Chicago Reader Politics

Tony Diaz of Maude's Liquor Bar works with cactus, the Slimer of succulents

Challenged with cactus, Tony Diaz of Maude's Liquor Bar develops a taste for the succulent, slime and all. by Julia Thiel The Chef: Tony Diaz (Maude's Liquor Bar)The Challenger: John Asbaty (Panozzo's Italian Market)The Ingredient: Cactus Prickly pear cactus grows so quickly and is so difficult to get rid of that it's often considered a pest plant.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

HoZac digs deep for the 2013 Blackout

The 2013 HoZac Blackout features Dwight Twilley, weirdo sci-fi postpunks Chrome, and lots more. by Luca Cimarusti Local label HoZac retired its Blackout festival with a memorable blowout in 2006, then resuscitated it in 2011; for its third year back, the notoriously rowdy, beer-soaked punk-and-garage party runs for four nights at the Empty Bottle, with a lovingly curated lineup of local and national acts that represents a huge range of generations. The fest kicks off Thu 5/16 with an art show featuring work by Goons, Greg Shirilla, Nick Ryle, and others, plus live music by Ohio underground-rock legends Mike Rep and Tommy Jay, local punky pop band Negative Scanner, and Minneapolis punks the Sleaze.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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?…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Jukebox update: Kiss, Jorge Ben Jor, and more

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Reader's Agenda Mon 5/20: Dinosaur improv, Charlie XCX, and architecture

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Rainbow Thai Cuisine earns its stripes

Lincoln Square's Rainbow Thai Cuisine recalls the glory days of authentic Thai food. by Mike Sula Just a little over a decade ago on the Chicago board of the food chat site Chowhound, a poster by the name of "foodfirst" (aka food and travel writer Robyn Eckhardt) posted a translation of a Thai language menu from the Lincoln Square restaurant Spoon. It had been passed along to her by slavering local foodlums anxious to get a taste of real Thai food beyond pad Thai and crab Rangoon.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Weekly Top Five: Joseph Lewis and the B movie swamp

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Reader's Agenda Sun 5/19: An organic beer garden, 60 years of blues, and Andrew Lloyd Webber

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Street View 099: Modern armor

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Reader's Agenda Sat 5/18: Yo-Yo Ma, acclaimed hors d'oeuvres, and rap karaoke

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Marcus Samuelsson's Yes, Chef—reviewed

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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).…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Rare Sun Ra sounds and images from Corbett vs. Dempsey

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

An interview with Dan Sallitt, director of The Unspeakable Act

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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?…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Reader's Agenda Fri 5/17: Manifest, Fight Girl Battle World, and Asian American Showcase

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Doing it wrong on guns, Chicago-style

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.…

[ Read more ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]