Joan Crawford’s screen persona ran the gamut—from flapper-comedienne in the 1920s to Hollywood tough gal in the’30s and ’40s to more vulnerable characters in the ’50s to a camped-up version of herself in schlocky genre films of the ’60s and ’70s. Along the way, a number of films cemented her as an indelible presence. Mildred Pierce, which is showing this Saturday and Sunday at the Music Box, was one; here are five more....
Last fall I wrote about Microgroove, the first book from gallerist and occasional Reader contributor John Corbett in 21 years. Now, just six months later, he’s back with another new book, though it’s much smaller, both in page count and in it physical dimensions. A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation (University of Chicago Press) is designed and organized like a beginner’s field guide, and at a mere four inches across, the 172-page volume can easily fit into the back pocket of your jeans....
Today marks the launch of NBC Universal’s 24-7 comedy-streaming service, Seeso. For $3.99 a month comedy nerds (and everyone else for that matter) can access the archives of sketch shows like Saturday Night Live and Kids in the Hall, countless classic stand-up specials, and new, original content. Matt Besser, cofounder of the Upright Citizens Brigade, is the creator of two new projects available on the site starting today: variety show The UCB Show and his stand-up special, Besser Breaks the Record....
Rahm Emanuel expanded the parking meter deal, but in this campaign flyer he attacks Bob Fioretti for it. Throughout his reelection campaign Mayor Rahm Emanuel has boasted that he reworked the infamous parking meter deal and saved the city $1 billion. “It’s beyond ironic that he’s slamming Fioretti for this,” says Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd), a critic of the meter deal since it was introduced in 2008. “The mailers they’re sending out are hilarious....
UPDATE Thursday, March 12: this event has been canceled. Refunds available at point of purchase. This Lynn Nottage drama is pure kinetic energy, exploring the illicit ivory trade through the haunting death of Mlima, an African elephant. Griffin Theatre Company’s production, a midwest premiere directed by Jerrell L. Henderson, thrives on its use of movement, sound, and staging to illustrate our shared complicity in the poaching of a vulnerable species. Mlima, whose name means “mountain” in Swahili, is played by a mostly silent David Goodloe, who looms large, literally, over the entire 90 minutes....
Q: Straight male, 48, married 14 years, three kids under age ten. Needless to say, life is busy at our house. My wife and I have stopped having sex. It was my decision. I get the obligation vibe combined with a vanilla sex life, and it just turns me off. We’ve had many conversations about it, and we want to find a balance. But it always defaults back to infrequent and dull, making me frustrated and cranky....
Q: I’ve been with the same amazing man a dozen years. We’ve had our ups and our downs, same as any other couple, but these days life is better than it ever has been for us. Except in the bedroom. A few years ago he started having fantasies about sucking dick. Specifically, he wanted to suck a small one because his is very big and he wanted to “service” a guy who’s less hung than he is....
1790s: Sans Culottes French revolutionaries who rejected the knee breeches of the aristocracy and adopted long trousers in solidarity with the peasants and craftsmen. The first step in eliminating class distinctions through styles of clothing. 1860s: Artistic Dress Inspired by artist and designer William Morris’s dictum “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,” artistic dress favored clean lines based on the natural form of the body, as opposed to the corsets and crinolines that were popular at the time....
Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, December 23, 2016. Happy holidays! Outgoing senator Mark Kirk says the GOP is now “one and the same with Donald Trump” Republican senator Mark Kirk is getting ready to leave office after losing his seat to Democratic U.S. representative Tammy Duckworth in the November election. A longtime vocal critic of president-elect Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed member of the “moderate middle,” Kirk says that the Republican Party is changing....
Calling Mint Mile singer and guitarist Tim Midyett an underdog is a bit silly, because he’s spent three decades cranking out jams in some of America’s best guitar bands, including Silkworm and Bottomless Pit, and now plays bass in Sunn O))). All the same, he’s never gotten his due as a songwriter! Mint Mile have released a string of tasty EPs since 2015, and on Friday, March 20, they dropped their full-length debut, the double LP Ambertron, via Comedy Minus One....
Once Memorial Day hits, it seems there is a different street festival on every corner. So how do you decide which ones are worth braving a sea of dogs and strollers? That’s what we’re here for. Make the most of your summer with these ten fairs and festivals, and consult these music fests while you’re at it. Sat 6/6-Sun 6/7, 11 AM-10 PM, Thalia Hall, 1227 W. 18th, pilsenfoodtrucksocial.com, $5 suggested donation....
Vivian McConnell—a veteran of Chicago indie-rock bands including Santah and Grandkids—turns inward in her solo project V.V. Lightbody (named for her piano-playing grandmother) to create shimmering folk-pop that arrives like a cool breeze of introspection. She’s referred to her music as “nap-rock,” but that tag suggests something sleepy while the sounds she produces are effervescent and light. Much of the material on her forthcoming debut album, Bathing Peach (due June 15 from Midwest Action), conveys the elegant sense of propulsion associated with bossa nova, though only one song, “Fish in Fives,” embraces that genre’s sashaying rhythms....
It’s 2 AM. Social media lights up with posts that send a feeble flare. After that night, I learned I was not alone. One of my friends on the west coast said they’d dreamt that the nation had descended into martial law and a time of extreme measures for survival. Another friend slumbered into a nightmare about getting yelled at in a drive-thru testing site for COVID-19. Others had stress dreams about work, traumatic events from their past, or accidentally infecting other people with COVID-19 by not properly socially distancing, and one friend’s nightmare mirrored the news of some cruise ships being docked indefinitely due to outbreaks, as she ended up as a passenger on an infected private yacht....
The story of 42 Grams is a somewhat unlikely one. Chef Jake Bickelhaupt had experience in top-notch kitchens (Alinea, Charlie Trotter’s, Schwa) but had never run his own before, aside from the underground dinners he and his wife, Alexa Welsh, had been hosting in their apartment. The elaborate 15-course meals Bickelhaupt was producing at that “guestaurant,” which he called Sous Rising, intrigued filmmaker Jack C. Newell. After attending one, he started filming Bickelhaupt’s food prep and presentation, not entirely sure at the time if anything would come of it....
I don’t relate to a lot of foodie culture. I approached [the Midwestern Diner] from the perspective of looking at the craftsmanship of food in a more artistic way. I saw a parallel between running a contemporary restaurant and running a film set. You can make a film that’s just a series of iPhone videos cut together. A chef can do a pop-up dinner where you get 16 people in a room, cook the whole thing yourself, bust your ass, and you’ve got a wonderful dinner....
Joanna Klonsky @joannaklonsky Joanna Klonsky does for the City Council’s 11-member progressive caucus what it takes Mayor Emanuel’s two dozen flacks to do—get the word out. Hey, Mr. Mayor, hire Klonsky, so you can cut your PR budget and spend the savings on schools! Born in Chicago, Klonsky graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School and Bard College. In 2011 she was the spokeswoman for Miguel del Valle’s mayoral campaign before Alderman Rick Munoz recruited her to work for the progressives....
George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Renisha McBride, Atatiana Jefferson, Jordan Edwards, Botham Jean. The space of this article could solely consist of the names of those Black lives who are no longer with us due to police brutality. Police murder. Yet this is an article about theater, which in the shadow of death feels extremely small and insignificant. BTC began in 2016, and Hodge-Dallaway’s initial intention was to find a way to share her extensive play library....
Just about a year ago Logan Square’s Osteria Langhe emerged as a unique specimen among an overwhelming and frequently confounding menagerie of Italian restaurants. Scottish-born chef Cameron Grant lived and trained in Piedmont, where he absorbed the traditions of that particular hallowed regional cuisine, and put those values on display at Osteria Langhe with excellent product, proper portioning, restrained saucing, and rigorous pasta making, tempered with an impulse to innovate that very rarely overreaches....
Any future history of Chicago hip-hop would be incomplete without a chapter about rapper Lucki. Starting with his startling 2013 debut, Alternative Trap, he’s been shaping and tightening a distinctive style built on forlorn storytelling and a languorous flow. His zonked-out affectations can make his songs seem tossed off, but when you listen deeper, the vulnerability, anxiety, and tension he carries in his gritty groan strike you with full force. Lucki has been on a remarkable streak the past couple years, and his third full-length in 15 months, May’s Almost There (Lucki/Empire), lands like a three-pointer in the final seconds of a blowout second quarter in game seven of the NBA finals....
While the increasingly discordant standoff between striking musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and their management continues to silence Orchestra Hall, the musicians are picking up their instruments for a series of free concerts at other venues. The discord, so far, includes warring bar charts (purporting to show how well CSO musicians are doing in comparison to musicians in six other major orchestras); claims by both sides that if the other has its way the CSO, as we know it, will cease to exist; and, on Thursday, a verbal attack on philanthropist and Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association board treasurer James Mabie by Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey over the main issue in the strike: pensions....
