Q: I am a 24-year-old straight guy who recently broke up with my girlfriend of more than four years. One of the reasons we broke up was a general lack of sexual compatibility. She had a particular aversion to oral sex—both giving and receiving. I didn’t get a blow job the whole time we were together. Which brings me to why I am writing: One of my closest friends, “Sam,” is a gay guy....
Chicago feminist punk two-piece the Ovens debuted a decade ago with a charming, rowdy self-titled album that put heteronormativity in its crosshairs. In 2012 they released a second full-length (Settings) and an EP (Try), but since then they’ve been fairly quiet—probably because guitarist-vocalist Heather now lives in Brooklyn, while drummer-vocalist LB remains in Chicago. This summer the Ovens began working on their first EP in eight years, Distance, even though the pandemic interfered with their ability to meet in person....
He garnished the cocktail with a mini Chicago-style dog: a cocktail wiener on a tiny poppy-seed bun with all the fixin’s—including celery salt, of course. And because hot dogs are best consumed at the ballpark, he named it “Hey Ernie, Let’s Drink Two,” a boozy takeoff of Mr. Cub’s catchphrase, “Let’s play two.”
Chloe Riley One of multiple Rahm Emanuel campaign signs outside Captain’s Hard Time Dining, a south-side soul food restaurant It’s the Friday before election day in Chatham—a south-side neighborhood that draws crowds for the summertime Bud Billiken parade but is plagued by above-average levels of unemployment and crime. Outside the neighborhood’s early-voting polling place, a red union sign reads “Fire Rahm,” a crown perched atop the R in “Rahm.” As early voters file out, several stop to talk about their choice....
With designer Angela McIlvain’s six-foot-long stuffed cow dangling from a meat hook at center stage for almost the duration of the show, how bad could this adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle from Cloudgate Theatre possibly be? Stupefyingly bad, unfortunately, a dumpster fire on stilts. Worst of all, it knows it. Less a play within a play than a failed experiment complete with apology, Kristin Idaszak’s 90-minute offering attempts to combine a dramatic rendition of “tech week” for a new staged version of the novel, the hopeless unraveling of that production as a shocking scene goes off the rails during rehearsal, and the otiose family slide show that the play’s try-hard Writer (Ellenor Riley-Condit) evidently threw together for opening night in lieu of her crapped-out play....
The new Elastic Arts space @elasticarts Last summer the Elastic Arts Foundation suffered many stifling nights thanks to windows that didn’t open and a failed HVAC system that left its space with no air-conditioning. In November the 13-year-old nonprofit pulled the plug on its lease at 2830 N. Milwaukee, its home since 2006, and in March it reopened around the corner at 3429 W. Diversey—with 240 percent more legal audience capacity and almost 70 percent more floor space....
Bob Koester, who died May 12 at age 88, knew what he liked—and what you should like too. For nearly 70 years, he owned Chicago’s Jazz Record Mart (and the Delmark label), and it was completely in character for him to snatch an album from the hands of an earnest young shopper. Koester didn’t care. His approach to retail was idiosyncratic, to say the least—the opposite of Marshall Field’s dictum that the customer is always right....
Ellen Nolan Olivia Chaney In recent years the music of British baroque composer Henry Purcell, who churned out his work during a relatively short period in the late-17th century, has been remade by a handful of savvy modern singers who recognize its importance in the development of British folk music. Back when Purcell was active the lines between high and low culture weren’t so rigid (there was genuine overlap), so it makes sense that artists like Susanna Wallumrød and Tift Merritt, the latter working with the classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein, have delivered richly modern adaptations of some of Purcell’s compositions....
Q: Married from 28 to 36, single the last three years, and celibate most of the last couple years. The last two years of my marriage were sexless, and I saw professionals until I was priced out. I could probably earn twice what I’m making now if I moved away, but my current job gives me the flexibility to spend afternoons with my young kids. Last year, I had a brief relationship (that included the best sex of my life), but I ended it because I needed more me time....
We can’t know how many decades it will take for humanity to heal from the physical and psychological damage of the COVID-19 pandemic, but musicians are already honoring in song the dignity of the sick, suffering, and dead—and the bravery of their caregivers. The folks at Bellissima Opera, an incubator run by Chicago nonprofit Working in Concert, were so moved by the plight of health-care workers that they created the hour-long Zoom opera On Call: COVID-19....
Words by Aimee Levitt / Video by Chris Buddy In these videos, both artists offer guided tours of their studios and talk about their work and their process.
Visual art and multimedia forays, including—album covers, music videos, merch designs, stage productions—are a big part of Animal Collective’s distinct flavor, so it makes sense that for his new solo album, Cows on Hourglass Pond, core member Avey Tare (the pseudonym of David Michael Portner) would incorporate some extramusical creative flourishes. By the album’s release on March 22, he’d already released two contrasting videos, the audio-only single “Taken Boy,” and a short story in both text and audio forms—in the latter the words are enhanced with multiple effects including dripping slapback delay over sprawling, airy loop-based soundscapes....
The films of London-based contemporary artist Ben Rivers resemble elaborate works of science fiction. His solo show “Urth,” now on display at the Renaissance Society, is filled with imaginary worlds inhabited by shaken and isolated societies. Each piece, projected throughout three adjoining rooms in the gallery, is a chilling portent of a future devastated by climate change and miserable with human solitude. “I liked the idea of these different temperate regions and people attempting to live inside that, and be separate from the world,” Rivers said during the artist talk....
Grant Park Music Festival Thirsty Ears Festival Finalist: D-Composed
Joffrey Academy Gus Giordano Dance School Finalists: Glenwood Dance Studio, Joel Hall Dance Center
Monadnock Building Runner-Up: Water Tower Place
Staropolska Restaurant Podhalanka Polska Finalist: Smak-Tak
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.
In November 1893, the journalist Kate Field asked what should be done with the buildings of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the great majority of which were built as temporary structures. “Apply the torch and let it go down in a day,” was one reply. Field felt a twinge of sadness for the millions who hadn’t had the chance to see with their own eyes “the greatest achievement of the nineteenth century....
