Print Issue of May 11, 2017 (Volume 46, Number 31)

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 | M AY 1 1 , 2 0 1 7

The vulnerability of PETER ROSKAM, Trump’s health-care rubber-stamper 8

International Anthem brings

punk idealism to progressive jazz. 26

HOME SWEET HOME FOR THE HOMELESS

Inside the dwellings and communities of Chicago’s “homeless” residents Photos by LLOYD DEGRANE and text by KARI LYDERSEN 14

IT’S TIME TO DECIDE THE BEST OF CHICAGO 2017!

The Best of Chicago 2017 readers’ poll is now open for ballot nominations for the best in Chicago Goods & Services, Food & Drink, Music & Nightlife, Arts & Culture, Sports & Recreation, and City Life.

Vote now at chicagoreader.com/best

2 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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THIS WEEK

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EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL JOHN HIGGINS DEPUTY EDITOR, NEWS ROBIN AMER CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS KATE SCHMIDT, KEVIN WARWICK, BRIANNA WELLEN SENIOR WRITERS MICHAEL MINER, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI EDITORIAL ASSISTANT CASSIDY RYAN CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, MATT DE LA PEÑA, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, DMITRY SAMAROV, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS RACHEL HINTON, JIAYUE YU ---------------------------------------------------------------VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NICKI STANULA VICE PRESIDENT OF NEW MEDIA GUADALUPE CARRANZA SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES FABIO CAVALIERI, ARIANA DIAZ, BRIDGET KANE MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD

FEATURES

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Agenda Ryan Burkett’s odd, unassuming Cannonball, the Comedy Dance Collective, the exhibit “Scott Hesse’s Chicago: From the Inside,” Neil deGrasse Tyson, the film Chuck, and more goings on about town

CITY LIFE

PHOTO ESSAY

Home sweet home for the homeless

Inside the dwellings and communities of Chicago’s “homeless” residents PHOTOS BY LLOYD DEGRANE TEXT BY KARI LYDERSEN 14

7 Street View Corporate accountant Diego Acosta slips into his weekendwarrior ensemble.

7 Chicagoans Navy band director Geordie Kelly talks about the life of a military musician.

8 Joravsky | Politics Sixth District voters have a chance to oust Congressman Peter Roskam, Trump’s DuPage County puppet.

10 Transportation A new streetscape makes Devon’s retail strip safer and more attractive.

30 Shows of note Mastodon, Redd Kross, Jlin, Chicago Fringe Opera’s Lucrezia, and more recommendations 35 The Secret History of Chicago Music Hot jazz saxophonist Boyce Brown ended his career as a Servite monk.

FOOD & DRINK

Lunatic, the Lover & the Poet

Randolph Street’s new wine bar invokes poetry in lieu of personality.

41 Bars: Alarmist Brewing taproom At the Sauganash taproom, find your new favorite summer beer.

DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654 312-222-6920, CHICAGOREADER.COM

13 Q&A Maria Hinojosa considers Latino power and peril in the first 100 days of Trump.

---------------------------------------------------------------READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY

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ARTS & CULTURE

COPYRIGHT © 2017 CHICAGO READER. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL.

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY LLOYD DEGRANE. FOR MORE OF HIS WORK, GO TO LLOYDDEGRANE.COM.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

39 Restaurant review: The

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO READER, READER, AND REVERSED R: REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ®.

the City profiles the author who saved Greenwich Village from the wrecking ball.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

International Anthem brings punk idealism to progressive jazz

This Chicago label puts in the sweat to get its artists the audiences they deserve.

BY PETER MARGASAK 26

20 Education Is something wrong at UIC’s College of Education?

21 Theater The Chicago Home Theater Festival literally takes it to the house.

22 Theater The Humana Festival of New American Plays gives a glimpse at tomorrow’s theatrical seasons.

23 Visual Art Jim Dine returns to the body with “Looking at the Present” at Richard Gray Gallery’s new West Town space.

24 Movies Citizen Jane: Battle for

CLASSIFIEDS

42 Jobs 42 Apartments & Spaces 43 Marketplace

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44 Straight Dope Why do English singers seem to lose their accent when they sing?

45 Savage Love What should the wife of a man with erectile deficiencies do?

46 Early Warnings Against Me!, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, Dr. Octagon, Japandroids, ESG at West Fest, and other shows in the weeks to come 46 Gossip Wolf Memphis hip-hop label Culture Power45 keeps up the Chicago love, and more music news.

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 3

AGENDA The beloved hit musical

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READER RECOMMENDED

Send your events to agenda@chicagoreader.com

b ALL AGES

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Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Other Treasured Stories o COURTESY THE MERMAID THEATRE OF NOVA SCOTIA

Broadway, 800-737-0984, twentypercentchicago.com, $20.

L E R N E R & LO E W E ’ S

More at chicagoreader.com/ theater

– CHICAGO READER

Brown Bear, Brown Bear and R Other Treasured Stories For decade decades, starting in the late 1960s,

Eric C Carle used a distinctive collage technique techni to illustrate his books for young you children, including the three staged here by the Mermaid Theatre o of Nova Scotia: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Caterp Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Wha What Do You See?; and Papa, Please Ge Get the Moon for Me. Director/ productio production designer Jim Morrow has done an iimpeccable job of expressing Carle’s aaesthetic with puppets. All is bright, b beautiful, winsome, and deft. But if you go, go be warned: This really is a kids’ show. sho Adults can expect to get swe sweetly but certainly bored. Carle’s books boo teach pre-K subjects like cou counting and colors, after all, and the only crisis is the stomachache the caterpillar gets from eating too much. It would be different if, say, the bear had a bad debt, a fast f car, and a handgun. But he doe doesn’t. —TONY ADLER Through 5/28: Wed-Fri 10 AM, Sat 9:30 AM and 3 PM, Sun 11 AM and 3 PM, Tue 10 AM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. D Dearborn, 312-337-6543, chicagochildrens childrenstheatre.org, $39, $28 children.

Can Cannonball With no set, a couple R props, pro bare-bones lighting, and costumes likely pulled from the five

RICHARD E. GRANT H E N RY H I G G I N S MY FAIR LADY Book and Lyrics by ALAN JAY LERNER Music by FREDERICK LOEWE Original Production directed by

Moss Hart. Production created by the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in co-production with the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre.

Photos by Todd Rosenberg.

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Sauer, a seasoned off-Loop theater veteran—nicely capture the characters’ sense of inadequacy and anxiety in this alternately poignant, painful, and wryly funny play. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 5/27: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Theatre Above the Law, 1439 W. Jarvis, 773-6557197, www.theatreatl.org, $20.

We’re Gonna Die Just in case Where Did We Sit on the R news alerts haven’t been remindR Bus? Area native Brian Quijada ing you on the daily, you and everyone is a first-generation American who’s

THEATER

“A feast for the eyes and the ears.”

For more of the best things to do every day of the week, go to chicagoreader. com/agenda.

performers’ performer closets, it seems the Public House Theatre The spent no more than 12 cents on playwright/director Ryan Burkett’s odd, unassuming 75-minute play. But what a return on investment.

Burkett begins b with what appear to be quirky comic co sketches—tween Neighborhood Watch W girls hunting for missing paperboys, paperboys former lovers tracking down unaccountable late-night apartment noises, scientists hunting for radio transmissions from “alternate selves”—and gradually weaves them into a coy tale of small-town alienation told through ingeniously manipulated Hollywood sci-fi tropes. It’s heady, confounding, delightful stuff, weakened only by a half dozen too many endings. The cast, all playing multiple roles, handle the stylistically complex material with confidence and

panache. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 5/26: Thu 8 PM, Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark, 800-650-6449, pubhousetheatre.com, $10.

Paradise Blue Part of a trilogy structured around transformational moments in the life of Detroit’s African-American community, Dominique Morisseau’s drama is set in 1949, when Paradise Valley—the business center of the city’s black ghetto—was about to be razed for urban renewal. A trumpet-playing nightclub owner known as Blue is determined to cash in and get out, despite the havoc that will wreak on those closest to him.

Both the character and the situation have loads of potential; even the familiar types with which Marisseau surrounds Blue—the wised-up dame, the doormat girlfriend, the bantam lothario—can’t dampen that potential. But other factors do: Morisseau’s lapses into self-help jargon, an engaging but crucially insufficient performance from Ronald L. Conner as one of Blue’s bandmates, and Ron OJ Parson’s staging, which is stronger in its elements than as a whole. Al’Jaleel McGhee, on the other hand, smolders dangerously all the way through as Blue.

—TONY ADLER Through 7/23: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 2 PM; also Tue 6/20, 7:30 PM, TimeLine Theatre Company, Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ, Baird Hall Theatre, 615 W. Wellington, 773-281-8463, timelinetheatre.com, $38-$51.

Tight End Football is life in small-town Ohio. So who could blame tomboy Ash Miller (Bryce Saxon), the protagonist of Rachel Bykowski’s new play, for craving a share in the glory? The daughter of Westmont High’s most illustrious former quarterback, she’s determined that she’ll eat the same boiled chicken and pints of cottage cheese as the boys do if it will earn her the final spot on the roster.

Doesn’t matter that she’s too light and can’t hit; “biology” is no obstacle. But the intensity in her eyes feels suicidal, or at least deeply reckless, and Ash’s dad having burned out terribly after his letterman days, there’s a lot going on below the surface here. 20 Percent Theatre retreads the outworn conventions of sports drama with an added, terrible measure of pain and heart. —MAX MALLER Through 6/3: Wed-Sat 8 PM, the Buena at Pride Arts Center, 4147 N.

you care about will expire one day, and odds are better than not the circumstances of those deaths will be . . . not great. Feel like dancing yet? Young Jean Lee’s 2011 rapturous concert-play, not unlike the iconic finale of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, makes toe tappers out of the bleak, answerless existential questions that keep folks awake at night. Backed by a stellar four-piece rock band, singer and storyteller Isa Arciengas makes Lee’s vignettes about lost family and love her own in a tender, head-thrashing performance more demanding than most I’ve seen this year. Josh Sobel’s whip-smart Haven production is so slick that upon entry one couple asked aloud, “Are we cool enough to be in here?”

—DAN JAKES Through 6/4: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, haventheatrechicago.com, $18.

What Rhymes With America R This bittersweet character study

by Melissa James Gibson (best known

as a writer for TV’s House of Cards and The Americans) was an off-Broadway success in 2012. In Theatre Above the Law’s intimate, bare-bones production, Dan Sauer plays Hank, a divorced father, who’s trying to maintain contact with his teenage daughter, Marlene (Olivia Nicholson), despite the opposition of his bitter ex-wife. Stymied and frustrated, Hank—a financially strapped economist who’s thousands of dollars behind in his child support—unsuccessfully explores relationships with two women: introverted Lydia (Alicia Ciuffini), an unemployed writer coping with grief following her father’s death, and extroverted Sheryl (Brittany Vogel), an untalented actress who can’t even hold on to her gig as an opera supernumerary. Under Tony Lawry’s direction, the cast—especially

Latino, multilingual, an artist, and a college grad, all of which sticks with you through this coming-of-age saga, which centers on his upbringing as the son of immigrant parents growing up in upscale, mostly white Highland Park.

Mining memories from early childhood to present-day Chicago, Quijada uses this autobiographical one-man show to grapple with life, liberty, and the paradox of the American dream. In the vein of John Leguizamo’s Ghetto Klown, the 90-minute performance, directed by Chay Yew, is as funny as it is poignant: expertly crafted, deftly poetic, and unabashedly authentic. You’ll laugh, cry, cheer—your only regret will be that you didn’t get to do it longer. —MATT DE LA PEÑA Through 5/25: Thu 5/4, 7:30 PM; Fri 5/5, 10 AM; Sat 5/6, 3 PM; Wed 5/10, 10 AM; Thu 5/11 7:30 PM; Fri 5/12, 10 AM; Sat 5/13, 7:30 PM; Fri 5/19, 10 AM; Sat 5/20, 3 PM; Wed 5/24 and Fri 5/26, 7:30 PM, Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, 773-871-3000, victorygardens. org, $20.

DANCE

Ethereal Abandonment Chicago R Danztheatre Ensemble presents a performance inspired by Candace Casey’s photography and Ellyzabeth Adler’s stories. 5/12-5/20: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster, 773-561-8496, danztheatre.org, $15-$25.

Solus Visceral Dance Chicago R presents a performance inspired

by France Leclerc’s photographs. Thu

5/11-Sat 5/13: 8 PM, 1st Ward, 2033 W. North, 773-537-4440, visceraldance.com, $20-$35.

We’re Gonna Die o AUSTIN D. OIE

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Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of May 11 Kayla Anderson’s “Model Home” series is on view at Roman Susan.

ON STAGE NOW through May 21

and ceramics to explore womanhood.

Opening reception Sun 5/21, 2 PM. 5/14-7/30. Mon-Thu 9 AM-8 PM, Fri-Sat 9 AM-5 PM, Sun noon-5 PM. 5020 S. Cornell, 773-324-5520, hydeparkart.org.

COMEDY

Arts & Culture Club This week R the variety show is inspired by the theme “mothers.” Thu 5/11, 7 PM, GMan Tavern, 3748 N. Clark, 773-549-2050, facebook.com/CollabFlatIronArtsCultureClub.

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The Comedy Dance Collective Fittingly, the Comedy Dance Collective’s new, titleless show at the iO takes place at the Chris Farley Cabaret.

It’s a lot of dancing, yes. It’s a lot of laughs, sure. Put the two together, and you’ve got a performance that isn’t so much built on a plot as on some stellar physical comedy. And it’s one of the funniest, most enjoyable hours you’ll spend on a Friday night. A sort of brief anthology of the history of dance (encompassing everything from ballet to hip-hop to Irish jig), the sketch-style show, directed by Molly Todd Madison, is packed with great bits like two shortlimbed dinosaurs reenacting the famed ending from Dirty Dancing; the subtler gags throughout include a man who’s plagued by an affliction called “Dave Matthews hand.” Farley himself would approve of such unabashed abandon.

—MATT DE LA PEÑA Through 5/26: Fri 8:30 PM, iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov.com/chicago, $14.

The Drag Queens of Comedy R Sasha Soprano hosts this night of drag queens—including Alaska 5000,

Bob the Drag Queen, Lady Bunny, and more—showing off their comedic chops.

Fri 5/12, 7 and 10 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6860, athenaeumtheatre.com, $37-$57.

Dylan Brody’s Driving Hollywood Given the effete stylings of Dylan Brody’s one-man show—leather-bound books and manual typewriter atop wooden writing desk, 1940s-style microphone, tweed suit with watch chain—and his easygoing efforts to depict his life story as series of a wry, insupportable encounters with moral cowards and intellectual inferiors, it’s no surprise the writer-performer bills himself as a humorist rather than, say, a comic.

And at his best, as when he succinctly dissects the hypocrisy of American democracy by reliving his second-grade class election, he earns a bit of Will Rogers cred. But it’s never clear why his lifelong struggle to have his mildly subversive ideas taken seriously should matter to the rest of us, especially since he delivers nearly every anecdote in this 90-minute evening with more bemuse-

ment than urgency. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 5/20: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln, 773-935-6100, apollochicago.com, $25-$35.

Packed to the Brown This standR up show features South Asian comedians like Meghana Indurti, Vik

Pandya, Sonal Aggarwal, Sabeen Sadiq, and Arish Singh. All proceeds benefit the Indo-American Center. Sat 5/13, 1 PM, Indo-American Center, 6328 N. California, 773-973-4444, indoamerican. org, $20, $15 in advance.

Paula Poundstone The comedian R and frequent Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! panelist performs her stand-up.

Sat 5/13, 7 and 10 PM, Thalia Hall, 1227 W. 18th, 312-526-3851, thaliahallchicago. com, $39.50.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: An IMAX Experience The sly premise of this new show from two-woman sketch duo Spooky Dookie (Claire McFadden and Maureen Monahan) provides an ample sandbox for absurdist comedy: wing by wing, a blaze slowly engulfs Chicago’s Field Museum as clueless audiences watch a documentary about a real-life fire.

Between projected video shorts poking fun at the bombast of IMAX and the Field’s Sue-centric marketing, Monahan and McFadden dash between playing museum staff, visitors, and subjects in the documentary. Some sluggish transitions and circular jokes make the whole of this slight effort (it clocks in at less than an hour) less than the sum of its parts, but when Spooky Dookie are on, they’re on. Days later, I’m still laughing thinking about a sketch in which a representative for Bruce Rauner fights with an anthropologist over a skeleton the governor insists on eating. —DAN JAKES Through 6/9: Fri 10:30 PM, iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov. com/chicago, $10.

VISUAL ARTS Fulton Street Collective “Scott Hesse’s Chicago: From the Inside,” this exhibit features Scott Hesse’s photographs presented as a narrative and scored with music from Clark Sommers, Geof Bradfield, Scott Hesse, and Dana Hall.

Thu 5/11, 8:30-11:30 PM. 2000 W. Fulton, second floor, 847-686-4629, fultonstreetcollective.com.

Hyde Park Art Center “Interface,” Corinna Button combines printmaking

Museum of Science and Industry “Robot Revolution,” a collection of more than 40 robots—including RoboThespian, a life-size humanoid robot that greets guests and Daisy, a robot with six spiderlike legs—on loan from research labs, universities, and robotics companies. Ongoing. Mon-Sat 9:30 AM-4 PM, Sun 11 AM-4 PM. 5700 S. Lake Shore, 773-684-1414, msichicago.org, $15, $14 seniors, $10 kids 3-11; add $8, $2 kids, for “Smart Home”; Chicago residents get a $1-$2 discount.

Roman Susan “Model Home,” Kayla Anderson’s videos, writings, and installations exploring different versions of an ideal home. Opening reception Sat 5/13, 6-9 PM. 5/13-5/27. Thu 4-7 PM, Sat 1-4 PM. 1224 W. Loyola, 773-270-1224, romansusan.org.

LIT & LECTURES

Sarah Gerard The author reads R from her book Sunshine State.

Sun 5/14, 7 PM, Cafe Mustache, 2313 N.

Milwaukee, 773-687-9063, cafemustache. com.

L E R N E R & LO E W E ’ S Neil deGrasse Tyson o RICHARD DREW 5/16, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, 312-462-6300, thechicagotheatre. com, $49.50-$250.

MOVIESS

More at chicagoreader.com/ reader.com/ movies NEW REVIEWS Burden This R engrossing g documentary profile off Los Angeles

artist Chris Burden, n, who died in 2015, focuses mainly on his notorious performance pieces—including cluding Shoot (1971), in which he videotaped aped a friend shooting him through the arm m at close range with a .22 rifle; TV Hijack ack (1972), in which he held a knife to thee throat of a terrified TV interviewer; and d Trans-Fixed ed (1974), in which he was crucified fied on the back of a Volkswagen. Burden den began as a sculptor

Burden How Do We Elect More Women R & People of Color? Journalist Joan Esposito hosts this discussion

about the challenges women and people of color face when trying to get on the ballot for the 2017 and 2018 elections.

The panel includes Jonathan Peck, Rebecca Sive, Shobhana Johri Verma, and Angelica Heaney. Ticket includes dinner. Tue 5/16, 5 PM, the Montgomery Club, 500 W. Superior, 312-587-0508, themontgomeryclub.com, $25.

Neil deGrasse Tyson The astroR physicist discusses his new book, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Tue

and, as he explainss in archival interview footage, prized thee viewer’s active participation in circling ircling the work; this led him to performance, ance, which consisted entirely of action.. Love of movement also heavily informed the second, less sensational, and much longer phase of Burden’s career, in which he created complex engineered pieces involving model cars, erector sets, antique streetlights, and finally a giant white dirigible.

Filmmakers Richard Dewey and Timothy Marrinan include nominal footage of these, but they much prefer the artistic bomb thrower of the early years. —J.R. JONES 91 min. Fri 5/12, 2 PM; Sat 5/13, W

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AGENDA B 7:45 PM; Sun 5/14, 4:15 PM; Mon 5/15, 6 PM; Tue 5/16, 6 PM; Wed 5/17, 8:15 PM; and Thu 5/18, 8:45 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Chuck A real-life model R for Rocky Balboa, Chuck Wepner went almost 15 rounds with

Muhammad Ali in 1975, though as this hearty biopic asserts, Wepner wasn’t exactly the honorable underdog Sylvester Stallone wrote and played in Rocky: he cheated on his wife, neglected his daughter, and slid into the 70s cocaine culture as his career fizzled out. Liev Schreiber, working with the humanistic French director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), plays Wepner as a lovable ham, more stupid than malicious, though this angle on him is disrupted regularly by Elisabeth Moss as Wepner’s wife, who points out his selfishness. His fall and redemption are a little too familiar to carry the movie, but there’s an odd hall-of-mirrors quality to all this: prone to quoting Requiem for a Heavyweight (1955), Wepner is transmogrified into the movies himself, and with this truer-to-life drama he’s back for another round.

With Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, Jim Gaffigan, and Morgan Spector doing a dead-on Stallone. —J.R. JONES R, 101 min. Landmark’s Century Centre King Arthur: Legend of the Sword After directing a number of British crime comedies, Guy Ritchie applied his rapid-fire wisecracks, gleeful violence, and flashy cutting and camera moves to the Sherlock Holmes franchise; that same method works well for this big-budget Arthurian legend, perhaps because the king (Charlie Hunnam) and his knights have been recast as streetwise brawlers targeting an evil usurper of the throne (Jude Law). Their antics are enjoyable for about three quarters of the movie, after which the charaters and the imposing production design are overwhelmed by computer graphics imagery. With Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana, Aidan Gillen, and Àstrid Bèrges-Frisbey as a pouty sorceress who kicks ass just by furrowing her brow. —ANDREA GRONVALL PG-13, 126 min. ArcLight, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Cicero Showplace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings, Webster Place

The Lovers After a long hiaR tus the cagey comic filmmaker Azazel Jacobs (Terri, Momma’s Man) returns with a wild, emotionally messy story of a middle-class marriage dissolving amid mutual infidelity. Mary (Debra Winger) and Michael (Tracy Letts) have been together for ages, but each has a longtime lover on the side who wants a serious commitment. Their young adult son (Tyler Ross), who’s been stewing in their bitter juices

6 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

Chuck

for years, can’t wait for them to pull the plug on their marriage, but as Mary and Michael near the brink, they unexpectedly begin to attract each other again. There’s really only one joke here—the 50-ish spouses are every bit as confused, horny, and insecure as kids themselves— but the two gifted leads play it so gracefully that it sustains the entire movie. With Aidan Gillen and Melora Walters. —J.R. JONES R, 94 min.

Landmark’s Century Centre Ogres A tight-knit theater troupe take their cabaret adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Bear across modern-day France in this affecting sophomore feature (2016) from writer-director Léa Fehner, based on her own experience growing up. Though some of the actors have small children in tow, Fehner is more interested in the adults’ interpersonal and sexual conflicts: the 50-ish emcee (Marc Barbé) impregnates a young performer (Adèle Haenel), and a married couple (Marion Bouvarel and François Fehner, the filmmaker’s parents) reconsider their relationship in light of the husband’s infidelities. The movie is overlong and occasionally melodramatic but makes a fascinating study of family dynamics, whether inherited or assumed.

In French with subtitles. —LEAH PICKETT 138 min. Sat 5/13, 5 PM, and Thu 5/18, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Two Women A fine ensemble cast anchors this genteel Russian period drama (2014), which was adapted from Ivan Turgenev’s 1855 play A Month in the Country. It takes place at the rural estate of a middle-aged landowner, whose bored wife (Anna Vartanyan) occupies herself by closely overseeing the lives of her young son and adopted teenage daughter. Tension develops when the wife realizes she’s attracted to her son’s tutor, also an object of fascination for the daughter; meanwhile an old friend of the family (Ralph Fiennes), who’s staying at the estate for the summer, begins to fall for the wife. Director Vera Glagoleva handles the various intrigues with emotional precision, conveying the characters’ complex mental states through subtle gestures. The film may be too

subtle for its own good, in fact; the surface tone never varies, and the drama comes to feel monotonous.

In Russian with subtitles. —BEN SACHS 104 min. Facets Cinematheque The Wall Amid the 2007 surge of U.S. forces in Iraq, two soldiers (John Cena, Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are ambushed by a sniper during a routine surveillance mission in the desert; over the next several hours they attempt to locate the attacker while tending to severe gunshot wounds. Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow) directed this terse little war movie, using widescreen cinematography to bring a sense of grandeur to the relatively simple story. It unfolds mainly from the perspective of Taylor-Johnson’s character, who gets trapped behind the wall of a bombed-out schoolhouse, and Liman is inventive in maintaining excitement while sticking to a narrow field of vision. This doesn’t have much to say about the U.S. occupation of Iraq—it could have taken place during any modern military conflict—though as an exercise in suspense it delivers. —BEN SACHS R, 81 min. Crown Village 18, River East 21

SPECIAL EVENTS Chicago Critics Film Festival The Chicago Film Critics Society presents 22 new independent features, two shorts programs, and a revival of Southland Tales (2006), Richard Kelly’s follow-up to Donnie Darko, with Kelly scheduled to attend (Sat 5/13, 8:30 PM). Also anticipated in person are John Carroll Lynch (Lucky, Sat 5/13, 6 PM) and Aubrey Plaza and Kate Micucci (The Little Hours, Fri 5/12, 7 PM). Tickets are $12-15, festival passes $150; for a full schedule visit musicboxtheatre.com.

Fri 5/12-Thu 5/18. Music Box Sixty Six Veteran experimental filmmaker Lewish Klahr presents “a hypnotic dream of 1960s and 1970s Pop” following “an ensemble of classic Hollywood types as they work their way through [a] vision of postwar Los Angeles.” 90 min. A discussion follows the screening. Fri 5/12, 7 PM. Univ. of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts v

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CITY LIFE Chicagoans

“All I’ve ever wanted to do is just play guitar,” Kelly says, “but if I have to defend myself, I know that I can.” o JIAYUE YU

The military musician

o ISA GIALLORENZO

Geordie Kelly, 46, Navy Band Great Lakes director

Street View

Accounting for taste YOU WOULDN’T KNOW by looking at his weekendwarrior threads, but Diego Acosta makes his living as an accountant in the sartorially staid world of corporate finance. “Most guys at the office wear basic plaid collared shirts with slacks, but I like to do something different,” he says. “For example, I will sometimes wear a white waistcoat with neutral color blocks [paired] with sleek silk black slacks. I try to limit one striking garment or color combination per outfit.” His ideal nine-to-five ensemble? “One that emphasizes my body, particularly my legs. So three-inch inseam shorts with a graphic tank top and gladiator sandals, paired with a snapback hat and/or a man bun.” Acosta’s gutsy fashion choices started in his youth, as a way to rebel against restrictive social norms and a conservative household. “That boldness, I believe, is what people connect with on a deeper level than the actual look itself,” he says. —ISA GIALLORENZO See more Chicago street style on Giallorenzo’s blog chicagolooks.blogspot.com.

UNTIL GRADUATE SCHOOL, I had hair down to the middle of my back. I was considering working on my doctorate in guitar performance. I was a graduate assistant, teaching the things that tenured professors didn’t want to teach, like ear training and sight singing. I got so fed up with all that. I was there to play my instrument. I finished my master’s degree, and I thought, “All right. Are you going to get a nine-tofive, coat-and-tie job and do music on the side as a hobby?” I have children; I had to have medical and dental insurance.

I looked at the army and the navy, and the navy looked really appealing, because all the bases are next to the ocean. I had calls from recruiters saying, “Hey, you have a master’s degree. You want to fly helicopters?” I was like, “No, I just want to be in a band.” The next thing you know, here I am, 20-plus years. I’ve been a commissioned officer for the past ten years. These days, I salute fewer people than salute me.

Military bands do a lot of ceremonial things. The navy band in D.C., three times a week they do funerals with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Also, they go to the Pentagon and perform a whole ceremony when the joint chiefs of staff meet their counterparts from Japan or Brazil or wherever. The most difficult thing is: “Why can’t we sit down during this ceremony? Everyone else is sitting down.” If you’re standing at an admiral’s retirement ceremony for two or three hours, it can be quite a lot.

I have friends, really great musicians, who get a toothache and can’t go to the dentist. Well, I don’t have to worry about medical and dental insurance ever again.

I’m retiring in August—not the kind of retirement where I go fishing and bowling and take naps, but I’ll still get a pension, so I can pursue my music full-time as a civilian. I just made a sacrifice early on.

Some musicians can’t seem to wrap their mind around that, or they’re not willing to. I see these millennials who just can’t deal with the military lifestyle. You have to have a certain level of fortitude to deal with the stuff that’s not music, and if you’re a baby or you’re a little soft, it’s not going to work for you.

Military musicians can do anything

that you ask them to do. For example, when I was teaching at the Navy School of Music, I got tapped on the shoulder to do military police work. I got hand-tohand combat training, nonlethal weapons training, training in how to handcuff people. I had to fire handguns, rifles. I had to wrestle people. I got sprayed in the face with pepper spray and had to fight with a baton. The other guys called me Band Boy at first. Well, I ran as fast as anybody, and I shot as well as anybody, and then they were like, “OK, he’s not soft.”

It’s neat to know that you have different skills other than music. All I’ve ever wanted to do is just play guitar, but if I have to defend myself, I know that I can. I adapt and overcome. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

SURE THINGS THURSDAY 11

FRIDAY 12

SATURDAY 13

SUNDAY 14

MONDAY 15

TUESDAY 16

WEDNESDAY 17

5 B it Bash Take ove r Bit Bash presents a Chicago Indie Games pop-up featuring Manifold Garden, TumbleSeed, Sausage Sports Club, and Battle Chef Brigade, each inspiring a specialty cocktail. 5/11-5/13, Emporium Arcade Bar, 2363 N. Milwaukee, bitbashchicago.com. F

Ú Morgan Pa rker The author reads from her book There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, followed by readings from local poets Jamila Woods, Nate Marshall, and José Olivarez.

7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-7699299, womenandchildrenfirst. com.

¡ Re negade Craf t Fair Pop - Up This outdoor market features food trucks, DJs from Lumpen Radio, beer from Half Acre, crafting workshops, and more than 150 vendors. Sat 5/13-Sun 5/14: 11 AM-6 PM, S. Halsted between W. 18th and S. Canalport, renegadecraft.com/fairs/ chicago-pop-up. F

& Mother ’s Day Brunch Chef Edward Kim presents a four-course meal, Ruxbin’s first-ever brunch, which includes a potato latke, wedge salad, halibut, Japanese pancake, and more.

BYOB. 10 AM-3 PM, Ruxbin, 851 N. Ashland, 312-624-8509, ruxbinchicago.com, $75.

$ Ke rr y James Ma rshall The Chicago painter, whose MCA retrospective “Mastry” was last year’s most acclaimed major exhibit, discusses his work, much of which challenges racism in art history. 7 PM, University of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th, 773-702-2787, arts.uchicago.edu.

· Once in a Lifetime The A.V. Club’s Katie Rife and Danette Chavez provide realtime riffing during a screening of the Lifetime original movie Stalked by My Doctor.

8 PM, Comfort Station, 2579 N. Milwaukee, comfortstationprojects@gmail.com, comfortstationlogansquare.org. F

- Conser vator y of Curiosities This happy hour features steampunk World’s Fair-inspired cocktails, appetizers, and live entertainment including stilt-walkers, magicians, contortionists, and musicians. 5-7 PM, Staytion Bar, 1 W. Wacker, 312-372-7200, staytionbar.com.

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 7

Illinois U.S. rep Peter Roskam voted to repeal Obamacare in last week’s congressional vote.

CITY LIFE

o J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP IMAGES

POLITICS

Bottom of the Sixth

Sixth District voters have a chance to oust Congressman Peter Roskam, Trump’s DuPage County puppet.

By BEN JORAVSKY

W

ith Peter Roskam’s craven capitulation to President Trump in last week’s congressional Trumpcare vote, it’s time for suburban Democrats to play Rahm Emanuel.

Let me explain.

Roskam is the Republican congressman from Illinois’s Sixth District, which consists of half of DuPage County and portions of Cook County, including Barrington and Palatine.

He is a six-term incumbent who won his last election by 18 percentage points and hasn’t been seriously challenged since 2006, when he

defeated Tammy Duckworth, then a neophyte, now a U.S. senator.

In short, he’s got a safe seat and, as such, is free to vote his conscience. So what did he do? He voted with Donald Trump to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare.

OK, I know Obama’s Affordable Care Act has its obvious flaws. Not the least of which is that it’s vulnerable to attempts by Trump to repeal it. And we should replace it, with the kind of single-payer system that just about every other civilized country adopted years ago.

But I think everyone to the left of, oh, Rick

773-862-8200

Santorum, would agree that the monstrosity passed by House Republicans under Trump is far worse than what we currently have. It’s pretty similar, flaws and all, to the plan the Republicans couldn’t pass last month. And if this plan is passed by the Senate—and thankfully, it probably won’t be—it would likely jack up premiums, deny coverage for folks with preexisting conditions, and bankrupt states by cutting back on Medicaid funding. Just like the last Republican proposal.

Naturally, Trump had the Republicans rush it through the House without having it vetted

by the Congressional Budget Office, precisely because he didn’t want voters to know how many millions of people stood to lose their coverage if it became law.

So why did Roskam vote for such a wretched bill?

His stated reason to reporters: “I think it was a good pathway forward because the status quo is not sustainable.”

Oh, there’s some sterling logic. Obamacare’s struggling in part because Trump’s vowed to do what he can to kill it by cutting off government assistance for low-income recipients, so

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

let’s replace it with a plan that’s guaranteed to fail.

His unstated Machiavellian reason? If he wants to get a congressional committee chair, he’s got to kiss Trump’s derriere. Or as SunTimes Washington columnist Lynn Sweet put it: “Roskam has aspired to GOP leadership, and this Thursday was a test of party loyalty.”

I haven’t seen such an obvious display of spinelessness since the Chicago City Council rolled over and overwhelmingly voted to approve the parking meter deal for fear of upsetting Mayor Daley.

The good news is that Roskam’s allegiance to Trump has left him vulnerable in 2018. Yes, DuPage County is traditionally a Republican stronghold. But it’s been inching left in recent years.

As Sweet also points out, Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the district by a margin of 50 to 43 percent. Generally, voters there are fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay rights and abortion. Roskam has said he’s pro-choice, but Trumpcare also strips Planned Parenthood of its federal funding. So much for Roskam’s support for reproductive rights.

CITY LIFE Sixth District voters were already disenchanted with Roskam even before his Trumpcare capitulation. In February, he ran out the back door of a Republican Political Organization gathering in Palatine rather than confront 300 or so constituents demanding to meet with him to talk about health care. And in March, he raced out of a Maggiano’s restaurant in River North after giving a speech at the City Club rather than answer questions from Derrick Blakely, a CBS 2 reporter.

Watching Roskam scurry out of side doors reminds me of the time in 1989 when Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (from the Fifth District, in Chicago) ducked out of a meeting with outraged senior citizens as they chanted things like “Shame on you!”

The seniors were outraged over hikes in their Medicare premiums. Some things never change.

And that brings us to your Rahm Emanuel moment, voters.

Back in 2006, before he was our mayor, Rahm was the congressman from the Fifth District and the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Caucus.

As such, his job was to recruit and support congressional candidates who could win in Republican or swing districts, not unlike the Sixth seems to be now.

In fact, it was Emanuel who helped launch Duckworth’s career by recruiting her to run in the Sixth. Before losing to Roskam, Duckworth defeated Christine Cegelis in a contentious Democratic primary. In 2012, she unseated Joe Walsh as congressman of the abutting Eighth District, and the rest is history.

With next year’s congressional primary, disaffected Democratic voters in the Sixth District will get to take a turn being Chairman Rahm, picking the candidate who can best unseat Roskam and send a big, bold message to Trump by bouncing his lackey right out of office.

Several Democrats have already announced their intention to run against Roskam. Let’s run through a few of them: • Amanda Howland, a lawyer who ran against Roskam in 2016 • Trevor Orsinger, a lawyer and former Cook County public defender • Kelly Mazeski, a former village trustee

in North Barrington and, relevant to the health-care debate, a cancer survivor • Becky Anderson, a councilwoman from Naperville, whose family owns the Anderson’s Bookshop chain • Suzyn Price, a former Naperville school board member • Austin Songer, a navy vet and aerospace technician I’m sure there will be others. In the next few months, folks in the Sixth will get to listen to debates, sift through policy statements, and make their decision.

Man, it sounds so exciting I may have to move out to DuPage County just to get in on the fun.

I realize it won’t be easy to defeat an entrenched candidate, even if he’s just a puppet for Trump. But just so you know, Rostenkowski—who was once a mighty Goliath—was ousted in an upset a few years after he pissed off those seniors.

Last I looked, our country was still a democracy—and anything can happen. v

ß @joravben

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CITY LIFE A seating area off Devon with a “gateway screen” inspired by Islamic architecture o JOHN GREENFIELD

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10 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

TRANSPORTATION

Doing up Devon

A new streetscape makes the retail strip safer and more attractive.

By JOHN GREENFIELD

A

visit to the Devon Avenue business strip is a kaleidoscopic experience.

There’s a swirl of flashy storefronts, iridescent saris, booming bhangra music, and aromas of cumin and kebabs in the South Asian part of the district, concentrated between Leavitt and California. Farther west you see a mix of Balkan, Jewish, and eastern European establishments, including the Croatian Cultural Center, a kosher fish market, and the city’s only Georgian bakery. It’s a first-class feast for the senses.

But until recently the corridor provided a less-than-stellar physical environment for walking. One had to jostle with other shoppers on narrow, crumbling sidewalks. Lighting and benches were merely functional, not attractive, and there was a dearth of trees and public art.

That’s changing thanks to an in-progress $15 million streetscape project constructed by the Chicago Department of Transportation that covers the 1.25-mile stretch of Devon

from Leavitt to Kedzie. On the central stretch that’s been completed so far, from Western to Sacramento, the revamp has dramatically widened the sidewalks and built curb bumpouts at corners to shorten pedestrian crossing distances. It has also beautified the public way with flower planters, trees, pavers in the parkways, old-timey “acorn” lampposts, and “seating pods” that encourage socializing.

On top of that there are street decorations, chosen with input from locals, that reflect the neighborhood’s ethnic mosaic, with designs inspired by Mughal architecture, Rangoli floor art, and henna tattoos.

I dropped by Devon on a recent weekend to find out how folks are interacting with the new built environment. There were plenty of people strolling past the restaurants, supermarkets, and sweet shops, wearing everything from stylish Western clothing to burkhas.

Earlier in the week 50th Ward alderman Debra Silverstein told me that when she took office in 2011, improving Devon’s appearance was a top priority.

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CITY LIFE “Everyone agreed that we have such a diverse street that we wanted to make it more beautiful and attract more businesses,” she said.

With that in mind, the city selected Tulika Ladsariya, an India-born, Chicago-based artist, to create designs for “community identifiers”—round placards hung from streetlights, “gateway screens” erected behind the seating areas on residential streets to create the feeling of a room, and an “intersection stamp,” a giant, round image painted in the middle of Devon and Sacramento. The last not only adds visual interest but also helps calm traffic.

Ladsariya favored “rich jewel tones” in her designs, “to complement the street and not add to the cacophony.” After taking input from community members about what they wanted to see, she presented various alternatives to residents at a charette. “The selection was pretty unanimous,” she says: neighbors favored the purple, pink, and yellow Rangoliinspired lamppost signs, the henna-influenced intersection stamp, and the seating screens featuring a grid of multicolored octagons, reminiscent of Islamic-Indian architecture and stained glass.

“Many of our customers say Devon looks cozier now,” says Huma Mahtani, co-owner of Resham’s, a shop at 2540 W. Devon that sells Indian dresses and handicrafts. “[The business district] needed a face-lift. Now I feel proud of my street.”

Khaleel Farooqi, who grew up just off of Devon and was home visiting from his college in Kentucky, was standing in the sunshine in front of Dulhan’s Bridal Boutique at 2635 W. Devon when I dropped by on May 7. “I’m just hanging out, having a walk, seeing people, you know?” He said the broader sidewalks encourage this kind of flaneurship. “It’s definitely much more comfortable to walk now.”

Silverstein said she’s also pleased with how things turned out. She appreciates that the new streetlamps feature smaller lights that can change colors to mark the various holidays celebrated along Devon, including Diwali (the Hindu festival of lights), Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan), Christmas, and Hanukkah.

The alderman said the new seating pods also seem to be a hit with residents. “Last night I was driving along Devon and I saw a whole lot of people sitting there enjoying them. So I was like, ‘Wow, that’s really working out.’”

Indeed, when I had visited Devon a few weeks earlier during a warm spell, I saw entire extended families chatting in the seating

areas. On Sunday it was a little chilly for lounging, but Harsha Gadde, a sharply dressed young IT consultant visiting from Milwaukee, was using one of the multicolored screens as a windbreak while he lit a cigarette. He praised the new streetscape, but argued that Devon needs more car parking. “I think every building needs to have some kind of garage,” he said.

Another local merchant I spoke to, who asked to remain anonymous, says she appreciates that the wider sidewalks and bump-outs make walking easier. But she added that since the parking lane has been moved closer to the center of the street, she feels it creates trickier sight lines for drivers turning onto Devon from alleys and side streets.

Pete Valavanis, owner of Cary’s Lounge at 2251 W. Devon, says he’s also heard complaints that the narrower street makes driving more difficult.

“But traffic was bad before, so it doesn’t really make things any worse,” he says. “It does hinder double parking, but people shouldn’t be doing that anyway.” Now that the business district is more pedestrian friendly, Valavanis notes, neighborhood residents will be more likely to walk there instead of driving.

In response to these comments, CDOT spokesman Mike Claffey said that while curbside spots are currently unavailable on some stretches due to construction, there will be no significant long-term loss of spaces, and that, due to the better pedestrian environment, “parking and walking several blocks to one’s destination will become an enjoyable and safe experience.” Moreover, Claffey said, the fact that the narrowed travel lanes deter double parking is a feature, not a defect, because “double parking can cause crashes as well as hinder traffic flow.”

As I spoke with Farooqi, the student in front of the bridal boutique, he noted that this is marriage season in India, which is why the strip was particularly bustling that Sunday afternoon. Indeed, as I passed by a banquet hall, a dozen or so women in gorgeous red, gold, and green saris poured out of a wedding reception. While the new Devon Avenue may be slightly less convenient for drivers, it’s a whole lot safer and more pleasant for people on foot. It’s great that the fashion show that is pedestrian traffic on Devon now has a wider runway. v

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

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 11

CITY LIFE

O

Q&A

Immigration nation

Maria Hinojosa considers Latino power and peril in the first 100 days of Trump.

By ALEX V. HERNANDEZ

Maria Hinojosa o FUTURO MEDIA GROUP / NPR

ver the course of her nearly 30-year career, award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa has covered everything from abuses at immigrant detention centers to Latino voters’ impact on the 2016 presidential election.

Born in Mexico City, she came to the U.S. as a toddler in 1962 and was raised in Hyde Park.

Today, as the longtime host and executive producer of NPR’s Latino USA, Hinojosa delves into every aspect of Latino news and culture.

She has sometimes made headlines herself, as she did in October after confronting a member of Donald Trump’s National Hispanic Advisory Council on live television over his use of the term “illegals” to describe undocumented immigrants. Last year, through her company Futuro Media Group, she launched In the Thick, a new political podcast.

On Thursday, Hinojosa comes to DePaul University, where she serves as the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz chair of Latin American and Latino Studies, for a series of panels on Latinos in America’s political conversation. The Reader talked to Hinojosa by phone last week to hear how she’s been approaching her work since Trump’s election ushered in a political sea change.

A recent segment on Latino USA focused on Denison, Iowa, featured a Mexican immigrant who gained U.S. citizenship in 2013 but supports President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Can you speak about how you’ve been approaching the complexities of Latino communities and issues important to them in the Trump era?

Both Julio Ricardo Varela, who is my [podcast] cohost and is the digital director of Futuro, and myself are political geeks. I’ve been a political reporter since forever. I have spent pretty much the last two months reporting out in the field. I’m trying to understand midwest and heartland voters. I’ve spent a lot of time since the election trying to understand and speaking to a lot of Latinos and Latinas who voted for Trump, and people in general who voted for Trump.

There’s some bigger issues, though, right?

A quarter of Latino voters, more or less, said they were prepared to vote for a third party or a write-in candidate. These were numbers right before the election. And they’re pretty strong numbers. The Democrats’ and Republicans’ ears should be on fire right about now

12 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

if there’s a quarter of Latino voters who are even playing with the idea of going to a third party or write-ins. That’s crazy. Insane. It could shift the entire conversation.

What are your thoughts on President Trump’s first 100 days?

I have thought a lot about Trump’s first 100 days. I’ve thought about the first 100 days of President Barack Obama, and what would have happened if he had delivered immigration reform when he could have. We could have changed the narrative of what happened in the Democratic Party. I don’t know. On the other hand, while there has been this really dark, thunderous, storm-filled cloud, it has a silver lining: people are much more awake, much more woke to what is happening in terms of immigration.

They are not 100 percent woke, because people don’t understand the sentiment on the street in immigrant communities. African, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Korean, Jamaican, all different immigrant communities, are living under a very particular kind of fear.

There are no immediate protests like at the airport, because ICE does its work very effectively. Very early in the morning they are out knocking on people’s doors and taking people away before anyone can even know. I have heard people who have a historical perspective call it a type of Gestapo. . . . It has been happening for years, and it is simply intensifying more under the Trump administration because of his rhetoric and because he is pushing through certain policies. But no one could care less [about these immigrant communities] until now.

“LATINOS: POLITICAL PARTICIPATION? MOBILIZATION? R OR SILENCED AND SET ASIDE?” Thursday May 11, 9:45 AM-1:30 PM, DePaul University, 2324 N. Fremont, bit.ly/2psauc4. F

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CITY LIFE Last month an NPR analysis of immigration data from Trump’s first 100 days in office showed he was able to drastically reduce the flow of immigrants to the U.S., both legal and illegal, without really relying on any new legislation to do so. Like you’re saying, fear seems to be this administration’s most useful tool.

The real question now comes down to data.

You have to look at what happens when you have a shrinkage of the immigrant population and of their engagement with the daily economy. People are saying they’re not leaving the house, not even to go shopping or to go buy things at the corner grocery. They’re not going out to dinner, to the movies. What does it look like when you have people who decide not to come [to the U.S.]? Is this going to make the U.S. economy strong, filled with growth? We’ll see. But obviously this is what a certain part of the electorate believed we needed to do.

You know, all of the data from the National Academy of Sciences, from the Rand Corporation, which is no communist lefty sympathizer asking for open borders, government data from the state of Texas, all of it continually shows that immigration, documented and undocumented, is a net gain to the economy.

Yes, we have to talk about the losers. But overwhelmingly, what’s happening to the American economy with all immigrants is that it’s a boost. So we’ll talk about that, because sadly, it’s still a part of the conversation that much of the mainstream media doesn’t really refer to. They only talk about Latinos and Latinas from the concept of takers. They’re immigrants, they are takers and don’t contribute, and are getting free stuff and don’t speak English. It’s just like, what Latinos are you talking about?

And data also shows that immigrants are much more likely to open a small business than people born in the U.S. I consider myself part of that. I created my own nonprofit media company. I employ 20 people. I am the only Latina that’s running a nonprofit media organization in the United States. We control the narrative of the kind of journalism stories we’re going to tell. We can do that because I took a huge risk and created Futuro. I didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore. I was tired of pitching my sto-

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“While there has been this really dark, thunderous, storm-filled cloud, it has a silver lining: people are much more awake, much more woke to what is happening in terms of immigration.”

—Maria Hinojosa

ries and getting turned down. It was incredibly risky and scary. I didn’t want to go on unemployment, but I didn’t want to work for someone else. So I created this thing. I got my chutzpah from Chicago, which is a very media-heavy town. And I remember consuming media when I was in Hyde Park, but I never saw anyone that was like me. There were no stories about people like me, not even in the Reader, which we read every week. So I allowed myself to see a problem and dream that I could be part of the solution. But my perspective as a Latina, as a Mexican from the south side of Chicago, was completely invisible and unheard in the national narrative.

Well, now I run a company, and we’re doing these stories and this kind of coverage. v

ß@AVHndz

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 13

HOME SWEET HOME FOR THE HOMELESS Inside the dwellings and communities of Chicago’s “homeless” residents Photos by LLOYD DEGRANE | Text by KARI LYDERSEN A FORT CONSTRUCTED of mattress box springs and tree branches woven together; a plastic sign from a salon serving as front door; an elaborate warren of cardboard boxes; an open-air living room with an overstuffed couch; a journal and toiletries arranged neatly on the concrete barrier beneath a highway overpass; Christmas ornaments and tiki torches decorating trees around a tent patched up with duct tape.

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14 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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Opposite: Terry, 59, was one of the last people to leave Rezkoville after security guards gave numerous warnings that the land would be cleared for development. With a patched-up tent, a plastic chair, candy canes hanging from the trees, a gate woven from branches, and a fire burning even in summer, this is where Terry felt at home. “Terry, he just won’t leave!” says his friend Allan, who used to venture into Rezkoville to check on him even after the area was cordoned off.

Right: “Indian Pete,” 51, sits under the Foster Avenue viaduct near the lakefront with his friend Gus, 55. City officials and alderman James Cappleman have long clashed with advocates over attempts to move “homeless” residents from this and other Uptown viaducts. Pete, a member of the Ojibwe tribe, dryly notes that the tile mosaic under the viaduct celebrates Native American heritage.

Angel, 58, was one of many Mexican and Central American men living under the 18th Street bridge just east of the Chicago River between stints working for Chinese restaurants around the midwest. They were sent by local employment agencies that are being sued by the Illinois attorney general. Angel died here on January 20. Under the bridge his friends arranged a memorial altar filled with candles, flowers, and photos and surrounded by several chairs, one with a sign that read in Spanish, “Don’t sit here, this is Angel’s seat.”

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 15

Right: Rhonda and Dan, 39 and 31, came to Chicago from Jamestown, New York, a struggling rust-belt town near Buffalo once known as the furniture capital of America. They used to live in a tent together in Rezkoville, but Rhonda died in June from an infection related to her heroin use. “At the end of the day, back at the tent for the night, just me and Rhonda hanging out, we could just be ourselves,” Dan remembers.

Below: Since Rhonda died and Rezkoville was cleared, Dan has lived behind an electrical box in the Loop and slept on el trains, hoping to get off heroin. “I have to find something else to center my life around,” he said the day after her death.

“It’s like a void. I’m so used to hustling all my waking moments.”

Homeless homes continued from 15 The dwellings of Chicago’s “homeless” reflect just how much effort and creativity people put into making “homes,” whether they’re tucked beneath viaducts, sheltered under trees, obscured behind electric boxes, or hidden in plain sight in downtown alleyways.

These homes lack some of the bedrocks considered most sacred in America: legal ownership, privacy, stability, and the conference of social status. But the diversity and utility of the structures and spaces cobbled together by many of the approximately 6,000 Chicagoans who are chronically homeless—“living outside” as many describe it—also reflect cutting-edge social and architectural concepts.

These are “tiny houses” that make creative and efficient use of space while consuming minimal resources. Discarded materials are reused and recycled. Existing features like trees, bridges, and concrete pipes become

16 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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Left: Gene, 62, was known by some as the “mayor” of Rezkoville, where he had a large tent surrounded by neighbors. After the land was cleared, he moved to the site of abandoned grain elevators on the Chicago River—farther away from downtown than most Rezkoville residents wanted to stray.

Below: Ross and Joanna, both in their 20s, in their friend’s Rezkoville fort, an elaborate structure made out of mattress box springs, tree branches, and other materials, where they often cooked elaborate meals over an open fire. Others frequently wanted to move in with them, but they were selective about whom they allowed into their property.

part of the structure. People share and work together in tight-knit communities. They are urban gardeners, foragers, crafters, and artists.

Many of the dynamics and challenges faced by home owners and renters also play out in “homeless” neighborhoods.

There are trade-offs between convenience and comfort. Countless leafy vacant lots and abandoned buildings are available on the south and west sides, but many choose to live on Lower Wacker Drive or sidewalks and nooks in the Loop to be close to prime panhandling turf and social services.

Those living on Lower Wacker and highway underpasses are constantly exposed to harmful diesel emissions and loud noise, just like the many front-line environmental justice communities located alongside Chicago’s freeways and railroads. (Meanwhile residents of Lower Wacker have an extra respiratory J

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 17

Homeless homes continued from 17 problem: pigeon guano dust that swirls in the air and piles up on every built surface.)

Gentrification and development also affect homeless communities. For example, since last summer, new construction has meant scores of people evicted from a tent city along the river south of Harrison Street and from Rezkoville, the 62-acre formerly wooded parcel south of Roosevelt Road.

Homeless communities are often just as segregated as Chicago neighborhoods too.

Homeless encampments are often all AfricanAmerican or made up entirely of young white suburban heroin users—the new face of homelessness.

But some clusters of homeless people are strikingly diverse, and the level of cooperation and solidarity necessary to survive presents a sharp contrast to the many Chicago apartment buildings and residential blocks where

Above: Although some people have lived on Lower Wacker Drive for years, many of its current occupants are transitory. “This is where I stay right now, but the next time you come back you won’t see me around here,” says Cookie, a woman in her mid-50s, as traffic whizzes by the low wall where someone has scrawled THIS TOO SHALL PASS. “I keep moving all the time.”

Right: “The person I stay with in the tent, he’s always at me about why I act so tough, why I don’t cry,” says Valerie, 30, who lives in a tent along the Chicago River north of Harrison. “When you’re out in the streets . . . you can’t be the weakest link. You cannot be the crybaby.

You cannot be the vulnerable one. You can’t be a woman on the streets. You have to be a man, more or less.”

18 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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people don’t know their neighbors and rarely interact.

Living outside—in a tent or shack, on a bedroll, under a bridge, or behind a barrier— is hardly an ideal existence. It means a constant risk of displacement, derision, violence, exposure to the elements, and environmental pollution, not to mention the toll of mental illness, substance abuse, and other problems that led people to become homeless in the first place.

But the ingenuity, fastidiousness, pride, and resilience that are poured into creating homes in the most undesirable and transient of places asks one to reconsider the very meaning of a “home.” v This project was supported by a grant from the Social Justice News Nexus at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

Above: Joshua Smith, a medical student at the University of Illinois, checks on Lucy and Ricki, 28 and 31, as part of his rounds with the Night Ministry. The pair have been together since they were teenagers, and won’t move to a shelter or go to rehab because it would mean being apart.

They dream of getting an apartment, but for now call a tent or the streets their home.

Left: Hailing from the west side, Lavelle, 57, now lives on Lower Wacker and panhandles “up top.” He needs a cane and wheelchair to get around and struggles up the Michigan Avenue stairs, but is scrupulous about keeping his spot clean, sweeping it several times a day.

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 19

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ARTS & CULTURE EDUCATION

Is there a race problem at UIC’s College of Education?

By DEANNA ISAACS

U

IC professor Therese Quinn lobbed a little bomb at her alma mater, the UIC College of Education, last week.

The college had selected Quinn, who teaches in UIC’s School of Art and Art History and heads its program in Museum and Exhibition Studies, as an honored alumnus. She would participate in this year’s commencement ceremony (held May 4) and receive an award at a College of Education gala benefit event the following night.

The plans didn’t allow for the honorees to speak, however. The college said it had dropped the usual time for speeches to allow everyone to “network.” And that bothered Quinn, who had something important to say.

Quinn says students and faculty in the College of Education had asked her if she’d use her moment in the spotlight to call attention to problems in the college’s pioneering Urban Education program, the four-year undergraduate major for elementary school teachers.

The Urban Education program has a primary goal of recruiting students who’ve come through city schools and preparing them to go back into those schools as highly qualified teachers and inspiring role models. In Chicago, that means more Latinx and black teachers and especially more males of color.

But a UIC group calling itself the Decolonize Education Coalition says the college is doing the opposite: pushing students of color, especially black students, out of the Urban Education program. They say the college fails to prepare the students for increasingly difficult state tests for licensure, and then redirects them to a Human Development and Learning program that keeps them in the College of Education for four years without qualifying them to teach. According to statements on the group’s Tumblr, their attempts to get the administration to address these issues have mostly been met with “a culture of silencing.”

Quinn, who earned a PhD in the college’s once-celebrated Curriculum Studies program,

says these charges are particularly galling in light of the college’s mission-driven commitment to educational equity. When she learned that she’d be effectively gagged at the ceremony honoring her, she decided the best way to bring attention to these issues would be to decline the honor.

“Accepting the award and participating in related events would be an implicit endorsement of the COE, and based on the evidence offered by current students, that validation is not warranted,” she wrote in a “thank you, but no thank you” open letter.

“The COE seems to have abandoned its commitment to the preparation of Black and other teachers of color,” Quinn noted, citing low numbers admitted and retained, a lack of institutional support to get them through licensure, and what she called a “devastating” strategy of “bait-and-switch” into a “non-certification undergraduate program with no clear employment pathway.”

She also pointed to a drop in students of color in the college’s PhD programs, and the end of a policy of “conditional acceptance” for students who can’t yet meet the state requirements, observing that the only way she herself got into the COE graduate school was through such a conditional admittance. In addition, she charged, the college “has nearly decimated and seems determined to destroy Curriculum Studies,” whose faculty formerly included William Watkins and Bill Ayers.

The letter got attention. In an interview last week, College of Education dean Alfred Tatum told me he recently reversed himself on what Quinn called “conditional acceptance,” bowing to “pushback” from his faculty and restoring a longer time frame for students trying to meet the state requirements. And while he says there’s a “large percentage of Latinas” in the Urban Education program, he agrees that the number of black students is small. In last week’s Urban Education graduating class of 47, for example, 27 were students of color, but

UIC College of Education dean Alfred Tatum o JENNY FONTAINE/ UIC OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

only four were African-American. None were African-American and male.

“It is dismal, the number of AfricanAmerican teachers we are recruiting and graduating annually,” Tatum says.

But, he adds, it’s not a problem unique to UIC. Tatum says the shrinking proportion of black teachers and especially a near absence of black men in elementary education is a national dilemma. “A lot of our young men find school to be a hostile place. They don’t see the power of being a male teacher, and in many cases have not experienced it. And the assault on public education has been so intense that the idea of becoming a teacher is devalued.”

At the same time, he notes, “everyone’s trying to diversify.” The highest-performing students, especially black men, are also being recruited by the Colleges of Engineering, Business, and Medicine. “Even if I open these doors wide, and provide supports, we have not seen men rushing in,” he says.

According to Tatum, it was necessary to “rightsize” PhD cohorts at the college, which “all have fewer students now,” while programs like Curriculum Studies are having to “align with the college’s growth orientation.”

And about those state requirements, which faculty members say are keeping some great potential teachers out of the profession and should be challenged? Tatum said in an update this week that he and other deans “feel that Colleges of Education are in better positions [than the state] to assess students’ readiness and preparation.”

Meanwhile, “We’re now looking at ways to provide additional supports,” he said. “We’re not a perfect place, but we’re striving through our imperfections.” v

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ARTS & CULTURE Marinda Anderson in Airness o BILL BRYMER

THEATER

Tomorrow’s seasons today

By TONY ADLER

I

missed the 40th annual new plays festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville last year—just like I missed the 39 before it. So I made time this spring for the 41st edition of what’s officially known as the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Louisville’s not that far away, after all, it’s never short of bourbon, and the event itself attracts talent. Playwrights from old master Marsha Norman (Getting Out, 1978) to hot millennial Lucas Hnath (The Christians, 2014) have had their work shown there.

The festival (which ended April 9) isn’t known for pushing the envelope. It excels at releasing new scripts into the mainstream.

That Hnath play, The Christians, went from Louisville to New York’s Playwrights Horizons, and from there to Steppenwolf Theatre.

This, in short, is the place to see tomorrow’s subscription-season selections today.

Of the five entries I saw, the one I most look forward to finding on some local company’s

season roster is Chelsea Marcantel’s Airness, a sweet-natured, even cornball, look at competitive air guitarists. There’s a plot involving newbie Nina, who’s got ulterior motives for joining the coast-to-coast round of regional competitions leading to the national championship. But the beating heart of the piece is the tiny counterculture inhabited by her oddball peers—a band of losers with exalted noms-de-air like Golden Thunder, Shreddy Eddy, Facebender, and Cannibal Queen.

Given the conventions governing stories like this one, it goes without saying that the airistas are hiding their hurt and doing their best to evade adulthood, that Nina will find an unexpected sense of community among them, and that reigning champ D Vicious will get his comeuppance for selling out by endorsing Sprite. What makes Airness’s banalities easy to take is the luxurious amount of room Marcantel opens up around them, to be filled with dignity and delight. Her char-

acters have self-awareness and honor—plus righteous skills. The next-biggest pleasure after getting to know them is watching them go creatively nuts to tracks by groups ranging from the Ramones to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Nothing else I saw offered the unmitigated pleasure of Airness, but a few will certainly enjoy Louisville afterlives if only because they fit neatly into the Trump-era imperative for socially aware programming at American theaters.

The most successful of them is Cry It Out, Molly Smith Metzler’s diagrammatic but also smart and pointed disquisition on the status of women in the current economic order, as illustrated by three young white mothers of three distinct classes, residing in close proximity to one another on Long Island. Jessie is a corporate lawyer whose people-pleasing inclinations appear to have put her at odds with her jugular-biting profession. Loving her maternity leave, she longs to remain on the mommy track. In the duplex across from her lives Lina, a hospital worker full of earthy prole bonhomie, also taking maternity leave but lacking the means even to fantasize about staying home for good. In the (presumably brooding) mansion on the bluff above them seethes haute jewelry designer Adrian, locked in a war with her equally successful husband (Mitchell, the only man we see) over how to handle life with a newborn.

Remarkably little actually happens in Cry It Out, and more often than not it plays out as a contemporary comedy of manners (the difference between Jessie and Lina in a nutshell: Jessie read the novel Room, Lina saw the movie). But by the time she’s done, Metzler has made a compelling case for the notion that, when it comes to motherhood these days, there’s no such thing as a good choice.

As for the other three shows I saw: Basil Kreimendahl’s energetically goofy We’re Gonna Be Okay is, as the title implies, less a play than a theatrical act of wish fulfillment, positing gender fluidity triumphant during the Cuban missile crisis. Jorge Ignacio Cortiña’s Recent Alien Abductions attempts to explore a psyche devastated by abuse, only to be undermined by narrative implausibilities and poor structural choices. Tasha Gordon-Solomon’s I Now Pronounce, finally, constitutes the only complete disaster: a failed farce in which a rabbi dies cute while presiding over a wedding. You can judge for yourself, though, since somebody’s likely to stage even that. v

THEATER

Home on the stage

By ASHLEY RAY-HARRIS

I

n a city segregated by race and class, one theater festival hopes to create meaningful relationships across identities and locations: the Chicago Home Theater Festival, a 15-day event running from May 14 to May 29. This year, the series takes place in 14 different Chicago neighborhoods. Unlike theater festivals that rely on established performing arts venues, CHTF takes place entirely in the homes of artists and activists throughout the city. Hosts open their residences to complete strangers in order to share a meal, experience performances rooted in social justice, and introduce community outreach organizations to audiences in an attempt to encourage involvement after the show.

The CHTF was created largely to disrupt the traditional theater experience, inspired by the International Home Theater Festival, founded

by Philip Huang in Berkeley, California, in 2010. Huang launched the fest as a way to reclaim domestic spaces (as opposed to major institutions or galleries, which often work as middlemen and cut profits from artists) for cultural organizing. In 2012, local director Laley Lippard, actor Blake Russell, and artist and educator Irina Zadov decided to bring Huang’s mission to Chicago; they saw an opportunity to address the city’s unique issues surrounding art and segregation. Conducted annually during the past five years, the CHTF has organized more than 500 artists across 25 different neighborhoods overall. Initially the organizers simply sought to introduce audiences to new neighborhoods and redraw artistic maps in the city by shedding light on the artistic efforts of often-overlooked communities.

This year, however, is the festival’s most ambitious undertaking yet. Lippard and Zadov have partnered with the Hyde Park Art Center, Sixty Inches From Center, City Bureau, the Chicago Park District, and StoryCorps to create a Neighborhood Field Guide Project. Performances will begin with tours, which start at designated CTA train and bus stops and lead to the host’s home, in the process surveying neighborhoods ranging from Edgewater to

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 21

22 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

A Chicago Home Theater Festival performance in Austin, 2016 o EE DAHAHM

CHTF continued from 21 Austin to Englewood. The field guides will feature oral histories, maps, collages, and interviews with community members each night.

“That is the foundation of the Chicago Home Theater Festival,” Lippard explains over the phone. “The neighborhood is the inspiration point for a lot of the work that the artists are making. The neighborhood and space is just as important a voice as the artists, hosts, and homes that the audience enters. An audience getting an understanding of a neighborhood from either activists, artists, or leaders in that community is so important. To smell the neighborhood, to talk to the neighbors . . . We want to give you a real sense of what it’s like to find your body in that space.”

Zadov believes the expanded goals of this year’s edition of CHTF encouraged organizers to think differently about how access works in the city. The hope is to take CHTF beyond the artwork produced within the run of the festival itself and give audiences the tools to build relationships with community members, local activists, and businesses. “In year five, everything we do is incredibly intersectional, and we really thought about accessibility in a lot of different ways,” Zadov says. “The leadership of women, queer folks, people of color, and artists with disabilities are really at the forefront of decision making at every single point of the festival.”

CHTF asks audiences to see who occupies the homes around them and why, but organizers also want people to examine which communities may lack such access, focusing on the “physical, political, economic, and cultural structures that prevent or dissuade equal access to spaces,” according to their vision statement. Five of the festival’s event locations are wheelchair accessible, and closed captioning will be available upon request every night.

Additionally, CHTF offers artists a platform to do work that combines social justice with vulnerability, action, and courage. “We’re really focused on creating structures that allow for our audience members, as well as the artists, to really invest in one another’s communities,” Zadov explains. “This is a really

condensed opportunity to get into community organizing and build relationships with people. We really have a solid foundation of care, advocacy, and resistance that fuels the creative work this year.”

The diverse roster of artists involved in this year’s CHTF demonstrates that event organizers and artists took their goals seriously.

Rapper-poet Mykele Deville will lead “a night of radical nourishment, immersive installation, performance, and soundscape engaging issues of forced migration and gentrification” in his Pilsen home, according to the festival’s program guide. In Humboldt Park, the codirectors of event and coworking space Reunion, Elijah McKinnon and Kristen Kaza, are opening their venue to feature performances by Alejandra Frausto, Darling Shear, and Tasha Viets-VanLear that celebrate family, femininity, ritual, and reflection. WBEZ reporter and author Natalie Y. Moore’s Hyde Park home will be transformed into a performance space for DJs, spoken word, and youth theater. CHTF will even put on an artist-led block party that examines immigrant and refugee narratives through gardening and dance, starting in the Albany Park home of theater director Giau Minh Truong.

Well-known art spaces and neighborhoods like Logan Square and Wicker Park are nowhere to be seen on the festival’s list of events. CHTF’s dedication to neighbors, local businesses, and community organizers discourages voyeurism and asks audiences to get involved. During our conversation, Zadov put it succinctly: “How do we build relationships with community members and local activists?” she asked. “How do we make sure that after people leave the neighborhood it’s not just ‘Oh, I had this amazing experience in Englewood!’ but ‘Oh, I actually have relationships with people who live there, I am aware of organizations, I want to contribute’? We want to give people tools and connections to take action when the time is needed.” v R CHICAGO HOME THEATER FESTIVAL 5/14-5/29: various venues and times, chicagohtf.org, festival passes and tickets available on an income-based sliding scale.

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ARTS & CULTURE

VISUAL ART

New Dine, new warehouse

By KATE SIERZPUTOWSKI

L

ooking at the Present: Recent Works

by Jim Dine,” at Richard Gray Gallery’s newly opened warehouse space in West Town, presents a series of figurative paintings made within the last two years. Earlier in his career, Dine was famous for his depictions of objects such as robes, tools, and especially hearts, but before “Looking at the Present” he’d spent several years working in a purely abstract style. The more recent pieces present a subtle return to the body, undefined figures and faces ground into the surface with power tools and a thick application of sand-mixed acrylic and oil paint. And the nine large-scale paintings ideally inaugurate Richard Gray’s 5,000-squarefoot space, a setting that provides room to take in the darker tone set by Dine’s thickly painted skulls, twisted bodies, and even his own head.

During Dine’s five-decade-plus career his practice has also included sculpture, printmaking, poetry, and performance, the last of which is the area where the 82-year-old artist received his first praise. Dine was one of several artists initially involved in New York City’s happenings in the 1960s—spontaneous performances that blurred the line between performer and viewer—with contemporaries such as Claes Oldenburg and Robert Whitman.

But Dine has been most closely associated with his paintings, where he works with recognizable and personal imagery largely originating from his childhood experiences in his family’s hardware store in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Jim Dine, Errant Rays and Seeds Escaping, 2015-16 o TOM VANEYNDE/RICHARD GRAY GALLERY

Despite the breadth of subject matter and mediums that Dine has covered in more than 300 international solo exhibitions, his material has always maintained a com mon theme. As he ex pla ined to me, “I’ve always viewed my work as selfportraits, no matter what it’s been.” A more direct interpretation of this selfassessment can be seen in the use of his own bald head, which appears directly in the middle of more than half of the paintings in “Looking at the Present,” such as in Red Eye (2016). A simplified representation of the artist’s likeness is found at the center of the canvas, a self-portrait that seems to illuminate the background imagery of solemn faces with an intense red glow. But Dine doesn’t view his head as more intimate or personal than other items he could’ve selected.

“It occurred to me that my head is, for me, iconic, since I have looked at it for 82 years,” Dine says. “It was easy to translate it into a kind of matrix to put the paint on. I thought it was as good as anything else. I could have used my dog too. . . . When I painted that I didn’t know what I had, but I had found it so I didn’t move from it. It found me.”

Dine explained that his process is much more physical than it has been in previous decades. His gritty formula of sand and paint sits at the base of his paintings; Dine then uses sanders and other power tools to produce a sculptural surface, cutting divets and sanding down the applied paint into a rougher field of textures. This technique of application and

erasure is common in his work regardless of medium, the artist creating a painting, poem, or sculpture and then continuing to destroy and rebuild additional parts of it until he deems it complete.

The largest painting in “Looking at the Present” is nearly 19 feet wide, and many others are more than seven, so it was imperative for the works to be given lots of space and for the exhibit not to appear overcrowded. Richard Gray’s three-story warehouse gallery avoids that predicament, providing room for the sizable artworks. The new venue dwarfs its John Hancock-based alternate; the warehouse is charming, with exposed rafters and skylights that resemble a cathedral. Yet the West Town location also feels institutional—its expansiveness can only be matched by museums, not by other local, more modest commercial galleries. The room is ideal for Dine’s contributions, but could potentially overwhelm the efforts of artists who operate on a smaller scale.

Gallery partners Paul Gray and Valerie Carberry are excited to see how their new space might create exhibition opportunities for their roster of blue-chip artists. “We were looking for a space that would be able to accommodate as many possibilities as we could imagine, and would in fact push artists to think about what they do and how they do it,” Gray says. “We wanted a space that would impose as few restrictions as possible. I think a really good space, like this one, elevates your sense of perception.”

The build-out for the new venue was conducted by Wheeler Kearns Architects, the firm that completed the construction of Richard Gray’s Streeterville space. An outdoor garden in the back of the gallery—a strip located directly below the Metra tracks that are behind the building—currently resembles a rock garden rather than a blossoming landscape.

Although the garden is relatively small, the potential for outdoor programming and artistic collaboration for future exhibitions is attractive, and something that would be impossible at Richard Gray’s other location, 38 floors above Michigan Avenue.

It’s here, at the back of the gallery, that Dine has laid out My Portrait, a poem written in a mixture of charcoal, acrylic paint, and resin sealant on the cement wall facing Richard Gray’s door. “This is me / running after my portrait / This is how I remember / (portraits) / This is the memory / This is me / running after / myself (portraits).” Although Dine wrote My Portrait years before “Looking at the Present,” the text speaks directly to what’s in the show.

It softly elucidates in eight short lines how even after 50 years Dine is first and foremost preserving himself in his practice, still chasing how he might represent a bit of himself in each of his artworks. v R “LOOKING AT THE PRESENT: RECENT WORKS BY JIM DINE” Through 6/10: Wed-Sat 11 AM-5 PM, Richard Gray Gallery, Gray Warehouse, 2044 W. Carroll, 312883-8277, richardgraygallery.com. F

ß @KateSierz MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 23

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ARTS & CULTURE

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M

ost good documentaries are powered by conflict, and you couldn’t ask for a struggle more elemental or relevant to our time than the one chronicled in Citizen Jane: Battle for the City. Director Matt Tyrnauer revisits the ongoing contest in the 1950s and ’60s between Jane Jacobs, the populist author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and Robert Moses, the imperious master builder of New York City, who championed massive tower blocks and expressways in his plans to modernize Manhattan. For ten years Jacobs was a thorn in Moses’s side, helping lead the charge against him when he wanted to demolish Washington Square Park for a highway extension, or raze parts of the West Village as part of an urban renewal project, or destroy much of historic SoHo to construct a lower Manhattan expressway. The last of these battles, in 1964, was so fiery it helped drive Jacobs out of New York and Moses out of public life.

This David-and-Goliath story keeps the movie rolling, but Citizen Jane is more valuable

for its unpacking of the various ideas Jacobs introduced into the public debate over civic renewal. During a period when modernistinspired city planners were green-lighting monolithic development complexes, she argued for a more organic approach springing from the needs and desires of people who actually used the city. Tyrnauer opens with dazzling aerial shots of the world’s great cities at night; meanwhile, his interview subjects sketch a 21st century of rapidly accelerating urbanization that only intensifies the need for wise planning and development. Time has proven Jacobs right in many instances, and Moses spectacularly wrong, but Citizen Jane, to its credit, leaves you wondering less about their era than about our own, and how history will judge the decisions we make about our cities today.

Jacobs got her start as a journalist, and she brought to the topic of urban planning an ability to observe and to question assumptions, skills she found lacking in many of the buttoned-down professionals she met. As a

reporter for Architectural Forum she wrote positive stories about urban renewal projects but, as the projects were built and opened, began to realize they weren’t functioning as predicted. “Why did stores that looked very cheerful and were supposed to be doing a great, booming business in the plans actually go empty or languish?” she asks in one of the movie’s audio clips. “I would bring this question to the people who had been responsible for the planning of these places, and I got quite a lot of alibis, boiling down to ‘People are stupid. They don’t do what they’re supposed to do.’” When Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities in 1961, she was attacked as an unschooled amateur, but the book was grounded in observed fact and common sense, and it delivered a powerful counterpoint to the kind of social engineering practiced by Moses.

In Cities, Jacob traced many of her complaints about postwar urban planning to the French modernist architect Le Corbusier, whose Radiant City, a utopian vision of high-

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rise office blocks and ample green spaces, had helped inspire America’s postwar suburban sprawl. Corbusier’s innovation was to preserve green space by thrusting office space upward into the sky, but as Jacobs points out in the book, his Radiant City made no provision for automobiles, so in developments inspired by his work the parks invariably wound up as parking lots. As architect Robert A.M. Stern notes in Citizen Jane, Le Corbusier’s idea for high-rise office towers was bastardized by U.S. developers, who exploited its low-cost, high-profit model to erect countless high-rise apartment buildings and, even worse, public housing projects. The drawbacks of such projects—which isolated residents, stifled community life, and bred violent crime—wouldn’t become clear to the public until the 1970s.

Arrogant and paternalistic, Moses embraced the Corbusier model as a futuristic solution to the squalor of slum life, but Jacobs rejected this mind-set, seeing the city not as a collection of buildings but as a collection of people, a social ecosystem with an innate genius for correcting its own problems. With Cities she popularized the idea of “eyes on the street,” arguing that public safety comes less from the police than from neighbors who keep an eye on each other and incoming strangers; these eyes create a “public realm” where civic virtue is enforced by common consent. Moses and Le Corbusier preached a gospel of uniformity, but Jacobs argued that diversity was the key to a healthy city district: the area must have multiple primary uses and a variety of businesses that keep the streets busy past nightfall. Moses was disgusted by the “stoop culture” of the slums, but for Jacobs this was the social fabric that kept the community alive.

Tyrnauer calls on a variety of professionals—physicist Geoffrey West, architecture critic Paul Goldberger, historian Thomas J. Campanella, urban planner Alexander Garvin—to explain the theoretical landscape Jacobs encountered and the radical impact of her thinking. But the second half of Citizen Jane is nearly all action and tumult, as she and fellow activists battle Moses’s grand plans for Manhattan. In 1958 the city announced a southward extension of Fifth Avenue right through Washington Square Park, where Jacobs had taken her own children to play.

Archival footage shows the park teeming with life—old men playing chess, kids romping on swings, young people linking arms for ethnic

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dancing, beatniks jamming on banjo and guitar. Jacobs was instrumental in the public campaign that defeated the measure, and three years later, after Moses, as commissioner of housing, designated 16 blocks of the West Village for slum clearance, she organized her neighbors in a torrent of protest, petition, and legal challenge that persuaded Mayor Robert F. Wagner to reverse the designation.

Citizen Jane climaxes with the battle over Moses’s plan for a lower Manhattan expressway, which would’ve cleared away entire sections of SoHo, with its historic collection of 19th-century cast-iron buildings.

In footage from a 1964 promotional film for the expressway, a narrator decries the area’s traffic congestion and derides the neighborhood as stagnant and useless. But the public outcry was impossible to ignore. “I think it’s wicked, in a way, to be a victim,” Jacobs says in a TV interview. “It’s even wickeder to be a predator, but it’s wicked to be a victim and allow it.” By the end of the decade the project had been decisively laid to rest and Moses had fallen from grace politically (he died in 1981). But Jacobs had left the field of battle too: in 1968, weary of civic activism and eager to protect her grown son from the military draft, she moved to Toronto to concentrate on her writing and produced six more books (she died in 2006).

Fifty years ago, Moses was regarded as one of the titans of New York, and Jacobs was just some mouthy woman who’d written a book.

Only the advent of climate change and the crisis of CO2 emissions from automobiles has elevated Jacobs to her stature in Citizen Jane as Moses’s equal antagonist. Moses devoted all his intellectual energies toward making New York work for cars; Jacobs wanted to make cities work for people on foot, who could be part of the cityscape instead of sealing themselves up in their autos and zipping through it.

Her primary concern was social engagement, but she turned out to be on the right side of science as the intricate highway systems built

by Moses and his followers became an instrument of our own destruction. Back in the 60s, these tangled ribbons of concrete had the power to erase the past; now they’re erasing the future as well. v CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY sss Directed by Matt Tyrnauer.

93 min. Fri 5/12–Thu 5/18, Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2800, siskelfilmcenter.org, $11.

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MUSIC

International Anthem founders David Allen and Scott McNiece at the label’s offices in Bridgeport’s Co-Prosperity Sphere o JIAYUE YU

International Anthem brings punk idealism to progressive jazz This Chicago label puts in the sweat to get its artists the audiences they deserve.

By PETER MARGASAK

J

ust about everything Scott McNiece has put his heart into since high school has revolved around music: playing in bands, organizing shows, putting out records. Like most people with such obsessions, he’s had to work straight jobs to pay the bills. In 2010 he became a food runner at Gilt Bar, the first business in the sprawling Hogsalt Hospitality empire built by restaurateur Brendan Sodikoff—and after learning that McNiece was a musician, Sodikoff asked for advice about the music piped into the restaurant. For fun, McNiece began creating digital playlists for Gilt Bar. As Sodikoff opened other spots over

26 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

the next couple years—including Maude’s Liquor Bar, Au Cheval, and Bavette’s—McNiece added playlists for them, and what began as a hobby turned into a job. With Hogsalt as his first client, he launched Uncanned Music in 2012, a full-time business that supplies background soundtracks to a growing list of local bars and restaurants.

It wasn’t the first time McNiece had seized an unlooked-for chance rather than pursuing a plan, and it wouldn’t be the last. Thanks to a similar happenstance, he and his old friend David Allen are now running one of the most innovative, aesthetically savvy, and open-minded record labels in Chicago.

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Launched in December 2014, International Anthem has released a dozen titles, focusing on adventurous but generally accessible jazz—some of it groove oriented, some relatively traditional, some more abstract. The albums’ beautifully designed packaging—with Japanese-inspired obi strips on the LPs—has helped International Anthem find a foothold in the increasingly atomized music marketplace, and the label’s unflagging support for its artists has not only helped raise their profiles but has also attracted much-deserved outside attention to the Chicago scene.

The ball started rolling in summer 2011, when jazz drummer Ian Springer stopped

by Curio, the basement bar beneath Gilt Bar. He didn’t know McNiece, but he liked the room and mentioned that it seemed ideal for live jazz. McNiece didn’t consider himself a jazz person, but with Sodikoff’s blessing, he invited Springer to bring in other musicians to play shows.

McNiece had moved to Chicago in 2009 from Bloomington, Indiana, with his postpunk band Prizzy Prizzy Please, and he felt more at home in DIY punk than in jazz. “I had some Blue Note standards and I loved Mingus, but I wasn’t really deep on it,” he says. That was already starting to change, though, and it soon led him to start booking jazz at Curio himself.

McNiece was living in Roscoe Village at the time, and on a Sunday in February 2011 he’d popped into the Hungry Brain—to him, it was nothing more than a bar in the neighborhood that he hadn’t yet checked out. Of course, the Brain had been presenting free jazz and progressive improvised music since 2001, and it was hosting a show that night with a group that included trumpeter Jaimie Branch and alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella. McNiece got fired up about what he saw and heard—the energy and vibe felt vital to him, and anchored in a grassroots community that reminded him of the underground punk scene.

He’d been exposed to very little jazz in Bloomington—he remembers seeing respected pianist and educator David Baker—and it hadn’t spoken to him then. The music at the Brain was different, though, and McNiece was immediately hooked. “Once I realized it was a thing here, it kind of flipped me out,” he says.

“I started getting thirsty for it. I started going regularly and following all of the Umbrella Music shows on the Internet, going to the Skylark and Elastic and the Hideout.”

In August 2011, after Springer had been playing at Curio for about a month, McNiece shifted gears to launch a weekly Monday-night

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MUSIC IARC009 Jeff Parker, The New Breed Imaginative and versatile guitarist Jeff Parker, known for his work in Tortoise, explores a dynamic mix of limber jazz and hip-hopderived grooves.

IARC011 Jaimie Branch, Fly or Die On her long-overdue debut album, protean trumpeter Jaimie Branch leads a group of current and former Chicagoans.

IARC012 Hear in Now, Not Living in Fear Transatlantic string trio Hear in Now (cellist Tomeka Reid, New York violinist Mazz Swift, and Italian bassist Silvia Bolognesi) melds jazz, classical, and folk with crisp improvisational rigor.

IARC003 Makaya McCraven, In the Moment Adventurous drummer Makaya McCraven turns studio beat maker, expertly melding group improvisations and propulsive rhythmic landscapes.

IARC008 Rob Mazurek & Emmett Kelly, Alien Flower Sutra The unusual pairing of cornetist and sound artist Rob Mazurek and singer-guitarist Emmett Kelly (of Cairo Gang fame) delivers spacey explorations marked by lyrical tenderness.

series, Trio in Curio, as an outlet for his new fascination. The first group he booked after taking over included bassist Anton Hatwich and drummer Dylan Ryan, and though he knew it’d be a while before he could find his way around the local scene, Hatwich gave him some encouragement to keep going. “I remember him saying something to the effect of, ‘Don’t worry, you guys are paying decent guarantees for free improvising—the cats will find out and be calling you in no time.’”

Meanwhile McNiece continued down the rabbit hole, using liner notes to lead him from one musician to another. “I was going to see stuff every night I could, reading, going to Jazz Record Mart, learning about the AACM—Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton,” he says. It took years, but eventually that passion would give birth to International Anthem. This Saturday, May 13, the label celebrates its newest release, Not Living in Fear by string trio Hear in Now, with a show at Constellation. (It’s part of the annual Chicago Jazz String Summit, organized by the group’s cellist, Tomeka Reid.)

It follows critically acclaimed albums by the likes of drummer Makaya McCraven, guitarist Jeff Parker, cornetist Rob Mazurek, and trumpeter Jaimie Branch.

Mazzarella was one of the first to perform at the Curio series, leading a trio with Hatwich and drummer Frank Rosaly, and he convinced McNiece to start booking artists for extended runs instead of switching up each week. “One night I told him about how the trio used to have a monthly gig at the Morseland, how it served as a workshop to develop new material and ultimately led to the recording of our first album, Aviary,” says Mazzarella. “I explained how valuable I thought a steady performance engagement could be in the creation of new work.

He took it to heart and offered me a monthlong weekly residency at Gilt Bar in July 2012.”

That residency led to others, including one that would produce the music on International Anthem’s eventual first release. Trio in Curio wrapped up in December 2012 with a month of weekly shows by Mazurek, bassist Matt Lux, and drummer Mikel Avery. “I had attended a few concerts there before and thought the room splendid for some minimal music ideas I was working on at the time,” Mazurek says.

“With the vaulted brick ceilings and acoustics of the space, it was perfect to record. I felt an immediate compatibility and friendship with Scottie, so we played the concerts and recorded everything to great effect.”

Those concerts were the first that McNiece recorded. For the first he used a handheld J

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MUSIC International Anthem continued from 27

device, and for the second his friend Dave Vettraino brought a more sophisticated digital setup. For the final concert of the residency McNiece convinced Allen, who’d already gotten involved in Uncanned Music’s playlist business, to travel from Carbondale to record the show on quarter-inch four-track tape.

“It was pretty obvious to us right away that we wanted to put that music out,” says McNiece. He and Allen would eventually release it as the album Alternate Moon Cycles, but it took them two years.

In the meantime, McNiece continued to run a jazz series at Bar Deville, which he’d started in September 2012 (and overlapped briefly with Trio in Curio). Then in January 2013 the Bedford extended him an invitation to do regular bookings, which allowed him to offer an extended engagement to Curio alum Makaya McCraven.

“We both drew inspiration from the Rodan series that Jeff Parker and Josh Abrams had been holding down for some time,” says McCraven. “The concept was to bring creative music into different types of spaces with

younger and broader audiences, while trying to create the space and opportunity for the scene to grow and flourish.” McCraven didn’t play every week, but he appeared more often than anyone else—and Vettraino recorded every session during McNiece’s run at the Bedford, which ended in April 2014. (Leroy Bach kept the series going for a bit.)

Over the course of his residency, McCraven developed the idea of editing together the live recordings into an album, using samples, loops, and collages in an extensive postproduction process.

“Originally recording every week was more for documentation and using the weekly sessions for a potential release or a writing tool,” McCraven says. “My concept for the music was ‘spontaneous composition’ that could stretch from more avant-garde to groove based. We knew we were going to use the recordings in some manner, but it was open ended. At first we were also doing a weekly Soundcloud post for marketing purposes. During this period I was getting deeper into Ableton production, editing and sampling other recordings I had.

When I played them some of the tracks, they

were very encouraging and supportive of my creative process, and I regularly checked in with different pieces I was working on for feedback.”

The studio creations McCraven assembled from the Bedford sets would end up on his album In the Moment in January 2015. By spring 2013, when McNiece and Allen began mixing and mastering their recordings of Mazurek and McCraven (as well as a solo album by art-rock singer Rob Jacobs of Wei Zhongle), they were dead set on launching a label. They coined the name International Anthem (McNiece liked the way it evoked “the simple concept of diversity unified by music”), and in August 2014 they launched a Kickstarter campaign.

McNiece was initially wary of asking the public for money, but he talked himself into it. “I thought a more positive way to look at it was like being vetted—does your concept do anything for the community?” The community seemed to think so, and the campaign raised $15,000. That wasn’t quite enough to cover the costs of those first three releases, which included lavish vinyl pressings, but McNiece and Allen were already prepared to divert some of

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Uncanned Music’s profits to fund International Anthem.

The label’s releases quickly attracted attention—particularly McCraven’s album, which gained the support of tastemaking British DJ Gilles Peterson. In a little more than two years, International Anthem has re-pressed the vinyl edition of In the Moment three times and the CD version twice, accounting for nearly 3,500 physical sales—a healthy number these days for a jazz album, without even considering digital sales.

The success McNiece and Allen had achieved with McCraven’s record didn’t escape the notice of guitarist Jeff Parker, who’d played on some of the drummer’s Bedford shows. For years he’d been wanting to make an album incorporating electronic beats and samples, and he thought International Anthem might provide such an effort a good home. “I’d met Scottie from working with him on gigs at Gilt Bar, the Bedford, and Trenchermen,” Parker says. “I gathered that he was really into vinyl, and he seemed committed to putting out a quality record. Then I saw that he was very serious about it after noticing how magnifi-

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MUSIC cently he presented In the Moment—in terms of product quality and promotion. I asked him if International Anthem would be interested in helping me to make this record, and he was super excited about it.”

At that point, in spring 2014, International Anthem was already taxed by the production of new releases from Mazzarella’s trio and from the label’s first non-Chicago act, North Carolina experimental-rock duo Ahleuchatistas (Allen had booked shows for them in Carbondale before moving here in 2013). But McNiece and Allen scraped together the necessary funds—mostly to pay for overdubs in LA, where Parker lives, by drummer Jamire Williams and saxophonist Josh Johnson. Parker’s album, New Breed, eventually came out in June 2016, and considering how many year-end lists it ended up on, it was worth the investment.

International Anthem’s catalog tilts heavily toward jazz and improvisation, but the label has also released a few records from artists on the fringes of rock music, including Ahleuchatistas, Jacobs, and Bambi Kino Duo (aka Brian Case of Facs and trumpeter and EVI player Justin Walter, formerly of Nomo).

McNiece and Allen also apply the ethic they absorbed during their time in DIY punk to the way they run the operation. They don’t just love the music they put out—they also build strong relationships with their artists, sinking plenty of sweat equity into each deal.

Early last year, for instance, they helped Nick Mazzarella get to New York. “Mazzarella has been beating Chicago to death,” says McNiece. “The missing element is that he needs to play New York, which would help him and the record—so we put a tour together for him, funded it, and went out there with him.” This was McNiece and Allen’s first time traveling to support one of their artists, and they booked everything themselves and then

Chicago forever.

piled into the van alongside the saxophonist.

“We realized that we could come to New York every few months and do something, even if it’s a bit of an expense,” says McNiece. “It’s going to help the energy of what we’re doing in Chicago, because Chicago people are going to be excited by it, and it helps getting press in New York.”

At Mazzarella’s New York gig in January 2016, Jaimie Branch shared the bill with a quartet she’d put together for the occasion— cellist Tomeka Reid, drummer Chad Taylor, and bassist Jason Ajemian, all of whom share Branch’s deep Chicago roots. She impressed McNiece and Allen so much that the label made a record with her too: Fly or Die, her long-overdue debut, came out last week. International Anthem’s second New York event, in June 2016 at Le Poisson Rouge, featured Branch’s quartet, Mazurek’s Chicago Underground Duo, and a star-studded McCraven band with saxophonist Greg Ward, trumpeter Marquis Hill, bassist Junius Paul, and vibist Justin Thomas. It earned a glowing review by Ben Ratliff in the New York Times. The label has since organized similar showcases in New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, spreading the good word about Chicago improvised music—and about International Anthem.

The label has been releasing a flurry of new titles. A few weeks before the Branch record came out, it dropped the debut of Bottle Tree, a spacey R&B trio with vocalist A.M. Frison, drummer Tommaso Moretti, and producer and keyboardist Ben Lamar Gay (who’s usually a cornetist). The Hear in Now album that the trio celebrates on Saturday comes out in early June. “Scottie has put a ton of energy into this record in particular,” says Reid. “I’ve not really seen that from other labels that I have worked with. They really care about every part of the project, from the physical product to the pro-

duction of the music to how it’s received, and I think that makes the artists that they work with feel good and cared for.”

Allen moved to Portland, Oregon, in January 2015 to be with his partner, jeweler Natalie Joy, but he still works for Uncanned Music and for International Anthem—he visits Chicago at least every month. He’s modest about the kind of praise Reid lavishes on the label: “We just do what seems necessary.”

International Anthem’s upcoming projects include as many as four more albums from McCraven, as well as Junius Paul’s debut as a bandleader (for which McCraven will provide the same sort of postproduction he did for In the Moment). In August it’ll release the first record from New York-Philadelphia-D.C. project Irreversible Entanglements—an intense jazz-poetry quintet featuring saxophonist Keir Neuringer, bassist Luke Stewart, and electrifying spoken-word artist Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother. (The group plans to play Chicago for the occasion.) Also in development is a collaboration between Ahleuchatistas and local trio Ohmme.

McNiece and Allen are unbothered that they still have to subsidize their label with money from their other business. They’re thrilled that more and more people—not just fans but also artists—seem to be catching on. “We realized that there was a living tradition here, and we’re super excited about it, wanting to be part of it,” McNiece says. “We’ve got nothing but positive feedback from the musicians.”

The fact that he judges International Anthem by the number of artists whose music it’s released who love what it’s done for them—he doesn’t talk in terms of sales unless somebody asks—means that success will never be out of reach. v

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 29

MUSIC

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of May 11 b ALL AGES F

PICK OF THE WEEK

Mastodon’s metal universe expands even further on Emperor of Sand MASTODON, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL, RUSSIAN CIRCLES

o JIMMY HUBBARD

7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $37.50. b

AS MASTODON WORKED their way from the underground into the realm of radio metal over the past decade or so, the evolution of their expansive, florid sound never felt painfully labored—rather it’s been more gradual and predictable. Since their record of record Leviathan, the Atlanta band’s forceful, heavy dual-guitar sludge riffing has been a bit buried beneath heady noodling and, at times, a vocal sheen that sounds ripped straight from an Incubus album.

Still, on their newest, Emperor of Sand (Reprise), Mastodon, ever the consummate metal pros, undergird even their poppiest tracks (like “Show Yourself”) with tunneling, thick riffs that seem almost

30 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

sneaky in how they snake through ornate prog noodling and busy rhythms. On a triumphant behemoth like “Roots Remain” they shift from torpedoing time-signatured accents to pensive moments of added percussion to guitar-rocketing solo overdubs in a way that should sound contrived but comes off as wholly natural. Seven fulllength albums deep and with nary a notable lineup change, Mastodon are so comfortable with their celestial-metal supersound that, short of reanimating Ronnie James Dio to come out onstage and duet with guitarist-vocalist Brent Hinds, nothing ever feels off-limits.

—KEVIN WARWICK

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Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC

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THURSDAY11 Black Angels A Place to Bury Strangers open. 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, sold out. 18+ With their new album Death Song this heady psychedelic Texas band finally acknowledge in full their inspiration—“The Black Angel’s Death Song” from The Velvet Underground & Nico—which feels like they’re either out of ideas or returning to their roots. Death Song is darker than either of their two previous releases, 2010’s Phosphene Dream and 2013’s Indigo Meadow, which aimed more for a cheerful and bright-colored type of psych rock as opposed to keeping with native gray-scale drones. The anger that fuels the Black Angels has at last boiled over on this record, with the rippling “Currency” and furious “Comanche Moon” each carrying the jagged metallic overtones from a sonic stew that includes the 13th Floor Elevators, Spacemen 3, and a strung-out MC5. But the band’s sense of beauty remains: long closer “Life Song” feels like a soothing space-rock lullaby, though it doesn’t dampen the impact of what precedes it.

—MONICA KENDRICK

The Bridge See also Friday and Wednesday.

9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b The latest iteration of the France-Chicago music exchange known as the Bridge rates as one of the most beguiling and interesting combinations yet.

All four of the musicians involved have mercurial tendencies, working within the jazz and improvised-music traditions while also pushing well outside of both. Included in the Chicago cast is bassist Jason Roebke, one of the most skilled and forceful practitioners in the local jazz scene and one who’s explored more experimental contexts—his old group Combine used analog synthesizer splatter to provide an abstract contrast to his structural conceits. The other local player is versatile pianist/keyboardist Jim Baker, whose skill at playing standards and freely improvising is also applied

to his imaginative control of the unwieldy ARP synthesizer. Parisian alto saxophonist Pierre-Antoine Badaroux has proven himself an adept student of swing-era jazz in leading the astonishing Umlaut Big Band—a repertory orchestra playing European music from the 20s and 30s—as well as a sharp freebop player with Peeping Tom, an agile quartet with trumpeter Axel Dörner. He also leads Hodos Ensemble, which has been surveying the work of Philip Corner, an American composer tightly connected with Fluxus and John Cage. Finally there’s Jean-Luc Guionnet, who doubles on pipe organ and alto saxophone but works primarily in the electro-acoustic realm via field recordings, installations, and acousmatics. I imagine his contributions this visit will fall closer to his tart, piercing lines on Live at Culturgest (Clean Feed), a searing duo album with Portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes. For the second set the quartet will be joined by cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and bassist Joshua Abrams. Prior to the Elastic show, Badaroux will collaborate with illusionist Sean Masterson at Comfort Station in Logan Square (2579 N. Milwaukee); the performance begins at 7:30 PM and donations will be accepted.

—PETER MARGASAK

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 31

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Ali Farka Touré Band / Terakaft Festival Au Desert Caravan 2017

SATURDAY, MAY 13 5PM

Steep Canyon Rangers FRIDAY, MAY 19 7:30PM

Lucy Kaplansky

In Szold Hall

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3855 N. LINCOLN

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THU, 5/11

RAILWAY GAMBLERS, MARK LAVENGOOD BLUEGRASS BAND, BONES JUGS FRI, 5/12

DASSIT, NICE MOTOR, CALAVERAS LD SAT, 5/13

THE CELL PHONES, NORTH BY NORTH, SUCK THE HONEY, MYSTERY CRASH

MON, 5/15

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40,000 HEADMEN

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TOUGHER THAN YOU THOUGHT, DAVIDSTOUT, LEAH JEAN FRI, 5/19

MAKING MOVIES, RADIO FREE HONDURAS, EVAN COLEMAN LIVE SAT, 5/20

HIBER, EGO MECHANICS, LUTHI, HANDGRENADES 32 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

Anaïs Mitchell / Grant-Lee Phillips

Jlin o MAHDUMITA NANDI

SATURDAY, JUNE 3 7:30PM

continued from 31

National Tap Day Celebration SATURDAY, JUNE 3 8PM

Obsessives Sorority Noise headline; Mat Kerekes, Obsessives, and Remo Drive open.

6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 1375 W. Lake, $15. b

Robyn Hitchcock

Ever since some D.C. punks rejected the hardcore aesthetic they brought to bear in the mid-80s, emo has been about change. It’s morphed with each subsequent wave while retaining an essence that connects the dominant contemporary vision back to the roots of the family tree. D.C. duo the Obsessives are as much a representation of a band ready and willing to muck it through the trenches of emo’s rising fourth wave as they are one that may soon front the genre at large. On their new self-titled album for Lame-O they ditch their most obvious emo signifiers—lonesome and looping guitar riffs, occasional bursts of cacophony—for clean, brisk melodies that feel written for a power-pop band working at half speed. The Obsessives retain the sweet dolefulness and sweeping space that’s characterized their work—now everything just sounds bigger, like the surge of guitars that gets swallowed up in the tidal-wave hook for “Now She’s Smoking.”

—LEOR GALIL

ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL

Redd Kross Heartthrob Chassis open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $15.

Joan Shelley

with special guest Jake Xerxes Fussell In Szold Hall

SUNDAY, JUNE 4 7PM

Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 10PM

Kate Simko & London Electronic Orchestra In Szold Hall

SATURDAY, JUNE 17 8PM

with special guest Kacy & Clayton

4545 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL

5/12 5/26 6/2

Global Dance Party: Breizh Amerika Collective Global Dance Party: Son de Madera with special guest Patricio Hidalgo Global Dance Party: Milonga Cumparsita with DJ Charrua and special guests

WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE

5/17 Trio Balkan Strings 5/24 Belén Mackinlay Trio

Since their first releases in the early 80s, southern California four-piece Redd Kross have been a cut above their punk peers. Started in 1980 by teenage brothers Jeff and Steven McDonald and rounded out over their first decade by a rotating cast of guitarists and drummers—including Black Flag members Ron Reyes and Dez Cadena and Circle Jerks founder Greg Hetson—the band added a sophisticated melodic sense to their feisty punk. By the early 90s, the brothers had grown into legitimate long-haired heartthrobs and were operating in a jangly, alt-rock realm, cranking out some minor hits while supporting acts like the Lemonheads and the Presidents of the United States of America before disbanding in 1997. Redd Kross have been only slightly operational for the past 11 years, and

it seems Steven’s more recognizable these days for contributing his signature swoopy bass lines to hardcore supergroup Off! and the current iteration of sludge-punks the Melvins, but in 2012 they did release an official comeback record, Researching the Blues (Merge). Possibly the band’s best work yet, it goes straight for Cheap Trick-flavored power pop, piling on red-hot guitar licks and sugary vocal hooks. The version of Red Kross hitting the road right now, featuring Melvins powerhouse Dale Crover on drums, is working on a new record that Steven says will keep moving forward with the same pop glory. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

FRIDAY12 The Bridge See Thursday. Jean-Luc Guionnet, Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Jim Baker, and Jason Roebke perform. 8 PM, Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood, $10, $8 students and members. b Jlin Actress headline; Jlin, Hieroglyphic Being, and John FM open. 10 PM, Smart Bar, 3730 N. Clark, $20, $15 in advance.

The best footwork producers show how the fast-and-furious Chicago-born sound can seemingly push an MPC drum machine to the limit as much as it can dancers sweating it out during battles. Footwork’s chest-rattling assault of clustered rhythms is at times hard to fathom—how can two human hands keep a piece of hardware on the brink of bursting into a pile of springs while still making it sing? But Jerrilynn Patton, aka producer Jlin, has advanced the street-dance genre in part by embracing sounds best described as “natural.” Patton might employ what sounds like samples of, say, someone playing a hand drum as opposed to looping synthesized percussion. Her new sophomore album, Black Origami (Planet Mu), is inspired by collaborations with Indian movement artist Avril Stormy Unger, and on it she subtly toys with footwork conventions without sacrificing its frenzied energy and heady dance focus.

The clattering single “Nyakinyua Rise” spins J

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 33

MUSIC THE LONELY BISCUITS

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SWAMP HEAT

THE NATIONAL PARKS

JUL 31

RATBOYS + PACEMAKER

STEP ROCKETS

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

continued from 32

clean, sharply defined percussion into a frenetic cut that feels like it’s still gestating and subject to change at a moment’s notice. —LEOR GALIL

Old 97s Nicole Atkins opens. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, sold out. 17+ This veteran Dallas quartet was instrumental in defining the sound of alt-country in the mid-90s, layering hard-hitting shuffles, twang-drenched guitar, and the shiny melodies of singer Rhett Miller.

The Old 97s return to that nearly 25-year-old formula like a favorite shirt on their 11th album, Graveyard Whistling (ATO), dutifully toggling between cliche and wit while serving up some songs about getting ripped and suffering heartbreak—occasionally within the same track (“Irish Whiskey Pretty Girls”). At Miller’s best he embraces country songwriting conventions with amusing turns of phrase: on the great “Jesus Loves You” the narrator feels as though he’s competing with religion for a girl’s affections, dropping the line, “He makes wine from water, but I just bought you a beer.” During “She Hates Everybody” the singer boasts that he’s the sole exception to his girlfriend’s misanthropy, sounding paranoid by the end of the tune: “Yeah, I’m so glad to be one of a kind / But I’m scared to death / She might change her mind.” Guitarist Ken Bethea applies overdriven elan to his propulsive solos over the reliable chug of bassist Murry Hammond and drummer Philip Peeples in the same basic ways he did two decades ago—it’s up to you whether craftsmanship trumps development. Nicole Atkins, who lends some harmony vocals to the record, opens.

—PETER MARGASAK

Doug Tuttle Glyders and Bunny open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $12.

New England psych-pop merchant Doug Tuttle has reached another peak with his gorgeous third solo album, Peace Potato (Trouble in Mind), a col-

lection of summery guitar-borne hooks he crafted by himself in his home studio. And though he plays everything—drums, guitar, woozy Mellotron, and even some horns—it’s the record’s infectious vocal melodies that command the greatest attention. Chiming guitars at times recall the Byrds— like during the sweetly stinging patterns of “Can It Be”—while the solo he drops into “It’s Alright With Me, Ma” is a gem reminiscent of the euphoric beauty of George Harrison. There’s no question Tuttle mines inspiration from the past—his sprawling arrangements occasionally remind me of Morgan Delt’s hermetic, multicolored sound world—but he sounds more concerned with crafting glistening nuggets of pop than with singling out influences.

In fact, nearly half of the 15 songs conclude with the sound of a tape machine abruptly being shut off, as if Tuttle is eager to move on to the next lovely tune (some clock in at under two minutes). His growth since playing in the more Krautrock-driven Mmoss is stunning, and I’ve been enjoying his progress more with every record. Tuttle leads a trio with bassist Jesse Gallagher and drummer Noah Bond. —PETER MARGASAK

SATURDAY13 Chicago Fringe Opera presents Lucrezia See Thursday. 7:30 PM, Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, $20-$50. b Eyvind Kang, Hear in Now Part of the Chicago Jazz String Summit. Eyvind Kang headlines; Helen Gillet and Hear in Now open.

8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15. 18+ There are few musicians at work with the curiosity, rigor, and range of Seattle-area violist Eyvind Kang, who has gradually expanded his arsenal to include string instruments like the Persian setar and the Indonesian plucked zither called the kecapi. Those additions weren’t without study—Kang is fluent in

Eyvind Kang o COURTESY THE ARTIST

34 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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Arabic, Persian, and Indonesian traditions as well as improvisation, jazz, and art-pop, and he’s played with guitarist Bill Frisell and crafted string arrangements for the likes of Aoife O’Donovan and Marissa Nadler. His imagination and sophistication are in full bloom on the 2014 album Alastor (Tzadik), a set of dynamic arrangements of tunes from John Zorn’s Book of Angels where Jewish themes are recast into a kind of orchestral, psychedelic Indonesian pop with Middle Eastern overtones. It’s as gorgeous as it is unique. A much different side of his aesthetic is on display on last year’s Reverse Tree (Black Truffle), a collaborative record with his wife, singer and composer Jessika Kenney, on which Kang’s spooky lines navigate a thicket of overtone-rich electric guitar and electric cello. For this rare local performance he’ll perform solo and introduce both eve-

nings of this year’s Chicago Jazz String Summit with a presentation on the late violinist Michael White, one of his early mentors. Tonight’s concert also serves as a release party for the superb second album by string collective Hear in Now called Not Living in Fear (International Anthem). Each of the group’s three members—summit organizer and cellist Tomeka Reid, New York violinist Mazz Swift, and Italian bassist Silvia Bolognesi—wrote some of the sturdy tunes, which move with greater force, interaction, and inventiveness than the material from their debut. Even as the players shift between lead and support roles on pieces spanning jazz, classical, and folk modes, there’s a meditative intensity that holds it together beautifully and convincingly.

New Orleans cellist Helen Gillet also performs.

—PETER MARGASAK J

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 35

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

Ty Segall o KYLE THOMAS

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN TOUR EVER

MAY 22 • AUDITORIUM THEATRE

Get tickets online at ticketmaster.com The Auditorium Theatre Box Office or Phone: 800-745-3000

continued from 35 ®

Mastodon See Pick of the Week (page 30).

Eagles of Death Metal and Russian Circles open.

7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $37.50. b Ty Segall The Hecks open. See also Sunday.

9 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $25. 18+

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21

ST JU ED! D AD

OCTOBER 21st EVENT ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE CHICAGO THEATRE BOX OFFICE OR THECHICAGOTHEATRE.COM The Chicago Theatre provides disabled accommodations and sells tickets to disabled individuals through our Disabled Services department, which may be reached at 888-609-7599 any weekday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

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36 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

Unless you place a premium on melding disparate approaches within a single song, the ever-prolific Ty Segall doesn’t pull any genuinely new tricks on his most recent self-titled Drag City album, but he still sounds better than ever. Working with the most efficient band of his career—featuring fellow guitarist Emmett Kelly, bassist Mikal Cronin, drummer Charles Moothart, and keyboardist Ben Boye—Segall rips through and surveys his various modes with hook-fueled precision. Hurtling between post-Marc Bolan glam and seething punk, “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” is something of a groundbreaker for Segall in that it clocks in at ten minutes, interrupted by a loose jam that has the feel of the Rolling Stones’ “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.” “Papers” conveys a warped psychedelic sweetness a la Donovan, and “Talkin’” ambles along with a twangy lope as Segall goes on about self-absorbed gossip, adding irresistible, casual vocal harmonies. “The Only One” delivers a furiously fuzzed-out, stomping howl that like so many of Segall’s tunes distinguishes itself from most caveman rock by the potency of its melody, while the gently beautiful “Orange Color Queen” reflects his John Lennon fixation right down to the spot-on, soulful falsetto. Segall and Kelly have an incredible bond, trading riffs and lacerating stabs with deft intuition, while Boye adds an unexpected accent, careening between Jerry Lee Lewis-style pounding and simpatico honky-tonk runs. It’s hard to think of any other songwriter whose output only improves the more he churns out. —PETER MARGASAK

SUNDAY14 Ty Segall See Saturday. Axis:Sova opens.

8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, sold out. 18+

MONDAY15 Gerald Clayton Trio 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, $15 in advance. 18+ With his dense new album Tributary Tales (Motema), pianist and composer Gerald Clayton acknowledges the influence of new people and new sounds on his music and life, tracing his course from straightahead player who grew up on the west coast in a family of jazz heavies to New York musician charting his own path. That journey is thrillingly represented on a track like “A Light,” with saxophonists Ben Wendel and Logan Richardson briskly sketching the sort of slaloming bebop lines one might expect from a Lennie Tristano tune while drummer Justin Brown collides hip-hop flavors within an explosive attack marked by frantic accents, adding to a groove that teems with the complexity of New York’s current jazz vanguard. There’s no sense of disconnect between the approaches, as the performances are seamless and utterly natural. On “Wakeful” the extra heft from the baritone saxophone of Dayna Stephens summons an Ellingtonian richness, while “Soul Stomp” evokes a modernized Ray Charles. There’s also a series of short improvised pieces with titles that suggest a probing quality (“Search For,” “Reflect On,” “Engage In”) and some mood pieces with measured spoken-word passages from poets Carl Hancock Rux and Aja Monet. Clayton is terrific throughout, and rarely overstays his welcome—so I’m looking forward to tonight’s show, where he’ll lead a trio with bassist Joe Sanders (who plays on the record) and drummer Kendrick Scott.

—PETER MARGASAK

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MUSIC Hall & Oates, Tears for Fears 7 PM, Allstate Arena, 6920 Mannheim Rd., Rosemont, $35-$149.50. b

SPECIAL GUEST:

JOHN SAN JUAN

Whoever dreamed up the double bill of Hall & Oates and Tears for Fears deserves a DeLorean as a reward. Though they play different styles of pop music—Hall & Oates are experts at soft rock and blue-eyed soul, Tears for Fears deliver ambitious synth-heavy sophisti-goth—the two acts share a few similarities. Both are duos with one dominant member (Daryl Hall and Roland Orzabal); both found their greatest success during the 80s. But the more unlikely quality that Hall & Oates and Tears for Fears have in common is a connection to the fecund tradition of 1970s British progressive rock.

For Hall & Oates the association is sneaky—though they were initially a soft-rock act, the group incorporated more experimental flourishes and arrangements thanks to Hall’s affiliation with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp (who produced Hall’s 1980 solo debut Sacred Songs). In the case of Tears for Fears the relationship is more direct—they were deeply influenced by Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, and especially Robert Wyatt, whom the band covered in a commanding version of “Sea Song.” So if you happen to be seeing this show, keep in mind that you’re not taking in a nostalgic revival of 1980s new-wave chart pop but a nerdy, insular night of gnarly prog rock! —TAL ROSENBERG

THIS SATURDAY! MAY 13 PARK WEST

WEDNESDAY17 The Bridge See Thursday. Jean-Luc Guionnet, Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Jim Baker, Christian Dillingham, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Greg Ward perform. 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10. v

SPECIAL GUEST: RYAN

SHERIDAN

SUNDAY, JUNE 4 • VIC THEATRE JUNE 3 SHOW IS SOLD OUT!

JAPANDROIDS

Hall & Oates o SUN TIMES PRINT COLLECTION

SPECIAL GUEST: CLOUD

THURSDAY, JUNE 8 VIC THEATRE

NOTHINGS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2 VIC THEATRE

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 11AM!

BUY TICKETS AT MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 37

Thursday, May 18 • 7-10pm

JOIN US FOR OUR MARQUEE EVENT

Ivy Room • 12 E Ohio • Chicago

THIS YEAR’S THEME IS MENTORS participating chefs pay homage to someone who influenced their own brand of cooking.

Inspired by our JAMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING SERIES, Key Ingredient Cook-off (#KICO) invites you to SAVOR dishes created by some of Chicago's most outstanding chefs, then VOTE for your favorite.

Tickets are on sale now at chicagoreader.com/kico   21+   

38 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

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FOOD & DRINK

THE LUNATIC, THE LOVER & THE POET | $$$

736 W. Randolph 312-775-0069 thelunaticloverpoet.com

NEW REVIEW

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

The Lunatic, the Lover & the Poet, Randolph Street’s new wine bar, invokes poetry in lieu of personality.

By MIKE SULA

I Above, clockwise from top left: cheese board, carnitas, corvina, burger; La Quercia prosciutto blooms atop the scallops. o JEFFREY MARINI

n the event that you’ve forgotten tenth-grade English, “the lunatic, the lover, and the poet” is a line from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play by a certain William Shakespeare. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? It’s also the name of a new wine bar wedged into an increasingly restaurant-gunged Randolph Street. It’s a name so annoying I had to step away from the keyboard and command my dog to type it.

Iambic pentameter should be left to trained professionals.

Like the trained pros who designed LLP, a multilevel operation whose long, narrow firstfloor bar and dining room is a mirror image of its next-door neighbor, Ronero. It’s furnished with the four Bs of basic restaurant design: exposed brick, wooden beams, empty birdcages, and hollow books in which your check is delivered. There’s track lighting in lieu of Edison bulbs, at least. Pithy literary and pop culture quotes are illuminated along the staircase to the restrooms for your amusement while you perform your ablutions.

LLP’s prime directive is to serve as a wine bar, and featured glasses are listed on a conventional one-page menu. The rest is contained in the depths of an iPad, which at the end of a long day navigating the J

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 39

NEIGHBORHOOD

SPONSORED CONTENT

FOOD & DRINK A moist corvina fillet with buttery carrot puree and sweet roasted fennel is one of the best bites on the menu. o JEFFREY MARINI

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All Lagunitas beers are $6

Monday-Friday 4-7pm: $6 La Marca Prosecco

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WEST LOOP

BOTTOM LOUNGE // 1375 W LAKE // BOTTOMLOUNGE.COM Now open for lunch starting at 11:00 AM Tuesday—Sunday. All new menu and 40+ rotating craft beer selection make for a great time on the rooftop patio.

“Great food and a cool vibe...”

— KELLY G / GOOGLE

40 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

continued from 39 labyrinths of illuminated screens is not a liberating tool for attempting to find the right bottle. On the other hand, LLP is owned and operated by its sommelier, Tom Powers, a survivor of the Jerry Kleiner empire (Marché, Red Light), and once a bottle is chosen, it’s treated properly. Even a humble gamay, at $55 on the low end of a pricey list, was nonetheless decanted, lightly chilled, and poured as if it were a rare treasure.

Cocktails feature a few watery potions containing ghosts of their feature spirits: the Law & Order, bourbon and absinthe fading amid an avalanche of crushed ice, for instance, or the Bushido, light-bodied Japanese whiskey overwhelmed by sour spherified yuzu bombs. Spirits-wise there isn’t a single reasonably priced calvados, eau de vie, or cognac on the list. A single pour of green Chartreuse costs $20.

So what to eat with all that juice? The menu from chef Jessica Nowicki—a veteran of Naha, Brindille, and Oak Mill Bakery—is familiarly broad and unfocused, offering wide-ranging approaches in small, medium, and large formats. My most memorable bite was from a bowl of charred onion soup, initially presented empty but for a schmear of tangy quark cheese, over which is poured a thick veloute, industrial mustard in appearance, but a rich and toasty environment for the cheese. A moist corvina fillet came in a close second, set atop buttery carrot puree and served with sweet roasted fennel, topped with a cloud of the same, only shaved and fresh.

From there, leaden gnocchi dominate a bowl that would’ve fared better if the sauteed wild mushrooms and marcona almonds the dumplings were tossed with had been left alone. A cylinder of steak tartare is untouched by salt, caper, or egg yolk, instead topped with an icing of sauce gribiche and served with crisps and endive. All the sodium that dish deserves might have been absorbed into the eye-tighteningly salty batter of the fried pickles, Meyer lemon coins, and smelts served with their spines removed. Rosettes of La Quercia prosciutto bloom atop rubbery scallops. The obligatory burger is made up of two thin, commendably smashed-and-griddled patties that squirt from their bun, having been lubricated by cheddar and aioli-slicked lettuce. In the most egregious false spring I’ve encountered, crispy pork “carnitas” are accompanied by a “ramp slaw” consisting of a single disarticulated allium stretched thin over a pile of common red cabbage.

Given Nowicki’s time at Oak Mill Bakery, LLP takes a somewhat ironic stand by not serving dessert. Instead there are cheese boards, limited to five midwestern varieties. The conviction is admirably French, but after all that I could’ve gone for a nice, simple pot de creme.

The Lunatic, the Lover & the Poet filled one of the few remaining nonrestaurant storefronts along Randolph—that thoroughfare of Chicago entrepreneurial confidence and symbol of creeping American decadence. Behind its poetic name, it’s yet another shared-plates concept without much original identity. v

ß @MikeSula

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open now

o NICK MURWAY

FOOD & DRINK king crab

BARS

Find your new summer beer at Alarmist Brewing’s taproom

By JULIA THIEL

T

he month-old taproom of Alarmist Brewing isn’t the type of place you stumble across by accident. Located in a warehouse on the far northwest side of Chicago, it’s hard to identify even after you find the parking lot. (Helpfully, the brewery has a diagram on its website for those who are confused.) But while its location amid the chain restaurants and auto repair shops of Sauganash is less than conducive to foot traffic, people are making the effort to get there: on a recent Friday night the taproom was nearly full, and one of the bartenders told me that it gets even busier on Sunday afternoons.

The room is simple but handsome, with slate-blue walls, large wooden tables, and a long concrete-and-wood bar. The industrial feel is appropriate for a space that was part of the brewery itself before being walled off to make the taproom. (The brewery is still visible through large windows on one wall.) A dozen taps topped by handles that resemble sticks of dynamite currently pour eight different beers.

You can cover most of them by ordering a flight of six four-ounce pours for $12; individual tasters are $3, and pints are $6.

While there may be room for a few more varieties in the tap lineup, eight beers is still a big jump from the one that Alarmist started out with in 2015. (It now produces three beers that are available year-round.) Launching a brewery with just a single beer is pretty unusual, but so is the fact that founder Gary Gulley worked on the concept for nearly four years before Alarmist opened. (Gulley titled a 2012 post on his blog “What’s Faster, Me or a Glacier?”) He told my colleague Philip Montoro in early 2015 that he hoped to have a taproom open later that year; it finally happened early last month.

The beer that’s being poured is worth a six-year wait. (Some has been available at local bars and liquor stores over the last two years.) Alarmist’s original beer, Pantsless Pale Ale, is now what I’m most excited to drink this summer, especially since the brewery will soon release it in cans. Bright and grassy, with a distinctive hit of grapefruit, it’s a great porch beer, lawnmower beer, or any other term you prefer for “what to drink when it’s hot out.” In fact, almost any of Alarmist’s beers would pair well with some quality porch time, except for the Skewmageddon Oatmeal Stout, a roasty, chocolaty brew that would go better with a roaring fire than the blazing sun.

The rest of the current lineup is uniformly light in color and (mostly) in body. On the dangerously drinkable end of the spectrum are the Golden Shower blonde ale and the Phobophobia Patersbier, but even the IPAs go down pretty easy. Not a single beer tops 7 percent ABV, and there are no hop bombs lurking on the menu. Aaron’s Vision Quest is a floral Belgian IPA that’s dry but not overly bitter. Entrenched IPA has a heftier dose of hops that gives it notes of citrus zest, pine, and cucumber, but only a moderate level of bitterness. Entrenched is listed on the menu as an “Illinois-style” IPA, something I’d never heard of before, but a bartender informed me that midwestern IPAs tend to have more malt (which adds sweetness) to balance out the hops.

The Phobophobia (“fear of phobias,” or “fear of fear”) mentioned above is a patersbier, a style also known as “Belgian single” that was traditionally brewed in Trappist monasteries for the monks to consume. It’s much lower in alcohol and less sweet than the better-known Belgian dubbel, tripel, and quad styles. Alarmist’s version, delicate and highly carbonated, with a floral fruitiness from the Belgian yeast, reminds me of prosecco. The brewery is also doing dry-hopped versions of the beer, called

ALARMIST BREWING R TAPROOM Mon-Thu 4-11 PM, Fri noon-midnight,

Sat 11 AM-midnight, Sun noon-10 PM, 4055 W. Peterson, 773-681-0877, alarmistbrewing.com. The taproom doesn’t have a kitchen but you can bring or order food.

Lupulinophobia: the current one features Citra hops, which add earthy, herbal notes that pleasantly dry out an otherwise slightly sweet beer. Comparing it to the original version, my friend noted, “It’s like you pulled the flowers off and kicked dirt over it.”

To go with the brewery’s name—which was originally Panic until a Sacramento brewery that makes a beer called Panic IPA objected— the beer names naturally reference things that could cause alarm. While the brewers seem to take their work seriously, that doesn’t apply to much else: the menu is full of jokes (some good, some bad), and the chalkboard includes a listing for “Butt Light,” noting, “It’s the lightest beer we have (JK it’s just water).” Many of the brewers double as bartenders and are more than happy to talk about the beer they make in as much detail as you’d like. One bartender mentioned that Alarmist would have a beer garden soon. When I glanced doubtfully at the parking lot, he took us on an impromptu tour of the brewery and cold-storage room before leading us through a door marked “Men’s Room” and down a short hallway to the grassy courtyard where the patio will be (the sign will be amended before the opening, he promised).

The night was cold and drizzly, but it’s easy to imagine spending a pleasant summer evening out there, pale ale in hand. v

house

Open for Lunch 11 am Friday Through Sunday DAILY SPECIALS Mon: King Crab Legs $24.95, Tues: Snow Crab Legs $19.95, Wed: Crab & Slab $19.95, Thurs: Fried Jumbo Shrimp $19.95 *Not valid with any other discounts or promotions.

Mother’s Day Weekend: Crab & Slab $29.95, 1/2 Lb. King Crab & Filet $38.95, Lobster Tail & Filet $ 45.95 includes soup or salad & a glass of champagne or house wine.

Not valid with any other specials, discount or promotions

Make your Mother’s Day reservation now 1816 N. Halsted St. Chicago, IL 60614 312-280-8990 Mon, Tues, Wed and Thur 3:30PM-11PM Fri and Sat 11:30AM-12AM Sun 11:30AM-10PM

please recycle this paper

ß @juliathiel

BARRA

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MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 41

JOBS SALES & MARKETING 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.

TELE-FUNDRAISING MEMORIAL DAY CAMPAIGN American Veterans helping Veterans.

Felons need not apply per Illinois Attorney General regulations. Start ASAP, Call 312-256-5035

food & drink TAYLOR FARMS ILLINOIS provides fully prepared, ready to eat food products to the retail industry under the brand name Taylor Farms.

Our company is currently seeking to hire a full-time QAQC/Food Safety Manager to be responsible for the overall design, implementation and continuous improvement of the food safety and quality programs at our fresh-food manufacturing organization in Chicago, Illinois. The position enforces compliance of programs with United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies as well as with customer, corporate and plant quality requirements; enforces all safety and quality programs throughout the plant operation; oversees the management of the Quality Assurance department, in-house laboratory for shelf life testing, label and nutritional information development, plant sanitation, pest control, Good Manufacturing Practices and Standard Sanitation Operating Practices; remains responsible for Plant QA budgets and resources; and directly supervises 2 managers (Sanitation Manager and QA Lead), 1 Food Scientist and has indirect authority over approximately 50 employees.

No travel required. Qualified applicants must possess a B.S. degree in Food Science, Process Engineering or related field and five years of experience. A majority of a candidate’s five years of occupational experience must have been developed in a food manufacturing environment. A qualified candidate must also be Certified in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Certified as a Safe Quality Food (SQF) Practitioner and be eligible to become a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual pursuant to the Food Safety Modernization Act. Interested and qualified candidates may submit a resume to HR Director Aura Mendoza by email at amendoza@taylorfarms.com or by mail to the company’s address at 200 N. Artesian Ave., Chicago, IL 60612. No phone calls. Taylor Farms Illinois is an equal opportunity employer.

General SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST (Bensenville, IL) – Coord tech supp for telecom-rltd bill/convrgnt charg platfrms.

Prov sol desgn for new reqs.

Reqs: MS comp sci/eng/info sys, indus eng or sim field & 1 yr telecom-rltd customr care /bill SW dev exp or BS comp sci/eng/info sys, indus eng or sim field & 4 yrs telecom-rltd customr care/bill SW dev exp; 1 yr exp HP, SUN, UNIX, Linux, C, C++, C#, CGI/Perl, SQL, PL/SQL, XML, ksh, Oracle 9i w SQL*PLUS, MS Visual Studio, MS Project, Eclipse, TOAD; 1 yr exp customr-facing facet of telecom-rltd bill platfrms, SW dev methd & release processes, convrgnt charg prodcts/archi, perform/ autom test; 1 yr exp telecom client reqs, transform methd, SW prodct integ. Res: Amdocs, Inc., c a reersta @ a m d o c s.co m , Ref HR-1044 THE NORTHERN TRUST CO. is seeking a Consultant Risk Analytics in Chicago IL, with the following requirements: MS in Finance, Math or Statistics and 3 years related experience, or a BS in Finance, Math or Statistics and 5 years related experience. Prior exp. must include: develop, implement and test credit

42 CHICAGO READER | MAY 11, 2017

THE NORTHERN TRUST CO. is seeking a Senior Consultant, Alternative Investments in Chicago IL or Tempe, AZ with the following requirements: BS in Finance and 4 years related experience. Prior exp. must include: create management metrics and presentations related to middle/back-office banking operations utilizing Microsoft Office Suite (2 yrs); develop and execute action plans and implement longterm solutions to mitigate operational risks and align processes to bank policies and regulatory rules (3 yrs); apply accounting principles to changes in operational processes in a custodial banking setting to assess potential impact on clients’ valuation reporting (4 yrs); research and examine banking operational process gaps (end-to-end) and opportunities for process improvement (4 yrs).

Please apply on-line at www. northerntrustcareers.com and search for Req. # 17050 p p risk stress testing models for Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review purposes (1.5 yrs); perform financial predictive analytics using data management and statistical analysis software packages (2 yrs); resolve findings on credit risk models from model validation, capital planning and internal audit departments (1.5 yrs); provide automated analytical reports and presentations for business partners regarding loan profiling and risk profiles (2 yrs).

Please apply on-line at www. northerntrustcareers.com and search for Req. # 17047

TECHNOLOGY ANALYTICS AND MODEL RISK MANAGEMENT MANAGER (MULT. POS.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Provide strategy, mgmt., tech. & risk consulting svcs to help fin. institutns respond to complex bus. challenges. Req. Bach’s deg or foreign equiv. in Comp Engg, Elect Engg, Comp Sci, Stats, Fin, Econ or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s prog. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg or foreign equiv. in Comp Engg, Elect Engg, Comp Sci, Stats, Fin, Econ or rel. + 3 yrs of rel. work exp. Travel up to 80% req. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1245, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

COMPUTER/IT : UL LLC (Northbrook, IL) seeks IT Business Systems Lead with bach. in comp. sci., business mngmt., MIS or related plus eight (8) yrs exp. in consulting/ project management, business analytics or related. Must have experience with each of the following: (1) Skilled in Oracle eBusiness Suite 11i and R12, including , Order Management, Configurator, Install Base and Procurement Modules; (2) OBIEE Financial and Projects Analytics; (3) Toad and PL/SQL; (4) Oracle Product Information Management (PIM) / Product & Customer HUB; and (5) Experience on Oracle engineered systems - Exalogic and Exadata. Apply online at www.ul.com

TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS Sr. Engineers for Chicago, IL location to design, implement & support VMware sw infrastructure. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. + 2yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp.

Eng. + 5yrs exp. or 3yrs undergraduate study in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. + 7yrs exp. req’d. Req’d. skills: 2yrs of exp. designing, implementing VMware (vSphere, ESXi, VCenter), Cisco UCS, implementation using ESXi (viz, VEEAM, SRM), vCenter, Powershell, PowerCLI, HP rack mounts & blade servers. Send resume to: C. Studniarz, REF: BD, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661 FINANCE: KRAFT HEINZ FOODS Company seeks Head of Commercial Planning & Performance, Finance to work in Chicago, IL. As Finance Lead for Bvrgs & Snack Nuts BU, serv as voice of financ functn in dcsn-mkng prcss as it relats to budgtng, mnthly close prcss, contngcy plnning & analys, commdty expsur, ovrsght of prjct commrclztn, strtgc plnning for busnss & revenue mngmt. Degree & commensurate exp. req’d. Apply to #8940BR at kraftheinzcompany.com/careers.

ADVANCED PERFORMANCE ENGINEER kCura LLC (Chicago, IL) seeks Adv. Performance Engineer to drive customer confidence by assuring quality of kCura’s current/future software products & contribute/motivate/empower teams/individuals to engineer QA efficiencies in practice & w/ effective tools/techniques. Submit resumes to: recruiting@kcura.com and reference JOB ID: 2017MM-ENG-1007 SOFTWARE ENGINEER- Engineering Ops kCura LLC (Chicago, IL) seeks Software Engineer-Engineering Ops. responsible for designing/ writing/testing/deploying/supporting new implementations for tools that drive kCura. May be required to handle technical support calls after hours about 2x/year. Submit resumes to: recruiting@kcura.com and reference Job ID: 2017-MM-ENG-1008.

NUTS ON CLARK POPCORN STORES- Paid training, lots of hours & opportunity available. Apply in person between 9 A.M. & 11 A.M. 3830 N Clark St. Must bring state ID & Social Security Card.

ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSIONAL. Design high-rise structures & related envelope systems.

Bach. deg. (Architecture) req’d. 2 yrs’ exp. in architect pos’n(s) involving design of envelope systems req’d. bKL Architecture LLC, Chicago, IL. Resumes to: Recruiting, bKL Architecture LLC, 225 N. Columbus Drive, Suite 100, Chicago, IL 60601.

REAL ESTATE STUDIO $500-$599 Chicago, Beverly/Cal Park/Blue Island Studio $575 & up, 1BR $665 & up, 2BR $885 & up. Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Prkg.

708-388-0170

STUDIO $600-$699

CHICAGO - Beverly, large 2 room Studio & 1BR Apts. Carpet, A/ C, laundry, near transportation, $660-$785/mo.

Call 773-2334939

bly Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park.

Laundry & Security on Premises.

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

ny, appl, Heat, AC, Ldry rm, $700 + 1 mo sec., credit check.

773-619-3587

ALSIP: Large 1BR/1BA. $750. & 2BR, 1.5BA $925/mo. Balcony, appliances, laundry, parking & storage. Call 708-268-3762

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)

1 BR $800-$899

MOST BEAUTIFUL APARTMENTS! 6748 Crandon, 2BR, $875. 7727 Colfax, 1 & 2BR, $625-$875. 6220 Eberhart, 2 & 3BR, $850-$1150.

773-947-8572 or 312-613-4424 CALUMET CITY 158TH & PAXTON SANDRIDGE APTS 1 & 2 BEDROOM UNITS MODELS OPEN M-F, 9AM-5:30PM *** 708-841-5450 ***

LARGE ONE BEDROOM near WINTER SPECIAL $500 Toward Rent Beautiful Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Sect. 8 Welc. Westside Loc, Must qualify. 773-287-4500 www.wjmngmt.com

Morse "L". 6826 N Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. $895/month. Available 6/1. 773-761-4318.

SUNNY & LARGE 2 & 3BR, hd wd/ceramic flrs, appls, heat incld, Sect 8 OK. $850 plus 70th & Sangamon. 773-4566900

1 BR $900-$1099

SPACIOUS-SAFE 773-4235727. BRONZEVILLE, 3BR, heat included. Englewood, 1,2 & 3BR, heat incl. Dolton, 2BR, Gated Parking.

CHICAGO, HYDE PARK Arms Hotel, 5316 S. Harper, maid, phone, cable ready, fridge, private facilities, laundry avail. Switchboard. Start at $ 160/wk Call 773-493-3500

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

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

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

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

1 BR UNDER $700 SPRING SPECIAL: STUDIOS starting at $499 incls utilities.

1BR $550, 2BR $599, 3BR $699. With approved credit. No Security Deposit for Sec 8 Tenants. South Shore & Southside.

Call 312-446-3333

CAMPAIGN JOBS

FREE HEAT! NO SEC Dep. No Move-in Fee! 1, 2, 3 & 4 BRs, laundry rm.

Sec 8 OK. Tiffany 773.285.3310 www.livenovo.com

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

773-637-5957 VICINITY OF 77TH & large 4BR, 2BA house, rehabbed, exc cond., lrg back yrd, Sec 8 welcome.

773-510-9290

Evans, newly fenced $1400.

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/ hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773619-0204 CHICAGO, 4 ROOM Apartment, 1BR, vicinity of 79th & Blackstone. $600/mo.

Call 773-407-3143 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

EXCHANGE EAST APTS 1 Brdm $575 w/Free Parking,Appl, AC,Free heat. Near trans. laundry rm. Elec.not incl. Kalabich Mgmt (708) 424-4216 VIC OF 77TH & Blackstone, Quiet 1BR Bsmt apt. $650/mo + sec.

Gas, electric & appls incl.

Credit check req’d. 646-202-3294 Newly updated, clean furnished rooms, located near buses & Metra, elevator, utilities included, $91/wk. $ 395/mo. 815-722-1212

Architects for Chicago, IL to serve as the functional & context expert user of Enterprise Data Warehouse. Master’s in Comp Sci, Mgmt Info Systems, or Info Security +2yrs exp OR Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, Mgmt Info Systems, or Info Security +5yrs exp req’d. Skills req’d 2 yrs w/ ea.: architecture, app dev, & analytics for db; business intelligence, ETL w/ EDW, SQL Server, SQL, T-SQL, SQL Server Management Studio, SPSS, R, .NET programming. Bkgd check & drug test req’d. Apply online: http:// jobseeker.nm.org/ Requisition ID: 0022323. EOE

SERVERS NEEDED PART time for a popular Mexican restaurant.

Please apply at 700 W. 31st St. Chicago, IL or via email.

AUSTIN AREA 1-2 BR apts, $800-$1050, heat & appliances incl.

Section 8 OK, close to transportation 708-267-2875

BURNHAM 1 BR, w/w cpt, Balco7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

RENTALS

NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE seeks Analytics

QUADRATIC SYSTEMS located in Schaumburg, IL has job opening for Programmer Analyst. Job location: multiple undetermined worksites in U.S. (relocation may be req’d, must be willing to relocate). Duties Incl: develop & implement database-centric software applications (Bachelor in Comp Sci or Electronic Eng (will accept foreign edu equiv) + 5yrs exp). Please visit www.quadratics.com for detailed position openings.

Reply to 1100 E. Woodfield Rd, Ste 109, Schaumburg, IL 60173 or email anilk@quadratics.com.

SPRINGTIME SAVINGS! NEWLY Remod. 1 BR Apts $650 w/ gas incl. 2-5BR start at $650 & up.

Sec 8 Welc. Rental Assistance Prog. for Qualified Applicants offer up to $ 400/month for 1 yr. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

û NO SEC DEP û 1431 W. 78th St 1BR. $500/MO HEAT INCL 773-955-5106 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $130/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

$12.50/HR FOR 90 DAYS THEN

$15.00/HR APPLY NOW 872.203.9303

MOVE

IN

NOW!!! Studios-3

Beds. Hyde Park & Washington Park Call Megan 773-285-3310

1 BR $700-$799

Ravenswood DLX 3/rm studio: new kit, SS appl, granite, French windows, oak flrs, close to Brown L; $1050/heated 773-743-4141 w ww.urbanequities.com

RIVERDALE New decor, 1 & 2BR, appls, new crpt, heated, A/C, lndry, prkng, no pets, nr Metra. Sec 8 ok $675-$800. 630-480-0638

HOMEWOOD- 2BR new kitchen, new appls, oak flrs, ac, lndry/ stor., $1195/mo incls ht/prkg, near Metra. 773.743.4141 Urban Equities.com

CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE Beauti-

W RGS PK spac. studio: full kit.

New appl, carpet & windows, AC $ 825/incls heat. 774-743-4141 www.urbanequities.com

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

1 BR $1100 AND OVER

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

LAKESIDE EAST 1BR condo avail. 6/1. Lakeview balcony, stainless appl., granite counter tops, in-unit lndry, doorman, 710 S.F., 7th flr, rooftop terrace, $2100. mlg331@sbcglobal.net

1 BR OTHER APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. IT’S MOVING TIME!!!

OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG Plenty of parking 1Bdr From $825.00 2Bdr From $895.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000***

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!

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**

FULLERTON COURT APARTMENTS. Seniors 62 and older Only. Wait List Opening, 1, 2 & 3BR, 2303 N. Clybourn, Chicago, IL 60614. May 4 - May 14 2017, MonFri 10am-3pm. 773-871-8505. Eligibility is subject to program guidelines. Managed by Related Management Company

CHICAGO, 632 N. HOMAN, 1BR, newly decorated with hardwood floors & fireplace.

Heated, $745 + security. Call Mrs. Fulton, 773-533-0233

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 ∫

8322 S INGLESIDE & 8001 S Colfax, 1BR $650, newly remodel, hrdwd flrs, cable. Sec 8 welcome (Laundry Ingleside only) 708-3081509 or 773-493-3500

ROYALTON HOTEL, Kitchenette $135 & up wk. Free WiFi. 1810 W. Jackson 312-226-4678

ful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. $500 gift certificate for Sec 8 tenants. 773-287-9999/312-446-3333

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

2 BR UNDER $900

CHICAGO, 2200 BLOCK of Kildare. 5 rooms, 2BR apt, newly decorated, tenants pay utils, $725/mo + 1.5 mo sec dep.

773-522-5428.

CHATHAM - CLEAN, XL, very nice, 2BR, 3rd FL, Penthouse, quiet bldg, new H/W flrs, new appls, heat incl. $879. 312-857-8480. Avail Now. NO SECURITY DEPOSIT Chicago, 9121 S. Cottage Grove, 2BR apt. $995/mo Newly remod, appls, mini blinds, ceiling fans, pkng Sec 8 OK. Free Heat 312-915-0100

CHICAGO 3BR 5258 S. Hermitage. $625. 5246 S. Hermitage: 3BR, 2nd fl, $625 & 2BR b smt $400. 1. 5 mo sec req’d.

708-574-4085.

7701 S. South Shore Dr. 2 BDs with 1.5 Baths, Large Combo Living-Dining Rm, FREE Heat & cking gas. Prkng extra. $785-$850, Kalabich Mgmt (708)424-4216

DLX,2BDR,LRG LIV & Din room.

Ten pys own utils.Nr 76th Ashl.Sec8 welcm $800mo.plus 1 1/2mo.Sec Dep. But negot.773-203-2768

14141 SOUTH SCHOOL ST, Riverdale, IL. All new remodeled 2BR, 1BA apartment. $825/month.

Call 312-217-6556

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l

CHICAGO 7600 S Essex 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sect 8 Ok! 773287-9999 /312-446-3333

2 BR $900-$1099

MATTESON 2BR TOWNHOME.

CHATHAM, 720 E. 81st St. Newly remodeled 2BR, 1BA, hardwood floors, appliances & heat included.

Call 847-533-5463.

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

708-288-4510

73RD & DORCHESTER, 2BR, refrig & stove, laundry hookups, off street prkg, $1000/mo. No security dep. Sec 8 ok. 773-684-1166

ALL NEW APT , 5 BR, 2BA, 1st fl, hardwood floors, granite countertops, Section 8 Welcome 773-616-3615

7343 S Carpenter , 5BR, 2BA newly updated, quiet block, near school, off street pkg, backyard. $1100/mo. 773-501-0503

2 BR $1300-$1499

Section 8 OK. $1150/mo + 1 mo sec.

Call 708-625-7355 for info.

HUGE 2 BEDROOM , 2 bathroom, approximately 1500S.F. Must see! Ideal location. Close to all public transportation & expressways. 1.5 blocks to Brown Line. Well maintained 3-unit building, laundry in building, near North Park University. $1075/mo + utilities. Credit check & security deposit required. Available June 1.

773-775-7228 9am-6pm.

MONTROSE/ CLARENDON VINTAGE two bedroom. Super-

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499

NR HYDE PARK Secured, lrg 5

sunny/ bright, heat/ gas included.

Five large rooms. Miniblinds/ ceiling fans. Porch. Free laundry. Block Montrose Harbor. $1450. 773-973-3463.

2 CONDOS FOR Rent, 82nd & Jef-

5828 S MICHIGAN. 2BR $1300,

rms, (2BR/1BA Apt) new kit w/ appls, encl porch, lrg fenced-in yard, sec 8 ok. $850/mo + utils. $850 sec dep req. $1,700 to move in.

Avail Immed. 773-213-0187

Stunning 5BR Brick home w/ concrete side drive, XL yard, rent to own. $1300/mo + 2 mo sec dep, new kitchen, vaulted ceilings, 2 marble baths, marble fireplace w/TV, new hdwd flrs throughout, finished walk-out bsmt, new appls,, quiet Morgan Park/ Beverly area, 610 minimum

fery, One 3BR/2BA ($1,200/mo) avail immed & One 2BR/1BA ($975/mo) avail beg of June. Landlord pays heat/ water; tenant pays elec. 2 washers/ dryers on 1st floor; assigned off-street parking. No Pets (708) 567-3084 ROOMY 2BR APT near recreational area, off street parking, heated encl porch room. $900/mo + $900 sec. Call Elton 312-841-6798

CHICAGO - AUSTIN AREA 2BR apartments. Decorative Frplc. H/ W Flrs. Heat Incl. $950 +1 month security. 773-396-1936

2 BR $1100-$1299 EAST ROGERS PARK, steps to the beach at 1240 West Jarvis, five rooms, two bedrooms, two baths, dishwasher, ac, heat and gas included. Carpeted, cable, laundry facility, elevator building, parking available, and no pets. Non-smoking. Price is $1200/mo. Call 773-764-9824.

3BR $1400 w/2BA, LR, DR, kitchen, sun and back porches.

773-370-1952

2 BR $1500 AND OVER

AMAZING WRIGLEYVILLE LOCATION on quiet tree lined street

Bright and spacious 2 berm 1 bath with balcony over looking the ball park Huge living room, great dining room adjacent to balcony Plaster walls built ins and lighting add to the vintage charm In building laundry and storage$2000/ month Available July 1st garage parking available at additional cost Contact: fcprop1@gmail.com

2 BR OTHER 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

CALUMET CITY - 3BR HOUSE, A/C, 2 CAR GARAGE, BASEMENT, KITCHEN, LIVING ROOM, SECTION 8 WELCOM E.AVAIL. JUNE 1ST. 708-6747447.

SECTION 8 WELCOME $200 Cash Move-In Bonus, No Deposit 6227 S. Justine 3BR/1BA & 225 W 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA, $1100; 7134 S Normal, 4BR, 2BA, $1150. Heat & appls incl. 312-683-5174

CHATHAM-3BR 1.5BA, STOVE /HEAT incl, laundry in bsmt, 7900 block of Langley, Sec 8 Ok. $1129/mo.

Mr. Johnson, 630-424-1403 CALUMET PARK, beautiful 3BR, 2BA, hardwood floors, fenced in yard, $1100/mo. Section 8 Welcome. Call 708-4656573 WRIGHTWOOD, Spacious 3BR apt, fully carpeted, heat and appls incl. 8049 S. Artesian. $1100 /mo + dep. 773368-5971 8001 S. DOBSON. 3BR $950 New Kitchen and Bath. Heat and appliances incl. 312.208.1771 or 773.

916.0039

ELMHURST: Dlx 1BR, new appl, new carpet, AC, balc. overlook pool, $925/mo. incl heat, prkg, OS Laundry. 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

CHICAGO, 7028 S. GREEN, 3BR, lrg living room, dining room, hardwood flrs, 1.5BA, 3rd floor, $1050/mo + heat.

Section 8 Welc. 708-2049881

credit. Call 630-709-0078

ROSELAND, SINGLE FAMILY Home, 3BR, 1.5BA, C/A, newly renov. 9600 Blk Wentworth, $1325. Sect 8 ok. Call Mr. Johnson, 630-424-1403 BLUE ISLAND 3BR, 1.5BA, 2nd flr duplex, appls, heat incl, tenant pays light and gas, off street parking avail, no pets. $1250/mo. Call Toni 708-715-0721 96TH & MERRION, 3BR Townhouse with appls, hdwd flrs, no pets. Section 8 Welcome. $1200/ mo. Move in Ready. Call 312970-4157 9221 S. MARQUETTE. Spacious 3BR/2BA with possible 4th BR, newly remod Baths & Kitch, 3 flrs of Living space. Sec 8 OK. 773-443-0175

CHICAGO 3BR BRICK, near 120th & Halsted, w/ full bsmt & parking. $1195 + Sec dep. Close to transportation. 773-568-7750

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799

2BA, heat incl. $900. 68th/ Hermitage, 2BR. 725. 3BR. $850.70th /Normal, 3BR. $825. 847-977-3552

ALB PK DLX 3BR + den, new kit, SS appl, granite, oak flrs, on-site lndy, $1495/+ util. 773-743-4141 w ww.urbanequities.com

ADULT SERVICES

ADULT SERVICES

SOUTHSIDE 62nd/May 3BR,

PARK MANOR: 7825 S Champlain, beaut rehabbed 4BR, 2BA house, granite ctrs, SS appls, fin bsmt, 2-car gar, $1500/mo. 708288-4510 ALB PK DLX 3BR + den, new kit, SS appl, granite, oak flrs, on-site lndy, $1495/+ util. 773-743-4141 w ww.urbanequities.com WRIGLEYVILLE 2BR 1100sqft new appls, FDR, oak floors, cac. OS lndry, $1495 + utils. Prkg avail.

773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499 LOGAN SQUARE Turn Of The Century 9 room boulevard apartment, 3BRs, hardwood floors, 2fireplaces, modern kitchen & bath, breakfast room. $1800/mo. includes heat. 773-235-1066

3 BR OR MORE $2500 AND OVER PRESTIGIOUS WOODED Subdivision Royal Oak Estates 308 Royal Oaks Dr. 2 story 4000 sq ft home. 4BR, 4BA w/ fin bsmt & 3 car garage. $3000 + 1 mo sec.

312-217-6556

3 BR OR MORE OTHER 8443 Hermitage.

Newly decorated 4BR. Fridge, stove, W/D incl. Fenced in bkyd, 1.5 car garage. 773-881-1410 or 773-852-9423 WEST CHICAGO, NEWLY Decorated 3BR, Without appliances, 4716 Westend St. 60644.

773-301-8959

9120 SAGINAW ST. 5BR, 2 full baths, hdwd flrs, Section 8 welcome.

773-858-6888

ADULT SERVICES

MORGAN PARK - $1600/mo.

115th & S. Throop. Remodeled 5BR, 2BA, Hdwd flrs, fenced yard, near trans, Sect. 8 welc. 773-766-2640

SOUTHSIDE, Newly Remod 3BR /2BA with appls & washer/dryer.

Also, newly remod 2BR with appls & WD hk up 773-908-8791

Beautifully renovated 3-5BR Single Family Homes, new kit, fridge & stove incl, hdwd flrs, cash & Sec 8 Wel 708-557-0644 CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent.

Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail.

312-446-3333 or 708-752-3812

GENERAL CHICAGO SOUTH - YOU’VE tried the rest, we are the best.

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

773-221-7490, 773-221-7493 2122 W. 68TH PL. Remodeled 5BR House, 2BA, Central Air, Tenant pays utilities, security system.

Sec 8 ok. Call Roy 312-405-2178

MARKETPLACE GOODS CHILDREN’S GARAGE SALE

MAY 13 FROM 8-12 NOON St. Andrew Gym at Addison & Paulina Great deals on kids clothes, toys and gear.

Admission $1. Cash only.

Bargain blowout 11:30-12: 50% off, clothing $1/bag.

All proceeds benefit St. Andrew School.

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

MASSAGE TABLES, NEW and

non-residential

used. Large selection of professional high quality massage equipment at a very low price. Visit us at www. bestmassage.com or call us, 773764-6542.

SELF-STORAGE CENTERS. T W O locations to serve you. All

GIGANTIC MOVING SALE

units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue.

773-685-6868.

South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

roommates SOUTH SHORE, Senior Discount. Male preferred. Furnished rooms, shared kitchen & bath, $550/ mo. & up. Utilities included.

773-710-5431

HEALTH & WELLNESS

in Roscoe Village! 100’s of ITEMS! 3246 N Ravenswood 5/20 & 5/21 | 8:30am - 4pm

BUYING OLD WHISKEY/ BOURBON/RYE! Looking for full/ sealed vintage bottles and decanters.

PAYING TOP DOLLAR!! 773-263-5320

SERVICES CPS TEACHERS!

Southside, Rooms for rent Newly remodeled, bkyd,appls incl quiet block, $125/ week utilities included 773-407-1736

Teach From Home Online!

Teach as little as 7.5 hours Per week. h t t p s : // t . v i p k i d t e a c h e r s . com/?refereeId=2599250

ADULT SERVICES

ADULT SERVICES

FREE MASSAGE. BODY hair re-

moval. Ask how. (847)868-0110 Russian specialists.

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

UKRAINIAN MASSAGE. CALLS in/ out. Chicago and suburbs. Hotels. 1250 S Michigan Avenue. Appointments. 773-616-6969.

MESSAGES SPIRITUAL PSYCHIC READER TELLS you past, present and future, helps with all problems, could do where others have failed. Call now for FREE consultation 630-408-4789

ADULT SERVICES

4300 BLOCK OF AUGUSTA, 2BRs, 1st & 2nd floor, laundry facility on site. $1150/mo, utils incl.

Sect 8 ok. No pets/no smoking.

773-418-0195

BRONZEVILLE, BEAUTIFUL REMOD 2 & 3BR Apts, hdwd flrs, custom cabinets, avail now. $1100-$1200/mo + sec. 773-9058487. Section 8 Ok

BELDEN & LAVERGNE Lrg 2BR, $1100/mo, Tenant pays Gas & Elec., No Dogs. Call Ken @ 773391-1460

2BR APT, 1BA, 11327 S

AFFORDABLE 2 & 3BRS FROM $625.

Newly decorated, heated/ unheated. 1 Month Free for qualified tenants.

CRS (312) 782-4041

ENGLEWOOD 2-4BR unit apts in 2 unit gated bldgs, hdwd flrs, pets OK, no sec dep, W/D & appls incl, tenant pays own utils 773-715-1591

Aberdeen, tenant pays utilities, Newly updated, $950/month 708-408-7075

NEWLY REHABBED 1BR Apt. $750. 3 & 5BR single family homes w / 2BA. $1200-$1500. Sect 8 Welc.

773-431-2968

ADULT SERVICES

ADULT SERVICES

COLLEGE GIRL BODY RUBS $40 w/AD 24/7

224-223-7787

MAY 11, 2017 | CHICAGO READER 43

STRAIGHT DOPE

By Cecil Adams Q : Why do English singers seem to lose their accent when they sing?

THE HOTTEST GAY CHATLINE

1-312-924-2082 More Local Numbers: 800-777-8000

www.guyspyvoice.com

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A : You’re not the only one wondering, Bruce.

The phenomenon of British singers adopting what’s perceived as American-style pronunciation has attracted inquiry at linguistics departments around the world. Generally the experts agree that what we’re hearing is in part a stylistic choice by the singer (as one might assume), but the mechanics of singing appear to play a role too. It may be that some effort is required to sing with any kind of identifiable accent, including one’s own.

We may think of Brits’ singing like Yanks as a development of the rock era, but Swiss linguist Franz Andres Morrissey has traced this tendency back to jazz singers in the 1950s and earlier. To sound American in the years following World War II was to sound cool and contemporary, and this remained true in the 60s, when young Britons were styling their performances after American rock ’n’ roll artists like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley or, as in the case of groups including the Rolling Stones and the Animals, blues singers like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. As John Lennon commented long after the fact, “Any major star in England had to change his voice. They do it too in America to get on TV and radio.”

Once your pop combo becomes the biggest deal on the planet, of course, you may figure you can write your own ticket accentwise. Earlier this year in a Brazilian linguistics journal, researchers Mariana Backes Nunes and Júlia Nunes Azzi compared the vocals on the 1963 album With the Beatles to those on 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, focusing on how the Fab Four sounded two key consonants: r, which in the standard UK dialect known as Received Pronunciation gets dropped when following a vowel, but is pronounced in General American English; and t, which is more fully articulated by most British speakers than by Americans, who often render it as something closer to a d—“liddle” rather than “lit-tle.” What the authors found was that the Beatles always tended to mix and match UK and U.S. consonants—in the Sgt. Pepper’s song “Getting Better,” Paul McCartney repeatedly uses the U.S. t in “getting,” then the British t in “bet-

ter”—but in 1963 they were using more American sounds, whereas in ’67 they were sounding more predominantly English. Having conquered the musical world for Britain, the authors propose, the Beatles no longer felt the need to imitate anyone.

But the phonetic demands of singing may generally tend to eradicate accents. As the British linguist David Crystal has pointed out, the melody and lyrics of a song impose their own cadence on the singer, replacing qualities like speech rhythm, intonation, and vowel length that would ordinarily distinguish the singer’s natural speaking accent.

Taking this further, a pair of Polish PhD candidates, Kamil Malarski and Mateusz Jekiel, argued in a 2016 paper that rock singing may effectively be a dialect of its own. They picked six well-documented lead singers, three British, three American, and analyzed both their singing and speaking voices for rhoticity—the tendency to pronounce r rather than drop it. Results? The Brits exhibited no rhoticity in recorded interviews, but in performance they articulated nearly a quarter of the rs they’d ordinarily have dropped; meanwhile the Americans, who all scored at 100 percent rhotic in ordinary speech, managed only 41 percent rhoticity with a microphone in their hands. So maybe it’s not that UK singers sound American so much as that many UK and U.S. singers have adopted a common accent—“Singing English,” as the authors put it.

It’s also true, though, that the Americanized British vocal style has become less prevalent since the heyday of Led Zeppelin. Punk rockers of the 70s, new-wavers of the 80s, and Britpop bands of the 90s all made a point of singing with their native accents on proud display. Perhaps once the sun began to set on the American century, our accent seemed less cool and contemporary. Current events certainly suggest some reasons why this might continue to be the case. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

A May-December marriage makes for a dilemma

What should the wife of a man with erectile deficiencies do? Plus: dogs Q : My husband is nearly 20

years older than me, which was never an issue early in our relationship. However, for approximately the last eight years, we have not been able to have fulfilling sex because my husband can’t keep an erection for more than a few thrusts. I love my husband and I am committed to our family, but I miss full PIV sex. I’m still fairly young and I enjoy sex, but I feel like I am mourning the death of my sex life. I miss the intimate connection and powerful feeling of sex with a man.

My husband tries to please me, but oral sex is just OK, and toys don’t have the same effect. We have tried Viagra a few times, but it gave him a terrible headache. I try to brush it off because I don’t want to embarrass him. I am curious about casual relationships, but I fear they wouldn’t stay casual. Also, I would feel guilty being with another man even though my husband said I could do it one time. On one hand, I feel like I should be able to have a fulfilling sex life. But on the other hand, I don’t want to be a cheater. —NOW ON TO HAVING AWKWARDLY REALISTIC DISCUSSIONS

A : It’s not cheating if

you have your husband’s permission, NOTHARD, but fucking another man could still blow up your marriage— even if you manage to keep it casual.

Story time: I knew this straight couple. They were good together, they loved each other, and they had a strong sexual connection.

(Spoiler alert: my use of the past tense.) The woman was all about monogamy, but her boyfriend had always wanted to have a threesome. She didn’t want to be the reason he never got to do something

he’d been fantasizing about since age 13, so she told her boyfriend that if the opportunity ever presented itself, he could go for it. So long as the sex was safe and he was honest with her, he could have a threesome one time.

The opportunity presented itself, the sex was safe, he was honest—and my friend spent a week ricocheting between devastated and furious before finally dumping her devastated and flummoxed boyfriend. During a drunken postmortem, my friend told me she wanted her boyfriend to be able to do it but didn’t want him to actually do it. She didn’t want to be the reason he couldn’t; she wanted to be the reason he didn’t. So her permission to have a threesome “one time” was a test (one he didn’t know he was taking) and a trap (one he couldn’t escape from). I urged my friend to take her boyfriend back—if he would have her— but he’d touched another woman with the tip of his penis (two women, actually), which meant he didn’t love her the way she thought he did, the way she deserved to be loved, etc, and consequently he couldn’t be allowed to touch her with the tip of his penis ever again.

Back to you, NOTHARD: My first reaction to your letter was “You’ve got your husband’s OK to fuck some other dude—go for it.” Then I reread your letter and thought, “Wait, this could be a test and a trap.” If you take him up on his offer “one time,” and you make the mistake of being honest with him about it, he may be just as devastated as my friend was.

So don’t take your husband up on his offer—not yet. Have a few more conversations about your sex life instead and address nonmonogamy/openness generally, not

nonmonogamy/openness as a work-around for his dick.

There may be some solo adventures he’d like to have, there may be invigorating new sexual adventures you could enjoy as a couple (maybe he’d love to go down on two women at once?), or he may rescind or restate his offer to let you fuck some other dude one time. Get clarity—crystal clarity—before proceeding.

Finally, NOTHARD, there are other erectile dysfunction drugs out there, drugs that may not have the same side effects for your husband. And low to very low doses of Viagra—doses less likely to induce a headache— are effective for some men.

Good luck.

Q : Partner and I adopted a

two-and-a-half-year-old mutt a month ago. We are also trying to get pregnant and are having sex every day for 15-day stretches a month.

Dog does NOT like being shut out—we love dog but do not love the idea of him being in the room. Should we get over it? Should dog get over it? What is dog/human sexual privacy etiquette?

—DON’T OVERSEE GETTING IT ON

A : I’m not into pups, human

or otherwise, but I live with two actual dogs and, man, if those dogs could talk. Some dogs loudly object to their owners fucking, others don’t.

If your dog barks when you’re fucking, I can see why you’d want to keep him out of the room. But if he just wants to curl up in a corner and lick his ass for a minute before dozing off, what’s the big deal? v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at thestranger.com. ß @fakedansavage

REAL PEOPLE REAL DESIRE REAL FUN.

Try FREE: 773-867-1235 More Local Numbers: 1-800-926-6000

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Try FREE: 312-924-2066 More Local Numbers: 1-800-8111-800-811-1633 1633

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THEBLEADER.COM

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 45

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

A May-December marriage makes for a dilemma

What should the wife of a man with erectile deficiencies do? Plus: dogs Q : My husband is nearly 20

years older than me, which was never an issue early in our relationship. However, for approximately the last eight years, we have not been able to have fulfilling sex because my husband can’t keep an erection for more than a few thrusts. I love my husband and I am committed to our family, but I miss full PIV sex. I’m still fairly young and I enjoy sex, but I feel like I am mourning the death of my sex life. I miss the intimate connection and powerful feeling of sex with a man.

My husband tries to please me, but oral sex is just OK, and toys don’t have the same effect. We have tried Viagra a few times, but it gave him a terrible headache. I try to brush it off because I don’t want to embarrass him. I am curious about casual relationships, but I fear they wouldn’t stay casual. Also, I would feel guilty being with another man even though my husband said I could do it one time. On one hand, I feel like I should be able to have a fulfilling sex life. But on the other hand, I don’t want to be a cheater. —NOW ON TO HAVING AWKWARDLY REALISTIC DISCUSSIONS

A : It’s not cheating if

you have your husband’s permission, NOTHARD, but fucking another man could still blow up your marriage— even if you manage to keep it casual.

Story time: I knew this straight couple. They were good together, they loved each other, and they had a strong sexual connection.

(Spoiler alert: my use of the past tense.) The woman was all about monogamy, but her boyfriend had always wanted to have a threesome. She didn’t want to be the reason he never got to do something

he’d been fantasizing about since age 13, so she told her boyfriend that if the opportunity ever presented itself, he could go for it. So long as the sex was safe and he was honest with her, he could have a threesome one time.

The opportunity presented itself, the sex was safe, he was honest—and my friend spent a week ricocheting between devastated and furious before finally dumping her devastated and flummoxed boyfriend. During a drunken postmortem, my friend told me she wanted her boyfriend to be able to do it but didn’t want him to actually do it. She didn’t want to be the reason he couldn’t; she wanted to be the reason he didn’t. So her permission to have a threesome “one time” was a test (one he didn’t know he was taking) and a trap (one he couldn’t escape from). I urged my friend to take her boyfriend back—if he would have her— but he’d touched another woman with the tip of his penis (two women, actually), which meant he didn’t love her the way she thought he did, the way she deserved to be loved, etc, and consequently he couldn’t be allowed to touch her with the tip of his penis ever again.

Back to you, NOTHARD: My first reaction to your letter was “You’ve got your husband’s OK to fuck some other dude—go for it.” Then I reread your letter and thought, “Wait, this could be a test and a trap.” If you take him up on his offer “one time,” and you make the mistake of being honest with him about it, he may be just as devastated as my friend was.

So don’t take your husband up on his offer—not yet. Have a few more conversations about your sex life instead and address nonmonogamy/openness generally, not

nonmonogamy/openness as a work-around for his dick.

There may be some solo adventures he’d like to have, there may be invigorating new sexual adventures you could enjoy as a couple (maybe he’d love to go down on two women at once?), or he may rescind or restate his offer to let you fuck some other dude one time. Get clarity—crystal clarity—before proceeding.

Finally, NOTHARD, there are other erectile dysfunction drugs out there, drugs that may not have the same side effects for your husband. And low to very low doses of Viagra—doses less likely to induce a headache— are effective for some men.

Good luck.

Q : Partner and I adopted a

two-and-a-half-year-old mutt a month ago. We are also trying to get pregnant and are having sex every day for 15-day stretches a month.

Dog does NOT like being shut out—we love dog but do not love the idea of him being in the room. Should we get over it? Should dog get over it? What is dog/human sexual privacy etiquette?

—DON’T OVERSEE GETTING IT ON

REAL PEOPLE REAL DESIRE REAL FUN.

Try FREE: 773-867-1235 More Local Numbers: 1-800-926-6000

Meet sexy friends who really get your vibe...

Try FREE: 312-924-2066 More Local Numbers: 1-800-8111-800-811-1633 1633

Ahora español Livelinks.com 18+

vibeline.com 18+

12 O’CLOCK TRACK SERIES

A SIDE OF JAM WITH YOUR

LUNCH EVERY WEEKDAY

THEBLEADER.COM

ADMIRAL ★★ #$!%#"! ★★

A : I’m not into pups, human

or otherwise, but I live with two actual dogs and, man, if those dogs could talk. Some dogs loudly object to their owners fucking, others don’t.

If your dog barks when you’re fucking, I can see why you’d want to keep him out of the room. But if he just wants to curl up in a corner and lick his ass for a minute before dozing off, what’s the big deal? v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at thestranger.com. ß @fakedansavage

3940 W LAWRENCE

OPEN 7PM TO 6AM ADMIRALX.COM (773) 478-8111

MAY 11, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 45

b West Fest with ESG, Royal Headache, Woods, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Durand Jones, and more 7/7-9, Chicago between Damen and Wood b Why Don’t We 7/21, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, noon b Webb Wilder 8/4, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b XXXtentacio, Ski Mask the Slump God 6/20, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Zombie Girl 8/11, 8:30 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+

UPDATED

Against Me! o CASEY CURRY

NEW

Against Me!, Bleached 9/30, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Dave Alvin & the Guilty Ones 9/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Aquabats 7/14, 7 PM, House of Blues b Marcia Ball Band 8/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b David Bazan 6/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Tab Benoit 8/15-16, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Best Ex 7/15, 6:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Big Business 6/23, 9 PM, Subterranean Charles Bradley, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 7/13, 7 PM, House of Vans, 18+ F Junior Brown 7/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Maurice “Mobetta” Brown with Talib Kweli 7/28, 7 and 10:30 PM, Martyrs’ Cap’n Jazz, Hop Along 7/29, 7 PM, House of Vans, 18+ F Carbon Leaf 9/22, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 18+ Jon Cleary 8/18, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Javier Colon 7/11, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Denzel Curry 6/9, 7 PM, House of Vans, 18+ F Dr. Octagon 5/30, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ JD Eicher 7/23, 7 PM, Wire, Berwyn Sawyer Fredericks 7/5, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b

Arlo Guthrie 10/1-3, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 5/11, noon b Marika Hackman, Big Moon 8/11, 9 PM, Schubas Halsey, Partynextdoor 11/19, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM DJ Harvey 5/26, 9 PM, Jackhammer Carter Hulsey 6/7, 7 PM, Wire, Berwyn The Internet 6/29, 7 PM, House of Vans, 18+ F J Balvin 9/21, 8 PM, Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, on sale Thu 5/11, 10 AM Japandroids, Cloud Nothings 11/2, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 18+ Johnnyswim 11/10, 7:30 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 5/12, 11 AM b Rickie Lee Jones 8/20, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 5/11, noon b Juliana Theory 8/27, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Mon 5/15, 10 AM, 17+ Lawrence Arms, Dillinger Four, Toys That Kill 6/22, 7 PM, House of Vans, 18+ F Dylan Leblanc 8/5, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Linkin Park, Machine Gun Kelly 8/14, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 5/12, noon Matt the Electrician, Antje Duvekot 8/3, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Nicole Mitchell & Lisa E. Harris 6/22, 6 PM, Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago b Monsta X 7/12, 8 PM, Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, on sale Thu 5/11, 4 PM Mother Mother 7/12, 7:30 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Mr. Mitch 6/1, 8 PM, East Room

46 CHICAGO READER - MAY 11, 2017

Nick Murphy 9/29, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 18+ Charlie Musselwhite 8/25, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Dan Navarro 8/22, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Now, Now 7/7, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, noon, 18+ Over the Rhine 8/26-27, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Perturbator 10/6, 9 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 17+ Dave Rawlings Machine 8/25, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b San Cisco 8/17, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 17+ Speedy J 7/1, 10 PM, Smart Bar DJ Spinn, RP Boo 7/15, 10 PM, Smart Bar Spose 7/9, 9 PM, Subterranean, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 17+ Starlito & Don Trip, Scotty ATL, Red Dot, Forever Doyan, Eljay Marquise, Easy.

5/24, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ C.W. Stoneking 7/19, 8 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 5/12, 11 AM This Wild Life 7/11, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Timeflies 10/22, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall b Travelin’ McCourys 8/10, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM b Foy Vance 10/9, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Waxahatchee, Cayetana 7/19, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 17+ Paul Weller 10/12, 9 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM, 17+

Joe Goddard 5/26, 10 PM, Smart Bar, canceled Sonny Knight & the Lakers 6/13, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, canceled Paul McCartney 7/25-26, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, 7/25 sold out, 7/26 added, on sale Fri 5/12, 10 AM Juelz Santana, Northside Jojo, Juno Lost Kause, Lita Garcia 6/16, 8 PM, Portage Theater, rescheduled from 5/13, 17+

UPCOMING A Giant Dog 7/6, 9 PM, Empty Bottle All Time Low, Swmrs 7/21, 6 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Appleseed Cast 6/9, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ At the Drive-In, Le Butcherettes 6/18, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Dierks Bentley, Cole Swindell 7/28, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Tim Berne’s Snakeoil 9/16, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Bongripper, Harm’s Way 5/26, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Brujeria, Voodoo Glow Skulls 10/29, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Tommy Castro & the Painkillers 7/18, 8 PM, City Winery b Cloud Cult 6/1, 8:30 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Coheed & Cambria, Dear Hunter 5/19, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Elvis Costello & the Imposters 6/12, 7:30 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion Cranberries 9/28, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Evan Dando 6/20, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Edgar Winter Band 9/6, 6:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Descendents 10/7, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Drive-By Truckers, Honeysuckle 7/20, 6:30 PM, Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

Never miss a show again.

Sign up for the newsletter at chicagoreader. com/early

Fleet Foxes 10/3-4, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Freddie Gibbs 6/22, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Guided by Voices 7/28, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen Har Mar Superstar 7/8, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Horse Lords 6/10, 9 PM, Hideout Iron Maiden, Ghost 6/15, 7:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Ampitheatre, Tinley Park b Jeff the Brotherhood 7/29, 10 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Tim Kasher 6/8, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ King Crimson 6/28, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Mark Lanegan Band 8/22, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 18+ Lizzo 6/9, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Meat Bodies 6/16, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Meat Puppets, Mike Watt & the Jom & Terry Show 5/19, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Melvins 7/25, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Negative Approach, Bloodclot 7/29, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Nothing, Rlyr 6/11, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Okkervil River 7/21, 7 and 10 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Graham Parker Duo 7/12, 8 PM, City Winery b Picosa 6/4, 8:30 PM, Constellation Portugal. The Man 6/14, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Protomartyr, Melkbelly 6/3, 10 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Raven 5/18, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Real Friends, Tiny Moving Parts 6/9, 4:30 PM, Concord Music Hall b Royal Headache 7/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Shannon & the Clams 6/2, 10 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Sigur Ros 6/3, 8 PM, Auditorium Theatre Taake 6/1, 7:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Trip Metal Fest with Wolf Eyes, Pharmakon, Aaron Dilloway, Container, and more 5/25, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Ultimate Painting 7/25, 9 PM, Empty Bottle ZZ Ward 5/31, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Roger Waters 7/22, 8 PM, United Center Xasthur 6/1, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Dweezil Zappa 7/7, 8 PM, City Winery b v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene NEW MEMPHIS HIP-HOP label Culture Power45 has a special affection for Chicago: in its five-month life it’s released smallrun, vinyl-only singles featuring local artists such as Infinito 2017, Rashid Hadee, Radius, and Thaione Davis. Those four also appear on the label’s forthcoming LP compilation, Fruition, which comes out in June—and which Culture Power45 celebrates with a free release party at 606 Records in Pilsen on Saturday, May 13. The event starts at 4 PM and includes DJ sets

by Radius and Rashid Hadee; the shop is likely to sell out of the LP, so if you want a copy, you should get there early.

Listening to the winding guitar interplay and dramatic riffs of instrumental Chicago prog-metal quartet Outrun the Sunlight, Gossip Wolf can’t help but be reminded of perennial local headbanger faves Russian Circles and Pelican. Never a bad thing! Last month, the band self-released the soaring mini album Red Bird, and on Tuesday, May 23, they headline Lincoln Hall with support from fellow prog-metal instrumentalists Sioum, heavy psych jammers Rezn, and doomy post-metal outfit Barren Heir.

Last week Chicago rock group the Peekaboos dropped a video for the concise, ragged ripper “The Quantifiable Song.” It’s a dystopian vision of the year 2020, with the band fighting a small army of American neo-Nazis toting lasers—and, um, a fuzzy pig hand puppet. Odds seem good they’ll play the song when they headline a free show at the Emporium in Wicker Park on Thursday, May 11.

Gossip Wolf wishes jazz elder, AACM cofounder, and former Sun Ra sideman Kelan Phil Cohran a happy birthday—he turned 90 on Monday! Early readers of this column can celebrate with the legend on Wednesday, May 10, when he plays his first show of the year, accompanied by his son Malik. It’s at 7:30 PM at the Promontory; Cohran shares the bill with the 13th iteration of transatlantic jazz exchange the Bridge. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28

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SATURDAY, MAY 27

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