With the Christmas season upon us, Chicago Democrats will get in the spirit by dropping into the mud and doing a little wrestling, eye-gouging included. That’s twice as many as the 12,500 signatures a mayoral candidate needs to make the ballot. But the rule of thumb is a candidate needs at least three times the required number to survive a petition challenge. The new law neglected to stipulate a signature requirement....
Drummer Hamid Drake, bassist Kent Kessler, and saxophonist and clarinetist Ken Vandermark have been playing together as DKV Trio since 1994. During their early years, their forceful playing—which was forged and focused by frequent gigging and their ability to improvise cohesive, songlike structures—made them one of the most exciting live acts of any genre to grace a Chicago stage. But by the early 2000s, the overseas obligations of each member had multiplied, and they scaled back group performances to the point that each gig felt like a return to status quo, rather than an opportunity to further develop their sound....
Both Linklater and Northwest Chicago Film Society have revived Warren Beatty’s Reds in the past two years. Richard Linklater is not only one of this country’s most versatile working film directors, he’s also an accomplished film exhibitor. Linklater started the Austin Film Society in 1985 to bring hard-to-see movies to his hometown and to stoke his own nascent cinephilia. What began as a ragtag (and often one-man) outfit has grown to a million-dollar organization that awards grants to new filmmakers, offers youth education programs, and operates a 100,000 square foot production facility....
If the current administration has its way, freakishly mild winters like the one visited upon Chicago this year promise to become more common—global climate change is already happening, and Trump’s policies could make it impossible for the U.S. to catch up with reality. March is when we usually get the first hint of the coming thaw, but I’ve been abandoning my winter coat from time to time since January—and I don’t see that as a good thing....
There’s plenty to do this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Tue 5/23: This month the Girl Talk at Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia) focuses on wrongful conviction with attorney Jennifer Bonjean, the Exoneration Project’s Eva Nagao, and Mellon Sawyer fellow Deana G. Lewis. 6:30 PM5/23-5/24: Cultural critic and serial provocateur Laura Kipnis discusses her book Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus and the “feminine passivity” of rape culture twice this week: Tue 5/23 at 57th Street Books (1301 E....
“Addict” Avant-pop act Mines, the brainchild of local maniac Bill Satek, are following up last year’s brilliant Just Another Thing That Got Ruined LP with a new split single on Maximum Pelt Records, and its release show is tomorrow. Mines’s contribution to the split, “Addict,” picks up where Just Another Thing left off, showing off Satek’s ability to blend beautiful and lush indie-rock arrangements with fragmented and noisy sensibilities. The song pulses forward with a jumpy drum machine while layers of dreamy vocals and synths battle through the haze with harsh feedback, creating the push-and-pull between pretty and gross that makes everything Mines does so irresistible....
Back in the 60s England was a crucial force in the development of improvised music. A raft of distinctive players reared on American jazz diverged from a stylistic path to forge the genuinely nonidiomatic approach of free improvisation. The legacy, influence, and importance of folks like Derek Bailey, John Stevens, Tony Oxley, and Evan Parker, among others, remains undiminished half a century after they first emerged. The UK has continued to boast a formidable jazz and improvised music scene with loads of talented players coming along year after year, but for much of the 80s and 90s those folks lacked a lasting vision....
The Reader‘s final issue of the year will be devoted to flash fiction, the very short story form that crams a narrative arc, character development, and compelling writing into a small number of words. For us it’s 500—500 (or fewer!) good words, in the best possible order. Writers can be located anywhere, but a connection to Chicago is strongly encouraged. Submissions are due November 16 at midnight CST to flashfiction@chicagoreader....
The Frequency Series, programmed by Reader staff writer Peter Margasak, presents new classical and experimental music at Constellation nearly every Sunday night. Its first concert was in April 2013, and the series celebrates its (almost) fourth anniversary with its second annual festival, which this year runs from Tuesday, February 14, through Sunday, February 19. Constellation hosts four of its seven concerts; the other three are at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the U....
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....
John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars (2001) is not a great film. For one thing, it’s more of a movie—there are guns and special effects and pretty ladies and it takes place on Mars—than what we like to call cinema. It’s not even a great movie, as it came out a few weeks after September 11, and its procolonization message fails to reflect the cultural zeitgeist of those tumultuous times. So I want to talk about the state of criticism....
Vincent Soyez Fred Hersch The trio led by pianist Fred Hersch is one of the most malleable, graceful, and exciting working bands in jazz—qualities that shine brightest in the live setting—so it’s no wonder that in 2012 the group (which includes bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson) released the excellent two-CD set Alive at the Vanguard (Palmetto) to show off its inherent dynamism and rapport. Hersch seems well aware of those strengths himself, because on the group’s new studio album, Floating (also released by Palmetto), the sequence of tracks was modeled after typical club set: the album opens with a standard from the Great American Songbook (“You and the Night and the Music”), follows with a diverse assortment of original tunes, and concludes with another standard (“If Ever I Would Leave You”) and a Thelonious Monk composition (“Let’s Cool One”)....
Since launching in 2010 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Already Dead Tapes & Records has kept up a busy schedule. The label, which now operates out of Chicago and Brooklyn as well, has dropped almost 250 releases. This Friday number 249 arrives: Population, the second full-length by local art-rock band Crown Larks (a collaborative release with Satellite Records). On Population, Crown Larks drag jazzy saxophone through the muck, discombobulate their limber Krautrock riffs, and strip down the arrangements surrounding their velvety psych melodies till simple keyboard notes are left bare....
Over the past decade or so, New York-based guitarist Mary Halvorson has built a strong case for herself as one of the most distinctive and original improvisers of her time. Her voluminous discography reveals a strong collaborative instinct, enabled by her probing curiosity and almost offhanded versatility. Just this year she’s appeared in recordings featuring a wide range of instrumental combinations: a collective with fellow guitarists Elliott Sharp and Marc Ribot on Err Guitar, a trio with pianist Jason Moran and cornetist Ron Miles on Bangs, and a duo with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier on Crop Circles....
Last year Laser Background main man Andy Molholt told music site ThrdCoast that from an early age he’s gleaned inspiration from composer Koji Kondo, who as the architect of the original Super Mario Bros. is one of the most influential composers in contemporary culture. “Those songs you can hear again and again on a loop,” Molholt explained. The Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist applies the lessons of repetition to indie pop, and his charmingly lo-fi Laser Background songs bridge the gap between the blocky eight-bit world he maneuvered as a child and the guitar-rock realities of his present....
In the wee hours of August 9, 2016, beat maker and engineer Ivan “Ikon” Pryor left Fort Knox, a huge Old Irving Park building that houses a labyrinth of rehearsal spaces and recording studios, to buy Red Bull with a friend at a nearby gas station. He’d been hanging out at Fort Knox’s suite 42, home to local hip-hop collective and indie label Private Stock, and his friend had woken him from a nap to work on music....
On Friday the British group the Zombies play the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Indiana, and they’ll be performing the album for which they’re best known, 1968’s Odessey and Oracle, in its entirety. The Zombies famously split up before the album was released, and even though they recorded some incredible singles Odessey and Oracle is so well regarded that it tends to be the only album that casual fans know about....
But brisket isn’t exactly in line with the modern Italian cuisine that Ugo’s serves. Pizza, on the other hand, is a menu staple—so Hasson crafted a brisket pie. As a nod to the mushy carrots he remembers fishing out of the braising liquid as a child, he spread the dough with a carrot puree instead of tomato sauce. In addition to the brisket itself, he topped the Neapolitan-style crust with elements that would traditionally accompany the meat: onions (which he caramelized) and potatoes (cooked gently in duck fat, then deep-fried)....
Abbi Jacobson, best known as co-creator and co-star of Broad City, did what some people wish they could do after a hard breakup: hit the road to distract herself from her pain. Only she was able to pitch her three-week solo road trip as a book titled I Might Regret This (Essays, Vulnerabilities and Other Stuff). She knows this is bizarre and privileged. At a sold-out Chicago Humanities Festival event at the Vic Theatre moderated by author Samantha Irby, Jacobson recalled her decision to drive from New York to Los Angeles after wrapping season four of Broad City....
Artists like, Jon Rafman or Paolo Cirio, who work primarily with Google Street View, have created images that are evocative and disturbing, often blurring the line of legal privacy issues. While capturing the individuals who fill the streets, alleys, and lawns of the world is captivating, these artists have drawn on the public and an additional tool to conceptualize the public sphere. Since 2007, the launch of the panoramic technology featured on Google Maps and Google Earth, has become an eccentric and often easy way to view places one may never go or places one desires to see....
