Chicago artist Nick Cave will be fully clothed as he launches lecture series with slide presentation

It's surprising how bold, outrageous and avant-garde such a softspoken man can be. While his art screams chaos, unity, survival and oppression, Nick Cave explains his catharsis through art in what sounds like, in comparison to his daring work, a whisper.

Tonight, the Committee on Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender studies launches its three-part lecture series, "Race, Gender, Sexuality and Identity in Visual Art," with a slide presentation by Cave, a professor at the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. [Read article]

Chicago-based artist well-known for use of layers, rich colors

Contrast creates interest. Artist Andrew Young illustrates this concept in his exhibit "Collages," which features layers upon layers of images and delicate hand-painted paper, all contrasting in texture, color and feel. "Collages," an exhibit of Young's work from 1998 to 1999, is at the Joseph Gross Gallery on campus until Feb. 21. The gallery is the exhibit's next-to-last stop after almost two years of traveling to places like Chicago, North Carolina and Germany. [Read article]

A conga drum beats the pure rhythm of soul. What is soul? The timbale, bass, trombone, and trumpet chime in an attempt to answer. This is the essence of Latin jazz, a musical style growing in popularity around the world. Conguero Poncho Sanchez and his band are the leaders of this revolution.

The band was formed 20 years ago after Sanchez played the conga drums for seven years for Cal Tjader's band, one of his favorite groups to listen to before he went professional. Since then, Sanchez's own group has made 22 recordings, toured around the world, and won many prestigious awards, the most prestigious of which was a Grammy in 1999 for the album Latin Soul. The band plays tonight at Centennial Hall at 7:30. [Read article]

Splicing a feminist and a religious woman is a little like freezing a dead person. You have heard of the procedure, know it exists, it sounds interesting, but you are a little confused about how it works. Anne Lamott steps out of a cylinder of dry ice just to prove how this can be done. What seems like a dichotomy is actually a marvelous way for her to live life. And along the way, she has written all about it in "Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith." [Read article]

The best thing about watching "The Recruit" is staring at Colin Farrell, the hot young Irish actor who does his sexy-smart-strong guy thing for two hours. Unlike lots of stars who know they're hot, this guy is even hotter because he doesn't seem to realize how hot he is.

Fortunately the movie is more than just a hot cast; in fact, it's pretty smart, sometimes witty and always deceiving. But above all, what's most fun about "The Recruit" is being sucked into the ultimate world of espionage where people play with cool gadgets, cool computers and cool security, bringing to life the surreal, but very real, cyber-world we sometimes forget we live in. [Read article]

It happens every Oscar night. It comes time for the Best Documentary award, and you can see the looks on the faces of the people nominated for non-Holocaust-related films. Total resignation.

Not that movies about the Holocaust don't sometimes deserve recognition. But seriously, we've got this idea that panning a film is panning what it's about, and nobody wants to sit through a depiction of what most people consider the worst thing in living memory, then turn around and say "Eh, it didn't really do it for me." [Read article]