Chicago Reader

Blackhawks deep-sixed

Ted Cox — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:44:18 -0600

The Blackhawks were supposed to go to Colorado to get well Tuesday — kind of like a visit to The Magic Mountain. But instead things only got worse.…

Mart kills Art Chicago

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:03:00 -0600

Is there a white flag waving over the Merchandise Mart? Yesterday the Mart abruptly and briefly posted an announcement that Art Chicago (or Next Art Chicago, as they were calling it), scheduled for April 27-29, has been canceled, forever.…

More I Saw Yous!

Sam Worley — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:00 -0600

For this week’s cover story we sifted through about a year’s worth of I Saw Yous, and we found some real gems, a few of which we persuaded Johnny Sampson to illustrate. We also did a little embroidery of our own, and responded to the ads in whatever way felt most appropriate—emoticons, light verse, heavy sarcasm.…

Alinsky and Terkel, talking

Michael Miner — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:18:45 -0600

Republicans from Newt Gingrich on down who have been trying to hang Saul Alinsky on Barack Obama are handicapped by their apparent failure to have any idea who it is they're talking about.

Alinsky was a community organizer born and raised in Chicago who worked closely with friends in high places in the Catholic Church.…

The latest Reader performing arts reviews and previews

Sharon Lurye — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:45:00 -0600

Shame is an overwhelming emotion. When it mixes with religion, it becomes an explosive force.…

Feline fears, confirmed

Sam Worley — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:17:00 -0600

Holy fuck, it’s true—my cat might be the end of me. And yours, perhaps, could be the end of you. In the March 2012 issue of the Atlantic (h/t the Awl, number one source for cat news on the Internet), Kathleen McAuliffe reports on Czech scientist Jaroslav Flegr, who researches Toxoplasma gondii—you know, the cat shit-borne parasite that causes toxoplasmosis?…

This week on the B Side

Miles Raymer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:31:07 -0600

My interview with Ninja from South African zef-rap phenomenon Die Antwoord for this week's Reader was one of the most grueling transcription jobs I've ever done, thanks to his thick accent, the speed at which he speaks, and the extent to which he will expound on the questions asked of him—not to mention the quality of the phone connection to Johannesburg via a three-way call through a publicist's office in New York. (If you ever interview him, plan on five to seven times the amount of time you'd normally give yourself to transcribe.)…

Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: Pentecost

J.R. Jones — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:00:00 -0600

All this week I'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for best live-action short, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the last installment.

Peter McDonald, a busy actor in Irish and British TV, movies, and theater, debuts as writer-director with Pentecost, a comic trifle about a young lad whose soccer obsession complicates his altar-boy duties at the local parish.…

The venue formerly known as Pancho's

Luca Cimarusti — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:59:00 -0600

Perhaps you noticed something a little different in this week's Reader music listings—perhaps the arrival of a new venue called Township. Turns out Township isn't entirely new; it's the revamped incarnation of Logan Square standby Pancho's.…

Don't walk away, Resnais

Ben Sachs — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:33:59 -0600

Undeterred by one aborted attempt, next month I’ll try again to realize my dream of talking for 18 hours about Alain Resnais. Well, not all at once.…

12 O'Clock Track: O Têrço, "Flauta"

Peter Margasak — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

From the mid- to late 60s, Forma was one of Brazil's best record labels, releasing top-notch bossa nova with a progressive bent. Among the artists in its catalog are Baden Powell, Quarteto em Cy, Moacir Santos, Deodato, and Carlos Lyra.…

Oscar-nominated short animations: A Wild Life

J.R. Jones — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

All this week I've been reviewing the Oscar nominees for best short animation, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the last installment.

Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby's A Wild Life is one of two Oscar contenders that were funded by the National Film Board of Canada (the other is Patrick Doyon's Dimanche), which only goes to show that, for all the supposed evils of European-style socialism, it certainly has better cartoons.…

This week's food and drink events

Daniel Gerzina — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:30:08 -0600

Friday10
At Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar tonight artist and wine buff Thomas Arvid is unveiling three new paintings to go along with a wine dinner featuring California whites and reds and dishes like ahi tuna skewers and petite fillet au poivre. Reservations required.…

This week in Food & Drink

Kate Schmidt — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:03:00 -0600

Mike Sula reviews Acadia, on the near south side, where Courtright's vet Ryan McCaskey is offering fine dining in which foams, emulsions, powders, and garnishes manage to coalesce and harmonize, adding synergy to dishes rather than seeming like manifestations of technique for its own sake (as he found at Goosefoot last week). McCaskey's aided and abetted by bartender Michael Simon, whose cocktails like the Cognac Dreamsicle—champagne, vermouth, and orange liqueur—and the Amnesiac, made with absinthe ice cubes, may just keep you from the wine list.…

In this week's Reader: We bother with Valentine's Day

Tal Rosenberg — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0600

In this week's Reader, we caved and did a Valentine's Day issue. But it turned out really well, and Julia Thiel, Kevin Warwick, and Sam Worley did an excellent job putting this feature together.…

Minnie Riperton's "Reasons"

Miles Raymer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0600

The story of Minnie Riperton's life is all kinds of frustrating. Although she possessed one of the most shockingly beautiful voices in the history of pop music—a tender and supple thing that somehow spanned a physically impressive five-octave range—there were only a few years where she was alive and the world at large cared much at all.…

Heart and Sole

Laura Molzahn — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

A River North Dance Chicago concert for the weekend before Valentine's Day by Laura Molzahn "We're creative soul mates," says River North Dance Chicago artistic director Frank Chaves of his relationship with composer Josephine Lee. And at a rehearsal they comfortably switched roles; he turned conductor, advising Lee to make her dynamics "wavier," and she became a dancer, rocking on her piano bench.…

Living in the material world

Ben Sachs — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

Bertrand Bonello's House of Pleasures looks at life in an early-20th-century brothel by Ben Sachs "I have made an effort to get hold of the images in which the experience of the big city is precipitated in a child of the middle class. I believe it possible that a fate expressly theirs is held in reserve for such images.…

The University of Chicago Folk Festival

Luca Cimarusti — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

A Bo Diddley sideman, heirs of Cajun royalty, and more at the U. of C. Folk Festival by Luca Cimarusti The University of Chicago Folk Festival celebrates its 52nd year this weekend. Mandel Hall hosts three evenings of folk, blues, Cajun, and gospel acts, including Bo Diddley harmonica player Billy Boy Arnold (Fri 2/10, Sun 2/12), bluegrass favorites Tony Holt & the Wildwood Valley Boys (Sat 2/11, Sun 2/12), and heirs of Cajun royalty Bonsoir, Catin (Fri 2/10, Sat 2/11).…

Anna Clyne scores big

Peter Margasak — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

Symphonies still prefer dead composers, but Anna Clyne beat the odds to land a plum job with the CSO at age 30 by Peter Margasak Pursuing a career as a composer isn't the most prudent or practical choice—not if you want to make a living. Opportunities to have new work performed by institutions that can pay enough to live on are so scarce that competition is fierce—the people who buy symphony subscriptions generally want Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, not Francois Bayle, Johanna Beyer, or Earle Brown.…

My Bloody Valentine

Richard Wilcose — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

Worst dates: "It kind of all makes sense that she would blow me while I played Call of Duty" by Richard Wilcose Go back to the "Valentine’s Day: Why Bother?" table of contents page I like to think that I was doing my part for the war in Iraq.…

Solo Jams for a cold season

Sharon Lurye — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

Offerings for MPAACT's Solo Jams performance series by Sharon Lurye "Afrikan-centered" theater company MPAACT presents the winter edition of its late-night performance series, Solo Jams. Kicking it off is a panel discussion featuring three African-American directors: Chuck Smith, who staged Goodman Theatre's Race; Timothy Douglas, who resigned last month after just six months as artistic director of Remy Bumppo Theatre; and Jocelyn Price of Sankofa Theatre.…

Excavating Pittsburgh's Hill District

Sam Worley — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

A show of images by Pittsburgh Courier photog Charles "Teenie" Harris by Sam Worley From the 1930s until his retirement in 1975, Charles "Teenie" Harris took photographs for a major African-American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier. The Courier offices were located in the city's Hill District, a black community that Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay once called "the crossroads of the world."…

Prime-Time Panhandlers

Ben Tausig — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

Solution by Ben Tausig

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Q&A with Ninja of Die Antwoord

Miles Raymer — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:00:00 -0600

"Miles Raymer talks money, desperation, and creativity with Ninja of Die Antwoord" by Miles Raymer When Die Antwoord's video for "Enter the Ninja" went viral in 2010, the South African group rocketed to Internet superstardom largely on the strength of the LOLs generated by their "zef" image—sort of a Bizarro-world mashup of Hype Williams and Gummo. But after landing a million-dollar contract with Interscope and rereleasing their debut, $O$, with the label's backing, the trio—vocalists Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er and beat maker DJ Hi-Tek—revealed themselves to be cunning pranksters with an intensely strange visual aesthetic, refined on the fringes of the South African art world, that works amazingly well with their manic rave-rap.…