Photo by Marzena Abrahamik, nails by Naughty Nail’z Designed objects and art books come together at Medium Cool. The concept of an art book fair has become a phenomenon in the contemporary art world. Last year’s New York Art Book Fair, organized by Printed Matter and held at MoMA PS1, drew more than 27,000 visitors. Medium Cool, Chicago’s very own art book fair, now in its second year, is back this weekend with extended hours, more vendors, and a day devoted to designed objects....

On Wednesday, as the city council performed its annual ritual of approving the mayor’s budget, I was wondering how I’d vote, if I were an alderman. And, as such, jacking up property taxes by well over $600 million this year alone—let’s not forget the TIF surcharge, people—is the least regressive alternative we have at our immediate disposal. In other words, for all of its awfulness, this budget is better than the alternative of falling further and further into debt....

The menu for Logan Square’s upcoming Young American will feature “Goth” bread, blackened with activated charcoal and leek ash, along with hummus stained with black sesame tahini. There will be “nighttime sisig,” the porky Filipino pig face skillet, stir-fried with squid ink. And there will be a fermented Chinese black bean brandade, garnished with dulse, the umami-rich sea vegetable that looks like something that would wrap around your limbs and pull you under the water....

The Asshattan at Remedy Remedy 1910 N. Milwaukee 773-698-7715 remedybarchicago.com @remedy_chicago

1459 W. Irving Park, 773-549-1594, deluxetattoo.com I am, for the most part, a huge wimp. I try to avoid pain, heights, fast-moving vehicles, and generally uncomfortable situations at any cost. So when I decided to go against all my natural instincts and get a tattoo, I knew it would have to be somewhere that felt more like a spa than the dimly lighted places in gritty crime dramas. (Everything is the same in real life as on TV, right?...

Jim Brockmire is a fitting TV hero for America in 2017. He’s a famous baseball announcer who disappears from public view after an on-air meltdown, then attempts to resurrect his life and career as the voice of a struggling minor-league team in a dying rust-belt town. Brockmire’s longing for a quaint rose-tinted past that never existed and his vulgar means of getting what he wants are an apt reflection of the country right now....

When Chance the Rapper announced via a single in July that he was buying Chicagoist—the hyperlocal news site closed by billionaire owner Joe Ricketts the previous November—there was a ton of speculation about what he’d do with it. At an invitation-only event Friday morning, a collection of journalists, young aldermanic candidates, professors, and supporters got a first glimpse of the goods. Champ/Chance then delivers a 101-level lesson in Chicago politics, set to music with what Sun-Times journalist Kathy Chaney astutely described as a Schoolhouse Rock vibe....

Gwynedd Stuart: I’m impressed that Chicago weather is so predictable. A rainy morning gave way to an incredibly beautiful Saturday. I started my day late with the Damned, who were fucking great. I heard a friend say they were low energy—I’d say they were exactly the right energy for playing a way-too-early slot. The Dead Milkmen agreed. I was walking back toward the press area when I heard Rodney Linderman say what a bummer it was that the Damned had to play so early, because Dave Vanian is a vampire....

End of Watch Each Friday, we recommend seven Old Movies to Watch Now, all of which come recommended by one of our critics and can currently be screened online. Read the review, watch the movie, feel accomplished. • Paranorman, the stop-motion comedy about a boy who sees dead people.

Music Box Theatre 3733 N. Southport Runner-Up Gene Siskel Film Center

935 W. Webster 773-975-8030 state-chicago.com Runner-Up Kirkwood Bar & Grill

“I got lucky,” bartender John Smillie of the Violet Hour confessed. Challenged by Griffin Benko of Lone Wolf to make a drink with whey, Smillie got a text from a chef friend of his who happened to have a fresh supply of the dairy by-product from making yogurt. (Whey is the liquid left over when milk has been curdled and strained—hence Little Miss Muffet’s curds and whey.) Not long after that, Smillie came across a second source of whey when the crew at neighboring Big Star made a batch of ricotta cheese, yielding a savory liquid quite distinct in taste from the slightly acidic yogurt whey....

There are few words that sound less inspiring than “research.” In his introduction, Miller quotes from an essay by the scholar G. Thomas Tanselle called “Texts and Artifacts in the Electronic Era”: “The misconception that texts are easily extractable from books has contributed to policy decisions—all the more shocking for being deliberate—that will mark the present as an age of destruction on a scale beyond even that of the book burnings of the past....

New York-based beauty brand Glossier knows how to build buzz. In June it posted a photo to Instagram of a pink Bean in Millennium Park—utilizing the same shade as its popular brand color (Pantone 705 C)—and shared plans to come to Chicago this summer. The post generated nearly 135,000 likes—well over double what those bookending it commanded—as well as more than 4,000 comments, ranging from “OMG I’M STOKED I LIVE THERE ILY GUYS!...

Courtesy Robert Morris University eSports Members of Robert Morris University’s eSports team get their gaming on. On the third floor of Robert Morris University‘s State Street campus, there’s a room that looks like a cross between a NASA control center, a submarine deck, and an arcade. Nearly every piece of equipment inside the room has a splash of red, from the ergonomic DXRacer chairs to the hard drives that have a display noting the CPU core temperatures....

2323 N. Milwaukee 773-227-2739 revbrew.com Runner-Up Piece

2439 W. Devon 773-338-1627 hemaskitchen.com Runner-Up Cumin

The Knife Tonight local artist and musician Steve “Plastic Crimewave” Krakow celebrates the ten-year anniversary of his Reader comic “The Secret History of Chicago Music” with a free show at the Empty Bottle. It’s headlined by Ono and the lineup is filled out by Valentine & the Velcronics, Bil Vermette & Plastic Crimewave, and Jim Cuomo with Mormos. Also heavy metal band Master is coming to Reggie’s Rock Club tomorrow night and White Hinterland is opening up for S....

Sarah Grueneberg Monteverde Restaurant and Pastificio

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, August 8, 2017. Lawyer: Ex-Northwestern professor plans to plead not guilty to murder of Trenton Cornell-Duranleau Northwestern professor Wyndham Lathem—who was fired by the university effective August 4—is expected to plead not guilty to first-degree murder charges for the July 27 stabbing death of 26-year-old Trenton Cornell-Duranleau in River North, according to his California attorney, Kenneth Wine. On Monday afternoon Lathem appeared in court in suburban San Francisco, where “he agreed to waive his arraignment and right to oppose extradition to Chicago,” the Sun-Times reports....