CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE | APRIL | APRIL CHICAGO’SFREEWEEKLYSINCE TK TK. By TK TK THIS WEEK CHICAGOREADER | APRIL | VOLUME NUMBER IN THIS ISSUE T R - homeandothersmanthefrontlines ofJoeMantegna’steenagegarage @ ofcoronavirustransmissionthe bandtheApocryphals censusgoeson 35 EarlyWarningsRescheduled PTB 10 Dukmasova|HousingA concertsandotherupdatedlistings EC S K KH leakedvideochatrevealsthecity’s C LRH MEP M landlordsareconcernedoverstaff TDKR “decimation”andtheopticsof CEBW “stepping”ontenants AEJL SWMD L G 12 Reid|NewsTheAmerican DIBJ MS SignLanguageinterpreterforthe THEATER EAS N L governorisinthespotlightbuthe 19 DanceDancersfi gureouthowto G D AH CITYLIFE L CSC -J 03 SightseeingThedeathsof wantsustoknowmoreaboutthe createinisolation CE BN B nearlyathousandsailorsatGreat ChicagoHearingSociety’sservices L C MDLC M LakesNavalTrainingStation C J F SF J FILM H IH C MJ inholdlessonsforthe 22 SmallScreenThedigital M K S K COVIDpandemic televisionplatformOTVisthriving 35 GossipWolfMavisStaples N DL JL 23 MoviesofnoteNeverRarely dropsabenefi tsingletohelp MMA M-K JRN JN M SometimesAlwaysisaslowmoving Chicagoseniorssurvivethe O M S C S fi lmbuttheseyoungwomenwill pandemicMukqsembarkson ---------------------------------------------------------------- staywithyoulonga erthefi lm aweeklyseriesofliverecorded D D J D endsThere’sSomethinginthe experimentalEPsandmore D AC W Wateriscrucialviewingforanyone SMCJ G MP C whocaresaboutthelastingripple OPINION YD eff ectsofenvironmentalneglect 36 SavageLoveDanSavageoff ers S S P advicetosomeonewhowantsto ATA S E CK K ARTS&CULTURE MUSIC&NIGHTLIFE sendapervycarepackage 14 CommunityWhybasement 24 Galil|FeatureThesagaof ADVERTISING wetbarsjustwon’tdowhenwe’re Punkin’DonutsHowadoughnut -- @ CLASSIFIEDS C FOOD&DRINK shelteringinacollapsedplace shopparkinglotbecamea 38 Jobs - @ 05 FeatureJointhevirtualquestfor 16 VisualArtHowcanceledBFA confl uenceofChicagoyouth 38 Apartments&Spaces theperfectmelon andMFAshowsarepersisting subculturesandwhatkilleditoff 38 Marketplace SDP F VP SA M duringthecrisis 30 ShowsofnoteApandemic CR M T P NEWS&POLITICS 18 PodcastAnewbilingualshow can’tstopthefl owofgreatmusic SAR 07 Joravsky|PoliticsSomehow putsamicrophonetothelocal Ourcriticsreviewreleasesthatyou O I L M-H L S AR we’veelectedaJoeExoticas Latinxcommunity canenjoyathome N TF T’ G MFNS presidentoftheUnitedStates 34 TheSecretHistoryof C SM WR 08 CountAssomehunkerdownat ChicagoMusicTheuntoldstory NA V M G - - - ­­ J L SB ---------------------------------------------------------------- DC [email protected] A NOTE FROM THE CREATIVE LEAD -- CHICAGOREADERLC FIGURINGOUTWHAT to put on the cover of this week’s cover, the publisher suggested that part what separate us from an even more BPD R L each Reader issue is one of the most reward- we pay tribute to the essential workers—the horrifying social collapse, I think the term TE R SJ S ing and at times most stressful aspects of grocery store clerks, gas station attendants, obfuscates the fact that many of them put A- S V my job. When a cover really comes together, doctors, pharmacists, postal workers, and themselves in harm’s way every day simply CC E B it’s a beautiful thing: I rush into the o ce on others—whose lives have been so gravely because they have no other choice. That a ca- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday morning to see the newly print- impacted by the pandemic. In an e-mail to the shier making $12 an hour could have no choice R ISSN­-­ ed copies, basking in the glow of the final illustrator, Nguyen Tran, I described these but risk their lives every day is indicative of R LC SM S C IL­­­ product. workers as “putting their lives on the line,” our profound political failure to protect the -- There’s been no office to rush into for the which Nguyen took as inspiration to depict most vulnerable in this country. We cannot go C ©C R past month—the entire Reader editorial pro- these workers on a literal tightrope walk, the “back to normal” after this crisis has ended, P C IL cess, from pitches to proofs, happens remote- disease roiling beneath them. because the seeds of its cause were embedded A C R R ly. Still, my life is among the least upended I love this cover because it beautifully rep- in “normal” from the beginning. Whatever RR T ® by the coronavirus—I still have an apartment resents the precarity in which these workers comes out of this situation, I can only hope to lounge around in, a paycheck to cover my now fi nd themselves. Many call these workers that it is more equal and more just than what bills, and a paper to design every week. For “heroes,” and while their e orts are in large preceded it. —RH 2 CHICAOREADER - APRIL ll CITY LIFE The station’s openness became its weakness. in the civilian world, the Navy was both willing COURTESYNATIONALARCHIVESCOLLEGEPARK and able to discipline their charges for the smallest derivations in healthy living. One that the treasure of youth, divine youth at sailor apprentice, Royal Bauer, recorded in the zenith of its physical perfection, glistens his diary how an officer found a recruit with through the close-fitting summer uniforms, a grimy neck. He ordered the company to from lithe sinew and resilient muscle, like an strip and scrub the sailor with hard brushes, incandescent wire blasting through its globe soap, and 50 pails of water. But this epidemic, of glass,” wrote the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. which effortlessly crossed over quarantined The Great Lakes Naval Revue, which in- dorms, was unusually lethal to young men and cluded budding comedian Benjamin Kubelsky women. Ominously, many hospital corpsmen, (later known as Jack Benny), played the mid- even ones wearing gauze masks, became inca- west theatrical circuit to popular acclaim. pacitated while tending to their patients. The The undefeated football team, whose lineup labs at Great Lakes worked futilely to isolate included George Halas, won the Rose Bowl. the “influenza germ” behind the epidemic. Barnstorming across the country, John Philip The training station’s newspaper dubbed Sousa and his Great Lakes Band Battalion influenza “the unwelcome visitor.” Even as raised tens of millions of dollars for war the hospital and sick bays filled with sailors, bonds and war charities, a very handsome the first week of the epidemic did not inspire return on the $40,000 appropriated for band terror. “It begins with high fever. Most get real instruments. weak and collapse,” sailor apprentice Harney These efforts served not only the cause of Stover wrote his parents. “I probably will get naval recruitment, but also the mission of it. I don’t think I will be very sick.” instilling discipline and defusing tension with Reservists who contracted the flu simply the station’s wealthy neighbors. The station went home to recover. After receiving man- was within walking distance of Waukegan, on datory nose sprays, hundreds of sailors left on sightseeing the same train line that served the north shore. weekend passes for the north shore. Stover, In some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in who went on leave after helping sick mates, the midwest, families opened their homes to believed the iodine nose spray protected him The ghosts of Great Lakes sailors, who might have been tempted to visit from infection. “The sailors who have been taverns and brothels in Chicago. During their about Waukegan during the past few days The deaths of nearly a thousand sailors at Great Lakes Naval Training Station two-day leaves, the “clubs, homes, automo- have been sneezing and coughing and buying in 1918 hold lessons for the COVID-19 pandemic. biles and young ladies are at our service,” Leo ‘dope’ for their noses and throats,” comment- Bouton, a sailor apprentice, wrote a pen pal. ed the Waukegan Daily Sun. By JN Hundreds of civilians worked as unpaid volun- Great Lakes Naval Training Station became teers within the station and at naval clubs in the beachhead of the epidemic in Illinois. their communities. Like a number of medical experts at the time, n 1918 less than 40 miles north of Chicago, A native South Carolinian, Moffett rep- The openness of the training station, which the command at Great Lakes maintained that an insidious illness killed twice the number resented a character familiar to Chicago allowed it to thrive as a model city, would be influenza was spread in indoor gatherings and Iof naval personnel in two months than history—the charming out-of-towner turned its great weakness. Influenza was first report- poorly ventilated rooms, but not “in the open.” combat did during the entire First World master insider and big builder. Authorized ed on September 7, 1918, introduced to Great By the time Great Lakes rescinded liberty for War. The so-called Spanish influenza swept to enroll officers as naval reservists, Moffett Lakes by sailors transferring from Boston. enlisted men on September 19, roughly ten through Great Lakes Naval Training Station drew the managerial elites from the north Naval health officers knew that the epidemic percent of the training station had reported ill “like the Black Plague,” recalled Martin shore and Chicago. A crew of 1,200 enlisted would eventually cross the Atlantic, but, as the with influenza. Birkham, a YMCA volunteer at the training men hammered an average of one thousand Navy Surgeon General wrote the distressed In the press, the training station worked station. The hard choices made at