Over the past week I and the rest of the staff at the Reader have been working on our bar issue, which will appear online in the near future. Over the course of reviewing our Neighborhood Bar Guide, I came across a place that I recalled reading about in former Reader staffer Edward McClelland‘s Morning News story “Right Here Waiting,” the Lighthouse Tavern. I decided to go check it out last Friday, and it is indeed as special a bar as McClelland describes in his article....

Discontent is the constant companion of investigative reporters. They set out on their campaigns because a wrong needs to be righted, and when the campaign ends it’s rarely been righted enough. In January 2011, Novak and his colleague Chris Fusco submitted a Freedom of Information request for the police files of Koschman’s death. It turned out the police had never closed the case, even though they weren’t working it, giving them an excuse not to hand anything over....

2744 W. 63rd, 773-434-4626, imancentral.org/services/health-clinic The south-side Chicago Lawn neighborhood is suffering from poverty and rampant foreclosures, but its residents at least have an accessible, affordable health-care option. For seven years now, the Inner-City Muslim Action Network has operated a clinic in a former bank. A medical director, a nurse practitioner, a lab tech, and a rotating roster of volunteer doctors, nurses, and medical students provide treatment for 85 patients a week—free for those eligible for charity care....

Mystery—never being able to completely comprehend that which has captured your heart—is an important component of falling in love. Chicago’s immigrant past and present may well be why no one can quite figure this city out. But if you’ve ever been struck by a sense of wonderment in Chicago, there’s probably an immigrant story behind it, perhaps even one about how this stubborn city “invited them, accepted them, and made them free of the place....

The B-Series returns to the Dance Center at Columbia College with B-Free, a festival that spotlights hip-hop artists and street dancers who are blurring boundaries between the foundational forms of the art. The B in “B-Series” stands for many things, says assistant professor Kelsa Robinson, who has curated the program since its inception in 2013. Originally it meant the “break” in funk and soul records where a drum solo would occur....

Steven Senne/AP PHOTOS James Foley Michael Lev didn’t know James Foley, but he knows the business Foley was in. A former foreign correspondent now an editorial writer for the Tribune, Lev published a story Friday called “The dangers of being a war correspondent.” Lev was in Pakistan and Afghanistan after 9/11. You want to stay safe, he explains, but “you are there to get the story.” He gave me a link to a story Thursday by Martin Chulov in the Guardian....

The city doesn’t shut down just because it’s Christmas; this year there won’t even be the threat of a blizzard! Whether you’re trying to avoid Christmas cheer, need somewhere to drag your family, or simply want to have a meal, there are plenty of ways to avoid cabin fever during the holiday break. CHRISTMAS EVE Dine out Get cultured • “Pop Art Design” just kicked off at the Museum of Contemporary Art....

Chicago summer is an ephemeral SOB. If you want to make the most of it, you’ve gotta set some goals. Back in May I made a 2015 summer bucket list—or as I prefer to call it, a “sand bucket list” (if only to make an already obnoxious phrase even more obnoxious). -ride the water taxi to Chinatown for dinner (check) Anyway, the event is basically a government-approved excuse to clown around and reread Stephen King’s It and watch reruns of Bozo the Clown and maybe take up krumping....

For their ninth full-length album, last year’s Requiem for Hell (Temporary Residence), this Japanese postrock institution took inspiration from the most famous grouping of circles: the nine that represent the stages of hell in Dante’s Inferno. The record is less austere than the dual 2014 albums Rays of Darkness and The Last Dawn, and not quite as heavy despite the whirlwind light noise of “Death in Rebirth” and the shivery boil of its centerpiece, the nearly 18-minute title track....

Alison Green Chance the Rapper’s triumphant set was Sunday’s biggest draw, which might have surprised Skrillex. Philip Montoro: I’ll be honest, I didn’t go to Lollapalooza on Sunday. I spent pretty much the whole day in my living room, working on a Beer and Metal post. But I followed the festival coverage happening on Twitter, so I knew that (for instance) Malia Obama had been spotted at Chance the Rapper’s set, or that Bop King Dlow had joined Chance onstage to do the Dlow Shuffle for an estimated crowd of 60,000....

Jessica Koscielniak / Sun-Times Would you go to school on a day like this? The contrast between New York City’s newly elected Mayor Bill de Blasio and our very own Mayor Emanuel was never so dramatically displayed as when winter storms recently roared into their respective cities. I was taking de Blasio’s advice as I dug out the snow that seemed to be forever falling over the weekend. I’ll bet....

So there I was, sitting on the couch, reading a recent issue of Catalyst magazine, when I saw something that made me hop out of my seat. Just as it was LaRaviere who dug up the research that showed that many neighborhood public schools are outscoring charters. Despite LaRaviere’s record of opposition to the mayor’s school policies, this principal has won three $10,000 merit pay awards (totaling $30,000) for school years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14....

There’s a moment in every American life when you decide, for nostalgia’s sake, to revisit some of the processed food you loved as a kid. And then you realize after the first couple of bites that it’s . . . not that good. The lovely stuff of dreams has somehow become a chemical nightmare. Part of the fun of BraveTart, though, is all the research Parks has done on the origins of our most beloved national desserts....

Rhett Miller is still known best as front man for alt-country die-hards the Old 97’s, but for his latest solo album, The Traveler (ATO), he teamed up with Black Prairie—a sprawling Portland quintet that began as a Decemberists side project. Black Prairie started their career with a bluegrass vibe, but more recently they’ve gravitated toward their indie-rock roots. They’re an impressively versatile band, which makes them a good fit for Miller, who always seems to be looking for new settings for his wide-grin pop songs....

Chosen Few Picnic The annual two-day house-music party returns for the 27th year with performances from Steve “Silk” Hurley, Craig Loftus, and more, with sets by the Chosen Few DJs all weekend long, of course. 7/1-7/2, Jackson Park, 6300 S. Lake Shore, chosenfewdjs.com, $25-$135, $50-$160 for two-day pass. Firefly Ball Off the Street Club hosts this night of music, dancing, food, and drinks in the Art Institute’s Modern Wing to raise money so kids who live in violent areas of Chicago can go to summer camp....

In the public rumpus that preceded the opening of the Dawson, one image remains embedded in the collective memory of the city’s twitchy restaurant stalkers: a slab of nearly raw high-grade beef jacketed in a thick, batter-fried shell. The money that went into this project is hard to fathom, judging not just from the two-story, 400-seat refurbishment with upper and lower outdoor patios, but also from each and every little detail, like the animal-embossed vintage cocktail glassware and the disposable bar napkins and taco wrappers printed with the image of the Dawson’s mascot, a bident-wielding satyr....

Zombi 2, aka Zombie Tonight, the folks at Delilah’s are tuning up Lucio Fulci’s 1981 splatterfest The Beyond, one of the horror auteur’s best and nastiest films. Even within the horror niche, Fulci is something of a polarizing figure, a notorious gore hound who favored elaborate, violent, and otherwise inane set pieces over cogent storytelling and conventional narrative. Italian horror isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but those who can even halfway stomach the genre tend to stop with Mario Bava or Dario Argento, leaving Fulci for the fringe enthusiasts who revel in the director’s unique and decidedly bizarre fixation on blood, guts, and general mayhem....

More than 17,000 Syrians have been killed in government custody since March 2011, and an estimated 100,000 people are still missing and presumed detained or killed, according to Syrian human rights groups. Abu Shadi, 27, was born in Damascus and sought asylum in Chicago in 2013 after he was arrested and tortured for more than a month by the Assad regime for filming peaceful protests. (We’re referring to him by his nickname to protect his identity during the asylum process....

My year-end list published in the Reader a couple weeks ago bore the headline “The ten best jazz records of 2016,” because I forgot to remind my editor that I’d prefer to say “My ten favorite” instead. The concreteness of “best” doesn’t acknowledge the reality that I didn’t hear all the jazz albums released last year—not even close. As usual, in the days and weeks since I compiled the list, I’ve heard music that could’ve competed for a spot, including Flaga (The Book of Angels, Vol....

When it opened last fall, a really adorable thing about Tacos Tequilas was that it was called Tacos Tequilas but didn’t serve any tequila. (Second-most adorable thing: the photo wall in the back that honors Mexican celebrities from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to . . . well, I don’t recognize most of the rest of them.) Then a Cinco de Mayo miracle happened: the shelves behind the bar, which had sat empty for half a year, were suddenly and finally stocked with bottles and bottles of silver and gold varieties of the agave stuff....