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

During this week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, photographer Joeff Davis documented the good, the bad, and the ugly (lots of ugly, actually). The result is a fascinating look at the GOP elites (Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich), D-list celebs (Scott Baio, Don King), regular Trump supporters waving signs with slogans like “Hillary for prison,” and protesters outside Quicken Loans Arena chanting “Stop Trump!” And then there’s the candidate himself in all his fake-tanned and wispy-haired glory, quick on the draw with finger guns, posed next to his VP pick, Mike Pence, his wife Melania, and his gang of slick progeny....

It may be tempting to sink into a post-victory slump, but there’s plenty to do this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Through 11/6: Those are generally excited by the tangibility of objects: rejoice! SOFA Chicago—the Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Fair—returns to Navy Pier (600 E. Grand). This pop-up exhibition produced by Urban Expositions features lectures and discussions on glass, metal, bamboo, and everything in between. Fri 11/4: Cartoonist Jessica Campbell comes to Quimby’s (1854 W....

In Mohsen Makhmalbaf‘s political drama The President, the brutal dictator of an unnamed country (the movie was shot mainly in the Republic of Georgia) is deposed in a popular rebellion and goes on the run with his five-year-old grandson. Disguising themselves as refugees, they melt into the general populace, and as they cross paths with ordinary citizens, the old man begins to reckon with all the misery he’s caused and the boy begins to see through the grandfather he once revered....

At 5 PM Saturday, March 21, Governor J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 Executive Order No. 8, aka the Stay at Home order, took effect. Here’s a daily-ish journal of how Reader staff, our friends, family—and our pets—are spending our time. The Circle Brazil (much, much better than the U.S. version) They’ve Gotta Have Us documentary Twenties MTV Shuga (If anyone has the post-season 4 plug, email jgreene@chicagoreader.com!) The Bold Type Elite on Netflix...

Beyoncé has her Beyhive and Taylor Swift fans call themselves Swifties, but no current pop fandom rocks ski masks or face paint quite like the Skeleton Clique—the devotees of Twenty One Pilots, the Columbus-based duo famous for obscuring their faces with dramatic skeleton makeup and other disguises onstage. Members of the Clique follow the band from concert to concert and sometimes camp out overnight—even in extreme weather—to snag prime tickets to their shows....

Q: I used to be a fan of your column, Dan, but something happened to you. Maybe it’s stress, the current political climate, or some other issue—I don’t know. I used to look forward to your columns because they were fun, smart, and helpful—but I don’t enjoy what I’m seeing now. If something did happen to you, reach out for help. You’re on the verge of losing a loyal reader. —Reader Enquiring About Dan’s Enervating Responses...

When the Obama administration announced May 13 that it would be taking groundbreaking steps toward transgender equality, the decision may have signaled the end of a controversial bill in Illinois. On May 4, Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant for the U.S. Department of Justice, sent a letter to North Carolina governor Pat McCrory arguing that HB 2 is not only dangerous, but violates federal law. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, which Gupta argued should be extended to gender identity....

By early February, many Chicagoans don’t wanna do anything more adventurous than curl up under a blanket with a book and a mug of something hot. But Metro, WBEZ, Vocalo, and Young Chicago Authors could lure even the most cold-weather-averse hip-hop fans to Wrigleyville for Winter Block Party X: This Is Chicago. Unlike summer block parties, with their street-side bounce houses and water-balloon fights, the Winter Block Party moves its attractions—which include music performances, poetry, live art, and even a pop-up barber shop—indoors out of the elements....

Since the 2016 election cycle shifted into full gear, I’ve had a hard time reading. There aren’t very many books that can compete with all the bizarre plot twists we’ve been living through. In real life, you also don’t have the comfort of being able to flip ahead to the last page to see how it all worked out. There isn’t much fiction about Watergate, but I’m avoiding all that, too....

Remember High School Musical? Cool, cool, here’s what would happen if someone fused the squickiest parts of it onto a satire of Chicago theater. In the Cornservatory’s Storefront Theater Musical, originally produced in 2009, three different storefront companies all hold space at the imaginary Upstage Theater. There’s an improv troupe, a drag company, and the woo-woo Really Realistic Realism Theater. Big personalities abound, all of them self-absorbed, all of them toothless parodies of the folks who comprise the city’s storefront theater scene....

Courtesy Louder Than a Bomb The team finals of this year’s Louder Than a Bomb poetry slam competition were held Saturday evening in the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place. I hadn’t been inside the Arie Crown in close to 20 years, when I saw a ballet there. If then it was a fancy theatrical showcase, today it’s on the wrong side of the Metra tracks. The building’s vast and charmless, the carpet worn and patched, and screaming teenagers suit it perfectly....

Q: I’m a European heterosexual girl and reading your column from afar has been a good way for me to better know the sex world! I’m wondering if you have advice for me about a “faster” way to do blow jobs. Or rather, a way to make my boyfriend come faster from them. I like doing them but after some time my mouth begins to hurt and I’d like him to finish....

Either the residents of the 13th Ward are inordinately passionate about their current alderman, or they don’t much care if he sticks his signs in their yards. Last week I drove through the far southwest-side ward that covers much of Clearing and some of Garfield Ridge, hugs the south end of Midway Airport, and flares into West Lawn and West Elsdon like a jagged spur. As I crisscrossed its bungalow-lined streets, neat rows of signs sprang from tiny front yards, aligned with military precision as far as the eye could see....

As fate would have it, I sat down to write about inequity in Chicago a few hours after looters poured into the Gold Coast and Loop, busting windows, and, in some cases, clashing with police. Coincidentally, the looting occurred just a few days after Cook County clerk Karen Yarbrough released this year’s tax increment financing report, in which she revealed how much the city’s TIF program stands to collect in property taxes and where the city intends to spend most of the money....

Two features by Reader staff writer Maya Dukmasova and one multimedia series collaboration with The TRiiBE have been nominated as “the best of the best” in alternative journalism by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). “Some of my favorite pieces of writing are profiles. . . . They don’t matter in any way beyond themselves, but they stick in my mind as being really good writing,” Dukmasova says. “And that’s what the Reader is for....

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. Older strips are archived here.

A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. Trinidad James in Uncut Gems Before I watched the Safdie brothers’ ballyhooed film Uncut Gems, I’d heard about nearly every cameo in it—every cameo, that is, except the one by rapper Trinidad James. So much work went into making this period piece exemplify its era, but to me nothing said “2012” as perfectly as the brief appearance of a rapper who was catapulted into fame that year....

Your appreciation of Spike Lee’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus will likely depend on whether you’re familiar with the movie Lee is remaking, Bill Gunn’s low-budget cult classic Ganja & Hess (1973). If you are, Lee’s remake is a must-see; if not, you should probably skip it. Lee follows the original so closely that Gunn, who died in 1989, gets cowriting credit. Jesus is so faithful to Ganja that Lee even replicates some of the original movie’s more amateurish qualities; the pacing goes slack on occasion, the sets are noticeably underdressed, and the acting is all over the map....