- Issue of
- Jun 7-13, 2018
- Vol. 47, No. 35
2018 Chicago Blues Festival
Remembering Uncle Fun
The Chicago Underground Film Festival at 25
News & Politics
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- Savage Love
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‘Help, my wife has been sexting with a guy for more than a decade!’
A retroactive solution. Plus: What to do with a booty caller, and more
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- Savage Love
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‘Help, I’m afraid my disgusting adult baby husband may choose his diapers over me!’
What to do when you're unwillingly married to a fetishist.
Plus: edging. Is it safe?
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- The Straight Dope
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Why aren’t there flea collars for people?
That's the not the real problem with vector-borne diseases.
Music
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- Gossip Wolf
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Goth doesn’t age, but DJ Scary Lady Sarah’s Nocturna party is turning 30
Plus: The new What’s for Brek-Fest takes over the Wicker Park Emporium, psychedelic disco group Shuttle Run celebrates a new album, and more.
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- Music Feature
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The Reader’s guide to the 2018 Chicago Blues Festival
The fest expands its footprint in Millennium Park with a diverse lineup that includes boogie-woogie pianist Erwin Helfer, southern soul-blues star Ms. Jody, and the Rising Stars Fife & Drum Band with Shardé Thomas.
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- Music Feature
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Gene Barge blew his sax on some of the wildest R&B hits of the 60s
The Blues Festival pays tribute to the 91-year-old “Daddy G” with a set with by his longest-running band, the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings.
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- Music Feature
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Boogie-woogie torchbearer Erwin Helfer upholds the dignity, joy, and humor of an antique style
The 82-year-old pianist may be Chicago’s last living link to a tradition that arose more than a century ago.
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- Music Feature
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Willie Clayton still has his sterling voice as his career nears its golden anniversary
For his fourth appearance on the Blues Festival’s main stage, the southern soul king will be cooking with a full band—backup singers, horn players, and all.
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- Music Feature
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Shardé Thomas propels the Rising Stars Fife & Drum Band into a new century
The granddaughter of fife master Otha Turner flavors a Mississippi hill country tradition with modern hip-hop and R&B.
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- Music Feature
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Southern soul-blues queen Ms. Jody always respects herself in the morning
She can get pretty raunchy, but never at the expense of her self-worth or good sense.
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- Music Feature
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The complete schedule of the 2018 Chicago Blues Festival
Every set on all five stages in Millennium Park, from Friday morning through Sunday night—including Mavis Staples, Vieux Farka Touré, Fantastic Negrito, and dozens more
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- Music Feature
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The weekend’s best blues beyond the fest
Your options outside Millennium Park include Shemekia Copeland, John Primer, and Selwyn Birchwood.
Movies
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- Movie Feature
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Uncle Fun, the beloved Lakeview novelty shop, gets its own documentary
Director Laura Scruggs pays tribute to shop owner Ted Frankel with Uncle Fun: You’re the One.
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- Movie Review
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Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records portrayed as a romance etched in vinyl in new documentary
Industrial Accident chronicles the love relationship that sustained Chicago's legendary record store and label.
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- Movie Review
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Chicago Underground Film Festival: The Shorts
Reader critics assess eight short works screening in the 25th edition
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- Movie Review
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Chicago Underground Film Festival: Gold and copper miners tough it out in Good Luck
Ben Russell's epic portrait of the global labor force screens at the Chicago Underground Film Festival
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- Movie Review
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Chicago Underground Film Festival: The Story of a Satellite
In this Spanish drama, a young man whose father was killed by a falling satellite keeps an eye on the sky.
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- Movie Review
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History repeats itself over and over again at the African Diaspora Film Festival
The aftershocks of the slave trade echo from Benin to Hungary to Cuba to Cabrini Green.
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- Movie Review
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Chicago Underground Film Festival: Tribulation 99
San Francisco filmmaker Craig Baldwin screens his 1991 alien-conspiracy classic
Arts & Culture
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- Art Feature
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How we got those cute dogs to pose for our Road Trips Issue (hint: it involved broccoli)
Who wouldn't want to travel with these pups?
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- Dance
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The Stomping Grounds festival finale caps off two months of percussive dancing for peace
Rhythm connects the Chicago international dance community on a spiritual level.
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- Feature
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Roseland’s transformation captured in 1970 student film
The footage of Old Fashioned Days on South Michigan Avenue will become the centerpiece of a new documentary.
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- On Culture
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Do we really need theater critics?
Now that Kris Vire's out at Time Out, Chicago print media has just one full-time theater critic.
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- Theater Review
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Mies Julie depicts a postapartheid South Africa still mired in its legacy of colonialism and racism
But playwright Yaël Farber’s ambition far outstrips what appears onstage.
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- Theater Review
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The improv games at iO’s Riff turn into a goofy, full-fledged sing-along
Lines blur between the cast and the audience.
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- Theater Review
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Two badass early 20th-century feminists shatter convention like a Bull in a China Shop
Meet the indomitable Mary Emma Woolley and Jeannette Marks.
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- Theater Review
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There’s too much story for one play in Neverwhere, but it’s a hell of a visual trip
Young audiences may appreciate it more than their parents.
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- Theater Review
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The Revolutionists undermines its own powerful message with too much cutesiness
But Olympe de Gouges and the other women of the French Revolution are worth knowing.
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- Theater Review
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Tiresias Was a Weatherman is an Antigone for our age of extreme weather and constant medication
Organic Theater Company tackles climate change, Big Pharma, family dysfunction, the evils of the media machine, and too much else for one play.
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- Theater Review
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There are too many puppets in 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas and not enough action
If the narrated sections are so important, why don't we get see them?
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- Theater Review
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A pregnant teen tries to decide what to do with This Boat Called My Body
For Youth Inquiry's allegory is didactic, but also engaging and entertaining.
Food & Drink
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- Restaurant Review
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Frunchroom is the Jewish-Italian deli you didn’t know you needed in your life
In tight quarters in Portage Park, chef Matt Saccaro and crew deliver quantities of quality.
Reader
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- Digital Editions
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Print issue of June 7, 2018
Volume 47, Number 35
Blogs
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- Bleader
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The documentary Uncle Fun: You're the One and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
Cheer-Accident and more goings-on 6/8-6/10.
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- Bleader
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Chicago Doomed & Stoned Festival and more of the best things to do in Chicago this weekend
A screening of Full Metal Jacket in 35mm and more goings-on 6/1-6/3.
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- Bleader
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Less world-class art, more flowers and kitschy plastic animals highlight transformed Indy museum
The art world was dismayed last year when the Indianapolis Museum of Art became Newfields.
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- Bleader
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Gas station pork rinds and scotch? Watch this week’s Cocktail Challenge
Bartender Carley Gaskin uses the snack to make an almost-classic old-fashioned.
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- Bleader
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It’s important to react as quickly as possible to Kanye West’s new Ye
You probably already know what you think of Kanye's eighth album—if only because it's recently become almost impossible not to have an opinion about Kanye himself.
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- Bleader
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Former Chicago Bulls guard Craig Hodges was dropped in 1992 for suspicious reasons
Hodges was an outspoken champion for racial injustice. He believes that's the reason.
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- Bleader
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Hairspray at Pritzker Pavilion and more of the best things to do in Chicago this week
The film A Quiet Place and more goings-on 6/4-6/7.
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- Bleader
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Stephen Malkmus addresses the politics of today while Portland band Lithics summon the postpunk of the past
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks play a sold-out show with openers Lithics at Thalia Hall on Sunday.
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- Bleader
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Chicago Underground Film Festival at 25: A look back
As the 25th Chicago Underground Film Festival approaches, here are ten stand-out features from festivals past.
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- Bleader
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Truth, belief, and The Americans
When it began I thought The Americans was kind of silly. No longer.
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- Bleader
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With friends like Republican Jeanne Ives, Illinois women don’t need enemies
Ives and her party have repeatedly opposed legislation that would help women and children.
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- Bleader
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Vlogger ZackTV devoted his life to making Chicago’s fractious rap scene into one community
Zack Stoner, who was shot to death, documented every unseen corner of Chicago hip-hop.
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- Bleader
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This life coach is inspired by Helmut Lang and the films of Wong Kar-wai
Life coach Andrew Asuncion, 26, looks for "color and mood" in an outfit that's "uniform, but different every day."
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- Bleader
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Haymarket Opera's L'Orontea is a time machine to the 17th century
But if that's not your century, maybe give it a pass.
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- Bleader
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Lavinia Meijer rethinks the typically ornate sound of the harp for a minimalist repertoire
Harpist Lavinia Meijer opens the four-day Lyon & Healy Summer Concert Series on Wednesday evening.
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- Bleader
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In debate over civilian oversight of Chicago police, grassroots proposals win the day
Alderman Ariel Reboyras's two proposals were decried as toothless at the last of five community meetings on proposed police reform ordinances.
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- Bleader
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Quenchers enters its final seven days of shows on the gig poster of the week
This week's gig poster was created by local artist John Garrison.
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- Bleader
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Seventies blues-rockers Iron Lung prove the suburbs can outweird the city
In 2013 an original copy of Iron Lung's lone release, the 1975 LP High Bail, sold for more than $1,000.
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- Bleader
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You can (almost) buy Wesley Willis’s drawing of Quenchers
Quenchers closes in less than two weeks, but at least until then you can get a print of Wesley Willis's 1991 drawing of the beloved bar.
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- Bleader
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Lyft to buy company that operates Divvy for $250 million, report says
Lyft is buying Motivate, the private company which operates Chicago's bike-share system, according to a report.
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- Bleader
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Celine Neon goes from performing synth-pop to making fabulous cakes
After a final show June 16, bandmates Emily Nejad and Maggie Kubley will work together at Nejad's custom cake business.
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- Bleader
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The pattern to Rahm's sexual predator, filthy schools, and special ed scandals
If anything points to the need for an elected CPS school board that’s independent of the mayor, this is it.
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- Bleader
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Singer welcomed by America's Got Talent—but not the CTA
Andrew Johnston has gotten accolades from Grammy-winner Sam Smith, but he keeps getting hassled for his subway and street performances.