Last year at this time I was writing about the spate of deaths that overtook Chicago’s theater community during the late summer and early fall of 2014. We lost at least a half-dozen artists—from thirtysomething actor/playwright Sati Word to 79-year-old teacher/director/mentor/griot/quiet benefactor Sheldon Patinkin—in a bare few weeks. Theater Wit wins my Annus Mirabilis Award for presenting no less than three of the best dark comedies of 2015, all of them staged by the company’s artistic director, Jeremy Wechsler: Bad Jews, Mr Burns: A Post-Electric Play, and The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, June 13, 2017. Rauner signs bill granting bail relief for nonviolent offenders Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill that will grant bail relief for nonviolent offenders in Illinois jails. The legislation, which is effective immediately, should reduce jail overcrowding and is “an important step in improving our state’s criminal justice system,” according to Rauner. Nonviolent offenders will have “bail reviewed quickly and perhaps lowered if they’re indigent” and while jailed will earn credit toward paying any eventual fines if they are convicted, according to NBC Chicago....

It made sense later-the early fear and avoidance of sex-the whole not being able to urinate in public washrooms if someone stands next to me thing, but for a long time, it was buried beneath an otherwise happy childhood. Diddle Diddle Dumplin one shoe on I recall standing next to the urinal. The director was on the right. I remember him asking me to hold out my hand. I recall crying and flashes of light....

Northern Spy Records launched in 2010, and it’s hard-to-think of too many other labels that have developed such a diverse, genre-spanning catalog so quickly and effectively. I don’t like everything the Brooklyn imprint—formed by bassist Tom Abbs and Adam Downey—releases, but I can say that just about every title in its catalog stands out in one way or another: this is not a label for imitators or run-of-the-mill types. There are plenty of well-known artists that have put out records on Northern Spy recently, including Arto Lindsay, Chicago Underground Duo, Marc Ribot, and the Necks, but the ones I’ve never heard of can be just as exciting....

The hour-by-hour method in which the Reader previews the behemoth Lollapalooza—writing about one act per time slot per day, with little to no overlap—occasionally results in the exclusion of an excellent band. And this year’s most glaring exclusion from our guide is Parquet Courts, who were set up alongside hip-hop troupe Ratking and unfortunately lost the battle of writers’ pitches. Them’s the breaks, I guess. Still, that doesn’t diminish the fact that in early June the Brooklyn indie darlings—find ’em on late-night TV!...

ARTIST: Emek SHOWS: Grateful Dead at Solider Field on Fri 7/3 through Sun 7/5 MORE INFO: emek.net

On the day Mayor Emanuel released footage of Laquan McDonald’s murder, I was driving through the south side, checking out the potholes with 17th Ward alderman David Moore. In this case, Moore had enlisted me in his effort to figure out why the mayor was paving streets that were in relatively good condition. I know! Let’s spend about $800,000 paving some streets on South Racine that don’t need repaving. The repaving was paid for with money from, what else, a TIF—in this case, the 79th Street Corridor tax increment financing district....

1434 N. Western the.runaways.lab@gmail.com facebook.com/pages/The-Runaways-Lab-Theater/262690337216649?ref=stream Runner-Up The Cowardly Scarecrow Theatre Company

The Joffrey Ballet continues to add big-ticket draws to its repertoire, most notably from young and exciting choreographers with mainstream appeal. But none of them are as prodigious as Justin Peck. At one point, an encounter between dancers Dylan Gutierrez and Jeraldine Mendoza recalls two wide-eyed lovers flirting with each other. It felt like an indie movie—I kept getting the impression that the inspiration came not from anything dance-related, but from Peck’s Instagram feed....

Last fall British label Far Out launched a reissue program devoted to overlooked Brazilian imprint Quartin, giving listeners another chance to hear the stunning 1970 album Obnoxius by José Mauro. The short-lived label was the project of producer Roberto Quartin, who’d released some of the most sophisticated Brazilian pop and jazz of the late 60s on the Forma imprint before selling it to Polygram in 1969. It’s hard to tell exactly how many albums the Quartin label put out, since some were aborted and reissued later....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, March 23, 2017. Former museum executives propose bringing American Sports Museum to Chicago Two former Chicago executives want to bring an American Sports Museum to Chicago. The men behind the effort are Marc Lapides, formerly chief marketing officer at the Adler Planetarium, and Roger Germann, a former executive vice president at the Shedd Aquarium, according to the Tribune. They’re hoping to build a 100,000-square-foot museum that’s close to downtown and easily accessible by public transportation....

Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed debut feature Fruitvale Station (2013) dramatized the real-life police killing of Oscar Grant, a young African-American man, at the title subway stop hours after San Franciscans rang in the year 2009. Given the heightened consciousness of police violence against African-Americans, Fruitvale Station seems more timely now than when it came out, yet the writer-director’s sophomore effort is—get this—a Rocky sequel, with Michael B. Jordan (who played the victim in Fruitvale) as Adonis Creed, son of Rocky’s old opponent Apollo, and Sylvester Stallone bringing back his signature palooka, who becomes the younger man’s trainer and corner man, nearly a decade after the supposedly conclusive Rocky Balboa (2006)....

AMK Kitchen Bar’s website describes its concept as “classic American comfort food with a Bucktown twist.” I’m not entirely sure what a Bucktown twist is, but I suspect that it’s reflected in the exposed brick walls, garage-door front (open when the weather allows), whiskey bar, and extensive beer list. While everything seemed sort of generically hip, the space is warm (on a 90-degree day, quite literally) and welcoming, service is attentive, and the food as comforting as can be....

Many attendees make their way in front of the gigantic grassy area in front of the sole stage to dance, and now there’s more opportunity to do so; last year, after 25 years as a single-day event, the party expanded to a two-day gathering, now called the Chosen Few Picnic & Festival.

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Longman & Eagle 2657 N. Kedzie Runner-Up Revolution Brewing

Open run: Fridays 8 PM, Subterranean, 2011 W. North, thelincolnlodge.com, $10 When the Lincoln Restaurant abruptly shut its doors in December 2013, we didn’t lose just the old-school Civil War-themed diner; stand-up showcase the Lincoln Lodge was suddenly without a home, and the 14-year-old institution—which boasts such alumni as Hannibal Buress, Natasha Leggero, and Kyle Kinane—was put in jeopardy. Wicker Park’s Subterranean came to the rescue, and in February the comedians got right back to it in the rock club’s lounge....

Feral Light began life as an aggressive crusty blackened hardcore act with harrowing stories to tell of war and cruelty—on thire 2015 self-titled demo, the Minneapolis-based band threw down a bloodstained gauntlet. But starting with their 2016 EP A Sound of Moving Shadows, they started to expand and stretch out aurally and thematically, and by the time of last year’s Void/Sanctify, the group had developed a more mystical, philosophical, and abstract bent....

Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart are only in their 20s, but both of them have already become stalwart figures on Chicago’s music scene, nonchalantly cutting across disparate communities. Cunningham largely sticks to Americana and indie, touring or collaborating with artists such as Jeff Tweedy and Twin Peaks, while Stewart is just as comfortable playing free jazz in the Few and Marker as she is working alongside Chance the Rapper, but the duo find common cause in Ohmme....

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.