Chicago Reader: print issue of January 21, 2016 (Volume 45, Number 15) by Chicago Reader

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 2 1 , 2 0 1 6

THE 50

WORST OF THE MOMENTS

BULLS

FIRST 50 YEARS OF THE CHICAGO

By JAKE MALOOLEY 10

Politics Rahm’s plan to spend TIF funds on the rich 9

Music Spektral Quartet give diﬃcult music a friendly face. 22

Food & Drink The city’s most essential pasta destination 33

Featuring

Shumon Ahmed, Matthew Connors, Gauri Gill, Paul Graham, An-My Le, Yamini Nayar, Thasnai Sethaseree, Tejal Shah, Mickalene Thomas, and Lidwien van de Ven Exhibition

January 22 – March 13, 2016 Reception

January 22, 2016 6–8 pm Logan Center Exhibitions 915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637 Tue–Sat 9 am–9 pm, Sun 11 am–9 pm Image: Gauri Gill, Ruined Rainbow, 2010. Courtesy of the artist.

2 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

THIS WEEK

C H I C AG O R E A D E R | JA N UA RY 2 1 , 2 01 5 | VO LU M E 4 5, N U M B E R 1 5

TO CONTACT ANY READER EMPLOYEE, E-MAIL: (FIRST INITIAL)(LAST NAME) @CHICAGOREADER.COM

EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL JOHN HIGGINS DEPUTY EDITOR, NEWS ROBIN AMER CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS KATE SCHMIDT, KEVIN WARWICK, BRIANNA WELLEN SENIOR WRITERS STEVE BOGIRA, MICHAEL MINER, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR RYAN SMITH CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, JENA CUTIE, MATT DE LA PEÑA, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, DMITRY SAMAROV, ZAC THOMPSON, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS MANUEL RAMOS ----------------------------------------------------------------

IN THIS ISSUE

ARTS & CULTURE

5 Agenda The play London Wall, the exhibit “MoCP at 40,” the ﬁlm The Lady in the Van, and more recommendations

15 Religion Wheaton College’s plan to terminate a professor shines a spotlight on what’s different about working there. 16 Theater In its final installment, Collaboraction’s Sketchbook still has problems of scale and relevance. 16 Comedy Kate Berlant brings her off-the-cuff act to Up Comedy Club. 18 Lit Bee Wilson’s First Bite: How We Learn to Eat reasons that human beings can train themselves to enjoy a balanced diet.

CITY LIFE

8 Show us your . . . Ghanaian movie poster collection 8 Chicagoans Meet Jack Murphy, “Beatles PhD” 9 Joravsky | Politics Rahm looks to spend $16 million in TIF funds on high-rent lakefront apartments.

FEATURE

18 Dance Amid Festival at Links Hall highlights “midcareer” performers. 20 Visual Art At the Block Museum, avant-gardist Charlotte Moorman ﬁnally gets the recognition she’s due. 21 Movies In Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, a long marriage comes unraveled in a short time.

MUSIC

22 Feature Spektral Quartet give diﬃcult music a friendly face. 27 Shows of note Tortoise, Eighth Blackbird, Late Pass with Mic Terror, and more 29 The Secret History of Chicago Music The saga of the late iconic blues guitarist Magic Slim

FOOD & DRINK

33 Review: Monteverde The city’s most essential pasta destination 37 Key Ingredient Bread & Wine chef Caleb Trahan rids lamb kidneys of their “urine aroma.”

CLASSIFIEDS

46 Jobs 46 Apartments & Spaces 48 Marketplace 48 Straight Dope Is it true that blood can be used in the kitchen as an egg substitute? 49 Savage Love How to—and how not to—dispose of used sex toys 50 Early Warnings Bleached, Cheap Trick, Lush, Mavis Staples, Weezer, and more shows on the horizon 50 Gossip Wolf The Palace Film Festival hosts two days of experimental music and movies, and more news.

ONLINE

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES AARON DEETS, BRIDGET KANE MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY BUSINESS MANAGER STEFANIE WRIGHT ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD ---------------------------------------------------------------DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654 312-222-6920, CHICAGOREADER.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------THE READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SUN-TIMES MEDIA, LLC, 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654. © 2016 SUN-TIMES MEDIA, LLC. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL. POSTMASTER: SEND CHANGE OF ADDRESS TO CHICAGO READER, 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654.

ON THE COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY JAMIE RAMSAY. FOR MORE OF RAMSAY’S WORK GO TO JAMIE-RAMSAY.COM

TRANSPORTATION SPORTS

The 50 worst moments in the first 50 years of the Chicago Bulls

A tribute to half a century of big egos, bad draft picks, blown knees, and the agony of defeat BY JAKE MALOOLEY 10

South-siders spar over proposed Stony Island bike lanes

Opponents—including Fifth Ward alderman Leslie Hairston—argue the lanes would cause traﬃc jams, while supporters say they’re a needed safety improvement. BY JOHN GREENFIELD JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 3

ZURKO ANTIQUE EVENTS

ANTIQUE

MARKET & SALE January 23 & 24

SHOW HOURS:

SATURDAY 9-4 SUN. 9-3 / $7

AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

! Send your events to agenda@chicagoreader.com

b ALL AGES

F he’s God’s gift to them. In a refreshing break from the era’s norms, Van Druten not only sides with the women—who feel a lot of pressure to get hitched or die trying—but by the end he’s granted two of them their independence. Robin Witt’s crisp, period-perfect production for Griffin Theatre Company is filled with sparkling performances, including smart, tangy work from Vanessa Greenway as the conscience of the piece. She plays the typing pool’s senior member, whose age (35) and marital status (un-) is regarded by her peers as comparable to a leprosy diagnosis. —ZAC THOMPSON Through 2/14: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Sat 2/13, 2:30 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, griffintheatre.com, $28-$36.

• LAKE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS •

GRAYSLAKE, IL +-"- &2 3&,&1.45 1(2

FLEA ANTIQUE MARKET

SUN. JAN. 31 • 9:/76'3780#$ 9*4)5,< %/17 ! 7/5*;&.,&18

• DuPage County Fairgrounds •

WHEATON, ILLINOIS

$1.00 off w/this AD!

ZURKO 715-526-9769

www.zurkopromotions.com

NEW VENDORS WELCOME

Milk Like Sugar " DEAN LA PRAIRIE

THEATER

More at chicagoreader.com/ theater

Animals Out of Paper This 2008 play by Indian-American writer Rajiv Joseph concerns three emotionally fragile people: Ilana, a reclusive origami artist; Andy, a determinedly optimistic high school teacher with a crush on Ilana; and Andy’s student Suresh, a smart but troubled teenager with uncanny skill at turning blank paper into animal ﬁgures. Andy convinces Ilana to take Suresh on as an apprentice. But when Suresh accompanies Ilana to an origami conference, the triangle develops some dangerously sharp edges, with painful but liberating results for all involved. Joseph’s plotting relies too much on angst-ridden backstory for Ilana and Suresh, and his metaphors are sometimes heavy-handed. But the 100-minute one-act works thanks to Joseph’s well-crafted dialogue and the excellent performances in this Shattered Globe Theatre production, directed by Devon de Mayo. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 3/27: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Sun 3/27, 8 PM, Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, 773-975-8150, theaterwit. org, $33.

Byhalia, Mississippi A world-preR miere coproduction from the New Colony and Deﬁnition Theatre Company, this superb play written by Evan Linder and directed by Tyrone Phillips follows Jim and Laurel Parker, “proud white trash” in the titular Mississippi town. That there has been a breach of trust between them becomes starkly apparent after the overdue birth of their son reveals he’s black. Linder as Jim and Liz Sharpe as Laurel give nuanced, emotionally raw, and often humorous performances supported by an all-star cast including Cecilia Wingate as Laurel’s overbearing mother, Kiki Layne as wronged wife Ayesha, and Jeﬀery Owen Freelon Jr. as Jim’s best friend, Karl. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 2/14: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 1/25, 7:30 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, thenewcolony. org, $20.

4 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

The Duchess of Malfi You’d think the Duchess of Malfi would be the subject of The Duchess of Malfi, but you’d be wrong. At least insofar as this Trap Door Theatre production is concerned, the duchess is the object of John Webster’s famously lurid Jacobean drama. The subjects are four men: her two brothers, one a Machiavellian cardinal, the other a sick tyrant; a moody hired gun called Bosola; and Antonio, the social inferior to whom she’s secretly married. Director Christopher Marino pushes these guys forward while the duchess gets treated like a sexed-up teenager in a horror movie. Unfair as that strategy sounds, it leads to some striking moments— especially when we’re watching Casey Chapman’s tyrant descend from powder-faced aesthete to incestuous, necrophilic wolfman (really!). —TONY ADLER Through 2/20: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland, 773-384-0494, trapdoortheatre.com, $20-$25. The Gilded Age Mark Twain’s R The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, though not much read anymore,

receives a spirited adaptation from Paul Edwards and the folks at City Lit. Twain and his neighbor supposedly wrote this book in alternating chapters, without knowing how it would end, as a kind of dare from their wives. The shaggy dog that resulted has been trimmed for the stage, though Edwards still retains too much of the novel’s rambling, aimless quality. Mike Speller and Philena Gilmer delight in various ensemble roles, and Jacquelyne Jones alternates quite well between toughness and sweetness in the role of adopted daughter Laura. The play tries to honor Twain’s original subtitle; its scenes set in Washington—full of political blowhards, backroom deals, and desperate journalists—succeed wonderfully in doing so. —MAX MALLER Through 2/21: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Thu 2/11 and 2/18, 7:30 PM, City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-293-3682, citylit.org, $29, $25 seniors, $10 students.

London Wall Originally staged in 1931, this rarely revived workplace comedy by John Van Druten centers on the typists at a London law oﬃce and the cocky young solicitor who thinks

Milk Like Sugar Kirsten R Greenidge’s moving, well-written 2011 play concerns a group of aimless,

low-achieving high school girls. So it’s ﬁtting that this production, codirected by Mechelle Moe and Joel Ewing, is cast mostly with students from Senn Arts Magnet School (where they’re members of the Yard, which coproduced the play with Raven Theatre). But these guys are anything but low achieving—their performances are universally strong, the cast negotiating the emotional twists with grace and power. Ireon Roach and Tevion Lanier are particularly compelling as a striving but confused sophomore and the quirky boy who shows her there’s a better way. —JACK HELBIG Through 1/23: Thu-Fri 7 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, 773-338-2177, raventheatre.com, $15, $10 students.

Spring Awakening With a score that includes songs like “The Bitch of Living,” “The Word of Your Body,” and “Totally Fucked,” Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s great musical won’t be anybody’s pick for the high school spring show this year. But give it time. After all, a 2011 national tour was tamer than the 2006-’09 Broadway production, and this version from Marriott Theatre suﬀers from an even greater excess of decorum. Preopening news stories made much of the idea that Marriott was risking its blue-hair subscriber base by staging the hit adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s play about teenagers trying—and failing—to cope with sexual repression in 1890s Germany; director Aaron Thielen apparently decided the risk was too great. He’s got the thing onstage, all right, but doesn’t take chances even with hairstyles. Though the cast perform beautifully, there are ways in which they’re already stuck in a parent-safe high school presentation. —TONY ADLER Through 1/31: Thu 2 and 8 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, 10 Marriott, Lincolnshire, 847-634-0200, marriotttheatre.com, $50. What I Learned in Paris Whether or not she learned them in Paris, Pearl Cleage clearly understands the conventions of French comedy. This 2012 play takes an old Gallic (and before that, Italian) gambit—that of the ingenue promised to

a rich old man but yearning for a certain young one—and gives it an American spin. Paris is set in 1973 Atlanta, at the moment when Maynard Jackson became the first black mayor of a major southern metropolis. In Cleage’s telling, Jackson’s campaign staff gear up for their next battles—romantic as well as political. The script flags a little toward the end as Cleage stops to stuff in her various messages. Still, Daniel Bryant’s staging for Congo Square Theatre moves nicely, and there are charming performances by Ronnel Taylor as the youthful beau and Shanesia Davis as yet another figure Moliere et al would recognize: the wise older woman who sets things right. —TONY ADLER Through 2/7: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6860, congosquaretheatre.org, $19.50-$37. A Widow of No Importance R Set in Mumbai, Rasaka Theatre’s will-they-or-won’t-they romance centers

on a middle-aged Indian woman’s ﬂame with a man half her age. Pay no mind to how predictable or sometimes campy it all is—Lavina Jadhwani’s production of Shane Sakhrani’s comedy is a warm, family-friendly screwball delight that eﬀortlessly translates the cultural implications and stakes of life as an older woman in modern India to something universal. Age discrepancy notwithstanding, it’s hard not to root for Anand Bhatt’s adorably dorky young Vinod to end up with Alka Nayyar’s title widow; you’ll be sold immediately. —DAN JAKES Through 2/21: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 3:30 PM, Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, 773-871-3000, rasakatheatre. com, $30, $25 seniors, $20 students.

DANCE Amid Festival A performance festival, curated by Michelle Kranicke, that considers and celebrates the aging body in relation to dance and performance art. Thu-Tue 1/21-1/25 and Thu-Sun 1/28-1/31, 7 PM (6 PM on Tue 1/26), Links Hall at

Amid Festival " CHERYL MANN

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of January 21 For more of the best things to do every day of the week, go to chicagoreader. com/agenda.

20th-century historical ﬁction. Fri 1/22, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299, womenandchildrenﬁrst.com.

MOVIES

More at chicagoreader.com/ movies NEW REVIEWS

Transparent " MIKE JUE

COMEDY Brian Babylon Thu 1/21, 8 PM; Fri 1/22, 8 and 10 PM; and Sat 1/23, 7:30 and 9:30 PM, the Comedy Bar, 500 N. LaSalle, 312-836-0499, comedybarchicago.com, prices vary. Transparent Kellye Howard provides a comic approach to the struggle of trying to be “normal” according to society’s standards. Through 2/29: Thu 9:30-10:30 PM, the Comedy Bar, 500 N. LaSalle, 312-836-0499, comedybarchicago.com, $20. Your Stories With the Nerdologues A monthly series of sketch, stand-up, song, and storytelling; this installment, under the theme “Beginnings,” features the Art Institute’s Sean DeSantis, Leo Burnett’s Alisa Wolfson, and others. Sat 1/23, 7-9 PM, Chicago Design Museum, 108 N. State, chidm.com, $10.

VISUAL ARTS Art Institute of Chicago After Dark, explore the museum after-hours with a tour of “Dionysos Unmasked: Ancient Sculpture and Early Prints,” live music by Lena Fayre, DJ sets by Madrid and After Dark’s resident DJ, Shaka 23, and a cash bar. Fri 1/22, 9 PM-midnight. Sun–Wed 10:30 AM–5 PM, Thu-Fri 10:30 AM–8 PM, Sat 10:30 AM–5 PM. $30. 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artinstituteofchicago.org. Chicago History Museum “Are We Still Fabulous?,” the museum’s long-running “Out at CHM” discussion series considers questions of LGBTQ assimilation and community identity in the age of samesex marriage. An hour-long reception precedes the discussion. Fri 1/22, 5:30 PM. Mon-Sat 9:30 AM-4:30 PM, Sun noon-5. $20. 1601 N. Clark, 312-642-4600, chicagohistory.org.

Gallery Provocateur “Curioddities,” the annual “dark arts” exhibition, featuring works from more than 20 artists, closes with a cocktail party and the release of The Book of Monster Vol. 2. Sat 1/23, 8 PM. By appointment. 1621 N. Kedzie, 773-698-7179, galleryprovocateur. org. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College “MoCP at 40,” a chronological collection of pictures from notable photographers—Diane Arbus, Carrie Mae Weems, Sally Mann—from the museum’s permanent collection, in honor of four decades in business. Reception Thu 1/28, 5 PM. 1/25-4/10. Mon-Sat 10 AM-5 PM (Thu till 8 PM), Sun noon-5 PM. 600 S. Michigan, 312-663-5554, mocp.org.

All Things Must Pass: The Rise and

Carmen From Kawachi When R Japan’s Nikkatsu studio ﬁred director Seijun Suzuki in 1967, the main

reason was the increasingly avant-garde visual ﬂourishes he brought to his low-budget productions. But the bosses were also annoyed by his progressive treatment of women (and, especially, women’s sexual experience) in movies like Gate of Flesh (1964), Story of a Prostitute (1965), and this 1966 drama. After falling victim to a gang rape, a young girl from the country (Yumiko Nogawa) moves to Osaka to become a hostess in a cabaret, where she learns to leverage the same thing that was taken from her earlier. Suzuki adapted a novel by Toko Kon, though the comically perverse tale of a young innocent running a gauntlet of drooling men reminded me of Terry Southern and Mason Hoﬀenberger’s 1958 novel Candy. In Japanese with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 89 min. Sat 1/23, 6 PM, and Wed 1/27, 7:45 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

%"$ #(!!&$ %')$ ")+ '#*'! )( $&.%& ,-

#2/ .%2(+$4'. 03) 0)*03,' +$,"'+.1 *$.$+ +%'!2&03+%'0+/'-,24

LIT

www.BrewView.com 3145 N. Sheffield at Belmont

Gerald Butters The Book Cellar hosts Aurora University associate professor of history Gerald Butters, who will be discussing and signing copies of his latest book, From Sweetback to Super Fly. Fri 1/22, 7 PM, Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln, 773-293-2665, bookcellarinc.com. Drinking Gourd: An Evening of Poetry & Music The Poetry Foundation celebrates Nicole Sealey, winner of its Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize, a ﬁrstbook award for poets of color, this year judged by Northwestern English professor Chris Abani, who’ll also attend. The evening includes a performance by composer and jazz bassist Tatsu Aoki. Tue 1/26, 7 PM, Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior, 312-787-7070, poetryfoundation. org. Lavender Voices A storytelling (and poetry, monologues, songs, etc) session for queer women. Fri 1/22, 7 PM, Open Books, 651 W. Lake, 312-475-1355, openbooks.org. Renee Rosen and Jennifer Robson Historical novelists Renee Rosen and Jennifer Robson will be discussing the role of feminists and “strong women” in

RSM

Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-2810824, linkshall.org, $10-$17 per performance, $25-$50 festival pass.

All Mistakes Buried In this woozy thriller from writer-director Tim McCann, a drug addict (Sam Trammell) becomes fixated on the idea of presenting a necklace to his estranged wife (Missy Yager) on their wedding anniversary. But when the pendant winds up in the hands of a criminal ring led by a sadistic femme fatale (Vanessa Ferlito), the addict resolves to do whatever it takes to get it back. Trammell’s performance is noteworthy for its commitment—he spends the majority of the film in a cold sweat—and the character’s Odyssean journey through a squalid southern underworld is packed with ideas about the karma of lies and of lapses in judgment. Unfortunately McCann’s eerie atmospherics and masterful weaving of flashback sequences into the narrative can’t save the movie from encroaching cliche. —LEAH PICKETT 81 min. Facets Cinematheque

self-image doesn’t really square with the greedy overpricing of CDs that helped drive their customers to the Web. With Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Dave Grohl, and David Geﬀen. —J.R. JONES 100 min. Sun 1/24, 3 PM; Tue 1/26, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

Movie Theater & Full Bar $5.00 sion admis e for th s Movie

Friday, January 22 @ 6:00pm Sat-Sun, January 23-24 @ 5:30pm Mon-Wed, January 25-27 @ 6:00pm

Censored Voices Fall of Tower Records As the opening title for this documentary reports, the worldwide music retailer Tower Records did $1 billion in sales in 1999, ﬁve years before it ﬁled for bankruptcy. Director Colin Hanks interviews most of the major players at Tower (including its charismatic founder, Russ Solomon), assembling the familiar business story of a mom-and-pop operation that expanded into a giant chain, threw all its money into brick-and-mortar stores in the 90s, and then collapsed like a house of cards when the Internet arrived. The aging boomers who worked their way up from store clerks to executives are still proud of the chain’s hard-partying heyday in 70s California, though their rebellious

18 to enter 21 to drink Photo ID required

Censored Voices A few weeks after the Six-Day War of 1967, Israeli soldiers shared their profound misgivings about the conﬂict with Avraham Shapira and novelist Amos Oz, who audiotaped 30 group discussions at various kibbutzes. “There’s a sense of sadness that the newspapers don’t address,” Oz remarks on the tapes, yet 70 percent of this troubling oral history—including alleged orders to murder captives and civilians—would be omitted from the resulting book, The Seventh Day: Soldiers’ Talk About the Six Day War. For this illuminating German-Israeli documentary, director Mor Loushy and editor-cowriter Daniel Sivan access those voices, with some !

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2

Friday, January 22 @ 9:00pm Sat-Sun, January 23-24 @ 8:30pm Mon-Wed, January 25-27 @ 9:00pm

The Martian

Sat-Sun, January 23-24 @ 3:30pm

The Good Dinosaur February 5, 6 & 7

The Man Who Fell To Earth Starring David Bowie + live Bowie tribute band!

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 5

CO-ED

"*'0)'6(*0'3*6 /3*1,*-3*&

Furniture Making Classes ✧ Safely learn basic hand

& power tools ✧ ✧ Build three take-home class projects ✧ ✧ Classes are limited in size ✧ ✧ 10 week course/ One 3 hour class per week ✧ ✧ All materials included ✧

)/&.+;'& -27(+;23- #2/ )/&.+;'& 1&217& +/66751!-*: ,((!5<!8': 48. $74=9 &!5*01*. 23#0"71"*546# 48. >#6871"*546# (75 ,./=13

AGENDA

6.! 80 -<.1&=5 7)-% ;7041*. !8 &7)817)8 %-483178

:$"4:""4*9$,

Fall Classes start

!!!4-7%)27+3#45,-7%)27+3# $7,.45,-

October 2015! Winter Classes Start January 2016

WOODSMYTHS

"*$0 !&(%% "*$0 '/-0*1 +&0.0&&01 +&(#-10& !-,)2 +&0.0&&01 +&(#-10&

1835 West School St. - Chicago 773-477-6482 www.woodsmythschicago.com.

BAFTA AWARD GOLDEN GLOBE AWARD NOMINEE ®

BEST ACTRESS Maggie Smith “ACTING LEGEND MAGGIE SMITH’S TOUR DE FORCE.”

-Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST

ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER

MAGGIE SMITH

THE

STARTS FRIDAY, JANUARY 22

ALEX JENNINGS

LADY VAN IN THE WWW.SONYCLASSICS.COM

NICHOLAS HYTNER ALAN BENNETT FROM HIS MEMOIR

DIRECTED BY SCREENPLAY BY

Chicago AMC RIVER EAST 21 amctheatres.com

Chicago ARCLIGHT CHICAGO (312) 637-4760

Evanston CENTURY 12 EVANSTON CINÉARTS 6 & XD (847) 491-9751

VIEW THE TRAILER AT WWW.THELADYINTHEVAN.COM

164 North State Street

Between Lake & Randolph MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800

CENSORED VOICES

Benicio del Toro and Tim Robbins in

A PERFECT DAY

Jan. 22 - 28

Fri. at 2 pm & 6 pm Sat. at 8 pm; Sun. at 3 pm; Mon. at 6 pm; Tue. at 8 pm; Wed. at 6 pm; Thu. at 8 pm

Fri. at 2 pm & 7:45 pm; Sat. at 4:30 pm; Sun. at 4:45 pm; Mon. at 7:45 pm; Tue. at 6 pm; Wed. at 7:45 pm; Thu. at 6 pm

“There’s a lovely balance here between desolation and comedy.” – The Hollywood Reporter

THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SIX-DAY WAR “An essential documentary” – The Washington Post

JAN. 22 - 28 • LAURIE ANDERSON’S HEART OF A DOG

“I loved it ... sparkles with its creator’s wisdom and droll philosophical insight.” – Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

BUY TICKETS NOW

6 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

www.siskelﬁlmcenter.org

The Lady in the Van ! TK CREDIT B veterans appearing onscreen to listen to their younger selves on tape. The sense of dread conjured up by Markus Aust’s score is hardly necessary; the archival footage includes an ABC news report, ﬁlmed at an Amman refugee camp, whose correspondent concludes, “The only thing growing here are seeds of revenge.” —BILL STAMETS 87 min. Fri 1/22, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 1/23, 8 PM; Sun 1/24, 3 PM; Mon 1/25, 6 PM; Tue 1/26, 8 PM; Wed 1/27, 6 PM; and Thu 1/28, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center The Lady in the Van The R homeless, mentally ill woman who spent 15 years camping in

the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett has given him material for a short story, a play (staged in the West End and adapted by BBC Radio), and now a ﬁlm, starring Maggie Smith in a role that seems tailor-made for her drollery. As screenwriter, Bennett downplays the story’s depressing theme that what we call caring is more often personal lassitude; instead he livens up a narrative that trades heavily in reminiscence by splitting the character based on himself into two people—the Alan who lives his life and the Alan who writes (both played by Alex Jennings, whose comic underreactions call to mind Jack Benny)—and this proves to be a rich vein for Bennett’s comic musing. The movie was shot in London’s Camden borough, in the same house where Bennett actually lived, and there’s a sense that, though the lady in the van is long dead, she’s still parked in her host’s head. Nicholas Hytner directed; with Jim Broadbent. —J.R. JONES 104 min. For venues visit chicagoreader.com/ movies. Old Fashioned: The Story of the Wisconsin Supper Club Wisconsin native Holly L. De Ruyter traces the history of supper clubs, one of her state’s most beloved cultural institutions, and pays homage to the “supper club values” they instill. “We have that strong sense of community and fellowship around

food,” one patron avows, and her sentiment is echoed throughout the documentary, especially in the customers’ credo of eschewing chains for local businesses. With a title referencing both the unofficial state cocktail and the time-honored ideals of most supper clubs, this is a love letter to midwestern life as much as the clubs themselves, and there’s the rub. Midwestern traditionalists and socially conscious foodies may appreciate the patrons’ reclamation of dining as a sacred, unhurried, and communal experience, but the specificity of the subject and the homogeneity of the interviewees may prove off-putting to outsiders. —LEAH PICKETT 51 min. Sat 1/23, 7:45 PM, and Thu 1/28, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center A Perfect Day In the waning days of the Balkan conflict, five international aid workers are pulled into an increasingly absurd and complicated mission to hoist a dead body from a village well so the water can be purified. I was nearly halfway through this Spanish drama and wondering when the story was going to begin before I realized that it already had. The low-stakes shaggy-dog plot allows for a variety of vignettes that reveal how the civil conflict eroded people’s humanity, but the movie’s orthodox antiwar sentiment carries the story only so far; dragging it over the finish line, in the absence of any compelling objective, are Benicio Del Toro as the group’s humane, grimly humorous leader and Tim Robbins as a veteran aid worker whose hotdog behavior terrifies some of the others. Fernando León de Aranoa directed; with Olga Kurylenko, Mélanie Thierry, and Fedja Stukan. —J.R. JONES 106 min. Fri 1/22, 2 and 7:45 PM; Sat 1/23, 4:30 PM; Sun 1/24, 4:45 PM; Mon 1/25, 7:45 PM; Tue 1/26, 6 PM; Wed 1/27, 7:45 PM; and Thu 1/28, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Smashing the O-Line This 1960 actioner from Japan’s Nikkatsu studio shows veteran contract director

Seijun Suzuki at his most resourceful, livening up a listless script (about rival newspaper editors trying to take down a human-trafficking ring) with blasts of New Wave cool. For Suzuki, story is movement, and there’s more drama in the dynamic compositions, propulsive camera work, and startling smash cuts than in the contrived narrative. Frustrated with material like this, the director would embark on a series of movies in the mid-60s (Gate of Flesh, Tokyo Drifter, Branded to Kill) whose surreal visuals and more taboo material ultimately got him fired from the studio, even as they cemented his reputation among film buffs. In Japanese with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 83 min. Sat 1/23, 4:45 PM, and Mon 1/25, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Action ace Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, the Transformers franchise) adapts a book by journalist Mitchell Zuckoff and the handful of security contractors who tried to protect the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, during the September 2012 attacks. There’s a concerted effort to depoliticize the story—neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton is mentioned— but the movie will find a warm welcome in the red states with its simpleminded tale of brave men doing the right thing while the government falters. David Costabile is excellent in the thankless role of the CIA chief in Benghazi, a haughty university type whose contempt for the security forces (“Quiet! You act like animals!” he barks as they horse around outside his window) sets him up for a massive comeuppance; by the final scene he’s ready to crawl into their laps (“I’m proud to know Americans like you”). With John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, and Pablo Schreiber. —J.R. JONES R, 144 min. For venues visit chicagoreader.com/movies. SPECIAL EVENTS The Early Films of Kartemquin In celebration of the groundbreaking Chicago documentary outfit’s 50th anniversary, Kartemquin is screening some of their earliest works, featuring What the Fuck Are These Red Squares? (1970), Hum 255 (1969), and Parents (1968). Sat 1/23, 8 PM, Chicago Filmmakers; also Tue 1/26, 6:30 PM, Columbia College Hokin Hall Experimental Cinema in Eastern Europe: City Scene / Country Scene The second in a series, this program collects short experimental films from the 50s and 60s that explore “the complicated and fraught relationships with public, urban, and natural spaces.” Fri 1/22, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Film Studies Center v

jewelry

YOUR CHICAGO BIKE AND CAR ACCIDENT LAWYERS

Clothing & Accessories

OPEN JANUARY 18, 2016 MLK DAY

HUGE selection of WINTER Clothing, Shoes, Boots, Coats to choose from.

CLOSING

Saturday

Jan 23

SE Habla Español

(708) 333-6822

10-6 Mon-Fri • 10-5 Saturday • Closed Sunday

THE CHICAGO BIKE AND CAR ACCIDENT LAWYERS ALSO FOCUSING ON:

1st week of April

PEDESTRIAN & TRUCK ACCIDENTS SLIP ’N’ FALLS NURSING HOME ABUSE WORK INJURIES

clothing & seasonal accessories clearance

FREE CONSULTATION NO FEE UNLESS RECOVERY

847-475-8665

801 Dempster Evanston

14950 S. Dixie Hwy.

(1/2 Mile East of Halsted)

Reopening Tue - Sat 10 - 6

HARVEY

SOUTH HOLLAND

351 W. 162nd (159th) St.

for our annual 2 month vacation/restocking break

! SALE on now

Restoration Ministries Thrift Stores

Wednesdays

50% Off Clothing & Knick Knacks

(3 blks. South of Sibley)

www.restorationministries.net

Thursdays

15% or more off Furniture

(708) 333-8530

10-6 Mon-Fri • 10-5 Saturday • Closed Sunday

Everyday

25¢ Clothing Rack

RESTORATION MINISTRIES THRIFT STORE COUPON

BUY ONE CLOTHING ITEM GET ONE

FREE*

*OF EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE Some restrictions apply. Offer Expires 1/31/16. Cannot Combine Coupons.

HURRY! SALE ENDS SOON! Open Daily

BEKKERMAN LAW BEKKERMANL AW.COM

HJI 9I F G 9D H C C

GGG < =?P@?A8< 8KB 9 NL?MB J::: P@?P8AO; ?> E:EJJ

THIS LOCATION ONLY!

tomorrow exchange nge buy *sell*trade * sell*trade

353 W. Grand • ChiCaGo 312-726-3010 open daily: 8 am-5 pm saturday: Closed

FINAL DAYS! STARTS TODAY!

ENTIRE STOCK NOW

1/2 OFF EVERYTHING GOES! TOOLS · CLEANING SUPPLIES · PLUMBING & ELECTRICAL · MORE!

• All hArdwAre • lAwn & gArden • tubs · fAucets • toilets · sinks • builders locksets And hArdwAre WICKER PARK: 1478 N. Milwaukee Av. (Blue Line @ Damen) • 773-227-9558

BuffaloExchange.com

CHECKOUT OUR 75% ROOMS FOR GREAT SAVINGS! JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 7

CITY LIFE Chicagoans

ò COURTESY BRIAN CHANKIN

Jack Murphy, ‘Beatles PhD’

Show us your . . .

Ghanaian movie posters

“I’VE ALWAYS CONSIDERED myself a movie guy and a collector,” says Brian Chankin, owner and operator of Odd Obsession, in what may be the understatement of the year. Not only was Chankin able to open the out-there video rental store in Bucktown with his own DVD and VHS collection a dozen years ago, but this summer, with help from his sister Heidi Anne Chankin, he started up Deadly Prey Gallery (1433 W. Chicago) in West Town to showcase his massive stockpile of weirdo movie posters from Ghana. In the 80s, Ghanaian mobile cinemas showed movies in villages that didn’t have electricity. This form of entertainment—typically a truck equipped with power generators, TVs, and a library of movies—was an instant success, spawning competing companies. One way to get villagers lining up at your truck was to advertise with outrageous, colorful, hand-painted posters. Often absurdly over-the-top and supremely violent interpretations of U.S. ﬁlms, the posters took on a life of their own. “Soon the movie posters became just as important as the actual movie being shown,” Chankin says. “Certain movies gained especially high notoriety for the outlandish nature of the posters, containing scenes and characters that may or may not be in the movie.” Chankin’s been collecting these posters for about ﬁve years, and at this point owns more than 700. His favorite is for 1986’s Deadly Prey, the movie from which his gallery got its name. “The holy grail of the collection, and one of my favorite movies,” he says. The poster is emblazoned with a neon-orange, heavily muscled mercenary decked out with daggers and bullet belts. “Just remarkable,” Chankin says. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

I HAVE A BIT of an obsessive streak to my personality, and the Beatles are a band that rewards obsessive listening. There are all sorts of little nuggets buried that you didn’t hear the first 99 times, but the 100th time, you hear them. By the time I was in college, I was a full-on Beatles completist. I had given myself, like, a Beatles PhD. After college, I applied to teach at Saint Gregory the Great at Ashland and Bryn Mawr in Andersonville. It was basically a charter high school within the archdiocese, and the administration was so incompetent. They had just fired all the teachers and left only one nun, Sister Mary. The yearbook that year had all these bitter messages: “After working here for 25 years and being told I’m no longer capable of using technology . . . ” Sister Mary was behind the front desk when I handed her my resumé, and she put it on top of the pile because she liked me for some reason, so that’s how I got hired. Three weeks before the school year started, we’re sitting in this office, me and Sister Mary and two other new teachers, and it was like, “Who’s gonna teach American history? How about journalism?” I said, “Well, if you need a Beatles class, I’m your man.” She says, “Will you have time to prepare it?” I said, “Sister Mary, I’ve been preparing for this class my entire life.” I taught it every year until the school closed

Murphy’s students “couldn’t believe we were going to spend a whole year on this one band that they’d either never heard of or only knew from a Target commercial or something.” ò JOHN STURDY

three years later. They called it Music Appreciation, but that was bullshit. It was Beatles class. It was ridiculous and awesome. The kids had Beatles class as much as they had math class. We started with Please Please Me and went all the way through to Abbey Road. I’d sit in my cold little apartment watching the Bulls game on mute and burning 30 copies of Rubber Soul, 30 copies of Revolver. The kids were not happy at first. They couldn’t believe we were going to spend a whole year on this one band that they’d either never heard of or only knew from a Target commercial or something. I’d ask, “Do you know what city or country the Beatles are from?,” and one kid said, “Orlando?” But right away, they really got into it. The first year, there was a Christmas assembly, and we had karaoke. These three guys who were seniors,

so cool, so tough, were singing “Eleanor Rigby” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The other teachers were like, “What the hell?” On the last day of the last year, as part of their ﬁnal, they had to come up with a playlist of the most important Beatles songs. All of the kids wrote their playlists on the chalkboards around the room. The bell rang and the kids left, and I closed the lights and closed the door, and I left. Afterward I was so sad that I just started writing poems about the Beatles. Now those poems are a book, illustrated by my good friend Melanie Plank, and it’s dedicated to Sister Mary. Maybe one day some other school will let me do an after-school enrichment Beatles class. But it’ll never be like that again. Right now I teach writing and American lit at Truman Middle College. I love that too. But it’s not quite the White Album. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

CITY AGENDA Things to do about town. THURSDAY 21

FRIDAY 22

SATURDAY 23

SUNDAY 24

MONDAY 25

TUESDAY 26

WEDNESDAY 27

× First B ites Bash Kicking off the ninth annual Chicago Restaurant Week, First Bites Bash offers tastings from more than 60 Chicago chefs along with cocktail, wine, and beer pairings. Piccolo Sogno chef-owner Tony Priolo hosts. 5:30-8:30 PM, Union Station, 210 S. Canal, firstbitesbash.eventbrite.com, $125.

× Chicago Rest aurant We ek Close readers will perceive that this is actually two weeks long; in any event, it features 350-some local restaurants oﬀering prix ﬁxe menus that start at $22 for lunch and $33 or $44 for dinner. Through 2/4, various locations and prices, eatitupchicago.com.

* Winter Block Party Chicago Public Media and Young Chicago Authors host this annual midwinter party. This time around it includes B-boy/B-girl dance battles, a live taping of Vocalo’s Morning Amp, a spoken-word open mike, and $10 fade haircuts. Noon, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, metrochicago.com.

○ B ingo! A fund-raiser for the Pilsen Community Market featuring not only bingo but a silent auction, a raﬄe, live music, and beer from 3 Floyds, Piece, and Oﬀ Color breweries. 6-10 PM, Skylark, 2149 N. Halsted, skylarkchicago.com, $5 suggested donation.

M CH D istiller y D i nner The West Loop distillery provides booze for cocktails— basil-blood orange gimlets, martinis—to accompany a prix ﬁxe menu that includes tri-tip streak with brioche and tapenade and a churro stuﬀed with bananas and peanut butter cream. 6 PM, Uncommon Ground, 1401 W. Devon, chdistillery.com, $45.

E All Th ings Must Pa ss: Th e Rise and Fall of Tower Re co rds A chronicle of the life of the record empire, directed by Colin Hanks and screening as part of “Stranger Than Fiction,” the Siskel’s series of documentary premieres. 6 PM, Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, siskelﬁlmcenter. org, $11.

| Poet ry Wi ntertime Pa rty Poetry magazine’s seasonal soiree features readings from Joanne Diaz (My Favorite Tyrants), Margaret Noodin (Weweni), and Phillip B. Williams (Bruised Gospels), plus musical guests Devil in a Woodpile. 6:30 PM, Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior, poetryfoundation.org.

8 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

CITY LIFE

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

POLITICS

TIFs for the rich

Mayor Rahm looks to spend $16 million on high-rent lakefront apartments.

n January 12 I headed over to City Hall to see firsthand if the spirit of reform that’s supposedly transformed the Emanuel administration since the release of the Laquan McDonald video had reached the Community Development Commission. The CDC is a 15-person advisory body appointed by the mayor to oversee tax increment financing deals. As such, the chief challenge for commissioners is to pretend they’re dedicated watchdogs of the public purse while making sure they actually do what the mayor wants. I’m sure it’s not as easy as it looks. On the agenda for this meeting is the Montrose/Clarendon plan. Emanuel’s proposing to give about $16 million to developers so they can make a fortune building approximately 630 upscale apartment units in Uptown, just west of Lake Shore Drive. Not that there’s anything wrong with developers making a fortune. I’m hoping to make a fortune one of these days myself. It’s just that we have other things we could do with the money, what with the schools being broke and everything. The hearing opens with city planner Mary Bonome’s explanation of the project. JDL Development and Harlem Irving Companies are proposing to build two towers— one 26 stories and the other 16—of high-end apartment units at Montrose and Clarendon. The land’s currently occupied by Cuneo Hospital, which has been vacant and boarded up since 2005. Community opposition helped kill two previous proposals for developing the land, including a plan by different developers to build 30- and 40-story towers on the site. But JDL and Harlem Irving reduced the size of their towers—and the amount of their TIF request—after months of negotiations with 46th Ward alderman James Cappleman and his local land-use committee. Many community groups have now endorsed the current plan, Bonome says. From there Bonome moves to a discussion

of the project’s property tax ramiﬁcations. Uh-oh, let’s pause for an explanation. When a TIF district is created, the amount of property taxes paid to the schools, parks, and other taxing bodies is frozen for 24 years. During that time the additional taxes paid by property owners are supposed to be used to subsidize new development in the district. Currently the land in the Montrose/Clarendon TIF district generates no property taxes, because its owners, a society of nuns, used it for a hospital. But as soon as the developers buy the land from the nuns, they will have to pay property taxes. Essentially the city wants to let JDL and Harlem Irving take the property taxes they’d otherwise pay to schools, parks, etc, and spend it building their apartment complex. Think of it this way: If you called up Mayor Emanuel and said, “Hey, big guy—I don’t think I’ll pay my money to the schools this year. Instead, I’m going to use it to repair my garage.” Well, maybe if you hire the right lawyer. Back in the meeting, Bonome calls on another city planner, Chip Hastings, to explain that when the Montrose/Clarendon TIF district eventually dissolves, the property will generate about $2.2 million a year in property taxes, much of which will go to the schools. Unfortunately, the TIF district won’t dissolve until 2034. Thus the schoolchildren who will beneﬁt from this deal have yet to be conceived. As for current students? Tough luck, kiddies. Eventually the commissioners must confront the tough question: If the TIF weren’t granted, would the land be developed? For an answer Bonome calls on James Letchinger, one of the developers. He says that, contrary to what you might think, this is a very risky venture, and TIF money is needed “to make the project feasible.” However, Letchinger offers no specifics to justify his assertion. It amounts to a “just trust me on this one” argument. But that seems to satisfy the CDC members, none of whom insist that he back his claims with numbers.

ROHAN PATRICK MCDONALD

By BEN JORAVSKY

In fact, David Reifman, a CDC member, took this point a step further, as he peppered Hastings with questions along the lines of: Reifman: Is the land currently generating taxes? Hastings: No. Reifman: Will it generate taxes after it’s developed? Hastings: Yes. The underlying premise in this exchange— that the land will generate taxes only if the TIF is granted—is that no developer would buy or develop the land without a subsidy. That’s the same line the city’s stuck to for ﬁve years without any sort of objective supporting analysis. If the mayor and his planners were running the ﬁnancial aid office at the University of Illinois, it would be scholarships for everybody— no FAFSA required! By the way, Reifman’s an ex officio member of the commission by virtue of his position as commissioner of the Department of Planning. As such, he’s Hastings’s boss. So it’s not like he’s extracting damaging testimony from a hostile witness. It’s more like that scene in Bananas where Woody Allen plays a lawyer who cross-examines himself.

When it’s his turn to talk, Alderman Cappleman notes that according to the deal the developers will pay $4.6 million to fix up the Clarendon Park field house. In effect it will cost taxpayers about $16 million to make $4.6 million worth of repairs to the field house. Alderman Cappleman hails this as a good deal for Chicago. I make a note to never buy a used car from Alderman Cappleman. Then the commission turns the meeting over to the audience for questions or comments. By my count, seven speak in favor and 20 against the proposal. Opposition comes from activists who think at the very least the developers should be forced to dedicate more of their units for affordable housing. Eventually the CDC votes unanimously to recommend that the City Council approve the deal. As the hearing concludes, activists chant: “Shame on you!” Apparently Chicago’s still not ready for reform—at least not when it comes to the CDC and TIFs. v

v @joravben JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 9

The 50 worst moments in the first 50 years of the Chicago Bulls TK caption ò TK CREDIT

A tribute to half a century of big egos, bad draft picks, blown knees, and the agony of defeat JAMIE RAMSAY

By JAKE MALOOLEY

ick Klein knew there would be blood. Before the Chicago Bulls played a single game, the team’s founder seemed acutely aware that if there was to be any glory in the organization’s future, there would also be heartache, clashing egos, bad behavior, run-ins with the law, sweat, tears, and,

10 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

yes, actual blood. Father Bull, as Klein became affectionately known, didn’t want to see the struggle sanitized. His team would embrace the savage competition of pro sports, and make it part of the brand. It began with the logo. Way back in 1966, the year the team became the NBA’s latest expansion franchise, Klein,

a Kenilworth businessman, was working with designers on the nascent team’s logo. “I wanted the bull to be a true bull, in a bullﬁght. You know, he’s a big and black thing with long horns and red eyes and mean,” Klein told author Roland Lazenby, who has written several books about Bulls history. “Most of the early submissions were full of bodies. The bull with his head down, that sorta thing. I said, ‘I want a face. Gimme a face.’ Then they gave me a face that looked real good.” The design was nearly perfect— the only thing missing, Klein said, was the blood on the horns. Fifty years later, the logo is virtually unaltered. But as the Bulls reached the half-century mark this month, having been incorporated into the league on January 16, 1966, the celebrations have been, well, rather anemic. In October, the team declared “Chicago Basketball Is Golden” the theme of the 2015-2016 season, which kicked off with a heavy-handed multimedia show featuring mascot Benny the Bull in a golden suit jacket playing a slide trombone along to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebrate.” The team’s PR operation has gone into a conspicuous full-court press with themed “Decade Nights” at the United Center and an attendant semicentennial television commercial campaign skillfully edited to link the team’s different eras under one clean familial lineage—as if Jerry Sloan begat Bob Love who begat Michael Jordan who begat Derrick Rose. To be sure, there are enough highlights in the franchise’s 50-year history for a very, very long highlight reel, from Artis Gilmore posterizing fellow future Hall of Famers to M.J. sobbing joyfully into the Larry O’Brien Trophy to a sprightlier D-Rose dunking in his MVP season. Missing from the stream of golden oldies is the drama, the game’s physical and mental stresses, the corporate front-office machinations, the agony of defeat—the blood that Klein demanded be added to those horns. Being mindful of darker days, of course, helps one appreciate happier times. When it comes to the Bulls, taking stock of the bitter moments in the team’s history would seem to make the celebratory shower of championship champagne taste all the more sweet. Herein are the worst of the worst moments in Bulls history in roughly chronological order. Some took place on the court, many happened off of it. What emerges is a fuller portrait of a team that, at 50, is bloodied but certainly unbowed.

THE BULLS’ WORST NASCENT BULLS HAUNTED BY PAST FAILED CHICAGO NBA TEAMS 1966 “Chicago was considered a graveyard for pro basketball,” says Bulls historian Roland Lazenby of Dick Klein’s struggle in the mid-60s to start a new professional franchise in town. Before the Bulls, the Stags of the Basketball Association of America, an NBA predecessor, folded and the Packers (yup) eventually became the Zephyrs before the team moved to Baltimore. It took a three-game win streak out of the gate in October 1966 to exorcise the ghosts of basketball past. The Bulls finished 33-48—the best-ever record by an expansion team in its first year of play—which surprisingly was good enough to secure a playoff berth.

ò COURTESY CHICAGO BULLS; SUN-TIMES PRINT COLLECTION (MOTTA, GREENWOOD)

THE BULLS’ SAD INAUGURAL PARADE 1966 A far cry from the team’s grand championship rallies of the 1990s, the Bulls’ introductory procession in 1966 consisted of a flatbed truck occupied by a real-life bull. Accompanying the animal were Klein, publicity director Ben Bentley (Benny the Bull’s namesake), and coach Johnny “Red” Kerr. As far as first impressions go, the feeble stunt inspired little more than doubt in the downtown pedestrians who happened upon it. HOME COURT DISADVANTAGE 1966-1967 The Bulls played their first season in the International Amphitheater, a dusty arena on South Halsted Street down by the old stockyards that was built in 1934 primarily to host livestock conventions. When McCormick Place was damaged in a January 1967 fire, the amphitheater gave the boot to the surprise playoff-bound Bulls in order to take on more bankable trade shows. The team was swept by the Saint Louis Hawks in the first round, which included one

loss against the Seattle SuperSonics. Believing Ed Batagowski had made an error in the final seconds with regard to a foul call, the fiery coach followed the ref into the tunnel. “I poked him with my finger like I do with my kid when he’s done something wrong,” Matta told the Chicago Tribune after the league handed down a three-game suspension and a $2,000 fine.

the ’76 draft, the Bulls could’ve had future Hall of Famers Adrian Dantley, Robert Parish, Alex English, or Dennis Johnson. The team instead took a gamble with Scott May out of Indiana, a workmanlike player who had a generally disappointing career.

DICK MOTTA, JERRY SLOAN, AND BENNY THE BULL ARE EJECTED FROM A PLAYOFF GAME APRIL 20, 1974

Benny the Bull with Bulls general manager Pat Williams game at the even older, even dustier Chicago Coliseum. BENNY THE BULL’S PATHETIC ORIGINS 1969-1970 Benny, he of the T-shirt cannon and the gratuitous pelvic thrusts, has probably been more popular than most Bulls players throughout the years. But the beloved mascot got a rather inauspicious start with the team when new hype man/general manager Pat Williams invented the character as part of his push to ﬁll seats at Chicago Stadium. In his early days Benny donned a loose, ill-ﬁtting fabric suit topped with an awkwardly large, inexpressive papier-mache head. It must’ve been hard to rouse an audience while wearing a child’s homemade Halloween costume. BULLS TURN TO BEAR WRESTLING TO DRAW FANS FEBRUARY 5, 1970 Mentored by Bill Veeck, the P.T. Barnum of baseball, Williams joined the Bulls as GM in August 1969 ready and willing to put butts in the chairs of Chicago Stadium at any cost, despite the previous two losing seasons. While the team worked on improving its record, the 29-year-old concocted an outlandish halftime show that

included having fans wrestle a declawed, defanged, muzzled, sedated bear named Victor. But when city oﬃcials objected, Williams and Bentley themselves took on the 450-pound animal during halftime of a game with the San Francisco Warriors. “It was sort of a sad bear,” Lazenby told me recently. “The stunt wasn’t a little desperate—it was a lot desperate.”

Dick Motta BULLS ALMOST MOVED TO SAN DIEGO 1972-1973 Basketball was ﬁnally catching on in Chicago as coach Dick Motta’s Bulls strung together ﬁve consecutive winning seasons between 1970 and ’75. “Even still,” Williams later recalled to sportswriter Sam Smith, “the founding group in 1972 still was looking to sell the team to San Diego interests and move.” What kept the Bulls in Chicago? Money. “[Arthur] Wirtz lowered the rent [at Chicago

Stadium] so they would stay,” Smith recently told me. “He was afraid of losing the tenant. He didn’t care about basketball.” FOURTH-QUARTER COLLAPSE IN GAME SEVEN OF THE WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS 1973 Four times in five years the Bulls were beat by the powerhouse Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Having forced a game seven in 1973, Norm Van Lier and Jerry Sloan played aggressively as the team scored 18 unanswered points in the second quarter. The Bulls had a 90-84 lead with three minutes remaining when the wheels came off. With the Lakers down by one point with 33 seconds left, Wilt Chamberlain blocked a shot by Van Lier and made a transition pass to Gail Goodrich for the game winner. It was a traumatic loss old-school Bulls fans still howl about. COACH DICK MOTTA ATTACKS A REFEREE JANUARY 4, 1974 Dennis Rodman isn’t the only member of the Bulls who had a contentious relationship with referees. Head coach Dick Motta was suspended for physical contact with a referee following a suspenseful 103-101 overtime

Game three of the ’74 Western Conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks became a circus after Bulls forward Chet Walker was called for a foul on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Motta believed Abdul-Jabbar had tripped Walker and made his opinion known to referees Don Murphy and Earl Strom. Injured player Jerry Sloan got in the mix, as did Benny the Bull. Strom later wrote in a memoir that the mascot made obscene gestures at the officials. All three were ejected as the Bulls were routed by the Bucks, who would sweep the series. THE MOTHER’S DAY MASSACRE 1975 For fans of the 1970s Bulls, there was perhaps no more heartbreaking game than what became known as the “Mother’s Day massacre.” Bob Love and the Bulls suffered an agonizing nail-biter loss at home to Rick Barry and the Golden State Warriors after blowing a lead down the stretch in game six of the Western Conference finals. “We had them down three games to two,” Love told the Tribune nearly two decades later. “That was our year to do it. It hurt.” Back in Oakland for game seven, the Bulls watched another early lead disappear as the Warriors advanced to the finals. THE DRAFTING OF SCOTT MAY JUNE 8, 1976 With the number two pick in

David Greenwood LOSING MAGIC JOHNSON ON A COIN FLIP JUNE 25, 1979 Back before the NBA adopted a draft lottery, the first pick was determined by a coin flip between the worst two teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences. In ’79 that meant the Bulls and the Lakers. The Bulls chose heads. The coin showed tails. The Lakers picked Magic Johnson. With the number two pick, the Bulls went with David Greenwood. (David who? Exactly.) Bulls fans and officials have said it was a blessing in disguise: If the Bulls had Johnson, the logic goes, there’s no way they would’ve been bad enough to have gotten Jordan in the ’84 draft. WOMEN’S RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS PICKET THE BULLS HOME OPENER OCTOBER 30, 1982

Quintin Dailey, an All-American guard out of the University of San Francisco, was sentenced to three years’ probation on June 25, 1982, for the aggravated assault of a USF nursing student who had accused him of rape in December ’81. Just four days later the Bulls would select Dailey as their ﬁrst-round draft pick. Women’s rights organizations, particularly, were furious with the team. The National Organization of Women picketed Bulls training camp in Peoria, holding signs that read NEUTER THE J

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 11

THE BULLS’ WORST

BULLS ACQUIRE BILL CARTWRIGHT, SUBJECT FANS TO ONE OF THE MOST SINFULLY UGLY FREE-THROW SHOTS IN NBA HISTORY JUNE 27, 1988

continued from 11 BULL and RAPE IS NOT A SPORTING PROPOSITION. When Dailey debuted at Chicago Stadium against the Washington Bullets, a Take Back the Night coalition demonstrator’s sign said it all: QUINTIN DAILEY MUST GO. The Bulls lost the home opener—and, with Dailey, lost face with fans. THE “LOONEY TUNES” SQUAD 1984-85 SEASON Michael Jordan had a nickname for the Bulls of his 1984-’85 rookie season: the Looney Tunes. While physically talented, the team consisted of “an array of cynical castoﬀs and casualties, some of them

deeply troubled by alcohol and cocaine abuse,” Lazenby wrote in the thorough 2014 biography Michael Jordan: The Life. Beset by drug issues in the late 70s and early 80s, the NBA ﬁnally instituted a drug policy in 1984. By the time Jordan arrived on the Bulls, talented guard Quintin Dailey had already left the team once to go to a drug rehabilitation facility. He’d return to rehab before the start of the 1985-’86 season. The promising but drug-dependent forward Orlando Woolridge left the Bulls to sign with the New Jersey Nets in 1986—but during his second season with that team, he was suspended for substance abuse. “In Chicago,”

12 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

Lazenby told me recently speaking of the ’84-’85 Bulls squad, “there was a strong feeling that things went better with coke.”

Picked up in a trade with the Knicks, Bill Cartwright ended up playing a utility role as “the man in the middle” during the Bulls’ ﬁrst championship run. Unfortunately Chicago fans will never be able to unsee the center’s unnatural, protracted, and just plain ugly-as-hell free-throw shot. “At the free-throw line, he crossed over from acceptably ungainly to aggressively grotesque,” wrote Deadspin’s Sean Newell, who further described Cartwright’s foul-line stroke as “the most unnatural of all athletic motions.” The seven-footer’s ghastly follow-through is enough to make Joakim Noah’s unsightly two-handed release seem graceful in comparison. Perhaps the craziest part: Cartwright somehow managed a respectable .771 career average from the stripe. MICHAEL JORDAN PUNCHES TEAMMATE WILL PERDUE 1989-1990 SEASON

THE BRAD SELLERS DRAFT PICK FANS THE FLAMES OF THE JORDAN-KRAUSE WAR JUNE 17, 1986

Upon publication in January 1992, Tribune sportswriter Sam Smith’s The Jordan Rules aired the Bulls’ dirty laundry, causing fans and

sports pundits to speculate anxiously that the book could fracture the championship team. Among the more salacious morsels: during a practice Michael Jordan had punched Will Perdue in the head in response to the seven-foot center’s setting a hard screen that ﬂattened M.J. “Why the hell don’t you ever set a pick like that in a game?” Jordan shouted. After the tussle, the Bulls installed a privacy curtain at its Deerﬁeld Multiplex practice facility. A smart move, as it would not be the last time M.J. would assault a teammate in practice. (See below, “Michael Jordan comes to blows with Steve Kerr.”)

WILL PURDUE STARTS A 1-900 NUMBER APRIL 1992 Phil Jackson believed Will Perdue too weak defensively to give the seven-footer any signiﬁcant game minutes, Smith noted in The Jordan Rules. “I’m treading water here,” Perdue once told the Daily Herald. “My skills are deteriorating, no doubt about it.” To amuse himself, the bored center started a hotline, 1-900420-WILL. For $2 for the ﬁrst minute, $1 for each additional minute, callers received recorded information about the Bulls and their opponents. He even reached for humor. “It’s now Tuesday,” went one message, “and Rony Seikaly keeps saying the [Miami] Heat are getting better. At what? Sunstroke?” It was proof Perdue had weaknesses beyond basketball. NBA INVESTIGATES MICHAEL JORDAN’S GAMBLING MARCH 1992 In February ’92, Eddie Dow, a bail bondsman involved in shadowy nightclub dealings,

was shot to death in front of his North Carolina home during a robbery. The thieves took some $20,000 in cash from Dow’s briefcase but left behind paperwork that included three checks linked to Michael Jordan totaling $108,000. Dow’s attorney and brother said the money was payment for gambling debts. Jordan played dumb at ﬁrst, but later said: “I wasn’t involved in any point-shaving or betting on basketball games. There’s nothing wrong with friendly wagers between friends. I’m sure everyone’s guilty of that in some circumstances.” NBA commissioner David Stern and other basketball oﬃcials met with Jordan in New York to determine if his dealings had violated the league’s “good-conduct rule.” They found Jordan not guilty of damaging the NBA’s integrity, but the Bulls star’s squeaky-clean corporate image was certainly dirtied. MICHAEL JORDAN’S LIES ABOUT GAMBLING DEBT REVEALED IN COURT OCTOBER 1992 Michael Jordan became embroiled in a North Carolina drug and money-laundering trial when a $57,000 check Jordan made out to convicted cocaine dealer James “Slim” Bouler was seized in the investigation. Jordan initially told the media the money was a personal loan to Bouler for construction of a golf driving range. It was the same story, Bouler bragged over the phone to a friend, that would help him avoid paying taxes on his winnings. Little did he know his phone had been wiretapped by county police. Ultimately Jordan fessed up while under oath in court: the payment was for gambling losses from golf and poker. Jordan’s late father James always held his son’s gambling mishaps were the result of a “competition problem.” This incident showed M.J. may have had a little problem with the truth too.

ò CHARLIE KNOBLOCK/AP PHOTO (JORDAN): DICK RAPHAEL/NBAE (SELLERS); GETTY IMAGES (PERDUE)

In the 1986 draft, Bulls GM Jerry Krause had his eye on Brad Sellers, a forward out of Ohio State. Michael Jordan urged Krause to use the ninth overall pick to select Duke guard Johnny Dawkins. When Krause ignored Jordan, the team’s star got his revenge by making Sellers a target of ridicule. “Sellers would eventually break under the strain of Jordan’s attacks,” wrote Sam Smith in The Jordan Rules, “and Sellers’s game would plummet to such depths that he was out of the NBA by the 1990-91 season.” Jordan would needle Krause about the pick for years. According to Lazenby’s The Life, Jordan would yell from the back of the team bus to Krause: “Brad Sellers, now he was a good draft pick.”

THE BULLS’ WORST

ò TIM BOYLE/AP PHOTO (PIPPEN); TOM CRUZE (JORDAN); JONATHAN DANIEL/ALLSPORT (CAFFEY); MARK LENNIHAN/AP PHOTO (RODMAN)

MICHAEL JORDAN SPOTTED GAMBLING IN ATLANTIC CITY DURING THE EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS MAY 24-25, 1993 At various points in his career, M.J. had been known to cop a competitive high off the court at a casino. During “Dream Team” training camp in Monte Carlo before the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, for instance, Jordan played plenty of latenight blackjack. But never did His Airness’s off-court gaming become such a distraction to the team as when some hotel guests of Bally’s Grand in Atlantic City, a two-hour drive from Manhattan, reported seeing M.J. betting in the casino’s baccarat pit until 2:30 AM on the eve of game two of the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. The Bulls had lost game one, so presumably Jordan would be resting up to take on John Starks and the rest of the Bulls’ rough-and-tumble rival. Jordan later claimed he was gambling until only 11 PM and was in bed by 1 AM, early enough to get eight hours of sleep before the team’s 10 AM shoot-around. In any case, Jordan reportedly lost $5,000 at the blackjack table— and the Bulls lost game two.

from Jordan. By the time NBA officials finished the investigation and cleared M.J. on October 8, 1993, it was too late. Two days before the ruling, Jordan announced his retirement. The curious timing touched off rumors that the league may have forced Jordan to walk away after uncovering incriminating information, something NBA commissioner David Stern has repeatedly denied.

County prosecutors would drop the misdemeanor charge after a judge ruled the cops didn’t have the right to legally enter and search Pippen’s vehicle— thereby preventing the ﬁrearm from serving as evidence. In the end, the Bulls star’s greatest crime may have been his SUV’s vacuous vanity plate: DA PIP.

MICHAEL JORDAN RETIRES FROM THE BULLS (FOR THE FIRST TIME) OCTOBER 6, 1993 Less than three months after the murder of his father James, Michael Jordan walked away from the game he came to deﬁne. “I have nothing more to prove in basketball,” he said during a crowded press conference at the Berto Center in Deerﬁeld. In the wake of the announcement, the Bulls were left with a gaping, Jumpman-shaped hole in their 1993-’94 lineup.

NBA LAUNCHES SECOND PROBE INTO MICHAEL JORDAN’S HIGH-STAKES GAMBLING JULY 1993

SCOTTIE PIPPEN ARRESTED FOR PACKING HEAT JANUARY 20, 1994

A little more than a year after the NBA cleared Jordan of any wrongdoing with regard to his gambling on golf and cards, the league again began looking into his oﬀ-court dealings. The second investigation was sparked by a book, Michael and Me: Our Gambling Addiction . . . My Cry For Help!, self-published in May 1993 by San Diego golf pro Richard Esquinas, who wrote that Jordan owed him $1.25 million from betting on the links. Esquinas said he negotiated the debt down to $300,000, and even showed reporters checks as proof of payment

Shortly past midnight outside P.J. Clarke’s in the Gold Coast, Scottie Pippen was arrested and charged with unlawful use of a weapon after police found a loaded .380 caliber handgun in the Bulls forward’s Range Rover while trying to tow the vehicle from a no-parking zone. The 28-year-old All-Star was licensed to own the gun—but not to carry it. “Gun Arrest Could Shoot Holes In Pippen’s Image” went the headline of a Tribune story that quoted a ten-year-old boy from the west side doubting if he could continue to call Pippen a hero. Ultimately, Cook

MICHAEL JORDAN MAKES A PITIABLE ATTEMPT TO PLAY PRO BASEBALL FEBRUARY 1994-MARCH 1995 In the wake of his sudden breakup with the Bulls, M.J. announced he would pursue a pro baseball career, a lifelong dream he shared with his late father. In 127 games with the White Sox’ AA team, the Birmingham Barons, the greatest basketball player ever made for a poor-to-middling right fielder and hitter (career batting average: .202). Whiffing at pitches and dropping fly balls, Jordan proved, once and for all, that he’s human. SCOTTIE PIPPEN’S PLAYOFF HISSY FIT MAY 13, 1994 If any single moment epitomizes the post-Jordan unease of the Bulls’ 1993-’94 season, it would have to be the final play of game three of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Knicks. After spending his career happily playing in the shadow of His Airness, Scottie Pippen inherited the role of chief offensive threat. So with 1.8 seconds remaining and the game tied, Pip was infuriated with coach Phil Jackson’s decision to give the last shot to rookie Toni Kukoc. When Kukoc buried the jumper to give the

Bulls a victory, Jackson’s scowl didn’t budge. How could he smile when his team was splintering? THE ORLANDO MAGIC END THE BULLS’ PLAYOFF SERIES RUN MAY 18, 1995 Returning from retirement with just 17 games remaining in the 1994-’95 regular season, Michael Jordan cast himself as the Bulls’ white knight—or perhaps the cavalry riding in to propel the team into the finals once again. Game six of the Eastern Conference semifinals, however, would not offer a fairy-tale ending. Shaquille O’Neal and an Orlando Magic lineup that included former Bulls forward Horace Grant, who’d signed as a free agent at the end of the previous season, stunned the United Center crowd with a 108-102 victory that dealt Jordan, Pippen, and company a big blow: their first playoff series defeat in four seasons.

THE DRAFTING OF JASON CAFFEY JUNE 28, 1995 In the 1995 draft, the Bulls had the opportunity to select Michael Finley, who was born in Melrose Park, was a big deal at Proviso East High School, and distinguished himself at the University of Wisconsin. Finley became a two-time All-Star and in 2007 helped the Spurs win a championship. With the 20th pick, the Bulls instead selected Jason Caffey, who was a nonentity in his three seasons. When his NBA career ended, Caffey had financial difficulties. He fathered ten children with eight different women; in 2009 an Atlanta judge ordered his arrest for failure to pay thousands of dollars in child support.

MICHAEL JORDAN COMES TO BLOWS WITH STEVE KERR FALL 1995 As Michael Jordan began his first full season back with the Bulls following his return from retirement, the 32-year-old was greeted with speculation that his best play was behind him. “Everybody was saying this was Scottie Pippen’s team, but I was trying to work my way back up to 1993, where this was Michael Jordan’s team,” he told ESPN. “And this one day I was just in a very feisty, feisty mood. Phil put Steve Kerr opposite of me, but he was giving Steve all the calls. And I’m getting really ticked off. One thing led to another—I fouled him real hard, he fouls me real hard. Before I knew it, I just hauled off and whacked him right in the eye. All the anger, all the comments of people saying that my skills had eroded, and I was letting everything go.” The skirmish said more about Jordan’s pettiness than the state of the team, which went on to post a record 72 wins in the regular season and take home its fourth championship title in six seasons.

stormed oﬀ. The incident landed Rodman a $20,000 ﬁne and a sixgame suspension without pay.

DENNIS RODMAN HEAD-BUTTS A REFEREE MARCH 16, 1996

DENNIS RODMAN KICKS A CAMERAMAN JANUARY 15, 1997

When the Bulls acquired bad boy Dennis Rodman from San Antonio in the fall of 1995, coach Phil Jackson called the move a “risk/reward” proposition. As the league’s reigning rebound leader, Rodman added needed muscle to the Bulls’ backcourt. The concern was that the tattooed forward’s eccentric behavior could be a distraction, or worse—that his volatility might disrupt the team’s chemistry. Jackson’s fears were ﬁrst realized when Rodman head-butted referee Ted Bernhardt during a game against the Nets in New Jersey. Before the close of the ﬁrst quarter, Rodman earned his second technical foul of the game—for reaching his hands into his shorts in what Bernhardt deemed an obscene gesture—and was therefore ejected, as dictated by NBA rules. Upset at the call, Rodman jabbed his head into Bernhardt’s and

While fighting Kevin Garnett for a rebound in a game against the Timberwolves in Minnesota, Dennis Rodman tripped over a cameraman for a local NBC affiliate, Eugene Amos Jr. In a moment of rage, Rodman kicked Amos in the groin. He was subsequently fined $25,000 and suspended without pay for 11 games; he would later settle out of court with Amos for a reported $200,000. For the Bulls, the assault and Rodman’s absence put further strain on the tense relationship between Rodman and his teammates. “All I know is that Dennis doesn’t give a damn about most things,” Scottie Pippen said upon Rodman’s return. “I’m not sure he’s capable of learning any lessons from his suspensions.” Asked about the status of his own relationship with the pugnacious power forward, Michael Jordan replied: “We have no relationship.” J

DENNIS RODMAN MARRIES HIMSELF AUGUST 21, 1996 Promoting his memoir Bad as I Wanna Be, released in the spring of ’96, Dennis Rodman famously showed up to a New York bookstore for a signing wearing a bridal gown. If the publicity stunt didn’t seem to initially irk his more conventional fellow Bulls players, it certainly made an impression on Jordan. Asked ﬁve months later if he had any advice for Rodman, who was returning that night from a suspension, M.J. quipped: “I’d tell him to wear pants all the time.”

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 13

THE BULLS’ WORST

DENNIS RODMAN, THESPIAN APRIL 4, 1997 Was Dennis Rodman’s book Bad as I Wanna Be about his acting ability? As he helped the Bulls to a 69-13 record, the Worm became a distraction off the court as his movie Double Team—a critical and commercial flop starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Mickey Rourke—premiered in theaters. The film cleaned up at the Razzies, with Rodman garnering Worst New Star, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Screen Couple with Van Damme. THE END OF THE 90S DYNASTY 1998 It’s the NBA’s version of the Beatles’ breakup: Jordan, Pippen, Jackson—scattered to the wind. “It was not just ugly, it was sad,” Lazenby told me. “The city loved that team so much.” GM Jerry Krause was the easy scapegoat, but the dynasty’s disintegration was more nuanced than one man, however bullheaded he might have been. For the Bulls organization, Lazenby says, this period was an “ugly mound of puss and ego and finger-pointing and bad blood.” RON ARTEST APPLIES FOR A JOB AT CIRCUIT CITY SUMMER 1999 Before his rookie season began, first-round draft choice Ron Artest (who in 2011 changed his name to Metta World Peace) applied for a job at Circuit City just for the employee discount. When the store manager called the reference Artest put on his application, Bulls GM Jerry Krause, the executive put a stop

to the hiring. A decade later Artest elaborated on the sad reality of his time in Chicago: “I used to drink Hennessy . . . at halftime,” he told Sporting News.

him up. Despite early signs that Curry would be an oﬀensive threat, he was plagued by an irregular heartbeat and ﬁtness issues that would sideline him.

THE 2000-2001 SEASON 2000-2001

BULLS PLAYERS TOKE UP BEFORE GAMES (OR SO SAYS JAY WILLIAMS) 2002-2003 SEASON

Simply the worst season in Bulls history. It was the third for Tim Floyd, who took over as head coach following the 1999 Jackson/Jordan/Pippen exodus. The team finished 15-67, with a .183 win percentage. Twenty-five games into the next season, on Christmas Eve, Floyd resigned. THE DRAFTING OF DALIBOR BARGARIĆ JUNE 28, 2000 “Terrible may be too strong a word, but slow, cumbersome and predictable (in terms of his moves) seem to fit,” the Trib’s Bulls beat reporter K.C. Johnson wrote in 2002 of first-round draft choice Dalibor Bargarić. The Croatian center averaged a pathetic 2.6 points and 2.5 rebounds in his three seasons with the Bulls before the team bought out his contract and he decamped to play in foreign leagues. MARCUS FIZER FIZZLES 2000-2004 The Bulls used the fourth overall pick in the 2000 draft to nab Iowa State’s Marcus Fizer. The power forward admits he never developed into an NBA-caliber player because he didn’t have the work ethic. “I was rolling in 15 minutes before practice,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2013. “After practice, I was running out of there.” THE DRAFTING OF EDDY CURRY JUNE 27, 2001 Eddy Curry dominated during his years at Thornwood High School in South Holland, Illinois, and he expressed interest in staying close to home. So when the big man decided to forgo a scholarship to DePaul to enter the 2001 draft, the Bulls used the fourth overall pick to snatch

14 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

There were plenty of basketball-related reasons 2002-’03 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season for the hapless 30-52 Bulls. But what if the players were just high as hell? “There were guys smoking weed before games,” Jay Williams told the New York Times last year, speaking of his ﬁrst and only season in the NBA. The allegation prompted Deadspin to speculate about which Bulls players were most likely to have taken a pre-game toke. Topping the list: Fred Hoiberg, now head coach of the Bulls, who subsequently denied he’d ever smoked pot. “Never at all. Never in my life.”

near the Cabrini-Green public housing project for allegedly selling marijuana from his car, where police said they found six ounces of pot. The Bulls promptly retired the character. BENNY THE BULL ALLEGEDLY INJURES A DENTIST WITH A HIGH FIVE FEBRUARY 12, 2008 The long, strange journey of Benny the Bull got even weirder when Naperville dentist Don Kalant Sr. sued the man portraying Benny, Barry Anderson. The suit alleged Anderson went in for a high five but instead grabbed Kalant’s arm and fell forward, injuring the doc’s bicep. Anderson, it turned out, had a bit of a rap sheet: he was arrested in 2006 for allegedly punching an off-duty Cook County sheriff’s deputy who tried to stop him from riding a miniature motorcycle through Grant Park. Mascots!

That was the general theme of his surprisingly vindictive Hall of Fame induction speech, in which the infamous trash talker singled out everyone from the high school coach who didn’t put Jordan on the varsity team to players who iced him out during his rookie All-Star appearance to former Bulls GM Jerry Krause, His Airness’s constant punching bag. DERRICK ROSE TEARS HIS ACL APRIL 28, 2012 The NBA’s reigning Most Valuable Player had appeared in only 39 regular-season games, plagued by a variety of injuries—turf toe, a sprained ankle, and groin and foot injuries. In the final two minutes of a firstround playoff game against the eighth-seed 76ers (who ended up beating the Bulls), Rose tore his ACL, sidelining him for 99 games, including the entire following season. Never again would Rose regain his MVP-level play.

JAY WILLIAMS’S CAREER-ENDING MOTORCYCLE CRASH JUNE 19, 2003

DERRICK ROSE TEARS MENISCUS IN HIS RIGHT KNEE NOVEMBER 2013 TO APRIL 2014

After the Bulls selected Duke point guard Jay Williams as the number two pick in the 2002 draft, the team had such outsize expectations for him that the front oﬃce made a ceremony of giving him Michael Jordan’s old locker. But tragedy followed a so-so rookie year: the 21-yearold drove his motorcycle into a light pole in Wicker Park, dislocating his pelvis and left knee, severing the artery in his left leg, and damaging nerves. Williams descended into a cycle of depression, drinking, and self-loathing. He would never play in another NBA game.

Just ten games into his comeback, Rose limps off the court during a game against the Trailblazers in Portland. While changing direction to get back on defense, he lost his footing and suffered a medial meniscus tear in his right knee. Rose would miss 76 games, and come playoff time the Bulls lost in the first round to the Washington Wizards. At this point you were more likely to catch Rose shilling in a Giordano’s commercial than playing basketball.

DA BULL ARRESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY SELLING DA WEED JANUARY 19, 2004 Remember Da Bull? The more agile dunk-centric cousin to Benny the Bull was a United Center standby for nine seasons until the man behind the brown-furred mascot costume, Chester Brewer, was arrested

A DARK DAY IN BULLS HISTORY FEBRUARY 25, 2009 Longtime fans mourned the death of two towering Bulls ﬁgures who passed away in the span of 24 hours. Norm Van Lier, the tenacious star of the 1970s Bulls, was found in his home dead at age 61. Later on that same day Johnny “Red” Kerr, 76, the Bulls’ ﬁrst coach and longtime broadcaster, died after a battle with prostate cancer. MICHAEL JORDAN’S NEEDLESSLY PETTY HALL OF FAME SPEECH SEPTEMBER 11, 2009 Michael Jordan never forgot a single person who had slighted him on his journey to becoming the greatest-ever NBA player.

DERRICK ROSE TEARS HIS MENISCUS (AGAIN) FEBRUARY 24, 2015 D-Rose’s own personal Groundhog Day-style injury hell continues when the Bulls announce Rose has again suﬀered a torn meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery. He would miss 20 games, returning in time to propel the team to the Eastern Conference semiﬁnals before they were beat by Lebron James and the Cavs.

DERRICK ROSE ACCUSED OF RAPE AUGUST 25, 2015 On the eve of the 2015-’16 preseason, an ex-girlfriend of Derrick Rose ﬁled a lawsuit against the Bulls star and two friends, accusing them of drugging and gang-raping her in her Beverly Hills home back in August 2013. In his ﬁrst public remarks about the situation, Rose said he would be proven innocent and, oddly, that he was using the accusations as “motivation.”

DERRICK ROSE, MASKED WONDER SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 Another season, yet another major injury for Derrick Rose. During the ﬁrst practice of the year, Rose fractured his left orbital bone after taking an elbow to the face. On the plus side, Rose was ﬁtted postsurgery with one of those sort of rad Bill Laimbeer face masks. PAU GASOL BULLHEADED ENOUGH TO RAIL AGAINST CHICAGO-STYLE DEEP-DISH PIZZA DECEMBER 28, 2015 Like it or not, deep-dish pizza is a sacred cow in Chicago. It’s one of those annoying perennial topics every Chicago athlete of note will be asked his or her opinion of at some point in their career. So when GQ lobbed a softball question about ’za at Bulls center Pau Gasol, all he had to do was nod and smile. Instead, the Spaniard expressed his displeasure with the pie: “I’ve tried it. I’m not a fan of this deep-dish pizza. To me, it’s just a cake of melted cheese.” For shame. v

v @jakemalooley

ò PHIL VELASQUEZ (RODMAN, VAN DAMME); AP PHOTO/RUSTY KENNEDY (VAN LIER); MADDIE MEYER/GETTY IMAGES (ROSE)

continued from 13

ARTS & CULTURE Larycia Hawkins at her press conference ò RICH HEIN/SUN-TIMES MEDIA

RELIGION

Who wants to teach at Wheaton College?

By DEANNA ISAACS

arlier this month, in the wake of her own attention-grabbing press conference, Wheaton College professor Larycia Hawkins was worrying about something besides the fact that the school is trying to dump her. She was concerned about that, of course. Has been ever since last month, when it came to the college’s attention that Hawkins, a tenured political science professor, had posted a photo of herself in a hijab on her Facebook page, along with an explanation that she was wearing it during Advent to show her solidarity with Muslims, because “we worship the same God.” On December 15, Hawkins was placed on administrative leave and asked to submit a clarification. She did, explaining that as descendants of Adam and Eve, we’re all brothers and sisters—but administrators weren’t satisﬁed. They wanted further theological discussions. Hawkins objected, and on January 4, the college announced that it was initiating termination proceedings.

Not because of the hijab, the college said on a statement on its website, but because of that comment about Muslims, Christians, and one God, along with “other theologically confusing assertions.” Since then, students and faculty at Wheaton and other schools have been protesting on her behalf; 67,000 supporters have signed a petition seeking her reinstatement, and the school has attained a certain notoriety. That’s what was foremost on Hawkins’s mind. “The way Wheaton is handling this has generated a very negative impression,” she said in an interview. “That’s lamentable, because Wheaton is an amazing institution of higher learning.” Albeit, she added, one with “a lot of peculiarities.” To the secular world, steeped in concepts of intellectual and religious freedom, the most obvious “peculiarity” is the requirement that every employee must annually sign the college’s 12-part statement of faith and agree to

live by its “community covenant.” If you want to teach (or do any other job) at Wheaton, you must promise to live according to “biblical standards.” That means you’ll not only pledge to be kind, righteous, and honest, along with many other virtues, but you’ll also swear off a long list of “sinful behaviors” that includes vulgar language, homosexuality, recreational drugs, and sex outside of marriage. You’ll also have to affirm a literal belief in the biblical story of creation, the existence of Satan, the sinful nature of mankind, and the ultimate bodily resurrection of the dead. If that sounds like blatant discrimination— well, it is. Most employers wouldn’t be able to get away with it. Josiah Groff, one of Hawkins’s attorneys, says that in most situations the law protects against workplace discrimination on the basis of religion: “But there’s an exception if the employer is a religious institution. The religious employer can choose to employ people who agree with its religious beliefs.” This exemption also leaves the usual concepts of academic freedom in the dust. If the college wants to revoke Hawkins’s tenure for suggesting that Muslims and Christians have the same God, the relevant question will be “whether that’s consistent with Wheaton’s religious beliefs or not,” Groff says. And if it is, “whether it’s the same standard that they apply to everyone.” How does this play with that stalwart guardian of professorial rights, the American Association of University Professors? According to Hans-Joerg Tiede, senior program officer at the national headquarters, “the AAUP would prefer that institutions in general don’t place these kinds of restrictions on academic freedom, but we have historically recognized the right of religious institutions to do so.” Given that, the main question becomes “are faculty members aware, before they begin to work there, that Wheaton is an institution that restricts academic freedom?” So if you choose to teach at religious college, you’ll be walking away from a big chunk of your civil rights. Why would anyone as eminently employable as Hawkins—who says this is the fourth time in her nine years at Wheaton that her faith has been questioned—do that? A story she shared at the press conference suggests an answer. Growing up in Oklahoma, Hawkins said, she was “raised in church”—not just any church, but the black Baptist church where her

grandfather was the presiding pastor. When she was baptized, at age 11, she recalled, “I walked the aisle . . . in what we call the ‘come to Jesus’ moment.” “I walked into the arms of my grandfather, at the front of the church, who said, ‘You do not know how happy you made Papa’s heart.’ He baptized me with water that night and said, ‘The old has gone and the new has come.’ His actual, physical heart gave out two days later. The waters of baptism did not save me, Jesus saved me.” On the phone after the press conference, Hawkins had this to say: “People wouldn’t work at Wheaton if they weren’t committed to the ideal. We teach about political science, but we also think about Jesus’s politics, about how we live out our Christian faith. That’s the unique nature of Wheaton that I love. And what saddens me is that this has cast doubt on what

“Are faculty members aware, before they begin to work there, that Wheaton is an institution that restricts academic freedom?” —American Association of University Professors’ Hans-Joerg Tiede

kind of Christian commitment the statement of faith embodies. It’s a wonderful doctrinal statement, but it can’t be perverted and twisted to be used as a weapon against faculty who might do something that people on the outside or even on the inside deem controversial.” The next step in Wheaton’s termination process will be a hearing before a nine-member faculty personnel committee. Both the committee and the provost will then make recommendations to the college president, who in turn will make a recommendation to the ﬁnal decision makers, the board of trustees. Last week, more than 800 Wheaton alumni signed a letter to the administration and trustees demanding Hawkins’s immediate reinstatement and making it clear that anything less will have consequences: “Until full restoration and reconciliation are reached, each of us will prayerfully re-consider our commitment to ﬁnancially support the mission of Wheaton College.” v

v @deannaisaacs JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 15

R READER RECOMMENDED

ARTS & CULTURE

b ALL AGES

Jonathan Nieves and Sophia Ntovas ò JOEL MAISONET

THEATER

Too big not to fail BY JUSTIN HAYFORD

n its 15th and final installment, the fundamental problems with Collaboraction’s Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival are unmistakable: its scale and its irrelevance. Collaboraction artistic director Anthony Moseley admits to the latter, after a fashion, in his program note. What began a decade and a half ago as an experiment in “the convergence of theatre, music and visual art” has become to a large extent de rigueur on the theater fringe. “Multidisciplinary short play festivals are the new norm,” Moseley writes, and he’s dead-on. Chicago theater artists don’t need Sketchbook half so urgently as they might have in 2000. But Sketchbook’s irrelevance also stems from the nature of the 16 pieces presented this year in two excessively long programs, “Life” and “Death.” The works, each between three and eight minutes, fall into the indeterminate mush of too much or not enough—and sometimes both. While clever staging, ingenious lighting, and winning performances abound (Jonathan Nieves

16 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

blows the roof off the place as a Romeo in Jackson Doran and JQ’s High School Musical-esque revision of Shakespeare’s balcony scene, and Christine Vrem-Yostie eviscerates a self-absorbed Ivanka Trump attempting to “sell luxury” in Trump International Tower: Raw Footage), none of the works’ creators makes a short piece feel full. All of which is exacerbated by the production’s scale. By all reports, Sketchbook began as an intimate, informal affair, as much a collegial salon as a public show. This year, it’s a hyperinﬂated shebang. The stage is a wide expanse backed by a white brick wall with an enormous hole blown through it. Beyond the hole a small stage hosts a rotating lineup of musical guests who provide interludes between the pieces—interludes that on opening night often stretched beyond reasonable endurance and common sense. Huge atavistic images created from splattered black paint festoon the room, as do slick projections of black-and-white geometric shapes morphing into and out of one another. Colored lights

swoop and flash. A huge chandelier looking for all the world like an illuminated skeletal melon looms above. The message is clear: this is a big blowout, the place to be, a message enhanced on opening night by the presence of four live cameras filming the whole thing. It all provides for a lively atmosphere, but it leaves the work itself—arguably the most important element in the evening— overwhelmed and trivialized. Many of the pieces are decidedly insignificant on their own. Emily Schwartz’s three-minute Open Arms (The Rapture), for example, presents a stereotypical high school prom where one jilted girl gets revenge when the rapture comes and the guy who ditched her is obliterated—all to the accompaniment of Journey. Joe Zarrow’s Overnight Parking Ban, in Effect lingers over the frustrations of recovering an impounded car. In other works, the attempt to present big issues results in reductiveness. Samantha Dean’s The After, a dance and spoken-word piece about the aftereffects of rape, dwells on the self-evident necessity for victims to banish shame. The only piece that successfully inhabits the space is Dani Bryant’s Spanx You Very Much, a clubby dance piece about women’s conflicted relationships with their bodies and “controlling” undergarments like Spanx. Director Erica Barnes and choreographer Sheena Laird miraculously make 47 flexing, writhing, dutifully sassy women visually compelling. But for all the fierce attitude, there’s nothing here specific about women’s love-hate relationship with their bodies, just that there is one. But whether driven by spectacle or intimacy, the works rattle about in a distracting, oversize container. They’re set up to disappoint, especially when we’re asked to spend nearly as much time waiting between the pieces as watching the pieces themselves. A final fundamental problem runs through Sketchbook: these artists’ pieces are, well, sketchy. Most come across as staged initial impulses, broad strokes pointing in the general direction of something the creators haven’t fully investigated. Surely there’s value to putting barely limned ideas on their feet—but that’s what rehearsals are for. v THE CHICAGO SKETCH COMEDY FESTIVAL Through 1/24: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 7 and 9 PM, Sun 7 PM, Mon 8 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, stage773.com, $15-$30, festival pass $60..

ò ERIC MICHAEL PEARSON

COMEDY

Kate Berlant is one in a million IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW Kate Berlant was a professional comedian, you might think she’s just an eccentric audience member who wandered into the comedy club to spout her thoughts on cosmetic theft. “I believe 100 percent that women have the right to steal cosmetics, because women upon birth are forced into an economy where you have to pay for your own subjectivity constantly,” Berlant says in a typical bit. “So if you don’t have certain creams or lotions, the state won’t recognize you.” With her measured stroll and long gaze, Berlant strikes the perfect balance between portraying an exaggerated character and seeming completely genuine and off-the-cuff. Is she really a self-deprecating feminist who dreams of having a brother for the sexual tension, or does she just play one onstage? A little bit of both. Everything she says sounds like it’s just popped into her head, and like you’re the speciﬁc person she wants to tell it to. When she was in town last summer for the Comedy Exposition, I saw her make the same jokes two nights in a row, and I still don’t believe any of it was planned; just a strange coincidence, really, that her stream-of-consciousness monologue followed the exact same pattern with the exact same punch lines each night. But whatever Berlant’s actual method, she’s hilarious and poignant every time. —BRIANNA WELLEN R KATE BERLANT Fri 1/22-Sat 1/23, 8 and 10:30 PM, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North, upcomedyclub.com, $20.

EXHIBITION

Soul Asylum Albany Park Theater Project, Tania Bruguera, Díaz Lewis, and Jenny Polak JANUARY 22 – MARCH 26, 2016 OPENING RECEPTION

FRIDAY, JANUARY 22ND 5 – 8 PM

Weinberg/Newton Gallery (formerly David Weinberg Photography) 300 W Superior Street, Suite 203 Chicago, IL 60654 Hours Mon – Sat 10 AM – 5 PM 312 529 5090 weinbergnewtongallery.com

EARLY WARNINGS

NEVER MISS A SHOW AGAIN

CHICAGOREADER.COM/EARLY JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 17

Bebe Miller

ARTS & CULTURE

LIT

Diet for thought By AIMEE LEVITT

f I’d read Bee Wilson’s new book First Bite: How We Learn to Eat (Basic) during the joyously fat-and-sugar-ﬁlled holiday season, when everything smells like butter and vanilla and you can’t go anywhere without being offered a cookie, I probably wouldn’t have been very receptive to Wilson’s central argument. “Eating well is a skill,” she writes. “We learn it. Or not. It’s something we can work on at any age.” But now it’s January, season of self-improvement, and we’re no longer supposed to enjoy anything we put in our mouths. The nicest thing about First Bite, though, is that Wilson truly believes that foods that taste good and foods that are good for you are not mutually exclusive. If, during this most shit-tastic, anhedonic time of the year, there’s a glimmer of hope that I might actually ﬁnd pleasure in anything that’s good for me—even kale—I will cling to it. Wilson is a food scholar and not a dietitian (her previous book, the highly entertaining Consider the Fork, was about the ways cook-

18 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

ò JULIETA CERVANTES

ing and eating evolved in response to the development of various tools and utensils), and her approach is more reasoned and prescriptive than authoritarian. She believes that we can train our palates to prefer healthy whole foods to junk food full of empty calories, and she cites dozens of studies to prove it. Of all the thousands of people who are starting a diet now, only one in five will be able to maintain the weight loss for longer than a year. What’s the secret? Wilson discovers it’s because, unlike the 80 percent of dieters who eventually gain all the weight back, “maintainers” don’t associate healthy eating with complete deprivation. Instead, they continue to eat their favorite foods, but in much smaller portions. They also reduce the amount of sugar and fried foods in their diets and increase the proportion of fruits and vegetables. “But the real change was on the inside,” Wilson writes, “because this was how they now wanted to eat.” Such dramatic shifts in eating don’t happen all at once: researchers who work with picky children and anorexics have learned that patients learn to overcome food aversions through repeated exposure to tiny portions, sometimes as small as a grain of rice. Offering options is also important: no one, as Wilson realizes during an unfortunate period of her younger son’s toddlerhood, responds well to force-feeding. But it’s comforting to learn that it is possible to develop a genuine preference for healthy food. Some of Wilson’s recommendations are commonplace in magazines and the health columns of newspapers: use smaller plates and serving bowls, make meals social experiences (because screens are distracting and make you overeat), learn to stop eating when you feel full instead of when you’ve ﬁnished everything in front of you. Like just about every food writer during the month of January, Wilson heaps praise upon soup (invariably described as “nourishing”). Some food preferences come naturally, from your genes and from what your mother ate when she was pregnant with you; see supertasters (people with higher sensitivity to taste, by some estimates a quarter of the population) and those for whom cilantro tastes like soap. But Wilson believes that “appetite is a profoundly social impulse. To a large extent, our likes and dislikes are a response to the environment we eat in.” Wilson is most interesting when she examines social environments, particularly how families and peers inﬂuence eating habits. “There is vivid

proof,” she writes, “that anything can start to taste good if you have positive memories of being fed it by a parent.” Sometimes that behavior is formed in reaction to a sibling: as a teenager, Wilson responded to her sister’s anorexia by becoming a compulsive eater. Gender stereotypes govern adolescent eating: boys are encouraged to gorge on “manly” foods like enormous fast-food hamburgers without supplementing them with greens; if they’re a little overweight, well, they’re just big-boned. (“’Man up!’ urged KFC’s slogan for its Double Decker Burger, as if there might be something wimpish in a boy who didn’t think he could manage a bun containing two full chicken burgers, bacon strips, cheese, lettuce, and a splodge of mayonnaise.”) Meanwhile, girls, who are prone to anemia, could do with a lot more iron-rich red meat instead of “cheating” on their diets by sneaking chocolate. Wilson frequently returns to one extraordinary experiment from the 1920s in which a Cleveland pediatrician named Clara Davis put 15 infants from a nearby orphanage, aged between six and 11 months, on a special “self-selection” diet. For every meal, ten bowls, each filled with one item from a master list of 34 natural whole foods, were laid out in front of the infants; they were allowed to select what they wanted to eat and feed themselves without any guidance from an adult. Davis found that, though they developed preferences, the infants instinctively knew how to assemble balanced diets, choosing the foods that would compensate for vitamin deﬁciencies or help them recover from an illness. They even ate organ meats, like sweetbreads and kidneys, because no one told them they weren’t supposed to like them. Since they were separated from their parents, no one tried to buy their love with sweets; they never learned to associate candy with a reward for good behavior. (This is an old experiment, it’s true, but Wilson is not the only one who finds it still relevant, not the least because, for obvious reasons, it can never be duplicated.) For Wilson, this experiment is a good guide to eating: surround yourself with good food, try everything, and see what happens. She does neglect variables like bad, out-ofseason vegetables or lousy cooking, but the principle is sound. I’m looking forward to trying it out. v FIRST BITE: HOW WE LEARN TO EAT (Basic)

v @aimeelevitt

DANCE

Getting older and getting better “JUMPING IS A LITTLE MORE challenging than it used to be,” says Michelle Kranicke, artistic director of Zephyr Dance and curator of the upcoming Amid Festival at Links Hall. “It’s not the going up, it’s the coming down.” The days of big leaps and dazzling turns are ostensibly gone for the longtime dance maker and performance artist. But though their joints may be stiffer and their range of motion a shade diminished, for Kranicke and the headliners of Amid Fest—a half-dozen active performers described as being “midcareer”—that’s no reason to stop moving, albeit at a different pace and in different ways. In conceiving the fest, Kranicke wanted to challenge conventional thinking: Once the turns and leaps start to fizzle, should a dancer’s stage career fizzle too? What about the possibilities of the older body? “In Western culture we sort of shy away from this idea of losing physical capacity and aging because we’re in such a youth-oriented time,” she says. “It’s not bad, but the nuance and the intricacy of the movement [performed by experienced artists] is much more interesting.” To get the point across, Kranicke handpicked a group of highly acclaimed dancers still making waves around the country, among them Merce Cunningham protege Deborah Hay, Bessie Award winner Bebe Miller, and Links Hall cofounder Bob Eisen. More came calling, including Cynthia Oliver and Pranita Jain. You may not see them on So You Think You Can Dance anytime soon, but that would be missing the point. “It’s like life; you can’t teach a kindergartner long division right away,” Kranicke says. “They have to develop into that.” Likewise, the 75-year-old Hay, whose My Choreographed Body depends on what she is and isn’t physically capable of. “What my body can do is limited,” she says. But “how I choreograph frees me from those limitations.” —MATT DE LA PEÑA AMID FESTIVAL Thu-Mon 1/21-1/25; Tue 1/26, 6 PM; and Thu-Sun 1/28-1/31, 7 PM, Links Hall, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, linkshall.org, $10-$17 per performance, $25-$50 festival pass.

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 19

Charlotte Moorman performs Nam June Paik’s TV Cello wearing TV Glasses, New York, 1971.

ARTS & CULTURE

ò TAKAHIKO IIMURA

VISUAL ART

Avant-gardist Charlotte Moorman ﬁnally gets the recognition she’s due By SASHA GEFFEN

ultidisciplinary artist Charlotte Moorman’s experimental cello performances and avant-garde festival curation shaped New York City’s cultural underground in the latter half of the 20th century. Moorman died of cancer in 1991, and for the last 25 years her legacy has been felt largely as a footnote to the histories of her better-known collaborators: John Cage, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono. But now the Block Museum of Art has opened a retrospective exhibition this month on Moorman’s legacy of performance and provocation. “A Feast of Astonishments” presents artifacts from her work and ephemera from her life for the first time, honoring a figure whose fearless and playful gestures refused to fit neatly into the canons of any discipline. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1933, Moorman trained as a classical cellist, first in her hometown and later at the Juilliard School in New York. After years of working as a freelance musician, she abandoned the trajectory she seemed poised to follow, leaving behind a husband who expected a traditional domestic life of her and moving to Manhattan to pursue music and performance on the fringes. There she would cultivate a community of similarly adventurous artists, several of whom appeared onstage at Northwestern’s Block Auditorium last Saturday to discuss their memories of Moorman’s friendship and the legacy she left behind. The New York Fluxus artist Alison Knowles remembered Moorman as “someone who brought women into the idea of performance art.” Carolee Schneemann, a multidisciplinary artist best known for the 1964 short film Meat Joy, described Moorman’s endeavors as “proto-feminist.” Though Moorman didn’t align herself with an explicit politics, her commentary on her work—printed on walls throughout the museum—casts the question of agency in performance in a new and still radical light.

20 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

In 1967 Moorman was arrested for public indecency during a half-naked cello performance of Paik’s Opera Sextronique, earning her the nickname “the topless cellist.” (Paik, whose score called for the nudity, wasn’t charged.) Moorman would subsequently do battle with a reputation that cast her within an objectifying gaze: as a provocateur using nudity as a gimmick instead of as an artist reclaiming sexuality within the typically neutered arena of music performance. Moorman never saw herself as a muse, though many would apply the word to her role in Paik’s performance scores. She insisted on her agency, no matter her collaborators; once Paik wrote a script, she was free to actualize it however she wished—the art lived through her. She would often perform in the nude—cellos made of ice she would play down to water, cellos made of Plexiglas and televisions she would play by waving magnets near the screens. Moorman bowed her (wooden) instrument in Paik’s iconic TV Bra for Living Sculpture, a pair of miniature televisions afﬁxed to a clear plastic harness. Paik described the work as a “living sculpture,” but Moorman would subdivide it into three equally living components: the bra, herself, and her cello. Artists’ retrospectives often tend to reinforce the mythology of isolated genius. “A Feast of Astonishments,” by contrast, is a portrait not just of Moorman but of the community she enlivened and the inner life that was her longest-running performance. Alongside photos of performances like Sky Kiss, where she played cello suspended in the air from a dozen massive helium balloons, the exhibition presents detritus from her less glamorous endeavors, including her decade-plus battle with cancer that spread from her breast to her bones. A concurrent exhibit in the Block’s Katz Gallery is named for the artist’s last words: “Don’t Throw Anything Out.” Receipts, shopping lists, photos, and love notes to her second

husband (and frequent collaborator), Frank Pileggi, are scattered under glass, labeled and contextualized. Moorman held these private fragments as sacred as her public triumphs; they’re displayed here not as an invasion of her privacy but as the amplification of the private moments she’d been documenting throughout her life. A Polaroid shows Moorman shortly before her death: emaciated, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and smiling broadly. Her smile threads together the many chapters of her history represented in this exhibition. She wears it as a teenage beauty queen in Little Rock, then years later while dangling from balloons or watching her friends perform at one of the 15 avant-garde festivals she put on across New York City. Her transparent joy ignites all the works she participated in, from Ono’s intimate Cut Piece to Cage’s playful 26’1.1499 for a String Player, both of which Moorman kept in her solo repertoire. She wasn’t an isolated source of genius but an animating, generative force for

it, enabling a community of friends and peers to make art fearlessly for the sake of wonder. That wonder rings even now through “Feast.” In the center of the Block’s main gallery, there’s a series of cubicles dedicated to Moorman’s avant-garde festivals. In one, the floor has been scattered with dozens of can lids that a sign invites visitors to step on—a re-creation of a festival performance staged by experimental musician Max Neuhaus. During my visit, some museumgoers tiptoed cautiously across the aluminum; others stomped through the work. Every few minutes, the sound of a stomper would crash through the air—the pulse of Moorman’s abandon, alive and well. v R “A FEAST OF ASTONISHMENTS: CHARLOTTE MOORMAN AND THE AVANT-GARDE, 1960S–1980S” Through 7/17, Northwestern University Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Dr., Evanston, 847-491-4000, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. F

v @sashageffen

45 YEARS ssss Directed by Andrew Haigh. R, 95 min. Landmark’s Century Centre

ARTS & CULTURE

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

45 Years

MOVIES

Vanishing act By ANDREA GRONVALL

ate and Geoff Mercer (Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay) have spent most of their lives together; having weathered their share of adversity, including Geoff’s heart attack a few years back, these retired spouses aren’t easily fazed. But at the start of Andrew Haigh’s stellar drama 45 Years, they learn that the body of Geoff’s former girlfriend, Katya, has been found on the Swiss mountainside where she perished in a 1962 hiking accident. Geoff told Kate about the tragedy decades earlier, and the dead lover has receded in their memories. But now the snow over the glacier crevasse where she was entombed has melted, revealing her perfectly preserved. Climate change is particularly appropriate as a plot device here: the receding glacier exposes not only the corpse but also nagging doubts and messy emotions, just in time for the Mercers’ upcoming 45th wedding anniversary. Theirs has been an enviable union: their closeness, forged over nearly half a century of intimacy and interdependence, has bred a ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

near-effortless synchronicity. Their comfort with each other reinforces their nurturing, and vice versa. Their modest country house in England’s misty Norfolk Broads wetlands is cozy, not stifling; companionable dogs have filled the space of the children the couple never had. Rather like dancing, a good, long marriage depends on balance and rhythm. Two people step together in a certain direction, but then sometimes separate with a little twirl for a brief solo before reuniting. In the Mercer household, Kate is the early riser. By 7:30 on any given morning she’s back from walking the dog, removes her coat and muddy shoes, drinks a glass of water in the kitchen, where Geoff sits over breakfast, and then they chat about the day ahead. She cleans up after him, but he does the heftier chores. She takes the car into town for errands while he stays behind to fix the plumbing. When he cuts his finger, she bandages him. They’re both retired—he was a manager at a big plant, she used to be a schoolteacher—so their talk over dinner centers on their friends and social calendar. Then it’s time

ss AVERAGE

s POOR

for some TV or reading before they head up to bed, undress, talk a bit more, and sleep. This is their routine, and it has served them well. Everything has its place in a marriage based on such sharing and communication, so much so that once Kate hears disturbing new details about Katya, the Mercers are headed for their own fall. The incursion of the unknown erodes their domesticity, and the things that have made their marriage strong—intimacy, synchronous rituals, and the interdependence that comes from mutual caring and respect—turn it into a mineﬁeld. The problems begin with Geoff, so abruptly sideswiped by grief. The Swiss authorities have contacted him as Katya’s next of kin—as he reveals to Kate, he and Katya posed as married so they could bunk together in people’s homes. This fairly innocuous admission upsets Kate, as does Geoff’s response to his own agitation: “Don’t be cross, Kate, I’m going out for a smoke.” His smoking becomes more frequent; returning home at one point, she opens a window, gently chiding, “I don’t want us to start smoking again.” They gave up smoking together, and not only is his resumption of the habit dangerous for his heart, it’s breaking their pact. Geoff is also mulling over the Swiss authorities’ suggestion that he return to the Alps, presumably to identify Katya’s body. “You aren’t thinking of going?” Kate asks in horror.

“You don’t even want to go for a walk with me on the Broads, and that’s as flat as a pancake.” The growing friction between them comes out in surprising ways. Geoff becomes obsessed with climate change, and he goes to the town library to check out a book on the subject, which makes him late for his lunch with Kate. When their best friends spot them through the cafe window, Kate urges him to hide the book, as if it’s some dirty secret. Later these same friends unwittingly prompt an argument by urging Kate to get Geoff to attend a reunion with his old work colleagues. “You can’t just back out of things, even if you have reasons,” Kate insists. Geoff grudgingly relents, and their synchronicity is restored, but on the drive home from the reunion, his stomach turns. Other fissures in their once perfect life appear, such as Kate’s casual observation that there are no personal photos around their house. But none is as damaging as the way Geoff abuses their intimacy by turning their late-night chats into ruminations about his lost love. Jealousy and resentment over a long-ago predecessor may be illogical, but bringing the specter of the dead woman into their bedroom every night is too much sharing for Kate. She begins to wonder who she really married, especially now that Geoff seems to be disappearing before her eyes—quite literally, as he sneaks up to the attic to gaze at old slides of Katya. After Kate orders Geoff to get a grip, he snaps out of his doldrums. He renews his attentions to Kate, goes on a nature walk with her and the dog, and buys her an anniversary gift. You’d think she’d be grateful for these signs of returning normalcy, but the recent revelations about his individuality have wrecked her sense of marital security. Did Geoff’s reticence about his earlier life constitute lying, or was he merely being protective of her feelings? And if she can’t be everything to him, does that mean she is nothing? In Geoff ’s eagerness to please Kate, he doesn’t see that he has done something she can’t forgive: he’s had a past, a chunk of time, beautiful but fleeting, in which she had no part. As he gamely leads her to the dance floor at their party, where they and their guests sway to the strains of “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,” the Mercers’ respective follies border on tragedy, spinning an end to this cautionary tale. To know is not the same as to possess, and at any rate, possession is never permanent. v

= WORTHLESS

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 21

MUSIC

Austin Wulliman, Clara Lyon, Russell Rolen, and Doyle Armbrust of Spektral Quartet relax after a New York concert earlier this month. ò AUNDRE LARROW

Spektral Quartet give difficult music a friendly face Contemporary classical compositions can seem forbidding, but this Chicago group meet their audience halfway. By PETER MARGASAK

t Constellation on March 29, 2014, Chicago string ensemble Spektral Quartet celebrated the launch of a charming and savvy project called Mobile Miniatures, for which the group had commissioned 47 composers to write short pieces intended as cellphone ringtones. The quartet played in the usual spot on the ﬂoor, surrounded on three sides by seating, but they’d set up a lot more than just their chairs

and music stands. To the left and right of the performance area, toward the back of the room, the audience could use headphones to audition recordings of the ringtone compositions at iPad listening stations. Tiny tables among the musicians held a half-dozen kitschy, old-fashioned land-line telephones, among them novelty models shaped like lips or a doughnut. Spektral’s three short live sets of ringtones, enlivened by anecdotes and

22 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

SPEKTRAL QUARTET

Stravinsky, Reminick, Fisher-Lochhead, Macklay, Haydn, Beethoven. Fri 1/29, 8 PM, Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse, $23, 18+. Also Sun 1/31, 3 PM, Performance Penthouse, Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th, $10, students free, all ages.

explanations from the players, included two pieces composed spontaneously during the concert by Marcos Balter and Chris Fisher-Lochhead, based on audience ideas submitted on scraps of paper. Between sets, attendees were encouraged to use the listening stations or pick up one of the phones, each of which played a selection of music chosen by a cultural figure such as MCA curator Naomi Beckwith and poet Virginia Konchan. Spektral also rented a British-style phone booth from a local prop house, but because they couldn’t fit it through the doors of the venue, they had to leave it in the van. Everyone listened raptly during the live performances, but most of the evening felt like a party. The crowd, largely in their 20s to 40s but dotted liberally with older folks, circulated in the performance area as though it were a social mixer rather than a concert; the musicians stayed in the thick of it, mingling and answering questions. Spektral performed just 15 ringtones (including the pair from Balter and Fisher-Lochhead), not all 61 they’d commissioned, but they’ve made the whole set available for purchase on their website—they make great replacements for the trite presets on a typical cell phone. Because Spektral recorded them, most feature only strings, though a few add voices or electronics. Tyshawn Sorey’s “Alert,” one of the shortest pieces, is a discordant three-note warning that lasts just two seconds (the longest Mobile Miniature is a little more than a minute), and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “Into Light” is an ethereal yet astringent five-second ascent. The wide range of composers involved includes Chicagoans Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, and Jonathon Kirk, celebrated New Yorkers David Lang, Nico Muhly, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, and folks from the improvisedand pop-music worlds such as Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier, and Julia Holter. Mobile Miniatures illustrates one of Spektral Quartet’s most appealing and significant qualities. Though violinists Austin Wulliman and Clara Lyon, violist Doyle Armbrust, and cellist Russell Rolen are all adventurous, unimpeachable musicians, that’s basically standard equipment in contemporary J

Special Guest

CABINET SATURDAY JANUARY 30 9:00pm • 18 & Ove r PARK WEST

MARCH 24

8:00pm • 18 & Over

PARK WEST

Special Guest:

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

NEXT THURSDAY! JANUARY 28 8:00pm 18 & Over

SPECIAL GUEST: RHETT

MILLER SATURDAY, JANUARY 30 8:00pm • 18 & Over

JAN. 29 SHOW IS SOLD OUT! NEW ALBUM EVERMOTION OUT NOW ON NETTWERK

WWW.GUSTER.COM

JIM NORTON

MOUTHFUL OF SHAME TOUR Special Guest:

FRIDAY JANUARY 29 7:30pm • All Ages

FEBRUARY 2 8:00pm • All Ages

BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11 8:00pm • 18 & Over

SATURDAY ,FEBRUARY 20 7:30pm • All Ages 2/19 SHOW SOLD OUT! WWW.SLAYER.NET

SUNDAY, MARCH 13 8:00pm • 18 &Over

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 11AM!

VANCE JOY –Jan. 22 & 23 - Sold Out! • HOODIE ALLEN –Saturday, Feb. 27 • DR. DOG –Saturday, Mar. 12 GARY CLARK JR. –April 1- Sold Out! • UNDEROATH –April 7-Sold Out! • FATHER JOHN MISTY – April 14 & 15 BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS –April 16 • COURTNEY BARNETT –April 28 • BEN FOLDS – May 13

BUY TICKETS AT

MAIDEN RADIO FEBRUARY 18

Special Guest:

8:00pm • 18 & Over

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18

APRIL 27 8:00pm • 18 & Over

8:00pm • 18 & Over

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 11AM!

LEFTOVER SALMON – Feb. 26 & 27 • BEACH HOUSE –Mar. 1- Sold Out! • DARK STAR ORCHESTRA –Mar. 4 & 5 • STEVEN WILSON –Mar. 7 & 8 LAKE STREET DIVE – Mar.11 & 12 • DAVID CROSS – Mar. 16 • MELANIE MARTINEZ –Mar. 17-Sold Out! • THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS –Mar. 20 ADAM LAMBERT – Mar. 23 • PUSHA T –April 5 • ST. GERMAIN –April 10 • BOYCE AVENUE –May 20 • MARILLION –Oct. 27-28

Buy tickets online at etix.com or by Phone: 1-800-514--ETIX JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 23

MUSIC continued from 22

classical ensembles today—what sets them apart is their willingness to meet their audience halfway. They don’t water down their repertoire, but they’re happy to share what it is they love about the work they play—and they consistently find new ways to make their concerts fun, engaging, and serious all at once. Next weekend Spektral play two dates to celebrate their new album, Serious Business (due Friday, January 29, via Sono Luminus), whose cover uses a black-and-white photo of the group striding purposefully toward the camera in dark suits and ties—except that Armbrust is falling on his ass. On the back cover, he rolls around in pain, but his comrades ignore him, instead looking with concern at his dropped instrument. Humor plays a big role in the new album, just as it does at Spektral’s performances and rehearsals. “The music on this album—we have three new pieces that are all extremely challenging and a piece of classical music by Haydn that everyone knows how it should sound and how it should sound good,” says Armbrust. “So you have four pieces that are very difficult.” I’m talking with the group in Wulliman’s Rogers Park apartment, above the basement space where Spektral practices. “In the rehearsal room, unpacking these pieces is daunting from the beginning,” Armbrust continues. “Our way of balancing out the stress or difficulty of working through some of these pieces initially is just to be cracking jokes nonstop, and I think that comes out when we’re onstage. And with this being a humor-themed album, it made sense not try to hold that back.” Much of what makes Spektral especially accessible and user-friendly doesn’t depend on the originality of their approach but rather their personality. New-music artists have been performing in nontraditional venues since at least the early 60s, whether because they were shut out of conventional concert halls or simply hated their formal stuffiness; one of Spektral’s ﬁrst shows was at Ukrainian Village rock club the Empty Bottle. Since the early 80s, the Kronos Quartet have been deviating from stylistic orthodoxy to tackle material from other genres and traditions, and Spektral do that too: they joined jazz pianist Billy Childs to play the

string parts from his 2014 Laura Nyro tribute album, Map to the Treasure, for a concert this fall, and they continue to collaborate with French nuevo tango accordionist Julien Labro, with whom they made the 2014 album From This Point Forward (Azica). And of course humor has been part of classical music for a long time too: Serious Business includes Haydn’s String Quartet Opus 33 no. 2 from 1781, affectionately nicknamed “The Joke” for the false endings in its jaunty final movement. And the new pieces that surround it on the album are hardly buttoned-down stuff. The Ancestral Mousetrap by Dave Reminick (leader of Chicago math-rock band Paper Mice and one hell of a composer) requires the group to sing the absurdist Russell Edson poem of the title while playing the jagged, mind-warping music. Hack by Fisher-Lochhead borrows many of its rhythms and pitch relationships from meticulous transcriptions of bits by famous stand-up comedians, including Lenny Bruce, Sarah Silverman, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and Tig Notaro; the composer gives the strange shapes that result a dazzling harmonic grandeur. When Spektral premiered the complete piece as part of last May’s Comic Cadences program, they screened videos of the bits before each short movement. The appearance of the Haydn quartet among the newer pieces on Serious Business is characteristic of Spektral’s programming approach, but they’re aware of its pitfalls. “We try to avoid what is referred to in certain circles as the ‘shit sandwich’ of programming, which is two familiar works surrounding something new and unfamiliar on the inside,” says Armbrust. “You see that a lot, at least in the mainstream. And certainly there are groups that play the whole span, as we do. But it’s really about what just gets us off, which is jumping in between these sometimes wildly different styles of playing, where different techniques or different ways of approaching the music are necessary. It keeps a ﬁre under our ass at concerts, and I think that adds to the level of creativity or inspiration.” Even the terms that define the “shit sandwich” are part of the problem, in Armbrust’s opinion. “The funny thing

24 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

about even talking about this is that we’re sort of talking about it in the framework of how it’s been talked about in the past, which is this binary of new and old,” he says. “Ultimately what we’re trying to do is get rid of the binary. Not putting one thing up against another thing, but actually having some sort of time line on any given program where we get to see a wider range of things happening.” Spektral’s original members met in 2009, when Wulliman and Rolen were in grad school at Northwestern University. Wulliman noticed that Chicago Chamber Musicians was looking for a string quartet in residence. “I’d always wanted to be in a string quartet, personally,” he says. “So I was like, ‘What the heck, I’m going to throw some people together and apply for it.’ I knew Doyle and Russ, and I didn’t know any other violin players that I was fired up to play with—but they knew [founding violinist] Aurelien [Pederzoli] from playing together in Anaphora Ensemble back then. We all got together with a couple of six-packs and a stack of music and started reading. We applied for that thing, and it didn’t happen, but we had a good enough time that we decided that we should try to ﬁnd a couple reasons to do concerts.” Spektral chose a name and formally launched in 2010, but it took time for the group’s public persona to blossom. “We realized a big part of the mission was to

Spektral Quartet celebrate the release of Serious Business with two local shows next week.

be opening up the process and who we were to the audience, whether it was onstage and talking to people or in how we communicated through the press or through social media,” says Wulliman. “We were trying to make our wacky personality all on the surface and not hidden from people—not put a facade of seriousness in front of the art, but burst out with whatever color there was to ourselves.” That has manifested itself in Spektral’s eclectic programming, in the self-effacing explanations of pieces that the members share at concerts, and in the group’s commitment to finding connections—sometimes playful but always rigorously thought out—between works separated by a couple years or a couple centuries. From the beginning the quartet have also emphasized the work of Chicago composers. “We had this incredible number of young composers around the city that were doing super outstanding work and were eager to be able to write for string quartet, and so it was really symbiotic early on,” says Armbrust. Spektral’s 2013 debut album, Chambers (Parlour Tapes), features music the group had commissioned during its first few years from some of the region’s brightest young talent, including Fisher-Lochhead, Balter, LJ White, Eliza Brown, Ben Hjertmann, and Hans Thomalla. One measure of Spektral’s growing success in the years since is that they’ve begun commissioning works from composers elsewhere in the country, including George Lewis, Wet Ink’s Sam Pluta, and jazz saxophonist Miguel Zenon, who first worked with the group on the Labro project and is now writing an albumlength piece for Spektral that will get its world premiere at this year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival. (They’ve also had their first and only personnel change: in 2014 Lyon moved here from New York to replace Pederzoli, who’d left amicably to pursue other projects.) But Spektral remain loyal first and foremost to Chicago. Fisher-Lochhead credits Spektral for some of the daring choices he made while writing Hack. “I certainly would not have pushed the envelope as much as I did if I were writing for another group,” he says. “Having worked with the Spektrals for over five years (and having worked J

JANUARY 22ND

BORGEOUS & -- SOLD OUT MORGAN PAGE

JANUARY 28TH

BABES IN TOYLAND

JANUARY 29TH

EPICA

W/ MOONSPELL & STARKILL

JANUARY 30TH BADFISH:

A TRIBUTE TO SUBLIME

JANUARY 31ST

QUEENSRYCHE

W/ MEYTAL & HALCYON WAY

FEBRUARY 4TH

KEYS N’ KRATES

FEBRUARY 5TH

W&W

FEBRUARY 6TH

ALISON WONDERLAND

FEBRUARY 10TH

GALANTIS -- SOLD OUT W/CID

FEBRUARY 12TH CANDYLAND X FIGHT CLVB

WWW.CONCORDMUSICHALL.COM 2047 N. MILWAUKEE | 773.570.4000 JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 25

MUSIC continued from 24 with Austin for twice that), I developed a certain amount of familiarity with them: what they are good at, what they like playing, what they are willing to try (and in which areas I can challenge them without violating the sense of trust that we have built over the years). I wrote things of a level of difficulty or complexity that I had never written before, but to be honest, I never doubted that they would be able to pull it off.” Reminick went to school with Wulliman at Northwestern, but his connection to Spektral has been cemented by more than just long acquaintance. He especially appreciates their willingness to stick with a piece over the long haul. “For many new-music groups, the premiere is the ﬁrst and last time they play a piece,” he says. “I can’t speak for every composer, but that model just doesn’t work for my music. It’s rare to find a group like Spektral who will take the time to grow with a work, performing it many

times over the course of an entire season and beyond. So much of The Ancestral Mousetrap requires precise rhythmic synchronization and hocketing between the four performers, and making that work and feel natural takes a great deal of time.” Pianist Amy Briggs, a lecturer and artist in residence at the University of Chicago, advocated for Spektral to come aboard as fellow artists in residence in 2012—and that ongoing residency has turned out to be a major factor in boosting the quartet’s fortunes, so that the four of them now make their living from the group. At the U. of C. they operate like adjunct faculty, coaching student musicians and playing student compositions. “I feel that we were lucky to snag them early into their career as a quartet,” says Briggs. “Though I knew most of them as individuals (with whom I’d gigged in MusicNOW and elsewhere), I was taken from the beginning by the quartet’s enthusiasm, energy, precision,

26 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

“We try to avoid what is referred to in certain circles as the ‘shit sandwich’ of programming, which is two familiar works surrounding something new and unfamiliar on the inside.” —Spektral Quartet violist Doyle Armbrust

and humor. Spektral proves that you can play serious music well and still be lighthearted, fun people. They are serious about music, but don’t take themselves too seriously, and I think this helps them relate to student musicians.” The residency also helps further one of Spektral’s other important aims. “We want to be a Chicago institution, and we really want to be Chicago-focused,” says Armbrust. “We want to continue elevating the kinds of dates we do on the

road, rather than the number of them. We don’t want to be on the road all year. We want to have a really strong presence here and be seen as something that Chicago is proud of.” That local presence is key, adds Wulliman, and it means more than just playing a bunch of concerts around town. Spektral want to represent Chicago in all its variety and vigor. “There’s a reason we put out a Chicago season brochure and are very focused on our Chicago audience, and I don’t anticipate that changing,” Wulliman says. “We are deﬁnitely interested in working with national and international composers, and we don’t want to become insular in what we do, but we are also very committed to supporting the younger composers here in Chicago—and hopefully, as our own organization gets stronger and there are more resources, support them ﬁnancially.” v

v @pmarg

Recommended and notable shows, and critics’ insights for the week of January 21 b ALL AGES F

MUSIC Fay Victor ò COURTESY THE ARTIST

PICK OF THE WEEK:

The Catastrophist is as strong and consistent as anything in Tortoise’s discography

THURSDAY21 Foul Tip Arts of Life Band and Lala Lala open. 9:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $7.

ò ANDREW PAYNTER

TORTOISE

Sat 1/23, 6:30 and 10:15 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, sold out. 17+

ON THEIR FIRST NEW ALBUM IN SEVEN YEARS, The Catastrophist (Thrill Jockey), Tortoise include gripping new wrinkles through collaboration—the combo enlisted Todd Rittman of Dead Rider to add his creepy croon to a cover of the 1973 David Essex hit “Rock On.” It’s unexpected, because Tortoise are an instrumental band, and they add a subversive polish and numbing throb to the original, while Rittman pushes his performance into vintage Bowie territory. Vocals of a much different stripe from Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley are featured on an original called “Yonder Blue.” The beautiful slice of blue-eyed soul sounds like it was taped off an old transistor radio as Hubley delivers the melody with a resignation that’s both hushed and honeyed. The rest of the album weds electronic impulses and rock-band muscle and recalls midcareer albums like TNT (1998) and Standards (2001), which both stand as personal favorites of mine. On The Catastrophist Tortoise remain conﬁdent in their abilities as well as content with their aesthetic breadth. A bit of the album’s material was gleaned and reworked from the results of a 2010 commission by the Department of Cultural Affairs for which the band wrote pieces for some of the city’s best jazz players. The pretty melody of the title track—voiced with a ﬁzzy blend of guitar, organs, and synthesizers—gets its heft from rock-solid drumming and Douglas McCombs’s forceful bass, while the aptly titled “Shake Hands With Danger” conveys a sense of danger as the driving groove recalls Bjork’s “Army of Me.” With two of their members now living in Los Angeles, Tortoise may not be the envelope pusher they were two decades ago, but if they can still make a record as strong and consistent as anything in their discography, then I don’t really care. Hydrofoil open the early show, Cleared open the late. —PETER MARGASAK

Since 2008 drummer Ed Bornstein and bassist Adam Luksetich have composed the pushy, terse drums-and-bass postpunk duo Foul Tip. This March will see the release of Forever Drifting, a massive collection of driving, droney punk that doubles as the band’s debut full-length (released via formerly Chicago-based label Captcha Records). Both members of Foul Tip are total rippers: Bornstein’s busy, crystal-clear beats create a whirlwind of a foundation for the dirty, simplistic melodic bass lines of Luksetich (who is also a member of the backing band for Circuit Des Yeux), while they sing fractured, misanthropic lyrics through obtuse, sour harmonies. Forever Drifting showcases the band’s ability to channel the rhythmic acrobatics of Fugazi and the tightly wound energy of Wire and mix it all with the high-volume, beyond-heavy bass tones of Big Business. At this show, however, Foul Tip celebrates the rerelease of 2013’s out-of-print EP Heaven Now, which is getting unleashed back into the wild on cassette by local label Maximum Pelt Records. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

Kerosene Stars Strange Lovelies headline; Kerosene Stars and Jesse W. Johnson open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $5. “I thought about the bad times when I trusted me and you / And I don’t believe in miracles but I think this might be true,” sings Scott Schaafsma on the opening track of Kerosene Stars’ self-released EP Burn the Evidence. And indeed, there’s nothing particularly miraculous about “Don’t Believe in Miracles,” a straightforward, uplifting, jangly rock song about that first rush of love. But when Schaafsma and bandmate Andy Seagram hit those lovely calland-response harmonies at the end of the track, they begin to rival the Monkees’ “I’m a Believer,” drowning their cynicism in soaring, hokey, half-

amazed optimism. I’ve listened to the song ten times now, and I could listen to it ten or 20 more. It’s perfect pop, and would have made these guys rich 50 years ago. Alas radio’s moved on, and the rest of Burn the Evidence never quite reaches the same level of sublime retro catchiness. But like the band’s eponymous 2014 full-length, it doesn’t disappoint either. Kerosene Stars are a delightful, smart, unpretentious, Beatles-loving group with a sure hand for hooks leavened with a touch of dissonance and a hint of twang. This show is a record release party for the EP, so you can be sure “Don’t Believe in Miracles” will be on the playlist. —NOAH BERLATSKY

Smino Too Short headlines; Martin Sky and Smino open. 8 PM, Double Door, 1551 N. Damen, $10, $3 RSVP. 18+

Smino is the only Chicago rapper I’ve seen rock a stage while decked out in Cardinals gear. The 24-year-old grew up in Saint Louis and uses his growing role in the local scene as a megaphone for his hometown (in a recent interview for the hip-hop blog Pigeons & Planes he waxes lyrical about the impact of Nelly). But Chicago is where Smino has come into his own, building a nest at Classick Studios and ﬁnding collaborators to pull into his Zero Fatigue crew. He’s also discovered a foil in producer Monte Booker, who’s behind the recent Smino EPs Sick Sick Sick and Blk Juptr. Booker’s clattering, sumptuous yet minimal instrumentals offer the rapper the perfect sandbox to play in. Smino’s melliﬂuous croaks and croons—and his speedy nonstick transitions between opposing vocal styles— suggest that he’s less concerned with blurring the lines between rap, R&B, and pop than he is in pretending those lines don’t exist. No wonder Smino got tagged to perform at Red Bull’s latest Sound Select series, which matches great local talents with national wonders. Fake Shore Drive curated this one, and as with all the other FSD Sound Selects it’ll be to your advantage to show up early for the Chicago acts and get a good spot for the main attraction. Tonight it’s Bay Area legend Too Short. —LEOR GALIL J

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 27

28 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

Where are the rest of the music listings? Find them at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC latter is a seven-movement invention that recasts the stark melodies and harsh themes of American old-time music into something contemporary and driving. And Eighth Blackbird’s dedication to commissioning and performing new work continues this weekend. We get a preview of their album due out this spring when they perform a program of new pieces called “Hand Eye,” written by the six members of composer collective Sleeping Giant (Timo Andres, Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Jacob Cooper, Christopher Cerrone, Robert Honstein). I heard a few of the works on a recent WFMT broadcast— each features a particular ensemble instrument— and they explore terrain more turbulent than Filament’s, heavy in extended technique and dramatic ambiguity. —PETER MARGASAK

1800 W. DIVISION

Est.1954 Celebrating over 61 years of service to Chicago!

(773) 486-9862

Come enjoy one of Chicago’s ﬁnest beer gardens! THURSDAY, JAN. 21 ..........AT LEAST I CAME FRIDAY, JAN. 22................PETE BERWICK SATURDAY, JAN. 23...........JIMI JON AMERICA SUNDAY, JAN. 24..............DJ WHOLESOME RADIO THURSDAY, FEB. 4 ............SMILING BOBBY FRIDAY, FEB. 5..................ENVIRONMENTAL ENCROACHMENT SATURDAY, FEB. 6.............1ST WARD PROBLEMS SUNDAY, FEB. 7................MIKE FELTON TUESDAY, FEB. 9...............THE FLABBY HOFFMAN SHOW WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10.......ELIZABETH HARPER’S LITTLE THING THURSDAY, FEB. 11 ..........THE FLABBY HOFFMAN SHOW SATURDAY, FEB. 13...........JAMIE WAGNER BAND BAD FORUM SUNDAY, FEB. 14..............HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PLAYERS

EVERY MONDAY AT 9PM CHRIS SHUTTLEWORTH QUINTET EVERY TUESDAY AT 8PM OPEN MIC HOSTED BY JIMI JON AMERICA

Late Pass with Mic Terror, Brian Fresco, Roy French, and Gzus Piece DJ Earn Money spins. 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $15, $10 in advance. 17+ If you pay a shred of attention to the Reader’s concert calendar you should have an inkling that Chicago’s hip-hop scene is broader than the lasting image of drill or Save Money or whatever else has been imprinted on the community by outside forces. Good thing there’s Late Pass, a touring hip-hop series of locals who have helped make the local scene the stylistically vibrant thing it is. Backed by skilled DJ Boi Jeanius, headliner and Treated Crew rapper Mic Terror will likely drop some heat from Live From Your Mama’s House, last year’s great Treated collaboration with footwork collective Teklife, on which he eﬀortlessly threads together hiphop euphoria and posthouse nirvana. Roy French goes on prior, and he’ll be supporting November’s droopy Technicolor Flux EP, which can manufacture nightclub tension and release with just a few words (check out “Bapes” in particular). Brian Fresco, whose 2014 Soul Money EP is one of the best overlooked local hip-hop releases of the past few years, is working on a mixtape project called Casanova—and if he builds on the masterful, J

6?D 8=9=#B -""# :37<#7* )=#B<A % ;C=!3$ @=5">A +5<1 continued from 27

SATURDAY23 eIGHTH bLACKBIRD See also Sunday. 7:30 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, $10. b Last fall Chicago new-music institution Eighth Blackbird released the striking Filament (Cedille), a collection of material that stylistically fans out from the 1968 Philip Glass minimalist masterpiece

Two Pages. That piece was recorded live during a 2013 performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art (where the ensemble is currently artist in residence), as Bryce Dessner of the National joined in on guitar along with Nico Muhly, who played organ. Together they nailed the giddy 16-minute piece of rapidly spinning, repetitive ﬁgures, sonically simulating the wagon-wheel effect in the process. Though Muhly’s “Doublespeak” was composed for the group as an homage to Glass— the album’s only other explicit connection to the composer aside from Two Pages—there’s no missing his inﬂuence on two short pieces by songwriter Son Lux and on Dessner’s Murder Ballads. The

-D>C"

;C=!3$ 4&22

.55 .BDA ( ,'0/ @JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 29

1035 N WESTERN AVE CHICAGO IL 773.276.3600 WWW.EMPTYBOTTLE.COM THU

1/21

STRANGE LOVELIES KEROSENE STARS (EP RELEASE)

JESSE W JOHNSON

FREE

J.E. SUNDE

FRI

1/22

SMOKER • WALDEMAR FREE

GOLDEN VOID

1/25

BROKEBACK • DEAD FEATHERS

TUE

JOHNNY YOUNG • MINES

1/26 WED

1/27 THU

1/28

WYCHE/CLINKMAN/PACKARD

MATT CHRISTENSEN [ZELIENOPLE]

THOSE DARLINS FAREWELL TOUR

NE-HI

CLEARANCE • DIM 12:30PM

SAT

1/30

SCHOOL OF ROCK PRESENTS “OLD SKOOL”

MINSK

GENERATION OF VIPERS

ALMA NEGRA • TWO FROM THE EYE

ADVANCE BASE

MON

THE HOYLE BROTHERS

1/29

HARD COUNTRY HONKY TONK WITH

THE HOYLE BROTHERS

HARD COUNTRY HONKY TONK WITH

FREE

FRI

SUN

1/31 MON

2/1

TUE

TRISTEN • JOLLYS

2/2

MIRROR COAT NO MEN

THU

2/4

7PM FREE W/RSVP

STOMATOPOD

THE RUTEBEGA

THOUGHTS DETECTING MACHINES 10PM FREE FREE

EVERYONE’S A DJ FEAT.

BOBBY BURG & RYAN WEINSTEIN

BUBBLES BROWN ARC & STONES

OSCILLATOR BUG (

RECORD RELEASE ) MARK SOLOTROFF

M BAPTISTA BENEDICT

LEVER

ATOM MEETS BOMB • THE JUST LUCKIES

2/5: HOLY WHITE HOUNDS, 2/6: ARLUCK TIME 2016 FEAT. COOLER BY THE LAKE • SWEET COBRA, 2/8: SHOWYOUSUCK, 2/9: OLD SEA BRIGGADE, 2/11: DES ARK, 2/12: DISAPPEARS, 2/13: WINDY CITY SOUL CLUB, 2/13 @ ROCKEFELLER CHAPEL - UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR, 2/14: AL SCORCH’S WINTER SLUMBER (2PM-FREE), 2/14: THE 5TH ANNUAL CHILI-SYNTH COOK-OFF FEAT. TYSON TORSTENSEN & MORE! (7PM), 2/15: BAD BAD MEOW, 2/16: EMPTY BOTTLE BOOK CLUB: ARE YOU MY MOTHER? BY ALISON BECHDEL (6:30PM-FREE) NEW ON SALE: 3/8: TRIXIE WHITLEY, 3/29: ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE, 4/9: AUTOLUX, 4/22: BLEACHED

30 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

Where are the rest of the music listings? Find them at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC Foul Tip ! MATTHEW SCHWERIN

3855 N. LINCOLN

martyrslive.com

THU, 1/21

PERT NEAR SANDSTONE, BONES JUGS FRI, 1/22

TERRAPIN FLYER, RUMPKE MOUNTAIN BOYS SAT, 1/23 - 6PM - ALL AGES

SHINOBI CABAL SAT, 1/23 - 9PM

continued from 29

tempered growl he displays on the recent single “Keep It Up,” Casanova should push him further into the spotlight. Treated Crew rapper and opener Gzus Piece spent last year making a couple of sun-soaked mixtapes with Blanco Caine under the name White Gzus, and before 2015 ended he joined up with Mic Terror, Roy French, and Nick Jr. for a song called “Wicker Park.” Throughout the minimal party track the MCs actually rap about the several Chicago areas in which they get down. It’s no doubt a lot of places, because these guys are part of the reason you hear local hip-hop booming out of car windows and apartment buildings all over this city. —LEOR GALIL

Rebekah Heller & Michael Nicolas 4 PM, Uptown Underground, 4707 N. Broadway. F b The latest concert in the impressive free series OpenICE—presented by the International Contemporary Ensemble—explores music for bassoon and cello in both solo and duo formats. Performed by Rebekah Heller and Michael Nicolas, the program includes a pair of world premieres—one by Edgar Guzmán and another by David Fulmer—but it’s the older works that embrace an exploratory vibe. Particularly bracing is “In Nacht und Eis,” a 2006 piece by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth, where the grains the per-

formers produce form electrifying pulsations—the guttural gestures further abraded by a ring modulator—as the jagged lines of both instruments dance together. The other pieces on the program come from the Japan-born, London-based composer—and longtime ICE collaborator—Dai Fujikura. The solo bassoon piece “Following” was inspired by watching a river twist and turn from overhead, while the bassoon-cello duo “The Voice” wends through shuddering lows and almost delicate, ﬂuttering highs, with each line obliquely pushing and pulling on its counterpart. —PETER MARGASAK

Fay Victor & Tyshawn Sorey 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, $15 in advance. 18+ New York vocalist Fay Victor owns a voice that at times recalls the dense, creamy sound of innovators like Jeanne Lee, Betty Carter, and Abbey Lincoln. On her most recent album, Absinthe & Vermouth (Greene Avenue Music)—which comprises songs she composed with her husband, Jochem van Dijk—Victor hectors with bracing stridency, matching blow for blow the slashing electric guitar of Anders Nilsson on the rock-ﬂavored “I’m on a Mission / Paper Cup.” She can also serve up a ballad with rare tenderness, as she does on the lovely “Crystal.” This week she presents the local debut of her duo with the remarkable, exciting percussionist and J

DOG 1, COYOTE RIOT, MAD BREAD, PAT OTTO TUE, 1/26

JOHN KADLECIK SOLO ACOUSTIC, RAY QUINN & BRIAN WILKIE WED, 1/27

CORNMEAL, GROWLER THU, 1/28

THE EVENING ATTRACTION, FINE SUBTERRANEANS, BRENDAN & THE BLACK JACKETS FRI, 1/29

BANDS FOR BELL 13 W/BOBBY CONN, TEACHERS PET, BETA DOGS, ROBBIN PROPER SAT, 1/30

YENI TÜRKÜ

Pick a style. Play your heart out.

TUNE UP

TUNE IN

Clawhammer, Old Time, Two Finger. We’ve got it all. But what if you’ve never even picked up a banjo before? No problem. Join the band and you’ll be rolling and plucking in no time. Find your folk at oldtownschool.org

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 31

bottom lounge BOTTOM LOUNGE PRESENTS

ONSALE NOW

MUSIC Protomartyr

w / ajr / she is we / elena coats & brother james

! ZAK BRATTO

01.22 EARLY JUNE

ACTION/ADVENTURE / SECTIONALS

01.23 SUN & HEIR

HARVEY FOX / DEAD FIRES / THE TENTATIVES / HEATHER HOTHAM

01.29 SAFETYSUIT CONNELL CRUISE

02.05 FREELANCE WRESTLING UPSTAIRS AT BOTTOM LOUNGE SKA BREWING & JUMP UP RECORDS PRESENT

02.05 THE CROMBIES

RECORD RELEASE PARTY DJ CHUCK WREN & FEEL THE RHYTHM DJS

02.06 COWBOY MOUTH TOM FULLER BAND

02.20 BORN OF OSIRIS

VEIL OF MAYA / AFTER THE BURIAL / ERRA

02.26 MICKEY AVALON DIRT NASTY

02.27 WHERE’S THE BAND 02.28 POUYA

SUICIDE BOYS / FAT NICK & THE BUFFET BOYS

composer Tyshawn Sorey, whose electric ideas can’t be contained within either jazz or new-music genres. On his 2014 trio album Alloy (Pi)—a patient and spacious series of pieces featuring pianist Cory Smythe—Sorey exerts himself primarily as a composer, unleashing his exquisite percussive touch with subtlety and restraint. Sorey also happens to be one of the most explosive and inventive drummers in improvised music, and he’s no slouch as both a trombonist and pianist, which anyone who saw him with Roscoe Mitchell at the MCA last fall can back up. Based on the series of duets Victor has posted to her Soundcloud page, her improvised interactions with Sorey are unsurprisingly open, highlighting a quicksilver response and a veritable catalog of techniques, sounds, and rhythms. —PETER MARGASAK

03.01 TONIGHT ALIVE

SUNDAY24

03.02 KALEO

mENAHEM pRESSLER 3 PM, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, $21-$81, $15 students. b

SET IT OFF / THE READY SET / SAYWECANFLY FIREKID

03.03 THE WORD ALIVE

04.19 BASEMENT

Pianist Menahem Pressler is best known as the only founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio to have performed throughout its entire 53-year history. The world-renowned trio disbanded in 2008, but the 92-year-old Pressler has since enjoyed a renewed career as a soloist, including a very well-received debut with the Berlin Philharmonic playing Mozart. This isn’t Pressler’s first stint as a soloist, however—he had a substantial career before founding the trio in 1955 (the same year he began teaching at Indiana University). After escaping Nazi Germany at age 14, Pressler arrived in Israel and performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at 16, and he was later launched into the limelight after winning the Debussy International Competition at 23. Profoundly musical, Pressler has always had an extraordinarily sensitive touch; in an ensemble his ability to match—and even suggest—the sounds of other instruments with his piano is remarkable. Today’s concert includes Mozart’s somewhat melancholy Rondo in A Minor, K. 511; Schubert’s sublime Sonata in G Major, D. 894; and György Kurtág’s intimate Impromptu al ongarese (which is dedicated to Pressler), along with Debussy’s Asian- and Spanish-inspired Estampes and a collection of works by Chopin. —BARBARA YAROSS

www.bottomlounge.com 1375 w lake st 312.666.6775

pROTOMARTYR Amanda X and Negative Scanner open. 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $15. 18+

FIT FOR A KING / OUT CAME THE WOLVES ONES TO WATCH PRESENTS

03.04 FINISH TICKET / VINYL THEATRE

03.06 HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS / THE ATARIS HANDGUNS / LONDON FALLING

03.25 CHON

POLYPHIA / STRAWBERRY GIRLS SILVER WRAPPER PRESENTS

03.26 YOUNG FATHERS 04.01 SLAVES

CAPTURE THE CROWN / MYKA, RELOCATE SILVER WRAPPER PRESENTS

04.07 TURBOSUIT / ZOOGMA 04.08 THE EXPENDABLES 04.09 PORCHES / ALEX G YOUR FRIEND

DEFEATER / TURNSTILE / COLLEEN GREEN

32 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

continued from 31

The withdrawn nonchalance of Joe Casey’s baritone vocals and the wary way he approaches a mike as though it’s going to reprimand him have always been less a part of Protomartyr’s luster and more of a principled approach. The Detroit band revolves around the supposed indiﬀerence of its front man, and while last year’s The Agent Intellect (Hardly Art)—with its dissonant but slashing guitar chords and bare but chugging rhythms—certainly flaunts the same wayward attitude as their awesome 2014 album Under Color of Official Right, it features Casey with a little something extra sticking in his craw. The fanned flames undoubtedly have something to do with the ascension of Protomartyr too. No longer your favorite secret, the foursome have now released three excellent full-lengths of smoldering postpunk—and a bigger audience sometimes means you have to get a little louder and a little more assertive. Tracks like “Cowards Starve” and “Pontiac 87”—the latter a reference to the Pope’s visit to Michigan in 1987—practically have singalongs built right in. Because Casey wants you to revel in his grief. Misery does love company after all. —KEVIN WARWICK

WEDNESDAY27 David Virelles 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10. 18+ Cuban pianist David Virelles is a master of musical transformation. On his 2014 album Mbókò (ECM) he continues to reimagine the ritual Abakua music from his homeland, and in many cases he converts the groove-heavy source material into something more brooding, both in its introspection and its lyric turmoil. A key player in his music is the great percussionist Ramón Díaz, who here adds spooky chants and plays the biankomeko—a four-drum setup that resides at the core of Abakua music—alongside kit drumming by Marcus Gilmore. Top-flight bassists Thomas Morgan and Robert Hurst are in the middle of it all, delivering mahogany drones and only occasionally pitching in with melodic counterpoint. The improvised-music world has taken notice of Virelles as he’s been working with bands led by Ravi Coltrane and Chris Potter—with whom he appears next week at the Jazz Showcase. At last year’s Hyde Park Jazz Festival he played a gorgeous, meditative duo concert with Henry Threadgill. Tonight he presents a newer project with drummer Damion Reid called Ideogramas, which features abstract video work that includes drawings from Virelles-inspired “ritualistic graphic expressions.” —PETER MARGASAK v

FOOD & DRINK NEW REVIEW

At Monteverde, a pasta master hits her peak Former Spiaggia chef Sarah Grueneberg proves there’s still room for Italian in town. By MIKE SULA

Orecchiette in tomato-based arrabbiata sauce ò ANTHONY SOAVE

MONTEVERDE RESTAURANT & R PASTIFICIO | $$$ 1020 W. Madison, 312-888-3041 monteverdechicago.com

here’s an elevated floor behind the bar at Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio, the new pasta-forward restaurant from former Spiaggia executive chef Sarah Grueneberg, that looks bigger than the restaurant’s actual kitchen. While it plays host to a remarkable piece of stagecraft, it’s also integral to the food being served there. Before showing up on Top Chef—where she cooked circles around most other contestants, finished second, and rightly or wrongly came to be seen as something of a heavy—Grueneberg maintained a fairly low profile, executing the traditionalist vision of Spiaggia capo Tony Mantuano. That restaurant was and remains a temple to house-made pasta, rolling it out long before this never-ending season of Italophilia, when every other week sees the opening of a new supertrattoria trying to convince us there’s an army of nonnas locked in the basement twisting tortellini and thumbing orecchiette. At Monteverde, something like that’s pretty much on full display. That floor behind the bar showcases Grueneberg’s pasta makers hard at it, a helpful overhead mirror allowing diners to see their handiwork. Sometimes the pasta, in eight varieties—not including daily specials—is made to order. Other dried shapes are sold in bags at the front door. Everywhere you turn, pasta’s in your face. Particularly the ragu alla Napoletana, a groaning platter of food that seems to get hauled across the bustling dining room every 15 minutes. Meant to be shared by the table, it’s a heaping mound of red-sauced fusilli from which a massive braised pork shank rises like Vesuvius, flanked by fat sausages and meatballs. Grueneberg classifies her other pastas into two categories: tipica, meaning traditional Italian preparations, and atipica, referring to the restaurant’s departures from tradition. The latter group included orecchiette that’s fried in a wok and tossed in spicy tomato-based arrabbiata sauce; it truly takes on the proverbial wok hay (“breath of wok”) smokiness associated with Chinese food (orecchiette has since been switched out for squidlike calamaretti). “Cannelloni saltimbocca” features roulades of ground lamb and manchego cheese, prosciutto, and sage resembling German fleischnacka, garnished with bits of romesco cauliflower and fried sage. The cannelloni are seared off and plated flat, giving this J

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 33

FOOD & DRINK

$1.25 TACOS TUESDAYS (CHICKEN, GROUND BEEF, CHORIZO OR CARNITAS)

$6.99 EVERYDAY LUNCH PLATE SPECIAL 8AM-4PM • AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY

BUY 1 DINNER AT REGULAR PRICE, GET THE 2ND 1/2 OFF

(2ND DINNER IS OF EQUAL OR LESS VALUE • DINE IN ONLY)

2829 N MILWAUKEE

4651 N CLARK · 5959 W GRAND

OPEN 24 HRS • WE DELIVER

773·227·1688 ELRANCHITORES.COM Pappardelle tossed in a duck ragu ò ANTHONY SOAVE

12 O’CLOCK TRACK SERIES A SIDE OF JAM WITH YOUR LUNCH EVERY WEEKDAY

THEBLEADER.COM

continued from 33 already weird-looking dish an even stranger appearance. The individual elements taste delicious, but the treatment dries out the pasta—a rare misstep among these noodles.

A UTH E NTI C PH I LLY C H E E S E STEA KS!

T F A ER R C BE

S P DR EC INK IA LS

4757 N TALMAN · 773.942.6012 · ILOVEMONTIS.COM · 34 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

S G N

@ILOVEMONTIS

Grueneberg’s more traditional pastas include a wonderfully snappy pappardelle tossed in a duck ragu surprisingly busy with olives and parsnips. The star of the classic tortellini en brodo, meanwhile, is the brodo itself, in which bob mortadella-stuffed nuggets. The spell of this powerfully rich brew is broken only when a server adds the bevr’in vin, a traditional shot of gently ﬁzzy Lambrusco— illustrating the emphasis on correct preparation and precise service at Monteverde. Most noodles are cooked perfectly al dente; every plate arrives piping hot. The menu’s also home to a number of notable nonpasta dishes, mostly in the guise of small plates and snacks. A pyramid of crispy arancini ﬁlled with molten-red nduja rests on a cool bed of tuna-caper sauce. Grilled octopus spiedini share a skewer with leeks and purple Japanese sweet potato and come served with a sweet pepper dipping sauce. A spreadable prosciutto “butter” glistens over toasted bread, its richness cut by thinly sliced radishes. Tender breaded chicken livers, bathing in an intensely glutamic tomato sauce, served over polenta and garnished with sweet, snappy lima beans,

bear a clever resemble to braciole—they could be, as a tablemate put it, “an homage to Ricobene’s breaded steak sandwich.” Dessert options include Black Forest cake and a honey ice cream sundae; the caramel sauce drizzled over it conceals slices of banana and crumbled praline. But nothing tops a salted-butterscotch budino, a deep well of custard underneath a solid shattering shell top, a facsimile of Ben & Jerry’s-style Heath bar chunks, and thick whipped cream that approaches the viscosity of butter. Italian wines dominate, naturally, though you’ll ﬁnd bottles from all over, many in the $40-$50 range. A handful of impressive cocktails includes a bourbon soda spiked with the balsamic vinegar-like saba, made from cooked grape must, and a rye manhattan whose edges are softened by sweet amaro. In these bloated times, nobody but restaurateurs seem to think we need more Italian spots. Now that Monteverde has proven to be the city’s most essential pasta destination, maybe they’ll come around to the idea. v

v @MikeSula

THURSDAY, JANUARY 28 | 6-9PM | ROOF ON THE WIT | 201 N STATE | 27TH FLOOR

WINTER MIX-OFF

Drink the heat Cool off with the ice Don’t miss the 2nd Annual Winter Mix-Off featuring the top mixologists in the Midwest as they battle it out for the best FIRE and best ICE cocktail. $40 tickets @ chicagoreader.com/wintermixoff

INCLUDES COCK TAILS, BITES AND LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

FEATURED MIXOLOGISTS

R O O F Michael Simon

C H D I S T I L L E R Y Azrhiel Frost

P R E S I D I O Alex Renshaw

T A C K R O O M Dustin Drankewicz

T H E D A W S O N Harrison Ginsberg

P U M P R O O M Mea Leech

B O R D E L Marissa Danielle

G R E E N R I V E R Julia Momose

P U B R O Y A L E Kristina Magro

T H E B E T T Y Brian Bolles

JANUARY 21, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 35

SMALL BATCH BOURBON A W A R D - W I N N I N G

F L A V O R

FRIDAY · JANUARY 29 · 6:30-9:30PM 419 WEST SUPERIOR · CHICAGO 4-COURSE PRIX FIXE MENU WITH COCK TAIL PAIRINGS FROM WOODFORD RESERVE 1ST COURSE

D I S T I L L E R ’ S

S E L E C T

Woodford Reserve is crafted in small batches to ensure the proper time and care is taken to customize each of the five sources of flavor. This batch process creates the distinct taste and crisp, clean finish that sets Woodford Reserve apart from other bourbons.

94 POINTS, EXCELLENT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Ultimate Spirits Challenge Awards 2015

GOLD MEDAL

Bay Scallop Ceviche, Blood-Orange Sambal, Cucumber, Radish

Whiskeys of the World Awards 2014

2ND COURSE

San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2014

THE BROWN FORMAN - Woodford Rye, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemon

Pan-Seared Wild Lake Superior Walleye, Brown Butter, Olive and Pinenut Gremolata THE OLD OSCAR - Woodford Reserve, allspice dram, lime, Angosturra bitters

3RD COURSE

Roasted Bob White Quail Stuffed with Artichoke Risotto, Coriander Game Broth THE ELIJAH PEPPER - Woodford Reserve, mezcal, ginger-orange simple, lime, orange bitters

4TH COURSE

Grilled Local Hanger Steak, Cranberry-Port Reduction, Braised Rapini, Dauphinoise Potatoes

THE DOUBLE GOLD - Woodford Double Oaked, Benedictine, cranberry simple, Peychaud’s bitters

PURCHASE TICKETS AT CHICAGOREADER.COM/RESERVEYOURSEAT $65 PER PERSON · INCLUDES TAX AND GRATUITY

36 CHICAGO READER - JANUARY 21, 2016

GOLD MEDAL

D O U B L E

O A K E D

Double Oaked is twice barreled to produce a rich flavor with purposeful emphasis on sweet aromatics. Uniquely matured in separate charred oak barrels – the second with a lighter char and deeper toast to extract additional soft, sweet oak character.

95 POINTS, EXTRAORDINARY ULTIMATE RECOMMENDATION Ultimate Spirits Challenge Awards 2015

DOUBLE GOLD MEDAL

San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2015

WOODFORDRESERVE.COM

FOOD & DRINK

SPONSORED CONTENT

DRINK SPECIALS

○ Watch a video of Caleb Trahan working with lamb kidneys in the kitchen—and get the recipe—at chicagoreader.com/food.

KEY INGREDIENT

Ridding lamb kidneys of their ‘urine aroma’ By JULIA THIEL LINCOLN PARK

WICKER PARK

BERW YN

2683 N Halsted 773-348-9800

235 N Ashland 312-226-6300

6615 Roosevelt 708-788-2118

ò JULIA THIEL

ALIVEONE

ALEB TRAHAN hasn’t met much offal he doesn’t care for—except kidneys. Several years ago, living in New Mexico, the BREAD & WINE chef would spend his days outside work combing local ethnic markets for offcuts from cows, chickens, and pigs and cooking them up. “Kidneys were one I didn’t like,” he says. “They taste, smell like urine.” So when SCOTT MANLEY of TABLE, DONKEY AND STICK challenged Trahan to create a dish with LAMB KIDNEYS, Trahan might not have been excited at the prospect. Recently, though, he’s been working with whole rabbits—kidneys and all—and discovered that he actually enjoyed the organ. “Because the rabbit is a smaller animal, it’s a much milder flavor,” he says. Lamb kidneys also turned out to be less offensive than the pork kidneys he’d cooked with in the past. Trahan experimented with cooking the kidneys sous vide, which intensified their urine flavor. Grilling them, on the other hand, yielded better results. “I found that once you pass midrare, a lot of that urine aroma and flavor disappears,” he says. First he marinated the kidneys in oil with dried chiles, herbs, garlic, and spices. “I was thinking of how with wine you get descriptors like ‘barnyard,’” he says. “Working on

a farm growing up, ‘barnyard’ had these hay and urine connotations, horse shit—I thought about how you twist something off-putting into something romantic.” A few months back, a bartender at the restaurant made a cocktail with hay-infused mescal, and Trahan used some of that to make borracho bean puree with kidney beans (“because that’s kind of funny”). He also fried some kidney beans to serve with the kidneys, tossing them with grated lamb salami and smoked lemon-drop peppers. After grilling the lamb kidneys, Trahan plated them with the borracho bean puree and fried kidney beans, garnishing the dish with lime segments and fried sage. “It’s livery, a slight bit of that urine thing,” he says. “After you eat it, you have urine breath. If I ate this somewhere I would dig it, but I don’t think it would actually go on the menu. I don’t think I could sell it.”

WHO’S NEXT:

Trahan has challenged WON KIM of the yetto-open KIMSKI’s to create a dish with PONCE, a stuffed pork stomach traditional in Cajun cuisine. v

v @juliathiel

COBRA LOUNGE FITZGERALD’S

WICKER PARK

SOUTH LOOP

REGGIE’S

PHYLLIS’ MUSICAL INN

2105 S. State 312-949-0120

1800 W. Division 773-486- 9862

THU

$6 Jameson shots, $3 PBR bottles, $4 Lagunitas drafts, $4 Absolut cocktails, “Hoppy Hour” 5pm8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales