What’s a suburban American housewife living in 1960 with a philandering husband, two needy kids, a tortured past, and a millennia-old curse to do? Well, it depends which housewife you ask in Jami Brandli’s new, too-cute-by-exactly-half play, currently staged by Promethean Theatre Ensemble. Brandli tries to imbue everything else in the play with mythic resonance. Cassandra is, well, Cassandra, cursed by Apollo (a vainglorious, toga-clad prick) to speak true prophecies no one believes....

EDM has only been a serious contender on the American pop playing field for a short time, but there seem to be a few rules for the genre as it pertains to chart success. One is that unlike the majority of the dance music that EDM grew out of, a track generally requires a vocalist to break with a pop audience. EDM producers being more beat-focused musicians, this usually means bringing in a guest singer, like Aloe Blacc on Avicii’s folksy “Wake Me Up!...

)

When the French filmmaker Marie Voignier visited North Korea, she discovered that the government-run tours all but lead visitors by the hand to important national sites, where guides force them to absorb verbal propaganda. In International Tourism, her video project based on her tour now showing in “North Korean Perspectives,” a new exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Voignier eliminated sound to silence what could be construed as lies. With title cards inserted into the video, she translates only the facts from the guides while filtering out embellishments....

It’s clear Aziz Ansari is going through some stuff. To call it a midlife crisis would be inaccurate (the comedian’s only 32), but between his book Modern Romance, his latest special of the same name, and now his Netflix TV show Master of None, he has laid all of his doubts about relationships, adulthood, and family on the table. Ansari created Master of None with former Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang, and in the first two episodes they explore parenthood from both sides: first with the protagonist, Dev (Ansari), contemplating a life with children, then considering his parents’ lives and histories....

Chance the Rapper chanceraps.com @chancetherapper Runner-Up Ausar Bradley

Paul McGee Lost Lake @bagchatter Runner-Up Annie Beebe-Tron

As Illinois state legislators last week debated the latest incarnation of a bill for an elected school board in Chicago, we got tens of millions of reminders why it should be passed. Then there’s the $20 million the mayor’s appointed school board awarded in 2013 to a couple of scam artists who were bribing then schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett to use her clout to get them a no-bid principal-training contract....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Monday, February 20, 2017. Happy Presidents Day! House speaker Madigan agrees with Rauner on selling the Thompson Center Democratic Illinois house speaker Mike Madigan and Republican governor Bruce Rauner agree on one thing: the state should “consider” selling the Thompson Center in the Loop. The office building at 100 W. Randolph is in a prime location that could net Illinois $220 million, according to estimates from the governor’s office....

Tim Hecker In case you didn’t notice, it’s colder than Jack Torrance’s ice coffin outside, and it has been for the past month. It’s difficult to find any uplifting music in this kind of weather (save for stuff that maybe shouldn’t be uplifting, like the Cure), but the artist whose music I’ve listened to the most is Canadian musician Tim Hecker. His mix of soft-static drones and ear-clogging, aqueous ambient music is as bleak and beautiful as the frigid, occasionally stunning weather we’ve been getting....

If a homesick Italian tourist wandered off Michigan Avenue into Acanto, the latest among many new restaurants to call themselves Italian over the last year or so, he wouldn’t be much comforted. Yes, there’s pizza and pasta, polenta and salumi, grappa and panna cotta, and a wine list that goes up and down the Boot. But Acanto, which replaced the elegant French Henri, is more or less nominally “Italian,” breaking a number of cardinal rules with its large portions, complicated dishes with too many ingredients, salad the appetizer rather than salad the late-course digestive aid, and—che porca miseria!...

If a movie can get a premiere party—why can’t a podcast? “A podcast episode takes just as much editing, love and attention to create as any other documentary and listening to a podcast just as addictive, intimate, and immersive as watching a film. We think that audio documentaries should be treated with the same respect and attention as .” The former Oakland A’s star and onetime White Sox outfielder still can’t manage to keep away from controversy....

Belmont Cragin residents say they want answers after a man was wounded by gunfire from federal immigration agents who entered his home early Monday morning. Villegas’s office confirmed that 53-year-old Felix Torres Sr. was the man shot. The alderman’s office couldn’t confirm the names of the other family members present at the time of the shooting. Graciela Guzman was among the northwest-siders who came to the press conference Tuesday to try and get clarity on the incident, and to show support for the immigrant community....

The Bangles I won’t blame you if you want to spend the weekend between Pitchfork Music Festival and Lollapalooza taking it easy and spending time away from live music, but if you go that route you’ll be missing some great shows. “Trent Reznor had a busy 2013,” writes Maura Johnston. “He released the bracing, muscular Hesitation Marks (The Null Corporation/Columbia), his eighth album as Nine Inch Nails; his spacier, softer new band, How to Destroy Angels, made its full-length debut with Welcome Oblivion; he tinkered with the future of music distribution as chief creative officer of Beats Music, a splashy streaming service that launched in January; and he brought Hesitation Marks to arenas and festivals around the world....

As I watched jubilant teachers, wearing union red, from the Acero charter school network celebrate the new contract they’d won after a four-day strike, I had a flashback to the way things used to be. Wait, wait, as long as I’m reminiscing about changes since the bad old days, remember how recently elected Mayor Rahm, marching into town like Napoleon, took Karen Lewis out for dinner and told her how it’s gonna be with the schools?...

Local multimedia outlet and party-promotion collective Mucho Culo has hosted a monthly footwork and juke showcase at Subterranean’s downstairs lounge since November 2015, and it’s doing its part to keep Wicker Park’s historical connection to underground arts cultures from dissolving entirely. Mucho Culo events are responsible for some of my fondest memories of Subterranean: I remember seeing leather-clad punks who’d come for the early show sticking around to watch footwork dancers battle in the center of the room....

AP Photo/Mel Evans Chris Christie is in a bit of a jam. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us. • About Tyler Hadley’s party, which was literally to die for? —Tal Rosenberg • That the reunited Outkast will headline Coachella? —Leor Galil