CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | JANUARY Vis Art New murals in Fulton Market 22 Comics Weekly strips are back! 43
Somethin rotten in the 20th A Pritzker-backed machine operator, a rogue three-time candidate, and plenty of idealistic novices pack the race for alderman in the historically corrupt ward.
By M D 10 THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | JANUARY | VOLUME NUMBER
FEATURES IN THIS ISSUE
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
HAPPYNEWYEARCHICAGO! Let’s start 2019 o with some great news. Comics are CITY LIFE back—right there on page 43. All-new weekly serials from 04 Street View Shatara Powell your independent favorites: Local hero Mike Centeno of celebrates her birthday with her Futile Comics (and, formerly, Quimby’s Bookstore) launch- squad 05 Transportation Chicago is the es a strip about the weirdness of skin. Melissa Mendes of transit and taco satisfaction capital Freddy Stories takes a break from her gut-wrenching, of the nation Patreon-backed family narrative The Weight to pen a fi ction story about a girl detective. And John Porcellino of long-running, internationally lauded, self-published King- Cat Comics & Stories takes on a whole new project about urban wildlife. There are plenty of us who fi rst picked up COMICS FEATURE alternative newsweeklies because of the comics. I’m hop- ing soon there will be many, many more. At the hop You’ll also notice that we’re starting in on election cov- The Socialist-Feminist Working Group of the erage straight out of the gate, with a deeply reported piece Democratic Socialists of America gets down. from the 20th Ward by our own Maya Dukmasova. What’s going on in Woodlawn may not strike you as important— B A D 6 NEWS & POLITICS although it was important enough to J.B. Pritzker, who 08 Joravsky | Politics Rahm already takes the state gubernatorial o ce on Monday, to drop a has a replacement for Ed Burke on wad of cash into the aldermanic elections. the fi nance committee Speaking of shady politics, Ben Joravsky is back on our 09 Explainer | Politics How many pages to decry the legacy of 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke. aldermen are there? And what do they even do? Here’s what to know (Twenty three guns, dude? Really?) 16 Isaacs | Culture Updates to an Not news, though, really: Ben Joravsky will always be academic semi classic at this year’s back. Especially during the election! I’ll fi ght anybody that MLA convention doesn’t think Ben’s voice is sorely needed in this city at this time. Finally, we’ve been getting a lot of mail lately, most of it quite lovely. One kind man asked if we’d consider print- ing readers’ letters, and the truth is that we would. We’ll happily print a few in a couple weeks to see how it goes. Have thoughts about the new comics? Our political cover- age? Jibaritos? Or just want to say hi? Send notes along to [email protected] and we’ll select a couple— edited for brevity, clarity, and style—to include in the last edition of January 2019. FOOD & DRINK Isn’t this year just going to be great? —A E 17 Restaurant Review Egg O Holic M POLITICS FEATURE puts Gujarat’s vast eggetarian street food in one basket Democracy fights for sure ARTS & CULTURE 19 Theater Five theater festivals to footing in a south-side ward. help you survive January and three In the most packed aldermanic race in the city, bright young playwrights who aren’t rumors of corruption stand strong. afraid to take on big themes 22 Visual Art The B_Line adds color B M D 10 and whimsy to Fulton Market
2 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll T R 24 Book Swap A Reader staff er trades - reading recommendations with local @ lit luminary Nick Drnaso 25 Movies The Owl’s Legacy is the best symposium on ancient Greece P T B you’ll ever sit in on the stylish E C AE M M E P S K docudrama El Ángel might get under M E D K H your skin and the horror fl ick Escape D E K S Room projects a s B movie vibe C L SK D P J R C E AL M E PM A E J L S W D I BJ M S S W M D L G S M E B W M L C L C F L C P F T A E C S MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE C D AE B D C L C I G A G 28 Feature Extraordinary Popular J H J H I H D J Delusions follow no rules but their M K SK M M own BM S M JRN M O L P 34 In Rotation Our music editor the J P BS K S front man for Neckbeard Deathcamp D S KW A W and the guitarist for Haggathorn each ------share three musical obsessions D D 36 Shows of note Meshell JD D P E & P Ndegeocello Charly Bliss the Pom K K Poms and other excellent shows this O M #TVKUV9TKVGT THE week SN L 2GTHQTOGT! 40 Early Warnings Lee Fields & ADVERTISING M E X I C A N the Expressions Lucifer T S O L -- - @ %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 C @ Goddamn Gallows and many more %4'#6+8' 2'12.' 1 9 6 7 just announced concerts S M P F 40 Gossip Wolf Local rappers S A R 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN Free Snacks headline the Empty AM A R &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF Bottle sound artist Stephan Moore’s LM -H N S celebrating performance with dance and music C R M *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU ensemble CabinFever has an album T P release and Comfort Food says N A /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 farewell with a set at Elastic V M G --- .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP 51 JL SB ------CLASSIFIEDS YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO 41 Jobs D C [email protected] OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO 41 Apartments & Spaces -- NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT 41 Marketplace STMREADERLLC KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT YEARSYEARS B P D RL 41 Savage Love Shaming language T ER OPEN 7 S J S days a week decisions made under duress and a A - S V terrifying stalker Dan Savage off ers until X- mas advice for every situation C C EB 43 Comics All new weekly serial strips ------please for from Mike Centeno Melissa Mendes R ISSN - ☎ and John Porcellino STMR LLC Extended just steps from the SM SC IL holiday hours Dempster “L” stop -- please recycle C ©C R P C IL O P this paper 847-475-8665 M D A C R R RR T ® 801 Dempster Evanston ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 3 CITY LIFE
310346_4.75_x_4.75.indd 1 9/12/18 12:13 PM
THE LATEST ON YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS AND BARS
FOOD & DRINK Shatara Powell (center) with friends ISA GIALLORENZO
WEEKLY E-BLAST Street view GET UP TO DATE. SIGN UP NOW. Squad goals Celebrate a birthday with dinner, a movie, and matching outfi ts.
“ILOVEDMYDRESS the fi rst time I laid eyes on it,” says Shatara Powell, who was photographed at the AMC Dine-in Block 37 theater downtown. She celebrated her 34th birthday with dinner at TAO in River North, followed by a screening of Tyler Perry’s romantic comedy Nobody’s Fool. Powell, who works as a therapist, says she’s obsessed with matching outfi ts. She wears the same designer from head to toe when going out—brands like Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel—curated through shopping sprees at department stores like Nordstrom, Barneys, and Neiman Marcus. For her birthday, Powell insisted that her friends wear Tommy Hilfiger. The night was captured in a slickly produced video montage, featur- CHICAGOREADER.COM ing Powell and her friends dressed in red, white, and blue, and celebrating with cocktails and cake. She describes her style as conservative and sexy and, sometimes, edgy. “Edgy means I’ll still wear some Timber- land boots in the summer with a tank top,” she says. “I’m a fi rm believer that when you look good, you feel good.” —I G
4 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll CITY LIFE
Chicago Taco Authority JAMIE RAMSAY and a ordable housing to make sure diverse communities can remain in the city.” But perhaps the expert on the subject of our city’s taco and transit prowess is Jose Bustos, owner of the Chicago Taco Authority railcars. On the other hand, those systems in the Old Irving Park neighborhood, located have had major meltdowns in recent years, a stone’s throw from a Blue Line station. His while the CTA is relatively well maintained. taqueria is decorated with bus stop signs, vin- Mayor Rahm Emanuel gloated about that fact tage photographs of the transit system, an old in a New York Times op-ed in July 2017 with fare box, and a full-size replica of the side of an the Mussolini-esque title “In Chicago, the el car attached to a wall of the dining room. Trains Actually Run on Time.” “Chicago is defi nitely a great taco town,” he Near-northwest-side alderman Carlos said. “It’s because you have so many people Ramirez-Rosa, who’s of Mexican ancestry, from Mexico here, from so many different argued that Chicagoans should be proud of the places.” According to the 2010 census, a full CityLab survey results. “It’s not blustery rhet- 21.4 percent of Chicagoans were of Mexican oric, it’s a fact: Chicago is the best,” he tweeted descent. “So people have many di erent ways along with a graph of the results, garnering of cooking the same kind of taco.” For exam- a thousand likes. In a subsequent tweet, he ple, while his restaurant specializes in char- attributed the win to “leftists who fought for broiling, when he has a taste for some fl attop- public control of mass transit and hardwork- grilled carne asada, he heads to Taqueria Los ing immigrants.” Gallos in Little Village. The CTA had not provided an o cial state- Juan Zaragoza, who owns the goat-focused ment in response to the survey results by Birrieria Zaragoza in Archer Heights, which TRANSPORTATION press time, but a spokesperson indicated that was cited as the favorite restaurant in town of the agency is pleased by the accolade. Reader food critic Mike Sula, agrees that the However, Active Transportation Alliance presence of immigrants from all over Mexico A taco shop at almost every stop director Ron Burke argued that we should helps make Chicago’s taco scene great. “Some take Chicago’s high transit rating with a grain of our taquerias are even better than what you Chicago was just rated the best city for transit-and-taco satisfaction in the U.S. of salt and not let city officials rest on their might fi nd in Mexico.” By J G laurels. “Truthfully, this reveals little about He’s from La Barca in the southwestern transit in the region except that people who state of Jalisco, famous for goat tacos, and he read CityLab are transit-privileged,” he said. noted that people from Mexico City and Mi- “They most likely represent a narrow segment choacán have also brought their own styles of of our population: college-educated people cooking to Chicago. “Michoacán is well known uring the last presidential election, The study, inspired by a tweet by Natural who value transit, work downtown, and can for carnitas [lard-braised pork]. Once they Latinos for Trump cofounder Marco Resources Defense Council staffer Carter a ord to live near the best train stations.” drop that on a soft tortilla with the right salsa, Gutierrez warned that if the U.S. Rubin, asked readers to rate the quality and Burke added that a recent study found that you’ve got something special.” doesn’t do more to stop undocu- availability of tacos and public transportation for about 75 percent of Chicagoland workers, a Zaragoza added that good CTA access has mented immigrants from entering in their metro areas from one to ten. Over a transit commute to their jobs would take over been a factor in his restaurant’s success. Dthe country, “you’re going to have taco trucks thousand people had responded by the time 90 minutes. He noted that a lower percentage “We’re fortunate that the Pulaski Orange Line on every corner.” Chicago is already ap- the results were published in mid-December. of Chicagoans take public transportation to stop is down the street and the Pulaski bus proaching that utopian scenario. Our city has According to CityLab’s David Montgomery, 83 work than their New York, D.C., Boston, and runs right by our front door. That certainly hundreds, if not thousands, of Mexican restau- Chicagoland residents—about 70 from the city San Francisco counterparts, and local bus and doesn’t hurt us.” rants where taqueros and taqueras expertly proper—participated. (The survey is still live, rail ridership has fallen in recent years. He ar- To celebrate our city’s new title as the griddle chunks of marinated steak and carve if you want to have your say.) gued that increasing state funding for transit public transportation-and-taco satisfaction ruby-colored al pastor from trompo rotisser- On average, Chicagoans gave local tacos an is critical if we’re going to reverse that trend. capital of the U.S., we’ve put together the Chi- ies, then deposit the meats in warm corn tor- 8.2 rating, the best score of any northern me- Streetsblog reporter Lynda Lopez, a cago Transit and Tacos map, featuring more tillas and top them with chopped onions and tropolis. Unsurprisingly, people from metro first-generation Mexican-American, said we than 100 taquerias and other spots for tacos— cilantro. Dress their creations with fi ery red, areas closer to the Mexican border, such as can’t take Chicago’s awesome and a ordable including many of the best in town—located green, or black salsa and a squeeze of lime and San Diego, Phoenix, and Houston, rated their transit and taco culture for granted. She noted within walking distance of el stops. take a bite, and you’re in carnivore heaven. tacos the highest, but most of these Sunbelt that there’s a danger of housing costs and re- Check out the map at TinyURL.com/ So it was no surprise when a recent survey cities received low transit ratings. tail rents in many gentrifying neighborhoods Chicago Taco. And remember, you can’t spell by the urban planning website CityLab found Meanwhile, Chicago’s public transportation becoming too expensive for recent immi- “taco” without “CTA.” v that Chicagoans gave our city high marks for score of 8.1 was the highest of any U.S. city. grants and mom-and-pop restaurants, espe- both tacos and public transportation, making That’s certainly debatable, since New York’s cially in areas near el stations. “If we value John Greenfield edits the transportation Chicago the national sweet spot for combined MTA is far more extensive than the CTA, and Chicago’s cultural diversity and cuisine, we news website Streetsblog Chicago. taco/transit contentment. D.C.’s Metro arguably has nicer stations and need to prioritize equitable access to transit @greenfieldjohn ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 5 ANYA DAVIDSON
6 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ANYA DAVIDSON
ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 7 NEWS & POLITICS
Ed Burke KATE moral and ethical compass that informs your And then there’s Burke’s role in Council GARDINER judgment of right from wrong. Wars—one of the ugliest chapters in recent You know, I think I’ve had enough of quoting Chicago political history. Rahm on the subject of morality and ethics Back in the 80s, Burke and his pal—former and right and wrong—especially since Rahm Alderman Edward Vrdolyak—led a Trump- replaced Burke as finance chair with 40th like, white nationalist uprising against Mayor Ward alderman Patrick O’Connor. That’s a Harold Washington. The purpose was to ex- little like running over the horse with a truck ploit white fears and prejudices about a black after he’s bolted from the pasture—to com- mayor to sabotage the Washington adminis- plete that analogy. tration and gain more power for themselves. All right, now that I’ve gotten that out of my Burke has never accounted for his role in system, let’s break things down, starting with Council Wars, much less apologized for it. the obvious: why did the newly elected Rahm All of this history was well known in 2011, agree to keep Burke as fi nance chair in the fi rst when Rahm swept into office and agreed to place? keep Burke as fi nance chair? It’s not as though we needed the feds to Obviously, Burke and Emanuel cut a deal: tell us that Burke was embarrassingly incom- Rahm would look the other way as Burke made petent at his job and morally and ethically millions on his property tax business. And challenged. Burke would use his mastery of council pro- The fi nance committee oversees the approv- cedure to usher through any legislation that al of billions of dollars of contracts—including Rahm wanted. No questions asked. TIF deals. At the very least, the fi nance chair And then when the feds indict Burke, Rahm should be a vigilant fi duciary defender of tax- acts like he’s shocked and offers lectures on payer interests. ethics and morality. And yet Burke’s the guy who waved through It reminds me of the deal Rahm cut with the parking meter deal—with O’Connor’s Barbara Byrd-Bennett when he named her assistance as mayoral floor leader—with no CEO of Chicago Public Schools. As long as legitimate oversight after a day or two of hear- Byrd-Bennett agreed to be the public face of ings. Think about this—Burke (and O’Connor) Rahm’s school closings in black neighbor- thought it was a good idea to sell a $10 billion hoods, Rahm would look the other way at her asset for $1.15 billion. Good God—both of them shady business dealings. should have been bounced from office for If you recall, Rahm also o ered sad and som- POLITICS gross incompetence years ago. ber lectures on ethics when the feds indicted As for Burke’s conflicts of interest—just a Byrd-Bennett for her role in a $20.5 million couple of weeks ago, WBEZ’s Dan Mihalopou- contract scandal. Burke out as head of los and the Better Government Association I suppose I could sort of put up with Rahm (BGA) broke a story about Burke being “the making deals with the devil if it meant he were king of recusals.” passing progressive legislation that benefi ted fi nance committee They’re referring to Rule 14 of the council everyday people. code of conduct in which aldermen must But Rahm cut his deals with Burke to pass Rahm has already chosen his replacement. recuse themselves from voting on matters on regressive policies that took from the poor to which they have a potential confl ict of interest. feed the rich. He didn’t need to get into bed By B J As the federal indictment points out, Burke with Burke to do that. runs a law fi rm that specializes in winning tax And now he doubles down by replacing breaks for wealthy and well-connected prop- Burke with O’Connor—just in time to have n the category of closing the gate after legislative branches of government—even in erty owners (like Donald Trump). O’Connor use his mastery of council procedure the horse has bolted from the pasture, Chicago. The breaks that Burke’s firm wins for the to rush approval of, among other things, the Mayor Rahm fi red Ed Burke as chair of This is like President Trump telling Senator Trumps of the world jack up the taxes the rest $800 million (at least) TIF handout to the Lin- the all-important City Council finance Mitch McConnell who should chair the Senate of us have to pay to compensate. coln Yards developers. committee after the feds indicted the budget committee. OK, Trump would proba- So while Rahm and Burke are saying they’re Here we go again—as Dolly Parton might I14th Ward alderman on charges of shaking bly get away with that. But Trump’s cavalier working overtime to reduce the burden on tax- say. down a Burger King franchisee. manner of governing is hardly the model we payers, Burke is essentially making big bucks I say we install Alderman Scott Wow, there’s a lot to unpack in that sen- should be emulating. by getting us to pay more in taxes. Waguespack—a real reformer—as chair of the tence, starting with . . . In the aftermath of Burke’s indictment, Over the last eight years, Burke has had to finance committee. Let’s try to keep Rahm, Why does the mayor have the authority to Mayor Emanuel put on his sad and somber recuse himself on various council votes re- Burke, and O’Connor from doing more damage select the chair of a council committee in the face—as though he were really hurt and garding his clients 464 times, WBEZ and the than they’ve already done. v first place? We’re supposed to have a check surprised by what went down—and told the BGA reported—“the comparable total for all and balance system between the executive and Tribune that public servants must have “a 49 other aldermen combined is 108.” @joravben 8 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
FREQUENTLY ASKED The Chicago Aldermanic Explainer How many aldermen are there? And what do they even do? Here’s what to know. By B W | I S K
14 Women • An alderman is supposed to relay the needs of the folks 48 Democratic who live in their ward to the 36 en 1 Republican mayor and the rest of City 50 1 Independent Council. Aldermen can serve Aldermen on committees within City Council to make sure the issues that those they rep- resent care about most are resolved, like fi xing potholes, aldermen are aldermen are alderman is issuing liquor licenses, and under the openly gay Asian-American raising the minimum wage. age of 40 or lesbian • Aldermen are elected when they win a majority of the vote 2 5 1 in their ward. If no candidate wins a majority, it’s runoff time.
• An aldermanic term lasts four years. As of now, there are no limits on how many terms an alderman can serve.
• Candidates must be at least 18 years old to run.
• Candidates must live in the ward they want to repre- sent for at least one year
BRIAN JACKSON COURTESY SILVANA TABARES COLLEEN DURKIN before the election.
Oldest and longest serving Most recently appointed Youngest serving alderman: • A person will not be allowed alderman: Ed Burke, 14th Ward, alderman: Silvana Tabares, 23rd Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th to serve as alderman if 75 years old, serving since 1969 Ward, serving since 2018 Ward, 29 years old they owe any taxes to the city or have been convict- ed of bribery, perjury, or another felony anywhere Average salary of Chicago residents $62,857 in the United States. Alderman salary range $106,392.00 - $117,832.92
ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 9 NEWS & POLITICS
POLITICS Something is rotten in the 20th Ward Democracy dies in the fl uorescent glow of Board of Elections hearing rooms. By M D MAYA DUKMASOVA
he 20th Ward of Chicago stands at end of November, 15 candidates had fi led to hopeful that from the overcrowded fi eld will battle. Every candidate needs at least 473 a historic moment. It’s on the verge run for alderman—more than in any other emerge a leader with integrity who’ll focus registered voters to sign their nominating of tying with the 23rd and 31st ward. Among them are 20th Ward Democrat- on remedying the socioeconomic inequi- petition. Each signatory must live in the ward wards, both of which have had three ic committeeman Kevin Bailey, 31, and activ- ties that have plagued the ward for years. and not have signed for any other candidate. aldermen go to prison since 1972, ist preacher Andre Smith, 50, both of whom Foremost on residents’ minds are the high In the 20th Ward, which contained nearly Tfor the unprestigious distinction of most al- ran for alderman against Cochran in prior unemployment and crime rates, underre- 24,000 registered voters as of last Novem- dermen convicted for corruption. Its current elections. Newcomers include Chicago Police sourced schools, the lack of mental health ber’s election, it is mathematically possible alderman, self-described “gangster” Willie Department officer and nonprofit founder care options and affordable housing, and for 15 candidates to have gathered 473 unique Cochran, awaits a federal trial on bribery, ex- Jennifer Maddox, 47; entrepreneur and con- the challenge of balancing the development signatures each. However, it’s almost certain tortion, and wire fraud charges. Over the last sultant Anthony Driver, 25; Chicago Housing forces spearheaded by the University of Chi- that some of the signatures filed by candi- 30 years two of his three predecessors—Cli Authority project manager Maya Hodari, 50; cago and the incoming Obama Presidential dates this year are fake, forged, or duplicated. Kelley and Arenda Troutman—have gone to consultant and former CPS teacher Nicole Center with the needs of deeply rooted local Together the aldermanic hopefuls submitted prison for bribery and fraud. Johnson, 29; pastor Dernard Newell, 53; and communities. Long-term residents are weary more than 30,000 signatures to the Board of It’s no surprise that constituents of community organizer Jeanette Taylor, 43, of repeats of the Cochran-backed expansion Elections. the ward, which encompasses much of who’s garnered union support. of the Norfolk Southern rail yard, which dis- Seasoned politicos—or those who have Woodlawn and stretches west into parts of As the February 26 election draws near, placed hundreds of homeowners in the ward hired seasoned consultants—often devote Washington Park, Englewood, and Back of some in the ward already fear that their next and whose devastation was the subject of the signifi cant resources to challenging their op- the Yards, are clamoring for new leadership. alderman will face the same fate as his or recent documentary The Area. ponents’ paperwork and nominating petition Cochran isn’t seeking reelection, and by the her corrupt predecessors, but many are also Of course, getting on the ballot is the fi rst signatures. 10 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
In the 20th, Bailey and Johnson were the only candidates who fi led objections against Twentieth Ward aldermanic candidate their competitors. Bailey challenged every- and Democratic one except for Smith; Johnson, who’s out- committeeman Kevin fund-raised everyone running in the ward Bailey (pink shirt) with his assistant Marlon thus far, challenged Hodari, Maddox, and a Watson. The man pair of lower-profi le women contenders. Can- with the mustache didates who face multiple objections have to is Michael Dorf, an election lawyer who battle each of them separately. represents Jennifer Bailey, a tall man with an athletic build, a Maddox, also running crop of short dreads, a goatee, and a habit of for alderman in the ward. They’re reminding people that he’s a civil engineer, all waiting for the has been a near daily presence over the last beginning of a hearing several weeks in two large basement rooms at the Board of of the Cook County office building at 69 W. Elections during which the hearing offi cer Washington. This is where petition challenge will decide whether hearings are held, at plastic folding tables Bailey’s objections to set up in pairs around the perimeter under Maddox’s petitions will stand. harsh fluorescent lights. A hearing officer, MAYA DUKMASOVA stenographer, and clerk sit on one side of a table, the candidates, their attorneys, and the people filing objections take their seats on the other. Hearings happen all week, even on the signature isn’t genuine, or that the signer expert. This process drains time and money he was approving Dorf’s motion to strike and weekends, as the board rushes to fi nalize the signed another candidate’s petition fi rst. from the opponents’ campaigns, especially dismiss the objection, Bailey attempted to list of candidates to be printed on the ballot The Board of Elections tries to discourage if they hire lawyers to help them survive the argue that Shestokas was wrong. by January 21. Unlike the candidates he’s “shotgun objections,” when someone indis- challenge, as most of Bailey’s competitors “We’re not taking any evidence,” Shesto- challenging, Bailey doesn’t have a lawyer but criminately challenges sheet upon sheet of a have. Challenged candidates can’t securely kas said. sometimes shows up to the hearings with a candidate’s signatures as faulty without the campaign and raise funds while an objection “So there’s no discussion on the recom- sta er from his campaign and his stepfather, due diligence of consulting the board’s regis- is pending—it haunts them with the threat of mendation?” Bailey asked tentatively, his a veteran political operator with a reputation tered voter rolls. The charge must come from not making it onto the ballot. lips curling into a sheepish smile. When he for less-than-scrupulous campaign strate- the candidate, but if a board hearing o cer doesn’t get his way Bailey doesn’t get mad or gies (more on that later). agrees that objections aren’t made in good s a fi ve-minute hearing dismissing Bai- raise his voice but does appear ever-ready to faith they’ll recommend that the objections ley’s objections to Jennifer Maddox’s deliver an even-toned, often tedious defense be dismissed and the candidate be allowed on Apetitions wrapped up on December of his position if given a chance to make it. the ballot. 19, Bailey calmly listened to the hearing “No sir,” Shestokas answered. Still, he Accusations that Bailey was fi ling shotgun officer’s findings in his opponent’s favor. He allowed Bailey a moment to speak, which he objections began flying from other candi- had objected to every one of Maddox’s 1,700 used to hold forth about the hearing o cer’s “Kevin’s mom and dates’ camps right away. Some hearing o - signatures, and his appendix recapitulation “inconsistent” and “not proper” decision. dad are gonna run cers have so far agreed with the candidates sheets showed clear evidence of objections “Every mistake that was pointed out [in my he’s challenged. made without due diligence—in many cases objection] was considered to be in bad faith the office if he wins.” Why would a candidate or his or her prox- he or his sta had marked objections to blank and I don’t believe those were examples of ies waste time making shotgun objections if lines on Maddox’s petitions fi rst (for example, bad faith,” Bailey said. “I believe objecting to —Anthony Driver they likely won’t stand? Because that’s time 20 objections on multiple grounds on a sheet those blank lines makes all the sense in the lost for opponents, too. Objections, no matter with just four signatures), then scribbled out world,” he continued, making the mind-bend- how fl imsy, can take days or weeks to resolve. the number of objections to match the total ing argument that he had no way of knowing When they aren’t shotgun objections and are number of signatures on her sheet. that Maddox wouldn’t somehow try to claim allowed to move forward they involve hours Nevertheless, Bailey’s objection cost Mad- the blank lines had signatures on them. Bailey’s challenges are more ax than scal- of excruciating, line-by-line examinations of dox a solid 16 days of Board of Elections has- Dorf propped his white-haired, white-mus- pel, and one hearing officer after another each signature by board sta who hole up in sles and several thousand dollars to election tachioed head on his hand as he waited for is finding that they aren’t made in good stu y rooms on the sixth fl oor of 69 W. Wash- lawyer Michael Dorf. Bailey had also already Bailey to complete his statements. A veteran faith. When people fi le objections to petition ington. Candidates and their challengers, filed a motion with the Board challenging election attorney who represented Barack signatures they have to fi le “appendix reca- who fl ank the board examiner working a com- the hearing officer’s recommendations to Obama in his early runs for public office, pitulation” sheets—essentially mirrors of a puter during the process, either have to spend dismiss his objections—something didn’t get Dorf, with his genteel three-piece suit and candidate’s petition signature page in which their own time haggling over whether the resolved in his favor but further foiled Mad- bow tie, gave the impression of someone who objectors indicate which signatures they’re signatures should count or hire people to do dox’s campaign. had seen it all over the years. In an interview objecting to and on what grounds: that the it for them. If disputes come down to whether As hearing o cer David Shestokas—him- a few days prior, Dorf had calmly described signer isn’t registered at the address indi- a signature is genuine the board has to sched- self a two-time candidate for Congress and Bailey’s challenge as “fraudulent” but a well- cated, that the address isn’t in the ward, that ule special examinations with a handwriting a retired prosecutor—dryly explained that known machine tactic. J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 11 NEWS & POLITICS continued from 11 Dorf had no doubt that Shestokas would decide in Maddox’s favor. He handled the hearings on his own, leaving his client, the candidate, to campaign. After the hearing I asked Bailey why he wasn’t also working with a lawyer, preferring instead to waste his own campaign time hiking to the Board o ces nearly every day and sitting through hearings that may last over an hour. “I don’t think a lawyer is super necessary at this point,” he began, “but when I believe it is, a lawyer will be used.” Bailey suggested that hearing o cers are biased against pro se objectors like himself and that a cliquish “culture of civility” among the legal experts wheeling and dealing in these basement rooms puts him at a disadvantage. Yet his apparent disinterest in legal representation may be an indication of his actual motiva- tion in filing objections: not necessarily to win a legal battle but to exhaust his compe- tition into throwing in the towel on their campaigns. That’s certainly how Bailey’s opponents and their representatives see his copious challenges. And many have more biting things to say about him than Dorf does.
evin is a scumbag,” said Anthony Driver, the entrepreneur and consul- “Ktant who’s also the youngest person running for alderman in the 20th Ward. “Kev- in’s mom and dad are gonna run the o ce if he wins.” Driver, a Back of the Yards native, has Le : A page from Maddox’s petition fi lings, which shows four signatures. Right: Bailey’s objection to that page. It shows that someone had challenged all 20 lines on the petition sheet, then corrected the fi nal tally of objections from 20 to four. The Board of Elections found that this was evidence that Bailey focused on registering voters and building had made a “shotgun” objection to Maddox’s petition to get on the ballot. up support in the western part of the ward he says has long been ignored by local power brokers. Bailey had initially challenged him, his mother, Maria Bailey (who also serves ing—which is strictly forbidden with 100 feet dermanic election in which judges appointed but abruptly withdrew his objection midway as a notary and petition circulator for his of polling places. by the Baileys are overseeing polling places through the fi rst evidentiary hearing. Driver campaign), was elected the Republican com- This is why Cook County Republicans where Bailey is on the ballot have cropped up says he had discovered evidence of fraud in mittee person back in the spring of 2016, at raised a fuss about Maria Bailey becoming around the ward. Since the Baileys took over Bailey’s fi lings with the Board and Bailey with- the same time Bailey became Democratic ward committee person. There was specu- both major party committees, people who’d drew his objection to avoid including it in the committeeman. lation that she and several other committee served as election judges for years began o cial record. (Bailey didn’t respond when I Party committee people in Chicago used to people in Chicago were Democratic interlop- reporting improper treatment by the mother asked him why he’d withdrawn the objection.) rule the roost in the wards as the fi eld mar- ers trying to consolidate power in a city with and son team. But while the procedural dramas unfold in shals of the machine, commanding armies an already meager GOP presence. As evidence The Reader heard about six such instances, the bowels of the Election Board, the reality of precinct captains and keeping smoothly they cited the fact that Maria Bailey had and spoke with two election judges who both on the ground is that Bailey is a front-runner running patronage networks well-oiled. never pulled a Republican ticket in a primary claimed one or both of the Baileys told them aldermanic candidate in the 20th despite Though their power and influence have and had displayed a J.B. Pritzker lawn sign in that they wouldn’t appoint them to serve as various allegations of impropriety. signifi cantly eroded since the 1980s—as has front of her home in the run-up to the guber- judges unless they agreed to work as circula- Bailey’s campaign signs are plastered on the machine itself—their most important natorial primary. tors for Kevin Bailey’s campaign. One of the many vacant and boarded up buildings and function remains appointing election judg- The Baileys have rebuffed allegations of judges, Quintin Jones, filed a police report his political organization, the Democratic es. Each polling place is supposed to retain impropriety by arguing that party doesn’t and a complaint with the Board of Elections committee, has grown in strength over the both Republican and Democratic judges, really matter in a ward. “At this level of pol- last fall. last two years to include the majority of although they’re not there to represent any itics I don’t believe there’s any disagreement “I thought it was a joke,” Jones, 55, told me election judges serving across the ward’s 39 candidates. Having both parties represented between any party,” Kevin Bailey told me. on the phone. He’d worked the same precinct precincts. This is due in part to the fact that is supposed to ensure against electioneer- But concerns about the integrity of an al- in the 20th Ward as a Democratic judge for 15 12 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
years and had never been asked to do political card, some of them were asking for your driv- work in exchange for his job. (Election judges er’s license.” get paid between $120 and $220 by the board Fuller said the ballot counting machine for each day they run a polling place.) was also malfunctioning and they didn’t Jones said he asked whether he’d be paid know how to fi x it. “I went to vote and the ma- for circulating and was told that he wouldn’t chine pushed me out three times,” she said. In be. “I refused and they removed me,” Jones the end she said she walked out exasperated, said. Ultimately, he did get an election judge not sure whether her vote even counted. “I assignment from the Board again, but in the said, ‘I know who I am, where I stand, I know 3rd Ward. He said the whole thing felt like who I serve, so fuck it.’” an affront to democracy. “It’s like they’re Fuller apologized for being crude and sabotaging all the judges, saying they have added that she went to to Bailey’s office at to be with [Bailey], for him, or we can’t work 63d and St. Lawrence complain about the in the 20th Ward,” he said, adding that he’s machine but was told that the committeeman worried about how Bailey’s appointed judges wasn’t there. “He was riding around with J.B. might behave at the polls if they’re there as on election day,” she said, with a note of in- repayment for campaign work. dignation. (Last week, Pritzker gave $10,000 “I think they need to be recused from this to Bailey’s Democratic committee, state cam- election. They shouldn’t have to tell you who paign fi nance records show.) Twentieth Ward aldermanic candidate Jennifer Maddox leads a caroling session at a community garden in Woodlawn. MAYA DUKMASOVA they’re supporting to be able to serve,” he Fuller didn’t want to say who she was said. “Unfortunately the 20th Ward has not supporting for alderman for fear of political been good with aldermen, and if [Bailey’s] reprisals, but she did note that she didn’t Hodari, who’d stopped by to mingle with her jectors—people hired by Johnson’s camp to starting o like this, him and his mother, it’s like how many of the 20th Ward candidates 11-year-old son. actually come to the Board—were “not even gonna be an o ce of corruption. They’re al- seemed to appear out of thin air. “The 20th “I don’t try to force no one’s hand,” Maddox following along on the screen. I had four peo- ready telling you they’re willing to do things Ward needs good candidates, and they need explained. “I go to [voters] and explain why ple sit with me four di erent times and they . . . to benefi t them regardless of whether it’s candidates who’ve lived in the ward for at I’m doing what I’m doing, I give them a little had their earphones in their ears, writing on ethical or unethical.” least five years,” she said. “The seniors not background and history on myself, I ask them their paper, and just saying: ‘Object, object.’” Board records obtained by the Reader getting theirs, the kids not getting theirs— go to google me, and I invite them to have a She said it was clear the process was meant show that in last November’s election, 65 we’re lost. We can’t get service, so we’re just conversation with me afterwards to discuss to discourage her; if she didn’t stay vigilant percent of the ward’s 150 judges were Kevin out here by ourselves. And I ain’t never seen moving forward with the ward.” (Googling and fi ght every objection, her valid signature these guys until election time. I don’t even Maddox yields a link to her CNN Heroes count could dip below the necessary 473. know the names.” p r o fi l e . ) “These last three days have really drained Maddox hopes that her ten years of serving me and I need to get myself back up and run- 65 percent of the uller wasn’t alone in her skepticism. On hundreds of kids from the Parkway Gar- ning again,” she said. ward’s 150 judges the Saturday before Christmas, a couple dens low-income apartment complex with As Maddox, Hodari, Dernard Newell, Jea- Fdozen kids rushed a small wooden stage afte-school and summer camp programs, nette Taylor, and others trudge through the were Kevin and in the middle of a community garden plot on mostly on her own dime, will persuade voters tedious procedural hurdles set up by their Maria Bailey’s the 6000 block of South Vernon. They’d been that she’s a person sincerely dedicated to the opponents, one of the chief contenders in the brought to carol for the neighbors by Mad- well-being of the community. She adds that race has wasted neither his own nor other appointees. Many dox’s nonprofit after school program Future people sometimes narrow their eyes when people’s time with the petition challenge of them were Ties. As the kids wound their way through they discover that she’s a cop, especially process. the holiday classics, wiggling and dancing, given the fact that Cochran had also been a Operating out of a storefront office a few serving for the eager for their hot chocolate reward, a few police o cer. “But I explain to them all police doors down from Cochran’s ward headquar- first time. passersby stopped to watch and sing along. o cers aren’t the same,” she says. ters on Cottage Grove, Andre Smith is run- When they were done, a man walking away Maddox sees the fact that she was chal- ning a loud and visible campaign, bolstered with his family said “It feels good to be caroled lenged by both Bailey and Nicole Johnson as by his advantage as a third-time candidate. to on some Christmases.” He paused for e ect a sign that she’s got a good chance to win. “I Smith has learned a lot in his previous and to get the attention of the woman walking do think I’m a threat to them,” she said, even two runs for alderman and has a campaign and Maria Bailey’s appointees. Many of them with him. “We don’t get caroled every year. without the money, party, union, or church “war room” plastered with precinct maps in were serving for the fi rst time. Only when it’s time to vote.” backing some of the other candidates have. I the back of his o ce. Dressed in a turquoise Collean Fuller, 86, has been a precinct cap- Maddox isn’t surprised by such cynicism. spoke with her this week after she’d spent a shirt and black slacks, he slammed a fat stack tain in the 20th Ward for decades. She says She said she’d probably feel the same way if grueling weekend fi ghting Johnson’s objec- of papers on his desk when I asked him why she’s noticed a big turnover in election judges she’d never met a candidate in person, and tions to her signatures. he thought no one had challenged him. They since the Baileys took over. When she went noted that the caroling wasn’t meant as a “When we were going through the signa- were a davits signed by every one of his pe- to vote last November, she said all the the campaign event. Indeed, she hadn’t men- tures the Board of Election [examiner] over- tition signatories, he explained, stating that people working her polling place were new tioned a word about the election as she led ruled a lot of the objections because clearly they really had signed for him fi rst. No one and “didn’t know bullfrog from catfi sh. Some the singing dressed down in a fleece jacket the people were in the ward and they were would have been able to claim his signatures of them were asking for your social security and sweatpants. Neither did candidate Maya registered voters,” Maddox said. The ob- weren’t valid. J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 13 NEWS & POLITICS continued from 13 paigning out of their homes and focusing on types. Having lost two close, college-bound ack on December 19, just a few hours “Welcome to Andre Smith,” he said with a fund-raising. “These people, most of them friends to gun violence, he says he under- after Bailey’s challenge of Jennifer Mad- grin as he popped open a can of soda. are opportunists,” he said, jabbing his fi nger stands the challenges locals face and that Bdox collapsed, he and Nicole Johnson’s In many ways Smith is already acting like at a list of his opponents’ names. “We’ve been he has the right communication skills and attorney Andrew Finko sat before hearing an alderman. In his front office, volunteers fighting Cochran for 12 years—where was pedigree to make their concerns matter in o cer Yamil Colon. Bailey was joined by his and sta organize donations for a toy drive you at?” City Hall. stepfather, Hassan Muhammad, a short, pudgy and take calls from residents complaining Meanwhile, on the west end of the ward, A few days before Christmas, Driver man who sat behind him and grabbed onto his about uncut trees, unplowed streets, and Driver may be the newest of the newcomers, stopped at Robust Coffee Lounge on the shoulders to whisper intensely into his ear criminal activity. They keep notes on follow- but he’s developed a keen analysis of what corner of 63rd and Woodlawn dressed so frequently that Colon made him introduce up calls and whether each issue has ultimate- it will take to win this election. Given that down in a Bulls hoodie, black beanie, and himself for the record. ly been resolved. If the callers don’t have in 2015 only 6,614 people cast a vote in the puffer coat. Muhammad is a longtime political op- luck getting help from Cochran, Smith takes election that resulted in a runo between Co- “When I’m dressed like this, and I’m walk- erative on the south side who’s worked for it upon himself to contact the ward superin- chran and Bailey—and that Cochran won the ing out in the neighborhood, I’m going to Congressman Danny Davis and Cook County tendent or the city’s Streets and Sanitation runo by only 849 votes with a war chest ten be mistaken for a gangbanger. I’m going to Clerk of the Circuit Court-turned-mayoral department to handle potholes or broken times the size of Bailey’s—Driver said this be mistaken for a criminal. No one’s gonna candidate Dorothy Brown. In the past, he’s street lights. Sometimes he’ll send his own know I have two degrees, that I’ve studied been the source of controversy on campaigns. people out to fi x a resident’s problem. abroad,” he said. Though he’s battling a stig- In 2009, reports surfaced that he was order- Many people in the ward, and some city ma because of his youth, he adds that his age ing state-funded workers who’d signed up to o cials, “already treat me like I was the al- is precisely what’s helping him get through receive job training through his nonprofi t to derman,” he claims. “The seniors not to disa ected young people who don’t see a collect petition signatures for Brown’s run Despite a fervent base of supporters, Smith getting theirs, the kids refl ection of themselves in politicians. for Cook County Board president. When he has also landed in hot water. Last fall, he was “I’m the only person who can go into any was confronted about this by reporters from alleged to have solicited petition signatures not getting theirs— neighborhood in the 20th Ward—the worst FOX Chicago, Muhammad appeared to snatch in exchange for free Thanksgiving turkeys. we’re lost. We can’t get neighborhoods—and speak the language, documents from their hands, denied any Rumors persist about his campaign volun- talk to people out on the street, and in the wrongdoing, and was arrested on camera, teers bullying voters. But none of that is service, so we’re just same breath turn around and call someone although the station didn’t ultimately press slowing him down. out here by ourselves. directly at City Hall and they’re gonna an- any charges. Smith has a habit of talking about himself swer because of my education, because of At the hearing, Colon decided to send a in the third person and providing receipts for And I ain’t never my connections. I’m the only person who can sample of Bailey’s many pages of objections his claims. Over the course of our conversa- seen these guys until bring those worlds together.” It helps that for examination by Board sta , which would tion he periodically whipped out his phone election time. I don’t he comes from a family of precinct captains reflect the quality of his entire objection. to show me videos of himself clearing brush highly active in local politics. They’d go through 10 percent of Bailey’s from vacant lots with a chain saw, dug up even know the names.” Driver also admires many of the other appendix recapitulation sheets and decide copies of newspaper articles citing his pres- candidates running and maintains friendly whether he was making good-faith challeng- ence at community events, and even showed —Collean Fuller relationships with them. He thinks the fact es with his 5,343 objections to Johnson’s me framed report cards and certifi cates from that the majority of the candidates are trying 2,727 signatures. a young man who he said had been a homeless to play fair is a good sign of the shifting polit- “There’s a pattern that they’re looking for, high school dropout gang banging in the ical culture in the ward. On his way out of the OK?” Colon explained to Bailey, who began neighborhood before Smith gave him a job election will come down to a “game of bases.” co ee shop he ran into Hodari and exchanged arguing that this examination wouldn’t be circulating his petitions and got him back He believed he’d be able to get the most peo- commiserations about Bailey. “holistic.” into school. He proudly showed me footage ple out to the polls when the time came. Hodari has been a passionate advocate “A pattern he’s looking for,” Muhammad of the young man fanning out a stack of hun- Driver, who was a fellow in Rahm Emanu- for the Obama Presidential Center and mumbled loudly, jerking his head in Finko’s dred dollar bills on his phone. el’s O ce of Public Engagement, has interned wants to prioritize economic development direction. “All legal money,” the boy could be heard on Capitol Hill, and has been invited to the in the community. She’s for a community Colon ignored the comment and ended the saying, fl ashing a yellow receipt at the cam- White House on multiple occasions, hopes benefits agreement, but says that seeing hearing. But Muhammad was getting heated. era. “Real gangsters into politics.” people will see him as a viable alternative a development of national import will be a “It’s subjective and arbitrary,” he grumbled. “This is Andre Smith over in the campaign to the same-old self-serving politicians. boon for local kids who only get to see their “You wanna look at part of the sheet, not the office, helping out, giving back, taking the He’s waged an issue-driven battle centered neighborhood and themselves associated whole sheet,” he continued. “Not everything brothers from off the street, putting them on tackling lead contamination in drinking with crime and poverty. She too hopes the on the sheet is what I wanna look at,” he into the political world so they can learn how water, creating a way for residents to drop election will yield a more vibrant civic cul- whined in a high-pitched voice, in apparent to make real money,” Smith says as he turns o guns to the police anonymously 24-7, and ture in the ward. mockery of Colon. the camera on himself in the video. “This boosting a ordable housing options. “This is not any of our last stop,” she said, An awkward silence descended on the is what we do, this is what leadership is all Soft-spoken and armed with what appears refl ecting on the crowded fi eld of candidates. people around the hearing table. “Sorry, the about.” to be deeply researched understanding of the “I think that this has been an opportunity to team has put in a lot of time and e ort,” Bai- Smith suggested this is his year and said ward’s demographics Driver has focused his get key people who are passionate about mov- ley said to Colon with a smirk and a nervous that no one else running has a proven track campaign on door-knocking, especially in the ing things forward in the 20th Ward—now we laugh. record of community service in the ward. poorer parts of the ward where people aren’t know one another. Now we can, if we choose “I understand,” Colon replied. “People He sco ed at the fi rst-time candidates cam- seen as likely voters by the establishment to, work together beyond this election.” get frustrated and upset at these things and 14 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
declined to explain why he didn’t challenge Smith, but talked about petition challenges almost as a civic duty, suggesting that they police candidates’ integrity and diligence in complying with the rules. “As a person who’s pro se in this legal sys- tem I will not be the biggest challenge that whoever gets into this aldermanic o ce will face,” he said. “And if they can’t handle an ini- tial fi ght how can they expect to excel when it comes to fighting over resources against other seasoned aldermen that know the sys- tem in and out?” When I asked Bailey about his campaign platform, he began talking about Cochran’s inability to provide adequate basic services in the ward, such as trash cans, and claimed it’s led to the proliferation of cat-sized rats. He also talked about shootings and illegal evictions as he sat in the front area of his o ce, wallpapered with pictures of his face. “The schools are still on the chopping block, some are closing down, some are get- Twentieth Ward aldermanic candidate Andre Smith, who's run for the seat unsuccessfully two previous times against Cochran. ting turned around, but overall we still need Here he's showing a stack of affi davits obtained from each person he asked to sign his nominating petitions. MAYA DUKMASOVA need holistic investment in our kids and in their future, especially while their minds are still malleable, and uh . . . I said public safe- there’s nothing wrong with expressing your man who has good moral fi ber, honesty, and Johnson said. She and other 20th Ward can- ty—is that all of them?” he asked, turning frustration.” They set a date for the next integrity, at all times.” didates told me that Bailey would likely have towards his mother, Maria Bailey, who’d been hearing. Colon wrote a recommendation to the had the 473 signatures needed to make the hovering around and periodically scribbling Muhammad continued mumbling and board stating that Bailey “did not meet his ballot anyway, even if more than half of those in a notebook. “The focal points are: educa- mocking Colon. He eventually stormed out burden of showing due diligence and inquiry. fi led could have been thrown out. tion, health and human services, economic of the hearing room and, fi nding an audience The objection petition appears to have been Johnson, an Englewood native who’s been development,” Bailey said, counting off his in the hallway, escalated his complaints to a conceived in fraud, false pleading, and bad campaigning with plans to boost small busi- fi ngers. “I’m missing one . . .” torrent of angry shouts. Finko, a veteran elec- faith.” ness activity and strengthen connections “I don’t know, you were in the middle of tion lawyer with a mane of sandy hair and a At a meeting last week, the board adopted between local schools and colleges, lamented a meeting back here,” Maria Bailey said gigantic silver signet ring of the Ukrainian Colon’s recommendation and rejected Bai- the way Bailey’s shenanigans took candi- with a chuckle. She appeared to be growing coat of arms, scooted away with his chair to ley’s objections. Nicole Johnson made the dates’ attention away from pressing issues in impatient that her son was dawdling with the other side of the room for a client running ballot. the ward. Poverty, crime, lack of educational a reporter while o ce sta were feverishly in a di erent ward. Refl ecting on the ordeal after a month of resources, and economic disenfranchisement completing paperwork for yet another chal- Reflecting on Bailey’s challenge later, hearings and legal expenses, Johnson said all went unchecked, she suggested, while lenge-related fi ling deadline. Finko didn’t mince words. “I think what he’s last week that Bailey’s tactics are indicative local concerns that the ward’s politicians are But Bailey wanted to finish his thought. doing is an abuse of the system and an abuse of “the type of chicanery that we have going steeped in corruption only fl ourished. “Health and human services, public safety, of the rules,” he said. He added that Bailey’s on, which is unfortunately in the culture of She said she’s come across many residents education, economic development—yeah objections were a waste of taxpayer dollars, the 20th Ward.” who ask, “How are you gonna make sure you that’s it, those were the four,” he fi nally con- since the board had to spend time and money I asked why, given her campaign resourc- don’t go to jail?” and added that any serious cluded, satisfi ed. These would be the central on hearings that go nowhere. “I don’t mind es (she’s gotten thousands of dollars from candidate in the 20th Ward must have a subjects of his campaign, just as they were if someone fi les an objections for valid rea- wealthy donors connected to the University compelling answer. The way she sees it, it’s the last time he ran and since he’d become sons—that’s the rules,” he said, apparently of Chicago) and her belief that Bailey isn’t about surrounding yourself with the right committeeman, Bailey said. considering his own camp’s challenges to be playing fair, she didn’t file an objection advisors, being transparent, and soliciting “There’s not gonna be a change in the above board. “The stuff that Bailey is pull- against him and focused on trying to knock community input when making decisions, focus” of his campaign, he explained. As ing—it’s not professional.” other opponents—all women—o the ballot especially about real estate and business allegations of bad faith and corruption swirl Two days after Muhammad’s meltdown, instead. She explained it was a question of development. around him, he said he’s keeping his mind on the board found that 82 percent of Bailey’s resources. For his part, Bailey dismissed his oppo- how to best serve the residents because, since objections didn’t stand up to scrutiny. Finko Given that Bailey fi led 900 pages of petition nents’ complaints about his tactics. He said he’s gotten into politics, “the quality of life fi led a motion saying that the “implications of signatures and candidates only had a week to his challenges “are all a part of challenging hasn’t improved in the community.” v Kevin Bailey’s actions . . . are very troubling. fi le objections “that would have been so much the status quo, increasing the quality of Residents of the 20th Ward deserve an alder- energy devoted to one particular individual,” candidate that services our community.” He @mdoukmas ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 15 NEWS & POLITICS
Attendees of the 2019 Modern Language Association convention in Chicago browse recent publications in the MLA Exhibit Hall. EDWARD SAVARIA JR “Gender Studies” (contributed by Jaime Hark- er of the University of Mississippi along with a witty critique of Keywords’ entries on “sexual harassment” and “spousal hiring”). Watt, in his turn at the podium, noted that universities continue to crank out increasing numbers of PhDs in the humanities (3,336 in 1983; 5,662 in 2013), while the relative number of tenure track jobs for them continues to shrink. “Cary and I have complained about this for over 20 years, and things have only gotten worse,” he said before suggesting a reduction in both the number of PhD degrees granted and the time it takes to get one (now averaging nine years). Then he o ered one radical partial solution: “post-tenure review with both pos- itive and negative outcomes for our most se- nior colleagues.” In other words, mandated or interest like “Brecht in Chicago” and a whole phased retirement in some cases, which hasn’t session on the work of former Reader writer existed since a 1986 amendment to the federal Achy Obejas? ) Age Discrimination in Employment Act that, ON CULTURE So the prospect of the two professors—now Watt says, allows American faculty to “teach white-haired old white dudes in the ripest until they drop dead in the classroom.” (Or, as phase of their privileged positions (Nelson is he said happened to one dementia-addled col- A Devil’s Dictionary reconsidered now professor emeritus)—participating in the league, they show up for class minus clothing reassessment of their own snarky, 20-year-old under their coats.) Updating an academic semi-classic at this year’s MLA convention. rant about the crumbling edifi ce and problem- Nelson rued the loss of what he called the atic future of higher ed made an otherwise “principles that underwrite the academy,” By D I fraught choice easy for me. especially academic freedom. In 1999, he Academic Keywords had concluded in 1999 said, he thought corporate-style administra- that the exploitation of part-time faculty (and tors were to blame for this. Now he sees the “the winnowing away of tenure lines”) “rep- biggest threats coming from tenured faculty n 1999, two midwestern professors, Cary up as the subject of one of the more than 700 resents the single greatest threat to quality themselves—like those at Berkeley who called Nelson (University of Illinois) and Ste- presentations. According to the convention higher education.” Two decades later, with the for the cancellation of a lecture by right-wing phen Watt (Indiana University), teamed program, a panel of six speakers, including the plight of contingent faculty the focus of a half provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. up on a cheeky pseudo-dictionary that authors, would assess the legacy of the book dozen MLA sessions (and, downstairs, in the “Key to these new assaults is a growing was also a serious critique of academia. and propose new terms for inclusion. convention’s exhibit area, the University of faculty conviction that certain political beliefs IThey titled it Academic Keywords: A Dev- The MLA convention, which is part Chicago Press taking orders for a new book on trump traditional academic freedoms,” Nelson il’s Dictionary for Higher Education—in part bone-chilling interviews for precious few jobs, the subject, The Adjunct Underclass by Herb said. “Universities are supposed to be places after Ambrose Bierce’s 1911 satire The Devil’s part deeply quirky research reports by panels Childress, a former academic), I had to hear where o ensive, even loathsome views can be Dictionary. In 47 entries, many of which ran that can outnumber their audiences, and part what its authors in conversation with mem- tested.” to essay length, they took down everything a bookworm’s version of hard-partying week- bers of a new generation of academics would As for the (finally) hot topic of adjunct from Academic Departments to Yuppies. But end on the town, is also a guaranteed source add. labor? “The Modern Language Association what most concerned them was the emer- of frustration. Like a gigantic, quickly-passed The new terms the four younger panelists denied the existence of the problem of contin- gence of the Corporate University and its most box of chocolates, it o ers so many intriguing suggested for inclusion? “Identification” gent faculty for nearly 20 years,” Nelson told egregious characteristic: growing numbers of options in such a short space of time (this (from Yung-Hsing Wu of the University of Lou- me. “They refused to admit it was a problem. poorly paid and badly treated part-time and year’s meeting ran January 3-6), that no isiana because it “fueled feminist criticism” They castigated those who brought the prob- temporary faculty. matter which you select, you’re going to feel and “is now explicit in our classrooms”); “Col- lem up. And now, when it’s too late to do any- The book won admiring reviews and some regret for missing others. How to choose, for legiality” (o ered by Patrick Maley of Cente- thing, when only 25 percent of American fac- instant notoriety. example, between “Posthuman Affection,” nary University because it silences productive ulty are tenure-eligible, they’re talking about Last week when 5,000 academics gathered “Comics Fandom in Transition,” and “Philoso- dissent); “Program Prioritization” (the choice it. They might as well talk about what kind of in Chicago for the annual convention of the phy of, as, and on Extinction”? To say nothing of Mark William Van Wienen of Northern literature we should teach on the dark side of Modern Language Association (basically, the of “New Currents in Medieval Iberian Studies” Illinois University who suggested it’s a means the moon. That battle is over. We lost it.” v trade association for professors of literature and “The History of Financial Advice”? (Or, of eliminating “less productive” campus pro- and languages), Academic Keywords showed in other time slots, surprising topics of local grams and, potentially, tenured faculty); and @DeannaIsaacs 16 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll E-O-H | W. Higgins, Schaumburg R W. Chicago -- -- egg-o-holic.com FOOD & DRINK
RESTAURANT REVIEW Egg-O-Holic puts together Gujarat’s vast eggetarian street food Eggs: they’re not just for breakfast anymore. By M S
he famously vegetarian state of older cousin Bhagyesh were growing up in the Gujarat in northwestern India is capital Ahmedabad, and “Egg Night” meant also famously dry. And yet after a run on the laaris for egg bhurji, scrambled dark in many large cities, out come with onion, tomato, chili, and spices; lachko, the laaris, street food carts, many a thick, puddinglike mix of shredded green Ttra cking in an endless variety of egg dishes chilis and cheese and soft cooked eggs; or well-suited to meet the restorative demands surati gotala, shredded boiled eggs in a spicy of anyone who happens to have imbibed. tomato-based gravy, topped shakshuka-like Eggs—boiled, fried, folded into omelets, sim- with two just-set cackleberries. mered in curries, swaddled in chapati, scram- “Every time we’d go there, we’d try some- bled with rice, or even sandwiched between thing di erent,” Patel says. grilled white bread—are a popular street food After the older Patel, 30, immigrated to the (and hangover preventative) all over India. western suburbs in 2005—eventually opening Lachko and roti ALEXUS MCLANE But their ascendance in Gujarat—especially a handful of Subway shops in city—he was over the past decade or so—is a more recent followed by the younger ten years later. Both development, according to the Times of India. lamented the absence of the laaris and the Those were the days when Lay Patel and his universe of egg possibilities they o ered. J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 17 Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your FOOD & DRINK own review—at chicagoreader.com/food.
Green egg rice ALEXUS MCLANE
continued from 17 and sandwiches, after all: “Anda agar na “We thought there’s this really popular con- hota toh murgiyan na hoti,” as the song goes, cept,” says Lay Patel. “It’s new and it’s getting or “without an egg there wouldn’t be any hyped up. We don’t have something like this chicken.” where we live.” Not a year in and the concept proved popu- Last spring they teamed up with Bhagyesh’s lar not just with the broad Indian community old schoolmate Vilas Patil—who used to op- in the western suburbs but many from out of erate a laari back home—and hatched Egg-O- state as well. A little more than a month ago Holic in a Schaumburg strip mall. Egg-O-Holic they opened their second location in the for- adopts the model not so much of laari but the mer Thalia Spice space on Chicago near Halst- eggetarian sit-down restaurants that have ed, in part to make things easier on customers subsequently popped up not just in India, but coming from Indiana. increasingly wherever large numbers of Indi- I worked my way through just a fraction of ans resettle. its lengthy (eggspansive?) menu, and if there’s The 2001 Bollywood comedy Jodi No. 1 one unifying characteristic it’s that these egg featured an infectious musical number called dishes are extraordinarily rich, thanks largely “Ande ka Fanda,” which, from Hindi, roughly to their common cooking medium: butter— translates to “the fundamentals of an egg.” not ghee—produced by Gujarat’s Amul Milk The partners took the title as a slogan and Union Limited, an iconic cooperative credited bedecked the interior of their store, subbing with sparking India’s White Revolution in the the names of their dishes—both street food 70s, which made the country the world’s larg- classics and popular new innovations—into est dairy producer. Anda masala sandwich ALEXUS MCLANE the lyrics of other popular songs. Its presence is unmistakable in the afore- The menu is extensive, with “eggetizers” mentioned lachko, surati gotala, egg bhurji, ranging from plain boiled eggs, to masa- and green egg curry rice, a kind of breakfast la-spiced French toast, to cheesy egg masala biryani whose richness is buoyed with mint, A bubbly Thums Up cola, or any of the three candied aromatic fruits and seeds, rose petal roti; more substantial rich curries and scram- mustard seed, and curry leaves. other imported soft drinks, would probably be preserves, coconut fl akes, and dates. bles; and grilled egg and cheese sandwiches. Amul-brand cheese contributes to that just the thing to help handle this sort of lac- The partners are already dreaming of laying Egg abstainers are appeased with grilled richness too in many dishes, forming a gooey tose overload, but I found relief in a cold glass a third midwestern location, incubating the cheese sandwiches and dishes that substitute double layer on the anda masala sandwich, a of masala chhaas—a salty, spiced buttermilk. embyro of a potential empire. v paneer for the ova. For those who prefer more tandoori-spiced subcontinental disruption of Alternatively one can chew it o with a bun- developed poultry there are chicken kabobs the common egg salad sandwich. dle of pan: betel nut leaves wrapped around @MikeSula 18 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ARTS & CULTURE
Ajijaak on Turtle Island RICHARDTERMINE COlD nightS. Hot Comedy. NO DRINK MINIMUM • LATE NIGHT SHOWS AVAILABLE secondcity.com • 312-337-3992
THEATER Beyond the Fringe Here are fi ve theater festivals to help you survive January. By C S
ote to T.S. Eliot: Sorry/not sorry, April with gun violence, a topic she’d initially shied isn’t the cruelest month. That would be away from. “I wasn’t going to enter because I NJanuary, the annual 31-day slog when, didn’t think I had anything to say that hasn’t in Chicago, both sky and ground are a mono- been said already,” she says. “But then I real- lithic gray. If you aren’t among those who use ized—nobody has told this in my voice.” “winter” as a verb (i.e.: “We’re wintering in That voice is inspired by real events and Cabo”), consider 2019’s roster of festivals the close friends: “Faith and Hope are a boy and entertainment equivalent of a high-wattage a girl—their names are qualities they should sun lamp. From young playwrights to veteran have but don’t,” Tyler continues. “I wanted to puppeteers, January stages bloom with diver- show how pain can hinder and help us, and sions. Read on for the particulars. how these emotions can be universal. I also wanted to show that from pain, love and com- A Y fort can grow.” Through 1/27: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, P F Sun 3 PM; no performance Sun 1/13, Chicago Pegasus estimates it annually reads through Dramatists, 773 N. Aberdeen, 773-878-8864, roughly 500 play submissions from Chicago- pegasustheatrechicago.org, $30, $25 seniors, and-environs high school students before $18 21 and under. picking a few to stage in productions cra ed by Chicago’s veteran directors, actors, and T R T F designers. Kenwood Academy senior Anonda “Every year, we swear ‘That’s it.’ We’re never Tyler’s Hyde Park-set Fragile Limbs is one of doing this again,’” says Jenny Magnus, the three selected this year. Tyler’s plot deals co-founder (with Beau O’Reilly) of Curi- J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 19 R READER RECOMMENDED b ALL AGES F ARTS & CULTURE
continued from 19 “I see my piece as a jumping-off point,” says CRITICS ARE AWED BY THIS VISCERAL AND POWERFUL ous Theatre Branch/Rhino Fest. This year, Browne. “I want there to be change. I want WORLD PREMIERE ABOUT THE MURDERED as ever, Magnus broke her oath. Politics, there to be healing. I want us to be talking AND MISSING WOMEN OF JUÁREZ, MEXICO both local and national, played a role. “Peo- about all of these things.” 1/15-1/27: dates and ple making something out of nothing in this times vary; see website, Collaboraction, 1579 “Plenty of “Countless “Raw, unflinching, fucked-up world is extremely important,” N. Milwaukee, 312-226-9633, collaboraction. Magnus says. “If our artistic enclaves cannot org, $25, $15 students, festival pass $60, $30 contemporary moments of sheer passionately support each other? We are absolutely not students. relevance” theatrical beauty” acted premiere” going to make it.” – Chicago Sun Times – Newcity – Daily Herald The 2019 Rhino entries are a multigenera- A F S F tional eff ort created by artists ranging in age If you were around for Fillet of Solo’s epic from 15 to older than 80. Among them: an run at the Live Bait Theater (1987-2009, RIP), opening night vaudeville musicale, a drag ode you probably don’t require further impe- to Barbra Streisand, a full production of Caryl tus to make for the box offi ce. David Sedaris Churchill’s demon-infused drama The Skrik- debuted stories at FoS back in the day. So did er, and a weekly podcast about Chicago’s arts Tellin’ Tales Theatre cofounder Tekki Lomnic- A world premiere by Isaac Gomez and culture scene. ki, a singer-storyteller and self-described lit- Directed by ensemble member Sandra Marquez “I get emotional about it because things are tle person who spins comic gold from auto- so fucking desperate right now,” says Magnus. biographical tales. When the Live Bait shut- “Making art is one of the only answers I know.” tered in 2009, Lomnicki—among many oth- 1/12-2/24: Wed-Fri 7 PM, Sat noon, Sun 3 PM, ers—worried for future Fillets, but Lifeline Mon 7 PM; see website for individual perfor- Theatre picked up the series in 2010 and it’s mance times, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, rhi- been running in Rogers Park ever since. This nofest.com, $15 or pay what you can. year, Lomnicki brings Come Hell or High Water, drawn from her experiences with busi- E ness travel. When the local CBS affi liate ran a story about “This was the late 1980s, early 90s,” Lom- missing women from Chicago’s south side, nicki recalls, “when there were ‘handicapped’ playwright B.B. Browne was left with more hotel rooms which always only had one bed. questions than answers. “It was only a snap- The company I worked for was too cheap to shot,” she says. “No follow-up. But the com- give us our own rooms, so I’d literally wind munity has been talking about this, black and up sleeping with strangers. I mean, fi ne, I can brown women disappearing. We don’t have bring a stool to get to the towels or whatever. hard numbers, but people are worried. And But sleeping with strangers? Come. On.” we know that if this was happening on the Along with Lomnicki and her Tellin’ Tales north side, we’d be hearing more about it. collaborators, Fillet also includes the comic The question for me became, ‘How can I as stylings of Stir Friday Night! (Steven Yeun, an artist upli these sisters who are crying for aka Glenn on the The Walking Dead, is a help?’” The answer lies in Missing, a short play former member), and the unfiltered “brain- Browne hopes to expand to full-length. droppings” of Moth GrandSlam champ Lily MUST Variations on Browne’s core question Be, the Back of the Yards native whose Stoop CLOSE inform all of Collaboraction’s Encounter, series provides one of Chicago’s rare show- JAN 27 which is curated into different nightly pro- cases for storytellers of color. grams, many followed by panels, discussions, A er the recent sale of the Heartland Cafe and calls for community involvement outside and the future of the Event Space uncertain, the theater. The productions are embedded Lomnicki has a sense of déjà vu, like it’s the steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 with topical urgency: Alanisse Pineda’s 16 2009 Live Bait closing all over again, minus Shots uses the the murder of Laquan McDon- much of the worry. “The stories aren’t going LEAD PRODUCTION SPONSORS 2018/19 GRAND BENEFACTORS ald to explore both police brutality and the away. Neither are the storytellers,” she says. daily barrage of microaggressions faced by 1/18-2/2: times and locations vary; see website, people of color. An adaptation of Tonika Lewis 773-761-4477, lifelinetheatre.com, $10, festival Johnson’s acclaimed Folded Map Project pho- pass $50. tographs, which bring together people from 2018/19 BENEFACTORS corresponding addresses on the north and C I P T south sides, takes on the geography of seg- F regation and racism. Picnic Summit by Sami “If someone who doesn’t know puppetry gets Ismat, who is a Syrian refugee, digs into poli- into a room where they see a contemporary tics as laid out at a family gathering. piece of puppet theater, they’re shocked,” 20 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll C YP F Through /: Fri-Sat : PM, Sun PM; no performance Sun /, Chicago Dramatists, N. Aberdeen, - - , pegasustheatrechicago.org, $, $ seniors, $ and under. ARTS & CULTURE
says Blair Thomas, founder of the Chicago International Puppet Festival and cofounder Good Strong Coff ee of the late Redmoon Theater, the company MICHAEL COURIER largely responsible for helping puppets fi nd a place within Chicago theater. Puppet Fest is about cultivating the art form as well as bring- ing it to audiences, he adds. “Obviously we’re torment to the way these two young people having a moment where puppets are grab- try to do all they can to break free of the bing hold. Take away the puppets from Lion shackles that bind them. King or War Horse and what do you have le ? Good Strong Coffee by Whitney Young But those puppets didn’t just happen—they Magnet High School’s Luna MacWilliams took years, decades, to create.” rounds out the program with a sprawling Puppet Fest was born in 2000, co-curat- story of Latino siblings trying to keep their ed by Thomas and Susan Lipmann in collabo- late parents’ Pilsen co ee shop afl oat in spite ration with the School of the Art Institute of of gentrification and their own personal Chicago. Since 2015, it’s been a biennial. This hopes and dreams. While certainly the most year’s festival is vast, encompassing 70 events ambitious of the three plays, this one is also performed by 50 artists. Among them are: the one most indebted to TV sitcom tropes. Ajijaak on Turtle Island, performed by mem- Most telling are the repeated pantomimed bers of the Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk, Lakota, and “montage” transitions between scenes. It’s Cherokee nations and based on indigenous the kind of thing that might work with video legends, is a tale of cranes created from sto- editing but feels completely stagey per- ryboards by codirectors Ty Defoe and Heath- formed live. There is also a too-neat happy er Henson, daughter of Muppets creator Jim ending, not unlike the one in A Green Light. Henson. THEATER Thinking back on the three pieces while Just Another Lynching, from North Caroli- leaving the theater, I kept coming back to na-based puppet artist Jeghetto, is the story the spectral fi gure in Fragile Limbs. Dubbed of a black man murdered in 1921. Bright young things “Fragile Boy” in the program and played Arde Brillante en los Bosques de la Noche with an intensity lacking in any other part of (Burning Bright in the Forest of the Night), a The three authors in the Young Playwrights Festival the show by Elaine C. Bell, this was the only puppet/film/live theater mashup by Argen- aren’t afraid to take on big themes. character who did not seem to me a product tinian artist Mariano Pensotti is based on the of either pop culture or other known tropes. words and actions of Soviet revolutionary and By D S This shape-shifting spirit felt like a personal feminist Alexandra Kollontai. 1/17-1/27: times evocation of the metaphysical entirely of and locations vary; see website, 312-753-3234, Tyler’s conjuring. chicagopuppetfest.org, $10-$40. he three one-acts that make up real problem is that she was in love with him It’s probably unfair to expect writers who the 32nd annual Chicago Young and his revelation broke her heart. While the haven’t lived very long to present insightful I M Playwrights Festival don’t shy sentiments expressed are no doubt sincere, I narratives. It takes many years to shed the T C F F away from big issues, but they could not help feeling like I was watching an influence of books, TV shows, movies, and Fests are not forever. The Chicago Interna- struggle to convey those issues in after-school special. Everything is resolved other media, which can’t help but inform and tional Theatre Festival? Gone. The Chicago Ta personal way. While it’s no surprise that tidily at the high school prom, lessons are often overwhelm a young person’s early cre- Fringe and Buskers Festival? Likewise. This high schoolers might have trouble drama- learned, and, presumably, everyone lives ative e orts. Watching these plays, I wasn’t year came word that the Chicago Fringe tizing large topics such as sexual identity, happily ever after. discouraged by what they portend for the Festival (which some argued was redundant domestic abuse, and immigrants grappling In Kenwood Academy High School student future of Chicago theater. There was little because what is Chicago’s vast off -Loop the- with gentrifi cation in unique ways, there’s no Anonda Tyler’s Fragile Limbs, a boy named cynicism or rote jokeyness presented—just a ater scene if not a yearlong fringe festival?) questioning the earnest e ort evident in each Faith and a girl named Hope come together lack of specifi city, which can only be attained is also kaput, a er 10 years and an estimated of these short plays, produced and performed and heal each other’s wounds. He grapples with time and experience. 367 shows. The Fringe’s volunteer staff was by theater professionals at Pegasus Theatre. with the loss of loved ones to Chicago street I don’t know whether these three young no longer up to the demands of producing In A Green Light, by Lane Tech College violence, while she contemplates suicide writers or the hundreds of other high school the annual shebang, or so explained the offi - Prep student Alexis Gaw, a boy comes out because of her mother’s abuse. A Grim students who submitted their e orts to this cial RIPress release. But mark your calendars! as gay to his female best friend and gets a Reaper-like hooded fi gure at fi rst haunts the festival will make a career on the stage, but There’s a commemorative party slated for Sat- chilly reaction. He is o ended that she won’t young pair but eventually becomes a kind of the fact that they aspire to succeed at such urday, June 11, at the Windsor Tavern and Grill, accept who he is or want to hear about his guardian angel as their romance develops. a quixotic endeavor can’t help but make me 4530 N. Milwaukee. January will surely be crushes the way he always has about hers, While some of Tyler’s language leans too hopeful. Given a little more seasoning, one over by then. v and wonders whether they are as close as heavily on platitudes (and naming the pro- or two will certainly come up with new ways he thought. She sees his sexuality as a polit- tagonists Hope and Faith is beyond on-the- to make the personal political and the global @CateySullivan ical issue, while hers is a matter of “normal” nose), there’s no doubt that the struggles she local. In the meantime, I applaud their sin- feelings. It is a surprise to no one that the relates are absolutely real. There’s a palpable cere, if fl awed, fi rst e orts. v ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 21 ARTS & CULTURE
BOOK SWAP Lit recommendations to start the year off right
f you’re reading Book Swap—and you are— ly constructed narrative that only coheres as forth. This year I asked him to buy me T cil (I think). All I know is that it’s about dance, my bet is on your New Year’s resolution a transcendent story about human fragility D M by Susan Baur. I can’t remem- music, and motherhood, so it promises to be a Ibeing to read more books. So in the first in this contemporary moment of duress long ber where I first heard about this book, but worthwhile and life-affi rming read. edition of Book Swap in 2019, I thought I’d after readers grow comfortable with his it’s been on my wish list for a few years. Baur share a glimpse of N D ’s TBR pile and flat-colored forms and opaque backstories. recounts her time working as a psycholo- AEM: B T B ’s on my some of my own selections. The book is gutting and brilliant—enough gist with schizophrenic patients, where she pile, too. Ayuyang’s gorgeous color work is so Drnaso’s graphic novel Sabrina took the so that you not only want to read everything developed a method of immersing herself in enticing! But first up is some gore, because literary world by storm last year—and for the author has ever written (and you won’t the delusional mind as a way to uncover and winter. good reason. It’s a slowly built and awkward- go wrong with Drnaso’s 2016 Beverly, which understand the internal logic. There’s no better way to commemorate the won the LA Times Book Award for Best In a similar vein, I’m also very much looking centennial anniversary of socialist feminist Graphic Novel), but you want to read what forward to digging into B T B - Rosa Luxemburg’s untimely demise on Janu- he reads, too. H OB W by ary 15 than by curling up with a fresh copy of So what are you reading, Nick? —A E- Robert Sapolsky. My wife and I have been lis- Klaus Geitinger’s T M R L - M tening to his lectures that are available online, from Verso. When she and fellow particularly on schizophrenia, religion, and Marxist revolutionary Karl Liebknecht were ND: I have a never-ending stack of books on depression. Admittedly, I told my brother to killed late one night in front of a posh hotel, my “to read” pile, which is a constant remind- buy the book for her for Christmas as well, and her body dumped into the Landwehr er of all the things that are passing me by. I’ve though I might greedily read it before she Canal in Berlin, it marked a turning point in chosen three from that stack that I’m particu- gets a chance to. the German political climate that, unfortu- larly excited about, though they’re not all new Because I might need something warmer nately, still holds a bit too much resonance or even recent releases, so this isn’t as much a a er those books, I’ll follow them with B today. “looking forward to” as a “looking back at” list. T B by Rina Ayuyang, which Former Chicagoan Aleksandar Hemon Every Christmas my brother and I try to I’ve been eager to read since the summer but will release MP /T DN recommend presents to each other so we’re keep losing in the pile. It’s a graphic novel, BY through MCD, a Farrar, not passing the same gift cards back and rendered in energetic and lovely colored pen- Strauss, and Giroux imprint, in the spring. Pairing the narrative of his parents’ immigra- tion from Bosnia to Canada with his extreme- CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARD NOMINEE • BEST ACTOR JOHN C. REILLY ly personal tales will certainly off er a fantastic frame for his incisive revelations and stunning “STEVE COOGAN AND JOHN C. REILLY eye for detail. DELIVER DYNAMITE PERFORMANCES.” One of my very favorite authors will also -Jason Zinoman, THE NEW YORK TIMES release a new book this year, on one of my very favorite sports: Elizabeth McCrack- en’s B takes on a family in New England that operates a candlepin bowl- ing alley. I don’t know how it can be anything PRODUCED WRITTEN DIRECTED WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM BY FAYE WARD BY JEFF POPE BY JON S. BAIRD but delightful, as I’ve truly loved every single EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START FRIDAY, JANUARY 11 thing she’s ever written, from her renowned The Giant’s House to her entire Twitter feed. Chicago Chicago LANDMARK’S Evanston CENTURY 12 AMC RIVER EAST 21 CENTURY CENTRE CINEMA EVANSTON / CINÉARTS 6 & XD Reasonably sure it will start 2019 off in the amctheatres.com (773) 248-7759 (847) 491-9751 right literary direction. v VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.STANANDOLLIEFILM.COM
22 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll
CHICAGO READER FRI 1/11 1/8 PG. (4.791” X 2.343”) MR #1 ALL.STANAN.0111.CHR ARTS & CULTURE
VISUAL ART The writing on the walls The B_Line has resurrected the nearly 50-year-old Hubbard Street Murals project. By E S JAMIE RAMSAY
he first thing you see is a large ce- African-American. At the time, Chicago was it received city funding to employ 50 students outdoor area with over 80,000 square feet of ment viaduct bisecting the Fulton experiencing cultural shifts as people were from nearby high schools at $2.30 an hour— murals. “How do we know we are world-class Market neighborhood. But when you pushing back against racism and power along with four School of the Art Institute in Chicago?” he asks. “You don’t know that walk closer, it resolves into an explo- structures. seniors to supervise them. By 1979, they had until you benchmark to see what other cities sion of brightly painted murals. One Against this changing backdrop, Ricardo completed the murals on the mile-long stretch are doing and then you attempt to go above Tmural shows photo-realistic children while Alonzo, the founder of the Hubbard Street between Ogden and Desplaines and employed and beyond that. It is my hope to make the another shows an elephant riding a penny- Murals, explains, “Chicago was having a more than 500 young people. That year, the B_Line that world-class example for Chicago.” farthing bicycle. rebirth of social issues that had taken to city funding ran out and Alonzo moved to Ari- Hoard fi rst met with Adrian Guerrero, then This is the B_Line. the streets in the form of public art,” most zona to pursue a career as art specialist for the Union Pacifi c Railroad’s public a airs director “It’s a gallery and a museum of street art,” notably the Wall of Respect that went up in U.S. Army. for Chicago and Cook County, to determine the explains Levar Hoard, its chief curator and Bronzeville in 1967. Alonzo was inspired to, Karen Smith and Fred Montano, a former steps necessary to restart the project. It would managing director. The B_Line—as in “making as he puts it, create “a universal message that student of Alonzo’s, picked up the torch in require the cooperation of Alderman Walter a beeline for”—is a reincarnation of the Hub- concerns us all.” the late 1990s after the Union Pacifi c Railroad Burnett Jr.’s o ce, the police district, and the bard Street Murals, which started in the early That message was about protecting the made repairs to the viaduct that damaged the community. 1970s. environment and saving endangered species, original murals. Their goal was to create new The B_Line’s first mural was an abstract Since its rebirth a little more than a year inspired by Genesis 1:28: “And God blessed murals while also restoring the old ones. They piece painted by the Chicago artist Lefty Out ago, the B_Line has expanded to cover five them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and wanted the project to be community driven: There at 895 West Hubbard. It was unveiled city blocks, from Aberdeen to Green streets, multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue “Anyone could submit a mural idea,” Smith during EXPO Chicago in September 2017. Mer- with decorated underpasses in between. Sev- it: and have dominion over the fi sh of the sea, says. Anne Marie Harm, who originally joined lot, Amuse126, and other Chicago-based art- enty-fi ve artists from Chicago and around the and over the fowl of the air, and over every as a volunteer, helped lead the project from the ists soon made their own contributions. Felipe world have created these astonishing murals. living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Each mid-2000s until 2009 when she too left town. Pantone, an Argentinian-Spanish street artist, Hoard, a Fulton Market resident, had spent of the murals would show scenes of nature and Attempts were made to keep the project was the fi rst international artist on the B_Line, years walking by the fading murals. Three wildlife. going but little happened until Hoard decided decorating an entire underpass at Peoria. The years ago, he fi nally decided to look into the In 1971, Alonzo and 12 students began paint- to revitalize it. Having lived in Miami, he was B_Line has also hosted several events. history of the neighborhood and discovered ing the viaduct along the 900 block of Hubbard surprised that Chicago lacked an art district The artists submit their designs, some of that in the 70s, it had been predominantly Street, but the project expanded in 1972 when comparable to Miami’s Wynwood Walls, an which are then chosen by a small com- J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 23 ARTS & CULTURE
continued from 23 Hoard sees the murals as one part of a much mittee of other artists and local community larger project. He and his team are working members based on the artist’s experience, with the alderman and CDOT to lay sidewalks style, and skill level. Hoard explains that they alongside the murals, move the bike lanes, and wanted to avoid including artists who already install better lighting. His long-term plans in- had a lot of murals in Chicago. “We want this clude connecting the B_Line to the Riverwalk to be a one-of-a-kind destination experience in and the 606. Chicago,” he says. Contributors have full con- Hoard has brought in SAIC students as trol over the material of their murals, though interns to learn from the artists. Two of the they are asked to be mindful of the Bennett students, Kalan Strauss and Saul Palos Rodri- Day School nearby. Hoard may provide some guez, have even painted murals of their own. curatorial support as well. He hopes to expand the program to bring in JAMIE RAMSAY
While there is a 501(c)3 for the project, students from underresourced schools. He Hoard explained that much of the funding has wants to have a diversity of artists and mural come from private donors as well as corpo- images. rate sponsorships and fees from commercial “You are going to see true diversity refl ect- shoots. ed in the art,” he says. “That’s something that Hoard has big plans for the B_Line. He wants started in 1971, that’s how I’m keeping it alive to make it more of “a world-class street art in 2018, going into 2019, and I take that very project” with 200 new and old murals. He aims seriously.” v to permanently seal some of the older murals in place to keep them on display. @Vogontroubadour
Above: Murals painted at Aberdeen and Hubbard, 1973 COURTESY THE B_LINE
Le : Artists assemble, 1973 COURTESY RICARDO ALONZO
24 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll T O’L sss Directed by Chris Marker. In English and subtitled French, Georgian, German, Greek, and Japanese. min. Gene Siskel Film Center, N. State, - - , siskelfilmcenter.org, $. ARTS & CULTURE
The Owl’s Legacy intuitive, but then Marker brings out fi lmmak- er Elia Kazan to remind us that ancient Greek society was hardly a democracy either, as most of its population consisted of slaves. This reminder speaks to the contradiction in Greek thought between ideals and reality—a con- tradiction that looms over much of The Owl’s Legacy. The frisson is especially pronounced in the episode on mathematics (which Marker wittily subtitles “The Empire Counts Back”), though it can be felt in nearly every part, as RockY JAN 11-14 AT 11 PM the interviewees frequently refl ect on the ide- alism of Greek philosophers. Comprised mostly of talking heads, The Owl’s Legacy may not be one of Marker’s most visually striking works, though the organiza- tion of ideas is characteristically playful and probing. Marker even throws in some intel- MOVIES lectual curveballs, such as the assertion that modern Japan is more closely aligned with ancient Greece than any European nation. This KISS OF THE Western Civ 101 digression allows the filmmaker to indulge Spider woman in his Japanophilia (one of the key threads of JAN 15-17 AT 10:30 PM Chris Marker’s essay fi lm The Owl’s Legacy is the best his masterpiece Sans Soleil), and it raises the symposium on ancient Greece you’ll ever sit in on. question of whether Greek ideals truly belong For showtimes and advance tickets, visit to the entire world. Located in an episode on thelogantheatre.com By B S tragedy (subtitled “the Illusion of Death”), it fi nds Marker delineating Japan’s integration his month the Gene Siskel Film Cen- are scenes set at actual symposia where of art into society at large and presenting ter is screening The Owl’s Legacy groups of people hold forth on the concepts at striking clips of a Noh adaptation of a classic (1989), a 13-part documentary series hand, aided by lots of wine. Even when Marker Greek tragedy. In locating similarities between directed by the late Chris Marker presents one interviewee at a time, The Owl’s Greek and Japanese modes of dramatization, (Sans Soleil, A Grin Without a Cat), Legacy still feels like an extended discourse, as Marker invites you to ponder whether certain Tone of the pioneers of the essay fi lm. The Film the fi lmmaker (who credits himself as “skip- concepts are universal. Center is dividing the series into four pro- per,” as opposed to director) edits the refl ec- Marker worked on The Owl’s Legacy for grams over the course of four weeks, with each tions so that the speakers seem to be in dia- much of the 1980s and premiered it on British program playing on Sunday afternoon and logue with one another. One idea often leads to television at the end of the decade, around the Monday evening. I recommend checking out a counterargument or antithesis; sometimes time that contemporary philosophers were the whole thing, but don’t worry if you miss it feels as though one speaker is building on pondering whether humanity had reached the one of the parts. The series can be watched what the previous one just said. This structure end of history. Given this context, the series in any order, and no one episode is more il- creates the impression that the ideas of the suggests a summation of sorts; at the same luminating than any other. The overarching ancient Greeks are still up for debate and that time, several of the interviewees opine that theme of The Owl’s Legacy is the infl uence of the concept of civilization remains a work in civilization still has a long way to go toward ancient Greek culture on modern life, and each progress. reaching its ideal form. Marker, who held radi- Find hundreds episode tackles a concept that comes to us This impression comes across the most cal political beliefs and explored them in quite of Reader- from the Greeks (democracy, mythology, trag- strongly when The Owl’s Legacy considers a few of his works, seems to side with these edy, etc.). Taken as a whole, it’s a heady and how different cultures have appropriated thinkers the most. Still, he engenders a sense recommended thought-provoking project that asks us to con- Grecian ideas. In one of the early episodes, of wonder at all humanity has accomplished sider our connection to antiquity. Watching it Marker has several interviewees sound off so far. The world of ideas established by the restaurants, is like sitting in on a superior college seminar. on the infl uence of ancient Greeks on German ancient Greeks comes to seem like a trove so exclusive video You could also say that it feels like being philosophers from the 18th century to the Nazi great that The Owl’s Legacy can only begin to invited to a philosophical symposium, which era, with an emphasis on how the concepts scratch the surface of it. By the end of the se- features, and sign Marker cites in the fi rst episode as the inspira- of empire and permanent culture appealed ries, you may wonder why Marker didn’t make tion behind the entire series. Intercut between to the Nazis. The appropriation of Greek it longer. v up for weekly news the myriad interviews (with philosophers, philosophy—to which we owe the concept of chicagoreader.com/ historians, and artists from multiple fields) democracy—by fascists would seem counter- @1bsachs food. ssss EXCELLENT sss GOOD ss AVERAGE s POOR • WORTHLESS ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 25 ARTS & CULTURE Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.
MOVIES including consciousness itself, is extraordinary, and to solve, and Robitel maintains a consistent level of scene is at the beginning—a graduation ball for the Binoche’s powerful performance never falters. —J - suspense without resorting to gore. The cast projects Harvard class of 1870, fi lmed with swirling, exhilarating El Ángel R 100 min. Mon 1/14, 7 PM. Doc a generic, 50s B-movie vibe, but in a good way; no one camera movements that suggest the famous ballroom The notorious Argentine criminal Carlos Robledo Puch Films character is especially likable or unlikable, and this scene in Minnelli’s Madame Bovary. The sequence has committed dozens of robberies and at least ten murders keeps you guessing as to whom the fi lmmakers will kill clearly been truncated, which suggests that similar non- before turning 18; this stylish docudrama considers the Do the Right Thing o ff . —B S PG-13, 100 min. River East 21 narrative cuts have been made throughout, leaving only last few years of his life before his arrest in the early R With the possible exception of his cable mini- the clumsy plot framework of Michael Cimino’s script. 1970s. As played by newcomer Lorenzo Ferro, Carlos is series When the Levees Broke, this 1989 feature is Finding Vivian Maier The historical background (peasants versus capitalists an alluring, sexually ambiguous blank (he o en brings to still Spike Lee’s best work, chronicling a very hot day R John Maloof and Charlie Siskel directed this in old Wyoming) is a fairly bald-faced cop of 1900, with mind Björn Andresen from Visconti’s Death in Venice) on a single block of Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant documentary about Chicago street photographer Vivian a similar Marxist sentimentalism; the foreground action who engages in criminal activity for the momentary neighborhood, when a series of minor encounters and Maier, who was almost completely unknown at the time (two buddies in love with the same woman) is a continu- thrill of it. Director Luis Ortega fetishizes his star to incidents lead to an explosion of racial violence at an of her death in 2009 but whose work has since been ation of The Deer Hunter’s veiled male-bonding themes, such an extent that the movie o en feels like so core Italian-owned pizzeria. Sharp and knowing, though not celebrated in books, fi lms, and gallery exhibitions. —JR but with little of the teasing ambiguity that made the porn; much of the drama centers on the sexual curiosity always strictly realistic, it manages to give all the char- J 83 min. Sat 1/12, 8 PM. Chicago Filmmakers earlier fi lm so much fun to argue about. With Kris Kris- Carlos arouses in the members of a criminal family with acters their due. Bill Lee’s wall-to-wall score eventually toff erson, Christopher Walken, and Isabelle Huppert. whom he becomes involved. The thematic focus on loses some of its eff ectiveness, and a few elements (such Gaslight —D K R, 218 min. Wed 1/16, 7 PM. Doc Films the interconnectedness of sex and crime suggests the as the patriarchal roles played by the local drunk and R George Cukor carefully avoids the obvious infl uence of Jean Genet, while Ortega’s fl ashy direction a disc jockey) seem more fanciful than believable. But eff ects in telling this story of a husband (Charles Boyer) Impulso recalls the exuberance of movies like Goodfellas and overall this is a powerful and persuasive look at an ethnic attempting to drive his wife (Ingrid Bergman) insane; The workings of internal organs might come to mind Boogie Nights. The form and content never really jibe, community and what makes it tick—funky, entertaining, instead, this 1944 fi lm is one of the few psychological when watching experimental fl amenco dancer Rocío but this might get under your skin anyway. In Spanish packed with insight, and political in the best, most thrillers that is genuinely psychological, depending on Molina contort and pulse her body onstage; she exudes with subtitles. —B S 115 min. Fri 1/11, 2 and 8 PM; responsible sense. —J R R, 120 subtle clues—a gesture, an intonation—to thought and a feral abandon that most people hide beneath pleas- Sat 1/12, 3 PM; Sun 1/13, 5:15 PM; Mon 1/14, 7:45 PM; Wed min. Tue 1/15, 9:30 PM. Doc Films character. Boyer and Bergman are superb, and Angela antries and skin. In this documentary, which follows her 1/16, 7:45 PM; and Thu 1/17, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Lansbury makes her debut as a cunning cockney maid. for eight months as she prepares for a show in Paris, A Dog’s Way Home It’s also one of the few fi lms to expand the use of director Emilio Belmonte attempts to unpack her pro- Blue In this incredible journey, a dog (voiced by Bryce Dallas off screen space, not simply to the sides of the frame, cess. This includes observing Molina’s “impulsos”—what R Part one of a loosely connected trilogy by Howard) travels 400 miles in search of her owner. PG, but to the areas above and below the image as well. she calls the urges she feels in her body before impro- Krzysztof Kieslowski related to the colors of and 96 min. AMC Dine-in Block 37, Century 12 and CineArts With Joseph Cotten and Dame May Whitty. —D vised movements form—and, in a sense, dancing to keep abstract qualities associated with the French fl ag—in 6, Chatham 14, River East 21 K 114 min. Fri 1/11, 7 and 9:30 PM; Sun 1/13, 1:30 up: moving the camera along the fl oor with her as she this case liberty—this is a tale of a woman (Juliette PM. Doc Films slides through white ruffl es and shooting from above Binoche) reassembling and reinventing her life in Paris Escape Room as she swirls blood-red paint from her skirt across the a er her composer husband and daughter die in an auto Director Adam Robitel follows up Insidious: The Last Key Go Fish stage. Witnessing Molina’s outpour is so transporting accident. Working with his regular writing collaborator (2018), the best fi lm to date in the Insidious series, with One of the delightful things about Rose Troche’s stylish, that when Belmonte cuts to downtime or interviews Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Kieslowski had become a master at another resourceful, well-written horror movie that’s low-budget, fi lmed-in-Chicago black-and-white lesbian with others, the transitions can feel disruptive. An conveying raw emotional states with a pristine economy suitable for older children. Six strangers meet at one of comedy is that its characters all register as real people, exception is a surprising conversation with Molina’s of means; as the dialogue here is all in subtitled French, those “escape room” experiences where they have to even when bits of the dialogue are stiff or some of the mother in Málaga, Spain, in which she describes her fear which he barely knew, these means have little to do with solve puzzles cooperatively to get out of the room, only lip sync is off . This isn’t a movie about lesbians; it’s a when watching her daughter dance: “She looks for this language. He was less adept in working out a dreamy to discover that the game has life-or-death consequenc- movie about these lesbians, and we’re likely to think of extremity, this limit she must cross to stop being herself allegory about European unifi cation. (An unfi nished es—and that the way out of one room leads to another, them a erward as if they were people we knew. As in and become this monster.” What an outlet. In Spanish concerto le by the heroine’s husband that she and a even deadlier one. If you have fond memories of the the better American underground movies of the 60s, with subtitles. —L P 87 min. Sat 1/12, 5:15 PM, colleague eventually decide to complete is meant to be late-90s Canadian cult favorite Cube, you’ll probably be which this sometimes resembles, the youthfulness and and Tue 1/15, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center played in all the EU capitals at once.) But the fi lm’s grasp sympathetic to this; screenwriters Bragi Schut and Maria the footloose free spirit—evident in everything from of the fl uctuations of moment-to-moment experience, Melnik devise interesting puzzles for the characters the performances to Ann T. Rossetti’s shooting style to MacGruber Brendan Dolan and Jennifer Sharpe’s jazz score to the Constructing a feature-length comedy around a Satur- breezy rhythmic stretches bridging narrative sequenc- day Night Live character has always been a fool’s errand, es—keep it bouncing along like a clear spring day. (And but luckily for Will Forte, his demented special-ops though the characters vary in age, there’s a clear note warrior MacGruber (conceived as a parody of the of shared adolescent braggadocio in the way that sex ultraresourceful TV hero MacGyver) slots neatly into the and romance here only become real a er they’re talked formula of the fi reball-laden summer action fl ick. As a about.) Written and produced by Troche in collaboration result, this keeps chugging along even when the vainglo- with Guinevere Turner, the younger of the two romantic rious and profoundly incompetent MacGruber begins leads (the other is V.S. Brodie), this movie dives into to remind you of one too many Will Ferrell characters. fantasy and stylized internal monologues with the same The genre-spoof elements are pretty stale (slow-motion aplomb it brings to the buildup to a hot date. With T. shots of the characters crying out in rage, or strutting Wendy McMillan, Migdalia Melendez, and Anastasia toward the camera with an explosion behind them), but Sharp. —J R R, 85 min. Tue the movie scores a few laughs with its startling use of 1/15, 7 PM. Doc Films bloody R-rated violence, and there are enjoyable turns by Kristen Wiig (as MacGruber’s sidekick), Val Kilmer Hale County This Morning, This (as the international bad guy), and Powers Boothe (as the good guys’ commanding offi cer). Jorman Taccone Evening directed; with Ryan Philippe and Maya Rudolph. —JR RaMell Ross’s lyrical documentary follows Daniel and J R, 90 min. Sat 1/12-Sun 1/13, 11 AM. Music Quincy, two young African-American men from rural Box Theatre Alabama as they grow to maturity. 76 min. Sat 1/12, 7 and 9:30 PM; Sun 1/13, 4 PM. Doc Films Maria by Callas Asif Kapadia’s documentaries Senna (2010) and Amy Heaven’s Gate (2015) seem to be the primary reference points for this Well, it really is a stinker, a compendium of The Deer chronicle of opera singer Maria Callas. Like those mov- Hunter’s weaknesses (of plotting, narration, dialogue, ies, it’s assembled almost entirely from archival footage, El Ángel and character) with few of its lyrical strengths. The best leading viewers to refl ect on the extraordinary amount
26 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ARTS & CULTURE
Escape Room
their re-creations of Laurel and Hardy’s stage routines are impressive. The fi lm is more pleasant than edifying, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—it generates a warm sense of reverence for a bygone era of entertainment. With Danny Huston and Shirley Henderson. —B S PG, 97 min. River East 21 Tony Cokes: Notes on Evil (And Others) Tony Cokes, whose video art o en tweaks media rep- resentations of race and class, introduces a screening of his fi lms dating back to 1988.8 Wed 1/16, 7 PM. Block Cinema A Touch of Sin of time the subject spent in the public eye. Unlike Kapa- midwest; Lillian Gish is the widow who protects the R Jia Zhang-ke’s fi lms are valued most here in the dia’s fi lms, however, this doesn’t conjure up the eerie children, in a depiction of maternal love worthy of her West for their glimpses of a changing China and their sense that the events are unfolding in the present tense, mentor, D.W. Griffi th. Laughton’s direction has Germanic acute observations of predatory global capitalism; one nor is the assemblage of materials ever fully immersive. overtones—not only in the expressionism that occasion- comes to them expecting a large story writ small. This Director Tom Volf provides a detailed account of Callas’s ally grips the image, but also in a pervasive, brooding drama, collecting four tales of deadly violence across career, addressing her personal life only moderately, romanticism that suggests the Erl-King of Goethe and mainland China, lives up to that expectation to some and the relative absence of gossip is refreshing in light Schubert. But ultimately the source of its style and extent, though limiting each protagonist to a more of so many salacious documentaries about celebrities. power is mysterious—it is a fi lm without precedent and compact time frame heightens one’s sense of them as The fi lm asserts that Callas was, above all, a world-class without any real equals. —D K 93 min. Thu individuals, and their impulsive actions remind us of performer; Volf plays numerous arias in their entirety, 1/17, 9:30 PM. Doc Films the power of human agency. A former soldier seething letting the singer’s work speak for itself. —B S over political gra in his little village, a transient who PG, 113 min. Fri 1/11, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 1/12, 7:45 PM; The Red Shoes develops a serious gun fetish, a woman whose aff air Sun 1/13, 3 PM; Mon 1/14, 7:45 PM; Tue 1/15-Wed 1/16, 6 R Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Trilby- with a married man turns sour, a young man sinking into PM; 1/17, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center based ballet fi lm (1948) has been the cult property of despair as he bounces from one dead-end job to the dance freaks for far too long. A look beneath its lushly next—Jia’s primary concern here is the solitary suff ering Mid90s romantic surface reveals a dark, complex sensibility, and of his characters, punished to the point where they can’t Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, which he also wrote, is an that surface, rendered in the somber tones of British take anymore. In Mandarin with subtitles. —JR J earnest eff ort that nonetheless relies too heavily on gim- Technicolor, refl ects a fantastically rich cinematic inven- 125 min. Sun 1/13, 7 PM. Doc Films v micks. Shot on 16-millimeter in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, its tiveness. Moira Shearer is the ballerina who, following aesthetic—reminiscent of lo-fi fi lms from the eponymous the outlines of a Hans Christian Andersen tale, trades era—is accomplished (the cinematographer, Christopher her life for her art; Anton Walbrook, as her impresario, 164 North State Street Blauvelt, worked under the legendary Harris Savides), is perhaps the most forceful embodiment of the shaman $11 GENERAL | $7 STUDENTS | $6 MEMBERS but the enervated plot falls short of its visual ambition. fi gures—magical, outsized, sinister—who haunt Powell The fi lm follows 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic, a real and Pressburger’s work. The Red Shoes remains the MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800 charmer) as he makes friends with a group of skate- best known of Powell and Pressburger’s 18 features, yet boarders who have nicknames like Fuckshit and Fourth it’s only the tip of the iceberg—beneath it lies the most Grade. Like them, he lives amid familial discord, with a commanding body of work in the British cinema. With MARIA BY mid90s spacy single mother (the perpetually underrated Kath- Marius Goring and Robert Helpmann. —D K Directed by Jonah Hill erine Waterston) and an abusive, though complicated, 133 min. Thu 1/17, 7 PM. Doc Films CALLAS older brother (Lucas Hedges). Hill seems to have been “The definitive portrait “Hilarious and heart- of the definitive diva.” felt…totally irresistible.” more concerned with fi nding the perfect vintage Ren Stan & Ollie --David Noh, --Peter Travers, & Stimpy shirt than developing the fi lm into something Screenwriter Jeff Pope and director Jon S. Baird dra- Film Journal International Rolling Stone more than a vehicle for said nostalgia signaling, but he’s matize Laurel and Hardy’s 1953 comeback tour of the not without promise as a director. —K S UK and Ireland, which they embarked upon in hopes JAN 11 - 17 JAN 11 - 17 R, 84 min. Fri 1/11, 4:15 and 6:15; Sat 1/12, 8 PM; Sun of drumming up interest in a movie that was ultimately Fri 1/11 @ 2 pm & 6 pm; Fri 1/11 @ 4:15 & 6:15 pm; 1/13, 3:15 PM; Mon 1/14, 6 PM; Tue 1/15-Thu 1/17, 8:15 PM. never made. This takes a sensitive look at the duo’s Sat 1/12 @ 7:45 pm; Sat 1/12 @ 8 pm; Gene Siskel Film Center sweet-and-sour relationship, arguing that their off screen Sun 1/13 @ 3 pm; Sun 1/13 @ 3:15 pm; rapport was rather similar to what they immortalized Mon 1/14 @ 7:45 pm; Mon 1/14 @ 6 pm; Tue 1/15 @ 6 pm; Tue 1/15 @ 8:15 pm; The Night of the Hunter in front of the camera; what emerges is a portrait Wed 1/16 @ 6 pm; Wed 1/16 @ 8:15 pm; R Charles Laughton’s fi rst and only fi lm as a of two consummate performers who could (for the Thu 1/17 @ 8 pm Thu 1/17 @ 8:15 pm director (1955) is an enduring masterpiece—dark, deep, most part) put their resentments aside for the sake of beautiful, aglow. Robert Mitchum, in the role that most their act. Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly are highly SEX, MURDER, AND ROCK ‘N’ ROLL • EL ÁNGEL • JAN 11 -17 fully exploits his ferocious sexuality, is the evil preacher sympathetic as the leads (though Reilly, buried under FROM ARGENTINA! pursuing two orphaned children across a sinister, barren prosthetics, uses an inconsistent British accent), and BUY TICKETS NOW at www.siskelfilmcenter.org ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 27 Free jazz two centuries deep The members of Extraordinary Popular Delusions bring vast and varied experience to this underappreciated ensemble’s regular weekly shows—which follow no rules but their own. By H M
he Beat Kitchen in Roscoe Village such as Muhal Richard Abrams and Fred An- history, only Williams has devoted himself hosts a respectable variety of derson, as well as with maverick north-side to music exclusively—though Sandstrom has entertainment in its downstairs multi- instrumentalist Hal Russell . They’ve worked mostly as a musician, and recently performance space, including collaborated with Rahmlee Michael Davis of left a job as a security guard at the Museum singer-songwriters, pop-punk south-side soul-funk group the Pharaohs and of Contemporary Art that he’d started in Tbands, a weekly bluegrass brunch, and the the famous Phenix Horns (Earth, Wind & Fire), 2009. Game for any kind of gig and newly recently popular Heavy Metal Yoga sessions. toured with postpunk band the Psychedelic free to book them, this summer he accepted But devoted fans of Chicago’s creative-music Furs, gigged on the 80s Lincoln Avenue blues an invitation to Copenhagen and Norway to scene come to the club for something that scene, and studied in university classrooms play with artists who’d heard him with EPD happens in its much smaller upstairs room: with contemporary composers such as Her- on a Monday night. the long-running Monday-night residency of bert Brün and Shulamit Ran. They’ve shared Everyone in EPD is in his 60s, and all are Extraordinary Popular Delusions . stages with beloved pop, rock, and postrock lifelong musicians. Their fearless commitment The musicians’ musicians who founded acts, including Shawn Colvin , Nicholas Tremu- and stubborn integrity have inspired artists Extraordinary Popular Delusions in 2005 lis, and Tortoise , and they’ve worked closely across genres and even across media. Jim E P D have played their spontaneous, imaginative, with peers from their own scene who’ve gone Sta el, drummer of experimental metal band See also page 39. Almost every unfettered improvisations here almost every on to achieve international recognition, win Yakuza, works at the Beat Kitchen and helped Monday, 9 PM, upstairs at Beat week since 2010, after spending their fi rst few prestigious awards, or land plum academic them get their residency there. Chicago visual Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, donations accepted, 21+ years with a regular Tuesday gig at Hotti Bis- gigs, among them reedist and MacArthur artist Lewis Achenbach has invited EPD to cotti. Their shows are little heralded and often fellow Ken Vandermark and flutist Nicole play while he paints later this month at the L A ’ J sparsely attended, but 13 years of continuous Mitchell . Apple Store on Michigan, part of a roving se- O N E P collaboration have turned this quartet into a No one in EPD has built a career quite like ries he calls Jazz Occurrences (for that gig, Joe D beacon of Chicago’s indigenous avant-garde, that—three of the ensemble’s five members Adamik of Califone and Iron & Wine will sit in For this concert, EPD will be with an unpredictable, provocative sound that hold down day jobs—but they don’t define for Hunt). Jim Baker, Brian Sandstrom, arises from the commingling of its members’ their success along those lines. Where this Baker fi rst convened EPD in 2005 (full dis- Mars Williams, and Joe Adamik. Thu 1/24, 6:30 PM, Apple Store, diverse infl uences and experiences. group is concerned, they’re just happy to have closure: I’ve known him since high school), 401 N. Michigan, free, all ages Named after a 19th-century Scottish socio- a place to play together every week, and they’ll but he’d met Sandstrom and Hunt around logical study of market bubbles and manias, do it for whatever ends up in the tip jar. 1980—he used to go see them play with Hal Extraordinary Popular Delusions are Jim Extraordinary Popular Delusions have Russell’s NRG Ensemble , formed in ’79. Russell Baker (piano, ARP synthesizer, viola), Brian released just two recordings in their 14-year was a swing drummer turned bebopper turned Sandstrom (double bass, electric guitar, history, both now hard to fi nd: a self-titled out-cat, and he grounded his musical satire trumpet), Steve Hunt (drums, percussion), album from 2007 and a limited-edition and outrageously corrosive expressionism in and Mars Williams (saxophones, toys), with 2011 disc called Apocryphal Fire in the accessible structures. “He was not big on com- Edward Wilkerson Jr. (reeds, oud, didgeri- Warehouse, and Other Explanations. Their pletely free playing,” Hunt remembers. “He doo) regularly fi lling in for Williams. The fi ve residencies constitute the vast majority of called it playing music without a net.” NRG of them have spent a combined 200 years their shows: outside those engagements, was an important early nucleus for the north- making all sorts of adventurous music in they’ve played the Hungry Brain a couple side free-jazz and improvised-music scenes, Chicago and beyond. Separately or together, times (“Perhaps Elastic,” Baker says, vague- which would explode in the 1990s (though they’ve played with icons of the Association ly), a release party at Logan Hardware, and a Russell died in ’92). At one point, the ensemble for the Advancement of Creative Musicians festival in Germany. For most of the group’s featured the scabrous saxophones of Williams 28 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Extraordinary Popular Delusions, clockwise from upper le : Steve Hunt, Mars Williams, Brian Sandstrom, Edward Wilkerson Jr., and Jim Baker JOHN GARRISON
and Vandermark (the former passed in and out the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, (Hunt’s Clybourn Avenue rehearsal studio and the original HotHouse and the Lunar Cabaret of its lineup a couple times), and the two men where he earned a BA in the early 70s, he’d performance spot). and released a self-titled album of unfettered later played together in the duo Cinghiale and taken courses from conceptualist composer By the mid-80s, Baker was contributing free improv in 1994. In the mid-90s, Baker the Vandermark 5. Herbert Brün (among others) and studied de- to Nicholas Tremulis’s hybrid of rock, punk, also became the de facto house pianist for the In 1980, Baker was working at the Chicago velopments in electronic music. But because R&B, and jazz, playing electric piano and other weekly jam sessions at the Velvet Lounge , one Mercantile Exchange (today he describes Baker had to be at the CME so early for work, instruments—he takes a devastating one- of the few places in the decades-long history himself as a “headache collector” dealing he was performing only once a month, with pitch guitar solo on Tremulis’s self-titled 1985 of Chicago’s avant-garde where adventurous with data aggregation at Zacks Investment saxophonist Hal Ra Ru at a venue called Don- debut. He soon formed a trio with Hunt and improvisers from the south and north sides Management). He’d always been serious na’s, which later became the Deja Vu. He found bassist Kent Kessler , and Vandermark has said played together frequently and comfortably. about music—growing up, he was fascinated it easier to make it to shows as a spectator, and that their concert at Club Lower Links was the Eventually, says Baker, he hatched the and intimidated by Glenn Gould’s Goldberg he was often in the audience at the Birdhouse fi rst he heard after his 1989 move to Chicago. notion of starting a trio with Sandstrom and Variations and thrilled by Bartók, Stockhau- (Fred Anderson’s pre-Velvet Lounge club, In the early 90s, Vandermark joined Baker Hunt. “At that time, I may have still been tak- sen, Sun Ra, and John Coltrane’s quartet. At which closed in 1978) and later the Hideaway and Hunt in the trio Ca eine, which gigged at ing a guitar out of the house occasionally,” J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 29 continued from 29 he says. “Part of the attraction of Brian was his guitar playing; that he played trumpet was another thing. Steve could play drums, and in Ca eine he’d use this marimba about the size of a piccolo xylophone. I thought, ‘Well, this could be di erent.’ With my usual amazing as- sertiveness and hustle”—Baker’s being iron- ic—“I’d happened into a couple of gigs in 2003 Jim Baker, Mars and ’04, but in spring 2005 Richard Syska, who Williams, Brian Sandstrom, used to run the Nervous Center with his broth- and Steve Hunt er Ken, asked if we wanted to do Tuesdays at upstairs at the Hotti Biscotti, at Fullerton and Drake. Briefl y, Beat Kitchen KELLYRAE WEIME I tried to bring in my tunes to try them, but it was mostly free stu .” About two weeks into that booking, Wil- liams showed up and asked to sit in. He soon became a fixture, though he frequently left to tour with the Psychedelic Furs, acid-jazz group Liquid Soul, or another of his projects. It wasn’t until 2014 that Baker invited Wilkerson to be a regular sub. Originally from Cleveland, Wilkerson had earned a BA in music from the University of Chicago in 1975, studying com- position and theory with the likes of future Pulitzer winner Shulamit Ran (“I have a good incident-rich soundscapes are best heard live that challenging instrument. Sandstrom keeps they recognize. Or if not songs they recog- background in critical analysis,” he says). At at the Beat Kitchen. The musicians set up in his eyes closed a lot. Hunt does try for eye nize, at least songs. Or music with some clear the same time, he was learning from Muhal half of what was once probably an apartment contact, but not even the horn players tend to relationship to genre attributes like a rhythm Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music, living room, through a door and up one fl ight cooperate—when Williams is there, he keeps section, a degree of timekeeping, an obvious held on Saturdays at the Child City day-care from the front of the fi rst-fl oor bar. The rest of busy with one of various saxes, a clarinet, or a connection between a lead player and the center at 87th and Bennett. the dimly lit room is taken up by a few cheap table full of little noisemakers (mostly squeez- rhythm. It’s expected groups conform to that. “I was exposed to both sides, the life of the chairs, usually filled by hard-core listeners able toys), and when Wilkerson plays, he po- Which we do sometimes, but not always. More mind and the practical,” remembers Wilker- and fellow musicians—I saw eight EPD shows sitions himself about ten feet away, attentive often we don’t.” son, now a database manager researching an- last year, including several in November, to his tenor sax, alto clarinet, bulky oud, and EPD’s interactions do follow some rules, imal population dynamics for the Lincoln Park where the attendees included young bassist didgeridoo. but those rules arise from the music itself Zoo. He’s probably best known for leading the Mike Harmon (who plays in Bison Bison and The players’ individual sonic streams as it’s created. “People think improvisers groups 8 Bold Souls and Shadow Vignettes , backs folk-pop singer V.V. Lightbody , among meander, change continuously, merge orches- get together and play whatever they want,” though he also served as AACM president for other gigs), audio engineer Todd Carter (who trally, and arrive together at unforeseen yet explains Wilkerson, “and there is a certain a few years beginning in the late 70s. “Muhal also plays in TV Pow), and independent Sun seemingly inevitable conclusions—they can amount of that. However, I always tell people would say, ‘Listen to everything in the air. Ra scholar Brad Marcus. The tip jar is usually be thunderous as a waterfall or soft as drizzle, you can play anything, but you can’t just play Don’t discriminate,’ then would play a Bach next to a guest book on a tiny table. Behind an but they’re almost always as vivid, elusive, and anything.” Any one of the players can rebel cantata and some James P. Johnson and talk untended bar and its stools sits a fridge fi lled hard to remember as dreams. And like dreams, against the group’s momentum, prompting about the similarities and techniques. For me, with cans of beer and soda, but I’ve never seen they convey strong moods and can move the everyone else to react and adjust, but some at 18 and 19 around 1971, it was the perfect it plugged in—if you want a drink, you have to listener. Baker acknowledges that EPD’s music of those possible disruptive moves are still thing to be exposed to.” order it downstairs. is not for everyone. “The band may be extraor- mistakes—and good improvisers follow a Before Wilkerson became Williams’s regu- Despite these mundane surroundings, when dinary,” he says dryly, “but we’d be deluded if subconscious decision-making process that lar replacement in EPD, the two of them played the members of EPD begin to play you may we thought it would be popular.” guides them away from those. Nonetheless, together in the quartet of bassist Harrison feel like you’re in an M.C. Escher etching, its There was never a time when free im- the impression EPD give is that anything Bankhead —and when either couldn’t make dimensions crisscrossing impossibly, or in provisation was mainstream, but Baker might happen at one of their concerts. I joked a gig, they’d ask Baker to fi ll in. In 2018, EPD a Ka a story where stark imagery and weird suspects that changes in patterns of music to an acquaintance that the band might even played 50 Monday nights, skipping only humor evoke claustrophobia and sensory de- consumption have further marginalized it. “I play a tune eventually, and last month I was Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve; Wilkerson rangement. This phantasmagorical subjective was reading something probably written 20 astonished—as were Wilkerson, Sandstrom, was aboard for 20 of those, Williams for the experience is a natural result of the e ort to years ago, suggesting that current generations and Hunt—when Baker intoned the theme other 30. Williams hit the road in November jettison expectations, open your mind, and regard a musical recording as the standard,” of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood” and December with his Albert Ayler/Christ- absorb and organize the vast amount of sonic he explains. “If they go out to hear music, the on his piano. The others followed, extending mas music mash-up, touring Europe and the information generated. The musicians rarely musicians will be judged on how well they and reshaping the melody far from its formal U.S.—when he made a local stop at the Hungry refer to or signal one another visibly: Baker replicate that standard. There are probably parameters, which nonetheless remained in Brain, he enlisted Baker, Hunt, and Sandstrom typically hangs his head low over his piano or people who go out to hear music expecting it distant sight. They’d never played it before, as part of his rhythm section. stares fi xedly at his ARP, wearing a headlamp won’t be played exactly as on the record, but and won’t likely again. Extraordinary Popular Delusions’ form-free, the better to see the sliders and patch cords on maybe expecting the musicians will play songs “I don’t play in any other context that’s J 30 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll WEST LOOP’S FIRST URBAN WINERY, INTIMATE MUSIC VENUE, RESTAURANT, AND PRIVATE EVENT SPACE
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OFFICIAL AIRLINE PARTNER ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 31 continued from 30 2600—though he prefers the original, it tips time by Northfi eld Block, selling the virtues of this open,” Wilkerson says. “It took me a long the scales at 58 pounds, probably almost concrete-masonry construction to architects, time to learn to play with the ARP, because half what Baker weighs himself. The ARP can but every Sunday he still backs singers at the it’s not tuned like a piano and the vocabulary produce silvery chimes, volcanic rumbles, and jazz service of his church in St. Charles. Jim’s developed on it, electrically generated, keening drones among its practically limitless He’s keen to draw a distinction between was foreign to me. So I try to lock in on the range of sounds. When Baker switches to the what Extraordinary Popular Delusions do and timbre, sliding notes on the oud. If Brian’s synth, Sandstrom might bow noisily below his mere jamming. “We may be playing sonically playing an ostinato or holding a pedal tone, I upright bass’s bridge, play his electric guitar pleasing sounds, and then of course it doesn’t might pick up the didgeridoo. Steve to me is through wah-wah and fuzz pedals, or blow stay there very long,” he says. “But we’re not just perfect—he’s got the ability to insinuate his horn—which for most of the past couple just playing to play. We’re listening and trying rhythms without necessarily actually playing months has been muted by a little buglike to make statements, play lines going in and them. When Jim’s on piano, there’s usually toy accidentally stuck in its bore. Williams out of time—the freedom to go back and forth, a tonal center implied, but it’s abstract. He’s might let rip with a hollering tone, or pick up but defi nitely rooted in something beyond just not an easy guy to pin down. I can’t describe one after another of his little instruments. sound. There are melodies and harmonies that his style. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody Hunt might put down his drumsticks to play are really deep and meaningful.” else play like that.” by hand, or put one of those bugs that’s in EPD’s devout followers agree. “Since mov- Baker is indeed a singular stylist. His touch Sandstrom’s trumpet on his drumheads to ing to Chicago after school in Champaign in on the piano (at the Beat Kitchen he uses a create an audible buzz, or strike a cowbell or 2013, I’ve heard them like 50 times,” says Mike Casio CZ-101 for its portability) veers from a scraper. It adds up to immensely more than Harmon. “I’ve gone in spurts, religiously every flinty to limpid, his phrases from fleeting, the sum of its parts. week for a while. And I think ‘religiously’ is the o and lines to rhapsodic, fully embodied pas- “What’s cool about EPD,” explains Williams, right term, because when I attend it’s like my sages infused with melancholy grandeur. He “and I noticed this from the Hotti Biscotti weekly service, to break apart everything I’ve composes music as well, and continues adding days, is that we’ll be playing and someone been thinking about and then put it all togeth- to a collection of 76 short songs he calls “Land- might rise above what’s happening, but we’re er again.” scapes” that he fi rst registered for copyright creating this sound as four musicians and it’s “The music we’re The music’s density, dissonance, and a decade ago. He considers them potential not like this guy’s taking a solo. We’re playing creating becomes stream-of-consciousness narrative make it a starting points for improvisation but declines and something will start happening that we challenge to process, but the challenge is an to bring them to EPD. “It would be weird,” he weren’t even aware of, but start to become independent of what enriching one. “I just try to release my ears says, “a di erent kind of thing than we’ve been aware of. Maybe we look at each other, like, we’re doing. It’s just and take it in,” Harmon says. “It’s a great prac- developing. I think, ‘Do I really want to mess ‘Did you hear what just happened? Did you tice to listen to them. It’s so genuine. There’s with this?’” hear that other thing? Who’s doing that? there. Sometimes no faking how much they’re playing together, He identifi es EPD’s basic plan: “I might start Whoa, is that me? Is that Jim?’ And nobody is it just goes its own listening at the same time. To play anything with something that could be the basis for doing it—it’s a fi fth thing that’s just happened. you want, to be that free, and actually be en- a solo, but someone else will come in and it “The music we’re creating becomes inde- way. It’s magical.” hancing everything else around you—they’re will change. Or somebody else will start what pendent of what we’re doing. It’s just there. —Mars Williams all doing that at the same time, and always could be a solo thing and someone else will We might try to pull it in or expand on it, producing that visceral e ect, coming out of come in. It varies.” and sometimes we can, but sometimes it nothing. How in the world?” Sandstrom suggests another possible be- just goes its own way. It’s magical. I think by Extraordinary Popular Delusions continue ginning. “That could be me introducing the playing with each other so long, all the time, to build on their singular process every week, tonal center Ed Wilkerson hears,” he says. “I we’re able to subliminally go to this place and with no end in sight. As ephemeral and of the usually start on the bass, clean with no ped- listen to each other, not thinking of it as jazz moment as their performances are, though, als, and then things happen.” Sandstrom was with a rhythm section and soloist, but rather they haven’t been simply dissolving into the Shawn Colvin’s bassist when they both attend- as sound—sound manipulation. This free- air: a recorded archive of EPD’s 13 years of ed Southern Illinois University in the mid-70s, improvisation thing! weekly gigs exists, started by Malachi Ritscher and he’s worked for Dave Jemilo at the Green “You know, Jim started this group—he’s the and continued after his death in 2006 by Mill since the day it opened in 1986, including guy who put the musicians together. It’s his Sandstrom. He has nearly 1,000 hours of their a longtime position in the Green Mill All-Stars. band in a way, but it’s not, because it’s a collec- improvisations stored on his computer. That band used to feature straight-ahead tive of four musicians and nobody is directing “We’re trying to get our heads around a jazz stylists Von Freeman, Willie Pickens, and the music. The music can go anywhere at any way to have our live performances up on the Robert Shy, now all sadly passed away—on time, and when it does, we try to go with it.” cloud,” Hunt says. “That’s a goal of ours. Jim this past New Year’s Eve, the All-Stars were Hunt has a similar perspective. “If you has talked about making them accessible so Sandstrom, saxophonists Eric Schneider and listen to what’s happening within the im- people could hear not one performance but Eric Alexander , pianist John Campbell, and provisation, you hear melodies and even full how we sound week by week. We’re more ex- drummer Kyle Swann (on Christmas break pieces that could be written down if someone cited about the fl ow of them all than creating from college in Miami). was to take the time—but they happen in the one exemplary performance to be represented Unlike song-form music with its chorus moment that they’re there, and to me that in great audio. The point is to play and hear structures, EPD’s output is in continuous fl ux, can be a really powerful moment.” He’s been the music, not to have a perfect record. The and its complexity increases further when making music since age fi ve, when he started music is the priority.” v Baker turns to his synthesizer. He’s been using singing and playing snare drum or piano in a three-quarters-size clone of his classic ARP his church choir; today he’s employed full @Jazzmandel 32 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Never miss a Less scrolling. show again.
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ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 33 Est.Est.1954 1954 Celebrating over 6165 years of service service A Reader staff er shares three musical obsessions, then asks to Chicago! 1800 W. DIVISION someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn. (773) 486-9862 IN ROTATION Come enjoy one of Chicago’s finest beer gardens! radio were euthanized. It was also the house FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 11...... 20 10 23 ...... MIKEDA FLABBYVID QUINN FLABBY FELTEN HOFFMAN HOFFMAN SHOW SHOW 8PM 8PM SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 12...... 21 11 .....WAGNER WIG AMERICAN& MORSE DRAFT in which my first musical project, WHITE- FEBRUARYSEPTEMBER 22 24 .....THE .....ORDADYRKNAMOSROOM MEN JA NUARY 13...... THE MONS DJ SKID LICIOUS PHOSPHOROUS, was born. On a Novem- SEPTEMBERJANUARY 14...... 23 ....WHOLESOMERADIOWHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESSTONY DO DJRO NIGHTSARIO GROUP JANUARY 12 MURPHY OFF THE THOMPSON VINE 9:30PM JANUARY 13 HEISENBERGMOJO 49 UNCERTAINTY PLAYERS 7PM ber evening in like-minded counsel, I played a JANUARY 17...... MIKE FELTENJAMIE WAGNER & FRIENDS JAJANUARYNUARY 18...... 14 RC BIG MIKE BAND FEL 7PMTON set titled “First Horseman.” Thanks, Jack. For FEBRUARY 25 .....WHOLESOMERADIOTHEJON RON RARICK AND RACHEL NONET SHOW 9PM DJ NIGHT SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 19...... 24 16 .....RC MORSE BIG BAND SITU & 7PMWAGNERATION DAVID everything. FEBRUARYJANUARY 17 26 .....RCBIRDGANGS MODEST BIGMAXLIELLIAM 9:30PMBAJOHNSTONND 7PM ANNA JAJANUARYNUARY 20...... 18 TITTY THE CITTY ACOUSTIPUNKS FIRST WARD PROBLEMS FEBRUARYJAJANUARYNUARY 21...... 19 28 .....PETERDUDE FOR SAME PILOTSTO CASANONY DO ROVASARIOQUARTET GROUP 8PM Haggathorn Where grind and crust are an SEPTEMBERJANUARY 26 20 .....PETER TONY CASANOVA DO ROSARIO QUARTET GROUP JAJANUARYNUARY 22...... 21 PROSPECT RC BIG FOURBAND 9PM 7PM easy cracker on which to spread le politics, MARCHSEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 1...... SMILIN’ 24...... 27 23 .....DORIAN BUDDYTA PETER JDAMENBO CASONOBBY AND AND THEVA THE QUARTETLAST CLEMTONES CALL SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 25...... 28 24 ..... TOURS JIGGERY-POKERY THE WICK black metal proves o en a little so -spoken MARCH 2...... ICEBULLY PULPITBOX AND BIG HOUSE JAJANUARYNUARY 26...... 25 SKIPPIN’ THE ROCKS HEPKATS on the issue, oddly enough. Haggathorn are SEPTEMBERJANUARY 29 26 .....SOMEBODY’S STRAYSKIPPIN’ BOLTS SINS ROCK MARCHJANUARY 3...... CHIDITAROD 27 FEATURING WHOLESOMERADIO JOE LANASA AND TADJRRINGTON NIGHT 10PM a powerful exception to that rule, and still do SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 27...... 30 28 .....OFF RC THE BIG VINE THE BAND 4:30PM STRAY 7PMBOLTS MARCHJA NUARY 7...... 28...... NUCLEARRICKJAMIE SHANDLING WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZWA QUARKTETGNER &DUO 7:30PM FRIENDS 9:30PM DJ NIGHT the things we like about black metal. Their EVERYOPENEVERY MIC TUESD TUESD HOSTEDAY (EXCEPT BY MIKE 2ND) 2ND) &ATAT MIKE8PM8PM intensity, outspoken hostility, and stage per- OPENON TUESDAY MIC HOSTED EVENINGS BY JIMIJON (EXCEPT AMERICA 2ND) formances all hit the spot. They also learn quickly and take hits well. Haggathorn guitar- ist Nathan Scripter will curate the fi nal third of this In Rotation.
A still from the video for Kirani Ayat’s “Guda” K H Front man for Neckbeard Deathcamp
P M xAbruptx Heavy music is protest fundamen- Reader music editor tally. Anyone who says otherwise is a dummy. Grind and powerviolence have never skipped Paal Nilssen-Love at Corbett vs. Dempsey on a punch in that regard and take little time to December 14 The last concert at CvsD before parse through layers of shit to see who can its move to 2156 W. Fulton was an improvised hang. The pursuit of punishing riff s and blast- solo set by Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen- beats is a treasure cruise through this Chi- Love (Large Unit, the Thing). I love how organ- cago duo’s discography. Drummer Rob and ically he allows the competing poles of so guitarist Elisa (they both sing) were some of Hyems JAN NORTHOFF many dualities to interpenetrate in his playing: my fi rst friends when I moved here, and their pulsed and free, sparse and frenzied, textural tolerance for bullshit is consistently less than N S and melodic, delicate and bruising. zero—a trait I have worked hard to absorb. Guitarist for Haggathorn Their split with Minimum Wage Assassins Daughters, You Won’t Get What You Want slaps, and I wouldn’t be the Hatestorm I am Zao This West Virginia band’s 1999 album Lib- I fi nally caught up with this great album a er today without it or them. erate Te Ex Inferis (which roughly translates missing Daughters’ Chicago shows in Novem- to “Save Yourself From Hell”) has a darkness ber —but luckily, I’ll get another chance at Bot- and heaviness that’s always stuck with me. I tom Lounge in March. The band greases its grew up in a strict Christian family. We were bleak, artsy posthardcore with nihilistic swag- only allowed to listen to Christian music. I was ger, propelling shattered sheets of glassy beginning to explore the occult and Satan- black neon-lit noise with rhythms that range ism when this record came out. I felt a deep from a numbing throb to a laser-targeted bar- connection between its darkness and all the rage—at its most toweringly evil, it sounds like struggles I had learning about my own dark- it’s played with the thumpers from Dune and ness while living in that environment. the Death Star cannon from The Last Jedi. Grave Gnosis This incredible black-metal Kirani Ayat, “Guda” I enjoy lots of things band from Florida are a huge inspiration to about “Guda,” the second single from Aisha’s me. Many of their songs have been calcula- Sun, the forthcoming debut album by Gha- tedly written through black-magic ritual—and naian rapper Kirani Ayat: his clear, powerful they’re some of the nicest people I’ve had the baritone voice, the catchy Afropop-infl ected pleasure of spending time with. chorus, the English phrases that pop out of his inspirational Hausa lyrics, the thick, slew- Hyems These guys are an anti-Nazi black-
ing bass synth that sometimes shadows the xAbruptx COURTESY THE ARTIST metal band from Germany, and they have beat. But the video puts this song in a catego- really tight riffs. Their latest EP, this sum- ry of its own: shot in the town of Bolgatanga, mer’s 1997, features a track called “Nazi Black near Ghana’s northern border, it showcases The Temple of Murmur Defunct DIY venue Metal Fuck Off .” It’s always good to see other the beauty of the people, traditions, and land- the Temple of Murmur was the house in black-metal musicians taking a stand against scapes of the West Sudanian Savanna. which my last holdout pastel choices in rebel racism.
34 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ®
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MUSIC b ALL AGES F
Beach Bunny JOHN TUANQUI
PICK OF THE WEEK Meshell Ndegeocello dissects and rebuilds 80s and 90s classics on Ventriloquism
THURSDAY10 Beach Bunny Retirement Party, Co-Stanza, and Lettering open. 6:30 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, sold out. b
If you spent any time at Chicago indie shows last year, chances are you became familiar with the band Beach Bunny, even if you never actually saw them. The group’s name appeared on so many of the gig posters and concert calendars plastered on the walls of local clubs that you could easi- ly imagine they had weekly residencies at half of them. On top of that, they played a set at Riot Fest, and they were selected as one of the openers for a string of Alkaline Trio hometown shows at the Metro during the first week of January. I can see why established punk voices have been keen to get behind the band; Beach Bunny’s clean, energetic
CHARLIE GROSS power pop gets right to the point. Chicago native M N Lili Trifilio started the project as a solo endeavor Tue 1/15, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $28-$75. 17+ with 2015’s Animalism, an EP she wrote following a breakup and dropped in the winter of her fresh- man year at DePaul. In 2017 she roped in a trio of musicians to help fl esh out her material, and by the time they self-released their Prom Queen EP last August, they’d developed a sleek, precise, and con- CAN SOMEONE PLEASE give Meshell Ndegeocello a Grammy folk, jazz, and world elements—and over the decades her sound cise surf-inflected sound. Beach Bunny play their sweet hooks with an unhurried thoughtfulness, so already? The ten-time nominee, also known as Meshell Suhalia has evolved, grown, and been reinvented many times over in that even when Trifilio sings about the uncertain- Bashir-Shakur, has forged a distinctive and idiosyncratic path challenging and surprising ways (and might be even more widely ty of the future on the anxious “Adulting,” her ear- since her 1993 debut, Plantation Lullabies. The singer and multi- known and lauded were she a straight white man). The material nest confi dence suggests that at least the future of her band is secure. Good omens continue to greet instrumentalist has also become known for her social activism, on 2014’s Comet, Come to Me is sparse and haunting, while her Beach Bunny: last month, rising California emo label and she’s contributed work to compilations, tributes, and anthol- presence is intense and commanding, and last March she released Open Door announced preorders for Beach Bunny’s ogies including AIDS-research benefi ts from the Red Hot Organi- her 12th album, Ventriloquism, on the Naive label (a portion of the fi rst vinyl release, a 12-inch compilation that includes Prom Queen, early-2018 single “Sports,” and the zation, a compilation album devoted to empowering women and proceeds benefi t the ACLU). She’s always excelled at reinterpret- 2017 EP Crybaby. —L G promoting peace in the Congo called Raise Hope for Congo, and an ing others’ work, and on Ventriloquism she reworks 80s and 90s essay about her experience as a bisexual woman in Dan Savage’s hits by iconic artists including Janet Jackson, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Brothers Osborne Wild Feathers open. anthology aimed at LGBTQ youth, It Gets Better: Coming Out, Over- Prince, TLC, and George Clinton with a scientifi c precision, lov- 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, $35. 18+ coming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living. Ndegeocello’s ingly dissecting and investigating well-loved songs such as Sade’s music career started off with a bang—in the 90s her eminently “Smooth Operator” and Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” from the Outlaw country first pulled out of the truck stop almost half a century ago now, but you wouldn’t personable, delightful neosoul incorporated hip-hop, reggae, pop, inside out. —M K
36 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG . .
know the genre was middle-aged (and often er John Boutte and trad-jazz group the Loose Mar- JUST ADDED ON SALE THIS FRIDAY! paunchy) from listening to the Brothers Osborne. bles Jam Band, while spending his days busking. His Bazurto All Stars debut album for Bloodshot, 2013’s The Coming Tide, Kitka The Maryland duo has the spirit—and at least some Garnet Rogers with Crys Matthews of the facial hair—of the men who played outlaw reflected his NOLA experience, with second-line Cheryl Wheeler country in the 70s, making a groovy, dusty blend of rhythms all over the place. Winslow-King moved Jane Siberry southern-fried rock, soul, and the Grand Ole Opry. back to his home state in 2017, and while his most FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG “Weed, Whisky, and Willie,” off the 2018 album Port recent album, last year’s Blue Mesa, brings a Saint Joe (EMI Nashville), locks into one of those bluesier influence to the forefront, it still has a SATURDAY, JANUARY PM easy Waylon grooves as T.J. Osborne delivers a touch of southern soul every now and then. The rangy vocal in true style. His lyrics on that song—“I record is dominated by slide guitar, and on “Born to William Fitzsimmons get stoned for survival / It helps with the healin’ / Roam” he aff ects an up-tempo country-rock sound When it all goes to hell / The only thing I believe that still retains the air of mystery heard throughout SUNDAY, JANUARY PM in / Is weed, whisky, and Willie”—have the weather- his repertoire. —J P beaten wit of Nelson himself. The same goes for Kathy Mattea “Tequila Again,” a laugh-till-you-cry heartbreak- er about falling in love with the bottle. “Shoot Me DJ Seinfeld Ed Nine & Ke open. 10 PM, Smart SATURDAY, JANUARY PM Straight” takes a step toward Skynyrd or ZZ Top, as Bar, 3730 N. Clark, $20, $15 before midnight, $12 John Osborne provides loud and tasty classic-rock in advance. 21+ guitar heroics. It’s not all vintage; every so o en, the Doug Martsch album tips its cowboy hat to c ontemporary fashion. A few years ago Swedish producer Armand (of Built to Spill) On “A Little Bit Trouble,” the group adds a doppler Jakobsson coped with a painful breakup by echo on the chorus vocal that sounds suspiciously binge-watching Seinfeld and cra ing beautiful, gla- SUNDAY, JANUARY :AM of this decade. But for the most part, the Osborne cially paced house tracks. He’d previously record- brothers rightly figure that if the rig isn’t busted, ed music under various aliases (he preferred the
you should keep on driving. —N B name Rimbaudian), but in 2017, when he released Justin Roberts & the heartfelt cuts he’d created during his healing The Not Ready for process, he chose a new moniker: DJ Seinfeld. The Family sooty veneer and nostalgic, sentimental mood of Naptime Players concert FRIDAY11 the music, combined with the fact that Jakobsson debuted it at a time when a handful of artists with THURSDAY, JANUARY PM Luke Winslow-King Joshua Davis opens. similar sonic proclivities were introducing their own 8:30 PM, Fitzgerald’s, 6615 Roosevelt, Berwyn, projects under goofy names (Ross From Friends, Sammy Miller and $15. 21+ anyone?), got DJ Seinfeld roped into a loose scene called lo-fi house. But Jakobsson quickly rose to the The Congregation The infl uence of gospel music on singer- songwriter top of that hodgepodge collection of producers. Luke Winslow-King is obvious, even when he’s play- In 2017 he released the triple LP Time Spent Away THURSDAY, JANUARY PM ing an up-tempo song with a title such as “Swing From U (Lobster Theremin/Meda Fury), which That Thing.” Though King doesn’t approach it in aches with romanticism; its sumptuous vocal sam- Kasey Chambers a superficial, frantic, tambourine-banging way, ples, go-for-the-gut melodies, and fussy lo-fi aff ec- Campfi re Tour USA • with guest Carly Burruss if you’re familiar at all with southern gospel you tations blur into a dizzying display. His affection can easily identify its hallmarks in his use of chord for ghostly aesthetics and sprawl can sometimes FRIDAY, FEBRUARY :PM changes and repetition—it o en vamps on a groove. make his work as DJ Seinfeld feel like a marathon, And if it’s possible to be refl ective while delivering so if you’re curious about how that can play out WBEZ Podcast Passport Presents songs with a hard backbeat, then Winslow-King fi lls in a club set, listen to his 2018 contribution to the NPR'S Embedded the bill. A Michigan native who relocated to New long- running DJ-Kicks series to see if you have the Orleans in 2001, Winslow-King got his start playing stamina. —L G FRIDAY, FEBRUARY PM with a diverse set of musicians, including soul sing- J Dead Horses with special guest The Brother Brothers • In Szold Hall
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY PM Masters of Hawaiian Music: George Kahumoku Kr., Nathan Aweau & Kawika Kahiapo Luke Winslow-King VICTOR ALONSO ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL Global Dance Party: Salsa Congress
WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE André Mehmari Trio
OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 37 SURF ROCK SUNDAY WITH DJ MIKE SMITH
Find more music listings at MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard. 1035 N WESTERN AVE CHICAGO IL 773.276.3600 WWW.EMPTYBOTTLE.COM
FREE Gabrielle Smith THU SLUSHY MON CHARLIE REED of Gabby’s World 1/10 CAVE CURSE • PAMPHLETEERS 1/14 TEDDY & THE ROUGH RIDERS • CASS CWIK CHRIS SIKICH DJ CREEPY DONNIE COUNTRY BREAKFAST (WLUW)
HARD COUNTRY HONKY TONK WITH 5PM-FREE THE HOYLE BROTHERS TUE FREE SNACKS FRI 1/15 MALCI • SEX NO BABIES 1/11 GOOD F*CK RXM REALITY • GUIRRO • MAGIN WED 1/16 ZE’EV 12PM-FREE HANDMADE MARKET GRAPHICS • PLAN QUARTET SAT KITTY x RICKY $5 W/ RSVP 1/12 THE POM-POMS ( EAT ACID ) NOT LOVELY • DESERT LIMINAL THU DECA 1/17 SHOWYOUSUCK EMPTY BOTTLE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSES 3PM-FREE ‘HEAVY’ BY KIESE LAYMON
SUN 6PM-FREE FEMINIST HAPPY HOUR FRI FLESH PANTHERS 1/13 1/18 RAILWAY GAMBLERS • UNCLE SEXY & PANDA RIOT THE NEPHEWS VOOLTED • WELL YELLS
continued from 37 alongside her husband, Sam Ray, a like-minded 1/19: GREAT DECEIVERS (RECORD RELEASE), 1/20: CHICAGO HONKY TONK PRESENTS DAN WHITAKER & THE SHINEBENDERS, 1/20: musician who makes beat-heavy, hazy synth sound- ORNAMENT, 1/21: PEEL (FREE), 1/22: ANIKA, 1/23: YAWNING MAN, 1/24: RUBYHORNET & CLOSED SESSIONS PRESENT FEAT. OPEN MIKE scapes under the name Ricky Eat Acid. It seemed EAGLE, 1/25: SHAMIR, 1/26: WINDY CITY SOUL CLUB, 1/28: ENGINE SUMMER (FREE), 1/31: OVEF OW, 2/1: P.O.S., 2/2: MELKBEL- SATURDAY12 inevitable that the two would eventually come LY, 2/6: LAS CRUXES, 2/8: GLITTER CREEPS PRESENTS BOY HARSHER, 2/9: NAKED GIANTS, 2/10: BOY HARSHER, 2/14: together for a full-on collaboration, and in Septem- PHUONG-DAN, 2/15: MILO (FINAL CHICAGO SHOW), 2/23 @ OUTSIDE THE EMPTY BOTTLE: MUSIC FROZEN DANCING: A WINTER BLOCK PARTY The Hussy Clickbait opens. 8 PM, Burlington, ber they released a self-titled, fi ve-song EP as the NEW ON SALE: 2/16: DARK FOG (RECORD RELEASE), 2/22: TY SEGALL & WHITE FENCE, 3/2: ABSOLUTELY 3425 W. Fullerton, $6 suggested donation. 21+ Pom-Poms. On these tracks, Ray’s trademark vapory NOT (RECORD RELEASE), 3/15: KAMAAL WILLIAMS, 3/18: ELEPHANT GYM, 3/29: THE KVB, 4/3: BEAT CIRCUS production hits harder than usual, and Kitty’s vocal Here in the midwestern tundra, January can be performance edges back toward her hip-hop days, a sleepy time for shows by touring bands, but no creating a heady, beyond-catchy, and surprising- CAJUN DANCE PARTY FEAT. THE MID-CITY ACES matter where or when Madison garage punks the ly high-energy experimental dance-pop hybrid. Hussy play a gig, they heat things up—or even set Longtime Kitty fans will be delighted with the Pom- them on fi re. And that’s not just cliche rock ’n’ roll Poms: all of her hilarious eccentricities, clever word- hyperbole; in this case, you can take those words play, and knack for weaving undeniable hooks are literally. In an interview with the Wisconsin State pushed to the forefront and wrapped up in a quick, Journal last January, guitarist-vocalist Bobby tidy package. —L C Wegner (who also runs DIY label No Coast) estimated that since he and drummer- vocalist Heather Sawyer joined forces in the summer of 2008, he’s set his instrument ablaze about 100 SUNDAY13 times. You might call him “a firestarter, a twisted firestarter,” but his vibe has little to do with the Gabby’s World Yowler, Spencer Radcliff e & violence and nihilism that people hear in that Everyone Else, and Gia Margaret open. 6 PM, Prodigy song—Wegner, who usually goes by Bobby Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $13. b Hussy, is plenty twisted, but it comes out in waves of ecstatic feedback and grimy, fuzzed-out guitar, Indie singer-songwriter Gabrielle Smith broke out which he uses to fan the fl ames of feel-good punk- in 2015 under the name Eskimeaux. Since then, rock chaos. And the Hussy is just as prolific on she’s changed the name of her project a couple early record as Wegner is with lighter fl uid and a match: times, and last year she made her debut as the front so far the group (which became a trio in 2015 woman of Gabby’s World—which released Beast with the addition of guitarist Tyler Fassnacht) has on Beast (Yellow K) in November. Though Gabby’s released at least 17 seven-inches, ten-inches, splits, World is positioned as a fl eshed-out band and Smith and tapes in addition to four full-length albums— does tour with a core group of musicians, the proj- and they recently announced a fi h full-length com- ect seems more like the next step in her personal warnings ing in 2019. With any luck, the Hussy will play some artistic trajectory. The album boasts a star-stud- of that new material, but either way they’ll make it ded lineup of contributors, including Greta Kline never miss a show again worth your while to leave home on a cold winter (Frankie Cosmos), Yoni Wolf (Why?), and Luke Jen- night. —J L ner (the Rapture), but while Smith’s presence feels distinct throughout the record, some of her collab- chicagoreader.com/early orators play such minor roles it’s hard to actually Pom-Poms Not Lovely and Desert Liminal open. pick out where they appear without glancing at the 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10. 21+ liner notes. In any case, Beast on Beast is deferen- tial in volume and immersive in its approach to indie In summer 2017, rapper Kitty, who’d gone viral via rock; Smith’s calm grace encourages listeners to Soundcloud earlier in the decade, released Miami absorb the gentle melodies and uncover light mag- Garden Club, her long-awaited crowd-funded ical touches, such as the small tremors in the vocal debut album, which captured her shift away from harmonies during the calm splendor of “When I Felt the quirky rhymes of her early tunes and toward Giving.” —L G dreamy bedroom pop. Kitty toured on that record 38 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Charly Bliss SHERVIN LAINEZ MUSIC
MONDAY14 WEDNESDAY16 Extraordinary Popular delusions See Charly Bliss Active Bird Community and also Howard Mandel’s feature story on page 28. Girl K open. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont. 21+ F $17, $15 in advance. 18+
For improvisers, familiarity is a double-edged sword; I like Charly Bliss way more than I should. The NYC if musicians get too comfortable with each other, foursome—really a pop act disguised as a punk inspiration can turn into habit. But there’s nothing band—ticks countless boxes on the list of things quite so thrilling as the near-telepathic rapport of that immediately annoy me or make me roll my eyes: a group whose players know each other’s strengths goofy, quirky lyrics; cute and zany music videos; and try to push each other to greater heights. The pristine production values; and an unabashed Wee- members of Extraordinary Popular Delusions have zer infl uence (more the bad era than the good). But had plenty of time to get to know one another. The I let my guard down for 2017’s Guppy (Barsuk), and quartet, which consists of Jim Baker (electric piano, I’ve been completely hooked ever since. I’m will- synthesizer, viola), Mars Williams (reeds, percussion, ing to bet I listened to that record more than any- zither, toys), Brian Sandstrom (double bass, electric thing else that year, and even their syrupy cover guitar, trumpet), and Steve Hunt (drums, percussion, of Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” (recorded for the A.V. waterphone) have sustained a weekly gig at either Club’s Undercover series) earned approximately Hotti Biscotti or the second fl oor of the Beat Kitch- 200 YouTube plays from me. Look past the radio- en since 2005, and everyone except Baker played ready gloss and bubbly energy of Charly Bliss to together in the NRG Ensemble in 1980s and 1990s. fi nd sharp playing, brilliant songwriting, and (from Each of these musicians has experience in diverse singer Eva Hendricks) some of the catchiest cho- styles of music—collectively they’ve played rock, jazz, coarse-grained noise, and high-voltage atmo- ruses you’ll ever hear. The band just released a new country, R&B, and jazz fi t for both steakhouses and spheric explorations, which can be undertaken with TUESDAY15 single, “Heaven,” a sweet, fuzzy banger that once art houses—but their commitment to EPD gives utter seriousness, impish humor, or both at once. again channels Weezer—except this time it sounds them a consistent space to improvise freely, and Since every member of the group also has outside Meshell Ndegeocello See Pick of the like one of their best tracks ever, 1994’s “Holiday.” their collective sense of purpose keeps them on projects, substitute musicians o en stop by to fi ll in Week, page 36. 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, Sorry for judging your book by its cover, Charly their toes. In Extraordinary Popular Delusions, the or further shake things up, but all four core mem- $28-$75. 17+ Bliss. I’ve learned my lesson and I love you. —L music shi s organically between high-energy free bers will be on hand this evening. —B M C v
Snail Mail + Taylor Bennett + Charly Bliss CAVE + WAND + Sarah Shook & the Disarmers MNDSGN + Bad Bad Hats + Still Woozy + Petal Yoke Lore + David Bazan + Grails + Negative Gemini TNKFEST.COM Vacationer + Luke Vibert + Mixed Prints (DJ Set) Lincoln Hall + Schubas Metro + Smartbar Talkhouse + Feets Don't Fail + Deep Breakfast Hideout Neil Hamburger + It's A Guy Thing + ClickHole Live Sleeping Village Kate Berlant + Ladylike + Helltrap Nightmare + MANY MORE
ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 39 CHICAGOSHOWSYOUSHOULDKNOWABOUTINTHEWEEKSTOCOME
EARLY WARNINGS b ALL AGES F WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Billy Bragg 4/25-27, 8 PM, Lin- Never miss coln Hall, 18+ a show again. Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Necrot 3/4, 6 PM, Sign up for the Concord Music Hall, 17+ newsletter at Chrome Sparks 2/9, 9 PM, chicagoreader. Lincoln Hall, 18+ GOSSIP Cold Cave, Adult. 2/27, 8 PM, com/early Metro, 18+ Dandy Warhols 5/11, 7:30 PM, WOLF Metro, 18+ Pitchfork Midwinter with Dead & Company 6/14-15, 7 PM, Slowdive, Kamasi Washing- A furry ear to the ground of Wrigley Field ton, Oneohtric Point Never, Deerhunter 2/17, 8 PM, Lincoln Panda Bear, and more 2/15-17, the local music scene Hall, 18+ Art Institute of Chicago Mike Doughty, Wheatus 3/7, Quinn XCII 3/20, 6 PM, Riviera MOSTFOLKSUSE December to wind 8 PM, Sleeping Village Theatre b Dream Theater 3/29, 8 PM, Todd Rundgren 4/23-24, 8 PM, down the year’s fi nal projects and prepare Chicago Theatre Athenaeum Theatre for some old-fashioned holiday hiberna- Fleetwood Mac 3/1, 8 PM, Travis Scott 2/21, 8 PM, United tion, but this past December 7 local rap- United Center Center pers Joshua Virtue and Ruby Watson Flesh Eaters 3/10, 8 PM, Lin- Snail Mail 1/17, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ coln Hall Spiritualized 4/9, 8 PM, the dropped their debut EP as Free Snacks. Marty Friedman 2/13, 7 PM, Vic, 18+ Virtue and Watson display the casual Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Supersuckers 3/12, 8 PM, Beat chemistry of consistent collaborators on Lee Fields SESSE LIND Hatebreed, Obituary, Terror Kitchen Eat Good Tape, and their punchy delivery 4/11, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Patrick Sweany 2/16, 9 PM, Hall, 17+ FitzGerald’s, Berwyn enlivens the EP’s relaxed, funky, sample- Steve Gunn, Gun Outfi t 4/19, Jane SIberry 4/19, 8 PM, Szold Health 4/20, 8:30 PM, Bottom Tender 3/14, 8 PM, Beat Kitch- heavy production. On Tuesday, January 15, NEW 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri Hall, Old Town School of Lounge b en, 17+ Free Snacks perform at the Empty Bot- 1/11, 10 AM, 18+ Folk Music, on sale Fri 1/11, Hives, Refused 5/20, 7 PM, the The-Dream 2/28, 8 PM, Lincoln tle—their first headlining gig since Eat Eric Andersen & Scarlet Fareed Haque & KAIA String 8 AM b Vic, 18+ Hall, 18+ Rivera 4/21, 1 PM, SPACE, Quartet 5/19, 1 PM, SPACE, Swmrs, Regrettes 4/19, I’m With Her, Mipso 3/2, 8 PM, Tokyo Police Club 4/26, 9 PM, Good Tape came out, and thus a de facto Evanston, on sale Fri 1/11, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/11, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, Thalia Hall, 17+ Empty Bottle release party. Malci and Sex No Babies 10 AM b 10 AM b on sale Fri 1/11, 10 AM b Interpol 2/7, 7:30 PM, Chicago Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, open; the $5 show starts at 8:30 PM. Arty 3/9, 10 PM, Sound-Bar Illuminati Hotties 2/16, 9 PM, Tauk 4/12, 9 PM, Concord Theatre Graveyard 3/26, 7 PM, In April 2017, during the Merce Cun- Jeff Austin Band 3/8-9, 9 PM, Hideout Music Hall, on sale Fri 1/11, Iron Maiden 8/22, 7:30 PM, Metro, 18+ Martyrs’, on sale Fri 1/11, Kamaal Williams 3/15, 9 PM, 10 AM, 18+ Hollywood Casino Amphithe- Sharon Van Etten 2/14-15, ningham retrospective at the Museum of 10 AM Empty Bottle Traitors 2/27, 6 PM, Reggie’s atre, Tinley Park 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Contemporary Art, Chicago sound art- Beat Circus, Claudettes, Lone- Kitka 2/10, 8 PM, Szold Hall, Rock Club, 17+ Jerusalem in My Heart 3/26, Warbly Jets 2/15, 9 PM, ist Stephan Moore (a former music coor- some Organist 4/3, 8:30 PM, Old Town School of Folk T.S.O.L. 5/31, 7 PM, Reggie’s 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Schubas dinator for Cunningham’s company) and Empty Bottle Music, on sale Fri 1/11, 8 AM b Music Joint Valentino Khan 1/26, 10 PM, Juan Wauters 1/24, 9:30 PM, Boombox Cartel 2/16, 9 PM, Lorna Shore, Enterprise Earth Tessa Violet 2/14, 7 PM, Beat the Mid Hideout dance-and-music ensemble CabinFever Aragon Ballroom, 17+ 4/30, 6 PM, Reggie’s Rock Kitchen b King Crimson 9/10, 8 PM, Audi- Yawning Man, Freedom Hawk collaborated on the site-specific perfor- David Bromberg Quintet 5/15, Club, 17+ Cheryl Wheeler 4/14, 7 PM, torium Theatre 1/23, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle mance Respire. On Friday, January 18, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Lucifer 3/21, 7 PM, Reggie’s Szold Hall, Old Town School Kiss 3/2, 7:30 PM, United Yob, Voivod 3/27, 8 PM, Thalia Philadelphia label Dead Definition will Thu 1/10, noon b Rock Club, 17+ of Folk Music, on sale Fri 1/11, Center Hall, 17+ Kayleigh Butcher 2/17, Midnight Tyrannosaurus 6/1, 8 AM b La Luz 3/22, 9 PM, Sleeping Zomboy 2/8, 9 PM, Aragon release an album of the performance’s 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Village Ballroom, 18+ musical component, which includes dron- Callaghan 5/19, 7 PM, SPACE, Missio 4/20, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Angel Du$t 3/8, 7 PM, Sub- Le Butcherettes 2/20, 8 PM, ing strings, acoustic guitars, and the danc- Evanston, on sale Fri 1/11, Movements, Boston Manor terranean b Cobra Lounge, 17+ ers’ dialogue, all processed and used as 10 AM b 5/19, 7 PM, Metro, on sale Lemon Twigs 1/25, 9 PM, SOLD OUT Casey 5/24, 7 PM, Bottom Fri 1/11, 10 AM b Metro, 18+ raw material for Moore’s electronic impro- Lounge b Peter Mulvey 4/5, 7 PM, UPDATED Lords of Acid, Orgy, Geni- Billy Strings 1/25, 9 PM, Bottom visations. CabinFever are selling the Tommy Castro & the Painkill- SPACE, Evanston, on sale torturers 3/7, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ album (including a limited run on lovely ers 4/4, 8 PM, City Winery, on Fri 1/11, 10 AM b Gryffi n 2/9, 6 and 11 PM, Con- Lounge, 17+ Dave Davies 4/20, 8 PM, pink vinyl) via their Bandcamp page. sale Thu 1/10, noon b Murder Junkies 5/26, 8 PM, cord Music Hall, late show Jeff Lynne’s ELO 6/27, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Clan of Xymox, Bellwether Reggie’s Music Joint sold out b United Center FKJ 5/17, 8 PM, Concord Music Last month local experimental rock duo Syndicate 3/14, 8:30 PM, Nine, Pseudo Slang 1/30, 9 PM, High on Fire 1/22, 8 PM, Metro, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Hall, 18+ Comfort Food announced they were put- Thalia Hall, 17+ Subterranean canceled 1/23, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Jess Glynne 3/30, 7:30 PM, ting the project on ice a er nearly eight Commander Cody & His Lost Graham Parker 4/18, 8 PM, Mandolin Orange 2/16-17, 8 PM, Cass McCombs 3/16, 9 PM, the Vic b years. Drummer Jake Marshall and bass- Planet Airmen 3/21, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 1/10, Thalia Hall, second show Lincoln Hall, 18+ Conan Gray 4/8, 7:30 PM, Bot- SPACE, Evanston, on sale noon b added, 17+ Meek Mill 3/8, 7:30 PM, Aragon tom Lounge b ist, vocalist, and trumpeter Daniel Wolff Fri 1/11, 10 AM b Phuong-Dan 2/14, 8:30 PM, Yashira 3/1, 7 PM, Cobra Ballroom b Beth Hart 4/25, 7:30 PM, Park have released three full-lengths of bizarre, Confl ict 1/25, 10 PM, Reggie’s Empty Bottle Lounge, canceled Mineral, Tancred 1/24, 9 PM, West, 18+ unsettling funk- and jazz-infl ected skronk Rock Club, 17+ Alfonso Ponticelli & Swing Lincoln Hall LP 2/8, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ via partly Chicagoan label Already Dead Luther Dickinson & Sisters of Gitan 3/23, 8 PM, SPACE, Misfi ts, Fear, Venom Inc. 4/27, Ella Mai 3/3, 8 PM, Concord the Strawberry Moon 3/11, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/11, UPCOMING 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Music Hall, 18+ Tapes & Records, most recently Falling 8 PM, City Winery, on sale 10 AM b Rosemont Massive Attack 3/23, 8 PM, Up a Down Escalator in September. On Thu 1/10, noon b Lucy Roche & Suzzy Roche Action Bronson, Meyhem Muse, Walk the Moon 4/12, Chicago Theatre Friday, January 11, Comfort Food will say El Hitta 2/1, 6 PM, Reggie’s 4/7, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, Lauren 2/23, 6 PM, Concord 8 PM, United Center Mumford & Sons 3/29, 7:30 PM, farewell with a headlining set at Elastic. Rock Club b on sale Fri 1/11, 10 AM b Music Hall, 17+ Music Frozen Dancing with Ty United Center Elvis Depressedly 2/28, 6 PM, Garnet Rogers, Crys Mat- Herb Alpert & Lani Hall 5/4-5, Segall & White Fence, Neg- Rainbow Kitten Surprise 2/8-9, Big Syn, A.M. Stations, Imelda Marcos, Cobra Lounge b thews 3/23, 8 PM, Szold 8 PM, City Winery b ative Scanner, Plack Blague, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b and A Light Sleeper open; the all- ages Lee Fields & the Expressions Hall, Old Town School of American Football 3/30, 9 PM, and Glyders 2/23, 1 PM, Robyn 3/6, 8 PM, Aragon show starts at 8:30 PM and costs $10. 4/12, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on Folk Music, on sale Fri 1/11, Metro, 18+ Empty Bottle Fb Ballroom b —JR N L G sale Fri 1/11, 9 AM, 17+ 8 AM b Anderson .Paak 2/16, 8 PM, My Brightest Diamond 5/9, Lennon Stella 3/28, 7 PM, Goddamn Gallows, Scott H. Ty Segall & White Fence, Riviera Theatre b 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Metro b Biram 4/6, 7 PM, Reggie’s Axis: Sova 2/22, 9 PM, Empty Body/Head 3/7, 7:30 PM, Art Frank Orrall 3/9, 8 PM, SPACE, Mike Stud 2/1, 8 PM, Bottom Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Rock Club, 17+ Bottle Institute of Chicago Evanston b Lounge b v [email protected].
40 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll vest apples as well as perform Sr. Supply Chain Analysts to other regular orchard duties. work on supply chain/logistics/ JOBS Must be able to lift 50 pounds, inventory mgmt projects. No GENERAL extensive sitting, stooping, trvl; no telcomm. Mail resumes walking, pushing/pulling and to: Medline Industries, Inc., SALES REP: The Chicago repetitive movements. 13.54/ ATTN: HR, Three Lakes Drive, By Dan Savage SAVAGE LOVE Reader is seeking high-end hr. (prevailing wage). Guarantee Northfi eld, IL 60093. sales representative to sell of 3/4 of the workdays. All work print and digital advertising for tools, supplies, and equipment the weekly print newspaper furnished without cost to the and online products. Base worker. Free housing is pro- NOTICES plus commission and benefi ts. vided to workers who cannot Salesforce experience a bonus. reasonably return to their HEALTH/PERSONALS/ Equal Opportunity Employer. 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No someone who takes pride tionless void.” You’re going to CLIT, and you might be able plicants should send resumes SpendConnect & CounselCom- texts, please leave a message. in my foreplay/pussy-eating need to have a conversation to solve this (pretty good) to Elsa Villanueva, HR Manager mand bus. intelligence sltns & 347-633-0005 Advanced Refractories, at Elsa. models for clients; serving as abilities, this is a bummer. with your girlfriend about problem (to have). [email protected] and a point of contact for clients, One Bedroom: Large one reference “Group Leader - Pre- incl. onboarding, training, tech bedroom apartment near She gets wet to the point this, CLIT, you’ll need to use cast” in the subject line. support, engmnt letter creation, Metra and Warren Park. 1904 report creation, & distrbtn; crd- W. Pratt. Hardwood floors. where all friction is lost your words, but you can’t : I’m a woman in an open CAMPAIGN JOBS CLASSIFIEDS ntng multiple large data sources Cats OK. heat Included. $975/ during PIV and my boners have that conversation—not relationship of four years. Help doctors save lives across & streamlining data enrichment month. Available 1/1. (773) 761- the world. Work for Grassroots prcdrs & analytics to display the 4318. www.lakefrontmgt.com don’t last. It’s like fucking a a constructive one—until you I adore my partner. When Campaigns on behalf of info via interactive dashboards; bowlful of jelly. Part of me can find some less denigrat- we were fi rst dating, it Doctors Without Borders Earn collecting, parsing, & analyzing One Bedroom: Large one $12.50-$15.50 per hour. Full- data received from clients’ sys bedroom apartment near red is fl attered that I get her ing, resentful, shame-heaping was casual and there were Time /Part-Time/ Career CALL & crdntng data enrichment line 6824 N Wayne. Hardwood Robert at (312) 574-3794 & quality control w/ internal fl oors. Pets OK. Heat included. off , but damnit I miss a tight words. no ground rules. During teams & off-shore resources; $950/month. Available 1/1. fi t! (Her oral skills aren’t Again, she’s doing noth- that time, I slept with a JOBS crdntng security permissions (773) 761-4318. www.lakefront- & licenses, implmntng product mgt.com great, either, so that’s not an ing wrong. She gets very wet guy without condoms updates, features & enhance- ADMINISTRATIVE ments to new/existing modules. option, and anal is a no-go.) I when she’s turned on. That’s a er he cornered me in Master’s degree in IS, Business BEDROOM love to fuck hard, and that’s just how her body works. a motel room. One of SALES & Analytics, Accounting, or MARKETING Computer Science. 2 yrs of 1701 N. Talman apartment diffi cult when I’m sticking Too much lubrication makes the biggest rules in my The Northern Trust Co. is previous exp in the position Beautiful 2 Bedroom apartment, seeking a Consultant, Appli- offered or related creating in- central heating AC, hardwood my dick into a frictionless it harder for you to get off. current relationship is to FOOD & DRINK cations in Chicago IL, with the sights for clients using diff erent fl oors, appliances good condi- void. Is there a way to That’s how your body works. use condoms with other following requirements: Bach- program languages, data tools tion, laundry, storage available. SPAS & SALONS elor’s degree in Computer Sci- & visualization software, such Close to CTA Blue line. One cat, decrease wetness? Help, And this presents a problem partners. My current partner ence or Information Technology as Qlikview bus. intelligence, $1,00/month. Call Fabio 773 BIKE JOBS and 3 years related experience. Spotfire, Oracle MySQL, Mic- 988 2073 please. —C ’ L I that you two need to work has made it clear that he Prior experience must include 3 rosoft SQL, & Microsoft Excel T on together, but insults like would consider exchanging GENERAL years of experience with each VBA; project & client mngmnt UPTOWN, Large 2 bedroom of the following: develop, con- exp; extracting datasets from apt, 2 blocks from lake, 4344 “bowlful of jelly” and “fric- fl uids with someone else figure, maintain and enhance client sys & prfrmng analyses North Clarendon Ave ( At Mon- the PeopleSoft Financials ap- & quality checks on large data trose), rehabbed vintage, hard- a: First things fi rst: She’s tionless void” are going to cheating. I’m worried he’ll plication (for modules Accounts sets; creating standardized & wood floors, heat/appliances not doing anything wrong, shut the conversation down somehow fi nd out about REAL Receivables, Billing, Accounts automated dashboard sltn to included. $1475.00 call EJM Payable, Asset Management, visualize fi nncl bus. processes, (773) 935 4425 CLIT, and neither are you— and/or end the relation- that night in the motel room, ESTATE General Ledger, eProcurement updating sltn w/new rqrmnts & and Purchase Order); identify created new modules for diff. Two Bedroom: Large two at least you’re not doing ship. So try this instead: “I and I feel bad keeping it a synergies between PeopleSoft bus. cycles. Send resume via bedroom duplex near Warren anything wrong during sex. love how turned on you get, secret. If I tell him, there’s a RENTALS modules and build, enhance e-mail to careers@hbrconsult- Park. 1900 W. Pratt. 2 full and maintain the integration ing.com bathrooms. Heat included. Pri- (When you sit down to write honey, and I love how wet chance that our relationship FOR SALE points; perform functional vate storage. Cats OK. $1600/ confi guration activities in Peo- Systems Analyst: gthr/anlyz month. Available 1/1. (773) 761- letters to advice columnists, you get. But it can make will end and I’ll be living in NON-RESIDENTIAL pleSoft Financials and create comp sys rqmts & translt 4318 www.lakefrontmgt.com on the other hand . . . ) She it difficult for me to come my car. What should I do? — processes, interfaces and into func/tech specs; impl/ reports using PeopleTools to dvlp algorithm func; perf GAP GENERAL can’t help how much vaginal during PIV.” B U ROOMATES facilitate corporate acquisitions, analys; creat POC; prvd stat mergers and liquidations of anlys, data visualztn/cleanng & Studio mucus she produces or how If you don’t put her on the G S legal entities/companies; rec- tabl manipltns; solv bus wrkfl w/ Large studio near Warren Park. much vaginal sweating your defensive—if you don’t make ommend the future direction of dsgn issues; & dsgn user intrfc/ 1904 W. Pratt. Hardwood fl oors. MARKET- PeopleSoft Financials, includ- rprts. Reqs exp w/ SQl Server, Cats OK. $795/month. Heat foreplay/pussy-eating skills her feel like shit about her a: This thing happened— ing the implementation of new MySQL, MongoDB, HTML, included. Available 2/1. (773) modules and product to align JSP, CSS, JQuery, Power BI, 761-4318. www.lakefrontmgt. induce, any more than you pussy—you might be able to or this thing was done to PLACE with the corporate strategy NumPy, Pandas, C#, MVC.Net, com can help how much pre- have a constructive conversa- you—before you made around fi nancial business pro- Python, Django & Flask. Reqs cesses. Apply on-line at www. MS in comp sci, info sys or eng Coach House for rent. 1300 ejaculate you pump out. tion and come up with some a commitment to your GOODS northerntrustcareers.com and +1 yrs exp as sys anlyst, sftwr sq ft. Fireplace. Hardwood search for Req. # 18145 dvlpr or reltd. Job in Evanston, floors. New 65” television. All (Her wetness is a combo of possible PIV hacks. If there’s current partner, BUGS, SERVICES IL & unanticipated locatns thru’ new furniture. Jacuzzi in bath- vaginal mucus and vaginal a move (clitoral stimulation) and before ground rules Sacia Orchards, Inc., in Gales- US. No Relocatn benefi ts off rd. room. Parking available. 773 HEALTH & ville, WI is hiring 4 Temporary No telecommtg. Bckgrnd check 220 3562. 662 W. Wellington sweating—the latter is not or an event (her first orgasm) were established. I’m Farmworker-Apple Orchard reqd. Resumes to Katalyst in Lakeview. Utilities included. WELLNESS workers from 3/03/2019 - Technologies, Inc- careers@ $1700/month a derogatory expression, that really opens up the tap, assuming you got tested 11/01/2019 40 hrs./week. katalysttech.com that’s just the term for it.) CLIT, save that move or delay at some point over the last INSTRUCTION Workers will operate trac- tors, tractor drawn agricultural Budget Analyst And all that moisture is there that event until after you’ve four years; failing that, I’m MUSIC & ARTS implements and specialty apple Newtrans Worldwide Inc. Elk orchard machinery. Workers Grove, IL seeks Budget Ana- VOLUNTEER for a good reason: it preps climaxed or until after you’ve assuming neither of you NOTICES must have a minimum of 3 lyst. w/BA in business, Econ. months of verifiable work ex- Volunteer - Computer Work & the vagina for penetration. reached the point of orgas- has developed symptoms Analyze fi nancial info. Prepare person who also drives to pick perience driving 75hp or larger fi nancial reports. Send resume MESSAGES tractors and orchard machinery, up donations 1pm - 4pm Logan In its absence, PIV can be mic inevitability—if PIV isn’t of an STI over the last four @Kenny Kim 750 Arthur Ave, Sq. N. Kedzie/Armitage Help and operating tractor drawn im- Elk Grove Village, IL extremely painful for the years. (And condoms don’t LEGAL NOTICES plements / agricultural machin- Males/Northside Latin Progress painful for her when she’s a Agency 312-343-0804 fuckee. So the last thing little less wet. protect us from all ery. 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