For an hour and a half yesterday at Trinity United Church of Christ on the far south side, five mayoral candidates civilly discussed the issues in the race, aiming most of their barbs at the opponent who hadn’t shown, Rahm Emanuel. The candidates were seated at a table in front of the lectern, with the moderator of the forum, ABC-TV reporter Charles Thomas, off to one side. Members of the all-African-American audience had submitted questions on index cards, which Thomas put to the candidates....

Internationally popular local party-pumpers the Hood Internet are turning over a new leaf with their new album. Speaking exclusively to Gossip Wolf, STV SLV says the album (tentatively titled “Feat”) is almost wrapped up and is free of mashups and samples (gasp!)—because it’s an all-original album brimming with collaborations. “Like the Postal Service, but with e-mail,” says SLV. Justin Peroff (Broken Social Scene), Elizabeth Harper (Class Actress), Das Racist, and Ivan Howard of Gayngs pitch in, as do locals BBU and My Gold Mask and the ever-ubiquitous “more....

A first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “Then, when I was 23, my mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She was in the hospital, and I went to visit, and my dad told me that the oncologist had given him her prognosis, and it was only months. I was so angry that I destroyed the blinds in the window....

Responses to Travis’s fifth and latest album, The Boy With No Name (Sony), have been mixed: fans, of course, mostly love it, while NME, early champions of the Scottish quartet, gave it two stars out of ten and a brutal one-paragraph walloping. Personally, I’d say anyone who can get too bent out of shape about these guys is fundamentally misunderstanding their project. Demanding emotional depth from the band that invented the adult-contemporary-indie genre (influencing a ton of bands along the way, including Coldplay) is like trying to construct a balanced diet around doughnuts....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » I can think of several 20th-century experimental composers whose heads would asplode if they could get their hands on this rig. Over Christmas I upgraded to an iPhone and I’ve already downloaded a bunch of music-making apps for it. Bloom–which was cocreated by Brian Eno–is an interesting, intuitive, and completely mellow way to create ambient music, and working it doesn’t require any facility with an actual instrument....

When the North Coast Music Festival launched in 2010 it was greeted by thunderous skepticism: A big late-season addition to Chicago’s already crowded summer music schedule, with no big-name backing and a lineup that consisted almost entirely of EDM, hip-hop, and jam bands? People laughed. But against all odds, it’s worked, and every year it pulls in some of the most diverse and daring bookings of any Chicago fest—the 2013 headliners include dance-friendly indie success story Passion Pit, the reunited (though not entirely focused) Wu-Tang Clan, Dutch house demigod Afrojack, jammy “livetronica” duo Big Gigantic, and Queensbridge’s favorite son, Nas....

It might surprise you to learn that some people make a living importing frozen French bread into this country. If that violates everything you hold dear about the baguette, consider that prebaked and preproofed frozen French bread is not infrequently superior to fresh, domestically baked loaves hot from the oven. And in places that don’t have master bakers, it sure beats Wonder Bread. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Nevertheless, the mini baguette that initiates a meal at Bistro Voltaire, his snug, congenial new River West North cafe, provides an auspicious sign, its crackly, chewy crust girding a slightly moist, tangy interior....

Chaz L. Morgan If you’re a hip-hop fan there’s a good chance you’re familiar with the work of Chaz L. Morgan. His name might not ring a bell, but the Chicago graphic designer has begun to leave his mark on rap, and that’s because he’s created the artwork for a number of recent high-profile hip-hop releases, including two of January’s biggest mixtapes: Wale’s Folarin and Future’s F.B.G.: The Movie. Morgan isn’t confined to the world of rap—he made the production logos for Second Generation Wayans, a new TV series that premiered on B....

The Seagull Goodman Theatre Three Sisters Piven Theatre Workshop Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » That would be a disaster and, fortunately, Falls knows it. A more-is-more approach might serve the tragedies of Shakespeare and O’Neill, but Chekhov worked on a smaller scale. Accordingly, Todd Rosenthal’s set consists of a simple, gently raked wooden dock (with the audience seated on three sides) and a couple benches where cast members sit when they’re not in a scene....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “I think of the things I’ve donated to online,” says Sinker, “and they’re totally things that I saw myself reflected in and had this real core belief in. [Daily] newspapers─by their definition─don’t try and do that. The Washington Post has great political coverage, but would you donate to them because you like politics? I wouldn’t, because I don’t see myself as a part of that....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Sabermetricians have made a credible argument against base stealing: an unsuccessful steal does more to discourage scoring than a successful swipe does to promote it. Specific to Henderson, the analysts at Baseball Prospectus posit in a chapter of Baseball Between the Numbers that Henderson’s steals did not significantly contribute to more wins for his teams since he was also caught stealing more times, 335, than any player in history....

the greenhorn Was this stomping a sign that voters are ready to end Rush’s career in Washington? State senators Barack Obama and Donne Trotter think so. Both men are anxious to move up to Congress, and they think 2000 is the year for the coup that will get them there. They’re working hard to finish off the politically wounded incumbent. Rush wants to raise up the people of the south side too....

Originally staged by Marius Petipa in Saint Petersburg in 1877, and produced here by the Joffrey Ballet, La Bayadere is a lavish Indian romance galvanized by Russian nihilist angst. Cruelty leads to disaster in the final act as the sexy, impetuous princess Gamzatti retaliates after she’s rejected on the altar by her fiance, Solor, a peerless warrior haunted by the spirit of his lover—the temple dancer Nikiya, whom Gamzatti murdered a couple acts earlier by planting a venomous snake in her basket of flowers....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Revisiting Alain Resnais’s You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet at the Music Box last week reminded me of seeing the director’s Private Fears in Public Places at that theater six summers ago. At the time, I was either unemployed or working part-time—I don’t remember which, but I was in a position to go to the movies on weekday afternoons, and I did this often to save money....

A friend who enjoys sketch comedy about as much as most people enjoy pumping gas recently went to the Second City for the first time. What got him through the evening, he says, was trying to figure out which Saturday Night Live slots the performers pictured themselves auditioning for. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » That’s no slight to the performers—after all, they wrote the material....

I’m accustomed to readers flipping out on me because they think I’ve spoiled a movie for them. (For the record, I try to warn people if I’m going to reveal any big surprise—as I will here—and if they want to stop reading that’s fine with me.) What really blows my mind is readers who complain that I’ve ruined a documentary for them. Such was the case when I reviewed Dear Zachary (2008), about an ugly child-custody battle that ended in August 2003 when the mother killed the child and herself....

thursday3 Thursday3 Chatham County Line Friday4 The Girl of the Golden WestDavid JDisappears Jason Moran, Jeff Parker, Ken Vandermark, and Nasheet WaitsWye OakYo La Tengo, William Tyler Saturday5 Eighth BlackbirdJason Moran, Jeff Parker, Ken Vandermark, and Nasheet Waits Sunday6 Joan of Arc Lightbox Orchestra Tuesday8 Wavves,No Joy Wednesday9 The Girl of the Golden WestScott Kelly & Scott “Wino” WeinrichWavves,No Joy DAVID J Though he looks much the same as he did in the early 80s, former Bauhaus/Jazz Butcher/Love and Rockets bassist David J has never sat still for long....

By now you’ve definitely heard about an online meme called the Harlem Shake. It began as a clip by offbeat video blogger Filthy Frank that throughout early February spawned thousands of copycats (or rather “tribute videos”) with tens of millions of aggregate views. They all follow a similar template: In a room full of distracted people that’s captured in a static shot (frequently a workplace of some sort), a lone individual, often in a mask, begins dancing to “Harlem Shake,” a 2012 single by Brooklyn beat maker Baauer, previously barely known outside his corner of the EDM world....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » In rock history few bands made music as bracing, unique, and prescient as the London trio This Heat, which first performed in early 1976 and disbanded in 1982. The group’s eponymous 1979 debut album remains an all-time favorite of mine, and its opening blast stands as one of the fiercest, most rewarding moments in music, a terrifying slice of proto-industrial rock that sounds as fresh and innovative today as it must’ve three-and-a-half decades ago....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » A recent discovery getting heavy rotation in my apartment is Sparks‘ sophomore album, 1972’s A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing. The LP kicks off with its strongest cut, the single “Girl From Germany.” A glam-rock strut about generational disconnects that arise from the fallout of World War II, it’s the kind of great art-rock song that cloaks a brainy narrative in tough posturing....