Jeanne Gang 

Sleeping Village SX Sky Bar Finalist: Play Kitchen & Cocktails

The most incisive—or dare I say best—analysis I’ve heard of contemporary culture’s preoccupation with getting the best of anything and everything comes from Aziz Ansari: “We always want the best. Whatever we’re doing, we want to do the best, funnest thing. Whatever we’re buying, we want the best,” the comedian says in his latest stand-up special, Live at Madison Square Garden. “The other day I had to get a toothbrush, and before even thinking about it, I googled ‘best toothbrush....

Party Noire Small World Collective Finalist: Kristen Kaza

Self-loathing men occupy the center of Conor McPherson’s world—and he gives them plenty to hate about themselves. That’s particularly true for the unnamed narrator in McPherson’s 1997 solo play, in which a jaded and repulsive theater critic abandons his life in Dublin and falls in with a gang of vampires in suburban London. They bestow upon him the effortless charm he’s never had, and in return he uses his newfound power to ensnare young victims for his hosts....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here.

There’s a lot not to like about the art market, including its long-standing propensity for making collectors rich while leaving “starving artists” in the financial dust. John “Jay” Jordan II is a founder of the Jordan Company, a private equity firm with offices in Chicago and New York, and of Jordan Industries, a Deerfield-based holding company. A philanthropist, he has signed Warren Buffett’s “Giving Pledge,” promising at least 50 percent of his fortune to charitable causes, and has already donated $150 million to his alma mater, Notre Dame....

Alison Chesley is a cellist and composer who makes music under the name Helen Money. She released her latest album, Atomic (the follow-up to 2016’s Become Zero), just as Chicago went into lockdown in March 2020. She plays a three-night residency at the Empty Bottle from June 17 through 19. Atomic by Helen Money I’m really excited for these shows at the Empty Bottle, because I get to play with three of my favorite musicians: Sam Wagster, who I’ve known a long time and is going to be playing pedal steel; Nora Barton, who is also a cellist; and Billie Howard, who’s on piano and violin....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 4/28: Three women fight back against sexual harassment—1970s style—in 9 to 5 the Musical. The Reader‘s Marissa Oberlander was a fan, writing, “The three women eventually band together with a wacky plan to take control of their destinies, and the journey is an alchemic mix of cockeyed optimism, admirable grit, and empowering song-and-dance numbers....

Smokes on Clark Roots Smoke & Vapor Shop Finalists: Up Down Cigar, Elevated Minds

Chicagoans is a first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. This week’s Chicagoan is Jim Evans, 76, the metal detectorist. Fall is a prime season, because people will be raking leaves, throwing leaves. Winter, when there’s snow, that becomes busy. Guys wiping snow off their car, their fingers shrink, they lose their rings. And then in the summertime, people go to the beach and lose their rings....

Featuring excerpts of raw footage from Blues in the Big House archived at the website Media Burn, and photographs from the Sun-Times archive, this multimedia narrative offers an alternative look into Cook County Jail, one that offers momentary glimpses of leisure and happier feelings.

The age of Zoom has created a split-screen metaphor for the changes in our private and public lives. We’re separated physically, but the world is invited into our personal spaces in a way that never happened in Cube Farmlandia. For theater pieces created at a distance and for online consumption, the dichotomy feels even more keen. It concludes with Marguerite Mariama, a longtime artist and activist who notes that her political organizing began as a student protesting the “Willis Wagons”—portable classrooms that maintained de facto segregation in Chicago schools....

On March 4, 1968, then-FBI director J. Edgar Hoover described in a memo his department’s renewed focus on hindering the efforts of various black-led political organizations. Hoover wrote how he feared the rise of a black “messiah” who “could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement.” Tellingly, the memo was sent exactly one month before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., whom Hoover describes as “a very real contender for the position....

ARTIST: Bill Connors SHOW: Martin Rev with Divine Enfant, Wolf Eyes, Mystic Ruler with Bentley Anderson, and DJ Eye Vybe at Empty Bottle on Fri 6/1 MORE INFO: instagram.com/billconnors

When I stepped off the Loyola el station in the summer of 1992, it was oh so very hot. I got my map out and explained my predicament. She laid out the map on the only surface in the store that appeared to be clear of any printed material and deftly drew a series of directional arrows that would lead me to the hostel. She also informed me that there was no better food than Chicago diner food and drew a star around Standee’s on Granville Avenue and said, “It’s open all the time....

Q: I’m a 27-year-old male adult baby/diaper lover (AB/DL). I’ve been in the closet about my fetish basically since puberty. As a consequence, I never dated or became romantically involved. I thought if I buried my kink with enough shame, it would go away and I would somehow turn normal. It obviously didn’t work, and for the past year, I’ve been trying to find healthy ways to integrate this into my life....

City Winery Reunion Chicago Finalist: I/O Godfrey