Print Issue of August 16, 2018 (Volume 47, Number 45) by Chicago Reader

C H I C A G O ’ S F R E E W E E K LY S I N C E 1 9 7 1 | A U G U S T 1 6 , 2 0 1 8

KEY INGREDIENT AND COCKTAIL CHALLENGE SAY GOODBYE Five pairings of ﬁne wine and classic Chicago fast food 13 Trump Tower’s new restaurant: Run by lizard people? 33

A look back on the most daring recipes and the most creative drinks BY JULIA THIEL 10

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THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | A U G U S T 1 6 , 2 0 1 8 | V O L U M E 4 7, N U M B E R 4 3

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ACTING DEPUTY EDITOR KATE SCHMIDT CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMIE RAMSAY CULTURE EDITOR AIMEE LEVITT MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, JAMIE LUDWIG SENIOR WRITERS DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, PETER MARGASAK SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTORS ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, IRENE HSAIO, DAN JAKES, MONICA KENDRICK, STEVE KRAKOW, BILL MEYER, J.R. NELSON, LEAH PICKETT, JAMES PORTER, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV,KATE SIERZPUTOWSKI, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS MATTHEW HARVEY, KATIE POWERS, TYRA NICOLE TRICHE, ANNA WHITE ---------------------------------------------------------------ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER BEST SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA ---------------------------------------------------------------DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 30 N. RACINE, SUITE 300 CHICAGO, IL 60607 312-222-6920 CHICAGOREADER.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY STM READER, LLC 30 N. RACINE, SUITE 300 CHICAGO, IL 60607. COPYRIGHT © 2018 CHICAGO READER. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO READER, READER, AND REVERSED R: REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ®.

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY RYAN SEGEDI. FOR MORE OF RYAN’S WORK, GO TO RYANSEGEDI.COM.

MUSIC

FEATURES

A FOND FAREWELL TO GEODUCKS

And natto, and balut, and durian, and any number of the other foods used in our long-running chef-to-chef challenge, Key Ingredient BY JULIA THIEL 10

THE COCKTAIL CHALLENGE HALL OF FAME

Not even pig’s blood or stinkbugs daunted our intrepid mixologists. BY JULIA THIEL 12

Ephraim Bugumba sings his refugee’s tale as Storyteller

His long, hard journey from the Congo to DeKalb began when he was three, but he uses music to keep a connection to home alive. BY JUSTIN KAMP 23

5 CHICAGO FAST FOOD WINE PAIRINGS

At last, the classics get the respect they deserve. BY ALAN EPSTEIN 13

IN THIS ISSUE

CITY LIFE

4 Shop Window Meg and Joe Piercy of MegMade give new life to old furniture. 6 Joravsky | Politics The raft of former insiders challenging the mayor are uniquely positioned to speak truth to Rahm. 7 Transportation Ofo’s out, and D.C. just abandoned its dockless bikeshare program, but LimeBike and others are showing some promise on Chicago’s far south side. 8 On Culture A lawsuit to prevent the Obama Presidential Center’s “illegal land grab” in Jackson Park is moving forward.

ARTS & CULTURE

16 Museums At the Perry Mansion Cultural Center, Sam Smith wants to reshape the narrative of black life in America—by reconstructing a slave ship in his basement. 17 Visual Art Mika Horibuchi paints oil trompe l’oeil replicas of her grandma’s watercolors. 18 Visual Art McKinley Park painter Brian Wells has quietly spent decades documenting the parts of the city he knows best. 19 Theater Yippie Fest, the successor to the Abbie Hoﬀman Died for Your Sins Festival, comes back for a second year. 19 Dance Once a performer at Dance for Life, Hanna Brictson returns with her own company.

20 Theater The Fly Honey Show, Holding the Man, and Richard III 21 Movies The very literary Araby follows the life and jobs of an itinerant Brazilian laborer. 22 Movies Crazy Rich Asians and more new releases, reviewed by our critics

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

27 Shows of note Batushka, Drake, the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash, and more of the week’s best 31 Secret History Folksinger Kristin Lems has been a favorite of the women’s movement—and of Dr. Demento.

FOOD & DRINK

33 Restaurant Review At the new Terrace 16, it’s $28 cheeseburgers

cooked medium and $18 cocktails color-coded in Red Pill.

CLASSIFIEDS

35 Jobs 35 Apartments & Spaces 36 Marketplace 37 Savage Love Two would-be ethical polyamorists want to know. Plus: ixnay to this artypay 38 Early Warnings Cloud Nothings, Thom Yorke, Fantastic Negrito, and other shows to look for in the weeks to come. 38 Gossip Wolf Wild bear rapper Big Dipper comes home to tease his long-awaited debut album, and more music news.

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 3

CITY LIFE

shop window

Handy is dandy

Meg and Joe Piercy of MegMade give new life to old furniture. By ISA GIALLORENZO

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hen life gives you a contractor who steals all your cash . . . renovate a hand-me-down dresser for your newborn, impress your friends, and make a successful business out of it! That’s basically the story of Meg and Joe Piercy of MegMade, a five-year-old furniture shop that has recently relocated to Bucktown. “We were broke and pregnant,” says Meg. “Now my husband and I work full-time together for MegMade and are definitely out of the rough patch”—she’s even carrying a third child. In a way the handy couple still continues in the renovation business, selling their refinished furniture on an almost industrial scale: they currently employ 15 people (many of whom come from the ailing automotive industry) and ship their items across the country to more than 36 states.

Besides restoring vintage wood pieces including dressers, tallboys, wardrobes, and dining tables, the Piercys both reupholster and offer their own line of sofas, sectionals, and occasionally chairs and ottomans. MegMade also carries rugs (by Loloi, Jaipur, and Dash + Albert, among others), fabrics

(by Schumacher, Fabricut, and Perennials), lighting (by Arteriors and Noir), window treatments, and art, and they are starting to make their own case goods and hardware such as handles and knobs. For renovations, customers can choose from a wide selection of vintage pieces, or bring in their own furniture. “We love how you can customize just about anything here,” says Meg. The pricing for vintage pieces includes a basic reﬁnishing and any further customization. “A typical dresser for us would range between $900 to $2,000 depending on size,” Meg says “We try to make our furniture affordable while still proving the highest quality

CITY LIFE

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Tue - Sat 10 - 6 847-475-8665

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MEGMADE

2728 N. Elston, 312-636-3583, megmade.com.

around. We look for several [things] when adding furniture to our inventory. One of the most important is brand. Anything from Century, Henredon, and Drexel is a must because they are the top-tier for craftsmanship. We look for small details like dovetailing, unique wood grain, cool hardware, and of course, that the piece is made well; solid construction makes a world of difference. We like working with oak, mahogany, walnut, and teak.” Their work is sustainable as well. Not only are they restoring and reusing furnishings that might

otherwise end up in a landfill, they use an environmentally friendly water-borne paint. Every product is stored and refinished in their new location, where they’ve installed state-of-the-art machinery to perform the work they used to do by hand. Work on the store is still in progress but is expected to wrap up in less than a month. For now they’re making do with the unfinished place. “Since we are open during construction, we are doing our best to keep everything looking as clean and beautiful as possible,” Meg says. “The second floor is the main showroom, and it’s pretty much finished, so just close your eyes as you come through the entrance.” v

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 5

Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show on WCPT, 820 AM, Monday through Friday from 2 to 5 PM.

CITY LIFE

POLITICS

Knock-down drag-out— debate? The raft of former insiders challenging the mayor are uniquely positioned to speak truth to Rahm. By BEN JORAVSKY ILLUSTRATIONS BY BALDUR HELGASON

n my endless search for the bright side of life in Chicago, I think I found some good news in the recent Sun-Times story about, of all things, Mayor Rahm’s latest financing scheme. It’s an effort by the mayor to convince us he’s discovered a wonderful new financial instrument called “pension fund stabilization bonds” that will magically pay our bills without raising taxes. Rahm’s proposing to borrow the money to meet pension obligations by selling bonds, which will then be repaid over time. Not sure what’s new, or magical, about postponing obligations by borrowing money—and the Sun-Times was rightly skeptical in its headline: “Emanuel exploring pension bonds

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to minimize the need for future tax hikes.” Well, of course, there will be future tax hikes. Those pension bonds will have to be paid off with something— meaning, your taxes, Chicago. In short, it’s another election-eve gimmick that’s designed to make you think you’re getting something for nothing. So what’s my good news? It came near the end of the story, where Paul Vallas, one of Rahm’s mayoral challengers, let loose with a few on-target comments about how this is a classic case of “kicking the financial can down the road.” Vallas would know a thing or two about how mayors kick the financial can down the road. In the 1990s he was revenue director for Mayor Richard M. Daley, the can-kicking king. He was also the CEO of Chicago Public Schools under Daley, so Vallas definitely knows firsthand how excessive borrowing leads to more money spent on interest and less money to be spent in the classroom. Vallas’s relatively newfound willingness to speak bluntly is, of course, an extension of his own candidacy. But so what? I don’t necessarily care about why people do the right thing—just that they do it. Truth be told, one of our biggest shortages around here are insiders—City Hall aides, elected officials or civic leaders— with the guts to tell our mayors what they don’t want to hear. Generally, we’re a town of apple polishers who tell the mayor that any whacked-out scheme City Hall cooks up—like selling parking meters for a fraction of their value—is a good idea. So I welcome Vallas’s entry into the race, and I hope he stays the distance, if only because he gives reporters a knowledgeable voice to turn to every time the mayor tries to feed us some BS on a variety of issues.

And Vallas is not alone. This election’s bringing us an abundance of much-needed alternative voices. Want some insights on the ongoing privatization scams at the CPS? There’s Troy LaRaviere, who knows a thing or two or three about the games Rahm’s been playing with the schools, ‘cause he was an elementary school principal before getting elected principal of the Chicago Principals & Adminstrators Association. (In many ways, LaRaviere is also the most consistent progressive in this race—a Bernie Sanders delegate, he may well have gotten fired as a principal because he openly supported Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s 2015 mayoral campaign.) Want to know about policing? Go to Lori Lightfoot, who was head of the Police Board and cochair of the Chicago Police Accountability Task Force. She recently dissected the mayor’s 250-page police consent decree point by point, noting, among other things, that it dedicates no money to pay off the cost of an oversight monitor. Speaking of kicking the can down the road. For that matter there’s Garry McCarthy, the former police superintendent, who’s also in the race. I realize there are many progressives in town who will never, ever warm up to McCarthy. (If you want to torment progressives, ask them whom to vote for should the mayoral runoff come down to Rahm versus Big Mac.) And yet I found myself cheering McCarthy’s plainspoken declaration that we don’t

need, and can’t afford, to spend tens of millions of dollars on a police training academy. And that, in fact, we’d be better off spending that money reopening mental health clinics—you know, the ones the mayor closed—in low-income, high-crime communities. I wish McCarthy had made this declaration back in 2011, when the mayor closed the clinics. But better late than never. In some ways the mayoral race reminds of this year’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, where all the major candidates (J. B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, and Daniel Biss) found themselves moving left to keep pace with the electorate. Oh, and let’s not forget former governor Pat Quinn. He’s not running for mayor. But he and his allies collected more than 86,000 signatures to put a mayoral term-limit referendum on the November ballot. I have no doubt that Mayor Rahm will bring in his election lawyers to use every trick in the book to bounce Quinn’s referendum from the ballot. As this legal struggle unfolds, take notes, Chicago. It’s never too late to learn a thing or two about how democracy gets subverted in this town. But I was going to look on the bright side, right? So let me close by celebrating the dawn of a golden age of democracy in Chicago—or as close as this town can get to such a thing. Let’s hope it lasts longer than a month or two. v

BennyJshow

CITY LIFE Test-riding Jump bikes at a We Keep You Rollin’ event. é WE KEEP YOU ROLLIN’

TRANSPORTATION

What’s doing with DoBi?

Ofo’s out, and D.C. just abandoned its dockless bike-share program, but LimeBike and others are showing some promise on Chicago’s far south side. By JOHN GREENFIELD

he future of U.S. dockless bikeshare—aka “DoBi”—isn’t looking so bright right now. DoBi technology lets customers use a smartphone app to locate and check out bikes scattered around the service area. Most companies use cycles that are secured only with a built-in wheel lock, which makes them easy to steal or vandalize. Last month a city official in Washington, D.C., reported that some companies in the District have lost about half of their ﬂeets to theft and vandalism. Another sign that the American dockless bike-share bubble may be bursting is the retreat of the Beijing-based company Ofo from most of its U.S. markets. Chicago launched a DoBi test on the far south side in early May, but Ofo left the pilot in a huff on July 9. At the time, staffers claimed the company was fed up with our city’s rule favoring ﬁrms with “lock-to” cycles (with built-in U-locks or cables for securing them to racks or poles) over ones like Ofo with “wheel-lock-only” models. The former may release up to 350

bikes, while the latter can only put out 50. But a few days later that claim proved to be sour grapes when Ofo announced that it was abandoning almost all of its other American cities. These developments don’t necessarily mean that Chicago’s dockless program is doomed, however. We still have three other companies in the pilot, which includes almost all of the city south of 79th. LimeBike has 50 bright-green, wheel-lock-only bikes here with electric motors that make pedaling easier. Pace has released roughly 350 blue-and-white, lock-to, nonelectric vehicles. And Jump Mobility, which joined the pilot on July 2, is deploying a similar number of red lock-to cycles that feature an electrical assist. Representatives for LimeBike and Pace painted a relatively rosy picture. (Jump didn’t respond to questions.) “Despite the limited number of bikes we are allowed to operate in the pilot, we passed more than 3,000 rides at the end of July, which demonstrates the demand for DoBi exists,” said LimeBike’s Chicago manager, Jessie Lucci.

Likewise, Pace expansion manager Dave Reed said his company has been “very pleased” with its Chicago ridership growth. “Recently, we have been focused on driving repeat ridership, and have seen those efforts start to pay off as our number of trips per rider has increased 66 percent.” The vendors are required to provide the city with monthly trip data, plus reports on maintenance and customer service. I obtained these records for May and June through a Freedom of Information Act request. It turns out that LimeBike saw many more rides during those months than its competitors, with 1,170 trips taken in May and 1,137 in June, compared to Pace’s 343 rides in May and 962 in June, and Ofo’s 416 trips in May. (There was no June report for Ofo, presumably because after the company quit the pilot in July it didn’t bother to turn one in.) LimeBike posted stronger ridership numbers despite having only a fraction of the cycles on the street that Pace had. LimeBike is also more expensive, at $1 to unlock plus 15 cents a minute to ride, versus $1 per half hour for Pace and Ofo. (Jump trips cost $2 for the first half hour, plus seven cents for each additional minute.) But LimeBike may have had an edge before Jump joined the pilot because it was the only company with electric bikes, which are handy for covering longer distances. To promote geographic equity, the pilot’s rules require vendors to keep at least 15 percent of their fleets in each of the four service-area quadrants. When I checked out the apps last week, the Pace and Jump bikes were spread fairly evenly across the pilot zone, but almost all of the LimeBikes cycles were clustered within or near Beverly. This majority-white neighborhood is the most affluent community in the pilot zone, as well as the most bike friendly. As such, Beverly is low-hanging fruit for bike share, whose users tend to skew white and wealthier. The maintenance reports suggest that vandalism has been relatively rare, perhaps thanks to the fact that most bikes are lock-to. That jibes with what Beverly-based bike advocate Anne Alt told me. “I’ve seen only a few damaged bikes,” she said, adding that it’s unusual to see poorly parked bikes blocking sidewalks, which has been an issue in other cities where wheel-lock-only cycles are common.

One downside of lock-to technology was apparent in business districts with bike racks, where just about every rack had at least one Pace or Jump cycle on it, reducing parking for private cycles. To address this, the city is installing 100 more racks in the pilot zone, bankrolled with vendor permit fees. Pace also plans to install 25 of its own multibike racks on private property, plus 25 more in public parks. Another takeaway was that many residents are unfamiliar with how the dockless systems work. LimeBike and Pace say they’ve worked with local job-training programs to ﬁnd employees, and they’ve also been hosting group rides with community organizations like My Block, My Hood, My City, and the far-southside bike group We Keep You Rollin’ to introduce residents to the technology. Still, a young father watching his kids play in Golden Gate Park, the starting point for We Keep You Rollin’ rides, said he had no idea how to use the public bikes. Four Jump cycles were locked nearby. “They just put them out and don’t inform us about how they work,” he said. In Hegewisch, the Baltimore Avenue business strip was lined with DoBis. Longtime resident Linda Aloia was relaxing with family members on her front steps. “Once in a blue moon you’ll see people riding them,” she reported. “I think a lot of people want to, but they’re not sure how you check them out.” Northwest of there in Trumbull Park, several Pace bikes were locked to racks next to CTA Jeffery Jump express bus stops. Nathaniel Terrell, who was waiting for a ride, was skeptical, and didn’t seem to view the bikes as a handy commuting tool. “I don’t really see the usefulness unless you want to go out for a ride with your girl or whatever.” But over on the Burnham Greenway in the East Side neighborhood, retired glass recycling plant worker Alfonso Gomez said he thinks the bike-sharing program is a good idea. He was cycling with his sandy-colored dog Güera (“Blondie”) in a crate on the back. “Lots of people in this neighborhood ride bikes,” he said. However, he admitted he had no idea how to rent a DoBi. So while the numbers and anecdotal evidence suggest that Chicago’s dockless pilot is going reasonably well, if we want to expand its appeal beyond the early adopters in Beverly, it sounds like more DoBi-vangelism is needed. v

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

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 7

Trees have already been chopped down in Jackson Park to make room for a running track that will replace one displaced by the Obama Presidential Center. é RICK MAJEWSKI

CITY LIFE

ON CULTURE

Tim-berrrrr!

A lawsuit to prevent the Obama Presidential Center’s “illegal land grab” in Jackson Park is moving forward.

By DEANNA ISAACS

f a tree falls in Jackson Park these days, you can bet it’ll be noticed. Reports last week that the Chicago Park District has been chopping down century-old trees in the park definitely got the attention of environmental activist Charlotte Adelman and the mostly low-key environmental group Protect Our Parks. The trees were getting axed to clear space for a running track that has to be relocated because it’s currently on land needed for the Obama Presidential Center. As it happens, Protect Our Parks—founded a decade ago to keep a Latin School soccer field out of Lincoln Park—was already in court over the Obama Center. A federal lawsuit it filed May 14 against the city and Park District charges that the plan to turn 19 acres of Jackson Park over to the Obama Foundation for use as the site of the OPC is illegal. A major catalyst for the suit was the Obama Foundation’s revelation last year that the three-building complex—designed by the New York architectural firm of Tod Williams Billie Tsien and estimated to cost as much as $500 million—will not actually be a presidential library. It will, instead, be a museum, community hub (with gym and auditorium), and training center for political leaders, both local and international. It’ll include a library, but nothing like a National Archives-managed research facility. Instead, according to an agreement reached this spring, it’ll house a 5,000-squarefoot Chicago Public Library branch in a rentfree space leased from the Obama Foundation and staffed by CPL. The Obama presidential papers (currently parked in a locked warehouse in Hoffman Estates, where they were moved after Obama left office) will be maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration in a government facility somewhere else. NARA will eventually get the papers digitized, and

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then we’ll be able to access them online at the Obama Center—and probably anywhere else, on our phones. Why did Obama decide to be the first president to dump the library part of the presidential library? Maybe because digitization, which would have happened anyway, is the future. Maybe to make things easier for researchers (some of whom, tired of trekking to, say, Little Rock, have argued that a central location for all presidential papers would facilitate scholarship). Or maybe because he’ll be the first ex-president to be whacked by a change in the law that’s raised the price tag on presidential libraries in a big way. In 1986, Congress passed a law that required handing NARA an endowment for operating costs for any new presidential library equal to 20 percent of the construction costs of that library. Then in 2008 Congress raised the bar: starting with Obama, any president seeking to establish a library will have to fund an endowment equal to at least 60 percent of the cost of the library’s construction. If the entire Obama Presidential Library complex were to cost $500 million to build and was to be operated by NARA, the Obama Foundation would have to provide an endowment of $300 million. Alternatively, if only one of the three buildings was designated as the NARA-operated presidential library and the rest of the complex were to be operated by the Obama Foundation, the required endowment would be 60 percent of the cost of the library building only—still a significant obstacle. Last week the Obama Foundation issued its first annual report, revealing that the foundation raised $232 million in 2017, spent $22 million on operations and programs, and at the end of the year had net assets of $224 million. That is, less than half of what it’ll probably take just to get the buildings up. (The foundation, which still needs a city ordinance finalizing its deal for the Jackson Park

site and also has to survive two yet-to-unfold federal reviews, announced last month that the groundbreaking for the OPC, which was slated for this year, has been moved to some unspecified date in 2019.) So it’s likely that cost savings figured into Obama’s decision: Without the presidential library, there’s no NARA involvement and no gargantuan endowment demand. It’ll no doubt be cheaper to deal with the CPL than with NARA. But there was a downside to that decision. The shift from a government facility to a privately run center made the Jackson Park site look to some like an increasingly egregious “illegal land grab.” Already concerned about the environmental impact, Adelman, an environmental author and past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, says she called Protect Our Parks president Herbert Caplan, a former first assistant Illinois attorney general and veteran of the Harold Washington-era city law department, and suggested a lawsuit; they began to strategize over lunch at the Ogilvie Transportation Center last winter. Protect Our Parks and Adelman became two of the four original plaintiffs in the case. (The other two are Maria Valencia and Jeremiah Jurevis.) Their suit, filed by the law firm of Mark D. Roth and former alderman Robert Fioretti, argues that the transfer of Jackson Park land from the Park District to the city so that the city can turn around and hand the land over to the Obama Foundation (via a 99-year renewable lease for $1) is a violation of the Park District Code, state law, due process requirements, and the public trust doctrine. They claim that the city and Park District are acting beyond their authority and that a 2015 amendment to the Illinois Museum Act—passed to legitimize the deal—is illegal and invalid. Also, the complaint charges, since Obama has said he’ll “continue his political activities” at the OPC, using public tax money

to help support the center is a violation of the First Amendment rights of citizens who might disagree with his politics. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has labeled the lawsuit “frivolous,” and the city argued in court that it was premature because the land lease arrangements weren’t yet final (and won’t be until the city passes a new ordinance, which it expected to introduce in July). Also, the city claimed, no Obama Center construction was yet happening in Jackson Park. U.S. district court judge John Robert Blakey accepted that rationale and put the suit on hold. But, Roth told me last week, the ordinance was not introduced in July, and the City Council doesn’t meet again until September. Meanwhile, trees are falling. Last Wednesday, he filed a new motion asking the court to get the case moving. “The Park District can’t [legally] transfer the land to the Obama Foundation,” Roth said. “So what they’re doing is transferring it to the city, which is then transferring it to the Obama Foundation. They’re trying to do indirectly what they can’t do directly. That’s illegal. “Now we find out that—contrary to everything they said in court—they’re knocking down 100-year-old trees in Jackson Park to accommodate the Obama Center,” he continues. “Our motion says [their] reason for the delay was a ruse.” What about the fact that we already have museums in city parks? Caplan says “the fact that unconstitutional acts were not previously [recognized as such] doesn’t magically make them constitutional when challenged in court.” He offers some examples: “slavery, segregated schools, laws against abortion and same-sex marriage.” And Caplan wants to make one other thing clear: “The object of the lawsuit is not to prevent the Obama Center from being constructed. Our objective is just to relocate it out of the public park and into any of the nearby areas that are in need of investment.” In court on Tuesday, lawyers for the city and Park District claimed that the new track and field have nothing to do with the subject of the suit, which is the Obama Presidential Center; Fioretti argued that “it’s all tied at the hip;” and Judge Blakey lifted the hold he’d previously put on the case, though he didn’t stop work on the track. The city will now have to respond to the lawsuit; they’ll all be back in court for a status hearing on October 24. v

m @DeannaIsaacs

Drug Companies Fear Release Of New $2 Sex Pill For Older Men

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Men in clinical trial see huge boost in desire, strength of erections, and sexual activity without side effects. NEW YORK - It’s hard to believe that in America today an affordable pill that could improve the sex lives of millions of men is in danger of being yanked from the shelves. And it’s just because big drug companies fear for their profits. The pharmaceutical industry is desperately trying to stop shipments of the remarkable new “JackedUp” pill. Big Pharma is worried because men are reporting increased sex drive, stronger erections and more stamina - all without the side-effects and $40-per-pill price tag associated with drugs like Viagra. Clinical results show men feel these benefits within just a few weeks of taking JackedUp’s active ingredient. The pill, made for men over 50, was released early last

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THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. ALL DOCTORS MENTIONED ARE REMUNERATED FOR THEIR SERVICES. ALL CLINICAL STUDIES ON JACKEDUP S ACTIVE INGREDIENT WERE INDEPENDENTLY CONDUCTED AND WERE NOT SPONSORED BY THE MAKERS OF JACKEDUP.

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 9

And natto, and balut, and durian, and any number of the other foods used in our long-running chef-to-chef challenge, Key Ingredient By JULIA THIEL

ooking with the grossest foods imaginable wasn’t the original premise of our long-running food feature Key Ingredient—that’s just how it worked out. The idea was that we’d ask a chef to create a dish with a certain ingredient, then that person would pick another ingredient and chef to pass on the challenge to, and it would go from there. And so it did, for 177 episodes, beginning in 2010 with Grant Achatz of Alinea and ending (next month) with Joe Frillman of Daisies. The series ran exponentially longer than either videographer Michael Gebert or I had expected, and after I left the Reader this summer, it seemed like it had reached a natural ending point. I’ve been continually impressed with how much creativity and effort chefs put into developing dishes that will never end up on their menus—and just as impressed with how much they’ve enjoyed picking difficult ingredients for their friends and colleagues. Not all the ingredients have been weird or obscure, but with very few exceptions, every chef tried to make the job of their challengee as difficult as possible. So in honor of our many participants, here, at the close of Key Ingredient, are a few awards.

10 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

é RYAN SEGEDI

A FOND FAREWELL TO— GEODUCKS

CHEF WITH THE MOST HATRED FOR AN INGREDIENT

Michael Carlson, Schwa, Jeppson’s Malort This was a tough category because a lot of chefs really, really hated the ingredients they were assigned to work with, but Michael Carlson was the most vocal about it. He compared Jeppson’s Malort to “bum feet and earwax” and suggested urinal cakes as an appropriate pairing. He wasn’t very happy with Paula Haney for giving him the ingredient, either: “I think it was a rough one. I think I’d rather her give me herpes or something.”

MOST HANDS-OFF APPROACH TO A DISH

Lee Wolen, the Lobby at the Peninsula (now at Boka), durian Wolen had tried durian once before he was challenged with it for Key Ingredient, and he hated it so much he decided he’d never eat it again. “To me it tastes like the worst cheese that’s maybe two years overripe,” he said. And he stuck to his guns, coming up with a recipe for a durian custard that he never once tasted during the creation process (he made his sous chefs taste it instead).

LIVELIEST INGREDIENT

Ryan Poli, Tavernita (now at the Catbird Seat in Nashville), eel Eels are typically sold live, and the ones Poli got for his challenge were particularly lively. One escaped its container and slithered to the floor, proving difficult to retrieve (the phrase “slippery as an eel” exists for a reason). Even after Poli killed one it kept squirming. “We had to hold it down while we took the bones out, and then after that it stopped moving,” he said. “And then when we were putting the skewers through, it was still twitching.” Poli did like the flavor but said he’d only cook with eel in the future if he could buy them filleted. “How much can you take of coming in every morning knowing you have to kill four or five eel?” he asked. “It would really weigh on a man’s soul, I think.”

THE FULL PACKAGE AWARD

BEST SPORT

Kristine Subido, Wave (now at Pecking Order Catering), balut (fertilized duck egg) Subido grew up in the Philippines eating balut—but she lost her taste for the fertilized duck eggs after trying one that was a little too mature, and at the time she was challenged, she hadn’t eaten it in 15 years. Still, she gamely came up with a recipe for breaded and fried balut (a variation on a Scotch egg), only to gag slightly when we made her try it on camera.

Zoe Schor, Ada Street (now at Split Rail), geoduck The world’s largest burrowing clam is notoriously phallic in appearance; Schor called it “probably the strangest animal that exists on the planet . . . the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, I swear to god.” She never revealed whether it was just a coincidence that she chose to challenge Lee Kuebler of Libertyville’s Milwalky Trace to create a dish with goat testicles.

GROSSEST INGREDIENT

Brian Enyart, Topolobampo (now at Dos Urban Cantina), natto (fermented soybeans) This is the question I got most about Key Ingredient, and it’s hard to answer because it’s so subjective—but for me, natto (fermented soybeans) was the ingredient I’ll never touch again. I just couldn’t get past its mucilaginousness. As Enyart said, “It’s a texture that won’t quite go away.”

SLIMIEST INGREDIENT (TIE)

Tony Diaz, Maude’s Liquor Bar, nopales (prickly pear cactus pads) “It just gets really slimy,” Diaz said. “And then the more you chew it, the slimier it becomes in your mouth, so it’s just like your mouth keeps ﬁlling up with slime.” He added later: “The more you touch it—it was just like slime.” Matthias Merges, Folkart Management, sea cucumber “You either love sea cucumber or you hate it,” Matthias Merges said during his shoot. He used a pair of chopsticks to poke at one, imported live from a Tokyo ﬁsh market, and it moved a little in response. When he pulled the chopsticks away, thick strings of brown slime came away with them. Merges compares their texture to chicken cartilage, crunchy and a little slimy, warning that it’s not for everyone. “It’s a very primitive kind of taste and texture,” he said.

MOST SPONTANEOUS DISH

Iliana Regan, One Sister (now at Elizabeth and Kitsune), dried limes When Iliana Regan participated in Key Ingredient she was running an underground supper club in her apartment, so her refrigerator was better stocked than most. Still, as far as I know she’s the only chef who did no planning of her dish before the day of the shoot (it turned out to be dried lime panna cotta with marble rye crunch). “I did not do any research. I did not look it up. I didn’t even think about it until today,” she said. “I was like, what am I going to make? So then I looked in my refrigerator and freezer and just pulled out some stuﬀ and was like, yup, this is going to be it.”

BEST THEME

Beverly Kim, Aria (now at Parachute), black cardamom Challenged to create a dish with black cardamom, Kim embraced the darkness, creating a seriously spooky dish just before Halloween. “I’m thinking it’s going to look kind of like a wicked, stark black landscape,” she said. “Like black hills of the cake, and the curly weeds of the carrots coming out, kind of like a dark forest. And then painted buttermilk puree on the bottom, because you need to balance those dark ﬂavors with something light and acidic and kind of ghostly looking. . . . I was also thinking it’s perfect before Halloween. I want something creepy.”

BEST PRESENTATION

Doug Sohn, Hot Doug’s (RIP), chicken feet Many of the dishes were beautifully presented, with swooshes and dots and artfully arranged garnishes. But it just doesn’t get better than a fried chicken foot sticking out of a hot dog. “They have this sort of human element because they have little ﬁngernails on them, so they look like shriveled-up, deformed hands,” Sohn said. v

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 11

ANTHONY MITCHELL, CELERY SALT, “HEY ERNIE, LET’S DRINK TWO”

é MELISSA KLAUDA

é CORY POPP

Celery salt calls to mind two things: Chicago-style hot dogs and Bloody Marys. So Mitchell made a hot-dog-inspired martini with a celery salt reduction, garnished with a mini Chicago dog: a cocktail wiener on a tiny poppy-seed bun with all the ﬁxin’s—including celery salt, of course.

THE COCKTAIL CHALLENGE HALL OF FAME

The ﬁnished cocktail is viscous and nearly black, and, Faze says, “you kind of feel like you’re at the bottom of the ocean.”

CHRISTOPHER MARTY, MATZO, “THANK YOU, JANICE”

hroughout the long run of Cocktail Challenge we’ve been continually impressed by the ingenuity of the bartenders who, challenged to create a cocktail with ingredients that have no place in a decent drink, come up with something clever, beautiful, and often even delicious. Here are a few of our favorites.

12 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Khaund discovered that the taste of pig’s blood was stronger than she’d expected: “At ﬁrst it just tasted like blood. Then the ﬁnish started kicking in . . . by the end it just tasted like this iron death. It was really intense, and it went for like a half hour.”

KRISTIN WOLFEL, CATNIP, “CARELESS WHISKERS”

Tasked with an ingredient more commonly enjoyed by cats than humans, Wolfel opted to create a drink for her own cat, Stella, “so I don’t have to drink alone on Friday nights anymore,” she said.

PETER KIM, STINKBUGS, “BETELGEUSE”

é STEVEN SAMPANG

By JULIA THIEL

NANDINI KHAUND, PIG’S BLOOD, REIGN IN BLOOD

“Of the many times I tried them, I gagged about twothirds of the time,” Kim says. “They come with their little feet attached, and they fall oﬀ and get stuck in between your teeth. That’s not the most pleasant thing.”

é CHRIS BUDDY

Smith wasn’t satisfied with one form of fish in her cocktail—tequila infused with sardines and cayenne— so she garnished it with a fish head and fin (whiting).

Inspired by his grandmother’s matzo ball soup, Marty made a broth with several types of alcohol (along with celery, carrot, and parsley), then soaked matzo balls in it. “The broth itself has almost no alcohol left in it,” Marty says. “The matzo balls will get you drunk.”

ADAM KAMIN, LOBSTER TOMALLEY, TAMALE-SPICED TOMALLEY

Kamin’s ingredient was lobster guts, but he wanted to use all parts of the lobster in his cocktail, so he pureed the meat with its poaching liquid and saﬀron, then froze it into ice cubes—each with a lobster claw sticking out. v é CHRIS BUDDY

RACHAEL SMITH, SARDINES, “CHUM GUZZLER”

Not even pig’s blood or stinkbugs daunted our intrepid mixologists.

SAMMY FAZE, SQUID INK, “TEN THOUSAND LEAGUES”

5 CHICAGO FAST FOOD WINE PAIRINGS At last, the classics get the respect they deserve.

Text AND PHOTOS BY ALAN EPSTEIN

’ve worked in the service industry for years, and for the most part, I have been totally confused by wine. In my time as a server, I can’t count how many times I’ve said words like “ripe fruit with eucalyptus notes” or “lean and mineral driven” without being 100 percent sure what I am talking about. My friend Andrew Algren runs the wine program at the Cherry Circle Room, where he stocks over 1,400 wines and knows how to navigate which wine works both within your budget and with your halibut and your friend’s ribeye. He could talk for hours about varietals, tannins, appellations, residual sugars, fermentation, and botrytis, but for the sake of this article, I asked him to talk about pairings. The concept of pairings is simple enough, like in the beginning of Ratatouille when Remy tried cheese with strawberries for the ﬁrst time and saw stars. Some pairings go together so naturally you take them for granted: peanut butter and jelly, chips and guacamole, Nate Dogg and Warren G. My question to Andrew was simple: What wines should we pair with classic Chicago foods? Here are his picks:

AL’S BEEF

Italian beef and Lambrusco Cleto Chiarli “Lambrusco di Sorbara” 2016, EmiliaRomagna, Italy This is a happy wine, an oﬀdry sparkling red that goes great with juicy beef. The discussion of craving a cola came up, so have the adult version. Good Lambrusco is one of the most friendly food wines on the planet.

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 13

HAROLD’S CHICKEN SHACK

Fried chicken and Champagne Krug “Grand Cuvée” MV, Champagne, France Rich, decadent, but with an acidic backbone. Bright enough to cut the fat, while the interplay of crunch, salt, and brightness is perfect. Pro tip: a dollop of caviar makes those bites of dark meat pop.

HOME DEPOT

Chicago dog and Grüner Veltliner Emmerich Knoll “Ried Kreutles” Grüner Veltliner Smaragd 2015, Wachau, Austria Tube meat is classic for the Teutonic nations, so I had to think German or Austrian. Riesling would have worked, but the Grüner is better able to grab onto the celery salt and play oﬀ the ﬂavors of the relish and the sport peppers.

14 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

JIM’S ORIGINAL

Polish sausage and Riesling Mönchhof “Ürziger Würzgarten” Riesling Kabinett 2015, Mosel Valley, Germany Acid vs. fat, fruit to intermingle with the mustard and griddled onions, and just the right mix to tackle the snap of the casing. Best consumed from plastic cups while outside.

HOME RUN INN

Sausage pizza and Barbera Frizzante Braida “La Monella” Barbera del Monferrato Frizzante 2016, Piedmont, Italy This wine is fresh and bright with just a hint of ﬁzz and a bone-dry ﬁnish. The Barbera and the lightly sweet tomato sauce intermingle perfectly. Easy living.

BONUS PA IR IN G !

GARRETT POPCORN

Garrett Mix and rosé Rosé: Villa Creek Grenache/ Carignan/Mourvèdre 2017, Paso Robles, California, United States

This one is tricky. Sweet caramel against salty cheese. However, it also screams summertime and being outside, so rosé was a natural option. The juicy fruit tones in this bottling (had to go domestic for the Garrett Mix!) really jumped out and pulled this mix together. Still not quite sure exactly how it worked but it really, really does! v

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 15

ARTS & CULTURE MUSEUMS

His story

At the Perry Mansion Cultural Center, Sam Smith wants to reshape the narrative of black life in America—by reconstructing a slave ship in his basement. By TYRA NICOLE TRICHE

hen Sam Smith opened the Perry Mansion Cultural Center in 2010, his preeminent goal was to reclaim and reshape the narrative of black life in America. “You build bridges by having the ability to control your image and your story, and [black people] don’t get to do that,” Smith says. And with each exhibit, he’s been able to tell this story piece by piece, but its culmination will come in a few years when he’s completed building a slave ship in the basement for an exhibit that will be called “The Slave Experience.” The Queen Anne-style house that is the Perry Mansion Cultural Center is located at 7042 S. Perry, in Englewood. When Smith ﬁrst purchased the home, it was a dilapidated drug hub in a crime-ridden neighborhood. Smith, who was born in Mississippi but raised in Chicago, was conﬁdent that the neighborhood had more to offer than drugs, delinquency, and death. The Perry Mansion Cultural Center was his way of proving and showcasing that. “It’s been very good for this block,” Smith says. “When I first bought this place there were heroin addicts nodding off in the middle of the street, the block was full of young people selling drugs and hanging out. You don’t get any of that now, and it’s because they have respect for the space.” Since its inception, the cultural center has hosted museumlike art exhibits, open-mike nights, after-school programs, and more. And although it may be coincidental, Englewood has seen a decrease in crime since the Perry Mansion Cultural Center opened its doors. Smith says that community members have told him how much they love the cultural cen-

16 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

ter and what it has done for the neighborhood. He says that he’s built relationships with some of the young people who were causing trouble when he first moved in. “I’ve had conversations with them about the importance of the space,” he says. “I’ve even sent three of the young people who used to hang out on this block to Job Corps.” It’s been two years since the cultural center’s last exhibit, titled “Tortured Souls.” That exhibit focused on the transatlantic slave trade and introduced the model of the ship that will be built for “The Slave Experience.” The ship will be made of wood and will encompass the entire 2,200-square-foot basement. There will be wax ﬁgures of slaves lying on the ﬂoor of the hold, and the basement itself will be vacuum sealed. His intent is to give visitors “a real-life example of what it was like to be transported on the ships,” Smith explains. “You will experience all the sounds and the smells of what it would be like on the middle decks of the ship. It won’t be a pleasant experience.”

PERRY MANSION CULTURAL CENTER

Mon-Fri 9 AM-5 PM, 7042 S. Perry, 773-494-9526, perrymansion.org. F

Along with the ship, the rest of the house will be turned into a “Slave Experience” exhibit. The attic will serve as a ballroom and documentary screening room. The first and second floors will feature art from artists across the globe, all inspired by the Middle Passage. There will be panel discussions where the featured artists are given the opportunity to discuss their work. Then experts will join them and provide the facts of what transpired during the ordeal. Smith is planning this exhibit himself, as he usually does, but since the ship will be so large he will be getting assistance with construction. After the exhibit, the ship will remain as a permanent fixture at the cultural center. Building this slave ship is something that Smith says he has been thinking about for nine years now. By his estimate, “The Slave Experience” exhibit will be a $1.2 million project. Fund-raising efforts for this particular venture are in beginning stages and set to launch in September. Once the money is raised, the ship will take two to three years to build. In the meantime, Smith is currently working on a dual exhibit that’s set to be completed by

A model of “The Slave Experience” (above) and the Perry Mansion Cultural Center garden. é COURTESY SAM SMITH

next year. One level will be an exhibit on the Flint water crisis and other cities across the country that have even higher levels of lead in their water. The other level will be an exhibit on the nation of Mauritania, where, although slavery was abolished in 1981, 20 percent of the population is still enslaved. (He is considering, though, changing the Mauritania exhibit to one on black wealth instead.) While it has been rewarding, running the cultural center alone has been taxing for Smith, who is also a master carpenter and furniture maker. “I have to work every day to make a living; I do this in my spare time. After I work all day and I go to the gym, I come back here and I build either early in the morning or very late at night,” he says. “Time is very challenging and, of course, [lack of] resources are challenging.” The cultural center is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt

nonprofit that operates solely through donations, without any grant funding. Smith started a GoFundMe about a year and a half ago to raise money for basic upkeep and costs associated with upcoming exhibits, but it hasn’t been very successful. “It’s a constant battle,” Smith says of his work maintaining the cultural center. “It’s such a great demand on me personally,” but ”I’m not finished with what my original goal was with this space.” While he does plan on passing on the responsibility of operating the Perry Mansion Cultural Center to a successor, Smith must first finish “The Slave Experience” exhibit. His original goal was to “direct our story and tell our story from our perspective. And that will be done when the slave-ship piece is completed.” v.

m @vivatyra

READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

“CHICAGO WORKS: MIKA HORIBUCHI”

Through 12/2: Wed-Thu 10 AM-5 PM, Fri 10 AM-9 PM, Sat-Sun 10 AM5 PM, Tue 10 AM-9 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 E. Chicago, 312-280-2660, mcachicago.org, $15, $8 students, teachers, and seniors.

VISUAL ART

The artists behind the curtain

Mika Horibuchi paints oil trompe l’oeil replicas of her grandma’s watercolors.

ika Horibuchi’s paintings trick the mind into seeing what is not quite there. At first glance they’re nothing more than romanticized watercolors of landscapes or still lifes of fruit and flowers. The subject, however, isn’t where the trick lies: It’s in the materials she uses in their rendering. The paintings aren’t formed from light splashes of watercolor, but rather smears of oil paint. Despite their everyday subject matter, the paintings are part of Horibuchi’s most recent and most personal series: they are copies of her grandmother’s own hobbyist watercolors. Horibuchi has painted for as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t until an art class in sixth grade when she was living in San Francisco that she created her first oil painting. She learned the basics of the medium by copying familiar images, fastidiously using the same bits of color and gestures she observed in postcards, calendar pages, or her teachers’ own paintings. Through making replicas of simple works, she learned how to accurately capture an environment and also developed an eye for how light influences an object’s shape or tone. A flower’s petals, for example, could be rendered in large strokes rather than a series of individual markings, and a cloud could exist as a balanced smattering of light and dark tones rather than a singular fluffy shape. Horibuchi moved to Chicago to study painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. Since graduation she’s worked as a private art teacher and tutor while keeping up her painting practice in the West Town studio that she splits with her partner and fellow painter, Dan Rizzo-Orr.

é AMELIA MOORE

By KATE SIERZPUTOWSKI

Early in spring 2017, Horibuchi’s maternal grandmother, Sayoko Yokoyama, who is 83 and lives in Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture, requested that Horibuchi mail her a watercolor paint set. After a few initial paintings, Yokoyama began to send photos of the watercolors to Horibuchi that she’d taken with her point-and-shoot camera. The photographs are imperfectly cropped, and sometimes show the bottom edge of a painting or accidentally cut off part of Yokoyama’s signature. Despite their imperfections, Horibuchi was in awe of the works. “I wanted to do something with them,” she says. “I didn’t want to just have the same result, I wanted to know her effort.” Instead of simply following the outline of the watercolors, Horibuchi began to re-create the photographs themselves. This forced her to include every detail present in Yokoyama’s images—from the awkward cropping to the digital time stamps hovering in the bottom left corners. Horibuchi studied her grandmother’s paintings the way she had been taught. She dutifully copied each element, stroke, and bit of shading in striking detail—but in oil paint rather than watercolor. “I am really trying to mimic the characteristics of how water sits on paper,” she explains. “I want to show how it is absorbed or how it pools. For each work, I am mimicking the result and not the technique. It would be much more efficient if I used watercolor, but there is something weird that happens when you paint those marks with the opacity of oil paint. With watercolor you are relying on the white of the paper as a tool to emit light and create different shades, and with oil I am painting on canvas.”

After finishing her paintings, Horibuchi frames each of them on linen with with triangle mounts that secure each corner to create the effect of an old photo album. Two such pieces hang clustered together in Horibuchi’s solo exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Chicago Works series, which opened last month. The exhibition creates a through line of the last ﬁve years of her practice, from earlier trompe l’oeil curtain studies that she created in 2013, when she was a recent graduate of SAIC, to her present series of watercolor imitations in oil paint. The largest work in the show is installed behind a ﬂoor-to-ceiling linen curtain on the left side of the gallery. The installation is inspired by the 17th-century painting Trompe-l’Oeil Still Life With a Flower Garland and a Curtain by Frans van Mieris the Elder and Adriaen van der Spelt, which features a hyperrealistic

depiction of a blue curtain obscuring a ﬂoral still life. Horibuchi’s piece brings the painting into three dimensions, allowing the audience to sidestep the curtain to get a full view of the large-scale reproduction of one of her grandmother’s works on the other side. The six-by-almost-eight-foot painting depicts a small pond dotted with large rocks and bushes, set against a hazy blue sky. Ripples appear in the otherwise calm water on the left hand of a painting directly next to a date stamp that reads “2017/07/07.” Although it’s simple in its subject matter, Horibuchi explains that she chose the particular piece as the exhibition’s focal point because she saw the watercolor that inspired it as a breakthrough for her grandmother. “She really captures the atmosphere and environment of the landscape rather than just objects in a frame,” Horibuchi explains. “She is not trying to draw a rock, she is actually painting a rock. She is thinking several steps ahead. Instead of painting a tree, or a cluster of leafs, she is painting the silhouette of it ﬁrst. A cluster of brushstrokes doesn’t read as a tree, but it does once placed in the context of the whole image. I think it is one of the best ones she has done.” Horibuchi typically sends photos of her paintings back to her grandmother after she finishes them, although she hasn’t yet sent images from the current show. Just as she once copied her painting teacher’s work to learn how to see like a painter, Horibuchi’s imitations allow her to look at the world through her grandmother’s eyes, even though they’re separated by material and distance. v

m @KateSierz

Top: Mika Horibuchi. Left: installation view é MCA CHICAGO; NATHAN KEAY

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 17

ARTS & CULTURE

VISUAL ART

Brian Wells’s south side

The McKinley Park painter has quietly spent decades documenting the parts of the city he knows best.

By DMITRY SAMAROV

sat next to Brian Wells at the Rainbo Club for many years before I knew he was a painter. Wells is quiet and unassuming. When he talks, it’s deliberate: he pauses to think before he speaks. We often sat together and barely exchanged a word. Occasionally I’d overhear him talking about construction or carpentry jobs. But one day he complimented one of my paintings, which was hanging behind the Rainbo’s stage, and mentioned in passing that he was a painter as well. I looked up his art website. There was something so familiar about Wells’s pictures of dumpsters and abandoned storefronts. I was hooked. The more I looked at them, the more it felt like I knew these places. Then one day while I was passing by a long-vacant restaurant near the corner of 35th Street and Ashland, it clicked: I did know the places in his paintings. After that ﬁrst discovery I was able to identify a dozen other sites he’d rendered, including a dumpster that had briefly stood next to the McDonald’s in Pilsen. All these places are on the south side. As Wells tells me when I visit his home and studio, he’s interested in depicting the Chicago that regular people see and live in. The Mag Mile, the Bean, Navy Pier, and Wrigley Field won’t be appearing in a Brian Wells painting anytime soon. The modest McKinley Park house Wells has shared with his wife, Barb, for the past 21 years is painted a cheerful turquoise. He chose the color after a neighbor a few doors down painted his own house red. Wells wanted to see how the two colors would bounce off each other. Drawing and painting have been vital to Wells since he was young. He grew up in a

18 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

small town in Ohio outside Cincinnati. He remembers making a drawing of every seat in the school auditorium where he had study hall when he was 15. That drive to document his surroundings made him realize that art would be his life. He got his ﬁrst set of oil paints the next year and made a portrait of his sister. He knew nothing about oil and developed a lot of bad habits. It wasn’t until he attended art school at Miami University in Ohio that he learned proper methods, lessons that remain useful to him to this day.

BRIAN WELLS

9/1-9/30: Wed-Fri 4 PM-2 AM, Sat 4 PM-3 AM, Sun-Tue 4 PM-2 AM, Rainbo Club, 1150 N. Damen, 773-489-5999, brianwellsart.com.

Wells moved to Chicago in 1984 after getting his MFA in painting from the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He thought he’d have a big-city art career. “I was moving to this metropolis . . . I wanted to be where the action was. [That impulse] went away after a few months.” He started working on big construction crews to pay his rent, but he kept painting. He leased a studio at the corner of Churchill and Leavitt, in pregentriﬁcation Wicker Park, but he refused to participate in neighborhood art events like Around the Coyote. “Every time I’ve done open studio, somebody says, ‘You’re gonna make $400-$500.’ I’ve never sold a single thing from open studios.” In grad school, Wells painted what he calls monster paintings, eight-by-12-foot canvases

full of thickly painted hairy, gnarly people. They fit in with the neo-Expressionism that dominated the art world in the early 80s. But when he moved to Chicago, he consciously left these autobiographical monsters behind. He started painting pictures of the factories he would pass while walking his dog or to and from construction jobs. He displayed several of these at Tony Fitzpatrick’s World Tattoo Gallery in the South Loop in the early 90s. Wells’s work has mutated and developed over the decades. A series of comical drawings and woodcuts featuring monkeys and ants doing very human and often aggressive things to each other was inspired by a big Chicago snowstorm in 1993. Watching people try to dig their cars out of the drifts reminded him of the animal world. After that Wells tried his hand at abstraction. “I wanted to own an abstract painting, but they were too expensive,” he explains. Wells often answers questions with dry, deadpan humor. But his devotion to painting is no laughing matter. His house is covered in his and friends’ art. He pointed out a Joseph Albers print he and his wife scored at a thrift store; it’s one of their prize possessions. His carpentry skills are evident in the two bas-relief wall decorations he’s made out of used woodblocks from his prints. The whole house is a sort of art environment—everywhere you look there are paintings, sculptures, and crafts lovingly fashioned by hand and collected by a couple who are utterly devoted to human creativity. I wished I’d had a lot longer to soak it all in than the few hours I had. What does it mean to make art for 40 years if nobody knows about it? “Most people don’t

BRIAN WELLS

care if you keep producing if you don’t have a career [in art],” Wells says. “The problem is what happens to the work when you die.” Wells and his wife talk about leaving the city someday. “If I have a patch of time, I’d do landscape,” he says. “Barb and I talk about moving to Kentucky and living cheaper.” His wife reminds him she doesn’t want to be saddled with a house full of his artwork once he’s gone. This is a very real concern for any artist who has toiled away for decades. Unless one has gallery representation or some sort of institutional affiliation, there’s a real danger of a life’s work disappearing. “They say most of it just gets thrown out.” Some of Wells’s recent work depicting shuttered south-side storefronts, auto dealerships with sinister advertising inﬂatables, and patches of blacktop with manhole covers will be on display at the Rainbo Club in September. His work deserves to be seen in person. As with most good painting, a computer screen or a postcard doesn’t do it justice. I look forward to sitting next to him at that bar next month, taking in his pictures of the Chicago we both know so well, and repaying the compliment he paid me years back. v

ARTS & CULTURE THEATER

The return of Pigasus

Yippie Fest, the successor to the Abbie Hoﬀman Died for Your Sins Festival, comes back for a second year.

YIPPIE FEST

Fri 8/17-Sun 8/19: Fri 7 PM-4 AM, Sat 1:15 PM-2 AM, Sun 1-11 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, yippiefest.com, $25 weekend pass, $15 single-day pass.

But not everyone was done with the idea of an annual three-day, nearly round-theclock celebration of off-off-Loop theater. Frank Carr, whose comedy troupe Famous in the Future had appeared in the fest every year from the beginning, wanted to continue. And he wasn’t alone. “We were sad this

was ending,” Carr recalls. “We knew we wanted to do something.” What they came up with was Yippie Fest, a weekend-long festival in the spirit of the earlier festival named after one of America’s most famous Yippies. But they decided to cast a wider net, adding art, short ﬁlms, and live music to the program of short plays, solo performances, and quirky stand-up acts. Their first fest last summer fell on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Youth International Party. It packed more than 80 groups into one weekend and two stages at Prop Thtr and featured a mix of Abbie Fest veterans (Famous in the Future, comic actor Rush Pearson) and newer performers (standup Sandy Lee). This year’s edition, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Yippies’ six-day Festival of Life in Chicago, promises to be even bigger, with 101 acts. Opening ceremonies will be Friday, August 17, at 7 PM. “We’ll play a little video about Pigasus [a 145-pound pig the Yippies nominated for president in 1968] we got oﬀ YouTube,” Carr explains, “I’ll be dressed in a pig costume and get crowned for the fest.” —JACK HELBIG

Hanna Brictson and Dancers é COURTESY THE ARTIST

DANCE

An auteur is born

Once a performer at Dance for Life, Hanna Brictson returns with her own company.

DANCE FOR LIFE changed the trajectory of Hanna Brictson’s career. She performed in the annual charity event on multiple occasions as a company member of River North Dance Chicago, but she’ll be in the audience this year, watching the debut performance of Hanna Brictson and Dancers.

DANCE FOR LIFE

Sat 8/18, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Ida B. Wells, 312341-2300, auditoriumtheatre.org, $15-$650.

é SERENA VALENTI

AN ERA ENDED two summers ago when Richard Cotovsky pulled down the curtain on his long-running Abbie Hoffman Died for Your Sins Festival. Cotovsky first started the fest in 1989, the year of Abbie Hoffman’s suicide, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Woodstock, and at that point he was ready to move on. “The Last Abbie Fest” was meant to be just that, a fact reflected in the poster: a skull with a flag bandanna, hippie glasses, and Hoffman’s trademark Jewfro.

“I had created this piece, and I submitted it to Dance for Life on a whim, assuming it wouldn’t happen,” says Brictson of the fast, feel-good number performed by an ensemble of 36 dancers. “During the process, they wanted to know the name of my dance company, but I didn’t have a dance company. Now it’s a thing, and I really want to run with this.” A professional dancer in Chicago for 14

years, Brictson has long had a passion for choreographing, mentoring, and directing. She plans to use her company to develop work that will help younger audiences appreciate the art form. “I want to do events in social clubs, bars, restaurants, coffee shops,” says Brictson. “Get into the scene and put dance right in front of people, because the younger generation is so attracted to convenience.” Now in its 27th year, Dance for Life brings together local dance companies to raise money for the Dancers’ Fund, which provides financial assistance to dance professionals with critical health issues. Brictson is thrilled to see her company making its debut alongside major players like the Joﬀrey Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. “People talk about Dance for Life like it’s the best show of the whole year,” says Brictson. “We all take a ballet class together and you get to dance with every company. It feels like a family, very welcoming and warm. We do what we do because we love it and we want people to see that, to feel that.” —OLIVER SAVA

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 19

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ARTS & CULTURE THEATER

Loud and proud

The Fly Honey Show promises something for everyone—except minimalists. For all its talk of inclusion, the Fly Honey Show is not about subtlety, nor is it for minimalists. Now roaring into its ninth season, the ear-blisteringly loud, unabashedly proud, intersectional feminist extravaganza of spoken word, song, and dance claims some 300 ensemble members and 35 featured acts spreading their gospel of sex- and body-positivity and their multitude of legs over a five-week run at the Den. They promise 150 minutes, and they make you go a full 180. There’s a lot of whooping, hollering, and convulsing on- and offstage, all led by host Mary Williamson, whose tone strikes a frequency between gym coach about to fine you 50 push-ups and camp counselor leading you into parts definitely unknown, together with her lovely cohosts, Sydney Charles and Molly Brennan. And yet there is something disarmingly familiar about the big-band jazz and the completely unspectacular gyrating that open the hours in the Hive—a reminder that for all the leather, pasties, lace, straps, and glitter, these bodies belong to your neighbor, your friend, your coworker. And, the hosts emphasize, the same rules should apply inside as out: don’t touch without permission. Though the script at times veers into a choral pedantry that hints at an unverified proportion of lapsed Catholics among the production team, if you’re coming for sexy talks and sexy walks, there’s plenty for the gawking. And sometimes more: the highlight of opening weekend was the brave and beautiful poetry of transgender performance artist Bea Cordelia speaking her mind. —IRENE HSIAO THE FLY HONEY SHOW

Through 9/8: Thu-Sat 10 PM, the Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-3830, theflyhoneyshow.com, $25-$30 standing room, $35-$40 general admission, $80 VIP.

A bitter pill

The inconsequential ﬁrst half of Holding the Man is as hard to swallow as its devastating conclusion.

please recycle this paper 20 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Tommy Murphy’s 2006 adaptation of Australian actor and writer Timothy Conigrave’s 1995 coming-of-age memoir is a difficult pill to swallow, for reasons that shift halfway through this two-and-a-half-hour show. For most of the first act, the difficulty arises largely from the surface-skipping breeziness that turns Conigrave’s first two decades of life—discovering he’s gay in his prepubescent years, falling head over heels for the class jock in high school, stumbling upon gay rights activism in college—into a scattershot, oddly impersonal, and at time credulity-straining highlights reel (did none of Conigrave’s mid-1970s high school classmates, including his putative girlfriend, display even the tiniest unease with his open homosexuality?). Director Michael D. Graham’s perfunctory staging for Pride Films and Plays, which struggles to create a meaningful stage picture or an effective rhythm, is no help. But after HIV rears its horrid head before intermission and both Conigrave and his partner, John Caleo, test positive, the second act finds its focus, as we watch the couple negotiate terror, guilt, rage, infidelity, and most cruelly, a hard-won devotion that death swiftly destroys. If, like I, you lived through similar horrors a few decades back, the final 30 minutes may leave you

Holding the Man é PAUL GOYETTE retraumatized, especially given the compelling performances of Micah Kronlokken as Conigrave and Jude Hansen as Caleo. At the same time, you may wonder if it’s enough for a playwright to ask the audience to feel another grievous AIDS loss without questioning any of the social and political forces that led to countless similar unnecessary deaths. —JUSTIN HAYFORD HOLDING

THE MAN Through 8/26: Thu and Sat 7:30 PM, Sun

2 PM, Mon 7:30 PM; also Tue 8/21, 7:30 PM, Pride Films and Plays, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-857-0222, pridefilmsandplays.com, $25-$30, students, seniors, and military $20.

Bloody will be thy end

With a confused Richard III, Muse of Fire goes out with a flicker. Since Evanston’s Muse of Fire Theatre Company will disband in September, after nine summers of performing Shakespeare for free and mostly outdoors, it’d be great to say that they’re going out with a bang. But that’s not the case. Although it offers stalwart performances, some smart direction by Jemma Alix Levy, and an entertainingly breezy, unapologetic embodiment of the title villain by Jon Beal, this Richard III has its troubles. Some of which are familiar from previous MOF productions. The company has been criticized in the past for sowing confusion by letting cast members double- and triple-up on roles. Here, with a dozen actors deployed among 30 characters, certain moments aren’t just chaotic, they’re inadvertently comic—as when we find ourselves watching actor Sonia Goldberg suffer not one but two onstage deaths. Then there’s the difficulty posed by orienting the performance area so that the audience has to look west into a late-afternoon sun. But Levy introduces a whole new problem when she goes beyond casting women in male roles and actually changes the gender of those roles, so that, for instance, the dukes of Clarence and Buckingham become duchesses. This is more than a matter of messing with the text, which happens all the time where Shakespeare is concerned; since Clarence and others were real people, it’s arguably a matter of messing with history. A much bigger issue, though, is this: The play features several royal women who are exploited and made bereft of their families by the rapacious Richard. Their combination of political helplessness and spiritual authority makes for potent, culturally resonant drama. If their fellow women are running around behaving like 15th-century men, killing each other off, the helplessness and the authority are called into question, the potency and resonance pale. You have to ask yourself, Why don’t the royal ladies just pick up swords and start swinging? No answer is forthcoming. —TONY ADLER RICHARD III 8/18-9/9:

Sat-Sun 3 PM, Ingraham Park, 2100 Ridge Ave., Evanston; also Fri 8/24-Sat 8/25, 7:30 PM, Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave., Evanston, museoffiretheatre.weebly.com. F v

ARABY sss Directed by João Dumans and Affonso Uchoa. In Portuguese with subtitles. 97 min. Fri 8/17-Thu 8/23. Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312846-2800, siskelfilmcenter.org, $11.

ARTS & CULTURE

Araby

MOVIES

Diary of a workingman

The very literary Araby follows the life and jobs of an itinerant Brazilian laborer. By BEN SACHS

any filmmakers adapt books, but relatively few make movies that actually feel like books—that is, they achieve the sort of patience and interiority that come with reading. Judging from their second feature, Araby (which screens this week at the Film Center), Brazilian writer-directors João Dumans and Affonso Uchoa belong to this select group. Araby is literary through and through, from its ample voice-over narration to its self-conscious dramatic structure to its perceptive observations of time’s passing. Dumans and Uchoa encourage viewers to reflect on events as soon as they occur; one of their stylistic signatures is to let the hero’s narration play out over static shots of little or nothing happening. When characters do interact, they speak in a flat, declarative way that sounds like they’re reciting text. And the visual style evokes finely chiseled prose, with neatly arranged frames (which the directors generally hold for long enough to make a strong impression) that suggest complete sentences. Araby takes its title from one of the stories in James Joyce’s Dubliners (Dumans and ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

Uchoa have explained that the film started out as a present-day adaptation of that tale), but the narrative form feels closer in spirit to an 18th-century picaresque novel. The movie follows a working-poor individual named Cristiano (Aristides de Sousa) over roughly a decade as he takes on various jobs all over the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. First seen serving a short prison sentence for attempted car robbery, Cristiano leaves jail determined to make an honest living. His integrity causes him to lose one job after another (though he loses some to circumstance as well), and as a result he’s often on the road, searching for work. Cristiano submits to all kinds of demeaning, low-paying labor; his jobs include picking tangerines in a small grove, breaking rocks along a motorway, doing custodial work in a brothel, stocking heavy supplies in a warehouse, and operating a machine in a factory. Dumans and Uchoa present each occupation in vivid detail, yet the longer Araby goes on, the more Cristiano’s jobs start to feel the same. The hero seems to recognize this—his narration (which comments on practically everything we see) has a tired, world-weary air to it. In another turn out of 18th-century ﬁction,

ss AVERAGE

s POOR

•

Araby opens with an extended framing device in which a teenage boy named Andre comes to find Cristiano’s journal; what follows is a visualization of the entries that Andre reads. Dumans and Uchoa introduce viewers to the boy before presenting Cristiano’s story. Andre is an upper-middle-class child who barely sees his parents since they’re always traveling for work. Most of the time, he and his brother are raised by their aunt, who’s also the company nurse at the local factory where Cristiano is employed as a machinist. Andre’s lonely yet comfortable life is essentially the opposite of Cristiano’s; the filmmakers spend almost 20 minutes on it so that Cristiano’s story arrives with the shock of the new. In fact Dumans and Uchoa practically begin the film over again once Cristiano appears; they introduce the character with extended shots of him walking, much like they introduce Andre with a long take of him riding his bike under the opening credits. The filmmakers manage to sustain that sense of shock over the remainder of the picture, which runs just another 75 minutes. The short running time has a lot to do with the shock—Dumans and Uchoa cover so much ground (both literal and metaphorical) so quickly that it feels as if the film is always running away from you. Punchy and condensed, the Cristiano section of Araby plays like an art-house variation on such Depression-era Hollywood dramas as Mervyn LeRoy’s Three on a Match (1932) and William A. Wellman’s Heroes for Sale (1933), which also related many years of characters’ lives in just over an hour. That similarity may not be coincidental—Dumans and Uchoa, in a Film Comment interview from last year, claimed to have found inspiration in U.S. culture of the Great Depression, citing the songs of Woody Guthrie and the novels of John Dos Passos as major influences. This sense of connection to Depression culture makes Araby subtly chilling, as it suggests that life is no better for the working class now than it was then. Dumans and Uchoa don’t overstate the message, however. Araby is unmistakably contemporary in its fashions, settings, and physical behavior; the similarities to the past seem found rather than manufactured. The directors affirm the film’s topicality early on, when one of Cristiano’s coworkers on the tangerine grove raps about his plight as an itinerant laborer; they also invoke the recent past in this section of the film when Cristiano

learns that one of the farm’s older workers had been a labor organizer in the 70s and 80s. Both the rapper and the old man make a substantial impact on the film even though they appear in it for a relatively short time. Moreover, they draw the film out of its introspective, backward-looking mood—the depictions of friendship are immediate and timeless. Near the end of Araby, Cristiano finds himself friendless for the first time when he takes a factory job in the small city of Ouro Preto, and when he registers his loneliness in the narration, it feels as though the film has been suddenly drained of J its lifeblood.

WORTHLESS

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 21

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Ironically, Cristiano’s stint at the factory may be the best job he ever gets. The pay is good, the hours reliable, and the management provides him with a decent place to sleep. He even joins the factory workers’ theater group, where a colleague encourages him to start writing down his stories. Like Cristiano’s journal, with its eloquent language and meditative observations, the theater group conjures up the vision of a working-class literary culture improbably thriving in the rootlessness of the 21st century. (In this regard, Araby is something of a spiritual cousin to Jim Jarmusch’s recent Paterson.) This vision reﬂects Dumans and Uchoa’s deep sympathy for their subjects, if not a utopian optimism. “We don’t want to represent the poor and marginal people as if their lives were only determined by violence or social conditions,” Uchoa told Film Comment. “We truly believe that these people can create something and think about more than mere survival. Of course reality can be shitty. We live in a world that make things difficult for poor people, but I believe that as ﬁlmmakers, we can sometimes reinvent reality and discover other possibilities.” v

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22 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Nick Santos and Michelle Yeoh in Crazy Rich Asians

continued from 21

R Animator

An advertising hot shot (Levenix Riddle) enrolls in animation studies at Columbia College and falls under the spell of a crusty professor (the excellent Phillip Edward Van Lear) who gives him a magical wood carving of an African griot. Armed with this prize, the student can dictate the future by mapping it out in animation storyboards, and he puts his new power to use in courting a vivacious young art photographer (McKenzie Chinn). The supernatural premise dates back at least as far as W.W. Jacobs’s 1902 horror story “The Monkey’s Paw,” but screenwriter Roberta Jones wisely pushes her narrative past the conﬁnes of genre and into more complicated emotional territory. Logan Hall directed. —J.R. JONES 99 min. Part of the Black Harvest Film Festival; for a full schedule visit siskelﬁlmcenter.org. Fri 8/17, 8:30 PM, and Tue 8/21, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

Betty: They Say I’m Different

Betty Mabry left her ﬁrst mark on musical history as Miles Davis’s wife, introducing him to the rock, soul, and funk that would contribute to his groundbreaking

LP Bitches Brew (1970); she left her second, years after the marriage had ended, as 70s funk diva Betty Davis, her guttural delivery and forthright sexuality years ahead of their time. Since retiring from music in the 1980s, Davis has hidden from the spotlight, and director Philip Cox spends most of this documentary tracking her down. She appears on camera for exactly one shot, looking away from the lens, though Cox uses a handful of responses from their audio interview as voice-over narration. Photos and archival footage show Davis in all her jaw-dropping 70s glory—wearing a gigantic afro, short shorts and thigh-high boots, with legs akimbo— while friends and colleagues remember her as a quiet, contemplative woman oﬀstage. This is probably as close to Davis as anyone’s going to get, and Cox augments her guarded recollections with a vibrant, seductive introduction to her music. —J.R. JONES 54 min. Part of the Black Harvest Film Festival; for a full schedule visit siskelﬁlmcenter.org. Sun 8/19, 5:30 PM, and Mon 8/20, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

R Crazy Rich Asians

Knockout visuals, a winning cast, and an irrepressibly feel-good vibe make this dazzling romantic comedy one for the ages; the only possible way to improve it would’ve been to make it a musical. A ﬁrst-generation Chinese-American NYU economics professor (Constance Wu) confronts entrenched tradition and elitism when her adoring boyfriend (Henry Golding), heir to a Singapore megafortune, brings her home to meet the family. Michelle Yeoh adds dramatic ballast as the heroine’s formidable prospective mother-in-law, while supporting comedians Awkwaﬁna, Ronny Chieng, and Ken Jeong gleam as brightly as the wall-to-wall luxury goods. Production designer Nelson Coates conveys the delirium of conspicuous consumption and upward mobility with his lush decor; adapting Kevin Kwan’s novel, director Jon M. Chu mines the nuances between new and old money, showing how wealth can both liberate and constrain. —ANDREA GRONVALL PG-13, 120 min. ArcLight Chicago, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14 Theaters, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Davis, Ford City, Lake, New 400, River East 21, Showplace ICON, Webster Place 11

Far From the Tree

Based on Andrew Solomon’s nonﬁction book, this documentary looks at several families with children who

are different in some way. Most of the children have a disability (autism, Down syndrome, dwarfism), but one is a young man who’s serving a life sentence for murdering an eight-year-old boy. Director Rachel Dretzin, shifting between profiles of parents and children, displays sympathy toward both sets of subjects, but her compassionate perspective is most illuminating when she considers the older generation—few movies convey so clearly the unique stress of raising children with severe disabilities. Dretzin undercuts the emotional power of her interviews by putting in way too much sentimental music, and one might wish she had considered her subjects in greater depth. But this is still a serious and unpatronizing take on a difficult topic. —BEN SACHS 93 min. Fri 8/17-Sun 8/19, 11:15 AM, 1:45, 4:30, 7:15, and 10 PM; Mon 8/20-Thu 8/23, 1:45, 4:30, 7:15, and 10 PM, Landmark’s Century Centre

Revivals

Afterglow

Writer-director Alan Rudolph has been remaking his own romantic comedy-dramas for so long now that even when he gives us two couples instead of one or substitutes Montreal for Seattle—both of which he does here—the ﬁlm still comes out feeling the same. Working with actors as likable as Nick Nolte and Julie Christie, he makes us a bit more tolerant of Lara Flynn Boyle and Jonny Lee Miller (whose parts are much less nuanced) and oscillates between two cases of marital discord and amorous yearning with a fair amount of grace. For genuine freshness, however, go back to Remember My Name and Choose Me, or check them out for the ﬁrst time. 1997. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 1998 R, 119 min. 35mm. Wed 8/22, 7:30 PM. Northeastern Illinois University

R The Virgin Spring

One of the few films that Ingmar Bergman directed but did not write, this 1960 feature recounts a 14th-century Swedish legend on the abundance of God’s grace. The period details are magnificently worked into the narrative, and the pace and economy of the tortured Swede’s storytelling make his metaphysics infinitely easier to take. In Swedish and German with subtitles. —DON DRUKER 1985 88 min. Sat 8/18, 5 PM, and Mon 8/20, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center v

Ephraim Bugumba, aka Storyteller, near Oakwood Beach

Ephraim Bugumba sings his refugee’s tale as Storyteller

é NOLIS ANDERSON

His long, hard journey from the Congo to DeKalb began when he was three, but he uses music to keep a connection to home alive. By JUSTIN KAMP

n another world, 22-year-old Ephraim Bugumba would be a prince. Originally from Makobola, a village in northeastern Congo, Bugumba was born into a royal family. His grandfather was the chief, and he was the fifth child among seven brothers and sisters. When Bugumba was three, the Makobola massacre tore his village and his family

apart. The bloodshed erupted during the New Year’s holiday in late 1999, in the midst of a rebellion against President Laurent Kabila, and claimed an estimated 500 to 600 lives. After Bugumba’s grandfather was killed, he and his family spent much of the next 12 years moving from one refugee camp to another across southern Africa. Instead of a life of royalty, Bugumba led

a life of transience and privation. He didn’t have a bed of his own until he was 16. His family’s long journey brought him to the U.S. in 2012, and he now lives in DeKalb. Around Chicago, as a jazz-indebted, folkinspired singer-songwriter, Bugumba is making a different name for himself: he goes by Storyteller, and for him, music is a way to connect to an African home J

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 23

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24 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Left: Ephraim Bugumba makes his church-choir debut in 2011. Below: Bugumba with his parents and his six siblings in 2004, in the family’s ﬁrst apartment in Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother and father are at upper right, and Bugumba stands in front of his mother, in a white shirt with black sleeves. é COURTESY OF EPHRAIM BUGUMBA

continued from 23

he barely knows. “I remember the refugee camps, and I have scattered memories of what the Congo was like,” Bugumba says. “Mostly, my memories come from what I am told by my family.” Bugumba learned about the importance of personal history and myth through the stories his family told in the camps. By sharing these tales, they kept the memory of their village in the Congo alive. Some of their stories served as reminders of the sacriﬁces they had already made. Bugumba remembers how his father and older brothers, prime targets during the massacre because of their lineage, lived in hiding in the jungle outside Makobola for months—only later were they able to help the rest of the family escape. Bugumba himself, too young to go with them into the jungle, had to be disguised as a girl in order to survive. Other stories were a form of escape. Bugumba recalls nights spent in a refugee camp in Malawi, where he and his siblings would

gather around a bonﬁre while his mother told them about their old village, sometimes in song. He says that his mother’s stories helped him realize that he needed to shape his own. “She would tell us stories and myths and all that,” Bugumba says. “Mostly about our village, how it was a big family. How we all originated from our ancestors. She’d talk about how beautiful our village was, how big the trees and fruits were. How it was never cold. I grew up around that, and because of that I felt that I should take the storytelling tradition to the next level. “ After the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees helped his family enter the U.S., Bugumba went to high school in Mobile, Alabama. In 2014 he moved with his parents and siblings to Carol Stream, Illinois, and within a year he’d graduated from nearby Wheaton North High. After a short stint at Lewis University in Romeoville, where he studied music merchandising, he dropped out in fall 2016 and moved to DeKalb. Soon he

began to perform publicly as Storyteller. Bugumba wanted to use his music to uphold the oral tradition of his family and his village. He says that in his culture, music is often a means of transmitting stories and even sacred myths from generation to generation. His songs as Storyteller are even titled like chapters in an autobiography. “Storyteller: The Prince,” “Storyteller: The Refugee,” and “Storyteller: Tell Me You Love Me,” all of which appear on his upcoming debut EP, make up a song cycle about his journey from devastation to self-discovery. They’re about his life, which means they’re also about the places and people he’s left behind. The lyrics are rooted in Bugumba’s history and heritage, but the music that supports them is more varied in its origins. Because he was constantly moving from place to place, he grew up listening to all sorts of things— the tastes of the people around him, whether in Malawi, Tanzania, or South Africa, ﬁgured into his musical vocabulary. The inﬂuences he cites include African artists such as Congolese singer-songwriter Lokua Kanza and South African reggae singer Lucky Dube, as well as American staples Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley.

Bugumba connected especially strongly with Marley, in particular the socially conscious themes of his lyrics. When he heard Marley sing about searching for a home in “Redemption Song,” he says, it touched him in a visceral way. He trails off, overwhelmed, when he tries to describe it. “I’m sorry, I’m running out of the right English,” he says. “My English comes and goes.” During the first few years Bugumba’s family spent in the camps, his parents would gather the family every night to pray. But he felt lost and depressed, unable to take comfort in anything but his mother’s stories and the music on the radio. Prayer seemed meaningless. “I didn’t want to believe in God,” he says. “In my mind, I would ask, if God was real, why are we here right now?” Stability entered Bugumba’s life only after the family arrived in South Africa when he was seven. They were still forced to move every few months, but they stayed within Johannesburg. When Bugumba was ten, they started regularly attending an apostolic church, where he discovered the joy of singing. Not long after, he found his ﬁrst guitar. The most important thing he found during this time, though, was what he J

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 25

Ephraim Bugumba, aka Storyteller é NOLIS ANDERSON

STORYTELLER

continued from 25

calls an “epiphany” about the role of religion in his life. “The Bible says that the potter crushes the clay,” he says. “When he feels that the shape doesn’t ﬁt into the design he has for the clay, he has to crush it, then rebuild it. We were not living the life that God had designed for us. So he needed to crush us a little. He’s just started rebuilding us.” The move to the U.S., after nearly ten years in South Africa, was part of that rebuilding. Bugumba was 16 when his family arrived, and at ﬁrst the cultural differences were hard for him. He struggled to deal with racism, from black people as well as white people—something he’d never encountered in the form it took here. He says he was “heartbroken” by the divisions he saw. His parents’ expectations presented another hurdle. “African parents want their kids to be doctors and engineers,” he says. Bugumba’s decision to attend Lewis University arose partly from a desire to meet these expectations. After dropping out and moving to DeKalb, he easily could’ve felt set adrift again, but his foundations in music and religion gave him

26 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Part of Corn Fest, which begins Fri 8/24. Sun 8/26, 3:15 PM (fest opens at 11 AM), Community Stage, Lincoln Hwy. between First and Fourth St., DeKalb, cornfest.com, $5 suggested donation, children under 12 free, all-ages

STORYTELLER

For more on this Sofar Sounds show, visit sofarsounds.com. Wed 9/26, 8 PM, location details to be sent to ticketholders, $20, no unaccompanied kids under 16, all-ages

more of a sense of purpose than he’d had in Africa. “One of the advantages we got from the life we led in Africa is a conﬁdence in our lives,” he says. “We know God is behind us.” Bugumba began to perform as Storyteller at open mikes, ﬁrst in DeKalb and then across Chicagoland. Late last year he auditioned for the 16th season of American Idol, and this spring he made it to the top 50 before being voted off the show. “I tried to be too hip, I think,” he says. “I needed to be more authentic, to tell my story.” Music, storytelling, and faith are the threads from which Bugumba has woven his

personal mythology. Even the accounts he gives of his own past can take on the shape and feel of legend. The way he recounts his first experience with music, for instance, make it feel almost like his creation myth, with a fable’s themes of destiny and belief. The story takes place before the massacre, when Bugumba was still living in Makobola. He was two years old and had fallen severely ill. “My parents thought I was going to die,” he says. “We had no medication we could use. I was stick and bone. My older siblings would tell me they were just watching over me to see when I would pass. One day, there was a song on the radio playing, and my mother saw my foot make little dancing moves. She made me some porridge, and I survived the illness. Ever since then, music has been in my DNA. It’s been an inevitable truth.” In that story, music is a source of healing. In the songs his mother sang about his ancestors, music was a source of education. Often Bugumba ﬁnds that his music heals him and educates others. He’s realized that few people in America, or even in Africa, know about the tragedy that befell his home, and his music enlightens them. But the main reason he performs is to

connect. He considers himself an introvert, the consequence of spending his formative years constantly in transit. He says a fear of losing people makes him wary of seeking out new friends. “I haven’t stayed anywhere long enough to belong,” he explains. “Everything is temporary. When a connection dies, I feel devastated, and so I don’t try to connect.” When he tells his story through song, though, he says it forms a bond that words alone cannot. “Music is the connection I have to people now. When I play my music, I’m home.” Bugumba is currently recording his debut EP, which he plans to self-release on November 14. To help stir up interest in the EP, which he hasn’t titled yet, in September he’s partnering with Sofar Sounds for a national tour. (He’s worked with the organization before on local gigs.) Sofar books “secret” shows in nontraditional venues—living rooms, shops, backyards—and fans apply for admission on the Sofar website. Those who can get in (the spaces are usually pretty small) are notiﬁed of the location the day before. Bugumba will play in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York, wrapping up with a Chicago show on Wednesday, September 26. v

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of August 16

MUSIC

b ALL AGES F

THURSDAY16

PICK OF THE WEEK

The man behind the curtain of Godspeed You! Black Emperor steps out alone

Joshua Abrams 9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b

Bassist Joshua Abrams has been indisputably important to Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene over the past few decades. He’s laid down the harmonic anchor in loads of disparate ensembles, providing muscle and shape to bands led by reedists Dave Rempis, Ernest Dawkins, and Jason Stein; cornetists Rob Mazurek and Josh Berman; flutist Nicole Mitchell; and drummers Hamid Drake and Mike Reed. That’s not even counting his membership in several combos that skirt clear genre lines, from the back-porch minimalism of Town & Country to the atmospheric art-rock of the Bird Show Band. As a leader he’s devoted his time to Natural Information Society, a tranceinducing combo that applies a grainy, panglobal spin on minimalism that doesn’t give much space to Abrams’s improvisational work. His first solo album, Excavations 1 (Feeding Tube), delivers a welcome glimpse into a radically different side of his practice, paying homage to a hearty, five-decadelong tradition of solo bass recordings by the likes of Barre Phillips, Dave Holland, Kent Carter, and Malachi Favors. Sticking largely with arco playing, Abrams uses his bow to extract viscerally astringent lines marked by biting harmonics. He’s always had a remarkable sense of time, and his sense of rhythm shines through even on his most tangled, textureoriented runs. It’s as if he can’t help but push sound through space with a measured drive, but his general melodic instincts yield to a rigorous investment in color. There’s a passage toward the end of “Wager” with a singing tonality that momen- J

é LOUISE MICHEL JACKSON

EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK, DANIEL WYCHE QUARTET, TALSOUNDS Tue 8/21, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $12. 21+

EFRIM MANUEL MENUCK is a founding member of the anticapitalist symphonic rock ensemble Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the equally outraged Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. In both of those groups, his muscular guitar is part of a vast sonic corpus of strings, tape loops, and pounding rhythms. But on his recent solo LP, Pissing Stars (Constellation), his anguished voice looms large over blasted, mostly electronic soundscapes. The songs on the album exorcise a preoccupation Menuck’s carried for 30 years; the affair between Entertainment Tonight hostess Mary Hart and playboy Mohammed Khashoggi, the son of arms dealer and Iran-Contra ﬁgure Adnan Khashoggi. While the couple’s union augured the convergence

of cheap entertainment and expensive war machinery that currently powers the runaway train of our current head of state, for Menuck it also symbolized the persistence of love in the midst of nihilistic energies. He expresses this duality sonically, contrasting passages where his singing sounds even more ruined than the grainy sounds pushing through the speakers with others where he sounds positively redeemed. Menuck’s recent solo concerts have been stripped-down affairs that feature his voice over the layers of synthetic drones provided by Kevin Doria (Growing, Total Life). Two local artists open the concert: synthesist TALsounds and an improvising chamber quartet led by electric guitarist Daniel Wyche. —BILL MEYER

Joshua Abrams é JASON LAZARUS

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 27

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

itual son of Bakersfield Dwight Yoakam have been trekking across the landscape of North America this summer. The package tour—which hits Chicago near the end of its run—promotes Williams’s rerecording of her seminal country-, blues-, and folk-rock-influenced 1992 album Sweet Old World (retitled This Sweet Old World) and the 30th anniversary of Earle’s classic Copperhead Road, as well as Yoakam’s new SiriusXM satellite radio station, Dwight Yoakam and the Bakersfield Beat, which features tracks from his back catalog and the music that shaped him. With more than three decades of road wear apiece and a total of 49 Grammy nominations among them, these three are all major forces in the music world, outliers who ignore changing trends and steadfastly chart their own idiosyncratic courses as artists. Tonight, the modern singer-songwriter legends will offer up selections of catalog classics and new works, and occasionally band together for a number or two yanked from the annals of an alternate sort of Great American Songbook, encompassing the sounds of rural Americana, country, and country rock. King Leg, the Los Angeles-via-Nebraska Yoakam protege with mellifluous pipes—touted by Rolling Stone last year as one of “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know”— opens in support of his Sire Records debut, Meet King Leg. —JEREMY CARGILL

FREE!

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AUG.2018 24-26

Downtown Skokie

FRI Sister Hazel 8:30 pm South City Revival

6:45 pm

SAT Foghat 8:30 pm

Batushka é TOMI PALINKAS

6:45 pm The Safes 5 pm The Right Now 3 pm Marina 1 pm Zacbe Trio

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SUN TRIBUTOSAURUS 6:30 PM becomes AC/DC

5 pm Paul Kaye &

The Blues Cartel

3 pm The Healthy Portion 1 pm The Dreamtree Shakers

Live acts between Full calendar available at main stage sets on the www.BacklotBash.com beer tent stage

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28 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

tarily reminds me of Slim Gaillard, but Abrams doesn’t stick to conventional turf for long, instead pivoting toward an acidic abrasiveness that pushes toward the edge of comfortable hearing. On “Buzzards” he conjures a sound halfway between a violently squeaking door and a machine that’s forcefully being stripped of its gears. Still, as noisy and unhinged as some of these pieces get, there’s no missing the bassist’s incredible control and mastery of his instrument in developing such wild extended techniques. Tonight serves as the album release party. —PETER MARGASAK

Batushka See also Friday. The Chasm and Suﬀering Hour open. 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, sold out. 17+ The sound of sensational Polish band Batushka melds black metal with the grand, eerie chants of the Eastern Orthodox litany. They more or less play it straight, though they’re not a religious band. Batushka’s 2015 debut, Litourgiya—which featured lyrics in Russian and received well-deserved gushing reviews upon its release—has just received a deluxe reissue from Metal Blade Records, which snapped the band up and sent them on their ﬁrst North American tour this summer. The live lineup includes eight people (including chanters) who conceal their identities but are rumored to be members of prominent Polish metal acts. Their showmanship is spectacular: hooded robes, masks, candelabras, altars, and ikons add to the numinous, otherworldly feel. Given the sneaking neotraditionalist streak at the heart of our new Russian overlords, Batushka’s haunting, savagely rhythmic, jaggedly grand music seems to dance on the edge of something that could unsettle even the most jaded listener, and is genuinely majestic in a way that many

aspire to but few achieve. —MONICA KENDRICK

FRIDAY17 Batushka See Thursday. The Chasm, Imperial Triumphant, and Infernal Conjuration open. 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $30. 17+ LSD Tour: Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam 7 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, $47.50-$119.50. b Under the moniker “the LSD Tour” (with the cheeky tagline “It’s worth the trip”), raspy-voiced Americana singer Lucinda Williams, hard-core troubadour Steve Earle (with his band the Dukes), and spir-

Sonny Falls Longface, Coaster, and Malci open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10, $8 in advance. 21+ On the 2016 self-released EP There’s No Magic Left in This World, local singer-guitarist Ryan Ensley (formerly of antifolk outfit Shiloh) showed his knack for melding spunky, unvarnished acoustic instrumentation with big rock ’n’ roll power. Ensley played nearly every instrument on the EP, and though it was engineered by onetime Oshwa member Michael Mac, it has the spunky energy of a home recording. That spirit has stayed intact as Ensley has transformed Sonny Falls into a proper band. On the group’s new debut full-length, Some Kind of Spectre (Sooper), they build on the foundation Ensley set, crafting rock ’n’ roll for open roads and making their passageways feel as big as the world. Ensley’s thoughts are grounded in reality; his lyrics

Dwight Yoakam é EMILY JOYCE

Cheick Hamala Diabaté

MUSIC

é COURTESY THE ARTIST

some stinging, fuzzed-out Muddy Waters-style lead lines on top of a boiling groove; Diabaté himself responds with a banjo solo that sounds like it’s inspired by Jimmy Page (who has also been known to play the banjo on occasion). The horn sections draw from such varying sources as Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti. The diaspora is everywhere, and Diabaté’s music is at home wherever he happens to be. —NOAH BERLATSKY

Drake See also Saturday. Migos open. 7 PM, United Center, 1901 W. Madison, $199.50. b navigate the complexities of drug abuse and the harm it can do to a community. On the single “Easy to Lose,” tension comes to a boil as Ensley details a violent confrontation between two friends. Though the album can get dark, Sonny Falls’s uplifting music chisels its way toward a brighter future, which, as Ensley has shown, you can reach with help from your friends. —LEOR GALIL

Cheick Hamala DiabatÉ 8 PM, Szold Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4545 N. Lincoln, $22, $20 members. b A lot of the roots in American roots music stem from Africa, as Malian-born D.C. musician Cheick

Hamala Diabaté demonstrates whenever he goes onstage. Diabaté plays the banjo and the instrument’s African ancestor, the ngoni, and performs with a sprawling group of musicians, the Griot Street Band, who play horns, guitar, and a dizzying array of percussion. The performances don’t so much join African and American sounds as they remind you that their musical traditions have been fused and re-fused for so long that for some artists, they might as well be one. In songs such as “Diamonds and Gold,” oﬀ his last album, 2013’s Anka Ben Mali Deno (Stepback Music), Diabaté embraces straightforward blues, hard-driving harmonica and all. “Boudofo,” on the other hand, sounds like it comes straight oﬀ a Baaba Maal album. For concert favorite “Mali De Nou,” guitarist Rob Coltun lays

The jury’s still out on whether Kiki loves Drake or not, but it’s pretty clear that the rest of the world does, and with good reason. On his fifth official release, this summer’s Scorpion, the Toronto child star turned rapper proves that he’s one of the most consistent artists out there right now; though he churns out material at a seemingly nonstop pace, it’s always high quality, and it always manages to connect with his listeners. With Scorpion Drake continues to build on the signature hyperpersonal confessional rap-singing he established on 2009’s So Far Gone EP. This time he takes it to the next level, striking a balance between hard-hitting trap and lofty, sophisticated melodies. There’s something for any hip-hop or pop fan here, from the supersoft dream-pop-flavored drones of “Summer J

Drake é MARK BLINCH

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 29

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

FESTIVALS

SEPTEMBER 16

COPERNICUS CENTER LOCATED AT MILWAUKEE AND LAWRENCE

PURCHASE TICKETS AT WWW.COPERNICUSCENTER.ORG

Find hundreds of Readerrecommended restaurants, exclusive video features, and sign up for weekly news chicagoreader.com/ food.

Slam, smash, bang, or none of the above? The week in festivals The Henhouse Prowlers play Sunday at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest. é FALKENBURG/FLICKR

Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest The 17th annual incarnation of this eclectic neighborhood festival features art vendors, open studios, and a range of live music that encompasses blues (Freddie Dixon), bluegrass (Henhouse Prowlers), punk (Absolutely Not), and more. Fri 8/17, 6 PM; Sat 8/18 and Sun 8/19, noon, Glenwood between Farwell and Lunt, glenwoodave.org, free, all-ages Pilsen Fest Pilsen celebrates its culture with two stages of Latin-leaning live acts, including Hello Seahorse!, Bostich & Fussible, Sin Color, and Nani Castle. Sat 8/18 and Sun 8/19, noon, 18th and Blue Island, pilsenfestchicago.com, free, all-ages 3YB Housefest Presented by 3 Yards Bangin’, this block party features ten hours of nonstop house music

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Games” to the DJ Paul-produced smasher “Talk Up” to the bleak introspection of “Elevate.” Drake’s ability to bare his soul over any type of hip-hop is one of the reasons he’s so successful; everyone can sense a little bit of themselves in the guy, which is just as important as the dude’s undeniably compelling hooks and verses. But though it’s nearly perfect, Scorpion raises an important question: Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? At 25 tracks, it might cause even the biggest Drakeheads to find their attention waning long before Future makes a brilliant cameo on “Blue Tint,” deep into the record’s second disc. The same thing can said for tour openers Migos, whose latest effort, Culture II, is stacked with certiﬁed bangers but starts to drag over its 24 songs. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

30 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

spun by a ton of DJs, among them Hugo H., DJ Cheez, Vern Vinyl, Marc Davis, Mike Dunn of the Chosen Few, and Power 92 on-air personality DJ Pharris. Sat 8/18, 1 PM, 8600 S. Anthony, 3yardsbangin.com, $15, $10 in advance, all-ages Bric-a-Brac Scummer Slam Round 3 The Avondale record shop stinks up the dog days of summer with a stacked bill of garage rock, mutant punk, bubblegum pop, and more. Acts include Nikki Corvette, the Lemons, Gino & the Goons, Royal Brat, Ethers, and Skull Cult. Sun 8/19, noon, East Room back lot, 2354 N. Milwaukee, bricabracrecords.com, free, all-ages Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash See below for more on this bonkers hip-hop party. Sun 8/19, noon, Douglas Park, 1401 S. Sacramento, lyricallemonade.com, $60, all-ages

SATURDAY18 Drake See Friday. Migos open. 7 PM, United Center, 1901 W. Madison, $199.50. b

SUNDAY19 Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash The 25 artists on the bill include Joey Badass, Vic Mensa, Juice Wrld, Maxo Kream, Trippie Redd, Lil Skies, Ski Mask the Slump God, Lucki, Mick Jenkins, and Queen Key. Noon to 9:45 PM, Douglas Park, 1401 S. Sacramento, $60. b Illinois native Cole Bennett launched the hiphop blog Lyrical Lemonade in fall 2013, and it’s

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Michael Nesmith & The First National Band SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 8PM

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David Wilcox since become a blossoming entertainment empire that hosts shows (including July’s Hurt Everybody reunion) and operates its own clothing line. Bennett uses the LL logo—a lemonade carton— on every music video he directs, and since he’s become the most sought-after video director of the Soundcloud-rap generation, it’s emblazoned videos for Chicago breakout emo-rap star Juice Wrld (“Lucid Dreams”), Florida motormouth Ski Mask the Slump God (“DoIHaveTheSause?”), and Pennsylvania Soundcloud-rap heartthrob Lil Skies (“Creepin”). The latter two rappers are among the 25 artists who’ll perform at Summer Smash, a festival Lyrical Lemonade began organizing in late spring. Summer Smash shows how far LL has come in less than ﬁve years; the outdoor music event has a lineup that

can compete with the big dogs of the city’s already crowded festival market. More than a fifth of the bill comes from Chicago, though LA is now home base for south-side native Famous Dex, who’s persevered despite losing a spot on XXL’s Freshman Class in 2017 after footage of him committing an assault leaked; his debut studio album, April’s Dex Meets Dexter (300 Entertainment), peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200. The bill also includes locals such as shape-shifting Save Money rapper Vic Mensa, rising phenom Queen Key (the lineup’s lone woman), inﬂuential underground ﬁgure Lucki, and inquisitive, thoughtful MC Mick Jenkins, who recently fell out with independent label Cinematic Music Group—whose marquee artist, Joey Badass, headlines Summer Smash. Billed just below J

In Szold Hall

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OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 31

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MUSIC

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Badass is Soundcloud rap’s chosen wailer, Trippie Redd, who may be the biggest act of the evening. Still, many of the most exciting performers of the fest appear earlier in the day, so make sure to get there early to check them out. I’m particularly excited to see Houston rapper Maxo Kream, whose empathetic, immersive Punken (TSO/Kream Clicc) is one of the best albums of any genre to come out this year. —LEOR GALIL

TUESDAY21 Efrim Manuel Menuck See Pick of the Week, page 27. The Daniel Wyche Quartet and TALsounds open. 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $12. 21+

WEDNESDAY22 McLuhan Crown Larks and Junegrass open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+ In the 60s and 70s, Chicago producer, A&R man, songwriter, and record honcho Carl Davis helped shape the sound of Chicago soul, working directly with Jackie Wilson, Tyrone Davis, the Chi-Lites, and Barbara Acklin, among others. While employed at legendary label Brunswick in the early 70s, Davis was keen to add a white crossover act in the vein of Motown signees Rare Earth (of “I Just Want to Celebrate” fame); according to Steve Krakow’s regular Reader series,Secret History of Chicago Music, that’s what led Davis to sign McLuhan. Named after famed media theorist and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, the group formed after meeting as students at the University of Illinois-Chicago in the late 1960s. They developed a mutant strain of prog—though simply describing what McLuhan made as “prog” is like saying Zappa played rock— and incorporated mixed-media footage in their live sets. The band’s 1972 debut, Anomaly, blends heavy freakouts, 50s-pop vocal harmonies, classic horror storytelling, and quasi-orchestral arrangements

Ski Mask the Slump God performs at the Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash. é COURTESY LYRICAL LEMONADE

that sound like they’re made for Saturday-morning cartoons. Instead of providing easy hooks, McLuhan delivered Brunswick an anomaly, and since the band never toured, the album went by the wayside only to become cherished by collectors decades later (if you want a copy in great condition, be prepared to pony up). The band dissolved shortly thereafter, though bassist-vocalist and de facto leader Neal Rosner—now a radiologist who splits his time between Highland Park and Madisonville, Kentucky—recently regrouped with woodwind player Paul “Bunky” Cohn and drummer-vocalist John Mahoney for a couple brief performances in Kentucky. In January, Rosner reached out to Krakow to set up a proper McLuhan reunion in Chicago. Tonight’s lineup will include him, Cohn, Mahoney, and a few younger musicians, including Bart Coyle on trumpet, Ted Spaniak on guitar, and Chuck Harling of alt-rockers Roxy Swain on drums. And yes, there will be mixed media. —LEOR GALIL v

McLuhan back in the 1970s é COURTESY OF STEVE KRAKOW

32 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

FOOD & DRINK

TERRACE 16

401 N. Wabash 312-588-8600 trumphotels.com/chicago/dining/ fine-dining-chicago

The cheeseburger é NEIL BURGER

RESTAURANT REVIEW

What’s going on in Trump Tower?

At the new Terrace 16, it’s $28 cheeseburgers cooked medium and $18 cocktails color-coded in Red Pill. By MIKE SULA “I ask, ‘What’s going on in Chicago, right? What is going on?’ There’s no excuse for it. There’s no excuse for it. I’m sure you’re asking the same question, ‘What’s going on in Chicago?’” —President Donald J. Trump

his summer an “extremely credible source” called my office and told me that lizard people were working in the kitchen at Terrace 16, churning immigrant babies into hamburger and squid ink chitarra. “I will look into this,” I said. Terrace 16 is the new restaurant on the 16th ﬂoor of Trump International Hotel & Tower, the president’s skyscaper, erected in 2008

when he was just a two-bit television troll. The restaurant, like its predecessor, the acclaimed, high-ticket Sixteen, sits just above the backlit 20-feet-tall trump letters that face the south side of the river, visible at various angles from miles away. “Before I bought the site, the Sun-Times had the biggest, ugliest sign Chicago has ever seen. Mine is magnificent and popular.” So the president tweeted in response to the suggestion that Chicagoans might not want to be jolted by his tender ego every time they gaze upon the city’s skyline, one of the great architectural spaces of the world. Some say it’s the greatest. In recent times, there’s been a debate among food writers, particularly critics,

about whether it’s ethical to cover restaurants owned or operated by known abusers such as New York’s Mario Batali, New Orleans’s John Besh, and Austin’s Paul Qui. If one observes such a boycott, Terrace 16 (which sounds like “Terrorist 16” if you say it three times fast) should be off-limits. Early last year I said no to an editor who wanted me to rereview Sixteen in the wake of the election. I could come up with no defensible reason to spend the Reader’s money on a restaurant owned by a proven liar, unrepentent racist, and admitted sex offender. So why now? It’s cheaper, for one thing. The decision was made to scale back the ambition of an expensive and expensive-to-operate restau-

rant that only the swells could afford and make it one slightly more accessible to real people looking for a splurge in the big city. (An invitation to the base?) The restaurant’s reopening under a new name with the same chef, Nick Dostal, seemed like a good opportunity to visit a place where presumably people who aren’t bothered by the president go to have fun. The terrace was mostly full on the warm summer evenings I ascended the city’s Baraddûr, the elevator opening on the 16th floor, just behind the Eye of Sauron. One evening, middle-aged men in golf shirts sat silently with their wives, watching a tall, gray-haired man in a black cowboy hat approach a group of young women partying in Portuguese. In a proud Texas accent he directed a server to buy their next round. “Don’t worry, I’m not a weirdo,” he announced to the terrace. “My daughter is over there. I wish I was 30. These girls are stunning. I’ve been married for 40 years. Jesus, I wish I was 30.” A young blond woman rushed to the rescue. “It’s my father. He’s fine. It’s his birthday.” Selfies were taken against the skyline. New friends were made. One gets the sense that everyone has come just to be in the space rather than to seek out Dostal’s food, even if his menu has become more approachable to the sort of tourists who might find this place an attraction. That’s not to say Terrace 16 will suit every vacation budget. Of course there’s a cheeseburger on the menu. But it’s $28—more than an official MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN ball cap (not available in the gift ship anyway). A server, Raul, asked how I’d like it cooked, and before I could answer, he offered “medium?” I stared. “Uhhh, no. Medium rare, please.” The burger arrived open-faced, topped with caramelized onions draped in melted Gruyere. There was a chiffonade of raw baby kale piled on the other side of the bun. Yes, kale: the mortal enemy of melted cheese. Inside, the burger was cooked perfectly medium, a faint trace of pink whispering of a cow’s lost potential. At least it came with fries—fat, lightly battered wedges full of starchy J

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 33

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

FOOD & DRINK

continued from 33

fluff, a slight consolation when dipped in the accompanying sriracha-spiked ketchup. Raul also recommended squid ink chitarra with seafood, which arrived in a bowl portioned for someone who wants to eat a lot of pasta for dinner and nothing else. The dish is full of clams, mussels, octopus, and fat, chewy noodles, none of which seems to have ever been acquainted with salt water. Raul—a nice guy with bad ideas. On another fine evening a coconspirator and I ordered the whole fried chicken for $42 and a Caesar salad for $18. To the table came a plate holding seven pieces of hacked and battered boneless chicken breast. We asked our server, Alyssa, about this strange species of boneless seven-breasted bird. “Is that all you got?” she sympathized, nervously eyeing the pile of deep-fried skin that collected from each piece as it was handled. Then “Yeah, it’s always just white meat,” she admitted. “Even for us servers, we only ever get the white meat.” Chef, she reported, was using the dark meat for stock. This whole breastbird comes with a bowl of creamy al dente fingerling potato salad that—like the chicken, and the burger, and the pasta—has been denied the assistance of salt. The Caesar is a few dollars’ worth of shredded food-service-quality romaine, grated Parmesan, and croutons in an $18 bowl. Not all the food at Terrace 16 is as ridiculously executed or expensive. The bread service is terrific: it’s a mere $8 for a hunk of warm rosemary focaccia (which solves the mystery of where the kitchen’s last salt reserves went), a pair of olive-studded ciabatta rolls, and a pair of light, chewy elephant ears with pockets of dried tomato. A little butter and olive oil, maybe a glass of wine, and you’ve got a way to bask in the city’s majesty without losing your paycheck or your soul (maybe). Meanwhile, beet salad with smoked trout is a fresh and earnest assurance that maybe everything is OK this summer, while a $6 bowl of “Chicago Mix” with truffle-cheese-dusted popcorn slums it with stale caramel and buttered puffed kernels. Terrace 16’s menu seems dedicated to the service of not frightening Trump’s base; there are three beef dishes, three fish, and two pastas. Similarly, dessert touches on recognizable themes: composed s’mores that come to the table on a pyre of burning sticks, a puck of carrot cake that’s overbalanced by a thick layer of sage-infused pastry cream, and a disturbingly orange-colored sorbet, which

34 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

is almost the sole visual reminder of the elephant on the terrace. That’s excepting a particular cocktail, a sour, watery blend of rum with carrot, orange, and ginger juices. I wondered what it would look like if it were dropped over the railing—a shattered Hollywood star? “Orange” is the name of this drink, and the others on the list are similarly coded with the colors of the rainbow. It’s clearly some kind of message from QAnon, though I couldn’t find anyone who spoke Red Pill fluently enough to decipher it. “Violet” approximates an Aviation, “Yellow” a daiquiri; “Green” is a ginbased, tarragon-infused herbal concoction that exploits the ancient remedies growing in the terrace’s curving raised herb gardens. At $18 each, all drove my accomplices and me to take comfort in stiff, dry gin martinis before escaping down the elevators. I’m not so batty from Trump Derangement Syndrome that I can’t objectively identify what a poor value the food is at Terrace 16. The only thing Chicagoans on the ground are missing is the spectacular view from occupied territory. So that’s what’s going on in Chicago, in a small bubble high above the city, with a view perhaps unrivaled by any but that at the six-stories-higher London House rooftop bar across the river. I wondered what those party people felt as they gazed down on the Terrace 16 crowd. There were no red MAGA hats in evidence, just corn-fed families, high-and-tight-headed bros, and Asian twentysomethings grinning and posing against the jaw-dropping panorama presented by the Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the river, and the distant lake. Some, I assume, are good people. Meanwhile a different kind of tourist poses six stories down, far below the giant trump letters, middle fingers raised in the foreground. Along Wabash one evening last month, Lollapalooza disgorged a scattered herd of shirtless, glitter-faced postpubescents who mingled with the tourists catching cabs at the hotel doors. Some enterprising pedicab driver, tapped into the Resistance tourism market, zipped by with a full load of cackling snowflakes, YG & Nipsey Hussle spitting from a speaker on blast: “Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump!” His security clearance has been revoked, but he’ll be OK. v

m @MikeSula

A piece of the boneless seven-breasted whole fried chicken; Orange, “a sour, watery blend of rum with carrot, orange, and ginger juices” é NEIL BURGER

JOBS

ADMINISTRATIVE FACT CHECKER EVANSTON

100-year-old data publisher seeks FT phone researcher/fact checker. Duties consist of placing outbound calls to collect and verify data. 8:30-4:30 M-F. $11.50/hr plus beneﬁts. Email resumes to jobs@mni.net

General COLUMN INFORMATION SE-

CURITY LLC. is seeking a Sr. Implementation Consultant for Lombard, IL. Analyze user needs & SW. reqs. to det. feasibility of design within time & cost constraints. Work with developers to select appropriate design sols. & ensure the compatibility of sys. components. Provide tech. guidance & support for the development or troubleshooting of sys. Use knwl. of & exp. with Prog. languages: Java, Powershell Script, UNIX Shell Script, JavaScript, Beanshell, HTML, XML, & XSL. Use knwl. of & exp. with Web services architectures including: SOAP & RESTful web services. Use knwl. of & exp. with SW development principles, design patterns & Test Driven Development. Use knwl. of & exp. with one, or more, of the following code versioning systems – Subversion (SVN), GIT, Bitbucket & Perforce. Use knwl. of & exp. with developing identity management strategies, architectures & implementation roadmaps that include access mgmt., RBAC, provisioning, certification, entitlement management, single sign on, policy management and password mgmt. Use knwl. of & exp. with implementing enterprise identity mgmt., access management and security solutions in client environments (SailPoint, CA, Okta, Oracle, and CyberArk). 25% travel. May telecommute. Email resume to: resumes@columnit.com .

Find hundreds of Readerrecommended restaurants, exclusive video features, and sign up for weekly news chicagoreader.com/ food.

TRANSUNION INTERACTIVE, INC. (a wholly owned subsidiary of

TransUnion, LLC) seeks Software Development Engineers-Testing for Chicago, IL location to design, implement & maintain IT infrastructure & develop enterprise & web-based software applications. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. or Info./ Instrumentation Tech. or any Eng. field + 2yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. or Info./ Instrumentation Tech. or any Eng. field plus 5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d skills: Manual & Automation test development: creating test strategies, plans, cases & scripts; exp. in all phases of software development lifecycle, testing enterprise/web-based applications using Agile methodologies, developing white box, black box, manual tests, back-end, end-to-end tests, smoke, functional, regression, integration tests, Java, .NET, Groovy, Selenium, SOAP UI, API, SQL, Jenkins, QC, QA Complete, TFS, Visual Studio, Jira, work with offshore teams. 60% telecommuting permitted. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: AV, 555 W. Adams St., Chicago, IL 60661

TRANSUNION,

LLC

SEEKS

Managers for Chicago, IL location to manage team to provide daily support & maintenance for IT needs covering all aspects of infrastructure capacity management. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./any Eng. field + 3yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./any Eng. field + 5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d skills: Hands-on capacity planning & storage analysis, administration & testing exp. w/SANs, EMC virtualization technologies, NetApp, Cisco, Dell, HP Storage, SQL, scripting languages, Cloud architectures (AWS, Azure), system integration, Linux, VMware orchestrator to automate monitoring & reporting structure & for capacity metrics, capacity management tools (Splunk/Symantec), managing & monitoring EMC block, file, CAS storage incl. VNX, deduplicating backup repositories (Commvault, Veeam), exp. as the primary point of contact for Storage Resource Management & capacity planning. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: AS, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

(Bensenville, IL) Transparent Container seeks Production Technician w/ Assoc or for deg equiv in ME & 1 yr exp in job offered or w/ produc machin. Also acceptable: 2 yrs of exp in job offered or w/ produc mach. Special skills incl 1 yr exp w/ mech, electr, pneumatic, hydraulic repairs on produc mach & equip; inspect and install of tooling & making thermoforming mach adjust; handling raw material, assess the quality of raw material, & understnd raw material part numbers, read roll tags & gauge, weight & width consider; interpret drawings, prints & schematics; & interpret doc relating to raw materials, produc & finished goods. Apply to D. Marquez, 625 Thomas Dr., Bensenville, IL 60106.

NETWORK ANALYST, II (Chi-

cago, IL) Perform systems testing/ admin., server disk mgmt; maintain network security; install/modify operating sys; provide end-user support; code/debug system for functionality; test/develop apps for diagnostic med. machines. Master’s deg. (or foreign equiv. deg.) in Comp. Sci., Comp. Apps, or rel. + have knowledge of UNIX server disk mgmt., shell scripting, modular prog., WAN/LAN router network config., med. diagnostic imaging machines wireless network apps. testing, med. digital imaging sys app. architecture analysi s/development. Mail resume: United Diagnostic Services, LLC 6124 N. Milwaukee Ave., Suite 2, Chicago, IL 60646.

TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS Sr.

Consultants for Chicago, IL location to design, implement & maintain applications & systems development, maintenance & enhancement efforts. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./ any Eng. field +3yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng./any Eng. field +5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d skills: designing & implementing data marts & integrated dimensional models using Ab-Initio; CI/CD, JSON, Unix /Linux, Oracle databases, Agile, Hadoop (Map Reduce), Yarn, Hive, sqoop, oozie, flume, TEZ, Sentry, Kafka, Apache Spark, PL/SQL, SCALA, MHub, BRE, Erwin. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: SB, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

Mid-Level Quantitative Developer MS in Physics, Eng, Compu Sci or related; Must have coursework in computational methods and/or numerical analysis & 1 yr work exp that involved numerical simulations in C++ and /or Fortran using a parallel programming model/AP, or an intern ship/research proj that included numerical simulations in C++ and /or Fortran using a parallel programming model/API. Must pass coding exam prior to offer. Direct resumes to: Megan Suerth, Akuna Capital LLC 333 S Wabash, 26th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604.

NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR (CHICAGO, IL): Resp for all IT process & infrastructure incl installation, configuration, testing, resource & performance monitoring, trblshting & maintenance of infrastructure sys & appl for Hutch Systems, Inc. MS in CS, IT or closely related field, & exp w/Windows & Virtualization tech, VOIP phone sys, & time trkg & status rptg req. Email resume to: chris.hutchinson@ hutchsys.com.

(St. Charles, IL) Omron Automotive Electronics, Inc. seeks Quality Engineer w/ Bach or for deg equiv in Eng & 1 yr exp in job offered or eng exp in auto indus, incl 1 yr exp with qual or manuf eng in auto mass prod envrnmnt & w/ soldering, electr components & PCB assemb. Occas dom & intl trvl reqd. Apply to C. Curran 3709 Ohio Ave., St. Charles, IL 60174 Marble refinisher. honest, reliable, skilled. Join our team, good pay, bonus and 50% Health Benefits Call (773) 850-0286 OR Email mike.sungloss@gmail.com c/o Mike or Perla

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

STUDIO $500-$599 CHICAGO, CAL PARK & Blue Island: Studio $625 & up; 1BR $700 & up; 2BR $885 & up. Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Parking. Call 708-388-0170

STUDIO $600-$699 Chicago, Hyde Park Arms Hotel, 5316 S. Harper, elevator bldg, phon e/cable, switchboard, fridge, priv bath, lndry, $165/wk, $350/bi-wk or $650/mo. Call 773-493-3500 CHICAGO- 1411 N. CENTRAL,

Studio, heated, laundry facilities, $600/mo + 1.5 months security. Seniors Welcome. Call 773-490-3347

STUDIO $700-$899 LARGE ONE BEDROOM near

red line. 6822 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets OK. $995/month. Heat included. Available 10/1. (773) 761-4318

STUDIO OTHER

EAST CHICAGO - Harborside Apartments accepting applications for SECTION 8 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments. Apply Wednesdays ONLY from 12pm to 4pm at 3610 Alder St. Applications are to be filled out on site. Adult applicants must provide a current picture ID and SS card.

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 NEWLY REMODELED UNITS

TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS Se-

nior Analysts for Chicago, IL location to develop reports for company operations. Master’s in Management Info. Systems/Software Eng./related field + 2yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Management Info. Systems/Software Eng ./related field + 5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d. skills: Financial Systems Administration & Development, Labor Cost Reporting for Finance Teams, Lawson, Oracle, Hyperion/Essbase, AssureNet, Crystal Reports, Access, MS SQL Server, VBA, Python. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: XC, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

61st & King Dr. 3 Bd/2Ba, Washer/ Dry Hook-up, Alarm, 61st & Racine - 1Bd/1Ba, 1 year Free Heat. Chicago Heights 4 Bed, 2 Full baths, SFH. Other locations available. Approved credit receive 1 month free rent. For More Info Call 773.412.1153

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

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

AUGUST 16, 2018 | CHICAGO READER 35

REMODELED

2BR,

1BA,

Lawndale. Wall to wall laminated Flrs, Ceramic in Kit./bath, appls incl. Near park, Pub. Transp., Penn Elem & VA Hosp. (312) 602-9566. All Welcome to Apply

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)

PRE-SPRING SPECIAL - CHICAGO South Side Beautiful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. Also Homes for rent available. Call Nicole 312-446-1753; W-side locations Tom 630-776-5556; CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up. 773-637-5957 76TH & SAGINAW, 1-2 bed-

room apartments with beautiful hardwood floors. Heat & appliances included. $615-$770/mo. 773-4450329

CHATHAM 7105 S. CHAMPLAIN, 1BR. $6 40.

2BR. $775. Sec 8 OK. Heat & appl. Call Office: 773-966-5275 or

312-480-0436

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

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2

BR $735, Includes Free heat & appliances & cooking gas. (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt

û NO SEC DEP û 6829 S. Perry.

1BR. $530/mo HEAT INCL 773-955-5105

Forest Park: 1BR new tile, energy efficient windows, lndry facilitities, a/c, incls heat - natural gas, $895/ mo Luis 708-366-5602 lv msg 917 E. MARQUETTE 2Bd $900

1 Month Free & No Security, Section 8 Welcome. Niki 773-808-2043

1 BR $700-$799 PULLMAN - NR 108TH & Eberhart.

HOUSE

GOLD

COAST Now Leasing Furnished SRO’s (Single Room Occupancy) Shared Bath/Private Bath, $455.00 to $590.00 Inquire about Summer Promotion OPEN HOUSE, Thursday, August 16, 2018, 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p. m. Twin Size Bed, Dresser, Microwave & Mini-Refrigerator Included. Heat, Hot Water, & Electricity! Hot meal ea. month & On-Site Laundry, Clothing Closet, In-house Resident Services, Community Room & Computer Lab, Free Wi-Fi in Resident Lounge, Near Transportation & A Block from Red line. Short distance to Mich. Ave Oak Street beach, Dearborn Park & Shopping conveniences. 30 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL 60654. 312-506-2674. Professionally Managed byHolsten Management CorporationIL. Real Estate Sponsor Broker License #478. 007600. The President of Holsten Management Corporation is an Illinois Licensed Real Estate Broker # 47 1.000665

Very Spacious 1BR. DR, Heated. Laundry Fac. Quiet Bldng. $735 + Sec. 773-568-7750

9147 S. Ashland. 1BR $780, clean & secure, hdwd flrs, dinein Kit, appls, laundry. U Pay gas & elec. No Pets. 312-914-8967.

1 BR $900-$1099

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773-619-0204

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near Loyola Park. 1337 1/2 W. Estes. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $995/ month (heat included). Available 9/1. Smaller unit available 10/1 for $950/ month. 773-761-4318.

NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT. 1st floor. 5815 Fullerton, be-

BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970

LAWSON

tween Central & Austin. Available immediately. $900/mo includes heat, water and parking. Laundry inside building. 773-889-8491.

FELLOWSHIP MANOR Affordable Housing For The Elderly. Applications are being accepted at Fel-

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SUMMER IS HERE!!! HEAT, HW & CG PLENTY OF PARKING 1BDR FROM $785.00 2BDR FROM $1025.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000***

CHICAGO 7600 S E s s e x , SUMMER SPECIAL - 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sec 8 Ok! South Side Office: 773-287-9999, West Side Office: 773-287-4500

6748 CRANDON & 7727 COLFAX MOST BEAUTIFUL APARTMENTS! 1 & 2BR, $625 & UP. OFF STREET PARKING. 773-947-8572 / 312-613-4424

63RD/THROOP. New Renov 2BR in secured bldg. Lrg LR, DR, kitch, nr CTA Green line. $800. Tenant pays heat. Call 773-629-0314

92ND & ADA, 1 & 2BR, lg & spacious w/ DR, hdwd flrs, sunporch, fireplace, heat & appls incl. Sect 8 ok $850-$975/mo + sec. 773-4156914 CHICAGO - BEVERLY, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, Hdwd Flrs, A/C, laundry, near transportation, $795-$1040/mo. Call 773-2334939 SUBURBS, RENT TO OW N! Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

lowship Manor, 5041 South Princeton CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Avenue, Chicago IL, 60609 for one Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708bedroom apartments. Applicants must be at least 62 years 868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com of age, and must meet screening criteria. Contact the onsite management office by phone at (773) 9245980, or Via postal mail. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SUMMER IS HERE!!! MONST UNITS INCLUDE.. HEAT & HOT WATER STUDIOS FROM $495.00 1BDR FROM $545.00 2BDR FROM $745.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

+ security dep. 9400 S Loomis, 2nd floor, no pets, no smoking. Call before 7pm, 773-881-7070

76TH & MORGAN, 3BR apt, huge Kitchen, 1 BA, hardwood floors, $900 /mo - negotiable. Tenant pays utilities. 708-280-3893

1 BR OTHER

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 ∫

R U O Y AD E R HE

CHICAGO - 3351 W. 21ST ST., 2BR, heat incl, no appliances. $800/mo, 1 mo. sec + 1 mo rent. Call Mrs. Jackson from 9-8 at 773-521-8836

BRONZEVILLE - Remod 1 & 2BR. SEC 8 OK! 4950 S. Prairie. $690 and up. Heat, cooking gas & appls incl, lndry on site. Z. 773.406. 4841 CHICAGO 94-3739 S. Bishop. 2BR, 5 Rms, 1st & 2nd flr, appls, parking, storage, near shops/ trans. $950 + sec. No pets. 708335-0786 7323 S. YALE.

2BR Basement Apt. $450/mo. 773-483-6835

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

RIVERDALE, New decor, 1st flr, 1BR, new crpt, heated, lndry, prkng, no pets, nr Metra. Sect 8 ok. $735/mo. 630-480-0638

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

RIVERDALE APT FOR RENT, 2 bedroom, heat included, $875/mo + security. Section 8 ok. Please Call 773-852-9425

2 BR UNDER $900

{ {

5 ROOM APT, heat incl., $800/mo

CHICAGO, REMODELED 2 B R Apt, 3rd floor, hdwd flrs, faux fireplace in LR, enclosed sun porch, $815/mo. Call 219300-2926

Chicago, 9121 S. Cottage Grove, 2BR apt. $1050/mo Newly remod, appls, mini blinds, ceiling fans, pkng Sec 8 OK. Free Heat 312-915-0100

SECTION 8 WELCOME!

7440 S. Vernon 2BR, 1st flr, remod, hdwd flrs, appl & heat inc, laundry on site $815 & up. Z. 773.406.4841

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OVER

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3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 GARFIELD RIDGE - 3049 West Arthington, beautiful 3BR, recently remodeled and painted, across from grade school, close to trans & Blue line, 5 mins from downtown, fridge and stove incl. Section 8 Welcome, $850/mo. 773-317-7450 CHICAGO, 6 RMS, 3BR, newly remod kitchen, 5242 W. Congress, heat incl, enclosed porch, $1110/mo + security. Avail now. 773-626-4239

2 BR $900-$1099

BRONZEVILLE: SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit. 4841 S Michigan. 4BR $1300/mo. Appliances included. 708-2884510

GLENWOOD, Updated large 2BR Condo, $990/mo. HF HS, balcony, C/A, appls, heat/ water incl. 2 pkng, laundry. Call 708.268.3762

ALSIP, 3BR/1.5 BA, 2 story TH, for rent. $1150/mo. $2300 due upon signing. Call Verdell, 219-888-8600 for more information.

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ADULT SERVICES

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3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 3-4BR RANCH HOUSE in Sauk Village, newly remodeled. $1350/mo. Sec 8 OK. Call 708-625-7355 MONROE & KOSTNER, 3BR

apartment newly remodeled, close to blue line, $1350/mo., $800 Move in fee required. Call 708-417-5026

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799

OTHER

SUMMER SPECIAL, SECTION 8 Ok, 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail. South Side: 773-287-9999, West Side: 773-287-4500.

8457 S. BRANDON, 4BR, 2nd floor, hardwood floors, Section 8 ok. 3BR or 2BR voucher ok. Call 847-312-5643. CHICAGO, 11820 S. UNION, 3BR Apartment, newly rehabbed. Section 8 welcome. Available Now. Call 773-440-5801

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

Is ‘secret perving’ ever OK?

Two would-be ethical polyamorists want to know. Plus: ixnay to this artypay Q : I’ve been enjoying

consensual nonmonogamy for the past two years, in part thanks to your column and podcast. I have a delightful young lover, and our connection has evolved into a kind of Master/slave relationship. I “allow” her to fuck other men and women, and she delights in asking my permission and recounting the details of her other trysts to me. We are curious how much of this she needs to disclose to her other lovers. They know she isn’t monogamous and they’re aware of her relationship with me, but so far she has chosen not to tell them the extent to which I “own” her and have jurisdiction over her body and actions. Of course, it’s just an elaborate role-playing game—but is it wrong to be using these people as our pawns without their knowledge and consent? If so, when should she tell them? Before she sleeps with them even once? Or after she’s developed a more intimate rapport with them? There’s a perverse thrill in her other lovers being totally oblivious to it, but we want to be ethical in our polyamorous ways. —MASOCHISTS AND SADISTS TACKLING ETHICAL RELATIONS

A : This falls under the

header of permissible secret perving (PSP), MASTER, and I will allow it. My go-to example of PSP is the foot fetishist who works in a shoe store. So long as he’s good at his job and his secret perving is undetectable—no bulges, no heavy breathing, no creepy comments—no harm done. And if he goes home and jacks off about all the sexy, sexy feet he saw and, yes, handled during his shift, he’s not hurting anyone or

doing anything unethical. It’s important, however, to note that the foot fetishist salesclerk’s perceptions aren’t the ones that matter. If he thinks he’s playing it cool—he thinks his perving is secret—but his customers or coworkers are creeped out by his behavior, demeanor, heavy breathing, etc., then his perving isn’t secret and is therefore impermissible. The secret perving you’re doing—the girlfriend has to beg for your permission to fuck other people and report back to you afterward—is small and it’s a bank shot. The other people she’s fucking provide mental fodder for your D/s role-playing games, MASTER; you aren’t directly involving them. And what turns you on about your girlfriend sleeping with other people—and how you and your girlfriend talk to each other about it—is no one’s business but yours. Zooming out for a second: Some people in open relationships don’t want to know what their partners get up to, and these couples usually have “don’t ask, don’t tell” agreements about sex outside the relationship. But many more people in open relationships do want to hear about their partners’ adventures because it turns them on. Someone who doesn’t want to risk being fodder for a couple’s dirty talk or even their D/s role-playing games shouldn’t be sleeping with people who are partnered and in open relationships. There are things we have a right to ask the people with whom we have casual sex— like whether they’re practicing ethical nonmonogamy, if they have an STI, what kind of birth control they’re using, whether they’re on PrEP, etc.—but a casual fuck isn’t entitled to details about your relationship.

Q : The man I’m going to

marry has a huge boot fetish. He has about 200 pairs of boots in his size. His size also happens to be my size— and I’m half convinced he wouldn’t have proposed if I couldn’t wear his boots. I want to surprise him with a very special bachelor party (that we’ll both attend): It would be all guys with the same size feet as us, and everyone will be wearing diﬀerent pairs of boots from his collection. I’m picturing a big group of guys doing for him what I do for him: stand on him, let him lick my (actually, his) boots, make him crawl and grovel. His feet aren’t an uncommon size (11.5), and I’m guessing enough of our mutual friends would ﬁt into his boots that I could actually make this happen. I think it would be way better than going to a strip club or a drag show.

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A : Wow, BOOTS, you saved

Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast.com. m @fakedansavage

BODY RUBS

Discreet Billing

—BOYFRIEND OBSESSES OVER TALL SHOES

the most salient detail for that postscript: Your boyfriend isn’t out to his friends about his kink. So do not out your boyfriend as a boot fetishist to all his friends with size 11.5 feet. If your ﬁance has fantasized about some sort of group bootworshipping session, and he’s shared that fantasy with you, and you want to help him realize it, that’s great. But he needs to be involved in determining where, when, how, and with whom he’d like to make this fantasy a reality. v

HOT GIRL

+&15*+3"-).1 477%2 $76/6''' 0%)' *! &3 '. !/'!+

Never miss a show again.

EARLY WARNINGS Find a concert, buy a ticket, and sign up to get advance notice of Chicago’s essential music shows at chicagoreader.com/early. AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 37

b Tash Sultana, Ocean Alley 11/9, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Ten Foot Pole 10/10, 6:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Terror, Harm’s Way 10/10, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Uada 10/15, 7:30 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Kali Uchis 10/24, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Carrie Underwood 10/29, 7 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Wavves, Beach Fossils 11/6, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Devon Welsh 9/21, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Thom Yorke 12/4, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM

UPDATED Cloud Nothings é DANIEL TOPETE

NEW

Snoh Aalegra 9/30, 8 PM, Subterranean, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Acid Dad 11/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Assuming We Survive 11/15, 7 PM, Subterranean b Beach Fossils, Wavves 11/7, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ 6lack, Summer Walker 11/23, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Black Uhuru, Onesty 9/12, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Nicki Bluhm, Gill Landry 11/7, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 18+ Breaking Biscuits 9/1, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall Lindsey Buckingham 10/17, 7 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Anna Burch, Fred Thomas 10/26, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Captured Tracks X with Lina Tullgren, Wax Chattels, and Drahla 11/5, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle F Chase Atlantic 11/13, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b Tyler Childers 10/21, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Cloud Nothings, Courtneys 12/14, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Crooked Colours 11/15, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 18+ Cursive 11/15, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Dirty Heads, Jukebox the Ghost 10/26, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Dustbowl Revival, Lindi Ortega 11/4, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b

Echo & the Bunnymen 11/24, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Ekali, 1788-L 10/27, 10 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Every Time I Die, Turnstile 11/12, 6 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Fantastic Negrito 9/18, 8 PM, Martyrs’, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Fearless Flyers 9/2, 10 PM, Concord Music Hall Four Fists 11/16, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Oliver Francis 12/7, 10 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Layla Frankel 9/13, 8 PM, Subterranean Garden 11/23, 7:30 PM, Cobra Lounge, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Get Up Kids, Remember Sports 11/10, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Giraﬀage, Ryan Hemsworth 11/1, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Thu 8/16, 10 AM b Goatwhore, Casualties, Black Tusk 11/21, 6 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, on sale Mon 8/20, 10 AM, 17+ Hand Habits 10/21, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle The Hold Steady 9/21, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Hollow Coves 10/10, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 18+ Ian Sweet 10/30, 9 PM, Subterranean, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Incognito 10/14, 5 and 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/16, noon b Jacuzzi Boys, Thelma & the Sleaze 9/18, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Khruangbin 11/28, 7:30 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b

38 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 16, 2018

Chris Knight 10/12, 7:30 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 8/17, 11 AM Lemon Twigs 1/25, 9 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 18+ Locash 9/21, 8:30 PM, Joe’s Bar Lovelytheband, Morgan Saint 10/20, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall b Manic Focus 8/31, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ MC Chris 9/30, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Tom Morello 10/8, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Whitey Morgan 10/13, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Mychildren Mybride, Secrets, Capture 10/24, 6:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 17+ Odonis Odonis 11/4, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Petit Biscuit, Manila Killa 10/17, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM, 18+ Polyphia, Hail the Sun, Covet 10/24, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Protomen 9/30, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Red Wanting Blue 10/6, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b Ringworm 10/8, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Sad Baxter 9/11, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Salaam-Shalom Music Project 10/21, 1 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM b (Sandy) Alex G 11/4, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Saves the Day, An Horse 11/2, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jake Shears 11/7, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Cody Simpson 11/16, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Slander 12/14, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+

Bob Weir & the Wolf Bros 10/31-11/1, 7 PM, Chicago Theatre, second show added, on sale Fri 8/17, 10 AM Wild Rivers 10/12, 7 PM, Martyrs’, canceled

UPCOMING Acid King 9/22, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Courtney Marie Andrews 9/25, 9 PM, Hideout Babys 9/27, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Martin Barre 10/27, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Bat House 9/22, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Black Lillies 10/20, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Caamp 12/7, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Canned Heat 9/17, 8 PM, City Winery b Cave 10/20, 9 PM, Hideout Circa Survive, La Dispute 11/3, 7:30 PM, the Vic b Phil Collins 10/22, 8 PM, United Center Graham Coxon 9/21, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Demolition Hammer 9/8, 6 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Django Django 10/5, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Do or Die 8/31, 9 PM, Subterranean Dreamers, Weathers 10/10, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall b Dying Fetus, Incantation 9/23, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Roky Erickson 11/9, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall Exploded View 11/1, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Eyehategod, Obsessed 9/23, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Florence & the Machine, Perfume Genius 10/19, 7 PM, United Center Glorietta 10/13, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

Never miss a show again. Sign up for the newsletter at chicagoreader. com/early

Godﬂesh, Harm’s Way 8/24, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Guided by Voices 8/26, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Nikki Hill 11/3, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Horse Feathers 10/24, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston Iron Chic, Spanish Love Songs 9/25, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Kami 8/25, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen Kindred the Family Soul 12/29, 8 PM, Patio Theater L.A. Witch, Pussy Foot 8/30, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ SG Lewis 10/6, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Lydia Loveless 9/24, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Low 11/16, 7:30 PM, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel b The Men 8/25, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Giorgio Moroder 8/31, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall Mt. Joy 9/6, 8 PM, Thalia Hall b Native Sun 9/4, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Nicki Minaj, Future 9/28, 7:30 PM, United Center Nothing, Culture Abuse 9/12, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Oh Sees, Timmy’s Organism 10/12, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Owl City 10/13, 8 PM, House of Blues b Parquet Courts 12/3, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Peach Kelli Pop 10/21, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Pedro the Lion 8/24, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ A Place to Bury Strangers 10/19, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Pond 10/25, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Red Fang, Big Business 9/27, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Restorations 10/13, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Saint Etienne 9/13, 7:30 PM, Park West b Sales 9/7, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall b Scorched Tundra X with Sumac, Monolord, Lair of the Minotaur, and more 8/31-9/1, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Ty Segall, William Tyler 11/2, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Swearin’, Empath 10/18, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Vienna Teng 12/16, 8 PM, City Winery b This Will Destroy You 11/2, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Paul Thorn 11/1, 8 PM, City Winery b 311, Oﬀspring 9/6, 7 PM, Huntington Bank Pavilion v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene HILARIOUSLY RAUNCHY gay rapper Big Dipper has lived in Los Angeles for years now, but the Chicago-born MC retains his hometown pride. On Friday, August 24, he’ll release his first full-length album, Late Bloomer (almost seven years after his debut single, “Drip Drop”), and among the guests who appear on it are locals such as drag star Shea Couleé (who was on season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race) and Air Credits front man ShowYouSuck. You can get a sneak peek when Big Dipper performs at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre on Thursday, August 16. Gossip Wolf has loved Blizzard Babies’ mix of garage, psych, and surf rock since 2014, and their new tape, Missing Time (Don Giovanni), is easily their strongest work yet—they’ve added a bit of icy postpunk reserve to their arsenal. On Saturday, August 18, they celebrate with a release show at Sleeping Village with Sore History and Goody Gel. The show doubles as a hygiene-product drive for the Chicago Period Project, which distributes menstrual supplies to folks who are homeless or otherwise in need. On Friday, August 17, Chicago band Lollygagger drop their debut EP, Life on Terminus (Midwest Action). They claim that the record’s gnarly, glammy alt-rock addresses a variety of subjects, including “Roger Stone, American fiscal tradition, the terrors of the infinite multiverse,” and their singer’s “dingus.” This wolf is keen to see how those threads connect! That night Lollygagger play Cole’s with Woongi, Bad Bad Meow, and Furr. Andrew Joseph, who DJs and produces as half of local duo Paid Time Off, recently launched the label Leisure Records, whose first release is Paid Time Off’s sublime boogie 12-inch “Drinks” b/w “Casual Friday.” On Saturday, August 18, Leisure celebrates its debut by taking over Co-Prosperity Sphere starting at 7 PM: Paid Time Off will DJ, along with Kuh Lida, Jarvis Mason, Mr. Gac, and Daniel Van Duerm. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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8/24 @THEARTINSTITUTE:SALOMÉWITHLIVESCOREBYHALEYFOHR(OFCIRCUITDESYEUX),8/25:THEMEN,8/26:EMPTYBOTTLE BOOK CLUB (3PM-FREE!), 8/26: EVERYTHING IS FINE FEAT. WAGE (RECORD RELEASE), 8/27: GLYDERS (FREE!), 8/28: THE MOLOCHS • SMOKESCREENS, 8/29: WONDER & SKEPTICISM (6PM-FREE!), 8/29: GRINGO STAR, 8/30: SCORCHED TUNDRA X ‘ART OPENING’, 8/31: SCORCHED TUNDRA X FEAT. MONOLORD, 9/1: SCORCHED TUNDRA X FEAT. SUMAC, 9/2: LAVERNE (RECORD RELEASE), 9/3: ACCESSORY (TAPE RELEASE-FREE), 8/4: NATIVE SUN, 9/5: LOLLYGAGGER • 8-BIT CREEPS (RECORD RELEASE), 9/6: LET’S EAT GRANDMA NEW ON SALE: 9/18:JACUZZIBOYS,9/21:THEHOLDSTEADY,9/28:LALALALA (RECORDRELEASE),10/21:HANDHABITS,10/26:ANNABURCH, 11/2: ACID DAD, 11/4: ODONIS ODONIS, 11/5: CAPTURED TRACKS X WITH TINA TULLGREN, 11/16: FOUR FISTS (P.O.S. X AUSTRONAUTALIS)

AUGUST 16, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 39

SPECIAL GUESTS

THIS SATURDAY! AUGUST 18 PARK WEST

SPECIAL GUEST

MEGAN SLANKARD

SEPTEMBER 11 VIC THEATRE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 RIVIERA THEATRE ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

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THIS TUESDAY! AUGUST 21 VIC THEATRE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 RIVIERA THEATRE

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23 RIVIERA THEATRE ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

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NOVEMBER 28 • VIC THEATRE ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

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