Wagner’s final opera, Parsifal, has been interpreted as everything from a deeply spiritual allegory of redemption to an ugly racist parable about protecting Christian purity from Jewish corruption. But the opera’s score is tailored so well to its libretto that even the most uncharitable reading of Wagner’s intent can’t diminish the music’s clarity, solemnity, and hypnotic power; though Parsifal is over four hours long, in a good production it’s never tiring....

Psychedelic music ranges from unbearably weightless (Gong’s three “Radio Gnome Invisible” albums) to black-hole heavy (the Jimi Hendrix tune “Are You Experienced?”), and these two groups definitely have a bit of ballast. Since 1989 guitarist and singer Eric Arn, formerly of Crystalized Movements, has led the Primordial Undermind through myriad mutations in lineup and sound. On the band’s first release, a 1992 seven-inch called Sferic Mandalas From the Ecclips’d Eye (Baby Huey), the title and cover art are more psychedelic than the music–a barrage of garage-punk riffs, barked lyrics, and concise, Television-like guitar solos....

A certain kind of shook-up-soda-can energy comes from being picked on, so if Ssion weren’t from rural Kentucky–or some other place where they weren’t allowed to be themselves–I doubt they’d be as explosively irreverent. But growing up punk, gay, and misunderstood has worked out well for front man Cody Critcheloe: his collagey paintings and animated videos have made him a hotshot in hipster art circles, landing him illustration work for NME and Peaches and the position of chief visual-arts consultant for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs....

In chaos theory, a “strange attractor” is a focusing pattern in a chaotic field. But you don’t need to know physics to appreciate Stephen Petronio’s evening-length Strange Attractors, made to celebrate his company’s 15th anniversary. Watching the first part (the second was unavailable on video), I saw eight dancers in constantly shifting relationships; since we’re human beings, we tend to see these shifts in emotional terms. All four men wear light-colored silky pajamas, one woman wears a light-colored shift, and the remaining three women wear dark shifts, adding another formal element to what is essentially a formal dance....

The Eulogist, at the Playground. Written by local improviser turned playwright Kevin Reome, with songs by Reome and Craig Jadown, this comedy has a premise with potential–a man leaves the corporate world to become a freelance eulogist–and contains some fine moments. The scenes in which the protagonist, Dan, is struggling to say something, anything, kind about someone he’d hardly known are particularly killing. But Reome never fully exploits his premise. The aspects of corporate life he chooses to skewer, especially the empty homilies of motivational speaking, have been done to death....

Whimsy in the Water Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Children were giggling at the 41 photographs in Arthur Tress’s “Fish Tank Sonata,” chosen from the 71 images collected in his book of the same name. Tress creates fanciful still lifes by arranging props inside an antique fish tank, which he hauls to various locations to photograph. He’s divided his images into five sections and accompanies each print with a goofy, playful poem....

I read Cara Jepsen’s article [“Woman Made’s Fixer-Upper,” January 31] about Woman Made Gallery’s experience at their new location in the Acme Artists’ Community, 2418 W. Bloomingdale. It focused on common problems that arise with most new construction projects. The Acme community will soon house 20 artists and five commercial enterprises, two of which are leased by Woman Made Gallery. Laura Weathered, the Acme Artists’ Community director, has worked extremely hard for several years trying to get the city of Chicago to realize the importance of establishing fair housing for artists....

It’s good when artists age gracefully, but it’s even better when they do it strikingly. Take Michael Gira: His old band Swans took a daring turn in the mid-80s from brutal crunch into brooding gothic songcraft, and the transition, captured in 1987 on Children of God, was a little bumpy. Gira was notoriously dissatisfied with the band’s Bill Laswell-produced major label debut, The Burning World, in ’89 and Jarboe, his partner in crime since ’86, took more than her share of blame from Gira’s old fans....

Friday 1/3 – Thursday 1/9 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » 4 SATURDAY In 1956 President Eisenhower signed legislation to create the interstate highway system; modeled on Germany’s autobahn, the 41,000 miles of road were designed for efficient military transport and civilian evacuation in case of nuclear attack. In addition, one mile in every five is straight, so that–if necessary–portions can be used as airstrips....

Robert Ledermann was dazzled the first time he saw the elaborate animated Christmas displays in the department stores that lined State Street in the late 1940s. “When you looked into the windows in those days it was like looking into a big wonderland,” he says. He remembers waiting two hours in line to see Santa at Marshall Field’s, riding the miniature railroad at the Fair department store at State and Adams, and eating with his family at Harding’s Colonial Restaurant at 21 S....

Space usually denotes minimalism, but the Ex Models use it as punctuation–the comma before each barrage of prickly, dissonant prose. The New York quartet pop-locks in and out of aggressive, sexually frustrated grooves to a choppy beat bashed out by drummer Jake Fiedler. Guitarists Shahin and Shah Motia (who are brothers) rile each other up, cross-pollinating their thin but cacophonous through-lines, and then spontaneously disintegrate into a crabby silence, only to start all over again....

In an interview on danceonline.com, New York-based choreographer John Jasperse posed an obvious question seldom asked: “We [dancers] are showing our bodies all the time–where’s the boundary of it becoming pornographic?” So it’s not surprising that the emotional heart of the 90-minute work Jasperse is showing here, Giant Empty, is a duet between two nude men. Though dancegoers are accustomed to seminudity, it’s shocking to see all the naughty bits. But it’s not pornographic....

Four years ago, Achy Obejas and her girlfriend, Tania Bruguera, were having a rough time finding a tattoo artist who would solemnize their relationship. All they wanted were simple double infinity symbols on their ring fingers. The first artist flatly said he didn’t do hands. The second was more flexible, but wanted to know the story behind the tattoos. “I need to be able to feel it,” he said. Best of Chicago voting is live now....

“Rene Fontaine” and “Sergei Petrov,” the credited screenwriters of this mannerist fantasy, are pseudonyms for star Bob Dylan and director Larry Charles, a veteran of Seinfeld. In fact, every character talks like Dylan, and his character, a legendary singer called Jack Fate who turns up between prison terms to perform a benefit concert, is a fanciful but recognizable version of his own persona. Set in a contemporary America that suggests an endless skid row, with such Latin American trimmings as an ongoing civil war and a dying dictator whose likeness hangs everywhere, this is at once a spin on Dylan’s mythology, an excuse to feature as many of his songs as possible, and an unblinking look at American greed, corruption, and self-absorption....

“There’s a lot of talent here in the city,” says Salvador “Sage” Solache, co-owner of the McKinley Park-based Breaking Bread Entertainment. “But for some reason they don’t just get out there….We want to get Chicago artists recognized–hopefully sooner rather than later.” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » In the early 1990s Solache, Benjamin “Phunk” Todd, and John “Swift” Tirado were part of 40 oz. Dreams, an informal crew of about 20 DJs, rappers, producers, and graffiti artists from across the city....

Well, well, well. Dan Savage gets all squirmy and horrified about incest. You came down pretty hard on Please Help for having sex with his sister. But can you tell me why incest is any more horrifying than male homosexuality? At least incestuous intercourse follows the natural function of the sexual organs! You may reply that incest causes genetic problems. However, statistically, the danger of that is far less than AIDS from gay intercourse....

Drummer Richard Harrison and trumpeter Andy Diagram have played together in many guises since the early 80s: in the new-wave dance band Dislocation Dance, in the squawky jazz-rock band the Honkies, with Pere Ubu front man David Thomas as his 2 Pale Boys. But since 1989 the Mancunians’ main gig has been the tuneful drum and trumpet duo Spaceheads. Despite the instrumentation there’s nothing minimalist about the sound: both use electronics liberally to expand the range of their instruments....

“All happy endings are problematic,” reflects the telemarketing team leader in Spirits to Enforce, “as they invariably involve the continuation of life.” In this Theater Oobleck play, being remounted after a sold-out run last April as part of the PAC/edge festival, playwright Mickle Maher sketches the aftermath of Prospero’s cut-and-run exit from wizardly dominion in The Tempest: with wry, speculative genius, Maher maps its metaphors of abdication onto the text of his melancholy “sequel....

It was only 7 PM, and already Kustom nightclub was packed with people milling about, drinks in hand, talking loudly to be heard over the music. But on this recent Wednesday, clubgoers weren’t discussing how the Bears fared in the draft or working up the courage to ask for a date. These people were looking for work. Lucent Technologies moved Sharpe, his wife, and their two small children from Nashville to Chicago ten months ago....

Oz lovers of all ages should cherish this lavish remount of the sumptuous movie musicalization Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire produced in 1998. Adapter John Kane’s gorgeous homage to the adored 1939 MGM film restores the boogie-woogie “Jitterbug” number, turns the twister into a black-lit swirl of hilarious detritus, and transforms the apple trees into sassy drag queens. Delivering enough irreverent wordplay and contemporary puns to make L. Frank Baum’s classic seem hip, this stage version retains everything that made the movie memorable and restores lines from the 1900 book....