Last week, I walked around my neighborhood looking to photograph other people who were still working amid the pandemic. I spotted a U.S. Postal Service carrier almost half a block away and waved to get her attention. I smiled, but she probably couldn’t see it behind the face mask I was wearing. It was a surgical mask, which was sent from my roommate’s mother in the Philippines. As a visual journalist, I don’t have the luxury of always working from home....
Merging elements of funk, jazz fusion, rock, international music, and jam-band fare—plus undeniable groove and melody—Snarky Puppy has emerged as an eminent name in crossover jazz. Formed in 2003 and led by bassist Michael League, the large-scale ensemble is on the road this spring in support of its 12th album, the new Immigrance (GroundUp Music). A sprawling studio production full of trumpet, sax, synths, flutes, strings, electric organ and piano, and funky rock instrumentation, it displays just as much eclecticism and proficiency as any of its predecessors, but this time the band takes a more direct approach, curtailing some of its impulses toward intricacy....
Chicago magazine political writer Carol Felsenthal interviewed Susana Mendoza in 2011 and came away “convinced”—as she would later write—that Mendoza “saw herself moving up from [city] clerk to mayor.” She’s since moved on to state comptroller, but that’s another stepping-stone position. Kass touted McQueary’s piece on Facebook. “I love it when machine Democrats pretend independence & carry Boss Madigan’s water,” he applauded. “Great column here by my colleague and friend. ....
A few years ago I was walking past Tastee-Freez, a fast-food joint on Armitage near California, when I saw workers boarding up the shacklike shop’s windows. I couldn’t help myself—I shouted “No!,” almost like Darth Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith. I understood that Tastee-Freez had to close for the season—it was the dead of winter, and snow was accumulating around my ankles at that very moment. Few people crave Oreo milk shakes when the temperature’s in the single digits....
There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 6/9: Michael Curtiz and William Keighley’s The Adventures of Robin Hood screens in 35 mm at the Music Box as part of the series “Michael Curtiz: A Retrospective.” “This 1938 film, more than any other, epitomized Warner Brothers’ supremacy in the production of rousing, elaborately staged, immaculately costumed adventures,” writes longtime Reader film critic Don Druker....
The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds. At the time, at least as Hamid presents it in his story, it was a ballsy move. Now, in a time when Second City employees—though not the performers—are voting to unionize (albeit unsuccessfully) and actors in general are less shy about speaking up about mistreatment, it seems like a harbinger of things to come....
T Friedrich Schiller published Maria Stuart in 1801, and Peter Oswald has written an English-language “version” that premiered in 2005. Oswald’s fluid, wryly funny script is the one on view at Chicago Shakespeare. It’s a hell of a yarn even if you’re being historically accurate, and Schiller/Oswald aren’t. Through 4/15: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 3/20, 7:30 PM; Sun 4/8, 6:30 PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E....
Just over a year ago, punishing local powerviolence unit Weekend Nachos celebrated their tenth anniversary with a packed gig at Beat Kitchen, but they enter 2016 with some very different news—they’re breaking up. On New Year’s Day, they posted to Facebook: “We would like to announce with both sadness and excitement that 2016 will be the final year as a band for Weekend Nachos. It’s been almost 12 years and we have decided to hang it up....
Experimental music often pushes at the edges of the unlistenable: the assaultive skronk of free jazz, the relentless, undifferentiated roar of harsh noise wall, the breakneck ceiling-fan-to-the-face tempos of death metal. Across genres and traditions, artists work toward the same goal: creating sound worlds so intolerably loud and dissonant that listeners collapse with their brains oozing from every orifice in their skulls. “A really important part of this project is this idea of sensory overload,” Kaplan says....
Motto describes the finished dish as creamy and buttery, with a meaty texture from the clams. “I think this could go on the menu, yes,” he joked after tasting it. Celery salad Diced celery and celery leaves½ teaspoon mustard1 egg yolk6 ounces canola oil1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar1 tablespoon mirinPinch of crushed pink peppercornsZest of one kaffir limeZest of half lemonSalt and black pepper to tasteCombine all ingredients except celery in a bowl; whisk together....
The Auditorium Theatre—that massive, stony hunk of Chicago history—celebrated the anniversary of a rebirth earlier this month with an evening of spectacular dance by members of 14 top national and international companies, including Alvin Ailey, Berlin State Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Also on the bill were some familiar pleas for financial support. The celebration came on the heels of some unexpected news, however. The Joffrey Ballet, which has been the Auditorium Theatre’s prestigious resident company for 22 years (in what seemed like a perfect pairing), will dump the Auditorium at the start of the 2020-’21 season and move in with Lyric Opera....
Roughly 15 or so years ago, the Jeff Committee called in a trio of cis-male set/light/sound designers to give members an overview of their work. As the presentation wound down, the men took questions. The question I remember (because as a then-member of the committee, I asked it) was whether women were represented to any significant degree among designers and if not, why not. The answer—a slightly awkward and quite vague “Well, not really ....
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?...
If the managing editor of the Alton Telegraph had gotten back to me with his explanation a day before he did, my post Tuesday about his newspaper and the Illinois Policy Institute would have been less critical. In fact, it would have been what this one will be—sympathetic. Fortunately, his e-mail didn’t end there. He’d put his finger on something important. Berg might be carrying water for IPI, but he writes a good column....
I’m no fan of imperatives, but on occasion one simply must make an exception. To wit: Stop reading this. Not kidding. Cease immediately and go get tickets to Porchlight Music Theatre’s Sophisticated Ladies. Directed and choreographed by Brenda Didier and Florence Walker Harris with music direction by Jermaine Hill, it is to jukebox musicals as the Grand Canyon is to sinkholes. Every song in the revue tells an elaborate story rich in detailed characters, the transitions between songs adding layers on layers....
Pitchfork and Lollapalooza get enough hype. If you’re looking to hit up a music fest or two this summer, consider these ten underrated destinations. As festivals go, they more than meet the mark. 6/20-21, Damen between North and Schiller, noon-10 PM, greenmusicfestchicago.com, $5 suggested donation, all-ages. West Fest Rock-leaning street fest features sets from bands including the Murder City Devils and Dead Moon. 5/23-5/24, noon-10 PM, Sheffield from Belmont to Roscoe, $5 suggested donation, cityofchicago....
Sandy Ewen’s music is a constant series of negotiations. She’s constantly seeing what new sounds she can get out of her guitar, using found objects such as steel-wool scrubbing pads, dowels, bolts, cat-grooming brushes, and lengths of chalk. She’s also an inveterate collaborator who relishes chances to test her compatibility with new acquaintances or to explore possibilities within her enduring partnerships with drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Damon Smith, and guitarist Tom Carter....
Someday, there will a Great American Novel (or Screenplay) set in 2016, a year that will stand in the collective mythology of millennials in the same way that 1968 is remembered by baby boomers—in the sense that this is the year Americans are convinced our country is going to hell. Someone is probably already taking notes for it. But until then, there is the Truth Booth, a 15-foot-tall, 22-foot-wide inflatable speech balloon/video studio that has been touring the country to record people finishing the statement, “The truth is....
The pandemic has kept many of us from leaving the house, but honestly, why would you want to? There is too much TV to watch to go outside. Outside doesn’t have Hulu or Netflix or HBO Max. To encourage you to stay home and stay safe, comedian/writer Rima Parikh and myself (two people who watched just as much TV in the before times) will be diving deep into the shows we’re loving or lovingly hate-watching, social-distance-style, over Google chat....
“Make sure you can read the label!” #ArtMom #NewMom #ChicagoMom “Frida Kahlo: Timeless” Through 9/6: seven days, 10 AM-6 PM, Thursdays until 10 PM. Cleve Carney Museum of Art, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell, Glen Ellyn, theccma.org This concept lends itself to my personal experiences with the show. One facet of “Timeless” that feels especially complicated to me is the family programming. As my husband, baby, and I haphazardly walked through the show, each of us bewildered to be around so many people, we couldn’t go more than five feet without a well-meaning docent telling us about the Kahlo Kids’ Corner in the back....
