In April 2013, author Dave Hofer (who’s also a buyer for Reckless Records and played in the Chicago Thrash Ensemble) launched a Bandcamp page called DuPage County Hardcore that’s dedicated to archiving bygone punk bands from his old stomping grounds. Since then he’s dug up and uploaded for posterity a growing trove of old cassette demos, seven-inches, and CDs from barely remembered grind bands, long-forgotten punk crews, and even some groups you’ve probably heard of—among them Spitalfield, the pop-punk band fronted by Downwrite cofounder Mark Rose....

The first time I saw 21-year-old Texas native Eli Winter perform was about a year ago, when he opened for Ryley Walker at the Chicago record-release show for Walker’s Deafman Glance. He told an adorable story about catching Walker at a show in Winter’s hometown of Houston and being overwhelmed with nerves when they talked at the merch table—and crazily enough, now here he was, not only living in the same town as Walker (who’s since moved to New York) but also sharing the stage with him....

I was ten years old when the virtual world of The Sims was released. After popping the CD into my desktop computer in my parent’s basement, hours would easily pass by, whole lives would be lived. Reality moved fast in Sims time. Building my dream house, making my fake family (with the occasional murder by fire), and forcing everyone to “woohoo” are some of my fondest memories. Electronic Arts released its cover art for The Sims 4 last year which featured the first same-sex lesbian couple....

Uncle Jam wants you . . . to go see George Clinton on Saturday. On Saturday none other than George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic play at the Venue at Horseshoe Casino, a venue befitting the ersatz spectacle that is the present-day version of the legendary 70s band. I haven’t seen Clinton and P-Funk since the mid-2000s, but the few times I saw them play, well, let’s just say the performances were inconsistent....

Brian Jackson/Sun-Times Media Alderman Patrick O’Connor One of the mayoral campaign’s more ironic twists comes in the form of mail from Mayor Emanuel that blasts alderman Bob Fioretti for some of the more boneheaded policies of former mayor Richard Daley. This is no trivial matter, as O’Connor—an eight-term north-side powerhouse—is facing a spirited challenge from Dianne Daleiden, a public school math and science teacher who promises a new day of 40th Ward independence should she miraculously win....

This story was originally published by City Bureau on November 9, 2020. One of the people behind the People’s Budget is Paola Aguirre Serrano, the founder of Borderless, an urban research and design studio, and a 2019 cohort fellow at CUE. This year, she designed the People’s Budget bus tour with a focus on community engagement. Thinking of your budget bus tours, what are community members most interested in funding in the budget?...

Enter the Reader giveaway below for a chance to win a free signed copy of Summerdale. Pride season in Chicago usually means celebrations, parades, vendors, and other public displays of LGBTQ freedom. This year, for many reasons, Pride looks different, but staying in quarantine doesn’t have to mean depriving oneself of the Chicago queer community. For those who are extra nostalgic for strolling the rainbow-flag-lined streets of neighborhoods like Boystown and Andersonville this month, local author David Jay Collins has two LGBTQ novels that transport readers precisely there....

Like your neighborhood shaman, the Norwegian choreographer Ingri Fiksdal is prepared to inspire some trippy illusions here in Chicago. Rife with sleek, reflective costumes and floating black orbs, her work Cosmic Body is nothing if not experimental, skewing toward psychedelic. Fiksdal collaborates with four dancers and the electronica/EDM artist Ingvild Langgård and employs visuals from artist Signe Becker to create a “disorientation of the sensorium,” inspired by Brion Gysin’s Dreamachine, the stroboscopic device he designed in the late 60s to create artificial hallucinations....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here.

Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC On Twitter, Norm MacDonald recounted some potent potables. Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, alarm, amuse, or inspire us. • That drones could be used to repair arteries and prevent heart attacks? —Qudsiya Siddiqui • About the JNCO revival? —Leor Galil • Or see the Wall Street Journal‘s clever treatment of a headline? —Tal Rosenberg

The past decade of Chicago hip-hop would be entirely different without Young Chicago Authors and the Harold Washington Library’s YouMedia lab. Both have served as creative hubs for local teens, and their storied weekly open mikes—YouMedia’s Lyricist Loft and YCA’s WordPlay—have given many beloved Chicago rappers their starts. In the 2020s, a new generation of emerging MCs has already begun building atop the hip-hop ecosystem nurtured and reinforced by the likes of Saba, Noname, Mick Jenkins, and Chance the Rapper....

The past decade of Chicago hip-hop would be entirely different without Young Chicago Authors and the Harold Washington Library’s YouMedia lab. Both have served as creative hubs for local teens, and their storied weekly open mikes—YouMedia’s Lyricist Loft and YCA’s WordPlay—have given many beloved Chicago rappers their starts. In the 2020s, a new generation of emerging MCs has already begun building atop the hip-hop ecosystem nurtured and reinforced by the likes of Saba, Noname, Mick Jenkins, and Chance the Rapper....

Q: I’m a heteroflexible married cis woman in my 40s. I’m also a POS cheater and a catfish. I really fucked up. One year ago, I met an older man in an online fetish forum. He sent me an unsolicited PM, and we have talked for hours every day since then. My husband, whom I’ve been married to for more than 20 years, does not know that I am having an emotional affair....

As we all know, the real issue in this deal is which city is best positioned to bamboozle and bully its citizenry into forking over untold billions to one of the world’s richest companies. Docile We like to think we’re so big and bad, but push comes to shove and Chicago rolls over like a little puppy dog when the mayor barks his command. In the recent debate over giving $5....

It’s surprisingly difficult to photograph a bottle with a metallic label in the sun. I wrote about Chicago botanical brewers Forbidden Root in August 2013, when they made what I’m pretty sure was just their second festival appearance at the Oak Park Micro Brew & Food Review. About four months ago the brewery finally hit retail shelves, shipping 12-ounce four-packs of Sublime Ginger and Shady Character, and a little more than a month later Forbidden Root’s namesake beer joined them....

The curtain never rises on Clare Barron’s ferocious, Pulitzer-finalist play Dance Nation. The lights come on and they are simply there, so many of them: sailors, tapping their hearts out with militant glee, their eyes piercing the space like periscopes looking farther into a landscape than their age or experience would seem to allow and undaunted by whatever lies in the darkness ahead. The unison is heartstopping, almost terrifying. They have trained long for this moment, and whether they succeed or fail, their courage will be remembered....

One of the many small pleasures of our march into summer is the appearance of flyers for neighborhood yard sales. As the days grow longer and warmer, it seems like more and more of these notes promising unexpected treasures blossom on light posts. I’ve flipped through too many scratched-up CDs and worn VHS tapes to want to go out of my way to drop by a yard sale these days, but if you’re on the hunt for some new music and into flipping through LPs in the sun, head to East Room on Saturday afternoon for Do312’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Market....

Q: How does one get into the gay BDSM bottoming and leather scene? —Seeking Answers Concerning Kink “Recon.com is a great option for gay men,” said Metal from the gay male bondage website MetalbondNYC.com. “It’s a site where you can create a profile, window-shop for a play buddy, and ‘check his references.’ Even better, if you can, go to a public event like IML, MAL, or CLAW, or to a play party like the New York Bondage Club, where you can participate in a monitored space with other people around, or just watch the action....

Commercial theater has never been the lifeblood of Chicago the way it is in New York with Broadway, but that doesn’t mean losing for-profit producers because of you-know-what doesn’t leave a mark. Mercury Theater, the nifty 300-seat (plus intimate cabaret space) venue on the Southport corridor that started out as a nickelodeon in 1920, was originally renovated as a rental house for live theater by Michael Cullen in 1994, who also ran Cullen’s Bar and Grill next door....

Have you wanted to make a change in your life? Is there someone you’d like to love if they were a tick or a ton different from what they are? Are there goals you haven’t yet abandoned to a rational consideration of reality? Do you have heirlooms you haven’t dared to jettison from the sinking ship of your existence? Enter Cornerstone, where everyone is CACAPA (Currently Already Considering All Possibilities Anyway)....