The South Side Natalie Y. Moore

Jackson Park Golf Course 6401 S. Richards 773-667-0524 jacksonpark.cpdgolf.com @jacksonparkCPD

Maybe it occurred with the election of Barack Obama. Or the murder of Trayvon Martin, or the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or the election of you-know-who. But at some point in recent American memory, the often talked-about, ever-elusive “national conversation about race” stopped being a think-piece phrase and turned into an actual daily reality. As a nation, engaging in the conversation is unquestionably (a) critical to combatting deeply rooted systemic social injustice and (b) really, really unpleasant....

Laurie Chipps What to make of the Clipper’s revamp? Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • About “the silent sniper of overdoses” that’s hit middle-class Staten Island in New York City? —Mick Dumke • About the face-lift Sodikoff gave the California Clipper (which reopens tonight)? —Kevin Warwick

ARTIST: Bred Rohloff SHOW: The Seventh Annual Chili-Synth Cook-Off at Empty Bottle on Sun 3/19 with Mike Broers, Natalie Chami, Jason Letkiewicz, and Ken Zawacki MORE INFO: brohloff.me

The quarterly Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Council meeting is usually a tightly scheduled show-and-tell, with staff from the Chicago Department of Transportation and other city agencies giving presentations on what they’re doing to improve cycling. Shaken by the events, Kristen Green of Ghost Bikes Chicago reached out to ask CDOT for time at the MBAC meeting to discuss the hazards for cyclists that she views as a public health crisis. Ghost Bikes installs white-painted bicycles at crash sites to honor fallen cyclists, and Green has known more than her fair share of people killed in bike crashes....

Illustrations by Ben Chlapek Election season Following the Van Dyke trial through the WBEZ podcast 16 Shots Closed toes, bare ankles Visiting Jackson Park before it’s too late Less pressure to go out every night Mid-Autumn Festival September on the beach Bowling season The perfect storm, or the two weeks in October when sports are king Four Frankensteins (and a panel discussion) Indecent and Downstate, two plays with a better-than-even chance of being great...

Avery R. Young & De Deacon Board are in the business of saving souls. Through what he calls “sousefunk”—an intersection of blues, funk, and gospel—Young taps into the raw emotions of a pastor whooping at the end of his sermon to, as he puts it, “Call up some spirits and bring in some sheep.” But his sets stray far from Sunday church service— “The pastor cusses, though,” Young says, referring to himself....

Bassist Christopher Dammann may have spent the last eight years in Charlottesville, Virginia, but musically he’s a Chicagoan. He got his schooling at Northwestern University and on the bandstand of the Velvet Lounge, and subsequently founded two bands he’s kept in play even when he’s had to commute across state lines in order to join them. Both his groups Restroy—whose self-titled second album was just released by local 1980 label—and 3....

Gwynedd Stuart All of the bao When it comes to franchising, frozen yogurt has proven to be a pretty safe bet. It’s cold, it’s delicious, and you can top it with shit like gummy bears and crushed-up Heath bars and still not feel like you’re doing something as bad as eating ice cream. And it contains probiotics, which Jamie Lee Curtis says are good for our butts. Forever Yogurt, the brightly colored, serve-yourself yogurt franchise started in 2010 by young entrepreneur (and former professional poker player) Mandy Calara, has been a runaway success....

Young Fathers If you’re looking for something fun to do with your mom this Mother’s Day weekend and she’s a fan of live music you’re in luck, cause there are plenty of shows to see through Sunday. “When Off! debuted in 2009, they were the most exciting band on the planet: the greatest front man in the history of Los Angeles hardcore, channeling the glory days of 80s west-coast DIY punk-house culture with three of the sharpest rock musicians around,” writes Luca Cimarusti....

Late last week, Chicago rappers Chris Crack and Vic Spencer released their second collaborative full-length as Chris Spencer, Blessed. These hardscrabble MCs continue down the path they set with last year’s Who the Fuck Is Chris Spencer?, which is as much about the intersection of their distinctive personas as it is about what makes each one unique. Spencer is rough around the edges, with a gruff voice whose power can make a rich instrumental sound brittle by comparison, while the flamboyant Crack doles out colorful hyperbole with a nasal bite....

MIKI MATSUSHIMA Boris I really love genre-bending Japanese metal trio Boris, and am overjoyed to be going to see them for the first time in years on Sunday night. Leading up to the show, I’ve been jumping back head-first into the band’s gigantic, beyond-diverse, 20-year catalog, and find my mind being blown over and over again with each record. Today’s 12 O’Clock Track is “Naki Kyoku” off of 2003’s Akuma no Uta, an album that the band made when they were transitioning out of doom and into more soulful stoner rock....

Tomorrow, January 4, the nonfiction showcase True/False will present the Chicago premiere of the documentary Thy Father’s Chair (2015) at the Music Box Theatre, two months ahead of the annual True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri. The Chicago-based instrumental band Mar Caribe will kick off the event at 7 PM with a 30-minute set; and a screening of the documentary short Balloonfest, directed by Nathan Truesdell, will be shown before Thy Father’s Chair....

ARTIST: Chris Day SHOWS: Cave record-release shows for Allways at the Hideout on Sat 10/20 and Sun 10/21 MORE INFO: cchhrriissddaayy.com

The first thing you notice about Martha Mae: Art Supplies & Beautiful Things is the light. Jean Cate’s small shop, near the northeast corner of Clark and Balmoral in Andersonville, is unlike its neighboring storefronts. It doesn’t have a dark awning; its windows aren’t obscured by lettering or decorations; there’s no elaborate display of the wares sold inside. If you took away all the stuff for sale—the row of heavy art books, the brass rulers and pencil sharpeners, the handmade scissors, the wooden animal models, the mason jars of paintbrushes and sponges, the boxes of retro paperclips, the notebooks and sketchbooks and desk pads, the porcelain pallets and the colored pencils, the little bundles of erasers and all the framed etchings and watercolors on the walls—what you’d have left would look like someone’s sparse but inviting home, or an artisan’s workshop....

Sunday night’s installment of the CBS drama The Good Wife juggled four different plotlines—yet suffered from keeping things too simple. This wasn’t one of those times. In real life this would have been a case inseparable from the publicity it was getting.

Evanston library’s “Cranky Librarian” problem blew up in a major way during the last week. As the library’s board initiated abrupt termination proceedings for Lesley Williams (aka “Cranky”), e-mails surfaced revealing that board members and the library’s director had been conspiring to get rid of her for several years. The post consisted of photos of a library flyer that touted “Free & Equal Access for All,” along with this comment by Williams: “Some organizations are true leaders in practicing equity and inclusion....

If you want to know why Mayor Rahm Emanuel will never give up his beloved tax increment financing scam without kicking and screaming, consider these stories that broke back-to-back just last week. A TIF, remember, is effectively a surcharge added to your property tax bill. Instead of going to schools, parks, police, etc, the money is diverted to bank accounts largely controlled by the mayor, leaving the rest of us to make up for the difference....