Print Issue of January 18, 2018 (Volume 47, Number 15)

C H I C A G O ’ S F R E E W E E K LY | K I C K I N G A S S S I N C E 1 9 7 1 | J A N U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 1 8

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THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | J A N U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 1 8 | V O L U M E 4 7, N U M B E R 1 5

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EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMIE RAMSAY INTERIM CULTURE EDITOR AIMEE LEVITT FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, JAMIE LUDWIG, KATE SCHMIDT SENIOR WRITER MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, IRENE HSIAO, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, MICHAEL MINER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, OLIVER SAVA, KEVIN WARWICK, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS MADELINE HAPPOLD, MELISSA PARKER ----------------------------------------------------------------

FEATURES

IN THIS ISSUE 4 Agenda The plays Jitney and Cal in Camo, the Chicago Moth StorySlam, the movie Mom and Dad, and more goings-on about town

22 Visual Art Lee Grantham can’t escape the long shadow of the Chicago Imagists.

24 Movies Jane Goodall and Hedy Lamarr: Smart, beautiful, and brilliantly unschooled

CITY LIFE

CITY LIFE

Trading up

Women are forging a space of their own in Chicago’s $100 billion manufacturing industry.

BY LIBBY BERRY PHOTOS BY OLIVIA OBINEME 12

7 Chicagoans A candy fanatic finds her calling as product developer for Mars Wrigley Confectionery.

8 Joravsky | Politics If Mayor Rahm really wanted to stop poor people from leaving Chicago, he’d stop giving TIF handouts to corporations.

9 Neighborhood News A call for private security guards in Ukrainian Village spurs a Facebook discussion of crime and racial profiling.

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER BEST SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

25 Shows of note Bedouine, Cam’Ron, Destroyer, and more of the week’s best 30 The Secret History of Chicago Music In 1924, Maxwell Street regular Daddy Stovepipe became one of the first bluesmen ever recorded.

FOOD & DRINK

31 Booze Kalak is a vodka that drinks like whiskey.

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ARTS & CULTURE

Q&A

Pete Holmes on navigating pop culture post-Weinstein

19 Visual Art & Design The Terra Foundation for American Art kicks off Art Design Chicago, a yearlong celebration of Chicago’s art and design movements.

“I’m interested in the conversation about if we’re allowed to laugh at people who’ve made mistakes,” the creator and star of HBO’s Crashing says.

BY STEVE HEISLER 16

In anticipation of the March to the Polls on Sat 1/20, the Protest Banner Lending Library will be lending banners to the public on Thu 1/18, noon to 1 PM, at the Budlong Woods branch of the Chicago Public Library (5630 N. Lincoln).

20 Theater In A Red Orchid Theatre’s The Traitor, the hero ain’t what he used to be.

20 Theater Charles Busch’s kinda 60s come to Pride Films and Plays.

21 Theater Loy Webb and the New Colony show us the light.

32 Restaurant review: Bellemore The Boka group strikes again with a Randolph Street newcomer.

CLASSIFIEDS

34 Jobs 34 Apartments & Spaces 35 Marketplace 36 Straight Dope If an advanced extraterrestrial came to earth, would he recognize our music?

37 Savage Love If a man ejaculates and blood comes out, is he a vampire?

38 Early Warnings Afghan Whigs, David Byrne, Rogue Wave, and more shows you should know about in the weeks to come 38 Gossip Wolf Reality TV star and tattoo artist Phor showcases his rap skills at 1st Ward, and other music news.

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 3

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Sunday, January 21 @ 6:30pm

Thor: Ragnarok Sunday, January 21 @ 4:30pm Tue-Thr, January 23-25 @ 6:30pm

Daddy's Home 2 Sunday, January 21 @ 9:00pm Tue-Thr, January 23-25 @ 8:30pm

Blade Runner 2049

4 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

More at chicagoreader.com/theater Cal in Camo She sits in her R kitchen surrounded by bourgeois debris, face pale, hair limp, tubes

attached to the breasts, finally unlatching the bottles, still empty, with a pneumatic pop. “My body doesn’t even know that she’s here,” Cal (Ashley Neal) says in despair, referring to her baby, played to perfection by a plastic doll and a recording of infant screeches. Cal and her frustrated husband, Tim (Eric Slater), live in a brand-new home in Sterling, Illinois, where happiness is as hard to come by as buyers of the fruit-flavored beer Tim peddles. Cal’s missed connection with her infant finds a mark when her estranged brother, Flynt (Keith Kupferer), part Lear and part Don Quixote, comes to visit. William Francis Hoffman’s poignant play oscillates between all-tooreal and acid-washed mirage in a stellar production directed by Hallie Gordon.

—IRENE HSIAO Through 2/17: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Rivendell Theatre, 5775 N. Ridge, 773-334-7728, rivendelltheatre.org, $38, $28 students, seniors, and military.

Five Mile Lake In Rachel Bonds’s story of small-town unfulfillment and sibling rivalry, pompous classics PhD candidate Rufus and his English-born girlfriend, Peta, visit his remote Pennsylvania hometown in an effort to work on their troubled relationship but end up opening old wounds instead. His doormat of a brother, Jamie, who’s stayed behind to take care of their mother, spends his days fixing up their family’s lake house and pining after his bakery coworker, Mary. But Mary just wants to break free of her dead-end small-town life caring for feral cats and her PTSD-crippled vet brother, Danny. A series of confrontations reveals why each of these five aging young people feels so frustrated, but none of their personalities are particular or compelling enough for the audience to want to see their frustrations relieved. Cody Estle directed.

—DMITRY SAMAROV 1/18-2/24, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-770-0333, sgtheatre.org, $15-$25.

Flamingo & Decatur Jackson and R Ben are ne’er-do-wells in a classic American style. Watching them in Todd

Taylor’s play—getting a solid, surprisingly sweet world-premiere production from Arkansas’s Block St. Theatre—you can almost see them as teens, Xbox controllers in hand, when the revelation hits: Work is for suckers. Now it’s maybe ten years later, and they’re grown-ups living with the consequences of that adolescent epiphany. They gamble, poorly, for a living while squatting in a suburban Vegas home whose owner walked away from it during the 2008 financial meltdown. Even their straight-arrow neighbor, Simon, has a better sense of the main chance. Then along comes a true pro named Nicole. Kevin Christopher Fox’s cast knows how to find the jokes without losing the pathos, and lighting designer Alexander Ridgers supplies some superb desert skies. Jason M. Shipman is at the center of things, though, with his Jackson—neither a hard case nor an idiot but a weird sort of idealist trying to live his misbegotten ideal. —TONY ADLER Through 2/18: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7 PM, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773975-8150, theaterwit.org, $23-$33.

For the Loyal Lee Blessing’s R new ripped-from-the-headlines play both complicates and simplifies the

moral quagmire of underage sex. Toby, assistant coach for a prestigious college football program, catches his head coach with a naked adolescent boy. He tells his wife, Mia, swearing her to secrecy, but her abrupt act of vigilantism somehow spawns a netherworld where she magically interrogates and is interrogated by all relevant parties. While dramatically contrived, the approach gives Blessing free rein to raise any number of thorny, discomfiting issues (like how a well-reasoned decision to hustle may make a teen something more than a simple victim). At the same time, Blessing reduces Toby to a moral imbecile and gives Mia no choices beyond violence or silent capitulation. Still, the rich performances in director James Yost’s production make for an engaging, disturbing evening.

—JUSTIN HAYFORD Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6875, interrobangtheatreproject.com, $17-$32.

Insurrection: Holding History Robert O’Hara’s unrestrained 1996 play began as a graduate thesis project, which may explain the preference for fanciful iconoclasm over boring old theatrical fundamentals. Ron, a doctoral candidate in slave history, shares a psychic link with his mute 189-year-old great-great-grandfather TJ, a former slave—yet somehow Ron doesn’t know until the day before his thesis on Nat Turner is due that TJ participated in Turner’s rebellion. TJ whisks Ron back to his 1831 slave quarters, where Ron remains largely incurious, learning little except that terribly mistreated slaves willingly risked death for freedom. Along the way O’Hara employs all manner of outrageous metatheatricality to great comic effect (his recasting of Turner as a proto-televangelist is exquisite), all well played in director Wardell Julius Clark’s production. But O’Hara’s insights rarely stretch beyond the self-evident. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-883-8830, stagelefttheatre.com, $32, $22 students and seniors.

Jitney Congo Square Theatre’s R intimate staging of August Wilson’s moving drama is an emotionally

resonant ensemble piece. Set in a dumpy storefront in Pittsburgh’s depressed Hill District in 1977, the play concerns a group of men who operate an unlicensed car service since regular taxis will not venture into their ghetto neighborhood.

They are faced with a crisis: the city plans to shut down their station and demolish the neighborhood to make way for new housing that may never get built.

The principal focus is on two characters involved in troubled relationships.

Youngblood (Malcolm Banks), a young driver, is working extra shifts to raise money for a house for himself, his lover, Rena (Ramissa Ma’at), and their two-yearold son, but Rena thinks the often-absent Youngblood is cheating on her. And Becker (Lee Palmer), the head of the jitney operation, is forced to confront the 39-year-old son (Ronald L. Conner) he has not spoken to for 20 years, since the younger man was imprisoned for killing a white woman who falsely accused him of rape. Director Cheryl Lynn Bruce and her superb cast sensitively capture the blend of gritty realism

and elegiac poetry that place Wilson at the forefront of American drama alongside Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-296-1108, congosquaretheatre.org, $37, $22 students.

Montauciel Takes Flight Given R that this world-premiere musical is about the scientific process, it’s fitting

that Lifeline Theatre’s new children’s show utilizes so much lo-fi ingenuity and clever visual trickery to tell its story.

Book writer James E. Grote reimagines the Montgolfier brothers’ real-life invention of the hot air balloon from the perspective of its animal test pilots: an ewe, a duck, and a rooster. (Positive spoiler: they fare better than most four-legged aeronauts mankind has launched toward the sky.) Russell J. Coutinho’s original music and lyrics include a handful of earwormy educational School House Rock-style toe tappers, and director Aileen McGroddy’s cast is universally warm and engaging. And maybe the biggest treat for parents and children alike: it clocks in at a tight hour. —DAN JAKES Sat-Sun 11 AM and 1 PM, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood, 773-761-4477, lifelinetheatre.com, $15.

Writing on the Wall The title of Daphne Watson’s new drama is very literal, and the walls of the McKaw Theater are covered in messages that range from inspirational to silly to unnerving. The patrons of the play’s bar/poetry venue Entre Nous are encouraged to write their thoughts on the walls, and 24-yearold Julian (Chris Clark) uses this as a cry for help when he puts his suicidal feelings into words. Clark’s performance provides nuance that the script lacks, and he’s internalized Julian’s childhood trauma to a point where it’s easy to believe that he’s never recovered from the death of his best friend 16 years ago. The hour-long show is full of big emotional peaks, but clumsy transitions make those moments feel unearned, no matter how many tears the actors are able to summon. —OLIVER SAVA Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 6 PM, McKaw Theater, 1439 W. Jarvis, 773-706-5940, mckayarts. net, $25.

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Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of January 18

Diana Matar, Evidence 1 - The Martyr, on display as part of “Traversing the Past” ò COURTESY OF PURDY HICKS GALLERY

DANCE R

Sleeping Beauty The State Ballet Theatre of Russia presents the Tchaikovsky ballet with original choreography by Marius Petipa. Sun 1/21, 2 and 7 PM, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312-334-7777, harristheaterchicago.org, $25-$85.

COMEDY Chistosos en Chicago This is the Laugh Factory’s first stand-up show entirely en español. Proceeds benefit Enlace Chicago and Puerto Rican Hurricane Relief. Sun 1/21, 9 PM, Laugh Factory, 3175 N. Broadway, 773-327-3175, laughfactory.com, $15.

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Comedy at the Knitting Factory Hannibal Buress started this weekly comedy show in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood at, yep, the Knitting Factory. The torch has since been passed to Chicago comics Will Miles, Kenny DeForest, and Clark Jones, who bring their welcoming showcase back home. Sun 1/21, 7 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, hideoutchicago.com, $10.

Hyde Ya Kids, Hyde Ya Park! The Revival’s winter sketch revue includes a rap battle, a sitcom based on Barack Obama’s law school days, and more.

Through 2/24: Sat 7:30 PM, the Revival, 1160 E. 55th, 866-811-4111, the-revival.com, $20, $10 students.

Janelle James This Brooklyn-based comic, who toured with Chris Rock last year and performed at the vaunted Just for Laughs comedy festival in 2016, steps up to the mike as part of the Tomorrow Never Knows festival. Sat 1/20, 7 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, hideoutchicago.com, $10.

Thanks for Coming Sketch comedy duo Poutine has decked out the stage at CiC Theater to look like a cute little wine party. There’s a snack table, a piano. There’s talk of “help yourself” to something fun-tasting in a jar. Let’s meet the two hosts. According to their name tags, the lanky one with the handlebar moustache is named Tim (Tim Felton), and his partner, whom he keeps cutting off midsentence even though she’s the funny one, is Taylor (Taylor Overstreet).

The game here is that Felton and Over-

street will wander out of view briefly, change name tags, and come back into view as a different paired stereotype from the mulled-wine-and-high-waistedpants crowd. I imagine the individual bits will change one night to the next, but they were almost all good to very good on Saturday. Jorin Garguilo directs. —MAX MALLER Sat 8 PM, CIC Theater, 1422 W. Irving Park, 773-8657731, cictheater.com, $10.

LIT & LECTURES The Chicago Moth StorySlam The fabled storytelling series is R open to all. Prepare a five-minute story on tonight’s theme, “visitors and callers,” and enter your name for a chance to speak to the crowd. Experience not required. Tue 1/23, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, 773-525-2501, lh-st.com, $10.

Alicia Eler Eler reads from her R new book The Selfie Generation, which argues that selfies are “more than an image—they’re a mirror into how we live today.” Thu 1/18, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-7699299, womenandchildrenfirst.com.

screening, the second of four touring programs to arrive in Chicago, spans the decades. Only about half the shorts were available for preview, but all of those were urgent and original; the most ingenious of them is Associations (1975, 6 min.) by British filmmaker John Smith. The film opens on a black screen as a narrator reads from a scholarly work on word-association games and how they relate to the linguistic process; gradually images begin to flicker, keyed to particular words and clustering together to illustrate the word groups we string into sentences. Some of the word pairings are decidedly tongue-in-cheek—a cigarette in an ashtray for but, a donkey for stimulus—and some are completely offthe-wall, similar to the “clang response” by which players in a fast-moving word-association game may simply blurt out rhymes. Among the other filmmakers are Robert Breer, Barbara Hammer, Abigail Child, Richard Myers, and Stephanie Barber. —J.R. JONES 90 min. Fri 1/19, 7 PM. Logan Center for the Arts. F

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The Commuter Liam Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra, who collaborated on the action hit Non-Stop (2014), reunite for this misbegotten thriller about extortion and murder on a New York commuter train. As in the earlier movie, Neeson plays a troubled ex-cop who’s forced to meet the impossible demands of mysterious villains, pronto, or people will die. Vera Farmiga is the femme fatale who pressures Neeson to find and kill another passenger, a federal witness in a corruption case, though she delivers most of her lines offscreen, haranguing the hero by cell phone. The film is hobbled by sloppy camera work, ludicrous fight scenes, hairbreadth escapes, and altogether too many suspects. With Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth McGovern, and Sam Neill. —ANDREA GRONVALL PG-13, 104 min. For listings visit chicagoreader.com/movies.

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VISUAL ART Designers With Character An exhibit of contemporary graphic design in Spain featuring the work of typographers Marta Cerdà Alimbau, Andreu Balius, Alex Trochut, and more. Through 1/20.

Thu 9 AM-7 PM, Fri 9 AM-5 PM, Sat 9AM-1 PM. Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio, 312-335-1996, chicago.cervantes.es.

Judith Dawn: An Awakened Artist The Awakenings Foundation, which showcases pieces by survivors of sexual assault, commemorates the late artist, its first such exhibitor, with a show of her watercolors. Opening reception Thu 1/18, 5:30 PM. Through 4/1. Tue-Fri 10 AM-4 PM. Awakenings Foundation Gallery, 4001 N. Ravenswood, 773-904-8217, awakeningsfoundation.net.

Traversing the Past Adam Golfer, Diana Matar, and Hrvoje Slovenc share their families’ lineage through photos, particularly ones taken during times of political turmoil. Opening reception Thu 1/18, 5 PM. Through 4/1/18. Mon-Sat 10 AM-5 PM (Thu till 8 PM), Sun noon-5 PM. Museum of Contemporary Photography, 600 S. Michigan, 312-663-5554, mocp.org.

MOVIES More at chicagoreader.com/movies NEW REVIEWS

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Associations The experimental film distributor Canyon Cinema celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017, and this retrospective 16-millimeter

Beuys Beuys Among the most prominent conceptual artists of the postwar era, Joseph Beuys nurtured a radical vision of democracy, believing that thought equaled sculpture and therefore any self-determined person could be an artist. For this 2017 documentary on the German provocateur (who died in 1986), director Andres Veiel takes an unconventional approach: 95 percent of the material is archival. With no narrator, no explanatory text, and only minimal background information from a few talking heads, the viewer is mostly left alone to interpret Beuys, as were audiences of his early performances. The most playful perhaps is I Like America and America Likes Me (1974), in which Beuys confined himself to a room with a nipping coyote and a copy of the Wall Street Journal (the coyote urinated on the paper). “Do you want to have a revolution without laughter?” Beuys once asked. ”I want to get my money’s worth out of this revolution!” In English and subtitled German. —ANDREA GRONVALL 107 min.

Sat 1/20, 3 PM, and Tue 1/23, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center.

The Final Year Produced by HBO, this documentary from Greg Barker (Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden) focuses on President Obama’s much-derided foreing policy team during the last year of his presidency.

It’s a tightly controlled account that still feels like the inside dope—the sort of thing the administration orchestrated beautifully—and the arbitrary time frame forces Barker into a ceaseless chronology of foreign trips that frustrates any serious consideration of the team’s successes (in Cuba and Iran) or failures (in Syria). Along the way we’re reintroduced to the unbearably dour secretary of state, John Kerry; the unbearably passionate U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power; and other Obama true believers, the most devoted of which, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, keeps insisting that Donald Trump can’t win the presidency. After the election, Rhodes argues that Obama’s smaller gestures, such as his healing visits to Laos and Hiroshima, will pay off handsomely in the long run, though they’re the sort of diplomacy Trump can µ

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Mon,Tue,Thu: 3:30,5:30,7:30 Wed: 3:30,5:30,9:40 3733 N. SOUTHPORT AVE. CHICAGO, IL 60613 (773) 871-6607 online at www.musicboxtheatre.com

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 5

AGENDA

B obliterate with a tweet before you’ve had your eggs. —J.R. JONES 89 min. Landmark’s Century Centre.

Ginger Snaps Teenage sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are inseparable outcasts in suburbia, obsessed with committing suicide together, but then a werewolf attacks Ginger on the night of her first menstruation.

The puberty metaphor is unsubtle and familiar from horror films with a male perspective, but this 2000 Canadian feature from screenwriter Karen Walton and director John Fawcett carves out a new space for girls in the genre, smashing its long-standing binary of amoral sluts and virginal “last girls” for more complex protagonists who talk and act like real teenagers. Ginger sprouts body hair and a tail, her sex drive growing with her blood lust, but her fear of adulthood and of her own changing body make her experience relatable. The story is told from Brigitte’s point of view, which highlights the pain of a younger sibling as an older one changes. The sharp feminist narrative makes up for the admirable but underwhelming werewolf makeup and other practical effects. —LEAH PICKETT 108 min. 35mm. Thu 1/25, 9:30 PM. Univ. of Chicago Doc Films.

Mom and Dad A virus spread R through radio and video static impels parents to murder

their children in this brilliant horror comedy from writer-director Brian Taylor (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance). Nicolas Cage stars as a depressed dad in Anywhere, USA, daydreaming about his more licentious years, and Selma Blair plays his wife, a stay-at-home mom who regrets having given up her flashy corporate job; when the virus strikes, the couple begin scheming against their teenage daughter (Anne Winters) and rambunctious ten-year-old son (Zackary Arthur).

Taylor revels in the bad taste of his high-concept premise—what if the adrenaline enabling parents to lift cars off their children worked in reverse?—though he wisely leaves some of the gore to the imagination.

Cage and Blair, both giving their best performances in years, revel in the black comedy and social satire while also giving emotional weight to the parents’ resentment, toward the kids and each other. —LEAH PICKETT R, 123 min. Fri 1/19-Thu 1/25.

Facets Cinematheque.

My Friend Dahmer Adapted from a graphic novel by Derf Backderf, this arty docudrama considers the life of cannibalistic serial killer Jeffrey

Dahmer when he was an awkward adolescent in late-70s suburban Ohio. Dahmer is played by former Disney Channel star Ross Lynch, and writer-director Marc Meyers seems to relish the perverse spectacle of this fresh-faced performer cast as a budding psychopath.

The film doesn’t provide much psychological insight into the young Dahmer; instead it raises open-ended questions about the nature of exploitation and what turns a human being into a monster. A major plot development concerns a group of smart-aleck classmates who make Dahmer their mascot, and in their sick fascination with him they become stand-ins for the audience.

With Anne Heche. —BEN SACHS R, 107 min. Fri 1/19, 8:15 PM; Sat 1/20, 8:15 PM; Sun 1/21, 5 PM; Tue 1/23, 8:15 PM; Wed 1/24, 6 PM; and Thu 1/25, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center.

Proud Mary Taraji P. Henson does her best to breathe life into this generic actioner, bringing warmth and humor to the underwritten title role. The top assassin for a Boston organized crime family, Mary develops a maternal interest in the 13-year-old son of a man she’s killed, taking the boy in and protecting him from thugs who want him dead. She also sets off

Mom and Dad a gang war by killing the head of a rival family, and when her superiors find out, they send another assassin after her. Director Babak Najafi (London Has Fallen) fails to generate any suspense—even the shoot-outs lack excitement—and the drama between Mary and her young charge feels canned. With Danny Glover, Billy Brown, and Rade Šerbedžija. —BEN SACHS R, 89 min. For listings visit chicagoreader. com/movies.

Small Town Crime Respected character actor John Hawkes gets a rare opportunity to play the hero, bouncing through this pulpy mystery like James Cagney in his prime.

His character, a small-town cop, has been thrown off the force after his drunkenness on the job cost another officer his life; sober now and eager to redeem himself, he rescues a young woman who’s been assaulted and left on the roadside,

and after she dies of her injuries, he begins to investigate. The movie was written and directed by brothers Ian and Eshom Nelms, who must have thumbed through a few Elmore Leonard paperbacks in their day; their movie offers a similar mix of cagey plotting, easygoing character comedy, and punchy violence.

With Anthony Anderson, Robert Forster, and Octavia Spencer, who also served as executive producer.

—J.R. JONES R, 91 min. Fri 1/19-Thu 1/25. Facets Cinematheque.

12 Strong Conventional war movies about our ongoing engagement in Afghanistan are rare, probably because so few stories from the conflict can be framed as victories.

This one, which producer Jerry Bruckheimer adapted from Doug Stanton’s book Horse Soldiers, comes from the opening days of the war, just after the September 11 terror attacks, when U.S. special forces set

out to recapture the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif from the Taliban.

Strapping lad Chris Hemsworth stars as the captain of the unit, who has studied the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan and leads his men through the mountains on horseback; Michael Shannon is his stone-faced second-in-command, and the wisecracking grunts include Michael Peña and Trevante Rhodes. The action, combining 19th-century cavalry tactics with 21st-century air strikes, is inherently interesting, and Bruckheimer stages it well; unfortunately the movie’s central philosophical conflict, between the captain and an Afghan warlord, features dialogue like “Your mission will fail because you fear death.” Nicolai Fuglsig directed; with William Fichtner and Fahim Fazli. —J.R. JONES R, 130 min.

Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero Showplace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings.

SPECIAL EVENTS An Evening With Judy Hoffman Hoffman, a founder of Kartemquin Films, screens and discusses clips from her work with filmmaker Tracye Matthews and curator Jacqueline Stewart. Thu 1/25, 7 PM. Harper Theater. F v

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6 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

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CITY LIFE Chicagoans

Gum is a little bit science and a little bit art. It’s a lot of formulating and reiterating and working with consumers. What people go to gum and mints for is freshening or enjoyment, but how that’s delivered across the world is very different.

For example, in the U.S., a lot of consumers associate menthol with cough drops; we think of it as medicinal. For consumers in China, it’s a more appealing taste. Whereas wintergreen tends to be really popu-

The candy maker Stacey Espinosa, 31, global R&D senior manager for new benefits and mints, Mars Wrigley Confectionery

lar in the U.S., but outside of the U.S. it’s a very polarizing flavor.

I do chew bubble gum, every day.

I’m a really good bubble blower. I’m always trying to see how big I can get the next bubble. Which is great, ’cause when I’m in meetings, it’s permissible to do that. The trick is, if you get gum in your hair, you can ice it, and that helps get it out. It happens to me a lot more than you would anticipate for a 31-year-old.

—AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD “When people hear about my job, they often ask me, ‘Is there really candy everywhere?’ And the reality is yes,” Espinosa says. ò MATT SCHWERIN

I’M A BIG fruity confections fan.

When I was about three, we got our first bubble-gum machine, one of those vintage ones with the red-andblack stand. It was supposed to be a present for my brother and me, but I took full control. We got cartons of bubble gum with it, and there’s a video of my parents threatening to put me in time-out on Christmas morning for eating the bubble gum.

That gumball machine now sits at my desk.

It wasn’t till I was older that I looked around and was like, “Oh, people don’t eat candy the way I eat candy.” I just had it on me all the time. I remember once I was taking

a test, and I started freaking out because I couldn’t press a button down on my calculator, and it was because I had sugar crystals stuck in the little button.

When I was in high school, my brother told me that candy companies hired chemical engineers. I still remember where I was in our house when he told me, because it was legitimately like a lightning bolt. I was like, “That’s my path.

This is what I’m meant for. Making candy is worth figuring hard things out.”

So I majored in chemical engineering. On the first day, the professor asked everyone why they had

chosen chemical engineering, and I said, “I want to make candy.” And then years later, when I got the call to work for Wrigley—you know the Miss America cry, where she’s so excited and she can’t believe it? That’s what it felt like.

I work in product development— innovation strategy and new product innovation. Pretty much making candy. It’s as awesome as you think it is. When people hear about my job, they often ask me, “Is there really candy everywhere?” And the reality is yes. Some of it is what you see on store shelves, and some of it is what our developers are innovating and tweaking.

Ñ Keep up to date on the go at chicagoreader.com/agenda.

SURE THINGS THURSDAY 18

FRIDAY 19

SATURDAY 20

SUNDAY 21

MONDAY 22

TUESDAY 23

WEDNESDAY 24

¸ Living Light Evanston-based painter and multimedia artist Hunter Cole works with the microscopic medium of bioluminescent bacteria. Her exhibit closes in just one week; few chances remain to be blinded by science. Noon-6 PM, Arc Gallery, 2156 N. Damen, arcgallery. org. F

4 Wham City Comedy x Helltrap Nightmare The absurdist sketch comedy group Wham City Comedy, whose mock infomercials can be seen on Adult Swim, performs on a double bill with Sarah Sherman’s raunchy variety show Helltrap Nightmare.

Thu 1/18, 7 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, hideoutchicago. com, $12.

J Ma rch to the Polls In advance of upcoming elections, women and their allies are invited to march in support of equal pay, access to reproductive health care, affordable child care, and other issues. 11 AM, Columbus at Congress, womens121marchonchicago.org. F

Ô Concrete, Pa per, and Plasti c Visual artist Brian Dettmer flies in from New York to join locals Anthony Adcock and Michael Dinges for the close of “Concrete, Paper, and Plastic,” an exhibit of work in those three mediums. Aron Packer Projects, 213 W. Institute, packergallery.com. F

× Fe rment ati on D i nner Logan Square restaurant Daisies incorporates fermented ingredients and local produce into each of the five courses on offer at this prix fixe meal. Dishes include beet kombucha and a chocolate ice cream float. 7:30 PM, Daisies, 2523 N. Milwaukee, daisieschicago.com, $65.

| Laura Engelste in The author’s latest book, Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914-1921, chronicles the revolution that occurred in Russia after World War I. 6 PM, Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn, semcoop.com. F

· Vi rgin Daiquiri This female ensemble, made up of top Chicago talent, performs fast-paced improv. The group has been together for more than ten years. 8 PM, iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, improv. com. F

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 7

Read Ben Joravsky’s columns throughout the week at chicagoreader.com.

CITY LIFE 200 South Wacker Drive, already home to one TIF beneficiary, Ziegler financial services

POLITICS

Hastening the exodus

As the mayor denies driving African-Americans out of the city, another TIF deal benefits a downtown building instead of neighborhoods in need.

By BEN JORAVSKY

W

hen Mayor Emanuel recently returned from vacation to face questions about Chris Kennedy’s criticism that he’s whitening Chicago, he offered a response straight out of the book of Daley.

That is, the original Mayor Daley—Richard J., who ruled this city from 1955 to 1976.

When nettlesome independents dared to criticize the Boss, he was known to respond “How many trees have they planted?”

Mayor Rahm put his own spin on Daley’s refrain. “It’s easy to cast blame and point fingers,” Emanuel told reporters. “Where are the ideas? Where are the solutions?”

8 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

Well, since you asked, Mr. Mayor . . .

If you really want to try to stop the exodus of poor black people from Chicago—which has lost 56,000 African-Americans since 2010 on top of about 180,000 over the decade prior to that—just stop doing what you’re doing. Since what you’re doing is clearly fueling the flight.

And that brings me to a couple of things that took place in City Council committee meetings on January 12.

But first, let me remind you of what Kennedy, a Democratic candidate for governor, said: “I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being

implemented by the city administration, and I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes.”

In the aftermath, Kennedy’s been hammered by Rahm and other mover and shakers who are shocked—horrified, I tell you—that anyone might suggest race plays in a role in City Hall policies.

My position is—duh, of course Rahm’s policies are intended to force out the poor. Inherited from both Mayors Daley, they’re intended to fuel gentrification and force the poor to flee.

The mayor accomplishes this in two easy steps. First, stop funding programs that benefit poor people, such as neighborhood schools in poor communities, so they have no compelling reason to stay. Second, hike up property taxes so Chicago’s too expensive for them to stay even if they want to.

That brings me to the council committee meetings on January 12. Let’s start with one of my favorite topics, the tax increment financing program.

That’s the program, funded by property taxes, intended to eradicate blight in lowincome communities. But because of loopholes in the law, the TIF money largely goes to gentrifying communities. Thus, in one swoop, the TIF program helps a mayor can make Chicago more expensive and less desirable for poor people. Consider it a twofer in the war to move poverty.

On Friday the mayor got the finance committee to approve a $5.5 million TIF handout to Presence Health, the state’s largest Catholic health system. Presence will use the money to move its headquarters to an upscale skyscraper at 200 S. Wacker.

There are several reasons to oppose the Presence deal that have nothing to do with TIFs. For one, Presence has a strict antiabortion policy at its hospitals and clinics.

So effectively, Mayor Rahm, who’s ostensibly pro-choice, is using his clout to subsidize an anti-choice facility. (And you thought Governor Rauner, with his HB 40 abortion-bill flip-flops was wishy-washy on reproductive rights.)

Now, I realize that in the world of TIF handouts, $5.5 million is relatively small potatoes.

After all, the mayor set aside $55 million in TIF money to subsidize a DePaul basketball arena

and Marriott hotel . . . (Actually, the money wound up going to Navy Pier, but I digress.)

Still, the Presence deal violates pretty much all of the principles of the TIF program. The money is going to a business in a high-end building on a flourishing Loop block that’s definitely not blighted.

In fact, this is the second TIF handout the city has given to a tenant in this very tower.

In 2007, Mayor Richard M. Daley got the City Council to fork over $2.4 million in TIF funds to help Ziegler financial services move to 200 South Wacker Drive. That’s almost $8 million right there.

In contrast, the communities of Roseland, Woodlawn, and Austin received about $4.5 million in TIF money last year. So one upscale building in a flourishing downtown community has received more “anti-poverty” aid than three underserved south- and west-side communities. Please tell me how this is fair.

TIF money is diverted from taxing bodies including the Chicago Public Schools, which could use it to fund programs that, you know, might encourage poor people to stick around town. And that brings me to the second meeting that took place on Friday at City Hall, an education committee hearing on the deplorable underfunding of special education in CPS. The hearing was held after years of pressure by teachers, parents, students, and the city’s progressive aldermen. Lo and behold, about an hour before the meeting, CPS officials announced they’d discovered $2.6 million to fund hiring 56 special-education employees.

Isn’t that something? It took years of protests before the mayor scraped up $2.6 million to help the poorest, most vulnerable children in the city. But in a heartbeat he has $5.5 million to help Presence move into a swank downtown skyscraper.

CPS officials said they suddenly freed up the $2.6 million after refinancing debt.

I think we can all agree that they could have just as easily have found that $2.6 million years ago. Unless underfunding special education is just another way for Rahm to basically tell low-income families to move to Harvey or Gary or Iowa. Just get out of Chicago.

There’s an outside chance that aldermen, pressured by pro-choice activists, will vote down or at least delay giving Presence the TIF handout. But the $2.6 million for special education? That’s too little, too late for the low-income kids of Chicago—once again. v

v @joravben

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ò ROBERT A DAVIS

CITY LIFE

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS

Send in the guards?

A call for private security officers in Ukrainian Village spurs a neighborhood discussion of crime and racial profiling.

By JOHN GREENFIELD

W

hen Jill Hopkins saw a post on the Facebook discussion group Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Watch about a proposal to hire private security guards to patrol a portion of the neighborhood in cooperation with the Chicago Police Department, it raised red flags. Host of the talk show Morning AMp on WBEZ’s sister station, Vocalo, Hopkins lived in Ukrainian Village in the 2000s, and she regularly checks the neighborhood watch group, along with similar pages in a few other communities, as part of the research for her broadcast.

The UVNW was started several years ago to discuss safety- and crime-related topics, mainly in the area bounded by Grand, Ashland, Division, and Western. It’s frequently updated with info from CPD on recent local crimes, and members are encouraged to post about suspicious or illegal activity. Residents also sometimes comment about people whom they feel are loitering in the area with bad intent. References to African-American and Latino youth are common.

“The Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Watch page is racist, reactionary, and classist,” Hopkins wrote on January 3 in a post

on her personal Facebook page that has since been shared several times by others. “If you’re a person with dark skin in UKV, keep safe. You’re a suspect to your neighbors.”

Hopkins shared a screenshot of a January 2 post on the UVNW group by a resident named Jeff Steinberg in which he announced an idea to address rising levels of violent crime in the neighborhood. Steinberg, 36, is a former Arlington Heights resident and cofounder of SO Holdings LLC, a real estate development company specializing in buying distressed properties, including short sales and foreclosures.

In his post Steinberg said he’s in talks with a private security company about possibly hiring guards to patrol the three-blocksquare area bordered by Grand, Damen, Chicago, and Paulina, where he resides, at night.

He indicated that he plans to coordinate with the Chicago Grand Neighbors Association, the local aldermen, and the police department. Since the specifics of the proposal are still being worked out, it’s not clear whether the guards would be off-duty police officers or civilians, or whether they would carry firearms. Steinberg asked neighbors who might be interested in chipping in to cover the cost of the service to stay tuned for details.

“They want George Zimmermans running around,” Hopkins wrote on her own page, referring to the neighborhood watch coordinator who fatally shot African-American teen Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012. “They’re going to get one of us killed.”

Hopkins, who’s black, has a multifaceted perspective on issues of crime, law enforcement, and racial profiling. She grew up in South Shore, and has an aunt and a cousin who’ve worked as Chicago police officers.

“They’re great,” she says. “They did their jobs well. I’m not necessarily anti-cop—I’m anti-police misconduct and police violence.”

But she says she’s also had a number of negative experiences with police and profiling. About three years ago Hopkins and her husband, Aaron Olewnik, who’s white, heard a “ruckus” outside their house in Humboldt Park as police looked for a suspect in the gangway. When they went outside, she says, the officers addressed her spouse as “Sir” but ignored her, even though they were both asking the same questions. “You can never tell if it’s a racial thing or a gender thing, so I default to both.”

Hopkins adds that at least a few times a year she experiences racial profiling at stores. “It always seems to happen right

before Aaron shows up. Security certainly has an eye on me, or I’m held up at the front counter while he’s parking the car. And then he walks in and suddenly everything’s fine.”

And Hopkins’s family has been profoundly impacted by violent crime. In summer 2016 her younger brother, who’s now 28 and was working for UPS at the time, was shot in the back on the southeast side, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. “I believe it was a gang initiation thing and my brother was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she says.

Even then, though, she adds, the responding officers treated her brother like he was a criminal, not the victim: “They were extraordinarily rude. He’s a young man bleeding out on the sidewalk—treat him with some respect and empathy.” She may have police officers in her family, but she says that as a result of these experiences she tries to keep her interactions with police to a minimum.

Crime is less common in West Town, the community area that contains Ukrainian Village, than in many other parts of Chicago.

But by all accounts, incidents of burglaries, muggings, shootings, and other crimes have been on the rise in the area in recent years.

In August 2017, after four carjackings took place in the community within the space of a few days, neighborhood groups hosted a community meeting with the 12th District police captain and local aldermen Joe Moreno (First) and Brian Hopkins (Second, no relation to Jill), as well as organizing a letter-writing campaign “demanding urgent action on crime.” According to a report by DNAinfo’s Alisa Hauser, more than 100 people attended the hearing. Many blamed the crime spike on the 2012 consolidation of the 12th and 13th Districts and the closure of the 13th District’s Wood Street police station, which reduced the number of officers in the area from more than 500 to 339 as of August. During the meeting an East Village Association board member, citing CPD statistics, said carjackings and robberies in the 12th District were up more than 60 percent compared to 2016.

West Town residents were particularly shocked last November when a robber intentionally shot 69-year-old Silvia Berger in the knee after snatching her purse in an alley on the 1900 block of West Erie. Police statistics for the first week of 2018 also show increases in the numbers of robberies, aggravated batteries, and burglaries compared to the same period last year.

It’s not uncommon for private security guards to be hired to patrol Chicago J

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 9

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neighborhoods and business strips where there are concerns about crime. Gold Coast residents have paid for private guards, and in Lakeview the Southport Community Alliance, a neighborhood group that includes Cubs manager Theo Epstein, has retained a security company to patrol the area. The University of Chicago’s campus police have supplemented the CPD presence in Hyde Park for decades, and in recent years private guards have been stationed along the increasingly vibrant 53rd Street retail corridor. Lately Alderman Hopkins has been pushing for patrols of Wicker Park and Bucktown business strips.

Such initiatives aren’t without controversy. In addition to the racial profiling issue, some residents argue that outsourcing crime prevention lets the CPD off the hook for maintaining public safety and encourages further reductions in the police force. Others maintain that when affluent citizens hire private patrols, crime problems are pushed into less fortunate areas and security becomes a luxury item.

The CPD doesn’t provide recommendations or guidance on private security matters, but spokesman Anthony Guglielmi outlined the laws governing the industry. “Off-duty officers [working as private guards] have powers of arrest, while licensed security guards can provide heightened visibility and patrol functions and detain subjects while police arrive,” he said.

Steinberg declined to talk about his plan on the record, citing fear of a backlash. The day after we discussed this matter, I was blocked from the Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Watch group. (The UVNW policy page states that reporters may not quote from comments on discussion threads without permission from the original poster.

Steinberg didn’t grant it, so I have paraphrased parts of the discussion.)

Posts on Steinberg’s thread were split fairly evenly for and against his idea. I contacted ten participants via Facebook to get approval to include them in the article, including five people who voiced opposition and five who expressed support. All of the opponents granted permission, but only one commenter who spoke positively about Steinberg’s idea responded.

Dan Levengood, an advertising professional who’s lived in Ukrainian Village for about six years, commented that he believes hiring guards from a for-profit company to patrol the area is a terrible idea, and as soon

as there’s a petition against it, he’s ready to sign. He sarcastically proposed that the next step should be building a wall around the neighborhood to prevent outsiders from entering at all, and encouraging all neighbors to carry special ID cards.

Levengood later told me that he agrees that the rise in crime in the area is alarming.

He attributed the uptick in package thefts, muggings, and carjackings to the neighborhood becoming increasingly affluent. “I think people tend to hit areas where there is wealth,” he said. “I want to be safe, but I don’t want to live in a police state. Police already have a hard time using the power they have in a respectful way.”

Katarzyna Z Walters-Myers, who’s lived in Ukrainian Village for five years, argued on the thread that Steinberg’s proposal to have security guards bankrolled by residents who have sufficient disposable income to do so smacked of elitism. Although she said that she had been robbed at her workplace and assaulted while walking on Chicago Avenue, she added that more guns on the street wouldn’t make her feel safer. Instead, she proposed investing in more street lights and more reliable bus service, plus social programs that reduce the need for people to turn to crime, such as addiction counseling, affordable housing, youth mentoring, and quality public education.

Jim Ziniel, who works at a financial technology company and has lived in the area for eight years, agreed that it’s important to address the underlying societal issues behind the crime wave. But he credited Steinberg with proactively coming forward with a new idea that could improve safety.

Jill Hopkins posted on the forum to ask if Steinberg, who’s white, understands that black and brown residents not only have to worry about street crime like everyone else, but also have to be concerned about being harmed by authority figures with guns, who often go unpunished for killing unarmed African-Americans. “That’s another thing on my plate, worrying about being shot because some people are afraid of my ethnicity,” she later told me. She added that she found it upsetting that many people on the forum didn’t seem willing to acknowledge that issue.

Steinberg responded by stating that his proposal didn’t have racial overtones, since crime affects people of all backgrounds. He added that didn’t appreciate Hopkins implying that the neighborhood patrol would involve racial profiling when its real purpose would be to

make the streets safe for everyone.

Lauren Do, an African-American who works as a patient coordinator and lives in the proposed patrol area, countered that it’s crucial to include race in the discussion, adding that it was wrong of Steinberg to dismiss Hopkins’s concerns.

Throughout the discussion, when opponents critiqued Steinberg’s plan, he responded that people who didn’t support hiring security guards weren’t obliged to help pay for them.

But Mike Warne, a paramedic who moonlights as a bartender and lives near Augusta and Western, argued that the neighborhood patrol issue isn’t that simple, since it will impact people’s lives whether they like it or not. As the son of a black mother and white father, he said he found it chilling that there was a possibility that he could be pegged by guards as a criminal due to his phenotype, and feared things would be much worse for African-Americans with darker complexions.

Warne later told me that, due to his light skin tone and eye color, it’s fairly common for people at his bar or on el trains to assume he’s not black and make racist comments about African-Americans in his presence.

On the other hand, like Hopkins, he says he sometimes gets followed around in stores due to his appearance, and once someone even called the cops on him while he was walking his dog.

On another occasion he went to pick up a vacuum cleaner from a Craigslist ad, parked his car outside the seller’s apartment, and called the man. “I shit you not, he told me to wait a minute and be careful because there was a suspicious-looking black guy in a car outside of his place. I asked him what kind of car and he described my car. I told him it was me. And I still got the vacuum!”

Stories like these illustrate that while racial profiling can be a largely invisible phenomenon to white folks, it’s a fact of life—and a potential source of physical violence—for many Chicagoans of color. As such, if Steinberg and other neighbors want to move forward with hiring security guards, it will be crucial for residents who don’t have to worry about profiling to listen to those who do and be sensitive to their real concerns about the potential for the patrol to do more harm than good. So far that hasn’t happened. v

John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago. v @greenfieldjohn

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Please call Cindy Taylor at 1-888-275-0296 JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 11

Trading up

Women are forging a space of their own in Chicago’s $100 billion manufacturing industry.

By LIBBY BERRY Photos BY OLIVIA OBINEME

rlena Williams’s evenings off work are filled with the sound of trains rumbling past the trailer where she lives with her daughter in the south suburb of Blue Island. The 45-year-old’s home, nestled within a Cook County forest preserve, abuts a transportation yard that services companies carrying, among other things, goods manufactured by workers like her—one of only about 150 female members of Chicago’s Pipefitters Local 597. An estimated $58 billion worth of exports travels out from Chicago annually, lumbering along tracks extending across the country.

The hum of daily train traffic, so familiar to Williams, symbolizes Chicago’s production potential, but the former graphic designer never imagined that she could find her place in the city’s manufacturing industry. That is,

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12 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

until she was introduced to all the things a career in the trades could offer an unfulfilled office worker like herself who was drawn like a moth to the flame of a welding torch.

“When I first was introduced to welding, I was just shocked,” Williams says. A push eight years ago from Chicago Women in Trades, a local nonprofit founded in 1981, pointed her in a new professional direction. She recalls thinking at the time, This is what I’ve been looking for all my life.

According to a 2015 industry-wide audit conducted by accounting giant Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, a talent development organization, nearly 3.4 million manufacturing jobs will become available by 2025 as the baby boomer generation retires and the economy continues to grow. But more than half of those jobs, around two million, will

remain unfilled due to a disparity between the skills employers demand and a lack of access to technical training for potential workers.

While this dynamic may be alarming, it’s certainly nothing new—this skills gap goes back decades, and local groups have long sought a way to address the growing divide.

The Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) has been minding the skills gap for more than 30 years, sensing an enormous opportunity to help low-income Chicagoans compete for employment in the trades. The development agency started its first free training program in 1985. By many indicators, JARC’s Careers in Manufacturing Program has been a success. Ninety percent of people who complete the program—70 percent of whom are people of color—have secured full-time employment upon graduation. But for nearly

25 years, Careers in Manufacturing exhibited a glaring demographic gap: very few women.

JARC’s executive vice president Regan Brewer Johnson says she doesn’t recall any women in training when she joined the organization as a program coordinator in 2008. She says it was surprising considering a manufacturing job is ideal for women seeking economic selfsufficiency or single mothers who need to support a family, due to the high starting wages and access to good benefits such as health care and retirement plans. After receiving a grant from the Eleanor Foundation, now folded into the Chicago Foundation for Women, JARC launched its Women in Manufacturing Program in 2009 to provide additional support to women looking to enter the field. The group hosts parenting and financial literacy sessions, organizes female alumni events for

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Arlena Williams, a welder and one of only about 150 female members of Chicago’s Pipefitters Local 597, in front of a recent worksite

Regan Brewer Johnson, executive vice president of the Jane Addams Resource Corporation, which administers the Women in Manufacturing Program

networking, and allows working mothers more flexibility in their training schedule.

“We’ve been much more intentional about marketing to women,” Brewer Johnson says.

“A lot of times just putting a woman on a flyer or putting the name ‘Women in Manufacturing Program’ [on it] attracts women and they think, ‘OK, this is something that I could do,’ as opposed to seeing a flyer with a dude on it and you’re like, ‘Well . . . that’s not really for me.’”

Indeed, it was a woman who got Williams, a mother of three, in the door—she says she learned about the opportunity from a fellow female welder.

Eight years after Brewer Johnson helped launch the program, women now make up nearly 20 percent of the enrollment of the Careers in Manufacturing Program. Seventeen aspiring female trade workers were in job

Jayne Vellinga, executive director of Chicago Women in Trades

training at the organization’s Ravenswood and Austin facilities last year; JARC expects to raise that number to 23 this year.

On a weekday morning last July, the Ravenswood facility buzzed with the sound of heavy machinery slicing across shiny metal, which welders then melt down, faces hidden behind protective masks, as acetylene torches flicker on and off. The space is structured to simulate a real work environment; participants must clock in before reporting to their stations and wear necessary safety gear.

Williams’s desire to revisit her welding skills while she was in between jobs brought her to JARC, but she says that she wasn’t always encouraged to explore a career in the trades. Although she showed interest in shop classes in high school as she grew up on the southeast side, she was told that jobs in the

field were being phased out, so she set her sights on a different dream. She says she loved the creative element of her career as a graphic designer but hated being cooped up in an office environment working for a company that made sprayers.

“I was just miserable, and everything just seemed to come too easy,” Williams says.

“There was no challenge.” Once she started welding, she says, she became excited to go to work every day. Changing job sites, from hospitals to manufacturing plants, and the profession’s varied tasks such as demolition and installation layout push her to think creatively. Her only regret is that she wasn’t exposed to her true calling earlier in life.

“Welding is definitely one of those professions that they don’t tell girls about in school,” she says. “People that you look up to, your coun-

selor and your teachers, they’re looking at you like, ‘No, you don’t want to do that. You wanna be a teacher or you wanna try to be a doctor.’”

These cultural biases sometimes seep into systemic hiring practices that have historically created barriers for women and people of color looking to enter the trades, says Jayne Vellinga, the executive director of JARC partner Chicago Women in Trades (CWIT). Not that there haven’t been attempts at reform. The 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, for instance, required government-funded construction projects to hire women. But allegations of discrimination persisted into the 1990s, when, with the approval of the union representing them, female maintenance workers in Chicago were given reduced hours while most men continued to work a full week.

In 2010, with the Great Recession in full swing, a committee set up to hire and retain female union carpenters in Chicago had its funding cut, further provoking charges that women were being overlooked for a dwindling number of available union jobs. Postrecession, women still represent less than 3 percent of the skilled labor workforce of more than 200,000 in Illinois, and only around 30 percent nationwide—and charges of bias aren’t limited to the trades. Last fall, the Service J

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 13

JARC’s Ravenswood facility is structured to simulate a real work environment; participants must clock in before reporting to their stations and wear necessary safety gear.

continued from 13

Employees International Union Local 1 called on Illinois AFL-CIO president Michael Carrigan to apologize for what the SEIU leaders called a “sexist mind-set toward women” after Carrigan criticized a female consultant who’d worked with the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Despite women’s mixed history with integrating into a traditionally masculine, unionheavy workforce, Vellinga says that of the 70 percent of graduates of the CWIT construction program who go on to cement careers in the field, “a vast majority” have been placed in union apprenticeships. However, she adds, some pathways to membership are more fruitful than others.

“As a rule of thumb, the more objective [the selection] process is, the more fair it is for women and people of color,” she says. While women do well on tests measuring technical

14 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

skills, Vellinga explains, they’re more likely to be weeded out during interviews as the potential for implicit bias increases. Women can also run into trouble when attempting to obtain a letter of sponsorship from a contractor—a common practice in seeking union membership—as some contractors are still hesitant to hire women, she adds.

The administrators of Careers in Manufacturing—which is up and running in a second location in the west-side Austin neighborhood as of August 2017—lean on groups influential among the trades, such as CWIT, for unionrelated resources and assistance. “CWIT will let us know like, ‘Hey, this union is opening up. They’re taking applications this Saturday.

Send your people,’ ” Brewer Johnson says.

“That’s how we’ll send our folks over.”

Reflecting on her own union membership

in Pipefitters Local 597, Williams says that the same gender dynamics surface on the job and in the hall. Her union has around 5,000 members, but she estimates that only 3 percent are women. According to Vellinga, women’s participation in construction apprenticeships averages around 6 percent.

Such a male-dominated setting can be a culture shock to some women, Williams says, and she’s heard her fair share of horror stories involving crude jokes in the workplace from female colleagues. Union jobs are built on relationships, she says, so if a hostile work environment leaves a woman with a poor reputa-

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tion, albeit an unfair one, she may be blacklisted and lose future employment opportunities.

Despite potential concerns about logging a complaint, nearly 4,000 sexual harassment charges were filed by manufacturing workers between 2005 and 2015 nationwide, according to a report from the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. Using data from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the government body responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace, the Center for American Progress lists the manufacturing industry as the field with the third-highest number of claims, following accomodation and food services and retail trade. While the analysis doesn’t break down harassment complaints by gender in each individual industry, reports filed by women make up 80 percent of the sample. Data isn’t readily available on those who identify as gender nonconforming, but the group notes that charges have been filed in nearly every industry and that harassment affects a variety of individuals across the labor force.

Even in circumstances when the treatment of women doesn’t reach the point of sexual harassment, those looking to break into the trades may still be left feeling unwelcome in what has traditionally been a sort of boys’ club. “As a woman, there’s always somebody there that’s trying to test you [to see if you’re up to the job],” Williams says. That can make it difficult to trust male coworkers who may

The shop floor buzzes with the sound of heavy machinery slicing across shiny metal, which welders then melt down, faces hidden behind protective masks, as acetylene torches flicker on and off.

be ostensibly offering help at a job site, she says. Exacerbating the problem, Vellinga adds, is that “there are still a lot of contractors out there that aren’t necessarily giving women a fair shake in terms of hiring them or training them on the job once they’re there.” Without the same level of support as their male colleagues guaranteed to them by law, female workers may fall behind the learning curve, deepening inequality in the field.

To combat this problem and to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, feels comfortable in the workplace, members of the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues (among them CWIT) have pushed the Department of Labor to update equal employment opportuni-

ty and affirmative action regulations that had remained static since being enacted in 1978.

Last month, new apprenticeship regulations were finally released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration, adding sexual orientation, disability, age, and genetic information as protected categories for workers. Apprenticeship sponsors also must “post information about how to file complaints of discrimination” and “implement anti-harassment measures, including providing anti-harassment training”—a policy win for tradeswomen nationwide, and what CWIT sees as a step in the right direction.

“Some people are having early 21st century experiences out there, and other people are

reliving 1975,” Vellinga says, encouraging women to fight for their right to work in the trades. “You have to be a good advocate for yourself, you can’t be passive.”

Four years after graduating from JARC, Williams is heeding that advice and encouraging other women to do the same. “I feel like if I love what I do, I shouldn’t allow people to chase me away from my job,” she says. “We often scare ourselves from this environment because it’s predominantly men, but these same things can happen to you at any type of job.”

Brewer Johnson says the industry is learning to embrace its female colleagues. As JARC graduates are placed at different companies, they become advocates for the women who follow in their footsteps. Internally company cultures are shifting, she says, and female manufacturers are walking examples of what opportunities a career in the trades can offer women—and what women bring to the industry in return.

Williams says she loves her job “more than she’s ever loved anything.” It’s given her full medical benefits, as well as the ability to start a savings account and a college fund for her daughter.

“This is the type of feeling I’ve been looking for,” she says—and she’s not letting go. v

v @libbyaberry JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 15

on winning and killing it and success. I’ve always enjoyed shows that dip into more complicated space from time to time. I think people can relate, even if they’re not a comedian, to someone newly single trying to find his way. Whatever you’re going through can be projected onto that empty vessel.

Q&A

Pete Holmes on navigating pop culture post-Weinstein

By STEVE HEISLER

O

n HBO’s Crashing, former Chicago comedian Pete Holmes plays a green stand-up named Pete Holmes (role of a lifetime) who struggles to find his footing after his wife cheats on him. Their divorce leaves Holmes homeless and he resorts to couch surfing. Through a variety of humiliating misadventures he ends up in the company of more established comics such as Sarah Silverman, Artie Lange, and T.J. Miller. They pity Holmes enough to allow him to spend the night, but the naive comic also gives them an opportunity to pump up their own egos by sharing their standup wisdom. Unshackled, Holmes gigs nightly and begins questioning his strict Protestant upbringing. The show’s second season, which began January 14, opens with Holmes, despite his lingering Christian guilt, enjoying a veritable bacchanalia of booze and women at a nightclub called the Hole with some new comedy buddies.

Crashing closely resembles Holmes’s early years in comedy. In 2007, he and his wife divorced after she cheated on him. After moving to New York from Chicago, he performed prolifically while evolving from doofy, self-described “fun dad” to doofy, introspective comic on his way to becoming an atheist. Fittingly, he titled his two comedy albums Impregnated With Wonder (2011) and Nice Try, the Devil (2013). On his seven-year-old podcast You Made It Weird, Holmes talks comedy, sex, and God with comics, actors, musicians, and filmmakers. He hosted The Pete Holmes Show, which aired after Conan on TBS, from October 2013 through June 2014.

Crashing, which is coproduced by Judd Apatow and employs fellow former Chicagoans Beth Stelling and Emily Gordon as writers, held its season-two launch party in town on January 14. We reached Holmes over the phone in his downtown hotel room and asked about stand-up comics playing stand-up comics on TV, the status of his relationship with his ex, and his feelings toward friends in comedy who currently face allegations of misconduct.

16 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

ò JOHN SCIULLI

“I’m interested in the conversation about if we’re allowed to laugh at people who’ve made mistakes,” the creator and star of HBO’s Crashing says.

In the first two episodes of Crashing’s second season, your character appears to be the happiest he’s been in a while, followed by the saddest he’s been, to the point where he has a one-night stand and then hangs around the woman’s apartment alone the rest of the day. What informed the decision to go so big on both ends?

That’s what life feels like to me: really high highs and really low lows.

One of the things the show is about is finding humor and a way to enjoy the low times as well as the high times. When you’re trying to become a comedian, there are so many low points, especially when you’re trying to redefine your life at the same time. I have a lot of people who have just seen the promos and stuff that are like, “I [also] accidentally said ‘I love you’ on a first date.’” People are relating really hard to that level of vulnerability, and I like putting stuff like that under the spotlight. I think a lot of times, especially in American comedy, we tend to shine the light

There are lots of shows in which stand-up comedians play standup comedians, the obvious example being Seinfeld. How does the history of this well-worn conceit affect your approach to telling stories?

A good stand-up has the same goals as pretty much any person, meaning that they want their thoughts and feelings to be validated. Even if you’re a chef or an architect or a homemaker or a school teacher—it doesn’t matter—you still want what you think and what you feel to be heard, appreciated, and understood. That’s one of the reasons why we see some of these shows about stand-ups. As an added bonus it’s always believable for these characters to be funny. It’s not like a pretend reality where there’s a live studio audience or something.

I love those shows, but I’m just saying we’re not making jokes because it’s a TV show, we’re making jokes because comedians make jokes all the time. Even during my real breakup I was making jokes. It’s just part of our DNA. So it’s fun doing scenes with Artie Lange and Rachel Feinstein and Jamie Lee. It’s like, no matter what you’re going through, even something as awkward—and I agree it’s verging on pathetic, hanging out at a hookup’s house, overstaying your welcome—you still make jokes in that tension. That’s one of the reasons why we see so many shows about stand-up and probably will for a while.

On the show you become friends with Leif, the free spirit your wife cheats on you with. And before that you have zero history with him. So when writing the character of Leif, how much of that relation-

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ship is wish fulfillment—the possibility of becoming friends with the man your wife slept with?

It’s definitely a metaphor, meaning Pete is trying to make friends with unwanted change—which is also known as pain or suffering or shitty things. [We] agreed it was funny to continue that relationship so that Pete can also have this voice of another perspective. I like to joke that Leif represents my attitude now, meaning he sees the beauty in things, he has a zoomed-out perspective when it comes to loss or the grind of trying to do stand-up.

It’s nice to kind of be able to time travel and speak to myself back then with what I might say to me now.

You mention on the show that you miss the days when stand-up comedy took the form of joking around with your friends at an open mike.

Chicago’s famed Lyons Den open mike springs to mind. Comics such as Kumail Nanjiani, Kyle Kinane, Hannibal Buress, and T.J. Miller started there. How did your time at the Lyons Den, when the stakes were significantly lower, differ from the feeling you have now when you perform stand-up?

One of the things that makes Chicago a great city to start in is that the people doing comedy here just love doing comedy. That kind of sounds backhanded. I mean it in a very sincere, loving way. This isn’t overtly a show-business town. It’s a real place, it goes through real seasons, it has people who have real jobs— Wait, what’s a “real” job?

I just mean that all of show business isn’t really a real job. I live in Los Angeles. Try to find an architect in LA. I mean, I don’t know too many teachers. You don’t really meet a carpenter. You meet a guy who builds sets for a TV show. You don’t necessarily meet a guy who builds tables, you meet a set designer, you know what I’m saying? Your feet don’t really touch the ground as much in Los Angeles. So when you have these cities—I think Chicago’s one, I think Austin can be like

this, Portland is like this—that are more grounded, the people doing comedy aren’t doing it just to make it. Like, they’re not trying to put together five minutes in hopes that they’ll get cast on the Will & Grace reboot. They’re doing comedy because they’re freezing, waiting for the Irving Park Brown Line, and they want to do something at night. They do it for the love of comedy. We kind of touch on that in the first season— there’s a lot of $2 Miller Lites and there’s a lot of hanging out. I prefer this now just because it’s the phase of life I’m in—but when I was at the Lyons Den I didn’t ever think I would get any better than that.

Looking at the list of performers from the Lyons Den, you get the impression the comedy scene was very dude-centric. Recently, a local comic named Meredith Kachel used statistics to empirically demonstrate men get far more bookings here. What are your thoughts on the barriers to entry for women in the comedy world?

I look back on that time and you’re right, there was a lot of dudes. I don’t know what that was, but I will say [the trend is] starting to correct itself. I can’t speak to the female experience, but I can quote some of my friends like Jamie Lee, Beth Stelling, Emily Gordon. It’s just less weird, you know what I mean?

I think there was a time when people would look sideways at a female comedian getting onstage. It’s certainly not equal yet, but I think we’re working our way that way. And when you see so many people naming Maria Bamford, Natasha Leggero, Tig Notaro, or Sarah Silverman as their favorite comedians, that’s a wonderful thing. So if there was a Lyons Den today, I would think that it would be more of an even split.

We wanted to address [the divide] in the second season. Pete dates a comedian, but we kind of address it by not addressing it, to be honest. The character of Ali [played by Jamie Lee] is a driven, funny, successful comedian, and there is no, like, very special epi-

sode of Crashing talking about what it’s like to be a girl. In fact, it’s the opposite: Pete is the one who needs to learn from her as opposed to a man swooping in and mansplaining to Jamie about how to do comedy.

It’s the other way around.

“We need to be careful when we speak and when we listen, and it’s a time for listening.”

Given your experience hosting a talk show, what are your thoughts about the format, especially when it comes to interviewing comedians? As in, they come out and the host says, “So I hear you have a crazy car story,” or something to that effect to set up the material.

It’s that way for a reason, understandably. I remember when Conan [O’Brien] and I talked about my talk show. I was like, “What I want to do is have actors on when they’re not promoting something.” And he kind of jokingly said, “The problem is a lot of these actors don’t have anything to say other than promoting what they’re doing.’ ” I think that’s true. It would be a wonderful world if we could sit and really talk with people, but I think that’s what podcasts are for and why they’ve become so popular. The cultural taste has been elevated. We want to go deeper. I think [Stephen] Colbert specifically does a really good job of kind of mixing the two, and Seth Meyers and Conan can do that as well. I see Jimmy Kimmel doing it.

But at the end of the day—

really caught on. It’s almost like the way that cartoons captured something in our collective unconscious.

We dream in cartoons, people hallucinate in cartoons. I think the talkshow format is something we’ve kind of collectively agreed on. Like, if Sarah Jessica Parker was on a talk show with me, people would think, “I want to spend seven minutes with Sarah Jessica Parker, five with Pete, I want to see a band, then I want to go to bed.” We’ve been trained to like that. I almost feel that’s reflecting something we enjoy naturally.

You just named every talk show host minus one or two notable exceptions, like Jimmy Fallon.

I don’t watch everybody, but that wasn’t, like, shots fired. That was just me trying to remember everybody that I’ve done recently [as a guest].

As you talk, behind them is a producer saying “30 seconds”—which is something I never fully understood.

I guess it’s to preserve the energy of the host, but when we did a talk show I would talk to the guests for, I don’t know, 40 minutes, sometimes longer. We would put the extra stuff online. A lot of shows this way shoot it as if it’s live, maybe to minimize the work of postproduction stuff?

[Doing longer interviews] never

When you’re on talk shows now promoting a comedy, how much pressure do you feel to be funny?

I remember Chris Rock saying it’s unfair that comedians have to come on and be funny, because Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t have to come on and be moving. But I don’t see it that way. Having hosted a talk show and having talked with Conan, I think comedians are at a great advantage doing late night. It’s like doing stand-up but easier. One of the modes of doing stand-up is you have to know where you are, what you want to talk about, where you’re going with this. And when you have someone there with you— I’m doing Conan on Monday, and

—Pete Holmes

I e-mailed them four pages of stuff that I’m working on and said, “Just ask Conan which of these premises seem like things he’d like to play around with.” We pick three of them, we get to two of them. You’re saving the producer, who normally has to get on the phone and be like, “So, what’s going on in your life?

How are you? Anything major going on? Any stories from the set?” I feel bad for actors just because they might not have the experience writing for themselves.

This would seem to be a strange time to be a stand-up comedian given all the allegations of sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry, including in the comedy world. How do you approach this climate?

It’s not so much that it’s a strange time to be a stand-up comedian or an actor or a producer or somebody in the public eye as much as it’s an unsafe time to be a woman.

That’s something I’ve been meditating on. Maybe I’m an optimist, but my hope is that all of these stories coming out won’t just be a flash in the pan but will lead to real change in the way we treat each other. A lot of people point out, “Well, men feel unsafe [now].” Well, that’s how women have always felt. Now there really is a system of accountability moving past the shock of “Who did we catch?”

I’m interested in the conversation about if we’re allowed to laugh at people who’ve made mistakes.

Well, what do you think?

That’s something I’m figuring out culturally. You kind of take it case by case. I don’t think anybody’s watching The Cosby Show, but can you watch Good Will Hunting knowing Harvey Weinstein produced it? You kind of have to take it on a personal level. I hope the generation coming up now isn’t going to live in a world where we laugh about the concept of a casting couch or any sort of casual abuse or rape humor that normalizes it. That, to me, feels like progress. Everyone’s being J

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 17

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continued from 17 more deliberate in how they behave towards each other. I think there could be a good outcome for all of us.

One of the stories that broke concerned T.J. Miller sending a transphobic e-mail to someone who once considered him a friend.

Given your friendship with him and the fact that he was on your show, I’m wondering what your thoughts were when that news came out.

Obviously it’s heartbreaking and it’s upsetting.

I haven’t talked to him. I called him the day that the story came out. It was news to me. I didn’t know those details. He is my friend and I love him, but I do think it’s a time to listen right now. It’s not really my place to—we need to be careful when we speak and when we listen, and it’s a time for listening.

You’re staying at a hotel in Chicago under the pseudonym “Gern Blanston.”

Do you get the reference? It’s an old Steve Martin joke. I want to say, on the record, not my idea. I don’t think I need this level of anonymity.

How does your higher visibility affect your stand-up?

People always think I’m joking when I say this quote, but Sinbad once said, “Comedians are funnier when they’re taking the bus.” There’s some truth to that. When you’re flying first class and it’s your first experience going from a touring comedian to a TV person, you want to write jokes about that. You do sort of feel this need to qualify it, because the whole idea of a lot of comedians is “I am just a representative of you.” What I think is more dangerous is when you start telling these unrelatable stories. I don’t mean that as a put-down.

I know [Dave] Chappelle does this a lot, but what else is Chappelle going to talk about? I mean, that dude can’t go to the grocery store.

I would rather do a joke about the phone book rather than when I met Rachael Ray and we had dinner, which is true. It’s like a fancy watch—just another [hurdle] between you and the audience. The more you can stay relatable while at the same time occasionally flying first class is good. Sinbad was right: I’m gonna take the bus to the airport, dammit.

Given the fact of your higher profile, it’s more likely your ex-wife will see the show and your depiction of your former relationship. Have you heard from her?

18 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

No. It’s been over a decade since we’ve talked, and that’s not out of malice. I’m just typically not friends with any ex-girlfriends. It’s just like, “That was a time and let’s move on.” That’s all out of love, I suppose. Especially when your wife leaves you, like, what are we going to chat about, you know? But now that all this time has passed [I’m] curious if she’s seen the show and if she likes the show. Obviously my fantasy would be that she’s proud we didn’t represent her as some sort of monster, that I’ve only ever done the work trying to understand why what happened happened. At the end of the day this was somebody I loved very much, somebody I still feel love for, somebody I hope is happy. Then there’s the showbiz part of me that is like, “I hope she likes Crashing.”

So yeah, I’m gonna have to keep holding my breath on that one.

Is there an element of schadenfreude, something along the lines of, “God, I hope she’s superjealous of my success?”

I remember Bill Hicks had a bit like that where some girl dumped him because—I don’t know. He had the fantasy that she would see him on TV from the trailer park. I don’t have that with my ex. It’s more of a—she was so supportive and kind all those years that it almost feels like starting a company in your garage or something, and then at a certain point one of the people left and the business goes on and starts doing well. You don’t look back on the person who left and think, “Well, fuck you!” Marc Maron has a great bit where he’s like, “When my wife left all I could think to say was, ‘Well, thanks for helping out,’ ” and that’s sort of how I feel.

We were in each other’s lives at my most anxious, my most vulnerable, and my least funny. I hope she’s happy, and I have a feeling she is. She was always like a nature-loving, jogging, kind of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau-type person. She didn’t want to be in Chicago. Some people would rather be— and I don’t mean this condescendingly—in the woods. And I get that because, quite frankly, sometimes I would rather be by a lake in the woods too.

I think at this point you’ve quoted five other comedians.

Why do the work of thinking of your own thoughts when you can just remember other people’s? v R CRASHING Sundays at 9:30 PM on HBO

v @steveheisler

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ARTS & CULTURE Barbara Jones-Hogu, Unite, 1969 ò DAVID LUSENHOP

VISUAL ART & DESIGN

Movement theory

The Terra Foundation for American Art kicks off Art Design Chicago, a yearlong celebration of Chicago’s art and design movements.

By DEANNA ISAACS

I

t’s a little ironic that the impetus for Art Design Chicago, the hugely ambitious, yearlong celebration of Chicago’s art-making history—from the fire of 1871 to the turn of the 21st century—came from the west coast, as seen through the eyes of an east-coast critic.

But that’s how it happened.

In the New York Times of November 10, 2011, critic Roberta Smith rhapsodized about the five days she’d spent taking in “Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980,” a six-month, multiproject collaboration by 60 cultural institutions that explored the west coast’s role in 20th-century American art. Contrary to the prevailing narrative, Smith wrote, “Pacific Standard” proved that “New York did not act alone in the post-war era.” “‘Pacific Standard Time’ is a great argument for museums concentrating first and foremost on local history, for a kind of cosmopolitan regionalism, if you will,” Smith wrote. “It sets an example that other curators in other cities should follow, beginning in my mind with Chicago and San Francisco.”

Smith wrote that the Los Angeles show had been underwritten by the Getty Center, “to the tune of about $10 million.”

In Chicago the Terra Foundation for Ameri-

can Art—long-focused on promoting the art of the nation—took the hint.

Last week, at the opening of the first Art Design Chicago event of 2018—“Resist, Relate, Unite 1968-1975,” the DePaul Art Museum’s show of prints by AfriCOBRA founding member Barbara Jones-Hogu—Terra executive vice president Amy Zinck recalled the Smith review as a light-bulb moment. In 2012, Terra began convening local curators and scholars, soliciting ideas for publications, exhibits, and programs that would clarify Chicago’s role as a “catalyst and incubator for innovations in art and design.”

The result is a still-growing 29-exhibit, 100-plus-program, 60-institution collaborative effort that includes academic research, multiple books and catalogs, and a four-part public television documentary. Grants director Jennifer Siegenthaler says the foundation’s been funding projects at various cultural institutions in the city since 2005 (after Terra, founded in 1978, shuttered its Michigan Avenue museum space), “but we kept hearing from curators and scholars that there was a lot in Chicago that hadn’t been covered.”

It will be now, and not only in Chicago. A retrospective for painter Charles White, opening June 10 at the Art Institute of Chicago, for

example, will travel to MOMA and LACMA; an Intuit exhibit of outsider art, “Chicago Calling: Art Against the Flow,” will go to three European cities after a six-month run here that begins June 29.

The budget for the program is $7.8 million, $6.5 million of which is coming from Terra, with the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and others contributing the rest; individual grants ranged from $10,000 to $200,000. Among the projects already completed are an updated Smithsonian archives guide to research repositories in Chicago and a comprehensive history of The Wall of Respect (The Wall of Respect: Public Art and Black Liberation in 1960s Chicago), published by Northwestern University Press last fall. The cornucopia to come includes “Arte Diseno Xicago,” March 23 to August 19 at the National Museum of Mexican Art; “A Home for Surrealism,” June 7 to August 18 at the Arts Club; “Hairy Who?” September 1 to January 6 at the Art Institute; “African American Designers in Chicago,” October 27 to March 3 at the Chicago Cultural Center, and a multi-author history of Chicago art to be published by University of Chicago press in the fall.

The DePaul exhibit is the first solo museum show for Jones-Hogu, who died on November

14 at the age of 79, and is one of the women honored in Kerry James Marshall’s Rush More mural at the Chicago Cultural Center. A member of the collective that created The Wall of Respect in 1967 (and a longtime Malcolm X College professor), she was a printmaker whose powerfully communicative work captured the black power ethos and established the visual identity of the subsequent Chicago collective AfriCOBRA (the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists).

This show, consisting of 22 large prints and a half-dozen drawings, is tightly focused on the AfriCOBRA period. It includes three blackand-white woodcuts from 1968, representing Jones-Hogu’s favorite technique before, as wall text explains, her wood-cutting and etching tools were stolen and she had to switch mediums. After that, there’s an explosion of color and form in a bold blend of 1970s groovy sensibility, African influence, and proudly emergent black identity.

Jones-Hogu’s dealer, Cleveland gallerist David Lusenhop, was at the opening, as was the artist’s son, Kuumba Hogu, who loaned many of the pieces on display. (A catalog of the exhibit will be published later this year.)

According to Lusenhop, Jones-Hogu didn’t have to sell her work and “wasn’t about selling it for profit.” That was a good thing because, at the time these prints were produced, he said, collectors were scarce for work with incorporated text proclaiming, for example, “Leave those white bitches alone.” With the exception of Jones-Hogu’s most famous piece, Unite, Lusenhop said, the prints in the show would’ve had editions of no more than ten. v “BARBARA JONES-HOGU: RESIST, RELATE, UNITE 19681975” Through 3/25, DePaul Art Museum, 935 W. Fullerton, 773-325-7506, museums.depaul.edu.

ART DESIGN CHICAGO See the full list of events at artdesignchicago.org.

v @DeannaIsaacs JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 19

ARTS & CULTURE

THEATER Guy Van Swearingen and the cast of Traitor ò MICHAEL BROSILOW

THEATER

This hero ain’t what he used to be

Brett Neveu’s Traitor takes Ibsen’s Dr. Stockmann down many pegs.

By TONY ADLER

H

enrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People (1882) is basically Jaws with an invisible shark: Ever since the founding of the local mineral baths, small town X has enjoyed a big fat financial boom. Tourists are flocking there to take the waters. But then along comes Dr. Thomas Stockmann, the physician at the baths, who sights a great white in the form of contamination from the tanneries upstream. “All that filth,” he tells a couple of hometown newsmen, “seeps into the feedpipes of the pump-room [at the baths]; and not only that, but this same poisonous offal seeps out onto the beach as well.”

Naturally, the citizens of X—including Stockmann’s brother, the mayor—don’t take kindly to this revelation. Or to Stockmann’s insistence on its validity. Or to the Ayn Randian scorn he displays toward them at a town

20 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

meeting. When Stockmann refuses to back down, comparing his neighbors to “vermin” in the process, they not only fire him but wreck his house and brand him a pariah. Like Jaws, An Enemy of the People turns out to be the tale of a principled man’s resolve to stand up and do his job, even against the wishes of those he serves. Police chief Brody, Dr. Stockmann—wildly different styles, essentially the same guy.

Now Chicago-based playwright Brett Neveu has written an update of An Enemy of the People. In its world premiere at A Red Orchid Theatre, in a production directed by Michael Shannon, Neveu’s Traitor hits many of the same marks Ibsen set in the original, with surprisingly few allowances for life in the first fifth of the 21st century. The main difference seems to be Neveu’s attitude toward his hero.

Neveu’s adaptation is set in Eastlake, a stalled-out little suburb of Chicago. The town can’t boast mineral baths, but there is a river, and a new charter school has been built near it. The calculation—that affluent families will move to Eastlake for the superior education available at the charter—seems to be working. New money is flowing in. But then along comes Dr. Tom Stock, who helped start the school and teaches there. On a hunch, he took it upon himself to get the soil at the school tested and discovered that it’s full of lead, probably from old factories upstream.

When his findings get leaked, small-town politics take over. One local faction wants the information hushed up; another wants to use it as leverage for settling scores. At the town

Charles Busch’s kinda 60s

meeting (staged in a storefront next door to the A Red Orchid space), Stock has got the charter school families with him until he starts spouting a form of elitism even scarier than the one Ibsen espoused through Stockmann. You might argue that Stockmann’s comments are Nietszchean—a free man versus the herd and all that. Stock’s speech skews creepily toward eugenism.

Which is to say that where Ibsen’s doctor is a holy fool, willing to pull down the whole temple for the sake of an idea, Neveu’s is just a fool: a man, culpable in his arrogance and self-righteousness, who’s finally gotten something right but has no idea how to turn it into action. Enemy ends with an incessantly didactic but happy Stockmann ensconced in the approving bosom of his family, claiming to be one of the strongest men in the world because “the strongest man . . . is the man who stands alone.” Traitor, well, doesn’t.

When Ibsen finished Enemy, he allegedly told his publisher, “I am still uncertain as to whether I should call it a comedy or a straight drama.” That uncertainty survives in Shannon’s production. The town meeting, in particular, offers satiric and disquieting tones all in a jumble, the most important result being that it becomes hard to know how to take Guy Van Swearingen’s Stock and his wild talk about DNA. Are we witnessing a meltdown?

Or was this stuff part of his ideology all along? The problem is compounded by the fact that no Chicago actor presents a more regular-guy image than Van Swearingen: one minute he’s entirely believable as a teacher concerned about lead poisoning, the next he’s Richard Spencer. What happened?

Shannon has the advantage of a resourceful cast, though. Kirsten Fitzgerald is funny-pompous as the mayor, Larry Grimm funny-pathetic as a newspaper publisher, Natalie West just funny as that person in every community who wants to turn civic life into her own personal Xbox. Dado does valiant work as Stock’s long-suffering, ever-supportive wife, but if ever a character needed updating it’s hers. I kept waiting for Neveu to let her have her explosion. (Spoiler alert: It never comes.) v TRAITOR Through 2/25: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells, 312-943-8722, aredorchidtheatre.org, $30-$35.

FRESH FROM WINNING the 2017 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award in the category “Best Show, Celebrity Male,” Charles Busch returns to Chicago with his latest cabaret act, My Kinda 60s. The witty Busch is best known as the author and original star of the 1980s camp comedies Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, and Die, Mommie, Die!—gender-bending spoofs of the genre films (biblical epics, beach-blanket comedies, horror films) that Busch grew up watching in the 1960s. In his new cabaret act, which he premiered last October at the Feinstein’s/54 Below supper club in New York, Busch performs sans drag, recounting comic and nostalgic stories of his childhood and adolescence growing up in Manhattan under the protection of his indomitable Aunt Lillian. Busch and his musical director, pianist Tom Judson, evoke the decade with an eclectic array of tunes, ranging from Broadway fare

by Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Newley and Bricusse, and Lerner and Lane to the jazzy pop of Henry Mancini and Burt Bacharach to folk and pop songs by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Jimmy Webb, and the Turtles. Though his career has been based mainly in New York, Busch actually began sharpening his theatrical fangs in Chicago; after attending Northwestern University in the mid-70s, he performed with his own troupe in such apprentice efforts as Old Coozies and Myrtle Pope, The Story of a Woman Possessed, appearing at gay bars and bathhouses, movie theaters, and the fabled Halsted Street punk disco La Mere Vipere. —ALBERT WILLIAMS v R CHARLES BUSCH: MY KINDA 60S Sun 1/21 and Mon 1/22, 7:30 PM, Pride Arts

v @taadler

Center, 4139 N. Broadway, 800-737-0984, pridefilmsandplays.com, $40, $75 reserved seating.

Michael Wakefield ò MICHAEL WAKEFIELD

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READER RECOMMENDED

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ARTS & CULTURE Jeffery Owen Freelon Jr. and Tiffany Oglesby

YOU GOT OLDER

ò EVAN HANOVER

THEATER

Loy Webb shows us The Light

The New Colony premiere is merciless and inspirational.

By TONY ADLER

I

don’t want to make overblown claims for Loy Webb’s new play, The Light. It’s got its problems. You could argue, for starters, that it’s not really a play at all but a 90-minute teaching moment on the subjects of race and gender—and, given its extraordinary idealism, an act of wish fulfillment, as well. Webb’s characters are supposed to be average people, a school principal and a firefighter, yet they make choices that seem absurdly noble to a cynic like me. They sometimes speak to each other as if they’d pulled their talking points off a Twitter manifesto.

But if their language can turn artificial, they’re at least saying what needs to be said.

And if their actions appear unlikely, it’s only because Webb is brave enough to put her vision before an audience with what might be called a fierce generosity. The playwright’s good faith ennobles the rest of us. Play or not, this is a powerful piece of work.

The principal is a thirtysomething black woman named Genesis, or Gen; the firefighter, her serious beau, a thirtysomething black man named Rashad. Tonight is their two-year dating anniversary, and Rashad has gone far, far beyond the call of duty to score two tickets to a concert featuring the couple’s sentimental favorite, Nola Adé. But the concert is being produced by a performer Gen knows from college, where, she says, he committed a rape.

His Chance the Rapper-esque good works over the intervening decade notwithstanding, she refuses to attend a show in which he’s had a

hand. She’s adamant about it, too. Though Rashad wants desperately to save the evening, he thinks Gen’s being unreasonable. Things escalate.

Much of what follows is predictable. The politics of Gen and Rashad’s positions kick in with a vengeance, as do their personal demons. If you wanted to get reductive about it, you could say that the situation boils down to a struggle between hashtag ideologies: believing the woman vs. supporting the black man. The wonder of The Light is that it so seldom feels reductive, even when you can see the next move coming a mile away. Part of that has to do with the writing: Webb allows her characters a bickery/funny intimacy while reserving the right to make them absolutely merciless when the situation demands. The other part has to do with Toma Langston’s remarkable production for the New Colony, which carries their dynamic to the stage in no uncertain terms, and grounds both their harshest moments and leaps of faith in deeply observed psychology. Jeffery Owen Freelon Jr. has his hurts as Rashad, yet he’s most vivid (not to say amusing) as a man in love, bewildered by the forces he’s set loose and slowly coming to understand that he doesn’t get a replay. Tiffany Oglesby’s Gen is all pure, shivery truth. v R THE LIGHT Through 2/4: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, the Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee, thenewcolony.org, $20.

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Wild sexual fantasies. A mysterious cowboy.

Facing the future while navigating the thorny path to adulthood.

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v @taadler JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 21

ARTS & CULTURE Lee Grantham, Hot Lava, 1993 ò COURTESY THE ARTIST

VISUAL ART

Spitting images Lee Grantham can’t escape the long shadow of the Chicago Imagists.

By DMITRY SAMAROV

L

ee Grantham, whose new show “Reverse Acrylic Paintings” is at Jean Albano Gallery through February 24, is a Milwaukee-based painter whose work can’t escape the Chicago Imagists’ long shadow.

Celebrated treasure hunter John Maloof, whose own Imagist-indebted reverse acrylic paintings are also represented by the gallery, first brought Grantham to Albano’s attention more than a year ago. Maloof insisted she visit Grantham’s modest south-side Milwaukee home. “When John says ‘You’ve gotta see this,’ you go,” Albano told me. What she saw was a house chock-full of brightly colored acrylic paintings on vintage television consoles, silverware boxes, and canvas. But the ones that attracted her most were executed in reverse on Plexiglas.

22 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

Albano, who has represented many of the most prominent Imagists over the years, marvels at the scale on which Grantham often works; his largest paintings can measure up to six feet long. “How does he do that?” she wonders aloud.

Born in 1953, Grantham studied painting at Ball State University in his native Indiana after serving in the navy. During his senior year he saw a show that included two small reverse paintings by Chicago Imagists Barbara Rossi and Karl Wirsum. They were such a revelation that he decided to change his manner of painting and move to Chicago rather than New York upon graduation. He never studied with Rossi and Wirsum, though he was included in some local gallery shows in the 80s and 90s; then he moved to Milwaukee and his exhibition history has been sporadic since. Albano told me he works a full-

time job, has a wife and kids, and is getting ready to retire, but she’s cagey about revealing any more personal or professional details than that.

Grantham takes his imagery from instructional manuals, industrial illustrations, and, occasionally, from art history. His Van Gogh tribute, Worth Cutting Your Ear Off For (1991), presents an outline of the artist with bandaged ear, his face blank save for a cartoonish mouth, and pairs him with a similarly featureless bodice- and panty-clad blond. Around these two central figures are various bits and pieces from Van Gogh’s paintings, as well as renderings of knives, scissors, paintbrushes, and paint tubes. I don’t know why Vincent and his scantily clad friend have no eyes or nose, but the rest of the imagery is straightforward enough. I suppose she’s meant to be the mythical prostitute he presented his ear to, but

that’s an interpretive leap.

Grantham’s work, like that of his Imagist forebears, manages to be both polished and oddly unformed. The pictures are obviously the product of a dogged personality, but it’s often difficult to discern any meaning or message. Their bright, clashing patterns connote celebration or frenzy, but the featureless, frozen figures which people them rarely convey either personality or thought.

The most gripping mystery is why Grantham kept cranking out his work all these years while keeping a low profile in the art world, but the sleek plastic surfaces of these paintings do not yield many insights. v “LEE GRANTHAM: REVERSE ACRYLIC PAINTINGS” Through 2/24. Tue-Fri 10:30 AM-5:30 PM, Sat 11 AM-5 PM. Jean Albano Gallery, 215 W. Superior, 312-440-0770, jeanalbanogallery.com. F

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Hedy Lamarr in Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

MOVIES

One hundred percent fresh

Two recent documentaries profile women whose modest educations left them open to new ideas.

By J.R. JONES

B

ombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story profiles one of the most glamorous stars of Hollywood’s golden age, but it’s not your usual silver-screen documentary. Drawing on several books (most notably Hedy’s Folly by science writer

Richard Rhodes), writer-director Alexandra Dean moves past Lamarr’s movie career in the 1930s and ’40s to explore her little-known sideline as an inventor, one whose patented device for radio “frequency hopping,” developed to guide torpedoes during World War II,

has become a building block of modern wireless technology. Lamarr, who died in 2000, tells her own story on the soundtrack from a 1990 telephone interview with Forbes writer Fleming Meeks; in her proud, Austrian-accented English, she presents herself as a captive of

ARTS & CULTURE her own beauty, still wondering what might have been had the world recognized her mind as much as her body.

The movie arrives at Music Box just as Gene Siskel Film Center is reviving Brett Morgen’s captivating 2017 documentary Jane, about primatologist and activist Jane Goodall, and the two women share striking similarities despite their contrasting career paths. The primary source material for Morgen’s film was 100 hours of recently recovered 16-millimeter footage that shows Goodall as a young woman in the early 1960s, first observing the chimpanzees of western Tanzania. Like Lamarr, she’s extraordinarily beautiful, and as she notes in a recent interview conducted for the film, she learned to make use of her looks to further her research. Both women were boldly ambitious and utterly committed to their dreams, forging new lives for themselves quite outside the bounds of their class and gender. And, most important for their intellectual pursuits, each came to her field of study with little or no formal academic training, which allowed each to approach her subject more creatively.

J

February 6–11, 2018 go.iu.edu/1PGx

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The amazing story of Jane Goodall, in her own words, with music by Philip Glass

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ARTS & CULTURE continued from 23 Lamarr was mechanically inclined from childhood: in Bombshell her grown son, Anthony Loder, shows off a toy music box that she took apart and reassembled at age five. Her father, a Jewish banker in Vienna, schooled her in the functions of common machines, but careers in the sciences weren’t open to young women, and instead she took a shine to acting. Her parents were scandalized when their 18-year-old daughter turned up, running around nude and simulating orgasm, in Gustav Machaty’s Czech-Austrian romance Ecstasy (1933). Shortly after the film’s release, Hedy married Fritz Mandl, a 33-year-old munitions tycoon, who shut down her acting career and kept her under his thumb as a trophy wife but also contributed to her mechanical education by allowing her to listen silently as he talked shop with German and Austrian diplomats and military men. Traumatized by her father’s death from a heart attack, and frightened by the growing Nazi threat, Hedy escaped from the marriage in 1937 and landed in Paris, where she was spotted by MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer and brought to Hollywood as “the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“Maybe I came from a different planet, who knows,” Lamarr remarks in Bombshell.

“But whatever it is, inventions are easy for me to do.” As Rhodes points out in his book, inventors aren’t really artists, because their work must have a practical use; they aren’t really scientists either, because they’re less concerned with making discoveries than with applying them. Lamarr took advantage of her down time between movie roles to putter around in her home workshop, and as an exiled European Jew she was powerfully motivated to assist the Allied war effort. She was appalled when, in September 1940, a German submarine torpedoed the British steamship City of Benares, sending it to the bottom of the North Atlantic with 77 children onboard. With the help of George Antheil, a film composer and fellow inventor, Lamarr set out to create a radio device that could guide Allied torpedoes to their targets without the Germans jamming the frequency.

Ironically, the device wasn’t much different from the music box Lamarr had torn apart as a child or the player-piano rolls Antheil had manipulated as an avant-garde musician.

Like a piano roll, the machine they presented to the National Inventors Council used a ribbon with punched holes to manipulate a ssss EXCELLENT

24 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

sss GOOD

BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY ss Directed by Alexandra Dean. 90 min. Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, 773-871-6604, musicboxtheatre,com, $11.

radio signal, bumping it from one frequency to the next; the torpedo would carry a similar device synchronized with the transmitter, so that the guidance signal might jump around the radio dial and elude German surveillance.

Lamarr and Antheil won a patent for their system, though the U.S. Navy rejected it, arguing that the device would weigh down the torpedoes. According to Rhodes in Bombshell, the navy told Lamarr to stop wasting her time on inventions and instead use her celebrity to sell war bonds (which she did, to the tune of $25 million). Another interview subject, film historian Jeanine Basinger, sums up the prevailing ethos: “You don’t get to be Hedy Lamarr and smart.”

“She is an incredible combination of childish ignorance and definite flashes of genius,” Antheil once wrote, in a letter that Anthony Loder reads onscreen. “She calls in the middle of the night because an idea hit her.” His words support the notion that inventors rely on inspiration more than formal training, though without a degree Lamarr could never get anyone to take her seriously. By the time Fleming Meeks interviewed her in 1990, she had blown through six marriages and lost her fortune on a bad real estate investment; living in seclusion in Miami Beach, she scraped by on social security and a small pension from the Screen Actors Guild. (According to Bombshell, her patent, which expired in the late 1950s, would be worth $30 billion today.)

Archival photos and TV clips trace Lamarr’s accumulating cosmetic surgeries, which eventually left her face a parody of itself.

There’s something tragic about a woman who’ll go to any length to preserve the looks she fears no one can see past.

Growing up in Bournemouth, England, in the 1940s, Jane Goodall would dream that she was a man. “Probably because of the time,” she tells Morgen in Jane. “I wanted to do things which men did and women didn’t. Going to Africa, living with animals.” Like Lamarr, she was driven to create a life of her own choosing; though she couldn’t afford a university education, she graduated from secretarial school, moved to Kenya to live with a friend and her parents, and in 1957 got herself hired as personal assistant to the controversial paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. Jane never touches on Leakey’s clumsy romantic pursuit of his pretty young assistant, which she fought off; they had established a warm mentorstudent relationship by 1960, when Leakey

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Directed by Brett Morgen. PG, 90 min. Fri 1/19Thu 2/1. Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2800, siskelfilmcenter.org, $11.

sent Goodall to conduct a six-month field study of wild chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream Game Reserve in western Tanzania.

According to Goodall, Leakey wanted someone without academic preconceptions but “with an open mind, with a passion for knowledge, with a love of animals, and with monumental patience.”

Goodall had all these things, and as she argues in Jane, her untutored perspective allowed her to infiltrate the chimpanzees’ private world. “Staring into the eyes of a chimpanzee, I saw a thinking, reasoning personality looking back,” she explains in voice-over narration as one of her simian charges stares into the camera in vivid color. “At that time, in the early 1960s, it was held, at least by many scientists, that only humans had minds, only humans were capable of rational thought. Fortunately, I had not been to university, and I did not know these things.” Goodall spent weeks observing the chimpanzee community from a distance before she was finally welcomed in; three months into her study, she witnessed one of her chimpanzee pals, whom she named David Greybeard, turning a reed into a primitive tool to fish termites out of the ground.

Her discovery smashed the accepted wisdom that man’s understanding of tools had distinguished him from the apes.

Born 20 years after Hedy Lamarr, Goodall has won greater recognition for her work, though she faced a similar condescension because of her good looks and lack of university education. Even after she’d earned a PhD from Cambridge University in 1965, fellow academics sniped when her writing appeared in National Geographic. “People said my fame was due to my legs,” she grumbles to Morgen.

“By this time I was needing to raise money for myself, so I made use of it.” So does Morgen— Goodall is a luminous presence in the archival footage, as fine featured as the exotic birds all around her. The footage was shot by the gifted wildlife photographer Hugo van Lawick, who traveled to Gombe in 1963 on assignment from National Geographic and promptly fell in love with Goodall. (They married, had a child, and divorced in 1974.) “It was pretty obvious to me right from the start that I was a subject of interest as well as the chimps,” she tells Morgen. Like so many women in pursuit of their studies, Goodall had to tolerate being studied herself. v

v @JR_Jones

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MUSIC

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of January 18 b

ALL AGES

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PICK OF THE WEEK

Bedouine crafts weightless songs of grace, optimism, and wonder

ò POLLY ANTONIA BARROWMAN

BEDOUINE, ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE, HELENA DELAND, V.V. LIGHTBODY

Sun 1/21, 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $15, $125 Tomorrow Never Knows five-day pass. 18+

THURSDAY18 Dave Rempis & Frank Rosaly 9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b Before he moved to Amsterdam in 2016, percussionist Frank Rosaly was an integral part of Chicago’s improvised music scene, and his departure left many of his musical partnerships hanging. Rosaly’s bond with saxophonist Dave Rempis in particular runs deep, with collaborations dating back to the turn of the current century. Their 2009 release, Cyrillic (482 Music), reveals their high-energy rapport in a bruising yet agile set of interactive movements and terse melodic exchanges, their lilting postbop routinely exploding into furious expressionism. That surfeit of power extends to the Rempis Percussion Quartet, where Rosaly forms half of an eight-limbed rhythmic maelstrom with Tim Daisy. While there are moments of buoyancy where the jazz roots of the players shine though, the band rarely takes its collective foot off the gas.

On last year’s Cochonnerie (Aerophonic), recorded live in October 2015, the group dispensed with trite buildups and went straight for the jugular from square one. On the epic opener, “Straggler”—which features Ingebrigt Håker Flaten playing lacerating electric bass—there’s an effective passage of repose that allows the rhythmic engine to cool off. Remp-

is takes a different path on his terrific recent solo album Lattice, engaging in some refreshing and effective balladry. Considering Rosaly’s subtle touch and abiding interest in quiet playing, I’m excited by the potential of a different side of this duo in its first local performance in more than two years. —PETER MARGASAK

FRIDAY19 Cam’Ron 8 PM, Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee, $24.99-$55. 17+ Harlem’s Cam’ron is the undisputed king of outthere, freaky rappers, having paved the way for weirdo individualism in hip-hop with his wardrobe of ankle-length mink coats and head-to-toe, brightpink get-ups, his idiosyncratic slurred flow, his numerous public feuds with all sorts of rap stars, and his incredibly tense on-air confrontation with Bill O’Reilly in 2013. Rising rap stars like Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert have borrowed some of his antics and aesthetics for their own personas. In November, Cam released his first proper solo effort since 2009, The Program (it’s working title was Killa Pink, in honor of his favorite color of clothing). It embodies everything that’s made him great since he first emerged in the 90s: his rough voice, with his sig-

BEDOUINE IS THE moniker of singer-songwriter Azniv Korkejian, a woman of Armenian descent born in Syria and raised in Saudi Arabia before her family won a green-card lottery and moved to the U.S. The music on the eponymous debut she released last summer feels lighter than air. She’s now based in LA, and the breezy melodies and gentle textures of the record’s songs are reminiscent of the 70s folk rock from the heyday of Laurel Canyon. Much of the album embraces serenity, with the narrator expressing hope even when cloaked in romantic uncertainty: in “Nice and Quiet” she asserts that she should stay in a stumbling relationship while on “One of These Days” she insists that “we’re gonna get it right.” Korkejian’s open sense of wonder for the world and natural optimism are masterfully reinforced by gauzy, gossamer arrangements crafted by Trey Pollard—I never thought I’d admire the swerving lines of an English horn in a pop song as much as I do on “Nice and Quiet”— and meticulous production by Matthew E. White, whose work with Nashville singer Natalie Prass is what first attracted the songwriter. On “Summer Cold” Korkejian breaks from her placid mood with a darkness aimed at American weapons used upon innocents in her birthplace, and the song concludes with a nostalgic re-creation of the sounds she remembers hearing on her grandmother’s street in Aleppo. For this concert she will performs solo on acoustic guitar. While the lush orchestrations will be missed, there’s a richness and depth to Korkejian’s voice belied by its lithe grace that convinces me she doesn’t require the instrumental help. —PETER MARGASAK

nature behind-the-beat cadence, plus hard-as-hell beats, hilariously raw skits, and just the right touch of eccentricity. The most Cam’ron moment of The Program’s rollout came in the form of his October single, “Dime After Dime.” Sharing a rare glimpse into his sensitive side, he raps about selling cocaine over the smooth, soft-rock of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”; it’s perfect in its brilliant bizarreness. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

Christian Wolff with Aperiodic 8:30 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b Christian Wolff is the only living member of the New York School, the coterie of composers that revolved around John Cage during the 1950s and included Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, and David Tudor. Their experimental music mirrored developments in the art world at the time, including Fluxus and abstract expressionism. The group’s hallmarks— including chance procedures and durations—remain deeply influential in experimental circles. But Wolff, 83, who was born in France to German parents who relocated the family to the U.S in 1941, has continued to produce fascinating work that’s moved beyond the New York School’s legacy, often engaging improvisational and untrained musicians. On this rare local appearance he’ll collaborate J

Cam’Ron ò FERNANDA CALFAT

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 25

Learn to play with us in 2018!

New adult group classes are now open! Browse our class schedules online at oldtownschool.org

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MUSIC Lomelda ò LAURA LEE BLACKBURN

continued from 25

with the Chicago performance collective Aperiodic for a survey of some of his strongest works. He’ll perform music from Keyboard Miscellany—his everexpanding book of short, melodic pieces typically composed to celebrate an individual or a birthday— along with several older works that continue to feel as forward-facing as when they were first written.

Edges (1968) is a graphic score that asks musicians to interpret not the actual notations but the spaces around them, which he described as “something like a photographic negative the developed picture of which would be realized by the player.” The concert will also include a selection of his Exercises, a numbered series of pieces for unspecified instrumentation and numbers of musicians—who get identical scores for each piece. As time has passed, exceptions have been made, consisting of one or more single-line phrases that each participant determines how much of and how long to play while navigating in an improvised fashion with other ensemble members. Finally, Aperiodic will play a few of the ten parts of Burdocks (1971), another wide-open work for undefined instrumentation. It has bits of standard notation and fixed durations, but it demands that the participants navigate the parts of other players, putting focus on the importance of listening as a musical skill. —PETER MARGASAK

Ron Gallo Diane Coffee headlines; Ron Gallo and Yoko & the Oh No’s open. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $15, $125 Tomorrow Never Knows five-day pass. 18+ Ron Gallo channels his contempt for the world into the songs that fill last year’s Heavy Meta (New West), a snarling assault on selfishness and phoniness set to sharp, ringing 70s protopunk. The former Philadelphian moved to Nashville in 2014, leaving behind the destructive relationship that haunts the album’s reflections on emotional abuse (“Young Lady, You’re Scaring Me”), romantic atrophy (“Put the Kids to Bed”), and self-medication (“Kill the Medicine Man”). He can’t contain his sar-

casm on the epic closer “All the Punks Are Domesticated,” where he lobs searing criticism at a vision of artistic maturity where onetime rebels neuter their ideals in pursuit of the marketplace. That anger is also directed at irresponsible parents in “Why Do You Have Kids?” While his lyrics might be heartfelt, they also scream a sort of privilege that grows tiresome by the end of the recording, suggesting that Gallo is incapable of seeing any perspective than his own—a bummer that no amount of stinging guitar licks can salvage. He has a reputation for summoning the go-for-broke spirit of early punk in his performances—too bad he also invokes the narcissism. —PETER MARGASAK

Lomelda Snail Mail headlines; Stef Chura, Ratboys, Lomelda, and Bunny open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, sold out. 18+ Hannah Read—the twentysomething Texan who records and performs wistful, intimate indie rock under the name Lomelda—isn’t the first and won’t be the last person to write a song about the long stretches of asphalt that criss-cross the country, but her “Interstate Vision” deserves to be counted among the best American road songs of all time. Atop gently rustling percussion and a somber guitar melody, Read sings about what it means to spend an inordinate amount of time on highways and in parking lots, to know places that exist as temporary planes to the majority of people who travel on them, and to be able to see these roads as locations unto themselves—ones that are chockfull of personality. Read’s warm, tenderly vibrating vocals project a sense of loss and longing, the latter providing buoyancy to “Interstate Vision” in its saddest moments. The tune was an early single from Lomelda’s second album, Thx (Double Double Whammy), which feels slender only because the quality of Read’s work shows it could sustain a much longer run time; on tracks like “Far Out” and “Bam Sha Klam,” she’s able to build entire worlds with sparse instrumentation and a whole lot of heart, as she does on “Interstate Vision.” —LEOR GALIL J

JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 27

MUSIC No Age ò AARON FARLEY

continued from 27

SATURDAY20 Black Veil Brides Asking Alexandria and Crown the Empire open. 6:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, $41.50, $37.50 in advance. b Fun game: make an 80s hard-rock/hair-metal/ stadium-goth/early-thrash-metal playlist, sneak a track by LA’s contemporary Black Veil Brides onto it, and see if anyone notices. Bonus points if you pass it by anyone old enough to remember some of the junk-and-fire-everywhere hard-rock videos that looked like they were filmed in an unused corner of a Mad Max set and were de rigueur back in the day. We’re as far removed in time from the dawn of the styles of music BVB plays as the 60s were from the heyday of big bands—and like always, retro is up for grabs. BVB are the black-clad, completely earnest, note-perfect flip side of a coin with Steel Panther, both bands that take all the guilt out of the guilty pleasure. Hooks seem to drip out of front man Andy Biersack. He even has a whole other, poppier persona, Andy Black, as an outlet; Black’s solo debut, The Shadow Side, dropped in 2016, in between BVB releases, and Biersack also took some time to act in Ash Avildsen’s occult rock thriller American Satan, which came out last Halloween.

BVB’s new album, Vale, follows the old pattern of increasing ambition—with more varieties of music and instrumental styles—while still giving the people what they want—this is very much a WYSIWYG band. —MONICA KENDRICK

Destroyer Mega Bog opens. 9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $23, $21 in advance, $125 Tomorrow Never Knows five-day pass. 18+ Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer, is well-known for being a “literary” act. The description is fitting: front man Dan Bejar’s lyrics feel like symbolist poetry, with lines of varying lengths crammed with allusions to history, film, and—especially—pop music stacked on top of each other like records in a wobbling tower. Furthermore, Destroyer albums tend to commit to a single style, such as cheesy MIDI-pop on Your Blues (2004) and late-70s Al Stewart LPs on Kaputt (2011), so that each one is distinct from the others; listening to them in succession actually seems like reading different volumes in a set of books. On Destroyer’s 11th full-length, last year’s Ken (Merge), Bejar goes for a more primal approach, though characteristically he twists the meaning of “primal” into something craftier than the most

28 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

obvious definition; in this case, a reflection on the music he first felt an attachment to in high school.

The instrumentation and melodies reference Bejar’s teenage tastes for late-80s Manchester indie rock, the Cure, and synth-pop, but his words are as beguiling and ambiguous as they’ve ever been in his adulthood. From standout track “Tinseltown Swimming in Blood”: “Tinsel ribbons dancing in the rain / Flowers on the skyline, hey how was the wine? / What comes round’s going round again / Towers coming up for air.” —TAL ROSENBERG

No Age Melkbelly, Little Junior, and Slow Mass open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, sold out.

18+ Five years can be a lifetime in the career of a postpunk band, but that’s how long it’s been since the LA duo No Age dropped a new record. Singer and guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Spunt have finally broken their silence with the exuberant Snares Like a Haircut (Drag City), a maelstrom of fury and melody that sounds like it must be the product of more than two people. No Age was a key force in the scene surrounding underground punk space the Smell during the aughts, but the music on the new album makes it sound like no time has passed. With the current state of the world, the blunt intensity of its music seems to make more sense now than ever. Although there are some lovely moments of surprising and welcome ambient drift, the band delivers its music with newfound melodic force; its skating tunefulness reminds me of the slack-jawed roar of primo Dinosaur Jr., with Randall surfing waves of riffs, feedback, and hydroplaning rhythms. While the new record suggests the pair has woken from a half-decade slumber—Rip Van Winkle style—the ear-clearing attack flushes out any clogs in short order. —PETER MARGASAK

Phil G Pharoahe Monch headlines; Mickey Factz, Rich Jones, Fess Grandiose, Phil G, and Shadow Master MC open. 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $20-$25. 21+ Chicago rapper Phil G clearly loves hip-hop’s golden age; his proclivity for skeletal percussion that bisects the air every time a drum beat kicks in and the stylistic elements that have flavored his oeuvre show a predilection for the types of bygone soul and jazz that served as the base for hip-hop’s teenage years. Recently, this affection showed up in the form of Chuck D’s booming voice, courtesy of Public Enemy’s “Shut ’Em Down” (off Apocalypse 91 . . . The Enemy Strikes Black), coursing through “Lower Level,” one of the rock-solid cuts from J

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continued from 28

Phil G’s self-released Proper Education Always Corrects Errors (which he refers to by the acronym PEACE). But though his reference points may retain a “throwback” essence, Phil isn’t trapped in amber. Throughout the album he personifies placidity as he explores weighty questions about religion, racism, and capitalism’s viselike grip on the lower classes. Phil carries himself not as someone pining for the past, but as someone applying the lessons he’s taken to heart over the years to build a better future; I hope the coming days can turn out as good as PEACE sounds. —LEOR GALIL

Lee Ann WOmack See also Sunday. Kelsey Waldon opens. 8 PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph, sold out. b On her latest album, The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone (ATO), country singer Lee Ann Womack brings nuance, depth, and emotional range that comes with age, dispatching the sort of bromides Nashville has proffered over the last couple of decades since she started making records.

On album opener “All the Trouble”—a sober, gospel-steeped song about reckoning with reality that she cowrote with Waylon Payne J

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MUSIC and Adam Wright—the narrator wails, “Make it up that mountain, you’re standing big and tall / Well, the trouble with a mountain, there’s a million ways to fall.” The title track references the heartbreak in the songs of Hank Williams, but acknowledges that even though much about contemporary country music and the consumption of it might be worlds apart from how it was in Williams’s day, the sentiment found in it today often extends the truth in his tunes. “Hollywood” stingingly addresses a broken relationship where the man refuses to face reality of a couple’s frozen coexistence, while “Mama Lost Her Smile” vividly observes that there’s never photographic evidence of the period when a good relationship turns to shit. It’s not all bleak; Womack’s version of Harland Howard’s “He Called Me Baby” embraces the steamy vibe of the Candy Staton version rather than the polite romance of Patsy Cline’s, while her closing cover of the early George Jones gospel hit “Take the Devil Out of Me,” accompanied only by reverb-drenched guitar, concludes the album with a cleansing, celebratory vibe. The album was beautifully produced by Womack’s husband, Frank Liddell, at SugarHill Recording Studios (formerly known as Gold Star), the same Houston studio where Jones made that record in 1959—with a superb band that easily navigates the gaps between honky-tonk, soul, and folk rock. —PETER MARGASAK

SUNDAY21 Bedouine See Pick of the Week, page 25.

Angelo De Augustine, Helena Deland, and V.V. Lightbody open. 8 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $15, $125 Tomorrow Never Knows fiveday pass. 18+ Lee Ann Womack See Saturday. Kelsey Waldon opens. 8 PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph, $30-$40. b v

Lee Ann Womack ò EBRU YILDIZ

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Inspired by the flavors of Kalak, Julia Momose recently created a bright, citrusy cocktail called Sunshine Sue designed to highlight various flavor notes in the vodka. ò JULIA THIEL

B

y definition, vodka should be odorless and flavorless. Kalak Single Malt Vodka is neither—and that’s exactly why bartender Julia Momose likes it. “The flavors really shine through,” she says. “I get notes of lemon, freshly baked brioche and croissants, hints of cacao. It’s opened up the possibilities for vodka—that it has all this flavor and complexity that can be played with [in cocktails] is really intriguing.”

Formerly a bartender at the Aviary and GreenRiver, Momose more recently created the beverage program at Oriole and has been working with Menu Collective, a local food and drink consulting firm. All this is to say that she tastes a lot of spirits. “When writing a spirits list I try to have vodkas that are distilled from different ingredients—wheat, potato, maybe grape, corn—but now there’s an option for a barley-based vodka, and that’s really exciting,” she says.

Kalak is not the only single-malt vodka in existence, but the category is vanishingly small. Like single-malt whiskey, the vodka is made from a single grain—in this case, barley, which is malted (a process involving germination that turns starch into sugar) before being pot distilled four times in West Cork, Ireland. In the U.S., it’s available only in Chicago, though distribution will eventually expand to the rest of the country.

Momose was drawn to the vodka as soon as she tried it, she says. “As someone who

really enjoys whiskey, I can pull out all these notes I really enjoy from single malts, but it’s softer, lighter, a little more nuanced. It has this velvety texture, kind of like suede—it’s so smooth and supple. I’m not typically the type of person to pour vodka on the rocks and just sip on it, but with Kalak I’ve done that at home.”

She didn’t hesitate to put it on the menu at GreenRiver, where she was working when Kalak was released in Chicago a little over a year ago. “It was the first bar in America to have a Kalak cocktail,” she says. Since then she’s also created one for Oriole, a play on the Vesper that involves Nikka Coffey Gin—a Japanese gin made with unusual citrus fruits and sansho, a Japanese pepper. “It was kind of like the Kalak was an extension of the gin,” she says. “The botanicals are so intense, the Kalak helped tame it just a touch so you could taste more of the citrus notes.”

It’s the type of cocktail she hopes to make at Kumiko, the cocktail bar she’s developing with Noah and Cara Sandoval of Oriole. Her ideal, she says, is “precision in technique, staying true to classics, trying not to go overboard with ten-ingredient cocktails.” It will focus on Japanese ingredients (Momose is half Japanese and grew up in Japan), serving an omakase cocktail menu to just eight people at a time. v

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FOOD & DRINK

BELLEMORE | $$$$ R 564 W. Randolph 312-667-0104 bellemorechicago.com

RESTAURANT REVIEW

With Randolph Street newcomer Bellemore, the Boka group strikes again Jimmy Papadopoulos is the latest weapon in the empire’s chef arsenal.

By MIKE SULA

Oyster pie; Hawaiian rolls and venison tartare ò JAMIE RAMSAY

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et’s say things start turning around for the better. Say the president takes a perp walk, and the oft-foretold Chicago restaurant bubble never pops. If things stay on that trajectory, soon you’ll be able to eat at a different Boka Restaurant Group restaurant every day of the month.

For a food critic it’s no longer astonishing that every time BRG opens a new restaurant it’s another remarkable one. It’s become some-

32 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

thing you can reliably look forward to. Number 15, Bellemore, is Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm’s new November restaurant, which opened hot on the heels of number 14, their new September restaurant, the weird but ultimately delightful Somerset. Surely they’ve done it again.

Well, let’s see. They’ve teamed up with Jimmy Papadopoulos, formerly of Bohemian House, where he performed surgery on eastern-European food, excising its unfair

reputation for bland oppressiveness and implanting a quickly beating heart. They’ve opened Bellemore in the vast husk of the abandoned Embeya, laying down a new coat of conceptual paint and installing curvilinear banquettes, brass chandeliers, and a few stuffed peacocks in the upper corners, presumably to scare away crows.

The spacious dining room, patrolled by invariably likable runners and servers, is relaxing. Classic punk is in the air—Television, the Clash, the Jam—and yet it’s one of the less frenetic environments in the group’s empire. You’ll gaze down upon a large, sensibly designed menu that even the most secretly illiterate among us could read. It offers three courses, with a handful of choices available for each. That these three sections aren’t labeled with twee gag-worthy gags shows the Boka group respects your intelligence. It’s just one course after the other. That’s all. Not even a burger. Miraculous.

First, at the very top, there’s a wooden trencher set with burnished Hawaiian rolls, so light and risen they seem to sway, served with a little dish of soft, country-ham-infused cultured butter mixed with tiny, salty bits of fried ham and topped with soft pumpkin stewed in sweet saba, the grape syrup that’s a clever chef’s stand-in for good balsamic vinegar. Here’s a tip: These will come out from the kitchen before anything else you’ve ordered. The shine on them will put a twinkle in your date’s eye, and your first impulse will

be devour them like a starved dog. But don’t lose your mind. Save some, because you’re going to need them to do a proper job on a later course.

In the meantime, you might be intrigued by something called “grilled vegetable soup,” an update on classic Italian ribollita, a hearty bread-and-vegetable soup. Here it’s a clear amber-colored broth of charred vegetables and chickpeas bolstered by Parmesan rind and brimming with braised kale, turnips, carrots, rutabagas, flageolets, and grilled sourdough croutons. It’s a bowl that manages to be both light and powerful, the kind of thing that could wake you from a coma. It’s also the kind of thing Papadopoulos was doing to Czech food at his last position.

On my visits, there was a crudo—the most reliably disappointing dish in all contemporary American restaurant culture—that happened to be an exception to the rule. Thick, lush ribbons of hiramasa, just barely altered by calamansi vinegar (made from a fruit that straddles the divide between citric sweetness and citric acidity), it was plated with paper-thin slices of black and watermelon radishes and bits of sweet mandarin orange in a pool of cool, toasty hazelnut milk. I would say don’t be a fool and share this one, but it’s already been swapped out for a mackerel crudo.

The venison tartare has a lot on its plate— grilled mushrooms, shaved turnips, pickled pear, and fragile pumpernickel chips, all

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Lemongrass semifreddo; grilled vegetable soup ò JAMIE RAMSAY

dressed with smoked-onion oil and finger lime. Yet somehow the mineral-rich wild red meat manages to contend with all that and fulfill the primal, life-affirming craving raw flesh is supposed satisfy.

I don’t know why I ever order razor clams (in the United States, anyway). They’re never as sweet and fresh as they’re supposed to be, instead frequently masquerading as dirty worms. Here, however, it’s as if they’re from a New England clam shack that fell from the sky over northern Spain: buttermilk-battered and deep-fried golden, then plated with a bit of razor-clam ceviche and crispy-soft, perfectly cubed battered sweet-potato fritters over a tangly celery root slaw dressed with remoulade, your tartar sauce all grown up.

Lamb belly. Remember I told you to save some rolls? You need them for this dish.

(That’s OK. Just order more.) The lamb belly is a frankly unlovely lump of luscious, braised ovine flesh plated with persimmon marmalade and a whipped feta sauce that dissolves into lamb jus. What’s left on the plate when the solids are consumed and the remaining sauce and juices are one inspires a sorcerous and formidable compulsion that the rolls will help resolve. Order more, I said.

That’s not the only dish that outperforms a somewhat uninviting appearance. Compressed sections of Cornish hen thigh and breast flesh sandwiching ground forcemeat are perfectly roasty, with none of the hamminess that results from overbrining. These come with mushrooms, apples, and soft potato dumplings that again recall the chef’s winning way with eastern-European food. So too do soft and gently tensile veal sweetbreads carpeted with molasses streusel aligned with thin slices of Honeycrisp apple and served atop “fermented cabbage” (aka kraut) with a brown splat of maple butter on the side.

A similarly earth-toned tangle of chitarra camouf lages crispy fried garlic, snappy sweet scallop, and bits of shrimp and squid.

Papadopoulos goes medieval on duck breast: two thick, red slices of tender, 21-day dryaged breast muscle are tenderized, honey glazed, and served with a piece of baby fennel

confited in duck fat, plus nutty farro, fennel puree, sherry-vinegar-marinated roasted beets, and a meatball—a duck-heart crepinette to be precise, formed from the bird’s heart and leg meat.

You might have noticed by now that this is a predominantly meaty menu (there’s only a single salad), but Papadopoulos fares well at sea too. An uni-crowned black bass fillet sits silkily atop creamy white grits in a pool of lobster jus emulsified with uni butter and sweetened with charred grapefruit. A likewise lush piece of cod with multicolored cauliflower florets, crushed brown-butter-roasted hazelnuts, and tamarind-seasoned grilled radicchio, all draped in brandade mousse, is a master class in acidity dancing gracefully with fat.

And then there’s the oyster pie, the dish that servers will tell you landed Papadopoulos the job: two small slices filled with smooth oyster-infused custard blanketed with black Ossetra caviar garnished with creme fraiche, green apple, lemon, and dill, each piece topped with a single Beausoleil oyster. A gorgeous creation, it’s become something of an Instagram star; it sits alone on its own side of the menu, where a sketch of it dares you not to succumb. The price is what might stop you: $65. I wish the folks at Bellemore would offer this without the perfectly appropriate Moët & Chandon champagne pairing, an option ought to reduce its cost significantly. And yet, coming in with half an ounce of primo caviar, it’s a relative value.

Pastry chef Allison Schroeder scores with a lemongrass semifreddo topped with makrut lime granite. There’s also a homey-looking pile of chestnut-flour brioche chestnut chips with verjus-poached pear marbles and pear sorbet, and a dense chocolate pavé with persimmon marmalade.

Cocktails by Lee Zaremba feature a scotchand-pear soda, complete with a giant ice spear, that’s so subtle—and surprisingly not sweet— I’m sure I’ll being going out of my way for it in the near future. I wish I could forget a sweet, insipid pumpkin-seed milk punch, but also memorable was the To the Point: bourbon, Earl Grey, and chartreuse, the “Elixir of Long Life,” the last tipping this potion up to $18. The wine list is more reasonable, heavy on Alsatians and

Italians, with a few priced below $50 and few priced above $80, like an easy-drinking 2013 André Brunel Côtes du Rhône.

So with Bellemore you have another essential Boka group restaurant to budget for. And with Papadopoulas on the team, perhaps you can look forward to restaurants number 19, 25, or 31 as well. v

v @MikeSula JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 33

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General PATCH LANDSCAPING & Snow

Removal, Inc., Chicago, IL. Daily transportation will be provided to and from worksite within Cook county. 6 Landscape Laborer positions avail.

Temp, FT pos. from 4/1/18-12/15/18, 7A-4P, 40 hrs/wk, OT varies, M-F, Schedule Varies, Some Saturdays may be req’d. Workers will be paid weekly at $15.20/hr, $22.80/hr OT, Raises & bonuses at employer’s discretion. Mow, edge, weed-eat, lawn maintenance; leaf removal/raking; yard & flowerbed clean-ups & installation of mulch, sod, and plant material such as trees, shrubs, plants; haul/ spread topsoil. Able to lift 50lbs, No experience req’d, will train. Employer facilitates voluntary housing arrangements. The employer will provide workers at no charge all tools, supplies and equipment req’d to perform the job. Initial transportation (including meals &, to the extent necessary, lodging) to the place of employment will be provided, or its cost to workers reimbursed, if the worker completes half the employment period. Return transportation will be provided if the worker completes the employment period or is dismissed early by the employer. Please inquire about the job opportunity or send applications, indications of availability, and/or resumes directly to 6107 N Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60660, Phone: (773) 262-7282 or to the nearest IL SWA, Northside Workforce Center (DESI), 5060 N. Broadway Street, Suite 690, Chicago, IL 60640, (773) 334-4747.

Refer to JO#5439909

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34 CHICAGO READER | JANUARY 18, 2018

ASSOCIATE - PLANNING & HPCM - Chicago, IL: develop & maintain project plans; build best practices within planning, forecasting & reporting processes; implement new performance reporting, planning & forecasting processes within the Hyperion Planning toolset; tune & optimize Planning & Essbase applications; design & build reports using Hyperion Financial Reporting; provide expertise in Hyperion Planning, Hyperion Profitability & Cost Management (HPCM), &/or Essbase related to outlines, calculations, load rules, Web Forms, Smart View, Partitions, Security, & application validation. Must have Bachelor’s in Finance, Accounting, or related field. Must have 2 yrs exp. w/ Hyperion Planning, HPCM, & Hyperion Essbase in development & administrative role, analyzing requirements, writing functional specifications, conducting tests, troubleshooting issues & interfacing w/business users, & automation scripts (MaxL) & integration of the full Hyperion suite, Smartview, & financial processes. Willingness to travel up to 80% to various unanticipated worksites in the US. Telecommuting allowed when not traveling. Individuals may reside anywhere in the US. Exp. may be gained concurrently. Apply to Huron Consulting Services LLC at www. huronconsultinggroup.com

Landscape Laborers - Temporary, full-time 4/1/2018-12/15/2018.

9 jobs w/ Doran’s Landscape, Blue Island, IL & job sites in Cook, DuPage & Will cntys. Use hand/power tools/equip. Lay sod, mow, trim, plant, water, fertilize, dig, rake, & assist w/ installation of mortarless masonry wall units.

Entry lvl; req’s supervsn. No exp r eq’d/will train. Lift/carry 50 lbs, when nec. 40 hr/wk 7:30 AM-4:30 PM M-F. Wage is no less than $1 5.20/hr (OT varies @ $22.80/hr).

Trans. (incl. meals &, as nec, lodging) to place of employ provided or paid to wkrs residing outside normal commute distance by completion of 50% of job period.

Return trans. provided or paid to same wkrs if wkr completes job period or is dismissed early. Wkrs are guaranteed offer of 3/4 of work hrs each 12-wk period.

Tools, supplies, equip, & uniform provided at no cost. Potential deduct for advances may apply.

Emplr may assist to secure wkrpaid lodging at reasonable cost if needed. Emplr provides inciden-

tal trans. btw job sites. Interview req’d. Fax resume to (708) 3894575 or apply at: IDES Blue Islan d/Pilsen Ctr, 1700 West 18th Street, Chicago, IL 60608, (800) 244-5631. JO#5439322.

COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYSTS & PROJECT MANAGER ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. has openings in Oak Brook, IL. All positions may be assigned to various, unanticipated sites throughout the US. Job Code: US-OBIL158 Computer Systems Analyst (Solution s/TSDs): req’s, risk assessment & analysis. Job Code: US-OBIL159 Computer Systems Analyst (Projects/ Analysis): business impacts, analysis & fix issues. Job Code: US-OBIL160 Project Manager (Infrastructure/ Cloud): ensure center operation, processes & reporting. Job Code: USOBIL161 Computer Systems Analyst (Solutions/Jobs) : sw projects & DB jobs. Mail resume to: Prasun Maharatna, 2107 North First Street, Suite 100, San Jose, CA 95131. Include job code & full job title/s of interest + recruitment source in cover letter.

EOE

Particulate Solid Research Inc. seeks Research Engineers II (Sr Research Engineers) for Chicago, IL loc. to analyze & dev solutions to materials eng problems.

Master’s in Materials/Chemical Eng +2yrs exp or Bachelor’s in M aterials/Chemical Eng +5yrs exp req’d. Skills Req’d: 2yrs w/ Mathematica, MatLab, TurboCAD, R, testing of equipment & systems for fluidized beds. Background check req’ d.

Send resume to: PSRI, Ref: SS, 4201 W. 36th St. Building A, Chicago, IL 60632 TECHNOLOGY CONSULTING MANAGER (Multiple Positions) (Accenture LLP; Chicago, IL): Advise upon, lead and work on high impact activities within the systems development lifecycle, and provide advisory work for the IT function itself. Must have willingness and ability to travel domestically approximately 80% of the time to meet client needs. For complete job description, list of requirements, and to apply, go to: www.accenture.com/ us-en/careers (Job# 00548638).

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH Seeking dynamic Director to manage a 52-bed adult psychiatric unit, 33-bed C/A psychiatric unit, and detox unit in Healthsource Hospital, Saginaw, MI. Req’s Master’s Degree in related field, and 3+ yrs. acute care psych mgmt. exper. in a hospital. Relocation pkg.

Send resume to: Terry Good, terry.good@horizonhealth.com; Fax: 1-804-684-5663. EOE Tech Support Engineer: Provide tech support to SaaS applications for the company’s netFORUM Enterprise product using knowledge of s/w lifecycle & the role of s/w maintenance & MS.NET, Visual Studio.NET, C#.NET, TSQL, JQuery, Web Svcs, JavaScript, IIS, CSS, Win Server, SQL Server, Soap UI, TFS & rel tools. Job in Chicago, IL. Apply to HR, Abila, Inc.,10800 Pecan Park Dr #400, Austin, TX 78750 or human resources@abila.com. EOE.

EXP’D CLASS A CDL INTERMODAL DRIVERS WANTED AVG $1100 WEEKLY PAY CITY HAUL INC. (773)847-3710.

HYATT CORPORATION seeks a Senior Software Engineer in Chicago, IL to provide enhancement, support, and maintenance for the mobile backend application Technology Stack. BS & 5 yrs. To apply submit cover letter and resume to: Hyatt Corporation, Attn: Mecca Wilkinson 150 N Riverside Plaza, Floor 14, Chicago, IL 60606 ARCHITECTURAL INTERN. ASSIST w/ plan & design of structures. Bach. deg. (Architecture) req’d. 6 months’ exp. in pos’n(s) requiring proficiency with laser cutter machine in 3D modeling req’d. bKL Architecture LLC, Chicago, IL. Resumes to: Recruiting, bKL Architecture LLC, 225 N. Columbus Drive, Suite 100, Chicago, IL 60601.

REAL ESTATE RENTALS STUDIO $500-$599 CHICAGO, BEVERLY/CAL Par k/Blue Island: Studio $625 & up; 1BR $700 & up; 2BR $885 & up.

Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Parking. Call 708-3880170

STUDIO $600-$699 CHICAGO, HYDE PARK Arms Hotel, 5316 S. Harper, maid, phone /cable, switchboard, fridge, priv bath, lndry, $165/wk, $350/bi-wk or $650/mo. Call 773-493-3500

STUDIO $700-$899 EAST ROGERS PARK Large Studio Sublet 3rd fl. $875/mo. No deposit. 1st Mo rent negotiable. wall-to-wall carpet. wall separates kitchen Gated parking avail. Easy access to public trans. 1 blk from Lake. 6825 N. Sheridan. Non smoking building. 312-882-3098

STUDIO OTHER LARGE SUNNY ROOM w/fridge & microwave. Near Oak Park, Green Line & Buses. 24 hr Desk, Parking Lot $101/week & Up. (773)378-8888 CROSSROADS HOTEL SRO SINGLE RMS Private bath, PHONE, CABLE & MAIDS. 1 Block to Orange Line 5300 S. Pulaski 773-581-1188

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

24 hr desk/maid/TV/laundry/air.

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

1 BR UNDER $700 7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impeccably Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park.

Laundry & Security on Premises.

Parking & Apts. Are Subject to Availability. TOWNHOUSE APARTMENTS 773-288-1030

PRE-SPRING SPECIAL Beautiful Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR, Sect. 8 Welc. Westside Loc, Also Homes for Rent available. Call Tom 630-7765556, www.wjmngmt.com

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2018 NEW YEAR SA VINGS! Newly Remod. Studio $550, 1BR $650 w/Heat. 2BR and up starting at $750. Qualified Applicants rcv. up to $200/month off rent for 1 year. No App Fee. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

N Riverside: 1BR new tile, engery efficent windows, lndry facilitities, a/c, incls heat- natural gas, $955/ mo Luis 708-366-5602 lv msg

1 BR $700-$799

MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All

PRE-SPRING SPECIAL - Chicago South Side Beautiful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. Also Homes for rent available. Call Nicole 312-4461753; W-side locations Tom 630-7765556

CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up.

773-637-5957

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773-619-0204 1 MONTH FREE South Shore Studios $600-$750 Free Heat, Fitness Ctr, Lndry rm. Niki 773.808.

2043 www.livenovo.com Chicago - Hyde PARK 5401 S. Ellis.

1BR. $625/mo.

Call 773-955-5106

BRONZEVILLE - 4312 S. King Dr. 1BR. $550/mo. Heat included Move-in fee $275.

Call 773-548-7286 for application RIVERDALE 1 BEDROOM apartment, carpet, A/C, stove & refrigerator. Near Metra. $675/mo + Security. Call 708-552-1883 CHICAGO - $299 Move In Special! 110th & Michigan, 1BR & 2BR Apts, $580-$725/mo. Avail. now Secure building. 1-800-770-0989

CHICAGO 70TH & King Dr, 1BR, clean, quiet, well maintained bldg, Lndry, Heat incl. Sec. 8 Ok Starting at $720/mo 773-510-9290 Newly updated, clean furnished rooms in Joliet, near buses & Metra, elevator. Utilities included, $91/wk. $395/mo. 815-722-1212 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442

UPTOWN SPACIOUS GARDEN apt. New SS app. granite

counters, heated, near Red Line, buses, Metra. Quiet bldg., no smoking, cats OK. Credit check $50, Rent $700 plus one mo. sec. deposit. Call Agent @ 773.593.2485

1BR, $750 LARGE STUDIO, $650 Newly decorated, carpeted, stove, refrigerator, dining room. FREE heat & cooking gas. Elevator & laundry facilities. FREE credit check, no application fee.

1-773-919-7102 or 312-8027301

LARGE 1-BEDROOM HEATED

CHATHAM 742 EAST 81ST (EVANS), 1 bedroom, 3rd floor, $700/ mo. Please call Mr. Joe at 708-870-4801 for more info

CHICAGO - BEVERLY, large studio, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, A/ C, laundry, near transportation, $680-$1020/mo. Call 773-2334939

2402 E. 77TH St. (77th & Yates)

1 BR $800-$899 HUMBOLDT PARK. ONE bedroom apartment for rent. Newly remodeled. Next door to food store. $880/mo plus security deposit.

Includes gas. Near shopping area.

Tim, 773-592-2989.

1 BR $900-$1099 LARGE ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near the Metra and

Irving/Kimball 2BR new tile, laundry facilities, energy efficient windows, central heat/ac, $999/mo Call Luis 708-366-5602, lv msg

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. SUMMER IS HERE!!

Most units Include..

HEAT & HOT WTR Studios From $475.00 1Bdr From $550.00 2Bdr From $745.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000** ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled.

Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2

6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. Hot Summer Is Here Cool Off In The Pool OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG Plenty of parking 1Bdr From $795.00 2Bdr From $925.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

Quiet Building -Newly decorated with living room, dining room, Hardwood floors. Laundry room (North Ave. & Narragansett Ave.) near Oakpark. 3-5 years steady work/rent history. Good credit. Sec-8-ok. $775/mo - Deposit required. Available now. Serious inquiries only. 773-704-3449 2402 E 77TH St. (77th & Yates) Sunny & cln 1st flr 1BR w/dr, walk-in closet, free heat, appls, glistening, mini-blinds, c-fans, Cameras, $725.00, (312)479-5502

BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970 BR $735, Includes Free heat & appliances & cooking gas. (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt

1 BR OTHER WAITING LIST OPEN Drexel Square Senior Apts. 810 E. 51st.

Chicago, IL. 60615 for Qualified Seniors 62+ Beautiful park like setting, Hyde park area, rent based on 30% of monthly income (sec.

8), A/C, heat, lndry., rec. rooms, storage space in apt, cable ready, intercom entrance system, 24 hours front desk customer service.

Applications will be accepted immediately between the hours of 11:00am-3:00pm at the above address. 773-268-2120

modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

7520 S. COLES - 1 BR $520, 2 BR $645, Includes appliances & AC, Near transp., No utilities included (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt

CHICAGO, 5510 S. WOOD ST., 4 room Apt for Rent, $8 00/mo. FREE HEAT. Section 8 Welcome.

Call 773-8736479

Warren Park. 1902 N. Wolcott. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $900/month.

Heat included. Available 2/1.

(773) 761-4318

5218 S. DREXEL 1BR. $1095.

2BR. $1295.

Newly decor, hdwd flrs, appls, free credit check, Sec 8 OK. no app fee 1-773-667-6477 or 1-312-802-7301

Sunny & clean rooms w/Bed, TV, mini-blinds, Shared Kit & Bath, $450-$525/mo. (312)479-5502 LOOKING TO MOVE ASAP? Remodeled 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Apts.

Heat & Appls incl. Sec 8 OK. Southside Only. 773-593-4357

SUBURBS, RENT TO OWN! Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT NO MOVE IN FEE 1, 2, 3 BEDROOM APTS (773) 874-1122 ACACIA SRO HOTEL Men Preferred! Rooms for Rent. Weekly & Monthly Rates. 312-421-4597

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2 BR UNDER $900 CHICAGO 7600 S Essex PRE-SPRING SPECIAL - 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sec 8 Ok! Also Homes for Rent avail. Call Nicole 312-446-1753; W-side locations Tom 630-776-5556 8324 S INGLESIDE 1BR $660/mo, newly remodeled, laundry, hrdwd flrs, cable, Sec 8 welc. 708-3081509 or 773-493-3500 SECTION 8 WELCOME Newly Decorated. 77th/ Ridgeland.

2BR. Heat Incl. $775. 773-874-9637 or 773-493-5359

CHICAGO, 727 N. Monticello, 2 bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, $850/mo. 630-915-2755

2 BR $900-$1099 Chicago, 4540 W. Maypole, 2nd floor, nice & clean, 2BR Apt, heat & cooking gas included, $ 900/mo + security. Call 708360-3898 SOUTH SHORE - Lrg 2+ BR Apt, 1BA, 1st flr, carpet & hdwd flrs, new appls. Laundry avail. Heat incl. $925mo. Call 708-204-2182

2 BR $1100-$1299 BEAUTIFUL REMODELED 1, 2 & 3BR Apts, hdwd flrs, custom cabinets, avail now. $1000-$1200 /mo + sec. 773-905-8487. Section 8 Ok NORTH PARK DLX 3BR, no Deposit, 1 MO FREE RENT, eat-in kit, oak flrs, new BA, on-site lndy, $139 5/incl ht. 773-743-4141 urbanequi ties.com EVANSTON DLX 2 & 3BR no De p.,1 MO FREE RENT, new kit, oak flrs, new BA, OS lndry, $1295$1550/incl ht. 773-743-4141 urban equities.com

Marquette Park Area near 72nd/ Western Ave. Nice 2BR House, nr trans, appls incl. $1100/mo+ move in fee, Sec 8 ok773-590-0116

24 HOUR SECURITY Lg 2BR, beautiful hdwd flrs.

Free Heat. SEC 8 WELCOME. 773-609-5720 or 773-602-1115 NEAR BEVERLY Huge 2BR on 1st floor. Sect 8 welcome. Call 312.806.1080.

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 HAMILTON PARK: Renovated building with 3 bedrooms, hardwood floors, ceiling fans, appliances, laundry room, and gated entrance. Tenant pays utilities. $925/ mo. Call 312-719-3308 or 312-3146604 BRONZEVILLE, 4542 S King Dr. 2nd flr, 3BR, 2BA, hdwd flrs, kitchen, pantry, LR & DR, lots of closets, sun porch, ten pays gas & heat.$1100 +$1200 sec. 773965-1584 aftr 6pm

DOLTON - 14526 Cottage Grove. 2 & 3BR, heat, cooking gas, water, A/C, appls, smoke free. $940-1040+sec. Sec 8 Ok.708846-5342 SECTION 8 WELCOME 7134 S. Normal, 4BR/2BA. $1150.

225 W. 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA. $950.

9116 S. So Chgo Ave, 2/1. $675.

No Deposit. 312-683-5174

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 5900 W & 300 N. 1/2 block from G reenline & Oak Park. Renovated

3BR, sanded floors, heat incl. $1200/mo + sec deposit. Call 773626-8993 or 773-653-6538

WEST PULLMAN: SEC. 8 WEL. $500 Cash Back! $0 Security for Sec 8. 3BR, $1300/mo. Fine condition. ADT alarm. 708-7150034 DOLTON/RIVERDALE - 4BR, 1.5BA, 2 car garage, unfinished basement, Section 8 OK. $1200/ mo + security. 847-909-1538

ADULT SERVICES

OAK PARK NE - $1400/mo. 2 flat, 2nd floor, spacious 3BR, 1BA, heated, laundry, parking available. Call 708-205-5526.

12XX S Harding , 4BR neutral decor, with hdwd flrs, stove/ fridge, recessed lights, $1365,1mo rent + $700 dep, Sec 8 Ok. 630330-4541

MARKETPLACE GOODS

SAUK VILLAGE 3BD/1BA ranch w/ bonus room, newly updated. 2 car garage.

Must See. $1350. 708-816-4474

227 W. 106TH St. CHA Welcome. newly renov, spacious 4BR home w/ appls & 2 car garage, $1300/mo + $575 move-in fee. 773-876-6591 65TH AND CARPENTER 3BR, 2BA, carpeted, heat & appls incl, 1 mo free rent (with Sec 8). No Sec Dep. $1250/mo. 773-684-1166

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799

SOUTH SIDE- 5 BR, 1.5 BA, Living /Dining rm. hdwd flrs. high ceilings, enclosed porch, pantry, bsmnt, Sec 8 OK. 708-612-1732

NEAR BEVERLY - Sec 8 Ready!

6BR, 2BA, Brick Bungalow and 941 W 114th Pl, Morgan Park, Ranch, 3BR, 1 BA. 773-818-3962

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499 LARGE 3 BEDROOM apartment near Wrigley Field. 3820 N. Fremont.

Two bathrooms. Hardwood Floors.

Cats OK. $2175/month. Special!

Sign a lease starting by February 1, get March rent free! Available 2/1. 773-761-4318.

ROGERSPK 3BR, 2BA+DEN, 1 ONTH FREE! No Dep. New kit w/ granite, SS appl, Close to lake! $18 75/incl ht 773-743-4141 urbanequ ities.com OLYMPIA FIELDS Newly remodeled 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, full basement. Beautiful area. 708-935-7557.

3 BR OR MORE

APPLS INCL , SECTION 8 OK. NO SEC. DEPOSIT. 708-822-4450

GENERAL

FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel, house calls welcome $90

CHICAGO SOUTH - You’ve tried the rest, we are the best.

Apartments & Homes for rent, city & suburb. No credit checks.

773-253-2132 or 773-253-2137

CHICAGO Southside Brand New 3BR & 4BR apartments. Exc. neighborhood, near public transp.

For details call 708-774-2473

FOR SALE

special. Russian, Polish, Ukrainain girls. Northbrook and Schaumburg locations. 10% discount for new customers. Please call 773-407-7025

MUSIC & ARTS TRACY GUNS & Britney Beach

rocks idols & pop icons. B.Spears, J. Bieber, L.Gaga, Guns-N-Roses, Aerosmith, B. Sabbath, M-Crue, AC/ DC. Love, Dominick Defanso, 312206-0867, 773-323-5173

JUST WANT OUT, Can’t Afford The Payment Please Call 630-452-0516

non-residential SELF-STORAGE

PRE-SPRING SPECIAL CHICAGO Houses for rent. Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail. Call

T W O locations to serve you. All units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue.

773-685-6868.

South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

ADULT SERVICES

INSURANCE-GET

LOW-COST HEALTH INSURANCE Now-even if you have preexisting conditions!!(480) 482-9949

HEALTH & WELLNESS

OTHER

Nicole: 312-446-1753; W-side locations: Tom 630-776-5556

SERVICES HEALTH

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, 4BR, 1BA, NEWLY REMODELED,

MORGAN PARK, Beautiful 4br, 2ba, Modern home, great block, newly painted. Sec 8 Welcome. $1550/mo. 773-396-2534. Berger Co.

CLASSICS WANTED ANY CLASSIC CARS IN ANY CONDITION. ’20S, ’30S, ’40S, ’50S, ’60S & ’70S. HOTRODS & EXOTICS! TOP DOLLAR PAID! COLLECTOR. CALL JAMES, 630-201-8122

WEDNESDAY EVENING JAZZ

Vocal Classes at Bloom School of Jazz starting 1/24. Learn scatting, improvisation and more with Instructor Spider Saloff. 773-860-8300

CENTERS.

ADULT SERVICES

JAZZ COMBO COURSES: learn

improvisation techniques of master musicians with David Bloom at Bloom School of Jazz 773-860-8300

ADULT SERVICES

PARK MANOR; 7528 S. St. Lawrence, Beautiful rehab, 6+3BRs, 2BA house, fin bsmt, granite ctrs, SS appls, $1600/mo 708-288-4510

2 BR OTHER HICKORY MANOR APARTMENTS Will open their waiting list for 2 bedroom Apts. on February 5, 2018 at 9:00am Interested Applicants Should Apply At 4160 Continental Dr – Waukegan, IL Selection will be made on a 1st come, 1st serve basis.

The waiting list will close on February 9, 2018 at 3:00pm.

Property Managed by Ludwig And Company ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for Subsidized 2 and 3 bedroom apt waiting list. Rent is based on 30% of annual income for qualified applicants. Contact us at 847-546-1899 for details

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JANUARY 18, 2018 | CHICAGO READER 35

365,000 of our readers

Meet sexy friends who really get your vibe...

have attended a rock or pop concert in the last 12 months.

STRAIGHT DOPE

By Cecil Adams Q : Scientifically speaking, is

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music universal? If some advanced extraterrestrial came to earth, would he recognize our music? —JIM B., VIA THE STRAIGHT DOPE MESSAGE BOARD

Try FREE: 312-924-2066 More Local Numbers: 1-800-811-1633

CONTACT US TODAY!

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36 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

A : Is music universal? Well, that’s a bet being

made by the group Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The METI folks are beaming a binary-coded message at one potentially life-friendly exoplanet 12 light-years away. The content of their message? Melodies, created in collaboration with an artsy Barcelona music festival—lest you thought we’d subject our pen pals to, say, “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).”

For the moment, let’s focus on what we can say for sure, which is that here on earth virtually all cultures produce music in some form.

We’ve been at it a long time, creating tunes for at least 50,000 years—possibly as long as 250,000, if you count our a cappella period.

This long-term commitment has led some scientists to suggest that the tendency to make music must have had some role to play in natural selection. But what? The list of theories is longer than Wagner’s Ring Cycle: music could have been a “proto-language,” a mode of human communication before formal languages developed; music might facilitate social cohesion, like grooming does for other primates; music might soothe cognitive dissonance in our brains and help us perform complex tasks; and so on.

Not exactly settled science, but let’s accept for the sake of discussion that our taste for music is an evolutionary adaptation. Is there any reason to think our friends from the exoplanet GJ 273b—the target audience for the METI transmission—would’ve evolved similarly? I’ll point you toward an intriguing recent paper in the International Journal of Astrobiology, where a few scientists argue that if advanced extraterrestrials have also undergone a process of natural selection (and there’s no reason to think otherwise), they might resemble us in some fundamental biological ways, and to a degree that might surprise us.

But can they boogie? I regret to inform you this paper didn’t go so far as to venture a guess, Jim. It’s not too hard, though, to make the case it shouldn’t matter either way.

Besides the musical passages, the METI message contains a primer on earth math and physics—from basic arithmetic and geometry up through trig, which gets you to the sine

function and ultimately to the wave forms that convey audible sound, as well as a clock function meant to get across the idea of measuring time in seconds. The plan is to provide a conceptual tool kit for budding music lovers on other planets: everything they’d need, ideally, to look at the other data and have a shot at figuring out it’s supposed to represent notes at various pitches over varying lengths of time.

Even if the aliens can’t hear the music in the sense that we understand hearing, they’ll be able to perceive the patterns formed by its constituent data, and, with any luck, grok it anyway. The mathematical orderliness of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, you’d think, might have a beauty that transcends mere audibility.

And who knows? Maybe the receiving civilization will have some souped-up hi-fi equipment that transposes our sound waves into a spectrum more locally popular—light, say.

Just the same, they may not see what the big deal is. “Even if Martian anthropologists had ears, I suspect they would be stumped by music,” musicologist David Huron writes in a 2001 paper. His point is that music as we understand it may be a uniquely human behavior—graspable by extraterrestrial listeners, sure, but they might find our devotion curious. To be fair, this wouldn’t put them too far behind earth anthropologists; as discussed earlier, we’re still puzzling it out ourselves.

From METI’s perspective, it’s a positive if music is specific to humans: any alien civilization we contact is likely to be much more advanced than we are, so bragging about our scientific achievements is probably pointless, whereas music and other earthly arts might be sui generis enough to pique their interest. To me, though, this argues for sending the very best stuff we’ve got. No offense to the composers in Barcelona, but if we’re trying to turn extraterrestrial heads here, why screw around? Play ’em some Stevie Wonder already. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 30 N. Racine, suite 300, Chicago 60607.

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

WTF? A medical mystery becomes the talk of the dungeon

Who knew something benign could be so gory? Plus: a marital stalement 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. We brought him into the bathroom, and he laid down on his back, jerking off with a condom on his penis as my buddy was standing over him and peeing and I was saying all kinds of mean/ encouraging sentiments and closely observing his progress. He came and . . . it was entirely blood. It looked like he shat into his condom, through his penis. He did not seem alarmed or in pain.

He took off his condom himself, so he was aware of the situation. He did not remark on it to either of us! He made ZERO effort to prepare either of us, either. And it was not a little blood in his ejaculate—it was entirely blood. He has never returned. Is this person a monster or a vampire? Is he dying? Seriously. —MISTRESS ECHO

A : “You can tell Mistress

Echo that her client was not a monster or a vampire, and he is likely not dying anytime soon,” said Dr. Stephen H. King, a boardcertified urologist. “What she observed is a person with hematospermia, meaning blood in the semen.”

While the sight is alarming, Dr. King assures me that it’s nothing to worry about, as hematospermia is almost

always benign. And even if you had done ball play or rough CBT (cock and ball torture), or if he engaged in solo CBT prior to the session, it’s unlikely that kind of play would result in a condom full of blood.

“Very little of the ejaculate fluid actually originates from the testicles,” said Dr. King.

“The prostate gland and seminal vesicles (also glands) store up the fluids and can become overdistended with long periods of abstinence and prone toward micro tearing and bleeding in this circumstance.

“Also, these glands are lined by smooth muscle that contracts to force out the fluid [during ejaculation],” Dr. King continued. “If the force of contraction is excessive—a fucking great orgasm—this may lead toward rupture of some of the surrounding blood vessels and blood will enter the semen.”

Your client’s blase reaction is a good indication that he’s experienced this previously, ME, because most guys who see blood in their semen—or only blood when they expected to see semen—freak the fuck out.

“Their doctors usually tell them this isn’t something to worry about—unless it persists,” said Dr. King. “In cases where the hematospermia persists, gets worse, or is associated with other symptoms such as pain, difficulty urinating, or general health decline, medical attention is definitely recommended.”

Back to your client, ME: If blood loads have happened to him regularly, he should have warned you in advance— at least that’s what it says in my imaginary edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette.

Q : My husband has a

foot fetish. The feel of his tongue between my toes

when he “worships” my feet doesn’t arouse me in the least. Rather, it feels like I’m stepping on slugs in the garden barefoot. Our sex life is fine otherwise. I resolved to grin (or grimace) and bear this odd aspect of his sexuality before we married, but I cannot continue to do so. When I told him this, he asked to be allowed to attend “foot model” parties. There wouldn’t be intercourse, but he would pleasure himself in the presence of these foot models (and other males!). This would, in my opinion, violate our monogamous commitment and our marriage vows. I enjoy your podcast and I know you often advocate for open relationships. But you also emphasize your respect for monogamy and the validity of monogamous commitments. We are at an impasse. Please advise. —THROWING OFF

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A : While “love

unconditionally” sounds nice, TOE, monogamy was a condition of yours going into this marriage (and a valid one), and being able to express this aspect of his sexuality was a stated or implicit condition of his (and, yes, an equally valid one). If you’re going to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of your marriage, TOE, then you’ll need to reopen negotiations and come to a new agreement with your husband, one that works for both of you. (Jesus, lady, let him go to the fucking party!) v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast. com. v @fakedansavage

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EARLY WARNINGS

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JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 37

b Sammus 3/3, 9 PM, Hideout The Thing 3/21, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Today Is the Day 2/18, 8 PM, GMan Tavern Gloria Trevi & Alejandra Guzman 3/15, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Trippie Redd, Mose Wood 3/9, 6 PM, Portage Theater b

UPDATED Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn 2/21, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, early show sold out, late show added b Justin Timberlake 3/27-28, 7:30 PM, United Center, 3/28 added, on sale Mon 1/22, 10 AM

UPCOMING

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard ò COURTESY OF ATO RECORDS

NEW

Afghan Whigs, Built to Spill, Rituals of Mine 4/12, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Pepe Aguilar y Familia 8/19, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Thu 1/18, 10 AM Fabian Almazan 4/12, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Courtney Marie Andrews 3/31, 7 PM, Schubas Atomic 2/16-17, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Bad Bunny 3/16, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 1/19, noon Bishop Briggs 5/12, 8 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 17+ Black Angels, Black Lips 3/26-27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Bon Jovi 4/26, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Karla Bonoff 4/4, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 1/18, noon b Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown 3/11, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Bully, Melkbelly 1/29, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle F David Byrne 6/2, 8 PM, Auditorium Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Ryan Caraveo 3/18, 8:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Charlotte Cardin 4/20, 9 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Chrome Sparks & Machinedrum 4/20, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Copyrights 3/23, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 17+ Crumb 4/2, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 1/19, noon, 17+

Decemberists 4/10, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein 3/30, 7 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, noon b Dr. Dog 5/5, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Eels 6/6, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 17+ Exodus, Municipal Waste 3/4, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Field Report 3/27, 8 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Forever Came Calling 3/31, 5:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 1/19, noon b Grendel 5/11, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Shanna Gutierrez 3/25, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Hanni El Khatib 4/5, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Kristen Hersh & Grant Lee Phillips 3/20, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Jolie Holland & Samantha Parton 4/8, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b James Hunter Six 4/18, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Impiety, Divine Eve 4/20, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 18+ Kidz Bop Kids 7/1, 4 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 6/10, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Dylan LeBlanc 4/1, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Legions of Metal Fest with TKO, Toxik, Heir Apparent, and more 5/18-19, 5 PM, Reggie’s, 17+

38 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 18, 2018

Lightning Bolt 3/28, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Loma 5/11, 9 PM, Schubas, 18+ Matt & Kim, Tokyo Police Club 4/17, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Michael McDermott 3/23 and 3/25, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 1/18, noon b MGMT 3/3, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Keb’ Mo’ 4/26-27, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 1/18, noon b Moaning 3/20, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Juana Molina 4/9, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 17+ Nap Eyes 4/6, 9 PM, Schubas, 18+ New Orleans Suspects 3/23, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Octave Cat 3/31, 10 PM, Schubas, 18+ Oh Sees 2/18, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM George Porter Jr. 4/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Preoccupations 4/27, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Thu 1/18, 10 AM Primitive Man 3/20, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Rainbow Kitten Surprise 4/21, 8:30 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b Red Sun Rising 4/22, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 1/19, noon, 17+ Ripe 4/12, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM, 18+ Rogue Wave 3/22, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM Jeff Rosenstock 4/26, 6:30 PM, Logan Square Auditorium b Josh Rouse 5/17, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 1/19, 10 AM b

Acid Mothers Temple, Melting Paraiso U.F.O. 4/14, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen American Nightmare, No Warning 2/25, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Trey Anastasio Band 4/20-21, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Dan Auerbach & the Easy Eye Sound Revue, Shannon & the Clams 4/2, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Jason Bieler 4/27, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Night Beats 2/10, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Calexico 4/25, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Casket Lottery 3/10, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Darkest Hour, Whores. 2/22, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ A Day to Remember, Papa Roach, Falling in Reverse 2/24, 6:30 PM, UIC Pavilion Dead Meadow 4/4, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen Enslaved, Wolves in the Throne Room 2/23, 7 PM, Metro, 18+ Fetty Wap 1/25, 7 PM, House of Blues b Samantha Fish 1/31, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Fu Manchu 5/19, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge b G-Eazy, Trippie Redd 3/9, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds 2/24, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre James Hill 2/3, 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Peter Hook & the Light 5/4, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Hot Snakes 3/9, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Iced Earth 3/29, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jay Electronica 2/1, 9 PM, Park West, 18+

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

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Jeezy 2/21, 7 PM, House of Blues b Stephen Kellogg 3/15, 8 PM, City Winery b K.Flay 2/2, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall b Kitty, Ricky Eat Acid 1/25, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Less Than Jake, Four Year Strong 2/22, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Jeff Lynne’s ELO 8/15, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Mammoth Grinder 2/24, 9 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Marilyn Manson 2/6, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Ministry, Chelsea Wolfe 4/7, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Nada Surf 3/13, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ National Parks 3/19, 8 PM, Schubas John Oates & the Good Road Band 2/8, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Of Mice & Men 2/11, 5 PM, House of Blues b Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 3/16, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Pedro the Lion 8/24, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Residents 4/17, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b San Fermin 2/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Screaming Females 3/10, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Shopping 3/28, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Sleigh Bells, Sunflower Bean 1/31, 8 PM, Metro b Mavis Staples 2/3, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ They Might Be Giants 3/17, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 14+ Tune-Yards 3/3, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jeff Tweedy 4/27-28, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ U.S. Girls 4/17, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Suzanne Vega 5/5-6, 8 PM, City Winery b Walk the Moon 1/26, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Watain, Destroyer 666 3/2, 7 PM, Metro, 18+ Wedding Present 3/26, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall Weezer, Pixies, Wombats 7/7, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Bob Weir & Phil Lesh 3/10, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Zombies 3/19-20, 8 PM, City Winery b v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene CHICAGO HIP-HOP collective Private Stock throws the occasional show under the name Late Notice, and the next entry in the series is a doozy. On Sunday, January 21, Private Stock takes over 1st Ward with a concert headlined by rapper and tattoo artist Phor. Best known from VH1 reality series Black Ink Crew: Chicago (he works at Pilsen shop 9 Mag), Phor is an artist in other realms too—last month he dropped a luxurious album called Butterfly. And Sunday’s whole bill is hot: it features openers Valee, Queen Key, and JBro Bugatti, DJ sets from Mile High, Shon, and Dam Dam, and special guests Hypno Carlito and Bump J. When Gossip Wolf checked in with Angel Olsen bassist and former Chicagoan Emily Elhaj last winter, her cassette label Love Lion was dropping a collection of vintage gospel to benefit Black Lives Matter. Though Elhaj now lives in New Orleans (she left town in January 2014), she’s still dedicated to spreading the word about Chicago music! On Friday, January 26, Love Lion releases a 20-track compilation called Grid City filled with previously unreleased cuts by a dizzying array of talent, including Azita, Hide, Beau Wanzer, Quarter Mile Thunder, Facs, Jeremiah Meece, and Matt Jencik. Copies will be available at Reckless Records and Cafe Mustache and via Love Lion’s Bandcamp.

They’ve played only a handful of shows, but CB Radio Gorgeous already get a big “ten-four” from Gossip Wolf! The brandnew outfit consists of four folks who are already known quantities on Chicago’s underground scene: Jill Flanagan of Forced Into Femininity, Joe Seger of Big Zit, Matt Revers of Negative Scanner, and Anna Kinderman of Red Delicious.

Revers compares the band to the Minutemen and Kleenex, and this wolf concurs!

They play a DIY show on Friday, January 19, with Mayor Daley, Toupee, and Virginia industrial-blues duo Buck Gooter; e-mail Matthew.revers@gmail.com for details.

—J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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JANUARY 18, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 39

®

THIS SATURDAY! JANUARY 20

SPECIAL GUEST:

LUTHER DICKINSON

THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY! JANUARY 19-20 • VIC THEATRE

THIS SATURDAY! JANUARY 20 PARK WEST ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

SPECIAL GUESTS:

APRIL 17

TOKYO POLICE CLUB SPECIAL GUEST:

SON LITTLE SPECIAL GUESTS:

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THE CONGREGATION

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3 VIC THEATRE

SATURDAY, MAY 5

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

STICK FIGURE –Friday, Jan. 19 • MILKY CHANCE –Jan. 26 -SOLD OUT! • BØRNS –Saturday, Jan. 27 -SOLD OUT! • FIRST AID KIT –Friday, Feb. 2 -SOLD OUT! • MARILYN MANSON –Feb. 6 JOE RUSSO’S ALMOST DEAD –Feb. 17-SOLD OUT! • ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS –Feb. 20-SOLD OUT! • LETTUCE / GALACTIC –Friday, Feb. 23 MIGUEL –Mar. 5 • MAT KEARNEY –Friday, Mar. 9 • MANIC FOCUS –Saturday, Mar. 10 • GLEN HANSARD –Mar. 18 • JUDAH & THE LION Friday, Mar. 23 • DAN AUERBACH –April 2 MINISTRY –Saturday, April 7 • TY SEGALL –April 8 • JIMMY EAT WORLD –May 8 • ALICE IN CHAINS –May 15 • KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD –June 10 • SYLVAN ESSO –July 23

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