I always watch the Academy Awards, and if they run long I don’t care; but Sunday night was the first time I felt I had skin in the game. When Spotlight was named best picture, I hollered; so did my wife. But to my surprise, before the night was over I was on Facebook defending Spotlight against a journalist who thought it wasn’t “half as good a movie” as All the President’s Men....
Guitarist Joel Paterson is a devoted student of American roots and early jazz guitar who pointedly ignores the lines between the once racially defined genres. Although he’s recorded only a few albums under his own name, his technical ease and versatility have made him a ubiquitous presence on the local scene, where he’s collaborated with Devil in a Woodpile, Jimmy Sutton’s Four Charms, and Cash Box Kings, and he’s done session work with national acts like JD McPherson, the Cactus Blossoms, and Pokey LaFarge, among others....
“It’s all the same movie,” says writer Susan Nussbaum in the opening moments of the 2020 documentary Code of the Freaks. “It’s all inspiration.” A Chicago-based collaboration between Nussbaum, director Salome Chasnoff, and scholars Alyson Patsavas and Carrie Sandahl, Code of the Freaks shines a searing light on ableism in mainstream film. During the age of the #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo movements, when Hollywood’s discriminatory practices are coming under increased scrutiny, Code of the Freaks gives much-needed voice to the myriad ways disabled people’s lives are directly impacted by these stories....
The Seattle-based Twitter feed Dockless Bike Fail hilariously showcases the downside of dockless bike sharing, one of the newest developments in the shared-mobility boom. With this technology, customers can use a cell phone app to locate and access cycles distributed around a city and secured with built-in locks. Unlike traditional bike-share systems like Chicago’s Divvy, there’s no need to install expensive docking stations, and users can leave the cycles right at their destinations....
With their ruffled shirts, baggy Tripp pants, and signature painted-on mustache, Dorian Electra always look like they’re ready for a goth meetup at the Renaissance Faire. The nonbinary pop star is all about being too much, and though they’re still a relative newcomer, that energy has already earned them a fervent indie-pop following. Electra’s debut album, last year’s Flamboyant, consists of 11 energetic hyperpop tracks that explore a wild array of sounds and subjects: The campy “Career Boy” satirizes cubicle culture, and “Live by the Sword” (cowritten by 100 Gecs’ Dylan Brady) sounds like a backing track for an intergalactic joust....
Ryan, the bright, witty, psychologically damaged protagonist of Steven Strafford’s dark domestic comedy (played with uncommon power and pathos by Esteban Andres Cruz) begins the play by dividing all comedians into three types: the Godzillas, who come on strong, firing joke after joke; the more subtle Mothras, who hold back but then destroy the audience with a few well-aimed quips; and the Gameras, clumsier than the other two, but equally devastating....
Baba Petra was getting old. She wanted to see her family in her village near Banja Luka again, so during the middle of the Bosnian War in the early 90s, she left her Chicago garden to go back home and say goodbye. Back in the day, Baba Petra and her daughter regularly helped out on the farm, so when she returned from Bosnia, she gave Videnovich a backup stash of black pole beans specific to the region that she smuggled back in a pair of socks....
Lady Bird, which hit theaters earlier this month, has collected sterling reviews proclaiming its writer- director, Greta Gerwig, an important new voice in American movies. Yet Gerwig isn’t really a new voice at all—in the past decade she’s racked up ten screenwriting credits, including collaborations with Chicago indie Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends) and New York indie Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha and Mistress America). When I saw Lady Bird, her first solo flight, it struck me as something completely fresh, though I knew I’d already seen several movies she’d cowritten....
With high-schoolers from across the area getting ready to hit Chicago’s streets this week and on March 24 to demand sensible gun laws, the time has come for me to give these youngsters some avuncular advice and history lessons. In my defense, I voted for none of them. “We want sensible gun laws,” says Toomey. “But eventually, we want to address the root of the problems—cycles of poverty and mental illness....
Sue Kwong This winter, the Reader has set a humble goal for itself: to determine the Greatest Chicago Book Ever Written. We chose 16 books that reflected the wide range of books that have come out of Chicago and the wide range of people who live here and assembled them into an NCAA-style bracket. Then we recruited a crack team of writers, editors, booksellers, and scholars as well as a few Reader staffers to judge each bout....
Late last year, Victor Cervantes began posting gauzy, sweetly melancholy bedroom-pop tracks to Soundcloud and Bandcamp, adopting his first name as his nom de upload (he styles it with a terminal exclamation point). Last month the 17-year-old Chicagoan made his physical-media debut with the CD-only EP Glitter98, a self-released collection of six songs that he sold for $10 (the deluxe version, which includes bonus tracks and a lyric booklet, cost $15)....
QMy boyfriend and I both spent a lot of time masturbating when we were young, and pretty much trained our brains to come only one way. He can only come from masturbating furiously, or sometimes from a marathon of jackhammer sex. A few years before I met him, I toned down the masturbating to retrain my brain and pussy and tried a bunch of new things, and I can now come from different acts and positions....
Q: I was raised in a religious home and didn’t lose my virginity until the embarrassing age of 26. I was told by the church to save it for marriage and I was a virgin until I met the woman who would become my wife at a party. I said to hell with it, we had a one-night stand, and we’ve been together now for eight years. I’m tall and slim and my wife is short and heavy....
A few years ago Matthew Hord, who fronts Chicago-based noise-punk mainstays Running (and played alongside yours truly in a handful of local bands over the years), moved to New York City and linked up with guitarist Jordan Lovelace and drummer Peter Buxton, both of whom had played a similar style of jumpy, blown-out garage rock in their band Pampers. The new trio gave themselves the confusing-on-all-streaming-platforms name “Brandy,” which makes them nearly impossible to Google and (according to at least one Instagram story) has resulted in disappointing showgoers anticipating a performance by the 90s R&B icon....
Zeitgeist happens: we didn’t exactly plan it this way, but nearly all the profiles and features in this special Fall Theater and Dance Issue reflect on boundaries, identity, and marginalization—issues that feel ever more relevant as the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict and roll back the very concept of citizenship seemingly grow every day. Chicago may still be the city of Second City in the minds of many, but it’s also the hub of “live lit”—that blend of literary essay, personal memoir, and performance made semifamous (at least locally) through shows such as Write Club, Essay Fiesta, and the Stoop....
Welcome to the Reader‘s weekday news briefing for Tuesday, December 12, 2017. Emanuel: Six potential rivals in 2019 mayoral race have said no Mayor Rahm Emanuel is getting ready for a heated mayoral race in 2019, and he’s still confident about his reelection chances despite a rocky and controversial second term in office. “We know six people said ‘No,’ ” Emanuel told the Tribune. “Everything else is conjecture and thumb-sucking....
When Mutoid Man formed in 2012 it seemed its goal was simply to shred; and shred it did. Originally conceived as the two-piece of Stephen Brodsky of prog-rock-space-metal act Cave In on guitar and vocals and Ben Koller of obtuse artcore legends Converge on drums, Mutoid Man took the most over-the-top elements of their other bands and ran with them—combining eight-armed drumming, mind-numbing time-shifts, spaced-out guitar wizardry, and theatrical vocal hooks....
Do Division Street Fest This staple street fest showcases rock, punk, pop, experimental music, and more. Acts include Peanut Butter Wolf, A Place to Bury Strangers, Beach Fossils, and Nikki Lane. 6/3-6/5, Division between Damen and Hoyne, do-divisionstreetfest.com, $5 suggested donation. Chicago Blues Festival Shemekia Copeland, Fred Wesley, and Diunna Greenleaf are among the headliners at the event that calls itself the largest free blues festival in the world. 6/10-6/12, Grant Park, chicagobluesfestival....
Capturing the tortured angst involved in the process of creation is difficult to achieve honestly and empathetically. The inherently selfish act of indulging in creativity and desiring a tangible legacy is viewed with suspicion at best by nonartists, and reviled at worst. Engrossing and meticulously plotted, the Goodman’s production of How to Catch Creation is lightning caught in a bottle, an absolute triumph for director Niegel Smith and his exquisite ensemble....
Q: I’m in a D/s relationship with a partner who owns my cock. We’ve purchased several male chastity devices, but I can pretty easily get out of them. My partner did some investigating and learned that the only effective devices work with a Prince Albert piercing—a ring through the head of the penis that locks into the device, preventing the sub from pulling his cock out. My partner now wants me to get a PA....
