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Did you know that Trump has a ten-point plan to help African-Americans? Still, the choice of outlet is just downright laughable. Literally. When I mentioned MediaTakeOut during a phone call with a representative of a Chicago-based community group, I elicited a laugh so contagious that we had to pause and marvel at the sheer absurdity of the choice. But for all its sweeping economic populism, the platform does nothing to address the disproportionate killings of often-unarmed black people by police officers, the issue that’s been the biggest rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement since its inception....

If any band is set to fill the massive, sleazy New York no-wave void left by Sonic Youth after they imploded in 2011, it’s Pill. On their 2016 debut full-length, Convenience, the four-piece made it clear that when it comes to making arty noise-rock with a heavy dose of Brooklyn cool, they’re a hard crew to top. But with last year’s Aggressive Advertising EP (out of Dull Tools, the label run by Andrew Savage of Parquet Courts), they also proved that they’re capable of producing a masterpiece....

There’s been no respite in the American crisis of police officers fatally shooting civilians at a higher rate than in any other developed country—not since the events in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, that nationalized the Black Lives Matter movement, and certainly not since the Justice Department took an about-face under Attorney General Jeff Sessions and pledged to abdicate its department-review duties. With that in mind, Dael Orlandersmith’s unsparing series of monologues makes some big asks of its audience: to listen to and better understand a multitude of perspectives—some heinous—on the events that led to the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old black man, at the hands of Darren Wilson, a white police officer, and to continue seeking hope in a situation where so little is apparent....

Time to plan the final week of January (time flies, huh?). Here’s some of what we recommend: 1/25-4/10: The Museum of Contemporary Photography (600 S. Michigan) celebrates 40 years with “MoCP at 40.” The exhibit is a chronological collection of pictures from notable photographers—Diane Arbus, Carrie Mae Weems, Sally Mann—from the museum’s permanent collection, in honor of four decades in business. Reception Thu 1/28, 5 PM. Tue 1/26: All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records is a chronicle of the life of the record empire, directed by Colin Hanks and screening as part of Stranger Than Fiction, the series of documentary premieres at Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N....

Last week at the UN’s Climate Action Summit, 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg had a stern warning about global warming for world leaders and, by extension, city politicians and adults in general: “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.” But gentrification isn’t much of an issue in already affluent communities like East Lakeview. Therefore, the TOD proposed by Glencoe-based Optima, Inc....

If Mayor Lightfoot wants to end the teachers’ strike, I know where she can find the money to settle the union’s demands about class size and hiring nurses, librarians, and counselors. Over the years, I’ve called the TIF slush fund everything from a honey pot to the banana stand, a nod to a line from Arrested Development, one of my favorite sitcoms. My guess is there’s a lot more mayonnaise in that TIF jar....

The Chicago Blues Festival, like many such festivals these days, often has a valedictory feel—and this year’s edition is no exception. Two sets honor artists who’ve died or retired (Otis Clay, who was felled by a heart attack in January, and Otis Rush, who suffered a stroke in 2004), and the headliners at Petrillo skew heavily toward well-seasoned veterans. The other bookings remain relatively conservative as well: guitar-heavy boogie-shuffle blues and old-school soul dominate....

A leisurely record store browse, a bartender’s recommendation, an unplanned run-in with a friend—pandemic life lacks these moments of happenstance. There’s no real replacement for digging through zines at Quimby’s Bookstore. The beloved store is open at limited capacity right now, but I live two bus transfers across town. Luckily, they’ve devised a pandemic-era innovation. They started selling Qustomized Quimby’s Zine Packages. It works like this: When you order a Zine Package online, you submit a list of your interests in the comment section....

This week I wrote about the extraordinary sandwich artist Ethan Lim and his efforts to “sandwich” dishes that aren’t typically served between two slices of bread, particularly the Cambodian foods he grew up with. Lim told me that part of the reason he’s kept such a low profile over the last four and half years is because he didn’t want to be seen as some kind of gentrifier in this working class neighborhood, serving expensive, cheffy fast food in a working class neighborhood that really just needed a reliable hot dog shop more than anything else....

The laid-back, unassuming, eminently cool aesthetic of Pilsen’s Thalia Hall is such a harmonious fit for veteran stand-up Todd Barry that it’s wild he hadn’t performed there yet in his many stops through Chicago. The ASMR-voiced comic and author will play the historic venue for the first time February 22 as part of his facetiously-named Stadium Tour. Well, one of the best green rooms is near you, actually, in Evanston in a place called Space....

It’s storming heavily outside as I ring the buzzer for Western Exhibitions. It’s my first gallery experience since the pandemic locked us down months ago and I feel like I’m breaking some sort of rule. Am I supposed to be here? Is my mask on tight? Where’s my sanitizer? I remember the last opening I was at in the building. Bodies were packed so incredibly close, we had to leave early to catch a breath of fresh air....

Weeks before the official start of summer, Do Division helps Chicago kick off music-festival season. Empty Bottle Presents and Subterranean programmed its East and West stages, respectively, with a lively mix of bands and DJs from Friday night through Sunday evening. Among this year’s notable acts are two groups that have recently celebrated career milestones: Cincinnati indie-rock and alternative hip-hop band Why? and southwestern alt-rock giants the Meat Puppets (now based in Phoenix and Austin)....

Willie Watson makes no bones about his allegiance to tradition on his new album, Folksinger Vol. 2 (Acony). In his liner notes he writes about his favorite versions of some of the tunes he performs: it takes a certain amount of guts to inform listeners about the Bascom Lamar Lunsford version of “Dry Bones” or the definitive reading of “Samson and Delilah” by Reverend Gary Davis while presenting your own renditions....

Q: I’m a professional dominatrix, and I thought I’d seen everything in the last five years. But this situation completely baffled the entire dungeon. This middle-aged guy, seemingly in fine health, booked an appointment with me and my colleague for one hour of some very light play and a golden shower to finish off with. We did no CBT, no cock rings, no trauma to the dick area at all, no ass play, no sounding or catheters, no turbulent masturbation, nothing that could have caused this reaction....

Patsy Desmond Jennifer Herrema and Neil Michael Hagerty Despite its best efforts to be out of step with its era, Royal Trux couldn’t help but define it. After establishing a reputation for chaos and art-damaged, deconstructed rock, the duo did a mid-90s about-face and signed with Virgin for the David Briggs-produced, Stones-y Thank You (1995). Fresh from a split with the major label after the visually repulsive/aurally adventurous Sweet Sixteen (1997), the duo moved to Virginia and settled into a period of prolific experimentation, releasing a loose trilogy with Accelerator, Veterans of Disorder, and Pound for Pound on Drag City between 1998 and 2000....

Bit by bit our planet is being sold to ultrawealthy individuals. They drill, they frack, they drain lakes and aquifers to fill their Olympic-size pools—and in Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, one attempts to dispatch a satellite into space with potentially nefarious intent, and with the unwitting help of the U.S. military. The sky belongs to our imaginations, damn it, not to billionaire megalomaniacs. But all it takes is one man amid this crisis of conscience to save the world....

Composer David Lang, who served on the committee that awarded Kendrick Lamar’s album Damn a Pulitzer Prize earlier this week, won his own Pulitzer in 2008 for the vocal composition The Little Match Girl Passion. Commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation and the Perth Theater and Concert Hall, it was premiered in October 2007 by Theatre of Voices, conducted by Paul Hillier. A sublime recording of the work by the same ensemble was released in 2009 by Harmonia Mundi....

If you talk to the artist Faheem Majeed for more than a few minutes, it’s likely that he’ll mention the South Side Community Art Center, the storied cultural institution where he served as executive director from 2005 to 2011. In some ways, he’s never left, as his art practice continues to explore the institution’s legacy and contemporary significance. It has certainly never left him. Allison Peters Quinn, the director of exhibitions at HPAC, curated the show, and chose to include smaller examples of earlier rubbings Majeed has done....

Writer-director Ira Sachs was raised in Memphis before moving to New York City, but you can tell he’s a New Yorker now because he’s so preoccupied with real estate. In his acclaimed indie drama Love Is Strange (2014) a longtime gay couple are forced to separate when they lose their condominium in Manhattan, and the pain of longing is only increased by the awkward living arrangements each is forced to make on his own....

Jean-Luc Guionnet’s relationship to music is complicated, and it shows. As a youth, he drew while his father played saxophone, and he didn’t much like what he heard. When he changed his mind during his teens and started making his own music, his first instruments were keyboards, spliced tape, and drums; he only came around to playing saxophone himself because the horn was easy to carry. Since the late 1990s, Guionnet has contributed to more than 80 albums, coming at music from a variety of angles: he’s used recordings of people talking about their listening environments to craft a meditation upon space and memory, employed church organs as vast sound generators, and improvised on alto saxophone alone and in small groups....