CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE | MAY | MAY CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE Books and Comics Issue A brief history of ramen 10 | Four Slices of CAKE Mark Peters 12 | The city’s changing literary landscape Max Grinnell 18 | gentrification gets graphic Tyra Nicole Triche 16 | Self-publishing saved my life Mike Centeno 14 | Chicago’s summer reading 17 THIS WEEK CHICAGOREADER | MAY | VOLUME NUMBER IN THIS ISSUE T R - ­ ­ 22 PlaysofnoteForServices @ Renderedexploresthetrauma ofWorldWarIJackalopeonce againturnsstrawintogoldinLife PTB onPaperandmostofHenryVIII’s IEC SKKH wivesarebackaspopdivasinSix DEKS C LSK D P JR CEAL 31 ShowsofnoteDamonLocks M EP M BOOKS&COMICS BlackMonumentEnsembleWu A EJL 10 FoodAnexcerptfromthecomic TangClanJuiceWrldandmore SWDI CITYLIFE BJ MS 04 PublicService cookbookLet’sMakeRamen! thisweek SWMD L G AnnouncementReadingoutof 12 FestivalHerearesomeofthe 36 EarlyWarningsCherubs EA SN L thefreebookbox peopleyou’llmeetatCAKEthe LadytronMatingRitualandmore G D D C S MEBW 04 FeralCitizenBeecolumnsee annualalternativecomicsexpo justannouncedconcerts M L C whatallthebuzzisabout 14 ComicHowselfpublishingsaved 36 GossipWolfHomeroom’s S C -J oneillustrator’slife PhysicsforListenersseries FL CPF TA ECS 16 GraphicAnAfrofuturisticgraphic FILM connectslocaltrioZRLwithfour CN B novelcaptureshowwhiteprivilege 23 ReviewTransitfollowsrefugees disparatecomposersthePlastic D C LCI feedsonBlackneighborhoods inMarseillehopingforabetterlife CrimewaveOnoBandreleasesits G AG KT HR H JH 17 NosinessWeaskedyouwhose Butisitor? fourthtapeonlysplitandmore JH IH DJM summerreadinglistsyouwantedto 24 MoviesofnoteTheThird KS K MM seeAndthenweaskedthem Wifehushesinterpersonaldrama B MQJRN OPINION LPKRBSD 18 NostalgiaAwritersurveysthe TheWanderingSoapOpera’s 38 SavageLoveDanSavagesays S TW A W transformationofChicago’sliterary surrealisthumoriso enriotous cuptheballselopeandmore ---------------------------------------------------------------- landscape andWoodstockThreeDaysThat answerstoyourburningquestions D D J D 19 PoemAhandwrittenanswerto Defi nedaGenerationisamoving D P E &P KK NEWS&POLITICS thequestion“Whatisitliketobe remembrance CLASSIFIEDS O M S A 06 Joravsky|PoliticsSeymour awriter?” 39 Jobs A AJG Hershonquotingpeoplewhodon’t 20 PrideFivememoirsthatmade MUSIC&NIGHTLIFE 39 Apartments&Spaces YD wanttosaysomethingpublicly methepansexualfreakIamtoday 27 FeatureJohariNoellepacks 39 Marketplace ADVERTISING 08 Isaacs|CultureAnarticle yearsofsoulintoherfi rstfi vesongs -- -@ claimingIsrael’s“moralright”to THEATER 30 InRotationESSengineerAlex C @ annextheWestBankhascaused 21 ReviewStyle&Gracepays Inglizianonthesynthmodulethat O I V V R F SD PF anuproaratDePaul tributetoLenaHorneandNancy changedhislifeandmoremusical V R ’ V PSAM Wilson obsessions CRM TP SA R B GAH J L LM-H A RLS B W CSM W R THIS WEEK ON CHICAGOREADER.COM NA V MG --- J LSB ---------------------------------------------------------------- DC [email protected] -- STM READER LLC BPD RL TE R S JS A- S V CC EB ---------------------------------------------------------------- R ISSN-­ Movie Tuesday: Flying high A visit to the Sweets and STMRLLC An attorney who specializes in SM SC IL 19th-century women cannabis law answers a burning Snacks Expo -- Five fi lms that address the position question about traveling with Intrepid reporters Aimee Levitt and C ©C R of women and sexual mores of a marijuana. Leor Galil try to avoid drowning in a P C IL A C RR bygone era sea of salt and sugar. RR T® 2 CHICAOREADER - MAY ll ll MAY - CHICAOREADER3 CITY LIFE Bee at Starved Rock State Park NICKESCOBAR quickly. With each repeated tracing of a path is suitable, makes waxen bowls to store nectar from fl ower to fl ower, bumblebees progres- when the weather is inclement and others into sively wayfi nd more e ciently. They navigate which she lays ten to 15 eggs and then seals by the sun and landmarks from trees to swing with more wax. Her fi rst brood to emerge are sets. A bumblebee’s working memory is eight the female workers who take on the foraging, seconds long (a point we actually are better defense, and brood-rearing. The queen spends at) and can tell when a flower has already the rest of her life in the dark, laying eggs until been visited that day and the nectar thus she dies in early fall and new impregnated emptied. queens fly to dig burrows to hibernate all Bumblebees have two large compound eyes, winter. positioned more widely apart than fl ies’ eyes, A few weeks back, Tomasz found a very and also three eyes on top of their head called weak bumblebee. It was a queen, because she ocelli. The compound eyes are for vision to was so large and out so early in the season. Feral Citizen navigate obstacles, pathways, and the ultra- He gently caught her and made a beehome for violet patterns within fl owers. The ocelli note her out of parts from a honeybee hive—a large directional light such as the position of the bottom board, a hive box with some residual Eat a tomato, thank sun. The bees recognize symmetry. wax stuck on its sides, a bit of comb with both Bumblebees need 18 mg of sugar a day so pollen and honey. He covered it with a piece of will forage for up to 18 hours with favorable acrylic sheeting, confi dent she had everything a bumblebee weather conditions, and might visit 1,000 she needed—safety, warmth, and food to refu- flowers during that time. They can muscle el herself. A bee brain is vastly more effi cient than a human brain. their way into somewhat-closed fl owers that This queen found a small hole in his con- other pollinators can’t, such as the gentians, struction and promptly left. “What do I know By N K turtlehead, monkshood, blueberries, and about making bumblebee nests?” he said. huckleberries. They also do buzz pollination Tomasz is developing a game called Bom- or sonifi cation, where they uncouple buzzing bus based on bumblebee economics. It’s both ost folks don’t know a lot about nect with tiny hooks called hamuli so they can from flight muscles and vibrate to the right a strategy and educational game where one insects. Insects move fast and work as paired units. Bees are in the order frequency to cause flowers’ anthers to open starts as a queen, has to build her colony, we have some sort of phobia. We Hymenoptera along with ants and wasps. and release pollen. Tomatoes, peppers, and outmaneuver predators and severe weather, urbanized animals have a pen- Flies, mosquitoes, and gnats are in the order eggplant are buzz pollinated. Eat a tomato, develop strategies every day to find flowers chant for cultivating turf grass Diptera, as they have two wings. whether gown outside or in a hothouse, and full of nectar, and invest in more bees as a cost Mand concrete and tend not to have that many Bees and honeybees are not interchange- thank a bumblebee. of more energy. He wants the bees to look like insects around us. But the pollinator-plant able: There are 4,500 bee species in North While bumblebees are spotted early in the actual specimens and the fl owers to be actual connection (and sometimes dependency) is America (30,000 on this planet) and currently season, they are also some of the latest to species. He insists on it being made from card- real. 150 native bee species in Chicago alone. Eighty disappear. They can fl y under fairly wet con- board so people actually have to physically I recently spent some pleasant hours speak- percent of these bees are ground nesters, ditions. They can survive at temperatures just move the bumblebee game pieces from place ing with local ecologist Tomasz Przybylowicz meaning they need undisturbed ground to above freezing, partly due to their fur, but also to place. This makes me grin. about our shared love of bumblebees. I have build nests. The other 20 percent of bees nest because of their ability to vibrate or “hum” to So here’s an invitation: before this month warmed them in the palm of my hand by in wood cavities. Some native bees are solitary bring body temperatures up. This makes them ends, lie belly down in a meadow or an uncut breathing on them and have watched them and some social, semi-social, or quasi-social. adapt to high altitudes and high latitudes. weedy vacant lot and prop yourself up on your take shelter in large cupped flowers when it Some are as tiny as mosquitoes (the bee genus After the bumblebee queen emerges from elbows and watch the air bounce with tiny rains. But Tomasz studies bee neurology and Perdita) and others are large, such as carpen- hibernation in the ground in early spring, fl ying bodies as they drink morning dew from he wants to blow our minds about their minds. ter bees. Honeybees are from Europe and are she forages for nectar from open flowers— bent grass blades and dodge each other while Before that, we both agree that folks need to commercialized. They are the only bees that witch-hazel, winter aconite, snowdrops, croci, searching for nectar and pollen. v get straight on two things. produce and store evaporated and regurgitat- willow. This first foraging flight is the most All things that buzz are not bees: Bees ed nectar, or honey. dangerous time of her life. She is weak and @NanceKlehm are pollen eaters and nectar drinkers. Bees Apparently while tiny and almost a thou- must find nectar and also a nesting site for are hairy, long-antennaed, and usually sand times smaller, a bumblebee brain is her brood. Usually this is a hole of some sort: For more information about native bees check chunky-bodied. They have four