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Michael Gebert Pie-Eyed Pizzerias owner Ian Muellner with the Monster After mentioning (parenthetically) last week the lunchtime pizza buffet at Ricobene’s in Bridgeport, which can have a good dozen different types of pizza out at peak times, I got to wondering about other places that went above and beyond the standard pizza-slice paradigm as it existed almost universally in Chicago even half a dozen years ago; the boring choice of cheese, sausage, or pepperoni, all kept in a plexiglass pizza rewarmer till the cheese turned to Naugahyde....

The Chicago area’s premier Korean spa is located in an unassuming strip mall in Niles, next to a Super H Mart and across from a Subway, a dental clinic, and a handful of other typical suburban businesses. The entrance to King Spa & Sauna is flanked by stone lions gazing over a dreary landscape of parking lots and an apartment complex. But through its doors and down a long hallway with mirrors, fake plants, and canvas prints of Audrey Hepburn is an alternate dimension....

In an October 2009 cover story, “The Actor’s Letter,” Reader film editor J.R. Jones chronicled the Chicago upbringing of Robert Ryan, whom Martin Scorsese has called “one of the greatest actors in the history of American film.” Drawn from a short memoir Ryan wrote for his children, the story details his own father’s ties to the Democratic machine as owner, with his four brothers, of a construction company that built city sewers....

To be or not to be? That’s pretty much the question in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Only the answer isn’t contingent on what ’tis nobler in the mind. Beckett suggests that we put up with the awfulness of being mainly because we’ve decided, on no proof whatsoever, that a mysterious, white-bearded absence called Godot is on his way, and when he finally shows up we’re going to get a big meal and a cozy spot in his attic, furnished with beds of soft straw....

When Aleksandar Hemon started expanding an unpublished short story into his latest novel, The Making of Zombie Wars, he decided that he should keep it a secret from his agent and his editor. They kept asking him about his next book, and he’d respond, “Well, I have some ideas.” In the Chicago-set The Making of Zombie Wars, misfortune befalls protagonist Joshua Levin, but only because of his misguided decision making—he’s like Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm, without the financial security....

When Donald Trump said “Two Corinthians” during a speech at Liberty University when what he ought to have said was “Second Corinthians,” he made the kind of headlines that lets us know journalists are beginning to suffer from battle fatigue. “Donald Trump faces questions over ‘Two Corinthians,’” said a Telegraph headline. “Donald Trump flubs Bible verse during speech at Christian university,” headlined Mashable. “Donald Trump Knows The Bible So Well He Misquotes It At Christian University,” said BuzzFeed....

The set for Mikhail Baryshnikov’s tribute to Joseph Brodsky consists of a structure resembling a ruined old greenhouse—something you might picture surviving in a neglected corner of the Ranyevskaya estate years after the sale of the cherry orchard. Baryshnikov’s route to the stage takes him through a door at the back of the structure, across its near-empty interior, and finally out a downstage set of doors. Almost comically circuitous, it’s not what you’d call a star entrance....

Michael Gebert Doughnut dessert course at Elizabeth Ready for doughnuts and ramen? They’ll both be on the menu on opening day for Iliana Regan’s Lakeview microbakery and pop-up space, Bunny the Micro Bakery/Wunder POP, which is now set for Friday, May 22. Regan confirms that the bakery will have pretty much everything listed on its menu, including the doughnuts which are currently a dessert course at Elizabeth (and are improved since her doughnut and pierogi pop-ups at Elizabeth, which drew huge crowds, in case you had any doubt that there was enough demand to support yet another doughnut shop in Chicago)....

As a high schooler in Long Island, Sarah Sherman was given the nickname “Squirm” because she was “really skinny and gross and squirmy.” The name stuck, but it’s since taken on a different meaning: the comic is now known for her absurdist, gross-out stand-up. She will handle a bag of her own pubes, or chug a can of clam chowder. And her show, Helltrap Nightmare, encourages others to embrace the “squirm” in themselves....

When Chicago drummer Gerald Dowd released his first full-length album, Home Now, in 2014, he threw a daylong release party with the tongue-in-cheek name Day of the Dowd. Over the course of 13 hours, Dowd sat in with 16 of the artists he’s accompanied during his long career, including children’s musician Justin Roberts and alt-country singer-songwriter Robbie Fulks. The bands alternated between the FitzGerald’s main stage and the SideBar, and when one set finished, Dowd would guzzle some water or take a quick bite before hitting the skins again....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Monday, November 27, 2017. J.B. Pritzker’s plan to rebuild the Illinois Democratic Party Gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker plans to rebuild the Illinois Democratic Party if he wins the 2018 governor’s race, the billionaire businessman told Crain’s Chicago Business in an editorial board interview. Illinois Democrats don’t meet to endorse candidates, and there’s not a unified field organization. “There really is no Illinois Democratic Party,” he said....

My younger cousin Myrna came out of the womb asking questions. Why does a dog bark? Why is the sun hot? Where is my daddy? “He’s a clown with the Venezuelan circus,” she said. “Hey, how about some ice cream before mass?” “Mama, where’s Gertrude?” I asked, entering the kitchen where she was at the sink washing dishes. “I gave it to Myrna. You’re much too old for dolls, mija,” she said, not looking at me....

CDOT is also planning to add bike lanes to the two-lane stretch of 103rd Street from Michigan Avenue west to Vincennes at a yet-to-be-determined date. Big Marsh was built on a former steel mill slag-dumping site. The roughly 44-acre bike park opened this year on the most heavily polluted portion of the property, and environmental remediation is still under way on the remaining 234 acres, a patchwork of open water, marshes, prairie, and woodland....

Stops on the Underground Railroad in Indiana, an urban cheese factory in Milwaukee, and an eye-popping Hindu temple are among Crystal Dyer’s road trip recommendations. By Tatiana Walk-Morris There are plenty of reasons to visit a burial ground besides paying respects to a loved one. By Aimee Levitt The Chicago School is alive and well—300 miles south of the city. By Julia Thiel The museum, now known as Newfields, has undergone a controversial rebranding....

Malina Moye first picked up the guitar at age nine, and at 12 she became the lead singer of her family’s R&B band, joining her parents and brothers onstage. By the mid-aughts, Moye had gone solo, establishing herself as a versatile artist who can move among or blend together blues, funk, rock, and pop. Moye’s guitar playing took center stage on her 2014 album, Rock & Roll Baby, which includes a collaboration with Bootsy Collins (“K-Yotic”) and a cover she calls “Foxey Lady,” which tweaks the riffs and lyrics of a favorite by fellow left-handed upside-down guitarist Jimi Hendrix....

When COVID-19 swept the country, music venues were among the first to shutter, throwing tens of thousands of live entertainment professionals out of work and sidelining artists who depend on touring income. The National Independent Venue Association formed in April 2020 and currently represents more than 3,000 performance halls, promoters, and festivals; it’s done much of the heavy lifting during the push for government financial support of these crucial community hubs....

Jean-Luc Godard has always exhibited a deep love of language. His work teems with puns and literary quotations; one of his most famous devices, which he introduced in A Woman Is a Woman (1961) and continues to employ liberally, is to fill the entire screen with words, or even a single word. The title of his latest cinematic poem, Goodbye to Language (“Adieu au Langage”), is a bit of wordplay; as Godard explained in a recent interview, adieu can mean good-bye or hello in the French-speaking part of Switzerland where he was raised....

Before pigeons were condemned by modern sensibilities as “rats with wings,” they were the unsung foot soldiers of human communication and warfare. Julius Caesar conquered Gaul using pigeons as his emissaries during invasions. Mongol emperor Genghis Khan established pigeon posts across the empire to bridge the vast distances between Asia and eastern Europe. Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey (Penguin Books), Rooney’s fourth novel, soars as a fictionalized account of a major WWI battle, the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in which American forces were trapped behind enemy lines in France and suffered friendly fire....

Whether they’re holding the paranormal at bay or preventing a misstep into the orchestra pit, ghost lights have been keeping Chicago stages safe for more than a century. Traditionally a single light bulb fitted in a cage atop a tall stand, the ghost light is a fixture placed on stage just before the theater goes dark and acts as bare-bones illumination. And, just in case, to keep spirit mischief to a minimum....

For now you can only drink Around the Bend’s beers on tap. The brewery shipped this hand-bottled sample to me. At CHAOS Brew Club‘s fabulous Cerveza de Mayo party, I encountered a jockey box from a new-to-me Chicago brewery called Around the Bend. I tried their galangal pale ale, Silk Road (how could I not be curious?), then filed them in the back of my mind as an operation to check up on in six or eight months, once they’d had time to complete the tortuous permitting and licensing process and start actually selling beer instead of just pouring it at festivals....