Q: I am a 22-year-old Italian man, 100 percent straight, sensitive and sporty. I have been reading Savage Love for years in Internazionale. I have one question for you: Why do I always fall in love with lesbians? Why do I instantly fall in love with girls who have that something more in their eyes? Something melancholy and perhaps insecure? Girls whom I’d rather protect and embrace than take to bed?...
In 1885, the Pittsburgh Dispatch ran an op-ed under the byline “The Quiet Observer” entitled “What Girls Are Good For.” In the view of Erasmus Wilson (owner of the pseudonym), the short answer was essentially staying home and making babies, where they could “play the part of angel.” “I can pinpoint the exact moment. I was reading an article in April of 2016 in the Atlantic that was about how there were more female action stars in Hollywood a hundred years ago than there are today....
Thick beige-and-brown colored fabrics pad the walls of Ukrainian Village storefront space Fernwey. They’re not decorative—these four six-foot-tall quilts, which look more like topographic maps than bed coverings, are the abstract textile works featured in local artist Christalena Hughmanick‘s exhibition “The Fish Don’t Talk About the Water.” Ikebana artist Yuko Inoue Darcy’s floral arrangement in the far right corner of the gallery is a direct response to the metaphorical earth found in Hughmanick’s quilts and foam displays....
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center Over the past 60 years the Holocaust has been discussed and dissected and interpreted and reinterpreted so many times, it’s hard to imagine there’s anything left to say. The tiny Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie, however, continues to find new stories to tell. In addition to a permanent exhibit recounting the Holocaust through the perspective of Illinois residents who either experienced it or witnessed it as American GIs, it hosts just two shows every year, but its curatorial staff chooses them wisely....
Everything about Djembe! The Show starts to make more sense when you imagine it out of its current context—the theater—and back in its spiritual place of origin, a corporate seminar. Created by Doug Manuel, a white British inspirational speaker and social entrepreneur who sells motivational speeches and leadership retreats, this 90-minute commercial interactive musical experience invites audiences to learn djembe drum fundamentals by playing along to affordably licensed hits. As a concert and work of children’s theater, components of it are pretty damn cool....
Some folks ride bicycles in Chicago for exercise, while others do it to reduce their carbon footprint. Amanda Aamodt and Emily McCrary pedal for a higher purpose; biking, they say, is the most affordable and efficient way to spread their faith to others around the city. Bingham, 69, a farmer by trade, temporarily moved to Chicago in July with his wife, Sherry, a piano teacher, from Honeyville, Utah, near the Idaho border, after they were “called” by their faith to mentor young missionaries....
Allá en San Fernando Collectivo El Pozo presents Allá en San Fernando as a commemoration of 72 would-be immigrants murdered on August 24, 2010, victims of corruption and bloodlust along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Raúl Doronte’s play (which is performed in Spanish with English supertitles) begins on a desert plain, with two snickering assassins, a knife, and three helpless women—Judith (Leslie Magdalena Holguín), Salomé (José Rochel), and María (Carolina Escrich)....
Inside Out, the latest Disney-Pixar coproduction, feels like a clever educational short stretched to feature length. It has plenty to teach viewers about the workings of the human mind (writers Josh Cooley, Meg LeFauve, and Pete Docter reportedly spent years researching the subject), and it employs an array of imaginative strategies to make those lessons palatable to a wide audience. Most of the film takes place inside the brain of Riley, an 11-year-old girl; the principal characters are anthropomorphized versions of the five emotional states that govern her personality—joy, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust....
For better or worse, the American indie-rock touring circuit is clogged with fabled acts celebrating some kind of anniversary. But a nostalgia trip wasn’t what multidisciplinary Chicago artist Tim Kinsella had in mind for Joan of Arc, the band he fronts, which is often categorized as “indie rock” even though it’s deeply experimental in practice. So how does a group that makes what Kinsella describes as “music for no audience” ring in two decades of existence?...
Q: I’m a 56-year-old heterosexual man, and I’ve lived with ALS for the past six years. I am either in a wheelchair or in a hospital bed, and I have very little motor ability in my limbs. Like most or all male ALS patients, I still have full sensory ability, including a fully functioning penis. Are there safe websites or groups I can connect with that deal with helping paralytics like me find people who are interested in hooking up?...
Emo legends Cap’n Jazz haven’t played since 2010, but they aren’t entirely dead—at least not according to a source close to the band (who prefers to remain anonymous because he enjoys “a sniff of espionage”). Cap’n Jazz has received a few offers to play shows, and the dudes are wrestling with the “cost/benefit ratio of saying yes to them.” If they do play, there will likely be a new face in the band: Gossip Wolf’s source expects Blake Schwarzenbach (Jawbreaker, Jets to Brazil, Forgetters) to replace Davey von Bohlen (Promise Ring, Maritime) on guitar and backing vocals....
Even by New York City standards, Louis “Moondog” Hardin (1916-1999) was a character. For a quarter century beginning in the late 1940s, his blind, hirsute form occupied a spot on Sixth Avenue. Sometimes he performed or sold his music, and other times he just stood there, looking imposing in Viking garb. His music included proto-minimalist orchestral pieces and short, intricate rounds that sounded like a glee club vocalizing over Native American rhythms, which Moondog had become enamored with as a child while visiting an Arapaho reservation in Wyoming....
Update: This show has been canceled to help slow the spread of COVID-19. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase. When I was in middle school in the mid-90s, I cut my teeth on the hyperslick skate-punk records churned out by California label Fat Wreck Chords. But when I got to high school and discovered “smarter,” more “highbrow” punk bands such as Fugazi and the Honor System, the scene that first captured my attention might as well have simply ceased to exist....
When you hear the term “art book,” what do you think? Do you imagine a gleaming, high-end store exclusively for sophisticates, academics, and design geeks? Do you reflexively visualize a heavy, clunky publication that never moves from the same spot on your living room table? Or do you just pine for all the beautiful-looking books that are too expensive and unwieldy for you ever to display in your tiny apartment?...
Nothing is better at making Barack Obama look good than Donald Trump. The crowd of 150 18- to 24-year-olds jumped to their feet to greet him and were clearly thrilled to participate as Obama conducted a “reverse town hall” where he asked questions and they gave answers about societal problems they intend to solve and how they’ll bring about change. And they’ve got the organizing thing down: Jackson Park Watch, which started as online posts by two concerned south-side residents, announced in September that it has become a formally organized nonprofit (operating under the fiscal sponsorship of Friends of the Parks)....
Paul Beaty/AP Do Chicago’s sports reporters really care about Derrick Rose? A couple of seasons ago, the Tribune assigned two reporters to chronicle every basket, sneeze, and backfire of the team bus as the Simeon varsity pursued its fourth straight Illinois state basketball championship. Jabari Parker was the star of that team, and Derrick Rose, who’d led Simeon to three two championships a few years earlier, was the standard of excellence....
QI have a dildo that I loooooove, and I was wondering if it’s safe for me to use it in both my ass and my cunt. I would clean it in between uses/orifices, of course, and it has a flared base, so it’s safe for anal play. Can I do this, or do I need to get separate toys for ass and cunt? —Ass/Cunt Timeshare Don’t know if your dildo is made from a porous or nonporous material?...
I’ll watch just about anything filmed in Chicago. As someone who’s lived here a long time, I like to see my city onscreen. But films and TV shows almost never get it right. CNN’s Chicagoland was a multipart campaign infomercial for Rahm; Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq burned with righteous vitriol but could’ve been set in any American city. Several dramatic series film here, including the wacky Shameless, which is an entertaining show but doesn’t really have much to say about the city....
I don’t ride a bike all that often—because Chicago has a dearth of safe, protected bike lanes on roads I might use for commuting, and because I lack the vigor and bravery needed to ride alongside cars and buses on most of our thoroughfares. But when I do, I hate wearing a helmet. In the summer, it’s hot, in the winter, it’s cold, and at all times it messes up my hair and looks ugly and stupid....
Chicago’s LGBTQ community reacted to news of the shooting that killed at least 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday morning with an outpouring of support, solidarity, and grief. As the city woke Monday, plans for numerous vigils were already in place, following up on one that took place Sunday evening. Vigil in Chicago for #Orlando. pic.twitter.com/ihlYCU0DcX — Josh Evans (@jwe312) June 12, 2016 The vigil was organized by Chicago Survivors, an organization dedicated to helping the families of victims of gun violence in the city, and was attended by Chicago Police Department superintendent Eddie Johnson, among others....
