Print Issue of September 20, 2018 (Volume 47, Number 50)

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

Jessica Hopper’s new book Night Moves pays homage to a bygone era in Chicago—the aughts. 20

RIOT FEST

Ryan Segedis’s snap portraits are a spontaneous expression of the moods and personalities of the artists. 30

ALL THE BEST THINGS HAPPEN IN FALL Here are 22 of them that we’re looking forward to between now and December

By READER STAFF 8-16

2 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

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THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 8 | V O L U M E 4 7, N U M B E R 5 0

IN THIS ISSUE

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ACTING DEPUTY EDITOR KATE SCHMIDT CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMIE RAMSAY CULTURE EDITOR AIMEE LEVITT MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, JAMIE LUDWIG SENIOR WRITERS DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, PETER MARGASAK SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTORS DAVE CANTOR, LUCA CIMARUSTI, ISA GIALLORENZO, SHERRY FLANDERS, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, IRENE HSIAO, DAN JAKES, MONICA KENDRICK, MAX MALLER, BILL MEYER, SCOTT MORROW, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, JAMES PORTER, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, KEVIN WARWICK, ALBERT WILLIAMS

CITY LIFE

4 Joravsky | Politics With Bill Daley now in the mayor’s race, it’s good to remember what happened the last couple times we put a Daley in charge.

FOOD & DRINK

5 Restaurant Review Good Measure marks the return of talented chef Matt Troost.

ARTS & CULTURE

FALL PREVIEW

An autumn of riches

Twenty-two things we’re looking forward to between now and December

BY READER STAFF 8-16

CHICAGO HISTORY

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The Young Lords at 50

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER BEST DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA

“We’re not from Humboldt Park or Lincoln Park, we’re Puerto Ricans.”

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20 Lit Jessica Hopper’s Night Moves pays homage to a bygone era in Chicago— the aughts.

21 Theater Lifeline Theatre reduces Mary Shelley’s cosmic Frankenstein to a therapy session.

24 Theater The second Chicago International Latino Theater Festival celebrates the city’s role in supporting Latinx artists.

24 Dance The Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival takes the pulse of the performing arts.

24 Theater BigMouth, Communion: An Evening of Magic, and four more new stage shows, reviewed by our critics 25 Movies This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman’s new film Life Itself works familiar territory— and tear ducts.

26 Movies Fans of queer cinema rejoice: the Reeling Film Festival is back for its 36th year.

27 Movies A Simple Favor, Fahrenheit 11/9, and five more new releases, reviewed by our critics

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

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29 In Rotation Current musical obsessions of Bongripper guitarist Nick Dellacroce, Varaha front man Fabio Brienza, and Reader associate editor Jamie Ludwig 33 Shows of note Serengeti, Author & Punisher, Joey Purp and ZMoney, and more of the week’s best

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39 Jobs 39 Apartments & Spaces 40 Marketplace

PHOTO FEATURE

Star quality ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY BEN CHLAPEK. FOR MORE OF CHILAPEK’S WORK, GO TO BENCHLAPEK.COM

Ryan Segedis’s snap portraits are a spontaneous expression of the moods and personalities of Riot Fest. 30

41 Savage Love “Should I just be satisfied with the mind-blowing sex I’m having, even if it means I don’t have an orgasm?”

42 Early Warnings Cupcakke, Dessa, Iggy Azalea, Liz Phair and Speedy Ortiz, and other shows to look for in the weeks to come 42 Gossip Wolf Slowcore veterans Pinebender resurrect their original lineup, underground rapper Freako celebrates a new mixtape, and more.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 3

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

CITY LIFE POLITICS

Thanks but no thanks

With Bill Daley now in the running for mayor, let’s remember what happened the last couple times we turned Chicago over to a Daley.

By BEN JORAVSKY

After toying with running for governor—twice—Bill Daley has joined the mayor’s race. é M. SPENCER GREEN/SUN-TIMES MEDIA

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ust when I thought the mayor’s race couldn’t get any weirder, into the fray jumps a Daley.

William M., to be exact. As opposed to—well, I’ll get to the Daley clan in a

bit.

There were already 11 announced candidates when, on September 4, Mayor Emanuel dropped a “Rahm-Shell,” as the Sun-Times headline put it, announcing he wouldn’t seek reelection.

Now 20 or so relatively high-profile pols— including Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza, and Jesús “Chuy” García—are talking about running.

If this keeps up, the Tribune may to have to rewrite its recent story about how tough it is to run Chicago. If being mayor is so “grueling,” how come so many want to do it?

In Bill Daley’s case, his mayoral announcement seems like some bizarre experiment to determine whether the Chicago electorate has developed a case of political dementia.

Bill Daley is banking on us having forgotten what happened the last couple times we

4 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

turned Chicago over to a Daley.

And many voters of the millennial persuasion are too young to remember.

So allow me to offer this brief reminder/ history lesson. Who is Bill Daley?

• The son of Mayor Richard J. Daley, who built the • • •

great Chicago Democratic machine and ruled the city from 1955 to 1976.

The younger brother of Mayor Richard M. Daley— oh, even my millennial readers remember him.

The older brother of John Daley, finance chairman of the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Uncle of Robert Vanecko, who turned up in the Sun-Times again this weekend. Investigative reporter Tim Novak filled in the details of how Vanecko’s former investment firm put together real estate deals that lost $54.2 million for various Chicago pension funds.

That’s the same Richard “R.J.” Vanecko who pleaded guilty to killing David Koschman with a single punch during a late-night altercation on Rush Street in 2004. It took almost

ten years of articles before Vanecko was punished because—oh, c’mon, you think it’s easy for cops or prosecutors to build a case against the nephew of a mayor named Daley?

Bill Daley, meanwhile, made millions as an executive for SBC Communications (now AT&T) and JP Morgan Midwest. Basically, he was the guy in charge of lobbyists, who were lobbying government on deals, regulations, and taxes so the companies could make even more money than they already were making.

As such, Bill Daley was working for SBC when, in 2001, it sold a company called SecurityLink to GTCR Golder Rauner, a Chicago-based investment firm.

For what it’s worth, Mayor Rahm and Governor Rauner were in on that baby as well.

Rahm was the investment banker who helped put the deal together. And Rauner was an owner of GTCR Golder Rauner—as its name suggests.

Rahm made about $6.5 million as an investment banker in 2001, the year he helped broker that deal. As for Rauner, his company sold SecurityLink for about $1 billion, rough-

ly six months after it was acquired for about $500 million.

So Rauner owes a portion of his fortune to a couple of Democrats named Emanuel and Daley—something to remember the next time you hear Rauner raging against the machine.

In the last year or so, Rahm and Bill Daley have been feuding. Mayor Rahm has taken to blaming Chicago’s financial woes on Rich Daley, though never by name.

Rahm says Rich kicked the can down the road by coming up with expensive financing schemes to avoid raising taxes to pay the city’s mounting pension obligations.

To which Bill Daley says, man, stop crying like a little baby. Or words to that effect.

For my part, I think Bill Daley makes a good point. Almost all of Rich Daley’s can-kicking schemes were supported by the city’s political elite (Rahm among them) as well as the voters, who probably would have reelected Daley in 2011 had he run.

Speaking of can kicking, I forgot to mention that Bill Daley is the father of William Daley Jr., an executive for Morgan Stanley, the investment firm that put together the consortium that bought the parking meters.

Just in case you forgot, that’s the deal in which Rich Daley basically sold an asset worth about $10 billion to a Morgan Stanley consortium for about $1.15 billion.

I think I’ve had enough reminiscing about the Daley years for the moment.

On the other hand, say what you will about Rich Daley, but he did build Millennium Park.

OK, he did it with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars. But still.

Also, no Daley father, son, brother, or nephew has ever concocted a scheme as diabolically devious as the one devised by Paul Manafort—Trump’s former campaign manager—and his Ukrainian and Russian oligarch friends.

They stole the identity of a Ukrainian hairdresser named Yevgeny Kaseyev, set up Belizean bank accounts in his name that he didn’t know about, and eventually left him with a tax bill of roughly $30 million.

Proving once again that, when it comes to sleaze and corruption, Chicago’s still got a ways to go to catch up with the Trump crowd.

(It’s always good to keep some perspective.)

Though the crazy way things are going with our mayor’s race, I half expect Trump to throw his hat into the ring any day now. v

m @BennyJshow

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FOOD & DRINK

GOOD MEASURE | $$

226 W. Chicago 312-600-9268 goodmeasurechicago.com

Left: supplì; prosciutto on toast with sauce gribiche Below: salt cod brandade with huitlacoche and sourdough é NICK MURWAY

Good Measure marks the return of Matt Troost

Now bring on the pasta—the current menu at the River North barstaurant offers just a glimpse of the chef’s unique talents.

BY MIKE SULA

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ut I want trofie!,” I pouted and figuratively stamped the floor when I saw there was no pasta on the menu at Good Measure, a tight new River North barstaurant from Sophie de Oliveira, a sibling in a Chicago cocktail family dynasty that includes her brother Daniel, spirits-brand manager about town, and sister Jacyara (El Che). Along with her is chef Matt Troost, who’s mounting a comeback after stepping away a year and a half ago from West Town pasteria the Charlatan, which closed three months after his departure.

I’m not suggesting that his leaving had anything to do with its closing—I have no idea. But Troost is a talented chef with a pasta-loving fan base that has followed him from the short-lived Fianco, back in the aughts, to the late, lamented Three Aces, on Taylor Street, and then to the Charlatan. For us, it’s been a long wait.

Alas, the bar’s online menu promises just one pasta—trofie, traditionally nubby twists

of wheat-potato dough from Liguria, usually eaten with pesto. The website promises that instead they’ll be served with charred poblano pesto, smoked cotija, and corn husk ash. Sounds weird, but I knew, based on experience, that in this chef’s hands it would probably be really good.

So yeah, I got sulky each time there was no trofie to be had (though there have been occasional pasta specials). But people follow Troost for other reasons too, and Good Mea-

sure seems like a good fit for the often-irreverent Italo-bar food he was capable of at Three Aces.

He goes there with cylindrical deep-fried supplì, arancini-like deep-fried Roman risotto fritters, here spiked with pepperoni and planted in a radiant marinara made with sweet Sungold cherry tomatoes. And again (with a detour to France) with ribbons of prosciutto on toast slicked with a creamy, eggy sauce gribiche with bracingly fresh parsley

and chervil. Gluey and overelastic, burrata makes a less credible case with cucumber, pickled peaches, and puffed quinoa.

From there it’s a wild ride. Jumbo deepfried “Nashville Hot” chicken livers have little of the sweetness endemic to that style, but they’re crisp, hot, and spicy and come with a cool cucumber-ranch dipping foil.

Like the supplì and the fried chicken thighs, not to mention the leg quarters with malt vinegar and curried honey butter, they make a strong case for the skilled fry play at work in the kitchen. So it’s a real disappointment that, on the two occasion I had the fries, the thick, well-done, hand-cut specimens tasted like they’d emerged from the oil long before they’d been ordered. That’s particularly confounding given that Troost’s Bolognese fries from Three Aces were an expression of spud love that lives on in legend (bring them back!).

Apricot-glazed pork ribs seem a little tired too, but underneath them is chakalaka, a medley of curried legumes and peppers that proves to be the South African baked bean analogue you didn’t know you needed. The burger those fries come with is a workmanlike double patty with smoked American cheese, served on an onion bun with op- J

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 5

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Once Marijuana Hijacks a Brain, it may not be reversible

FOOD & DRINK

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

Marijuana is not safe. No genetic test to predict who will be harmed the most. Please consider these risk factors before using this powerful, hallucinogenic drug: BIPOLAR DISORDER: Marijuana use raises the risk 2.6 times. Cougle JR et al. (2015).

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Journal of Affective Disorders, 138(1-2), 54-62 MAKES OPIATE PROBLEM WORSE: Olfson, M., Wall, M. M., Liu, S., & Blanco, C. (2018).

Cannabis Use and Risk of Prescription Opioid Use Disorder in the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(1), 47-53. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17040413 Campbell, G, Hall, WD et al, Effect of cannabis use in people with chronic non-cancer pain prescribed opioids: findings from a 4-year prospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health: htps://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30110-5/fulltext PSYCHOSIS: Daily use of 12-18% THC marijuana use raises the risk 5 times DiForti M, et al. Proportion of patients in South London with first-episode psychosis attributable to use of high potency cannabis: a case-control study/ Lancet Psychiatry. 2015: 2(3): 233-8.

Cannabis use is not secondary to pre-existing psychosis. Arsenault L, Cannon M, Poulton R, Murray R, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, 2002 Cannabis use in adolescence and risk for adult psychosis: longitudinal prospective study. British Medical Journal, 2002 Nov 23: 325 (7373): 1212-3 SCHIZOPHRENIA: Marijuana was the drug most likely to convert to permanent psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, nearly 1/2 half the time: Niemi-Pynttari JA, et al. (2013). Substance-induced psychoses converting into schizophrenia: a register-based study of 18,478 Finnish inpatient cases. J Clin Psychiatry, 74(1), e94-9. Starzer, MSK, Nordentoft M, Hjorthoj C (2018) Rates and predictors of Conversion to Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder Following Substance-Induced Psychosis.

Am j Psychiatry, 175(4), 343-350 CBD: a derivative of marijuana, is promoted as a miracle cure, but needs to be treated with skepticism. Much that is sold as CBD is not pure. Its interactions with other drugs are not well publicized. https://www.drugs.com/npp/marijuana.html CRASHES: The driver responsible for the death of Amando Chavez, a father of four, in Schaumburg August 15 was allegedly under the influence of marijuana. https://www. dailyherald.com/news/20180817/prosecutor-speeding-driver-in-fatal-schaumburg-crashspent-day-smoking-weed

Protect Your Brain 6 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Fried chicken with malt vinegar, curried honey butter, and slaw é NICK MURWAY

continued from 5 tional add-ons including onions caramelized with bits of foie gras, a whole lobe of burrata, or, as it states, “any other damn thing on this menu.” (In the future I might request the nutty sunf lower hummus showered in smoked sesame seeds.) A fat deep-fried Polish sausage is also elementally satisfying smothered in those same ducky, fatty onions.

A few nods toward Mexico are more inventive, like a salt cod brandade tempered with sweet corn and given an inky, fungal depth from dabs of black corn smut, or a pile of black mussels in a red posole-like getup: thick guajillo-stained broth with hominy, shredded cabbage, and tortilla strips.

This all goes down in a narrow bar with red booths on the opposite wall and a decorating scheme and soundtrack—Mudhoney posters, 25-year-old Fugazi—that seem a bit overearnest until you remember you’re in River North. Yet de Oliveira’s straightforward cocktails make for easy drinking even if they do seem short on acid, and there’s a surprisingly winning cosmo brightened with aronia berry (aka chokeberry). The fantastic dry and superfizzy Japanese whiskey highball is gassed to the tenth power by the Suntory Whisky Toki carbonation machine I need for my yurt.

Good Measure seems like a nice and mellow enough spot to hang out in a neighborhood that lacks such a place. But the short menu, given its missteps, is really only a glimpse at Troost’s unique talents. The good news is that eventually there will be pasta, according to Troost, who cites time and space limitations as the factors that have so far held him back.

“No one’s more bummed than I am about that,” he told me. “Believe me, there will be pasta.” v

@MikeSula

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All the best things happen in fall Here are 22 of them that we’re looking forward to between now and December

By READER STAFF ILLUSTRATIONS BY BEN CHLAPEK

Election season With the much-anticipated race between Governor Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker coming down the stretch run to November’s election, voters everywhere are looking forward to . . .

Chicago’s mayoral election?

Oh, brother, that doesn’t take place until February 2019.

You know, we’re a little like the Charles Grodin character in The Heartbreak Kid (the classic 70s version) who’s never satisfied with what he’s got and so is always looking for something new.

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Watch—even with all the excitement over the mayor’s race since Rahm threw in the towel and announced he wasn’t going to run for reelection—when it finally comes around to electing a new mayor, everybody will be talking about who’s the best Democrat to beat Trump in 2020.

Actually, I’m doing a lot of that right now—the Iowa caucuses are only 15 months away.

But back to November’s election. Time to show some resistance, everybody.

In this case, voters in the suburbs are very lucky. Unlike Democrats in Chicago, they actually get to take a stand against

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Trump by voting against some of his congressional stooges.

For instance, want to oust Peter Roskam, a climate-change denier who vehemently opposes a woman’s right to choose and is too cowardly to denounce Trump?

Then you can look forward to voting for Sean Casten, his Democratic challenger, provided you live in the Sixth Congressional District, which covers parts of DuPage, Lake, and suburban Cook Counties.

Want to elect a progressive, pro-choice nurse who wants to expand health care? Then you get to vote for Lauren Underwood, who’s running against Randy Hultgren, a Trump rubber-stamper—if you live in the 14th Congressional District out in McHenry County.

And if you live in the 16th Congressional District, you can help stun the nation by electing a Democrat in a district that went strong for Trump. You can do that by voting for Sara Dady, an immigrants’ rights lawyer out of Rockford, who’s running an uphill battle against Adam Kinzinger, another Trump loyalist.

And even if you’re a Chicagoan, you can still get involved in those races, because plenty of phone callers, door knockers, and envelope stuffers are needed—just check with the folks at Blue Beginnings for details.

As for me, uncool as this sounds, I’m looking forward to voting for J.B. Pritzker for governor. I know, I know—Pritzker is more or less a centrist Democrat who hasn’t been on the front lines of any of the local fights I’ve been waging for years.

But so what? This is an existential crisis for Illinois voters.

Rauner has spent the last three years attempting to do to Illinois what Scott Walker did to Wisconsin—turn it into an anti-union one-party state that helps put creeps like Trump in the White House.

I’m looking forward to pushing Pritzker to the left—once he gets into office.

So, yes, even with Chicago’s election heating up, I’ve got my eyes on this November. Take care of the pressing business at hand and move on from there. —BEN JORAVSKY

é ANTONIO PEREZ

Following the Van Dyke trial through the WBEZ podcast 16 Shots WBEZ’s Jenn White has a knack for telling Chicago’s modern history. In her podcasts Making Oprah and Making Obama, White recounted the captivating stories of local personalities gone global, and her current coverage of the Laquan McDonald case follows in that vein.

White’s new serialized podcast, 16 Shots, follows the case from the beginning, detailing the night in October 2014 when Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke killed the 17-year-oldMcDonald, and the subsequent fallout in Chicago and throughout the country. McDonald was shot 16 times by the officer—hence the podcast’s title—and the details that slowly emerged from that night sparked a new conversation

Closed toes, bare ankles

about the Chicago Police Department’s practice of covering up its cops’ abuse of people of color. McDonald was the 14th person shot and killed by Chicago police in 2014, and his death initially made very little noise in the news. But as details emerged over the next year, Chicagoans learned the truth about what happened the night of McDonald’s death.

White explains how the emergence of a witness and an inside informant and the release of the striking dashcam video of the shooting all led to Van Dyke’s trial.

The podcast explores the subsequent political arguments between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Police Department, but even more importantly, White and her team— which includes reporters from WBEZ and the Tribune—interview members of McDonald’s community and show who he was and how his grieving friends came to understand his death. Many citizens of Chicago’s south and west sides have routinely seen officers abuse their authority, but White gets into the gritty details, explaining the code police use to shape a narrative of innocence for fellow officers: shooting victims are “offenders,” a murder by police bullets is the offender “succumbing to injuries,” and, rather than shoot people, officers are “involved in shootings.” If that detail doesn’t grip a listener, the list of evidence to follow certainly will. After the shooting of McDonald, the story officers told began to unravel. Through audio from the night of the shooting, interviews with journalists, witnesses, and officers—including Van Dyke—WBEZ’s new series takes its audience through every moment of the case that builds toward Van Dyke’s trial in a complete and compelling report that’s unlike any of the other coverage. The officer’s trial, which began on September 5, may result in further reforms for the CPD. No matter the outcome, Jenn White, WBEZ, and the Tribune have promised to tell the full story. —DEVLYN CAMP

There are people who roll up their pants and expose their ankles to the elements in the dead of winter. It’s their prerogative, but to me it seems insane—as strange as those bros bustling around outside in cargo shorts and flip-flops on the first day in March when the temperature finally breaks 40.

Then there are people who wear closed-toe shoes and long pants all summer long. Again, their prerogative, but one gets to wondering if they’re religiously observant, or if they’ve experienced trauma, or suffer from a draconian corporate dress code or a dreadfully over-air-conditioned office, or whether they’re so unnaturally cold they prefer, even enjoy, keeping themselves wrapped up during heat waves.

For me, there’s a definitive time and place for closed-toe shoes to merge with pants rolled up at the ankles—and that’s a dry, 55-degree day in Chicago. Bare-ankle season comes twice a year, but it’s in the fall, when the trees aren’t naked and radiating the chill of winter, that it’s particularly pleasurable. To throw on some sneakers or oxfords or booties, to roll up that pant leg, and to stride outside in a light jacket over a long-sleeved shirt knowing that you will spend the day neither freezing nor melting, with the light natural ventilation of the wind at your ankles, is to truly feel alive! You get to experience the rare pleasure of comfort in your body, clothes, and environment all at the same time.

A dry fall day is also when I get to dust off the most interesting, comfortable shoes I own, without worrying about the possibility of sweating through them or muddying them up or ruining them with salt or getting overheated. A dry fall day means no more wondering if my unpainted toes look weird in those sandals, the second one tempting fate by sticking out over the edge of the sole. No more need to resist—or cave—to the idiotic social pressure of shaving my legs. In the fall, when bare ankles—naturally elegant no matter who you are—become the centerpiece of your look, the rest of your body can relax. —MAYA DUKMASOVA

Visiting Jackson Park— before it’s too late

When I read that the Chicago Park District was pulling down century-old trees in Jackson Park despite a federal lawsuit filed to prevent Obama Center-related construction in the area, a visit there leaped to the top of my must-do list. The 543-acre grounds, part of our inheritance from the World’s Fair of 1893, were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, of Central Park fame, and include the Museum of Science and Industry, the 59th Street Harbor, and—the two greatest attractions for me—the Wooded Island and the Japanese-style Garden of the Phoenix (formerly known as Osaka Garden).

Two days after I visited, the city halted construction on a track and field facility meant to replace one that will be displaced by the Obama Presidential Center. Forty trees had already been cut down, but for now the park is safe—as it should be, given that it’s on the National Register of Historic Places and is protected by federal as well as state and local laws. Among the potential roadblocks to turning 19 acres of parkland over to the Obama Center are two city ordinanc- J

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 9

That’s part of what makes fall so sublime. There are still plenty of things to see and places to go, but the calendar isn’t so overstuffed with must-do’s and no one is screaming “Carpe diem!” in your ear. You can just take a deep breath and relax instead. Maybe catch up on a TV show or pick up that book you meant to finish last spring. It’s perfectly reasonable to stay in tonight. ’Tis the season. —RYAN SMITH

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es yet to be passed and a federal review that could put the kibosh on the deal. The groundbreaking that was slated to take place this year has been pushed back to sometime in 2019.

That said, no one in her right mind would bet against the Obama Center eventually succeeding in putting its plan in place, so I’d advise a trip to Jackson Park in short order, preferably once the leaves are turning and the wooded island is aflame with color. The first thing you’ll see after going past the Museum of Science and Industry and its many pavilions is a huge parking lot, perhaps with some tailgating going on here and there (parking’s $2 an hour). Already under construction is the Clarence Darrow Bridge over the lagoon between the park’s east and west sides, but you can hop the fence and use the ramplike bridge supports to go down, then back up on the other side (careful, they can be slippery). Once you make your way into the Garden of the Phoenix itself, you’ll see signs instructing everyone to use their indoor voices to preserve the peace of the setting—and judging from the few couples and families we saw, it works. The farther you follow the path, the farther removed from the present-day city you feel. That’s how it should remain. —KATE SCHMIDT

Less pressure to go out every night

I’m no Chicago heretic. I won’t deny the pleasures of our summer. When the June sun finally emerges after six months

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of gray skies, it’s a magic cure for the seasonal blues and a harbinger of the embarrassment of riches of things to do.

The next four months are mostly swell—there’s a reason so many of us preach the gospel of Chicago summer to our outof-town friends.

But sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. The season gets so breathlessly hyped as a transcendent, life-affirming force that it’s easy to succumb to the need to stuff a year’s worth of fun between the months of June and September. Boats!

Beaches! Barbecues! Baseball games! Farmers’ markets! Movies in the parks! Music festivals!

Oh and hey, don’t forget your cousin’s destination wedding, that camping trip to Michigan, and dude—you have to check out this rooftop patio that just opened! Sometimes Chicago summers can feel like New Year’s Eve stretched out for four straight months, minus the stupid shiny hats, subzero temperatures, and champagne in Solo cups, but with all the impossibly high expectations and FOMO. The nonstop comings and goings eventually take their toll on my mind, body, and pocketbook. By the end of my seventh Bacon-flavored Craft Beer Summer Art Parade Fest Expo, I had sunburned skin the color of Donald Trump’s, I was broke as hell, and—like the changing September leaves—was ready to fall to the ground.

After Chinese New Year, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the second-most important holiday for the Chinese and Chinese-Americans. It falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar year, usually in September. (This year, it’s September 24.) In Hong Kong, where I grew up, the temperature then averages 84 degrees—at night. In Chicago, it hits during the sweet spot following the wet, humid tail end of August, when it starts to feel like fall. Like Thanksgiving, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated with reunions of families. Though I won’t be with my family this year, I’ve found elements here that ground me and give me a piece of home.

Chinatown bakeries and grocery stores—I like Chiu Quon Bakery and MayFlower Food—carry traditional special-occasion ingredients such as hairy crab and, most important, moon cakes, each densely packed with lotus-seed paste and a salted egg yolk and covered in a thin crust. Their roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness.

In Hong Kong, my family and I lived by a river, where we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival by lighting candles and paper lanterns along the bike and pedestrian trail. Here, there’s so much public space along the lakefront and the river that Hong Kong would be jealous. But it’s participants that make a holiday. This year I was happy to see several Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations in Chicago. The Field Museum’s Roots & Routes Initiative program jumped the gun with a celebration on September 15 with the Chinese American Museum, the Chicago Park District, the Nature Conservancy, and the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community. There were lanterns and a storyteller who told children the legend of Chang’E flying to the moon. In honor of the harvest moon, the Park District planted 1,200 native plants at the Set in Stone in Burnham Park, continuing a project it started last year.

I shouldn’t be so surprised that there are Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations here, considering Chinese Chicagoans began establishing themselves in 1870s—before the Chinese Exclusion Act. Being a minority in an American city I did not grow up in, I’m prepared if my cultural items and rituals are amiss—that part of my identity will come as an afterthought. The truth is, my heritage had already started to become something of an afterthought to me when my siblings went to college and I had no one to be a kid with.

The wild moon goddess stories, the toy lanterns, and the Chinese songs and musical instruments lost their novelty.

Fast-forward to now, when I’m grown up and far from home

é PAUL RIISMANDEL, KIN CHEUNG

Mid-Autumn Festival

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and hungry to be with people who look like me, speak my mother tongue, and share a similar upbringing. Maybe things that make me feel recognized and like I belong aren’t so childish after all. —SUE KWONG

é BENJAMIN RÉTHORÉ, JEFFREY PHELPS

September on the beach September is a magical time on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The water has been warmed to perfection by the summer heat. On a sunny 75-degree day the conditions for swimming are perfect. More perfect still are the conditions for enjoying that swim, particularly due to the absence of fascistic lifeguards.

No one who hasn’t spent a lifetime swimming in open water and knows herself to be a strong swimmer will understand why the best time at the beach is when the lifeguards are off duty. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day I resign myself to delighting in the lake before 10 AM or after 7 PM—if I really want to delight in it, that is, to feel the freedom of swimming freestyle or breaststroke through the deeper waters halfway between the shore and the boat buoys. The lifeguards perform a vital function, but the rules they enforce are targeted at the lowest common denominator of beachgoer: toddlers with floaties. Everyone else must be content with dipping into water scarcely waist deep. Break the rule and you should be prepared for a barely postpubescent, sunburnt “authority” figure to scream “MOVE IN!” anytime an arm crosses the imaginary barrier the lifeguards have created with the bows of their row boats.

In September, the lifeguards and their boats are gone. The beaches are technically closed, but you’re unlikely to be disturbed unless a zealous bike cop happens to be riding by. You can finally swim to your heart’s content in the midday heat.

Even if it’s cool outside, the water is still comfortable enough to offset the chills you’ll suffer while drying off. And the beach will be largely deserted. Most people, being cautious, law-abiding citizens, won’t be swimming “at their own risk.”

Instead, at least at Foster Beach, you’ll find a few triathlete types in their expensive wet suits, and elderly Soviet immigrants who, like me, learned to swim in a world without lifeguards, in the placid waters of inland lakes, in fast-rushing rivers, in the Black Sea. You’ll hear them speaking quietly in Russian, often with an Odessan lilt. The women, well in their 70s, come in pairs or small groups, unashamedly don bikinis from TJ Maxx, and congratulate one another on their commitment to physical health—how good of a job they’ve done getting out into the water this season. The men will often come alone carrying a small plastic bag for their shirt and a towel. They’ll wade out gradually, and then, with languid strokes, disappear into the line where water meets horizon.

—MAYA DUKMASOVA

Bowling season In 1936, a real-life Indiana Jones type named Sir Flinders Petrie journeyed to Egypt hoping to unearth a pharaoh’s fortune. The British explorer instead ransacked a child’s tomb

and discovered evidence of a crude form of bowling dating back at least 5,000 years.

Bowling historians also say the Polynesians played a game called ula maika that involved rounded stones and pinshaped rocks. Ancient German monks tried to justify their bowling habits by explaining that their pins (named kegels) represented devils or sins and that each kegel downed was a victory for Christ—which sounds way more entertaining than mass.

The British banned the sport in medieval times when it grew more popular than archery and Edward III became concerned that his army preferred rolling balls to shooting arrows. While busy with the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther also found time to reform the rules of bowling in the 1500s (and kept his own private alley at home).

All of this history is a reminder that the world’s great civilizations seem to share an abiding love of knocking down pins with a spherical object in the company of friends and neighbors. Baseball may be America’s pastime and and football our national obsession, but bowling is universal and timeless. It satisfies our human desires for competition and mastery— and for some friendly socializing over a pint of grog or mead or Old Style.

It’s no coincidence that when sociologist Robert Putnam tried to sum up his 2000 study on the decline of participatory democracy in America, he titled it Bowling Alone. Our nation of joiners and of tightly knit communities was beginning to abandon bowling leagues in favor of following spectator sports, and Putnam felt it was a bad omen for our civic strength. Even after his study was published, the decline of bowling continued: over the 15-year period from 1998 to 2013, the number of alleys in the U.S. fell 26 percent.

Since the 2016 election, though, a call for more civic engagement has been sounded. There have been mass protests.

People have been calling their congressional offices. This year a record number of first-time candidates have been running for elected office, and this fall voters are organizing marches to the polls. Maybe it’s time to resurrect the good old-fashioned bowling league too.

It can’t Make America Great Again all by itself, but it certainly can’t hurt—so join me for ten frames this fall at Fireside Bowl. The first round of drinks is on me. —RYAN SMITH

The perfect storm, or the two weeks in October when sports are king

For Chicago sports fans who pay just a visit or two to Wrigley each season—usually thanks to the good fortune of free tickets—or swivel a bar stool away from a plate of nachos only after they hear a collective “Hurrah!” hurled at a wall of TVs, the two weeks from October 18 through October 31 are a welcome distraction from a slow descent into cold and darkness. They brim with camaraderie between fellow Chicagoans. They make being fairweather fun. And for Chicago sports fans fraught with anxiety and a sense of obligation to consume every pivotal highlight as though they’re witnessing the birth of their firstborn, that stretch is all-consuming and agonizing. In a good way, of course.

So what brings the fair-weather and the fanatic together?

Well, the Bears aren’t usually enough games into the NFL season for all hope to be lost yet (though the New England Patriots come to town on October 21, so if the Packers loss didn’t do it, that might). The NBA tips off so early now—a recent trend as the league capitalizes on its uptick in popularity—that the Bulls open their season on October 18 against the Philadelphia 76ers, followed by their home opener against the Detroit Pistons on October 20. And by this point, Northwestern is well deep into the annual Big Ten football melee; they play a formidable Wisconsin squad on October 27. Not to mention the Chicago Fire—who, it’s true, are not very good currently—or whatever club you might’ve adopted from the English Premier League, which is in full swing by late October.

And then there’s baseball. Since the reemergence of Cubs relevance four years ago, former north-side naysayers now strut around with an air of confidence that this Cincinnati Reds fan finds both foreign and disconcerting. A title will J

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 11

Four Frankensteins (and a panel discussion)

Well, one thing we can say for sure about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: it’s alive. The great gothic novel’s 200th anniversary will be observed in Chicago with no fewer than four stage versions, three of them opening in the fall.

And why not? Not only is this birthday round numbered, but the author is as iconic as they come for a culture that’s clearly undergoing a leap toward a new level of gender equality (yes, even despite implacable opposition). Then too, Shelley’s tale of a modern Prometheus who poaches on the powers of the gods is a perfect fit for so many 21st-century anxieties. Global warming. Robotics, artificial intelligence, and the growing confusion over whether people have turned out to be the genius or the experiment. Not to mention the crisis of Western white men, who considered themselves the benefactors of humanity, the givers and guarantors of life, only to find that much of humanity has other ideas.

The Frankenfest will already have started by the time you read this. On September 7, Lifeline Theatre unveiled a world-premiere Frankenstein, adapted by Robert Kauzlaric, in which Shelley’s Victor has become Victoria, a woman undergoing a “nightmare journey of the soul” in response to an “impossible” death. That journey will be taken in the company of an outsize puppet designed by Cynthia Von Orthal.

Starting October 11, Remy Bumppo Theatre plans to raise “questions about scientific responsibility, parental neglect, and the nature of good and evil” with Nick Dear’s 2011 script and an approach, full of implication, whereby actors Nick Sandys and Greg Matthew Anderson trade off playing Victor and the monster. That’s followed in early November, at Court Theatre, by another world premiere: Manual Cinema—which has its own complicated relationship to technology, combining forms as ancient as shadow puppetry, as retro as overhead projectors, and as current as digital video—will offer an ensemble-devised treatment that brings Mary Shelley herself into the narrative.

Lookingglass Theatre will wait until May to show us Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, written and directed by company member David Catlin (tagline: “Within every man there is a monster; within every monster, a man. But which is which?”).

12 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

In the meantime, Catlin and his lead, Cordelia Dewdney, will participate with representatives of the other productions in a panel discussion about this eerie confluence. That’s Sunday, September 30, 1 PM, at the Lookingglass space, 821 N. Michigan. —TONY ADLER

Indecent and Downstate, two plays with a better-than-even chance of being great The final days of September should supply some terrible shocks—that is, if all goes well. On the 28th, Victory Gardens opens the Chicago premiere of Paula Vogel’s Indecent.

On the 30th, it’s the world premiere of Bruce Norris’s Downstate, at Steppenwolf.

Indecent is more of a known quantity for me, inasmuch as I saw the version that ran on Broadway last year. In it, Vogel revisits the relatively obscure but wildly resonant history of a play: Sholem Asch’s The God of Vengeance. The sensational tale of a Jewish brothel keeper whose daughter falls for one of his prostitutes, Vengeance was such a succes de scandale in Europe that Asch brought it first to the Yiddish theaters of New York and then, in English translation, to Broadway. Among its provocations was a lesbian kiss (a first for Broadway in 1923) that not only got it shut down but prosecuted for obscenity, with what turned out to be horrific consequences for its cast.

The New York Indecent was at once lyrical and devastating. With Gary Griffin directing a cast anchored by great Chicago pros like Cindy Gold, David Darlow, and Andrew White, there’s a better-than-even chance that the same could be true here.

Speaking of provocations: Bruce Norris. The winner of a 2011 Pulitzer Prize for his tamest play, Clybourne Park, Norris gained notoriety for several merciless satires, most spectacularly The Pain and the Itch, which derives its title from a small girl with a suspicious genital rash. Downstate brings him back to the abhorrent subject he only baited us with in Pain, pedophilia. The new play is set in a group home for men convicted of having committed sex crimes against minors—an offense we Americans collectively find so repulsive that we don’t mind punishing perpetrators for it even after they’ve served their time. Just try finding material more likely to trigger people in the era of #MeToo and abusive priests.

Downstate is directed by Pam MacKinnon, who worked with Norris on a superior Steppenwolf staging of one of his best plays, The Qualms, and—like Indecent—it features a remarkable bunch of actors, including Steppenwolf ensemble members Glenn Davis, K. Todd Freeman, Tim Hopper, and Francis Guinan. Another production with a fair, if not exactly decent, chance of working out well. —TONY ADLER

La Bohème at the Lyric Years ago, when singer-songwriter and editor Renaldo Migaldi was one of the brainy, quirky editorial assistants and fact-checkers who used to interrogate every about-to-bepublished word at the Reader, he heard me lament the arrival of fall as the harbinger of winter and said that was exactly the reason he welcomed it. Why? “Because everything I like to do best happens then.”

He had a point: as the leaves fall, the Chicago cultural calendar springs into full bloom, offering a rich array of indoor pleasures, including a new season at Lyric Opera. The opening show this year is one of the most produced in the repertoire—Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, in a new production boasting a cast to die for. (And, since it’s 19th-century opera, someone will die onstage, movingly, of course.)

As you probably know, this 1896 opera about a group of struggling artists living the scandalously bohemian life in Paris in 1830 was the inspiration for Jonathan Larson’s 1996 pop-rock Broadway musical Rent, about a group of struggling artists living the scandalously bohemian life in New York at the end of the 20th century. Both the opera and the musical portray unfettered young love and tragic death by disease. In Larson’s show the culprit is AIDS; in Puccini’s, it’s tuberculosis.

What La Bohème has that Rent doesn’t is some of opera’s most sublime music. Puccini was a master at seduction through sound. And Lyric’s version of this coproduction with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Teatro Real Madrid has a cast that promises to make the most of it. I was at a Ravinia Festival concert last month when tenor Michael Fabiano stepped in as a last-minute substitute after two other tenors fell ill in succession—and turned a potentially disappointed audience into raving Fabiano fans. He’ll be making his Lyric Opera debut as the poet Rodolpho. Soprano Maria Agresta, a standout as the slave girl in last season’s Turandot, will be his ill-fated lover, Mimi. The two of them, singing selections from this opera, were a highlight of Lyric’s recent concert in Millennium Park, as was gorgeous soprano Danielle de Niese, who, in a frosting-on-the-cake piece of casting, will take on the role of their friend, the free-wheeling flirt, Musetta.

La Bohème will have five fall performances at Lyric Opera, beginning October 6, and six more in January, when we’ll really need them. —DEANNA ISAACS

Ate9 performs with Chicago companies Visceral and Deeply Rooted at the Auditorium Theatre It’s not very often that you see local dance ensembles share a bill with visiting companies, which is why I’m so intrigued by the debut program of the Auditorium Theatre’s “Made in Chicago” 312 Dance Series. I’m delighted to see the Au- J

é JOE MAZZA, TODD ROSENBERG PHOTOGRAPHY

continued from 11 do that. So imagine my struggle come the National League Championship Series and World Series—in both of which the Cubs could very conceivably take part. Both fall during those blessed two weeks.

And now onward to the endless jockeying for decent bar seats, the ordering of delivery pizza several days in a row, the neglect of family . . . Some fans see to those tasks year-round, but even they should do right by embracing the fans only there for the spectacle. No one wants to yell obscenities at a TV alone. —KEVIN WARWICK

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Cards Against Humanity: Late Night Writers Room at the MCA

The first time I played Cards Against Humanity I was buzzed on cheap wine, sitting on a friend’s hardwood floor and shuffling through a random pile of books and puzzles looking for something to entertain me. This was before the “party game for horrible people” was omnipresent at department stores. The set we played with was printed out from the website and hand-cut into jagged, flimsy paper rectangles. At the time we enjoyed it for what we thought it was: an inappropriate novelty game meant to embarrass Grandma at a holiday gathering or entertain friends under the influence.

We never could have imagined that six years later the cards would not only still exist but be evolving and thriving. Based on a 2013 interview with the Reader, it doesn’t seem like the creators thought it would get this far either.

Yet here we are, and what started as a group of eight college guys trying to commodify Hitler jokes has since turned into a multimillion-dollar company with a sense of purpose and an increasingly diverse writers’ room. They have their fingers on the pulse of not only what’s funny and relevant,

14 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

but what less-than-PC phrases need to be weeded out from the original printable pile. Cards Against Humanity: Late Night Writers Room is a live show that puts faces to those new additions to the deck. At each performance audience members can pitch their best suggestions for cards. If the suggestions are good enough, Cards Against Humanity’s writers and improvisers will base a scene on them. If not, the cast will endlessly ridicule the idea until they inevitably come up with their own addition to a new expansion deck on the spot. The upcoming performances are each for a cause: on Friday, September 28, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago the group is partnering with State Matters to register people to vote, and the show on Friday, October 12, at Sleeping Village will feature real live puppies, with all proceeds going to Alive Rescue.

And there’s likely even more up Cards Against Humanity’s sleeve before the year comes to an end. The group’s notorious for grand gestures around the holidays, like last year’s purchase of a piece of land along the U.S.-Mexico border to help prevent Trump’s wall from being built. It’s nice to know that every time I play my favorite card, “David Bowie riding a tiger made of lightning,” I’m supporting a company working to make real change. —BRIANNA WELLEN

Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming I first heard Michelle Obama speak in January 2008 at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, where my partner’s father was living at the time. My partner and I had already heard and voted for her husband; we were excited. His father was more skeptical. The IVH was a regular stop at caucus time, a place for candidates to practice their stump speeches on a captive audience.

He thought they were all dumb, but he agreed to humor us.

She spoke in a low-ceilinged m u l t i p u r p o s e ro o m w i t h cinder-block walls. She was probably the tallest person in the room and certainly the only one wearing a suit. The vets who weren’t in wheelchairs sat on metal folding chairs. It was after lunch, and many of them looked drowsy. My partner’s father stood by the door with his arms crossed, prepared to slip back to his room. It was, in short, not an encouraging venue.

At first she was nervous. She stumbled over words. But then she got to the meat of her speech: the reasons why she thought her husband should be our next president. I can’t remember exactly what she said now, but I can’t imagine it was much different from her speech at the Democratic National Convention later that year. She talked about how she and her husband had both grown up among honest, hard-working people who had sometimes struggled to pay the bills. They had taken those values to heart, and when it came time for her husband to choose a career, he decided not to go to Wall Street but to the south side of Chicago. He was a good man and a good leader, she loved and believed in him, and she thought we should too.

It wasn’t so much what she said, though, but the sincerity with which she said it. And it never really went away even after she became First Lady: see how she choked up during her 2016 speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, about Donald Trump’s campaign behavior. Ostensibly it was a speech in support of Hillary Clinton, but it was also a very, very personal testament to all the bullshit she’s gone through in her life.

“It is cruel,” she said of Trump’s rhetoric. “It’s frightening.

And the truth is, it hurts.”

This willingness to be real is why I’m looking forward to her new book, a memoir called Becoming that comes out in November. She’s going to kick off her book tour with what her publisher calls “an intimate evening” at United Center. Who knows, maybe her powerful sincerity will make it seem smaller.

As for my partner’s father: he stayed through the whole speech. He even applauded. Afterward, as we walked back to his room, he told us, “I really like that gal.” I’d never felt closer to him. —AIMEE LEVITT

Johnnie To retrospective at Doc Films Unless I see something in the next 15 months that impresses me more, I’m prepared to name Johnnie To’s Life Without Principle (2011) as my favorite film of the decade. Principle blends comedy, melodrama, suspense, and a Minnelliesque sense of movement and color to contemplate the ethical quandaries of life in the speculation economy. It’s one of the rare films that succeeds as both an entertainment and a moral provocation. Writing about it in 2012, I likened Principle to the masterpieces of John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, and like those directors, To came to mastery through deepening themes and experimenting with form within the realm of accessible genre filmmaking.

The ten-film To retrospective playing Tuesdays at Doc Films from October 1 to December 4 features revival screenings of Principle and two more of the Hong Kong auteur’s greatest works, Breaking News (2004) and Vengeance (2009). The remaining seven titles showcase the director’s tremendous range. Not only will Doc present the sort of action films on which To built his international reputation (A Hero Never Dies, The Mission); it’ll also feature some of his comedies (Help!!!, Fat Choi Spirit) and one of his romances (Needing You . . .), which are hugely popular in Hong Kong but rarely receive attention abroad. As an added bonus, nine of the titles are slated to be screened from 35-millimeter prints.

To may be one of the most important Hong Kong filmmakers, but he’s also one of the last people upholding the tradition of classical Hollywood filmmaking. In 1996 he cofounded the production company Milkyway Image; the studio has developed a stable of talented writers, actors, and technicians committed to ensuring a high level of quality across a variety of output. The pleasures of a Milkyway production are comparable to those of an MGM film of the 1940s or ’50s—even when the story isn’t great, one can still get lost in the richness of the craftsmanship and creative collaborations. The work of To and company is a testament to the joys of moviegoing; I’m excited to experience so much of it on a big screen. —BEN SACHS

é JENN BANE

ditorium offer its magnificent space to Chicago groups that probably wouldn’t be able to afford a venue of that caliber on their own. Prime downtown theater real estate should be used to spotlight what the city has to offer.

Ate9 works out out of Los Angeles, but its piece, Calling Glenn, has a direct Chicago connection, thanks to live music composed and performed by Wilco’s Glenn Kotche.

The high energy of Danielle Agami’s playful, intricate choreography is a great fit for Kotche’s score, and I’m curious to see if the show brings out Wilco fans who may not check out a lot of dance. If they come, they’ll be introduced to two local companies, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and Visceral Dance Chicago.

I saw dancers from Deeply Rooted perform Nicole Clarke-Springer’s “Until Lambs Become Lions” at the kickoff event for Chicago Dance Month earlier this year, and the piece—a powerful depiction of solidarity and perseverance set to Nina Simone’s “Isn’t It a Pity”—brought tears to my eyes. That performance at the Chicago Cultural Center featured minimal technical elements, so I’m eager to see what Deeply Rooted does with the expanded technical capabilities of the Auditorium Theatre.

The size of the Auditorium house forces dancers to push the expressive qualities of their movement, which should lead to some spectacular performances from the skilled ensembles of Deeply Rooted and Visceral. The latter already has a creative relationship with Agami, who is also Ate9’s founder, and it will be interesting to see how her choreography for her own company compares to the work she did with Visceral last year. —OLIVER SAVA

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Roy Kinsey and Tasha are dropping new albums

é GRACE COUDAL

Chicago hip-hop fans used to speak strictly in terms of rappers, beat makers, and DJs, but over the past few years we’ve also started celebrating saxophonists, guitarists, band leaders, backing vocalists, and poets. As a listener, I get a lot of joy surveying this sprawling world and finding musicians who enhance my understanding of what Chicago hip-hop—and, by extension, Chicago music—is and where it can go. And this fall I’m particularly looking forward to new releases from rapper Roy Kinsey and singer-songwriter Tasha Viets-VanLear, who performs under her first name.

In October, California indie label Father/Daughter Records will release Tasha’s debut album, the genre-blurring Alone at Last. On the record Tasha plays tiptoe guitar melodies and delivers her tender, earthy vocals at a volume that suggests she’s leaning in close to whisper her lyrics in your ear; she exudes not only empathy but kinship. She opens the album with an intimate spoken-word poem about finding self-love in the face of racism, and the piece glows with detail—a quality apparent throughout the rest of the album.

Tasha grew up working in theater, playing guitar and violin, trying her hand at freestyling with friends, and participating in Young Chicago Authors, the creativity hub that’s produced some of the best young poets and rappers in this city. She understands the importance of community, and if it isn’t obvious in her odes to young women of color, it’s evident in the album’s vinyl version: $1 from every sale will be donated to No Cop Academy organizers, and each record includes a poetry zine featuring contributions from black Chicago women including Imani Jackson, Stella Binion, and Jamila Woods.

Tasha wields a revolutionary spirit that’s as vital to her work as it is to that of some of the city’s best rappers.

Roy Kinsey dropped one of the best Chicago hip-hop albums of 2018 back in February, a deeply affecting observation of American racism titled Blackie: A Story by Roy Kinsey. Roy made the album while researching his family history following his maternal grandmother’s death in 2016. His storytelling takes the spotlight on Blackie, but his new EP, More Roy, spotlights his impeccable rapping—his seasoned cool, silken flow, and preternatural sense of how his voice can alter and augment the mood. It’s a victory lap, and Roy will be celebrating with an afternoon release show at Sleeping Village on Sunday, September 23. Hardcore-punk label Not Normal will release the cassette version—another example of Chicago hip-hop’s ability to cross over into different communities. —LEOR GALIL

Chicagoans tell us what they’re most looking forward to

I’m most looking forward to cooking dishes with fresh squash and also to going back to school—I’m taking some science classes!

—Lydia Fu, illustrator and organizer at the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media I’ve been listening to Lala Lala’s upcoming album The Lamb (September 28). It makes me feel like I’m in my high school bedroom, putting on a thrift-store flannel before going out for the night.

I’m also excited for Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake (October 26) with motherfucking Tilda Swinton. I suspect it’ll be one of those where even (or especially) if it’s bad, it’ll be good. —Laura Adamczyk, author of Hardly Children, out November 20 Watching the current project I’m working on take shape— maybe even a rough cut!

—Bing Liu, director of Minding the Gap I’m looking forward to the artist documentary Kusama Infinity. I’ve been interested in Yayoi Kusama’s artworks since high school, her depiction of our repetitive compulsions that are both self-soothing

looking forward to the crisp smell of beer brats cooking in the Soldier Field parking lot while I beer-bong an Old Style in my #34 Walter Payton jersey. —Chicago Party Aunt

and consuming. Another art documentary I can’t wait to watch is The Price of Everything, about the insane fever dream of the art market. —Ling Ma, author of Severance I’m really excited for this upcoming Soulection tour happening, and I’m really excited to hear new music from Eryn Allen Kane and a project from Noname! —Sahar Habibi, local DJ playing the Sound of Tomorrow Presented

by Soulection on October 25 The Chicago premiere of Pan at the Garfield Park Fieldhouse October 5 and 6. Some of my favorite humans are involved in this project—it’s composed by Marcos Balter, performed by Claire Chase, and produced by Jane M. Saks (Project &). After seeing the chatter following the NYC premiere this spring, I have been waiting to see it. I highly recommend not just witnessing this performance, but being a part of it too. There are a few rehearsals, but anyone age ten and up can participate in the magic. Do it! —Alyssa Martinez, Hungry Brain programmer Well, I’m most looking forward to my mayoral run in 2019! This fall I’m

Fall is migration season, and more than 100 different species are beginning to migrate through the region on their way to their wintering grounds. Some of the really cool birds from my perspective include sandhill cranes, northern flickers, common nighthawks, red-breasted nuthatches, Swainson’s thrushes, cedar waxwings, and American redstarts. —John Bates, Field Museum associate curator and section head for birds Rudbeckia, kale, fountain grass, zinnias, coleus, hops , celosia, dahlias, sedum, and smoke bush are some of my favorite fall flowers. Collards, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard greens, and carrots are all great fall crops and can be harvested even after the frost. —Megan Musschoot, owner of Pistil & Vine The Midwest Independent Film Fest events on the first Tuesday of each month, of course! :) —Amy Guth, director of the Midwest Independent Film Festival Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year. I’m looking forward to long bike rides where I can see the leaves change color, long walks through random neighborhoods on chilly evenings, and the winds of change shifting the political landscape in the upcoming electoral cycles. —Amara Enyia, Chicago mayoral candidate

The MC50 reunion tour I’ve become bored by rock reunions. Well, less the actual reunion than the cottage industry that’s convinced any musician who once recorded something a small crowd J

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 15

continued from 15

Say Cheese Fest

For a city that’s in such close proximity to the dairy-filled state of Wisconsin, Chicago doesn’t have nearly enough cheese-centric destinations. Our neighbors to the north aren’t afraid to pile cheddar on anything on the menu, cocktails included, and you can hardly spit without hitting some sort of emporium off the side of the highway that’s filled with curds, dips, loafs, melts, and things you never imagined could be made out of cheese. And let’s not forget the majestic Mars Cheese Castle—would that such a palace would open in city limits one day. Maybe it’s just because I was raised right on the border and cheese is in my blood (or at the very least is deeply affecting my cholesterol), but I often wish for a Chicago that is this passionate about dairy.

The Say Cheese Fest is here to prove that I’m not alone. On October 14, restaurants and other food vendors will present their cheesiest items, from mac and cheese to pizza to queso dip to cheesesteaks to cheesecakes to—well, you get the idea.

Guests are able to try samples and vote for their favorites, with the top vote getter receiving the coveted “Big Cheese”

16 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Fall pastry

prize. The lineup for this year has yet to be announced, but past Cheese Fest participants have included Lou Malnati’s, Blackwood BBQ, Cone Gourmet, Mac Dynamite, and last year’s big winner, Wisconsin’s Saxon Creamery.

Once an annual event that took place place during National Cheese Month (October), Say Cheese took pity on the city’s need for cheese and added a second fest this past spring. For now, two fests a year will be just enough for me to get my fix between journeys to Wisconsin to stock up my cheese drawer (everyone has a cheese drawer, right?)—at least until Say Cheese opens up a cheddar emporium of its very own. A girl can dream. —BRIANNA WELLEN

Fermentation Fest I’m trying to make friends with microbes in the End Times.

What am I gonna do when the shit comes down and I don’t know how to do make cheese, cider, kimchi, beer, yogurt, and bread? I’ll be prepping during a two-weekend crash course in zymology at Fermentation Fest—A Live Culture Convergence, which features more than 50 classes on the care, feeding, and eating of fermented foods. Learn how to make colonche, nawait, and pulque with agricultural ecologist Gary Paul Nabhan during a class on American Pre-Columbian Fermented Beverages. Sit down to a seven-course wild-foods dinner with herbalist and forager Linda Conroy. Learn to care for and feed your own bubbling starter at the Rustic Breads and Sourdough class with baker Shawn Rediske. Presented by the not-for-profit Wormfarm Institute, whose mission is “to integrate culture and agriculture,” Fermentation Fest takes takes place at various locations in downtown Reedsburg, Wisconsin, just northwest of Madison, and includes a meandering 50-mile self-guided tour of Sauk County farmland, dotted with art exhibits, performances, and artistdesigned roadside stands selling fresh and fermented foods.

October 5-14. Reedsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, 240 Railroad St., Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Classes are $5, but they sell out fast. Register in advance. —MIKE SULA

I track the passage of summer through the things that make me happy at the farmers’ market. First come strawberries, then garlic scapes, then tomatoes, then cherries and corn, and I celebrate them all initially with an idiotic little songand-dance routine, and then with cakes and pestos and sandwiches and pies.

And finally come the apples and pears. I know they should make me sad since they’re the harbingers of the end of market season and the onset of winter, but instead they make me happiest of all. Because their presence means that I will soon be eating apple and pear pie and waffles and oatmeal and, best of all, apple-cider doughnuts.

The best apple pie recipe I’ve ever tried is the one Paula Haney uses at Hoosier Mama Pie Company and has included in her cookbook. It’s somewhat more involved than most apple pie recipes, but it’s worth it and overall not a bad way to spend a Saturday, especially if the weather is lousy.

Haney’s pear and Dutch apple pies are equally good. (You can buy them at Hoosier Mama too, but if you make pie at home, you can have as much as you want.)

For the past few years, I have been using an apple-cider doughnut recipe I got from Bon Appetit, but this year I will use the one Kevin Pang posted in the A.V. Club’s Takeout last fall, mostly because Pang swears the product approximates the apple-cider doughnut from the Long Grove Apple Haus, may it rest in peace.

I’ve been considering some theories about why I like appleand pear-based fall pastries so much. The anthropological: a primal desire for warming spices once the air gets chilly. The psychological: they remind me of the applesauce my parents fed me when I was a baby and our love for one another was pure. The economic: the scarcity of apple-cider doughnuts during the rest of the year drives up the demand. And, finally, the obvious: butter and sugar and cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg all taste wonderful together, especially with apples and pears. —AIMEE LEVITT

Mexico in a Bottle If, like me, you’ve fallen under the spell of agave spirits, you know the tasting event Mexico in a Bottle is the party of the year. Graduating from its increasingly crowded original digs at the Chop Shop, the 2018 incarnation of the festival is moving into roomier quarters at the Logan Square Auditorium, all the better for one to easily glide among more than 100 bottles from mezcaleros both established and unsung. Complimentary bites from Carnitas Uruapan, Dos Urban Cantina, Dove’s Luncheonette, Presidio, and Quiote are there to help keep you tethered to the floor while engaging with the brains that can tell you everything you want to know about mezcal, raicilla, sotol, bacanora, and more.

Short of selling all your possessions and moving to Mexico (something maybe you should consider), it’s the best way to get a grip on the huge variety in flavor, aroma, terroir—and story—that this magical juice is capable of. Sunday, October 14, 3 PM. Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie. Tickets are $60-$75. —MIKE SULA

é JIM NEWBERRY

called influential to get the old band back together—or worse, hire a team of young guns to play songs they never had a hand in and tour as the allegedly reunified band. These days reunions are like encores; an act bands once partook in because the feeling moved them, it’s now an event fans expect will happen.

I do make exceptions, though. This fall it’s for the MC50 tour, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the MC5’s incendiary debut album, Kick Out the Jams; it stops at the Metro on October 24. For one thing, this isn’t a straight reunion. Guitarist Wayne Kramer is the only original member of the rebellious Detroit protopunk group who will be around for the whole tour (drummer Dennis Thompson, his only living bandmate, will join for select dates). He’s backed not by an anonymous gaggle of musicians but by a few masters who’ve also changed the course of popular music: Faith No More bassist Billy Gould, Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, and Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil. Vocalist Marcus Durant fronted the lesser-known grunge-blues outfit Zen Guerrilla, which released one album on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles and two on Sub Pop. In theory, the lineup makes it easier for this show to be about reflection. This isn’t the old gang trying to perfectly re-create a single album, but a collection of musicians with distinctive memories of the material who are coming together to work out what it means now. The MC5 recorded Kick Out the Jams a couple of months after they plugged their amps into a hotdog vendor’s power outlet to perform in Lincoln Park as part of the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests; a riot broke out at the end of their set. Again our country feels like it’s on the verge of collapse, but Kramer seems to know music has the capacity to bring people together. —LEOR GALIL

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 17

A march to the 18th District police station, 1969

S

tudents Confront DePaul,” reads the headline from a news brief in the first issue of Y.L.O., the official newsletter of the Young Lords, the Chicago-based Puerto Rican political organization. The item, from March 1969, describes a forum held at DePaul University to discuss the school’s role in gentrifying the neighborhood. As the Y.L.O. put it, DePaul was “depriving the poor people of the area of housing and driving them out” of Lincoln Park.

The university has played a sizable role in the changing landscape of Lincoln Park, dating at least from Mayor Richard J. Daley’s 1950sera plan to reshape the city into segregated neighborhoods primed for development. This September, DePaul is once again facilitating a dialogue about the gentrification of Lincoln Park by hosting the Young Lords 50th Anniversary Symposium. The three-day event, held September 21 through 23, will commemorate the organization’s founding in 1968 through panel discussions, workshops, and, on September 23, a cultural celebration to mark the 150th anniversary of El Grito de Lares (aka the Lares Rebellion), the Puerto Ricans’ first major revolt against Spanish colonial rule. It was on this holiday 50 years ago that the Young Lords chose to announce their transformation from a street gang to a political organization focused on self-determination for Puerto Rico and empowerment for the people of the neighborhood.

The transformation was spearheaded by José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, an original member of the Lincoln Park gang. Like many of Chicago’s gang-affiliated youth at the time, Jiménez was in and out of jail, often for drug-related offenses. It was during one stint in solitary confinement, at what was then known as the Chicago House of Corrections (it’s now part of Cook County Jail), during the summer of 1968 that Jiménez became politicized, thanks to a black Muslim man who was the prison librarian. Jiménez began learning about Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Black Panther Party. Their quest for social justice—and the Panthers in particular—sparked his interest.

“When I got out, I wanted to change my life,” Jiménez says. “I wanted to build a movement.

At first I thought of leaving the Young Lords, but then I decided: No, it’s better just to stay with the Young Lords and try to work and teach some of them. That’s how we became political.”

Jiménez admits that the reorganization wasn’t easy. There was much infighting about the group’s future, but in the end, after he educated his fellow members about housing issues in the neighborhood, they agreed to refocus their mission on fighting Mayor Da-

18 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

é SUN-TIMES NEGATIVE COLLECTION

Return to Lincoln Park

Once a street gang, then a political collective, the Young Lords celebrate 50 years with a symposium at DePaul.

By KERRY CARDOZA

ley’s racist campaign to push them from their community.

Over the next several years, the Young Lords made important inroads in their effort to empower the barrios. In May 1969, the Lords made headlines when they commandeered the McCormick Theological Seminary administration building on Fullerton (which was later acquired by DePaul). Along with local Latino community members, the Lords demanded that the seminary invest in low-income housing and provide a free health clinic and a people’s law office. These demands were met, at least for a time.

“The Young Lords took that building over as a statement, obviously, to the institutions of this neighborhood,” says Jacqueline Lazú, a DePaul professor of Spanish and the chair of the upcoming symposium. “They targeted institutions like McCormick and DePaul and even the hospital at the time, as institutions that they felt really had a moral and ethical obligation to address the issues that affected the community that surrounded them. I think they felt that these institutions that were bound by a mission statement that included caring for the poor—that they were trying to hold them accountable for their role in either stopping or reinforcing the systems that were displacing these communities.”

That June they led a march of 10,000 people along Division Street in the city’s annual Puerto Rican parade, carrying signs commemorating Don Pedro Albizu Campos, the pro-independence leader of Puerto Rico’s Nationalist

Party, who had died in 1965. This was one of Chicago’s first marches for self-determination for Puerto Rico, and it was a turning point for the city’s sizable Puerto Rican population, which at the time numbered about 79,000 residents in a city of 3.3 million. As the Young Lords website puts it, the population—much of which had already been displaced from “La Clark” and “La Madison” to make way for Carl Sandburg Village and UIC—was “census undocumented and politically powerless.”

The Young Lords seized control of another local institution that June, the United Methodist Church on Armitage Avenue. The members had been in negotiations with the church to rent unused space for social programs. But those negotiations broke down due to the discomfort some Cuban exiles in the congregation had with working with a radical political organization that viewed Che Guevara as an inspiration.

After the takeover, some of these congregants alerted the police, who quickly came to the scene. Jiménez credits the church’s minister, Reverend Bruce Johnson, with preventing a “bloodbath” that day. Johnson, who was sympathetic toward the Lords, told the police the group had permission to be there. (Johnson and his wife, Eugenia Ransier Johnson , were mysteriously found slain in their home that September, a case that has never been solved.)

The Young Lords renamed the building the People’s Church, and by the following day had set up a day care, a health clinic, and a free breakfast program. Working together with the church, they operated out of the building

rent-free for about a year. Eventually, between near-constant arrests of Jiménez and requests by the city to bring the day care and clinic up to code, the Young Lords closed the office.

One of the group’s greatest legacies is arguably its participation in the original Rainbow Coalition, a multiracial working-class liberation movement. The coalition was started in 1968 by Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party. He invited the Young Lords and the Young Patriots—a white, working-class organizing group based in Uptown—to join forces in fighting the Daley machine. Jiménez was already well acquainted with Hampton, as the two would often attend the same political actions. He recalls being arrested alongside Hampton during an action to support unionization of the staff at the Wicker Park Welfare Office.

“I would go with Fred Hampton to speaking engagements,” Jiménez says. “That had an influence on me, because he’s studying and at the same time he’s running the movement. He was going to classes, and in between classes he was doing speeches. So I was watching him, how he spoke. He had a plan and he was confident in what he was doing. That impacted me a lot.”

Lazú stresses the historical significance of the Rainbow Coalition (not to be confused with Jesse Jackson’s group of the same name, which wasn’t founded until 1984). “They became a very powerful gesture of solidarity, arguably one of the most important coalitions of people of color and poor people coming together across racial lines here in Chicago,

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José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, 1968 é SUN-TIMES NEGATIVE COLLECTION

which of course is a highly segregated city,” she says. “That was a moment in time when that was challenged in a very important way.”

Establishing alliances across ideological differences is no small feat. But the coalition is all the more notable for succeeding despite the efforts of the FBI to hinder its progress.

The militant organizations involved in the coalition were the targets of COINTELPRO, a covert FBI initiative that sought to infiltrate and destroy radical political groups, which were considered a threat to national security.

Jiménez recalls being arrested 18 times over a six-week period in 1969, resulting in constant court appearances.

Bobby Lee, the BPP’s north-side field marshal, said in a 2017 interview that it seemed like the government’s repression of the Panthers began in earnest when they started forming coalitions across racial lines. “Once the party departed from the ‘hate whitey’ trip and got serious about building real politics, we were a threat—plain and simple,” Lee said.

“The FBI were always watching us. But the Rainbow Coalition was their worst nightmare.

It was Daley’s worst nightmare too.”

COINTELPRO had dire effects on the political struggles of the 1960s and ’70s, and not just on an organizational level. In December 1969, FBI officers raided Hampton’s Chicago apartment and killed Hampton and fellow BPP member Mark Clark. When the police failed to secure the crime scene, the Young Lords provided security for the Panthers, who opened the apartment for public viewing.

The BPP’s legacy will also be honored at the DePaul symposium, with a discussion on the Rainbow Coalition led by Elaine Brown, the former minister of information and chairwoman of the Black Panther Party.

Although the Young Lords are no longer in the spotlight, Jiménez insists that the movement is still alive. He describes it as a skeleton crew that remains committed to the cause.

“Some of them say they’re former Young Lords,” he says. “What I tell them is, ‘Every or-

ganization has a mission, and our mission has not been achieved yet, so you can’t call yourself a former Young Lord when you haven’t freed Puerto Rico, or you haven’t empowered the people in the barrios.’”

The members are still in touch, and many continue to do community-oriented work.

Jiménez points to Luis Tony Báez, who now serves on the Milwaukee Public Schools board, and Juan González, who is a cohost of Democracy Now! Jiménez himself has had a varied career since the Young Lords’ heyday.

In 1973 he ran for alderman in the 46th Ward, eventually garnering 39 percent of the vote.

He later worked as a youth counselor, based on his previous success transforming a gang into a political movement. In 2013, Jiménez earned his bachelor’s degree at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, where he now lives.

While a student, he put together an impressive archive of the Young Lords and Lincoln Park, conducting more than 110 interviews. He sees all this work as connected to the Young Lords’ mission, and to his own personal goal of keeping the memory alive.

“That’s why we have this event coming up,” he says. Although for Jiménez, collaborating with DePaul is a mixed blessing. “It’s not easy,” he says. “DePaul is still a gentrifier. But Latino faculty are there, and a lot of progressive people. DePaul decided to support us, and we’re very grateful for that.”

The Young Lords’ relationship with the university started in the mid-1990s, when they approached DePaul’s library and Center for Latino Research to discuss archiving the movement’s history. Young Lords print materials and other ephemera are now housed in the library’s special collections department.

Several items, such as historical photographs and copies of the Y.L.O. newsletter, will be on display at the symposium.

Since then, the relationship has continued.

DePaul previously hosted a commemoration of the Young Lords’ 40th anniversary. With the 50th anniversary coming up, it made sense for the Young Lords to coordinate with the school once again.

One event that Jiménez looks forward to is a walking tour of Lincoln Park that Young Lords members will lead on Saturday morning. “People are trying to cover up this history, and they shouldn’t do that,” he says, noting that there’s now a Walgreens where the People’s Church used to be. “That’s the worst mistake. There’s a lot of lessons to be learned. You know, gentrification is still occuring today. ‘Gentrification’ is a sweet term, that’s a natural process. This is not a natural process. This was segregation, this was planned by City Hall.”

Looking around Lincoln Park today, it’s

easily apparent that Daley’s vision has been fulfilled. His Chicago 21 plan sought to expand downtown and stave off middle-class white flight. In practice, this meant pushing the neighborhood’s Latino families west toward Humboldt Park. “Although Lincoln Park never became majority–minority, it developed closely knit Latino fabrics of self-help and struggle,” University of Illinois professor John Betancur wrote in 2011 in the journal Urban Studies. Residents of gentrified Chicago neighborhoods said they “had the same values and aspirations as the middle class” but lacked the resources and, more importantly, the public investment. “They spoke of the deleterious impacts gentrification had on racial/ethnic groups as it evinced their fabrics via displacement, harassment, institutional encroachment or (racist/classist) electoral politics,” Betancur wrote, “forcing them into locations without the social infrastructures their conditions require.”

Jiménez mourns all that was lost in Lincoln Park. “It used to be diverse,” he says. “The Latinos and African-Americans and people like that are just workers. They don’t live there anymore. The policies of the city were racist, were segregationist.

“Lincoln Park is a very good example of segregation,” he continues. “It’s a beautiful place. We love beauty too, but it’s not for us.

We’re for that, for the people that are going to own houses and stuff like that, but we had a community there. A community that was completely displaced. The first large Puerto Rican community in the history of Chicago.

That history was in Lincoln Park.

“But you know, we’re not from Humboldt Park or Lincoln Park, we’re Puerto Ricans,” he says, gaining steam. “People need to realize that. Just like people say the New York Young Lords and the Chicago Young Lords—no, we’re Puerto Ricans. We’re fighting for Puerto Rico.

We’re fighting for our people and our community. So this event is about all that. It’s not just about Puerto Ricans. It’s about Latinos, it’s about oppressed people, it’s about progressive people, it’s about Black Lives Matter today, it’s about everything that’s going on. It’s a connection. It’s a protracted struggle. It’s called unite the many to defeat the few—that’s how we’re gonna win.”

He stops himself. “But anyway, I’m on my soapbox. I don’t want to do that.” v

m @booksnotboys

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 19

ARTS & CULTURE

NIGHT MOVES

By Jessica Hopper (Texas). In conversation with Megan Stielstra Thu 9/20, 7 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773769-9299, womenandchildrenfirst.com. F

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Jessica Hopper’s Night Moves

By KEVIN WARWICK

T

here’s a glorious passage in Night Moves, the latest book by music editor and critic (and onetime Reader contributor) Jessica Hopper, during which she recounts a 2004 bike ride down Damen Avenue. As she travels along, she rattles off a stream-of-consciousness list of the Chicago landmarks she passes along the way (“Pilsen’s strip malls,” “Little Italy’s ass end,” “the Drag City office”).

“Taking Damen Avenue from one side of town to another,” Hopper writes, “you get a good span of Chicago, something practical to counter the highlights reel of Lake Shore Drive.”

Night Moves revels in subtle but wholly Chicago moments like these. Out September 18 from University of Texas Press, the book is a compilation of vignettes of Hopper’s explorations of the city between 2004 and 2008. It was an era when Wicker Park was in the midst of rapid gentrification, an era when barflys couldn’t drop their eyes to their smartphones at the first twinge of discomfort. Ever observant of her surroundings, Hopper understands her fleeting interactions with both friends and strangers as representative of the rhythm of the city—and she often describes them with an agile sense of humor.

Recently I spoke with Hopper via phone (she was walking through Manhattan on her way to an interview with Cat Power) about Night Moves and her ongoing love affair with Chicago.

Your interest in the texture of Chicago has always shown through in your writing, but what made this retrospective important for you to publish now?

When I was putting together The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic, there were things that didn’t fit. My friend Alice Merrill, who was helping me archive,

20 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

é DAVID SAMPSON

On being young, ambitious, and in love with Chicago

pointed out that I’ve written about Chicago so much—and that the material I had between 2004 and 2008 seemed like its own piece.

If we stopped just before I had kids, my first book, a career—it would be its own contained, discreet world. I kept finding all these people who had left Chicago, all these places that didn’t exist anymore. The world I chronicled was in some cases several years gone. Neighborhoods had been transformed by gentrification. The era I was around was the last gasp before it fully flipped. I was a harbinger of that change—and so were my friends.

You don’t much hold back about the repercussions from the gentrification in Wicker Park. How did you interact with the dwindling of the neighborhood in which you had made so many fond memories?

I had a mentor who when I told her where I lived said, “Yeah, that’s where my painting studio was back in like ’70 to ’75.” Up in the Flat Iron. So clearly I was part of a steady encroachment that visibly picked up steam during those years I document.

A chunk of the book takes place when I lived in two neighboring punk houses, kind of right on the edge of an industrial corridor over on Grand. I was practically the last tenant. They were bulldozed and leveled to make million-dollar condos. Literally million-dollar condos. There was no way not to be very aware of our role as a young, white artistic class. When I was in Ukrainian Village, it was still 97 percent Ukrainian. I saw up close how the cycles sped up. I was being priced out of the neighborhoods I had been hanging in for 20 years, but there was nothing to be gained by being blind to the young, blithe whiteness within the space.

You recount more than one night out where, say, you wish a hole would open up in the ground, swallow you whole, and transport you home. Those nights where you were stuck in a booth drinking your water with ice [Hopper doesn’t drink or use drugs], the scene bustling around you. . . . Was it about observing the scene? What made you go out?

It wasn’t necessarily situations I didn’t want to be in—that was the risk of going out. The book takes place during the dawn of Myspace becoming a network for people who weren’t collegiate. It sounds absolutely arcane, but we went out to connect with people. And that was just the gamble. The only info we might get would be, “Oh there’s a thing tonight at such-and-such place, and people are going over here after the show.” The physical real world was so much more a part of our immediate community.

I realize I’m a bit more of a hermit than I probably realized I was back then, but I went out a lot and was alert because I really cared about the people I was hanging out with. And there was an interest in preserving those moments.

People would show up at my house because they couldn’t get ahold of me, or they didn’t even have a phone. It was during the days of borrowing the cell phone of the person you’re with. It sounds so long ago.

But I like that about it—the feeling you’re still in the nascence of something. So the twilight of this other thing felt crucial to document, even if there’s nothing remotely special about my life in that space and time. It became sort of the soft story of the book.

Tim Kinsella’s All Over and Over, about his time on a Make Believe tour, is diaristic in the same sort of way.

Night Moves is an ode to friendships developed and nourished in a city where everyone is everywhere all the time. Did you get wistful in remembering those relationships?

I’m not a supersentimental person, even though my last two books have been anthologies and works from my past. This book helped me become reacquainted with my younger self—and in some ways rightsize my memory. So much of my memory of that time is . . . I’m just broke. But I also remember having a lot of space in my life. Today that space is informed by my children, my children’s schedules, and being married. I wonder, “Would 28-year-old me be disappointed

in 42-year-old me?” That rightsizing is more of what happened than getting wistful for what was.

The book captures that sort of amorphous late-20s/early-30s range, when there’s a lot of recalibration of self happening. You comment on it a lot, like when you write, “Watching the smart and talented trying to stave off the reality of their 30s with Similac-cut bump really gets me down.” What were your struggles with that era and how did you understand your friends’ struggles?

At 28 I wanted to be living by my moral and spiritual principles. Absolutely. And I wanted to be a professional writer. That idea was modeled on the lives of my friends in New York who were writers. That’s not a life particularly possible for a writer in Chicago [where there’s not as large a publishing industry], and I kind of had the sense that I’d always be playing catch-up. Eventually I realized that being here allowed me to have a totally different kind of career.

There was a period of time where I felt like a lot of people were using cocaine in a recreational way—and sometimes other people drinking in a habitual way. And there are moments where the book intersects with the sort of reckoning of that. People having things reconciled—you kind of have to grow up or sink deeper into it.

There were nights I went out where I was the only one not hammered. When I moved to Chicago, I came from LA, where a lot of people are sober. Here I would hang out with people who drank every single night and drank to get drunk every single night. I was like, “How does anyone function the next day?” To me it was like, “How does anybody get it done?”

So much happens on a bike—and the action is often moved ahead because of a bike. How integral was the bike ride to discovering your Chicagoness?

Very much so. I think it’s hard not to feel deeply embedded in the city when you’re on a bike. Maybe you’re just cruising by, but you’re also seeing things and people and encountering the world in a way where you’re not hermetically sealed up in your Acura. So much of my ability to explore Chicago is literally being on a bike and being like, “Oh, what’s that?”

And just being able to stop and get off. v

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R READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

FRANKENSTEIN

F

Through 10/28: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood, 773-761-4477, lifelinetheatre.com, $40, $30 seniors, $20 students.

Ann Sonneville as Victoria and Chris Hainsworth as the Creature é SUZANNE PLUNKETT.

THEATER

Frankenstein gone mental

Lifeline Theatre reduces Mary Shelley’s cosmic struggle to a therapy session.

By TONY ADLER

T

he more I think about Frankenstein the more it awes me. As I’ve said elsewhere in this issue, Mary Shelley’s 1818 epistolary novel addresses all kinds of modern anxieties. But that’s mostly because its themes have power without regard to time. The story of Victor Frankenstein’s all-too-successful experiment in biochemistry speaks, tragically, to questions so big I feel awkward writing them down: What is life? What is death? What is the source of being? What is a soul? What is happiness?

What do we owe our gods? What do they owe us? What does it mean to be human? To be divine? And what’s the difference between the two?

That being the case, it’s no wonder that the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein’s publication would inspire what has to be an unprecedented response here in Chicago.

Four—count ’em, four—stage productions based on the book will be going up at local theaters this season. One opens in October, another in November, the third in May, and the fourth is getting its world premiere at Lifeline Theatre right now, in a 90-minute mounting that’s often richly atmospheric but backs away from Shelley’s nervy probings to give us, of all things, a therapeutic ending.

Written by Robert Kauzlaric and directed

by Paul S. Holmquist, the Lifeline rendition distinguishes itself right off the bat by turn-

a rather elegant outsize puppet designed by Cynthia Von Orthal, and, in one of the production’s most successful gestures, operated by a cadre that starts with Victoria’s father (Chris Hainsworth) and grows to include all the creature’s victims. But the subject is there nonetheless. Shelley engages it, formidably, in the book; at Lifeline, Victoria’s revulsion comes across as more inchoate, more visceral. In fact, Kauzlaric and Holmquist frame many of her actions as extrarational. Even magical. The scene where she animates the creature is less a scientific procedure, for instance, than an artful sort of spell casting. Which sets up some queasy implications in light of the Victor/ Victoria gender change. Are we supposed to see the female Frankenstein as more intuitive than her male counterpart? More emotional?

Witchier? Could she be suffering from what a physician of Shelley’s time might’ve diagnosed as hysteria?

I don’t for a second believe that Kauzlaric and Holmquist are consciously dealing in sexist stereotypes. What I think is that those stereotypes are an unintended consequence

of Kauzlaric’s most fundamental departure from his source material: As his program note states, he conceived his Frankenstein as an allegory on mourning and “how we find our way through it.” The play is an “emotional journey rather than a literal one.”

In other words, Victoria’s creature is meant to be seen as nothing more than a metaphorical construct—“a walking, talking personification of Grief”—and the havoc it causes is so much psychic rage against the dying of Dad’s light. And where Shelley’s Frankenstein is involved in a truly cosmic struggle with the living being he created at the peril of his eternal soul, and with whom he can never be reconciled, culminating in a death race across the most barren stretches of the earth, Victoria just needs to get her head on straight.

Never mind that this new scenario leads to a final scene that makes no sense even in allegorical terms. Never mind that it doesn’t merely rethink but rescinds Shelley’s narrative. It’s just so trivial. v

m @taadler

ing Victor into Victoria. (Do your best to shake off the unfortunate associations with Blake Edwards’s 1982 film comedy, Victor/ Victoria.) Certainly, nothing of the original character’s temperament is lost in the transformation. Young university student Frankenstein is as brilliant, willful, and intense as ever. And, in Ann Sonneville’s fierce embodiment, probably even more fucked up, going into a tailspin when her beloved, supportive father dies. Contemptuous of her family for accepting Dad’s death as natural and therefore inevitable, she resolves to take action against mortality itself and bring him beautifully back to life.

Victoria’s experiments toward that goal result, however, in the creation of a being so repulsive to her that she can’t acknowledge it as her own. The being she sees as a monster tries again and again to win her pity, and fails just as often. So it finally decides, Cain-like, that if its god won’t love it, it will annihilate everyone she does love. And so begins a rampage that throws Victoria and her creature into a strange, sordid sort of intimacy. If the creature is like Cain, then Frankenstein herself is like another Biblical figure, Jonah, running from a relationship that’s inherently inescapable.

Sonneville’s dark gravitas is such that you can almost forget to wonder why Victoria finds the creature, her creature, so hideous— especially inasmuch as it takes the form of

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 21

CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL LATINO FESTIVAL: DESTINOS

ARTS & CULTURE

Through 11/4: various times and locations; see website, 312-631-3112, clata.org, $5-$40.

HARVEST CHICAGO CONTEMPORARY DANCE FESTIVAL

9/21-9/29: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 312-952-3615, hccdf. com, $25, $18 students/seniors/military, $10 child.

THEATER

Theresa Bautista

Bigger and better

é CHRIS KASARI

R By George!

Even after a century, Arms and the Man can still bring the laughs.

The second Chicago International Latino Theater Festival celebrates the city’s role in supporting Latinx artists.

By DAN JAKES

I

n the early 2000s, if you’d asked Ricardo Gutierrez to name every Latinx actor in Chicago, it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge.

“Ten to 15 years ago,” says the executive artistic director of Teatro Vista, “there were shows that I would not have been able to cast with an all-Latinx cast of actors because they simply were not here.” But times have changed. “I can’t keep up. They just keep coming, and they’re trained and talented.”

The second Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, titled Destinos, begins September 20. Teatro Vista and a coalition of international, national, and Chicago-based companies, including Victory Gardens, Chicago Shakespeare, and Steppenwolf, will showcase and celebrate a broad range of Latinx theater artists with seven weeks of shows, panels, and workshops.

The 2018 edition expands the number of productions from ten last year to 14. It will be “more robust and ambitious,” says Myrna Salazar, executive director of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance, the producer of Destinos. “It’s just so many stories that are so close to the heartbeat of this country.”

Born out of a collaborative effort between Carlos Tortolero, director and founder of the National Museum of Mexican Art; Carlos Hernandez, executive director of the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance; and Pepe Vargas, executive director of the International Latino

Cultural Center, the festival will feature companies from LA, Dallas, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

New Destinos partners this year include the Goodman, which will copresent Mexico City-based Los Colochos’ Mendoza on October 2. “Audiences can expect a radical reimaging of Macbeth,” says John Collins, the Goodman’s general manager, who describes the play as a “dark, thrilling, and at times, bloody” production set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and evocative of the 2014 Ayotzinapa massacre.

Gutierrez, whose production of Ed Cardona Jr.’s American Jornalero runs at Victory Gardens October 18 through 21, describes Destinos as a continuation of Chicago’s leadership role in fostering work by Latinx artists. “The health, the energy, the vibrancy of Latinx theater here in Chicago may be unmatched in the States,” he says. The Alliance of Latinx Theatre Artists, which he founded with Tanya Saracho “is now serving as a model for other cities. They’re reaching out and saying, ‘Hey, how did you guys do this?’”

And when it comes to financing Latinx theater, Salazar similarly notes an evolution in funders’ values over recent years: “There’s more conversation about equity and inclusion in each and every one of the boardrooms.” v

m @DanEJakes

Mendoza é COURTESY THE ARTIST

22 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

THEATER

DANCE

Alive and kicking

The Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival takes the pulse of the performing arts.

W H E N M E L I S SA M A L L I N S O N A N D NICOLE GIFFORD co-founded the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival nine years ago, they were independent choreographers looking for opportunities to show their work in an increasingly dismal environment for the arts. “A number of festivals became defunct around the time of the recession of 2008-’09,” recalls Mallinson. “A lot of arts organizations were really struggling. We were thinking about the types of opportunities we wanted to be involved in, what our experiences had been, and what types of companies and choreographers needed more representation.”

From the 100-150 submissions they receive each year in response to an open call, Mallinson and Gifford curate a program that strives to feature a broad range of musical styles and dance influences. The result is a festival that takes the pulse of contemporary dance in Chicago and around the country, with 16 performances over two weekends at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. “The legacy of dance in that space makes it such an honor,” says Mallinson. “We’re the only event like this in the city.”

Watching the festival evolve and grow over nearly a decade has allowed its founders to observe trends in dance as they emerge. Mallinson notes that many recent submissions have focused on identity in the context of current politics. “The strife and challenges in the world are being reflected on stage,” she says.

“Artists are being really bold and brave and sharing what they need to in a form of expression that is beyond words.” —IRENE HSIAO

Even the name George Bernard Shaw sounds ho-hum to most people. It’s got the intrinsic fustiness of barrel staves and buggy whips behind it in a way that that of his fellow Dubliner, Oscar Wilde, born two years earlier than Shaw, does not. Still, it’s always been my experience that the indefatigable genius behind Heartbreak House and Saint Joan holds up remarkably well. He does better than hold up in this production. Director Brian Pastor and his extraordinary cast have a genuine comedy on their hands. Raucous, abrupt, and tightly wound, it deserves as many pairs of eyes on it between now and late October as City Lit can squeeze into its Bryn Mawr black box.

Set during an obscure war in the Balkans, the action centers on Captain Bluntschli (Adam Benjamin), a deserter from Switzerland who’d previously been fighting on the Serbian side against a poorly armed but headstrong Bulgarian regiment. Clambering through the bedroom window of a hilltop manse with his pistol drawn, he begs the stunned girl there for shelter. A berserk Bulgarian major, he says, charged at the Serbian front line that day “like an operatic tenor,” causing Bluntschli—the famous “Chocolate Soldier” who looks good in uniform but is essentially useless—to do the sensible thing and bolt. The wit and wisdom of the play unspool from there, as the girl, Raina Petkoff (Scottie Caldwell), turns out to be engaged to that same nincompoop major, Sergius Saranoff (Martin Diaz-Valdes), but falls head over heels in love with Bluntschli. Caldwell gives a beautifully modulated performance, as does the uproariously funny Benjamin. —MAX MALLER

ARMS AND THE MAN Through 10/21: Fri-Sat

7:30 PM, City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-293-3682, citylit.org, $32, $27 seniors, $12 students and military.

R Open wide

BigMouth asks you to consider what Socrates, Malcolm X, and Ann Coulter have in common.

Seventeen famous names appear on a digital blackboard hung behind a long table. You may try to find the unifying principle among them while you wait for the start of BigMouth, running briefly at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. But I’m here to tell you it won’t be easy. The people on the list don’t come from a single time, place, gender, religion, or social stratum. One of them isn’t even real, strictly speaking. And they certainly don’t share a point of view. The fictional one, Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor, wouldn’t seem to have anything in common with Pericles, Socrates, Ronald Reagan, Malcolm X, or Patrice Lumumba—though he may arguably share certain characteristics with Joseph Goebbels and Ann Coulter.

Yet here they are, each of them getting a moment in the course of this 85-minute solo tour de force by Valentijn Dhaenens, a member of Antwerp’s SKaGeN ensemble.

Dhaenens, whose performance launches a series called Big in Belgium—Chicago, has assembled bB

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2018–19 SEASON

Photos: Hayim Heron

45 YEARS

Join us for our 45th anniversary season of astonishing, visceral contemporary dance from national and local companies.

TICKETS $30 REGULAR $24 SENIORS $10 STUDENTS SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE 25% dance.colum.edu BOX OFFICE: 312-369-8330

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 23

ARTS & CULTURE Monger

« utterances by Coulter and the rest, speaking them

into one or another of nine microphones arranged along the long table. We get, for instance, Pericles delivering his storied funeral oration, Osama bin Laden explaining his hatred for the United States, and—in a section called “American Psychocoaster”—Muhammad Ali declaring, “I’m so mean I make medicine sick.” Dubya Bush speaks to the nation after Hurricane Katrina.

Belgian King Boudewijn abdicates rather than enact an abortion law. Some of the speeches—like those of Socrates and Nicola Sacco addressing the courts that will condemn them, or Goebbels and George Patton celebrating war—echo each other. Some create counterpoint. Dhaenen doesn’t do much to embody the speakers or coach us toward a conclusion. What he does is incite a conversation across time, between good and evil, victory and failure, rise and decline, forcing us to listen. —TONY ADLER BIGMOUTH Through 9/22: Wed-

Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $38-$56, $20 35 and under.

Was it an illusion, or a mass R hallucination?

Brett Schneider’s brand of magic creates Communion.

what he delivers is something much richer and more satisfying. Working in a performance space configured so that the audience surrounds him on all sides, he pulls us in, using his art to first entertain us, then beguile us, and then unite us in a shared experience (I wanted just now to write “shared hallucination,” but part of me still wants, days after the show, to believe that Schneider’s evening of amazing illusions were real).

At one point in the evening I saw the show, Schneider hypnotized two members of the audience who then proceeded, apparently, to communicate telepathically.

At another, he seemed to read the minds of dozens of audience members at once. And he did all this while avoiding all of the magician cliches. His ego firmly in check, he dresses in the same casual-Friday clothes as his audience, and speaks in the calm, even, informed voice of a college professor or NPR reporter.

His tricks don’t seem like tricks either: they seem like demonstrations. Or open-ended experiments. At one

Candice Lin —

A HARDWHITE BODY,

September 14 arts.uchicago.edu/logan/gallery

point he refers to the participants in a very complicated card trick—involving easily a fifth of the audience—as his test subjects, as if he hadn’t worked out his intended results long before the show started. The result is one of those rare shows that feel timeless while they are being performed but end far too quickly (the show is only 70 minutes long) and linger in the memory. —JACK HELBIG

COMMUNION: AN EVENING OF MAGIC Through 9/22: Thu-Sat 8 PM, the Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-3830, brettschneidermagic.com, $30, $15 student and industry.

R Daddy issues

On the subject of sex trafficking, Monger pulls no punches.

Chicago playwright Mary Bonnett’s new drama, the fourth in a cycle examining the myriad consequences of sex trafficking, is exponentially more intricate and challenging than you might expect an issue play from a company called Her Story Theater to be. First, it pulls no punches. Every time attorney J.B. (Ira Amyx) logs on to a chat board for men comparing notes on the underage prostitutes they’ve bought—and he logs in obsessively during the play’s 70 minutes—their sickening comments appear on a large screen (in the first moments, we’re witness to men debating the relative value of “wet or tight pussy”). And second, only one of the three characters—J.B.’s client Ruth (Jamise Wright), a distraught mother whose 16-year-old daughter was lured into sex work and subsequently murdered—is the sort of masked authorial voice typical of such plays, her overwritten emotional flourishes designed largely to steer an audience toward right thinking.

The other two characters—J.B. and his troubled teenage son Eddie (Joshua Zambrano)—are complicated creations locked in a nearly unfathomable battle.

Perpetually bullied Eddie has beaten his chronic abuser nearly to death, and J.B. must keep the boy out of legal trouble, all while the kid threatens to disclose his father’s horrifying “hobby.” Director John Mossman pulls shaded, fervent performances from Amyx and Zambrano, making a potentially overcooked predicament feel unsettlingly true.

The final plot twist, centered around Ruth and J.B., strains credulity beyond breaking. Perhaps a great twoman play waits to emerge. —JUSTIN HAYFORD MON-

GER: THE AWAKENING OF J.B. BENTON Through

9/30: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, herstorytheater. org, $41, $23 student.

A POROUS SLIP

October 28

Logan Center Gallery • Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts • 915 E 60th St Chicago IL 60637

Brett Schneider promises an evening of magic—card tricks, mind reading, and small-scale hypnotism—but

é MICHAEL BROSILOW

‘Did I mention a guy created this?’

Nick and Zoe wallows in a young man’s angst— and pride in his ability to perform cunnilingus.

There’s no indication in the program as to precisely when Daniel Talbott started writing this hour-long

24 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

two-hander, but the smart money is on whenever he discovered cunnilingus.

NYU undergraduate Nick (Andrew Rathgeber), we learn in minute one, first performed oral sex on his babysitter when he was 11. He would like to eat out his Radical Truth professor as well as Zoe (Josephine Longo), his classmate, who’s attracted to his damaged spirit, social class grievances, and unabashed jackassery.

Did I mention a guy created this?

Director Adam Webster’s production for the Side Project treats every bland provocation as if it were a mike drop and leans in to all the silent, stagnant, Blue Valentine-style black-box acting exercises Talbott’s script seems to call for. Between all the simulated sex and moody repartee, Zoe and Nick also find time to be drunk and miserable, hunched over in separate corners for a duration so long that it seems like an onstage dare.

In an almost comedic elevation in stakes, audiences are whiplashed between existential prattling to Tennessee Williams-level domestic violence and allusions to pissing on a corpse.

“Every story has two sides,” goes the show’s tagline.

And yet this self-flagellating display wallows almost entirely in young male angst. Rather than provide any real commentary on the sludge of vulgarity and misanthropy Talbott musters, he just asks audiences to join him in rolling around in it. Hard pass. —DAN JAKES

NICK AND ZOE Through 9/29: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Mckaw

Theater, 1429 W. Jarvis, 773-340-0140, thesideproject.net, $20, $15 in advance.

R Turn of the screw

The ghost stories in Second Skin move from creepy to compelling to haunting.

The selkie, in Celtic lore, are magical creatures formed from the souls of people drowned at sea. They’re capable of changing from seal to human by shedding their skins, which they must keep to change back.

Chicago playwright Kristin Idaszak uses the legend of these shapeshifters as a jumping-off point for the three interlocking monologues that make up this evening of short creepy tales.

The beauty of Idaszak’s writing, though, is that she knows that the mundane horrors of everyday life are at least as terrifying as ghosts. A middle-aged daughter, ably played by Stephanie Shum, is haunted by her fraught relationship with a mother, now dying of ALS; an elderly mother (Paula Ramirez) is still obsessed by a sibling who died when she was young; a lonely young woman (Hilary Williams), cut off from her family, has never outgrown her adolescent competition with her older sister.

As tight as the writing is, it’s the director, Jess Hutchinson, and her three-person cast who make the show. Each actor knows how to turn the screw a little tighter, and a little tighter still, until by the end we hang on the last storyteller’s every word. Long after this ghost story was finished, I was haunted by it. —JACK HELBIG SECOND SKIN Through 10/13:

Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 10/8, 7:30, the Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee, 773-6973830, wildclawtheatre.com, $30, $15 students and industry. v

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LIFE ITSELF ss Directed by Dan Fogelman. In English and subtitled Spanish. Rated R. 118 minutes.

ARTS & CULTURE Life Itself

MOVIES

This is Life Itself

Dan Fogelman’s new film works familiar territory— and tear ducts.

By ANDREA GRONVALL

A

movie can be absorbing or significant because of its craft, its ambitions, or what its appearance at a certain point in time may augur, even if it doesn’t fully cohere or completely satisfy. Call it a mixed bag, a near miss, or a guilty pleasure, but sometimes the flaws throw into greater relief the qualities that make a film striking. Life Itself is writer-director Dan Fogelman’s second indie feature, following the Al Pacino vehicle Danny Collins (2015), which had its admirers but was a box office disappointment. These days the filmmaker is much better known as the creator and producer of the critically lauded award-winning NBC series This Is Us, to which Life Itself will inevitably be compared.

The film’s distributor, Amazon Studios, is counting on that, scheduling the movie’s theatrical opening to coincide with the season-three premiere of This Is Us, a strategy that—as the lines between traditional TV, cable, DVD, online streaming, and multiplex releases continue to blur—makes Life Itself an intriguing blip in the media’s ongoing paradigm shift. The basic similarities between Fogelman’s movie and his TV show are that both are intersecting, multigenerational tales about love and family that span decades and rely on plot twists, close-ups, and, in lieu of nudity, copious amounts of naked emotion to hook the viewer. ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

Beyond their greatly disparate running times, the most visible difference between this movie and its prime-time soap-opera cousin is that Life Itself has an A-list, Oscar-bait cast of genuine movie stars, who Amazon—showing how seriously it wants to compete with Hollywood—trotted out on the awards-season red carpet this month at the Toronto International Film Festival. But for all its talent and handsome production values, the movie doesn’t operate the way the immensely popular This Is Us does, and that’s largely due to how the viewer consumes each product. Binge-watching (which is how many of us today watch episodic TV) allows for a long, unbroken period of immersion in the material, often in one’s home, but commercial movies tend to be around two hours long and usually still require a trip to a theater. The effects of the film medium tend to be iconic, whereas the effects of broadcast/ cable/streaming TV media often resonate on more intimate, personal levels. Audiences may adore movie stars, but they tend to regard TV performers as more their own.

Without the luxury that This Is Us has of hours upon hours in which to explore the complex relationships and events in the lives of its blended family, the Pearsons, Life Itself intertwines the fates of its two families, the Dempseys and the Gonzalezes, through the devices of successive chapters and shifting genres.

Chapter One is a feat of breathtaking virtuos-

ss AVERAGE

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ity, a very meta and dark homage to Quentin Tarantino’s neo noir Pulp Fiction, complete with a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson, who also narrates (for a while). We meet depressed New York writer Will Dempsey (Oscar Isaac), who’s seeing a psychiatrist (Annette Bening) after a breakdown triggered six months earlier by the departure of his wife, Abby (Olivia Wilde). For the first time he’s actually able to open up enough to talk about his ex, and we follow their courtship and marriage through flashbacks that Will narrates as he gradually reveals the mystery surrounding Abby. There are happy memories: her fondness for Bob Dylan’s music; the couple’s hope to write a Tarantino-esque screenplay; and Abby’s college thesis in literature, about the ultimate unreliable narrator, which she posits is life itself.

But they’re overshadowed by the bad times, which involve addiction, abuse, tragedy, and death—lots of death, mostly violent.

In Chapter Two we meet the Dempseys’ daughter, Dylan, a precocious youngster who grows into a 21-year-old punk musician (Olivia Cooke) whose default mode is anger.

Minus the plot twists and reversals that make Chapter One so riveting, this second part is dull by comparison, and the thematic concept of the “unreliable narrator” echoes only in the prevarications of Dylan and her protective grandfather (Mandy Patinkin). As genre, this dreary coming-of-age section doesn’t mesh

well with either the preceding chapter, or the next, which is a dazzler.

Chapter Three abruptly changes the movie’s locations and languages, from Manhattan and English to Andalusia and Spanish; switches the genre to melodrama; and goes decades back in time. The setting is an olive plantation owned by the handsome, very wealthy Señor Saccione (Antonio Banderas), who is haunted by a traumatic past. His friendly overtures toward his best worker, Javier Gonzalez (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), are rebuffed until years later, when Javier; his wife, Isabel (Laia Costa); and young son, Rodrigo (Adrian Marrero), will require his help. The high-caliber screenwriting of this chapter is melancholy, playful, romantic, and allusive, and Banderas inhabits one of the most nuanced roles in his career, on a par with some of his early work with Pedro Almodóvar.

Chapter Four continues the Gonzalez family story, with Rodrigo now a young man (Alex Monner) headed to New York University.

There he becomes involved with one of the movie’s most unreliable narrators, a chatterbox coed (Isabel Durant) who, in the film’s funniest scene, tells the biggest whopper of all.

To the extent that Life Itself works, it’s because the film transcends its obvious affinities with the lachrymose This Is Us and harks back to a purely cinematic form, the omnibus—or anthology, or portmanteau—film. An omnibus movie is composed of linked vignettes, which can either stem from one location or event, be a variation on a theme, feature the same actors playing different roles in different stories, or be written and directed by different filmmakers. There is a unity among the disparities, although it’s a tricky format: witness Paris, Je T’aime (2006), where some vignettes are clearly not equal to others. And although Fogelman can be applauded for his daring, in his effort to link his stories to the one point where the Dempsey and Gonzalez family sagas first intersect, he makes a glaring mistake in chronology that almost tanks the movie.

But rarely in American films do we get to see emotions so raw and characters who are so indelibly conflicted, so warm and yet utterly fallible. I’ve seen Life Itself twice already, and I may even watch it a third time someday, not because it’s perfect—it isn’t—but because just as with my own life, I like to revisit the high points. v

WORTHLESS

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 25

REELING FILM FESTIVAL

9/20-9/30: various times and locations; see website, 773-293-1447, reelingfilmfestival. org, $11-$18, festival passes $50-$125.

ARTS & CULTURE

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Inside the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Run!

Sept 21 - 27

3100, RUN AND BECOME

Fri., 9/21 at 2 & 8 pm; Sat., 9/22 at 7:45 pm; Sun., 9/23 at 3 pm; Mon., 9/24 at 8 pm; Wed., 9/26 at 6 pm; Thu., 9/27 at 8:15 pm

Director Sanjay Rawal in person at selected screenings!

Special guests at all shows! See website for details

SEPT 21 - 27 • ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN’T BUY TICKETS NOW

at

Sept 21 - 27

Fri., 9/21 at 2 & 6 pm; Sat., 9/22 at 3 pm; Sun., 9/23 at 5:30 pm; Mon., 9/24 at 6 pm; Tue., 9/25 at 8:15 pm; Wed., 9/26 at 6 pm; Thu., 9/27 at 8:15 pm JUST ADDED! Sat., 10/6 at 1 pm

Agnès Varda’s 1977 feature in a new digital restoration.

www.siskelfilmcenter.org

26 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

MOVIES

Beyond coming-out stories

The Reeling Film Festival is back for its 36th year, this time featuring unconventional and experimental films.

By CODY CORRALL

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ueer-film fans, rejoice. The Reeling Film Fest returns this Friday with 31 feature films and 19 short-film programs. Now in its 36th year, Reeling is the second-longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, premiering queer-centric films that can’t be found anywhere else.

The films are not diverse solely in their representation of queer people and stories but also in traditional notions of film genre and form. While there are dramatic features and documentaries in the festival this year, there’s also an emphasis on unconventional and experimental films.

“It’s also to get away from this notion that there’s one kind of gay story and that’s the coming-out story,” says Brenda Webb, founder of Reeling and executive director of Chicago Filmmakers. “Unfortunately, I think a lot of people who don’t really see a lot of lesbian and gay cinema assume that it’s pretty much all just coming-out stories. We want to have a broad range of stories that make people understand that being gay is just one part of who somebody is.”

Webb hopes that audiences expose themselves to films that reflect something different from their own personal experiences and explore the many international offerings at the festival.

“Oh, the Horror!,” one of the festival’s short film blocks, examines horror tropes and stories through a queer lens. In Little Bill’s Peep

Show, the monster is homophobia. In Red Velvet, it’s toxic masculinity and aggression.

Christiaan Olwagen’s Canary is a musical dramedy set in the South African army in the 1980s with a soundtrack of Depeche Mode and Boy George. Scud’s Adonis follows a hapless, down-on-his-luck actor in Beijing as he becomes a popular gay porn star. “[Audiences should be] aware globally of what it’s like to be gay or lesbian or transgender in other places of the world and have a greater appreciation for the struggle that people are still fighting in a more profound and existential way,” says Webb.

Sonia Sebastian’s Freelancers Anonymous, a lesbian screwball workplace comedy, kicks off the festival. Other highlights include Amara Cash’s Daddy Issues, an equally offbeat and alluring depiction of lesbian first love that quickly turns into a complicated love triangle, and Ondi Timoner’s biopic Mapplethorpe, which explores the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

“Often we’re made to stick to the familiar and the comfortable,” says Webb, “and while it’s important to have our own experiences reflected to us and authenticated in doing so, it’s also the experience of getting outside of your own realm and seeing what else the festival has to offer.” v

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Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

ARTS & CULTURE R

RSM

3100: Run and Become

www.BrewView.com 3145 N. Sheffield at Belmont

Movie Theater & Full Bar 0 $5.0 ion s admisthe for ies Mov

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The Atomic Cafe

One’s interest in the subject—the selling of atomic war to the American public of the late 40s and 50s—is quickly subsumed by one’s disgust with the dishonesty of the filmmakers, who have used every editing trick in the book to make these old propaganda films look as ridiculous as possible. It’s hard to respect the fundamental seriousness of the enterprise when the directors resort to mismatched reaction shots, overdubbed comic music, and the presence of Hugh Beaumont to garner cheap laughs. In the end this 1982 film only proves that Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, and Pierce Rafferty are shrewder media manipulators than the poor mopes who made the original films for the Pentagon. —DAVE KEHR 86 min.

Co-director Jayne Loader attends the Sunday screening.

Fri 9/21, 6 PM; Sun 9/23, 5:30 PM; and Wed 9/26, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

Bel Canto

This burnished adaptation of Ann Patchett’s 2001 novel is stylish but altogether unremarkable. Julianne Moore stars as a world-renowned opera singer (though her singing is dubbed by legendary soprano and Lyric Opera creative consultant Renée Fleming) who’s brought to an unspecified South American country to perform at a party for a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe). Things go awry when a group of revolutionaries storms in and takes everyone hostage; over several weeks, the partygoers and the revolutionaries become increasingly intertwined, and a few romances even develop among them. This is emotionally affecting at times, but writer-director Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy) adopts a prosaic approach that abandons the source novel’s lyrical persuasions—it feels much like his entertaining but ultimately uncinematic Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle. Still, Moore and Watanabe are winning in their respective roles, and the strong supporting cast is enchanting. —KATHLEEN SACHS 102 min. Fri 9/21, 7 and 9 PM; Sat 9/22, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 PM; and Mon 9/24-Thu 9/27, 7 and 9 PM. Facets Cinematheque

Cries and Whispers

More a rough draft for a Bergman movie than a finished product, this 1972 film promises much and delivers little or nothing. Still, it’s beautifully made and photographed

(by Sven Nykvist), and features some rather arresting, if familiar, performances from a quartet of Bergman’s most skillful actresses: Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Thulin, Harriet Andersson, and Kari Sylwan. The much-vaunted color symbolism is so obvious as to be almost charming in its simplicity, and the gothic ambience never really resonates. Carnal hysteria is Ingmar Bergman’s forte, but this film never makes it past mezzo piano. In Swedish with subtitles. —DON DRUKER R, 106 min. Fri 9/21, 4 PM; Sat 9/22, 3 PM; and Mon 9/24, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

Fahrenheit 11/9

American cinema’s curmudgeon-in-chief Michael Moore unleashes his gadfly persona on both Republican and Democratic leaders in this documentary about how our nation has plummeted into incivility and massive government chicanery since Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016. Moore shows the same level of outrage as he did in his Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine (2002)—gun control is an issue that looms large in this film as well—but there’s even more urgency in his call for U.S. citizens to take grassroots action against corruption on state and federal levels.

He paints former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as moving the Democratic party so far to the right as to be almost kissing cousins to the Republicans, and he views the large number of women running for office in the coming midterms as a possible corrective.

The director’s comparisons between Trump and Adolf Hitler are overblown, but it’s useful to be reminded that demagogues and oligarchs do not, as he puts it, fall out of the sky—they are ruthless opportunists who identify weaknesses in the public’s political will, and then labor to crush that will altogether. —ANDREA GRONVALL R, 121 min. ArcLight Chicago, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14 Theaters, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Lake, Landmark’s Century Centre, River East 21, Webster Place 11

A Happening of Monumental Proportions The directorial debut of actor Judy Greer (13 Going on 30) is a strange and star-filled tragicomedy, set in and around an elementary school on Career Day. Though

the pitch could have been “Like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, but with a dead body,” this ensemble film has a slight edge to compensate for its blaring score and some awkward comedic misfires. A subplot concerning a depressed music teacher (Anders Holm) fares better in its earnestness than some of the broader tableaus, like the school’s coprincipals (Allison Janney, Rob Riggle) finding a gardener’s corpse and hiding it in the teachers’ lounge. With Common, John Cho, Jennifer Garner, and Bradley Whitford. —LEAH PICKETT R, 81 min. Fri 9/21-Sat 9/22, 6:30 and 8:30 PM; Sun 9/23, 6 and 8 PM; and Mon 9/24-Thu 9/27, 6:30 and 8:30 PM. Facets Cinematheque

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Imagine an ABC sitcom based on David Fincher’s Gone Girl, and you’ll get an idea of what this lightweight comic mystery is like. Anna Kendrick stars as a type-A single mom in suburban Connecticut who becomes friends with the bitchy, alcoholic mother of one of her son’s classmates (Blake Lively, clearly relishing the role). When the friend disappears, Kendrick sidesteps the police and begins searching for the woman herself. Screenwriter Jessica Sharzer, adapting a novel by Darcey Bell, toys with the idea that Kendrick’s fascination with Lively stems from a repressed desire to be bad, but she doesn’t develop this psychological insight to any meaningful end; likewise, Kendrick and director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) quash the story’s darker implications by insisting on making the heroine likable at every turn.

There are enough outlandish plot twists to hold one’s attention, and some of the one-liners are funny—if you aren’t looking for depth, you may be entertained. —BEN SACHS R, 117 min. ArcLight Chicago, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14 Theaters, City North 14, Lake, Webster Place 11

3100: Run and Become

This documentary about running as a path to enlightenment centers on the annual Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Run in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. Though little known, the 3100 is the world’s longest footrace, requiring participants to log 59.6 miles per day for 52 straight days. Interestingly, director Sanjay Rawal widens his scope beyond ultramarathoners in the 2016 race to include other groups who value running as a spiritual exercise, from monks outside of Kyoto, Japan, to a Navajo family in Arizona to members of the San tribe in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana. Transitions between these segments and the main narrative are clumsy at times, but Rawal’s cross-cultural approach also beautifully reflects the ideology of the 3100’s late founder, Indian spiritual guide Sri Chimnoy. —LEAH PICKETT 79 min min. Fri 9/21, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 9/22, 3 PM; Sun 9/23, 5:30 PM; Mon 9/24, 6 PM; Tue 9/25, 8:15 PM; Wed 9/26, 6 PM; and Thu 9/27, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center v

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SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 27

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

IN ROTATION

4544 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG • 773.728.6000

JAMIE LUDWIG

Reader associate editor Tragedy, Fury The first music I played as the results of the 2016 election came in was Darker Days Ahead, the prophetically titled 2012 album by Portland-by-way-of-Memphis hardcore legends Tragedy—its unrelenting, blistering sounds articulated exactly how I felt.

So I was overjoyed when the famously PR-shy group released a surprise EP last month—it’s the sonic support I need for the midterms.

Tragedy’s surprise new Fury EP

Adam Faucett, It Took the Shape of a Bird Golden-throated singer-songwriter Adam Faucett comes from a family that’s lived in southern Arkansas for more than a century, and the complex history of the region surges through the earthy folk-rock, psych-soaked country, and gothic Americana of his vivid tunes. “King Snake,” from the new It Took the Shape of a Bird, best demonstrates his appeal—not just any burly bearded dude can take on the persona of an orphaned girl fending off abuse and end up with one of the most gorgeous, heart-rending tracks of the year.

Arabrot, Who Do You Love Led by Norwegian singer-guitarist Kjetil Nernes, avant-noise weirdos Arabrot suck you into a surreal world with depraved takes on religion, literature, and politics. Following 2016’s The Gospel, written in part during Nernes’s fight with cancer and saturated with WWI-era imagery, Who Do You Love digs into the murky lines between good and evil. Recorded at Electrical Audio and at the band’s studio in a rural Swedish church, it’s open-ended in its textures, with more of singer-keyboardist Karin Park and a petrifying version of the spiritual “Sinnerman.”

FABIO BRIENZA

Vocalist and guitarist of Varaha Anekdoten, “Writing on the Wall” In the mid90s I found a copy of Nucleus by Swedish prog-rock band Anekdoten and felt an immediate connection. Compared to other prog bands I knew, Anekdoten were darker in tone,

JUST ADDED • ON SALE THIS FRIDAY!

sharing sensibilities with some of the atmospheric doom bands I loved. Anyone who appreciates lush, evocative, and elegiac sounds should dig deep into their discography—“Writing on the Wall” is from the 2015 album Until All the Ghosts Are Gone.

Astor Piazzolla, “Finale (Tango Apasionado)” I discovered the dramatic, nostalgic, and emotional tangos of Astor Piazzolla while watching Wong KarWai’s 1997 film Happy Together. During some of its most heart-wrenching moments, you can hear Piazzolla’s mesmerizing tunes, whose melodies almost seem to weep—they perfectly complement Kar-Wai’s story of helplessness, loneliness, and being forced to leave your life in the hands of fate. In this hyper-technological age, the earthy, raw moods of this music are a special comfort.

Suffocation, Frank Mullen farewell tour Ever since 1991’s Effigy of the Forgotten, I’ve had a soft spot for Suffocation. Their brutal, precise, and extremely technical music has long benefited from the unrivaled power of singer Frank “the Chop” Mullen. With his charisma and energy, he’s shaped and inspired thousands of bands in brutal death metal. Mullen retired as a touring member in 2013, and now, after 30 years in the band, he’s getting a proper farewell. Fans of death metal should not miss this tour, which comes to Joliet on October 26.

10/20 Uncovered: Aretha Franklin 10/27 & 10/28 Spooky Singalong 11/3 Dessa 11/24 Crash Test Dummies 25th Anniversary of God Shuffled His Feet 12/1 Irish Christmas in America 12/9 The Lone Bellow • TRIO /// Acoustic Tour

FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 7PM

Armitage 50th Anniversary Concert Celebrating 50 years of musical history at 909 W. Armitage in Lincoln Park!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 8PM

Bruce Molsky's Mountain Drifters In Szold Hall

The cover of the Knelt Rote album Alterity

optimism. The eight pieces on the duo’s 2006 debut focus on guitar, synth, and processing, without drums or vocals. It seems nostalgic for a nonexistent time in a reimagined dream. I recall long walks through Urbana-Champaign, listening on my iPod Classic while ruminating on family members dying of dementia and my aspirations for early adulthood. October Language will continue to soundtrack my life.

Holy Family, The Many Splendored The Holy Family project of Chicago multimedia artist Will McEvilly presents an expansive vision of ambience. Imagine waking up in a Japanese botanical garden manipulated via modular synthesis and blurry granulation. Sequences manifest in chimelike plucks, enveloping digital strings, and modulated flutters.

McEvilly’s greatest achievement is his restraint in executing his dense soundscapes. The tracks move constantly but maintain structure, walking a line between engagement and meditation.

Knelt Rote, Alterity Death metal is always in rotation, and in the past few years a myriad of great releases have encompassed all its aspects. AlteriFrank Mullen of Suffocation demonstrates “the chop,” aka “death metal spirit fingers.” é METALCHRIS/FLICKR ty, the 2018 swan song of Knelt Rote, is a statement nailed to the door of NICK DELLACROCE Of Bongripper, the genre—no grooves, only blastbeats and Bottomed, and Hate Basement double kick and guitars that cut through the drums with seesaw riffs channeling Morbid Belong, October Language Belong over- Angel, Immolation, and Angelcorpse. Each whelms with textured waves dripping with instrument is relentless, like a malevolent sadness and longing, but has an overarching machine operating at peak efficiency.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 3PM

David Wilcox In Szold Hall

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5 8PM

Shawn Mullins SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6 7PM

Erwin Helfer & Reginald Robinson In Szold Hall

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11 7:30PM

Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley / Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen In Szold Hall

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13 8PM

Glorietta

featuring Matthew Logan Vasquez (Delta Spirit), Noah Gunderson, David Ramirez, Kelsey Wilson (Wild Child), Adrian Quesada (Groupo, Brown Out, Spanish Gold), and Jason Blum

ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL 4545 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL

9/30 Global Dance Party: The Revelers 10/12 Global Dance Party: Nessa 10/13 Melanie

WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE

9/26 Hamza Akram Qawwal and Brothers

OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 29

Say cheese

PHOTOS BY RYAN SEGEDI

I

n photographs of bands at festivals, typically the musicians are paying attention to the crowd, to their instruments, or to each other—they don’t tend to act like they know the camera is there. Ryan Segedi’s portraits of artists at Riot Fest, taken with portable lights in front of a simple white backdrop in the corner of the festival’s press tent, provide a more intimate look at people we’re used to seeing under colored spotlights.

Segedi’s original idea was to photograph musicians right after they left the stage, but when it became clear that logistics would prevent that, Reader director of photography Jamie Ramsay assembled a three-day shoot schedule that would work with artists’ set times, flights, and PR obligations. On average these portraits were done less than a minute apiece, creating a spontaneous expression of the moods and personalities of Riot Fest. —PHILIP MONTORO

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Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of September 20 b ALL AGES F

MUSIC Robert Glasper Trio é JOHN ROGERS

PICK OF THE WEEK

Author & Punisher makes its extreme cyborg industrial metal even heavier on Beastland

THURSDAY20 Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Ying Yang Twins open. 8 PM, Patio Theater, 6008 W. Irving Park, $40. b

é MAXIMILLIAN MOTEL

MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO, C-TEC, HELLBENT, AUTHOR & PUNISHER, WIRE SPINE, ANATOMY Part of Cold Waves VII (see page 39 for more). Sat 9/22, 6:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $44, three-day passes sold out. 18+

SINCE 2004, San Diego’s Tristan Shone has been transforming himself into an extreme industrial metal cyborg he calls Author & Punisher. A mechanical engineer by trade, Shone built a series of “drone machines” and “dub machines”: heavy-duty steel sliders, levers, and knobs that add a factory-floor swing and tactile human weight to the midi samples and synth drones they control. Shone hit his stride on 2013’s Women & Children, creating a dynamic record that added emotional depth and forlorn melody to the skull-rattling electronic beats and explosive Nine Inch Nails-flavored darkness, all created live by his elaborate machinery. Since then, Shone’s engineering has only gotten more extreme; he’s now built a series of masks that allow him to augment his voice into hellish soundscapes, as well as a choker straight out of a medieval torture chamber, which presses hypersensitive contact mikes directly into his throat, where they turn even the slightest growl into crushing blasts of distortion. And as the creations Shone has developed have become more over-the-top, so has his music. On next month’s Beastland, his first full-length for Relapse, Author & Punisher is heavier, denser, and scarier than ever before—never once letting up its blown-out wall of sound. But as incredible as Shone’s records as Author & Punisher are, the best way to experience the project is in a live setting, where you can watch him fully delve into the persona and work with the weight of the machines in front of your very eyes. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

The pinnacle of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s artistry and commercial success was their 1995 album E. 1999 Eternal, a smooth and spooky smash hit dedicated to the death of the group’s mentor, gangsta rap pioneer Eazy-E. Anchored by the unstoppable and timeless singles “1st of tha Month” and “Tha Crossroads” (an instant classic that probably even had your squarest middle-school teacher musing about how badly the Cleveland group missed their Uncle Charles), E. 1999 Eternal showcased the wide range of personas and voices of Bone Thugs, from the unhinged Krayzie Bone to the beyond-smooth Layzie Bone to the rapid-fire rhyming of Bizzy Bone over smoky, snappy DJ U-Neek beats. Though Bone Thugs have remained active since the release of the record, with members constantly coming and going over the years, the quality of their subsequent albums has waned, and they’ve failed to make as powerful a mark on pop culture as they did in the 90s. But recently they’ve been popping up with the original five-piece unit for guest spots on tracks including ASAP Ferg’s “Lord” and Wiz Khalifa’s “Reach for the Stars.” This summer Bone Thugs started hitting the stage with all five larger-than-life rappers, and their reunion tour is scheduled to hit Patio Theater tonight.

Fingers crossed that the group, constantly in flux, keep their shit together until then, because when they’re all aboard and at their best, Bone Thugs are a force to be reckoned with. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

Cortex 9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10. b Norwegian quartet Cortex play jazz rooted in aesthetics that were crafted generations ago.

You can hear the stop-start structures of Ornette Coleman’s classic recordings for Atlantic in trumpeter Thomas Johansson’s compositions, and there are hints of Albert Ayler’s hyperemotional tone in Kristoffer Berre Alberts’s saxophone asides.

But they’ve honed an approach to this material

that’s all their own. Ola Høyer’s elastic double-bass lines and Gard Nilssen’s about-to-boil drumming sustain a swinging velocity that is both nimble and energetic, and the group’s approach expresses an ebullience that justifies the name of their most recent album, Avant-Garde Party Music (Clean Feed). While the band aren’t above posing in goofy hats for the photo inside the record’s gatefold sleeve, they do not fool around when they play. The breakneck invention of the horn player’s solos and the grace with which the ensemble negotiate tonal shifts are loads of fun, and they’ve already got their eyes on the next party ahead; on this tour the group will be road-testing some new tunes. —BILL MEYER

Robert Glasper Trio See also Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. 8 and 10 PM. Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $35-$45. 21+

Each generation of jazz players includes at least a few epoch-defining pianists, and right now, we’re living in the age of Robert Glasper. His long-standing trio with bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Damion Reid has served, to some extent, as the bandleader’s connection to tradition, as his other projects are filigreed with noteworthy collaborators from sundry genres—soul and R&B singer Bilal and rapper Yasiin Bey (also known as Mos Def), among them. Even prior to his recorded debut in 2004, Glasper poignantly dipped into soul and R&B with a stately and thoughtful touch as a sideman. With his acoustic trio, Glasper’s affinity for music beyond jazz’s traditional boundaries still froths up at regular intervals. On the Houston-born pianist’s 2007 Blue Note album In My Element, his troupe moves from covers of Herbie Hancock and Radiohead into a tribute to late hip-hop producer J Dilla. Glasper’s all-encompassing view of musical innovation has motivated him to set up a handful of working bands to satisfy his seemingly endless explorations of various American idioms. In addition to the Chicago-bound trio, the pianist helms the Robert Glasper Experiment and performs in August Greene alongside Common, as well as playing in R+R=Now, something of a contemporary supergroup that includes trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah. —DAVE CANTOR

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FRIDAY21 Robert Glasper Trio See Thursday. 8 and 10 PM. Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $35-$45.

21+

SATURDAY22 Acid King, Rezn Acid King headlines; Rezn and Inebrium open. 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 2105 S. State, $20. 17+ San Francisco’s mighty, shaggy—and a little bit unnerving—stoner powerhouse Acid King haven’t released a new album since 2015’s landmark Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (Svart Records).

A major lineup shakeup at the end of 2016 put front woman Lori S. back onstage with new drummer Bil Bowman and bassist Rafa Martinez, who played with the band from 2005 through 2008 (and is also half of sludgy metal duo Black Cobra). The trio will play a few U.S. dates before lumbering out on a European tour, and their appearance in Chicago—Lori S.’s hometown—is their first since 2015 and their only midwest appearance on this jaunt. Also on the bill are local four-piece Rezn, who released a deliciously

trippy psych-metal debut, Let It Burn, last year. The group lay down shimmery, entrancing grooves that manage to be simultaneously fuzzy, sharp-edged, and perfectly off-balance—they take some influence from how the Nuggets garage anthologies (particularly the acid-rock and heavy-psych material) conceal a portal to the outer dimensions of cosmic mindfucks. The rather deceptively titled follow-up, Calm Black Water, is out October 10 on Off the Record. —MONICA KENDRICK

Author & Punisher See Pick of the Week, page 33. Part of Cold Waves VII (see page 39 for more). Meat Beat Manifesto headlines; C-Tec, Hellbent, Author & Punisher, Wire Spine, and Anatomy open. 6:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, $44, three-day passes sold out. 18+ Robert Glasper Trio See Thursday. 8 and 10 PM. Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $35-$45.

21+ Joey Purp, ZMoney Joey Purp headlines; Kami and ZMoney open. 9:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $18. 17+ If Joey Purp hasn’t already convinced you he’s one of Chicago rap’s best stylists, his new Quarterthing

(self-released) should do the job. He bares his teeth on “Godbody Pt. 2” (which supersizes grimy 90s beats and features the RZA) before draping his AutoTuned voice with screams on “Karl Malone,” a minimal callback to—and evolution of—the feral turn-up tracks he made as half of the duo Leather Corduroys. And he almost whispers his verses on “Elastic,” a track on which a slinking club instru-

mental and rumbling iceberg-tip bass line threaten to consume his vocals but wind up bolstering his coolheaded affectation. With this album, Joey not only pushes back against any notion that he must follow a preordained map to be successful, he does so while pulling Chicago up with him. Outsiders will always build gates around artists and their perceived communities, but on Quarterthing Joey reaches out beyond those obviously associated with his Save Money collective to collaborate with spitfire MC Cdot Honcho (“Look at My Wrist”) and bawdy, empowering rapper Queen Key (“Fessional/ Diamonds Dancing”). And in a year when Teklife wunderkind DJ Taye has dropped Still Trippin, an album that brought hip-hop and footwork closer together, Joey adds to that endeavor with “Aw Sh*t!,” which is built on several historical footwork patterns and samples.

Earlier this decade, opener ZMoney showed how Chicago rappers could push back against the dominance of drill with a mass of low-key trap songs that hung on his mush-mouthed rapping and lackadaisical cool. His career stalled out in 2014, when he wound up spending a significant part of the year in jail, but after quietly grinding away out of the spotlight, ZMoney got back on track in 2018; in January he signed to 1017 Eskimo, the label run by one of his obvious influences, Gucci Mane. On last month’s Chiraq Mogul, ZMoney remains as exciting as ever, particularly his cold, pulse-altering flow on “Bitcoin.” —LEOR GALIL J

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 35

1800 W. DIVISION

Est.1954 Est. 1954 Celebrating over Celebrating over 61 service 65 years of service to Chicago!

Chicago!

(773) 486-9862 Come enjoy one of Chicago’s finest beer gardens!

MUSIC continued from 35

SEPTEMBER 21 .....WAGNER AMERICAN & MORSE DRAFT JANUARY 12..................

SUNDAY23

JANUARY 18.................. MIKE FELTON

Robert Glasper Trio See Thursday. 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth, $35 $45. 21+

JANUARY 11..................

FLABBY SEPTEMBER 20 QUINN FEBRUARY 23.....DAVID .....MIKE FELTENHOFFMAN SHOW 8PM

FEBRUARY 24.....THE .....DARK MEN SEPTEMBER 22 DYNAMOS JANUARY 13..................

DJROOM SKID LICIOUS SEPTEMBER 23 ....WHOLESOMERADIO NIGHT GROUP WHITEWOLFSONICPRINCESS JANUARY 14..................

TONY DO DJ ROSARIO MURPHY 9:30PM MOJOTHOMPSON 49 WAGNER JANUARY 17..................

JAMIE & FRIENDS MIKE FELTEN

THE RON AND RACHEL SHOW DJ NIGHT FEBRUARY 25 .....WHOLESOMERADIO JANUARY 19..................

SITUATION DAVID SEPTEMBER 24 .....RC BIG BAND 7PM

MAXLIELLIAM ANNA BIRDGANGS 9:30PM FEBRUARY 26 .....RC BIG BAND 7PM

JANUARY 20..................

FIRST WARD PROBLEMS TITTY CITTY

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

JANUARY 21..................

TONY DO ROSARIO GROUP8PM DUDE SAME FEBRUARY 28 .....PETER CASANOVA QUARTET

SEPTEMBER 26 .....PETER CASANOVA JANUARY 22..................

RC BIG QUARTET BAND 7PM MARCH BOBBY AND THE CLEMTONES SEPTEMBER 27 .....DORIAN TAJ JANUARY1............SMILIN’ 24..................

PETER CASONOVA QUARTET SEPTEMBER 28 .....TOURS JANUARY2............ICE 25..................BOX THE WICK MARCH BULLY PULPIT AND BIG HOUSE JANUARY 26..................

THE SINS HEPKATS SEPTEMBER 29 .....SOMEBODY’S SKIPPIN’ AND ROCKTARRINGTON 10PM MARCH 3............CHIDITAROD FEATURING JOE LANASA JANUARY 27..................

THE STRAY BOLTS SEPTEMBER 30 .....OFF THE VINE 4:30PM MARCH WAGNER & 7:30PM FRIENDS JANUARY7............JAMIE 28..................

DJ NIGHT NUCLEAR WHOLESOMERADIO JAZZ QUARKTET

EVERY TUESDAY TUESDAY (EXCEPT EVERY (EXCEPT 2ND) 2ND) AT AT8PM 8PM OPEN MIC HOSTED BY JIMIJON AMERICA

Grouper Mute Duo Ensemble and Hilary Woods open. 6:30 PM, Bohemian National Cemetery, 5255 N. Pulaski, $25. b In a spring Pitchfork feature about Liz Harris, who records and performs as Grouper, contributor Ben Ratliff wrote that when she submitted the new album Grid of Points to Kranky, the Chicago-based label “at first worried that listeners would feel shortchanged.” The record, which came out in April, ends at 22 minutes, but Harris makes such thorough use of that short span that asking for anything more feels gluttonous. Her gentle keys, barely perceptible and frequently overdubbed singing, and use of space and field recordings have the capacity to make time appear frozen, with her spectral voice suspended in the air. I’ve frequently lost track of the hours listening through Grouper’s catalog, to the extent that the album titles occasionally feel meaningless, though the altered moods do the work of distinguishing one set of tracks from the next, as does Harris’s slow progression away from reverb and fuzzy ambience over her career. Grid of Points comes through disarmingly clear without losing Grouper’s charming musical ambiguity. —LEOR GALIL

Miranda Winters Joe & Linda and Mia Joy open. 9 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $12, $10 in advance. 18+ Last October, when I interviewed the four members of Chicago guitar-rock band Melkbelly for a feature on their then-upcoming LP Nothing Valley, I

Emma Ruth Rundle é PRISCILLA C. SCOTT

asked them about their songwriting methods and processes (because what kind of music journo would I be if I avoided such a mundane line of questioning?). Vocalist-guitarist Miranda Winters explained that several of Melkbelly’s tracks begin with what amounts to a stripped-down, minimal guitar-pop song being shot dead upon arrival, dissected limb by limb, and stitched back together into some sort of mutant freak noise-rock supertrack. Or at least that’s how I understood it. So it makes sense that Winters might want to scratch a certain itch and release some of her songs before they undergo mutilation. On the recent Xobeci, What Grows Here? (Sooper) Winters sings and plays guitar and bass on crunchy tracks that are simple in construct, for sure, but not without the eerie charm she’s become so gifted at summoning in her songs. There’s nothing flashy about “Mickey’s Dead Stuff” (which might be my favorite track on the record), but the skill and ease with which Winters layers her singular vocal melodies alongside her straightforward guitar leads and hooks is complicated—and often impossible—for most songwriters to accomplish. Xobeci is a 20-minute-long, cassette-only release with what looks like a photocopied black-and-white insert—and it couldn’t be more perfect. —KEVIN WARWICK

TUESDAY25 Emma Ruth Rundle, Jaye Jayle Emma Ruth Rundle headlines; Jaye Jayle and Trevor de Brauw open. Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $15, $13 in advance. 21+ Miranda Winters é ASHLEIGH DYE

36 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

On tour in support of her third LP, the new On Dark Horses (Sargent House), singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle brings her captivating J

l

l

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 37

MUSIC continued from 36 guitar sounds and ghostly vocals to the Empty Bottle for a set of haunting, melancholic postrock.

Formerly of dreamy postrock trio Marriages and instrumental rock band Red Sparowes, Rundle has a style reminiscent of doomy shoegazers True Widow, but she imbues it with a folksy darkness that’s heavy on melody. Drenched in reverb, distortion, and other effects, her guitar sound teeters between beautifully malleable and dense, constantly pierced by her otherworldly voice. Rundle continues these explorations with On Dark Horses. Singles “Fever Dreams” and “Darkhorse” are emblematic of her lyricism as they wrap vulnerability and conflict in metaphor and mystery. An exhibit of Rundle’s art, also called “On Dark Horses,” closes Wednesday, September 26, with a reception at Ars Memoria Tattoo and Art Gallery.

Later in the album, “Light Song” presents vocal contrast in the form of Evan Patterson of Jaye Jayle (who also contributed guitar layers to it), whose deep bellows work as a welcome foil, offering variation not heard on Rundle’s previous works.

Patterson, Rundle’s romantic partner and the singer and guitarist of Louisville posthardcore trio Young Widows, started Jaye Jayle as a solo project before expanding it into a four-piece band, which opens on this tour. Jaye Jayle’s second LP, the recent No Trail and Other Unholy Paths (also released

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

by Sargent House this summer), is a further journey into dark Americana paired with Krautrock experimentalism and Steve Reichian minimalism.

Patterson’s bare-bones approach to songwriting extends to his vocals, which conjure thoughts of a dusty Old West saloon thanks to his breathy croons and raspy spoken-word storytelling. In 2017 Rundle and Jaye Jayle released a wistful split EP (featuring three songs from each artist) that set the table for a shared European tour where the two songwriters ultimately fell in love. Here’s hoping we hear more collaboration between them on record as well as in concert. —SCOTT MORROW

WEDNESDAY26 Serengeti Grimms & Blacknight and Milly Mango open. 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $10. 17+ Serengeti’s “Dennehy” is a thing of wonder, not only because it’s a love letter to Chicago but also because it’s where Serengeti (born David Cohn) becomes the character Kenny Dennis, a middle-aged, mustachioed everyman who raps about playing softball with the boys, running errands on Western Avenue, and his favorite local teams—which serves as a brilliantly simple

Serengeti é COURTESY THE ARTIST

hook, “Bears, Hawks, Sox, Bulls”). “Dennehy” has achieved a rare cult crossover success—the song isn’t in constant rotation at, say, Bears games, but ask Chicago sports fans watching the game at your neighborhood bar if they’ve heard of Serengeti and chances are at least one person will respond with the “Dennehy” hook. I hope those who’ve stumbled upon that song in the past 12 years have used it as a doorway into Serengeti’s catalog, a large portion of which he’s either recorded as Kenny Dennis or just built on Kenny’s fictional universe. That includes solo Kenny albums as well as There’s a Situation on the Homefront, an “archival” album recorded by Kenny’s early 90s rap group, Tha Grimm Teachaz; there’s also You Can’t Run From the Rhythm, a dance-pop collaboration between Kenny and real-life comedic actor Anders Holm under the name Perfecto; and Butterflies, a straightforward pop album credited to Kenny’s wife, Jueles. Serengeti found new ways to link each new album to the others, and he managed to sneak in plenty of small references that further transformed Kenny’s fictional world into big, colorful songs while leaving plenty of room for his own reallife earnestness. On last month’s self-released Dennis 6e, a noticeably dark album produced entirely

by Fog front man Andrew Broder, Kenny reimagines Jueles’s “Places Places” with the skronk-synth track “OK in My Book” and eulogizes her with the somber “Different.” Serengeti recently told the music website Passion of the Weiss that he’s working on a Kenny Dennis graphic novel and a film script too, but Dennis 6e is the final Kenny album.

“Creatively, it feels complete,” he said. “You know, you can’t do Jason Part 23. They stopped Jason at, like, nine.” —LEOR GALIL

38 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

l

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AT PANERA, WARMTH is our

JOBS

MUSIC Shakey Graves é GREG GIANNUKOS

SALES & MARKETING Telephone Sales Experienced/aggressive telephone closers needed now to sell ad space for Chicago’s oldest and largest newspaper rep firm.

Immediate openings in Loop office. Salary + commission.

312-368-4884.

General TECHNOLOGY CAPGEMINI AMERICA, INC.

(Sogeti division), an IT consulting Co, seeks IT professionals to fill multiple consultant positions in Chicago, IL and various unanticipated sites throughout the US. Entry through Sr. level positions available. Specific skill sets needed:

WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT 010 -

Responsible for software design & development using Microsoft-based corporate environment.

WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT 020 -

Shakey Graves Wild Reeds open. 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine, $35, $30 in advance. 18+ Alejandro Rose-Garcia emerged from the Austin music scene in 2011 as Shakey Graves, combining blues, folk, and indie rock—his performances were as bare-bones as his bedroom recordings, his soulful voice accompanied by nothing but an acoustic guitar and a suitcase modified to serve as a kick drum. (He put together a three-piece touring band around the time of his second LP, the 2014 Dualtone release And the War Came.) But despite Rose-Garcia’s rootsy traditionalist streak, he’s often indicated in interviews that’s he’s not interested in limiting his palette when there’s so much more to explore.

On his latest album, this spring’s Can’t Wake Up, he walks the walk. Rather than dusty roads and hardscrabble living, the album draws from dreams, 60s psychedelia, animated Disney films, and more. RoseGarcia makes this stylistic shift feel natural and warm, weaving threads of his characteristic acoustic folk and country guitar into the kaleidoscopic textures, but it’s bound to lose the attention of some old fans who prefer gritty minimalism to lush soundscapes. It’s likely to earn him some new listeners too, though, including indie-rock fans with enough distance from Americana that they’d consider a suitcase a strange percussion instrument. But on his artistic journey, Rose-Garcia clearly isn’t chasing any particular audience—he’s following something else, and not staying anywhere long. —JAMIE LUDWIG v

Responsible for designing & developing a suite of Web Services which will form the basis of advanced application development.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 030 – Define the architecture,

design solutions, & develop test & implementation of Business Intelligence & software applications.

DATABASE SERVICES 040 –

Responsible for designing, developing & testing database solutions & bi-directional ETL (extract, transform, load) processes.

INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES 060 – Design & modify complex, multi-system environments, identify & analyze business requirements to integrate hardware, storage, operating systems & connectivity solutions.

TESTING & QA SERVICES 070 – Perform various functions

related to testing & QA services for web & non web based environments.

PLM CONSULTANTS 090 -

Develop prototypes & write production ready code or configure & execute on approved design documents reflecting the requested Teamcenter & Enovia configurations, integrations, extensions, etc.

FESTIVALS

The weekend’s music fests: industrial at Metro, blues in Lyons, an explosion of youth creativity in Millennium Park, and more Cold Waves VII This industrial-music festival, which doubles as a fund-raiser for suicide awareness and prevention, has expanded this year into Los Angeles and New York; the Chicago edition includes Ohgr, Meat Beat Manifesto, Front Line Assembly, Author & Punisher (see page 33 for more), and Hide. Thu 9/20, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western; Fri 9/21 through Sun 9/23, 6:30 PM, Metro, 3730 N. Clark, coldwaves.net; $25 for 9/20, 21+; $44 per day for 9/21 through 9/23, 18+ 312 Block Party Local beer giant Goose Island hosts a weekend of indie rock on its brewery grounds, with sets from the likes of TV on the Radio, the Hold Steady, and Drive-By Truckers. Fri 9/21, 5 PM, and Sat 9/22, 4 PM, Goose Island Brewery, Fulton and Wolcott, gooseisland.com, $10 suggested donation, 21+

Yas! Fest The six stages at this parkwide celebration of youth creativity feature music, dance, poetry, film, live mural painting, and more. “Panda” rapper Desiigner and local R&B singer Ravyn Lenae close out the festivities at Pritzker Pavilion. Sat 9/22, 11 AM, Millennium Park, Michigan and Randolph, free, all-ages Windy City Blues Fest Chicago blues mainstays such as Eddie Taylor Jr., Demetria Taylor, Lurrie Bell, and Mike Wheeler bring their bands to the southwest suburbs for this two-day event. Sat 9/22, 11 AM, and Sun 9/23, noon, Cermak Woods, Harlem and Ogden, Lyons, windycitybluesfest.org, $20, $40 family pass, all-ages

business. Come join our team of great drivers who deliver the bread and bagel dough originating from our Fresh Dough Facility in Elk Grove Village, IL to our local bakery-cafes!

What will you do as a Panera driver?

As a driver, you ensure that our freshly made dough products reach their assigned bakery cafes on a daily basis, utilizing safe, efficient on time driving. Our fleet is very well maintained and clean, with reefer units and lift gates for ‘rolling bakery cabinets’ filled with our delicious products. You must have work experience loading and unloading, as you will be doing so while driving local routes. All our drivers are home every day - No over the road!

What are the Requirements?

Valid Class A CDL license Minimum of 6 months (CDL-A) driving experience including experience driving a tractor-trailer; Doubles endorsement is a plus. (Double endorsed drivers receive a premium wage) No more than 1 accident and 2 moving violations Currently possess or have the ability to obtain a 1 year DOT medical card A favorable driving, criminal, and drug free background Must be willing and able to work weekends and holidays Be able to deliver professional and courteous service to our customers Why deliver for Panera?

We offer: $2000 Sign On Bonus Competitive Pay Full-Time Benefits Safe Driver Bonus Paid Vacations Product Discount Personal Day and Holidays Sick and Well Pay 401K Premium Holiday Pay At Panera, our #1 cultural value is no jerks! Our relationships are based on respect and honesty. As a part of our team, you will be a member of our company that has over 2,100 bakery-cafes in 45 states and in Ontario, Canada operating under the Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co. and Paradise Bakery and Café names, delivering fresh, authentic artisan bread served in a warm environment by engaging associates. These cafes are supported by 21 Fresh Dough Manufacturing Facilities that deliver fresh dough 7 days a week 363 days per year.

For immediate consideration, please apply today!

TRANSUNION,

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SERVICES 120 - Coordinate, plan, organize, control, integrate & execute a project or collection of projects.

Apply online at: https://www.capgemini.com/ us-en/careers/job-search/ and search for job and code 010 through 120. Must be available to work on projects at various, unanticipated sites throughout the United States

A.J. ANTUNES & Co. is seeking a

Java & AWS Sr Software Engineer in Carol Stream, IL w/the following requirements: BS degree in Comp Sci or related field or foreign equivalent degree. 5 yrs of related experience.

Required skills: Design, code and test software applications using Java, J2EE, RESTful APIs and Microservices in Spring framework (5 yrs); Build custom n-tier web based applications with relational databases, as backend and efficient use of SQL (5 yrs); Design and build highly available applications in Amazon Web Services by using load balancing, auto scaling, fault tolerance, audit trail and disaster recovery functionalities (1 yr); Design and build highly available Cassandra databases with replication, cluster, & optimized query performance based on business use cases (1 yr). Apply at www.ajantunes.com, Careers, search for job #180032.

ORTHODONTIC ASSOCIATE to provide superior patient care and service; Study diagnostic records such as medical/dental histories, models, photos and x-rays to develop the correct treatment plan for the individual patient; position requires a DDS or DMD, completion of accredited Ortho residency program and active dental and orthodontic specialty license in the state of IL; send C.V to Kenneth B. Kaplin, D.D.S., PC 311 S. Arlington Heights Rd Suite 104, Arlington Heights, IL 60005

LLC

SEEKS

Lead Engineers - Storage for Chicago, IL location to plan, research, administer, maintain, backup, restore & perform data migration. Master’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. or Info. Tech. / Systems + 3yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci./Comp. Eng. or Info. Tech. / Systems +5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d skills: providing storage & backup implementation solutions using TSM & ISC, IBM LTO, maintenance, backup, restore and data migration of SANs; optimizing storage capacity; admin. of NetApp, IBM, Hitachi storage tech., backup/recovery solutions for db2 data (>150 terabytes) warehouse using TSM Lan-free solutions; supporting DRM using TSM. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: RNA, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

TRANSUNION, LLC (HEADQUARTERS: Chicago, IL) seeks

Lead Engineers - Webhosting for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the U.S. to plan, research, evaluate, design & develop web hosting for credit reporting applications.

Bachelor’s in Comp. Sci. or Comp./ Info. Systems + 3yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in any field +5 courses in Comp. S ci./Info. Systems + 3yrs exp. req’d.

Req’d skills: Must have exp. w/ Websphere, JBoss, JBoss Portal, Apache, Tomcat, Linux, Docker, Docker Swarm, Ansible, Introscope, Zenoss, Splunk, IBM HTTP Server, Layer 7, Siteminder, shell scripting, Jython, Python, Perl, Bash.

Telecommuting permitted. Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: UT, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

MANAGE A REGIONAL territory

to support the sales of Nfina products and services.

RESPONSIBILITIES: ? Aggressively recruit and support resellers throughout the assigned territory ? Develop and execute Solution Selling & Territory Scan Plan, Train Resellers and End Users ? Manage regional sales territories by coordinating sales effort with Resellers and End Users ? Work closely with the Support team to pursue sales & service opportunities

TRANSUNION, LLC SEEKS Sr.

Consultants for Chicago, IL location to design, implement, upgrade & maintain sw applications for business processes. Master’s in Comp. Sci./ Comp Eng./any Eng. field +2yrs exp. or Bachelor’s Comp. Sci./Comp Eng./ any Eng. field +5yrs exp. req’d. Req’d skills: Java development, TeamSite/ LiveSite CMS experience, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, responsive/adaptive design, Tomcat, JBOSS, Struts, Spring, Hibernate, Maven, Buildforge, Jenkins, XML, XSLT, workflow modeler, J2EE, SQL, Log4J, ANT, XHTML, Open Deploy, CSSDK, JQuery, JSON, Ajax, Eclipse, JIRA, Splunk, MS Visio.

Send resume to: R. Harvey, REF: RRD, 555 W Adams, Chicago, IL 60661

SENIOR ANALYST – Model Validation, Synchrony Bank, Chicago, IL. Perform indip. validation + provide effect. challenges to assess accuracy and performance of stats. and fin. models + ident. issues requiring further investigation. Ensure compliance w. intern. policies + extern. regulat. model risk.

Evaluate data integrity and representativeness. Req. Mast deg., or foreign equiv., in Stats., Math., Econ., Fin., Engg., or rel. + 1 yr. rel. work. exp. in stats. modeling pos. Apply by mail to: HR Manager, Synchrony Bank, 222 West Adams Street, Chicago, IL 60606 (ref.: ILSMV).

HYATT CORPORATION SEEKS a Financial Analyst in Chicago, IL to review preliminary financial statements with the Assistant Director of Finance. Bachelors & 2 yrs or equivalent. For full req’s and to apply visit: Submit cover letter and resume to: Hyatt Corporation, Attn: Mecca Wilkinson 150 N Riverside Plaza, Floor 14, Chicago, IL 60606

Developers – Bach Deg in CS, CIS, IT, Eng, Bus or Math & 1 year exp in position or IT field; & exp with Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Python, HTML, Backb one.js, Marionette.js, React.js, AWS, CSS & PHP. Travel to various unantic client sites req. May reside anywhere in US. Apply to (inc Ref # 10033) HR, Sphere Consulting, 3330 Dundee Rd, Ste N6, Northbrook, IL 60062

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

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

Call 708-388-0170

STUDIO $600-$699 SUNNY ANDERSONVILLE 2 bedroom, Modern bath, kitchen, hardwood floors, hutch, mini blinds, natural woodwork, balcony, no dogs, washer/dryer, deck, garage option. $1245. Oct 1st. 708-482-4712

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

STUDIO $700-$899 LARGE TWO BEDROOM du-

plex near Warren Park. 1900 W Pratt.

2 full bathrooms. Heat included. Private storage. Cats OK. $1600/month.

Available 10/1. (773) 761-4318

LARGE ONE BEDROOM near

red line. 6824 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets OK. $950/month. Heat included. Available 10/1. (773) 7614318

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

CABLE & MAIDS. 1 Block to Orange Line 5300 S. Pulaski 773-581-1188

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 39

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

STUDIO OTHER 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 7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

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

Laundry & Security on Premises.

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

QUALITY APARTMENTS, GREAT Prices! Studios-4BR, from

WEST AVALON, 8059 S. Ellis & 11202 S. Vernon. 1 & 2BR, Newly decor. hdwd flrs, heat & appls incl. $785/mo & up. 708-769-6902

NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2

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

NEWLY REMOD Studios, 1 & 2BR starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/hot water.

1155 W. 83rd St. 773-619-0204

$545. Newly rehabbed. Appliances included. Low Move-in Fees. Hardwood floors. Pangea - Chicago’s South, Southwest & West Neighborhoods. 312-985-0556

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

MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All

1 BR $700-$799

modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

76TH & SAGINAW, 1-2 bed-

room apartments with beautiful hardwood floors. Heat & appliances included. $625-$795/mo. 773-4450329

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

773-637-5957 EAST CHATHAM, 4 room,

2 Bedroom apartment, hdwd flrs + appliances. $625/mo plus security 708-228-3661 or 773-609-8566

9147 S. ASHLAND. Large Studio $700, CLEAN, QUIET & SECURE, dine-in kitc, hrdwd flrs, appls, lndry.

No Pets. 312-914-8967.

1 BR $900-$1099 ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near Loyola Park. 1337 1/2 W. Estes.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $975/ month (heat included). Available 10/1. 773-761-4318.

1 BR OTHER ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled.

Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SUMMER IS HERE!!!

MONST UNITS INCLUDE..

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

HEAT, HW & CG PLENTY OF PARKING 1BDR FROM $785.00 2BDR FROM $1025.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000*** 6748 CRANDON & 7727 COLFAX Most Beautiful Apartments!

1 & 2BR, $625 & Up. Off street parking.

773-947-8572 / 773-288-4444 NEWLY REHABBED UNITS, 1 2BR. Ceiling fans, 81st & Dobson, $950/mo.

Section 8 Welcome. $500 Move in Fee. Call 773-978-1484 SUNNY & LARGE 2 & 3BR, hd wd/ceramic flrs, appls, heat incl’d, Sect 8 OK. $900 plus.

70th & Sangamon/Peoria. 773456-6900 SECTION 8 WELCOME. 8 0 2 2 S. Maryland, 1BR, modern, appliances, off street parking, $625-$980/mo.

Call 773618-2231 CHICAGO - BEVERLY, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, Hdwd Flrs, A/C, laundry, near transportation, $795-$1040/mo. Call 773-2334939

OAK PARK - 1 & 2BR Apts, beautiful hdwd flrs, appliances included, $1000-$1400/mo.

Section 8 Welcome. Call 630747-1994

{ { S. SHORE 7017 S. Clyde. 1BR,

updated Kit/BA, ten pays heat, nr Metra & shops. $600/mo + $300 move in fee 773-474-0363

R U O Y AD E R E H

AUSTIN AREA 3BR Apt, heat incl, hdwd flrs, near schools, no appls. $900/mo + sec. 312-812-2801

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

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

2 BR UNDER $900

CHICAGO, NEWLY DE C O RATED 2BR Apartment, hardwood floors, blinds, Appliances included.

Close to transportation. $650/mo.

Call 773-617-2909

REACH OVER

1 MILLION PEOPLE MONTHLY IN PRINT & DIGITAL.

94-3739 S. BISHOP. 1st and 2nd flrs, 5 rms, 2BR, stove, fridge, parking, storage, near trans/shops.

No pets. $950 + sec. Heat Incl 708-335-0786

CHICAGO, Quiet 5 room Apt., 2BR, 2nd floor, 7545 S. Union. No security deposit required. Call 773-655-2388 AUSTIN AREA 2BR, 1BA, hdwd flrs, no pets, close to CTA & bus line. $800/mo. 1 month rent and 1 month sec. 773-237-5720 CHICAGO - 3351 W. 21st St., 2BR,

heat incl, no appls. $750/mo, 1 mo. sec + 1 mo rent. Call Mrs. Jackson from 9am-8pm. 773-521-8836

NEAR PULASKI & LAKE ST.

Updated 2BR Apt with appliances 2nd flr, heat not incl. $475/mo.

Call 773-664-9238

CONTACT US TODAY!

312-222-6920 40 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

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

Riverdale Apt for rent, 2 bedroom, heat included, $875/mo + security. Section 8 ok. Please Call 773-852-9425

2 BR $900-$1099 SECT 8 WELCOME, 2 & 3BR

Houses. Also Sharp 2 & 3BR Apts, fenced yard. $985-$1200/mo.

Will accept 1 or 2BR Voucher.

708-573-5628

BRONZEVILLE - 2br/2ba Apt. A/C, W/D, appls, rehabbed, nr good schls, prkg. transp. $900 + sec & utilities. Sec 8 welc.

312-860-8561 2, 3 & 4BR Central/Jackson.

$900-$1550. 5BR House. $1600. 3BR. Pulaski/Cermac $950. Tenant pays utils & sec 847-720-9010

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799

65TH & CARPENTER, 3BR, 2BA, 1 mo free w/Sec 8. $1250 /

LARGE 3 BEDROOM, one bath room apartment, 4423 N. Paulina.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $1790/ month. Heat included. Available

mo. 116th & Racine, 3BR, 2BA, Sec 8 ok, $1375/mo. Carpet, No Sec dep.

Call 773-684-1166

HARVEY BRICK RAISED ranch

House, 3BR, 1BA, $1250/mo. 1 block from bus stop and close to hwys and shopping center. 844-752-3277

SOUTHSIDE 3BR, 2nd flr, wall to wall carpet, heat incl. $1300/mo.

1 mo sec. Sec 8 Welc.

No Pets. Avail 10/1 708-933-7094

6 ROOM FLAT 2 Bedroom for

SECTION 8 OK; lrg nice 4BR apt

92nd & Ada, 2BR, lg & spacious w

SECTION 8 Ok; Brand new com-

Rent on Henderson St., $1000/mo nth, utilities not included. Section 8 OK. Call 773-736-8502 / DR, hdwd flrs, sunporch, fireplace, heat & appls incl. Sect 8 ok $975/mo

+ sec. 773-415-6914

639 E. 90TH St., Gorgeous, 2BR, 1st flr, updated kit & bath. $ 875/mo + 1 mo sec. Clean & Quiet. No Pets. 773-930-6045

2 BR OTHER

in nice, quiet 2-flat, Peoria and 69th St., $1250/mo. We’ll accept 3BR voucher, 312-278-7302

pletely rehabbed lovely 3BR house, $1250/mo. Eggleston & 102nd St., 312-278-7302

4BDR HSE 52ND Woods $1300 3BDR APT 80th Paulina $1100 Section 8 OK call 708-269-7669

ADULT SERVICES

10/1. Parking space available for $75/ month. (773)761-4318.

lage: 2BR, 1Bth, Hardwood floors, new appliances, remodeled kitchen and bath, large closets, laundry in building. $1550, call 872-600-6885

MOVE RIGHT RICHTON PARK 3BR, 1.5BA T.H, Move-in Special, full fin bsmt, 1 car garage, hdwd flrs, SS Appls, loc friendly. $1600. 708-566-4101 MARKHAM, NEWLY REHABBED 3BR, 1BA, new appls

incl washer/dryer, Section 8 welcome. Avail Immediately, $1500/mo.

708-793-3885

ADULT SERVICES

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

MUST SEE, LOW COST, CLEAN Calumet City, Quiet. XL 2 &3BR, 2ba, laundry, pkng, owner pays heat. $925 & $975 312-3393517

HOUSE FOR SALE by owner.

2302 Cambridge Ln., Woodridge, IL. 3BR, 2Bath, 2 car attached. Cul de sac. $259,000. 630-947-5130.

Open house Sept. 16,2018, 1:00 p-3p.

newly remod 3BR, 1BA, hdwd flrs, low sec dep. Nr elementary school. $1 200/mo. 708-275-1751

GENERAL 6150 S. VERNON Ave. 3 Bdrm 6159 S. KING DR. 3 Bdrm 7649 S. PHILLIPS. 1-4 Bdrms 6943 S. WOODLAWN. 1-4 Bdrms

6721 S. CHAPPEL . 4 bdrm

Stainless steel appliances, hardwood flrs, granite countertops, laundry on site. No sec deposit $500 lease signing bonus Section 8 welcome 312-778-1262

STUDIO $695 1BR $795 Bus stop, metro train & shopping center nearby. Newly decorated, carpeted, stove, fridge, dining room, FREE heat & cooking gas. No application fee, FREE credit check.

1-773-919-7102 or 1-312-8027301

roommates AUSTIN & MARQUETTE PARK AREAS, furnished rooms with use of hsehld. $113 per week, 1 week security. 773-378-7763 or 773-556-3230

FURNISHED

ROOMS

$400;

Utilities included. Near good transportation. $200 clean up fee required. Fixed income invited. Call 312-758-6931

MARKETPLACE

GOODS

1 & 2BR $1095/mo.

Newly decorated, hdwd flrs, stove & fridge incl, Free Heat & Hot water. Sec 8 welcome.

Free credit check, no application fee, laundry facilities.

1-773-667-6477 or 1-312-802-7301

SOUTH CHICAGO AREA,

CHATHAM, 720 E. 81st St. Newly remodeled 1BR, 1BA, hardwood floors,

SOUTH END RENTALS

3BR House. 69th/Honore. $1,025.

2/3BR House. 147th/Leavitt. $850.

3BR. 55th/Carpenter. $850.

2BR. 67th/Aberdeen. $650.

2BR. 70th/Wabash. $725.

1BR. 67th/Aberdeen. $500.

Ranch Realty. 773-952-2122

appliances & heat included. Call 847-533-5463.

55 PLUS COMMUNITY

1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments Starting at $799 219-650-5000 or 219-314-8192

BRONZEVILLE: SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit.

4841 S Michigan. 4BR $1300/mo.

Appliances included. 708-2884510

VIC. OF 63RD/ARTESIAN,

nice, upper 3BR, encl back porch, hdwd flrs, spac liv rm + din rm.

Avail Now. Move-In Fee req.

773-704-0239

FOR SALE

HYDE PARK MOVE-IN SPECIAL

2959 E 80th Place, newly remodeled.

1st fl 2BR apt, 2nd fl 1BR apt, Heat Incl. Sec 8 OK. 708-743-8118

CHICAGO, Newly renovated 3BR Apt., 95th & Dan Ryan, private parking, $850/mo., heat not included. Call 773218-2758

OTHER

ATTN: SEC 8, 12328 S. Normal,

LARGE SUNNY ROSCOE Vil-

ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

3 BR OR MORE

60 MINUTES FREE TRIAL

THE HOTTEST GAY CHATLINE

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

www.guyspyvoice.com

Ahora en Español/18+

SECTION 8 WELCOME Newly Remodeled.

61st/ Rhodes. 3BR. Dining Rm.

hdwd flrs, Heat Incl. $1000/mo.

773-874-9637 or 773-493-5359

NEW KITCHENS & BATHS.

101st/May. 1BR. 69th/Dante, 3BR. 77t h/Lowe, 2BR. 71st/Bennett. 2BR. Sec 8 Welc. 708-503-1366

ADULT SERVICES

TOO MUCH STUFF: THE TRUMP PURGE. many things + unindicted coconspirators. Saturday September 22, 10am-4pm. 4926 N. Winchester .

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

ADULT SERVICES

CHICAGO HEIGHTS 3 bedroom

1 Bath apartment with appliances included. Section 8 welcomed. No security deposit. 708-822-4450.

80TH/EVANS, 3rd flr, 3BR, 1BA, parking, appls, in house laundry. $1200/mo. Section 8 Welcome.

Frank - 312-671-3795 agent owned

46TH AND MICHIGAN, 1st flr, 3BR, 2BA, parking, SS appls. $1350/ mo. Section 8 Welcome.

Frank - 312-671-3795 agent owned 61ST & KING Dr, 3 & 4BR.

$1100/mo and up.

Section 8 Welcome.

Frank - 312-671-3795 agent owned 80th & Phillips, Beautiful 1st flr, 3 lrg BR, 1.5BA, new renov, hdwd flrs & appls incl. Off street prkng. $1100/

mo & up. 312-818-0236

GARY, 3BR, 1.5BA, appliances included, basement, 2 car garage, $950/mo + security. Section 8 Welcome. 773-972-3230.

SOUTH SHORE 4BR, cent heat/

air, hdwd flrs. 69th/Merrill. Stove & fridge incl. Laundry rm, Security cameras. $1100/mo. 630-205-2929

DOLTON - 3BR House, 1BA, newly rehabbed, basement, $158 5/mo + security. Section 8 welcome. Call 708-879-1043

please recycle this paper

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

708-288-4510

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SAVAGE LOVE

HOT GIRL

By Dan Savage

BODY RUBS

Advice for Stellas seeking to ‘carve a new groove’

$40 w/AD 24/7

She’s newly divorced and having the best sex of her life—isn’t that enough?

Q : I’m newly divorced and

have started a relationship with a man I’ve known and deeply cared about for decades. The sex is amazing—from start to finish, I feel better than I ever did even in the best moments with my ex. And in the most intense moments? He makes me see stars. He’s a very generous lover—he turns me on like crazy, and I regularly come while sexting with him.

But I have yet to have an orgasm with him.

In the past, I’ve had an orgasm with a partner only from oral or very occasionally from digital clit stim. My ex-husband wasn’t skilled at oral, so I always had to fantasize pretty hard to get there (and regularly chose not to bother). My new partner has amazing moves and amazing oral skills. And he’s willing to keep at it for as long as it takes. But regardless of how amazing I feel when he’s going down on me, every single time I eventually hit a wall where I am just done.

That said, I haven’t had a single session with him where I’ve been left feeling unfulfilled, despite the lack of orgasm. In contrast, any sex with my ex that didn’t end in an orgasm left me feeling frustrated or, worse yet, bored.

Do you have any ideas as to why I can’t get over that hump? I wonder if I just need him to be more boring and repetitive so that I can focus. But if that’s the case, is it even worth it? Why would I want to make the sex worse to make it “better”?

Shouldn’t I just be satisfied with the mind-blowing sex I’m having, even if it means I don’t have an orgasm? Is it OK to give myself permission to give up on partner-based climaxing? —NO ORGASM POSSIBLY EVER

A : Beware of those self-

fulfilling prophecies! If you sit there—or lie there—telling yourself that being with Mr. AmazingMoves means giving up on “partner-based climaxing,” NOPE, you’re increasing the odds that you’ll never have an orgasm with this guy or any other guy ever again.

Here’s what I think the problem is: You had tons of shitty sex with your ex, but you could climax so long as you focused, i.e., so long as you were able to “fantasize pretty hard.” Your ex provided you with some half-assed oral and/or uninspiring digital clit stim that didn’t interfere with your ability to focus/fantasize. In other words, NOPE, with your ex you were able to—you had no other choice but to—retreat into your own head and rely on your own erotic imagination to get you there.

Because the moves of Mr. Amazing are so amazing— because he turns you on like crazy, because whatever he’s doing feels great, because sometimes you see stars—you aren’t able to retreat into your own head. For years, you had to figuratively leave the room so you could focus/ concentrate on whatever it was you needed to focus/ concentrate on in order to come. You created a powerful association between going to a private, safe, sexy place—pulling away from your partner emotionally, erotically, and sometimes even physically—and climaxing.

You aren’t able to pull away from your current partner in the same way. Nor do you want to. And, hey, wanna know why you come when you sext with him? Because sexting is assisted fantasizing. You’re alone when you’re swapping those dirty messages with Mr. AmazingMoves, NOPE, kind of like you were

alone when you were having sex with your ex.

It’s going to take some time to carve a new groove, i.e., you’re going to have to create a new association, one that allows you to be fully present (emotionally, erotically, physically) during partner-based sex and able to climax during it. The trick is not to rush it and, again, not to box yourself into negative self-fulfilling prophecies like the one you ended your letter with. So instead of telling yourself you’re never going to come again during partnered sex, tell yourself that your orgasms will come again. It may take some time, sure, but trust that your body and your brain are already hard at work carving that new groove.

One practical suggestion: The next time you have sex with Mr. AmazingMoves— the next ten times you have sex with him—tell him in advance that you’re going to ask him to stop eating you out long before you hit that wall. Then stimulate yourself, either digitally or with a vibrator, while he holds you.

If you need to lean back and close your eyes, lean back and close your eyes—but do not retreat into your own head. Maintain physical contact and ask him to say dirty/ sexy things to you while you get yourself the rest of the way there, so you’re always aware of his presence. A couple dozen self-administered orgasms with both of you in the room—in the room emotionally, erotically, and physically—should speed that new-groove-carving process along. v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net.

Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast.com. m @fakedansavage

224-353-1353 Discreet Billing

Meet sexy friends who really get your vibe...

Try FREE: 312-924-2066

please recycle this paper

More Local Numbers: 1-800-8111-800-811-1633 1633

vibeline.com 18+

&$!#%&" !! #$!%#"! !!

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Never miss a show again.

EARLY WARNINGS

chicagoreader.com/early

SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 41

b Lone Bellow 12/8, 7 PM; 12/9, 4 and 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 12/8 and 12/9, 7 PM sold out, 12/9, 4 PM added b Record Company, Madisen Ward & the Mama Bear 9/29, 8 PM, Park West, moved from Riviera Theatre, 18+

UPCOMING

Cupcakke é COURTESY THE ARTIST

NEW

Cyrille Aimee & Stanley Jordan 10/6, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Alesso 11/2, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Thu 9/20, 10 AM, 18+ Kris Allen 12/4, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/20, noon b Iggy Azalea 11/17, 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Nik Bartsch’s Ronin 10/27, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Birds of Chicago 12/5, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM b Sarah Brightman 2/14, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM Jakob Bro, Thomas Morgan, and Joey Baron 10/17, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Bronze Radio Return 3/15, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 18+ Bully 10/18, 9 PM, Hideout Chromeo 12/14, 10 PM, the Mid Elvis Costello & the Imposters 11/14, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM Crash Test Dummies 11/24, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 9/21, 8 AM b David Crosby 11/19, 7:30 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Cult Leader 11/30, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Cupcakke 11/10, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Tue 9/25, 10 AM b Dessa 11/3, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 9/21, 8 AM b Linda Eder 11/9, 7:30 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 18+

Father 11/2, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, on sale Fri 9/21, 9 AM, 18+ Floozies 12/21-22, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Gang of Youths, Gretta Ray 12/14, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Good Old War, Beta Radio 12/8, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Greta Van Fleet 12/12, 7 PM and 12/14-15, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Adrianne Lenker 2/20, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall b Lyle Lovett & Robert Earl Keen 10/12, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Vusi Mahlasela 11/4, 7 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/20, noon b Manhattan Transfer 11/24, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Richard Marx 11/15, 7:30 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b J.D. McPherson 11/30, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 17+ Ingrid Michaelson 12/7, 7:30 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM b Rhett Miller 12/20, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM b Misfits, Fear, Venom Inc. 4/27, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM Doug Paisley 11/29, 9 PM, Hideout Liz Phair, Speedy Ortiz 10/13, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Preoccupations, Protomartyr 12/6, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Procol Harum 2/20-21, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/20, noon b Raven, Mobile Deathcamp 11/20, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+

42 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 20, 2018

Red Bull Music Festival Chicago with Merzbow, Vic Mensa, Nas, Pusha T, Makaya McCraven’s Universal Beings, Jamila Woods, Teyana Taylor, Desiigner, and more 11/330, various venues, on sale Tue 9/25, 10 AM Jaret Reddick 11/16, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Rising Appalachia 11/14, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM b Michael Schenker Fest 5/4, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 17+ Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band 12/14, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b Jake Shimabukuro 9/29, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Snails 12/7, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 18+ Soft Moon 1/24, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 9/21, noon, 17+ Kasim Sulton’s Utopia 3/7, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/20, noon b Teenage Fanclub 3/6, 7:30 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 18+ Tierra Santa 11/17, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ We Banjo 3 10/5, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie b Matthew Welch 10/21, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ William Elliott Whitmore 12/13, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 9/21, 10 AM, 17+

UPDATED Beth Hart 4/25, 7:30 PM, Park West, rescheduled from 9/19, 18+ Chris Knight 10/12, 7:30 and 10 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, late show added

Acid Dad 11/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids 10/14, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle AJJ, Kimya Dawson 10/9, 7 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Alcest, Cloakroom 10/31, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Bass Drum of Death 11/1, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Beak 10/15, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Behemoth, At the Gates, Wolves in the Throne Room 11/9, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Bottle Rockets 11/10, 9 PM, Hideout Caamp 12/7, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Cave 10/20-21, 9 PM, Hideout Phil Collins 10/22, 8 PM, United Center Cursive 11/15, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Dead Sara 9/29, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 18+ Death From Above, Les Butcherettes 11/16, 8:30 PM, Metro b Destroyer 10/17, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Every Time I Die, Turnstile 11/12, 6 PM, Metro b Exploded View 11/1, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Foxing 9/30, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall b Eleanor Friedberger 10/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Get Up Kids, Remember Sports 11/10, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Goatwhore, Casualties, Black Tusk 11/21, 6 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Grapetooth 11/11, 7 PM, Thalia Hall b Growlers 10/4, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Haerts 12/10, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Hand Habits 10/21, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Har Mar Superstar & Sabrina Ellis 11/24, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Joe Henry 11/15, 8 PM, City Winery b Her’s 11/11, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Lauryn Hill 10/7, 6:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Hot Tuna Acoustic 12/7, 7 and 9:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

Never miss a show again.

Sign up for the newsletter at chicagoreader. com/early

Incognito 10/14, 5 PM, City Winery b Jawbreaker 11/4, 6:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Kiiara, Abir 10/29, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Kikagaku Moyo 9/28, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 18+ King’s X 12/9, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Lala Lala 9/28, 9 PM, Empty Bottle The Life and Times 10/17, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Like Moths to Flames, Oceans Ate Alaska 11/9, 6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Low 11/16, 7:30 PM, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel b Madball 9/30, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Pat Metheny 10/12, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Whitey Morgan 10/13, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Murder by Death 10/6, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Odonis Odonis 11/4, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Nnamdi Ogbonnaya & Sen Morimoto 11/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Oh Sees, Timmy’s Organism 10/12, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Parquet Courts 12/3, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Post Animal 12/15, 8 PM, Metro b Red Fang, Big Business 9/27, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Restorations 10/13, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Riot Ten 11/23, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Rozwell Kid 11/15, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ (Sandy) Alex G 11/4, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Travis Scott, Trippie Redd 12/6, 7:30 PM, United Center Ed Sheeran 10/4, 7 PM, Soldier Field Simple Minds 10/15, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Sleepwalkers 10/11, 8 PM, Subterranean Soccer Mommy 10/4, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall b Swearin’, Empath 10/18, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Terror, Harm’s Way 10/10, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Trapped Under Ice 10/7, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge b Twenty One Pilots 10/17, 7 PM, United Center Carrie Underwood 10/29, 7 PM, United Center Vaccines, Jesse Jo Stark 10/11, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene THINGS ARE about to get weird—the original lineup of Chicago slowcore trio Pinebender has reunited, and will play the Empty Bottle on Sunday, September 23. Matt Clark (also of White/Light) left the band in 2002, but he’s back in action on baritone guitar, joining singer-guitarist Chris Hansen and drummer Stephen Howard, who’s been covering for Clark on baritone for 16 years while Dennis Stacer played drums. Stacer has moved away, so this new/old arrangement is full-time—or as full-time as it can be, given the group’s intermittent schedule! Pinebender’s Sunday set will draw from the three releases with this lineup: Too Good to Be True (1998), Things Are About to Get Weird (1999), and The High Price of Living Too Long With a Single Dream (2003).

Chicago underground rapper Freako has been busy: in June he dropped Lean and Bacon, an EP with rapper Kush Worthy that shows off his melancholy, drowsy flow, and on Friday he releases the mixtape ADHD. On Saturday, September 29, he hosts Freako’s Fye Art Show at Bru Chicago (1562 N. Milwaukee), which features work by eight visual artists and short sets by two poets, two singers, and 12 rappers, including Isaiah G, Adot, and HateSonny. Tickets are $15, $10 in advance.

Locals Ivy Dye made their album debut in 2016 with the hooky, walloping alt-rock of Regality. On Friday, September 21, the band follows up with the cassette EP Diminish (on 1212 Records), and judging by lead single “Skin Your Knees,” Ivy Dye are hardly diminished—they remind this wolf of 90s college-radio faves Buffalo Tom and Bettie Seveert! On Saturday, September 22, they play a release show at Cole’s.

In May, Jack Armando of My Gold Mask dropped a self-titled darkwave album as Panic Priest, and fans of early Tears for Fears and Peter Murphy’s Deep should love its moody grooves, dark romanticism, and chilly synths. Panic Priest performs at Beat Kitchen on Monday, September 24.

—J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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SPECIAL GUESTS SPECIAL GUEST

ROBBIE SKYE (SOLO SET)

THIS FRIDAY! SEPTEMBER 21 PARK WEST

THIS WEDNESDAY! SEPTEMBER 26 RIVIERA THEATRE

SPECIAL GUESTS

SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 29 VIC THEATRE

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 PARK WEST

TICKETS PURCHASED FOR THE RIVIERA HONORED

ORKESTA MENDOZA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4 VIC THEATRE

KIRIN J. CALLINAN OCTOBER 4 • RIVIERA THEATRE

SPECIAL GUEST

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6 VIC THEATRE

OCTOBER 10 RIVIERA THEATRE FRIDAY DECEMBER 7 VIC THEATRE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 PARK WEST ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM!

BUY TICKETS AT SEPTEMBER 20, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 43

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