Print Issue of February 8, 2018 (Volume 47, Number 18) 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 | F E B R U A R Y 8 , 2 0 1 8

Food Mike Sula on the joy of “meat butter” 31

Music Chicago’s metal monarchs are back. 23

ACESOF

FADES In Chicago’s competitive barbering scene all haircuts are a cut above.

By OLIVIA OBINEME AND ANNE FORD 12

Global Connections Feb. 10, Feb. 28, Mar. 4

Prismatica Public Art Feb. 16 – Apr. 15

Stroller Grooves Kids Concert Series Tuesdays in Feb. & Mar.

This season, there’s a world of experiences at Navy Pier. Discover a new dimension of light and color at the Pier’s latest art installation, Prismatica. Bring the little ones to Stroller Grooves, a live concert series especially for kids. And celebrate International Carnivale, Chinese New Year and Holi at Global Connections presented by ComEd. Visit navypier.org to learn more. S P EC I A L T H A N KS TO O U R N AV Y P I ER PA RT N E RS :

2 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

THIS WEEK

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

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FEATURES

4 Agenda The play The Humans, the exhibit “The Evolution of Chicago Comics,” the ﬁlm The Woman Who Left, and more goings-on about town. Plus: recommended picks for Valentine’s Day

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

IN THIS ISSUE

22 Movies The Oscar-nominated live-action shorts oﬀer a ﬁrst look at up-and-coming talents.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE CITY LIFE

Aces of fades

At the Major League Barber Original Midwest SuperBarber & Stylist Tradeshow, all haircuts are a cut above. PHOTOS BY OLIVIA OBINEME INTERVIEW BY ANNE FORD 12

CITY LIFE

8 Politics Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state senator Daniel Bliss on the evolution of progressive politics and why he still thinks about the Abu Ghraib scandal 10 Transportation Can the CTA and Metra play nice?

ARTS & CULTURE

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19 Visual Art Meet Alan Epstein, “the Bill Cunningham of breakfast.”

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ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY OLIVIA OBINEME. FOR MORE OF OLIVIA’S WORK, GO TO OLIVIAIOBINEME.COM.

FOOD & DRINK

18 Theater Reagan and Gorbachev meet cute atop a pile of nukes in the Goodman’s Blind Date.

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

27 Shows of note The Atlas Moth, Ruby Boots, Mega Ran, and more of the week’s best

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

On the new Coma Noir, the Atlas Moth name our foe—and ﬁnd a reason to ﬁght

The Chicago metal monarchs imagine a cosmic criminal cabal that’s depressingly easy to recognize in the real world. BY MONICA KENDRICK 23

20 Lit The long-running live performance series Salonathon isn’t dying, it’s evolving. 21 Movies 24 Frames, the ﬁnal feature from Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, may send you into a trance.

31 Restaurant Review: Tempesta Market The dazzling Grand Avenue deli is a temple to locally made salumi. 32 Cocktail Challenge A DryHop Brewers bartender takes the bitterness out of a hopinfused cocktail. 33 A tribute to Back of the Yards in coﬀee beans

CLASSIFIEDS

34 Jobs 34 Apartments & Spaces 35 Marketplace 36 Straight Dope What happens when a mammoth building fails? 37 Savage Love “How does one get into the gay BDSM bottoming and leather scene?” 38 Early Warnings Obituary, Mt. Joy, Sunﬂower Bean, and more shows to look for in the weeks to come 38 Gossip Wolf Charlie Coﬀeen of Sidewalk Chalk gives Dilla’s Donuts the big-band treatment, and other music news.

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 3

AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

P Send your events to agenda@chicagoreader.com

b ALL AGES

F art, this gem of a production charms as much as it challenges. Part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. —IRENE HSIAO Through 2/23: Fri 7 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-492-1287, rhinofest.com, $15 or pay what you can, $12 in advance.

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well acted in its Chicago premiere under Lauren Shouse’s direction at Raven Theatre. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 3/11: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, 773-338-2177, raventheatre.com, $43, $38 seniors and teachers, $15 students and military.

18 to enter 21 to drink Photo ID required

Sunday, February 11 @ 6:30pm Tue-Wed, February 13-14 @ 6:30pm

The Disaster Artist Sunday, February 11 @ 8:30pm Tue-Wed, February 13-14 @ 8:30pm

Justice League

4 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

The Humans When Stephen R Karam’s 90-minute one-act received its world premiere at Chicago’s

own American Theater Company three years ago, it had a quiet, elegiac edge. The thing that stuck with me about it wasn’t the comedy, the cute setup (a Thanksgiving dinner, consumed in real time), or the litany of quotidian miseries suffered by the five characters, from career crises and colitis to broken hearts. It was Keith Kupferer’s bearish patriarch, Erik Blake, sitting at a slight remove from his family, in a state of watchful, articulate contemplation. A lot’s happened since then. The Humans has had several stagings, culminating in a Broadway run. Oh, and American political culture went completely mad. Directed by Joe Mantello, this Equity touring production is brittle in comparison to the original, Richard Thomas’s Erik more querulous. Most important, the apartment setting is more ominous: its iffy wiring, gurgling pipes, and stomping upstairs neighbors now assume the aspect of a monster ready to chew up and spit out those inside. Here’s a Humans for the moment. —TONY ADLER Through 2/11: Wed 2 and 7:30 PM, Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph, 312-9771700, broadwayinchicago.com, $32-$147. I Puritani A Romeo and Juliet story set in England in 1645, Vincenzo Bellini’s I Puritani is all about the bel canto music. It has a stagnant libretto, a mad maiden “scene” that drags over three acts, and a happy ending. Lyric Opera presents a stodgy 42-year-old production borrowed from the Met. See it for its sterling vocalists, especially tenor Lawrence Brownlee as Arturo and soprano Albina Shagimuratova as his true love, Elvira (a part famously, and probably more histrionically, sung at Lyric by Maria Callas). Bass Adrian Sâmpetrean as Elvira’s uncle and baritone Anthony Clark Evans as her disappointed suitor round out the quartet of leads, while the mighty Lyric Opera chorus amps up the aural drama. As for visual interest, there’s a narrated,

open-curtain set change during the second intermission. In Italian with English supertitles. —DEANNA ISAACS Through 2/28: dates and times vary, see website, Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker, 312827-5600, lyricopera.org, $49-$269, $20 students for select performances. Joan of Arc Playwright Alex Ranieri turns Joan of Arc’s 1431 heresy trial into a poetic fever dream packed with religious philosophizing. Her prosecutors, led by the zealous, paranoid Bishop of Beauvais, swirl in and out of the shadows as they nudge her toward self-incrimination. Meanwhile the Maid’s guardian angels, Saints Margaret and Catherine, become insistent, electrified interlopers pushing her to accept execution. Through it all Joan, played by a fittingly guileless Sierra Buffum, engages any mind she can (including her own) in debates over the nature of faith, sin, pride, innocence, and salvation. It’s heady stuff, often obscured behind underdeveloped character relationships and excessive historical exposition, but all explored without a hint of irony. Director Iris Sowlat indulges in ample fussy blocking but keeps her actors focused on nothing but speaking truth. Part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 2/22: Thu 7 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-4921287, rhinofest.com, $15 or pay what you can, $12 in advance. Josephine the Mouse Singer R When Josephine stands with her head thrown back, mouth half open,

eyes turned upward, suﬀused with the intention to sing, the other mice cease work and assemble around her, forgetting the need to gather food and ignoring the constant peril to which they are exposed. But is her singing truly special, or is it only the ordinary sort of piping any mouse might do? Dani Wieder and Itzel Blancas put Kafka’s singing mouse on trial in their imaginative rendition of his last short story, “Josephine the Mouse Singer,” with puppets designed by Jurrell Daly. As Josephine, Ariana Silvan-Grau is both a conjuror and a charismatic fraud. More the marvel, Gabriel Levine single-handedly animates the rest of the village. As a consideration of both aesthetics and the life and value of

Center for the Arts, a proscenium space more demanding and imposing than its cozy Stage 773 residence of yore. This gratifying, stirring, heart-wrenching production of Stephen Sondheim’s masterful 1981 musical, directed by Michael Weber, continues that upward and outward trajectory of the theater’s scope and capability. Through the showbiz careers of three friends (Neala Barron, Matt Crowle, and Jim DeSelm), Sondheim ruminates on how the forces of ﬁnancial success, critical recognition, and creative camaraderie work with and against one another over the span of an artistic lifetime. A growing pain yet to be addressed: on-the-nose but low-resolution, aughts-looking projection design, which feels like wrapping an exquisite piece of jewelry in a crinkled Burger King bag. —DAN JAKES Through 3/11: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 773-777-9884, porchlightmusictheatre.org, $55-$60.

Nice Girl Melissa Ross’s 2015 play is set in 1984, but putting aside the dialogue’s frequent profanities, it recalls realist dramas of the 1950s such as Paddy Chayefsky’s classic Marty. Its shy protagonist, Josephine (Lucy Carapetyan)— an unmarried 37-year-old secretary living with her widowed mother (Lynne Baker) in the Boston suburbs—is stuck in a lonely life of quiet desperation, fearful of becoming—in her words—an “old maid.” On the eve of her 20th high school reunion, she reconnects with a handsome former classmate (Benjamin Sprunger), now separated from his wife. Perhaps it’s the start of a new chapter in her life, if she’s willing to turn the page— and if the audience is willing to accept a contrived second-act plot twist involving Josephine’s comically coarse pal Sherry (Stella Martin). This modest little work is

compactly written, intensely acted one-person slice of life feels too short. We’re barely introduced to our protagonist, a west-sider named Leila Coffee who’s recently been bonded out of Cook County Jail and is trying to put her life back together, when the evening is done. Writer Christopher St. James packs a lot into one act: believable dialogue, compelling character development, and an engaging story that works on both a literal and a symbolic level. Keishana Miller’s performance as Coffee is flawless. Still, she, and St. James, leave us wanting more—way more. —JACK HELBIG Through 2/17: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Madison Street Theatre, 1010 W. Madison, Oak Park, 708-524-1892, $10. Pillars of the Community Does R anyone else play a compelling shitheel quite like John Henry Rob-

erts? Michael Shannon maybe? Even at an empty, snowy, Super Bowl Sunday matinee—a perfect excuse for theatrical low energy—Roberts and company fill Samuel Adamson’s heady, dense adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s story of immigration, capitalism, and cultural revolution with plenty of heat and tension. That’s probably not enough to make the metaphor-rich two-anda-half-hour-long historical story a hit with wide appeal, but for audiences willing to lean in and engage with the material, director Elly Green’s production for Strawdog Theatre Company makes it worth the effort. There’s exceptional work on display up and down the massive cast, but Allison Latta is a highlight as a force of nature whose homecoming forever upsets the balance of a tightly knit “moral” community. —DAN JAKES Through 3/3: Thu-Sun 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Strawdog Theatre, 1802 W. Berenice, 773-3471350, strawdog.org, $35, $26 seniors.

Speech & Debate

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of February 8

These Violent Delights: An R & J Cabaret Skeleton Crew In Dominique R Morisseau’s 2014 drama set in a Detroit auto parts plant during the

Great Recession, Faye (Jacqueline Williams), who’s been on the job for decades, must lead her coworkers through an imminent plant closure while keeping her own woes private. Young and impatient Dez (Bernard Gilbert), pregnant overachiever Shanita (AnJi White), and burdened foreman Reggie (Kelvin Roston Jr.) are all similarly multidimensional characters who serve to drive home the tragedy of the lives ruined by the decline of industry in America. Set designer Scott Davis uses kinetic girders and cranes that loom over the break-room setting to lend gravity and grandeur to a very personal, human story. Ron OJ Parson directed. —DMITRY SAMAROV Through 3/3: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2:30 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, 847-673-6300, northlight.org, $30-$76.

Speech & Debate As Brown R Paper Box Co.’s charming but brutal show begins, the mayor of Salem,

Oregon, is outed as a poster in gay forums in what a radio host calls “the biggest political scandal in Oregon’s history.” Meanwhile, manic cub reporter Solomon (Darren Patin, in a plausibly horrifying rendition of abject puberty) claims to have the goods on a North Salem High drama teacher and threatens to expose his pedophilia. Friendships form, uplift dawns, Deanalís Resto does bedroom diva angst to a T as Diwata, who dreams of adapting Arthur Miller’s The Crucible into a striptease musical. Playwright Stephen Karam (The Humans) hammers home the injunction to be yourself at all costs, but what truly impresses here is Diwata’s duet with Howie (Trevor Bates), in which they play Miller’s accused Salem witch Mary Warren and a gay teenage Abraham Lincoln respectively. —MAX MALLER Through 3/4: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3:30 PM; also Thu 2/22 and 3/1, 7:30 PM, the Edge Theater, 5451 N. Broadway, 773-769-9112, brownpaperbox.org, $25. Subjective Is Beauty Like a jejune misreading of Kant’s Critique of Judgment combined with a bad psychotherapy session, Paul William Brennan’s Subjective Is Beauty succeeds in making 75 minutes feel like a joyless eternity. It’s an experiment with the patience of an audience to tolerate densely pseudo-intellectual dialogue stripped of nearly everything that makes theater worthwhile: story, stage-

craft, and human aﬀection. We are in the afterlife, locked in a room with only the most tiresome companions, an “enlightened” creature of no dimensions and a woman who was once beautiful. There is, as they say, no exit. The only pleasures remaining to the audience are the brief delectation of the ﬂowing pre-Raphaelite hair of Beauty (Leslie Keller) and a lame joke about prosopagnosia. Silence is a virtue. Expect none here. Part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. —IRENE HSIAO Through 2/22: Thu 9 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-492-1287, rhinofest.com, $15 or pay what you can, $12 in advance.

These Violent Delights: An R & J Cabaret Kite & Key Theatre’s musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare by way of Glee, but it’s less painful than that sounds. Adapted and directed by Kate Leslie, These Violent Delights incorporates pop and rock songs into a signiﬁcantly cut down version of the script. Leslie combines characters and mashes up scenes to keep the pace moving between songs, which include both contemporary tunes by Walk the Moon and Sara Bareilles and classics like “Bad Moon Rising” and “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” These connections aren’t subtle, but Leslie ﬁnds the right songs for the moment, with inspired use of the Kesha tracks “Die Young” and “Follow You” at key moments in the star-crossed courtship. Smooth direction and passionate performances make this a lively, charming take on very familiar source material. Part of the Rhinoceros Theater Festival. —OLIVER SAVA Through 2/24: Sat 7 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-492-1287, rhinofest.com, $15 or pay what you can, $12 in advance.

es that the bunker affords no privacy) allows all but the heterosexual males to quickly and quirkily discover new, liberating, nonpatriarchal identities. As queered-up wish fulfillment—complete with gender-fluid casting—it’s amusing. But director Will Davis’s overamped production unwisely insists that a twohour skit is visionary drama. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 3/4: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, American Theater Company, 1909 W. Byron, 773-409-4125, atcweb.org, $38.

DANCE The Master and Form For this installation and performance series artist, Brendan Fernandes worked with design collective Norman Kelley to fashion sculptural devices that allow dancers to perfect the positions central to classical ballet; students from the Joﬀrey Academy of Dance bring them to life in work directed by the artist. A discussion featuring Fernandes follows. Sat 2/10, 1-3 PM, Graham Foundation, 4 W. Burton, 312-787-4071, grahamfoundation.org.

COMEDY The Comedy Butcher Chicago comedians Joe Nudelman and Max Friedman cohost this monthly alternative comedy showcase; Tyler Jackson, Lucas O’Neil, and headliner Marilee Marilee are the featured performers for February. Thu 2/8, 9 PM, Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan, 773-862-1232, coprosperity.org, $5 in advance, $10 at the door.

LIT & LECTURES The Evolution of Chicago Comics This exhibition highlights Chicago’s comic book history, featuring work from Gasoline Alley, Moon Mullins, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and more. Created in partnership with the Chicago Review of Books. Thu 2/8, 5:30-7:30 PM, Chicago Literary Alliance, 641 W. Lake, 312-6904227, chicagoliteracyalliance.org.

Selina Trepp, Sitting On It, part of the exhibit “Nothing Is Ours but Time” We’re Gonna Be Okay Basil Kreimendahl’s broad 2017 comedy, set in adjoining suburban backyards during the Cuban missile crisis, mistakes easy criticism and unearned sentiment for social commentary. Act one is a static diorama of well-worn pre-women’s-liberation types: repressed wives, tentative teens, and domineering husbands, none more domineering than bloviating Efran, whose unchecked chauvinism marks him as Everything We Should Disagree With. In act two, everyone moves into a freshly constructed fallout shelter, where a series of excruciatingly private encounters (despite repeated insistenc-

Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady The two poets discuss the legacy of the Cave Canem Foundation, the nonproﬁt they founded in 1996 to support African-American poetry. Tracie D. Hall, director of the Joyce Foundation’s culture program and a Cave Canem fellow, moderates. Thu 2/8, 7 PM, Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior, 312-787-7070, poetryfoundation.org.

VISUAL ART Nothing Is Ours but Time The artists in this exhibition focus on ﬂeeting everyday moments, using painting “as a way to mark time and contain it.” Gwendolyn Zabicki curated. Opening reception Fri

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2/9, 6-9 PM. 2/9-3/25. Wed-Sun noon-4 PM. Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, 2320 W. Chicago, 773-227-5522, uima-chicago.org, $5 suggested donation.

MOVIES More at chicagoreader.com/movies NEW REVIEWS Ava In this debut feature from Iranian writer-director Sadaf Foroughi, an insightful 16-year-old in Tehran rebels against her controlling mother and the principal of her strict all-girl high school. Mahour Jabbari is fierce and believable as the title character, who’d like to pursue music and casually date boys; when Ava’s mother learns that Ava hung out with a boy in a park, she takes her daughter to a doctor to confirm that she’s still a virgin. Meanwhile, Ava’s sanctimonious principal encourages students to rat each other out for impropriety, a pattern Ava sees play out in the older generation when her mother lambastes her best friend’s mother for leaving her husband. Foroughi’s visual storytelling is impressive: unconventional angles position Ava at the edge of the frame or partially obscure her and the figures around her, accentuating the character’s feelings of ostracism, though she moves closer to the frame’s center as her confidence grows. In Persian with subtitles. —LEAH PICKETT 102 min. Sat 2/10, 6 PM, and Sun 2/11, 5:30 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center. The Ballad of Lefty Brown Written and directed by Jared Moshe, this classical western borrows from John Ford both emotionally (with early scenes of Peter Fonda and Kathy Baker as a joshing old married couple) and thematically (Fonda’s character, a rancher elected to the U.S. Senate as Montana enters the union in 1889, straddles the old west and the new). Bill Pullman hobbles around as the title character, a rascally Walter Brennan type who knows the senator-elect from way back and seeks old-fashioned justice after the man is killed by a rustler’s bullet. Though recycled, the story is well plotted and paced, and the old hands in the cast elevate the familiar material; especially noteworthy are Baker as the widowed wife, a defender of civility tough enough to kill a rattler with her parasol, and Tommy Flanagan as another of the men’s old partners, who craves drink ever since his wife was abducted by Blackfoot Indians. —J.R. JONES R, 111 min. River East 21. A Fantastic Woman Chilean R filmmaker Sebastián Lelio found an international audience with Gloria

(2013), which gave Paulina García the role of a lifetime as a tough, impetuous, lonely divorcee; this follow-up (2017), starring Daniela Vega as a trans µ

Never miss a show again.

EARLY WARNINGS chicagoreader.com/early

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 5

ACADEMYAWARD NOMINEE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE ®

A FANTASTIC MOVIE. DANIELA VEGA IS FANTASTIC IN IT.

AGENDA

-A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES

tite (John Lloyd Cruz) whom she nurses back to health. Shooting in wide-screen black and white, director Lav Diaz (Norte, the End of History) keeps the pace deliberate, favoring long takes and a ﬁxed camera. His luminous, crystalline images, combined with a meticulous sound mix in which every background noise is seductive, pull the viewer into the heroine’s experience of profound loss and regeneration. In Tagalog with subtitles. —ANDREA GRONVALL 226 min. Fri 2/9, 7 PM. Logan Center for the Arts. F

A FILM BY SEBASTIÁN LELIO

A FANTASTIC WOMAN

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STARTS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Chicago MUSIC Chicago AMC Evanston CENTURY 12 BOX THEATRE RIVER EAST 21 EVANSTON / CINÉARTS 6 (773) 871-6604 amctheatres.com & XD (847) 491-9751

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The Woman Who Left

164 North State Street

Between Lake & Randolph MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800

February 9 - 15

One room. One century. Eight stories.

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

TALES OF MEXICO

Directed by Natalia Beristáin, Carlos Bolado, Carlos Carrera, Ernesto Contreras, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Alfonso Pineda Ulloa, Alejandro Valle, and Iván Ávila Dueñas

Fri., 2/9 at 6 pm; Sat., 2/10 at 7:45 pm; Sun., 2/11 at 3 pm; Mon., 2/12 at 6 pm; Wed., 2/14 at 8:15 pm; Thu., 2/15 at 8:30 pm

February 9 - 15

Fri., 2/9 at 8:15 pm; Sat., 2/10 at 3 pm; Sun., 2/11 at 5:15 pm; Mon., 2/12 at 8:15 pm; Tue., 2/13 at 6 pm; Wed., 2/14 at 8:15 pm; Thu., 2/15 at 6 pm

New from the director of THE LOBSTER! Starring Nicole Kidman & Colin Farrell!

Abbas Kiarostami’s ﬁnal ﬁlm

24 FRAMES February 9 - 15

Fri., 2/9 at 2 pm & 6 pm; Sat., 2/10 at 8 pm; Sun., 2/11 at 3 pm; Mon., 2/12 at 6 pm; Tue., 2/13 at 8:30 pm; Wed., 2/14 at 6 pm; Thu., 2/15 at 8:15 pm

«««« “As delightful as it is surprising.”

— RogerEbert.com

FEBRUARY 9, 12, 14 • THE LOVE WITCH •

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B woman coming out of the shadows, cements Lelio’s reputation as a filmmaker who—like George Cukor or Pedro Almodóvar—knows how to treat a lady. Vega is mesmerizing as the protagonist, a young nightclub singer having an affair with a married, middle-aged businessman. After he dies of an aneurysm during one of their trysts, she insists on grieving publicly with the family despite their contempt and mounting abuse. In one frightening scene, a few of the men ambush her and wind plastic tape around her head, pulling her smoky features into an awful mask; their level of hatred is striking, but so is her dignity and proud forbearance. In Spanish with subtitles. —J.R. JONES R, 104 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Music Box, River East 21. The Great Buddha+ In this deadpan Taiwanese comedy, two smalltown layabouts uncover a stash of surveillance camera videos that implicate a local government official in criminal behavior. Eventually their discovery embroils them in an underground conspiracy, but in the meantime writer-director Huang Hsin-yao (making his feature debut) lingers on the town’s day-to-day routine and the protagonists’ ennui. He also interrupts the action at times to interject wisecracks on the soundtrack, and this device heightens the sense of bonhomie engendered by the two leads. The good cheer goes a long way in countering the knee-jerk cynicism, which grows tiresome well before the end. In Taiwanese and Mandarin with subtitles. —BEN SACHS 104 min. Fri 2/9-Thu 2/15. Facets Cinematheque. Tales of Mexico Released in Mexico as La Habitación, this omnibus film (2016) unfolds in the same grand house in Mexico City over the course of a hundred years, with eight chronological episodes directed by as many people. None of the contributors leaves any noticeable stamp on the material, and the individual episodes—touching on the Mexican Revolution, harassment of Chinese immigrants in the 1930s, the Tlatelolco massacre of street protesters in 1968, and so forth—are edited together with tricky, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it jump cuts. The characters’ concerns

never gain traction despite carrying over from one episode to another; the most vivid character here is the house itself, a 19th-century beauty gradually rehabbed into anonymity and chopped up into crummy apartments. Maria Diego Hernandez wrote the script; among the directors were Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro) and Carlos Bolado (Only God Knows). In Spanish with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 118 min. Fri 2/9, 8:15 PM; Sat 2/10, 3 PM; Sun 2/11, 5:15 PM; Mon 2/12, 8:15 PM; Tue 2/13, 6 PM; Wed 2/14, 8:15 PM; and Thu 2/15, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center. Winchester The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, is the ultimate horror movie location—a vast, four-story mansion constructed in crazy-quilt fashion from 1883 to 1922 by Sarah Winchester, heir to the gun manufacturing fortune. It comes with its own legend too, that Winchester built each room to mollify the spirit of a person killed by one of her company’s weapons. That premise speaks to our current gun crisis, but directors Michael and Peter Spierig, reworking a script by Tom Vaughan, bring little passion or eloquence to the dialogue, frustrating such capable actors as Helen Mirren (playing Winchester) and Jason Clarke (as a laudanum-addicted doctor sent by the company board to assess Mrs. Winchester’s sanity). The scares are standard haunted-house stuﬀ; whenever someone in a movie like this starts fooling around with a hinged mirror, grab your armrests. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 99 min. For listings visit chicagoreader.com/movies. The Woman Who Left R Inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s story “God Sees the Truth, but

Waits,” this extended drama is set in 1997, when the Philippines were plagued by economic and political unrest and rampant kidnappings. A schoolteacher (Charo Santos-Concio) returns home after serving 30 years in prison for a murder she didn’t commit, only to learn that her husband has died and her son has vanished. Setting out to ﬁnd him, she lingers in Calapan City, where she spies on the ex-lover who framed her; now wealthy, powerful, and heavily protected, he’s the polar opposite of the brutalized transves-

REVIVALS The Love Witch This R spellbinding ode to exploitation ﬁlms of the 1960s and

’70s is impressive not only for its mock-Technicolor hues and period mise-en-scene but also for what lies beneath: a creepy and cunning examination of female fantasy. A widowed witch (Samantha Robinson), heartbroken by the neglect of her late husband, moves to a small town and seduces a string of men with love potions as a way to feel adored. Director Anna Biller—who also wrote, produced, and edited the ﬁlm, and created by hand many of its vivid costumes and set decorations—embraces the melodrama and vampy camp of 60s horror while also considering the easy conﬂation of love, desire, and narcissism. Robert Frost once wrote that “love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired,” and Biller’s witch, both liberated in exploiting her sexuality and repressed by her white-knight fantasies, embodies the idea. —LEAH PICKETT 120 min. 35mm. Fri 2/9, 2 PM; Mon 2/12, 8:15 PM; and Wed 2/14, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center ON DEMAND

Quest Jonathan OlshefR ski spent nearly a decade shooting this intimate and moving

portrait of the Rainey family, whose life in North Philadelphia revolves around the little recording studio owned by father Christopher “Quest” Rainey. Every week Quest holds a “Freestyle Friday,” opening his doors to aspiring young rappers with socially conscious rhymes (the soundtrack is sublime), but such civic-mindedness goes only so far in their dangerous neighborhood. The documentary opens with Barack Obama’s election in 2008 and closes with Donald Trump’s eight years later, framing the Raineys’ story as one of black America and its aspirations. But the family members—Quest; his rock-solid wife, Christine’a; and their teenage daughter P.J., who gains in character and complexity as she grows up before our eyes— are too individualized to represent anything but their own determination and decency. —J.R. JONES 105 min. Available on iTunes. v

AGENDA

FIND YOUR ,

CHICAGO AT 840 W. ARMITAGE IN LINCOLN PARK

Hooking Up With Second City ò TIMOTHY M. SCHMIDT

VALENTINE’S DAY

Because roses are too damn expensive

Discover smoke-free, spit-free, tobacco leaf-free ZYN Nicotine Pouches at Lincoln Park's newest pop-up, the ZYN Store. Stop in to enjoy a full selection of ﬂavors and strengths as well as complimentary Wi-Fi and coﬀee,

Our top picks for romantic events in the coming week

a vinyl listening lounge, communal workspaces and more.

By MADELINE HAPPOLD Elizabeth’s Crazy Little Thing The open-mike night hosts a Valentine’s Day-themed edition, “Love Is All Around,” encouraging participants to share poetry, music, comedy, performance art, literary experiments, and more. Wed 2/14, 9 PM, Phyllis’ Musical Inn, 1800 W. Division, 773-486-9862.

The Love Bug: Beetle Sex and Valentine’s Day This installment of A Scientist Walks Into a Bar, the Field Museum’s live show at the Hideout, celebrates the holiday with a discussion of insect sex lives. Tue 2/13, 6:30 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433, hideoutchicago.com, $5.

Hooking Up With Second City This biweekly comedy show roasts relationships, missed connections, girls’ nights out, and the things we do for love. Through 3/7: Tue-Wed 8 PM, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North, 312-337-3992, upcomedyclub. com, $26.

Mortiﬁed: Valentine R Schmalentine Participants in this recurring storytelling forum

I Saw You For more than R a decade, Bruised Orange Theater has combed personal ads,

OkCupid, Craigslist, and miscellaneous XXX-rated listings for juicy posts, then inhabited the characters behind them. Open run: Wed 8 PM, Town Hall Pub, 3340 N. Halsted, 773-472-4405, townhallpub.com, $5.

unearth childhood letters, poems, songs, and diary entries to be revealed in front of the audience. Tonight’s show is dedicated to childhood crushes. Sat 2/10, 6:30 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, 773-525-2501, lh-st.com, $20 in advance, $23 at the door.

Pour One Out: Love Gone Wrong/Bad Stories of love, both inspiring and heartbreaking, are shared at tonight’s edition of the monthly storytelling series. Wed 2/14, 7-9 PM, Volumes Bookcafe,

1474 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-8066, volumesbooks.com. Selena Tribute Oysters, fondue, dessert, and tableside drink service are available at this sweet party in memory of Selena, the Queen of Tejano music. DJ Alive Girl spins the singer’s tracks exclusively. Wed 2/14, 9 PM-2 AM, Punch House, 1227 W. 18th, 312526-3851, punchhousechicago.com, $55-$110. Who Wants Love? Pop R Up Print Show The nonproﬁt student writing and

tutoring center 826CHI hosts its second annual pop-up show oﬀering posters by 15 Chicago designers and illustrators inspired by students’ stories about love. There’s complimentary Half Acre beer, and poster sales ($20 each) support 826CHI. Mon 2/12, 5-10 PM, Ace Hotel, 311 N. Morgan, 312-764-1919, facebook.com/ events/146290119412974, $5. v

LEARN MORE AT ZYN.COM/CHICAGO

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WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 7

CITY LIFE

ò RICH HEIN/SUN TIMES

ELECTION 2018

Fifteen minutes with the ‘skinny math man,’ Democratic governor candidate Daniel Biss

The state senator says he’s learned a thing or two about power from house speaker Michael Madigan.

By MAYA DUKMASOVA

hen former University of Chicago math professor and current state senator Daniel Biss announced he was running for Illinois governor last March, few thought he had a real shot. But last week’s We Ask America poll shows him in second place behind billionaire J.B. Pritzker—this having raised about a tenth of the money. The 40-yearold outsider is more popular than developer Chris Kennedy, whose name recognition may not be enough to offset the political damage caused by his taking Mayor Rahm Emanuel to task over what he called “strategic gentriﬁcation” policies. Biss has been crisscrossing the state with running mate Litesa Wallace, a state rep from Rockford, and hammering on progressive talking points such as repealing Illinois’s ban on rent control, legalizing marijuana, establishing single-payer health care, and providing free state and community college tuition. We caught up with him by phone as he was on his way from Peoria to Bloomington last week.

In the early 2000s you used to talk about American soldiers’ torture of Iraqi POWs at Abu Ghraib as a motivating force to get into local politics. Do you still think about that?

[Chuckles, then a long pause] Yeah, I do. I, um . . . I . . . Something changed in me. I went from feeling like “Hey, I really care about this stuﬀ but it’s just a thing I have opinions about and I can talk about but I’ll go on and do something else with my daily life” to feeling all of a sudden, “Hold on—this is being done

8 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

in my name, and I cannot allow that to continue, and it’s my moral responsibility to do what I can to stop it.” And really Abu Ghraib itself was a very emotionally meaningful moment for me, but more broadly the dishonesty and immorality around the U.S. entry into and conduct in the war in Iraq really aﬀected me. Did you not pay attention much to politics before that? I thought of politics as a spectator sport. I cared about it a lot and spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it, and grew up in a household where we talked about politics around the dinner table, and as a young adult was very interested. But it seemed like a thing that happened to us, not a thing that we controlled. And I think the moment that really changed my life was the moment I realized I have a stake in this and therefore I have a responsibility to do what I can about it. That didn’t mean I was gonna run for office, that didn’t mean I would run for governor, that didn’t mean I would run for legislature. It didn’t mean I would necessarily leave professionally what I was doing [teaching math at the University of Chicago], but it meant I had to do what I could. I started showing up to meetings and knocking on doors and becoming really engaged in organizing work. It seems like you were pretty active in the Daily Kos community in the early aughts. I saw a post from 2006 where you wrote about how you didn’t quite understand how

online politics and offline politics connected. What’s been your learning curve about how to connect grassroots groundgame politics to what happens online and turn that into votes? I’m really excited about our campaign’s approach to seamlessly integrating online and offline efforts. Our online effort isn’t just fund-raising, like a lot of campaigns. We’ve got a digital organizing person, we have very real engagement with passionate grassroot supporters online, and we help empower them to engage on their own terms with undecided voters online. And then we take that tremendous online energy and try to harness it to have people begin to have offline conversations, knock on doors and make calls. I think that that is only natural given that that’s how life works these days. Online and offline relationships are not fundamentally different from one another. We live online and offline simultaneously. I don’t think we could be running this campaign ten year ago. I don’t think we could build the kind of support we’ve built without mature online not only strategy but also just a mature online world where social media, online communities are as robust and feel as natural to people as they do. In the early Obama years it really seemed like there was a lot of energy in that online environment—a lot of young people were getting plugged into politics through online communities like Daily Kos. And I feel like the energy isn’t really there anymore, the energy has migrated elsewhere. When I think of where the young political energy is happening I think much more of something like the Democratic Socialists of America—all the organizing and the conventions. That got me thinking about your early partnership with [35th Ward alderman] Carlos Ramirez-Rosa that didn’t last very long. I understand you guys had a policy disagreement about Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), but can you tell me, how did you figure that it was worth parting with Carlos and the possible youthful energy that he would bring to your campaign over that particular policy disagreement? It was just a disagreement that emerged quickly after we had previously had an understand-

ing. And it changed our dynamic in a way that made it so that we couldn’t go on. And I think it was the right way to move forward the way we did, but you know, I take your point. There’s incredible grassroots energy around styles of politics—whether they’re radical styles of politics, or left politics, nonmainstream politics— that are changing our country in a really, really good way. I think that the homogeneity of the politics that I grew up with in the 80s and 90s, and seeing the relative timidity of most political activity, was a real restraint on how much good government could do and how much excitement a political campaign could generate. I think that the netroots revolution that came about in 2003 and ’04 was a reaction to that kind of timid politics and was a reaction to the attitude that Democrats should allow Republicans to set the terms of the debate. You may remember that a seminal moment in the Howard Dean campaign in 2003 was when he spoke at some convention. He walked up to a microphone and I think the first words out of his mouth were ‘What I want to know is why are Democrats helping George Bush in his run-up to the Iraq war? What I want know is why are Democrats having a conversation about the privatization of social security?” The fundamental question wasn’t what’s right and what’s wrong, the question was why can’t Democrats have the backbone that they need. I think that galvanized a new political energy that was so important, that Barack Obama would have never been elected president without, that changed our country in really great ways, but that was also fundamentally partisan. I think what we’re now seeing is a further pushing of boundaries by people who are not totally comfortable with the two-party system, and I think the responsibility of Democratic Party officials is to create a real, welcoming, genuine home for people who right now don’t feel at home with the Democratic Party. I think that’s electorally important, but even beyond that it’s important for us to have a government that actually, meaningfully includes all voices. You’ve talked a lot about how in your time as a state rep and state senator you’ve been able to resist pressure from [house speaker] Michael Madigan and the Democratic machine establishment in the state capitol. But at the end of the day Madigan’s outlasted everyone. The guy really understands power, how it works and how to wield it. Is there anything you’ve learned from him that you can use for your own benefit?

ELKHATIB LAW, LLC

CITY LIFE Understanding political power is incredibly important and discipline is incredibly important and working hard is incredibly important, and understanding others’ perspectives and motivations and using that understanding to inform your own negotiating posture is incredibly important. I’ve learned all those things by watching him. But I will also say this: There’s a fundamental question about what the role of a government leader is. I believe a government leader needs to lay out a long-term vision and to change the landscape so as to enable the achievement of that vision. Whereas I think he sees the role of a government leader as simply to operate in the context of what’s currently possible and maintain power in that terrain. I think that that distinction is incredibly important: Are you an adjudicator or are you a visionary? Do you believe in a politics based on transactions or a politics based on a philosophy of how we ought to live? Those two approaches result in really different kinds of behaviors of leaders. When I was interviewing Fritz Kaegi we talked about this as well, the same kind of dynamics with [Cook County assessor] Joe Berrios. One of the problems he talked about is you go to elected officials in communities that are directly being affected by the way the property taxes are levied, where people are hurting, and elected officials say: “Yeah, this is totally wrong, but Joe’s a good guy and he did x, y, and z for me, and I’m staying loyal to him.” I imagine with Madigan that kind of dynamic is even more intense. Have you figured out a good way to counter that? I think the way to do that is to build political power, to actually motivate people to organize around a meaningful agenda. The status quo in Springfield has been successful by keeping the public relatively disengaged in the legislative process, relatively disengaged from following what actually goes on in the capitol building. I think the way to actually change the outcome is to change that level of engagement, and I think if you did that effectively you would utterly transform what comes out of Springfield. Speaking of that: Most people’s eyes glaze over when they hear the word “pensions.” Most people are not public-sector employees and will never, ever see a pension in their lives—especially young people, a lot of

whom are working as contract and contingent workers. But it’s such a central issue in Illinois politics and the source of so many financial problems in the state. How do you break down why people should care about what you have to say about the “pension crisis” when it’s such an alienating topic? To expect people who don’t themselves have a pension to voluntarily engage with the technicalities of pension funding is hopeless, and there’s no reason they should engage in it. But a conversation about retirement security and what it means to be able to retire with dignity is a conversation that’s interesting to a lot of people. A conversation about what it takes for a state to be able to provide truly universal access to health care, so that health care is our right and not an option—that ties to our ability to solve our fiscal problems, and that is something that is of great interest to most people. The question of what it takes to have free college tuition at public universities and community colleges because that’s what’s necessary to provide universal access to full participation in the modern economy—that interests people. But again, that’s tied to solving our state’s fiscal problems. And I think we need to learn to get out of the alienating jargon and into a place of actually discussing the stuff that really matters in people’s lives. And I think our elections need to be disputes about values and our governing process should be a technical discussion about how to implement those values.

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I saw the Sun-Times article about some of the errors that were in some of the math papers you published. That period in your life, when you were facing those difficulties with your academic work—seems like that would have been difficult, you were devoting so much of your time and career to that. How did you handle that time period in your live? It really wasn’t a big deal. It’s very normal in the course of academia for there to be disputes back and forth, and for one side to win, and for people to poke holes in arguments. I think it’s been used as a political cudgel a little bit, but it wasn’t actually an unusual episode in my academic career at all, and I had lots of colleagues who had undergone similar challenges. It’s just part of what it means to be an academic. v

v @mdoukmas FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 9

CITY LIFE

TRANSPORTATION

Can the CTA and Metra play nice?

Beneﬁts could include fare integration and an alternative to the costly Red Line expansion.

n January 26, when Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the CTA unveiled the route for the $2.3 billion extension of the Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street, the big question was where the heck the CTA would get the money from. City officials said they planned to apply for more than $1 billion in federal grants for the project. Trouble is, White House infrastructure adviser DJ Gribbin says that Donald Trump’s forthcoming $200 billion infrastructure bill won’t include any new revenue and will cut existing transportation funding—speciﬁcally, cash for Amtrak and public transit. For decades transit experts and advocates have pushed for a much cheaper, quicker solution to bring rapid transit to the far south side. The Metra Electric District route, aka the Electric Line, runs more or less parallel to the Red Line and makes eight stops within Roseland, Pullman, and other neighborhoods that would be served by the four extension stations, which are planned near 103rd, 111th, Michigan at 115th, and 130th Streets. Currently the Electric Line runs sporadically during nonrush periods. Running it more frequently, offering, say, 24-hour service at 15-minute intervals, and integrating its fare system with the CTA could likely be done at a fraction of the cost of the extension. It could also be done a lot more quickly. The proposed extension project involves acquiring about 150 properties and building elevated tracks and stations. According to the CTA, it

10 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

j BOBBY SIMS

By JOHN GREENFIELD

won’t be fully operational until 2026 at the earliest, and work won’t begin until 2022. The Electric Line conversion, which would only require retrofitting existing infrastructure, could almost certainly be completed sooner. It’s too bad the CTA and Metra don’t play well together. It’s not just that the CTA primarily serves the city, Metra the suburbs. Like the RTA and Pace, each of these transit agencies has its own board of directors— Emanuel appoints the majority of CTA board members, while most of the Metra directors are chosen by politicians from Republican-controlled suburban county boards. On top of that, the CTA and Metra compete with each other for funding and ridership. The agencies insist that they get along just fine. “We see a cooperative relationship,” said spokeswoman Susan Massel of the overseeing Regional Transit Authority, noting that the CTA, Metra, and Pace collaborated on the regional transit strategic plan the RTA approved in January. It calls for $30 billion in funding for transit infrastructure projects in the region, and Massel says all four agencies have committed to lobbying together for a steady annual revenue stream of $2 to $3 billion for capital investments.

But transit advocates argue that this cooperation is the exception that proves the rule. “There are well-documented and systemic governance and financing problems that make the lack of cooperation between transit agencies predictable,” said Active Transportation Alliance executive director Ron Burke. “From the slow journey to a universal fare card, to funding decisions not tied to a strategic transit vision for the region, to the inability to convert the Metra Electric into a CTAstyle service in Chicago, these shortcomings are a function of systemic problems.” Center for Neighborhood Technology executive director Scott Bernstein noted that the CTA and Metra still vie with each other for infrastructure grants from the federal transit administration. “They don’t lobby together and they don’t put in joint applications, so in what way could you say that they aren’t competing in that regard?” Bernstein said he’d also like to see the RTA, the CTA, and Metra, which each have separate programs for promoting transit-oriented development, work together on this front, something that could not only save money but potentially attract more private-sector investments.

CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski and Metra spokesman Michael Gillis point to the new Loop Link bus rapid transit corridor and the new Union Station Transit Center, which make it easier to transfer from Metra trains to CTA buses, as one example of the agencies’ cooperation. And they maintain that the region already has an integrated fare payment system of sorts—the Ventra smartphone app lets CTA and Metra riders add value to their cards and permits Metra passengers to purchase tickets onboard without a surcharge. Metropolitan Planning Council director Audrey Wennink noted that in some parts of the region the CTA and Metra vie for a larger cut of local sales tax revenue. Of course, they also compete for revenue from customers, and Wennink said it’s understandable the agencies are dragging their feet about really integrating fares as opposed to merely sharing the Ventra app. “If a rider who transfers from Metra to CTA only has to pay a small transfer fee and not the full CTA fare, as is the case now, who absorbs that loss in revenue?” she asked. One thing the agencies and the advocates can agree on is that much of the competition between the CTA and Metra is due to a factor beyond the agencies’ control: there isn’t sufficient investment in transit. “The funding pie needs to be bigger so we are both adequately funded,” Gillis said. Instead, Illinois’s budget deal last summer included cuts to state funding for the CTA, Metra, and Pace. As a result, all three systems raised fares this year. Metra also reduced service on some lines earlier this month, including the Electric Line’s Blue Island and South Chicago branches. Wennink offered a few suggestions for increasing transit funding, including boosting the state gasoline tax and creating a so-called distance-based driving tax aimed at encouraging people to switch to hybrid and electric vehicles. “Ultimately, if the transit agencies weren’t so underfunded and not fighting for their lives, they might have more capacity to think creatively,” Wennink said. v

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

THE BASICS OF

B LO C KC H A I N & B ITCO I N RUMI MORALES

B LO C KC H A I N & B I TC O I N

Advisory Board Member, Chamber of Digital Commerce As head of CME Ventures, Rumi launched and led one of the most successful corporate venture capital units in financial technology. She is an early specialist in digital currency and has been twice named one of the “most powerful dealmakers in financial technology.”

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State of Illinois Blockchain Business Liaison

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S O C I A L I M PAC T O F B LO C KC H A I N & C RY P TO C U R R E N C Y

Co-Founder & CEO, Bit Capital Group

COLLEEN SULLIVAN

C RY P TO C U R R E N C Y

CEO, CMT Digital Holdings LLC

HOWARD TULLMAN

CEO, 1871 Special opening remarks on Chicago’s role in Blockchain technology.

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FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 11

Competitive barber Nasee Yehuda at Madison Street Barbers

12 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

ACES

OF At the Major League Barber Original Midwest SuperBarber & Stylist Tradeshow, all haircuts are a cut above. Photos BY OLIVIA OBINEME Interview BY ANNE FORD

Nasee Yehuda is the proprietor of Madison Street Barbers (2429 W. Madison) on the near west side. During last month’s Major League Barber Original Midwest SuperBarber & Stylist Tradeshow at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, the 39-year-old took ﬁrst place in the Fastest and Cleanest Fade event. He spoke about how he got immersed in the world of competitive barbering.

hen I was younger, my parents couldn’t afford to send me to the barber shop. My father, he used to cut my hair, but he wasn’t a barber. It was rough because coming up in inner-city Chicago, if you didn’t have a good haircut, you got talked about. So me and my brothers started practicing on each other. I never wanted to be a barber. I just wanted a good haircut so people would stop bullying me.

I’m the type that when I do something, I want to master it, so I was like, “OK, let me practice on myself.” After a while, when my friends started coming to me—“Hey, can you line me up?”—I knew I was getting better. After a while they started to offer me, like, $2. By the time I graduated high school, I was averaging $50, $60 cash money, every single day. I wanted to go to barber school, but to my mother, it was like, “This sounds like you just want to hang out.” In the late 90s, a lot of my friends were in gangs, selling drugs. If I went to barber school, I’d be hanging out with these same guys. She knew the trouble they got in was eventually gonna rub off on me. So I went to college, and I ﬂunked out, because I barely went to class, because I was cutting hair. I’m a perfectionist. Cutting hair is like art to me: “OK, I’m late to psychology, but I want to make sure this line is crispy.” I got put on academic probation and had to sit out a semester, and what my mother told me was

gonna happen, actually did happen. I was hanging out with my friends, selling drugs, and when they went to jail, I went to jail. The public defender convinced me to plead no contest, so I got a felony on my record. That kind of shifted my future, you feel me? It was like, “Cut hair, or work for day labor and get less than everybody else,” ’cause I was a felon. That’s what made me get good at cutting hair, ’cause it was all I had. I started cutting on my back porch. There was a barber shop that opened across the street, and everybody who came on the porch would tell me, “Why aren’t you cutting hair in the shop right there?” One day the owner came out and walked across the lot. I’m thinking he’s gonna muscle me. He didn’t come over there and entice me or nothing like that. He said, “Ain’t you tired of making this little change on this back porch? What you need to do is come over here to the barber shop and make some real money.” I felt like LeBron. I felt like Kobe. I was 20 years old. J

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 13

Riverdale resident Michael Leveston, a graduate of Larry’s Barber College in Washington Heights, gives his brother Nicholas, 19, a classic high-top fade.

Prizes included trophies, cash, products, clippers, and professional barber chairs

continued from 13 I opened up Madison Street Barbers in October 2014. The most popular cuts are low fades, mohawks, high-top fades, all those old-school retro cuts. But I do everything. I do comb-overs, I do razor fades. I do straight-razor, hot-towel shaves. I do color. I do bleaching jobs. All that. Every once in a while, I’ll get somebody who wants something custom. This one guy has a clothing line, and he wanted me to put the logo of his clothing line on his head. My ﬁrst show was MLB, the Major League Barber Original Midwest SuperBarber & Stylist Tradeshow, in January last year. I got second place in freestyle design. When I won that, you couldn’t tell me nothing. You know how hard it is to win in Chicago? There are a lot of dope barbers in Chicago. From then to right now, I been in damn near every competition. I’ve won 16 trophies. I’m kind of like the trophy addict of the barber industry right now. This year at MLB, I got ﬁrst place for fastest fade. I did a haircut in 13 minutes and 20 seconds. Outside of a barber shop, men don’t really have many places they can go and just be men. Sometimes you might want to go somewhere and have a guy ask you, “What’s wrong?” I’m that guy. I’m gonna talk with you. We gonna laugh, we gonna joke. And I don’t repeat nothing. My clients know I don’t tell their business. I had a guy that came through the shop, and his whole income tax got took. He was just feeling really bad. I gave him a nice haircut, and he said, “I feel a lot better, man. I feel so much better.” v

14 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Johnnie Akons, 42, owner of Legacy Cutz in Roseland, placed third in the Professional Super Freestyle Design category.

In the sea of men participating in competitions, a handful of women showed oﬀ their skills, including Luisa Morales of Famous Fadez in Schaumburg. Morales said, “Some women are better than men and some men are better than women. I still get love regardless.”

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 15

Larry Roberts, the namesake of Larry’s Barber College in Washington Heights on the city’s far south side, turned out to support his students. “We have some of the greatest barbers in the world here,” he said of the convention’s talent pool.

16 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Models lined up in the hallway await judges’ evaluations.

Judges take a closer look at a model’s fade.

“I like to create things that make a statement, and not just lines,” said Marquez Tatum, 40, a barber and instructor at the Institute of Beauty and Wellness in Milwaukee. Tatum teamed up with Johnnie Akons of Legacy Cutz to take ﬁrst place in the Original Tag Team Freestyle Design category.

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 17

ARTS & CULTURE

READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

THEATER

Reagan and Gorbachev meet cute atop a pile of nukes in Blind Date Gaping conceptual hole aside, the Goodman Theatre staging is entertaining. By TONY ADLER

ogelio Martinez’s Blind Date is far from solemn or eerie. I’d say the dominant tone is a wry humor. But it’s a ghost play all the same. Which is to say that whatever power it has derives from the unseen presences that haunt it, from Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. In fact, the personalities of the whole cold war and its

18 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

consequences rattle around its periphery like a convention of Jacob Marleys. Thing is, neither Martinez nor Robert Falls, who directed this world premiere for Goodman Theatre, comes out and acknowledges that the ghosts are there. And that’s a problem. One of several, actually. The blind date of the title happened in 1985, when U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz

Rob Riley (Ronald Reagan) and William Dick (Mikhail Gorbachev) ò LIZ LAUREN

and Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Shevardnadze fixed up their bosses, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, arranging for them to meet in Geneva for two fabulous days of talks, mostly about their nuclear arsenals. Reagan had already called the USSR an evil empire by then, and announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (aka “Star Wars”): a spacebased antimissile system that would’ve nulliﬁed the concept of mutual assured destruction on which the cold-war balance of power was based. Gorbachev, meanwhile, needed to look strong internationally in order to carry out his extensive reforms, perestroika and glasnost, at home. Add to all that the Uncle-Vanyameets-Ward-Cleaver disparity in character between the two men and the matchup seemed uncomfortable at best. Yet they hit it off well enough to meet three more times over the next three years, in Reykjavik (before it was a cool destination), Washington, D.C., and Moscow. Their biggest genuine accomplishment was signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, but the summits were as valuable for the bonding they encouraged between the two leaders as for anything else. Reagan left Moscow saying he’d taken back the evil empire remark. Martinez has a peculiar, three-pronged way of telling this story. One prong focuses, naturally enough, on the principal players, Reagan and Gorbachev, as well as their wives, Nancy and Raisa, whom we see practicing their own sharp-elbowed, sotto voce form of diplomacy on their husbands and each other. Another concentrates, also naturally, on Shultz and

Shevardnadze, the resourceful underlings who find themselves forming a team of rivals as they attempt to make history. The final prong doesn’t feel so natural. It gives us presidential biographer Edmund Morris as an occasional narrator, supplying a quizzical counterpoint to people and events as he floats through the play. I guess Morris can be said to represent the audience in that regard, but despite Thomas J. Cox’s engaging performance, he comes across as little more than a narrative flourish. Which is appropriate in a way, Morris being the guy who wrote Dutch, the notoriously metabiographical “memoir” of Reagan featuring a character named “Edmund Morris.” The real problem with Blind Date, though, isn’t that it tries to accommodate a superfluous role. Just the opposite: The problem is that it excludes all those ghosts that are needed to provide context. And maybe more than context, a sense of the tragic. Within four years of the Geneva summit the Berlin Wall fell. Two years after that, the Soviet Union itself did the same. After an astoundingly wild ride, Gorbachev handed leadership over to Boris Yeltsin, whose flounderings throughout the 1990s opened the way for Putin. The United States’ failure to cope with the collapse of a dependable enemy has played out across the administrations of Reagan’s five successors, causing us to veer back and forth over all kinds of precipices until this moment, when nukes are in resurgence and an American president is being investigated for what he or his aides may know about Russian influence on a federal election.

ARTS & CULTURE Blind Date continued from 18 In short, the Reagan-Gorbachev summits weren’t a glimmer of hope, as Blind Date would have it. They were a last gasp. The narrative ﬂourish Martinez needs is the one that makes even so much as a nod at subsequent events. Still, gaping conceptual hole aside, Blind Date can be pretty entertaining. Falls gives the script a crisp, clever staging full of lovely moments. And his cast constitute a kind of summit in themselves, featuring at least nine of the ﬁnest veteran actors in Chicago. Jim Ortlieb and Steve Pickering parry each other neatly as Shultz and Shevardnadze.

Ditto Deanna Dunagan and Mary Beth Fisher as Nancy and Raisa. Dunagan, in particular, offers a marvelous combination of smoothness and stilettos—the knives, not the shoes. William Dick has found his role as Gorbachev. And Rob Riley makes a great Reagan, wandering through the cold war like Chauncey Gardiner from Being There, with a sense of reality as fungible as Trump’s. v BLIND DATE Through 2/25: Wed 7:30 PM, Thu 2 and 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Sun 2/25, 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $20-$75.

v @taadler

ò ALAN EPSTEIN

VISUAL ART

Chicago in bacon and eggs By ROSAMUND LANNIN

lan Epstein had been in Chicago just a year in 2016 when he started What Was Breakfast (@whatwasbreakfast), the Instagram feed dedicated to what its subjects had for breakfast. When he’s not taking photos, Epstein, 37, is a server at the Cherry Circle Room, where he began the project. What Was Breakfast begs comparison to Humans of New York, but Epstein doesn’t ask the same soul-baring—some critics have said saccharine—questions as HONY (“What is your greatest struggle right now?,” “Who is the most inﬂuential person in your life?”). His ambition is simpler: He asks you about your morning meal and takes your picture as you answer. “I’d like to be the Bill Cunningham of breakfast,” he says. His photos can generate mixed reactions. In one shot, he captures a young woman and her child at a bus stop. For breakfast they’d had chicken rings and yogurt: “People that I know will see my feed and be like ‘That’s just the cutest little thing,’” Epstein says, “or they’ll be like, ‘That’s sad that they had Chicken McNuggets for breakfast,’ and both those realities are right.” In between discussions of smoothies and skillets, a wide cross section of the city’s population passes before his camera, people not often brought to the forefront of conversations, even those as basic as breakfast. These slices of Chicago reﬂect humor and sweetness, but also insight and from time to time unvarnished grace. We caught up over coffee and discussed how the project has evolved.

How has What Was Breakfast changed since you started? I guess since we started the major thing that’s changed is that I see myself as a photographer. Whereas when I first started, I was just a dude with a camera who was curious about people and food. I think that’s always been the driving force, but maybe I’m more comfortable wearing the label of photographer. For me, what What Was Breakfast is really all about, aside from me having a creative outlet, is [that] we’re all the same; we all wake up and eat food and go on about our day, that’s really the heart of the project. I think it’s just— it just started to be fun. Is there anything visually you try for with each photo, in the beginning or now? Do you have any rules? What I really do, I just wander fairly aimlessly. I like to know what direction I’m going, but I’m not tied to any particular streets. I wait until somebody catches my attention. I can’t dictate where that happens, I just try to catch that. I don’t really move anybody; the most that I might do is just walk around you, to make sure I’m on the right side of the light. But the things that I look for are some person that is interesting in some way, and then I just try to not mess up the shot. v

v @rosamund FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 19

Darling Shear performs at Salonathon. ò ERIC KIRKES

ARTS & CULTURE

LIT

Salonathon says goodbye—for now By BRIANNA WELLEN

hen Jane Beachy first started the weekly performance series Salonathon in July 2011, she didn’t imagine it would run for more than two months. The show was founded with a DIY spirit, intended as an inclusive space for emerging artists to test the boundaries of performance. Soon

one year came and went, then five. And now, six and a half years after that first night at Beauty Bar, the series is finally coming to a close. Beachy stresses that this isn’t a death, just a transition. Part of the reason she and her five fellow curators decided to end the weekly run

was to make time and space for other possible collaborations and innovative projects under the Salonathon name. “Stagnation is not good, and it’s deﬁnitely not good for something that’s all about the inner workings of the human spirit,” Beachy says. “Those have to be ever-moving and ever-ﬂuctuating in order to stay nimble and be responsive to the world around you.” To say farewell to Salonathon in its current form, the cocurators will host Salonathon & On & On & On, a 14-hour celebration at Beauty Bar featuring workshops, performances, screenings, discussions, and a dance party. It will condense 340 weeks of art and a unique creative spirit into a single day. Deciding which performers would appear in the lineup, Beachy says, was the most painful meeting in Salonathon history. “We really didn’t want to just go out with a night that was complete pandemonium, though I’m sure it will end that way,” Beachy says. “We wanted the more nuanced vibes of Salonathon. There’s an opportunity for some quieter moments.” There will be time for re-

ﬂection as well: each curator has put together a performance looking back on his or her personal history with the series. There’s also one last chance for newbies to take the stage at Beauty Bar. Anyone who shows up right at noon will be placed into a group with other Salonathon hopefuls; they will spend the day creating a collaborative performance for a segment called First-Timers and Last-Timers. Whatever form it takes next, says Beachy, Salonathon will continue its mission to support genre-defying art. But Beach says there’s a bittersweetness in the moments between this ending and the next beginning. “It’s the kind of way you cry when a really good friend moves away to another city for a great job or because they fell in love,” she says. “You’re sad about the change, but you’re happy for the reasons that it’s happening.” v SALONATHON & ON & ON & ON Mon 2/12, noon-2 AM, Beauty Bar, 1444 W. Chicago, facebook.com/salonathon. F

v @BriannaWellen

February 10–August 12, 2018 STYLE. CRAFTSMANSHIP. INNOVATION. POSTURE.

Thirty-seven exceptional chairs show all.

The Art of Seating is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, in collaboration with the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C. Design and Manufacture Attributed to Pottier & Stymus and Company (Est. 1859), New York, NY, Egyptian Revival Side Chair, c. 1875 Photo by Michael Koryta and Andrew VanStyn, Director of Acquisitions, Conservation and Photography

20 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

ARTS & CULTURE 24 Frames

MOVIES

What happens when nothing happens The ﬁnal feature from Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami may send you into a trance. By BEN SACHS

ranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016 at age 76, often employed tricky or complicated methods to arrive at results that appeared simple. For most of the conversations in Taste of Cherry (1997), he interviewed the participants separately, then edited their responses together to create the illusion of free-flowing dialogue. For his experimental feature Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003), he digitally composited multiple shots to create the illusion of individual, unbroken takes. 24 Frames (2017), his final (and posthumously completed) work, comprises a series of four-and-a-half-minute sequences in which paintings and photographs appear to come to life; the director achieved this effect by digitally inserting moving figures into still images. As in Five, it often seems as though nothing is happening—humans rarely enter into the images, which center on animals, weather, and natural landscapes. You wonder if Kiarostami simply set up his camera in various locations and hit “record.” Yet from these seemingly primitive scenes, Kiarostami creates an absorbing, Zen-like experience open to multiple forms of interpretation. You can appreciate 24 Frames as a metacinematic puzzle, as a celebration of ssss EXCELLENT

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nature, and as a trance-inducing meditation. (I found myself alternating between all three approaches, depending on where my mood took me.) Kiarostami transforms the cinematic environment into a contemplative zone in which you feel calm and focused. You can go with the flow of sounds and images, ponder their meaning, or reflect on the cinematic trickery the director used to assemble them. Like Brian Eno’s ambient records, 24 Frames invites both cursory and deep readings; regardless of how you interact with it, the film provides immense aesthetic pleasure. To create this illusion of unmediated reality, Kiarostami employed a 12-person special effects team and more than half a dozen animal wranglers. Looking at the first sequence, an animation of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting The Hunters in the Snow (1565), you can see how the original image has been changed—the live-action dogs, birds, and cows that move through the painting look distinctly different from their painted counterparts. Yet as 24 Frames proceeds, you may be less sure what Kiarostami has manipulated or left alone. The second sequence shows horses against a snowy landscape, but you can’t be certain whether the landscape is part of the

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source photograph or the animation. Nor can you know to what extent the horses’ seemingly natural behavior was directed by an animal wrangler. That same sequence contains the only camera movement in 24 Frames. From behind a car window, you can see a car drive up to a spot about 100 yards from the horses, then park so the unidentified driver can observe their play. One might think of the driver as a stand-in for Kiarostami, who “disrupts” the photograph much as the driver disrupts the natural setting. At times 24 Frames feels like an autobiographical statement about an artist’s impact on the world he inhabits—he wants to observe the world as it is, but he can’t resist intervening. (The movie feels like a minimalist variation on Kiarostami’s 1999 masterpiece The Wind Will Carry Us, about an urban ﬁlmmaker’s misadventures in a rural town he wants to document.) The personal nature of 24 Frames is most apparent in the 15th sequence. A photograph shows six people from behind, standing on a balcony in Paris and looking out at the Eiffel Tower. The three women wear head scarves, and all six people seem to be from somewhere other than France. When moving ﬁgures enter

into the frame, they don’t interact with—or even seem to notice—the group of six, who remain eerily motionless. The sequence provides a poignant metaphor for the immigrant experience. Kiarostami, after all, spent most of his later years in France and died in Paris. In other sequences, the director suggests human interaction even when people aren’t onscreen, filming natural settings through windows and from behind balconies. A master of visual metaphor, Kiarostami uses architecture to convey humans’ inherent separation from nature as well as the irreversible impact of people on the planet. For the 21st sequence, animated from a photograph of a window, Kiarostami conjures up a drama offscreen with the sounds of footsteps, keys jingling, and other mundane noises; a jarring sound suggests either an accident or an act of violence. Another sequence is less ambiguous, an offscreen gunshot resulting in the onscreen death of a bird. Indeed, death is the principal theme of 24 Frames. The movie contains two animal fatalities, and many of the sequences take place in winter. The penultimate sequence is one of the most eloquent intimations of death I’ve seen in a movie. Kiarostami presents two trees swaying in a breeze, shot from a low angle behind a pile of freshly cut logs. Gradually the sound of a chainsaw grows audible, and we all know how trees become logs. This emphasis on death throws into relief Kiarostami’s twin focus on life, just as the still photographs and paintings heighten any onscreen movement. The chief pleasure of 24 Frames is how it attunes you to appreciate any movement, whether it’s snow falling, waves crashing, or birds pecking the earth. Presence and absence, stillness and movement, being and nothingness—these are big themes for a movie in which supposedly nothing happens. Kiarostami knew how to make complicated ﬁlmmaking seem easy, but his greatness lay in his ability to ﬁnd the complex within the simple. v 24 FRAMES ssss Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. 114 min. Fri 2/9-Thu 2/15. Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 773846-2800, siskelfilmcenter.org, $11.

v @1bsachs

WORTHLESS

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 21

ARTS & CULTURE

For J.R. Jones’s review of the Oscar-nominated short animations, visit chicagoreader.com/movies.

Shinelle Azoroh in DeKalb Elementary

MOVIES

We knew them when

The Oscar-nominated live-action shorts oﬀer a ﬁrst look at up-and-coming talents. By J.R. JONES

The Burn By Philip

Dawkins Directed by Devon de Mayo A modern telling of the way social media blurs the lines of truth and ﬁction, this world premiere play explores what happens to a teacher and his students when a classroom conﬂict turns into an online witch-hunt.

$15

TO 2/17 PERFORMANCES AT 3PM AND 7:30PM TICKETS USE CODE READERBURN

steppenwolf.org | 312-335-1650 | #TheBurnSYA Lead Supporters of Steppenwolf for Young Adults

Major Supporters of Steppenwolf for Young Adults

22 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

ack in 2006, I got my first taste of Irish director Martin McDonagh when his wickedly funny Six Shooter screened at Landmark’s Century Centre along with the other Oscar-nominated live-action shorts. McDonagh took home the award that year, and 12 years later his black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a strong contender for Best Picture. I wouldn’t be surprised if, a decade from now, we were seeing equally big things from the filmmakers on this year’s program, such as Kevin Wilson Jr., whose haunting My Nephew Emmett dramatizes the last night in the life of Emmett Till; or British filmmaker Chris Overton, whose painful The Silent Child tells the story of a young girl whose mother punishes her for her deafness; or Australian filmmakers Derin Seale and Josh Lawson, whose farcical The Eleven O’Clock pits a psychiatrist against a patient who thinks he’s a psychiatrist (and sounds just as good). My favorite, though, is Reed Van Dyk’s DeKalb Elementary, which had me so far on the edge of my seat that only afterward did I recognize its powerful social comment. Van Dyk opens with a stationary shot into the front office of an elementary school, where a young staffer named Lakisha (Shinelle Azoroh) agrees to watch the desk while the principal’s secretary takes a quick break. People file through the halls, a telephone rings, children squeal and shout on the playground—it’s your average day. But then a stocky young man asks to use

the phone, and the staffer leaves the frame for a moment—long enough for the young man, Steven (Bo Mitchell), to pull an automatic rifle out of his bag. “This is real, this isn’t a joke,” he tells Lakisha. “We’re all gonna die today.” When an older gentleman happens into the office, Steven backs him off by firing a shot at a framed certificate on the wall, which sends glass flying and the school into lockdown. We all know how this one ends—with children dead, parents shattered, and politicians enacting the tired rituals of sorrow and outrage. But Lakisha keeps a cool head. Enlisted by Steven as his phone liaison to the 911 dispatcher, she relays the information that he’s armed and off his meds. At one point Steven spins the rifle around and points the barrel at his mouth, rehearsing his final shot. Lakisha pleads with him not to harm himself: “Just last year, I was two seconds from where you are now.” After the climax, Van Dyk concludes with another stationary shot of the front office, sirens in the distance augmented by the returning workaday noise of voices in the hall and a telephone ringing. A mentally unbalanced man storming an elementary school with a deadly weapon? This is, indeed, your average day. v THE OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS: LIVE ACTION 99 min. Landmark’s Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark, 773-248-7759, landmarktheatres.com/Chicago, $12.50.

v @JR_Jones

The Atlas Moth: Andrew Ragin, Alex Klein, Stavros Giannopoulos, Mike Miczek, and David Kush ò MATT DRISCOLL

O n the new Coma Noir , the Atla s Moth name ou r fo e —and find a reason to fight The Chicago metal monarchs imagine a cosmic criminal cabal that’s depressingly easy to recognize in the real world. By MONICA KENDRICK

nderappreciated Chicago metal monarchs the Atlas Moth have been incubating their new album, Coma Noir, for nearly four years, and this week their dormancy comes to a welcome end. The band started out more than a decade ago playing a hybrid of psychedelic stoner rock and sludge metal, but every time they return they have a larger wingspan, dazzling and terrible in a new way. Their latest release is ambitious in scope, and its songs hang loosely on a cinematic framework, inspired by a dark and subversive drama—one that exists as much in the lyricists’ heads as it does in the music itself, and thus hints at more than it reveals. For Coma Noir, guitarists Stravros Giannopoulos, David Kush, and Andrew Ragin and bassist Alex Klein (all four contribute

THE ATLAS MOTH, ROYAL THUNDER, MIRRORS FOR PSYCHIC WARFARE vocals, and Ragin adds keys and synths) are joined by new drummer Mike Miczek. In all their incarnations they’ve been a terrific live act, heavy as hell and wonderfully tight—an asset to any bill they’re on, whether they’re playing alongside the dark synthwave of Perturbator or the slow southern steel of Crowbar. This album cycle promises to treat the band well, as they receive tributes paid to them in food and drink. Dark Matter is about to release a Coffee Noir blend, and Brimming Horn Meadery in Delaware will introduce an Atlas Moth mead flavor in the fall. Plus they’re literally the flavor of the month at Kuma’s— the Atlas Moth burger, on the menu at the Belmont location, is piled with Italian roast beef, hot Italian sausage, giardiniera marinara, smoked provolone, and fried basil, all on a toasted pretzel bun with garlic butter.

Sat 2/10, 8:30 PM, never been a bad time to Though the Atlas Moth Empty Bottle, tell that kind of tale, but released one song on a 1035 N. Western, $15, 21+ our moment seems espesplit single with KEN cially ripe for one. Mode in late 2015, they kept us waiting for two agThe band didn’t intend to follow in the footsteps of, say, Queensryche, onizing years before dropping a hint of bigCoheed and Cambria, or Dawnbringer, whose ger things to come: a black-and-white video for the title track of Coma Noir, released in concept albums could almost be rewritten as screenplays, but Giannopoulos says the story December. Its cinematography nods to the that provides the skeleton of Coma Noir is album cover’s classic noir imagery, which more visible in the ﬁnished product than he evokes Chicago’s Maﬁa past—both its brutal expected. “I personally wrote the lyrics from truth and its glamorized iconography. A shadowy gangster beckons us into darkness. the perspective of a cult leader,” he says. “Almost playing a character. If you listen and Is the man hidden beneath that hat brim a read the lyrics with that in mind, I feel you can hero or a villain? Coma Noir isn’t quite a conpick up on how antagonistic I’m portrayed cept album, but the songs do follow a sketchy story arc—Giannopoulos says there’s a naras. The overall idea of the story was basically rative buried in them, about a private detec‘Maltese Falcon with a horror element.’ A detective is brought a case by a mysterious J tive and a sinister global crime cult. There’s

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 23

continued from 23 woman in regards to this supposed doomsday cult, Coma Noir.” Giannopoulos doesn’t want to go into any more detail, because there are plans to further develop the story, both as a radio play (with the help of filmmaker Ryan Oliver, who directed the video for “Coma Noir”) and as a graphic novel. This ominous figure who haunts the album’s soundscapes is no mere casino skimmer and rival whacker—this is the Nemesis itself. Crime of all kinds stalks Coma Noir—crime against the self, crime against humanity, crime against the planet. In the album’s universe, the ultimate enemy is a cult of cosmic nihilism. Its themes are more sweeping and outward focused than those of the bad-trip inner journey the Atlas Moth described with 2014’s The Old Believer. These songs have different points of view and different settings. The slick, shimmering keyboards of “The Streets of Bombay” suggest a futuristic Philip K. Dick dystopia, its neon glitz attracting the damned as well as the global elites who decadently dine high above streets full of black-market trade. On “Galactic Brain” the band bluntly declare in unusually clear and intelligible vocals that “The stakes are higher than they were when we were young.” The Atlas Moth hover over the brutalized world of their stories like a denouncing god, a narrator who’s omniscient but not omnipotent. Their lyrical sensibility is elegant and at times almost romantic. The voice of that narrator seems especially eloquent in dark cultist mode, as on the title track, when it introduces the seductions of malign power: With eyes like coffins and a heart encased in rust I can taste the gunpowder on her lips and the serpent’s touch We shall testify to the breaking down as one Our allegiance to this scorched earth as home Coma Noir is the Atlas Moth’s first album for Los Angeles label Prosthetic Records as well as their first to benefit from the ministrations of superproducer Sanford Parker. Giannopoulos hates recording—it’s his least favorite part of being in a band—but he says Parker energizes him and makes the process fun: “His sense of humor and attitude really fits with ours, and he picked up on our strengths immediately and really made us focus on getting the best out of us,” Giannopoulos says. “Yet I never found myself pissed or frustrated.” Parker’s crisp style also opens up avenues of sight into the Atlas Moth’s dark miasma. On “Galactic Brain,” clearly an updated Black

24 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

“I personally wrote the lyrics from the perspective of a cult leader” -Stavros Giannopoulos

Sabbath-type visionary cut, the production shows off the devious, plot-twisty arrangement without sacrificing weight. And on “Actual Human Blood,” where jagged guitars sound like the blades of an infinite number of surgical saws laying bare violent truths, not even the savage density of the central riffs drowns out the dark poetry in the lyrics: “Now we defect from ourselves / Grifters seeking orchids in bones.” Giannopoulos splits lyric writing with Kush (the Atlas Moth’s “clean” singer, though that’s a relative term here). As dystopian as Coma Noir can be, it’s far less claustrophobic and less trapped in individual despair than The Old Believer—Giannopoulos characterizes it as “definitely an us-against-them type of record. Empowering and ‘never give up’ vibe.” The choice to make a less personal record was deliberate, and the two lyricists bounced ideas off each other constantly as Coma Noir took shape. To make a record of resistance, you need to have a sense of what you’re resisting, and the demons of Coma Noir come in small personal sizes as well as cosmic ones—“Last Transmission From the Late, Great Planet Earth,” for example, invokes the specter of climate change and the desolate death of the planet itself. (The title refers to Hal Lindsey’s 1970 best-seller, but its apocalypse was biblical— inspiring many other terrible books and even worse politics.) Tortured, screaming voices fill out the chanting ending of the track, but it’s not as hopeless as it sounds: “We will find

out on our own / Which path we shall embark” at least suggests that humanity still has the autonomy to avert such a fate. The real enemy here, the one Coma Noir seems devoted to struggling against at all costs, is hopeless fatalism. And the music itself—seething, unsettled, oozing with life— provides the antidote to frozen apathy. The album is militant in its call to rise and resist stagnation and complacency, but it’s not harsh or stoic in its sound. Instead it’s generous and sensual, its constant twists and turns provoking delight at each audacious and ﬂawlessly executed ﬂourish. Coma Noir didn’t have to be as rich and complex and surprising as it is, and I found myself repeatedly feeling something like gratitude for the surplus the Atlas Moth has built into it. Even at the record’s most terrifying moments, the songs still reward the lizard brain with enough pleasure to keep you listening: the flirty little arabesque underneath the core riff of “The Frozen Crown,” for instance, or the galloping jam and leisurely guitar solo that draw out the end of the otherwise jarring and aggro “Smiling Knife.” If we’re all held in the grip of forces that don’t have our best interests at heart (if they’re even aware of our existence at all), then the drive to resist is a good in and of itself. But even as the Atlas Moth document that struggle, they can’t seem to restrain themselves from revealing that they’re having a fantastically good time making music. The world is enduring a trial whose verdict has yet to come clear, and artists give voice to it in all sorts of forms—including albums, graphic novels, and radio plays. Just because we’re constantly at war whether we like it or not doesn’t mean beautiful things shouldn’t still be beautiful for their own sake. Giannopoulos describes the several years that passed between The Old Believer and Coma Noir as “a trying time period, but necessary. Not all of it was bad, not all of it was good, but it all needed to happen ’cause this was the record we were supposed to make.” v The Atlas Moth celebrate the release of Coma Noir at the Empty Bottle on Saturday. Further enhancing the appeal of the show are openers Mirrors for Psychic Warfare, a collaboration between Sanford Parker and Scott Kelly of Neurosis—their haunting, abstract music is occult in the literal sense of “hidden,” conveying its meaning through suggestion and menace. Surprisingly, the Atlas Moth have never toured with Parker in any of his projects, but after this gig they hit the road for 11 dates (ending in Atlanta) with Royal Thunder and Mirrors for Psychic Warfare.

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 25

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of February 8

MUSIC

THURSDAY8

PICK OF THE WEEK

Mega Ran See Pick of the Week. Microphone Misﬁtz, Endangered Species, and Elephant Rebellion open. 8 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar, 1366 N. Milwaukee, $8. 21+

Chip-hop artist Mega Ran brings nerd anthems to Emporium Arcade

FRIDAY9 Adot Duffle Bag Buru headlines; Qari and Dally Auston, and Adot open. 10 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $10. 18+ In a December interview with the music site Elevator, Chicago rapper Adot said he follows his gut when it comes to musical direction rather than adhering to a strict sound. Putting it more succinctly, he said, “My sound is lost.” Adot’s nonexplanation of his musical thumbprint does a good job of hinting at his aesthetic choices. His new self-released EP Midnight contains hazy instrumentals that cloak entire tracks like a fog and sparse, bone-dry percussion that cuts through his cloudlike melodies like a lighthouse beam. Adot finds a lot to do within that gray sonic blanket, veering from terse, fragmented bars to viscous verses that melt into the atmosphere while imparting a skittishness into his performances that suggests he could completely change course in the middle of a song—and sometimes he does. Adot is hardly the only rapper on the Web or in town concocting morass music with hard beats, but he makes a space for himself on his best material. On “Nobody” he sounds like he’s just emerged from a root canal and is remembering how to form sentences as the anesthetic wears off—though the results are far more exciting and enjoyable than any trip to the dentist’s office. —LEOR GALIL ò CHAS WRIGHT

MEGA RAN, MICROPHONE MISFITZ, ENDANGERED SPECIES, ELEPHANT REBELLION

Thu 2/8, 8 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar, 1366 N. Milwaukee, $8. 21+

THE WEAPONIZATION OF nerd culture has been a nightmare. From the outset, satirical representations like the Revenge of the Nerds series were riddled with toxic misogyny, but the modern-day real-life versions (GamerGate, Milo, 4chan) are so much worse. Under the stage name Mega Ran, rapper Raheem Jarbo deﬁantly counters all of that, lovingly extolling nerdy pursuits with the welcoming air of an older sibling handing down his Nintendo tips. His early Mega Man-centered work earned him a licensing deal with Capcom, and eventually a chance to meet Mega Man cocreator Keiji Inafune, who’d recently left the company to pursue other opportunities. Jarbo credits that interaction with inspiring him to quit his job as a middle school teacher to pursue rapping full-time. He’s also released albums inspired by Final Fantasy VII, his teaching job, the Notorious B.I.G., Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (a collaboration with similarly nerd-adjacent rapper Sammus), and, most recently, Stranger Things. Ran’s oeuvre is made up of to-the-point narratives over beats based on 16-bit soundtracks, wrestling themes, or nostalgia-drenched 80s synth worship pulled from the material (or Materia) at hand. He’s not just listing references for nerd cred, though—you don’t have to have memories of crying over Aerith’s death in Final Fantasy VII to recognize the loss in Ran’s voice when he raps, “There was something ’bout her aura / Cuz I haven’t felt it since her.” He’s able to ﬁnd the pathos in the pixels. —ED BLAIR

26 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

ALL AGES

builds beauty from commonalities that have existed for centuries. In the Chicago debut of his suite he leads an excellent 15-member band (most of whom played on the record) including vibist Jason Adasiewicz, pianist John Escreet, guitarist Miles Okazaki, reedists Ole Mathisen, Aakash Mittal, and JD Parran, and his sister, Dena ElSaffar, on violin, viola, and joza. —PETER MARGASAK

Ruby Boots Half Gringa opens. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+ Bex Chilcott, aka Ruby Boots, left her mother’s home in Perth, Australia, as a teenager in the mid90s, and by age 20 she was working on a pearlfishing boat on the northwest coast—a job that let her develop her singing voice. After getting fired from a short-lived job on chartered yachts in the south of France and busking in England to make enough money to get home, she set about establishing herself as one of her homeland’s most promising country talents: she was named Best Country Act by the Western Australian Music Industry Awards each year from 2011 till 2015. Following a series of EPs and her 2015 full-length debut, Solitude (Lost Highway Australia), Chilcott moved to Nashville to further her career. Her new second album, Don’t Talk About It (Bloodshot Records), recorded with Dallas five-piece the Texas Gentlemen, draws from her days of rootless hard living as well as from the time and space she’s had to reflect since settling in her new home. The record brims with tales of ill-fated relationships—however brief—and with the inner conflict between restlessness, independence, and the yearning for love and trust that faces many women who have an easier time moving on than settling down. Chilcott incorporates a number of musical flavors, including classic country, rootsy pop, and plenty of rock ’n’ roll,

Amir ElSaffar’s River of Sound Mike Reed’s Flesh & Bone opens. 8 PM, Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, $24-$76, $15 students. b Oak Park native Amir ElSaffar has built his career pursuing a rigorous curiosity and commitment to art, and one of his greatest accomplishments is his ravishing hybrid of postbop and traditional Iraqi maqam. His recent Two Rivers project succeeded in part because ElSaffar, an Iraqi-American, is devoted to both disciplines: he studied jazz trumpet in Chicago and maqam—playing santoor and singing—with masters of the austere form in Baghdad. In 2008 he presented the earliest incarnation of what would develop into Rivers of Sound, but it’s only in the last few years that this second project has truly reached fruition. Last year’s stunning Not Two (New Amsterdam) takes its title from wisdom a Zen Buddhist teacher of ElSaﬀar’s shared with him about facing dualities. Featuring an international cast of like-minded improvisers and traditionalists, it goes well beyond any sort of typical hybrid. While there’s no missing elements of maqam, free jazz, Turkish melody, Indian raga and more, the 80-minute suite’s achievement is building an epic journey that makes each ingredient far less meaningful than the sweeping whole. I’ve heard lots of terrible music that attempts to bring a world of sounds together, but ElSaﬀar succeeds because he

Adot ò GIAN FRIAS

MUSIC workout. A reading of Carla Bley’s “Sing Me Softly of the Blues” balances the tune’s lyric tenderness with feverish activity; though the pianists pile up notes they never get in the way of one another. The concert, part of the long-running Contempo series, includes a solo performance by Taborn that complements the works Marta Ptaszyńska, Augusta Read Thomas, and Reena Esmail performed by Imani Winds and Ensemble dal Niente. —PETER MARGASAK

Want to play? We’ll teach you how.

SATURDAY10 The Atlas Moth Royal Thunder and Mirrors for Psychic Warfare open. 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $15. 21+ For more, see page 23.

Ruby Boots ò CAL QUINN arranging her tracks to keep you guessing about what’ll come next. On “Believe in Heaven,” she nods to 60s girl groups with lush backing vocals and a Ronettes-style beat—even borrowing the phrase “Be my baby.” She contrasts that winking sensuality with the relative cynicism of “Easy Way Out,” a hooky, bare-bones number with an unpretentious vibe reminiscent of Tom Petty. Tonight is the release show for Don’t Talk About It. —JAMIE LUDWIG

Craig Taborn Imani Winds headlines; Ensemble dal Niente and Craig Taborn open. 7:30 PM, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th, $25, $20 under 35, $10 students. b Last month at the Winter Jazzfest in New York I saw keyboardist Craig Taborn share his deep love of heavy metal as a member of drummer Dan Weiss’s new Starebaby project—laying down fierce drones and doomesque power chords on synthesizer. At this point, nothing about Taborn ever surprises me—he’s got incredibly broad tastes, and he routinely follows his curiosity down all sorts of holes without ever surrendering his erudite, thoughtful approach or his ability to fit within any ensemble. Last year he brought out the best in electronic musician Ikue Mori, shadowing and strengthening the liquid eddies and drips of her laptop improvisations on their duo album Highsmith (Tzadik). Earlier in the year he released a quartet album of his own hall-of-mirrors compositions, Daylight Ghosts (ECM). On it, he leads his agile collaborators— reedist Chris Speed, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Dave King—through dense thickets of harmony on contemplative balladry like the title track, pensive 20th-century classical music-informed melodies like “The Great Silence,” and corkscrewing, visceral rhythmic attacks such as those on the slowly building, then convulsive “Ancient.” Most recently he appears on Octopus (Pyroclastic), a series of deeply interactive duets with fellow pianist Kris Davis. On Davis’s “Chatterbox” both keyboardists’ rapid-fire chords create thrilling unstable harmonies that sound like a cross between a Conlon Nancarrow player-piano piece and a sped-up stride-piano

On the Atlas Moth’s brand-new Coma Noir, their fourth full-length and first for LA-based Prosthetic Records, the local heavy-metal monsters turn the focus back toward the earth-shaking sludge that defined their early work. In fact, they haven’t sounded this raw and gnarly since they self-released their debut seven-inch a decade ago. With their last record, 2014’s The Old Believer, they ran their tried-and-true stoner metal through the psychedelic ringer, padding songs with spacey synths and soundscapes and almost diluting their impact with ambience and stargazing. Coma Noir is an entirely different beast. The band have dropped down from the cosmos and instead are planting their feet firmly on the ground and looking inward for inspiration. The resulting riffs are focused and brutal, the energy is dark as hell, and the songs are streamlined and concentrated. Coma Noir reaches its summit on its glorious closing track, a groovy, swampy cut propelled by new drummer Mike Miczek’s behind-thebeat throb and topped off with the band’s signature shriek-chant vocal trade-offs, triple-guitar attack, and Bruce Lamont’s saxophone dissonance (an unofficial requirement for any Chicago metal release). A pummeling, no-bullshit, welcome return to form for one of Chicago’s heaviest acts, Coma Noir is a total blast from start to finish. —LUCA CIMARUSTI J

Take a class with us in 2018! We’ve been teaching Chicago to play music since 1957. Come join the band with a class in guitar, banjo, dance, ukulele, and much more. New group classes begin the week of March 5.

Craig Taborn ò BILL DOUTHART

oldtownschool.org FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 27

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

continued from 27 Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, Katie Young, and Jenna Lyle open. 8 PM, Fulton Street Collective, 1821 W. Hubbard, $20. b If you measure the power of a provocation by its enemies, Aram Saroyan’s “Lighght” is a megaton bomb. Fifteen years after the one-word poem was included in the 1965 edition of The American Literary Anthology, Ronald Reagan used it as a reason to try and shut down the National Endowment for the Arts. And if you measure it by the duration of its influence, it still packs quite a bang. Taking cues from Saroyan, trumpeter Nate Wooley named both his recent album and the quartet that plays on it Knknighgh (pronounced “knife”), but the writer’s influence doesn’t stop there. Determined to extract maximum music from the fewest resources, Wooley composed just one 13-bar theme and a handful of fragmentary phrases that any musician in the band can call at any time. The results don’t sound minimal at all. Wooley, alto saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos, bassist Brandon Lopez, and drummer Dre Hocevar turn their sparse source material into bristling contrapuntal exchanges, coarse textural explorations, and unsentimental lyrical passages. Wooley has staffed his quartet with three of the strongest young players on New York’s improvisational scene, so the band could get by on instrumental firepower even if his ideas weren’t strong. Knknighgh was scheduled to make its Chicago debut at this fund-raiser for the Option Series, which has been hosting intimate concerts and interviews at Experimental Sound Studio since 2015. The quartet’s set has been cancelled, however, and Wooley will instead perform with Icepick, his trio with drummer Chris Corsano and bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten. —BILL MEYER

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Night Beats opens. 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheﬃeld, $31. 18+ After a mixed reception for their 2008 instrumental album The Eﬀects of 333, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club seemed to be on a stabler course with the addition of Leah Shapiro, who took over the drum throne from Nick Jago. Unfortunately, it’s been a truly rough decade for the raucous San Francisco rock band. In 2010, bassist Robert Levon Been lost his father, Michael, who was also the band’s sound engineer, to a heart attack during a festival in Europe. In 2014, Shapiro underwent brain surgery and physical rehabilitation for a cranial malformation. So it’s a testament to their strength that we have their new eighth full-length, Wrong Creatures, at all. They aren’t riding out on any limbs here; it’s a return to form after their moodier-than-usual but still potent Specter at the Feast (2013). BRMC have always sounded a bit out of place for their time; their throbbing, rhythm-heavy rock ’n’ roll could have been made at any point within the last 30 years—which is both a weakness and a strength. The dark-toned psych ballad “Haunt” sounds a bit like very late Sisters of Mercy, and “Question of Faith” has a little White Stripes swagger. The band have

28 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club ò JAMES MINCHIN long specialized in ﬁnding a smoky strutting groove and riding it into the sunset—and it sounds like their grooves have carried them through some very hard days indeed. —MONICA KENDRICK

SUNDAY11 Marker 9 PM, Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont, $10 suggested donation. 21+ Throughout his career reedist Ken Vandermark has often sought out elders as collaborators, working with Peter Brötzmann, Joe McPhee, Fred Anderson, and Robert Barry, among others. Vandermark learned from them on the bandstand and in the tour van, and in return elevated their music among younger listeners. That sort of cross-generational ethos is an important part of jazz’s oral transmission, and now that Vandermark himself is something of an elder statesmen, it’s heartening to see

him exchanging knowledge and ideas with new generations of Chicago musicians. His fiery quintet Marker features a superb group of young players bursting with potential: electric guitarists Andrew Clinkman and Steve Marquette, drummer Phil Sudderberg, and violinist/keyboardist Macie Stewart. They’ve collectively delivered something riveting on Maker’s debut, Wired for Sound (Audiographic). Vandermark wrote the album’s three extended, multipartite pieces, which travel the same sort of shape-shifting, episodic qualities of his large-band projects. Their steady, churning shifts provide the group members with plenty of improvisational inspiration, and they keep listeners on edge too. Each piece possesses a strong rock and off-kilter funk underpinning fueled by interlocking guitar patterns and Sudderberg’s serious drive. However, some of the most satisfying passages occur in moments of relative serenity, such as the extended violin solo larded with haunting overtones on “Okinawa Bullfight” or the conversational interplay between Clinkman, Stewart, and Marquette J

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OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 29

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

WEDNESDAY14 Omar Apollo The Slaps open. 7:30 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $12, $10 in advance. b

(the latter two have built serious rapport playing together in the Few) over restrained drum chatter in the middle of “Every Carnation.” The music is dense but kinetic, and considering Marker’s youth as a working band, I’m excited to see where it all leads. —PETER MARGASAK

Indiana singer-songwriter Omar Apollo excels in the gray spaces between genres and scenes. On a string of singles he’s uploaded to Soundcloud over the past year, he transposes heart-wrenching, swooning guitars from early 60s pop onto mechanic percussion that moves like it’s made for a hip-hop track. Apollo, who sings in both English and Spanish, often coos in a voice so delicate it sounds like his melodies could dissolve in an instant. He’s got a range, too; he opens “Algo” singing in a terse, pinched falsetto while laying out a jaunty funk riﬀ on guitar. Apollo clearly knows how to match a mood, style of music, or collaborator—the aforementioned “Algo” features a verse from Indianapolis rapper Drayco McCoy. Apollo’s music dwells mainly in the realms of soul, R&B, and pop, though he appears comfortable in the midwest’s blurry hip-hop scenes; “Brakelights” features Chicago trumpeter Iz Burns, one half of the Burns Twins, who frequently supply local rappers and singers with an instrumental backbone in the studio and onstage. In an interview with Pigeons & Planes about “Brakelights,” Apollo suggested his music is prime for moments of relaxation or seemingly mundane tasks: “I hope you guys can play my music on the way home from work to watch your favorite Netﬂix original or when you’re studying in the library.” While his music evokes an intimate, everyday joy, it’s far from common. —LEOR GALIL

TUESDAY13

NF See Wednesday. Nightly opens. 7 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, sold out. b v

NF ò COURTESY THE ARTIST

continued from 28

NF See also Wednesday. Nightly opens. 7 PM, House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn, sold out. b There’s a white Michigan rapper with a whiplashinducing staccato ﬂow who shocked the pop music world when he topped the Billboard 200 last year. No, it isn’t Eminem. The shocker came in October, when the number one album on Billboard belonged to Nathan John Feuerstein, aka Christian rapper NF. His third album, Perception (Capitol CMG/NF Real Music), is “Christian” in the sense that it’s obscenely polite and lightly peppered with references to religious ideology. Nods to religion are par for the course in hip-hop, of course, but NF dropped jaws in the pop industry when, despite siloing himself in the world of faith-based music, where he operates a major label’s Christian imprint, he reached the peak of contemporary music. Despite its outsider origins, Perception’s manicured production, gloopily emotive vocal samples, and battle-ready raps ﬁt snugly into what’s acceptable—and even expected—of mainstream hip-hop. NF is as much an acolyte to Eminem as he is to Jesus, though NF’s songs are largely bereft of the sense of fun Em allegedly imparted in his songs during his halcyon days. NF’s strength is in his empathy, shown in moments in songs such as “My Life,” where he delves into the pain of what it’s like to care about someone struggling with alcoholism— a quality that leaves room for every person in the story to retain a semblance of humanity. —LEOR GALIL

30 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Omar Apollo ò VIN ROMERO

FOOD & DRINK

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Tempesta Market is the house that nduja built If you go: Get the Dante, the nine-layer sandwich that will live on to eternity. By MIKE SULA

here was a time during the early part of this decade when a thing called “meat butter” started popping up in food writer dispatches from around the country. I’m among those guilty of propagating it. It was the jokey way we referred to nduja, the spicy, scarlet-colored Calabrian spreadable salami that was capturing the imaginations of all those obsessed with cured meats. And everybody was obsessed with cured meats. At first no one knew where to get it. And then it was very hard to come by; say, someone snuck some over in their luggage, or someone’s uncle made a dubious version out in the garage, or you could order some online from a limited supply. And then, suddenly, in 2013 Chicago got its own nduja label, the work of father and son Agostino and Tony Fiasche, of Harlem Avenue’s old-school Ristorante Agostino Gustofino. In fact, “spreadable salami” was another catchy way of describing the stuff. It was hot and tangy, with its own almost imperceptible chew. Chefs went nuts for it, employing it in sauces, marinades, vinaigrettes. It topped pizzas, dressed pastas, and nestled itself in grilled cheese. I was, and remain, a huge fan of it. (Full disclosure: Tony Fiasche has in the past plied me with nduja.) Chefs are still nuts for it, though the fever has waned a bit. In the time since, the Fiasches haven’t been sitting idle. Operating as ’Nduja Artisans, they got busy developing a line of some two dozen (and growing) cured

Clockwise from top: marinated eggplant and grilled bread; nduja arancini with remoulade; charcuterie tray; the Dante sandwich; the Southside Johnny; nduja-panna cotta gelato ò JAMIE RAMSAY

pork and beef products in a USDA-licensed factory in near-west-suburban Franklin Park. As far as preserved meats go, it’s a pretty seductive roster, featuring firm, spicy chubs with mysterious names like manzo, cremosa, hot Napoli, and nostrano and more familiar ones like coppa, pancetta, soppressata, and finocchiona. These got out in the world too, showing up at Mariano’s and Eataly and smaller specialty shops, but now they’re amassed in their gorgeous full force at Tempesta Market, the Fiasches’ new sit-down deli and imported Italian food retail outlet in West Town on the Grand Avenue corridor. Home to one of the city’s enduring little Little Italys, it’s a neighborhood that already has several stalwart sandwich stops like Vin-

nie’s, Bari, and D’Amatos. So what does this upstart have to say for itself? Quite a lot, actually. The space is small, but immediately upon entering you’re drawn in to a universe of meat that’s difficult to escape from, all contained within a single glass display case. It’s a landscape of sausage possibilities (sausagilities?), triggering sensory overload with exposed cross sections of fat- and pistachio-studded mortadella, dark mineral-rich slabs of Wagyu bresaola, or a sinister-looking orb of emulsified pork called “Calabrian paté,” made with chicken liver, pork shoulder, hot and sweet chiles, and dates. There are many, many more under the ’Nduja Artisans label, plus a handful of products from other producers such as Indi-

anapolis’s great Smoking Goose. Atop the case sits a giant blob of the meat butter that started it all, the size of a small newborn, slowly diminished by sampling. At any given time a tray of something special may be passed around, like slices of hot coppa made from Iberian hogs. Cheeses from some of Wisconsin’s most lauded makers (Uplands, Hook’s, Roelli) are in a case to the left, on top of which are lined thick squares of focaccia. Shelves at the rear hold a small but dazzling selection of dry imports—grape saba, hot and sweet crushed Calabrian chiles, monofloral Italian honey, truffle salt—while refrigerated and frozen cases line the wall holding stocks and sauces, frozen morcilla and andouille, house-made mozzarella and burrata, J

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 31

FOOD & DRINK

○ Watch a video of Sam Ruppert making this recipe with hops at chicagoreader.com/food.

Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com/food.

The glass display case is ﬁlled with a landscape of sausage possibilities. ò JAMIE RAMSAY

COCKTAIL CHALLENGE

continued from 31

nduja pimento cheese and giardiniera. It’s difficult not to lose yourself in this deftly curated selection. Apart from all these attractions, there’s a good chance you’ve come here for a sandwich. A chalkboard menu overseen by chef Mike Rivera (who met Fiasche when both worked for Publican Quality Meats) features six of them, plus the occasional weekend special. Among them the one sandwich that will live on to eternity—the one people will speak of when they speak of Tempesta—is the Dante, a baguette stacked with six layers of NA’s cured meats (hot soppressata, coppa, mortadella, finocchiona, porchetta, and nduja aioli), giardiniera, provolone, lettuce, and, outnumbering the nine circles of hell by one, tomato. The Saint Gennaro, temporarily off the menu, is a coiled hot Italian sausage grilled and bedded on a soft brioche with pickled peppers, roasted onions, and red Lollo Rosso lettuce. The Southside Johnny, in effect a nod to Philadelphia’s iconic roast pork sandwich with provolone and broccoli rabe, features porchetta, moist and thinly shaved, bedded on grilled Publican Quality Breads sourdough with robustly bitter chopped broccolini, gooey Brun-uusto cheese, chimmichurri, pickled fennel, and a cup of rosemary broth. Though the thin machine-sliced (rather than handcarved) pork seemed to irritate one of the more rigid Italophiles I eat with from time to time, who maintains the dubious opinion that nobody in Chicago knows how to make porchetta, I’m taken with it. These are the most identifiably Italian sandwiches on the menu, but you can see this isn’t your nonno’s sub shop. Marinated beets on multigrain are available in the unlikely

32 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

event you can lure a vegetarian onto the premises; there’s a bacon, egg, cheddar, and hash brown option for the all-day breakfast enthusiast; and two weekends ago there was a banh mi special built around the aforementioned Calabrian and pork pistachio patés, with house-made kimchi, cilantro, and aioli. (The latter is currently in the steady rotation while the sausage for the Saint Gennaro gets made.) There’s a complementary selection of sides and salads, a few of which shouldn’t be missed. Crispy arancini conceal a hot and gooey nduja core, and Berkshire pork meatballs in marinara sauce seem to melt to the touch, while dense marinated eggplant is made almost meaty by a decades-old press owned by a Fiasche matriarch. Above all, the meats are available to take home by weight, sliced for picnics, or in packaged whole chubs, and also served in-house on cheese and charcuterie boards—which highlights the one deficiency Tempesta suffers from for the moment. You need to drink wine with most of the food here. Fiasche expects a liquor license within weeks. Until then, there’s mineral water, the bitter Italian soft drink Chinotto, or crisp, refreshing Arize kombucha from Back of Yards. Tempesta is the kind of densely stocked outfit that entices you to walk out with far more than you intended to. Basque cakes, chocolate chip cookies, and fried rosemary-white chocolate Rice Krispie treats sit atop an ice cream case that dares you not to take away a cup of nduja-panna cotta gelato. Even now there’s no denying its allure even in the unlikeliest applications. v

v @MikeSula

The daiquiri gets hopped up, front and center By JULIA THIEL A Galaxy Far, Far Away, cocktail by Sam Ruppert of DryHop Brewers ò CHRIS BUDDY

eople have this misconception of hops,” says SAM RUPPERT. “Every time they hear the word, they think bitter, but hops impart so many flavors in beer that people don’t even realize.” So when AUTUMN EYTALIS (BellyQ) challenged Ruppert, a bartender at DRYHOP BREWERS, to create a cocktail with HOPS, he set out to showcase their flavor without the bitterness. To accomplish this goal, Ruppert made a simple syrup by cooking the hops sous vide with sugar and water. “If you keep hops below boiling you can release all their flavor oils without getting all that bitterness,” he says. “The sous vide is a minor version of the giant boil kettle you see in a brewery.” He made sure to keep the sous vide temperature low, noting that below a certain temperature, hops release oils that add flavor but not bitterness. In a beer, Ruppert notes, you need bitterness because you’re balancing out the sweetness of the malts also used in the brew, but for this drink he wanted to eliminate it as much as possible. “ I knew I wanted to use something tropical and citrusy, not the superbitter route, like your classic American-style hop that’s very piney,” he says. He settled on the Galaxy hop, then started to consider what cocktail would highlight rather than hide its flavor. The daiquiri, he says, is one of his favorite three-ingredient cocktails, and puts the hops front and center.

For the spirit, he used Casa Magdalena—a Guatemalan white rum he describes as earthy and grassy—along with lemon juice and the hop syrup. “I can’t take all the bitterness out,” he says. “On the palate, you will get citrusy, you will get tropical, but you will still get some of that piney, earthy bitterness going on there too. Deﬁnitely if you smell the cocktail, you’re going to be, like, that smells like a beer.” Ruppert was happy enough with the cocktail that he’s offering it as a special at DryHop (3155 N. Broadway) through Friday. A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

1 OUNCE GALAXY HOP SYRUP* .75 OUNCE LEMON JUICE 2 OUNCES CASA MAGDALENA RUM Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice, shake, and ﬁne strain into a glass. *Combine a half ounce of Galaxy hop pellets with two ounces of simple syrup, vacuum-seal, and cook at 138 degrees for half an hour. Strain out hops.

WHO’S NEXT:

Ruppert has challenged ADRIENNE STONER, a bartender at LOST LAKE, to create a cocktail with HOISIN SAUCE. v

v @juliathiel

BACK OF THE YARDS COFFEEHOUSE AND ROASTERY | $

FOOD & DRINK

2059 W. 47th 773-475-6381 backoftheyardscoffee.com.

Jesse Iñiguez and Mayra Hernandez, owners and proprietors of Back of the Yards Coﬀee Co. ò JAMIE RAMSAY

FEATURE

A tribute to Back of the Yards in coffee beans Two entrepreneurs serve the neighborhood where they grew up. By MAUREEN KELLEHER

alk inside the Back of the Yards Coffeehouse and Roastery on Hoyne Avenue just south of 47th Street and you’ll find a tribute to one of Chicago’s most historic and yet most underrated neighborhoods. Along the back wall of the cafe, a string frame in the shape of the four major freightrail lines running through the neighborhood features black-and-white photos by Ricardo Cervantes, who teaches art at Lara Academy, a neighborhood elementary school. Sandwiches are named after local heroes, from meatpacking muckraker Upton Sinclair—who gets the vegan sandwich—to Sister Angie Kolacinski, longtime director of youth programs at Holy Cross/Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. Her sandwich, the Angie K grilled cheese, mixes chihuahua and cheddar. “She’s from Wisconsin, and she’s with the Mexicans,” explains the cafe’s co-owner, Jesse Iñiguez, 36, who grew up in the parish. The cafe has already played host to Tiny Desk-style concerts that pair local musicians with powerhouse acts, from the Chicago Sinfonietta to members of the Grammy-nominated Mexican folk music band Sones de México. Iñiguez and his business partner, 30-yearold Mayra Hernandez, opened the cafe last May, intending it to be part of the marketing strategy for the Back of the Yards Coffee Co., their coffee-roasting business, which launched in November 2016. The cafe serves as the public face of their larger vision: a socially and environmentally responsible coffee company that creates local jobs while promoting the arts and culture of the neighborhood where they grew up.

They got press. But more to their surprise, the cafe has been good for their bottom line too. “We hit our break-even point the first week it opened,” says Iñiguez. They credit their location next door to Back of the Yards College Prep for bringing in business. Already, they’ve created eight jobs, with more on the way when they open a roasting facility, hopefully at the end of March. Currently, they’re working with a partner (who prefers not to be named) to roast beans while they secure a site for their own facility. Growing up in Back of the Yards, neither Iñiguez nor Hernandez had ever heard of artisan coffee. “My experience with coffee was Folgers or Nescafé at night,” says Iñiguez. Inspired by coffee culture as a college student, he later opened a cafe in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood, only to see it tank due to the recession. “I didn’t have the heart to do it again.” But destiny, in the form of Hernandez’s passion for coffee, intervened. She couldn’t afford to go out for fancy coffee, so she started experimenting with cold brews at home. “I called Jesse to come try some, and he loved it,” she recalls. While Hernandez started selling her cold brew at events like the CumbiaSazo! dance party to pay rent, Iñiguez met a neighbor from a coffee-growing family in Chiapas, Mexico. She brought them sample beans that turned out to be very high quality. “We knew we had something,” he says now. They began selling the beans wholesale online and at pop-ups. That side of the business has been booming. They recently hired two new salespeople to manage accounts with coffee shops like Currency Exchange Cafe in Washington Park and Sanctuary Cafe in Hyde

Park. Lightning struck again when Iñiguez found another helpful local connection, this time to someone with a small space suitable for a cafe. Roasting their own beans is the next frontier. Eduardo Rodriguez, a 19-year-old graduate of the highly respected culinary program at Richards High School and a former student at Washburne Culinary Institute, is set to become their master coffee roaster. Top salaries in the field hit six figures. “He’ll make more money than us,” says Iñiguez. Rodriguez, like most of the employees, is young and from an immigrant family. Making the switch from cooking to coffee hasn’t fazed him. He’s learning from books and YouTube videos. “Roasting coffee beans and roasting a steak are kind of similar,” he observes. “I always like trying new things, especially when it comes to food and drink. It’s a great way to expand your palate. Just hanging around here made me appreciate a good cup of coffee.” The rest of the team shares Rodriguez’s enthusiasm. “Everybody’s young and everybody’s still learning, but we’re all learning together,” says Hernandez. Hernandez and Iñiguez are also still learning. Back of the Yards Coffee Co. sets aside one dollar of every bag sold of its signature medium-roast 47th Street Blend toward grants to neighborhood nonprofits. After donating $500 to the neighborhood’s after-school mariachi program, where they ﬁrst met about 18 years ago, the partners sat down with neighborhood leaders involved in the Peace and Education Coalition of Back of the Yards to develop an application process for future seed grants.

“Moving forward, we want to set up a process with the community about where the money goes,” says Iñiguez. While the cafe’s clientele mostly comes from the neighborhood or surrounding areas, the owners aren’t shy about their desire to encourage outsiders to visit and spend money. According to a 2010 analysis sponsored by Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Chicago, a nonprofit that provides development financing and technical support to underserved communities, more than $52 million in retail spending left Back of the Yards for other neighborhoods that year. Iñiguez and Hernandez would like to help bring that number down. “If we could even keep 2 percent of that [retail] in the neighborhood and maybe bring some income in from outside, that would be amazing,” Iñiguez says. Bringing in coffee customers would also be good for the neighborhood. “We want people to come see Back of the Yards is not that scary, daunting place you see in the news,” says Hernandez. They’re beginning to make some headway. Travelers staying at Midway Airport hotels have come, says Iñiguez, “because we’re the only coffee shop a reasonable distance from the airport.” Still, the majority of their customers are their friends, family, and neighbors. Before the cafe opened, some people questioned whether working-class Mexicans would drink good coffee. Hernandez now has a ready answer: “They do. Lots of it.” v

v @KelleherMaureen

king crab house 1816 N. Halsted St., Chicago

Valentine’s Day Specials February 14th

Four Course Dinner $51.95 6 oz Lobster Tail • 6 oz. Filet

Appetizers

Choose from Popcorn Shrimp, Fried Calamari or Mussels

Desserts And Other Specials

(Includes a choice of soup or house salad & vegetable, glass of house wine or champagne, well drink or beer) Regular Menu Available

Lenten Specials $19.95

February 14th thru March 31st All You Can Eat Fried Perch 10 Fresh Fish of the Day During Lent (from regular menu)

Call For Reservation 312-280-8990

FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 33

JOBS SALES & MARKETING RAIL EUROPE NORTH AMERICA INC., a European based company is in search of F/T Seasonal Staff employees to start work in March for the launch of its new 2018 product line. The sales oriented consultants we seek must enjoy working w/ our customer base via phone and/or email in a Customer Care Center environment. Strong customer service minded individuals are a must. All paid training will be done in-house at our Des Plaines office location. Fluency in French, Spanish or Portuguese is a plus. Our $14/hr w/monthly sales incentive and Loyalty Bonus is just the start of our compensation package. We offer excellent Health and Travel benefits. Applicants may fax resumes to Attn: JW at 847-9161002 or EMAIL to: 2hr@raileurope. com EOE

TRIBUNE MEDIA COMPANY is seeking a BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ENGINEER – DATA WAREHOUSE/ EXTRACT TRANSFORMATION AND LOAD in Chicago, IL with the following requirements: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology/ Engineering or related field or foreign equivalent degree. 6 years related experience. Required skills: architect, design and develop data warehouse dimensional data models and OLAP solutions using Microsoft SSAS and SQL server (4 years); design, develop and support ETL solutions using Microsoft SSIS for transforming and loading data to multi-dimensional cubes (4 years); design and develop SQL scripts for database views and stored procedures using Microsoft T-SQL or Oracle PL/SQL (4 years); Design and develop custom dashboards and reports using Tableau, Power BI and Cognos (1 year). Please submit resume to Jobs@tribunemedia.com and reference “Engineer, Data Warehouse” in the subject line.

AXA Assistance USA, Inc. seeks Sr Software Developer in Chicago, IL. Duties: responsible for maintaining AXA’s software systems, creating new systems and utilities, integrating with third party systems, & providing proper reporting from all current software systems (in-house and external). Req. Bachelor’s in Comp. Sc, IS, or rel’d + 5 ysr post bachelor exp. in job offered or related software DO YOU NEED EXTRA CASH? development exp. Must have: (1) I NEED EXTRA WORKERS. Tele-Fundraising Veterans.. Part-time, 5 yrs exp designing, modifying, developing, writing, and/or impleFull-time, Set your own schedule. menting software applications usSTART TODAY! 847-863-2275 ing the .Net platform including C# .Net and ASP .Net; (2) 5 yrs exp exp supporting the application reports and database using MS General SQL Server (SSMS); (3) 3 yrs exp supporting external and interBUSINESS INTELLIGENCE nal application database using ANALYST 2 for National General Web Services; (4) 2 yrs exp with Insurance at its facility in Chicago, JavaScript, Bootstrap, SSRS, IL. Responsible for providing ana- SSIS, and SSAS; and (5) 1 yr exp lytical support to multiple func- performing Data Warehouse and tional areas, and act as the Business Intelligence. Send reto <careers@ subject-matter expert within spe- sume cific assignments in the property axa-assistance.us and casualty insurance industry. Requires a Master’s degree in Computer Science or related tech- UP DOWN CIGAR is one of Chinical field and three (3) years post- cago’s oldest and most prestigious master’s progressive experience in premium tobacconists. Located in all of the following: In the Insur- Old Town for over 50 years, we carry ance or related industry, primarily the finest selection of cigars, pipe Property & Casualty; Data visuali- tobacco, humidors, lighters and aczation & at least two of the follow- cessories in Chicago and provide the ing reporting tools: business ob- highest level of customer service. jects, microstrategy, qlikview, or We are seeking a college educated, tableau; Querying large relational super intelligent and highly motivated databases using SAS or SQL; Gath- sales associate. You must have a solering and translating end user re- id work ethic, be a team player, think quirements into end user reports; on your feet and follow directions. Designing and manipulating large Prior knowledge of premium tobacco datasets across multiple database not necessary as long as you’re willplatforms; Using advanced data ing to learn. Nights, weekends and mining and analysis to efficiently holidays are required. Must be at least meet project goals; Microsoft Of- 21 years old and willing to work in a fice (Word, Excel, Outlook, and smoke friendly environment. Apply PowerPoint); Advanced skills with in store at 1550 N. Wells St. Chicago, Microsoft Excel to include devel- Illinois 60610. oping pivot tables, linking to external data, and automating with VBA. Apply at http://www. nationalgeneral.com/careers, Req. 003460. Must have legal authority ACCOUNTING ADVISORY SENIOR to work in the US. EOE. ASSOCIATE, CORPORATE & BUSINESS STRATEGY (Mult. Pos.), TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS Telephone Sales Experienced/aggressive telephone closers needed now to sell ad space for Chicago’s oldest and largest newspaper rep firm. Immediate openings in Loop office. Salary + commission. 312-368-4884.

Managers for Chicago, IL location to manage the design, development, integration & implementation of sw & info. systems security infrastructure for credit IT info. systems processes. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./ any Eng. field +3yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./any Eng. field +5yrs exp. req’d. Required skills: Broad hands-on exp. w/the setup & administration of Identity & access management systems (Sailpoint IdentityIQ), Multi factor capabilities (RSA SecureID), privileged access management systems (Beyond Trust password safe and power broker for Unix and windows/ CyberArk), CA Siteminder, Identity Manager, LDAP (Active Directory), Websphere, IIS, RHEL, CA Directory, Business Objects Reporting, CA roles and compliance manager, SQL, TCP/ IP & related protocols, data privacy & protection industry best practices including ISO 17799, making presentations to executives. Must be willing to be on call 24x7. 20% telecommuting permitted. Send resume to: C. Studniarz, REF: SSK, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

Smartlogix Inc seeks Programm ers/Analysts, S/W Engineers. Primary worksite is Northbrook, IL but relocation is possible. Contact balakpp@smartlogix.us

34 CHICAGO READER | FEBRUARY 8, 2018

PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Assist with providing strategy, tech & risk consulting services to help client anticipate & address complex bus. challenges. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Acct, Fin, Bus Admin or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Acct, Fin, Bus Admin or rel. + 1 yr rel. work exp. Travel req. up to 80%. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1597, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

SW QA ENGRS & COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. has openings in Oak Brook, IL. All positions may be assigned to various, unanticipated sites throughout the US. Job Code: USOBIL162 SW QA Engineer (Req.s): analyze, document & testing. Job Code: US-OBIL163 SW QA Engineer (Function/Bugs): identify, analyze & determine procedures. Job Code: US-OBIL164 Computer Systems Analyst (Data/Blending): analyze & develop rules/steps. Mail resume to: Prasun Maharatna, 2107 North First Street, Suite 100, San Jose, CA 95131. Include job code & full job title/s of interest + recruitment source in cover letter. EOE

TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY MANAGER, APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY (Mult. Pos.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Help clients determine the best apps for their business needs & integrate new & existing apps into their business. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Engg, Bus Admin or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s progress. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Engg, Bus Admin or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp. Travel up to 80% req. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1593, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CYBERSECURITY & PRIVACY (MULT. POS.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Assist clients with the assessment & improvement of their security infrastructure. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Info Systems or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Info Systems or rel. + 1 yr rel. work exp. Travel req. up to 80%. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1569, Attn: HR SSC/ Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607. TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS CONSULTANTS - Information Technology, Batch Credit Services for Chicago, IL location to analyze, develop & implement business requirements. Master’s in Comp. Sci. /Info. Systems/Info. Sci. +2yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./ Info. S ystems/Info. Sci. +5yrs exp. req’d. Skills req’d: requirement gathering, ETL design & implementation for info. & credit decisioning systems, credit reporting, credit services, SQL, Ab-Initio (GDE, Conduct>IT, EME), AutoSys, Oracle, Unix/Linux, ALM, Jira. Send resume to: C. Studniarz, REF: SPS, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661 TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY SENIOR ASSOCIATE, MC OPERATIONS (MULT. POS.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Help clients realize competitive advantage from operations. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Bus Admin, Econ, Comp Sci or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Bus Admin, Econ, Comp Sci or rel. + 1 yr rel. work exp. Travel up to 80% req. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1592, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

Software Developer: gathr user rqmts; anlyz, dsgn, dvlp, code, test & dply software apps using exp w/ Oracle, MS SQL Server, MS Access, Java, J2EE, Spring, JSP, Restful Web Services, JQuery, JavaScript, CSS, Junit, Oracle WebLogic Server and Apache Tomcat; & perf unit tstg. Reqs MS in comp sci, info sys or eng +1 yrs exp. Job in Evanston, IL & unanticipated locatns thru’ US. No Relocatn benefits offered. No telecommtg. Bckgrnd check reqd. Resumes to Katalyst Technologies, Inckatalysthr@ katalysttech.com

TECHNOLOGY AVP, BIG DATA ENGINEER, SYNCHRONY BANK, CHICAGO, IL. Design & dvlp consumer-centric low latency analytic apps leveraging Big Data tech. for our Enterprise Data Lake initiative. Req. Bach deg., or foreign equiv, in Engg, Comp. Sci., Comp. Engg, or rel, + 5 yrs of post-bach progress rel IT work experience. Apply to: HR Manager, Synchrony Bank, 222 W. Adams St., Chicago, IL 60613. (Ref: ABDCHI)

EVANSTON P/T BAKER Needed * Flexible Daytime hrs. (some weekend hrs.) * Some Decorating exp. req. * Pastry/Culinary Students & Serious Home Bakers considered * Metra North Shore & CTA purple line access Join our growing team of energetic, self-starters Send resume w/ contact info. by 2/16

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Ashland Hotel nice clean rms. 24 hr desk/maid/TV/laundry/air. Low rates daily/weekly/monthly. South Side. Call 773-376-5200

1 BR UNDER $700 2018 NEW YEAR SA VINGS! Newly Remod. Studio $550, 1BR $650 w/Heat. 2BR and up starting at $750. Qualified Applicants rcv. up to $400/month off rent for 1 year. No App Fee. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impeccably Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park. Laundry & Security on Premises. Parking & Apts. Are Subject to Availability. TOWNHOUSE APARTMENTS 773-288-1030

NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970

5401 S. Ellis. 1BR. $625/mo. Call 773-955-5106

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

Newly updated, clean furnished rooms in Joliet, near buses & Metra, elevator. Utilities included, $91/wk. $395/mo. 815-722-1212

û NO SEC DEP û 1431 W. 78th St. 2BR. $605/mo. 6829 S. Perry. Studio/1BR. $465$520. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106

MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

CHICAGO - South Shore Large 1BR, $680/mo. Free heat. Near Transportation. Section 8 Welcome. Call 708-932-4582

GORGEOUS ENGLISH TUDOR

Style building! Wonderful architectural details! Built in bookshelves, china cabinet, new Kitchen: granite counters, dishwasher, stainless apps! 2 blocks to Irving Park “EL”! 4237 N. Hermitage. Avail 2/24. $1,365.00 heat incl. www.theschirmfirm.com (773) 381-0150.

1 BR $700-$799 CHATHAM 742 EAST 81ST (EVANS), 1 bedroom, 3rd floor, $700/ mo. Please call Mr. Joe at 708-870-4801 for more info

WEST SIDE 3400 W. Homan Ave. spacious 1BR, hardwood floors. $800/mo. + sec. dep. heat furn, 773-533-0233 or 773-899-4120

1 BR $800-$899 heated & carpet flrs. Close to trans. $685, avail now. 108th. 773-264-6711

1 BR $1100 AND OVER

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

CHATHAM 8642 SOUTH Maryland 1BR, modern with appliances, off street parking. $600/mo + sec. 773-618-2231 CHICAGO Lovely 4 rm apt, 1BR, liv rm, din rm, kitchen/bath,

Warren Park. 1902 N. Wolcott. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $900/month. Heat included. Available 3/1. (773) 761-4318

Chicago - Hyde PARK

STUDIO OTHER LARGE SUNNY ROOM w/fridge & microwave. Near Oak Park, Green Line & Buses. 24 hr Desk, Parking Lot $101/week & Up. (773)378-8888

LARGE ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near the Metra and

HUMBOLDT PARK. ONE bedroom apartment for rent. Newly remodeled. Next door to food store. $880/mo plus security deposit. Includes gas. Near shopping area. Tim, 773-592-2989.

1 BR $900-$1099 HYDE PARK 1BR. $995. 2BR. $1195. Newly decor, hdwd flrs, free heat & hot water, appls, laundry fac, free credit check, Sec 8 OK. no app fee 1-773-667-6477 or 1-312-802-7301

BEAUTIFULLY REMODELED RAVENSWOOD 1 bdrm! New

Kitchen w/ granite counters, stainless apps, dishwasher. Hdwd flrs, great closet space, on site lndry. 1946 West Argyle: $1,245.00 heat incl. www.theschirmfirm.com (773) 381-0150.

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

Cyril Court Apartments, a Section 8 Apartment Community located in the quiet South Shore Community, just minutes away from Lake Michigan. Enjoy living in our spacious studio and one-bedroom apartments designed for your comfort and convenience. You can enjoy an array of amenities including a clubhouse, elevators, laundry on site, and gated secure parking lot. We as well offer controlled access, and after hours emergency maintenance assistance. Residents enjoy monthly activities with their neighbors which creates a sense of community. Come in and ﬁll out an application and see why Cyril Court Apartments should be your new home.

FREE APPLICATION! JUST WALK IN, IT’S THAT EASY! *Must have valid state ID to apply

Applications accepted 10AM-3:30PM Tuesday-Thursday Only.

BUILDING HAS A SENIOR PREFERENCE!!

Preference as well given to disabled, homeless or displaced. Applicants subject to HUD income eligibility and other screening requirements. Rent based on 30% of adjusted monthly income.

7130 S. Cyril Court, Chicago, IL 60649 Half Block West of Jeffrey Ave.

(773) 588-7767 ext. 108 • TTY (711 National Relay)

www.CyrilCourtApts.com • Email: CyrilCourt@m2regroup.com

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. SUMMER IS HERE!! Most units Include.. HEAT & HOT WTR Studios From $475.00 1Bdr From $550.00 2Bdr From $745.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000** ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled. Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

CHICAGO - BEVERLY, large studio, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, A/ C, laundry, near transportation, $680-$1020/mo. Call 773-2334939 LOOKING TO MOVE ASAP? Remodeled 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Apts. Heat & Appls incl. Sec 8 OK. Southside Only. 773-593-4357

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

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

R U O Y AD E R E H

REACH OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE MONTHLY IN PRINT & DIGITAL.

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT NO MOVE IN FEE 1, 2, 3 BEDROOM APTS (773) 874-1122

ACACIA SRO HOTEL Men Preferred! Rooms for Rent. Weekly & Monthly Rates. 312-421-4597

CURITY DEPOSIT. 6717 S. Rhodes, 5BR, 2BA house, appls included. $140 0/mo. 708-288-4510

2 BR $1300-$1499 WICKER PARK/UKRAINIAN VILLAGE; 2 Bedrooms, hardwood

2 BR UNDER $900 EAST PULLMAN: 2BR, modern kitchen, newly decorated, new carpeting, Section 8 welcome. $600/ mo. Call Mr. Brown 773-805-0737

floors, vintage, spacious, yard, laundry, 2025 W. Cortez, great location near Division/Damen, Available 3/1 or sooner. $1600. 773-616-4056.

2 BR $900-$1099 CHICAGO, 7944 S. Clyde. 1st floor, 2BR, 1BA, all hardwood floors, newly remodeled kitchen, $1000/mo. Call 773614-9876

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499

ROGERS PARK, 1547 W. Birchwood (at Ashland) Very large 2 bedroom vintage flat with Hardwood floors and updates. 3 blocks from lake. $1100.00 (no utilities included). Call EJM at 773-935-4426

SECTION 8 WELCOME 4851 S Ashland, 2BR apts, stove/refrig,hrdwd floors, Nice, quiet, remodeled. Ready. $1250/mo. Call 312-929-6106

EVANSTON 2BR: 1 MO FREE/ NO DEP, new kit, SS appl, granite, oak flrs, OS lndry, $1295/incl heat. 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities. com

BUCKTOWN! NICE 2BDR apart-

ment. Freshly decorated, wood floors, very sunny. $1200 plus utilities. Small pets allowed.

OTHER

BRONZEVILLE, 4542 S King Dr. 2nd flr, 3BR, 2BA, hdwd flrs, kitchen, pantry, LR & DR, lots of closets, sun porch, ten pays gas & heat.$1100 +$1200 sec. 773965-1584 aftr 6pm

10234 S. CRANDON, small home, 3BR, 1BA, kit & util room, totally ren a/c, all appls incl, nice bkyrd. CHA welcome. 773-3174357

7134 S. NORMAL,

337 W. 108TH ST., N e w l y refurb, 5BR, 1.5BA, on quiet street, semi-fin bsmt, new appls. $1300 + sec. Mr. Williams. 773-752-8328

4BR/2BA.$1100. 225 W. 108th Pl. 2BR w/heat. $950. 9116 S. So Chgo Ave, 2/1. $675. 312-683-5174

WASHINGTON PARK -

5636 King Dr. Single Rooms for rent from $390, $450, to $510 a month. Call 773-359-7744

CHICAGO 55TH & Halsted, male pref. Room for rent, share furnished apt, free utils, $ 440/mo. No security. 773-614-8252

MARKETPLACE GOODS

4346

NORTH

Clarendon (at Montrose) Very large 2 bedroom vintage apartment with hardwood floors and updates. 2 blocks from lake. $1350.00 Heat Included. Call EJM at 773-935-4425

Huge immaculate 3BR, 1BA close to trans & shops newly remodeled, Sec 8 Welcome 312-519-9771

6343 S. ROCKWELL - 3BR, incl heat. hdwd flrs, laundry facility, fenced in bldg, fireplace. $1000/ mo + move-in fee. 773-791-6100

GENERAL CALUMET CITY, Spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bath,

CHICAGO SOUTH - You’ve tried the rest, we are the best. Apartments & Homes for rent, city & suburb. No credit checks. 773-253-2132 or 773-253-2137

2nd floor, A/C, modern kitchen, well kept, $1000/month. 312-451-7495

2 BR OTHER 2 BR $1100-$1299

3 BR OR MORE

HUMBOLDT PARK UPTOWN,

BEAUTIFUL REMODELED 1, 2 & 3BR Apts, hdwd flrs, custom cabinets, avail now. $1000-$1200 /mo + sec. 773-905-8487. Section 8 Ok

SECTION 8 WELCOME. NO SE-

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

CHICAGO, 2BR APARTMENTS FOR RENT, 81st & Drexel, 74th & Rhodes. 773873-3484, RG Ramsey & Associates.

CHICAGO, DELUXE, NEWLY Decorated 2 & 3 BR, by 71st & Union. Free heat. $750-$850/mo. Section 8 Welc. Mr. Wilson, 773-491-6580

7221 S. STEWART, 3BR, hrdwd flrs, ceiling fans, appl., laundry room, gated entrance. Tenant pays utilities. $925/mo. 773-314-6604

SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit. 7721 S Peoria, 3BR apt, appls incl. $1050/mo. 708-288-4510

HARVEY - 167 W. 157th St., 3BR Home, 1BA, 2 car garage, $1100/mo +utilities. Call 708-299-0055

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

96TH & HALSTED: 2 &3 Bedrooms , Updated kitchens & baths. Section 8 Welcome. Call 312-2826555

RECENT REHAB, 4-6BR SF Homes. Dolton, Harvey, Markham, S. Holland. Section 8 OK. (630)247-5146

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

855 W. MARGATE Terrace –

Gorgeous 8 room, 3 bedroom, 2 bath renovated apartment in attractive 3 unit building. Apartment features two sunrooms, large living room, dining room, new appliances, and A/C. $2150 includes heat. Chad: 312-720-3136, cjohnson@hallmark-johnson.com LARGE 3 BEDROOM apartment near Wrigley Field. 3820 N. Fremont. Two bathrooms. Hardwood Floors. Cats OK. $2175/month. Special! Sign a lease starting by March 1, get April rent free! Available 3/1. 773-761-4318.

2122 W. 68TH PL. Remodeled 5BR House, 2BA, Central Air, Tenant pays utilities, security system. Sec 8 ok. Call Roy 312-405-2178

CHICAGO Southside Brand New 3BR & 4BR apartments. Exc. neighborhood, near public transp. For details call 708-774-2473

FOR SALE STOP RENTING-SELLER FINANCING : Buy a single family house in Gary, IN for $7,000 down & $600/mo MTG payment. 2&3BR’s. Available 2/1. Call Mike 847-280-1204

ROGERSPK 3BR, 2BA+DEN, 1 MONTH FREE! No Dep. New kit w/ granite, SS appl, Close to lake! $18 75/incl ht 773-743-4141 urbanequ ities.com

121ST & PARNELL: SEC. 8 WEL. $500 Cash Back! $0 Security for Sec 8. 3BR, $1400/mo. Fine condition. ADT alarm. 708-715-0034

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

DIATOMACEOUS FOOD GRADE 100%

EARTH-

OMRI Listed-Meets Organic Use Standards. BUY ONLINE: homedepot.com

FOR CASH! Even some in building court & assume Mortgages Contact John 773-703-8400

SERVICES OLYMPIA FIELDS Newly remodeled 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, full basement. Beautiful area. 708-935-7557.

3 BR OR MORE $2500 AND OVER

80TH & DREXEL, 3BR, 2BA, $1200. 79th & Aberdeen, 2BR. $750. Tenant pays utils. Sec 8 ok. Hdwd & ceramic tile. 773-502-4304

GARY NSA ACCEPTING applications for SECTION 8 STUDIO, 1 & 2BR UNITS ONLY. Apply Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm ONLY at 1735 W 5th Ave. Applications are to be filled out on site. Adult applicants must provide a Avail Now! 11728 S. Harvard, Well current picture ID and SS card. maint 3BR, 1BA, bsmt, fenced in bkyd, 2 car garage avail w/ fee. $1195/mo. 630-240-1684

ADULT SERVICES

SALE

GRANVILLE PICTURE FRAMING. Equipment, inventory, stock frames, mirrors, framed art, oil paintings, fixtures, tools, supplies, display. 3 DAY SALE ONLY: FEB 9 & 10, 10a5p and FEB 11, 12n-5p. 6200 N BROADWAY NW CORNER AT GRANVILLE AVE.

WE BUY HOUSES & BLDGS

non-residential 65TH AND CARPENTER 3BR, 2BA, carpeted, heat & appls incl, 1 mo free rent (with Sec 8). No Sec Dep. $1250/mo. 773-684-1166

LIQUIDATION

ADULT SERVICES

SELF-STORAGE CENTERS. T W O locations to serve you. All units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue. 773-685-6868. South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

roommates FURN RMS, $350. Rm w/ Pvt BA. $525. Utils incl. Nr good trans. $200 clean up fee req. Fixed income invited. Call 312-758-6931

WE FINANCE EVERYONE Good Credit - Bad Credit No Credit. We Get It Done! 224-600-8200 www.washingtonautogroup.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel, house calls welcome $90 special. Russian, Polish, Ukrainain girls. Northbrook and Schaumburg locations. 10% discount for new customers. Please call 773-407-7025

MUSIC & ARTS DOMINICK DEFANSO ROCKS

AURORA - SLEEPING ROOM. $90 weekly, clean and quiet plus deposit. Fridge access. Call 630-247-1031

ADULT SERVICES

L.Lakely, AC/DC, B.Sabath, Guns-NRoses, Aerosmith, Fun with Tracy Guns & Britney Beach, B.Spear, J. Bieber, L.Gaga, Slaughter, Slayer. Love Guns-N-Rose 312-206-0867, 773-323-5173

ADULT SERVICES

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SLUG SIGNORINO

STRAIGHT DOPE By Cecil Adams Q: An engineering professor used to tell our class, “Everything eventually fails. The question is, when?” So what happens with a mammoth building? What’s the intended life span of, say, the Willis Tower? The way cities are packed, I can’t imagine a demolition crew can just drop a hundredstory building without causing chaos.

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A : I’ll concede that “Everything eventually

U N D E D 192

fails” is more than useful enough as credos go. But there’s a power at work here in addition to time: the profit motive. Last winter, the owners of the Willis Tower announced a $500 million plan to modernize the 45-year-old building, and the city started issuing permits over the summer. Clearly somebody doesn’t think that thing’s coming down anytime soon. Renovating and retrofitting is increasingly the name of the game when it comes to giant buildings, the current thinking being that it’s financially (not to mention ecologically) smarter to refresh them periodically than to tear down and start anew. Most experts figure there’s no reason an appropriately upkept skyscraper can’t stay there pretty much indefinitely. Without upkeep? As we discussed in a 2016 column, towers in a low-lying city like New York, for instance, would have only about 50 years of life in them absent human intervention: water erodes foundations if no one’s around to continually pump it out. In general, if you want to keep a structure standing, you’re going to need a sound water-management plan. But assuming they get proper TLC, the dinosaurs of the Manhattan skyline will likely hang around a while yet. Sure, we can expect to lose a few old office towers here and there in the coming decades, mainly structures that were built when energy was cheap and nowadays cost a fortune to heat and cool—all that single-pane glass, etc. But by and large in New York, market forces and building codes collude to keep old buildings standing. Many skyscrapers went up in an era of fewer regulatory constraints, so developers thinking about a teardown today may be looking at a necessarily smaller building in its place—and thus less rent revenue going forward. Now, Tokyo is another story. Owing to the local mix of property values, zoning laws, and design standards, it often makes more sense there to knock down and rebuild. As the New York Times put it a couple of years ago, there’s a bull market for demolition in Japan, and the nation is becoming a world leader in the fine

art of removing skyscrapers. The fine art? I’m guessing when you’re picturing the “chaos” of skyscraper demolition, CCC, you’re investing the scene with a lot of unwarranted drama—dynamite, countdown, plunger-style detonator, great clouds of dust and debris. In fact, the implosion method is now used for only about 2 percent of demolitions; most buildings, particularly in dense urban areas, are taken apart more laboriously, using cranes and elbow grease. Those in the deconstruction business are constantly coming up with new techniques, though, and the Japanese are way out ahead of the pack. Since 2002 they’ve been bound by a stringent law mandating the reuse of building materials, encouraging them to make as little mess as possible. In response, Japanese companies have worked up startlingly gentle demolition techniques—you can find trippy time-lapse videos where structures appear to just slowly sink into the ground. In one method, the roof is held up by jacks as workers remove the top floor in its entirety; the roof is then lowered, and the process continues until the building’s disappeared. Employing a similar concept, another version starts from the bottom: workers jack up everything above the ground floor, then take that out; rinse, repeat. Fancy, and not just on the safety front: these demolition firms boast that their recycling of materials and relatively modest use of heavy machinery leads to impressive reductions in carbon emissions—up to 85 percent in some cases. Plus, the whole deal looks about as quiet and smooth-running as the Tokyo subway. There’s no indication such techniques will make it to New York or Chicago in the near future, but neither will the incentives to demolish in the first place. Nor will notably quiet and smooth-running subways, for that matter. In more ways than one, we’re stuck with the cities we’ve got. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 30 N. Racine, suite 300, Chicago 60607.

Find more Savage Love at chicagoreader.com

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

‘How does one get into the gay BDSM bottoming scene?’ Three experts advise. Plus: exploring nonmonogamy; spanking straight guys Q : How does one get into the gay BDSM bottoming and leather scene? —S EEKING ANSWERS

CONCERNING KINK

A : One shows up, SACK.

“Eighty percent of success is just showing up,” someone or other once said. And showing up easily accounts for 90 percent of success in the BDSM/leather/fetish scene. Because if you aren’t showing up in kink spaces—online or IRL—your fellow kinksters won’t be able to find or bind you. But you don’t have to take my word for it . . . “The leather scene is a diverse place with tons of outlets and avenues,” said Amp from the kink website and YouTube channel Watts the Safeword. “When I was first getting started, I found a local leather contingent that held monthly bar nights and discussion groups that taught classes for kinksters at any level. It provided an easy way into the community, and it helped me meet new people, make new friends, and find trustworthy play partners. If you’re a tad shy and work better online, these contingents have Facebook groups or FetLife pages you can join. And YouTube has a channel for everyone in the kink spectrum from gay to straight to trans to nonbinary and beyond!” “Recon.com is a great option for gay men,” said Metal from the gay male bondage website MetalbondNYC.com. “It’s a site where you can create a profile, window-shop for a play buddy, and ‘check his references.’ Even better, if you can, go to a public event like International Mister Leather or to a play party like the New York Bondage Club, where you can participate in a monitored space with

other people around or just watch the action. Don’t forget the motto ‘safe, sane, and consensual,’ and be sure to have a safe word! And if you do want to explore bondage, take precautions. Never get tied up in your own home by someone you don’t know. If you go to his or her place, always tell a trusted friend where you are going. And when hooking up online, never use Craigslist.” “Be cautious,” said Ruff of Ruff’s Stuff blog. “There are people out there who view ‘kink newbies’ as prey. Anytime anyone—top or bottom— wants to rush into a powerexchange scene, that’s a red flag. Always get to know a person first.”

Q : I’m a 28-year-old

bi-curious female, and I ended a three-year straight LTR a month ago. It’s been tough—my ex is a great guy—but I know I did the right thing. Now I want to experiment, explore nonmonogamy, and have crazy and fulfilling sex with whoever tickles my fancy. I met a new guy two weeks ago, and the sex is incredible. We also immediately clicked and became friends. The problem? I suspect he wants a romantic relationship. He says he’s open to my terms—open/fuck-buddy situation—but things have quickly become relationshipish. I like him, but I can’t realistically picture us being a good LTR match. I’m hoping we can figure out something in between, but I’ve found very little evidence of such undefined relationships working without someone getting hurt. I am sick of hurting people! Any advice? —HOPING OPEN PEACEFUL EXPERIENCES FEEL UNLIKE LOSS

REAL PEOPLE REAL DESIRE REAL FUN.

A : There’s no intimate

human connection, sexual or otherwise, that doesn’t leave us open to hurting or being hurt. So fuck this guy, HOPEFUL, on your own terms—but don’t be too quick to dismiss the possibility of an LTR. Great sex and a good friendship make up a solid foundation. You’re aware that nonmonogamous relationships are an option— and couples can explore nonmonogamy together. If you can have this guy and have your sexual adventures too, this could be the start of something big.

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Q : I’m a mid-20s, above-

average-looking gay dude into spanking guys. The weird thing is, the only guys I can ﬁnd to spank are straight. It’s not that they’re closeted—most of them go on to have girlfriends, and that’s when we stop— and they make it clear they don’t want anything sexual to happen. No complaints on my end! But why don’t they want a woman spanking them? —SERIOUSLY PERPLEXED AND NEEDING KNOWLEDGE

A : How do you know their

new girlfriends don’t start spanking them when you stop? And how do you know they aren’t closing their eyes and imagining that you’re a woman when you’re spanking them? And how do you know they’re not bi—at least where spankings are concerned? (Also: There are tons of gay guys out there into spanking, SPANK. So if you aren’t ﬁnding any, I can only conclude that you aren’t looking.) v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast. com. v @fakedansavage

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NEW

Alt-J 6/7, 8 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Astronomyy 5/6, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Dave Barnes 4/28, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Jeﬀ Beck & Paul Rogers 7/29, 7 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Madison Beer 5/8, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Jimmy Buﬀett, Boz Scaggs 7/13, 7 PM, Wrigley Field, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Julie Byrne 3/31, 8:30 PM, Bohemian National Cemetery Charly Bliss 5/17, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Chrome 3/26, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Slaid Cleaves 5/25, 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 2/9, 11 AM Elizabeth Cook 5/19, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Kat Edmonson 5/15, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Eliane Elias 5/2, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Tinsley Ellis 5/18, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 2/9, 11 AM Freddy Jones Band 5/4, 7:30 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM, 18+ Frenship 4/28, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Ghalib Ghallab 4/28, 5 PM, the Promontory b Ghost Light 5/16, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b

Laurel Halo, Thoom 4/3, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Hot Club of Cowtown 5/1, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Hot Rize 5/4, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Alex Zhang Hungtai 4/4, 9 PM, Sleeping Village In Tall Buildings 3/24, 9 PM, Schubas, 18+ Al Jardine 4/2, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Jared & the Mill 4/17, 8 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Zoe Keating 5/6, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Andrew Kerr 5/8, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Todd Kessler 4/29, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b King Tuﬀ, Cut Worms 5/25, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM, 18+ Leo Kottke 5/25-26, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Ladysmith Black Mambazo 2/17, 5 and 8 PM and 2/20, 7:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Marian Hill 5/15, 8 PM, Metro, 17+ Nellie McKay 5/9, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Mt. Joy 5/11-12, 9 PM, Hideout, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Nancy & Beth 4/20, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Kate Nash 4/20, 8 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM, 18+ Obituary, Pallbearer, Skeletonwitch 5/13, 7 PM, Metro, 18+

38 CHICAGO READER - FEBRUARY 8, 2018

Judith Owen & Leland Sklar 5/27, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Graham Parker, James Maddock 5/10, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 2/8, noon b Alice Peacock 5/5, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Pill 3/19, 9 PM, Hideout, on sale Thu 2/8, noon Poison, Cheap Trick 6/9, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Ampitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Caroline Rose 4/18, 9 PM, Hideout Ruidofest 6/22-24, Addams/ Medill Park Arturo Sandoval 5/16, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Shiba San 4/20, 10 PM, the Mid Sarah Shook & the Disarmers 5/4, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Paul Simon 6/6, 8 PM, United Center, on sale Sat 2/10, 10 AM Skizzy Mars 4/18, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM, 17+ Sloan 6/23, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 2/9, noon, 17+ Chris Stapleton, Marty Stuart 10/6, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Ampitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM Sunﬂower Bean 5/11, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Taake, King Dude 3/30, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM, 17+ Midori Takada 5/19, 7:30 PM, Art Institute of Chicago, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM b Thirdstory 4/4, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Timber Timbre 4/14, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 2/9, 10 AM

Christopher Cross 3/31-4/1, 8 PM, City Winery, second show added b Residents 4/17, 7 and 9:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, early show sold out, late show added b Justin Timberlake 3/27-28, 7:30 PM, United Center, 10/5 aded, on sale Mon 2/12, 10 AM

UPCOMING Altan 3/23, 7:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Alvvays 3/23, 7:30 PM, Metro b American Nightmare, No Warning 2/25, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Trey Anastasio Band 4/20-21, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Black Angels, Black Lips 3/26-27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 18+ Boogie T, Squnto 3/15, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Born Ruﬃans 5/19, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Brian Jonestown Massacre 5/11, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Calexico 4/25, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Brandi Carlile 6/15, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Carpenter Brut 4/26, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Catharsis 4/27, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Cut Copy 4/5, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Darkest Hour, Whores. 2/22, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Dead Meadow 4/4, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen Beth Ditto 3/19, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Eagles 3/14, 8 PM, United Center Earthless, Kikagaku Moyo 3/24-25, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Enslaved, Wolves in the Throne Room 2/23, 7 PM, Metro, 18+

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

Erasure 7/27, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Sylvan Esso 7/23, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Exodus, Municipal Waste 3/4, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Fortunate Youth, Tatanka 4/21, 8:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Fruit Bats, Vetiver 4/13, 7 and 10 PM, Schubas Godspeed You! Black Emperor 3/18-19, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Stu Hamm 3/1, 7:30 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Albert Hammond Jr. 4/6, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Hop Along 6/10, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Iamx 4/28, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Iced Earth 3/29, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jimmy Eat World, Hotelier 5/8, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Stephen Kellogg 3/15, 8 PM, City Winery b King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 6/10, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Langhorne Slim 3/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Lightning Bolt 3/28, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jeff Lynne’s ELO 8/15, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Matt & Kim, Tokyo Police Club 4/17, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Messthetics 5/5, 9 PM, Hideout MGMT 3/3-4, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b Ministry, Chelsea Wolfe 4/7, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Minus the Bear 5/4, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Nada Surf 3/13, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ No Age 5/10, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Oneida 3/17, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Pedro the Lion 8/24, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Polica 2/22, 7 PM, Thalia Hall b Preoccupations 4/27, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Primus, Mastodon 6/6, 7 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Rogue Wave 3/22, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Jeff Rosenstock 4/26, 6:30 PM, Logan Square Auditorium b Russian Circles, King Woman 4/22, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Ed Schrader’s Music Beat 4/8, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Screaming Females 3/10, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Ty Segall 4/8, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Septicflesh, Dark Funeral 3/4, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Shania Twain 5/19, 7:30 PM, United Center Jeff Tweedy 4/27-28, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Two Feet 2/25, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Bob Weir & Phil Lesh 3/10, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene DETROIT PRODUCER and rapper James Dewitt Yancey—better known as J Dilla— died in 2006 from complications of a rare blood disorder. His stature continues to grow, though, and on Friday, February 9, at Thalia Hall, a 15-piece band led by Sidewalk Chalk keyboardist Charlie Coffeen will re-create Dilla’s classic 2006 instrumental album Donuts in its entirety. Some of Coffeen’s Sidewalk Chalk bandmates are helping out: trombonist David Ben-Porat wrote the horn parts, and Sam Trump is one of three featured singers. Grammy winner Robert “Sput” Searight, who’s worked with Sidewalk Chalk as a producer, plays drums. “Dilla’s songs are just as worthy of theoretical analysis as a Mozart sonata,” Coffeen says. “An MPC is just as valuable and culturally important as, say, a cello or a French horn.” Rapper, singer, and Pivot Gang cofounder Walter Long Jr., aka John Walt and Dinner With John, was stabbed to death a year ago on February 8. This Thursday, February 8, the Lakeview location of Chicago’s Pizza (3114 N. Lincoln) hosts a benefit called Dinner With John to raise money for the John Walt Foundation, which aims to develop creative mentorship programs and provide scholarships annually to five young aspiring artists. Tickets cost $40, which covers dinner, dessert, and two drinks; you can buy them in advance at bit.ly/dinner_john. Chicago fashion crew Crystal Gravy— designers Sara Fagala, Eliza Epstein, Heather McCall, and Benji Morino—have been making clothes with rock ’n’ roll attitude since 2015. Their Etsy shop includes “hot shorts” sewn from metal T-shirts and vegan leather, velvet lace-up bell-bottoms, and head-turning bodysuits—imagine a Frederick’s of Hollywood in a Grateful Dead parking lot. On Wednesday, February 14, Crystal Gravy presents a Disco Fantasy runway show at East Room’s Punk Rock Prom; also on the bill are the Lizzies, Easy Habits, Stuyedeyed, and Slushy. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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FEBRUARY 8, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 39

VALERIE

JUNE

SPECIAL GUESTS:

BIRDS OF CHICAGO

NEXT THURSDAY! FEBRUARY 15

FRIDAY APRIL

HIPPO CAMPUS – Feb. 16-Sold Out! • MAJID JORDAN – Feb. 21 • BIANCA DEL RIO – Feb. 24 • RAILROAD EARTH – Friday, Mar. 9 • OMD – Mar. 16-Sold Out! THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS –Saturday, Mar. 17 • PUDDLES PITY PARTY –Friday, Mar. 23 • DIXIE DREGS –Saturday, Mar. 24 • BUCKETHEAD – Mar. 25 ROB BELL –April 5 • “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – April 6 & 7 • CLEAN BANDIT – April 11 • THE WOOD BROTHERS – April 13 & 14 JEFF TWEEDY – April 27 & 28 • STEVEN WILSON – May 1 & 2 • UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA –May 3 • THE BREEDERS –May 8 THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE –May 11 • ANDREW W.K. –May 12 • ANTHONY JESELNIK –May 13 • SHAKEY GRAVES –May 22 • THE KOOKS –May 30

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