Arts: Bleader, Chicago Reader

What are you waiting for? Today's the last day to vote for Best of Chicago!

Tal Rosenberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:49:00 -0500

Last time, we told you that "May 22 will be here sooner than you think." Well—it's here: the last day voting is open in our annual Best of Chicago poll!…

Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby is not the first movie to insult F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ben Sachs — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:24:16 -0500

If nothing else, the recent release of Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby adaptation provides a good excuse to revisit the sole film on which F. Scott Fitzgerald received screenwriting credit, the 1938 melodrama Three Comrades. The movies are similar insofar that neither one really respects Fitzgerald's writing—the author was reportedly unhappy with Comrades because relatively little of his work made it into the completed film.…

Gig poster of the week: Pokey LaFarge's runaway train

Luca Cimarusti — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:35:08 -0500

ARTIST: Mary Clare Butler
SHOW: Pokey LaFarge and Al Scorch & the Country Soul Ensemble at Lincoln Hall on 5/23
MORE INFO: maryclarebutler.com

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Reader's Agenda Wed 5/22: Denese Neu, "Ghost: Rhythms," and Lunch Talks @ CAF

Drew Hunt — Wed, 22 May 2013 06:10:07 -0500

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

Learn about Chicago's beer history while sipping some local brew with Denese Neu, author of Chicago by the Pint, at the Fireside.…

"This is not a Holocaust story, this is a war story": The life of Hannah Senesh

Aimee Levitt — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:52 -0500

"In the end," says curator Louis Levine of his latest exhibit, dedicated to the life of the poet Hannah Senesh, "this is not a Holocaust story. This is a war story."

Except that "Fire In My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh" just went on display at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.…

Print may be dying, but art is alive and kicking

Sarah Nardi — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:09:53 -0500

I recently asked a group of Chicago curators and artists to help me compile a list of exhibition spaces that weren't receiving any mainstream attention. The overwhelming response to that request was "Wait, there are galleries in Chicago receiving mainstream attention?"…

ArtPlace America ignites Great Chicago Fire Festival with $250,000 grant

Deanna Isaacs — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:33:00 -0500

Redmoon announced this week that Artplace America has awarded the spectacle troupe a $250,000 grant to help fund the first Great Chicago Fire Festival, to be held on the Chicago River in October 2014.

There's no mention in the announcement of previously revealed plans to build, float, and burn effigies representing the thing each Chicago neighborhood most wants to get rid of.…

Reader's Agenda Tue 5/21: Israeli jazz, immigrant stories, and a JC Brooks listening party

Tosten Burks — Tue, 21 May 2013 06:11:21 -0500

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

If there's one group of people who know how to throw a jazz festival it's the . . .…

Reader's Agenda Mon 5/20: Dinosaur improv, Charlie XCX, and architecture

Tosten Burks — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:09:23 -0500

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

Links Hall hosts an improv show that involves Nerf gear, PVC pipe, Wiffle balls, and dinosaurs.…

Reader's Agenda Sun 5/19: An organic beer garden, 60 years of blues, and Andrew Lloyd Webber

Tosten Burks — Sun, 19 May 2013 06:00:00 -0500

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

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.…

Street View 099: Modern armor

Isa Giallorenzo — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest style seen in Chicago.
Eunice looks ready to tackle a city covered with tough materials. I never thought so many leather pieces could work so well together, but then here's the one thing I learned in fashion: never say never.…

Reader's Agenda Sat 5/18: Yo-Yo Ma, acclaimed hors d'oeuvres, and rap karaoke

Tosten Burks — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:00:00 -0500

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

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.…

Marcus Samuelsson's Yes, Chef—reviewed

Aimee Levitt — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:08:00 -0500

It seems inevitable that Marcus Samuelsson's memoir, Yes, Chef, will someday become required reading in cooking schools, if only for its emphasis on the necessity of humility and hard work in the kitchen.

"To get ahead in that culture," Samuelsson writes, "you have to completely give yourself up to the place.…

Reader's Agenda Fri 5/17: Manifest, Fight Girl Battle World, and Asian American Showcase

Hannah Lorenz — Fri, 17 May 2013 06:13:15 -0500

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

It's graduation season, and Columbia College is throwing one hell of a party before it sends its students out into the cold, hard world.…

Lyric Opera's Oklahoma!: Where's that sound guy?

Deanna Isaacs — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:31:00 -0500

It ain’t at all a question of the singin'
That was lush
And all the words was up where you could see
But when the talkin' started
Some folks' words just turned to mush
Which wasn't how I thought it oughta be

I'm just a girl who likes to hear
When I'm attendin' a show
I want each word to be nice and clear
If it's a language I know

Lyric Opera said they fixed their sound
Bought speakers big as bulls to get it right
But at Oklahoma what I found
Was that those mikes was puttin' up a fight

Some words came sailin' right to me
Others, I couldn't make out
Wanted to say, could you shout?
What was that line all about?
I just cain't hear!

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New study shows that a woman's reading material reflects her willingness to put out

Aimee Levitt — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:38:41 -0500

Guess what, guys? A single female traveler's choice of airport reading material can indicate whether she's interested in hooking up with you!…

Reader's Agenda Thu 5/16: Fall Out Boy, Craft Beer Week, and Surviving as a Freelancer

Hannah Lorenz — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:08:16 -0500

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

Fall Out Boy's new album, Save Rock and Roll, "wrangles together all sorts of elements into a cohesive, polished, hook-filled whole, including brostep ('Death Valley'), sample-based rap ('My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark'), and the kind of new-wave folk-pop that’s made the Lumineers a hit ('Young Volcanoes')," writes Leor Galil in Soundboard.…

Sighted: Moby-Dick-inspired fashion by Elizabeth Alice Crum

Vera Videnovich — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:15:26 -0500

I smiled when I heard Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick" blast through the speakers while I watched nautically inspired crochet work come down the runway at this year's School of the Art Institute spring student fashion show, the Walk. The choice of music seemed a little over-the-top for what, at first glance, was a subdued color palette with conservative shapes—until I noticed that the designer's work included heavier elements weighing down its fine handworked details.…

Small Town Security: Claustrophobic, visually repellent, and really good

Gwynedd Stuart — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:43:00 -0500

After I watched the second-season premiere of AMC's Small Town Security, I had a weird conversation with my mom. "I love them," she said about the show's cast.…

Without le Carré, would we have The Americans?

Michael Miner — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:48:00 -0500

When my book group met a couple of weeks ago, we decided to take on John le Carré's latest, A Delicate Truth—and for purposes of comparison, because his latest has received mixed reviews, the book that made him famous, 1964's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. We don't normally assign ourselves two books at a time, but then we don't normally read authors whose newest novels are their "latest."…

Gig poster of the week: Birds dropping bombs on the Wonder Years

Luca Cimarusti — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:32:43 -0500

ARTIST: James Heimer
SHOW: The Wonder Years and Mixtapes at Bottom Lounge on 5/11
MORE INFO: jamesheimer.com

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Reader's Agenda Wed 5/15: Bodies of Work Festival, Deep Sea Diver with Telekinesis, and Music + Movement Showcase,

Hannah Lorenz — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:07:08 -0500

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

The Bodies of Work Festival has a specific message about what disability means "personally, politically, and aesthetically."…

RIP Luna Negra Dance Theater

Laura Molzahn — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:14:00 -0500

Or should I make a wish that ghosts walk? Maybe then Chicago could start working on another Latino-focused contemporary dance company with a national and even international reputation.…

Street View 098: Stylish beyond her years

Isa Giallorenzo — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:50:59 -0500

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest style seen in Chicago.

This cutie looks fun and age-appropriate, but also so sophisticated. Notice her attention to detail—as shown by the top of her cardigan smartly buttoned up—and the absence of pink, frills, bows, and Hello Kitty.…

Reader's Agenda Tue 5/14: Holocaust education, sludgy metal, and a postmodern fairy tale

Tosten Burks — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:15:00 -0500

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

The exhibit "Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh" recounts the life of a young poet executed by a Nazi firing squad after the attempted rescue of some of her Jewish friends in Hungary.…