This ambitious showcase of experimental theater, performance, and music from Chicago’s fringe began as part of the Bucktown Arts Fest. Now it’s produced by the Curious Theatre Branch; in addition to the Curious folks, participating artists include Theater Oobleck, Antonio Sacre, Jennifer Biddle LaFleur, Michael Meyers, Frank Melcori, Nomenil, Barrie Cole, TeenStreet, Blair Thomas, and many other ensembles and soloists. Taking its name from surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s use of the term “rhinoceric” (it means real big), the 12th annual Rhinofest runs through October 7....

Strike Up the Band Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Bea Arthur–a musical-theater veteran dating back to the legendary off-Broadway Threepenny Opera of the mid-1950s–may be the nominal star of this concert version of George S. Kaufman and George and Ira Gershwin’s 1927 musical. But her role as society matron Mrs. Draper is a distinctly secondary one even as beefed up by ever inventive director Marc Robin, who’s reassigned “I’ve Got a Crush on You” to her....

By Michael Miner Not that “Ed Gold” was top secret. The actual writer even showed up at a Reader party wearing an “Ed Gold” name tag. Neil Steinberg’s problem was that he worked for the Sun-Times and merely freelanced Bobwatch. What his bosses didn’t know, or could pretend they didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him. (Steinberg still contributes to the Reader, writing the True Books column as Ed Gold and other occasional features under his real name....

This year for his birthday John Dal Santo got charged with three misdemeanors: failure to obtain a temporary liquor license, failure to obtain a public place of amusement (PPA) license, and failure to obtain a special-events license. On February 9, police busted a party he’d organized at Studio C, a third-floor loft residence above the Strawdog Theatre at 3829 N. Broadway, and arrested him, along with the space’s leaseholder, Elbert Goggin, and one of Goggin’s roommates, Thomas O’Neall....

Rock, Pop, etc. ARRIVALS, LOGANS LOSS, MUNITION, HOTLIPS MESSIAH Fri 1/25, 6:30 PM, room 130, McGaw Hall, DePaul University, 802 W. Belden. hewhocorrupts@hotmail.com. FISHIN’ BUDDIES Free in-store performance. Sat 1/26, 7 PM, Tower Records, 1209 E. Golf, Schaumburg. 847-619-8777. H2O, MEST, BIGWIG, TRANSPARENT All-ages show. Fri 1/25, 6:30 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield. 773-472-0449 or 312-559-1212. PHENIX performs at the D.A.N.K. Fox Valley Karneval 2002. Sat 2/2, 6:30 PM, Convention Center Ballroom, Indian Lakes Resort, 250 W....

Rock, Pop, etc. GREG BOERNER Free in-store performance. Fri 1/25, 8 PM, Borders Books & Music, 15160 S. La Grange, Orland Park. 708-460-7566. CHRIS FULLER, TRANSACTION ENSEMBLE perform as part of the Scary Bodega Performers’ Series #2. Thu 1/24, 8 PM, Wing & Groove Theater, Flat Iron Building, 1935 W. North. 773-520-1990. KIMOTION Benefit for ArtSynergy. Wed 1/23 and Thu 1/24, 7:30 PM, Getz Theater, Columbia College, 82 E. 11th. 773-489-4998....

On September 1, 1987, God spoke to Renee Randall. She was watching her farm, which had been foreclosed, go up for auction at the Crawford County courthouse in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Actually, she’s not sure if the command to buy came from a higher power or her own subconscious. But she’s glad she obeyed. She got the money–how much she won’t say–in the form of private loans from family and friends....

Though she’s never drawn the adoring crowds that flock to Tori Amos or Sarah McLachlan, singer-songwriter Amy Rigby has no peer on the current pop scene. Her wit, honesty, emotional intelligence, and superior gift for melody have enabled her to capture a moment in the lives of men and women as precisely as Carole King did in the early 70s. Like King, Rigby has mastered the paradox of rendering a generation through songs that are utterly personal; with their vivid detail and knowing observations, her lyrics cut deeper than a weekend’s worth of Lilith Fair anthems....

The 13th annual Chicago Humanities Festival, this year themed “Brains & Beauty,” runs through November 10 and offers dozens of lectures, readings, and discussions by writers, artists, and scholars (see schedule below), as well as film screenings at Facets Cinematheque and theatrical and musical performances (see separate listings in this section and in Section Three). The following events take place at these locations: Alliance Francaise, 54 W. Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan and Adams; Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E....

Mushy dances have never been my thing–give me a good laugh or a reason to get mad instead of some gloppy pabulum. So I’m happy that the “Duets for My Valentine” program (returning courtesy of massage therapist Bob Barrett after a one-year hiatus) is never just romantic fluff. Consider the piece that Hubbard Street Dance Chicago performer Cheryl Mann choreographed for the show: Superfly is set to excerpts from the themes for Mission: Impossible, the James Bond movies, Batman, Superman, and Rocky....

In Denis Johnson’s epochal 1992 story collection Jesus’ Son, the eponymous narrator, Fuckhead, observes a drought-ridden Iowa landscape while transporting two acquaintances, one previously murdered by the other: “The failed, wilted cornstalks were laid on the ground like rows of underthings. Most of the farmers didn’t even plant anymore. All the false visions had been erased. It felt like the moment before the Savior comes. And the Savior did come, but we had to wait a long time....

Last year postmodern pranksters Lucky Pierre set up their SwearLine, encouraging people to call and leave as much profanity as possible on an answering machine. Three weeks ago, streams of prerecorded cusswords wafted through the bathrooms of Laurelhurst Theater as part of the International Arts Group Exhibition in Portland, Oregon (by the way, the SwearLine is still open at 773-989-5955). Also last year, the group recruited volunteers to listen to B-96 disc jockeys for 24 hours straight, repeating and recording it all; that piece is currently touring the country as part of Temporary Services’ “Audio Relay” project....

America’s Sweethearts With Julia Roberts, Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, and Christopher Walken. With Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett, Marlon Brando, and Gary Farmer. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “Talent means nothing if you don’t make the right choices,” says seasoned safecracker and jazz-club manager Robert De Niro in The Score, as he sets up “one last score” before he quits the game for good....

The new Plastic Fang (Matador) marks the second time in the past six years that the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have retreated from experiments with hip-hop and electronica to reclaim their old straight-up choogle. After Orange’s collages and a remix EP, they went back to the garage for 1996’s Now I Got Worry; the new album is the first since 1998’s Acme, where the trio collaborated with folks like Dan the Automator and Alec Empire....

Kent Fly was bobbing on his feet in front of the Pearl art supply store on Chicago, announcing that a sale was going on inside even though it had ended. It was early March, and a cold wind whipped down the street. Fly, who had a crack running through his lower lip, was dressed in a black vinyl shell with a sleeve that had been ripped during a fight. A hood belonging to some long-gone jacket covered his head, and he had his hands stuffed in the pockets of thin tan pants....

NEW-TRAD OCTET Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Mardi Gras comes to Chicago early this year–New York-based alto saxist Jeff Newell usually books his New-Trad Octet into the Green Mill at the end of February, offering a blast of New Orleans-style revelry at around the same time the tourists head south to overrun Bourbon Street. A glassy-toned altoist and classy bandleader, Newell founded this group here in the mid-80s, inspired by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band....

When a 31-foot-high trapeze rig appeared in Lincoln Park this July, it drew a lot of curious stares from the joggers, sunbathers, and golfers who congregate near Recreation Drive. For circus artists Julio and Gloria Gaona, however, the trapeze–along with a safety net, practice bar, and trampoline–was as natural for the setting as a Weber grill. “I grew up around this,” said Julio. “To me it’s as normal as walking.”...

After I moved from Chicago to Burbank, California, friends from home would constantly inquire, “Met any movie stars yet?” as if around any corner, I’d bump into Cameron Diaz or Richard Gere. I didn’t. My only connection to the celebrity world was an older woman in my water aerobics class who confided to me that she’d once made out with Jerry Lewis. It could. Dreamworks called to tell me a second day had been added to my junket for a press conference with Paul Newman....

Every week I read your column. I figure that since your loyal readers tell you so much about ourselves and our sex lives, it would only be fair if you told us more about yourself and your sex life. So what do you like in bed? What turns you on? What do you look like? –Savage Lust Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » My relatives do know what I look like, so that I can share with you, SL: I’m 28 years old, 5’11”, I weigh 160 pounds, and I have blond hair and green eyes....

BUZZCOCKS 6/20, METRO It may be a bit premature to say the punk generation is aging better on the whole than the Woodstock crowd, but I’ll cite the Buzzcocks’ new self-titled album on Merge, their fourth release since their 1993 reunion, to support that theory. Front man Pete Shelley’s 12 short, cruelly infectious songs don’t break any new ground, but the Buzzcocks were always more about harnessing rock ‘n’ roll energy than about being shocking or avant-garde anyway, and they lean on every beat like they’ve still got something to prove....