CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | JANUARY
MAYORAL SPOTLIGHT ON AMARA ENYIA Ben Joravsky | Anya Davidson 10
independent music venues band together Mark Guarino 26
Black Between 2010 and 2017, Chicago saw the loss of black residents at higher rates than other major cities. Is the city’s segregation to blame? exodus By P S 13 THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | JANUARY | VOLUME NUMBER
IN THIS ISSUE A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
WE’REHEADINGinto our third week of inten- got a challenger this year—a 19-year-old college Independent Venue League (CIVL) is no less sive election coverage here at Reader HQ, and it’s student—and residents aren’t entirely ignoring thoughtful, and its suggestion that city policy starting to get weird. Unexpected missives from the new kid. Isn’t election season just the most could be much more protective of our local public offices, strange requests from elected fun? music scene is deeply appreciated by those of us o cials. A refreshing enthusiasm for speaking We’re also looking at the mayoral race, and who came up in the clubs and bars of CIVL. to our reporters, on the record and in depth. It’s we’ve got a short interview with candidate Quick correction: last week we incorrectly a big di erence from our usual goings-on, which Amara Enyia by Ben Joravsky. In it, she outlines identified the Rogers Park clothier known to largely focus on the cuteness of certain dogs a few of her ideas. For a broader view of her cam- snakeskin-boot enthusiasts and steer-horned and whether or not we should hyphenate “face paign, we sent comics reporter Anya Davidson belt buckle fans as Jessica’s Western Wear. CITY LIFE sitting.” Should all return to normal by May. out to an event in Edgewater put on by some of Finally, I can announce with intense gratitude 04 Shop Window Come for Gorée In this issue Maya Dukmasova gives us her her north-side supporters. and no small amount of love that our very own Shop’s colorful textiles stay for the piercing look at the 13th Ward—Michael Madi- Of course we’re always thrilled to bring new Kate Schmidt has returned to the office! That Senegalese food 04 Sightseeing The story of a south gan Country. The Illinois house speaker’s offi- writers to our pages, and Pete Saunders’s cover refreshing, clean text feeling washing over you side doctor who performed the fi rst cemate, longtime alderman Marty Quinn, is the story this issue is a timely and compellingly right now? That’s her work. We’ve missed it, and successful open heart surgery popular candidate, or so the volume of signage argued demand to look more closely at the city’s her, terribly. Welcome back, Kate! 05 Public Service Announcement in the ward would have us believe. But Quinn’s legacy of segregation. Our look at the Chicago —A E M A tragic fi re brings the spotlight to animal shelters
FEATURES
NEWS & POLITICS 06 Joravsky | Politics A tale of two mayoral forums 07 Isaacs | Culture The Obama Center will have its Valentine’s day in court 08 Dukmasova | Politics There’s a rare contest for alderman in Michael Madigan’s southwest side stronghold FOOD & DRINK
MAYORAL SPOTLIGHT NEWS ANALYSIS ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC FEATURE Meet Amara The reverse Robot uproar Fighting City Hall If the mechanical overlords Chicago’s independent Enyia Great Migration are coming, they will music venues are banding The candidate has a passion Black Chicagoans are probably skip the gathering together to support the for public policy—but will it leaving the city, and an at Wicker Park’s Emporium 15 Food Feature Diaspora Dinners city’s vital scene. explores a world of Jewish food from a sway voters? unexamined history of Arcade Bar. tiny kitchen segregation may be to B M G 26 Q&A B B J | B L C 17 blame. C A D ARTS & CULTURE B P S 13 18 Lit Am I Man Enough? analyzes the 10 eff ects of toxic masculinity through personal narratives
2 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll T R - @
19 Asian Pacifi c American P T B Theater E C AE M playwrights tell their stories Tellin’ Tales M E P S K Theatre could change the conversation M E D K H D E K S about how we perceive disabilities and C L SK more shows to check out D P J R C E AL M E PM A E J L FILM S W D I 23 Movies of note The Heiresses BJ M S examines microlevel power dynamics S W M D L G S M E B W Silicone Soul empathizes with humans M L C L C who love life size dolls and Glass F L C P F T A E C S disappoints C D AE B D C L C I G A G MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE J H J H I H D 30 In Rotation Our music listings J M K SK M M BM S M JRN coordinator the Brokedowns’ M O L P J drummer and Rad Payoff ’s guitarist P BS D S KW A W each share three musical obsessions ------31 Shows of note The So Moon D D Shamir Confl ict and other excellent JD D P E & P shows this week K K 36 Early Warnings Dengue Fever O M Damo Suzuki’s Network Moonrunners SN L Music Festival and many more just ADVERTISING announced concerts -- - @ C @ 36 Gossip Wolf Local punks Droids Blood add new variety to their deranged S M P F S A R hardcore Chicago bred rapper Open AM Mike Eagle returns with a fresh EP and A R LM -H N S DJ Kool Hersh drops the expansive mix C R M Attack of the Chicago Boogie T P
N A OPINION V M G --- 37 Savage Love Furry porn cuckolding and water sportsDan JL SB Savage off ers advice for every ------situation D C [email protected] -- CLASSIFIEDS STMREADERLLC 38 Jobs B P D RL T ER 38 Apartments & Spaces S J S 38 Marketplace A - S V C C EB 39 Comics Prairie Pothole Violet ------Private Eye and P L Dermes in R ISSN - “Dust”our just launched suite of STMR LLC SM SC IL comics serials returns! --
C ©C R P C IL
O I A C R R SM -N F RR T ® M -N ’
310346_4.75_x_4.75.indd 1 9/12/18 12:13 PM ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 3 G S E. th CITY LIFE --
SHOP WINDOW One-stop Senegalese shop SIGHTSEEING Come for the colorful Openhearted textiles and raw black soap, integration stay for the food.
Physician Daniel Hale “IT’S LIKE ALL Africa in one shop,” says Williams was a pioneer Adama Ba, the owner of Gorée Shop in in many ways. Kenwood. He established his storefront, named a er an island in Senegal, in 2002. “It’s great to be in a place where I can see Africans, Indians, Chinese, cultures from all over the world,” he says. The 41-year-old studied arts and design for eight years at Senegal’s Cheikh Anta Diop University and makes many of the traditional garments he sells. “Over there we don’t use patterns, so everything you do you have to memorize.” His cli- Daniel Hale Williams COURTESY COOK COUNTY HEALTH ents o en have outfi ts custom-made for special occasions, a service that costs between $150 and $200. Customers can choose from a wide array AT THE INTERSECTION of 29th and Dear- stabbed in the chest in a bar fi ght and was of colorful fabrics—mudcloth, asoke, bazin, and born, down by [Daniel Hale] Williams Park taken to Provident, which unlike most hospi- 100 percent cotton wax print textile—imported in the Douglas community area, stood the tals of the time admitted African- Americans. from nations like Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Provident Hospital and Training School The wound initially appeared superficial and the Ivory Coast, and stacked in piles in the Association. There, pioneering African- to Williams. Overnight, however, Cornish’s store. American physician Daniel Hale Williams heartbeat grew weaker. Ba has dressed American Idol contestant both established the fi rst integrated hospi- On July 10, Williams sutured Cornish’s peri- Naima Adedapo, as well as dancers from the tal and performed the fi rst successful open- cardium, the double-walled membrane that Najwa Dance Corps of Malcolm X College and heart surgery. surrounds the heart. He worked without the Maryland’s KanKouran West African Dance Williams was born in Pennsylvania in 1856 benefi t of blood transfusion, which would not Company; the latter sported his creations during and graduated from what is now known as be used widely until Austrian Karl Landstein- a White House performance for George W. Northwestern University’s Feinberg School er identifi ed the A, B, and O blood types in Bush. Gorée Shop also sells musical instruments of Medicine in 1883. He treated whites and 1901. Williams did adopt the newfangled use like the kora, a West African harp, and cosmetics African-Americans, but segregation pro- of antiseptics. Cornish recovered and was such as raw black soap and whipped shea butters hibited him from working in a hospital, so able to leave the hospital 51 days later. with names like Black Woman, Pure Seduction, he helped to establish Provident. In 1890, Some credit Catalonian physician Fran- and I Am King. Armour & Company provided the down pay- cisco Romero with the beginning of cardi- Ba says he wants Chicago to fi nd joy in Sen- ment to purchase a three-story, 12-bed facili- ac surgery in 1801; others grant the honor egalese culture, which is why he also runs the ty in Douglas. On January 23, 1891, Provident to French military surgeon Dominique-Jean restaurant Gorée Cuisine next door. The Read- was established with a charter “to maintain Larrey during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810. er’s Mike Sula wrote that the Senegalese soul a hospital and training school for nurses in Henry C. Dalton is also rumored to have food on off er “might seem unfamiliar on paper, the City of Chicago, Illinois, for the gratu- performed a surgery similar to Williams’s at but it bridged the Atlantic hundreds of years ago itous treatment of the medical and surgical Saint Louis City Hospital in 1891. with the arrival of the fi rst African-Americans.” diseases of the sick poor.” Williams served None of these events, however, dimin- With the help of three siblings and his wife, GIALLORENZO
as the chief of staff . He later helped estab- ish Williams’s 1893 achievement in per- Ba runs his business in keeping with Senegal’s ISA lish the National Medical Association in 1895, forming a successful open-heart surgery family -centered ethos. “People coming from dif- when the American Medical Association was more than a century prior to the invention ferent tribes and religions enjoy each other’s tra- in their neighborhood. You don’t need to go to still segregated. of the YouTube tutorial. Consider him the ditions. There’s no tension,” he says. “The whole Senegal to eat Senegalese food or to get African On July 9, 1893, James Cornish, an Afri- first Chicagoan to perform one to boot! point of having the shop and the restaurant is to garments. You can just come to 47th Street.” can-American train expressman, was —JOE MASON let the community know there are other cultures —ISA GIALLORENZO 4 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll B L A S N County Farm Rd. West Chicago, Illinois -- CITY LIFE
Rescue Lynda survived the fire and has landed a foster home after being in boarding for eight months. Public Service She’s available for adoption. Announcement COURTESY FETCHING TAILS FOUNDATION Must love In the a ermath of the fi re, a spotlight was rescue dogs put on animal rescues throughout the Chi- A traic fire brins the spotliht cago area. Though some shelters work with to animal shelters. outside kennels and have a network of foster parents and volunteers, rescues are unique in that they are typically volunteer run and LASTWEEKANIMALlovers throughout the without a central location for operations or Chicago area were devastated by the news animal housing. The loss of a boarding facili- that a fi re at Bully Life Animal Services (for- ty can have a ripple eff ect throughout the pet merly known as D&D Dog Kennel), near the rescue community—and the loss of Bully Life suburb of West Chicago, had taken the lives Animal Services, which performs vital sup- of more than 30 dogs. Firefi ghters were able port for struggling animals who are not yet to rescue over 20 more dogs. ready to be placed with a family, is particular- The cause of the fi re is under investigation. ly diffi cult. Mercado’s friends and colleagues Owner and operator Garrett Mercado, who one of his own pets in the blaze. Each of those USA (which provides job training and oppor- have launched a GoFundMe page to help lived in an apartment in the building, arrived details is tragic, but to make matters even tunities for homeless military veterans to work him heal from his injuries and get back to his home a er the fi re had started, and sustained more heart-wrenching, Mercado specializ- with dogs), place animals with him to get the work. It’s a great time to consider donating injuries while opening hot cages. In addition es in housing dogs with behavioral issues or training and support needed to be housed to any upstanding animal rescue throughout to losing many of the animals he was board- who have suff ered previous abuse. A number with foster families—and ultimately, their for- the city—or maybe even adopting a new furry ing, he lost his business, his home, and all but of local pet rescues, including Pets and Vets ever homes. friend. —JAMIE LUDWIG Jan Dee’s Retirement Sale! 50% off everything at Jan Dee Custom Jewelry Sale runs through Feb. 2
As Jan Dee’s legendary Chicago jewelry store enters its 45th year, she is announcing her retirement and the closing of her store. Jan Dee has been a vital part of Chicago’s feminist, small business and social justice communities since the 1970s. She has supported hundreds of charities and donated her time to countless causes. Let’s show Jan Dee some love for all the love she and her jewelry have shown us. Stop by during store hours and take advantage of these special retirement discounts. 1425 W. Diversey Pkwy, Chicago • (773) 871-2222 • www.jandee.com Wed & Sat 10-5PM Thu & Fri 12-7PM Open one special Sunday, Jan. 20, 11-4PM ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 5 NEWS & POLITICS
POLITICS In general, the Trib’s editorial board refl ects the view from a downtown corporate board- room. They’re like bankers sternly reviewing A tale of a loan application, somberly demanding how the applicant will pay for things that, let’s face it, the Trib’s editorialists probably don’t want two mayoral in the fi rst place. Like our current pension system that pays retirees a relatively decent check. forums Generally left unmentioned at these ses- sions is how the city can a ord to hand over The Tribune’s editorial board and $1.7 billion in property taxes to developers. As the city’s grassroots activists might Mayor Rahm’s proposing with his TIF-funded as well be on diff erent planets. plan to build upscale housing in gentrifying areas (yes, I’m referring to Lincoln Yards and By B J the 78, aka Rezko Field). Apparently, pensions for the middle class are a burden, but TIF handouts for the wealthy f there’s still anyone out there who are an investment, at least from the perspec- doubts that Chicago’s a divided city, I tive of the corporate boardroom. urge you to compare and contrast two “Efforts to cut government costs were a mayoral endorsement sessions that hap- popular idea at the Tribune forum, a time- pened to take place on the same day last honored approach for candidates who know Iweek—one at the Tribune’s downtown o ce, tax-weary voters are fans of lowering City Hall the other at a west-side church. spending rather than digging deeper into their It goes beyond a tale of two cities. Stylisti- pockets” is how the Tribune’s news account of cally and substantively the two might as well the editorial meeting phrased it. be di erent planets. Over at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary, Last week’s #ReimagineChicago Mayoral Forum, hosted by the Grassroots Collaborative The Trib session took place in the corporate meanwhile, there was no talk of gutting pen- at New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in West Garfi eld Park setting of the paper’s editorial boardroom. sions. Many in the audience view those as SARA JANE RHEE/COURTESY GRASSROOTS COLLABORATIVE The candidates sat at one end of a long table, direct payments to people who live and shop and the editorial board members—most of in the communities they represent. ed, but she sent her regrets claiming she was committing at least $25 million to reopening whom are right of center—sat on the other Quite the contrary, this group advocated under the weather). the mental health clinics that Rahm closed; side, respectfully listening. raising taxes on the wealthy and redistrib- As much as I enjoyed the forum, I’d have whether they support free tuition at city In contrast, the mayoral forum hosted by uting TIF funds away from gentrifying or invited all the candidates—establishment colleges and an end to CPS’s student-head- the Grassroots Collaborative—an association wealthy communities. fi gures Garry “Big Mac” McCarthy, Paul Vallas, count-based funding (so schools don’t have of activists from all over town—was more They billed the event the #ReimagineChicago Bill Daley, and Gery Chico included—if I’d had to fire teachers if enrollment falls); and like a boisterous rally. Organizers packed New Mayoral Forum, the first step in drafting a any say in the matter. whether they’d delay action on the pending Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church platform intended to “break the pattern of Obviously, I have about as much infl uence TIF projects until after the election. I was the in West Garfi eld Park with activists bused in neighborhood disinvestment, gentrifi cation, on how the Grassroots Collaborative runs its guy in the back waving two green cards when from Englewood, Roseland, Logan Square, and displacement” by creating a city “free of events as I do on what the Tribune writes in its they asked that one. Brighton Park, and other neighborhoods. racist policies, discrimination, and crooked editorials. All the candidates answered yes to each. They distributed green and red pieces of favors for the rich and well connected.” Much of the forum was dedicated to moving They closed the forum by asking candidates paper for audience members to wave when As one speaker, Ashley Galvan Ramos, a testimony from residents—like the woman to sign a pledge that among other things would they agreed (green) or disagreed (red) with 19-year-old youth leader for the Logan Square who talked about how she battled suicide after commit them to putting at least one member what the mayoral candidate was saying. Neighborhood Association, put it: “We imag- the city closed several mental health clinics. of the coalition on their transition team. Before the forum began, they blasted “Ain’t ine a city where neighborhoods get what they Parents talked about the devastating impact All but Wilson signed that pledge. He said No Stoppin’ Us Now,” “Wake Up Everybody,” need—don’t pretend the money is not there.” of school closings and the rising cost of gentri- he’d have to give it more thought. and other great songs of the 70s over the loud- I’ll say this for the Tribsters—they invited fi cation, which is forcing many residents out Here’s some more unsolicited advice for the speakers. In case anyone needed to be fi red up. all the mayoral candidates to their endorse- of neighborhoods they’ve lived in for years. Grassroots Collaborative leaders that they’re Now, I’m not saying Trib publisher Bruce ment sessions. The Grassroots organizers That’s a pattern that will accelerate if the City free not to follow . . . Dold and star columnist John Kass should were more selective, limiting invitations to Council rubber-stamps the mayor’s plans for Keep up the pressure. If history’s any judge, perform an air-guitar rendition of “Free Bird” candidates who already appealed to their Lincoln Yards and Rezko Field. promises made to activists will be the fi rst our at their next endorsement session, like it was constituents. Dramatically speaking, the highlight came next mayor breaks—if nothing else to stay in 1975 and they were jamming with their pals Onstage at the church were Amara Enyia, La near the end of the forum, during the round good graces with the Trib. v in the basement. But fellas, if the spirit moves Shawn Ford, Lori Lightfoot, Toni Preckwinkle, of rapid-response, yes-or-no questions. The you—be my guest. and Willie Wilson (Susana Mendoza was invit- candidates were asked whether they support @joravben 6 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
Jackson Park DAVID B GLEASON
that the Obama Center’s purpose and situa- tion is similar to their own. The Museums in the Park warn that the POP suit, if successful, could endanger them all. A counterargument in a brief fi led by Jack- son Park Watch and Preservation Chicago claims that any suggestion that parkland was given up for those museums is fake history: what actually happened was that the muse- ums went into existing buildings, were built on the sites of prior buildings, or preceded the parks that grew around them. According to the Jackson Park Watch and Preservation Chicago brief, four of the 11 mem- bers of Museums in the Park took over existing buildings (the Museum of Science and Indus- try, the DuSable Museum, and the National Museums of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture and Mexican Art); three were built on the site of prior buildings (the Art Institute, the Museum ON CULTURE of Contemporary Art, and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum); and four were built outside of existing parkland (the Field Museum, Shedd The Obama Center will have Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and Chicago History Museum). “In all those situations,” Preservation Chi- its (Valentine’s) day in court cago executive director Ward Miller told me, “we didn’t give up precious parklands. We just Will the presidential library be allowed in Jackson Park? feel there could be a better solution [for the Obama Center].” By D I A brief fi led by the Cultural Landscape Foun- dation, based in Washington, D.C., notes that t was Halloween when the Chicago City Since the Obama Center’s breaking with city also maintains that the center will bring Jackson Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted Council gave final approval to the deal tradition by not serving as the repository for benefi ts to Chicago citizens that will compen- wrote in 1894 that “the Museum of Science that will allow the Obama Presidential the actual presidential papers (they’ll be kept sate for the loss of parkland and any taxpayer and Industry was to be the only ‘dominating Center to be built in Jackson Park, and elsewhere by the National Archives), and expense. object of interest’ in the park,” and warns of it’ll be Valentine’s Day when a federal therefore won’t be a government facility, POP Supporting briefs include one by a group of setting a dangerous land-grab precedent. Idistrict court judge hears oral arguments on a claims that this deal is a transfer of protected property law professors (from Northwestern, Maybe Judge Blakey will be won over by lawsuit trying to bring that deal to a halt. public land to a private party without appro- the University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Colum- that argument, or by those that say the deal The city and the Chicago Park District have priate compensation. POP also objects to the bia University, and Chicago-Kent) arguing that needs more scrutiny. Or maybe he’ll be think- asked Judge John Robert Blakey to throw out use of this public asset for what it assumes will the city’s deal is “consistent with public trust ing this can’t set a precedent for taking other a lawsuit fi led against them that objects to the be partisan purposes. doctrine,” and another by New York University parkland, since there will be no more first use of Jackson Park for the center. Protect Our POP suggests that other south-side loca- and U. of C. law professor (and fellow at the black presidents of the United States. Maybe Parks (POP), the group that brought the suit, tions would be less disruptive and costly (tax- conservative Hoover Foundation) Richard A. he’ll remember that Jackson Park su ered an has responded, and a fl urry of legal briefs on payers will be on the hook for road reroutes Epstein, who says it’s not. Noting that Mayor arguably worse blow when its scenic drive was behalf of outside parties has been fi led in sup- and other infrastructure expenses that the Rahm Emanuel was President Obama’s chief turned into a six-lane speedway in the 1960s. port of each side. city has estimated at $175 million), and would of sta , Epstein argues that “the transaction And maybe he’ll fi gure that if the Obama Pres- POP argues that it’s illegal for the Park bring greater benefit to local residents and at issue is a classic circumstance of an insider idential Center’s 235-foot tower turns out to District to transfer nearly 20 acres of the his- businesses. favoritism.” be a visually disruptive presence on a historic toric park to the city in order for the city to, in The city, on the other hand, says it’ll retain Briefs supporting the city have also been landscape, the symbolism will be right on. e ect, fl ip that land to the Obama Foundation, ownership of the land and the three-building fi led by the foundations that operate the 13 ex- Stay tuned. v which will make a token onetime payment of center, and that the Obama Foundation will isting presidential libraries, and by Chicago’s $10 for its use for 99 years. merely be developing and operating it. The group of 11 Museums in the Park; both argue @DeannaIsaacs ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 7 NEWS & POLITICS
asked to sign an affidavit swearing he was withdrawing his signature of support for POLITICS Krupa’s nomination to the ballot. He’d never signed anything for Krupa to begin with. He couldn’t understand why Quinn would be Somebody worried about a 19-year-old opponent. “I’m not even for him or against him, but he has a right to run if he wants to,” Jim said, surmis- somebody sent ing that Quinn’s “scared because [Krupa’s] got somebody that’s backing him.” A er nearly three decades without Yet besides one from ultra-right-wing a choice for alderman, the 13th Ward state rep and former gubernatorial candi- contemplates a non-machine option. date Jeanne Ives, Krupa hasn’t attracted By M D any high-profile endorsements. He’s only got about $5,500 to campaign, state election board records show. Quinn, meanwhile, has long worked for Madigan’s political organi- Yard signs for the incumbent, as far as the eye can see. MAYA DUKMASOVA zations in addition to being alderman. He was fi rst elected in 2011 after his predecessor, ither the residents of the 13th Ward was 17, but when he launched his aldermanic talk about the campaign as well as allega- Madigan ally Frank Olivo, abruptly retired, are inordinately passionate about run last summer he e-mailed to admit that tions that he had harassed and manipulated leaving Quinn alone on the ballot. Currently their current alderman, or they he’d lied and told me he was 18 because he’d a high school girlfriend, which surfaced last his war chest holds $100,000, but he’s got ac- don’t much care if he sticks his signs wanted to get in the newspaper. “I am going December. I also wanted to ask about the sta- cess to a constellation of Madigan campaign in their yards. Last week I drove to be seeking a run for public o ce soon and tus of the Cook County state’s attorney and funds that total more than $14 million. Per- Ethrough the far southwest-side ward that this article may hinder my chances of success U.S. attorney’s investigations into alleged haps Jim was right to be surprised that a guy covers much of Clearing and some of Garfi eld for various reasons,” he wrote, “So, I’m ask- fraud committed by the Quinn campaign as described as “Madigan’s muscle” and “the Ridge, hugs the south end of Midway Airport, ing that you would please take it down or edit it tried to knock Krupa o the ballot. Though General,” who’s worked some of the most and flares into West Lawn and West Elsdon me out of it.” Krupa had fi led 1,703 nominating petition sig- successful political campaigns in recent Il- like a jagged spur. As I crisscrossed its bunga- Our responsibilities as a newsroom do not natures with the board of elections, Quinn’s linois history (from Lisa Madigan’s 1998 run low-lined streets, neat rows of signs sprang allow for such concessions, but we did sit campaign submitted 2,796 sworn affidavits for state senate to Juliana Stratton’s 2016 run from tiny front yards, aligned with military down for an interview with Krupa on Election from 13th Ward residents revoking their sig- for state rep), would spend so much time and precision as far as the eye could see. Every last Day last November. He’d told me in 2016 that natures for Krupa—and only 187 of the names energy fi ghting a challenge from a neophyte. one happily proclaimed, “Marty Quinn!” he was a “day one” Trump supporter and that overlapped, Krupa’s lawyer had found. Fol- Yet although he was nearly suborned into From the level of inundation you’d think he hoped the candidate would usher in tough- lowing these revelations, Quinn’s campaign perjury by Quinn’s allies, Jim said he’d prob- there was no other candidate. But perhaps on-crime measures to stem “inner-city” withdrew its objection to Krupa being on the ably still vote for the incumbent—if he voted. it’s precisely because there is one that Quinn, violence, but Krupa now said he’d been drawn ballot. The board referred the matter to pros- “I should vote but somehow I don’t,” he said a two-term incumbent, is making sure his to Trump only for his “antiestablishment” ecutors for criminal investigation. apologetically. name is everywhere. For the fi rst time since persona. “I didn’t really subscribe to Trump’s Alas, Krupa didn’t respond to the Reader’s Elsewhere in the ward, S. Smith, a white, 1991, the 13th Ward—whose Democratic com- ideology as much as I subscribe to the fact calls this time, nor to knocks on his campaign 47-year-old mother of two who usually votes mittee is chaired by the state’s all-powerful that he was an outsider trying to break the office door. But a few doors down, at an Al- Republican, said she was approached by house speaker, Michael J. Madigan—has a current political machine.” He added that his coholics Anonymous meeting hall, several Quinn’s precinct workers multiple times in contested election. It’s a year when Quinn, political views are more in line with Libertar- people were game for conversation. one weekend to sign an a davit revoking her seen by many as Madigan’s right-hand man, ian gubernatorial candidate Kash Jackson, signature supporting Krupa’s nomination for could face unusual challenges. When his for- though he ran as an independent in the ward im, 63, didn’t want to give his last name, the ballot. She said she refused and took their mer protege Alaina Hampton came forward because he felt he’d have the best chance to but offered me a cup of coffee and said persistence as a sign of Quinn’s inability to last year to reveal Quinn’s brother Kevin (also make the ballot that way. He was confident Jhe’d moved to the ward about fi ve years listen. a top aide to Madigan) had sexually harassed of his ability to garner support in the Latinx ago. He said he’s generally happy with ward Smith said she likes Krupa because “he her through texts, the alderman caught heat community that has grown in the eastern services and doesn’t have any gripes with presents himself that he really cares about for his handling of the situation. Quinn’s part of the ward. Quinn. He didn’t give it much thought when the neighborhood,” and views his lack of ex- opponent is 19-year-old DePaul freshman Krupa had interned in Quinn’s ward o ce a precinct captain knocked on his door last perience in politics as a good thing. She has David Krupa, and a handful of houses in the in the summer of 2015. With a note of indig- November and asked him to sign something one of his signs on her front lawn, as do six ward have even dared to break the monotony nation, he said that he “learned a lot of legal against Krupa. But it gave him pause when the other houses on her block. Sixteen homes had of Quinn’s white-and-blue signs with Krupa’s loopholes” there, like the age-old machine captain came back with a notary and asked Quinn signs, but Smith said that doesn’t say bright orange ones. tactic of emblazoning informational flyers him to sign a second time. much about her neighbors’ views. “I believe Back on Election Day 2016, Krupa was en- and signs about ward services with incum- “I said, you know what, if you want him o Marty Quinn’s people put them in the yards ergetically waving a Trump fl ag in front of a bents’ names to campaign in the o -season. the ballot that bad . . . I think I’ll just pass.” without asking people, because they’ve done polling place on 63rd Street. At the time he I hoped to catch up with him last week to Jim said he didn’t know that he was being that to me in the past.” 8 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll NEWS & POLITICS
body forward at a 45-degree angle and rested around the ward to show off his good heavily on his elbows, gesticulating with his works—the public schools he’s helped open hands—but not too much. The posture was at and sports fields he’s helped fund, and a once domineering and nonchalant. He vacil- busy stretch of Cicero Avenue where he lated between an unfocused stare at the back pointed out new outposts for Taco Bell, wall and piercing, direct eye contact. Panda Express, Lou Malnati’s, McDonald’s, Quinn’s father was superintendent of the and Dunkin’ Donuts. “My phone rings o the old 15th Ward, and Marty, the oldest of fi ve, hook about this corridor, when I couldn’t get grew up watching his old man handling someone to return a call when I fi rst started precinct captain duties too. “Everyone knew eight years ago,” he said proudly. him, everyone called him,” Quinn recalled. “I Attempts at friendly conversation were can remember my father during snowstorms met with reactions from Quinn that made it being out and making sure the streets were seem as if he had never heard of conversation cleaned. . . . Election Day was always excit- before. I noted the proliferation of his yard ing.” The family moved to the 13th Ward signs; they seemed to dominate every block David Krupa MAYA DUKMASOVA when Quinn was nine, but he traces his own in the ward. “Eight hundred and fifty-six genesis as a political operative to Lisa Madi- total blocks,” Quinn noted about the size of gan’s 1998 run for state senate. He said he his ward, but wouldn’t engage further on the Her biggest concern is rising crime, which a ten-day jail sentence. She thought she’d be didn’t know her father before that, and had topic. I broke an awkward silence by asking she attributed to the increase in renters and able to tough it out, but three days in she said been a 22-year-old press-office worker for what his ten-year-old self would have thought lower-income people with Section 8 vouchers she called a friend and asked them to “‘get then-sheri Michael Sheahan when he signed upon seeing his name on nearly every lawn in moving into the area. “It can bring a lower ahold of Marty Quinn. I don’t care what I have up to to volunteer for her campaign. “It was the ward. The spokeswoman chuckled in the level of . . . , ” she paused to think, “economics to do, just get me out of here!’ And he had me an amazing experience,” he said. back seat. “I don’t know,” Quinn said. to our area. And I don’t want to sound horri- out 12 hours later. Time served, out the door.” He’d played baseball in college and felt a I tried a more direct approach: Is it a bur- ble, but that brings in crime.” “void” after leaving competitive athletics. den that everyone sees him as an extension of As she unloaded large packages of snack- hen I fi nally met Quinn, 44, he said he “Campaigning sort of fi lled that—the cama- Madigan? size chips and cases of sports drinks from had no recollection of Donaldson. He raderie and the common goal.” “No, I’ve never viewed it as a burden,” he her minivan, grousing at her kids to do their Walso assured me his sta doesn’t put Quinn was careful to underscore that he said, before shifting attention back to the homework, Smith described herself as an up lawn signs without permission. He pivoted views his life’s work primarily as being a ward. “I’ve always viewed my public title, the involved citizen of the ward. She said she’d away from the affidavit question and spoke servant of the 13th Ward residents. When alderman’s title, as the community’s title. We never seen or met Quinn but has the impres- of his suspicions about Krupa. “How does a asked to describe the community, which is really bend over backwards with our constit- sion that he doesn’t care even about basic self-described day-one Donald Trump sup- heavily populated by city workers and has uents to help out and be responsive.” problems, like street maintenance. porter get 1,700 signatures in the 13th Ward shifted from predominantly white to increas- If Quinn is having any fun with his cam- “I drive down my nonsnowplowed street, without being disingenuous?” ingly Latinx in recent years, he used the word paign, you’d never know. He doesn’t cut a through the potholes, and think, ‘hmmm, He isn’t afraid of the kid, he said. In fact, “close-knit,” adding that “it’s a community remarkable presence. He’s neither heavy nor what is he doing for me?,’ and it doesn’t seem he doesn’t have “a lot of opinions about him.” that looks out for each other. It’s a communi- thin, neither particularly good-looking nor to be much,” she said of Quinn. “I think he’s a He’s focused on his constituents “and where ty that works with the police and prides itself especially unattractive. The closest thing lot of talk.” my vision is,” he asserted. Where might that on the relationship we have with the police. he has to a catchphrase is the word “piece,” A couple miles away I got the opposite ap- be? To improve local schools and bring new Yeah—” he stopped abruptly. I asked if there which he uses to refer to everything from praisal of the alderman from a longtime serv- businesses to the ward. was anything else. “No, I think I covered it.” buildings to memories to aspects of his job. er at the cozy Top View Restaurant. Chandra “I do have my own gra ti blaster,” he said, Quinn said he doesn’t see any difference He drives a spotless gray Buick Regal and lis- Donaldson, 43, gushed about how happy she explaining he bought it with his aldermanic between the needs or priorities of white and tens to sports talk on 670 AM. He’s not a ham. was to live in a collar county and said she has expense account usually reserved for office Latinx ward residents, but that he’d hired If he’s got a sense of humor, it’s not brought to keep her fi erce Republican proclivities to supplies. “Yesterday alone we blasted 11 dif- four bilingual employees. He said he keeps out for reporters to see. herself when she’s back in Chicago. She had ferent spots down 63rd Street. I subscribe to spreadsheets tracking every contact with Maybe that’s what the 13th Ward likes no love for Madigan but, she said, she’d still the broken window theory, and removing the the community, and estimated he’s had some about its current alderman—a quiet, worker- vote for Quinn if she could. He’s a “nice guy,” gra ti is very, very important.” 6,000 conversations with residents since bee type who’ll clean off their graffiti and she said repeatedly, and noted that he gets a Our interview took place at a long wood 2015. “It’s about ten conversations an hour,” make sure their kids have good schools and gra ti blaster out in no time whenever the table in an empty meeting room on the second he added helpfully. athletic facilities. Or maybe entrenched diner is tagged. As she shuttled between floor of the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian He said his constituents haven’t given him power just likes to keep a low profile. But tables with plates of pancakes and eggs, Don- Culture, which is also home to his ward o ce any grief about his near-perfect record of there’s a chance—slim, if you measure by aldson also told me a story as old as Chicago and the 13th Ward Democratic Organization, voting with the mayor or his handling of the yard signs alone—that residents will seize politics. chaired by Madigan. The decor of the space Alaina Hampton sexual harassment scandal. their fi rst opportunity to bring in new blood Donaldson said she’d gotten a DUI back in sits somewhere on the spectrum between Their main concerns, like his, are education, in 27 years, and the face of authority in the the 90s and never completed her community Dracula’s castle and Eastern bloc banquet hall. economic development, and giving the kids 13th Ward will be that of a 19-year-old one- service. Then, about 15 years ago, a vengeful Quinn was wearing gray chinos and a blue stu to do after school, he said. time Trump supporter. v ex-boyfriend reported her to the authorities gingham Vineyard Vines shirt. As he talked After the interview Quinn, with his for it and she was called into court and given in an even, deliberative tone, he leaned his spokeswoman in tow, led a driving tour @mdoukmas ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 9 #TVKUV9TKVGT 2GTHQTOGT! NEWS & POLITICS %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 %4'#6+8' 2'12.' 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN things like the excitement that they felt to MAYORAL Q&A have [in Harold Washington] a mayor that felt &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF like he was of, with, and for the people. Where *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU Amara Enyia they felt that they were heard, they felt that
ROTIMI KEHINDE he was responsive, that he actually liked the /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 city and enjoyed what it meant to represent .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP IN EARLY DECEMBER, Ben Joravsky Do you agree with me that this is a prevail- people. And the fact that, 35 years later, that interviewed mayoral candidate Amara ing attitude and, if so, what can you do to is still the reference point, to me speaks so Enyia. She has a PhD in educational poli- combat that? much to what the city has become since that YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO cy and a law degree from the University of Well, it’s about showing that we actually have time. OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and at only a shared interest in the city doing well across NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT 35, she’s perhaps one of the better-known the board. Right now the city is so polarized One of the ongoing mistakes of the past KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT mayoral candidates in Chicago thanks to and you would be led to believe by the pop- that perpetuates things is throwing money her endorsement by Chance the Rapper. ular narrative that to advance one part of the at gentrifying neighborhoods with TIF deals, This interview has been condensed and city means to destroy another part. And that the big one right now being the $800 million edited for length and clarity. is a false narrative. It’s a false dichotomy. Lincoln Yards deal. Are you opposed to that? We actually have to show that we can- I think the Lincoln Yards project is being JORAVSKY Amara, you’re younger than not be as truly great as a city as we could rushed through—I think the mayor is bypass- most of the other candidates. You’ve never be unless all parts of the city are doing well. ing a process because perhaps he wants this served in elected office. So address that When you’re locating in Chicago, you want to be a part of his legacy. I think it’s emblem- issue—assure the people of Chicago that your employees to work in safe neighbor- atic of the disparity in investment in the city. garbage will be collected, trains will run, and hoods and live in safe neighborhoods. So This project stands to get hundreds of mil- police will patrol the streets, if Amara Enyia when you hear about the shootings that are lions of public tax dollars, but again neighbor- is mayor. happening downtown, that’s sending a mes- hoods are le behind. So the same neighbor- ENYIA Well, a lot of times the focus is on the sage to the large corporations that the city is hoods that are supposed to benefi t from TIF number of years of experience, and I always have trying to attract as to whether this is a good dollars do not get access to those TIF dollars, to remind people that the current circumstances investment. but these large-scale developers who other- that we’re living under, the complaints that people wise would be just fine even without public have, the issues and problems that they see, is In late November FBI agents invaded the dollars are getting access to the public dol- the result of the current crop of leadership, going offi ce of 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke, one lars. These are just problems that have been back decades. So if you’re satisfi ed with the way of the most powerful men on City Council. long-standing that have not been addressed Find hundreds things are, then that political experience is what They raided his office, and five days later by the city, and the Lincoln Yards project of Reader- created those conditions. The reality is that far Burke had a fund-raiser. About a thousand that’s now being rushed through is only the too many Chicagoans are not satisfi ed. people showed up, paying $150 to kiss the latest example. recommended I’ve managed nonprofi t organizations. I’ve man’s ring. What’s your reaction when you restaurants, worked in the business sector, I’ve worked in see that? In late 2017, Chance the Rapper showed the manufacturing sector, I’ve worked in edu- Well, I was not at the fund-raiser [laughs]— up to oppose a TIF expenditure to build exclusive video cation, housing, have managed large-scale let’s be clear about that. When you have con- the police academy on the near west side. economic development projects. I’m also an solidated power for so long, when you have Despite his pleas, the vote went 47-2 for the features, and sign organizer, so you will be hard-pressed to fi nd stature that creates this sense of invincibility, police academy. Will you show up, with or up for weekly news any candidate who has both the breadth of that’s where corruption is allowed to thrive, without Chance, at the City Council hearing experience, the understanding across poli- that’s where backroom deals are allowed to when the aldermen are trying to sneak this chicagoreader.com/ cy areas, but who also is so deeply connect- thrive, and that’s where you see these kinds Lincoln Yards vote through before Mayor ed to the everyday lives of Chicagoans. That’s of individuals that actually do a disservice to Rahm gets out of office, to say, “no way, food. the kind of experience that Chicagoans want. the city. don’t vote for this”? They don’t want the status quo, they don’t I was at the City Council meeting where want more of the same disconnected individu- I’m old enough to remember Ed Burke’s Chance was standing with organizers who als who are politicians but have no connection role in the 80s Council Wars, how he led have been talking about this. No Cop Acade- to the experience of everyday Chicagoans. the white aldermen against Harold Wash- my is sort of the movement that has formed to ington in a Trump-like, nationalist uprising. I talk about why we do so much investment in There’s a segment of the city that gets very cannot forgive him until he at least publicly police infrastructure, but the investment that cautious when it comes to a mayoral elec- addresses the role he played. When you go actually builds strong individuals and commu- tion—they fear if a person who comes into out on the campaign trail, do you hear other nities—it’s almost nonexistent. please recycle offi ce is an outsider, who’s not enshrined by old-timers like me talk about these things? this paper corporate Chicago, things will fall apart. I I do. So it’s interesting, because I hear the fact So I’m presuming you’ll show up again to think it’s because people have this notion of that the infl ection point for the city of Chica- oppose Lincoln Yards? the mayor as this all-powerful human being. go is 35 years ago. I hear them talking about Of course. v 10 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ANYA DAVIDSON
continued on 12 ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 11 continued from 11 ANYA DAVIDSON
12 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Black exodus Is Chicago’s legacy of segregation causing a reverse Great Migration? By P S
he Loop and lakefront show all the signs of a city that’s booming. Yet Chicago, and more broadly the midwest, is the epicenter of a little-understood reverse Great TMigration. Chicago lost population for the third year in a row, according to the U.S. Census’s annual American Community Survey, released last spring. Among the nation’s ten largest cities, only four (Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, and San Jose) are shedding black residents. Between 2010 and 2017, Chicago did so at four to ten times the rate of the other three. This is unprecedented for any major American city over the last hundred years. Following the social unrest and suburban growth of the 1960s and ’70s, nearly all major American cities witnessed huge population losses. Chicago topped out at 3.6 million res- idents in 1950, and then went on a slide over the next 40 years to just under 2.8 million in 1990. It ticked upward slightly in 2000 for the fi rst show of growth in half a century but has remained pretty fl at ever since. A policy paper released last year by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) noted some of the usual suspects behind the trend—an aging population, de- clining birth rates, delayed marriages, and stagnant immigration. Chicago’s not gaining large numbers of domestic immigrants like the Sunbelt cities of the south and southwest, or continuing to gain international immigrants like the major coastal cities. That’s partly true. Economists and policy wonks also say Chi- cago’s economy isn’t as strong or dynamic as New York’s or those of the Bay Area or metro- politan D.C. They also cite Chicago’s high taxes as a factor in pushing some residents out. And they’d be partly right. But the fact remains that big coastal cities have taxes that are every bit as high, even higher, than those we have
SIMONE MARTINNEWBERRY here in Chicago. J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 13 continued from 13 a manufacturing-dominant economy to a closures, crime, and policing. What we’re and makes “displacement by decline” the de Neither narrative tells the whole story. The service- or tech-based one creates new win- seeing is a reverse migration to southern areas facto policy. answers may be in the data at the race and eth- ners and losers—and that we’re shedding of the country.” The hallmark of Chicago (and rust-belt) nicity level. After a big drop in the fi rst half of those who are unable to contribute in the new That’s right—black Chicagoans aren’t segregation has been black avoidance. Since the last decade, the number of white residents economic environment. Also partly true, but fl ocking to the suburbs so much as leaving the the Great Migration the practice has been to in Chicago has grown 9 percent since 2005. pretty Darwinistic. region altogether. The number of blacks in the explicitly or implicitly contain blacks within Latino growth has slowed signifi cantly, but it’s There’s also the “crime and schools” the- metro area but outside of Chicago has been certain areas. But as metro areas got bigger, still up about 5 percent since 2000. Chicago’s ory. Chicago’s violent crime rate has been a relatively stagnant since 2000, an indication transportation more of a challenge, and city Asian population has boomed, growing by 44 national story for some years now, and while that people are leaving. The cities gaining living more desirable, new attention was given percent since 2000. crime is down significantly from the “crack at Chicago’s expense? Sunbelt hot spots like to long-forgotten places. Here in Chicago But Chicago’s black population, the city’s era” 90s, it hasn’t fallen as much as it has in Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston. The draw is that started with former white ethnic areas largest demographic in 2000, has dropped other major cities. The closure of more than 50 the perception of greater opportunity, and (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, etc). Within the by 24 percent through 2017, going from more schools in 2013, mostly in black communities perhaps the chance to restore old southern last ten to 20 years that expanded to include than one million in 2000 to just under 800,000 on the south and west sides, meant the loss of networks with family and friends who stuck largely Latino areas (Logan Square, Humboldt in 2017. The number of whites in Chicago sur- key local anchor institutions. Without a doubt around. Park, Pilsen). But for the most part the pattern passed blacks in 2017, and Latinos will almost there are many blacks who feel they are being That’s why I come down to Chicago’s legacy of black avoidance remains. certainly pass blacks by the time of the 2020 pushed out of Chicago by its crime challenges, of segregation as the biggest driver of this In places with stronger economies, like census. and that the school closures were an indica- pattern. New York and Washington, D.C., there’s been Chicago’s population would be increasing tion of a lack of investment in critical local Segregation has created a lack of economic more direct engagement—even conflict— if not for the black exodus. How can it be institutions. mobility. I’d argue that Chicago is economical- between white newcomers and longtime explained? Chicago demographer and public policy ly stratifi ed to the extent that upward mobility black residents in many communities. Spike Well, there’s the lack-of-a-dynamic- consultant Rob Paral said as much in an for blacks here is particularly difficult. The Lee famously ranted about gentrification economy theory and the slowed -immigration interview with real estate news website CMAP report noted that the unemployment arriving in black neighborhoods in Brooklyn theory, already noted. And there’s the bisnow.com last spring. Discussing the rate for blacks in Chicagoland stubbornly five years ago, and the area surrounding rust-belt-restructuring theory, which city’s population loss, he said, “Blacks are stays at more than twice the region’s rate, D.C.’s historically black Howard University suggests1.16.19 CWTA that QuarterChicago’s Page transition Reader Ad fromFINAL.qxp_Layout concerned 1 about 1/16/19 policy 4:38 PMissues Page like 1 school and that more than 60 percent of blacks who has witnessed significant change in the last left the region were without a local job when decade. But the rust-belt pattern is one of they did so. Networks are hard to penetrate. indirect conflict. Places collapse, then new The power structure is rigid. There’s also a groups come in. lack of residential mobility. Chicago and its Strangely, Detroit might be one of the best They’d like to be suburbs are more open to people of color than examples of “displacement by decline” in ac- ever before, but blacks here are acutely aware tion. The Motor City has been at the absolute your next mayor. that people still attach stigmas to places we forefront of urban stigmatization. But Detroit But where do they move to. This has the impact of stagnating is now in the midst of a major transformation stand on the issues or lowering property values and rents where precisely in the areas that were once aban- blacks move in large numbers, often wiping doned and left for ruin. Downtown Detroit that matter most to whole chunks of the region from the minds of has been transformed; surrounding neigh- Chicago women? many. The south side and south and southwest borhoods are undergoing a renaissance. What burbs don’t even occur to many whites seeking was once the disgraced Cass Corridor is now a ordable options. upscale and hip Midtown. Join us & find out. The “crime and schools” theory is related For both Detroit and Chicago it appears to an even broader concept—displacement the near future will bring the continued loss by decline. A lack of investment in parts of of black residents and continued gains in February 2 • 1-4pm the city leads to institutional destabiliza- whites, Latinos, and Asians. Both cities, and Chicago Temple, 77 W Washington tion, and ultimately abandonment. When others like them in the rust belt, will become the time is right—values are at their lowest, more diverse and, at the same time, less or the social stigma is lost—revitalization black. Population loss will become popula- FREE but MUST Register at can take place under a new regime. Some tion gain again. black Chicagoans point to the transforma- By the middle of this century we could be Tinyurl.com/CWTAMayoralForum tion of the South Loop and near south side, talking about the incredible transformation which lost nearly half of their (mostly black) of former rust-belt cities. But the blacks who residents between 1950 and 1990, but have contributed mightily to their growth in the since tripled in population via a high-rise 20th century might not be able to share in the Brought to you by condo-tower boom. The South Loop and new prosperity. Which leads to the question: near south side are more diverse than ever, Are blacks moving to new spaces with greater Chicago Women Take Action Alliance as whites, Latinos, Asians, and others inhabit opportunity, or moving away from their next 50+ Organizations Advocating for Women’s Issues areas previously unexplored. This is why the best shot at it? v discussion of black population loss in Chica- go ends with ba ement and befuddlement— @petesaunders3 14 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll D D R diasporadinners.com instagram.com/diasporadinners FOOD & DRINK
Stuff ed cabbage MELISSABLACKMON
FOOD FEATURE
Diaspora Dinners Eggplant salad MELISSA BLACKMON explores a world of Maysick is the grandson of two Swedish- school teacher. In 2015 he returned to Chicago American Christian pastors from Grand Rap- to reunite with his girlfriend (now his wife) ids. His grandmother was born at Swedish and launched a wholesale doughnut business, Jewish food from Covenant Hospital, in North Park, and for col- eventually headquartering at Bridgeport lege he moved to the neighborhood to attend Co ee’s Beverly outpost. If you track his Insta- North Park University (founded and guided gram over the years, blueberry-pomegranate a tiny kitchen by the Evangelical Covenant Church). Now he and potato chip-chocolate glazed give way to lives in neighboring Albany Park, originally black-and-white cookies and za’atar-dusted settled by Swedish immigrants, who were pretzels. By fall 2017 he was burnt out on mak- eventually succeeded by Russian Jews. ing doughnuts for people he’d never meet and Maysick isn’t Jewish, but for the past year he hung it up, taking a work-at-home job with or so he’s hosted meals and taught cooking his brother-in-law’s insurance brokerage. classes under the rubric Diaspora Dinners. Maysick’s wife, Rachel Ellison, is an artist It’s a pop-up series focused on the foods of who creates elaborate ritual Judaica such the Jewish diaspora—and sometimes creative as ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract, interpretations of them. He’s served Sichuan and gematria, Kabbalistic interpretations of peppercorn brisket for Jewish Christmas; proper names or words. Maysick, who consid- fried chicken with pastrami baked beans ers himself an agnostic, says that in the year and challah Texas toast for a celebration of leading up to their marriage, “I felt some pres- southern American Jewish food; and eggplant sures to convert. There’s just an expectation schnitzel with za’atar, pickled mango, and that one person converts. But it just felt like it tahini for a series of vegan Middle Eastern would cheapen the whole thing to convert as dinners. wedding prep.” “We would have never ever gotten there But he did come to see food as a secular without the rules,” he says of the last dish, gateway to understanding the Jewish culture an animal-free nod to the ever-present veal he’d embraced. In November 2017, inspired The pop-up series traverses Europe through the schnitzels he encountered on a trip to Israel by Ellison’s family tradition of Chinese and a Middle East to the American south and beyond. the previous year. “Trying to work around movie on Christmas, he applied for funding restrictions is the birth of creativity.” The from One Table, a not-for-profi t organization By M S kosher dietary restrictions are partially what that provides support for young adults to host appeals to him about the global adaptability of Shabbat dinners. He teamed up with his friend nce a month Dylan Maysick cooks Shabbat dinner for 90. This Sunday he’ll be teaching Jewish food. And yet, “I didn’t grow up eating Chris Reed, who runs the Indonesian-Cajun a Montreal bagel class in an Albany Park shared kitchen. Last Friday he hosted a dinner much ethnic food.” catering company the Rice Table, and togeth- party for ten featuring, in part, blintzes, stu ed cabbage rolls, and poppy-seed chal- Maysick’s first exercise working within a er they planned their fi rst Jewish Christmas lah—a menu inspired by the pioneering Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook (1938) by Fania Le- strict culinary framework was making vegan dinner, held after hours at Steingold’s and wanda, who ran a kosher vegetarian restaurant and cooking school in Lithuania before and gluten-free doughnuts he sold at a Brook- featuring scallion-pancake challah (the recipe Oshe was murdered in the Holocaust. lyn farmers’ market after a stint as a public is from suburban Glenview native and J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 15 Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your FOOD & DRINK own review—at chicagoreader.com/food. A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 By Lucas Hnath Directed by Robin Witt
Dylan Maysick and Chris Reed prep for a Diaspora Dinners pop-up. MELISSABLACKMON
continued from 15 cookbook author Molly Yeh), orange chicken with tahini noodles, and hot-and-sour matzo ball soup. A few months later they followed up with the Jewish South, informed in part by Marcie Cohen Ferris’s Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, which details how southern Jews adapted to a cuisine heavy on trayf like pork and shellfish. Along with the chicken and beans, he made sweet potato challah and matzo ball soup with brisket broth and Cajun spices. Vegan Middle Eastern dinners followed, along with cooking classes and occasional pickup pastry boxes featuring black-and-white cookies, pomegranate-glazed challah rolls, and fi g-cardamom rugelach. It’s a team e ort. Ellison often designs and prints accompanying cookbooks featuring the recipes, and says the kiddush and the motzi, the blessing over the bread and “wine” (at the southern dinners it was bourbon and Coke, at the vegan dinners Manischewitz spritzers). Kolacky with raspberry jam MELISSA BLACKMON Reed contributes restraint. “He has a sense HAIR ACCE LC SS of what is a reasonable amount of creativity A slammed door. EE IB WO L H EN L E and then what gets into a Fierian space,” says W P F P F Maysick. “Sometimes we’re trying to create An awkward favor. E IR T S something that once was, and sometimes it’s myself and explore my understanding of Jew- S T Not your average sequel. ! the ingredients we’re excited about.” ish culture and Jewishness through all these A ONSTAGE SEATING Maysick offers something or other about other things around it. It feels like I have skin once a month, though Ellison is expected to in the game. I never converted, but this is a ONLY $30 give birth to their daughter in early March Jewish home. We’re going to raise Jewish kids. MAJOR PRODUCTION SPONSOR and he’s planning to take a month or so off I’m looking to the past to understand what for a paternity break. Meantime, he’s plotting Jewishness is. How does that work if I don’t 312-335-1650 a Syrian-Jewish dinner for late April or May, even know if I really believe in God? I grapple which he’ll announce on his Instagram. with all these things, and food is a way to do steppenwolf.org “I’m not hesitant to, in the most respectful that.” v way, try to cook food that’s not my narrative,” he says. “I’m trying to construct meaning for @MikeSula 16 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll R READER RECOMMENDED b ALL AGES F ARTS & CULTURE
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He built six bad it didn’t take the championship though, 20% OFF purple-velvet Mad Hatter suit and top hat— of the eight robots that went at it that night, considering one of the grand prizes was a $30 ENTIRE PURCHASE OF NON-SALE, IN-STOCK ITEMS ONLY. IN STORE ONLY. VALID ON EVERYDAY LOW PRICE. crammed into Emporium Arcade Bar in Wick- handing them out to random people in the gift card to Stan’s Donuts. That honor went to er Park to witness the return of Robot Riot, small 20-person crowd. He describes the Nature Bot, built by Carlos Garcia and piloted VALID 1/24/19 – 2/17/19 Coupon must be surrendered at time of purchase; no copies may be used. One an event that its organizers describe as “the genesis of Robot Riot as a way to combine his by Ken “Filipino Flair” Seli, a team-up that coupon per day. Not valid on previous purchases or with any other discounts, sales, or promotions, including yellow-labeled items. 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The rules are pretty simple: robot build- Chicago’s “weird underground-events scene,” Now that Choy, Piro, and Robot Riot are back Coupons not valid on select product from the following categories and brands: 1-Shot Enamels, 3-D Printers and Inks, Akua Pin Press, Aluminum Screens, Arches Watercolor ers bring in their homemade creations, citing the Windy City Rollers and the Chicago in Chicago, they’re looking to move things to Rolls and Blocks, Artograph, ArtResin, Badger, Blick French Easel by Jullian, Blick Squeegees, Canson Infinity Papers, Color-aid, Copic Markers and Sets, Createx Paints, remote-controlled battle bots that are small Lady League of Arm Wrestlers as inspirations. another level. “I like the dirty-basement punk Daylight, Eclipse Airbrushes and Accessories, Edward Lyons, Envirotex Lite, Futura Craft Station, Daler-Rowney FW Acrylic Ink Sets, Gel Printing Plates, Grex, Inkpress, Itoya, Iwata, Krink, Lazertran, Liquitex Sprays and Markers, Logan, Moab, Crayola enough to duke it out on a tabletop. The ro- Choy also says that he started Robot Riot be- rock aesthetic we got going on, but I want Model Magic, Molotow, Montana Sprays and Markers, MTN 94, Caran d’Ache Neocolor Drawing Materials, Old Holland Oil Colors, Paasche, PanPastel sets, R&F Pigments and bots engage in one-on-one fi sticu s, a sort of cause he “needed something cathartic to deal to see how big and loud we can make this Encaustics, Roma Plastilina, select clays, select canvas rolls and blankets, select Caran d’Ache sets, select CarbOthello sets, select Chartpak sets, select Conté Sets, select “robot sumo” where the object is to knock an with the baggage in my life.” It doesn’t get show,” says Choy. “I want to get the complete Cretacolor sets, select Derwent sets, select Dr. Ph. Martin’s sets, select Faber-Castell sets, select Holbein sets, select Koh-I-Noor sets, select Itoya books, select Liquitex opponent o the table or render it immobile. much more cathartic than crushing beers and Wrestlemania vibe at some point—smoke ma- sets, select NuPastel sets, select Faber-Castell Pitt sets, select Prismacolor sets, select scale models, select Sennelier sets, select Sharpie sets, Sensu Brushes, Silhouette, Smooth-On, Strathmore Artist Inkjet Papers, Caran d’Ache Supracolor Pencils and Sets, If the one-minute round doesn’t produce a watching miniature robots smash the snot out chines, lasers, intro music, the works.” Ulano, Union Ink, Utrecht Designers Gouache Sets, and Wacom. clear winner, one is chosen by the volume of of each other. For as rowdy and over-the-top as the energy For a complete list of exclusions, the crowd’s cheers, though with the shocking There was a lot of ingenuity on display on of Robot Riot is, Choy sees it as an educational visit bit.ly/blickexclusions amounts of beer being consumed by everyone the battle table at Emporium. Robots used community event. “I want to make sure that we in the room, it was hard to keep track of who wedges, nets, hammers, and glitter cannons to create an inclusive environment and continue the cheers were for. incapacitate their foes. But no fi ghter used ad- to draw in amateurs who want to build robots It was the first Robot Riot in Chicago in vanced technology quite like Cheat Day, a tow- but never have before,” he says. “I want every- *AO23596* about a year, so excitement was especially er-shaped bot topped with a doughnut. Cheat one in the crowd to think, ‘I can do this too.’ high. The event’s organizers, Adrian Choy and Day’s movements weren’t steered by a remote Most of our competitors don’t have any expe- Joe Piro, had spent the bulk of 2018 traveling control like his competitors, but by wires at- rience coding or soldering circuits, but we do with the Museum of Science and Industry’s tached to a pint of beer and a doughnut held what we can to hook up would-be fi ghters with hands-on Robot Revolution exhibit, spreading by its creator. When the snacks reached the resources so that they can turn their drunken their robotic obsessions with kids all over the operator’s mouth, Cheat Day would move. bar-napkin doodles into combat robots.” v country. Now the two are stationed in Chicago The problem was that all the beer in the CONNECT WITH US ONLINE! again and ready to make Robot Riot a regular pint was gone before the round’s 60 seconds @LucaCimarusti ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 17 A I M E ? Wed /, PM, Women & Children First, N. Clark, --, ARTS & CULTURE renegadeadacheng.com. F
Cheng (third from right) and fellow storytellers at Volumes Bookcafe ANTWAN MCHENRY BELMER
LIT
inist bookstore. What she does worry about is Am I Man how those who are present might be triggered by some of the stories. Exploring male toxicity inherently brings up stories of sexual assault, Enough? rape, physical abuse, and other distressing ex- periences. “Telling traumatic stories is part of Ada Cheng’s live-lit performance healing,” Cheng says, “but I also know story- series wants to know. telling can injure you again.” She is exploring ways she can provide support for storytellers By B W and audience members as the series contin- ues, like having counselors on hand at events. Despite the proliferation of spaces exclu- sively for female-identifying and nonbinary n November 2017, shortly after the start until January 2016, when she resigned in order The theme of the fi rst show she produced was performers in recent years, Cheng doesn’t of the #MeToo movement, Ada Cheng to pursue a career in theater and performance “toxic masculinity.” The room that night was shy away from inviting men onto the show. An took over the storytelling show Pour with a focus on telling stories related to gen- packed, and Cheng was overwhelmed by the important part of dismantling the dangers of One Out at Volumes Bookcafe in Wicker der and race. When she started producing Pour support. Participants had a palpable need to the culture surrounding toxic masculinity is Park. Cheng was a tenured professor of One Out, she was exploring how to critically share their stories, listen to others, and learn involving everyone in the conversation, and Isociology at DePaul University for 15 years analyze gender roles outside of academia. more about how and why the culture got here. Cheng encourages men to refl ect on their own Cheng soon realized there was more than experiences. How did toxic masculinity a ect enough interest and material to base an entire how they were raised? What actions did they ongoing series around that theme. take to try to fit a societal mold? How have Am I Man Enough? is a live-lit show that they been complicit in perpetuating toxic asks storytellers to critically examine the behavior? e ects of toxic masculinity through personal Cheng considers not only all genders, but all SPARK Microgrant narratives. Cheng hosts the shows at di erent levels of performance experience for each line- venues across the city to reach as many au- up. “Oftentimes at storytelling shows you get diences as possible. The next performance is the same people over and over again,” Cheng on January 30 at Women & Children First; on says. “I want to hear people with good stories $2000 unrestricted microgrants for April 25 she’ll be collaborating with Center on to tell even if they aren’t good storytellers, Halsted for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. because those are two completely different Chicago-based contemporary artists When putting lineups together, Cheng avoids things. I have tellers who have never told be- giving performers a specific prompt and in- fore, and it really doesn’t matter to me.” Open to artists who identify as: stead offers guidelines for how to approach It’s important to Cheng to continue the con- • ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) whatever material they have chosen to share. versation inspired by Am I Man Enough? Just “While storytelling can be entertaining, it as important is thoughtfully planning each • An artist with acute financial need doesn’t have to be for entertainment,” Cheng show and giving storytellers plenty of time • An artist with a disability says. “The only thing I ask is that tellers are to prepare. While all of the performances so • A self-taught or non-formally trained artist honest, vulnerable, critical, and reflective. far have been on the north side, Cheng is now Tell a story that serves you. Tell the story in being more diligent about bringing the show a way that serves the nature of the story. You to different neighborhoods across the city. Application deadline: February 15, 2019 don’t need to cater your story to entertain One thing is for certain: there’s no shortage of audiences.” stories to tell. Cheng tries to make it very clear to her audi- “I think people, especially in this past year For more information, eligibility requirements, and ences what they’re getting into. She describes with our collective reckoning of toxic mas- the application see: the series as a critical look at “the culture culinity, we’re at a point where everyone is chicagoartistscoalition.org/spark-microgrant of toxic masculinity and the construction of wrestling with this issue,” Cheng says. “A lot masculinity and manhood.” That’s likely the of people want to tell their stories. I have a (312) 491-8888 x1004 reason, she says, that she hasn’t seen much tough time accommodating everyone. I wish I pushback—if you disagree with the idea that could capture all of them.” v This program is generously funded by the Joyce Foundation. masculinity can be harmful, you’re likely not going to show up to a reading series in a fem- @BriannaWellen 18 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll O P A A P R Mon /, : PM, Victory Gardens Theater, N. Lincoln, --, our-perspective.com , $. ARTS & CULTURE
Urora Adachi-Winter, Matthew C. Yee, and Richard Costes from 2018 Our Perspective readings MATTHEW HOLLIS
Rammelsberg gave her character a narra- tive that blends South Korean culture with elements of fantasy. “You know how Snoopy in the Peanuts cartoons was always typing that same sentence as the start of his novel, ‘It was a dark and stormy night’? Well, my dark and stormy night is this: ‘In a corner of the world stood a black box, and in the black box was . . . ’” Pigment She trails o and then continues, “I’ve had that sentence in my mind since I was a child. I was THEATER never able to fi nish it. Until this play.” Park directs Chicago playwright Preston Perfect Choi’s Yankee Princess, a 1960s-set story ! FIND YOUR TRUE COLORS AT OUR BRAND Cracking the ceiling about two North Korean teenagers coming of NEW PIGMENT WALL AT BLICK EVANSTON! age in the midwest in the wake of the Korean Our Perspective gives Asian Pacifi c American playwrights a war. “It spoke to me,” Park says. “My mom’s chance to tell their stories. entire family escaped from [North] Korea. SHOP OUR EVANSTON LOCATION Some escaped in the bottom of a rice boat. By C S 1755 MAPLE AVENUE 847-425-9100 Some walked chest high in the ocean, carry- @BLICK_EVANSTON ing their babies strapped to their backs. So yes, I have this direct emotional and spiritual ou don’t have to do more than sions and curated by Park and collaborators connection to this story and to the identity SHOP OUR OTHER CHICAGO AREA STORES cursory research to see that play- Stephen George, Sydney Mercado, Karissa struggles it gets into.” CHICAGO LOOP 42 S STATE STREET wrights of Asian descent aren’t Murrell Myers, and Friday Savathphoune. The other two plays in the series are both LINCOLN PARK 1574 N KINGSBURY particularly well represented in Iowan Zhen E Rammelsberg made the cut by Chicagoans: Following is a comedy about Chicago theaters. “I know stages with her submission, Black Box. Adopted from stalking and social media by Art Institute of SCHAUMBURG 500 E GOLF ROAD Yare getting more diverse. But I don’t think we South Korea in 1974 when she was two, Ram- Chicago librarian and Apollo Chorus singer WHEATON 79 DANADA SQUARE EAST can rest on our laurels,” says actor Mia Park, melsberg penned a quasi-autobiographical Alvin Dantes. Games, which follows the tra- a regular on Chicago Med and one of the cura- drama about a South Korean adoptee growing vails of a Korean-American teen determined tors of Our Perspective: Asian American Play up in a tiny, all-white midwestern town. “I was to break into improv, is by Chicago Dramatists Readings, a series of staged readings of four the only nonwhite person in an all-white com- resident playwright Susan H. Pak. short plays by Asian Pacifi c American (APA) munity, population about 700,” Rammelsberg The overarching goal of Our Perspective playwrights, all hailing from the midwest. says of her upbringing in Van Horne, Iowa. “It is to steer the plays toward full productions. The showcase at Victory Gardens Theater wasn’t like I was in the only Asian family. I was That hasn’t happened yet, but Park is undaunt- marks the start of the second year for Our the only Asian person, period.” ed. What she calls an “unseen glass ceiling” Perspective, produced by the AA Arts Incu- “People would always ask my mother between APA theater artists and the stage is bator Program of Asian Improv Arts Midwest whether she was going to tell me I was ad- slowly cracking, she says. “People in charge (AIRMW). Steppenwolf 1700 hosted last fall’s opted,” Rammelsberg says. “My mother was might not know that they’ve built or are Our Perspective; additional Our Perspective smart and funny—she’d say something like holding up that glass ceiling. All we can do is readings are planned for May 20 at Steppen- ‘I think she’ll figure that out on her own.’ I present opportunities and allow every insti- wolf and in September, date and venue TBD. (If learned to use humor as defl ection early. I was tution to smash their own ceilings to elevate you want to submit for the May 20 readings, adopted at a time when you assimilated. You everyone. Or at least crack the ceiling.” v the deadline is Friday, February 15.) The Jan- forgot you were from another culture. Parents uary plays were picked from about 30 submis- didn’t cultivate that other culture.” @CateySullivan CONNECT WITH US ONLINE! ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 19 C H H W R Through /: Sat : PM, Lifeline Theatre, N. Glenwood, ARTS & CULTURE --, lifelinetheatre.com , $.
ekki Lomnicki is a brilliant solo perform- the world as encountered by others on a daily er and the creator of Tellin’ Tales The- basis. What appears to an able-bodied person Tater, which has produced and fostered as an obstacle may be an assistive device; creative work by people with disabilities for what appears normal to others may prove an more than 20 years. Lomnicki has a disability obstacle to these storytellers. Lomnicki tells THEATER that a ects her height: she is a little person. a great story about the kind of gymnastics it She walks with a set of crutches and does her took to get milk out of the refrigerator in her storytelling act mostly from a folding chair. parents’ “1950’s John Birch bi-level home.” Through the When she’s seated, she stands the crutches up Lomnicki’s father was obsessed with modern against the chair’s frame; when it’s time to get furniture and could not abide the presence of up, she picks them up again. footstools, handrails, or accessible cabinets looking glass Lomnicki, who is joined here by three fellow in his exquisite Formica kitchen. He went in storytellers for Tellin’ Tales’ contribution to for that classic of midcentury design, a petal- Come Hell or High Water, Tekki the Fillet of Solo Festival at Lifeline Theatre, pink wall refrigerator, which hung above the Lomnicki, and Tellin’ Tales Theatre doesn’t ignore the subject of her disability. countertops by a bracket and presented, in could change the conversation She wants the world to appear to you, even the words of its slogan, “All foods at your eye about how we perceive disabilities. if it’s only for the hour run time of the show, level.” the way it appears to her and other individuals But the contents were not at eye level for By M M with physical challenges. She wants to alter Lomnicki. When she wanted a glass of milk as the conversation. a kid, she would have to climb onto the lami- The world as experienced by someone like nated counter, grab the milk carton with one Lomnicki—or by Di Reed, who suffers from hand while balancing herself against the sink macular degeneration, or by Linda Bannon, with the other, and then slide her way down to who was born without arms—in each case the fl oor without spilling. What her dad had is fundamentally di erent and distinct from installed as a progressive item of convenience became a hostile menace for his daughter, one of many in a house and a childhood that seemed carefully customized for everyone except her. Lomnicki recalls reading Alice in Wonder- land around this time and envying Alice her cake that made her grow tall. She wished there could have been a little bite of cake so she Tekki Lomnicki COURTESY LIFELINE THEATRE wouldn’t have to climb on any more counters or sit on phone books while she was learning to drive. But there’s more to the comparison. When Alice is tall, she lives in a tall person’s world. While Lomnicki is talking, we see the world the way she used to see it, a place full of I’ve heard Michael Herzovi (who will be re- inconveniences but also opportunities—like placed by Israel Antonio for the January 26 how the ramp that was installed in the stair- performance) describe this species of com- well, fi nally, to elevate her up to her bedroom muter as the bane of his transit existence. Her- made so much noise that it could drown out zovi, who has congenitally shortened limbs Photos: JazzyPhotos: Photo boys’ footsteps as they tiptoed up the stairs. and uses a wheelchair, is especially good at There are new logistics for Alice to consider making his audience see the reality he has to once she eats that piece of cake and her head navigate while, in his words, “being di erent SPECTRUM DANCE THEATER hits the ceiling; it would be a good idea next in an indi erent world.” One of the most pow- RAMBUNCTIOUS 3.0: THE IMMIGRANTS Christmas, Alice says, to mail her feet new erful moments in the show is when Bannon boots. Lomnicki’s story, like Alice’s, defamil- describes learning how to walk the balance iarizes the world we think we know, exposing beam in gym class. That is the feeling with this January 31, February 1, and 2, 2019 TICKETS $30 REGULAR our perception of it as merely one possible Tellin’ Tales show overall: a sense of courage 7:30 p.m. $24 SENIORS perception, our eye level as one eye level and against stiff odds, a willingness to not only $10 STUDENTS not “eye level.” overcome the ego blow of the di culty but the SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 25% The show is full of similar opportunities for difficulty itself, and then share that journey dance.colum.edu an epistemological wake-up call. I will never with strangers. v be able to get the phrase “stroller mommies” out of my head when I ride the CTA now that @mallerjour 20 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ARTS & CULTURE
and the incursion of Christian missionaries are inargu- ably connected. Jung off ers a sliver of hope amid the brutal damage le in their wake. There’s beauty in the ethereal, haunting hymn that closes Cardboard Piano, and perhaps the distant prospect of healing. —C S C P Through 3/17: Wed- Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 3/12, 7:30 PM; performance Wed 3/6, 8 PM, no performance Fri 3/15, TimeLine Theatre, 615 W. Wellington, 773-281-8463, timelinetheatre. com , $40-$54, $26-$35 students, $25 U.S. military personnel, veterans, first responders and their families. A remembrance of things past R In Charlie Johnson Reads All of Proust, a small-town Hoosier goes in search of lost time. Chicago playwright Amy Crider creates a tidy Proustian Products universe in this evening-length monologue, delivered by a 75-year-old small-town Hoosier named Charlie John- son. He appears before us because he once dipped a madeleine in his coff ee, whereupon his uppity daughter- Y in-law Patricia, witnessing this seemingly inconsequen- ou’ll Love! tial act, promptly off ered a condescending minilecture Dada Woof Papa Hot MICHAEL BROSILOW on Remembrance of Things Past. Determined to prove WE’VE ADDED NEW ARTISAN-MADE he’s no rube (or at least less of one than Patricia PRODUCTS, PRINTS, AND GOODS suspects), he sets out to read all seven volumes, but THEATER A romantic idyll ended by in short order gets sucked into his own search for lost TO OUR SELECTION! R violence time when the taste of cornmeal mush (his madeleine, Fact and fiction as it were) evokes consequential memories of his rural R Big Science performs investigations into Cardboard Piano looks for hope and healing in Indiana boyhood. SHOP OUR EVANSTON LOCATION the human condition. Uganda. Johnson imagines himself an anti-Proust, devoted to 1755 MAPLE AVENUE 847-425-9100 plain talk, hard work, and “doing right.” While performer The meandering series of bits, skits, monologues, and Within its fi rst 30 minutes, Hansol Jung’s riveting drama Jeff Broitman is largely wrong for the part—he’s more @BLICK_EVANSTON pantomimes that makes up Hot Kitchen Collective’s hurtles from bliss to slaughter. We’re in Uganda, watch- nebbishy east-coast intellectual than salt-of-the-earth exploration of outer and inner space doesn’t necessarily ing two 16-year-old girls celebrate their love with a midwesterner, and he looks three decades shy of 75— have a narrative, but it has no shortage of things to say. giddily joyful “wedding” ceremony. Chris (Kearstyn his grounded deliberation keeps the script’s complex SHOP OUR OTHER CHICAGO AREA STORES Nine performers take turns riffi ng on science facts Keller) is the white daughter of missionaries. Adiel (Adia narrative in sharp focus. Although at times he proceeds CHICAGO LOOP 42 S STATE STREET and fi ction while wearing very homemade, provisional Alli) is a black Ugandan. Their fears are telling: Chris at such a cautious pace the show feels more like a recita- astronaut garb. I spent most of its 75-minute running frets her soul will go to hell. Adiel has more immediate tion than a conversation, he fi nds disarming vulnerability LINCOLN PARK 1574 N KINGSBURY time with a smile on my face. concerns. Being a gay Ugandan, she points out to Chris, in the play’s emotional climax, as Johnson realizes his life SCHAUMBURG 500 E GOLF ROAD References to shopworn pop culture signifi ers like is punishable by life in prison. Before the couple’s sweet, turned out happy primarily because his wife suff ered a the musical theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (used celebratory wedding dance is over, it’s clear that prison horrible trauma. WHEATON 79 DANADA SQUARE EAST repeatedly as an interstitial, to varying comic eff ect) are isn’t the worst thing Ugandan gays have to fear. Their Crider overshoots her landing, wandering for ten counterbalanced by moments of poetic, o en wordless idyll is interrupted by violence, their romance ended minutes or so a er the satisfying conclusion of John- wonder. A silent procession of astronauts holding glass by gunfi re. son’s sobering revelation. But the nourishment in her beakers fi lled with blue liquid lit from within by little Directed by Mechelle Moe, Cardboard Piano suc- stream-of-consciousness storytelling makes me want to LED lights is truly magical. But a minute later, a girl is ceeds on multiple fronts. It’s a riveting story. It’s a scath- tackle Proust all over again—something I never thought spouting made-up facts about narwhals. ing take on religious hypocrisy. It is a harrowing glimpse I’d say. —J H C J R Big Science very much takes a young person’s per- into the life of Uganda’s child soldiers. It is a de explo- A P Through 1/27: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, spective on the state of the world in the ease with which ration of the inextricable connections between personal Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773- it jumps from the silly to the serious, but taking science beliefs and sociopolitical systems. With each pivot in the 697-3830, thedentheatre.com, $20, $10 industry as a jumping-off point to explore the human condition is intricate plot, Jung reveals a new perspective on both and students. a gutsy and ambitious move. The vacuum-sealed snacks the individual characters and the lethal, institutionalized suspended at various points around the theater lend the bigotry overpowering them. ‘Isn’t being normal the most piece an eerie, dystopian feel. In one memorable bit, a The cast (which also includes Freedom Martin R radical thing of all?’ sweaty girl caps an energetic dance routine by reaching as Pika, a child soldier, and Kai A. Ealy as Paul, a up and grabbing a bagged can of Pepsi. She pops the Ugandan preacher) captures huge emotions without a Dada Woof Papa Hot shows that modern top through the plastic, tips it toward her mouth, then featherweight of artifi ce. Among the high points: Pika’s parenthood’s not just for straight people. watches along with the rest of us as the bubbling brown monologue about how he’s learned to survive atrocities fl uid fi lls the bag but never reaches her mouth. It’s one by perpetuating them. The passage seems to suck the It’s never been lost on the gay community that the entire odd but compelling sight in a show overfl owing with oxygen from the room, leaving the audience to choke blueprint for modern child rearing and tin-through- them. —D S B S Through 2/7: on the moral complexities of a stolen life. golden-years marriage is based upon the written and Thu 8 PM, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, TimeLine’s fathoms-deep dramaturgy (leave time unwritten laws of straight people. 312-335-1650, hotkitchencollective.com , $20, $15 to peruse Jared Bellot’s lobby displays) underlines the But only in the past decade have LGBTQ folks got- CONNECT WITH US ONLINE! industry. historical fact that in Uganda, the rise of homophobia ten the opportunity to put, on a wide scale, diff erent ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 21 ARTS & CULTURE
B philosophies and theories about partnerships and Sisterhood is powerful raising a family into practice within mainstream culture. R And Little Women the Musical is an “Isn’t being normal the most radical thing of all?” asks a absolute delight. father played by Jos N. Banks in Peter Parnell’s excep- tionally relevant and astute relationship drama. (For the Most top-ten lists of queer feminist authors don’t record, God no). mention Louisa May Alcott, and Little Women is better Keira Fromm’s nuanced and universally well-cast remembered as a quaint account of feminine domes- About Face production tracks a handful of well-to- ticity than the subtle revolution that it is: the story of do New York couples, gay and straight, through the sisters in a wartime household headed by their mother thornier challenges of staying true to themselves while, that includes but does not focus on their relationships as one of the characters puts it, “playing the role of with men. At the center of the narrative is Jo—an impas- parents.” It’s the sort of one-act show that feels like the sioned author of hilariously melodramatic thrillers who culmination of a prestige television season: challenging won’t bow to fashion or tradition as she drives and then and populated by richly defi ned characters who make chronicles the escapades of the March girls. Lest this arguable decisions sure to strike a multitude of diff erent make Little Women the Musical, with music by Jason chords with diff erent audiences. Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and book by Allan While Parnell’s story deals exclusively with the sort Knee, sound like a didactic snore, rest assured: it is an of monied couples that can quibble over risotto, elite absolute delight. In Brown Paper Box Co.’s wonderful private schools, and carefully negotiated extramarital production, directed by Stephanie Rohr and M. William trysts, the action in Fromm’s production is always Panek, romantic Meg, headstrong Jo, sweet Beth, and informed by questions and complications regarding vain Amy come to life with beautiful, believable intimacy class and race and social systems. It’s hands down on Strawdog’s storefront stage. one of the most interesting examinations of contem- The Brown Paper Box cast is a dream. Not only porary gay life I’ve seen in recent memory, and the can they sing, they portray the aff ection, joys, frus- discomfi ting tactic used here of holding up a mirror trations, and hopes of these women with authenticity to its audience without cynicism or sweetening is and rapport. Tessa Dettman is a charismatic Jo with a Evil Dead: The Musical EVAN HANOVER on par with Stephen Sondheim. —D J D powerhouse set of pipes, and Kim Green’s pouting Amy W P H Through 2/16: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, has the nuance to make the ambitions of the youngest Sun 3 PM, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-975- and most overlooked of the sisters understood. Will 8150, aboutfacetheatre.com, $38, $20 students Kazda is ditzy and fun as their neighbor Laurie. And City Playhouse, 3014 W. Irving Park, 773-891-8985, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; no performance Sun 2/3, and seniors. among the most distinct pleasures of this production is windycityplayhouse.com, $45-$85, $35-$75 students, 16th Street Theater, 6420 16th St., Berwyn, 708-795- hearing every voice unamplifi ed, accompanied only by teachers, seniors, industry, and military. 6704, 16thstreettheater.org, $22, $18 low-income, There will be blood a single piano (played by Justin Harner). —I H military, and Berwyn residents. R Especially if you sit in the splatter zone at L W M Through 2/9: Thu-Fri So Godzilla, Mothra, and Evil Dead: The Musical. 7:30 PM, Sat 3:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM; no R Gamera go to a funeral. . . Hazardous workplace performance Thu 1/24, Strawdog Theatre, 1802 W. R What We’re Up Against shows that not Attention S-Mart shoppers! Grab your Boomstick and Berenice, brownpaperbox.org , $25. Family drama unfolds with Small Jokes About much has changed for women since 1992. journey to a cabin in the woods with a group of college Monsters. kids who are in for a hell of a time in this enjoyable Slapstick economics Theresa Rebeck’s acidic portrait of workplace discrim- musical comedy homage. Noises Off proves that too-frequent gags have Ryan, the bright, witty, psychologically damaged pro- ination, written in 1992 in the wake of the Anita Hill Few fi lm franchises have spawned such a rabid cult diminishing marginal returns. tagonist of Steven Straff ord’s dark domestic comedy hearings, is still timely. That’s probably good news for following as Sam Raimi’s eminently quotable classic (played with uncommon power and pathos by Esteban Rebeck. But it’s defi nitely bad news for women, who are B-movie horror fi lm Evil Dead and its subsequent Frothy and insubstantial, Michael Frayne’s Noises Off Andres Cruz) begins the play by dividing all comedians still dragged as ambitious ballbusters if they dare to do sequels. Black Button Eyes’ production has everything is a cute and silly romp through the run of a terribly into three types: the Godzillas, who come on strong, things men do (such as run for president). an uberfan could expect, including inside jokes, over- doomed fi ctional performance. Hard-nosed director fi ring joke a er joke; the more subtle Mothras, who hold Compass Theatre, a new Equity company making the-top gore, campy dialogue taken straight from the Lloyd Dallas (portrayed with dry wit by Mike Tepeli) back but then destroy the audience with a few well- its debut with Rebeck’s play, staged by Lauren Shouse, fi lms, 1980s political incorrectness, and a well-defi ned leads this play within a play and tries his best to whip his aimed quips; and the Gameras, clumsier than the other lands plenty of sharp jabs to the solar plexus. Rebeck splatter zone. There will be blood. Lots of it. The special da and melodramatic cast into shape—all to no avail. two, but equally devastating. shows how o en women are undercut not by obvious eff ects are nothing short of beautiful. Lines are forgotten, love triangles grow complicated, Ryan is not just talking about comics, but about sexual harassment, but by pernicious microaggressions Jordan Dell Harris, a star in the making, perfectly sardines get tossed, and the wheels rapidly fall off this himself and his brothers—and part of the beauty of and gaslighting. re-creates Bruce Campbell’s iconic performance as Ash rickety contraption. Straff ord’s sly, well-cra ed play lies in how this metaphor Set in an architecture fi rm, the play opens with with myriad facial expressions, wonderfully dynamic As act two begins, the audience is invited to get up plays out over the course of its 90 minutes. Ryan, the Stu (Charlie Strater) and Ben (Ted James) tossing back physicality, and wry catchphrases. Caitlin Jackson is a from their seats and walk around to take in the glorious demanding, self-centered extrovert, is indeed a Godzilla, scotch and complaining about new hire Eliza (Echaka pleasure to watch as Cheryl; she spends most of the disaster from backstage. The behind-the-scenes view and his brothers John and Derek are, respectively, a Agba)—who they assume landed the job by sleeping performance possessed, eyes glowing, dropping bad has a live-action Looney Tunes spirit and showcases Mothra and a Gamera. with a higher-up and who complains about not being puns onto the stage like body parts. Shane Roberie director Scott Weinstein’s fl air for slapstick comedy. Thrown together by their estranged father’s funeral, given any real work to do. “Women are always just a plays good old reliable Jake, whose hilarious solo is a His cast may be one of the hardest working onstage in these three diffi cult “monsters,” each unhappy in his own total fucking nightmare,” Stu declares—and Ben agrees. highlight. Chicago right now: just watching them run up and down way, joke and bicker and bitch until, following the well- As Eliza tries and fails to enlist the help of Janice The script by George Reinblatt balances catchy stairs and in and out of doors leaves one breathless. worn formula of family dramas, long-repressed secrets (Denise Hoefl ich), the only other woman architect, musical numbers with hysterical dialogue, well support- Unfortunately, even the best slapstick has limits (Three are revealed and the brothers (and the audience) must Rebeck cleverly anatomizes the divide-and-conquer ed by Oliver Townsend’s musical direction. The excellent Stooges aside), and hoary gags such as simulated sex come to grips with a lot of new, uncomfortable truths. mind-set of internalized misogyny. In Weber (Jeff cast makes use of every inch of the intimate stage, acts and violence played for laughs are repeated too Straff ord adheres pretty closely to the dramatic Kurysz), the hotshot hired a er Eliza, she also creates a in no small part thanks to Derek Van Barham’s tight frequently, producing diminishing comedic returns. structure of this kind of play—the ending is pure Chek- perfect snapshot of every mediocre bullshitting “vision- choreography, which adds whimsy and enhances the Amy J. Carle delights as the amorous Dotty Oakley hov—but his gi for strong dialogue and original char- ary” man who believes “mingy” detail work is beneath cheesy nature of the show. The actors are clearly having playing the frowzy Mrs. Clackett; Rochelle Therrien acters keeps things from getting too predictable. It him but might be just fi ne for women. Sometimes a great time and, much like the Kandarian Demons in soldiers forth admirably and energetically as the insuf- helps that this 16th Street Theater production under Rebeck’s narrative fl irts with being preachy, but for the the story, their joy possesses the audience. —J ferable diva Brooke Ashton playing the dim-witted the direction of Kristina Valada-Viars is well paced most part it’s funny and enraging in all the right ways. F E D T M Through 2/16: ingenue Vicki, and Will Casey off ers more than a few and fi lled with strong actors who know how to make —K R W W’ U A Through Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 1/29, 7:30 PM, chortles as the lovably inept oaf Selsdon Mowbray their characters compelling, which keeps the story 2/9: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 1/28 and Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-270-3654, playing the Burglar. —S F N O fascinating and fresh. —J H S J 2/4, 8 PM, and Sat 2/9, 2 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. blackbuttoneyes.com, $30. inThrough 3/31: Wed-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Windy A M Through 2/16: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Clark, compasstheatre.org , $35. v 22 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies. FILM
An Acceptable Loss Free Solo R This awe-inspiring National Geographic doc- umentary is as much a celebration of U.S. parks and wilderness as it is a record of one of the most audacious feats in the history of mountaineering: Alex Honnold’s 2017 ascent of Yosemite’s 3,000-foot-high El Capitan in under four hours without ropes or backup. Codirectors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Meru) pre- pared for three years to fi lm the summit, meticulously planning every possible angle and approach so that they play was attacked for coarsening Coward, and Lubitsch could be ready to go on short notice and also stay out was ridiculed for casting Gary Cooper, Fredric March, of the athlete’s way to avoid endangering his life. Not and Miriam Hopkins in the parts played onstage by surprisingly, the small production crew, climbers them- Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, and Coward himself. Well, selves, share facetime on camera, and thus the movie maybe it is a little lumpy for Lubitsch, but I think the fi lm takes on a Zen-like meta aspect. Equally pleasing is the more than holds its own. Cooper is a problem, but the yin-yang dynamic between the sinewy, boyish, intense bubbles rise in spite of him. Very glossy, very continen- Honnold, a UC Berkeley dropout who is philosophical tal, and sometimes very funny. —D K 90 about death, and his petite, irrepressible lover Sanni min. 35mm. Sat 1/26-Sun 1/27, 11:30 AM. Music Box McCandless, cheerily dedicated to keeping him alive. —A G PG-13, 100 min. Wed 1/30, Distant Voices, Still Lives 7 PM. Music Box R It’s hard to say what Terence Davies’s powerful MOVIES Bound 1988 masterpiece is about—growing up in a work- Glass The Wachowskis, who scripted Assassins, wrote and ing-class family in Liverpool in the 40s and 50s—without This may not be M. Night Shyamalan’s worst movie, An Acceptable Loss directed this adroit and sexy 1996 crime thriller about making it sound familiar and lugubrious. In fact, this though it’s surely his most disappointing. The writer- Shot in Chicago and on Northwestern University’s Evan- the hot romance between a gangster’s moll (Jennifer beautiful memoir, conceivably one of the greatest of all director brings together the principal characters of his ston campus, this speculative political thriller stumbles Tilly) and the ex-con who’s her neighbor (Gina Gershon). English fi lms, is so startling and original that we may not Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016), two entertaining through most of its fi rst hour, during which a disgraced Eventually they concoct an elaborate scam to rip off the have the vocabulary to do it justice. Organized achro- fi lms that presented comic book-style fantasies in a former national security analyst (Tika Sumpter) comes gangster (Joe Pantoliano)—a money launderer for the nologically, so that events are perceived more in terms subdued manner and in believably grim urban settings. out of retirement to accept a distinguished academic mob who temporarily has a couple million dollars. (The of emotional continuity than of narrative progression, Unfortunately he doesn’t have anything new to say appointment, only to arouse protests and attract the laundering here involves literally washing blood off bills.) the fi lm concentrates on family events like weddings about the characters; he just surrounds them with other sinister attention of a furtive graduate student (Ben This gets very suspenseful (as well as fairly gruesome) and funerals and on songs sung at parties and the local people who discuss what their stories might mean in Tavassoli). Flashbacks off er insuffi cient exposition, as in spots, and if it never adds up to anything profound, pub. Davies’s childhood, which was lorded over by a long stretches of ponderous, fl at-footed dialogue. These we see the professor in her heyday a few years earlier it’s still a welcome change to have a lesbian couple as brutal and tyrannical father, was not an easy one, yet the conversations basically spell out the subtext of Shya- working with her mentor, the then-U.S. vice president the chief identifi cation fi gures. With Richard Sarafi an. delight shown and conveyed by the well-known songs malan’s earlier fi lms, as though the fi lmmaker thought his (Jamie Lee Curtis), a military hawk who ominously —J R R, 108 min. Tue 1/29, 7 makes the fi lm cathartic and hopeful as well as sorrowful viewers were too dumb to fi gure it out for themselves; mentions “what happened in Los Angeles.” What did PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films and tragic. (There are some wonderful laughs as well.) even worse, they treat the mythology of those fi lms with happen is never explained, although once the fi lm shi s Much of the fi lm emphasizes the bonds between the such unselfconscious reverence that they suggest the into higher gear in the second act, it’s suggested that Casque d’Or women in the family and their female friends, though fi lmmaker is terminally infatuated with his own work. some concentrated act of terror occurred, a er which R A radiant Simone Signoret dominates Jacques there’s nothing doctrinal or polemical about its vision, The saving grace is Shyamalan’s camerawork and visual the veep—now president—pushed for a massive armed Becker’s 1952 fi lm, which is based on a Paris underworld and the purity and intensity of its emotional thrust are compositions, which are as striking and expressive as response and le her protege to shoulder the blame. incident of 1898 that is, in some ways, the French parallel such that all the characters are treated with passion ever; for all his faults, he remains one of the only con- Writer-director Joe Chappelle’s premise is intriguing to the legend of Frankie and Johnny. Becker emphasized and understanding. The sense of the periods depicted— temporary Hollywood directors who genuinely believes enough, but he could have taken cues from two movies atmospherics at the expense of psychology, which ranging from the blitz to a mid-50s screening of Love Is a in mise-en-scene. With James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, from 1974, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and outraged the literary critics of the time and impressed Many Splendored Thing at the Futurist Cinema—is both Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson. —B S Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View, both more eff ective the young Turks who later made up the New Wave. A precise and luminous. —J R PG-13, 129 min. AMC Dine-in Block 37 in tapping the heightened paranoia of dangerous times. turning point for French cinema, although it must be PG-13, 85 min. Fri 1/25, 4:15 and 8 PM; Sat 1/26, 3 PM; Sun —A G R, 102 min. Wilmette Theatre understood in context. With Serge Reggiani and Claude 1/27, 1 PM; Tue 1/29, 6 PM; Wed 1/30, 6 PM; Thu 1/31, 8 PM. Grease Dauphin. In French with subtitles. —D K Gene Siskel Film Center A limp, cheaply made version (1978) of the Broadway American Promise 94 min. 35mm. Sat 1/26, 3 PM, and Thu 1/31, 6 PM. Gene (ne Chicago) play about growing up cool in the 50s. For 12 years, Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson, Siskel Film Center Every Man for Himself Director Randal Kleiser, making his theatrical fi lm debut, married professionals in Brooklyn, used a video camera R Jean-Luc Godard calls this 1980 production, shows no real sense of how a musical is constructed: the to track the educational progress of their son Idris and Citizen Kane Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie), his “second fi rst fi lm”—which songs are bunched together, the production numbers his friend Seun Summers as they advanced through the R What can you say about the movie that taught means both a return to narrative a er his brilliant don’t move, and the whole project shi s awkwardly Dalton School, a private K-12 institution in Manhattan you what movies were? The fi rst time I saw Kane I dis- documentary-theoretical work in the 70s and a com- between naturalism and stylization. John Travolta does where they were among the only black students. The covered the existence of the director; the next dozen or plete clearing of the decks. You feel him questioning little with a pallid part (although he does have a chance resulting documentary is framed as a sort of upper-class so times taught me what he did—with lights and camera his entire life here, his most basic impulses and ideals, to dance an unabashedly gratuitous disco number); Oliv- Hoop Dreams, measuring the limits of opportunity in angles, cutting and composition, texture and rhythm. and his honesty is devastating; he emerges as a hollow ia Newton-John is merely pallid. —D K PG, America for young men of color, though in practice it Kane (1941) is no longer my favorite Orson Welles fi lm man, trapped between the limitations of his politics and 110 min. 35mm. Thu 1/31, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films more o en functions as a self-serving advertisement for (I’d take Ambersons, Falstaff , or Touch of Evil), but it his sexuality, with barely enough ego le to imagine the couple’s intense, hectoring brand of parenthood. A is still the best place I know of to start thinking about his own death. Of course, the fi lm’s substantial artistry Hands Up! key complaint is that the kids have to function in a white Welles—or for that matter about movies in general. belies Godard’s self-negation: with his formal, four-part Jerzy Skolimowski’s 1967 social allegory was banned world to obtain an elite education (Summers transferred —D K PG, 119 min. 35mm. Former Reader ordering of the narration, the tension he establishes and in Poland and only released in 1981 in mutilated form to a mostly black public school a er eighth grade), fi lm critic Jonathan Rosenbaum lectures at the Tuesday exploits between soundtrack and image, and his use of (a third of it was reshot by Skolimowski himself); it which is valid but hardly compares with the problems screening. Fri 1/26, 2 and 6 PM, and Tue 1/29, 6 PM. Gene slow motion to analyze and abstract the action, Godard concerns four successful doctors trying to track down faced by most American students of any race. On the Siskel Film Center pulls an aesthetic victory from the jaws of utter nihilism. an elusive fi h but fi nding instead a metaphor of their other hand, most kids don’t have to deal with their par- With Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye, own compromises and social discontents in a confi ning ents turning their college admissions process into the Design for Living and Marguerite Duras (on the soundtrack only). In railway journey. —P G Sun 1/27, 7 PM. Univ. climax of a movie. —JR J 132 min. Hosted by R When Ernst Lubitsch’s fi lm of Noel Coward’s French with subtitles. —D K 87 min. 35mm. of Chicago Doc Films Eve Ewing. Thu 1/24, 7 PM. Harper Theater. F famous farce was released in 1933, Ben Hecht’s screen- Wed 1/30, 7 and 9:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 23 FILM
The Kid Who Would Be King B The Heiresses R In this cra y debut feature, Paraguayan writer-director Marcelo Martinessi looks at microlevel power dynamics to comment subtly on society at large. His protagonists are a sixtysomething lesbian couple who once occupied a place in high society but are now struggling to make ends meet. At fi rst their slide down the social ladder doesn’t change the fundamental nature of their relationship—one still makes all the major deci- sions, while the other passively goes along—but things take a turn when the dominant partner goes to prison for fraud and the passive one must fi nd a way to support herself. One could interpret the latter woman’s growing sense of self-determination as a metaphor for Paraguay coming into its own a er a long era of dictatorial rule, but Martinessi doesn’t overemphasize this reading; his characters and setting are sharply drawn, and the drama goes down with sly, understated humor. In Spanish with subtitles. —B S 98 min. Fri 1/25, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 1/26, 7:45 PM; Sun 1/27, 3 PM; Mon 1/28, 8 PM; Tue 1/29, 7:45 PM; Wed 1/30, 8:15 PM; and Thu 1/31, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center The Kid Who Would Be King Although not in the league of bracing adult fare like John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981), this child-centric goo all comic relief. With Dean Chaumoo and Denise Sanrizuka: Heta Village (Narita: update of Arthurian lore outclasses Guy Ritchie’s King Gough. —A G PG, 119 min. Century 12 Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) by relying more and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, City North 14, Ford City Heta Village on heart than bombastic CGI. That could be due in From 1967 to 1974 Japanese documentarian Shinsuke part to writer-director Joe Cornish’s tighter budget, Mean Girls Ogawa lived with the farmers of Sanrizuka, whose but it works in his favor: the movie has the freshness, Produced by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne village was targeted for demolition to make room for innocence, and energy of youngsters on the threshold Michaels and scripted by Tina Fey, this high school Tokyo’s Narita International Airport. Supported by rad- of adulthood, embarked on a grand heroic adventure. A satire (2004) is pleasantly acted and moderately funny, ical students, the farmers protested their eviction, and bullied schoolboy (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) hides from but it lacks the genuine bile that made Heathers (1989) Ogawa joined in, recording both the long-term struggle his tormentors (Tom Taylor, Rhianna Dorris) in a con- so bracing. Lindsay Lohan stars as a pretty teen who and the everyday life of the village. His intense involve- struction site, where he pulls a sword out of a concrete enrolls at a North Shore snake pit a er being home- ment eventually yielded fi ve fi lms with a combined block. His action unleashes an army of fi ery horsemen schooled in Africa all her life; she falls in with a pair of running time of about 15 hours, including the 146-minute from hell, emissaries of the sorceress Morgana (Rebecca sarcastic losers but is also recruited by the Plastics, a Narita: Heta Village (1973). Ogawa, with virtuoso cine- Ferguson), the mythic King Arthur’s evil half sister. A trio of petty social butterfl ies. This opens with a dig at matographer Masaki Tamura, emphasizes the lifestyle powerful wizard (Angus Imrie), the younger incarnation gay-bashing evangelicals, but by the end its sole les- and traditions the farmers are fi ghting to preserve, and of Morgana’s nemesis Merlin (Patrick Stewart), schools bian character has found a boyfriend, suggesting that, both he and Tamura (a farmer’s grandson himself) show the child in self-defense and leadership, and provides a er all these years, Michaels’s most radical statement a deep sensitivity and responsiveness to these people. remains his blazer-and-blue-jeans look. Mark S. Waters My favorite sequences include an interview with a directed. —JR J PG-13, 97 min. Fri 1/25-Sat woman while she slices a radish into the shape of a phal- 164 North State Street 1/26, midnight. Music Box lus (which she jokingly attaches to sweet potato “testi- $11 GENERAL | $7 STUDENTS | $6 MEMBERS cles”), a candid and aff ectionate conversation with an MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800 On Her Shoulders 86-year-old woman seated on her porch, and an opening Director Alexandria Bombach (Frame by Frame) shot sequence in which Tamura’s camera roams around a fi eld this documentary portrait of human rights activist Nadia to illustrate a farmer’s anecdotes. Subjective and highly THE TERENCE DAVIES’ Murad not long before her subject received the Nobel empathetic, this documentary is less a statement than a DISTANT VOICES, Peace Prize, and the movie argues persuasively that friendly conversation: Ogawa can be heard frequently HEIRESSES the prize was well deserved. A member of Iraq’s Yazidi as both narrator and interviewer, the periodic intertitles “A surprising drama STILL LIVES minority, Murad lost her family in 2014 when ISIS fi ght- are no less personal, and the villagers repay the fi lmmak- of status and sexuality.” “One of the greatest of all British films.” ers attacked her village; she was taken prisoner a er ers’ warmth by freely sharing their lives with the camera. —A.O. Scott, —Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader The New York Times the attack and lived in subhuman conditions until she —J R 146 min. 16mm. Sat 1/26, 7 escaped. Murad has since used her freedom to tell the PM. Logan Center for the Arts F world about her experience, speaking to communities, JAN 25 - 31 political leaders, and the United Nations. The fi lm fol- Secret Sunshine lows her through numerous speaking engagements as R A recently widowed woman (Jeon Do-yeon) JAN 25 - 31 Fri 1/25 @ 4:15 pm & 8 pm; she relives her trauma in order to educate others about leaves Seoul to start over in the provincial town where Sat 1/26 @ 3 pm; Fri 1/25 @ 2 pm & 6 pm; Sat 1/26 @ 7:45 pm; Sun 1/27 @ 1 pm; ISIS’s attempted genocide of the Yazidis. Bombach valo- her husband was born. This 2007 feature by Lee Chang- Sun 1/27 @ 3 pm; Mon 1/28 @ 8 pm; Tue 1/29 @ 6 pm; rizes Murad in part by drawing attention to how diffi cult dong (Oasis) begins as a quiet drama about mourning Tue 1/29 @ 7:45 pm; Wed 1/30 @ 8:15 pm; Wed 1/30 @ 6 pm; her activist work is to perform; an early montage shows but grows steadily darker and more complicated, its Thu 1/31 @ 6 pm Thu 1/31 @ 8 pm Murad sitting stoically as newscasters ask the same unpredictable plot touching on religious fanaticism, questions about her abuse at the hands of jihadists. In mental illness, and even murder. Lee manages all this Filmmaker JAN 25, 26, 30• F*** YOUR HAIR + ‘63 BOYCOTT • appearances! English and subtitled Arabic. —B S 94 min. Fri with surprising evenhandedness, using long takes and 1/25, 4 PM; Sat 1/26, 7:45 PM; Mon 1/28, 6 PM; and Thu understated compositions that emerge organically from BUY TICKETS NOW at www.siskelfilmcenter.org 1/31, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center the rich characterizations. Song Kang-ho, a comic pres-
24 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies. FILM
ence in Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder and The ALSO PLAYING Host, is heartbreaking here as the woman’s timid suitor; Falbalas indeed, the characters’ failings are realized as pre- Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Jacques Becker directed this 1945 French romantic cisely as their virtues, and this warts-and-all approach drama about a couturier who becomes smitten with challenges the limits of our empathy. In Korean with Story his best friend’s fi ancee. In French with subtitles. 107 subtitles. —B S 142 min. Mon 1/28, 7 PM. Steve Sullivan directed this documentary about UK min. Sat 1/26, 5 PM, and Wed 1/30, 7:45 PM. Gene Siskel Univ. of Chicago Doc Films comic persona Frank Sidebottom, who appeared at Film Center music and comedy events in Manchester for over two The Servant decades in his now-iconic papier-mache head, and the Found Footage Festival: After A er more than a decade directing B movies, Joseph man inside the mask, Chris Sievey. 100 min. Fri 1/25- Dark Losey graduated to art fi lms with this 1963 feature, the Thu 1/31. At Facet Cinémathèque. Visit facets.org for vertigo fi rst of many collaborations with Harold Pinter. Dirk showtimes. Joe Pickett (the Onion) and Nick Prueher (The Colbert JAN 25-28 AT 11 PM Bogarde is the sinister manservant who slowly corrupts Report) present a risqué selection of o eat VHS video his eff ete employer, James Fox. The fi lm is very studied Burning fi nds. 85 min. Sat 1/26, 9:30 PM. Music Box and smooth, even though it deals in sexual hysteria; it Lee Chang-dong directed this South Korean mys- could use some of the roughness and drive of Losey’s tery-drama about a socially inept loner who becomes Found Footage Festival: Cherished early work. With Sarah Miles and Patrick Magee. —D taken with a young woman only to have her disappear K 116 min. Thu 1/31, 9:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago a er returning from a trip with a stranger in tow. In Gems Doc Films Korean with subtitles. 148 min. Sat 1/26, 7 and 9:30 A collection of the favorite o eat VHS video fi nds PM, and Sun 1/27, 4 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films from previous Found Footage Festivals, presented by Silicone Soul Joe Pickett (the Onion) and Nick Prueher (The Colbert R Life-size dolls are replacements for human lov- Deconstructing the Birth of the Report). 85 min. Fri 1/25, 9:30 PM. Music Box ers, babies, and female friends in this empathetic docu- mentary about “doll people” and the alternate realities Beatles I, Jane Doe they create. Director Melody Gilbert casts a wide net, A documentary looking at the early years of the Beatles. A U.S. soldier marries a Frenchwoman while stationed The Birdcage primarily following men who maintain sexual and roman- Justin Drobinski and Sean Gallagher directed. 88 min. overseas. When she follows him back to the States, she JAN 29-31 AT 10:30 PM tic relationships with life-size RealDolls but also visiting Tue 1/29, 7 PM. Music Box fi nds that he’s already married. John H. Auer directed women who have been touched by the phenomenon, this 1948 crime drama. 85 min. Fri 1/25, 7 and 9:30 PM, like an artist who makes realistic baby dolls for seniors Duvariar-Mauern-Walls and Sun 1/27, 1:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films For showtimes and advance tickets, visit with Alzheimer’s to hold as part of their “cuddle therapy” Can Candan directed this 2000 US-Turkish documenta- thelogantheatre.com and another artist who poses sex dolls in purportedly ry about the experiences of Turkish immigrants in Berlin Seminole feminist tableaux. The fi lm’s highly eff ective centerpiece following the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reuni- Budd Boetticher directed this 1953 adventure fi lm about is the story of an odd couple in Chicago, a man and his fi cation. In English and subtitled Turkish and German. a cavalry offi cer (Rock Hudson) attempting to befriend synthetic “wife” of nearly a decade. When he takes her 83 min. Candan attends the screening. Fri 1/25, 7 PM. the Seminole tribe in Florida. With Barbara Hale and on dates to the Brookfi eld Zoo or to his favorite restau- Northwestern University Block Museum of Art F Anthony Quinn. 87 min. 35mm. Wed 1/30, 7:30 PM. rants, what is fascinating is not so much his behavior Northeastern Illinois University but how others react to the atypical pair—o en mildly, F*** Your Hair sometimes positively. Gilbert raises the right questions Jason Polevoi directed this documentary about a Chi- ’63 Boycott about sexism, modern loneliness, and the slow erosion cago brewery that pulled its beer from Trump Tower, Kartemquin Films founder Gordon Quinn directed this of the uncanny valley, but without demonizing or even where it was going to be the house brand, and renamed 30-minute documentary about the 1963 boycott through judging her subjects. Instead, she shows how sweet and it “Chinga Tu Pelo” (F*** Your Hair). 38 min. Polevoi and which some 250,000 students protested the segrega- surprising it can be when humans, faced with diff erence, other guests attend the screenings. Showing with ‘63 tion of Chicago Public Schools. 30 min. Quinn attends choose to be kind. —L P 70 min. Gilbert and Boycott (see separate listing). Fri 1/25, 8:15 PM; Sat 1/26, 5 the Friday and Wednesday screenings. Showing with several cast members attend both screenings. Sun 1/27, 5 PM; and Wed 1/30, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center F*** Your Hair (see separate listing). Fri 1/25, 8:15 PM; Sat PM, and Mon 1/28, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center 1/26, 5 PM; and Wed 1/30, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Soleil O Mauritanian director Med Hondo directed this 1970 French coproduction about a immigrant whose dreams of a better life in Paris meet with a harsh reality. In French with subtitles. 98 min. Wed 1/30, 7 PM. North- western University Block Museum of Art F Telesonic 9000 Composer-drummer Dominick Gray performs live to his 2016 found-footage compilation fi lm. 55 min. Sat 1/26, 7 PM. Chicago Filmmakers v
On Her Shoulders ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 25 Why won’t City Hall fi ght for Chicago’s homegrown Members of the Chicago Independent Venue League at their November 29 public meeting: Bruce Finkelman (the Empty Bottle, Thalia Hall, the Promontory), Robert Gomez (Subterranean, Beat Kitchen), Joe Shanahan (Metro, Smart Bar, the GMan Tavern), Ray Quinn (Martyrs’), Katie Tuten (the Hideout), Michael Johnston (Schubas, Lincoln Hall), Billy Helmkamp (Sleeping Village, the music scene? Whistler), Tim Tuten (the Hideout) SARAH LARSON
Hideout co-owner The Chicago Independent Venue League shouldn’t have to Katie Tuten addresses push back against the Live Nation handouts in the Lincoln Yards the crowd. KRISLORI development—but the city doesn’t protect its own treasures. By M G
n Thursday, November 29, a include Metro, Smart Bar, the GMan Tavern, group of music venue owners Thalia Hall, the Empty Bottle, the Promontory, who’d just organized themselves Subterranean, the Beat Kitchen, Schubas, Lin- as the Chicago Independent coln Hall, Sleeping Village, the Whistler, and Venue League (CIVL) held a Martyrs’. “They own the venues, they operate Opress conference to announce their opposition the ticketing platform, and they manage the to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s fast-tracking of artists and decide where they’ll perform,” Lincoln Yards, a hugely ambitious mixed-use she says. “They have the wherewithal to development along the North Branch of the lose money until they put us out of business. not to talk about it as an exclusive deal: “Any that protect and promote their homegrown Chicago River. The members of CIVL say the And we’re the economic drivers in many operator has the opportunity to participate,” independent venues, he appears singularly project won’t just make the city’s homegrown neighborhoods.” she said. “If they want to open a venue or run a focused on providing a seat at the table to music economy less competitive—it also has On Tuesday, January 8, Second Ward al- club, they should contact Sterling Bay.” just one player—Live Nation, which already the potential to sink it completely. derman Brian Hopkins, citing the will of his No matter what the city and Sterling Bay dominates several major silos in the live That’s because at the heart of Lincoln constituents, rejected Sterling Bay’s proposal ultimately decide to do, Live Nation will re- entertainment industry. The company owns Yards—estimated to cost nearly $6 billion for a 20,000-person soccer stadium (run by main a threat to Chicago’s independent music or operates 222 venues internationally, and and cover at least 54 acres—is a partnership Live Nation between games) and an enter- economy—no one expects the company to presents concerts at many more; it represents between Chicago developer Sterling Bay and tainment district with three to fi ve venues (all cease angling for advantage here. This is a big more than 500 artists via its management Beverly Hills-based concert promoter Live controlled by Live Nation). The developer’s re- reason critics of Lincoln Yards have targeted division; and in 2010 it merged with the sim- Nation . The world’s largest company of its vised plan eliminates the stadium and calls for Emanuel. Despite his publicly professed love ilarly powerful Ticketmaster. Since 2014 Live kind, Live Nation has long been criticized for the venues to be scattered, not concentrated for Wilco and his habit of stopping by the Nation has also owned a controlling interest in upending local music scenes by acquiring and in a single district—but despite Hopkins’s in- WXRT studios to promote his agenda, the C3 Presents, the producer of Lollapalooza. Ari consolidating major venues until it has a com- sistence that Live Nation won’t own them, the mayor has a thin record when it comes to cre- Emanuel, the mayor’s brother, is a Live Nation manding share of the market. members of CIVL suspect that the company ating policies that strengthen the local music board member and a signifi cant shareholder in “We’re not against competition, but it’s will end up operating them anyway. Sterling scene. Instead of taking a cue from cities such the company. completely different when you think of Live Bay spokesperson Sarah Hamilton wouldn’t as London, Toronto, Seattle, and Austin, which Chicago is unusual among cities its size be- Nation,” says Hideout co-owner Katie Tuten, say that the Live Nation partnership is o the have created government commissions or cause its music scene remains largely democ- cochair of CIVL—whose founding venues also table, but the developer has clearly learned partnered with nonprofi ts to bake in policies ratized—within the city limits, Live Nation 26 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll owns only the House of Blues and the Hunting- whether it serves the public good remains versity of Chicago found that in 2004 the ton Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island. All the unanswered. Emanuel and Sterling Bay have city hosted 1,093 shows that generated $80 other venues where it presents shows—the been vague on several points: how Lincoln million in revenue. (The fact that this is the Less scrolling. Aragon, Subterranean, Kingston Mines, All- Yards will create economic growth, what kind most recent available citywide data is a big state Arena—are owned by other entities that of zoning oversight the city will have during part of why CIVL wants a music census.) Even do business with Live Nation at their discre- its decade-long construction, even how many back then, Chicago had the third-largest music tion. That balance will change, critics fear, if venues it will contain and which of those Live workforce in the country, after New York and the city green-lights Lincoln Yards. Nation will control. Los Angeles—its 53,104 employees had a com- The PR campaign the mayor has launched These failures of transparency may give bined payroll of more than $1 billion (though in hopes of getting Lincoln Yards approved Chicagoans flashbacks to December 2008, this includes the staff of recording studios, before he leaves o ce in April is reminiscent when Mayor Richard M. Daley privatized the labels, radio stations, and other businesses of two previous failed Emanuel crusades that city’s parking meter system for $1.16 billion not directly involved in presenting concerts). were met with similar skepticism: an attempt in a 75-year deal with Morgan Stanley . The And the report further claimed that the bene- to build a museum on the lakefront to house move was almost universally unpopular, and fi ts of these jobs went beyond the borders of the art collections of Emanuel megadonor matters only got worse when the public later the business: “Statistical analysis of counties George Lucas and a bid to get Amazon’s sec- learned that the meters had likely been under- nationwide strongly suggests that music em- ond headquarters. Lincoln Yards has likewise valued by nearly $4 billion . ployment levels are positively associated with provoked a litany of objections: over its cam- The members of CIVL are proposing mea- county-level job growth.” pus of high-rises, over its potential to cause sures they hope will encourage the mayor’s of- tra c gridlock, over the proposal to use $800 fi ce to see the economic value of independent apid gentrification remains a major million in tax increment fi nancing (TIF) funds venues to Chicago. They want a voice in city danger to any local music economy, to pay for infrastructure improvements that a airs via what they’re calling an “economic Rand other cities in the U.S. and abroad will largely benefit Sterling Bay. (The city’s advisory committee” representing the cre- have dealt with it in ways that Chicago would do well to study. According to the Music Venue More strumming. Artist’s rendering of the Lincoln Yards Trust, a UK charity launched in 2014, between development COURTESY STERLING BAY 2007 and 2015 a quarter of London’s music venues shut down, and in the UK at large that number reached 36 percent. Rising real estate values in the city attracted newcomers whose complaints about noise and crowds could doom long-established clubs—that is, if skyrocketing rents didn’t fi nish them o fi rst. Making things worse, the venues had no repre- sentation at City Hall, and their owners gener- ally lacked the time and knowledge to navigate planning regulations and other red tape. The Music Venue Trust has played an im- portant role in giving venues a coherent voice. Now representing 500 venues across the UK, it not only intercedes with government o cials to advocate for venues but also serves as an in- formation resource for both sides. Because the Community Development Commission will ative sector. They want a music census, funded organization acts independently of the venues vote on the Cortland/Chicago River Tax Incre- by the city, to quantify the value of the existing themselves, it has an air of neutrality, says Give your digital ment Financing district on February 19.) ecosystem and aid in the creation of a digital CEO and founder Mark Davyd. Its message is But Emanuel hasn’t relented. The Chicago map of every local performance venue. They cultural as well as economic: Davyd frequent- life a break. Plan Commission is scheduled to vote on the want to designate Chicago a “Music City,” with ly makes the point that current British pop revised Lincoln Yards project on Thursday, a special o ce to serve as their advocate with- stars such as Ed Sheeran learned their craft in Connect over January 24—even though no public meetings in the Department of Cultural A airs and Spe- small rooms. By the MVT’s reckoning, Sheeran music, dance & have been scheduled since Hopkins rejected cial Events (DCASE). And among other things, played 366 venues in the UK with a capacity of the stadium and entertainment district and they want to hire a “Night Mayor” to focus on fewer than 300 before he became a household more. Sterling Bay agreed to update its master plan. issues related to the city’s creative nightlife. name. Of those venues, only 216 remain open The community hasn’t been able to see the “Give us a seat at the table. CIVL members today. New group classes forming now. current proposal, and in fact there’s been no are business people, and we have expertise “How many festival and stadium headliners oldtownschool.org formal opportunity for citizen input since late that is of critical value to the development of will we produce when all the clubs are gone?” November. CIVL is one of a chorus of voices this city,” says CIVL cochair Robert Gomez, Davyd asks. demanding that the project be delayed until a owner of Subterranean and the Beat Kitchen. The organization won one of its greatest new administration takes over. The data shows that the venues deserve victories to date in 2018, when it convinced Described as a city within the city, Lincoln the attention—a 2006 report commissioned London mayor Sadiq Khan to adopt the Yards seems destined to be the mayor’s leg- by the nonprofi t Chicago Music Commission “agent of change” principle, which requires acy project, even as the question of how or from the Cultural Policy Center at the Uni- developers to assume responsibility for J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 27 continued from 27 drawn-out death by a thousand cuts. In 1995 a any negative impacts their projects create. new condominium owner in a high-rise behind For music venues, this means developers the club started making noise complaints , must properly soundproof housing built in which led to a charge from the city that, due entertainment districts—that is, it’s not the to recent regulatory changes, Lounge Ax no job of the decades-old music club next door longer had the proper license. The club was or- to forestall complaints from residents of new dered to close, but it stayed open and fought, condos when it continues to host bands past racking up thousands of dollars in citations midnight. and legal bills. Gentrifi cation ultimately ended Versions of the agent of change principle Lounge Ax’s 12-year run, but the city’s rigid have also become law in smaller cities such as approach to the noise complaints and its mud- San Francisco, Toronto, and Melbourne and dled licensing rules made a di cult situation Brisbane in Australia. The Music Venue Trust impossible. made it happen in London with nearly three “The liquor commissioner at the time didn’t years of work, including lobbying, a petition have a clue as to who we were or what we were signed by 30,000 people, and support from doing, or why we possibly could be important homegrown stars such as Frank Turner and to him. We were just a bar that was causing Paul McCartney. “This does work,” Davyd says. “When you CIVL cochair Robert Gomez (at the microphone) owns Subterranean and the Beat Kitchen. KRIS LORI have an e ective city government that wants to think about culture and the pipeline of talent, it is very receptive to the importance Rapid gentrification of small venues where people can start their remains a major eliminated the amusement tax for live cultural Music venues haven’t been a sector, he says. careers.” events in venues with capacities of fewer than “They desperately need to be one. As they be- One reason cities don’t often think of danger to any local 1,500—superseding a long-standing regula- come more of a sector, we’ll have someone to music venues as economically valuable is that music economy, and tion that imposed a 5 percent tax on every work with.” they’re micro businesses—any one venue is ticket sold by venues with capacities of more DCASE sees Chicago music as much bigger too small to stand out from the pack, and they other cities in the than 750. The old policy put venues as small as than the club scene, Kelly says, and in practice rarely work together as a bloc to force the U.S. and abroad have Metro on equal footing with the United Cen- this means the department tends to focus on city to think of their industry as a sector unto ter; under the new system, all venues bigger the nonprofit world—it awards hundreds of itself. “The majority of clubs operate under dealt with it in ways than 1,500 pay a 9 percent tax. thousands of dollars annually to organizations the radar,” says Amy Terrill, executive vice that Chicago would At the time, Emanuel described live music such as the Association for the Advancement president of Music Canada, a nonprofi t trade do well to study. venues as “part of the fabric of our commu- of Creative Musicians (AACM) , Eighth Black- association formed in 1964. “That’s one of the nities, and a part of what makes Chicago so bird , the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and the Jazz first challenges that we have as an industry, unique” in a prepared statement. “I don’t think Institute of Chicago. DCASE also makes grants and that’s why educating people is so import- we should stifl e the culture of our neighbor- to projects by individual artists and presents ant—because it’s just not obvious to someone hoods by taxing Thalia Hall in Pilsen or the free music throughout the city, including on the outside.” Metro in Lakeview at the same rate we’re tax- major downtown festivals devoted to blues, Music Canada has already convinced Toron- some problems because some person who ing a 40,000-seat concert venue,” he said. Last jazz, house, international music, and more. to to designate itself a “Music City,” a way of didn’t go to the bar was calling him,” Lounge year the city’s Community Development Com- Kelly would like to see his department pro- declaring (especially to outside stakeholders) Ax co-owner Julia Adams says. “There was no mission also approved up to $13 million in TIF mote Chicago music with something analogous that the local music industry can deliver em- task force or anyone who understood anything funding as part of a $75 million rehabilitation to 2019’s inaugural “Year of Chicago Theatre” ployment and other economic benefi ts as well about music at the city.” of the 94-year-old Uptown Theatre, owned campaign, a citywide push that hopes to unite as cultural and social ones. Once a city allies Having an advocate at City Hall who under- by long-standing local independent promoter the local theater community and reach an with its music industry, Terrill says, it can stands the music business is critical, says Ter- Jam Productions. international audience through promotions, create a range of club-friendly policies around rill. “Politicians want to understand what you The greatest music advocate in Chicago grants, events, displays, and more. “We’re parking and transportation, noise bylaws, can do to provide good jobs and tax income, so government remains DCASE commissioner going to learn about what we did for the Year venue and liquor licensing, and land use. you have to tell the story in those terms,” she Mark Kelly, who has long recognized that of Chicago Theatre and then move this idea One way to persuade a city that it must says. “We were very fortunate, because we had the city needs to improve outreach to the forward,” he says. “I can’t imagine in our future protect its music economy is to explain how a councillor who really cared about our issues music community. Since appointed in 2016, we won’t do a Year of Chicago Music. It’s not vulnerable it is, says Davyd. “The role of an and who became our internal champion, and he’s helped create programs that highlight just supporting the clubs, but it’s about getting independent, small, grassroots music venue is we had two successive mayors who were really the diversity and history of the city’s music new branding for the whole scene.” to do something that is economically stupid: supportive. Once we framed it into the kind of communities, among them the children’s con- But Kelly stops short of endorsing CIVL to put on music that nobody likes yet,” he ex- language that would appeal to them, they got cert series Juicebox and the Cultural Center proposals such as the economic advisory com- plains. “In terms of business, it’s a weird thing on board.” exhibit “Bronzeville Echoes,” which honors mittee and the Night Mayor position—he’s to do, and because it’s an economically fragile that neighborhood’s history as an incubator not convinced that either would change the model, any tiny external factor can actually hicago often seems to lack the political for ragtime, jazz, and blues. Kelly believes that economic forces that affect music venues. shut a venue.” will to look out for its music scene, but CIVL represents an important step in organiz- The role of DCASE, he explains, is to assist The fate of beloved Lincoln Park rock club Cthe Emanuel administration has taken ing Chicago’s clubs, and he likens its potential CIVL in forming partnerships with other local Lounge Ax is an instructive example. It shut its one important step to help small venues: it cut role to that of See Chicago Dance, a nonprofi t government agencies, such as city tourism doors for good in early 2000 , having su ered a their taxes last year. The mayor’s 2018 budget coalition of dance organizations. office Choose Chicago. “What I see us doing 28 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll is helping push out a compelling message to Lightfoot sees this as a matter of long-term 3730 N. CLARK ST METROCHICAGO.COM the world that you need to come here because thinking and basic equity. “We have to be fair @ METROCHICAGO the music scene is incredible. At the same and protective of these kinds of music venues time, we’re not just about supporting the local before we support the next shiny object that clubs, because music is way bigger than the puts them and their employees at risk,” she ON SALE FRIDAY! METRO, JBTV, ON SALE FRIDAY! CHARITY BOMB, clubs,” he says. “We’re thinking far bigger and says. “It just can’t be the big boys who get the & 101WKQX PRESENT BLACK LIPS more ambitious.” benefi ts and resources. We ought to be treat- STRANGE 90’S + FUCKED UP DCASE may worry about the optics of ing the music community right at all levels.” A BENEFIT FOR WOOING SAT APR 27 supporting the for-profit music sector as a Other candidates weren’t as specific, and JERRY BRYANT OF JBTV FRI MAR 8 / 8PM / 18+ 8PM / 18+ cultural resource, but other cities are already only some of them mentioned the music getting comfortable with the idea. Rick Car- community explicitly. “As someone who is a METRO PRESENTS ON SALE FRIDAY! 312UNES PRESENTS ON SALE FRIDAY! ney, vice chairman of the Music Commission fan of the Hideout, I’d hate to see anything THE THE BOUNCING in Austin, Texas, whose scene is as diverse as that would hurt them,” says Susana Mendoza, TWILIGHT SOULS Chicago’s, doesn’t see protecting for-profit the state comptroller, though she admits she THE BRONX SAD SWINGIN’ UTTERS clubs as “giving them special treatment.” His needs to learn more about the situation. @ SLEEPING VILLAGE THE BAR STOOL PREACHERS group consists of 11 volunteers appointed by Cook County Board president Toni Preck- SAT MAY 18 / 9PM / 21+ SAT AUG 17 / 7PM / 18+ the city to advise it on venue-friendly policies. winkle focuses on the TIF question, saying “I see us as advocates,” Carney says. “The that it “doesn’t make sense” for public money hospitality industry and the hotel industry to be used “for megaprojects in parts of the have advocates as well. We are working on city that might be developed anyway without behalf of the culture of the city, more than any them.” Community organizer Amara Enyia one business. We see music as much of a natu- likewise characterizes Lincoln Yards as an ral resource as Barton Springs.” example of “disparity” playing out in the city. Over the past couple years, Austin’s Music “The di erent club owners don’t have as much Commission has worked with the city and clout as the large-scale developers. Yet [the with neighborhood associations to adjust club owners] are an incredibly diverse group noise curfews in the busy Red River Cultural and provide a service to residents in the city District, which has allowed its open-air venues of Chicago, and they have a right to advocate to extend their hours on Thursdays and week- what their needs are. But if they don’t have the ends. The commission says overall revenues money that can get you the political clout, it’s have increased 15 percent since the change. not easy. I would defi nitely slow that project “Anything we can do to put more money into down.” the pockets of musicians and clubs, we’re Cities that have e ectively partnered with going to try to do that,” Carney says. The their music scenes tend to treat those scenes’ commission is also working to get an agent of commercial, fi ne arts, and nonprofi t sectors as change bill passed in Austin. part of the same entity, but Chicago has his- Like Chicago, Austin has an affordability torically seen commercial operations as bars crisis, though in its case it’s due to a tech boom fi rst and creative incubators second. Until that driving up property values. Carney believes changes, the venues will continue to face an that cities need to go beyond promoting their uphill battle to get the change they want from culture and take decisive action to protect it. City Hall. “We want to make sure we preserve what we Davyd says that smart development nur- have. So much of Austin’s success is built on tures creative hubs instead of crowding them SMARTBARCHICAGO.COM this culture. The high-tech companies came out, with the understanding that they help a 3730 N CLARK ST | 21+ here because they liked the vibe of the city and city’s long game when it comes to quality of because it’s a place people want to live,” he life—a company like Live Nation knows what says. “If we can’t take care of what we have, we to do with established artists, but it can’t can’t guarantee we’ll have any of those things.” maintain the grassroots networks that foster Lincoln Yards has swiftly become an issue that talent. Not even an apex predator can in the race to replace Emanuel in April, though survive without an ecosystem in place. CARLOS the question of subsidizing a powerful pri- “It is fundamentally wrong for a city govern- FRIDAY SOUFFRONT vate developer has attracted more attention ment to distort a marketplace with corporate FEBRUARY 1ST than the question of protecting Chicago’s welfare without addressing the entire sector,” homegrown music scene. The majority of can- he adds. “If I was Live Nation, I would be JEVON CHANGES didates agree that Emanuel should be out of campaigning the mayor of Chicago for small JACKSON o ce before the city decides whether Sterling venues. Otherwise Chicago ends up with some WELCOMES Bay receives TIF money. But Lori Lightfoot, a very fancy but entirely empty multipurpose SAMONE former federal prosecutor and police board venues where nobody goes because there is no president, goes further, saying that Chicago one to play them.” v needs to treat its music community “with more care than we do now.” @markguarino TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA METRO + SMART BAR WEBSITES + METRO BOX OFFICE. NO SERVICE FEES AT BOX OFFICE! ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 29 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! seems to have forgotten there, but a er he was called out by Tate’s sis- about them—so you can get ter, he moved out and the house was demol- FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 11...... 20 24 23 ...... MIKEDA JIGGERY-POKERYVID QUINN FLABBY FELTEN HOFFMAN SHOW 8PM SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 12...... 21 25 .....WAGNER SKIPPIN’ AMERICAN& MORSE ROCKS DRAFT them used for really cheap. ished. He did keep the front door—which had FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJANUARY 22 26 24 .....THE ..... STRAYDADYRKNAMOS BOLTSROOM MEN JAJANUARYNUARY 13...... 27 WHOLESOMERADIO DJ SKID LICIOUS DJ NIGHT Now that the secret’s out, I had “pig” written on it in Tate’s blood—and SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 14...... 23 28 ....WHOLESOMERADIO RCWHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESS BIGTO BANDNY DO 7PM DJRO NIGHTSARIO GROUP MURPHYRICKMOJO SHANDLING THOMPSON 49 9:30PM DUO 9:30PM need to buy up as many as install it at his new studio. JAJANUARYNUARY 17...... 30 MIKE AJ FELTENROSALESJAMIE WAGNER & FRIENDS JA NUARY 18...... JET NEDSON MIKE FELTON possible before the prices FEBRUARY 25 .....WHOLESOMERADIOTHEDAVID RON ANDBRAVOS RACHEL SHOW DJ NIGHT SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 19...... 24 31 .....RC SUNNDOG BIG BAND SITU 7PMATION DAVID start climbing. R. AVENUEMAXLIELLIAM ANNA FEBRUARYFEBRUARY 26 1 .....RCBIRDGANGS AMERICAN BIG 9:30PMBA TROUBADOURND 7PM NIGHT JAFEBRUARYNUARY 20...... 2 TITTY THE CITTY NEW FIRST NEWWA RDRAMBLERS PROBLEMS FEBRUARYJA NUARY 21...... 28 .....PETERDUDERON SAME ANDTO CASANONY THE DO NASTIESROVASARIOQUARTET GROUP 8PM M D SEPTEMBERFEBRUARY 26 3 .....PETER ART CASANOVA 101 PARTY QUARTET JAFEBRUARYNUARY 22...... 4 HAPPY RC 65TH BIG BIRTHDAYBAND 7PM MARCHSEPTEMBERJA NUARY 1...... SMILIN’ 24...... 27 .....DORIANPHYLLIS’TA PETERJ MUSICALBO CASONOBBY AND INNVA THE1954-2019QUARTET CLEMTONES Drummer for the SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 25...... 28 .....TOURSPROSPECT THE WICK FOUR 9PM Brokedowns MARCHFEBRUARY 2...... ICE 6 BULLY MORSE PULPITBO &X ANDWAGNER BIG HOUSE JAFEBRUARYNUARY 26...... 7 SMILIN’ THE BOBBY HEPKATS AND THE CLEMTONES MARCHSEPTEMBERFEBRUARY 3...... CHIDITAROD 29 9 .....SOMEBODY’S SOMEBODY’SSKIPPIN’ SINS SINS ANDROCKTARRINGTON 10PM FEATURINGFEATURING JOE LANASAJOE LANASA The Last Waltz Before I was SEPTEMBERJAFEBRUARYNUARY 27...... 30 10 .....OFF HEISENBERG THE VINE THE 4:30PM STRAY UNCERTAINTYBOLTS PLAYERS MARCHJA NUARY 7...... 28...... NUCLEAR7PMJAMIE WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZWA QUARKTETGNER & 7:30PM FRIENDS DJ NIGHT familiar with the Band, a EVERYOPENEVERY MIC TUESD TUESD HOSTEDAY (EXCEPT BY MIKE 2ND) 2ND) &ATAT MIKE8PM8PM roommate got me to watch OPENON TUESDAY MIC HOSTED EVENINGS BY JIMIJON (EXCEPT AMERICA 2ND) The Last Waltz on laser disc through a bomb-ass ste- reo system. Scorsese does a great job combining doc- umentary and concert film, and you can see the blos- soming of his work relation- The cover of Full Sun’s Thinkin About It ship with Robbie Robert- son—though true fans know Travis Scott’s Astroworld: Wish You Were that the rest of the band thought the film J S FRI Here Tour COURTESY OF ¡LANTISRUSS VIA TWITTER painted Robertson in a better light than them. Guitarist and vocalist for Rad Payoff 25 BENEFIT FOR MATT CREEDON The actual concert was a shit show but also In The SideBar - CANNONBALL must have kicked so much ass. Van Halen, “Unchained” I went my whole life SAT Noon - 5: UNITY FESTIVAL L C hating on Van Halen. Then one day in 2017, my 26 Funk / Soul Reader music listings coordinator Jon Theodore The fi rst time I heard the Mars bandmate Jon Olson cranked Van Halen II in 9pm - Lots of Horns! THE BUSINESS In The SideBar - IAN LEITH Volta’s De-loused in the Comatorium, Jon the Astro and I fell head over heels. I became Travis Scott’s Astroworld: Wish You Were Theodore’s drumming immediately stuck out. a full-on fanboy, and like-minded friends and Here Tour Travis Scott’s go-to catchphrase is He reminded me of John Bonham and Buddy I would run through each album and dis- WED SideBar Jazz w/ an enthusiastic “It’s lit!”—and there are really Rich—at times he played spastic, jazzy, funky, sect it, just like when we were kids. By the 30 BRIAN SCHULTZ & BRAD McCULLOUGH no better six letters to sum up his live show. proggy, jammy shit, and at other times he time I got into Fair Warning, I was obsessed THU In the SideBar - As far as stage production goes, I’ve never was super basic and solid. He was one of the with the song “Unchained.” I’ve listened to it 31 NEAL FRANCIS Country Night In Berwyn seen anything like this: two stages, pyrotech- fi rst drummers I noticed using stacked cym- two or three times a day for most of the past FRI nics, lasers, fi reworks, a giant infl atable astro- bals (and no double bass pedal). Mario Rub- year. Despite arguments with bandmates and 1 RICO Ricky’s Birthday Bash! naut wearing Air Jordans, confetti cannons alcaba and Jon Theodore are my favorite strangers online, I still believe it’s the best spewing fake dollar bills, and not one but two heavy- hitting drummers—I love Nate Smith, song ever written. Change my mind. SAT 5th 2 Annual WASHINGTON ISLAND FISH BOIL roller coasters. Travis is an incredible perform- but Theodore brings the pain! Island-Caught Whitefish Dinners - Island All-Stars Music Jam! er too, losing his mind amid all the chaos. This Run the Jewels Another case where I was late tour comes back to town in February, and I to the game. My wife has always been into Must buy dinner tix in advance - Complete Info On Website might go again. It’s that good. hip-hop, and I’ve generally liked what she’s SUN 3 The Legendary played for me. But when she put on “Oh My COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA Deadlife As far as depressive one-man-band Darling Don’t Cry” in our car, my mind melt- Directed by Scott Barnhard - Featuring Vocalist Everett Greene black metal goes, it’s tough to top Sweden’s ed. RTJ’s jams are so heavy and boastful, and Two Separate Seated Shows - 1pm and 3:30 Deadlife. Based on behind-the-beat sludge we’ve spent the past few months pounding rather than blastbeat fury, the many, many whiskey in the kitchen and chiming in on our Tue, Feb. 5 - WDCB Bluesday Tuesday with songs in Deadlife’s massive discography are favorite lines (“We are the murderous pair / Dave Specter Band & Brother John Kattke as beautiful and mournful as they are harsh That went to jail and we murdered the mur- Fri, Feb. 8 - The Bad Examples and brutal. The project, helmed by a man who derers there”). I feel badass just listening to it. Sat, Feb. 9 - The Mudmen (Pink Floyd Experience) goes by Rafn, just seems to be getting better as time goes on—on all six of last year’s releas- Jon Theodore with Queens of the Stone Age Full Sun, Thinkin About It Sweet Pete of Let’s Mon, Feb. 11 - Buddy Holly 60th Anniversary Concert es (six!), the material is among his best and at the 2014 Reading Festival VIA YOUTUBE Pretend Records stayed with me during Ian’s most complex yet. Party and brought me goodies, including Sat, Feb. 16 - Patrick Sweany / The Greyhounds this LP. Both Full Sun and the label are from Sun, Feb. 17 - Teflons / Sunny Side Up Paiste 2000 series I feel like I’ve discovered The original Le Pig studio In 1992 Trent Bloomington, and there must be something in a little secret here, and I’m nervous to let the Reznor rented a house at 10050 Cielo Drive the water there—many of my favorite bands Tue, Feb. 19 - Sean Rowe world know about it. Paiste made this semi- in Benedict Canyon north of Beverly Hills, over the past 15 years hail from southern Thu, Feb. 21 - Mary Lane & The Static Blues Band pro cymbal line for a six-year run in the late where he built a studio named Le Pig—the Indiana. Thinkin About It ticks all my boxes: 80 and early 90s. They sound great and look same house where Sharon Tate and four other lo-fi , loud guitars, tight vocal harmonies, fast Fri, Mar. 1 - Bono Brothers super sharp (with brilliant fi nish options and people died at the hands of the Manson Fam- drums. If you don’t fall in love with its opening Sat, Mar. 2 - Marcia Ball / Sonny Landreth slick blue labels), and best of all, everybody ily. He recorded most of The Downward Spiral track, “Vultures,” then I can’t save you.
30 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of January 24
b ALL AGES F MUSIC N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG . .
JUST ADDED ON SALE THIS FRIDAY! Témé Tan THURSDAY24 Avishai Cohen (at Constellation) PICK OF THE WEEK Robert Ellis - Texas Piano Man Mineral Tancred opens. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, with special guest Ian O'Neil (of Deer Tick) 2424 N. Lincoln, $35, $30 in advance. 21+ Omara Portuondo The Soft Moon confront the past FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG Earlier this decade, new bands recontextualizing through moody, industrial darkwave 90s emo and the torrent of 90s emo bands reunit- THURSDAY, JANUARY PM ing (even for just a few anniversary tours) provoked a surge of interest, but it’s been petering out over Sammy Miller and the past couple years. This has led to situations such as elder statesmen Giants Chair playing a The Congregation rare reunion show in late 2017 to a half-fi lled room at Chop Shop. It’s also meant a bit less anticipa- SATURDAY, JANUARY PM tion around shows by highly infl uential Texas outfi t Mineral than when they first regrouped in 2014. A Case of Two: Joni That is, except for where it counts: among their & Leonard Uncovered fans and, most important, among the musicians in the band. Mineral broke up in 1997 because they’d THURSDAY, JANUARY PM had enough—even though they’d already signed a contract with Interscope (for an album they’d never make). Fi een years later, they were inspired Kasey Chambers to reunite when Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Atkins Campfi re Tour USA • with guest Carly Burruss asked them to play at his band’s 20th anniversary. While that show never materialized, it led to Mineral FRIDAY, FEBRUARY :PM re issuing their two albums, 1997’s The Power of Fail- WBEZ Podcast Passport Presents ing and 1998’s End Serenading. Now the band are back on the road behind their fi rst new material in NPR'S Embedded two decades, One Day When We Are Young (Min- eral Deposits), a two-song ten-inch packaged with FRIDAY, FEBRUARY PM a book that celebrates the group’s 25th anniversa- ry. The gushing guitars that open “Aurora” convey Dead Horses with special guest the eff ervescent euphoria that elevated Mineral to The Brother Brothers • In Szold Hall near-mythical status a er their demise, and as the song continues it reveals where they could go in SATURDAY, FEBRUARY PM the future; the placid multitracked vocal melodies that blossom during the bridge move with a patient Masters of Hawaiian Music: vigor that suggests Mineral still have untapped cre- ative resources. —L G George Kahumoku Kr., Nathan Aweau & THE Soft Moon See Pick of the Week at le . Kawika Kahiapo Hide and Thoom open, with DJ sets by the Pirate T S M H T DJ P T Twins. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $16- SUNDAY, FEBRUARY PM Thu 1/24, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $16-$20. 17+ $20. 17+ Mariachi Los Camperos
Juan Wauters Charlie Reed opens. 9 PM, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY PM Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $12. 21+ In Szold Hall LEDBYSINGERSONGWRITER and multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez, Oakland’s the Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Juan Wauters moved Kitka Soft Moon create a visceral mix of darkwave, industrial, and postpunk music that recalls to Queens with his father in 2002, when he was 17, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY PM the heyday of 1980s counterculture. Nearly a year after releasing their fourth LP, Criminal and worked alongside him at a picture-frame J (Sacred Bones), the group are on the road with a reworking of that album, November’s Judy Collins Criminal Remixed, in their back pocket. If Criminal is the tortured sound of Vasquez coping SATURDAY, FEBRUARY PM with the abuse he su ered as a child and guilt from his subsequent abusive behavior, then Criminal Remixed is the sound of that guilt fueling a drug-induced dance-party nightmare. Bonnie Koloc Both records stand on their own merits, but the opening track of Criminal, “Burn,” is musi- ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL cally and lyrically a great introduction for the uninitiated. Over alternately reverb-treated N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL and distorted postpunk guitar, cavorting bass lines, and propulsive beats, Vasquez sings, Global Dance Party: Salsa Congress “Eyes / Refl ecting the person that I am / And it burns / I wish I could be somebody else / WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES ’Cause it burns.” Live, Vasquez is joined by bassist Luigi Pianezzola and drummer Matteo FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE Vallicelli, who create a sonic tension that pairs nicely with the moody lights of their shows. Beppe Gambetta But as dour as the Soft Moon may come across in their performances, the hypnotic, post- Mineral PETER BESTE industrial dirges of their tourmates, Chicago’s Hide, are even darker. Break out your black- OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG heart emojis for a night of emotive industrial gloom. —S M ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 31 MUSIC
continued from 31 factory to save money to bring over the rest of the family. In 2008, having picked up the guitar, he got together with some neighborhood friends to start lo-fi garage band the Beets, which became a favorite on the DIY circuit in New York and beyond. A er a few years Wauters also began a solo project, whose fi rst two albums—2014’s N.A.P. North Ameri- can Poetry and 2015’s Who Me?—trade some of the Beets’ irreverent rock infl uences for sunny, 70s-style folk rock, with his eff ervescent voice fl owing over laid-back fi ngerpicked guitar. As lovely as they are, those records leave the impression of an artist in search of his voice, and in 2017 Wauters headed to Mexico City to write his next album, only to leave to take a fi lm role in Argentina. Once that was done, though, he set out on an adventure through Latin America, recording equipment in tow, and collab- orated with local musicians he met along the way. The new LP La Onda de Juan Pablo, the first of three Wauters plans to release this year, contains music recorded in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Argenti- na, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, and New York. The songs MØ FRYD FRYDENDAH combine his usual friendly charisma with the spir- it, musical traditions, and folk instrumentation of the places they were recorded. Wauters also sings the whole album in his native language (a fi rst for him), but even if you don’t know a word of Span- away from taking the le to task nearly as much as ish, his message comes through clear: make the the right. Confl ict’s sharp, focused, and dense cata- most of life, no matter your circumstances. As the log holds up better than those of many of their 80s saying goes, “Home is where you are,” and Wauters peers (though drummer Francisco “Paco” Carre- embodies it throughout La Onda. —J L no, who died in 2015, is sorely missed). A er play- ing a raw set at Riot Fest last year that left many local fans wanting more, they’re back in town—and in close quarters—as part of a short U.S. jaunt. Con- FRIDAY25 flict’s strengths lie in Jerwood’s uncompromising guts, his utter commitment to his music and his mes- Conflict Cemetery and the Breathing Light sage, and the big heart he has underneath it all—just open. 10 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, read his 2015 interview with 13 Stitches, where he $17, $15 in advance. 17+ waxes poetic about the time Joe Strummer refused to give him an autograph and insisted on a hug London’s Confl ict are one of the original anarchist instead. —M K punk bands, and though it’s been nearly four decades since they formed, their Thatcher-honed rage feels as relevant in today’s world as ever. Lemon Twigs Jackie Cohen and Jungle Green Driven by original vocalist Colin Jerwood, the open. 9 PM, Metro, 3703 N. Clark, $21, $18 in group hew to politics that are far more from the advance. 18+ punch-a-Nazi school of activism than the let’s-sit- around-and-discourse model—and they don’t shy On Do Hollywood, the 2016 debut full-length from Long Island duo the Lemon Twigs, barely-of- drinking- age brothers Brian and Michael D’Add- ario show off their impressive chops and unending appreciation of Todd Rundgren. The album made a splash, exciting old rockers while introducing a whole new generation to the lush prog-glam under- belly of the 1970s. On the follow-up, August’s Go to School (4AD), the D’Addario brothers get even more ambitious—they’ve written and recorded a bizarre rock opera that tells the story of a chim- panzee who’s raised by humans and tormented by his peers at the neighborhood school. As a whole, Go to School isn’t great: its 16 tracks try to cram in too many ideas, its fl at production hinders the story- telling, and the way the D’Addario brothers use their voices to play diff erent characters in the narrative comes across as goofy. But it’s not a total dud—in certain moments the Lemon Twigs shine brighter than ever before. Album opener “Never in My Arms, Lemon Twigs COURTESY HIGH ROAD TOURING Always in My Heart” showcases their pitch- perfect, layered vocal harmonies, and seriously ripping musi-
32 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll ® Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC
This Saturday! January 26 Park West This Tuesday! January 29 Vic Theatre Tickets purchased for the Riviera honored
Shamir JASON MACDONALD
cality; my personal favorite, “Queen of My School,” Shamir Melo Makes Music opens. 9 PM, Empty sounds like an honest-to-goodness outtake from Big Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $18, $15 in advance, 21+ Star’s Radio City. Sure, Go to School doesn’t reach the greatness of the Lemon Twigs’ fi rst album, but Shamir rose to the spotlight with the release of his the D’Addario brothers are still young. Everyone 2014 song “On the Regular,” but though the dancy, makes mistakes, and this is a minor one—I think cleanly produced music made the singer- songwriter these guys are going to turn out just fi ne. —L what he calls an “accidental pop star,” it pigeon- C holed him into a stylistic box that proved detrimen- tal to his creativity. With the popularity of that sin- gle and his 2015 debut album, Ratchet (XL), Shamir MØ Abra opens. 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffi eld, found himself facing a question that plagues many $30. 18+ rising artists a er their fi rst brushes with success: How can you change up your sound when doing After my first listen to last year’s Forever Never- so goes against the expectations of your label and land (Columbia), the latest full-length from Danish audience as well as mainstream trends? All that singer- songwriter MØ, I realized that I had stum- pressure led him to consider quitting music and bled into a bizarre experiment. When I listened to triggered a struggle with mental illness (he’s since the electro-pop album on Spotify, I hardly noticed become open about being diagnosed as bipolar, to the typically disruptive between-song ads (no, I help destigmatize mental health conditions). But don’t have a Spotify subscription—what of it?). I read with 2017’s Hope and Revelation and this past year’s this result a couple of diff erent ways, neither wholly Resolution , Shamir seems to have found the cre- negative or positive. Ultimately, though the record ative freedom he longed for. On the new record in is being spun as a sort of art-pop tour de force in particular, he’s incorporated more rock instrumen- line with the work of luminaries such as Grimes, tation than pop, and his emotional songs show his it’s mostly just a bunch of middle-of-the-road club considerable growth as a songwriter. On “Panic,” bangers. While there are occasionally fascinating his distinct countertenor voice fl oats over crunchy, rhythms and interesting vocal flows (on “Nostal- dirty guitars as he sings, “I thought that I would fall gia” she delivers some lines like a slam poet), those apart / I thought there was something wrong with elements are trumped by sweeping, echo-lad- my heart.” His vocal style meshes at least as well en choruses and that lame cascading synth water- with his more recent rock sound as it did with his fall you’ve heard 1,000 times before. Though you early, dancier tunes. If Shamir’s past couple years really can feel MØ committing to each and every are any indication of his ambition and talent, even Saturday, April 27 breakdown, you might not even notice the collabs he might not know what his future music will be Riviera Theatre with Diplo (“Sun in Our Eyes”) and Charli XCX (“If like—other than sincere and pure. —I Y Thursday, February 21 It’s Over”) if you didn’t consult the liner notes, and Riviera Theatre On Sale This Friday at 10am! ultimately Forever Neverland seems a little over- worked—which might explain the four-plus-year Thair Carlile and Akenya open. 9 PM, Schubas, stretch since her debut full-length, Bikini Daze. All 3159 N. Southport, $13, $10 in advance. 18+ BUY that said, if one of the record’s fi ve singles dropped TICKETS at the club while you were out on the dance fl oor it As the singer for local R&B band Astro Samurai, AT wouldn’t make you stop moving. —K W Thair has shown he has the fresh skills and J ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 33 MUSIC continued from 33 Thair ERIK M KOMMER magnetic allure to hypnotize a crowd. That serves SATURDAY26 him well in his solo project, in which he makes huge, colorful collage pop. Thair’s self-released 2018 Black Praxis Sound PRoject 7 PM, debut EP, Summer Luhh, has a rough-hewn DIY Transition East, 2548 E. 83rd, $10. b charm; its lo-fi electronic clacks and occasionally chintzy synth tones help make his lo iest ideas feel For decades, musicians around the world have closer to earth. The clap-happy “Thotty Dysmor- found free jazz to be a sturdy and flexible plat- phia” demonstrates Thair’s ability to build big club form. Musicians as varied as German reed play- tracks with layers of unpolished raw material, while er Peter Brötzmann, South African drummer Louis the slyly sumptuous “Handle Me” spotlights his Moholo-Moholo, and Japanese-American multi- impressive vocal range. Though Thair can already instrumentalist Tatsu Aoki have expressed their cul- do a lot with a little, I imagine what he’s accom- tural and personal identities through the form. But plished on Summer Luhh will open him up to spaces its original practitioners were African- Americans, where he can expand his palette. —L G and artists such as John and Alice Coltrane, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Nicole Mitchell have used it to articulate the cultural heritage and
unique challenges that black Americans face. Black ble off and delivering it cleanly with a sharp sense Praxis Sound Project is a new ensemble from that of purpose. But he’s a cra sman who knows how to tradition. The group came into being when Davu have fun, and you can’t help but get the feeling that Seru—a drummer from Saint Paul, Minnesota, he enjoys the creative process. Last month’s A Mix- whose adroit playing has upli ed the music of Rafa- tape as God Intended, Vol. 1 is a mixtape in the clas- el Toral, George Cartwright, and his own No Terri- sic sense—and not just because local hip-hop label tory Band—visited Chicago in 2018 to play with the Machine Wash Music released a cassette version Microcosmic Sound Orchestra. Seru and Orches- with a J-card that jacks the layout of old Maxwell tra multi-instrumentalists David Boykin and Eliel tape inserts. It plays as a single 19- minute track, with Sherman Storey began a separate endeavor last its moods and instrumentals separated by intro- fall that intends to bring together African-American ductions from Defcee’s pals in the scene, includ- free-jazz musicians to perform work that, accord- ing rapper Joseph Chilliams and producer and DJ ing to a written statement, “embodies principles of Green Sllime. Defcee illustrates his world within the self-determination, community wellness, and self- sprawling Chicago scene throughout the recording, mastery and which will outlive the boundaries of frequently referencing his fellow local hip-hop art- period and genre.” An early performance record- ists: “Last seen at the bar arguing with two Tomor- ed last November at Storey’s space, Transition East, row Kings / Asking Rich to borrow rings to rock at combines imploring saxophone phrases with layers the Bada-Bing.” “Rich” is Rich Jones, whose month- of percussion in ways that recall Sun Ra and the Art ly hip-hop series, All Smiles, hosts Defcee’s belat- Ensemble. For this concert, the original trio will be ed Mixtape release party tonight. Opener J Bam- joined by like-minded Baltimore-based saxophonist bii dropped the three-song Retrograde just days Jamal Moore. —B M before the end of 2018; the EP’s light funk synths, tender soul keys, and gentle percussion shadow her every lyrical twist and turn. —L G Defcee J Bambii, Crashprezz, Clew Rock, and DJ Na$im Williams open. 10 PM, Tonic Room, 2447 N. Halsted, $10. 21+ Nao Xavier Omar, Sat 1/26, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 2047 N. Milwaukee, $29. 17+ Chicago rapper and educator Defcee is one of the great talents in this city, and he so actively supports Nao is a British singer whose music nestles in the the local music community that you’re even more space between neosoul and the new generation likely to catch him rocking in crowds than perform- of alternative arty R&B. Her light, dexterous vocals ing in front of them. As he raps on the sprawling have some of the texture of Billie Holiday, while 2018 Soundcloud single “Summer Courses,” atop a electronic soundscapes on tracks such as “Anoth- thin, funky synth line and wistful string samples, “I’m er Lifetime,” from 2018’s Saturn (RCA), suggest a the white rapper with no name at the Pivot shows, mellower FKA Twigs. At times, Nao’s contradicto- diddy boppin’ / Just me and these beats, but I’m ry impulses leave her mired neither here nor there; frontin’ like the city’s watching.” Defcee raps as if “Love Supreme” weds a Coltrane title to a default all of Chicago depends on it, rounding every sylla- midtempo beat and banal lyrics about “palm trees 34 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll SURF ROCK SUNDAY WITH DJ MIKE SMITH
Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. MUSIC 1035 N WESTERN AVE CHICAGO IL 773.276.3600 WWW.EMPTYBOTTLE.COM Nao COURTESY RCA RUBYHORNET & CLOSED SESSIONS PRESENT RECORDS THU OPEN MIKE EAGLE TUE WÜLFPAC 1/24 NESS HEADS • FESS GRANDIOSE (BEAT SET) 1/29 CASHED CHECKS DJS RTC & CA$H ERA
HARD COUNTRY HONKY TONK WITH 5PM-FREE THE HOYLE BROTHERS WED DJUNAH FRI 1/30 SEAXES • BOTTOMED 1/25 SHAMIR MELO MAKES MUSIC • DJ JILL HOPKINS EP THU OVEF OW ( RELEASE ) 1/31 BLEACH PARTY 11AM EUCHRE TOURNAMENT BABY MONEY & THE DOWN PAYMENTS $5 W/ RSVP ‘MIRRORED’ SERIES FEAT. SAT MELINA AUSIKAITIS / STEVE MARQUETTE / 1/26 JIM DORLING / CHELSEA BRIDGE / ‘NEVER BETTER’ 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR 6PM-FREE ANDREW SCOTT YOUNG / SKYLER ROWE FRI 2/1 P.O.S. WINDY CITY SOUL CLUB ANDER OTHER
FREE MON SAT 1/28 ENGINE SUMMER MELKBELLY THE HAZY SEAS • FAUX FURRS 2/2 REZN • HITTER
and breeze.” But in her best moments, such as on sual old style with lyrics to match (“Fingertips to “Drive and Disconnect,” she fuses her nostalgia and trace my lips / Tension till the moment gives”), with 2/6: LAS CRUXES (EP RELEASE), 2/8: GLITTER CREEPS PRESENTS BOY HARSHER, 2/9: HANDMADE MARKET (12PM-FREE), 2/9: NAKED GIANTS, experimentation into a seamless, fizzing groove. echoing electronic production and multitracked 2/10: V-DAY EUCHRE HANG (11AM-FREE), 2/10: BOY HARSHER, 2/13: FEMINIST HAPPY HOUR: GALENTINES DAY POP-UP PARTY (7PM), 2/14: The song starts with an extensive gentle funk sway, vocals that slide into the future. Though Nao sings PHUONG-DAN, 2/15: MILO (FINAL CHICAGO SHOW), 2/15 @ CAAH: PITCHFORK MIDWINTER AFTERPARTY FEAT. GROUPER (7:30PM), 2/16: then starts to dissolve into a jazz-fusion piano motif “I’m here to fulfi ll your curiosity,” her music is less DARK FOG (RECORD RELEASE), 2/17: PITCHFORK MIDWINTER AFTERPARTY FEAT. TORTOISE, 2/19: PUSSY FOOT (FINAL SHOW), 2/22: TY in which two melody lines layer over each other and about novelty than about extending a tradition, by SEGALL & WHITE FENCE, 2/23 @ OUTSIDE THE EMPTY BOTTLE: MUSIC FROZEN DANCING: A WINTER BLOCK PARTY (1PM-FREE) create lovely off -kilter voicings. “Curiosity” is a more showing that the R&B of tomorrow and yesterday NEW ON SALE: 3/1: BLOODIEST, 3/2: ABSOLUTELY NOT (RECORD RELEASE), 3/4: THE C.I.A., 3/15: KAMAAL WILLIAMS, 3/16: OOZING typical Nao eff ort; a throbbing slow jam in the sen- can get it on together. —N B v WOUND (RECORD RELEASE), 3/18: ELEPHANT GYM, 3/27: SNEAKS, 4/4: MDOU MOCTAR, 6/15: @ BOHEMIAN NATIONAL CEMETERY: MONO
CAJUN DANCE PARTY FEAT. THE MID-CITY ACES Don’t Miss UPCOMING SHOWS 1200 W RANDOLPH ST, CHICAGO, IL 60607 | 312.733.WINE 1.27 CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER 1.27 SUSAN WERNER PLAYERS: CAFÉ CULTURE 2.3 3RD ANNUAL HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2.6 Marcus Johnson with special LANGSTON HUGHES: A CELEBRATION trey IN POETRY, PROSE & SONG FEATURING guest Kathy Kosins REGINA TAYLOR, MALCOLM LONDON, MCLAUGHLIN TERISA GRIFFIN AND MORE 2.9 Anders osborne 1.28 & THE SOUNDS OF ZAMAR 2.8 MARC ROBERGE (OF O.A.R.) 2.10 FOX CROSSING STRINGBAND - ALBUM 2.10 Anita Wilson with Dante Hall RELEASE BRUNCH SHOW 2.14-16 10,000 maniacs- annual RACHAEL 2.11 RUEN BROTHERS valentine’s day run YAMAGATA 2.12 HUDSON TAYLOR WITH CRAIG STRICKLAND 1.29-30 With RADNOR & LEE 2.13 PATRIZIO BUANNE 2.18 Donavon Frankenreiter 2.17 CHICAGO PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER ALEJANDRO PLAYERS: ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE 2.22-23 Bobby McFerrin & Gimme5: 2.17 KANDACE SPRINGS Circlesongs ESCOVEDO With DON ANTONIO BAND 2.19 VICTOR GARCIA STEVE EARLE with shannon mcnally 2.20-21 PROCOL HARUM 2.25-26 1.31-2.2 The Crossing Tour 3.3 JD SOuther & Karla Bonoff 2.24 THE FOUR C NOTES - FRANKIE VALLI TRIBUTE 2.24 FUNKADESI 3.4-5 AAron NEville MS. LISA 2.27 ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAY- JAZZ GOES FISCHER TO THE MOVIES 2.4-5 & Grand Baton 3.1 WE BANJO 3 ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 35 CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME
EARLY WARNINGS b ALL AGES F WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK Daughters, Blanck Mass 3/8, Never miss 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ a show again. Dead & Company 6/14-15, 7 PM, Wrigley Field Sign up for the Deerhunter 2/17, 8 PM, Lincoln newsletter at Hall, 18+ chicagoreader. Disturbed, Three Days Grace GOSSIP 3/8, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, com/early Rosemont Elder Island 3/19, 8 PM, WOLF Schubas, 18+ Ben Pirani 3/22, 9 PM, Empty Elvis Depressedly 2/28, 6 PM, Bottle A furry ear to the ground of Cobra Lounge Planes Mistaken for Stars 3/6, Jeremy Enigk 4/9, 8:30 PM, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ the local music scene Beat Kitchen, 17+ Procol Harum 2/20-21, 8 PM, Fleetwood Mac 3/1, 8 PM, City Winery BROKENPRAYER were one of Gossip United Center Radar State 2/2, 8 PM, Cobra Flesh Eaters 3/10, 8 PM, Lin- Lounge, 17+ Wolf’s favorite hardcore bands of the past coln Hall Rivers of Nihil, Entheos 3/5, decade. The defunct local dark punks’ blis- Steve Gunn, Gun Outfi t 4/19, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ tering tunes, wrapped in the lamentations 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Todd Rundgren 4/23-24, 8 PM, of vocalist Scott Plant, fairly drip with Health 4/20, 8:30 PM, Bottom Athenaeum Theatre Lounge Travis Scott 2/21, 8 PM, United deliciously febrile contempt! Since 2016 Wanda Jackson 3/14, 8 PM, Center Plant has been fronting Droids Blood, SPACE, Evanston Snow Patrol 5/7, 7 PM, Riviera whose lineup also includes BP drummer Dengue Fever MARC WALKER Jerusalem in My Heart 3/26, Theatre, 18+ Nick Donahue. On their new self-titled 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Spiritualized 4/9, 8 PM, the Judas Priest 5/25, 8 PM, Rose- Vic, 18+ tape, they vary the tempos more and even James, Roger Alan Wade, mont Theater, Rosemont Vince Staples, JPEGmafi a 3/12, add some borderline poppy hooks, but NEW Black Eyes Vermillion, and UPDATED Stephen Kellogg 3/22, 9 PM, 8:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, there’s also lots of grimy, slightly industrial more 5/4-5, 11 AM, Reggie’s Lincoln Hall, 18+ Fri 12/14, 10 AM, 18+ synth gunk and bass murk—“Ceaușescu’s Aborted, Cryptopsy, Benight- Mountain Goats 5/15-16, Jawbox 7/27-28, 7:30 PM, William Ryan Key 3/9, 8 PM, Teenage Fanclub 3/6, 7:30 PM, ed 3/22, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Metro, 7/27 sold out, second Beat Kitchen Metro, 18+ Dream” and “Unreality” sound deranged Club, 17+ Fri 1/25, 10 AM, 17+ show added, on sale Fri 1/25, King Buff alo 3/15, 9:30 PM, The-Dream 2/28, 8 PM, Lincoln in the best possible way. On Friday, Janu- Black Lips, Fucked Up 4/27, Old Time Relijun 5/3, 9:30 PM, 10 AM Hideout Hall, 18+ ary 25, Droids Blood play the Burlington 8 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 1/25, Hideout John Moreland 4/6, 8 PM, King Crimson 9/10, 8 PM, Audi- Turnover, Turnstile 5/2, 6 PM, with D-beat specialists Riesgo (featuring 10 AM, 18+ Ben Ottewell & Ian Ball 3/17, SPACE, Evanston, late show torium Theatre Concord Music Hall Bouncing Souls 8/17, 7 PM, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on added, early show sold out Kiss 3/2, 7:30 PM, United Viagra Boys 3/28, 8:30 PM, members of Sin Orden and Los Crudos), Metro, on sale Fri 1/25, sale Fri 1/25, 10 AM Center Empty Bottle Primitive Teeth, and Compressions. 10 AM, 18+ Eric Prydz 3/3, 10 PM, Concord La Luz 3/22, 9 PM, Sleeping Xiu Xiu 5/17, 9 PM, Empty Gossip Wolf hasn’t had a chance to see Call Me Karizma 3/29, 7 PM, Music Hall, 18+ UPCOMING Village Bottle Open Mike Eagle since the rapper’s bril- Chop Shop Rebirth Brass Band 7/5, 8 PM, Le Butcherettes 2/20, 8 PM, Yob, Voivod 3/27, 8 PM, Thalia The C.I.A. 3/4, 8:30 PM, Empty SPACE, Evanston, on sale Acid Mothers Temple, Yaman- Cobra Lounge, 17+ Hall, 17+ liant homecoming set at the Pitchfork Bottle Fri 1/25, 10 AM taka // Sonic Titan 4/13, Jenny Lewis 3/30, 7:30 PM, Yoshi Flower 2/5, 8 PM, Music Festival last year—and in the mean- Dengue Fever 5/1, 9 PM, Riley, Davey Muise, Michael 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Riviera Theatre, 18+ Schubas, 18+ time, he’s dropped the reliably sharp, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 1/25, Barr 2/21, 6:30 PM, Cobra Action Bronson, Meyhem Lords of Acid, Orgy, Geni- Yuri & Pandora 3/16, 8 PM, witty, and charming EP What Happens 10 AM, 18+ Lounge Lauren 2/23, 6 PM, Concord torturers 3/7, 8 PM, Bottom Rosemont Theater, Rosemont Nora En Pure 3/1, 10 PM, Rise Against, Face to Face Music Hall, 17+ Lounge, 17+ Zomboy 2/8, 9 PM, Aragon When I Try to Relax (also the fi rst release Sound-Bar 4/28, 7:30 PM, Chicago The- Aesthetic Perfection 10/5, Jeff Lynne’s ELO 6/27, 8 PM, Ballroom, 18+ from his new label, Auto Reverse). On Foals 4/27, 8 PM, Riviera atre, on sale Fri 1/25, 10 AM 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ United Center Zveri 5/31, 7 PM, Concord Thursday, January 24, Mike headlines the Theatre, on sale Fri 1/25, Santana, Doobie Brothers Herb Alpert & Lani Hall 5/4-5, Andrew McMahon in the Music Hall, 17+ Empty Bottle as part of Ruby Hornet’s 10 AM, 18+ 8/4, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino 8 PM, City Winery Wilderness, Flor 3/2, 8 PM, Jeff rey Foucault 5/1, 7:30 PM, Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on American Football 3/30, 9 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ relaunched Digital Freshness concert SPACE, Evanston, on sale sale Fri 1/25, noon Metro, 18+ Men I Trust 2/16, 8 PM, Subter- SOLD OUT series (copresented by Closed Sessions). Fri 1/25, 10 AM Son Volt 4/27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Alec Benjamin 4/23, 7 PM, ranean, 17+ Beat-scene prince Fess Grandiose and Foxing; Now, Now 4/19, 8 PM, Hall, on sale Fri 1/25, 11 AM, 17+ Lincoln Hall Misfi ts, Fear, Venom Inc. 4/27, Dave Davies 4/20, 8 PM, up-and-coming rapper Ness Heads open. Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 1/25, Damo Suzuki’s Network 5/4, Beths 3/6, 8 PM, Lincoln 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, SPACE, Evanston 10 AM, 17+ 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Hall, 18+ Rosemont FKJ 5/17, 8 PM, Concord Music The modern-funk mavens at Chica- Robert Glasper Trio 3/28, 7 Three Cities Trio 3/10, Black Moth Super Rainbow Kevin Morby, Sam Cohen Hall, 18+ go label Star Creature Universal Vibra- and 9:30 PM, City Winery, on 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ 3/20, 8 PM, Sleeping Village 6/7-8, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jess Glynne 3/30, 7:30 PM, tions think DJ Kool Hersh of the Boogie sale Thu 1/24, noon Tortoise 2/17, 8:30 PM, Empty Black Queen, Uniform 3/16, Bob Mould Band 2/22-23, 8 PM, the Vic Munsters has a tremendous collection Robyn Hitchcock 4/3, 8 PM, Bottle, on sale Fri 1/25, 10 AM 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Metro, 18+ Conan Gray 4/8, 7:30 PM, Bot- SPACE, Evanston, on sale Tritonal 3/1, 8 PM, Concord Body/Head 3/7, 7:30 PM, Art Muse, Walk the Moon 4/12, tom Lounge of funk, disco, soul, and boogie. He’s put Fri 1/25, 10 AM Music Hall, 18+ Institute of Chicago 8 PM, United Center Beth Hart 4/25, 7:30 PM, Park together an expansive mix of hard-to-fi nd Charlie Hunter & Lucy Wood- Jeff Tweedy 3/22-23, 8 PM, the Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Kacey Musgraves 1/31, 8 PM, West, 18+ local tracks from 1976 through ’86, and ward 4/26, 8 PM, SPACE, Vic, on sale Fri 1/25, 10 AM, 18+ Angel, Necrot 3/4, 6 PM, Chicago Theatre LP 2/8, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Star Creature is releasing it on cassette Evanston The Twilight Sad 5/18, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ My Brightest Diamond 5/9, Ella Mai 3/3, 8 PM, Concord Mabel Kwan 2/21, 8:30 PM, Sleeping Village, on sale Kasey Chambers 1/31, 7 PM, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Music Hall, 18+ as Attack of the Chicago Boogie. On Sat- Constellation, 18+ Fri 1/25, noon Maurer Hall, Old Town School National Parks 4/13, 6 and Massive Attack 3/23, 8 PM, urday, January 26, Wild Prairie Vinyl & Lil Mosey 4/4, 7 PM, Concord Valley Maker 5/1, 9 PM, of Folk Music 9 PM, Schubas, 18+ Chicago Theatre Vintage hosts a free release party with Music Hall Hideout Cher, Nile Rodger & Chic 2/8, Tom Odell 4/30, 7:30 PM, Mumford & Sons 3/29, 7:30 PM, DJ sets by Wild Prairie co-owner Alex G, Alice Merton 4/26, 7:30 PM, Vandoliers 3/8, 9 PM, Hideout 8 PM, United Center Thalia Hall United Center Bottom Lounge Varsity 3/22, 7:30 PM, Thalia Cherry Glazerr 2/23, 9 PM, Anders Osborne 2/9, 7 and Rainbow Kitten Surprise 2/8-9, Night Moves host Jesse Sandwich, Boogie Mono, Emma Ruth Rundle Hall, 17+ Bottom Lounge, 17+ 10 PM, City Winery 8 PM, Riviera Theatre Munsters DJs (Hersh, Tim Zawada, Shaz- 6/15, 6 PM, Bohemian Nation- Ric Wilson 4/13, 8 PM, Bottom Chicago Open Air with Jerry Paper 3/23, 8:30 PM, Robyn 3/6, 8 PM, Aragon am Bangles), and nightlife veteran Tone B. al Cemetery, on sale Fri 1/25, Lounge, 18+ System of a Down, Tool, Empty Bottle Ballroom Nimble. —JR N L G 10 AM Yheti 5/3, 10 PM, Bottom Ghost, Prodigy, Meshuggah, Parcels 3/1, 9 PM, Lincoln Lennon Stella 3/28, 7 PM, Moonrunners Music Festival Lounge, 17+ Gojira, Beartooth, and more Hall, 18+ Metro with Amigo the Devil, Harley 5/18-19, SeatGeek Stadium, Perfume 4/5, 8 PM, Chicago Mike Stud 2/1, 8 PM, Bottom Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail Poe, Possessed by Paul Bridgeview Theatre Lounge v [email protected].
36 CHICA O READER - JANUARY ll By Dan Savage SAVAGE LOVE
be every couple’s goal—and if lifestyle.” The host, Michael sports and would totally you want to avoid becoming C., is engaging, funny, and give it a try! I’ve tried to get so frustrated that you make wise, and his interviews with more information from him a conscious decision to end cuck couples and bulls are on where these jokes are your relationship (or a sub- incredibly illuminating. If coming from, but he always conscious decision to sabo- you’re considering entering changes the subject. And Furry porn, cuckolding, and water sports tage it), FURS, then opening into a cuckold relationship, recently when I tried to Advice on navigating consent and pleasure it up needs to be a part of you’ll defi nitely want to start make a joke back, I said the the discussion. listening to Keys and Anklets. absolute wrong thing: “OK, R. Kelly, settle down.” This : Please discuss cuckolding : I’m a twentysomething was right before we watched in all its forms. Also all of woman engaged to a Surviving R. Kelly. I’m afraid the emotional risks and wonderful twentysomething that joke may have sent potential sexual rewards. —A man. I’m the kinky one. any potential water-sports P C I’ve dabbled in BDSM and play down the toilet. (Pun : I’m an early 30s hetero of being desired. We’re ests direct him away from defi nitely have a taste for intended!) Any advice on woman in a monogamous talking about starting a you—means going without a: It would take two years’ pain and degradation. My how to get him to open up relationship with my mid- family, and I’m scared that the pleasure of being wanted worth of columns—even boyfriend, meanwhile, next time he makes one of 30s hetero guy. We’ve been the pressures that come the way you want to be want- more—to discuss cuckolding considers himself a these jokes? together ten years, married with parenthood would only ed, desired the way you want in all its forms, unpack all feminist and struggles with —W T seven, no kids. We have a make this worse. —F to be desired, and fucked the the risks, and game out degrading me. I’ve been E R lot of fun—traveling, shared U R way you want to be fucked. all the potential rewards. very patient and settled for hobbies, mutual friends, etc. S Your guy was up-front Since I can’t possibly do very vanilla sex for a couple a: You might want to reread We have sex fairly regularly, with you about his sexu- that, APC, I’m going to send of years now. However, the fi rst letter in this week’s and it’s not bad. However, a: Nothing I write is going ality before you got mar- you to Keys and Anklets every now and then, he’ll column, WATER, and then his primary sexual fetish and to fi x this—and nothing I ried. Everyone should be, (keysandanklets.com), a joke about peeing on me dig into the Savage Love main turn-on is furry porn— write is going to fi x him, of course, but so few peo- terrifi c podcast dedicated when we shower together. archives and check namely, cartoon images. He FURS, not that your guy ple are—particularly people to “the cuckold and hotwife I’m curious about water out the thousands of J doesn’t self-identify as a is broken. He is who he is, who have been made to feel furry; he doesn’t have a fur and he had the decency to ashamed of their sexuality or suit or fursona. To his credit, let you know who he was their fetishes or both—that he was up-front about this before you married him. we’re inclined to heap praise with me once we started But nothing I write is going on people who manage to getting serious. However, I to put you at the center of clear what should be a low think at that younger age, your guy’s erotic inner life. bar. At the time, you mistook I confl ated the emotional Nothing I write is going to “emotional openness” and openness and acceptance inspire him to initiate more your willingness to accept of his sexuality with actually (or at all) or cause him to be his sexuality for both sexual being satisfi ed with the more enthusiastic about sex. compatibility and sexual sat- sexual component of our Nothing I write is going to isfaction. I think you owe it to relationship. He seems only make your guy want you the yourself to be up-front with marginally attracted to me, way you want to be wanted, your guy before you have and it bums me out that his desire you the way you want kids. He’s getting a good deal more intense sexual drives to be desired, and fuck you here—decent sex with his are funneled into furry porn. the way you want to be partner and the freedom to ADMIRAL I feel somewhat helpless, as fucked. take care of needs his part- ★★ THEATRE ★★ his fetish doesn’t allow me So the question you need ner can’t meet. And you’re to meet him halfway. Real- to ask yourself before you free to ask for a similar deal— life furry action (fur suits and make babies with this man decent sex with your guy and the like) does not interest is whether you can live with- the freedom to take care of him (I’ve off ered). We have out the pleasure you get needs he can’t meet. sex regularly, but I always from being desired. Is that There’s a far greater initiate, and his enthusiasm is the price of admission you’re degree of risk involved in middling until we get going, willing to pay to be with this your going outside the rela- at which point I think we man? Maybe it once was, but tionship to feel desired, of 3940 W LAWRENCE both enjoy ourselves. But is it still? Because if monoga- course; you seeing another I’ve found that this turns my is what you want or what man or men comes bundled OPEN 7PM TO 6AM into a negative feedback he wants or what you both with emotional and physical loop, where his lack of initial want, FURS, then choosing to risks that wanking to furry ADMIRALX.COM interest leads to me being be with this man—choosing to porn does not. This isn’t an (773) 478-8111 less attracted to him, and be with someone you enjoy apples-to-apples compari- so on. I consider myself a spending time with, who’s son. But if your shared goal MUST BE 18 TO ENTER fairly sexual person, and “not bad” at sex, but whose as a couple is mutual sexual I get a lot of pleasure out most passionate erotic inter- fulfillment—and that should ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 37 550 W. Van Buren Street, Chica- TWO PETS WELCOME! No HOYNE AVENUE APT. #2, JOBS go, Illinois 60607. weight limit...Fantastic south CHICAGO, IL 60612 The facing 1 BR/1 bath at The State LEGAL true and real full name(s) GENERAL The Northern Trust Co. is Parkway! Hardwood throughout and residence address of seeking a Specialist, Accounting living area. open & updated kitch- NOTICE the owner(s)/partner(s) is: IT Project Manager, Chicago, in Chicago, IL, with the following en, stainless steel appliances, JOSEPH BOTTIGLIERO IL. Need measurable exp in requirements: Bachelor’s degree oak cabinetry & breakfast bar, 719 N. HOYNE AVENUE SAVAGE LOVE Cadence ORCAD, Cadence Alle- in Business Administration, generous living room, plenty IN THE CIRCUIT COURT APT. #2 CHICAGO, IL gro, Downstream, BluePrint and Finance or Accounting and 6 of closet/storage, renovated OF PULASKI COUNTY, 60612, USA (1/31) CAM350. Employer req a Bach years related experience. Prior bathroom, large bedroom accom- ARKANSAS DOMESTIC deg or frgn equiv in CS, Engg, or experience must include the modates king size bed & dresser, RELATIONS 14TH DIVI- Notice is hereby given, related fi eld with at least 5 yrs of following: maintain data integ- HUGE closet, 24-hour doorman, SION ADELAIDE BUCK pursuant to “An Act in continued from 37 exp in this or a related position. rity and accurate controls for workout room, sundeck & bike PLAINTIFF VS CASE NO: relation to the use of an May req travel/relocation to client multiple accounting sub-ledgers storage, Burton & State, short 60 DR 2018-4680 DAVID Assumed Business Name letters I’ve responded to from people who sites. Send resumes to SunPower and their linkage with the Oracle walk to Red line, Clark St. bus ROLON DEFENDANT in the conduct or trans- Consulting LLC, 3401 W. VanBu- PeopleSoft general ledger (4 stops, all utilities except for WARNING ORDER The action of Business in the failed to establish basic sexual compatibility ren Rd, Ste. A, Chicago, IL 60624 yrs); monitor finance processes electricity & wifi included, $1875/ Defendant, David Rolon, is State,” as amended, that a related to banking operations month, one month deposit, valet hereby warned to appear in certifi cation was registered before marrying their partners. Settling SALES REP: The Chicago for Controllers department and parking $265/month, available the Circuit Court of Pulaski by the undersigned with down requires some settling for, of course, Reader is seeking high-end sales monthly financial close using now, call Mary 312-343-3666 County in Domestic Rela- the County Clerk of Cook representative to sell print and Midas, Summit and Spectrum tions, 14th Division, 401 W. County. Registration Num- and everyone winds up paying some price digital advertising for the weekly applications and investigate and Markham, Little Rock, AR ber: Y19000288 on January print newspaper and online prod- resolve any issues arising from 72201 within thirty (30) days 9, 2019 Under the Assumed of admission. But sexual compatibility is ucts. Base plus commission and these processes that impact the and answer the Complaint Business Name of THE benefits. Salesforce experience Corporation’s fi nancial reporting of the Plaintiff, Adelaide SOFT TOUCH with the something you want to establish before the a bonus. Equal Opportunity (6 yrs); monitor fi nance processes Buck, and upon failure of business located at: 3525 Employer. Email cover letter and related to trust and custody oper- Defendant to do so, the N. RACINE AVE APT 2W, wedding, not a er. resume to: Patti Flynn pflynn@ ations for Controllers department Complaint filed herein will CHICAGO, IL 60657. The chicagoreadercorp.com and monthly fi nancial close using be deemed to be admitted. true and real full name(s) At the very least, WATER, don’t marry a FundMaster (AS/400) application WITNESS my hand and and residence address SALES ADMIN: The Chicago and investigate and resolve seal as Clerk of the Circuit of the owner(s)/partner(s) man to whom you can’t make simple obser- Reader is seeking sales admin- any issues arising from these Court of Pulaski County, is: TIFFINY YATES 3525 vations about sex and ask simple questions istrative support position. Sales- processes that impact the Corpo- Arkansas, this 9TH day of N. RACINE AVE APT 2W, force experience a bonus. Equal ration’s fi nancial reporting (4 yrs); January, 2019. (1/31) CHICAGO, IL 60657 (1/31) about sex. Like this statement/question/state- Opportunity Employer. Email serve as project lead for new Or- cover letter and resume to: Patti acle software design, testing and Notice is hereby given, VALENTINE’S DAY ment combo: “You joke about peeing on me, Flynn pfl ynn@chicagoreadercorp. implementation (4 yrs). Apply on- pursuant to “An Act in com. line at www.northerntrustcareers. relation to the use of an ISSUE and I want to know if you would actually like com and search for Req. # 19003 Assumed Business Name in the conduct or trans- Developer: Provide progr Want to send a note to to pee on me, because I would like to be peed action of Business in the solutions to build new, enhance, XCast Labs Inc. needs a Com- someone special? An old State,” as amended, that a maintain current systems. Exp puter Programmer (BS in Comp BEDROOM fl ame, a missed match, or on.” Pissing on you doesn’t make him R. Kelly, certifi cation was registered with: C# / ASP.NET / VB.NET. Science with knowledge in Java). an ongoing partner? The by the undersigned with a man who has been credibly accused of rap- Building scalable, predictable, Mail resume to Vladimir Smelyan- 1701 N. Talman apartment Reader wants to be your the County Clerk of Cook high-quality, high-perf web apps, sky 191 Waukegan Rd, Ste 310, Beautiful 2 Bedroom apartment, destination for love. Call County. Registration Num- ing underage girls and sexually and emotion- web services, MVC apps using Northfi eld, IL 60093 central heating AC, hardwood 312-392-2934 or email ber: Y19000321 on January the Microsoft tech platform. floors, appliances good condi- snlane@chicagoreadercorp. Building/maintaining systems: C# 11, 2019 Under the As- ally abusing—even imprisoning—adult women. CLASSIFIEDS Sacia Orchards, Inc, in Gales- tion, laundry, storage available. com to submit your mes- sumed Business Name of / ASP.NET / VB.NET / SQL Server ville, WI is hiring 2 temporary Close to CTA Blue line. One cat, sage. First ten words free, If R. Kelly had raped numerous women and APARTMENT TWO with the 2012R2/ jQuery / AngularJS / Cook/Chef from 3/3/2019 to $1,300/month. Call Fabio 773 $10 for additional twenty business located at: 719 N. MVC / WebApi / Bootstrap. BS 5/24/2019: 40 hrs/ week. Cook/ 988 2073 words. girls in the missionary position, WATER, all of Engineering in any field + 2 Chef will plan and coordinate yrs exp as developer or web menu, prepare breakfast, lunch the other men out there who enjoy sex in the developer. Res: Benefi t Express and dinner, clean and organize Services, LLC, 1700 E Golf Rd, kitchen, appliances and dishes. missionary position wouldn’t have become Suite 600, Schaumburg IL 60173 MARKETPLACE Cook/Chef will coordinate food rapists by default. Where there is consent— JOBS supply request as well as check GENERAL ES&A Technical Sr. Associ- in of food/supply orders. In enthusiastic consent—then it, whatever it is ate - Chicago, IL: responsible addition, Cook/Chef will ensure FOR SALE ADMINISTRATIVE for delivery of data relationship to keep a clean and organized Never (missionary position sex, peeing on a partner), management (“DRM”) consult- kitchen, dining and delivery areas 8 Drop vans 53’ SALES & ing projects. Utilize technical at all times. Will sanitize kitchen 20 aluminum/combo fl atbeds 48’ isn’t abusive. Sex play involving pain or degra- proficiency in the design & surfaces regularly throughout the miss a 6 reefers 53’ MARKETING development of enterprise-wide day. Will maintain meal records. dation often requires more detailed conversa- 3 conestogas 53’ master data applications. Build Must have knowledge of gen- Int’l 9200, Ford Aeromax, GMC show FOOD & DRINK & deploy master data solutions erally accepted well balanced tions about consent, of course, but jokes and Brigadere & data governance procedures nutrition guidelines. Must be able Financing available SPAS & SALONS for Huron client engagements. to lift 50 lbs. Worker must have hints are a shitty way to negotiate consent for Call Bruce at 815-674-5230 or again. Work eff ectively on a team with 3 months verifiable experience. 815-842-2888 any kind of sex. Always go with unambiguous BIKE JOBS Huron leadership & peers as well $13.54/hr. (prevailing wage). as client personnel. Supervise Guarantee of 3/4 of the work- statements (“I would like to be peed on”) and GENERAL junior employees. Must have days. All work tools, supplies, HELP WANTED MBA + 2 yrs exp. w/ providing as- and equipment furnished without direct questions (“Would you like to pee on sessments for projects, gathering cost to the worker. Free housing House Cleaner needed $600/ requirements, designing integra- is provided to workers who Weekly me?”). v tion solutions, and building DRM cannot reasonably return to their Working Days: Monday and REAL applications for Oracle Essbase, permanent residence at the end Friday Planning, HFM, and PeopleSoft of the workday. Transportation Time Schedule: 9AM - 2PM applications; designing workfl ow Send letters to [email protected]. ESTATE and subsistence expenses to the Email: jenniferbenny18888@ EARLY solutions using Oracle Data worksite will be provided or paid outlook.com Relationship Governance for by the employer, with payment to Download the Savage Lovecast every RENTALS Finance, Products, Address be made no later than completion Book, and Locations master data SERVICES WARNINGS Tuesday at thestranger.com. of 50% of the work contract. groups; serving as technical lead Send Resume or contact: Illinois FOR SALE Remodeler. Licensed & insured. @fakedansavage with large scale (e.g. $1 million Department of Employment Kitchens, bathrooms, additions, or more) projects & coordinating Security, Migrant/Farm Workers chicagoreader.com/early attics, & basements. Great refer- NON-RESIDENTIAL with off shore teams to implement Programs, 33 State Street, 8th ences. Twenty six years in busi- DRM solutions; building web Floor, Chicago, IL 60603, (312) ness. Call Howard 773 478 2500 ROOMATES applications in JAVA, SQL, and 793-1284, or your nearest State Redstone Builders Inc. Quality JavaScript. Alternatively can have Workforce Agency and reference Craftsmanship. Bachelor’s in Computer Science, job order 2462179. MIS, or Finance/Accounting & Obsessed with erotic writing, 5 yrs exp. w/providing assess- Sr. Associate (Chicago, IL), MARKET- and fueled by an unrelenting pas- ments for projects, gathering Source investmt. opportunities; sion, my married chicks long to requirements, designing integra- Conduct financial and business chat with strangers. Join us, free PLACE tion solutions, and building DRM due diligence on investmt. oppor- of charge, at MyMarriedChicks. applications for Oracle Essbase, tunities, Conduct on-site due dili- com Planning, HFM, and PeopleSoft gence with mgmt teams of target GOODS applications; designing workfl ow co.; Perform financial modeling Danielle’s Lip Service, Erotic solutions using Oracle Data for acq’s inc. forecasting and Phone Chat Only! 24/7, Must SERVICES Relationship Governance for capital structure design. Job req’s Be 21+, All Credit Card and Debit Finance, Products, Address MBA or rltd w/2 yrs of private Cards Accepted. All Fantasies Book, and Locations master data equity exp. Mail cvr ltr & resume HEALTH & and Fetishes are Welcomed. groups; serving as technical lead to N. Idehen, The Vistria Group 773-935-4995. WELLNESS with large scale (e.g. $1 million LP, 300 E Randolph St, Ste. 4030, or more) projects & coordinating Chicago, IL 60601. INSTRUCTION with offshore teams to imple- African spiritual heal- ment DRM solutions; building ing and reading MUSIC & ARTS web applications in JAVA, SQL, Traditional healer help- and JavaScript. 80% travel to ing people ease prob- NOTICES unanticipated worksites in North REAL lems. Financial, health, America. Telecommuting permit- family, misfortune, MESSAGES ted when not traveling. Exp may ESTATE marriage, love, job, legal, bad be gained concurrently. Please RENTALS luck, drinking, smok- LEGAL NOTICES apply to Huron by mailing resume ing, academic, etc. to Cara Perlow, Huron, Manager, BEDROOM Call 773 956 0754 Or ADULT SERVICES Recruiting Systems & Operations, 872 888 5108. 38 CHICA O READER - JANUARY llll find hundreds of reader- recommended restaurants Never miss a exclusive video features show again. and sign up for weekly news EARLY WARNINGS chicagoreader.com/food Find a concert, buy a ticket, and sign up to get advance notice of Chicago’s essential music shows at chicagoreader.com/early. ll JANUARY - CHICA O READER 39