Print Issue of August 23, 2018 (Volume 47, Number 46)

C H I C A G O ’ S F R E E W E E K LY S I N C E 1 9 7 1 | A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 8

THE M AV E R I C K BEHIND THE CAMERA African-American photojournalist Dorrell Creightney and his work have faded into memory—until now.

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA 12

What is it like to see your old elementary school turned into luxury lofts? 8

2 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

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THIS WEEK

C H I C A G O R E A D E R | A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 1 8 | V O L U M E 4 7, N U M B E R 4 4

IN THIS ISSUE

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ACTING DEPUTY EDITOR KATE SCHMIDT CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JAMIE RAMSAY CULTURE EDITOR AIMEE LEVITT MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, JAMIE LUDWIG SENIOR WRITERS DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, PETER MARGASAK SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTORS ISA GIALLORENZO, SHERRY FLANDERS, JOHN GREENFIELD, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, IRENE HSAIO, DAN JAKES, MONICA KENDRICK, BILL MEYER, J.R. NELSON, LEAH PICKETT, JAMES PORTER, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS MATTHEW HARVEY, KATIE POWERS, TYRA NICOLE TRICHE, ANNA WHITE ---------------------------------------------------------------ADVERTISING DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER BEST SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA ---------------------------------------------------------------DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 30 N. RACINE, SUITE 300 CHICAGO, IL 60607 312-222-6920 CHICAGOREADER.COM

CITY LIFE

4 Street View Life coach Andrew Asuncion finds that Helmut Lang can go anywhere.

5 Dukmasova | Criminal Justice See how many misconduct complaints there are against your friendly neighborhood cop, courtesy of Invisible Institute..

6 Transportation What’s the deal with the 31st Street bus pilot, and why is Alderman Pat Dowell arguing that it should be killed?

PERSONAL HISTORY

School’s out

What’s it like to see your old elementary school turned into luxury lofts?

BY MATT HARVEY 8

ARTS & CULTURE

17 Visual Art ThoughtPoet is on a mission to capture the beauty in black Chicago.

18 Theater Detroit performing arts collective the Hinterlands revives The Radicalization Process, inspired by police shootings of unarmed black suspects.

19 Theater Music Theater Works’ Anything Goes and more plays, reviewed by our critics 21 Movies The Wife is a better conversation starter than a movie.

23 Movies Xavier Legrand’s Custody, the documentary Detroit 48202, and seven more new releases, reviewed by our critics

FEATURE

The maverick behind the camera Photojournalist Dorrell Creightney and his work have faded into memory— until now.

BY DAVE HOEKSTRA 12

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE 27 In Rotation Haley Fohr of Circuit des Yeux on Philip K. Dick, and more 28 Shows of note Bump J, Ohmme, Flamingo Rodeo, and more of the week’s best

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ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY DORRELL CREIGHTNEY. FOR MORE OF CREIGHTNEY’S WORK, GO TO CREIGHTNEYPHOTO.COM.

FOOD & DRINK Music FEATURE

Andrew Green throws his homemade songs against the wall The Chicago singer-songwriter behind Jungle Green has promoted his music mostly by taping flyers to lampposts.

BY LEOR GALIL 24

33 Restaurant Review With Omakase Yume, chef Sangtae Park draws first in an impending sushi arms race.

CLASSIFIEDS

35 Jobs 35 Apartments & Spaces 36 Marketplace 37 Savage Love Yes, therapeutic surrogate sex partners are legit.

38 Early Warnings Julian Baker, High Zero Festival, Lauryn Hill, Sun Ra Arkestra, and other shows to look for in the weeks to come.

38 Gossip Wolf Brand-new label Fine Prints launches with a triple release at the Empty Bottle, and more.

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 3

CITY LIFE

STREET VIEW

Minimalism, Tokyo style

Life coach Andrew Asuncion is inspired by Helmut Lang and the films of Wong Kar-wai.

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é ISA GIALLORENZO

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WHO KNEW a sleeveless button-down shirt could look fashionable? Granted, life coach Andrew

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Asuncion was covered in Helmut Lang while casually running errands, in an outfit he describes as the “suburbs-of-Tokyo minimalism”—a kind of look he often turns to.

“I’ve always been intrigued by the costumes and color palettes in Wong Kar-wai films,” he says. “In his film 2046 [the character] Bai Ling [played by Zhang Ziyi] always had a perfectly cut dress on, but it was actually the same in every scene—just in different fabrics and material. It was the color and mood that made each and every one distinct. That’s what I look for in an outfit: I want it to be my uniform, but different everyday.”

Offering some coaching tips when it comes to menswear, the 26-year-old suggests, “Don’t think too much into it, but take risks,” adding, “Making sure everything fits correctly can make the biggest difference. I may be wearing a 5XL, but no one will ever tell me that it’s too baggy.”

After all, “It’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it.” — ISA GIALLORENZO

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CITY LIFE The new and improved Citizens Police Data Pro Project is an even more powerful tool for tra tracking Chicago police misconduct é INVISIBLE INSTITUTE

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The Invisible Institute’s CPD database expands Journalist Jamie Kalven and researchers unveil more reports of police misconduct.

By MAYA DUKMASOVA

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n expansive new version of the Citizens Police Data Project (CPDP) has been unveiled by south-side journalism production company the Invisible Institute. The database, created by independent journalist Jamie Kalven, was already the largest public repository of Chicago police misconduct records.

Now it’s quadrupled in size to include more than 240,000 misconduct complaints made against more than 22,000 CPD officers going back to the late 1960s. The database has also been enhanced by the addition of Chicago Police Department use-of-force reports and officer commendation records.

Researchers at the institute are rolling out the new version of the database together with

their own analysis of the data. They found that about one-fifth of the officers employed

by CPD for a year or more between 2000 and 2016 had ten or more complaints against them, ranging from minor operational violations such as not wearing a seat belt while driving a squad car to accusations of severe beatings and shootings. Officers with ten or more complaints account for two-thirds of the records in CPDP’s new database.

As has long been reported, very few complaints against officers are sustained, and even fewer result in any sort of discipline.

Institute researchers found that of the nearly 112,000 complaints filed against officers between 2000 and 2016, just over 2 percent were sustained and just over 1 percent

ended in an officer being suspended or fired.

Complaints were sustained 20 times more frequently when filed by other cops than when filed by civilians. And white civilians’ complaints were three times more likely to be sustained than black civilians’ complaints.

The majority of complaints originate on the south and west sides—something the previous version of the database already demonstrated. But now it’s possible to see the racial and socioeconomic context of the neighborhoods and police districts where allegations against officers are made. It’s also possible to see the department’s own records about officers’ use of force. Though CPDP aggregates tens of thousands of these records, data analyst Andrew Fan (who, full

disclosure, assisted with data analysis for one Reader story last year) cautions that this “isn’t the last word” on officers’ use of force.

Institute staff believe that both officers and the department as a whole underreport useof-force incidents.

Fan’s analysis of the use-of-force reports showed that despite the steep decline in the city’s black population since 2000, black people have steadily remained about three-quarters of the subjects of officers’ use of force.

Even in heavily white areas of town, black people are still disproportionately on the receiving end of officers’ use of force. Fan cited Jefferson Park on the far northwest side as an example. There less than 1 percent of the population is black, yet 14 percent of the subjects in officers’ use-of-force reports between 2013 and 2015 were black.

The graphics in the new database offer a chance to see where any particular officer falls in relation to the rest of the force when it comes to allegations by civilians, by fellow officers, and use-of-force reports. Officers who are frequently accused together can be analyzed as a group. It’s also possible to scroll through an officer’s entire career history and see his or her transfers between districts and department awards. Often, Fan notes, the same incident involving the same officer will result in a misconduct complaint from a civilian as well as a commendation from the department.

In its announcement of the database rollout the institute notes additional “alarming trends” gleaned from the database: More than 6 percent of officers were accused of incidents of “physical domestic abuse” between 2000 and 2016. The officers with such accusations on their records also had a 50 percent higher rate of use-of-force complaints than the rest of their peers.

“I think the motives of the Invisible Institute are perfectly transparent,” said Chicago police union spokesman Martin Preib when asked for comment about the new database.

Preib declined to elaborate on what he thinks those motives are. A Chicago Police Department spokesman didn’t return a request for comment. v

m @mdoukmas AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 5

CITY LIFE TRANSPORTATION

A pilot run seems to have fizzled, and Third Ward alderman Pat Dowell is arguing in favor of canceling the service

By JOHN GREENFIELD

T

hird Ward alderman Pat Dowell is no fan of the 31st Street bus.

The route was canceled in 1997 due to poor ridership, but after years of lobbying by near-south-side community groups, the CTA rebooted the #31 as a pilot two years ago. It covers a roughly threeand-a-half-mile route between the Ashland Orange Line station and the Lake Meadows Shopping Center, near 33rd and King. But since the service only runs between 10 AM and 7 PM on weekdays—making it useless for morning rush-hour commutes or weekend errands—and there are only two runs an hour in each direction, some residents have argued that the test service was designed to fail.

The #31 pilot is currently scheduled to run through September, but while neighborhood organizations are urging the CTA to extend the test, last month Dowell wrote a letter to the transit agency’s board of directors asking them to pull the plug. Only three blocks of the bus route, the stretch between the Dan Ryan Expressway and Prairie Avenue near the Illinois Institute of Technology, runs through her district. But the alderman argued that, due to low ridership on the #31, the CTA would be wiser to boost service on the more popular 35th Street bus rather than spending money to extend the pilot.

Dowell has a point. The #35—which runs all the way from Cicero Avenue to 31st Street Beach and has seven-day service, longer hours, and shorter headways—saw an average of 5,077 rides taken per weekday in 2017.

Meanwhile, the CTA set a goal of 830 rides per weekday for the #31. While the line averaged 674 rides a day last November—81 percent of the target—it hit only 298 rides a day in July, with similarly underwhelming numbers in May and June.

At the transit agency’s monthly board meet-

6 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

ing in mid-August, representatives from the Bridgeport Alliance, the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, and the Active Transportation Alliance made “Woodsman, Spare That Tree”-style pleas to the board members. They contended that if the days, hours, and frequency of the 31st Street service were increased and the route extended to include the beach, Mercy Hospital, and/or the Museum Campus, more people would use it.

“If you build it, they will come,” said CBCAC’s Debbie Liu. The board will make a decision in the near future.

Aside from the ridership issue, the most salient argument in Dowell’s letter was her assertion that the #31 buses are creating traffic jams. She wrote that, since 31st Street is a twolane street between the Ryan and Lake Shore Drive, “it’s unsuitable for bus travel, as the frequent bus stops cause major congestion.”

(Notably, 35th Street is also two lanes along this stretch.)

First of all, if few people are riding the #31 buses, are they really stopping all that often?

Second, if only two buses are running per hour in each direction, could they really have a major negative impact on congestion? Third, contrary to what drivers stewing in traffic might like to believe, buses don’t cause traffic jams—cars do. A standard CTA bus can hold more than 80 passengers, but even a partially full bus is a relatively space-efficient way to transport people. In reality, it’s the many metal boxes on 31st carrying one or two occupants that are responsible for any congestion problems.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t the first time sustainable transportation has been blamed for traffic jams on this portion of 31st.

In 2014, years before the bus pilot, then-Chicago Tribune transportation reporter Jon Hilkevitch called new protected bike lanes on

é JOHN GREENFIELD

What’s up with the 31st Street bus?

this stretch “the reason why frustrated drivers often find themselves crawling in heavy traffic.”

Assuming Dowell’s letter is largely a case of her putting the perceived needs of her constituents who own cars before those who don’t, it’s the second time she’s done so in recent memory. Earlier this year the alderman chose to exclude her ward from the Car2go point-topoint car-sharing pilot, citing concerns that the shared vehicles would create a parking crunch for private vehicle owners.

At any rate, when I recently checked out the #31 route during the evening rush, congestion seemed to be a nonissue. In fairness, we’re in the dog days of August, when many Chicagoans take vacations, so traffic may be lighter than usual.

IIT grad student Dharini Kanagaraj was waiting at 31st and State for a ride from campus to her home in the Lake Meadows development, where many folks from the university live. She said she makes the trip several times a week, and the bus sometimes gets fairly crowded when classes are letting out. “If they cancel the service, it’s going to be really hard for many people,” she said.

Over at the Lake Meadows Shopping Center, a young man was getting off the bus to buy dinner at Jewel. He said he sometimes takes the #31 from the 35th-Bronzeville-IIT Green Line station to go shopping—if the train and bus schedules happen to line up. “With only two buses per hour, it’s hard to catch,” he said.

“That’s kind of crazy to me.”

The stop at 31st and Halsted in Bridgeport seems to be one of the busier ones. There Michelle Sykes, a retired traffic aide who lives in the nearby Bridgeport Homes CHA housing, told me the #31 has been a godsend. She has relied on a cane ever since an Uber driver ran over her foot in 2015. She takes the 31st Street

bus to the Sox-35th Red Line station, then transfers to a #35 to get to appointments at Mercy Hospital with minimal walking. “The only sad thing is that it doesn’t run on weekends,” she said.

After making my way to the Ashland Orange station via Divvy, I boarded an eastbound #31, which never had more than a dozen onboard, a mix of IIT students, middle-aged professionals, and senior citizens.

Retired nurse Essie Gullett boarded after doing some shopping on the Halsted business strip. She was on her way home to the Armour Square Apartments senior-housing building on Wentworth. “I’m hoping they don’t cancel this bus, because it stops right in front of my house,” she said.

But is Alderman Dowell correct that #31 buses are creating traffic jams? “I don’t think so,” Gullet replied. “It’s the cars that cause congestion because there are more cars than buses. But talking like that will get the bus canceled for people like me who don’t drive.”

At the recent board meeting, CTA president Dorval Carter indicated that it’s unlikely the 31st Street bus service will continue much longer, let alone be expanded, unless the agency can find a sponsor, such as IIT or Mercy, to help shoulder the cost. Here’s hoping that a white knight emerges to save the #31, so that carless customers like Gullett don’t get left behind. v

John Greenfield edits the transportation news website Streetsblog Chicago. m @greenfieldjohn

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The former Stewart Elementary School in Uptown é COURTESY OF MORNINGSIDE

SCHOOL’S OUT What it’s like to see your old elementary school transformed into luxury lofts

By MATT HARVEY

T

here were 16 students in the 2012 graduating class at Stewart Elementary School. I was one of them. I remember graduation day vividly. We were holed up in room 107, adjacent to the auditorium. We could hear the sound of feet shuffling and our loved ones exchanging pleasantries over our own nervous conversation. We filed out of the room in two lines, one of boys in red gowns, the other of girls in white, in order from shortest to tallest. I was last in the line of seven boys. My palms oozed sweat while the butterflies in my belly danced to the school band’s rendition of the classic graduation march “Land of Hope and Glory.” My nerves

8 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

followed me onto the stage, and I remember shedding tears as I delivered a reminiscent and hopeful valedictorian speech to an auditorium packed with my classmates, extended family, staff, and the entire seventh-grade class. I remember being vaguely aware that day that I might not see many of these faces ever again, and that it would be my last time up on that stage. I hadn’t the slightest inkling, however, that six years later, Stewart Elementary as I knew it would no longer exist.

When the Chicago Board of Education announced the closing of 54 elementary schools in 2013 (the figure would eventually be trimmed to 50), Stewart was one of the institutions on the chopping block. According

to a Chicago Public Schools report, the school was recommended for closing due to a decline in enrollment (down 41 percent from 2003 to 2013), its lack of full air-conditioning, and the estimated $16 million it would cost to refurbish and maintain it.

When the 2012-’13 school year ended, CPS recommended that families enroll their children into designated “welcoming schools,” which supposedly had been prepped to handle the influx of the students. For attendees of Stewart Elementary, that school was Brennemann, a school originally built in the 60s to handle an overflow of Stewart students.

Located a little over half a mile southeast of Stewart in a building half the size,

Brennemann would absorb Stewart’s student body of 254 children and receive a financial boost of $1.6 million to assist the transition.

The population increase at Brennemann became a point of contention for parents and teachers alike.

By the time the next school year began, Stewart’s school building was desolate. Its lawn had been turned into a small tent city for the neighborhood’s homeless, and discussions had begun about how to repurpose the 90,000-square-foot building and the adjacent parking lot. CPS teamed up with the Metropolitan Planning Council and the office of 46th Ward alderman James Cappleman to organize a series of planning workshops.

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é BRIGID GALLAGHER

The former auditorium seats é MATT HARVEY

These workshops, called the Uptown Corridor Development Initiative, allowed members of the community to present their ideas for the repurposing of the school grounds. MPC used the input to develop eight recommendations including various combinations of retail, housing (both market rate and affordable), parking lots or garages, and space for nonprofit incubators. None of those renderings bear much resemblance to what currently exists at Stewart School.

In 2015 Morningside Development entered the winning bid of about $5.5 million dollars for the property, according to Morningside’s asset manager, Erik Slavik. Now Stewart Elementary School is a 64-unit luxury apartment building.

In order to appease residents, Morningside was required by CPS to include one of either a community farmers’ market, a community theater, youth recreational programming, job training facilities, or a community garden (Morningside went with the last).

Recently I attended the inaugural open house of Stewart School Lofts. Construction had begun in late 2016 and finished early this year; the couple who purchased the first unit moved in April 15, leasing manager Judy Truong told me.

It was my first time back at my alma mater since I graduated. From the corner of Kenmore and Wilson, the view of the building was identical to the last time I’d seen it up close. The north entrance of the school— the “Boys Entrance,” as the engraving above the door still reads— was adjacent to a newly refurbished parking lot. Two wooden theater chairs sat in the foyer.

One of the rehabbed units é MATT HARVEY

I recognized them from the old auditorium.

This was perhaps the most subtle nod to the building’s former use as a school; for the most part, its history was in my face at every corner.

“We wanted to keep as much of the charm as we could,” says Alison Solway, Morningside’s marketing manager. “Most of the units have the original hardwood floors, the original decorative molding on the walls. We even kept the chalkboard in one of the units.

In some of the rooms, we had to come in and remove coat hooks that had people’s names on them.” Scattered throughout the hallways are renderings of blueprints of the school’s original layout, a reminder of the classrooms each unit has replaced. The two-story audi-

torium where I gave my graduation speech is now two separate units.

The crown jewel of Stewart School Lofts sits on the second floor—once Stewart Elementary’s main floor—just to the right of the former auditorium. It’s a built-in trophy case that once held trophies for the school’s sports, chess, and robotics teams. Now it holds trophies of a different kind, objects that were quite literally hidden within the schools walls. “When we were clearing things out and starting our restoration, we found so many interesting artifacts,” says Solway. “Old music books and classroom logs and different event programs. When we cleaned out the attic, we found old beer and soda cans from like the

1930s. Apparently faculty would sneak up there for a drink back then.”

Solway’s anecdotes about the staff’s drinking and Harrison Ford’s days as a Stewart student are one of the biggest draws for prospective tenants. “It was something we just kind of came across in our search and we learned about the history of it later,” says graphic designer Kelly Schroer, who shares an apartment at Stewart School Lofts with musician Ben Pedersen. “We were both interested in living somewhere that had such a rich history and unique architecture.”

Pedersen and Schroer had done some research on the school’s closing. “We read about the circumstances and how it was kind of falling into disrepair,” Schroer says.

“It seemed like a great opportunity for the neighborhood to benefit from rehabbing a building that otherwise would’ve gone vacant.

We kind of thought that it was like saving this historical building that was going unused and we thought it was neat to preserve it.”

Neither made any mention of the fate of the students and teachers that the building had housed prior to its closing. The same was true throughout my tour with Solway, and my brief conversations with Truong and Slavik.

There was talk of the school’s “rich history” and “beautiful architecture,” but never any acknowledgment of the human beings affected by the school closing that gave birth to Stewart School Lofts.

It may be too early to say what, if any, benefit Stewart School Lofts will have for the existing Uptown community. Jessie Wil- J

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 9

Remnants of the former school have been incorporated into the lofts’ design.

é MATT HARVEY

é BRIGID GALLAGHER

continued from 9

liams, an Uptown native and fellow graduate of Stewart Elementary, class of 2012, was also at the open house. “It’s amazing to me to see what they’ve done with these old rooms, but not in a totally good way,” she says. “I mean, the units are really pretty and everything, but I don’t think anyone that attended school here has a family that could afford to live here now.”

According to statistics provided by CPS, nearly 93 percent of Stewart’s student population prior to its closing was eligible for free or reduced-cost lunch. That’s 25 percent

10 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

higher than the average of other schools in the same district. Williams and I were both among them. She grew up in a three-bedroom apartment nearby, sharing a room with her younger sister, who also went to Stewart. According to Williams, the rent for their apartment was income based, so her family paid about $500 per month. A three-bedroom unit in Stewart School Lofts rents for $3,505 per month now.

Unfortunately, the numbers that CPS provides only tell half of the story of the collateral damage from the school’s closing. There’s also the question of what has become of the

displaced faculty and staff. Though hard data isn’t available, two of my former teachers from Stewart Elementary, Michelle Washington and Leslie McCray, were willing to discuss their current circumstances with me.

McCray, my second-grade teacher, was laid off by the school prior to its closing. “Once they let me go I was looking for work on the west side at first, and I ended up right here at Kilmer [Elementary, in Rogers Park],” she says. “I retired just last year, but I still go back there to sub when I need a little money— which is often.”

“When the school closed I went to work at Fiske [Elementary], on the south side, for a year,” Washington, who taught first grade, says. “Then I went out west to Melody [Elementaryy], where I teach pre-K.” The two teachers wandered wistfully through the former first-grade classroom that they had, at separate times, each called their own, room 103. The room number and original foyer remain intact despite its repurposing as a 1,410-square-foot two-bedroom apartment— keeping with the theme of historical charm.

McCray and Washington have more than 50 years of teaching experience between them.

But at their current income level, paying the rent for the unit that was once their classroom—$2,755—would be a serious stretch. It would also be a stretch for many people who are already living in the neighborhood: the median household income in Stewart’s census tract is $39,076. But the white population of Uptown has increased 64 percent since 2000, while the average rent in the community continues to see a slow but steady increase.

Stewart School is only one of many schools shut down in 2013 that was designated for repurposing. Louis Armstrong Math & Science Elementary, Emmet Elementary in Austin, and Pope Elementary in North Lawndale are currently in the early stages of being transformed into a government-funded housing and training facility for victims of abuse, a community health center, and a community recreational center, respectively. Ventures like these can perhaps help to ensure that repurposed schools provide a new service to a community.

When it was time to go, I left through the main entrance and stopped just in front of the community gardening plots that were set up in association with the Peterson Garden Project.

I turned back toward the school to take in the full breadth of the building. It was in this building that I read my first books, completed my first essays, took my first tests, and gave my first speech. It was in this building that I played my first—and last—games of Johnny Come Across, and freeze tag, and Head’s Up, Seven Up. It was in this building that I found my first crush, first girlfriend, and first kiss.

Here, I won my first award, had my first fight, learned under the tutelage of some of my favorite teachers, and met lifelong friends.

For nearly a decade of my life, this building was like a second home, and I had more seminal experiences here than in any other place I’ve ever stepped foot in. Today I wouldn’t be capable of calling this place my home even if I wanted to. v

m @MattheMajor

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AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 11

Aretha Franklin

T H E M AV E R I C K BEHIND THE CAMERA African-American photojournalist Dorrell Creightney and his work have faded into memory—until now.

By DAVE HOEKSTRA PHOTOS BY DORRELL CREIGHTNEY

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etween the 1960s and the mid-1980s photojournalist Dorrell Creightney made pictures of Chicago street scenes, products for ads, beautiful models, everyday people, and musicians including jazz legends John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

One of the few things known about the man is that in 1969 he opened the first black-owned commercial photography studio in Chicago.

12 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

Dorrell Creightney Photography was at 29 W. Hubbard, in the gritty shadow of the old Sun-Times building.

He once took a picture of the bargelike structure, now replaced by Trump Tower, from the roof of his studio.

Creightney was a native of Kingston, Jamaica, who came to the city in 1954 with his family when he was 18 years old. He died in January 2011 after a short battle with cancer.

He left behind between 300,000 and 500,000 images of his work.

Over the past several years, his daughters, Vanessa Stokes and Samantha Creightney, have pored over boxes and boxes of their father’s photos. There are countless large-format and midsize black-and-white prints, color 35-mm negatives, 120-mm negatives, and color slides.

The collection has been stored in the basement of the Austin home Samantha shares with her mother, Maxine.

But the family is hopeful that their efforts will now raise his profile.

“In the world of black photography in Chicago at the time, my dad was pretty well-known,” says Stokes, who lives in Garfield Park. “But outside of that, not many people knew who he was.”

Samantha Creightney recalls that her father used to hang out at Central Camera, a family-owned shop that’s still extant at 230 S. Wabash. And both daughters say their father also owned a photography studio at 429 W. Superior at some point, though they haven’t uncovered much more about that. But Stokes says that Floyd Webb, the founder of Chicago’s Blacklight International Film Festival, “told us about all the black photographers who apprenticed under [Creightney] because of his studio.

He said, ‘My uncle was inspired to become a photographer [by him], because he’d never seen a black man own his own business.’”

Howard Simmons, an Ebony photographer from 1968 to 1976 who also became the second African-American photographer to work at the Sun-Times, says, “I’d go to Dorrell’s studio because there weren’t a lot of black commercial studios at that time. But I never got to know him well. He was kind of a maverick.”

Even Creightney’s daughter Vanessa says, “He was kind of a recluse.”

Longtime Chicago commercial photographer Tom Zamiar begs to differ. He says he met Creightney on Hubbard Street one winter day in 1969 and that they re-

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Dorrell Creightney

mained friends until his death. “Recluse?” Zamiar asked.

“He wasn’t a recluse. Dorrell was everywhere. You’re in photography, you have to be a recluse in some aspect. But you gotta run with the pack to get the jobs. Art directors weren’t looking for recluses.”

Zamiar is white, Creightney was black, but “we weren’t worried about each other like that,” Zamiar says.

Creightney even let him move into his studio when Zamiar’s own burned down. “He was always there to console and lift me up,” says Zamiar. “I loved him like a brother. It broke my heart when he died.”

Creightney retired from photography in 1983 and put his work into hundreds of plain boxes. Some images went to the basement of the family’s Lakeview home, while others went into storage. “I was in my early 20s and we went to the basement,” Stokes recalls. “Dad

said, ‘I got pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Supremes.’ He pulled all this stuff out and I was like, ‘Wow!’ He said, ‘What am I supposed to do with it?’ He just blew it off.”

Some of the pictures have historical significance.

Creightney shot Hendrix playing a white Gibson guitar in Stockholm during the guitarist’s final European tour before his death in 1970. “Hendrix aficionados have never seen a picture of him with a Gibson,” Stokes says—Hendrix was known for playing a Fender Stratocaster.

Among the stockpiles are photos of Aretha Franklin in concert in Stockholm and negatives of the English model Twiggy. There are pictures of Oscar Brown Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and Bob Marley at the Uptown Theatre. The daughters have been told there are pictures of Muddy Waters, but they have yet to discover those.

Creightney also shot ads for Tom Burrell, who ran Burrell Communications, the niche agency for African-American advertising. Creightney’s photos ran in Ebony and Jet, and included pictures of products made by the magazines’ owner, John H. Johnson.

“We had all the black hair products in the house,” says Stokes. “He’d bring [the magazine] home and we’d see it—‘Dad took that picture!’”

In his earlier years Creightney was a friend of Chester Sheard, a Milwaukee-based photographer for the Chicago Defender, Ebony, and Downbeat who also took the photo on the cover of the iconic album B.B. King Live at the Cook County Jail. Sheard even served as the Creightneys’ wedding photographer. Stokes says that he and her father used to go together to take photographs at Chicago clubs like the Plugged Nickel in Old Town: “Chester J

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 13

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It’s lucky Wale Nubi wore the same shoe size as his older brothers because, when he was a teenager growing up in Nigeria, they would send him their cast-off designer shoes from London, kick-starting his love of fashion. He was an IT consultant for Fortune 500 companies, selling shoes from the trunk of his car as his side hustle, when the timing was finally right to open his Hyde Park store, Jojayden, in 2016.

Wale had done his homework, researching European shoe manufacturing processes before opening the store, named in honor of his two sons, Josiah and Jayden. He began with custom shoes, offering customers 40 different options including the material (calfskin, suede, patent leather, crocodile, or fabric), the toe style, and the type of sole (commando, wedge, rubber, or three types of leather). Jojayden custom shoes can take six to eight weeks to create, but are often finished sooner.

Clothing was always part of Wale’s business plan, and he offers custom-designed shirts, suits, tuxedos, and topcoats, which have steadily been building a strong following with style-conscious men in Chicago and throughout the country. The prom and spring/ summer wedding season was especially busy this year, and Wale estimates he designed over one hundred suits and tuxedos.

But Jojayden is not just about higher-end clothing.

Recognizing that men don’t wear custom suits or tuxedos every day, Wale is developing his own line of stylish ready-to-wear wardrobe basics – t-shirts, dress shirts, trousers, sweaters, boxers, socks, and more.

He hopes to launch the line later this year. There are future plans for a Jojayden subscription-based model, with curated clothing/accessories selections sent monthly to members.

Wale was introduced to the neighborhood by his friend

things that I can incorporate in the store to keep improving on my business model.”

Jojayden is one of the seven local stops on the upcoming “South Side I Do” Hyde Park Wedding Stroll on Sunday, September 9, from 12-4 p.m.

Tickets are available at www.southsideido.com with all proceeds going to the not-for-profit organization, Wish Upon A Wedding. Couples can meet with 30+ wedding-related venues and vendors during the event, ending at The Promontory with a live band, cash bar, and light bites.

Photo by Amy Anaiz

Eric Williams, owner of The Silver Room, located just a block away on 53rd Street. He says, “People in Hyde Park are the best – they are friendly, they are warm – they see you on the street and wave at you. The support I get from the people, really, is what I would say I love most about being a business owner here.”

He spent time this January in Florence, Italy, at Pitti Immagine Uomo, the international fashion show for men’s wear held twice a year. “This is where you see the new colors and styles for the upcoming season and you also meet other custom clothiers and readyto-wear manufacturers from around the world,” explained Wale. “I make connections and learn new

For attendees of the stroll, Jojayden is offering a special package for the groom and groomsmen, with a wedding day stylist sent to the groom’s hotel to style all the members of the wedding with custom tuxedos and shirts, trousers, bowties, socks, shoes – down to the cufflinks. “A bride usually has fashion stylists and hair/makeup artists on the day of the wedding, so why shouldn’t the groom? I see men spending more time than ever before choosing their wedding wardrobe, and Jojayden is the perfect resource,” said Wale. He also partners with tuxedo rental houses, and can work with men to elevate the style of an off-the-rack rental with his custom bowties, cufflinks, and other accessories.

1457 E. 53rd Street 773-675-6005 jojayden.com

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 15

Diana Ross

continued from 13 said how they took pictures of Miles Davis but that Miles wouldn’t let them get near him. They got close enough.”

Creightney’s friend Floyd Webb recalls, “I met Dorrell in 1972. I was working for a commercial studio that did catalogs. There was an increase in black agencies after the riots of 1967 and 1968. Those long, hot summers generated the desire to put advertising in these people’s hands. And John Johnson’s Ebony was the biggest black magazine in the country. They handled more advertising than any other black magazine.”

At the time Webb was shooting for the agency Photography Unlimited, owned by former Chicago Bears running back Don Shy. “Suddenly the place turned into a party joint,” Webb says. “The Bulls on Thursday night, the Bears on Friday night.” So he quit Photography Unlimited and went to work for Dorrell, who ran a more professional operation.

“My best time in photography was working for Dorrell,” Webb says.

Dorrell Creightney’s father, Vivian Creightney, was a

16 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

butler and his mother, Victoria Lee, was a maid for a family in south-suburban Harvey. Growing up, Stokes says, her father did “odd jobs like cleaning out churches and synagogues. Then he got a job as a window dresser at a department store. He was inspired by the photography in fashion magazines.”

In fact, in 1964 Creightney had moved to Stockholm to learn about photography. That’s where, armed with Hasselblad and Leica cameras, he took shots of some of his most recognizable subjects, like Janis Joplin and Diana Ross and the Supremes. When he returned to the States he met his future wife, Maxine, in a south-side lounge. The couple married in 1967 and moved back to Europe, but Maxine missed home and convinced Dorrell to return. “He would say, ‘Why did we even come back?,’” says Stokes. “He didn’t want to.”

Dorrell and Maxine Creightney settled in the Austin neighborhood around 2003. “At that point, I think he was just done,” Stokes says. Her father was diagnosed with cancer in autumn 2009, after a trip to Peru. “One

of his friends started an eco village” there, Stokes says.

“He went there twice,” she smiles at her sister Samantha.

“You know he did ayahuasca”—a hallucinogen—“while he was there?”

Now Creightney’s daughters are slowly returning their father’s work to Chicago’s streets. Seventeen of their father’s pictures of African-American life in Chicago were installed late last year at the Austin and Central stops on the CTA Green Line and at the Kinzie/Laramie stop on the Union Pacific West Metra Line viaduct. Local artist and designer Kevin Brownlee custom-framed the eight-feet-by-five-feet images and designed the layout.

And in conjunction with the Chicago Park District, neighborhood youth will be curating a show of Creightney’s work for an exhibit slated to go up in October at the Austin Town Hall, 5610 W. Lake.

When Creightney “was on his deathbed in the hospital hooked up to everything, one of the last things he said was, ‘Make sure you give those negatives to your mother,’” says Stokes. “He knew what he had.” v

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R READER RECOMMENDED

b ALL AGES

ARTS & CULTURE

F

“SELF-HEAL”

Opening reception Sat 8/25, 7-10 PM, the Breathing Room, 1434 W. 51st, letusbreathecollective.com, $5 suggested donation.

Photos from ThoughtPoet’s collaborative exhibition with Najee Searcy, “Self Heal” é THOUGHTPOET

VISUAL ART

Just call him a creative

ThoughtPoet is on a mission to capture the beauty in black Chicago.

By MATT HARVEY

I

like to describe myself as a creative rather than a photographer,” says Christopher “ThoughtPoet” Brown. “Sometimes I feel like the label is limiting. I write, I act, and I try to do more with my photos than just capture moments.”

Now 26, Brown has been surrounded by art for as long as he can remember, thanks to his grandmother, Annette Brown. He tags her, and her emphasis on pro-blackness, as his greatest inspiration. She too was an artist: a sculptor, painter, and storyteller who signed her work Phoenix Rising. She’d raised Brown and his siblings in Chatham after they were

abandoned by their birth parents. “Because of her, we were really Afrocentric before it was cool,” he says with a chuckle. “We were at all types of arts festivals growing up, African arts festivals, DuSable Art Festival, things of that nature. When I got to high school, though, I started running away from that.

“I started gangbanging my freshman year at Harlan [Community Academy, in Roseland], mostly because I felt like I didn’t know who I was. One of the guys we knew from the neighborhood was shot in the head and killed under a viaduct. It made me switch up. I felt like I had to get back to what I was raised on.”

In 2008, he began applying himself more.

After his sophomore year in high school, he interned at Little Black Pearl workshop in Kenwood, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the community’s youth through art and entrepreneurship. Brown taught poetry and creative writing.

Though his time at Little Black Pearl put him in the shoes of an artist, in high school Brown was more likely to be found interviewing artists rather than making art. In his junior year, he started doing journalism with True Star Magazine, a youth-run nonprofit media company. “We had a website called Lyrical Lab,

and I would interview and photograph artists that were starting to pop, some that are still popping,” he says. He was able to meet artists like Noname, Saba, and Chance the Rapper through his participation in Young Chicago Authors and the Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia. “Once [Lyrical Lab] went on hiatus is when I started to take my art more seriously.”

He ventured into concert photography after he graduated high school and began, as he puts it, widening his artistic range. He started his Tumblr page, ThoughtPoet’s Opinions, wherein he provided poetic captions to the images he captured. He chose the alias ThoughtPoet because of his juvenile infatuation with the title “poet.” “All of my art comes from pure emotion,” he says. “I wanted to use that emotion in my photography too.”

In summer 2016, as communications cochair of Black Youth Project 100, he participated in acts of protest such with the LetUsBreathe Collective’s “Freedom Square” occupation. When Kristiana Rae Colón, cofounder of the collective, opened the Breathing Room community center in 2017, she offered to use the space to house his first exhibition. “I wanted to share my work on more than just social media,” he says. “When I talked about an exhibition, Kristiana was just like, ‘Let’s do it here.’”

That exhibition, “Heart Melanin,” was an extension of the work he had already been sharing on Tumblr and Instagram. “‘Heart Melanin’ is really supposed to be an embodiment of what melanin is,” he says. (He means this beyond the context of skin pigment.) “So that could be found anywhere from abstract work, to candid work, to concert and event work. But all of it is celebrating what it’s like to just be black. That could mean hood shit, that could mean really well-thought-out concerts, but I really want it to focus on everything black people go through.”

Celebrating blackness is a theme found across much of Brown’s work. Even when it isn’t central to the meaning of the art, blackness is front and center. In his upcoming exhibition “Self-Heal,” also hosted at the J

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 17

ARTS & CULTURE continued from 17

Breathing Room, he collaborates with artist Najee Searcy, who treats black individuals as works of art. Brown captures black models whose skin is overlaid with abstract designs and patterns painted by Searcy.

Before the shoots, Brown says, “we went and had conversations with the people in these photos. You might see really wild colors or interesting patterns, and a lot of that is really explaining in detail who these people are.

Because both of us are spiritually grounded, that gave us a very solid foundation for what the work was going to look like.”

Brown also hints at capturing blackness in another way in a future exhibition that he’s working on called “I Know Folks Ass.” “Anybody from Chicago knows that phrase as a term of recognition, sometimes endearment, and the concept is basically fusing very abstract beauty with superrealistic urban shit,” he says. “For example [in one of my photos], you might see niggas at a trap house, but with serene figures in the background.”

Brown has recently done work for the

Reader as well: he did the photo shoot for the Triibe’s interview with Taylor Bennett at Navy Pier in advance of Bennett’s appearance at Lollapalooza.

“There was no way I was missing that chance,” he says.

How could he? Not only was it a chance to showcase his work on the cover of his hometown’s alt-weekly, but Taylor was Chatham kinfolk.

It was also appropriate that Brown would photograph that particular story: a feature by a black Chicago woman on a childhood acquaintance of his, tackling the subject of spaces where black kids seek escape.

“I want to battle this perspective that ‘Chicago is this,’ ‘Chicago is that,’ ‘Don’t go out south!’” he says. “That narrative is destroying the mentality of entire generations, and in reality it stems from black people in this city not having proper resources. Combating that is where this spirituality and this creativity comes from.” v

m @MattheMajor

The Radicalization Process é KATHRINE SCHLEICHER

THEATER

The whole world is watching The Radicalization Process revisits the revolutions of 1960s and ’70s America.

“THE THING ABOUT DETROIT,” says Liza Bielby, codirector of the Detroit-based performing arts collective the Hinterlands, “is that it’s a very radical place. A lot of the conversations that ended up becoming part of the national conversation were already happening around us.”

The Hinterlands will revive its 2016 multidisciplinary piece The Radicalization Process at the Co-Prosperity Sphere on Friday, August 24, through Monday, August 27.

It’s part of “68+50,” Illinois Humanities’ lineup of programs commemorating the 50th anniversary of the events surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Using dance, physical theater, archived objects, and visual performance art, Bielby, Richard Newman, and Dave Sanders will examine progressive revolutionary acts through the lens of 1960s and ’70s America, folding in elements of a “gleefully obtuse” adaptation of Antigone.

“I’m just so excited to be in Chicago,” says

18 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

Bielby. “A lot of the things that happened in that era in our cities are really similar. There were the same groups of radicals moving between the two cities . . . there was all this knowledge exchanged.”

THE RADICALIZATION PROCESS Fri 8/24-Mon 8/27: 7:30 PM, Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S. Morgan, 312-422-5580, ilhumanities.org, $10.

Originally inspired in 2014 by the activist movements sparked in the wake of high-profile killings of unarmed African-Americans, The Radicalization Process has taken on additional significance since the 2016 presidential election.

“We leave a lot of space for people to make their own connections and find their own path through the material,” says Bielby.

“Like one does with history.” —DAN JAKES

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Downtown Skokie

FRI Sister Hazel 8:30 pm South City Revival

6:45 pm

Age 18 to 55 1 period:

SAT Foghat 8:30 pm

18 days/17 nights $4500.00 Limited screening appointments at: University of Illinois Chicago Campus and University of Illinois Rockford Campus Anything Goes é BRETT BEINER

THEATER

The ship has sailed

Anything Goes is too stuck in the past to be at all relevant today.

Anything Goes, the slapstick comedic musical that tells the tale of high jinks on an ocean liner and features some of Cole Porter’s most iconic music, has been revived by director Rudy Hogenmiller and the cast of Music Theater Works with a live orchestra. It’s retroactively become a sort of jukebox musical of jazz standards that have, in the past, been sung with improvisation and flair by the likes of Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Bennett, and Gaga. But the story, written in 1934, has unfortunately aged past charming nostalgia into the realm of problematic dustiness and quite possibly has reached its expiration date.

Billed as “family friendly,” the script, even after a 1987 update, is unfortunately a string of corny, cringeworthy jokes rife with sexism, racism, homophobia, and sexual harassment. All of the characters of color are relegated to stereotypes or service roles. Many jokes land flat, save those from Rick Rapp as Elisha Whitney, who has impeccable comic timing. In the hands of a strong comedic director, a bit of political satire might have been wrested from the impotent story line about the 1 percent during the Great Depression.

Some viewers might overlook these shortcomings if the show weren’t a ponderous two hours and 45 minutes. The dance numbers are stunning, but they’re too few and far between.

Erica Evans crackles as Reno Sweeney, and one looks forward to see what she and the rest of this extremely talented cast might do in the future without inert material that sinks their talents like an anchor around the neck. —SHERI FLANDERS ANYTHING GOES

Through 8/26: Wed-Thu 2 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 2 PM, Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St., Evanston, 847-920-5360, musictheaterworks.com, $34-$96, under 25 half price.

Hatchet me softly

For more information or to make a screening appointment call: 1-800-827-2778

SUN TRIBUTOSAURUS 6:30 PM becomes AC/DC

5 pm Paul Kaye &

The Blues Cartel

3 pm The Healthy Portion 1 pm The Dreamtree Shakers

Live acts between Full calendar available at main stage sets on the www.BacklotBash.com beer tent stage

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Based on stories by John Collier, Nightmares and Nightcaps desperately can’t figure itself out.

The narrator’s study has a hatchet hanging from a nail on the wall next to the kitchen door. Hardly any narrator needs a hatchet. Then again, hardly any play needs a narrator. It’s lucky for Kevin Webb that he gets to spend so much of his night in violet silk pajamas, heaping cigarettes into a crammed ashtray as a series of frothy vignettes about diabolism and henpecked husbands plays out before him. He pretends to have found these incidents collected ’tween the huge morocco boards of an antique folio cradled in his lap. The truth is, many of John Collier’s stories, on which these vignettes are «

6:45 pm The Safes 5 pm The Right Now 3 pm Marina 1 pm Zacbe Trio

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AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 19

ARTS & CULTURE

THE

MEXICAN 1967

celebrating

51

!

YEARS Thanks to Ya’ll

!

just steps from the Dempster “L” stop

Tue - Sat 10 - 6 847-475-8665

801 Dempster Evanston

Find hundreds of Readerrecommended restaurants, exclusive video features, and sign up for weekly news chicagoreader.com/ food.

bB based, were originally published in the New Yorker, light helpings of structurally sound wartime escapism for the home front that Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling read and refashioned into important TV. The scenes of “macabre fantasy” fudged together here in this Black Button Eyes production attempt to be light and dark simultaneously, but what darkness there is feels spoofy, and the biggest laugh of the night is awarded to a puppet. The hatchet is used to assault someone, I forget who. It all happened so slowly.

I want there to be a national ban on fake British accents. I wish I could instate one retroactively on the members of this cast. Pretty much the only actor here who would have a clean record under my new regime is Caitlin Jackson, who’s a standout powerhouse in her brief role as a nagging wife—Collier’s offensive pet stereotype—before she’s swallowed by a bog monster. —MAX MALLER NIGHTMARES AND NIGHTCAPS

Through 9/15: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-395-6875, blackbuttoneyes.com, $32, $17 students.

Apocalypse next time?

The end of the world sure looks grand in Treefall, but there’s not much to say otherwise.

Exit 63 Theatre presents the Chicago premiere of Henry Murray’s inchoate 2009 imagining of an apocalyptic future in which three boys must playact something resembling a nuclear family. The play begins promisingly,

with the three leads silently moving about the decrepit shack in which they spend their days. The walls are decorated with crumpled maps and other remnants from a society that has collapsed; the floor is littered with ripped-up shopping circulars and worn books. The boys only go out to forage at night because the sun now burns their skin. Trees fall outside their door constantly, and they’re wary of running into any other survivors for fear of being robbed or catching one of the diseases that ended civilization.

Their world is upended when they meet a girl while searching for food. The boy who had been playing the mother back in the shack (he wears a blond wig) falls for the newcomer, and everyone’s role in their tiny community comes into question.

On paper this is a provocative meditation on identity and what happens when people with no structure imposed on them must fashion their own society. Unfortunately, anytime anyone in this play opens his or her mouth, what comes out is either whining complaints or melodramatic bloviating. There’s an almost complete disconnect between how this play looks and how it sounds—director Connor Baty’s evocative set and David Goodman-Edberg’s lighting design are responsible for virtually all the dramatic resonance there is here. I spent three-quarters of the running time picturing what this play might have been rather than what it was. —DMITRY SAMAROV TREEFALL Through 9/2: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM,

Sun 2 PM, Trap Door Theater, 1655 W. Cortland, exit63theatre.com, $15. v

Nightmares and Nightcaps; Treefall é COLE SIMON; COURTESY EXIT 63 THEATRE

OUR BRANCH OPENING IS MORE OF A

HOUSEWARMING. We’re thrilled to be joining the neighborhood.

Stop by for a cup of coffee, or just to say hello, at our new Uptown branch at 4718 N. Broadway.

Member FDIC. ⬢®, Huntington® and ⬢ Huntington. Welcome.® are federally registered service marks of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. ©2018 Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.

20 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

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ARTS & CULTURE

Directed by Björn Runge. R, 100 min.

Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce in The Wife é GRAEME HUNTER PICTURES

MOVIES

Behind every great man . . .

The Wife is a better conversation starter than a movie.

By BEN SACHS Warning: This review contains spoilers.

I

enjoyed thinking about The Wife far more than I enjoyed watching it. If I were reviewing the film based strictly on its intentions, I might give it four stars; if I were reviewing it based strictly on the execution, I’d probably give it one. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Björn Runge, The Wife is prim, overly genteel, and visually dull. Runge tends to organize the frames around his actors, emphasizing the film’s emotional content, but since he and cinematographer Ulf Brantås seem uninterested in the expressive potential of faces and bodies, the shots lack dynamism. The acting is decent in a dry, Masterpiece Theater kind of way; one feels encouraged to applaud the craft rather than lose oneself in the characterizations. Because the performances are so ssss EXCELLENT

sss GOOD

calculated, the emotional outbursts on which the story hinges fail to make a dramatic impact. And for a film about a novelist, The Wife conveys very little sense of what it’s like to read or write.

Taken as a conversation starter, however, The Wife contains plenty of worthy ideas.

Jane Anderson’s script (based on a novel by Meg Wolitzer) brings up pertinent questions about gender roles in the arts and whether they’ve changed over the last few generations.

More important, the filmmakers introduce a certain amount of ambiguity with regard to the issues they bring up, encouraging viewers to take sides and debate them once the story ends. They also challenge viewers by revealing information about the characters gradually, so one has to revise his or her opinion of them several times before arriving at a final stance on the story.

ss AVERAGE

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•

Set in the early 1990s, The Wife begins when a famous American author, Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce), learns that he’s going to win the Nobel Prize for literature. The distinction seems like the final touch on a perfect life: Joe and his wife, Joan (Glenn Close), have been married for decades and are still affectionate, even sexual, with each other; they have two well-adjusted grown children, one of whom, David (Max Irons), adores his father so much he wants to become an author himself; and literary critics always seem to be around to praise Joe for his work. Yet the filmmakers drop hints early on that there’s unhappiness lurking around the corners of Joe’s life. Joan has never had a career of her own, and most people view her solely in terms of her subservient relationship to her husband; David (who’s first seen trying to cajole Joe into expressing his thoughts about his son’s lat- J

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AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 21

ARTS & CULTURE continued from 21 est short story) senses that his father doesn’t take him seriously as a writer. The filmmakers raise the possibility that Joe’s happiness owes something to his feelings of superiority to the people around him, but their initially benign depiction of his life might lead you to excuse his arrogance as the result of being adulated for so long. In any case, the tensions between Joe, Joan, and David seem manageable—no one seems to be suffering as a result of them.

All this changes when the characters go to Sweden for Joe to accept his Nobel Prize, and The Wife starts uncovering some uncomfortable truths about the author. First, Joe behaves increasingly like a passive-aggressive jerk toward David; he provides his son with only the most basic feedback on his writing until pressured to say anything more, at which point the father becomes stingingly negative.

Then, during an argument between the author and his wife, Joan brings up the fact that Joe has cheated on her repeatedly throughout their marriage. And crucially, flashbacks reveal that Joe never wrote any of his books; he’s been a front for the demure (and more talented) Joan all along. In another argument between husband and wife that occurs near the end of the film, Joe proposes that he come forward and reveal the truth about “his” writing now that it’s received the highest honor in fiction. Joan vehemently tells him not to, the argument intensifies, and Joe has a heart attack and dies. Flying back to the U.S. later on, Joan is confronted by a writer (Christian Slater) who wants to pen Joe’s biography and who has figured out the secret behind his success. The movie ends with her warning him not to publish the truth, saying she’ll sue him for libel if he does.

The revelations of The Wife raise as many

e evolv porting p e to u m s i t r o It’s ds f veterans. o h t e our m impaired spine

questions as they answer. Was it wrong of Joan to allow Joe to publish her novels under his name? Was she justified in her fear of not being taken seriously as an author because of her gender? Was Joe wrong in going along with Joan’s idea and taking credit for his wife’s work? And was it wrong of him to wear the role of the great author so well, accepting praise that was never intended for him? The filmmakers stack the deck somewhat by making Joe a cad as well as a fraud, particularly given that the truth about his fraudulent authorship would diminish one’s opinion of him even if he weren’t an unfaithful husband. Still, they hardly close off debate, since they make it clear that Joan helped perpetuate the lie about his accomplishments and will continue to do so after his death.

Besides, it isn’t implausible that Joe might not possess any redeeming qualities—numerous revelations of the past few years have taught us that there are plenty of irredeemable men in the arts. Perhaps the most interesting thing about The Wife is its suggestion that, if Joe is an irredeemable fraud, he doesn’t bear sole responsibility for his bad behavior. Both Joe and Joan emerge as products of a culture that unquestioningly perpetuates (to the detriment of all) the notion of the infallible male genius. Consider the way Joe’s young female translator in Sweden fawns over him, ready to provide him with sexual favors; a female author Joan meets in college tells her straight out that the American literary world doesn’t care about women writers. By the end of The Wife, it’s clear that Joe is representative of a systemic problem; by framing his story in such grand terms, the filmmakers provide fuel for ambitious discussions. v

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ARTS & CULTURE Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route

wrong, and the production disintegrates into chaos.

Much of the discomforting humor stems from the bad behavior people think they can get away with under the pretense of being an artist—ultimately this isn’t a comedy so much as a cautionary tale. —BEN SACHS 103 min. Puccini attends the screening. Sat 8/25, 7:30 PM. Chicago Filmmakers

Juliet, Naked

Alpha

A throwback to when major studios made family pictures with agreeably more heft than sap, this rugged survival story unfolds in southwestern Europe during the waning of the Ice Age 20,000 years ago. A Cro-Magnon chieftain (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson of Game of Thrones) leads his men on a bison hunt, the first for his teenage son (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In). The nervous boy soon gets separated from the tribe, his only companion an injured wolf that he nurses back to health. Director Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) has created a work of great imagination but devoid of wasteful excess, grounding his straightforward tale in recognizable human—and animal—behaviors. —ANDREA GRONVALL PG-13, 97 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14 Theaters, City North 14, Lake, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings, Showplace ICON

Blue Iguana

The most interesting character in this indie crime comedy is the lawyer. This is only one of the many ways in which writer, director, and producer Hadi Hajaig upends genre tropes and viewer expectations. Inspired

by Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild and other wacky American indie films from the 1980s, Hajaig’s caper refuses to take itself too seriously. The plot, centered on a pair of bumbling ex-cons from New York (Sam Rockwell, Ben Schwartz) who accept an offer from the lawyer (Phoebe Fox) that takes them to London to find a rare jewel, matters little in comparison to the funny pop-culture references, visual gags, and character quirks that suffuse it. Most importantly, Hajaig and his actors understand how juxtaposition can be endearing. For example, Fox’s character is a prim Englishwoman who doesn’t realize or care that she’s a messy eater, while Rockwell’s is a violent criminal and a romantic who takes his moral cues from comic books.

—LEAH PICKETT 108 min. Facets Cinematheque

R Custody

In his powerful short film Just Before Losing Everything (2013), French writer-director Xavier Legrand followed a terrified working mother as she ran away from her abusive husband; this 2017 feature-length follow-up takes place after a judge grants the husband partial custody of the couple’s 11-year-old son. As in Everything, Legrand establishes a sense of nervous tension at the start and ratchets it up until the

suspense becomes almost painful. Denis Ménochet is appropriately monstrous as the volatile husband, though he and Legrand also endow the character with a certain self-awareness, which renders him, if not sympathetic, then at least three-dimensional. Disregarding a superfluous subplot about the couple’s delinquent 18-year-old daughter and Legrand’s overreliance on Steadicam shots, this is taut, engrossing filmmaking on a crucial subject. In French with subtitles.

—BEN SACHS 94 min. Music Box

R

Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route

Modestly produced but rich in feeling, this documentary follows 56-year-old Wendell Watkins, a Detroit mail carrier for 26 years, as he walks his longtime delivery route and chats with folks along the way. His route ranges from well-kept homes to bombed-out wrecks, which enables director Pam Sporn, drawing on a cornucopia of historical photos, to turn her movie into a potent history of racial and economic change in the Motor City—from the Great Migration that brought Watkins’s parents up from the south to the poverty and inequality that fed the 1967 rioting to the cold-hearted real estate speculation that helped gut black neighborhoods in the new century as the city veered toward bankruptcy. Watkins, whose retirement provides the movie’s denouement, is a smart, engaging tour guide with a sharp sense of social justice, and his sit-downs with various old-timers are relaxed, warm, and funny. —J.R. JONES 100 min. Sporn attends the screenings. Part of the Black Harvest Film Festival; for a full schedule visit siskelfilmcenter.org. Fri 8/24, 3:45 PM, and Sun 8/26, 3 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center

I Don’t Care

Local filmmaker Casey Puccini wrote and directed this no-budget comedy about no-budget filmmaking; implicating himself in the movie’s satire, he also stars as a vain, incompetent director named Casey Puccini. The story follows the accident-ridden production of Puccini’s latest feature, a would-be hard-hitting drama of drug addiction in the vein of Abel Ferrara. Chronically high and inattentive to detail, the director screws up nearly every aspect of the shoot, from lighting individual shots to telling his cast when they need to show up for filming.

But rather than take responsibility for his mistakes, he lashes out at the people around him when things go

Adapted from the 2009 novel by Nick Hornby, this romcom hinges on an unlikely threesome: a discontented Brit (Rose Byrne), her distrait live-in boyfriend (Chris O’Dowd), and an American indie rocker (Ethan Hawke) who disappeared in the mid-90s and with whom the boyfriend is obsessed. The movie’s title comes from the acoustic demo of the singer-songwriter’s only album, which the woman gives a scathing review on the fan site her boyfriend runs. The rocker himself e-mails the woman to agree with her assessment, and they strike up an epistolary courtship. Unfortunately, the plot contrivances that cause these two (and, eventually, the boyfriend) to meet in person feel strained, resulting in a film that is neither as romantic nor as comedic as its delightful premise suggests. The narrative holds interest, however, for its meaningful reflections on midlife crises, fandom, and Gen-X nostalgia. Jesse Peretz directed. —LEAH PICKETT R, 105 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Landmark’s Century Centre

Mile 22

Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor) is a competent director who can thoughtfully elucidate conservative ideas, but he seems to have abandoned his craftsmanship as well as his common sense with this moronic actioner. Mark Wahlberg stars as the leader of a tactical command unit tasked with bringing a police officer out of an unidentified Southeast Asian country; the officer possesses secret information about international terrorist groups, and so Wahlberg and company must protect him from countless individuals who want him dead. Berg demonstrates no feeling for action here; the film is edited in a disorienting, Michael Bay-like manner, but without Bay’s sense of momentum or poetic abstraction. I often had trouble understanding what was going on, and since all the characters come off as arrogant jerks, I also found it hard to care. With John Malkovich and Terry Kinney. —BEN SACHS R, 95 min. Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14 Theaters, City North 14, Lake, New 400, Showplace ICON

R Skate Kitchen

An evocative meditation on skateboarding culture and nascent womanhood, this first narrative feature from documentary filmmaker Crystal Moselle (The Wolfpack) grew out of a 2016 short the director made for the fashion label Miu Miu. Like last year’s The Rider, it’s a scripted drama with a cast of mostly non-actors who essentially play versions of themselves, shot in a poetic verite style. Rachelle Vinberg stars as a lonely, stubborn Long Island teen who finds companionship in a Manhattan crew of female skateboarders; Ardelia Lovelace is the one who eventually shelters her, and Nina Moran plays the lesbian stoner who won’t take any guff from the guys. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner’s lambent images capture the grunge and romance of a steamy urban summer, and Aska Matsumiya’s score is redolent of hope. With Jaden Smith as the heroine’s crush, and Elizabeth Rodriguez (Orange Is the New Black) as her mom. —ANDREA GRONVALL R, 100 min. Music Box v

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AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 23

Andrew Smith throws Jungle Green’s homemade songs at a bigger wall— will they stick?

The Chicago singersongwriter has promoted his music mostly by sending it to people who reply to flyers he’s taped to lampposts. Fortunately he’s also made some wellconnected fans.

By LEOR GALIL

Andrew Green in the apartment of his Jungle Green bandmate Mattie McCall, which the group uses as a practice space é KRISTIN DEITRICH

24 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

T

his past January, local singersongwriter Andrew Smith began taping flyers to lampposts around Chicago. He started in Edgewater and worked his way south to Pilsen, going as far west as Cragin. Smith eventually put up about 300 of them.

“My name is Andrew and I make music under the name Jungle Green,” the flyers read, in Smith’s orderly handwriting. “I re-

cord music at home with my piano and Panasonic tape recorder. I have made 15 albums.

My favorite songwriters are Brian Wilson and Del Shannon.” He included his personal Yahoo e-mail address, encouraging people to reach out so he could send them his music.

The only image was a photo of Smith toward the bottom, the right half of his face covered by piano keys and the left half blacked out— he says it’s Jungle Green’s logo.

That doctored photo also appears on Bandcamp as the artwork for A Letter for Monica, a collection of lo-fi, outre pop songs that Smith had uploaded in January 2017.

Throughout the album he toys with the sentimental directness of doo-wop, often hammering out a simple piano melody while gently singing about love. Some songs are just his earnest, timid vocals, quiet enough that you can hear the background hiss of the

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One of Andrew Smith’s flyers, spotted on Milwaukee near Diversey on March 16, 2018 é LEOR GALIL

JUNGLE GREEN

cassette four-track he used to record them.

His tunes can seem familiar on first listen, maybe because they’re so straightforwardly catchy, and his wobbly intonation and unsteady piano playing add a slightly off-center feel. He’s not an outsider artist, but he sometimes sounds like one. His music comes off like the work of someone who either can’t or won’t structure a song conventionally.

The a cappella number “Rock and Roll Star” briefly sounds like a love song, with Smith singing about wanting to fall for a blue-eyed, brown-haired woman who likes to go on walks at 3 AM. But then it takes a sudden self-referential left turn: “Oh I want people to hear my songs,” Smith sings. “I think some of them would really like them / I want to play lots of shows, all around Chicago / If only the booking guys would answer my calls.”

Smith is sincere in his frustrations about his musical career, but he also has a straightfaced, self-deprecating sense of humor—and his decision to post flyers about himself all over town only makes sense if you consider both. “I have a tough time getting gigs—I rarely ever get gigs unless I know someone who’s playing a show and they’ll ask me to be an opener,” he says. “No record labels really want to touch my stuff, it seems.

Maybe that’ll change, but basically I’m not getting anywhere with what I want to do, so I thought I might as well take it to the streets.”

Smith was also inspired by Chicago-born experimental musician Willis Earl Beal, who got his first bump of fame in 2010 after posting similar flyers of his own: while living in Albuquerque he’d advertised for a girlfriend, and after returning to Chicago he’d made others looking for “friends & stuff,” adding “I am not a Weasel” to reassure the skeptical.

“I really liked the act of personally writing to people and giving them my music myself rather than them going to a link,” Smith says.

Smith has been recording as Jungle Green for about five years, and though he hasn’t made the progress he’d hoped for, that period hasn’t just been one long dry spell. Vancouver indie Kingfisher Bluez, whose catalog includes Xiu Xiu, Laura Veirs, and Allison Crutchfield, released a Jungle Green seveninch in 2013, after Smith sent the label an e-mail, encouraged by its earlier Dirty Beaches single. That same year he sent a Jungle Green EP to Foxygen multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Rado via Facebook message, and

Part of the Logan Square Food Truck Social. Jungle Green plays Sat 8/25, 1:30 PM, Main Stage, Humboldt between Armitage and the 606 trail, logansquarefoodtrucksocial. com, $5 suggested donation, all-ages.

Rado was so impressed that he invited Smith to open a couple Foxygen shows.

Over the past three years, Smith has also appeared on both solo albums by cellist and composer Paul de Jong, cofounder of abstract pop group the Books (one of Smith’s favorite bands). And last fall he worked with Rado at his Los Angeles studio to record an as-yet-unreleased album with Jungle Green’s five-piece live band, formerly nicknamed the Blood Sisters. Rado has become a hot producer in the indie-rock world, with clients including Whitney, Father John Misty, the Lemon Twigs, and Cut Worms.

That’s not to imply that collaborating with moderately famous people has done anything for Smith’s own profile. He’s posted 16 Jungle Green releases on Bandcamp, and only one has broken the double-digit sales barrier. Bandcamp shows that ten people have paid to download 2016’s “name your

price” album Eight Doo-Wop Gems—marginally more impressive than ten sales of an ordinary album, since those people could’ve taken it for free. “I get a few downloads every now and then,” Smith says, “but I definitely don’t make any money.”

Jungle Green has only been on a few tours, and the longest ran from May through early July in 2017. Smith booked it himself, headlining the shows with two members of his band, and it was an unambiguous failure. “We were really naive—you know, ‘We should do a tour, and once we do that, everyone’s gonna know who we are,’” he says. “Of course no one came to any of the shows, and it was for a month and a half.”

Bizarrely, taping up flyers has done more for Smith’s fortunes than touring. In the first few weeks of his lamppost campaign, he says he got 50 e-mails. Matthew Sage, who records as M. Sage and runs the Patient

Sounds label, spotted a flyer near his house.

“I immediately was like, ‘I don’t know who this is, but I have to hear his music,’” Sage says. He e-mailed Smith and dug his songs enough that he asked to put out a Jungle Green cassette. “Patient Sounds’ aesthetic is doing the most you can artistically with the least amount of stuff—there’s something ramshackle about a lot of it, and this screamed that to me,” he says. “If you’re a listener who doesn’t necessarily care about fidelity but you’re there for earnest expression . . . It sunk its teeth into me.”

Since this winter, Smith has also gone from barely ever playing out to occasionally playing out. That doesn’t have to do with the flyers, but rather with an April gig opening for Paul de Jong at the Empty Bottle. Jungle Green returned to the venue in July to open for Michael Rault, and it seems like the Empty Bottle Presents team has developed a soft spot for Smith—Jungle Green is also booked at this weekend’s Logan Square Food Truck Social, alongside indie-famous headliners Prefuse 73, the Men, and Palm.

EBP talent buyer Brent Heyl says Smith first e-mailed about playing the Bottle shortly after he moved to Chicago in 2014. When Heyl first heard Jungle Green, he thought it sounded like “some kind of weird mix between John Maus, Daniel Johnston, and Gary Wilson.”

While booking the Food Truck Social, which EBP seems to be patterning after its betterestablished West Fest, Heyl decided Jungle Green would be a good fit for Saturday afternoon. “I wanted something a little bit different,” he says. “Also I wanted to see him on there.” But because Smith’s outsider-inspired music sounds like it could only have evolved in near isolation, it’s sure to change as he J finds favor with insiders such as EBP.

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 25

Andrew Smith (bottom left) and Jungle Green open for Rubber Band Gun at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn on March 15, 2018. é RIAS REED

continued from 25

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mith, 26, grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He started drumming at age 12, and played in youth orchestras and jazz bands throughout grade school. He also briefly studied music at University of Massachusetts Amherst. “I don’t really listen to jazz music or classical, and I think I was just kind of doing it because my parents wanted me to,” he says. “I always really liked the Beach Boys and Todd Rundgren, and would rather be doing stuff like that, so I dropped out of school.”

Smith wanted to write songs on his own terms, so he sought out a private tutor through the Berkshire Music School. He was already a fan of the Books, and eventually he found a contact for Paul de Jong, who lived ten minutes outside Pittsfield.

In December 2011 Smith asked de Jong to teach him composition. “He would come by and show what he was working on,” says de Jong. “I helped him as far as I could. . . . He’s kind of a natural.” Smith would drive to de Jong’s place every few weeks for a two- or three-hour session. At the time he worked at a pizza place called Baba Louie’s, so the cash he had was almost all from tips. “He’d pay me mostly in singles,” de Jong says.

At one point Smith tried to get a job as a drum instructor at the Berkshire Music School, but before the interview he ate what he describes as a “melty” peanut butter sandwich. “I thought it went pretty well, but the woman who was interviewing me was looking at me a little strange,” he says. “I was driving home, looked in the mirror, and I realized I had peanut butter all over my face.”

Smith was confident enough on the drums

26 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

to feel qualified to teach them, but if anything his proficiency there made him feel less sure of himself on other instruments. He was still a relative newcomer to the piano during his lessons with de Jong. “I didn’t know any chords and had never worked with melody before,” he says. “I was kind of looking to people, honestly, like outsider musicians, who didn’t have a whole lot of talent either but made really great music.” He mentions being inspired by Wild Man Fischer, an LA street performer discovered by Frank Zappa in 1967, and by late-2000s mutant indie act Dirty Beaches, who deliberately defied convention with a fried doo-wop sound.

Smith also corresponded with and sometimes got free merch from the likes of prolific home-recording savant R. Stevie Moore, lo-fi pop dirtbag Joey Pizza Slice, and public-access host Scott Lewis of the 80s NYC program The Scott and Gary Show. After moving to Chicago to finish his BA at Columbia College, he made an audio documentary about local cult musician and visual artist Wesley Willis for a class. He even compares his Web-only label, Atlantic City Melodies (through which he’s released every Jungle Green recording but the Kingfisher Bluez single), to Corwood Industries, which releases only the unsettling work of enigmatic Houston musician Jandek.

Though Smith’s fascination with outsider musicians developed in part because he was insecure about his skill, de Jong found him an agile student. “He already had the ingredients, but he really grew into his style pretty quick—it’s remarkable what he can do with a microphone and a four-track recorder,” de

Jong says. “He’s a born entertainer. He’s kind of an old, Jewish borscht-belt entertainer in the body of a smarter, musical millennial.”

De Jong’s debut solo album, 2015’s If, includes vocals from Smith (credited as Jungle Green) on “This Is Who I Am.” Smith also appears on three songs on its follow-up, April’s You Fucken Sucker. “I ask people to contribute who are simply in my community, or who I’ve gotten to know,” de Jong says. “I don’t really work with musicians very much—I just work with people I know who have tremendous talent and whose qualities I’ve gotten to appreciate.”

De Jong also requested Jungle Green as an opener for his Empty Bottle show in April— Smith’s third gig there since 2014. Venue manager Mike Gebel was already familiar with Smith’s music, and had noticed one of his flyers down the street from the Bottle.

“I thought it was really charming, but also wished he would’ve included the show that he was playing down the street,” Gebel says. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know how to do this.’”

Smith may not have much of a feel for the music industry, but fortunately he has several supporters who do. His association with Jonathan Rado has brought most of them into his orbit: Smith met Spencer Tweedy, for instance, when Tweedy’s band the Blisters opened for Foxygen at Lincoln Hall in late 2014.

“What Andrew makes speaks to me,” Tweedy says. “I think all those influences, like doo-wop and soul music, as they’re filtered by him—it’s awesome and different.”

Tweedy’s relationship to Smith is more that of a fan than a friend, but their paths contin-

ue to cross: in March, Jungle Green opened five east-coast dates for Foxygen-affiliated project Rubber Band Gun, which had Tweedy on drums.

Tweedy says his favorite Jungle Green album is the unreleased one that Rado produced. Its lush, tranquil sound and honeyed melodies connect it to other current indie updates of 70s soft rock, though Smith’s charmingly off-center personality and hushed singing make Jungle Green distinct.

“He’s sweeter than any other person in the entire universe,” Tweedy says of Smith. “I think I would love the record even if I didn’t know him, but knowing him adds an even deeper appreciation.”

The Rado album is Smith’s only recording with a full band, and he credits those five musicians—all friends via his time at Columbia College—with its more refined and sophisticated sound. “I basically bring them the songs—the piano versions,” he says.

“They write their parts themselves.” Smith still doesn’t think much of his own talent, and continues to record at home with the same Yamaha PSR-350 keyboard he’s used for Jungle Green’s entire history—a hand-medown from his sister. “I’m not very skilled, so I don’t really have the ability to do too much more,” he says.

Smith still intends to release something on cassette through Patient Sounds, but whatever it is, it probably won’t be the Rado album—a representative for High Road Touring, which also books Rado, is shopping that to bigger indie labels. The Patient Sounds project is on the back burner for now, because Smith’s concert calendar is getting more crowded than it’s ever been (and Sage doesn’t want to rush him). The Lemon Twigs, another High Road client, recently asked Jungle Green to open for them on their fall tour.

Strangers who’ve found Smith’s flyers are still e-mailing him—though it’s been months since he posted any, somehow at least a few haven’t come down. And he’s still uploading new home-recorded solo albums to Jungle Green’s Bandcamp page. The newest, June’s Live From Tony’s Italian Pizza Temple, ends with “A Message of Hope,” over whose wistful melody Smith programmed Siri to read a short script. “It is important to not become discouraged when things don’t go our way,” Siri says. “Do what makes you happy. Do what’s best for yourself, and don’t be afraid to make other people unhappy if it means that you will be happier in the long run.” v

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A Reader staffer shares three musical obsessions, then asks someone (who asks someone else) to take a turn.

IN ROTATION

HALEY FOHR

Bandleader and mastermind of Circuit des Yeux

Clara de Asís performs at a festival in the Czech Republic in 2017. é BLUDNÝ KÁMEN

Franco Battiato, Sulle Corde di Aries Each of his sounds has the integrity of a gold watch: shimmery, timeless, and reliable. I really enjoy how he can challenge my perception of composition while remaining musical—it’s a ride, not a test, and I enjoy the journey. My favorite part of this 1973 record is the second half of side A—tape feedback, vocals, and percussive elements give way and blend into something that becomes physically trance inducing.

PETER MARGASAK Reader music critic

Clara de Asís, Do Nothing Marseilles-based Spanish composer and musician Clara de Asís delivers six lucid and often meditative works for prepared guitar and percussion on 2018’s Do Nothing. The title piece collides subtle harmonies from patiently plucked strings and the sustained ringing of what sound like Tibetan singing bowls, while “Know Nothing” simmers gently with anonymous machinelike chatter.

The remaining pieces meticulously, sculpturally arrange similar materials with crystalline directness and delightful abstraction.

The cover of Franco Battiato’s Sulle Corde di Aries

Domenico Lancellotti, The Good Is a Big God Percussionist, singer, and songwriter Domenico Lancellotti continues to explore a fun, sophisticated mix of samba, art-rock, MPB, and disco. Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas adds some gorgeous orchestrations, but most of the music comes from the leader and his Rio colleagues, including Pedro Sá and Lancellotti’s old +2 bandmates Kassin and Moreno Veloso. The latter cowrote the lilting “Tudo ao Redor,” a fragile love song with koanlike verses: “When this sun falls / Across the mattress / It drags everything / Around it.”

Philip K. Dick, Martian Time-Slip Science fiction fills me up with musical narratives and helps me in times of creation. I love how PKD jumps right into his premises, forcing your mind to immediately let go of all preconceptions about physics, time, and space. I feel like I’m constantly catching up in PKD’s worlds— by the time I’ve made some sense of this new reality, another has sprung up in its place. The 1964 novel Martian Time-Slip navigates the hostile living conditions of a futuristic society that has emigrated to Mars. The novel weaves through the social and psychological challenges, centering on a child with autism and his hidden superpower.

Correction, Swing I’m two years late catching up to the excellent fourth album by this Swedish jazz trio—pianist Sebastian Bergström, bassist Joacim Nyberg, and drummer Emil Åstrand-Melin—but it’ll probably sound just as fresh in a decade. The trio’s originals hark back to individualists such as Herbie Nichols and Elmo Hope, and the performances swing with a brisk snap, even as Bergström’s solos veer toward free jazz.

Not rehearsing Someone once told me I’ve got MWE—midwestern work ethic. I try as hard as I can, then get overworked, cry a little, go to sleep, wake up, and try as hard as I can the next day. Rinse and repeat. This year I learned that vocal rest, time off, and having nonmusical days actually makes me a better musician. Usually I spend these days creating in some other medium—make a large meal, paint, or write a short story.

MIKEL PATRICK AVERY

Interdisciplinary musician and artist Mary Margaret O’Hara, “When You Know Why You’re Happy” I’m a huge fan, and I’ve come back to her 1989 performance of this song on Night Music at least once a month for ten years. I love the free-floating, non-singing singing she does. Willie Nelson does it as well and crushes me every time (check out his “Are You Sure”). I sing like an old left shoe, so I naturally gravitate to people who seem to deliver the message first, sing second. Even if you can’t figure out what they’re saying, it feels like they’re singing directly to you.

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Camarón de la Isla, “Soy Gitano” I heard this blasting from the house next door and had to go over to find out what it was. Flamenco is one of many cultural musics that I keep putting on the shelf to check out later. There’s so much intent behind every idea—not a single note is passed over. It’s similar to what I hear in a lot of Japanese Noh theater. My neighbor is from Spain and loves flamenco, which gives me an incredible opportunity to open up the pores and soak in some knowledge.

A phone video on YouTube of an African street drummer This is close to my heart for many reasons. First, the playing is amazing, far beyond anything I can do. More important is the self-made drum set, a true contraption/trap kit. My first instrument was a set of drums made of cardboard and ice cream buckets, because I didn’t have the dough for a real kit. If you want a guitar, just make that shit now! There are more than enough materials in the alleys and streets. And maybe I’ll sound like the kid in the vid one day.

Mary Margaret O’Hara performs at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehead in 2007. é GREG NEATE/SHOT2BITS.NET

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 27

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of August 23

MUSIC

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ALL AGES

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THURSDAY23

PICK OF THE WEEK

Art-pop duo Ohmme asserts itself as one of Chicago’s best bands on Parts

Bump J Co-Still, Sonta, and Body Deeder open.

8 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park, free with RSVP at wgci.iheart.com/contests/-457064. 18+ At the end of “Crown,” on G Herbo’s debut album, Humble Beast, the Chicago rap star ad-libs an anecdote about walking home from school one day as a child and becoming starstruck at the sight of Terrance Boykin, aka Bump J. In the 2000s, few local rappers cast as big a shadow as Bump, leading hip-hop mogul Lyor Cohen to track him down and offer him a $1 million deal with Atlantic. Bump coulda been an international star, but after a few singles (one with Rick James, two produced by Kanye), he left the major label in 2006. Things looked grim when he was arrested for a 2007 robbery; he took a plea deal and spent much of the past decade behind bars. But while Bump was away, his shadow grew to loom larger than ever; he’s become an avatar for rap greatness in the eyes of a new generation of street rappers. Since regaining his freedom last year, he’s dropped one-off videos and made guest appearances on songs by artists who are his rightful heirs—and, yes, that includes a verse on the aforementioned “Crown.” Last month Bump dropped his first full-length since his release, I Don’t Feel Rehabilitated (Goon Squad Entertainment), on which he imparts brawny power into his verses without ever raising his voice. He recently told Fake Shore Drive that he and longtime collaborator Sly Polaroid are working on an EP produced entirely by Kanye West; given Kanye’s celebrity (his recent flirtations with far-right thinkers aside), the recording could help reintroduce the world to one of the most historically important figures ever to emerge out of the Chicago scene. —LEOR GALIL

é ALEXA VISCIUS

OHMME, THE HECKS, V.V. LIGHTBODY

Sat 8/25, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $12. b

SIMA CUNNINGHAM AND Macie Stewart are only in their 20s, but both of them have already become stalwart figures in Chicago’s music scene, nonchalantly cutting across disparate communities.

Cunningham largely sticks to Americana and indie, touring or collaborating with artists such as Jeff Tweedy and Twin Peaks, while Stewart is just as comfortable playing free jazz in the Few and Marker as she is working alongside Chance the Rapper, but the duo find common cause in Ohmme. They’re beguiling as a pop band, enfolding all kinds of experimentation within hooky tunes as casually as they pivot between styles. With their dazzling new album, Parts (Joyful Noise), the duo have parlayed their curiosity, deep talent, and years of gigging into one of the year’s most satisfying recordings. Propelled by the intricate drumming of Matt Carroll, Cunningham and Stewart braid angular, biting guitar licks—often spiked with waves of feedback or lacerating

28 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

dissonance—as freely as their voices meld in angelic or astringent harmonies. On fizzy songs such as “Icon” and “Water” Ohmme channel the slaloming art-pop sound of Dirty Projectors, engaging in steeplechase vocal acrobatics that are as hummable as they are athletic, but in general they keep things unfussy. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of novel details: they run their voices through a Leslie speaker on the title track—one of numerous songs that deftly convey a rising tide of frustration with both love and the world at large—to create an appealing washed-out quality, and channel a touch of British folk elegance on “Liquor Cabinet.”

Cellist Tomeka Reid and reedist Ken Vandermark thicken the arrangements on a couple of tunes, but otherwise Cunningham and Stewart play everything but the drums. They sculpt a sound that’s rich yet agile, and summon a virtual orchestra using only their voices and guitars. —PETER MARGASAK

Bump J é COURTESY THE ARTIST

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Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

FESTIVALS

The weekend in festivals: food trucks, Foghat, and more Logan Square Food Truck Social Twenty food trucks are only part of the draw—this festival also features a diverse roster of musical acts, among them the Men (see page 31), Palm, DJ Oreo, Glyders, Prince Paul, Jungle Green (see page 24), and Prefuse 73. Fri 8/24, 5 PM, Sat 8/25 and Sun 8/26, noon, Humboldt between Armitage and the 606 Trail, logansquarefoodtrucksocial.com, $5 suggested donation, all-ages

Daniel Bachman é GRETA SVALBERG

FRIDAY24 Daniel Bachman 6 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+ Virginia guitarist Daniel Bachman regularly demonstrates curiosity and practice outside of the hazy contours of the American Primitive style of acoustic guitar made famous by John Fahey. While those excursions have been limited and discreet— and he’s generally veered back to his comfort zone— they’ve neverthless indicated his admirably restless creative streak. He dives in completely on his dazzling new double album The Morning Star (Three Lobed), masterfully complementing his stellar guitar work with an array of sounds including mesmerizing drones and environmental presences that together foster a turbulent kind of meditation. The side-long opener, “Invocation,” does exactly what its title promises, weaving resonant singing bells, recordings of AM radio, harmonium, guitar, and fiddle drones (played by guest Forrest Marquise) into a visceral blend that intensifies as it goes on. The piece doesn’t so much move from one point to another as take stock from a single spot, continuously exploring a matrix of gritty sounds formed by an ever-shifting balance of elements. Though that description might suggest the music is dry, I’ve been sucked into its sonic cauldron with every listen. On “Sycamore City,” Bachman’s crisp, propulsive picking is submerged within the buzz of cicadas and passing traffic. “Car” bypasses guitar altogether, serving up a noisy, abrasive organ drone with snippets of raving radio evangelists; it seems to be signaling some kind of ominous portent, especially

with its abrupt ending. That’s followed by “Song for Setting Sun III,” a solo guitar piece that might pass as a benediction for the planet; its tender, resonant articulation is a thing of pure humanity, but the sound of a wailing siren from a passing vehicle, left in deliberately, lends it an ominous air. The Morning Star is far and away Bachman’s most ambitious effort yet, and it certainly suggests there’s more ambition to come. —PETER MARGASAK

Skokie’s Backlot Bash This suburban block party includes headlining sets from endearingly over-the-hill rockers Sister Hazel and Foghat. Fri 8/24, 6 PM, Sat 8/25 and Sun 8/26, noon, Oakton between Lincoln and Laramie, Skokie, backlotbash.com, free, all-ages

Big Evanston Block Party Organized by SPACE, this street fest has a killer lineup heavy on indie rock. Performers include Guided by Voices, the Old 97’s, the Waco Brothers, and Split Single. Sat 8/25 and Sun 8/26, 1 PM, Chicago and Dempster, Evanston, evanstonspace.com, free, all-ages

Bucktown Arts Fest The 33rd annual edition of this street fair has a jazz stage with the likes of Winchester Sound, Kirch Van Lux, and the Chicago Jamaican Jazz Ensemble, while the main stage presents an eclectic lineup that features the Menards, the Rich Krueger Band, the Arts of Life Band, Bill MacKay, and others. Sat 8/25 and Sun 8/26, 1 PM, Oakley and Lyndale, bucktownartsfest.com, free, all-ages

Alejandro Escovedo Joe Ely coheadlines.

7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln, sold out. b On the forthcoming The Crossing (due September 14 on Yep Roc), veteran Austin rocker Alejandro Escovedo refracts his life as a secondgeneration Mexican-American in a concept album about two immigrants from Mexico and Italy who meet while working in a Texas restaurant, focusing on the shared and disparate personal experiences that brought them to the same spot. Album single “Sonica USA” steps away from that narrative, instead reflecting on the sense of power Escovedo felt in the 70s watching Mexican-American punk band the Zeros (which was cofounded and fronted by his brother, Javier), and the pride he takes now in offering his immigrant peers a model of what it can look like to follow your own path. Through shifting perspectives, the songs detail the grace and equanimity many newcomers to the States embrace while navigating the harrowing difficulty, loneliness, and peril they face—a much different narrative than the current right-wing fantasy that suggests they have it easier than American citizens. “Wait- J

The Men play Saturday, August 25, at the Logan Square Food Truck Social (and later that night at the Empty Bottle). é JOSH GOLEMAN

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 29

MUSIC continued from 29

ing for Me” is a heartbreaking meditation on being alone in a strange land and the pain of longing for a lover back home, while “Footsteps in the Shadows” conveys the crippling fear that comes with sneaking across the border and forever watching your back lest you get caught. Joe Ely sings on a few tracks on The Crossing and wrote “Silver City,” a bruising tale of leaving everything behind for a geographic panacea that promises a better life, only to be falsely accused of someone else’s crime once you’re there: “Now the moon cries through the bars, my love shines in the stars / I’m glad she is far from the Silver City.” Escovedo made the record in Italy with Roman instrumental band Don Antonio, who meld punk fury and poetic folk-rock in arrangements as rich, concise, and effective as any in the singer’s discography. For this concert Escovedo and Ely will share the stage, trading songs and stories. —PETER MARGASAK

Haley Fohr 8 PM, Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, $10, $5 students and members. b Anyone who regularly reads my writing in this paper probably knows about my growing admiration for Haley Fohr, a vocalist, composer, and improviser whose stunning creative growth over the last few years is matched by her rigor and ambition.

Last year her long-running project Circuit des Yeux dropped a knockout album, Reaching for Indigo (Drag City), which deftly melds folk, psychedelia, and art songs with kaleidoscopic arrangements and heart-stopping singing. Fohr also has other practices and personas, including an electro-country alter ego, Jackie Lynn, and a gripping solo voice project. Tonight she presents the Chicago premiere of her first fully scored work, which she composed for Charles Bryant’s 1923 silent

Alejandro Escovedo é NANCY RANKIN ESCOVEDO

film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, starring the flamboyant Russian actress Alla Nazimova. For the project, which was commissioned by Opera North in Leeds, Fohr used a version of the film without intertitles, which allows her to redirect some of its outmoded portrayals of femininity. In her program note, Fohr writes, “In this now-age of misogyny dismemberment I ask that we utilize this historic film and re-contextualize it into a new kind of satire—one that represents the modern female (other) psyche as it navigates the treacherous maze from innocence (purity) to womanhood (knowledge).” She wrote music for eight scenes, which she will perform with violist Whitney Johnson, double bassist Andrew Scott Young, and drummer Tyler Damon. In an e-mail Fohr sent me regarding the work, she cites one instance where she breaks away from musical notation: “The only

Haley Fohr

usage of improvisation would be Scene 3, a pizzicato glissandi piece in which each instrument is encouraged to emulate a specific size of raindrop that naturally occurs toward the beginning of a summer thunderstorm.” I have every reason to believe that the musicians will perfectly conjure that image.

—PETER MARGASAK

Pedro the Lion H.C. McEntire opens. 9 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $22-$35. 17+ Since singer-songwriter David Bazan dissolved his most popular band, Pedro the Lion, in 2005 he’s continued to make the kind of intimate, selfquestioning indie rock that Pedro was known for, just operating under his own name. Pedro material has stuck around in Bazan’s performances too, albeit mostly in small doses—he’s been known to incorporate a track or two into the frequent solo acoustic living-room tours he’s made since 2009.

(These intimate shows take place in galleries and even in the homes of strangers who open their doors to small groups of fellow fans.) Subsequently, in 2012, Bazan assembled a band to play Pedro’s intimate quasi-rock-opera Control in celebration of its tenth anniversary as Jade Tree reissued the band’s albums on vinyl (Epitaph, which purchased Jade Tree’s catalog, started rereleasing those albums on vinyl in May, and the latest pressing of Control is due out this month). Through the years, Bazan has remained a transparent and pragmatic lyricist, and he carries himself in a similar fashion outside of his music as well. Last year he told Stereogum that, yes, he could make more money under Pedro the Lion than under his own name, but this time he got the band together simply because he wanted to play in a rock band again, something he realized after seeing one of the final Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers performances and one of U2’s Joshua Tree 30th-anniversary gigs. So Pedro is back, with plans to do more than just revisit the past. Future releases are due out on Polyvinyl, which is fitting, as both the downstate Illinois indie label and Bazan’s band excel at the kind of touching emo that both reaches the genre’s heights and circumvents its lows. —LEOR GALIL

é MICHAEL VALLERA

30 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

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MUSIC

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

SATURDAY25

JUST ADDED • ON SALE THIS FRIDAY! 1/31

Kasey Chambers

FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG

Ohmme See Pick of the Week on page 28. The Hecks and V.V. Lightbody open. 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $12. b

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 8PM

Wrekmeister Harmonies with special guest Bill MacKay • In Szold Hall

James Brandon Lewis Part of the weeklong Dog/Days performance series. James Brandon Lewis performs with Ben Lamar Gay, Kent Kessler, and Avreeayl Ra at 6 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western. 18+ F In the past few years saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has emerged as a versatile force, a musician fluent in the postbop spirit of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane who can easily adapt his sound to a funked-up setting with heavy hip-hop vibes. I first heard the New Yorker four years ago on his impressive second album, Divine Travels; throughout that wide-ranging collection he oozes confidence while delivering fired-up soul in the esteemed company of bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver. He followed that effort with the neck-snapping Days of Freeman, where he’s powered by the nimble electric bass grooves of former Ornette Coleman associate Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer Rudy Royston, with occasional rhymes and beats provided by onetime Anti-Pop Consortium member Hprizm. Unsurprisingly, after two such adventurous albums Lewis’s tenure with the Sony-owned imprint OKeh ended, but his recent work proves he’s as curious as ever and even more focused. Flanked by rising D.C. bassist Luke Stewart and drummer Warren Trae on last year’s groove-oriented No Filter, his tenor became more cutting and ecstatic than ever, spewing licks that either explode into upper-register cries or descend with granite-hard low-end honks.

Earlier this year he dropped Radiant Imprints (Off), a duo album with former Chicago drummer Chad Taylor. On that record he effectively comes to terms with his love for Coltrane’s music, abstracting some of his mentor’s most enduring themes into

4544 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG • 773.728.6000

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 8PM

Michael Nesmith & The First National Band SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 8PM

The Hot Sardines SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 7PM

Harold López-Nussa Trio In Szold Hall FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 8PM

Garnet Rogers & Archie Fisher

James Brandon Lewis é DIANE ALLFORD

In Szold Hall

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 8PM

free-flowing dialogues with Taylor: “Twenty-Four” repurposes ideas from “Giant Steps” and “26-2,” while “Imprints” was inspired by “Impressions.” But though Trane’s impact on the music is clear, Lewis and Taylor consistently carve out their own space.

In this rare Chicago performance Lewis leads a strong local band with cornetist Ben Lamar Gay, bassist Kent Kessler, and drummer Avreeayl Ra. The set is part of a free multiday festival presented by Constellation and Hungry Brain in the lead-up to the Chicago Jazz Festival, which takes place next weekend. —PETER MARGASAK

David Bazan of Pedro the Lion é RYAN RUSSELL

The Men Part of the Logan Square Food Truck Social. 8:30 PM (music starts at noon), Main Stage, Humboldt between Armitage and the 606 Trail, logansquarefoodtrucksocial.com, $5 suggested donation. b The Men also headline a show the same night at the Empty Bottle with openers the Sueves and Blind Moon. 8:30 PM, 1035 N. Western, $12, $10 in advance. 21+

Holly Near

In a recent Ghettoblaster interview with Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi, who cofront postpunk band the Men, Perro described the creative approach that’s led the group to produce its stylistically scattered series of albums: “We’ve tried to make the same record forever. We’ve tried to make the same exact record since the beginning, and in my mind, we haven’t accomplished that.” Despite that alleged failure the Men have emerged with some great music since they formed in 2008, particularly during their three-album run at the beginning of this decade, bookended by the pig-fuck crush of 2010’s Immaculada and 2012’s country-tinged Open Your Heart. For March’s Drift (Sacred Bones), the Men largely did away with electric guitars (with the exception of the distortion-encrusted “Killed Someone”) and wound up with a collection of moody, atmospheric songs occasionally punctuated with saxophone. I don’t mind if the Men think they’ve been unable to make the same record year after year as long as they continue to come up with songs like the mutant Krautrock bummer “Maybe I’m Crazy,” the album’s opener, which sets a high bar that unfortunately few other songs on Drift come close to clearing. —LEOR GALIL

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 3PM

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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 8PM

Bruce Molsky's Mountain Drifters

David Wilcox

In Szold Hall

In Szold Hall

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6 7PM

Erwin Helfer & Reginald Robinson In Szold Hall

ACROSS THE STREET IN SZOLD HALL 4545 N LINCOLN AVENUE, CHICAGO IL

9/14 Global Dance Party: Bomba Dance Party featuring La Escuelita Bombera de Corazón 9/30 Global Dance Party: The Revelers 10/12 Global Dance Party: Nessa 10/19 Global Dance Party: The Volo Bogtrotters • Old Time Square Dance with calling by Paul Tyler

WORLD MUSIC WEDNESDAY SERIES FREE WEEKLY CONCERTS, LINCOLN SQUARE

8/29 Jerry Medina y La Banda

OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 31

MUSIC continued from 31

MONDAY27 Flamingo Rodeo Glyders headline; Flamingo Rodeo, Ruins, and and Dehd Hed DJz open.

8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western. 21+ F

In Ne-Hi, the local dreamy postpunk four-piece cofronted by singer and guitarist Mikey Wells, everything falls into terse rhythms and complex, rigid arrangements. So it makes sense that on Said Unsaid, the first full-length from Wells’s solo-turned-side-project Flamingo Rodeo, he took a new direction and decided to get loose. With a fleshedout band lineup that includes his Ne-Hi bandmate Alex Otake on drums, former Rabble Rabble member Matt Ciarleglio on bass, and Empty Bottle production manager Tim Gurnig on guitar, Wells lays out nine tracks of breezy, loose-limbed, easylistening indie pop. Tracks such as album opener “My Name Is Not . . . ” have a fluffy AM Gold sway, while others—especially the record’s undisputed highlight, “Discount Harmony”—go full-on Gram Parsons-style psychedelic country-rock, and every track across the board is fun, light, and pretty as hell. But with this seasoned crew of dudes, topnotch tunes are hardly a surprise. This show is the release party for the vinyl version of Said Unsaid

32 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

that’s being put out by the in-house label of local record shop Shuga, which also released an LP by another incredible Ne-Hi side project, Dehd, late last year. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

music while Curran uses electronics to produce shimmering, flutelike tones that gorgeously entwine with his playing. Otherwise the music clings to the same enticing framework. —PETER MARGASAK

WEDNESDAY29

Matianak Abigail Williams headlines; Ghost Bath, Wolf King, and Matianak open. 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint, 2105 S. State, $15. 21+

Buck Curran The Andrew Scott Young Ensemble opens. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $10. 21+ In his long-running duo Arborea, guitarist Buck Curran skillfully spun lines of gossamer beauty and tenderness into a sparkling blanket under the sweet cooing of his musical collaborator and then-wife, Shanti Deschaine, occasionally descending into meditative treacle. Since he began making solo records a couple of years ago, his liquid fluency has taken a more rhapsodic direction. He’s achieved a new depth with his recent Morning Haikus, Afternoon Ragas (ESP-Disk/Obsolete), on which his delicate fingerstyle playing emphasizes lyric generosity over flashy technique. His lilting, dewy melodies hang humidly in the air, suggesting a fragrant hothouse, while the notes of his cycling patterns decay. Curran largely eschews the sort of propulsive locomotive lines made famous by John Fahey. Instead, his improvisations and com-

Matianak é COURTESY THE ARTIST

posed vignettes seem to float, especially on “The Sun Also Rises,” where his overdubbed guitar parts build a horizontal sound stack of ringing long tones, twangy curlicues, and ambient drone. Singer Adele Pappalardo, Curran’s new wife, contributes vocals on a cover of Chris Whitley’s “Dirt Floor” that harks back to Arborea’s sound, and Nicolò Melocci blows mellifluous bansuri flute lines on “Bhairavi Rovelli,” summoning the hypnotic spirit of Indian classical

This Chicago blackened death-metal outfit takes its name from an evil Malay spirit, the vengeful vampiric ghost of either a stillborn baby or a woman who died in childbirth. To embody this nightmarish inspiration, front woman Arelys Jimenez—a horror buff and taxidermy enthusiast—dons terrifying, gruesome makeup and props for the band’s performances. In 2016, Matianak dropped a solid two-song EP, Enochian Ritual, and this May they released their first full-length, Non Compos Mentis. The record is a whirling, howling, chugging mishmash of styles produced with a grotty feel; it all has a tendency to evoke a pit of the damned— screams of agony, flailing limbs, and all. Jimenez says the band is still looking for a full-time bassist and second guitarist (Frank Garcia of Blood of the Wolf will join the core trio for this show), so if you’re a musician looking to join a promising up-and-coming horror show, that’s all the more reason to check them out. —MONICA KENDRICK v

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FOOD & DRINK

OMAKASE YUME | $$$$ R 651 W. Washington 312-265-1610 omakaseyume.com

Clockwise from top left: yellowjack, amberjack, firefly squid, and Ōra King salmon é JAMIE RAMSAY

Omakase Yume draws first in an impending sushi arms race Chef Sangtae Park’s eight-seat sushi-ya sets a new bar for Chicago.

By MIKE SULA

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n the early 1800s in Tokyo, sushi (as we would come to know it) was something you ate on the street. The first guy to hand-press pieces of fish onto nubs of vinegared rice sold it to everyday workers from a box he carried around on his back.

In the society of the late Edo period, sushi was as accessible as the chum-stuffed plastic clamshells sold from the cooler at Walgreens (though probably a lot better). The rarefied omakase (roughly, “chef’s choice”), popularized by Jiro Ono of Tokyo’s world-famous

Sukiyabashi Jiro and now recognized as the highest expression of Edomai-style sushi (as it was known), was a long way off.

Until recently, Chicago was one of the few major U.S. cities that didn’t have at least one omakase-only specialist operating at

the level of, say, LA’s Urusawa, where diners are commanded to eat each piece within ten seconds of its arrival, or New York’s Sushi Nakazawa, operated by a onetime apprentice of Jiro’s. (Apologies to Katsu, Raisu, Kai Zan, etc.)

Now, very soon, a showdown is about to go down in the world of Chicago omakase.

In May, chef Otto Pham of Kyōten Sushiko in Austin, Texas, announced plans to open a seven-seat sushi-ya in Logan Square where he’ll charge $250 for his omakase. Pham, who in interviews serves up oceans of self-regard, told the Tribune “There’s no good sushi in Chicago” (and he’s said the same thing about Austin, excluding his).

When Pham gave that interview he might not have been aware of chef Sangtae Park, who was quietly readying Omakase Yume, a tiny eight-seat wooden box in the West Loop where he’s charging $125 for a 15- to 17-course progression.

Only 16 people eat every night at Omakase Yume. That’s in two services of approximately 90 minutes each, during which they’re served whatever fish he’s aged, cured, blanched, iced, and sliced. Park—who was born in Busan, South Korea—gets his fish mostly from Japanese and Korean waters, and according to Calvin Pipping, a partner in the venture, his style reflects his upbringing.

Park came to Chicago 17 years ago, when he helped open Mirai Sushi and Japonais, later going on to launch his own Izakaya Yume in Niles, where omakase gradually became part of the attraction (the concept still exists as a food truck and a stand in the downtown H Mart on Jackson). Pipping says opening a dedicated omakase has been Park’s ambition all along, and acknowledges that the popularity of the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi is part of what’s made it finally possible in Chicago. (Yume is the Japanese word for “dream.”)

Park works quietly, but he opens with an audacious assertion of where he’s from. The very first piece of nigiri he mounts on the lacquered wooden tray set before each guest perched at the bar is a slab of pearlescent fluke on lightly vinegared, barely warmed rice dabbed with one-year-old kimchi J

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 33

Search the Reader’s online database of thousands of Chicago-area restaurants—and add your own review—at chicagoreader.com/food.

FOOD & DRINK

Chef Santay Park smoking Ōra King salmon é JAMIE RAMSAY

continued from 33 that has been washed and pureed. The fish is clean and meaty, and the slow funky burn of the ferment cuts right though it and bonds perfectly with each and every grain of subtly tangy rice.

It’s a bold choice to start a run of sushi this way, but it has the effect of waking up the palate and priming it for subtler yet no less enjoyable feats of fishery. Park is offering a narrative in this classically minimalist style, introducing the nigiri with a few bites of tightly rolled, softly bitter chrysanthemum leaves draped with thick, nutty roasted sesame sauce.

Park, who slices, molds, and paints his nigiri with the decisive fluidity of a croupier at a craps table, follows his signature fluke with a tuna trio of the three main cuts of bluefin belly meat—the ever-precious poster fish of overfishing—in increasing order of fattiness: relatively lean akami topped with a farce of scraped belly meat, egg yolk, and miso; then medium-fatty chutoro, a bit more lush and lightly brushed with a blended soy sauce; and finally the prized otoro. At this point the only reason you’re not drunk on its exquisite fattiness is the sprinkle of black sea salt and tuft of sharkskin-grated wasabi on top that tweaks the sinuses and brings you back to your senses.

There are no tiny bowls of soy sauce to drown your fish in, no gobs of gluey green horseradish paste—just a small pile of pickled ginger slices to clean your palate after each mouthful. There are chopsticks, but ignore them. Pluck each piece up with your fingers to briefly, appreciate the warm—not hot—rice and body-temperature—not cold— fish before popping it straight into your gob.

There’s time to think about the care and planning that go into these individual morsels. It’s likely that there’s a piece of kinmedai (aka golden-eye snapper) coming, a fatty deepwater fish that often needs to be aged to reduce its water content and develop its f lavor. Park blanches its red skin with hot water, then holds its fleshy side over ice prior to serving. Ōra King salmon is first isolated in a Japanese whiskey box Park injects with a smoking gun that gently melts its fat, then adorned with green onion and soy. Each nigiri receives a similarly soft whisper of seasoning: a blend of dried ground kombu and bonito powder for the yellowtail, dried aonori powder and Korean sesame oil for the kanpachi, dried shrimp powder for the sweet shrimp, and a light char from a blow-

34 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

torch for the squid.

One of the most remarkable pieces placed in front of me at Omakase Yume was a bloodred slab of bonito, aka skipjack—the same fish that’s smoked, dried, and shaved into flakes used to make dashi. Park dresses it with onion, grated ginger, and a sprinkle of itself in powdered form. In the flesh, the oilrich, full-flavored meat is like the duck breast of the sea.

Park’s partner Pipping told me he warned the chef to go slow with pieces like this, that

maybe Chicagoans aren’t ready for such assertiveness. I disagree. Bring them on.

Apart from a soft and lightly sweet piece of tamago, the meal ends with a bite of grilled black cod with miso, a small cup of miso soup, and a parfait glass filled with green-andwhite layers of matcha tiramisu, the most flamboyant thing you’ll eat here.

Some of the most revelatory bites may be yet to come, however. Guests wanting more can order a la carte supplements, often of more unusual species. I chewed on a Love-

craftian-looking heart clam (torigai) that developed an abiding sweetness during the process. A scalloplike pen shell (tairagai) had a simultaneously crunchy and soft texture I can’t recall ever experiencing. A pair of pinky-length firefly squid (yes, they glow underwater) are bathed in soy and crowned with grated ginger and green onion, among the cutest creatures I’ve ever consumed.

These are extraordinary moments in an extraordinary experience. But Park hasn’t built a shrine around himself. His wife, Kate Kim Park, greets guests at the door and warmly attends to their needs on the opposite side of the bar. Park operates swiftly, and guests are encouraged to pop the nigiri the instant it lands on the tray. This is in service to freshness of the presentation, but it can lead to some sloppiness, as liquid from the nigiri tends to pool on the tray over time.

Nobody seemed to be bothered by this during my seating at Omakase Yume. Three out of the seven guests were flying solo, but by the end of the evening we were all pouring each other drinks—which is another extraordinary thing about the operation.

Park and his partners have yet to secure their liquor license, and Omakase Yume’s BYO status and $125 price point make it seem like a steal for this level of performance. I’m looking forward to what Otto Pham might be bringing to this knife fight, but at the very least he ought be aware that there is now indisputably some good sushi he’ll need to contend with in Chicago. v

m @MikeSula

l

l

JOBS

General ADVISORY ANALYTICS MANAGER (MULT POS),

PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Provide growth & dvlpmt strategy, analytics & strategic decision making, Mergers & Acquisition strategy, commercial & mrkt due diligence, & strategy transformation to help clients realize competitive advantage from ops.

Req. Bach’s deg or foreign equiv. in Bus Admin, Econ, Stats, Comp. Sci, Engg or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s prog. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg or foreign equiv. in Bus Admin, Econ, Stats, Comp. Sci, Engg or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp. Must hv exp. w/ at least 2 yrs of the folloing: Stat. analysis & techniques, customer, product & pricing analysis or bus. & ops analysis within mrktng, ops or risk analysis using quantitative techniques. Travel up to 80% req.

Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1855, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

THE NORTHERN TRUST Co. is

seeking a Consultant, Model Methodology, Monitoring & Implementation in Chicago IL, with the following requirements: MS in Financial Mathematics and 2 years of related experience. Prior experience must include: design and implement an automated and flexible model modeling tool in SAS to perform model monitoring and recalibration for projection purposes (6 months); implement time series models in SAS for PPNR (PreProvision Net Revenue) balance projection purpose using ARIMAX method (6 months); perform back testing, benchmark analysis, sensitivity analysis and scenario analysis on model results for loss projection models (2 yrs); create template to automatically generate reproducible model reports using Excel and VBA (2 yrs).

Please apply on-line at www. northerntrustcareers.com and search for Req. # 18109

TECHNICAL ANALYST 2 (RR DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY; WARRENVILLE IL) Analyze

business data, formulating and defining large scale enterprise computer systems scope and objectives based on user needs.

Reqs: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or related technical field + 5 yrs post-bacc progressively resp. experience analyzing and implementing software applications systems solutions to support retail industry activities. For complete job description, list of requirements, and to apply, go to: https://www.rrdonnelley.com/ about/rrdonnelley-jobs.aspx Job #40162.

ADVISORY MANAGER, ANALYTICS & DECISION (MULTI POS),

PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Lead engagements & provide strategy growth & development, strategy transformation, analytics & strategic decision making, M&A strategy, and commercial & market due diligence.

Req. Bach’s deg or foreign equiv. in Econ, Statistics, Bus Admin, Engg or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s prog. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg or foreign equiv. in Econ, Statistics, Bus Admin, Engg or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp. Travel up to 80% req. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1846, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST & SALES ENG.

Zensar Technologies, Inc. has openings in Chicago, IL. All positions may be assigned to various, unanticipated sites throughout the US. Job Code US176 Computer Systems Analyst (Enhancement/ Design): analysis & documents. Job Code: US177 Sales Engineer (Service Solutions): account life-cycle, diagnose issues & training. Mail resume to: Prasun Maharatna, 2107 North First Street, Suite 100, San Jose, CA 95131. Include job code & full job title/s of interest + recruitment source in cover letter.

EOE

Marble refinisher. honest, reliable, skilled. Join our team, good pay, bonus and 50% Health Benefits Call (773) 850-0286 OR Email mike.sungloss@gmail.com c/o Mike or Perla

HIGHGROUND ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS, Inc. seeks VP OF PRODUCT in Chicago, IL to prvde

strat dirctn & op plans in line w/ the overall strat & priorities of the biz.

Reqs BS in CS, Engrg, or a rltd & 10 yrs exp. Reqs exp in the flwng: mangng a team of sftwr engrs; Agile dev & Scrum; launchng a dgtl prod or serv; wrkng in prod mgmt or prod dev; wrkng w/ a B2B SaaS or sftwr pltfm. Reqs US perm wrk auth. Snd rsme to recruiting+perm@ highground.com.

Jinny Beauty Supply Co., Inc. seeks Accountant to prepare, examine, or analyze accounting records, financial statements, & other financial reports to assess accuracy, completeness, & conformance to reporting & procedural standards. BA in Accounting req’d. Send resume to job loc: 3505 N. Kimball Ave., Chicago, IL 60618 Madison Dearborn Partners (Chicago, IL) seeks Vice President to identify/evaluate/execute investment opportunities; & to monitor operations of & provide strategic advice to portfolio companies.

Frequent travel w/in U.S. & internationally. Submit resumes at car eer@mdcp.com, Ref Job ID: VP201808 NETWORK

ENGINEER

–

Schaumburg, IL. Seeking MS in Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, Networking or related.

CCNA cert. req’d. Travel req’d. Mail CV to Attn: HR/Job #0808, D&D Internetworking, Inc., 2385 Hammond Dr. #8, Schaumburg IL 60173.

REAL ESTATE RENTALS

STUDIO $500-$599 CHICAGO, CAL PARK & Blue Island: Studio $625 & up; 1BR $700 & up; 2BR $885 & up. Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Parking.

Call 708-388-0170

STUDIO $600-$699 Chicago, Hyde Park Arms Hotel, 5316 S. Harper, elevator bldg, phon e/cable, switchboard, fridge, priv bath, lndry, $165/wk, $350/bi-wk or $650/mo. Call 773-493-3500 CHICAGO- 1411 N. CENTRAL,

Studio, heated, laundry facilities, $600/mo + 1.5 months security.

Seniors Welcome. Call 773-490-3347

STUDIO $700-$899 LARGE ONE BEDROOM near

red line. 6822 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets OK. $995/month. Heat included. Available 10/1. (773) 7614318

STUDIO OTHER EAST CHICAGO - Harborside Apartments accepting applications for SECTION 8 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments. Apply Wednesdays ONLY from 12pm to 4pm at 3610 Alder St. Applications are to be filled out on site. Adult applicants must provide a current picture ID and SS card.

LARGE SUNNY ROOM w/fridge & microwave. Near Oak Park, Green Line & Buses. 24 hr Desk, Parking Lot $101/week & Up. (773)378-8888 CROSSROADS HOTEL SRO SINGLE RMS Private bath, PHONE,

1 BR $900-$1099

1 BR UNDER $700

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT. 1st floor. 5815 Fullerton, beNEWLY REMODELED UNITS

61st & King Dr. 3 Bd/2Ba, Washer/ Dry Hook-up, Alarm, 61st & Racine - 1Bd/1Ba, 1 year Free Heat.

Chicago Heights 4 Bed, 2 Full baths, SFH. Other locations available. Approved credit receive 1 month free rent.

For More Info Call 773.412.1153

tween Central & Austin. Available immediately. $900/mo includes heat, water and parking. Laundry inside building. 773-889-8491.

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near Loyola Park. 1337 1/2 W. Estes.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $950/ month (heat included). Available 10/ 1. 773-761-4318.

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

bly Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park.

Laundry & Security on Premises.

Parking & Apts. Are Subject to Availability. TOWNHOUSE APARTMENTS 773-288-1030

REMODELED

2BR,

1BA,

Lawndale. Wall to wall laminated Flrs, Ceramic in Kit./bath, appls incl.

Near park, Pub. Transp., Penn Elem & VA Hosp. (312) 602-9566. All Welcome to Apply

MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All

1 BR OTHER FELLOWSHIP MANOR Affordable Housing For The Elderly. Applications are being accepted at Fel-

lowship Manor, 5041 South Princeton Avenue, Chicago IL, 60609 for one bedroom apartments.

Applicants must be at least 62 years of age, and must meet screening criteria. Contact the onsite management office by phone at (773) 9245980, or Via postal mail. This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

PRE-SPRING SPECIAL - CHICAGO South Side Beautiful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. Also Homes for rent available. Call Nicole 312-446-1753; W-side locations Tom 630-776-5556; CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up.

773-637-5957 76TH & SAGINAW, 1-2 bedroom apartments with beautiful hardwood floors. Heat & appliances included. $615-$770/mo. 773-4450329

108th & PRAIRIE: 1BR $700 & 2BR $775 Newly decorated, heat & appls incl. Section 8 ok.

888-249-7971 REMODELED 5 1/2 room apartment 2ND FLOOR, $850/MO. & 1/ 2 MONTH SECURITY. CALL 773995-8605 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442 BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

6748 CRANDON & 7727 COLFAX MOST BEAUTIFUL APARTMENTS! 1 & 2BR, $625 & UP. OFF STREET PARKING. 773-947-8572 / 312-613-4424 5500 W. GLADYS, 1st floor Apartment, 5 rooms, 2.5BR, large rooms, $850/mo., heat included. Call 708-772-0257 SUBURBS, RENT TO OW N! Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT NO MOVE IN FEE 1, 2, 3 BEDROOM APTS (773) 874-1122 ACACIA SRO HOTEL Men Preferred! Rooms for Rent. Weekly & Monthly Rates. 312-421-4597

2 BR UNDER $900

ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar Villas is accepting applications for subsidized 1BR apts. for seniors 62 years or older and the disabled.

Rent is based on 30% of annual income. For details, call us at 847-546-1899 ∫

LOOKING TO MOVE ASAP? Remodeled 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Apts.

Heat & Appls incl. Sec 8 OK. Southside Only. 773-593-4357

GENERAL

CHICAGO, UPDATED 2BR TH, 1BA, finished bsmt, C/A, large backyard, Section 8 accepted. $1 250/mo. Available 9/1. 630-2401684

2BR APT, NORTH Ave & Lamon

BEAUTIFUL REMOD 1, 2 & 3BR Apts, hdwd flrs, custom cabinets, granite cntrs, avail now. $1000$1200 /mo + sec. 773-905-8487.

Section 8 Ok

Clean/Quite 2nd fl, Stove/Refrid Incl. ten pays all utilities. No pets. $895/ mo. Call 708-503-0817. Must See!!!!

8943 S. ADA. Safe, secure 2-3BR, separate heating, school & metra 1 blk away, $875 & Up. Section 8 welcome. Call 708-465-6573

Chicago, 9121 S. Cottage Grove, 2BR apt. $1050/mo Newly remod, appls, mini blinds, ceiling fans, pkng Sec 8 OK. Free Heat 312-915-0100

SECTION 8 WELCOME!

RIVERDALE, New decor, 1st flr, 1BR, new crpt, heated, lndry, prkng, no pets, nr Metra. Sect 8 ok. $735/mo. 630-480-0638 East Chicago, IN 2BR $675 heat incl; tenant pays utils. 1 mo. free rent w/lease. Call Malcolm 773577-9361

SECT 8 WELCOME, 2 & 3BR Houses. Also Sharp 2 & 3BR Apts, fenced yard. $985-$1200/mo.

Will accept 1 or 2BR Voucher.

708-573-5628

7800 S Champlain quiet & peacful Large 2 BR, appls, heat, mini blinds, c-fan incl. $1050/mo Section 8 Welcome. 312-9150100

7655 S. YATES. Sunny 1st flr 2

bdrm w/DR, pic. windows, vertical blinds, glistening hardwood floors, ceiling fans, appl., and security cameras. Free heat. $850/mo. 312-513-1999

CHICAGO, 5015-25 W. Iowa Ave. Augusta & Cicero. Newly Rehab, 2 BR, $1000+/mo. Section 8 OK. David, 773-663-9488

SW - 85TH & Ashland. 2 BR, hard-

wood floors. Newly decorated. 2nd flr. Close to transp. $750/mo. + move in fee. Call 773-851-2232

CHICAGO 7600 S E s s e x , SUMMER SPECIAL - 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sec 8 Ok! South Side Office: 773-287-9999, West Side Office: 773-287-4500

GENERAL

OVER

LARGE BRIGHT LINCOLN PK

2Bd, 1Bth, In Unit W/D, Roof Deck, Back Porch, HVAC, Fireplace, DW, Hardwood Flrs, Available Immediately. $2000-$2900 Call: 773-472 5944

wood floors, fireplace, dishwasher, Washer/Dryer in building, deck, close to transportation, $16 00/mo + deposit. Tenant pays utilities. No pets. 773-742-0982.

2 BR OTHER ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar

Villas is accepting applications for Subsidized 2 and 3 bedroom apt waiting list. Rent is based on 30% of annual income for qualified applicants. Contact us at 847-546-1899 for details

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200 CHICAGO, 6 RMS, 3BR, newly remod kitchen, 5242 W. Congress, heat incl, enclosed porch, $1110/mo + security. Avail now. 773-6264239 BRONZEVILLE: SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit.

4841 S Michigan. 4BR $1300/mo.

Appliances included. 708-2884510

$900/mo + 1 mo sec. Clean & Quiet.

No Pets. 773-930-6045

CHICAGO 7811 S ABERDEEN , Move Right In! Totally rehabbed, luxury 3 bedroom, new appliances $1000. Section 8 ok 773-491-9875

W. HUMBOLDT PARK. 1302 N Kildare. Division/Pulaski. New Rehab, 2br $795. 4br $1200. Sec 8 OK 773619-0280 / 773-286-8200

MUST SEE DELUXE 3BR Apt, lrg living rm, dining rm & kitchen, mini blinds throughout. 7255 S. Campbell. $1150/mo + sec. 614-804-3977

2 BR $1100-$1299

RIVERDALE: Great Value! 3BR, newly decor. Carpet, nr metra, no pets. $950mo + sec. Avail Now 708-829-1454 or 708-754-5599

CHATHAM AREA, Gorgeous, 2BR, 1st flr, updated kit & bath.

FREE HEAT

2 BR $1500 AND

7440 S. Vernon 2BR, 1st flr, remod, hdwd flrs, appl & heat inc, laundry on site $815 & up. Z. 773.406.4841 2BR APT in Andersonville area,

2 BR $900-$1099

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SUMMER IS HERE!!!

MONST UNITS INCLUDE..

HEAT & HOT WATER STUDIOS FROM $495.00 1BDR FROM $545.00 2BDR FROM $745.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. LTD. SUMMER IS HERE!!!

HEAT, HW & CG PLENTY OF PARKING 1BDR FROM $785.00 2BDR FROM $1025.00 3 BDR/2 FULL BATH FROM $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000***

CHICAGO 94-3739 S. Bishop.

2BR, 5 Rms, 1st & 2nd flr, appls, parking, storage, near shops/ trans. $950 + sec. No pets. 708335-0786

HYDE PARK - 2BR $1195, 1BR

$1095. Newly decorated, hdwd flrs, stove & fridge incl, Free Heat & Hot water. Sec 8 welcome. Free credit check, no application fee, laundry facilities. 1-773-667-6477 or 1-312-8027301

GENERAL

HAMMOND FURNISHED 3BR

House, near East 80 and 94, no smoking, no pets. Dep and lease req. $1150/mo. Water incl.219-313-7095

GENERAL

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2 BR $735, Includes Free heat & appliances & cooking gas. (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt Forest Park: 1BR new tile, energy efficient windows, lndry facilitities, a/c, incls heat - natural gas, $895/ mo Luis 708-366-5602 lv msg 917 E. MARQUETTE 2Bd $900 1 Month Free & No Security, Section 8 Welcome. Niki 773-808-2043

1 BR $700-$799 ALSIP: UPDATED 2BR APT,

CABLE & MAIDS. 1 Block to Orange Line 5300 S. Pulaski 773-581-1188

1.5BA. $925-950/mo & 1BR apt, 1BA, $770/mo. Appls, laundry, parking & storage. Call 708-268-3762

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

24 hr desk/maid/TV/laundry/air.

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

9147 S. Ashland. 1BR $780, clean & secure, hdwd flrs, dinein Kit, appls, laundry. U Pay gas & elec. No Pets. 312-914-8967.

Cyril Court Apartments, a Section 8 Apartment Community located in the quiet South Shore Community, just minutes away from Lake Michigan.

Enjoy living in our spacious studio and one-bedroom apartments designed for your comfort and convenience. You can enjoy an array of amenities including a clubhouse, elevators, laundry on site, and gated secure parking lot. We as well offer controlled access, and after hours emergency maintenance assistance. Residents enjoy monthly activities with their neighbors which creates a sense of community. Come in and fill out an application and see why Cyril Court Apartments should be your new home.

FREE APPLICATION! JUST WALK IN, IT’S THAT EASY! *Must have valid state ID to apply

Applications accepted 10AM-3:00PM Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

BUILDING HAS A SENIOR PREFERENCE!!

Preference as well given to disabled, homeless or displaced.

Applicants subject to HUD income eligibility and other screening requirements.

Rent based on 30% of adjusted monthly income.

7130 S. Cyril Court, Chicago, IL 60649 Half Block West of Jeffrey Ave. 773-288-4812 • TTY (711 National Relay)

www.CyrilCourtApts.com • Email: CyrilCourt@m2regroup.com

AUGUST 23, 2018 | CHICAGO READER 35

SOUTH SHORE AREA, Spacious 7 rooms, 3 bedrooms, heat included. $925/month + 1 months security. Call 773-375-1048 CHICAGO. 7838 S. Winchester.

3br, 2nd flr. $1075. Heat Included. Section 8 Accepted.

Call 773-405-7636

3 BR OR MORE OTHER

SOUTHSIDE, Newly remod 2BR with appls & WD hkups.

Enclosed back porch, finished basement.

Call 773-9088791 SUMMER SPECIAL, SECTION 8 Ok, 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail.

South Side: 773-287-9999, West Side: 773-287-4500.

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 48TH/THROOP. 2BR, 1BA, 1st flr, tenant pays utils, Sec 8 welcome.

Phil, 708-415-1477.

Home Finder Realty.

OAK LAWN

92ND and Cicero.

2BR, 1BA, heat, hot water, off str pkng, Laundry rm. $1100. Phil, 708-415-1477. Home Finder Realty.

1230 W. 108TH ST. Newly Decorated 3BR, 2BA, fin bsmt, appls. $1400/mo.Sec 8 Welcome.

773-407-1736 leave msg 2, 3 & 4BR Houses & Condos.

Matteson & Sauk Village.

Sec 8 OK. Call 708-625-7355

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 LARGE 3 BEDROOM, one bath room apartment, 4423 N. Paulina.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. $1790/ month. Heat included. Available

2932 W WILCOX, newly decorated deluxe 3BR & 1.5BA, ceramic tile in LR & kitchen, refrig/stove.

Call 773-261-8840.

12328 S. NORMAL, newly remod

3BR, 1BA, hdwd flrs, $1200/mo. & 4BR 3BA, 18 E 99th Pl, $1550/mo newly remod. 708-275-1751

CHICAGO, 11820 S. UNION, 3BR Apartment, newly rehabbed.

Section 8 welcome. Available Now. Call 773-440-5801 SEC 8 OK. 6120 S. Justine, 3BR. $980. 1.5 mo sec. Tenant pays Electric and Gas, No Pets.

773-220-7070 Please lv msg

GENERAL VINCENNES COURT APARTMENTS will be accepting applications for their Tax Credit affordable housing waiting list on Thursday, August 30, 2018 between 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. for 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms at the management office at 4747 S. King Drive Chicago, IL 60615.

Find hundreds of Readerrecommended restaurants, exclusive video features, and sign up for weekly news chicagoreader.com/ food.

36 CHICAGO READER | AUGUST 23, 2018

their housing waiting list on Thursday, September 6, 2018 between 9:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. for 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms at the management office at 4747 S. King Drive.

SECTION 8 WELCOME

Newly Decorated, Heat Incl.

78th/Calumet. 2BR. $775.

74th/East End. 2BR. DR. $850.

61st/ Rhodes. 3BR. DR. $900.

773-874-9637 or 773-493-5359 2BRs on 70TH/MAPLEWOOD & Studio & 1BR on 73RD/JEFFERY. C- fans, appls, hdwd flrs, heated, intercom, near trans, laundry rm. $600/mo & up. 773-881-3573

99TH & YATES. fully furnished

rooms for rent. Utilities & bed included. Seniors & Veterans Welcome $500/per month. 773-412-9873.

NEW KITCHENS & BATHS .

2013 AUDI A7 QUATTRO PRES-

TIGE Loaded with most of the factory options this model came with. Fully loaded. No accidents. Price 8900$ Miles 46258 Call me (773)945-1189

69th/Dante, 3BR. 77th/Lowe, 2BR. 71st/Bennett. 2BR. We have others!

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non-residential DAYCARE FOR LEASE:

4930 W Diversey, 4200sqft, $4975/mo., furniture included. Call 312-617-5936 for more information

9/1. Parking space available for $75/ month. (773)761-4318.

ADULT SERVICES

KENWOOD APARTMENTS WILL be accepting applications for

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roommates ALBANY PARK HOUSE TO

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& Toys Paying Cash for Vintage Comics from Pre-1975 and vintage toys from Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers and more! Contact Will at 866-461-0640

CLASSICS WANTED ANY CLASSIC CARS IN ANY CONDITION. ’20S, ’30S, ’40S, ’50S, ’60S & ’70S. HOTRODS & EXOTICS! TOP DOLLAR PAID! COLLECTOR. CALL JAMES, 630-201-8122

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MUSIC & ARTS EVENING WITH MaeYa Concert -5 genres of music, August 25th

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

All about sexual surrogates—er, surrogate partners

Yes, there is such a thing, thanks to Masters and Johnson.

Q : I’m in a pickle. All I

want is to experience touch, intimacy, and sexual pleasure—but without freaking out. I grew up with a lot of negative messages from men due to developing early, as well as having some other physical/ sexual trauma (no rape or abuse), but the combination has me seriously fucked up. Whenever I get close to physical intimacy with someone, I run away. I actually faked an emergency once and physically ran away because I knew sex was a possibility that night. I’m not a virgin—but in those instances, I’ve been really drunk (and experienced no emotional/physical pleasure).

This is not what I want for my life. I want a relationship and love, and to be open and comfortable with someone expressing their care for me in a physical way without panicked thoughts flooding my brain. I’ve done lots of therapy, which has helped, but not enough. I recently heard of something called a sexual surrogate. From what I understand, it’s somebody who is trained to therapeutically provide physical touch and intimacy in a controlled and safe environment. Are they legit?

—SHE CAN’T ADEQUATELY RELEASE EXTREME DREAD

A : Sexual surrogates are legit, SCARED, but please don’t call them sexual surrogates.

“We’d like to see the language shift back to ‘surrogate partner,’ which was the original term,” said Vena Blanchard, president of the International Professional Surrogates Association (IPSA). “Masters and Johnson originated the concept, and their treatment program was based on the theory that many people had prob-

lems that required the help of a cooperative partner, and some people didn’t have partners. So they trained people to work as ‘partner surrogates.’ The media took the term ‘partner surrogate’ and changed it to ‘sexual surrogate’ because it sounded sexier. But ‘sexual surrogate’ implies that the work is all about sex.”

So if surrogate partner therapy is not about sex—or not all about sex—then what is it primarily about?

“Surrogate partner therapy is a therapeutic treatment that combines psychotherapy with experiential learning,” said Blanchard. “It’s a program designed for people like SCARED, for people who struggle with anxiety, panic, and past trauma—things that can distort a person’s experience in the moment.”

Surrogate partner therapy happens in stages, with each progressive stage representing another “teeny, tiny baby step,” as Blanchard put it.

“The client first works with a legitimate therapist until the therapist thinks the client is ready to work with a surrogate partner,” said Blanchard. “You may start by sitting in opposite chairs and just talking. At some point, they might sit and hold hands, practice relaxation techniques, and focus on simple sensations. In the next session, they might touch each other’s faces with their hands.”

Sex can and does sometimes occur in the later stages of surrogate partner therapy, SCARED, but it doesn’t always and it’s not the goal— healing is.

“By having these repeated safe experiences, in a context where there’s no pressure, and consent is emphasized and the patient is in control,” said Blanchard, “someone liked SCARED can learn to

manage her anxiety, and her prior negative experiences are replaced with positive new experiences.”

While I had her on the phone, I asked Blanchard the first question many people have about surrogate partners: Are surrogate partners sex workers?

“A sex worker offers a sexual experience—that is the primary intention of what is a business transaction,” said Blanchard. “What a surrogate partner offers are healing and education. And while healing and education might also take place in a sex-work environment, and while some form of sexual contact might take place in surrogate partner therapy, the primary intention is different. A patient working with a surrogate partner is there to heal old injuries or break out of bad patterns so they can have a relationship in the future. People go to sex workers for an immediate experience—the agenda is sexual and about right now, not therapeutic and about the future.”

Then I asked Blanchard the second question many people have about surrogate partner therapy: Is it legal?

“There’s no place that it’s illegal,” said Blanchard.

“There’s never been a court case challenging it. In California, where surrogate partner therapy is most common, no one has ever in 50 years challenged it.”

If you’re interested in working with a surrogate partner, SCARED, you can contact the referrals coordinator at IPSA’s website: surrogatetherapy.org. Q:v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net.

Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast.com. m @fakedansavage

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EARLY WARNINGS

chicagoreader.com/early

AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 37

Lucinda Williams é DAVID MCCLISTER

NEW

All Time Low 12/21, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM b Julien Baker with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus 11/12-13, 7:15 PM, Thalia Hall, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 17+ Bayside 11/24, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b 11/25, 8:30 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+, on sale Fri 8/24, 11 AM Suzy Bogguss 12/2, 7 PM, City Winery b Sabrina Claudio 10/27, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Tasha Cobbs Leonard 11/6, 7 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 8/24, 9 AM b Contortionist 12/2, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Death From Above, Les Butcherettes 11/16, 8:30 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 824, 10 AM b Diiv 11/8, 9 PM, Sleeping Village Expendables 11/19, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/23, noon b Ghastly 10/31, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Kevin Griffin 10/26, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/23, noon b Her’s 11/11, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM High Zero Festival with Andrew Bernstein, Tomeka Reid, Katherine Young, Owen Gardner, Jeff Carey, Shelly Purdy, Carol Genetti, and more 9/14-15, 7 PM, Elastic b Lauryn Hill 10/7, 6:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Jared & the Mill 9/14, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Rickie Lee Jones 10/21, 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Jungle 3/13, 9 PM, Metro, 18+

Keys N Krates 11/30, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 17+ King Khan & the Shrines 9/30, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM King’s X 12/9, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Klingande 10/28, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 18+ Shannon Lay, Night Shop 10/10, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Like Moths to Flames, Oceans Ate Alaska 11/9, 6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Lisa Loeb 10/16, 7:30 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Madball 9/30, 7 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ J Mascis 11/20-21, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 8/23, noon b Scotty McCreery, Jimmie Allen 12/9, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 17+ Jon McLaughlin & Matt Wertz 11/18, 4 and 8 PM, City Winery b John Medeski’s Mad Skillet 11/7, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM b Mewithoutyou 11/30, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 18+ Mountain Man 10/30, 9 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b Pale Waves, Candescents 11/21, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b Roo Panes 10/24, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM b Passafire 10/26, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 17+ Shawn Phillips 10/9, 7:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM b

38 CHICAGO READER - AUGUST 23, 2018

Richie Ramone, Squirtgun 10/6, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Travis Scott, Trippie Redd 12/6, 7:30 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM Slackers 11/30-12/2, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 17+ Sun Ra Arkestra 10/18, 7:30 PM, Rubloff Auditorium Troyboi 12/1, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 18+ Turkuaz 11/17, 9 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM, 18+ Unleash the Archers 10/5, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Marcus Alan Ward, Captain Kidd 10/7, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Weeks, Lonely Biscuits 12/2, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Lucinda Williams 11/16, 8 PM, Thalia Hall and 11/17, 8 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry Benefit, on sale Mon 8/27, 7 AM, 17+ Dan Wilson 11/16, 7 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 8/24, 10 AM Wrecks 11/20, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall b

UPDATED Rosanne Cash, John Leventhal 11/9-10, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, second show added b

UPCOMING Acid Dad 11/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Acid King 9/22, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Amber Run 12/13, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+

b Average White Band 9/5, 6:30 and 9 PM, City Winery b Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee 10/18, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Behemoth, At the Gates, Wolves in the Throne Room 11/9, 7:30 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Belly 10/6, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Blitzen Trapper 9/24-25, 8 PM, Schubas Brand X 12/8, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Cloud Nothings, Courtneys 12/14, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Phil Collins 10/22, 8 PM, United Center David Cook 10/31, 8 PM, City Winery Crooked Colours 11/15, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Dead Sara 9/29, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 18+ Destroyer 10/17, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Diet Cig 9/21, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ El Ten Eleven 11/10, 9 PM, Chop Shop, 18+ Roky Erickson 11/9, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall Every Time I Die, Turnstile 11/12, 6 PM, Metro b Eyehategod, Obsessed 9/23, 8 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Fleetwood Mac 10/6, 8 PM, United Center Foxing 9/30, 7 PM, Lincoln Hall b Frigs 9/22, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Gang Gang Dance 9/10, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Glitch Mob 10/11, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Gorilla Biscuits, Modern Life Is War 9/29, 1 PM, Metro b Grouper 9/23, 7 PM, Bohemian National Cemetery b The Hold Steady 9/21, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Horse Feathers 10/24, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston Idles 9/14, 10 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Incognito 10/14, 5 and 8 PM, City Winery b Iron Chic, Spanish Love Songs 9/25, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Jacuzzi Boys, Thelma & the Sleaze 9/18, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Jag Panzer 9/15, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Joy Formidable, Tancred 11/3, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Gabriel Kahane 11/16, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Kodaline 11/27, 6:30 PM, House of Blues b Lemon Twigs 1/25, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Low Cut Connie 10/28, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Jim Messina 10/21, 8 PM, City Winery b Pat Metheny 10/12, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

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Nicki Minaj, Future 9/28, 7:30 PM, United Center Nothing, Culture Abuse 9/12, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Odonis Odonis 11/4, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Oh Sees, Timmy’s Organism 10/12, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Parquet Courts 12/3, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Peach Kelli Pop 10/21, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Pond 10/25, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Red Fang, Big Business 9/27, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Ringworm 10/8, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Sad Baxter 9/11, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle Saint Etienne 9/13, 7:30 PM, Park West b (Sandy) Alex G 11/4, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Ty Segall, William Tyler 11/2, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Subhumans 9/8, 7:30 PM, Cobra Lounge, 17+ Terror, Harm’s Way 10/10, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ This Will Destroy You 11/2, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Tune-Yards, U.S. Girls 10/27, 7:30 PM, Park West b Twenty One Pilots 10/17, 7 PM, United Center Venom Inc. 8/31, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Butch Walker 9/26, 8 PM, House of Blues, 17+ Jeremy Zucker 9/28, 6 PM, Chop Shop b

SOLD OUT Bonnie “Prince” Billy 10/7, 7:30 PM, Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago Cavetown 12/8, 6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Chelsea Cutler 10/2, 8 PM, Chop Shop, 17+ Hozier 9/21, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre b Jim James, Alynda Segarra 11/9, 7:30 PM, the Vic b Maggie Rogers 10/30, 7:30 PM, the Vic b Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin 11/18, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Suicideboys 9/9, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre b Tenacious D 11/13-14, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ The The 9/22, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Thom Yorke 12/4, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene SINCE RETURNING from decades of dormancy in 2007, Chicago art-rockers Ono have become one of the city’s most dependably far-out live acts—they’ve definitely curled Gossip Wolf’s ears a few times! On Saturday, August 25, Ono drops a live cassette on American Damage, the tape label run by synth player and backup vocalist Jordan Reyes. Your Future Is Metal was recorded at the Hideout in July, and Reyes says it features “a 15-minute version of ‘Albino,’ a meditation on suicide, black survival, and the color white in West African communities.”

Founded by Robby Haynes (who helps run Hermosa studio Strange Magic Recording) and Ziyad Asrar (formerly a touring keyboardist for Smith Westerns and a rhythm guitarist for Whitney), brand-new record label Fine Prints is making waves by doing a cannonball into the deep end of Chicago’s musical talent pool! On Sunday, August 26, it releases tapes from punky prog-rockers Mayor Daley, art-pop duo Wage, and minimal synth act Desert Liminal. That night, all three bands play the Empty Bottle at Fine Prints’ launch party. Haynes says the label already has “a couple of other releases queued up between now and the end of the year.” On top of that, Haynes and Asrar are partners in the spirits company Apologue. Keep up the good work, y’all!

This past May, inimitable Chicago rock label Eye Vybe released the self-titled debut EP by SPVD, a solo project by guitarist-vocalist Joshua S. Condon of garage misfits Glyders. The eerie, skeletal EP sounds like Condon boiled everything out of a bunch of gnarly psychedelic jams except heavily processed, subterraneansounding vocals, hazy synths, refracted guitar residue, and simple, hypnotic drum-machine rhythms. On Tuesday, August 28, SPVD headlines the Hideout.

You can also catch Condon with Glyders at the Logan Square Food Truck Social on Friday—they play the main stage at 7:15 PM. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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AUGUST 23, 2018 - CHICAGO READER 39

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OCTOBER 30 • RIVIERA THEATRE

BY POPULAR DEMAND THIS SHOW HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE RIVIERA THEATRE ALL TICKETS FROM THE VIC THEATRE WILL BE HONORED!

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ON SALE THIS FRIDAY AT 10AM! BUY TICKETS AT TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA METRO + SMART BAR WEBSITES + METRO BOX OFFICE. NO SERVICE FEES AT BOX OFFICE!

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