Chicago Reader Politics

The unfinished business of Richard M. Daley

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 19:30

First Son, details the accomplishments of Mayor Richard M. Daley—but it barely sets foot in Chicago. by Mick Dumke On March 16, 2011, just two months before he left office, Mayor Richard M. Daley held a press conference in a vacant lot at 76th and Ashland. The event ended up illustrating many of the complexities and contradictions of his 22 years in power, the longest tenure of any Chicago mayor.…

Why you won't see rap mixtapes on the charts

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 19:16

The rap mixtape is nearing the end of a decades-long journey from the margins of pop culture to mainstream credibility. Once an illicit-seeming format full of jacked beats and gun-flashing beefs, and distributed through liquor stores and Canal Street shops selling bootleg Chinese Louis Vuitton bags, mixtapes are now a multimillion-dollar business, and one of the most effective ways for a rap artist to launch a legitimate career.…

Now online: Adam Curtis's Margaret Thatcher memorial

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 17:31

A few weeks ago British filmmaker Adam Curtis responded to the death of Margaret Thatcher by uploading The Attic, his 1995 TV movie about her, to his BBC-sponsored blog. "I'm putting it up as a bit of a corrective to the terrifying wonk-fest that took over after Mrs. Thatcher died," Curtis wrote in a new postscript.…

Mayor Emanuel's FOIA policy: Don't ask because we won't tell

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 17:00

Mayor Emanuel finds a new way to avoid sharing public records: throwing them out. by Ben Joravsky As we approach the midpoint of Mayor Emanuel's first term, I think I've discovered one of his greatest legacies to Chicago, right up there with dismantling public education and making Mayor Daley's god-awful parking meter deal even worse. The mayor is also undermining the Freedom of Information Act, so that it's next to impossible for ordinary citizens to secure information showing how the government reaches decisions that affect their lives.…

12 O'Clock Track: Jan Hammer Group's deeply funky "Don't You Know"

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 17:00

With all the hubbub surrounding Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, which leaked yesterday to alternately rapturous and nauseated reactions on Twitter, I was going to post Jan Hammer's "Don't You Know" because I thought that it replicates some of RAM's cheesier elements perfectly. But then I realized that the version of "Don't You Know" that I've been hearing this whole time—recommended to me by a friend—is an alternate, from his 1994 album Drive; they didn't even know that there was another rendition.…

Did you read about the IRS, Terrence Malick, and foodies?

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 16:03

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• This defense of the IRS employees who scrutinized Tea Partiers who wanted tax breaks? —Steve Bogira

• Or see this video about the distribution of wealth in the United States?…

Red Plum/Local Values, the ad rag that keeps coming

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 15:23

Grit. Tenacity.…

Reader's Agenda Tue 5/14: Holocaust education, sludgy metal, and a postmodern fairy tale

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 11:15

Looking for something to do today? Agenda's got you covered:

The exhibit "Fire in My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh" recounts the life of a young poet executed by a Nazi firing squad after the attempted rescue of some of her Jewish friends in Hungary.…

Deerhunter's dreamily scuzzy Monomania and 14 more record reviews

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 09:00

Reviews of 15 current releases from all over the world of music: Deerhunter, Altar of Plagues, and lots more by Peter Margasak, Miles Raymer, Leor Galil, Kevin Warwick, Philip Montoro, Tal Rosenberg, Luca Cimarusti, Monica Kendrick and Bill Meyer Adult., The Way Things Fall (Ghostly International) Detroit's most abrasive electro-punk duo have trimmed their sound's serrated edges and refashioned themselves into an Italo-inflected new-wave pop group in the same neighborhood as fellow electroclash scene survivors the Chromatics. The production is smoother, the hooks are broader, and The Way Things Fall is way more accessible than anything Adult.…

Does national culture determine moviegoing habits?

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 21:02

"The Japanese film audience still behaves much as it does at the theater," wrote Donald Richie in his A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. "Members . . .…

Bodega Pop unearths Cambodian rock gems

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 20:03

Nowhere does New York City's phenomenal melting-pot aspect shine through more than in its plentiful, cat-filled bodegas, where the simple act of ducking in to buy a bottle of water can easily turn into a crash course in a far-off country's pop culture, snack food preferences, and/or religious practices. Astoria resident Gary Sullivan figured out a while ago that New York's bodegas offered a far different perspective on the actual listening habits of people around the globe than what the world music section at the record store had to offer—one that's generally funkier and funner, if more indebted to Western pop styles and therefore less "authentic."…

Ballast Point beers—including Yellowtail, Big Eye, and Sculpin—arrive in Chicago

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 19:35

Venerable San Diego brewery Ballast Point, founded in 1996, began distributing its beers in Chicago last week. It names many of its beers after ocean fish (black marlin, dorado, sculpin) and generally sticks to a nautical theme even when fish aren't involved (Victory at Sea coffee-vanilla imperial porter, Navigator doppelbock).…

My favorite cake

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 19:03

I've requested the same simple birthday cake every year since I was teenager. It's a recipe from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a buttermilk lemon cake that my mom clipped and slightly modified.…

Best shows to see: Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, the Body, and Deep Sea Diver

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 17:52

The week's just beginning, and it's another busy one. The obvious highlight of a stacked list of great shows is Kurt Vile, who's playing Lincoln Hall on Tue 5/14 in support of his excellent new record Wakin on a Pretty Daze.…

12 O'Clock Track: Mudhoney's ripper about shitty white wine, "Chardonnay"

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 17:00

Mudhoney is just the best. There are a load of reasons as to why this is—the group's stubborn unwillingness to go the way of much of the first-wave grunge phenomenon and front man Mark Arm's embrace of the curmudgeon lifestyle being among my very favorites.…

Did you read about Malcolm Shabazz, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Gwyneth Paltrow?

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 15:54

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.

Hey, did you read:

• That carbon dioxide has reached a level not seen on the earth in at least three million years? —Steve Bogira

• About the latest in money laundering?…

Contemporary classical music on your radio all day today at WFMT

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 15:02

Chicago is lucky to still have a full-time classical-music radio station in WFMT, but for fans of composed music that's less than a hundred years old, there aren't so many opportunities to hear it outside of the concert hall or by purchasing recordings. There are occasions where something less musty gets on WFMT's airwaves, as on host Seth Bousted's weekly Relevant Tones program, but by and large the station doesn't offer much proof that "classical" music is a living tradition.…

Reader's Agenda Mon 5/13: The Yellow Birds, the Harlem Renaissance, and David Misch

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 11:13

Looking for something to do today? Agenda's got you covered:

Kevin Powers was a machine gunner in Iraq at the age of 17.…

Cocktail Challenge: Tartar sauce

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 09:00

Challenged with tartar sauce, Annemarie Sagoi creates a potable tribute to fish-and-chips. by Kate Schmidt Challenged with Tartar sauce by Scofflaw's Uby Khawaja, "I was going to go the fish route," says Annemarie Sagoi, a bartender at Big Star and the Charleston. Instead she went for "a tangy, herby flavor profile" akin to tartar sauce itself, using the savory spirit aquavit as a base and "a lot of lemon" to recall fish-and-chips; sea salt and a vinegar-based celery shrub round out her tribute.…

At Vu Sua, Macku Chan channels the 90s

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 09:00

At Vu Sua, Macku Chan channels the 90s. by Mike Sula I once tried to sit down at a sidewalk restaurant in Hanoi that specialized in dog meat. As I haltingly asked for a seat in my horrible mockery of the Vietnamese language, the young woman in charge of the spot stared right through me, probably more than familiar with clumsy, thrill-seeking adventurers—or worse, foreigners eager to pass judgment on something alien to their experience.…

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