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Just beyond the edge of the south side, the city of Blue Island borders Chicago neighborhoods such as Morgan Park and West Pullman. “The Wild Hundreds,” as part of the area has been nicknamed, encompasses the communities of Pullman and Roseland, and nearby staples include the Kroc Center—which calls itself Chicago’s largest community center—and reliably yummy sandwich shop Home of the Hoagy. Insomniac Studios sits at 127th and Western in Blue Island, across the street from an outpost of a favorite midwestern chain, Beggars Pizza....

My first impression of Jupiter Bokondji and his band Okwess was that their sound resembled Fishbone filtered through traditional African music. That’s not to say that the players in this Congolese ensemble actually take any cues from the legendary ska-punk band—rather, both groups combine African rhythms with rock, funk, and the occasional jazzy flourish. Jupiter & Okwess have an insane stage presence, and I was glad to catch their riotous performance at Millennium Park in 2019....

In this week’s issue of the Reader, I wrote at length on King Hu’s supremely entertaining The Fate of Lee Khan (which screens again tomorrow night at 6 PM), but that isn’t the only great revival screening happening at the Gene Siskel Film Center this week. On Thursday afternoon you can catch Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) in its complete, nearly four-hour version, which had never been released in the U....

When the owners of Challengers Comics decided they wanted to put on more events, they knew they wanted some of them to focus on women, but they had no idea what that would look like. But when they asked for organizers, Samantha LaFountain volunteered. She knew what she wanted to see. “I connected with a lot of the gals,” said Cristina McCrystal, who lounged on the floor in a Wonder Woman onesie....

I had trouble finding a mask that conformed to my face at the start of the pandemic. The ones I did have at my disposal at first tended to either be loose enough to slide around and reveal parts of my face I intended to conceal, or were tight enough to fold my earlobes over and press down on the tip of my nose with an intensity that left a mark....

Many years ago, an alderman offered me some words of advice that I’ve been following ever since. “Hitler was right.” As criticism of her remarks poured in, Miller’s office tweeted out a clarification that was almost as outrageous as her initial comments: “Congresswoman Miller’s statement was a denunciation of evil dictators’ efforts to re-educate young people and similar efforts by left-wing radicals in our country today.” In other words, own up to what you did or said that was wrong and stop acting like you’re the victim....

Norwegian saxophonist Håkon Kornstad has long been a deeply curious musician. Throughout his career, which began in the late 90s, he’s pursued disparate creative ventures with unbending rigor and imagination. I first encountered him in 2000, when he performed at the Empty Bottle as a member of fantastic improvising trio Tri-Dim with Swedish guitarist David Stackenäs and Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach, but at the same time he was creating a vibrant post-Miles Davis fusion with his group Wibutee....

No one else plays the pedal steel guitar like Susan Alcorn. She combines a command of the instrument’s orchestral range with an improvisational fluency that lets her take the instrument far beyond its usual idiomatic settings. She began playing professionally in Chicago country bars in the mid-1970s, then went on to hone her chops in Texas western-swing and country bands. But in 1990 she tapped into another Lone Star sound—the “deep listening” philosophy of Houston-born composer Pauline Oliveros—and she’s been courting unpredictability ever since....

Q: As you can see by my signature, Dan, I’m a linguist. On your podcast you frequently ask researchers “whatchyougot” on all kinds of sex- and romance-related questions. I thought maybe you’d be interested in some expertise on linguistic matters too. And I have some on “cum,” “cumming,” and (shudder) “cummed.” A: Thank you for taking the time to write, Professor Newman, and please forgive me for peeving you. But the sticky issue for me—if you’ll pardon the expression—remains the seemingly unnecessary and arbitrary use of an alternate spelling in this one instance....

The gridded city is ancient, popularized by the Romans but not prevalent globally until the 18th century. When land is subdivided into equal—or by a factor divisible—parcels, it helps with both administration of the area and wayfinding through it. Gridirons are imposed over topography and are unresponsive to local organization. The curve of waterways, soil-born connective tissue of place, desire paths of mammals and migratory trajectories of birds are invisible to us....

The Hungarian composer György Ligeti will be feted during the University of Chicago’s 2017-2018 concert season with a thrilling series of performances by high-caliber artists including Imani Winds, Eighth Blackbird and Amadinda, and Third Coast Percussion. The program gets off to a stellar start with the Arditti Quartet, arguably the most consistently adventurous and precise contemporary-music string quartet of the last quarter century. Ligeti (1923-2006) wrote only two string quartets in his life....

In the heated race to see who can be the state’s most secretive schmuck, Governor Rauner made moves last week to challenge his old pal Mayor Rahm. FOIA is the acronym for a state law that supposedly obligates public figures—even mighty ones, like Rauner and Rahm—to release public documents. Slick move, Mr. Mayor—that’s why you’re the reigning king of FOIA schmucks. Though, as we can see, Rauner is gaining fast. So it looked as though we’d never know what was blacked out....

Babymetal have really just one joke, but it’s a solid one. Since the band’s self-titled debut album in 2014, their formula has become familiar: Suzuka Nakamoto (Su-metal) sings chipper Japanese J-pop while dressed in gothy black dresses, and metalhead producer Key Kobayashi (Kobametal) provides a background of chunky death riffage and lightning-fast technical guitar solos. On the recent singles released ahead of their forthcoming album, Metal Galaxy (BMD Fox/Toy’s Factory/Amuse, Inc....

The car-sharing service Car2go will largely be steering clear of the south side during a pilot of the program—and transportation advocates are not happy. The service, approved by aldermen March 28, allows members to check out a vehicle, usually a two-seater Smart car, and end their trip at any legal curbside parking space, which makes it handy for errands and traveling the first or last mile to or from a transit station....

Earlier this year Numero Group released Ultra-High Frequencies: The Chicago Party, a compilation tribute to the local Saturday-night UHF program. Filmed at a south-side nightclub called the CopHerBox II, The Chicago Party only aired in 1982, and the folks at Numero Group pulled the best scenes from the show’s 23-episode run for a 100-minute DVD “mixtape,” most of which features ambitious Chicago soul and disco groups looking for a chance to shine....

I wish the right-wing miscreants in the federal government were as dependable as Chicago rapper G Herbo. For close to a decade, he’s released albums and mixtapes of rapid-fire drill with reassuring frequency, and even his most run-of-the-mill offerings benefit from his pragmatic empathy and lucid descriptions—he brings a distinctive emotional gravity to his detailed lyrics about the harshness of the city’s impoverished Black enclaves. Born Herbert Wright, Herbo grew up in a part of South Shore so besieged by violence it became known as Terror Town, and in his music he captures both the up-close-and-personal feeling of mortal fear and a large-scale view of the structural inequality that created the circumstances of his life....

Courtesy of Anti Title Fight Title Fight is high up on the totem pole in the young emo scene. A quick look at last year’s Riot Fest schedule can confirm it; of the dozen or so fourth-wave acts on the bill only Title Fight played one of the main stages. The Pennsylvania group has been broadening their sound as their popularity has ballooned, departing from teeth-gnashing posthardcore and skewing towards resplendent shoegaze....

In Look, I Made a Hat, the second volume of his lyrics and musings about his work, Stephen Sondheim notes the unlikely genesis for Into the Woods: he and book writer James Lapine had concocted an idea for a TV special mashing up characters from similar comedies (Ralph and Alice Kramden from The Honeymooners, Archie and Edith Bunker from All in the Family) with characters from various cop and medical dramas, using a car accident as the narrative pretext for bringing them all together....

Lookingglass Theatre’s Thaddeus and Slocum: A Vaudeville Adventure certainly gets the vaudeville aspects right. When Lawrence E. Distasi—in a handlebar mustache and some turn-of-the-century spandex—did a handstand on the railing of the balcony, the audience let out a gasp, then cheered and applauded madly. Our collective amazement made it feel like we were all back in 1908, easily dazzled and filled with hope that the defending champion Chicago Cubs would win the World Series....

The multifarious outlets of Chicago experimental musician Maxwell Allison include the solo project Mukqs and the improvisational ambient trio Good Willsmith, whose Twitter account he uses to opine about music. His incisive comments on the granular details of his daily listening make it clear he’s had the experience of loving a song while hating how it’s marketed—which means he knew exactly what he was doing when he named his new solo full-length My Most Personal Album to Date....