To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Mr. Kiercul is surprised at the comments of the controversial neighbor which ended the piece. He hopes that it is well understood that the reason he was forced to hire attorneys as well as a public relations consultant is precisely because he, as an entrepreneurial immigrant, was not previously able to tell his side of the complicated story of just how a small group of persons–for various reasons which may include pure jealousy, the need for one scapegoat to take the blame for the growing petty-crime rate in the neighborhood, and inability to appreciate ethnic culture which differed from their own–sought to drive him and his family from the area by disrupting his business, causing petty grievances to be filed against his business in local courts and harassing him through sporadic marches, bizarre surveillance methods, and even the use of a bomb threat which was phoned in on September 4, 1992, and which is still being investigated....

In the Water In the Water, an evening-length piece, is structured a bit like a Balinese performance. It starts with a procession of musicians and dancers–a mad clatter of drums and other percussion that begins in the lobby and makes its way onto the stage by the two aisles in the auditorium. Six musicians from the group Ulele playing drums precede six women holding small straw baskets containing flower petals. The musicians retire to a corner of the stage, where they play for the rest of the performance....

Marvin Sease, whose 80s-era hit “(Let Me Be Your) Candy Licker” elevated cunnilingus to the level of radio theater, is one of several contemporary blues artists who’ve developed the modern folk legend of “Jody,” a rakish trickster who sneaks through back doors to seduce lonely housewives while their husbands slave away earnestly at nine-to-five jobs. Sease’s recent LP on the Jive label finds him as roguish as ever (“I Ate the Whole Thing,” “The Housekeeper”) but also capable of a convincing deep-soul sincerity (“She’s the Woman I Love”)....

You’ve no doubt heard of the monsters of rock and the dinosaurs of rock; Peter Stampfel is a genuine insect of rock, an amusing, somewhat cartoony little creature who has flitted across more than three decades of American music and provided, along the way, a lot more pleasure than any dinosaur you can name. Half beat, half hippie, he teamed up with Steve Weber in the infamous Holy Modal Rounders in the 60s, creating a loopy but enjoyable legacy of what was then called acid folk....

Kaylie’s tousled brown hair partially hides the tears crawling down her young face. “I got into a fight with my grandmother the night before she died,” she chokes out. “Is she OK? Is she with us?” She gazes into a cup of coffee, then looks at Kaylie sheepishly. “One li’l question for you,” she says, drawing the words out. “How’s your husband’s sexual energy?” Best of Chicago voting is live now....

The maps in Howard Learner’s office tell the story all too well: since 1960 the cornfields of Lake County have been plowed into parking lots, as thousands of industrial jobs have left Chicago. In addition, there’s a heated debate about the possible environmental devastation of paving wetlands and cornfields. And many Lake and Will County residents say the new toll roads will make congestion worse–by opening the area to more development and encouraging more people to drive....

Hey faggot: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » I am a relatively “normal” heterosexual male in my late 20s with one problem: herpes. I don’t have a problem getting dates or going out, but when it’s time to hop into bed, I have to admit what I have, and as you can probably guess, the results aren’t great. How and/or where can I meet others with herpes?...

There was something of the pomp–and the tedium–of a coronation to the Bulls’ championship-ring ceremony and home opener this month. With its spotlights and repetitive musical fanfares, it was an affair so bombastic it could have been a Leni Riefenstahl production. Yet the crowd was less than ecstatic. “Oh yes, this is how it goes,” the packed house at the United Center seemed to say. “After all, it hasn’t been that long since the last one, not even the four years of a president’s term....

The mood around the White Sox at the end of the season was dominated by a severe and almost tangible sense of loss. Another in a series of career years from Frank Thomas; 101 runs batted in from comeback-of-the-year candidate Danny Tartabull; the first 30-homer, 100-RBI season from Robin Ventura; unthinkable campaigns by 37-year-olds Harold Baines and Tony Phillips; a marvelous season, offensively and defensively (at several different positions), out of Dave Martinez; Ray Durham establishing himself in the majors; Alex Fernandez silencing doubts about whether he was a legitimate ace and a big-game pitcher; Roberto Hernandez bouncing back to regain his position as one of the dominant closers in the game; and even Terry Bevington’s early season job reinvigorating the players and instilling an appreciation for the fundamentals–all wasted....

To the editors: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » This statue was actually completed by early September of 1992, when it was illegally placed and dedicated in Humboldt Park by Congressman Gutierrez and Alderman Billy Ocasio. It was immediately removed by the Park District after protests from the Puerto Rican and other ethnic members of the Humboldt Park community. When alerted that the statue was once again being considered, the Humboldt Park Civic Committee issued a press release and asked for a public hearing on the issue....

THE TIES THAT BIND Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “Overcome them with yes’s, undermine them with smiles,” Walter Gaines says, remembering his grandfather’s instructions. But Gaines, the businessman whose journey we follow in Inside the Belly of the Beast, finds that sharper weapons are required. Imaginatively and powerfully staged by Shirley Jo Finney (with help from John Culbert’s set and Robert Christen’s lights), Gaines’s workday is a whirlwind of derisive, masked white figures....

From the pages of Fat!So? Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » For years and years I didn’t go to Disneyland, fearful that I would wedge myself into Space Mountain only to be unable to get out again. The fact that I was terrified of roller coasters had nothing to do with it, I swear. When the opportunity for a four-day family trip to Disney came up recently, I was raring to go....

Another Midsummer Night If you pardon, we will mend . . . Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » There’s nothing inherently wrong with a lightweight musical in the summer, of course; but the similar premises and contrasting results of Goodman’s first and last shows this season are too pointed to ignore. Furthermore, the promise of a new work by composer Jeffrey Lunden, librettist Arthur Perlman, and director Michael Maggio–the team responsible for Goodman’s sublime Wings a couple of seasons back–raises expectations so high that the shallow results can’t help but disappoint....

This festival of films and videos by black artists from all over the world–which replaces the Blacklight Film Festival and has a new team of programmers–runs through Tuesday, July 18, at the Film Center, Art Institute, Columbus Drive at Jackson. Tickets are $5, $3 for Film Center members; a $30 festival pass is good for admission to each film. For more information call 443-3737) When It Rains Best of Chicago voting is live now....

Jeff started working at the Sheriff’s six months before I did. He was an investigator, I was an administrative assistant. I got fired after nine years, in 1986. Jeff went on to become an assistant director. On April 27 he starts a seven-month prison term for fixing deputy tests. After only one week of gun school I was legally authorized to carry a gun. I even got a low-numbered gold badge because I was an office supervisor....

On a hot day in early May a group of Columbia College art students are hanging out in front of the school to catch some rays as the sun beats down, warming the sidewalks and parking lots of South Wabash. In the college’s dim cafeteria, less than a hundred yards away, Sarah Petronio is tap-dancing. When she dances, Petronio is sublimely cool–cool enough to pull people out of the spring sunshine into the packed cafeteria....

Gang of Four Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » I sensed that bands like Gang of Four represented the next step beyond the literal hard-core punk I was into at the time. It was like reading Forced Exposure when you were starting to grow out of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll. You knew it was the next thing you’d be into, yet you weren’t sophisticated or experienced enough to grasp its content....

GUY CLARK Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Texas has produced a ridiculous bounty of smart, nonconformist country artists in the last three decades–among them Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Billy Joe Shaver, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, and Kelly Willis. But Guy Clark, who’s the most reflective bard of the highly literate bunch, insists he’s just a folksinger, and his tendency to paint lovingly detailed portraits within gorgeously measured musical settings separates him from most of the shit-kicking, hard-drinking Texans above....

During the crucial February TV ratings sweeps, comedy shows pack in more comedy and dramas wallow in even more drama. Perversely, news shows don’t get newsier. They feature special reports hyped in newspaper, TV, and radio ads. Take Fox News on Tuesday, February 7, the second night of Walter Jacobson’s well-publicized undercover homeless stint. MONDAY 2/6 Reporter’s Quote: “Despite the disguise, I was at times recognized. But that was OK, beacuse the people then opened up even more to me, realizing I was a reporter....

By Rick Mosher The two men are Haruo Nakajima and Kenpachiro Satsuma, actors famous–in some circles–for their ability to convey both triumph and heartbreak from within the confines of a bulky rubber suit. Godzilla, the scaly, fire-breathing monster awakened by a Pacific H-bomb test, appeared in a seemingly endless string of formulaic films beginning with the Japanese release Gojira in 1954. Gojira was released in America two years later–with added footage featuring Raymond Burr, no less–as Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and the sequel parade was soon off and running....