2019 in Review: Classical Music
As the year and the decade are winding down, it is hard to avoid thinking about the time that has passed. In this day and age, when events swirl around […]
Review: The Raw World of 13-Year-Olds Comes Alive in Steppenwolf’s Dance Nation
There is dancing in Dance Nation, now at Steppenwolf Theatre. It’s sometimes clumsy, sometimes graceful, and generally amateurish. Clare Barron’s play is about a crew of 13-year-old girls (and a […]
Review: Deep South Side, Lee Bey’s Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side
Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago’s South Side By Lee BeyNorthwestern University Press, 192 pages, $30 Reviewed by Patrick T. Reardon When Lee Bey writes about Pride Cleaners, he […]
Review: Discover Strange New Worlds with the Second Mission Compendium for Star Trek Adventures Role-Playing Game
I love Star Trek Adventures. It’s a tabletop pen and paper role-playing game that takes place in the Star Trek universe of films and TV shows. In it, you […]
Review: As It Ends an Era, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Gets Too Nostalgic for Its Own Good
I think I went into this most recent (and supposedly final) Star Wars with the right attitude: I didn’t pin my hopes and dreams on the filmmakers bringing us back […]
Review: See A Q Brothers Christmas Carol to Avoid Holiday Treacle
I have a confession, I try to avoid theater this time of year because I don’t like the treacly sentimentality and predictability of most holiday plays. (It’s a good season […]
Book Review—Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker
Binga: The Rise and Fall of Chicago’s First Black Banker By Don Hayner Northwestern University Press, 312 pages, $24.95 Reviewed by Patrick T. Reardon A hallmark of the black nationalism […]
So Lit: The Museum of Science and Industry’s Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light Shines, Educates
The turkey’s been made and eaten (mostly) and Black Friday’s come and gone. Welcome to Cyber Monday, and, much more importantly, the official start of the holiday season. Now, no […]
Games and Tech Holiday Gift Guide 2019
2019 was a big year for video games. It saw the release of Death Stranding, Red Dead Remption 2 got a PC port, and sleepers like Outer Wilds and […]
Review: The Late Night Synths of Neon Indian
Metro was in for a very special set Saturday night from Denton, Texas, synth-pop band, Neon Indian. It had been quite a while since any new material was released by […]
Review: Smart, Fun and Expertly Crafted, Knives Out Invites Repeat Viewing
With all of his films, writer/director Rian Johnson does something rather remarkable: he takes a genre he loves and studies it until he understands all of its working parts. He […]
Review: Ladysmith Black Mambazo Propels Lovely Lyrical Lindiwe
Chicago and Durban, South Africa, have been Sister Cities since 1997, and spiritual siblings for far longer, as explored in the joyful world premiere of Lindiwe, written by Eric Simonson, […]