Chicago’s Black and Brown Punk Show Collective describes its mission as “highlighting the black and brown, queer and trans DIY scene in Chicago” as well as building a local network of “safer spaces for queer and trans folks of color” and a “successful integrated punk scene that thrives on its diversity.” Sounds good to these furry ears! On Fri 8/28 and Sat 8/29 the collective hosts a festival with almost two dozen awesome acts....

Not to put pressure on the Tribune‘s lawyers, but if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of the scandal known as Supesgate, they’ll have to win their Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Mayor Emanuel’s administration. In Supesgate, the mayor’s handpicked school board approved a $20.5 million, no-bid principal-training contract with Supes Academy, a company that was kicking back 10 percent of the deal to Barbara Byrd-Bennett, the mayor’s handpicked schools CEO....

“Loom” About two years ago, Maps & Atlases guitarist Erin Elders showed me a handful of songs he’d been working on with his new band Wedding Dress, an indie-rock side project that had come to fruition during his main group’s downtime. Maps & Atlases are a band that are known for playing indie-pop music with serious technical and mathy leaning, incorporating polyrhythms and syncopated tapped guitar work to create something that walks the line between shreddy and catchy....

False are the only black-metal band who’ve ever made me cry. Last September at Scorched Tundra, the cathartic gusts of “Saturnalia” (from False’s untitled 2015 album) blew open a window in the attic, so to speak, and suddenly my eyes filled up. At the end of July, Wisconsin label Gilead Media drops the first new music in what feels like ages from this Minneapolis six-piece: the two-song seven-inch EP Hunger. The seven-inch format required a radical change from False, whose previous releases have averaged more than 12 minutes per song....

If you’re the specific kind of nerd who has ever picked up a copy of Modern Drummer, you’re probably familiar with musician Terry Bozzio. A next-level shredder, Bozzio put his chops to use backing legendary gonzo-fusion master Frank Zappa starting in 1975, and he’s remained part of the Zappa circle ever since; he’s arguably best known for being the first person to play the artist’s notoriously complicated composition “The Black Page” (which was apparently named for how it looked written out on sheet music, with all the notes crammed onto the staff) and tackling it with ease....

One seldom thinks of movie exhibitors having an academic agenda, but the Music Box organization has been developing an odd sideline in revisionist history of the European war. Last winter its distribution arm, Music Box Films, imported Cate Shortland’s powerful German drama Lore, in which a teenage girl learns the ugly truth about her high-ranking Nazi father. Just before Christmas, the Music Box Theatre presented Wladyslaw Pasikowski’s drama Aftermath, which raised hackles in Poland with its fact-based tale of Nazi invaders and Polish townspeople collaborating to slaughter hundreds of their Jewish neighbors....

In this week’s issue Ben Sachs looks at Digging for Fire, the latest from indie director Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas). Elsewhere, I review Cast a Dark Shadow and Corridor of Mirrors, two postwar British noirs screening at Gene Siskel Film Center. And we’ve got new capsule reviews of: student works from the Chicago South Asian Film Festival; Hitman: Agent 47, based on the video game; In the Game, a Kartemquin Films documentary about a girls’ soccer team at a troubled south-side public school; Mistress America, starring Greta Gerwig and directed by Noah Baumbach; Takin’ Place, a documentary about life in Englewood and Washington Park; and Ten Thousand Saints, about a freewheeling pot dealer (Ethan Hawke) and his two families....

Wikimedia Commons Evan Mandery Op-ed columns are written to rock our world. The authors clearly believe they’re delivering insights that—if properly attended to—will open the eyes of all decent people and change the course of America. But as having one’s eyes opened half a dozen times a day is taxing, it’s always a pleasure to come across an op-ed column that is completely unpersuasive. I’m not as smart as most of these pundits, you think, but at least I’m not as dumb as he is....

The Norwegian singer and composer Ingvild Langgård, who makes music under the name Phaedra, blew my mind four years ago with the release of The Sea, a gorgeous serving of folk-pop filtered through a lush, cinematic sensibility. It turns out that album was the first in a trilogy from Phaedra, and the second installment, Blackwinged Night (Rune Grammofon) is finally getting its release (it’s already out in Europe, but the stateside date is September 4)....

Cassidy Ryan: Today definitely felt like the final day of a festival. It was a struggle to even stand up for an entire set and it seemed like a hiccup was bound to happen at any moment. That possibility materialized when the festival was evacuated from about 2:30 to 3:40 for an underwhelming thunderstorm. The music began again at 4 PM and, much to the relief of both the artists and the audience, nobody’s set was canceled—some were pushed back a few hours....

Few faces are as synonymous with Riot Fest as that of Andrew W.K. The irrepressibly positive personification of partying has appeared on every lineup since 2012. “Every year that we’ve gotten to play, I’ve always been surprised,” he says. “Each time we get invited back, I’m actually even more shocked, more amazed, more humbled, and moved by the gesture.” Did I mention he’s positive? Andrew W.K. Sunday 8:30 PM, Heather Owen Stage...

Daniela Speranza’s Rambleras screens at the Chicago Latino Film Festival tomorrow and Saturday. The English-speaking world remains largely unaware of the low-key, yet highly flavorful humanist filmmaking that’s been flourishing in Uruguay for the past decade or so. This may be because—unlike the cinemas of Romania and South Korea, which have received far more attention in the English-language film world since 2000—Uruguay has yet to produce an internationally celebrated auteur on the level of Cristian Mungiu or Chan-wook Park....

Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase. © Charly Herscovici Magritte’s The False Mirror For the past few weeks ads across Chicago have given passersby a bold command: Unthink. The exhibition doesn’t deny Magritte’s hip recognizability. Everything from its promotional video to its engagement marketing milks the symbols that have cemented his coolness. There’s the bowler hat, worn by Magritte himself in street-pole banner ads. Then there are blue skies, black suits, and irises a la The False Mirror mixed into the marketing campaign....

Contemporary jazz saxophonist and composer Daniel Schnyder’s 90-minute chamber opera about legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker was first performed in Philadelphia in 2015, and it’s receiving its Chicago premiere under the auspices of Lyric Opera. The libretto by Bridgette A. Wimberly begins with Parker’s death at 34—brought on by drugs, alcohol, and a heart condition—and flashes back Christmas Carol-style to significant episodes in his life. Schnyder uses Parker’s music only as inspiration and a touchstone for his score, which will be played by a 16-piece orchestra....

The last time record label Mad Decent brought its annual block party to town was in 2012, and even though the free blowout hit capacity in the afternoon, that didn’t stop people from showing up and trying to get in. Enough successfully crashed—the gates that organizers were forced to end the event early due to safety issues. It’s been widely speculated (though never publicly confirmed) that the shutdown is what’s kept Diplo’s label from bringing the daylong event back to Chicago the past couple years; whatever the case may be, the Mad Decent Block Party returns at the end of September to bid a belated adieu to summer....

One unspoken rule of improvisation is to never introduce a gun because the presence of a weapon artificially heightens scenes to the point of making them unrealistic. I’d argue murder falls into the same category as an improv faux pas, seeing as it’s one of the most logical step after pulling a handgun. It derails scenes otherwise focused on relationships by raising questions about the plot: Who? Why? How? Naturally Clued In: An Improvised Murder Mystery includes at least one murder by design, and it similarly kills momentum and drags out each plot point....

Julia Thiel The Brace cocktail, made with whey When I got a promotional bottle of vodka in the mail recently (unsolicited—if I were going to solicit anything, it certainly wouldn’t be vodka), I glanced at the press release that accompanied it and did my usual eye roll at its puffed-up claims. The co-owner of the company, Broken Shed, is quoted as saying, “We wanted to create a drink that was not only enjoyable—but also better for you....

JACKSON FIVE PHOTO FROM THE COLLECTION OF JAKE AUSTEN; PHOTO OF TAPE BY JIM NEWBERRY The Jackson Five; the “Big Boy” reel from One-derful Records Next Tuesday eclectic Minneapolis label Secret Stash launches a yearlong reissue program that will give deluxe treatment to singles released on the constellation of Chicago soul imprints owned and operated by brothers George and Ernie Leaner between 1962 and 1971. The first 25-track installment (on a single CD and double vinyl) will focus on singles released on the One-derful label, featuring Chicago fixtures such as Otis Clay, McKinley Mitchell, Betty Everett, and the Five Dutones alongside lesser-known artists including the Lucky Laws, the Admirations, Liz Lands, and Beverly Shaffer....

It isn’t often that archivists get a chance to issue specific requests for historical materials. Most of the time, they’re dependent on the kindness of strangers, or at least collectors who’ve been generous enough to donate their papers and ephemera to the library. Marching this weekend? We’re collecting #ephemera as part of a living archive of modern protest! DM us for details. #womensmarch pic.twitter.com/xURxTsnz6d — Newberry Library (@NewberryLibrary) January 20, 2017...

On a dazzling new recording for Hat Art, British soprano Juliet Fraser brings haunting beauty and weightless precision to Morton Feldman’s Three Voices (1982), an epic work simpatico with her skill for navigating pieces of exquisite delicateness. Originally composed for experimental singer Joan La Barbara, it asks the performer to sing with two prerecorded parts as a tribute to Feldman’s fellow New York School artists, poet Frank O’Hara, who died in 1966, and painter Philip Guston, who passed in 1980....