Stood up

Boy George has been grounded. The New York mounting of his autobiographical musical, "Taboo," has encountered what producer Rosie O'Donnell has vaguely called "technical problems." For Chicagoans, this means they will not see Boy George spin at Zentra Nightclub on Halloween. Zentra's website explains his U.S. DJ tour was canceled because the much-hyped musical is "completely behind schedule and went completely over budget." An email from Boy George's London-based booking agent is also posted on the site. "I realize that this is a blow to you guys and as you know the whole thing is one big mess for us," she writes, then adds that dates for a Boy George Chicago appearance are being planned for March. Calls to Zentra and to Boy George's various representatives in LA and London were not returned as of press time.

Stepped out

For Usama Alshaibi's first photography exhibition in Chicago, he selected stills from two of his films, "Traumata" and "Convulsion Expulsion," in which models are respectively bruised and bandaged and have various fluids flowing from their orifices. "And they were upset," the artist jokes. "Can you believe it?" What he's referring to is the altercation surrounding the inaugural show at Elston Gallery that caused Alshaibi to withdraw his photos right before the opening. The filmmaker says that the gallery owner, Chris Chandler, became nervous the day after he viewed the photographs, and tried to move Alshaibi's work from the main wall into his bedroom (the gallery is in his home.) Chandler admits that he was not familiar with Alshabi's usually provocative subject material, and was surprised by the "wounded women." "On the first night, when we were starting to hang, he put four of his images along the main wall. I called him the next morning and said that I was going to have to rearrange the show, that I didn't feel comfortable with that being the main wall. What I offered was one of his pictures on the opposite wall, and the adjoining room in which he could show other pictures and videos. The idea was to segregate it," says Chandler. Alshaibi then sent out an email telling people not to attend the show. "I want to make clear that I did not tell him he could not participate in the show," Chandler says. "I have no hard feelings with them," Alshaibi says, "but if I'm going to have a show I'm not going to have it in the guy's bedroom."

(2003-10-29)

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