CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE | JANUARY | JANUARY CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE Vis Art New murals in Fulton Market 22 Comics Weekly strips are back! 43 Somethin rotten in the 20th A Pritzker-backed machine operator, a rogue three-time candidate, and plenty of idealistic novices pack the race for alderman in the historically corrupt ward. By MD10 THIS WEEK CHICAGOREADER | JANUARY | VOLUME NUMBER FEATURES IN THIS ISSUE A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR HAPPYNEWYEARCHICAGO! Let’s start 2019 o with some great news. Comics are CITYLIFE back—right there on page 43. All-new weekly serials from 04 StreetViewShataraPowell your independent favorites: Local hero Mike Centeno of celebratesherbirthdaywithher Futile Comics (and, formerly, Quimby’s Bookstore) launch- squad 05 TransportationChicagoisthe es a strip about the weirdness of skin. Melissa Mendes of transitandtacosatisfactioncapital Freddy Stories takes a break from her gut-wrenching, ofthenation Patreon-backed family narrative The Weight to pen a fi ction story about a girl detective. And John Porcellino of long-running, internationally lauded, self-published King- Cat Comics & Stories takes on a whole new project about urban wildlife. There are plenty of us who fi rst picked up COMICS FEATURE alternative newsweeklies because of the comics. I’m hop- ing soon there will be many, many more. At the hop You’ll also notice that we’re starting in on election cov- The Socialist-Feminist Working Group of the erage straight out of the gate, with a deeply reported piece Democratic Socialists of America gets down. from the 20th Ward by our own Maya Dukmasova. What’s going on in Woodlawn may not strike you as important— BAD6 NEWS&POLITICS although it was important enough to J.B. Pritzker, who 08 Joravsky|PoliticsRahmalready takes the state gubernatorial o ce on Monday, to drop a hasareplacementforEdBurkeon wad of cash into the aldermanic elections. thefi nancecommittee Speaking of shady politics, Ben Joravsky is back on our 09 Explainer|PoliticsHowmany pages to decry the legacy of 14th Ward alderman Ed Burke. aldermenarethere?Andwhatdo theyevendo?Here’swhattoknow (Twenty three guns, dude? Really?) 16 Isaacs|CultureUpdatestoan Not news, though, really: Ben Joravsky will always be academicsemiclassicatthisyear’s back. Especially during the election! I’ll fi ght anybody that MLAconvention doesn’t think Ben’s voice is sorely needed in this city at this time. Finally, we’ve been getting a lot of mail lately, most of it quite lovely. One kind man asked if we’d consider print- ing readers’ letters, and the truth is that we would. We’ll happily print a few in a couple weeks to see how it goes. Have thoughts about the new comics? Our political cover- age? Jibaritos? Or just want to say hi? Send notes along to [email protected] and we’ll select a couple— edited for brevity, clarity, and style—to include in the last edition of January 2019. FOOD&DRINK Isn’t this year just going to be great? —AE 17 RestaurantReviewEggOHolic M POLITICS FEATURE putsGujarat’svasteggetarianstreet foodinonebasket Democracy fights for sure ARTS&CULTURE 19 TheaterFivetheaterfestivalsto footing in a south-side ward. helpyousurviveJanuaryandthree In the most packed aldermanic race in the city, brightyoungplaywrightswhoaren’t rumors of corruption stand strong. afraidtotakeonbigthemes 22 VisualArtTheB_Lineaddscolor BMD10 andwhimsytoFultonMarket 2 CHICAOREADER - JANUARY ll TR 24 BookSwapAReaderstaff ertrades - ­ ­ readingrecommendationswithlocal @ litluminaryNickDrnaso 25 MoviesTheOwl’sLegacyisthe bestsymposiumonancientGreece P TB you’lleversitinonthestylish E C AEM ME P SK docudramaElÁngelmightgetunder ME D KH yourskinandthehorrorfl ickEscape D E KS RoomprojectsasBmovievibe C LSK D P JR C E AL ME PM A E JL S W DI BJ M S S W MD LG SME BW ML C LC FL C P F T A E CS MUSIC&NIGHTLIFE C D AE BDC LC I GA G 28 FeatureExtraordinaryPopular J H J H IH DJ Delusionsfollownorulesbuttheir MK SK MM own BMSM JRN M O LP 34 InRotationOurmusiceditorthe J PBS KS frontmanforNeckbeardDeathcamp DSKW AW andtheguitaristforHaggathorneach ---------------------------------------------------------------- sharethreemusicalobsessions D D 36 ShowsofnoteMeshell JD D P E &P NdegeocelloCharlyBlissthePom K K Pomsandotherexcellentshowsthis O M #TVKUV9TKVGT THE week SNL 2GTHQTOGT! 40EarlyWarningsLeeFields& ADVERTISING M E X I C A N theExpressionsLuciferTSOL -- - @ %4'#6+8' 51.76+105 (14 C @ GoddamnGallowsandmanymore %4'#6+8' 2'12.' 1 9 6 7 justannouncedconcerts SM PF 40 GossipWolfLocalrappers S A R 5WRRQTVKXG #HHKTOKPI CPF )QCN FreeSnacksheadlinetheEmpty AM A R &KTGEVGF 2U[EJQVJGTCR[ CPF BottlesoundartistStephanMoore’s LM-H NS celebrating performancewithdanceandmusic C R M *[RPQVJGTCR[ HQT #FWNVU ensembleCabinFeverhasanalbum T P releaseandComfortFoodsays N A /#: - 5*#2'; .%59 farewellwithasetatElastic VM G--- .QECVGF KP &QYPVQYP 'XCPUVQP 51 JL SB ---------------------------------------------------------------- CLASSIFIEDS YYYOCZUJCRG[EQO 41 Jobs D C [email protected] OCZUJCRG["CQNEQO 41 Apartments&Spaces -- NWG TQUU NWG 5JKGNF 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT 41 Marketplace STMREADERLLC KIPC 2TGHGTTGF 2TQXKFGT YEARSYEARS B P DRL 41 SavageLoveShaminglanguage T ER OPEN 7 S J S days a week decisionsmadeunderduressanda A - S V terrifyingstalkerDanSavageoff ers until X- mas adviceforeverysituation C CEB 43ComicsAllnewweeklyserialstrips ---------------------------------------------------------------- please for fromMikeCentenoMelissaMendes R ­ISSN - ☎ andJohnPorcellino STMR LLC Extended just steps from the SM SC IL holiday hours Dempster “L” stop -- please recycle C ©C R P C IL OP this paper 847-475-8665 MD A C R R RR T ® 801 Dempster Evanston ll JANUARY - CHICAOREADER3 CITY LIFE 310346_4.75_x_4.75.indd 1 9/12/18 12:13 PM THE LATEST ON YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANTS AND BARS FOOD & DRINK Shatara Powell (center) with friends ISAGIALLORENZO WEEKLY E-BLAST Street view GET UP TO DATE. SIGN UP NOW. Squad goals Celebrate a birthday with dinner, a movie, and matching outfi ts. “ILOVEDMYDRESS the fi rst time I laid eyes on it,” says Shatara Powell, who was photographed at the AMC Dine-in Block 37 theater downtown. She celebrated her 34th birthday with dinner at TAO in River North, followed by a screening of Tyler Perry’s romantic comedy Nobody’s Fool. Powell, who works as a therapist, says she’s obsessed with matching outfi ts. She wears the same designer from head to toe when going out—brands like Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel—curated through shopping sprees at department stores like Nordstrom, Barneys, and Neiman Marcus. For her birthday, Powell insisted that her friends wear Tommy Hilfiger. The night was captured in a slickly produced video montage, featur- CHICAGOREADER.COM ing Powell and her friends dressed in red, white, and blue, and celebrating with cocktails and cake. She describes her style as conservative and sexy and, sometimes, edgy. “Edgy means I’ll still wear some Timber- land boots in the summer with a tank top,” she says. “I’m a fi rm believer that when you look good, you feel good.” —IG 4 CHICAOREADER - JANUARY ll CITY LIFE Chicago Taco Authority JAMIERAMSAY and a ordable housing to make sure diverse communities can remain in the city.” But perhaps the expert on the subject of our city’s taco and transit prowess is Jose Bustos, owner of the Chicago Taco Authority railcars. On the other hand, those systems in the Old Irving Park neighborhood, located have had major meltdowns in recent years, a stone’s throw from a Blue Line station. His while the CTA is relatively well maintained. taqueria is decorated with bus stop signs, vin- Mayor Rahm Emanuel gloated about that fact tage photographs of the transit system, an old in a New York Times op-ed in July 2017 with fare box, and a full-size replica of the side of an the Mussolini-esque title “In Chicago, the el car attached to a wall of the dining room. Trains Actually Run on Time.” “Chicago is defi nitely a great taco town,” he Near-northwest-side alderman Carlos said. “It’s because you have so many people Ramirez-Rosa, who’s of Mexican ancestry, from Mexico here, from so many different argued that Chicagoans should be proud of the places.” According to the 2010 census, a full CityLab survey results. “It’s not blustery rhet- 21.4 percent of Chicagoans were of Mexican oric, it’s a fact: Chicago is the best,” he tweeted descent. “So people have many di erent ways along with a graph of the results, garnering of cooking the same kind of taco.” For exam- a thousand likes. In a subsequent tweet, he ple, while his restaurant specializes in char- attributed the win to “leftists who fought for broiling, when he has a taste for some fl attop- public control of mass transit and hardwork- grilled carne asada, he heads to Taqueria Los ing immigrants.” Gallos in Little Village. The CTA had not provided an o cial state- Juan Zaragoza, who owns the goat-focused ment in response to the survey results by Birrieria Zaragoza in Archer Heights, which TRANSPORTATION press time, but a spokesperson indicated that was cited as the favorite restaurant in town of the agency is pleased by the accolade. Reader food critic Mike Sula, agrees that the However, Active Transportation Alliance presence of immigrants from all over Mexico A taco shop at almost every stop director Ron Burke argued that we should helps make Chicago’s taco scene great. “Some take Chicago’s high transit rating with a grain of our taquerias are even better than what you Chicago was just rated the best city for transit-and-taco satisfaction in the U.S. of salt and not let city officials rest on their might fi nd in Mexico.” By J G laurels. “Truthfully, this reveals little about He’s from La Barca in the southwestern transit in the region except that people who state of Jalisco, famous for goat tacos, and he read CityLab are transit-privileged,” he said. noted that people from Mexico City and Mi- “They most likely represent a narrow segment choacán have also brought their own styles of of our population: college-educated people cooking to Chicago.