The DIY Trunk Show diytrunkshow.com Runner-Up: Blue Jay Way

Reno Runner-Up: Chicago Bagel Authority

Lula Cafe Runner-Up: Lost Lake

Eve L. Ewing Raych Jackson 

Keith Taylor

What has the Reader staff been up to in isolation? Last Friday we had a virtual staff happy hour complete with drinking games pulled from Cosmo magazine. We’ve had marathon video chats with our loved ones that went on so long we could tell which one of our friends or relatives could take at least a minute out of their pandemic sheltering to dust (we won’t name names). We all finally made a list of “projects to do during a pandemic,” and checked off “make a list of projects to do during a pandemic....

On Thursday night Chicago experimental trio Bitchin Bajas perform their entrancing score to the Olivia Wyatt film Sailing a Sinking Sea live during a screening at the Den Theatre. The trio has worked previously with the bicoastal filmmaker, who specializes in a kind of experimental ethnographic work, portraying remote cultures in a poetic, abstract way that illuminates her subjects while leaving some of their mystery intact. Sailing a Sinking Sea focuses on the Moken, a tiny ethnic group that inhabits coastal areas around islands in Thailand and Myanmar....

On February 20 a scrappy bunch of teachers from the North Lawndale and Urban Prep charter schools took to the streets to announce they were trying to form a union. As you may recall, charter schools are publicly financed, privately run institutions that in most cases are not unionized. They’re also supported by a lot of rich and powerful business titans who are of the decidedly antiunion persuasion. As always, the views expressed in this column are not necessarily shared by anyone else at the Chicago Reader, most notably its owners....

Bleacher Bums This genially rowdy made-in-Chicago comedy—created by and for the fabled Organic Theater Company in 1977 at the instigation of ensemble member Joe Mantegna (now star of TV’s Criminal Minds)—focuses on a cadre of Chicago Cubs fans inhabiting the cheap seats at Wrigley Field during a game between the Cubs and the Saint Louis Cardinals. Responding to the unseen action on the ballfield below, a motley crew of day-game regulars cheer the home team, heckle the opposition, and challenge each other to increasingly high-stakes bets....

He had Jedi robes and a Force FX lightsaber, and he wanted to be cremated with both of those,” laughs Vanessa Walilko as she recalls her late boyfriend, artist Ed Siemienkowicz. “If he could have been on a funeral pyre, that’s what he would have done.” “But the artist community in Chicago is incredibly generous,” says Walilko. “They rallied around him and did a whole bunch of fund-raisers for him to cover the medical expenses....

Since the Pitchfork Music Festival’s launch in 2006, its organizers have ensured that approximately a quarter of the lineup consists of artists from outside the U.S. This year is no exception, with nine international acts out of 41, including four of the top-billed performers: Robyn, Charli XCX, Belle & Sebastian, and Stereolab. (London singer-songwriter Tirzah canceled at the last minute.) Along with headliners from abroad, the fest is packed with lesser-known bands from around the world who are just as worthy of fans’ attention and time....

Chicago Athletic Association The Robey Finalists: Hotel Essex Chicago, The Guesthouse Hotel

Seven-member South Korean boy band BTS were already fairly successful when they nonchalantly rapped about having an uncountable amount of trophies in the 2017 Steve Aoki remix of “Mic Drop.” Two years later, that boast feels quaint. Their success is no longer measured in mere award-show wins; they’re shattering records with nearly every move. Their single “Boy With Luv” racked up 76 million views in 24 hours, and just ten hours later became the video to most quickly reach 100 million....

Break ups suck! Do you have a break up playlist, TV show, book or any other break up ritual you practice during a heartbreak? Tag us with the #BreakupRituals hashtag for a chance to be published in our special Feb. 13 issue! #TindeRinPrint katelyn harper @kharpersays Breakups indeed suck but good jams can help ease your pain. After mine, I created “but first, forgiveness,” a playlist to help myself move on and to remember hate doesn’t get you very far....

Q: I’m a very sex-positive girl and I finally convinced my boyfriend to open up about his fetishes. I could tell he was ashamed and torn about sharing them with me, but I’ve been with my fair share of guys and surfed the net for years, and I was convinced nothing would shock me. Well, it turns out he’s into soft vore. I’m not gonna lie, I was a bit put off, but of course I didn’t tell him....

University of Illinois at Chicago 

Robert Morris University’s League of Legends team rmueagles.com, @RMUeSports Some folks snickered when Robert Morris University announced the nation’s first athletic scholarship program for a PC game called League of Legends. But by breaking college athletics’ “virtual barrier,” the school is merely keeping up with times in which competitive gaming has come of age. As of last year, League of Legends claimed 27 million active daily players around the world—far more than the 1....

Presidio is a new Bucktown cocktail barstaurant that’s supposed to remind you of San Francisco—kind of like the way Monti’s is supposed to place diners in a Philadelphia state of mind. Well, not really. Monti’s has cheesesteaks. But at Presidio there’s no sourdough or cioppino, no green goddess dressing, no hangtown fry, no Rice-A-Roni. There are a few nice, arty shots of the Golden Gate Bridge on the walls, and some classic cocktails that were first created in the City by the Bay....

Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, who died in 2016 at age 76, often employed tricky or complicated methods to arrive at results that appeared simple. For most of the conversations in Taste of Cherry (1997), he interviewed the participants separately, then edited their responses together to create the illusion of free-flowing dialogue. For his experimental feature Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003), he digitally composited multiple shots to create the illusion of individual, unbroken takes....

Sun-Times Print Collection In 1990, David Biro murdered Nancy and Richard Langert (and their unborn child) in their home in WInnetka. “Ken” was tried as an adult for a double homicide committed in Pennsylvania when he was 15 years old; he was convicted and sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without parole. Letters to a Lifer is a recent book by Cindy Sanford that tells Ken’s story. The author, coming from a police family, surprised herself by getting to know Ken in prison and questioning the need to punish him forever....