Arts Features

WFMT's Sarah Zwinklis talks with Goodman Theatre Chief Makeup Designer and Depaul Theater School professor Nan Zabriskie about stage makeup and a do-it-yourself recipe for fake blood to use this Halloween. Nan's Fake Blood Recipe: -1 cup dark corn syrup -1 tsp. red food coloring (not too much!) Options: -1 drop green food coloring (if darker blood is desired) -a bit of peanut butter (for the guts effect)

October 25th of this year marks the centennial of twentieth-century American poet John Berryman, whose works earned him a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize.  In this weeks Arts Feature, Barryman reads his poem "Whether There Is Sorrow in the Demons," as recorded by WFMT in March of 1958 at Loyola University of Chicago. The Hold Steady makes reference to Berryman in the song "Stuck Between Stations" (beginning with the song's second verse) from their 2006 record The Boys and Girls in America.

The fall concert season is underway, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra welcomed back its music director Riccardo Muti for the opening weeks of concerts.  The CSO has just released a new recording of a suite from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet on its CSO Resound label.  WFMT's Lisa Flynn has the story. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's new release is Lisa Flynn's New Release of the Week. Hear Andrew Patner's recent full-length Critical Thinking interview with Riccardo Muti.

CHGO DSGN, a major exhibition of recent object and graphic design (curated by Rick Valecenti with displays designed by Tim Parsons) is up through November 2 at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington in downtown Chicago.  Admission is free, and the exhibition features works from more than 100 of Chicago's top design talents.  The final panel discussion, Speculative Design, takes place at CCC Saturday, October 11 at 1:30pm, and will be moderated by Rick Valecenti.  WFMT's Critic-at-large Andrew Patner has the story.  

David Bowie Is features a massive collection of artifacts from the cultural icon's 50-plus year career, and is up through 1/4/2015 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.  WFMT's Sarah Zwinklis brings us the story in this week's Arts Feature.

This week, WFMT's Daniel Goldberg visits Manifold, just one of the numerous artists and art businesses whose work will be on display as part of the 13th Annual Ravenswood Art Walk, which runs October 4-5 and kicks off with an opening reception at the Ravenswood Events Center, October 3rd from 7:30pm - 10:30pm.

The great American writer Truman Capote was born in 1924, died just shy of 60, and would have turned 90 on September 30th.  To mark the occasion, we found a real gem in WFMT's reel-to-reel archives to mark; Capote reading the first chapter of an early draft of his novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, in which the protagonist's name was "Connie Golightly."  Capote, of course, changed the character’s first name to "Holly" before the story was published later that year.   The reading was recorded by WFMT at the University of Chicago in 1958 for a Storytellers broadcast.

September 5th marked the 102 anniversary of the birth of the American avant-garde composer, artist, and writer, John Cage. The man, who said, “I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry,” received much acclaim for his poetic works, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an appointment as the Charles Elliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University for the 1988’-89’ academic year.  His lectures have been published by Harvard University Press under the title I-IV. One afternoon in March, 1992, at the same time the artist had a visual exhibition up at the Museum of Contemporary Art, he performed a reading at The Poetry Center of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  From that appearance, originally recorded by WFMT for broadcast on WFMT, we will hear John Cage reading his 1991 work titled “Overpopulation and Art.”

In honor of the passing of Wicker Park's Queen Bee, Sophie Madej, and inspired by Dave Hoekstra's post on his website, WFMT's Critic at Large, Andrew Patner, takes us on the journey to Chicago's West neighborhood, through the words and voice of Chicago novelist Nelson Algren in this week's Arts Feature. This web addition of this week's Arts Feature includes another selection of Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make. Links: Nelson Algren Reads From The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren Reads His Poem "On the Heart It Don’t Matter How You Spell It"

After thirty years in the Chicago advertising industry, longtime Fox Valley resident Nick Freeman is dedicating all of his time to doing what he loves--painting local scenes that catch his eye, and also documenting Chicago-area neon signs--an art form that he says is disappearing quickly.  Through the end of the month, Freeman's lifetime of works are being featured in a two-floor show called "The Wine of Life" at The Norris Cultural Arts Center in Saint Charles.  The show is the first of its kind in the Norris Gallery's 36-year history.  WFMT's Matt DeStefano brings us the story in this week's Arts Feature.