Print Issue of September 21, 2017 (Volume 46, Number 50)

C H I C A G O ’ S F R E E W E E K LY | K I C K I N G A S S S I N C E 1 9 7 1 | S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 7

NO SMALL PLAN FOR

TRANSFORMATION The Amazon HQ2 deal could sell Chicagoans down the river. 9 How Chicago comedy prepared Jordan Klepper for Comedy Central 18 The Growing Concerns Poetry Collective asks all races to fight racism. 27

Over the last decade, photographer DAVID SCHALLIOL has been diligently documenting the demolition and reconstruction of the city’s public housing.

Selections from the series are now on display as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. 12

Come discover the new Navy Pier Navy Pier is the People’s Pier. Now moving into its second century as a mission-driven nonprofit, we’re transforming the Pier’s programming to reflect the diversity of the city itself, offering dynamic experiences for all to enjoy.

Navy Pier serves more than 9 million guests annually with free programming, including a series of art, wellness and cultural programs. It’s your Pier, Chicago. Come see it in a new light. www.navypier.com

SP ECI AL T H A N KS TO O U R PA RTN E RS:

2 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

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THIS WEEK

C H I C AG O R E A D E R | S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 01 7 | VO LU M E 4 6 , N U M B E R 5 0

TO CONTACT ANY READER EMPLOYEE, E-MAIL: (FIRST INITIAL)(LAST NAME) @CHICAGOREADER.COM

EDITOR JAKE MALOOLEY CREATIVE DIRECTOR VINCE CERASANI CULTURE EDITOR TAL ROSENBERG FILM EDITOR J.R. JONES MUSIC EDITOR PHILIP MONTORO ASSOCIATE EDITORS STEVE HEISLER, JAMIE LUDWIG, KATE SCHMIDT SENIOR WRITER MIKE SULA SENIOR THEATER CRITIC TONY ADLER STAFF WRITERS MAYA DUKMASOVA, LEOR GALIL, DEANNA ISAACS, BEN JORAVSKY, AIMEE LEVITT, PETER MARGASAK, JULIA THIEL SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR RYAN SMITH GRAPHIC DESIGNER SUE KWONG MUSIC LISTINGS COORDINATOR LUCA CIMARUSTI FILM LISTINGS COORDINATOR PATRICK FRIEL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH BERLATSKY, ANNE FORD, ISA GIALLORENZO, JOHN GREENFIELD, ANDREA GRONVALL, JUSTIN HAYFORD, JACK HELBIG, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, MICHAEL MINER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, OLIVER SAVA, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS ---------------------------------------------------------------VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NICKI STANULA VICE PRESIDENT OF NEW MEDIA GUADALUPE CARRANZA SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER EVANGELINE MILLER ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES FABIO CAVALIERI, BRIDGET KANE MARKETING AND EVENTS MANAGER BRYAN BURDA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL JOHN DUNLEVY ADVERTISING COORDINATOR HERMINIA BATTAGLIA CLASSIFIEDS REPRESENTATIVE KRIS DODD

FEATURES

IN THIS ISSUE

4 Agenda Splatter Theater at the Annoyance, the film Time to Die, a Dia de los Muertos exhibit, and more recommended goings-on about town

CITY LIFE

PUBLIC HOUSING

No small Plan for Transformation

Over the last decade, a photographer has been diligently documenting the demolition and reconstruction of the city’s public housing. Selections from the series are now on display as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

BY DAVID SCHALLIOL 12

7 Street View Joseph Taylor of the one-man band Sax in the City has a thing for headwear.

9 Joravsky | Politics The Amazon HQ2 deal could sell Chicagoans down the river.

10 Transportation Vision Zero makes inroads on the west side.

Plus: the anti-Balbo movement gains momentum.

DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com

ARTS & CULTURE

18 Small Screen Jordan Klepper discusses his Chicago comedy education—and how it prepared him to host his new Comedy Central show, The Opposition.

CHICAGO READER 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654 312-222-6920, CHICAGOREADER.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY

BY STM READER, LLC, 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654.

COPYRIGHT © 2017 CHICAGO READER. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL.

ON THE COVER: PHOTO BY DAVID SCHALLIOL. FOR MORE OF HIS WORK, GO TO DAVIDSCHALLIOL.COM OR TURN TO PAGE 12.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

32 In Rotation Current musical obsessions include Yoko Ono’s Fly, Helmet, Bottle Tree, and more.

33 Shows of note Open Mike Eagle, Dead Rider, Lavender Country, and more of the week’s best

FOOD & DRINK

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO READER, READER, AND REVERSED R: REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ®.

22 Movies Love is the drug in Andrzej Żuławski’s L’Important C’Est D’Aimer.

23 Movies & Visual Art A new exhibit showcases the brilliance and wonder of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s art.

25 Lit Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis chronicles the period when Chicago was the place to be.

26 Comedy Brennen Reeves adds levity to his harrowing survival story in the one-man show Breathe.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

The Growing Concerns Poetry Collective asks all races to fight racism

Mykele Deville, McKenzie Chinn, and Jeffrey Michael Austin tell stories for black folks that aim to reach everyone.

BY LEE V. GAINES 27

19 Theater Steppenwolf’s The Rembrandt is no masterpiece.

20 Movies Highlights from Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival

38 Restaurant review: Blvd The sleek new spot aims to conjure the postwar Sunset Strip, but it’s chef Johnny Besch’s food that transcends the cliches.

41 Bar review: Lo Rez Brewery and Alulu Brewpub Pilsen is becoming the brewing capital of the south side.

CLASSIFIEDS

42 Jobs 42 Apartments & Spaces 43 Marketplace

44 Straight Dope Is the West kidding itself about the good intentions of Islam?

45 Savage Love Advice for a straight guy dating a woman with a dick, and more 46 Early Warnings Death From Above, Girlpool, Andrew W.K., and more shows you should know about in the weeks to come 46 Gossip Wolf Country cookers Dan Whitaker & the Shinebenders celebrate their new album, and more music news.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 3

AGENDA R

READER RECOMMENDED

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tabloid, touting meaningless headlines like “Have a Sandwich,” may become a cash cow. This topical satire from playwrights Stephen Winchell and Benjamin Vigeant renders the imminent demise of useful journalism discomfitingly silly, taking several delicious swipes at self-absorbed theater critics along the way (when the Gazette’s critic gets fired, he needs a full production number and several bows before he can be on his way). Led by the authors, director Erica Reid’s gung-ho cast occasionally lack snap but never shy from making utter fools of themselves.

—JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 9/28: Thu 8 PM, Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston, 773-5397838, propthtr.org, $12.

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4 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

The Funny Papers

THEATER More at chicagoreader.com/theater

PM, Sun 2:30 PM (except 10/8, 1 PM), Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, nightbluetheater.com, $35, $30 seniors, $27 students.

Alias Grace Margaret Atwood’s R unimaginative, heavy-handed 1996 novel, which uses the lurid 1843

Five Guys Named Moe This R rousing, high-energy revue pays tribute to the 1940s songwriter and

murder conviction of 16-year-old domestic servant Grace Marks to draw easy antipatriarchal moral lessons, gets an unimaginative, heavy-handed stage adaptation from playwright Jennifer Blackmer. But against tall odds director Karen Kessler and her stalwart cast imbue the staid, schematic proceedings with vibrant life in this Rivendell world premiere. Each actor in the story’s central triangle—Ashley Neal as the convicted murderer, Jane Baxter Miller as her none-too-enlightened jailer, Steve Haggard as the none-too-enlightened doctor tending to both women’s contradictory needs—brings an eye for nuanced detail (Miller’s inscrutable smile is impossibly layered), turning near stock characters into compelling conundrums. The rest of the cast isn’t far behind. Excepting the preposterous climax, these two hours are unexpectedly captivating. —JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 10/15: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 4 and 8 PM; also Sun 10/8 and 10/15, 3 PM, Rivendell Theatre, 5775 N. Ridge, 773334-7728, rivendelltheatre.org, $38, $28 students, seniors, and military.

Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical I don’t know whether I saw the Woody Allen film this stage musical is based on, but because it was released when its creator was still better known for his work than his questionable behavior, I probably just don’t remember it. It’s the story of a playwright who gets in bed with the mob, only to find out that he’s a fraud while one of the capo’s henchmen is a true creative genius.

Allen relies on classic show tunes like Cole Porter’s “Let’s Misbehave” to do most of the heavy lifting, so it’s up to the cast to sell this period pastiche. None lack enthusiasm, but only Monica Szaflik as fading diva Helen Sinclair comes close to bringing it home. Kevin Bellie directed and choreographed this NightBlue production. —DMITRY SAMAROV Through 10/8: Fri 8 PM, Sat 2:30 and 8

bandleader Louis Jordan, packing into a rocking two-hour show more than two dozen R&B tunes (among them “Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens,” “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” and the crossover hit “Caldonia”) written or recorded by Jordan. Seven actors, accompanied by a terrific six-member band, sing, dance, strut, and shout their way through this seminal material, showing us at every turn what made Jordan great, and why so many rock ’n’ roll pioneers, Chuck Berry among them, were inspired by him. Clarke Peters gets credit for the show’s flimsy excuse for a book. Ron OJ Parson directs this Court Theatre production with the assistance of associate director Felicia P. Fields and music director Abdul Hamid Royal. —JACK HELBIG Through 10/8: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis, 773-753-4472, courttheatre.org, $57-$70.

Night in Alachua County ò CLARK BENDER The Funny Papers Plucky, R smart-talking San Francisco Union Constitution Gazette reporter

Alice Inkwell’s Pulitzer dreams go up in smoke when cutthroat tech magnate Heidi Techman buys the paper and installs a computer named STRONC to write all the copy. The resulting

Night in Alachua County The horror aficionados at Wildclaw Theatre take their spooky stuff seriously. Given how reliant the genre can be on camera techniques to evoke dread, it’s remarkable how effective director Christopher M. Walsh’s adaptation of terror tropes is for the stage. In this word premiere by Jennifer Rumberger, an estranged daughter from a backwater Florida family tries to rescue her sister from their abusive and spell-dabbling mother (Allison Cain in a spectacularly villainous performance). It’s hard to reconcile the incestuous rape of a mentally ill teen—the story’s Big Bad— with a fun romp, but as a Killer Joe-style art-house thriller, Night is an undeniably pulse-raising experience. —DAN JAKES Through 10/7: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, wildclawtheatre.com, $30, $20 students.

1984 Director Robert Tobin’s program notes for his AstonRep Theatre Company production of 1984 says he was inspired to tackle the material by “the recent political climate.” Unfortunately, in trying to bring George Orwell’s great 1949 story to the stage for 2017 audiences, he’s turned to a bland, mediocre 1963 adaptation that feels as if it was written for high school actors half a century ago. Scripted by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr., and William A. Miles Jr., this stiff, stodgy play drives home Orwell’s ever-timely message—about how governments can manipulate language and knowledge for power over their people—but fails to make the audience care about the characters whose actions trigger that theme. There’s no sense of urgency in the furtive romance between Winston Smith, a worker in the “Ministry of Truth” of a Stalinesque totalitarian regime, and his comrade Julia, with whom he futilely conspires to oppose the all-powerful, unseen “Big Brother” (who may or may not exist). When the most interesting character in a performance of 1984 is the villain—the interrogator O’Brien, played by Amy Kasper as an efficient bureaucrat who finds genuine fulfillment in converting Smith to a party loyalist through brainwashing and torture—you know something’s off. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 10/8: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3:30 PM, Mon 8 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, 773-3382177, astonrep.com, $20.

Picture It! A Golden Girls MusiR cal “Put on your Depends and hoist up your girdles” for the world pre-

miere of this musical inspired by your grandmother’s favorite television show.

Based on the series’ 1985 pilot, this romp penned by Jeff Bouthiette and Jay Steigmann follows Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia on a journey of sex, drugs and cheesecake. Under Molly Todd Madison’s direction, the gender-reversed cast create an infectious atmosphere that amplifies the original’s camp and biting humor. Beau Nolan’s droll performance as Dorothy centers the show, which tracks the recent divorcee’s quest for either a steady job or a husband. When Rose (played by a doe-eyed Michael Silver) is revealed to be a member of La Cosa Nostra, antics ensue as things take a turn toward another long-running TV show, Law & Order. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 10/17: Fri-Sat 8 PM, MCL Chicago, 3110 N. Sheffield, mclchicago.com, $20 ($22 online).

DANCE Chicago Human Rhythm R Project This eclectic program features the first part of a multipart

conceptual work by artist in residence Dani Borak, as well as other selections spanning seven decades of tap and percussive dance. Thu 9/21-Sat 9/23, 7:30 PM, Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan, 312-369-8330, column.edu/dancecenterpresents, $30.

The Chicago Project: Future R Present In 1985 choreographer Venetia Stifler debuted The Chicago

Project, which juxtaposed contemporary dance with photographs of Chicago’s industrial landscape by Frank Vodvarka.

This world premiere, presented as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, reimagines the work for the 21st century.

Thu 9/21, 3 PM; Fri 9/22, 3 and 7:30 PM, Ruth Page Center for the Arts, 1016 N. Dearborn, 312-337-6543, ruthpage. org, $10 adults, $5 seniors and children under 12.

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago R Try to keep up. As part of its fall series, Hubbard Street presents an immersive dance installation by Peter Chu; audience members roam the Harris Theater to experience the performance, which includes video projections by Sven Ortel. Think you bought a crummy nosebleed seat? Think again.

9/21-9/24: Thu 7:30 PM, Fri-Sat 7 and 9 PM, Sun 2 PM, Harris Theater, 205 E. Randolph, 312-850-9744, hubbardstreetdance.com, $65.

COMEDY Buzzed Broadway Boozy short-form improv precedes a boozy improvised musical in the appropriately named Buzzed Broadway. Fri 9/22, 8 PM,

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Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of September 21

10:30 PM; Sat 7, 9, and 11:15 PM; Sun 8:30 PM, Zanies, 1548 N. Wells, 312-337-4027, zanies.com/chicago, $25 plus two-item minimum.

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Comedian John Roy Uptown Underground, 4707 N. Broadway, 773-867-1946, uptownundergrounnet, $12 in advance, $14 at the door.

Margaret Cho The comic, gay and lesbian rights activist, and excellent portrayer of Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock talks politics and the media in this evening of solo stand-up. Sat 9/23, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, 312-462-6300, thechicagotheatre.com, $29.50-$59.50.

Splatter Theater The white walls of the Annoyance Theatre brace themselves each Halloween season, because Splatter Theater lives up to its name. In this parody of classic gore, fake blood sprays all over the place, leaving the walls red and the audience members in the front row drenched.

9/23-10/28: Sat 10 PM; also Tue 10/31, 8 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $20, $15 students.

Striking Out Flipping the script, Striking Out follows the first straight baseball player in an alternative major league where every other player identifies as LGBTQ. Through 11/5: Sun 7:30 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $15, $12 students.

VISUAL ARTS Day of the Dead: Tilica y flaca es la calaca Día de los Muertos is almost upon us, and the National Museum of Mexican Art opens its doors for its annual showcase of traditional skulls, paintings, and sculptures associated with the spooky holiday. Opening reception: Fri 9/22, 6-8:30 PM. Through 12/10.

Tue-Sun 10 AM-5 PM. National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th, 312-7381503, nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org.

Howling Tony Lewis utilizes colored pencil shading to draw, well, whatever he was thinking about at the particular moment he sat down. Through 10/21.

Wed-Sat noon-6 PM. Shane Campbell Gallery, 2021 S. Wabash, 312-226-2223, shanecampbellgallery.com.

Sight Six This event, part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, showcases posters created by artists and graphic

Monster Club Mary, a fifth-grader who winds up in detention, invents a host of imaginary monster friends, played by puppets. The show is both spoooooky and reassuring—it’s OK to look like a hideous beast. Through 10/29: Sun 8 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773697-9693, theannoyance.com, $8.

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Panic! at the Honky Tonk Huggable Riot’s musical revue is a string of confessional ditties about racist, sexist, and other -ist parasites. The cast calls to mind the tokenism of a college brochure, but this diversity is key to showing how similar are the issues faced by blacks, queers, Hispanics, etc, alike. Destiny Strothers sings beautifully about the offensiveness of catcalling; Elisabeth Del Toro describes how her half-white, half-Latino makeup means she’s never stopped at airport security; Lea Ciastko lambastes the tellers of Asian jokes only to concede that she’d “rather you be racist than unfunny.” This is also one of the only shows I’ve seen featuring a lone white male in support of his female castmates and not vice versa.

—STEVE HEISLER Through 9/27: Wed 8 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, 773-697-9693, theannoyance.com, $10 online, $12 door.

The Rough and the Precious This musical sketch revue examines the scientific side of wine—likely as an excuse to drink more wine. Fri 9/15 and 9/22, 7:30 PM; Fri 10/6 and 10/13, 9 PM, Second City, 1616 N. Wells, 312-337-3992, secondcity.com, $13, $11 students.

John Roy Roy has been around R the Chicago comedy scene for decades, and was one of the first

independent comics to break into the mainstream with his win on Star Search in 2003. His introspective and cerebral comedy has a goofy side. Come out and support a hometown homeboy. Through 9/24: Tue-Thu 8:30 PM; Fri 8:30 and

Splatter Theater ò NIKKI LOEHR

LIT & LECTURES R

Here, Chicago Janna Sobel and Nnamdi Ngwe marry food and stories at this combination lit series and potluck. Come hungry. Sun 9/24, 7:30 PM potluck, 8 PM show, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, stage773.com, $11 or free if you bring food to share.

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Lindsay Hunter, Leyna Krow, and Brielle Brilliant Hunter (Eat Only When You’re Hungry), Krow (I’m Fine, but You Appear to Be Sinking), and Brilliant (the forthcoming Spud)—past, present, and future Featherproof Books authors, respectively—discuss their work. Sun 9/24, 6 PM, Volumes Bookcafe, 1474 N. Milwaukee, 773-697-8066, volumesbooks.com.

Tod Goldberg and Gina Frangello The authors, known for their short stories, promote their new novels Gangster Nation and Every Kind of Wanting, respectively. Thu 9/21, 7 PM, Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln, 773-293-2665, bookcellarinc.com.

designers throughout the city. Opening reception Thu 9/21, 5-8 PM ($10).

Through Sat 9/30. Mon-Fri 10 AM-7 PM, Sat-Sun 10 AM-5 PM. Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, 312-744-6630, chicagoculturalcenter.org.

Vesseling Chris Zain and Daniel Hojnacki explore the nature of vessels in this exhibit, which includes photographs of broken clay and stone, developed without modern technology. Opening reception Sat 9/23, 7 PM. By appointment, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, 773-772-3616, elasticrevolution.com.

MOVIES More at chicagoreader.com/movies NEW REVIEWS American Assassin Somewhere along the way Michael Cuesta morphed from a creator of thoughtful indie dramas (L.I.E., from 2001) into an action director (Showtime’s Homeland); if he ever wants

For more of the best things to do every day of the week, go to chicagoreader. com/agenda. to tackle a James Bond movie, this nonstop spy thriller should serve as his audition. Dylan O’Brien plays an Ivy League scholar who becomes an international killing machine after terrorists murder his fiancee; Michael Keaton is the CIA’s top covert warrior, who shepherds him on a mission to recover stolen Russian plutonium now in the hands of a rogue American operative. Based on Vince Flynn’s best-selling novel, this movie is for those who like their heroes patriotic and invincible, their villains depraved and lethal, and their nukes made of the best CGI money can buy. With Sanaa Lathan, Scott Adkins, and Taylor Kitsch.

—ANDREA GRONVALL R, 111 min. For venues visit chicagoreader/com/movies.

Brad’s Status Poor Brad: all his college pals are wealthy now, and he’s a good-hearted nobody running an altruistic nonprofit and trying to get his 17-year-old son into college. Poor Ben Stiller: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Zoolander 2 may have ended his reign as a Hollywood A-lister. Getting these two guys together must have been murder for writer-director Mike White (Year of the Dog), who plays Brad’s envy for laughs but, inevitably, decides that the grass is always greener on the other side. Michael Sheen, Luke Wilson, and Jemaine Clement turn up as Brad’s high-rolling friends, each of whom he must contact in order to win his son admission to Harvard. But the best performance, appropriately, comes from the actor you probably haven’t heard of: Austin Abrams (AMC’s The Walking Dead), who plays Brad’s son and captures with unimpeachable authority the late-teenage imperative of maintaining your cool as your parents behave foolishly. —J.R. JONES R, 101 min. Landmark’s Century Centre.

Dolores Hagiographic but still lively and informative, this documentary by Peter Bratt shines a spotlight on a historic, relatively overlooked figure: Dolores Huerta, who cofounded the National Farmworkers Association (eventually the United Farm Workers) with Cesar Chavez in the early 60s. Born in 1930 and still kicking, Huerta lives too much in the present to have much to say on camera about her years as a young mother and tireless organizer, but Bratt builds up a personal portrait of her through the comments of others, both warm (from veteran activists she inspired) and ambivalent (from her grown children, who seldom saw her). The film is a concerted attempt to write Huerta back into the history books, a laudable goal, yet its own history of her life can be sketchy, particularly with regard to the political friction that prompted her to step down from the UFW in 1999. Carlos Santana served as executive producer and contributed a couple music tracks; among the talking heads are Angela Davis, Gloria Steinem, and Hillary µ

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AGENDA aging of his media appearances.

The story ends with Bauman and Hurley marrying and becoming parents, though there’s a nagging sense that the hero’s story is far from over; before the movie was even released, the couple had announced their divorce. With Miranda Richardson and Clancy Brown. —J.R. JONES R, 116 min.

River East 21.

Time to Die Acclaimed R novelists Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes wrote

Time to Die B Clinton. —J.R. JONES 95 min.

Fri 9/22, 2 and 8:15 PM; Sat 9/23, 3 PM; Sun 9/24, 5:15 PM; Mon 9/25, 6 PM; Tue 9/26, 8:15 PM; Wed 9/27, 7:45 PM; and Thu 9/28, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle Matthew Vaughn, director of Kingsman: The Secret Service, corrects his egregious bumping off of Colin Firth’s dapper London spy in that movie by resurrecting him for this sequel, which has as many stunts and gadgets but broader comedy.

Taron Egerton returns as Firth’s protege, and Julianne Moore is their nemesis, the demented CEO of a multibillion-dollar drug cartel, whom she plays as a cross between Martha Stewart and Hannibal Lecter.

Exaggerated, cartoonish violence, deliberately cheesy CGI, and a buoyant pop soundtrack make this a stylish if overstuffed romp. With Jeff Bridges, Channing Tatum, and Pedro Pascal as American spies, and Elton John as a high-kicking action hero. —ANDREA GRONVALL R, 141 min. Block 37, ArcLight, Century 12 and CineArts 6, Chatham 14, Cicero Showplace 14, City North 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings, Showplace ICON, 600 N. Michigan, Webster Place

FREEDOM HALL NATHAN MANILOW THEATRE

6 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Manolo: The Boy Who Made Shoes for Lizards According to this frothy but entertaining documentary, high-end shoe designer Manolo Blahnik began his life’s work as child in the Canary Islands, turning candy wrappers into shoes for the lizards in his family’s garden.

The director, fashion journalist Michael Roberts, includes many anecdotes from Blahnik and others in his orbit, but he seems more interested in gushing testimonials from the designer’s famous friends (Anna Wintour, Rihanna, and Naomi Campbell, to name a few) than in his interior life or the details of his craftsmanship. A couple scenes of him sketching designs and sculpting a shoe in one of his factories offer tantalizing glimpses into his creative process, but for the most

part Roberts keeps an incurious distance from his subject, who in turn employs wry, self-deprecating humor to deflect attention. When a photographer asks Blahnik to give him a “secret smile,” the designer deadpans, “I don’t have secrets anymore.” But by the film’s end, I felt as if he still had plenty. —LEAH PICKETT 89 min. Fri 9/22-Thu 9/28, 2:10 and 7:30 PM. Music Box. Mother! The devoted wife (Jennifer Lawrence) of a revered poet (Javier Bardem) finds her privacy breached when he invites into their baronial old house an elderly doctor (Ed Harris) and the doctor’s rapier-tongued spouse (Michelle Pfeiffer); by the end of the movie, as the heroine prepares to give birth, the house is besieged by the poet’s rabid fans, who help themselves to everything in sight and trash the place. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, this allegorical and finally pretentious psychodrama often recalls his Requiem for a Dream (2000) in its depiction of a home rotting into madness, though functionally the film is just an old-fashioned woman-in-peril thriller (with the gutsy Lawrence badly miscast as a shrinking violet) crossed with Monty Python’s nihilistic big-screen comedy The Meaning of Life. —J.R. JONES R, 120 min. For venues, visit chicagoreader.com/movies.

Stronger Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jeff Bauman, who lost both his legs above the knee in the Boston Marathon bombing of April 2013.

Adapted from Bauman’s memoir, this drama follows his physical and emotional rehabilitation after the blast, including his fraught relationship with his girlfriend, Erin Hurley, played with grit and sensitivity by Tatiana Maslany. Movies like this are supposed to center on love, family, and triumph, but director David Gordon Green, to his credit, tends to heighten the characters’ least noble moments, such as Bauman’s private meltdown after appearing on the ice at a Bruins game or his mother’s stage-man-

this Mexican antiwestern (1965), which cleverly reverses a typical suspense dynamic: watching the movie, you don’t want a gunfight to break out. A penitent ex-convict returns to the one-horse town of his youth after serving 18 years for murder. Some of his friends welcome him back into society, while others urge him to skip town before he’s overtaken by the vengeful sons of the man he killed.

Márquez and Fuentes treat the hero’s atonement and friendships with great feeling, but there’s a dark side to the film’s poignancy, because the man’s every encounter may be his last. This was the first feature directed by Arturo Ripstein (Deep Crimson), and already he demonstrates a refined aesthetic sensibility in his use of curvilinear camera movements to chart the development of interpersonal relationships. In Spanish with subtitles. —BEN SACHS 88 min. Sat 9/23, 5:45 PM, and Wed 9/27, 6 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center.

The Unknown Girl A rare dud from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, the Belgian brothers whose low-key dramas about the disadvantaged show how greed and need force us to betray each other and ourselves. The protagonist (Adèle Haenel), a young, proudly unemotional doctor, is shaken to her core after learning from police that a frantic woman she refused to admit to her clinic after closing time was murdered shortly thereafter. Attacks of conscience are common in the Dardennes’ movies, but in this case we’re asked to believe that guilt would motivate the doctor to sacrifice a high-paying new job, open a practice on the wrong side of town, and venture into increasingly dangerous situations to determine the dead woman’s identity so she can be buried under her true name.

Haenel’s deadpan performance makes this a tough sell, leaving only the common mechanisms of a suspense plot to move the drama forward. With Dardennes regulars Jérémie Renier and Olivier Gourmet, the latter especially scary. In French with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 106 min. Fri 9/22, 2 and 6 PM; Sat 9/23, 5 PM; Sun 9/24, 3 PM; Mon 9/25, 8 PM; Tue 9/26, 6 PM; Wed 9/27, 6 PM; and Thu 9/28, 8 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center. v

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CITY LIFE

Street View

ò ISA GIALLORENZO

Sax appeal

STREET PERFORMER Joseph Taylor, of the one-man band Sax in the City, attributes his “neat, presentable” appearance largely to his wife, Annette. “I can’t walk out the door without my wife telling me what to put on. As she continuously tells me, I’m a reflection of her,” says the musician, also known as “Sexy Joe,” who usually performs on weekends near Willis Tower. While taking into account the strong opinions of his better half, Taylor finds headwear the best expression of his personal style; from a large collection of hats, he carefully chooses one to match any outfit. “When you look good, you feel good,” he says. “When you feel good, you sound great!” —ISA GIALLORENZO See more Chicago street style on Giallorenzo’s blog chicagolooks.blogspot.com.

THURSDAY 21

FRIDAY 22

SATURDAY 23

i Breath e: A True Sto r y Brennen Reeves tells a compelling and humorous tale of how a double lung transplant saved his life. For more, see our preview on page 26. 6:45 PM, iO Theater, the Mission Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov. com/chicago, $10.

M Al onzo Bodden Don’t let Bodden’s measured delivery fool you. His biting comments about our political climate land as if he’s screaming from the stage without a mike. 8 and 10:15 PM, the Improv, Woodfield Mall, 5 Woodfield, Schaumburg, improv.com, $22.

☼ Shen Wei Dance Arts Choreographer Shen Wei, best known in the West for the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics, makes his Chicago debut with Folding and Rite of Spring. 7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, auditoriumtheatre.org, $29-$68.

SUNDAY 24

MONDAY 25

TUESDAY 26

WEDNESDAY 27

J Hideout Block Pa rty Steve Albini curates day two of this weekend festival, which doubles as a 20th anniversary party for his studio Electrical Audio. Among the performers are Man or Astro-Man?, Screaming Females, and Dianogah.

Noon, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, hideoutinn. com, $20-40.

+ Books on the Chopping Block In honor of Banned Books Week, City Lit Theater Company presents daily pop-up readings through October 1 from the ten most frequently challenged books in America.

6:30 PM, Budlong Woods Branch, Chicago Public Library, 5630 N. Lincoln, 312-742-9590 F

× Wi cker Pa rk Bucktown Fall D inner Craw l More than 35 restaurants near the Crotch separating Bucktown and Wicker Park (Milwaukee at North and Damen) open their doors for a feast fit for a wanderer. Three routes are available; visit wickerparkbucktown.com 6-9 PM, $45.

Ô William Blake and the Age of Aquarius This exhibit explores the influence of poet, artist, and visionary William Blake on post-WWII American artists. 10 AM-8 PM, Northwestern University Block Museum of Art, 40 Arts Circle Dr., Evanston, 847491-4000, blockmuseum. northwestern.edu. F

SURE THINGS Ñ

Keep up to date on the go at chicagoreader. com/agenda.

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Read Ben Joravsky’s columns throughout the week at chicagoreader.com.

CITY LIFE Basically, Chicago is vying for the “right” to help pay Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, to build a corporate headquarters. ò AP/TED S. WARREN

POLITICS

Amazon primes the pump

If Chicago officials are successful in their effort to persuade the behemoth online retailer to build a second headquarters in the city, we can all expect to pay big.

By BEN JORAVSKY

I

t seems like only yesterday, but nearly ten years have passed since the day I was talking politics on a radio show and an editor from a competing paper made a confession that almost sent me to the floor.

The U.S. Olympic Committee had just selected Chicago over Los Angeles to represent the country in the competition to host the games, and this editor said she was just so proud that little old Chicago had been recognized with such a distinction.

Proud? We were gearing up to write a blank check for two weeks of headaches. Alas, even the press fell for that campaign.

Determined never to learn from our mistakes, here we go again. I’m talking about the efforts by everyone from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to Governor Bruce Rauner to fire up residents as Chicago enters the competition to woo Amazon and become the site of the online retailer’s second headquarters.

On September 7, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company had outgrown its base in Seattle and was looking to build what he’s

calling HQ2. Cities and states have until October 19 to submit proposals. Basically, they’re vying for the “right” to help pay Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, to build a corporate headquarters. Like he needs a handout! (I never again want to hear any of you mock the gullibility of Trump voters in rural Michigan or Wisconsin for drinking the Kool-Aid.) As a couple of old friends of mine, WVON talk show cohosts Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas, like to ask about any issue: What’s in it for the black people? In this case, let’s broaden the question: What’s in it for ordinary Chicagoans?

Well, there’s the spectacle of the bid proposal, which is sort of entertaining. Rahm says “all hands are on deck” to win the bid. Rauner vows to win Amazon over with “razzle and dazzle.”

If it’s anything like the Olympic bid, maybe Bezos and other Amazon executives will come to town to hang out with local celebrities. If it’s really like the Olympics, the police will spy on protesters.

The big prize is the jobs. In its request for proposals, Amazon claims it will bring the

winning applicant 50,000 jobs that pay close to $100,000 a year.

But later in the proposal Amazon writes, “Please note that the actual average wage rate may vary from the projected wage rate.”

Say this for Amazon—it makes sure to protect itself up front.

While 50,000 jobs sounds great, Chicago’s got a checkered history when it comes to companies making good on job promises. The most infamous case was Republic Windows and Doors. In the 1990s, the city gave Republic more than $10 million in tax increment financing money to build a factory on Goose Island that would employ at least 610 people.

In 2008, Republican closed the factory but got to keep the TIF cash.

Of course, the city can put “claw back” provisions in any deal with Amazon. That means Amazon would have to return part of whatever subsidies the city pays if it falls short of 50,000 jobs. But in its request for proposals, Amazon writes, “please also describe any applicable claw backs or recapture provisions for each incentive item.” Translation: if you want the headquarters, don’t bother with claw backs.

Amazon also makes it clear that it expects handouts—or, as the company calls them, “incentives.”

“Please provide a summary of total incentives offered for the project,” Amazon writes, including but not limited to “tax credits,” and “free or reduced land costs.”

This is what you might call the show-methe-money part of Amazon’s request.

“We acknowledge a project of this magnitude may require special incentive legislation in

order for the state/province to achieve a competitive incentive proposal. As such, please indicate if any incentive or programs will require legislation,” Amazon writes. “Ideally, your submittal includes a total value of incentives.”

In addition, Amazon requires that applicants “provide a timetable for incentive approvals at the state/province and local levels, including any legislative approvals that may be required.”

Basically, it’s asking that applicants guarantee the “incentives” will be approved even before anyone has a chance to see what they are.

Look for a repeat of the parking meter sale in which Mayor Richard M. Daley strong-armed the City Council into approving a deal virtually sight unseen.

In short, bringing Amazon to town will probably cost untold millions in tax credits—money diverted straight from the state’s coffers. That spells a tax hike for everyone else as the state jacks up taxes to compensate for the money it’s giving to Amazon.

Also, Chicagoans can expect to pay tens of millions of TIF dollars in construction and land acquisition costs—and if the headquarters comes to the Loop or Near North Side, we’re talking a lot of money. That’s property tax dollars diverted from the schools—so, instead of sending money to your classroom, you’ll be sending it to Amazon.

Once again, let me remind you that Illinois and Chicago are supposedly broke—at least they’re borrowing millions to pay basic obligations.

We don’t have the political will to pass a graduated income tax to pay our mounting obligations. (Illinois still has a flat tax rate.) So we’re dependent on property taxes and various regressive fines and fees, such as the county’s spectacularly unpopular sweetened beverage tax. Yet we have piles of cash for Amazon?

At some point we have to ask ourselves whether the money Amazon makes for us is equal to the cash it takes from us, as the Beatles might have phrased it. If the Olympic bid’s any indication, I doubt it will be asked, much less answered.

So to return to the original question—the only thing ordinary Chicagoans can expect from the Amazon deal is the bill. v

v @joravben SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 9

The Balbo Monument

CITY LIFE

ò RICH HEIN/SUN-TIMES

TRANSPORTATION

Vision Zero makes inroads on the west side Plus: aldermen move forward with an ordinance to take down a tribute to fascist aviator Italo Balbo.

By JOHN GREENFIELD

R

ecently Slow Roll Chicago, a group that promotes biking on the south and west sides, called for more black and brown input on Chicago’s Vision Zero traffic fatality prevention plans. In the wake of this pushback, city officials detailed efforts to collect perspectives on the program from residents of the current Vision Zero focus communities of North Lawndale, Garfield Park, and Austin.

During an August 31 online discussion that drew transportation advocates and mobility justice activists from across the country, Slow Roll cofounder Oboi Reed called on the national Vision Zero movement to confront systemic racism as a root cause of higher traffic violence rates in neighborhood of color. He also asserted that more “authentic, sincere community engagement” by planners and advocates with residents is needed, and called for increased traffic enforcement to be taken off the table as a crash-reduction strategy on Chicago’s south and west sides until the police department makes significant headway toward remedying civil rights violations. In addition, Reed argued that the city was wrong to publish its Vision Zero Chicago Action Plan without first holding public hearings.

At the September 13 meeting of the Mayor’s Bike Advisory Council, Chicago Department of Transportation commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld addressed some of these concerns. “The action plan released in June was really just the beginning of our collaboration across communities in Chicago, intended to be the launch of an effort that would continue to be complemented by very community-specific implementation strategies,” she said. “Vision Zero is for everyone, but we are also looking at where we have the opportunity to make the biggest positive impact in reduction of crashes.” The plan identifies eight “high-crash areas”—almost all in low-to-moderate-income sections of the south and west sides.

10 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Scheinfeld noted that the current Vision Zero outreach effort on the west side, funded by an $185,000 grant from the National Safety Council, is designed to gather community input “so that what happens in Austin, for example, around these goals, may not be the same as what the process looks like in West Town or downtown. The implementation strategies will be tailored to the context, with priorities for every community as defined by that community.”

The city has hired four community organizers to do outreach and collect data on the west side this year, including tabling at farmers’ markets, health fairs, and block parties. At the MBAC meeting, organizers Brittanii’ Batts, DeAndre Bingham, and Antonio Redmond discussed their data-collection strategies. These include community maps where residents can indicate hot spots for dangerous driving behaviors such as speeding, failure to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, and red light running, as well as hot spots for crime.

“We get a lot of questions about crime,” Bingham said. “We tie it into Vision Zero— that if we can get more out on the streets to start walking and biking and being more visible in their neighborhoods, we can cut down on crime rates.”

In addition the organizers are distributing a traffic safety survey, also available online, that asks west-siders about their commuting habits, whether they feel safe walking, biking, and riding transit in their neighborhoods, and what the one thing is they’d like to see happen to improve traffic safety in their communities; choices for the last include education events, traffic ticketing, lower speed limits, changes to street design, and none of the above. Respondents can enter a drawing to win a $50 gift card.

At the MBAC meeting, Slow Roll outreach coordinator Romina Castillo asked whether residents have been receptive to new bike lanes, which also shorten pedestrian crossing distances and calm traffic. “Are people like, ‘Oh yes, we want more of these’?”

Redmond said many locals are still getting used to having bike lanes in their communities, but that the organizers have been spreading the word about their benefits. “I’m a biker myself and I live on the west side,” he said. “I tell them the bike lanes are not just there to look European.”

CDOT is hosting three Vision Zero open houses on September 26 in North Lawndale, September 27 in Garfield Park, and September 30 in Austin, with free food and activities for children. Presentations on neighborhood concerns and priorities around dangerous driving will begin a half hour after doors open.

DESPITE BACKLASH FROM members of the local Italian-American community, Chicago aldermen are proceeding with their proposal to rename Balbo Drive and move or modify the Balbo Monument, memorials to a henchman of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The tributes were added shortly after Italo Balbo, a leader of the Blackshirts paramilitary units and later Mussolini’s air commander, landed at Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair with a squadron of 24 seaplanes.

In the wake of the racist violence surrounding the Unite the Right rally last month in Charlottesville, Virginia, southwest-side alderman Ed Burke and northwest-side alderman Gilbert Villegas told the Sun-Times that they planned to push for renaming the roadway and removing the monument. The latter, located near Soldier Field, is a 2,000-year-old Roman pillar donated by Mussolini, according to its inscription, “in the 11th year of the Fascist era.” Soon afterward, downtown aldermen Sophia King and Brendan Reilly announced support for relocating the column and renaming the drive after a “worthy” Italian-American from Chicago.

Since then the anti-Balbo movement has gained steam. On August 24, about 50 anti-fascist protesters held a demonstration at the column. And an online petition now calls for the drive to be renamed for Saint Frances Cabrini, an Italian immigrant to Chicago who founded dozens of institutions to serve the sick and needy. It had garnered more than 300 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

Villegas’s policy director, Justin Heath, said last month that the aldermen hoped to introduce an ordinance for the removals at an August 21 City Council meeting. But they tabled the measure due to a packed legislative agenda that day, and were instead planning to propose it this month.

Heath said King and Reilly will have the final say on the new street name, since the current

Balbo Drive runs through their wards. He added that the aldermen were leaning toward installing a sign next to the monument to explain why a gift from a fascist dictator stands on Chicago’s lakefront. This would be a far cheaper alternative to transporting the ancient pillar to another location such as a museum.

Last week King’s assistant Prentice Butler said his office had no updates, adding, “Obviously this is a very sensitive subject given the particular time period we’re in in our nation’s history, so we’re giving this subject a lot of thought.”

Burke, Reilly, and the Chicago Park District (which owns the monument) didn’t respond to recent requests for updates on their positions.

Enza Ranieri, president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, told me she has been in talks with aldermen about the column, but wasn’t aware of the upcoming ordinance. “I’m open to making sure that we come to terms with a plaque that will work for everyone.”

Amateur historian Don Fiore, who previously voiced opposition to the removals, says he’s in favor of the addition of the sign. “It can explain why the monument is there, with a strong repudiation of fascism, and a reflection on how quickly the course of history can change,” he says. “In 1933 Italy was considered a close friend of the U.S.” However, civic committee president emeritus Dominic DiFrisco, who published an op-ed in the Sun-Times on September 9 defending Balbo’s legacy, says there will be payback if the aldermen move forward with their plan to rename the street. “We can show our disdain and disrespect for the aldermen who support for this ordinance at the voting booth,” he says. “Hopefully more intelligent minds will prevail.” v

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

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 11

No small Plan for

TRANSFORMATION Over the last decade, photographer DAVID SCHALLIOL has been diligently documenting the demolition and reconstruction of the city’s public housing. Selections from the series are now on display as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

In the aughts, it was possible to observe the past and future of U.S. public housing policy on the same Chicago block.

Kitchen cabinets and other built-ins sit on the gallery-style walkways of a Robert Taylor Homes building in 2006.

12 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

After decades of deferred maintenance, lawsuits, and even a federal takeover, the portfolio of properties owned and operated by the Chicago Housing Authority was undergoing the nation’s largest public housing rehabilitation, demolition, and reconstruction project.

Backed by more than a billion dollars as part of the Hope VI plan—a major federal initiative to overhaul the nation’s public housing—the authority launched the Plan for Transformation in 2000 to “renew the physical structure of CHA properties,” “promote self-sufficiency for public housing residents,” and “reform administration of the CHA.” In the process, the CHA ceded most of its longstanding role as comprehensive manager of the J

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 13

A teenage resident of a Cabrini-Green highrise building sits on her bed in 2010.

“A LOVE OF THE WORLD”

Schalliol’s photographs are included in the group show of works by architectural photographers curated by Jesús Vasallo as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

Through 1/7/2018, Mon-Fri 10 AM-7 PM, Sat and Sun 10 AM-5 PM, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington, chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org. F

Towels dry from a curbside car wash in the low-rise Frances Cabrini Homes in 2009.

continued from 12 public housing system to a network of private management companies. This dramatic reshaping of the nation’s third-largest public housing agency was most visible in the demolition of many of the CHA’s high-rise buildings and large-scale projects and the construction of mixed-income developments in their stead.

I’ve been photographing the transformation since I moved to Chicago’s south side from Columbus, Ohio, in 2002. When I started this series, many south-side public housing projects like the Robert Taylor Homes, the largest of the projects along State Street, were shadows of what they once were. I spent time in and around south-side developments like Stateway Gardens, the Ida B. Wells Homes, and Randolph Towers, as well as pockets of the north side’s Cabrini-Green development that felt like a community until nearly the end.

During the Chicago Architectural Biennial, I am exhibiting a selection of photographs from this ongoing work following the rehabilitation, demolition, reconstruction, and reoccupation of these public housing projects.

As a photographer and sociologist, I emphasize the built environment as a key factor in—but also as a symbol of—the transformation of residents’ lives. I hope that focusing on this earlier period of fundamental physical changes makes the intensity of the conversion clear. The images in this set show not

14 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Former ABLA residents watch as their building is demolished in 2007.

Teenagers play basketball while a Stateway Gardens building is demolished in 2007.

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Former CabriniGreen residents move into one of the Wentworth Gardens row houses in 2010.

A Cabrini-Green high-rise building soars over newly constructed low-rise buildings in 2007.

The interiors of CabriniGreen apartments are revealed during demolition in 2010.

The first Park Boulevard mixed-income buildings rise while the last Stateway Gardens building is torn down in 2007.

only the stages of the shift to mixed-income developments, but also the complexity of the changes. After all, 17 years after the launch of the Plan for Transformation, the CHA is transforming the plan itself, increasing the services it provides while still continuing to work on the goal of moving public housing residents into mixed-income communities. At present, of the 16,846 households included in the Plan for Transformation, only 7.81 percent live in mixed-income residences. Instead, there’s an array of housing situations for most of the public housing residents who lived in traditional CHA developments.

For instance, I’ve photographed a family who moved from a Cabrini-Green high-rise to Wentworth Gardens, a rehabilitated low-rise development just a baseball throw away from where the White Sox play. There they became part of the 16 percent of Plan for Transportation households who remained in traditional public housing. In the case of Loomis Courts, a pair of midrise structures built as part of the ABLA cluster of public housing projects, the buildings are no longer fully owned J

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 15

Cabrini-Green residents play on a slide behind the last of the “red buildings” in 2006.

Men walk past an Ickes Homes building undergoing demolition in 2009.

continued from 15

or operated by the CHA but participate in a Section 8 program. Loomis Courts residents benefit from building-based subsidies that allow them to pay below-market rates for market-rate housing, the government making up the difference. Approximately 21 percent of Plan for Transformation households are in similar situations.

With so many approaches to providing subsidized housing, there are added complications—and there’s still much work ahead, from meeting the remaining obligations of the Plan for Transformation to finding new ways to provide affordable housing for Chicago residents. It’s clear that the CHA has overhauled its facilities and organization, as well as provided improved living conditions for thousands of Chicago families; however, roughly 120,000 remain on the waiting list for public housing in the city, and more than 40 percent of residents who lived in the nowdemolished buildings have either been evicted or live in nonsubsidized housing. And of course, despite the huge numbers, these families represent just one element of what may be an affordable housing crisis for those unable to bear the expense of living in many of Chicago’s rapidly changing neighborhoods. Addressing these issues will be a critical task for the CHA that could impact housing policy not only in Chicago but throughout the U.S. v

v @metroblossom A version of this essay first appeared on the Chicago Architecture Biennial blog.

16 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

In 2010, a mother and her children walk out of Sunrise Supermarket, across the street from the fields where the Ida B. Wells Homes once stood.

A teenager looks out the window of an Ida B. Wells Homes building to investigate a loud sound in 2006.

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ARTS & CULTURE SMALL SCREEN

Jordan Klepper agrees to disagree

The former Chicago improviser and Daily Show correspondent adds “yes, and” to “no, but” for his new Comedy Central show The Opposition With Jordan Klepper.

By STEVE HEISLER

T

hanks in large part to Jordan Klepper, from 2005 to 2007 Chicago comedy connoisseurs had their Saturday-night plans locked down.

They’d go to a party or check out an art show, then hurry over to the iO Theater, then located in Wrigleyville, just in time for the midnight performance of The Late Night Late Show. The weekly talk show featured local improv luminaries in character, guests such as Hoop Dreams director Steve James, and a lot of unabashed absurdity in the service of meticulously crafted conceits, such as an evening in which the show was hijacked by Russians.

Its host was the magnetic, deadpan, unflappable Klepper, whose new Monday-throughThursday program The Opposition With Jordan Klepper debuts on Comedy Central on September 25. Occupying the time slot following The Daily Show, on which Klepper was a correspondent for the past three years, The Opposition satirizes extremism and conspiracy theorists on both sides of the political aisle, with Klepper playing a character he’s described as “Alex Jones meets Garrison Keillor.”

A cast of “citizen journalists” appear as wing nuts who just want to share their unsubstantiated opinions. The show, both onscreen and in the writers’ room, is dense with alums of Chicago’s comedy stages, including Late Night Late Show creator Seth Weitberg, Klepper’s frequent collaborator Steve Waltien, and multifaceted comedian Laura Grey (Klepper’s wife), as well as powerhouses such as Tim Baltz, Chelsea Devantez, and Asher Perlman.

They’ve all been hard at work rehearsing in such glamorous places as the corner of their office conference room in New York City.

Klepper took a moment away from preparing for the premiere to talk over the phone about how his Chicago comedy education, especially The Late Night Late Show, prepared him to assume the host chair.

18 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

On The Opposition, you’ve brought in a lot of Chicago folks as writers and onscreen “citizen journalists.” Is there a particular perspective Chicago-trained comedians bring to a project?

I do think there’s something about the Chicago improv scene that breeds smart, thoughtful, collaborative people. My time at iO helped me become adaptive in the field [at The Daily Show], able to go with the flow and collaborative with people in morning meetings so small ideas could become big ideas quickly. It also helped me lose the idea of being precious about my own ideas and jump on other ones, which is a necessity in creating a show four times a week. It also made me curious. You have to be able to interpret the world around you in a way you find interesting so you become interesting onstage.

I came to Chicago from Kalamazoo, Michigan, right after college, following the one thing I knew I enjoyed. I wasn’t sure if I was going to be good at it.

I was a math major and theater major and was still figuring out in college if I wanted to work in math or another field. But year after year I kept coming back to: What do I find most enjoyable and most freeing? I came to Chicago with the expectation of following through on a question I hadn’t answered.

Wait—you were a math major?

I was a nerdy kid who was pretty good at math, and I got a scholarship for it that paid for my college. [Laughs.] Humble brag. I like the ability to put things in order. At the same time, improv comes along and it forces you to embrace chaos.

Those two things are really nice living side by side.

Improv pushed me to be more curious; the mathematical side made me feel uncomfortable, but ultimately it was better for me. Life is a mixture of those two things. It’s both the brainstorming period where we can be free, but we also have to do a show in a couple-hour period, so it becomes all about editing, crafting an argument, functionally putting pieces in place. You have to use both sides of the brain.

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How did The Late Night Late Show get started?

It was a while back. My memory has aged like a fine wine. It was Seth Weitberg’s idea to do a late-night show, and he wanted me to host it. It could function as a real late-night show, but also had characters that could recur. We were pretty young Chicagoans who had worked together in some way. From there, we had to grow up really quick. We had to figure out how to do weekly meetings, how to produce and write bits, how to create a world, what the rules were, et cetera. It couldn’t be an improv show where everybody just shows up. We’d meet twice a week to prep for that week’s show and hold rehearsal once a week to put together something that was fairly loose but ultimately had a structure that made sense for us. Each episode has a big theme to it, like, “This one’s going to tell the story of Hamlet.”

For one of our first meetings, Seth brought tapes of The Muppet Show. He wanted us to be inspired by its madcap fun, how it would see itself as a late-night show but immediately go off the rails.

Our guests were all over the map. When we had Jason Williams from the Chicago Bulls as a guest, we did the show like a basketball game—a halftime show, a scoreboard. We created a mascot called Desky that danced around. We also had Mr. Skin on at one point who was, um, a purveyor of celebrity nip slips. So we were making a smart, thoughtful show.

Why did Weitberg have you in mind to be the host?

I don’t know. I think I have the lanky build of somebody who should host a late-night show.

Being a host is great for people who want to be looked at all

READER RECOMMENDED

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the time. It feeds that ego. It also adds pressure.

You have to find the balance of how you perform, but also how you navigate the audience through the show in the way you want them to see it.

When you perform improv, it’s always the first and last show. It’s ephemeral.

That is the beauty of improv: You have to be there. It’s supposed to be in a sweaty basement existing for only that night. With that comes the danger of something being said that’s completely surprising.

What was it like arriving in Chicago with the goal of pursuing something intangible?

Part of what I was looking for was the ability to find a place to point me in the right direction.

You can drive yourself crazy looking at other people’s trajectories and trying to emulate that. There’s no one way to find success. If you’re constantly looking to find something new, you’re hopefully moving in the right direction. Then there’s a lot of luck.

While in Chicago you were also a member of the improv troupe American Dream, which was known for coming up with its format just before going onstage. Watching the show felt like watching friends dick around.

Going out there and just doing anything was never really that freeing. Even though American Dream didn’t have a lot of structure, our most successful shows were the ones where we gave ourselves one construct to work within. We did a show once after Piero [Procaccini] had worked a double shift and was exhausted.

So we said, “Piero, you’re going to sleep onstage. Literally.” So we did a show that was really quiet. We whispered. The audience raised their hands instead of laughing. v R THE OPPOSITION WITH JORDAN KLEPPER debuts on Comedy Central Mon 9/25 at 10:30 PM.

v @steveheisler

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ARTS & CULTURE John Mahoney and Francis Guinan ò MICHAEL BROSILOW

THEATER

This Rembrandt is no masterpiece

By TONY ADLER

W

ell, this is peculiar. If I remember correctly, Steppenwolf Theatre spent a significant part of last season trying to poke its mostly white, mostly aging, mostly bourgeois audience base in the eye with an array of well-sharpened sticks.

Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over delivered a blow against a pale-skinned power structure designed to make life nasty, brutish, and short for urban black men. Taylor Mac’s Hir portrayed the boom-generation American male as a beast rendered harmless only as long as he’s kept in a drug-induced stupor. And Young Jean Lee played patrons into her Straight White Men with a hip-hop preshow cranked to PTSD-triggering decibel levels before turning us over to a pair of guides who did their condescending best to strip away our smug sense of privilege.

But that was then, this, apparently, is now, and here we are again, sitting in the very theater where Lee tried to school us, watching as an aging, white, amiably pedantic art museum guard named Henry—the central figure in Jessica Dickey’s The Rembrandt—explains about the second of three types of museum patrons. “Then there are the old white-haired ladies (and their dutiful husbands) who have been coming to the museum for years,” he says. “You know who I mean—this brave, blessed generation of men and women who

go to the theatre, who buy memberships, who understand what it means to participate in the cultural institutions of our country—and who are frankly keeping those institutions alive.

And who themselves will soon die, leaving the rest of us to CATCH ON.” What? Can the targets of the summer have become the heroes of the fall? Afforded a moment of clemency for their (very real) race, class, and gender crimes? Even valorized for their sense of duty to the arts? The opening night audience seemed to think so. They gave Henry’s speech an appreciative, self-congratulatory roar.

Truly, the whole 90-minute show comes across as an olive branch to the folks Henry’s talking about, the sort who bravely endured the theatrical self-criticism sessions of Steppenwolf’s last few months. The Rembrandt is a sweet, unchallenging contrivance that flirts ever so gently with transgression but ultimately leaves no doubt that its essentially complacent heart belongs to the Western canon.

Though it goes unnamed in the play, the institution Henry (Francis Guinan) helps guard must be New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, because that’s where you’ll find the Rembrandt painting he admires above all others, Aristotle With a Bust of Homer. He communes with it when he’s alone in its presence, rhapsodizes over it to Madeline (Karen Rodriguez), a young woman copying it for a class, and Dodg-

er (Ty Olwin), a punky street artist having his first day on staff. Normally punctilious—not to say reverential—on the job, Henry finds himself distracted by a crisis at home: his longtime domestic partner, a poet named Simon (John Mahoney), is dying of cancer. Grief over that imminent loss makes him reckless enough to give in when rebellious Dodger pushes him and Madeline to touch the Rembrandt. With their actual fingers.

At which point The Rembrandt suddenly starts looking like Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Putting their hands to the old oiled surface seems to open a psychic portal to Rembrandt’s studio sometime during the 1650s, where we meet not only the Dutch master himself (Guinan again) but his approximately ten-year-old son Titus (Olwin again) and Rembrandt’s servant-turned-lover Hendrickje, aka Henny (Rodriguez again).

Not much happens to justify this wrinkle in time. The Rembrandt Dickey limns for us is earthy, raunchy, alcoholic, self-doubting, yet dedicated to the point of distraction—much as famous artists often are in works where it’s supposed to come as a surprise to us that they were human at all. Homer (Mahoney again) turns out to be a similarly regular guy when we meet him a little later on.

And that’s the thing about The Rembrandt.

It rehashes conventional notions in superficial, occasionally clunky ways, never seriously questioning any of them. Artists are people.

Painting is illusion, yet art can bridge eras.

Love transcends death. Each being is unique.

Only connect. And so on and so forth. All of it true, most of it posed as a series of banalities.

The only real gift to the audience is the cast—especially Guinan (who’s scheduled to be replaced by Joe Dempsey starting October 24) and Mahoney. In Hallie Gordon’s staging, Mahoney radiates the beauty of triumphant old age; Guinan vindicates many things with the way his Henry tells Simon, “Don’t die.” v THE REMBRANDT Through 11/5: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat-Sun 3 and 7:30 PM, Tue 7:30 PM; also Wed 10/4, 10/11, and 10/18, 2 PM, Steppenwolf Theatre, 1600 N. Halsted, 312-335-1650, steppenwolf.org, $53-$98.

v @taadler

THEATER

Banned Books Week gets entertaining

WHAT ARE YOU DOING for Banned Books Week this year? It’s not like you don’t have choices.

First celebrated in 1982 and promoted now primarily by the American Library Association, Banned Books Week (September 24-30) highlights the year’s ten most challenged works—that is, the ones that have attracted the most complaints from people hoping to get them knocked off public library shelves.

Famous list alumni include the Harry Potter series and the Holy Bible. Of this year’s winners, the top five were all attacked for their LGBTQ or transgender characters; number eight, Chuck Palahniuk’s Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread, was cited as “disgusting and all-around offensive.”

City Lit Theater’s free BBW observance BOOKS ON THE CHOPPING BLOCk will be back for its 12th iteration. Scheduled to visit 17 area libraries between September 23 and October 1, it comprises five-minute readings from each of the infamous top ten.

But that’s not all. Two new, one-night-only events will expand BBW’s scope beyond books. The Dramatists Legal Defense Fund, a sister organization of the Dramatists Guild, is staging BANNED TOGETHER: A CENSORSHIP CABARET at theaters in 16 American cities to educate the public about such challenged theater works as Almost Maine (proscribed in 2014 for what a high school principal called “sexually explicit overtones”). It’s hosted here by Stage 773 (Mon 9/25, 7:30 PM, free) and features Roosevelt University students belting “Totally Fucked” from Spring Awakening. And Saturday, September 23, at 7 PM, the Greenhouse Theater Center’s new playwrights unit, MC-10, offers USE IT OR LOSE IT: AN EVENING OF SHORT PLAYS ABOUT YOUR RIGHTS, a pay-what-you-can benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union that features staged readings of nine special-made pieces by the likes of Rebecca Gilman, Brett Neveu, and Thomas Bradshaw, inspired for the most part by ACLU case files. —TONY ADLER

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 19

Get showtimes at chicagoreader.com/movies.

ARTS & CULTURE Hello Again

him with his first pop hit: “Beyond the Moon,” performed in a pulsing, lavishly designed music video by Audra McDonald as a singer desperate to reboot her flagging career. This film-within-the-film (whose direction and visual effects are credited to Cory Krueckeberg, Hello Again’s screenwriter and editor) features McDonald, her operatic soprano auto-tuned almost beyond recognition, singing ecstatically of “my only love” and “a dream come true” while surrounded by a chorus of muscular male dancers, their hedonistic choreography subverting the romantic fantasy of the lyrics. Written specifically for the film, the number reinforces the fascination with fantasy and reality, desire and disillusion that makes Hello Again such an intoxicating and ironic work.

MOVIES

Chain of fools

By ALBERT WILLIAMS

I

n French, la petite mort—“the little death”—refers to orgasm and its aftermath. There are lots of little deaths (and rebirths) of both the erotic and emotional variety in Hello Again, a lush, sexy adaptation of the 1993 chamber musical by composer-librettist Michael John LaChiusa that opens this year’s Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival.

Based loosely on La Ronde, the scandalous 1897 drama by Viennese playwright Arthur Schnitzler (which also inspired films by Max Ophuls and Roger Vadim), this beautifully cast and gorgeously shot movie is a suite of sung-through vignettes exploring themes of seduction and betrayal.

The narrative structure is complex and mysterious. The action skips back and forth in time, as early as 1902 and as late as 2002, with ten two-person scenes, each depicting a sexual tryst. One character from each episode returns in the following one, but the carried-over character isn’t exactly the same person. A hookup between a soldier (Nolan Gerard Funk) and a nurse (Jenna Ushkowitz) at a “stage

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door canteen” during World War II is followed by a scene set during the Vietnam war, in which a different nurse (Ushkowitz again) has a fling with a college boy (Al Calderon).

The action then jumps back to 1929, when a different college boy (Calderon again) has an assignation in a movie theater balcony with a married woman (the wonderful Rumer Willis).

In 1912, a wealthy married man (T.R. Knight) explores his long-suppressed homosexuality by seducing a shy working-class youth (Tyler Blackburn) in his stateroom aboard the sinking Titanic; cut to a decadent disco in 1976 New York, where a dancer (Blackburn again) brags, “I survived a shipwreck.” Reincarnation, or just coincidence? This slyly enigmatic cross-referencing is part of the film’s intrigue; perhaps the vignettes are visions conjured up

by Leocadia, a gender-shifting whore (Sam Underwood) who appears at beginning of the movie to entertain a repressed politician (Martha Plimpton).

LaChiusa is one of the most gifted musical theater art-song writers of the post-Sondheim generation, but Hello Again may just provide

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20 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

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Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival runs Thursday, September 21, through Thursday, September 28, with screenings at Music Box, 3733 N. Southport, and Landmark’s Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark. Tickets are $12, $10 for screenings before 5 PM; passes are $45 (five screenings), $80 (ten screenings), $100 (all screenings), and $130 (all screenings and events).

For more information and a complete schedule visit reelingfilmfestival.org

.

After Louie This debut feature from longtime gayrights activist Vincent Gagliostro, about a middle-aged New York artist (Alan Cumming) making a film about the ACT UP generation and a close friend who died of AIDS, is a valuable meditation on generational differences, particularly between gay men who lived through the worst years of the AIDS crisis and those who came of age afterward. The protagonist prefers these younger men sexually: “When I was your age . . . my friends were dropping like flies,” he tells one. “So yeah, I am trying to recapture my youth.” In another scene the artist is confronted by a peer for using their mutual friend as a documentary subject: “He’s not a symbol.” Clearly this is a personal project for Gagliostro, who seems to be working through his own issues, and though the film brims with thought-provoking conversations, it works better in these individual light-bulb moments than as a narrative whole. —LEAH PICKETT 100 min. Fri 9/22, 7:30 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre Against the Law This somber BBC production, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1967 British law decriminalizing homosexuality, intercuts eyewitness accounts from grizzled survivors of homophobia in postwar England with a dramatic treatment of the life of journalist and activist Peter Wildeblood. Openly gay, Wildeblood (Daniel Mays) is imprisoned in the mid-1950s for his affair with an RAF corporal (Richard Gadd); their tender, erotic, and necessarily secret encounters make the corporal’s betrayal in court all the more devastating. In a later scene Wildeblood, now freed, testifies on behalf of legal rights for homosexuals but excludes “effeminate men” from his crusade—a particularly chilling moment when you consider that the UK’s last antigay laws weren’t repealed until 2009.

Fergus O’Brien directed. —ANDREA GRONVALL 85 min.

Sun 9/24, 2:45 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre

Bones of Contention

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B&B Writer-director Joe Ahearne unabashedly cribs from Alfred Hitchcock for this psychological thriller, in which an attractive gay couple (Tom Bateman, Sean Teale) revisit a remote English country inn some time after they successfully sued the bigoted owner (Paul McGann) for refusing them a double bed. Once a burly Russian ex-con arrives, the newlyweds get caught in a complex revenge scheme hatched by the owner’s teenage son. The handsome visuals belie the film’s low budget: cinematographer Nick Dance expertly copies Hitchcock’s stylistic trademarks, the nocturnal park scenes mimicking the iconic low-angle wide shots of Vertigo and Psycho. But the plot is overly reliant on such technology as smartphones and night goggles, gizmos that eventually hamper the paranoiac suspense.

—ANDREA GRONVALL 87 min. Sun 9/24, 9:15 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre

I Dream in Another Language In this Mexican drama, a linguist travels to a small jungle village to study the dying language of its indigenous people. He wants to record a conversation between the last two speakers, but the old men in question have been feuding for more than 50 years and refuse to talk to one another.

Flashbacks reveal that the men were once in love and had to suppress their desire; moved by their history, the linguist determines to end their feud so they can spend their final days in peace. Ernesto Contreras, directing a script by his brother Carlos, establishes a relaxed pace and a gentle tone, allowing the themes of guilt and repressed longing to resonate, and his sympathy toward all the characters creates a winning sense of goodwill. In Spanish with subtitles. —BEN SACHS 100 min. Sun 9/24, 4:30 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre

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CHICAGOREADER.COM/EARLY I Dream in Another Language Bones of Contention This documentary about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender victims of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco asks a vital question: How can a country excavate a past that has been so deeply buried? Director Andrea Weiss tracks the journey of a modern grassroots movement dedicated to unearthing and identifying the bones of more than 120,000 missing LGBT loved ones (many of whom are likely interred in unmarked mass graves along roadsides) with almost no help from the Spanish government. The little-known history of homosexuals being persecuted in Francoist Spain includes among its victims poet Federico García Lorca, whom the locals hold up as a symbol of their bloody past and current struggle. Though simple and straightforward, the film is a potent argument for justice, even—and especially when—the fight is ongoing.

—LEAH PICKETT 75 min. Mon 9/25, 7:15 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre

Saturday Church A queer Bronx teenager, bullied at home and at school, finds refuge in a community of homeless young people, some gay and some transsexual, who encourage him to own his sexual identity and his desire to perform in drag. Writer-director Damon Cardasis goes all out in telling this coming-of-age story, eliciting larger-than-life performances and incorporating show-stopping musical numbers. The songs aren’t very good and the acting sometimes borders on camp, but there’s no denying his ambition or his concern for homeless youth; like the outstanding Kartemquin documentary The Homestretch (2014), this draws attention to the plight of gay and transsexual runaways. Hillary Spera’s cinematography is another asset; the images of New York City are warm and dreamy, reflecting the hero’s reassuring acceptance by his new friends. —BEN SACHS 82 min. Screens as part of the closing-night program; tickets are $15, $25 with an afterparty at Progress Bar, 3359 N. Halsted. Thu 9/28, 7 PM. Landmark’s Century Centre v

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ARTS & CULTURE

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L’Important C’Eest D’Aimer

MOVIES

Love is the drug

By BEN SACHS

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017–MARCH 11, 2018

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

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22 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

P

olish-born director Andrzej Żuławski was a master at depicting worlds divorced from traditional moral order, whether the Nazi-occupied Poland of The Third Part of the Night (1971), the supernatural Berlin of Possession (1981), the strange planet of On the Silver Globe (1988), or the sweetly absurd universe of his final film, Cosmos (2015). Few filmmakers have rendered so palpably the experience of losing one’s grip on reality, and with the 1975 French drama L’Important C’Est D’Aimer, playing this week at Film Center in a new digital restoration, Żuławski marries this lifelong subject to a romantic sensibility unlike anything else in his body of work. The title can be translated as “the important thing is to love,” and Żuławski presents love as an all-consuming force, similar to madness or addiction. The film is deliberately overstylized—with outsize performances, lush music (by Georges Delerue), and delirious camera movements—yet the grandeur reflects the intensity of the characters’ experience. Żuławski considers a relationship between two lost souls. Servais (Fabio Testi) is a former war photographer now shooting pornography and working for tabloid magazines; Nadine (Romy Schneider) is a onetime starlet now slumming in sexploitation films. Servais falls for Nadine after taking her picture on a movie

set and, to prove his devotion, borrows money from the gangster who finances his porno shoots to produce an avant-garde staging of Richard III that will star Nadine and, she hopes, jump-start her career. During the production, Servais gets closer to the actress but keeps his beneficence a secret; he also gets to know her husband, a mentally unbalanced cinephile (pop singer Jacques Dutronc in one of his first serious roles) whom Nadine pities more than she loves. The growing attraction between Servais and Nadine comes to destroy all three characters, who regret how they’ve failed to live up to their ideals. They try to reclaim their dignity, but only too late, after the stage production flops and Servais is hunted down by the gangster. Żuławski boldly mixes sensationalist elements with high art, defamiliarizing all of them. Scenes of Shakespeare follow S-M porno shoots; protestations of romantic yearning come between depictions of graphic violence.

The director connects these disparate pieces with a uniform emotional potency; no matter what takes place onscreen, the characters respond with deep, sometimes terrifying feeling. Also shining through L’Important C’Est D’Aimer is a genuine sense that love enables us to transcend the most degrading experiences.

Thanks in part to towering performances from Testi and Schneider, the film makes one believe that the characters’ love is a matter of life and death. v L’IMPORTANT C’EST D’AIMER ssss Directed by Andrzej Żuławski. R, 109 min. Fri 9/22, 6 and 8:15 PM; Sat 9/23, 7:45 PM; Sun 9/24, 5:15 PM; and Wed 9/27, 8:15 PM. Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, 312-846-2800, $11.

@1bsachs

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ARTS & CULTURE Sakda (Rousseau)

FILM & VISUAL ART

The brilliance and wonder of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s art

By BEN SACHS

A

pichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness,” an exhibition currently on display at the School of the Art Institute’s Sullivan Galleries, not only is a beautiful collection of video installations and still images, but provides new insight into the career of one of the most important filmmakers working today. The content of “Serenity” might be described as the interstices of Weerasethakul’s filmmaking career, with video diaries, short films, and photographs that meditate on themes and images elaborated on in the Thai director’s features. Meditate is the operative word—like Weerasethakul’s movies, “Serenity” offers a calm, immersive space where one can contemplate notions of spirituality, romance, war, and death. The exhibit covers 22 years of output and more than three hours of audiovisual material, yet “Serenity” doesn’t feel overwhelming, thanks to the cool reflection the works engender.

In conjunction with “Serenity,” next month the Gene Siskel Film Center will revive four of the director’s features (all of them worth seeing or revisiting): Tropical Malady (2004), Syndromes and a Century (2006), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), and Cemetery of Splendor (2015). Weerasethakul’s Buddhist faith informs all these films; the director has said that the two-part structure of Malady and Syndromes—movies that restart the plot halfway through—reflects his belief in reincarnation.

Appropriately, the first piece in “Serenity,” Sakda (Rousseau) (2012), is a short video on this very subject. In the piece, Sakda Kaewbuadee, one of Weerasethakul’s favorite actors, claims to be the reincarnation of French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and speaks to how he will live according to Rousseau’s principles. The short ends with a peaceful shot from a balcony overlooking Thailand’s

Mekong River (the subject of Weerasethakul’s 2012 film Mekong Hotel), suggesting that all souls will eventually return to nature. Watching Sakda, one realizes how Weerasethakul’s spiritual notions tie into a reverence for the natural world, with reincarnation serving as a human equivalent to the constant rebirth one finds in jungles and forests.

While Sakda speaks to the reawakening of the spirit, Teem (2007), the centerpiece of the exhibit, is a portrait of a body in repose. The most meditative piece in “Serenity,” Teem consists of three wall-size projections of video footage that show Weerasethakul’s partner asleep. The footage was shot on a videophone that’s constantly hovering around the subject, and this juxtaposition of stasis and movement blurs the distinction between action and reflection. One can feel the director’s intimacy with his subject as well as his innate curiosity about bodies at rest. These qualities carry over to Weerasethakul’s direction of actors in his narrative features—in his films, people are simultaneously characters and bodies to be admired. The content of Teem also anticipates Cemetery of Splendor, which considers the plight of soldiers suffering from a protracted sleeping sickness.

The recent work showcased in “Serenity” is particularly useful for understanding Cemetery. In fact, the pieces made between 2012 and 2014 feel like an extended prologue to that material. Cemetery is Weerasethakul’s

most political film, with the sleeping soldiers serving in part as a metaphor for Thailand’s paralyzed state following the political crisis of recent years. Politics enter into the filmmaker’s latest video pieces, albeit obliquely, showing how his spiritual concerns interact with the physical world around him. In Ashes (2012), a combination of still images and video footage, Weerasethakul considers elements of his daily life, such as taking walks, observing animals, and buying groceries. Images of protesters enter into the montage but don’t overwhelm it—their political activity becomes part of the flow of the director’s experience. I’d seen Ashes a few years ago when it premiered online, but viewing it projected on a large wall was like watching it for the first time. The flow of everyday life becomes monumental in this context, and the political allusions assume a greater resonance as well. It’s the most impressive single piece in the exhibit, texturally rich and inspired in its juxtapositions.

Fireworks (Archives) (2014) contemplates the plight of an artist whose life was overtaken by politics. The work consists mainly of shots of sculptures by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a Buddhist monk who fled to Laos in the 1970s after he was accused of being a communist. Weerasethakul shoots the statues at night, creating a spooky vibe reminiscent of the nocturnal scenes of Uncle Boonmee.

The sculptures are fascinating—I particularly liked one of two human skeletons sitting arm in arm—but the melancholy aura (with its associations of political persecution) overwhelms their aesthetic impact. The video reaches a sense of catharsis, however, when Weerasethakul presents shots of fireworks.

The piece is projected on a pane of glass (just like another work in the exhibit, the 1999 video sketch Windows), and the light from the fireworks bounces off the pane and onto the floor, illuminating the room in which Fireworks is displayed. It’s a beautiful moment, suggesting optimism amid tragedy.

Bursting light is the subject of another highlight of “Serenity,” Phantoms of Nabua (2009).

Presented in a small alcove sequestered from the rest of the exhibit, this video shows a group of teenage boys in Weerasethakul’s J

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 23

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hometown of Nabua congregating around a movie screen that’s been set up outdoors. The boys kick around a football that they’ve lit on fire and eventually burn up the movie screen, revealing the flickering projector behind it.

Phantoms creates visual rhymes between the flaming ball, the projector, and the large fluorescent light hanging above the screen. The whole world seems illuminated, and the boys’ movement feels exalted. At the same time, the action takes place in isolation (there’s no one else around besides the boys) and the darkness around the environment creates an eerie vibe.

Weerasethakul is a master at setting a mood—his films elicit fascination even when little happens onscreen. The earliest works contained in “Serenity,” Bullet and 0116643225059 (both 1994), speak to this aspect of his art. Bullet is an abstract work, shot on Super-8, that presents flashes of textured light between blackouts. Like a more intimate version of the fireworks in the later pieces, the flashes in Bullet inspire a childlike

Ashes

wonder at cinema’s ability to give and record light. 0116643225059, on the other hand, glorifies cinema’s ability to communicate personal feelings. Over shots of Weerasethakul speaking on the phone in a Chicago apartment (where he lived while attending SAIC), the director superimposes images of his mother, who’s listening in Thailand on the other end of the line. Weerasethakul shows how intimate bonds can transcend distance and overwhelm one’s consciousness.

0116643225059 is a simple work, but it illuminates a central conceit of the director’s

output—that in engaging with the world through sights, sounds, and textures, we personalize it and give ourselves over to it. This transaction is, for Weerasethakul, a source of wonder and gratitude, which his compositions communicate with calm exaltation. v R “APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL: THE SERENITY OF MADNESS” Through 12/8: Tue-Sat 11 AM-6PM, School of the Art Institute Sullivan Galleries, 33 S. State, seventh floor, 312-629-6635, saic.edu/sullivangalleries. F

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ARTS & CULTURE LIT

When Chicago was the place to be

By AIMEE LEVITT

A

nyone who lives in Chicago who has any artistic ambition whatsoever has seriously considered, at least once, moving away. All the real action, it seems, is elsewhere, and if anyone outside the midwest is going to pay you any attention, you’re going to have to head to one of the coasts, where you can spend the rest of your life wallowing in nostalgia for how young and free you were in Chicago.

But it wasn’t always this way. Well, not entirely. Liesl Olson’s new book, Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis, attempts to capture a golden era in our city’s history, when Chicago was a place people wanted to stay because it had the most exciting writers and the most avant-garde art scene. By Olson’s reckoning, this period launched around 1912, when Harriet Monroe started Poetry magazine and sputtered to an end around 1968, when Gwendolyn Brooks published In the Mecca, her book-length poem about the Bronzeville apartment building that became a symbol of the neighborhood’s overcrowding and decline before it was torn down in 1952.

Still, Chicago’s history is full of the names of people who left, and Chicago Renaissance is filled with the ghosts of the departed, people like Ernest Hemingway, Richard Wright, and Margaret Anderson, who began their careers here and then went on to greater glory elsewhere. Olson argues that Chicago provided them with the sturdy foundations they would

need to change the world. It was in Chicago that they chose their audiences—or, more specifically, which traditions they planned to destroy—and began developing their weapons.

The best parts of Chicago Renaissance, though, concentrate on those who stayed, particularly Monroe and Brooks, who were both solidly committed to building their city.

Olson portrays them as two centers of a constellation of booksellers, teachers, publishers, gallerists, and philanthropists, most of whom are largely forgotten today but who, in their time, nurtured and supported the artists who were changing the world. As Monroe wrote in the first issue of Poetry, “To have great poets there must be great audiences, too.”

The cast of characters in Chicago Renaissance is enormous, and Olson doesn’t always resist the temptation to focus on the better-known figures—how many times do we need to hear about how much Hemingway hated his mother or what a charming goofball Gertrude Stein could be? Olson also has a tendency to repeat material, which is fine if you forget who Manierre Dawson was (a Chicago modernist painter who earned his living as an engineer), but less so when you read about how Monroe wrote the opening ode for the 1893 Columbian Exposition on page 45 and then again on page 50.

However, Olson does a tremendous service to the Chicagoans whose influence on the city was far greater than posterity has given them credit for. (Would they have been more cele-

brated if they were men instead of women?)

Chief among them is Monroe, a mediocre poet but a receptive and curious editor who was among the first to publish some of the century’s greatest poets and who wasn’t too proud to tap the city’s vast commercial resources to finance her vision.

There are many others: Fanny Butcher, the Tribune book critic who also ran her own bookstore for eight years (Olson doesn’t seem to have figured out how she managed this, though she does note that Butcher had a breakdown shortly before the store closed); Bobsy Goodspeed and Alice Roullier, the president and exhibitions coordinator of the Arts Club of Chicago who amassed an impressive collection of modernist art and organized Stein’s visit here in 1934; Inez Cunningham Stark, a reader for Poetry who ran the poetry workshop at the South Side Community Art Center where Brooks shared some of her earliest poems; Vivian G. Harsh, the head librarian at the George Cleveland Hall Branch library in Bronzeville who curated a “Special Negro

Collection” of materials by and for AfricanAmericans, the first of its kind in the city; and Era Bell Thompson, the Ebony editor who in her memoir American Daughter tried to fight racism by pointing out its patent absurdities.

(It must be said that not everyone appreciated this approach.)

What they all helped create and nurture, Olson writes, was a sense of freedom and possibility. In 1912 Chicago was still a relatively new city; an influx of immigrants kept parts of it, particularly Bronzeville, feeling new until well into the 1940s. Artistic experimentation hadn’t yet calcified into tradition. “Chicago was a place of self-creation,” Olson writes, “anything might happen.” And it was, for a while, the most exciting city in the world. v R CHICAGO RENAISSANCE: LITERATURE AND ART IN THE MIDWEST METROPOLIS By Liesl Olson (Yale). Book launch Wed 9/27, 7:30 PM, Women & Children First, 5233 N. Clark, 773-7699299, womenandchildrenfirst.com. F

v @aimeelevitt

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 25

ARTS & CULTURE COMEDY

Sigh of relief

By STEVE HEISLER

W

hen I interviewed him over the phone last week, comedian Brennen Reeves was huffing and puffing while taking a walk on a hot day in Savannah, Georgia. When I followed up with him later, he was packing for a move. These two routine activities— walking and lifting—are borderline miracles for Reeves, who underwent a double lung transplant when he was 19 years old.

He was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at eight months old. Doctors told his parents his lungs would disintegrate as he aged and he’d never live to see his high school graduation.

Reeves obviously prevailed, and at 26, he’s touring with his one-man show Breathe, in which he describes a childhood informed by the belief that death is rapidly approaching.

Hilarious, right?

26 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Brennen Reeves

Despite Breathe’s gloomy subject matter, Reeves engages audiences with levity and self-awareness. For example, as a hormonal teen, he wanted to do what other hormonal teens do: go on dates. He was on an oxygen tank at the time, so romantic evenings required ground rules. The lovely lady would come to his house. He’d be on the couch with his tank next to him. She’d sit, ironically, on the love seat. They’d talk. Date over.

Reeves laughs when he recounts this pattern for dates. “I don’t want [the show] to be like a roller coaster, but only going down at a 90-degree angle,” he says. “I like the climb, the loops, the twists and turns.”

He was aware of his life expectancy during his youth, but most kids see the future in the abstract. So Reeves went about his business.

He played sports, pretty much anything that wasn’t football. He ran until he couldn’t maintain the necessary strength to do so, which occurred when he turned 15. Doctors began closely monitoring Reeves until he was in dire need of the double transplant, but not too sick that it wouldn’t take. When he was 19, the time had come.

Reeves bounced back and started college as if he’d never gone through such a harrowing ordeal. “I never talked about my disease growing up,” Reeves says, and after surviving, he sought an outlet to discuss his condition. He’d always admired comedians like Mike Birbiglia, Bo Burnham, and Amy Schumer, who tell stories about facing their own demons with an adroit use of humor.

He took cues from their work, particularly Birbiglia’s album My Secret Public Journal Live (a masterful blend of embarrassment and catharsis), and tried stand-up, making self-deprecating bits about his height (five

foot six) and thin, sickly body. After taking a solo performance class during his senior year of college, he wrote Breathe.

“I started by just talking about the seriousness of it all, literally no humor,” he says. “My director David Lee Nelson would tell me I have to give the audience permission to laugh.”

So he begins the same way each evening: “Obviously this story has a happy ending, because I’m here telling it.” v R BREATHE Thu 9/21-Fri 9/22, 6:45 PM, iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov.com, $10.

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Growing Concerns: Jeffrey Michael Austin, McKenzie Chinn, and Mykele Deville ò OLIVIA OBINEME

The Growing Concerns Poetry Collective ask all races to fight racism Mykele Deville, McKenzie Chinn, and Jeffrey Michael Austin tell stories for black folks that aim to reach everyone.

By LEE V. GAINES

I

n early August, the Growing Concerns Poetry Collective played two back-toback sold-out shows at Steppenwolf’s 80seat 1700 Theatre to celebrate the release of their self-released debut album, We Here: Thank You for Noticing. Two months earlier, the members of this Chicago trio— beat maker Jeffrey Michael Austin, poet McKenzie Chinn, and rapper Mykele Deville—had hosted a house-show fund-raiser in Pilsen to help pay for the recording. After the second Steppenwolf gig, they knew it had been worth the effort.

Growing Concerns’ set had just ended when a white fan approached Chinn to tell her that he planned to play We Here for his bigoted family members in downstate Illinois. He hoped that its blend of emphatic spoken word, conversational storytelling, and vivid rapping, all set to dreamy ambient beats, would help

them begin to grasp the reality of black folks’ lives in America. “‘They’re good people,’” Chinn remembers the man telling her. “‘But they hold so many prejudices and are bigoted in a lot of ways. It makes me uncomfortable, and I don’t really know how to talk to them about it.’”

In that moment, Chinn says, she realized: “We did our job.”

Chinn just finished a gig as a summer teaching artist at the Goodman Theatre, and she’s also in its new production of Lottery Day. Deville is an actor too, while Austin is a prolific visual artist. But as Growing Concerns they come together to talk about issues that affect them personally, not just professionally: gentrification, displacement, police killings of unarmed black men, the financial challenges and intangible rewards of a young artist’s life.

And the thread linking them all is love—specifically black love and black self-love.

Deville, who’s already released two fulllength albums under his own name, has the most experience imagining an audience fom inside a recording studio. “I’m always first and foremost talking to black folk,” he says.

“When I say ‘We here,’ I’m speaking about the contributions we’ve made that are historically forgotten or historically appropriated.” With their debut, Growing Concerns want to provide an affirmation for people of color who feel hesitant to express themselves against a backdrop of white supremacy.

“I can only speak from my own body. And my body says, most of the time folk of color feel under attack. And when you feel under attack, your voice can feel swallowed up into your

throat, like you can’t speak,” Deville explains.

The members of Growing Concerns try to remind listeners of the beauty and greatness in communities of color, he says, “even in spots of great destitution on the west side and south side and the peripheries.”

Children’s Theatre. They stayed in touch and occasionally saw each other around, and Mykele would sometimes tag Chinn on Facebook notes that contained bits of his poetry.

“I remember noting that—‘Oh my God, Mykele is kind of deep,’” Chinn says. She ran into Deville in fall 2016 at a Salonathon event, he collective began when Deville and Aus- and they got to talking about their creative tin teamed up in late 2016, combining the pursuits—especially poetry. “We had a lot in former’s poetry (as opposed to his lyrics) common in terms of our vision and decided we with the latter’s beats. At that point Austin wanted to collaborate,” she says. had already been carrying the name around Chinn says she began writing poetry sefor more than a year, ever since he saw the riously about a year and a half ago, in part words “Growing Concerns” spray-painted in because she enjoyed having an outlet separate black on a white wall near some train tracks in from her acting career. “I love that I can tell my Fulton Market. The tag was gone the day after own story and not be interpreting someone he spotted it. else’s,” she says. “And to have it land and res“That phrase resonated with me, seeing it onate and move someone—that is such a gift.” as this public calling-out Late last year, Deville on that kind of platform,” invited Chinn to Austin’s MCA PRIME TIME: OFF RACK Austin says. When he and apartment in Pilsen, which This multimedia after-hours Deville began brainstormthe two men now share. arts event features Le1f, ing names, it was the first (It was previously home to House of Diel’s Style Wars, the Growing Concerns thing he pitched. “I was revolunteer-run arts group Poetry Collective, DJs Rae flecting on what I felt drew the Chicago Perch, founded Chardonnay and Cqqchifruit, Mykele and I together in

by Austin’s brother Matt and others. Sat 9/23, 7 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art, this pursuit. And I think it in 2012—its free programs 220 E. Chicago, $25, $20 in was the fact we were both included book publishing, advance, $15 for members, 21+ very sad, concerned men.” symposiums, and public Deville says it was his education.) Chinn read a intention from the start to bring another poem called “Renaissance Blk,” which Deville perspective into Growing Concerns—he and says “blew me back.” In January, he invited Austin are both straight, cisgendered men, so her to join the nascent collective. As they perthey knew there were ways they could never formed and wrote together, they also became speak truth to power. a couple.

He met Chinn in 2012 while they were acting At that first meeting of all three eventual together in Bud, Not Buddy for the Chicago members of Growing Concerns, they’d al- J

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The Growing Concerns Poetry Collective at their album-release event at Steppenwolf Theatre in August ò DON AUSTIN

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ready combined “Renaissance Blk” with some of Deville’s writing to create the seed of the track “Rise Up,” which appears on We Here. “We occupy / We galvanized like some new steel,” Chinn sings. “Some superman steel if superman was black and Clark Kent rocked a fitted and fresh kicks along with those corny-ass glasses / We hoody-up proud / We tear down Confederacies.”

Chinn believes we’re in the middle of a remarkable renaissance in art, specifically in black art and work by other people of color.

That outpouring is in part a response to tragedy and oppression: Grand juries choose not to indict police officers who kill unarmed black men and boys, including Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice.

“You can shoot us in the street and not be indicted for it, but we are still here,” Chinn says.

“We are still here. There is nothing you can do to silence us completely or make us go away.

We’ll still be here.”

What drew Chinn to poetry and to collaboration with the collective is the immediacy of the work, she says. A play might be workshopped, reshaped, and rehearsed for years before it ever makes it to a stage, which makes it a less flexible instrument for responding to current events.

Poetry, on the other hand, is ready to share with an audience as soon as it’s written. And by the time Growing Concerns played their first show in February 2017, they had a lot to respond to. The new Trump administration seemed poised to take the problems near to the collective’s hearts—police brutality, racism in the criminal justice system, inequities in representation, the erasure of the contributions of people of color—and make them all suddenly, dramatically worse. The president and his enablers and supporters have since proved these fears justified, targeting immigrants, nonwhites, women, Muslims, Jewish people, and the LGBT community.

“In my role as someone who frequently has a platform to share ideas and shape thought, it’s important for me to do that as unequivocally as possible now,” Chinn says. “We can’t afford to wait. It feels very critical.”

Deville and Chinn say they can only speak for themselves, but in speaking for themselves they hope to normalize affirmation, self-love, and black pride—and perhaps to inspire oppositional artists, people of color, and other marginalized folks to feel the same.

“Black love is real—our existence, our realities are real,” Deville says. “We will shout it, we will make it so it doesn’t feel uncomfortable.

We should feel comfortable affirming ourselves. People can learn from that. Feel that.”

T

he members of Growing Concerns aren’t the only people telling these stories, of course. They invited Jill Hopkins, cohost of Vocalo’s The Morning AMp and storytelling series the Moth, to open for them on the first night of their Steppenwolf party. She decided to tell a story from high school about her ostracization from the Mormon church.

At first, she told the audience, she thought the church was slut-shaming her for making out with a teenage white Mormon boy. Years later, she learned that racism was at the root of the shunning.

“I wanted to bring something to the table that spoke to the black experience and to the social justice issues Growing Concerns talk about,” Hopkins says. “I wanted to set a tone that bridged the gap between levity and racism, I guess.”

Hopkins insists she’s never seen anything like the collective’s performance chemistry.

She compares Deville and Chinn to Marvin Gaye and his late-60s duet partner Tammi Terrell. She says Growing Concerns channel the magic of storytelling to humanize what might otherwise feel like a didactic message, minimizing the risk of alienating listeners.

“I like to think of this storytelling thing as the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down,” she says.

Lily Be, the Moth’s first Latina Grand Slam champion and cofounder of a storytelling series at Rosa’s Lounge called the Stoop, compares the collective to eclectic Chicago hip-hop band Sidewalk Chalk, but “I’ve never seen it done in poetry with music—this is different.”

Growing Concerns asked Be to open the second night at Steppenwolf, and she told a story

about waiting for the police to arrive while she tried to break up a fight between two kids in Humboldt Park—one of whom, improbably, appeared to be trying to beat the other with a bicycle. It took the cops eight minutes to show up, she says, while Be stayed on the phone with them the whole time—and a bystander later told her that an undercover officer had watched the entire situation unfold without lifting a finger.

These kinds of stories, though they may be difficult to digest or unwelcome in some settings, are truthful and necessary, Be says.

“What they’re doing with that album is letting people know we’re not sitting here trying to be preachy or standing on soapboxes,” she explains. “We’re letting you know: this is what we deal with and how we deal with it, in hopes you learn how to navigate around us.”

Chinn theorizes that much of the wariness and tension that separates different ethnic groups and economic classes comes from ignorance and fear of the unknown. Growing Concerns’ storytelling can serve as a bridge between understanding people as stereotypes and understanding them as themselves.

“We’re hardwired for empathy as human beings. That’s how we’ve survived as a species, and if we can access that some way through artistry, then we’ve done our jobs,” Chinn says.

Deville thinks that connecting people with this empathy amounts to a call to action. “You can’t blame people too much for their parents’ mistakes or their grandparents’ mistakes. But the one big mistake you can make as an affluent white person or ‘woke’ white person is to hear these things being expressed and not do shit about it,” he says.

Growing Concerns don’t see it as the sole responsibility of the oppressed to dismantle the structures and beliefs that perpetuate white supremacy. It’s probably not even possible for POC to do so without help from white folks, who benefit from racial inequality even if

their hearts are pure and radiant. In Growing Concerns’ view, America needs thousands if not millions more people like the white listener who wanted to play their album for his relatives.

Changing minds is a frustrating, difficult task. Even when the collective are invited to perform (as opposed to setting up their own shows), they’re sometimes the only nonwhite act on the bill—leaving open the possibility that their booking is a token gesture intended to provide a facade of equity in representation.

But Growing Concerns usually accept anyway: “Sometimes you’ve got to Trojan horse that shit,” Austin says. “Sometimes you’ve got to dress yourself up, smile and nod at the opportunity, and then get inside and take it apart from the inside.”

Deville adds, “I call it infiltration work.”

The collective don’t have immediate plans to make another album, but they do want to release a book of Chinn and Deville’s poetry, designed by Austin. In the same way that their output can’t be confined to a single genre, Chinn says, their choice of media shouldn’t be one-dimensional either.

“Mykele and McKenzie’s work is so good and so powerful,” Austin adds. “It’s going to be an important step to get those things on paper and out in the world and let people read them and reread them and sink into their consciousness.”

Whatever form their work takes, the collective will continue to tell their stories, aiming to inspire self-love, self-inquiry, and reflection, depending on the listener. “All we can do is tell our truth right—tell our story and hope it lands and changes the people it needs to change,” Chinn says. “That’s not quantifiable at all. But I know when we’re in the room with folks, it feels like something special and important is happening.” v

v @LeeVGaines SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 29

MUSIC

IN ROTATION

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

The cover of Thollem McDonas’s Meeting at the Parting Place The cover of Yoko Ono’s Fly

Helmet in 1992

PETER MARGASAK

TIM STINE

Jazz guitarist and leader of the Tim Stine Trio

Bassist

Yoko Ono, Fly A vital entry in Secretly Canadian’s ongoing Yoko Ono reissue series, this sprawling 1971 double LP with the Plastic Ono Band (including John Lennon, Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr, and Klaus Voormann) captures Ono spreading her wings, spanning post-Fluxus weirdness and classic rock ’n’ roll. The nearly motorik grooves of “Mindtrain” propel some of her earliest, wildest vocal experimentation. She also goes deep on the largely a cappella title track, while on “Mrs. Lennon,” she settles into tender piano balladry.

A grueling masterpiece.

Supersilent, 1-3 Is it jazz? I don’t care. I’m a sucker for Nordic improvising, and Supersilent are my favorite—especially this triple “live in the studio” album from 1997. I knew about their trumpeter, Arve Henriksen, before I’d heard the group: he has several albums on Rune Grammofon that border on being too chill, but Supersilent is anything but. These guys aren’t afraid of being funky while improvising, and to me, that’s really free— in a way most improvisers aren’t. Everything is fair game: backbeats, dubby bass lines, skronk-ass noise, shakuhachi/trumpet howls. Check out Supersilent live with John Paul Jones in Oslo from 2013 on YouTube.

Bottle Tree, Bottle Tree The soon-to-be-legendary Bottle Tree show at the Empty Bottle last summer was one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen. Their self-titled record on the wonderful International Anthem label captures all their best qualities. A.M. Frison’s remarkable voice, Tommaso Moretti’s drumming, and the deep, deep constructs of Ben Lamar Gay make for an intoxicating combination.

Reader music critic

Pan Daijing, Lack No electronic album has thrilled or creeped me out more than this jarring, richly imagined 2017 salvo from Berlin-based Chinese artist Pan Daijing. She weaves a sumptuous fabric from seething feedback, floor-rumbling bass, internal piano scrapes, operatic singing (from soprano Yanwen Xiong), her own processed screams and guttural vocal fry, and a kaleidoscope of ethereal, harrowing electronic textures.

It throbs, floats, and corkscrews in taut, surprising ways.

Sonar Quartett, Helmut Zapf: String Quartets On this 2017 album, German ensemble Sonar Quartett tackles the four diverse works that German composer Helmut Zapf wrote for string quartet between 1984 and 2013. The earliest piece explores intervals and the splay of individual lines, and the most recent, Verschwommene Ränder—Neun Bagatellen, uses brief, richly textured abstract bagatelles to facilitate discrete studies without concern for overarching structure.

You can go back to school, too!

30 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Helmet, Meantime Yes, I know it’s old. I can’t get over it. Like so many midwestern 16-year-olds, I heard this in high school and loved it right away. Page Hamilton’s distorted guitar is my favorite guitar tone ever. It’s super in-your-face, no reverb, mixed way out front. Also the album came out on Interscope, a label that was doing mostly rap at the time, which made it seem more special. Released in 1992, it just turned 25—is Meantime classic rock now?

Michael Gregory Jackson, Clarity On this spectacular 1976 quartet record with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, reedist Oliver Lake, and saxophonist David Murray, bandleader Michael Gregory Jackson plays mostly acoustic guitar. The great compositions (a few through-composed) and interesting improvisations feature lots of flute plus one of my favorite textural combos, acoustic guitar and alto sax. Worth several listens.

MATTHEW LUX

Justin Walter, Unseen Forces Mr. Walter’s music is what I call rich. Take that however you like. His utilization of the rarelyseen-in-the-wild Electronic Valve Instrument (EVI) imbues his soundscapes with phrasing that’s unusual for what is ostensibly “electronic music.” Mr. Walter is from Ann Arbor, where it seems that something in the water has created a generation of some of the best musicians America has to offer these days, including Matt Bauder, Toby Summerfield, Tim Haldeman, and Colin Stetson. This is unique and personal music that I enjoy greatly.

Thollem McDonas, Meeting at the Parting Place Thollem (he seems to prefer using his first name alone) is just about my favorite pianist of my generation. His criminally underappreciated music defies genre. Really. Contemporary classical, jazz, free improv, and rock all coexist happily in Thollem’s hands. I once saw him almost destroy a nine-foot grand piano with just the intensity of his playing. I like pianos by themselves especially, and this is a solo piano record.

Learn to play with us this fall!

New adult group classes are now open! Browse our class schedules online at oldtownschool.org

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 • VIC THEATRE

OCTOBER 18 VIC THEATRE

OCT. 20 SHOW IS SOLD OUT!

SPECIAL GUESTS:

SATURDAY OCTOBER 7

THIS SATURDAY! SEPTEMBER 23

SPECIAL GUEST:

ALICE GLASS

OCTOBER 10 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 THE RETURN OF

BRIDGET EVERETT THE CHURCH HELIO SEQUENCE

SPECIAL GUEST: THE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6

SATURDAY OCTOBER 14

THURSDAY OCTOBER 19

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

RON POPE – Saturday, Oct. 21 • SHAWN COLVIN – Saturday, Oct. 28 • JOHNNY CLEGG –Oct. 29 • LUNA – Nov. 2 THE MOTET / DOPAPOD – Friday, Nov. 10 • GRACE VANDERWAAL – Nov. 15 - Sold Out! • RUGGEDLY JEWISH-BOB GARFIELD – Dec. 9 • TODD RUNDGREN – Dec. 16 & 17

THE SCRIPT –Friday, Oct. 6 • MISTERWIVES –Oct. 15 • TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVE. –Saturday, Oct. 21 • PVRIS –Oct. 22 • BEN FOLDS – Saturday, Oct. 28 SILVERSUN PICKUPS –Nov. 8 • BLEACHERS –Saturday, Nov. 11 • FLYING LOTUS IN 3D –Nov. 14 • THE MOUNTAIN GOATS –Friday, Nov. 17 • LIAM GALLAGHER –Nov. 21 GRIZZLY BEAR –Nov. 29 • ANGEL OLSEN –Saturday, Dec. 9 • GREENSKY BLUEGRASS –Friday & Saturday, Dec. 29-30 & NEW YEAR’S EVE-Dec. 31

BUY TICKETS AT SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 31

MUSIC

Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of September 21 b

THURSDAY21 gordon Grdina, Kenton Loewen, and François Houle Jason Roebke and the duo of Loewen and Ken Vandermark open. 9 PM, Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey, $10. b

PICK OF THE WEEK

Open Mike Eagle revisits the traumatic destruction of the Robert Taylor Homes

OPEN MIKE EAGLE, SAMMUS

ò ROGER HO

Fri 9/22, 10 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $15, $13 in advance. 18+

ATOP A LOW-GROANING GUITAR that lumbers through “My Auntie’s Building,” Hyde Park native Open Mike Eagle raps, “They blew up my auntie’s building / Put out her greatgrandchildren / Who else in America deserves to have that feeling? / Where else in America will they blow up that village?” He’s specifically referring to the Robert Taylor Homes, the 28 public housing high-rises that were demolished over nine years starting in 1998. On his new album, Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (Mello Music Group), Eagle, who grew up visiting his aunt and her children there, reenvisions the legacy of that two-mile stretch of CHA buildings, which outsiders have remembered as incubators of crime. If anyone’s up for the task it’s Eagle; he has an exceptional gift for balancing unvarnished descriptions of black life under the oppressive forces of systemic racism and economic inequality with a personable sense of humor (earlier this year Comedy Central picked up a variety series Eagle and comedian Baron Vaughn created called The New Negroes). These days Eagle calls LA home, but on Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, he’s a Chicagoan through and through. The aforementioned “My Auntie’s Building” is great because he’s able to shine a light on the blight of the Robert Taylor Homes as much as the beating hearts of the people who filled its apartments. Over the course of the album, he reveals what made the complex unique as a community, while demonstrating how the city failed the citizens who lived there. Eagle fights for the displaced and against the forces that drove them out. In the process he gives the unheard a voice, such as on the succinct hook of “Brick Body Complex,” where he artfully blends the perspective of resident and building into one “I promise you I will never fit in your descriptions / I’m giant, don’t let nobody tell you nothing different.” —LEOR GALIL

32 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

The Vancouver duo of guitarist Gordon Grdina and drummer Kenton Loewen have formed a serious bond over two decades of collaboration, shifting the tone of their partnership depending on context or the involvement of additional musicians. But they always sound plugged in to each other,seeming to adapt as easily as one turns a dimmer switch.

Earlier this year, the duo released their self-titled album as Peregrine Falls (Drip Audio), which couches their flinty, fiery improvisation in heavy hard-rock grooves. Loewen’s playing shifts between tense shuffles and full-blown pummeling, while Grdina trades off atmospheric patterns that evoke the billowing melancholy of Radiohead and lacerating riffs that split the difference between 70s hard rock and 90s heavy metal. Rather than settle into a pleasing grind, the music shimmers on the brink of chaos, keeping things surprising with spontaneous gestures. Grdina and Loewen sound like entirely different people on Ghost Lights (Songlines), a gorgeous quartet effort with French pianist Benoît Delbecq and Vancouver clarinetist François Houle—a pair of musicians whose own partnership goes back 20 years. Most of the music is freely improvised, but the meditative opener, “Soro,” is a composition by Houle; Grdina and Loewen’s taut, twitchy swing melds with Delbecq’s string-damped lines to give the composer a perfect foundation for a lyrical solo. Elsewhere, the musicians seem like they’re tethered together, tracing each other’s movements to discover lines and phrases that complement and caress one another with chamber music sensitivity, their rich timbres enhanced by subtle electronics. Tonight Houle, Grdina, and Loewen perform as a trio, promising yet another world of sound. —PETER MARGASEK

FRIDAY22 Open Mike Eagle, Sammus See Pick of the Week. 10 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, $15, $13 in advance. 18+

SATURDAY23 Antietam Part of the Hideout Block Party.

Today’s bill, headliner first, is Eleventh Dream Day, Jon Langford & Skull Orchard, Condo Fucks, Antietam, 75 Dollar Bill, Illinois Humanities Crowd-Out-Chicago 2nd Ward Choir, and Vision Celestial Guitarkestra. 4 PM (music begins at 1 PM), Hideout, $20. b People tend to talk about long-lived rock bands as though it’s surprising or admirable that a group of folks can stick together for so many years. But I think belonging to a band can be the thing that helps you soldier on through the challenges and hurdles of life. The husband-and-wife team of guitarist Tara Key and bassist Tim Harris have been

ALL AGES

F

the core of New York band Antietam since they founded it in 1984 (they’d previously played in Louisville’s Babylon Dance Band). The group’s terrific new album, Intimations of Immortality (Motorific Sounds), makes me think that playing together has been a balm for both of them—and maybe even for drummer Josh Madell, who’s been aboard since the early 90s. In the six years since their previous album, Tenth Life (Carrot Top), Key and Harris have suffered the deaths of their mothers and those of various friends and colleagues from Louisville’s punk scene. Last Thanksgiving, a huge fire in a building adjacent to their longtime apartment forced them from their home for months. In an e-mail, Key describes these experiences as “your garden variety adult redefinitions,” and the songs on Intimations of Immortality meditate on them with nonplussed acceptance—or offer escape into simple pleasures. (On the opening track, “Sunshine,” Key sings “Summertime loosening my spine.”) And even when she can’t find respite, she refuses to buckle; on “Jefferson” she sings “You can call the game or set up a straw man to blame” in a calm tone that makes clear she intends to do neither. Key remains a ferocious guitarist, wedding the maximal thrum of Pete Townshend with roaring punk-rock aggression, but this isn’t just a guitar record: unexpectedly lovely vocal harmonies, occasional sparkling horn charts, and wonderfully ragged rock ’n’ roll piano from guest Ira Kaplan help vary the complexion of its 11 songs. (Physical editions come packaged with 11 corresponding collaged paintings by Key.) Antietam play on the first day of the Hideout’s 21st annual Block Party, a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik launch—every act on this lineup of longtime comrades features a member born in 1957.

—PETER MARGASAK

dead Rider Bloodiest and Bill MacKay open.

9 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, $15. 21+ The unctuous lounge-lizard croon that marks the singing of Dead Rider’s Todd Rittman has started to fray on the group’s fantastic new album, Crew Licks (Drag City), as if to suggest that his sinister shadiness is getting tangled within his own web of deceit. As usual, it’s often difficult to know exactly what he’s going on about, and when there’s some relatively clear idea at work it’s unsavory: “The Listing” seems to be about some kind of desperation-driven prostitution (replete with samples of an auctioneer at full tilt), while on “When I Was Frankenstein’s” the narrator boasts about carrying a feathery umbrella and wearing a fine cap despite being a monster. Rittman’s lyrics often feel like cut-ups—albeit cut-ups that sound great—such as when he sings “You’re a real snare strainer / Air complainer” on the opening track, “Grand Mal Blues.” On a cover of the Grateful Dead’s “Ramble on Rose” he sounds like David Bowie at his most strung out, slinking creepily alongside skittering, lurching drum machines, ominous ambient guitar, and polished backing vocals by sometime collaborator Andrea Faught. Each of the group’s releases has featured offers slick, inventive production.

Crew Licks is no exception; its production serves to highlight its queasy hard-rock guitar solos that curdle within the sultry grooves of a tune like “The Floating Dagger”—which sounds like the remnants of an alley brawl between old-school Steely Dan

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MUSIC and the Rolling Stones. Few bands in recent memory have so effectively repurposed conventions of both classic rock and radio-friendly dance-rock into sounds that could induce nausea or seem refined.

When the band—whose core also includes drummer Matthew Espy and bassist John Samson—plays live, the various disparities are only gloriously magnified. —PETER MARGASAK

Hyde Park Jazz Festival: NICK MAZZARELLA & TOMEKA REID / ANDREW CYRILLE & BILL McHENRY These performances take places at two of the festival’s 11 venues. Mazzarella & Reid: 4:30 PM, DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th. $5 suggested donation. b Cyrille & McHenry: 9:30 PM, International House, University of Chicago, 1414 E. 59th, $5 suggested donation. b One feature of the Hyde Park Jazz Fest that has quietly distinguished it over the last few years is the prevalence of dynamic duos, whether the pairings are new or seasoned, improvised or driven by tunes. Notable among this year’s terrific offerings is the first local performance by alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and cellist Tomeka Reid since the release of their superb debut album, Signaling (Nessa). The record opens with the soulful, melodic “Blues for Julius and Abdul,” a tender homage to

one of improvised music’s most distinctive alto sax and cello duos, Hemphill and Wadud. From there the pair push into more abstract terrain, alternating between measured aggression—such as biting phrases of needling vibrato from Mazzarella on the title track while Reid toggles between bittersweet arco expression,and frenzied pizzicato— andhollowed-out delicateness, such as the tip-toe exchanges on “The Ancestors Speak.” On the surface it might appear that Mazzarella is running the game, but Reid’s elegant lines and gestures prod more than follow.

When I attended this year’s Winter Jazz Fest in New York, no set gave me greater pleasure or made me think as much as a performance by endlessly inventive drummer Andrew Cyrille and often-overlooked tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, who played music from their excellent 2016 album, Proximity (Sunnyside). Both players operated with sophisticated simplicity, foregrounding forehrounding subtlety rather than grandstanding or vacant intensity. On “Fabula,” written by Chicago percussionist Don Moye, their connection suggests the easygoing rapport of Sonny Rollins and Shelly Manne on the classic “I’m an Old Cowhand.”

Cyrille’s adaptation of the Leadbelly song “Green Corn” (titled “Drum Song for Leadbelly”) highlights his refined melodic sensibilities as he teases out a full kit’s range of sounds off the rim of his snare.

On the album’s tender title track, Cyrille’s masterful brushwork is so subtle it’s almost inaudible—for a while, his granular swirl almost feels like an extension of McHenry’s lyrical, gorgeously restrained, slow-moving lines. —PETER MARGASAK

Orphée et Eurydice See also Wednesday.

This coproduction of Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet runs through October 15. 6:30 PM, Civic Opera House, 20 N. Upper Wacker, $49-$299. b In 1774, 12 years after he composed a traditionbusting Italian opera version of the mythical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, Christoph Willibald Gluck revised it for presentation in Paris. With an eye to French mores and taste, he changed his original casting for the hero who braves hell to reclaim his dead wife from a castrato to a high tenor. He also greatly expanded the dance sequences, which make Orphée et Eurydice an apt selection for a muchanticipated first collaboration between Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet. Choreographed, designed, and directed by Hamburg Ballet director (and Milwaukee native) John Neumeier, who imagines the narrative as the story of a choreographer and a lead ballerina, the production features tenor Dmitry Korchak as Orphée and soprano Andriana Chuchman as his Eurydice. Early music specialist Harry Bicket conducts. —DEANNA ISAACS

Wovenhand Subrosa and Pirate Twins open.

9 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, $25, $20 in advance. 17+

Much of the country’s Americana, roots rock, and alt-country may exist in living homage to what Greil Marcus famously called the “old, weird America” (as if America had somehow ceased to be weird)— but I’ve always got my ear out for the present-day weird America. It’s been exported out and brought back to us for decades; consider that strange, shamanic strain of country-gothic swagger from the likes of Fields of the Nephilim (Brits) and early/ mid-period Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (mostly Aussies). If you put that sort of mysticism and grandeur into the hands of a crack band led by a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of the caliber of 16 Horsepower veteran David Eugene Edwards— who knows American music from the bones up and whose visionary, mystical Christianity is absolutely sincere—you get Wovenhand, who I think are the greatest band this genre has produced to date.

Their eighth full-length, Star Treatment (recorded

by Sanford Parker and released on Sargent House), has a loose theme of celestial prophecy, and continues darkening and densening their distinctive sound. Album opener “Come Brave” sounds like an update of a Blackfeet or Molly Hatchett barn burner, and the following track, “Swaying Reed,” has a drony, remote neofolk melancholy that reminds J

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 33

MUSIC WAND

SEP 30

SAM AMIDON

OCT 04

PROTOMARTYR

OCT 08

THE PEACERS + DARTO

TY MAXON

FAILED FLOWERS + DEEPER

CULTS

OCT 22

AN EVENING WITH...

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER

OCT 24

THE KOMINAS

SINKANE

OCT 26

NAI PALM [OF HIATUS KAIYOTE]

OCT 27

NICK LOWE’S QUALITY ROCK & ROLL REVUE

OCT 31

CULLEN OMORI + HIDEOUT

FEATURING... LOS STRAITJACKETS + CUT WORMS

TICKETS AT WWW.LH-ST.COM

SEP 29

TEI SHI

SEP 30

MATT POND PA

OCT 01

MINOR MOON

GREYHOUNDS

OCT 02

DANIEL NORGREN

OCT 03

WHITEHORSE

OCT 04

TRISTEN AND JENNY O

OCT 06

DIZZY

J FERNANDEZ + DOGS AT LARGE

TERRA LIGHTFOOT

NEW

FAUX CO.

CARL BROEMEL

OF MY MORNING JACKET

34 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Beer, jazz, and Sputnik’s 60th close festival season with a bang

NOV 16

me of classic 16 Horsepower tracks like “Horsehead Fiddle” and sets up a platform for bone-shaking psychedelic preaching. If Edwards told me to take up serpents I just might do it. —MONICA KENDRICK

SUNDAY24 Ensemble dal Niente 3 PM, Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan, $10, $5 students and members. b

Corin Tucker ò JAIME PUEBLA

GRIEVES

DEM ATLAS + AJANI JONES

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FESTIVALS

312 Block Party Goose Island pairs tons of beer with all sorts of live music, including sets from the likes of Animal Collective, Ted Leo, and Filthy Friends, a new project from R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker. 9/22-9/23, Goose Island Brewery, 1800 W. Fulton, gooseisland.com, $10 suggested donation, 21+ Hideout Block Party The Hideout Block Party returns after a twoyear hiatus to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik launch (see page 33) and the 20th birthday of Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio. The latter features sets from bands who’ve recorded there, among them Man or Astro-Man?, Screaming Females, Meat Wave, and Facs. 9/23-9/24, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, hideoutchicago.com, $20. b Hyde PArk JAzz Fest A wide range of Hyde Park venues hosts a wide variety of jazz. Notable performers include Nick Mazzarella & Tomeka Reid, Andrew Cyrille & Bill McHenry (see page 32), Bamako*Chicago Sound System, and Jaimie Branch’s Fly or Die. 9/23-9/24, various venues around Hyde Park, hydeparkjazzfestival.org, $5 suggested donation, $125 Jazz Pass for priority seating. b

George Lewis initially made his mark as one of the greatest trombonists in the history of jazz, but as he gravitated toward more compositional work, his use of improvisation grew more abstract and elemental. Now, he brings improvisation to the act of living itself, a notion he’s long espoused in his writings and talks. The pieces on Assemblange (New World)—a fantastic new CD of some of his recent work, beautifully rendered by Chicago’s Ensemble dal Niente—magnificently illustrate a few manifestations of this thinking. On “Mnemosis” and “Hexis,” the composer presents a series of repeated patterns voiced by different groupings of instruments, often bridged by arresting solo or duo passages that help tie things together. The title piece, which Lewis wrote specifically for Ensemble dal Niente, is more focused on a bricolage of elements he created in the past (an act he calls “self-scavenging”), though deep within the piece he also nods to longtime colleague Roscoe Mitchell via a snippet of coruscating soprano saxophone voiced by Taimur Sullivan. None of the pieces embrace standard compositional forms and the recording has no tidy resolution.

For Lewis, this is a philosophical design for living in the moment: as he says in Michael Gallope’s liner note essay, “You are encouraged to stay in one place and really be in the moment. I’m looking for a sense of stasis in these pieces.” When life is driven by fixed routines and getting from point A to point B is a regular goal, it can be hard to be present in the moment—a necessary quality for fruitful improvisation. The members of the ensemble have leeway in their interpretations, and while they may not improvise the same way a jazz musician might, in the thick of these works they navigate solutions by listening and observing where they are. Ensemble dal Niente will perform all four works from the album, which in addition to the title composition includes “The Mangle of Practice,” a duo piece for pianist Winston Choi and violinist Minghuan Xu. The concert is preceded by a talk with Lewis and composer Anthony Cheung at 2:30 PM. —PETER MARGASAK

Giants Chair Lifted Bells headline. Giants Chair, Ex Acrobat, Wet Tropics, and Brandon L. Butler open. 8 PM, 1st Ward, 2033 W. North, $13, $10 in advance. 18+ In this, the decade of emo’s revival, with young bands refashioning the sound as a vital component of contemporary indie-rock and the 90s bands that inspired them playing reunion shows to larger crowds, it’s been encouraging to see folks reexamine the genre’s past. Finally, after decades of

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Find more music listings at chicagoreader.com/soundboard.

MUSIC

bottom lounge ON SALE NOW

10TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW

09.23 HAKEN

SITHU AYE / MAMMOTH

09.26 THE EARLY NOVEMBER & THE MOVIELIFE HEART ATTACK MAN

101WKQX QUEUED UP ARTIST SHOWCASE

10.04 WELSHLY ARMS HONORS

ALT NATION PRESENTS

10.05 ATLAS GENIUS

FLOR / HALF THE ANIMAL

10.10 TRUCKFIGHTERS NIGHT ONE - AUTUMN OF THE SERAPHS 10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

10.11 PINBACK

Muna ò KATIE-MCCURDY

DRAGON DROP NIGHT TWO

the midwest largely (and perhaps rightfully) being remembered for emo projects associated with the Kinsella family, young listeners have the tools to get a better sense of all the other bands who’d fill out weekday shows at the Fireside Bowl in the mid-90s—and see those bands too. In Giants Chair, a Kansas City band that dropped a couple LPs on crucial Nebraska label Caulfield before bowing out in 1997, emo’s midwestern aesthetic found a strong spiritual link to San Diego’s influential posthardcore community—the three-piece cut forlorn melodies with serrated guitars like Pennywise chomping after children in It. Giants Chair reemerged earlier this year, playing a benefit show in February and uploading a couple of lean brand-new tracks to Bandcamp in June; “Featureless Horizon” and “The Streets” cost a buck each, and according to the group’s Facebook page, each sale goes toward paying for the recording of Giants Chair’s forthcoming third full-length. —LEOR GALIL

TUESDAY26 Lavender Country Golden Horse Ranch Band and Slop Sink open. 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, $15. 21+ Lavender Country front man Patrick Haggerty is a true American rebel. Raised on a tenant dairy farm in Washington State, Haggerty grew up knee-deep in 40s and 50s country music—he spent his childhood listening to Canadian country radio, and when he was nine started playing tunes on a guitar his father gave him. When Haggerty began to publicly express his sexuality as a teenager, his father, a tough rural Catholic, taught him another important lesson—to be proud of who you are. His life since then has been colorful, and through it all he’s never tried to hide who he is. In the late 80s he cofounded Seattle’s chapter of the AIDS-advocacy organization ACT UP, and twice ran for public office under the pro-gay, multiracial New Alliance party. These days Haggerty is best known for Lavender Coun-

try, which in 1973 released the first country album by openly gay musicians via the Gay Community Social Services of Seattle. The band only pressed 1,000 copies of the self-titled record, but when North Carolina archival label Paradise of Bachelors reissued it in 2014, Lavender Country’s history and importance became known across cultural barriers. On the album Haggerty proudly sings stories of his experience as a gay man in the language of the postwar country songs he grew up with—the music is bawdy, heartfelt, and steeped in the history of the land as much as anything that has come out of Nashville. The standout “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears” should be considered part of this country’s history of protest music, a sing-along rallying cry for those who have little but refuse to give up the things that make them happy. Following the 2014 reissue, Haggerty gathered a new lineup of Lavender Country that he plays with sporadically. Tonight’s Lavender Country is special not just because of its rarity, but because tomorrow Haggerty turns 73. —LEOR GALIL

10.12 PINBACK PAPER MICE

REACT PRESENTS

10.14 TERRAVITA RIOT / CHIME

PERFORMING CONFESSIONS OF A KNIFE AND I SEE GOOD SPIRITS, I SEE BAD SPIRITS

10.20 MY LIFE WITH THE THRILL KILL KULT DJ BUD SWEET

SILVER WRAPPER PRESENTS

10.27 THE MAIN SQUEEZE REACT PRESENTS

10.28 CRANKDAT 10.29 BRUJERIA

PINATA PROTEST 101WKQX HALLOWEEN BASH

10.30 THE STRUTS

FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS GIN & TONIC (THE STRUTS AS OASIS) REACT PRESENTS

11.02 A TRIBE CALLED RED SILVER WRAPPER PRESENTS

11.15 SLOW MAGIC MUNA Harry Styles headlines. 8 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, sold out b Something strange happened to the idea of “the 80s” over the last decade. After years of mockery and pastiche, a new crop of artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, M83, and the 1975, along with producers such as Ariel Rechtshaid and Jack Antonoff, have started using glistening synths and gated reverb to signify something completely divorced from excess and cocaine—inside the transcendent, ahistorical sonic bubble of a bygone era of pop, they construct a cloistered space in which to reflect. Los Angeles electronic-pop trio Muna further that tradition. On their debut album, About U (RCA), the songs are filled with processed popcraft that wouldn’t sound out of place on Taylor Swift’s 1989. But unlike Swift’s album, About U is never content with mere selfempowerment. Rather, Muna write songs to live and grow with, pushing lyrically beyond cathartic self-expression into compassion, even during J

REACT PRESENTS

11.16 BLEEP BLOOP

UM.. / SUMTHIN’ SUMTHIN’

11.17 SHE WANTS REVENGE COSMONAUTS

11.22 OCEANS ATE ALASKA

DAYSEEKER / AFTERLIFE / TANZEN

RIOT FEST PRESENTS

11.25 BEACH SLANG

DAVE HAUSE & THE MERMAID SEE THROUGH DRESSES

12.02 THE WHITE BUFFALO 12.08 THE DEAR HUNTER THE FAMILY CREST / VAVA

12.17 THE SPILL CANVAS WILD / SUPER WHATEVR

www.bottomlounge.com 1375 w lake st 312.666.6775

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 35

MUSIC Josh Sinton ò BRYAN MURRAY

continued from 35

the deepest conflicts. “Everything,” a hymn to how thoughts of a former lover can infiltrate the smallest moments, showcases this ability to find striking moments of clarity in crisis: “I’m sorry to be so serious,” cries vocalist Katie Gavin, “I know you can’t stand me this way.” It’s those small apologies, communicated critically but with warmth and hope, that lend this unassuming band its power.

—AUSTIN BROWN

WEDNESDAY27 Orphée et Eurydice See Saturday. This coproduction of Lyric Opera and the Joffrey Ballet runs through October 15. 7:30 PM, Civic Opera House, 20 N. Upper Wacker, $49-$299. b Quicksand No Joy opens. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport, $25-$32. 17+ Quicksand seemed destined to stay posthardcore’s version of a brilliant cult TV show that regrettably lasted only a season or two. Before disbanding in 1995, the New York-based four-piece released an EP and two near perfect but underappreciated albums, Slip (1993) and Manic Compression (1995). Following the breakup, the band’s four members (front man Walter Schreifels, drummer Alan Cage, bassist Sergio Vega, and guitarist Tom Capone) dispersed among a host of other projects like Rival Schools and Handsome, while elements of Quicksand’s brand of tightly constructed muscular and melodic rock—a sort of thinking man’s hardcore—lived on in their more commercially successful successors ranging from Tool to Deftones (whom Vega joined in 2008). Eventually Quicksand reunited for a special one-off show and an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in 2012. In the half decade since, they’ve played a few sporadic shows, but have remained mum about about whether or not they planned to make new music. That is, until August, when they announced the November release of Interiors, their first new album in more than 20 years. The album’s lead single, “Illuminant,” echoes vintage Quicksand; from the dissonant opening riff it hits like a freight train that keeps chugging and screeching over the song’s four lean minutes. Other songs on the album reveal a kinder, gentler version of their for-

36 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

mer selves. Schreifels’s raspy voice is nearly swallowed up in the noise of jangly tunes like “Normal Love,” and two brief, dreamy instrumental tracks threaten to float off into space at any moment. The sound of classic Quicksand hasn’t been lost to the sands of time after all, and their 22-year-long break has tempered their breakneck aggression and given them permission, at last, to take the foot off the gas and enjoy the ride. Quicksand is currently touring as a three piece; in a recent statement they announced Capone is at home focusing on his health. —RYAN SMITH

Josh Sinton’s Musicianer 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $10. 18+ Baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton first played with bassist Jason Ajemian and drummer Chad Taylor in the 90s when they lived in Chicago, but they never formed a combo until recently, when they reconnected in New York. Taking their name from a slang term for a jazz cat coined decades ago by saxophonist Sidney Bechet, the trio have put out a superb debut album, Slow Learner (out Friday on Iluso), that sounds like they’ve been a band for much longer than they have. Sinton luxuriates in the lower depths of his rheumy instrument’s ruddy range—his tone gets downright silky when he wants it to, as on the elegant ballad “Can’t Really Say.” For the most part he blows his horn with a ferocious heft that rides the agile, meaty rhythms sculpted by his partners, sometimes with nimble grace, sometimes with rude aggression. Taylor, in particular, is a monster, digging deep into spacious funk patterns and halting yet splashy attacks.

Occasionally someone will enhance the scrappy timbre, whether it’s the synthetic bass ostinato that pulses through the start of “And Then It Came to Me”—which definitely recalls a regular feature both Taylor and Ajemian encountered in Rob Mazurek’s Chicago Underground bands—or the hypnotic kalimba arpeggios that open “Can’t Really Say.” Ultimately Musicianer are a trio that embrace their sparseness, and gamely bloody their knuckles while ripping into Sinton’s compositions. The saxophonist unabashedly chews up the landscape, whether spewing acidic split tones on the seething “Evening of Mourning (Ferguson Goddamn)” or pouring dusky, elemental beauty into the airy, hydroplaning “Fail Beautiful.” Musicianer works because all three guys are locked in—they get each other. —PETER MARGASAK v

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FOR TICKETS, VISIT OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 7PM

Inside/Out with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre In Szold Hall FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 8PM

Trace Bundy

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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 1:30PM

Okee Dokee Brothers Kids concert! • 11am show SOLD OUT!

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 7PM

Frances Luke Accord In Szold Hall

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 7:30PM

Loudon Wainwright III

Discussion and Q&A for his new book Liner Notes with writer Erin Osmon

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1 8PM

Garifuna Collective In Szold Hall

Runebergskören

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4 8PM

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OLDTOWNSCHOOL.ORG SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 37

FOOD & DRINK

Blvd aims to conjure the postwar Sunset Strip

But it’s chef Johnny Besch’s food that transcends the cliches.

By MIKE SULA

S

ooo, it’s been a long, hard week, and you want to go out and be treated like a dead movie star.

That’s the kind of check they’re looking for at Blvd—the Restaurant That Said No to Vowels—which is parked in the shell of a long-gone nightclub in Chicago’s most restaurant-dense neighborhood. Very soon you won’t even be allowed in the area unless you have a dinner reservation, as Chicago’s restaurant bubble wafts wobbly over the bright lights of the West Loop and Fulton Market District.

Blvd is dressed up to be the kind of restaurant where Marilyn Monroe and James Dean would hang out, with the aim of becoming a place where you want to hang out as well. Inside, chandeliers drip over jumbo circular booths. Women in short dresses climb the carpeted spiral staircase to take selfies in the ladies room, across an atrium from an ambitious overflow floor with a separate bar and dining room. It’s the Champagne Room, you’re told. Balcony tables

38 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

BLVD | $$$$ R 817 W. Lake 312-526-3116 blvdchicago.com

Chandeliers drip over jumbo circular booths. ò KEVIN HARTMANN

overlook the civilized debauchery below, and the soundtrack is a mix of the usual anodyne electropop wallpaper and Rat Pack dance remixes, the latter a diabolical genre designed to drive you out of your mind.

This fantasy was selling pretty well at Blvd last month, when tables even a few days out were hard come by if you hadn’t planned further ahead or called in a favor. And yet restaurants have a responsibility to meet certain realities. Number one is to hire a talented chef—otherwise people will forget about it in two months and a restaurant like Blvd will go the way of Chromium, the club that existed here ten years ago and haunted the building so hard that no one wanted to move in until all the other former industrial spaces had been claimed.

The chef initially was Ross Mendoza, who came from Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurant group, most recently at the late Pump Room, the storied boite in the former Ambassador East—a place that in its prime was somewhere that movie stars and aging idols actually would hang out. Maybe Mendoza picked up some of that long-gone mojo.

Who can say, as he departed the project in its early days? His chef de cuisine, Johnny Besch (Bistro Bordeaux, L2O), stepped up, updating and adding to the menu, which on its face looks like a dozen others in the West Loop and River North. You have your seafood tower and caviar service. You have your avocado toast because, while that may not have been a thing 65 years ago, it is a thing now.

You have your shishito peppers, because people still like to eat with their paws. There are roasted carrots, naturally. Whole roasted fish, oysters, and a 22-ounce rib eye for two or four or, if you’re the Big Man, one. And of course—everybody say it with me now— there’s a burger.

Besch has a lot of bases covered there. But the challenge for some chefs is to rise above the cliches they’re dealt. Fairly often he does.

Steak tartare bonded with bone marrow butter and served on a toasted sourdough “shingle” (what all the young whippersnappers call “toast” these days) is a cannibal’s delight. Light, airy brandade croquettes take a dip in umami-swollen, seaweed-infused remoulade. Chubby pink slices of hamachi appear en crudo, with an admirably restrained application of salted plum sauce countered nicely by a plum salt finish.

Most of the dishes are assigned to absurd menu categorizations like “Divide and Conquer” (meat to be shared) and “Flying J

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 39

NEIGHBORHOOD

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40 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

continued from 38 Solo (or not),” which tries to have it both ways. Cacio e pepe sits between two other pastas, a formidable mound of soft, springy chitarra so thoroughly tossed with Parmigiano and crushed black pepper that it crunches; a simultaneously confounding and satisfying exception to the rule that al dente is always right. Octopus, charred and smoky, sits atop a bed of smooth hummus, blackened with squid ink and black sesame paste, the two almost indistinguishable from each other but for the thinly shaved root vegetables—fresh and pickled carrots, kohlrabi, fennel, and watermelon radish—that lie between them. Jiggly scallops, unharmed by whoever applied their thin, seared crust, perch atop a tiny mount of corn souffle and sweet red onion bacon jam.

Those roasted carrots are treated with carrot-top pesto and coriander-scented yogurt.

Shrimp cocktail is something radical altogether. Fat, pink crustaceans stand in a sharp tomato gastrique and tingling horseradish panna cotta that together sub for cocktail sauce, alongside lemon confit and a dehydrated lemon garnish. I’m confident I’ll be thinking about this exquisite audacity if I’m ever exiled to the desert.

A few seasonal dishes will be short-lived, some deservedly. Sweet king and Dungeness crab fight strewn among starchy sweet corn whose time has come and gone.

The burger you’ve met dozens of times before: a thin double-pattied diner style, cooked well beyond pink but buried under

so much cheese and sickly-sweet pickles you likely won’t notice. A “minute steak”—what the devious menu writer meant by hanger steak—is gristly and a choreful to eat, even among roasted baby potatoes, chimichurri, and blackened green onions.

The dessert menu is distinguished by a chocolate-covered candy bar, in an execution that echoes the foie gras candy bar at Roister but makes its own statement with crunchy chewy nougat, chocolate ganache, honeywalnut caramel with a touch of cayenne, and a side of buttermilk sorbet. A chocolate cake covered in thick peanut butter frosting and Reese’s peanut butter cup shrapnel is large enough for its own zip code and comes with a pair of mini milk bottles. Restaurants that don’t reflexively serve cold milk with chocolate cake are doing it wrong.

Somehow I’m not surprised that vodka dominates the cocktail list, but more interesting options are available. The vegetal funk of the sotol-based Treat Me Nice plays well with passion fruit and lime, while the Burnout, with chile-infused tequila, poblano chile liqueur, and habanero bitters, isn’t the Sammy Hagar–endorsed emetic you might imagine. Wines on the fine-print bottle list, and the more navigable by-the-glass list are categorized by titles such as “The Only Thing Better Than Butter” and “Tall, Dark, and Handsome,” which I imagine makes the sommelier feel like a babysitter at story time.

OK, who wouldn’t want to travel back to halcyon 1950s Hollywood, when nuclear annihilation was slightly less likely than it is now? It’s hard to fault the escapist intentions of Blvd, though sometimes it feels more like the sort of place a young lady might take her American Girl Doll for champers when it turns 21. As for you fellas, you’ll have to decide whether you’re going to wear the pork pie or the fedora. But it does have one crucial element necessary for longevity. If you can stomach the particular artifice that veils this place, you’ll find more than a few things to like on Besch’s menu. v

v @Mike Sula

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FOOD & DRINK

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LO REZ BREWING AND TAPROOM 2101 S. Carpenter 888-404-2262 lorezbrewing.com

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Bar Specials available at bar Only with two alcoholic drinks minimum per person

Lo Rez Brewing and Taproom ò BRITTANY SOWACKE

C

hicago’s south side isn’t exactly short on breweries, but they’re a lot sparser than they are up north. Just a year ago there wasn’t a single taproom in Pilsen, a problem that Moody Tongue remedied last fall by opening a tasting room. It’s not exactly a casual place to grab a pint, though: the stunning space, with its hand-blown Austrian glassware and limited food menu (oysters and giant slices of chocolate cake), can be a little much for a Monday. In the last few months, though, two new spots have opened within a mile of Moody Tongue: first Alulu, a brewpub near Ashland and Cermak, and then Lo Rez, a brewery that’s been making beer since last fall but just opened its taproom in June.

At a time when breweries are increasingly likely to specialize in a specific style of beer— sours, for example—Alulu is of the more traditional, something-for-everyone variety. There are a dozen options on tap, including a couple lagers, a few pale ales and IPAs, a porter, and a stout. They’re all solid beers, but my favorites were some less common varieties: Sys Crisp, a dry, mildly hoppy lager brewed with rye malt; Java Waves, a light yet rich blond ale made with both cold-brew coffee and whole beans; and Aurum Defender, a biere de garde that’s somehow both earthy and tropical, combining notes of pineapple and dirt in a strangely appealing way. I’ll give the watermelon kettle sour points for originality too; if you’re a fan of watermelon-flavored Sour Punch Straws, it might be right up your alley. House-made sodas and cocktails in a similar vein are also available.

The food menu is brief but equally wide-ranging (according to the website it’s “an eclectic mix of Eastern European cuisine and global dishes”), featuring food from chef Jeffrey Hedin (Bellwether, Leopold) that’s a step up from most pub fare. Ceviche, poutine, and a Monte Cristo sandwich all make appearances, along with roasted chicken served with naan, falafel, tzatziki, and cucumber-tomato salad. It might all seem a bit pretentious if ev-

erything didn’t taste so good. Tender pierogi are filled with sheep cheese, potato, and onion and topped with mushrooms, asparagus, and dill creme fraiche, while lumpia Shanghai with pork and shrimp have the most shatteringly crisp exterior I’ve ever encountered. As mandated by the brewpub bible, there is a burger, a thin patty ground in-house and served with raw-milk cheddar and smoked tomato beurre blanc on brioche. Make it a double for an extra $3 or the bread-meat ratio will be off.

At Lo Rez, the vintage doors hanging behind the bar that function as a tap list present fewer options: on my visit there were seven beers, mostly Belgian styles. Cofounders Kevin Lilly and Dave Dahl, both homebrewers and tech-industry veterans, discovered a shared love for Belgian and malt-forward beers during many years of drinking together. At Lo Rez they make what they like to drink and, according to their website, avoid “the fetishization of hops.” So there’s no IPA, but you can try two different saisons: Quencher Keeper, a citrusy, floral creation brewed with spelt, and Primary Element, a more traditional saison with a piney, resinous finish. None of the brewery’s dark, malty beers were on tap, but the Common Lingo California lager has plenty of nutty, toasty maltiness. The most interesting of the varieties I tried was the Daemon, a Belgian-style golden ale, spicy and fruity but much less sweet than I expected, with a distinct rye bread flavor.

Lo Rez doesn’t do beer flights—full pours only—and it doesn’t have a kitchen, though there are a few snacks for sale, and you can order or bring food in. It’s an inviting, no-frills place to have a good beer (there wasn’t a dud in the bunch I tried). If you want a meal, and maybe a cocktail or two, head up the street to Alulu. If it’s oysters and culinary-inspired brews you’re after, Moody Tongue is right around the corner. In Pilsen these days, you have options. v

v @juliathiel

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 41

JOBS SALES & MARKETING Telephone Sales Experienced/aggressive telephone closers needed now to sell ad space for Chicago’s oldest and largest newspaper rep firm.

Immediate openings in Loop office. Salary + commission.

312-368-4884.

FUNDRAISING - FALL HARVEST OF CASH- Looking for a few old pros. Start today! Start ASAP, Call 312-256-5035 ask for Cash.

General CLHC Partners, LLC d/b/a Claro Healthcare is seeking an Application Developer Software Engineer in Chicago, IL w/ the following reqs: BS in Business or Comp Sci & 5 yrs exp.

Must have any amount of exp w/ the following: design & code interactive web applications & executable programs using asp.net, c#, Linq, Entity Framework, WCF, Infragistics Data Grid, Krozh data model, HTML5, Javascript, JQuery, ajax & MS Visual Studio; design & develop databases, views, functions & stored procedures using SQL & MS SQL Server Management Studio; perform software optimization using an optimization tool such as SQL Server Profiler or Load Impact; design & code Business Reports & perform code trouble shooting using SSRS and Business Intelligence Development Studio or Visual Studio. Send resume to Andrea Herrmann at aherrmann @clarohealthcare.com.

GRANT THORNTON LLP is seeking a Senior AssociateAttest Services IT in Chicago, IL w/ the following reqs: Bach deg in Bus Admini, Comp Sci, Engg or rel field or foreign academic equiv + 4 yrs of rel exp. Will accept any level of exp in the following skills: oversee & perform IT audit on different environment – especially on SAP R/3

ECC, PeopleSoft, & JD Edwards; oversee & perform data analysis for support finance statement audits; oversee & perform IT security assessment based on established frameworks; perform IT Audit & Data Analysis activities. 80% travel may be reqd to other various unanticipated worksites in the US. Plse apply at www.gt.com by clicking on the Careers link.

COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYSTS ZENSAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC. has openings in Oak Brook, IL. All positions may be assigned to various, unanticipated sites throughout the US. Job Code: USOBIL141 Computer Systems Analyst (Delivery/Teams): design & implement systems. Job Code: USOBIL142: Computer Systems Analyst (Planning/Scenarios): analysis & test execution. Job Code: US-OBIL143: Computer Systems Analyst (Feasibility/Planning): analyze req’s + product development. Job Code: USOBIL144: Computer Systems Analyst (BRMS): study/analyze systems and business processes.

Mail resume to: Prasun Maharatna, 2107 North First St, Ste 100, San Jose, CA 95131. Include job code/s & full job title/s of interest + recruitment source in cover letter.

EOE

LEAD BUSINESS ARCHITECT /SR. DIRECTOR BUS. DEV. Zensar Technologies, Inc. has openings in Oak Brook, IL. All positions may be assigned to various, unanticipated sites throughout the US. Job Code: US-OBIL133 Lead Business Architect (Use Cases/Req. s): systems & solutions + flow maps.

Job Code: US-OBIL147: Sr Director, Business Development (Manufacturing): lead generations & strategies - 60% dom. travel req’d.

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.

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Application Developer – E-Commerce CDW LLC seeks Application Developer – E-Commerce for Chicago, IL office to develop customer facing e-commerce websites and business software solutions. Min. requirements: Bachelor’s in computer science or related technology field plus at least 3 years .NET web application development experience using C#, ASP.NET, Java script and SQL Server technologies, including design, development and testing duties. Send resume to: Kaeley McNerney, CDW, 25-75 Tri-State International, Lincolnshire, IL 60069.

Reference job title.

ACCOUNTING RISK ASSURANCE SENIOR ASSOCIATE (MULT POS), PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chicago, IL. Conduct quality & strategic assessments to improve client orgs’ internal audit function.

Req BS or foreign equiv in Acct, Bus Admin, MIS, Comp Sci, Engg or rel + 3 yrs rel wok exp; OR MS or foreign equiv in Acct, Bus Admin, MIS, Comp Sci, Engg or rel + 1 yr rel work exp. Must have passed CPA, CIA or CISA exam. Travel up to 20% req. Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1390, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

Senior Quality Assurance Analyst CDW LLC seeks Senior Quality Assurance Analyst for Chicago, IL office to perform and lead testing of software development applications. Min. requirements: Bachelor’s in information technology, electrical engineering or related technology field plus at least 5 years post-baccalaureate, progressive full life cycle Quality Assurance process experience for web-based applications working within Agile development environment. Send resume to: Kaeley McNerney, CDW, 25-75 Tri-State International, Lincolnshire, IL 60069. Reference job title.

SR. FRONT END Developer needed for Marquette Partners, Chicago, IL. Software des. & dev. for clients located throughout the U.S. Use low latency C++ & Boost library to dev. the back-end of trading sys. Work with Java, Javascript, Backbone.js, Linux & Jenkins. Python & shell scripting.

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Chair, Audio Arts & Acoustics: Provide faculty w/focused leadership in curriculum development, teaching excellence, professional and artistic development & support new endeavors in academic research & artistic practices. Chicago loop location. Req’s PhD in Comm’s, Music, Audio Arts or related Requires a PhD degree in Communications, Music, Audio Arts or related & 2 yrs exp as a Res Fellow. Send resume to: Columbia College Chicago, 624 S Michigan Ave, Ste 600, Chicago, IL, 60605, Attn: J. Zarzycki.

TRADER, SIMPLEX INVESTMENTS, LLC in Chicago, IL. Optimize & develop trading strategies. Partner w/software engineers to enhance algorithmic trading platforms & implement new strategies into production trading system. Req: Masters degree in Finance, Economics, or Financial Eng + 1 yr exp in algorithmic trading. Send resume to careers@simplexinvestments .com.

VISTEX, INC.

seeks

Programmer Analyst (VPA17) Master’s +1yr/Bachelor’s +5yrs exp/ equiv. Vistex, SAP, SAP SD, JAVA, J2EE, Oracle, SAP SD OTC, Pricing Rebates. Mail resumes to: HR, 2300 Barrington Road, 7th Floor, Hoffman Estates, IL 60169. Travel to unanticipated work sites throughout the U.S. Foreign equiv. accepted.

IMC AMERICAS INC. (Chicago, IL), a proprietary trading company, seeks an experienced professional to fill an opening in its Chicago office for a Senior Systems Engineer. To apply, submit resume and cover letter to talent@ imc-chicago.com with position title in subject line. No calls. EOE.

REAL ESTATE RENTALS STUDIO $500-$599 CHICAGO, BEVERLY/CAL Par k/Blue Island: Studio $625 & up; 1BR $700 & up; 2BR $885 & up.

Heat, Appls, Balcony, Carpet, Laundry, Parking. Call 708-3880170

SOUTH SHORE 6724 S. Chappel Ave. Studio, 1 and 2BRs. Heat incl, nr park and great trans. $525-$875.

773-288-4444

STUDIO $600-$699

BUILDING. Decorated, new appliances, renovated kitchen and newly renovated bathroom with walk-in sliding shower door and ceramic tiles, hardwood floors, (3) closets, ceiling fan and air conditioning window unit, heat included, laundry room, intercom system, private parking, close to transportation. $740.00, credit check $40 located at 4728 N. Magnolia in Uptown Area. Call after 3 pm 773/456-1820 ask for Bill.

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impeccably Clean Highrise STUDIOS, 1 & 2 BEDROOMS Facing Lake & Park.

Laundry & Security on Premises.

Parking & Apts. Are Subject to Availability. TOWNHOUSE APARTMENTS 773-288-1030 SUMMER SPECIAL: Studios starting at $499 incls utilities, 1BR $550, 2BR $599, 2BR $699, With approved credit. No Security Deposit for Sec 8 Tenants. South Shore & Southside.

760-880-0707 or 773-287-9999

FALL SPECIAL - Chicago South Side Beautiful Studios, 1,2,3 & 4 BR’s, Sec 8 ok. $500 gift cert. for Sec 8 tenants. Also Homes for rent available. 773-287-9999. Westside Locations 773-287-4500

FALL SPECIAL $500 Toward Rent Beautiful Studios 1, 2, 3 & 4 BR Sect. 8 Welc. Westside Loc, Must qualify. Also Homes for Rent available . 773-287-4500 www.wjmngmt.com

76TH & PHILLIPS - Studio $575$600; 1BR/1BA $675-$700; 2BR/ 1BA $775-$850. 79th & Woodlawn 1BR/1BA $675-$700; 2BR/1BA $750-$850. Remodeled, Appls avail. FREE Heat 312-286-5678

7520 S. COLES - 1 BR $520, 2 BR $645, Includes appliances & AC, Near transp., No utilities included (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near Loyola Park, 1329 W. Estes.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. $900950/month. Available 11/1. 773-7614318.

ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT near the lake. 1337 W. Estes. Hardwood floors. Heat included. Cats OK. Laundry in building. $950/month.

Available 11/1. 773-761-4318.

STUDIO OTHER LARGE SUNNY ROOM w/fridge & microwave. Near Oak Park, Green Line & Buses. 24 hr Desk, Parking Lot $101/week & Up. (773)378-8888

BIG ROOM with stove, fridge, bath & nice wood floors. Near Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry, Shopping. $121/wk + up. 773-561-4970

CHICAGO 70TH & King Dr, 1BR, 1st flr, clean, quiet, well maintained bldg, Lndry, Heat incl. Sec. 8 Ok Starting at $720/mo 773-510-9290 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

FREE HEAT!

E ROGERS PARK: 3BR / 2BA + den, new kitchen, SS appliances, FDR, $1900/heated, 774-743-4141 www.urbanequities.com

1 BR $1100 AND OVER Edgewater 1000sf 1BR: new kit, SS appls, quartz ctrs, built-ins, oak flrs, lndry, $1050$1075/heated 773-743-4141 w ww.urbanequities.com Edgewater 2 1/2 rm studio: Full Kit, new appl, dinette, oak flrs, walk-n closets, $850/mo incls ht/ gas. Call 773-743-4141 or visit ww w.urbanequities.com

SOUTH Shore

No Move-in Fee! 1, 2, 3 & 4 BRs, laundry rm. Sec 8 OK. Niki 773.647.0573 www.livenovo.com

û NO SEC DEP û 6829 S. Perry. Studio/1BR.

REHABBED APARTMENTS 1 Month Free 1BR on South Shore Drive From $650 w/Parking Incld.

Call 773-374-7777

STUDIO $700-$899

NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $130/wk & up. 773-275-4442

SUMMERTIME SAVINGS! NEWLY Remod. 1 BR Apts $650 w/ gas incl. 2-5BR start at $650 & up.

Sec 8 Welc. Rental Assistance Prog. for Qualified Applicants offer up to $ 400/month for 1 yr. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

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

CROSSROADS HOTEL SRO SINGLE RMS Private bath, PHONE, BUDGET ANALYST United Transport Service in Elk Grove,IL; Budget Analyst w/ BA; Draft budgets, modify recordkeeping systems, estimate projects, and analyze economic trends; Send resumes @Simon Chung-950 Lunt Ave. Elk Grove,IL

STUDIO APARTMENT AVAILABLE NOW IN A QUIET VINTAGE

CHICAGO, HYDE PARK Arms Hotel, 5316 S. Harper, maid, phone /cable, switchboard, fridge, priv bath, lndry, $165/wk, $350/bi-wk or $650/mo. Call 773-493-3500

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY MANAGER (Multiple Positions) (Accenture LLP; Chicago, IL): Analyze, design and/or develop best practice business changes through technology solutions. Must have willingness and ability to travel domestically approximately 80% of the time to meet client needs. For complete job description, list of requirements, and to apply, go to: www.accenture.com/ us-en/careers (Job# 00507806).

1 BR UNDER $700

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

CLEAN ROOM W/FRIDGE & micro, Near Oak Park, Food -4Less, Walmart, Walgreens, Buses & Metra, Laundry. $115/wk & up.

773-637-5957 232 E 121ST Pl. RENT SPECIAL: Pay 1st month rent only - No Security dep req’d. Nice lrg 1BR $575; 2BR $699 & 1 3BR $850, balcony. Sec 8 Welc 773-995-6950

NEWLY REMOD 1BR & Studios starting at $580. No sec dep, move in fee or app fee. Free heat/ hot water. 1155 W. 83rd St., 773619-0204 8926 S HARPER. Newly updated 1BR garden apt, $685/mo, + all utils, 1st & last mo. rent & $350 sec dep. req’d. Call 773-416-4217 6 LARGE ROOMS; 3BR, formal DR, 5200 S Peoria, 2nd flr, $995/ mo + 1 mo. security dep. Heat incl.

Call 773-637-7288 for appt.

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2

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

BR $735, Includes Free heat & appliances & cooking gas. (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

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

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

Newly updated, clean furnished rooms in Joliet, near buses & Metra, elevator. Utilities included, $91/wk. $395/mo. 815-722-1212

$465-$520. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106 ONE MONTH FREE. Move In NOW!!! Studios - 1 Beds Hyde Park.

Call Megan 773-647-0751

1 BR $700-$799 NO APPLICATION FEE Studio. $675 1BR. $750.

Near Metra & shops, Section 8 OK. Newly decorated, dining room, carpeted, appls, FREE heat & cooking gas. Elevator & laundry rm 1-773-919-7102 or 1-312-802-7301

8001 S COLFAX: 1BR $650 New remodel, hdwd floors cable. Off street parking. Section 8 welcome. 708-308-1509 or 773-493-3500.

62nd & Maplewood, 1 & 2BR $725 -$775, new remod, lrg LR, DR, kitc., utils not incl, Sec 8 ok.

No sec dep, $4 50 move in fee.

773-406-0604

ALSIP: Beautiful , Large 1BR, 1BA overlooks the park. $750/ mo., Appliances, laundry, parking & storage.

Call 708-268-3762 9147 S. ASHLAND. 1BR, hdwd flrs, dine-In Kit, appls, laundry, Clean & Secure. $740/mo. U Pay gas & elec, No Pets. 312-914-8967.

1 BR $900-$1099 ONE BEDROOM NEAR Warren Park and Metra. 6800 N. Wolcott.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. $900925/month. Available 11/1. 773-7614318.

HOMEWOOD- 1BR new kitchen, new appls, oak flrs, ac, lndry/ stor., $925/mo incls ht/prkg, near Metra. 773.743.4141 Urban Equit ies.com LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT .

6824 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors.

Heat included. Pets OK. Laundry in building. Available 10/1. $710/month 773-761-4318.

1 BR OTHER WAITLIST OPEN Anathoth Gardens/PACE APTS. 1 & 2 Bedroom Apts Available Senior buildings, rent based on 30% Of monthly income. A/C, laundry room, Cable ready, intercom entry system.

Applications Are being accepted between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.

Monday thru Friday at Anathoth Gardens 34 N. Keeler Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60624 Please call 773-826-0214 For more Information

APTS. FOR RENT PARK MGMT & INV. Ltd. Hot Summer Is Here Cool Off In The Pool OUR UNITS INCLUDE HEAT, HW & CG Plenty of parking 1Bdr From $795.00 2Bdr From $925.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

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

Most units Include..

HEAT & HOT WTR Studios From $475.00 1Bdr From $550.00 2Bdr From $745.00 3 Bdr/2 Full Bath From $1200 **1-(773)-476-6000**

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 ∫

CHICAGO, 89TH & BLACKSTONE, available now!

6 rooms, 3rd floor, heat included, need appliances, $850/ mo + sec. Call 773-375-9842, 1pm-6pm

MOST BEAUT. APTS! 6748 Crandon, 2BR, $875. 7727 Colfax, 2BR, $875.

6220 Eberhart, 2 & 3BR, $850-$1150.

7527 Essex, 2BR, $950 773-9478572 / 312-613-4424

LARGE ONE BEDROOM near the Red Line. 6828 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors. Pets ok. Heat included.

Laundry in building. $900/month.

Available 10/1. 773-761-4318.

4014 W. 21ST ST., beaut, just remod, 3BR, $1200. 5510 W. Cortland, beaut 1BR, all utils incl., $900. Sect 8 Welc. 773354-2819

EDGEWATER 900SFT 1BR, new kit, sunny FDR, vintage builtins, oak flrs, Red Line, $975/mo heated www.urbanequities.com 773-743-4141

CHICAGO - BEVERLY, large studio, 1 & 2BR Apts. Carpet, A/ C, laundry, near transportation, $680-$1020/mo. Call 773-2334939

No. Southport DLX 2BR: new kit w/deck, SS appl, oak flrs, cent he at/AC, lndry $1595+ util pkg avail.

773 -743-4141 www. urbanequities.com E Rogers Park: Deluxe 1BR + den, new kitc., FDR, oak flrs close to beach. $1175/heated, 774-743-4141 ww.urbanequities.com

SUNNY & LARGE 2 & 3BR, hd wd/ceramic flrs, appls, heat incld, Sect 8 OK. $850 plus 70th & Sangamon. 773-4566900

ACACIA SRO HOTEL Men Preferred! Rooms for Rent. Weekly & Monthly Rates. 312-421-4597

l

l

1BR, 1ST FLR, Newly rehab, hdwd flrs, spac, appls, lndry facility, Quiet bldg. Gated backyard. Sec 8 ok. 773344-4050 74TH/KING DR & 88th/Dauphin. Beautiful 1BRs. Spac, great trans, laundry on site, security camera. 312-341-1950

1 OR 2BR apt in newer building, completely rehabbed, heat included, 59th & California. Section 8 welcome. Call 773-517-9622 SUBURBS, RENT TO OWN! 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 SOUTH SHORE AREA

4 1/2 RMS, 2 bdrms, appliances, coin laundry, OH, near Holy cross hospital, $820 month + 1 1/2 months Sec Dep.O’Brien Family Realty. 773-581-7883 Agent owned

DOLTON - 1st floor, quiet building, 2BR, 1BA, newly remodeled, cooking gas & water included, $825/mo. Call 312-5459199 SOUTH SHORE: 76TH & Kenwood, 2 Bed $795 & 1 Bed $695, Heat Included Call 312.208.

1771 2 BEDROOM NEAR 85th and Escanaba, newly decorated, stove included, $550 plus 1 month security, 773-716-9554 SOUTHSIDE, NEAR 76TH & Marshfield. 2BR, near shopping & transportation. $880/mo, heat included. Call 73-349-5534

6700 S. Constance Studios & 1 BedBEAUTIFUL, ALL NEW 2.5 rooms Available Call Mike, 773-744bdrms, 1BA. $850/mo, no sec dep, no 3235 application fee, hdwd, new appl, sec 8 ok. 81st & Kingston 773-412-0541 APTS & HOMES AVAIL. 70th & California, 2 & 4BR, modern East Chicago, IN 2BR $675 heat kitchen & bath. $575-$1200/mo. incl; tenant pays utils. 1 mo. free Section 8 OK. 847-909-1538 rent w/lease. Call Malcolm 773-

NO SECURITY DEPOSIT NO MOVE IN FEE 1, 2, 3 BEDROOM APTS (773) 874-1122

2 BR UNDER $900 CHICAGO 7600 S Essex FALL SPECIAL 2BR $599, 3BR $699, 4BR $799 w/apprvd credit, no sec dep. Sect 8 Ok! Also Homes for rent available. Call 773-287-9999 Westside Locations 773-287-4500 98TH/THROOP. 4RMS, 1BR, vinyl tiles, c-fans, heat & appls. incl., nr trans & shops, $760/mo + 1/2 mo. sec dep. Brown Realty 773-239-9467 83RD & COMMERCIAL, 2 B R , 1BA, kitchen, LR close to schools & trans, $750/mo + $500 Move In Fee. Ten pays utils. 773-775-4458 1512 E. 77TH ST. Spacious 2BR, hdwd flrs, appls, garage, tenant pays utils, quiet blk. $815 + sec.

Check Check Req. 646-2023294

577-9361

2 BR $900-$1099 LANSING: 18309 Wentworth.

Lg 2 BR. din rm, appl, c/a, hdwd flrs, parking, laundry room, secure bldg. Sec 8 OK. $900/mo.

GLENWOOD, Updated lrg 2BR Condo, HF HS, Balcony, C/A, appls, heat/water incl. 2 pkng, laundry. $975/mo. 708.268.3762

2 BR $1100-$1299 4300 BLOCK OF AUGUSTA, 2BR, 2nd flr, laundry fac on site $1150/mo, utils incl. Sec 8 1&2 BR Voucher ok. No pets/smoking 773-418-0195

ELMHURST: DLX 1BR, new appls & carpet, a/c, balcony, $895$950/mo. incl heat, prkg. OS lndry, 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities. com

LIVE ON THE Lake. Harwood floors 2bdrm/bath 24hr onsite security 773405-1250

2 BR $1300-$1499 SUNNY 2 BEDROOM, North Center/Roscoe Village. Available 10/1. Includes heat, hardwood floors eat-in kitchen, walk-in pantry, Laundry in building. Blocks from Addison Brown Line, Trader Joes, Marianos restaurants. $1420.

773-755-8662

773-497-9687

DLX 1ST FLR, 2.5BR, hdwd flrs, ceiling fans, lg LR/DR & ktchen, 3 car gar. 83rd & Maryland. $900, Free heat & appl incl. Sec 8 welc.

773-412-0541 SECTION 8 WELCOME, Sharp 2 & 3BR Apts, fenced yard. Also, 3BR House Avail. $985$1200/mo. Will accept 1 or 2BR Voucher. 708-573-5628

2 BED APARTMENT - West Side.

Recently rehabbed, hardwood floors. $975/mo. Section 8 welcome. Call: 773-420-8570 GREAT 4 ROOMS, 1 BEDROOM North Park, new paint, new kitchen, newer windows, laundry facilities, heated, $850/mo. 773-878-6419

Never miss a show again.

2 BR $1500 AND OVER LAKEVIEW/ SOUTHPORT CORRIDOR duplex-up.

Great

Find a concert, buy a ticket, and sign up to get advance notice of Chicago’s essential music shows at chicagoreader.com/early.

RIVERDALE , 3BR Newly decorated. Carpet, near metra, no pets, $925/mo + security deposit. Available Now 708-829-1454

3BR, 4100N: Sunny New Kit, SS appl, deck, close to beach/ Cubs park, Ldr y/storage, $1995/heated 773-7434141 urbanequities.com

CHATHAM, 720 E. 81st St. Newly remodeled 2BR, 1BA, hardwood floors, appliances & heat included.

Call 847-533-5463.

7410 S EVANS , 2 BR, 1st fl Newly remodeled, must see!

New everything! $850 plus 1 mo sec deposit 708-474-6520

ALB Pk DLX 3BR + den, new kit, SS appl, granite, oak flrs, on-site lndy, $1495/+ util. 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

NEAR BEVERLY Huge 2BR on 1st floor. Sect 8

4010 S. King Dr. 3BR, heat incl, $1025. 7906 S. Justine. 2BR $800 & Restaurant for rent.

708-421-7630 or 773-899-9529

welcome. Call 312.806.1080.

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

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 SECTION 8 WELCOME $250 Move-In Bonus, No Dep. 225 W 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA . 7134 S. Normal, 4BR/2BA. ceiling fans Ht, ht water & appls incl 312-683-5174

CHICAGO WEST SIDE Attn: Sec 8 holders!

No Sec Dep + $100 Back

CHICAGO,11526 S. HARVARD. Newly remodeled, 5BR, 2BA, $1600/mo. Tenants pay utilities.

Call 773-793-8339, ask for Joe.

Westside locations 773-287-4500

BEAUTIFULLY RENOVATED 3BR Single Family Homes, new kit. Fridge, stove & W/D incl. Hdwd flrs. Cash & Sect 8 Welc. 708-557-0644 maculate 3BR, 1BA luxury unit close to trans & shops. Newly remodeled !

Won’t last long, must see, Sec 8 Welcome. Nigel 312-519-9771

16 E. 122nd Place, 4BR House, LR, DR, full bsmt, fenced backyard.

Close to schools, CTA & metra.

CHICAGO, THIS IS IT! 3BR. 7820 S. Constance.

Starting at $995. Heat included. Section 8 ok. Call Pete, 312.770.

0589 ALSIP, 3 BR/1.5 BA, 2 story TH. $1150/mo., w/o appls. 1st month & sec dep due at signing. Call Verdell 219-8888600 for info.

SOUTH CHICAGO - 6618 S. Paulina Ave. Basement Apt, 3BR, close to transportation. $675/mo Call 708-692-9177

7633 SOUTH ESSEX AVE

FREE HEAT 8036 S. Green. 3BR, Front porch, DR, LR, nr shops, laundry on site. Sec 8 Welcome. $1000/mo. 1 mo dep. 773-576-5002

2 BR OTHER

OTHER

70 E 102ND St.,-Open House Sat 11-1. 3BR/3BA brick bungalow, granite ctrs, SS appls, fin. bsmt., mortgage pymt $1050, no money down.

Text Linda 708-513-7057.

non-residential SELF-STORAGE CENTERS. T W O locations to serve you. All units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue.

773-685-6868.

South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

roommates SHARED APT, PRIVATE bedroom, male preferred. No drugs or alcohol, 7300 block of S. Vernon, Chicago, IL, 60619. Call 773-580-4141

HUMBOLDT PARK - Huge im-

2nd Floor, 3 BR, 2 Bath, pvt parking, heat, stove, fridge & 1 BR set incl. $950+sec. 773-374-1362

HERE! 2 BR / 2 BA / 2 Pkg. West Town.

Huge. FPL. Balcony. BBQ. WD. Fully Furn+util=$3300; Unfurn=$2900; txt 773.620.3900

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499

3BR, 5258 S. HERMITAGE. $665. 5246 S. Hermitage: 3BR, 2nd floor, $625 & 2BR basement $400. 1.5 mo sec required. 708574-4085.

LOCATION!

LIVE

3 BR OR MORE

CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent.

Section 8 Ok, w/app credit $500 gift certificate 3, 4 & 5 BR houses avail.

Call 708-752-3812 for

incl, newly updated includes appliances, hdwd flrs., laundry on site, $1090/mo. sec 8 ok, 312-622-7702

RIVERDALE 3/4BR, 1.5BA Townhome, hdwd flrs, off street parking, near Metra & PACE, starts at $1100/mo + sec. 708-539-0522

LUXURY!

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499

68th & ROCKWELL, 3BR, heat

street! 2 bed, 2 bath, large master bath with 2 person jacuzzi. Laundry.

4 outdoor spaces including roof deck! Garage parking available. Oct 1st. $2200. 773-316-7990.

2- 5 Bdrms. Everything New + Lndry & A/C. Call 312-493-6983

EARLY WARNINGS

RICHTON PARK 4BR Ranch Hou se.University Park 2BR Townhome.

Section 8 OK. Call 708-625-7355 for info.

CALUMET CITY - 3BR house, A /C, 2 car garage, basement, kitchen, living room, Section 8 we lcome.Avail. Now. 708-674-7447.

54TH & S. RACINE , 3BR 1.5BA, bsmt, large fenced yd good transportation. $1100 plus sec.

Section 8 ok. Call 708-922-9069 SECTION 8 WELCOME. No Security Deposit. 7721 S Peoria, 3BR apt, appls incl. $1050/mo.

708-288-4510 SOUTHSIDE 68th/Hermitage, 3BR. $850. 2BR. $750.

70th/Normal, 3BR. $850.

847-977-3552

ROSEMOOR, 103rd/King Dr, Spacious 2BR. Huge living rm, dining rm. Hdwd floors. Big closets. Parking. No pets. 708-3688708

Calumet City - Clean 3BR, 1.5BA, C/A, balcony, 1.5 blks from shopping & expressway, $1100/mo + 1 mo sec. No pets. 773-314-7116

ADULT SERVICES

ADULT SERVICES

SPACIOUS

3832 W. LEXINGTON, Beauti-

ful 3 bedroom, 1 bath, in recently remodeled unit. Sect 8 welcome. 1st floor, Clean, no carpets. asking $1200. call or text 312-459-9635 or email vmmproperties@gmail.com , please leave your name and number.

SEVEN

ROOMS,

two baths in South East Ravenswood.

Close to Brown Line. Two large bedrooms plus office or 3rd bedroom.

Updated kitchen w/dishwasher and in-unit laundry. Dog under 30 pounds OK. Tenant heated. Available now Credit and background check, $1975 plus security.

Bill at 773-935-334

Sec 8 ok. $1250 + sec. 773-610-1332

SOUTHSIDE NEWLY REMOD, 5BR, 2BA, finished bsmt, huge fenced-in back yard, SS Appls & W/ D. 773-908-8791

SOUTHSIDE, NEWLY REMOD 3BR/2BA, living room, dining room, black appliances & washer/dryer in apt. 773-908-8791

CHICAGO S: Newly renovated, Large 3-5BR. In unit laundry, hardwood flrs, very clean, No Deposit!

Available Now! 708-655-1397

3BDR NEWLY REMODELED

apartment.

Hardwood floors throughout. Ceramic in bathroom and kitchen. Quiet building. Sec 8 welcomed. Contact 773-406-1676 for more info.

3 & 4 BRs for rent in a quiet area.

2flat perfect layout. 1ST & 2ND flrs avail. UNITS SETUP TO PASS SECTION 8. Call 708-269-7669

SECTION 8 WELCOME Lrg 3BR/2BA, 2 Story Home. Tenant

SOUTH SHORE, Senior Discount. Male preferred.

Furnished rooms, shared kitchen & bath, $545/mo. & up. Utilities included. 773-710-5431 AURORA - SLEEPING ROOM. $90 weekly, clean and quiet plus deposit. Fridge access.

Call 630-247-1031

CHICAGO AUSTIN AREA, furnished rooms with use of household. $112 per week, 1 week security deposit. 773-378-7763 PULLMAN AREA 111th St., East of King Dr. Near shops & 1/4 blk to metra. Newly remod rooms. $500-$575/mo. 773-468-1432

MARKETPLACE GOODS

Markham, 3 & 4 BR homes for rent, Section 8 welcome Security Required 708-262-6506

pays heat & elec. $1300/mo + 1 mo sec. 68th/King Dr. Other loc coming soon! 312-945-6685

NEWLY DECORATED 3BR Home, 2BA, fin bsmt, near 127th and Yale. $1500/mo.Tenant pays utils.

Section 8 OK. 773-928-3922

4341 S GREENWOOD 2n $1500, 4BR, 1BA, heat and water incl, no sec dep. Call Pam 312 208 1771

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 Bronzeville DLX 1/BR: new kit, private deck & yard, SS appls, FDR, oak flrs, new windows, $950/ heated 773-743-4141 urbanequities .com Evanston DLX 1B+Den, vintage beauty, new appl, oak flrs, French doors Laundry $1095/heated 773-743-4141 urbanequities.com

EVANSTON 2BR, 1100SQFT, New Kit/ oak flrs, new windows, OS Lndry, $1295/incl heat, 773743-4141 urbanequities.com Wrigleyville DLX 3BR, new kit, private deck & yard, FDR, oak floors, sunroom, $1950/heated 773-7434141 urbanequities.com

ADULT SERVICES

GENERAL SOUTHPORT CORRIDOR -- 3637 North Janssen. 3 Bed x 1

Bath. New Stainless Steel Appliances. New Counter-tops. Refinished Hardwood Floors. Freshly Painted. Outdoor Space. Laundry in building. No Pets. No Smoking.

Garage parking. Available ASAP. Email matthew.cohen@thirdcoastchicago.com

LARGE 3 BEDROOM apartment near Wrigley Field. 3820 N. Fremont.

Two bathrooms. Hardwood Floors.

Cats OK. $2175/month. Special!

Sign a lease starting by November 1, and get a free tandem parking space for one year. Available 10/1. 773-7614318.

3 BR OR MORE $2500 AND OVER OLYMPIA FIELDS Newly remodeled 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, full basement. Beautiful area. $2500/mo. 708-935-7557.

ADULT SERVICES

CHICAGO SOUTH - YOU’VE tried the rest, we are the best.

Apartments & Homes for rent, city & suburb. No credit checks.

773-221-7490, 773-221-7493 101ST/MAY, 1 & 2br. 77th/Lowe.

1 & 2br. 69th/Dante 3br. 71st/ Bennett. 2br. 77th/Essex. 3br. New renov. Sec 8 ok. 708-503-1366

FOR SALE DELUXE 3 BEDROOM condo with 2 full baths. Spectacular views of Lake Michigan, large bedrooms, spacious living room & dining area + 2 garage spaces. Full amenity building. Near 4800 S Lakeshore Dr. Only $269,900. Call Sid, Maner Realty Co. 773-783-6474 BEACH PROPERTY - BAJA MEXICO, Rosarito, just south of San Diego is our warm relaxed Pacific beach community. RE/ MAX Realty, Jamie Suarez, 619748-8322, bajainvestment.com or suarezjamie10@gmail.com

ADULT SERVICES

VINTAGE

GUITAR

SHOW

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 | CHICAGO READER 43

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STRAIGHT DOPE

By Cecil Adams q : Is the West kidding itself about the

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good intentions of Islam? On one hand, many followers of Islam, especially in the West, claim it’s a religion of peace. On the other hand, in majority-Islamic countries, huge chunks of the population are all about going to holy war with the West and striking as many deadly blows as possible. Are we fooling ourselves about the peaceful nature of Islam if this focus on jihad is at its philosophical core? —ASTRO, VIA THE STRAIGHT DOPE MESSAGE BOARD

A : Let’s not be alarmist. Islam has roughly

early warnings

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1.5 billion adherents. I haven’t taken a recent head count, but surely 99 percent wish their non-Muslim neighbors nothing but the best.

OK, that leaves 15 million who may have other ideas. Worrisome? Yes. Cause for panic here in the West? No. If we unpack jihad, we find there’s much we can work with. Likewise, Islamic fundamentalism is potentially our friend. Why, look how well it’s worked out in the case of Iran.

IRAN? YOU’RE NUTS! Now, now. Iran isn’t my notion of the ideal society. I’m just saying it’s a step on the road.

Back to that later. First some basics.

Jihad, commonly interpreted as “holy war,” literally translates as “struggle.” Whether it’s at Islam’s philosophical core I leave to the theologians. But it’s a basic Islamic concept.

A sizable body of Islamic tradition distinguishes between two types of jihad. “Greater jihad” is the inner struggle against unworthy impulses. “Lesser jihad” means fighting the infidel. It’s reasonably clear jihad in the military sense is the original connotation of the term, with jihad as spiritual struggle grafted on later.

Some Islamic thinkers claim such latter-day elaborations are spurious, even heretical.

Western fearmongers have seized on these contentions as proof that the accepted, orthodox meaning of jihad is holy war. But Islam doesn’t have a central doctrinal authority; it’s got competing schools of thought.

Sure, plenty of Islamists think they have a religious duty to wage war against unbelievers in the West. Those determined to see it as a mandate for violence are going to do so.

All the same, a billion-plus other Muslims don’t see it like that—and they’ve got long-standing (if disputed) doctrinal support. That’s the comeback to dire claims that Islam isn’t a “religion of peace.” No world religion is inherently anything; it’s what its adherents make of it. Christianity, with its own impressive history of violence, can today be said to have a sizable peace-loving wing.

So can Islam.

That brings us to Islamic fundamentalism.

Has it been the seedbed for radical Islamic terrorism? Yup. Is sharia law a medieval throwback? Yup again. Are death-to-America sentiments more common among fundamentalist than among nonfundamentalist Muslims?

Likely so. But you know what? Setting aside your al-Qaeda/ISIS/Taliban suicide-bomber types, we can work with these guys. Take our buddies in Iran.

In 1979, in the midst of the hostage crisis, Iran was the U.S.’s worst nightmare. Today?

Yes, there’s the nukes, oppression of women, etc. But look at the bright side. This is a stable theocratic regime. It appears to have a modicum of popular support, due largely to Islamic fundamentalism. It’s not a North Koreastyle police state; on the contrary, Iran holds elections where sometimes the candidate we like wins.

Let’s not get goofy. If I’m the leader of a Western democracy, I’m not inviting the Iranian theocrats on a long fishing trip. But can we do business with them? Sure. They’re running a country; they have much to lose. They’ve got an intelligible goal—regional dominance— which admittedly puts them in the crosshairs of many others in the Middle East. But come on. Of such ingredients are bargains made, and we’ve made them.

In short, we need to be realistic. Can Islamic teachings be read as supporting violence?

Undeniably. Is holy war the heart and soul of the religion? Fanatics think so, but every public opinion survey I’ve seen shows most Muslims reject violence.

Sharia law, it’s true, enjoys broad support among Muslims, according to Pew Research.

Still, sharia means tension with the West, not necessarily outright hostility. Iran’s not a U.S. fan; Saudi Arabia, equally fundamentalist (and no less problematic), is our ally.

Look, you play the cards you’re dealt.

Peace? Not happening soon. But if you’re panting for war to the death with 20 percent of the planet, that’s easy: act like that’s what we’re in now. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

States of confusion

Advice for a straight guy whose “nice lady” is a woman with a dick, and more Q : I’m a 35-year-old straight guy. I met a nice lady through the normal methods, and we hit it off and have grown closer. I think we’re both considering “taking it to the next level.” So what could be the problem? My friend decided it was the time to inform me that she is transgender, pre-op, and will not be having gender reassignment surgery. This was quite a shock to me. I’m not homophobic, though I’ve never had a gay experience.

I’m open-minded, yet there is a mental block. I like this person, I like our relationship thus far, and I want to continue this relationship.

But I’m in a state of confusion. —CONFUSED OVER COMPLICATING KNOWLEDGE

A : Lemme get this out of

way first, COCK: The nice lady isn’t a man, so sex with her wouldn’t be a “gay experience” and homophobia isn’t the relevant term.

You’re a straight guy, you’re attracted to women, and some women—as you now know—have dicks. Are you into dick? Could you develop a taste for dick? Could you see yourself making an exception for her dick? It’s fine if “no” is the answer to one or all of these questions, COCK, and not being into dick doesn’t make you transphobic. Evan Urquhart, who writes about trans issues for Slate, argues that in addition to being gay, straight, bi, pan, demi, etc, some people are phallophiles and some are vaginophiles—that is, some people (perhaps most) have a strong preference for either partners with dicks or partners with vaginas. And some people—most people—want their dicks on men and their labia on/vaginas in women.

“There’s no shame in it, as long as it doesn’t come from a place of ignorance or hate,”

Urquhart writes. “Mature adults should be able to talk plainly about their sexuality in a way that doesn’t objectify or shame anyone who happens to be packing the non-preferred equipment.”

Some straight guys are really into dick (trans women with male partners usually aren’t partnered with gay men), and some straight guys are willing to make an exception for a particular dick (after falling in love with a woman who has one), but most straight guys aren’t into dick (other than their own).

Since you’re confused about what to do, COCK, I’d encourage you to go on dating this woman, keep an open mind, and continue taking things slowly. You’ve got new information to process and some things to think about before taking this relationship to the next level. But don’t drag it out. If you conclude that the dick is a deal breaker, end this relationship with compassion and alacrity. You don’t want to keep seeing her “to be nice” if you know a relationship isn’t possible. Because letting someone live in false hope is always a dick move.

Q : My relationship with

my husband is bad. We’ve been together for 12 years and were married for eight before getting divorced last year. We have small kids.

We reconciled four months after the divorce, despite the affair I had. I have a history of self-sabotage, but in my relationship with him, it’s become near constant. Everyone thinks I’m a smart and kind person who occasionally makes mistakes, but I’m not that person with him. With him, I’m awful. I make promises I don’t keep and I don’t do the right things to make him feel loved even though I do

loving things. We’ve been in couples therapy a number of times, but I always derail the process. I’ve been in therapy solo a number of times with similar results—I always get the therapists on my side and no real change happens. I want to stop hurting him, but I keep doing it. He doesn’t feel like I’ve ever really fought for him or the relationship. Why can’t I change? —MY ENRAGING

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SELF-SABOTAGING YEARNINGS

A : It’s unlikely I’ll be able to

do for you in print what all those couples counselors couldn’t do for you in person, i.e., help you change your ways—if indeed it’s your ways that require changing. Have you ever entertained the thought that maybe there’s a reason every counselor or therapist you see winds up taking your side? Is it possible that you’re not the problem? Are you truly awful, MESSY, or has your husband convinced you that you’re awful in order to have the upper hand in your relationship? (Yeah, yeah, you had an affair. Lots of people do, and lots of marriages survive them.)

If you’re not being manipulated—if you’re not the victim of an expert gaslighter—and you’re awful and all your efforts to change have been in vain, MESSY, perhaps you should stop trying. You are who you are, your husband knows who you are, and if he wants to be with you, as awful as you are (or as awful as he’s managed to convince you that you are), that’s his choice and he needs to take some responsibility for it. v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast.com. v @fakedansavage

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 45

Girlpool ò COURTESY GROUND CONTROL TOURING

NEW

Beach Slang 11/25, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, on sale Fri 9/22, 11 AM A Andrew Bird 12/11-14, 8 PM, Fourth Presbyterian Church, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Black Pistol Fire 12/7, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Carl Broemel 11/16, 8 PM, Schubas, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM Brutal Measures 10/16, 8 PM, Burlington Captured! by Robots 11/5, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Chevelle 12/17-18, 6:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 17+ Coin 2/7, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Comfort Station Benefit with Nobunny, Ryley Walker, and more 9/30, 1 PM, Illinois Centennial Monument Joshua Davis 11/22, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/21, noon A Death From Above 11/4, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 18+ Dixie Dregs 3/24, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM JD Eicher 11/5, 6:30 PM, Wire, Berwyn Flogging Molly 12/30-31, 6:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 17+ Donavon Frankenreiter 10/19, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 9/22, 8 AM A Bebel Gilberto 12/19-20, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/21, noon A Girlpool, Palm 10/25, 6:30 PM, Logan Square Auditorium Hanson 12/1 and 12/3, 6:30 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A

Niall Horan, Maren Morris 7/26, 7 PM, Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM Jessie J 10/25, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jack & Jack 11/9, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Thu 9/21, 10 AM A Jackie Lynn 10/31, 9 PM, Hideout Marcus Johnson 11/27, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/21, noon A Kid Cudi 11/4-5, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Janelle Kroll 11/3, 10:30 PM, Beat Kitchen Ingrid Laubrock’s Serpentines 10/13, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Machine Head 2/23, 6:30 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Christian McBride & Tip City 11/17, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Michl 11/30, 8 PM, Schubas A Mllky Chance 1/26, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Murder by Death 12/31, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ NRBQ 10/27, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 9/22, 11 AM O.M.D. 3/16, 7:30 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 18+ Over the Rhine 12/31, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, on sale Fri 9/22, 8 AM A Pink Spiders 12/15, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen, on sale Fri 9/22, 11 AM, 17+ Plain White T’s 12/2, 7 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM A Poi Dog Pondering 12/26-30, City Winery, on sale Thu 9/21, noon A

46 CHICAGO READER - SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Say Anything, Radar State 12/11, 6:30 PM and 12/12, 7:30 PM, Metro, 12/11 is all ages, 12/12 is 18+, on sale Thu 9/21, noon Sheppard 11/27, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 18+ Skinny Lister 3/6, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Strfkr 2/14, 7 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 17+ Suicide Silence, Upon a Burning Body 11/25, 6:30 PM, Portage Theater A Sweet Spirit 10/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle F Tank 10/24, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 17+ Steven Wilson 5/1-2, 7:30 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM Andrew W.K. 10/21, 8 PM, the Vic, on sale Fri 9/22, 10 AM, 18+

UPDATED Echosmith 4/14, 8:30 PM, Metro, rescheduled from 11/3 A Hoodie Allen 11/16, 7:30 PM, the Vic, rescheduled from 10/12 A Twin Peaks 12/29-30, 8 PM and 12/31, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 12/29 added

UPCOMING Against Me!, Bleached 9/30, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall A Algiers 10/19, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Alvvays 11/3, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Bad Suns 10/20, 7:30 PM, Metro A

b Beach Fossils, Snail Mail 10/17, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Bleachers, Bishop Briggs 11/11, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Boris, Helms Alee 10/23, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Cannibal Corpse, Power Trip, Gatecreeper 11/24, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ John Carpenter 11/9, 9 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 17+ Shawn Colvin 10/28, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Dalek 10/19, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Districts 12/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Dream Theater 11/3, 8 PM, Chicago Theatre Elder, King Buffalo 10/17, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ EMA 11/18, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Flamin’ Groovies 10/19, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston A Fleet Foxes 10/3-4, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre Max Frost 10/20, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall A Liam Gallagher 11/21, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Grizzly Bear 11/29, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Growlers 10/6, 9:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ High Waisted 10/24, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Hundred Waters 9/30, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Hundredth 12/8, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Ice Balloons 10/10, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Insane Clown Posse 10/29, 6:30 PM, Portage Theater A Itchy-O 10/5, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Booker T. Jones 10/1, 6 and 9 PM, the Promontory A Judge 11/5, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Stephen Kellogg, Emily Hearn 10/6, 6:45 PM, SPACE, Evanston A Killers 1/16, 7:30 PM, United Center La Femme 10/21, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Hamilton Leithauser 10/27, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Lemon Twigs 10/26, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Listener 11/15, 7 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Lorde 3/27, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Marilyn Manson 10/10, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Matisyahu, Common Kings 12/9, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall Microwave 11/1, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Mimicking Birds 10/10, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Nadas 11/2, 8:30 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Gary Numan, Me Not You 11/29, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Oceans Ate Alaska 11/22, 6 PM, Bottom Lounge A

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

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Angel Olsen 12/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Pere Ubu 11/18, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen A Perfect Circle 11/24, 8 PM, UIC Pavilion Quinn XCII 10/6, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall A Red Red Meat 11/22, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Frankie Rose 10/7, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Todd Rundgren 12/16-17, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ A. Savage, Jack Cooper 11/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Secret Sisters 12/4, 8 PM, City Winery A Silversun Pickups 11/8, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre A Violent Femmes 10/28, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Wand, Darto 9/30, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ War on Drugs 10/19, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 18+ Zola Jesus, John Wiese 10/8, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+

SOLD OUT Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile 10/26, 7:30 PM, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel; 10/27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall; and 10/28, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Between the Buried & Me, Contortionist 9/30-10/1, 6:30 PM, Bottom Lounge A Daniel Caesar 11/20, 9 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Cold Waves VI with Front 242, KMFDM, Stabbing Westward, Cold Cave, Ohgr, and more 9/29-10/1, 6:30 PM, Metro, 18+ Greta Van Fleet 11/30, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Gryffin, Autograf 10/13, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Knuckle Puck 10/6, 6:30 PM, Beat Kitchen A Lil Peep 10/19, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge A Mura Masa, Tennyson 11/16, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ The National 12/12-13, 7:30 PM, Civic Opera House A Rich Chigga 11/11, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge A T-Pain 10/15, 8:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Avey Tare 10/6, 10 PM, Hideout Grace Vanderwaal 11/15, 7 PM, Park West A Whitney, Ne-Hi 11/2, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Young Thug 11/1, 9 PM, Metro, 18+

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene LAST WEEK Trey Gruber, front man of promising Chicago band Parent, died of an overdose at age 26. An Ohio native who lived in Humboldt Park, Gruber quickly found fans on the northwest-side scene with easygoing songs reminiscent of 70s Laurel Canyon rock. “He was so captivating,” says Paul Cherry, a frequent Gruber collaborator. “Whitney were playing at the Bottle with Parent—Max [Kakacek] from Whitney came up to me and was like, ‘Dude, that was incredible.’” Cherry offered to record Gruber in 2016, beginning their partnership. “Trey would spend a month on one song,” Cherry says. “He’d be happy the day that we made it and the day after, and then that third day he’d be like, ‘This needs strings, this needs horns, we gotta go bigger!’” Though Gruber had already attracted the interest of Secretly Canadian, Parent had officially released only one song: the glum “I Tried” in July.

Given Gruber’s perfectionism, Cherry isn’t sure what he’ll do with the other seven or eight they recorded. “He’s got a lyric—‘I’ve got a belly full of gut rot’—and that’s how I feel since he’s passed,” Cherry says.

Local luminaries Sam Wagster (Fruit Bats), Kent Lambert (Roommate), Gillian Lisee (Cairo Gang), Michael Hartman (TV Pow), Seth Vanek (Roommate), and Adam Vida (Singleman Affair) make spacious guitar pop as the Father Costume. Wagster says they’ve been cooking up an album for three years, and next month they’ll mix in Louisville with engineer Kevin Ratterman.

On Friday, September 22, they play the Hungry Brain with Dan Bitney of Tortoise and LA synth-pop act Dark Rooms.

Gossip Wolf loves hard-working country cookers Dan Whitaker & the Shinebenders. On Saturday, September 23, they celebrate the new Anything You Wanted To at Phyllis’ Musical Inn. This wolf especially digs its swinging instrumentals about local bars: “Bernice’s Bounce” and “Cole’s Boogie” should inspire plenty of honkytonk turns on Chicago dance floors! —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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SPECIAL GUEST:

“DELICATE” STEVE MARION

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 THIS FRIDAY! SEPTEMBER 22

SPECIAL GUEST:

SAMMY BRUE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8

OCTOBER 10

SATURDAY OCTOBER 21 ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

FRIDAY, MARCH 16

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

ON SALE THIS FRIDAY - 10AM!

BOYCE AVENUE –This Saturday! Sept.. 23 • THE FAB FAUX –Saturday, Oct. 7 • THE KOOKS –Oct. 11 • DARK STAR ORCHESTRA –Friday, Oct. 13 • CAMERON ESPOSITO & RHEA BUTCHER – Saturday, Oct. 14 • DANIEL JOHNSTON / JEFF TWEEDY –Oct. 18 & 20 • WHITNEY CUMMINGS –Oct. 19 • GAVIN DEGRAW –Oct. 22 HAMILTON LEITHAUSER –Friday, Oct. 27 • VIOLENT FEMMES –Saturday, Oct. 28 • ANIMALS AS LEADERS/PERIPHERY –Nov. 1 • JAPANDROIDS –Nov. 2 • SLOWDIVE –Nov. 5 • ELBOW – Nov. 8 • JOSH RITTER & THE ROYAL CITY BAND – Nov. 9 • JOHNNYSWIM – Friday, Nov. 10 • TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS – Saturday, Nov. 11 • HOODIE ALLEN JOHN MCLAUGHLIN/JIMMY HERRING –Nov. 17-18 • SQUEEZE – Saturday, Nov. 25 • ILIZA SHLESINGER – Friday, Dec. 1 • DAMIEN ESCOBAR – Saturday, Dec 2 • RHETT & LINK Saturday, Dec. 9 • BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB –Saturday, Feb. 10 • HIPPO CAMPUS – Friday, Feb. 16

–Nov. 16

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