Splitting up David Sedaris’s monologue among ensemble members is a pretty bad idea: the writer’s voice gives the piece what unity it’s got. Stranding the haphazardly lit actors behind podiums is a worse one, especially when the material is this prosaic. But the engaging Janus Theatre cast all find at least a few comic moments apiece–no small feat when following the evening’s opener, Sedaris’s Front Row Center With Thaddeus Bristol. Though often paired with SantaLand because of its Christmas theme, this critic’s rant should never be paired with anything; deadly unfunny and guilty of every theatrical sin it blasts, it may just be unperformable....

A fairly sophisticated colleague just completed a five-day water fast, something he does two-three times a year to “purge his body of toxins.” A Harvard-educated client of mine keeps going on fruit-juice-based fasts–again to purge the toxins. And an old friend from grad school is now engaged in a very expensive round of “chelation” to push the toxins out of her body. Me? I’ve always thought that this is what we have a liver and two kidneys for....

There’s a peculiar tango being danced in the 32nd Ward committeeman’s race. Instead, he’s supporting state rep John Fritchey, who did not support him when he ran against Matlak, even though Fritchey’s opponent, Roger Romanelli, was one of Waguespack’s strongest supporters. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » It’s bewildering; so let me try to explain what’s going on. In the aftermath of his hard-fought victory over Matlak, many of Waguespack’s supporters urged him to run for committeeman....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » One of my favorite columns from my stint writing the print version of Post No Bills was a list of some of the local shops that sell ethnic music. Most of the places I covered weren’t record stores but rather neighborhood groceries, video stores, or gift shops that catered to specific communities, whether Arabic or Indian or Greek or African....

EVERYONE IS ACQUAINTED with the tyranny of the multiplex: no matter which one you visit, it’s screening the same ten Hollywood movies, and eight of them suck. But here in Chicago you can shake off your chains: in a typical week the Reader lists more than 100 movies showing well within reach of public transportation. Even if 80 of them suck, you’re still way ahead of the game. Best of Chicago voting is live now....

The highlight in this Mamet festival evening of one-acts is Jolly, in which a woman and her brother and husband rehash years of parental mindfucking. The taut ensemble draws hilarity from raw pain, and Todd Lahrman gets extra credit for conveying so much love and humor even though he rarely speaks more than three consecutive words. By contrast, Bethany Caputo’s rendition of Almost Done, a monologue about sharing memories between generations, seems overly calculated, as does her work in Reunion, as a daughter rediscovering her father (an unpretentious turn by Danny Goldring) after 20 years....

Amid all the typical hand-wringing that can accompany an indie fave’s major-label debut, the biggest lament of fans and critics alike about Death Cab’s Plans (Atlantic) is that the quartet’s stock-in-trade–winsome songs of lovelorn longing–has gone missing. Front man Ben Gibbard is no longer splaying himself in the emotacular fashion to which we’ve grown accustomed. Having ditched the achy-breaky of previous records like Transatlanticism, it’s like he’s noticing the world outside for the first time: there are songs of personal rebirth, like “Your Heart Is an Empty Room” (“Burn it down ’til the embers smoke on the ground / And start new when your heart is an empty room”), and the approaching-30 meditation on death, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark....

This gag-packed musical farce, based on the 1988 movie (in turn based on the 1964 film Bedtime Story), is broad, sometimes raunchy, and very, very funny. Jeffrey Lane’s script and David Yazbek’s score revel in comic stereotypes to tell of two con men–suave Brit Lawrence Jameson and coarse Yank Freddy Benson–who team up, and later compete, to seduce and swindle rich American tourists on the Riviera. The core of the show is the relationship between the two crooks, who admire each other even as each tries to put the other out of business....

At the turn of the century Dwight Yoakam ended his 15-year relationship with Warner Brothers Records; after releasing one album on Audium, 2003’s Population Me, he also parted with longtime producer Pete Anderson. Given all that rejiggering I figured he’d take a few chances on his latest album, the self-produced Blame the Vain (New West), perhaps mixing up Tex-Mex, honky-tonk, and blue-eyed soul the way he did on mid-90s classics like This Time and Gone....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Earlier this month I was eating my way around Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky with some pals; the intrepid Peter Engler, occasional Reader contributor Kristina Meyer, and the captain of the ship, Rob Lopata. A large part of our itinerary was inspired by John T. Edge’s great and passionate book Southern Belly, though we made a few discoveries on our own....

There’s nothing sadder than a promising play without a second act. David Farr’s 1996 comedy-drama treads somewhat familiar ground with its agoraphobic, damaged sports-fan protagonist, supporting cast of rock ‘n’ roll musicians, and bumbled-crime subplot, but does it so masterfully it doesn’t matter–until intermission anyway. Then, despite an old-school jaw-dropper of a twist at the end of the first act that provides plenty of potential for the second, the script runs off the rails, doubling and tripling already unlikely coincidences in vain pursuit of an ending....

Falling Through the Cracks? Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Morehead is right about Sara Lee. A spokesman says the foundation made a decision four years ago to fund only organizations with budgets of $150,000 or more because the state of Illinois requires audits for groups of that size. Sara Lee “just matched up with some of the state’s thresholds,” he says. But Kassie Davis of the Chicago Community Trust says they do fund organizations with budgets of less than $250,000, and launched a new program last fall that provides operating and other support for 40 small and very small groups....

What with all the scandals and indictments since Katrina, it’s easy to forget that Bushco’s bungling of the matter occurred recently, just over four months ago. And the disaster got a lot of play in the media–especially as the backdrop against which, journalists assure us, they finally rediscovered their balls. Perhaps as a result, this stage documentary is too familiar to provoke the appropriate outrage. Jeffrey Bruner’s script does expose how explicitly classist and racist the authorities’ combination of absenteeism, incompetence, and outright menace was....

Pandit Pran Nath The focus on the sitar may have been part of the problem, as the music of India is at heart a vocal music. In the 90s a new wave of ancient music with Indian origins hit our shores–the qawwali style, sung most famously by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan–and it had more soul than instrumental sitar ragas. Developed in 13th-century Delhi alongside Hindustani music, qawwali is today associated with Muslim Pakistan, but it demarcates the most upbeat extreme of Indian music, with its strong hand-clapped backbeat and extroverted, emotional vocals....

Dear Reader, I realize that it’s only a cartoon, and P.S. Mueller usually has some esoteric and/or funny items in your newspaper, but the strip on the front page of Section 4 of the July 8 issue is really uncalled-for. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » There is nothing funny, thought provoking, or of any redeeming value to seeing someone bludgeoning a cat, even a stylized cartoon cat, after that cat only was seeking attention....

Imagine Mardi Gras mated with the Burning Man festival and you’ll have some idea of Spectacle Fortuna, a parade of puppets, floats, prayer flags, music, stilt walkers, and papier-mache birds taking over Michigan Avenue Friday evening. The event is part of Manifest 05–Columbia College’s one-day campus-wide display of film, music, dance, theater, performance, and visual art–and anyone is welcome to march, wearing or carrying one of the masks, lanterns, banners, or funny hats created by Redmoon Theater vet/Columbia College teacher Jennifer Friedrich and her students....

“When everything you have is a great thing, it’s really easy to put things together,” says Tania Bowers, which is why she puts a lot of thought into everything she buys. Bowers, 32, works at and designs accessories for Robin Richman’s boutique in Bucktown and sings and records as Via Tania. She was drawn to the color and shape of a hemp-silk dress by Ciel and to a bag made from a skateboard by Beck(y) Bags, both from Pivot, a brand-new boutique specializing in eco-conscious clothes....

Writer-director Stephanie M. Acosta’s hour-long “re-imagining” of the tortured Titan’s story is a noble effort that doesn’t quite succeed. Though the Anatomy Collective’s puppetry adds to the drama, Acosta has included so much of the mythology surrounding Prometheus that the tales are a jumble. And her formal language is too ornate to be readily understood and too declamatory to create a sense of drama or empathy. An exception is the dialogue between Prometheus and Hermes, sent by Zeus to extract a secret from humankind’s champion–one of the few genuine exchanges between characters....

Although I realize you don’t have firsthand knowledge of women’s monthly cycles, I feel confident that you will be able to answer my query, o wise one! Does alcohol affect you differently depending on which week of your cycle you’re in? A girlfriend of mine told me that you will get drunk easier closer to ovulation and also will be more susceptible to a hangover. She also said that researchers think that speech patterns can be affected during different stages of the cycle (i....

Friday 14 IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION “No one’s ever going to pay to hear what goes on in your mind,” sings Ike Reilly on “22 Hours of Darkness,” the opening cut on Junkie Faithful (Rock Ridge), but his second-person point of view isn’t fooling anyone. Much as he may question it, people are listening to Reilly, but whether they keep listening is contingent on him continuing to do what he does: that is, lay out his despair in no-nonsense clever rhymes and wicked revelations, sung with a soulfully cracking (but unforced) voice....