Mike Coppola/Getty Images The college dropout goes back to school. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • About dying while working out? —Steve Bogira

DJ Hank, 27, moved to Chicago from North Carolina in 2011 to become a bike messenger. He began producing footwork tracks within a year, after befriending members of the influential Teklife collective. In April, Louisville label Sophomore Lounge issued his first 12-inch, Traffic Control. I fired up Google one day and started calling all the messenger companies I could find. In retrospect, that was probably crazy to be a bike-messenger manager in Chicago getting an e-mail like, “Yo, I’m this 18-year-old kid....

There’s a dangerously high likelihood that a group of white guys who heavily incorporate rapping and hip-hop aesthetics into their sound will fall into that odd frat-rock zone occupied by jam fans and Dave Matthews acolytes. Manwolves started as an after-school activity by Evanston Township High School students in 2012, have sidestepped such a cheesy fate, at least for the time being. On September’s self-released A Safety Meeting, they perform with uniform tightness while wading through languid melodies....

Mike Sula Special hot & spicy (ma la) and Mongolian herbal, Little Lamb Hot Pot Amid Chinatown’s recent restaurant boom, hot-pot joints in particular have proliferated. The city’s army of young Chinese students and professionals can’t seem to get enough of this communal feed. Some have come and gone, but many have endured, and there doesn’t seem to be much sign they’re slowing down. In fact, chains from mainland China have gotten in the game, the latest being Little Lamb Hot Pot, located in the long-vacant former Penang space, the first midwestern outpost of an international franchise with close to 600 locations across the globe....

Sun-Times Media Dick Mell still throwing his weight around in his old ward. Dick Mell may have stepped down from his job as alderman, but he’s hardly given up his clout in the 33rd Ward. All fine and well, except that Dick Mell happens to head that particular organization. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that Dick Mell is the 33rd Ward Regular Democratic Organization. Supporters of the former Alderman Mell also helped get the new Alderman Mell on the ballot for this election....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this weekend. Here’s some of what we recommend: Sat 5/19: Eddy Clearwater remains one of Chicago’s most energetic and celebratory bluesmen. 9:30 PM, Buddy Guy’s Legends, 700 S. Wabash, $20

Here’s a mix of online and in-person events and things to check out for the next seven days. Be good to yourself and others (because that’s what Chicagoans do). Fri 7/30, 6 PM, and Sat 7/31, 3 PM: Free Street Theater presents A Summer of Grief, Relief, and Joy, a free showcase from ensemble members. Two free and all-ages performances are scheduled for this weekend: Friday evening at Clark (John) Park, 4615 W....

Fingerstyle guitar is a peculiar thing—it’s a practice that often sucks its practitioners into a rabbit hole at the expense of other approaches. That’s certainly not the case with Sarah Louise (née Sarah Louise Henson), the North Carolinian who made her mark with a couple of dazzling solo instrumental albums before demonstrating a larger sonic palette with her Appalachian-flavored folk duo House & Land. Last month she pivoted even more dramatically on her new album, Deeper Woods (Thrill Jockey), a thoughtful, often psychedelic meditation on nature, particularly the verdant hills of her native Asheville....

I have to admit, when I learn about a new band with a name like “Mr. Something & the Silly Somethings,” I tend to want to run away. More often than not, they’re a one-dimensional garage or punk rock group, and even if they find a home on a Burger Records cassette, they’ll never be heard from again. Even Tommy James & the Shondells, as commercially oriented as they were, did better than that back in the 60s: they tackled garage, frat rock, psychedelia, dreamy folk, and pure pop....

In 2018, William Thomas C. was caught with 18 pounds of cannabis a few days after returning home from vacation with his grandchildren. He was charged with cannabis trafficking and manufacturing or delivering more than 5,000 grams of cannabis, according to court records. Before then, William, better known as Tom, ran a family farm and a lawn care business in Bloomington, Illinois. Since Tom has been serving a nine-year sentence at Centralia Correctional Center, his sister Tara C....

From the outside, 2109 N. Humbolt looks like a typical Logan Square home, with a handsome red brick exterior and a small patch of greenery to the side. While the address may seem ordinary, inside is a wealth of information—like manuscripts and serials—pertaining to women’s history. It is home to the Chicago Women’s History Center (CWHC), a nonprofit volunteer organization committed to educating the city on the women who came before them....

Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. Daniel Aguilar/Getty Images Walmart says goodbye to Confederate paraphernalia • That Walmart is joining the list of places that will no longer sell the Confederate flag or anything bearing the Confederate flag? —Drew Hunt • That the guy who invented the plastic pink flamingo has died? —Evin Billington

Throughout the summer of 2020, every cancelled street fest felt like a fresh punch in the gut. No more day drinking at Hot Dog Fest while dancing to Boy Band Review perform “Summer Girls” by LFO, an especially devastating blow. There was, however, a shining beacon of hope: farmers’ markets. Chicago deemed the outdoor collection of vendors as essential businesses, allowing them “to open across the city to increase neighborhood access to fresh and healthy food” as long as they followed certain safety protocols—given the circumstances, the 61st Street and the Oak Park farmers’ markets had successful seasons, and a bunch of markets around the city and state accepted Link payments, making them even more accessible....

Mike Sula Guiness gravy poutine, Frite Street

The Reader‘s archive is vast and varied, going back to 1971. Every day in Archive Dive, we’ll dig through and bring up some finds In 2016, Reader contributor Steve Krakow explored the backstory of local preacher and gospel-funk musician Pastor T.L. Barrett for the Secret History of Chicago Music. Krakow’s account ends with Barrett’s conviction for operating a pyramid scheme that defrauded thousands. That wasn’t the first time the preacher’s crimes landed in the pages of the Reader....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, September 13, 2016. Illinois Republicans are outspending Democrats in upcoming legislative races thanks to money from Rauner Governor Bruce Rauner is giving massive amounts of money to Republican state house and senate candidates in the upcoming November election, vastly outspending the Democrats. The main campaign committee has given more than $13 million to GOP candidates so far and still has another $3 million from Rauner left....

South Side Projections concludes an ongoing series of films about undocumented immigrants with a free screening at 7 PM Saturday night at the U. of C. Logan Center for the Arts of the locally produced documentary Elvira (2009). The film, directed by Columbia College graduate Javier Solórzano Casarin, profiles Elvira Arellano, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who became an activist for immigrants’ rights after she was arrested in the early 2000s. Arellano, who will attend Saturday’s screening, had been working at O’Hare Airport when she was arrested by immigration authorities; after being released, she found sanctuary with her son (who was born in the U....

Michael Gebert Breaded steak sandwich at Johnny O’s A sportswriter named Ted Berg took a page in USA Today yesterday to tell the world that Chicago had the best sandwich in the world. Italian beef? An Edzo’s cheeseburger? Something from Publican Quality Meats? No, compared to those relatively celebrated items, this was a somewhat obscure ringer—the breaded steak sandwich at Ricobene’s, an old Italian sandwich spot on the edge of Chinatown in Bridgeport....

When you want to put together an improvising ensemble whose interactions will be unpredictable as well as satisfying, it helps to recruit someone who has your back and someone else who isn’t afraid to push the music somewhere you didn’t think it would go. For one night in December 2018, Chicago alto, tenor, and baritone saxophonist Dave Rempis convened a personal dream team, full of musicians who can play both roles: Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love is Rempis’s long-standing collaborator in the ferociously aggressive trio Ballister, but his attention to detail and textural variety comes in just as handy for nurturing slow-building tension....

Mike Sula Machete de cochinita pibil, Machetes The last time I wrote about a restaurant’s quesadillas, it was because they caught my eye for their impressive size. But as large as they are, I suspect the ones at Little Village’s Las Quecas might have just been the forerunners of a coming quesadilla arms race. Enter Machetes Big Quesadillas, a bare-bones Archer Heights storefront run by two sisters who brought a very particular expression of the quesadilla gigante from their hometown, Mexico City....