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It’s comforting to regard the premise of Lucy Kirkwood’s eco-thriller with a smug sense of that-would-never-actually-happen. Humans would never be so stupid as to build a nuclear reactor in a flood zone, right? And even if they did, they surely wouldn’t put the backup generators in the basement. Except that’s basically the setup that led to disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. In The Children, married nuclear scientists Hazel (Janet Ulrich Brooks) and Robin (Yasen Peyankov) are living in the wake of a Fukushima-like disaster....

For years, I’ve been really trying to bring the TIF program to life in an often-futile attempt to make this abstract concept tangible and real. Pappas had her office’s computers sift through last year’s tax data to determine which TIF districts in Cook County got how much in property tax dollars. But it’s become a reverse Robin Hood program, thanks to a flaw in the law that makes almost any area, no matter how rich, TIF eligible....

The Block Beat multimedia series is a collaboration with The TRiiBE that roots Chicago musicians in places and neighborhoods that matter to them. “Can we go smoke a cigarette?” Vic Mensa asks. We’re inside Hyde Park Records, on 53rd Street, one of the 24-year-old rapper’s favorite teenage hangouts, catching up with the Roc Nation signee before he packs up his hometown apartment and heads for Los Angeles to record—though he’s not sure when he’ll move....

The pandemic has kept many of us from leaving the house, but honestly, why would you want to? There is too much TV to watch to go outside. Outside doesn’t have Hulu or Netflix or HBO Max. To encourage you to stay home and stay safe, comedian/writer Rima Parikh and myself (two people who watched just as much TV in the before times) will be diving deep into the shows we’re loving or lovingly hate-watching, social-distance-style, over Google chat....

As this year’s legislative session ground to an end last week, it appeared Republicans have decided the best way to reelect Governor Bruce Rauner is to temporarily abandon their war on unions, vote with Democrats to pass a budget, and aid victims of sexual harassment. Only it’s not really balanced, as it depends on the sale of a building—the Thompson Center—that’s not been sold and pension payments savings that have yet to be realized....

Modest Mouse front man Isaac Brock can perform a breezy, carefree song in a way that suggests you should be concerned for his well-being. And his recent public comments haven’t exactly quieted those worries; in interviews for the band’s new seventh album, The Golden Casket (Epic/Sony), Brock has dabbled in worrisome tinfoil-hat theories (he made references to gang stalking, voice-to-skull technology, silent-war conspiracies, and UFOs in his conversation with Uproxx). I don’t want to psychoanalyze Brock based on edited Q&As, though, because it’s a wonder that Modest Mouse’s new music—made during the dreadfulness of the pandemic—sounds more cheerful than their usual strained optimism....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, October 18, 2016. Strangers come together to bury the unclaimed body of a baby Around 75 people attended the funeral of Baby Jazlene Sunday, although none of them knew her during her short life. The Sun-Times chronicles the story of the infant, born premature, whose body went unclaimed at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office after her death at University of Chicago Medical Center....

The Mercury Theater gives its new Venus Cabaret space a stellar launch with this engaging, imaginatively staged rendition of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s landmark 1970 concept musical. The cozy, nightclublike venue (carved out of the former Cullen’s Bar & Grill) brings out the best aspects of this revuelike collection of sketches and songs exploring the theme of marriage as partnership, for better and for worse. The show’s focus is on Robert, a 35-year-old bachelor, and his friendships with five heterosexual couples, whose complicated, competitive, sometimes combative relationships seem to provide Robert with prima facie evidence as to why he should avoid taking the plunge, even as his emotional isolation grows increasingly unbearable....

“Basically: if you’re selling art in the street, I’m going to buy it,” is the blunt way Daniel X. O’Neil summarizes his habit of documenting, purchasing, and otherwise archiving art made, sold, or placed in the public way. O’Neil’s years of walks around Chicago and other cities in search of articles of self-expression have culminated in his self-published book, Arte Agora. On a spring afternoon, a few Fridays back, O’Neil invited me to his place for a tour of his collection and a talk....

With almost identical moonlit cover images and similarly intimate recordings of her cello, voice, and electronics, Judith Hammann’s two new albums are a matched set. Both releases present dialogues between the peripatetic Australian-born musician’s main instrument and her body. On the LP Shaking Studies, whose program she performed in Chicago two years ago, she activates her cello’s resonant frequencies, causing it to vibrate so vigorously that it shakes her body. Transferred to vinyl, these pulsing sounds still exert a powerful physical effect; “A Reading” hurtles like a locomotive, and the two-part “Pulse Study” oscillates among sounds that feel like they’re shaking different parts of your skeleton....

Update: This show has been canceled to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase. About three years ago, “Soundcloud rap” emerged as a catchall for a variety of aggressive, rock-influenced hip-hop made by digital natives operating outside the mainstream. It often felt unhelpful to group together rappers whose styles were tugging hip-hop in several different directions, and naming that incohesive group after a streaming service didn’t make the situation more clear....

Danny Brown’s sophomore album, 2011’s XXX, put him on the map—its Adderall- and molly-fueled hyperdrive take on hip-hop merged head-rattling Detroit-techno-flavored production with Brown’s larger-than-life, vulgar-as-hell, over-the-top persona. His relentless, almost cartoonlike rapping helped him make his name, but he’s calmed down a bit over his subsequent albums: 2013’s Old showcases introspective lyrics on its B side, and 2016’s Atrocity Exhibition goes full-on psychedelic, replacing typical hip-hop slaps with heady guitar smears....

I journeyed to Springfield for the Illinois State Fair last weekend on a quest to eat the holy grail of decadent fair foods: the deep-fried Twinkie. Hostess’s recent decision to launch a supermarket version of the treat usually only found at fairgrounds felt like a minor act of blasphemy, and I sought redemption for the snack cake’s spongy soul. At the dozens of food booths at the Illinois State Fair, all consumables seem to follow a few simple guidelines:...

During this time of unrest, with fierce political polarization, division, and uncertainty, a voice of unity, love, and peace is needed. Someone to dazzle and captivate us with a message of hope. Someone to tell us everything will be alright. Now more than ever, the world needs Walter Mercado. As a queer man growing up in Miami, Tabsch found camradery seeing Walter on TV because it assured him he was not alone in being different....

Anyone who’s ever loved a dog wonders at some point whether that cherished relationship is just an illusion. Does my dog love me back, or does it just love dog food? Am I projecting my own feelings onto a beast that acts only on instinct? When my dog dies, am I crying for the dog or for myself? In a sense, pets protect us from our own feelings, becoming repositories for the sort of tenderness that, if directed at another person, could unleash serious and possibly unpleasant consequences....

Rova, which comprises saxophonists Jon Raskin, Bruce Ackley, Larry Ochs, and Steve Adams (who replaced Andrew Voigt in 1988), is the gold standard against which all other saxophone quartets must be measured. Each of its members has a distinct approach to his instrument and a personal aesthetic, and they’ve expressed them in settings as disparate as Ochs’s pancultural improvisations with guitarist Fred Frith and sound artist Miya Masaoka (who specializes in the koto) and Adams’s jittery pop-meets-classical tunes with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic....

In the early 1980s, North Carolina’s Corrosion of Conformity built a cult following with their thrashy, no-frills hardcore punk, but they catapulted to mainstream success in the mid-90s when they slowed down into sludgy southern stoner metal—a transition amplified by second guitarist Pepper Keenan taking over vocals. They’ve remained one of the most revered bands in the subgenre ever since, even through two hiatuses and several lineup changes. After nearly a decade away from the group, Keenan reclaimed his old role in a touring capacity in 2015, and in 2018 he rejoined core members Woody Weatherman and Mike Dean in the studio to record their first album together since 2005....

The temptation to time travel during the past year has been strong. What if we could just go “Back to Before,” as the song from Ragtime puts it? The degree to which audiences engage with the performers is up to the nature of the various pieces and to the individual audience members. You can certainly keep your camera off if you’d rather be in your pajamas (as opposed to looking like the cat’s pajamas), but it’s fun to cast your peepers at the other Zoom participants and the period costumes some have donned for the occasion....

Q: I’m in my mid-40s, straight, never married. Ten months ago, my girlfriend of three years dumped me. She got bored with the relationship and is generally not the marrying type. The breakup was amicable. I still love her and miss her. Last week, I wrote her a letter saying that I still love her and want us to get back together. She wrote me a nice letter back saying she doesn’t feel passion for me and we’re never getting back together....

Last Wednesday, as I Divvied southwest along a disused Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad corridor in Little Village, I caught the delicious aroma of fresh corn tortillas from the nearby El Milagro plant. I rolled past the razor-wire-topped walls of the Cook County Jail, then stopped to check out La Villita Park, a green space on a former brownfield site. The corridor continued southwest past the Semillas de Justicia (“Seeds of Justice”) Community Garden, various industrial businesses, and a few colorful murals, ending near the Paul Simon Job Corps Center....