On Culture Archives - Chicago Reader

Photo of the interior of the Bally's casino

High-wire act

by Deanna Isaacs September 20, 2023September 20, 2023

If you were a Bloomie’s Chicago customer at the River North store, you won’t be hugely surprised when you walk into Bally’s new pop-up casino in the 111-year-old Medinah Temple. Bloomingdale’s saved this massive Moorish Revival architectural fantasy (at 600 N. Wabash) from demolition when it opened a store there in 2003, restoring the dome-topped […]

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The butterfly in your throat

by Deanna Isaacs September 7, 2023September 7, 2023

My throat was slit. It was back in the dark ages of the 20th century, but if you take a close look at me you can still see the scar—a fine line running along the base of my neck, from ear to ear. It’s the necklace I can’t take off, the trail of a scalpel. […]

A black-and-white photo from the film Oppenheimer, depicting a hearing.

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Oppenheimer‘s Loyola connection

by Deanna Isaacs August 28, 2023August 28, 2023

Thanks to Reader reader Anthony Gargiulo Jr., who read this story about Chicago connections to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film and pointed out via Twitter another one: former Loyola University (and Northwestern University) chemistry professor Ward V. Evans. Evans was the surprise dissenting vote on the three-man panel that recommended permanent suspension of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s […]

An image of the Doomsday Clock at top, and a black-and-white still from Oppenheimer at bottom, with Cilian Murphy as Oppenheimer walking down a corridor surrounded by photographers and reporters.

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A well-timed Oppenheimer

by Deanna Isaacs August 9, 2023August 9, 2023

At my elementary school, a lifetime ago, duck and cover was as integral to our routine as recess. An alarm would signal the drill, and we first-through-sixth graders would drop whatever we were doing and scramble into a crouch under our wooden desks. The prescribed position was head down—one arm curled around your noggin, the […]

Black-and-white photo of Albert Einstein (left) and J. Robert Oppenheimer seated and looking at a document.

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The Chicago Project

by Deanna Isaacs July 26, 2023July 26, 2023

What’s the Chicago connection to the events depicted in Christopher Nolan’s explosive, confusing, and acclaimed Oppenheimer film? Here’s what I learned from University of Chicago professor emeritus and astrophysicist Don Lamb. We spoke last week, before the film opened. J. Robert Oppenheimer led the World War II effort known as the Manhattan Project, but the […]

The mayor of Highland Park and other people gather around an outside podium at a memorial for the victims of the July 4, 2022, mass shooting.

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What we talk about when we talk about guns

by Deanna Isaacs July 12, 2023July 12, 2023

On July 4, 2023, the hottest day on earth, residents of Highland Park gathered in front of their city hall to remember the victims of the massacre that took place there a year earlier. There was music, a moment of silence, and Mayor Nancy Rotering spoke of the damage done by a single gun in […]

Artist's rendering of the proposed Chicago Torture Justice Memorial, featuring a covered curved white wall with the names of victims in a green park setting.

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Monumental endeavor

by Deanna Isaacs June 28, 2023July 5, 2023

We’re coming up on the three-year anniversary of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s stealth eviction of Christopher Columbus from Grant Park. Under the cover of darkness—and for his own good, she said—the larger-than-life explorer/looter was separated from his 20-foot pedestal and hustled off to storage where he’d no longer offend the protesters seeking to topple him for […]

Governor J.B. Pritzker sits at a library table signing a bill, surrounded by supporters.

On Culture

Freedom to read

by Deanna Isaacs June 14, 2023June 16, 2023

In July 2020, Amy Dodson posted a diversity statement on the Facebook page for the public library system in Douglas County, Nevada, of which she was director. Like many other statements posted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, it denounced “all acts of violence, racism, and disregard for human rights,” and also said, “We […]

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Starship Chicago II has landed

by Deanna Isaacs May 31, 2023June 6, 2023

Here’s a question: How many elements can you strip from an iconic building before it loses its identity? Could you pull the clocks off State Street’s flagship Marshall Field Building? Slice the big Tiffany dome from the Chicago Cultural Center? Cut the X braces from the Hancock? How about tearing the Trump sign off Trump […]

A black-and-white image by Art Shay of Hugh Hefner in his bedroom. Hefner is wearing a dark suit, seated at a desk with a typewriter, and four young women pose on the bed.

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The father, the son, and the archivist

by Deanna Isaacs May 17, 2023May 30, 2023

There’s a nicely curated selection of Art Shay’s photography up through May 27 at Gallery Victor. It includes a lot of familiar images—Marlon Brando kissing his dog, Hugh Hefner with typewriter and playmates in his bedroom office, and, of course, Simone de Beauvoir’s bare bum. Iconic photos of entertainers, athletes, and politicians share the wall […]

Packaged cookies and other items on display at a supermarket

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Food, glorious food!

by Deanna Isaacs May 3, 2023May 4, 2023

Chicago Opera Theater is trying out a new opera at the Athenaeum next week. Titled The Cook-Off, it’s about a televised contest in which three young chefs face off over the same meal. The exotic dish they’ll be cooking? Mac and cheese—the mainstay of American tables during the Great Depression. It’s an apt choice at […]

A group of protesters outside El Centro at Northeastern Illinois University. In the front we see the back of a woman's head (Nancy Matthews, union president). She has short gray hair and is wearing a green and white patterned blouse. There are various slogans on the signs, including "Admin Shouldn't Cut & Run" and "Professors With Fair Contracts Can Think Beyond Deficits."

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At NEIU: a painful lesson in mission creep

by Deanna Isaacs April 19, 2023April 19, 2023

A welcoming committee armed with signs and slogans gathered outside Northeastern Illinois University’s iconic El Centro building last Thursday, an hour before the university Board of Trustees was scheduled to meet there. “UNIVERSITIES ARE NOT BUSINESSES,” one sign read. “How much money have you spent hiring outside people to fire our own?” asked another. Buoyed […]

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Spring awakening

by Deanna Isaacs March 22, 2023March 22, 2023

Never mind those icy patches on the sidewalk: spring is here, bringing with it our seasonal theater and arts preview issue. Accordingly, while the global banking system teeters, Xi and Vlad (nukes in their back pockets) rendezvous, and Trump seems poised to take the first-ever presidential perp walk, the issue I’m stewing about is this: […]

An image of Salvador Dalí's Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach

On Culture

Hello, Dalí

by Deanna Isaacs March 8, 2023

I was a reporter at the St. Petersburg Times in 1980, when St. Pete got the idea of turning itself into Salvador Dalíwood. Not everyone was on board: on the one hand, there were grumbles about Dalí’s apparent tolerance for fascism (including a cozy long-term relationship with Franco), and on the other, sneering art-world objections […]

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Good guy with a gun

by Deanna Isaacs February 8, 2023February 8, 2023

John Mossman has a scary new movie, but he’s not just trying to scare us. Good Guy With a Gun (not to be confused with a 2020 short with the same title) is a feature-length drama/thriller slated for a regional premiere February 27 as part of the Midwest Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Film […]