Netflix He’s a horse, he’s a man—he’s BoJack Horseman. I would say that I “accidentally” watched the entire first season of BoJack Horseman on Netflix this weekend, but each time I allowed the next episode to continue playing, it was no accident. It was, however, a surprise to find the show atop their list of new releases when I settled in for a hungover binge session over the weekend; the series didn’t receive nearly the same push enjoyed by other Netflix originals....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here. Vandermark Quartet: Solid Action by Ken Vandermark

More than 17,000 Syrians have been killed in government custody since March 2011, and an estimated 100,000 people are still missing and presumed detained or killed, according to Syrian human rights groups. Abu Shadi, 27, was born in Damascus and sought asylum in Chicago in 2013 after he was arrested and tortured for more than a month by the Assad regime for filming peaceful protests. (We’re referring to him by his nickname to protect his identity during the asylum process....

My year-end list published in the Reader a couple weeks ago bore the headline “The ten best jazz records of 2016,” because I forgot to remind my editor that I’d prefer to say “My ten favorite” instead. The concreteness of “best” doesn’t acknowledge the reality that I didn’t hear all the jazz albums released last year—not even close. As usual, in the days and weeks since I compiled the list, I’ve heard music that could’ve competed for a spot, including Flaga (The Book of Angels, Vol....

revbrew.com Runner-Up Daisy Cutter (Half Acre)

wtmx.com/ek.php Runner-Up This Is Hell! (WNUR 89.3 FM)

Welles Park 2333 W. Sunnyside www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/Welles-Park Runner-Up Winnemac Park

When it opened last fall, a really adorable thing about Tacos Tequilas was that it was called Tacos Tequilas but didn’t serve any tequila. (Second-most adorable thing: the photo wall in the back that honors Mexican celebrities from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera to . . . well, I don’t recognize most of the rest of them.) Then a Cinco de Mayo miracle happened: the shelves behind the bar, which had sat empty for half a year, were suddenly and finally stocked with bottles and bottles of silver and gold varieties of the agave stuff....

The thing about the proposed Justice Department examination of Chicago’s police force, which the mayor called misguided before he said he welcomed it, is that it sounds less like a housecleaning than a whitewash. The mayor has already thrown the police superintendent off the back of the wagon. But Justice could turn the whole force inside out without getting to the root of the problem. A front-page story in Sunday’s Tribune—whose first section, including the editorial pages, was virtually a Laquan McDonald special section—got to the point: Chicago police officers “enforce a code of silence to protect one another....

Blank Realm, Grassed Inn Cubicle neighbor and bowling captain Kevin Warwick wrote a blog post last year in which he urged Chicagoans to check out Australian band Blank Realm‘s show at the Burlington. For whatever reason I was unable to attend last year’s show, but Kevin doesn’t use precious blog space to promote local rock shows that often, so I bookmarked the album he wrote about in the post, last year’s Go Easy (Fire)....

Closing on a house seems like a pretty satisfying moment. When it burns down nine days later, not so much. In 2010, recording engineer Sanford Parker and his wife, Taryn, hadn’t yet moved into their Logan Square threeflat when they were informed that the interior had been destroyed. Knowing the building was vacant, local kids had broken in and inadvertently set the pad ablaze. “Needless to say, we were devastated,” Taryn says....

Alex Cox’s Walker (1987) tells the true story of William Walker, an American colonel who led an invasion of Nicaragua in the mid-1850s and ruled the country for two years. Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer present this historical episode as a nightmarish comedy, advancing a farcical tone that mocks Walker’s hubris and, by extension, the manifest destiny that’s guided American missions in other countries for the past two centuries. The film is also forthright in its condemnation of the U....

The new debut album from Chicago producer Mulatto Beats, .22 Summers, includes a somnambulant track called “Good to Lose,” where rapper Qari says, “I’m not relaxin’, I’m just practicin’ my style.” He lets his words tumble out easily, during a pause between verses; like the best of his rapping, it feels ad libbed, whether or not he spent hours figuring out when and how to say it. And the line fits not just the mood of “Good to Lose” but his work with Mulatto Beats in general—and there’s a lot of it....

Lee Zaremba, a bartender at Billy Sunday, describes Red Bull—the ingredient with which Brian Bolles of Maude’s Liquor Bar challenged him to create a cocktail—as an “energy drink pretty popular among the extreme sports crowd—break dancers, cyclists, that kind of thing.” He should know—Zaremba, a former professional break dancer, used to perform at parties hosted by Red Bull. Personally, though, he says, “I’m more of a coffee guy.” The idea, he says, is that the cocktail and the beer back enhance each other....

Magic. I can’t help but think of that word every time I listen to “Every Story Ever Told,” a brand new tune from locals Supa Bwe and Xavier Holliday (also known as XVRHLDY). The dreamy rap tune has only been out a few days, but I’ve played it close to a couple dozen times since, and it’s because of magic—or rather the way that word is delivered. Supa Bwe sing-raps the word with ecstatic frisson so powerful it’s, well, magical....

There’s plenty to do this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Mon 6/19: The Black Lives Matter Witness Quilt Presentation, the work of Melissa Blount, MEET (Making Evanston Equitable Together), and countless volunteers, can be found at the Evanston Art Center (2603 N. Sheridan Rd., Evanston), showcasing the lives of black women and girls that have been taken by violence. 6 PM, free Wed 6/21: The American premiere of the Danish play Hitler on the Roof, at Strawdog Theatre (1802 W....

After releasing a couple of albums surveying the tundra of postpunk—full of wide-open spaces, instrumental lunges, and feral howls—Beijing three-piece Re-Tros are pivoting toward a minimalism that draws people in rather than making them scurry away. During the best tracks on their forthcoming third album, Before the Applause (Modern Sky USA), Re-Tros condense the frisson of their past work into momentary bursts that fit neatly into a newfound Krautrock pulse. On recent single “8 + 2 + 8 II” they fill in large spaces that previously would have been left empty with a low-humming, cyclical synth melody that offers a gleaming, endless horizon for the band’s hypnotic pattern of handclaps....

soundcloud.com/zebo Runner-Up Style Matters