Bleader, Chicago Reader

The House of the Rising Sun burger at Portage Park's Leadbelly

Aimee Levitt — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:58:00 -0500

The song "House of the Rising Sun," recorded by lots of people including Leadbelly, whose name was appropriated by the owners of a new northwest side burger joint, is the tragic lament of a man whose life has been brought to ruin by the whorehouse of the title. The House of the Rising Sun burger is a thick slab of beef and smoked pork belly ground together and topped with bacon, cheddar cheese, Bloody Mary sauce (it tastes like ketchup), and a fried egg.…

Remembering Chicago's great school boycott of 1963

Ben Joravsky — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:27:00 -0500

The city's all-powerful mayor was ignoring their pleas, so the public students of Chicago felt they had no choice but to walk out of school and march in protest.

That could be a headline ripped from today's pages, as students join parents and teachers to protest Mayor Emanuel's decision to close 54 public schools.…

The mixed blessing of watching movies online

Ben Sachs — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:36:26 -0500

It's increasingly common for distributors to make movies previewable on password-protected webpages, and for exhibitors to send critics passwords rather than discs, as they've done in the past. Truth be told, this is how I watched several movies I reviewed in the last month.…

Beer and Metal does Chicago Craft Beer Week this Thursday

Philip Montoro — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Sorry to add to the crowding on the Chicago Craft Beer Week schedule—there are hundreds upon hundreds of events there already—but the Reader and Binny's are partnering up for something called "Beer & Music" on Thursday, May 23. Specifically, beer manager Adam Vavrick of the Lincoln Park store has invited me to join him in conducting an experiment in synesthesia and intoxication—we'll each be pairing four beers with favorite songs from our record collections.…

12 O'Clock Track: Cincy's Tweens blow out the bubblegum on "Rattle and Rollin'"

Kevin Warwick — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

I really don't need much of a reason to rep my hometown of Cincinnati, but a more recent Queen City-proud moment came a couple months back when I caught some demo tracks from the locally hyped Tweens. The band—which earlier this month got called on by Kim Deal to open a few shows for the Breeders—plays a trashy, bubblegum kind of power garage that's as sneering and sweaty as it is candy coated.…

Did you read about ketamine, Tumblr, and the New York Times?

Reader staff — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:01:00 -0500

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

Hey, did you read:

• That the gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent is only half the story? —Steve Bogira

• That in addition to going through phone records of the AP, the Obama administration searched the personal e-mails of a Fox News reporter?…

A look at immoderation on the pundit front

Michael Miner — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:08:44 -0500

King George III was no Hitler or Stalin, but because revolutions are glorified when they succeed we happily remember ours as a triumph over tyranny. That set a low bar for tyranny, and we still live with it.…

Jukebox update: Kiss, Jorge Ben Jor, and more

Tosten Burks — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:36:07 -0500

Music is designed to be shared. Even as we plug in our headphones to hide from the rest of the CTA, we still tweet our favorite songs, gather for shows, and trek to distant deserts for festivals featuring all the same artists as the last festival in the last desert.…

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.…

Weekly Top Five: Joseph Lewis and the B movie swamp

Drew Hunt — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Tomorrow night, the University of Chicago's Doc Films will screen the Joseph H. Lewis noir Gun Crazy, one of the major works of classic B cinema and one of the most radical and thoroughly entertaining movies in American film history, period. Prior to a renewed interest in expressionistic style during the 1970s, Lewis was considered a simple B movie director in the United States.…

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.…

A soulful country cut from the woman who sang "Harper Valley P.T.A."

Miles Raymer — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:08:12 -0500

Soul Jazz would be one of my favorite reissue labels of all time even if they had stopped putting out records after their first New York Noise compilation of vintage NYC postpunk, which was not-so-secretly as influential on early-aughts underground club culture as any Williamsburg dance-punk band of the time. Recently they put out Acid: Mysterons Invade the Jackin' Zone, a fantastic two-disc survey of Chicago acid house and experimental house.…

Best shows to see: Chrome, Turbonegro, Rafi Malkiel Quintet

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:26:00 -0500

There are two punk-rock festivals happening in Chicago this weekend: HoZac's Blackout and WHPK's Summer Breeze. While the former encourages heavy drinking significantly more than the latter, they've both stacked up awesome, obscure lineups, and even share an act (Detroit's Tyvek).…

Rare Sun Ra sounds and images from Corbett vs. Dempsey

Peter Margasak — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:00:00 -0500

Corbett vs. Dempsey, the record label, has just released one of the rarest and most historically murky recordings in the massive oeuvre of the great Sun Ra, issuing Continuation on CD for the first time. Last year I wrote about the formalization of the new imprint operated by the John Corbett and Jim Dempsey, the owners of their namesake art gallery, and even then, when I spoke with Corbett about this reissue, the actual date of the recording seemed in doubt.…

An interview with Dan Sallitt, director of The Unspeakable Act

Ben Sachs — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:05:17 -0500

The Unspeakable Act, which screens this week at the Gene Siskel Film Center (and with writer-director Dan Sallitt in attendance tonight and tomorrow afternoon), is an opaque independent drama about family ties. The title refers to incest, although the movie isn't concerned with shock value or sex.…

12 O'Clock Track: Noisy shoegaze on No Joy's "Slug Night"

Luca Cimarusti — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:00 -0500

On Mother's Day, I went to Lincoln Hall to catch Canadian noise-rock powerhouse Metz (who have recently built up the bro-iest fanbase ever, apparently) and TV Ghost, a dramatic postpunk act from Indiana. First up on the bill was No Joy, another band from Canada who had been added only the day before.…

Did you read about Eric Holder, the Village Voice, and The Third Coast?

Reader staff — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:18:00 -0500

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

Hey, did you read:

• About why more women don't run for office? —Tal Rosenberg

• That on top of everything else, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was under fire this week for continuing to authorize marijuana prosecutions?…

Incest, adultery, and the rest of this week's screenings

J.R. Jones — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:36:26 -0500

In this week's long review Drew Hunt considers The Unspeakable Act, a new indie drama by Dan Sallitt in which a high school senior ponders her intimate feelings for her college-age brother. I review Stories We Tell, a documentary by Sarah Polley (Away From Her, Take This Waltz) about her discovery that her biological father was a Montreal film producer with whom her mother had a brief affair.…

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.…

Doing it wrong on guns, Chicago-style

Ben Joravsky — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:59:00 -0500

I was up late the other night, reading "Addicted to Guns", my man Mick Dumke's latest feature on crime and violence in Chicago.

It should be mandatory reading for everyone.…

Before Obama's enemies came down on him he was catching it from his friends

Michael Miner — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:37:00 -0500

President Obama is getting hammered. He's been called out for the sins of the IRS in looking too hard and too exclusively at organizations whose applications for tax-exempt status contained red-flag language such as "tea party" or "patriots."…

Robbie Fulks revisits a scorned gem by Bob Dylan

Peter Margasak — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:04:00 -0500

A few days ago I got an e-mail from Robbie Fulks letting me know about the next installment of his ever-changing, always inventive and entertaining weekly Hideout residency on Mondays, which is now into its fourth year. I had already noted the show and planned to write something about it here, but I was still surprised to read his message, which read, in part, "just wanted to let you know your comment on Street-Legal, way back when I was preparing Slow Train Coming, stuck in my head . . .…