On Fearing The Patriots Who Fearlessly Protect Us

Because someone left a 1997 issue of the New England Quarterly lying on a table in the Newberry lounge, I’ve just read a commentary on the Indian rebellion of 1675 to 1678, which are remembered as King Philip’s War. As ships continued to arrive from Europe, natives who’d lived at peace with Puritan settlers were no longer willing to tolerate the unrelenting encroachment on their lands. They rose up. We’re looking at a serious difference of opinion....

February 23, 2022 · 1 min · 147 words · Tracy Tanner

Photos Amfm Fights Food Deserts With The Feast Festival

Local arts organization AMFM hosted the second Feast festival this past Saturday, September 7, at Homan Square Park in the west-side neighborhood of Lawndale. AMFM bills the free event as an “art, food, and music festival where everybody eats,” and “eat” takes on multiple meanings. Feast gives deserving local artists a chance to “eat” by performing on a coveted summertime festival stage, while drawing attention to food insecurity—one of the most critical problems plaguing the south and west sides....

February 23, 2022 · 1 min · 111 words · Shirley Rohr

Pride Is Alive This Year At Lost Lake S Chick Feel Gay 2 0

Did you know the original Chick-fil-A in Hapeville, Georgia, was called “the Dwarf House”? The important thing is to not let a bigoted fast-food chain play god with your sandwich. Though the virus has kneecapped the usual Pride festivities it has not stopped Chick-Feel-Gay 2.0 at Lost Lake. For the second year in a row, executive sous chef Dani Kaplan, with former Income Tax sous chef Carolyn Centofanti, will offer a “pun in the face of oppression,” slinging fried chicken sandwiches and waffle fries ($15), this time through the bar’s walk-up window, along with rainbow flag cookies ($5) and “Dykes Hard Lemonades” ($15)....

February 23, 2022 · 1 min · 156 words · George Christensen

Remembering Andrea Gronvall

Andrea Gronvall, a longtime film critic for the Reader, died after an illness on September 4 in her apartment in Margate Park. She was 67. As best as I can tell from our online archives, she filed her first review in 2004, of the documentary Presence, a portrait of the Swedish photographer Georg Oddner. Her last, of the new Keira Knightley espionage thriller Official Secrets, was in last week’s paper. In between, she filed several dozen long reviews and even more capsules, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to art-house documentaries, and everything in between....

February 23, 2022 · 1 min · 149 words · Jimmie Peck

Right Wingers Exploiting Chicago Violence To Score Cheap Political Points Should Be Ashamed

Following the Las Vegas massacre in October, Donald Trump’s White House put together a list of talking points to help its surrogates argue it wasn’t a gun that allowed Stephen Paddock to shoot 58 people to death in 15 minutes. Among them: “[S]ome of America’s cities with the strictest gun laws have the highest rates of gun violence. Examples include: Chicago last year had over 4,300 shooting victim [sic]” Even Hollywood conservatives have gotten into the Chicago-hating act....

February 23, 2022 · 2 min · 225 words · Helen Peters

In Deadpool Superheroes Are Out And Antiheroes Are In

In Deadpool, heroism gets a bad rap. “You’re my hero!” a teenage girl tells the loutish mercenary Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) in an early flashback, to which Wilson ripostes, “That I ain’t.” After undergoing a mutation that turns him into the costumed Deadpool, Wilson weighs the pros of being a superhero—getting your own movie, for one—against the big con: “They’re all lame-ass teacher’s pets.” Over a shot of Wilson spearing one of his enemies, his cheeky voice-over belabors the point: “I may be super, but I’m no hero....

February 22, 2022 · 2 min · 355 words · Andrew Powers

Lifevac Reviews Can This Device Really Save Lives

For peace of mind, you may want to consider LifeVac. LifeVac is known as a life-saving device that can help in choking emergencies in adults and children alike. But is LifeVac the device for you? Today, we’re going to dive deep into LifeVac. We will be taking a look at what LifeVac is, what it isn’t, how it works, plus so much more. By the end, you will be able to make an educated decision on whether or not to buy this potentially life-saving invention....

February 22, 2022 · 7 min · 1486 words · Katherine Thompson

Miss Ricky S In The Virgin Hotel Is Not Exactly A Busby Berkeley Dream

Aimee Levitt “I want food,” my friend complained. Aimee Levitt Peter the Rabbit Finally, our drinks arrived. Mine was not what I had asked for. But they let us keep it. Unfortunately, it tasted too medicinal for either of us to enjoy. (It was made primarily from Grey Goose vodka and Chareau aloe vera liqueur, spelled “liquor” on the menu. I’m a reporter and my friend is an editor. Noticing these things makes us feel superior....

February 22, 2022 · 2 min · 271 words · Caroline Brooks

New York Label Freedom To Spend Ventures Into The Field With The Compilation New Neighborhoods

You don’t have to know Ernest Hood’s 1975 album Neighborhoods to understand what’s going on in the new compilation New Neighborhoods, but it doesn’t hurt. Born in 1923, Hood was a Portland jazz musician who kept up with new recording and production techniques throughout his life, and in 1964 he cofounded the listener-supported Portland radio station now known as KBOO. In the early 70s, he assembled and edited field recordings he’d captured around the city in the 50s and 60s, augmenting them with new original music made primarily with zither and synth....

February 22, 2022 · 2 min · 391 words · Evelyn Ruiz

Pakalolo Sweet Has A Mellow Vibe But The Narrative Goes Up In Smoke

Staged in the coach house of a Chicago Park District facility on the shore of Lake Michigan in the Edgewater neighborhood, Hannah li-Epstein’s comedy-drama about a family of Hawaiian marijuana growers labors mightily to be an investigation of mental illness masquerading as a mellow good time. Whether one buys what she’s selling depends a lot on one’s attitude toward weed and the lifestyle connected to it. Before the actual play begins, the audience is asked to participate in a karaoke session with the cast....

February 22, 2022 · 2 min · 258 words · Maria Croy

Parachute S Staff Meal Is A Family Affair

At Parachute, the term “family meal” can be taken literally. Chef-owners Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark are husband and wife, but it’s a family affair in other respects as well. On a recent Thursday at 4 PM, before the Avondale restaurant’s 5 PM opening, Kim’s aunt came in with a bag of fresh herbs from her garden, which she handed over with a tender look at her pregnant niece. And it’s been so from the start; when the couple opened their dream spot on a relatively shoestring budget, they helped defray expenses by doing much of the work themselves, transforming a taqueria into their sleek but inviting space with DIY projects such as handweaving the seats of the stools that line the long bar and crafting the banquette out of the sort of furniture padding used by movers....

February 22, 2022 · 2 min · 400 words · Robert Watson

Riane Konc Wants To Help You Build Your Own Christmas Movie Romance

‘Tis the season for cheesy, made-for-TV holiday movies. These fluffy flicks appear on the Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and now even Netflix. Each one is loaded with snuggles, slapstick, and secrets that threaten the entire town. And at the heart of every story is a woman who will save everything. Further stress came from a frightening patch of writer’s block that Konc couldn’t shake. But with each day of watching, studying, then writing, she slowly developed a rhythm that lifted the block....

February 22, 2022 · 1 min · 118 words · Andy Pittman

In Their Own Form Takes A Long Look At Afrofuturism Beyond Black Panther

O n the third floor of the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s current 13-artist, 33-piece exhibition exhibition “In Their Own Form,” are two sets of work that depict the dreamscapes of Senegalese children. On the right side of the exhibition space is Senegalese photographer Alun Be’s series “Edification” (2017), well-composed snapshots of young boys engaged in common activities, such as assisting each other onto the back of a bus or bathing in the sea while peering through virtual reality masks....

February 21, 2022 · 2 min · 269 words · Lela Shoemaker

Re Opening Up

Rachel Hawley Apartment tours are like first dates, in that you often know you’re not interested within a few seconds of introduction, and must politely smile and nod your way through a sales pitch anyway. I’d been viewing apartments, masked and gloved, for a few weeks when I found The One: an implausibly large one-bedroom with air conditioning a block from the Red Line in Rogers Park. The moment I stepped inside the empty unit, I began sketching a layout in my mind: a couch, comfortable writing chair, and coffee table near the living room windows; a proper desk for my work computer; my kitchen table and chairs in the dining nook (the dining nook!...

February 21, 2022 · 3 min · 545 words · Lidia Combs

Italian Psychedelic Doom Trio Ufomammut Contemplate The Universe On The Boundary Pushing 8

When I saw Italian psychedelic doom trio Ufomammut debut in Chicago on their first-ever U.S. tour in 2015, my only complaint was that the set ended too soon—they’d played for at least an hour, but their blankets of spacey haze, locomotive riffs, and earth-shaking grooves were so entrancing that even another hour would’ve melted away like minutes. This time around, I’m happy Ufomammut are able to play here at all—or anywhere, for that matter....

February 21, 2022 · 2 min · 317 words · Misha Mcgriff

Jozef Van Wissem S Antique Lute Repertoire Has Never Been More Timely

For the better part of two decades, Jozef Van Wissem has been on a mission to challenge the notion that his main instrument is a museum piece. The 57-year-old Dutchman has recontextualized the Renaissance lute by submerging its sound in Maurizio Bianchi’s industrial noise, by improvising with guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama, and by engaging in instrumental duels with feedback guitarist and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. But on his latest album, We Adore You, You Have No Name (Consouling Sound), Van Wissem has returned to the gallery....

February 21, 2022 · 2 min · 247 words · Barbara Bartolini

Multimedia Composer Samson Young Presents Music From The 1933 Chicago S World Fair

The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, titled A Century of Progress International Exposition, was touted as a celebration of modern innovation, and its grand aspirations were not without merit. Even though it took place during the depths of the Great Depression, it was so successful that its run was extended into 1934. With these events serving as inspiration, Chicago Symphony Center will host “Samson Young: World Fair Music,” which will feature a conversation between Hong Kong-based artist and composer Samson Young and Orianna Cacchione, curator of global contemporary art for the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, punctuated by performances of music composed for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair....

February 21, 2022 · 2 min · 358 words · Amanda Trevino

Musa Reems And David Ashley Bolster The Lineup For One Of The Winter S Best Chicago Rap Shows

Chicago rapper-singer Rich Jones brought his multigenerational monthly hip-hop series All Smiles to a close in April 2019, but its spirit lives on at this Subterranean show he’s headlining. The bill includes great local MCs who might not otherwise have any reason to cross paths, beginning with up-and-comer Musa Reems. On his recent self-released EP, November’s To Whom It May Concern, he speeds through hard verses atop sleepy synths and snaggletoothed percussion; he enlivens “Zombies” (which features Chicago great Mick Jenkins) by switching between thick staccato bars and quick stanzas of rhymes....

February 21, 2022 · 2 min · 220 words · Shawn Bostwick

P L Dermes In Pills

February 21, 2022 · 0 min · 0 words · Clair Worley

Reporter S Note

Typically When I delve into a housing story, I find that someone with more power is exercising it in a way that hurts someone with less power. In situations where low-income tenants are grappling with exploitative landlords, or public housing residents are battling recalcitrant city officials, or homeowners face off against predatory lenders, narratives are relatively simple to construct. In this story about a struggling South Shore co-op it was clear that the problems residents have experienced are real, and the stakes for resolving them are high....

February 21, 2022 · 1 min · 197 words · Robert Gutierrez