Eclectic Full Contact Theatre presents David Lindsay-Abaire’s nails-on-a-chalkboard farce about a woman whose amnesia makes each day a completely blank slate. When Claire wakes up she doesn’t remember she’s married with a son, whether she drinks coffee, or even her own name. Her husband has helpfully put together a book of facts and photos of her life that he hopes will help her day go smoother. But can he be trusted?...
Sufferers of phantom gluten intolerance, and those with legitimate celiac disease, had cause for excitement this fall when a New York-based restaurant landed in the Gold Coast promising to feed them free of that maligned mixture of proteins. The Little Beet Table is the formal offspring of a small fast-casual chain slinging healthy, vegetable-dominant food for people with any number of the usual assortment of dietary restrictions that can make the act of eating a lot of tedious work....
Loyalists were “persons inimical to the liberties of America,” as was said by patriots during the Revolutionary War. On their worst days they were often subject to arson and tarring and feathering, but at war’s end many of them—including former slaves—were granted asylum in Canada. A casual hangout like the Loyalist is legally beholden to have fried potatoes on the menu (there are two versions, in fact); nevertheless its “smokey” potatoes, while not particularly smoky tasting, are a happy surprise, bedded on a fried egg showered with tart sauerkraut, the whole baby spuds’ crispy outer shell jacketing an ethereal interior....
It was hot on the August day in 2016 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel presented the Obama Foundation with nearly 20 acres of Jackson Park as the site for the Obama Presidential Center. Besides, the difference was as clear as the panorama of lagoon and woods stretching before us: Lucas is a moviemaker with no Chicago roots; Obama is the nation’s first Black president, a hometown hero of unprecedented status, nurtured and launched on this very ground....
ARTISTS: Hand Carved GraphicsSHOWS: The Replacements and the Smoking Popes at the Riviera Theatre on Wed 4/29 and Thu 4/30MORE INFO: handcarvedgraphics.com
Movies adapted from video games are a disreputable genre, and Warcraft isn’t likely to change that. Critics savaged the movie when it opened last Friday, competing to see who could come up with the most withering put-down and who could be first with the laborious punch line “Game over.” Of course, everything is a competition now: the gaming of America, which began with the emergence of team sports in the early 20th century and accelerated with the advent of video games in the 1980s, has reached its logical conclusion in a presidential contest destined to play out as a real-time strategy game....
Chicago punk trio the Lawrence Arms formed in 1999, and they’re aging remarkably well. Rather than settle for the kind of navel-gazing that’s common among bands of their vintage—commemorating, say, the milestone anniversary of an old favorite album with a long tour—they’ve continued to evolve as they make new music. On their seventh album, Skeleton Coast (Epitaph), the Lawrence Arms transmute their rat-a-tat drive and sweet-but-tough melodies into bruised anthems; these ruddy, lived-in songs provide a perfect setting for the band’s two singers, guitarist Chris McCaughan and bassist Brendan Kelly, to survey our scorched-earth landscape and contemplate a better future....
As soon as I walked through the door, Saint Lou’s Assembly felt familiar. I’d never been to a meat-and-three cafeteria, a once-beloved, now mostly extinct institution that offers a choice of entree and three sides for one low price. But there was something about the vinyl booths, Formica tables, and wood paneling, not to mention the candy counter and the bowling trophies, that made me feel like I’d seen them before....
Don’t let the snow get you down. Go ahead, stick out your tongue, catch that drifting snowflake, then go out and do something! Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 12/10: Perhaps a mosh pit will warm your chattering bones. Not Normal Tapes hosts the First Annual Infestational at ChiTown Futbol (2343 S. Throop). This punk fest features such music acts as the Bug, whose “frazzled guitars screech like a rat caught in a glue trap,” writes the Reader‘s Leor Galil....
Rebecca Makkai is a Chicago author whose new novel, The Great Believers, is set during the AIDS crisis in Chicago in the 1980s. Albert Williams, a Chicago Reader contributor since 1985, has a long history as a gay activist and journalist. He served as editor of two Chicago LGBTQ newspapers in the 1980s, GayLife (1981-’85) and Windy City Times (1987). On the first hot day of spring of 2018, they sat down together at the Chicago Diner in the heart of Chicago’s Boystown to talk about The Great Believers and Chicago’s LGBTQ history, both real and imagined....
If Democrats only played the game of politics like Republicans, the Fair Tax Amendment would probably pass by an overwhelming majority. OK, let’s break it down . . . Governor Pritzker got the General Assembly to put on the ballot a referendum that, if approved by at least 60 percent of the voters, would raise the tax rates on people like Kenny G. And cut them on me! It was June....
Chicago noise artist Andy Ortmann (founder of Nihilist Records and Panicsville) is busy this season. On Thu 3/19 he joins Hanna Elliott of noise-rock duo Hogg at the Owl to host the DJ night Terrorvision, dedicated to minimal wave, goth, industrial, postpunk, and electronic music. Ortmann also has some new music out: the solo cassette Inconsequential via New Orleans label Thirdsex and a collaboration with Alex Barnett called Seasonal Attrition via Cleveland label Centre....
As the anniversaries of pandemic lockdowns arrive, many of us have been reflecting on the people we’ve lost in the past year, whether from COVID or any other cause. If any good can come from all times, I hope we never again take for granted the opportunity to say goodbye or come together to celebrate a life. Even as he reached his late 70s, Allen seemed creatively indefatigable. In 2017 he released his Blue Note debut, The Source, in 2018 he toured with techno legend Jeff Mills, and in 2019 he released Rejoice, a collaboration built from 2010 sessions with Hugh Masekela and completed following the South African trumpeter’s death in 2018....
Editor’s note: this story has been updated with corrections and clarifications. With so many of their artist colleagues abruptly out of work, Chehade and Rosenberg brainstormed the possibility of a New Deal–type arrangement: put unemployed theater practitioners to work making PPE. For ARM, donations have so far paid about 20 theater artists a piece rate between $2.50 and $3.50 per mask, depending on the design. “Our target is to make sure people are making between $15 and $20 an hour,” said Ahern....
Update: To help slow the spread of COVID-19, this show has been postponed. Contact point of purchase for refund or exchange information. Colorado three-piece Velnias have always had their own distinctive blend of black, progressive, and folk metal: it builds slowly, and they give it a lot of room to breathe. They took their name from a primal Baltic forest god, and they’re very fond of passages of braided, interlaced clean guitar that verge on space metal....
Q: What is the best relationship advice you’ve ever received? Q: I have always loved anal sex with my partner of more than a decade. He loves it, too. We’ve noticed a trend over the years where he gets melancholy after we have anal sex. He doesn’t know why. Do you have any ideas or theories about why? A: If you can make yourself come, show your partner how you do it....
Mike Sula Jerky Jerk’s jerk I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered a more discouraging looking jerk chicken joint than Rogers Park’s Jerky Jerk Caribbean Grille. It was empty and cold at midday, the music blared, and the sole employee on the premises appeared to be more interested in talking to himself than approaching the counter. I almost ghosted before he got around to it. Mike Sula Jerk Jerk Caribbean Grille
Had it been distributed widely and marketed properly, Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal might have been a considerable art house hit. An epic in the Akira Kurosawa tradition, Blade features thrilling action sequences, three-dimensional characters, and long-gestating passages of suspense. Unfortunately it screened here only twice as part of the Chicago International Film Festival, and it never received a full run. It’s now available on DVD and BluRay, so viewers who missed it at CIFF can catch up with this grandly entertaining action fantasy....
“Weird Al” Yankovic . . . with a symphony? That’s right—the paragon of parody has added orchestral accompaniment for his current Strings Attached tour. At each stop, local musicians will juxtapose their symphonic grandeur with Yankovic’s musical goofiness. It’s particularly apt for the highbrow vibes of Ravinia, but longtime Al fans shouldn’t fret; his set promises to include the nonsensical costume changes, props, and video projections that make his live show such a blast....
Like many recent gig posters of the week, today’s selection isn’t something you’ll see stapled to telephone poles, but we’re happy to highlight it on account of the festive ridiculousness of its photo. The Empty Bottle is copresenting a livestream reunion concert by the Snow Angels, which Reader contributor Monica Kendrick described in 2010 as a “seasonal supergroup.” Not everybody can make a gig poster, of course, but it’s simple and free to take action through the website of the National Independent Venue Association—click here to tell your representatives to save our homegrown music ecosystems....
