Print Issue of October 12, 2017 (Volume 47, Number 2)

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 | O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 7

Watching the watchers at the

Chicago International Film Festival The foodways of

Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope

C H I CAG O ’ S N EW IMMIGRANTS

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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, IRENE HSIAO, DAN JAKES, BILL MEYER, MICHAEL MINER, J.R. NELSON, MARISSA OBERLANDER, LEAH PICKETT, BEN SACHS, DMITRY SAMAROV, OLIVER SAVA, DAVID WHITEIS, ALBERT WILLIAMS INTERNS MOLLY O’MERA ---------------------------------------------------------------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 ---------------------------------------------------------------DISTRIBUTION CONCERNS distributionissues@chicagoreader.com CHICAGO READER 350 N. ORLEANS, CHICAGO, IL 60654 312-222-6920, CHICAGOREADER.COM ---------------------------------------------------------------READER (ISSN 1096-6919) IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY

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IN THIS ISSUE

FEATURES THE FOOD ISSUE

The foodways of Chicago’s new immigrants

Newcomers from five countries discuss the differences between eating here and in their homelands.

BY READER STAFF 16

THE FOOD ISSUE

Enemy Kitchen serves up hospitality instead of hostility Michael Rakowitz’s food truck and public art project brings Iraqis and Americans together for free meals at the MCA.

BY AIMEE LEVITT 27

MOVIES

Watching the watchers at the Chicago International Film Festival

Reviews of two dozen movies from across the globe screening during the fest’s 52nd year

BY READER STAFF 35

COPYRIGHT © 2017 CHICAGO READER. PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT CHICAGO, IL. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CHICAGO READER, READER, AND REVERSED R: REGISTERED TRADEMARKS ®.

ON THE COVERS

PHOTO OF FRANCINE MAOMBI BY ANJALI PINTO. FOR MORE OF HER WORK, GO TO ANJALIPINTO.COM.

A STILL FROM FINNISH DIRECTOR AKI KAURISMÄKI’S THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

THIS WEEK

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

Melkbelly are Chicago’s most exciting rock band

On the new Nothing Valley, the Pilsen four-piece have found a tense balance between delicate melody and frantic noise.

BY KEVIN WARWICK 41

4 Agenda Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy, the Joffrey’s Giselle, Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher, Confluence 20+, and more goings-on about town

CITY LIFE

8 Chicagoans A bicycling beekeeper braves her animals’ stings.

10 Joravsky | Politics Reader editorial employees finally ratify a contract.

14 Transportation The CTA’s cloth seat coverings, a source of public transit horror stories, might be replaced.

ARTS & CULTURE

29 Disasters Theater Oobleck ensemble member Dave Buchen’s view from his home in Puerto Rico 31 Theater Spoiler alert: the ending spoils everything in Court Theatre’s Quixote: On the Conquest of Self.

31 Dance Reggie Wilson/Fist + Heel’s Citizen explores the poetry in nonverbal communication.

33 Lit Gentrifier succeeds by avoiding simple solutions to gentrification’s complicated problems.

34 Culture Chicago Ideas Week returns with 30 stage events and 90 labs around the city.

MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

47 Shows of note Daniel Johnston, Yehme2, Nicole Mitchell, and more of the week’s best 52 The Secret History of Chicago Music Decades after Stumpwater put out their only single, the Aurora folk-pop group ride again.

FOOD & DRINK

54 Restaurant review: Balkan Grill Company Long-haul truckers from across the country know to pull off on Exit 9 in Gary for a taste of home.

57 Cocktail Challenge: Gefilte fish Brandon Phillips, bartender at the Duck Inn, uses slimy fish to make a drink fit for Passover seder.

CLASSIFIEDS

58 Jobs 58 Apartments & Spaces 59 Marketplace 60 Straight Dope Can friends and family video-conference with the incarcerated?

61 Savage Love Dan addresses some common perils of polygamy.

62 Early Warnings Crystal Castles, Mountain Goats, Cannibal Corpse, and more shows you should know about in the weeks to come 62 Gossip Wolf Local shops celebrate Cassette Store Day with exclusives and instore performances, and other music news.

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F also a little dull, despite Shade Murray’s talent-saturated 90-minute production, featuring a jaw-dropping performance

by HB Ward as an actor on the wrong side of the zeitgeist. That’s because it’s all trap: we see the trip wires too clearly and too soon. —TONY ADLER Through 11/19: Thu-Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells, 312-943-8722, aredorchidtheatre. org, $30-$35.

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Blue/Orange The adventurous R Runcible Theatre Company delivers a crisp and compelling rendition of

Joe Penhall’s chilling yet hilarious dark comedy, which concerns a power struggle between two white doctors in the hidebound National Health Service over the fate of a black psychiatric patient, Christopher (Nathaniel Andrew), who claims to be the son of brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Christopher—having used up his 28 NHS-allotted days of treatment and observation—is set to be released from the hospital. The passionate, sometimes rash young Dr. Flaherty (Owen Hickle Edwards) believes Christopher is schizophrenic and wants to keep him for further care. But his complacent mentor insists Christopher should be sent back to his impoverished Afro-Caribbean community to live among “people who think just like him”— something Christopher both desires and dreads. The actors in Andrew Root’s intimate staging in the Royal George Theatre’s tiny Gallery studio deliver Penhall’s sardonically sharp-edged dialogue with impeccable precision. —ALBERT WILLIAMS Through 10/29: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted, 312-988-9000, runcibletheatre.org, $28.

Choir Boy Tarell Alvin R McCraney’s “Brother/Sister Plays” take us to an urban ghetto full of Yoruba

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deities, his Head of Passes to a bayou home where Job has been reincarnated as an elderly black lady. This 2012 work is conventional by comparison, but potent all the same. Set at a staid all-black, all-boys college prep school, it tells the familiar tale (Philip Roth’s stories come to mind) of a smart, ambitious kid trying to keep his balance in a culture that only conditionally accepts him. That kid, Pharus, has been able to get away with being gay by virtue of his status as star of the school’s vaunted gospel choir. McCraney’s startlingly intimate writing totes up the cost to him and others. Under Michael Menendian’s direction, Christopher W. Jones makes

Pharus an affecting combination of cunning and vulnerability; choreographer Breon Arzell and music director Frederick Harris supply sharp musical punctuation. —TONY ADLER Through 11/12: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM, Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, 773-338-2177, raventheatre.com, $43, $38 seniors, $15 students and military.

The Crucible Steppenwolf for Young Adults presents Arthur Miller’s renowned parable of American witch trials, both ancient and modern. Arnel Sancianco’s austere, imposing set design dominates and often overwhelms every other aspect of this production: the three enormous wooden rafters literally hanging over the stage evoke the absolute authority of court and clergy but also dwarf the performers. The moral absolutism of Miller’s play is likely best suited for the teenagers the Steppenwolf is aiming this run at. But odd blocking, in which one character often obscures another, blunts its black-and-white message. That the young girls’ frolic in the woods—which leads to all the trouble—is evoked with a generic contemporary interpretive dance and Reverend Parris is inexplicably clad in parachute pants undercuts the solemnity of the proceedings as well. Jonathan Berry directed.

—DMITRY SAMAROV Through 10/21: Fri 7:30 PM (no show 10/20), Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Downstairs Theater, 1650 N. Halsted, 312335-1650, steppenwolf.org, $20.

Evening at the Talk House Wallace Shawn tends to build traps into his plays. You’re laughing along with the witty people onstage until you notice that you’ve crossed over with them into something ugly and uncomfortably familiar. This 2015 one-act gives that tendency an almost Gothic edge: It’s been ten years since Robert and the gang staged Robert’s unsuccessful but poetic drama, Midnight in the Clearing With Moon and Stars; now they’re getting together for a reunion at one of their favorite old haunts, the Talk House.

As the evening progresses we learn that monstrous practices have become commonplace in the intervening decade.

Evening turns out to be a hard look at the dark side of human adaptability. It’s

Foxfinder Creating a truly loathsome villain takes special craft, and the well-mannered, pious one at the center of Dawn King’s 2011 one-act paranoiac drama is a real doozy. A 19-yearold inspector (chillingly played by Jack Olin) arrives at the farm of a married couple (Alexandra Fisher, David Anthony Marshall) for a government-mandated stay to look for signs of foxes, the supposed cause of suffering all across Britain. In the vein of The Crucible and the more conspiratorial works of Harold Pinter, Interrobang Theatre Project’s production, directed by Margaret Knapp, gets the blood boiling and taps into grand societal-scale themes without ever zooming out of the heroes’ domestic and claustrophobic story of grief and survival. —DAN JAKES Through 11/15: Thu-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-9356860, interrobangtheatreproject.org, $32, $17 students and seniors.

The Invisible Hand Voraciously capitalistic U.S. banker Nick, kidnapped by America-hating Pakistani insurgents, strikes a bargain with his seemingly righteous captors: give him a year and access to his online trading account, and he’ll raise his $10 million ransom.

Soon his putative enemy, idealistic revolutionary Bashir, is drunk on short sells.

It’s an ingenious conceit that allows for resonant collisions—ideological, economic, and spiritual—among desperate characters and the cultures they represent. As animated graduate seminars go, Pulitzer winner Ayad Akhtar’s 2012 play is excellent. But Akhtar’s intellectual acumen often exceeds his dramatic abilities, as underdeveloped characters, predictable plotting, and ponderous dialogue abound. Director Audrey Francis’s superlative cast, led by Joel Reitsma as

the pathetic, contemptible Nick, make the two-hour affair consistently fascinating but only intermittently compelling.

—JUSTIN HAYFORD Through 11/11: ThuSat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM (no show 11/5), Steep Theatre, 1115 W. Berwyn, 312-458-0722, steeptheatre.com, $10-$38.

The Man-Beast Casting is R everything, as Elizabeth Laidlaw and Aaron Christensen prove in Joseph

Zettelmaier’s two-person thriller, receiving its world-premiere production at First Folio Theatre. Zettlemaier’s story, set in 18th-century France, is a fine yarn in its own right—a rough-hewn hunter conspires with a witchy wise woman to defraud the king of some werewolf bounty. But it’s Laidlaw and Christensen, both at the top of their game, who bring out the best in it as well as in each other; their every scene crackles with tension (sexual and otherwise). Hayley Rice directs, though it’s hard to say whether she coaxed these explosive performances or just lit the fuse and got out of the way. —JACK HELBIG Through 11/5: Wed 8 PM, Thu 3 PM, Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, First Folio Theatre, Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st and Rt. 83, Oak Brook, firstfolio.org, $34-$44.

Rigoletto You can’t sweat R the details in Rigoletto. The plot requires suspension of disbelief,

especially in its critical scenes of abduction and murder. What’s made this mid-19th-century opera by Verdi (based on a Victor Hugo play) an enduring favorite is the complexity of its bitter and passionate title character, the pathos of his predicament, and the composer’s magnificently soaring music. Since his days at the Ryan Opera Center, baritone Quinn Kelsey has made this heartbreaking role his own; his performance in this not-to-be-missed Lyric Opera production is bolstered by superb soprano Rosa Feola as his self-sacrificing daughter, Gilda, and dashing tenor Matthew Polenzani as the libertine who seduces her. The drama’s heightened by Michael Yeargan’s surrealistic sets (designed for San Francisco Opera and inspired by de Chirico paintings), featuring sharp shadows, deserted arcades, and blood-red interiors on an ominously raked stage. Marco Armiliato

Rigoletto ò TODD ROSENBERG

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Best bets, recommendations, and notable arts and culture events for the week of October 12

DANCE

Performing Home ò BRITTNEY LEEANNE WILLIAMS

conducts the Lyric Opera orchestra and chorus. —DEANNA ISAACS Through 11/3: Sat 10/14 and Thu 10/19, 7:30 PM; Sun 10/22, 2 PM; Mon 10/30 and Fri 11/3, 7:30 PM, Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker, 312-827-5600, lyricopera.org, $17-$319.

Saint Joan The Joan of Arc that R George Bernard Shaw created in 1924 was a revolutionary anarchist

warrior. Equal parts Napoleon and Jesus Christ, she burned at the stake for the “heresies” of speaking truth to power and of claiming inspiration from God. But we’re in new territory here, as this adaptation from director Marylynne Anderson-Cooper and the Poetic Forum Collective can testify.

Boasting a fabulous all-female cast, this staging shifts from the castles of 15th-century Europe to the offices and boardrooms of the present day. The lords are ladies, the kings, queens; the court of the honorable dauphin meets around a conference table, the chairs of state are swivel chairs. And this, rather improbably, I’d say, is George Bernard Shaw on fleek. Don’t believe me? After five minutes of Christabel Donkor as the baddest Robert de Baudricourt ever seen, you will. —MAX MALLER Through 10/29: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2:30 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2:30 PM, Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, 773-404-7336, greenhousetheater.org, $15.

Wasteland Hero Reutan CollecR tive’s third production, a dystopian original by local actor Kyle Encinas, is

an empowering hero’s journey with two strong female characters at its center.

Wynne (Nicky Jasper) and Justine (Kate Lass) are sisters struggling to gain independence and survive in the vast wasteland formerly known as the midwest.

The enemy, a malicious group called the Cabal is at the gate, literally, and in this case, pressure forms two badass wonder women who leave their overprotective father (Bobby Hoffman) eating his words. Jasper and Lass breathe life and comedy into the plot with their Broad City-esque repartee; Kim Fukawa is likewise spirited and sarcastic as their aunt Cat, a retired mercenary. —MARISSA OBERLANDER Through 10/22: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 PM, Nox Arca Theatre, 4001 N. Ravenswood, suite 405, noxarcatheatre.com, $10-$15.

Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre To best enjoy Cerqua Rivera’s fall series, Alone/ Together, free yourself of any expectation that this show has a concept.

The dance theater’s latest offering is a mixed bill with live band, singers, video screens, painter, roaming photographers, and, yes, dancers, developed for a proscenium but presented inexplicably in the round. After an erratic start with Taylor Mitchell’s Here Comes Treble, in which dancers mug, shrug, and subject each other to slapstick tussling, the evening settles into an invigorating mix of music and movement, both of the jazz variety. The modes on view are sultry, playful, and, above all, presentational.

Sherry Zunker’s Vent is both a highlight and exemplar—two women erupting in a torrid duel that makes unsituated virtuosity a justification in itself. There isn’t much depth, but there’s plenty of derring-do. The series concludes next week with a performance Fri 10/21, 7 PM, at Logan Center for the Arts (915 E. 60th, 773-702-2787). —IRENE HSIAO Fri 10/13, 7:30 PM, Dance Center Evanston, 1934 Dempster St., 847-328-6683, cerquarivera.org, $24-$28, $20-$24 students.

Instant Movie Cameramen and actors rush around the neighborhood to complete a film in an hour, inspired by a title suggestion from the audience. Aka, the Michael Bay school of filmmaking.

Through 10/27: Sat 8 PM, Laugh Out Loud, 3851 N. Lincoln, 773-857-6000, laughoutloudtheater.com, $12.

Cameron Esposito and Rhea R Butcher Esposito—a Chicago-bred stand-up—and her wife Butcher are both excellent storytellers who blend real tales with absurd observations. Their joint show swings by as part of their Back to Back tour. Sat 10/14, 8 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield, 773-4720449, victheatre.com, $32.50.

Joke and Dagger Scary movies and black metal accompany stand-ups in this monthly showcase of morbid comedy.

Free tickets are available by e-mailing jokeanddaggerchicago@gmail.com in advance. Wed 10/18, 8 PM, North Bar, 1637 W. North, 773-697-3563, liveatnorthbar.com, $5, free with RSVP. Michael Palascak For many R years, Michael Palascak joked about living at his parents’ house,

delivering lines with an endearing “aw shucks” tone. He’s since moved out, but his genial humor remains. 10/10-10/15: Tue-Thu 8:30, Fri 8:30 and 10:30 PM, Sat 7, 9, and 11:15 PM, Zanies, 1548 N. Wells, 312-337-4027, zanies.com/chicago, $25 plus two-item minimum.

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fun—a shared demonstration of how cold, hard AI is capable of creativity rather than a show of technology once again failing to bring people together.

—STEVE HEISLER Through 10/19: Thu 10 PM, iO Theater, the Mission Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury, ioimprov.com/chicago, $10.

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Nasty Women Authors Kate R Harding, Samantha Irby, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Megan Stielstra, and Sarah Hollenbeck discuss how today’s women can successfully navigate the hostile political climate. This recurring series is a partnership event with Women & Children First. Fri 10/13, 9 PM, Wilson Abbey, 935 W. Wilson, $16.

Tom Shachtman Vive la révoR lution! Shachtman, author of the new book How the French Saved America, discusses France’s pivotal role in America’s battle for independence. Tue 10/17, 6 PM, Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton, 312-255-3700, newberry.org.

Michael Palascak ò JOEL MANDELKORN

Performing Home Cynthia Bond curated this program of movement pieces exploring the concept of home, developed with dramaturgical input from a scholar, a “lay historian,” and a housing activist. A discussion follows the performance, which is part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Fri 10/13-Sun 10/15, 7 PM, Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 773-281-0824, linkshall. org, $10.

COMEDY Improvised Black Mirror The first season of the Netflix chiller Black Mirror opens with an episode about how social media forced the prime minister of England to have sex with a pig. (Instagram, amiright?) This improv ensemble creates a new episode of the deeply disturbing modern-day Twilight Zone weekly. Through 11/17: Fri 10 PM, Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark, 800-6506449, pubhousetheatre.com, $12.

Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher ò ROBYN VON SWANK

Witi, an Interactive Show At its best, Matthew Hoelter’s comedy is reminiscent of the movie Her. Audience members are asked to download an app for their phones in order to teach Witi, a Siri or Alexa type, about pure creation.

We drew pictures, played music, and took selfies for about ten minutes. Then the software failed, iO’s rudimentary network became overloaded by the number of phones, and constant crashing forced the show to an early end. Hoelter says he’s since moved his program onto a dedicated server, in which case Witi should be a ton more

From Frank Lloyd Wright to R Chicago’s Jackson Park: The Work of Japanese American Archi-

tect Kaneji Domoto The life of Domoto, who passed away in 2002, included a move to the United States (where he was interred in a Japanese prison camp), a stint in the studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, and an architecture practice designing buildings with Japanese flavor. Columbia University professor Lynnette Widder speaks to the breadth of Domoto’s work as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Wed 10/18, 6 PM, Alphawood Gallery, 2401 N. Halsted, 773-687-7676. µ

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 5

164 North State Street

Between Lake & Randolph MOVIE HOTLINE: 312.846.2800

MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS

THE LAST DALAI LAMA? “Takes you right up close to the Tibetan holy one’s presence — and wisdom.” — Variety

October 13 - 19

AGENDA

Fri., 10/13 at 6 pm; Sat., 10/14 at 8:15 pm; Sun., 10/15 at 3 pm; Mon., 10/16 at 7:45 pm; Tue., 10/17 at 7:45 pm; Wed., 10/18 at 7:45 pm; Thu., 10/19 at 6 pm

October 13 - 19

Fri., 10/13 at 2 pm & 8:30 pm; Sat., 10/14 at 1:15 pm & 5:30 pm; Sun., 10/15 at 2:30 pm; Mon., 10/16 at 6 pm; Tue., 10/17 at 6 pm; Thu., 10/19 at 8:15 pm

“Beautifully made, hilarious and touching.”

— The Guardian

OCT 13 - 19 • ENDLESS POETRY • New from Alejandro Jodorowsky • Back by popular demand!

BUY TICKETS NOW

at

www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Loving Vincent

VISUAL ARTS Confluence 20+ This traveling design exhibition showcases the “creative ecologies of Hong Kong.”

Through 11/4: Tue-Sat, noon-7 PM. Block 37, 108 N. State, block37.com.

Slip Cover Los Angeles-based artists Kristin Dickson-Okuda, Alex Olson, and Gillian Garcia explore how objects we come across—such as a small ball—change how we view the world. They utilize paintings and film primarily. Through 11/17. Wed-Sat noon-6 PM. Shane Campbell Gallery, 2021 S. Wabash, 312-226-2223, shanecampbellgallery.com.

MOVIES More at chicagoreader.com/ movies NEW REVIEWS

Never miss a show again.

EARLY WARNINGS

chicagoreader.com/early 6 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

Endless Poetry True to the title, this autobiographical fantasia by writer- director Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo), based on his youth and early adulthood in Chile during the 1940s and ’50s, feels interminable. As usual Jodorowsky presents one over-the-top idea after another, until the film feels belabored and tiresome. The actress playing the hero’s mother sings every line in an operatic soprano, the action is frequently interrupted by parades or circus performances, and multiple characters are played by dwarves.

The film certainly looks good, thanks to Christopher Doyle’s rich cinematography and the colorful mise-en-scene, and Jodorowsky shows greater sensitivity in his characterizations than ever before.

(Adán Jodorowsky, his son, is particularly sweet as the protagonist.)

But if you consider Jodorowsky’s work excessive and mannered, you’ll probably find this to be a slog. In Spanish with subtitles.

—BEN SACHS 128 min. At Gene

Siskel Film Center: Fri 10/13, 6 PM; Sat 10/14, 8:15 PM; Sun 10/15, 5 PM; Mon 10/16, 7:45 PM; Wed 10/18, 7:45 PM; and Thu 10/19, 8:15 PM. At University of Chicago Doc Films: Sat 10/14, 7 and 9:30 PM, and Sun 10/15, 4 PM. Loving Vincent A team of R 115 oil painters executed some 65,000 canvases in the style

of Vincent Van Gogh to create this extraordinary animation about the painter’s last days. Following Van Gogh’s death from a mysterious gunshot wound in the French town of Arles, young Armand Roulin, whose family posed for numerous Van Gogh portraits, sets out to determine whether the death was murder, suicide, or an accident— and, moreover, why the painter, who appeared happy and productive during his time in Arles, might have chosen that moment to take his own life. The roiling landscape scenes betray the redundance of animating images that already sizzle with energy, but the portraiture works beautifully, especially because the actors who supply the characters’ voices and visages are first-rate (especially Chris O’Dowd as Roulin’s postman father, a compassionate soul with insights into the damaged artist). —J.R. JONES PG-13, 91 min. Fri 10/13-Mon 10/16, 2:15, 4:30, 7:15, and 9:40 PM; Tue 10/17, 2:15, 4:30, and 9:40 PM; and Wed 10/18-Thu 10/19, 2:15, 4:30, 7:15, and 9:40 PM. Music Box.

Marshall Having played Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013) and James Brown in Get On Up (2014), Chadwick Boseman turns to Thurgood Marshall, the nation’s first black Supreme Court justice. The role is a step up intellectually, yet screenwriters Jacob and Michael Koskoff aren’t really interested in Marshall as a jurist, only as a wily and courageous trial attorney for the NAACP in the 1940s, defending a black man in Bridgeport, Connecticut, against charges that he raped a white woman.

This real-life case makes for an entertaining courtroom drama

that nonetheless reduces Marshall to the level of Perry Mason and consigns to the end credits his greater triumphs arguing Brown vs. Board of Education and other landmark civil rights cases. To compensate, director Reginald Hudlin (Boomerang) accompanies the hero’s more eloquent and idealistic pronouncements with little swells of music and shoots him from a low angle so he’ll look like a head on Mount Rushmore. With Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, and Sterling K. Brown. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 118 min.

Screens Thursday, October 12, as part of the opening-night festivities for the Chicago International Film Festival, with Boseman, Gad, and Hudlin attending; see our festival coverage on page 35. Block 37, Chatham 14, Cicero Showplace 14, Crown Village 18, Ford City, River East 21, Showplace 14 Galewood Crossings, 600 N. Michigan.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Noah Baumbach’s biggest critical success, The Squid and the Whale (2005), was a loosely autobiographical tale about two school-age brothers in New York contending with their arrogant, insecure father, a fading novelist; 12 years later, Baumbach delivers a loosely autobiographical tale about two grown men in New York (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller) contending with their arrogant, insecure father (Dustin Hoffman), a faded sculptor. The father kvetches at them, they kvetch at each other, and Baumbach develops a running gag in which he’ll cut one of them off in mid-kvetch to present the onscreen title of the next “story.”

This gets a laugh every time, though you have to wonder about a writer-director who wishes his characters would just shut up. I thought that was my job! —J.R. JONES R, 110 min. Landmark’s Century Centre.

M.F.A. A shy graduate student is violently raped by a classmate and becomes a serial killer of other rapists in this half-baked thriller, which nonetheless deserves credit for addressing an issue rarely broached in feature films: the injustice faced by many young women when they report being sexually assaulted on a college campus. In the lead role, Francesca Eastwood takes after her father, Clint: she’s magnetic and convincing as a vigilante, despite her character’s implausibly quick switch from wallflower to assassin.

Screenwriter Leah McKendrick, who also plays the student’s troubled neighbor, packs the narrative with scathing commentary on rape culture, and director Natalia Leite, leveraging an eerie score by Sonya Belousova, depicts the attacks and their aftereffects with brutal clarity. —LEAH PICKETT 95 min. Fri 10/13-Thu 10/19. Facets Cinematheque v

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CITY LIFE

“A lot of people in this world, they want things to be black-and-white,” Jana Kinsman says, “and beekeeping teaches you to let go of that and participate in the natural world, which is not predictable.” ò MYKAEL LEIGH

Chicagoans

The bicycling beekeeper

ò ISA GIALLORENZO

Jana Kinsman, 31

Street View

Lisa gets an A

THE LISA SIMPSON SWEATSHIRT she borrowed from her “kinda boyfriend.” “I was told by one of his close friends that he must really like me if he’s letting me wear that sweatshirt,” Kayla Garcia says. “I don’t really watch The Simpsons, but he does, and it reminds me of him. He always offers it when I’m cold.” —ISA GIALLORENZO See more Chicago street style on Giallorenzo’s blog chicagolooks.blogspot.com.

I WANTED TO get more involved in urban agriculture, but I didn’t like growing things. It was tedious, and I wasn’t good at it. I thought livestock would be a better option, so I thought, “What would the smallest livestock be?” And that’s bees.

So I took a class, and the following summer I worked with a beekeeper. The beekeeper’s like, “We need to make sure you’re not allergic to bee stings. It’s important it happens here, rather than at a remote location where we’d have to drive you somewhere.”

So he grabbed my arm, and he grabbed a bee, and he just stung me with it.

He didn’t give me any instructions. He just handed me a veil. He didn’t even show me how to put the veil on. We just started working, and he explained things as we went. I started my beekeeping career being really casual about it, not even wearing gloves, and I think that helped me get over whatever fears I had right away.

After that, that’s when I started Bike a Bee. We place beehives in community gardens

on the south side. We place the hives in spring, and then we take care of them throughout the year. We own all the equipment, we harvest all the honey, and we sell it. When I say “we,” it’s the royal we.

We visit the bees by bicycle because when I started the project, I didn’t have a car.

And I was a huge cyclist and still am, so I wanted to prove that you could do anything by bicycle, and also it was my only option. I check my hives once a week, and it’s only about 12 or so miles.

There’s a lot of things bees are supposed to do, but they’re wild animals; they just do what they want to do, no matter what. A lot of people in this world, they want things to be black-and-white, and beekeeping teaches you to let go of that and participate in the natural world, which is not predictable. Which is why it’s great.

It’s dangerous to anthropomorphize bees. People really want to put them into the context of having a conscious mind. But they’re an animal that’s moved by environmental pressures and stuff like that.

I’m glad I don’t anthropomor-

phize them, because then I respect them as an animal all their own. I don’t feel close to them, because they don’t feel close to me. I feel close to the act of beekeeping; I love beekeeping, but the bees don’t know who I am.

Everybody just gets so hung up on the stinging thing. But would you stop riding a bike if you knew you could fall off and get hurt? It’s just part of working with a stinging insect. I wear shorts and a button-down shirt and a veil. Last year I think I got stung 12 times in the whole year, and considering I work with 40-plus beehives with tens of thousands of bees inside of them, that’s not a lot.

When you’re working with a

beehive, you have to be pretty focused on what you’re doing so you don’t accidentally kill a lot of bees. I’m the kind of person who listens to music while I’m driving or taking a shower, but when I’m beekeeping, I can’t listen to music at all. I lose track of time really easily when I’m beekeeping. I can’t make promises like, “I’ll meet you for lunch at noon,” because I’ll start working with the bees, and I look at my watch and I missed my lunch date. I don’t know if it’s comparable to meditation, but I find it’s one of the best, most calming things that I can do with my time.

If you were beekeeping, you would understand. —AS TOLD TO ANNE FORD

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

SURE THINGS THURSDAY 12

FRIDAY 13

SATURDAY 14

SUNDAY 15

MONDAY 16

TUESDAY 17

WEDNESDAY 18

* Ch icago Lati n Music Festival The 12th annual fest kicks off with a rare, free performance from Peruvian guitarist and Chicago native Luis Rafael Vivanco. For more on the 11 concerts taking place throughout the city until Sun 11/19, check out latinomusicfest.org. 7 PM, Instituto Cervantes, 31 W. Ohio, chicago.cervantes.es. F

i Jim Gaffigan The world’s laziest, sloppiest, most food-obsessed comic (in his own words) comes to Chicago as part of his Noble Ape Tour. He’s a completely clean stand-up—in terms of material—so feel free to bring the wee ’uns. 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, 312-4626300, thechicagotheatre.com, $39.50-$89.50.

ã Annoyance Theatre’s 30th Anniversary Party hard with Mick Napier and Jennifer Estlin’s theater of the irreverent. The Annoyance turns 30 with a party at the bar, a special performance of its horror-movie spoof Splatter Theater, and a champagne toast to the next 30 years. 7 PM, Annoyance Theatre, 851 W. Belmont, theannoyance.com, $30.

ò Open House Chicago The Chicago Architecture Foundation’s popular festival expands its neighborhood tours to Logan Square and Avondale, offering a rare chance to see the insides of older buildings—spots like the Congress Theater and the Stan Mansion. The complete list of venues can be found at openhousechicago.org. F

E The Da ily Show The show that launched the careers of many a Chicago comedian—including Steve and Nancy Carell, Stephen Colbert, Dan Bakkedahl, and Jordan Klepper—travels to the city to shoot for a week.

10 PM, Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, 773-9356875, athenaeumtheatre. org. F

| Lit & Luz Festival Half a dozen writers and artists arrive from Mexico City for readings, conversations, and performances in both English and Spanish and join some of their Chicago counterparts in creating a multimedia “live magazine,” “Belonging.”

Through 10/21, various times, various locations, litluz.org, $20.

J Giselle Joffrey Ballet presents the Chicago premiere of the classic 1841 ballet as adapted by Lola de Ávila, former associate director of the San Francisco Ballet.

Tonight is the run’s only Wednesday performance.

7:30 PM, Auditorium Theatre, 50 E. Congress, 800-9822787, auditoriumtheatre.org, $39-$174.

8 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

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bout a year ago, I was standing on a corner near the Reader’s River North offices, picket sign in hand, pleading with passersby to help save the publication. The paper’s editorial employees, my colleagues, were well into a second year of contract negotiations with management, and things were looking pretty gloomy, to say the least.

On the day of the protest, it had been raining. My sign was soggy, my socks soaked.

As we headed for yet another round of mind-numbing negotiations after the protest, I was thinking the process would never end— at least not happily.

Well, I’m here to tell you, I was wrong. On October 6—coincidentally, a year to the day after that rain-drenched demonstration—the Reader’s editorial staffers unanimously ratified a one-year contract.

Hallelujah! I can’t believe it even as I write it.

So let me pause from my usual rage against the machine to thank the readers in Readerland who signed our petitions and offered words of support. No way could we have done it without you.

As the old guy on the staff, I’ve pretty much seen it all through the years. I came on in 1990, when times were good. We had Christmas parties and end-of-year bonuses and matching contributions to retirement plans. Plus, I got to write pretty much whatever I wanted.

Then, well—it’s a familiar story in the newspaper game. Revenue fell after 9/11. Classified ads left for Craigslist. No publication seemed to know how to make money on the Internet.

In 2007, the Reader’s original owners sold the operation to an outfit called—of all things—Creative Loafing, an Atlanta-based publisher of alternative weekly newspapers.

Thus began the Dark Ages. Unable to bring in the ad revenue needed to pay back money borrowed to buy the paper, Creative Loafing started laying off employees. A lot of great writers, editors and designers got the ax.

In a 2009 bankruptcy proceeding, Creative Loafing lost control of the Reader to Atalaya Capital Management, the hedge fund that had loaned the company the money to buy the paper.

After that it was hard to keep up with the turnover at the top. One boss seemed to replace another as the hedge fund’s operators

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

ò COLLEEN DURKIN; DANIELLE A. SCRUGGS; DAVID SAMPSON

tried to figure out what to do with a newspaper they’d never intended to run.

In 2012, Atalaya sold the Reader to Wrapports, a consortium of local investors, that also owned the Sun-Times. It was led by Michael Ferro, a software mogul.

Among Ferro’s Wrapports coinvestors were Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, Michael Sachs (one of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s biggest contributors), and Bruce Rauner. Yes, that Bruce Rauner. He sold his shares in Wrapports in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest in his run for governor. So you might say he sold me in order to enable himself to buy the Republican Party.

I’ll give Ferro credit for this: The only time I met him, he promised he’d leave me alone to do my thing. And he did—even as I lambasted his old pals Rahm and Rauner, often in the same column.

But within two years, the editorial staff had enough of cuts, layoffs, and no raises. In January 2015, we unanimously voted to join the Chicago News Guild. Thus began almost three years of contract negotiations with management. The lead negotiator for Wrapports was Ted Rilea, a grizzled veteran of labor wrangling.

(Hey, Ferro, if you’re reading this, buy Rilea a car or something. Man, that dude fought to save every Wrapports nickel like it was one of his own.) Clearly, Rilea’s mission was to protect the company purse. In session after session, we sat in a drab, windowless conference room as Rilea barked out his opposition to just about every proposal from our negotiator, Craig Rosenbaum. I half expected Rilea to take off his shoe and bang it against the table—like Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations.

So it went, as months passed and the world moved on. Rahm was reelected. The Cubs won

the World Series. Donald Trump won the presidency. Ferro purchased a controlling share of Tribune Publishing, which was soon after rebranded as Tronc. After that we weren’t even sure who was calling the shots for Wrapports.

And still we haggled. I remember drifting off during one bargaining session, snapping awake to hear Rosenbaum and Rilea bickering over some obscure pension matter in the Taft-Hartley labor relations act. It may be the Stockholm syndrome talking, but I grew to like old Ted Rilea.

Just when it seemed like we might be heading toward a strike, a miracle happened.

Wrapports was set to sell the Sun-Times and the Reader back to Ferro/Tronc. To avoid the potential of antitrust violations, the Justice Department required that Wrapports consider other bids. Staffers at both papers worried that in a year or two the publications would be phased out of existence as Ferro merged the Reader and Sun-Times with the Tribune.

Against all odds, we’re still here to write our reviews, profile our city, launch new investigations, and rage against the machine.

Then in July, seemingly out of nowhere, former alderman Edwin Eisendrath came forth with his own consortium of investors, including several unions, which snatched the Reader and Sun-Times right out of Ferro’s hands.

What a difference new owners make. They must have issued new directions for Rilea.

Suddenly, he was all smiles and sweetness at the bargaining table. I half expected him to burst into “Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone.”

(That’s a song from the musical Gypsy about— ah, forget it. Only old-timers like Rilea and me will get that joke.)

In less than three months, we reached an agreement. Who knows what lies ahead, but I’ll take a moment to rejoice. Against all odds, we’re still here to write our reviews, profile our city, launch new investigations, and rage against the machine. v

v @joravben

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OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 13

CITY LIFE

TRANSPORTATION

Nightmare on el seat

The CTA’s cloth seat coverings, a source of public transit horror stories, might be replaced.

By JOHN GREENFIELD

T

he wet-seat surprise is a common fear among Chicago transit riders.

For decades the seats on CTA trains and buses have been covered with dark cloth fabric panels that, while adding nominal comfort, have the unfortunate ability to mask the presence of spilled coffee, not to mention urine or other bodily fluids. Seasoned passengers know well to perform a “seat check,” gingerly touching the fabric to test for moisture, before resting their backsides.

The good news for Chicago straphangers, at least from a sanitary standpoint, is that the CTA may be making the switch to clothfree seats. The transit agency began piloting “state-of-the-art hardback seat inserts” on 14 cars on the Blue and Orange Lines last year.

“Based on positive feedback we received, the pilot was expanded to include all Blue Line rail cars,” says CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase.

About 70 percent of the route’s cars currently have the inserts, and the CTA expects to complete the Blue Line by the second quarter of next year. This month the agency is also going cloth-free on ten Brown Line cars. In addition, the plastic seat inserts are being tested in about 50 buses.

“Our thinking on this is that it’s a good idea to continually seek and test materials that are more hygienic and easier to clean,” Chase says. “When you think about how many people we move on our trains every day, it makes sense.” The test was prompted

14 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

j SUE KWONG

by technological advances that make the latest plastic inserts less prone to graffiti and other forms of vandalism than older prototypes, she says. Signs are posted in CTA vehicles asking riders to weigh in on the new seating at feedback@transitchicago. com or 1-888-YOUR-CTA. Input will help the agency determine whether to convert seats systemwide.

Meanwhile, commuters with horror stories about plopping down on a CTA seat soaked with a loathsome liquid aren’t hard to come by.

Soap maker Danielle Martin says that on one occasion she and other Red Line riders had to stop fellow customers from using a seat someone had vomited on. The contamination was easy to miss against the midnight-blue cloth. “And that’s why I ride my bike now,” she says.

Transportation planner A.I. Kay recalls that years ago while taking the el to Pilsen he spent 35 minutes or so on a seat that was damp with urine. “I didn’t even realize it until I got off the train and noticed my posterior was a little bit chilly, and subsequently that my jeans smelled like pee,” he says. His destination was Zientek’s Model Trains, a hobby shop that doubled as a tavern back then. “I was meeting someone, so there was nothing to do but stick to the plan.”

Unsavory incidents can happen on buses as well. Reader music contributor Monica Kendrick reports that she was heading home on the

#52 Kedzie/California bus in spring 2016 when she took her usual window seat only to realize she was in a puddle. “I tried to reassure myself that someone had set a wet umbrella on it, but it hadn’t rained that day,” she says. “I hoped someone had spilled a drink or something more innocuous, but alas the pungent smell of urine broke through my denial.”

Fortunately, she only had 15 more minutes until she got home, at which point she threw most of her soiled clothing in the laundry (her leggings went straight into the trash). “But if the seat had been a lighter color plastic instead of a dark blue cloth seat, I probably would have seen [the puddle] before I sat in a stranger’s cold piss.”

New York City’s subway system has smooth plastic benches or seats, which don’t absorb spills and make it much easier to notice fluids. And the Bay Area Rapid Transit train system began phasing out cloth seats after an analysis found disturbing levels of fecal and skin-borne bacteria.

In light of all of the cautionary tales about fetid fabric, one might ask why the CTA would even consider sticking with cloth.

Chase notes that it’s not just any old material, but a tough Kevlar textile that’s difficult to vandalize. The fabric seat panels on newer cars also resist stains and some microbes.

Moreover, Chase says, some riders may prefer cloth because it helps prevent rear-end slippage.

Military veteran Jeff Wunderlich, who was

riding the Blue Line during the evening rush last week, is in that camp. “I don’t like the plastic seats,” he says. “They’re uncomfortable. They’re harder and slippery. They might be better as far as hygiene goes because nothing can soak into the plastic, but I’ve never had a problem with a cloth seat.”

On the other hand, Rome Davis, who was commuting on the Blue Line from his job at Northwestern Medicine to his home on the west side, says he approves of the change.

“The hard seats should definitely be here,” he says, noting that insects, possibly bedbugs, have been spotted on CTA cars in the past.

Since September 2016 there have been at least two cases in which Red Line cars were taken out of service after customers reported infestations. After a February 2017 incident, the CTA released a statement saying that rail cars are cleaned several times a day and receive deep cleanings on a regular basis, including preventative treatments for pests.

Still, Davis would rather be safe than sorry.

“It’s great that they’re switching to plastic seats. No, they’re not as comfortable, but I feel like you can easily see something with these seats as compared to the cloth seats.” While he acknowledges he’s never had a bad experience with a CTA seat, he says, “I don’t want a bad experience, either.” v

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

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OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 15

TK caption ò TK CREDIT

---The foodways of-------------------------------------------------

C H I CAG O ’ S N EW IMMIGRANTS Newcomers from five countries discuss the differences between eating here and in their homelands, where they dine out and shop for ingredients, what kinds of adaptations they’ve had to make, and which American foods they’re learning to love. Plus: the story of how Enemy Kitchen, Michael Rakowitz’s food truck and public art project, unites Iraqis and Americans.

16 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

C

hicago is a sanctuary city.

This does not mean it’s a haven for criminals from other countries. This does not mean people from other countries can commit crimes with impunity. It simply means that immigrants can live their lives without worrying that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will round them up and send them back to where they came from. Just like everyone else who moved here in search of a better life, from as far away as India or as near as the collar suburbs, Chicago has become their home. And home is the place where you’re always welcome.

One of the most universal practices of making others feel welcome in your home is feeding them. Food is the easiest way to create a sense of empathy, to make someone see and feel and taste the same things that you see and feel and taste. Most visitors to the Glenwood Avenue Farmers Market in Rogers Park

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T h e fo o d w ay s o f C H I CAG O ’ S N EW I M M I G R A N T S

Anna Tsymbaliuk, 31, works as a babysitter and takes ESL classes at Truman College. We met at her apartment in Edgewater, where she prepared syrniki, fried cheese pancakes, according to her mother’s recipe. Most people make them flat, but hers are spherical, like fritters. She insists they taste better this way. She served them with coffee. Starbucks doesn’t compare to Ukrainian coffee, she says, but Metropolis comes close.

I

---The----------------------------------------------------

UKRAINIAN Interview BY AIMEE LEVITT Photos BY ANJALI PINTO

18 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

n my country, you visit someone’s house and it’s eat, eat, eat!

I’m from Dnipro in Ukraine. I have been two years in the USA, in Chicago. I came here because my friend has lived here 11 years. She says, “Anna, please come,” because she knows about the situation in Ukraine, and when the war started, she said, “Anna, it’s dangerous to stay in Ukraine.” And, you know, I very quickly decided I’m coming to the USA. American people have houses and have trees, but for beauty, you know. For decoration. In Ukraine, if you have a house and space, you can grow potato, tomato, everything. And if you have a cow, you prepare it yourself, this cottage cheese [for syrniki]. And it’s amazing.

My family did not live in the village. In the city, we don’t have cows. We live in apartments.

We bought fruits, vegetables, everything in the market from the village, because it really tastes different. For example, one time I tried an [American] tomato or a strawberry. If you close your eyes, you never know. But when you try a real [Ukrainian] strawberry, it tastes like a strawberry. For me, [American] tomatoes, cucumbers, I know it’s organic, but it’s the same. It’s fresh, but it doesn’t really taste like cucumbers. I remember one time when I just came to America, and I was speaking with my mother, and I said, “Mom, the apple doesn’t have a smell.” You eat, but you don’t know if it’s really food or chemistry or something.

In Ukraine, I never thought about it. Once I bought cherries in Indiana, from farmers. Oh, my god, it’s really cool, it’s really cherry, you know? Farmers markets are good in America.

But you need to go somewhere.

I really miss food prepared by my mom. It’s not important what’s prepared. It’s important

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ò JEFF MARINI

are unlikely to visit the Democratic Republic of Congo. But if they stop by the Urban Tables booth and get a plate of Francine Maombi’s fufu and stewed spinach and Swahili buns, they’ll learn a little bit about what it’s like to live in Congo, maybe not the part about what it’s like to survive a war, but at least the part about what it’s like to eat fresh greens stewed low and slow all day long. It doesn’t seem like anything at all, but this plate tells you a few important things: first, that Congolese ingredients are grown, not mass-produced in factories and then frozen, and second, that meals take a long time to prepare. Nobody in Congo subsists on frozen Trader Joe’s.

Maombi has never written down her recipes.

“If I write it down,” she says, “that would be American food.”

Food can also be a way to welcome immigrants to America. “In America,” declares Anna Tsymbaliuk, who arrived from Ukraine

two years ago, “you can find everything in the world.” To eat like an American doesn’t just mean eating burgers and fries, it also means eating the food of other immigrants. Tigist Tesfaw, who immigrated from Ethiopia in 2013, finds herself shopping at the Indian markets on Devon Avenue. The spices are similar to those she uses in Ethiopian cooking, but also, her kids now really love Indian food, even more than they love KFC. Food also brings people together who never would have met, or gotten along, in their home countries. Tsymbaliuk taught friends from Moldova and Lithuania her recipe for syrniki, fried cheese pancakes; now they eat it too. The artist Michael Rakowitz recruits Iraqi immigrants and American war veterans to cook and serve food together at his Enemy Kitchen food truck; afterward, it’s impossible for them to continue to see each other as enemies and strangers.

Making a new home requires some adjustments. Familiar foods become weird: grocery store chickens smell like death, and if you close your eyes, you can’t tell a tomato from a strawberry. Old recipes no longer work: Tesfaw still can’t get the hang of making injera with the flour that’s most available here. Americans have strange habits: they drink their coffee alone in the morning, as fuel, instead of at night as a social ritual the way Ethiopians do. And the sheer abundance makes shopping take much longer: Elizabeth Franco, from Mexico, can spend hours at a supermarket, just marveling at everything on the shelves.

We spoke with five immigrants to find out what the historian Laura Shapiro calls their “food stories,” about what they eat and how it informs their view of the world, and with Rakowitz about the Enemy Kitchen project.

Several of the immigrants didn’t want to speak

about politics or the circumstances that had forced them to flee their previous homes for Chicago. But it’s impossible to talk about food these days without getting political. How can we not? We live in a country now where empathy is in short supply, led by a man whose idea of building solidarity with Mexican immigrants is eating a salad out of a taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo while he talks about putting up a wall between our two countries. How would things be different if he listened to Franco talk about chiles rellenos? It’s not everything, but it’s a start. —AIMEE LEVITT Special thanks to Casa Michoacan, City Colleges of Chicago, the Chicago Cultural Alliance, the Heartland Alliance, RefugeeOne, and World Relief for their help in putting us in touch with our new neighbors.

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OK, you have it. It’s maybe a little more expensive than similar food. But I want good Ukrainian chocolate, I want Ukranian coffee.

It’s a little expensive, because they bring it to America.

I go shopping in Ukrainian Village. There are three or four shops. This cottage cheese is at Fresh Market and Shop & Save. I love Shop & Save because it’s European. Polish, I think. At Shop & Save you can find the fish for shuba [a layered salad with beets and salted herring], you can find pickles. In Ukraine, you don’t just pickle cucumbers, also tomatoes, mushrooms, everything. You put them in containers, maybe three or five days you wait. I don’t do that here. But one time I tried tomatoes prepared from a special recipe from my mother, but just one time, because it needs a lot of time.

But American food? I love it! I like burgers, I like fries. I like chicken fingers and cheese sticks. I don’t prepare it at home. I don’t know how traditional American burgers are made, or fries. I go out. Because I really enjoy it. In Ukraine, we just had McDonald’s. But now I know in Ukraine, they have a lot of American restaurants. It’s very popular. It’s just started.

People show pictures on their Instagram. It’s so funny.

In America, you can find all cultures prepared, and I love it. You say, OK, today Chinese.

Then Italy, pasta and pizza. It’s amazing. Every day you can eat, whatever you want. Just go on the Internet, say “OK, I want this.” In Ukraine, you can find Italian, but just one restaurant.

It’s a little place, but it doesn’t have more dishes or examples.

I’m really sad when I don’t prepare breakfast for myself, because I don’t have time to prepare it. But I love it. Maybe if I’m not working, I’ll prepare it. But if I’m not working, I don’t prepare it, because I can’t afford it. [laughs] It’s a joke. In Ukraine, I prepared my meals every time because, you know, it’s expensive to go to a restaurant. In America, it’s expensive to prepare it yourself. It’s not just money, it’s your time. You need to go shopping. You to spend time finding everything.

If I want cottage cheese, I need to go to Shop & Save. If I want bread, I can’t find a normal bread at just one place. I don’t like this, how to say, mushy bread. OK, you bring it, you prepare it, and after you eat, you clean it up.

Or you have ten dollars, you go in Mariano’s where everything’s prepared. You just take it and sit and eat. It’s ten or 15 minutes. One year, I prepared all my food every day. And now, you know, I have pizza. I make salad if I have vegetables. But if I don’t have time, or I’m very late

“I really miss fo od prepared by my mom. It’s not important what’s prepared.

It’s important who prepared it for you.” coming home. . . What changed in my life? I’d like it if someone would prepare food for me.

Just my mom is still in Ukraine, because I’m alone in my family. My father died one year ago. I’m very, very sad. I miss my mom.

She’s safe, because the war continues not very

close to my city. But I love it in America. Really. The people, the culture. I like everything.

Because every time you look and you find a difference. I love the very good roads. Because in my country, oh my god, you drive, and one moment you need a repair because there are big, big holes. You cannot drive. I love grass. I love trees. Everything is very pretty, you know.

[If mom came to visit] I would go to Ukrainian restaurants, Tryzub in Ukrainian Village. And they have one Ukrainian restaurant in Bolingbrook. I don’t remember its name. My friend is Lithuanian, and she lives near this Ukrainian restaurant. Every time guests come in, they go to this Ukrainian restaurant. She likes it because the borscht is amazing.

One time I worked with Lithuanian and Moldovan people. They don’t have syrniki. And I prepared it one day for my friends. They said, “Oh, it’s amazing!” Now they prepare it too.

There’s one place where people just speak Russian and Ukrainian, in shops, in the bank.

People who don’t want to learn English make Ukraine in America. It’s like how everybody comes in and makes a little country in America. I think when you come into America, you need to speak English and understand American traditions. I like Ukrainian traditions, but I don’t want to be in Ukraine because I live now in America. If you like Ukraine, why do you live here? Go to Ukraine, speak Ukrainian with Ukrainian people!

You know, I just want to see my mother. If she comes here, I don’t want to go back [to Ukraine]. If she can’t, I think I’ll try to go back.

But no, I like America. I like everything. Every country has positives and negatives, but this country has more positives than negatives, for me. v

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CONGOLESE Interview BY MIKE SULA Photos BY ANJALI PINTO

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Francine Maombi, 30, settled in Chicago a little more than a decade ago. She and her family spent years fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at various times sheltering in Rwanda or Burundi. When she arrived here she put down roots in Rogers Park, joining the Mennonite Living Water Community Church. Last year she found herself in need of part-time work that would allow her to continue caring for her two small children at home. That’s when Living Water’s Autumn Williams approached her about coming on board the church’s catering company, Urban Tables, which cooks for large events and provides weekly meals for pickup for busy families. Over the last year Maombi has learned to cook American, Thai, Italian, Greek, Mexican, and soul food. She’s also taught her coworkers how to cook Congolese. On the day she spoke to the Reader she was preparing a spread for the caterer’s weekly stand at the Glenwood Sunday Market. It included rice, beans, stewed spinach, cabbage, beef soup, roasted chicken legs, lightly sweet doughnut-like fritters called mandazi (aka the Swahili bun), and fufu, the ubiquitous African cassava-flour staple that serves as the elastic vehicle for much of this hearty, homey food.

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he war was back and forth, so we flew to Rwanda and then a few months come back. The way you go back and forth you lose everything you have.

When the war started we went to [a] Burundi refugee camp. It was difficult because no family member was working. Sometime in morning you don’t know what you gonna eat at lunch. But somehow God opens the door.

Sometime you just pray ‘God, we don’t know what we gonna eat tonight.’ And somehow you find something to eat. Some rice. Beans.

Cabbage. Potato. Back home we have a lot [of] fresh fish and it costs less than here because we live nearby Lake Tanganyika.

The enemy come to kill us there. [One] night they kill 106 people. We didn’t want to stay in the refugee camp anymore because we were scared.

[My] anniversary is on March 29. So it’s like ten years and four, five months. I come with my mom, my three brothers. Most African families have a lot of kids. We had the smallest family in Africa.

That was very hard when we got here. We didn’t speak any English. We saw snow. I was excited for first time to see snow, but when I touch it I was like, ‘Oh no!’”

That time we didn’t have a lot of people from my country [here]. My caseworker she just bring a small rice cooker and a lot of chicken, in the fridge. We eat meat but not much, so it was like very hard for us. Because we not used to eat plain rice.

When I get here I shop in [the] African store, but the more I learn the more I realize they are expensive. I learn which store is good on beef, which store is good on flour.

I been working here one year. When I started the same day [customers] request Congolese food. Congolese takes a long time to cook. We cook different than American. A lot of Americans eat canned food, but we don’t.

We just like fresh.

When we cook Congolese, we are not really committed to seasoning stuff. Congolese is not much spicy. We make sure not too much oil, not too much seasoning. It’s simple. We are really committed to green stuff. Spinach.

Cassava leaves. Only it takes a long time. I don’t cook high fires, fast fires. I cook slowly.

We don’t want to eat a lot of meat.

We want people to learn so we can grow bigger than one person making Congolese food.

Africans, we are not familiar with frozen food. Anything we like to buy, we won’t keep frozen. I learned to cook more frozen things when I started working here. I use it but not much. You will look in my freezer and there is maybe frozen meat or frozen spinach or something, but not a lot. Sometimes we think the

“I don’t follow recipes.

Congolese fo od, if I write it down that would be American fo od.” things we put in the freezer is not fresh. I put meat in there. Maybe ice in there and green stuff. I like to serve fresh but when we have a lot of people it’s hard. Congolese food takes a long time to cook. I have some dishes that take four hours, five hours, so it’s hard to serve fresh—but we have to cook ahead of time.

I don’t follow recipes. I know I have to put this much salt, this much oil. Congolese food, if I write it down that would be American food.

There are some people who are African— they don’t have time to cook. They are busy and they start eating American food. If we are cooking they can buy from us—or if American people want to taste what we make.

I started to learn American food because I don’t make American food at home. Here we cook a lot of different food, but I don’t have a favorite. Maybe pizza.

When my family comes I like to show them what I learn. I make different American things.

Like pizza. Pies. Brownies. When we make brownies we say, ‘Ah, this is chocolate fufu.’

I show my mom I learn more than what she teaches me. Makes them happy.

I like to cook and I like to give my culture. I don’t want to forget how we were doing [it]. I have to show how back home it was like this.

I enjoy that part—to let people know who I am or where I come from. Some people don’t like to do that because they think it don’t look good. It might not look to good to you, but it’s good to us. v

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Elizabeth Franco, 31, moved to Chicago from Mexico City in 2015. She returned to Mexico that same year but moved back to Chicago in 2016 and has been living in Pilsen ever since. She’s now a legal resident and works at Casa Michoacan, an educational nonprofit in Pilsen that promotes cultural activities and works to advance immigrant rights. This interview was conducted in both English and Spanish and translated from Spanish by the interviewer.

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M EX I CA N Interview BY JULIA THIEL Photos BY JEFF MARINI

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y story is a little bit sad, like many others. I was finishing my master’s degree in Mexico City in 2014, and I married a U.S. citizen.

He was Mexican but he’d been naturalized. We decided to come here after I finished [my degree] because he thought it would be easier for him to find a job. We came to Chicago in February 2015 to live with his family, but the same month that we arrived, he died.

The truth is, I was [feeling] very bad in that moment. I came back to Mexico, but I had already started the paperwork for U.S. residency. A letter arrived that said to complete the process, I have to be living in the United States. And that if I don’t complete the process it’s illegal, and they will take away my passport and tourist visa for ten years.

So I decided to return here in July 2016. I start living with one of my husband’s friends because his mom and his sisters don’t want to talk with me. I think that maybe they have a lot of pain. I didn’t know anything of the city or the people, I didn’t speak English well. I arrived at Casa Michoacan because I’m interested in immigration issues. I was a volunteer for one year. Now I’m a [U.S.] resident, and I work with them, giving information to Mexican people about their rights, [like] what can I do if a policeman asks questions about immigration?

I miss corn. It’s quite different—corn here is very sweet, very yellow. In Mexico it’s bigger, white, not so sweet. And we have blue corn. I miss that—it has a different flavor. In Mexico there’s a type of avocado with a soft skin that you eat. You put it in a tortilla with the skin

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and eat it. And there the chicken is yellow because they [dye it]. I think the chicken smell bad here. I can smell death, like rotting meat.

In Mexico it’s not like that.

I really like cooking. I’m a vegetarian, but I cook meat for people who aren’t vegetarians.

Honestly, I never liked meat. I’ve been a vegetarian for 12 years, since I was 19. In Mexico there’s a lot of poverty. Even though we eat meat, we always try to eat very little. When Mexicans immigrate, they start to eat more meat. I think that it’s because they think that since they have money, they can eat more. All the Mexicans I know here eat a lot of meat. I’ve also learned to eat things that I didn’t before.

Here all the Mexicans eat a lot of beans. I couldn’t eat them before but now I do. When I’m invited places I have to eat them.

Here there’s the possibility of trying things from different parts of the world, [which] I love. In Mexico we don’t have much foreign cooking; there’s Japanese food, Chinese food, and nothing else. Here we have the opportunity to try Indian, Italian, Chinese food, and the Chinese food is very different than what they sell in Mexico. I like Indian food a lot.

I still cook only Mexican food, but the products [I use] have changed. Like in Mexico, there aren’t many differences in the oil you use.

There are only three brands of oil. And here you can buy avocado oil, olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil. That changes the flavor of the

“Sometimes I like to go to the stores [here] just to see the quantity of products that you can cho ose.”

food. People here use a lot of pink salt, which they say is healthier. In Mexico I’d never seen that in my life. All these little ingredients make the food taste different.

Chiles rellenos, in Mexico, are made with poblano chiles. Here we have the chance to try the banana pepper. It’s easier to cook because you don’t have to toast and peel it. You just open it, take out the veins, put cheese inside, and fry it.

One of the differences between Mexico and the United States is that in Mexico we only have three supermarkets: Walmart, Chedraui,

and Comercial Mexicana. Sometimes I like to go to the stores [here] just to see the quantity of products that you can choose. If you go and you want to buy oil, there’s an enormous quantity. If you want to buy shampoo, it’s not something you do in just a few minutes.

I really like cooking for other people. If I’m cooking just for myself, I don’t like it. My husband’s aunt, I get along really well with her, and she has lots of parties. She celebrates Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July, Fiestas Patrias—almost every 15 days, there’s

a party. And we share the food, like, you make the chiles rellenos, you make the posole, you make the rice. We cook for about 40 people, but I like it.

When I cook, I like to do it with lots of happiness, lots of love. I think it changes the flavor [of the food]. I even write about food. I have a poem that talks about my feelings when I’m making chiles rellenos. It’s a little crazy, but I like it. v

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ETHIOPIAN Interview BY MAYA DUKMASOVA Photos BY JEFF MARINI

Until arriving in the U.S. in 2013, Tigist Tesfaw, 51, was an attorney in Ethiopia and ran a large social service agency for survivors of gender-based violence. Despite the demands of her job she always found time to cook for her family and friends. She can’t share the circumstances that made her flee Ethiopia for fear of endangering her relatives. Today she regularly prepares Ethiopian meals for her husband and children, as well as other immigrants, refugees, and asylees at the Marjorie Kovler Center in Rogers Park. She also continues to work with survivors of gender violence as a shelter advocate at Apna Ghar in Uptown. She dreams of starting an Ethiopian restaurant with affordable prices and a brunch menu.

24 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

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n Ethiopia most of the household activities are laid on the mom, the woman, and as a first child and as a girl I’m supposed to cook a lot. Since I’m eight or nine years old I was involved in a lot of cooking, baking. The simplest was shiro wot. The texture is like a paste when it’s cooked, but it’s simple, you can make it in a few minutes.

It’s prepared from chickpea and yellow pea grains, and then we spice it, and then we make the powder. Every household has that powder, every household in Ethiopia—you can find it both in a rich house and in the poorest house.

I had a big single-family house with three bedrooms, kitchen, service quarters, outside in my home city, Hawassa, the capital of the south region. I was the executive director of the agency I established, serving women and children. I was really busy when I was there— too much responsibilities as a director. I used

to work day and night, I didn’t have enough time for sleep. In the meantime I wanted to take care of my family, I would like to participate in the kitchen, I didn’t want to be far away from my kitchen.

Here, you don’t have anyone other than family to help with the kitchen, even to wash dishes. So I’m running to work, then when I’m coming back there is social life, so I’m busy always.

I am cooking more here. Here the interaction with the people, it’s most of the time related with food, so if someone calls me for dinner or something, I want to bring something, I cook.

Most Ethiopian people don’t survive without injera. I have a sister who’s living in San Jose—when she goes back home she brings injera in the freezer. We have another way: injera chips. Back home they will dry it under the sun and then they make it in pieces. My mom always sends me that and then we make

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some sauce and mix it with that sauce. It will become like fresh injera, it soaks in the sauce.

Some stores around the Broadway area are having the injera, but it’s totally different. It has little bubbly eyes, and the texture looks right, but if you are Ethiopian and you know the real injera you can tell. Whenever we meet with Ethiopians that is the discussion. The problem is the flour. I don’t know what’s going on with it. I was the expert back home, I was cooking very nice injera, perfect injera, but here it’s strange.

There are little changes from home. I try to adjust. I discovered the American all-purpose seasoning powder. I found that is the perfect ingredient for samosas. Here the butter is different. American butter doesn’t have taste.

You can smell our butter. Actually, we melt the butter, we put some spices, and then when it’s settled you separate the spices and melted butter and then it has a very nice flavor. With American butter it has no taste, even if you put similar spices.

I have three kids, my older son is back home and my two younger kids are here. My young son is 17 and my daughter is 22. They want to learn, to try the American food but I don’t want them to go to junk food like McDonald’s. They asked me to show them KFC—I took them like twice and then they stopped.

They love Indian food. I cook the Indian rice biryani. Since I love to cook here I don’t go to many restaurants. I don’t really like Ethiopian restaurants, I can make the best one here, so why should I go there? All my friends know my house, everybody comes to my house, I like to invite people for lunch.

Two years back, I started at Apna Ghar, my current job. We have a cooking group every other Thursday with the clients. Most of the time we enjoy Indian and Pakistani meals—I learn their food. Because we have similar spices, similar flavors, Indian and Pakistani food makes sense for Ethiopians, and Ethiopians make more sense for them.

Mostly I go to the Devon Avenue stores.

For meat there is one store on Broadway, a German butcher shop, if I would like to make kitfo. It’s tartare—very fine chopped meat with spices. Otherwise I go to Shan Grocery on Sheridan and Winona. It’s a Pakistani, Indian, and Ethiopian store, that’s also one of my favorite places for meat. Beef is very common, and we love lamb. Chicken is the most respectful. We don’t do like you guys here—the whole chicken which is sold at Jewel-Osco, roast chicken—that’s not really common. Our way it’s for the big holidays like New Year, Easter, and Christmas. It’s common, but it’s special.

I love the cooking group [at the Kovler Center]. Sometimes more than 30 people come, 40

“Because we have similar spices, similar f lavors, Indian and Pakistani fo od makes sense for Ethiopians.”

people. It’s kind of an interesting interaction between the people—men and women are working together, everybody is participating, it was impressing for me. I’ve had Rwandan, Indian, Ethiopian, Philippines, Irish, Chinese . . . If it’s Thanksgiving we cook the turkey and other side dishes. I love Thanksgiving.

From all the American holidays, I’m really happy to be part of the Thanksgiving because we have to be thankful for something, for our life. I’m really impressed with Thanksgiving.

But I’m not really that much interested for the food. I don’t like turkey, I don’t know how people like it. I tried it—mild, no spice. I learned the mashed potato, but it’s not that much flavor, even my kids they don’t like it.

I wish to have an Ethiopian restaurant but I don’t want it to be just like the Ethiopian

restaurants existing right now. I have a lot of friends, Americans or from different countries, and when we are talking about the food they’re telling me, “I love Ethiopian food! I wish I could go to restaurants, but I couldn’t afford it because it’s very expensive.” I’m thinking: How could I make a small price and nice food? I haven’t seen Ethiopian brunch food here, but we do have a lot of food that can be a brunch. We have kita firfir or chechebsa, made from bread and flavored butter. It’s a very nice, filling food, and it could be for brunch. And we also cook eggs in different ways.

Here people are drinking coffee in the morning just to wake up, but not for us. We drink coffee at night. I don’t do the coffee every day, but if I want to have real coffee I want to start from scratch. I roast [the beans]. The coffee ceremony is very important back home—it was always during the night, when families gather together. It is a process. It’s a kind of discussion space. Most of the women don’t work outside, they don’t make money, so the neighborhood women are gathering together, discussing common issues, problems, finding the solutions. It’s really a very interesting and sweet thing. We enjoy the friendship, the affection, drinking the coffee, being together, talking, and telling stories. v

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SITA: We eat a lot of rice, with everything, rice and salad. Bread, we buy—the Arabic bread, big and flat. But it’s not for every food.

KRIKOR: We eat it with soup, tashreeb [brothsoaked bread topped with meat or vegetables] —it’s like soup. Not soup, but like soup. Muslim people eat tashreeb with their hands, but we don’t. We eat it with a fork.

SITA: You put the beans in a pot and boil. Boiling, boiling, boiling. And then cut the Arabic bread and put it in the pot. Put the beans over it, and then the onions with oil, and then butnuj [a dried wild mint]—this is famous in Iraq. And then you put the eggs on top. It’s very delicious.

We can find the things we need at the Arabic stores on Devon. They have many Arabic and Assyrian stores at Devon and Western. They have everything.

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ARMENIANI R AQ I S

By MICHAEL GEBERT

A century ago, Krikor Sarkees’s grandparents fled the Armenian genocide and settled in Baghdad, Iraq, where Krikor would eventually be born. A few decades later Sita Sarkees’s father, also of Armenian Christian background, was taken by his parents from Iran to Iraq; she too would grow up in Baghdad. Six years ago, when other people their age would be thinking of retirement, Sita and Krikor left a war-torn Iraq to settle in Chicago, where Sita’s brother already lived—and earlier this year, the couple (he’s 63 and she’s 55) were naturalized as American citizens. Speaking almost no English when they arrived, they’ve been learning the language and the ways of their new country at World Relief Chicago in Albany Park. The diverse array of international grocers in that area and all over the far north side has helped them maintain Iraqi foodways at home, often by adapting the ingredients they find here to make Iraqi food in America.

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SITA: We are Armenian, but we were born in Iraq—Baghdad, the capitol. We didn’t cook Armenian food. It was Iraqi, Middle East food.

I don’t know what they eat in Armenia—I’ve only seen it in pictures! We cook chicken, beef, lamb, fish. We’re Christian. We will eat pork, but it’s not in the supermarket—only canned pork is. Christian people go hunting in the desert [for wild pig] and they cut it and sell it to their Christian neighbors.

We cook many kinds of chicken. Maybe cooked only with water, then put in the oil with the spice. We have a plastic box in Iraq.

You put everything inside it the day before: yogurt dressing, tahini, garlic, and onion—put everything in the box and put it in the fridge.

We had electricity, because my brother had a big generator, so we had a fridge. Next day, you put everything in a bag, with little holes, and you put the bag in the oven.

KRIKOR: We had a fridge, a microwave oven, because we are in the capitol. In the villages, maybe they don’t use the big stove, they used to cook on the charcoal. But now they have ovens too.

KRIKOR: Things can be easier to find here, because in Iraq they are seasonal, but you have them in all the seasons here.

SITA: Maybe tonight I will make za’atar with tortilla bread. You put oil and za’atar on the tortilla, put in the oven for two or three minutes. Sometimes with the tortillas I put mashed potatoes and cheese and put them in the oven. What we would do in Iraq with lavash you can do with the tortillas. In Iraq we do the dough in the home, but this is easy.

We ate tacos here, for the first time, in Chicago.

KRIKOR: She likes them, I don’t.

SITA: We have lots of sweets in Iraq. For my landlord, one time he came to look at something in the home. I make a cake. He say it looks very delicious. I say, “I’ll do one for your baby’s birthday, OK?” The marble cake is two colors, brown and white. I looked at Armenian recipes for cakes. He tries it and he says, “Oh my goodness! It was very good.”

KRIKOR: When we came here, we didn’t know anything about the United States.

SITA: We can find anything, but the food is very expensive. In Iraq dates are cheap, but here they are very expensive.

KRIKOR: We have tried some American things, like pizza. I like pizza, but not their way. Not the same pizza.

SITA: We put onions and tomatoes and green pepper on it. Sometimes I put mozzarella cheese, sometimes with beef or chicken.

KRIKOR: For me, I don’t like Chinese food.

SITA: Because he doesn’t like fish. But I like fish.

I make burek [stuffed filo pastry]. I buy the burek dough already made. On the package it’s called spring roll. I put meat on it and roll it up and put it in the fryer. Sometimes with potatoes. My niece comes, she’s two or three—she likes potatoes. Sometimes spinach. But Krikor is diabetic, so he can eat only the meat.

Iraqi breakfast is very different from how American people eat breakfast—we have cheese, jam, honey, olives. Every day olives and eggs. I buy Greek olives, and do you know the Kiri cheese? I think it is French maybe. I buy that at Tony’s, and now I like the pepper jack cheese. Very spicy.

KRIKOR: Before I cannot eat the spicy food in Iraq. Now I eat it because the doctor says it is good for you. I have a blood problem, and it is good for your blood.

Sita: “We ate tacos here, for the f irst time, in Chicago.”

Krikor: “She likes them, I don’t.”

SITA: My brother said, “Come, come here, don’t stay in Iraq. It is very beautiful, it is good for you.” When I got here, I didn’t speak any English. I woke up every day and I cried. I cried because I couldn’t talk to people. You don’t know who your neighbors are. Everything was strange for us. I said, “I want to go home, I cannot stay here.” My brother says, “No, you can stay!” Now I speak a little English, maybe 10 or 15 percent I can speak.

KRIKOR: We were in the dark. But everything is good here. v

v @skyfullofbacon

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During an October 1 activation of Enemy Kitchen outside the MCA, Michael Rakowitz (left) serves Iraqi cuisine with the help of U.S. military veterans; Enemy Kitchen’s food is prepared by chefs at Marisol, the MCA’s new restaurant, using Rakowitz’s family recipes. ò NATHAN KEAY/MCA CHICAGO

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he Enemy Kitchen food truck has an erratic and unpredictable schedule.

Most of the time it sits on the plaza outside the Museum of Contemporary Art, which is currently showing “Backstroke of the West,” a midcareer survey of the work of the food truck’s proprietor, the artist Michael Rakowitz. (Do not call it a retrospective. “A retrospective,” says Rakowitz, “is a living funeral.”) Inside the gallery, a plaque briefly tells the story of Enemy Kitchen’s history and mission, and describes the truck itself as an “installation.”

But on select Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons for the last two months, Enemy Kitchen has opened to feed the masses. (The remaining date is October 22 at noon.) All the food is free, for as long as the supply holds out.

For a stint in 2012, Rakowitz prepared food inside the truck. Now chefs at Marisol, the MCA’s new restaurant, do the cooking, using Rakowitz’s family recipes, while the artist, assisted by American veterans of the Iraq war, dishes out the food onto paper replicas of Saddam Hussein’s china.

On the Sunday morning after Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, there was a problem with the gas in Marisol’s kitchen, and Rakowitz and the MCA thought they might have to cancel the event. But the gas was restored, and Sam Berman, the chef on duty, was able to prepare the kofta (meatballs), kubba

Enemy Kitchen

S E RV E S U P H O S P I TA L I T Y I N P L AC E O F HOSTILITY Michael Rakowitz’s food truck and public art project brings Iraqis and Americans together for free meals in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

By AIMEE LEVITT

stew, masgouf (grilled fish), and amba and fattoush salads, and food service begins at 2 PM as scheduled. Already, there are about 50 people lined up and waiting. “It’s a Yom Kippur miracle!” Rakowitz tells them.

Rakowitz has curly dark hair and a dramatic mustache, and he speaks rapidly with a slight New York accent. His body is usually in motion, and you get the impression that his brain is too. He likes to talk. In most of his work he considers the relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East not through the lens of abstract foreign policy, but in ways that are much more accessible: pop culture (the title

“Backstroke of the West” comes from an Arabic mistranslation of the title of a Star Wars movie), reproductions of lost artifacts, and, especially, food.

Today’s Enemy Kitchen service begins, as usual, with a brief welcoming speech/artist talk from Rakowitz. Initially he thought about incorporating the Yom Kippur themes of atonement and forgiveness, but instead he decides to focus on the story of the truck itself.

It goes like this: In the fall of 2001, Rakowitz, who was then living in New York, noticed that the lines outside Khyber Pass, an Afghan restaurant in

the East Village, had grown unusually long.

The customers were staging a form of protest against the anti-Muslim rhetoric and attacks on mosques that had begun after 9/11: they were going to support the people of Afghanistan by eating their food. They couldn’t support the people of Iraq in the same way because there were no Iraqi restaurants in New York.

Rakowitz had first become aware of the connection between food and politics and heritage a decade earlier, during the initial sorties of the first Gulf war. He was 16 years old and living in the same town on Long Island to which his grandparents had immigrated from Iraq, via Mumbai, in 1946. His grandfather, Nissim Isaac Daoud bin Aziz, anglicized the family name to David and went into business as a date importer. Rakowitz grew up eating Iraqi food, hearing his mother and grandparents speak Arabic when they didn’t want him to know what they were talking about, and listening to his grandmother Renée’s stories about how, in Baghdad, she would tell time by the “singing towers,” the minarets which issued the Muslim call to prayer five times a day. “Now,” he says, “the stories were at risk.

The place they had fled to was at war with the place they fled from.”

Rakowitz’s mother, Yvonne, didn’t want her sons to experience Iraq for the first time through the blurry green night-vision footage on CNN. “There was only vulgar and J

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violent attention from TV,” Rakowitz tells the crowd assembled outside Enemy Kitchen. “She wanted to create an Iraqi culture in the U.S. beyond the war.” She did this by teaching them the language of Iraqi cuisine.

A dozen years later, in 2003, as the second Gulf war was getting under way, Rakowitz decided he would do the same for the rest of New York. He started up a series of cooking classes, teaching Yvonne’s recipes to various groups around the city. Among them was a cohort of high school students who had parents serving overseas in Iraq. The subject of the war was deemed too incendiary by their teachers to be discussed in their history or government classes, but conversations started spontaneously as they labored over the preparation of kofta and kubba. One student asked why they were learning about Iraqi food when the Iraqis had knocked down the World Trade Center towers. It wasn’t the Iraqis, another student corrected, it was Osama bin Laden. No, said a third student, it was our own government.

“Here was a panorama of the misinformation that let the war go on,” Rakowitz now says.

Enemy Kitchen didn’t end the war, but it did create a modicum of understanding and cross-cultural communication, and offset some of the hostility from the war with the Iraqi tradition of hospitality. At the end of their session, the high school students told Rakowitz they wanted to teach him about their food. Together, they invented a recipe for Iraqi fried chicken, made with Iraqi spices and date syrup. “It was astonishingly delicious,” Rakowitz says. (The recipe appears in the “Backstroke of the West” exhibition catalog.)

When Rakowitz moved to Chicago to teach at Northwestern University in 2006, he brought Enemy Kitchen with him. He found a vintage 1960 ice cream truck, painted it military green, and decorated it with an Iraqi eagle and the Chicago flag in the Iraqi colors, black, red, and green. Then he recruited Iraqi chefs to help cook and American veterans to help serve—the idea was to have supposed enemies work together—and, in 2012, began serving free meals in various locations around Chicago.

The veterans found it liberating to meet and work with Iraqis. Today’s servers, army vet Aaron Hughes and navy vet Michael Applegate, were forbidden to have contact with civilians during their time overseas; Hughes was once disciplined for giving an old woman a drink of water. “People say, ‘Thank you for your service,’” he says, “but I don’t feel good about it. I prefer serving in this way, in a very social, human way that breaks down assumed cultural

28 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

barriers. Michael is sharing his family. That’s not how you interact when you’re at war.”

But many of the Iraqis associated with the project have had more complicated reactions.

The Iraqi community in Chicago is an old one: the first Assyrians, Aramaic-speaking Christians from northern Iraq, arrived nearly a century ago. But during the first Gulf war, many became afraid of being identified as the enemy, and even after hostilities subsided, they were reluctant to broadcast their background. And now, although Iraq isn’t included in the current iteration of President Donald

2639 W. Peterson in West Ridge. (Rakowitz likes to provide exact street addresses.) Milo, aka Milad, is a good friend of Enemy Kitchen.

The food truck spent several years parked behind the Pita Place. Last June, vandals attacked it, and then, finding nothing of value, attacked the restaurant itself. After that, Rakowitz had the truck towed and set up a Kickstarter campaign to restore it. The MCA exhibition provided a good excuse to revive the food-serving part of the project.

After Rakowitz finishes explaining the history of Enemy Kitchen and the two veterans

The literal vehicle for Enemy Kitchen is a vintage 1960 ice cream truck, painted military green, and decorated with an Iraqi eagle and the Chicago flag in the Iraqi colors, black, red, and green. ò GREG BROSEUS

Trump’s travel ban, Iraqis view it as a ban against Muslims in general and are afraid to give the government any possible reason to notice and deport them. (This is not an irrational fear; earlier this year, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up dozens of Assyrians in Michigan and sent some back to Iraq.) It’s difficult, Rakowitz observes, to talk about Iraq without talking about politics. And so, while Rakowitz continues to invite Iraqis to participate in Enemy Kitchen, many of them, as he puts it, “keep it in an indeterminate space when we talk.”

While the Enemy Kitchen food truck is one of the few openly Iraqi institutions in the city, it’s not the only place that serves Iraqi food.

“There are Iraqi restaurants in Chicago,” Rakowitz tells the crowd, “but they don’t tell you because of xenophobia. They say they’re ‘Mediterranean.’ But if they serve masgouf it’s a sign.”

There’s even an Iraqi nightclub, he adds, Babylon Bistro, open on Friday and Saturday nights in what’s normally Milo’s Pita Place at

make a few remarks, the serving begins. The line moves slowly, but no one seems to mind.

Rakowitz chats with the guests, asking where they’re from or what brought them to the museum. Many are tourists, but a few are friends or former students who came intentionally, and a few more are neighborhood residents who happened to be walking by. Some people stop to ask questions but don’t stay to eat. One couple, riding on bikes from one of the Kimpton hotels, circles the plaza for a few minutes, watching, before deciding to leave; the man says he doesn’t like the implications of the title “enemy kitchen.”

As 3 PM nears, almost all the food is gone, except for half a tray of basmati rice, a few balls of lamb kebab, and some date cookies. Rakowitz and Hughes scrape the bottom of the trays, trying to find a few last bits of kubba stew.

Departing guests squirt rose water on their hands from the soap dispenser attached to the side of the truck beneath a line of Arabic script that translates as “Bless your hands.” A few linger to talk with Rakowitz. An elderly Indian

man is excited to learn about the similarities between Indian and Iraqi food. (Rice and spices and pickled mango traveled between the two countries, Rakowitz tells him, after the British took control of Iraq after World War I.) Another U.S. army veteran tells Rakowitz how the food brought him to tears because it reminded him of meals he’d eaten in Iraq when he was a protocol officer during the war.

“Backstroke of the West” includes remnants of some of Rakowitz’s other food-related projects, including Return, in which he reopened his grandfather’s store on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and attempted to import dates (most Iraqi dates coming to America, he learned, were being routed through Lebanon or Saudi Arabia in order to circumvent sanctions, and the process by which they traveled was remarkably similar to that of Iraqi refugees); Spoils, a dinner in a restaurant in New York served on Saddam Hussein’s china, which he’d purchased on eBay (it was later repatriated; the paper plates are a tribute); and Dar Al Sulh (Domain of Conciliation), a pop-up restaurant in Dubai that was the first restaurant in the Arab world to serve Iraqi-Jewish cuisine since the Jewish exodus of the 1950s.

Many Iraqi visitors reminisced about their lost neighbors, who had, before Arab nationalism and Zionism created divisions between Jews and Muslims and Christians, considered themselves Arabs too.

“These narratives about nationalism erased everything,” Rakowitz says. “There was a pluralistic and cosmopolitan society in Iraq that’s been lost to the past. My projects are a blueprint for going forward and speaking fearlessly about a time when there weren’t divisions.

It’s a way of rescuing. It’s a way of being in the world, of hospitality and community beyond bloodlines. In terms of world history [the exodus of the Jews from Iraq] was just 10 AM this morning. It’s not too late for a reanimation of pluralism, to show how things can be.”

Rakowitz has still never been to Iraq. He’s met so many Iraqis through his work, though, that when he finally gets there, it will be less about recovering his family roots than visiting friends. But for now, he wants to concentrate his efforts of helping the Iraqis of Chicago.

“I want people to show their love to the Iraqi community and the growing Syrian community here in Chicago,” he says. “This is a sanctuary city still. People are running. Lives are on the line. And hospitality is so important in Iraqi culture. So go out and support the community. Go to Babylon Bistro on a Saturday night. Think about the other Chicagoans here who are making the city incredible.” v

@aimeelevitt

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ARTS & CULTLURE

Former Chicagoan and Theater Oobleck ensemble member Dave Buchen has lived in Puerto Rico since 1999; Puerto Rican residents Yadira Sortre and William Fontan Quintero with what remains of their house after Hurricane Maria. “We lost everything,” Quintero says. They have three children, one of whom lives in Chicago. ò EVAN HANOVER; RAMON ESPINOSA

DISASTERS

A view from Puerto Rico

By DEANNA ISAACS

T

odo bien.”

That’s Dave Buchen’s unlikely response to the question of how he’s faring, ten days after Hurricane Maria. I’ve caught the former Chicagoan and longtime Theater Oobleck ensemble member during a rare interlude of cell-phone connectivity at his home on a hill in the Santurce area of San Juan.

“My house is OK. My family is OK. I have access to water and food. So I’m doing great,” he says, adding that he’s lucky to be on high land.

Down the hill, he can see neighborhoods that are completely flooded.

“There are areas close to me that still have sewage in the street,” he says. “And people in the mountains—there are whole areas that are just devastated.”

Electricity?

“None.”

Power was out for more than a week after Hurricane Irma, came back on for four days, and has been out now since September 20, when Maria struck, with a wind that “roared for seven hours.” He says if it’s back

on in two months, he’ll be “really excited.”

There’s no word about when the public schools will reopen.

Buchen, who’s lived in Puerto Rico since 1999, says he’s also lucky to be a self-employed visual artist and musician. Neighbors and friends who work at businesses shut down by the storm don’t know when their jobs will come back, if they come back. Tourism and agriculture alike have been literally blown away.

“A lot of people, their income just disappeared.”

So what can we do to help? The immediate need, Buchen says, is money for the organizations that are doing the work: clearing streets, getting drinkable water to the people, providing shelter. (There, on the ground, he likes Radio Vieques and Taller Salud.)

“Longer term, structurally, we need to not be expected to pay billions and billions of dollars of debt. There’ve been calls for a moratorium on that, and that’s important,” he says.

Two large issues figure in this, Buchen says.

“The economic crisis—we’ve been in recession for 11 years.” And behind that, colonialism.

“Puerto Rico is the world’s oldest colony,” he says. “The United States keeps it as a colony, and because of that, it’s poor. The money has been siphoned off. The sugar industry took tons of money out, and development has been stunted by U.S. control.”

A tax break that encouraged U.S. companies to manufacture in Puerto Rico was ended in 2006. While it was in force, Buchen says, “all kinds of companies came down, set up factories. There were jobs, but there was no accumulation of capital, no reinvestment in the island. They took all the money out, and when the tax break was lifted, they left.”

Since then, unemployment has risen, population and tax revenues have dropped (as Puerto Ricans decamp to the mainland), and the government has borrowed heavily to stay afloat. Puerto Rico, with a population of only about 3.4 million, now owes about $120 billion in bond debt and pension liabilities. More than 40 percent of Puerto Ricans live below the poverty level, according to data collected before the hurricanes hit.

(On September 28, after tweeting that Puerto Ricans “want everything done for them,” President Donald Trump temporarily lifted a long-standing federal law that had interfered with the island’s trade, driven up the cost of living, and was said to be slowing the arrival of supplies after Maria. The Jones Act requires that ships carrying goods between American ports must be U.S. built and staffed; the temporary suspension expired on October 8.)

Buchen’s not looking to statehood as a permanent solution. “For me, statehood means simply that Mississippi wouldn’t be the poorest state in the country,” he says.

“I’m a firm believer that Puerto Rico should be independent.”

“The important thing to remember is that this is a problem that’s not going to stop for a long time. If you’re not in the middle of it, the event happens, you count the dead, and then you move to the next horrible event—Las Vegas. But for the entire population here, this is going to have repercussions for years to come. I would say to the people up there, find a way to pay attention to how things play out.”

Up here, the community’s rallying. Among the efforts: The Puerto Rican Arts Alliance has joined with the National Museum of Mexican Art to raise money for hurricane relief that’ll be split between Puerto Rico and Mexico. The Puerto Rican Agenda launched a “Pallets & Planes” drive that already sent two planeloads of supplies to the island and is gearing up to do more. And on October 19, the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center will host a benefit for Puerto Rican artists featuring two acts from Santurce: the comedy troupe Teatro Breve and singer Juan Pablo Díaz. v PUERTO RICO ARTIST HURRICANE RELIEF FUND-RAISER Thu 10/19, 7 PM, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, 4048 W. Armitage, 773-698-6004, segundoruizbelvis.org.

v @DeannaIsaacs OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 29

“A unique American love story, hilarious yet deeply moving, profound and beautiful.”

–OakPark.com

YASMINA’S NECKLACE

BY ROHINA

MALIK

DIRECTED BY ANN

FILMER

Newly arrived in Chicago from her homeland, Iraqi artist Yasmina has hardened herself against the possibility of finding happiness. But when she meets Sam, a man with his own emotional setbacks, what had seemed unthinkable becomes improbably and tantalizingly real.

OCTOBER 20 - NOVEMBER 19 TICKETS START AT $10

Contributing Sponsor

30 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

312.443.3800 GoodmanTheatre.org GROUPS OF 10+ ONLY: 312.443.3820

THE POWER OF THEATER

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ARTS & CULTURE Henry Godinez ò MICHAEL BROSILOW

DANCE

THEATER

Spoiler alert: the ending ruins it

By TONY ADLER

H

enry Godinez isn’t the Don Quixote type. That is, he doesn’t much resemble the popular image of that famously misguided knight errant, propagated by everybody from Daumier and Doré to Dali and Picasso.

Based, I guess, on a brief description that appears at the beginning of Miguel de Cervantes’s vast 400-year-old comic novel, The Adventures of Don Quixote, we’ve come to picture the man from La Mancha as your basic long drink of water. Godinez, by contrast, is compact and muscular. What makes him convincing as the title figure in Mónica Hoth and Claudio Valdés Kuri’s otherwise frustrating Quixote: On the Conquest of Self, running now at Writers Theatre, isn’t his looks so much as his great, good-humored energy. His cracked charm.

To be accurate, Godinez doesn’t play Quixote in the conventional sense. We’re not meant to believe that he’s acting the role of the delusional old gentleman who, having read one too many books on chivalry, embarks on quests that always turn into follies.

No, Godinez is supposed to embody Quixote the literary construct: aware that he’s a fiction, angry and embarrassed at the silent tyrannies of his author (whose identity be-

wilders him), afraid of the fate that waits for him on the final page, and, in the meantime, straining against the story that holds him captive.

We hear him before we see him, groaning and whining somewhere in the shadows while a spotlight pinpoints a hardbound copy of Cervantes’s book, lying open, spine down on the stage. When the lights come up, we find Quixote in virtually the same position as the book: legs in the air, body balanced over the cervical area of his own spine. In the physics of this show, Quixote is somehow bodily tethered, not just to his narrative but to the paper-and-board reality of the object that houses it. He has to maintain his contorted position until an audience member can be induced to fulfill his instructions, first, to read a passage from the book, and then to close it. The closing frees him to move about at will, much as Dorothy Gale’s application of oil frees the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz. The conceit sounds complicated, but, in this staging by coauthor Kuri, it can be lots of fun. Quixote’s dependence on the kindness of strangers forces him to bring a steady stream of civilians onstage to help him read ballads, mime scenes, and otherwise emote. This is where the aforementioned cracked charm

comes in handy. By turns peremptory and sweet, Godinez is great at wrangling helpers, voluntary and reluctant. And his athleticism, expressed in what look like punishing somersaults, devised under the supervision of acrobatic adviser Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi (a cofounder with me of the Actors Gymnasium), give his performance a feeling of go-for-broke abandon. A hodgepodge set of armor, decorated by costume designer Sanja Manakoski with bottle tops, pull tabs, license plates, and flattened beer cans, heightens the antic, improvisational atmosphere.

The problems arise well into the 90-minute performance, when the script turns from telling this strange Quixote’s story to making him serve an inspirational message. (Spoiler alert: I’m about to discuss a crucial surprise.

Stop reading if you don’t want it ruined for you.)

At a certain point Quixote asks for a show of hands from those who’ve read Cervantes’s masterpiece in its formidable entirety. He engages one of the respondents, a young woman called Xóchitl (Aztec for “flower”), and they banter rather thrillingly about the novel she professes to love—so thrillingly, in fact, that I considered myself lucky to be present for the exchange. What were the odds? Well, as it turned out, they were excellent: it very soon becomes clear that Xóchitl is a ringer. Played

by Emma Ladji, she’s there to push the piece into its mawkish final phase.

Looking back, I’m a little startled at the depth of my reaction to the gimmick. It hit me hard, as a betrayal of all the genuine invention that had gone on before—of my investment in Godinez’s marvelous performance.

More important, Quixote loses any claim to internal integrity at that point, metamorphosing awkwardly, reductively, childishly into the sort of thing you might expect to see touring to schools as part of a self-esteem program (“We’re defeating the Monster of Apathy!”). Hoth and Kuri even take a page from Peter Pan, having Xóchitl solicit our dreams rather than our applause in order to work a climactic miracle. What a crock. What a disappointment. v QUIXOTE: ON THE CONQUEST OF SELF Through 12/17: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 and 6 PM, Tue 7:30 PM, Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, 847-242-6000, writerstheatre.org, $35-$80.

v @taadler

Jumping across the digital divide

THE WORLD IS BECOMING more and more digitized, but choreographer Reggie Wilson doesn’t see technology as a threat to the dance world at least. On the contrary, “the more technology is present, people have more of a need for contact,” he says. “For physical relationships, and real present activity. Live activity.”

For the past year, Wilson and his dance company, Foot + Heel Performance Group, have been touring with Citizen, a piece that uses extended solo performances to explore themes of identity and belonging. Technology was a boon for Wilson during the research process—Google and YouTube allowed him to analyze the specific movements of communities around the world.

“I’m not big on narrative or storytelling, but communicating is a key human activity, and what I’ve found is the value in nonliterate cultures. The more we find about nature and human ability to communicate, the more we find out that some of these cultures and communities that we thought were primitive and backward are actually jumping the digital divide” to convey meaning.

This nonverbal, nonliterate communication is what makes dance at once universal and subject to interpretion, and Wilson believes that to be a major strength of the art form: “The poetry of dance is that it opens itself to being relevant to more than one person at the same time.” —OLIVER SAVA CITIZEN Thu 10/12-

Sat 10/14, 7:30 PM, Dance Center of Columbia College, 1306 S. Michigan, 312-369-8330, columedu.dancecenter, $30.

ò AITOR MENDILIBAR

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 31

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ARTS & CULTURE

CULTURE

Chicago Ideas Week returns

By AIMEE LEVITT Meet us www.nua.ac.uk

JOIN THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Scholarships and US Financial Aid available

specialist arts institution with more than 170 years’ experience

/nuainternational @NorwichUniArts @norwichuniarts

Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) is a leading British preparing students for success in the creative industries.

Building on its outstanding reputation for excellence and

Frontier executive chef Brian Jupiter hosts “Get to Know Your Meat” on October 19.

innovation in traditional art and design subjects, NUA is now leading the way in digital design. Not only is the UK a global hub for the arts, highly competitive fees and living costs means there has never been a better time to study in Great Britain.

34 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

S

ince fall weather is such a rare and precious commodity, it seems cruel to ask anybody to spend any more time than necessary indoors listening to people talk.

But please hear us out on Chicago Ideas Week, which starts up Monday, October 16. And anyway, it might rain.

This is actually the seventh iteration of Chicago Ideas Week. It began when a group of Chicagoans noticed that a lot of symposiums going on around the world—TED talks, Davos seminars—were inaccessible to regular people, except maybe via YouTube, which somehow lacked the excitement and immediacy of being in the same room with other attendees.

Chicago, they felt, had a good mix of worldclass academics and the blue-collar ethos of getting shit done.

This year’s Chicago Ideas Week has 30 stage events with speakers and panels, punctuated by artistic performances, and 90 labs around the city. “These are behind-the-scenes looks at Chicago institutions,” says Sona Jones, the festival’s director of marketing and media.

“They open their doors to people in unique ways, show what they’re up to and the innovations they have.” Among the offerings are a chance to see the Joffrey Ballet in rehearsal, watch chef Brian Jupiter of Frontier butcher an animal, produce a commercial (in Spanish) with Univision, and tour the Calumet region with Field Museum geographer Mark Bouman.

In addition, Chicago Ideas will be setting up 20 “Hello” booths for visitors to have video chats with other people in other booths

around the city. “It’s an opportunity to engage in civil discourse,” Jones explains. “There are prompts to encourage you to talk with another person about something you might disagree on and find some common ground and gain a better sense of understanding.”

The goal of all this, Jones says, is to inspire audiences to think about issues that are affecting their city and their lives and then leave the program with some idea about how to take action. (Chicago Ideas helps by sending postevent e-mails with practical suggestions.)

Jones and her colleagues have been collecting stories of projects that have been directly inspired by Chicago Ideas. One of her favorites is a Yale student who, after hearing a lecture about artificial intelligence, went up to talk to the speaker, who ended up introducing her to a Yale professor. Together, they collaborated on an assisted learning lab to create tools for educating autistic children in Rwanda.

Although many programs have already sold out, Jones has a few recommendations: “State of Our Union” on Monday, a talk about what it means to be an American, and “Breakthroughs: Advancing the Way We Live” on Tuesday, a look at both gene splicing and mass social movements. “We want to get people inspired,” says Jones, “and then do something about it.” v R CHICAGO IDEAS WEEK Mon 10/16-Sun 10/22, various times, venues, and prices; for more information visit chicagoideas.com.

v @aimeelevitt

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Gentrification rules the nation

By TANNER HOWARD

D

espite endless debate, Chicago seems no closer to addressing the consequences of gentrification today than ever. Even though the City Council recently advanced a Rahm-backed measure to force developers to build more low-income housing, other efforts, like another measure targeted at obligating developers to pay demolition taxes along the 606, never received a hearing in council chambers. While a handful of Chicago neighborhoods such as Pilsen and Humboldt Park are the sites of skyrocketing rents, other areas of the city remain disinvested and overpoliced, getting none of the benefits of redevelopment as austerity measures continue to gut resources for education and other public goods.

Debates on gentrification frequently pit existing community residents and businesses against newcomers and developers, creating a clear-cut “good versus evil” narrative. Unfor-

tunately, as the urban planner Lance Freeman argues, such an approach to this topic “makes a good morality play, but life is a lot messier than that.”

In Gentrifier, authors John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, and Marc Lamont Hill plunge into the complexities of this ever-raging debate.

Their emphasis is on their own experiences as agents of gentrification, by means of which they hope to unravel the relationship between individual actors and structural forces.

“Gentrification is a context, and that context speaks to the entire fabric of metropolitan Chicago,” says Schlichtman, an associate professor of sociology at DePaul. “The response to gentrification involves suburbs, gentrification hot spots, and disinvested communities.”

Although countless blog posts use a first-person perspective to discuss similar issues, this approach typically exonerates the behavior of gentrifiers.

Gentrifier takes a different tack. By offering their own messy histories up for examination, the authors show that even as self-aware urban scholars, they’ve made compromising decisions when they moved into neighborhoods undergoing transformation. “Imagined realities and physical realities collide in gentrification,” they write.

Schlichtman’s account addresses the ways in which Chicago’s history of segregation and disinvestment has affected his relationship to the city and his pursuit of housing. Schlichtman, who’s white, originally planned to move to Bronzeville, a historically African-American neighborhood, in 2013 with his black wife, Monique, and their mixed-race children. But after finding shortcomings in nearby schools, they eventually settled in the West Loop, lured by a property being sold by the government that was both affordable and close to Mark T. Skinner West Elementary, a highly integrated public school.

While the West Loop has been the recipient of dramatic upheaval in recent years, with corporate headquarters of companies such as McDonald’s moving in, Schlichtman emphasizes that gentrification needs to be understood as a process that implicates the entire metropolitan area. For example, Skinner West has become overcrowded, with students from shuttered west-side schools pushing the school to 120 percent capacity. Without an equal distribution of money and resources to each neighborhood, Schlichtman argues, Chicago won’t be able to more effectively balance the needs of its entire population.

Gentrifier contends with a frustrating question: If they aren’t gentrified, are poor neighborhoods doomed to further disinvestment and decay? For many underresourced neighborhoods in Chicago, the question of gentrification is irrelevant—it’s just unlikely.

But those residents still need a boost in resources, particularly when a Chicago-based study found that neighborhoods with black populations of 40 percent or higher don’t experience gentrification. Government and private companies need to find ways to reverse decades of disinvestment without displacing residents, and having a clearer vision for those communities is critical.

“It is in the long-term benefit of the city that it doesn’t have five gentrification hot spots and 60 percent of its landscape deteriorating into the soil,” Schlichtman says. “This is a long-term economic issue, bringing more and more neighborhoods into the city fabric in a way that’s not exploitative.”

To this end, the authors devote the closing chapter to imagining visions of the city that move beyond gentrification, where amenities like bike lanes and grocery stores aren’t potential catalysts of displacement. Whether all residents have a “right to the city,” an enduring socialist urban framework first articulated in a book of the same name by French urbanist Henri Lefebvre in 1968, is a fundamental question.

Residents in gentrifying neighborhoods should voice their concerns—it’s an important step in combatting the negative outcomes of gentrification, even if most efforts thus far haven’t totally succeeded. Many first-wave gentrifiers hold the same concerns as longtime community residents, particularly a desire for affordable housing. Early gentrifiers often also hope to preserve the existing fabric of the community, cherishing the social ties that are already in place.

Still, skepticism endures for a reason.

Many gentrifiers have little or no interest in maintaining the existing social fabric of their neighborhood, instead actively imagining a version of the community that’s wealthier and whiter than it already is. Such people are likely, for example, to call the police to settle small disputes such as noise complaints, and that kind of intervention can have deadly consequences in black and Latino communities.

“There’s good reason why people wouldn’t want new folks in that conversation, because they’ve seen it happen before,” Schlictman says.

Even if it remains difficult to create effective political coalitions between new and old residents, Gentrifier is a noble attempt to enrich the vocabulary used in debates over gentrification. It aims to move beyond the paralysis of the conversation, where in there’s no hope of improving neighborhoods without the current cultural and economic displacement that gentrification so often entails.

“Every day, I look at how the word ‘gentrifier’ is used in social media, to keep a pulse on what people mean, and most of the time they mean ‘bad person,’” Schlictman says. “The goal for the book is to widen the definition to the boundaries it truly deserves.” v R GENTRIFIER By John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, and Marc Lamont Hill (University of Toronto). The authors appear for a discussion Wed 10/18, 6 PM, Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5751 S. Woodlawn, 773-752-4381, semcoop.com. F

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Pre-Crime

Watching the watchers at the

Chicago International Film Festival

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he 53rd Chicago International Film Festival runs Thursday, October 12, through Thursday, October 26, offering itself up to the city with the slogan “Because Life Is a Movie.” I must admit, I don’t get the logic of this—if life is a movie, why not stay home from the fest and save yourself 15 bucks? Moreover, why would anyone want to encourage such a mind-set? People’s inability to distinguish life from a movie might explain how we wound up with a Chief Executive who spends every free moment following his own story on TV. But the marketing is the marketing, and the festival is the festival. This year’s schedule includes many good reasons to spend $15 to $20, including tributes to Patrick

Stewart and Vanessa Redgrave (the latter presenting her directorial debut, Sea Sorrow, and returning to “swinging London” with a revival of Blow-Up, below). Various series showcase Chicago productions and films about the gay, black, and Latino experiences. There’s a series of architecture documentaries, programmed in concert with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and another series collecting film noirs from around the world. Best of all, you can catch new work by Fatih Akin (director of Head On), Philippe Garrel (Regular Lovers), Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata), Martin McDonough (In Bruges), Errol Morris (The Fog of War), Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), and 22 other bright lights whose work is reviewed below.

This is the part of my introduction where I usually start sermonizing about how the festival opens a window onto the rest of the world. But it can also provide you with a startling new perspective on your own backyard.

Take the German documentary Pre-Crime (below), which exposes the computerized data analysis used by Chicago’s police department (and others in the U.S. and UK) to create a “strategic subject list” of citizens likely to commit crimes. The filmmakers get a brief tour of the city’s Crime Prevention Information Center, which looks like the surveillance room constructed by Batman to monitor Gotham City in The Dark Knight (also shot in Chicago).

Life may be a movie, but I don’t remember agreeing to star in it, and I’ll bet you don’t either. —J.R. JONES

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Barrage An 11-year-old girl (Themis Pauwels) and her grandmother (Isabelle Huppert) suffer the unexpected return of the girl’s mother (Lolita Chammah), a recovering addict who’s been absent for a decade and now wants back into their lives.

Laura Schroeder cowrote and directed this rambling, disjointed Belgian drama, which is long on incidental detail and art-house conceits but short on narrative drive. Chammah is Huppert’s daughter in real life, though they aren’t together onscreen enough to generate any chemistry, and Schroeder can’t sustain enough tension or emotion to make the story compelling. In French with subtitles. —MARILYN FERDINAND 111 min. Schroeder attends the screenings. Fri 10/13, 8:30 PM; Sat 10/14, 12:45 PM; and Tue 10/17, noon.

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Blow-Up Michelangelo Antonioni’s sexy art-house hit of 1966, which played a substantial role in putting “swinging London” on the map, follows a day in the life of a young fashion photographer (David Hemmings) who discovers, after blowing up his photos of a couple glimpsed in a park, that he may have inadvertently uncovered a murder. Part erotic thriller (with significant glamorous roles played by Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, Verushka, and Jane Birkin), part exotic travelogue (featuring a Yardbirds concert, antiwar demonstrations, street mimes, one exuberant orgy, and a certain amount of pot), this is so ravishing to look at (the colors all seem newly minted) and pleasurable to follow (the enigmas are usually more teasing than worrying) that you’re likely to excuse the metaphysical pretensions—which become prevalent only at the very end—and go with the 60s flow, just as the original audiences did. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 111 min. Redgrave attends the screenings. Mon 10/16, 2:30 PM, and Tue 10/17, 5:30 PM.

Blueprint An underemployed day-care teacher on the south side struggles to put his life in order after a close friend is killed in a random shooting. This poignant indie drama considers multiple issues facing black communities in contemporary America: unemployment, gang violence, police brutality, broken families. It never overreaches, though, because director Daryl Wein (Lola Versus) and cowriter-star Jerod Haynes ground their social concerns in a precise character study. The complex hero exacerbates his own unhappiness even as he tries to do good by others; he drinks to excess, cheats compulsively on his girlfriend (the mother of his two children), and devotes little effort to finding work. His plight points to a more universal theme: the challenge of becoming a responsible adult. —BEN SACHS 76 min.

Golden Years

Wein, Haynes, and other cast members attend the screenings.

Fri 10/13, 9 PM; Sat 10/14, 1 PM; and Wed 10/18, 1:30 PM. Chasing the Blues In 1987, a white record collector (Grant Rosenmeyer) and a black record-store owner (Ronald L. Conner) discover that an elderly black woman in Hyde Park (Anna Maria Horsford) owns a rare blues recording. The men’s attempts to steal the disk end in disaster, but 20 years later they jump at a second, much riskier opportunity to secure it.

Writer-director Scott Smith offers some knowing jibes at the white appropriation of black culture, but the comedy is generally goofy and high-spirited. Rosenmeyer and Conner are great foils, and Horsford, with her sweet tea and southernisms, nearly walks off with the movie. With Jon Lovitz, Steve Guttenberg, and Tim Kazurinsky. —MARILYN FERDINAND 77 min. Smith, Lovitz, and Rosenmeyer attend the screenings. Sat 10/14, 8:45 PM; Wed 10/18, 5:45 PM; and Sat 10/21, 12:30 PM.

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Faces Places In this French road movie, whose original title juxtaposes faces and villages, 89-year-old filmmaker Agnès Varda follows 33-year-old photographer and installation muralist JR across the countryside as he and his team photograph working people, enlarge these shots into monu-

mental black-and-white likenesses, and paste them onto the sides of the buildings where the subjects live and work. From the opening-credit animation onward, this delightful, digressive, breezy collaboration, staged to look more spontaneous than it possibly could be, celebrates and enhances both artists, repeatedly finding the extraordinary in the ordinary and growing more reflective and melancholy only in its Swiss epilogue. For Varda, this is a spinoff of sorts to The Gleaners and I (2000) and The Beaches of Agnès (2008); for me it was a welcome introduction to the work of JR. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 89 min. Fri 10/13, 5:30 PM, and Sat 10/14, 2:45 PM.

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Golden Years Nos Années Folles, the French title of this exquisitely upholstered and mysteriously provocative period drama, means “Our Crazy Years.” But as writer-director André Téchiné has suggested in such masterpieces as Wild Reeds (1994) and Thieves (1996), being “crazy” simply means being human, alive, and horny. The protagonist (Pierre Deladonchamps), a passionately heterosexual soldier, disguises himself as a streetwalker to escape combat in World War I, then continues to wear drag in peacetime, yet his behavior seems no less rational (to him or to us) than that of little boys playing at war, or his adulterous wife (Céline Sallette) playing at marriage.

SPECIAL EVENTS Actress VANESSA REDGRAVE accepts the festival’s Visionary Award at a screening of her directorial debut, Sea Sorrow, a documentary on the global refugee crisis. Mon 10/16, 6 PM, $15

Visiting filmmakers weigh in on the commercial prospects for black cinema in the panel discussion THE MOONLIGHT EFFECT, part of the festival’s industry-related programming. Fri 10/20, 4 PM, $5.

36 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

The Harold Ramis Film School helped organize the panel discussion RESISTANCE AND SATIRE, pondering the power of comedy in an age of political chaos. Sat 10/21, 2:30 PM, $5.

MARC EVANS, president of Paramount Pictures, talks about his rise in the movie business and his work on such critical and commercial hits as Arrival, Interstellar, and Selma. Sat 10/21, 4 PM, $5.

Actress ALFRE WOODARD accepts the festival’s Career Achievement award as part of the annual Black Perspectives series. Sat 10/21, 6 PM, $15.

Actor PATRICK STEWART talks about his long career, from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men, and responds to clips from his films. Wed 10/25, 6:30 PM, $15.

Actor MICHAEL SHANNON appears in person for the closing-night screening of The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro’s cold-war fantasy involving a strange creature at a secret government laboratory.

Thu 10/26, 7:30 PM, $35 or $40 with afterparty.

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For better and for worse, the mysteries remain unsolved and what prevails is Téchiné’s elliptical tragic poetry about unfathomable human behavior. In French with subtitles. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 103 min. Thu 10/19, 8:45 PM, and Sun 10/22, 8 PM. Last Flag Flying Having no desire to revisit the macho-military high jinks of The Last Detail (1973) or read the Darryl Ponicsan novel on which it was based, I had some forebodings about this screen adaptation of Ponicsan’s 2005 sequel, even though the movie was cowritten and directed by the smart and resourceful Richard Linklater. Fortunately this belongs mainly to its fine lead actors—Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne— playing buddies from the Vietnam war who reunite for a funeral in 2003 after one of them loses a son in Iraq. The movie asks whether Americans unable to share a country or a conviction can at least agree to share a symbol (whether it’s the Stars and Stripes or an unmerited military funeral), and even Linklater and Ponicsan seem divided and uncertain on the question. This has its moments, but it ends, like its characters, in sentimental confusion. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 124 min. Mon 10/16, 8:15 PM.

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Let the Sunshine In Loosely inspired by Roland Barthes’s nonfiction book A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments—which dives into the absurd language of solitude and mythology that lovers and would-be lovers recite to themselves and others—this rapturous and faintly comic concerto for Juliette Binoche may well be the most pleasurable and original film Claire Denis has made since Beau Travail (1999). Binoche plays a divorced painter whom Denis pairs sexually, amorously, and/or tentatively with a succession of men played by everyone from Xavier Beauvois to Alex Descas to Gerard Depardieu.

The filmmaker’s skill in framing her protagonist’s various trysts, moods, and dialogues, sometimes even setting them to music, is matchless. Novelist Christine Angot collaborated with Denis on the script. In French with subtitles. —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 95 min. Sun 10/22 and Mon 10/23, 5:45 PM.

the end credits his greater triumphs arguing Brown vs. Board of Education and other landmark civil rights cases. To compensate, director Reginald Hudlin (Boomerang) accompanies the hero’s more eloquent and idealistic pronouncements with little swells of music and shoots him from a low angle so he’ll look like a head on Mount Rushmore. With Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, and Sterling K. Brown. —J.R. JONES PG-13, 118 min. Boseman, Gad, Hudlin, and producer Paula Wagner are scheduled to introduce the 7:30 PM screening (tickets are $100, including an afterparty) and visit the 7:45 and 8 PM screenings (tickets are $40) as part of the opening-night festivities. Thu 10/12, 7:30, 7:45, and 8 PM. Mutafukaz Based on a trendy French comic book, this madcap adventure from Shoujirou Nishimi and Guillaume “Run” Renard is an international hodgepodge of Japanese animation, French moodiness, and a dystopian setting based on Los Angeles. The hero, a mouthy twentysomething with an alter ego composed of dark matter, and his pal, whose head is a flaming skull, flee a pack of shady characters called the Men in Black. As in video games, the action is lurid, hyperkinetic, and gruesomely violent, with nods to Grand Theft Auto and a comparably infelicitous treatment of the few women characters who show up. But the visual style and narrative are imaginative, and there’s enough social commentary to give this silly caper some weight. Dubbed in English. —LEAH PICKETT 94 min. Renard attends the screenings. Thu 10/19, 10:15 PM, and Fri 10/20, 10:30 PM. Never Steady, Never Still British actress Shirley Henderson uses her soft voice and tiny frame to great effect as a rural housewife wasting away from Parkinson’s disease. After her husband (Nicholas Campbell) dies, her inarticulate, sexually uncertain teenage son (Théodore Pellerin) returns home from his job on a remote drilling rig to care for her and sort out his own life. Kathleen Hepburn, who wrote and directed this Canadian drama, captures the daily rhythms of a community so isolated

that loneliness can trigger suicide. The actors are excellent (especially Mary Galloway as a pregnant supermarket clerk), but this downer may test your resistance to cabin fever. —ANDREA GRONVALL 110 min. Hepburn attends the screenings. Wed 10/18, 5:45 PM; Thu 10/19, 8:30 PM; and Fri 10/20, noon.

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On the Beach at Night Alone Hong Sang-soo continues in the contemplative mode of Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013), crafting another finely observed drama about a lonely young woman. A South Korean actress (Kim Min-hee), visiting Berlin to forget her messy breakup with a married director, realizes that she’s still depressed and returns home, only to alienate old friends with her selfish and self-destructive behavior. Hong’s visual style, offering little camera movement or editing within scenes, is deceptively simple, exposing the characters’ emotional complexity, and the friction between his serious psychological concerns and his playful narrative, with its dream sequences and clever elisions, generates a certain frisson. In English and subtitled Korean. —BEN SACHS 101 min.

Tue 10/24 and Wed 10/25, 5:45 PM.

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The Other Side of Hope Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki delivers his timeliest and most heartfelt film, mixing humor, pathos, and anger in a manner reminiscent of Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940). A Syrian refugee, having lost most of his family and friends to sectarian violence, arrives in Helsinki to begin a new life; after the authorities declare that Syria is no longer a crisis zone and order him to return, he finds work and shelter at a run-down restaurant, where he ingratiates himself with the ragtag employees. Kaurismäki offers plenty of his deadpan humor in the restaurant scenes, but the comedy never distracts one from the hero’s plight, or from the failure of European nations to provide enough help for the exiled. In English and subtitled Arabic and Finnish. —BEN SACHS 100 min.

Fri 10/13, 8:30 PM, and Sat 10/14, 1 PM.

The Line Entertaining but muddled, this crime drama takes place along Slovakia’s border with Ukraine, across which the protagonist (Tomas Mastalir) smuggles cigarettes and refugees.

His criminal enterprise spins out of control after his teenage daughter gets pregnant, his mother cajoles him into hiring the girl’s boyfriend, and his criminal associates begin to chafe at his refusal to handle drugs. Director Peter Bebjak tries to cover too much ground, drawing too many ethical lines in the sand for his hero to consider; the film offers neither the punch of a tightly focused narrative nor the epic scale of a Godfather-style saga.

In Slovak and Ukrainian with subtitles. —PATRICK FRIEL 112 min.

Actor Andy Hyrc attends the Saturday and Sunday screenings.

Sat 10/14, 8:30 PM; Sun 10/15, 2:30 PM; and Tue 10/17, 3:15 PM. Marshall Having played Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013) and James Brown in Get On Up (2014), Chadwick Boseman turns to Thurgood Marshall, the nation’s first black Supreme Court justice.

The role is a step up intellectually, yet screenwriters Jacob and Michael Koskoff aren’t really interested in Marshall as a jurist, only as a wily and courageous trial attorney for the NAACP in the 1940s, defending a black man in Bridgeport, Connecticut, against charges that he raped a white woman. This real-life case makes for an entertaining courtroom drama that nonetheless reduces Marshall to the level of Perry Mason and consigns to

On the Beach at Night Alone

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 37

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Pre-Crime Philip K. Dick’s 1956 sci-fi story “Minority Report” predicted a world in which computers use behavioral data to forecast criminal activity; as this German documentary reveals, we’re living in that world now. Directors Matthias Heeder and Monika Hielscher open in Chicago, where they visit the Crime Prevention Information Center, a Dark Knight-style surveillance headquarters created by the police department and the Illinois Institute of Technology, and interview Robert McDaniel, a private citizen who says he wound up on the city’s algorithm-generated “heat list” simply because his friend was a crime victim. Among the cool new software programs keeping us safe and/or oppressed are PredPol and HunchLab, which map high-crime areas, and Beware, which identifies people with suspicious social media activity. Advocates of the technology call it proactive policing, detractors call it racial profiling, and critics point out that the initial data is already skewed because it represents only reported crimes.

Most people don’t know anything about the practice, which is the main reason it might be here to stay. In English and subtitled French and German. —J.R. JONES 88 min. Heeder attends the screening. Thu 10/19, 5:45 PM, and Fri 10/20, 3 PM.

The Rape of Recy Taylor Some stories are so important that they can overcome a documentary maker’s poor cinematic choices. Recy Taylor, a black woman in rural Alabama, was gang-raped by six white teenagers in 1944; unlike many other such victims, she risked her life demanding justice, but despite an abundance of evidence, no one was ever convicted of the crime. Director Nancy Buirski presents emotional testimony from Taylor’s brother and sister, and suggests that the nationwide protests over Taylor’s treatment helped inspire the civil rights movement. But as if the story weren’t moving enough already, she also tells us how to feel with trite visual poetics (fuzzy and superimposed landscape images) and a soundtrack loaded with spirituals. —FRED CAMPER 90 min. Biurski and pro-

All films listed here screen at River East 21, 322 E. Illinois.

ADMISSION Unless otherwise noted, all tickets are $15 ($12 for students, seniors, and Cinema/Chicago members).

A ten-admission pass is $135 ($105 for members), and a 20-admission pass is $260 ($200 for members). Weekday matinees through 5 PM are $8; shows after 10 PM are $10. Special packages for opening- and closing-night galas.

ADVANCE SALES In person: River East 21 (through Thu 10/12, noon-8 PM; Fri 10/13-Thu 10/26, beginning one hour before the first show and ending after the last show has begun). Online: ticketmaster.com/chicagofilmfestival. By phone: 24 hours in advance at 312-332-3456; weekdays 10 AM-6 PM; Saturday 10AM-3 PM

FOR MORE Call 312-332-3456 or go to chicagofilmfestival.com.

ducer Claire Chandler attend the screenings. Wed 10/18, 5:45 PM, and Thu 10/19, 3:15 PM. Rogers Park Set in the title neighborhood, this indie drama covers a year in the lives of four middle-aged characters: a failed writer, who earns his living at a public library; his girlfriend, who works for an alderman; his sister, who runs a preschool; and the sister’s husband, who sells real estate. Both couples are interracial, though director Kyle Henry and screenwriter Carlos Treviño wisely overlook this concern, focusing instead on the characters’ bottled-up professional and interpersonal frustrations. The sympathetic performances, under-

stated direction, and thematic emphasis on lower-middle-class unhappiness all reminded me of British filmmaker Mike Leigh, and like him, Henry and Treviño know how to develop narrative momentum through a steady stream of subtle psychological revelation. —BEN SACHS 88 min. Henry attends the screenings.

Thu 10/19, 6:15 PM, and Mon 10/23, 3:30 PM.

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Sicilian Ghost Story This Italian drama is based on the harrowing true story of a 13-year-old boy kidnapped

by Mafia figures in the 1990s and held captive for two years to prevent his father, another mafioso, from testifying against them in court. Strangely, directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza play down the criminal aspect of the story and focus instead on the curious, almost supernatural connection between the teen and his girlfriend, who appear to each other in dreams and visions during his imprisonment. Careful camera movement, distorting wide-angle lenses, and a hyperfocused sound design all contribute to the mysterious atmosphere, and Julia Jedlikowska gives a heartbreaking performance as the girl, who suffers the bittersweet ache of young love. In Italian with subtitles. —PATRICK FRIEL 120 min. Piazza attends the Sunday and Monday screenings. Sun 10/15, 7:30 PM; Mon 10/16, 5:30 PM; and Thu 10/19, 3 PM.

Spoor In a mountainous region of Poland, a part-time English teacher finds her two dogs have been killed and saves their remains in hope of cloning them someday. Soon human corpses begin turning up as well, signaling what director Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, The Secret Garden) calls an “anarchistic, feminist crime story with elements of black comedy.” Noirish imagery contributes to the atmosphere, and sweeping camera movements suggest there’s more to the story than meets the eye. But the oddball characters and twisty narrative seem almost surrealistically implausible, and the utopian conclusion, apparently a response to right-wing politics in Poland, seemed nutty to me. In Polish with subtitles. —FRED CAMPER 128 min.

Sat 10/14, 3 PM; Sun 10/15, noon; and Fri 10/20, 3;15 PM.

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The Square “Do you want to save a human life?” asks a woman distributing flyers outside a museum of modern art in Stockholm; the invariable reply from people on the street is “No.” Welcome to the world of Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund, who takes some wicked pot shots at the business of art but more broadly ponders the breakdown of the social contract among all people. The Square is an art installation outside the museum, a little zone in which “we all share equal rights and obligations,” and that concept informs much of the film’s satire—most provocatively, an art lecture continually interrupted by a man with Tourette’s syndrome, who barks obscenities at the museum staffers even as they defend his right to stay. Östlund’s breakout film, Force Majeure (2014), lampooned the privilege of wealth; this story turns more on cultural privilege, embodied by the museum’s handsome but fatuous curator (Claes Bang). With Elisabeth Moss and Dominic West. —J.R. JONES R, 142 min.

Actor Terry Notary attends the screenings. Fri 10/13, 8:15 PM, and Sat 10/14, 5:15 PM.

Thelma

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Thelma Brian De Palma’s Carrie echoes through this Norwegian psychological thriller, which is subtler and more daring than its model. An insecure college freshman in Oslo (Eili Harboe), adjusting to life in the big city without her

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smothering parents (Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Dorrit Petersen), falls for another coed and begins suffering terrible seizures. Her doctors rule out epilepsy in favor of a psychogenic illness, but before long the girl begins to develop telekinetic powers.

Director Joachim Trier (Louder Than Bombs, Oslo, August 31) links supernatural horror to repressed memories, raging hormones, and fundamentalist zealotry, crafting a sexy and unsettling brainteaser.

In Norwegian with subtitles. —ANDREA GRONVALL 116 min. Sat 10/14, 8:30 PM, and Sun 10/15, 12:30 PM. Tokyo Vampire Hotel The latest provocation from Japanese director Sion Sono (Love Exposure) is an awkward theatrical cut of his nine-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime Japan, about ancient, warring clans of Japanese bloodsuckers. Set primarily in Tokyo in the year 2021, the narrative focuses on a trio of young vampires born when the planets aligned in 1999; empowered by Transylvanian blood, these “Draculas” are fated to overthrow the rival Corvins, who locked their kind underground in the 16th century and have ruled the earth ever since. The film is relentlessly violent and disgusting; I lost count early on of how many characters were shot point-blank in the head. Sono also revels in such campy cliches as a sugary-sweet woman who doubles as a merciless assassin. In Japanese with subtitles. —LEAH PICKETT 142 min. Sat 10/14, 10:30 PM; Mon 10/16, 1:30 PM; and Sat 10/21, 9 PM.

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Touch of Evil After seeing the work print of his last Hollywood feature, Orson Welles wrote a lengthy memo requesting several changes in editing and sound—work that was carried out in 1998 by producer Rick Schmidlin and editor Walter Murch with me as consultant. Dave Kehr wrote of the film’s original 1958 release, “Eternal damnation to the wretch at Universal who printed the opening titles over the most brilliant establishing shot in film history—a shot that establishes not only place and main characters in its continuous movement

over several city blocks, but also the film’s theme (crossing boundaries), spatial metaphors, and peculiar bolero rhythm.” These titles now appear at the film’s end—yielding a final running time of 111 minutes—and in the opening shot Henry Mancini’s music comes exclusively from speakers in front of the nightclubs and from a car radio. Other changes involve different sound and editing patterns and a few deletions, all of which add up to a narrative that’s easier to follow, but there’s no new or restored footage. To quote Kehr again, “Welles stars as the sheriff of a corrupt border town who finds his nemesis in visiting Mexican narcotics agent Charlton Heston; the witnesses to this weirdly gargantuan struggle include Janet Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, Akim Tamiroff, and Joseph Calleia, who holds the film’s moral center with sublime uncertainty.” —JONATHAN ROSENBAUM 111 min. Rosenbaum attends the screening. Sun 10/22, 12:15 PM. 12 Days In France, any person involuntarily committed to a mental hospital is entitled to a judicial hearing within 12 days. Raymond Depardon, best known in the U.S. for his documentary The 10th District Court: Judicial Hearings, shot dozens of these sessions by special arrangement with the court, and his film singles out ten of these lost souls as they try to explain themselves to a “liberty and custody” judge. One subject spontaneously punched a stranger on the street, another compulsively interrupts the judge, and yet another claims that he hears “the voice of the electric chair.” More often, however, the patients seem lucid and self-knowing; one even agrees to her treatment, admitting, “I’m an open wound.” One might say the film is illuminating in its opacity: one comes to it expecting bold insights into mental illness but leaves with a new appreciation of how invisible such illness can be.

In French with subtitles. —J.R. JONES 87 min. Sat 10/14, 6:15 PM, and Mon 10/16, 12:30 PM.

v @chicagoreader.com OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 39

®

THE RETURN OF

BRIDGET EVERETT NEXT THURSDAY! OCTOBER 19

THIS WEDNESDAY! OCTOBER 18

THIS FRIDAY! OCTOBER 13

OCT. 20 SHOW IS SOLD OUT!

SPECIAL GUESTS:

AGES & AGES THE HEART OF SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21

FRIDAY OCTOBER 27

NEXT THURSDAY! OCTOBER 19

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BUY TICKETS AT 40 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

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LET’S PUT IT IN PRINT: MELKBELLY ARE CHICAGO’S MOST EXCITING ROCK BAND On the new Nothing Valley, the Pilsen four-piece have found a tense balance between delicate melody and frantic noise.

By KEVIN WARWICK

Melkbelly, clockwise from upper left: James Wetzel, Bart Winters, Liam Winters, and Miranda Winters ò LENNY GILMORE

M

elkbelly shouldn’t work so well.

This Chicago four-piece yoke together musical elements that seem about as compatible as a soap bubble and a shotgun: on the one hand you’ve got simple pop structures and eerie, often delicate vocals, while on the other you’ve got feedback, noise, disjointed rhythms, and a drummer who lashes at his kit like the second coming of Lightning Bolt’s Brian Chippendale. Plus their lineup includes two brothers and a married couple—and as anybody who’s ever been in a band knows, those kinds of close relationships are vulnerable to upheavals. If this were a thought experiment

and not an already thriving group, you’d scoff at it. Bury it in the basement from whence it came, you’d say. There’s no way it’s lasting longer than eight months and a split seven-inch.

A musical makeup as volatile as Melkbelly’s might doom a band of poseurs. And living together as well as playing together definitely presents its own special problems. Vocalist and guitarist Miranda Winters is married to guitarist Bart Winters, and Bart’s younger brother, Liam Winters, plays bass—only drummer James Wetzel isn’t related to anybody in the band. All four live within a half-mile radius in Pilsen, though, and they often travel in a pack. The relationships that preceded J

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 41

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BUY TICKETS AT 42 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

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continued from 41 the band have produced camaraderie within Case of the Krampus”), whose second half jogs it, not extra drama. It’s a family affair a la the in time with Miranda’s vocals and simple riff Free Design—except Melkbelly sets fire to while Wetzel sprints around his drum set. The the sunshine pop of that late-60s group and track is a prequel to Melkbelly’s catalog of pop throws it to the wolves. hooks buried in bristling noise—before you This week Melkbelly drop Nothing Valley, even grasp that a melody exists, you’re bounctheir first album as well as the first release ing along to it. from Carpark subsidiary Wax Nine Records, The members’ musical personalities differ, run by Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz. After a but they insist that what’s paramount in Melkstring of dazzling EPs, it could be what finally belly is their respect for one another’s tastes gets them acknowledged as Chicago’s most and resulting willingness to experiment with exciting rock band—and at the very least it their own. Several of them maintain other makes a damn good argument for more head- projects—Miranda works in Grass (formerly lining sets at the Empty Bottle.

Swampers) with Matt Engers, aka Sophagus, Melkbelly began modestly in fall 2013, when Ree-Yees and Coffin Ships are still sporadically Bart and Miranda had the bright idea to com- active, and both Miranda and Wetzel play solo bine Wetzel’s drumming with the songwriting (the latter as Mode Hexe). But Melkbelly is the two of them were doing in minimal-pop always everyone’s center of gravity. duo Coffin Ships—the musical equivalent of “There’s less arguing musically than with forcing eggshells down a garbage disposal. shit like picking out artwork, or letting you “We wanted to start a loud band,” Wetzel says. interview us,” says Liam, and laughs. “In terms “Miranda and I both jive on the Providence of writing songs, I think that’s when we’re at noise vibe.” (Miranda grew up in Providence, our most—” while Wetzel is from Kansas City and the WinMiranda finishes for him: “Harmonious.” ters brothers hail from Beverly.) Wetzel says “Everyone is very opinionated,” Liam conthe Providence weirdo-rock scene—which in tinues. “We have two masters of art here who the mid-90s produced Lightning Bolt and Arab are articulate and pretty capable of taking me on Radar—played a big part in shaping him as and Bart down.” Miranda has a master’s in art a drummer. “With Melkbelly I’ve learned to education and Wetzel an MFA, both from SAIC. dial it back and listen more,” he says. “Or I like Melkbelly learned much of their willingness to think I dial it back.” to experiment and collaborate in Chicago’s DIY At that point Wetzel’s most recent project scene. In that subculture, it’s not unusual to was an abrasive, blown-out duo with percus- brainstorm a new band in the time it takes to sionist Eric Ratzel called Ree-Yees, which he lug an amplifier up the stairs and out into the obscurely describes as “two alley after a set. Even before drummers looking at each the members of Melkbelly all other.” He acknowledges that got together, they were veterit took some resolve for him ans of musty basements and MELKBELLY, THE HECKS, THE to adapt his flailing, reckless unlicensed gallery spaces— FUNS, DJ SET BY style to Melkbelly. “Playing they’d gotten in plenty of reps MEAT WAVE in the context of a rock band at a roll call of nonvenues.

Fri 10/13, 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. with traditional instrumen“We’d play at places like Wabansia, sold out, 21+ tation was different,” he says.

Friendzone, where the “It’s still a learning process.” ceiling is six feet tall and TERA MELOS, SPEEDY If you’d like to approxiBart and Liam’s heads are ORTIZ, MELKBELLY Thu 10/26, 8 PM, mate the thought experisideways,” Wetzel says. “But Subterranean, 2011 W. ment I mentioned before, everyone is packed in and North, $15, 17+ listen to Coffin Ships and it’s the best show. The crowd Ree-Yees back to back, then becomes one mass unit.” try to imagine an algorithm Miranda elaborates: “Sowhose input is those two bands and whose cially and physically, the stages we’ve played output wouldn’t sound like a wind chime in a on, like at Wally’s World—having just one hurricane. Melkbelly use their extraordinary square foot to stand in and sweating and getchemistry to will into being a distinctive aes- ting hit by the cymbal . . . you’re in such close thetic that can hold together these unstable proximity to one another, it does something competing elements. You can hear the band’s to you. Like in The Mighty Ducks when they all style developing as far back as their first get tied together.” single, 2013’s catchy but weirdly structured Bart laughs, perplexed. “Exactly.”

“Hier Kommt der Krampus” (also called “A After releasing the six-song Pennsylvania in

The cover of Melkbelly’s Nothing Valley,

by Arts of Life painter Dave Krueger and comic-book artist Ben Marcus

2014 via now-defunct local imprint Automatic Recordings, Melkbelly ramped up their schedule and settled into the grind of playing show after show after show, sometimes a couple per week. (Full disclosure: I’ve seen Melkbelly approximately 300 times.) Pennsylvania—which includes the whirring, hypnotic “Doomspringa,” one of the best singles by a Chicago rock band this century—made Melkbelly a hot underground commodity. It’s a strange, often heavy trip, given its rhythmic backbone by a drummer who’s part mutant, part metronome.

Miranda’s vocals slide between spirited and supernatural, and the elastic guitar melodies she creates with Bart sometimes dissolve in seconds like a strip of celluloid film held over a lit match. Melkbelly rarely said no to the gig offers that started pouring in, opting to see playing lots of shows as a way to get better at playing shows—a separate set of skills from polishing your set in a rehearsal space.

“It’s kind of a cliche, but the kids at DIY shows really have no-bullshit attitudes,” Bart says. “A lot of them have their own labels, are trying to start their own labels, print their own posters, book their own shows. They can spot a phony band.”

Miranda explains some of the other reasons Melkbelly prefer to play for crowds on the DIY circuit. “They generate the ideas we need to

continue as a band,” she says. “Plus it’s usually more of an underage crowd, so they’re not jaded yet. One time Jason Balla from Ne-Hi was like, ‘You guys sure do play a lot of local shows,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah!’”

Following Pennsylvania—and in part thanks to their packed show schedule—Melkbelly began to settle into their identity. Their songs became relatively well-rounded, relying less on noise and more on coherent verse-chorus structures. “We started to feel more comfortable with our sound,” says Wetzel. The two seven-inch EPs that the band released during this period, 2015’s “Bathroom at the Beach” b/w “Piss Wizard” and 2016’s “Mount Kool Kid” b/w “Elk Mountain,” represent the results of newly confident methods of experimentation.

Miranda often brought in sketches of simple pop songs, and everyone would saw away at them, eventually nailing the pieces back together into something resembling an Alexander Calder mobile made from two-by-fours.

On “Elk Mountain,” Miranda’s sing-talking morphs into a hazy, layered vocal melody that’s then steamrollered by blown-out drum rolls. The song was “a moment for us,” she says. “I think we communicated in a similar way that we did with Nothing Valley.”

The story of the new album begins in August 2015, months before any of it was record- J

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 43

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ed, when Speedy Ortiz vocalist-guitarist Sadie Dupuis discovered Melkbelly online. She’s embarrassed to admit it, but she wasn’t looking for new bands—she was checking the Google Alerts she gets for mentions of her own group.

“Someone compared them to us, and usually when that happens, I’m like, ‘Who is this band?

I bet they are not good,’” she says, laughing. “I think it was BrooklynVegan that premiered ‘Bathroom at the Beach,’ and I thought it was amazing. They also don’t sound like us at all.

But I ordered the seven-inch and wrote about them for the Talkhouse.”

Dupuis had been talking with her label at the time, Carpark Records, about starting her own imprint—something it had already done for Chaz Bundick of Toro y Moi (Company Records) and Animal Collective (Paw Tracks).

“I only wanted to do it if it was for a band that I loved and felt passionately about,” she says.

To write her Talkhouse piece, Dupuis had e-mailed Miranda for the lyrics to “Bathroom at the Beach,” and they stayed in touch. Speedy Ortiz and Melkbelly occasionally shared a bill when the stars aligned, and in spring 2017 Miranda sent Dupuis early mixes from Nothing Valley. “I was immediately hounding Carpark again, like, ‘Let’s talk about that imprint,’” Dupuis says. She finally launched Wax Nine specifically to release Melkbelly.

Nothing Valley was recorded in early 2016 with Dave Vettraino at Public House Sound Recordings in Chicago. The band spread the sessions out over three or four months, recording two or three songs at a time and then taking a couple weeks off to “let our ears breathe a bit,” as Wetzel puts it. Vettraino was technically the engineer but also worked sort of like a producer, helping the band with the fraction of the album they wrote in the studio. Melkbelly reworked some of the song endings over and over again, perhaps trying to figure out how to wrap them up without the extravagant spontaneous jams they like to use as finales onstage. “With Pennsylvania the process was the opposite,” Miranda says. “We vomited that record out. It was done in three days.”

Where Pennsylvania captures Melkbelly learning the quirks of their own cacophonous sound, Nothing Valley shows them working its sweet spot. The album hardly does away with the usual screeds of guitar feedback and noise, or with the stretches where Wetzel works his drums like a speed bag, but overall it’s more cohesive—it harnesses the band’s idiosyncrasies instead of letting them steer. The fiveplus-minute “R.O.R.O.B.,” one of the belts that drives the record’s engine, is a creeping slow burn, with Miranda’s ominous, seance-ready

vocals leading the instrumentation right up to the edge of the cliff—and it stays focused and purposeful, even during its last two minutes when it falls off that cliff and shreds apart.

“Twin Lookin Motherfucker” and lead single “Kid Kreative” are simpler and more straightforward than “R.O.R.O.B.,” but they’re tense in their own ways, pulled taut by rapid single-string guitar picking, galloping rhythms, and Miranda’s often whirling vocal melodies. The strange anxiety she can summon with her singing gives much of Nothing Valley its foundational emotional color.

“The name springs from lyrics relating the geography of the United States with the awkward geography of the body,” Miranda explains. “‘Nothing Valley’ is both a physical and mental space.”

The album is also a testament to how far Melkbelly have come since their first show in 2013, when they performed as a Brian Eno cover band at long-lost Logan Square DIY venue Animal Kingdom. Now that Nothing Valley is out, the group will start touring to support it: ten days as a headliner this month, eight shows with the Breeders in November, and nine dates with Bully in February and March.

Melkbelly started out with just one objective—to be loud—but they’ve grown to understand who they are in a more thorough and thoughtful way. They commissioned the colorful art for Nothing Valley themselves, hiring Arts of Life painter Dave Krueger to make the cover with comic-book artist Ben Marcus.

And though they use outside directors for their playful, irreverent music videos (for songs such as “Kid Kreative” and the thrumming “Middle Of”), many of the ideas come from the band.

Melkbelly’s response to a mishap during the sessions for Nothing Valley demonstrates just how sure of themselves they are now. The Public House studio is in a basement that gets chilly in the winter, and they’d set up a small army of space heaters while they worked.

During the recording of “Cawthra,” they tripped a circuit breaker or blew a fuse, leaving them in the dark with the song chopped off short. They could’ve redone it, but in the end they decided not to—they put the incomplete take on the album, hard cut and all.

Dupuis figured her role as a label head would mean she’d have to work extensively with Melkbelly to get Nothing Valley ready for its close-up. She was mistaken. “I kind of thought I’d have to do more,” she says. “They have such a precise creative vision. They don’t see anything as a chore, which I think is so cool for a rock band.” v

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Recommended and notable shows and critics’ insights for the week of October 12 b

ALL AGES

F

Ingrid Laubrock ò CHARLIE FREE

PICK OF THE WEEK

Outsider artist Daniel Johnston embarks on his last tour ever—or is it?

THURSDAY12 Yehme2 The Trap House and Elevated open.

9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $20. 18+

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DANIEL JOHNSTON WITH JEFF TWEEDY & FRIENDS

Wed 10/18, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield, $45. Also Friday, October 20, sold out. 18+

DURING THE 80S, Austin-based songwriter Daniel Johnston began recording fractured, childlike pop genius onto a boombox. As he passed the tapes around, he caught the attention of alternative acts like Built to Spill, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana—Kurt Cobain famously introduced the mainstream to Johnston’s music by wearing a T-shirt with the cover art for Johnston’s 1983 album Hi How Are You to the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. Praise from the punk giants allowed Johnston (now considered an outsider legend) some notoriety in the 90s, and he graduated from making albums with a single microphone and a rickety piano to recording them in actual studios with backing bands. Since the 90s his records have lacked the magic of his early one-mike avant-piano-pop, but his knack for off-kilter, confessional brilliance has never faded away. His latest record, 2012’s Space Ducks, is a full-on high-fidelity affair, slick and poppy throughout. At each stop of this tour, Johnston will be backed by a band of musicians who’ve been influenced by his work; he performs the Chicago shows with Jeff Tweedy & Friends. While Johnston’s current string of live dates has been billed as his last ever, the 56-year-old recently told the New York Times that he sees no reason for this to be the end of his performing career. The shows will open up with a screening of the 2006 documentary The Devil & Daniel Johnston, which focuses on his career and struggles with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. —LUCA CIMARUSTI

Local electronic production duo Flosstradamus, aka Curt “Autobot” Cameruci and Josh “J2K” Young, rose to fame in the late aughties by forging EDM’s propulsive power with trap rap’s percussive ingenuity. In 2013 Young reminisced with former Reader music writer Miles Raymer about the creative freedom he found during the group’s nadir: “No one was watching. You know how people say ‘dance like nobody’s looking?’ It was like ‘produce like nobody’s listening.’ I was making music for me and Curt only.”

That changed as Flosstradamus got bigger, and at the tail end of last year Young announced he was parting ways with Cameruci. “The ideas started to get a little stale or a little convoluted, and it wasn’t really authentically me or authentically Curt at the point,” he told Billboard in February. This year he’s gone solo as YehMe2—and he seems intent on pulverizing the barriers that separate pop styles. On July’s Steal This Mixtape 2 he supersizes Selena’s “Como la Flor,” adding layers of percussion and, crucially, the carnival xylophone loop from the Showboys’ “Drag Rap” that has become foundational to New Orleans bounce music. Later in the mixtape he disembowels Chicago’s “Street Player” and subsumes its sweet, polite disco into gut-churning, throbbing bass on “Street Bomb.” Whatever constraints Young felt at the end of Flosstradamus have clearly evaporated. — LEOR GALIL

Paul Giallorenzo Trio 9 PM, Elastic, 3429 W. Diversey, $10 suggested donation. b The pianist Paul Giallorenzo is an under-the-radar presence within Chicago’s deep improvised music scene, but over the years he’s become a significant force both on and off the bandstand. He’s a crucial figure behind Elastic Arts, the invaluable, diverse performing arts space at the northern end of Logan Square, as he was for its Humboldt Park predecessor 3030. He’s also built an increasingly impressive reputation as a musician, forging a distinctive strain of spaced-out post-Sun Ra grooves with the trio Hearts & Minds and writing brisk, angular postbop vehicles for his quintet GitGo. With the latter, he’s revealed his gifts as a composer with a series of

catchy themes rooted in the sounds of 50s radicals like Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols, and Elmo Hope, but on recordings his playing has often been overshadowed by the array of horn players he’s allowed take the bulk of the solo space. That makes his upcoming album Flow (due October 20 on Delmark) especially welcome. The rhythm section of bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Mikel Patrick Avery give the pianist plenty of space to extrapolate on his pithy, fat-free themes while they swing hard and cleave tightly to the groove. On “Rolling,” his opening chords recall the sound of Chicago great King Fleming or Erroll Garner as he sprinkles in some cocktail lounge voicings before opening up his playing with wonderfully tart, propulsive lines that lock in beautifully with the rhythm section. “A Way We Go” sounds like it could be an outtake from Duke Ellington’s brilliant Money Jungle (Blue Note) with Max Roach and Charles Mingus. In some ways Giallorenzo tantalizingly reimagines the sound of 50s Chicago—when Sun Ra could be found playing gigs across town from Ahmad Jamal—with concision and an exploratory vibe, though in his hands there’s no trace of mischief. —PETER MARGASAK

Ingrid Laubrock’s Serpentines See also Friday. 7 PM, Logan Center for the Performing Arts, University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th. F b

Over the past decade, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has increasingly used composition to provoke and organize adventurous improvisation. She made a major leap on the knotty 2016 album Serpentines (Intakt). The musical personalities she’s assembled, and the unusual timbres they contribute, represent compositional decisions just as profound as anything she’s put down on the page. The band combines her own grainy, jagged tenor and soprano saxophones, the rubbery low end of tuba player Dan Peck, the skittering intervals of pianist Craig Taborn, the glistening harplike fragments of koto player Miya Masaoka, the fractured throb of drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the cleanly articulated smears and tart curlicues of trumpeter Peter Evans (a guest on the album), and the splintery, refracted signal processing of laptop improviser Sam Pluta.

Laubrock’s writing, as strong as it is, never prevents her group from exercising its own creativity. Both parts of “Pothole Analytics,” for example, consist of lean, abstract composed phrases, but they’re collaged spontaneously by the musicians so that J

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 47

MUSIC Nicole Mitchell ò LAUREN DEUTSCH

continued from 47

the overlap among them shifts with every performance. The corkscrew assemblage of “Squirrels,” on the other hand, makes Laubrock’s hand more audible; its slaloming complexity recalls the book for her group Anti-House as well as Tim Berne’s recent work, and requires each player to navigate its breathless twists and turns with careful precision.

The busy arrangement seems to throw off charged solos like electrical arcs, though it’s not all constant motion: in one moment of strange repose, Pluta manipulates Masaoka’s glassy lines to create hall-ofmirrors effects. The darting zigzags of the title track (similar in feel to “Squirrels,” and in fact to most of Serpentines) and the rustling, meditative ambience of “Chip in Brain” give the ensemble a variety of ways to prove it can match Laubrock’s rigor. In the sextet’s Chicago debut (Evans isn’t a member), pianist Kris Davis and drummer Tom Rainey sub for Taborn and Sorey. —PETER MARGASAK

FRIDAY13 Ingrid Laubrock’s Serpentines See Thursday. 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15, $10 in advance. 18+ Man Forever & Friends 7 PM, Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior. b F As a founding member of the aggressively off-kilter rock band Oneida, in which he is known as Kid Millions, John Colpitts has a history of beating the drums with unhinged abandon. Under the guise of Man Forever he dons a composer’s hat to explore a widening variety of art music driven by related strains of visceral rhythm, whether collaborating with the acclaimed new-music ensemble So Percussion or unleashing bruising grooves with fellow drummers from New York’s art-rock scene, Brian Chase of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Greg Fox of Liturgy among them. On his latest album, Play What They Want (Thrill Jockey), these rhythms are immersed in meditative melodies, creating a delicious tension. As the opening track, “You Were Never Here,” unfolds, Georgia Hubley, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew of Yo La Tengo join Colpitts in quietly singing a poplike tune with the hushed vibe of liturgical music over Brandon Lopez’s muscular double bass lines. From there the song goes through multiple iterations, introducing cascading piano lines and lush harp counterpoint from Mary Lattimore and Brandee Younger before concluding with gor-

48 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

geously ghostly vocals from the members of the Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Cramming that many sounds into a nine-minute piece could be a disaster, but Colpitts’s sense of pacing and deft touch at the mixing desk give it a lovely sense of scale and narrative flow. While nothing that follows is quite as stunning, Play What They Want is a strong album, and it’s to Colpitts’s credit that even a cameo from Laurie Anderson on “Twin Torches” offers no distraction from his vision. Man Forever’s appearance at the Poetry Foundation will feature a percussion-heavy but stripped-down touring ensemble including Matt Evans and Clara Warnaar on percussion and vocals, Noah Hecht on drums and vocals, and Coby Todd on bass, with students from the Chicago Lab School reciting their original poetry over pieces from Play What They Want.

—PETER MARGASAK

SATURDAY14 Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening 8 PM, the Promontory, 5311 S. Lake Park, $18-$42. b Nicole Mitchell may have moved from Chicago to teach at University of California, Irvine, in 2011, but she performs in town so often that she might as well still live here. In June she and operatic vocalist Lisa E. Harris debuted the suite EarthSeed at the MCA, and last month the Hyde Park Jazz Festival and Chicago World Music Festival jointly sponsored a residency and concert by Bamako*Chicago Sound System, her collaboration with Malian kora player Ballaké Sissoko, while local imprint Third World Press released Liberation Narratives, a record that sets poet Haki Madhubuti’s recitations to music by Mitchell’s Black Earth Ensemble.

This concert celebrates another album, Mandorla Awakening: Emerging Worlds, released last spring by the Oak Park-based label FPE. The album documents a concert-length cycle of compositions by a specially configured band that includes writer/vocalist Avery R. Young and players from Black Earth Ensemble along with Kojiro Umezaki on shakuhachi and Tatsu Aoki on bass, shamisen, and taiko drums. The work posits a future in which a war and disease-wracked dominant culture clashes with Mandorla, a hidden island where people have evolved a way of life in which spirituality, technology, and nature complement each other. This conflict is articulated by clashes between acoustic elements, mainly strings and woodwinds, and J

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continued from 48

electronically distorted sound elements, particularly Alex Wing’s menacing guitar and squalling theremin. Young’s gospel-steeped singing articulates the woe and fear that humans must overcome to resolve the conflict, and an exquisite musical union occurs when Mitchell and Umezaki engage in an intricate, graceful duet. —BILL MEYER

Yasunao Tone 8 PM, Graham Foundation, 4 W. Burton. Free with RSVP at yasunaotone. eventbrite.com. b In his liner note essay for Convulsive Threshold (Editions Mego), Yasunao Tone’s 2013 collaborative album with Russell Haswell, Tony Myatt explains that the veteran Japanese sound artist rejects the notion of abusing or inducing errors into his work with digital sound technology. He prefers the term deviation: creating situations where the technology can take a work someplace new and unintended. That distinction might seem silly, especially if one understands that Tone—a key member of the Japanese wing of the international interdisciplinary creative group Fluxus in the 60s and early 70s—was one of the first sound artists to manipulate compact discs and build works from the digital errors (or glitches) of his interventions in the early 90s. He’s devoted the decades since to exploring new possibilities for electronic music. In recent years Tone has applied his favored concept to MP3 files. His latest work, AI Deviation #1, #2 (Editions Mego), introduces code corruptions to generate new worlds of sound—using artificial intelligence to prevent any repetition. Working with several British software developers, Tone helped to engineer a system that can simulate, but not replicate, performances he made with the MP3 deviations.

Comparing those original works to the material on the AI Deviation #1, #2 seems pointless, and would probably require some high-end technical analysis to determine the effectiveness of the software in any case. Still, there’s no denying the power of the slithering, unpredictable electronic noise that results. For this rare local performance Tone will present two new AI deviations, interacting with sound rendered by the program via computer.

—PETER MARGASAK

SUNDAY15 Mark Guiliana Quartet 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $15. 18+ Drummer Mark Guiliana has previously worked mostly in electronic-friendly contexts, playing hard-hitting fusion with saxophonist Donny McCaslin and a hybrid of jazz and techno with trumpeter Dave Douglas’s High Risk project, and contributing to David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar.

On Jersey (Motema), his second consecutive album as a bandleader, he embraces an acoustic sound that deliberately cuts against the grain of most of these efforts; still, the music is undeniably the product of a musician who understands what computers can do with rhythm, and challenges himself to translate tricky beats with his own four limbs. The hurtling, kick-heavy beats that usher in

50 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

the opening track, “Inter-Are,” suggest the stuttering grooves of experimental club music, but rather than endlessly fracturing and folding in on itself, the song opens up with a plangent melody blown by tenor saxophonist Jason Rigby, accented by pointillistic patterns from bassist Chris Morrissey and pianist Fabian Almazan. As the album progresses the musicians occasionally push toward more conventional terrain; “Big Rig Jones” is a pretty, shape-shifting swinger, while “The Mayor of Rotterdam” brings a polyrhythmic rigor to poplike tunefulness. All the same, the band clearly belongs to the drummer, who operates with fiery rhythmic agility and thrust on the airy, hovering balladry of “September” and the neck-snapping fury of “Our Lady.”

As a quartet, Guiliana and his collaborators make music that’s hooky and rhythmic while also navigating like a crew of dice-’em-up chefs from Benihana— casually ripping everything apart and reassembling it along the way. —PETER MARGASAK

Big Thief Mega Bog opens. 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, $20, $17 in advance. 17+ Big Thief’s gentle, gorgeous folk rock belies its gloomiest themes. As Adrianne Lenker, the guitarist and vocalist of the Brooklyn indie band, told Uproxx in June, the combination of mellifluous music and unnerving, painful themes on the group’s recent sophomore album, Capacity (Saddle Creek), comes less by intention than by simply letting the pieces of a song fall where they may: “I’m not really filtering what I’m writing about or attempting to write about just the sweet stuff. To me it’s just about shaking myself into a place of getting awake.” Lenker has a deft, gentle touch—her singing, in particular, is soft and hearthlike. She retains a delicate intimacy even when Big Thief performs in spaces so large they’re almost boundless, as was the case when the group appeared at Millennium Park this past summer. Big Thief’s tone and presence feel like an extension of Lenker’s point of view; it makes sense that her band adhere to their light-on-their feet gracefulness even as she sings about a violent assault (“Watering”). Capacity succeeds not because it makes this sort of darkness go down easier, but because Lenker and company traverse complex themes by giving them texture and a sense of humanity that allow each song to breathe.

There’s a warmth and liveliness to Lenker’s lyrical blur of bygone memories on the piano-led “Mary,” which has just enough detail to give its characters dimension and hints that there’s so much more left unsaid—and so much more that couldn’t be translated even in song. —LEOR GALIL

MONDAY16 Brand New Nada Surf opens. 7:30 PM, Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, $45. 17+ This year only six rock albums have topped the Billboard 200 (as of press time, anyway). Two were by aging alt-rock titans (Foo Fighters and Linkin Park) and three were by aging aughties “indie-rockers” working with major-label budgets (LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, and the Killers). The sixth album was the recently released Science Fiction by Brand

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Big Thief ò SHERVIN LAINEZ

New, a band that has been thriving on the fringe of the mainstream since 2000. They’ve aged as much as any of the aforementioned groups, but have done so with a verve and intellect that’s kept them from going stale. After perfecting their volatile concoction of saccharine pop-punk and gnashed-teeth emo with 2003’s Deja Entendu, the Long Island band went wide-screen in 2006 with the grunge-inflected The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me, showcasing a more grand, drawn-out side to their songwriting than before. Since then Brand New have spurned the spotlight, doing away with routine

interviews and preferring to communicate veiled news through unusual channels; when the group started selling T-shirts with the simple caption “Brand New 2000-2018” last summer, sites such as Billboard and, um, Mashable questioned whether it was a sign that the band would soon call it quits (the answer still remains to be seen). Brand New’s enigmatic image has engendered the kind of fandom that turns listeners into gumshoes, and the group have encouraged and even instigated some of the fun: In mid-August they posted a “very limited vinyl” preorder for their then-untitled fifth album, and a

couple days later the 500 fans who made the purchase received a one-track CD-R with what was presumed to be the new full-length. As fans cobbled together the clues to figure out what they had on their hands, Brand New officially released Science Fiction through their independent label, Procrastinate! Music Traitors. The songs on the album feel enormous, as if I could focus on just one and get lost in the crevasses and shape of a particular passage only to find after repeated listens that it still has plenty of mysteries to unfold. The tender coda to “Out of Mana” is pointedly bare, with front man Jesse Lacey singing at a volume just above a whisper, and crisp production that makes the strings of an acoustic guitar ring as loudly when brushed by fingertips as when strummed. I could listen to an entire album that follows this trajectory—a little somber, a little wistful, a whole lot yearning— but given the coda’s unique spirit, it feels special because it’s over so quickly. —LEOR GALIL

WEDNESDAY18 Randy Newman 8 PM, City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph. Also Thursday, October 19. Both shows sold out. b By now it’s common knowledge that Randy

MUSIC

Newman’s sweet, Pixar-accompanying musical style is a facade for lyrics infused with sardonic, acerbic social commentary—much in the same way that Steely Dan’s gleaming jazz-rock is a veneer for profiles of losers, outcasts, and hucksters. In fact, in his use of American tropes for populist purposes that both celebrate and criticize American life, Newman’s work is more like Mark Twain’s than that of virtually any other modern songwriter. That being said, Newman’s most recent album, Dark Matter (Nonesuch), is relatively gentle, which in context means that the album’s characters and subjects are more pitiable than flat-out despicable. The album’s centerpiece is the opener, “The Great Debate,” which condenses a modern-day Scopes trial into an eight-minute suite that incorporates gospel, classical, and New Orleans jazz. The message is quintessentially Newman: salvation comes not in the form of organized religion but in the healing power of music. —TAL ROSENBERG

Willie Watson Suzanne Santo opens. 7 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln, $24, $22 members. b

Willie Watson makes no bones about his allegiance to tradition on his new album, Folksinger Vol. 2 (Acony). In his liner notes he writes about his favorite versions of some of the tunes he performs: J

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 51

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it takes a certain amount of guts to inform listeners about the Bascom Lamar Lunsford version of “Dry Bones” or the definitive reading of “Samson and Delilah” by Reverend Gary Davis while presenting your own renditions. Watson brings plenty of personality and ideas to his performances, whether it means enlisting Nashville black gospel greats Fairfield Four to sing harmony on “Samson and Delilah” or deploying a fragile woodwind ensemble on Blind Alfred Reed’s “Always Lift Him Up and Never Knock Him Down.” Most of the tracks are composed of just Watson’s acoustic guitar or banjo

and the grainy, nasal beauty of his soulful voice— the latter is strong enough to leave an imprint on all 11 songs. As with its predecessor, Folksinger Vol. 1 (2014), the record was produced in no-frills fashion by David Rawlings—with whom Watson has been performing in recent years. Not only has Watson transcended his early days with the hokey Nashville string band Old Time Medicine Show, but on Folksinger Vol. 2 he brings something genuine and beautiful to elemental songs like “The Cuckoo Bird” and “John Henry,” and that’s what distinguishes someone who sings folk songs from a folksinger. —PETER MARGASAK v

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FOOD & DRINK RESTAURANT REVIEW

Balkan Grill Company is the king of road food

Long-haul truckers from across the country know to pull off on Exit 9 in Gary for a taste of home.

By MIKE SULA

A

The pljeskavica is Serbia’s gift to the burger arts. A variation stuffed with ham and mozzarella, the gurmanska, is Serbia’s answer to the Juicy Lucy. ò WILLIAM CAMARGO

54 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

ll day long at the Petro truck stop in Gary, Indiana, drivers pull in, dismount from their cabs, and saunter lazily across the long blacktop toward a grassy patch next to the parking lot entrance. Muttering into Bluetooth earpieces, they approach the steps of a raised semitrailer painted bright yellow, announcing itself to the parking lot with the words balkan grill restaurant. Inside, a stark cargo area contains a few high-top tables, a drink cooler filled with bottled water and the Slovenian soft drink Cockta, and a window that separates customers from the kitchen, the register, and Momocilo “Momo” Bogdanovich.

Bogdanovich is the cashier, owner, and cook of the three-year-old establishment, which serves some of the freshest, hottest, heartiest Serbian food in the midwest.

When he came to the U.S. ten years ago, Bogdanovich, who has a degree in economics from the University of Belgrade, found work as a long-haul truck driver. That’s how he learned the rare pleasure of a homestyle meal after many days behind the wheel. “All the time when I was on the road, the food looked bad,” he says. “Truck-stop food is not good.”

Back in Serbia, Bogdanovich’s family is in the restaurant business. “Ever since I was a little kid I was in the kitchen learning cooking,” he says. So he knew what he was getting into when he purchased the vacated trailer. Things got busy fast, which is why he never bothered to paint over a holdover from the former establishment: family run business since 2001.

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BALKAN GRILL COMPANY | $ 3101 Grant St., Gary IN R 219-670-5563

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facebook.com/balkangrillcompany

Balkan Grill Company is parked near a traffic-heavy highway junction, adjacent to two competing truck stops.

Drivers arriving from points all across the map dine in the semitrailer’s stark cargo area. ò WILLIAM CAMARGO

One bright September afternoon, “Chris,” from Bulgaria, was taking lunch at one of Balkan Grill’s picnic tables set out in the grass before rolling on through Indiana to pick up one of the broken-down trucks from his own fleet. “A lot of immigrants from the Balkans get into this business of trucking because without knowing much of the language or without any education you don’t have much other opportunity to make a decent living,” Chris said. “Truck driving is one of the ways to make money.”

I wanted to hear more about how he started and grew his business, but I could tell he and his driver wanted to get back to their pljeskavica, Serbia’s gift to the burger arts. It’s usually built with a char-grilled beef patty the size of something you could wind up and throw for Olympic gold, tucked in the pocket of a warm, pillowy flatbread called lepinja, which looks something like a pita on growth hormone. It’s served with a fresh, crunchy coleslaw (kupus salata), a chile-tinged orange feta goat cheese spread (urnebes), and a white gob of kajmak, a lighter, buttery white cheese spread. If you’ve any sense at all, you smear the cheeses on your patty, pile it with cabbage and onions, and go to town.

An important variation of the pljeskavica is also available at Balkan Grill. Stuffed with ham and mozzarella, the gurmanska (a fierce-sounding way to say “gourmet”) is Serbia’s answer to the Juicy Lucy. If you’re at the Petro because you need to clock your federally mandated off-duty hours, this thing will put you right to sleep. If you still have to drive, say, eight or nine more, it’ll get you where you’re going.

All of Bogdanovich’s food bestows the same nutritive powers on people who truly are in need of it. Here, with an order of sizzling beef cevapcici or long, snappy, salty lengths of tubular house-made pork rostiljske kobasice, you will get, at the very least, a day’s recommended dose of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Same goes for grilled pork chops and kebabs, chicken thighs and breasts, and garlicky sliderlike beef patties called ustipak, molded with ham, cheese, and hot peppers.

One can also order a mixed-grilled sampler platter, more than enough to last you through the long haul, for $11.99, which is one dollar more than the most expensive item on the menu (the gurmanska), excepting the Balkan Special Plate, which offers four pounds of meat for $40.99.

J

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 55

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House-made pork rostiljske kobasice; cook Drage Petroski, left, and Balkan Grill Company owner Momocilo “Momo” Bogdanovich ò WILLIAM CAMARGO

continued from 55 With this lineup, Balkan Grill could credibly be called a sandwich shop, but that would fail to properly represent the muckalica, a goulashlike stew, potent with paprika and radiant as a taillight, abundant with sliced sweet red and green peppers and juicy pork loin that falls apart to the touch. Two soups are equally fortifying: veal (teleca corba), and white bean, thick and orange as lava, with a single rostiljske kobasice rising from its depths.

When he opened, Bogdanovich had identified an ideal patch of real estate to park his

kitchen, just south of the I-80/94 off-ramp and six miles from where I-90 and I-65 converge. There’s a Love’s truck stop competing with Petro right across Grant Street. Five days a week from 10 AM to 10 PM, drivers arriving from points all across the map amble over from Love’s or neighboring Champ’s Liquors swinging plastic bags in their hands.

These guys know they can skip the Taco Bell, the Denny’s, and the Iron Skillet all squeezed inside Petro, and instead fuel up on the food they were raised on. v

v @MikeSula

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The Mazel Tov cocktail by Brandon Phillips of the Duck Inn ò CHRIS BUDDY

B

RANDON PHILLIPS, bartender at the DUCK INN, had never tried GEFILTE FISH before Drumbar’s Gary Matthews challenged him to create a cocktail with the traditional Passover dish of poached ground whitefish. So he called a Jewish friend, who, Phillips says, “seemed surprised. He was like, you want to buy gefilte fish? Why?” Phillips ended up going to Manny’s to get the gefilte fish. He says the deli’s version actually tastes pretty good, with “the texture of a matzo ball—it’s very mild.” He’d learned from his friend that gefilte fish is usually eaten with carrots and chrain (a beet and horseradish relish), and decided to make a cocktail that would incorporate all those elements. It’s “very reminiscent of the traditional meal, in liquid form,” he says.

He started by infusing the gefilte fish into slivovitz, a kosher plum brandy, blending the two together and cooking them sous vide before freezing the mixture overnight.

After he separated the liquid from the fish meat and oil, he says, the result was “very intensely flavored slivovitz.” Phillips says a syrup he made with chrain, cooking it with sugar and water and then straining out the solids, turned out surprisingly well: “It’s sweet up front and then got this rich, kind of purple beet flavor with a nice spice on the back end.” He also added Manischewitz Concord Grape Wine (“to stay traditional”), along with some lemon juice and a few drops of saline solution. He garnished the drink with a carrot ribbon.

“I wanted to do something that would be right at home in a Jewish household during Passover,” Phillip says. “I definitely made a ko-

sher cocktail. I’m not sure of all the rules, but I think it’s kosher for Passover.”

As for the flavor, you can taste the gefilte fish in the cocktail, he says. “I didn’t want to mask it. That felt like cheating. It’s definitely there and in force.”

$5 Absolut & Bacardi Cocktails Every Day special

All Lagunitas beers are $6

MAZEL TOV

.75 OZ LEMON JUICE 1 OZ CHRAIN SYRUP* 1 OZ MANISCHEWITZ CONCORD GRAPE WINE 1.5 OZ MARASKA SLIVOVITZ INFUSED WITH GEFILTE FISH** A FEW DROPS SALINE SOLUTION RIBBON OF CARROT

PHYLLIS’ MUSICAL INN // WICKER PARK

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Add all ingredients except carrot to a shaker with ice; shake and double strain into a cocktail glass.

Garnish with carrot. *Chrain syrup: Combine ten ounces sugar and ten ounces water in a saucepan with one ounce of chrain. Bring to a boil and then fine strain. **Slivovitz infused with gefilte fish: Blend one ball of gefilte fish with one bottle of Maraska Slivovitz.

Vacuum seal and cook sous vide at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour. Chill in an ice bath, cut bag open, and fine strain through a coffee filter. Place liquid in a mason jar and freeze overnight. Strain again through a coffee filter.

WHO’S NEXT:

Phillips has challenged JACYARA DE OLIVEIRA of BEATNIK to create a cocktail with TOMALLEY, “the disgusting green guts of lobsters.” v

v @juliathiel

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LI NCOLN PAR K

KING CRAB HOUSE // 1816 N HALSTED

KINGCR ABCHIC AGO.COM • 312. 280.8990

Most Established Crab House in Chicago.

Known for excellent seafood and shellfish inspired by global flavors. Steaks, pasta dishes and cocktails are also available.

“Absolutely delicious food...”

— SAVI C. / GOOGLE

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 57

complex products and platforms.

Develop and execute software test plans in order to identify software problems and their causes.

All of the above duties will be perSALES & formed using wide variety of MARKETING tools, but most importantly Oracle Applications, PL/SQL, and 3PL QUANTITATIVE ANALYST: Integrations. Business Analyst CHICAGO IL. Monitor automated (Calypso I.T.) is needed to peralgorithmic market making strategies form multiple roles on highly comon CME/ ICE, adjustments to trading plex projects that involves various aspects of Calypso functionality system based on market environ- and infrastructure; Work in close ment & hedge risk exposure; manage collaboration with Derivative Opappl for trade execution. Bachelor’s erations to ensure inclusion of in Computer Science, Mathematics or Enhancements requested in the closely related STEM field. 1 yr exp as software and ensure release to trader or quantitative analyst. Must production. All of the above duhave: 1 yr exp in: financial product, ties will be performed using wide understanding of trading methodolo- variety of tools and experience, gy & market insight; prior trading but most importantly using Calypexp; develop, test & support algorith- so and Provide trading and opermic trading strategies, ability to opti- ation support for complete lifecymize current strategies - execution/ cle management of OTC Derivarisk control; working knowledge of tive products; provide technical leadership in terms of technical/ forecasting, data mining & machine functional analysis, and manage learning techs; back testing & model implementation and supporting optimization; development in pro- testing and release as SME in gramming languages: Python Calypso and in Middle Office/ (Numpy, SciPy, Pandas, scikit-learn), Back office processes. Sales EnR. Familiar w/statistical & finance li- gineer needed to collaborate with braries in each language; exp work- sales teams to understand cusing with large size of data; exp work- tomer’s technical requirements, ing with large set of tick data. Res: to promote the sale of company’s technical services, and to provide DV Group, LLC; hr@dvtrading.co sales support. Prepare and deliver technical presentations that Telephone Sales explain services to clients and Experienced/aggressive Opening telephone closers needed now to prospective clients. sell ad space for Chicago’s oldest doors, building relationships, and and largest newspaper rep firm. closing new business with Fortune 1000 customers, within the Immediate openings in Loop ofrevenue quality and deal size pafice. Salary + commission. rameters laid by supervisor; De312-368-4884. velop, and implement strategy for FUNDRAISING-FALL HAR- new key account penetration VEST OF CASH-Looking for a within a targeted client segment; few old pros. Start today! Start Client Engagement and Solution Discussions; Resource and SoluASAP, Felons need not apply per Attorney General Regulations. Call tion Pricing; Leverage Effort Estimation and Pricing Tools to de312-256-5035 ask for Cash. vise right resource loading and corresponding price point for General ERP services; with assistance from the Delivery department, be Project Manager, Business An- responsible for Resource Estimation, Client Requirement Gatheralyst (Calypso I.T.) , ing and Analysis for ERP InitiaSales Engineer, Software Artives and Engage with Client chitect & Multiple Software Stakeholders for Business and & Jr. Software Developers Technical Requirement Analysis.

Needed: Software Architect needed to Project Manager needed to Architect, Design, Develop, and manage Oracle application based modify enhance general software supply chain projects, 3PL inte- applications; Analyze user needs grations and Lead multiple proj- to develop software solutions; ect teams. Responsible for all Gather requirements, plan, anastages of quality assurance of lyze, architect, design, develop,

JOBS

test and customize software for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency. May analyze and design databases within an application area. May provide maintenance support for critical applications and related issues. All of the above duties will be performed using wide variety of tools, but most importantly J2EE, Web Services and Oracle PIM. Multiple Jr. Software Developers needed to develop, create, and modify general software applications; Analyze user needs to develop software solutions; Gather requirements, plan, analyze, design, test and customize software for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency. May analyze, develop and design databases / integrations within an application area. May provide maintenance support for critical applications and related issues. May assist Senior Software Developers or Engineers. All of the above duties will be performed using wide variety of tools, but most importantly using Webmethods, AxWay Secure Transport Development and AWS Dev-ops or using webMethods, Oracle WebCenter, UNIX administration and shell-scripting. Multiple Software Developers needed to develop, create, and modify general software applications; Analyze user needs to develop software solutions; Gather requirements, plan, analyze, design, test and customize software for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency. May analyze, develop and design databases / integrations within an application area. May provide maintenance support for critical applications and related issues.

All of the above duties will be performed using wide variety of tools, but most importantly Oracle Fusion, Oracle EBS Suite and Unix or using Java/J2EE, Spring and Oracle. Not all positions require all skills. Work locations for all positions will include Chicago, IL and also at various unanticipated locations in the U. S. as assigned which may require relocation. Applicants for all positions must specifically identify all post- secondary education and all mentioned software, languages or tools in which applicant has education, training or experience.

Applicants should identify clearly which position they are applying for in their cover letter and resumes must show if the applicant has any of the mentioned combination of skills. Mail all resumes to Quinnox, Inc., Attn: EVP HCM, 400 North Michigan Avenue, Ste S1300, Chicago, IL 60611.

SOLACOM TECHNOLOGIES of

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

58 CHICAGO READER | OCTOBER 12, 2017

Westchester, Illinois is seeking a fulltime permanent Senior Field Service Technician who will report to our Chicago office and work from home anywhere in the U.S. with significant travel to customer sites. The Senior Field Service Technician is a senior level position who will be responsible for Deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 telecommunication systems equipment at customer sites. Must have at least five years of experience with Supporting the Solacom Guardian PSAP Controller and IP Selective Router solutions including SS7 systems; Configuration and troubleshooting of Solacom’s VoIP cards utilizing the SIP and CLEARCHANNEL signaling protocols; Configuration and troubleshooting of Solacom’s T1/E1 cards utilizing the CAS, PRI, CLEARCHANNEL, and SS7 signaling protocols. Must have Electronic Technician or Technologist Dipl oma/Telecommunication Technician or equivalent experience; and must possess valid passport and U.S. driver’s license. Qualified applicants please submit resume and three written references to Martin DeLeonardis, Director of Customer Service, Solacom Technologies, 1127 S. Mannheim Rd., Suite 214, Westchester, IL 60154.

tates, IL 60169. Travel to unanticipated worksites throughout U.S. Foreign equiv. accepted.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGER, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (MULT. POS.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Help clients to better understand the customer, & generate sustainable growth & expand market share. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Bus Admin or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s progress. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Comp Sci, Bus Admin or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp. Travel up to 80% req.

Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1470, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

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

STUDIO $600-$699 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

STUDIO $700-$899 TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY MANAGER, M&A (MULT. POS.), PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC, Chicago, IL. Lead large scale, enterprise-wide Merger Integration projects. Req. Bach’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Acct, Fin, Bus Admin or rel. + 5 yrs post-bach’s progress. rel. work exp.; OR a Master’s deg. or foreign equiv. in Acct, Fin, Bus Admin or rel. + 3 yrs rel. work exp. Travel req. up to 80%.

Apply by mail, referencing Job Code IL1467, Attn: HR SSC/Talent Management, 4040 W. Boy Scout Blvd, Tampa, FL 33607.

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.

LARGE STUDIO

APARTMENT

near Loyola Park, 1339 W. Estes.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. Available 11/1. $700/month. 773-7614318.

LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT near Warren Park, 6802 N. Wolcott.

Hardwood floors. Cats OK. Heat included. Laundry in building. Available 11/1. $725/month. 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

MES Analyst. Identify, solve issues re: manuf. & integration models. Collect, organize, analyze info from clients to design, deploy MES solutions. Use analysis, simulations, predictive models to analyze info., devel. solutions for manufacturers. Advise managers on impact of various MES solutions. Write findings, memos & reports for managers/ executives. Req. Master’s in Computer Eng., Info. Tech., or Telecomm. Eng. & 12 mo. exp. as MES Analyst. Salary comm. w/ exp. Mail resumes to IT-SOFT USA INC, 55 W Monroe St # 2575, Chicago, IL 60603.

CROSSROADS HOTEL SRO SINGLE RMS Private bath, PHONE, CABLE & MAIDS. 1 Block to Orange Line 5300 S. Pulaski 773-581-1188

Ashland Hotel nice clean rms.

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

Low rates daily/weekly/monthly.

South Side. Call 773-376-5200

1 BR UNDER $700 FALL

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 $200 /month for 1 yr. (773)412-1153 Wesley Realty

7022 S. SHORE DRIVE Impecca-

Computer/IT: Kraft Heinz Foods Company seeks Associate Manager, IT - Manufacturing, Global to work in Chicago, IL. Globally spprt, contribt & deploy the Kraft Heinz Schedule-to-Stock Manuf., Quality & Plant Mainten. templates to all current & future manuf. facilities. Degree & commensurate exp. req’d. Domestic/ internatnl travel req’d 50% of time.

Apply to #1409 at kraftheinzcompany.com/careers

BIN Insurance Holdings LLC in Chicago, IL seeks Product Manager w/M.S. in CS & 2 yrs of exp Multiple Open Positions at in the job. Must have exp w/ Network Objects, Inc.: product mngmt, development & marketing strategies. Background Master’s + 1 yr exp. / Bachelo- in business, technology, statisfinance & analytics. r’s + 5 yrs. exp./equiv.: SAP tics, SD Solutions Architect I Understanding/hands-on in software dev, web tech, coding & (NSAPSDI17): SAP SD, ABAP, programming.

Send res: meghan.

MM, FICO, PP, Supply Chain.

SAP SD Pricing Consultant I barlow@insureon.com.

(NSDPI17): exp. in software development.

SAP SD Functional Analyst (NSSF17): SAP SD, CS, GTS, SAP-EDI, SDMM, ABAP. SAP BW/BO Analyst (NOSBW17): exp. in SAP. SAP ABAP Analyst (NSAA17): SAP ABAP, SAP R/3, SD, MM, HR, PP, PM, QM, FI/CO, SCM, Gold Wing Truck Repair Vistex, SAP Scripts, Smart is looking for semi truck mechanforms. Mail resume with job ics with experience and tools .

Call (630) 670-6265 for more inID to HR: 2300 Barrington Rd, Suite 400, Hoffman Es- fo.

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

Laundry & Security on Premises.

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

312-656-5066 or 773-287-9999

MIDWAY AREA/63RD KEDZIE Deluxe Studio 1 & 2 BRs. All modern oak floors, appliances, Security system, on site maint. clean & quiet, Nr. transp. From $445. 773582-1985 (espanol)

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

232 E 121ST Pl.

BACK TO SCHOOL SPECIAL - $300 Move in Fee - Nice lrg 1BR $565; 2BR $650 & 1 3BR $800, balcony. Sec 8 Welc.

773-995-6950

BLUE ISLAND near 119th & Western, 1BR, kitchen w/ dining area, balcony, laundry. $665/mo. + 1 month sec. 773-734-3531, 16pm SOUTH 4 RM, 1 br apt, remod kit.

7401 S. Wabash 2nd flr. $600/mo.

Tenant heated, exceptional opportunity! Aldridge 773-238-0182 û NO SEC DEP û 6829 S. Perry. Studio/1BR. $465-$520. HEAT INCL 773-955-5106

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

773-637-5957

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

Laundry in building. $900/month.

Available 11/1. 773-761-4318.

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

LARGE STUDIO APARTMENT .

MARQUETTE PARK 7122 S Troy, Beaut. rehabbed 4BR 2BA house, fin bsmt, granite ctrs, SS appls, 2-car gar, $1700/mo 708288-4510

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

BRONZEVILLE - 4310 S. King Dr. 1BR. $550/mo. Heat i ncluded

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

Move-in fee $275.

Call 773-548-7286 for application

1BR APT. Reduced Rent for Handyman. 61st/King Dr. 202-744-0973 1.5 BR apt, 61st/King Dr, quiet, smoke free $625. 202-744-0973 Newly updated, clean furnished rooms in Joliet, near buses & Metra, elevator. Utilities included, $91/wk. $395/mo. 815-722-1212 NICE ROOM w/stove, fridge & bath Near Aldi, Walgreens, Beach, Red Line & Buses. Elevator & Laundry. $133/wk & up. 773-275-4442

6824 N. Wayne. Hardwood floors.

Heat included. Pets OK. Laundry in building. Available 11/1. $710/month 773-761-4318.

E Rogers Park: Deluxe 1BR + den, new kitc., FDR, oak flrs close to beach. $1175/heated, 774-743-4141 ww.urbanequities.com E ROGERS PARK: 3BR / 2BA + den, new kitchen, SS appliances, FDR, $1900/heated, 774-743-4141 www.urbanequities.com

1 BR $1100 AND OVER

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

7425 S. COLES - 1 BR $620, 2 BR $735, Includes Free heat & appliances & cooking gas. (708) 424-4216 Kalabich Mgmt 6930 S. SOUTH SHORE DRIVE Studios & 1BR, INCL. Heat, Elec, Cking gas & PARKING, $585-$925, Country Club Apts 773-752-2200

1 MONTH FREE South Shore Studios $600-$750 Free Heat, Fitness Ctr, Lndry rm. Niki 773.647.

0573 www.livenovo.com

1 BR $700-$799 FREE HEAT & COOKING GAS Studio - $675 1BR - $750.

Near Metra & shops, Section 8 OK. Newly decorated, dining room, carpeted, appls, FREE heat & cooking gas. Elevator & laundry room. No Application Fee. 1-773-919-7102 or 1-312-8027301 HYDE PARK 1 Bedroom $1195 Newly decorated, dining rm, hdwd flrs, laundry fac, appliances, heated free credit check no application fee 1-773-667-6477 or 1-312-802-7301

WEST SIDE 3400 W. Homan Ave. spacious 1BR, hardwood floors. $800/mo. + sec. dep. heat furn, Tenant pays electric.

773-533-0233

CHATHAM 708 East 81st(langley), 4 room, 1 bedroom, 1st fl $700+security. Please call Mr. Joe at 708-870-4801 for more info

NORTH WEST, 1 Lrg. BR, 2nd floor. fresh paint, heat incl. $700-$750/mo.

773-716-6740

9147 S. ASHLAND. Studio $650 & 1BR $740, clean & secure, dine-In Kit, appls, laundry. U Pay gas & elec, No Pets. 312-914-8967.

1 BR $800-$899 1524 W. 89th St., newly updated, 1BR, hdwd flrs, LR/DR, kitchen, heat & appliances incl. quiet non smoking bldg. $850 708-647-0150

1 BEDROOM $1650, 1660 Lasalle.

Old Town. New kitchen, balcony, hardwood floors, doorman, roof deck, pool, 156 bus at front door, attached garage, no pets. Available Nov. 1 1660lasalle@gmail.com

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

1 BR OTHER 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**

1 BR $900-$1099

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 ∫

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.

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

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

74TH/KING DR & 88TH/DAUPHIN. Sunny, spacious 1BRs, great trans, laundry on site, security camera.

312-341-1950

DOLTON - All newly remod 1 & 2BR. $825-$900/mo. New appls, Heat, cooking gas & water incl, balcony, laundry. 708-224-5052

l

l

CHICAGO WEST SIDE Attn: Sec 8 holders!

No Sec Dep + $100 Back 1- 5 Bdrms. Everything New + Lndry & A/C. Call 312-493-6983

HARVEY 2BR APARTMENT, newly decorated. $675/mo. 1 months rent + 1 months security.

Section 8 Welcome. 708-703-7077

BELLWOOD - 2BR, appl incl tenant pays heat, gas & electric, Apt, 1BA, newly renovated, granite $850/mo + 1 month sec dep, no kitchen, parking. $960/mo. pets, close to trans.708-450-9137

INGLESIDE CLOSE TO 87, 2BR

66th & WOODLAWN: large 2BR, stove, refrig., gas, light included. No security deposit. Section 8 ok. $975/

mo. Call 773-684-1166.

5556 W. Gladys.

2BR. Heat incl. $900-915/mo.

Move-in fee required 773-251-6652

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

Call 847-533-5463.

HARVEY 4BR, 2BA, bsmt, 1 car gar. $1,275/mo + $800 move-in fee. No Pets or Smoking. Avail now.

847-289-2889

RICHTON PARK 3 & 4BR Ranch.

12210 S. NORMAL. 5BR, 1.5BA, unfin bsmt, tenant pays utils. Sec 8 OK. $1300/mo. Non-refundable Move-In Fee Req’d. 708-417-6999

University Park 2BR Townhome.

Matteson 2BR Condo. Sect 8 OK. Call 708-625-7355 for info.

Sec 8 OK. 312-868-1824

2 BEDROOM near 85th &

2 BR $1100-$1299

3 BR OR MORE UNDER $1200

CHICAGO 1 BEDROOM. Section 8 Welcome. Heat included.

7804 Champlain Call 773-874-1679

Escanaba, newly decorated, stove included, $550 plus 1 month security.

773-716-9554

SUBURBS, RENT TO OWN! Buy with No closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

2BR NEAR 93RD & KING DR, stove & fridge incl, carpet in living room & BR, ideal for seniors, $700 /mo. No Deposit. 773-387-2044

CHICAGO, RENT TO OWN! Buy with no closing costs and get help with your credit. Call 708868-2422 or visit www.nhba.com

86TH/THROOP 2BR. & 86th/ Elizabeth 1br/Studio. New remod, hdwd flrs, appls & heat inc. Nr trans. Sec 8 OK 773.430. 3100

CALUMET CITY 3BR, 1.5BA, carpet, appls, window a/c, heat + cooking gas incl, $1100/mo + $1100 sec. $25 credit check fee.

708-955-2122

SOUTH SHORE: 76TH & Kenwood, 2 Bed $750 & 1 Bed $650, Heat Included Call 312.208.

1771

RIVERDALE: MUST SEE! 3BR Apt Newly decorated. Carpet, near metra, no pets, $925/mo + sec dep Available Now 708-8291454

108th St., Lovely 4 rm, 1BR, liv rm, din rm, updated kitchen, heated Close to transportation.

Available now 773-264-6711.

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

2 BR UNDER $900 69TH & CALIFORNIA 1 BR $720 / 2 BR $820 + Sec Dep. FREE HEAT, appl incl, coin laundry, off street parking O’Brien Family R.E. agent owned. 773-581-7883 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

CHICAGO WESTSIDE nice 1BR apt, Austin Area, quiet bldg, $750 /mo + sec, Laundry rm , parking, Background ck req’d 773-5759283 CHICAGO, 3BR APARTMENT, newly remodeled, heat included, $ 900/mo. Also, Storefront, $800/ mo. Call 773-297-4784

1512 E. 77TH ST ., spac, updated, 2BR, hdwd flrs, appls, garage, quiet blk. $800/mo., tenant pays utils. Sec 8 OK. 646-202-3294 CHICAGO 94-3739 S. Bishop.

2BR, 5 Rms, 2nd flr, appls, parking, storage & closet space, near shops/ trans. $900 + sec. 708-335-0786

BEAUTIFUL, ALL NEW 2.5 bdrms, 1BA. $850/mo, no sec dep, no application fee, hdwd, new appl, sec 8 ok. 81st & Kingston 773-412-0541 7410 S EVANS , 2 BR, 1st fl Newly remodeled, must see!

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

2 BR $900-$1099 SECT 8 WELCOME, 2 & 3BR Houses. Also Sharp 2 & 3BR Apts, fenced yard. $985-$1200/mo.

Will accept 1 or 2BR Voucher.

708-573-5628

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

Never miss a show again.

CHICAGO 6747 S. PAXTON , newly renovated, 2BR, 2BA, HWFs thru out, $975/mo, appls, heat & prkg space incl., 773-2853206

2 BR/2BA TOP floor condo in

renovated secure courtyard building. High-efficiency furnace, central A/C, ceiling fans. W/D in unit. Master bedroom suite, walk-in closet, private bath. Hardwood floors, carpeted bedrooms. Fully convenienced kitchen, maple cabinets, granite counters.

1 block from North Park University.

Steps from Brown Line. $1295 Available October 15! 262-308-3728 WICKER PARK -948 N. DAMEN AVE. Unfurnished apartment for rent. 2BR $1000/mo, stove & refrigerator. Neat & clean. Newly painted. Call 847-962-4818 or Email: nsrjh6@yahoo.com

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

2 BR $1300-$1499 5104 N WOLCOTT, 1st F loor , 2BR with hardwood floors, tile bath & kitchen, newer appliances, central air & heat. Quiet, small building. Pets ok. Public transportation & shopping. Storage & coin laundry in building. $1350/mo + utilities + security deposit. 773368-4633 for more information

5638 S. EMERALD, 3BR, LR, DR, 2nd flr, Spacious, fireplace, new remod, Sec 8 OK, $885/mo + sec.

Tenant pays heat. 773-457-7963

AUSTIN, located on the 5200 blk of W Jackson, 3br, close to trans, $1175/mo + sec., $35 rent check, contact Mr. Veal 312-231-5000 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

80TH & DREXEL, 3BR, 2BA, $1100. 79th & Aberdeen, 3BR $950. Tenant pays utils. Sec 8 ok.

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

225 W 108th Pl, 2BR/1BA . 7134 S. Normal, 4BR/2BA. ceiling fans, Ht & appls incl 312-683-5174

64TH & CICERO, nr Midway airport. Newly remodeled 1BR, 1BA, hdwd flrs, separate utils. $950/mo.

Sec dep req’d. 773-908-1080

ADULT SERVICES

Beautiful brick 4BR , 1.5 BA, off st prkg, ADP alarm $1300/ mo. Move-in Fee $650, Sec 8 Ok. 773-720-9787 or 773-483-2594

3 BR OR MORE $1500-$1799 ALBANY PK 3100W 3BR, gran. ctrs, SS appls, wood flrs, OS ldry/ stor. $1495-$1575 + utils NO DEP. 773-743-4141 www.urbanequities. com

W.HUMBOLDT PK 1500W remod spac. 1BR, new kitc/appls, OS lndry, storage. $825-$975 + util NO DEP 773-743-4141 www. urbanequities.com

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

OTHER WEST - 3852 W. GLADYS, newly updated 4 BR, 2 BA, & 3BR, 1 BA avail.

Sec. 8 OK. 773-575-9444 darvenllc@yahoo.com

IRVING PARK & CALIFORNIA, Large 3 Bedroom, newly renovated, wood floors. Close to Brown Line, schools, good transportation. Available immediately. 773-588-0359

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

DIGITAL TALK THERAPY CHICAGO HOUSES FOR rent.

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

Call 708-752-3812 for Westside locations 773-287-4500

815-901-2591 * Text for an appointment time. * Payment accepted through Paypal. * All sessions are billed after session.

HUGE SALE 7939 Neva Niles 10/13-14-15 Tools/lawnmowers/snowblowers/ household items

SERVICES CHICAGO HEIGHTS, 3BR, 1BA, NEWLY REMODELED, APPLS INCL , SECTION 8 OK. NO SEC. DEPOSIT. 708-822-4450

FOR SALE

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

Section 8 ok. Call 708-922-9069

Chicago 1646 W. Garfield.

3 bdrm, 1 bath, newly renovated, hardwood floors, appliances included. $850/mo. 773-285-3206

MUSIC & ARTS

19616 LAKE LYNWOOD Dr., Lynwood, IL. 3BR 2BA Quad Level $350K. Sara Johnson, Chas Rutenberg Rlty 630-788-6218

non-residential

- SEJONG MUSIC Competition

SELF-STORAGE CENTERS. T W O locations to serve you. All

EVANSTON 2BR, 1100SQFT, New Kit/ oak flrs, new windows, OS Lndry, $1295/incl heat, 773743-4141 urbanequities.com

units fully heated and humidity controlled with ac available. North: Knox Avenue.

773-685-6868.

South: Pershing Avenue. 773-523-6868.

Wrigleyville DLX 3BR, new kit, private deck & yard, FDR, oak floors, sunroom, $1950/heated 773-7434141 urbanequities.com

TRUCK AND BUS Parking 9724

3 BR OR MORE $1200-$1499 SECTION 8 WELCOME Lrg 3BR/2BA, 2 Story Home. Tenant pays heat & elec. $1300/mo + 1 mo sec. 68th/King Dr. Other loc coming soon! 312-945-6685

RIVERDALE/DOLTON - 4BR, 1.5BA, 2 car garage, unfinished basement, Section 8 OK. $1200/ mo + security. 847-909-1538 3

BEDROOM

TOWNHOME,

Great Neighborhood. Tier 1 School, Section 8 ok. Call 312-501-0509

ADULT SERVICES

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

3 BR OR MORE $1800-$2499 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 11/1. 773-7614318.

Vincennes Ave, Chicago only $150 a month per spot. Contact us at 708-557-7976

roommates SOUTH SHORE, Senior Discount. Male preferred.

Furnished rooms, shared kitchen & bath, $545/mo. & up. Utilities included. 773-710-5431

A SPECIAL CONCERT of Music Inspired by Korean Poetry Sijo Poems in Settings from Classical to Hip-Hop Date: Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 4pm Location: Poetry Foundation (61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL) Open to Public and Free admission Program: Clarinet, Cello and Soprano trio / Violin and Piano duet / Jazz Ensemble / Hip-hop and Janggu / Bariton with piano accompaniment. more info at www.SejongCulturalSociety.org

ADULT SERVICES

CHICAGO 55TH & Halsted, male pref. Room for rent, share furnished apt, free utils, $ 440/mo.

No security. 773-614-8252

ADULT SERVICES

legal notices NOTICE IS HEREBY given, pur-

special. Russian, Polish, Ukrainain girls. Northbrook and Schaumburg locations. 10% discount for new customers. Please call 773-407-7025

ADULT SERVICES

ADULT SERVICES

WASHINGTON PARK 5636 King Dr. Single Rooms for rent from $390, $450, to $510 a month.

Call 773-359-7744

- Piano and Violin category Sunday, November 12, 2017 at the University of Illinois at Chicago Performing Arts Center. This competition is open to all pre-college violin and piano students.

- Sejong Writing Competition - Essay and Sijo category ( sijo = Korean form of poetry) Essay: Adult (age 25 and younger), Senior, Junior division, Sijo: One division (grade 12 and younger) Deadline February 28, 2018 visit www.SejongCulturalSociety. org for detail information

suant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: D17152327 on October 6, 2017 Under the Assumed Business Name of DAGGETT PROPERTY INSPECTIONS with the business located at: 802 LATIMER LANE, FLOSSMOOR, IL 60422. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner (s)/partner(s) is: GARY EDWARD DAGGETT 802 LATIMER LANE, FLOSSMOOR, IL 60422, USA

HEALTH & WELLNESS FULL BODY MASSAGE. hotel, house calls welcome $90

OLYMPIA FIELDS Newly remodeled 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, full basement. Beautiful area. 708-935-7557.

NOTICES

HANDYMAN SERVICES Carpentry, Drywall, Electrical, Flooring, HVAC & Plumbing.

219-302-8782

Hdwd & ceramic tile. 773-502-4304

ROUND LAKE BEACH, IL Cedar

$400 Cash Move-In Bonus, No Dep.

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

Beautiful 3BR, in North Lawndale.

Appls, W/D Hk-Up In-Unit, ADT, Wood Flrs, Storage, Secure Prkng & Back Yard. 773-6091054

4010 S. King Dr. 3BR, heat incl, $1025. 7906 S. Justine. 2BR $750 & Restaurant for rent.

708-421-7630 or 773-899-9529

2 BR OTHER

SECTION 8 WELCOME

EARLY WARNINGS

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

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

0589

W. Pullman & Morgan Park 4BR houses Newly decorated.

W/D, stove & fridge included $1300/mo & up 847-732-6383

3 BR OR MORE

COLLEGE GIRL BODY RUBS $40 w/AD 24/7

224-223-7787

OCTOBER 12, 2017 | CHICAGO READER 59

60 MINUTES FREE TRIAL

THE HOTTEST GAY CHATLINE

1-312-924-2082 More Local Numbers: 800-777-8000

www.guyspyvoice.com

Ahora en Español/18+

EARLY WARNINGS chicagoreader.com/early

STRAIGHT DOPE

By Cecil Adams Q : Can friends and family video-

conference with prisoners? I know prisoners have access to phones and can have visitors, but it seems like video would also make it easier to keep in touch. —FILMORE, VIA THE STRAIGHT DOPE MESSAGE BOARD

A : Heck of an idea you’ve got there, Filmore.

Know who else is a fan of video visitation, as it’s called? Good old Joe Arpaio, late of the Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff’s department, where he gained a reputation for ghastly human rights abuses before being voted out of office and convicted of contempt (and subsequently pardoned by Donald Trump). Arpaio called video visitation “a win for everyone involved,” and while we live in a complex world with few easy answers, I’d suggest you couldn’t find a more reliable rule of thumb than: if Sheriff Joe’s for it, be wary.

And indeed, video visitation is far from the simple convenience it might appear to be. Let’s thumb through Screening Out Family Time, a 2015 report by the nonprofit think tank Prison Policy Initiative, which elucidates some objections to what the organization calls the “for-profit video visitation industry”: This ain’t Skype. If you’re picturing high-quality video service, forget it—this is “poorly designed” technology, according to the report’s authors, plagued with complaints about crappy connections.

That’s particularly a problem for friends and relatives trying to connect from home: video visitation is typically free when using dedicated visitor terminals at correctional facilities, but anyone logging on remotely is paying handsomely for the terrible service (about which more below).

Even if the tech were to get sorted out on the provider’s end, consider the customer. PPI cites a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of previously incarcerated people in which 86 percent of respondents reported an income of less than $25,000— in other words, folks from families unlikely to have access to the decent computers and reliable bandwidth a good video link requires.

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In-person visits work. Most of these video schemes have been implemented at county jails, rather than prisons, which generally don’t require loved ones to travel long distances for a visit. And video visitation isn’t supplementing in-person visits, as ideally it should; it’s replacing it altogether. In 74 percent of jails, PPI found, in-person visits were no longer permitted after video visits were implemented—in at least some cases, at the request of the contractor responsible for the video technology.

Yet “family contact,” PPI writes, “is one of the surest ways to reduce the likelihood that an indi-

vidual will re-offend,” so it’s something that jails and prisons should want to facilitate, not discourage. (Unlike jails, prisons seem to recognize this: PPI found “virtually no state prisons” that had eliminated in-person visitation.) Even a single visit to an incarcerated offender has been shown to reduce the chance of recidivism by 13 percent. And beyond any technical challenges, video makes visitation difficult because . . .

It’s really expensive. This is the big one, and opens the door to tons of broader issues. Video visitation is administered by external contractors, who charge out the nose for the service—in some cases, up to $1.50 a minute. Again, sometimes these companies will stipulate in their contracts that in-person visits be banned—hey, they’re bad for business.

This is of a piece with how all sorts of carceral services have been privatized, and at great cost to inmates and their families. It’s a tremendous racket: the companies make piles of money, the facilities get a kickback, and the fees can be set at extortionate levels while the services provided are lousy— after all, the contractors have a literally captive consumer base and in many cases a near lock on the market. One result: according to the Center for Public Integrity, more than a third of families with an incarcerated loved one go into debt paying for visits and phone calls alone.

Speaking of which . . . in 2013 the Federal Communications Commission announced rules capping inmate phone fees, citing, for instance, charges up to $17 for a 15-minute call. Who would argue against sensible government regulation like that, right? Well, one commissioner did dissent from the ruling: Ajit Pai, who (you can’t make it up) now leads the agency, promoted to the chairman’s job by Donald Trump. Earlier this year, with Pai in charge, the FCC ceased its legal defense of the rate caps, and in June, an appeals court ruled that the commission didn’t have the authority to regulate inmate phone charges, which could go on being exorbitant. So sure, video conferencing’s a great service, just like inmate phone calls—provided you’re the one hooking up the cables. v Send questions to Cecil via straightdope.com or write him c/o Chicago Reader, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago 60654.

l

l

SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage

‘How do I know when to go back to monogamy?’

Dan Savage addresses some comon perils of polygamy.

Q : I’m a 25-year-old woman currently in a poly relationship with a married man roughly 20 years my senior. This has by far been the best relationship I’ve ever had. However, something has me a bit on edge. We went on a trip with friends to a brewery with a great restaurant. It was an amazing place, and I’m sure his wife would enjoy it. He mentioned the place to her, and her response was NO, she didn’t want to go there because she didn’t want to have “sloppy seconds.”

It made me feel dirty. I go out of my way to show him places I think they would like to go together. I don’t know if my feelings are just hurt— if it’s as childish as I think it is—or if it’s a reminder of my very low place in their hierarchy. I hesitate to bring this up, because when I have needs or concerns, they label me as difficult or needy.

Should I do anything to address this or just continue to stay out of their business and go where I wish with my partner? —TREATED WITH

OUTRAGE

A : I’m having a hard time

reconciling these two statements, TWO: “This has by far been the best relationship I’ve ever had” and “when I have needs or concerns, they label me as difficult or needy.”

I suppose it’s possible all your past relationships have been so bad that your best-relationship-ever bar is set tragically low. But taking a partner’s needs and concerns seriously is one of the hallmarks of a good relationship, to say nothing of a “best relationship ever.”

That said . . . It’s entirely possible that you share your needs and concerns in a way that comes across as—or actually is—needy

and difficult. One person’s reasonable expression of needs/concerns is another person’s emotionally manipulative drama. I would need to depose your boyfriend and his wife, TWO, to make a determination and issue a ruling.

That said . . . I’m wondering whether your boyfriend’s wife is really into the poly thing. Some people are poly under duress (PUD), i.e., agree to open up a marriage or relationship not because it’s what they want, but because they were given an ultimatum: We’re open/ poly or we’re over. In a PUD best-case scenario, the PUD partner sees that their fears were overblown, discovers that poly/open works for them, embraces openness/ polyamory, and is no longer a PUD. But PUDs who don’t come around (or haven’t come around yet) will engage in small acts of sabotage to signal their unhappiness— their perfectly understandable unhappiness. They didn’t want to be open/poly in the first place and are determined to prove that open/ poly was a mistake and/or punish their ultimatum-issuing partner. The most common form of PUD sabotage?

Making their primary partner’s secondary partner(s) feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.

That said . . . As you (probably) know (but if you don’t, you’re about to find out), poly relationships have all kinds of (sometimes incredibly arbitrary but also incredibly important) rules. If one of the rules is “My wife doesn’t want to hear from or about my girlfriend,” TWO, then your restaurant recommendations are going to fall flat.

Being poly means navigating rules (and sometimes asking to renegotiate those rules) and juggling multi-

ple people’s feelings, needs, and concerns. You have to show respect for their rules, TWO, as they are each other’s primary partners. But your boyfriend and his wife have to show respect for you, too. Secondary though you may be, your needs, concerns, feelings, etc, have to be taken into consideration.

And if their rules make you feel disrespected, unvalued, or too low on the hierarchical poly totem pole, you should dump them.

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Q : I don’t know if I’m poly or not. I mean, Jesus H. Christ, this has been so difficult.

How do I know when to go back to monogamy?

—PRETTY OVER LUSTY YEARNINGS

A : I don’t think you’re

poly, POLY, because I don’t think anyone is poly.

I also don’t think anyone is monogamous. Polyamory and monogamy aren’t sexual orientations, IMO, they’re relationship models. And if the polyamorous model is making you miserable, POLY, it might not be right for you. But you should ask yourself whether polyamory is making you miserable or whether the people you’re doing polyamory with are.

People in awful monogamous relationships rarely blame monogamy for their woes— even when monogamy is a factor—but the stigma against nontraditional relationship models, to say nothing of sex negativity, often leads people to blame polyamory for their misery when the actual cause isn’t the model, POLY, it’s the people. v Send letters to mail@ savagelove.net. Download the Savage Lovecast every Tuesday at savagelovecast. com. v @fakedansavage

OCTOBER 12, 2017 - CHICAGO READER 61

Sleigh Bells ò JESSICA RABBIT

NEW

Peter Bradley Adams 12/21, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Cyrille Aimee 2/15, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 10/12, noon b Jessica Andrea 11/29, 7 PM, Schubas b Arch Echo, Aviations 11/6, 7 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Brendan Bayliss & Jake Cinninger 12/15, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ Big Brave 12/11, 9 PM, Empty Bottle F Big Dipper 11/22, 9 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Blues Traveler 2/3, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM, 17+ Bonerama 12/15, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Borns 1/27, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Broncho 12/2, 8 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Celtic Woman 6/17, 5 PM, Rosemont Theater, Rosemont, on sale Fri 10/13, noon Mary Chapin Carpenter 10/21, 8 PM, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie Shemekia Copeland 12/9, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 10/12, noon b Creepshow 12/15, 8 PM, Reggie’s Music Joint Crowbar, Tombs, Incite, Tricounty Terror 11/27, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Dwele 12/14, 7 and 9:30 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 10/12, noon b Mary Fahl 1/14, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b

First Aid Kit, Van William 2/2, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM, 18+ Flosstradamus 12/27, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 10/13, noon, 18+ Foreign Air, Shaed 11/30, 7 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Fratellis 5/11, 8:45 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM, 18+ Jon Dee Graham 12/12, 7 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn, on sale Fri 10/13, 11 AM Green Jelly 1/5, 9 PM, Beat Kitchen Infamous Stringdusters, Leftover Salmon 2/16-17, 8 PM, Park West, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM, 18+ Kiss FM’s Jingle Ball with the Chainsmokers, Demi Lovato, Charlie Puth, Kesha, Camila Cabello, Liam Payne, Julian Michaels, and more 12/13, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Mon 10/16, 10 AM Zhao Lei 12/10, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Mon 10/16, noon b Macabre 12/23, 6:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Barry Manilow 12/5, 7:30 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM Marbin 3/3, 7:30 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Mud Morganfield 12/1, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Pink 3/9-10, 8 PM, United Center, on sale Fri 10/13, 8 PM Radian 11/25, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 18+ Morgan Saint 11/13, 8 PM, Schubas, 18+ Harry Shearer & Judith Owen 12/10, 7 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Sleigh Bells, Sunflower Bean 1/31, 8 PM, Metro, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b

62 CHICAGO READER - OCTOBER 12, 2017

Sam Smith 8/15, 8 PM, United Center, on sale Thu 10/12, 10 AM Spoon, Real Estate 12/10, 7:30 PM, Chicago Theatre, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM Squirrel Nut Zippers 1/16, 7 and 9:30 PM, SPACE, Evanston, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Stick Figure, Twiddle 1/19, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM, 18+ 12th Planet 12/15, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, on sale Fri 10/13, noon, 18+ Walk Off the Earth 3/8, 8 PM, House of Blues, on sale Fri 10/13, 10 AM b Zombies 3/19-20, 8 PM, City Winery, on sale Thu 10/12, noon b

UPCOMING Algiers 10/19, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Alvvays 11/3, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Animals as Leaders, Periphery 11/1, 7:30 PM, the Vic, 18+ Ariel Pink 10/28, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Boris, Helms Alee 10/23, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Marc Broussard 12/21, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Jake Bugg 11/30, 8:30 PM, Metro, 18+ Bully 11/7, 8:30 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+ Cattle Decapitation, Revocation 10/27, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Bruce Cockburn 11/18-19, 8 PM, Maurer Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music b

b Cousin Stizz 10/19, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Crystal Castles 11/10, 8 PM, Concord Music Hall, 17+ Dance With the Dead, Gost 11/4, 8 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Death From Above 11/4, 8 PM, the Vic, 18+ Lana Del Rey, Jhene Aiko 1/11, 8 PM, United Center Do Make Say Think 12/8, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Earthly 11/12, 9 PM, Empty Bottle EMA 11/18, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Craig Finn & the Uptown Controllers 10/23, 8 PM, City Winery b Flamin’ Groovies 10/19, 8 PM, SPACE, Evanston b Foster the People, Cold War Kids 12/1, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Ghoul 12/11, 7 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 17+ Goblin 10/25, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Guns N’ Roses 11/6, 8 PM, United Center Halsey, Partynextdoor, Charli XCX 11/19, 7 PM, Allstate Arena, Rosemont Hatebreed 12/3, 7 PM, Metro, 18+ Hiss Golden Messenger 10/24, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall Hotelier 11/16, 6 PM, Cobra Lounge b Insane Clown Posse 10/29, 6:30 PM, Portage Theater b Marcus Johnson 11/27, 8 PM, City Winery b Joywave 11/21, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ Judge 11/5, 8:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 17+ Kid Cudi 11/4-5, 8 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Killers 1/16, 7:30 PM, United Center Krewella 11/10, 7 PM, Aragon Ballroom b Alex Lahey 11/24, 8:30 PM, Subterranean, 17+ Lemon Twigs 10/26, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Jessica Lea Mayfield 11/9, 9 PM, Empty Bottle JD McPherson 11/16, 8 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Mountain Goats 11/17, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ NRBQ 10/27, 9 PM, FitzGerald’s, Berwyn Gary Numan, Me Not You 11/29, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall, 17+ Angel Olsen 12/9, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Omni, Facs 11/5, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Pinegrove, Saintseneca 11/26, 7 PM, Thalia Hall b Plain White T’s 12/2, 7 PM, Metro b Posies 1/31, 8 PM, City Winery b Todd Rundgren 12/16-17, 8 PM, Park West, 18+ A. Savage, Jack Cooper 11/2, 9 PM, Empty Bottle

ALL AGES

WOLF BY KEITH HERZIK

EARLY WARNINGS

CHICAGO SHOWS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IN THE WEEKS TO COME

F

Never miss a show again.

Sign up for the newsletter at chicagoreader. com/early

Silversun Pickups 11/8, 7 PM, Riviera Theatre b Strumbellas 10/19-20, 7:30 PM, Thalia Hall b Suicide Machines, Bad Cop/ Bad Cop 12/31, 8 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ The Weeknd 11/2, 7:30 PM, United Center Chelsea Wolfe, Youth Code 10/24, 8 PM, Metro, 18+ Yung Lean & Sad Boys 1/31, 6 PM, Concord Music Hall b Zeds Dead, Ghastly, Ghostface Killah 10/21, 6 PM, Navy Pier

SOLD OUT Aminé, Pell 11/18, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile 10/26, 7:30 PM, Rockefeller Memorial Chape; 10/27, 8:30 PM, Thalia Hall; and 10/28, 9 PM, Empty Bottle Bleachers, Bishop Briggs 11/11, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Daniel Caesar 11/20, 9 PM, Reggie’s Rock Club, 18+ Front Bottoms 10/26, 7 PM, Metro b Greta Van Fleet 11/30, 8 PM, Lincoln Hall, 18+ H.E.R. 11/9, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jessie J 10/25, 8 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Jesus Lizard 12/9, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Johnnyswim 11/10, 7:30 PM, the Vic b King Krule 10/30, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Knox Fortune 11/13, 7:30 PM, Lincoln Hall, 17+ Lil Peep 10/19, 7:30 PM, Bottom Lounge b Mura Masa, Tennyson 11/16, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ The National 12/12-13, 7:30 PM, Lyric Opera House b Noname 11/21, 9 PM, Concord Music Hall, 18+ Robert Plant & the Sensational Space Shifters 2/20, 8 PM, Riviera Theatre, 18+ Rich Chigga 11/11, 7 PM, Bottom Lounge b The Struts 10/30, 9 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Syd 11/8, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ T-Pain 10/22, 8:30 PM, Bottom Lounge, 17+ Grace Vanderwaal 11/15, 7 PM, Park West b Whitney, Ne-Hi 11/2, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ Young Thug 11/1, 9 PM, Metro, 18+ v

GOSSIP WOLF A furry ear to the ground of the local music scene EARLIER THIS YEAR, Gossip Wolf broke the news that after Disappears went on hiatus last fall, three members had formed dark art-rock juggernaut Facs. Ever since, this wolf has been catching their shows and copping the free demos they’ve intermittently posted to Bandcamp, which sound like a spacious, hypnotic mix of Lungfish and Flowers of Romance-era PiL. It’s definitely a combo meal that any weird postpunk can dig—so of course Bill and Lisa Roe of Trouble in Mind Records have already signed Facs. As bassist-vocalist Brian Case puts it, “Bill and Lisa knew more about the Dead C than any label we talked with, so naturally we pursued them until a deal was struck.” The trio’s debut long-player, Negative Houses, hits shops on Friday, March 30. In the meantime, they play the Empty Bottle with new labelmates Omni on Sunday, November 5.

Even for a faux holiday aimed directly at fans’ wallets, Cassette Store Day gets no respect. This year it falls on Saturday, October 14, and a load of local labels have special releases on deck, including Grabbing Clouds, Already Dead, Dumpster Tapes, and Girlsville. This wolf got to preview a few tapes by reggae label Jump Up, and they’re aces—especially the soulful Boombox Sessions Vol. II by Montreal’s Danny Rebel. Only four local shops appear on CSD’s official list of retailers (Bucket O’ Blood, Bric-a-Brac, Shuga, and Curbside), but don’t overlook the unofficial participation of Logan Hardware.

It’s selling tapes exclusive to the shop by Dark Fog, Ralph “Soul” Jackson, Droids Blood, King Tony, and Tavi Veraldi of mixtape label Poor Milk—and all five perform at a party that runs from noon till 4 PM. The Eradicator, Gossip Wolf’s favorite goofy local punk band inspired by a Kids in the Hall sketch, drop a self-titled album on Friday, October 13. That night they headline a release show downstairs at Subterranean; Bong Mountain, Engines, and “Richardson” Richardson open. —J.R. NELSON AND LEOR GALIL Got a tip? Tweet @Gossip_Wolf or e-mail gossipwolf@chicagoreader.com.

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Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Major support is generously provided by The Diane & Bruce Halle Foundation. Additional funding is contributed by the Morton International Exhibition Fund, Robert J. Buford, Noelle C. Brock, Constance and David Coolidge, Margot Levin Schiff and the Harold Schiff Foundation, the Jack and Peggy Crowe Fund, and Erika Erich. Annual support for Art Institute exhibitions is provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Neil Bluhm and the Bluhm Family Charitable Foundation; Jay Franke and David Herro; Kenneth Griffin; Caryn and King Harris, The Harris Family Foundation; Liz and Eric Lefkofsky; Robert M. and Diane v.S. Levy; Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff; Usha and Lakshmi N. Mittal; Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel; Thomas and Margot Pritzker; Anne and Chris Reyes; Betsy Bergman Rosenfield and Andrew M. Rosenfield; Cari and Michael J. Sacks; and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation.

Tarsila do Amaral. Abaporu, 1928. Colección MALBA, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. © Tarsila do Amaral Licenciamentos.