The thing about the proposed Justice Department examination of Chicago’s police force, which the mayor called misguided before he said he welcomed it, is that it sounds less like a housecleaning than a whitewash. The mayor has already thrown the police superintendent off the back of the wagon. But Justice could turn the whole force inside out without getting to the root of the problem. A front-page story in Sunday’s Tribune—whose first section, including the editorial pages, was virtually a Laquan McDonald special section—got to the point: Chicago police officers “enforce a code of silence to protect one another....

When Stephen Colbert breezed into town last month to shoot a segment at Buckingham Fountain for his soon-to-debut late-night program on CBS, he did so with uncharacteristically little fanfare—certainly far less than has greeted his other visits to Chicago throughout the nine-season run of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. In 2006, the Northwestern University graduate served as grand marshal of his school’s homecoming parade. A few years later he returned for the 50th-anniversary celebration of Second City, where he studied and performed from 1987 to 1994 alongside such future stars as Chris Farley, Steve Carell, and Amy Sedaris....

This powerful 50-minute devised performance by About Face Youth Theatre is a collection of sketches, monologues, and movement pieces dramatizing the theme of anxiety—specifically the fears and confusion felt by the show’s creator-performers in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. AFTY, now in its 20th year, is described by its parent organization, About Face Theatre, as “a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning and allied young people to become activists and theatre-makers....

Patty Templeton won the first-ever Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors Award in 2010. She’s just published her first novel, There Is No Lovely End, and will read from the book on Wednesday, July 16, 7 PM, at Lizard’s Liquid Lounge, 3058 W. Irving Park. We spoke with Templeton about the book’s title, its basis in reality, and what’s next for her: Geez! The title. I was at least six months into this novel before I had a title....

Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck in I’m Still Here I’m looking forward to revisiting The Master this coming week in the Music Box Theatre’s latest 70-millimeter film series. I haven’t seen the movie since it was released to DVD—as I argued last year, The Master‘s thematic content is tied so closely to its extralarge format that I feel it wouldn’t be the same film outside of a theater. At the same time, it’s a movie I’ve wanted to watch alongside quite a few others, as The Master is such a towering work that it seems to draw other movies into its orbit....

The Amish Project The story behind Jessica Dickey’s somewhat fictionalized account (names changed, a few details altered) is horrific: a troubled middle-aged armed man invades a one-room Amish school with a vague plan to molest young girls and ends up shooting eight of them, killing five, before killing himself. But Dickey is after more than shock theater. Her solo show is a riveting meditation on evil, recovery, and the myriad paradoxes of the human psyche....

Technically speaking, no “Oktoberfest” beer brewed in the U.S. is actually Oktoberfest. According to European Union regulations, only six German breweries—all within Munich, the same ones that are allowed to serve beer at the annual Oktoberfest celebration—are allowed to make beer that carries the label. (That’s obviously never stopped U.S. brewers from calling their beers Oktoberfest, though.) According to the Oxford Companion to Beer, the Prince of Bavaria once tried to bring beer from a brewery he owned to the original Oktoberfest, and even he was denied access....

Last week on WGN’s The Download, host Justin Kaufman asked local rapper William Dalton, aka the Boy Illinois, about what unites local MCs as Chicagoans. “I wouldn’t say it’s a sound per se—it’s a vibe and it’s a lingo,” Dalton said. He’s well-versed in the nuances that connect local rappers, despite the obvious sonic differences that make it tempting to sort them using specious categories—most notably the “Chief Keef vs. Chance the Rapper” duality that continues to dominate national discussion of the city’s scene....

This weekend, 90s alternative rock pioneers the Lemonheads are playing two shows in the suburbs, Fri 9/19 at Wire in Berwyn and on Sat 9/20 they headline Oaktoberfest in downtown Oak Park. Formed in 1987, this Boston trio quickly turned into the musical vehicle of singer and guitarist Evan Dando, who has spent almost 30 years surrounding himself with a revolving door of sharp, hard-hitting musicians, including Murph from Dinosaur Jr....

M. Spencer Green/AP Bruce Rauner got the Trib‘s endorsement. I’ve never been whiplashed by a journalist the way I just was by Mark Jacob, the Tribune‘s deputy metro editor. I thought I remembered everything about that year of years, 1968, but in Sunday’s Trib, Jacob (and Stephan Benzkofer) offered “10 things you might not know about 1968,” and true enough, I didn’t know most of them. For example, I didn’t know Alexander Dubcek was conceived in Chicago until Jacob and Benzkofer told me so....

On a sweltering August morning at Swap-o-Rama there are cries from the sock vendors of “Siete por diez! Seven packs for ten!” Most of the goods at this enormous Back of the Yards flea market are priced low, attracting bargain hunters searching for deals on cowboy boots, children’s toys, phone cases, and windshield wipers. But there are also plenty of higher-end items for sale: power tools, kitchen mixers, a pair of child car seats (nestled between a chain saw and a vintage metal milk can), and bicycles, maybe a couple hundred total....

Blank Realm, Grassed Inn Cubicle neighbor and bowling captain Kevin Warwick wrote a blog post last year in which he urged Chicagoans to check out Australian band Blank Realm‘s show at the Burlington. For whatever reason I was unable to attend last year’s show, but Kevin doesn’t use precious blog space to promote local rock shows that often, so I bookmarked the album he wrote about in the post, last year’s Go Easy (Fire)....

Alex Cox’s Walker (1987) tells the true story of William Walker, an American colonel who led an invasion of Nicaragua in the mid-1850s and ruled the country for two years. Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer present this historical episode as a nightmarish comedy, advancing a farcical tone that mocks Walker’s hubris and, by extension, the manifest destiny that’s guided American missions in other countries for the past two centuries. The film is also forthright in its condemnation of the U....

The new debut album from Chicago producer Mulatto Beats, .22 Summers, includes a somnambulant track called “Good to Lose,” where rapper Qari says, “I’m not relaxin’, I’m just practicin’ my style.” He lets his words tumble out easily, during a pause between verses; like the best of his rapping, it feels ad libbed, whether or not he spent hours figuring out when and how to say it. And the line fits not just the mood of “Good to Lose” but his work with Mulatto Beats in general—and there’s a lot of it....

Lee Zaremba, a bartender at Billy Sunday, describes Red Bull—the ingredient with which Brian Bolles of Maude’s Liquor Bar challenged him to create a cocktail—as an “energy drink pretty popular among the extreme sports crowd—break dancers, cyclists, that kind of thing.” He should know—Zaremba, a former professional break dancer, used to perform at parties hosted by Red Bull. Personally, though, he says, “I’m more of a coffee guy.” The idea, he says, is that the cocktail and the beer back enhance each other....

In the 18 months since I’ve moved back to Chicago, I’ve learned a great deal about all that’s changed in this city of my youth. I grew up on Emerald Avenue, precisely 13 miles south of the setting of one of this year’s notable stories, and am myself a writer made by the history and geography of Chicago, but still the opportunity to curate this year’s Reader Fiction Issue may have done more to help catch me up on the current literary voice of the city than the last year and a half of teaching, writing, walking, and CTA riding....

Before getting a gig as a cast member on Mr. Show With Bob and David or becoming Pete Hornberger, Liz Lemon’s right-hand man on 30 Rock, Scott Adsit studied improv at Columbia College Chicago and Second City. In the early 90s he spent his days wandering around Roscoe Village with comedy writer Dino Stamatopoulos (Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Moral Orel, Community) and a guitar in tow. The pair would find al fresco restaurants and pretend they worked there, then offer to play original tunes to diners until management eventually kicked them out....

I’ll admit Factory Theater had me at “cheerleading squad must save the universe,” about as shrewdly idiotic a theatrical setup as the company has concocted in its 26-year history. And the first few minutes of Jill Oliver’s vulgar, trashy, childish romp reveal unexpected layers of additional idiocy. A trio of incessantly spirited high school cheerleaders (actually, one is preternaturally disagreeable by nature), joined by a fey, fawning, troopless Boy Scout, must follow their extraterrestrial coach into a dumpster in order to transport themselves to the realm of Lej, where diabolical Lady Mauron rules with an iron vagina (don’t ask)....

For years I’ve been low-key obsessed with the Bridges’ 2008 album Limits of the Sky (Verve Forecast), what with its infectious melodies, close harmonies, and the irresistible, sweetly hoarse vocals of Brittany Painter. Bridges bassist Issaca Byrd has since started this Nashville-based project with producer Micah Tawlks, and though I miss her old folk-rock roots, Myzica retain some of those virtues. Their 2016 full-length debut, Love & Desire (Peptalk/Tone Tree), is even less apologetic than the Bridges were about embracing the cheesy hook: “We Belong Together” could just about be an Abba track, complete with pattering synths, a sweeping chorus, and an earnest break on which Byrd repeats in multitracked ecstasy, “We belong together / Baby we belong together....

I just released an international split seven-inch on my label, Gary Records, from the bands Hot & Cold (of Beijing and Toronto) and Skip Skip Ben Ben (of Taiwan). My heritage is Chinese and I spent my childhood in Taiwan. I also used to intern for this paper. The powers that be at the Reader decided to let me write a little something about my own release (a pretty obvious conflict of interest) because I had something to say about the new seven-inch in relation to the recent protests in Hong Kong—and because I had some pictures to back it up....