If verisimilitude and timeliness were all it took to create a great play, Ken Green’s world premiere comedy-drama about working in big-box retail would be a home run. Its dialogue captures every cliche and bit of doublespeak in the corporate human resources dictionary, not to mention every grouse and plaint ever uttered in a workplace—and […]
Tag: Vol. 52 No. 15
Issue of May 4, 2023
On the cover: “The Food & Drink Issue”
Mariko Kallister knows the way of Soba: Meet Chicago’s master of handmade Japanese buckwheat noodles.
Photograph by Jeff Marini.
Find a print copy of the Reader.
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Posted inFood & Drink
Mariko Kallister knows the way of soba
“Soba connects people. I invite people to the performance table and they share the moment to smell ingredients and taste the freshly made noodles together.”
Posted inTheater Review
Promise the moon
Environmental peril is the norm. News streams whisper about the climate crisis, relentlessly broadcasting the planet’s daunting existential threat. However, nothing seems to change. Kids, born into environmental defeatism, struggle to rekindle hope as the world yells out in pain. So Theatre L’Acadie’s If This Is The End, written by Melanie Coffey and directed by […]
Posted inTheater Review
Storefront Star Wars
Pay no attention to the show’s baggy, forgettable, mildly pompous title. This smart, tightly written play is at once a very funny satire of the Star Wars saga—and Star Wars fans—a heartfelt homage, and fabulous fan fiction. Set not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away (OK, the setting is contemporary Hollywood), […]
Posted inMusic
Slayer’s Dave Lombardo goes bonkers on his first-ever solo LP
Dave Lombardo is best known for his work with the legendary Slayer, where he reinvented heavy metal drumming, but he did much more than drive that thrash powerhouse—his resumé feels practically endless. By the time Slayer dropped their fifth album, 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, it had become clear that Lombardo was more than just […]
Posted inMusic
The accidental postrock diner
In the early 90s, Dead Rider guitarist Todd Rittmann moved into a three-bedroom apartment with an attic on the corner of Paulina and Grace in Lakeview. He’d recently left DeKalb, where he’d studied at Northern Illinois University. Rittmann shared his Lakeview apartment with three musicians, including Tom Mioducki and Pat Samson, who’d formed a noisy […]
Posted inTheater Review
Messy Muslims
Chicago actor and community organizer Arti Ishak was tapped to audition for Hatefuck in 2020. They found the script exciting, like nothing they’d ever read. But the production was ultimately canceled in the wake of the pandemic, leaving Ishak determined to get this play up on a Chicago stage one way or another. Now it’s […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Fishing, family, and other things that are toxic but life-giving
The fishermen of Montrose Harbor are keenly aware of the presence of PFOS and other forever chemicals in the fish. (It came up in conversation with nearly everyone I spoke to.) But what interested me was that, instead of repelling them from the water, this knowledge drew them closer to the lake.
Posted inOn Culture
Food, glorious food!
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 […]
Posted inArts & Culture
APIDA Arts Festival provides a smorgasbord of cultural options
Scanning the three-day offerings of the APIDA Arts Festival, held May 5-7, one of the first things I notice is the array of ages, ethnicities, and mediums on display. Veteran of the Chicago music scene and filmmaker Tatsu Aoki is present on Saturday morning at the Goodman Theatre for Tea and Talk, where visitors can […]
Posted inFood & Drink
At Pour Souls Cocktail Counter, Tim Williams goes the extra mile
The idea of a “cocktail deli counter” came to Tim Williams during the pandemic.
Posted inMusic
A new Whitney Houston collection explores the pop icon’s gospel side
Before she became a pop superstar, Whitney Houston was known as “Nippy,” daughter of gospel artist Emily “Cissy” Drinkard Houston and member of the choir at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. Like Aretha Franklin—the only vocalist Rolling Stone ranks above her on its current list of the 200 greatest singers of all […]
Posted inGossip Wolf
DJs Sold and Hi-Vis launch their Lizard Label with a party for producer Wav Fuzz
Gossip Wolf first got acquainted with DJs Glenna Fitch (aka Sold) and Alex Bond (aka Hi-Vis) by shaking a furry butt at their gigs as the duo Farplane, but this wolf got to know them better at their 2018 Daphne festival workshop “Women in Experimental Electronic Composition From Past to Present.” The two of them […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Fritzi’s Delicatessen is a complete statement
Paul Stern is a born schmoozer. Walk into his restaurant, Fritzi’s Delicatessen, a small well-lit place in Oak Park, and chances are you will find Stern schmoozing at one of the tables in the dining area.