CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY SINCE | DECEMBER
The flu explainer Chicago didn’t know it needed
By A O 10
Photo Boxes to the Philippines keep loved ones close 15 Year in Review The best of 2018 in food, music, fi lm, and theater THIS WEEK CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER | VOLUME NUMBER
FEATURES
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR FEATURE
IWASRUNNING errands Saturday and distracted, so when I hit the Flu Season(’s Fullerton-Pulaski intersection it took me a moment to fi gure out what was going on. A man with a walker and several full shopping bags had Greetings) apparently begun crossing the street a few feet outside of the crosswalk How to keep Chicago and then stopped. A man, in other words, with a host of complicated ac- healthy this winter coutrements was standing, for no discernible reason, in the middle of a chaotic intersection. Drivers often get aggressive at that corner. Some of B A the lanes are unmarked, so drivers tend to lose their sense of where a car O 10 might fi t on the road. There’s an occasional lag in a light change, and the horn-honking comes quick and voluminous. Yet there was a man, in the actual center of a turning lane on Fullerton. Just standing there. My mind fl ashed on all the headlines I might read about this situation in all the cities I spend time in: New York. Phnom Penh. Vienna. Detroit. Tbilisi. The imagined headlines were gory and unkind, and in the made- up stories that ran beneath them the man always died a horrible violent death because he was standing, immobile, in a busy intersection. Yet in front of me stood a man who wasn’t moving because he had started crossing the street but then realized that he needed a moment to enjoy the sun on his face. The driver to my right noticed him, and pulled PHOTO ESSAY up alongside him and then turned, suddenly, stopping anyone from zipping too quickly down the only occasionally marked lane and hitting him. A driver headed in the opposite direction along Fullerton also Gift boxes to pulled over, stalling in the center eastbound lane, creating an e ective if temporary barrier to anyone taking the corner too quickly and failing the Philippines to spot him. The turning driver in front of me could not move forward The balikbayan without running him over. So we all just waited. tradition helps loved No one honked. No one yelled. No one crashed into anyone else. A ones feel connected. couple moments passed. The sun shone. Then the man started moving B P N 15 again, continuing his path across the street. The eastbound driver eased away. The westbound driver straightened her vehicle and drove along. And when the intersection was clear, the driver in front of me turned south on Pulaski, and everyone went about their days as if nothing worthwhile had happened. There will be no headlines for this story. But maybe there should be? It reminded me of our cover story this week, a fl u explainer for this amazing city by Aimee Ortega. Of course we have plenty of wrapping MUSIC FEATURE up to do this issue too, with year-end wrap-ups from Mike Sula, Ben Sachs, Leor Galil, and more. Another look back: We inadvertently left Overlooked o an image credit in our last issue, when we featured a selection from Eduardo Kac’s 1999 Genesis on our cover (courtesy Henrique Faria Fine Chicago hip-hop Arts, New York). And one note on the future: next week’s fl ash fi ction issue will cover It’s hard to give enough two weeks, and will be really great, because it is written by you. It’s a love to every great local must-have! We don’t want to tell you to start camping out by your release in a year. neighborhood Reader boxes now, but we do promise to bring you hot B L G 32 chocolate if we spot you next to a tent holding an I LOVE FLASH FICTION sign.—A E M
O I B S F S’
2 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll THIS WEEK HERE’S THE QUESTION: Can a community-centered
T R independent paper survive in IN THIS ISSUE - @ this environment? CITY LIFE 04 Shop Window Alexandria Wills keeps the art of hand cra ed footwear alive in Logan P T B Square E C A E M M E P S K 05 Transportation The year in review in M E D federaland localtransportation news K H D E K S C L S K NEWS & POLITICS D P J R 06 Joravsky | Politics More trickle down C E A L nonsense from Mayor Rahm M E P M THAT’S A E J L 08 Isaacs | Culture Year end charitable giving S W D I decisions are easy when you use our columnist’s B J M S executive pay test! S W M D L G S M E B W FOOD & DRINK M L C 19 Year in Review Our food critic takes issue L C F L C with the Chicago Magazine take downand P F UP TO YOU, fi nds plenty to celebrate in local cuisine T A E C S C D A ARTS & CULTURE E B D C L C 22 Theater Ten outstanding shows of M F I G A Another Midsummer Night’s Dream at Chicago G J H J H I H D J M Shakespeare? a closer look at the cab in K S K Agency Theater Collective’s Hellcab and M M B M S M J R CHICAGO. capsule reviews of Barney the Elf a ballet less N M O L P J P B S For the first time, we’re asking readers to Nutcracker a holiday retelling of Die Hard and K S D S the absurdist drama The Old Woman Broods K W A W chip in to show their support for the 27 Small Screen New webseries Diagnosis ------Boring gets depression rightthrough comedy D D independent-once-again Chicago Reader. J D 28 Movies The Mule and Vox Lux on the (And, if you do, we’ll even put your name in this American condition Ben Sachs’s tenOK more D P E & P K K very paper in January.) than thatbest fi lms of the year and a handful of new releases that won’t send out with S M P F a bang S A R A M GIVE A BUCK: A R MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE L M -H N S ChicagoReader.com/Backer 36 Shows of note Shemekia Copeland C R M T P Josefi na L A VanGogh Macabre and other O M excellent shows this week S N L ------CLASSIFIEDS D C 40 Jobs [email protected] 40 Apartments & Spaces -- 40 Marketplace STMREADERLLC B P D R L T E R 41 Savage Love Attracting Doms hot revenge S J S porn and a letter writer off ering to pray for our A- S V columnist Dan Savage off ers advice for every C C E B situation ------42 Early Warnings Anvil Kid Capri Aaron R ISSN - Neville Planes Mistaken for Stars T Pain and STM R LLC many more just announced shows S M S 42 Gossip Wolf New duo Good Fuck combines C IL club beats and oddball lyrics at the Hungry C © C R Brain Alex Barnett brings Champagne Mirrors P C IL to Sleeping Village and local cock rockers I A C R R Love Rich promise gi s at the Liar’s Club show R R T ® WANT TO DONATE VIA CHECK? this weekend Make checks payable to “Chicago Reader” and mail to: Chicago Reader, Suite 102, 2930 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616. Include your mailing address, phone, and email—and please indicate if you are okay with us thanking you by name in the paper. ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER3 A W W Fullerton Avenue THE alexandriawills.com Open by appointment only M E X I C A N CITY LIFE
1 9 6 7 celebrating 51 YEARSYEARS OPEN 7 days a week until X- mas
please for Extended☎ just steps from the holiday hours Dempster “L” stop 847-475-8665 Shop Window 801 Dempster Evanston Handmade for your feet Designer Alexandria Wills keeps shoemaking alive. #TVKUV9TKVGT 2GTHQTOGT! “WHENIMADE my fi rst pair of shoes, it was %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 strenuous. You had to hammer, and you’re %4'#6+8' 2'12.' tired after that,” says Alexandria Wills. “But 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN then you put them on. They fi t and they look great.” Wills was hooked and wanted to sal- &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF vage what she considers a lost art. *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU In April the Alexandria Wills Studio Show- room opened in a stretch of Fullerton Ave- /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 nue in Logan Square near Black Oak tattoo .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP studio, Burlington Bar, Park & Field restau- rant, and Viking Ski Shop. Wills furnished her
bright boutique with shoemaking equipment— ISAGIALLORENZO/ALEXANDRIAWILLS YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO hammers, swatches of leather, a large array OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO of shoe lasts, and a sewing machine. On dis- mothers, both of whom had a knack for sew- A er two years, Wills packed her belong- NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT play are a collection of products made with ing. “It’s always been natural for me to work ings into a mini school bus and moved back KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT non-toxic glue and the softest of leathers, with my hands,” she says. While in high to Chicago. “I realized that if I wanted to sourced from a New York family-owned tan- school she attended jewelry, sculpture, and grow my business I needed a more aff ordable nery that employs ethical practices. Signature ceramics classes—the latter in a South Kore- place,” she says. pieces come in “hair-on-hide” leather, since an boarding school far in the mountains. As For $350 customers can attend a shoemak- the raw pattern makes each unique. a teenager Wills had a studio in the Flatiron ing workshop at the studio. On a recent Satur- Shoes are usually made to order and range Arts Building and sold her jewelry in craft day a ernoon, anaesthesiologist and amateur in price from $150 to $1,200. Besides footwear, shows all over Chicago. She then moved to cook Tristan Levey, 30, learned how to tailor a Wills makes and sells fanny packs ($50-$65), New York to learn shoemaking. She bought pair of shoes to fi t his own feet. “I have high please recycle bags ($95-$300), wallets ($30-$60), belts, key- equipment and produced hundreds and hun- arches and I spend weeks breaking in shoes, this paper chains, jewelry, and even dog collars. dreds of shoes in a tiny apartment in Harlem. which causes pain . . . It will be nice to avoid Twenty-three-year-old Wills learned how “I made plenty of shoes out on a fi re escape,” that,” he says. “This is slow food for your feet.” to create her own clothing from her grand- she remembers fondly. —I G 4 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll CITY LIFE
city broke ground on the new Damen Green TRANSPORTATION Line station near the United Center. On a smaller scale, I’m a fan of the colorful new canopy, freeform seating fi xtures, plant- ers, and mural that were recently installed What a long, at the Paulina Brown Line station as part of the Lakeview Low-Line project. This “place- making” initiative will eventually create a strange trip half-mile walkway under the tracks to the Southport stop. But things aren’t looking completely rosy it’s been for local transportation options. Due to the 2018 was a big year for local growing popularity of Uber and Lyft, Chi- transportation and 2019 should be cago-area public transportation ridership even more eventful. continued to slump this year—the Regional Transit Authority projected a 2.6 percent By J G drop by the end of 2018 compared to 2017. The 31st Street bus narrowly escaped cancella- tion due to low ridership. The Lakeview Low-Line treatment at the Brown Line’s Paulina station JOHNGREENFIELD Meanwhile, the $41 million Loop Link ex- press bus corridor has resulted in only mod- est speed gains. The Active Transportation hings in Washington, D.C., are nuttier a spin instructor and triathlon coach who move security hardware from the docks, but Alliance also put out bus service report cards than ever in the wake of the multiple was run over by a truck driver in Greektown after our report came out, Divvy sped up the for all 50 wards, and found that most parts Trump-related felony convictions during the morning rush. reinstallation of the parts, finishing in No- of the city got mediocre or failing grades for earlier this month, but at least some Fortunately, the city made significant vember, and the problem seems to be under speed and reliability. Clearly if we’re going reason prevailed this year in regards progress on creating safer bike routes this control now. On the bright side, the system to stop the ridership bleeding, we need to Tto federal transit policy. year. The Chicago Department of Transpor- turned its highest-ever profi t for the city this implement robust time-saving features Early on, the Trump administration an- tation installed 30 miles of new and upgraded year, $3.7 million. like camera-enforced bus lanes and prepaid nounced its intention to eliminate federal bikeways, including 7.2 miles of “neighbor- Transportation-related equity concerns boarding. funding for public transportation, and as of hood greenway” side-street routes, 11 miles continued to be a major issue this year. This Several developments in recent weeks this summer the Federal Transit Administra- of buffered lanes and four miles of new or summer the Chicago Police Department suggest next year is going to be a big one for tion was hoarding $1.4 billion that Congress upgraded protected bike lanes. The bike-lane admitted that officers have written expo- transportation, especially as the mayoral had appropriated for new transit projects. renovations included adding concrete curbs nentially more tickets for bike infractions race heats up and a more transit-friendly The stonewalling jeopardized 17 initiatives to protect riders on the popular Dearborn, in some communities of color compared to Democratic administration takes over in around the country, including plans to dou- Milwaukee, and Elston lanes. majority-white neighborhoods as a strategy Springfi eld. In early December City Council ble-track the South Shore commuter line to Dockless bike-share debuted on the far to conduct searches for contraband. moved to take over an abandoned rail line to create express service between Chicago and south side in 2018, with most of the trips tak- And, in the wake of skyrocketing housing create a transit route from the future Lincoln Michigan City, Indiana. ing place in or near Beverly. The pilot ended prices along the Bloomingdale Trail corridor, Yards development to the Loop. Thankfully it looks like Trump’s war on in November, but locals gave it a thumbs-up, gentrifi cation fueled by new parks and recre- Also this month, the CTA board approved transit is ending, since on November 28 the so hopefully dockless cycles will soon be ation amenities is a growing concern. Earlier contracts for construction of the $2.1 billion FTA announced it was releasing $281 million deployed in a larger service area, perhaps the this month, in advance of the construction Red and Purple Modernization project on to pay for five projects. More funding an- entire city. of the Paseo trail in Little Village and Pilsen, the north side, and preliminary engineering nouncements are expected in January, when Meanwhile, Car2go point-to-point City Council passed an ordinance doubling for the $2.3 billion Red Line extension on the the Democrats gain control of the House. car-sharing launched here in July, albeit in the amount of on-site affordable units re- south side. And, no longer seeking reelection, With all the chaos in Washington, it’s nice a limited area due to Not In My Back Yard quired in new developments in the area. But Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently called for tak- to live in a city where rational transportation resistance from some private car owners some housing advocates say the law doesn’t ing the unpopular, but necessary, step of rais- policy has become more or less a given in re- and aldermen. And dockless electric scooter go far enough to prevent displacement. ing the state gas tax to fi x Illinois’ crumbling cent years, and 2018 was no exception—plen- companies jockeyed to set up shop here, There was progress on several transit infrastructure and properly fund transit. ty of good stu happened for biking, walking, lobbying in Springfi eld and doing demos at station projects in 2018, including the com- So buckle your seatbelts or strap on your and transit this year. street fests. pletion of the $203 million Wilson stop rehab, bike helmets, folks. It looks like 2019 is going That’s not to say that there weren’t some The Divvy system weathered an existential and major work on the $280 million 95th to be a wild ride. v low points. Drivers had fatally struck six crisis this summer, when many folks fi gured Street Red Line station reconstruction, which people on bikes on Chicago streets as of mid- out how to steal bikes from stations. City is slated to wrap up by New Year’s. Renova- John Greenfield edits the transportation December. In August cyclists were particu- emails the Reader obtained showed that the tions of the Garfi eld Green and Je erson Park news website Streetsblog Chicago. larly shaken by the death of Angela Park, 39, problem was due to a foolish decision to re- stops are also moving along, and in April the @greenfieldjohn ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER5 Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show on WCPT, AM, NEWS & POLITICS Monday through Friday from to PM.
Punch one—Mayor Rahm’s proposing a con- compounded. And those who came on after- stitutional amendment to eradicate the lan- ward get an uncompounded raise that’s equal guage in the state constitution that protects to half of the consumer price index for the already retired pensioners from cuts. That year. Last year that would have been about a way the city could cut millions and millions of 1.5 percent increase. dollars in benefi ts from thousands and thou- Roughly a third of the city’s workforce is in sands of retired cops, firefighters, teachers, the second, less generous tier. And that num- and other former municipal employees. ber will rise through attrition as older workers Punch two—Mayor Rahm’s rushing through retire and younger ones take their place. the City Council an $800 million (at least) TIF As I said, this bill passed in 2010, a year handout to help Sterling Bay underwrite its before Rahm took o ce. For better or worse, the Lincoln Yards development. he had nothing to do with it. And now here he So basically he wants to take money from is trying to pretend he’s the only courageous working- and middle-class retirees so he can politician in the state. shower it on upscale projects in rapidly gen- Now, I’m not going to say Rahm lied when trifying north side neighborhoods that prob- he said we need a constitutional amendment ably don’t need to be underwritten because— to cut pensions, even though we don’t need a they’re being built in rapidly gentrifying north constitutional amendment to cut pensions. As side neighborhoods. we saw in 2010. And don’t kid yourself, people—that Lincoln Let’s just say he was, oh, misleading the Yards development will most defi nitely raise public by creating a non-existent boogieman,
SETHANDERSON your property taxes. As I’ve explained before. which he then knocked down. After which he So when all is said and done, Rahm’s not congratulated himself for having the courage proposing to save you money in taxes. He’s to tell the truth. Even though he wasn’t tell- merely trying to spend more of that money ing the truth. And even though you know as POLITICS on well-to-do developers by taking it from well as I do that he wouldn’t dare to propose retirees. snatching money from retirees if he were, in OK, so Rahm doesn’t come right out and say fact, actually running for reelection. Trickle-down nonsense he’s taking money from geezers so he can give As opposed to heading off into the great it to gazillionaires. No, he’s too tricky for that. blue yonder, where I wouldn’t be surprised Rahm’s latest proposal would cut benefi ts to municipal Instead, he acts as though he’s this coura- if he winds up as an investment banker—like employees to fund development projects. geous reformer who’s doing us all a big favor he was before he went to Congress—using his by going after fat-cat pensioners. Consider contacts in government to win approval for By B J this quote from the fi rst draft of his December deals like Lincoln Yards. 12 pension address to the City Council: “What In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rahm kind of progressive, sustainable system guar- winds up making a fortune giving speeches antees retirees 3 percent annual compounded to various business associations where he ay back in the early clinic-and- progressive economic views in a heartbeat, pay increase, when infl ation has been at basi- tells them things like what he told the Tribune school closing days of Rahm’s once he realized the times had changed. cally zero and current employees have at times after his council speech: “To my friends in the mayoral reign, I had a friendly Just as he’s done with gay rights, immigra- been furloughed, laid o or received 1 percent progressive circles, don’t just think you’re debate or two with a leftie I’ll tion, and even the legalization of marijuana— raises? The mantle of progressivity must not going to tax the wealthy as a way to grow this call Chris over whether our if you recall, in 2014, Rahm declared he would just be more taxes on the wealthy, it must be economy. You’re going to cut jobs doing that.” Wmayor truly believed all the trickle-down non- always resist any attempt to legalize reefer. more respect for our workers’ paychecks.” All right, folks, let’s consider that in the sense he was spewing, or whether he was only Well, eight years later, I hate to say it, but— That’s rich. Protecting the well-to-do from context of his Lincoln Yards handout and his spewing it ’cause he thought it might advance it looks as though Chris was right and I was higher taxes in the name of workers’ pay- proposed pension cuts. his political career. wrong. checks. My advice to city workers—stay young According to Rahm, it’s an unsustainable Not that one’s necessarily better than the Certainly, the winds of change have moved forever so you never get old and have to retire. waste to distribute tax dollars to thousands other. most Democrats to the left on economic is- Just so you know, state legislators more of retirees—many of whom live in the city. But Chris contended that Rahm was a true-be- sues—even our billionaire governor-elect J.B. or less dealt with that 3 percent compound it’s job creation to give billions to a handful of lieving neoliberal, who thought he was doing Pritzker advocates a progressive state income issue eight years ago when they passed—and developers and their unknown fi nancial back- the world a favor by taking from the poor and tax. then-governor Pat Quinn signed—a pension ers, wherever they live. middle class and giving to the rich. But Rahm? Well, his latest proposals would, law that effectively created two tiers of It doesn’t get any more trickle-down than I said, no, he’s more of an opportunist, with if adopted, hit the poor and middle class of pensioners. that. Just call him Rahmy Reagan. v his fi nger in the air, trying to fi gure which way Chicago like a one-two combination from Mike Thanks to that law, employees who came on the wind was blowing. And he’d switch to more Tyson. the workforce before 2011 get the 3 percent @BennyJshow 6 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll When it comes to crafting real taste in our blends, two ingredients are all we’ve ever needed. Tobacco Ingredients: Tobacco & Water Use your smartphone to request paperless gift certificates at AmericanSpirit.com*
Find hundreds of Reader- recommended restaurants, exclusive video features, and sign up for weekly news chicagoreader.com/ food. CIGARETTES ©2018 SFNTC (4) *Website restricted to age 21+ smokers ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER7 Chicago Reader 12-20-18 M18NA634 RSD Blue Light Wood.indd 1 12/11/18 1:32 PM Chicago Reader 12-20-18 M18NA634 RSD Blue Light Wood Steven Mosher N/A Please reference code 277874 M18NA634 on all billing RSD Half Page Blue Ad V1 Q42018 for prompt payment
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47.32 47.32 X X X X 1 X X NEWS & POLITICS
ON CULTURE ’Tis the season Tired of solicitations from big nonprofi ts? We have just the solution for you! By D I
h, yes, the twinkling lights, the big, prominent nonprofi ts soliciting your hol- tinkling bells, the emails and the iday donations, and maybe a place in your will, phone calls: ’tis the season to be hit are very profi table for the administrators (and up for donations. And hit up again. in some cases, the artists) in charge. How did And again. that happen? Mostly because executive sala- DARIOACOSTAPHOTOGRAPHY DEANLAPRAIRIE ALike the holiday season itself, the annual big ries are set by boards of directors, and these beg starts in the run-up to Thanksgiving. boards, especially at prestigious institutions, How to deal with it if you don’t have un- are comprised of the richest people those limited disposable funds? A dollar or fi ve to same administrators can round up, folks to everyone who asks is the solution of the truly whom a half-million dollars sounds like, if not generous. The real philanthropists among us pocket change, nothing more than a reason- are those riders on the el who reach into their able salary. own sometimes threadbare pockets and give And in this brave new shame-free Trumpian to anyone desperate enough to work the cars. world, it seems no one’s embarrassed about I’m humbled by this when I see it, which, in taking a one-percenter salary out of donations this spectacular and screwed-up city, is amaz- wangled from the less fortunate. ingly often. Not that they broadcast their internal But let’s say you’re a little more stingy—er, largess. Most organizations don’t include discriminating—than that. One simple way financial details in the puff-piece annual re- to turn your despicable Scroogyness into ra- ports they issue for public consumption. But tional and therefore acceptable behavior is to nonprofi t executive pay is public information apply the handy-dandy executive pay test. and, thanks to groups like Guidestar and Pro- It works like this: if the nonprofi t’s top exec Publica, easy to access online. is making more in a year than you can hope to It can also surface if employees are pissed save over your lifetime, you, regretfully, and o . When the Lyric Opera orchestra went on with the greatest respect for the cause, just strike last fall amid belt-tightening by the say no. organization, CEO (and also general director DEANLAPRAIRIE NATHANKEAY/MCACHICAGO
That’s what I did when I got the annual call and president) Anthony Freud’s compensa- from some nice undergrad at Northwestern tion, which was $781,000 in the fi scal year that Clockwise from top le : Sir Andrew Davis; Roche Schulfer; Madeleine Grynsztejn; Robert Falls University. I’m a Northwestern alum but, ac- ended June 30, 2016, became an issue. Lyric cording to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s also paid its music director, Sir Andrew Davis, latest listing, in 2016 NU president Morton $915,000 that year. Schapiro was paid $1.6 million. That’s down Meanwhile, over at the Chicago Symphony executive director Criss Henderson. Goodman “despite the lack of enrollment growth, and from the $2.3 million he made in 2014, but not Orchestra, president Jeff Alexander made a artistic director Robert Falls made just under the School’s fi nancial di culties . . . Graves’s down enough to pass the executive pay test— little over half a million dollars in fi scal 2016, $570,000, while Chicago Shakespeare artistic total compensation rose 52 percent from 2009 at least, not as applied by this English major. while internationally esteemed conductor,Ric- director Barbara Gaines received $580,000. At to 2016.” Graves, who is currently on a leave of I told the kid he might do better by dialing up cardo Muti, who’s listed as an independent the Art Institute in fi scal 2016 (which ended absence, was compensated $254,871 in 2016. graduates of NU’s Kellogg School of Manage- contractor, was paid nearly $1.5 million. (OK, June 30, 2017), newly appointed president and Meanwhile, administrators at smaller or- ment. He told me I was underestimating the in the classical world, Muti’s the equivalent director James Rondeau was paid $593,895. ganizations, especially arts organizations, are impact of small contributions. of, say, Cubs lefty pitcher Jon Lester. And next When “students and friends” recently still scraping by, making financial sacrifices He’s right, of course: if I dig deep and give year Lester will make about $25 million.) pushed back against the announced sale of the every day to do the work they believe in (hello, one hundred bucks, it’ll only take 15,999 more A half-million was also the going rate in Old Town School of Folk Music’s longtime Lin- Theo Ubique, Project Onward). If they hit you people like me to cover Schapiro’s salary in a 2016 for MCA director Madeleine Grynsz- coln Park home, the compensation of executive up, fellow skinfl ints, you’re on your own. v down year. tejn, Goodman Theatre executive director director Bau Graves became an issue. An on- You may be surprised to learn that those Roche Schulfer, and Chicago Shakespeare line petition signed by thousands noted that, @DeannaIsaacs 8 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Paid Advertisement Costly Joint-Pain Injections Replaced By New $2 Pill New pill boosts the same lubricating joint ϐluid as expensive and painful injections - without using a needle. Users report dramatic relief from swelling, pain and stiffness without side effects and expense. Health News Syndicate HNS— because of the pain and expense. study out of Europe. In the study A popular needle However,New Synovia Discovery should be taken the active ingredient in Synovia injection for people with joint at the �irst sign of discomfort.” was compared to a popular NSAID pain is now available in an pain reliever. The goal was to see if inexpensive nonprescription pill. it could reduce pain and swelling The breakthrough came when The needle injection procedure around the knee. The results were researchers discovered a way has been given to hundreds of incredible! thousands of patients over the last to deliver the injected “relief After just 30 days, more than several years. molecule” through the digestive 8 out of 10 people who took system. Doctors use the shots to boost a Synovia’s active ingredient had Top US clinics have used critical element of the joint called NO swelling. However, only 2 out these needle injections for years synovial �luid. This lubricating �luid of 10 people who took the NSAID because they deliver powerful is found between the cartilage and experienced reduced swelling. bones of every joint. relief. Unfortunately, the shots The study also looked at cases are painful and expensive. They According to the �irm’s head of of severe swelling. Amazingly, also only work on the joint being R&D, Mike McNeill, “Researchers zero cases of severe swelling were treated. have been working for years detected in the group taking the The new pill, called Synovia, to �ind a way to boost this �luid active ingredient found in Synovia. NO MORE NEEDLES: A popular needle injection pain-killer for delivers the same “relief molecule” noninvasively. The problem was This means it was 100% effective joint pain is being replaced. The key molecule in these injections as the injections. However, it has the molecule used in the injections for the cases of severe swelling! some impressive advantages. was too large to absorb into the can now be delivered by taking a new low-cost pill called Synovia. bloodstream.” In contrast, 9 out of 10 people First, it’s inexpensive and taking the NSAID still had severe nonprescription. Also, relief is Top scientists conquered this swelling. McNeill points out, “The delivered to every joint in the body obstacle by �inding a smaller form impressive thing about this study givingApproved the cartilage By the Leading nutrients it good to be true.” because it enters the bloodstream of the same molecule. This new is the active ingredient wasn’t through the digestive system. glucose form is easily absorbed by needs.” Simply take the pill exactly tested against a fake pill. It was up Doctors as directed. You must enjoy fast This gives it the ability to reduce your stomach and intestines! against one of the most popular a much wider variety of pain. Now those who suffer from acting relief. Otherwise, return NSAIDs people use every day. It’s the product as directed and you’ll Users report greater �lexibility joint pain can get relief without easy to see why people in pain The new delivery system for this and less stiffness in their knees. painful injections. At less than receiveHow 100% To ofGet your Synovia money back areThe excited New to Way get relief It Delivers without an molecule has caught the attention plus an extra 10%. Hands and shoulders move pain- $2 per day, early users like Steve injection.” of leading medical doctors. free for the �irst time in years. Even Young are impressed. He says, Relief “Needle injections for joint neck and lower back pain improve “I’ve tried more pills than I can Today marks the of�icial release dramatically. pain have been around for years count, without any luck. Synovia because they work. Being able of Synovia in Illinois. As such, All this without spending over is different.Impressive My knees Clinical and hands Getting relief without injections to get the same relief molecule the company is offering a special $600 on needle injections and haven’t felt thisResults good in years!” has big advantages. 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311083_9.25_x_9.75.indd 1 12/6/18 1:18 PM ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER9 PUBLIC HEALTH The Chicago flu explainer
Health is a civic undertaking. By A O Illustrations B S
ou’re hopefully not going to die of the fl u this year. But the truth is that you could. During the 2017-2018 fl u season, the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion (CDC) reported an estimated 80,000 deaths and 900,000 hospitalizations due to infection with the virus—a jump in severity over previous seasons. The last update the City of Chicago Department of Public Health released on May 25, 2018,Y reported 582 infl uenza-associated hospitalizations and 38 deaths for the entirety of the 2017-2018 fl u season; this represents a 50 percent jump over the previous year’s numbers, which had remained fairly consistent for about four years in a row. These numbers don’t account for 10 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll individuals who get the fl u but don’t require the body by the fl u virus can lead to increased nistic pathogen Clostridum di cile, or C. di , hospitalization, which go untallied. As of No- risk of additional illness, and in severe cases which can cause severe diarrhea, inflamma- vember 30, the Chicago Infl uenza Surveillance death. Infectious agents, and others that cause tion of the colon, organ failure, or death. Activity Report shows hospitalizations are up damage to cells, are referred to as pathogens. In contrast to normal fl ora, pathogens con- this year: six for the current season in compar- Viruses are one of fi ve classes of pathogens, sistently cause responses within the body that ison to the four that had been reported by this along with bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and pri- can lead to infection, illness, or disease. Patho- time last year on December 1, 2017. ons. It can be hard to believe that a pathogen gens can be compared to anything that causes Health is easy to take for granted. The isn’t innately bad when it’s causing physical harm to the city or the citizens that live here, experience of a burning throat, stuffy nose, discomfort and damage to your body, but whether that be other individuals, politicians, lack of appetite, clogged ears, fatigue, fever, pathogens are simply doing what living things real estate developers, or gentrifi ers. Dedicat- aching body, and chills is so dissonant from do—looking for a nutrient-rich environment ed pathogens (as opposed to opportunistic the normal ease of existence (normal for that will allow them to survive and reproduce. pathogens) don’t require a compromised host some of us, anyway) that it quickly becomes The human body is the home some of these and can cause disease in a healthy individual. clear that something is wrong. An illness of pathogens like best. Dedicated pathogens, like viruses, don’t have some kind has taken root in the body. Adding In a way, the body can be thought of as a their own cell replication machinery, so the insult to the injury of physical misery is the city like Chicago. Just as a body has organs only way they can replicate is by hijacking the frustration of feeling helpless, weakened, and and tissues, a city has distinct neighborhoods. cell replication machinery in the body’s cells. unable to control the process of getting better. Within the organs and tissues are cells, and Since these obligate pathogens can’t multiply In most illnesses, symptoms fade after two to within our neighborhoods are people. Cells any other way than by infecting new hosts, five days, but sometimes the severity of the are the individual citizens of our bodies, and most of them need to cause disease symptoms illness and unresolved symptoms necessitate they contribute to the economy and the daily These pathogens that help them move to a new host. For exam- treatment from health care professionals. The function of our collective system. Microorgan- ple, coughing, sneezing, and respiratory drop- infl uenza virus, commonly referred to as the isms can be thought of as people not originally may simply be lets carry the fl u virus to people and exposed flu, can cause symptoms that last anywhere from here, perhaps from Appleton or New trying to live, but surfaces within a six-foot radius, enabling the from three to seven days, but fatigue and York, who have moved to Chicago and adapted virus to spread. Urban renewal projects like cough can linger for up to two weeks. Decla- to the icy cold winters, chosen a sports team, the body is too and the elevated running and biking trail known as rations such as “Bundle up. You don’t want to familiarized themselves with widespread the 606, which cuts through Humboldt Park, catch a cold,” or “You’ll get sick if you leave segregation and inequitable distribution of it works hard to or the planned Obama Presidential Center in the house with wet hair” are often heard as resources, and know all about the repeated Jackson Park are meant to revitalize neigh- temperatures begin to drop, but illness isn’t history of fiscal mismanagement. Microor- prevent pathogens borhoods but often displace residents and caused by exposure to cold weather. Cold, dry ganisms, like people, have preferences and from gaining contribute to gentrifi cation. Increased spread environments often lead to cracks in the skin, specifi c areas they prefer to make their homes, and transmission can occur when real estate which is the body’s primary protective barrier. although they prefer the skin, mouth, large ground. Similarly, developers looking to profi t quickly come into Being indoors in closer proximity to others intestine, or vagina over, say, Logan Square. gentrifying neighborhoods, build luxury con- than during other times of the year simply al- Those that can establish residence without the residents of dos, and then move on to the next profi table lows for more opportunities for transmission. causing infection or harm are considered the city can fight neighborhood. A recent paper published by Dr. Ishanu Chatto- normal fl ora, or microbiota. These organisms Opportunistic pathogens, on the other hand, padhyay, a research scientist at the University become part of the community and contribute back against can live outside the human body and normally of Chicago, compiled large datasets about the to the overall health of the body in the same replicate in environmental reservoirs like di erent factors that trigger fl u outbreaks and way that people who move to and establish gentrification. water or soil, but they can cause disease if a decade’s worth of influenza data to show residence in Chicago do. they encounter a host. For a pathogen to cause that multiple factors, including geospatial So-called normal flora exist peacefully disease and then spread, it fi rst has to get into patterns, travel, weather, and adaptation within the body, but when placed under the or on the body, fi nd the site that is most com- of the influenza virus, all contribute to the right conditions or brought to the right lo- patible to its growth, avoid elimination by the spread. Flu activity tends to start in November cation, some members of the flora—called body, replicate using host cells, and then exit and peaks between December and February. “opportunistic pathogens” or “facultative and get to a new host. These pathogens may And that means we’re just entering fl u sea- pathogens”—are capable of causing disease. simply be trying to live, but the body is too son in Chicago. Season’s greetings! If there’s a disruption to the normal fl ora by and it works hard to prevent pathogens from use of an antibiotic, if the body’s response to gaining ground. Similarly, the residents of the warding off illness has been compromised, city can fi ght back against gentrifi cation. On The Virus and the City or if the microorganisms manage to enter a October 11, 2017, Chicago’s A ordable Require- nce the virus that causes the flu en- part of the body that’s normally sterile via an ments Ordinance was amended to include pilot ters the body, it begins to multiply accident, injury, or other illness, the patho- programs in two rapidly gentrifying areas of Oand cause damage to the respiratory gens continue to grow and replicate without the city—the Milwaukee corridor and the near system (nose, throat, and lungs). Children, immediately being discovered, causing harm north/near west area, which includes several pregnant women, adults over 65, and patients along the way. A common example of this oc- neighborhoods. Previously, developments with compromised or weakened immune sys- curs when patients take antibiotics to treat an that included 10 or more units were required tems are all at risk of developing secondary infection, which kills o much of the normal to price 10 percent of them at a ordable rates; complications from the fl u, as damage done to fl ora, allowing for overgrowth by the opportu- alternatively, developers could pay an J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER11 continued from 11 physical contact, exposing the reproductive the Chicago Police Department is supposed to organization devoted to ensuring the overall “in-lieu fee” to the city’s A ordable Housing tract. Recent contamination of Romaine let- serve and keep the residents of the city safe, health of a community—No Cop Academy, Opportunity Fund. The new pilot programs re- tuce with a pathogenic strain of E. coli is an but improper police training and consistent for example, or Black Lives Matter Chicago— quire 20percent of units to be priced to accom- example of how foods can contain pathogens lack of accountability around conduct have keeping a watchful eye on incursions into modate low-to-moderate income residents that can be introduced into the gastrointesti- resulted in repeated violations of justice and community vitality with no central command and there is no “in-lieu fee” alternative. This nal tract where they can cause illness. abuse through illegal searches, excessive unit and no established funding sources, and disrupted plans by Onni Group, a Canadian de- The skin is composed of epithelial cells cov- force, and racial profi ling and biases, leading you’re beginning to have a sense of how the velopment company, to build 1,000 residential ered by an outer thick layer of epidermis cells, to harm and even death of the city’s residents. innate immune system works. units on Goose Island. which both shed—themselves and patho- If the fi rst line of defense fails to keep the Let’s get more detailed. Cells within both gens—and repair quickly to maintain this pathogen out of the body and the pathogen the innate and adaptive immune system use physical barrier. The cells sit tightly next to gets in, the second line of defense responds. molecules called cytokines to talk and signal The Community one another, making it hard for pathogens to At this stage, the body’s cells work to clear and to one another. Where we would use phone Organizations of penetrate past into deeper tissues of the body. neutralize an infection while recruiting help. calls or text messages to communicate across Imagine an incredibly packed CTA train whose The second line of defense can be compared a distance, immune cells use cytokines. For the Body occupants collectively sigh when the conduc- to an ordinary person’s general awareness and example, an infected host cell will send out a tor asks everyone to make a little bit more social training instilled within us since child- chemokine—one type of cytokine—to alert the The word “immune” can be traced back room. Internal surfaces are also composed hood. If you’re at North Avenue beach on a immune system that something’s wrong, to to Latin and French roots meaning exempt of epithelial cells, but these secrete mucus hot summer day and you see a child who looks let the neighboring cells know, and to call, or from and privileged from attack. The immune that can trap microorganisms. Fine hairs lost and is crying, most people would try and text, for help. This type of signaling occurs fre- system, and the protection it confers, offers called cilia work to move trapped organisms fi nd the adult the child came with or alert an quently in the second and third lines of the im- exactly that. There are two branches of the out of the body in the same way city street authority who has more capacity and training mune response and results in quick response immune system: innate immunity, comprising sweepers clean up accumulated garbage and to deal with the situation. Now imagine an to threat or injury. For example, infl ammation nonspecifi c responses, and adaptive immuni- debris. Wounds and burns are interruptions ty, which can learn to recognize and respond in the skin’s physical barrier that often allow to a specifi c pathogen. Upon infection, these pathogens to enter. When pathogens do enter two branches work in conjunction with one the mucosal internal surfaces, however, there another to clear pathogens. Overall there are are still defense mechanisms. Hairs within the three lines of defense, the fi rst two by the in- nose, vomiting, defecation, and urination are nate response, and the third by the adaptive all methods the body uses to clear and expel response. pathogens. Hand washing is one of the most One of the most important ways the body valuable tools we have to prevent pathogens can protect itself is by initially preventing a from entering the body, and the CDC reports pathogen from entering the body. Within the reduction of respiratory illness by 16 to 21 per- innate immune system, there are two levels cent if hand washing is done correctly. of nonspecifi c responses that work to prevent The body also uses chemical barriers that entry of anything unrecognized, neutralize keep pathogens from growing. These include anything that may get in, and alert the adap- enzymes in tears and saliva that kill bacteria, tive immune system to mount a defense. The stomach acid that inhibits bacterial growth, fi rst line of defense of the innate immune re- sebum on the skin that acts as a barrier, and sponse is a combination of both physical and the normal fl ora that can starve out pathogens chemical barriers that block pathogens from by competing for nutrients. establishing residence. Pathogens need to get But pathogens do often gain entry, and a in the body, and different types of surfaces main component of our immune system’s abil- provide di erent routes of entry for di erent ity to clear harmful microorganisms comes organisms. Some pathogens can gain entry from the ability to discern between self and by physical contact with the body’s external nonself. The immune system can recognize surfaces, or through wounds or insect bites. cells, proteins, and other molecules that our Similar challenges confront drivers around body has made as “self,” and it also can recog- the city who are faced with potholes, poorly nize foreign proteins, particles, DNA, toxins, marked lanes, bridge closures, and seemingly and chemicals from pathogens as “nonself” endless construction. These add detours and and can then target and induce an immune frustration to the ease with which we navigate. response against them. In Chicago, a city of 2.7 We may not be pathogens, but the city doesn’t million, we don’t all agree on what’s harmful always make it easy for us to get around in it. or nonself, but crimes, car accidents, and The body’s internal surfaces can be harder mass shootings are things we all recognize as to reach, but they can be exposed to patho- harmful. Sometimes the body loses the ability gens when air is inhaled into the respiratory to discern between self and nonself, which system, when food or drink enters the gastro- results in autoimmune diseases: the body at- intestinal tract, and when sex partners make tacks itself instead of protecting it. Similarly, 12 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll and fever can be quickly activated by the sec- sity’s Feinberg School of Medicine reported grams. The ability to recognize erratic behav- ond line of defense to protect the body. fi ndings that overwhelming infl ammatory and ior or respond to alerts from the community Similarly, Chicago is divided into wards monocyte responses were responsible for in- helps fi rst responders know where they need that are represented by aldermen who are creased lung damage in juvenile mice infected to be and what to anticipate. The two main elected to represent the interests of the ward’s with the fl u in comparison to adult mice. These fi rst responders within the adaptive immune residents. During ward meetings, residents components of the innate immune system help system are the T lymphocytes, or T cells, and B voice complaints and learn about benefits fi ght infection, but they also cause a lot of the lymphocytes, or B cells. and city functions that exist within the ward. symptoms experienced during infection and The ability to recognize and respond to spe- The Chicago City Council is made up of the sometimes the response harms the body. cifi c pathogens builds on the immune system’s aldermen, who have legislative powers and I was fascinated with these findings and ability to distinguish between self and nonself. the ability to enact change. Cellular responses reached out to lead author, Dr. Bria Coates, via Cells within the adaptive immune system can can be thought of as acts of legislation that email. “Our bodies do this very well with most recognize specifi c portions of the foreign cells, are coming from certain types of white blood pathogens,” she wrote, “but in certain circum- proteins, molecules, and DNA called antigens. cells, or aldermen, that have the ability to stances, being in the wrong place at the wrong If a B cell has a receptor on its surface that fi ts respond to pathogens. Phagocytes are a class time can lead to a dysregulated infl ammatory with the shape of an antigen on the surface of of white blood cell that circulate in the blood Inflammation response that is much more harmful than the a pathogen, it will recognize the pathogen as and can recognize, ingest, and destroy patho- infection itself.” While further studies will nonself. After identifying nonself components, gens. Monocytes first circulate in the blood increases blood flow need to check whether the same thing hap- certain cell types within the adaptive and in- and then move into tissues of the body, like to areas of infection, pens in humans, the data here indicates that nate immune system, called antigen-present- the lungs, gut, and connective tissues, where adult immune systems are better equipped to ing cells (APCs), process the nonself compo- they mature into cells called macrophages. which allows more respond to fl u infections in a healthy manner. nents down and separate the antigenic portion Macrophages and monocytes work similarly As uncomfortable as symptoms of illness unique to the organism or virus encountered. to phagocytes, but they can also activate cells white blood cells to are, they are a sign that the body’s immune Think of this as a nurse triaging a patient and that help get the adaptive immune response system is working. In fl u infections, it’s often identifying what’s wrong, determining the going. Community groups within wards like arrive and respond the overwhelming, unhealthy response of the course of action, and notifying the doctor who the Pilsen Land Use Committee (PLUC), com- to the signals sent body to the infection that causes intensity is able to resolve the situation. The antigen is posed of neighborhood representatives, use of symptoms in children and adults. I was the piece of information that the APCs present specific knowledge of their neighborhood by the macrophages. impressed by Dr. Coates’s ability to explain to the T cells, and this alerts the T cells to to help combat gentrifi cation. With the help complicated concepts, which likely comes in respond. of their current alderman Daniel Solis, who The Pride Parade, handy in her work at the Pediatric Intensive Once activated, T cells send signals that call abides by an unwritten mandate that 21 per- Air and Water Show, Care Unit at Lurie Children’s Hospital. I asked for backup: the body clones many identical T cent of units in new developments meet af- her why she loves studying the fl u and the im- cells that are made to specifi cally recognize, fordable housing requirements, PLUC also has Bears games, and mune system, and she responded, “One of the target, and destroy that unique antigen. This a say in zoning developments, which require most interesting and challenging things about process can be compared to using X-rays and their approval before Alderman Solis will other large city studying infl uenza and the immune system is laboratory tests to confi rm the presence of a move forward. (This might be a good moment fi nding the balance that will control infection malignant tumor, and the establishment of a to point out that aldermanic elections are events cause an but not harm the host.” multidisciplinary cancer team to collectively coming up on February 26, 2019.) influx of people The general response that the innate plan the best course of action, for example, Infl ammation increases blood fl ow to areas immune system provides is not enough to surgery followed by chemotherapy. These T of infection, which allows more white blood to one area that clear most infections—sometimes the city’s cells have been given the description of the cells to arrive and respond to the signals sent snow removal efforts don’t actually let you pathogen and are only able to bind to antigens by the macrophages. The Pride Parade, Air and stresses the area’s get to work or school—and this is where the or pathogens whose fingerprint is an exact Water Show, Bears games, and other large city capacity. adaptive immune system comes in. The third match for the one they’re trying to fi nd. This events cause an influx of people to one area line of defense works to mount a targeted re- process is called cell-mediated immunity. that stresses the area’s capacity. Increased sponse to a specifi c pathogen, which helps the Separately, that same signal that gets sent police presence, street closures, and addition- innate immune system clear the infection and out by the T cell once it’s activated stimulates al buses or trains help the city respond to the prevent disease. At the same time, the adap- and activates B cells to respond if they haven’t crowd. In addition to fi ghting pathogens, the tive immune system develops a long-lasting already been activated by directly encounter- swelling and heat caused by infl ammation can memory of that specifi c pathogen, so the next ing the pathogen. B cells can be considered cause discomfort, and overwhelming respons- time it shows up, it can be quickly targeted another component of the T-cell/cancer es in the case of infection or autoimmune and blocked. This process is called natural treatment team. In addition to the doctors and disorders can lead to chronic pain. active immunity. The third line of defense can specialized care team, a supportive care team Previously, it’s been thought that children be thought of as trained fi rst responders—the composed of counselors, nutritionists, and are more susceptible to the fl u and other viral police and fire departments, paramedics, rehabilitation therapists works with patients infections because they are not yet able to social workers, crisis therapists, and doctors. to support long-term health. Activation of B mount the thorough innate immune response These people have developed the skills to cells results in the production of clone B cells, that healthy adults are capable of. A paper identify and deal with a variety of accidents, called plasma cells, that produce antibodies published in April by researchers at Lurie conflicts, or emergency situations through that will specifi cally bind to the antigen of the Children’s Hospital and Northwestern Univer- training, certification, and licensure pro- encountered pathogen and clear them J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER13 continued from 13 from the body. Analogously, your therapist may recognize certain patterns they guide you to focus on to help you respond to them in a di erent way so that those issues no longer a ect you. It takes a few days for this response to occur, which is why the innate immune sys- tem’s quicker initial response is so important. Additionally, after the infection has cleared, some of these activated B cells remain in cir- culation. If they encounter the antigen again in the future, the circulating B cells can produce antibodies and a specific response in one to two days. If you get emotionally triggered, you draw on the skills learned in therapy or reach back out to your therapist to get more help, and over time your capacity to handle hard issues increases as you heal. Similarly, the adaptive immune response and its encounter with pathogens leads to memory and immune protection. To protect the body, a fully functioning im- mune system needs both the innate and adap- tive immune systems. The immune system can be weakened or damaged by malnutrition, ge- netic inheritance, drugs, radiation exposure, infection with a number of viruses, cancer, and old age. This can result in more frequent infections, inability to clear infection, inability to respond to bacterial or viral infection, in- ability to make an immune memory response nity require the immune system to function from others getting vaccinated. The more peo- to fi ght. Evidence shows, however, that even and deliver long-lasting protection, and death. correctly in order for an immune response ple have artificial active immunity from the partial and weakened responses, in addition The immune responses described above to develop because even with a vaccine, fl u vaccine, the fewer hosts are available for to cross-protective responses from previous show the natural process of how the body the components of the innate and adaptive the virus; this means fewer people coughing years’ fl u immunizations, can provide protec- fi ghts an infection and gains long-term protec- immune systems need to respond to the anti- and sneezing—fewer opportunities for trans- tion that weakens the severity of infection. tion in the process. Active immunity can also genic components being delivered. For people mission. When enough people are vaccinated This means vaccinations tend to keep you be induced artifi cially with vaccines. Vaccines who are immunodeficient or whose immune within a community, a pathogen has no chance healthier even when they “don’t work”; they can generate long-term protection without systems are still developing, passive forms of establishing infection and this prevents also keep your fellow Chicagoans healthier. exposure to dangerous forms of the pathogen of natural and artificial immunity exist, but members of the community who are immu- Remember, hand washing is also an option! that can cause illness or disease. Vaccines they are short lasting, providing immediate nocompromised or whose immune systems The Chicago Department of Public Health of- are developed and delivered in a number of protection only. The most common form of may be underdeveloped from getting sick. fers walk-in immunization clinics to residents, ways, but two common examples are live natural passive immunity is the delivery of Herd immunity is essential to protecting the as well as a mobile immunization CareVan that attenuated vaccines and inactivated vaccines. maternal antibodies to a newborn through vulnerable members of our society, who are provides immunizations at no out-of-pocket Live attenuated vaccines contain weakened breast milk. Preformed antibodies can also be in danger when others do not get vaccinated cost to uninsured, underinsured children versions of the pathogen. The weakened transfused to patients to work proactively to against preventable diseases. and those on Medicaid or CHIP up to 18 years pathogen cannot replicate or cause disease, prevent illness when risk of infection is high. One challenge to the logic of fl u vaccination of age. The locations of the clinics and the but it still has the same nonself components If you’re immunocompromised or have never stems from the fact that viruses frequently schedule of the CareVan can be found at the as the full-strength version of that pathogen, received a tetanus vaccine and you step on a mutate to avoid recognition, to increase their Chicago Department of Public Health website. so the immune system can learn to recognize rusty nail, there’s a high risk of developing the ability to cause disease and transmission, or The Department can also be reached at 312- it and form a response before it comes into life-threatening illness. Because of the time in response to selective pressures. A virus, for 747-9884, and for information about mobile contact with the full-strength pathogen. This it takes for an immune response to develop, example, can pick up new pathogenic elements services you can call the CareVan coordinator gives the body a jump start, saving the time there’s no immediate benefit to being given by exchanging genetic material with other at 312-746-6181. To search for other locations the immune system would need to learn to rec- the tetanus vaccine at this moment. Instead, strains it encounters. Most vaccines contain o ering walk-in fl u shots through the city, visit ognize the pathogen. Inactivated vaccines, on tetanus immune globulin (TIg), preformed an- multiple strains of the fl u for the body to re- https://chicagofl ushots.org, where you’ll fi nd the other hand, contain antigenic components tibodies to tetanus, are collected from people spond to, but delivery of too many antigens an interactive map that provides addresses, of completely destroyed pathogens. There is who have developed antibody protection and at a time can cause weaker immune memory hours, and details for sites o ering the shot. no chance of getting sick from the pathogen can be pooled together, and after transfusion responses. Alternatively, you could develop a We don’t have control over the influenza delivered in an inactivated vaccine, but you provide immediate protection. There is also robust immune response but by the time the virus, but we can control how we prepare for still develop an immunity. herd immunity. Those who are immunodefi- fl u gets to you the antigens of the virus no lon- it. Why don’t we all do what we can to keep Both artificial and natural active immu- cient and unable to take vaccines can benefi t ger match the antigens your body is prepared ourselves and each other healthy? v 14 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Mitch Villaseñor picks up a balikbayan box. Boxes will then be loaded onto a container, driven to California, and shipped to the Philippines.
s a kid living in Laguna, a province in the Philippines, Janette Santos always looked forward to the large cardboard boxes that her aunt sent from Chicago.A These boxes were big, sometimes The balikbayan tradition even bigger than moving boxes, and typically arrived at her doorstep during the holidays. Gi boxes sent back to the Philippines remind loved ones that they have As she opened them, she caught a whi of a not been forgotten. familiar detergent smell that Filipinos who have received boxes from the U.S. describe as Story and photos P N the scent of “imported goods” or of “America.” Packed to the brim with household supplies, small toys, chocolates, and canned goods, there was at least one item for every member of her immediate and extended family. “[My aunt] makes sure at least once a year, everyone will receive something like at J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER15 Jing Panlilio and her daughter Julianne check whether Julianne’s dress still fi ts her. Jing usually sends her kids’ old clothes back to her sister in the Philippines.
Panlilio’s balikbayan box contains old clothes, canned goods from Aldi, and some books.
Janette Santos packs clothes into a balikbayan box.
continued from 15 ing oil, and tiles). The boxes also typically hold things,” said Santos, who migrated to the U.S. house that they no longer use. least a piece of chocolate,” said Santos, 56. clothes from discount stores, cans of Vienna in 1978. “I said, ‘Someday maybe we should go “We have a lot of wasting here,” said Santos. “When it comes from [the U.S.], it’s di erent. sausage, bags of chocolate, and small toys that to America, then you will just get it anytime “Somebody else’s waste is somebody else’s . . . It’s the thought that it comes from the U.S. people collect over several months. Once a you want.’” treasures. Over there, people are, you know, that [makes it feel] special.” box is full, a shipping company picks it up at Now that Santos lives in Wilmette, she and appreciative of things. Like for us they don’t Almost every Filipino knows the tradition of the customer’s doorstep and leaves another her husband, Nate, send balikbayan boxes four like it anymore, and there they will really [be] sending balikbayan boxes, which translates to empty box to fi ll up. times a year to their relatives, house helpers, so happy to get it.” “coming back to your country.” Contents range The balikbayan boxes that Santos received Santos’s former high school, and their church. Nate and Janette Santos know that stores from the everyday (like bath and cleaning sup- from her aunt left an impression on her. They ship dozens of books, used clothes, back home are fi lled with American products. plies) to the oddball (like muriatic acid, cook- “I guess in America they have a lot of nice shoes, snacks, and anything lying around the But they know that the act of sending some- 16 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll A balikbayan box sits in Janette and Nate Santos’s living room. Since collecting goods and fi lling up balikbayan boxes take time, balikbayan boxes are ever-present items in many Filipino households.
Worried that liquid might spill, Jing Victor Velasco rummages through Panlilio tapes the caps of shampoo Pamela Villa del Rey’s balikbayan bottles before packing them into the box. The two moved to the U.S. on balikbayan box. Some say that the a work assignment for the same process of packing a box is in itself company many years ago. an expression of love.
thing from the U.S. sends a di erent message. Filipino-owned balikbayan box shipping the Philippines. The program o ered privileg- allowed two tax-free boxes that contained “We Filipinos still didn’t get rid of this co- companies in Illinois that started as a money es to Filipinos overseas who were visiting the personal effects and pasalubong (gifts from lonial mentality,” said Nate. The Philippines remittance service. Balikbayan box shipping Philippines. During a time of political unrest, people coming home). From there, “special was colonized by the U.S. from 1898-1941 and companies charge a fixed price that ranges it aimed to convince Filipinos abroad to visit companies have set up businesses in the Unit- 1944-1946. Many academics argue that it has from $60 to $110 depending on which region in and “improve public opinion in the United ed States and in Europe to facilitate regular left a mark in the Filipino psyche. “American the Philippines it is being shipped to. States about the loss of democracy and the unaccompanied shipments to relatives in the product, it must be good.” The tradition has its roots in Operation beginnings of martial law in the Philippines,” Philippines,” wrote Blanc. Since no weight limit is imposed, Balikbayan, a government program that was according to research by Cristina Szanton Today, it is an entire industry. Forex Cargo most balikbayan boxes weigh 70 to 100 instituted in the 1970s by then-dictator Ferdi- Blanc in the Philippine Sociological Review. alone sends 1,200 boxes every month, accord- pounds, according to Forex Cargo, one of the nand Marcos after he declared martial law in Those who came back to the Philippines were ing to their estimates. During September J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER17 When Mitch Villaseñor picks up full balikbayan boxes, he drops off empty boxes. Packing boxes is a continuous process.
Villaseñor carries a balikbayan box out of a house. The heaviest box he’s carried weighed 400 pounds, he said.
continued from 17 [who] has been away for so long from too far and October, their shipments double or has not forgotten you and [is] still connected triple, since delivery takes 45 to 60 days and to you,” said Velasco, who now lives in Florida. people want their goods to arrive in time for “That’s what connects us. . . . That’s why it’s Christmas. called balikbayan. Go back. But it’s the box The boxes are also a tradition that connects [that goes back], not you.” the Filipino diaspora: In 2013, over 10.2 million More than anything, the balikbayan box is a Filipinos lived and worked abroad and 3.5 reminder to people back home that they have million of them were in the U.S., according to not been forgotten. the most recent available data from the Com- “I think it’s one form of showing your family mission on Filipinos Overseas, a Philippines that you love them,” said Pamela Villa del Rey, government agency. now a resident of Skokie, who used to include To many Filipinos, it is their way of main- cans of peaches, her mom’s favorite, in her box taining ties to relatives they haven’t seen in before her mother passed away. “The main years. thing for me is I want them to experience and That was the case for Victor Velasco, who to taste things that we have here. . . . It’s one didn’t see his family in the Philippines for way of reaching out and saying, you know, I’m almost nine years after moving to Chicago for here; I’m sending this to you just so you know work. The boxes brought a sense of pride that that I remember you.” v didn’t come from receiving imported goods but from the “assurance that that person @pat_nabong 18 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll FOOD & DRINK
YEAR IN REVIEW 20 New(ish) Chicago restaurants that prove the party ain’t over Don’t listen to nobody nobody sent—2018 was a good year. By M S
ast week while I was shimmying into my white and blue striped cheer skirt (four red stars emblazoned across its form-fitting spandex torso), about to start writing my annual year-end Lrecap of how glorious the year in eating was, food writer John Kessler over at Chicago Magazine was dropping a big deuce on the city’s restaurant scene. The former Atlanta Journal-Constitution restaurant critic, who’s been a Chicagoan for some three years now, wrote a brutal fi ve-point takedown of a once celebrated dining culture now wallowing in complacency and blinded by its own defensive, blinkered boosterism. Or so he says. Chicago doesn’t know local from Sysco, he argued. Bloated restaurant groups are sucking the blood out of the scene and the national press only comes to the Beard Awards every May to gloat over how far we’ve sunk. So dispiriting on its face I almost wrote a year-end Worst Restaurants of 2018 list. I do actually agree with a few of Kessler’s points—Chicago has rested on its laurels a bit as an innovative food town, and yes, the street food situation, as always, is an embarrass- ment. But there’s a lot in his piece to quibble Clockwise from top le : sancocho; kipe A mix of Filipino and Cuban cuisine at Top right: Monkfi sh with kohlrabi ribbons; with: God bless Paulina Meat Market, but and yuca bollitos; beef stew with Moros Bayan Ko SANDYNOTO middle le : Okinawan sweet potato with there’s nothing behind its cases more appro- y Cristianos; Los Tres Golpes (the Three baby turnips and fromage blanc; bottom Strikes) with mangú; pollo guisado with right: pork belly with salsify funnel cake priate for Chicago hot dog construction than a white rice and maduros JAMIERAMSAY NICKMURWAY natural casing Vienna Beef tubesteak. J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER19 Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your FOOD & DRINK own review—at chicagoreader.com/food.
continued from 19 Wuhan hot-dry noodles at But others have rebutted him point by point, Sizzling Pot King MATTSCHWERIN so I’m going to sit that one out. Yet as I looked at the list of my favorite new places to eat from 2018 I realized that almost everything on it could serve as an exception to his arguments. (He allowed for a few of them himself.) Opin- ions are unreliable that way. If there’s an exception for every rule, there are a ton of them to deflate his idea that Chicago’s “immigrant food,” as he calls it, is somehow unexciting, and unembraced by the city. But just look at Morena’s Kitchen, the tiny, four-year-old Belmont Cragin storefront that the city’s food writers lost their collective minds over this year after a nudge by blogger Titus Ruscitti. There the magnetic Mirian Montes de Oca dishes out terrifi c Dominican granny food and pica pollo: “hot, salty nug- gets of brittle-battered, citrus-bathed bird fl esh,” as I wrote in my review last February. “Served with crisp tostones and blazed with Kinmedai (golden-eye snapper) at Omakase laser-guided splashes of house-made habane- JAMIERAMSAY ro hot sauce.” After all that attention, Mirian is moving her operation to the now vacant, much larger corner space up the block—just Shan Shaan Taste, where veteran Chef Rich- waiting for city inspectors to sign o . (Maybe ard Zhou labors on liangpi, cold skin noodles we should start a discussion about the city Xi’an-style, “a dish of such stark textural con- bureaucracy holding back restaurateurs, trasts and assertive, electric seasoning that instead of blaming immigrants for not being you wonder why it’s not in regular rotation all “exciting” enough.) over Chinatown.” I felt just as passionate about Astoria Café, Exciting new Chinese food wasn’t limited in Irving Park, where the komplet lepinja, “a to Chinatown, as demonstrated by the Greek- bun with everything in it,” is the signature town opening of Sizzling Pot King, a rapidly among a menu of powerfully restorative expanding minichain specializing in Hunanese Balkan grub. I described it as “an enormous dry hot pot as well as other rare specialties of toasty Serbian bread bowl fi lled with a thick, the province like housemade tofu and finely bubbling scramble of egg, roast pork drip- sectioned pickled green beans with ground pings, and kaymak, the tangy Balkan clotted pork. cream that behaves like a seductive butter.” Kessler dogged second generation Ameri- Kessler thinks Chinatown, and other dining cans for failing to “transcend” the food of their enclaves, are “boring.” But I dunno. Two of my families, but what about the fun mashup of favorite new places this year opened in China- Filipino and American bar food at Old Habits/ town—if you extend its borders to Bridgeport Ludlow Liquors by Nick Jirasek, a chef who (and who hasn’t by now?) A Place By Damao is seems primed to take even bigger risks at the a smartly designed Halsted Street storefront upcoming Young American. And then there’s Lost Larson ALISHASOMMER opened by two twenty-something immigrants the postcolonial synergy of Bayan Ko, where from Sichuan trafficking in what they call Lawrence Letrero taps into the Pinoy food “Chengdu Famous Plates.” Visceral, some- he grew up on, along with the Cuban food he times mind-numbing snacks like the innoc- married into. Look at Jennifer Kim at Ander- in summer squash, crowder peas, and toma- cuisine like “a thick, hollowed-out baked uous sounding spicy bean curd sent me into sonville’s Passerotto, conjuring a seamless toes in a silky but powerfully rich and tangy russet potato shell—the crunchiest potato trance: “Diaphanous clouds of tofu slip down merger of the Korean food she was raised on Alsatian Riesling sauce, which demonstrates chip on the river—cradling a deposit of the throat on a warm, red tide, the crunchy with the Italian food she was trained in. that an uptight attitude about southern and/ soft, squishy gnocchi loaded with bacon, soybeans adding a reversal of texture, the cab- Even the white guys got into it, with Mark or German food closes one o to the possibil- smoked sour cream, and gooey cheddar Mor- bage’s pungent punch and the onion’s grassy Steuer channeling his German heritage and ity of embracing gemütlichkeit.” Tim Graham nay sauce.” bite adding another.” In Chinatown proper, the his low country upbringing at Funkenhausen, at Twain found inspiration in his collection Similarly, Frontier chef Brian Jupiter great food incubator in the Richland Center a so-called Bavarian beer hall where I lost my of Midwestern community cookbooks to accomplished what he’s been hinting at for mall basement has hatched another winner in head over a “smoked half chicken smothered create an irresistibly absurd Mississippian years at Wicker Park’s Ina Mae’s Tavern, fully 20 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll FOOD & DRINK
Komplet lepinja with pršuta at Astoria Café JAMIERAMSAY
Sao Song NICKMURWAY The Beefy Boy at Old Habits ANJALIPINTO
embracing the food of New Orleans, the city he Meanwhile, just on the edge of the West was born, fed, and bred in. Loop “food court,” Chef Sangtae Park drew Creative, independent chefs pursuing fi rst blood in what’s ramping up to be a sushi personal, idiosyncratic projects unfunded by knife fight, now with three more high-end corporate restaurant groups found homes omakase options to choose from. At Omakase and regulars in neighborhoods nowhere near Yume, Park “slices, molds, and paints his nigiri the West Loop, like Portage Park, where Matt with the decisive fluidity of a croupier at a Saccarro’s Italian-Jewish deli the Frunchroom craps table.” (I haven’t yet made it to Kyoten, featured a matzo ball soup “like a bowl of gravy Takeya, and Mako.) And yes, the “scourge” or poultry demi-glace with Fresno peppers known as the Boka Restaurant Group even and parsley adorning the smoked thigh meat scored big again amid this fray with Belle- that hangs out among the kneidlach.” Noble more, where chef Jimmy Papadopoulos’s food Square’s old Italian enclave welcomed Tony is defi nitely not like the other’s, as evidenced Fiasche’s Tempesta Market, “a landscape of by the lamb belly which I called “a frankly sausage possibilities (sausagilities?), trigger- unlovely lump of luscious, braised ovine fl esh ing sensory overload with exposed cross sec- plated with persimmon marmalade and a tions of fat- and pistachio-studded mortadella, whipped feta sauce that dissolves into lamb dark mineral-rich slabs of Wagyu bresaola, or jus.” a sinister-looking orb of emulsifi ed pork called Finally, say what you will about the ho- ‘Calabrian paté,’ made with chicken liver, pork mogenizing e ect of those bloated restaurant shoulder, hot and sweet chiles, and dates.” At groups. One thing they’re good at is grad- Andersonville’s Lost Larson pastry chef Bobby uating the young blood that brings life to Shaffer paid tribute to the neighborhood’s the scene. That’s what happened with Andy Nordic past and restored the civilizing practice Sisomboune, a Nico Osteria sous chef who of the “fika, a respite with coffee or tea and launched the pop-up series Sao Song and some kind of life-a rming indulgence from the seems destined to showcase his che y take on bakery.” In West Town Sari Zernich Worsham Lao party food and home cooking in a brick- and Scott Worsham summoned San Sebas- and-mortar space. tian’s “paradigmatic pinxto bar crawl” at Bar It’s part of the job of the restaurant critic Biscay, a lysergic environment to snack on Chef to register disapproval and exhort chefs (and Johnny Anderes’s assertive, American take on readers) to do better. (Kessler published a northern Spanish cuisine. similarly controversial piece on his home OK, it’s not a restaurant, but former base in 2011.) As it ever is, the number of dull, fine-dining pastry chef Dana Cree answered dreary, unimaginative restaurants far out- the call for “culty ice cream,” that one former strips the truly great ones that have opened Chicago food writer issued by opening Pretty in the past year. But 2018 was no different Cool Ice Cream, her kid-friendly Wonkaesque in that there’s a lot to be excited about. (For Popsicle Parlor for the People with disruptions one thing, nothing on this list closed before I like peach-buttermilk bars, peanut butter- could include it, which usually happens every banana-hemp doggy pops, and wild huckle- year). berry bars made with Washington State fruit. A million hot Twitter takes later, I’m left Even Lakeview, a fine-dining food desert, with the naked fact that the national critics landed an oasis for ambition when Trotter’s whispering in Kessler’s ear about Chicago’s vet Debbie Gold came home to head up Tied faded glory haven’t done the legwork that House, the lovely modern annex to Schubas those of us in the local food media have done that replaced the tired Harmony Grill. I reck- for years. If you missed out on any of these oned “if you ever ate at Trotter’s you’ll recog- exciting new spots, you weren’t paying atten- nize the combination of impeccable technique tion. If they don’t inspire you, you just don’t and artful plating with surprising fl avors and care. v textures and occasional exotica that so many veterans of that kitchen carried out into the @MikeSula world.” ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER21 ARTS & CULTURE R READERRECOMMENDEDb ALLAGESF
Frankenstein was a fake episode of The Golden Girls in an The Golden JOEMAZZA attic in Andersonville. —M M Girls: The Lost Episodes, Volume 2 HL S T C Sideshow RICKAGUILAR Theatre Company’s world premiere staging of J. Nicole Brooks’s HeLa gave Chicago the rare gift of seeing a great piece of theater at its inception. Using the heart-wrenching true story of Henrietta Lacks as its launching point, it goes beyond the stars and back. Its plaintive, funny consideration of race, science, and basic humanity in America is timeless. If you didn’t feel something after seeing it you’d better check your pulse. —DS
K B N T As episodic quirkiness increasingly replaces thoughtful plotting on American stages, Chicagoan Michael Allen Harris bucked the trend and showed just how vital and contemporary “old school” playwriting can be. His crucial two- and patriarchal norm you can imagine. Resi- hour family saga, set just beyond and a million dent director Dado helmed both productions, YEAR IN REVIEW miles from Walt Disney World, followed four leaving little doubt she’ll lead this new and members of an overburdened, mutigener- intrepid troupe to more great things in 2019. ational African-American family who all —JH Power hits happen to be gay. Avoiding easy moralizing, Harris constructed complicated, messy family RB J T S A small- Ten shows from 2018 we won’t soon forget. dilemmas exacerbated by the sort of perni- time theater company sits through the cious social forces that traumatize entire com- non-Equity Jeff Awards with “Nominee” munities, making the interpersonal positively ribbons pinned to their lapels, waiting to ear-end superlatives are a bogus en- common as household appliances. Speaking epic. —J H see if their ambitious Chekhov adaptation is deavor. Unless you’ve seen every last of which: singing washing machines can be a going to be snubbed or not. E ectively a lov- Yone of the roughly 200-plus productions tough sell. But Brown’s ensemble succeeded, P W F T Facil- ingly specifi c play-length inside joke aimed at that graced Chicago stages in 2018, you can’t making washers, dryers, and radios into sen- ity Theatre had a hell of a 2018. In the spring Chicago theater, written by Beth Hyland and credibly decree which were the absolute tient, gorgeously sonic beings. —CS they turned composer David Lang’s Pulitzer- directed by Rebecca Willingham, this show best. And even if you did see every last show, winning choral work The Little Match Girl from The Sound was one of the most charm- comparing multimillion dollar musicals with F R B T C - Passion into a lush, psychoactive performance ing, most intellectually self-aware things I saw cash-strapped o -Loop dramas is a ridiculous From the opening pantomimed vignettes piece as lyrical as it was grotesque. Then in the all year. —MM exercise in apples and oranges. of the monster’s birth to his chilly arctic duel fall they slayed with Jen Silverman’s intricate, With that in mind, here are ten shows that with his maker at the end, Remy Bumppo’s mesmerizing postwar fable Phoebe in Winter, TS H C L T Kristine had the greatest impact on the Reader’s crit- Frankenstein made me completely forget Boris a sly assault on every outmoded theatrical Thatcher, a graceful writer with a fi ne ear for ics. Nobody can say if they were the best of the Karloff and made a 200-year-old cautionary best of the best. But of the hundreds of shows tale seem relevant. It’s a story about hubris we collectively covered, these, listed in alpha- and playing God told through stark, minimal- betical order, are the ones that hit the hardest. ist means. Greg Matthew Anderson and Nick —C S Sandys swapped the roles of the creature and the doctor during the show’s run, giving audi- C C F T ences a great reason to see this unforgettable Director Lili-Anne Brown’s take on Jeanine production twice. —D S Tesori (music) and Tony Kushner’s (book and Caroline or Change lyrics) musical overfl owed with wit, emotion, TG G TL E V MARISAKM and powerhouse vocals. As Caroline, a char- H H P Let it acter loosely based on the African-American stand as a testament to the kind of year this housekeeper who helped raise Kushner, Ra- was, what sort of swill we had to wade through shada Dawan created a character with formi- just to get out from under it, what kind of sin- dable might and intelligence and a spirit that gleness of purpose it took just to let our hair refused to sink under the weight of a world down for one night and have fun even, that the where racism and economic injustice were as show I recommended most to people in 2018 22 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Second Skin JOEMAZZA ARTS & CULTURE
THEATER A Midsummer COlD nightS. Night’s Dream Hot Comedy. for midwinter NO DRINK MINIMUM • LATE NIGHT SHOWS AVAILABLE Chicago Shakespeare’s staging is secondcity.com • 312-337-3992 the most impressive cotton candy dialogue and a gift for subtle character de- you’ll ingest this month. velopment, premiered her heartfelt mem- ory play about a steely but aging grand- By C S mother and her troubled daughter at City Lit Theatre in November. At once funny and moving, this bittersweet work looked or the past 18 years, A Midsummer the world straight in the eye, revealing Night’s Dream has been in heavy in its too brief time on stage the terrible rotation at Chicago Shakespeare beauty and paradox of living, that life is Theater. Counting the current main- at once painful and wonderful, terrifying stage production, there have been six and amazing, awful and too short. —J FMidsummers since 2000, a record that none H of Shakespeare’s other 36 (that we know of) plays comes close to approaching. S S W C T Chicago Director Joe Dowling’s personal record is playwright Kristin Idaszak uses the Celtic even more Midsummer-y: this is his tenth legend of the selkies, the souls of drowned time directing Shakespeare’s romance of humans who come back as half seal mismatched lovers and meddlesome fairies. shapeshifters, as the inspiration for this Whether Chicago needs yet another Midsum- evening of short, creepy tales. The beauty mer is debatable. But there’s no arguing that of Idaszak’s writing, and of director Jess Midsummer enjoys preferential status in the Hutchinson’s pitch-perfect production, lay House that Barbara Gaines Built. in the revelation that the mundane hor- rors of everyday life—loneliness, chronic AM N’D illness, inevitable death—are at least as Through //: Wed and : terrifying as specters that stalk us in the PM, Thu-Fri PM, Sat and PM, night. I was haunted long after the curtain Sun and : PM, Tue : PM; no performance Tue / or /, fell on Idaszak’s finely written and per- Chicago Shakespeare Theater, formed ghost stories. —JH E. Grand, --, chicagoshakes.com , $-$. W W T Jen Silverman’s drama centered on an accused witch in It’s smart programming: Nobody in their 17th century England, but it was as of- right mind should promote Coriolanus or the-moment as tomorrow’s headlines. Titus Andronicus as the feel-good hit of the In one brutally haunting passage, the holiday season. Instead of battlefields and titular (accused) witch speaks of being too infanticide, Midsummer has saucy fairies bone-weary to speak up against injustice and sassy ingénues. It has rambunctious girl and lies. It’s the underside of “neverthe- fi ghts, a slapstick play-within-the-play, and a less she persisted,” and the setup for the triple-wedding happy ending. indelible closing monologue about the Visually, Dowling’s Midsummer plays up the insidious creep of hopelessness. Director comedy’s strengths, leaning into the fantasti- Marti Lyons created a harrowing (and sur- cal. You can practically smell the money that’s prisingly funny) story of Puritan England, been poured into Todd Rosenthal’s extraordi- sliced with knives of contemporary urgen- nary set and Fabio Toblini’s lavish costume de- cy. —CS v sign. But when the sets and the costumes J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER23 ARTS & CULTURE
continued from 23 are more memorable than the characters or the story, you wind up with the theatrical ver- sion of cotton candy. And that’s what happens here. This Midsummer is inarguably beautiful. The actors hit their marks, make the text accessible, and nail the timing. But they are working in the service of the design elements rather than the other way around. When it’s done, you won’t recall the show’s substance so much as its surface. The lights come up to reveal an Athenian court dominated by a massive marble (or marble-looking) wall that evokes Percy Shel- ley’s “Ozymandias.” Like the fallen monument of the poem, the great wall of Athens topples to insignifi cance as the regimented world of the court morphs into an enchanted forest. A Midsummer Night’s Dream LIZLAUREN The engineering at play here is awe-inspiring.
Photo by Chris Lee Our perspective shifts: we’re looking at plant life as if through the eyes of insects, gazing up nis); and his wife, Titania (Alexandra Silber). at fl owers the size of houses sitting on stalks Also in the forest we have a group of trades- the size of redwoods. The e ect is like a super- men rehearsing a play, led by the ridiculously sized Hieronymus Bosch painting, heightened funny T.R. Knight as Nick Bottom, a weaver by Greg Hofmann and Jesse Klug’s color- who fancies himself a brilliant actor (and is saturated lighting design. transformed into an ass). Strauss Symphony of America Amid this riot of color, Toblini’s costumes Bits of the text spark with contemporary still manage to stand out. The fairy folk sport relevance: Egeus’s insistence that he can featuring body-baring creations that look like they “dispose” of his daughter however he likes came straight off the Victoria’s Secret run- hits harder in the age of #MeToo. Oberon’s use Oliver Ostermann, conductor (Vienna) way. There’s copious skin flashing between of drugs to bewitch his sleeping wife is more strategically placed feathers, chains, and menacing than fanciful now that consent is Micaëla Oeste, soprano (Vienna) harness-like contraptions, and there are more a national conversation. And when Titania Brian Cheney, tenor (New York) six-packs on display than in a frat house fridge speaks of pelting rivers that have “overborne during rush week (which I mention because their continents,” it’s an eerie reminder of the the costumes so clearly intend to showcase urgent peril of global warming. Dancers from Kiev-Aniko Ballet of Ukraine & this musculature). The four mortals lost in Composer/music director Keith Thomas’s the woods appear to have lost most of their 1960s-inspired original music amplifies the International Champion Ballroom Dancers clothes: the girls wear colorless sports bras contemporary edge that pops up intermit- and briefs, while the boys are in boxers and tently in the dialogue. He’s enhanced the plot’s T-shirts. The lack of clothing emphasizes the inherent quirkiness by incorporating pop contrast between the regimented rules of chart-friendly song and dance numbers into A spectacular recreation of the Athenian court and the wild chaos of the the shenanigans, including a few classic C-A- Vienna’s famous New Year’s Concert! bewitched forest. The court is dominated by minor-F-G7 chord progressions. (You know men in military dress, complete with buttons it: google “Heart and Soul.”) Many of these lined up as straight as parading soldiers. Once ditties are performed by undulating fairies the characters reach the wild, clothes and in- (expertly choreographed by Joe Chvala) who hibitions fl y o . seem like the supernatural kin to the Ronettes. Sunday, Dec. 30, 2018 at 2:30 pm The plot goes like this: Hermia (Melisa Sole- The music adds a layer of mirth. dad Pereyra) loves Lysander (Tyrone Phillips). In all, Midsummer sounds great. It looks ORCHESTRA HALL, SYMPHONY CENTER Hermia’s father, Egeus (William Dick), says great. It will hold your attention. There is, she has to marry Demetrius (Eric Schabla). to paraphrase Tim Gunn, a lot of look here. 312.294.3000 • cso.org Demetrius loves Hermia. Helena (Cristina But it’s as substantial as pixie dust. Chicago salutetovienna.com/chicago Panfi lio) loves Demetrius. The four lovers fl ee Shakes has the means to go big with innova- to the forest to sort out their various romantic tion and substance. Midsummer goes big, but Produced by Attila Glatz Concert Productions. Artists subject to change without notice. entanglements. Hijinks ensue, orchestrated by mostly just on appearance. v the rascally, feathery Puck (Sam Kebede); the leather-clad fairy king Oberon (Edward O’Ble- @CateySullivan 24 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll H Through / : Thu-Sat PM, Sun : PM, Raven Theatre, N. Clark, --, wearetheagency.org , $-$. ARTS & CULTURE
Hellcab VERONIKAREINERT THEATER Elf-discovery R Barney the Elf spreads campy Christmas cheer.
Gay camp and heartwarming sincerity typically go together like oil and water, so I was delightfully sur- prised and touched by this fun little one-act holiday emulsion by Bryan Renaud and Emily Schmidt. In a queer twist on the 2003 Christmas family comedy Elf, Barney (Roy Samra), a lipstick-wearing, golden-voiced bundle of unconditional love, is exiled from the North Pole workshop to the streets of Chicago by Santa Jr. (Jaron Bellar), a tyrannical, Trump-like autocrat. Between parodies of show tunes and Gloria Gaynor songs, Barney fi nds a job at a gay bar, where he meets and falls in love with Zooey (alternating Danika Bone’t and Dixie Lynn Cartwright, aka Drew Nixon, who per- formed on opening night), a sardonic drag queen who takes pity on her fellow outsider. It’s . . . one of the sweet- est onstage relationships I’ve seen all year? Cartwright’s onstage persona is wryly cynical, much like the charac- ter of Zooey, so scenes in which Zooey earnestly teaches her scared, naive new elf friend about the importance of self-love are genuinely moving. I wouldn’t have expected to have tears in my eyes in a show with one-liners about THEATER bleached assholes, but here we are. Director Michael D. Graham’s production is easily one of the most polished stagings I’ve seen at Pride Michael Shannon sat here Films and Plays, and even if a lot of the jokes land in that The holiday miracle that gave Agency Theatre Collective its Hellcab cab awkward middle ground between theater intended for young audiences and theater not at all for young audi- By C S ences, there’s a lot to warm up to. —D J B E Through 1/6/19: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM, Pride Arts Center, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-857-0222, pridefilmsandplays. his is the story of a Chicago theater for the tiny Agency. Touhy is still mi ed about “We had no idea how it’d work,” Touhy com , $15-$30. Christmas miracle. It’s also the story that. “They wouldn’t move,” he says. “Even says. “It was a leap of faith.” of how the Agency Theatre Collective when I explained we were a nonprofi t.” The leap led him to a friend-of-a-friend-of- Bigger, longer, and uncut T The Full Monty is a less-than-auspicious got the cab for its production of Hellcab, Will But it wasn’t just any cab. It was the cab a-friend who said an auto-body shop in Niles inauguration of Theo Ubique’s new space. Kern’s play about a cabbie on Christmas Eve. from the 1998 movie version of Hellcab, might be willing to advise how to get a full- “Finding that car was like looking for a called Chicago Cab. Chicago Cab played in size sedan into the theater space. Enter Carol Two years ago, when the cabaret musical theater compa- needle in a haystack,” says Agency company just two theaters, but it featured a host of Himmel, director of the German-American ny Theo Ubique announced that it would be relocating a mile north from the No Exit Cafe in Rogers Park, its manager Tim Touhy. famous Chicagoans in their (mostly) pre- Children’s Choir, longtime patron of the arts, snug, hidden oasis-like home of 13 years, to Evanston, The search started last year when Sommer famous days: Michael Shannon (Crack Head), and owner of Erich’s Lehigh Auto Body. “We critics and fans alike poured one out for the beloved Austin signed on to direct the Agency’s 2017 Tracy Letts (Sports Fan), Laurie Metcalf (Fe- like to help when we can, and these guys defi - venue. Director Fred Anzevino and music director production of Hellcab. Austin wasn’t budg- male Ad Exec), and John C. Reilly (Steve). nitely needed help,” Himmel says. “And they Jeremy Ramey’s company was largely distinguished ing on vehicular veracity. “It had to be a cab The Agency didn’t do any fund-raising spe- were so sweet the way they asked.” you’d see on the streets in the early 1990s,” cifi cally for the cab, Touhy says. The show’s Himmel and her cohorts at Erich’s literally she says, “so a Chevy Caprice from either the $20,000 budget—like that of the rest of the cut the car in half, dismantled the halves, and late 1980s or early 1990s. With a meter. And Agency season—comes from small grants, hauled the pieces into the Den. When the 2017 blinkers.” individual donations, and ticket sales. “We show closed, they helped break it into parts Austin wandered salvage yards and knew we’d be able to use it again this year,” again and moved it into storage, where it sat scoured Facebook Marketplace. Finally, Touhy says of the cab. “It was a lot, but we until this year’s production rolled around. during a long jag of insomniac web surfi ng, were going to do Hellcab again, so at least it For Touhy, the car is a metaphor. she struck gold, albeit in the form of a rust- wasn’t $2,000 for something we’d only use “That whole cab is kind of like what 90 per- ing chassis on dubious tires. There on a lot once.” cent of the work is for storefront nonprofi ts. in Janesville, Wisconsin—roughly 110 miles Then there was the problem of getting We take on these challenges without knowing northwest of Chicago—was the cab. the cab’s massive metal hulk up two narrow how they’ll work. Art is always a leap of faith. “It was perfect,” Austin says. Well, almost. stairways and through three narrower doors And a lot of work that most people won’t It wasn’t drivable. It smelled like something— onto the Den Theatre’s postage-stamp second see.” v Barney the Elf CARINSILKAITIS perhaps many somethings—had died in it. And fl oor stage. (This year, the Agency’s Hellcab is the asking price was $2,000—way over budget at the larger Raven Theatre.) @CateySullivan ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER25 ARTS & CULTURE 14 FIERCE FEMALE ACTORS. TWO STELLAR PRODUCTIONS. ALL UNDER ONE ROOF. FAMILIAR By award winning playwright Danai Gurira Directed by Danya Taymor LA RUTA A World Premiere by Isaac Gomez Directed by ensemble member Sandra Marquez
FRI SAT The Old Woman Broods MICHAELSHEPHERDJORDAN 21 22 Familiar Familiar B by its exceptional use of the tight space, which they fi nds out at a Christmas Eve party that their son and 7:30pm 3pm fi lled with illustrious voices and ensembles that befi tted brother has died in combat. La Ruta 7:30pm a signifi cantly larger room. How do you keep going when the worst thing 7:30pm La Ruta Now Theo Ubique inaugurates its new digs with imaginable has happened? What holiday traditions 3pm The Full Monty, Terrence McNally and David Yazbek’s can possibly provide a balm for broken hearts? Those 7:30pm 2000 Americanized adaptation of the 1997 British questions haunt the heart of this piece. But fear not: it’s working-class comedy. It appears to be a work in prog- also goofy, kinetic, tuneful (thanks to O’Donnell’s score ress: right now, the space feels like a peculiar mix of and a tight fi ve-piece band), and sweet. SUN WED THURS FRI SAT Windy City Playhouse chic with the limited functionality There’s a fair degree of the “mythic journey non- and cavernous industrial vibe of the old Viaduct Theatre. sense” (as Amanda de la Guardia’s grieving mother 23 26 27 28 29 These growing pains would be easier to overlook Martha describes it) that has always been the House’s Familiar Familiar Familiar Familiar Familiar if this Full Monty about scruff y everydudes (gasp!) dramaturgical spine. But that journey (inspired by Rom 3pm 2pm 7:30pm 7:30pm 3pm stripping were stronger in its own right; instead, many Barkhordar’s Uncle Drosselmeyer) proves exhilarating, 7:30pm 7:30pm of the voices that carry Yazbek’s forgettable pop musical as Clara (Haley Bolithon) and her toy friends—Rachel La Ruta La Ruta La Ruta score just aren’t up to the usual standards established Shapiro’s talking doll Phoebe, Johnny Arena’s Gallic 3pm La Ruta 7:30pm 7:30pm La Ruta by Ubique’s run over the years, and the sound setup of Monkey, and Ben Hertel’s robot Hugo—join with Fritz 7:30pm 3pm the live fi ve-piece band has the unfortunate eff ect of (Desmond Gray), the reincarnation-in-nutcracker-form 7:30pm sounding like a piped-in MIDI fi le. of Clara’s dead brother, to battle rats and restore some There are plenty of legitimate observations to be semblance of Christmas cheer. made about the stifl ing, repressive macho culture that Squint and you’ll see hints of the Toy Story franchise, SUN exists in conservative pockets of New York State, but as well as A Christmas Carol. But mostly what you’ll The Full Monty’s sexual politics aren’t self-aware enough fi nd is a soul-stirring affi rmation of the need to move 30 to make it feel like a period piece or relevant, contempo- toward the light in darkest times. —K R T Familiar steppenwolf.org rary commentary. I did, however, fi nd some undeniable N Through 12/30: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, 3pm charm in the “Hot Metal” dancers, though some of that Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM. Additional perfor- La Ruta 312-335-1650 may just have been Stockholm syndrome: the show inex- mances Wed Dec. 19, 7 PM and Sun Dec. 23, 6 PM. plicably clocks in around 2 hours and 45 minutes. —D Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, 773-769-3832, 3pm J TF M Through 1/27/19: Thu-Sat thehousetheatre.com, $40-$50 ($20 student and 7:30pm 7:30 PM, Sun 7 PM, Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, industry for all shows, based on availability). 721 Howard St., Evanston, 773-347-1109, theo-u.com, $34-$64. Seasonal despair LEAD PRODUCTION SPONSORS FOR FAMILIAR R The Old Woman Broods rejects decadent Let nothing you dismay capitalism in favor of grotesque comedy and R House Theatre’s no-dancing Nutcracker absurdism. fi nds light in wartime darkness. Like a George Grosz drawing come to life, Tadeusz Grief is a shadowy guest at many holiday tables. The Różewicz’s 1969 satire about an old woman who wants LEAD PRODUCTION SPONSORS FOR LA RUTA House Theatre of Chicago’s nonballet version of The to repopulate the world with her own progeny vacillates Nutcracker transforms E. T. A. Hoff mann’s 1816 tale between over-the-top grotesque comedy, absurdism, “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” into a moving and pitch-black existential despair. imaginative story of loss and rebirth. Created by Phillip Set in a purgatory-like cafe with plasticked-over win- Klapperich, Jake Minton, Kevin O’Donnell, and direc- dows populated by a cast of ghoulish, beat-up looking tor-choreographer Tommy Rapley, the show moves from characters who seem anchored to this wretched spot for high-spirited holiday hijinks to deep sadness, as a family eternity, the narrative—such as it is—centers on the Old 26 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll D B vimeo.com/diagnosisboring ARTS & CULTURE
Diagnosis: Boring
Woman (Manuela Rentea, in a fi ercely committed performance) and her quest to fi nd a doctor who will allow her to once again give birth. In the meantime, is, her isolation becomes so apparent and her a waiter—her only human contact—keeps trying to take her food order, then disappears to join the need to reach out for something, that despera- army or do a series of other similarly random tasks. tion continues to build. I think without having The outside world is referenced in broad that vibrancy around her, the juxtaposition strokes through allusions to climate change, war, wouldn’t be great enough for the comedy to be and other insurmountable global issues, but all played up.” the actual drama plays out in the woman’s mind, and everyone else on stage with her is probably Silva is no stranger to finding the funny a manifestation of its dri . Written in communist in emotional topics. In fact, Silva and Spiro Poland within the tradition of the Theater of the met while working on Sad Clown, an improv Absurd, Różewicz’s nightmarish vision is updated show at the Annoyance Theatre that was here with just enough contemporary references to strike a balance between the timely and the entirely centered around mental illness. Last May, out of time. There were many moments when I didn’t Spiro approached Silva with the pilot script know exactly what the Old Woman was talking of Diagnosis: Boring. She made sure to look about, but I never once doubted her deep desire at it closely before simply agreeing to be a for some sort of relief from suff ering for both herself and the world in its entirety. It all makes poetic part of a friend’s project, even though he had sense while dispensing with much narrative logic. written it with her in mind. What she read was Nicole Wiesner directed. —D S T SMALL SCREEN as simply feeling sad. Mental health issues, he a female-driven story that pushed for further O W B Through 1/19/19: Thu-Sat learned, a ect a person’s logic and, therefore, creative conversations about mental health. 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, 773-384-0494, trapdoortheatre.com, $20-$25, his or her view of the world. He decided to That, she says, was something she was ecstat- two-for-one admission Thu. A gray speck in combine his background in comedy and love of ic to be a part of. surrealism to explore that concept in Diagno- Another inducement to join the project was A debate settled sis: Boring. the diversity of the cast and crew. Silva is a R Yippee Ki-Yay Merry Christmas “When you’re making a sketch for sketch member of Matt Damon Improv, one of the confi rms that Die Hard is indeed at heart a a technicolor holiday movie. comedy,” Spiro says, “there are two di erent most highly regarded improv teams in the kinds of sketches that everyone always sug- city—and which features exclusively women The title says it all. Conceived and written by libret- gests: the sane character in an insane world of color. (Sometimes a white guest, designated tists Michael Shepherd Jordan and Alex Garday world and the insane character in a sane world. I “Matt Damon” or “Lena Dunham,” depending with composer Stephanie McCullough and fi rst presented in 2014 as a holiday attraction at the trio’s Diagnosis: Boring uses surreal think that feeling depressed and dealing with on gender, joins a set, but they can only repeat now-defunct MCL Chicago comedy theater, this is comedy to demonstrate the mental health issues makes you feel like a sane lines that have already been said in a scene by a song-and-dance send-up of the 1988 thriller Die distortional logic of depression. character in an insane world.” the team’s main players.) Diagnosis: Boring Hard. That movie, which starred Bruce Willis as a Absurdist elements appear in Diagnosis: deals with so many highly emotional issues wisecracking New York cop fi ghting international By B W criminals in Los Angeles (in his bare feet, yet!), was Boring from the very fi rst scene. On her way that Silva felt it was important to build an en- not only a showcase for brutal fi ght scenes and in to see the doctor, Jess tries to pick up a vironment where everyone felt comfortable. spectacular special eff ects. It was also a sly satire of coin o the street and the words “Feel shame “There’s a lot of times when I’ll walk into global capitalism in the Reagan era, with Willis’s self- an someone die from being too for trying to steal” appear out of nowhere on an improv class,” she says, “and I’m the only styled “cowboy” single-handedly defeating a gang boring? According to the new web- the sidewalk. While she’s still wallowing in person of color, let alone the only woman. It’s of German terrorists who had mounted a hostile takeover of the still-under-construction-skyscraper series Diagnosis: Boring, the answer her shame and misery, she becomes part of one of those things where you have to feel that American HQ of a Japanese investment fi rm. is “yes.” In the first episode of the an art exhibit viewed by a group of tourists you belong in order to safely create the work The better you know Die Hard, the more you’re Chicago-made show, a doctor tells walking by. And when her doctor gives her that you want to be making.” likely to enjoy this stage spoof, which has fun with CJess (Ana Silva) that she has “Super Boring her diagnosis, he hands her a ticking “death Both Silva and Spiro turn to laughter in the original fi lm’s sociopolitical subtext, as well as its far-fetched plotting, over-the-top action, and as Shit” syndrome and only a few weeks to clock,” loudly symbolizing the necessity of moments of distress. Silva fell into performing comic-book character stereotyping. Even when the live. There’s a possibility she’ll survive if she change. This approach is a welcome variation comedy during a dark period in her life. Spiro script and songs come up short, the actors’ improvi- takes antiboring meds and adjusts her habits on the purely autobiographical nature of many says he tends to fi nd the worst moments of his sational spontaneity and seemingly endless energy to make herself more cool. (“You must start webseries and stories about depression. Not life funny in the moment, then recounts them keep the audience laughing. The cast includes agile Bill Gordon as Bruce McClane, Caitlyn Cerza as his smoking cigarettes,” her doctor says. “Par- that it’s completely without precedent; Crazy in his comedy as a way to process and cope estranged wife Holly Generic, Jenna Steege as her liaments, because they are the coolest.”) For Ex-Girlfriend, Lady Dynamite, and other TV with them. They both hope that Diagnosis: coked-up coworker, Jin Kim as their ill-fated boss the rest of the series, with his assistance and shows have introduced fantastical, comedic Boring can help others do the same. Nintendo Nakatomi, Terrance Lamonte Rogers Jr. as also the help, and sometimes hindrance, of approaches to mental health into mainstream “I think the world is already such a dark Bruce’s Twinkie-eating policeman pal, Nate Curlott media. But Diagnosis: Boring manages to as an in-your-face FBI agent, Gary Fields as the dap- her friends, family, and a self-help guru, Jess place, and there’s so many dark things around per criminal leader Hans Olo (get it?), Erin Long as searches for a cure that works for her. be increasingly bizarre, darkly funny, and us that comedy is one of those things we can his psychotic sidekick Klaus, and Jonathan Allsop as Frank Spiro, the series’s creator, came up at times just plain old dark in its own way, hold onto to keep us sane,” Silva says. “There a high-tech safecracker. —A W Y- with the idea after he went to a psychologist grounded by its dynamic lead, Ana Silva. must be a quote about that somewhere. Well, K-Y M C A D H because he felt devastatingly bored. The ther- “The whole idea is that Jess is a gray speck there is now.” v M P Through 1/12/19: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, apist informed him that he was actually de- in a world full of color,” Silva says. “The more 773-697-3830, yippeethemusical.com , $45. v pressed—and that depression is not the same vibrant and wonderful the world around her @BriannaWellen ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER27 ARTS & CULTURE Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.
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YEAR IN REVIEW played at the Film Center in February) em- ployed subtle cinematic trickery to make The top 10—well, 13—movies of 2018 still photographs seem to come to life. In The Arboretum Cycle (which played at Northwest- At least according to Ben Sachs ern University’s Block Cinema in September), American avant-gardist Nathaniel Dorsky By B S found transcendental beauty in San Fran- cisco’s Golden Gate Park and the nuances of any of my favorite movies that Garrel retrospective in May. It’s one of those AIP W B M 16-millimeter cinematography. received their Chicago theatrical rare movies that exists in a category all its Jia Zhang-ke and Wang Bing are premieres in 2018 expanded my own, bridging narrative and nonnarrative cin- mainland China’s greatest working fi lmmak- G M Juliana Rojas and Marco sense of cinema history. Whether ema in ever-inventive ways. Indeed, it feels as ers, and these features find each director at Dutra’s staggeringly original Brazilian they were rediscoveries from though every shot is challenging what movies the top of his game. Jia’s Ash (which screened fantasy (which premiered at the Chicago Mpast eras (such as the fi rst and seventh fi lms can do, how they can convey emotions, and the at the Chicago International Film Festival in Latino Film Festival in March) depicts a on my list) or new fi lms by old masters (such nature of thought. But despite being formally October) moves fluidly from naturalism to convergence of lesbians, werewolves, and as the fi lms to hold the fourth- and tenth-place unusual, it’s always emotionally accessible if melodrama to tell an epic story of a wayward, singing street beggars in São Paolo, but the rankings), these works reminded me of how not emotionally overwhelming. romantically frustrated woman over roughly most surprising thing about it is that it’s all expansive the art form has always been in 15 years. Wang’s Money (which played at about love—the only other monster movie I terms of visual beauty and social insight. As Z Lucrecia Martel ’s first movie in Facets Multimedia in the spring) is a hyp- can compare it to is James Whale’s The Bride usual, I’m particularly grateful to the city’s nearly a decade breaks new ground for notic documentary about degradation, both of Frankenstein. Also, every movie made independent programmers, who are responsi- Argentina’s greatest filmmaker. It’s her first personal and cultural, in a textile mill town; in color should aspire to the vividness that ble for bringing most of these movies to town. literary adaptation, her first period piece, it confirms that Wang is perhaps the most Rojas and Dutra (working with the great cine- Keep up the good work, all of you. and her fi rst fi lm to center on a male protag- important nonfi ction fi lmmaker anywhere in matographer Rui Poças, who also shot Zama) onist. Yet this blackly funny—and ultimately the world. achieve here. L’E S Philippe Garrel’s mas- haunting—examination of colonial history terwork—a dreamlike meditation on is thoroughly characteristic in its brilliant F TA C R If Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of doomed romance, inspired by the French manipulation of physical space (every frame Beautiful and enveloping experi- Men seemed to grow organically out of writer-director’s relationship with pop sing- feels at once intimate and disorienting) and in mental features by master artists, these fi lms the social insights of Y Tu Mamá También, er Nico—premiered in France in 1982 but its mysterious, arhythmic sense of narrative inspired reverence for nature and cinema then this spellbinding autobiographical drama received its fi rst Chicago screening only this development. simultaneously. The final feature by Iranian seems to expand upon the refl ections on inner year, as part of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s director Abbas Kiarostami, 24 Frames (which and outer space that Cuarón fi rst explored in 28 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll ARTS & CULTURE
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Gravity. This has plenty to say about class re- jects as police brutality and racial segregation MG ; S H ; S lations too, but what’s most impressive about in American cities. B Y and S G (tie); it is how the Mexican writer-director-cinema- TM ; R ; G L ; C ’C - tographer-editor transforms even his polit- T T M Japanese writer- and TD A (tie); D ’W ical observations into the stu of big-screen director Hirokazu Kore-eda may have HW ’GF F ; J T spectacle. won the Palme d’Or this year for Shoplifters, C J A v but I prefer this 2017 legal drama, which E H D ’ M D Who played at the Film Center and Facets late @1bsachs knew that Rainer Werner Fassbinder this summer. The fi lm showcases Kore-eda’s had ever been so cheerful? With this recently skillful sense of characterization and ethical rediscovered TV miniseries (which fi rst aired inquiry, asking viewers to think long and hard between 1972 and ’73 and received its Chica- about the meaning of justice. 164 North State Street go premiere at the Film Center in May), the $11 GENERAL | $7 STUDENTS | $6 MEMBERS trailblazing German writer-director delivered R AP A This year MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800 an upbeat (but still incisive) saga of a work- marked the passing of Vittorio Taviani, 20TH ANNUAL ing-class Cologne family. It’s unlike anything one half (with his brother Paolo) of the great MOYNIHAN else in his monumental fi lmography—to watch Italian fi lmmaking duo behind Padre Padrone ANIMATION SHOW it is to discover a side of Fassbinder you might and The Night of the Shooting Stars. Sad as the “A vivid portrait of a brilliant and OF SHOWS never have known existed. news was, it was reassuring to know that he multifaceted man.” DEC 14 - 27 went out on such a strong note. This terse and — Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter 15 films from 6 TC TH UG visually breathtaking period drama (which countries in the ace of animation My favorite American studio fi lms of the played in the European Union Film Festival in compilation shows! Thu 12/20 @ 6 pm; year both ponder the same theme: how do we March) about a WWII resistance fi ghter facing Fri 12/21 @ 8 pm; defi ne ourselves morally in life-or-death sit- certain doom as he enters enemy territory is a Sat 12/22@ 6 & 8 pm; uations? The Commuter, the best fi lm to date commanding consideration of mortality and DEC 21 - 27 Sun 12/23 @ 3:30 pm; Thu 12/27 @ 8:15 pm by Spanish genre director Jaume Collet-Serra, historical responsibility. It’s one of the Tavian- Fri 12/21 @ 2 & 6 pm; Sat 12/22 @ 2 pm; took the issue to abstract extremes, employing is’ best. Sun 12/23 @ 5:30 pm; Wed 12/26 @6 pm; Thu 12/27 @ 8 pm Hitchcockian formal playfulness, while The R - “Dark and unsettling and proudly deranged.” Hate U Give, a deeply moving adaptation of DEC 21 - 27 • BORDER • — Steve Pond, The Wrap Angie Thomas’s young-adult novel, is ground- B ’ ; A ; P P ; ed in keen observations of such topical sub- N -F ; TW W L ; D ; BUY TICKETS NOW at www.siskelfilmcenter.org ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER29 TM ssss V L ss Directed by Clint Eastwood. R, Directed by Brady Corbet. R, ARTS & CULTURE min. In wide release. min. In wide release.
The Mule ( l e ) and Vox Lux CLAIREFOLGER COURTESYOFNEON
MOVIES The narrative of Vox Lux invites at least two responses. You can feel implicated in Corbet’s cultural critique or share in his aestheticized American disillusionment detachment, with its suggestions of moral superiority. Or you can throw up your hands The Mule and Vox Lux present two very diff erent responses to our nation’s ills. at the futility of it all. Celeste is clearly a lost soul, having grown desensitized from trauma, By B S drugs, and years of pampering; the narrator even divulges near the end that she feels she’s sold herself to the devil. Still, there’s ast week saw the release of two rath- the fi lm that becomes steadily more command- mation, maintaining the ominous tone of the something commendable about Corbet’s un- er cynical American fi lms, Brady Cor- ing as the narrative proceeds. Vox Lux begins opening scenes as the teenage girl practices wavering mean-spiritedness. Never do he and bet’s Vox Lux and Clint Eastwood’s with a brief introduction to Celeste (Raffey in a recording studio, works with a choreogra- Portman try to render the grown-up Celeste The Mule. The first addresses our Cassidy), a 14-year-old girl growing up on Stat- pher, and meets with industry professionals. sympathetic, and the film’s portrayal of the culture’s acclimation to random vio- en Island in 1999. Over footage of video-shot (The tone is consistently enhanced by an music industry is so pessimistic that you can’t Llence, while the second considers our nation’s home movies, Willem Dafoe delivers Corbet’s immersive sound design and Scott Walker’s ever question where the fi lmmaker stands. losing war on drugs. Neither film proposes purplish narration in a stark tone, informing us eerie original score.) One isn’t exactly sur- Where Vox Lux is undone by its self- solutions to the issues they raise, suggesting that “at the beginning, [Celeste] was kind and prised when Corbet jumps forward to 2017 righteousness, The Mule thrives in teasing fatalistically that we’re simply stuck with full of grace.” (His worried voice implies that and reveals that the 31-year-old Celeste (now ambiguity. Based on a true story, Eastwood’s them. But where Vox Lux raises a sense of she will lose these qualities over the course of played by Natalie Portman) has become a cyn- film centers on Earl Stone, a 90-year-old alarm over this conclusion, The Mule—a more the story.) From there, Corbet presents shots ical, self-involved prima donna. This second World War II vet who improbably becomes the complex and ultimately more provocative of an adolescent boy walking down a road in chapter of the fi lm opens with another scene top drug runner for a Mexican cartel. Like the work—is disarmingly upbeat. Eastwood, di- the middle of the night; this is the boy who will of random violence: a massacre at an eastern protagonist of Eastwood’s Gran Torino (which recting a script by Nick Schenk, suggests that stage a massacre at Celeste’s junior high, shoot- European seaside resort by gunmen wearing was also scripted by Schenk), Earl is stubborn, the country’s social ills haven’t fundamentally ing her in the neck in the process of gunning masks made popular by one of Celeste’s music casually bigoted, and hoping to make up for a altered the American character; the people the down many of her classmates. In recovery, Ce- videos. (Corbet fi lms the attack in an extend- lifetime of regrets. After paying o the mort- movie depicts are still capable of being nice to leste writes a song to work through her feelings ed Steadicam shot, a refl ection of his refi ned gage on his house, he uses the money he makes one another and even doing good in spite of about the massacre; she performs it at a church aesthetic sensibility.) When Celeste holds from drug smuggling to buy the affection of the dark cultural climate they inhabit. This po- vigil for the victims, media outlets disseminate a press conference to respond to the event, his estranged family members and fi x up the sition stands in sharp contrast to that of Vox it, and the song becomes a nationwide hit. she speaks condescendingly of the gunmen local VFW hall. One comes to regard Earl as Lux, which depicts both American society and Some recording studio executives like what before turning the attention to herself. She inherently well-intentioned even though he individual Americans as irreversibly diseased. they hear, and in short time they’re grooming declares that she won’t cancel the concert she shows no moral compunction about breaking Corbet’s fi lm is bitter and angry and leaves a Celeste to become a pop star. has scheduled for that night, saying it’s her the law; the fi lmmakers luxuriate in this irony, bad taste in your mouth, while Eastwood’s In this development, Corbet issues a cri- responsibility to bring people joy. The film testing audience sympathy throughout. East- gives you something to savor and chew on. tique of culture industry cynicism, delineating concludes at the concert, with Celeste giving wood’s a ecting performance as Earl distracts I’ll say this for Vox Lux, though: Corbet excels the process by which a victim of gun violence an impressive performance despite being from the immoral decisions the character at setting a mood. The actor-turned-director is used to sell records. The director takes a addled by drugs—a discomforting triumph of makes—one shares in Earl’s willed ignorance conjures up an air of discomfort at the start of cold, detached approach to Celeste’s transfor- pop escapism over real-world concerns. of the cartel’s brutality, excusing it on the ssssEXCELLENTsssGOODssAVERAGEsPOOR• WORTHLESS
30 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies. ARTS & CULTURE
MOVIES grounds that he uses his dirty money to Once Upon a Deadpool Aquaman When our favorite irreverent pansexual super-antihero perform such nice acts. The DC oceanic superhero has been around since 1941, (Ryan Reynolds) announces near the top of Deadpool As always, Eastwood’s directorial style and, like many other vintage comic-book characters, 2 that the mayhem on screen is actually a family fi lm, in is plainspoken and elegant in the tradition has enjoyed several makeovers. But none is more a way he’s right: without the obligatory creation story of such old Hollywood masters as John striking than his fi lmic embodiment by Jason Momoa, baggage of the 2016 original, the sequel zips along as who, a er his cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of the motormouth assassin tries to clean up his act (sort Ford and Howard Hawks. He presents Justice (2016) and supporting part in Justice League of) and fi nds family where he wasn’t looking. But you the complexities of Schenk’s script with (2017), here makes you forget that Aquaman was ever couldn’t call the sequel “family friendly”—until now, a straight face, allowing them to simmer a clean-cut towhead. The burly tattooed star brings a in this recut holiday special version, in which director until they become unavoidable. The Mule pleasing mix of congeniality and ferocity to the lead David Leitch (Atomic Blonde) has substantially reduced role in this occasionally sluggish origin story, which owes the gore and profanity, and upped the inside jokes by Home Alone ironically suggests that it might take crim- much to DC’s The New 52 reboot in 2011 by writer Geoff stealing a page from Rob Reiner and William Goldman. inal wrongdoing to fi x pervasive social ills, Johns. Still, director James Wan borrows liberally from In a new framing device and cutaway scenes, Fred DEC 21-24 AT 11 PM as Earl uses his loot to repair his broken elsewhere in the canon: Amber Heard is a dead ringer Savage, playing himself, is ensconced in the recreated family bonds as well as a crumbling social for the 1964 comics version of Princess Mera, and Yahya bedroom set he occupied as a child star over 30 years Abdul-Mateen II has the pirate Black Manta down to a ago in The Princess Bride, having been abducted by institution that his community can no lon- T (although a little of this villain’s backstory would have Deadpool (who terms it “involuntary location enhance- ger support. And for most of the running been helpful). Veteran cinematographer Don Burgess’s ment”) so that the smart aleck can regale Fred with a time, Eastwood and Schenk inspire plenty widescreen images beguile, and Bill Brzeski’s production storybook reprise of Deadpool 2. The obvious bleeps of good cheer with this premise. Earl’s design impresses mightily, but next time, someone of profanity actually make this version even smuttier, friendly relationships with the people he please give Momoa and company some memorable dia- and Savage’s digs at Deadpool not being really Mar- logue. With Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, Patrick vel—“You’re Fox Marvel”—lead to a witty meta exchange meets (even testy cartel members) provide Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. —A G PG-13, about 20th Century Fox and its sale to Disney. There a source of unaccountably genial humor, 143 min. 600 N. Michigan, ArcLight, Block 37, Crestwood are additional new scenes where the protagonist visits while his attempts to patch things up with 18, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero Show- a zoo and a park, but the best is saved for last, so stay Batman Returns his daughter and ex-wife make for warm place 14, City North 14, New 400, River East 21, Rosemont for the short, poignant sequence at the very end of DEC 25-27 AT 10:30 PM 18, Showplace ICON, Webster Place 11 the closing credits. —A G PG-13, 118 (though characteristically underplayed) min. Block 37, Crestwood 18, Century 12 and CineArts 6, drama. It’s only in the fi nal half hour that Moynihan Showplace ICON For showtimes and advance tickets, visit the film’s darkness catches up with you, Political noncomformist Daniel Patrick Moynihan is the thelogantheatre.com when the cartel’s brutality becomes too subject of this mostly conventional documentary, which Second Act considers the late senator, ambassador, and sociologist’s Jennifer Lopez stars in yet another fi lm unworthy of her severe to ignore and Earl must face the enduring infl uence on American public life. A bold radiance, this time as a woman from Queens who quits consequences of his crimes. Yet the film New York Democrat who grew up during the Great her job at a supermarket to work as a consultant in the manages to conclude on an optimistic note, Depression and continually reached across race, class, tony Manhattan offi ce of a consumer goods corporation. suggesting that Earl will never su er too and political party lines, Moynihan was a colorful fi gure It is a rags-to-riches story with an implausible case of whose story warrants a stylized, even outré depiction. mistaken identity as its hinge, meaning that the protag- much for what he’s done. It is unfortunate, then, that codirectors Joseph Dorman onist lies to almost everyone she meets for the majority
R SM For decades now, Eastwood has been and Toby Perl Freilich deliver a staid yet informative run- of the movie to keep up the ruse. This sours what is R one of the great interrogators of American down of Moynihan’s political maneuvers, skimming the presented as the character’s core belief, and the movie’s social mores, using cinema to question the details of the man’s personal life to focus on the impact thrust—that street smarts should be as valuable as book www.BrewView.com and prescience of his o en unpopular exhortations. smarts—because the movie’s ostensible defi nition of myths of artistic infallibility (Bird ; White 3145 N. Sheffield at Belmont Though they succeed in rousing interest and delivering street smarts is experience meets cleverness propelled Hunter, Black Heart ), the government’s a few gut punches, the fi lmmakers struggle to justify by dishonesty. A tidy conclusion further muddies the promise to act in our best interests (Flags their choice of a visual medium for their narrative—as message, as if to say: so long as you eventually confess Movie Theater & Full Bar of Our Fathers, J. Edgar), the glory of tech- opposed to, say, a podcast series. Jeff rey Wright nar- to your wrongdoings, you’ll be forgiven, and you’ll still 18 to enter 21 to drink nological progress (Sully ), and the valor rates. —L P 102 min. Fri 12/21, 2 and 6 PM; Sat get what you want. With Leah Remini, Vanessa Hud- $5.00 Photo ID required 12/22, 2 PM; Sun 12/23, 5:30 PM; Wed 12/26, 6 PM; and gens, and Milo Ventimiglia. —L P PG-13, 105 admission of machismo (pretty much everything for the Thu 12/27, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center min. ArcLight, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Rosemont 18, Movies from White Hunter on). With The Mule, he Showplace ICON v questions the moral rectitude of the war on drugs, presenting drug running as an Fri-Sat, Dec. 21-22 @ 6:30pm Wed-Thr, Dec. 26-27 @ 6:30pm unlikely panacea to a broken society. This premise speaks to how entrenched the illegal drug trade is in American life, not Bohemian to mention the failure of various social institutions. Yet Eastwood ameliorates the Rhapsody fi lm’s cynicism with unfl agging sympathy Fri-Sat, Dec. 21-22 @ 9:00pm for its characters, and in doing so advances Second Act Wed-Thr, Dec. 26-27 @ 9:00pm a winning sense of community. The moral conflict of The Mule feels far more con- structive than the easy alienation of Vox Venom Lux—it encourages us to wrestle with our thoughts and fi nd new insights. v
@1bsachs ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER31 Counterclockwise from upper right: cover art for Henny B & Rage Aurelius, Armanii Day, Morocco Brown, Swade, and WemmyMo
The best overlooked Chicago hip-hop of 2018
The city’s hip-hop scene overfl ows with such variety and abundance that it’s impossible to show enough love to every great release— but that’s no reason not to try. By L G
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wo of 2018’s biggest rap singles dance, peaked at number four on the Billboard came out last year. “Mo Bamba,” a 200. He outdid it in October when he dropped burbling, combustible anthem that a collaboration with Future, Wrld on Drugs, Harlem rapper Sheck Wes made for that debuted at number two. his childhood friend, Orlando Magic A brief Vulture review of Wrld on Drugs de- Tcenter Mohamed Bamba, originally dropped clared, “One of the biggest new stars in rap is in June 2017; earlier this month, the song a teenager from Chicago who sounds like he’s reached number six on the Billboard Hot 100. from Atlanta.” But Juice Wrld’s sound is more “Lucid Dreams,” a corrosive heartbreak song URL than IRL, rooted less in a specifi c regional that Chicagoland rapper Juice Wrld built on scene than in a style that developed online, a tender guitar melody swiped from Sting’s and Soundcloud rappers who’d succeeded “Shape of My Heart,” also debuted online in before him helped his blend of trap percus- June 2017; in October it peaked at number two sion and third-wave emo go down smoothly. on the Hot 100. (Benny Blanco’s recent single “Roses,” which Juice Wrld, born Jarad Higgins and raised features vocals from Juice Wrld and Panic! at mostly in Chicago’s south suburbs, is the the Disco’s Brendon Urie, hangs together biggest local breakout artist this year—the better than the Auto-Tune gloop of Wrld on last time somebody blew up like that around Drugs.) Inasmuch as a rapper can be of the In- these parts was 2012, when Chief Keef ush- ternet, Juice Wrld is; “Lucid Dreams” was the ered in drill’s mainstream crossover. Higgins, year’s most played song on the entire Sound- 20, was largely unknown a year ago. Prior to cloud platform. this year, Juice Wrld had only played a couple The dominant narrative foisted on Chicago shows and done one noteworthy interview hip-hop—a subcultural battle between drill SMARTBARCHICAGO.COM (with local hip-hop site Elevator ), and most and a hard-to-pin down “alternative” commu- 3730 N CLARK ST | 21+ of the material he’d uploaded to Soundcloud nity nurtured by poetry open mikes and usual- didn’t get any traction. At some point this ly exemplifi ed by Chance the Rapper—doesn’t past winter, though, the EP Juice Wrld 9 9 9 have any room for Juice Wrld. Of course, the HOOTIE B2B HOPSCOTCH PHILLIP STONE (which includes “Lucid Dreams”), self- actual output of the local rap scene in 2018 TENSNAKE released in June 2017, came to the attention demolished this narrative at every turn, and of DJ Victoriouz, a scene staple who’d hosted thankfully it’s now being invoked mostly be- Keef’s breakthrough mixtape, 2012’s Back cause of its inadequacy: a Pitchfork review of From the Dead. Chris Crack’s Being Woke Ain’t Fun , a RedEye Through Victoriouz, Juice Wrld got his profile of Cupcakke, and a New York Times music in the ear of Chicago drill heavyweight story about Valee all positioned their subjects Lil Bibby. He joined the roster of Bibby’s label, outside this spurious dichotomy. SAT Grade A Productions, and in March he signed Valee, Cupcakke, and Juice Wrld are among DEC a deal with Interscope (reportedly worth $3 the many artists who’ve proved, over and over 29 10PM million) about a week after Lyrical Lemonade again throughout the past six years, that Chi- 21+ released the Cole Bennett video for Juice’s cago hip-hop is more than Keef and Chance. I breakout single, “All Girls Are the Same .” His defy anyone to fi nd a single template that ex- debut album, May’s Goodbye & Good Rid- plains Queen Key’s vivacious, vitriolic Eat J TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA METRO + SMART BAR WEBSITES + METRO BOX OFFICE. NO SERVICE FEES AT BOX OFFICE! ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER33 continued from 33 ARMANII DAY listing her frustrations and regrets and con- music or beefed up their live sets with brass. My Pussy , Sen Morimoto’s madcap Cannon- O MM templating her own death—and even then, she He raps so confidently that it seems he’s ball! , Saba’s elegiac Care for Me , Roy Kinsey’s Armanii Day opens the August mixtape takes some consolation from the music she’s guided by a craftsman’s muscle memory, and immersive Blackie, Noname’s intimate Room Objects in My Mirror by saying, “The songs created. there’s little doubt that those more famous 25 , and G Herbo’s boisterous Swervo all com- aren’t long, and I still live with my mom.” rappers are part of his intended audience. ing out in one year. Her performances throughout are similarly MOROCCO BROWN The stubborn grit in his voice when he opens So many Chicagoans released great hip- endearing and unexpected. On “Im Rambling” M up about his absent father on “Post Mortem” hop in 2018 that (as usual) not all of it got she’s mixed her vocals low enough against the Morocco Brown came up in 2016 under the helps make his fi ght for a better tomorrow feel the attention it deserved. This is an excellent instrumental that it sounds like she’s wander- management of rapper Taylor Bennett, though tangible—something I needed this year. problem to have, of course, and since 2013 I’ve ing through a fog, occasionally drowned out by they parted ways a year or so ago. In August, made an annual “best overlooked Chicago hip- a stuttering sample of Anita Baker’s “Caught he self-released Manic, a focused debut EP Swade hop” list to help address it. But defi ning “over- Up in the Rapture”; when the backing track built on e ervescent synths and minimal per- JEREMYMERCADO looked” remains a challenge, not least because drops out and she delivers a smart, high-speed cussion, which sometimes sounds like fl urries the easiest kind of attention to track—that is, rap, the song’s drowsy ambience instantly of hand drumming and sometimes sounds media coverage—is such a small part of the re- falls away. She’s loose and playful throughout like a trap beat submerged in the mix. Brown ception for a given release. I could easily argue Objects in My Mirror in a way that feels like a occasionally seems frazzled—most notably on that FBG Duck’s “Slide” is overlooked because throwback to the days before “mixtape” be- the single “Mania,” originally released in late the mainstream press has barely noticed it— came interchangeable with “studio album.” It’s 2017—but even his most anxious outbursts but it’s also become a Chicago radio staple and more fun than a lot of rap studio albums too. feel tightly controlled. On the sweet, pop- racked up nearly 40 million YouTube views. forward track “Rubicon,” he stretches out the Something similar could be said of Famous occasional syllable, almost as if he’s singing, Dex: his April 2018 studio debut, Dex Meets and in those moments you can really hear his Dexter, hit number 12 on the Billboard 200, but latent star quality. the New York Times and Pitchfork mentioned him only in the context of Spotify’s short-lived Morocco Brown “hateful conduct” policy, noting that his music JUHSTO wasn’t removed from the company’s playlists despite a video leaked in 2016 that he admits shows him assaulting his girlfriend. Because I needed a fi lter, though, I invented one. Its most important component concerns the Reader’s coverage: if we published any- thing at all about a local rapper, whether a 4,000-word profile or a paragraph-long concert preview, that rapper didn’t count as WEMMYMO overlooked. I also didn’t include anyone who B performed at a widely publicized festival Uptown MC WemmyMo started his career two (Navarro at Red Bull Music Festival Chicago), years ago at the Harold Washington Library, headlined a record-release show at a midsize Armanii Day when he made his public debut as a rapper at or larger club (Pseudo Slang at Sleeping ARMANIIDAY SocialWorks’s OpenMike Chicago, the high Village), or appeared in a mural on the side school performance series founded and host- of a building (UG Vavy, who’s painted on East ed by Chance the Rapper. As WemmyMo told Room). HENNY B & RAGE AURELIUS Illanoize Radio earlier this year, he got such Local rappers continue to release material W F*S encouraging feedback from the likes of Social in all seasons, even when music writers hi- I bent the rules a little to include this EP from Experiment bandleader Peter Cottontale that bernate, and I had to skip some great releases Angeline “Henny B” Gil. I wrote about a Labor he booked studio time that week and recorded because they came out in mid-December, after Day show that several of Henny’s friends— his fi rst song, “Misunderstood.” It’s especially I’d already spent weeks whittling a list of including Vic Spencer, Nasim Williams, Mic impressive to consider how recently Wemmy- dozens down to fi ve—among them were David Terror, Freddie Old Soul, Gzus Piece, and SWADE Mo got started when you hear his refi ned tech- Ashley’s Draco and Defcee’s A Mixtape as God Sisi Dior—hosted in her honor after she died H ND nique on the June release Bittersweet, which Intended, Vol 1. Plus there’s the possibility one in March. In September, her collaborators Even though Swade grew up in Florida, he calls came out around the time he graduated from of them will become a hit—I can’t argue that released two posthumous EPs: Moments, Chicago home, and you can feel it on Febru- Lincoln Park High School. With his youthful something has been overlooked before every- credited to Nasim Williams and Henny B, and ary’s ornate and unfortunately brief EP Have energy, he seems to be hurrying its easygoing, body has had a chance to look at it. Wasted F*ckin Summer with Virginia produc- a Nice Day. Anxious, juke-inspired percussion soul-infl uenced tracks along—and even in his In case it needs saying, I’m not trying to be er Rage Aurelius. The instrumentals on the lat- kicks off the triumphant-sounding opener, relaxed moments, such as the slow half-singing comprehensive by choosing five releases. I ter alternate between golden-age boom-bap “Run It Up,” and flamboyant horns gussy up on the tranquil “Holy Vibes,” he still manages hope this roundup encourages people to keep and glammy boogie, with Henny’s nonchalant the closing track, “Window Seat”—Swade to convey an irresistible euphoria. v exploring and listening to Chicago rap they cool as the unifying thread. Only on the track seems to be taking cues from more famous haven’t yet heard. “Champion” does she shed that relaxed poise, local rappers who’ve borrowed from footwork @imLeor 34 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG . .
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OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER35 Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of December 20
MUSIC b ALLAGESF
of inclusion, but this event has become a tradition FRIDAY21 unto itself; many people return annually to observe the beginning of the year’s shortest day by listening Bonaventure Hieroglyphic Being, Mister to two master drummers match rhythms and sounds Wallace, and Ariel Zetina open. 10 PM, Smart played on percussion instruments that come from Bar, 3730 N. Clark, $18, $15 before midnight, $10 all around the world. Since Drake and Zerang are in advance. 21+ both internationally celebrated improvisers, you can count on each concert to be a unique musical event. Swiss-Congolese producer Soraya Lutangu, who But you can also be sure that they’ll all start the records and performs as Bonaventure, makes music same way: with the musicians joining the audience that sounds like a late-night Internet-surfi ng session in a room lit only by candles, ranging freely amongst fueled by sugar and adrenaline. “I really don’t have their collected instruments until the dawn light any agenda or strategy when it comes to composing streams in. This year Drake and Zerang will play music. I defi nitely get inspired by my surrounding, duos on three successive mornings, starting with not even in the glamorous sense of the term—liter- the solstice and running through the weekend. The ally the everyday life,” she told the site Pan African two of them will also join other musicians on Friday Music in November. “Most of the time, I fi nd another and Saturday nights. The fi rst night they will help idea while I am trying to remember the initial idea bassist and bandleader Tatsu Aoki celebrate his so it is really like constantly surprising myself.” Her 60th trip around the globe (see page 37 for more). debut EP for celebrated outre electronic label Plan- The second night Zerang will reconvene the un con- et Mu, November’s Mentor, stutters, shivers, and ventional string quartet Silt, which fi rst played with shakes as Lutangu pieces together shards of the him at May Chapel in October, and Drake will play a dreamy Angolan dance genre kizomba, the mini- set with the free-rock trio Mako Sica. —B M malist Ivory Coast pop sound coupé-decalé, and the anxious energy of gabber and hardstyle. Her vision comes out celestial—as if the sounds on Mentor not Josefina Will Phalen and Gunshy open. 9 PM, PICK OF THE WEEK only span our globe, but other planets as well—and Sleeping Village, 3734 W. Belmont, $10. 21+ though these tracks contain plenty of unexpected Shemekia Copeland takes on a twists and turns, Lutangu always provides a pulse Josefina Asconapé was born in Buenos Aires and that any listener can easily latch onto. —L G began her career performing jazz standards and chansons in Paris. Now based in Chicago, she’s wealth of social issues on the developed a style that fits neatly into the local Container Plattenbau and Mukqs open. indie-pop scene, with touches of country and folk hard-driving America’s Child 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10, $8 in thrown into the mix. On “Run, Cowboy, Run,” from advance. 21+ this year’s Starry Dome (Mirasol), Asconapé dabbles in enjoyably low-key western myth-making, with an Ren Schofield has been making deranged sounds inevitable shoot-out that results in humiliation but
MIKEWHITE for years in projects such as noise-rock outfi t Gang no death; her sweet vocals contrast charmingly with Wizard and challenging electronic collective Form the music’s ominously spacious Morricone fl ourish- S C K B a Log. With his solo project, Container, the Provi- Wed 12/26 and Thu 12/27, 8 PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph, $38-$48. b dence musician is able to fuse all of his past artis- tic identities into one. Existing at the crossroads of techno and noise, Container is a simple, stream- lined project in which Schofi eld lays out four-on-the- WHENSHEMEKIACOPELAND exploded onto the blues scene in 1998 with Turn the Heat fl oor electronic beats and pairs them with twisted, circuit-bent synth pulses and washes. On this sum- Up (Alligator), the reaction was immediate: adjectives like “sizzling,” “storming,” and mer’s LP (the fourth Container full-length to be “incendiary” began following the 19-year-old singer around like starstruck groupies; some titled as such, all of which have been released by reviewers even dragged relics like the dreaded “red-hot blues mama” out of storage to Spectrum Spools), Schofi eld’s frill-less, fried compo- sitions are completely mind-bending despite their describe her. Overheated as some of the encomiums may have been, most captured who minimalism; the topsy-turvy, off-kilter sounds that she was as an artist pretty well, but some of them missed the mark: within the intensity Co- accent the grooves provide an all-out weirdness, peland poured into virtually every song, she seemed to be singing from the depths of hard- and a beyond-harsh power-electronics lean creeps into every song. It’s the type of dance music that’s won experience, delivering “grown folks’ music” before she was even out of her teens. In equally at home played in a club or at a warehouse the years since, she has further expanded her thematic and emotional range by delving into noise show. —L C such hot-button themes as religious hypocrisy (“Sounds Like the Devil,” “Somebody Else’s Jesus”), domestic violence (“Ain’t Gonna Be Your Tattoo”), and date rape (“Crossbone Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang See Beach”). On this year’s America’s Child, she augments her usual hard-driving, roots-rich also Saturday and Sunday. 6 AM, Links Hall at ensemble with such guests as John Prine, Rhiannon Giddens, Steve Cropper, and Emmylou Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $29. b Harris. Throughout the record, she summons a persona that’s both righteous and welcom- Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang played their fi rst ing: “Ain’t Got Time for Hate,” “Americans,” and “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” are cele- sunrise percussion concert in 1990. Timed to co in- brations of free will, diversity, and tolerance. On “One I Love” her protagonist is a woman cide with the winter solstice, the performance was an open-invite, nonpreachy spiritual gesture to wel- in an unspecifi ed unconventional relationship taking on the haters, and—as if to remind come all their friends who felt out of place attend- some of her less-than-woke listeners where her music really comes from and what it really ing more conventional holiday-oriented festivi- means—“In the Blood of the Blues” is a jubilant, unabashedly militant proclamation of its ties. Twenty-eight years later, much of the country feels like it could use a reminder about the merits J o s e fi n a JIMTUERK vital role in the living heritage of the African diaspora. —D W
36 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Est.Est.1954 1954 Celebrating over 6165 years of service service Find more music listings at to Chicago! chicagoreader.com/soundboard. 1800 W. DIVISION MUSIC (773) 486-9862 Come enjoy one of “Cause . . . ” his lyrical romantic gestures and come- Chicago’s finest beer gardens! ons help get the job done, but the tender touch FEBRUARYSEPTEMBERJADECEMBERNUARY 11...... 20 23 .....20 .....MIKE DA MIKEVID QUINN FELTEN FLABBY FELTEN HOFFMAN SHOW 8PM of his golden voice on the hook does all the heavy SEPTEMBERJADECEMBERNUARY 12...... 21 .....WAGNER21 Z28 AMERICAN& MORSE DRAFT FEBRUARYSEPTEMBER 22 24 .....THE .....MURDERDADYRKNAMOSRO CITYOM SAINTS MEN li ing. —L G JADECEMBERNUARY 13...... 22 THE ACOUSTIPUNKS DJ SKID LICIOUS SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 14...... 23 ....WHOLESOMERADIOMAYAWHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESS TOKEYTARNY DO DJRO NIGHTSARIO GROUP MURPHYJOHNMOJO THOMPSONGREENFIELD 49 9:30PM JADECEMBERNUARY 17...... 23 MIKE WHOLESOMERADIO FELTENJAMIE WAGNER DJ & NIGHT FRIENDS FEBRUARYJADECEMBERNUARY 18...... 25 27 .....WHOLESOMERADIO THE KEITH RON MIKEANDSCOTT RACHEL FELTON SHOW DJ NIGHT Miyumi Project with Hamid Drake & SEPTEMBERJADECEMBERNUARY 19...... 24 .....RC28 STRAY BIG BAND SITU BOLTS 7PMATION DAVID DECEMBER 29 THE CLAMMAXLIELLIAM BAND ANNA Michael Zerang 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 FEBRUARY 26 .....RCBIRDGANGSFEATURING BIG 9:30PMBA BKND READ 7PM JADECEMBERNUARY 20...... 30 TITTY THE CITTY LAY-DOWN FIRST WARD RAMBLERS PROBLEMS N. Western, $15. 18+ FEBRUARYJADECEMBERNUARY 21...... 28 31 .....PETER DUDE DAN SAME WHITAKERTO CASANONY DO RO & VATHESARIOQUARTET SHINEBENDERS GROUP 8PM JANUARY 4 KING RABBIT SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 22...... 26 .....PETERVIBE CASANOVA THEORY RC BIG QUARTETBAND 7PM No matter where you’re from, turning 60 feels sig- MARCHSEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 1...... SMILIN’ 24...... 27 5 .....DORIAN BARNEYTA PETERJ MUGGERSBO CASONOBBY AND STREETVA THEQUARTET CLEMTONESBAND SEPTEMBERJA NUARY 25...... 28 .....TOURSKYLE KENNEDY THE WICK nifi cant, but in Japan they have a name for it. Kanre- MARCHJANUARY 2...... ICE 8 BULLY FLABBY PULPITBO XHOFFMAN AND BIG SHOW HOUSE 8PM SEPTEMBERJAJANUARYNUARY 26...... 29 9 .....SOMEBODY’S ELIZABETH’S THE SINSHEPKATS CRAZY LITTLE THING ki signifi es the start of a new cycle of life with your MARCH 3...... CHIDITARODFEATURINGSKIPPIN’ SPRINGBO ANDROCKTARRINGTON 9PM 10PM JANUARY 10 FEATURING FLABBY JOEHOFFMAN LANASA SHOW 8PM troubles and responsibilities forgotten. Celebrants SEPTEMBERJANUARY 27...... 30 .....OFF THE VINE THE 4:30PM STRAY BOLTS often wear red—a color associated with youth— MARCHJANUARYOPEN 7...... 28...... MICNUCLEARJA HOSTEDMIE WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZWA QUARKTETGNER BY MIKE & 7:30PM FRIENDS & DJMIKE NIGHT and traditionally they retire from adult household ONEVERYEVERY TUESDAY TUESD TUESD EVENINGSAY (EXCEPT (EXCEPT 2ND) 2ND)ATAT 2ND)8PM8PM responsibility. Tatsu Aoki, who was born in Tokyo OPEN MICSEASON’S HOSTED BYGREETINGS JIMIJON AMERICA and moved to Chicago in 1977, put off his kanre- ki until he turned 61 this year, and he still shows no signs of slowing the pace of his busy lifestyle. The educator, musician, and fi lmmaker released two new albums this year, both of which feature him play- ing bass with a flexibly configured group called the Miyumi Project. Raw and Alive Volume II (Asian Improv) is a double live album by the full ensem- ble, which layers free-fl owing woodwind solos over traditional taiko drum rhythms, while Reduction Ensemble (Asian Improv) is a quartet recording L.A. VanGogh BRIAWILLIAMS closer to the pancultural jazz of early-80s groups such as Codona or Griot Galaxy. Aoki’s kanreki is the theme of tonight’s concert, which is part of the annual winter solstice celebration organized es. “Chevy ’73” is a big-road anthem whose atmo- by drummers Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang. In sphere is reminiscent of “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” the fi rst set Aoki, who also plays a traditional Jap- with Joe Darnaby playing reverb-heavy surf guitar anese stringed instrument called the shamisen, will and Alex Hall hitting the drums like a whipcrack, improvise with his hosts. During the second, Drake while Asconapé sings with an improbable south- and Zerang will join Aoki in a lineup of the Miyu- ern lilt. “I’ll Soon Be Walking” is perhaps the best mi Project that includes his frequent collaborators song on the record. A lovely, coff eehouse country Mwata Bowden and Edward Wilkerson Jr. on reeds, take on Motown, the song contains big beats, girl- as well as Aoki’s children Eigen, Kioto, and Miyumi group backing vocals, twangy guitar, and millennial (the ensemble’s namesake) on taiko drums. —B laments such as “I keep moving on and rambling / M These random roommates are like gambling.” Not every track is so successful; the nostalgic rock romance of “Starry Dome” heads into uncomfort- ably cloying Billy Joel territory with overdeter- SATURDAY22 mined lyrics about dancing by the Chicago lake- side beneath the starry sky. But for the most part, Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang See the album will resonate with fans of hooky, intimate Friday. 6 AM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. songwriting. —N B Western, $29. b
L.A. Vangogh Femdot headlines; L.A. Solo Sam Freddie Gibbs headlines; DJ RTST VanGogh and Shawnee Dez open. 7:30 PM, and Solo Sam open. 8 PM, Park West, 322 W. Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $15, $10 in Armitage, $25. b advance. b Solo Sam started his rap career while playing NCAA On “Goldmember’s Alchemy” Chicago rapper- Division 1 football for Valparaiso University, and the singer L.A. VanGogh extols the value of labor, with arts have long been in his DNA. His father, Ghana- lines arguing that the only way to attain riches ian painter Samuel Akainyah, moved to Chicago in yourself is to put in the work. And with his new 1975 to attend the School of the Art Institute, and Everything Is Subjective: Episode 2 (Private Stock), Solo Sam has followed in his footsteps to become he makes sure to show you how. L.A. has long a multidisciplinary artist. He’s a glassblower by since proved himself to be one of the most gi ed trade who specializes in cold working, a technique vocalists in Chicago hip-hop, veering so smoothly that involves shaping glass after it’s cooled; I’ve between singing and rapping that he seems to yet to see his glasswork, but if it’s anything like his evaporate the barriers between those forms. music, it must be top-of-the-line. This summer he Episode 2 adds another section to his resumé, as self- released Itis, an all-too-brief EP buoyed by his his words nimbly tiptoe, pirouette, and glide atop adroit rapping. On “Breezin & Coolin” he subtly suave keys and gently clacking percussion. On shi s the swing in his rapid delivery from one J ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER37 Find more music listings at MUSIC chicagoreader.com/soundboard.
Macabre MICHELLEMARGAUX
continued from 37 year, the mini fest—which is inspired by the band’s cluster of verses to the next, and in the process he satisfyingly vicious song of the same title—turns 21 injects adrenaline into the song and alters the mood and sprawls out over two rooms at Reggie’s. Head- of the carefree instrumental. In the song’s video, lining the Music Joint is Putrid Pile, the gnarly, gar- Sam rides through Chicago’s residential streets on gling one-man band of ex-Numskull multi-instru- a moped, hits a battery of tennis balls served by mentalist Shaun LaCanne, with support by black- something that looks like the ED-209 enforcement ened death-metal outfit Blood of the Wolf and droid from the original Robocop, and takes the form Atonement Theory, a heavy industrial four-piece of a centaur. Just like in the song, his expert touch- fronted by Jay Jancetic of Harm’s Way and Holy es and personable character make everything in the Roman Empire. Macabre take the main stage, with video make sense, no matter how surreal. —L Kenosha’s fi nest death-metal band, Jungle Rot (who G released a self-titled ninth full-length in July), and Chicago horror/death-metal crew Disinter. Holidays can produce a lot of aggression that needs cathar- Macabre Part of Holiday of Horrors. Jungle sis, and if you still haven’t had enough, there’s a free Rot, Disinter, and Inner Decay open. 6:30 PM, a ershow with Motörhead tribute band We Are the Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $20, $15 in Roadkill. —M K advance. 17+
As saccharine as holiday-themed foo-foo can get, there’s always a dark current beneath the tinsel— SUNDAY23 consider the tradition of Christmas ghost stories, for example. Chicago murder-metal institution Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang See Macabre are at the core of a distinctly local cus- Friday. 6 AM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. tom that reliably provides an opportunity to harm- Western, $29. b lessly vent in the mosh pit: Holiday of Horror. This
Kurt Vile COURTESYTHEARTIST
38 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll Less clicking.
More picking.
Kurt Vile & the Violators Jessica Pratt and simplicity. So October’s Bottle It In (Matador), opens. 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, which melds his recent laid-back folk-rock song- $36. 18+ writing with his past weirdo tendencies, arrived like Start a new tradition a breath of fresh air. Vile delivers dreamy melodies I was certain that Philadelphia musician Kurt Vile had in his characteristic half-asleep vocals, riding simple, shed all his weirdness as he grew older and his pub- hooky rhythms while blown-out synths, alien guitars, this holiday season. lic profi le leaped from underground phenom to indie and atonal harp set the tone for a fun, exciting dive success. On his breakthrough third album, 2009’s back into the experimental. —L C Grab gift certificates for yourself and everyone Childish Prodigy, Vile was a ramblin’ psychedelic sto- ryteller, playing freaky fi ngerstyle folk through lush, on your list. Winter group classes in music, hazy soundscapes. But as he began experiencing dance & more are forming now. more mainstream acceptance, his records started to WEDNESDAY26 refl ect that: the songs were still great, but he pushed oldtownschool.org aside the sonic experimentation that dominated his Shemekia Copeland. See Pick of the Week, earlier work for breezy heartland indie rock. Last page 36. Copeland also performs Thu 12/27, and year’s Lotta Sea Lice, Vile’s collaborative LP with Kevin Burt opens both shows. 8 PM, City Winery, Courtney Barnett, focuses completely on restraint 1200 W. Randolph, $38-$48. b v ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER39 Vadar Tax Liens Sys & Mcrsft Excl parker.com/careers - Job ID# included. $975/month. Available ed, that a certification was reg- to Mcrsft Accss databses & creat, 12436. 12/1. (773) 761-4318 www.lake- istered by the undersigned with JOBS edit, & maint databses w/in Mcrsft frontmgt.com the County Clerk of Cook County. GENERAL Accss. Domestic travel: 3%. Reqs Medline Industries, Inc. has Registration Number: D18155944 Bach dgre in Acctng or rltd & 2 yrs multiple openings in Northfi eld, IL One Bedroom Large one on November 16, 2018Under the The Northern Trust Company exp in rltd fi eld. Reqs 24 mo prep for: A) IS Confi guration Analyst III bedroom apartment near red Assumed Business Name of ATM is seeking a Sr Consultant, incme frcastng cllctns & rprts; to des’n soln’s in APO/Inventory line. 6824 N. Wayne. Hardwood CARES with the business located Risk Analytics in Chicago, IL w/ 24 mo prep annl company bdgt, Planning/Supply Chain Sys’s; B) floors. Pets OK. Heat Included. at: 12722 S. LAFLIN, CALUMET the following requirements: BS bus prjctns & perf anlys; 18 mo EDI Analysts (Partner Integra- $950/month. Available 1/1. PARK, IL 60827 The true and degree in Computer Sci, Mgmt utlzng Vadar Tax Liens Sys or smlr tion) to analyz/integrate EDI in (773)761-4318 real full name(s) and residence Information System, Business indstry spcfc sftwr to trck mncplty Order2Cash & Procure2Pay; C) address of the owner(s)/partner(s) Admin or related fi eld or foreign tax cllctns; 18 mo utlzng Mcrsft IS Developer Analysts II (UI De- BEDROOM is: ALICIA ROBINSON, 12722 equivalent degree. 3 yrs of un- Accss to creat, edt, & maint lg velopment) to dvlp internal/public S. LAFLIN CALUMET PARK, IL dergrad study in one of the above pools of tax data; & 18 mo utlzng apps; D) IS Security Analysts III to 60827, USA (12/20) LINCOLN PARK 2 BEDROOMS listed fi elds is acceptable. 4 yrs QuickBks & Mcrsft Excel to prep monitor/eval SIEM & other apps; Webster House of related exp. Required skills: accntng rprts & anlyz data. Mail E) Sr. Test Automation Engineers Notice is hereby given, pursuant Section 8 Two Bedrooms Architect, design & develop resumes to Greg Bingham @ 336 to des’n/dvlp/implmnt auto test’g/ to “An Act in relation to the use Waitlist to open 12/21/18 4pm ETL processes and workflows E. North Ave #200, Northlake, IL tool’g sol’ns. All pos’ns: no trvl; of an Assumed Business Name and close 5pm using IBM DataStage, Oracle PL/ 60164 no telcomm. Mail resumes to: in the conduct or transaction of Call 773-348-6800 on 12/21/18 SQL for U.S. regulation and com- Medline Industries, Inc., Attn: HR, Business in the State,” as amend- 4pm - 5pm if interested pliance related systems including Robert D. Ahlgren & Associates Three Lakes Drive, Northfi eld, IL ed, that a certification was reg- Equal Housing Opportunity Basel II Data Warehouse, Credit seeks Legal Assistant II in Chica- 60093. istered by the undersigned with Loss and Default Management go, IL to: Anlyz case docs & prep the County Clerk of Cook County. Two Bedroom Large two bed- system, Anti-Money Laundering imm apps for fi ling w/ approp gov Registration Number: Y18000033 room duplex near Warren Park. Know Your Customer system (4 agcy. Reqs HS diploma & 12 mo on December 6, 2018 Under the 1900 W. Pratt. 2 full bathrooms. yrs); Perform data analysis using exp in rltd occ. Reqs 12 mo exp Assumed Business Name of Heat included. Private storage. 60 MINUTES FREE TRIAL PL/SQL, DataStage ETL tools on w: imm case mgmt sftwr, such REAL EMMA’S DINER with the business Cats OK. $1600/month. Available databases from vended appli- as INSZoom, Immigration Pro, located at: 5200 N SHERIDAN RD 12/1. (773) 761-4318 www.lake- cations including Nice Actimize or Law Logix; prepng & submtng ESTATE APT 301, CHICAGO, IL 60640. frontmgt.com - CDD & AML, IBM Algo imm frms: I-485, I-131, I-765, RENTALS The true and real full name(s) THE HOTTEST GAY CHATLINE RWA calculation engine (4 yrs); I-130, N-400, I-918, I-751, I-601, and residence address of the Prepare Detail Technical Design, I-601A, & I-90; & Mcrsft Word & BEDROOMS owner(s)/partner(s) is: JOSHUA W Grant Village Apartments Unit / Integration Test plans using Excel. Mail resume to K. Vannucci GOLDSTEIN 5200 N SHERIDAN 4161 South Drexel Boulevard Microsoft Offi ce, Visio and Project @ 33 N LaSalle St #1800 Chicago Three Bedroom Large 3 bed- RD APT 301 CHICAGO, IL 60640, 1-312-924-2082 Chicago, IL 60653 (3 yrs); Develop and support IL 60602 room one bathroom apartment. USA (12/27) More Local Numbers: 800-777-8000 www.guyspyvoice.com (773) 268-5133 management reports for internal 4423 N. Paulina. Hardwood Included: Appliances, A/C, Laun- purposes using Microsoft Power Senior IT Operations Engineer, floors. Cats OK. $1790/month. Ahora en Español/18+ dry Room, Community Room BI, SAP Business Objects (3 yrs). Chicago, IL. Min Requirements: Heat included. Available 12/1. Near: Lake, Shopping, Public Apply on-line at www.northern- M.S. in IT or related. 3 yrs exp in Parking space available for $75/ Transportation, Off Street Parking trustcareers.com & search the position off ered or 3 yrs as QA month. (773) 761-4318 www. MARKETPLACE Waiting List Open for Req. # 18142 Analyst and/or Network Admin lakefrontmgt.com GENERAL December 17, 2018 - December Exp must include: designing and 31, 2018 implementing new systems utiliz- MASSAGES ing Kickstart; performing day-to- day UNIX & Linux administration/ Erotic Massage by Lauren and support. Mail resumes to Amy LEGAL NOTICE Holly Napolitano, Managing Director, STUDIO Two or four hand sessions with
CLASSIFIEDS HR, FXCM Global Services, LLC, Notice is hereby given, pursuant two lovely CAMPAIGN JOBS 55 Water Street, 50th Floor, New Lincoln Park Studio to “An Act in relation to the use MILF’s in the Schaumburg area. Help doctors save lives across York, NY 10040 Webster House of an Assumed Business Name Please call the world. Work for Grassroots Section 8 Studio in the conduct or transaction of or text for more information. 331 Campaigns on behalf of Doctors Radiss Tech Services, Inc. in Waitlist currently open Business in the State,” as amend- 223-3143 Without Borders Earn $12.50- Schaumburg, IL is seeking an IT Call 773-348-6800 if interested ed, that a certification was reg- $15.50 per hour. Full-Time / Analyst to dsgn test scenarios & istered by the undersigned with Part-Time/ Career CALL Robert at test cases for apps in Atlassian. Studio Large studio apartment the County Clerk of Cook County. MESSAGES (312) 574-3794 No trvl; no telecomm. Mail re- near Metra and Warren Park. Registration Number: D18156043 JOBS sumes to: Radiss Tech Services, 1904 W. Pratt. Hardwood fl oors. on December 3, 2018. Under the Gregory Young: Running for IT Network Engineer Schaum- Inc., Attn: HR, 1701 E. Woodfi eld Cats OK. $775/month. Heat Assumed Business Name of MK mayor in the city of Chicago. burg, IL. Seeking MS in Elec- Rd., Ste 635, Schaumburg, IL included. Available 12/1. (773) CONSULTING with the business Write ins 773-993-6695 administrati e trical engg. or closely related. 6 60173. 761-7470 www.lakefrontmgt.com located at: 740 W. FULTON ST. REAL PEOPLE months of network engg. or rel. UNIT 1006, CHICAGO, IL 60661. HELP WANTED sa es exp. req’d. CCNA and CCENT Currency Options Trader Bach- BEDROOM The true and real full name(s) REAL DESIRE cert. req’d. Travel req’d. Mail elor’s degree or foreign equivalent and residence address of the House Cleaner needed $600/ mar eting CV to Attn: HR/Job #0830, D&D in Math, Commerce, Economics owner(s)/partner(s) is: MEGAN REAL FUN. Vicinity Ada and Ohio. One Weekly Internetworking, Inc., 2385 or closely related quantitative KOVACH 740 W. FULTON ST. bedroom with an offi ce. Available Working Days: Monday and food drin Hammond Dr. #8, Schaumburg field of study. Must have one UNIT 1006, CHICAGO, IL 60661, January 1st. Quiet, secure family Friday IL 60173. year of experience in a Trading USA (12/27) building. Good light, good neigh- Time Schedule: 8AM - 3PM s as sa ons role, such as Derivatives Trader, bors. NO smoking. Cats allowed. Email: jenniferbenny18888@ Hyatt Corporation seeks a Lead Junior Trader or other similar role. Publication Notice of Court Internet and cable included. outlook.com Full Stack Developer in Chicago, Work experience or curriculum Date for Request For Name Try FREE: 773-867-1235 i e o s $1050 + Heat. No texts, please IL to work on eCommerce and course must have included use Change: Request of: Anthoula More Local Numbers: 1-800-926-6000 leave a message. 347-633-0005 genera marketing projects, as well as of Python. Must pass timed math Roberta Patelidas. There will be new groundbreaking applications exam. Direct resumes to: Megan a court date on my request to 1 bd/1 bath in Ravenswood designed for Hyatt hotel asso- Suerth, Akuna Capital LLC 333 change my name from: Anthoula VALENTINE’S avail now. Dishwasher, gas ciates and guests. BS & 8 yrs. S Wabash, 26th Floor, Chicago, Roberta Patelidas to Athoula Ro- Ahora español range, formal dining & living room. To apply submit cover letter and IL 60604 berta Lagunas. The court date will DAY ISSUE Livelinks.com 18+ Heat and water included. Laundry REAL resume to: Hyatt Corporation, be held 1/29/2018 at 1 PM at 50 in building, hardwood floors. 2 Want to send a note to someone Attn: Mecca Wilkinson 150 N Riv- Parker Hannifin Corp in Elk W. Washington Chicago in Cook blocks to Metra and bus lines, special? An old fl ame, a missed erside Plaza, Floor 14, Chicago, Grove, IL seeks an Applications Country in courtroom #1704. ESTATE short walk to Brown line. $975/ match, or an ongoing partner? IL 60606 Engineer to work w/ customer & (12/20) month, $200 move in fee, no The Reader wants to be your sales group to define scope of deposit. 202-557-1916 destination for love. Call 312-392- 7303 Incorporated, Inc. seeks proposed new product devel- Notice is hereby given, pursuant renta s 2934 or email snlane@chicago- Senior Accountant in Northlake, opment projects. Reqs BS+5yrs to “An Act in relation to the use One Bedroom Large one bed- readercorp.com to submit your IL to: Guide mnthly rcnciliatns exp.;travel 3-4 trips (Americas, of an Assumed Business Name for sa e room apartment near Metra message. First ten words free, & perfrm mnth- & yr-end clsng Europe, Asia) per year; For com- in the conduct or transaction of and Warren park. 1904 W. Pratt. $10 for additional twenty words. & finan statmnt prep, incl maint plete reqs & to apply, visit: www. Business in the State,” as amend- non-residentia of gen ldgr. Imprt lrg datasts frm Hardwood fl oors. Cats OK. Heat roomates MARKET- PLACE goods ser ices hea th e ness instruction music arts Meet sexy friends notices who really get your vibe... messages Try FREE: 312-924-2066 ega notices MoreMore Local Numbers: 1-800-811-1633 adu t ser ices vibeline.com 18+ 40 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll By Dan Savage SAVAGE LOVE
of a dick for you to let them she said yes. If she came to Face sitting, revenge porn, and prayer do your laundry?—S I me and said, “Hey, I’m into : My boyfriend of three S this stuff !” I would consider years has not le his wife Quick hits on kinks and consent it. But I am not into this for me, even though he says a: If you wouldn’t be in stuff —not independently— he will someday. He doesn’t a vanilla relationship with or at least I don’t think so. want to hurt her. He feels : I’m a kinky single woman I conceded that I had. She than those who deleted the someone, SIS, why would My question is this: If you a duty to her. But he loves who keeps attracting refused to let me use it on videos without wanking over you want to be in a D/s suspect your partner is into me more and swears he will the wrong men for me— her on the grounds that them fi rst. relationship with them? something that you’re not leave her someday. In the specifi cally, submissive it had already been inside into, should you leave it meantime, we carve out half guys into face sitting. I’m someone else. I pointed out : Your life is a monstrous : I’ve been in a lesbian alone? I feel like maybe the an hour a week for sex and submissive myself, and face that since I am not a virgin, aff ront to God, and your relationship for about GGG thing to do is to ask it’s super hot. Two questions sitting is not a turn-on for her objection did not seem life’s work, your ridiculous two years. Recently, I was her and off er to explore it (and please answer me. But the vast majority principled: my penis has “advice” column, encourages listening to your podcast, if she says yes.—W B honestly): He’s not going of men who hit on me have been in someone else and people to act on their worst and you were talking GGG to leave her, is he? And I’m this fetish. I think it’s a size- she lets me put that in her. impulses. Advice column? about the Big/little kink. a cliché, aren’t I?—D’ related issue—a my-size- Nevertheless, she remained Take the “D” away! You I remember thinking my a: Are you sure you’re not U M related issue. I’m a full- adamant. Do you think she write A VICE column! I was girlfriend could be into that. curious about Big/little play, fi gured/curvy woman with was being reasonable?— involved in the gay life once, Today, my girlfriend texted aka age play? Because it a: No, he isn’t. And yes, you a big butt. Granted, it’s a V I B Mr. Savage, but the love of this to me: “I want you to sounds like you might be. If are. DTMFA. v fabulous butt, but my butt E Jesus delivered me from hold me like a child, rock you are, don’t project your sends the wrong signals, homosexual sin. Embrace me to sleep, and tuck me interests/kinks onto your Send letters to mail@ apparently. I’ve tried several a: I do not, VIBE, but since Christ, and you too can be in and kiss my forehead.” I girlfriend. Just ask her if she savagelove.net. Download times to word my FetLife you don’t want to stick your delivered. I pray for you almost asked her right then might be interested. If you the Savage Lovecast every and other dating profi les old vibrator in me—presum- every day. Someone has to. if she was into Big/little play, aren’t into Big/little play but Tuesday at thestranger.com. so that I’ll attract dominant ably—what I think is irrele- —C E S S but then I realized that I’m think she might be, the same @fakedansavage men, but the messages vant. When it comes to who P.S. I have read what not sure what I would do if advice applies: Just ask her. from submissive wannabe gets to stick what in our bod- you’ve written about your face sittees pour in. Dating ies, we’re allowed to be arbi- mother, whom you claim to when you’re not thin is hard trary, inconsistent, capricious, have loved. Your mother enough. Help, please.—B and even illogical. That’s why died relatively young. I’m not G B “But my dick has been in suggesting God punished other women and you let me you by cutting your mother’s a: You’ve worded your stick that in you!” isn’t quite life short. No, your mother dating profi les to attract the slam-dunk argument you died of shame. Doms, BGB, but it doesn’t think it is. So toss that old sound like you’ve worded vibrator and get yourself a a: You pray for me, CESS, your profi les to repel— new one—but save the pack- and I’ll gay for you—because and crush the hopes of— aging so you can pass it off all the delicious dicks you le submissive wannabe face as new with your next behind when Jesus raptured sittees. Let’s fi x that: “I get girlfriend. you out of homosexual a lot of messages from sin aren’t gonna suck submissive guys into face : My cousin was a victim themselves, are they? sitting. I’ve got a great butt, of revenge porn. A bitter P.S. “Jesus is love,” my I realize, but I’m a sub, I’m ex-boyfriend of his sent Catholic mother liked to say. ADMIRAL not into face sitting, and I several videos they’d made If she was right, CESS, he ★★ THEATRE ★★ only want to hear from Dom to everyone on my cousin’s surely finds the things going guys.” Some submissive guys contact list, including me. into my mouth less offensive will message you anyway— I’m a straight woman who than the shit coming out of guys who will be letting you prefers gay male porn, and yours. know they have a hard time my cousin and his ex are taking no for an answer, BGB, beautiful men—they’re both : I’ve been toying with the so not guys you’d ever want dancers—and I couldn’t help idea of having a sub provide to meet up with IRL. Delete myself: I watched the videos, domestic services, but all the their messages and block more than once, before potential subs I’ve met with 3940 W LAWRENCE their profi les. deleting them. So how bad haven’t seemed like a good a person am I?—S A fi t for various reasons. Last OPEN 7PM TO 6AM : While having sex one W night, I had a fi rst meeting night with my girlfriend, with a man who is a good fi t ADMIRALX.COM I pulled out a vibrator for a: You’re a better person on paper but who turned out (773) 478-8111 the fi rst time. She asked than the asshole ex who sent to be an obnoxious asshole whether I (a guy) had those videos to everyone in person—a misogynistic, MUST BE 18 TO ENTER used it with a previous your poor cousin knows, mansplaining frat-boy type. partner (another woman). SAW, but a worse person Can someone be too much ll DECEMBER - CHICA O READER41 CHICAGOSHOWSYOUSHOULDKNOWABOUTINTHEWEEKSTOCOME
EARLY WARNINGS b ALLAGESF WOLFBYKEITHHERZIK Beirut, Helado Negro 2/22, Never miss 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ a show again. Adrian Belew 4/4, 8 PM, Maur- er Hall, Old Town School of Sign up for the Folk Music b newsletter at Mariah Carey 3/11, 8 PM, Chi- chicagoreader. cago Theatre GOSSIP Copeland 4/11, 8 PM, Bottom com/early Lounge, 17+ Corrosion of Conformity, WOLF Crowbar, Weedeater 2/9, Perfume 4/5, 8 PM, Chicago 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Theatre A furry ear to the ground of Daughters, Blanck Mass 3/8, Perturbator 5/9, 8:30 PM, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Thalia Hall, 17+ the local music scene Dead & Company 6/14-15, 7 PM, Petal, Bernice 1/18, 9 PM, Wrigley Field Schubas, part of Tomorrow JOANOFARC founder and vocalist Tim Fleetwood Mac 3/1, 8 PM, Never Knows, 18+ United Center Pom-Poms 1/12, 8:30 PM, Kinsella and electronic musician Jenny Flesh Eaters 3/10, 8 PM, Lin- Empty Bottle Polus—also known as Jenny Pulse , and coln Hall Procol Harum 2/20-21, 8 PM, previously as Spa Moans—both finished Grails 1/17, 8:30 PM, Sleeping City Winery b their own album-release and touring Village, part of Tomorrow Todd Rundgren 4/23-24, 8 PM, Never Knows Athenaeum Theatre cycles a few weeks ago. But instead of Ariana Grande 4/7-8, 7:30 PM, Rusko 1/25, 10 PM, Sound-Bar relaxing over the holiday season, they’re United Center So Moon 1/24, 8:30 PM, Thalia fi ring up a brand-new duo project called Wild Reeds MARKCLUNEY Hatebreed, Obituary, Terror Hall, 17+ Good Fuck that combines postindustrial 4/11, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Spiritualized 4/9, 8 PM, the Hall, 17+ Vic, 18+ club beats and oddball lyrics—their sound Bonnie Koloc 2/16, 8 PM, Maur- Story of the Year, World Health 4/20, 8:30 PM, Bottom Vince Staples, JPEGmafi a 3/12, has Gossip Wolf imagining Chris & Cosey NEW er Hall, Old Town School of War Me 1/31, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge b 8:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, Fri hosting a karaoke party in the back of a Folk Music, on sale Fri 12/21, Lounge, 17+ High on Fire 1/22, 8 PM, 12/14, 10 AM, 18+ totally depressing grocery store. “We are Anvil 3/16, 7 PM, Reggie’s 8 AM b Subdudes 3/21-22, 8 PM, City Metro, 18+ The Suff ers 2/16, 9 PM, Lincoln Rock Club, on sale Fri 12/21, The Love Song of R. Buckmin- Winery, on sale Thu 12/20, Infamous Stringdusters 3/16, Hall, 18+ enjoying a very lo-fi multimedia set and 10 AM, 17+ ster Fuller by Sam Green noon b 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Teenage Fanclub 3/6, 7:30 PM, concentrating on the singing,” says Kinsel- David Archuleta 4/2, 8 PM, with live score by Yo La Spencer Sutherland 2/12, 7 PM, Interpol 2/7, 7:30 PM, Chicago Metro, 18+ la. “New songs will defi nitely involve more City Winery, on sale Tengo 2/26, 6:30 PM, Thalia Schubas b Theatre Twiddle 2/8, 8 PM, Concord performative live elements and improvisa- Thu 12/20, noon b Hall, 17+ T-Pain 3/29, 8 PM, Park Iron Maiden 8/22, 7:30 PM, Music Hall, 18+ Alec Benjamin 4/23, 7 PM, Buck Meek 2/26, 8 PM, West, 18+ Hollywood Casino Amphithe- Sharon Van Etten 2/14-15, tions.” Good Fuck will drop their self-titled Lincoln Hall b Schubas, 18+ Teddy & the Rough Riders 1/14, atre, Tinley Park 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ debut album in February on Joyful Noise, Carbon Leaf 4/19, 8 PM, City MHD 2/17, 9 PM, the Promon- 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle F Judas Priest 5/25, 8 PM, Rose- Ryley Walker 12/28, 9 PM, and on Saturday, December 22, they play Winery, on sale Thu 12/20, tory b This Must Be the Band mont Theater, Rosemont Empty Bottle the Hungry Brain with headliner Jimmy noon b Milo, Pink Navel 2/15, 9 PM, 2/15-16, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale King Crimson 9/10, 8 PM, Audi- Colter Wall 2/23, 8 PM, Thalia Liz Cooper & the Stampede Empty Bottle Fri 12/21, 10 AM, 18+ torium Theatre Hall, 17+ Whispers and DJ sets from Grapetooth. 3/8, 10 PM, Schubas, on sale Aaron Neville 3/4-5, 8 PM, City Yann Tiersen 5/18, 8:30 PM, King Tuff , Stonefi eld 1/26, Warbly Jets 2/15, 9 PM, It’s been a minute since Gossip Wolf Fri 12/21, 10 AM, 18+ Winery, on sale Thu 12/20, Thalia Hall, 17+ 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Schubas checked in with synth master Alex Bar- Dead So 4/3, 6:30 PM, Sub- noon b Token 2/18, 7 PM, Reggie’s Kiss 3/2, 7:30 PM, United Rachael Yamagata 1/29-30, nett. But we’re all in luck! On Thursday, terranean, 17+ Planes Mistaken for Stars 3/6, Rock Club, 18+ Center 8 PM, City Winery b Deca 1/17, 8:30 PM, Empty 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Juan Wauters 1/24, 9:30 PM, Le Butcherettes 2/20, 8 PM, Yoshi Flower 2/5, 8 PM, December 20, he plays Sleeping Vil- Bottle Plini, Mestis 4/7, 8 PM, Bottom Hideout Cobra Lounge, 17+ Schubas, 18+ lage as part of a night of outre electronic Donnie 12/27, 7:30 PM, the Lounge, on sale Fri 12/21, Wild Reeds 4/6, 9 PM, Sleep- Phil Lesh & the Terrapin Fam- You Me at Six 3/2, 7 PM, Bot- music, performing songs he’s made under Promontory b 10 AM, 17+ ing Village, on sale Fri 12/21, ily Band 3/7-8, 8 PM, Thalia tom Lounge b the name Champagne Mirrors; the proj- Will Downing 3/30-31, Rivers of Nihil, Entheos 3/5, 10 AM Hall, 17+ Yung Gravy 2/21, 7:30 PM, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Cece Winans 1/10, 8 PM, the Lotus 12/30-31, 9 PM, Park Metro b ect’s latest release, a dark, unsettling EP Thu 12/20, noon b Sean Rowe 2/19, 8:30 PM, Promontory b West, 18+ Zomboy 2/8, 9 PM, Aragon called Countdown to Upgrade, came out Fashawn, Stro, Ezri, Cantrell FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Yawning Man, Freedom Hawk Jeff Lynne’s ELO 6/27, 8 PM, Ballroom, 18+ on Barnett’s label, Scrapes Recordings, 2/21, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Fri 12/21, 11 AM 1/23, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle United Center in July. Also on the bill are Los Angeles Club, 18+ Rubblebucket 3/16, 8 PM, Zeta 1/23, 8 PM, Subterra- Magic City Hippies 1/11, 9 PM, Funtcase 1/11, 8 PM, Concord SPACE, Evanston b nean, 17+ Lincoln Hall, 18+ SOLD OUT outfi t VSCC and fellow locals Itsi and No Music Hall, 18+ Jesse Rutherford 5/3, 8 PM, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Dreams; Beau Wanzer spins between sets. Grandson 3/12, 7 PM, Reggie’s Subterranean, on sale 1/23, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Alkaline Trio 1/3-6, 9 PM, Gossip Wolf fi rmly believes that every- Rock Club b Thu 12/20, 10 AM UPDATED Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Metro, 18+ one deserves presents during the Offi cial Trevor Hall 3/29, 6:30 PM, Con- Antonio Sanchez & Migration Secrets 4/4, 7:30 PM, Chica- Jess Glynne 3/30, 7:30 PM, cord Music Hall, 18+ 3/31, 7 PM, SPACE, Evan- Last Dinosaurs 5/3, 7 and go Theatre the Vic b Merriest Time of the Year, and the goons Houndmouth 3/15-16, 8:30 PM, ston b 10 PM, Beat Kitchen, early Metric, Zoe 3/22, 7 PM, Aragon Conan Gray 4/8, 7:30 PM, Bot- in punky Chicago cock-rock band I Love Thalia Hall, 17+ Satsang 5/3, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, show sold out, late show Ballroom, 17+ tom Lounge b Rich agree—they don’t even care if you’ve It Looks Sad. 2/26, 7 PM, Sub- Berwyn, on sale Fri 12/21, added b Mineral, Tancred 1/24, 9 PM, Beth Hart 4/25, 7:30 PM, Park been naughty or nice! On Sunday, Decem- terranean, 17+ 11 AM Lincoln Hall West, 18+ Kazka 6/7, 8 PM, Concord Travis Scott 2/21, 8 PM, United Misfi ts, Fear, Venom Inc. 4/27, LP 2/8, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ ber 23, they play their annual Richmass Music Hall b Center, on sale Thu 12/20, UPCOMING 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Ella Mai 3/3, 8 PM, Concord show at Liar’s Club, and they’ve prom- Stephen Kellogg 3/22, 9 PM, 10 AM Rosemont Music Hall, 18+ ised gi s for every fan and absolutely no Lincoln Hall, 18+ Shamir 1/25, 9 PM, Empty David August 2/16, 10 PM, Kevin Morby, Sam Cohen 6/7- Massive Attack 3/23, 8 PM, Christmas music. Sharing the bill are the Valentino Khan 1/26, 10 PM, Bottle Bottom Lounge, 17+ 8, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Chicago Theatre the Mid Shing02 3/21, 8 PM, Subterra- Aurora, Talos 3/1, 7:30 PM, Muse, Walk the Moon 4/12, Mumford & Sons 3/29, 7:30 PM, Spanish Flats (with folks from old-school Kid Capri 1/4, 10 PM, the nean, 17+ Metro b 8 PM, United Center United Center Fireside Bowl bands such as the Mushuga- Promontory Todd Snider 4/11, 7:30 PM, Park Randy Bachman 1/24-25, 8 PM, Graham Nash 3/17, 7 PM, Athe- Robyn 3/6, 8 PM, Aragon nas and the Fighters) and Pink Stink Rails. Habib Koité & Bassekou West, 18+ City Winery b naeum Theatre b Ballroom b —JR N L G Kouyate 3/7, 8 PM, Maurer Söndörgő 4/7, 4 PM, Szold Backstreet Boys 8/10, 8 PM, Anders Osborne 2/9, 7 and Space Jesus 12/31, 8 PM, Con- Hall, Old Town School of Hall, Old Town School of United Center 10 PM, City Winery b cord Music Hall, 18+ Folk Music, on sale Fri 12/21, Folk Music, on sale Fri 12/21, Baroness, Dea eaven 3/31, Parcels 3/1, 9 PM, Lincoln Lennon Stella 3/28, 7 PM, Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail 8 AM b 8 AM b 6:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Hall, 18+ Metro b v [email protected].
42 CHICA O READER - DECEMBER ll SURF ROCK SUNDAY WITH DJ MIKE SMITH
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Market: Chicago Publisher: Chicago Reader File Name: 002495_Top 6_12.20.2018
T-Mobile - LHQ • TracyLocke Mech Trim: 9.7” x 9.8” Final Trim: 9.7” x 9.8” Mech Live: 9.2” x 9.3” Final Live: 9.2” x 9.3” 220077 Studio# 211312 Mech Bleed: None Final Bleed: 9.7” x 9.8” Local 6 Holiday Print
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