Print Issue of August 17, 2017 (Volume 46, Number 45) by Chicago Reader

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

Why aren’t women running for Illinois governor? 8

How the myth of toughness in Chicago sports was created 13

Englewood:

The whole picture

Daily life beyond the headlines in the south-side neighborhood PHOTOS BY TONIKA JOHNSON 15

CHIRP is ﬁnally ready to hit the terrestrial airwaves. 25

2 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | A U G U S T 1 7, 2 0 1 7 | V O L U M E 4 6 , N U M B E R 4 5

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EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, KATE SCHMIDT SENIOR WRITER MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, MATT DE LA PEÑA, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, MICHAEL MINER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS LIBBY BERRY, PORTER MCLEOD, EMILY WASIELEWSKI ---------------------------------------------------------------VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NICKI STANULA VICE PRESIDENT OF NEW MEDIA GUADALUPE CARRANZA SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES FABIO CAVALIERI, BRIDGET KANE MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD

FEATURES

IN THIS ISSUE SPORTS

Hard hat, lunch pail: The myth of toughness in Chicago sports How the fabled athletic monsters of Chicago’s Midway were created BY DAVID ISAACSON 13

4 Agenda The Musical Improv Festival, the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction of Roger Ebert, the ﬁlm Ingrid Goes West, and more goings-on about town

30 Shows of note Moor Mother, Charles McPherson Quartet, Cale Tyson, and more of the week’s best 33 The Secret History of Chicago Music Ritz played ornate, arenaready 70s rock—but just a few years too late.

PHOTO ESSAY

Englewood: The whole picture

Daily life beyond the headlines in the south-side neighborhood. PHOTOS BY TONIKA JOHNSON 15

CITY LIFE

7 Chicagoans A Nigerian-American model, bodybuilder, and actor shares how ﬁtness saved his life. 8 Joravsky | Politics The governor’s race remains a sausage party. 10 Transportation How four tragic local truck-bike crash cases helped bring about lifesaving legislation

FOOD & DRINK

35 Restaurant Review: Proxi Sepia chef Andrew Zimmerman’s long-awaited follow-up goes casual—and global.

---------------------------------------------------------------DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654 312-222-6920, CHICAGOREADER.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY STM READER, LLC, 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654. COPYRIGHT © 2017 CHICAGO READER. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO READER, READER, AND REVERSED R: REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ®.

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY TONIKA JOHNSON OF YOSHI, 24, NEAR 80TH AND LAFLIN IN ENGLEWOOD. FOR MORE OF JOHNSON’S WORK, GO TO TONIJPHOTOGRAPHY.COM OR TURN TO PAGE 15.

MUSIC

CHIRP sees the transmitter at the end of the tunnel

Ten years after the Chicago Independent Radio Project recruited its ﬁrst volunteers, it’s ﬁnally hitting the airwaves. BY KEVIN WARWICK 25

37 Cocktail Challenge: Kimchi Sarah Syman of Otto Mezzo shows you how to drink your vegetables.

ARTS & CULTURE

20 Education The recently shuttered Shimer College refuses to die. 21 Lit Six women’s stories are told through food in What She Ate. 22 Visual Art Shane Campbell Gallery showcases Japanese artist Yui Yaegashi’s minimalist works. 23 Movies Logan Lucky sees director Steven Soderbergh adeptly return to the heist ﬁlm.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE 28 In Rotation Current musical obsessions include the “wet boy” phenomenon, Streisand, and more.

CLASSIFIEDS

38 Jobs 38 Apartments & Spaces 39 Marketplace 40 Straight Dope How bad might a lack of net neutrality really be? 41 Savage Love Are there gay men who occasionally crave pussy? 42 Early Warnings Lemon Twigs, Avett Brothers, Lil Peep, and more shows you should know about in the weeks to come 42 Gossip Wolf Izzy Olive releases her latest, and more music news.

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 3

AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

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b ALL AGES

DANCE Dance for Life Chicago’s ﬁnest dance companies, including Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the Joﬀrey Ballet, present this fund-raiser for the AIDs Foundation of Chicago and Chicago Dancers United’s Dancers’ Fund. Sat 8/19, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, 800-9822787, auditoriumtheatre.org, $15-$600.

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Brouhaha: An Improvised Puppet Musical, part of the Musical Improv Festival

THEATER More at chicagoreader.com/theater

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Duck and Cover Classroom I R can’t vouch for Escape Artistry’s trumpeted dedication to “equality,

environment, and education,” but I can attest to the aesthetic and cryptological rigor of this tantalizing, exasperating, and ingenious escape-room game. After a cheeky introductory video instructing us newly deputized agents in the nuances of time travel (here walking down a hallway), we’re locked in a drearily appointed 1950s schoolroom and given 60 minutes to decipher combinations to multiple locks in hopes of finding some missing uranium. I couldn’t track the backstory—something about two missing agents and the world’s first nuclear chain reaction—but lead designer Melissa Schlesinger’s stocked the room with mind-addling puzzles that delighted and ultimately baffled me (luckily I was trapped with smart people). Stick with it: the payoff is worth it. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Open run: daily, various times, the Time Gallery, 1342 N. Milwaukee, second floor, 773-789-9535, escape-artistry. com, $30.27. The LivingRoom: You Are . . . The idea behind this show is cool: an evening of original solo pieces, performed by the people who created them, with movement and original music (by an invited sound designer, Jeffrey Levin). The execution still needs work. Preshow, in the lobby, singer Van Ferdinand did a good job setting the right tone, playing guitar and talking to the gathering crowd, but once we moved into Stage 773’s cabaret space the show lost energy. The solo pieces themselves are messy and unfocused; they feel more like quick sketches than finished work. Jorge Silva’s fascinating autobiographical piece, based on interviews he conducted with former friends from his southwest-side elementary school, feels the most complete, though that may be because Silva has such a strong, likable stage presence. —JACK HELBIG Through 8/27: Sun 7 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, stage773.com, $10, $7 students.

Madagascar Chicago ShakeR speare Theater favorite Rachel Rockwell directs and choreographs this

70-minute adaptation of DreamWorks’ animated film, with book by Kevin Del Aguila and music and lyrics by George Noriega and Joel Someillan. It’s a zany, more kid-friendly riff on The Lion King following the adventures of Alex the Lion (Jordan Brown) Marty the Zebra (Gilbert Domally), Gloria the Hippo (Lisa Estridge), and Melman the Giraffe (Stephen Schellhardt) once they break out of New York’s Central Park Zoo and find themselves marooned on the island of Madagascar. The potent mix of danceable pop tunes (“Move It” brought all to their feet when I attended), lessons on friendship, and sly humor for the adults (mainly from the mischievous penguins) translates well in Chicago Shakes’s polished production. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 8/27: Wed 11 AM, Thu-Sun 11 AM and 2 PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, chicagoshakes.com, $22-$34. Shockheaded Peter Published in 1845, Heinrich Hoffmann’s alleged children’s book, Der Struwwelpeter, takes a Grand Guignol approach to moral instruction, offering verse narratives of bad behavior elaborately punished. Little Harriet is reduced to ashes after playing with matches, thumb-sucking Conrad suffers a double thumb-ectomy, and so on. This 1998 musical adaptation by many hands only makes things worse for Hoffmann’s miscreants: where the original text leaves at least a few of them sadder but wiser, they all get turned into worm food here, the better to amuse us callous sophisticates. The strategy backfires, though, by creating an ultimately tedious rhythm of horror, and Ed Rutherford’s 70-minute staging for Black Button Eyes fails to break that rhythm despite some strong performances and visual creativity. In the end, Rutherford’s production works better as a showcase than a black comedy, especially when it comes to cast members Caitlin Jackson, Genevieve Lerner, Pavi Proczko, and Anthony Whitaker. —TONY ADLER Through 9/16: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-935-6860, blackbuttoneyes. com, $17-$32.

The Remains Dropshift Dance continues its Imposter series with The Remains, a combination video installation and live dance performance. An exploration of identity over time, Imposter delves into the audience-performer relationship using contemporary styles. 8/16-8/18: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, DFBRL8R Gallery, 1463 W. Chicago, dfbrl8r.org, $20-$25.

COMEDY Ayahuasca Baby The titular improv troupe, named for a strong hallucinogen, tells the story of a Peruvian fetus turned god, accompanied by funk music. Cowboy Elijah, prophet and didgeridoo prodigy, guides the narrative and, presumably, rocks the sound of an elephant symphony. Tue 8/22, 8 PM, iO Theater, the Mission Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov.com/chicago, $12. Love Stories The premise of R Love Stories is simple but wonderful: a few new true-blue anecdotes

of amour are told straight up, then pondered, distorted, embellished, and exorcised through the confabulations of the Under the Gun ensemble. The result is wit, wisdom, and gut-splitting fun. It is also thoroughly logical: improvisation is promiscuous—it always says yes. Love stories broaden the options to yes, no, maybe so, maybe later, maybe never, rainbows. Essayists and therapists, poets and egotists, madmen and dreamers come together in this antic playpen of lacerating lust and insuﬀerable sentiment. Plus there’s a bar in the theater. Cheers. —IRENE HSIAO 8/4-8/26: Sat 9 PM, Under the Gun Theater, 956 W. Newport, undertheguntheater.com, $12.

Musical Improv Festival Dickie R Smothers, best-known for his work on the groundbreaking television

show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, makes an appearance at the third edition of iO’s musical comedy celebration. Serenaders include Dirty Disney, Buzzed Broadway, and Rhyme & Punishment, each group exhibiting how parodies can be elevated by bursting into song. 8/17-8/20: Thu 7:30 PM, FriSun 7 PM, iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov.com/chicago, various prices. The Seven Sisters Comedy VariR ety Hour The eponymous seven sisters perform in front, run through the

audience, and construct a set of vertical rectangular boxes, to be turned and aligned for location changes. All the room’s a stage, and these women utilize every element of the theater to play into audiences’ mild attention deficit disorder and lack of neck flexibility—there’s even some playful tap dancing. The performers’ adroit use of space directly transfers to a series of sketches utilizing words, sounds, movement, and pace to tell stories both goofy and rousing. A woman falling frantically head over heels for each of her Bumble dates is tempered by her scene partner’s calming logic—until the piano player confesses his love for her, cranking things back up. A bit about a mother worried her daughter is out too late twists its characters so mom’s a mime and girl’s a clown, the pace slowing or accelerating depending on who’s “talking.” The crowning scene, when all seven gather onstage, raising the battle cry “I am an Amazon queen, a warrior goddess,” packs a final wallop into this multifaceted view of sisterhood. —STEVE HEISLER Through 8/24: Thu 8:30 PM, Judy’s Beat Lounge, Second City Training Center, 230 W. North, second floor, 312-337-3992, $13, $11 for students, $7 for Second City students. Top-Notch Tuesdays Chicago R Improv Den’s Top-Notch Tuesdays is damn near foolproof. First, it’s got a built-in audience: with a rotating lineup of three improv teams each night (students, graduates, and “celebrated veterans”), two-thirds of the evening’s performers make up an enthusiastic crowd for the third on stage. Second,

Madagascar

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of August 17

After Dark at the Art Institute features “Helen Almeida: Work Is Never Finished” ò COURTESY OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

there’s a bar (the theater has more cup holders than seats). Third and most importantly, the talent is exceptional. On the night I attended, student team Earl Grey and graduate team Stacks showed equal facility generating crafty, elusive, peculiar ensemble scenes (a personal favorite: six people trying to determine how “realistic” Candy Crush is). And veteran duo Cherry Street (Lawrence Collerd and Laurel Krabacher) turned an intentionally dead-end tale of unimaginative surfer dudes into a poignant examination of bro loyalty. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Open run: Tue 8:30 PM, Laugh Out Loud, 3851 N. Lincoln, 773-857-6000, laughoutloudtheater.com, $5, free with student ID from any Chicago improv theater. 26.2 That’s 26 as in the number of letters in the alphabet, and the second iteration of this late-night offering at Pride Arts Center is again inspired by a randomly assigned letter, for which cast members and a roster of guest writers from the theater, sketch, and improv communities devise a one- or two-minute song, poem, story, dramatic fragment, or absurdist something or other to be performed by an ensemble of seven. For better and worse, the 60-minute showcase, directed by Allison Heinz, has all the scrappiness and spontaneous energy of an undergraduate 24-hour play festival—along with some of the cringe-inducing “How did this make it to final production?” misfires. Still, it’s a welcome sandbox for creatives, and a congregating event for up-and-coming artists. —DAN JAKES Through 9/23: Sat 10 PM, the Buena at Pride Arts Center, 4147 N. Broadway, 800-737-0984, pridefilmsandplays.com, $10. The What’s So Funny? Live R Variety Show The delightfully bizarre webseries tries its hand at a live

variety show. Featuring performances by alleged Kirstie Alley stunt double PAM WHO?!, Basia Sroka, and Chris Martin (not the one in Coldplay). The show also plans to livestream via Facebook. The future is now. Sat 8/19, 7:30 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, stage773.com, $5.

Yippie Fest The ﬁrst annual conR tinuation of the Abbie Hoﬀman Died for Our Sins Festival (which ran under Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. for 28 years) is a celebration of experimental sketch, stand-up, and music, plus plenty of fringe shows that mix these mediums. Fri 8/18, 7 PM-midnight; Sat 8/19,

noon-midnight; Sun 8/20, noon-11 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-539-7838, propthtr.org, $20 for the weekend or $10 per night in advance, $25 weekend pass or $15 per day at the door.

Green Fine Art, 8 S. Michigan, suite 620, 312-434-7544, bgfa.us.

LIT & LECTURES

More at chicagoreader.com/movies

Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Induction of Roger Ebert Former colleagues and friends speak about the vaunted late ﬁlm critic Roger Ebert—friendly foil to Gene Siskel on TV’s Siskel and Ebert—at this celebratory induction ceremony. His widow, Chaz Ebert, accepts the award on his behalf. Sat 8/19, 6 PM, American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michicago, second ﬂoor, 312374-8790, americanwritersmuseum.org.

Lindsay Hunter Lindsay Hunter The author celebrates the launch of her second novel, Only Eat When You’re Hungry, the story of an overweight father’s cross-country quest in search of his addict son. Fri 8/18, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-769-9299, womenandchildrenﬁrst.com.

VISUAL ARTS After Dark: Helena Almeida Night at the Museum, but with more surrealistic photographs and fewer presidential wax ﬁgures. The Focus series’ latest installment, “Helena Almeida: Work Is Never Finished,” features black-and-white photographs of the Portuguese artist, used to explore the human form. Pearl Charles performs, DJs spin, and there will be complimentary snacks and a cash bar. Who says museums aren’t “with it”? Fri 8/18, 9 PM-midnight, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, 312-443-3600, artinstituteofchicago.org, $35, $25 for members and students. Robert Horvath: White Gold The Indianapolis-based artist draws on his fascination with rococo, the elegant and delicate artistic style popular in the 18th century, for this series of paintings and digital works incorporating NSFQ homoerotic imagery. Through 8/19: noon-5 PM or by appointment. Bert

MOVIES NEW REVIEWS Annabelle: Creation Part of the franchise built around James Wan’s horror hit The Conjuring (2013), this feature tells the origin story of the evil doll from Annabelle (2014), a movie it surpasses in craft and narrative coherence. In the mid-1940s, a rural couple (Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto) lose their young daughter in a road accident; a dozen years later, still mourning, they open their decaying Gothic Revival home to a compassionate nun (Stephanie Sigman) and six orphaned girls, though any sense of sanctuary proves short-lived when a demon animates the title doll and begins trolling for a human host. The movie suggests that excessive grief may be a form of possession, which is intriguing, but the constant floating, spinning, shattering, and slamming of household objects gradually saps the movie’s tension. David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) directed. —ANDREA GRONVALL R, 109 min. For venues visit chicagoreader.com/movies. The Best Thing! In this locally produced comedy, a south-side restaurant owner teams up with a social worker to track down the illegitimate son he fathered years earlier; if he finds the boy, he may share in the substantial inheritance the child has coming his way. The movie’s broad performances, moralizing dialogue, and melodramatic complications suggest a 21st-century update of such pioneering Oscar Micheaux features as Within Our Gates (1920) and Body and Soul (1925). But where Micheaux transcended his shoestring productions with a flair for storytelling, director Kyle T. Miller never exhibits such innate talent. This tends to lie flat when the story should be moving forward, and the amateurish acting can be distracting. —BEN SACHS 96 min. Miller attends the screenings,

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part of the Black Harvest Film Festival; for a full schedule visit siskelﬁlmcenter. org. Fri 8/18, 8:30 PM, and Tue 8/22, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

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Bronx Gothic Nigerian-American R writer, actor, dancer, and singer Okwui Okpokwasili is the subject of this

spellbinding documentary, centered on her one-woman show of the same title. First staged in 2014, Bronx Gothic hinges on letters exchanged by two African-American girls named Innocence and Experience, and it springs from the performer’s own memories of growing up in the Bronx in the early 1980s. Okpokwasili uses song, dance, and soliloquy to explore, with a political edge, the intricacies of black girlhood, and onstage she’s a magnetic force, physically commanding and emotionally raw. An onscreen interview with the documentary maker, Andrew Rossi (Page One: Inside the New York Times), and scenes in which Okpokwasili interacts with family and audience members further reveal her motivation for addressing such social issues as racial inequality and gun violence. —LEAH PICKETT 91 min. Screens as part of the Black Harvest Film Festival; for a full schedule visit siskelﬁlmcenter.org. Wed 8/23, 8:30 PM, and Thu 8/24, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

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Dave Made a Maze In this quirky homage to 1980s and ’90s fantasy films, a thirtysomething artist (Nick Thune) builds and gets lost inside a fantastical, labyrinthine structure in his living room, which his girlfriend and misfit pals must then fight through to find him. Despite the contemporary setting, adult cast, and attendant mature themes such as creative struggle and fear of irrelevance, this debut feature from writer-director Bill Watterson revels in old-fashioned wonders. The maze, constructed from cardboard and tape, is a full-scale set with puppetry and practical effects; the animation is stop-motion; and the villainous minotaur patrolling the µ

Bronx Gothic

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 5

AGENDA the story’s debt to The Graduate by adding Simon and Garfunkel tunes to the soundtrack. Yet the movie is more reminiscent of a Philip Roth novel in its presentation of the young hero as a superior moral intelligence (whose fallibility must be painfully exposed) and in the secret friendship he forges with a boozy, philosophical novelist (Jeﬀ Bridges), who also serves as the omniscient narrator. Brosnan is especially good: he’s been chasing critical respect ever since he signed oﬀ as James Bond, and no one could fault his anguished performance here as a loving father both caught and cuckolded by his own son. —J.R. JONES R, 88 min. For venues see chicagoreader. com/movies.

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Ingrid Goes West B maze is a guy in a costume. Watterson never explains how this supernatural world came to be, and chalking it up to the artist’s awakening psyche is, ironically, a failure of imagination on his part. Still, this is a fun ride. —LEAH PICKETT 80 min. Fri 8/18-Thu 8/24, Facets Cinematheque From the Land of the Moon Set mainly in the 1950s and told through ﬂashbacks, this treacly French drama about an unhappily married woman (Marion Cotillard) recalling her lost loves is almost laughable in its broad, empty portrayal of sexual desire. Raised in the country by conservative Catholic parents, the woman obsesses ﬁrst over a local schoolteacher and later, while she’s being treated for kidney stones at a spa in the Swiss Alps, over an ailing veteran of the First Indochina War (Louis Garrel) who’s visibly bored with her. Working from a novel by Milena Agus, writer-director Nicole Garcia and cowriter Jacques Fieschi take an oddly chaste approach to the material, and though Cotillard emotes beautifully, her character’s lack of clear and convincing motivation renders the performance hollow. In French, Spanish, and German with subtitles. —LEAH PICKETT R, 120 min. Fri 8/18, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 8/19, 8 PM; Sun 8/20, 4:30 PM; Mon 8/21, 7:45 PM; Tue 8/22, 6 PM; Wed 8/23, 7:45 PM; and Thu 8/24, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center Good Time Josh and Benny Safdie’s ferocious, darkly comic crime drama takes place mostly over one long night, as a bank robber (Robert Pattinson in a galvanizing performance) does anything he can to raise bail for his intellectually disabled brother. Like the directors’ previous feature, Heaven Knows What (2014), this presents New York’s lower depths with lots of energy and imagination; the athletic camerawork, jumpy editing, and eerie electronic score (by Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point

Never) combine in a heightened, queasy atmosphere that’s never less than commanding. At the same time, the ﬁlm encourages delight at the adventures of an amoral dirtbag content to exploit people who are poor, black, or disabled. Not since Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void (2009) have I been so mesmerized by a ﬁlm I found morally repugnant. —BEN SACHS R, 100 min. River East 21, Webster Place Ingrid Goes West The R loneliness of the digitally connected is the troubling topic

of this indie comedy, starring Aubrey Plaza as the pathological title character. Ingrid introduces herself in the opening scene by crashing a wedding and pepper-spraying the bride in retaliation for not having invited her; after collecting $60,000 from her mother’s will, she sets oﬀ for LA to inﬁltrate the personal life and social circle of a minor actress and major Instagram star, played by Elizabeth Olsen. Neither Ingrid’s obsession nor the movie’s ironic denouement will surprise anyone familiar with Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1983), but Plaza puts her demented character across with an angry, ravenous performance. Few movies have captured as vividly the humbling sense of social media as a gigantic party welcoming everyone but us. Matt Spicer directed. —J.R. JONES R, 98 min. River East 21, Webster Place

The Only Living Boy in R New York A whip-smart college grad in Manhattan (Callum

Turner) discovers that his father (Pierce Brosnan) is cheating on his mentally ill mother (Cynthia Nixon) with a younger woman (Kate Beckinsale); the son trails and eventually confronts the mistress, but she turns the tables by calling out his own sexual attraction to her. Marc Webb (Gifted), directing a dust-covered “Black List” screenplay by Allan Loeb, acknowledges

Patti Cake$ Patricia Dombrowski, the hefty young blond woman at the center of this offbeat comedy, chafes at the nickname “Dumbo”— in her mind, she’s the hip-hop sensation Killa P, aka Patti Cake$, and stardom is just around the corner. Writer-director Geremy Jasper, making his feature debut, trades in showbiz cliche—Patti’s blowsy mother reluctantly abandoned her own musical career after getting pregnant with her—but it’s buoyed by the indomitable heroine (Danielle Macdonald) and her little posse of misfits, including an Indian-American pal working at a pharmacy (Siddharth Dhananjay), who lets her throw down over the store intercom, and a shy black punk (Mamoudou Athie) who crafts frenetic dance grooves. Like Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile (2002), the movie unfolds in a dead-end working-class community (Bergen County, New Jersey), with a nobody protagonist proving her worth through the strength, elegance, and wisdom of her rhymes. —J.R. JONES R, 108 min. Landmark’s Century Centre The Trip to Spain With this third theatrical spin-off, the British miniseries The Trip has graduated to a genuine franchise: it’s like the Fast and the Furious movies, but with celebrity impressions instead of hot rods. Following The Trip (2010) and The Trip to Italy (2014), Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (playing themselves) set off on a tour of Spanish restaurants with scrumptious food and spectacular views, where they needle each other, pontificate about Don Quixote, and workshop their impressions of David Bowie, John Hurt, Ian McKellen, and Roger Moore, among others. (This comic motif, a mainstay of the series, crosses through the looking glass when Brydon mimics Mick Jagger, whom he met at a party, trying to do Michael Caine.) Joke for joke, this is much funnier than Italy, predicated as always on Coogan’s vanity and insecurity. —J.R. JONES 108 min. Landmark’s Century Centre v

CITY LIFE Chicagoans

The fitness guru

ò ISA GIALLORENZO

Sunny Akhigbe, bodybuilder, ﬁtness model, trainer, and actor

Street View

The friend zone “FAKE TWIN BROTHERS” Robert James and Ricardo Sparks were strutting downtown on their way to grab drinks. They looked ripe for a fashion editorial—or at least a selﬁe Instagram post. Both aspire to work in the fashion industry: James plans to launch a T-shirt collection, and Sparks aims to open a fashion school. Sporting a silk robe in broad daylight, James, who describes himself as a trendsetter in his Englewood neighborhood, seems to live by his most common bit of sartorial advice: “Fitting in is standing out.” —ISA GIALLORENZO See more Chicago street style on Giallorenzo’s blog chicagolooks.blogspot.com.

I GREW UP in a very remote village in Nigeria where you have no cars, no road, no water. I was rejected by my own family and left to live with my grandmother. I was molested, I was abandoned, I was rejected. I just wanted to have a big hug from a dad, and I never had it. I could not find a therapy to help me feel better about myself. So doing bodybuilding was therapy for me. I was training with bricks and engine blocks. Each time I lifted bricks and ran, I felt better. I didn’t even know what it was; I just knew that whenever I exercised, there was part of me that was happy: “This thing is making me feel better. This thing is making me be a normal human being.” Eventually I moved to a city in Nigeria about the same size as Michigan City, Indiana. I was online one day, and a lady reached out and said, “My name is this. I’m a Christian. Do you believe in God? This is my e-mail.” So I reached out to her: “Hey, my name is Sunny, I live in Africa.” Then I gave her my phone number, and we started

talking. She flew to Nigeria, and she found out that everything I talked to her about was real. She told me she’s gonna bring me to the United States, and she did. We did all the documentation, and before you know it, I was here and we were married. That was in 2004. I started working and training at a YMCA in LaPorte, Indiana. My body started transforming. People started saying, “Why don’t you go compete?” I said, “What does that mean?” I never heard about it. So I started training heavily and eating right, and I went to compete. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was ready. So when I stepped onstage, I won the whole show, I won the division, I won overall. Now I am an [International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness] pro. I was like, OK, this is my calling, and I became a ﬁtness model and personal trainer. My targeted audience is the business owner who doesn’t have time for themselves, so I help them create a program that’s gonna regain their health. I talk to all my clients every day, and

“When I embraced ﬁtness, I became complete, I was well,” Sunny Akhigbe says. “I became healed from my trauma.” ò JIAYUE YU

they have to meet with me once or twice a week. Between eating and exercising, it’s gonna take you two hours per day to take care of your health and wellness so you feel good. I’m also an actor; I just finished with Chicago P.D., the TV series. I wrote a book called A Boy and His Dream, and I have a foundation to help every child who is going through adversity like I did. Here in Chi-

cago, I go from school to school talking about life skills. Fitness is my therapy. It gives me life. The trauma that chased me, it helps me to control it. When I embraced fitness, I became complete, I was well. I became healed from my trauma. Without fitness, I wouldn’t be able to focus. Yes, fitness gave me life. I’m healed. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

SURE THINGS THURSDAY 17

FRIDAY 18

SATURDAY 19

SUNDAY 20

MONDAY 21

TUESDAY 22

WEDNESDAY 23

: The Trou ble With Dead Boy f riends This dark musical-comedy spoof of young adult novels takes place at a senior prom of vampires, zombies, and ghosts— the “I do too have a girlfriend! She goes to another high school and doesn’t get to visit often” of dates. 8 PM, MCL Chicago, 3110 N. Sheﬃeld, mclchicago.com, $18.

J Pi l s e n Fe st The gallery district is just one of many Pilsen gems. Celebrate Latino art, food, and history in one of Chicago’s most renowned cultural hubs. The festival provides authentic food and drink for sale, as well as free performances by Nina Skye and Rey Pila. 6:30 PM, 18th and Blue Island, $5 suggested donation.

ü Chicago Air and Water Show The Blue Angels, the Golden Knights, and plenty of other ﬂyng contraptions soar into town for Chicago’s annual weekend of spectacular aerial maneuvers and ear-piercing sonic booms. My, the ground feels amazing this time of year. 10 AM-3 PM, North Avenue Beach, 1600 N. Lake Shore. F

× South Shore Summer Fest Funk throwbacks Cameo make, well, a cameo at this annual celebration of neighborhood pride. Local vendors put food and art up for sale, and things kick oﬀ with a performance by the South Shore Drill Team. Cameo takes the stage at 6 PM. 3-8 PM, South Shore Cultural Center, 7059 S. South Shore. F

f Chicago Barn Dance Leave it to the Irish to know how to dance a merry jig. Newbies and barn-hardened trotters twist and shout to the music of Glass Mountain as caller Alexandra Deis-Lauby lays down the instructions for big group numbers. Take a dramamine. 7 PM, Irish American Cultural Center, 4626 N. Knox. F

· James Brow n vs . Ch arlie Brow n Drinking & Writing recruits performers to pit the man who always feels good (you know that he would) against the balding child so downtrodden he can’t even kick a football. 7:30 PM, Drinking & Writing Theater @ Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph, 312-6380700, $10.

M Do ug Loves Mov ies Podcast Comedian Doug Benson dearly enjoys two things: marijuana and movies. During this live taping of his podcast, he’ll mostly be talking about the latter with surprise celebrity guests and audience members. 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, 312-526-3851, thaliahallchicago.com, $49.

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 7

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

CITY LIFE POLITICS

Why aren’t women running for governor?

The governor’s race remains a sausage party. And as a result everyone who looks to the Democrats for leadership suﬀers. By BEN JORAVSKY

he other day I got a press release about Tenth Ward alderman Susan Sadlowski Garza’s August 15 gubernatorial forum, which all the major Democratic candidates will attend. That’s nice. Got no problem with that. My question is: Why isn’t Garza one of those candidates running for governor? No disrespect to the eight fellers in the race, but I can’t think of many Democrats better qualified than Garza to lead the party’s fight against Bruce Rauner. She’s a smart, passionate progressive rooted in a racially and economically integrated southeast-side neighborhood. For more than 20 years she was a public school counselor— while raising three kids. It’s a background millions of Illinois voters can relate to. Asked why she’s not running, Garza generally says something along the lines of “Give me a break. I like my job.” Garza is by no means alone when it comes to women in politics who have as much, if not more, to offer than the guys in the race. Want a bare-knuckled fighter who knows the

budget and has demonstrated she’s unafraid to go toe-to-toe with Rauner? State comptroller Susana Mendoza is your candidate. Looking for a smart and compassionate downstate progressive with labor roots who works well in interracial coalitions? Meet state rep Carol Ammons, from Champaign–Urbana. Want a brainy north-sider with a devilish sense of humor who knows the budget and is also well versed in criminal justice issues? Come on down, state rep Kelly Cassidy. Desperately seeking a take-no-prisoners progressive tactician who understands how Springfield really works? Then get to know Stacy Davis Gates, the political and legislative director of the Chicago Teachers Union. I can go on and on. The point is, none of them are running for governor. And as a result everyone who looks to the Democrats for leadership suffers. The issue isn’t whether women can win the race for statewide office— Mendoza, attorney general Lisa Madigan, and U.S. senator (and former state rep) Tammy Duckworth have demonstrated that. But they can’t win if they don’t run.

A few weeks ago political strategist Joanna Klonsky and a few of her progressive allies launched arethereanywomenrunningforilgovernor.com. If you go to the website, you’ll see a word written in big red letters: NO. The page also includes links to campaigns encouraging women to get involved in politics. Klonsky’s come up with three basic reasons why women don’t run for office. 1. They don’t have as much money as their male counterparts. (The glass ceiling is no joke.) The funding gap is a huge disadvantage in a race that features two billionaires—Rauner and JB Pritzker—with millions to burn. 2. The state Democratic Party has a lousy farm system. It does a poor job of ﬁnding and cultivating strong candidates. 3. The douchebag factor. Well, Klonsky doesn’t put it that way exactly. But the reality is that among the men who still dominate politics there’s widespread behavior that’s moronic and condescending.

STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE, CHICAGO. Who doesn t love doing something new and unexpected, especially in Chicago? That s why AARP is hosting tons of fun and exciting events for Chicagoans. Join us at an informational tech class where you ll learn about the latest trends and updates, or grab some popcorn and relax with us at a free movie screening. You can even meet new and interesting people at any of our volunteer opportunities across town. Events like these are just some of the ways we re connecting with you and helping to make Chicago an even better place to live, work and play. Get to know us at aarp.org/Chicago /aarpillinois

@aarpillinois #aarpillinois

8 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

From left: Susan Sadlowski Garza; Kelly Cassidy; Stacy Davis Gates ò MICHELLE KANAAR; RICH HEIN; RICH HEIN

“The issue is greater than Illinois,” Klonsky says. As evidence, she points to a recently published study by Richard Fox and Jennifer Lawless, political scientists at Loyola Marymount University and American University, respectively. “In college men’s political ambition grows, while women’s fades,” the authors conclude in the study, sponsored by the media organization Politico. “While only a third of high school girls doubt they’d ever be qualiﬁed to run, half of college women have the same doubts.” In other words, over time things get worse, not better.

To that let me add a couple of observations. When I ask women who hold elected office why they’re not running for governor, generally I get one of two explanations: family or qualiﬁcations. As one state rep told me, “My kids need me at home.” Obviously, women take their familial responsibilities more seriously than men. I can’t think of many elected officials who are men who’ve put off running because of “the kids.” Finally, there’s the matter of qualiﬁcations. Many accomplished women have told me something along the lines of “I’m not ready”

or “I’m just learning the job I have.” Again, it’s admirable that they take seriously the need for experience. But I don’t recall seeing such cautiousness in any man asked about running for office. Hell, most guys are angling for the next office practically as soon as they get sworn in to their ﬁrst. Consider the cases of Rahm and Rauner. In 2011, Rahm found himself eminently qualiﬁed to run Chicago, even though he knew next to nothing about it, having spent most of his career in Washington, D.C. It’s not surprising that soon after getting elected he thought it was a good idea to close mental health clinics

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in high-crime areas where people were traumatized from ducking gunﬁre. As for Rauner, good God, this dude felt qualified to be governor even though he’d never spent a day working in government. Two years into his administration, he still hasn’t passed a budget and our schools are on the brink of bankruptcy. And now he’s pouring millions into his reelection campaign, apparently as self-conﬁdent as ever. It reminds me of the slogan on the T-shirt Mitch Trubisky, the Bears’ rookie quarterback, has been wearing: “Greatness is there for the taking.” The Rahms and the Rauners have been taking everything that’s not nailed down, even though they’re not great. Women might consider emulating them if they want to rise to the top. But given the mess those two guys have made of our city and state, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. v

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Standing guard

How four tragic local truck-bike crash cases helped bring about lifesaving legislation By JOHN GREENFIELD

memorial all too familiar to cyclists sits at the southeast corner of Addison and Damen in Roscoe Village: a white-painted “ghost bike” covered with silk f lowers and surrounded by plants and candles. At the base is a plaque that reads anastasia kondrasheva: she will shine forever. Attached to the cycle’s head tube by a maroon-and-gold Harry Potter-style scarf, there’s a snapshot of the young crash victim, bespectacled and smiling. A laminated spoke card reads “Nastya, always an angel . . . and now you have wings to prove it.” Last September the 23-year-old health coach was biking north on Damen to work when a flatbed truck driver failed to yield while making a right turn onto Addison and struck her. She fell under the massive vehicle and was fatally crushed by the wheels. Tragically, this type of fatal crash was unusually prevalent last year. Virginia Murray, 25, and Lisa Kuivinen, 20, were also struck and killed on bikes by right-turning flatbed truck drivers on the near northwest side last summer. These three cases represented half of all 2016 Chicago bike fatalities. A fourth cyclist, 18-year-old Chuyuan Qiu, died four days before Kondrasheva, after the driver of a concrete mixer struck her in Evanston and she went under the wheels. In the wake of these four fatalities, as well as a fifth truck-bike crash on the near west side that seriously injured 26-year-old Danielle Palagi, the Reader called on City Hall to follow the leads of New York and Boston by requiring side guards for municipal trucks and other large vehicles operating within the city. These devices—already widespread in Europe, Japan, Brazil, and other countries— prevent pedestrians and cyclists who are struck by trucks from falling underneath the vehicle and being crushed by the rear wheels. In the U.K. alone, the fatality rate for turning-truck crashes dropped by 20 percent for pedestrians and 61 percent for cyclists after

1986, when it began requiring the equipment on most new trucks. At the same time we put out this call for change, the Active Transportation Alliance was working to make it happen. The advocacy group prepared recommendations for Chicago’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate serious crashes and fatalities by 2026, which included a proposal for an ordinance requiring truck side guards and/or convex mirrors that help reduce blind spots. The organization also launched an online petition urging the city to take action to reduce the dangers posed by large vehicles on city streets, which also listed strengthening commercial driver licensing rules and limiting large vehicle traffic during rush hours as possible solutions. The petition garnered 850 signatures.

Hopefully the victims’ loved ones can take some solace in knowing that these cases helped bring about legislation that will help prevent similar tragedies. The advocacy push paid off. When the Vision Zero Chicago Action Plan was released in June, it included a recommendation for an ordinance requiring side guards and convex mirrors on large city fleet trucks and contractor vehicles. The plan noted that while large vehicles travel only 8 percent of all the miles driven by vehicles in Chicago, they’re involved in 12 percent of fatal bike and pedestrian crashes. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Department of Transportation introduced the ordinance to the City Council later that month.

CITY LIFE

A Chicago Department of Water Management truck outﬁtted with side guards ò COURTESY AIRFLOW DEFLECTOR CHICAGO

At a Budget Committee hearing on the ordinance as well as a plan to earmark $5 million for retrofitting 1,700 city vehicles, CDOT commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld told aldermen that side guards might have made a difference in a fatal 2015 truck crash. As 30-year-old Mexican immigrant Elizabeth Peralta-Luna and her children Elizabeth, nine, and Dylan, four, were walking in a crosswalk at 43rd and Ashland, a left-turning truck driver struck them. “The first point of impact was the rear wheels of the truck. That means that Ms. Peralta-Luna and her children were caught up underneath the truck and perished,” Scheinfeld said, according to a Sun-Times report. The City Council passed the ordinance on July 26. “Chicago is using a data-driven approach to improve traffic safety, and the data shows we can save lives and prevent serious injuries by installing this type of safety equipment,” Emanuel stated at the time. The new ordinance requires that any business with a city contract worth $2 million or more install side guards and convex mirrors on all trucks used to fulfill the contract that weigh 10,000 pounds or more. But it doesn’t cover all large vehicles operating in Chicago, as my Streetsblog Chicago colleague Steven Vance has noted. It will take years to phase in the safety gear, and there are loopholes contractors can use to avoid compliance. The law provides nearly a year’s notice before the first stage of compliance kicks in, requiring contractors to outfit 25 percent of the 10,000-pound-plus vehicles to be used for work performed between June 2018 and July 2019. Each year after that, another quarter of the vehicles to which the ordinance applies must be outfitted, so that the full fleet used for a contract must have the gear by August

2021, four years from now. (Chicago plans to upgrade its own fleet by 2026, the year by which the city also hopes to eliminate all crash fatalities.) However, if they can’t meet the deadlines, contractors can apply for six-month extensions on installing side guards and mirrors. On top of that, businesses can ask the city’s procurement department for one-year waivers on the rules if they can demonstrate “undue financial hardship” in complying with the ordinance. The department can grant the same outfit multiple waivers, so it might be possible for a contractor to put off installing the gear for years. But at last week’s Mayor’s Pedestrian Advisory Council meeting, CDOT’s Vision Zero manager Rosanne Ferruggia suggested it’s unlikely that many contractors will try to weasel out of installing this potentially life-saving equipment. The city estimates that side guards cost $3,100 per vehicle to install, and a pair of convex mirrors costs $400. “Usually one of these trucks is $150,000 or more,” she noted. “So in the scope of what the cost of the vehicle is, it’s fairly inexpensive.” “We’re really happy that we’ve had our first Vision Zero policy change come through,” Ferrugia added. “This is going to help make the streets safer for all.” Four promising young lives were cut short by truck-bike crashes in the region last year. Hopefully the victims’ loved ones can take some solace in knowing that these cases helped bring about legislation that will help prevent similar tragedies. v

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

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“There are teams that are fair-haired and there are teams that aren’t. There are teams named Smith and teams named Grabowski. The [Los Angeles] Rams are a Smith. We’re a Grabowski.”

IT WAS NOT

by accident that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s big-shouldered Tom Buchanan was “Tom Buchanan of Chicago.” “Not even the effeminate swank of his riding clothes could hide the enormous power of that body,” wrote Fitzgerald of The Great Gatsby’s leading jerkface. Long Island had its froufrou effects on a man, for sure, but the brawn of Chicago could not be disguised: “ . . . you could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat.” It’s no surprise that Fitzgerald is channeling Carl Sandburg’s 1914 identification of Chicago as the “City of the Big Shoulders”; after all, it is hard to imagine a city as collectively obsessed with a single poem as Chicago is with Sandburg’s “Chicago.” San Francisco has its Beats, yes, and New York might sometimes tune itself to the lyrical sentiments of George M. Cohan, Comden and Green, Kander and Ebb, or Nas, but Sandburg’s poem—with its emphasis on the manly and macho—became Chicago’s imbibed creed, an unconscious template for the city’s cops and gangsters, union bosses and anti-labor thugs . . . and its athletes. “Here,” writes Sandburg, “is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities.” The fictional Tom Buchanan was himself a jock—“one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven”— and as the 20th century progressed, Chicago’s most heralded professional sports teams were ones deemed to be most possessed with the sweating spirit of Sandburg’s “husky” and “brawling” proletarians. There have been exemplars of this mighty, striving figure across all Chicago sports—“Man of Steel” middleweight Tony Zale, scrap-happy hockey hunk Keith Magnuson—but the most indelible model was the Chicago Bears football team of the early 1940s, dubbed “Monsters of the Midway.” Even their intrasquad scrimmages were opportunities (echoing Sandburg) “to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.” Or, quoting a Chicago Tribune headline of the time: “Bear Practice Makes Trench Warfare Mild.” The franchise star was Bronko Nagurski, whose very name seemed to epitomize the bone-crushing power of the man. This was an Iron Age of iron men, and Chicago teams ever since have strived to live up to the brutish standards of their fore-Bears. The second coming of these Monsters came—or so the narrative goes—with the 1963 championship edition of the Bears. The ethos of this oh-so-prototypical Bears team? Grind it out on the gridiron, a no-nonsense approach in marked contrast to the flash and sizzle of, say, New York Jets quarterback “Broadway” Joe Namath—a man known as much for his fur coats and the effeminate swank of his pantyhose ads (definitely worth a YouTube search) as for his Super Bowl victory in 1969. The legend continued. A key member of that ’63 Bears team, tough-guy Mike Ditka, went on to coach a third—and the most famous—iteration of the Monsters: the 1985 champs. Firmly within the tradition, this team eschewed the emerging passoriented “West Coast Offense” popularized by the San Francisco 49ers, preferring a more pounding, ground-based style. Ditka emphasized the contrast between a Chicago team and a coastal team when he told the Chicago Sun-Times (in an article printed under the bizarre headline “Bears’ image ethnic classy”) that:

The city’s myth-makers were enthralled. Paul Galloway followed up in the Tribune with the thesis that Chicago— the city itself—was a Grabowski.

HARD HAT, LUNCH PAIL: The myth of toughness in Chicago sports

How the fabled athletic monsters of Chicago's Midway were created By DAVID ISAACSON

“Grabowski means people who come from a working-class, immigrant background, people who work hard and have nothing handed to them, people who have struggled against discrimination, people who are honest and tough, people who persevere and prevail . . . “It’s the shot-and-a-beer, hard-hat lunch-bucket guy who gets his muscles through toil versus the white-collar, white-wine, striped-tie stuffed shirt who tones his in a health club.”

The Bears’ star defensive tackle, Steve “Mongo” McMichael (nicknamed, yes, after the character in Blazing Saddles who punches a horse), proved himself well inculcated with the local civic literature when he (or, OK, perhaps his ghostwriter) wrote in a memoir:

“Carl Sandburg was close when he titled Chicago as the City of Big Shoulders [sic]. He just didn’t go far enough; Chicago is the City of Big Shoulder Pads. Chicago fans want to love their Bears because the Bears are much of what Chicagoans like about themselves: Big. Tough. Champions.”

Let us now pause a moment in our narrative to acknowledge that: No. Any reasonable census of the city’s citizenry would find several residents who are neither big nor tough, and whose sense of self-worth might in fact be based on factors beyond hat size and hardiness. This census might even reveal a few who don’t care a whit about the city’s professional sports teams. Or about Carl Sandburg. Yes, because Chicago is flat and far from any saltwater sea, it is easy to imagine its people as down-to-earth. Because it was once home to International Harvester and Zenith Radio Corp and the Industrial Workers of the World, it is easy to conjure the image of boulevards filled with muscled stevedores, boilermakers, welders, and tanners. And because of a capable poet’s sound bites, it is easy to encapsulate these mythologies in newspaper columns, sports memoirs, and—to be sure—in this essay. Let us also acknowledge that Chicago—with its historical dependence on its financial markets and tourism industry—has had no greater share of Galloway’s “Grabowskis” than its midwestern rivals. And that plenty of large American cities—even those “little soft cities” on the coasts!—have their own proud-and-not-so-proud histories in industrial manufacturing, their own beleaguered working classes, their own Golden Gloves competitions, their own propensities to see their sports heroes and working-class heroes as “tough.” Furthermore, let us acknowledge that there was much about the ’85 Bears’ cast of characters that did not fit the white working-class “Grabowski” model: J

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 13

continued from 13 • Three of its four first-team All-Pro players were AfricanAmericans from the south (Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, and Richard Dent). • Key defensive back Gary Fencik was (uh-huh, like Tom Buchanan) a Yale man. • They were total big-media darlings. First and foremost among these nascent TV stars was William “Refrigerator” Perry, a 325-pound rookie defensive lineman occasionally inserted—in a bit of Ditka gimmickry—as running back or receiver. His success on Monday Night Football led to appearances on Letterman, The Tonight Show, and The Bob Hope Christmas Special. • Their embrace of Hollywood-style glitz was consummated with the midseason release of the single and MTV-style video “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” (“Well, they call me Sweetness / And I like to dance / Runnin’ the ball is like makin’ romance.”) It hit number 41 on the Billboard charts. The falseness of the Grabowski characterization, however, did not stop new generations of sportswriters from reviving it whenever they had a chance. The Tom Thibodeau-coached Chicago Bulls (2010-’15), were justifiably praised for their hustle and hard work on the basketball court. Thibodeau, according to Grantland’s Andrew Sharp, “built a team that brought every blue-collar cliche to life. The Thibs Bulls were everything Chicago likes to imagine about itself.” The Bulls’ television color commentator, Stacey King, was a ready-and-willing sloganeer for this sentiment: Center Joakim Noah was “heart, hustle, and muscle.” Forward Taj Gibson’s stalwart play was “hard hat, lunch pail”—a phrase that echoed Galloway’s “Grabowski” essay and embodied blue-collar pride: the hard hat versus the homburg, the lunch pail versus the three-martini lunch. But in 2015, Bulls management tired of the bristling Thibodeau and replaced him with the mild-mannered and decidedly fair-haired Fred Hoiberg. Almost immediately, an existential Grabowski crisis ensued: “We just get out-toughed sometimes,” star guard Jimmy Butler told the news media. “You can call it being soft, whatever you want to call it.” The city’s incipient self-doubt is exacerbated by the fact that its most accomplished basketballer is not manly at all. In fact, she is a woman: the Chicago Sky’s Elena Della Donne. And while no one who has seen the WNBA’s reigning MVP in action would question her toughness, it is—predictably—not the focus of the local media: a recent Chicago magazine profile leads with her “gliding through the glitterati” at “a swank TriBeCa gala.” No hard hat or lunch pail in sight. (Females, it must be said, have always been sidelined in this vision of a team or city of Grabowskis, just as they were sidelined in Sandburg’s poem. They appear in “Chicago” only as “painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys” or in the line: “On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.” In other words, as whores or mothers, sirens or victims.) Meanwhile, Chicago’s top sports story in this year of 2016 was, of course, the World Champion Cubs. They were extraordinary, but were they Monsters of the Midway? Let’s see: • Their president, Theo Epstein, is a Yale-schooled technocrat known for a Moneyball approach; whereas baseball teams of yore were assembled by tobacco-spitting old-tim-

14 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

ers with gimlet eyes for baseball talent, Moneyballers prefer to base personnel decisions on computer algorithms. • Their coach, like Mike Ditka, hails from small-town Pennsylvania. But Joe Maddon is no Ditka. He’s a tie-dye-wearing self-proclaimed hippie. He drives a van he calls his “Shaggin’ Wagon.” • Pictures of their young star, National League MVP Kris Bryant, blanketed the interiors of dozens of el train cars; he looked dapper as all get out in the luxury cottons of his sponsor, Express Inc. • Their newly refurbished clubhouse hardly has the vibe of a blue-collar hang-out. Says the Tribune, “The space is replete with polished chrome and mood lighting, exuding a nightclub feel without the bar.” There’s even a fog machine. • Their owner is an investment banker.

In other words, the Cubs’ image is neither husky nor brawling. Recent Bears squads, too, seem less than monstrous. They made it to the Super Bowl once more, in 2007, with a style again emphasizing running and defense. But that team’s coach, Lovie Smith, was replaced with Marc Trestman, a man with the look and demeanor of a downtown architect or Mercantile Exchange exec—one of the white-collar professionals left out of the Grabowski version of the metropolis, and decidedly omitted from Sandburg’s vision of hog butchers, tool makers, freight handlers, and stackers of wheat. Trestman was known as “the Quarterback Whisperer,” a man who could unleash the skills of his underachieving (and reputedly soft) quarterback Jay Cutler. A coach who whispers? In Chicago? Trestman’s tenure as coach was mercifully short, but still enough—along with the listless Bulls and flashy Cubs—to undermine the city’s tough-guy bona ﬁdes. Pundits wishing to invoke the Chicago-versus-the-coasts narrative were forced now to rely on historic precedent rather than current exploits. 2016’s iteration of the theme, then, pitted the Golden State

Warriors—who won 73 of their 82 regular season basketball games—against the memory of the 1996 Chicago Bulls, who held the previous high-water mark, having won 72. Partisans of those Bulls—predictably—invoked “toughness.” The game in 1996, we were told, was a rougher affair, with rules that allowed more contact, and enforcement policies that left egregious, violent fouls unpunished. Those Bulls collectively played what was known as the Doberman Defense. (“Fierce as a dog,” went Sandburg’s “Chicago” metaphor, “with tongue lapping for action.”) This physical style contrasted with the “Showtime” Lakers of coastal Los Angeles, the team that these Michael Jordan-era Bulls had supplanted as dynastic titlists. Jordan—acclaimed the greatest basketball player ever—had a blue-collar background, the son of a General Electric forklift operator. The Warriors’ lithe star, Steph Curry, on the other hand, lacks a working-class pedigree. His father—Dell Curry— was himself an accomplished and moneyed professional baller. Steph’s success on the court is based not on overpowering his adversaries, but on the ability to launch parabolic shots from improbable distances. Surely, Chicago’s pundits said, the fey artistry of this Golden State team (its name—Golden—standing in sun-splashed contrast to the drear grays of Chicago) could not withstand the aggression of the ’96 Bulls. The supposed dichotomy between the two teams’ style and substance evaporates under any real scrutiny, of course: the scrawny Curry, it turns out, is sneaky-strong, and can deadlift 400 pounds. Conversely, Jordan was (and is) a pitchman for Hanes undergarments, while his teammate Dennis “the Worm” Rodman made a splash by appearing in public in a wedding dress. Surely, any sports iconography based on rigid assumptions about strength, power, and gender is ripe for debunking. And yet the Grabowski iconography persists, defying its own contradictions. So we exhume a Bulls team from two decades ago in order to overcome our anxiety—perhaps an anxiety with Freudian undertones—over our present softness. This exercise in rhetorical resurrection mirrors other attempts to recover a supposedly triumphant blue-collar past: “It is critical that we bring back manufacturing jobs to Illinois,” tweets Illinois governor Bruce Rauner. And of course, “Make America great again,” says Donald Trump. Like the sports fan nostalgic for MJ and Scottie, we reminisce about the days when we could stroll down Cortland Avenue and see men smelting vats of molten metal through the open doors of Finkl & Sons Steel; we boast of the city’s former industrial grit and grime (before Mayor Daley the Younger prettied up the north side with roadside ﬂowers and European-style newspaper vending boxes). We are borne back ceaselessly into the past. No matter that Chicago’s resumé in manufacturing is inﬂated; no matter that our honored Monsters were not really so monstrous: Our politicians will feed our nostalgia because feeding nostalgia is good politics. They will invoke Sandburgian imagery in a futile attempt to brand Chicago as a ready-andwilling player in heartland economics. They will emphasize the town’s (or the state’s, or the country’s) masculinity in the hopes that it will—in the eyes of voters—enhance their own. They will don the hard hat for photo ops, they will invoke the lunch pail at editorial board meetings, they will indulge in sports cliches. Because, after all, when the going gets tough . . . v Postscript, March 2017: Elena Della Donne has been traded, Donald Trump is president, and the themes of coastal elites, heartland virility, and white, working-class Grabowskis have never been more destructive, nor more ripe for deconstruction.

On breaks from her day job at Growing Home, photographer Tonika Johnson often climbs up onto the adjacent abandoned elevated rail line, the site of the proposed Englewood Line Nature Trail, with her camera in tow. “I saw this person walking,” she says, “and the serene solitude of the moment just moved me.”

Englewood:

The whole picture Daily life beyond the headlines in the south-side neighborhood Photos BY TONIKA JOHNSON

onika Johnson’s celebratory images of her native Englewood provide a perspective on one of Chicago’s most troubled neighborhoods that’s rarely seen—one of lives lived with beauty and joy. While there’s no getting around the south-side neighborhood’s problems, statistics on crime and unemployment don’t begin to present the whole picture. In addition to being a photographer and the program manager for the urban farming nonproﬁt Growing Home, Johnson identiﬁes herself as a “community arts activist.” “It’s a recent title I’ve stepped into and given myself,” the 37-year-old says. She applies the term with a sense of pride, understanding the kind of power and emotional uplift that can come from creative works. “I want to use my art and my voice as a platform,” she says, “to make art more visible and more valued in the community.”

But it wasn’t until Johnson finally stepped outside of her community that she began to grasp how artwork could elevate a place. In high school her love of writing led her to Young Chicago Authors, when the then-fledgling youth arts organization was located on Division Street in Wicker Park. “That was my first time going into a community that was predominantly of another race,” Johnson recalls. “I was suddenly immersed in a proud Latino community, and I was just amazed at how they represented their culture in murals and street art.” Johnson grew up in a neighborhood all but devoid of such flourishes. “I can only imagine what my childhood might have been like if I had access to art at an earlier age,” she says. Not until her first year in college did Johnson pick up a camera with any intention. “I could have started on that path earlier.” A couple years ago, Johnson was the photographer behind Englewood Rising, a community-led marketing cam-

paign aimed at calling attention to the neighborhood’s history and culture. She’s also a cofounder of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, with its ﬁercely powerful acronym RAGE, which raised funds to rent ﬁve billboards on which the organization is presenting positive images of the neighborhood, including some of Johnson’s work, through the end of the year. Residents were invited to submit photos; Johnson stepped up and offered a winning portfolio. “To see my photos of Englewood on billboards throughout Englewood is surreal,” she says. “I can’t even explain the joy I feel knowing my home is proud to have my images represent our neighborhood. It’s an honor that I hold very dearly and deeply.” Johnson also helped to establish a youth media program for RAGE. The volunteer work dovetails with her art practice. Last year Johnson received a grant through the Department of Community Affairs and Special Events J

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 15

3 continued from 15 for “From the Inside,” a series of community portraits she created with the intention of exhibiting them in Englewood. But given the area’s limited cultural infrastructure, finding a place to hang her work wasn’t easy. A new coffee shop on 69th Street, Kusanya Cafe, was welcoming but too small. Then she ran into community activist and RAGE cofounder Aysha Butler, who sits on the advisory council for Hamilton Park. Butler invited Johnson to display the series during the inaugural Englewood Art Fair, held last October in the park’s field house. Earlier this year, Rootwork Gallery exhibited Johnson’s “Everyday Rituals,” a series that continues the photographer’s quest to portray the simple yet meaningful aspects of life in her community—from the quiet devotion of a churchgoer to the explosive color of a wig shop. Currently she has a photography fellowship with City Bureau, the south-side-based nonprofit civic journalism organization, which has her focused on documenting segregation. “We have the statistics, we know intrinsically that Chicago is segregated,” she says, “but we don’t really get to see, side by side, different neighborhoods. I want to provide an opportunity for people to engage in this topic in a different way.” Johnson’s enduring love for Englewood is simple. “It is my home, it is where I grew up, it is where my grandmother planted her roots from East Saint Louis, it is where my first friends are from,” she says. “It is home. I am comfortable here.” And the love is reciprocal. “Even though I’ve been doing photography for years, it was really home that continued to encourage and empower me. Home is the root of all my support. I never would’ve thought that my photographs meant more than what I thought of them without the community telling me so.” —RUTH LOPEZ

16 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

Darry Cooks was working on his car at 80th and Laﬂin when he took a break to greet his daughters Timaya, eight, and Tijani, six, and son Dorian, three.

Lil Willie, 80, was relaxing with lifelong friends while sitting on a stoop when Johnson walked by. The building on 65th and Racine has since been demolished, so Willie’s crew moved their hangout across the street, where they sit under a tree near the corner store.

Denise and her ten-year-old daughter were Johnson’s neighbors when she lived in Auburn Gresham, just south of Englewood. Mother and daughter were always aﬀectionate, but Johnson could never get the picture she wanted once they saw her coming. On this occasion, Johnson managed to shoot the photo before they noticed her. “I was able to capture their little love moment.”

Skating home after buying a bag of his favorite snacks at the Morgan Food Mart on the corner of 67th and Morgan, 16-year-old Brandon caught Johnson’s eye. “I asked him how often he skateboards and he said, ‘Six hours every day!’”

The Family Lounge on Racine serves as a social club for older people in the neighborhood. “When I was reﬂecting on identifying aspects of the community steeped in our history, lounges are a big one,” Johnson says of the hubs for drinking, eating, and dancing.

“Unfortunately these kind of memorials for victims of homicide are familiar to Englewood and similar communities,” Johnson says. “I wanted to photograph this because, although it’s somber, it is still a present-day interpretation of our ancestral African rituals.”

Kaela, 14, is the best friend of Johnson’s daughter Nyjah. The girls requested a photograph they could use for their eighth-grade graduation party invitation, and Johnson knew just the location: a nearby house that had been painted by local artist Amanda Williams as part of her “Color(ed) Theory” series.

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 17

“This photo has sentimental value to me,” Johnson says. “Growing up, my uncles used to take me to this fast food restaurant on 63rd and Racine all the time.” The location is now boarded up.

Sunday service at Saint Mary’s Missionary Baptist Church

Ricky, 38, pictured at the gas station on 63rd and Wentworth, reminded Johnson of her uncle, who paid meticulous attention to his car. “I asked him where he was headed to,” she says, “and he said he was just going to visit his mother to help her make banana pudding.”

8 9

18 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

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Barber Umeika Young, 36, puts the ﬁnishing touches on ten-year-old Demontre’s haircut at the Longevity Barber Lounge, on the corner of 68th and Ashland. The shop has become beloved during its short time in the neighborhood. There are about six chairs, and they’re usually ﬁlled. “Getting a haircut is a ritual, and that’s one of the spots that’s really popular. And I found out why—it feels like home,” Johnson says. “They have couches and a chessboard.”

Dakari, 11, practices chess while waiting to get his hair cut at the Longevity Barber Lounge.

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ARTS & CULTURE EDUCATION

Shimer is down, but not out

Shimer College when it was based in Mount Carroll, 1973 ò SUN-TIMES PRINT COLLECTION

By DEANNA ISAACS

n 1988, Reader staff writer Harold Henderson wrote a memorable 7,300-word cover story on tiny, ﬁnancially strapped Shimer College. It was a happy thing just to know that a place as unlikely as Shimer—which, eschewing textbooks and lectures, assigned only primary texts, taught through discussion, and admitted promising students without ACT scores or high school degrees— could exist. So here’s the bad news: as of this summer, Shimer College is no more. The good news: it’s also not dead. Founded in 1853, and a Great Books school since 1950 (it was affiliated with the University of Chicago from 1896 to 1958), Shimer persisted as a ﬁercely independent liberal arts college, even though its enrollment, especially in recent decades, hovered at around a minuscule 100 students. It survived in part through a couple of strategic relocations—from its original home in Mount Carroll, Illinois, to Waukegan in 1978, and then to leased space on IIT’s Bronzeville campus in 2006. Now there’s been a final move: when the fall term opens, on September 11, Shimer students will be trekking out to Naperville, where they’ll attend the Shimer School of Great Books at North Central College. North Central acquired Shimer in a transaction announced in June, and has absorbed it as a program option in its undergraduate school. Alumni I’ve talked with (historically an in-

20 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

tensely loyal and protective group) are mostly optimistic about the arrangement, which they say was the necessary alternative to closure. Alumni board president Steve Zolno says that in an environment where “many liberal arts schools are struggling and enrollment [is] down, a lot of us are grateful that Shimer, in essence, will be continuing.” (Moody’s has predicted that, nationally, over the next few years, small college closings will triple and mergers will double due to ﬁnancial problems.) But exactly how many Shimer students will be enrolled this fall isn’t clear. North Central spokesman James Godo couldn’t be specific last week, but said they’re “hoping for 50 students” out of a total North Central student population of about 3,000. Shimer professor Stuart Patterson, who’ll serve as chairman of the school (reporting to the North Central provost), says 30 to 40 of those are expected to be continuing students from Chicago. According to Patterson, Shimer has a deﬁned physical space on the North Central campus: part of a dormitory has been converted to faculty offices and a student lounge, and Shimer’s typical classroom arrangement of chairs around an octagonal discussion table will be preserved in designated classrooms. Whether its unorthodox admissions policy and shared governance will change remains to be seen. North Central—itself a long-established liberal arts school affiliated with the United Methodist Church—is a more traditional environment.

It was hoped that Shimer’s move to IIT a decade ago would create a synergy between the Great Books program and high-tech institutions, and that the urban environment would lead to enrollment growth. But two unwelcome events created headwinds. The ﬁrst, in 2009, was an attempted takeover of the board that would have given the college a politically hard-right tilt. Alarmed students, faculty, and alumni succeeded in defeating that threat, but then, in 2014, Shimer turned up at the top of Washington Monthly’s annual list of the worst colleges in America. Never mind that Shimer had also been found, by a study ﬁve years earlier, to have the highest rate of graduates who go on to get PhDs among all of America’s liberal arts colleges. Then-president Susan Henking noted at the time that the Washington Monthly “worst colleges” formula was based on data that apparently eliminated most of Shimer’s student body. But the damage was done. Seven members of Shimer’s ten-member faculty have been hired by North Central (of the others, one declined to make the move, and two retired). Word is that North Central has committed to keeping Shimer going for

at least three years. The consensus is that its success will depend on how well it does at recruiting Shimer students. Longtime Shimer supporter and trustee Peter Hanig said in a phone interview that the board, alumni, students, and faculty at Shimer all worked to get this deal done (including raising enough money to make it financially feasible) and that North Central wants it to succeed. “This is a business deal,” Hanig said in a phone interview. “North Central wouldn’t have done it unless they felt it was going to enhance their brand.” As for the move to Naperville, alumni board member John Goldman told me last week that he toured the North Central campus and “was really pleased to see that it reminded me of the old campus in Mount Carroll.” “It felt right,” Goldman said. He, Zolno, Hanig, and other Shimer alumni will attend a homecoming-weekend reunion there in October. “We’ll know in ﬁve years if it’s successful,” Henking told me. “The story here is that here is a tiny college that refused to die.” v

v @DeannaIsaacs

ARTS & CULTURE

LIT

I’ll have what she’s having By AIMEE LEVITT

ean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s aphorism “Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you what you are” is one of the most overused cliches in food culture, appearing everywhere from the opening sequence of Iron Chef to T-shirts and coffee mugs. But to the culinary historian Laura Shapiro, learning what someone ate is just the beginning of unlocking his or her identity. “Tell me what you eat,” Shapiro imagines herself asking her subjects, “and then tell me whether you like to eat alone, and if you really taste the flavors of food or ignore them, or forget all about them a minute later. . . . Please, keep talking . . . and pretty soon, unlike Brillat-Savarin, I won’t have to tell you what you are. You’ll be telling me.” In short, you can’t tell a life story without telling a food story, though it’s astonishing— to Shapiro, anyway—how many biographers try. Food provides a new way to consider people’s lives, not just their activities, but also their needs and how they care for others. This is especially true of women, who have, historically, been called upon to feed others.

Shapiro’s three earlier books, Perfection Salad, Something From the Oven, and Julia Child: A Life, all considered the lives and work of women who changed the way Americans ate during the 20th century. Her latest, What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories, is an experiment in straight-up biography: the food stories of six famous women, only one of whom cooked professionally. Some never cooked at all—or ate, for that matter. But not eating is part of a food story too. Her subjects are Eleanor Roosevelt, Eva Braun, diarist Dorothy Wordsworth, Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, novelist Barbara Pym, and Rosa Lewis, the Cockney scullery maid who became one of the most celebrated caterers and hoteliers of Edwardian London. Each woman left a lengthy paper trail, which Shapiro followed faithfully to the very end, through archives and libraries on two continents. The amount of research that must have gone into this book is staggering: Wordworth’s barely legible early 19th-century diaries through Gurley Brown’s

chatty, heavily italicized editor’s letters, with detours through endless menus, memoirs, correspondence, cookbooks, newspaper clippings, histories, and much, much more. Though each chapter is fewer than 50 pages, these aren’t biographical sketches: they are complete portraits. Naturally, after spending so much time with people, even people who are dead, you tend to feel close to them (as Shapiro, a former alt-weekly journalist, points out, dead people never hang up on you). You want to refer to them informally, by their first names, as Shapiro does. Some, it’s obvious, were more congenial companions than others. Shapiro appears to feel the strongest kinship with Pym, who took notes at restaurants on what other people ate and filled her novels with meticulously described meals. “Tea plays so many symbolic roles,” Shapiro writes, “that another writer would have had to create a whole slew of walk-on characters to say what Barbara says with a cup.” She also feels a deep appreciation for Wordsworth, who for years selflessly took care of her brother, William, and his family, during which she was determined to find joy and blessedness in every aspect of her life, even a disgusting black pudding. Dorothy discovered the upside of invalidism in late middle age—now everyone had to care for her for a change and, especially, cater to her incessant demands for food to satisfy her feelings of “faintness and hollowness” as she slid deeper into dementia. This is far more understandable and less reprehensible than how Eva Braun, who became enamored of Hitler when she was just 17 (her first words to him, incidentally, were “Guten Appetit” as she served him Leberkäse, a Bavarian sausage), spent the second half of her life willfully creating her own glamorous reality, in which Hitler didn’t call her because he was a neglectful boyfriend, not because he was busy invading most of Europe and killing millions of people. “For Eva,” Shapiro writes, “who was looking forward to starring in a movie about herself when the war was over—Hitler had promised—life itself was tantamount to a glass of champagne.” Braun drank champagne because she was on a perpetual diet. So was Gurley Brown, who discovered dieting in the summer of 1959 at the ripe old age of 37. She was a successful ad copywriter, able to pay cash for a Mercedes-Benz 190 SL, but she was a failure as a woman because David Brown, whom she had targeted as the ideal husband, refused

to set a wedding date. The Serenity Cocktail (“pineapple chunks, soybean oil, calcium lactate, vanilla, fresh milk, powdered milk, and brewer’s yeast”) did its magic, though—they ﬁnally made it to city hall that September— and after that, her greatest joy in eating came from the discipline of counting calories. Her favorite comfort food was sugar-free Jell-O prepared with one cup instead of four so, Shapiro writes, “the dense, rubbery results would deliver the strongest possible hint of chemical sweetening.” Shapiro is bewildered, but also amused, by Gurley Brown’s refusal to reconcile her girlish self-image with the powerful editor and businesswoman she truly was. (Her chapter is, at certain points, laugh-out-loud funny.) Gloria Steinem once begged Helen “to say something strong and positive about herself—not coy, not flirtatious, but something that reflected the serious, complicated person who was in there, under the wig and makeup.” Helen tried, Shapiro reports, she really did, but the best she could do was “I’m skinny!” The most poignant food story belongs to Roosevelt. At times it’s also nearly as funny as Gurley Brown’s. This is largely because of Henrietta Nesbitt, the inexperienced and, as it turned out, inept Hyde Park neighbor Roosevelt hired to be the White House housekeeper and who tortured FDR and various guests for a dozen years with overcooked meat and watery prune pudding. Other biographers, such as Blanche Wiesen Cook, have proposed that Roosevelt herself was indifferent to food and that Mrs. Nesbitt was her ongoing revenge against FDR, for both his 1918 affair that destroyed her entire sense of identity and, later, for forcing her to assume the role of First Lady. Shapiro sees it an entirely different way. “Yes, asceticism was a strong aspect of her personality,” she writes, “but what’s striking about her culinary asceticism is that she practiced it chieﬂy in context of being wife to FDR. Inside the White House, she was apathetic about what was on her plate. Outside, we get glimpses of a very different Eleanor. . . . It was Eleanor, away from FDR and ensconced with the people she cherished, who discovered the delights of appetite.” Those were the meals, Shapiro writes, that Eleanor associated with love. It’s a devastating commentary on the Roosevelts’ marriage. But it also shows the power of a food story. v R WHAT SHE ATE: SIX REMARKABLE WOMEN AND THE FOOD THAT TELLS THEIR STORIES By Laura Shapiro (Viking)

v @aimeelevitt AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 21

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ARTS & CULTURE Yui Yaegashi, Gray of Gray of Holbein, Sekaido and Kusakabe, 2016 ò EVAN JENKINS

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chicagoreader.com/early 22 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

etween “Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg” at the Museum of Contemporary Art and “Then They Came for Me” at Alphawood Gallery, local residents can encounter a major contemporary Japanese artist and learn about some of the history of Japanese life in America. Yet over at Shane Campbell Gallery in the South Loop there’s a show with a Japanese painter as its focus that has received less attention but is equally worthwhile: “Yui Yaegashi: The Rain Is Gone,” the second time the gallery has presented work by the artist. Yaegashi’s paintings are diminutive—few are more than a foot tall or wide—and spare. Sometimes the composition will just be subtle shades of one color; other times a pattern with a few different hues; in some instances it’s mostly one shade with either one or a few smaller, intricate designs in a brighter, contrasting shade. Shane Campbell’s space feels like it’s as big as a basketball court, and the venue dwarfs Yaegashi’s contributions. But the disparity between the size of the room and the size of the art gently coerces the viewer to get up close to what’s being displayed, allowing visitors to notice the nuance and tone of each piece. With the bright daylight pouring in through the gallery’s windows, looking at Yaegashi’s oil paintings feels utterly serene. There’s another, even smaller supplementary show in the back, and it’s just as enchanting as “The Rain Is Gone.” For “By the Lakeside,”

Yaegashi selected a few works by three artists whose pieces seemed to match the tone of “The Rain Is Gone.” Judging from her website, LA-based Alexandra Noel tends to do intricate, multicolored paintings, but the patterns on her contributions—all around half a foot tall—echo the bright tone of Yaegashi’s work. Multidisciplinary artist Alison Veit’s Angela, a wall sculpture in which a mirror is placed in between a craggy border of sand and hydrostone, similarly channels the tranquility of “The Rain Is Gone.” My two favorite pieces in the whole gallery are by Soshiro Matsubara, a Japanese artist who now lives in Vienna. His two sculptures are made of glazed ceramic. The ﬁrst, Autumn Leaves, is a black lightbulb surrounded by leaves that feel like fragments of a lampshade scattered around the bulb. The second, Lovers in Blue is breathtaking—a kneeling man with his arm wrapped around the chest of a seated woman, her head bent slightly downward, all colored in sandy red and a chalky blue. Only a little bit more than a foot tall, Lovers in Blue intimates the key appeal of both “The Rain Is Gone” and “By the Lakeside”: You don’t have to create something big in order to generate a deep emotional response. v R “YUI YAEGASHI: THE RAIN IS GONE”; ”BY THE LAKESIDE” Through 9/2: Tue-Sat 11 AM-6 PM, Shane Campbell Gallery, 2021 S. Wabash, 312-226-2223, shanecampbellgallery.com. F

v @talrosenberg

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

ARTS & CULTURE Channing Tatum in Logan Lucky

MOVIES

Red, white, and a thin coat of blue By J.R. JONES

t’s really easy to make a movie that ﬁve people understand,” director Steven Soderbergh recently told the New York Times. “It’s really hard to make something that a lot of people understand, and yet is not obvious, still has subtlety and ambiguity, and leaves you with something to do as a viewer.” Soderbergh can speak with authority on the subject: over nearly three decades, his ﬁlms have ranged from eclectic indie projects (Schizopolis, Full Frontal, Bubble) to box office hits (Ocean’s Eleven, Magic Mike). For years he claimed to be retiring from the movie business, but then another feature would come out. Now, having made good on his promise for four years, he returns to cinemas this weekend with Logan Lucky, a heist comedy about a crew of goofballs trying to rip off North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600. The movie is smart and funny, though ultimately it’s less noteworthy as an entertainment than as a marketing concept. As Soderbergh has explained, Logan Lucky is something of a business experiment to see if one can launch an independent production into the commercial mainstream without relying on a big studio to publicize and distribute it. “There have been advancements in technology that make it a lot easier to get a movie out in 3,000 screens than it was even two years ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

ago,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “The economic model is pretty simple. You sell the foreign to cover the cost of the [ﬁlm] negative. We sell the non-theatrical rights to cover the cost of the [prints and advertising], and that’s it.” Produced by his Fingerprint Films, Logan Lucky features a star cast (Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Katie Holmes, Seth MacFarlane, Hilary Swank) working for scale and a percentage of the proﬁts; handled by the upstart distributor Bleecker Street, the movie opens this weekend on some 2,500 screens, concentrated in the south and southwest, with the same imperative faced by big-studio releases to find an audience instantly or get knocked out by the next shiny object. To that end, Soderbergh serves up a redstate remake of Ocean’s Eleven, set in the heart of Trump country but just hip enough to pass muster with city folk. Former NFL hopeful Jimmy Logan (Tatum) loses his job digging tunnels under the speedway after a supervisor catches him limping on a security camera and discovers that he failed to report a leg injury on his insurance form. Back in his native Boone County, West Virginia, his brackish ex-wife, Bobbie Jo (Holmes), who has full custody of their two young children, announces that she and her second husband are moving the family to Virginia. Jimmy, needing money for an attorney, enlists his younger

ss AVERAGE

s POOR

•

brother, Clyde (Driver), who lost his left hand while fighting in Iraq, in a scheme to rip off the speedway, whose cash revenues all flow to an underground safe through an old-fashioned pneumatic-tube transport system. The key to their plan is bleach-blond explosives expert Joe Bang (Craig), currently doing time, so the brothers conspire to free him from prison on the day of the robbery and get him back again before anyone notices. Jimmy and Clyde are shitkickers at heart— “Ocean’s 7-Eleven,” one character jokes—but first-time screenwriter Rebecca Blunt (said to be Jules Asner, the director’s wife and a West Virginia native) invests them with enough irony and idiosyncrasy to bring them alive onscreen. In the opening scene, Jimmy reveals himself as a pop-culture junkie when he recounts to his daughter, Sadie, the genesis of John Denver’s 1971 hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Sadie, for her part, is preparing to compete in a child beauty pageant, performing Rihanna’s sexually loaded song “Diamonds” in the talent competition. (“She’s talking about her vagina,” Jimmy’s little boy, Levi, explains to him. “It’s code.”) Clyde, tending bar at the local roadhouse with his artificial hand, seems to have even fewer options than Jimmy does, but he’s not the sort to pity himself. Needled about his disability by the snotty, red-vinylclad NASCAR driver Max Chilblain (Mac-

Farlane), Clyde pulls off the hand, sets it on the bar, and stonily mixes Chilblain a perfect cocktail with his good hand. These genuine character moments dominate the movie and serve to paper over an absurdly far-fetched plot. In many heist ﬁlms (not least Soderbergh’s own Ocean’s Eleven romps), the conspirators lay out their foolproof plan in advance, so the viewer will edge forward in his seat later when something goes wrong. Blunt can hardly afford this kind of scene, however, because if you ticked off all the unlikely stratagems required to execute the NASCAR heist, not even these yahoos would be dumb enough to move forward. Before the robbery can even commence, Clyde must run his truck into a convenience store and get himself sentenced to prison so he can help spring Joe Bang. The very ﬁrst step of the heist is an exercise in wishful thinking and split-second timing: when a cake, secretly containing contraband, is delivered anonymously to the racetrack accounting staff, they all gather inside the vault to eat it, but then a fender bender out in the parking lot, orchestrated by the Logans, draws everyone out of the building at the exact moment when the time lock will seal the vault with the cake inside. A son of the south now living in New York City, Soderbergh knows both sides of the redblue divide, and Logan Lucky represents one hell of a balancing act. The movie’s advertising campaign features an overbearing starsand-bars motif, and various NASCAR drivers turn up in cameo roles. Yet Boone County is relatively liberal for West Virginia—it went for every Democratic presidential candidate from Jimmy Carter in 1976 to Barack Obama in 2008—so the Logans can be trusted not to rant about the deep state or pledge their lives in defense of the Second Amendment or burst into chants of “Lock her up!” You might say that Soderbergh sees the nation whole, and his vision of a laidback, clued-in Dixie offers a hopeful vision. Or you might say that he wants to make a shitload of money on this project. I suspect it’s the latter, but I hope it’s the former, if only because Soderbergh knows how to craft a movie that a lot of people will understand. v LOGAN LUCKY sss Directed by Steven Soderbergh. PG-13, 119 min. For venues see chicagoreader.com/movies.

v @JR_Jones

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AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 23

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CHIRP sees the transmitter at the end of the tunnel Ten years after the Chicago Independent Radio Project recruited its ﬁrst volunteers, it’s ﬁnally hitting the airwaves. By KEVIN WARWICK

n August 8, 2007, the Chicago Independent Radio Project—affectionately known as CHIRP—held its ﬁrst public meeting, hoping to recruit people to its project of establishing an independent low-power radio station in the city. At that point CHIRP was led by a handful of former community volunteers from Loyola University’s WLUW, who’d been ousted when the school decided the station should focus on students. It was a broadcast outlet in theory alone—no licenses for low-power FM stations were available in Chicago, or in any other urban center. CHIRP’s online programming, which launched in January 2010, wasn’t even part of the initial plan. But the project’s growing team longed for a home on the airwaves to love as their own, one that wasn’t beholden to anyone except the people who volunteered to run it. Did they ﬁgure it’d take a decade to come to fruition? Probably not. But on July 28, the Federal Communications Commission approved an Uptown location for CHIRP’s transmitter tower, and the station plans to start broadcasting at 107.1 FM in mid-October. “It’s funny looking back, because at the time we thought our only way forward was the broadcast license,” says CHIRP founder and general manager Shawn Campbell. “There was only a little bit of online listening then, but within a year we realized it could work.”

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CHIRP’s online radio platform has been its bridge to broadcast, amplifying its voice and bolstering its credibility as it joined other fledgling independent stations around the country in a grassroots movement to get the Local Community Radio Act through Congress. (The act became law in 2011.) Previously the FCC had mostly issued licenses for low-power FM stations in rural areas, where there’s less competition from big broadcasters, but the LCRA proposed to allow a wave of new low-power stations in cities, nestled into the open spots on the frequency map. “We spent those first two and a half years raising money and awareness and working on the bill,” Campbell says. “Then the FCC took another two and half years to write the rules. Then there wasn’t an application window till November of 2013. Then another year to consider the application. We finally got our decision and were awarded a construction permit in November of 2014.”

Throughout this protracted process—the FCC application has been just a sliver of the red tape involved—CHIRP has never hurt for volunteers, even as people have come and gone. Campbell claims there were 100 right off the bat, and today the number hovers around 250. CHIRP held its first fund-raiser, headlined by the band Canasta, at the Double Door in August 2007, just two days after that initial public meeting. It raised $1,200. At the time, says Campbell, Chicago was the biggest market in the country without an independent community radio station. She believes there was and continues to be a hunger for that sort of broadcasting. “It seemed ridiculous not to have dozens of these small stations inside of urban cities,” she says. Former Metro publicist Jenny Lizak, who’s now coordinator of special projects in the cultural and civic engagement department of the Chicago Public Library, has been a CHIRP volunteer since the beginning and currently J

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 25

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serves as a DJ (every Sunday from 4-6 PM) and as a member of the board of directors. In 2008 and again in 2009 she traveled with Campbell to Washington, D.C., where they worked to advance low-power licensing and spoke with senators and representatives on behalf of community radio groups. “Media justice is really a social-justice issue—and it’s not just about our little group getting a station,” Lizak says. “It’s about having voices on the air that are diverse. The airwaves don’t belong to Clear Channel. Being able to use that frequency to share the voices of a community is something uniquely American.” Founding volunteer Tony Breed, who’s called himself CHIRP’s “director of swag” for his marketing efforts (he also DJs on Fridays from 6-9 AM), agrees that the group had an activist bent from the start. “At the beginning we were kind of a political organization, trying to get laws changed. It was at least 50 percent WLUW staff running the station then. We were scrappy.” Even after the fight was won in Congress, CHIRP continued to attract new support as its eclectic online station grew its audience, helped along by regular DJs making themselves at home in their weekly spots, their specialties as diverse as indie pop, vocal jazz, and psychedelia. The metaphorical on air sign has stayed lit thanks to robust fund-raising at the popular CHIRP Record Fairs and a program that allows people to sign up for automatic monthly donations—as well as some money from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Six years after the LCRA went into effect, CHIRP doesn’t lack a terrestrial broadcast because it’s short of cash or personnel. The delay comes down to the rigmarole of ﬁnding the right building to house the antenna tower. The easiest, most obvious solution would’ve been to install the tower atop CHIRP’s studios in North Center, near Irving Park and Rockwell. But the CHIRP crew soon learned that this would require erecting a 40- to 50-foot structure atop a modest three-story building, which they felt sure the neighborhood would refuse to back. In early 2015 they shifted their focus to a building in Ravenswood, and the expediter they’d hired to help push permitting through the city bureaucracy got as far as clearing the site for construction of the tower. But after CHIRP began working with a structural engineer to draw up plans for the new location, it came to light that the building was covered by a “planned development” zoning designation, which meant the tower would require the

approval of all the other property owners in the zone. After almost two years of hassle, all the while desperately hoping not to lose all the time and toil they’d already sunk into the Ravenswood location, CHIRP abandoned it and recalibrated. “You get a construction permit for 18 months, and then you can extend it for another 18 months. Our permit expires in November. There was no extending it,” Campbell explains. “Because of the congested market, we had a slim slice of land where we could put the signal. I drove around Uptown and Edgewater, block by block, and wrote down addresses of tall buildings—counted the stories. I sent them to our engineer: ‘Look at this one, will it work? Look at this one.’” Finally, success. Campbell found a building in Uptown, on Sheridan just north of Foster, that was locally managed and affordable. The tower will be built atop that structure, while the CHIRP studios remain at their current location. Licensed at 100 watts, the station’s signal at 107.1 FM should cover an area roughly bounded by the lake and Kimball Avenue to the east and west and the Evanston border and Belmont Avenue to the north and south. But low-power broadcasts can be squirrelly. “It may be somewhat better in cars,” says Cambpell, “and could be somewhat worse in thick-walled buildings.” Even as low-power FM stations such as Lumpen Radio have used the law that CHIRP helped pass to beat it to the airwaves, longtime indie-radio champions such as Campbell, Lizak, and Breed have never wavered in their commitment—and they’re no less thrilled by the legitimacy granted them by a broadcast signal. “I think broadcast radio is still really important to people,” Campbell says. “It’s the number one question we’re asked while out at events: ‘You’re an independent radio station, that sounds really cool. What number are you on the dial?’” Those who’ve been with CHIRP from the beginning seem to want to heave a collective sigh of relief—though they surely won’t be able to let go of all their apprehension till the last few hurdles are actually cleared. But ten years of hard work and frustrating delays have given CHIRP lots of time—maybe more than it wanted—to establish its name and publicize its mission. And nobody wants to give up before the payoff. “When I think that maybe it’s time for me to step down, maybe time to move away, I think, ‘We don’t have that signal yet,’” Breed says. “I want to be one of the ﬁrst DJs when we hit the air. I want to be like Martha Quinn.” v

v @kevinwarwick

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HEAR GREAT MUSIC ALL OVER TOWN FOR ONE LOW PRICE!

MUSIC IN ROTATION

A Reader staﬀer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn.

JAZZ

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Tamara Lindeman, who performs as the Weather Station ò ALEXANDREA SCOTLAND

2 O 17

Midwife, aka Madeline Johnston

Dida Pelled ò MISHA KAMINSKY

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Midwife, Like Author, Like Daughter I haven’t listened to any album this summer as much as I have Like Author, Like Daughter. The Bandcamp page for Midwife, aka Madeline Johnston, says the album reflects on Johnston’s final year living in Denver DIY venue Rhinoceropolis, which shut down during a crackdown on underground venues after the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. Johnston’s dream-pop, which can be calming one moment and crushing the next, doesn’t make me think of a specific space so much as it lets me reflect on how I feel in the moment. And every time I listen, I hear something new.

The Weather Station, “Thirty” Man, this song messed me right up. I just turned 26, and I feel like I’m at a turning point similar to the one that Tamara Lindeman, who performs as the Weather Station, reﬂects on in this song. I saw her play the front room at the Hideout in February, and it’s still my favorite show of the year. I had a really long conversation with someone I’d recently befriended, and it was one of those moments when you sense that someone is going to be an important part of your life and art. This single brings me back to that night and also makes me contemplate how I’m going to view the growing pains I’m having now by the time I’m 30.

Dida Pelled I ﬁrst saw jazz guitarist and vocalist Dida Pelled at Postock, a beautiful festival put together by Sima Cunningham at the Post Farm in Wisconsin. I was completely enchanted by Dida’s vocal placement, her disarming lyrics, and her virtuosic guitar playing—she’s really the whole pancake. I clutched my friend Ivan Pyzow and said to him, “Me enamoré!”

Reader staﬀ writer

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28 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

Music reading from the Newberry Book Fair Reading is my reprieve from the insanity of festival season, so I bought a few nonﬁction books about jazz and classical music last month at the Newberry Library’s annual sale. Now I just need to ﬁnd time to read them all. The sticker that Reckless Records put on a copy of Iconoclast’s Groundlessness of Belief seven-inch If hardcore label Ebullition released it, chances are I own it or want to. So when I found an inexpensive used copy of this 1994 Ebullition seven-inch by Jersey emo band Iconoclast at Reckless recently, I knew I had to buy it. But the shop employee who wrote the description of the record for the display sticker really sealed the deal for me: “At one show the singer knocked his own teeth out and bled everywhere. Giving the guitarist the opportunity to sing the song ‘I like you less than apple pie’. They really where something.” I think I’m going to frame it.

front woman for Half Gringa

Ratboys, GN If Ratboys guitarist and singer Julia Steiner quietly consoling herself with the words “I just want to love my family / Hold my shelter and lie in the symmetry” doesn’t make you want to show your vulnerable, soft belly to the entire world, I can’t help you. Sasha Geffen’s investigation into the pop “wet boy” phenomenon First of all, if you don’t follow Sasha on Twitter, you should. Their examination of “wet boys”—young men appearing drenched in water in pop-music videos—has been ongoing for months. Here I am, still contemplating Harry Styles’s wetness vs. Mark McGrath’s. Did Gene Kelly’s iconic “Singin’ in the Rain” have any inﬂuence on these young men? I love getting an in-depth, long-form analysis of music trends, but apparently some people don’t!

and performs as Micha

Marc Anthony singing Rafael Hernández’s “Preciosa” “Preciosa” was written in 1937 by Puerto Rican composer Rafael Hernández. I first heard it in a version by Marc Anthony on a VHS tape celebrating Hernández’s music. His rendition shifts from a bolero with cuatros to a full-on salsa, complete with impassioned improvisations. Lately the lyrics have been getting to me: “Preciosa serás sin banderas, sin lauros ni gloria / Preciosa, preciosa te llaman los hijos de la libertad.” That translates to “You will be beautiful without flags, even without outside recognition, even without glory / The sons of liberty call you beautiful, beautiful.” This takes on a whole new meaning now, with students and communities in Puerto Rico fighting against U.S. economic oppression. Barbra Streisand, “The Way He Makes Me Feel” Barbra Streisand is my vocal icon. The great Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics of this song, and Michel Legrand composed the music; it appears in Streisand’s 1983 film Yentl, for which she served as executive producer, director, and star (playing a young woman who disguises herself as a man so she can study at yeshiva). Oh, and she’s the only one who sings in the entire movie. Iconic.

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AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 29

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of August 17

MUSIC

ALL AGES

THURSDAY17

PICK OF THE WEEK

Charles McPherson Quartet See also Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 8 and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $20-$35. 21+

Moor Mother delivers a fierce indictment of racist violence and oppression

Nearly every August, veteran alto saxophonist Charles McPherson rolls into Chicago for an engagement at the Jazz Showcase, part of the club’s annual celebration August Is Charlie Parker Month. McPherson famously re-created Parker’s playing on the soundtrack of the 1988 Clint Eastwood biopic Bird, but while you can certainly hear Parker’s influence on his output, McPherson has always been his own man. For this listener, the work he performed with Charles Mingus between 1960 and 1972 will always stand as his greatest achievement—at Mingus’s side, McPherson jousted with a variety of killer horn players in gospelized settings both charged and serene. On his own he’s been a model of reliability, craft, and beauty, imbuing his lines with a mix of rhythmic fleetness and tonal bite. At the age of 78, he shows no signs of slowing down, and his protean attack and lyric beauty are undiminished on his high-flying 2015 album The Journey (Capri). For this year’s visit McPherson is joined by drummer George Fludas, bassist Jeff Hamann, and pianist Mark Davis. —PETER MARGASAK

ò BOB SWEENEY

MOOR MOTHER, ONO WITH MYKELE DEVILLE

Wed 8/23, 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+

THE MUSIC OF Philadelphia MC and sound artist Moor Mother, aka Camae Ayewa, didn’t come to life for me until I had the chance to see her perform earlier this year, and suddenly her chaotic, psychedelic layers of samples and electronic noise made sense. After more than a dozen digital-only releases, in 2016 Ayewa dropped Fetish Bones (Don Giovanni), an Afrofuturist-tinged indictment of institutional racism, sexism, and predation presented with intensity and fury, enhanced by a withering eye for detail. On “Deadbeat Protest,” when she begins howling “Fuck, get away from me! / You can see my dead body at the protest” over a machine-gun-like spew of electronic beats, the everyday reality of the horror she describes leaps into life. At the performance I caught (at the Bo-

30 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

realis Festival in Bergen, Norway), Ayewa seemed to want to shake the audience out of their stupor and incite them to action—she seemed genuinely angry that some listeners weren’t doing much more than nodding their heads. Her gritty voice is matched by a raw collision of industrial-grade beats, in-the-red noise, and clashing samples—layers of a cappella African-American spirituals, 60s soul, hard gospel, and environmental recordings, all of them scuffed up and unruly but also indebted to hip-hop aesthetics. Her latest release, a collaboration with producer Mental Jewelry called Crime Waves (also on Don Giovanni), pulls back on the noise and frenetic energy, but Ayewa’s presence remains just as harrowing. —PETER MARGASAK

Charles McPherson ò NICK REUCHEL

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC

Rob Noyes Alexander opens. 6 PM, Reckless Records, 1379 N. Milwaukee. F b These days there seems to be a bottomless well of young guitarists exploring the paths blazed by American Primitive master John Fahey and his adherents, who included Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, and Peter Walker. Recent reissues of old private-press recordings suggest there were even more folks following Fahey’s lead in the 60s and 70s than listeners might’ve known, but I still think it’s safe to say we’re in the midst of a second golden era of ﬁngerstyle guitar. Nothing in this realm has hit me as hard recently as The Feudal Spirit (Poon Village), a 2016 album by Boston’s Rob Noyes. He rips straight out of the gate with a furious barrage of cross-hatched rhythms and twined melodies on the exuberant “Paydirt,” where his technical proﬁciency on the 12-string—astonishing as it is—recedes in importance behind the sheer joy and manic propulsion he brings to the music. Though his work is largely free of Fahey’s blues thrust, Noyes weaves a rich stylistic fabric from diverse sources, whether he’s reflecting Basho’s hammering mastery of the 12-string or revealing a more meditative side of his personality that suggests the influence of British heavies such as John Renbourn or Michael Chapman. I can only imagine where he might go from here. —PETER MARGASAK

Chris Pitsiokos The Chris Pitsiokos Trio headlines; Pitsiokos opens with a solo set. 9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b Young New York-based saxophonist Chris Pitsiokos continues a striking creative ascent this year, releasing two very diﬀerent recordings that build on the pinpoint precision and unhinged fury that characterized his earlier work. On Before the Heat Death (Clean Feed), with the quartet CP Unit, Pitsiokos shows the clear inﬂuence of quartet drummer Weasel Walter in his playing, applying go-forbroke intensity to various free-jazz modes. In 29 packed minutes, the group—which also includes guitarist Brandon Seabrook and electric bassist Tim Dahl—puts its own no-fat spin on the Contortions, Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, chaotic noise freak-outs, and high-velocity iterations of Walter’s trademark brutal prog. They move easily between tangled-up spasms and furious explosions of numbed-out funk, with Pitsiokos unleashing an unrelenting but meticulously harnessed attack that recalls the duck-call fury of saxophonist John Zorn early in his career. Equally impressive is his selfreleased solo album Valentine’s Day, which displays a dazzling array of tactics, whether the overdubbed four-saxophone assault of “Four Alto” (a dedication to Anthony Braxton, and a pun on the elder reedist’s groundbreaking solo album For Alto), the introspective circular breathing of “Flutter,” or the Konitz-meets-Coleman balladry of “Waiting.” From piece to piece he shows an expanding range that accommodates both tender phrasing and a lacerating tone. After making his Chicago debut last year, Pitsiokos returns for a solo set; he’ll also improvise in a trio with keyboardist Jim Baker and percussionist Michael Zerang. —PETER MARGASAK J

Nina Sky ò BRAD BARKET

1800 W. DIVISION

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

(773) 486-9862 Come enjoy one of Chicago’s ﬁnest beer gardens! THURSDAY, AUG 17 ..............MIKE FELTON FRIDAY, AUG 18....................THE DHARMAS SATURDAY, AUG 19...............ENVIRONMENTAL ENCROACHMENT (EE) SUNDAY, AUG 20..................TONY DOSORIO TRIO MONDAY, AUG 21 .................HENRY SMITH QUINTET WEDNESDAY, AUG 23 ...........STEVE CASTRONOVA QUINTET THURSDAY, AUG 24 ..............ANDREW HUBER FRIDAY, AUG 25....................PIRATE ELECTRIC SATURDAY, AUG 26...............DANNY DHRAYER SUNDAY, AUG 27..................DJ WHOLESOME RADIO MONDAY, AUG 28 .................RC BIG BAND JOHN RARICK NONET @ 9:30PM EVERY MONDAY AT 9PM ANDREW JANAK QUARTET EVERY TUESDAY AT 8PM OPEN MIC HOSTED BY JIMI JON AMERICA AUGUST PHOTO SHOW BY JOE NAGEL

FESTIVALS

Three different ways to celebrate the diversity of Chicago’s neighborhoods Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest The 16th edition of this annual arts and music festival features a diverse lineup of more than 50 performers, including rock combos (Absolutely Not, White Mystery), world-music acts (Funkadesi, Son Monarcas), and neighborhood high school marching bands. 8/18-8/20, 6 PM on Friday, 11 AM on Saturday and Sunday, Glenwood between Morse and Farwell, glenwoodave.org, $5 suggested donation, all-ages Pilsen Fest This festival celebrates the diversity of the Pilsen neighborhood with a stacked lineup of excellent Latin and world-music artists on three stages, among them Nina Sky, Les Machines, Ricky Liontones, and Chai Tulani. 8/19-8/20, noon, 18th and Blue Island, pilsenfestchicago.com, $5 suggested donation, all-ages 3 Yards Bangin’ This south-side house-music fest, which began in three adjacent backyards, returns for its third year outside Chicago Vocational High School with nine straight hours of music—including sets from DJs Vince Adams, Hula Mahone, DJ Emmanuel, and Jozana. 8/19, 2 PM, Chicago Vocational High School, 8700 S. Anthony, 3yardsbangin.com, $10, all-ages

AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 31

MUSIC

12O’CLOCK Then They Came for Me examines a difficult and painful episode in the history of the United States when our government forcibly removed and incarcerated thousands of American citizens simply for being born Japanese American. Through an exploration of art, artifacts, and programming, Then They Came for Me invites comparisons between this dark chapter in America’s past and current political events.

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for complete listings, tickets, and social updates... martyrslive.com facebook.com/martyrslive @martyrslive 32 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

continued from 31

FRIDAY18 Charles McPherson Quartet See Thursday. 8 and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $20-$35. 21+

SATURDAY19 Doom Rash and Nam Land open. 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $15, $12 in advance. 18+ English hardcore band Doom came together in 1987 in Birmingham, channeling much of the same grimy, industrial misery as their hometown allies Black Sabbath, Napalm Death, and Godflesh. Spending their initial three-year run pioneering the genre of extreme crust punk, Doom produced an explosive, ﬂawless 1988 debut LP, War Crimes: Inhuman Beings, which set the standard for hardcore, grindcore, crossover thrash, and powerviolence to come. The group first called it a day in 1990, but have reunited and broken up again a handful of times since. The latest release from the current incarnation, the 2015 EP Consumed to Death (Black Cloud), proves that no matter how many times guitarist Brian Talbot and drummer Tony Dickens split, reconvene, and cycle through other band members, they’re still the best at what they do—and what they do is hammer out crusty, nihilistic, rotten D-beat. An anticapitalist opus, Consumed to Death sounds just as furious and reckless as anything Doom put out in the late 80s. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

Charles McPherson Quartet See Thursday. 8 and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $20-$35. 21+ Sage, the 64th Wonder Mykele Deville headlines; Sammus, Mother Nature, and Sage, the 64th Wonder open. 10:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $10, $8 in advance. 21+ Receo Gibson grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs on a steady diet of geek culture. His original rapper name was Shintendo64, an element of which he’s kept alive—after local producer Sage Nebulous gave Gibson the moniker Sage, Gibson augmented it by tacking on “the 64th Wonder.” Fortunately, knowledge of the anime that Gibson finds inspiring isn’t necessary to enjoy his music. His June mixtape, God’s Hand, is filled with the kind of dusted-off instrumentals prefered by hip-hop artists endeared of the genre’s “golden age,” and like the best of them, Gibson doesn’t linger on the past so much as he uses it to push himself forward. His baritone voice exudes the murkiness of his darkest beats, and I’m sometimes far more interested in the way he sounds than in what he’s rapping. Still, throughout God’s Hand Gibson proves himself adept, and with cuts such as the wobbly “Hokage” and the upbeat “Metal Face Seji,” he’s planting the flag not just for himself but for his entire collective, Slumpgang777. —LEOR GALIL

Charles McPherson Quartet See Thursday. 8 and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $20-$35. 21+

The Funs Waveless (with analog video mixing by AU, aka Alex Uhrich), Daysee, and Pussy Foot open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10, $8 in advance. 21+ The Funs have left a bigger imprint on the contemporary Chicago DIY scene than any other band that no longer calls this city home. In 2012 Jessee Rose Crane and Philip Jerome Lesicko, vocalists who share guitar and drum duties as the Funs, moved downstate to New Douglas, where they’ve been busy refurbishing an old house and turning it into a musical utopia called Rose Raft. That’s where the pair live, rehearse, record, and run the Manic Static label, which has worked with bands and musicians crucial to building the infrastructure of Chicago’s underground scene and making it interesting; the list includes Ne-Hi, Earring, Lala Lala, Magic Ian, and Melkbelly. On their forthcoming album, Is a Cult (released on Magic Ian’s label, Maximum Pelt), the Funs double down on the musical elements they play with so well—drumming that lunges between turgid and bombastic, guitars that claw at the sky, melodies that tease out the bubblegum elements of grunge while dragging the music through the muck. Is a Cult shows there are more golden melodies to pan for in the deep river of shrieking guitars, and as the Funs demonstrate with the subdued riﬀ on the hypnotic single “Suncoat,” they’re equipped to do it. —LEOR GALIL

Jorja Smith ò COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

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MONDAY21 Cult of Luna with Julie Christmas Whores. and Dalek open. 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, sold out. 17+ The luminescent Swedes in Cult of Luna hold down a distinctive European corner of the postmetal landscape. Like their countrymen Opeth, they make their own way, and they’ve generally done a good job of surprising listeners on a regular basis, whether by going stripped-down when ornateness was expected or, in the case of last year’s Mariner (Indie Recordings), taking on a collaborator: postpunk vocalist Julie Christmas, front woman of Made Out of Babies and coconspirator with Mouth of the Architect and Spylacopa (with members of Candiria, Isis, and Dillinger Escape Plan). Christmas’s wild, eerie versatility adds new dimensions of

drama and excitement to the album’s loose spacetravel story—each long, varied, wandering track is the aural equivalent of a gripping page-turner. The band and Christmas recorded their parts separately, on diﬀerent continents, which makes their seamless integration impressive—and makes the chance to see them performing the album in its entirely together on the same stage even more compelling. —MONICA KENDRICK

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AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 33

bottom lounge

MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard. Cale Tyson ò ANDREW WHITE

FREE!

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Downtown Skokie

FRI A Flock of Seagulls 8:45 pm

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Devil in a Woodpile 8 pm on the beer tent stage

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Beer Tent Stage 7 pm Frisbie James Elkington 4 pm 5 pm The Differents Matt Hendricks & Cash Curtis 2 pm Bach & Beethoven Ensemble 12 pm 3 pm Carsick 1 pm Jodee Lewis Trio

SUN TRIBUTOSAURUS 6:30 PM becomes R.E.M.

5 pm Louis Zagoras & Rollover 3 pm The Frantastic Sound System 1 pm Luciano Antonio Trio

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

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36 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

Lamb ribs are rubbed with garam masala, smoked, then braised in coconut milk and served with Kansas City barbecue sauce spiked with mango pickle. ò BRITTANY SOWACKE

continued from 35 Fat roasted oysters accelerate down the throat in a hot slick of butter compounded with ssamjang, the Korean dip based on fermented soybeans and chile. Another tip of the hat to Mexico, quite different from the one presented by Rick Bayless’s Leña Brava just down the street, is a whole grilled fish—in my case sea bream—marinated and dressed with guajillo and arbol chiles, tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, clove, cumin, and shrimp bouillon. It’s split and butterflied with the spine intact, providing access to the most luscious parts of the fish. Proxi checks in on the Levant too: a length of uncommonly thick and juicy merguez lamb sausage coils over eggplant aioli, crushed almonds, and cool sliced grapes and radishes. Zimmerman’s gaze turns most toward southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, which contributes garlic-chile sauce to a pair of halibut collars; they’re dredged in rice flour and delicately fried—and full of collagen-rich flesh. An even more astonishing cobia fillet, at once meaty and delicate, bathes in a mild, gently sweet sauce scented by curry leaf and stained by tumeric that’s offset by crunchy bitter-melon chips—one of the best things I’ve eaten this year. Similarly, a jiggling-tender Wagyu beef short rib luxuriates in a saucier, nuttier version of a Malaysian-style rendang. While the menu is nearly evenly divided between surf, turf, and vegetables, the fleshier side weighs in heavier with an enormous pork porterhouse with pickled mushrooms and a creamy roasted onion sauce, and a stack of

lamb ribs rubbed with garam masala, smoked, then braised in coconut milk and served with Kansas City barbecue sauce spiked with mango pickle. Pastry chef Sarah Mispagel checks in with a slightly overstabilized avocado mousse bedecked with texturally compelling crunchythin puffed rice crackers and black tapioca pearls, while a spiced chocolate semifreddo is thatched with the threadlike dough of the Greek pastry kataiﬁ. Cocktails by Josh Relkin are distinguished by refreshing ﬁshbowl-size Spanish-style gin and tonics and drinks that somewhat mimic the worldly purpose of the menu: the margarita-like El-Otay!, made with tequila infused with grilled corn, and the Long Layover, a sherry blend amped by Feni, an Indian cashew liqueur. A robust cider selection includes some surprising choices like a wonderfully funky Chilean Quebrada del Chucao, while the affordable and approachable wine list is dominated, for now, by bottles from the Loire Valley, though most styles are represented. Despite—or perhaps because of—Proxi’s stated goal to “scour the most culinary-rich corners of the globe,” it’s difficult to nail down a clear identity for the restaurant with so many of the plates crossing national and cultural lines, often in the same mouthful. But it is fun, and so well done that the rare misstep pales in comparison to the wild array of delicious successes that abound. v

v @MikeSula

○ Watch a video of Sarah Syman making this cocktail with kimchi at chicagoreader.com/food.

Hundreds of bar suggestions are available at chicagoreader.com/ barguide. Bottoms up!

argentine atmosphere while you dine

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Drink your vegetables

Lobster Tail and Filet Mignon $28.95 Bar Specials available at bar with two alcoholic drinks minimum per person

By JULIA THIEL

DAILY SPECIALS

Mon: King Crab Legs $26.95 Tues: Snow Crab Legs $22.95 Wed: Crab & Slab $22.95 Thurs: Fried Jumbo Shrimp $19.95

Not Just Noodles cocktail by Sarah Syman of Otto Mezzo

restaurant & bar

ò CHRIS BUDDY

iver North’s Italian cocktail bar OTTO MEZZO serves almost exclusively Italian beer, wine, and spirits. KIMCHI isn’t an ingredient you’d usually find on the back bar, or anywhere near it—so when Jill Anderson of the Drifter challenged bartender SARAH SYMAN to create a cocktail with the Korean fermented vegetables, she headed to Joong Boo Asian market to take a look at the options. “I spent a while in front of the kimchi cooler,” she says, debating between radish and scallion kimchis (the more traditional cabbage only came in giant containers) before settling on the former. “I thought the scallion kimchi might be too many strong flavors,” she says. The radish kimchi was pungent enough, it turned out. “It’s very fermented, very garlicky,” Syman says. In early experiments the kimchi flavor would take over the cocktail. “I wasn’t expecting it to be as strong of an ingredient as it was, that’s for sure. There was lots of trial and error.” Syman’s first idea was to infuse dry vermouth with the kimchi and create a riff on a martini, but the flavors didn’t work together, she says. Instead she moved on to the Martinez—traditionally Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, and maraschino liqueur—infusing the kimchi into Rosso Antico sweet vermouth. She switched out the gin in favor of grappa, which is more in line with the bar’s Italian bent, then began experimenting with the three maraschino liqueurs kept on hand. Each produced a remarkably different drink, Syman

says: “The one I thought was going to be great, when I tried it, was far too bitter. I switched it up to the one I’m using now and it became sweeter, more rounded and balanced.” A few drops of saline solution added body to the cocktail, which Syman named Not Just Noodles—a reference to the fact that Korean and Italian cuisines both prominently feature noodles. And Syman was pleasantly surprised by how well the kimchi worked in it, she says. “It’s a really beautiful ingredient; it just took a couple tries to ﬁgure out how to use it.”

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NOT JUST NOODLES

SCANT .25 OZ VERGANO MARASCHINO LIQUEUR .75 OZ KIMCHI-INFUSED ROSSO ANTICO* 1.5 OZ ZARDETTO PINO GRAPPA A COUPLE DROPS OF SALINE SOLUTION LEMON PEEL FOR GARNISH Add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice and stir until cold. Strain into a coupe glass. Express a swath of lemon over the top and garnish with the swath. *Blend two ounces Rosso Antico with one tablespoon kimchi in a blender on high for one minute, then ﬁne strain.

WHO’S NEXT:

Syman has challenged GARY MATTHEWS of DRUMBAR to create a cocktail using TUMS. v

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EARLY WARNINGS chicagoreader.com/early

v @juliathiel AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 37

JOBS

ADMINISTRATIVE PARALEGAL/LEGAL ASSISTANT FULL time position available in a five lawyer Loop personal injury law firm. Friendliness, competence in Microsoft Office programs, excellent typing skills mandatory. Experience in medical and Internet research useful. We hope our new hire will be bilingual, English/Spanish. Salary + firm paid benefits. Resumes and references to tdaley@pgptrials.com.

food & drink EXPERIENCED LINE COOKS The Fireside Restaurant located at

5739 N Ravenswood Ave, Chicago, is looking for Line cooks with at least 5 years experience. Menu can be found at www.firesidechicago.com Please apply in person. We serve food from 10/11am till 3am, everyday. Food handler certification a plus.

General ENGINEERING - CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY is seeking a Structural Engineer III in Chicago, IL w/ the following requirements: BS degree in Civil or Architectural Engineering w/ a Structural Engineering concentration or a related field + minimum of five (5) yrs of experience related to this position, or an equivalent combination of training & experience, provided the degree requirement is met. Must be a Registered Illinois Professional Engineer or Registered Illinois Structural Engineer. Design experience in lieu of P.E. or S. E. Registration will be considered. Valid State of Illinois Driver’s License required. Required skills: Perform structural analysis & design calculations utilizing design codes such as AREMA, AASHTO, AISC, ASCE 7, ACI 318 (5 yrs); Inspect & prepare inspection reports for elevated structures, AASHTO

bridges utilizing FHWA NHI inspection techniques (5 yrs); Monitor & update Infor EAM database system for elevated structure defects. (2 yrs); Develop & update design criteria/manuals & construction specifications utilizing Microsoft Word & Excel (5 yrs). 2% travel required for training purposes. Apply at transitchicago.com/ careers using reference # IRC10042. CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY is seeking a Director of Online Education and Instructional Technology in Chicago, IL with the following requirements: PhD (or ABD) in an Education field plus 5 years related experience. Prior experience must include the following: create and implement online learning strategic plans by utilizing Balanced Score Card method, and monitoring performance indicators for the plan (4 yrs); design/improve new and existing online courses with faculty, and monitor the development process utilizing Asana (3.5 yrs); provide training for faculty teaching online courses in the use of Moodle and Elluminate, or in the use of WebEx, QuickTime, Camtasia, Adobe Presenter, and Narrated PowerPoint (5 yrs); create multimedia training materials for remote online education users utilizing iMovie, Camtasia, and ExplainEverything (4 yrs). Please submit resume to h r@ctschicago.edu.

TEACH CHINESE LANGUAGE

as a second lang., tutoring, as needed, ensure the highest level of performance. Serve on a collaborative team as a subject coordinator in developing lang. dept. curricula, to achieve native speaker language competence, cultivating student curiosity, exploring cultural, historical contexts of Chinese language development, employing most up-to-date ed. Principles, teaching written,spoken language; language lab instruction; supervise/ counsel students,parents regarding student’s ed. progress. Requires: M.Ed plus 2 yrs education/ experience in curriculum develop. & teaching Chinese to H.S./college students. Email resumes to: bburdick@ latinschool.org

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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. 38 CHICAGO READER | AUGUST 17, 2017

SEEKING A TEACHER for ad-

vanced Chemistry, related lab courses in Private School program, tutoring, as needed, to ensure highest level performance of science students. Serve on a collaborative teaching team as lead in the development of a rigorous, progressive, innovative science ed. Program and cultivate creativity and scientific curiosity, leading to new research by the scientific community, employing most up-to-date principles in science ed. meeting AP/IBO/A Level curricula stds., leading students in capstone, laboratory chemical research. Requires: M.S. degree in Chemistry; AP/ IBO/A-Level certificate, knowledge of ed. Prog. and stds; 2 yrs Chem. and lab science exper.. as a TA at Univ. or as a H.S. lecturer. Email resumes to: bburdick@latinschool.org

COMPUTER PROGRAMMER NEEDED in Chicago, IL to assist

Software developers in the creation reforming & testing of new code & existing programs & applications. Designing software & solutions based on user feedback. General program creation for specific tasks w/ithin the financial sector. Programmers with HTML5, Javascript & the JQuery & Backbone frameworks, C++, GNU/ Linux System administration & Bash scripting, Database management (PostgreSQL preferred), Network protocols (TCP, UDP, PGM, IGMP) & Financial industry knowl & exp are encouraged to apply. Must have at least 1 yr of relevant exp. Send resume to Riskbone, V D A V I S @

RISKBONE.COM

OUTREACH WORKER NEEDED for social science study

involving adults with substance abuse disorders. Primary duties include locating study participants, providing transportation for participants, conducting interviews when necessary. Must have valid driver’s license and proof of auto insurance. Outreach experience a plus. Should be able to work weekends and nights. EOE. Fax resume to 312-274-5335 Compensation competitive and dependent on experience and job match.

Arc Communications, dba AgResource has opening for Commodity Reporter & Analyst, Brazilian Managing Correspondent in Chicago, conduct interviews, research, identify trends, create reports, related. Must have Bachelor’s deg. in journalism, 2 yrs exp. as journalist, reporter, or analyst in ag. or commodities; exp. producing videos; conversational level knowledge of Span., Engl., and Portug. Send resume & 3 references to AgResource, Daniel Basse, 200 W. Jackson Blvd., Ste 1315, Chicago, IL 60606

Pilsen-Little Village Community Mental Health Center, Inc. D/B/A Pilsen Wellness Center, Inc. seeks Business Operations Specialists for Chicago IL location to dev & maintain internal ops procedures. BBA +2yrs exp. req’d. Skills req’d: working w/ mgmt. to monitor & report on internal initiatives & goals using MS Office Suite. Bkgd. check req’d. Send resume to: E. Oliveri, 2319 S. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60608

WEB APPLICATIONS DEVELOPER. Des./dev. software apps

using C# & ASP.NET; convert requirements into software; full lifecycle dev. Bachelor’s deg. (Computer Sci. or Computer Eng.) req’d. Min. 1 yr. exp. in pos’n(s) w/ dev. of apps using C# & ASP.NET req’d. Wolverine Trading Technologies LLC, Chicago, IL. Resumes: Recruiting, Wolverine Trading Technologies LLC, 175 W. Jackson Blvd., Suite 200, Chicago, IL 60604.

INDEMAND MOVERS LLC is

hiring! We are looking for drivers/ movers Class C license Able to lift 75+ lbs must be able to travel, work well with others and have positive attitude. $13-$16 HR Depending on experience. 773-273-8982 Lee

CHICAGO HELICOPTER EXPERIENCE is Hiring! Join our team

working in our passenger terminal. Flexible hours and competitive pay. Interviews Mondays 9am–3pm at 2420 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60608 2 blocks from Orange Line Halsted Station. No Calls, interviews on site.

BUS DRIVER - Six Hours Per Day. Cass School District 63, $17/hr. Passenger CDL Required Apply online at www. CassD63.org or call 331/4814000 NUTS ON CLARK POPCORN

stores now hiring for all locations. Earn $ while working with a team. Get paid while training. Apply in person @ corp. office. 3830 N Clark St., Chicago. 9am to 11am Mon thru Sat. Must bring ID’s to apply.

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

STUDIO $500-$599 Chicago, Beverly/Cal Park/Blue Island Studio $575 & up, 1BR $665 & up, 2BR $885 & up. Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Prkg. 708-388-0170

STUDIO $600-$699 CHICAGO, HYDE PARK Arms

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

STUDIO $700-$899 LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT

near Warren Park. 1904 W. Pratt. Hardwood floors. Heat included. Cats OK. Laundry in building. $725/ month. Available 10/1. Sublease available 10/1 for $725/month, with lease ending March 31, 2018. 773-7614318,

LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT

near the lake. 1329 W. Estes. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. $750/month. Available 9/1. 773-761-4318,

STUDIO OTHER LARGE SUNNY ROOM w/fridge & microwave. Near Oak Park, Green Line & Buses. 24 hr Desk, Parking Lot $101/week & Up. (773)378-8888 CHICAGO - HYDE PARK 5401 S. Ellis. Studio. $470/mo. CALL 773-955-5106 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 SUMMER SPECIAL: STUDIOS starting at $499 incls utilities , 1BR

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

108TH ST., LOVELY 4 rm, 1BR, liv rm, din rm, kitchen/bath, heated & hw flrs. Close to trans. Avail now. Also, 1BR w/ crpt avail. 773-264-6711 û NO SEC DEP û 1431 W. 78th St. 2BR. $605/ mo. 6829 S. Perry. Studio/ 1BR. $465-$520. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106 CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up. 773-637-5957 232 E 121ST Pl. RENT SPECIAL:

appliances, heat incl, close to Christ Hospital, $800/mo. 708-422-8801

1 BR $900-$1099 WEST RIDGE, 6200N/ 2200W. Spacious updated one

bedroom garden apartment. Near transportation, shopping, parks. Heat, appliances, electricity, blinds included. 773-274-8792. $900.

UPTOWN,

ONE BEDROOM NEAR Warren

MOST BEAUT. APTS! 6748 Crandon, 2BR, $875. 7727 Colfax, 2BR, $875. 6220 Eberhart, 2 & 3BR, $850-$1150. 7527 Essex, 2BR, $950 773-9478572 / 312-613-4424

815 WEST MONTROSE (at Clarendon) 1 bedroom vintage apartment with hardwood floors and carpet, 2 blocks from lake. $925.00 Heat Included. Call EJM at 773-935-4425

Park and Metra. 6800 N. Wolcott. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. $925/ month. Available 10/1. 773-761-4318.

LARGE ONE BEDROOM near

SECTION 8 WELCOME Newly Decorated 74th/East End. 1BR. $600.

77th/Drexel. 2BR. $700. 773-874-9637 or 773-493-5359

EDGEWATER 900SFT 1BR, new kit, sunny FDR, vintage builtins, oak flrs, Red Line, $975/mo heated www.urbanequities.com 773-743-4141

FREE HEAT! NO SEC Dep. No Move-in Fee!

E ROGERS PK 1BR, close to

1, 2, 3 & 4 BRs, laundry rm. Sec 8 OK. Niki 773.647.0573 www.livenovo.com

SUMMER SPECIAL $500 To-

ward Rent Beautiful Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Sect. 8 Welc. Westside Loc, Must qualify. 773-287-4500 www.wjmngmt.com CHICAGO - South Shore Large 1BR, $660/mo. Free heat. Near Transportation. Section 8 Welcome. Call 708932-4582

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/ hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773619-0204 79TH & WOODLAWN and 76th & Phillips, 2BR, 1BA $775-$825, 1BR, 1BA $650-$700. Remodeled, Appliances avail. FREE Heat 312286-5678 8926 S HARPER. Newly remod’l 3 room garden apt, $685/mo, + all

utils, 1st & last mo. rent & $350 sec dep. req’d. 773-416-4217

SOUTH SHORE NICE and Cozy w/hdwd flrs, 1-2BR Apts. $630$770/mo. Huge 3BR/2BA. $1020/ mo. 76th/Saginaw. 773-445-0329

85TH & PAULINA - 1BR 2nd flr

Two Apts, $640-$720/mo + sec & ref check. Quiet Bldg, Incl heat & fridge. Avail now. 708-367-0949 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $130/wk & up. 773-275-4442

SUMMERTIME SAVINGS! NEWLY Remod. 1 BR Apts $650 w/

ONE MONTH FREE. Move In NOW!!! Studios - 1 Beds Hyde Park. Call Megan 773-285-3310

1 BR $700-$799 8318 S INGLESIDE, 1BR, $660, new remod, hdwd flrs, cable, lndry, Sec. 8 welc. 8001 S Colfax 1BR $650, new remod, hdwd flrs, cable. Sec 8 welc. 708-308-1509 or 773-493-3500.

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. SUMMER IS HERE!! Most units Include.. HEAT & HOT WTR Studios From $475.00 1Bdr From $495.00 2Bdr From $745.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000** NR 71ST/MARSHFIELD. 1 & 2BR, decor, hdwd flrs, heat incl, nr trans & shops. No Sec. $600 & $725. Brown Realty Inc. 773-239-9467

the Red Line. 6828 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets ok. Heat included. Laundry in building. $900/month. Available 10/1. 773-761-4318.

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

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

OAK LAWN, SPACIOUS 1BR,

Pay 1st month rent only - No Security dep req’d. Nice lrg 1BR $575; 2BR $699 & 1 3BR $850, balcony. Sec 8 Welc 773-995-6950

$550, 2BR $599, 2BR $699, With approved credit. No Security Deposit for Sec 8 Tenants. South Shore & Southside. 312-446-3333 or 773-2879999

gas incl. 2-5BR start at $650 & up. Sec 8 Welc. Rental Assistance Prog. for Qualified Applicants offer up to $ 400/month for 1 yr. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

1 BR $800-$899

CHICAGO - 1206 E. 82ND ST. 2E. Deluxe 1BR, newly remodeled, carpet, security bar doors, heat incl. CHA tenant welcome. 708-957-9004 LARGE

ONE BEDROOM for sub-lease. 1341 W. Estes. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Laundry in building. Heat included. Available 10/1, with lease ending 4/30/18. 773-761-4318 CHICAGO - BEVERLY, large studio, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, A/ C, laundry, near transportation, $680-$1020/mo. Call 773-2334939

beach: new appl, FDR, oak flrs, French windows, lndry $995/mo heated. 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

SEC 8 WELCOME Riverdale 2BR Condo, Exc cond, Free heat & water,

RAVENSWOOD DLX 3/RM studio: new kit, SS appl, granite, French windows, oak flrs, close to Brown L; $975/heated 773-7434141 www.urbanequities.com

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

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

No. Southport DLX 2BR: new kit w/deck, SS appl, oak flrs, cent he at/AC, lndry $1595+ util pkg avail. 773 -743-4141 www. urbanequities.com E ROGERS PARK: Deluxe 2BR + den, new kitc., FDR, oak flrs close to beach. $1450/heated, 774-7434141 ww.urbanequities.com

1 BR $1100 AND OVER EDGEWATER 1000SF 1BR: new kit, SS appls, quartz ctrs, built-ins, oak flrs, lndry, $1250/ heated 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com EDGEWATER 2 1/2 RM studio: Full Kit, new appl, dinette, oak flrs, walk-n closets, $875/mo incls ht/ gas. Call 773-743-4141 or visit ww w.urbanequities.com

1 BR OTHER APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. Hot Summer Is Here Cool Off In The Pool OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG Plenty of parking 1Bdr From $765.00 2Bdr From $925.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000*** ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled. Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

3rd flr, appls, new crpt, Window A/C, No Pets. $825 + 1 mo sec. 708-539-0320

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

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

RIVERDALE NEW DECOR, 1BR, appls, new crpt, heated, A/C, lndry, prkng, no pets, nr Metra. Sec 8 ok $675. 630-480-0638

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

2 BR UNDER $900 NEAR 67TH AND KEDZIE 2BR $875+ SEC DEP. SECT 8 OK, NEWLY DECOR,

carpeted, refrigerator, stove FREE Heat, laundry room, cable ready, free credit check, no application fee. 1-773-550-9426 or 1-312-802-7301

SOUTHSIDE, 2BR, basement, near shopping/ transportation/ school. $700 /mo., heat included. Call 73349-5534 98TH/THROOP. 4RMS, 1BR, vinyl tiles, c-fans, heat & appls. incl., nr trans & shops, $760/mo + 1/2 mo. sec dep. Brown Realty 773-239-9467 AUBURN GRESHAM, 2 B R , 1BA, newly remodeled kitchen, carpet, heat & appliances included. $900/mo + sec. No pets. 773-315-0654 BRONZEVILLE

SEC 8 WELCOME! 4950 S. Prairie. 1BR. $680 and up. remod, hdwd flrs, appl inc, laundry on site. Zoran 773.406.4841

NEAR PULASKI & LAKE ST. Updated 2BR Apt with appliances incl washer/dryer, heat not incl. $550/mo. Call 773-664-9238

FREE HEAT 94-3739 S. BISHOP.

2BR, 5rm, 2nd floor, appls, parking, storage & closet space, near shops/ trans. $900 + sec. 708-335-0786

2BDRM,STOVE,REFG, HEAT INCLUDED:$835 month plus month1/2 security. $10 application Fee. 773-851-5219. CHICAGO WESTSIDE NICE 2BR apt, Austin Area, quiet bldg, $8 50/mo + sec, Laundry rm , parking, Background ck req’d 773-575-9283

CHICAGO

7600 S Essex 2BR

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

CHICAGO Southside Brand new 3BR-4BR apts. Exc. neighborhood, near transp/schools, Sec 8 Welc., For details call 708-774-2473

2 BR $900-$1099 RICHTON PARK 2/3 BR townhouse. Central A/C, finished bsmt hdwd flrs, Avail pool & clubhouse $995+association fee 312-2316972

QUIET STREET!!! NEAR 112th

& Halsted 2BR/1BA Recently Updated!!! Tenant pays utilities. $950/ mo Section 8 Welcome 708-878-3843 68TH/ROCKWELL. Newly decorated, Nice size 2 & 3BR, 1st flr, LR, DR, kit, HEAT incl. $900-$1100/ mo + move in fee 773-851-2232

SOUTH SHORE, 8230 S. Merrill, Quiet Large 2 BR, remod, hdwd floors LR, DR, heat incl, $1035+ 1 mo sec 708-951-4486

2 BR $1100-$1299 ELMHURST: DLX 1BR, new appls & carpet, a/c, balcony, $895$950/mo. incl heat, prkg. OS lndry, 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities. com SOUTHSIDE - 69TH & Parnell,

4BR, 2BA, total rehab, carpet, heat and water incl. No sec. dep. Section 8 ok. Rent $1,175. 773-684-1166

73RD & DORCHESTER, 2BR, refrig & stove, lndry hookups, off street prkg, enclosed yard, $975/ mo. No security dep. 773-684-1166

1801 W. GARFIELD BLVD.

2 lrg BR Apt, balcony, living rm, dining rm & kitch, Free Heat. Sec 8 Welcome. 773-873-6479.

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

incl, newly updated includes appliances, hdwd flrs., laundry on site, $1090/mo. sec 8 ok, 312-622-7702

LAWNDALE AREA - 6 rooms, 3BR, 1BA, $800/mo. Utilities not included. Call Terry, 773486-1838. M-F 9-5:30pm. Saturday, 9-1:30pm.

CHICAGO, 8530 HERMITAGE, 4BR House, 1.5BA, living & dining room, kitchen, 2.5 car garage. Call 708-372-2861

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

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499

4BR APT, 2nd flr, nr 115th/ Michigan, 1BA, stove, crpt, background check req. Tenant pays utils. No Dep. $975. 773-405-3472 MORGAN PARK AREA, 3BR, 2BA, intercom system, laundry, carpet & tile floors, $1100/mo + $1100 sec. Mark, 773-842-0476

SECTION 8 WELCOME Chicago, 11526 S Harvard 5BR/2BA, $1600. 255 W. 111th Pl., 6BR/3BA $1700. Call 773-793-8339, ask for Joe.

4010 S. King Dr. 3BR, heat incl, $1025. 7906 S. Justine. 2BR $800 & Restaurant for rent. 708-421-7630 or 773-899-9529

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499

CHATHAM, LRG, 3 Bdrm,1.5 Ba, 2nd flr, nwly remod, Liv, Dine, Lrg Kit, new appl, lndry rm, encl bk prch, hdwd flrs, indv heat, new wndws. 1200/mth+Ut,1200 Sec, opt 2 car garage,Sec 8 ok, (312) 420-7780.

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 BEVERLY/MORGAN PARK. 3BR brick ranch house. C/A, $1,500/ mo + 1.5 mo sec dep req. No pets/ smoking, 3BR Voucher Pref. 708-647-9737

HUMBOLDT PK, 3BR/2BA Duplex: new kit & appl, oak flrs, lrg master suite deck, prkg, lndry, $15 95/+ util 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

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

CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent.

Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail. 312-446-3333 or 708-752-3812

101ST/MAY, 1br. 77th/Lowe. 1 & 2br. 69th/Dante 3br. 71st/Bennett. 2 & 3br. 77th/Essex. 3br. New renov. Sec 8 ok. 708-503-1366

OTHER

1 BA, includes heat, Sec. 8 OK. $1,050/mo. 773-802-0422

MORGAN PARK - $1600/mo.

3 BR OR MORE $2500 AND OVER

3 BR OR MORE

WOODLAWN COMMUNITY (CLOSE to U of C campus) 3 BR,

2flat perfect layout. 1ST & 2ND flrs avail. UNITS SETUP TO PASS SECTION 8. Call 708-269-7669

GENERAL

OLYMPIA FIELDS

16 E. 122ND PLACE, 4BR House, LR, DR, full bsmt, fenced backyard. Close to schools, CTA & metra. Sect 8 ok. $1350/mo. 773-610-1332 CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE Attn: Sect 8 holders No Sec Dep + $100 Back 3 & 4BR Beautiful 2 flat, Laundry. 312-493-6983

roommates SOUTH SHORE, Senior Discount. Male preferred. Furnished rooms, shared kitchen & bath, $545/mo. & up. Utilities included. 773-710-5431

3 & 4 BRs for rent in a quiet area.

LARGE 3 BEDROOM apartment near Wrigley Field. 3820 N. Fremont. Two bathrooms. Hardwood Floors. Cats OK. $2190/month. Parking available at additional cost. Available 9/1. 773-761-4318.

newly remodeled 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, full basement. Beautiful area. $2500/mo. 708-935-7557.

Front porch, DR, LR, nr shops, laundry on site. Sec 8 Welcome. $1150/mo. 1 mo dep. 773-576-5002

CHICAGO SOUTH - YOU’VE tried the rest, we are the best. Apartments & Homes for rent, city & suburb. No credit checks. 773-221-7490, 773-221-7493

MARKETPLACE GOODS

MANUFACTURER SAMPLE SALE. Everything prices at or

below cost. Lots of toys, books, stationery, gift bags/wrap, ceramics, candles and lots more. 2514 W. Armitage on 8/26 from 9-3. Sale will be held in garage on Bingham street side of the building

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

FOR SALE FOR SALE: Montello, WI Supper

Club Great business opportunity $1,500 monthly rental income Near lakes, main hwy, bars & restaurants $325,000 UC | Hamele Auction & Realty Terry Dixon 608697-0750 | UCHamele.com

CHURCH PROPERTY, PEWS and piano and pews for sale as is. $25,000. 773-264-6151

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

units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue. 773-685-6868. South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

ADULT SERVICES

FREON 12 WANTED: Certfied buyers pick up and pay cash for R-12; 312-291-9169; refrigerantfinders.com

HEALTH & WELLNESS FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel, house calls welcome $90

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

ADULT SERVICES

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

ADULT SERVICES

8322 S BAKER, 3BR apt, 1st flr, hdwd flrs, Sec 8 ok. 2BR or 1BR voucher ok. 2707 E 93rd St. 5BR, 2BA, hdwd flrs, Sc 8 ok. 3BR voucher ok. Call 847-312-5643. HOUSES FOR RENT from 7th St-138th St, 3-4 BR, newly remodeled all appliances included Section 8 Welcome 773-220-0715 SECTION 8 WELCOME $300 Move-In Bonus, No Dep. 6227 S. Justine. 3BR/1BA & 225 W 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA. 7134 S. Normal, 4BR/ 2BA. Ht & appls incl 312-683-5174

2 BR OTHER ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar

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

CHATHAM! NEWLY REMODELED. DR/LR/Hardwood flrs and appliances. 3BDR/1BTH. No sec. dep 650 Move in Fee 1250/mth 773-8144301

NEWLY RENOVATED BI-LEV-

NW - CALIFORNIA/FOSTER 2BR & Den, 1st flr, newly remod. heat

EL house for rent in Morgan Park. 4 BR, 1.5 baths, finished basement. 1477 W. 113th PL. $1325/mo. First months rent and $1700 sec.dep due at move in. Call 773-779-4229 for more information.

SECTION 8 WELCOME West

HARVEY SECTION 8 Welcome

103rd Street, small 2 bedroom. No security deposit. Heat and appls included. 773-719-2695

EVANSTON 2BR, 1100SQFT, New Kit/ oak flrs, new windows, OS Lndry, $1295/incl heat, 773743-4141 urbanequities.com

FREE HEAT 8036 S. Green. 3BR,

EAST LOGAN: 2BR + den/1BA. Remodeled 2nd floor unit; new kitchen w/SS appliances, updated bath, new hardwood floors, freshly painted. laundry in building, EZ parking, separate utilities. No smoking. No pets. $1600+ one month security deposit. Available now. Call 773-879-2430

incl. 1 mo. Dep. 1 yr lease, no Pets, ADT Protected. 773-275-9758

3 bedroom brick house with a 2 car detached garage. 1 story house - no stairs to climb, large yard, new ceramic tile floor in kitchen, washer dryer hookups, A/C, well lit exterior, freshly painted interior, ceiling fans, new bathroom fixtures, and wall to wall carpeting. $1,300/Month, $1,000 Security Deposit. Section 8 Welcome. Call Lee 312-420-7780.

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

OVER

CHICAGO, 5015-25 W. Iowa Ave. Augusta & Cicero. Newly Rehab, 2 & 3BR, $1000+/mo. Section 8 OK. David, 773-6639488

DOLTON, IL. NEWLY decorated

80TH & DREXEL, 3BR, 2BA, $1100. 79th & Aberdeen, 3BR $950 & Bsmt Apt $700. +utils. Sec 8 ok. Hdwd & ceramic tile. 773-502-4304

2 BR $1500 AND

8058 S. BURNHAM, 2 B R , appls incl. Tenant pays electric only, No Pets. $750/mo + 1 mo sec. Available Now! 773-264-3419

MARKHAM HOME FOR RENT 4-5BR. Section 8 preferred. Call 708-296-6222

Wrigleyville DLX 3BR, new kit, private deck & yard, FDR, oak floors, sunroom $2100/heated 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

BRONZEVILLE, 4542 S King Dr. 2nd flr, 3BR, 2BA, hdwd flrs, kitchen, pantry, LR & DR, lots of closets, sun porch, ten pays gas & heat.$1100 +$1200 sec. 773965-1584 aftr 6pm 68th & ROCKWELL, 3BR, heat

Bronzeville DLX 1/BR: new kit, private deck & yard, SS appls, FDR, oak flrs, new windows, $925950/heated 773-743-4141 urbaneq uities.com

$500 cash back. $0 Security for Sec 8. 3BR, $1300/mo. Fine cond. ADT Alarm. 708-715-0034

EVANSTON DLX 1BR + Den, vintage beauty, new appl, oak flrs, French doors Laundry $1095/ heated, 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

SECTION 8 WELCOME: 6BR hdwd flrs, newly remodeled close to trans, garage, S State St & 120th Pl. 847-778-8808

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please recycle this paper 40 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

By Cecil Adams SLUG SIGNORINO

12 O’clOck

STRAIGHT DOPE q : There seem to be two major concerns

with a lack of net neutrality: pricing (want to browse ESPN.com? That’s another five bucks a month) and content (would Internet service providers refuse to transmit certain sites?). How bad could it really get? —BRYAN THURN, JACKSONVILLE

A : Great news: the worst-case scenario you’re wondering about is finally starting to come into focus. At long last, after ten years of debate over net neutrality, we finally have something concretely terrible to worry about. For those who’ve been scrolling past this stuff: the concept of net neutrality refers to the principle that, to crib from the Harvard Business Review, “a broadband internet provider should not block, slow, or otherwise unfairly discriminate against any website or online services.” The examples of what this might look like, as you note, tend to invoke a “tiered” Web, where premium pricing buys you faster, better service. Not the most terrifying prospect in itself, maybe, but proponents of net neutrality fear a slippery slope. Say ISPs can charge different rates for different content, or even block access to certain kinds of content; then say the New York Times publishes a damning investigation into Comcast’s corporate practices. The concern is that, absent federal regulation, Comcast could retaliate— block nytimes.com, or slow it to a crawl, say. The net-neutrality folks see this as a First Amendment issue, where the government should intervene preemptively to protect free expression online. This sort of thing hasn’t really happened, at least so far. According to opponents of net-neutrality rules, that’s no coincidence: this is a self-regulating system, they argue, that doesn’t require government interference. The feds don’t need to make sure Comcast doesn’t mess with your Netflix; fear of consumer discontent will ensure good behavior. Entrusting our civil liberties to the free market may sound naive at best, particularly as ISPs tend to face only limited competitive pressure. Still, neutrality opponents may be on to something. They’re particularly het up over a 2015 rule issued by the FCC that reclassified ISPs as “common-carrier utility services,” subject to stiff federal oversight. It isn’t hard to make the case that common carriers of the past—think railroads, or the Ma Bellera phone system—wound up losing a step innovation-wise, and I suppose it’s not impossible the Internet could go the same way. The ISPs themselves have been on both

sides of the question. Some sued to overturn the Obama-era regulations but have recently come out in support of “permanent, strong, legally enforceable” rules, per a Comcast statement this year. They want Congress— that famously effective governing body—to take up the issue, though, rather than leave it to the executive branch. One senses they’ve gotten to the point of just wanting some consistent guidelines. Fat chance. As with everything else these days, Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency has injected elements of both chaos and menace into the net-neutrality debate. His administration has (naturally) taken steps to reverse Obama’s rule, raising the specter of regulations that simply toggle on and off depending on who’s in power. This, I think, is where your worst-case scenario emerges. We know that, absent regulation, an ISP could theoretically block or slow access to some piece of disapproved content. Let’s imagine that content is an unflattering article about the president. Now, even in a hypothetical unregulated world where it’s technically in the ISP’s power to do such a thing, it’s still difficult to see it happening, assuming pre-2017 Washington rules: you’d figure that the systems of political and corporate accountability, the fear of scandal, etc, would restrain president and ISP alike from trying any funny stuff. But now? It’s 2017. We’ve got a president who loves publicly going after corporations—particularly media outlets—who’ve displeased him. We know his Twitter activity can move the stock market. Scandal is meaningless to him; Congress has yet to stand up to him. We’ve already seen ISPs participate in the suppression of Internet speech in places like China and Russia. I submit it’s not that hard to envision a time when an ISP might think carefully about what kind of content it allows to be seen on the Web, for fear of poking the orange dragon—no external pressure required. Not to put too rosy a spin on it or anything. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

Omni ò SEBASTIAN WEISS

NEW

Arcade Fire 10/30, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 8/18, noon Aterciopelados 10/5, 9 PM, Portage Theater b Yasiin Bey 9/21, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM, 18+ Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles 11/16, 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM Brand New 10/16, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Buzzcocks 9/16, 11 PM, Cobra Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Cap’n Jazz, Rapper Chicks 9/15, 11 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Peter Case 10/21, 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM Citizen, Sorority Noise 10/18, 7 PM, Metro b Marc Cohn 10/31, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Cooper-Moore 9/13, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Crystal Castles 11/10, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Dinosaur Jr., Built to Spill 9/16, 11 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Districts 12/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Evanescence 11/30, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM Adam Ben Ezra 11/21, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Foreigner 11/11, 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM Four Tet 10/5, 10 PM, Smart Bar

Frenship 11/19, 7 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Fruition 9/28, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b GBH 9/15, 11 PM, Cobra Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Girlyboi 10/17, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Gogol Bordello 9/17, 10 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Grizzly Bear 11/29, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 18+ Hot Water Music 9/17, 11 PM, Cobra Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Brendan Kelly, Makewar 11/5, 4 PM, Cobra Lounge b Mary Lambert 11/10, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Jim Lauderdale 11/17, 8:30 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM Hamilton Leithauser, Courtney Marie Andrews 10/27, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 8/18, noon, 18+ Lemon Twigs 10/26, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Lighthouse & the Whaler 11/15, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Lone Bellow 10/11, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Los Lobos 12/10-13, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/17, noon b Louis the Child 11/24, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Mewithoutyou, Pianos Become the Teeth 10/7, 8 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM, 18+ Mimicking Birds 10/10, 8 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 18+ Teedra Moses 10/24, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/17, noon b

42 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 17, 2017

Nahko & Medicine for the People 10/28, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM, 18+ New Found Glory, Bayside 9/15, 10 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Omni 11/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Orwells 9/14, 8 PM, House of Vans, 17+ F Queers, Ataris 9/14, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Rich Chigga 11/11, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b Phoebe Ryan, Morgxn, Molly Kate Kestner 11/6, 6 PM, Lincoln Hall b Saba 11/25, 6 PM, House of Blues b Slaughtbbath, Communion 9/16, 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Bob Schneider 11/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Seven Lions, Tritonal, Kill the Noise 12/16, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 18+ Bria Skonberg 11/7, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Slaughter Beach 11/7, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Soft Moon, Matteo Vallicelli 10/22, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM Suicideboys 12/14, 8 PM, Metro b Susto, Esme Patterson 11/2, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 18+ Taking Back Sunday, Sleep on It 9/17, 11 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Paul Thorn Band 11/2, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM b Tobacco 9/14, 10 PM, Smart Bar, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM

b Tough Love 7 with Crowd Deterrent, Navigator, Enemy Mind, No Second Chance, Line of Scrimmage, and more 3/24-25, noon, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Truckﬁghters 10/10, 8:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Turkuaz 12/1, 8:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 11 AM, 18+ Vale of Pnath 9/29, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint The Weeks 12/8, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 18+ White Buﬀalo 12/2, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/18, 10 AM, 17+ Wild Cub 9/25, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Witchtrap 9/15, 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die 10/13, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Yawpers 11/11, 9 PM, Hideout Yheti 9/8, 11:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+

UPDATED And Then She Came 10/29, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, canceled David Crosby 10/30-31, 8 PM, City Winery, second show added b Infected Mushroom (DJ set) 11/18, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, rescheduled from 8/18, 17+ War on Drugs 10/19, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom, moved from Riviera Theatre, 18+

UPCOMING Atlas Genius 10/5, 6 PM, Bottom Lounge b Avett Brothers 11/9-11, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Beach Fossils, Snail Mail 10/17, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Bleachers, Bishop Briggs 11/11, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Boris, Helms Alee 10/23, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Cattle Decapitation, Revocation 10/27, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Chameleons Vox 9/14, 8:30 PM, 1st Ward, 18+ Cherubs 11/11, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Edgar Winter Band 9/6, 6:30 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park Deer Tick 10/21, 8:30 PM, Metro, 18+ El Ten Eleven 9/21, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Elder, King Buﬀalo 10/17, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Flamin’ Groovies 10/19, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston 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

Liam Gallagher 11/21, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Guns N’ Roses 11/6, 8 PM, United Center Peter Hook & the Light 5/4, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Ice Balloons 10/10, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Japandroids, Cloud Nothings 11/2, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Kesha 10/18, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Killers 1/16, 7:30 PM, United Center King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard 9/24-25, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall L.A. Witch 11/12, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Lil Peep 10/19, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Magic City Hippies 10/1, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Max 10/29, 7 PM, Schubas b Nots 9/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Conor Oberst 9/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Angel Olsen 12/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Partner 9/28, 7 PM, Township, 17+ Pelican 10/13, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Quicksand 9/27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ RL Grime 11/15, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 17+ Frankie Rose 10/7, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Secret Chiefs 3 9/26, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen Trevor Sensor 11/1, 9 PM, Hideout Silversun Pickups 11/8, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre b Timeﬂies 10/22, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall b Touche Amore 10/7, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ TV Girl 10/7, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ UFO, Saxon 10/8, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Underachievers 10/7, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 18+ Venom Inc., Goatwhore, Toxic Holocaust 9/8, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Wand, Darto 9/30, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Warning, Thou 10/26, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Washed Out 8/25, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Weather Station 12/2, 9 PM, Hideout The Weeknd 11/2, 7:30 PM, United Center Zola Jesus, John Wiese 10/8, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene GOSSIP WOLF HAS BEEN hip to Chicago singer-songwriter Izzy Olive for a few years now. It seems like just yesterday that she and her band played their lilting, country-tinged rock under the name Tin Silos, but in fact Olive and company have been performing as Half Gringa since last year—on Friday, August 18, they self-release the first Half Gringa fulllength, Gruñona. Throughout the album, Olive explores what it means to grow up midwestern and Latinx, and she’s got the vocal chops to hit this wolf right in the gut. That same night, Half Gringa headline a release party at the Empty Bottle; Minor Moon and the Jellies open, and the show starts at 9 PM. Logan Square bar Slippery Slope opened in 2014, and Gossip Wolf liked it right away—in fact, the Reader threw the column’s fifth anniversary party there in 2015! On Sunday, August 27, Slippery Slope celebrates its own third birthday with 12 hours of bands and DJs, including Gossip Wolf faves White Mystery, Yawn, Tony Trimm, and the Hood Internet. In 1993, Jump Up Records took its first step toward becoming one of the midwest’s most important outlets for reggae, ska, two-tone, and other pop rooted in Jamaica: the label debuted with the first of four American Ska-thic compilations. On Saturday, August 19, Metro hosts Jump Up’s American Ska-thic 25th Anniversary—sure, it’s technically a year early, but the lineup is a doozy. Saint Louis “psycho ska” outfit MU330 headlines; Coolidge, the Eclectics, Detroit Rude Boy Society, Skapone, and Tango Wedding Band open, and Jump Up founder Chuck Wren spins between sets. Dark Matter Coffee will debut a new blend inspired by third-wave ska and two-tone: Perk It Up! Perk It Up! Independent publishing festival Zinemercado returns to the Comfort Station on Sunday, August 20, and the free event has more than zines—including several DJs and a live set by Gossip Wolf pals Wet Wallet. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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AUGUST 17, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 43

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 | 7-10PM | SPIN 344 N STATE | CHICAGO Join the Reader and top mixologists as they create drinks that take you THROUGH THE DECADES! Inspired by Chicago Reader’s POPULAR DRINK-MAKING SERIES, Cocktail Challenge invites you to ENJOY cocktails by some of Chicago’s most skilled mixologists, then VOTE for your favorite. #ReaderCocktailChallenge

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