
Gun Crazy is obviously his foremost masterwork—Dave Kehr eloquently called it "One of the most distinguished works of art to emerge from the B movie swamp"—but his filmography features many exuberant and highly personal films. You can catch my five favorite after the jump.
Delmark Records, America's oldest jazz and blues independent record label, celebrates its 60th anniversary at the Old Town School of Folk Music's Szold Hall with a show headlined by Big Time Sarah and the BTS Express.
Tonight is the last chance to catch the Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre's performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Aspects of Love, directed by Fred Anzevino. To hear a Tony Award-nominated score, it doesn't get much more intimate than the 60-seat No Exit Cafe.
Green Festival, the "nation's premier sustainability event," returns to Navy Pier. There will be workshops and keynote speakers and a vegan food court. Don't kid yourself though, the reason you'll go is the the organic beer and wine garden.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest style seen in Chicago.


Marcus Samuelsson went from being an Ethiopian orphan to the youngest chef ever to receive a three-star restaurant review in The New York Times. He will be in Merchandise Mart reading from his renowned new memoir and serving cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.
Chicago rapper Psalm One hosts Rap Karaoke at Jerry's. Yes, "rap karaoke." No, you're not the first person to think of doing Biz Markie.
For your end-of-the-week injection of transcendentalism, hear WBEZ's Jerry McConnell moderate a discussion at the Symphony Center about the musical influence of earth's rivers. Yo-Yo Ma contributes and performs.
For more on these events and others, check out the Reader's daily Agenda page.
"To get ahead in that culture," Samuelsson writes, "you have to completely give yourself up to the place. Your time, your ego, your relationships, your social life, they are all sacrificed." The best thing a young chef can do is to remain invisible.
Until, of course, he's ready to step into the spotlight. When he was 23, Samuelsson took over as the chef at Aquavit, a Swedish restaurant in New York. Less than six months later, Ruth Reichl, then the restaurant critic at the New York Times, awarded it three stars. Ten years later, in 2003, Samuelsson won a James Beard Award for best chef in New York City. Then he won Iron Chef. Then he was selected to cook President Obama's first state dinner. Then he opened Red Rooster, his signature restaurant in Harlem. Now he's the sort of celebrity chef people recognize on the street.
Earlier this month, Yes, Chef won Samuelsson his second Beard award, this one for writing and literature. It could be argued that anybody with a life story like Samuelsson's could write a kick-ass memoir. But give the guy some credit for doing more than just connecting the dots.
Last week I got an advance copy of the label's upcoming comp Country Soul Sisters Vol. 2, which as you can probably guess is their second collection of country music by female artists who dipped into the 60s and 70s zone where country and soul music overlapped. (See also: last year's Country Funk: 1969-1975 comp on Light in the Attic.) The songs—from performers like Wanda Jackson, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt, as well as some lesser-known names—alternate between torchy and breezy, and should sound great as the accompaniment to summertime back-porch beer-drinking sessions. It doesn't come out until June 25, but you can get a feel for it now with the opening track, "The Little Town Square," by Jeannie C. Riley, who's best known for singing "Harper Valley P.T.A." Stream it after the jump.