Chicago Reader

Tonight: CSO, Muti, and Mason Bates

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:01:06 -0600

Tonight's the last chance (this season, in Orchestra Hall) to hear Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra take on resident-composer and sometime-DJ Mason Bates's brand-new, electro-infused symphony, Alternative Energy, which includes sounds from Fermilab and junked auto parts, and was the hot item at CSO concerts last week. Word at midafternoon was that seats are available; $20 senior and $15 student rush tickets go on sale at the box office at 5 PM, the concert's at 7:30.…

Q&A with Craig Finn

Miles Raymer — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:43:02 -0600

Through eight years and five albums the Hold Steady have earned themselves a reputation as the go-to act for big, broad rock anthems and life affirmation via power chords. Recently front man Craig Finn used some downtime between Hold Steady endeavors to record a solo album, Clear Hearts, Full Eyes (Vagrant), that's considerably more subdued and introspective than anything he's done with either the Hold Steady or his previous band, Lifter Puller.…

The five worst covers of "The Tracks of My Tears"

Tal Rosenberg — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:32:00 -0600

In order to research this post (about my five favorite versions of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears”) I had to make sure that my favorite covers were in fact the best ones. Which means I had to cross-check them against every available, YouTube-existing version of the song.…

Diego Amador opens this year's Chicago Flamenco Festival

Peter Margasak — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:50:00 -0600

On Thursday evening the Chicago Flamenco Festival kicks off with a performance by Diego Amador's trio at Instituto Cervantes. His group, which also includes drummer Israel Varela and bassist Julián Heredia, will play again at the same time and same venue on Friday night.…

This is halftime!

Sam Worley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:14:00 -0600

Oh, hey—did you catch the Super Bowl? Yeah, me neither.…

Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: Tuba Atlantic

J.R. Jones — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:00:00 -0600

All this week I'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for best live-action short, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the next installment.

The Shore, an Irish nominee that I reviewed yesterday, dealt with two friends who hadn't seen each other in 25 years; Hallvar Witzø's Tuba Atlantic, its Norwegian competitor, is about a dying man who hasn't spoken to his brother in 30, so I think we all know which is going to take home the statue.…

Walk a lonely superhighway

Sam Worley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:30:00 -0600

A suite of essays on Facebook in the New York Times Sunday Review this week includes a contribution by local legal scholar Lori Andrews, who was featured in December in the Reader's People Issue. (My boss, Mara Shalhoup, is treating Andrews’s piece elsewhere.)…

Facebook can maybe wreck your life

Mara Shalhoup — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:15:00 -0600

And even if Facebook doesn't wreck your life, it can quite possibly leak all kinds of out-of-context minutiae about you to those who might possibly want to abuse that information. Maybe.…

12 O'Clock Track: Po Po, "Let's Get Away"

Miles Raymer — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Po Po's Dope Boy Magick (out February 28 on Mad Decent) is an odd duck of a record. For one thing, it's a rock-band release on a label that's known almost exclusively for its dance and hip-hop acts.…

Oscar-nominated short animations: A Morning Stroll

J.R. Jones — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

All this week I'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for best short animation, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the next installment.

Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe's wacky A Morning Stroll, produced by the British outfit Studio AKA, runs only seven minutes, but it's so neatly conceptualized that it feels like a longer film.…

Dicking around on Wall Street

Sam Worley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:33:13 -0600

On account of some neuroses*, I had put off reading Gabriel Sherman’s New York cover story, “The Emasculation of Wall Street”—also maybe on account of that headline, from which not much good can follow. (See the cover art, if the hed’s too subtle.…

Now playing: Foxes (1980)

Ben Sachs — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:07:00 -0600

Roxploitation: Subculture on Film, the film series presented by WHPK radio and Doc Films, continues this Thursday at 9 PM with Foxes (1980). The movie’s worth checking out for its collision of musical sensibilities, featuring the first screen performance by the Runaways’ Cherie Currie and an original score by disco kingpin Giorgio Moroder (added bonus: Donna Summer recorded “On the Radio” for the soundtrack).…

The five best covers of "The Tracks of My Tears"

Tal Rosenberg — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 -0600

When we elected to do Soul Week for this week’s “Variations on a Theme,” I don’t think I realized just how daunting a subject it could be. Soul music is a labyrinthine genre of nearly unyielding brilliance, labels big and small possessing a plethora of emotive power and gorgeous grit by one-offs, consistently reliable B-artists, and still unheralded geniuses.…

More Chi Sounds from Face Melt

Miles Raymer — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:24:00 -0600

Ground Lift Media's beat-maker showcase, Face Melt, will reach its lucky 13th installment at Subterranean on February 24. In keeping with their usual MO, the Face Melt crew have released yet another compilation of instrumentals by local producers from the more experimental corners of Chicago hip-hop, who together form a slightly less whimsical and more pragmatic companion to the Low End Theory scene out in medical-marijuana-giddy Los Angeles.…

Movie life in Chicago: managing the New 400

Ben Sachs — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:42:00 -0600

The four-screen movie house at 6746 N. Sheridan formerly known as the Village North ~~recently~~ reopened in 2010 under new management and a new name. Despite receiving a substantial overhaul—which includes the introduction of a full bar to the concession stand—the New 400 ~~feels very much like~~ preserves the neighborhood vibe of the old Village North, making moviegoing feel like a natural part of urban social life.…

Jerked: Heron Valley Jerk Chicken

Mike Sula — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:11:00 -0600

Though dorm rooms and frat houses across the land will fumigate today in honor of Bob Marley's 67th birthday, I'm going to suggest an alternate ritual application of smoke: visit Roseland's Heron Valley Jerk Chicken.*

Jerk shacks come and go on the south side, but Heron Valley's been infusing allspice and chile-rubbed chicken, catfish, and shrimp with a righteous smoke for about four years on a stretch of 103rd Street temptingly close to Old Fashioned Donuts. Inside, a bulletproof barrier protects a chuffing barrel smoker that produces a tender, juicy bird, hacked and heaped in clamshell with a couple slices of dense hard-dough bread to mop the tangy jerk sauce—for a mere $10.…

The NFL: It's fantastic—for the final two minutes

Ted Cox — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:32:00 -0600

The NFL is looking more and more like the NBA—the NBA of 30 years ago, before Michael Jordan, when it was commonly said games were 46 minutes of guys running up and down and then two minutes of real basketball.

All right, it's not quite that bad.…

Discovering the groovy sounds of Calvin Keys

Peter Margasak — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:03:00 -0600

Today is Calvin Keys's ~~69th~~ 70th birthday. Until recently I knew only that Keys was a jazz guitarist—I'd never knowingly heard any of his work.…

Today's Chicagoan: Anne Ford

Jerome Ludwig — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:12:00 -0600

For the Reader's Chicagoans column, writer Anne Ford switches into oral-historian mode, seeking out interesting characters and letting us hear from them directly. Here we turn the tables in honor of Anne's book signing Tuesday at the DePaul Center Barnes & Noble.

"I got asked to write Peaceful Places Chicago for a few reasons—I used to be a travel editor at Rand McNally, I still do travel writing in addition to other things like Chicagoans, and I’ve lived in the Chicago area for 15 years.…

I can't believe people bike through blizzards

Joey Jachowski — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:31:00 -0600

I’m pretty new to Chicago, the city of a shitload of hard-core bicyclists. I started as an intern here last month, and arriving most recently from California, I was thrown by the sight of a bundled-up biker pedaling his way down Dearborn two weeks ago during a snowstorm.…

Oscar-nominated live-action shorts: The Shore

J.R. Jones — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 -0600

All this week I'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for best live-action short, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the next installment.

The best picture competition may be dominated by American movies (the only "foreign" titles nominated this year are Midnight in Paris, a Woody Allen movie, and The Artist, a silent movie set in Hollywood), but the race for best live-action short is decidedly more international, with entries from Ireland, Germany, and Norway.…

12 O'Clock Track: Ane Brun, "Do You Remember"

Peter Margasak — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

There are moments when Norway-born, Sweden-based singer Ane Brun seems a bit too in love with the swoops, dips, and warbles she can execute with her lovely voice, but at her best she's got great pop instincts. Her latest album, It All Starts With One, has been out in Europe since the fall and will finally arrive in the States on May 1.…

Teach the children: Taking TIFs to high school students

Ben Joravsky — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:30:36 -0600

As part of my plan to talk about TIFs to everybody everywhere, I go to a north-side neighborhood high school to explain how this sucker works.

The Tax Increment Financing program, as you know, is the ongoing $500 million dollar a year scam in which the mayor diverts the aforementioned $500 million out of the property taxes you pay.…

Oscar-nominated short animations: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

J.R. Jones — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

All this week I'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for best short animation, which open Friday at Landmark's Century Centre. Check back this time tomorrow for the next installment.

Of the four shorts I was able to see, my favorite by far was William Joyce and Brandon Oldenberg's charming fantasy The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.…

Hail, Hail, to Michigan!

Michael Miner — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:57:00 -0600

The Michigan primary was the last day of February. “I don’t want to have to actually campaign there,” the Front-runner told his marketing guy, who carried the title of Traditional Values Articulator.…