Posts

Megan Kirby Gene Ha Finalist: Keith J. Taylor

Having just built themselves a stately home, the folks at Writers Theatre are christening it with a play set in one. Tom Stoppard’s 1993 Arcadia takes place in a study at Sidley Park, an English estate that’s housed members, guests, and servants of the Coverly clan for at least 200 years. Michael Halberstam’s staging of Arcadia, meanwhile, unfolds at the new Writers Theater complex in downtown Glencoe, designed on a multimillion-dollar budget by Jeanne Gang’s Studio Gang Architects....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.

For decades, percussionist Hamid Drake and reedist Ken Vandermark have sustained a partnership founded upon a deep engagement with the history of free jazz. Both within and outside the DKV Trio, their long-running ensemble with bassist Kent Kessler, their improvisations often arise from rhythmic foundations. But they’re also restless explorers, and on Open Border a pair of Italian musicians helps them move into new territory. Neither Gianni Trovalusci nor Luigi Ceccarelli has much background in jazz....

When wolves form a pack, they form bonds that last a lifetime. A similar feeling of familiarity and connection suffuses the duo project of Will Oldham (aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy) and Matt Sweeney. Each musician is an indisputable titan in his field: Sweeney made his name as a guitarist for 80s cult favorites Skunk and math-rock stalwarts Chavez, while Oldham has endured as one of folk’s most disarmingly frank songwriters. In 2005, they joined forces for Superwolf, a collaborative album intended to mirror the working alliance between Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, and on the new Superwolves, they continue to meld lovely, stripped-down arrangements and forthright lyrics....

Austin band Glassing have a pretty deep Chicago connection: drummer Jason Camacho spent years here as a major part of our underground harsh-noise and experimental-rock scenes. After arriving from Texas nearly a decade ago, he and a few other Lone Star State transplants opened Logan Square DIY venue the Mopery—a lawless, windowless warehouse whose inhabitants lived in tents and hosted legendary shows by bands as varied as Screaming Females, Bloodyminded, and Liturgy....

Julia Thiel Inspired by ponche, the traditional Mexican Christmas punch, the great minds at 5 Rabbit have come up with a monster of a barleywine (11.5 percent alcohol), brewed with muscat and Concord grapes, apple juice, orange peel, Mexican cinnamon, cassia buds, date syrup, and cloves. Ponche was released just before Christmas, but I picked up a bottle a couple of weeks ago at Trader Joe’s, and it still appears to be widely available....

Sparrow for Everyone sparrowforeveryone.com In recent years a beauty essential has been added to the standard cosmetics arsenal: so-called “miracle oil,” a cocktail of essential oils applied to soothe skin. I thought I’d found the right one, which cost more than three digits and was made by a high-end national chain. But I was wrong: the perfect blend was being produced and sold locally at Logan Square’s Sparrow Salon. Developed by co-owner Susan Flaga, who tired of googling the complicated ingredients used in other products, Sparrow for Everyone ($80 for a 50-milliliter bottle) is a blend of 12 healing plant extracts whose names need no further explanation—like almond, hazelnut, and jasmine, to name a few....

This week’s featured gig poster was created for an online celebration of International Women’s Day sponsored by several organizations, including two from Chicago: music presenter HotHouse and publisher Haymarket Books. ¡Activista!: An International Women’s Day Celebration Framing Solidarity Through Culture premiered on March 7 and features live and prerecorded music and readings from poet Brandy Nālani McDougall, poet and musician Lyla June, Oaxacan activist Irma Pineda, Colectivo de Mujeres Kiñewen (a group of women musicians and artists from Latin America and Europe), Guinean musician Natu Camara, Chicago’s own Angel Bat Dawid, Jordanian singer Farah Siraj, and Korean composer Yu Kyung-Hwa....

Designers Pauline Olesky (set), Claire Sangster (lights), and Ariel Zetina (sound) have transformed the Center on Halsted’s cozy Hoover-Leppen Theatre into a dance club where pumping music and flashing lights provide a rousing and immersive party atmosphere. “In this ballroom, we give you the chance to be the things the world tells you not to be,” declares the show’s charismatic emcee, self-described “Filipino trans goddess” Angelíca Grace. For 75 intermissionless minutes, the performers offer spoken and sung testimony about their own lives and the lives of those who came before them....

Harry Houdini is sitting cross-legged playing a flute at the entrance to the Tunisian Village at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair. With his curly hair, it takes just a little dark makeup and a white, robelike wrap to transform the 19-year-old, who was born to Jewish parents in Budapest, into a Hindu fakir attracting visitors to the exhibit. When he’s not performing in costume, Houdini wanders the Midway Plaisance, swallowing and regurgitating sewing thread and needles to amazed audiences for tips....

Jimmy Katz Ornette Coleman Like many of us, I woke up to the sad news that saxophonist, composer, and visionary Ornette Coleman had died at the age of 85 from cardiac arrest. By this point in the day proper obituaries have been circulating widely and I feel no need to rehash the details of his life here. Apart from sharing opinions, I try to keep myself out of my music writing, but without Coleman there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be writing about music at all: I’m hardly alone in saying that his music and thinking changed my life....

On January 5—one of the coldest days of the winter—mayoral candidate Willie Wilson showed up at the Jefferson Park el stop to shake hands with the early-morning commuters. That’s right: the ultimate outsider almost went to work for the ultimate insider. It just goes to show you there’s nothing more surreal than the stuff that happens all the time in Chicago politics. Over the last few years, he’s found his way on and off the payrolls of SEIU, the Cook County Board, and the suburban village of Bensenville....

Makaya McCraven Angel Bat Dawid Finalists: Joel Paterson, Mike Smith

For 2013’s Olive Juice, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Emily Reo made detailed, intimate songs with what sounds like a small symphony of toy instruments powered by nine-volt batteries. She went even bigger with her third album, the new Only You Can See It (Carpark): though Reo has retained her home-recorded approach, she’s fleshed out a full-band sound while playing almost every note herself. The percussion thunders louder; heavy, distorted guitar steps into the foreground; and her glimmering voice is multitracked in pristine layers worthy of radio pop....

Heritage Auctions/Wikimedia Commons At least Lincoln was enjoying some humorous theater. Some things we read and remember, others we read and forget, and once in a while something comes along it feels almost improper to know. A good example is the name of the play Abraham Lincoln was watching at Ford’s Theatre the night of April 14, 1865, when he was assassinated. It was something called Our American Cousin. So what?...

There’s a bit of a nod-nod, wink-wink irony in the title of Kenneth Branagh’s latest exploration of the genius of William Shakespeare. All Is True refers to the alternate title of Henry VIII, the Bard’s penultimate play, which was being staged in 1613 at London’s Globe Theatre when the playhouse caught fire and burned down mid-performance. That fire is a documented fact, one of the relatively few available about the historic figure who may be the most celebrated poet and playwright of all time, but yet left precious little evidence from which later generations could reconstruct his personal history....

Since the 90s, Chicago-based musician Kevin Drumm has released countless experimental soundscapes that include oddball prepared guitar, minimal ambience, and earth-shaking drones; the first time I saw him perform was when he opened for Sunn O))) and Boris at Logan Square Auditorium in 2006, and his brief synth set tested the PA’s low end just as much as either of the famously loud headlining bands. But while Drumm constantly puts out new recordings, his live performances are few and far between—in fact, tonight will be his first local show since 2017....

Onetime Chicagoan Angel Olsen showed signs of vast talent years ago, but the artistic growth, charisma, and self-possession she projected during her powerful set at this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival proved she’s the real deal. It’s illuminating to consider her development in the context of November’s Phases (Jagjaguwar), a collection of rarities and previously unreleased material from 2012 to 2016. Its songs may not appear on her official albums, but most artists would kill to produce anything as good as her outtakes....

“I’ve always considered myself a movie guy and a collector,” says Brian Chankin, owner and operator of Odd Obsession, in what may be the understatement of the year. Not only was Chankin able to open the out-there video rental store in Bucktown with his own DVD and VHS collection a dozen years ago, but this summer, with help from his sister Heidi Anne Chankin, he started up Deadly Prey Gallery (1433 W....