Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. As a 16-year-old ninth grader in Brookfield, Haydock started his band the Boppers, modelled after Vincent’s backup group, the Blue Caps. Eventually known as Ron Haydock & the Boppers, they became one of Chicago’s first proper rock ‘n’ roll groups, back when the sound was still rooted in rockabilly (Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, et cetera)....

Wolfram Lotz’s fractured take on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (and its famous cinematic version, Apocalypse Now) started out as a radio script, inspired by the 2010 trial of Somali pirates in Hamburg. In Sideshow Theatre Company’s hallucinatory staging of Lotz’s script (translated by Daniel Brunet and adapted by director Ian Damont Martin), we’re thrust into a disjointed world that moves between “Oaktown” (aka Oakland, California), where a young pirate (Meagan Dilworth) faces trial and offers a meandering explanation to the court, and a dark river journey straight out of Conrad....

An advertisement allegedly produced by Aeromexico recently went viral offering a discount proportional to the percentage of Mexican heritage its American customers could demonstrate. In the video, tequila-loving, burrito-eating ‘Murrikans aren’t sure if they are winning or getting a booby prize for the (spoiler!) Mexican blood found flowing through their pale, pale veins. This is only funny because the same xenophobia that conceived of the one-drop rule hasn’t been bred or bled out yet....

Jefferson Park Farmers Market6/2-10/23: second and fourth Sunday, 10 AM, 4820 N. Long. Independence Park Farmers Market6/12-10/23: second and fourth Sunday, 10 AM, Irving Park and Springfield. Federal Plaza Farmers Market5/17-10/25: 7 AM, Adams and Dearborn. Columbus Park Farmers Market6/28-9/27: 2 PM, Harrison and Central. Ravenswood Farmers Market5/25-9/14: 4 PM, Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church, 4900 N. Damen.

Sue Kwong This winter, the Reader has set a humble goal for itself: to determine the Greatest Chicago Book Ever Written. We chose 16 books that reflected the wide range of books that have come out of Chicago and the wide range of people who live here and assembled them into an NCAA-style bracket. Then we recruited a crack team of writers, editors, booksellers, and scholars as well as a few Reader staffers to judge each bout....

When the movie is made of Donald Trump’s crusade for president, cinephiles will have the feeling they’ve seen this show before. And look at their leaders in Congress. Is Mitch McConnell an interesting person? Is Paul Ryan? Does either quicken your pulse? And what about the statehouses? Does Scott Walker push your buttons? How about Kansas’s zany Sam Brownback or our own Bruce Rauner, exuding testosterone as if it were the last quarter-inch of caked toothpaste?...

The Native, the new bar in the long-dormant space formerly occupied by the late-night dive Bonny’s, has an unexpected draw: a friendly, bouncy puppy named Dolly whose pure delight in everything she encounters is infectious. On a recent evening at the bar, she was particularly taken with watching people play a shuffleboard-style bowling game in the back, occasionally batting at the puck as it sailed by. Her owners, Jared and Carly Savocchi, also own the Native, which they opened late last month as a low-key neighborhood bar....

Even though William Shakespeare never set foot in Chicago, the writer’s influence has long been palpable in the city, and the Newberry Library has the collection to prove it. In conjunction with the citywide celebration of Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, Shakespeare 400 Chicago, “Creating Shakespeare,” a new exhibit, features nearly 200 Bard-related objects, including a playbill from 1862 that credits John Wilkes Booth as the lead in Othello at Chicago’s McVicker’s Theater, a personal ad signed “Hamlet and Iago” from an 1877 newspaper, and a collection of facial hair from Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s costume department....

Canceled events, publishing delays, shuttered bookstores—in many ways, 2020 was an awful year for Chicago writers. But it was a fantastic year for Chicago readers, at least when it comes to new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. To keep this list manageable, I’ve limited it to books with a strong emphasis on the city itself. That means you won’t see books set elsewhere, like Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive and Kathleen Rooney’s Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, nor books with broader subject matter, like Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism....

Jeremy Pelt has firmly established himself as one of the finest mainstream trumpeters in jazz, zigzagging among varied projects but retaining a strong identity. His latest recording, High Art (HighNote), is billed to the Power Quintet, a skilled combo that works within the tradition, summoning the spirit of classic 50s hard bop but adding a measured contemporary sheen. Joined by pianist and longtime colleague Danny Grissett, liquid-toned vibist Steve Nelson, redoubtable bassist Peter Washington, and casually versatile drummer Bill Stewart, Pelt complements the music’s brisk swing with his melodic fluidity and pure, plush tone....

At a time when the word “organic” defines responsible living and municipalities wring their hands over soil contamination, stormwater management, and the overtaxed sewer system, how do we put two and two together and harvest the rich minerals and organisms present in our waste streams? Working with waste challenges cultural taboos, as well as presenting as an environmental risk. But sane, safe, low-tech systems for processing waste also present a real solution to reconnecting our bodies to earth....

This story was originally published by ProPublica. In the letter, I had asked him about a murder I’d been examining: the unsolved killing of a prominent Black politician in Chicago. I had reason to think he knew something about it. Nearly six decades later, no one has been brought to justice for executing Lewis, thought to be the last elected official murdered in Chicago. Officially, the case is still open, but Ben Lewis has faded from public memory....

One of the most respected film essayists in America, Thom Andersen is best known for his cult classic Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003), an epic meditation on the town he calls home and its deep connection to the history of the movies. For nearly three hours, Andersen combs through the city in search of locations that appeared in famous (and not so famous) films, juxtaposing his own footage with archival clips to show how real places became part of our collective imagination....

Jeff Roberson/AP Photos Addison Russell and Starlin Castro It’s as true in baseball as it is in academia: it’s not enough to win—your enemy must also lose. The Cubs weren’t simply two runs behind; the Cardinals were two runs ahead! Let’s say the Cardinals were playing at home against the Pirates, while the Cubs, hot on the Cardinals’ heels, were playing in Wrigley against the Brewers. The Cardinals led their game 2-0 while the Cubs’ game was scoreless....

If you were a young American feminist in the late 90s or early 00s with a penchant for punk and indie rock, there’s a good chance you grew up listening to Sleater-Kinney. Formed by guitarist-vocalists Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein in 1994 and completed by longtime drummer Janet Weiss in 1996, the group spent their first decade delivering increasingly adventurous albums that merge vibrant guitar interplay and dynamic drumming with smart, sometimes intimate, sometimes biting lyrics....

From Brianna Wellen’s introduction, “Losses and gains: Best of Chicago 2020”: Some business to get out of the way: the reader poll results were determined by you, the readers! If you’re angry about the results, you only have yourselves to blame! Let this be a reminder to keep a close eye on when voting begins next year so you can campaign for your favorites to get the top spot. Or better yet, share your own losses and gains on social media and tag us @Chicago_Reader with the hashtags #bestofchi and #BoC2020....

Since arriving in Chicago in 1980, Ohio native Hollis Resnik has embodied a pantheon of troublesome troubled women. She’s inadvertently eaten her children as Tamora, Queen of the Goths. As a Mother Superior of a Jersey convent, she helped her sisters outwit gun-toting mobsters. She’s traversed into the woods as a witch. She’s dreamed and died in Parisian penury, screamed of demons setting London on fire, carpe diem’ed through the Great Depression in Manhattan, celebrated angels in 20th-century America, revolutionized the dress code for the Hampton elite, and outfoxed a family of southern vipers....

Alpacas, Sputnik, exotic wooden fonts, Prairie School architecture, underwater war machines, and the exact spot where the ice cream sundae was invented in 1881 (maybe)—all within a three-hour drive of Chicago—make a trip to Two Rivers and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a total must. A short drive away in Manitowoc, you can check out the Frisbee-size brass ring embedded just a few feet north of the intersection of North Eighth and Park Streets, which marks the spot where a chunk of the Soviet Korabl Sputnik-1 satellite crashed to earth in 1960....

Magic Inc. has more than a few tricks up its sleeve. Set foot inside the shop and you’re quickly greeted by affable clerks who also happen to be highly skilled magicians ready to demonstrate almost any illusion. On a given day, tricksters stop in to socialize and kill time comparing card-shuffling techniques, collectors breeze in on a hunt for rare magic books, and wide-eyed children cross the threshold to experience the wonder of magic—and its attendant accessories—for the first time....

Since the Michigan Avenue Apple Store opened in 2017, its Macbook-sleek design and proximity to the river have attracted crowds of Mag Mile shoppers, not just to buy or to seek tech support for Apple products but also to attend free events from the store’s busy calendar of classes, panel discussions, live interviews, and performances. As part of its Today at Apple series, the tech giant’s flagship Chicago location regularly hosts local musicians and other creative workers in front of an enormous video wall—a space it calls the Forum....