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It feels as if we’ve been in quarantine for years, yet Tenet somehow feels longer. There’s a possibility I’m still watching it, that I’ve descended into a dreamlike state where I seemingly continue on with life while, really, I’m in the theater, eyes glazed over and face mask damp with exhalation as good-looking men in suits (one of the only things Christopher Nolan incorporates into his films that I wholeheartedly endorse) walk around stunning locales describing in maddening detail what will soon happen onscreen—in glorious 70-millimeter, of course....

Samaria Rice initially wanted the gazebo where her 12-year-old son Tamir was shot to death by Cleveland police in 2014 destroyed. But she changed her mind when she considered the structure’s significance. Tamir was reported to be playing with a pellet gun when he was killed by 26-year-old Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann under the gazebo at the Cudell Recreation Center on November 22, 2014. Ozanne Construction Company and Independence Excavating in Cleveland volunteered to deconstruct the gazebo....

Back in 1988, Steppenwolf Theatre premiered an expensive, AT&T-sponsored stage version of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, adapted and directed by Frank Galati. In my review I argued that the show sabotaged itself, mainly through the absurd juxtaposition of a socialist novel with megacorporate funding, but also by forcing the audience to “sit there and wait to be impressed by all the gimmicks that $500,000 buys. The real river and the genuine car, the honest-to-God rainstorm and the burn-your-fingers campfires....

Torture survivors have their day. In his struggle to express himself, Richard M. Daley has uttered some colorful language in 2001. For those who can’t picture what’s inside the mayor’s head, here’s an illustrated guide. “Scrutiny? What else do you want? Do you want to take my shorts? Go scrutinize yourself. I get scrutined every day.” –on whether his brother […] Even a broken clock is right twice a day, but economists are almost always wrong when predicting the future....

In May 2012 the Chicago Department of Transportation released its “Chicago Forward” agenda, including the stated goal of eliminating all traffic deaths by 2022. That target was inspired by the international Vision Zero movement, which began in Sweden in 1997. It’s based on the notion that road fatalities and serious injuries aren’t simply unavoidable “accidents” but rather outcomes that can be prevented through engineering, education, and enforcement. But it seems likely the devil will be in the details when it comes to ensuring Chicago’s safety program is a net positive for all residents, particularly those in low- to moderate-income communities of color....

Currently just 144 Lathrop units are occupied. But remaining residents and allied neighborhood groups have continued to challenge the CHA’s redevelopment plans, drawing public attention to the importance of preserving the large stock of family-friendly public housing units in an integrated neighborhood with ample job opportunities, access to transportation, and good schools. Another point of concern is the possibility that project-based vouchers—a five-to-20 year contract between a private owner and a housing authority to maintain a privately owned unit as public housing—will make up the bulk of the replacement units....

The alternative-rock boom of the 1990s resulted in lots of outre musicians landing major-label deals that would’ve been unthinkable in any decade before or since. Chicago four-piece Cupcakes, who emerged in 1996, both exemplify and transcend that era. On their sole album, 2000’s Cupcakes, released on Dreamworks, they mold arena rock bombast, power-pop hooks, and dance ecstasy into freewheeling jams whose clean polish glistens even when the songwriting doesn’t quite shine....

Q: Here’s a non-COVID question for you: I’m a queer white female in a monogamish marriage. I vote left, I abhor hatred and oppression, and I engage in activism when I can. I’m also turned on by power differentials: authority figures, uniforms, hot guys doing each other. Much to my horror, this thing for power differentials plus too many WW2 movies as a kid has always meant that for my brain (or for my pussy) Nazis are hot....

“Lit!” is what writer and publisher Mallory Smart says more often than not. I don’t always know what she means, but I think it’s a good thing. I first heard of Smart when she interviewed Giacomo Pope (the founder of the literary website Neutral Spaces) for her podcast. Smart’s podcast is called Textual Healing, which makes me laugh, but Smart tells me few listeners or guests get the Marvin Gaye pun....

Anton Chekhov’s famous dictum that if a gun is introduced in the first act, it must go off by the second is reimagined in Franco-Uruguayan playwright Sergio Blanco’s Kiev in the seemingly innocuous form of a diving board. No one literally goes off the board into the stinking murky waters of the pool on the Badenweiler estate, soon to be demolished by steamrollers. But what it hides has poisoned the whole family....

Milwaukee’s loudest Renaissance man, Peter J Woods has spent the last decade and a half keeping his energy flowing through a variety of media—he’s an absurdist, avant-garde playwright, a performance artist, a visual artist, and is probably best known as a harsh-noise wizard. Some might say that musical genre has a limited emotional palette and has its best years behind it, but Woods is having none of that, and his natural theatricality and inventiveness keep his work fresh and challenging....

John Avila’s mom and grandma tried to “sneak” some tikus rica rica into his bowl when he visited their hometown in the mountains of North Sulawesi, Indonesia, a few years back. Avila, who’s 32, has been cooking in Chicago for a dozen years under some familiar chefs. His first job out of culinary school was at Jackie Shen’s erstwhile Red Light before moving on to the Sofitel under Greg Biggers, and the Four Seasons when Kevin Hickey was in charge....

Whenever I talk to a chef for the first time (for whatever reason), I invariably work my way around to one particular question. I try not to take them off guard, but it’s something to the effect of: “Are you now cooking with, or have you ever cooked with, cannabis?” There are no cannabis restaurants (yet), but chef-driven, cannabis-infused cuisine is everywhere in both states where it’s legal and prohibited, usually taking the form of pop-ups, parties, or branded product lines....

Two days after the 2016 election, when I caught a package tour headlined by British-American grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, the night seemed to encompass the best and worst of the moment: After witnessing a presidential candidate openly lean into hate and emerge victorious, the sound of hundreds of people belting out “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” during the band’s brutal cover of the Dead Kennedys classic felt grounding and cathartic. That relief was eighty-sixed when I ran into an acquaintance who’d been subjected to race- and gender-based harassment in the pit....

Preservation Chicago’s 2019 list of the city’s most threatened historic buildings grew from its traditional seven sites to nine this year, with two holdovers from 2018: the James R. Thompson Center and Jackson Park (including the South Shore Cultural Center and part of the Midway Plaisance). The threat to the Thompson Center stems from the fact that Governor J.B. Pritzker—like Bruce Rauner before him—wants to sell the unique postmodern structure to a developer to help shore up the state’s finances, while plans for the Obama Presidential Center and a possible professional level golf course threaten Jackson Park, the Midway Plaisance, and the South Shore Cultural Center....

When you walk into Connect Gallery at Harper Court in Hyde Park, it doesn’t have that overly reverent hush you feel in some art galleries. People are laughing and talking – either meeting for the first time, introducing friends, or just catching up. A local artist might be finishing a painting. Kids might be doing homework at a long table. And then there’s the art. Commanding. Unapologetic. Relatable. True. Current....

Set in 1595 during the glorious reign of Elizabeth I, this 2015 musical romp (book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick, music and lyrics by Karey Kirkpatrick and Wayne Kirkpatrick) begins with an opening number, “Welcome to the Renaissance,” so rousing and energetic, packed with clever lyrics and great dance moves (choreographed by Alex Sanchez), we expect the rest of the production, directed by Scott Weinstein, will blow the roof off of the Marriott....

New musicals are inherently fragile. Festivals devoted to them, exponentially more so. Chicago has seen ambitious fests showcasing new tuners come and go: The Musical Theatre Writers Workshop, Midwest New Musicals and . . . New Tuners—all shone brightly and went dark. The latest casualty in the field is the New York Musical Festival, where Next to Normal and [title of show] (among others), got early productions. NYMF shuttered suddenly in January, leaving 2020’s festival entrants with little but feedback from the selection committee....

“I think policy is everything,” said Dr. Angela Odoms-Young, a professor at University of Illinois Chicago who researches environmental and social impacts on diet-related diseases. Odoms-Young is one of two dozen public health experts, food justice advocates, and city officials who gathered at the beginning of the year to assess how Chicago’s government can serve as a guiding hand in building a more equitable food system. “We tend to think of this as a household issue,” she said....

Folks living in the Logan-Avondale area vividly remember the crushing news of popular bar and liquor store Crown Liquors closing its doors in April last year. It was one of the early businesses to shutter due to the pandemic, which started the cycle of sadness we’ve been stuck in: watching our favorite bars, theaters, and restaurants get uprooted. After mourning the loss of the staple that existed since the Prohibition era—a place that housed a plethora of memories, new friends, dance parties, and even networking meetings—my heart jumped at the newfound hope that we might be able to save it....