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Ghostly grief
In January of 2020, Black Button Eyes Productions presented the Chicago premiere of Duncan Sheik and Kyle Jarrow’s quirky musical ghost story Whisper House, about an 11-year-old boy living in a...
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Best of Chicago Enhanced Listings
The Chicago Reader’s annual Best of Chicago is generated entirely by nominations from the community, and we’re thrilled to reveal the ballot on Jan. 12, 2021. Your fans love you! Enhanced Listings Two...
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Emily Blue makes 80s pop for every era on The Afterlove
I won’t pretend it’s possible to rank pop music from different decades in a defensible way, but Emily Blue’s new self-released third album, The Afterlove, makes a great case for the whimsy and...
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A needle in a haystack
Who knew finding all the materials to make one cross-stitch pattern for a kid’s room would be so hard? Lauren Venell, 41, learned it the hard way—she almost gave up on the project given how difficult...
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Best of Chicago 2021: Final voting begins Wednesday
Thank you to everyone who made nominations for the Best of Chicago 2021. We are tabulating and will reveal the finalists when we publish the final multiple choice Best of Chicago voting ballot on...
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Clementine Wink drops the most surreal Hen of the Woods album yet
Clementine Wink is probably best known to Gossip Wolf readers as the bassist for local industrial trio Civic Center, and for good reason—her melodic bass lines often provide the driving heartbeat of...
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Lazy Bill Lucas came into his own as a bandleader in his last decade
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...
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Alders fault rules committee chair for missed deadlines on civilian oversight...
On Monday, the City Council’s rules committee opened applications for the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, more than a month after the December 1 deadline to do so. The...
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On the new W, Boris find serene sounds amid their continuous sonic explorations
As Boris continue to steer in and out of avant-rock territory, the 30-year-old Japanese band increasingly splinter genre ideas and expectations fans might foist upon them. The trio have been prolific...
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MAGA science
Having spent the better part of the last week closely following the showdown between CPS and its teachers, I’ve concluded there’s no way Mayor Lightfoot truly believes the positions she’s been taking....
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Best of Chicago 2021 campaign tools
Get involved… Do you, your local business, or other local favorite deserve to be honored as the Best of Chicago? Find the category or categories where you or your favorites have been nominated: Vote —...
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Before American slasher movies, there was giallo
Are you searching for a respite from the Chicago cold this winter? Look no further. This January, Cinematic Void, the Los Angeles cult film series based at the American Cinematheque, has expanded its...
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A new, deadly COVID outbreak in an Illinois prison
This article was co-published with the Prison Journalism Project. Just as the coronavirus is spreading again throughout the country, people at Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois have been...
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Stateville prison water testing did not follow federal regulations
An independent water-quality assessment conducted in November 2021 at one of Illinois’s largest prisons did not follow federal regulations despite concerns over high levels of contamination. Last...
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The 355
The 355 is the epitome of a popcorn movie. The cast alone, which includes Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, and Bingbing Fan, is enough to hook an audience. Add to that...
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France
Léa Seydoux gives a rousing performance in this undecipherable treatise on media and celebrity by French writer-director (and unapologetic provocateur) Bruno Dumont, whose films generally evade easy...
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Old Strangers
In Old Strangers, sometimes friends from the past are best left there. Longtime pals Michael (Ted Evans), Sarah (Madeleine Humphries), and Danny (Colton Eschief Mastro) escape their LA coronavirus...
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Krautrock legend Michael Rother and electronic explorer Vittoria Maccabruni...
I was a wee lad with little journalism experience in 1998, when I interviewed German guitar god Michael Rother, who’d cofounded pioneering experimental rock outfits Neu! and Harmonia in the 70s. Not...
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Violist Jessica Pavone brings good vibrations to the new When No One Around...
About a decade ago, back trouble forced Jessica Pavone to stop playing viola for nearly two years. Since her return, the impact of music upon the health and well-being of both performers and listeners...
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Here’s season two of Monday Night Foodball
Monday Night Foodball has been on a holiday hiatus for more than a month, and I’m soooooo bored. I can’t spend another Monday night pacing the empty, echoing void of the Kedzie Inn, balancing...
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