What our listings coordinator is musing about this week
Tag: El
Posted inMusic
Improvising trio Icepick renew jazz’s love affair with the El on their third LP, Hellraiser
Sun Ra may have told everyone he was from Saturn, but the Afrofuturistic avant-gardist spent the 1950s in Chicago. While he was here, he recorded “El Is a Sound of Joy,” jazz’s greatest tribute to the city’s public transport system. No one in improvising trio Icepick—bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and drummer Chris […]
Posted inNews & Politics
Warning bells
With a Democrat in the governor’s office, Metra expects to finally get an influx of cash—but will it be enough to make up for the years-long backlog?
Posted inColumns & Opinion
Is it legal for Jehovah’s Witnesses to proselytize inside CTA stations?
Anyone who regularly takes the el or subway has seen them at stations from O’Hare to 95th Street, Fullerton to Kedzie.
Posted inBlogs
The CTA is crowded and slow. The Reader can fix it!
If only the Straight Dope were running the city!
Posted inBest of Chicago
Life lessons learned in the middle of the Kennedy Expressway
All the entertainment and insight you need is on an el platform, surrounded by automobile traffic.
Posted inBlogs
I Saw You, illustrated: Heading downtown from ORD
Maritsa Patrinos illustrates a chance encounter between two el riders.
Posted inBlogs
On puppetry and paper hats: Behind the scenes of The Paper Hat Game
Torry Bend talks about how she created her new multimedia puppet show based on a real story from the el.
Posted inBlogs
His Last Blizzard: Jack Is Ready for It
In a Purple Line phone conversation, a man tells his brother in Orlando about the approaching blizzard.
Posted inBlogs
“And so the trains just look sort of… lost.”
The Skokie Swift: an anachronism from the glory days of light rail.
Posted inBlogs
Between Floors
Austin cinematographer and 1999 Columbia College grad Jen White’s feature directorial debut “Between Floors,” set entirely on five stuck elevators, screens Thursday 2/25 at Columbia College.
Posted inNews & Politics
Grand Plans
When you’re spending $67 million on an engineering marvel like the Grand/Red Line stop, why not brag a little?