Chicago Reader

This week's Chicagoan: Rosita Arvigo, master herbalist

Anne Ford — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

This week's Chicagoan is Rosita Arvigo, a master herbalist. by Anne Ford A first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. "I left Chicago during the Vietnam War and went to Mexico for seven years.…

Brindille is a refuge from frightening surroundings

Mike Sula — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Brindille: A refuge from frightening culinary surroundings by Mike Sula In the evening, if you stand on certain corners in River North and take in the spectacle unfolding around you, you have to resign yourself to an inevitable, unhappy conclusion: "This is why the French hate us." It's our willingness to accept and support the nightlife equivalent of the zombie apocalypse.…

Fin de siecle Chicago for dummies

Jerome Ludwig — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

A new edition of Chicago by Day and Night is a guidebook to fin de siecle Chicago. by Jerome Ludwig "Chicago has been called, in its time, the wickedest city in the world, and somehow or other (in exactly what manner it matters not) the impression has gone abroad that it is really a very wicked place indeed." And yet: "It is possible for a perfectly moral person, one used to all the refinement and peace of the most law-abiding and self-respecting of communities, to spend any length of time in Chicago without being contaminated by the evil that may be found easily enough if sought.…

Abelardo Morell's light in the darkness

Aimee Levitt — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

The Art Institute opens a retrospective of work by Abelardo Morell, known for his camera obscura images. by Aimee Levitt The basic contract of photography is that a viewer will agree to see only the three-dimensional image on a sheet of photo paper, not the two-dimensional piece of paper itself. Abelardo Morell's camera obscura photos, though, are about both the images and the surfaces.…

Zoom in: Avondale

Gwynedd Stuart — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Hector Alvarenga transformed his Avondale home into an art installation of mostly discarded junk. by Gwynedd Stuart To Hector Alvarenga, nothing is garbage. Well, some things are probably garbage, but as a scrap collector and professional welder, he sees potential in other people's trash.…

Show Us Your . . . Roto-a-Matic

Aimee Levitt — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 -0500

Rotofugi showed us its Roto-a-Matic, which cranks out original works of plastic art. by Aimee Levitt Like many visitors to Chicago's museums and zoos, Kirby Kerr, co-owner of the Rotofugi Gallery in Lincoln Park, and Joe Somers, head honcho at the product development company Squibbles Ink, were enchanted by the Mold-a-Rama vending machines, which produce plastic models of kangaroos and coal cars and dinosaurs that are sometimes more fun to look at than the originals. Four years ago, the pair had the brilliant inspiration to buy a vintage Mold-a-Rama machine and fix it up to feature an ever-changing assortment of original molds created by their artist pals.…

Coast Modern charts a history of open spaces

Ben Sachs — Sat, 25 May 2013 09:00:00 -0500

Tonight at 7:30 PM Chicago Filmmakers kicks off a new ongoing series of documentaries about architecture and technology called REdesign. First up is Coast Modern, an hour-long piece about modernist architecture as it developed on the west coast of North America.…

Reader's Agenda Sat 5/25: The Randolph Street Market, the Belmont-Sheffield Music Festival, and drunk art pairings

Tosten Burks — Sat, 25 May 2013 06:00:00 -0500

Looking for something to do today? Agenda's got you covered:

The Randolph Street Market's summer season kicks off at Plumbers Hall, or at least the indoor-outdoor bazaar that Plumbers Hall becomes once 200 local merchants set up to sling jewelry, antiques, furniture, and whatever other eclectic gems surface in Chicago's finest street party.…

Your summer reading: The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

Aimee Levitt — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:21:00 -0500

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway is the kind of book that is meant to be read under the covers with a flashlight, or, in the pale grown-up substitution, staying up much later than you know is good for you just so you can find out how the current chapter ends, and then, before you know it, you're sucked into the next chapter and you have to find out how that ends, too, and you don't give a shit about how tired you'll be in the morning.

It's billed as a time-travel romance, which is probably accurate if you want to slot books into strict little categories, like widgets or something.…

How local rapper Young Giftz improved his already great tune "Nino"

Leor Galil — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:05:42 -0500

One of the best local rap tracks that dropped last year was "Nino," a tune that up-and-comer Young Giftz made with soul trap originator Tree; Giftz has an easygoing and playful flow that's a great match for Tree's grainy voice and wobbly, lean, and captivating production. It's a hell of a song, and I wasn't sure it could be improved upon until Giftz dropped a "Nino" remix yesterday—turns out all he had to do was make the song about twice as long and snag features from Save Money's Joey Purp, Kami de Chukwu, Dally Auston, Brain Fresco, and Caleb James.…

The uncanny choreography of World Order

Miles Raymer — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:35:12 -0500

In this week's In Rotation I wrote about my infatuation with Grimes's Tumblr, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as it went online she proved me right by posting some of the most thoroughly amazing music videos ever.

The band behind them is called World Order, and they're from Japan.…

The easy stylistic yin and yang of drummer Ches Smith

Peter Margasak — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

In this week's paper I previewed the upcoming performances by Marc Ribot's power trio Ceramic Dog at Pritzker Pavilion and Constellation; the rhythmic engine for that wonderfully flinty band is drummer Ches Smith, a guy who epitomizes the cross-fertilization of forward-looking jazz and outre rock music. He grew up with both, and he's conversant in both.…

Grub Street Chicago killed and other food news bites

Mike Sula — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:07:11 -0500

• New York based-food blog Grub Street shut down all of its regional satellites including Grub Street Chicago.

• The bourbon shortage is bad, says Buffalo Trace, via Chuck Cowdery.…

This show: Blank Realm tonight at the Burlington

Kevin Warwick — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:34:28 -0500

The newest album from Brisbane's Blank Realm, Go Easy (Fire), is no straightforward listen—a fact that actually doubles as one of its most distinct peculiarities and one of its most magnetic qualities. It teeters on bluesy skuzz-punk one moment, psych-infused indie pop another, and has a chaotic and raucous groove throughout that loosely ties together each of its eight songs.…

12 O'Clock Track: "John Carpenter" is the dark, dirty return of the Weeknd

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 24 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Last week the world finally got a preview of the highly anticipated official full-length from the Weeknd, aka Toronto's Abel Tesfaye. Tesfaye made a pretty gigantic impression on the hip-hop and R&B communities in 2011, when he dropped three stellar and highly acclaimed mixtapes on his website.…

Did you read about masturbation, Billy Joel, and Ronald McDonald?

Reader staff — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:25:00 -0500

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• Jane Mayer's look at billionaire David Koch's chilling effect on public television and Daily Kos's follow-up report? (The latter, btw, appears to get some of the basic facts wrong.)…

Derek Zoolander, Jacques Demy, Henry James, and the rest of this week's screenings

J.R. Jones — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:01:26 -0500

Landmark film, landmark building: Shirley Clarke's audacious Portrait of Jason, a cornerstone of LGBT filmmaking, screens next Wednesday at the Portage Theater, which was awarded landmark status earlier this month by the City Council. Jason is the subject of this week's long review, accompanied by our coverage of the Asian American Showcase at Gene Siskel Film Center.…

Chicago River, the symphony, and the book that inspired it

Deanna Isaacs — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:31:00 -0500

In case you missed school that day in fourth grade when the reversal of the Chicago River was explained and, like me, are a little fuzzy on the details, here's a cheat sheet, mostly gleaned from The Lost Panoramas: When Chicago Changed Its River and the Land Beyond, the big, historical photo book by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams, published in 2011 by CityFiles Press and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

• There used to be a "continental divide" ridge near the southwest suburb of Summit.…

Mayor Rahm's school board takes a big stand!

Ben Joravsky — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:37:00 -0500

At the risk of sounding naive, I was hoping that at least one of Mayor Emanuel's school board appointees might take a break from voting to close 50 schools and mention the $55 million the mayor wants to spend on his near-south-side hotel and basketball arena.

As you know, the board voted yesterday to close those schools on the grounds that the system's too broke to keep them open.…

Reader's Agenda Fri 5/24: Electric Daisy Carnival, Irish Fest, and Carol Horton

Drew Hunt — Fri, 24 May 2013 06:10:54 -0500

Looking for something to do today? Agenda's got you covered:

Dust off your glow sticks and plastic baby pacifier 'cause we've got ourselves a rave to hit up at the Electric Daisy Carnival, a three-day EDM extravaganza in Joliet (note: campsites are available for day-sleeping) that features David Guetta, Nadastrom, Tiesto, Empire of the Sun, and more.…

Tim Dog: Dead or alive?

Miles Raymer — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:12:05 -0500

Back in February rap geeks around the world mourned the passing of Tim Dog, a Bronx-based MC who caused a stir back in 1991 when he released "Fuck Compton," an inflammatory single that helped set off the East Coast/West Coast feud that would eventually result in Biggie and Tupac's murders. It was also hard as hell, which is one of the reasons why it's managed to stay in the hearts of rap fans who found the beef to be otherwise tragic and meaningless.…

During school-closing vote, Mayor Emanuel is heard but not seen

Mick Dumke — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:31:00 -0500

In the months before the Chicago Board of Education voted to close 50 schools next year, thousands of teachers, parents, and students pleaded for their schools to stay open during hearings and protests.

Journalists, meanwhile, tried to figure out if any of the shifting explanations for the plan were actually based in fact, since it was originally presented as a way to save money, then to improve school performance, then to cut the dropout rate.…

La Sacre du Printemps turns 100, the Butchershop Quartet celebrates

Peter Margasak — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:50:06 -0500

For a long time I thought the French seal of artistic disapproval was to rip out the seats of a theater, whether it was the first viewing of the Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí film L'age D'or or Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 screened without subtitles. It seems to be a hallowed tradition.…

Exploring Dance Mania's old inventory in Ray Barney's basement

Leor Galil — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:15:00 -0500

When Ray Barney told me the leftover inventory from his old label, Dance Mania, had been gathering dust in his basement since the dance imprint shut down in 2001, I knew I had to get down there and see it for myself. As I wrote in this week's B Side feature, Victor Parris Mitchell, a producer who released several records on Barney's label, and Barney himself are relaunching Dance Mania—and they're doing so partially because the imprint's old catalog is in high demand.…

Talking to founder Brenda Webb about new plans for the city's LGBT film festival

Ben Sachs — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:38:58 -0500

Last week it was announced that Reeling, Chicago's LGBT film festival, will resume this November following a yearlong hiatus. The fest took a break in order to reconsider its mission in light of the changing nature of film exhibition.…