Jeanne Nolan’s new book, From the Ground Up, is a rare and improbable thing: a gripping gardening memoir. That’s not because of the author worrying whether her seeds will sprout, or if her crops will be damaged by a grasshopper plague—her seeds always sprout, and her domain isn’t the harsh plains of Little House on the Prairie but rather the backyards and vacant lots of Chicago and its suburbs, where, if nothing grows, there’s always Whole Foods....

The Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival celebrates its fourth year this weekend, turning a big chunk of Logan Square into a full-blown arts district for a few days. Friday through Sunday the stretch of Milwaukee between Kimball and California will play host to work from more than 100 artists in four curated exhibitions; dance, theater, film screenings, and performance art; an art market and two open-air bazaars; and local food and drink, including Revolution Brewing beer, Lula Cafe sangria, and stuff to eat from popular food trucks....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The cafe—which relocated over the summer to the crusty stretch of Milwaukee I happen to inhabit—is staffed by a maximum of two people, no matter how busy it is. That’s two people to punch in orders on the ol’ iPad, take money, make the coffee drinks, and cook the food, i.e., scramble eggs, heat up slices of quiche, press the panini....

PBS has launched its new PBS Arts website. Described as an “online component of PBS’s multi-platform mission to bring the arts home to millions of Americans,” the site will offer virtual exhibits, videos from PBS national and local programs, and interactive features. Timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the site’s debut is anchored by Ruin and Recovery, a newly commissioned online-only exhibition from the producers of the PBS series Craft in America....

As if the city doesn’t have enough problems with crime, budget deficits, and school cuts and closings, Mayor Emanuel has decided to barrel headfirst into the South Loop real estate market—with at least $55 million of your property tax funds. You’d think the mayor would dive into this deal only after months of analysis and debate, especially when the money’s coming from schools that are so broke they recently fired around 1,500 teachers....

Carnal Knowledge Earlier this week, the director Mike Nichols passed away at the age of 83. Nichols, who was a premed at the University of Chicago during the 1950s, was an audience favorite and received critical acclaim but had some vocal detractors. In his famous tome The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929—1968, Andrew Sarris placed the director in the “Less Than Meets the Eye” category, right next to Stanley Kubrick and Norman Jewison....

QI hope you can help me. I am a 39-year-old divorced mother of four. I’m also a grandmother. I’ve started seeing a younger man, age 25, who is only a few years older than my oldest kid. We hit it off great and other than the sex, everything is beautiful. The problem is that my sex life with my ex-husband of 20 years was very free. We did everything from toys to bondage to watching porn together to three-ways....

It always seems to be some piece of clothing that sets off the panic—a sartorial flashback that reminds us how our teenage memories are being mined for a revival. We expected it, of course, but not quite so soon. For Amelie Gillette, the Onion‘s Hater, it was American Apparel’s homage to Generra’s thermochromatic Hypercolor shirt. For other observers it’s been kids rocking Cross Colours hip-hop gear. But for me it was a pair of Reebok Pumps on the shelf at Saint Alfred....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Americans often take for granted the variety of music available to them, especially in a big city like Chicago. As we gear up to celebrate our liberty by accidentally setting one another’s houses on fire, we’ve got a couple of big music festivals to choose from that illustrate that range. Saturday and Sunday brings us the first Wavefront Music Festival on Montrose Beach—a massive array of electronic dance music on four stages, with headliners that include Sasha, Erick Morillo, and Boys Noize—while out in Berwyn, FitzGerald’s kicks off its 32nd annual American Music Festival on Friday, which carries on through Tuesday, July 3 (taking Monday off)....

The Chicago International Movies & Music Festival, better known as CIMMfest, is back for its fourth year, bringing more than 40 film programs to venues in Wicker Park and Logan Square from Thu 4/12 to Sun 4/15. Of course, there’s live music too, mostly in the evenings. On Thu 4/12 the Wicker Park Art Center hosts a free Nora O’Connor show at 9 PM and a Mucca Pazza set upstairs at 10 PM....

Jazz on Jackson Stage Alfonso Ponticelli & Swing GitanNoon Chicago-born guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli is a leading exponent of “jazz manouche,” the Gypsy jazz style made famous by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in their Quintette du Hot Club de France. Swing Gitan sometimes delves into other Romany styles, including flamenco and Balkan dance music, but jazz is its raison d’etre. Ponticelli is joined here by violinist Steve Gibons, bassist John Bany, and rhythm guitarist Jason Miller....

Many of the movies that ranked among my favorites this year were things that, for one practical reason or another, I didn’t get a chance to review at length when they came out. I’ve rectified that with new pieces you can access below, along with my ten runners-up and a year-end list from Ben Sachs. —J.R. Jones RELATED STORIES 2. Rambleras One of the most inspiring trends today is the rise of a new, distinctly female-centered art cinema all over Latin and South America....

QI am trying to understand some sexual fantasies I have. They involve having sex with a woman who has a penis. Sometimes I fantasize that my wife grew a penis. The fantasies started when we first tried pegging a few years ago. We recently had our first child and can no longer find the time for such kinky sex. These transsexual fantasies have caused a large strain in our relationship, and I don’t understand why I am having them or what I should do about them....

QI’m a cute, mostly straight, twenty-something, single, and (safely) sexually active woman. This happens to me pretty often: I hook up with a guy, we start fooling around, and we’re both really into it. I reach down, and he’s full sail. Things progress—clothes come off, etc—and, as is generally the polite order of things, the lady comes first. (This isn’t the problem.) I’m not aggressive, but I’m not shy. I tell a partner what I like and how to do it....

Twelfth Night was the last happy comedy William Shakespeare wrote—though clearly the man’s mood had already started to darken. His primary source for the story was Barnabe Riche’s prose narrative “Of Apolonius and Silla” (1581), which has its roots, in turn, in a 1531 Italian play called Gl’Ingannati (The Deceived Ones) and, further back, the mistaken-identity comedies of Plautus. Adapted and directed by Sean Graney, the Hypocrites’ 12 Nights is a conflation of the Italian play, Riche’s tale, and Shakespeare’s comedy, performed by only four cast members and lasting just 60 lively minutes....

Chicago wasn’t on the itinerary when Belarus Free Theater slipped out of Alexandr Lukashenko’s Soviet-style police state a year ago: the company had a date to perform at New York’s Under the Radar Festival. But slipping back into Belarus turned out not to be an option. Lukashenko had given himself yet another term as president in December 2011, and was cracking down hard on the resulting protests. Already considered an outlaw troupe, BFT could expect serious trouble if they went back home....

Andrew Fenchel Lampo Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Andrew Fenchel, director of Lampo, started presenting concerts under that name in 1997 and incorporated as a nonprofit the following year. Early productions were mostly free jazz and improv, but by 2000 he’d moved into a slightly different niche, where he’s since proved invaluable to local fans of avant-garde and experimental music. Fenchel has booked many revered veterans, like iconoclastic multi-instrumentalist and tinkerer Rick Potts, who helped found the Los Angeles Free Music Society in the early 70s; Japanese electronic musician Yasunao Tone, who has roots in the Fluxus movement of the 60s; and the late composer Maryanne Amacher, whose sound installations often used overtones induced inside the listener’s ear....

Cross Record Chicago experienced its coldest weather of the season this week and snow is in the forecast for this weekend, but it sure feels like the live music scene isn’t thinking about that nonsense: there’s a ton of interesting concerts happening all over town, in all styles. Steel Wheels brings its hard-driving bluegrass to the Old Town School , while Marcia Ball heats up SPACE with her roadhouse-style piano, both tonight....

Bespoke music, played live, is a luxury for most companies. Not Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, founded by choreographer Wilfredo Rivera and jazz musician Joe Cerqua. Every dance is a collaboration; every performance features live music. “New Works 2013,” celebrating CRDT’s 15 years, includes three premieres, two by CRDT members. Raphaelle Ziemba’s mercurial new sextet, Phenomenologie du Son, may sound academic—the title pays tribute to philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty. But it’s packed with everyday rhythms and gestures....

Jon Burge’s testimony impressed me more than it impressed the jury that a few days later convicted him of lying under oath about the brutalization of suspects in his custody. From where I sat in the federal courtroom, Burge had sounded like the kind of tough Chicago cop you’d be glad to have on your side, serving and protecting. John Conroy‘s knowledge of the facts about Burge is close to absolute, and when I got home from court I e-mailed him and said I wished he were the one who’d now get to cross-examine the former police commander....