In South Korea many traditional crafts and forms of music and dance are designated “important intangible cultural properties”–some of which are on display in A Song and Dance Tradition of Five Millennia. Before Japanese colonization, Korean culture was a subtle blend of Chinese influences and indigenous practices, exemplified in the 12 selections of this hefty showcase. “Gyeonggi Minyo” is a suite of folk songs praising the beauty of the central Korean mountains: sung slowly in a quivering, heartfelt voice, the lyrics refer to scenic spots celebrated in Chinese scrolls....

Growing up in Chatham, Gina Barge often listened to her father–saxophonist Gene “Daddy G” Barge–reminisce about his days at Chess Records in the 1960s. There, he produced and performed with the Dells, Fontella Bass, and Muddy Waters, including on the latter’s notorious Electric Mud, the psychedelic 1968 record that enraged blues purists. Gene often played his daughter records and showed her pictures of his bandmates. But because he’d spent the bulk of his time at Chess before Gina was born, she couldn’t really connect to the photos....

OTRO MAS, 3651 N. Southport, 773-348-3200: Owner Hubie Greenwald and chef-owner John Manion gave their second restaurant the same design and lively ambience as the Wicker Park Mas, with faux-finished walls and ceilings and funky Latin music that’s loud but not too loud for easy conversation. Marbled cream-colored leather banquettes provide comfortable seating, though tables are so closely positioned that privacy isn’t really an option. Starters include a complimentary cumin-heavy bean dip served with bread; a daily seviche; gazpacho with crabmeat; and a thick arepa (corn cake) with fried shrimp, beberete salsa (made mostly of tomatoes), and buerre blanc....

There’s nothing particularly new about this latest piece from Die Hanswurste, the folks who brought you the cutting-edge romp Klown: Prick Us and We’ll Burst in 1994. The tone is still dark. The comedy is edgy and cynical. And the show is still hilarious, especially if you don’t mind a mean-spirited joke or two: most of the humor is based on an understated sadism. Again and again Otto Schmidt–reprising his role as the endlessly cruel ringmaster Franzel Kier–finds ways to hurt Joel Jeske’s good-hearted, sad-faced clown, Kamm Oste....

Hedda Gabler Hedda (Martha Plimpton) is a beautiful, grasping woman who marries a dull scholar, Tesman (Matthew Sussman), with whom she has nothing in common except the desire for social ascension. She loathes his family, and her only friend in his group is Judge Brack (the splendidly smarmy Tom Irwin); both like to manipulate people just because they can. Into this snake pit comes Thea, a runaway from an unsympathetic husband, who has the bad luck to be running to one of Hedda’s unextinguished old flames, Eilert Lovborg....

The Hot Snakes are technically a side project for Rocket From the Crypt’s John Reis–albeit one in which he reunites with Rick Froberg, his partner in his other main band of the 90s, Drive Like Jehu. But with their second full-length, Suicide Invoice (on Reis’s own Swami imprint), the Snakes are poised to pull up at least neck and neck with Rocket. Any suggestion that good ol’ punk rawk might be creatively exhausted is effectively trounced by this outing’s sheer persuasive energy....

The Action Against Sol Schumann Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Set in Brooklyn in 1985, the play revolves around Sol Schumann, a kindly, somewhat doddering Orthodox Jew, a concentration camp survivor whose two sons have chosen very different paths. Aaron is a solitary, acerbic firebrand whose latest cause is protesting Ronald Reagan’s visit to the Bitburg cemetery, final resting place of several SS officers....

By David Whiteis The truth is, though, that Spann’s agenda is slightly more complicated than his patter suggests. He’s promoting a big blues concert next Saturday at the UIC Pavilion. The show is billed as a tribute to his own 40th year in show business, but in fact that number refers only to his long and sometimes controversial tenure as a Chicago-based blues and soul promoter–he’s been a deejay here since the late 50s....

Melissa Pokorny Art that eschews beauty, seeking to confront rather than soothe, goes back almost a century, to the dadaists. Falling into this category, Melissa Pokorny’s six sculptures at Bodybuilder and Sportsman are “often vomitous” (in the words of the gallery’s press release). Simplicity Inc. (Silver Lining) seems a drunken builder’s nightmare, its only sense its own nonsense. Gray “cement” oozes from between six boxes covered with faux-brick paper stacked on top of one another....

Plastic Makes It Real Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » But once Mills fulfilled his contract with Sugar Free in 2000, he was faced with a more pressing problem–namely, how he would release any songs. His head was still full of tunes and lyrics, but with no one to write checks, he couldn’t get them on tape. Discussions with other labels, including the local imprint Undertow, had reached dead ends....

I was at my orthopedic surgeon’s office for a follow-up on my broken shoulder. The only other people in the waiting room were a man in his mid-20s and his son, who looked like he was around nine or ten. The man was watching Jerry Springer, while the son rolled around on the floor, drummed his feet, and asked how long they’d be, where they were going next, what time they were having lunch....

Handel’s opera Semele was first performed in 1744 as an oratorio, without set or costumes, and its success briefly lifted the composer out of an artistic rut. The libretto, adapted from Ovid’s Metamorphoses by playwright William Congreve, concerns a Theban princess who falls in love with the god Jupiter. Juno, his jealous wife, disguises herself and persuades Semele to petition Jupiter for immortality, convincing her that to do so she must ask him to reveal himself in his godly form; when Jupiter grants Semele’s wish, his heavenly radiance burns her to death....

ANGELS OF LIGHT 4/4, SCHUBAS When Michael Gira swapped the full-body punch of his Swans for sensitive tunecraft at the end of the 80s, some were relieved and some dismayed. I’ve never fallen into either camp–I just hoped Gira would someday find a way to reconcile the bitter tenderness of his quiet stuff with his capacity for, er, shock and awe. Every Angels of Light album so far has taken a step toward that synthesis....

DIVISION OF LAURA LEE 1/24, DOUBLE DOOR Division of Laura Lee front man Per Stalberg has some harsh words for his fellow Swedish invaders. “We know all the bands but we are not from the same scene as them,” he recently told the Brooklyn Web zine Free Williamsburg. “We play music because we love it. We don’t have to buy our attitudes. We don’t have to buy our stage clothes because we have been through the fucking hard shit…....

Standing Outside With Their Tix in Their Hands Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Although HotHouse itself sent out a press release Friday night saying that the shutdown may have been “politically motivated,” executive director Marguerite Horberg downplayed such charges when I spoke to her on May 13. She spent Monday meeting with representatives from the Department of Revenue, who informed her that she didn’t have the proper licenses to charge admission or serve liquor during performances....

At around 6:30 PM on Thursday, March 20, Andy Thayer and an estimated 10,000 other demonstrators marched onto Lake Shore Drive to protest the war in Iraq. Three and a half hours later he was sitting handcuffed in the back of a police wagon. He was taken to jail and held until Friday afternoon. The impromptu nature of the march shouldn’t have surprised anyone, because the local antiwar movement is a coalition of numerous groups with different views on the best way to oppose the war....

Where do chain restaurants get all the faux antiques for their decor? I have this disturbing vision of 12-year-olds in Thailand manufacturing farm implements and Nehi soda signs for Cracker Barrel and the like. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » So I called the company’s headquarters in Lebanon, Tennessee, and quizzed the folks there about the stuff hanging on their restaurants’ walls: Is it legit?...

Rock, Pop, Etc. DADA, CAVIAR, SONO 18 & over. Fri 4/18, 8:30 PM, Park West, 322 W. Armitage. 773-929-5959 or 312-559-1212. RICHIE HAVENS, KAREN SAVOCA Fri 4/25, 7:30 and 10 PM, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln. 773-728-6000. AVRIL LAVIGNE, SIMPLE PLAN, GOB Sold out. Sat 4/19, 7:30 PM, UIC Pavilion, 1150 W. Harrison. 312-413-5740 or 312-559-1212. GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA Sun 4/27, 3 PM, Center for Performing Arts, Governors State University, Stuenkel Rd....

Rock, Pop, Etc. AFI, HOT WATER MUSIC, BLEEDING THROUGH All-ages. Sun 10/5, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence. 312-666-6667 or 312-559-1212. CAEDMON’S CALL, GINNY OWENS, PAUL WRIGHT Fri 10/3, 7 PM, Trinity International University, 2065 Half Day, Deerfield. 630-833-3733. KRISTIN COTTS Free in-store performance. Sat 10/11, 8 PM, Borders Books & Music, 1 N. La Grange Rd., La Grange. 708-579-9660. DEL SOULS Free in-store performance. Sat 10/11, 8 PM, Borders Books & Music, 1500 16th, Oak Brook....

Andrew Weatherall would be a legend in dance music even if he’d done nothing but remix an obscure Primal Scream song called “I’m Losing More Than I Ever Had” in 1990. Retitled “Loaded,” the mix was one of the best singles of the decade, a swaggering merger of funk beats, rock guitar, and soul horns with a distinctly druggy feel; the track defined the early British rave scene, which Weatherall had helped birth as a club DJ....