrontations and ubiquitous R Melville’s 1969 thriller about the it doesn’t add up it held me throughout. sand tiger shark, and the thuggish wolf eel. ing-class teenager in southern California Adidas product placement, you’ll be French Resistance, finally receiving its With Jon Favreau, Joey Lauren Adams, Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet trade off as (Evan Rachel Wood) gets involved with rewarded by exciting soccer sequences and first U.S. release, is a great film but also Judy Davis, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ann- narrators, delivering the requisite (and an emotionally disturbed if charismatic the joy of watching a likable character tri- one of the most upsetting films I know. Margret, John Michael Higgins, and Jason much-needed) ecohomily near the end. G, young man who fancies himself a cowboy umph on a global stage. In English and Melville based his story on a novel by Bateman. PG-13, 105 min. (JR) a Century 40 min. (JJ) a Navy Pier. (Edward Norton). Both actors work hard subtitled Spanish. PG, 118 min. (Patrick Joseph Kessel (Belle de Jour) that was 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Crown to give this disturbing crime story some Somerville) a City North 14. published during the occupation and is Village 18, Davis, Esquire, Ford City, Delicious The first movie scored by flavor and substance, but the narrative is reportedly far more optimistic; in the Gardens 7-13, Lake, Lincoln Village, N George and Ira Gershwin, this 1931 overextended and poorly organized. Greece: Secrets of the Past I’m still not movie a resistance leader (Lino Ventura) Norridge, Pickwick, River East 21, Village musical may seem dated, but its subject Writer-director David Jacobson (Dahmer) sure what “secrets” this large-format gradually discovers that he and his com- North, Webster Place. matter—illegal immigration—couldn’t be has reportedly recut the movie since its production unearths, but it includes rades must betray their own humanity for more timely. A Scottish lass in steerage Cannes premiere; it still feels too long. scenes of an archaeologist working on the sake of their struggle, though in the Bummer! After being fired from a rock (Janet Gaynor) charms a millionaire jock With David Morse and Bruce Dern. R, 114 the island of Santorini, which was buried end their efforts are mainly futile. As band, a psychotic bass player goes on a in first class (Charles Farrell) before skirt- min. (JR) a Esquire. by a volcano in 1646 BC; a volcanologist Dave Kehr wrote, “Melville is best known rampage. William Allen Castleman directed ing U.S. customs and hiding out with a traces the eruption’s course, and the art for his philosophical pastiches of this 1973 feature, also known as The Sadist. Russian family; Virginia Cherrill plays the Failure to Launch Matthew McConaughey’s uncovered is spectacular. A diversion to American gangster films ( Le Samourai, Le R, 90 min. a Sat 6/3, 6 PM, Delilah’s, 2771 heartless, wealthy villainess. If you can last hit, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Athens shows virtual restorations of the Doulos), and some of their distinctive N. Lincoln, 773-472-2771. TV monitor. F make it through the unmemorable songs (2003), was one of those comedies in which Parthenon and its giant statue of Athena