ARTIST: Francisco RamirezSHOW: Nonagon, Tyranny Is Tyranny, Oxblood, and As Hell at Quenchers Saloon on Fri 1/16MORE INFO: bureauprintresearchdesign.com

There’s nothing like a block party to bring neighborhood folks to the yard. And Eric Williams, owner of the Silver Room boutique, throws a block party that can’t be beat. In 2002, the Silver Room put on its first block party, catering primarily to its most loyal customers and friends. Over the years, the event gradually expanded until attendance reached the thousands. With larger crowds came a larger lineup, and the free festival became more and more difficult for the Silver Room to manage on its own....

Now still being the winter of our discontent, it feels unwarranted for the Goodman Theatre to run its air conditioner on high, as if we could forget for a moment the urban tundra that encircles its new production of The Winter’s Tale, directed by Robert Falls. But a chilly excess characterizes this rendition of Shakespeare’s romance about the destructive jealousy of Sicilian king Leontes (played with muttering intensity by Dan Donohue) and his Job-like redemption, with a comic interlude of song and so forth in the pastoral land of Bohemia....

Sabaton are celebrating their 20th year of existence in style. The Swedish power-metal band kicked off 2019 with the launch of their own YouTube channel, which focuses on the history that fuels their songwriting, and in July they released their ninth album, the World War I-inspired The Great War. Sabaton are no stranger to exploring such landmark events through their music; previous records have focused on World War II (2010’s Coat of Arms), the rise and fall of the Swedish empire (2012’s Carolus Rex), and noteworthy final stands throughout military history (2016’s The Last Stand)....

Courtesy of Moniker Records Ono Back in January, local live sound engineer and Anatomy of Habit bassist Kenny Rasmussen hosted a free, all-ages, Saturday-afternoon punk show at Bridgeport’s Richard J. Daley Branch Chicago Public Library in an effort to take underground music out of bars and make it available to people who usually can’t make it out to late-night gigs. The show was a rousing success, packed with punk-rock dads and their little kids enjoying sets from Radar Eyes, Toupee, and Den....

Guerrilla Truck Show 2016

Back by popular demand: The Back Room Deal features radio personality and longtime Reader political writer Ben Joravsky arguing local Chicago politics with Reader senior writer Maya Dukmasova. With sharp wit and stinging analysis, Joravsky and Dukmasova cut through the smokey haze of the elections to offer you a glimpse of the 2020 Chicago-area Illinois primary races—local and Cook County-level and, of course, U.S. presidential. Will these historic elections be determined in back-room deals, like so many in Chicago’s past?...

Led by Jon Langford of the Mekons and the Waco Brothers, Chicago alt-country band the Pine Valley Cosmonauts have covered plenty of ground in their quarter century or so of existence: they’ve made tribute albums for icons such as Bob Wills and Johnny Cash, spearheaded a series of death-themed covers compilations called The Executioner’s Last Songs, and provided backing for solo musicians, including Chicago folkie Kelly Hogan and Chumbawamba cofounder Danbert Nobacon....

“Blow Up: Inflatable Contemporary Art” and Birth Death Breath: An Inflatable Opera by Diane Christiansen and Jeanne Dunning September 10-November 27 “Every Building in Baghdad: The Rifat Chadirji Archives at the Arab Image Foundation” September 15-December 31 The fifth annual edition of this contemporary-art showcase displays artwork from 140 international galleries underneath Navy Pier’s roof. But the highlight might be “Override,” for which artists (including Sanford Biggers, Vik Muniz, and Cheryl Pope) were commissioned to work on 28 billboards all across the city....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, March 18, 2016. Enjoy your weekend! Illinois’s overdue bills could reach $10 billion by this summer Illinois is in a lot of debt, and the situation is even worse than state officials originally thought. Comptroller Leslie Munger says the backlog could reach an astounding $10 billion by June. [Associated Press via ABC7 Chicago]

The Stony Island Arts Bank may soon be the trendiest place to meet for a drink on the south side. The Arts Bank has been closed to the public since January while the renovation was under way, but it will reopen Saturday with its part of a three-gallery exhibition, “Out of Easy Reach,” that features abstract artists who are women of color. (The other galleries are the DePaul Art Museum and UIC’s Gallery 400....

Few things age as quickly as topical satire, especially in an age of unrestrained Twitter bursts and 24-hour news cycles. Trump in Space, a toothless political satire created a couple years ago by the LA branch of Second City (book and lyrics by Landon Kirksey and Gillian Bellinger, music by Sam Johnides and Tony Gonzalez) and now revived here, is a case in point. Back in 2017, this show won an award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival....

Q: Why are threesomes much more accepted in the popular imagination than foursomes? I was just googling “finding foursomes” and the first result is an article about threesomes that takes for granted that people are looking for MFF. That is a form of heteronormativity, right? I am not judging threesomes, of course, but asking why foursomes are perceived as more taboo. Would be interested in knowing more about what you think about this or if you have any resources to recommend as I am approaching this now with my partner for the first time....

Q: I’ve always been excited by BDSM but I’ve only minimally explored this side of myself until very recently. I’m a straight woman and it was difficult to find men who wanted more monogamish relationships on the traditional apps and a challenge to be honest about what I am looking for where kink is concerned. I’d often get through a month or so of seeing someone before finding out they wanted a completely monogamous relationship and that they were very vanilla in the bedroom to boot....

If you go to a comedy showcase, you will see a lot of dudes. Most of the people you see onstage, in fact, will be dudes. Some people may assume that this is because dudes are, in general, funnier. These people would be wrong. Kachel had done a similar study of five showcases in 2016, but she wanted to expand her data set. So between January and October, Kachel tabulated the acts in 19 comedy shows—including one of her own, Hoo Ha Comedy—in a spreadsheet....

Don’t let the sub-zero temperature dissuade you from going out this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 1/6: B-Side Vinyl Shop + Swap, a pop-up fair at Arts Incubator (301 E. Garfield), mines the collections of record shops Wild Prairie Vinyl and Vintage and Shady Rest Vintage and Vinyl for a collection of LPs and EPs to sell. Attendees are encouraged to bring vinyl gems from home to participate in a swap....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.

In commercializing Jane Austen’s enduring appeal, playwrights Margot Melcon and Lauren Gunderson have found a surefire formula for feel-good, oft-produced holiday hits. Like 2016’s Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley checks all the right box-office boxes: clever dialogue that (sort of) gives women a voice, but without diminishing their ladylike demeanor, humor that gently addresses social justice issues without ever threatening the status quo, and—of course—the marquee value of the Austen name....

ARTIST: Don Picton SHOW: Bric-a-Brac’s Scummer Slam with Tweens, Savage Beliefs, Cowboys, Slugs, Soda Boys, and more at East Room on Sat 8/27 MORE INFO: Don’s Etsy

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, November 21, 2017.