Posts

The April 28 Reader featured Cynthia Gallaher’s story about the Pink Ladies, a club started in the mid-1950s by northwest-side Catholic girls who were either going to Taft High School or knew somebody who was. Jim Jacobs went to Taft, too, and when he and Warren Casey were writing their 1971 paean to pomade, Grease, they named its girl gang the “Pink Ladies.” The club’s alumnae have apparently been struggling with the fallout ever since....

The Reader‘s fiction issue has long been a favorite of mine. It provides an equanimous counterpoint to the energetic band reviews, restaurant openings, and Savage advice—a moment to slip into other spaces and imagined worlds. That the Reader makes time and room for fiction is almost subversive in today’s publishing landscape. As the conglomerates conglomerate further (consider Random House’s recent swallowing of a Penguin), the energy of literary-minded folks continues to find expression in independent outlets....

PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES ssss WHEN 4:30, 7, and 9:30 PM daily, with an additional screening at 2 PM Sat and Sun It might sound crazy to call Alain Resnais the last of the great Hollywood studio directors when he’s never made a single movie in Hollywood. But classic Hollywood filmmaking, as defined by the aesthetics and craftsmanship of the system from the 30s through the 60s, transcends location. Indeed, many of the best recent examples, like Black Book and Angel-A, are European....

The closest thing I had to a starstruck moment at this year’s SXSW was seeing the Horrors walking packlike down Sixth Street in the middle of the day. I’ve met and hung out with musicians I admire more without feeling that way, possibly because most of what I listen to is made by people who dress pretty much like everyone I know. The Horrors, on the other hand, seem to reject the idea of street clothes entirely....

Jonathan Meyer’s preparations for The Waking Room—which began more than a year ago, with musical collaborator Christopher Preissing—included volunteering at Thresholds, a local organization that provides support for people with severe mental illnesses. The new evening-length work exploring what Meyer calls “nonordinary” states of consciousness is marked by spasmodic movement, by frequent blackouts that create snapshot scenes, and by the unusual space: a pie-shaped performance area in an art gallery, with a small couch and chair at its upstage apex....

It takes a confident choreographer to create sequences of little or no movement–something that Khecari artistic director Jonathan Meyer does consistently. His The Opal Door opens with a still line of dancers who begin to twitch or shift their weight almost imperceptibly. The effect is like watching a painting come to life, especially given Iris Bainum-Houle’s richly textured raggedy costumes–each one unique, though many bare the lower back. Set to cinematic-sounding music by Mandible Chatter, the two-act piece tells a vague, apparently cyclical apocalyptic story....

Pop-rap princess Kid Sister has been holed up at the LA home studio of Blink-182 drummer/reality star Travis Barker, working on tracks for his forthcoming solo debut along with Ludacris and other guests and borrowing his setup and engineer to record material for a couple of her own future releases. Barker this week unleashed the first single from his upcoming album, “Jump Down,” featuring Chicago’s Cool Kids. Best of Chicago voting is live now....

The German label Network Records recently issued the third installment in its excellent Golden Afrique series, book-sized double-CD sets that focus on particular regions of Africa primarily during the 70s—the continent’s golden era for popular music. Volume 3 takes aim at South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, and if only for the reason that Paul Simon’s Graceland made South African pop ubiquitous on these shores, it’s the least interesting edition thus far....

Presented by the Music Box and the Film Noir Foundation, this week-long festival features 35-millimeter prints of film noir classics and rarities, showing as double features at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport, 773-871-6604. Noir scholars Alan K. Rode and Foster Hirsch will introduce films and lead discussions. Tickets are $10 per film or $12 for double features; festival passes, good for all films, are $50 at the theater box office or $40 in advance at brownpapertickets....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Until Aleksandr Zeldovich’s magisterial Target returns to Chicago (assuming it ever does), Branded will have to tide over those viewers hungry for a Russian-set sci-fi epic with ambitious wide-screen cinematography, literary allusions, and anticapitalist themes. An imaginative, overreaching pulp saga that jumps unpredictably from the brilliant to the awful (sometimes within the same scene), it’s likely the strangest movie playing in town....

Last year’s Public League boys championship game was all about Simeon’s Derrick Rose proving himself a great basketball player. This year’s was about Simeon, in Rose’s senior season, proving itself a great team. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » It was a rematch of the 2006 title game, but this time the details seemed to favor Washington, the underdog, which last year looked intimidated playing on the Bulls’ home floor at the United Center....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Way behind on your holiday shopping? Christkindlmarket, Randolph Street’s Holiday Market, the Bucktown Holiday Art Show, and the Irish Christmas Market are just some of the places you can stop by today. If you’re not feeling these, take a look at the Reader‘s holiday calendar for more markets where you can find presents for your loved ones—or for yourself....

In the Neighborhood A grocery and deli (takeout only) on that stretch between Ashland and the Kennedy where West Grand suddenly goes Italian, Bari Foods makes a mean sandwich. On the abbreviated menu are subs stuffed with corned beef, roast beef, Italian sausage, or Italian deli meats, but a favorite is the fresh mozzarella and prosciutto sub. Available at 9 or 12 inches, the sandwich packs ultrathin slices of melt-in-your-mouth prosciutto and hunks of squeaky cheese between the halves of a loaf of French bread crisp from the ovens next door at D’Amato’s Bakery, and dresses it up with shredded lettuce, onion, and tomato, with a dash of oil and Italian seasoning....

Dear readers: Folks who have the Savage Love app get the Savage Love Letter of the Day (SLLOTD) delivered to their iPhones or Androids. This week I’m running three recent SLLOTDs to give my online or print-only readers a taste of what they’re missing. I’m also giving myself a bit of a break: I’m currently dashing around the country on a book tour for It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living....

During my summers home from college, my friends and I would intermittently spend a weekend night at “the boats,” our colloquial term for the casinos that stud the eastern periphery of Chicago in northwest Indiana. We’d take a portion of whatever we’d made at our summer jobs, and the few of us who had cars would drive out to either Horseshoe in Hammond or Blue Chip in Michigan City, the two casinos we preferred....

The most prized pupils of renowned violin pedagogue Zakhar Bron, Siberians Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov, are now the preeminent Russian violinists of their generation. While the volcanic Vengerov is immensely popular, the less dramatic Repin probably excites his peers more than the public. Both play with passion, but where Vengerov erupts, Repin smolders. His extraordinary virtuosity isn’t flamboyant, and his gorgeous, perfect tone flows so easily that it can seem less expressive than his counterpart’s....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Starting today, the University of Chicago is hosting a symposium on academic freedom with three days of free workshops, panel discussions, and lectures. The kick-off takes place tonight at 6:15 PM in the McCormick-Tribune Lounge (Reynolds Club, 5706 S. University) with a panel discussion on academic freedom worldwide, featuring U of C professors Aziz Huq (law) and Bernard Wasserstein (history), U of C students, and moderator Sarah Bray, senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Good news for those who suffer from tinnitus (a common side effect of hearing damage), as well as for music lovers who depend on their ears for their livelihood and anyone else who asks a lot of their auditory system: very early tests out of the Tinnitus Clinic in London indicate that researchers may have found a cure for the condition, which has long been considered incurable....

Cleo From 5 to 7 screens at the Logan Theatre tonight. As it turns out, two films by the great Agnès Varda are playing around town in the next four days. At 11 PM tonight, the Logan Theatre screens her second feature, Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961); and on Sunday at 7 PM, Doc Films will present her 2000 documentary The Gleaners and I as the conclusion of their Varda/Chris Marker series....

Brigid Pasulka brigidpasulka.com Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Whitney Young High School teacher Brigid Pasulka spent a year after college in 1994 in Krakow and was charmed enough by the place and the culture to eventually write a very charming book set there. Her debut novel, A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True, published last year by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, interweaves two tales....