“Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink,” Coleridge’s sailor complains in the famous 1798 poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” The mariner is talking about the plight on his ship, but he may as well be describing the city of New York. That year, a yellow fever epidemic led to an outcry over […]
Tag: Reviews
Posted inArts & Culture
Down the stairs and into “Dreams & Delusions”
“Not touching but joined in astonishment as two cuts lie parallel in the same flesh,” writes Anne Carson in the 1998 novel, Autobiography of Red. Breathing new life, ripping parts apart—it’s the painful, heart-wrenching reality of being alive, of being absolutely anything at all. This is the work of Finnish artist Kristoffer Ala-Ketola, whose first […]
Posted inFilm
Sundance at home, again
All That Breathes, I Didn’t See You There, Last Flight Home, and more.
Posted inArts & Culture
Too Much Light at 25: An oral history
The Neo-Futurists reflect on a quarter century of their forever-running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.
Posted inBlogs
Schnitzel King really is the king of schnitzel
A visit to the food truck’s new Bridgeport storefront
Posted inNews & Politics
They Got Us Wrong
The new Fox series, The Chicago Code, isn’t bad but it isn’t Chicago.
Posted inBlogs
Ain’t You Heard About a Nightclub Called the Nice Nice?
The new Lifter Puller reissues, this week in Sharp Darts
Posted inBlogs
Jamlady speaks up: “Jamlady is not crazy”
A few weeks ago, I reviewed The Jamlady Cookbook, a canning guide and recipe collection written entirely in the third person. You can read the review here, or I can summarize it for you: Jamlady is (possibly) crazy. About a week later, I got an e-mail with a Jamlady return address. You could have knocked […]
Posted inBlogs
Jamlady, meet Christine Ferber
Three jam cookbooks: One comes highly recommended. One is a sturdy supplement to a classic. And one may drive you to the brink.
Posted inBlogs
New restaurant reviews this week: a glut of upscale Mex
Can Chicago really support five more tablecloth Mexican restaurants?
Posted inBlogs
Notes on a promo stack
Ronnie Milsap, the Whip, Gentleman Reg, and the NCIS soundtrack: it’s promo pile day.
Posted inBlogs
Tuesday Release Roundup
New releases 9/19: Ben Kweller makes his family-man record, and Mosquitos score with a Neil Young cover.