By the time singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Aaron Earl Livingston released his first full-length album as Son Little in 2015, he’d already worked with genre-bending artists such as the Roots and RJD2 and produced the 2015 Mavis Staples EP Your Good Fortune (he also wrote its first two tracks). In keeping with the musical openness of […]
Tag: depression
Posted inMusic
Simon Joyner shows all sides of the story on his latest LP
If things look bleak to you, Omaha-based singer-songwriter Simon Joyner won’t contradict you, but he might complicate your understanding of the darkness. The narrator of “Caroline’s Got a Secret,” the first cut on his new LP, Songs From a Stolen Guitar (Grapefruit), seems blind to the fact that the confidence he’s breaking involves Caroline’s suicidal […]
Posted inArts & Culture
It’s not just personal, it’s policy
Rates of suicide have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and mental illness is more prevalent today than ever before. However, the societal causes of mental illness are still not widely recognized, so people who suffer mental illness are often treated as though the problem is entirely their own to solve. A new novel, released […]
Posted inCity Life
Waving at Santa from a rat-infested train tunnel
My secret Chicago talent is that I always catch the Chicago Transit Authority’s Holiday Train. All over the city, the train finds me. Commuting home from work. Meeting my friends at a dive bar. On my way to a show. If the ride occurs between Thanksgiving and Christmas, chances are I’m going to pull up […]
Posted inColumns & Opinion
An ex-coworker keeps sexting my man
You’re “fine” with flirting, but she won’t stop blowing up his phone.
Posted inCity Life
The Reader’s stay-at-home chronicles: days 15 and 16
What we’re reading, watching, listening to, etc., to pass the time.
Posted inMusic
After a bout of self-doubt, Chicago rapper Kembe X re-emerges with a star’s brightness
In an October interview with Lyrical Lemonade, Chicago rapper Kembe X (born Dikembe Caston) described a rocky patch in 2017 that brought him to a breaking point in his career. He’d been talking to R&B singer Kehlani, opening up about his lack of confidence and disinterest in his creative direction, and she asked him if […]
Posted inFilm
Diagnosis: Boring uses surreal comedy to demonstrate the distortional logic of depression
The Chicago-made webseries takes a radically different view of mental illness.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Gay, middle-aged, and lonely as hell
Dan Savage advises a trio of late bloomers.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Can sex get better after marriage?
Dan gets an earful from people whose sex lives improved after the event.
Posted inArts & Culture
An Andersonville shopkeeper redefines retail therapy
At Martha Mae, Jean Cate fights her demons by inviting customers into a total work of art.
Posted inBlogs
Punk Talks works to change the conversation about musicians and mental health
Social worker Sheridan Allen and her organization Punk Talks hold a fund-raising concert in Chicago this month to help connect DIY musicians with mental-health care.
Posted inArts & Culture
A brief interview with Andrew Solomon
In advance of his appearance at the Chicago Humanities Festival, the writer speaks about travel and his recently released essay collection Far and Away: Reporting From the Brink of Change
Posted inArts & Culture
My annual Valentine’s Day depression
Heartache arrives every February 14—and it’s my stupid dead dad’s fault.
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Old-fashioned romantic wants to torture your gonads
Dan Savage seeks expert advice from a specialist in cock-and-ball torture, and gets some advice of his own.