Steeped in highly formal tradition and ceremony, the world of Indian classical music is overwhelming to most Westerners. The subtle distinctions that mark the music’s myriad variations are downright perplexing, and something called the raga dictates everything from its complex rhythmic circles to the time of day it’s heard. While classical music is primarily instrumental and stresses the performer’s creativity and virtuosity within these rigid constructs, light classical forms are less technically rigorous and typically place a greater emphasis on lyrical poetry....

JIMMY SOMERVILLE 9/1, VORTEX A pioneer in what has come to be known as gay disco–he served stints in British synth-pop bands Bronski Beat and the Communards–Jimmy Somerville exploits a piercing falsetto to produce consistently banal love songs. His new solo outing Dare to Love (London) alternates between soft-edged techno and quasi-soulful pop, but all the tunes offer are familiar meditations on relationships and sex–‘cept that he’s singing about another he....

The 152 Addison Street bus was standing room only on the way to the Cubs game a week ago Sunday, even 90 minutes before the first pitch. Upon arriving, fans were in line for tickets with brooms in hand, as the Cubs threatened to sweep the Montreal Expos after winning the first two games of the series. Outside the ballpark it seemed like any other weekend game on an April afternoon, as if the eight-month baseball strike had never taken place....

There was a fallen John Starks tripping Scottie Pippen with a scissors kick in the first game, and Patrick Ewing hitting two big shots late to seal another comeback New York victory in the second. There was Ewing sitting in his locker before the third game, dribbling a basketball back and forth under his legs to the rhythm of the music that overflowed from the headphones of his Walkman; Derek Harper and Jo Jo English locked in a wrestling hold spinning toward the first row of seats, and the bench-clearing brouhaha spilling into the stands; an angered Pippen almost pounding the ball into the floor as he slowly dribbled upcourt during another fourth-quarter collapse, then asking out of the final play when it was called for Toni Kukoc; and Kukoc hitting the shot, being presented the ball afterward, and heaving it into the stands....

The Upright Citizens Brigade: Millennium Approaches and The Upright Citizens Brigade: Perestroika, at Second City E.T.C. and the Improv-Olympic. A newly constructed suburban home with a “hot chicks” recreation room. A shy Girl Scout who befriends and betrays the Unabomber. Two couples playing the “in bed” game with their fortune cookies. Little Donny, whose enormous penis causes his peers to ostracize him. A burned-out cop who resumes his duties to catch a kidnapper....

More than 20 years ago, when Korean-born violinist Young Uck Kim was learning Stravinsky’s Duo Concertant, he saw Balanchine’s ballet version on TV and was entranced. Now he–along with pianist Staffan Scheja and New York City Ballet principal dancers Darci Kistler and Nikolaj Hubbe–is getting a chance to participate in a re-creation of Stravinsky and Balanchine’s original collaboration, which starts with the dancers listening, then moving in response to what they hear, and segueing into a series of extravagant histrionics before repeating the initial gestures....

For Mathew Wilson, art is whatever he says it is. Or it’s not. It all depends on your perception of things. Or it doesn’t. “It’s art because I call it art,” he says. “It’s up to you whether you like it or not.” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » To add to the working kitchen and bathroom that are already part of the theater, Wilson and Martinez-Almaral are importing a futon (to share), a record player and records, an organ (which neither knows how to play), and a crow’s nest from which to address the audience....

Friday 11/22 – Thursday 11/28 Local poet Lisel Mueller has written seven collections of poetry and a volume of essays; in 1981 she won the American Book Award for poetry for The Need to Hold Still. Her latest collection, Alive Together: New and Selected Poems, contains work that spans her 35-year career. Her daughter Jenny is also an accomplished poet whose work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and the Best American Poetry anthology in 1994....

When the CHA found aluminum frames being stolen off windows at the Robert Taylor Homes five years ago, it accused David Coleman, a 38-year-old CHA maintenance supervisor, of the thefts. On April 29, 1989, CHA chairman Vince Lane, having interrogated Coleman in a police cell, announced that he’d identified the “tip of the iceberg” of a burglary ring responsible for stealing millions of dollars’ worth of equipment and supplies. The CHA fired Coleman and prosecuted him on charges of theft and official misconduct, offenses that can bring a 40-year jail sentence....

THE SACRED BRIDGE Joel Cohen, director of the Camerata, is well-known not only for his musical scholarship but for his refreshing approach to programming. The concert (whose title is derived from the late Eric Werner’s pioneering study of Jewish and Christian liturgical music) was not only an intriguing showcase of rarely heard music but an engaging exploration of boundaries–those between cultures, and those between performers and their audiences. Best of Chicago voting is live now....

Walter Andersons One work made me wonder whether Andersons is ambivalent toward the whole idea of the artist as creator of “original” forms. Die Fahne Hoch (Stella) is a pencil drawing Andersons made of a small reproduction of a Frank Stella painting of the same name, a characteristically geometric composition. Then Andersons covered his pencil drawing with a sheet of paper, pressed against the drawing so that it seems there are tiny relief effects from the pencil areas....

ME, ME, ME, ME, ME!, at Famous Door Theatre. Todd Petersen offers his own five ages of man in a solo show he created with director Patrick New. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » At 45 minutes Me, Me, Me, Me, Me! is not exactly overdeveloped, but it’s a sweet-tempered look at the discontinuities that together forge a personality. Resembling Lily Tomlin’s bratty, adenoidal Edith Ann, the first “me” is PJ, a twerpy thespian toddler who turns his mother’s force-feeding of mashed potatoes into his first Big Scene....

Lead Story Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Acting on parents’ complaints, the Israeli army announced in July that a paratroop commander, Captain Shai Engler, would be court-martialed for repeatedly biting newly assigned men on the buttocks. Engler’s subordinates would bring the men into Engler’s tent and pull their pants down. Engler defended himself by saying, “The goal was, among other things, to test the sergeants’ cheek muscles and to make sure they would get [moving]....

“We will cut the heads off the Americans…we will devour them,” said a 25-year-old bus driver, making eating noises as he pretended to gnaw on human bones. “Military suicide,” he says. “Strategic theory abhors a vacuum. Tactical impasse–you kill them and they keep coming back. You’ve seen the movies! Go up against an army of zombies? Why?” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “Like what?...

When he was a child, Guillermo Delgado’s mother would entertain him with stories about his grandfather, a stern, mustachioed rancher in northern Mexico. The story he remembers best concerns his grandfather’s abrupt death. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The images of his grandfather, the pistols, and the orange Pep bottle stuck with Delgado and inspired him to create a series of nine monoprints, Pep, Pistolas y Abuelito, now on display at Mi Casa Su Casa restaurant in west Lincoln Park....

BLOODLINE 2/24, SCHUBAS Bloodline includes the sons of some famous musicians–Miles Davis, Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger, and Allman Brothers bassist Berry Oakley–and if not for their fortunate births they would be sent straight to the H.O.R.D.E. category. The band’s blues-rock is accomplished enough but lacks any touch of originality, and the lyrics that help to sink their insufferable eponymous debut provide textbook examples of dumb rock cliches: “Her love is like a needle in my arm,” or perhaps you’d like to try “I am running through the darkness, can’t find my way / Is this what was promised, now alone I lay....

The Return of the Film Fest Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Gaynor says her responsibilities will include “watching over what everyone does and making sure jobs that need to be done are taken care of.” She’s also been saddled with the tough job of rustling up last-minute sponsors. A week ago she traveled to the local offices of Eastman Kodak in Oak Brook, but when asked the outcome of her visit would only cross her fingers....

Nightwalking: Voices From Kent State Nowhere is this tendency toward solipsism more apparent than in our fumbling attempts to come to terms with the waning years of the Vietnam war. As Ronald E. Yates wrote in last Sunday’s Tribune, “The final siege of Saigon remains as vivid for me today as it was that dark morning 20 years ago, down to the smallest detail. I can still recall how cool the cracked ruby tiles of my room felt as I padded across them and out onto the balcony....

Following the pro basketball season is sort of like watching a spring bulb flower. After things are planted in the fall there is a long, cold, dreary time in which nothing much seems to happen. It’s important only for how it alters the chemistry of the bulb. While NBA teams, of course, try to win every game during the cold winter months of the regular season, they’re reluctant to put their full array of tricks on display....

As usual, we gathered in front of the television last Sunday for the Bears game, but our attitude toward the team was radically altered. This had happened through no fault of the players (though they would soon disillusion the fans in their own unique fashion). It would have been comforting to sink into the game in our usual manner, to obsess over the line play and defensive schemes, with the greatest philosophical issue being whether the Bears could still be considered the Bears if they played more like the late-70s San Diego Chargers than the mid-80s Monsters of the Midway....