Chicago Reader: print issue of September 29, 2016 (Volume 45, Number 51) by Chicago Reader

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

Policing Rahm’s violenceprevention plan ignores racism. 13

Music Saba Sa brings the west we side to life in rap. 29

Inside the Chicago Police Department’s secret budget

Every year, Chicago police take millions of dollars from ordinary Chicagoans and spend it behind closed doors. By JOEL HANDLEY, JENNIFER HELSBY, and FREDDY MARTINEZ 14

ARE YOU MODERN?

MOHOLY-NAGY PHOTOGRAPHY PAINTING DESIGN FILM Opens October 2 This exhibition is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Lead funding for the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is generously provided by Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation. Major support is provided by Helen and Sam Zell, Zell Family Foundation, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. The exhibition catalogue is made possible by the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support for the exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art on behalf of board member Charles Harper, and by the Moholy-Nagy Foundation and Emily Rauh Pulitzer. Annual support for Art Institute exhibitions is provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation, Kenneth Griffin, Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, Anne and Chris Reyes, Betsy Bergman Rosenﬁeld and Andrew M. Rosenﬁeld, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, and the Woman’s Board. László Moholy-Nagy. A 19 (detail), 1927. Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Ann Arbor, Michigan. © 2016 Hattula Moholy-Nagy/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

2 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

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 9, 2 0 1 6 | V O L U M E 4 5 , N U M B E R 5 1

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

FEATURES

INVESTIGATION

Inside the Chicago Police Department’s secret budget

CITY LIFE

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

8 Street View Irene Flores gets style points at the World Music Festival. 8 Chicagoans A teen-services rep has helped make a southwest-side library a lifeline.

35 Shows of note Kikagaku Moyo, Chicago Opera Theater’s The Love Potion, Goblin Cock, and more 39 The Secret History of Chicago Music Chicago protopunks the Cruciﬁed released a notorious EP in 1977.

FOOD & DRINK

By JOEL HANDLEY, JENNIFER HELSBY, and FREDDY MARTINEZ 14 9 Space Go inside Mies van der Rohe’s first high-rise. 10 Transportation Sliding-scale fines could make Chicago traffic enforcement more equitable. 11 Culture Many millions of dollars later, what’s up with Navy Pier? 12 Joravsky | Politics The money the mayor pledged to combat violence is nothing compared to the dollars he’s set aside for the South Loop DePaul/Marriott deal. 13 Policing Without addressing racism, Mayor Emanuel’s violenceprevention plan will fail.

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

ON THE COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY PABLO IGLESIAS. FOR MORE OF HIS WORK, GO TO PABLOI.COM.

4 Agenda Thrones! A Musical Parody, stand-up from Demetri Martin, the statue Concrete Traﬃc at the MCA, the ﬁlm White Girl, and more recommendations

23 Small Screen Joe Swanberg’s Easy is spot-on Chicago. 24 Visual Art Tseng Kwong Chi, downtown New York’s photographic ambassador 26 Movies In Snowden, a private life obscures a public scandal. 27 Movies Alloy Orchestra hammers out a new score for the silent drama Varieté.

Every year, Chicago police take millions of dollars from ordinary Chicagoans and spend it behind closed doors.

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IN THIS ISSUE

MUSIC

Saba brings the west side to life in rap On the new mixtape Bucket List Project, the Pivot Gang MC reminds Chicago that one of its most violent neighborhoods is also a home. By LEOR GALIL 29

ARTS & CULTURE

19 Theater Man in the Ring takes a swing at the saga of boxer Emile Griﬃth. 20 Theater Hand to God is Milton’s Lucifer via hand puppet. 20 Theater Tug of War: Civil Strife is a battle to engage in. 21 Lit The Newberry Library’s “Creating Shakespeare” highlights the Bard’s ongoing legacy. 22 Comedy Adam Ruins Everything Live! doesn’t quite ruin democracy.

43 Restaurant review: Dixie Lillie’s Q boss Charlie McKenna attempts to realize a fantasy of “evolutionary” southern cuisine. 45 Events Talking Taste Talks Chicago with Lula Cafe chef Jason Hammel

CLASSIFIEDS

46 Jobs 46 Apartments & Spaces 48 Marketplace 48 Straight Dope Has a presidential candidate ever said things as outrageous as Donald Trump has? 49 Savage Love Should a selfdescribed cheating piece of shit fess up? 50 Early Warnings Bushwick Bill, Gza, Brian McKnight, and more upcoming shows 50 Gossip Wolf Shannon Candy of Strawberry Jacuzzi launches her label in time for Cassette Store Day, and more music news.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 3

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AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

Send your events to agenda@chicagoreader.com

b ALL AGES

F “Lala’s Opening,” about an overblown diva, feel like rough drafts in need of more work. That inconsistency is mirrored in this Pulse Theatre production, directed by Aaron Mitchell Reese and Donterrio Johnson, which sometimes kills (Demetra Drayton and Ekia Thomas are particularly funny) but at other times seems at a loss as to how ﬁnd either the humor or the message in Wolfe’s unfocused material. —JACK HELBIG Through 10/23: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago, 773-752-3955, pulsetheatrechicago.com, $35, seniors $25, students $15.

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Cheers Live on Stage o MATTHEW JOHN HALLBACH

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4 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

THEATER

More at chicagoreader.com/ theater Bleacher Bums This genially rowdy made-in-Chicago comedy—created by and for the fabled Organic Theater Company in 1977 at the instigation of ensemble member Joe Mantegna (now star of TV’s Criminal Minds)—focuses on a cadre of Chicago Cubs fans inhabiting the cheap seats at Wrigley Field during a game between the Cubs and the Saint Louis Cardinals. Responding to the unseen action on the ballfield below, this motley crew of day-game regulars cheer the home team, heckle the opposition, and challenge each other to increasingly high-stakes bets. The play—here presented by Open Space Theater in its revised 1998 version—is a pretty flimsy piece of storytelling, but it’s an engaging collection of quirky character sketches, engagingly played by a nine-person cast under Nich Radcliffe’s direction. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 11/6: ThuSat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, the Broadway, 4139 N. Broadway, 800-737-0984, openspacetheater.com, $20-$30. Cheers Live on Stage If you’re in R the audience, you’re likely already a fan of the long-running NBC sitcom. But even if you’re there for mere nostalgia’s sake, the standout cast may still thrill you: Paul Vogt as Norm and Sarah Sirota as Carla are especially evocative of the lovable George Wendt and Rhea Perlman, and it’s a treat to see Barry Pearl as Coach. Erik Forrest Jackson’s adaptation is smartly focused, limited to the first season and following the inception and development of Sam and Diane’s romance. As played by Grayson Powell and Jillian Louis, the pair effectively recall originals Ted Danson and Shelley Long while transcending their influence—I especially adored Powell as the romantic lead. It’s a wise tribute and extension of James Burrows’s original comic gathering: a ditzy coach, a retired ballplayer, a know-it-all mailman, and a Kierkegaard-quoting blond barmaid who declares what we feel: that the quotidian life of the humble tavern can

be a “potent microcosm” of the world at large. —SUZANNE SCANLON Through 10/23: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Broadway Playhouse, 175 E. Chestnut, 800-775-2000, broadwayinchicago.com, $32-$69. The City of Conversation Playwright Anthony Giardina both under- and oversells his 2014 domestic/political drama charting the disruption and demise of a liberal elite Georgetown family and the culture of cocktail diplomacy from Carter’s last days to Obama’s first. In act one, as Democratic socialite Hester welcomes home her errant son Colin and his young Reaganite fiancee, Anna, Giardina paints a simplistic political divide (tradition-loving neocons disdain nuance, underclass-cheering liberals condescend) that in act two—amid Robert Bork’s controversial Supreme Court nomination—splits Hester’s family irrevocably in two (though only because Giardina vastly overestimates Hester’s influence on national politics). Still, director Marti Lyons coaxes first-rate performances from every member of her cast; Lia D. Mortensen’s seductive, desperate, venomous turn as Hester is an especially thrilling ordeal. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 10/23: Wed 1 and 7:30 PM, Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2:30 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Northlight Theatre, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie, Skokie, 847-673-6300, northlight.org, $30-$76, students $15. The Colored Museum George C. Wolfe’s 1986 send-up of black theater, structured as a series of satirical sketches, was revolutionary for its time, the late Reagan era, and on occasion this seminal show still thrills—“Git on Board,” the opening piece about the continuing legacy of slavery, took my breath away. Nonetheless, the most daring thing about the play, Wolfe’s refusal to write either a serious deconstruction or a flat-out comedy revue, is also one of its flaws. Parts of the show, such as his send-up of Raisin in the Sun, “The Last Mama on the Couch Play,” are laughout-loud funny, but other pieces such as

Dead Children Playwright Robert Tenges’s Dead Children, a new production from the Side Project in collaboration with Chicago Dramatists, works around memories of events too painful to discuss candidly without risking everything. Most of the time what the characters do instead is make fragile, evasive chitchat—it’s how they survive. Tom (Erik Wagner) is deeply vulnerable, his mother having done unspeakable things to him as a child. It aﬀects his posture: whether talking or listening, his twitchy bald head leans forward, eyes down, like a meek lollipop. He and his wife, Renata (Kirsten D’Aurelio), are splitting up (“We’re not physical,” Tom says). Renata, an underachieving daughter, is now caretaker of her mother, the same woman—grown gray and forgetful but still just as nasty—who burned her with a scalding plate of mashed potatoes as a child. It’s a pretty raw play, though one with performances that, under the direction of Adam Webster, are also pretty extraordinary, especially Victoria Gilbert as Mary Jo, Tom’s high school sweetheart. —MAX MALLER Through 10/23: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago, 312-633-0630, chicagodramatists.org, $29, students and seniors $25. Dog Night For Dog Night, everyR one gets a mask. You mill around the wood-paneled foyer at Gunder House (aka the North Lakeside Cultural Center, a slightly spooky old mansion), thinking, “Cool place for a play—when does it start?” It already has. A certain Professor Mott (Ben Kemper) is here to give a lecture to the “Ecto-Eﬃgical

Empirical Historical Society of Chicago,” to which you suddenly belong. The real estate developer who just introduced himself to you, is he an actor? These people shouting about—what were they shouting about, a dog in the attic? Are they actors? Hard to say. The lights ﬂicker. It’s an old building, these things happen . . . or do the ghosts of its gruesome history want revenge? With Dog Night, Rabid Bat Theatricals has crafted a hair-raising immersive theatrical experience of the ﬁrst order. It’s beautiful and dangerous; it urges—and repays— total engagement in its experiments. Catch it before it closes this weekend. —MAX MALLER Though 10/1: Fri-Sat 7 PM, North Lakeside Cultural Center, 6219 N. Sheridan, rabidbats. squarespace.com. F The Happiest Place on Earth R “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” has been the soundtrack to

playwright Philip Dawkins’s home life for generations. His exceptional one-man show, directed by Jonathan L. Green, chronicles his family’s relationship with Disneyland, where they traveled to ﬁnd elusive happiness in the wake of his sportscaster grandfather’s on-air death of an aneurysm at age 35. Each stage in the family’s rebuilding is set against an area of the park—Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, etc, in addition to playing himself, Dawkins deftly steps into the shoes of all the women characters, delicately creating distinct and nuanced personalities enhanced by old photos he shares on an overhead projector. Witty and heartbreaking in equal measure, he crafts vivid, emotionally charged scenes with language that feels both accessible and cinematic. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 10/23: Wed-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, sideshowtheatre. org, $48.

The People’s Choice Senator “Ronald Trumpet” is a suit with no scruples, a politician with no soul. And that sucks for the incumbent president, a man who can’t fathom how a blustery blowhard with bad hair is beating him in the polls. So the good-natured protagonist of this political satire from Genesis Theatrical Productions hires a fast-talking spin

Thrones! A Musical Parody o MICHAEL BROSILOW

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of September 29

Thrones! A Musical Parody R Created by well-known Chicago improv ensemble Baby Wants Candy,

this Game of Thrones musical parody makes its U.S. debut after playing at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Full disclosure: the character I most closely relate to is Brad (played by a versatile and high-energy Nick Druzbanski), the only one who’s never seen the HBO juggernaut. If you like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and you like porn, you’ll love this show, the other characters conﬁdently assure him. What follows is a genre-bending, do-it-yourself living-room musical put on by Brad’s friends to catch him up on the plot. Endless inside jokes and spoilers had the audience falling out of their chairs on the day I attended—I just enjoyed the knockout vocal harmonies, particularly from Caitlyn Cerza. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 11/13: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 6 and 9:30 PM, Sun 4 PM, Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln, 773935-6100, apollochicago.com, $49-$59, students rush tickets $20.

The 25th Annual Putnam R County Spelling Bee Some of the actors in this revival of William Finn

and Rachel Sheinkin’s 2005 Broadway musical are less than fabulous singers, and the production itself, as evidenced by the simple set and costumes, is low-budget, but that hardly matters when the comic acting is as first-rate as it is in this production. Everybody in this sweet little show finds the funny in their quirky, neurotic characters without turning them into goofy cartoons and losing the laughs. And they do this without mocking these gifted if annoying spelling-bee kids or overplaying the comedy—by making us like their characters first, as Jason Geis does in his hilarious portrayal of the gifted if annoying William Barfee (though it seems unfair to single out Geis in an ensemble as tight and talented as this one). Erin Elisabeth Smith provides the smart musical direction. —JACK HELBIG Through 11/6: Sat 9:30 PM, Sun 7 PM, pH Comedy Theater, 1515 W. Berwyn, whatisph.com, $20, $15 students.

& power tools ✧

✧ Build three take-home Visiting Edna I imagine the smoldering, borderline nihilistic spirit that drives David Rabe’s new end-of-life drama is what my mother, who died of cancer in 2010, felt in solitude during her darkest moments. My God, I wish this script had a bit more of her fight against grief too. A middle-aged father spends a few days with his widowed mom when it becomes clear that palliative care could be fast-approaching reality. Cancer and television are personified as full-fledged characters, details that ring true—in those claustrophobic confines, you’re damn right a TV feels like a welcome soul in the room, though the metaphysical analogy gets muddled. Anna D. Shapiro’s Steppenwolf production ultimately falls victim to Roger Ebert’s Human Centipede conundrum, in which something sets out to be agonizing, then succeeds. —DAN JAKES Through 11/6: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 3 and 7:30 PM, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650, steppenwolf.org, $32.50-$86.

DANCE

Arguments & Grievances The topics at this edition of the comeR dic debate series range from paper vs.

Visceral Dance Chicago The dance company presents a fall program featuring new work by artistic director Nick Pupillo and LA choreographer Erica Sobol. Sat 10/1, 7:30 PM, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312-3347777, visceraldance.com, $20-$70.

COMEDY

Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $12, $10 in advance.

Trigger The comedy theater presents its debut sketch revue. 10/1-11/5: Sat 8 PM, the Revival, 1160 E. 55th, 866-811-4111, the-revival.com, $10.

VISUAL ARTS

Demetri Martin

plastic to open carry vs. open container. Sun 10/2, 8 PM, North Bar, 1637 W. North, 773-123-5678, argumentsandgrievances. com, free with RSVP.

The Incomplete Gesture

Ghost Stories A completely R improvised show based on a guest storyteller’s spookiest tale. 10/1-

11/12: Sat 9 PM, Under the Gun Theater, 956 W. Newport, 773-270-3440, undertheguntheater.com, $12. Laughing Liberally Chicago R Comedy group the Accountants of Homeland Security host this politi-

cally-themed stand-up show featuring liberal and progressive comics. Wed 10/5, 8 PM, Elbo Room, 2871 N. Lincoln, 773-549-5549, elboroomchicago.com, $5.

Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre R The dance company’s fall series features four new works, two of them

by cofounder Joe Cerqua. 9/29-10/1: Thu-Fri 7 PM, Sat 4 and 7 PM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, cerquarivera.org, $44, $36 in advance.

Demetri Martin The wry standR up’s Persistence of Jokes tour. Sat 10/1, 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheﬃeld, 773-

One 3 hour class per week ✧ ✧ All materials included ✧

Fall Classes start2015! October 2016 October WOODSMYTHS WOODSMYTHS

1907West N. Mendell · Chicago · 773-477-6482 1835 SchoolSt.St. - Chicago 773-477-6482 www.woodsmythschicago.com www.woodsmythschicago.com.

Museum of Contemporary Art Concrete Traﬃc, Wolf Vostell’s sculpture made out of a 1957 Cadillac De Ville encased in concrete will be on display at the MCA before heading to its original home at the University of Chicago. Fri 9/30, noon-1 PM. Tue 10 AM-8 PM, Wed-Sun 10 AM-5 PM. 220 E. Chicago, 312-280-2660, mcachicago.org, $12, $7 students and seniors, free kids 12 and under and members of the military, free for Illinois residents on Tuesdays. Riverside Arts Center RAC the House, the art center’s 2016 gala featuers hors d’oeuvres by the Chew Chew, live music from Alewife and Beverly Gibson Aieta, a raﬄe, a dance party, and glimpse at work from local artists. Sat 10/1, 6 PM-midnight. Tuesday-Saturday 1-5. $55. 32 E. Quincy, Riverside, 708-442-6400, riversideartscenter.com.

LIT

Lit Up! Drinkers With Writing R Problems presents a night of live lit featuring Elizabeth Gomez, Kate

472-0449, victheatre.com, $39.75.

Hawbaker-Krohn, Ada Cheng, and more. Fri 9/30, 7:30 PM, Brisku’s Bistro, 4100 N. Kedzie, 773-279-9141, drinkerswithwritingproblems.com.

There’s Something About R Bloody Mary Huggable Riot presents a horror-themed all-female

Reading Under the Inﬂuence R This month’s theme for the ﬁction reading series is “spiced.” Featured

sketch revue. 10/5-11/9: Wed 8 PM,

class projects ✧

✧ Classes are limited in size ✧ ✧ 10 week course/

Fall Classes start

Art on Armitage Finding Space, a window installation by Yoonshin Park, made with cheesecloth panels and strips of cooked kozo plant (aka the paper mulberry tree). 10/1-10/31. 4125 W. Armitage, 773-235-8583, artonarmitage.com. o DAVE KOTINSKY

team to turn things around—even if it costs him some dignity. Playwright Philip Pinkus’s script was reworked to reﬂect the events of this year’s election season, and though the resulting 60-minute play has its positives, subtlety isn’t one of them—Mexicans are rapists, Muslims should be banned, etc, etc. Is it even possible to portray such themes satirically when they’re in fact real statements spouting from the mouth of an ostensibly real person? One thing’s clear: it’s hard as hell to make the ridiculous look even more ridiculous. —MATT DE LA PEÑA Through 10/30: Wed 7:30 PM, Sat 3 PM, Sun 7:30 PM, Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-7287529, genesistheatricals.com, $30.

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

CO-ED

Furniture Making Classes

readers include Ashley Keenan,

Flamenco Passion Ensemble R Español perform as part of the “Made in Chicago” Dance Series. Thu

9/29, 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, 800-982-2787, auditoriumtheatre.org, $28-$68. The Incomplete Gesture Natya R Dance Theater performs this work inspired by Indian mythology

in collaboration with Indonesia’s Nan Jombang Dance. Sat 10/1, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie, Skokie, 847-673-6300, natya. com, $20-$38.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 5

AGENDA B Daniel Story, Veronica Popp, and Laura Adamczyk. Wed 10/5, 7 PM, Sheffield’s, 3258 N. Sheffield, 773-281-4989, readingundertheinfluence.com, $3. Tuesday Funk This monthly R reading series features eclectic works by local writers. The

October lineup includes Tom Haley, Kevin Smokler, Henri Harps, K.B. Jensen, and Jen Masengarb. Tue 10/4, 7 PM, Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark, 773-334-9851, tuesdayfunk.org.

MOVIES

More at chicagoreader.com/ movies NEW REVIEWS Deepwater Horizon The world watched for 87 agonizing days in 2010 as British Petroleum tried to halt the flow of oil from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Louisiana coast; this big-budget drama focuses on the first day alone, when a giant explosion and fire aboard the station killed 11 men. Transocean Ltd., which leased the rig to BP, had a history of accidents leading

Tharlo

up to the explosion, but the movie is framed as a conflict between sturdy, modest Transocean technicians (Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell) and an effete BP executive who neglects safety precautions (John Malkovich—that’s how evil this company is). In a clumsy expository scene, the Wahlberg character listens as his school-age daughter recites a class report on how the drilling station operates; this quick lesson proves insufficient later when the drill column explodes and the action, unmoored by any concrete sense of the station’s architecture, grows increasingly incoherent. Peter Berg directed; with Kate Hudson as the worried wife at home. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 107 min. Cicero Showplace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings Don’t Blink—Robert Frank The innovative photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank doesn’t have much to say for himself in this 2015 documentary profile, but with a career as storied as his, he barely needs to say anything. Frank emigrated to the U.S. from Switzerland after World War II, fell in with the Beats in New York City,

and made a name for himself in 1958 with the haunting photo essay The Americans; during the next six decades he would collaborate with such counterculture luminaries as Allen Ginsberg (on the Beat ﬁlm Pull My Daisy) and the Rolling Stones (on the album art for Exile on Main Street and the scandalous, still-unreleased documentary Cocksucker Blues). Director Laura Israel hangs out with the nonagenarian artist in his funky Bleecker Street apartment and incorporates brief clips from some of his lesser-known ﬁlm projects, which help to liven up the desultory conversation. —J.R. JONES 82 min. Fri 9/30, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 10/1, 3:15 PM; Sun 10/2, 4:45 PM; Mon 10/3, 6 PM; Tue 10/4, 7:45 PM; Wed 10/5, 8:30 PM; and Thu 10/6, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

A Man Called Ove Two of the most hackneyed scenes ever are the comically interrupted suicide attempt and the lonely soliloquy addressed to a dead spouse’s headstone; the title character (Rolf Lassgård) gets them both, multiple times, in this slow and obvious Swedish drama. One of those hopeless dicks who’s always starting something with a cashier, Ove has recently lost his wife to cancer and can’t wait to be reunited with her; lengthy ﬂashbacks, delivered as he’s hanging from a ceiling hook or waiting for his garage to ﬁll up with carbon monoxide, reveal him in his youth as an emotionally repressed geek (Filip Berg) who inexplicably wins the ardent love of a bright, sexy, lively young woman (Ida Engvoll).

Back in the present, in the sort of cross-cultural twist common to art-house comedies, an Iranian wife and mother who has moved into the town house next door (Bahar Pars) befriends the grumpy old bear and tries to soothe his savage breast. Hannes Holm directed his own script, adapting a novel by Fredrik Backman. In Swedish with subtitles. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 116 min. Landmark’s Century Centre Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children The surprise best-seller by Ransom Riggs, about a boarding school for magically gifted orphans, seems tailor-made for eccentric auteur Tim Burton, whose phantasmagoric visuals almost make up for the story’s heavy debt to Harry Potter and

the X-Men. An intricate series of events leads an American boy (Asa Butterfield) to a tiny Welsh island where the Victorian-era home has been frozen in time since World War II. Eventually he learns from the title headmistress (Eva Green) that the “peculiars” are hiding from a malevolent shape-shifter (Samuel L. Jackson) and that only he, the new arrival, can defeat the big bad. Adapted to the screen by Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class), the movie is engaging at every turn, and there are some winsome performances (from Green especially). Burton has covered similar ground already, but fans will relish this spooky return to form. With Allison Janney, Judi Dench, and Rupert Everett. —LEAH PICKETT PG-13, 127 min. ArcLight Chicago, Century 12 and CineArts 6, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings, Webster Place Operation Avalanche Matt Johnson directed, cowrote, and stars in this mockumentary about a CIA conspiracy to fake the Apollo 11 moon landing, which NASA officials fear they won’t be able to pull off by the end of the decade as President Kennedy promised.

Can Spirituality & Critical Thinking Coexist?

FIND OUT AT MAKOM SHALOM Led by extraordinary Rabbi and Cantor Michael Davis, we are a small engaging community. We invite you to join us for the High Holy Days and share deep reflection, thought-provoking discussion, unrestrained joy, and a commitment to building a more just world. Integrating Jewish tradition and innovation in prayer, our services inspire meaning and discovery. Uplifting music will be led by 6th generation Cantor Joanna Lind. For Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur this year

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Welcoming everyone to celebrate the High Holy Days at historic Grace Place in Chicago’s South Loop. 637 S. Dearborn – Just 1 block south of Congress and steps from Red, Blue, Pink, Brown, and Green El lines. For information: www.MakomShalom.com or Facebook at Makom Shalom Chicago ROSH HASHANA 10/2 7:30pm, 10/3 10am 6 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

YOM KIPPUR 10/11 7:30pm, 10/12 10 am

AGENDA

White Girl

Johnson and Owen Williams, playing “themselves,” are movie-obsessed agents who convince their higher-ups that they can hoodwink the U.S. public, though ultimately Johnson becomes the victim of a cover-up and the whole world watches as Neil Armstrong steps onto the lunar surface. The writer-director has an obvious affection for the period and takes great pains to re-create it, but he does the viewer no favors by starring or by shooting dialogue that sounds like something from an improv-comedy sketch. A send-up like this works far better for a few minutes on the small screen (see Documentary! or Drunk History); at feature length it becomes a stylistic exercise, like a kid mugging for the camera through an Instagram filter. —DMITRY SAMAROV R, 94 min. Fri 9/30-Thu 10/6, 2, 7:45, and 9:50 PM. Music Box Pause of the Clock One of the safer bets for a cinephile directing his first film is to make a movie about making a movie. What sets Rob Christopher’s debut feature apart from other similarly themed efforts is that he shot it on 16-millimeter when he was a college senior in 1995 and ’96 but didn’t

Thu 10/6, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

complete it until 20 years later, after raising funds through Kickstarter. The usual ﬁlm-school inﬂuences (Cassavetes, Godard, Lynch) are evident, embedded in a narrative about two Chicago cineastes whose relationship falters after one reads the other’s diaries. The subtext of appropriating friends’ life stories for the sake of art—and the self-serving spin that goes along with that—is intriguing, but the story grows murky toward the end. Whether that’s a deliberate homage to other directors or the result of certain production materials (like the script) getting lost over time is hard to say. —ANDREA GRONVALL 78 min. Christopher attends the screening. Mon 10/3, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center The Perlin Papers Shot on 16-millimeter between 2006 and

2012, these eight shorts by Jenny Perlin were inspired by a Columbia University archive of declassified FBI files on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American citizens executed for espionage in 1953, and many other people who crossed their orbits, however remotely. Field notes and transcripts of secret recordings, read by actors on the soundtrack, reveal the boredom of federal agents assigned to shadow a Russian journalist’s wife and their frustration when surveillance targets move beyond the range of concealed microphones. Perlin sums up the crushing weight of this massive bureaucratic enterprise in the sole fictional entry, about two secretaries given the Sisyphean task of typing up the confidential documents in duplicate. —ANDREA GRONVALL 54 min. Perlin attends the screening.

Tharlo A middle-aged Tibetan shepherd (Shide Nyima), known in his home province for a phenomenal (and completely useless) recall of Mao’s Little Red Book, journeys to a nearby town to apply for a government ID card. Sprucing up for his photo, he meets a young hairdresser, and their awkward romance presents him with a challenging new alternative to his simple, solitary existence in the mountains. Shooting in pristine black and white, writer-director Pema Tseden favors extended long shots and boldly composed frames, the space rigidly sectioned by posts, wires, mirrors, windows, and the like. As the hairdresser discovers, the shepherd can be maddeningly bland, his personality worn away by years of seclusion; for Tseden, the friction between the unlikely lovers is a metaphor for Tibet’s uneasy relationship with the People’s Republic. In Tibetan and Mandarin with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 123 min. Fri 9/30, 7 and 9:15 PM; Sat 10/1, 5:30 and 7:45 PM; Sun 10/2, 5:30 PM; and Mon 10/3–Thu 10/6, 7 and 9:15 PM. Facets Cinematheque

White Girl Elizabeth Wood, R who wrote and directed this gripping debut feature, introduces

the college-age protagonist (Morgan Saylor) with a close-up of her derriere in blinding white shorts—an appropriate image given the sex appeal and class privilege the character exploits to her advantage. By day she works a summer internship at a Manhattan art agency, where her sleazy boss (Justin Bartha) plies her with coke and fucks her face; by night she and a classmate (India Menuez) run wild with three Hispanic drug dealers they’ve met in their sketchy new neighborhood; and eventually night bleeds into day as her partying spins out of control and her boyfriend (Brian Marc) leads her into a dangerous new business venture with a ruthless coke supplier (Adrian Martinez). Neatly plotted and minimally staged, the movie marks Wood as a talent to watch, but Saylor deserves equal credit for her layered performance as the title character, a conﬁdent young woman who crumbles into a confused and frightened child. With Chris Noth (Sex and the City), hilarious as a third-rate attorney. —J.R. JONES 88 min. Fri 9/30, 2 and 8:30 PM;

Sat 10/1, 8:15 PM; Sun 10/2, 3 PM; Mon 10/3, 8:15 PM; Tue 10/4, 6 PM; Wed 10/5, 8:30 PM; and Thu 10/6, 6:15 and 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

SPECIAL EVENTS The Beyond A woman who’s inherited a Louisiana bayou hotel begins to restore the property, but she faces an ever increasing army of antagonists after some fatally injured workmen refuse to stay dead. A swaggering doctor finds an explanation for her plight in a musty tomb, but no matter how many zombies he encounters, he never seems to figure out the bullet-to-the-brain method codified by George Romero. Lucio Fulci directed. 87 min. Fabio Frizzi provides live musical accompaniment; tickets are $25. Thu 10/6, 8 PM. Music Box Chicago South Asian Film Festival This annual program spotlights both features and shorts from South Asia, several of which are receiving their U.S. premieres. See csaff.org for the full lineup. Wed 10/5-Mon 10/10, various showtimes, general screening tickets $15. Showplace Icon v

WE KNOW YOU HAVE AN OPINION. WE WANT TO HEAR IT. So let s have, it Chicago. We want to hear what s important to you and your family so we can take on the issues affecting Chicagoans. Whether it s at a farmers market, music festival or a Social Security forum, we re listening to what you have to say so we can help make a difference in your life. Tell us what matters to you and see the list of our neighborhood listening events at aarp.org/Chicago

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Chicago SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 7

CITY LIFE Chicagoans

The library advocate

o ISA GIALLORENZO

Adewole Abioye, West Englewood Branch Library teen-services rep

Street View

Flower girl

IRENE FLORES DREW a small crowd in Humboldt Park earlier this month while dancing to the sounds of Colombian band Herencia de Timbiquí during the World Music Festival. An enthusiastic attendee of the city’s SummerDance series throughout its 20-year existence, Flores has had plenty of time to practice her moves. The Edgewater resident—her age, she quips, is a “military secret”— makes a point to attend every major festival in town, she says, and the two hours she spends settling on just the right attire for each event are “deﬁnitely worth it.” “It lifts my spirits.” —ISA GIALLORENZO

I’M FIRST-GENERATION Nigerian-American. It’s interesting, in this day and age, to hear some of the questions I get. For instance: “Do Africans run around naked? Are there cities in Africa? Are there cars?” So last year we had a Taste of Africa program here. A lot of the kids couldn’t name a country on the continent, had never had African food before, had never listened to African music. So I had them listen to Fela Kuti, who created a form of music called Afrobeat. He’s like the African Bob Marley. They really connected to that. They loved it, actually. You hope that sometimes these things spark something inside of them. Something that will take them further. We do a lot of STEM-based activities too, along with a summer Teen Challenge program and a Barbershop at the Library program. One thing that sometimes makes this work difficult is the lack of parental participation. Kids need support, and a lot of them are sort of dumped here at the library. When I was a kid, I went to the library with my

parents, and we would sit there and read together as a family. But in this neighborhood, there’s a lot of variables as to why parents can’t be there with their children, whether it’s that they have to work or maybe the kids live with grandparents, and we have a lot of homeless individuals, and yeah, some of the kids who participate in the teen program are homeless. I wish we could do more for them. It’s deeply unfortunate. One of my favorite teens lost his mom at a very young age. His father was never in his life, and the man who took responsibility for him died some years ago, so this kid doesn’t have a permanent address. I like him because there’s a thirst, there’s a hunger, that is fueled by his struggle. I love the fact that he comes and speaks in a very honest way about the things he wants to do in his life. There’s another kid who’s been in and out of foster homes all his life. He had a short stint in a juvenile center, but he’s a really good kid, and he draws and paints really well, but he can’t read. He told me this, and

Some West Englewood Branch Library patrons come “looking for just someplace to forget about what’s happening in their lives,” Abioye says. o DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS

so now we’re working on him being able to read, and hopefully one day go back to school like he wants to do. This is the primary civic center in the neighborhood. When people think of libraries, they think of a quiet space, but we’re kind of loud. We have a number of adults who come in here looking for work, looking for—how can I put this?—just someplace to forget about what’s happening in their lives. It could just be sitting quietly, it could be listening to music, it could be eating candy and

talking to a friend. There’s a lack of human compassion in our world. But there are a lot of beautiful, spirited individuals who come here. We have a number of regulars. We have teens and kids who always feel at home, who feel welcome, who feel loved. I want to be someone who’s deeply helpful, and if I can’t help you, I want to lead you to the right resource. Everyone has a story. And we don’t know what their story is. But everyone is dealing with something. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

SURE THINGS THURSDAY 29

FRIDAY 30

SATURDAY 1

SUNDAY 2

MONDAY 3

TUESDAY 4

WEDNESDAY 5

· I A m Tr ying to Brea k Your Heart Goose Island Brewing and 93XRT host a screening of the documentary following Wilco at work on their acclaimed 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. 7:30 PM, Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, musicboxtheatre. com, $8.

9 Bangs 2016 This craft fair features work by local artists and businesses along with tarot readings, a Doritos bar, live music, and free bang and beard trims from Logan Parlor. 9/30-10/2: Fri 5-9 PM, Sat 11 AM-9 PM, Sun 11 AM-6 PM, corner of Lincoln, Wellington, and Southport, facebook. com/bangschicago. F

× Logan Square Beer Festival Taste samples from 18 diﬀerent breweries including Ale Syndicate, Moody Tongue, and Tighthead. 1-4 PM and 5-8 PM, Logan Square Auditorium, 2539 N. Kedzie, logansquarebeerfestival.com, $39.99.

& Ku ltura Festival 2016 This modern FilipinoAmerican food fest features bites from AC Boral (California’s Naks Tacos), Bjorn DelaCruz (New York’s Manila Social Club), local chef Chrissy Camba, and more. 11 AM-6 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar, 2363 N. Milwaukee, ﬁlipino. kitchen, $20.

$ Heav y Sketches Richard Gray Gallery hosts an exhibition of Theaster Gates’s new bronze and mixedmaterial sculptural work. Through 11/20, Mon-Fri 10 AM-5 PM, Sat by appointment, Richard Gray Gallery, 875 N. Michigan suite 3800, 312-642-8877, richardgraygallery.com.

Vi ce Pres identi al De bate Watc h Vice presidential scholar Joel Goldstein leads a discussion about the importance of the number two role in the White House, followed by a screening of the debate. 6 PM, Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark, chicagohistory. org, $10.

ò Baudelaire in a Box Local musicians and performers pair new tunes with new English translations of work from the 19th-century poet’s The Flowers of Evil for the ninth edition of this series. 10/5-10/16: Wed-Sat 7 PM, Links Hall, 3111 N. Western, linkshall.com, $15.

8 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

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Inside Mies van der Rohe’s first highrise, an eclectic marriage of style TIM SAMUELSON INITIALLY discovered the apartment complex—a modernist skyscraper in Hyde Park with sweeping views of Lake Michigan—the way he learns about most things: by reading about it. “I happened to be going through a book, and here’s a picture of Mies van der Rohe’s Promontory Apartments,” says Samuelson, the city’s official cultural historian, his voice imbued with some of the awe he must have felt back then, in 1996, chancing on the German-American architect’s first high-rise. Samuelson had recently sold his house in Pullman, with plans to move to the north side. Alas, apartments in that area were prohibitively expensive. Units in the 1949 Mies building were more affordable. “Not only did it appeal to my background in architectural history, but here was a place where I could see the lake—something I always wanted to do.” Samuelson’s job for the city involves researching, consulting, and curating, but also imbuing awe: for Chicago’s buildings, forgotten stories, cultural history. He moved into a well-preserved 15th-floor condo and furnished it. Very carefully. “I wanted everything just so. This was going to be a kind of showplace for Miesian simplicity and modernism,” he says, confessing a tendency to line up the furniture with the cracks in the floor. “Then Barbara moved in with me.” Barbara is Barbara Koenen, an artist, budding arts entrepreneur, and recently retired city employee who for years facilitated a range

Tim Samuelson and Barbara Koenen’s home decor is a blend of his cultural relics and her art. o KERRI PANG

of artist-centered events and initiatives for the Department of Cultural Affairs. She and Samuelson married in 2000, and she moved into his Promontory condo, bringing her own, more maximalist design sensibility. She’s not someone compelled to line up the furniture just so. “My motto, unlike Mies’s, is ‘more is more,’” she says. “But [Tim and I] have gotten to a nice equilibrium, with stuff of mine, stuff of Tim’s, and stuff we came across together.” The consummate minimalism is gone, replaced by a warm, earthy blend of Koenen’s art and Samuelson’s cultural relics. There are framed works from her “war rugs” series—inspired by both the Afghani war rug tradition and Tibetan sand mandalas, except the sand is replaced by spices—as well as interesting sculptures by Chicago artists such as Adelheid Mers and Richard Rezac, bits of moss from trips to Maine, dried flowers, and stones. There’s his midcentury-modern furniture, beautiful remnants from Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and assorted oddments, like old matchbooks and Eliot Ness’s handcuffs (found on eBay and engraved with the famed federal agent’s initials). “It’s a really interesting blending of our stuff, our lives,” Samuelson says. “A mixture that’s still playing out as we speak.” “And always will be,” Koenen adds with a laugh. —LAURA PEARSON

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 9

CITY LIFE

Illinois state trooper Chris Jones monitors southbound traﬃc on the Dan Ryan expressway. o MICHAEL JARECKI

TRANSPORTATION

Tickets tailored for a pauper—or a Pritzker

Sliding-scale ﬁnes could make traﬃc enforcement more equitable. By JOHN GREENFIELD

utomated traffic enforcement has hit plenty of potholes in Chicago, ranging from red-light cameras installed in dubious locations to the Redflex bribery scheme. Still, numerous studies have proven that properly run red-light and speed-camera programs prevent serious traffic injuries and deaths. In recent years Chicago has taken steps to reform the city’s automated enforcement system, and recent statistics indicate the cams are doing their job to prevent violations and serious or fatal crashes. Automated enforcement may also reduce racial proﬁling: cameras report driver behavior, but they don’t care who’s behind the wheel. But there’s one aspect of Chicago’s trafficcamera program (and traffic enforcement in general) that’s problematic from a social justice standpoint: the ﬁne structure is regressive. Chicago doles out a $100 ticket for running a red light or speeding at 11 mph over the limit. Since the tickets cost the same whether you’re rich or poor, lower-income people are charged a higher percentage of their income

10 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

than rich people are. A $100 penalty may be about right for making middle-class people think twice before breaking the rules of the road. But for a person who’s barely making ends meet, it could be a major hardship. “Maybe it slows some people down,” said Tamika Butler, director of the LA County Bike Coalition, in a recent interview with City Lab. “But for others, it just builds on years of mistrust. It stands between a mom putting food on her table and paying rent.” In Chicago, failure to pay an initial $100 ticket on time can lead to additional late fees. Accumulating three or more tickets, or two at least a year old, can lead to your car being booted. If that happens, you must pay all existing fines and penalties plus a $60 boot fee to liberate your car. If the car stays booted for 24 hours, it can be towed and impounded. Towed cars are assessed a fee of $150, plus a storage fee of $20 per day for the first five days, and $35 per day after that. It’s easy to see how all these costs could result in a financial crisis for a family living below the median Chicago household income of $47,408. (And

while car ownership can be a money pit for lower-income folks, in parts of the city with poor transit access, residents may feel that driving is their only practical option.) John Oliver drove this point home in a recent Last Week Tonight segment on municipal violations. Relatively minor infractions, including speeding tickets, can snowball into a mountain of debt, loss of license and employment, or even jail time—a vicious cycle that Oliver referred to as “the fuck barrel.” So in summary, while dangerous driving is no laughing matter, the occasional driving error shouldn’t result in financial ruin for low-income people. That’s why I’d suggest that we look to northern Europe for an alternative. An idea from Finland might address this issue. There, traffic fines are proportionate to the offender’s wealth rather than a flat fee. As detailed in the Atlantic last year, most of Scandinavia—as well as Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland—has sliding-scale traffic fines proportionate to income. At the extreme end is the story of Reima Kuisla, a Finnish businessman who was stopped for driving at 65 mph in a 50 mph zone. The police checked tax records and saw that his declared income was €6.5 million a year, or about $7.3 million. Kuisla was fined a staggering €54,000, or about $60,654. Even an oligarch can’t laugh off that kind of penalty. The Finnish system is based on so-called “day fines”—the amount of spending money a driver has per day is divided in half, and that amount serves as the basis for the fine. Speeding by 15 mph carries a penalty of 12 days of half income, while going 25 mph over the limit will cost you 22 days. Applying that rule to the U.S., a person making $100,000 a year with about $274 to spend per day would owe $1,644 for driving 15 mph over the limit. But a person working full-time at Chicago’s current minimum wage of $10.50 an hour ($21,000 a year) would pay $345. Now, I’m not proposing hiking the city’s current $100 fine up to $345 for a minimumwage worker (although one could argue that Finland is wise to level proportionate, but stiff, fines for all dangerous drivers). Rather, I suggest that Chicago apply the principle of income-based tickets to our current $100 standard. If a $100 fine is an effective deterrent for a local professional, perhaps $20 or $25 would be an appropriate penalty for an entry-level worker, while $1,000 might make sense for a millionaire.

The idea has been tried in this country before. Staten Island piloted the first-ever day-fine system in the U.S. in 1988. Milwaukee later tried a similar system. But the programs failed because they were seen as being too lenient, according to the Atlantic. If there were the political will to test day fines in Chicago, it’s not clear they would be legal under current laws. Most local officials I talked to weren’t sure, and declined to say whether they thought the idea has merit. Even the progressive Active Transportation Alliance was fairly tight-lipped on the issue of sliding-scale tickets. “We recognize the additional burden fines for violations have on low-income families,” ATA’s government relations director Kyle Whitehead said in a statement. But “without learning more about what an income-based fine structure would look like in Chicago, we can’t comment on whether or not that approach specifically makes sense.” Still, it’s worth looking into, for reasons that Courtney Cobbs does a good job of articulating. Cobbs is a local social worker who works with low-income populations and has posted some thought-provoking comments about transportation equity on Streetsblog. Income-based ticketing “doesn’t disproportionately punish lower-income folks, nor does it allow higher-income folks to sort of wave their hand away from traffic violations,” she said. University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan told the Atlantic he’s skeptical that sliding-scale fines could ever work in the U.S., where the gap between rich and poor tends to be wider than in northern Europe. “An income-based system might appear to ‘help the poor,’ but that’s forgetting the victims of these crimes,” Mulligan said. “Do we want more speeding past schools in poor neighborhoods than in rich neighborhoods?” But Mulligan may be missing the point. Properly calibrated day fines should be as much of a deterrent to dangerous driving for poor people as for rich people. Hopefully the city will take a serious look at testing sliding-scale tickets as a way to make traffic enforcement more equitable. While we can save lives by deterring speeding and redlight running, it just doesn’t make sense for a Burger King employee to pay the same fine as Bruce Rauner. v

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

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CITY LIFE A rendering of a $90 million hotel, developed and managed by First Hospitality Group and designed by Chicago architect Jackie Koo, that’s proposed for Navy Pier o COURTESY NAVY PIER

CULTURE

Pier review By DEANNA ISAACS

t came as a surprise, back in July, when Michelle Boone, then-commissioner of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, let it slip via an e-mail to friends that she’d be leaving her job in a week to become head of programming at Navy Pier. Boone had logged five years in the catbird seat (previously occupied by the legendary Lois Weisberg for more than two decades) and would soon be two years past what must have been her worst moment at DCASE—the Great Chicago Fire Festival fiasco. She’d championed the Redmoon event before it fizzled in front of 30,000 spectators, banks of cameras, and her boss, the mayor, so it wouldn’t have been surprising if her own job had gone up in flames. But maybe the fizzle was catching up with her now. Why else would she trade her position as cultural czar of the entire city to take on programming for a tiny appendage, a mere finger in the lake? OK, it’s a high-profile, bejeweled appendage, in the midst of a pricey makeover, but still. “It was a really exciting opportunity,” Boone said in a phone interview last week. “I like tackling big ideas, so this notion of coming

on board to build an arts and culture program at the pier, something that has never existed before, was too compelling to turn down,” she added. We’ll have to wait a year or two for tax records to surface before we find out what her new job will pay. Navy Pier used to be run by a government body, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, or McPier, so-called for the joint state-city venture also in charge of McCormick Place. But in 2011, McPier handed pier management off to a newly created nonprofit corporation, Navy Pier, Inc., and it’s now operated under the less stringent transparency rules that nonprofits enjoy. No need to worry on Boone’s behalf: the pier is known for generous salaries to its administrators. Total compensation for Marilynn Gardner, its CEO, topped $400,000 in 2014, the latest year for which records are available. The pier celebrated its 100th birthday this year with the opening of a towering new 196-foot Ferris wheel, a second food court, an improved outdoor promenade, and the lively Polk Bros Park and fountain in front of the main entrance. A performance lawn on the west end is still under construction. The next phase of the “Centennial Vision” for the pier was approved by the City Council this month. It includes a “welcome” pavilion and seasonal ice rink for Polk Bros Park, recreational boat docks, a swooping 17-foottall walkway and rectangular reflecting pool that’ll arguably mar the pier’s historic eastern tip, and a 240-room hotel that’ll go up on the

south side of the Festival Hall exhibition space and take over its fantastic views of the lake and city. The only part of the second phase that’s currently funded, however, is the $90 million steel-and-glass hotel, which will be developed and managed by First Hospitality Group and designed by Chicago architect Jackie Koo. And we don’t know who will own the hotel. According to a pier spokesman, the details on that “are not ﬁnal.” Whether Navy Pier, Inc. will share all the details is another question. Two years ago the Better Government Association filed suit to force the pier to comply with the FOIA rules that apply to government. BGA’s attorney, Matt Topic of Loevy & Loevy, says its suit hinges on the question of whether running Navy Pier is a governmental function. He expects it to go to trial later this fall or early next year. Between eight and nine million people visit the pier every year—it’s the state’s most popular tourist attraction, according to Navy Pier’s website. But Navy Pier, Inc., wants a lot more people to come, especially locals. And it wants them to come year-round, not just in the summer, or when the in-laws are visiting. Navy Pier, Inc., thinks the way to do that is to make the pier a hub of arts and cultural programming. To that end, it’s had a consulting firm, Dickerson Global Advisors, working for a year and a half on a yet-to-be completed strategic plan. At a sparsely attended meeting for Navy Pier neighbors in August, the consultants discussed a list of priorities like telling Chicago stories, connecting to the neighborhoods, focusing on the environment, and creating opportunities for artists. Boone, who’ll be implementing this “arts and discovery” plan, notes that there’s already culture at Navy Pier, home to the Chicago Children’s Museum and Chicago Shakespeare Theater (which is building its third venue, a ﬂexible, all-season space, under the tent of the former Skyline Stage). “But to come for works actually presented and produced by the pier will be a new experience,” Boone says. She’ll collaborate with Chicago arts groups and artists to develop a yearround “season” of free events, and the pier will be “positioned as a cultural destination,” she says. A tourist attraction, yes, but also, “like Millennium Park, a place for high-quality engagement with the arts.” v

ß @DeannaIsaacs

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 11

CITY LIFE POLITICS

Talk is cheap

The money the mayor pledged to combat violence is nothing compared to the dollars he’s set aside for the DePaul/Marriott deal. By BEN JORAVSKY

y chance, word broke of the latest development in the DePaul basketball arena project at about the same time Mayor Rahm Emanuel was promoting his big speech on crime and policing in Chicago. In that speech, delivered September 22, the mayor declared that “gun violence is unacceptable” and ending this “string of tragedies is our top priority.” Two statements that should be irrefutable. He vowed to muster all the resources he could in the effort, including hiring up to 1,000 police officers, even if he still hasn’t figured out how he’ll pay for them. “Adopting change is hard,” the mayor said. “It is especially hard when the change is signiﬁcant.” In contrast, the DePaul deal is the one where the mayor’s building a B-ball arena and a Marriott hotel in a gentrifying corner of the South Loop, using hundreds of millions of public dollars that might otherwise be waged in his all-important war against crime and poverty. So in short, there are hundreds of millions of dollars available to pay for the hotel and basketball arena. But only an IOU for his self-proclaimed top priority. It once again proves that when it comes to our mayor, it’s always better to watch what he does as opposed to what he says. This speech was one of those mayoral public-relations extravaganzas, breathlessly promoted as though Emanuel had earthshaking news that would alter our view of humanity. In his speech, the mayor promised “to be frank” as he discussed the long-standing tensions between police and residents. “Fighting crime requires a partnership between the police and the community, and we all know that partnership has been tested in Chicago,” the mayor declared. “The shooting

12 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

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

of Laquan McDonald brought it to the breaking point.” Technically, that’s not exactly true, Mr. Mayor. McDonald was shot on October 20, 2014. The breaking point occurred more than a year later, when Cook County judge Franklin Valderrama ordered you to release a video of the shooting. That’s when the public saw that the official version of the shooting didn’t match what they saw with their own eyes. So much for being frank. Also in his speech, the mayor promised to “build more opportunity in the neighborhoods where people live” because “the best anticrime program is a job.” In particular, he cited his Neighborhood Opportunity Fund, a program in which the city charges developers a shekel or two for their lucrative downtown development deals. The city then uses the proceeds to fund projects in low-income neighborhoods like Englewood, Roseland, and Austin. “By the beginning of next year, we will have nearly $8 million in that fund,” the mayor said. Now let’s talk about the DePaul/Marriott project. You may not know much about it, because the mayor didn’t make a point of blasting out those details in a televised speech. Instead, he gaveled home TIF funding for the project in a City Council voice vote that most aldermen—let alone the taxpaying public—didn’t even know had occurred. In terms of public dollars, the DePaul/Marriott deal has received—well, it’s going to take a little time to tally up all the millions it will get. There’s the $513 million in hotel/motel taxes. And there’s the $55 million in property taxes from the tax increment financing program. (That money might otherwise help pay school bills and avoid a teachers’ strike.) So this one little corner in the gentrifying South Loop gets about $568 million in public money. And the city’s poor, high-crime communities like Englewood and Roseland get to share $8 million. The mayor wasn’t kidding when he said change is hard. But apparently, some things— like our reverse-Robin Hood economic development programs—are too hard to change. Right, Mr. Mayor? Actually, the public’s total contribution for the DePaul/Marriott deal will be even higher than $568 million when all’s said and done. As part of the project, McPier, the city-state entity that runs McCormick Place, now owns the land on which the arena and hotel will be built. That means that land won’t yield prop-

erty taxes. Instead, taxpayers throughout the city will pay more to compensate for the tax dollars we won’t be getting from this prime South Loop property. If the mayor had just left that land to the free market, it probably would’ve been developed without a handout. And whoever owned it would be paying property taxes. So we’re spending public money to lose public money. And you wonder why the mayor gaveled home that deal without debate, as opposed to talking about it in a televised speech. That brings me to the latest development in the DePaul deal. DePaul University announced that it expects to receive up to $34 million for selling off the naming rights to the arena. “One of the main focuses for us is for it to be a Chicago name, an iconic Chicago name,” said Jean Lenti Ponsetto, DePaul’s athletic director, in the September 18 issue of DePaul’s student paper, the DePaulia. Emanuel agreed to give DePaul the naming rights because the university contributed about $82 million to build the arena (which will also be used as an event center for McCormick Place). So let’s think about this: DePaul’s putting $82 million into this project. And the public’s putting in $568 million—and counting. You don’t have to be a DePaul University math professor to know that $568 million— and counting—is more than $82 million. If anyone should get to make money off of the naming rights, it’s the taxpayers. The $34 million the school hopes to get for

those naming rights would certainly help pay for the police Emanuel’s ﬁnally getting around to hiring. v

ß @joravben

POLICING

Rahm’s racial erasure

Emanuel’s “major speech” never once acknowledged systemic racism. By DERRICK CLIFTON

hat was billed as a “major address” on the issue of gun violence instead resembled a farce. A l t h o u g h M ayo r R a h m Emanuel spoke of law enforcement, investment, and prevention as pillars of his strategy to curb gun violence, not once did he acknowledge that systemic racism undergirds the city’s problems. He never even uttered the term. And by not facing this complex issue head-

Mayor Rahm Emanuel revealed his plan to combat gun violence in a September 22 speech.

Read Derrick Clifton’s columns throughout the week at chicagoreader.com.

o CHARLES REX ARBOGAST

Compared with how much will be spent on police—an estimated $135 million for the surge in force—the amount of money dedicated to neighborhood jobs is a drop in the bucket. And there’s no telling whether the promised jobs would be enough for young people to make ends meet, or whether they’d be more of the same minimum-wage jobs that keep many black and brown people locked in cycles of poverty. Adding insult to injury, Emanuel turned to tired tropes about young people “raised by gangs” without ever once acknowledging the substandard living conditions that might lead them to turn to a life in the streets. Even for black people out in the job market, the odds remain stacked: the black unemployment rate is consistently two to three times higher than it is for white people.

on, Emanuel’s attempt to stem the tide of violence is doomed to fail. Most of the mayor’s speech was dedicated to describing the additional resources he plans to give police. He touted body cameras and Tasers for every officer, and called for tougher gun laws and sentences for repeat gun offenders. He also made a pitch for mentorship of at-risk youth as the crux of a crime prevention strategy, and offered a very brief note about investing in job-training programs. But the closest he came to mentioning systemic racism was a passing reference in the overture to his remarks. The mayor said that he and top police officials know they “will not succeed in turning back the rising tide of violence without changing and rebuilding critical relationships with the community, especially communities of color.” But promising to “rebuild relationships” doesn’t acknowledge how one-sided these problems are, or how severely and disproportionately police target communities of color. As the mayor’s Police Accountability Task Force noted in its April report, 74 percent of the people shot at or killed by police between 2008 and 2015 in Chicago were black, while black people are just a third of the city’s population. Emanuel tried to sell us on more Tasers, but between 2012 and 2015, 76 percent of people police tased were black. Roughly half of all trafﬁc stops in Chicago involved black motorists. And black and Hispanic drivers were searched “approximately four times as often as white drivers,” according to the task force report,

while police data shows that contraband was found on white drivers twice as often as their black and Hispanic counterparts. Emanuel drew a false equivalence between this systemic oppression of black and brown people and a few alleged incidents of citizens “taunting” police, as he put it. “Respect is a two-way street,” he said, without acknowledging that most of the disrespect and brutality comes from one direction. What does the mayor plan to do about that? For all the time he spent pitching the need for more cops, Emanuel didn’t say how he’d stop the officers already on the street from targeting black and brown communities. That question is crucial for the city, financially as well as morally. As the Better Government Association reported in January, police misconduct settlements—paid with our tax dollars—have cost the city more than $642 million over a 12-year span. It makes little sense to hastily add hundreds more officers without ﬁrst implementing changes that would keep police from hemorrhaging more taxpayer money. (Plus, that’s money that could be invested in resources at the very root of inequality in communities of color, including public education, mental health and recovery programs, and sustainable employment.) Indeed, Emanuel mentioned employment— specifically, the need for more jobs for young people who aren’t in school—and the creation of an $8 million “neighborhood opportunity fund” to leverage new small businesses and jobs. But even here he failed to address the systemic racism at play in city funding choices.

For all the time he spent pitching the need for more police, Emanuel didn’t say how he’d stop the officers already on the street from targeting black and brown communities.

Emanuel’s “raised by gangs” remarks were a clever switch—if not a dog whistle—for remarks leaked before the speech that would have been more of a direct call to black fathers to take an active role in raising their children, speciﬁcally their sons. But if the mayor is subtly asking “Where are the parents at?,” he should seek the answer inside a prison cell. Countless black families in Chicago and nationwide have been devastated by mass incarceration, with black fathers getting shipped to prisons at disproportionately high rates. As the New York Times noted in April 2015, for every 100 black women, there are 17 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 who are “missing” from everyday life—largely due to early death or imprisonment. In Chicago that

translates to 45,000 black men removed from their communities. It’s a gap that’s virtually nonexistent in white communities. Keep in mind that this a problem Emanuel helped create during his time with the Clinton administration, when he helped craft the 1994 crime bill. Mass incarceration also bodes poorly for black women and girls. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, black women make up 30 percent of all incarcerated women in the United States, more than double their share of the female population. A 2015 report from the National Crittenton Foundation and the National Women’s Law Center found that black girls were the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile detention population, and they’re 20 percent more likely to be detained than white girls. Emanuel drew a parallel between his plan and President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance initiative, a five-year, $200 million program designed to provide mentoring, summer jobs, and other support to young men of color. Obama’s program has been roundly criticized for overlooking the needs of young women and girls of color—a critique that should also be leveled at the mayor’s plans. Emanuel’s initiative hinges on mentoring programs for at-risk young men. He never once mentioned young women. Beyond that, while mentors can indeed provide children with positive inﬂuences and hopes for a better future, they’re no replacement for the many incarcerated parents who have been failed by racist policies and policing. Emanuel isn’t pledging to use his political weight to end mass incarceration here in Chicago. He’s focused on alleviating a few symptoms in the short term, without exhibiting the necessary courage to remedy the problem at its core. It’s unfathomable why the mayor can’t redirect money away from police on the streets and toward a more comprehensive plan that would address the material conditions that lead to violent crime in the ﬁrst place. Emanuel’s speech was the equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s apocryphal “Let them eat cake.” He doesn’t see that his people are starving. Perhaps he’s running out of ideas, or the energy to truly lead the city through its struggles with crime, poverty, and systemic racism. Maybe he should’ve resigned when he had a chance. v

ß @DerrickClifton SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 13

Inside the Chicago Police Departmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secret budget

Every year, police take millions of dollars from ordinary people and spend it behind closed doors.

$ PABLO IGLESIAS

By JOEL HANDLEY, JENNIFER HELSBY, and FREDDY MARTINEZ

14 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

hen the clerk called Willie Mae Swansey’s case in a crowded courtroom last February, the 72-yearo l d a p p ro a c h e d t h e judge slowly, supporting herself with a four-pronged cane. It had been a busy afternoon in the Daley Center’s civil forfeiture courtroom, with more than a dozen quick hearings and a pair of trials preceding her own. The crush of defense lawyers and hopeful claimants had thinned by the time Swansey stepped up to the bench. She steadied herself beside a prosecutor and stood with a stately straightening of her back. Swansey was here to reclaim her car. The Chicago Police Department had seized the 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser two years prior, arresting the driver, Swansey’s son, and charging him with manufacturing or delivering 15 to 100 grams of heroin. The car had been impounded ever since. Swansey herself was never charged with a crime, and it was her name, not her son’s, on the title. All the same, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office had agreed with CPD that the vehicle, which the office valued at $1,400, was worth keeping for good. Swansey was prepared to tell the court that her 53-year-old son, Vincent Turner, had taken her keys without her permission. She wanted to explain that she needed her car not only for basic needs like groceries and laundry, but also because she and her granddaughter, whom she cares for, make frequent trips to doctors’ offices and hospitals. Swansey suffers from congestive heart failure, while her granddaughter has cerebral palsy and experiences frequent seizures. She wanted also to stress she had no knowledge that her son had drugs in her car. “Ain’t no way I’d let them take my car for drugs,” Swansey later said. “That’s not me. I’m not that kind of person.” But at her February trial date, she wasn’t allowed to argue her case. The judge simply asked if her son’s criminal case had been resolved. It hadn’t, so by law, the judge was allowed to delay the civil litigation until after the criminal case was over. They would reconvene in two months, the judge said. This was the ninth time Swansey had appeared in civil forfeiture court and

the ninth time she was told she’d have to come back. A lawyer, had she been able to hire one, could have filed a hardship motion that would allow Swansey access to the car while she waited. A lawyer might have also convinced a judge to hear the case immediately, since Swansey didn’t plan to contest the allegations against her son. But for the fixed-income retiree, hiring a lawyer was not an option. “I’m a poor black woman,” Swansey says. “I don’t have no money for an attorney.” Instead, she continued to represent herself. At her next appearance in May, she informed the court that her son’s criminal case was over. He had pleaded guilty to one charge of manufacturing or delivering between one and 15 grams of heroin. Having been under house arrest for 745 days, he was credited with time served and put on probation, according to county records. So on June 30, Swansey’s trial date finally arrived, two years and four months after CPD took her car. She had brought her son with her to court to testify that he had taken her keys without her knowledge. But the judge she saw that day, Paul Karkula, didn’t want to hear from him, she says. Instead, Swansey recalls, “The judge said, ‘I can’t give you back your car, because it would be right back on the road with drugs.’ ” (Karkula declined to comment for this story.) The decision struck Swansey as racist and deeply unfair. Swansey says she watched as four other cases that day were called and resolved, including one involving a wheelchair-bound white woman with a case very similar to hers. This woman got her car back, Swansey says. She did not. “Don’t get me wrong—I’m the type of person that stands up for what’s right. If this happened a second time, by all means, take my car,” she says. “But nothing like this had ever happened to me. I didn’t deserve this.” After cars like Swansey’s are sold, the proceeds are split between CPD, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, and the Illinois State Police, which handles the accounting and disbursement of such funds as well as the sale of forfeited vehicles. Civil forfeiture, as the process

“There are probably 25 or so statutes in the code that authorize some form of forfeiture. It’s just like this manytentacled beast.” —Ben Ruddell, policy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

is known, allows police and prosecutors to permanently keep any cash, vehicles, or other goods seized during a traffic stop or investigation. As long as they believe the money is tied to a crime, they can move to keep the property, even in cases like Swansey’s, in which the owner was neither arrested nor charged with a crime. There are thousands of civil forfeiture cases like Swansey’s in Chicago and Illinois—and likely tens of thousands more across the country each year. (Exact ﬁgures aren’t available, as many states aren’t required to track or publicly disclose this information.) As previously documented by publications such as the Washington Post and the New Yorker, the widespread use of civil forfeiture reaps billions of dollars of revenue annually for law enforcement agencies across the country. Now the Reader has documented for the ﬁrst time the full size and scope of CPD’s civil forfeiture program—how much money it brings in and how it spends its take. Through numerous Freedom of Information Act requests, the Reader, working with the Chicago-based

transparency nonprofit Lucy Parsons Labs and the public records website MuckRock, obtained more than 1,000 pages of CPD documents—including the department’s deposit and expenditure ledgers, internal e-mails, and purchasing records—that offer an unprecedented look into how Chicago police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office make lucrative use of civil asset forfeiture. Since 2009, the year CPD began keeping electronic records of its forfeiture accounts, the department has brought in nearly $72 million in cash and assets through civil forfeiture, keeping nearly $47 million for itself and sending on almost $18 million to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and almost $7.2 million to the Illinois State Police, according to our analysis of CPD records. The Chicago Police Department doesn’t disclose its forfeiture income or expenditures to the public, and doesn’t account for it in its official budget. Instead, CPD’s Bureau of Organized Crime, the division tasked with drug- and gang-related investigations, oversees the forfeiture fund in what amounts to a secret budget—an off-the-books stream of income used to supplement the bureau’s public budget. The Reader found that CPD uses civil forfeiture funds to finance many of the day-to-day operations of its narcotics unit and to secretly purchase controversial surveillance equipment without public scrutiny or City Council oversight. (The Cook County state’s attorney’s office, for its part, clearly indicates narcotics-related forfeiture income in its annual budget. According to its 2016 budget, the office will use this year’s expected forfeiture revenue of $4.96 million to pay the salaries and beneﬁts of the 41 full-time employees of its forfeiture unit.) The amount of money seized from any given individual is, by itself, negligible to police and prosecutors’ budgets—the median value of a forfeiture in Illinois is $530, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit Libertarian public-interest law firm. But losing this sum of money or access to a vehicle can be devastating to the impoverished people civil forfeiture often affects. And in Chicago the millions of dollars J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 15

How CPD spent its civil forfeiture money, 2010-2015 Civil forefeiture continued from 15 accumulated through so many individual seizures don’t go toward public services like schools or roads, but are used to fund the operations of the police division that carries out civil forfeiture.

CPD made at least 622 purchases using civil forfeiture money in amounts greater than $5,000 between 2010 and 2015. Through multiple FOIA requests, Lucy Parsons Lab, the Reader, and the website MuckRock obtained copies of these checks. An interactive graph of all known expenses and copies of all FOIA’d checks are available at chicagoreader.com.

ven without forfeiture income, the Chicago Police Department gets more money from the city than any other city department. (Chicago Public Schools’ budget is much larger, but the district is its own taxing entity, ﬁnancially separate from the city.) Last year’s CPD budget totaled $1.4 billion, 5 percent greater than the year before. As with all city agencies, CPD’s budget is proposed by the mayor and vetted by the City Council, a separation of powers intended to provide checks and balances. But income obtained through civil forfeiture falls outside the bounds of normal accountability. This secret budget isn’t scrutinized by the City Council, nor must CPD make any public disclosures about how these funds are spent. While the additional income is small compared to the department’s full budget, CPD’s forfeiture account is controlled entirely by the Bureau of Organized Crime. The extra $4.7 million to $9.3 million collected annually through forfeitures between 2009 and 2015 adds substantially to the bureau’s ledger. In 2015, the bureau received a little more than $77 million in its official budget. That year’s forfeiture income was close to $4.7 million, equal to 6 percent of its total public budget. On top of that, the forfeiture fund was already flush with cash from previous years; at the end of 2015, the bureau had more than $16 million in its forfeiture checking and savings accounts, according to deposit records obtained by the Reader. Until recently, the man responsible for approving purchases made with CPD’s forfeiture money was Nicholas Roti, who spent more than 28 years with the department, including five as the chief of the Bureau of Organized Crime from 2010 to 2015. Roti has also been at the center of two recent controversies, the first a high-profile lawsuit by former narcotics officers who claimed they’d been

16 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

TOTAL

$25,335,207.51

Routine $18,637,728.02

Purchases under $5,000 $3,205,416.21

Unknown & redacted $1,631,535.26

SURVEILLANCE $1,860,528.02

Cell Site Simulator $417,075.00 Cell Phone Metadata $878,317.57 Cameras $248,182.65

Blue Light Cameras $205,000.00

GPS Trackers $93,012.80

License Plate Reader $13,720.00

Black Widow Surveillance $5,220.00

harassed and shamed after helping the FBI investigate and ultimately convict crooked cops within their division. The officers alleged that Roti, then the commander of the narcotics unit, pledged never to allow them to work under him again. The city settled the lawsuit for $2 million in May. Then, in March 2015, the Guardian newspaper described the narcotics unit’s home facility of Homan Square as an “interrogation warehouse” and “black site” where victims were denied their right to a lawyer and subjected to abuse. Roti resigned from the police department after the allegations were made. His successor, Anthony Riccio, now signs off on such purchases, as did Ernest Brown, Roti’s predecessor. Check ledgers from CPD’s asset forfeiture accounts obtained through numerous FOIA requests show the department has made more than 4,700 individual purchases since 2009 totaling nearly $36.8 million. While the value of these purchases ranged from just a few cents to nearly three quarters of a million dollars, most were comparatively small— worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars each. (The average purchase was $7,724.47, based on our analysis.) The Reader obtained payment requests for all bureau purchases greater than $5,000 made with forfeiture money since 2010. CPD spent close to $25.3 million in forfeiture money during this time, $22.1 million of which was spent in increments of more than $5,000. The Reader was able to classify more than 80 percent of these larger purchases, but because of redactions or vague information in some documents, roughly 20 percent of them remain unknown. More than 90 percent of the money spent on known larger purchases was devoted to day-to-day operations and expenses, such as vehicle repairs and the purchase of computer servers. For example: On November 18, 2014, Kenneth Angarone, a commander within the Bureau of Organized Crime, requested $102,644.73 in forfeiture funds to pay for Enterprise rental cars, which Roti approved. Angarone’s request explained that the rental cars would be used by the narcotics and gang divisions, asset forfeiture units, and administrators. Such rental car leases have

accounted for more than $7.6 million of forfeiture expenditures since 2010. The cell-phone bills of undercover officers account for another huge dayto-day expense paid for with forfeiture proceeds. On December 31, 2014, Roti approved a request for $19,015.98 to pay for one month’s worth of phones “used by undercover officers performing drug and gang enforcement operations.” Similar requests were approved nearly every month, amounting to more than $3.2 million worth of forfeiture expenditures since 2010. Perhaps it was to help keep track of such expenditures that the Bureau of Organized Crime’s narcotics division bought itself a money-counting machine in July 2014. When a government agency is allowed to handle the forfeiture proceeds it brings in—as is the case with both CPD and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office—it controls both “the sword and the purse,” like an army that is also its own taxing authority. This is according to Lee McGrath, legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, which seeks to reform civil asset forfeiture laws across the country. Allowing law enforcement to appropriate its own forfeiture funds circumvents “the traditional democratic processes of the legislature, because law enforcement can set its own priorities and raise its own money without scrutiny,” McGrath says. In CPD’s case, the Bureau of Organized Crime can spend its forfeiture income in any way it sees ﬁt, as long as some connection to gang or narcotics investigations can be made. Only internal approval is necessary. Ben Ruddell, a policy lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, has been studying the state’s civil forfeiture statute as he works to draft a reform bill. He sees CPD and other law enforcement agencies’ control of their own forfeiture revenue as a huge problem. “Other states have passed legislation to mitigate this incentive by requiring forfeiture income to go toward the general operating budget of the municipality or state, or into special funds for education or drug treatment,” Ruddell says. “As it stands, CPD is free to use its forfeiture income at will, and outside of the public eye.”

Assuming you want it back, call CPD. They’ll tell you . . .

Our bad, you can have it back.

They intend to keep it . . . but a judge needs to say if it’s cool or not ﬁrst.

Can you pick it up in the next 30 days?

The judge says it’s cool. After a few weeks you’ll receive a letter from the Cook County state’s attorney. What does it say?

They’re giving the money back.

They’re keeping the money. Are you willing to ﬁght this in court?

Read it again.

Yes! IT’S $1,000!! File a claim at the Daley Center for $100 bond.† Your court date is in one month.

the state did not have probable cause. Absolutely.

No, I’m pretty busy. To appear in court you must pay a fee typically of about $200.‡ The judge says . . .

The prosecutor oﬀers to settle your claim for $250. What do you do?

Keep ﬁghting!

The judge sets a trial date a month later.

You win.

Go to Homan Square to pick up your check. If you went to court, some of the fees you paid will be refunded, so you’ll get around $880 back.*

heralded by then-CPD superintendent Phil Cline. Speaking at the City Club in September of that year, Cline boasted that in the first three months of using the readers, CPD had “checked more than 142,000 license plates.” But since then, CPD has concealed the purchases of the cameras themselves, as well its subscriptions to national databases that collect and sell the location data gleaned from private and law-enforcement ALPR systems. An April 2015 e-mail sent by a sergeant in CPD and the city’s shared technology unit indicates that four of the department’s ALPR units were paid for with forfeiture proceeds. A stand-alone ALPR system, also purchased with forfeiture money, was installed at Homan Square in 2010, according to a payment sheet obtained by the Reader. Perhaps the most controversial surveillance technology used by CPD is the cell-site simulator, commonly referred to by branded device names including Stingray. The device scoops up information from any nearby cell phones indiscriminately, meaning that information from untargeted and innocent people in the area is collected in the course of their operation. It can also deny service to phones in the vicinity, gather location data, and intercept calls and messages. Chicago police have purchased more than $417,000 worth of cell-site simulator equipment since 2010, exclusively with the use of forfeiture money. In July, Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill, championed by the Illinois ACLU, which demands that police get a warrant for Stingray-enabled investigations and otherwise restricts the use of such devices. Asked about the role of forfeiture money in the procurement of the technology, the civil liberties group’s policy attorney Ruddell says: “When you have tools being acquired in ways that are not subject to oversight, that’s a real concern.”

By JOEL HANDLEY, FREDDY MARTINEZ, and PAUL JOHN HIGGINS

You lose.

Your money is split three ways: Chicago police keep $650, CC state’s attorney keeps $250, and IL state police keep $100, plus additional fees.* Net loss = $1,300

the state has probable cause.

Fine, I’ll settle. You return to court and try your best to argue against an experienced prosecutor.

You lose.

Your money is split three ways: Chicago police keep $487.50, CC state’s attorney keeps $187.50, IL state police keep $75, plus addtional fees.* Net loss = $1,050

You lose.

Your money is split three ways: Chicago police keep $650, CC state’s attorney keeps $250, and IL state police keep $100.

Net loss = $1,000

†The bond is 10 percent of the value of the money or asset seized. ‡The Reader’s reporting uncovered a range of court appearance fees; Willie Mae Swansey’s was $177, but $200 was the average. *Court appearance fees are not refunded; if a case is won or thrown out by a judge, 90 percent of the bond is returned.

$ PAUL JOHN HIGGINS

hile the Bureau of Organized Crime spends much of the department’s forfeiture money on day-today expenses, the Reader’s analysis shows that $1.8 million, or 9 percent of known expenditures, goes to fund invasive surveillance equipment the department shields from public view. This surveillance technology includes devices that track and access cell phones, as well as license-plate-reading cameras that monitor the locations of vehicles. Cellebrite is an Israeli forensics firm that makes technology that allows law enforcement agencies to access the contents of cell phones, such as pictures, text messages, and call logs. (The company made news earlier this year when it was rumored to have helped the FBI crack the iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, although that was later shown to be untrue.) Records released to Lucy Parsons Labs in June 2015 show that the Bureau of Organized Crime bought technology from Cellebrite as early as 2009, when the bureau was known as the Organized Crime Division. In a November 2009 payment request, a bureau sergeant sought approval to pay for the purchase with forfeiture funds from the division’s then-chief, Ernest Brown. Because the Cellebrite kit would be “utilized during the course of narcotic related investigations as well as detective division investigations,” the sergeant requested the use of forfeiture funds. Brown, along with then-deputy chief Roti, approved the request. On November 30, 2012, Roti authorized a request for forfeiture funds to pay for wiretapping equipment made by the technology firm Pen-Link. The request included a bold-print disclaimer, similar to ones that appear on all such secret requests for forfeiture-funded technology obtained by the Reader: “These items are of a covert nature and knowledge of their existence should be kept within the Bureau of Organized Crime and limited to sworn personnel.” In total, CPD has paid more than $411,000 in forfeiture money to Pen-Link since 2010. CPD ﬁrst began to use surveillance devices that track license plates and catalog the locations of passing vehicles in real-time in 2006. The technology, known as Automatic License Plate Readers, was

Chicago police seized $1,000 from me. Now what?

uddell and others are now making attempts to reform civil forfeiture in Illinois. The myriad problems they see in the process include not only the reporting and disbursement of forfeiture income, but also a legal process that is stacked against claimants like Willie Mae Swansey. J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 17

Civil forefeiture continued from 17 When a Chicago police officer seizes a person’s car, the department has just five days to notify the Cook County state’s attorney’s office if it wants to seek permanent forfeiture. That period jumps up to 52 days if it’s cash the police want to keep. (Either way, within 14 days of the initial seizure, a judge will determine whether the police and the prosecutors have probable cause to keep the assets.) The state’s attorney’s office then has 45 days to notify all potential claimants that the state is moving to keep their cash, vehicle, or other asset. In order to have a chance at getting their property returned, claimants must put down a bond toward their asset when first submitting the official paperwork. This means that Swansey had to pay $140 (10 percent of her car’s value) just to start the process. Then, to appear in court, she had to pay an additional $177 fee. To Swansey, who lives on a $655-permonth social security check, these costs are substantial. Successful claimants will have 90 percent of their bond returned; unsuccessful claimants get nothing back. “This is just a shame,” Swansey says. “It’s a rip-off.” Like Swansey, most claimants can’t afford lawyers to help them navigate the often confusing process. Because it’s a civil proceeding, and not a criminal trial, the state offers no public defenders. “You see a lot of poor people that are unrepresented, that are representing themselves,” says Jonathan Brayman, a criminal defense attorney with the law firm Breen & Pugh who has argued many civil forfeiture cases at the Daley Center. Although Brayman and others in his practice have been successful at forfeiture court, “it’s tough to prevail,” he says. Even with a lawyer, the claimant’s burden of proof is so high that it often makes more sense to accept a settlement worth a fraction of what was taken. Whereas prosecutors only need to meet the legal standard of probable cause—the same low bar police officers must meet in order to search a vehicle— Swansey and other claimants must show a preponderance of the evidence—a more stringent legal standard than probable cause—to prove they obtained their

18 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

“These items are of a covert nature and knowledge of their existence should be kept within the Bureau of Organized Crime and limited to sworn personnel.” —A 2012 CPD internal memo requesting forfeiture money to pay for wiretapping equipment

money legally or that they didn’t know their car was used in a crime. Brayman has helped argue two class-action lawsuits—Gates v. City of Chicago and Anita Alvarez v. Smith— that brought some relief to people trying to navigate the forfeiture process. Gates, which included a class of nearly 40,000 plaintiffs, forced CPD to better account for assets when they are first seized from arrestees, while Smith shortened the length of time the Cook County state’s attorney’s office had to notify potential claimants and schedule hearings for those hoping to have their assets returned. In hearing Smith, the U.S. Supreme Court noted that claimants in Illinois could be forced to wait up to 142 days before forfeiture proceedings began, while members of the Smith lawsuit waited between 11 and 40 months for their cases to be resolved. But reform efforts that seek to limit or end civil asset forfeiture in Illinois must confront a cluster of state laws that include forfeiture provisions, such as those for driving with a suspended license and the sale of counterfeit goods, as well as numerous drug laws like the

Cannabis Control Act and the Controlled Substance Act. “There are probably 25 or so statutes in the code that authorize some form of forfeiture,” Ruddell says. “It’s just like this many-tentacled beast.” There’s a lso t he assemblage of prosecutor and police associations— including the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association and the Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association—and their allies in the legislature, which want to ensure that civil forfeiture can continue unabated. Recent reform legislation in Springﬁeld has been met with opposition from these groups, as well as from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Ruddell has spent much of the past year drafting a comprehensive reform bill that he hopes to get introduced early next year. He knows well the lobbyists that will fight the legislation, because he used to work with them as a staffer in the House Republican leader’s office. Any measure will face “the full brunt of law enforcement opposition across the board, no matter how modest or sweeping the reform is that you’re proposing,” Ruddell says. Neither CPD nor outgoing Cook County state’s attorney Anita Alvarez would comment for this story. Kim Foxx, who defeated Alvarez in March’s primary election after touting her “transformative” approach to reforming the criminal-justice system, also declined to comment on civil forfeiture. But Eric Carter, then deputy chief of CPD’s Bureau of Organized Crime, defended civil forfeiture at a 2015 conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “It’s not policing for profit,” Carter said, “but you wanna be able to say, if I’m going to cripple an organization and arrest everybody, I want to take every viable means they have of trying to recoup and come back. I want to eliminate them totally and take their assets.” The Institute for Justice’s McGrath sees this argument as a canard. “Nearly all of the reforms that the ACLU and my law firm and others are advocating do not change seizure laws,” McGrath says. Under such reforms, police could still seize anything they believe to be tied to a crime. Prosecutors

would just have to secure a criminal conviction before someone’s property could be forfeited. In April, McGrath was in Springﬁeld to testify against Illinois’s poor reporting mechanisms for both seizures and forfeitures, as well as the incentives police and prosecutors have to reap the beneﬁts of forfeited assets. The Institute for Justice has given Illinois’s use of forfeiture an overall grade of D-. In recent years, 11 states have passed legislation that limits the practice of civil forfeiture, with the most sweeping reform having passed in April in New Mexico. McGrath calls that bill “the platinum standard of forfeiture reform.” New Mexico’s law eliminates incentives for police and prosecutors by directing all forfeiture proceeds to the state’s general operating fund, and closes loopholes that have marred similar laws in other states. Most strikingly, New Mexico’s law bans civil forfeiture entirely, allowing only those assets that can be proven to be tied to a crime—in criminal court, beyond a reasonable doubt—to be permanently lost to the state. Only Nebraska has passed a law as far-reaching, while nine other states require that a criminal case from which a civil forfeiture case arises must end in a conviction before the civil case proceeds. Ruddell says that New Mexico’s is a “great law,” but cautions that it was the result of a “perfect storm” of political winds that allowed it to pass without strong opposition from law enforcement. Ruddell hopes the Illinois ACLU’s legislation will at least make sure that a civil case ends if the criminal case doesn’t result in a conviction. Navigating the legal status quo on her own and subsequently losing her car has left Swansey with few avenues to reclaim her freedom of movement. Relying on friends and family for rides is a burden, but she says she can’t afford to buy a new vehicle. She looked into filing an appeal herself, but says she’s worried about navigating the appeals process without a lawyer. She called a legal aid group that may be interested in taking her appeal, but for now is waiting to hear back. “I just pray to God these people I talked to call back,” she says, “and that they may be able to help.” v

ARTS & CULTURE

THEATER

Man in a bind By JUSTIN HAYFORD

Thomas J. Cox and Kamal Angelo Bolden

o MICHAEL BROSILOW

mile Griffith is the sort of historical anomaly who should naturally inspire great dramas. Born poor on the island of Saint Thomas in 1938, he was sexually abused by a male relative and abandoned by his mother when she became a sex worker—a development that so horriﬁed him he pleaded for admittance to the local reformatory. At 15 he found his way to New York City and took a job in a hat factory, a natural ﬁt as he’d been designing millinery for years. One hot day, so the legend goes, he asked for permission to work shirtless, and when the factory owner saw his rippling physique he ushered the teen to renowned boxing trainer Gil Clancy, who led Griffith to six world titles in two different weight classes. He was also homosexual, or perhaps bi (in later years, Griffith admitted to both), frequenting Times Square gay bars in the

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED “profoundly humane, hilarious” —Chicago Sun-Times

late 1950s and ’60s. At a time when boxing held profound cultural sway in America and homosexuality was a crime in 49 states—and a psychiatric illness in all 50—Griffith’s open secret could no more be acknowledged than President John F. Kennedy’s womanizing. Even when Griffith was found French-kissing a man in his dressing room after a ﬁght, nothing was said. That is, not until March 24, 1962, during the weigh-in ceremony for the welterweight championship bout. Griffith’s opponent, Benny “Kid” Paret, taunted Griffith, calling him maricón (“faggot”) and simulating humping him from behind. Griffith nearly attacked him on the spot. That night, in round 12, Griffith unleashed an unholy barrage on Paret’s head while Paret was already slumped on the ropes, sending him into a coma. Ten days later Paret died. Unsurprisingly, Griffith never again

fought with anything approaching his former ferocity, never again won by a knockout. After 337 world championship ﬁghts (69 more than Muhammad Ali), Griffith retired, then slowly descended into poverty and dementia. Griffith’s life has already been the subject of at least two books and a documentary film. In 2013 playwright Michael Cristofer wrote the libretto for jazz composer Terence Blanchard’s 2013 opera about Griffith’s life, Champion. Now Cristofer’s at it again, teaming up with Court Theatre to create a fractured, semipoetic, ultimately reductive take on Griffith’s saga. Man in the Ring opens with an elderly Griffith, played with searing vulnerability and disarming humor by Court regular Allen Gilmore, wondering not only where his missing shoe is but what shoes are for. As his long-suffering caretaker, Luis, comes to his aid, the past begins to intrude

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on Griffith’s muddled mind, and Cristofer begins a two-hour highlights reel of Griffith’s life, with the elder man watching his younger self’s victories, missteps, and tragic mistakes. Cristofer’s confident, concentrated writing is often counterpointed with rhythmic chanting and singing from out-of-scene actors around the periphery of the stage. It’s hypnotic and often engrossing in director Charles Newell’s graceful, fluid staging, greatly aided by Keith Parham’s sculptural lighting. While Cristofer often spoon-feeds his audience, he creates a clear picture of Griffith’s ambition, charisma, torment, and ultimate dissolution. But that clarity comes largely at the expense of complexity. For all the peripheral lyricism, Cristofer’s scenes contain little ambiguity or nuance; most scenes tidily demonstrate a point or two, then evaporate so the next can do the same. He also simplifies a few facts unwisely: he has the factory owner become Griffith’s trainer, which strains credulity, and he makes Luis Griffith’s lover—he may have been, but he was also Griffith’s adopted son. And Cristofer draws primarily two obvious points from Griffith’s extraordinary life: overcoming trauma is difficult, and forgiving yourself for regrettable acts is important. Still, the show delivers ample pathos and a host of riveting moments. Newell has done a masterful job keeping his cast reined in, allowing tiny gestures to speak volumes even when the script might invite grandiose emoting. While every performer shines, Kamal Angelo Bolden as the young Griffith mesmerizes for two hours. By turns childlike, sophisticated, tender, and menacing, he finds nuance where none seems to exist. It’s likely the performance of the season. v R MAN IN THE RING Through 10/16: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis, 773-753-4472, courttheatre.org, $38-$68.

Written by Aaron Posner Directed by Andrew White

From the writer that brought you

Stupid F*#king Bird

lookingglasstheatre.org • 312.337.0665 Featuring Eddie Jemison of Ocean’s Eleven

Lookingglass Theatre Company in the Water Tower Water Works MICHIGAN AVE AT PEARSON

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 19

Alex Weisman and Curtis Edward Jackson o LIZ LAUREN

ARTS & CULTURE

THEATER

From a satanic Kermit’s mouth to God’s ear

CONVINCED CHRISTIANS may take offense at Hand to God. Convinced Christians with a sense of humor may find themselves in the odd position of taking offense while laughing. Robert Askins’s 2011 dark comedy centers on Jason, a nice teenage boy growing up Missouri Synod Lutheran in Cypress, Texas (real place, population 122,803), whose life went kerflooey six months earlier, when Dad succeeded in overeating himself to death. Mom has responded with relentless good cheer and righteous works; she’s supervising a Jesus-centric puppet show at church, and Jason’s supposed to be in it. Thing is, Jason’s relationship with his Kermit-esque hand puppet, Tyrone, has gotten out of hand. Tyrone’s doing most of the talking lately, and the things he’s saying aren’t nice. Plenty of blood and secrets will be spilled before his wild ride is done. Pentagrams will be drawn.

The play is basically a crazed, funny look at anger and urges and the frightening shapes they assume when people are trying their damnedest to suppress them. In that sense it’s a bit like The Crucible. One major difference, though: Arthur Miller didn’t give Satan stage time. Hand to God comes with an epilogue in which Tyrone gets to deliver his rather scathing indictment of religion in general and Christianity in particular. That’s where the convinced might go cold. But they’ll have to get through the well-modulated frenzy of Gary Griffin’s production first, crowned by Alex Weisman’s masterfully schizoid performance as both sweet, bewildered Jason and the nemesis at the end of his arm.—TONY ADLER R HAND TO GOD Through 10/23: WedFri 7:30 PM (except Wed 10/5, 2 PM only), Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Tue 10/11, 7:30 PM, Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln, 773871-3000, victorygardens.org, $27-$60.

Tug of War: Civil Strife is a battle to engage in By TONY ADLER

hen last we looked in on those wacky, warlike Brits—in May, courtesy of Chicago Shakespeare Theater—they were busy taking over France. First King Edward III did it. Then Henry V did it again. Then it was Henry VI’s turn to do it, but he made a mess of things and kept his Gallic domains only by the skin of his diplomatic teeth. All those forays were covered in Tug of War: Foreign Fire, a six-hour adaptation of three Shakespearean history plays by CST artistic director Barbara Gaines. I’m usually a big fan of marathon swordfests; thanks to the Bard, I think I must know more English history than American. But Foreign Fire was a distinct slog, and that the kings kept repeating themselves was only part of the problem. Gaines did too, overusing motifs that weren’t all that clear in the first place (a protocol indicating death involved slathering the victim’s forehead with some kind of goop), overworking empty anachronisms (an onstage rock band), and overkilling an already obvious message (war is bad). Now Gaines is back with the second and final installment of her Tug of War epic, this one subtitled Civil Strife to indicate that we’ve turned away from offshore adventures to focus on a domestic dispute—specifically, the bloody, 15th-century feud between the noble houses of Lancaster and York known

as the Wars of the Roses. But these new six hours aren’t nearly as difficult to sit through as the earlier ones were. Civil Strife turns out to be a signiﬁcant improvement over Foreign Fire. And a significant reason for the improvement is the material. An amalgam of Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2; Henry VI, Part 3; and Richard III, Civil Strife has the advantages of narrative momentum and strong, ongoing characters. Where Foreign Fire kept crashing in the same car—one imagines a Citroën—the sequel supplies such long-haul essentials as rising action, life-and-death consequences, and vivid psychological development across its entire length. We see Steven Sutcliffe’s Henry VI, a kind of misﬁt Gandhi, tricked into marrying Karen Aldridge’s fierce French Margaret, much to their ultimate, cosmic regret. And the great Larry Yando as Richard, Duke of York, leading his four sons through a family saga as cruel and Pyrrhic as that of the Corleones. And, in an aside, Kevin Gudahl doing a Trumped-up version of Jack Cade, England’s wild, lumpen insurrectionist. Most important, we encounter Timothy Edward Kane’s fascinating Richard III: introduced early on as a bright, even sweet junior member of the York clan only to turn over time into a coolly paranoid tyrant steeped in blood. Gaines has kept the rock band and still can’t resist the grandly obvious image (in this case, a back wall that drips blood every time somebody dies). But Civil Strife goes beyond its predecessor’s six-hour message fest to tell a compelling story. v R TUG OF WAR: CIVIL STRIFE Through 10/9: Fri 5 PM, Sat 4 PM, Sun 1 PM; also Wed 10/5, 5 PM, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E. Grand, 312-595-5600, chicagoshakes.com, $100.

ß @taadler

Karen Aldrige and Steven Sutcliﬀe o LIZ LAUREN

20 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Costume worn in Chicago by Edwin Booth as Iago in Othello o COURTESY NEWBERRY LIBRARY

LIT

Shakespeare lives on at the Newberry By BRIANNA WELLEN

ven though William Shakespeare never set foot in Chicago, the writer’s inﬂuence has long been palpable in the city, and the Newberry Library has the collection to prove it. In conjunction with the citywide celebration of Shakespeare’s 400th birthday, Shakespeare 400 Chicago, “Creating Shakespeare,” a new exhibit, features nearly 200 Bard-related objects, including a playbill from 1862 that credits John Wilkes Booth as the lead in Othello at Chicago’s McVicker’s Theater, a personal ad signed “Hamlet and Iago” from an 1877 newspaper, and a collection of facial hair from Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s costume department. “Creating Shakespeare” is one of the largest exhibits the Newberry has ever held. Curator Jill Gage spent four years whittling down the library’s amassment of more than 20,000 Shakespeare-related items. In that time she discovered that some of the most compelling

artifacts came not from Shakespeare himself but from other writers, artists, actors, and more, many of whom had spent time in Chicago. Shakespeare’s fame and popularity owes to others’ interpretations of his work, not necessarily the work itself, she says. “He is a brilliant writer, but there were lots of brilliant writers in Shakespeare’s age,” Gage says. “Why not Ben Jonson? Why not Thomas Kyd?” Along with the Newberry’s collection, “Creating Shakespeare” includes pieces from the

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare, the British Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and a series of private collections. “Sometimes books under glass lose a lot of their charm, and it’s hard to really appreciate them,” Gage says. “What I wanted to do was give people more items to help the time period come alive in different ways.” Some examples of the nonliterary material: a costume Booth’s distinguished actor brother Edwin wore as Iago and a film of local choreographer and dancer Ruth Page performing as three different Shakespeare heroines in 1939. The oldest item is a tally stick from the 1300s, a once-common, wooden, wishbone-shaped item used for keeping track of debt through a system of notched tallies. Shakespeare referenced it in “Sonnet 122,” and Gage says she hopes its presence, along with other items like it, adds another layer of understanding to the Bard’s world. One section of “Creating Shakespeare” is dedicated entirely to Hamlet and features the ﬁrst printing of the play from 1603; there are only two copies in the world, and neither has been in the United States until now. The actu-

ARTS & CULTURE

al text is an alternate version of the original script—Gage believes it was created by an actor who memorized the lines and then wrote them down to use for a touring production. There are similar stories behind every piece, indications of how writers and artists throughout history have made Shakespeare’s work their own. In addition to the standing exhibit, the Newberry is hosting a series of programs to further emphasize how Shakespeare continues to inﬂuence local modern culture, including a night of improvised Shakespeare, a performance by Chicago Opera Theater, and lectures about his work’s relationship to women, dance, and ﬁlm. “I really wanted it to be engaging, and Shakespeare is about being engaging and about performance,” Gage says. “Shakespeare 400 Chicago has been a really good example of all the creativity you can tap into in Chicago that still thinks about Shakespeare as an inspiration.” v R “CREATING SHAKESPEARE” Through 12/31, Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton, 312-255-3700, newberry.org. F

ß @BriannaWellen

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TICKETS $21 -33

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GUINNESS WORLD RECORD HOLDER Alley holds the world record for a cat making the longest jump!

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THE ONLY CAT BAND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! Part of the proceeds beneﬁt Friends of Chicago Animal Control and Rescue

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 21

ARTS & CULTURE

Adam Conover o JOHN SCIULLI

COMEDY

Adam doesn’t quite ruin democracy By RYAN SMITH

on’t worry, comedian Adam Conover’s politics-themed live tour of his TruTV show Adam Ruins Everything isn’t “ruining” democracy. He’s just giving it a love tap or two. The approach is less harsh than usual for the bespectacled and bespoke New York native, who has a reputation for impishly busting some of America’s deeply held myths. His 2014 video Engagement Rings Are a Scam exposed the tradition of buying engagement rings as the insidious result of a decades-old PR campaign waged by the monopolistic diamond industry. The sketch was viewed nine

22 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

million times on YouTube and helped Conover land his half-hour show in fall 2015. In the program’s ﬁrst season he boldly took aim at topics ranging from the TSA (it doesn’t make us any safer) to vitamins (they’re essentially placebos) to the hymen (it doesn’t work like we think it does). It’s all done with a heady blend of humor and something resembling broadcast journalism— even if Conover rejects the label. “We’re a comedy show, we’re the bottom of the intellectual pool,” he says. “We’re basically signal boosting the work of real journalists that’s already out there.” Even so, there are times when Adam

Ruins Everything feels like John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight meets 60 Minutes for millennials—except, well, Conover famously debunked the existence of millennials earlier this year. (“Here’s what really exists: people, a whole lot of people who are alive at the same time.”) On his 15-city live tour, which ends in Chicago on October 3, Conover employs a TED-Talk style complete with charts, videos, and slides in an attempt to break down America’s ﬂawed electoral system and inject a much-needed dose of truth and perspective into a political season that increasingly feels obscured by overheated rhetoric and obfuscation. For instance, Conover tackles the myth that 2016 is the craziest presidential election ever. “There were crazier,” he says. “We just forgot about them.” And the frequent comparisons of Donald Trump to Hitler? Boring and overblown. “We spend time talking about George Wallace because Trump shares some similarities to him, but we also see some of LBJ and Thomas Jefferson in Trump,” Conover says. Conover also wants you to know that your

vote matters, even if too many of us are putting all of our stock into the election of a single person every four years, the place where an individual’s vote counts the least. “In a presidential election, your power is not enormous,” he says. “Where it matters more, and where money in politics matters more, is on a local level. Local elections are won by sometimes tens or hundreds of votes, yet they have much more impact on your life than the president does.” The ultimate goal isn’t for people to leave Adam Ruins Everything Live! feeling totally disenchanted with democracy, but with a sense of empowerment. “I want people to come away feeling a bit more sad about our elections but also more positive,” he says. “There’s obviously a lot of problems, but the good news is that many of them are easier to solve than we think.” v R ADAM RUINS EVERYTHING LIVE! Mon 8/3, 8 PM, Park West, 322 W. Armitage, Mon 10/3, $32.50.

ß @RyanSmithWriter

Dave Franco and Zazie Beetz in Easy

ARTS & CULTURE

o ZAC HAHN/NETFLIX

SMALL SCREEN

Easy is spot-on Chicago By BRIANNA WELLEN

any series have tried to capture Chicago on the small screen with little success. The comedy Happy Endings is supposed to take place here, but is obviously ﬁlmed in LA—it’s riddled with incorrect references, and there’s almost never snow. Chicago Fire attempts to be Chicago so aggressively that the Sears (er, Willis) Tower is somehow constantly in the background.

Joe Swanberg’s Easy, however, feels like it was made by a crew who truly know Chicago. The local director naturally drops in references to things like Chicago Filmmakers, Dark Matter Coffee, Koval, and even the Reader. He films in familiar, but not touristy locations. Famed Second City and iO improviser TJ Jagodowski shows up as a character in the very ﬁrst scene.

But Easy succeeds where others failed mostly because the show focuses more on the human experience than the city around it. The best parts of Swanberg’s movies are the natural and believable plots and conversations—everything is rooted in reality, nothing is dramatized for entertainment’s sake. Often, however, his simple situations aren’t substantial enough for a 90-minute feature and the ﬁlm drags. With Easy, Swanberg’s able to take what works and squeeze it into more digestible 30-minute chunks. The series is a collection of short ﬁlms about relationships connected by brief overlapping interactions. Among them are a married couple struggling with gender roles (Michael Chernus and Elizabeth Reaser), a graphic novelist and a photography student (Marc Maron and Emily Ratajkowski), and a pair of brothers opening a brewery (Dave Franco and Evan Jonigkeit). One of the most compelling episodes is performed entirely in Spanish (with subtitles) and follows a couple in Pilsen (Aislinn Derbez and Raúl Castillo) who host an unruly houseguest (Mauricio Ochmann) while

they’re trying to conceive a baby. Swanberg deftly captures the internal struggles that plague a range of simple, everyday decisions, like whether or not to ride a bike, or when to completely cut off an ex. That’s in part due to the talent of the cast, all of whom easily fell into the director’s style of emotional, improvised scenes that are funny and sad and all too real. While the show has draws for audiences in any city, there’s something special about watching it as a local. One character was collecting signatures for reproductive rights down the street from my apartment. The street artist known around town as Don’t Fret makes a cameo and has his work prominently featured. And seeing a group take one too many shots of tequila at the Punch House hit very close to home. Maybe next time Swanberg will venture even farther out into the city to highlight more speciﬁc pockets of Chicago, and hopefully everyone can relate to what they see onscreen. v R EASY is streaming on Netflix

ß @BriannaWellen

• International Exhibition - Midwest Premier • 40 Magnificent Lighted Displays

OCTOBER 1-30, 2016

• Cultural Exhibits and Demonstrations

Boerner Botanical Gardens - Whitnall Park - Milwaukee, WI

Nightly 5:30pm to 10:00pm Closed Mondays

For tickets and more information, visit: chinalights.org

• Multiple Stage Performances Nightly • Asian and American Food & Beverage Available • A Wonderland of Light, Art & Culture • $15.00 Adult Admission - Parking Included

(General Admission Event - Tickets Valid Any Day of the Exhibition)

Sponsors: Supporters:

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 23

ARTS & CULTURE

VISUAL ART

The ambiguous ambassador By TAL ROSENBERG

rtistic inspiration often occurs unexpectedly. In 1979, Tseng Kwong Chi, born in Hong Kong, educated in Vancouver and Paris, and at the time living in New York City, went to meet his parents for dinner at the top of the World Trade Center. He had nothing formal to wear, so Tseng, a carefree prankster, improvised: he put on a Mao-style suit that he

24 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

bought in a thrift store. Yet instead of being treated like a commie, he was accorded the respect of a foreign dignitary. It was an epiphany: the ideology of a uniform will always be overshadowed by its appearance. The default behavior for Westerners isn’t to question exoticism, but to embrace it. Tseng reacted accordingly: he started wearing the Mao suit on a regular basis. Soon after-

ward, he photographed himself in the uniform with an old Rolleiflex camera, whether with partygoers outside of the downtown Manhattan nightclubs he frequented, with wealthy socialites at uptown galas, or eventually by himself in front of famous landmarks in New York, the rest of America, and then all over the world. These photos form the bulk of “Tseng Kwong Chi: Performing for the Camera,” a

retrospective exhibition cocurated by the Chrysler Museum and the Grey Art Gallery at New York University and now open at Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art. “Performing for the Camera” is in some respects a companion piece to “A Feast of Astonishments,” an overview of avant-garde performance artist and cellist Charlotte Moorman that ran at the Block during the first half of 2016. Both exhibits address the work of relatively overlooked 20th-century New York City artists (and NYC transplants). Both are single-subject shows that furtively incorporate the work of significant collaborators: in Moorman’s case, video-art pioneer Nam June Paik; for Tseng, Keith Haring. And disease figures heavily in the subtext of both retrospectives: Moorman had a decade-plus battle with cancer, and Tseng—along with many of the artists who appear in “Performing for the Camera”—died of AIDS-related complications in 1990, shortly before his 40th birthday. Yet “Performing for the Camera” mostly feels celebratory. There are collages of photographs taken outside of Tseng and his friends’ nighttime hangouts, dance clubs such as Club 57 and the Mudd Club, in which downtown artists like Kenny Scharf and Dan Friedman are smiling and posing during an evening of dancing and pharmacological merriment. Friends appear in group photos that resemble snapshots from family picture albums. An image of Haring’s birthday party in Paris in 1987 has all the voluptuous splendor of a Renaissance painting: shot in an ostentatious ballroom, the guests are bathed in orange, red, and yellow light and stare directly into Tseng’s camera. Tseng’s breakthrough occurred in 1980, outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the opening gala for an exhibit of 150 ornate robes worn by Chinese royalty. As art-world A-listers and socialites filed into the museum, Tseng approached them dressed in his Mao suit and charmed everyone from Andy Warhol to Nancy Kissinger into posing alongside him for pictures. Manhattan’s finest were sauntering into the Met to witness exotic relics of history, but Tseng brought a more contemporary and honest representation of China—unfettered by frosty institutional distance and free of the baggage of snobbery—directly to the attendees on the red carpet. And while he was acutely aware of the political undercurrent of the project, Tseng does not appear judgmental or sarcastic—he and his subjects genuinely look like they’re enjoying themselves. Politics are inescapable in images where a Chinese man in a Mao suit stands in front

ARTS & CULTURE

Opposite: Tseng Kwong Chi, East Meets West Manifesto, 1983; above: Art After Midnight, 1985 o TSENG KWONG CHI/COURTESY MUNA TSENG DANCE PROJECTS

of landmarks like the Statue of Liberty or Checkpoint Charlie. Yet interviews reveal that appearances were equally important to Tseng’s work. In 1982, on the New York cable TV public-access show Your Program of Programs, Tseng mentioned to host Kestutis Nakas (now a professor at Roosevelt University) that he was fascinated by body language, how a person’s behavior often conveyed their emotional state, and how New Yorkers tended to adopt twisted or crooked postures. Tseng’s uniform was designed with the purpose of keeping his spine straight, a deliberate strategy to make his presence in the self-portraits all the more deﬁned. In the documentary short East Meets West, Tseng explains his decision to wear sunglasses in his work: “My mirrored glasses give the picture a neutral impact and the surrealistic quality I’m looking for.” He also expresses how geopolitics and the politics of behavior are inextricable: “This project began in 1979, when President Nixon went to China. A real exchange was supposed to take place between the East and the West. However, the relations remained official and superﬁcial.” Toward the end of his life, Tseng undertook what he called “The Expeditionary Series,”

pastoral and large-scale self-portraits shot with a professional-quality camera. The photographs are on some level symbolic of the AIDS crisis and Tseng’s HIV-positive diagnosis, but the pieces also convey the artist’s unique sense of humor. In one work Tseng is dwarfed by Mount Rushmore, a tiny Maoist ambassador overpowered by American imperialism; on the other hand, the image could be seen as a representation of Tseng’s awe, his appreciation of mankind’s achievements. Throughout “Performing for the Camera” Tseng is seen as someone who was happiest in the company of others, whether they were friends or strangers. That’s why the most poetic and haunting piece in the exhibit is Lake Nineveh, Vermont, which was taken shortly before the artist’s death. He’s wearing the Mao suit in a paddleboat on still water, a light fog on the surface. He appears ready and willing to surrender. v R “TSENG KWONG CHI: PERFORMING FOR THE CAMERA” Through 12/11, opening reception Sat 10/1, 2 PM, Northwestern University Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Dr., Evanston, 847-491-4000, blockmuseum.northwestern.edu. F

ß @talrosenberg SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 25

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

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By J.R. JONES

feel the modern media has a big focus on personalities,” Edward Snowden tells journalist Glenn Greenwald in Laura Poitras’s Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour. “I’m a little concerned the more we focus on that, the more they’re gonna use that as a distraction.” Snowden, a computer contractor with the National Security Agency, was meeting with Greenwald and Poitras in a Hong Kong hotel room in June 2013 as they prepared to publish a series of news stories revealing that the U.S. government collects electronic data from millions of citizens foreign and domestic. The young whistle-blower couldn’t have been more right about the media—after revealing his identity, he instantly became the story’s focus, pilloried as a traitor by nationalists and celebrated as a hero by civil libertarians. According to a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, Snowden adamantly resisted selling the screen rights to his life story, but he must have reconciled himself to the idea of being a personality, because he’s given his blessing to Oliver Stone’s new biopic Snowden, and even appears onscreen from Moscow in the movie’s concluding moments. Any multiplex release that informs people about the NSA’s bulk-data collection is OK by me, but Snowden can be a chore to watch because it focuses so narrowly on a person-

26 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

ality and because that personality lacks any apparent, uh, personality. Joseph GordonLevitt, a nimble and intelligent performer, works overtime to animate Snowden, a shy computer nerd who dropped out of high school and washed out of the army, then bounced back as a rising young talent in the U.S. government’s cybersecurity administration and ultimately committed one of the most serious security breaches in American history. Stone devotes numerous scenes to Snowden’s romance with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, portrayed by Shailene Woodley as a sexy, insightful, vibrantly alive young woman, proof positive that Ed can’t be such a dud after all. In fact there’s more in the movie about their relationship than about any of the various programs Snowden exposed. In many ways Snowden seems like a liberal counterpart to Clint Eastwood’s Sully, starring Tom Hanks as the heroic airline pilot who staged a perfect water landing of a damaged plane on the Hudson River in 2009. Both Snowden and Chesley Sullenberger are lionized as simple men of action, though they’re so bland that only the most genial actors can warm them up onscreen. Both real-life stories received saturation coverage in the news media, so anyone not comatose at the time already knows exactly how they turned out. And both movies are caught up in

the business of national mythmaking, raising up idols for their respective red- and bluestate viewers. At the end of Sully, the captain and his copilot face hostile questioning at a hearing of the National Transportation Safety Board, but they come out on top and collect a glorious ovation from the assembled professionals. Snowden concludes with a robot rolling onstage at a lecture hall, its screen bearing a live feed of Snowden from Russia as he basks in the audience’s applause. Stone faces a greater challenge than Eastwood, however, because Snowden is a divisive figure, and the idiot-level media narrative surrounding him turns on whether or not his motives were honorable. “For me it all comes down to state power versus the people’s ability to meaningfully oppose that power,” Snowden explains in Citizenfour. Stone sets out to trace the life journey that culminated in that conviction and, not surprisingly, pulls out of Snowden’s past one of his own favorite myths—common to Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), and JFK (1991)—of an American innocent whose patriotism is tested when he learns about the country’s darker deeds. As Snowden, Poitras (Melissa Leo), Greenwald (Zachary Quinto), and Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) hammer out their stories in the hotel, Stone ﬂashes back to Snowden’s swift rise through the ranks of the CIA, where he’s being groomed for greatness by a sinister, silver-haired spymaster, Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans). Given that Snowden runs two and a quarter hours, it’s too bad that screenwriters Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald couldn’t have worked in a little more substance about the programs Snowden revealed. There’s no clear sense of how STELLAR WIND, launched by the NSA in the wake of 9/11 to collect all available phone and Internet data, eventually led to PRISM, a sweeping bulk-data collection program that the agency claimed was secretly fed by Google, Facebook, Apple, and other online giants. Stone and Fitzgerald touch on PRISM with a chilling scene in which Snowden’s work buddy Gabriel (Ben Schnetzer) breezily shows him how to sift through unsuspecting citizens’ e-mails, live chats, file transfers, and search histories. But Snowden won’t tell you anything about the OCEO (Offensive Cyber Effects Operations), launched by President Obama to wage cyberattacks around

the world, or the NSA’s project with British intelligence to bug undersea fiber-optic cables that transmit millions of international communications. Instead we get “The Love Song of Edward J. Snowden,” with flashbacks showing how Mills transformed his drab existence but then began to chafe against the secrecy and stress of his government career. They meet online (of course), bonding over the anime fantasy Ghost in the Shell, and then in person, strolling across the National Mall for some arthritic banter about their opposing politics. Mills is a passionate progressive and Snowden is a Rand Paul conservative; they’re supposed to be like Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, but they’re more like Katharine Hepburn and a box of Cheerios. An amateur photographer, Mills spends every available moment snapping sympathetic photos of Snowden, which Stone drops into the action as black-and-white freeze-frames. Various candy-apple scenes show the young lovers hiking together; their last flashback takes place on a misty ocean shoreline in Hawaii, as Snowden prepares to make his fateful trip to Hong Kong and Mills pleads, “Can you at least tell me where you’re going?” Ea rly i n t he mov ie, when Snowden is interviewing for a job with the slimy O’Brian, he lists his cultural touchstones as “Joseph Campbell, Star Wars, Thoreau, Ayn Rand.” The last two names make sense given Snowden’s strong feelings of personal responsibility; the first two suggest he has a weakness for mythmaking himself, so no one should be surprised that he’s graduated from private citizen to major motion picture. As the movie screens nationwide, human rights organizations are campaigning to win Snowden a presidential pardon so he can return to the U.S. without facing prosecution. Once again the story is turning into a thumbs-up/thumbs-down debate over a private individual, overshadowing the web of deceit that pulled governments and private businesses into a fearsome surveillance state. Just as Snowden cautioned, he’s become a distraction—and that’s a hell of a thing to be in your own biopic. v SNOWDEN ss Directed by Oliver Stone. R, 134 min. For showtimes visit chicagoreader.com/ movies.

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he carnival was a rich source of melodrama for the silent cinema—with its freaks, its dancing girls, its magicians and curiosities and fun-house mirrors, it offered pious small-town communities a whiff of crude mystery. The great American director Tod Browning couldn’t get enough of carny life; with movies such as The Unholy Three (1925), The Unknown (1927), and the notorious Freaks (1932), he used the setting to dig deep into Americans’ hidden fears. This Sunday at Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago Film Studies Center will present another lurid carnival tale when the electrifying Alloy Orchestra appears in person to debut its score for a new digital restoration of E.A. Dupont’s German drama Varieté (1925). Emil Jannings stars as a middle-aged showman whose life is turned upside down after a beautiful young woman rescued from a shipwreck is deposited with his carnival in Hamburg. Like so many silent dramas, this is a story of lust unbridled. Jannings—the crushed hotel doorman of F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924) and the lovelorn professor of Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930)—was a monolithic presence onscreen, powerfully built but schooled in the vulnerability of aging men. The way emotions play across his wide face it could practically be a movie screen itself. Once a skilled trapeze artist, the showman in Varieté has retired from performance after breaking

The Smart Studios Story both his legs in a fall; he longs to return to the spotlight, and teaching his craft to the young woman reawakens not only his desire but his own professional joie de vivre. He ditches his wife to return to the flying trapeze with his protege, and they land a gig as second bananas to a big trapeze star in Berlin (Warwick Ward). When this neatly barbered lothario takes a shine to the young woman, you just know someone’s going to lose his grip (literally). Varieté, with its striking compositions, its vertiginous shots taken from swinging trapezes and the rocking cars of carnival rides, offers plenty of choice moments to an outfit like the Alloy Orchestra. Founded in the early 90s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the little trio has carved out a niche for itself in silent-film accompaniment with a clangorous, heavily percussive style that runs counter to the comforting swells of a traditional theater organ. Keyboardist Roger Miller (from Mission of Burma) and percussionists Terry Donahue and Ken Winokur provide so much more musical attack than a piano or organ that they invariably draw out the conflict in a scene. “Varieté is the perfect vehicle for an Alloy Orchestra score,” Winokur remarks by e-mail. “Our percussion-heavy instrumentation lends itself easily to circus music. It’s bright, fun, and full of energy.” But the new score, he says, also recognizes the story’s “dark undertones of desperation.” Step right up. v VARIETÉ sss Directed by E.A. Dupont. 95 min. Sun 10/2, 7 PM, Univ. of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th, 773-702-8596, filmstudiescenter.uchicago. edu, $10.

Music by Nirvana, L7, Killdozer, & more! Director Q&A after the screening! Tickets: http://smartstudiosstory.bpt.me

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Saba brings the west side to life in rap On the new mixtape Bucket List Project, the Pivot Gang MC reminds Chicago that one of its most violent neighborhoods is also a home. By LEOR GALIL Photos by DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS

Saba in front of Saint Catherine of Siena Saint Lucy School, where he went to junior high—and where ﬁrst started bringing in CDs of his beats to share with other students

n September 12 the Tribune reported that more than 3,000 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year—and that about a third of those shootings have been in three of the city’s 25 police districts, all of them on the west side. News out of those neighborhoods all seems to be about violence and misery: last week alone you could read about fatal shootings, fires, the burned body of a high school freshman, and a Roosevelt University report calling the west side the “epicenter” of the heroin crisis in Illinois. Chicago rapper-producer Saba, aka Tahj Chandler, grew up on the west side—specifically in Austin, near its border with Oak Park. His imminent third mixtape, Bucket List Project, puts listeners in his shoes, with a vivid sense of place that humanizes a community

most outsiders experience only as a lurid parade of grim statistics. Saba opens the Bucket List Project track “Westside Bound 3” with the line “I’m from the part of the city that they don’t be talking about.” The 22-year-old says he was inspired to include it after meeting with journalism students at Young Chicago Authors. “They were just talking about how inspired they were to hear an artist that’s from where they’re from,” Saba explains. “I wanted to inspire the west side. The west side is really behind in terms of having any recognition for music, and even just recognition for anything, really—the west side is treated like a slum.” Ironically, to make these songs that evoke his west-side upbringing, Saba left town. In June he rented an AirBnB in Los Angeles with producer-singer Phoelix and rapper Noname,

and for a month the three of them worked on two of the best rap full-lengths to come out of Chicago all year—Noname’s July mixtape Telefone, where Saba coproduced half the tracks and rapped on one, and Bucket List Project. Every day they’d wake up and go to work in the living room. Because they didn’t have a TV to distract them, when they took breaks they entertained one another. “If we weren’t making music, we were just talking about everything—all of our life experience,” Saba says. He noticed he was putting more of himself into his music than ever before. “Bucket List is so different from the other stuff, even though it was a thing that was always in my music,” Saba says. “Now I understand the importance of being myself, and telling what happened to me and J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 29

Saba’s west side continued from 29

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around me.” On “American Hypothesis,” he raps about his childhood: his father moved out “before I learned how to tie my sneakers,” members of his extended family died of drug overdoses, and he saw his mother’s boyfriend stick a shotgun in her face. But there’s also real affection in the song, and it flows both ways. Saba’s dad makes an appearance, sharing his own bucket list in a recorded phone call—he names the places he’d like to visit with his son, including Mecca, Israel, and Morocco. Though their father lived apart from Saba and his brother, they regularly talked on the phone: “We couldn’t hang up without saying ‘I’m a winner and a leader and a strong black man,’” he says. “My dad, he built our mentals to be so strong that we were prepared for something like a music career.” Saba graduated from high school at 16, at which point he’d already been rapping and making beats half his life. Phoelix served as executive producer on Bucket List Project, but Saba worked on the instrumentals too. His production style— weightless, incandescent, heavy on the R&B—links the varied sounds on the mixtape, such as the ascending synths and irregular bass pulse of “Symmetry” and the wobbly hum of the title track. Saba is a commanding presence as a rapper, with a brassy voice and a confident range that covers scholarly wordplay and good-natured aggression; he might hurry through a verse so quickly that his bars blur together, differentiated only by similarsounding syllables that cap each phrase, or let his words drop and fetch up like a Slinky walking down stairs. Saba also raps with a tunefulness that owes something to 90s west-side rap stars Twista, Do or Die, and Crucial Conflict, all of whom he studied with almost religious devotion as a teenager (alongside his first rap love, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony). “All of them rap fast, but none of them rap the same,” he says. And when a high school friend passed him a copy of Food & Liquor, the 2006 debut by west-side rapper Lupe Fiasco, it hit him like an anvil. “I love Common, I love Kanye West, but Lupe Fiasco—it was finally, like, a person talking about being on Madison, places that I’m familiar with,” Saba says. West-side hip-hop may not have birthed any national stars since Lupe, but it’s continued to thrive. In recent years it’s produced flashy MC ZMoney, sinister street rapper Lud Foe (who has the Chicago audience’s top three most “distinctively popular” songs on Spotify), and of course the entire bop scene, which includes critically acclaimed duo Sicko Mobb, Billboard hit maker Dlow, and Stunt Taylor of “Fe Fe on the Block” fame. Saba honors his west-side roots on Bucket List Project in some of the

Saba on the court next to the Westside Health Authority: “Everybody was just trying to work to get to go to the NBA. That was it—we either gonna rap, or we going to the NBA. So pick one.”

customary ways—references to streets in his Austin neighborhood, a shout-out to ZMoney, a guest verse from Twista on “GPS”—but he distinguishes himself with a detailed sense of place that none of his peers can match. The media’s west-side narratives are haunted by the shadow of violent death, but Bucket List Project reminds us that thousands of people on those blocks are just trying to live their lives. That’s not to say the mixtape turns a blind eye to the blight: the chorus for “Church/Liquor Store,” which Saba wrote while riding the Division bus home from YCA, begins “Funeral home, church, church, liquor store, corner store.” “If you go down Division, it’s spot-on, you pass all of that,” Saba says. But the title Bucket List Project is more than a morbid joke. Saba’s dad isn’t the only person who turns up to talk about the things he wants to do while he’s still here—the mixtape is full of fans and colleagues sharing their lists. Chance the Rapper says he wants to learn to play drums; Stunt Taylor wants $10 million in the bank. Bucket List Project opened my eyes to a part of town I’d barely visited, and I wanted to get a better understanding of the place from

the rapper responsible. Saba showed me and Reader director of photography Danielle A. Scruggs around Austin, and then we sat down to talk in the basement recording studio he’s set up at his grandparents’ house. The studio doubles as the informal headquarters for Saba’s rap collective, Pivot Gang. “Wildstyle from Crucial Conflict was down here not too long ago,” Saba says. “‘This really reminds me of when Crucial Conflict first started’—he was saying stuff like that.” Below I’ve collected edited excerpts from our conversations about each place.

Basketball court next to Westside Health Authority That basketball court is really just the closest one to my house—if we playin’ ball, we don’t wanna have to travel too far. I didn’t even really know it was there. We had to do some volunteer stuff—me and my brother—one year at the Westside Health Authority, which is next door to that court. After that we started going up there every now and again. We’ve always had a rim in

our backyard, but if we tryin’ to play for real, that’s where we’ll go, or to another court in that same area. It’s a cool local spot. It’s not too many places over here to even do something as simple as play ball. A lot of the courts that’ll be within a two-mile radius of here will be the courts that they take the rims off—it never seems like they even want us to play ball. All we did when we were younger was make music and play basketball. Now it’s not much different—we just make a lot more music and play NBA 2K instead of real basketball. But that’s always been our second nature—music, then basketball. For us, it would basically be the breather. Two thousand twelve was probably the year that we made the most music ever. We were trying to make 300 songs in one summer. I don’t know why, but that was our end goal: “We gon’ get to 300.” We never got to 300—I think we made it to 190-something. We was down here working every day, and so to not dry our brains out, we would go in the backyard and just play a game of 32. We would play two or three and then come back in, dry off, get some water, and back to music. J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 31

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ning. And I’m like, “Holy shit!” At that point, every day, on the 70 going to work, I’m super cautious. The one thing that I do like about the bus is it feels like Hey Arnold! or something. If you’re on the bus early in the morning, you’ll be on the bus with a lot of old people going to work, you’ll be on the bus with a lot of teenagers, a lot of mothers—it’s such a diverse bus. It shows you such an accurate description of Chicago, of the west side of Chicago even. It’s like every color of person is on the bus. It’s one of those things where you gotta take the good with the bad, being on the 70 speciﬁcally. The 70 and the 91—those are the two buses that I took the most. The 91 was the Austin bus, and that’s how we got to the train.

Austin Green Line stop

Saba’s basement studio at his grandparents’ home in Austin, which doubles as an unoﬃcial headquarters for his Pivot Gang crew

Saba’s west side continued from 31

M&M Quick Food, Division and Austin The corner store was the same idea—making music down here, you go in the back, you play ball. Before you come back down here, you go to the corner store, you get yourself a Gatorade or something. This area, or kind of the whole west side— we got Uncle Remus, we got MacArthur’s. It’s kind of a food desert, realistically. We can get chicken with mild sauce on it on any given corner, but if we want to eat anything else, we gotta get in the car and go somewhere. The convenience store, it’s open 24 hours, and it’s right around the corner. If you need anything, that’s the closest place to go. A lot of times you might not want chicken with mild sauce after you eat it every day for a week—you might just want a snack. All they got is candy and shit in there—as unfortunate as it is, that’s the situation. You can go get M&Ms, hella sugary-ass sodas, and juices. It’s been the local spot our whole life.

It’s always been there, so we always go. It’s not necessarily good, but it’s what it is—what can we do about it? Our eating habits are terrible. It’s super annoying—like, Domino’s is around the corner, but because it’s in Oak Park, it doesn’t deliver here. The importance of food is never stressed on us until we’re older and we realize, “Man, we really eat shit. Doritos and fried chicken every day—that shit’s gonna catch up to us.” It’s a thing that now I’m aware of, but it’s like trying to break the habit of eating basically candy and fried food our whole life. Being raised by my grandparents, like, my grandma does cook every now and again, so those are my real meals—anything that’s not that will be some snacks and some fried food. I’m just trying to ﬁgure it out. I’m not ready to get my complete health on yet, but I’m trying to get healthier. I’m not ready to be a vegan, but maybe to just not eat that bag of Skittles right now.

Bus stop at Division and Austin When we were working on my second mixtape, Comfort Zone, we were working at this studio

super far up north. The problem with most buses around here is they stop at like 10, 10:30. The train, it’s damn near a mile away—we could take the train and walk a mile, but even that train stops earlier than all the other trains. For us the 70 was probably the bus that we take the most. You gotta get east—everything that happens is east of here. This is like the last block of Chicago; you cross the street, you’re in Oak Park. If we want to do anything, if we got any show or any studio session or want to eat any food that’s not around here—we gotta get on the 70 and go super east. I used to be a janitor once upon a time, in Homan Square. We used to have to take the 70 to the 82. I remember my ﬁrst day of work—it was a super long day. I’d been doing music my whole life; I never had had a real job. My brother, Joseph [Chilliams], worked in the same area—we took the bus together, and when it was time for me to go home, I used to get off before him. I was waiting at the bus stop, and some dude was walking—then this car pulls up, and four guys jump out and beat the shit out of this man right behind me. Then they jump in the car and drive away, and he just gets up and starts run-

I started taking the train daily when I was 16, ’cause that’s when I started going to Columbia—I was going to Columbia every day, and I was going to YouMedia every other day. The train is probably the most accurate description of Chicago, of the west side. It’s like the same route that you’ll go on the 70, but the train is faster. You can see the areas—hood, hood, hood, OK, OK, gentrification, gentrification, then the nice-as-hell downtown. That first sense of real independence for me was on the train, because I’m on my own. I’m witnessing a lot more crazy shit happen on the Green Line, and I have to find my sense of security. I have to find it myself. It’s like, I have no reason to really feel safe, because I’m witnessing people get robbed—people get beat up on the train, and I have to just walk with my head up and feel that nothing is gonna happen to me, for whatever reason. I did a terrible job my freshman year of picking classes. I thought I was doing a good job: “I’ma take this 9 AM class, I’ma come home after that, then my next class gonna be at 6:30, but it’s gonna be the same day.” I thought that was genius when I was 16, and I realized what a shitty route that is. I gotta take an hour to get there. Then after the hour-long class, I come back home—I’m napping in between—I’m going back downtown and then taking the superlate train ride. It was the dumbest thing that I did, but it took that to learn that. The Austin Green Line was the one spot to get to anywhere in the city. We had to get there first, and then we can get anywhere. When I was at school, I had a U-Pass, so I was going crazy, getting on every bus. That was the first sense of any music-scene stuff that we ever experienced—we had to get to the Green Line to get downtown to get to Harold Washington to meet all of these super-raw artists. For all J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 33

101WKQX QUEUED UP ARTIST SHOWCASE WELCOMES...

JOSEPH

888 + THE MOTH & THE FLAME

WILLIAM WILD

10/19

10/27

SKINNY LISTER

JOHN PAUL WHITE

LINCOLN DURHAM TRAPPER SCHOEPP & THE SHADES

GUEST

11/15

11/03

SKYLAR GREY 10/06 LEWIS DEL MAR 10/13 THE DUSTBOWL REVIVAL 10/14 SUNFLOWER BEAN 10/21

FOY VANCE 10/28 THE BOXER REBELLION 10/29 GRAMPS THE VAMP 10/30 MR LITTLE JEANS 11/10

WWW.LH-ST.COM

JACUZZI BOYS HYDROFOIL

10/16

SALES

I.E. KOKORO + DIMWAVES

10/19

LITTLE SCREAM

RED WANTING BLUE

10/27

11/01

GUEST

SOUTHERN CULTURE ON THE SKIDS 10/06 THE SUFFERS 10/07 2 SHOWS!

CHRISSY & HAWLEY 10/10

34 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

GUEST

GOLDEN SUITS 10/11 THE ROCKETBOYS 10/12 BJ BARHAM 10/13 WHISKEY SHIVERS 10/14

After Saba graduated high school at 16, the Austin Green Line stop became his doorway to Columbia College—and to the Harold Washington Library’s YouMedia center, an incubator for hip-hop artists.

Saba’s west side continued from 32 my south-side friends, when I have them come here, that’s the easiest route. And it’s always the furthest west that they’ve been—every time it’s like, “Man, you sure I’m going the right way?” Like 2012, 2013, it was crackin’ down here—every day, everybody was recording. I recorded Dally Auston’s project, I recorded Lucki’s project, I recorded Noname, Mick Jenkins—everybody in the city I was recordin’ down here. It just reminded me of how it didn’t matter that it was far, and that the music was that important—because people would just come here in the morning, stay the day, and leave at night.

Saint Catherine of Siena Saint Lucy School That’s where I went to junior high. That was the ﬁrst real school I ever went to—because before that, when I was in third grade, there were probably three or four of us. It was one classroom all day—you eat lunch in here, you doin’ social studies in here, you doin’ math in here. You go to the bathroom out there, but everything else for the most part was in this one room. So when I went to Saint Catherine, it was like, “Oh man, we’re changing classes.” Everybody lived around here. It was a cool experience—I was never the new kid, so being the transfer at Saint Catherine was the ﬁrst time where that had happened. I wasn’t rapping as much, but I was making beats, so I would bring my CDs and hand CDs around.

I was super shy, super quiet. My teachers— imagine how surprised they are that I’m this rap sensation on the Internet. They’ve been super supportive—they got the Redeye hangin’ up in the office and everything, and a few of the other articles. They been loosely keeping track of where their alum has gone. It’s real cool having a support system, especially because as a student they didn’t know me that well. I was a shy student, but I always did good in school for some reason. I didn’t focus on school ever—it was a thing that came easy to me, so my teachers think I’m, like, the greatest student. I wasn’t even doing my homework until the day it was due; I was going home, playing video games, making music, and then waking up early. That was always the kind of student I was—it’s crazy that I actually did good at all in school. A lot of those experiences that I’m describing on Bucket List happened during that time frame. You never really forget who you were because it’s who you are—it’s always a part of you. I still wear my glasses every day, I still have a lot of the same characteristics that I had then, I’m not a completely different person. I used to hate school, and part of it was just because I was so boxed into myself and scared to talk to everybody—especially when I transferred, ’cause everyone wanted to talk to me. A lot of people I went to middle school with, we’re Facebook friends, but they always hit me up—it’s cool, having the support of people that knew me when I was a different version of myself. v

ß @imLeor

Recommended and notable shows, and critics’ insights for the week of September 29

MUSIC

b ALL AGES F

THURSDAY29

PICK OF THE WEEK

Kikagaku Moyo carve out a slice of folkish psych on House in the Tall Grass

Gunwale Jacob Wick opens. 10 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b Saxophonist Dave Rempis doesn’t spend much time composing music. During the Chicago Reed Quartet’s brief existence from 2013 to 2014, he contributed some tunes, but for the most part his projects take the stage or enter the recording studio without a road map. That makes context important, and Rempis has shown a knack for assembling fascinating groups—for the Rempis Percussion Quartet he created a two-drum motor, and for his generation-spanning trio lineup he enlisted bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Avreeayl Ra. In his threesome Gunwale both of his bandmates, bassist Albert Wildeman and percussionist Ryan Packard, are younger than he and reflect somewhat divergent sensibilities—particularly the latter, who’s known best for his work with contemporary-classical outfits like Fonema Consort. But they all find common purpose on Gunwale’s recent debut, Polynya (Aerophonic), a ferocious outing charged with the heightened friction this rhythm section generates: Wildeman, for example, turns his double bass into a thrumming drum on “Wire,” while Packard plays so softly on “Bevel” his kit sounds as if it’s in another room. There’s a greater attention to texture here than is typical of other Rempis projects—particularly when the trio cools down and Packard serves up abstract electronics alongside rumbling, koanlike percussion patter while the saxophonist plays wonderful, abstract tones reveling in sibilant whistles and scrapes. That’s not to say the rhythm section lacks firepower or raw energy; it alertly responds to Rempis’s primal howls, tightly wound sallies, and violently serrated lines, and on “Liner” Wildeman and Packard even drop some off-kilter funk grooves. Gunwale is still in its early stages, and I’m eager to hear where Rempis and company take its potential. —PETER MARGASAK

o KENTARO

KIKAGAKU MOYO, MOSS FOLK, DEAD FEATHERS

Wed 9/5, 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10.

FOUR-YEAR-OLD TOKYO-BASED Kikagaku Moyo are chipping in to their city’s great psychedelic tradition, reinventing the trippy windswept glories that Western rock left behind in stunning, heady new ways. Or at least that’s one narrative. Their third full-length, House in the Tall Grass, released on their own Guruguru Brain Records, carves out a slice of folkish psych that’s garnished by sitar, punctuated by heavy riffs, and carried along by an almost Krautrock-ish sense of rhythm. It’s been criticized for bringing nothing new to the table, and I suppose that’s fair enough, but it appears as though Kikagaku Moyo are more interested in being traditionalists than innovators, and there’s certainly room for that. On its own terms House in the Tall Grass is a beautiful journey through a psychedelic fairyland that’s recognizable and yet still surprising—its familiarity is more of a positive than a bug. —MONICA KENDRICK

Melvia “ChicK” Rodgers Barbara Carr headlines; Trudy Lynn, Jackie Scott, Melvia “Chick” Rodgers, Nellie “Tiger” Travis Blues Band, and Sheryl Youngblood open. 7 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park West, $20-$40. b Memphis-born Melvia “Chick” Rodgers made her ﬁrst big splash as a secular singer when she accepted an invitation to join Patti LaBelle onstage and then stunned her with a bravura rendition of her own hit “Lady Marmalade.” Rodgers moved to Chicago in 1989 and has since become a blues-circuit mainstay known for wrecking houses with everything from “Dr. Feelgood” to “Over the Rainbow.” On her most recent recording, 2014’s This Kind of Love (Aniorte & Larumbe Presentan), she expands her scope, transforming herself into a full-ﬂedged art-music chanteuse. Supported by musicians ranging from the Corky Siegel Chamber Blues Ensemble to saxophonist Ernest Dawkins, Rodgers wields a voice that sounds scarred and tested by life yet infused with light—she fearlessly measures despair and hope and approaches music with a stylistic complexity and lyric eloquence worthy of Jacques Brel. Tonight at this benefit for the Koko Taylor Celebrity Aid Foundation, she shares the bill with

Barbara Carr, Nellie “Tiger” Travis, Trudy Lynn, Jackie Scott, and others. Drummer Sheryl Youngblood and her band will back each act. —DAVID WHITEIS Rock, Pop, Etc Ballyhoo!, Zach Deputy, Bumpin Uglies, Midwest Hype 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Bronze Radio Return, Air Traﬃc Controller 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Bueno, Heavy Dreams 9 PM, GMan Tavern Chicago Farmer, Edward David Anderson, Jaik Willis 8 PM, Martyrs’ Foreverandnever, Moose, Gardens, Insideout 7 PM, Wire, Berwyn Gooch Palms, Slushy, Pledge Drive 9 PM, Empty Bottle Manwolves, Burns Twins, Noah Chris 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Mizzerables, Fires in Japan, Turbo Vamps, Carmel Liburdi 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon Must be the Holy Ghost, Choral Reefr 9 PM, Whistler F Namorado, Liquidlight, Polarizer 8 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar F Paper Hero, Lower Automation, the Place You Exist, Roarer 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Post Child, Cubits, Arts & Letters, Mailboxes 8:30 PM, Township Dan Rico 10 PM, California Clipper Martin Sexton, Accidentals 8 PM, City Winery b Jude Shuma, Cafe Racer, Soft Candy 9 PM, Hideout Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch, Devour the Day 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Hip-Hop Chris Webby 7:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Dance Kungs 10 PM, the Mid Specter, Chicagodeep, Taelue 10 PM, Smart Bar Folk & Country Devil in a Woodpile 6 PM, Hideout Whitey Morgan, Cody Jinks 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jazz Arturo Sandoval 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE b Bobby Watson Quartet 8 and 10 PM, through Sat 10/1, 8 and 10 PM; Sun 10/2, 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase Experimental Flamingo, Michael Zerang 7:30 PM, Comfort Station b International La Gusana Ciega, Siddhartha, Porter 8 PM, Joe’s Bar Classical Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Joyce DiDonato Riccardo Muti, conductor (Catalani, Martucci, Beethoven). 8 PM, Symphony Center

FRIDAY30 Japanese Breakfast Porches headline; Japanese Breakfast and Rivergazer open. 9 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, $16, 17+

Singer-songwriter Michelle Zauner, who also fronts Philly emo group Little Big League, released her proper debut as Japanese Breakfast earlier this year with Psychopomp (Yellow K). Six years in the making, the album had its turning point two years back, when Zauner lost her mother to cancer and took even greater solace in her solo work. Opener “In Heaven” juxtaposes triumphant music— J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 35

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY NO EXPERIENCE LIKE IT

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC continued from 35 breathy, gliding shoegaze guitars, beaming strings, and glistening keys that echo like a xylophone—with gut-wrenching lyrics about combing through the material possessions of the deceased. The lighter tones that motor Psychopomp work to disguise the dark, complicated themes Zauner addresses, such as the struggle to deal with violence among friends (“Rugged Country”). She embraces the unknown, leaving listeners to make up their own minds about how to respond to thorny interpersonal conflicts. For Zauner empathy is crucial for people who want to engage with problems that don’t always have a clear solution. —LEOR GALIL

Chicago Opera Theater presents The Love Potion See also Saturday. 7:30 PM, Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, $50-$75. b When Swiss composer Frank Martin set out in 1940 to write an oratorio based on the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Europe was being ravaged by Nazi Germany, which had co-opted the music of composer Richard Wagner. Martin’s hauntingly emotive composition—inﬂuenced by both Schoenberg’s 12-tone method and Debussy’s impressionism, and compactly scored for strings, piano, and a dozen voices—stands in gorgeous opposition to the grand Wagnerian version of this Celtic story of love and death. Emanuele Andrizzi will conduct this Chicago Opera Theater production, directed by Andreas Mitisek, under the star-spangled ceiling of a surprising venue. —DEANNA ISAACS

Allison Miller’s BOom Tic Boom See also Saturday. 9 PM, Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, $15.

Learn to play guitar this fall. Set your own tone. Get in your own groove. Join up with people from all walks of life, from all over Chicago and the world. Play a song in your very ﬁrst class. Play your favorite songs in no time at all. Find your folk at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Daytime, weekend and evening classes begin October 24. Sign up at oldtownschool.org

LINCOLN SQUARE • LINCOLN PARK

36 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Terrific New York drummer Allison Miller has experienced a burst of creativity of late. Two disparate collective trios she’s involved with—Honey Ear Trio and Lean—have recently dropped strong new albums, and she’s got more on the horizon as the rhythmic motor behind guitarist Brandon Seabrook’s fierce threesome Needle Driver. But no project reveals the full scope of her talents more than her sextet Boom Tic Boom, which released their third studio album, Otis Was a Polar Bear (Royal Potato Family), earlier this year. Several of the ten tunes are inspired by the birth of the drummer’s daughter, but though melodies might convey a playful sweetness there’s nothing twee about the execution. For instance while opener “Fuster” is based on a spontaneous melody Miller sang to her infant, the arrangement and the flourishes from her sextet convey a shifting array of flavors: eastern-European folk sonorities from clarinetist Ben Goldberg, Cuban montuno patterns from pianist Myra Melford, and Jamaican dub accents from the leader. Most of the pieces sparkle with contrapuntal passages, like “High T,” where a unison line of pizzicato figures by violinist Jenny Scheinman and clarion-toned patterns by Goldberg form a wonderful complement to the darting melody voiced by cornetist Kirk Knuffke. When Melford solos on the tune, her soul-streaked improvisation hints at melodic shards of Monk’s “Well You Needn’t”; she quotes a full line as her solo concludes. There’s a ton of musicality coming from each member of the

band, which also includes bassist Todd Sickafoose. For these performances reedist Jeff Lederer and bassist Chris Lightcap sub for Goldberg and Sickafoose, respectively. —PETER MARGASAK Rock, Pop, Etc Airbourne 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ An Asian Film, Victories, Super Funtime Awesome Party Band 9 PM, Burlington Martin Barre 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club Boss Fight, It’s a Secret, Anna Sage, Winter Classic 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon Matt Christensen, Scott Tuma & Mike Weis 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Courtney 8 PM, Armitage Concert Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Dance Gavin Dance, Contortionist, Hail the Sun, Good Tiger 5:30 PM, Portage Theater Dark Star Orchestra 9 PM, the Vic, 18+ Deepspacepilots, Pale Horseman, Propane Propane 9 PM, Cobra Lounge Differents, Plurals, Safes, Laureates 8 PM, Township The Faint, Gang of Four, Pictureplane 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Killer Moon, Tele Novella, Predictions 9 PM, Red Line Tap Korbee, Zealyn 10 PM, Schubas John Mayall, Bill Carter 8 PM, City Winery, sold out b Meat Wave, Absolutely Not, Bleach Party, Beastii 8 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar F Merchandise, Public Memory, Gentle Leader 9 PM, Empty Bottle Anders Osborne 8 PM, also Sat 10/1, 8 PM, SPACE b Paper Mice, Shmu, Crown Larks, Unmanned Ship 10:15 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Proclaimers, Jenny O. 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Savoy Brown 7 PM, also Sat 10/1, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Sigur Ros 8:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Skindred, Hed PE, Soil, Media Solution 7 PM, Double Door, 17+ Slim Gypsy Baggage, Waiting for Henry, Handcuffs, Brad Peterson, Polkaholics 8 PM, Martyrs’ Sound of Urchin, Blue Steel, Curls 10 PM, Beat Kitchen Switchfoot, Reliant K 6 PM, also Sat 10/1, 6 PM, House of Blues b Terranaut, Seigelord, Vik 9 PM, Wire, Berwyn This Obsession, Chaos Network, Dinner for Yesterday, Andrew Palmer, Dreadwolf, Brandon Dewitt 10 PM, Elbo Room Tobacco, High Tides, Odonis Odonis 9 PM, Lincoln Hall Warpaint, Facial 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Hip-Hop Jim Jones, Greggo, Bradd Litt, Arkadian, R Dubb, Tops 10 PM, the Promontory Waldo, Seventh, David Ashley, Bobby Swan, L.A. Vangogh 6:30 PM, Schubas b Dance Audion 10 PM, Spy Bar Flula Borg 7 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Borgore, Dirtyphonics, Boombox Cartel, Party Thieves, Trampa 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 18+ Enigma, Jevon Jackson, Frankie Vega, Brian Trent 10 PM, Primary Nightclub Kim Ann Foxman, Eris Drew 10 PM, Smart Bar What So Not, Anna Lunoe, Michael Christmas, Jarreau Vandal 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Folk & Country Glass Mountain 6 PM, Hideout

Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast o PHOBYMO

MUSIC

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

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2 10AM & 1PM

Jon Dee Graham 8 PM, FitzGerald’s Blues, Gospel, and R&B Jimmy Johnson & Rico McFarland 9 PM, B.L.U.E.S. Luke Pytel, Paul Filipowicz 9 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band 10 PM, also Sat 10/1, 10 PM, Rosa’s Lounge Demetria Taylor, Mike Wheeler 9 PM, also Sat 10/1, 9 PM, Blue Chicago Duke Tumatoe, Joanna Connor Blues Band 9 PM, also Sat 10/1, 9 PM, Kingston Mines Jazz Maurice “Mobetta” Brown 9:30 PM, also Sat 10/1, 9:30 PM, Andy’s Jazz Club Modern Sounds 10:30 PM, California Clipper David Sanborn, Mindi Abair 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino Bobby Watson Quartet 8 and 10 PM, through Sat 10/1, 8 and 10 PM; Sun 10/2, 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase Experimental Bitchin Bajas, Sam Prekop, Magnetic Ghost 9 PM, Hideout Jessy Lanza, Alex Barnett, Jeremiah Meece (DJ set) 6:30 PM, Comfort Station F b International Carl Brown & the Solid Gold Reggae Band 9 PM, Wild Hare Sonu Nigam, Atif Aslam 8:30 PM, Sears Centre Troker 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie Classical Stanislava Varshavski & Diana Shapiro Piano. 7:30 PM, PianoForte Studios b

SATURDAY1 Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10, $15 (includes CD). On its new EP Fonografic (Electric Cowbell) Chicago’s Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta broadens its cumbia and chicha sound, handing off the car keys to guitarist Irekani Ferreyra and encouraging him to drive the sturdy outﬁt along a scenic coastal road with the top down. Produced by Beto Martinez of Austin’s Grupo Fantasma, the record features a much stronger presence from Ferreyra, who shows his predilection for vintage Carlos Santana and pushes the surf-tinged flavor of chicha straight into Ventures territory (until it gets funky, “Camino Infernal Phantom Weight” is reminiscent of Dick Dale). The combo still dabbles in furious cumbia, as on the trombone-stoked “¡Cafeteando!,” but it also shows great pop savvy, with singer Alex Chavez bringing a lounge-lizard cool to the hooky “Santa Clara.” In the end this quintet still knows how to rock the party—and now they have more tactics. —PETER MARGASAK

Chicago Opera Theater presents The Love Potion See Friday. 3 PM, Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, $50-$75. b

Dan Zanes Song Gusto Hour

Allison Miller Sextet See Friday. 8 PM, Green Mill, 4802 N. Broadway, $15.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7 7PM

Rock, Pop, Etc AJJ 5 PM, Double Door b Armored Assault, Reign, Savagery, South Arsenal 8 PM, Cubby Bear Beat Drun Juel, Undesirable People, Pines 9 PM, GMan Tavern F Bloom, Daymaker, Soddy Daisy, So Pretty 8 PM, Auxiliary Arts Center Bones Jugs, Low Swans, Seepeoples 8 PM, Martyrs’ Columbines, Matt Wilke’s Ghost, Great America, American Draft 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon Crystal Castles, Guidance, Alex Zelenka 9 PM, Metro, sold out, 18+ Crywolf, Fatherdude, Mielo 8 PM, 1st Ward, 18+ Curious Grace & Black Rabbit, Life#9, Red Scarves 8 PM, Elbo Room Double Feature, Ezkebage, C Sides 9 PM, Burlington Eden 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, sold out b 88 Fingers Louie, Hallow, Much the Same, Mexican Werewolf 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Embalmer, Elbow Deep, Burial Ritual 8 PM, Cobra Lounge Finish Ticket, Run River North, Irontom 7 PM, Bottom Lounge Growler, J.J. & Dre, Pete Jive 10 PM, Schubas, 18+ Hellbound Sons, Skinwalker, Black4 9 PM, Wire, Berwyn Elliott Vincent Jones, Bernardino Femminielli, Fee Lion, Press 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Mr. Gnome, Big Syn, Radiant Devices 9 PM, Beat Kitchen Ninja Sex Party, TWRP, Starbomb 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Nothing More 10 PM, Double Door, 17+ Red Elvises 9 PM, FitzGerald’s Royal Bangs, Sunjacket, Tinkerbelles, Dad’s Basement DJs 9 PM, Empty Bottle Sueves, Tournament 10 PM, Cole’s F Brian Wilson 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Dance Catz ‘N Dogz 10 PM, Spy Bar Frique, Jevon Jackson, Lady D, John Simmons 10 PM, Elastic b Thomas Gold 10 PM, the Mid Mathew Jonson, Sassmouth 10 PM, Smart Bar Nifra, Fisherman & Hawkins, Solid Stone, Dave Neven 10 PM, Sound-Bar Dustin Sheridan, Steve Gerard, Twitchin Skratch, Bucky & Marea 10 PM, Primary Nightclub Tritonal, Jenaux, Noah Neiman 8 PM, Concord Music Hall Folk & Country Dan Whitaker & the Shinebenders 6 PM, Cole’s F Blues, Gospel, and R&B Shawn Holt & the Teardrops 9 PM, B.L.U.E.S. Lil’ Ed, Steve Ditzell 9:30 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends Erthe St. James 10:30 PM, California Clipper Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band 10 PM, also Fri 9/30, 10 PM, Rosa’s Lounge Demetria Taylor, Mike Wheeler 9 PM, also Fri 9/30, 9 PM, Blue Chicago Duke Tumatoe, Joanna Connor Blues Band 9 PM, also Fri 9/30, 9 PM, Kingston Mines

Kids' concert

9th Annual Chicago Battle of the Jug Bands SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9 7PM

OneBeat Musical Migrations THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13 8PM

Darlingside

with special guest Frances Luke Accord

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14 8PM

Bonnie Koloc

with special guest Ed Holstein

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 10:30AM

Elizabeth Mitchell and You Are My Flower Kids' concert

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 8PM

The Littleton Family

featuring Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton of Ida • In Szold Hall

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20 8PM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21 8PM

Rhett Miller / Joe Purdy FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28 7:30PM

Jonas Friddle & The Majority / Tangleweed ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL 4545 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL

9/30 Global Dance Party: West Indian Folk Dance Company 10/7 Global Dance Party: Swing Brasileiro 10/14 Global Dance Party: Hoyle Brothers 10/16 Michael J. Miles with Darol Anger 10/21 Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas 10/22 The Good Lovelies 10/28 International Mandolin Spectacular featuring the Don Stiernberg Trio & Carlo Aonzo

WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE

10/5 Perujazz 10/12 Nordic Fiddlers Bloc

J SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 37

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC continued from 37

Jazz Maurice “Mobetta” Brown 9:30 PM, also Fri 9/30, 9:30 PM, Andy’s Jazz Club Bobby Watson Quartet 8 and 10 PM, through Sat 10/1, 8 and 10 PM; Sun 10/2, 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase Experimental Race Card, Lia Kohl and friends 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Classical Lyric Opera’s Das Rheingold 6 PM, also Wed 10/5, 7:30 PM, Civic Opera House

SUNDAY2 Goblin Cock Bad Grades open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10. Rob Crow, the San Diego outre-pop mastermind behind 90s posthardcore weirdos Heavy Vegetable, aughties indie-pop deities Pinback, and roughly a half-dozen more projects, gets to have his cake and eat it too as leader of Goblin Cock. Crow boils down what can make metal goofy, which is clear not only from the name Goblin Cock but also from his moniker as front man: Lord Phallus. The members are active participants in the genre they love, and whatever giggle fits they inspire eventually give way to serious riffs. On their third album, the new Necronomidonkeykongimicon (Joyful Noise), Goblin Cock speed up their chugging doom to something that resembles thrash in spirit if not exactly in tempo. This is ultimately a Rob Crow project, and as aggressive as Goblin Cock get, their fierceness— and humor—never obstruct the front man’s affable pop quirks. The knotty, looping math melody of “Youth Pastoral” keeps overpowering instrumental breakdowns that sound much more sweet than most metal, and the vitreous interlocking guitars that guide “World Is Moving” are ripped straight from Crow’s tranquil, advanced indie rock. That might agitate more than a handful of orthodox metalheads, but it’s also partly Goblin Cock’s mission— metal can be lighthearted and fun, and if you can’t get behind that, you just might be the biggest dick in the room. —LEOR GALIL Rock, Pop, Etc Beartooth, Every Time I Die, Fit for a King, Old Wounds 5:30 PM, House of Blues b Karla Bonoff 7 PM, City Winery b Carpenter Brut, Gost, Protector 101 7 PM, Double Door, 18+ Marc Cohn 7 PM, SPACE b King Charles 8 PM, Schubas Kingbees, Them Guilty Aces 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Liqs, Goth Babe, Bunny, Easy Habits 8 PM, Emporium Arcade Bar F Lost Empires, Bloodletter, Sable Beldam 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon Carla Morrison, Gaby Luna, Ponderers 7 PM, Concord Music Hall b Radnor, Mira, Everyone Says, Youthful Grey, Farhampton 6:30 PM, Wire, Berwyn Ta-ku, Masego 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Hip-Hop Blackalicious, Lushlife 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+

38 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Vic Spencer, Chris Crack, Denmark Vessey, Trevor the Trashman 8 PM, Subterranean Dance Michael Seraﬁni, Garrett David, Czboogie, Colliness Morris 10 PM, Smart Bar Jazz Jimmy Bennington’s Colour & Sound 7 PM, Red Line Tap Russ Johnson Headlands 9 PM, Hungry Brain Shawn Maxwell’s New Tomorrow Noon, City Winery b Meridian Trio 2 PM, Empty Bottle F Over Under 9 PM, Whistler F Bobby Watson Quartet 4, 8, and 10 PM, Jazz Showcase Experimental Frauke Aulbert 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ International Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán and Yolanda del Río 3 PM, Symphony Center Ziggy Marley 7:30 PM, Park West b

MONDAY3 Allison Crutchfield & the Fizz Blizzard Babies, Hawley, and What Gives open. 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $12, $10 in advance. 17+ Since forming the pop-punk-flavored P.S. Eliot in 2007, the Philly-via-Alabama Crutchfield twins have carved out their own little scene of endearing, beautifully written indie rock. When Katie went solo with her Waxahatchee project in 2010, focusing on minimal, heart-wrenching confessionals, Allison launched the poppy emo-throwback band Swearin’ before eventually going solo in 2014. Her first album, Lean in to It, is a self-released seven-song EP of bedroom-recorded, nostalgia-fueled, drum-machine-driven indie pop that’s heavily indebted to midwestern lo-ﬁ kings Guided by Voices—it’s catchy, cute, and quaint. However, for her majestic brandnew LP, expected out early next year on indie giant Merge, Allison steps up her game with sweeping, mature, uplifting indie rock and a two-person backing band (the Fizz) to boot. Over the last few years, fans, critics, and festival crowds have pored over Katie’s Waxahatchee, but judging by the sounds of Allison’s new record, it seems like this could be her time to shine. —LUCA CIMARUSTI Rock, Pop, Etc Larry Carlton Quartet 8 PM, City Winery b Tom Jones 8 PM, House of Blues, sold out, 17+ Kilgubbin Brothers, Michelle & Corbin Ferry Road 7 PM, Martyrs’ Scott Ligon 7 PM, Hideout Lamon Manuel, MTVghosts, Jovan, Voliptuals 8 PM, Double Door UFUX, Chew, Deadbeats, Salvation 9 PM, Burlington Yohuna, Color Card, Nest, Meristems 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Hip-Hop Grimms & Blacknight, Wild Jesus & the Devil’s Lettuce, Malci & the Lobster 9 PM, Empty Bottle F Folk & Country Chicago Barn Dance Company Barn dance featuring Turnip the Beat with caller Maggie Jo Saylor. 7 PM, Irish American Heritage Center b

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Jazz Bowmanville 9:30 PM, Whistler F Faraway Plants 9 PM, Hungry Brain Ed Wilkerson & Avreeayl Ra 9 PM, Elastic b Classical Maja Bogdanovic, Olga Bojovic, and Kristijan Civlak Soprano, cello, and piano. 7 PM, PianoForte Studios b

TUESDAY4 Luisa Maita Bossa Tres open. 8 PM, Martyrs’, 3855 N. Lincoln, $15. Brazilian singer Luisa Maita opens her strong second album, Fio da Memória (Cumbancha), with little

more than skittering, bass-heavy electronic beats and ricocheting bloops, her whispery voice and overdubbed vocal harmonies refracted by a sensual groove. But on closer inspection the patterns programmed by producer Tejo Damasceno reﬂect the riotous drumming of a samba school marching through a Carnaval parade. The track provides an auspicious launch to the Paulista’s ﬁrst new album in six years, which features 11 seductive songs from her homeland and beyond. As the record progresses, arrangements expand as warm, twangy guitars, rumbling bass, and stuttering percussion tangle with electronic rhythms and wriggling synthesizers. A mix of angelic breathiness and earthy forcefulness, Maita’s voice is the focus as it slithers, glides, and busts through every sound. On “Ela” she embraces a down-tempo feel, her vocals caressed J

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WWW.CONCORDMUSICHALL.COM 2047 N. MILWAUKEE | 773.570.4000 SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 39

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC continued from 39

by Marcelo Maita’s warm, tinkling Fender Rhodes, while the stentorian “Volta” includes a forceful declaration of strength in response to a painful ordeal (“I’ll not settle / Or forget”). The album ends much as it begins, the calmly sashaying Carnaval beats of “Folia” subsumed by electronics that turn the celebration into something haunting, even ghostly. It’s a gorgeous, mysterious display of Brazilian roots extending into the future. —PETER MARGASAK

Rock, Pop, Etc Christine & the Queens 7:30 PM, the Vic b Dope, Flaw, ADD, Imperial Fall, Motorgate 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Dyan 8 PM, Township Glyders, Divino Nino, Parent 9 PM, Hideout Kal Marks, Yeesh, Spooky Action Space Captain, Nouveau 6:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Options, Opposites, Longface, Pod 9 PM, Schubas F Nick Waterhouse, Jolly, Bingers 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Rachael Yamagata, Pressing Strings 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Folk & Country Sanctiﬁed Grumblers 9 PM, Red Line Tap F Jazz Rooms 9 PM, Whistler F Greg Ward 9 PM, Hungry Brain F

40 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

WEDNESDAY5 Kris Davis & Craig Taborn 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, $15 in advance. 18+ Over the last decade or so pianist Kris Davis has quietly but steadily established herself as one of jazz’s most versatile and mercurial musicians. A series of solo and trio albums have firmly established her predilection for lyric ambiguity—she composes pieces with beguiling harmonies and dark melodic shapes that are elegant and tender yet deeply pensive. She’s also organized large groups that showcase her use of creative timbres, as heard on last year’s striking octet album Save Your Breath (Clean Feed), where Davis balances four clarinetists with a rhythm section that also features organist Gary Versace, her own piano lines driven by Jim Black’s drumming. She reveals another side of her artistry on the ambitious new Duopoly (Pyroclastic), where she engages with eight of today’s strongest musicians—none of whom she’s previously recorded with—in a pair of duo performances that feature both composition and free improvisation. The results are often surprising: She inspires guitarist Bill Frisell to take on a trudging obliqueness on “Prairie Eyes,” her percussive, gamelan-like initial tones summoning dark clouds of sound before he

pivots toward a more typical Americana twang. On fellow pianist Angelica Sanchez’s beautiful “Beneath the Leaves,” a model of dazzling counterpoint, the two lay down a hurtling, halting four-handed gem. The record’s other participants include heavyweights like guitarist Julian Lage, drummers Billy Drummond and Marcus Gilmore, and reedists Tim Berne and Don Byron, but some of the best moments come when Davis pairs with pianist Craig Taborn, who joins her on this tour in support of the album, blurring the lines between composition and improvisation more explicitly than any of her other dynamic duos. —PETER MARGASAK

Kikagaku Moyo See Pick of the Week on page 35. Moss Folk and Dead Feathers open. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $10. Preoccupations Methyl Ethel open. 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $20. 17+ By now probably ready to get past the “formerly Viet Cong” footnote—though they’ve only been rid of the controversial name for, say, ﬁve months— Calgary postpunk foursome Preoccupations also titled their new record Preoccupations, maybe to drive home the point that they have in fact changed identity. And though the setting of this sophomore

eﬀort is still plenty bleak, what with the minimalistic rhythms and bleeding guitar delay wrapping around the chilly (sometimes lifeless) baritone vocals of Matt Flegel, the attack is studied and focused and melodic—their 2015 debut is fascinating for its disjointment and serrated postpunk edge. Opener “Anxiety” begins with a minute plus of whirling feedback before being split open by grinding buzz that’s pulled along by a drum-machinelike beat and a melody so stripped down it reverberates best within negative space. At times sounding like a more flamboyant version of hometown heroes Disappears, Preoccupations eventually roll out the nearly 12-minute “Memory,” which isn’t so much a dirge as an experiment in how repetition can assist in the evolvement of a track—as one portion spirals away, the next catches the groove and begins anew only to eventually devolve into a wash of ambient guitar and synth. —KEVIN WARWICK

Westerlies Twin Talk headline. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. When New York brass quartet the Westerlies dropped 2014’s Wish the Children Would Come Home (Songlines) they forced me to reevaluate Seattle keyboardist Wayne Horvitz as a composer. The readings trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler and trombonists Andy Clausen and

MUSIC Willem de Koch give to the music of their old teacher are extraordinary, and while I praised the group’s stunning technical abilities, rich timbre, and strong arrangements then, their dazzling new eponymous double CD indicates they deserve even more credit. Aside from interpretations of Charles Ives’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me” and Duke Ellington’s “Where’s the Music?”—as well as an arrangement of the folk tune “Saro” by Sam Amidon and Nico Muhly—the members composed the material, and it’s all knocked me on my ass. There’s no extensive improvisation on these gorgeous pieces, though when they do solo, the players display rigor and a level of execution on par with classic brass ensembles (Mulherkar’s solo on “Where’s the Music?” brings to mind the splendor of Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy at its best). The original repertoire is so strong and varied that the Westerlies represent

a kind of bastard child, standing ﬁercely between genre cracks with works that evoke the Americana of Aaron Copland and John Philip Sousa on the one hand but seeming to translate the rhythmically spastic machinations of EDM on the other (check out “So So Shy”). There are plenty of other stops in between, all delivered with stunning clarity and richness. —PETER MARGASAK Rock, Pop, Etc Alternate Routes, Brian Dunne 8 PM, City Winery b Butchered, Action Boy, Highball, Jeﬀreys 9 PM, Quenchers Saloon Peter Case 8 PM, FitzGerald’s Cavalera Roots, Combichrist, All Hail the Yeti, Oni, No Conviction 6 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Kongos, Joy Formidable 7:30 PM, the Vic b

Lulls, Cat Daquiri 8 PM, Township Magic Sword, Woongi, Canter 9 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Megadeth, Amon Amarth, Suicidal Tendencies, Metal Church, Havok 6:30 PM, Sears Centre RX Bandits, And So I Watch You From Afar 8:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Still Corners, Dougie Poole 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Eliot Sumner, My Jerusalem 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Tributosaurus becomes Eric Clapton 7 PM, Martyrs’ Hip-Hop Tye, Scooby-Doo DaVinci, Cada Sans, Lady Chi 9 PM, East Room Dance Porter Robinson & Madeon 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Blues, Gospel, and R&B Koku Gonza 9:30 PM, California Clipper Jazz

John Scoﬁeld 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE b Experimental Manuel Troller, Carol Genetti, Aaron Zarzutzki, Peter Maunu 9 PM, Beat Kitchen F International Perujazz 8:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music F b Classical Patricia Barber Part of Ear Taxi Festival. 5:30 PM, Harris Theater Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago Erina Yashima, conductor. Part of Ear Taxi Festival. 7:30 PM, Harris Theater Lyric Opera’s Das Rheingold 7:30 PM, also Sat 10/1, 6 PM, Civic Opera House Ulysses Quartet 12:15 PM, Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center F b v

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S P O N SO R ED CO N T EN T

DRINK SPECIALS LINCOLN PARK

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BERWYN

LINCOLN PARK

LINCOLN SQUARE

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1480 W Webster 773-770-3703

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THU

$4 Lagunitas drafts, $4 Absolut cocktails, “Hoppy Hour” 5-8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

50% oﬀ wine (glass & bottle) and salads. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: half oﬀ appetizers, $5 pints of bud light, and $6 shots of Jameson

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

FRI

“Hoppy Hour” 5-8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

$6 Jameson shots, $5 Green Line; 50% oﬀ chicken sandwich. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: half oﬀ appetizers, $5 pints of bud light, and $6 shots of Jameson

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

S AT

$6 Jameson shots $3 PBR bottles

Brunch 11am-2pm, Bottomless Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas $15 w/food purchase, 1/2 oﬀ nachos & $15 domestic/$20 craft beer pitchers. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: 1/2 oﬀ apps, $5 bud light pints, $6 Jameson shots

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits

SUN

$4 Temperance brews, $5 Absolut bloody mary’s

Brunch 11am-2pm, Bottomless Bloody Mary’s & Mimosas $15 w/food purchase, 50% off apps & $3 Bud Light pints. Industry Night 10% off reg. price items. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: 1/2 off appetizers, $5 bud light pints, $6 shots of Jameson

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits

MON

$4 Half Acre brews, FREE POOL, “Hoppy Hour” 5-8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

TUE

WED

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Happy Hour 4-6pm, $2 oﬀ all beers

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Bombs $4, Malibu Cocktails $4, Jack Daniel’s Cocktails $5, Tanqueray Cocktails $4, Johnny Walker Black $5, Cabo Wabo $5, PBR Tallboy cans $2.75

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

Happy Hour noon-6pm, $2 oﬀ all beers

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Wine by the Glass $5, Jameson $5, Patron $7, Founders 12oz All Day IPA Cans $3.50, Mexican Buckets $20 (Corona, Victoria, Modelos)

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Heineken Bottles $4, Bloodies feat. Absolut Peppar Vodka $5, Original Moonshine $5, Corzo $5, Sailor Jerry’s Rum $4, Deschutes Drafts $4, Capt. Morgan cocktails $5

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 $4.75 Bloody Mary and Modelo Negra, $5 Marias Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Buckets of Miller & Bud Bottles (Mix & Match) $14, Guinness & Smithwicks Drafts $4, Bloodies feat, Absolut Peppar Vodka $5, Ketal One Cocktails $5

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

all beer 50% oﬀ, $5 burgers. CLOSED Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: half oﬀ appetizers, $5 pints of bud light, and $6 shots of Jameson

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 $1 oﬀ all beers including craft Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

All Draft Beers Half Price, Makers Mark Cocktails $5, Crystal Head Vodka Cocktails $4

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

$2 and $3 select beers

all specialty drinks 1/2 oﬀ, White Rascal $5, PBR and a shot of Malort $4, $2 tacos. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: half oﬀ appetizers, $5 pints of bud light, and $6 shots of Jameson

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 $2 oﬀ all Whiskeys and Modelo Negra, $5 Bourbons Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

Happy Hour 4-6pm, $2 oﬀ all beers

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Jim Beam Cocktails $4, Jameson Cocktails $5, Cabo Wabo $5, Malibu Cocktails $4, Corona Bottles $3.50, PBR Tall Boy Cans $2.75

$3 Anchor Brewing Seasonal, $4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

1/2 price aliveOne signature cocktails, $4 Goose Island brews, “Hoppy Hour” 5-8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

50¢ wings (minimum 10), selection of 10 discounted whiskeys. Happy Hour 5-6:30pm: half oﬀ appetizers, $5 pints of bud light, and $6 shots of Jameson

$6 Firestone Walker Opal pints, $6 Finch Vanilla Stout 16 oz. cans, $7 house wines, $8 Few Spirits, $10 classic cocktails

$4 Modelo Especial, $4 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $8 Modelo Especial Tallboy + Shot of Tequila

Happy Hour 4-6pm, $2 oﬀ all beers

Moosehead pints $3.75, Hamms cans $2.50, Special Export Bush Longneck bottles $3, Foster Big cans $5

Stoli/Absolut & Soco Cocktails $4, Long Island Iced Teas $5, Herradura Margaritas $5, Stella/ Hoegaarden/Deschutes Drafts $4, Goose Island 312 Bottles $3.50

$3 Modelo Especial, $3 Modelo Negra, $5 Tocayo, $7 Modelo Especial + Don Julio Shot

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42 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

PHOTO: ALEXEY LYSENKO/GETTY IMAGES

FOOD & DRINK

DIXIE | $$$

1952 N. Damen 773-772-5500 dixiechicago.com

NEW REVIEW

Whistling Dixie

Lillie’s Q boss Charlie McKenna attempts to realize a fantasy of “evolutionary” southern cuisine. By MIKE SULA Cornmeal dumplings in a creamed lima bean sauce o DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS

his summer in Gravy, the journal of the Southern Foodways Alliance, John Kessler, a former restaurant critic for the Atlanta JournalConstitution, published a bemused and amusing essay about the Chicago restaurant community’s current obsession with southern cliches and its penchant for clumsy cultural misappropriation. Kessler, now a Chicago resident, wandered the city in his ﬁrst winter looking for a taste of home, scratching his head at ostensibly southern dishes such as pimento-cheese cavatappi, Nashville hot wings, and North Carolina pulled pork po’boys. In the end Kessler focused on Dixie, the then

yet-to-open spot from Lillie’s Q boss Charlie McKenna, in the snug Bucktown A-frame that once housed Takashi. McKenna and company have transformed the space into something like a Charleston piazza, with a white porch complete with rocking chairs, the interior walls festooned with southern-fried prop photos and gold-shellacked oyster shells. Kessler pressed McKenna and his designer on the propriety of the name and the restaurant’s “antebellum” theme as perhaps only a transplanted southerner could, suggesting their connections to a shameful period in American history to the seemingly oblivious restaurateurs. “I’m going to be taking a lot of the food and ingredients the slaves brought over and cele-

brating it in a better light,” replied McKenna, himself a southerner. Before McKenna opened his barbecue joint he was also a veteran of fine-dining restaurants such as Avenues and Tru, and at Dixie he seems to be celebrating the slaves’ food through that lens, taking elements, or in some cases just the ingredients, of classic southern dishes and placing them in new, sometimes dissonant contexts—on small, shared plates. One evening a special was offered that I was told was still in the developmental stages. Described as a “soba noodle ramen,” it featured soft, chewy buckwheat noodles in a bath of country ham consomme, with charred onions and ribbons of Broadbent ham surrounding a

cold, soft-cooked egg showered in togarashi powder. Never mind the conflation of two incompatible Japanese noodle dishes (was Takashi Yagihashi chained in the basement, making the soba?), the sodium level in the broth was just what you’d expect to be imparted by a piece of meat that lives the ﬁrst part of its second life buried in salt. Executing McKenna’s peculiar vision of “evolutionary” southern food is chef de cuisine Tony Quartaro, late of Formento’s, where he was evolving red-sauce Italian with things like sweet potato cannoli, lardo-wrapped tuna with garlic foam, and deconstructed chicken Vesuvio. So it sort of makes sense that McKenna would tap him to execute something like Wagyu steak tartare, lent fermented funk from house-made Carolina red pea miso and an extraordinarily crunchy texture from fried oysters battered in crushed saltines—an excellent dish but for the tomato water poured atop it at the table, which dilutes its deep flavors and only serves to break the dish up into clumps of wet, raw meat. A deviled crab salad, served on the half shell overturned into a pool of collard stem juice, suffers a similar if less saturated fate, absorbing the liquid with the help of more crumbled crackers. This place likes the dramatic pour-over. The soba noodles aren’t an anomaly. There seems to be a penchant for Asian-southern inbreeding at Dixie. Tender slabs of charred Korean short ribs and sweet johnnycakes sandwich remoulade and a piquant collard kimchi, garnished with sweet pickled onion and benne seeds (what dewy-eyed southerners call sesame). It’s a busy dish that could stand to lose at least one ingredient (the remoulade). Roasted eggplant topped with uni and “benne” crackers in crab-infused cream comes off like a sweet, sesame-spiked stir-fry. Quartaro’s even dabbling in the cuisine of the Middle East, pairing roasted and pickled carrots with a gob of boiled-peanut hummus showered with chicory-coffee crumble—one of the J

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 43

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continued from 43 more delicious experiments that calls only for some sort of delivery vehicle other than fork or spoon. And what would southern fusion be without the classic Country Captain, a dish with Indian roots: chicken in tomato sauce with but a whisper of curry, a base of Carolina Gold rice, with almonds and okra. It’s probably the most orthodox thing on the menu. But a presentation like that underscores the fact that for all the gumption—and genuine tastiness—of many of these highly composed dishes, the majority aren’t easily shareable. A Thai snapper crudo (when is crudo ever shareable?) features three rosettes of fresh ﬁsh overpowered by watermelon granite and lemon-poppyseed dressing. Large head-on prawns form a pyramid over rice grits considerably brightened by cilantro and green chile salsa. A thin sheet of corn custard lies at the bottom of a deep bowl whose deposits of andouille, crawﬁsh, and crispy potato are meant to summon memories of ordinary crayfish boils. If you aren’t picking this up already, Dixie at present is a mixed bag. Dishes of powerful deliciousness share menu space with true head-scratchers, such as a plate of hard-fried sweetbreads done “Nashville hot style” wallowing in a thick, mucilaginous sauce meant to evoke the white bread hot chicken is normally served on. Here it approaches something like Elmer’s glue.

But then your spirits can be lifted by a simple tomato pie with goat cheese, tomato jam, and the season’s last heirloom jewels. Or by the biscuits, made from laminated puff pastry, which are surprisingly crusty and tender, calling only for some real butter in lieu of the liqueﬁed pepper jelly. Perhaps the most stunning dish on the menu is one that bodes well for the future of Dixie: a plate of a half-dozen tender cornmeal dumplings immersed in a wonderfully acidic creamed lima bean sauce festooned with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms, all drizzled tableside (yet again) with mushroom jus. If McKenna’s evolutionary vision isn’t appealing, there’s a short menu of more conventional snacks in the small bar in the rear of the restaurant. 1952 ½ Liquorette offers pimento cheese, cheese straws, hush puppies, and a po’boy among a list of antique bourbons and cocktails such as a medicinal julep spiked with both fernet and amaro, a pleasantly astringent gin and tonic, and a whiskey sour with absinthe. With the aggressively seasonal approach the kitchen is taking, the offerings will change with some frequency. So here’s hoping the signiﬁcant missteps on Dixie’s menu of typical Chicago-style southern deviance will be relegated to the parts of the antebellum period many folks seem to forget. v

" @Mike Sula

Lula Cafe chef Jason Hammel

FOOD & DRINK

o COURTESY TASTE TALKS CHICAGO

EVENTS

A taste of Taste Talks By JULIA THIEL

aste Talks, a food-centered conference that launched in Brooklyn in 2013, returns to Chicago this weekend for its third year. A day full of panel discussions and chef demos is bookended by several events dedicated to eating food rather than talking about it—most notably the All-Star Barbecue on Sunday, with

chefs including Jason Hammel (Lula Cafe), Brian and Jennifer Enyart (Dos Urban Cantina), Jared Van Camp (Leghorn Chicken), and Chris Pandel (Swift & Sons). Hammel, who’s taken over the role of event coordinator from Paul Kahan (One Off Hospitality), is also creating the menu for the opening-night party on Friday, called Flavors

DON FRESCO FOR LUNCH

+ Sound. Glenn Kotche of Wilco, a friend of Hammel’s, will provide a coordinating soundscape. “When [the Taste Talks team] came to me, I said I wanted it to be a little more interdisciplinary,” Hammel says. “I’d like to see some musicians be involved, some other artists. That was a natural ﬁt for me: my wife is a musician, Lula has always been kind of a musicians’ place.” Hammel says he wrote the Flavors + Sound menus “based in a color palette with the hope that that would be what [Kotche] would need to weave into his own musical world.” He says he often thinks about food in terms of color anyway. “I separated the dishes into individual colors. The red category—all the food doesn’t have to be red, but it would have a connection to red. Like red rye berries after you turn them into bread.” There may also be lighting changes at the party to coordinate with the various dishes, Hammel says. While the opening party is intended to be a fun start to the weekend, Hammel hopes that the panels on Saturday delve into some of the complex topics surrounding food. “I just got back from the Mad Symposium in Copenhagen. The conversations there are very restaurant centered and yet still push out of that industry to connect people in a multitude of ways—in terms of social connections with their communities, giving back, how chefs connect to their outer world.” Hammel, who’s a cofounder of Pilot Light, an organization in Chicago that partners chefs with teachers to educate kids about food and nutrition, knows what he’s talking about. “Food does have this preternatural ability to level the playing field in terms of people’s ability to converse and discuss and come together,” he says. “I think there are a lot of ways that the food community, because

of its incredible power to connect, can reach outside of its small footprint and really make an impact for the better.” In one of the panels Saturday, Hammel will discuss how restaurants reshape neighborhoods with Matthias Merges of Yusho and John Manion of La Sirena Clandestina and the new El Che Bar; in another he’ll be talking with Beverly Kim of Parachute and Andy Ricker of Pok Pok about working conditions for restaurant employees in a panel titled “New Models for Economic Change: How to Fix the Broken System.” Other panel topics include sourcing, foraging, and sustainability in the kitchen; how chefs create consumer products that can be sold in grocery stores; and the rise of the “upscale casual” restaurant. Sarah Grueneberg of Monteverde, Paul McGee of Lost Lake, Jimmy Bannos Jr. of Purple Pig, and Abe Conlon of Fat Rice will do cooking (and cocktail-mixing) demos. Hammel is particularly excited about a panel he suggested on the forgotten history of Chicago restaurants, which will be led by Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia. “The industry is so fetishistic about the new, the hot, the young,” Hammel says. “There’s so many great stories that come out when you talk to people like Tony, or Carrie Nahabedian [of Naha], or Matthias [Merges], or anybody from the old Trotter or Carlos’s crew. If you ask any of my cooks, “Do you know Carlos [Gaytan]’? Or Le Francais? Or even Charlie Trotter’s? And none of them know this history in their own city. Matthias . . . he’s like freaking Yoda to me.” v TASTE TALKS CHICAGO Fri 9/30-Sun 10/2, various times and locations, event prices range from $49 for the All-Star Barbecue to $495 for the allinclusive Kitchen Sink Pass.

ß @juliathiel

Don Fresco has taken the West loop by storm in the ten months it has been open. Owners Peter W. Dremonas and Dimitri Eliopoulos have taken Mexican comfort food to the next level, making it one of the Chicago’s top Mexican restaurants. The small restaurant serves high quality, fresh, authentic Mexican food with a Chicago Mexi twist at a reasonable price point. twis Cust Customers can start their day off right with a non-traditional breakfast bowl consisting of ground beef or chor chorizo, scrambled eggs, guacamole, Pico de Gallo and your choice of chihuahua cheese or queso fresco. If you can not make it in for breakfast be sure to stop by for lunch or dinner. The homemade cinnamon chips and tortilla chips are one of a kind. The chips are made daily in house and seasoned to perfection to satisfy any cra craving. Don Fresco has something for everyone including gluten free and vegan options. Don Fresco’s large menu and BYOB make it the perfect neighborhood spot and for those passing by on the way to Union Station it provides a relaxing oasis.

Go online to postmates enter code 2016CHI and receive $10 off delivery fees.

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 45

JOBS

SALES & MARKETING TELE-FUNDRAISING: FOR LOCAL VETERANS O R G A N I Z A T I O N . Felons

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

INSURANCE: BERKLEY INSURANCE Company (Chicago, IL)

seeks Executive Underwriter w/ Bachelor’s (or equiv.) in Insurance, Business, Finance or English + 3 yrs exp in underwriting. Work experience must include: (1) developing and implementing policy forms and rating systems for new professional liability insurance products; (2) developing and maintaining agency relationships in the domestic Specialty Professional Liability market; (3) underwriting and insurance practices of the international market, including Lloyd’s of London and International Insurance Marketplaces; (4) analyzing Excess and Surplus Insurance industry regulations and conditions; and (5) RPLU designation. Send resume to karenz@berkleyselect.com with “EU 2016” in subject line. No calls. EOE.

Stonemason. Construct, erect, install, and repair structures and fixtures of stone. Shape or cut materials to specific measurements. Remove and replace damaged or defective parts of stone surfaces. 2 years of exp required. 40h/wk, M-F. Send resume to: Action 1 Construction, Inc. 1855 N.Laclaire Ave, Chicago IL 60639

DRIVERS - CLASS A CDL – OPEN HOUSE $2500 SIGN ON BONUS THURS 9-29-16 10:00AM 7:00PM FRI 9-30-16 10:00AM 5:00PM COMFORT INN - 3010 FINLEY RD. DOWNERS GROVE, IL EXPERIENCED DRIVERS ONLY 2 YEARS EXPERIENCE REQ’D STABLE WORK HISTORY AND EXCELLENT SAFETY RECORD REQUIRED SOLID MVR, NO SERIOUS VIOLATIONS IN THE LAST 5 YEARS REQUIRED BLACK HORSE CARRIERS HAS IMMEDIATE OPENINGS IN THE DOWNERS GROVE, IL AREA. WE ARE LOOKING FOR CLASS A CDL DRIVERS. $1,000 - $1200 PER WEEK. ROTATING SHIFTS. FIVE DAY WORK WEEK. SPLIT SCHEDULE TUESDAY AND SATURDAY OFF. TWO OPENINGS FOR OVERNIGHT AND REGIONAL WORK. BREAD DELIVERIES UNLOAD AND RELOAD. THESE FULL TIME POSITIONS COME WITH FULL BENEFITS, 401K AND PAID VACATION. IF YOU HAVE AT LEAST 2 YRS. EXP., AND A SOLID MVR WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. CALL 630.299.9956 OR EMAIL J O B S @ BLACKHORSECARRIERS. COM FOR MORE INFORMATION. $2500 SIGN ON BONUS IF HIRED BY 10/15/16

Stores now hiring in Chicago for all locations...Earn $ while working with a team. Get paid while training. Jobs Available Now Midway/O’Hare Airports. Apply in person @ corp. office: 3830 N. Clark St. Chicago. 9am-10am Mon-Fri. Must bring ID’s and Social Security Card to apply.

(with or without experience) Seeking a college educated individual for a permanent part-time employment in Evanston working with children and adults in a Behavioral Vision Training program with Dr. Jeff Getzell. Experience preferred but not required for the right individual. Dr. Getzell is willing to work with an individual at an entry level, should there be no previous experience. Requirements: -Exceptional problem solver -Bright -Curious -Open minded Work schedule: -Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays 2pm-6pm -Saturdays 8am-12pm Please note that the employment hours are not flexible. Resume submission options: -jeffgetzell@sbcglobal.net -Fax: 847-866-9822 No phone calls please.

46 CHICAGO READER | SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

STUDIO OTHER ROOM FOR RENT 1917 N. Kedzie,

small furnished room, microwave, refrigerator, CA, SD $160. $360/mo. Non-smoker. Proof of income/ background check. Rent discount if you can shovel snow. 773-227-5549.

PERSONAL ASSISTANT (Male

MEDPOINT CORPORTATION SEEKS a Validation Manager in its

Evanston, Illinois office. Min Requirements: Master’s Eng, or related field. 3 yrs exp required in the position offered or as Validation Engineer or Lab Validation engineer. ASQ CSQE Certification Required. Experience must include validation test writing, testing and training in a medical devi ce/pharmaceutical environment, following 21 CFR and 820 requirements; performing complaint handling and defect resolution utilizing CAPA software systems; developing validation documentation including, but not limited to, validation plans, risk assessments, traceability, roles and responsibilities, and validation summaries; proposing validation and overall quality improvement suggestions. Please send resumes to resumes@ medpt.com.

Preferred) with homemaking skills needed in Chicago Southside home to assist disabled adult male for community living P/T, 9am-2pm. $10/hr. Call 773-291-0784. Non-smoking environment. Must have car.

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

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

FALL SPECIAL $500 Toward

Rent Beautiful Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Sect. 8 Welc. Westside Loc, Must qualify. 773-287-4500 www.wjmngmt.com

CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up. 773-637-5957

Newly remod 1BR & Studios starting at $500. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat /hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773-619-0204 BLUE ISLAND, completely remod 2BR. New appls., heated, lndry, prkg incl. $900/mo Sec dep req’d. 708-638-6687, 708-638-9742 SECTION 8 WELCOME 7334 S.

Jeffery & 7620 S. Colfax New remodel, 1 & 2 Bedrooms, heat/appl incl. 312-493-5544

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

BEAUTIFUL 1BR APT. Nicely decorated, carpeted, heat incl. $630. Near 82nd and Ashland. No Pets. 773-783-7098

CHICAGO - HYDE PARK

77 RIDGELAND 3BR. $850.

5401 S. Ellis. STUDIO $470/mo. Call 773-955-5106

CROSSROADS HOTEL SRO SINGLE RMS Private bath, PHONE,

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

75th/Evans 2BR, dining rm, $925. 76th/Drexel. 2BR. $700. heat incl 773-874-9637 or 773-493-5359

GALEWOOD 2.5BR, HARDWOOD floors, security cameras on property, near trans. $825/mo. Tenant pays utils. 773-882-2688

LYNWOOD- READY TO move

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

in. New floors, New Bathroom, New Cabinets, Off St. Parking, 1 mnth+sec. Call:773-548-3806

CHATHAM 80TH & St.

GELBER SECURITIES, LLC a wholly owned subsidiary of Gelber Group, LLC seeks Lead Financial Analysts for various & unanticipated worksites throughout the US (HQ: Chicago, IL to lead research, dev. & mgmt. in the high-grade investment bond & stock equity sectors. Master’s in Finance or Bus. Admin. w/ concentration in Finance + 2 yrs exp. or Bachelor’s in Finance or Bus. Admin. w/ concentration in Finance + 5 yrs prog. exp. req’d. Exp. must incl at least 2 yrs w/ high-grade investment bond sector research, recommend investments &; security transactions, risk analysis including: interest rate, yield curve, liquidity, future trend analysis, R, Fortran. May work from home. Send resume to: HR, REF#AB, hr@gelbergroup.com

EOE. DRUG TESTING IS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT

VISUAL THERAPIST NEEDED

Hyde Park West Apts., 5325 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Renovated spacious apartments in landscaped gated community. Off street parking available. Studios $950, 1BR $1150 - Free Heat, 2BR $1400 - Free heat; 3BR Townhome $1775, 4BR Townhome, $2200 Call about our Special. Visit or call 773-324-0280, M-F: 9am-5pm or apply online- www.hydepark we st.com. Managed by Metroplex, Inc

NUTS ON CLARK POPCORN

General DRIVERS

STUDIO $900 AND OVER

Field Service Controls Engineer in Downers Grove, IL: Responsible for providing onsite technical service and support for equipment installation/start-ups, warranty and repairs. Includes developing relationships with current and future customers within new or existing industries and responding to customers’ inquiries and requests efficiently and effectively. Travel to client sites as needed. Minimum 70% international travel is required. Requires Bachelors + 2 yrs exp. Mail resume to: Duravant LLC, 151 Walker Road, Statesville, NC 28625, Attn: Angelica Martin.

STUDIO $600-$699

1 BR UNDER $700

ROGERS PARK! 7455 N . Greenview. Studios starting at $625 including heat. It’s a newly remodeled vintage elevator building with on-site laundry, wood floors, new kitchens and baths, some units have balconies, etc. Application fee $40. No security deposit! For a showing please contact Samir 773-627-4894 Hunter Properties 773-477-7070 www.hunterprop.com

FALL SPECIAL: STUDIOS starting at $499 incls utilities. 1BR $550, 2BR $599, 3BR $699. With approved credit. No Security Deposit for Sec 8 Tenants. South Shore & Southside. Call 312-4463333

EDGEWATER!

1061 W. Rose-

mont. Studios starting at $625 to $675, All Utilities included! Elevator building! Close to CTA red line train, restaurants, shopping, blocks to the lakefront, beaches and bike trails, laundry onsite, remodeled, etc. For a showing please contact Jay 773835-1864 Hunter Properties, Inc. 773-477-7070 www.hunterprop.com

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 $450. Newly rehabbed. Appliances included. Low Move-in Fees. Hardwood floors. Pangea - Chicago’s South, Southwest & West Neighborhoods. 312-985-0556

LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT

near Loyola Park. 1339 W Estes. Hardwood floors. Heat included. Laundry in building. Cats OK. $695/ month. Available 11/1. 773-761-4318, www.lakefrontmgt.com

CHICAGO, HYDE PARK Arms

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

MARQUETTE PARK: 6315-19 S California, Studios, 1beds, 2beds from $600-$800, Free heat, no deposit. 773.916.0039

HIRING DRIVERS APPLY IN PERSON BRING COURT PURPOSE MVR FROM SEC. OF STATE ($12), MIN. AGE 23 MUST PASS DRUG TEST, DOT PHYSICAL & BACKGROUND CHECK (NO FELONIES) FULL & PART TIME OFFICE HOURS 10AM – 4PM, MON-FRI 8801 S GREENWOOD – CHGO OR APPLY ONLINE @ SCRDRIVERS.COM 773.768.7000 X 3035 OR 3006

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

7500 SOUTH SHORE Dr. Brand New Rehabbed Studio & 1BR Apts from $650. Call 773-374-7777 for details.

STUDIO $700-$899 EDGEWATER: Dlx Studio: full kic, new appl, DR, oak flrs, lndy, cats ok. $795/incl ht, water, gas, 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

CLEAN STUDIO APARTMENT For rent, 2728 N. Hampton Ct. Chicago. 6th floor, swimming pool on roof, $1100/mo+ security deposit. Convenient to transport, 219-9269659 leave message.

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

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

WEST PULLMAN (INDIANA

Ave) Nice, lrg 1 & 2BR w/balcony. 1BR $550, 2BR $650. Security deposit $650. Sec 8 Welcome. 773-9956950

CHATHAM 8356 SOUTH Wabash Very clean 1BR $700; 2BR $800, heat & water incl., off st. parking, + security. Call 773-7831656

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

Lawrence. Lrg studio $525, 1BR $585$630. 113th & Indiana, XL 1BR heat incl. $640. 773-660-9305

75TH & EBERHART. 1 & 2BR apts ceiling fan, appls, hdwd flrs, HEATED, intercom. $650/mo & up Call 773-881-3573 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $130/wk & up. 773-275-4442 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970

76TH & PHILLIPS Studio $575$600, 2BR $750-$800. Remodeled, Appliances avail. Free Heat. Section 8 welcome. 312-286-5678

108TH & PRAIRIE: 2BR, $750,

newly decorated, heat/appls incl; Section 8 ok. 888-249-7971

û NO SEC DEP û

6829 S. PERRY. 1BR. $520/mo. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106

1 BR $700-$799 8001 S COLFAX; very lrg studio, newly remod, hdwd floors, cable. Great location! Sec 8 welcome. $6 50/mo. 708-308-1509, 773-4933500 8324 S INGLESIDE: 1BR, 1st flr, newly remod., lndry, hdwd flrs, cable. Sec 8 welcome.$660/mo. 708-308-1509 or 773-493-3500 WEST SIDE, deluxe 1BR, stove/ refrigerator/laundry room, AC. Near Oak Park. $750/mo. utilities included, 708-418-2384 CHATHAM LARGE 1BR Apt,

wall to wall carpeting. Separate dining room. Heat Incl. No Pets. $725/ mo + sec. dep. req. 708-323-8317

9147 S. ASHLAND. 1BR, dine-In Kit, appls, laundry, Clean & Secure. $740/mo. U Pay gas & elec, No Pets. 10/15. 312-914-8967.

ALSIP: LARGE 1BR w/balcony. $725/mo, appliances, laundry & storage. Call 708-268-3762

RIVERDALE - NEWLY decor, 2BR, appls, heated, A/C, lndry, prkng, no pets, near Metra. Sec 8 ok. $795. 630-480-0638

1 BR $800-$899

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. TIME TO TURN THE FURNANCE ON!!! Most units Include.. HEAT & HOT WTR Studios From $495.00 1Bdr From $550.00 2Bdr From $745.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

LAKESIDE TOWER, 910 W

Lawrence. 1 bedrooms starting at $895-$925 include heat and gas, laundry in building. Great view! Close to CTA Red Line, bus, stores, restaurants, lake, etc. To schedule a showing please contact Celio 773-3961575, Hunter Properties 773-4777070, www.hunterprop.com

NEAR DEVON & KEDZIE, Four large rooms, One bedroom. 1st flr, new paint, new carpet, Clean, quiet, Cultured area. Near shopping, transportation. No dogs. $825. Credit/background check. 773-441-5183

1 BR $900-$1099 LARGE ONE BEDROOM apart-

ment near Loyola Park. 1341 W Estes. Hardwood floors. Heat included. Cats OK. Laundry in building. Available 11/ 1. $925/ month. Small one bedroom apartment available for $750/ month. 773-761-4318, www. lakefrontmgt.com

CHICAGO, CHATHAM NO SECURITY DEPOSIT Spacious updated 1BR from $600 with great closet space. Incl: stove/fridge, hdwd flrs, blinds, heat & more!!! LIMITED INVENTORY ** Call (773) 271-7100 ** ONE OF THE BEST M & N MGMT, 1BR, 7727 Colfax ** 2 Lrg BR, 6754 Crandon ** 2 & 3BR, 2BA, 6216 Eberhart ** Completely rehabbed. You deserve the best ** 773-9478572 or 312-613-4427 CALUMET CITY 158TH & PAXTON SANDRIDGE APTS 1 & 2 BEDROOM UNITS MODELS OPEN M-F, 9AM-5:30PM *** 708-841-5450 *** NO SECURITY DEPOSIT No Move-in fee! No Dep! Sec 8 ok. 1, 2 & 3 Bdrms. Elev bldg, laundry, pkg. 6531 S. Lowe. Call Gina. 773-874-0100

LARGE ONE BEDROOM apart-

ment near Red Line. 6822 N Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets OK. Laundry in building. $900-$925/ month. Heat included. Available 11/1. 773-761-4318, www.lakefrontmgt.com

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT

near Warren Park and Metra, 6802 N Wolcott. Hardwood floors. Heat included. Laundry in building. Cats OK. $900/ month. Available 11/1. 773761-4318, www.lakefrontmgt.com

WRIGLEVILLE 1BR, 1000SF, new kit/deck, FDR, oak flrs, Cent H eat/AC, prkg avail. $1295 + util, Pet friendly, 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

ROGERS PARK: DELUXE 2BR + den, new kitchen, FDR, oak floors close to beach. $1250/ heated, 774-743-4141

CHICAGO - CLEAN, NEWLY remod, 1BR, 1st floor Apts, oak flooring. Ready Now! 722 E. 89th St. FREE HEAT. 708-951-2889 BELLWOOD 2BR, 1BA apt, encl porch, parking available, near transportation and shops. $825/mo. 773-849-5314

WASHINGTON PARK -

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

CHICAGO SOUTH SIDE Beauti-

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

www.urbanequities.com

CHICAGO - BEVERLY, large 2 room Studio, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, A/C, laundry, near transportation, $650-$975/mo. Call 773-233-4939

EDGEWATER 1000SF 1BR; new kit, sunny FDR, oak flrs, Onsite lndy; PKG Avail., $1050/incl

142 LOWE 3 & 1, fin bsmt, $1125. 144 Emerald 2 & 2 plus $1150. 126 Emerald 5 & 2 $1600. Appts 773.619.4395 Charlie 818.679.1175

heat. 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

www.

1 BR $1100 AND OVER WEST ANDERSONVILLE GORGEOUS 1 bedroom, soft loft,

Laundry in unit, marble bath, maple kitchen, private deck, vaulted ceilings, 2nd floor, owner occupied, cats OK. Non-smoking. $1500/mo + utilities. Available immediately. Call 773-506-1125

1 BR OTHER APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN! OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG Plenty of parking 1Bdr From $750.00 2Bdr From $925.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000***

70TH & CALIFORNIA, 1 & 2BR, modern kitchen & bath, dining room. Starting at $65 0/mo & up. Section 8 Welcome. 847-909-1538

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

MOVE IN SPECIAL B4 the N of this MO. & MOVE IN 4 $99.00 (773) 874-3400 ROYALTON HOTEL, Kitchenette $135 & up wk. Free WiFi. 1810 W. Jackson 312-226-4678

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

2 BR UNDER $900 75TH/EMERALD. No Sec. Dep. Required! Hurry Won’t Last! Water and Heat Incl. 2BR. $750. Income verification req Mel 312-9821400 RENOVATED 2BR APT, 66th & Washtenaw . $700. Heat not incl 773-905-4567

LOGAN SQUARE 2 bedroom apartment, 2-flat building, modern kitchen & bath, balcony, washer & dryer. $800/mo. Near Blue Line. 773-235-1066

7202 S Michigan: 2 bedroom, 1 bath, $800. NO APP FEE & 3RD MONTH FREE. Call 312.208. 1771 CHICAGO, 8109 S. PEORIA, 2BR basement apartment. $700/ mo. Electric & heat included, no appliances. Call 708-436-6282 VICINITY 65TH AND St. Lawrence, modern, tenant heated, 2BR Unit. $725/mo. No Sec Deposit Agent Owned, 312-671-3795

2 BR $900-$1099 Austin Area, 2BR/5 room apt in 4unit bldg, $1000/mo (1 mo rent + 1 mo. sec req’d). heat incld in rent! Hrdwd flrs thru-out, lrg BA compliments this newly decorated & renovated apt. No pets. 773261-4415

JUMBO,

EXTRA LARGE 4.5 sunny rooms, remodeled, hwfl, 1-2 bedrooms. Two blocks Brown Line. Near Kennedy Expressway. $900 heat included. 773-710-3634.

2BR+ 1043 E. 80TH St.: 2BR $775

Large apartment, stove, fridge, heat included. Call 773.916.0039 or 312208-1771

9116 S. SO. Chicago Ave., Nice 2BR 1BA Apartment, carpet & appliances included. $670/mo. Call 312-683-5174

83RD/JEFFREY,

heated, decor FP, hdwd flrs, lots of storage, formal DR, intercom, newly remod kitchen & bath. $950. Missy 773-241-9139

NR ARLINGTON / KEELER . 2BR Apt, recent rehab, $900 + Sec. Tenant pays all utils. Must have proof of income 708-846-1169

FULLERTON AND PULASKI.

2426 North Tripp. Nice 2BR apartment, central air, hardwod floors, $800/mo. Call 312-320-6484

CHATHAM - 22 E 70th 2BR,

DOLTON - 2BR, $ 8 2 5 / m o . Heat, cooking gas & water incl. Private parking, balcony, laundry facility. Call 708-224-5052

$750/mo. 1BR. $640/mo. Sec 8 OK. Heat & appl. Call Office: 773-9665275 or Steve: 773-936-4749

ROGERS PARK: 1700 Juneway, HARVEY - 183 W. 154th St. 2BR, 2-3 bedrooms $900-$1200, Free Newly renovated, tenant must pay heat, No deposit -312.593.1677 elec & heat. No Pets. $750 + 1 mo sec. 708-899-2097

VERY NICE 2BR Apt Near 82nd & Hermitage. Nicely decorated, heat incl. $730/mo. Call for an appointment 773-783-7098

CHICAGO

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

2 BR $1100-$1299

Chicago, Austin Area, 5 rooms, 2BR, 2 flat, 5532 W. Jackson, quiet building, $675/month + security deposit. 708-865-8903

BEAUTIFUL NEW APT! 72nd and Evans 2 & 3BDRM 77th and Phillips 2 & 4BDRM 62nd and King Dr 3BDRM Stainless Steel!! Appliances!! Hdwd flr!! marble bath!!

REMODELED LARGE 2 Bdrm, 2 Bath Split level. Hardwood floors in Lv Rm & Dn Rm. Carpet in Bedrooms. AC & ceiling fans thru out. One Bdrm & Bath on 2nd Fl, One Bdrm & Bath in 3rd Fl with separate exit. Great for roommates. Pet friendly. Unit has its own furnace. Laundry & Storage room on 3rd Fl. Art Gallery on 1st fl.Rent $1,450.M plus securities AVL 10/1/16 Lease. Call Karly @ 574-806-1049

laundry on site!! Sec 8 OK. 773- 404- 8926

MATTESON, 2BR, $990$1050; 3BR, $1250-$1400. Move In Special is 1 Month’s Rent & $99 Sec Dep. Sect 8 Welc. 708-748-4169 ENGLEWOOD 2-4BR unit apts in 2 unit gated bldgs, hdwd flrs, pets OK, no sec dep, W/D & appls incl, tenant pays own utils 312929-2167

2 BR $1500 AND

WOODLAWN AREA, 60th & Champlain, Updated 2, 3 & 4 BR Units, $700-$1250/mo. Section 8 Welcome. Call 773-802-9007 CALUMET CITY CONDO for lease with option to buy, 2BR, 2BA. For details call 312-3426607, serious offers only. CHATHAM, 738 E. 81st (Evans), 2nd flr, 1BR, 4 rms. $650/mo. Call Mr. Joe at 708-870-4801

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 CHICAGO, LARGE 3BR, f o r mal dining room, hardwood floors, ceiling fans, stained glass windows, heat included. $1050/mo. Call 773-2336673

70TH AND UNION 3 BR for

$750.00 + Sec.Tenant pays utiles incldg heat. Lv/Dn rm, eat in Ktchn, no appl. Sect 8 OK Contact (773)3505250

CHICAGO, 7028 S. Green, 3BR,

OVER

LARGE TWO BEDROOM, two

bathroom apartment, 3820 N Fremont. Near Wrigley Field. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Laundry in building. Available 11/1. $1695/ month. Parking available. $150/ month for single parking space. $250/ month for tandem parking space. 773-761-4318, w ww.lakefrontmgt.com

2 BR OTHER RECENT REHAB, 4BR/2BA, 2 BR/ 2BA & 3BR/1BA SF homes in Harvey. Professionally Managed. Section 8 ok. 630-247-5146

ADULT SERVICES

80TH/PHILLIPS, Beautiful, lrg lrg living room, dining room, newly renovated 3BR, 1.5BA, hardwood flrs, 1.5BA, 1st flr, 3 unit, $9 hdwd flrs, appls & intercome 00/mo + heat. 708-204-9881 system included. $950 & up. 312-818-0236 FAR SOUTH CHICAGO - 128th and Sangamon. Ranch Style 2BR, 2 FLAT BUILDINGS no basement. Please call: 3BRs, nr Chicago State U $875. 312-720-1264 3BRs. 82nd/Peoria. $875/mo. Sep heat and A/C. SUBURBS, 2-3 BR TH, 1.5BA, RANCH REALTY 773-238-3977 ceiling fans, newly remod BA & updtd kitchen, W/D hookups, pa- .REHABBED: 107TH & Vernon tio, quiet area. Call 773-233-6673 4BR, 2BA house $1400; 86th Place CHICAGO - 72ND & TALMAN , Beautiful, completely rehabbed 2 BR Apts. Section 8 Welcome. 312-375-6585 or 773-934-8796 FREE HEAT RENT TO OWN 2, 3, 4 & 5 BR Homes 2 & 3 BR apts also avail, 708-737-2036 or 312-662-3963

ADULT SERVICES

Chicago, Nr Marquette/ Hermitage, 5BR brick house, 2 full ceramic BA, hdwd flrs, new kit. big bsmt. $1250/mo. Neg. Call 773386-0736 CHICAGO, 90TH & LAFLIN, 3BR, 2nd floor, heated, formal

dining room, carpet & hardwood. Available. $1125/mo + sec. 312-946-0130

RIVERDALE, Newly decorated 3BR Apartment. New carpet, near metra, no pets, $92 5/mo + security deposit. Call 708-829-1454 720 W. 61ST ST. Be au t if u l Rehab 4BR. $1150/mo + sec. 5723 S. Michigan.Newly decor 3BR. $95 0/ mo + sec. SS appls, tenant pays utils. 773-858-3163 CHATHAM 8817 S. Cottage Grove Nice 3BR, 2nd flr, Ten. Pays Utils., $1,100/mo. Section 8 Welcome

BEAUTIFUL REHABBED 3BR, 2BA house, 11701 S Bishop, granite counters, SS appls, fin bsmt, 2 car gar, $1450/mo. 708-288-4510

2805 E 77TH St, Newly remodeled 3BR, liv rm, din rm, hdwd floors, finished basement, Section 8

HARVEY 5BR, FRIDGE, stove,

62ND & MAPLEWOOD, 4BR,

newly remodeled, $900 Call 773-805-8181

CA LIFORNIA /PETERSO N Sunny 3BR, 2BA apartment, freshly painted, large rooms, laundry & parking included. Credit/ background check +security deposit required. Tenant pays heat. $1225/mo. 312-944-3189 SOUTH SIDE, 6851 South Evans Avenue, very clean 3 bedroom house, 1 1/ 2 bath, large backyard, A/C, close to transportation, $1200 per month.

Call 312-583-9154

7221 S. STEWART. Reno’d 3br.

4151 S Berkeley: 7rm 3BR, 1BA, $1350 heat and water inc., No sec dep call Toni 773-916-0039 or Pam 312-208-1771

773-314-6604

2BA, newly remod. Lrg LR & DR. Utils not incl, No sec dep, $1200/mo., + $700 move-in fee 773-406-0604.

SECT 8 OK, 2 story, 4br/2ba w/ bsmt. New decor, crpt & hdwds, ceiling fans, stove/fridge, $1465. 11243 S. Eggleston, 773-443-5397

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499

No Sec. Dep! Call 773-844-1216

Hdwd flrs, appls, ceil. fans, blinds, ldry rm, 55+ ok $890/mo. + utils.

welcome $1300/ mo 708-474-6520

11748 S. BISHOP. 3BR, 2BA, full finished bsmt, 20x20 covered deck, 2.5 car gar, sect 8 welc. $1500 / mo. 708-889-9749 or 708-256-0742

4221 S ELLIS: 7rm 4BR, 1BA $1475

CALUMET CITY, 3BR, 2 full BA, fully rehab w/gorgeous finishes w/ hdwd floors, appls incl., porch, Sec 8 OK. $1100/mo Call 510-735-7171

4341 S GREENWOOD 1N $1400

2BR, 1BA apt $900; 3BR, 2BA apt near UIC, $1000. Hdwd flrs, lndry fac. Call 312-683-5284

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

2BR GARDEN, 3BR & 4BR, 2BA apts, (421 S. Homan. $1400/ mo)newly rehabbed, hdwd flrs, appls. 773-590-0101

ELEGANT & SPACIOUS 4BR apt for rent, hardwood floors, nice block, $1150/mo. 7706 S Paulina, Chicago, IL. Call 312-505-8737

ROSEMOOR, 10344 S Green. beaut. rehab 3BR, 2BA house, granite ctrs, SS appls, fin bsmt, 2car gar, $1500/mo. 708-288-4510

CALUMET CITY - XL 3BR, 2BA, heat, parking, water, appliances, A /C. $1250/mo & up + security. Section 8 OK. 708-743-8393

ADULT SERVICES

heat and water inc., No sec dep. Ccall Toni 773-916-0039 or Pam 312-2081771. large 4BR, 1BA, all updated, Heat and water incl., no sec dep. Call Toni 773916-0039 or Pam 312-208-1771

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 334 W 118TH St. 2BD/1BA, hardwood floors. Sec 8 welcomed. Will accept 1BD voucher. $1150/mo. Call 773-221-0061

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499

AUGUSTA APT. ELEGANT , spacious 6 sun-lit rooms 3 bedrooms new bathroom in lovely owner occupied 3-flat, basement, Central Air, laundry, big back yard $2000/mo + security deposit. 773-428-8149, 773-276-8149

3 BR OR MORE OTHER

8316 S. Hermitage, Brick 7BR, 2.5BA, hdwd floors, finished bsmt, 2 car garage, $1450/mo + sec. Available 10/1. 773-4435472 SOUTH: MATTESON, COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, SAUK VILLAGE

2, & 4BR, House /Condo, Sect 8 ok. For info: 708-625-7355

ADULT SERVICES

EAST ROGERS PARK, steps to

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

CHICAGO - 7112 S. EUCLID

1ST FLOOR RENOVATED 2BR, HWF, 1BA. $750/MO. Call 773-2853206

CHICAGO, PRINCETON PARK HOMES. Spacious 2-3 BR Townhomes, Inclu: Prvt entry, full bsmt, lndry hook-ups. Ample prkg. Close to trans & schls. Starts at $844/ mo. w w w . p p k h o m e s . com;773-264-3005

2 BR $1300-$1499

EVANSTON 2BR, 1100SF, great kitchen, DR, oak floors, laundry, $1250/mo includes heat. 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities. com

AUBURN GRESHAM, 1401 W 80TH , 2bed for $895 – No app fee, No deposit, free heat. 312.208.1771

Elmhurst: Sunny 1/BR, new appl, carpet, AC, Patio, $895/incl heat, parking. Call 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities.com

ADULT SERVICES

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

224-223-7787

Playmates or soul mates, you’ll ﬁnd them on MegaMates

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 | CHICAGO READER 47

NEWLY RENOV 5BR, 2BA Houses, 5306 S. Wallace, 5400 S. Union, 8820 S. Yale. Sec 8 OK. A/C. Start at $1350/mo. 773-895-2867

NEAR 83RD & Yates. 5BR, 2BA, hdwd flrs, fin basement, stove & fridge furn. Heat incl. $1600 + 1 mo sec. Sect 8 ok. 773-978-6134 CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent. Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail. 312-446-3333 or 708-752-3812

FOR SALE

EDGEWATER BEACH 5555 N. Sheridan Rd. Unit 1904 - $130,000 1 bedroom, 1 bath, new kitchen & new bathroom, hardwood floors, wonderful views, garage, indoor pool, fitness center, outdoor gardens, door man, beautiful lobby. Call 847-724-0743 or 847-204-8022

SERVICES

STRAIGHT DOPE

2 9-UNIT BUILDINGS, near Mid-

way, $600,000 each; 1 2-story building w/2 apts & 2 store fronts, W. 71st St.; $150,000; Lansing 24-unit building $1.2 million 773-925-0065

By Cecil Adams

non-residential

Q : Has the United States ever had a

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

YORKIEPOO MALES & females.

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

PUPPIES.

Shots & worming up to date. $400 CASH ONLY. We do not ship. Call: 815 272 1935 no calls after 8pm central time.

roommates SOUTH SHORE, Senior

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

STRIPS! CURRENTLY PURCHASING ONE TOUCH, ACCU-CHEK AND FREESTYLE! FREE PICKUP SERVICE! CALL 872-444-6389 TODAY!

ROOM FOR RENT- (Unfurnished) Chicago Southside Location. All utilities included. Cable. $400/mo. Call 773-842-7307

GOODS BEAUTIFUL COMBINED UNIT,

18th ﬂoor. Chicago’s prestigious Gold Coast neighborhood, this spacious condo offers panoramic lake and west views from this spacious, sunny, transverse ﬂoor plan in good condition. Raised lIving room with dining area, family/media room with 2nd kitchen, master bedroom with dressing room and jacuzzi tub. 2nd bedroom facing west. 2 1/2 bathrooms. Largest unit available today in the building. Generous closets and storage, Available parking plus guest parking, pet friendly. Walk to everything from this perfect location.

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

LABRADOR RETRIEVERS PUREBRED - AKC/APRI Reg. $500-$1000 Deliver to Chicago Area. Tahnee Boyer 660-341-4405 tahneepoe@gmail.com

the opening of The Grateful Dog of Rogers Park, a full service holistic grooming salon located at 7016 N. Western Ave. Chicago, IL 60645. Mention this Ad and receive a free teeth cleaning. Book your appointment now!

CA$H FOR DIABETIC TEST

CHICAGO, 10635 S. STATE. Male Preferred. Use of kitchen and bath. $350/month. No Security. Call 773-791-1443

MARKETPLACE

WE ARE HAPPY to announce

presidential candidate who said things as outrageous as Donald Trump has this year? I’d imagine we’ve had some wild accusations hurled in the past, but have any candidates stooped to the levels we’re hearing today? —MARIE WILSON

SLUG SIGNORINO

72ND AND ABERDEEN, Newly rehab 5BR, 1.5BA, new kitchen, cabinets, granite, carpet & windows. Sect 8 OK. 773-407-0005

ESTATE SALE, 5040-5060 MARINE DR. Lobby, Chicago.

Sat. October 1, 10-4, Sun. October 2, 11-5. Artwork, jewelry, vintage collectibles, ceramics, CDs, books, clothing & much more. Cash & Carry.

MASSAGE TABLES, NEW and

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

FRAMED BOB MEYER draw-

ing (1984) 14×14 (22×22 frame) “The Face”. Call Francis Leroux 773 710 4815

48 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

HEALTH & WELLNESS FOR A HEALTHY mind and body. European trained and certified therapists specializing in deep tissue, Swedish, and relaxation massage. Incalls. 773-552-7525. Lic. #227008861. UKRAINIAN MASSAGE. CALLS in/ out. Chicago and sub-

urbs. Hotels. 1234 S Michigan Avenue. Appointments. 773-616-6969.

MUSIC & ARTS JAZZ IN THE SANCTUARY The Empress of Soul, TERISA GRIFFIN, performs 8-10pm Sat., Oct. 15 at ST. MARTIN’S CHURCH 5700 W. Midway Park, 60644. Tickets $40. Order at: JazzintheSanctuaryFeaturingTerisa Griffin, or 773 378-8111.

A : Some of you may recall that in a column last year I basically laughed off the possibility that Donald Trump had a chance in 2016. My thinking, like a lot of people’s (not that it lets any of us off the hook), was: sure, the political process had gotten pretty gruesome, but come on—we couldn’t be that far gone. As it turned out, of course, we were. Now we’re about to find out if the road to the White House runs lower than anyone ever dreamed. Still, let’s not be naive. Mudslinging is as old as the two-party system, and trash talk helped get many of our most prominent statesmen into the history books. In the infamous campaign of 1800, Thomas Jefferson had on his payroll a guy named James Thomson Callender, a newspaperman, pamphleteer, and specialist in what we now call opposition research. Having already helped scupper Alexander Hamilton’s career in public office by exposing an adulterous dalliance (and alleging corruption), Callender now went to work on President John Adams, calling him “mentally deranged” and a “hideous hermaphroditic creature.” His Adams-bashing got Callender locked away for a spell under the Sedition Act. Afterward, when the newly elected Jefferson didn’t reward him as he’d hoped, Callender went to press with the story that the president’s slave Sally Hemings had borne Jefferson several little Jeffersons (a claim supported by DNA testing two centuries later). For their part, Adams’s Federalist allies had long been muttering about Hemings and (later sources suggest) supposed irregularities in Jefferson’s own parentage, though they didn’t think to demand his birth certificate. Given our nation’s dismal track record on issues of race, it’s no shocker that a lot of such smear jobs involved claiming a candidate might have some nonwhite relatives. In 1828 Andrew Jackson complained about backers of his opponent, John Quincy Adams, dragging family into it—saying Jackson’s mom had been a prostitute and that he had a black half brother sold into slavery. None of this was true, but the pro-Adams faction got closer to the mark when they called Old Hickory’s wife, Rachel, a bigamist: the Jacksons had eloped before Rachel’s first husband actually obtained the divorce he’d filed for.

With the presidency on the line, political operatives have tried anything and everything. In 1928, Republicans circulated photos of Democratic candidate Al Smith at the mouth of a tunnel (actually the Holland Tunnel, under the Hudson River), accompanied by text explaining that Smith, a Catholic, had constructed a sub-Atlantic passageway to the Vatican through which he could report to the Pope for his orders. And you thought the Obama’s-a-Muslim stuff was a stretch. And yet, one reasonably objects, in these cases the candidates themselves remained presidentially above the fray and let surrogates do the uglier work. Here’s where Trump—his id seemingly hooked straight up to the public record via video feed and smartphone—may indeed be a groundbreaker. Has any high-profile candidate been more personally outrageous? Needless to say, many have supported positions that would seem outright loopy now—the most unabashedly racist candidate today would hardly defend slavery, the primmest teetotaler wouldn’t argue for Prohibition. The nearest thing to what we’re seeing now may have been a sitting president. During maybe the worst speaking tour in U.S. political history, Andrew Johnson in 1866 suggested that divine Providence itself might have taken out Abraham Lincoln to get the right man in charge of the Union, routinely compared himself to Jesus, and at one point proposed that a congressional adversary be hanged. Johnson, to quote the articles of impeachment later filed against him, “did . . . make and deliver with a loud voice certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress as the laws of the United States duly enacted thereby, amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and in hearing” (in Indianapolis he was shouted down entirely by an unruly and ultimately riotous crowd). Yes, there once was a time when being a blowhard could be considered an impeachable offense for a president, not a qualification for office. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

Should a guilt-plagued CPOS keep his mouth shut? Or should this self-described cheating piece of shit fess up? Plus: the ethics of racialized sex fantasies

Q : I’m a guy, 35, and a

cheating piece of shit. I’m engaged to a woman I love, but earlier this year I cheated on her. I have no excuse. She discovered the dating app I used, and we worked through that. But she doesn’t know that shortly after her discovery, I went ahead and cheated. To my meager, meager credit, I did seek out only women who were looking for NSA hookups. But I quickly came to realize how big of a mistake this was, how much I love my fiancee, and that I’m a shitty person. I see a therapist, and he advised that, if I’m certain this was a onetime thing, and if I’m convinced that I’m happy with my fiancee, I should keep quiet. I shouldn’t burden my fiancee with this knowledge. I’m inclined to agree but, dear God, the guilt. I feel like I’m not the person my fiancee thought I was. What do I do? Should I just accept this as a lesson learned and keep it to myself? Perhaps there’s selfishness at play here, since I’m trying to make myself feel better, but I’m struggling. —CAN’T PERSONALLY OVERLOOK SELFISHNESS

A : I’m with your therapist, CPOS. While honesty (best policy) and confession (good for the soul) get all the positive press, there are times when unburdening yourself is absolutely the wrong thing to do. The person who confesses may wind up feeling better— because at least now they’re being honest—but the person to whom they’ve confessed can wind up feeling a whole lot worse. Some burdens should be borne, not shifted. If your fiancee is inevitably going to find out, CPOS, better she find out about it from you. But if the secret

can be kept and if living with the guilt motivates you not to cheat again, then you can keep your mouth shut with a semi-clearish conscience. This advice is not a license for serial adulterers. If you can’t be faithful to someone— if that’s what you discovered when you had the affair—then you should extract yourself from the monogamous commitment you’ve already made to your fiancee and refrain from making monogamous commitments to anyone else in the future. But if you honestly believe you can be faithful, CPOS, you don’t have to see yourself as a cheating piece of shit. A serial adulterer/betrayer/liar is a cheating piece of shit; someone who cheated once, regrets it, and makes a good-faith, multidecade effort not to do it again is a fallible human being.

Q : My boyfriend of

five years is a sweet, smart, handsome, loving, supportive, middle-aged, chubby white guy. We have a fulfilling sex life. When we first met, he shared a fantasy he had about watching me get fucked by a black guy. (He knows it’s not something I’m interested in IRL.) I’ve caught him several times posing online as a young, buff, handsome black guy looking for a “snowbunny.” I call him out on it every time, and it causes huge fights. He says he’ll stop, but he never does. Weighed against all his other good qualities, this isn’t that big of a deal. Clearly he’s not going to meet up with the women he’s chatting with. What makes me sad is that I adore him as he is—I love his big white belly, his bald head, and his rosy cheeks. I think I do a good job of communicating this to him. I guess I’m writing to you for some

reassurance that I’m doing the right thing by letting this behavior go and also for some insight into why he’s doing it in the ﬁrst place.

ADMIRAL ★★ #$!%#"! ★★

—UPSET GIRLFRIEND HATES EROTICIZED RACIAL SECRETS

A : If this isn’t that big of a deal, UGHERS, why are you calling him out on it? Why are you monitoring his online activities/fantasies at all? What your boyfriend is doing sounds relatively harmless—he’s pretending to be someone he’s not while flirting with other people online who are most likely pretending to be someone they’re not. (I’d bet you most of the “snowbunnies” he’s chatted with were other men.) The world is full of people who enjoy pretending, from cosplayers pretending to be Captain America to Donald Trump Jr. pretending to be a human being. We can’t gloss over the racial/racist cultural forces that shaped your boyfriend’s kinks, of course, but it’s possible to explore those kinds of fantasies without being a racist piece of shit. And a person can pretend to be someone of another race online without injecting racial hate into it and/or reinforcing damaging stereotypes. You’ve seen your boyfriend’s online chats, UGHERS, so you’re in a better position to judge whether he’s exploring his fantasies without making the world a worse place than it already is for actual black men. If he’s being a racist piece of shit online, UGHERS, call him out on that. If he isn’t, stop policing his fantasies. v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at thestranger.com. ß @fakedansavage

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 49

White Lung o RICK RODNEY

NEW

Adam Ant 1/31, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM, 18+ Bad Bad Hats, Flint Eastwood 12/9, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 11/27, 5 and 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/29, noon b Booka Shade 12/1, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Broncho, Sports 11/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Kane Brown, Jordan Rager 12/17, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b The Bunny the Bear 10/22, 2 PM, Wire, Berwyn b Bushwick Bill 10/29, 10 PM, the Promontory Daya 3/26, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b Josh Garrels 2/26, 6:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b Gza 10/30-31, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/29, noon b Greg Hill’s Delfonics Revue 10/13, 8 PM, the Promontory b Natalia Lafourcade 11/27, 7 PM, Portage Theater Les Nubians 10/19, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/29, noon b Lera Lynn 11/12, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 9/30, 8 AM b Macabre 12/23, 6:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Kawabata Makoto & Tatsuya Nakatani 11/29, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Brian McKnight 11/18-19, 7 and 10 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/29, noon b Mindless Behavior 12/2, 7 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b

Tony Molina 11/17, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Morton Feldman Chamber Players 12/18, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Panic! at the Disco, Misterwives 3/11, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM Partynextdoor, Jeremih 11/29, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b Puddle of Mudd 12/1, 6:30 PM, Wire, Berwyn, 18+ Pujol 11/15, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Purling Hiss 11/18, 9 PM, Hideout Rdgldgrn 11/21, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Dex Romweber 10/28, 9 PM, Hideout Harry Shearer & Judith Owen 12/11, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b Snow Tha Product 11/17, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Sundara Karma 11/23, 6:45 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b Thee Oh Sees, Blind Shake, Torture Love 11/20, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM Vamps, Citizen Zero 11/15, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b John Paul White 11/15, 5 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 9/30, noon White Lung 10/27, 9 PM, Empty Bottle

UPDATED Fire! 12/2, 8:30 PM, Constellation, canceled Green Day 10/23, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom, rescheduled from 9/21 b Leon Russell 4/10-11, 8 PM, City Winery, rescheduled from 10/30-31 b

50 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Lucinda Williams 12/28-31, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, 12/29-31 sold out, 12/28 added, on sale Fri 9/30, 10 AM b

UPCOMING Amira 10/30, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Amity Aﬄiction, Being as an Ocean 10/8, 5:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Ashanti 11/19, 7 PM, Portage Theater The Bad Plus 12/14, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Jon Bellion 10/28, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Benny Benassi 10/14, 10 PM, the Mid Birthday Suits 10/25, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Terry Bozzio 10/10, 8 PM, City Winery b Cactus Blossoms 11/4, 9 PM and 11/6, 8 PM, Hideout Cafe Tacuba 12/21, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Catﬁsh & the Bottlemen 10/12, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Slaid Cleaves 10/8, 8:30 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Clutch, Zakk Sabbath 10/25, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Elvis Costello & the Imposters 10/29, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Deerhunter, Aldous Harding 10/21, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Kevin Devine & the Goddamn Band 12/2, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b The Dig 10/6, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen Dinosaur Jr. 10/8, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Earthless, Ruby the Hatchet 12/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Ensemble Pamplemousse & Mocrep 11/4, 8 PM, Constellation, 18+

b FIDLAR 11/17, 7 PM, Metro, 18+ Frankie Cosmos 10/26, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Fruit Bats 10/28, 10 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Ginuwine 11/23, 7 and 10 PM, City Winery b Giraﬀe Tongue Orchestra 12/3, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Glass Animals 10/6, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Skylar Grey 10/6, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Hayden 12/1, 8 PM, Schubas Niykee Heaton 11/9, 7:30 PM, Metro b Helado Negro 10/20, 9 PM, Hideout Helmet, Local H 12/16, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 18+ Griﬃn House 10/26, 8 PM, City Winery b Incognito 10/28, 7 and 10 PM, City Winery b Nicolas Jaar 11/9, 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jesu, Sun Kil Moon 11/13, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ K Theory 11/25, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ K.Flay 11/8, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Elle King 11/5, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b King Dude 12/17, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen La Sera, Springtime Carnivore 10/30, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Letters to Cleo 11/4, 8 PM, Double Door Lordi 2/14, 7 PM, Double Door Lucero 10/28, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Mandolin Orange 11/10, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Michael McDermott 12/21-23, 8 PM, City Winery b James Vincent McMorrow 11/16, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ John Mellencamp 10/25, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Shawn Mendes 8/3, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Meshuggah, High on Fire 10/28, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Natural Child 11/4, 9 PM, Empty Bottle New Mastersounds 11/25, 9:30 PM, Park West, 18+ Nihil 10/24, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge Oh Wonder 10/27, 7:30 PM, Metro b Owen 10/8, 8:30 PM, Chicago Athletic Association Hotel Paper Kites 11/29, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Particle 10/16, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Pennywise, Strung Out, Unwritten Law 10/8, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Pet Shop Boys 11/5, 9 PM, Civic Opera House Madeleine Peyroux 11/13, 6 and 8:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Pigface 11/25, 9 PM, House of Blues, 17+

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

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

Queensryche 12/9, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Quince 11/13, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Quinn XCII 10/16, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Quintron & Miss Pussycat 10/15, 9 PM, Hideout Rae Sremmurd, Lil Yachty 10/13, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b David Ramirez 10/28, 10 PM, Schubas Rasputina 10/13, 7:30 PM, Double Door Esperanza Spalding 10/27, 8 PM, Thalia Hall b Steeldrivers 10/14, 8 PM, City Winery b Nik Turner’s Hawkwind 11/6, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Turnpike Troubadours 11/16, 7:45 PM, Joe’s Live, Rosemont 12th Planet 12/10, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Twenty One Pilots 1/28, 7 PM, United Center Twin Peaks, Together Pangea 12/17, 7:30 PM, Metro b Uniform 11/12, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Weepies 11/2, 8 PM, Thalia Hall b Bob Weir 10/20, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b Wild Beasts 11/9, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall Xeno & Oaklander 1/28, 9 PM, Empty Bottle YG 11/7, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+

SOLD OUT Bear vs. Shark 10/29, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Failure 10/21, 9 PM, Double Door, 17+ Philip Glass 11/3, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music Lukas Graham 1/17, 7 PM, House of Blues b The Head & the Heart, Declan McKenna 10/14, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Jason Isbell 11/18, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall and 11/19, 7 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Marshmello 11/25-27, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Conor Oberst 11/26, 8:30 PM; 11/27, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Tegan & Sara 10/21, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Timeﬂies 11/4, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b Tricky 10/30, 7 PM, Double Door v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene GOSSIP WOLF CONCEDED that Cassette Store Day was “kinda silly” when it debuted in 2013, but it’s still going strong—this year it’s on October 8! Shannon Candy, guitarist for punk confectioners Strawberry Jacuzzi, sure feels this retail holiday’s boom-box vibe—she’s started a label called Bernice Records and Tapes, and her ﬁrst release is a local cassette compilation! Super Roar: Volume One features 18 tracks from Chicago indie acts, including Gossip Wolf faves Swimsuit Addition and Bleach Party. On Saturday, October 1, four bands from the comp—Bloom, Daymaker, Soddy Daisy, and So Pretty—play a release party at the Auxiliary Art Center (3012 W. Belmont). Local musician Seth Engel plays in fourth-wave emo supergroup Lifted Bells, nervy rock band Coaster, mathy instrumental act Bathing Resorts, and probably a few others Gossip Wolf can’t remember, but since 2009 he’s somehow found time for at least one release every year from his solo vehicle, Options. On Friday, September 30, he drops the wistful Options full-length Maxed Out, which sits at the intersection of power pop and emo. It comes out on Sooper Records, cofounded by frequent Engel collaborator Nnamdi Ogbonnaya, and Options celebrates its arrival by headlining a free show at Schubas on Tuesday, October 4. Have you found the password to your sister’s ex-boyfriend’s cousin’s Netflix account so you can stream Joe Swanberg’s new show, Easy? Then you might’ve noticed that the Chicago-based program features some local musicians. Angie Mead of Redgrave makes a cameo to chew out Marc Maron’s graphic-novelist character—who deserves it for saying the Reader is staffed by 12-year-olds! A couple of the Lemons rehearse a version of “Lemoncita,” and Kenny Alden (aka Luke, Tokyo Drifter) pensively watches a book talk at City Lit. Plus Numero Group music soundtracks one of the show’s steamiest scenes! —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 - CHICAGO READER 51

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