As Waylon Jennings once sang, ladies love outlaws, and judging by the enduring appeal of the outlaw trope in pop culture—especially in music—ladies aren’t the only ones. Rock ‘n’ roll and its many offshoots glorify the highwayman, the gunslinger, the lone warrior. In hip-hop and heavy metal alike, fans love to hear good songs about bad people, or about good people who’ve made bad decisions­—and Riot Fest provides plenty of opportunities....

My first appearance in the Reader—following a few decades as a devoted reader—was in a fiction issue, and it always struck me as a fantastic way to round out a year of alternative newsweeklies. Of course to do it right we would have had to have planned it several months in advance, but Karen Hawkins—our digital managing editor—and I had both just started by the time it became clear, in early November, that no fiction issue had been scheduled for 2018....

Blue Is the Warmest Color In yesterday’s post, I briefly compared the pleasure of delving into an epic narrative to that of preparing an elaborate meal. I could have noted that these pleasures often overlap. Two of the examples I cited yesterday—Thomas Mann’s novel Buddenbrooks (1901) and Abdellatif Kechiche’s recent film Blue Is the Warmest Color—feature lengthy scenes of meals being prepared and eaten. In both, these scenes deepen our understanding of the characters’ domestic lives—and, by implication, the social traditions they inherit....

Shuffleboard may have been a favorite pastime of King Henry VIII’s, but you’ll never feel more American than when you play at the Revolution Brewing Tap Room in Avondale while standing in the shadow of a monstrous star-spangled banner. The 15-feet-tall-by-25-feet-wide flag lords over the bar nestled inside the brewery’s complex, with the shuffleboard table situated between the two, gamely playing its role as one of the best activities to eat up hours of an afternoon....

“Black Caucus, Black Caucus They don’t really care Black Caucus, Black Caucus Always backs the mayor Black Caucus, Black Caucus They don’t vote with us Black Caucus, Black Caucus Now your time is up! Now your time is up! Now your time is up!” “If anybody else wanna protest you better take it outside,” Austin said, laughing. “‘Cause I guarantee you ain’t seen no gangsters like this city’s aldermen.” #NoCopAcademyJustice for #SnoopJustice for #TyrellJustice for #MauriceGrantonJr Justice for #RonnieMan#BlackLivesMatter #BlackCaucusShutDown They called themselves “Gangsters” yup your Black caucus!...

Tomorrow, the women (and male allies) of America march on Washington and more than 200 other cities, including here in Chicago, where nearly 50,000 people are expected to rally in Grant Park and then walk en masse to Federal Plaza. But even before the marches, people are gathering to prepare, to make hats and buttons and signs, and to talk about their reasons for marching. There are few things more threatening to the patriarchy—or more overlooked—than a women’s crafting circle....

If you were a baller at Logan Square’s Johnny’s Grill as it was operated under former owner Nicholas Kalliantasis, you ordered the steak and eggs. At $10.25 it was the second most expensive thing on the greasy spoon’s wide-ranging menu (the steak dinner with potato and soup or or salad was priciest at $10.50). But Kalliantasis was forced out last spring when the building’s landlord wouldn’t renew his lease. With him went the $2....

If you’re a journalist in a lather over Donald Trump, you’ve probably given some thought to the possibility that our profession might be exaggerating itself into oblivion. Let’s compare. “Ladies and gentlemen,” wrote Friedman, “we were attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, we were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, and we were attacked on Nov. 8, 2016. That most recent attack didn’t involve a horrible loss of lives, but it was devastating in its own way....

I’ve developed a serious pet peeve against children’s animations that rely on celebrity voices. Cartoon characters can change their shape and body language at will, yet most movie stars and pop singers are strongly associated with a particular—and often limited—vocal style. The novelty of hearing a star’s voice emanate from an unrecognizable form grows old quickly, which may explain why so few star-studded animations linger in the popular consciousness. Except for toddlers parked in front of the flat-screen by their parents, does anyone still watch the DreamWorks releases Shark Tale (with Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, and Robert De Niro), Over the Hedge (with Bruce Willis and William Shatner), or MegaMind (with Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill)?...

Andy Samberg hosted Saturday Night Live‘s finale. The 39th season of Saturday Night Live ended as it began—with a former cast member front and center as host. The Tina Fey-Andy Samberg sandwich (with a little Jimmy Fallon mustard in the middle for good measure) may have been in part to anchor this season of major transition. With heavy hitters Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Jason Sudeikis gone, a pair of new Weekend Update hosts behind the desk after Seth Meyers’s February departure, and a total of eight new cast member by season’s end, the direction of the show was up in the air....

Unheralded Chicago music-biz veteran Willie Barney died of heart failure on Monday, February 20, at age 89. Born in Arkansas in 1927, he’s best known as the founder of west-side institution Barney’s One Stop and Record Shop, which he opened in 1953 as Barney’s Swing Shop. His career in music began rather modestly, according to his son, Ray: “He borrowed $300 from his family and started selling records out of the trunk of his car....

A plan for Logan Square Change has come to Logan Square at a decent clip in recent years. Now a local group is promoting a plan that could bring even bigger alterations to the neighborhood’s landscape. The idea really started with traffic. There’s a science to making the roadways safer and work better for everyone, according to Semple, who says that better routing for cars and paths for bikes through the main segment makes things safer and more efficient for everyone....

Granted, this 13-episode venture created by and starring Brandon Ogborn, Brianna Baker, and Mike Malarkey doesn’t really bask in its Chicagoness. Its true focus is on newlyweds Chris and Nic, played by Ogborn and Baker respectively, as they comedically and often dramatically navigate the ins and outs of the bedroom, the still-distant prospect of parenthood, and the introduction of an irksome ex-husband (Malarkey) into the couple’s still-fresh relationship. But establishing shots of el tracks hovering in the background of a street lined with two-flats, not to mention a finale set at the Diversey River Bowl, add precisely the right touch of the city—the show’s never too stiff a cocktail, just strong enough to get you a tad sentimental....

Mysterious French electronic artist Franck Hueso writes and records under the moniker Carpenter Brut, a pretty blatant homage to the visionary who serves as his musical inspiration. Carpenter Brut’s three EPs, released in 2015 as a single package called Trilogy, comprise creepy instrumental John Carpenter worship full of cinematic, sweeping retro-futuristic synths and eerie, dark atmospherics. Unlike fellow 80s-horror-soundtrack disciples Survive, Carpenter Brut brings in a high-energy funk element, at times reminiscent of Daft Punk or Justice—though Hueso’s samples and song titles focus on crime, violence, and the occult....

A circumcised penis with breasts and wings perches on a pencil above the words “2017 the year you decided to become a political artist.” Made to resemble an eagle, with skin the color of raw chicken, this strange, amusing creation figures in the square-foot drawing titled Reporting Live From the Trenches, by the artist David Leggett. The piece sums up Leggett’s output and attitude: keenly aware of the world and quick with a punch line....

In the late 2000s, New York City was experiencing a disco revival, mostly due to genre nights at clubs like Passerby, Santos Party House, and Studio B, and DJ-producer groups such as Hercules and Love Affair, Metro Area, and Rub-N-Tug. Yet among this scene Escort were the one outfit that paid homage the hard way—as a 17-member band with full-fledged horn and string sections, cutting disco singles from scratch. The two sides from this time, “Starlight” and “All Through the Night,” are some of the finest relics of this brief scene, gleaming with the champagne-soaked, pill-popping decadence of dusty 12-inches from disco’s heyday....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, May 12, 2017. Have a great weekend! Jason Van Dyke will get security at the courthouse during the Laquan McDonald murder trial Cook County judge Vincent Gaughan has ruled that former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke will have security in the courthouse during his first-degree murder trial for the death of Laquan McDonald. Van Dyke was caught on police dashcam video shooting the unarmed 17-year-old 16 times....

You should always take lists with a grain of salt, but when Rolling Stone tackles one focused on genre, it’s typically as engaging and thoughtful an overview of a sound as you’re likely to get from an outlet serving both mainstream and niche tastes. (Full disclosure: I’ve helped write one such Rolling Stone list.) The magazine’s recent “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time” won’t please everyone, but it’s a decent snapshot of a genre’s entire history as it appears in this moment....

“For what’s the sound of the world out there / Those crunching noises pervading the air?” sings the title character of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s 1979 musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in the show’s first-act finale. He then answers his own question with relish: “It’s man devouring man, my dear / And who are we to deny it in here?” When he directed the premiere of Sondheim and Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd on Broadway in 1979, director Harold Prince emphasized the saga’s potential for political commentary: his epic-scale production, which played at Chicago’s Arie Crown Theater in 1981, employed a sprawling network of catwalks and girders to evoke the story’s industrial-revolution setting....

You won’t find very much visible wall space at Miishkooki gallery in Skokie this month. Artist Tim Kerr has used nearly every inch available in the venue to hang his colorful acrylic portraits—tributes to his heroes, which include figures as varied as bluesman Mance Lipscomb, photographer Walker Evans, and activist Fred Hampton—for his solo show “Your Name Here.” Kerr has included many Chicagoans, among them Ernie Banks, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Dawoud Bey, and Vivian Maier....