The Blog
Peter Margasak
Post No Bills Podcast #5
The latest episode features music from Vic Chesnutt, Peter Evans, Radian, Pit Er Pat, and many more.
Politics / Clout City / News Great Reformers Think Alike
Posted by Mick Dumke on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 12:22 PM
Thanks to Isaac Carothers, citizens are losing faith in city government.
"I think after the Carothers issue, people are losing confidence in government," Mayor Daley said yesterday, according to the Tribune. "It broke the camel's back."
The camel was apparently in fine health before Carothers pleaded guilty to bribery and tax evasion last week, becoming the latest local elected official to run afoul of the feds.
The camel wasn't at all affected by Daley's complete co-opting of the City Council, his use of patronage workers to bully opponents and win elections, the Duff scandal, the Hired Truck scandal, the illegal hiring scandal, his support for the installation of Todd Stroger as county board president, the decline of city services, the festering murder problem, the deterioration of the CTA, the deterioration of the city parks, the privatization of public space, the privatization of the public schools, the sale of the parking meters, or the use of taxpayer money to subsidize profitable corporations while the rest of us are trying to pay our property taxes or rent.
Chicagoland / Music / Free Shit Cheap Classical: Sibelius 5 and Free Ensemble Shows
Posted by Whet Moser on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:43 AM
One of the best deals in town are tickets to the Civic Orchestra performances at Orchestra Hall - monthly free performances (well, $1.00 seat fee) featuring guest artists and conductors. The next one, on March 8, features young Leo McFall, who served as Bernard Haitink's assistant, conducting Sibelius's 5th Symphony; tickets are still available, if you need a super-cheap Valentine's Day present. If you want more background on Sibelius, the great Alex Ross's essay "Apparition In the Woods: Rescuing Sibelius from silence" is a good start:
Joy is not the same thing as simplicity. The Fifth begins and ends in crystalline major-key tonality, but it is a staggeringly unconventional work. The schemata of sonata form dissolve before the listener’s ears; in place of a methodical development of well-defined themes, there is a gradual, incremental evolution of material through trancelike repetitions. The musicologist James Hepokoski, in a monograph on the symphony, calls it “rotational form”; the principal ideas of the work come around again and again, though each time they are transformed in ways both small and large. The themes really assume their true shape only at the end of the rotation—what Hepokoski calls the “telos,” the epiphanic goal. Music becomes a search for meaning within an open-ended structure—an analogue to the spiritual life.
If $1.00 is too rich for your blood, the Civic Orchestra also plays regular completely free ensemble gigs throughout the city, usually on a schedule of two or three different ensembles every week or two; check the CSO calendar for details. The woodwind ensemble plays the National Museum of Mexican Art next Friday; the brass ensemble plays Gage Park the same day.
Film / Free Shit The Will to Survive
Posted by Ed M. Koziarski on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Working on Walmart commercials in Savannah, Chicago advertising executives Al Hawkins and Kathleen M. Humphries became intrigued with the Gullah/Geechee people who live on several islands on the south Atlantic coast, retaining the closest linguistic and cultural ties to Africa found in the U.S.
Hawkins and Humphries spotlight Sapelo Island, off the coast of Georgia, site of the most intact Gullah/Geechee culture, in their documentary The Will to Survive: The Story of the Gullah/Geechee Nation.
It screens for free, Tuesday 2/9 at Noon at Kennedy King College.
Bicycling / Bad News From the Past Wheel of Misfortune
Posted by Cliff Doerksen on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 9:30 AM
Chicagoland / Visual Art Morning Art: Tacita Dean
Posted by Julia Thiel on Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 8:40 AM
Ink Well
Your City Council Now more than ever, it's important to follow what our 50 aldermen are up to. Are our representatives up to the task of telling the mayor "no" once in a while, or, better yet, of coming up with an alternative vision of Chicago government? Read our guide and decide for yourself what their prospects are.
Neighborhood Guides
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RT @mmcottrell: My take on the Trib's article on homeless panhandler Clarence Ervin: http://bit.ly/dlkBXM Jail isn't always the answer.
12:51 pm on Tuesday, February 9 retweet -
RT @ReaderFreeShit: RT @BrokeHipster: If you were thinking about going to the Auto Show, here's free tickets - http://bit.ly/doFpMJ
12:34 pm on Tuesday, February 9 retweet -
RT @BrokeHipster: If you were thinking about going to the Auto Show, here's free tickets - www.brokehipster.com/?e=1479 http://bit.ly/doFpMJ
12:25 pm on Tuesday, February 9 retweet -
RT @whet just got my tix RT: @Chicago_Reader: Cheap classical: Sibelius 5 at Symphony Center for $1 a seat http... http://schmap.it/vtacZq?a
12:21 pm on Tuesday, February 9 retweet -
RT @BrokeHipster If you were thinking about going to the Auto Show, here's free tickets - www.brokehipster.com/?e=1479 http://bit.ly/doFpMJ
12:13 pm on Tuesday, February 9 retweet
Movies To See Today
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Fish Tank
British filmmaker Andrea Arnold made her feature debut with Red Road (2006), an eerie, low-budget suspense story about a woman stalking, seducing, and
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Music Box
![[Recommended]](/images/icons/features-icon_recommended.gif){kind=icon}
![[New]](/images/icons/features-icon_new.gif){kind=icon}
Beeswax
The talented indie director Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Apprecation) delivers another of his wry, socially observant romantic comedies, focusing this time
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Gene Siskel Film Center
The Young Victoria
Smartly scripted by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), this historical romance chronicles the early reign of Queen Victoria, played with admirable intelligence and feeling
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Kerasotes Theatres Glen 10, Landmark's Century Centre, Niles ShowPlace 12, Norridge, Renaissance Place and Wilmette Theatre
» More Critics' Choices and other Recommended Movies
Election Follies Age-old feuds, nepotism, logrolling, and Moonies—it must be primary season in Chicago.
What's at Stake in the Senate Not only could a Democrat help push Obama's agenda - he or she could make the chamber a little more black, female, gay, or righteous.
Cook County Needs Cojones Which Dem candidate for county board president is most likely to take on Mayor Daley?
Local Release Roundup Pit Er Pat brings in a sampler, Rockie Fresh drops his first mix tape, Killer Moon hands out a heavy demo, and more
Post No Bills Podcast #5 The latest episode features music from Vic Chesnutt, Peter Evans, Radian, Pit Er Pat, and many more.
The List: February 4-10, 2010 Critic's Choices and other notable concerts: Mose Allison, Explode Into Colors, Dana Hall, Seth Troxler, Polysics, and other notable shows
Haute Hotel Cuisine Even without Charlie Trotter, the Elysian Hotel opens two terrific new restaurants. Plus: the return of Sepia's Kendal Duque and eight more openings
Transformations John Manion gooses West Town's Branch 27, Andy Motto makes Quince a destination, and Sun Wah Bar-B-Que and Salam expand. Plus: other West Town dining options.
What's New Sprout's Top Chef makeover, masterful Neapolitan pizza, and the neighborhood restaurant every neighborhood deserves
Mumblecore and Something More Beeswax transcends the insular genre its filmmaker accidentally invented.
A Dream Nearly Destroyed, a Town Divided The latest basketball doc from the director of Hoop Dreams delves into the high school trials of NBA star Allen Iverson
Art for Rock's Sake Two new documentaries about poster artists
Human in Hard Times Clifford Odets’s Depression classic gets a gripping treatment
Like a Foreign Country Tarell Alvin McCraney’s jolting close-up of life on the gulf coast
Alcyone Festival Halcyon Theatre explores the works of pioneering experimental playwright Maria Irene Fornes.
Western Exhibitions Two shows, "Suitable Video" and "The Power of Selection," run at the West Loop gallery.
The Chicken or the Bomb Which came first: presidential powermongering or its ultimate rationale?
Closer Than Matewan Jeff Biggers explores the devastation coal has wrought on southern Illinois—and his own family.
Anke Loh: Prints of Dresses on Dresses Chicago-based designer Anke Loh returns to the world of commercial fashion with her spring/summer collection.
Fewer Shoes on the North Side Times are tough for shoe stores too.
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A city guide for newbies and lifers alike
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Field & Street: A selection from our reporting on the natural world
Ukrainian Village/East Village
Fourth in a series of special issues focusing on Chicago neighborhoods.
