A Whole Bunch Of Lollapalooza Afterparties

COURTESY LOLLAPALOOZA Blood Orange A festival as huge and commercial as Lollapalooza inevitably brings a ton of detractors out of the woodwork, so it’s a given that Lolla weekend will play host to at least one counter- or antifest—and this year there are several. The Neon Marshmallow festival—an experimental-music blowout that has, in previous years, featured big-time noisemakers such as Thurston Moore and Guardian Alien—runs for four days at the Burlington....

November 26, 2022 · 2 min · 350 words · Jennifer Nash

Andre Davis Released From Prison After A Wrongful Conviction Is Charged With Murder Again

Clayton Hauck Andre Davis, 32 years after he was convicted of rape and murder Two years ago, Andre Davis was released from prison after DNA evidence pointed to another man in the 1980 rape and murder of three-year-old Brianna Stickel. Of the 100-plus inmates wrongfully convicted in Illinois, Davis had spent more time than any of them behind bars: 32 years. However, Davis’s mother said that in the months after my visit she saw more of her son’s anger emerge....

November 26, 2022 · 1 min · 149 words · Luis Meyer

Best Local Grocer

Harvestime Foods 2632 W. Lawrence Runner-Up Dill Pickle Food Co-op

November 26, 2022 · 1 min · 10 words · Emily Wolfson

Did You Read About Amazon A Publishing House Twitter War And Gluten

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

November 26, 2022 · 1 min · 11 words · Karen Flores

A Scarf Offers A Ray Of Sunshine On A Gray Day

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. Creating a fun look in the winter can be quite a challenge, but Ariel seems to have found the solution: a very colorful faux-fur scarf that brought life—and warmth—to her minimal gray coat. See more street style in the Chicago Looks blog.

November 25, 2022 · 1 min · 61 words · Raymond Porter

Best Restaurant For Romance

340 W. Armitage 773-281-9101 gejascafe.com Runner-Up Ciao Amore

November 25, 2022 · 1 min · 8 words · Russell Mayhew

Bossy Chicago Leads The Way For Woman Owned Businesses

When Samantha Letscher and Isabel Benatar, the founders of Bossy Chicago, met and became friends a little more than a year ago, in an entrepreneurship course during their sophomore year at Northwestern, they decided that one day they wanted to start a business or organization that would combine their interests in feminism and social change. Over this past winter, they began working in the Garage, Northwestern’s student start-up space, and thinking more seriously about what kind of project they wanted to do....

November 25, 2022 · 2 min · 231 words · Andrew Xayasith

Bts Became America S Favorite K Pop Group This Year

On Sunday, May 6, while the world woke up to the peerless video Childish Gambino released for his song “This Is America,” I noticed something briefly trending above it on Twitter: “Singularity,” the minimal R&B song from K-pop juggernauts BTS. Less than two weeks later, the group dropped their third album, Love Yourself: Tear (Big Hit Entertainment), which became the first K-pop album to reach the top of the Billboard 200—a huge benchmark for a global phenomenon that’s slowly been crossing over into American culture....

November 25, 2022 · 2 min · 288 words · Jana Whitley

Chef Jason Paskewitz Cooks New Life Into French Food At The Blanchard

First there’s the egg. An oeuf Outhier headlines the menu at the Blanchard, a new French restaurant from chef Jason Paskewitz, who was last seen endeavoring with contemporary American dishes at Gemini Bistro and the late Rustic House. Fans of Next’s inaugural Paris 1906 dinner might at a glance mistake Paskewitz’s egg for the truffled oeuf Benedictine that kicked off that Escoffier-inspired menu. While it’s certainly a wee showstopper, arriving mounted on an egg cup, its crown neatly cut away to reveal a tuft of greenery and onyx pearls of domestic sturgeon caviar, it’s a more modern invention named for a French chef who cooked for the shah of Iran in the 70s....

November 25, 2022 · 2 min · 282 words · Rickey Dobbs

Did You Read About Ben Carson Bruce Willis And Van Morrison

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • About Canada’s new Sikh defense chief, a combat veteran who fought in Afghanistan? —Michael Miner • That Bruce Willis is one of a bunch of big-name actors who get electronic line feeds on Broadway? —Tony Adler

November 25, 2022 · 1 min · 48 words · Danielle Nunamaker

A Few Lines Inspired By Last Friday S New York Times Crossword Puzzle

Clue: Whack. Answer: Stab. I bet you do. Literally? Does what? I mean, she whacks him. I guess they do.

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 20 words · Antionette Grady

At Drekfest The Worst Is Yet To Come

Described as being on a mission “to expose bad writing for what it really is: damn funny,” DrekFest, Stage Left’s annual contest of truly terrible ten-minute plays, comes to ComedySportz Theatre next week for one night only. This year’s fest, the eighth, features four works by local playwrights vying for the title of worst of the worst. Can they possibly top past “grand losers” such as Abortion Carnival of the Juggalos and F*** You Janine: A Play Ruined by My Ex, Like Everything Else in My Life?...

November 24, 2022 · 2 min · 261 words · Laurie Liang

Best Band Named After Something That Goes Great With Cream Cheese

I won’t lie, when I found this band’s recent debut full-length on Bandcamp, I listened to it because of their name—the album’s title, Toasted, was just the schmear on top. But my amusement at Hot Bagels‘ silly jokes was quickly overshadowed by my love for their lo-fi rock jams. Main man Craig Woods writes catchy melodies that hook you in seconds, and he douses his poppy tracks in fuzz—my favorite songs (“Off Your Face,” “I Need a Lift”) burst with a sort of scuzzy, electric tension....

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 173 words · Tasha Luna

Best Long Running Play

Neo-Futurarium 5153 N. Ashland 773-275-5255 neofuturists.org Runner-Up Million Dollar Quartet

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 10 words · Richard Jackson

Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Puts A Steamroller At The Center Of An Entirely Different Form Of Roller Derby

There was not a skate in sight at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative’s Roller Derby a week ago last Saturday in Lincoln Square, or fishnets or black eyes, only ink-stained aprons. When I arrived, a block featuring geometric, topographical imagery was next in line to be printed—the work of Rachelle Hill, a former intern at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. She had worked on a block with other artists for the 2016 event, but this year she went solo, carefully whittling her piece for two months in her bedroom....

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 85 words · Shirlene Stevens

City Announces Lineup For Made In Chicago World Class Jazz

Courtesy of ECM Records Hal Russell’s NRG Ensemble Earlier this week the city formally announced the lineup for Made in Chicago: World Class Jazz, another of its free summer concert series at the Pritzker Pavilion. (Full disclosure: I served as a volunteer on the committee that programmed this series.) The program kicks off on Thursday, July 24, and continues for the next six weeks, culminating with an August 28 concert by Ernest Dawkins that’ll help launch this year’s Chicago Jazz Festival....

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 213 words · Dan Walraven

David Bowie S Ex Girlfriend Discusses Their Love Affair Interracial Dating Mick Jagger And The Infamous Labyrinth Bulge

The singer Ava Cherry was sound asleep in her Lincoln Park home on the morning of January 11 when her phone began incessantly chiming and vibrating with alerts. Who’s Facebooking me and texting me this much this early? she wondered. What’s going on? Clearly something was wrong. She awoke at almost 5 AM to find some 350 messages reacting to the death of her ex-boyfriend and collaborator David Bowie. “My heart just sank,” recalls Cherry, who was raised in Woodlawn....

November 24, 2022 · 2 min · 232 words · Helen Garcia

Did You Read About Climate Change Hot Doug S And Norm Macdonald

Jim Frost/Sun-Times Media Goodbye, old friend Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • That Hot Doug’s is closing? —Luca Cimarusti • Or watch the interview revealing the one condition that could keep Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland), the protagonist of 24, out of Chicago? —Lisa Schulz

November 24, 2022 · 1 min · 49 words · Adrienne Payne

A David Bowie Dance Opera Coco Picard Chats The Sugar Ball And More Things To Do This Weekend

Whether you want to unwind with wine and jazz or escape from political turmoil with political comedy, there’s tons to do in Chicago this July Fourth weekend: Sat 7/1: Enjoy great wine, pizza, and music while making positive change at the Giving Back Block Party. Proceeds go toward making improvements for the Albany Park neighborhood. Oh, and there’s also a 50-foot tall bouncy house. Hosted by Angelo’s Wine Bar (3026 W....

November 23, 2022 · 1 min · 120 words · Michael Fountain

An Immersive John Hughes Themed Film Festival Is Coming To Chicago This Summer

The team behind last year’s Ferris Fest, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, will return June 22-25 with an even bigger follow-up event. The Shermer Club: A John Hughes Fest will honor writer-director’s John Hughes’s 1980s teen movies with exclusive film screenings, a luxury bus tour to filming locations in and around Chicago, and expansive re-creations of classic scenes from those films—culminating in a full reenactment of the wedding scene from Sixteen Candles....

November 23, 2022 · 1 min · 189 words · Jeff Howk