Jim Luning Martha Lavey Martha Lavey is an unsentimental romantic. A Kansan by birth, she speaks with prairie earnestness about the practical uses of certain large concepts such as love, citizenship, and leading by following. She’s also one of the few people I know who seems actually to consider the validity of the things she says as she’s saying them. Earlier this month Steppenwolf Theatre disclosed that Lavey will be stepping down from her position as the company’s artistic director in 2015, after a round 20 seasons in the role, to be succeeded by fellow ensemble member—and Tony-winning director—Anna D....

Since 2004, San Diego’s Tristan Shone has been transforming himself into an extreme industrial metal cyborg he calls Author & Punisher. A mechanical engineer by trade, Shone built a series of “drone machines” and “dub machines”: heavy-duty steel sliders, levers, and knobs that add a factory-floor swing and tactile human weight to the midi samples and synth drones they control. Shone hit his stride on 2013’s Women & Children, creating a dynamic record that added emotional depth and forlorn melody to the skull-rattling electronic beats and explosive Nine Inch Nails-flavored darkness, all created live by his elaborate machinery....

“Everyone has some weird connection, love or hate, with eggs,” Celina Dzyacky said. “This one thing we consume every day is so good for you and magical and creepy, all at the same time.” “The drink kind of looks like [something from] the milk bar from A Clockwork Orange,” she said. “You might not want to drink it outside on a hot day, but you might want to drink it in a really creepy, dark milk bar in London....

It’s hard enough coming up with a dance, let alone one about the discoveries of wheelchair-bound astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking, of course, was diagnosed with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, shortly after his 21st birthday. As his health has deteriorated over the last 50 years, so has his mobility. He now requires a staff of nearly 40 people to care for him; at least four remain by his side at all hours of the day....

Mr. Z We survived the polar vortex! For a minute there I didn’t think we were going to. The temps are back in the double digits today, and this weekend they’ll be pushing 40—that’s going to feel like paradise compared to the beginning of this week. The warm-up comes just in time for another busy weekend of live music. Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, two members of the pioneering industrial group Throbbing Gristle, have been playing as a duo since their band’s first demise in 1981....

David Ewald Dama/Libra There’s a whole bunch of stuff happening this evening. On top of the Clean and Dama/Libra shows detailed below, Dutch neopsych singer Jacco Gardner will be playing at the Empty Bottle with openers Bare Mutants. Tomorrow on Tue 8/19, there’s spiritual indie-pop collective Polyphonic Spree. playing at SPACE in Evanston Then on Wed 8/20, Canadian skate punks Propagandhi play at Concord Music Hall, while the Glitter Creeps series kicks off at Whiskey Trust with sets from Flesh Panthers and Mr....

Barry Lyndon 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. • Panic in Needle Park, the New Hollywood drama.

Patricio Guzman earned his place in cinematic history with The Battle of Chile (1975-’79), a stunning journalistic trilogy about the 1973 military coup that replaced Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, with the dictator Augusto Pinochet. Since then Guzman has returned to the coup years with Chile, Obstinate Memory (1997), The Pinochet Case (2001), and Salvador Allende (2004), but in 2010 he took a break from politics and indulged a lifelong love of astronomy to make a series of shorts about the heavens....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Monday, July 17, 2017. The Illinois budget deal won’t solve public universities’ many fiscal issues Public universities in Illinois will receive state funding for the 2017-2018 school year thanks to the new state budget, but that won’t solve all the problems that piled up during 736 days without one, according to the Tribune. “You don’t get one year’s funding and have people say, ‘Oh, Illinois is totally fixed now,’ ” Chicago State University interim president Rachel Lindsey told the Tribune....

QI am a single woman, 31, in LA, and on OkCupid. (We all are.) I’ve gotten a number of unicorn requests. (Maybe because I mention being a subscriber to the Savage Lovecast magnum version in my profile?) I’ve never responded—until the other day. One unicorn request stood out. I wrote back. They seem like cool, smart, interesting people (a 40-year-old liberal married couple). Their profile is funny, and they’re quite attractive!...

For most of the year I rant and rail about the really bad ideas and behavior of our elected officials—and, trust me, I’ll get to Mayor Rahm’s $800 million or so Lincoln Yard TIF handout in a subsequent column real soon. So, good job, Illinois voters. And, J.B., if you come through on your promises regarding legal reefer, progressive taxes, an elected school board in Chicago, and more money for education—you can buy as many horse farms in Florida as you want....

The GMan Tavern 3740 N. Clark Runner-Up Sluggers World Class Sports Bar

Chicago Athletic Association 12 S. Michigan Runner-Up The Guesthouse Hotel

Showplace ICON may be my least favorite movie theater in the city. I hate the assigned seating, the faux VIP atmosphere, the way the light from the hallway leaks onto the screen even after the door is closed. But because of promotional screenings, I probably spend more time there than at any other venue, some of it on Saturday mornings. Luckily, the theater serves amazing coffee, a full-city roast made by North Carolina beverage company S&D Coffee & Tea....

Holstein Park Public Pool 2200 N. Oakley

Philip Montoro, Reader music editor Big Dumb Skulls This affectionately snarky blog, run by two servants of the fictional Council of the Elders of the Skull who call themselves Friar Wagner and Friar Johnsen, began with a question: “How many metal bands have taken great care to write and record their music, only to slap a big dumb skull on the album cover?” Beginning on January 1, 2013, the friars reviewed 666 releases (and skulls) before the Council granted them a “period of rest” last week....

The flip wasn’t bad, Moberg says, though he might prefer it without the doenjang. Still, he says, “I think it worked out pretty well, given that it’s soybean paste in a cocktail.”