MARCH
Joe Louis’s boxing gloves, Steve Dahl’s helmet from Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, and a photograph of Hull House’s 1909 women’s basketball team–stiffly posed in bloomers and black stockings, their shirts buttoned to their chins–are just a few of the bits of memorabilia on display in the Chicago Historical Society’s new exhibit Chicago Sports! You Shoulda Been There. The opening celebration takes place today from 9:30 to 4:30 and includes a demonstration of 19th-century basketball, pennant making and other crafts, and sports activities for families (including a cricket game). Sports celebs such as blind Roller Derby star Sammy Skobel, who lives in Mount Prospect, will be on hand to tell stories about the good old days. The Chicago Historical Society is at 1602 N. Clark in Chicago (312-642-4600). There’s a suggested donation of $5, $3 for students and seniors, $1 for kids 6 to 12.
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“The Best Cigarette,” wrote poet laureate Billy Collins, was the one he lit up “when I would have a little something going / in the typewriter, / the sun bright in the windows, / maybe some Berlioz on in the background.” Collins sent his “last one out a car window / sparking along the road one night, years ago”–but can still evoke the “vaporous hope” they lent him, along with all the other fleeting pleasures of contemporary life. He’ll read from and discuss his work tonight at the last of Literary Circle’s 2002-’03 series of author’s lectures. It starts at 7:30 at Glenbrook South High School, 4000 W. Lake in Glenview. General admission tickets are $25; it’s $48 if you want to attend a reception with Collins after the event. Call 847-353-7143.
“Anyone can do it. You just sit in front of the computer in a catatonic state,” says Ken Nordine, the alchemist behind the long-running radio feature Word Jazz, of the meditative computer-generated short films he’s been creating over the past five years. “With Word Jazz, the images are made by the greatest cinematographer there is–which is your own fantasy and imagination. I wanted something nonintrusive you could watch and tie into what you’re hearing, but not compete with it. That way it’s more dreamlike.” Nordine, who’s working on a DVD, will screen and discuss a selection of his Image Jazz experimental films tonight at 8 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, Chicago. Tickets are $8; call 312-846-2800.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Johnny Knight.
