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Chicago has produced plenty of influential electronic producers and DJs who’ve become legends in their communities but remain obscure outside them. Late-80s ghetto-house producer Steve Poindexter, for instance, perfected a raunchy sound on “Work That Mutha Fucker” that other producers would make famous, but he’s hardly a household name himself. And before footwork originator RP Boo released Legacy via Planet Mu in 2013, the people carrying his torch were mostly battle dancers on the south and west sides....

Bassist, sound engineer, and devoted White Sox fan Rob Warmowski played in kick-ass punk bands for more than 30 years, but sadly he died September 1 at age 52 after a brief illness. Among Gossip Wolf’s most cherished albums is the 1987 WNUR compilation Hog Butcher for the World, which features Warmowski’s powerhouse surf-punk trio the Defoliants alongside the likes of Big Black, Urge Overkill, and End Result. He’d go on to play in Buzzmuscle, Sirs, and most recently San Andreas Fault....

Chicago singer, producer, and rapper Thomas DaVinci is a chameleon, able to adapt his supple voice and fluid flow to any instrumental track. On his album Home Grown, which he self-released in May, he applies his versatility to a broad swath of stylish sounds, including a few that wouldn’t quite fit together without him. Granted, he produced all but one of the record’s songs, and it’s hard to throw yourself a curveball, but he creates a confident through-line connecting the white-knuckle boom-bap percussion and plastic neosoul synths of “Destinfinity,” the melancholy harplike notes of “Toxic,” and the summery, nostalgic melody and minimal 808 beats of “Just Another Day....

Portuguese singer Mariza has built an impressive career essaying and stretching the sound of fado. Arguably the most celebrated indigenous music of Portugal, fado is traditionally played on acoustic guitar, bass, and trebly 12-string Portuguese guitar, with plaintive vocals that express saudade—a deep, melancholic sense of longing that is ineffably tied to the Portuguese spirit. Since she rose to fame at the start of the century Mariza has toggled between embracing fado in its purest form—following the lead of the genre’s ultimate diva, Amalia Rodrigues—and more modern pop sounds....

I smelled delicious for days after eating at Pub Royale. I’m not sure how fellow train riders felt about it, but fragrant axillae, redolent of cinnamon, clove, cumin, and ginger, are the gifts that keep on giving after eating good Indian food. And the food at Pub Royale, from Heisler Hospitality (Trenchermen, Nightwood, Sportsman’s Club, Bar DeVille, etc), is surprisingly good for a bar situated on a soulless stretch of Division Street in a neighborhood that lost its last vestiges of character around 1997....

QMy 15-year-old son has been watching sadistic porn—and ONLY sadistic porn—for a couple of years. He also tells us (husband and me) that, though he’s not had sex (which he defines as penetration), he’s had oral sex, hand jobs, etc, and that he didn’t “flash on” violent images at those times. But he says he thinks about this type of porn all the time—all day, every day—and fantasizes about doing sadistic things to the girls he dates....

Michael Keaton and Michelle Monaghan in Blindsided Though it was completed in 2013 and premiered on cable TV a year and a half ago, the low-budget thriller Blindsided (originally titled Penthouse North) is just now available for rent at Redbox stands, presumably because it stars Michael Keaton and Keaton’s a hot property again thanks to Birdman. Alejandro González Iñáritu’s Oscar winner was, if nothing else, a reminder of what a fantastic actor Keaton is (in case anyone forgot)—it’s hard to separate the film’s barreling energy from that of his performance, which belies a commitment to character no less controlled than Emmanuel Lubezki’s celebrated camerawork....

Dreamcatcher evolved out of a chipper five-member Korean girl group called Minx that launched in 2014 and soldiered through a couple of unsuccessful years. In 2017 they started again, armed with a new name, two more members, and a gothic makeover. Their debut single as Dreamcatcher, “Chase Me”—indebted to 2000s alt-metal groups such as Evanescence—introduced their new sound, a seamless melding of pop music with rock pastiche. Their follow-up, “Good Night,” includes a rap verse, multiple guitar riffs, and a relatively upbeat chorus that all blend together beautifully....

G-funk pioneer DJ Quik made a career out of casting the low-boiling squeal of LA’s definitive gangsta-rap sound right in his backyard, Compton—and, importantly, right along Compton’s main drag, Rosecrans Avenue. “Every spot in Compton’s got something going on, but Rosecrans is the common denominator,” rapper-producer Problem told the LA Times for a story about the 27-mile stretch of pavement that provides the foundation for many of the city’s best rap songs....

Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) was a promising debut feature, with suggestive atmosphere, compelling performances, and (for a horror film) sensitive observations about the nature of grief. But on the basis of Aster’s second feature, Midsommar, I’m inclined to say that promise is all the writer-director has to offer. Midsommar recycles the memorable qualities of Hereditary, but to no meaningful end. Aster simply employs them to generate a sense of gravitas, which he dashes as soon as Midsommar transforms into a full-blown horror movie....

Former president Barack Obama, in a surprise appearance before a large audience last night at an Obama Foundation public meeting at McCormick Place, made two points clear: But in regard to the binding community benefits agreement that a coalition of groups has been asking for, Obama had this to say: “I respect the intent, but we’re not coming in here as a for-profit organization. I’m raising a bunch of money. I’m not getting a salary from the foundation....

Omer Abbas Salem had over 5,000 new plays from the last 20 years at his fingertips, and zero reflected even a semblance of living as a gay Arab teen or young adult. It wasn’t until his Actors Theatre apprenticeship that Salem found his way back to the page. It was his first opportunity to write something he knew would be produced and he was instructed to turn to their play archive for inspiration....

Yesterday, my morning edition of the Sun-Times—hand-delivered as always—featured one of the most entertaining stories I’ve read all year: Mark Brown’s column about Eddie Acevedo Jr.’ s prodigious, obscenity-laced, late-night phone call to Alderman Danny Solis. The Acevedos are the last in the line of the Hispanic Democratic Organization, whose members pride themselves on being tough, bare-fisted political brawlers. That one went like this . . . Thank you, once again, Les Grobstein for capturing Elia’s great moment....

Pink Flamingos This week, the Logan Theatre is showing the musical comedy Hairspray, exploitation legend John Waters’s crossover hit. Waters, of course, is known for his ultratrashy, down and dirty comedies, shot guerilla-style on the streets of Baltimore and often featuring drag queens and miscreants in the cast. But he’s enjoyed as much if not more success in the mainstream, where his campy style jells perfectly with Hollywood gaudiness. I’m wouldn’t call myself a Waters devotee, but I’m drawn to the brazen and outright confrontational nature of his early films....

A studio, in its essence, is nothing more than an empty room. It acquires its magic by the people who gather there. Dancers are faithful. They go to the studio not only to hone their craft but to participate in the daily evolution of a living art. There, they sweat into the discovery of their bodies, then write their movements into its history. Whether they ever share a stage, dancers work together in the studio, a space of learning, experimentation, witness, and community....

After living in Edgewater for two years, they dreamt of finding a home that would provide both business and living space, room to accommodate the wedding photographers’ career dreams and the family they knew they wanted to create together. One day, out on a run together, they passed a unique building with a tall chain link fence blocking its 65ft concrete pull-in from the bustling Broadway sidewalk. Securing the property took almost nine months in total, but the moment the ink dried on the paperwork, the couple set to work on The Lytle House....

This week Chicagoans have the chance to see not one, but two four-hour-long movies on the big screen. Hu Bo’s Chinese feature An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) is in the middle of a weeklong run at the Gene Siskel Film Center, and Edward Yang’s masterpiece A Brighter Summer Day (1991) screens at Doc Films on Thursday at 5 PM. These works are superb—and very different—examples of what filmmakers can do with the four-hour running time....

The moon isn’t full right now, and Mercury is not in retrograde, but this has still been . . . a week. In the spirit of the list of self-care suggestions my colleagues came up with on Tuesday, here are some moments of Chicago-flavored happiness for you to take in this weekend, followed by some event listings. I’m concentrating this week on the life-changing properties of listening to music and saying hello to cute animals, and I invite you to join me on my pretend planet....