Karen Lewis was a teacher, labor leader, and president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU)—among many other things. Reading through I Didn’t Come Here to Lie: My Life and Education […]
Midcentury America was a scary time. We worried about the Bomb because the Russians had one too—and it might be bigger than ours (theirs was plutonium). Today is scary too […]
Although actress Amy Landecker (Transparent, The Handmaid’s Tale, I Love My Dad) has dabbled in directing television, shorts, and web series in recent years (most notably Tig Notaro’s hilarious Under […]
The “Ed Heads” were out in force at the storied Fitzgerald‘s in Berwyn. (Svengoolie fans holla Burrr-wynn!) The weather was a balmy 65 degrees, and it was even hotter inside. […]
Under the direction of David Bloom, the Grossman Ensemble gave an enjoyable performance at the Logan Center Performing Hall in Hyde Park on Friday. This 13-member ensemble commissions and performs […]
The celebrated hip-hop historical musical that took the world by storm, Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is back in Chicago after a two-year absence, and it does not disappoint. The intelligent […]
Quick Spins takes a quick look at recently released albums to make certain you’re listening to all the quality music being released these days. And with today being Bandcamp Friday, […]
It’s certainly not unusual for a Disney/Pixar animated work to get emotional; hell, the two Inside Out movies are literally about emotions. But it’s difficult to recall a Pixar release […]
Following up her exceptional directing debut, The Lost Daughter (which also featured a staggering turn from Jessie Buckley), filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal has created a version of a familiar horror story […]
Although it takes a great many broad strokes when it comes to its comedy, actor-turned-first-time feature writer-director Amy Landecker’s (Transparent) For Worse gets a great deal right when it comes […]
When I consider the notion of “Baroque Blockbusters!”, I think of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, or Handel’s Messiah, or Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, or Pachelbel’s Canon, or several other things. With Richard […]
Oscar Wao is a nerdy guy and a wannabe writer with a big heart. He’s open to friendship and longing for love. We even get to experience his loss of […]