Chicago Reader: print issue of December 3, 2015 (Volume 45, Number 10)

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 | D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5

U N F A M I L I A R B Y D E S I G N This enigmatic Chicago DJ’s ambient techno label Kimochi Sound doesn’t chase trends, sell downloads, or send out press releases, but its music finds the right ears anyway.

By LEOR GALIL 23

Comedy Stand-up Dave Maher turns his coma into comedy.

Movies Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq takes on Chicago violence, but where are the victims?

Food & Drink The long-awaited steak house Swift & Sons is a cut above in Fulton Market.

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2 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

THIS WEEK

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TO CONTACT ANY READER EMPLOYEE, E-MAIL: (FIRST INITIAL)(LAST NAME) @CHICAGOREADER.COM

EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL JOHN HIGGINS DEPUTY EDITOR, NEWS ROBIN AMER CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS KATE SCHMIDT, KEVIN WARWICK, BRIANNA WELLEN SENIOR WRITERS STEVE BOGIRA, MICHAEL MINER, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL PHOTO EDITOR ANDREA BAUER GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR RYAN SMITH CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, JENA CUTIE, MATT DE LA PEÑA, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, SARAH NARDI, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, BEN SACHS, ZAC THOMPSON, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS KEVIN QUIN, MANUEL RAMOS, KACIE TRIMBLE ---------------------------------------------------------------SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES MARISSA DAVIS, AARON DEETS MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY BUSINESS MANAGER STEFANIE WRIGHT ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Agenda Amok Fest, the League of Women Designers, the film The Forbidden Room, and more recommendations 8 City Life Gig poster: An ingenious blueprint by Scott Williams Chicagoans: “I get lied to on a daily basis,” says tutor Kristi Harreld.

City Agenda: one thing to do every day of the week 10 Joravsky | Politics Why would the mayor insist on paving a street that doesn’t need it?

11 Transportation How a former gubernatorial aide orchestrated Illinois’s ban on protected bike lanes.

ARTS & CULTURE

13 Isaacs | Religion An Art Institute exhibit prompts an update on a censored Chicago author.

15 Theater Holiday shows that are nice—and some that are naughty 16 Comedy Stand-up Dave Maher turns his coma into comedy.

17 Dance Hubbard Street Dance is the perfect match for rising choreographer Crystal Pite.

17 Lit Unabridged Bookstore survives 35 years in a changing Lakeview.

19 Visual Art Printworks turns 35 and bids farewell to co-owner Sidney Block.

21 Movies Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq takes on Chicago gun violence, but where are the victims?

40 Underground dining Drop Leaf Dinners pops up in “accidentally iconic” places around town.

CLASSIFIEDS

41 Jobs 41 Apartments & Spaces 43 Marketplace

MUSIC

23 Feature: Kimochi Sound The ambient techno label doesn’t chase trends, sell downloads, or send out press releases, but its music finds the right ears anyway.

26 In Rotation Current musical obsessions of three Chicago drummers 29 Shows of note Graveyard, Death in June, Dr. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Bongzilla, and more

44 Straight Dope Are bananas dangerously radioactive?

45 Savage Love What to do about a sister-fucking boyfriend, and more 46 Early Warnings Rihanna, Shellac, Taylor Bennett, Courtney, Barnett, and more concerts on the horizon 46 Gossip Wolf Cajmere supercharges the Cultural Center’s Wired Fridays series, and more music news.

FOOD & DRINK

37 Review: Swift & Sons The longawaited steak house is a cut above in Fulton Market.

39 Bars The Globe Pub and more sports bars

ON CHICAGOREADER.COM

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ON THE COVER: PHOTOGRAPH OF DJ M50

BY JOHN STURDY. FOR MORE OF STURDY’S WORK GO TO JOHNSTURDY.COM.

This is Rahm’s Katrina moment The comparison may be unsettling, but politically, it’s applicable.

BY DERRICK CLIFTON

FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AFTER taking office, but just one week after the court-ordered release of the video showing Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, Mayor Emanuel has discovered the need for police reform. Go to chicagoreader.com for Steve Bogira’s thoughts on Emanuel’s firing of police superintendent GARRY MCCARTHY and the mayor’s announcement of a department oversight task force.

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 3

AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

P Send your events to agenda@chicagoreader.com

b ALL AGES

F of various experiences and stages of cancer. 12/4-12/6: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 7 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, Preston Bradley Hall, 77 E. Randolph, 312-7446630, esotericdanceproject.com, $25, $20 in advance.

COMEDY

Good Evening With Pat Whalen R Guests at this installation of Pat Whalen’s monthly late-night talk show are 32nd Ward alderman Scott Waguespack, musician Lili K, and Keith Alaniz, cofounder of the Afghan saffron purveyor Rumi Spice. Fri 12/4, 11 PM, the Frontier, 1106 W. Thorndale, besteveningever.com, $10.

A Snowy Day With Beatrix Potter

DANIEL WICKE

THEATER

More at chicagoreader.com/ theater Amok Fest This weekend celebration of Indonesian culture R includes multiple performances of

Karen Yates’s multimedia production Amok, gamelan music, Indonesian food, Javanese and modern dance, and film screenings. 12/4-12/6: Fri 7 PM; Sat 2:30, 5, and 7 PM; Sun 5 and 7 PM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-2810824, karen-yates.com/amok, $25, $70 festival pass.

Buzz Records When the Annoyance’s original space opened 26 years ago, one entire wall was adorned with THEATER SUCKS in dainty script. That anarchic impudence has long been one of the company’s most appealing traits, producing a litany of ingeniously insulting and artfully artless shows. But sometimes the insolence devolves into indolence: ideas left half formed, actors dallying with easy choices. Such is the case with this new 90-minute musical about clangy indie duo Clvtch, who fall under the sway of impresario Damien Loft, a wunderkind hit maker who micromanages his stable of overhyped and undertalented artists with the mania of a cult leader. Despite myriad targets ripe for satire—pretentious critics, self-absorbed artists, vacuous podcasters— it’s all too easy and obvious to sting. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 12/22: Tue 8 PM, the Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $12, $8 students.

action, helping to open and explore the boxes, large and small, which become the settings for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, and The Tailor of Gloucester. Designed for preschoolers by Redmoon theater artist Will Bishop, the production employs puppets and sculptures that in turn become Mr. McGregor’s garden, an elegant dollhouse, a cityscape, or the tailor’s shop. It’s exquisite, and the three performers are too: Lara Carling and Kay Kron narrate, moving swiftly from character to character while navigating the children as well; Ray Rehberg provides violin, banjo, and sound effects that add to the excitement. —SUZANNE SCANLON Through 12/19: Sat 10 and 11:30 AM, 2:30 PM, Catalyst Ranch, 656 W, Randolph, suite 3W, chicagochildrenstheatre.org, $15.

Perspective Group and Photography Gallery “Resolution,” a group exhibition featuring photography by the artist-members of Perspective Gallery, in celebration of its five-year anniversary.

Opening reception Sat 12/5, 5-8 PM. 12/3-12/27, 1310 1/2 Chicago, Evanston, 224-200-1155, perspectivegallery.org.

Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art “Skimption,” genre-defying work by Diana Gabriel, Emily Hermant, Luis Sahagun, Catherine Schwalbe, and Rusty Shackleford. Opening reception Fri 12/4, 6-9 PM. 12/4-1/31, 2320 W. Chicago, 773-227-5522, uima-chicago.org, $5 suggested donation.

LIT

Holidazed and Confused SecR ond City digs into its archives to present the best holiday sketches in

Kathryn Aalto The author R discusses her book The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh: A Walk

Will You Accept This Rose? An R improvised parody of the The Bachelorette. Josh Seiter, last season’s

Festival of Poets Theater R Devin King and Patrick Durgin curated this four-day festival featuring

its holly, jolly arsenal. See review, p. 15.

Through 12/31: times vary, see website, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North, 312-3373992, upcomedyclub.com, $31-$41.

“winner,” joins the Under the Gun improv ensemble for a special night of its improvised Bachelor show. Sun 12/6, 9 PM, Under the Gun Theater, 956 W. Newport, 773-270-3440, undertheguntheater.com, $12.

VISUAL ARTS Department of Curiosities “Gray’s Department Store,” the League of Women Designers creates an interactive “shop-able” installation inspired by the “golden age of department stores.”

Opening reception Fri 12/4, 6-9 PM. 12/412/20: Tue-Sat noon-7 PM, Sun noon-5 PM. 3013 W. Armitage, departmentofcuriosities.com.

DANCE

Through the Forest That Inspired the Hundred Acre Wood. Sat 12/5, 1 PM, Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton, 312-2553700, newberry.org.

performances, screenings, and readings of works written for the stage by poets.

12/2-12/5: Wed-Fri 7 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7 PM, Sector 2337, 2337 N. Milwaukee, 773687-8481, sector2337.com.

Mortified Private confessions R read out loud by Mia Keeler, Chanell Ruth, Natalie Moore, and others

in a show that promises “personal redemption through public humiliation.”

Hosted by Shay DeGrandis. Sat 12/5, 7 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park Ave West, 312-801-2100, promontorychicago.com, $20.

Story Club Featured storytellers R at this monthly open mike are Elizabeth Cambridge, Claire Zulkey, and

Ines Bellina. The theme this time around is “White Elephant: Strange and Unex-

Hubbard Street Winter Series R See preview, page 17. 12/10-12/13: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM,

Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, 312-334-7777, harristheaterchicago.org, $30-$99.

The Nutcracker Ruth Page Civic R Ballet presents an adaptation of the holiday classic first performed

by the troupe in 1965, featuring guest artists from Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Ballet. Sat 12/5, 7 PM, and Sun 12/6, 1 and 5 PM, Northeastern Illinois University, Auditorium, 5500 N. Saint Louis, 773-4424978, ruthpage.org, $25.

A Snowy Day With Beatrix PotRevisited/Renewed Esoteric R ter This traveling children’s show R Dance Project presents four new features three actor-musicians with an works including Unsilenced Thoughts array of “mechanical suitcase sculptures” that come alive to reveal the worlds of Beatrix Potter. The kids sit close to the

4 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

of Two Women, inspired by the music of Tom Waits and the lyrics of Ani DiFranco, and Untitled, an exploration

The Nutcracker

COURTESY RUTH PAGE CIVIC BALLET

Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of December 3

of cave-dwelling thieves called the Red Wolves, a motorcycle lover whose crackup casts her into the arms of an amorous bone specialist, an ingenue whose boyfriends turn into blackened bananas, and more. Along the way Maddin works his way through his usual bag of tricks—irises, feverish superimpositions, texts introducing the characters, figures wreathed in electronic snow. Bright reds dominate, no more disturbingly than when Geraldine Chaplin, showing her teeth and cracking a whip, appears as “the Master Passion,” the human personification of a nightclub crooner’s lust for female bottoms. With Mathieu Amalric, Jacques Nolot, Charlotte Rampling, and Udo Kier. —J.R. JONES 119 min. Fri 12/4Sun 12/6, 2:45 and 7:15 PM; Mon 12/7-Wed 12/9, 7:15 PM; and Thu 12/10, 4:45 PM. Music Box

Good Evening With Pat Whalen

WILL SULLIVAN

pected Gifts.” Thu 12/3, 7:30 PM, Holiday Club, 4000 N. Sheridan, 773-348-9600, storyclubchicago.com, $10 suggested donation.

You’re Being Ridiculous The R storytelling show tackles the theme “beauty,” with a different roster

of performers (including Kate Harding, Malic White, and Mandy Aguilar) each week. Through 12/5: Sat 7:30 PM, Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse, 773-381-4554, yourebeingridiculous.com, $15.

MOVIES

More at chicagoreader.com/ movies NEW REVIEWS The Armor of Light A fanatically prolife evangelical minister grapples with the issue of gun violence after the 2012 death of Jordan Davis, an unarmed, 17-year-old African-American killed in Florida by a white man invoking the state’s “stand your ground” law. Davis’s death brings his mother, Lucia McBath, to Washington, D.C., where she pushes Reverend Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, to address gun rights from the pulpit. First-time director Abigail Disney effectively channels Schenck’s theological critiques of gun ownership but silences McBath, dulling the impact of her courageous efforts.

No one mentions race until an hour in, so what should have been a focal point of the film goes largely ignored. But this is still a tale worth telling, and its bright moments shine through. —TANNER HOWARD 87 min. Facets Cinematheque Creed Sylvester Stallone hands off the Rocky saga to writer-director Ryan Coogler, who makes the aging Italian Stallion the corner man for a younger boxer who is the illegitimate son of his old adversary Apollo Creed. Coogler’s acclaimed debut feature, Fruitvale Station (2013), dealt with the real-life police killing of an unarmed black man in San

Francisco, but in keeping with Stallone’s wholesome formula for the Rocky movies, there’s no racial angle here, just a lot of daddy issues. Michael B. Jordan, who played the victim in Fruitvale Station, injects some juice as Adonis Creed, and the muttering Stallone has a few ostensibly touching moments. But anyone hoping the franchise might open out into new thematic territory will be disappointed; this is the same old ritual, from the amped-up training sequences to the climactic title fight with its absurd number of punches landed in every round.

—J.R. JONES PG-13, 133 min. For venues visit chicagoreader.com/movies.

The Dark Valley This handsomely filmed but self-consciously grim German western (2014) aims for classical grandeur, but some B-movie modesty would have benefited its by-the-numbers revenge plot. An American photographer (Sam Riley of Control) arrives in a small village in the Austrian Alps, which sets the stage for conflict with an aging, tyrannical patriarch and his sadistic sons.

Riley gives a sensitive performance as the iconic stranger, but director Andreas Prochaska (a TV veteran who has edited some of Michael Haneke’s work) shows less assurance with his film’s relentlessly brooding tone. Conspicuous symbolism that might have worked with an edge of dark wit falls flat here: a metronome motif reminds one that the photographer is a ticking time bomb, and a crucifixion is only the most obvious of the biblical references. It all comes across as strained, derivative, and humorless.

In German with subtitles. —JOEL WICKLUND 114 min. Mon 12/7, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center The Forbidden Room Guy R Maddin delivers another of his wild and whimsical fantasies, tinged with

camp and couched in the film grammar of silent cinema. Codirected by Evan Johnson, this is a steamer trunk full of material, running nearly two hours and weaving together the stories of a submarine crew trapped in the briny deep, a strapping woodsman infiltrating a clan

James White James (Christopher R Abbott), a directionless party boy in New York City, gets a wake-up call when his wealthy father dies and his mother (Cynthia Nixon), whom the father ditched years earlier for another woman, learns that her cancer is no longer in remission. Writer-director Josh Mond based this debut feature on his own experience with a terminally ill mother, and it’s a wrenching portrait of helpless devotion; James may be a self-pitying brat prone to making a scene and starting bar fights, but he becomes as noble caring for his mom

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

Enjoy a cocktail with a flick .

desire to love and be loved. Though sluggish in the middle section, the film is nonetheless effective in illustrating how a star as incendiary as Joplin could dim and ultimately die in the spotlight; one acute example is a newspaper clipping from her personal collection that describes her songs as “raw and desperate mating calls”—a backhanded compliment, like so many directed toward her music and physical appearance, that still smarts. “She loved everybody,” remarks a friend in the denouement. “That was the problem.” With Dick Cavett and Kris Kristofferson. —LEAH PICKETT 105 min.

Gene Siskel Film Center Legend Tom Hardy takes on a dual role as Reggie and Ronnie Kray, ruthless identical twins who became celebrity gangsters in Swinging London before they were taken down by Scotland Yard in 1968. Onscreen for nearly the entire movie, but seldom as both men at once, Hardy never comes across like two rounded people, more like a single person with a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality: Reggie is the smooth, stable one, pursuing marriage with an East End lovely (Emily Browning) and trying to keep the brothers’ criminal operation on

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as he seems ignoble the rest of the time. Abbott contributes a smart, soulful performance, but Nixon keeps threatening to walk away with the movie as the mother, who can’t get enough of life and whose physical decay is colored by rage, defiance, and terror. With Ron Livingston. —J.R. JONES R, 85 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6 Janis: Little Girl Blue Amy J. Berg (Deliver Us From Evil) profiles blues-rock icon Janis Joplin in this evenhanded and extensively researched documentary.

Abundant archival footage, interviews, and previously undisclosed letters (sweetly voiced by indie-rock musician Cat Power) dive into Joplin’s deep well of insecurity and her unquenchable

an even keel; Ronnie is the mumbling, bespectacled wacko, openly bisexual and prone to Scorsese-style outbursts of savage violence. American writer-director Brian Helgeland, following up on his impressive Jackie Robinson biopic 42, never seems quite at home in old Blighty, but he delivers a thorough, nicely paced treatment of the brothers’ rise and fall. With David Thewlis and Chazz Palminteri, both first-rate. —J.R. JONES R, 131 min. Landmark’s Century Centre Movement + Location Lacking flashy CGI (or any other special effects), this imaginative low-budget indie (2014) relies heavily on dystopian gloom. Four hundred years from now the earth is still habitable, but some people find life so

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DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 5

They want inside too, where it’s warm and cozy.

AGENDA

James White

KEEP ‘EM OUT WITH THE PROS AT ROSE!

B bleak that they jettison everything for a one-way ticket back to 21st-century Brooklyn. Bodine Boling, who wrote the screenplay, stars as a lonely refugee from the future; she’s so emotionally damaged that she barely functions as a social worker for the homeless, though close encounters with a teenage runaway (Catherine Missal) and a smitten cop (Brendan Griffin) jolt her out of her depression. Neat plot twists and a sweet romance help sustain interest, but the resourceful heroine is so street smart that buying into the concept of time travel is easier than believing some of her social gaffes. Alexis Boling directed. —ANDREA GRONVALL 96 min. Facets Cinematheque The Office The U.S. distributor is billing this as Johnnie To’s Office,

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The Office

but an equal or surpassing share of the credit should go to veteran Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang, whose stage musical Design for Living served as the source material.

Sort of a Chinese How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, this centers on a cosmetics company preparing to go public (a situation roiled by the 2008 financial collapse) and follows various workplace and romantic intrigues, with Chang as CEO and Chow Yun-fat as chairman of the board (also her secret lover). To, director of such crime dramas as Election (2005) and Sparrow (2008), injects some muscular visuals, with percussive close-ups of characters addressing each other through the camera, and there’s an expressionistic office set outlined with fluorescent tube lights against a black space. But

after a while, the overpacked plot begins to feel like an afternoon meeting that won’t end. In English and subtitled Mandarin and Cantonese. —J.R. JONES 119 min. Gene Siskel Film Center SPECIAL EVENTS Tarantino & Friends This weeklong series salutes Quentin Tarantino with selections from his filmography (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglourious Basterds) as well as films that inspired him (Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, and Jack Hill’s Coffy). All films are projected from 35-millimeter; for a full schedule visit musicboxtheatre.com. Music Box v

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DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 7

CITY LIFE Ù

OUR MOST READ ARTICLES LAST WEEK ON CHICAGOREADER.COM IN ASCENDING ORDER:

Gig Poster

“Rescued from near extinction, a rare heirloom pepper is slowly making a comeback” —JULIA THIEL “Chicago gifts that should be on your 2015 shopping list” —READER STAFF “What Mayor Emanuel needs to learn from the killing of Laquan McDonald” —STEVE BOGIRA

“Rahm could’ve been the hero in the McDonald shooting” —BEN JORAVSKY

ARTIST: Scott Williams SHOW: Soul Summit DJs at Double Door on Sat 12/19 MORE ONLINE: scottwilliamsdesign.com

“Here is the video of Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times” —RYAN SMITH Diameters of circles are proportional to the number of page views received.

Chicagoans

Kristi Harreld, tutor SOMETIMES PEOPLE are like, “Oh, you’re a tutor, that’s a cute side job.”

But no, this is actually my job. This isn’t my hobby. I can’t quite say this enough. I have a master’s degree and more than ten years of experience.

One student I’ve worked with for eight and a half years now, all the way from his freshman year of high school to being a super senior now at DePaul.

A huge percentage of my current clients are eighth-graders studying for their high school entrance exams. I was very resistant to this kind of work because I didn’t want to teach to a test. And I still don’t.

But there are skills you can teach through that work that carry over into other parts of their lives, like how to map out your time, what you do when you’re falling behind, where your resources are.

I get lied to on a daily basis. It’s understandable. Most of us don’t like to say, “I’m flunking algebra, so let’s get a tutor.” Most of us, we’re not going to own up to a deficit. So instead of saying, “I don’t know what I’m doing,” they’ll say, “The teacher is mean.” I have literally heard, “The dog ate my homework.”

So then I’ll pull something out of their backpack or binder: “What’s this? Has the teacher talked to you

“I get lied to on a daily basis,” says Harreld. “I have literally heard, ‘The dog ate my homework.’” ò ANDREA BAUER

about these quizzes? Look at this note the teacher wrote you.” They’ll say, “Oh, I didn’t see that.” Yeah, OK. We all get that you’re maybe not telling the truth. I say, ‘Your teacher is being very generous to you and wants to see you succeed.

This person is really saying to you, “I care about you, and I think you can do better.”

Sometimes I’m playing every trick that I have, and I’m not getting through. Sometimes the student is like, “There’s no way you’re going to teach me.” I say, “OK.” You can’t make people grow up. Sometimes the kindest, most professional thing to do is to let it go.

Tutoring is the kind of work where you can’t phone it in. Well, I guess you could, but I wouldn’t. I had a student yesterday whose dad said, “How he’s doing?” I said, “He got 100 percent on the math I gave him.” The dad said, “What are you going to do about that?” I said, “Give him harder math,” and he high-fived me.

I used to teach English as a second language. Once I had a class that was almost completely Polish, and I had them read a little passage about Las Vegas. Then I asked them, “What do you know about Las Vegas?” It was a free-association thing. Silence. I could hear the clock ticking. From the back of the room, this kid who never said anything said, “Prostitution.” I think he wanted to impress upon the ladies in the room that he had this background knowledge of Las Vegas. I look at a couple other students, and they’re shaking their heads.

At the end of that class, for some reason, the students wanted to take me out, so we all went to Starbucks. I noticed everyone got cappuccino. I said, “Do Polish people just love cappuccino?” and this kid, the same kid, said, “No, it’s the only word they know.” I said, “I’m not doing my job!” He said, “Eh, cappuccino is delicious.” —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

CITY AGENDA One sure thing to do for every day of the week THURSDAY 3

FRIDAY 4

SATURDAY 5

SUNDAY 6

MONDAY 7

TUESDAY 8

WEDNESDAY 9

( My Kind of So und Curbside Splendor and Steve Krakow host a release party for Krakow’s new collection of “Secret History” columns. The night includes a multimedia performance by Bobby Conn and live music by Ono, Athanor, and VCSR. 9 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, emptybottle.com, $8, free with RSVP.

E Th e D i saste r Artist Live! Greg Sestero, costar of the Tommy Wiseau cult classic The Room, discusses his book The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, presents a behind-the-scenes documentary, and participates in an interactive live script reading. 10 PM, Music Box Theatre, musicboxtheatre.com, $12.

ã Krampusfest A seasonal tribute to Santa’s evil counterpart, Krampus.

The daylong event includes live music, an art fair, a pub crawl, and the traditional Krampuslauf parade. Noon-8 PM, Martyrs’, 3855 N. Lincoln, martyrslive.com.

To o Much Light Best of 2015 The Neo-Futurists present 30 of their favorite two-minute plays from the last year. Through 12/13: Fri-Sat 11:30 PM, Sun 7 PM, Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland, neofuturists.org, $14-$19.

× Reser ve Yo ur Seat One in a series presented by the Reader, this event features a four-course prix fixe menu created by RM Champagne Salon chef Anthony Dirienzo, paired with Woodford Reserve cocktails.

6:30 PM, RM Champagne Salon, 116 N. Green, chicagoreader.com, $65.

Winter Wonder fest Navy Pier transforms into an indoor winter amusement park complete with a Ferris wheel, climbing wall, and ice-skating rink. Through 1/10: Sun-Thu 10 AM-8 PM, Fri-Sat 10 AM-10 PM, Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand, navypier.com, $10, $25 for activity pass.

Ð I Can’t Breath e A group art show focusing on recent instances of racism and issues of cultural ignorance and denial. Opening reception Fri 12/4, 6-9 PM. Through 12/19, Arc Gallery, 2156 N. Damen, arcgallery. org.

8 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

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DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 9

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

CITY LIFE Alderman David Moore ! BRIAN JACKSON/SUN-TIMES MEDIA

POLITICS

Repaving paradise

Why would the mayor insist on paving a street that doesn’t need it?

By BEN JORAVSKY

O

n the day Mayor Emanuel released footage of Laquan McDonald’s murder, I was driving through the south side, checking out the potholes with 17th Ward alderman David Moore.

It all ties together, my friends.

Mayors get judged by big things—like holding on to evidence of murder—and little things, like the condition of our streets.

Obviously, Mayor Emanuel’s falling short on both fronts these days.

In this case, Moore had enlisted me in his effort to figure out why the mayor was paving streets that were in relatively good condition.

It was as though the mayor was looking for new ways to waste money.

Let’s see . . . wasted $55 million on the DePaul basketball arena/Marriott hotel deal?

Check.

Threw away $20 million on a no-bid consulting contract to a crooked company that once employed CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett?

Yep. Spent untold amounts on lawyer fees trying to keep the McDonald tape a secret? Did it.

10 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

I know! Let’s spend about $800,000 paving some streets on South Racine that don’t need repaving.

The street-paving issue has been on Alderman Moore’s mind since September 22, when he got an e-mail from a construction company saying it would be repaving Racine from 74th to 79th.

“It caught me by surprise,” Moore says. “I didn’t ask them to repave that street. That particular stretch doesn’t even need repaving.

There are other streets in the ward far more deserving.”

A few days later, he met with city Transportation Department officials. “They said, ‘If you don’t want this paved maybe we can come up with some other ideas,’ ” meaning other streets to pave, Moore says.

Then one day in late October, Moore was shocked to see construction crews at work on Racine. “They told me they weren’t going to do it and they did it,” he says. “The city totally ignored me. When I asked them not to do it, they did it anyway. That’s total disrespect.”

The repaving was paid for with money from,

what else, a TIF—in this case, the 79th Street Corridor tax increment financing district.

Turns out Moore, who was just elected in February, had been victimized by one of the oldest tricks in the TIF book: Taking advantage of a rookie alderman by stealing his TIF money.

Think of it as an initiation rite—like a fraternity hazing its newest members.

The first time I heard about the rookie TIF hustle was in 2005. That’s when newly elected 35th Ward alderman Rey Colon discovered that TIF money intended to fund development on Milwaukee near Fullerton was in fact being used to convert a factory into condos about a mile or so up the road in another ward.

“Other aldermen told me: they always try to get away with this with first-time aldermen,” Moore says.

Just to remind you, the TIF tax is in effect a surcharge added to your property tax bill, which feeds a slush fund controlled by the mayor.

I’ve been known to write about this from time to time.

The money’s intended to subsidize development in poor communities, like Auburn Gresham, West Englewood, and other 17th Ward neighborhoods. But thanks to loopholes, most TIF money gets spent on gentrifying communities in or around downtown. It’s like a reverse Robin Hood program, taking from the poor to give to the rich.

For example, the Canal Congress TIF district, located downtown, brought in about $20 million last year. In contrast, the 79th Street Corridor collected just $648,000.

So the neighborhoods most in need of development are not the ones with the most TIF money. And even what little TIF money they have isn’t in their control.

Yet Mayor Emanuel won 55 percent of the 17th Ward vote in the last election. That means voters there are either exceedingly forgiving—or they need to read the Reader more.

In any event, when Alderman Moore saw the unnecessary, unwanted street construction, he contacted the city’s Department of Transportation: “I asked them who authorized the project. I got a letter saying this is a mayoral project. Well, if you’re going to run my ward, how about when Mr. Johnson says the drug dealers are on his corner, you take the calls?”

To point out the streets that actually need

repaving, Alderman Moore took me on a driving tour of his ward. Sure enough, there are countless streets in need of repair. In particular, the stretch of 79th from the Dan Ryan to Ashland is riddled with potholes—inexcusable for a major thoroughfare.

Curiously, though, while driving through the ward, I noticed that the street paving on Racine is right in front of Saint Sabina Church, home parish for Father Michael Pfleger, a powerful political figure in the neighborhood.

“THEY TOLD ME THEY WEREN’T GOING TO DO IT AND THEY DID IT. THAT’S TOTAL DISRESPECT.” —17th Ward alderman David Moore That got me thinking: Did Father Pfleger use his clout with the mayor to put his street at the top of the ward’s repaving list?

“Absolutely not,” Father Pfleger told me.

“Nobody consulted me about this. Nobody asked. The first thing I know about is when I saw the trucks on the street.”

My guess is that repaving Racine was mayor Emanuel’s clumsy attempt to ingratiate himself with Father Pfleger, who supported him in the last election.

For what it’s worth, city officials say they decided to repave Racine after careful study.

“This stretch of Racine was identified as badly in need of resurfacing when CDOT performed a citywide survey of pavement conditions,” a department spokesman said in an e-mail. “We look forward to continuing to work with [the alderman].”

This all reminds me of what happened a couple years ago when the mayor—looking to win over black voters outraged by his school closings—proposed to rename Stony Island Avenue for civil rights leader Bishop Arthur Brazier.

That backfired on him too.

I’ll tell you what to do, Mr. Mayor. Find the money to repave all the crumbling streets in the 17th Ward.

Call Alderman Moore—he’ll show you where they are.

It’s the least you can do for having stiffed the 17th Ward with the TIF scam. v

" @joravben

CITY LIFE

TRANSPORTATION

Changing lanes

A woman rides down the Clybourn Avenue protected bike lane, past the “ghost bike” memorial to Bobby Cann. ! JOHN GREENFIELD

By JOHN GREENFIELD

A

round 6:30 PM on May 29, 2013, Bobby Cann was biking north on Larrabee, and Ryne San Hamel was driving southeast on Clybourn after drinking in Wrigleyville.

Police said San Hamel was doing at least 50 mph when he fatally struck Cann. He’s being prosecuted for aggravated DUI, but the case hasn’t yet gone to trial.

Last month, officials from the city and state transportation departments cut the ribbon on curb-protected bike lanes on this stretch of Clybourn. The lanes double as a memorial to Cann, who was an evangelist for safe biking.

The Clybourn lanes are also Chicago’s first protected bike lanes built on a state route, which generally can’t be reconfigured without approval from the Illinois Department of Transportation.

In 2011, soon after the Chicago Department of Transportation opened the city’s first protected lanes on Kinzie, the state began blocking CDOT from installing the lanes on state roads.

The former heads of CDOT and IDOT, plus the director of the Active Transportation Alliance, now indicate the architect of the threeyear ban was Sean O’Shea, deputy chief of staff for ex-governor Pat Quinn.

Former CDOT commissioner Gabe Klein says the ban was motivated by “political and personal issues.” (Disclosure: Klein is a board member of Streetsblog Chicago’s parent organization.)

It’s not certain the Clybourn lanes would have been built in time to slow down San Hamel. However, data suggests that other crashes might have been prevented if O’Shea hadn’t blocked the city’s plans. Here’s how the ban occurred—and how it was overturned.

At the Kinzie opening, Klein announced CDOT would build protected lanes on Jackson, between Western and Halsted. The city began building the Jackson lanes, but the work was halted at Ogden. East of there, Jackson is an IDOT route; according to Klein and others, the department rejected the change.

“The state traffic engineers had balked because ‘they had jurisdiction’ and ‘this was unproven,’” Klein explains in his memoir, Start-Up City.

However, “after collaborating to address IDOT’s needs and concerns, CDOT and IDOT staff largely agreed to . . . test barrier-protected lanes on state routes, including Clybourn,” wrote Active Trans director Ron Burke in a recent blog post.

An Active Trans Freedom of Information Act request recovered an August 2012 e-mail from a CDOT engineer, announcing that IDOT was almost ready to approve the Jackson lanes.

However, my own FOIA request turned up a later e-mail exchange between Klein and then-IDOT secretary Ann Schneider. Contrary to what the CDOT engineer indicated,

Schneider wrote that, “Due to safety, traffic, and operational concerns, we can not approve protected . . . bike lanes on state routes within the city.”

“I understand politics as you do,” Klein replied. “But if this is truly about safety, then we should be able to quickly fix this misunderstanding.”

“This is NOT about politics,” Schneider fired back.

“People at IDOT said O’Shea was the one who was blocking the lanes,” Klein told me.

In his book, he states: “The governor’s office didn’t want me or the city dictating policy to them, or making the state look ‘old school in the face of change.’”

When my writing partner Steven Vance broke the story of the ban in February 2013, IDOT claimed it needed at least three years of safety data before approving lanes. But there was already ample evidence protected lanes improve safety. New York has installed protected lanes since 2007; the mayor’s office noted injury crashes typically dropped by 40 percent after the lanes were installed.

Schneider, who resigned in June 2014 after allegations of patronage hiring at IDOT, confirmed that O’Shea initiated the moratorium.

“The three-year ban is [not] something that I would have done,” she said. Schneider added she was unaware of any political or personal motivations behind O’Shea’s actions.

O’Shea also resigned amid the patronage scandal. He didn’t respond to interview requests.

After the ban was publicized, Active Trans enlisted business leaders to lobby the governor, who Burke and Klein believe was largely unaware of the ban. “We . . . attempted to navigate around the staffer [who banned the lanes],” Burke wrote. “These efforts, combined with a meeting . . . with the staffer . . . along with the outrage over Bobby Cann’s death, contributed to the state’s change of heart.”

At last month’s ceremony, IDOT secretary Randy Blankenhorn implied more protected lanes would soon go in on state routes. “This is a project that’s time has come,” he said.

But think of the crashes—including Cann’s, perhaps—that could have been prevented if more protected lanes had been built sooner.

“Because the governor’s office was blocking the bike lanes,” Klein said, “citizens got caught in the crossfire.” v

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

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

Holiday House Walk

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15TH, 1:00PM—3:00PM Come in out of the cold and join us for some Holiday festivities! We will be celebrating with hot cocoa, fresh baked holiday cookies and Christmas caroling. We are collecting for Toys for Tots, please bring a new, unwrapped toy and help make a child’s holiday bright.

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12 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

ARTS & CULTURE Dauji II Performing Arati on Sharad Purnima, part of “Gates of the Lord” at the Art Institute, depicts an autumn festival scene commemorating Krishna’s circle dance with milkmaids under the full moon. ! ANUJ AMBALAL/AMIT AMBALAL COLLECTION

RELIGION

A tale of two Krishnas

The Art Institute’s “Gates of the Lord” exhibit prompts an update on a censored Chicago author.

By DEANNA ISAACS

I

was under the benign inf luence of “Gates of the Lord,” the Art Institute’s exhibit of traditional Krishna paintings

by Pushtimarg artists, when Wendy Doniger’s high-profile troubles popped into mind.

The Pushtimarg, centered for hundreds of years in the remote Indian village of Nathdwara, practice a deeply aesthetic form of Hinduism. Their representations of the god Krishna, focused largely on the stories of his childhood and youth, are both an essential part of their religious practice and a historical record of it.

The works on display in Chicago include elaborate temple hangings on cloth and antique miniature watercolors. They show the distinctive black or blue god (“Krishna” means “dark”) playing a flute, hiding in a tree, dancing in a circle with an adoring group of milkmaids, and, most frequently, holding up a mountain with the fingertips of his left hand.

They are exquisitely detailed visual narratives, stylized and chaste.

Doniger, a University of Chicago history of religion professor and a prolific writer on Hinduism, is the author of the prize-winning 2009 book The Hindus: An Alternative History. Its cover features a more rambunctious painting of Krishna, happily perched sidesaddle atop a composite animal—a horse made of the bodies of beautiful, discreetly naked women.

Last year, that cover and some of the content of her book put Doniger at the center of an international literary brouhaha sparked by Dinanath Batra—a former teacher who’d successfully campaigned against other books as well as sex education in Indian schools—and other Hindu fundamentalists who didn’t find Doniger’s book chaste enough. The book had been the target of multiple lawsuits since it was published in India in 2010; Batra alleged that it violated an Indian law (Article 295a) that makes it a crime to deliberately “outrage” anyone’s religious sensibilities.

Doniger’s publisher, Penguin Books India, defended The Hindus for four years. But in February 2014, the publisher announced that,

as part of a settlement, it would never again publish the book in India—and would pulp any existing inventory.

The announcement drew its own outrage from writers and academics in India and beyond who were concerned about freedom of speech. In a New York Times op-ed a month later, Doniger explained it this way: “I think the ugliness of the word ‘pulp’ is what struck a nerve, conjuring up memories of Fahrenheit 451 and Germany in the 1930s. The outrage had been pent up for many years, as other books, films, paintings and sculptures were forced out of circulation by a mounting wave of censorship.”

The censorship of the book was reflective of the national mood: two months later, Narendra Modi of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected prime minister.

Doniger took her situation in stride. She noted in the Times piece that nothing spurs book sales like being “banned”—copies of The Hindus in Indian bookstores promptly sold out, and its online sales soared.

As I made my way through the scalloped arches and intimately lit galleries of the Art Institute show (mounted with major funding from the charitable arm of Indian corporate giant Reliance Industries), I wondered if anything had changed for Doniger. As it turns out, it had.

The Hindus is back on sale in India. Ravi Singh, who headed Penguin Books India when the book was published, has launched a new company, Speaking Tiger. Now Singh has the Indian rights to the book, and he brought out a new paperback edition last month. When we spoke, Doniger had just received photos of it prominently on display in airport bookstores in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

The cover, however, has been given a doover: Krishna and his voluptuous steed have been replaced by an ancient statue of the god Shiva—an image that could only be a problem for those offended by the idea of androgyny, or the sight of an extra arm or two.

“There’s a split right now in Hinduism,” Doniger told me in a phone conversation last week. “The Indian government, which is rightwing and fundamentalist, only approves of a certain narrow band of all that Hinduism is—a sanitized version that excludes reference to anything erotic. But for centuries Hinduism has had a great deal of eroticism built into it.”

The original cover for Doniger’s book, top, was racier than the latest version. ! PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA/SPEAKING TIGER

Ironically, Doniger said, the brand of Hinduism the fundamentalists are promoting is one that was shaped by 19th-century British Protestants, who objected to “the sex, the sacrifice, and the sorts of things that reminded them of Catholicism, like the worship of multiple deities and the use of images.” They influenced “a thin layer of Hinduism that happens to be prominent politically now,” she said, while “most of Hinduism stayed as it was”—the earthy, diverse, and vital culture that has been the subject of her voluminous scholarship.

“Gates of the Lord” curator Madhuvanti Ghose writes in a catalog essay that the Nathdwara artists carrying on the Pushtimarg tradition are struggling in the 21st century.

Without new patrons, she fears, the richly embellished world they continue to portray could come to an end. We have another month to see what would be lost; “Gates of the Lord” closes January 3. v

" @DeannaIsaacs DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 13

Chamber Opera Chicago presents Gian Carlo Menotti’s

The 10th anniversary of this treasured Chicago holiday tradition, perfect for all ages!

December 19 & 20 at 3:00PM Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Chicago Public Library Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State St. Sung in English with Orchestra, featuring dancers from Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater & a Children’s Chorus.

“First rate.... The parting of mother & son at the work’s close was moving indeed.” Richard Covello, NIB Foundation

Tickets ($10-$25) • chamberoperachicago.org • 312.951.7944 14 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

R READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

F

ARTS & CULTURE Second City’s Holidazed and Confused ! COURTESY PARAMOUNT THEATRE

supplying a production that’s as Christian as it is jolly. Don’t expect nonsectarian holiday cheer a la A Christmas Carol. —TONY ADLER Through 1/3: Sat-Sun 10 AM; also Mon 12/21, 10 AM and 1 PM; Tue 12/22-Wed 12/23, 10 AM; Mon 12/28-Thu 12/31, 10 AM, Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan, 312-977-1700, broadwayinchicago.com, $16-$30.

R THEATER

Ho ho ho, more holiday shows

By READER STAFF

A BEER CAROL You’ve got to hand it to Steve Mosqueda and Sean Benjamin. They’ve stayed true to their vision for Drinking and Writing Theater at the risk of their livers.

Even hallowed yuletide traditions get bent (as it were) to their intentions. First staged in 2011, A Beer Carol recasts Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol as the inspirational tale of Bud Miller, ruthless CEO of the Milweiser Beer Company, whose piss-purveying ways are changed by visits from the spirits of beer’s key ingredients: water, grain, hops, and yeast. There are some odd and funny passages, especially when it comes to Carolyn Shoemaker-Benjamin’s performance as a very peculiar Tiny Tim. But the show is more amusing than uproarious overall—a pleasantly goofy way to pass an hour while nursing a beer. —TONY ADLER Through 12/27: Sat 4 PM; also Tue 12/22-Wed 12/23, 8 PM; Sun 12/27, 4 PM, Haymarket Pub & Brewery, 737 W. Randolph, 312638-0700, haymarketbrewing.com, $20.

R

BURNING BLUEBEARD As far as holiday classics go, it’s safe to assume Jay Torrence’s 2011 docu-fantasy has the highest body count. In the charred remains of the Iroquois Theatre, the 1903 Chicago spectacle-turned-disaster where nearly 600

women and children burned and suffocated in the worst building fire in American history, six actors and crew try to complete the show’s final act—this time without killing everyone.

Directed by Halena Kays, this coproduction from the Hypocrites and the Ruffians masterfully pivots between gallows humor and paralyzing moments of awe; it’s unpredictable, musical, and manipulative in the best way, a critical piece of local history told by a collective exemplifying style on the Chicago stage.

—DAN JAKES Through 1/10: Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM (no shows 12/25), Sun 3 PM; also Sun 12/20, 12/27, and 1/3, 7 PM; Wed 12/30, 3 and 8 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, goruffians.org, $36.

A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS This Emerald City Theatre children’s show opens on a big old television set of the type that would’ve been in use around 1965, when the original A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted on CBS. The device is more than an homage: it pulls us back to a time when few thought twice about a major network running an animated special that—spoiler alert—ends up extolling the Jesus-as-savior narrative found in the Gospels. Eric Schaeffer’s script and Ernie Nolan’s 45-minute staging hold tight to anachronism,

CLARA & THE NUTCRACKER Piccolo Theatre’s annual Christmas panto continues its long-standing tradition of turning traditional holiday fairy tales on their heads.

This Nutcracker adaptation by Jessica Puller, who penned music and lyrics with Derrick Gaetke, is as far from the classic ballet as one can imagine, featuring Liz Dillard as a feisty Clara with two left feet. Preferring punches to plies, she embarks on a dangerous adventure into the Land of Sweets to save kidnapped Princess Marie and help the Nutcracker Prince retake his throne. On the night I attended, the only thing junior audience members loved more than booing the Rat King was shouting “Tschaikovsky!” as the southern-belle Sugar Plum Fairy, played by a lovably off-kilter Joshua D. Allard, worked her magic.

—MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 12/20: Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 3 and 7:30 PM (except 12/20, 3 PM only), Piccolo Theatre, Evanston Arts Depot, 600 Main, Evanston, 847-424-0089, piccolotheatre. com, $27.

THE GREAT ANNOYANCE MELODRAMA AND VAUDEVILLE REVUE Performing family-friendly fare in a venue like Annoyance Theater—where “Suck my cok” [sic] is a Thought of the Day on the chalk menu at the bar—must be like working with one hand tied behind your back. C.J. Tuor’s goofy production, though, succeeds in capitalizing on the antics of a cartoonish, physical cast of ten. Music by Robbie Ellis underscores a mustachioed villain’s attempt to rig a holiday competition for the tallest tree in town. There are some original send-ups of vaudeville tropes, but over the course of two acts even the youngest viewers may find the humor meriting more smiles than laughs. —DAN JAKES Through 12/27: Sun 8 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $12.

R

HELLCAB Once an edgy late-night offering, Will Kern’s portrait of a crappy day in the life of a Chicago cabdriver—which ran for nine years starting in 1992—has become a Christmastime tradition at Profiles Theatre.

That’s not to suggest, however, that director Eric Burgher and his enormous cast of 33 players have toned down the ferocity of the work.

The parade of jerks, drunks, horn dogs, and lost souls who pass through the taxi on a gray Christmas Eve remain as vivid and gnarly as ever. As the driver, Chicago newcomer Zlatomir Moldovanski brings a surprising vulnerability to a role that seems on the surface an exercise in sneering misanthropy. He might profess to hate humanity, but by the end we don’t believe him. —ZAC THOMPSON Through 1/10: Thu-Fri 8 PM (no shows 12/24-12/25), Sat 5 and 8 PM, Sun 7 PM, Profiles Theatre, Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway, 773-549-1815, profilestheatre.org, $35-$40.

R

HOLIDAZED AND CONFUSED What makes this show remarkable isn’t its structure—anyone who’s been to Second City is familiar with the sketch format. It’s the quirky, likable cast, a diverse gaggle of hilarious misfits, each of whom finds a way of communicating her or his own brand of funny.

Jasbir Singh amazes with his Chaplinesque physical comedy. Martin Morrow and Ali Barthwell kill in an audience-participation piece about Kwanzaa. But to single out three is hardly fair in a show packed with such energetic, able performers. —JACK HELBIG Through 12/31: times vary, see website, Up Comedy Club, 230 W. North, 312-337-3992, upcomedyclub.com, $31-$41.

R

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: LIVE IN CHICAGO! The relentlessly heartwarming preshow for American Blues Theater’s annual holiday offering nearly ruined my evening: 20 minutes of Christmas singalongs, audience birthday announcements, holiday musical quizzes (one just for the kids!), a barbershop rendition of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” But the savvy performances in director Gwendolyn Whiteside’s expertly paced production, the precision of Michael Mahler’s spirited musical direction, and the ingenuity of Frank Capra’s 1946 film—here adapted into a faux radio broadcast—ultimately left me in a state of pure delight. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 12/28: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM (no show 12/25), Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM; also Sat 12/20, 4:30 PM; Mon 12/21, 2:30 and 5:30 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, americanbluestheater.com, $19-$49. v

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 15

ARTS & CULTURE S P E C I A L

A D V E R T I S I N G

S E C T I O N

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16 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

COMEDY

Dave Maher turns his coma into comedy

By BRIANNA WELLEN

O

n November 17, 2014, comedian Dave Maher woke up and checked his Facebook account, where he saw that his friends and family had been mourning him as if he were already dead. That’s because on October 22 he went into a diabetic coma—for three and a half weeks his condition had shown no signs of improvement, and friends and family assumed he was lost. But after being moved to a hospital in his hometown of Cincinnati he was revived, just days before his parents had to decide whether or not to take him off life support. Now, the 31-year-old stand-up tells his story on stage at the Annoyance in the Dave Maher Coma Show.

“For a while I wanted to call it Dave Maher: Unplugged, because I was almost taken off life support,” Maher says. “It’s of course recognizing that this giant thing that happened to me is not just material for my comedy—it’s something I have to deal with. But having the requirement to make people laugh has made my exploration more pointed.”

Maher came to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago, where he started doing improv with the college’s team; three years ago, he made the transition into stand-up comedy.

While thriving creatively, he was simultaneously treating his body poorly—drinking too much, smoking weed, and ignoring his diabetic dietary needs—which eventually led to his nearly monthlong coma, another month in the hospital, then a month living with his parents in Cincinnati. He returned to Chicago with a new perspective, and the Coma Show was born.

Inspired by stand-up Mike Birbiglia’s storytelling approach to comedy, Maher gradually fine-tuned the show’s narrative style. “The show basically is medical and psychological, with a social-tech aspect, like Facebook eulogies,” Maher says. “A huge chunk is in the hospital, like weird wounds and first showers, and then coming back and making meaning from that.”

Maher has discovered a medical-focused audience of nurses and doctors who rarely see their coma patients a year later. They’ve told him that it’s comforting to see how someone in his state is doing. The Coma Show has also been helpful for Maher’s family, specifically his parents, who are grateful that he’s become healthy and transformed a negative life experience into creative expression, and his sister, who is pursuing family medicine after dealing with so many medical professionals.

The last performance of the Coma Show in Chicago is December 18, but it’s not the end of Maher’s story: he wants to perform the show in other cities as well, especially where friends who eulogized him now reside. His ultimate goal? To take the show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and possibly turn it into a film.

“I’ve been given this weird, shitty gift,” Maher says. “Why not use it for something?” v R DAVE MAHER COMA SHOW Through 12/18: Fri 8 PM, the Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance. com, $8.

! @BriannaWellen

! TODD ROSENBERG

ARTS & CULTURE

DANCE

CRYSTAL PITE and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago are a perfect match. Pite, a rising choreographer out of Canada, creates tightly wound and compact pieces that both compel visually and offer larger philosophical insights into the machinations of the process of dance. Her work is smart, and few companies could master the precision latent in her pieces.

But Hubbard Street is unlike most other companies. The troupe thrives on the physicality of dance; each of its seasonal series offers structural works that push not just the performers but the possibilities of the human body itself. The spring series featured Pite’s A Picture of You Falling, an enigmatic solo that pushes even further, engaging the dancer’s psyche and limbs at once.

Next week, as part of its winter performance series, Hubbard Street will present the premiere U.S. production of Pite’s Solo Echo, which also marks the company’s first ensemble work by the choreographer.

Despite the larger cast, Pite’s signature solo elements remain, in particular fullbody movements that articulate the body in motion. “It brings out most of her qualities in terms of a choreographer,” says Eric Beauchesne, who staged the piece for the company. “There is a clarity in terms of the physicality of her work.”

Rounding out the program are Robyn Mineko Williams’s Waxing Moon, a trio set to music by Chicago composers Robert F. Haynes and Tony Lazzara; Out of Keeping, a world premiere from Hubbard Street dancer Penny Saunders; and A Glimpse Inside a Shared Story, by Chinese choreographer Yin Yue, performed by Hubbard Street 2. —BRITT JULIOUS R HUBBARD STREET DANCE WINTER SERIES 12/10-12/13: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph, 312-334-7777, harristheaterchicago.org, $30-$99.

! COURTESY UNABRIDGED BOOKSTORE

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LIT

Unabridged still thrives at 35

By AIMEE LEVITT

W

hen Ed Devereux opened Unabridged Bookstore on November 1, 1980, with two business partners and $18,000, he had no idea if the store would last.

Though, to be honest, he wasn’t thinking very far ahead at all. “When you’re 27,” he says, “you don’t ever think you’re going to be 62.

When you’re young, you’re fearless.”

But now Unabridged is celebrating its 35th birthday and pulling out all the stops: 10 percent discounts on every book in the store, and on December 12, a party with treats prepared by the store’s cookbook-testing team, raffles of some of Devereux’s favorite books, and a photo retrospective of the store’s growth from storefront to neighborhood institution.

Though Devereux was relatively young when Unabridged opened, he was already a seasoned

bookseller. As a student at the University of Illinois, he’d reduced his course load to two classes a semester so he could work 37 hours a week at the campus bookshop. After college, he worked at bookstores in San Francisco and at Barbara’s in Chicago before taking a job as a publisher’s rep for Ballantine Books. As he traveled around the country visiting bookstores, he kept thinking, “I can do better.” Coincidentally, that fall, the storefront at 3251 N. Broadway in Lakeview, just around the corner from his apartment, went up for rent for $800 a month.

“How hard would it be?” Devereux remembers thinking. His father helped him build the bookshelves. In order to buy more books, Devereux worked full-time for less than minimum wage; his partners, who worked part-time, took no salary at all. “The store,” he says, “was a success from the start. It was

a few years before I got a real wage or my first bonus. But we were surviving!”

Eventually the store not only survived but thrived, expanding to fill two more neighboring storefronts and a basement.

Unabridged has weathered some heavy competition throughout its history, starting with the discount chain Crown Books, which opened a location on Clark Street in the early 80s. Devereux realized he couldn’t afford to sell books nearly at cost the way Crown could, but he could provide another service: being a true neighborhood bookstore. Unabridged was lucky to be located in a diverse and densely populated neighborhood filled with educated people who liked to read. Thus Devereux stumbled on a consistent business strategy. “I had a purist notion of what a bookstore should be,” he says. “I had a mission and stuck with it.”

He has never been tempted to sell gifts (“books and books only”), coffee (“we already had Caribou and the Coffee & Tea Exchange on the block”), or e-books (“I never understood the idea of embracing e-books; it’s like being in bed with the devil”; they also don’t bring in any money). Instead he concentrated on providing a well-curated selection of titles, even in the remainder section, and maintaining a long-standing staff of well-paid, well-read booksellers who can be trusted to provide solid recommendations.

“I personally think the store’s success is due to its great employees,” Devereux says. “We pay them living wages, with health care and vacation time. This sets the store apart: that the people who work there make a good living.”

The staff has been central to helping the store build a solid core of customers, which, in turn, helped it survive the 2008 recession that buried every other bookstore in the neighborhood, including the behemoth Borders at Clark and Diversey.

“It’s a rock of stability,” says the writer Jonathan Eig, who first moved to Lakeview 20 years ago and has never lived more than three blocks from the bookstore. “It hasn’t changed much, which is rare for our neighborhood. It’s had the same window shelf. When I got my first book published, it was a great, great feeling to see it in the window. There are two places you want to see your book: on your mom’s coffee table and in the window of your neighborhood bookstore.” vUNABRIDGED BOOKSTORE 35TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY Sat 12/12, 6 PM, Unabridged Bookstore, 3251 N. Broadway, 773-883-9119, unabridgedbookstore.com. F

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ARTS & CULTURE VISUAL ART

Printworks turns 35 and bids farewell to co-owner Sidney Block

By JEFF HUEBNER

O

Kerry James Marshall, Stephen DeSantis and Curtis Bartone (from top) contributed to this exquisite corpse. ! WM. H. BENGTSON

ver the years, Bob Hiebert and Sidney Block had become known for staging ambitious themed group shows featuring dozens of artists—from big names to virtual unknowns—in their cramped but venerable Printworks Gallery in River North. For their 20th anniversary, in 2000, Sid and Bob—or Bob and Sid, as everyone variably called them—organized a “Self-Portraits” exhibit involving 60 artists; for their 25th, they mounted a show in which 72 participants designed bookplates honoring the artists and writers, filmmakers, and philosophers who’d influenced their lives.

With “Return of the Exquisite Corpse: 35th Anniversary Group Show,” the gallery has outdone itself. But sadly, it’s also Sid and Bob’s final collaboration. Sid died last week at age 91.

“There’s no question he would’ve wanted us to go on with the show,” Bob says.

The exhibit features 35 three-part works by 105 artists, and gives a new spin to the old surrealist parlor game in which players take turns mixing and matching disparate images to create randomly collaborative pictures.

As in Printworks’ past group shows, the participants represent a veritable cross section of Chicago art history (and beyond) from the 1950s to the present.

“When I’ve asked blue-chip artists such as Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Kerry James Marshall, Susanna Coffey, there’s no reason why they would have to say yes,” explains Bob. “Yet they always do—they’ve always supported us.

But also I’d like to prove that there are a lot of wonderful artists who slip through the cracks.”

Sid and Bob, who’s 68, consulted their impressive Rolodex, filled with not just the names of their roster of about 50 artists but also other painters, sculptors, printmakers, and professors who visit the shop, drawn by its curious print-cabinet-like ambience and quirky but welcoming owners.

Once they had the 105 artists for the new show, names were randomly drawn and artists were assigned a body part—head, torso, or legs. The gallery sent each artist a sheet of colored archival paper, on which he or she drew or painted portions of human, animal, or fanciful figures.

Participants range from veterans such as

Richard Hunt, Robert Barnes, and Evelyn Statsinger to gallery luminaries like author Audrey Niffenegger to a half-dozen artists associated with the 1960s Chicago Imagists and the Hairy Who to stalwarts such as William Conger, John Himmelfarb, and Eleanor Spiess-Ferris to younger artists like Mark Bowers and Kate McQuillen.

As you might imagine, the results are mixed—how could they not be? Gorgeousness and grotesquery will be in the eye of the beholder. Some of the pieces are surprisingly harmonious, as if they were composed by one hand, while most are wildly dissimilar. It’s surrealism. It has been said that depictions of distressed figures is one of the hallmarks of post-World War II Chicago art, and this show makes that case without even trying.

The celebration, though, will be bittersweet. Not only were Bob and Sid business partners, they’d been best friends since they met in 1969, when Bob rented a darkroom in the offices of the graphic design firm where Sid worked. They teamed to open a gallery specializing in works on paper in 1980.

But within the last year, Sid’s health had declined to the point where he’d been unable to come to work. He passed away Thanksgiving Eve. “A birthday celebration of Sid’s life,” as Bob calls it, is planned at Jean Albano Gallery December 16, when Sid would’ve turned 92.

Printworks’ lease is up next August, and shows are booked through then. After that, Bob says, “our future is murky.” He cites a shrinking River North gallery district and an aging collector base.

“It was never my gallery or Sidney’s gallery, it was always our gallery,” he says. “I’m so used to him being across the desk from me.

When people think of Printworks, I’d like to believe they think of us as interchangeable.

It’s tough thinking about being here without him.” v“RETURN OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE: 35TH ANNIVERSARY GROUP SHOW” Opening Fri 12/4, 5-8 PM, continues through 2/13/2016, Printworks Gallery, 311 W. Superior, 312-664-9407, printworkschicago.com. Sid Block’s life celebration Wed 12/16, 5:30 PM, Jean Albano Gallery, 215 W. Superior, 312-440-0770, jeanalbanogallery. com. F

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 19

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ARTS & CULTURE Chi-Raq

MOVIES

My kind of war zone

By LEOR GALIL

S

pike Lee never had a chance. That’s been clear since April, when the bile burst forth in response to the title of his new movie: Chi-Raq. A portmanteau of “Chicago” and “Iraq,” the term unfavorably compares shooting deaths in this city with those of Americans serving in Iraq.

It originated with drill, a menacing, nihilistic, and violent hip-hop sound that rocketed from Chicago’s south side to rap’s hilltop a few years ago. In 2014 Noisey, a music site created

by Vice, the alternative media empire valued in the low billions, launched a dreadful eightpart Web documentary on Chicago hip-hop and gun violence called Chiraq.

Noisey’s unenlightening venture drew millions of YouTube viewers but raised fewer hackles than Lee’s new film when all we knew was the title. In April, Mayor Emanuel publicly denounced it for its negative connotations, and during the summer, Fourth Ward alderman Will Burns pushed a resolution calling for the state of Illinois to reject Lee’s tax-break application. Once news broke that Lee’s ChiRaq would be a remake of Aristophanes’s Lysistrata, about a group of women who start ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

a sex strike to end the Peloponnesian War, the think-piece generator shifted into overdrive, and for those who tend to the wounds of Chicago street violence, the thought of seeing their pain being portrayed as a sex satire has been too much to handle. Lee’s finished project isn’t strong enough to meet the mounting complaints against it—or say anything meaningful about the city’s murder rate that hasn’t been said better elsewhere.

But Lee gives it an admirable shot. The film opens with a tepid track by actor Nick Cannon called “Pray 4 My City” whose shallow lyrics about street violence appear against a black screen (“Please pray for my city / Too much hate in my city”). The song is quickly followed by a series of statistics (gun deaths of Americans serving in Afghanistan and Iraq; shooting deaths of civilians in Chicago) and a snippet of a speech by Reverend Michael Pfleger, senior pastor of Saint Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham and the “spiritual adviser” for Chi-Raq. A few shootings later, Miss Helen, a friendly Englewood sage played by Angela Bassett, proclaims her distaste for the word “Chi-raq.” Lee’s will-

ss AVERAGE

s POOR

ingness to show his heart is in the right place can overwhelm the story.

Chi-Raq follows Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) as she faces down the senseless violence in Chicago. Her lover, Chi-Raq (Cannon), a rising rapper who likes to reference Tupac during foreplay, leads a purple-clad gang called the Spartans. Their rivals are the Trojans, who are clad in orange and whose leader, Cyclops (Wesley Snipes), sports a jewel-encrusted eyepatch and chortles like a hyena. Gang violence breaks out at the beginning of the film with spurts of gunfire during a Chi-Raq show at the Double Door, and the incident quickly spills onto social media—Twitter messages from social-media drillers representing both gangs flood the screen in purple and orange blocks.

Hoping to get to Chi-Raq, Cyclops torches Lysistrata’s house.

Lysistrata is finally moved to act after happening upon police tape and the sheet-draped body of a young girl struck by a stray bullet. At the behest of Miss Helen, Lysistrata researches Leymah Gbowee, cofounder of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, which helped end the country’s 2003 civil war with a series of nonviolent protests that included, yes, a sex strike. Lysistrata decides to unite the Spartan and Trojan women behind this idea. In no time they take control of a National Guard armory from Major King Kong (David Patrick Kelly), a white Confederate sympathizer with a fetish for black women. All the while Samuel L. Jackson’s Dolmedes serves as the finely dressed,

foul-mouthed Greek chorus. He drinks from a chalice branded with his name and can freeze time and summon extras to help fill in the story’s gaps with playful rhymes.

The entire cast speaks in verse, one of many distractions from the serious, um, thrust of the story. As Lee and cowriter Kevin Willmott (Jayhawkers, C.S.A: The Confederate States of America) explore the nether regions of their thesaurus seeking synonyms for sex, the movie is increasingly driven by the quest for booty. One of the more inspired narrative twists involves the police attempting to coax the sex strikers out of the armory with the aid of a PA system and irresistible 70s slow jams. The resulting dance sequence—with the women inside the armory strutting around in army fatigues and chastity belts and the men outside stripped to their undergarments— sets a high bar for absurdist satire that the rest of the film is unable to clear.

With so much oxygen wasted on sexually frustrated men, it’s easy to forget about the gunshots that opened the film. Lee juggles a large cast of characters, so large that there isn’t enough screen time for those who reckon most with the consequences of gun violence. John Cusack plays Father Mike Corridan, a character clearly inspired by Pfleger, but he reigns in just one scene, eulogizing the girl who died and shouting himself hoarse as he rattles off statistics about the systemic failures that have crippled Auburn Gresham.

As the girl’s mother, Jennifer Hudson isn’t given much to do with her golden pipes but scream and moan. Her daughter is only ever seen lying beneath a white sheet and in a white casket.

The child’s absence from the story underscores one of the biggest problems with dramatizing the carnage in Chicago: we rarely get to see victims of violence for their humanity, only for their loss of life. At the end of Chi-Raq, as the cast encourages Chi-Raq to confront his perverse pistol-packing lifestyle and the pain he’s wrought, an army of people dressed in white appear in the background holding enlarged photos of black people taken by violence. More than likely these are real people killed in Chicago, but their names aren’t mentioned. In Chicago, as in the movie, they live in the background. v CHI-RAQ ss Directed by Spike Lee. R. Cicero Showplace 14, Crown Village 18. River East 21, Showplace ICON

! @imLeor

= WORTHLESS

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 21

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D R U G F A C T O R Y P R E S S / Ryan Duggan

THE MISERICORDIA YOUNG PROFESSIONALS COUNCIL

INVITES YOU TO RING IN 2016 WITH

Ryan Duggan is a local artist and printer working

NEW YEAR’S DAY

in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago.

Art and music have always been Ryan’s strongest interests and about ten years ago, he found his place between the two.

Most of his friends were in bands and he had a rudimentary understanding of screen printing, so he started making posters. Over time, word spread and Ryan worked with more and more

BRUNCH

bands, local and otherwise.

In addition to concert posters, Ryan began making art prints and in 2013 he had enough work coming in to convince himself that he could quit his day job. In the time since then, he’s passed the 200th poster of his career and released two different books about his work.

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J U L I E T J E W E L R Y / Julie Schmidt Julie Schmidt is the

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founder/designer of Juliet Jewelry. Born in

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the Midwest, she has lived on both coasts and settled in Chicago.

Julie has an affinity for open spaces, deep conversations, clean lines and modern design work. She lives by “less is more” and is a true minimalist ; the jewelry she creates reflects it. Her jewelry business started when a friend wanted a particular necklace and Julie thought she could make it — and she did; jewelry requests then started to flow her way. All the while she was working with her then partner opening and running a new restaurant. As life evolved all of that ended and Julie found herself out of the relationship and out of a job. She literally said a prayer and moved forward with Juliet Jewelry full time in 1998 — the hardest year of Julie’s life yet, but the most courageous.

J U L I E TJ E W E L R Y. CO M

Sunday · December 20, 2015 · 11am-5pm Chicago Plumbers Hall · 1340 W Washington For more information, visit ChicagoReader.com/MadeInChicago 22 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

presents

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K i m o c h S o u n d u n f m i l i a b y d e s İ g This Chicago ambient techno label doesn’t chase trends,

v

but its music finds the right ears anyway.

i : r E n

sell downloads, or send out press releases,

By LEOR GALIL

Kimochi Sound founder Max, who records as Area and DJs as M50 ! JOHN STURDY

arly last month I was flipping through LPs at Pilsen’s new 606 Records when an ambient techno track playing through the store’s speakers caught my ears: dulcet flutelike synth droplets steadily echoing and arpeggiating, chirping crickets, pulsing brittle hi-hats. Like many smartphone users, I sometimes bust out Shazam to identify an unfamiliar song in public; sometimes it doesn’t work, and I fight back my embarrassment to ask someone who might know. But considering how often a song piques my curiosity, I rarely remember to follow up—I’ll type a note on my phone or send myself an e-mail, but usually the e-mail gets buried in my inbox or I forget that I ever wrote the note.

This time, at least, I didn’t have to ask. Alejandro Zerah, a DJ who runs a local label called Hesperian Sound Division, was spinning vinyl at 606 Records. I overheard him talking to the shop’s owners, Tim Unsell and Drew Mitchell, about the song that had gotten its hooks into me—it was from a recent 12-inch EP by Russian producer Shine Grooves. The record had come out in early October on an under-theradar local label called Kimochi Sound.

I’d never heard of Kimochi before, and when I reached the label’s founder, he identified himself only as Max. (He kept his age off the record too.) He says he has no phone, and we never met in person—I interviewed him via Skype. Kimochi has only one other staffer, who doesn’t live in town. The label has never used a publicist, and when it put out its first release, the 2011 EP Tenderness by Max’s producer alter ego Area, it had no distributor. (It’s since started working with Chicago-based Crosstalk International.) Our conversation was the first time Max had talked to anyone from the media in his capacity as owner and operator of Kimochi Sound.

Max has toured internationally as a DJ under the name M50, which is also what he calls himself on WNUR’s long-running house and hiphop show, Streetbeat, which he’s been part of since the late 90s. By the end of 2012, Kimochi had managed six releases, half of them Max’s own music as Area. Since then, though, he’s put the tracks he’s made for Kimochi on the back burner, releasing material elsewhere instead— the label has focused on music by other J

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continued from 23 artists, including techno veterans such as New York-based South African producer Brendon Moeller and German native Benjamin Brunn.

Kimochi puts out music only on 12-inch vinyl—it can be streamed online but not bought digitally, and the vinyl doesn’t come with a download code. Seven of its 18 releases have sold out editions of 200 or 300 copies through Bandcamp, though they’re all still available via Crosstalk. This modest success notwithstanding, Max remains pleasantly surprised whenever someone reaches out to him about Kimochi—he even asked me how I found him. Often people discover Kimochi through a friend or by stumbling upon one of the records at a shop. “I just had one the other day—‘I was in Japan a little while ago and found your records,’” Max says. He’d booked some gigs in Japan that happened to fall near the release of Tenderness, and he took advantage of his time overseas to sell the vinyl to a few stores in Tokyo. “With the first record I didn’t have any distribution at all,” he says. “I was going from record store to record store.”

The label’s name is a Japanese word, but that’s just happenstance. Max picked “kimochi,” which translates roughly as “feeling,” because in his understanding it’s meaningless on its own—it needs to be attached to another word that will characterize the feeling in question. This open-endedness reflects the stylistic freedom he wants Kimochi to have. He’s less interested in achieving a distinct aesthetic than in releasing what he calls “personal” recordings—tracks that sound introverted, a little rough, possibly unfinished. “Almost all the artists I’m working with are doing a whole variety of sounds,” Max says. “No one’s locked into one thing.” The only quality that everything in the label’s catalog shares is a hard-to-define intimacy. Graphic designer Aaron Shinn, a friend of Max’s who’s responsible for the artwork on Kimochi’s packaging, can’t put his finger on it either: “Not every release sounds the same as every other release,” he says, “but it’s all out of the norm in the same sort of way.”

Max, or rather Area, released his first music on vinyl in 2006, after dropping several digital tracks. Mathematics Recordings founder Jamal Moss, best known as producer Hieroglyphic Being, asked him to remix “Maniac,” a raw, bubbling track by ghetto-house wizard Steve Poindexter. Max called his hiccupping, acid-fried remix “Area’s Lost Meaning Version.”

Max put out a few 12-inches as Area on other labels before launching Kimochi to release Tenderness—he’d tried shopping the record around shortly after finishing it in 2010, but he didn’t get great responses. “I felt like this was

Kimochi’s visuals are the work of designer and label partner Aaron Shinn, who creates the stencils that Max uses to spray-paint every record sleeve. ! JOHN STURDY

strong material for me,” he says. The 12-inch’s second track, “So Many Fireflies,” which features blown-out percussion and what sounds like a distorted and muffled horn melody, is exemplary of Kimochi’s best material: despite its rawness, it establishes a soothing, immersive groove that I wish would continue long after the song evaporates.

After Max began thinking about starting his own label, he reached out to Shinn, a friend from his early days at WNUR. Max wanted Shinn to help create Kimochi’s visual aesthetic, and Shinn agreed to work within the label’s shoestring budget. Max didn’t have money for professional printing, so he wanted to try something DIY for his album covers—but Shinn, who lives in LA now and lived in the Bay Area then, wouldn’t be able to help assemble the sleeves in person. “I had to come up with a way of designing for somebody else to execute the designs by hand,” he says.

Shinn eventually found a laser cutter and made stencils that would let Max spray-paint precise designs onto Kimochi’s LPs. “We could basically make these stencils that could be used again and again,” Shinn says. The two of them collaborate on the art for each 12inch, creating a unique design that’s linked to the preceding and subsequent releases.

“It’s always thought of as a narrative,” Shinn says. “He’s a very conceptual thinker, and he’s always got a reason for what he’s doing even though that will probably be unspoken in the finished product.” The center labels, which show through cutouts in the sleeves, are printed at the pressing plant, but the rest is done by hand: simple, serene designs on white or black covers, often with a cloudy layer of color on top. The imagery has included swarming oblong blobs, delicate tentacles, tree branches, and large shaded circles. Shinn mails his stencils to Max, who paints hundreds of sleeves.

Kimochi actually began well before Tenderness came out, when Max launched a Kickstarter in July 2010. “I thought, ‘This is a good idea—I’ll see if enough people think it’s a good idea,’” he says. He set his sights low, setting his goal at $500; when the campaign wrapped up at the end of August, 33 people had donated a total of $900. Kimochi released 200 copies of Tenderness on New Year’s Day 2011, and Max had sold half of them—and put out the label’s second release—by the time Crosstalk approached him that summer.

As Kimochi grew, Max started reaching out to other musicians to contribute—generally friends such as Moeller whose music he’d enjoyed playing. The two of them had been in

touch since 2006, when Max sent some Area tracks to Moeller, who was in New York working A&R for Francois K’s Wave Music; in 2012 Wave released the Area full-length Where I Am Now. For Kimoji’s eighth 12-inch, Tak, Moeller contributed the smoldering dub-techno cut “Sitting Duck,” which also appears in two remixes by guest artists. He recorded it while he was on the road a lot and his life was consumed by live techno. “That track was sort of a response to that—wanting to slow things down and make things sort of simpler and groovier,” Moeller says. “It was kind of the antithesis of what I was out there playing in DJ sets.”

Moeller admires Max in part because he’s so unconcerned with trends. “He’s basically avoiding every sort of overplayed, cliched, or homogenized genre or approach,” he says. “He has this little ear for quirky things as well.” Moeller also appreciates that Max lets Kimochi operate at its own pace “in an industry run over by sycophants and maniacal social-media whores”—he doesn’t see much value in trying to keep up with the Joneses. “I hope we get to do something again,” Moeller says. “I’m sure we will.”

Max admits that he moves slower than most label heads, but Kimochi has grown almost despite him. It’s released five 12-inches per year in the past two years, up from two in 2013.

After Kimochi’s 15th record—April’s Adapted,

by German collective UD—Max and Shinn switched from white sleeves to black for the three most recent. But Max still hasn’t gotten back around to any of the material he made with Kimochi in mind. “I’m more patient with me,” he says. If he drags his feet with his own stuff, he explains, “I don’t yell at me.”

Kimochi has already lived up to some of the visions that have driven Max from the beginning. “The little labels that have been inspirational to me—that I was kind of thinking I could do something like them—were all pretty slow, and kind of more art projects than big business,” he says. But he’s got so many releases waiting for his attention that he feels compelled to go faster than he’d like. “The problem is I have this music I want to put out.”

Max is taking on more label responsibilities in other ways too—in March he’ll launch an imprint called Tesuji. “I don’t want to pigeonhole it too much, because I feel like I’m gonna break it, but something more about rhythm, poise, and attitude,” he says. Each Tesuji record will have only two tracks, and all will include some collaborative element. And of course, the music has to strike Max’s fancy.

“I can’t say what’s gonna be cool a year from now,” he says. “I just know what I like.” v

" @imLeor DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 25

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Jandek performs at a festival in Houston in 2013. ! RANDALL PUGH VIA FLICKR

The bells of the carillon at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel ! BRIAN JACKSON/SUN-TIMES MEDIA

The cover of Chaos Echoes’ Transient

LUCA CIMARUSTI Reader music

STEVEN HESS Drummer for Locrian,

MIKE WEIS Drummer for Zelienople,

Dead & Company bootlegs The version of the Grateful Dead on the arena circuit now includes none other than John Mayer—the musical equivalent of a jersey bedsheet—filling in for the late, great Jerry Garcia. And as much as it pains me to say this, he’s totally killing it. Maybe because he’s only a little more than half the age of the surviving Dead members, he’s injecting these songs with the sort of energy not heard from the band since the 70s. Do I like John Mayer now? Bring this tour to Chicago, please!

Killing Joke, Pylon Like a lot of teens in the 80s, I was introduced to Killing Joke through Metallica’s cover of “The Wait.” From that point onward, I became a slightly obsessed fan. I recall listening to their 1980 self-titled release and the 1990 album Extremities, Dirt and Various Repressed Emotions on a daily basis, which possibly created a subliminal influence—or damage, depending on how you look at it—that’s still with me. Pylon, the latest release from the original members, brings classic KJ to mind with its sound, structure, and politically and environmentally charged lyrics. The usual dose of experimentation is there too, and the sound is a bit fuller than back in the day.

The carillon at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel Last December I took a tour of the carillon on the U. of C. campus, the second-heaviest such instrument in the world, and got a closeup experience of its 72 bells in action. It was frigid that morning, but the tiny performance cabin way up in its tower in the sky was cozy— we watched as the carillon player hammered at the “keyboard” with his fists, creating a sublime, cascading aural bath of heavenly tones and textures.

listings coordinator

Rev//Rev Indiana’s TV Ghost were one of my favorite current-day bands, so I guess it should be no surprise that the projects bubbling up from the ooze of their disintegration are really doing it for me as well. Rev//Rev, the new trio led by front man Tim Gick, take TV Ghost’s dramatic, spooky postpunk as a foundation, but instead of delivering it with the bombast of a five-piece rock band, they concentrate it into its purest form using synths, sequencers, and drum machines. Rev//Rev make excellently freaky and damaged gothy dance music.

Jandek I’ve recently started delving into the massive discography of this formerly mysterious outsider-folk weirdo. On his more than 70 records, he works with twisted, atonal acoustic-guitar musings, heartbreaking country tunes, and minimal, fractured bleakness.

Jandek is the perfect soundtrack for the impending Chicago winter.

RLYR, Cleared, and Haptic

The Rempis Percussion Quartet, Cash and Carry I could go on and on about how incredibly talented each of these players is, and how as a quartet they completely take it to a new level. But this release is all about memories for me—of the Hungry Brain, music, and friends—and those are great memories.

Cash and Carry, which was recorded live at the Brain in August 2014, really captures that warm and cozy feeling I got every time I walked through those doors.

Chaos Echoes, Transient The latest LP from this French group is an epic, mind-bending experimental death-metal record. It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard, at least at this level of craftsmanship: deconstructed psychedelic doom, drone, dark ambience, full-on blasts, and hell, even some brushwork on the drums.

Every time I hear it I’m completely mesmerized and taken on some strange aural adventure.

Kwaidan, and Good Stuff House

The Monks of Songgwangsa Temple, Echoes of the Great Pines This disc collects exquisite recordings of daily rituals at a remote Buddhist monastery in Korea. Sounds play a large role in Korean Zen tradition, including the “Wake Up Sound” of the Great Bell at 3 AM, the gigantic Dharma Drum, the Wooden Fish Drum, and the Cloud Plate (an iron plate in the shape of a cloud). My favorite track is a brief recording of the Great Bell unaccompanied. This is at the opposite end of the bell-performance spectrum from the U. of C. carillon—just one bell, ringing until its sound decays before it’s struck again.

Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy, African Skies My friend sent me this 1993 record while I was recovering from cancer treatment a few summers ago, and I listened to it tirelessly during the two weeks I spent walking circles in my living room attached to a catheter. The hypnotic rhythms of its strings, which Cohran conceived of as an elegy to his mentor Sun Ra, were the perfect pain relievers.

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 27

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Recommended and notable shows, and critics’ insights for the week of December 3 b ALL AGES F

MUSIC Death in June

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Graveyard play bombastic 70s stadium rock like a hustling house-party band

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Sat 12/5, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $22

ON THEIR FOURTH ALBUM, the recent Innocence & Decadence (Nuclear Blast), Swedish four-piece Graveyard walk a fine line. Though their disarming swagger and corny bombast invoke the stadium rockers of the 70s (the ones who hadn’t yet learned to be circumspect about stealing from old bluesmen and young soul singers), they scrupulously avoid not only the ridiculous bloat that provoked the backlash of punk but also the joy-sucking ironic distance that afflicts most similarly retro-minded contemporary outfits. With his gruff, limber holler and grainy head voice, front man Joakim Nilsson sounds like Zeppelin-era Robert Plant with a few more city miles on him, but Graveyard play with the ingratiating house-party hustle of a band used to winning over dark clubs half-full of indifferent drunks, not selling out arenas. The strutting, sashaying “The Apple and the Tree” livens up its effervescent groove with frisky tambourine and sassy swipes of slide guitar; the barreling “Never Theirs to Sell” percolates with stuttering, syncopated bass drum and double-time hand claps; and the swaying, sentimental “Too Much Is Not Enough” adorns its postchorus breaks with faux gospel backup singers and playfully approximates stop time with a guitar part that fetches up on the backbeats. But Graveyard have modernized their shamelessly dated music in some key aspects: on “Magnetic Shunk,” for instance, they invert the toxic trope of the rock god and the groupie. “It’s nobody’s business who you give your kiss, but I’m telling all the world what they’re about to miss,” Nilsson sings. “No need to be gentle, baby, I like it raw / Treat me like I was crime, and you are the law.” —PHILIP MONTORO

For the third year in a row Douglas Pearce stops by Reggie’s with his storied postpunk-turned-postindustrial act Death in June, a band not without controversy (the name, for instance, refers to June 30, 1934, the “Night of the Long Knives,” during which Hitler orchestrated a number of political assassinations). The group’s use of Nazi imagery has placed their political ideals under scrutiny for 30-plus years, and even caused the cancellation of a 2003 show at the Empty Bottle. But they’re also not without heaps of merit, and are widely credited as the pioneer of the neofolk subgenre. Though many fans mourn the recent passing of percussionist John Murphy, it’s worth noting that for this go-round Pearce is joined onstage by Miro Snejdr, a Slovakian pianist-composer who captured his attention after posting a selection of Death in June covers on YouTube. Pearce enlisted Snejdr for 2010’s Peaceful Snow, and the two have been collaborating in studio and onstage since. Reflecting the pair’s posture of late, this performance will be intimate and piano driven, supplemented by bits of accordion and auxiliary percussion—and the requisite masks and runes, of course. —ERIN OSMON

Stephen Hough 7:30 PM, Galvin Recital Hall, Northwestern University, 70 E. Arts Circle Dr., Evanston, $30, $10 students. b The British pianist Stephen Hough continues to exhibit uncommon touch and restraint when it comes to the Romantic era. Earlier this year he released the stunning recording Grieg: Lyric Pieces (Hyperion), which features 27 of the 66 brief tone poems Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg published in ten volumes between 1867 and 1901.

Hough’s thoughtful, easy-flowing sequence J

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30 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

Dr. Ralph Stanley ! COURTESY WEBSTER PR

continued from 29

includes beautifully melancholic pieces as well as driving ones like “March of the Trolls,” all rendered with precision and clear-eyed directness. Also out this year is a Hyperion release where he mixes solo work by Alexander Scriabin and Leoš Janáček, sequencing the former’s Piano Sonata no. Five and some of his poèmes around the latter’s heartbreaking On the Overgrown Path, a ten-part cycle largely written after the 1903 death of the composer’s daughter and the initial failure of his opera Jenůfa.

Hough eschews anything mawkish and focuses on the differences between the composers: the long, flowing lines of Scriabin contrast with the shorter, sometimes repeating cells of Janáček. For this evening’s program he’ll perform Schubert’s Sonata in A Minor; Franck’s Prelude, Chorale et Fugue; and a couple each of Liszt’s Oubliees and Transcendental Études. Giving the work a contemporary component is the local premiere of his own Sonata III (“Trinitas”), which employs serialist techniques and focuses on the number three in some of its organizational gambits. —PETER MARGASAK

ist Jeff Parker, bass clarinetist Jason Stein, and alto saxophonist Caroline Davis. Rumback’s rumbling, post-Paul Motian playing—he adds heft, texture, and mood as much as timekeeping—is complemented by compositions as rich and dark as mahogany.

His melodies rely on Tate to maintain a pulse within the simmering collision of independent lines; during the quiet storminess of “Right Reasons” or the turbulent tranquility of “Dragons in Denver” beautifully scarred yet lapidary lines coalesce and pull apart, demonstrating the group’s simpatico.

The combination of the cool and muted tone of Parker’s guitar, the astringent bite of Davis’s serene alto, and the wonderfully rheumy edge of Stein’s swooping improvisations is something special—it’s what Rumback uses to bring his music to life. For tonight’s performance Parker will be replaced by Fred Lonberg-Holm, playing cello and tenor guitar.

—PETER MARGASAK

FRIDAY4

Charles Rumback Quintet 9 PM, Hungry Brain, 2319 W. Belmont. $10

Adam Busch In Tall Buildings headline; Adam Busch and Joe Adamik open, 10 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10.

Chicago drummer Charles Rumback has long been one of the city’s most versatile players, moving easily between jazz styles and gracefully bridging the gap between rock and experimental settings. Unfortunately, he’s routinely overlooked both here and outside the city. Yet so far this year he’s dropped three jazz-oriented albums: one as coleader alongside bassist John Tate and the others as a part of the collectives Stirrup and Whirlpool. (A duo recording with guitarist Ryley Walker has also surfaced as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event.) And on the new In the New Year (Ears & Eyes) he makes an overdue return as a bandleader, convening a top-notch quintet with Tate, guitar-

Adam Busch may have pulled up stakes and moved to Texas a year ago, but there’s still a lot of Chicago in his first solo album, River Of Bricks (Meno Mosso). Most of the musicians on it are from around here, and the parts that Busch didn’t record at west-side studio Minbal were tracked in Arizona by former Chicagoan and Boxhead Ensemble leader Michael Krassner. The record’s ten songs encompass the many things that have made Busch’s music with his old bands Manishevitz and Sonoi appealing: rustic acoustic picking, glowing brass fanfares, Eno-esque atmospherics, and power-pop waltzing. And he replaces the jittery qualities of his earlier work with a warm sense of wonder—it’s not

Where are the rest of the music listings?

Find them at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

C. Spencer Yeh ! JOÃO QUIRINO

only the most accomplished record of his career, it’s the most appealing. Busch will play with former Manishevitz drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Adamik, who has an album of his own called Super Low due out soon on Busch’s Meno Mosso label. It’s a similarly eclectic affair, sounding at times like a mashup of the Young Marble Giants and the Band.

—BILL MEYER

she delivers a familiar strain of driving postbop with precision and soulfulness, and though she moved to New York in 2013, she’s skillfully supported by the regular members of her Chicago quartet. For this gig she’s joined by Allemana, bassist Matt Ferguson, drummer Jeremy Cunningham, and the great Milwaukee trumpeter Russ Johnson, who also plays on much of the new record. —PETER MARGASAK

SATURDAY5

Fielded Perfect Pussy headline. 5:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $14, $12 in advance. b

Caroline Davis Quintet Twin Talk open.

8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10, 18+ In 2007, while preparing for a course she was teaching at Northwestern on the history of Chicago jazz, saxophonist Caroline Davis was faced with a lack of documentation about the mainstream scene between 1980 and 2000. She then took it upon herself to interview some of the figures most active during that period, including many that offered her guidance when she moved here in 2004. She was so entranced with stories from the likes of drummers George Fludas and Ted Sirota, guitarists Bobby Broom and Mike Allemana, and saxophonists Eric Schneider and Pat Mallinger that she decided to integrate them into her new Doors: Chicago Storylines (Ears & Eyes). Snippets from interviews with 15 folks appear in thematic bunches: included are discussions about the mentorships of saxophonists Lin Halliday and Von Freeman, shuttered jazz clubs, and the no-bullshit aesthetic of the city’s music scene. The album is mixed so that Davis’s originals emerge from the voices in filmic fashion. Some material is much different than what we’ve heard previously from Davis: on “Lin,” for example, she plays a meditative duet with guest pianist Ron Perrillo and adds some wordless singing. But elsewhere

Few vocalists have wrested tears from my eyes during a live performance quite like Lindsay Powell, who creates luminous and minimal outre-pop tracks as Fielded. A onetime Chicagoan who played in beloved defunct prog unit Ga’an, Powell sings with blustery, full-bodied might that’s equal parts ferocious and tender, and some of her most affecting material eliminates nearly any sound that might get in the way of her voice. On her August EP Boy Angel (Universally Handsome) she flexes her strength as a producer, enriching her haunting synth textures with complex percussive layers that sound distantly related to both lively R&B cuts and Dan Deacon’s lush, nervy compositions. Powell has adjusted and broadened her singing to match the mood, inching closer to Top 40 pop, but she skews the narratives about breakups and heartbreak, sounding otherworldly even as it’s easier to imagine more people listening to these tracks. On a cut like “City of the Dazed” she still delivers emotional gut punches that feel unexpected no matter how frequently you listen. —LEOR GALIL

Graveyard See “Pick of the week” on page 29.

Earthless open. 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $22.

J

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 31

MUSIC

Where are the rest of the music listings?

Find them at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

Bongzilla ! ABIGAIL CASSNER

No experience necessary.

No experience like it.

continued from 31 Dr. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln, $40, $38 members. b

Buy a gift certificate for the music lover on your list.

This year, do something new. Do something for yourself. Give something worthwhile. Take a class with us and you sign on for so much more. Meet new people from all walks of life. Come alive through music, art and dance. Find your folk at the Old Town School of Folk Music.

Gift certificates and class schedules at oldtownschool.org

Dr. Ralph Stanley’s doctorate in music from Tennessee’s Lincoln Memorial University is honorary— but there’s no question he’s earned it. Has anyone on earth witnessed more Appalachian mountain music than this 88-year-old singer and banjo player? As a child he was taught by his musical mother, and he hasn’t wandered very far from his roots in southwestern Virginia. Nor has he ever really stopped playing and touring, though he considered it briefly after the 1966 death of his beloved brother Carter, leader of the Stanley Brothers and the first Clinch Mountain Boys incarnation. His hair-raising, bone-chilling a cappella rendition of the mountain standard “O Death” that appears in O Brother Where Art Thou? introduced him to a huge new audience, and seeing him and his band nowadays raises the question of where in the set he’s going to put that literal showstopper. (When I saw him at Symphony Center a few years ago it went right in the middle, like he doesn’t give a damn; life goes on.) Stanley now plays with a crack band of relative youngsters, underlining the fact that his music is a living tradition, not a museum piece—it’s still an intergenerational pastime in its native region.

—MONICA KENDRICK

SUNDAY6 Rajiv Halim 7:30 PM, Room 43, 1043 E. 43rd, $10, $5 students.

LINCOLN SQUARE • LINCOLN PARK

32 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

This young Chicago saxophonist has already made himself a fixture on local bandstands, but his recent self-released debut, Foundation: Rajiv Halim, demonstrates his skills as a leader, even if it does occasionally show off too many ideas (a common

occurrence with jazz debuts). Though his sound is rooted in complex, hard-hitting postbop, Halim makes a bunch of stylistic detours: “Slim” includes bracing Afrobeat grooves, the duet with electric pianist Kevin Kozol called “Hailm’s Dream” is a slightly watery ballad, and “Pasatiempo,” which features guest trumpeter Marquis Hill, has a decided bossa nova feel. Halim’s excellent working band—Kozol, guitarist Scott Hesse, trumpeter Victor Garcia, bassist Junius Paul, and drummer Michael Piolet— provides versatile support throughout, demonstrating ease in traveling wherever the leader might map out a path. The group interplay is at its most heated and confident during the brisk updated bebop stuff, including a hyperactive reharmonization of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” and a slashing original, “Baby Bop.” Halim will lead his regular sextet tonight, though Xavier Breaker will sub for Piolet.

—PETER MARGASAK

MONDAY7 Lyric Opera’s Bel Canto 7:30 PM, Civic Opera House, 20 N. Upper Wacker, $20-$269. b In early 2012 officials at Lyric Opera couldn’t have known that the opera they were commissioning, based on a novel by Ann Patchett, would be so relevant. Bel Canto is the story of a band of terrorists and an international group of hostages that just happens to include a world-renowned soprano. They’re holed up together for months in the vice president’s mansion of a South American country resembling Peru, which is where the real-life events that inspired the book took place in 1996.

Patchett has said that the model for her operastar heroine was Lyric creative consultant Renée Fleming—and in this production, which looks to be perfectly cast all around, she’s played by another real-life diva, Danielle de Niese. Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez wrote the music—the story calls for at least snippets of some classic opera favorites—while Cuban-American playwright J

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 33

®

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4 8PM

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5 8PM

DECEMBER 16

Dr. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 10:30AM

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 14 8:30PM An Acoustic Christmas Evening with

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RIVIERA THEATRE

ON SALE THIS SATURDAY AT 10AM!

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VIC THEATRE ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM! BUY TICKETS AT 34 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

Jorma Kaukonen SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 7PM

Compañía Folklórica Yoruba Andabo SATURDAY, JANUARY 23 8PM

Courtney Barnett MARCH 7-8

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19 7PM

APRIL 28

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Garland Jeffreys with special guests Ligon and McDonough ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL 4545 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL

12/4 Global Dance Party: Big Shoulders Square Dance with Can I Get an Amen 12/6 Typhanie Monique / The John Erickson Trio: Christmastime In The City - An Evening of Jazz Infused Holiday Music 12/11 Global Dance Party: Dos Santos Anti-Beat Orquesta 12/13 Jim Lauderdale 1/15 Global Dance Party: Cajun Vagabonds 1/22 Global Dance Party: Chicago Reel

WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE

12/9 Yanantin 1/6 Los Vicios de Papá 1/13 DIO Trio

OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG

Where are the rest of the music listings?

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MUSIC continued from 32

Fielded ! COURTSEY CAPTCHA RECORDS

Nilo Cruz penned the libretto. It’ll be sung in eight of the languages spoken by its captives and captors.

—DEANNA ISAACS

C. Spencer Yeh 7:30 PM, Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood, $10, $5 students and members. b On his striking new album Solo Voice I-X (Primary Information), veteran experimentalist C. Spencer Yeh heads in a new direction. While he’s often used his instrument in an extroverted, sometimes confrontational fashion, here he explores vocal sounds microscopically, with close miking.

As he recently told Artforum, “A few years ago . . . I started becoming interested in inward vocal sounds made by inhaling, or the sounds that are closer to yourself—incidental sounds.” Inspired by voice artists like Jaap Blonk and Joan La Barbara, Yeh trusts in what his untreated voice can do, from blubbery lip-flapping excursions that suggest a puttering motorboat to spittle-flecked violence that sounds more like a distressed radiator valve than a human. Elsewhere there are flurries of lip-smacked or chomplike percussives, as well as throaty hums interrupted by glottal stops (or self-inflicted strikes to his throat) that sound like a motor refusing to turn over. Yeh will perform the music from the album in its entirety.

—PETER MARGASAK

JUST ANNOUNCED

December 10

1/1 TODD SHEAFFER

1/1 LYNNE JORDAN & THE SHIVERS 8 PM 1/17 DEL MCCOURY BAND WITH JEFF AUSTIN BAND - 8 PM

1/31 ALAN DOYLE BAND 2/22 YAEL NAIM

SPECIAL GUESTS NORA O’CONNOR W/ GERALD DOWD

RHETT MILLER’S HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA December 19

TAB BENOIT 2 SHOWS 7 & 10PM

3/14-16 MADELEINE PEYROUX TRIO KEEP ME IN YOUR HEART FOR A WHILE: THE BEST OF MADELEINE PEYROUX

1200 west randolph | 312.red.wine | citywinery.com

Bongzilla Velocicopter and Disrotted open.

8 PM, 1st Ward, 2033 W. North, $16.

Look at that, with pro-marijuana legislation well past the point of “getting the ball rolling”—medical dispensaries exist in the state of Illinois, for crying out loud—Madison-born weed lobbyists Bongzilla are now back from the dead following a six-year hiatus (and some substance abuse struggles). Fortuitous timing. Over the course of their four full-lengths—beginning with 1999’s Stash and ending with 2005’s Amerijuanican, both via Relapse—the stoner foursome have long dug deep trenches in slow-going but buoyant rhythms, dealing out swampy doom riffs that cycle through measures with the urgency of a three-toed sloth. But unlike the Dead Meadow-style stoner rock that ultimately makes eyelids grow heavy, Bongzilla rely on the demonic, gargling vocals of front man Mike “Muleboy” Makela to keep the slow-groove heaviness menacing and unsettling. Theirs have always been supremely intense highs, the kind that might very well be laced with PCP. Together again, the band is doing slow tours with talk here and there about recording new material. For now let’s cheer for the possibility of a future bong-themed date with great Chicago doom dudes Bongripper.

—KEVIN WARWICK v

COMING SOON

ON SALE AT NOON THURSDAY 12/3 ON SALE TO VINOFILE MEMBERS TUESDAY 12/1

(OF RAILROAD EARTH) -1 PM NEW YEAR’S DAY BRUNCH SHOW!

WEDNESDAY9

12/6 The Empty Pockets

WITH MARK CROFT & NATE JONES

12/7 JD Souther 12/19

City Winery Kids Concert Series AMY LOWE & KINGKATZ: HOLIDAY MAGIC NOON

12/20 Chicago Philharmonic Sunday Series - ST. NICK IN SHADES: FRESH RIFFS ON HOLIDAY TUNES

12/21-23 Michael McDermott Mischief & Mistletoe 12/21: ALL REQUEST SHOW! 12/30 Living Colour 7:00 PM & 10:00 PM 12/31 Robert Randolph & The Family Band 7:30P & 11P. TICKET INCLUDES A GLASS OF BUBBLY

December 20

SHEMEKIA COPELAND’S HOLIDAY PARTY

1/3 Pokey LaFarge SPECIAL SOLO SHOW 1/7 Dwele 7:00 PM & 9:30 PM 1/10 The Bad Plus 7 PM 1/4 & 1/5, 1/25 & 26

STEVE EARLE RESIDENCY

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 35

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DON’T MISS THIS FIRST TIME WEEKEND APPEARANCE BY JUAN PASTOR’S

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featuring: • Juan Pastor - percussion • Marquis Hill - trumpet • Greg Ward - saxophone (Friday) FRIDAY, DEC 4, 9PM-1AM, ONLY $12 COVER

• Rich Moore - saxophone (Saturday) • Stu Mindeman - piano • Patrick Mulcahy - bass

SATURDAY, DEC 5, 8PM-MIDNIGHT, ONLY $12 COVER

Immediately following FRIDAY night’s show Immediately following SATURDAY night’s show GREEN MILL QUARTET JAM SESSION AFTER HOURS JAZZ PARTY with SABERTOOTH Friday, 1:30am-4am | NO COVER Saturday, midnight-5am | $5 cover 12-2am, no cover 2am-5am THU | DEC 3 | 9PM-1AM | only $6 cover

MON | DEC 7 | 9PM-1AM | only $6 cover

EVERY THURSDAY DANCE TO THE SOUNDS OF THE 16-PIECE

PATRICIA BARBER IS ON TOUR

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SAM FAZIO QUINTET

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CHRIS FOREMAN’S “FLIPSIDE” SHOW on the Hammond B3 organ

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LATE NIGHT INDUSTRY SET with SAVOY/COLUMBIA RECORDING ARTIST

UPTOWN POETRY SLAM Hosted by Slam originator MARC KELLY SMITH and J.W. BASILO

Special Guests: Chicago Slam legend, CIN SALACH Plus excerpts from CHICAGO TAP THEATER’S

HOLIDAY SPECIAL, “TIDINGS OF TAP” Plus the music of FUTZ

UPCOMING SHOWS

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FRI & SAT, DEC 11 &12 MON, DEC 14

SUN | DEC 6 | 11PM-2AM | only $4 cover

WED, DEC 16

WINTER SLAM CHAMPIONSHIP IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED BY

SUNDAY NIGHT SOUL JAZZ NIGHT with THE JOEL PATERSON TRIO featuring JOEL PATERSON (guitar) & CHRIS FOREMAN (Hammond B3 organ) with drummer MIKEL AVERY

36 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

FRANK CATALANO SEXTET

THURS & FRI, DEC 17 & 18 THURS & FRI, DEC 24 & 25 SAT, DEC 26

GEOF BRADFIELD GROUP CLOSED FOR EMPLOYEE CHRISTMAS PARTY TOYS FOR TOTS BENEFIT WITH GUITAR MADNESS BOB MINTZER ORGAN TRIO CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS VICTOR GARCIA ORGAN SEPTET

FOOD & DRINK

R SWIFT & SONS | $$$$$

1000 W. Fulton Market 312-733-9420 swiftandsonschicago.com

Swift & Sons is a cut above in Fulton Market

The Boka Restaurant Group’s long-awaited steak house reimagines the format in a repurposed meat locker.

By MIKE SULA

G

ustavus Franklin Swift was the Chicago meat-packer who coined the phrase “everything but the squeal” to describe how efficient his slaughterhouses were at turning whole live animals into meat, soap, fertilizer, glue, and oleomargarine.

Swift was also the guy who figured out how to ship butchered cows in refrigerated railcars, and is thus largely responsible for turning us into a nation enslaved to cheap meat.

I’m certain the principals behind Boka Restaurant Group (Girl & the Goat, Momotaro, Perennial Virant, etc) and B. Hospitality Co. (the Bristol, Formento’s, etc) didn’t intend to evoke that complicated history when they chose to name their long-awaited, sprawling new steak house Swift & Sons.

(An earlier version namechecked Swift’s fellow meat-packing baron Philip Danforth Armour, but a trademark suit filed

by Lisle-based Armour-Eckrich Meats put a stop to that.)

But its name is among the very first signals to distinguish Swift & Sons from the glut of expense-account feedlots that have opened around town in recent years.

Nobody seems to be getting tired of opening steak houses, but at least the newer herd seems to have taken into account the need to set itself apart, whether it’s the ridiculous “female-friendly” STK Chicago, the slick RPM Steak, the Euro-style Bavette’s, or the unassuming but excellent neighborhood spot Boeufhaus.

At Swift & Sons one of the distinguishing characteristics is its footprint in the former Fulton Market Cold Storage—a building that literally had to be defrosted before it could house the restaurant (and soon Google’s new local HQ)—and the chef, Chris Pandel, whose work over the years at the Bristol, Balena, and Formento’s has been nothing if not distinctive.

Among the slabs of “boutique beef” is a 34-ounce porterhouse; the agnolotti is a delicate and ethereally delicious plate of pasta. ! ANDREA BAUER

The brassy, wood-paneled, multitiered curvilinear space features multiple dining rooms, a subordinate “Tavern” (aka the bar) with its own abbreviated menu, an embedded adjunct seafood-focused restaurant called Cold Storage, and a working concierge desk to help you score theater tickets, or maybe tell you where to get a good steak. Exposed concrete support columns, clocks set to Central Standard Time in various midwestern cow towns, and scarlet hardcover volumes on shelves are supposedly meant to evoke ol’ Gus’s imagined office.

Pandel’s menu follows a familiar steakhouse template: shellfish towers; classic if reinterpreted appetizers, salads, and soups; a handful of token nonbeefy entrees; and a dozen or so slabs of what the company refers to as “boutique beef,” sourced from relatively small farms that do right by their bovines— which is to say, the opposite of what Gustavus Swift was trading in.

Not-so-subtle breaks from form can be tasted with an appetizer of agnolotti stuffed with sweet celery-root puree and dotted with a perimeter of aged balsamic vinegar, a plate of pasta so delicate and ethereally delicious it somehow seems both an outlier and just the thing you want to consume before tackling a 34-ounce porterhouse. Balance on a smaller scale is evident with a dense, rich foie gras torchon considerably lightened by apple gelee as luminous as amber. I’m not certain why anyone would want to precede a hunk of red meat with a dish such as this—or for that matter, steak tartare—but these are some seriously refined plates.

Deviation from the norm in more standard steak-house classics is apparent too. Celery root appears again in a large, flattened, browned crab cake as well as in celery-root remoulade. An intensely peppery Caesar salad becomes an exercise in extremes with salty cheese and bracing spice. Same goes for a mound of arugula tossed with thinly sliced mushrooms almost pickled in the acidity of the vinaigrette. Both are an ideal counterpoint to the richness inherent in a crock of French onion soup, its beef stock almost gelatinous under cover of blistered Gouda cheese.

Purists who prefer their bivalves unadorned might balk at shellfish towers, hot or cold versions, priced per person, featuring bonito butter on steamed oysters, or creamy leche de tigre scallop ceviche that seems to possess no acidity. But both hot and cold versions are novel, with six-inch langoustines topped with creamy shrimp mousse, sardine tins brimming with delicately smoked mussels, or a J

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 37

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Beef Short Ribs with Horseradish Panade, Roasted Young Carrots, Meyer Lemon HARD TIMES: Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Root liqueur, Ginger Liqueur, Demera, Sarsparilla Bitters, Angostura Bitters topped with Allagash Dubbel

4TH COURSE

Chocolate Parfait with Hazlenut and Cocoa Nip

SOUL MAMBO: Woodford Reserve Rye, Averna, Spiced Rum, Tawny Port, Demerara, Cardamom Bitters

PURCHASE TICKE TS AT CHICAGORE ADER.COM/RESERVE YOURSE AT $65 per person · includes tax and gratuity

38 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

Ultimate Spirits Challenge Awards 2015

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San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2014

D O U B L E

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Double Oaked is twice barreled to produce a rich flavor with purposeful emphasis on sweet aromatics. Uniquely matured in separate charred oak barrels – the second with a lighter char and deeper toast to extract additional soft, sweet oak character.

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These are but a few of the hundreds of bar suggestions available at chicagoreader.com/barguide.

Bottoms up!

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

FOOD & DRINK The Globe Pub

The brassy, woodpaneled space features a working concierge desk to help you score theater tickets.

tic and kill some deer, come on down! There’s a weekly rotation of mixed drinks around $4, and an AMI Entertainment digital jukebox. With a 7 AM opening time, the bar sees a lot of nightshift workers, which may explain the need for therapeutic rifle fire. —J.R. JONES 1930 W. Foster, 773-561-2227.

! ANDREA BAUER

BARS

R

Sports bars continued from 37 buttery scallop jiggling on the half shell with shaved mushroom, lemon, and parsley.

I wish I could summon the same enthusiasm for a seafood entree I forced myself to order; an overcooked striped bass fillet was a reminder that this is a massive operation still getting steady on its feet. On the other hand a roast half chicken, another baseline barometer of kitchen competency, was a paragon of the form, its brittle, delicate skin armoring lush, juicy poultry flesh. At $29 it’s a dollar cheaper than the least expensive steak on the menu, and so elementally good that on a return visit I might consider passing on the beef.

So how about that beef? Swift & Sons makes it narrowly possible to get in the game without bankrupting yourself, offering $28 steak frites on the low end, and six- and eight-ounce fillets at $39 and $45 respectively. A few cuts hover near $50, then prices rise precipitously, sometimes in inverse proportion to weight: a $50 Chilean Wagyu rib eye certainly looks tempting, until one learns it’s a mere five-ounce piece. Meanwhile the menu tops out with a 36-ounce dry-aged long-bone rib chop and beef Wellington for two, each for $105. You can upgrade to surf and turf with grilled langoustines or turf and turf with foie gras, or add sauce supplements like oxtail marmalade, anchovy garlic butter, bordelaise, or bearnaise.

But given the beefy purity of the porterhouse, rib eye, and rib cap I sampled, these accessories only gild the lily. Wüsthof steak knives glide through the rib cap—a steak I could eat exclusively for the rest of my life—as if it were iron-rich meat butter.

Sides—apart from sour-cream-drenched crispy fingerling potatoes seasoned with poppy seeds, sesame, onion, and garlic like an everything bagel—hit the customary notes,

from an imposing but surprisingly buoyant mound of creamed spinach fortified with white wine to crocks of salty fried brussels sprouts or buttery roasted mixed mushrooms.

I’m always impressed by anyone who can take dessert at a steak house, but if there’s one pastry chef who can persuade you it would have to be Meg Galus. The NoMi vet features no towering carrot, cheese, or chocolate cakes but instead the inventive, clever desserts she’s known for. Explore the black-bottom pudding: progressively darker layers of chocolate strata, from a white chocolate sorbet to a milk chocolate pudding to a dark chocolate mousse. Or take it easy with a light peanut butter mousse stuffed with salted caramel, garnished with caramel corn, and accompanied by a popcorn sorbet. But it is Galus’s ice cream that should take priority. No matter the flavor, from coconut-lime to slightly bitter butterscotch to chocolate cookie dough, she achieves uncommonly dense, silky textures still refreshing enough to finish a strenuous up-menu workout.

Cocktails range from a sweet, winey West Branch with bourbon amaro and curacao to a mellow Pasquale, like a negroni minus the bitterness. Alternatively you could occupy the majority of your evening trying to zero in on something from the 24-page wine list, with more than 600 by the bottle and 30 by the glass. Cut to the chase with guidance from sommelier Marcello Cancelli, who can tell you anything you’d possibly care to know about any bottle you’re considering.

Who knows if Gustavus Swift would’ve felt at home in this gleaming, expansive meat locker, but the Boka group and B. Hospitality have reimagined the steak house as something at once fundamental and original. v

" @MikeSula

CLEOS | WEST TOWN The flat-screen TVs, $13 beer buckets, and Jaeger bomb specials scream “douchey sports bar!,” but Cleos is actually a fun and comfortable place to hang out. The 12 good (and OK) beers on tap—including a rotating beer of the month—are reasonably priced, and the kitchen serves up some excellent bar food, including delicious crispy beer-battered fish tacos. A nice patio out back opens up during the warmer months. — LUCA CIMARUSTI 1935 W. Chicago, 312-243-5600, cleosbar.com.

D.S. TEQUILA COMPANY LAKEVIEW Lo c a t e d i n t h e h e a r t o f Boystown, D.S. Tequila Company has all the usual features of a sports bar: flat-screen TVs, blaring music, and Bud, Coors, and Miller Lite on tap.

The food— t acos, burgers, bar snacks—is pretty decent, though, as are the classic margaritas on the rocks, strong and made with fresh lime juice.

—JULIA THIEL 3352 N. Halsted, 773-697-9127, dstequila.com.

R

THE GLOBE PUB NORTH CENTER This North Center spot seemingly shows every professional soccer game played anywhere in the world at any time (rugby, Australian Rules football, and plain old American sports get their due as well).

Team scarves cover virtually every inch of wall space that’s

not behind a flat-screen TV, and European beers are available from a huge, ever changing list (the vast majority in bottles). The back room is another full-size bar, which draws crowds for open mikes and a pub quiz. The menu is standard pub fare along with “traditional selections” like chips and curry and chicken potpie, with breakfast on weekends. The Globe is also the home bar of the Chicago Fire and the Chicago Red Stars: $15 will get you a shuttle to Toyota Park “with refreshments.” — JONATHAN MAHALAK 1934 W. Irving Park, 773-871-3757, theglobepub.net.

JAKS TAP WEST LOOP Friendly, casual West Loop sports bar peopled with regulars and folks from the neighborhood. There are 40 microbrews on tap, and the menu is more substantial than you’ll find at most: in addition to the usual sandwiches and burgers there are ribs, pizza, and entrees like Asian sea bass in citrus-basil sauce.

—KATE SCHMIDT 901 W. Jackson, 312-666-1700, jakstap.com.

K’S DUGOUT | AVONDALE With its ten flat-screens, three dartboards, pool table, Spider-Man pinball machine, and Big Buck Hunter video game, K’s Dugout isn’t the place to go if you want to be alone with your thoughts. But if you want to drink $8 pitchers of domes-

MARK II LOUNGE EVANSTON If you ever did time at Northwestern, you probably have some memories—fond or otherwise—of “the Deuce,” a Western Avenue dive that provides one of the rare opportunities in the vicinity of Evanston to drink till 4 AM and not have to clean up the next day. If you’re not an undergrad, your enjoyment of this place will depend on how much you enjoy hanging out in close proximity to frat boys and sorority girls. There are also drink specials, pool, and darts.

—AIMEE LEVITT 7436 N. Western, 773-274-8623, latedrinks. com.

R

MARTIN’S CORNER PILSEN Re m e m b e r “ B i l l Swe rs k i ’s Superfans” from Saturday Night Live? Those guys are real, and they hang out at Martin’s. Blackhawks sweatshirts, Bulls hats, tightly coiffed salt-and-pepper mustaches, loud voices—they’re all sitting in the tall stools, yelling at the sports coverage on TV, and unironically drumming on the bar to “Rock & Roll Part 2” by Gary Glitter. The place is big and offers a nice selection of bottled craft beers, but your best bet is a $7.75 pitcher of Miller Lite, complete with an ice chamber built into the jug itself for maximum coldness. Naturally, the walls at Martin’s are covered with Chicago sports memorabilia, even a few relics celebrating Michael Jordan’s fabled return as number 45. The bar also has a kitchen, which closes at 8 PM. —LUCA CIMARUSTI 2058 W. 22nd Pl., 773-847-5515. v

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 39

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40 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

UNDERGROUND DINING

A new pop-up series hosts meals in ‘accidentally iconic’ spaces

By JULIA THIEL

H

ow does one cook a four-course dinner for 35 people in a bike shop with no kitchen? On a recent Sunday night at Let’s Roast Cycles in Noble Square, chef Won Kim pulled it off admirably. Course after course made its way from the back of the shop, where paper-covered worktables were being used for plating dishes and mixing cocktails, to the front, where diners sat at folding tables tucked between rows of bikes that had been draped with strings of lights.

The event, called Schwinn Provisions, was a dinner party hosted by the new pop-up series Drop Leaf Dinners, dedicated to celebrating “accidentally iconic” places in Chicago— which cofounder Polly Nevins describes as places that aren’t famous, but “are meaningful to neighborhoods and to the community.” The first dinner in the series was an Asian-inspired meal at Flub A Dub Chub’s hot dog stand in Lakeview; the one I attended was built around Milwaukee Avenue, bike culture, and Schwinn’s manufacturing legacy in Chicago.

Nevins met Pete Ternes, her partner in Drop Leaf Dinners, at a pop-up dinner last fall where Ternes, co-owner of the local Middle Brow Beer Company, was serving suds. The two have been dating ever since, and talking about starting their own series of communal dinners for nearly that long. But while both work in the

restaurant/bar industry—Nevins as a server at the Winchester and Stella Barra Pizzeria, Ternes as a sometime bartender at Corridor Brewing—neither is a chef. “We don’t have the talent ourselves,” Ternes says, “so we had to go find people who have the talent.”

The lineup of chefs and bartenders change at every Drop Leaf Dinner event. The hot-dogstand meal featured Charles Welch, formerly of Sepia, who’ll be the chef at a yet-to-open West Loop restaurant concentrating on rotisserie meat and raw seafood; the bartender was Lindsay Betland of the Drifter and Heavy Feather. Won Kim, who’s cooked at many popup dinners and local restaurants, will helm the soon-to-open Kimski’s, a Korean-Polish restaurant at Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar; Rory Toolan, also of Heavy Feather, was the bartender.

When I walked into Let’s Roast that evening, Ternes handed me a champagne glass filled with a refreshingly tart cocktail and introduced me to Tammy Owins, an attendee he’d been chatting with. Owins, a young retiree, has been going to pop-up and underground dinners in the city for ten years. At one of her first, in a Wicker Park apartment, the food was served cold because there were no cooking facilities.

She now typically attends at least one underground dinner a month. She went to X-Marx before it morphed into the Logan Square brick-

and-mortar restaurant Fat Rice, and the still extant Sunday Dinner Club, which spawned the restaurant Honey Butter Fried Chicken.

The terms “pop-up dinner” and “underground dinner” are often used interchangeably, but pop-ups are more likely to be at licensed restaurants (at times the place would normally be closed) and to feature chefs who are already established but may be between jobs or in the process of opening a new restaurant. Earlier this fall, for example, Ryan Poli (formerly of Tavernita) did a series of popups at Jam in Logan Square. Underground dinners, on the other hand, are often run by little-known chefs hoping to open their own restaurants. Iliana Regan (Elizabeth) and Jake Bickelhaupt (42 Grams) both ran ambitious and highly praised underground dinners, consisting of a dozen or more courses, out of their respective apartments before opening their restaurants—both of which have been awarded Michelin stars (42 Grams has two).

Not all nonrestaurant dinners fall so neatly into one category, though, and while Drop Leaf Dinners calls itself a pop-up, it has certain elements more often associated with underground dinners—like cooking in a space not licensed as a restaurant. “Hopefully you just need water, electricity, and some counter space, and you can get away with a dinner,” Ternes said. He noted that he and Nevins have been to dinners in a Laundromat, an art gallery, a furniture shop, and a theater basement.

We’d been eating and drinking for slightly less than three hours. Nevins and Ternes were rinsing dishes in a horse trough that functions as the shop’s bike bathtub. But as Toolan was explaining the last cocktail, Ternes appeared, announcing that while dinner was over, the event wasn’t; he was bringing out a cooler of cheap beer for those who wanted to stay and mingle.

That sense of camaraderie is a large part of the reason people like underground dinners such as Drop Leaf. “People have to feel like they’ve gone to a nice restaurant, gotten their money’s worth,” Ternes says. “But it has to be more communal, like it’s one big party of 30.”

The first two Drop Leaf Dinners feasts sold out. If the events continue to go well, Nevins and Ternes plan to use any profits to start a brick-and-mortar restaurant inspired by Houston’s Cafe Momentum, which employs at-risk youth. In the meantime they’ve got their sights set on one of Chicago’s abandoned theaters for an upcoming dinner. v

" @juliathiel

JOBS

JOBS

SALES & MARKETING

SALES & MARKETING

FRONT DESK HELP 20-25 hrs/

week. Scheduling appointments, experience with QuickBooks or other financial software for payroll, billing, and paying bills, Microsoft Excel.

Please email resume to jeffgetzell@ sbcglobal.net.

Account Executive The Chicago Reader is seeking an entry-level advertising salesperson to be based out of the downtown Chicago office. This sales executive will work as a member of a creative and collaborative team focused on digital, mobile, social, online and print advertising solutions.

The right candidate will work to form partnerships with local advertisers to assess and address their advertising challenges. We are seeking self-starters with a strong motivation to learn advertising strategy and who are comfortable in the digital world.

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Interested parties, please send resume, cover letter and salary considerations to garroyo@suntimes.com.

Please put "Account Executive" in the subject line.

The Chicago Reader is an Equal Opportunity Employer THIRTY-ONE YEAR OLD Park

Ridge based company is seeking highly energetic salespeople to sell radio time to businesses nationwide.

We offer $12 per hour vs. commission to start. We pay every week. We are looking for money motivated professionals with excellent closing skills. Show us what you’re worth.

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Call Steve Scott after 9am, 847-2986400.

food & drink EXPERIENCED SERVERS.

Full & Part Time. Fine Dining. Apply in person to Sabatino’s Restaurant.

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773-283-8331.

General SENIOR

QA

AUTOMATION

Engineer. Lake Forest, IL. Perform detailed analysis/design of functional and non-functional requirements and translate them to software solutions in the Grainger commerce environments. Work with: Hybris, SAP modules (CRM, ECC , PI, HR), SOAP UI and REST Client, hands on GET, PUT and POST methods and JSON/XML, Jira, HP Quality Center, WinSCP, putty , splunk, dynatrace , Swagger, Fiddler, SQL, Oracle database, Gentran, Merlin, ClearSpider. Required: Master’s Degree (US or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science/Electronic Engineering/related. Bachelor’s Degree (US or foreign equivalent) in Computer Science/Electronic Engine ering/related plus 5 years related, progressive experience will substitute for Master’s Degree in Computer Science/Electronic Engineering/ related. Employer will accept any suitable combination of education, training and experience equivalent to a Master’s degree in Computer Scien ce/Electronic Engineering/related.

NO PHONE CALLS. Forward resumes to: Grainger Management LLC, Attn: Mr. Henry Galatz, Ref. BS, 100 Grainger Parkway, B4.C52, Lake Forest, IL 60045.

3RED TRADING IS seeking a

Trader in Chicago, IL with the following re-quirements: MS degree in a Mathe-matical Discipline plus 2 years related experience including: designing, di-agnosing and optimizing predictive factors of short-term returns for eq-uity and future products utilizing C++/R; conducting statistical research in C++/R with econometric/machine-learning techniques including supervised/unsupervised learning and generalized linear methods to design predictive models with overfitting control; designing low latency

RADIO PHONE SALES.

Sell public service announcements for radio stations. Great income potential for strong sales closers with excellent communication skills. Excellent commission. No appointment setters!

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g g g y trading strategies including liquidity taking, market making, and hybrid strategy with C++ and conducting monetization research including validating/optimizing the predictive model in the execution space; operating and monitoring a trading engine in live market and conduct posttrade analysis using C++/R to improve the predictive system and trading strategy using production performance and latency data. \par Please apply here: http-s://3red. has-jobs.com/-traderchicago/64141/0

JUNIOR

ARCHITECTURAL

DESIGNER. Chicago, Illinois. Under supervision, assist with all phases of project design, from conceptual design to construction administration for institutional, cultural and educational clients. Work with: Adobe Creative Suite; Drafting & 3D rendering software Including Rhino, AutoCAD, Revit. Required education: bachelor’s degree in architecture (US or foreign equivalent) AND Required experience: 6 months experience working with Adobe Creative Suite; Drafting & 3D rendering software Including Rhino, AutoCAD, Revit. NO PHONE CALLS. Forward resumes to: Studio Gang Architects, Attn: Ms. Amy Vodicka, Ref. WJL, 1520 W. Division Street, Chicago, IL 60642

NETWORK & SYSTEMS

Administrator: config, maintn & admin LAN/WAN networks, hrdwre, sys/apps sftw; plan, coord & impl netwrk security; monitr & maintn servers, virus protectn sftw & Windows sys. Reqs exp w/ Cisco switches, routers, firewall, wireless controller, AP’s, Oracle, SQL server, Windows, VB Script, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, Angular JS, JQuery, PowerSchool, Tableau & Amazon Cloud Envmt. Reqs BS in comp sci, info sys or eng + 2 yr exp. Job in Chicago, IL. Resumes to Legal Prep Charter Academies sfinkelstein@legalprep.org

HOLIDAY CASH- TELEMARKETING/FUNDRAISING. Felons need not apply per Illinois Attorney General regulations. Start ASAP, Call 312256-5035

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Staff to assist adults with developmental disabili-ties in Chicago. www.trinity-services.org

REAL ESTATE

7758 S. ADA, Beautiful 1 & 2BR, hdwd flrs, appls & heat incl,$675-$8 25/mo.

RAVENSWOOD. N. WINCHESTER. Studio available now.

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RENTALS

$935. Beautiful courtyard building.

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

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SOUTH SHORE: 7555 S Kenwood, 1br $675, 2br $765, Heat & appl included, Rory 312-593-1677

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Egg Donors: $7,000 to all healthy, nonsmoking women ages 20-29.

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

62nd & Maplewood, 1 bedroom, newly remodeled, large LR, DR, Kitchen, utilities not incl., Sec 8 ok. No sec Dep. $700. 773-406-0604 90TH/LANGLEY. 4rms, 1BR, hdwd flrs, mod kit and BA, laundry facility + A/C, NR TRANS & SHOPS. $600 +SEC BROWN REALTY INC. 773-239-9566 CHICAGO SOUTH - YOU’VE tried the rest, we are the best.

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Shown by Appt. 773-874-2556 SOUTH SHORE, 4 rooms, 1BR, 1621 E. 70th St, 3rd floor, intercom, ceiling fans, mini blinds, washing facility on premises, 1/2 block from public trans. $700/mo. 1 mo sec + 1 mo rent. 773-288-6243 CHICAGO, 5212 S. Cornell, Studio, $625. Oversized Studio, $675. All utilities included, laundry room. For More Info Call: 773-908-6576 AUSTIN AREA, 2BR Apartment, 2nd floor, hardwood floors, small newer building, $700/mo + utilities. Call 773-457-2284 SOUTH SHORE: 1408 East 76th St. 1 BR, nice clean Apt in a quiet building. Serious Inquiries Only. $750 /mo. 773-368-3435 CICERO - STUDIOS & 1BRS, Heat included. No dogs. Call Ken 773-391-1460

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$850. Heat included. Call Kara 773895-6365 or Paul J. Quetschke & Co. 773-281-8400 (Mon.-Fri. 9-5)

LAKESIDE TOWER, 910 W Lawrence. 1 bedrooms starting at $825-$895 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 ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT

near Metra and Warren Park, 1904 W Pratt. Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Laundry in building. $830/ month.

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bedrooms starting at $925 heat and cooking gas included! Application fee $40. No security deposit. Parking available for an additional fee. Laundry room in the building, wood floors, close to grocery stores, restaurant, CTA Red Line train, etc. For a showing please contact Millie 773561-7070 Hunter Properties,Inc. 773477-7070 www.hunterprop.com

Hyde Park West Apts., 5325 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Renovated spacious apartments in landscaped gated community. Off street parking available. Studio $674 Free heat, 1BR $833-$869 - Free heat; 2BR $995 Free heat. Visit or call 773-324-0280, M-F: 9am-5pm or apply online- ww w.hydepark west.com. Managed

by Metroplex, Inc

HEATED APTS FOR RENT!

3BRs 81st and Ellis. $900.

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110th & Michigan, Quaint 1BR Apts, $560/month.

Available now Secure building.

1-800-770-0989 CHICAGO, BEVERLY / Cal Park / Blue Island Studio $525 & up, 1BR $625 & up, 2BR $875 & up. Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Prkg. 708-388-0170

1BR 4 Rooms,West 109th, Morgan Park, decorated, stove, refrig, carpet, no pets, fan,near trans $590+ utils. 773-778-6554 9am9pm only 79th & Woodlawn 2BR $775$800; 76th & Phillips Studios & 1BR $550-$700. Remodeled, appls avail. Sect 8 welcome. Call 312286-5678 706 WEST 76TH STREET, 1 & 2BR Apts Available, heat included. Starting at $650/mo.

Call 773-495-0286 CALUMET CITY, HUGE 1BR, 1Ba, Newly rehabbed, appliances incl., $700/mo. + 1 month security.

Section 8 ok. Call 510-735-7171 SOUTHSIDE - 118th ($396) & 71st ($400) Sangamon. Quiet, furnished room, Shared kitchen & bath.

Males preferred. Call 773-609-3109 CHICAGO - HYDE Park 5401 S. Ellis.

1BR. $600/mo Call 773-955-5106

CHATHAM, 704 E. 81st (Langley) 1BR, 3rd flr. $650/mo + security.

Call Mr. Joe at 708-870-4801

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

DECEMBER 3, 2015 | CHICAGO READER 41

1 BR $1100 AND OVER LINCOLN PARK/ DEPAUL. W.

GEORGE & SEMINARY. Great 1 bedroom available 2/1/16-4/30/16. $1170 per month. New 12 month lease also available. Hardwood floors, heat included. Great location for DePaul and transportation.

For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

LINCOLN PARK. ADDISON.

Prime location 1 bedroom available 12 /1. $1245. Beautiful courtyard building steps from the lake and transportation. Hardwood floors, heat included. For appointment, call 312-8221037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-3pm and Sundays 10am2pm.

1 BR OTHER SECTION 8 AFFORDABLE Housing Waiting List is now open!!

1, 2, & 3 Bdrms 2443 W. Dugdale Rd Waukegan, IL 60085

APPLY NOW!!! You must apply in person & all adults must be present.

ID, Social Security Card & Birth Certificate REQUIRED Contact: Management Office 847-336-4400

CHICAGO - CHATHAM NO SEC DEP. Spacious updated 1BR from $600 & 2BR from $800 with great closet space. Incl: stove /fridge, hdwd flrs, blinds, heat & more!!!

LIMITED INVENTORY Call About Our Move-in Special!

(773) 271-7100 APTS. FOR RENT PARK MANAGEMENT & Investment Ltd. Finally summer is here Come Enjoy The Pool! HEAT, HW & CG INCLUDED. 1Bdr From $725.00.

2Bdr From $895.00. 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath. From $1200. **1-(773)-4766000** CALL FOR DETAILS

GORGEOUS NEW REHAB, Appls & Heat Incl. 73/Jeffery, 1BR $600. 79/ Escanaba, 1BR $600, 3BR $875. 72/Eberhart, Studio $500. 64/Loomis 2BR $750. 82nd/Cottage Grove Stdo $500. Sec 8 ok. 773.430.0050 CALUMET CITY 158TH & PAXTON SANDRIDGE APTS 1 & 2 BEDROOM UNITS MODELS OPEN M-F, 9AM-5:30PM *** 708-841-5450 *** 61ST/LANGLEY. 3BR/1BA. 2ND flr of 2 unit bldg. Avail Now. Sect 8 ok. Beaut apt, New fridge & stove. W/D in bsmt.

Hdwd flrs. Nr Transp, 1blk from schl. $950/mo. 312-464-2222 CHICAGO, 7727 S. Colfax, ground flr Apt., ideal for senior citizens. Secure bldng. Modern 1BR $595. Lrg 2BR, $800. Free cooking & heating gas. Free parking. 312613-4427 SUBURBS, RENT TO O W N !

Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit.

Call 708-868-2422 or visit w ww.nhba.com CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708-868-2422 or visit www. nhba.com CHICAGO, 3-4BR TOWNHOUSE & Single Family Homes.

Beautifully renovated, new kitchen, hardwood floors. Cash Only.

708-557-0644

95th & Colfax, 3BR, 1 BA, lrg master BR formal LR & DR, cerami c/hrdwd flrs, huge fenced yd tenant pays utils. $1350/m 773-3924126.

Large Sunny Room w/fridge & microwave. Nr. Oak Park, Green Line, bus. 24 hour desk, parking lot. $101/week & Up. 773-3788888 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

CHICAGO, 7757 S. Winchester.

RIVERDALE - Newly Remodeled, 2 BR Apartment. Stove, Fridge, A/C, Heat & Gas included.

Call 773-297-4784

HILLSIDE, BEAUTIFUL 3BR,

NO MOVE-IN FEE! No Dep! Sec 8

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT 1431 W. 78TH. St. 2BR. $595/mo

3232 N LEAVITT, 2 bdrm $1100.

Electricity included. Call Kara 773895-6365 or Paul J. Quetschke & Co. 773-281-8400 (Mon.-Fri 9-5)

Recenty decorated, large 4 room, 1BR, 3rd flr, fully heated, $600 Charles (Manager) 312-401-0911

ok. 1, 2 & 3 Bdrms. Elev bldg, laundry, pkg. 6531 S. Lowe. Ms. Payne.

773-874-0100

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

MOVE IN SPECIAL!!!

B4 the N of this MO. & MOVE IN 4 $99.00 (773) 874-1122

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

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

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

6829 S. Perry. Studio $460. 1BR. $515. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106

CHICAGO- 108TH & Eberhart, newly rehab’d, hardwood floors, faux fireplace, 2BR, 1st flr. $800/month. Call 708-841-9025

7941 S. Coles- 3BR, 2BA, wall to wall carpet. $795/mo.

773-285-3206

2 BR $900-$1099

ROYALTON HOTEL, Kitchen-

BRONZEVILLE - 42ND & INDIANA. Gut rehabbed 2BR, hardwood floors, new kitchen cabinets & appls. $900. Sect 8 Welc. 773447-2122

2 BR UNDER $900

2153 N. BELL 2 Bdrm $905. Water included. Call Kara 773-895-6365 or Paul J. Quetschke & Co. 773-2818400 (Mon.-Fri. 9-5)

ette $135 & up wk. 1810 W. Jackson 312-226-4678

2 BEDROOM APARTMENT

2951 W. Fletcher , hardwood floors, mini blinds, credit check required $850 month heat not included 773-908-2597

CHICAGO - 6747 S. PAXTON, newly renovated, 2BR, 2BA, HWFs throughout, $950/mo, ht & parking space incl., 773-285-3206

62ND/CALIFORNIA 2BR $740 & $820 or 3BR $920 Heat incl in all & Sec Dep req.

O’Brien Family Realty 773-581-7883 Agent owned

NEAR 102ND AND King Dr. 5

FREE HEAT 94-3739 S. BISH-

2 BR $1100-$1299

OP. 2BR, 5rm, 1st & 2nd flr, new appls, storage & closet space, nr shops/ trans. $850 +sec 708-335-0786 LOOK WHAT WE have! Nice 1 BR

Apt $630. Nice 2BR Apt $720 near 83rd and Hermitage. Nicely decorated, heat incl. App. only 773-783-7098

CHICAGO 70TH/ABERDEEN. REMODELED 2BR, 3rd fl, heat & Laundry incl, $695/mo + $695 sec 773-651-8673

CHICAGO

7600 S Essex 2BR

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

rooms, 2BR, appliances, laundry available, tenant pays all utilities. $875/mo + security. 773-440-4697

LINCOLN PARK. ADDISON.

Prime location 2 bedrooms available 12/1 from $1260. Beautiful courtyard building steps from the lake and transportation. Hardwood floors, heat included. For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

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 $1100/mo. Call 773-764-9824.

This Dope’s

sTill legal in Dorm rooms

Getsome at sTraighTDope.com 42 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 3, 2015

2nd flr Apt. Heat, appliances, & parking included. Coin-op Laundry. $1250/mo.Call 708-829-7715

3752 N. SOUTHPORT 2 Bdrm $1100. Water included. Call Kara 773895-6365 or Paul J. Quetschke & Co. 773-281-8400 (Mon.-Fri 9-5)

2 BR $1300-$1499 EDGEWATER GLEN! 6144 N.

Lakewood. Must See! Sunny and spacious 2 bedroom at $1300. Hardwood floors throughout, large bedrooms, updated kitchen with dishwasher and tile floor, back deck with a small yard. Separate dining and living room creating lots of living space. Steps to public transportation and nightlife. Heat included! Application fee $40. No security deposit.

Parking space available. For a showing please contact Tom 773-9832340. Hunter Properties 773-4777070. www.hunterprop.com

LINCOLN PARK. W. BR IA R PLACE. Get one bedroom plus den or use as a 2nd bedroom. Available 1 /1 for $1400. Small high-rise with super-sized rooms. Carpeted and air conditioned. Heat included. For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

LINCOLN

PARK.

ADDISON.

Great 2 bedroom available now–4/ 30/16! $1465 per month. Heat included. Courtyard building steps from the lake and transportation. For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

2 BR $1500 AND OVER

LINCOLN PARK LANDMARK.

BELMONT/ HUDSON. 2 buildings from the lakefront. Large 5 room/ 2 bedrooms with full dining room, oak floors. Available now from $1640.

Heat included. For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am-3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

NEW ALL

CONDO.2BED/2BATH. STAIN-LESS

appliances,parking,in-unit laundry,central air,hardwood floors. $1600 per Month.TTRM 312.829.7368.

4163 N LINCOLN AVE. 2 Bdrm $1900. Water Included. Call Kara

773-895-6365 or Paul J. Quetschke & Co. 773-281-8400 (Mon.-Fri 9-5)

LARGE 2BED 2BATH with beam

ceilings hard wood flrs deco fireplace formal dr prvt back porch backyard.

1500. pet friendly 773-248-4255 Joe

2 BR OTHER CHICAGO, PRINCETON PARK

HOMES. Spac 2 - 3 BR Townhomes, Inclu: Prvt entry, full bsmt, lndry hook-ups. Ample prkg. Close to trans & schls. Starts at $816/mo. www. ppkhomes.com;773-264-3005

BEAUTIFUL NEW APT! 7657 S. Phillips Ave 2bdrm 8127 S. Ingleside Ave 4bdrm Stainless Steel!! Appliances!! hdwd flr!! marble bath!! laundry on site!!

Sec 8 OK. 773- 404- 8926 MATTESON 2 & 3 BR AVAIL. 2BR, $990-$1050; 3BR, $1250-$1400.

Move In Special is 1 Month’s Rent & $99 Security Deposit. Section 8 Welcome. Call 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 7837 S. WOOD, 3BR, 1st flr. w/ LR, DR. Heat incl. No pets.

Sect 8 OK. Background check.

773-450-8211

2 & 3BRS FROM $575.

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

CRS (312) 782-4041

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 HARVEY - 14815 WINCHESTER . 3BR, 1.5BA, basement, $1100/

mo + 1 mo sec. Section 8 ok.

Call 708-263-9636

Cornerstone Apts., 4907 S. St Lawrence, Newly Remodeled. 3 BR starting $998-$1090/mo. Visit or call (773) 548-9211. M-F: 9am-5pm or apply on line. www.

4907cornerstoneapts.com Managed by Metroplex, Inc. 105TH NEAR COTTAGE. 3BR Town house, 1.5 baths, Newly decorated. $850/mo + security. Section 8 ok. 312842-7292 CALUMET CITY, 3BR, 1.5BA, 2 car gar, fully rehab w/gorgeous finishes w/ hdwd flrs. Sec 8 OK. $1125/mo Call 510-735-7171 7641 S. SANGAMON, Newly remod, 3br/1ba. 1st floor in a 2 flat building. Sect. 8 welcome. $900/mo + dep. incl heat. 773-750-1719.

PARK FOREST- SOUTH Suburb 3BR,2BA Ranch. Appls included. $1150/mo + sec. Sect 8 welcome!

Call before 5pm. 708-756-7918 CHICAGO 5246 S. Hermitage:

4BR Coach House. $765. 2BR 1st flr, $525. 3BR, 2nd flr, $625.

1.5 mo sec req’d. 708-574-4085.

DAN RYAN WOODS 8626 S. Damen, Beautifully rehabbed 3BR house, granite counters, SS appliances, Whirlpool tub, fin. bsmnt, 2car gar. $1525/mo. 708-288-4510 SCOTTSDALE 4148 W. 77th Pl. Beautifully rehabbed 3BR, 2BA house, granite counters, SS appliances, A/C, fin. bsmnt, 4-car gar. $1600/mo. 708-288-4510

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499 GREAT EVANSTON CAMPUS

4 BEDROOMS! Ridge/ Davis. Large 6½-7 rooms/ 4 bedrooms/ 2 bathrooms. Available now. From $2395.

Beautiful courtyard buildings near Northwestern, Evanston downtown, restaurants, movies, “L” and Metra.

Large, airy rooms with hardwood floors, high ceilings, spacious closets, 2 bathrooms. Heat included. For appointment, call 312-822-1037 weekdays until 5:30pm, Saturdays 9am3pm and Sundays 10am-2pm.

1013 E. 93RD St. Newly decor 3BR, 1.5BA, hdwd flrs., security cameras & lndry $825+utils. Sec 8 ok!

773-218-4491 / 773-375-1856

SECTION 8 WELCOME 4BR, 2BA Home. 6353 Talman.

3BR , 2BA Apt. 219 S. Troy.

Sec 8 Approved 312-735-3212 ALSIP - 3BR, 1.5BA,

$995/mo.

1BR, 1BA. $730/mo. Balcony, new carpet, parking, appls, laundry & storage. Call 708-612-3762

SOUTHSIDE 8035 S. Marshfield, 3BR, 2nd floor, no Pets, $875/mo. + 1 mo. sec. dep. & all utilities. 773-8734549

BLUE ISLAND, 2BR Apt, $795/ month & DIXMOOR 3BR $1030/ month, heat & hot water incl., appls + security 708-205-1454

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 SECTION 8 WELCOME BRICK, 2 BED, 1 BATH, W/ BSMT, 2 CAR GAR., 115TH LAFLIN, 1 MOS DEC DEP, $13 50/MO. CALL AL, 847-6445195 COUNTRY CLUB HILLS vic of 183RD/Cicero.

4BR, 1.5BA $1400 & 3BR/2BA. $1450.

Ranch Style, 2 car gar. 708369-5187 CHICAGO: E. ROGERS Park 6726 N. Bosworth Ave. Beaut. 3BR, 2BA, DR, LR, Hrdwd flrs. Nr trans/ shops. Heat, appls, laundry incl. $1400. Available now. 847-475-3472

û1428 W. 110th St. 4BR House, wall to wall carpenting. Sect 8 OK. $1275/ mo 773-285-3206 PARK FOREST 3 Kentucky Ct, 3BR, 2BA, newly dec $1400/mo. avail now. 1 m sec &1 mo rent. Tenant pays heat. 773-851-4576 CHICAGO, 3BD, 1BA. 7011 South Dante, $1200/mo + security. Tenants pay all utilities. Please call 773-715-2846

CHICAGO, 643 WEST Garfield.

3 & 4BR, 2BA, 2 flat building, heat included, Section 8 welcome, $1250 & $1450. 312-337-3893

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 LAKEVIEW! 1739 W. Addison.

Must See. 3 bedrooms at $1725.

Hardwood floors, completely renovated apartments, 1 blk to CTA Brown Line on Addison, walking distance to shops, restaurants, Wrigley Field, and more! Application fee $40. No security deposit! Parking space available for a monthly fee. For a showing please call Saida 773-407-6452, Hunter Properties 773-477-7070 ww w.hunterprop.com

HYDE PARK 7 large rooms, 51st & Greenwood condo 3BR, 2BA, heat included. Appliances, washer/ dryer hook-up, ample street parking, no pets. $1700/mo. 312-9524983 ASHBURN 2450 W 83rd: Beaut. rehab 3BR/2BA house, granite ctrs, st. steel appls, whirlpl tub, fin bsmt, 2 car gar, $1600/mo 708288-4510

3 BR OR MORE OTHER

BRICK, 4 BED, 2 bath, w/ bsmt, 2 car gar., 87th Fairfield, Evergreen Park. 1 Mos Sec Dep, $1575/mo. Call Al, 847-644-5195 SOUTH SUBURBS - B e a u t Remod., 3BR, LR, DR, 1BA, eat-in kit, W/W carpet, appliances incl. Must see! Section 8 ok. 708-785-6547 UNIVERSITY PARK 3/4BR, 2BA. Stainless Steel appls, fenced-in back yard, 2 car gar. $1550/obo.

Call or pref text. 708-362-1268 Dolton,

14511 Avalon, fully renov 3BR, 1BA, all appls incl, W/D, fully fin bsmt, fncd in yrd. A/C. CHA insp. Sec 8 ok. 773-317-4357

28 West 112th St, BRAND NEW, 6BR, 2BA hdwd flrs, carpet, bsmt, new furnace **sec. 8 ok**. Ronny 312-218-5244 or Jim 773-419-8343 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 HAZEL CREST 3BR, 2BA, SEC 8 WELCOME Call 312.809.6068.

GENERAL

BEAUTIFUL 3BR, 1BA LR, newly

rehabbed, new appls w/microwave.

Laminated flrs, carpeted BRs. Lndry on site, 50th & Indiana, Quiet, well maintained bldg. $1250/mo.

(312)623-6510 for appt to see call T. R.

NEWLY REHABBED brick homes, very nice blocks.

94th & Wabash, 4BR, 1.5BA, $1400. 96th & Emerald, 5BR, 2.5BA, $1500. 847-322-2243 SOUTH SIDE BEAUTIFUL, spacious, 6BR, 2BA, 2 levels feature hardwood flrs, wtw carpet, full fin bsmnt. Must see. Sec. 8 OK. 708-7856547 CHICAGO SOUTH, SEC 8 Welc.

Cent A/C, all utils incl, 4-6BR, 2BA, fenced yard with balcony. 8600 S. Colfax. Call 312-804-0209

DIXMOOR - single family home, 1800 sq ft 4BR, 2BA, pristine condition, across from police station. $1350. 773-805-8181

$1800

TWO

FURNISHED

Loop Office Sublet (Chicago Loop) \par Two furnished 10&#039; x 14&#039; offices with one or two secretarial stations available in attractive and collegial law firm suite.

Phone, Internet, desk, filing cabinets, conference room, reception, kitchen, fax, copier/scanner and cleaning ser-vice included. Contact Cara at 312-422-1900 ext.229

CHICAGO - 78TH/S. Shore & 6943-51 S. Cornell Ave Apts Starting at $550. NO DEPOSIT! HURRY! Call Phyllis 773.495.4133

FOR SALE MILLER BEACH-INCREDIBLE

Mid-Century 3BR, 1.5 BA, ranch w/ soaring 14 foot ceilings, marble tile, pegged oak plank flooring, 3 sided Indiana Limestone fireplace, enclosed porch, updated kitchen, 2 car garage. $149,900 Ayers Realtors, 219-9381188, See Virtual Tour & Beach Cam at MillerBeach.com.

#2M7;L=)- D558 &5M D)7I ;7 S5RB7 CN2BM) 3J44 GO CB0/)M F7) @95>: &M58 I=) *92) S;7) %9 SBMR) #2M7;L=)- C9))P;7R D558 ,1B;9B@9) D)$7;L=)- V55ML ? D)&M;R)MBI5M A 8;>M50B1) ');9;7R &B7 ? !)BI A %9)>IM;> U7>92-)#M58 $105 +4.. to I5 +4T" $145 P)M 0)):

'B99 KKH<H6"<43H(

&M58 6 ,Q I5 J EQ &5M B7 BPP5;7I8)7I 5M 1;L;I 2L BI 3J44CB0/)MO>58

North Wrigleyville 4128 N. Clarendon Furnished rooms for rent from $135 a week or $540/month

2 blocks from the lake • 4 blocks from “El” Express bus stop at front door • Private bath Ceiling fans / mini-blinds New carpeting / refrigerator • Laundry in building Microwaves • On-site manager

By Appointment Only 773-929-7778 No Pets Allowed

MILLER BEACH-YOU WILL be surprised when you see this home with spacious rooms, new kitchen and main bath. High quality throughout and a very special second story screen porch. $134,600 Ayers Realtors, 219-938-1188, See Virtual Tour & Beach Cam at Millerbeach.com MILLER-WELL

BUILT,

well maintained 21 unit apartment building located on Marquette Park Lagoon w/view of Lake Michigan just 2 blocks away. $635,000 Ayers Realtors, 219-938-1188, See more information and Beach Cam at MillerBeach.com

HOME FOR SALE in Beecher IL on 7 acres of land, 5BR, 2.5BA, sunroom, 2 fireplaces, 20 stall horse barn. Call 219-798-4944

non-residential

LOMBARD HOME, 1112 Foxworth Blvd. Fill w/ Treasures! From Star Wars dolls - Bosch table saw. FriSun, 11/6-11/8 from 10am-4pm.

SERVICES LEGAL SERVICES- Need a

lawyer? For as low as $17.95/mo.

Consultations, Contract, Evictions, Foreclosure, Bankruptcy, Traffic Tickets, Expungement, Divorce, Criminal & more. Call Theresa 312-806-0646

FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel,

house calls welcome $90 special.

Russian, Polish, Ukrainian girls.

Northbrook and Schaumburg locations. 10% discount for new customers. Please call 773-407-7025

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

FOR A HEALTHY mind and body.

CHICAGO, BUSY 110TH & Michigan Location. Retail 5251500 Sq Ft & office suites, from $275. Move In Ready. Call Kamm, 773-520-0369

MUSIC & ARTS

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

773-685-6868.

South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

PROFESSIONAL

OFFICE

BUILDING for rent/sale - 4656 W. Touhy, Lincolnwood, Dependable LLC 224-434-7176 huntercorp94@ hotmail.com WE PAY CASH for houses. Multi-

Units & Commercial Buildings. In Chicago & Chicagoland area. Any Shape, Size or Condition. Call Manny 847673-7575

2BR+

NR

83RD/JEFFREY,

heated, decor FP, hdwd flrs, lots of storage, formal DR, intercom, newly remod kitchen & bath. $1000. Missy 773-241-9139

roommates AURORA - SLEEPING ROOM $90/week. Clean and quiet, refrigerator access.

No smoking. 630-247-1031

CHICAGO ROOM FOR Rent in

Private Home. Near 78th/Ash. Share bath, kitchen & utilities. $365/mo. No smkg. female pref’d. 773-994-6077

11537 S. HARVARD.

Male Pref. Use of kitchen and bath. $ 350/mo. No Sec. 773-791-1443

HEALTH & WELLNESS NEW

MASSAGE

THERAPY.

Miracle Massage by professional masseuse. Good location, free parking, clean and cozy rooms. In /outcalls. 5901 N Cicero, 773-7425259 or 773-209-1448. www. miraclemassageforyou.com. Lic.# 227000368.

THAI BLOSSOM TRADITIONAL Thai Body-work Tuesday Special

45min for $49, valid for Online Booking Only. Loca-tions: Lincoln Park and Buena Park.

UKRAINIAN MASSAGE. CALLS in/ out. Chicago and sub-

urbs. Hotels. 1234 S Michigan Avenue. Appointments. 312-922-2399.

MARKETPLACE GOODS

CLASSICS WANTED Any classic cars in any condition. ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s & ’70s. Hotrods & Exotics!

Top Dollar Paid!

Collector.

Call James, 630-201-8122 MASSAGE TABLES, NEW and

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.

MUST SELL! ANTIQUE furniture

& mirrors, framed movie posters, collectibles, fishing items, darkroom equip, many great gift items! 773517-8416

European trained and certified therapists specializing in deep tissue, Swedish, and relaxation massage. Incalls. 773-552-7525. Lic. #227008861.

HEDDA GABLER ~ By Henrik Ibsen, ~ Open Call Auditions. Seeking women ages 20 – 35 for the title role only. 12/14 & 12/15; 6 – 9 p.m. No appointment necessary. Contemporary monologues and cold readings heard. www.oakton.edu 847.635.1897.

MESSAGES UIC VULVODYNIA AND ACUPUNCTURE RESEARCH.

Department of Women, Children, Family Health Science. Contact: Judith Schlaeger, PhD; office; (312) 413-4669 cell: (708) 3341097; jschlaeg@uic.edu

SLEEP RESEARCH, UP to $2300. Overweight age 21-40, sleeping 6.5 hours or less. Dr. Esra Tasali at University of Chicago. Further information, please email: sleepstudy@ uchicago.edu

legal notices NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144473 on November 10, 2015 Under the Assumed Business Name of NORTHSTAR YACHT SERVICE with the business located at: 755 WEST BUENA AVENUE UNIT 105, CHICAGO, IL 60613. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner (s)/partner(s) is: ANTHONY CHARLES LAHAIE 755 WEST BUENA AVENUE UNIT 105 CHICAGO, IL 60613, USA

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144598 on November 19, 2015 Under the Assumed Business Name of MINDFUL CLASSES with the business located at: 1920 WEST ADDISON, CHICAGO, IL 60613. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner (s)/ partner(s) is: JULIA THERESE SARAZINE, 1920 WEST ADDISON, CHICAGO, IL 60613, USA

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144558 on November 17, 2015 Under the Assumed Business Name of PEOPLE TOWING with the business located at: 4240 KOLZE AVE,, SCHILLER PARK, IL 60176. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner (s)/partner(s) is: MARIA CARINA CAMACHO 4240 KOLZE AVE, SCHILLER PARK, IL 60176, USA

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144472 on NOVEMBER 10, 2015 Under the Assumed Business Name of VOX VITA MEDIA with the business located at: 340 W SUPERIOR ST #1206, CHICAGO, IL 60654. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner (s)/ partner(s) is: NICOLE CRAME, 340 W SUPERIOR ST #1206, CHICAGO, IL 60654, USA

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

suant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144614 on November 20, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Speak Nation with the business located at PO Box 5533, Lansing, IL 60438; 22252 Yates Avenue, Sauk Village, IL 60411. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: La Tonja D Ellis, 22252 Yates Avenue, Sauk Village, IL 60411, USA.

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144586 on November 19, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Denotes Mobile Notary Services with the business located at 7937 S Dorchester Ave, Chicago, IL 60619.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: LaDonna J Vickers, 7937 S Dorchester Ave, Chicago, IL 60619, USA.

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144554 on November 17, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Lovely Styles Hair Salon with the business located at 3141 W 71st St., Chicago, IL 60629. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: Joann Stevens, 7125 S Whipple St, Chicago, IL, 60629, USA. IN THE MATTER of the Petition of DICK HUA CHANG Case# 15-M3006579 For Change of Name. Notice of Publication Public Notice is hereby given that on JANUARY 5, 2016, at 9:00AM being one of the return days in the Circuit Court of the County of Cook, I will file my petition in said court praying for the change of my name from DICK HUA CHANG to that of RICHARD TI HUA CHANG, pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided. Dated at INVERNESS, ILLINOIS, November 11, 2016.

Signature of Petitioner Dick Hua Chang

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144584 on November 19, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Festiebands with the business located at 3217 N Walker Ln E, Arlington Heights, IL 60004. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: David Garb, 3217 N Walker Ln E, Arlington Heights, IL 60004, USA. PUBLIC NOTICE IN THE CIRCUIT

COURT OF COOK COUNTY, STATE OF ILLINOIS, NOTICE OF FILING A REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE Request of: DARIUS VADEN JACKSON, Case No.: 2015 CONC 001089, There will be a court hearing on my request to change my name from DARIUS VADEN JACKSON to the new name of CONNOR DARIUS VADEN JACKSON. The court hearing will be held on January 25, 2016, at 9:30 a.m., at 50 W. Washington Street, Cook County, in Courtroom 1706.

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- University of Illinois at Chicago Healthy Older Adults Needed If you are at least 60 years old, and in good health for your age, you may qualify for the “White matter microstructure, vascular risk and cognition in aging” study in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). You may participate in paper and pencil tests, a history and physical and/or an MRI brain scan. This research will help us understand how brain activity changes in later life. The study will require 1-2 visits, and up to 5 hours of your time.

- You may receive up to $100 for your participation For more information: -- call: 312-996-2673 -- or email: lamarstudy@psych.uic.edu This study (Protocol #2012-0142) is being conducted by Melissa Lamar, Ph.D (Principal Investigator) at the UIC Department of Psychiatry, 1601 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois.

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144547 on November 17, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of From Home to Heaven with the business located at 3800 Highland Place, Country Club Hills, IL 60478.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: Chiquita Jackson, 3800 Highland Place, Country Club Hills, IL 60478, USA.

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144485 on November 12, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Palace Car Pictures with the business located at 11307 S Saint Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL 60628. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: Wyatt Ollestad, 11307 S Saint Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL 60628, USA.

NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pursuant to "An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State," as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D15144388 on November 4, 2015, under the Assumed Business Name of Jordan’s Cleaning Services with the business located at 3152 N Karlov Ave Apt 1, Chicago, IL 60641. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: Donald Jordan, 3152 N Karlov Ave Apt 1, Chicago, IL 60641, USA.

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DECEMBER 3, 2015 | CHICAGO READER 43

SPONSORED CONTENT

DRINK SPECIALS

STRAIGHT DOPE

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FRI

$6 Jameson shots, $3 PBR bottles, “Hoppy Hour” 5pm8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

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

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S AT

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Heineken Bottles $4, Bloodies feat.

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

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

MON

$6 Jameson shots, $3 PBR bottles, $4 Half Acre brews, FREE POOL, “Hoppy Hour” 5pm8pm = 1/2 price IPAs + pale ales

$10 All Rise Brewing Co. Flights of 4-20oz, $18 Imperial Flights of 4-37oz, $4 Jameson, Absolut & Sailor Jerry Shots

CLOSED

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

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44 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

REGGIE’S

2105 S. State 312-949-0120

PHOTO: ALEXEY LYSENKO/ GETTY IMAGES

Q : My boyfriend says that bananas are so

radioactive that they’re listed as a dangerous food. Is he right? —SARAH

A : Let’s split the question in two, Sarah. Are

bananas radioactive? Sure. In fact, a few decades ago, a government physicist with a knack for public relations created what he called the banana equivalent dose, or BED, which proposes one banana’s worth as the measure of a minuscule amount of radiation.

He was trying to convey the notion that minuscule amounts of radiation are something we encounter everywhere, including, yes, the produce section.

Are bananas, by virtue of their radioactivity, dangerous? If that logic attracts you, you’ll want to spend tonight on the sofa. Over a year, sleeping next to your boyfriend (who does seem a little credulous, if we’re being honest) is liable to expose you to one millirem of harmful radiation—about a hundred times more than you’ll get from eating the average banana, and thus 100 BEDs. Physicists call this background radiation, which we absorb constantly from sources both natural (like radon gas, the result of uranium breaking down in the soil) and manmade (like nuclear power plants). In this case, both boyfriend and banana contain the element potassium, which winds up in the body via food and in food via soil, fertilizer, etc (potassium is one of three primary elements plants need to grow, the other two being nitrogen and phosphorus).

Bananas are a good source of potassium nutritionally, but the amount they contain is small: only about four grams per kilogram. Now, about 0.01 percent of all potassium occurs in the form of the unstable though extremely long-lived isotope potassium-40, or K-40. Roughly one in 11 times that K-40 decays, it converts to argon-40. Ar-40 is stable, but conversion from K-40 leaves it very briefly in what’s called an excited state, overcharged with energy. In promptly transitioning to its normal energy level, or ground state, it kicks out a biologically harmful gamma ray— the stuff your mother warned you about, provided your mother was a nuclear physicist.

Within the earth’s interior, potassium-to-argon conversion is occurring continually on a beyond-massive scale. The radioactive out-

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put of a single banana, though, is genuinely teeny—fractions of fractions of fractions.

OK, you say. But what about a whole bunch of bananas? Truckloads of the fruit have been known to trigger radiation sensors at international borders, and yet there are some countries in Africa where bananas constitute up to a quarter of the caloric intake. What’s the deal there?

First of all, kudos on your command of international nutrition stats. Second, outside of a shielded laboratory environment, taking an exact measurement of bananagenic radiation is tricky. Doesn’t mean we can’t try, though. I sent my assistant Una to the nearest grocery to gauge conditions in the field.

She started by measuring the ambient radiation in the air at the store: eight microrems.

(The rem is a unit of radiation dosage that, like much of our metric-system-defying measurement, is unique to the United States; more advanced civilizations have switched to the sievert.) Then Una measured the radiation in the banana bin: 15 microrems. Progress at this point was interrupted by a store manager’s inquiry regarding the customer wielding the Geiger counter. Having justified her presence, Una broadened the investigation. Idaho potatoes? Eleven microrems. Kitty litter? A whopping 19. (We presume you’re not eating that.)

Not to unduly freak your boyfriend out, but Brazil nuts, lima beans, and red meat can all produce Geiger readings as high as or higher than bananas do.

Exposurewise, then, there’s not much of a threat here. Dietwise, I asked Una to crunch the numbers. The key here is that (assuming normal kidney function) potassium doesn’t accumulate in the body; the K-40 you’re dealing with is whatever you’ve recently ingested.

Thus, according to Una, in order to get radiation poisoning—not even die—from consuming bananas, you’d have to put away 82,552,779, a meal after which, obviously, radiation is going to be the least of your bodily concerns. 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

What to do about a sister-fucking boyfriend

A cautionary tale. Plus: unnerved by a girlfriend’s yen for the extralarge Q : I’m a straight female in

my mid-20s. I’ve been dating a wonderful guy for two years—but I recently found something that has put me on edge. Before we met, he was in a relationship with a terrible, alcoholic, and mentally unstable woman.

They got pregnant early in the relationship and stayed together for about five years. We met a year after they broke up. I felt like I’d come to terms with the ugliness of his past, with his trying to stay in a bad relationship for the sake of his child and the rest of it.

But recently, thanks to the vastness of the Internet, I came across a suggestive photo of my boyfriend with his ex’s sister. I asked him about it, and he admitted to sleeping with her while he was with his ex. He says it was during a particularly bad period, he was very drunk, she made the first move, etc, but I’m just so grossed out. Cheating is one thing, but fucking your girlfriend’s sister? And it’s not like this was a 19-yearold’s mistake; he was near 30 and the father of a child.

He also fudged a little about whether it was just one time or a few times. I feel like now I’m questioning his integrity.

This is something that I wouldn’t have thought him capable of doing. What do I do? —ALL TWISTED UP

a : What do you do? You

ask yourself if you believe your boyfriend when he says fucking his then-girlfriend’s sister was a mistake, ATU, one he deeply regrets, and one he never intends to repeat. If you can’t be romantically involved with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, the question is a rhetorical one—you’ll have

to end the relationship regardless of the answer.

But if you could stay with someone capable of doing such a terrible sister-fucking thing, and if you believe your boyfriend when he says it was a mistake, one he regrets, and won’t happen again, then you stay in the relationship.

And when your find yourself feeling squicked out by the knowledge that your boyfriend fucked around on his previous girlfriend with her own sister, you remind yourself that good and decent people sometimes do shitty, indecent, sister-fucking-ish things—and then you pause to consider all the shitty and/or indecent things you’ve done in your life, ATU, some, most, or all of which your boyfriend presumably remains blissfully unaware.

It’s too bad that suggestive/incriminating photo is rattling around out there in the vastness of the Internet, ATU, but I’m curious about how exactly you “came across” it in the first place.

If you went looking for dirt— if you were snooping—you found it. Congrats.

I’m not against snooping in all instances. People often find out shit they had both a right and an urgent need to know: the BF/GF/fiance/ spouse is cheating in a way that puts you at risk, running up ruinous debts, hiding a secret second family, attending Donald Trump rallies, etc. But just as often, we find out shit we didn’t need to know—something in the BF/ GF/etc’s past, something he or she regrets and will never do again (do you even have a sister?)—and can never unknow it.

You learned that your boyfriend did something pretty fucked-up. Whether you decide to stay or go, ATU,

remember that you snoop at your own risk—sorry, remember that you explore “the vastness of the Internet” at your own risk.

Q : I’m a 37-year-old straight

male in a relationship with a slightly older woman. I have a GGG girlfriend, and I am completely GGG—until we talk about having a MMF threesome. We have great sex and have experimented together. We tried playing with a couple to give her the “two-dick experience” she wanted, but the other man was of “average” size and she wasn’t into it. I’m of average stature, and she made such a fuss of having someone extralarge join in that it threw my hang-up about my size into overdrive.

It’s paralyzed me sexually. I’m afraid she’ll leave me or run off looking to fulfill her need on her own. —AVERAGE NERDY

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A : If leaving you is the only way this woman can ever experience an above-average cock again, ANGST, then she might leave you. Depending on how important sitting on an above-average cock now and then is to her, your insecurities may create an incentive for her to leave you or cheat on you. But if she can have you and all the good times and the great GGG sex you two have together—if she can continue to enjoy your cock and the things it and you can do for her along with the occasional ride on an above-average cock—then you’ve created a massive incentive for her to stay. v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at thestranger.com. ! @fakedansavage

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 45

Courtney Barnett ! MIA MALA MCDONALD

NEW

Above & Beyond 5/11, 7 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 12/4, noon b Pepe Aguilar 2/27, 8:30 PM, Rosemont Theater, Rosemont Ambrose Akinmusire 2/20, 8:30 and 10 PM, Constellation, 18+ Alison Wonderland 2/6, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Araabmuzik 1/8, 10 PM, the Mid Courtney Barnett 4/28, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 12/4, noon, 18+ Basement, Defeater, Turnstile 4/19, 6 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 12/4, noon b Taylor Bennett 12/26, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall b Andrew Bird 12/11, 8 PM, Hideout, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM Black Tiger Sex Machine 2/13, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, Yuth Forever 12/20, 2 PM, Wire, Berwyn b Nick Carter 3/19, 7 PM, House of Blues b Color Morale 1/8, 7 PM, Wire, Berwyn b Decapitated, Black Breath 1/30, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM, 17+ Alan Doyle Band 1/31, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 12/3, noon b Journey, Doobie Brothers 8/13, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Sat 12/5, 10 AM b Logic 3/4, 6 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 12/4, 9 AM b Del McCoury Band 1/17, 5 and 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 12/3, noon b Tor Miller 1/28, 9 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 12/4, noon

Minsk 1/30, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Nada Surf 5/12, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM b Yael Naim 2/22, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 12/3, noon b Napalm Death, Melvins, Melt Banana 4/22, 8 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM, 18+ John Mark Nelson 3/5, 10 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 12/4, noon Jennifer Nettles, Brandy Clark, Lindsay Eli 3/18, 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM Sarah Neufeld 4/6, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM b Tunde Olaniran 1/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Patent Pending 12/11, 7 PM, Wire, Berwyn, 18+ Madeline Peyroux Trio 3/14-16, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 12/3, noon b Rachel Platten 3/19, 7:30 PM, Park West, on sale Thu 12/3, 10 AM b David Ramirez, Lucette 3/2, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Rihanna, Travis Scott 4/15, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Thu 12/3, 10 AM b Todd Sheaffer 1/1, 1 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 12/3, noon b Shellac, Mono 3/30, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 12/4, noon, 17+ Skid Row, Great White 12/19, 6 PM, Portage Theater b 1349, Tombs 1/19, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Wet 2/5, 10 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 12/4, noon, 18+ Steven Wilson 3/7-8, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM, 18+ Wolfmother 2/25, 8:30 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 12/4, 9 AM, 18+

46 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015

UPDATED Pelican, Goatsnake 12/15, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, moved from Thalia Hall St. Lucia, Tigertown 2/22-23, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, second show added, on sale Fri 12/4, 10 AM, 17+

UPCOMING Babes in Toyland 1/28, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Big Head Todd & the Monsters 2/6, 8 PM, House of Blues Cradle of Filth 3/1, 6 PM, House of Blues b Rob Crow’s Gloomy Place 3/16, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Dixie Chicks 6/5, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park b Alejandro Escovedo 1/28-30, 8 PM, City Winery b Eternal Summers 1/15, 9 PM, Schubas, part of Tomorrow Never Knows, 18+ Eternals 12/31, 9 PM, Hideout Eleanor Friedberger 2/24, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Bill Frisell 2/19, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b G-Eazy, A$AP Ferg 1/16, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b The Go! Team 1/16, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, part of Tomorrow Never Knows, 18+ Har Mar Superstar 12/31, 8 PM, Double Door Glenn Hughes 3/24, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Il Volo 2/26, 7 PM, Chicago Theatre b Iron Maiden 4/6, 7 PM, United Center b JMSN 1/17, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, part of Tomorrow Never Knows, 18+

b Lawrence Arms 12/10-12, 7:30 PM, Double Door, 17+ Korby Lenker, Megan Slankard, Alex Wong 2/23, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Lettuce 12/31, 8:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Aaron Lewis 2/27, 8 PM, the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, Hammond Meghan Linsey, Sarah Potenza 12/17, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Living Colour 12/30, 7 and 10 PM, City Winery b Los Lobos 12/13-16, 8 PM, City Winery b Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas 8/2, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b The Loved Ones, Cheap Girls 2/12-13, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 2/12 is sold out Lower Dens 1/22, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall Mac Sabbath 12/31, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Macabre 12/26, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Main Squeeze 12/11, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Marianas Trench 2/10, 7 PM, House of Blues b Mass Gothic 2/6, 10 PM, Schubas Kathy Mattea 3/13, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Delbert McClinton 3/4, 8 PM, City Winery b Del McCoury Band 1/17, 5 PM, City Winery b Michael McDermott 12/21-23, 8 PM, City Winery b Heather McDonald 2/14, 8 PM, Park West b Don McLean 1/27, 8 PM, City Winery b Meat Wave 12/12, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Mest 1/16, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Penny & Sparrow 4/1, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall Noam Pikelny 2/18, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Poi Dog Pondering 12/26-29, 9 PM, City Winery b Ron Pope & the Nighthawks 2/26, 6:30 PM, Metro b Willy Porter, Peter Mulvey, and Paul Cebar 1/15, 8 PM, City Winery b Possessed by Paul James 12/31, 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Promise Ring 12/31, 10 PM, Metro, 18+ Queensryche 1/31, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Radiation City 3/9, 9 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Bonnie Raitt 3/22, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre b Robert Randolph & the Family Band 12/31, 7:30 and 11 PM, City Winery b Rdgldgrn 12/10, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Rebirth Brass Band 2/27, 7 and 10 PM, SPACE, Evanston b

ALL AGES

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Red Baraat 1/19, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Revivalists 12/12, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Tonight Alive, Set It Off 3/1, 6 PM, Bottom Lounge b Torres 1/15, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, part of Tomorrow Never Knows, 18+ Tortoise 1/23, 6:30 and 9:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Trans-Siberian Orchestra 12/28, 8 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b Nicholas Tremulis Orchestra, Jay O’Rourke 1/29, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Twenty One Pilots 6/5, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b 2Cellos 4/2, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre b Carrie Underwood 5/17, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont b The Used 5/17-18, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Vampires Everywhere!, Consider Me Dead 12/13, 6:30 PM, the Abbey b Phil Vassar 1/29, 8:30 PM, Joe’s Venom Inc. 1/11, 7:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Fay Victor & Tyshawn Sorey 1/23, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Voivod, Vektor 2/24, 7:30 PM, the Abbey, 17+ Wailers 1/14, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Nick Waterhouse 12/30-1/1, 9 PM, Schubas Young Galaxy 2/5, 9 PM, Subterranean

SOLD OUT Brendan Bayliss & Jake Cinninger 12/12, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Beach House 3/1, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Andrew Bird, Jason Adasiewicz 12/10, 8 PM, Fourth Presbyterian Church b Alessia Cara 1/29, 7:30 PM, Metro b Gary Clark Jr. 4/1, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ The Cure, Twilight Sad 6/10-11, 7:30 PM, UIC Pavilion b Greg Dulli 3/18, 8 and 11 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Vince Staples 12/15, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Underoath 4/7, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre b Vance Joy 1/22-23, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene THIS WOLF IS a big fan of Wired Fridays, the noontime gatherings that turn the Chicago Cultural Center into a dance club every first and third Friday of the month. If you prefer to spend your lunch break getting down instead of gobbling fries, there’s no better place to be. The Cultural Center always books great locals to spin, and Fri 12/4 features house legend Curtis A. Jones, aka Cajmere! He recently appeared on the digital EP The Loft

by Italian producer Riva Starr, released through Jones’s Cajual Records. His set is sure to be a Friday-afternoon energy fix better than a second cup of coffee; it’s free and takes place on the Cultural Center’s first floor, near the north entrance.

Also on Fri 12/4, the Empty Bottle hosts the third annual Cuddlestock. Tall Pat Records namesake (and Reader contributor) Patrick Sullivan organizes this mini garage-rock festival, which features Gossip Wolf faves Flesh Panthers, Clearance, and the Rubs. This wolf is also keen on bluesy openers Glyders, who release a self-titled seven-inch the night of the show—on Tall Pat, natch! Admission is $8 or free with RSVP. On Friday 12/11, Chicago experimental metal quartet Scientist—with members of Yakuza, Taken by the Sun, and Making Ghosts—release their second album, 10100II00101, tracked with Sanford Parker at Minbal. Gossip Wolf doesn’t know human science (or what all those numbers mean), but it’s easy to understand the album’s plunging-knife riffs and melodic vocals, which include guest appearances by the Atlas Moth’s Stavros Giannopoulos and Anthony Cwan of Without Waves. On Sat 12/5, Scientist plays with Yakuza and Two From the Eye at the Empty Bottle.

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

DECEMBER 3, 2015 - CHICAGO READER 47

CHICAGO RIVIERA THEATRE DECEMBER 17 American Express® Card Member Exclusive Tickets on sale now - visit etix.com Supply is limited.

Transportation and accommodation costs are additional unless otherwise stated. The price indicated covers event costs only. Price does not include taxes and other fees. All sales are final and non-refundable, and resale is prohibited. Payment must be made using an eligible American Express® Card. Details and prices are subject to change. Packages are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Availability is limited. Must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcoholic beverages. Please drink responsibly. Participating merchants and available rewards are subject to change without notice. A maximum of 4 tickets may be purchased per Card. ©2015 American Express.

48 CHICAGO READER - DECEMBER 3, 2015