South Branch Of Chicago River To Get Million-Dollar Restoration
“U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced $1 million in federal funds dedicated to restoring parts of the South Branch of the Chicago River,” reports the Sun-Times. “The South Branch of the Chicago River has historically been polluted by industry.”
Office Workers Missing Summer In The Loop
“Tourists have returned to Chicago’s downtown this summer, and anyone looking at the crowds thronging Millennium Park, the Riverwalk and stores on Michigan Avenue might think the city’s pandemic crisis is past,” writes the Tribune. “But ‘For Rent’ signs still cover many downtown storefronts, and office workers remain scarce, which means fewer customers for Loop retailers… But all its empty storefronts may also present the Loop with opportunities… New shops could make the downtown livelier and help entice workers to leave their comfy home offices, especially if landlords reach out to independent, local and creative businesses instead of just national chain stores.”
“Over half of the top twenty best restaurants [on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants] are European, including Geranium, which succeeded another Danish restaurant, Noma, as the world’s #1,” writes Bon Appétit in a snarky takeout. (Chicago’s only listing in the group’s top 100 is at ninety-one, for Oriole.) “The ranking is considered [to have some] of the restaurant world’s most [impact], carrying similar credence to other high-profile restaurant nods like America’s James Beard awards or the global Michelin guide.”
The New Yorker Tastes “The Bear”
“I can summon in an instant the sense memory of stepping inside the doors of Johnnie’s Beef or Al’s on Taylor, and the newborn-like heft of a warm, paper-wrapped beef sandwich. (I get mine ‘sweet and hot, dipped’—both kinds of peppers, plus a full-sandwich dunk in the beefy broth in which the meat has braised for hours.) There’s a smell these restaurants share that’s found in no other place on earth: a layered, rough, masculine perfume of meat and garlic and fryer oil and Formica laminate and sweet, yeasty bread. It’s the aroma that would be pumped into a Smell-O-Vision showing of ‘The Bear,’ which is about a decorated fine-dining chef who returns to Chicago to take over his family’s Italian-beef shop, and to try to save it from disaster,” Helen Rosner writes at The New Yorker. “Why shouldn’t an Italian beef sandwich be a work of art?”
FILM & TELEVISION
Kwame Amoaku Deputy Commissioner For Film In New York City
“Kwame Amoaku, former director of the Chicago Film Office, is the new deputy commissioner for film at the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where he’ll be principal advisor on production,” reports Deadline. “A push by Mayor Eric Adams to accelerate the industry’s recovery, and surpass pre-pandemic levels, also includes creating a council of local industry insiders, and assigning a film liaison at every city agency. Amoaku [Newcity Film 50], a well-liked former location manager, director, producer and actor, held the Chicago post from 2019.” The New York mayor’s statement on expanding the city’s film and television production is here: “These components include the appointment of Kwame Amoaku as deputy commissioner in the Film Office of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, to serve as principal advisor on production policy as film production in New York City returns to pre-pandemic levels.” (On a comment on Facebook, Amoaku posted an image of a Japanese poster for the New York-iconic “Taxi Driver” as decor he ordered for his Manhattan office.)
Gunfight Bursts Onto “Justified: City Primeval” Set
Production was halted on the set of “Justified: City Primeval” at the end of last week, reports Deadline, “Two cars whose occupants were engaged in a gunfight smashed through the show’s barricades. No one was injured during the Wednesday night intrusion, though shell casings were found on the set later. The cast and crew hit the ground and took cover when the incident occurred near… Douglass Park.”
Odd Obsession Returns
The crated-up burden of dreams that was video citadel Odd Obsession is getting its own basement, reports Noah Berlatsky at the Reader. When you enter “Graveface Records & Curiosities and Terror Vision at 1829 North Milwaukee, the first thing you see looming in the doorway is a giant plaster Christ with a vacantly grinning bunny head. Amidst the disarray… are bins of Swedish death metal records with animal skulls scattered on top of them [and] two-headed stuffed calves… Snake through dim passages and terrifyingly low ceilings, and you [will] descend into a basement. There, emerging from dim corners and obscene angles, is a terrifying torrent of unknown and unholy video. Odd Obsession has returned to Chicago.”
MUSIC
Lollapalooza Future Decided Behind Closed Doors
“Lollapalooza’s contract for this year’s festival was quietly executed without any public discussion or vote,” reports the Trib. “As producers negotiate with city officials on a pact to keep Lollapalooza in town, some residents, aldermen and parks advocates wonder if they’ll have any say in the decision—especially after the Chicago Park District quietly executed a one-year contract extension for this year’s festival without any public discussion or vote.”
Chicago Keyboardist Reginald W. ‘Sonny’ Burke, Smokey Robinson’s Pianist, Arranger, Was Seventy-Six
“In the 1970s, Chicago keyboardist Sonny Burke headed to California for a few days of recording sessions with the Jackson Five,” writes Maureen O’Donnell at the Sun-Times. “But the bookings kept coming. They never stopped. ‘I was flown from Chicago to Los Angeles on the thirteenth of January, 1974, to play on the Jackson Five “Dancing Machine” album… It was initially a three-day gig that became a thirty-year-career.’ … ‘Sonny was so much in demand, he would have two or three different studios and two or three different sessions a day,’ Motown legend Smokey Robinson said of his pianist, arranger and conductor. ‘Sonny was one of the greatest musicians, I’m sure, to ever live.’ Mr. Burke also worked with Anita Baker, Natalie Cole, Lamont Dozier, Sheena Easton, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, the 5th Dimension, Dizzy Gillespie, Donny Hathaway, Thelma Houston, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Johnny Mathis, Curtis Mayfield, The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston, Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Phoebe Snow, Dusty Springfield, Barbra Streisand, the Temptations, Nancy Wilson and Bill Withers.”
Saxophonist Ryan Muncy Has Passed
“Few saxophonists have contributed to the instrument’s repertoire and chamber music prominence as much as Ryan Muncy did during his lifetime,” relays the International Contemporary Ensemble. “As a tireless advocate and commissioner of new music for saxophone, his unique combination of otherworldly virtuosity and exquisite sensibility captured the imagination of composers including Ash Fure, Tyshawn Sorey, Wang Lu, Marcos Balter, Steven Takasugi, Chaya Czernowin, George Lewis, Du Yun, Wojtek Blecharz, Anthony Cheung, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Erin Gee, Nathan Davis and Matana Roberts. His work emphasized collaborative relationships with composers and artists of his generation and aimed to reimagine the way listeners experience the saxophone through contemporary music. He participated in the creation of more than a hundred new works for the instrument.”
STAGE
Cast Of Victory Gardens Play Posts Statement
“We agreed that it was time for us to speak collectively as a cast,” posts Ireon Roach with a video from the cast of “cullud wattah” on her Instagram account. “We are here to only share our experience in hopes that it will encourage other artists to speak up, even if afraid, even if only so they are able to be heard. Thank you for taking the time and space to process what we are sharing in vulnerability and with love for self and for the art making process.” Also: Lauren Halvorsen at the Nothing For The Group newsletter: “Ken-Matt Martin’s entire statement is a necessary read. I am relieved to be free from the daily grind of institutional theater, but I read this and thought, ‘I’d go back to work for this guy.’ His words radiate with care for the remaining staff and artists. It’s also a succinct and clarifying summary of the familiar cycles of dysfunction and systemic issues plaguing the theater industry.”
Curious Theatre Branch Presents “Back at the House… With or Without Roommates”
Curious Theatre Branch will present “Back at the House… With or Without Roommates,” three two-person plays written by Jenny Magnus, Myle Yan Tay and Beau O’Reilly, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, August 12–20, at Jimmy Beans Cabaret, 2553 West Fullerton. Fifteen-dollar tickets here. Curious will also present three showings of “Jimmy and the Nickels,” the last work by the late Curious playwright and managing director Matt Rieger. Directed by Stefan Brün with Charlotte Lastra, “Jimmy and the Nickels” plays Thursday, August 4, 8pm and Saturday, August 6, 5pm and 7pm at Pride Arts Center, 4139 North Broadway. Tickets here.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Assault On UpRising Bakery And Cafe In Lake in the Hills
A “Brunch At Night” family-friendly drag event at UpRising Bakery and Café in Village of Lake in the Hills, about forty-five miles northwest of Chicago, was canceled after threats and vandalism, including smashed windows and spray-painted slurs. “The threats claim the show—described by the owner as ‘very, very family-friendly’—is a ‘child-trafficking event,'” Eater Chicago wrote in advance, anticipating protests and counter-protests: “Bakery owner Corrina Sac tells the Tribune that critics have called her workers pedophiles—one left a sign reading ‘Pedophiles work here.’ Another spit into the bakery’s display case and someone left a bag of feces outside their door.” “The owner has been in regular contact with police and they are patrolling the property once an hour,” reported WLS Channel 7. After the incident, UpRising posted on Facebook: “For the safety of the performers, staff, and community we have cancelled tomorrows event and will be closed Saturday 7/23/22. At this time we ask everyone: DO NOT COME TO OUR LOCATION AT ALL TODAY. We did not want to back down from Bullies but absolutely cannot in good conscience continue with tomorrows plans. It breaks our hearts. we will update when we can.” The Northwest Herald writes, “Police arrested an Alsip man for vandalizing a Lake in the Hills bakery and cafe early Saturday morning, less than twenty-four hours before a scheduled drag show at the business. Joseph Collins, 23, of Alsip, was charged with a hate crime and criminal damage to property… Along with smashing three store front windows and the glass door with a bat, Collins spray painted explicit messages, according to the complaint. Two of those messages were inflammatory toward LGBTQ+ individuals.” Photos of the vandalism are here [slurs].
Double The Number Of Dispensaries After Years Of Delay
“Illinois regulators issued 149 cannabis dispensary licenses that promise to more than double the number of pot shops statewide, ending nearly a year of delays for budding weed entrepreneurs who finally have the green light to prepare their storefronts,” reports the Sun-Times. Meanwhile, the Trib reports on a proposal that would prohibit hemp CBD shops in Chicago from calling themselves “dispensaries”: “Licensed marijuana companies see the proposal as a way to keep unregulated competitors from confusing customers. Members of the hemp CBD industry see the move as another example of big cannabis trying to harass them.”
Monarch Butterflies Listed As Endangered Species
“Anyone who [grew] up in Chicago… would recognize the orange-and-black coloring of the monarch. They are the state insect in Illinois and once were so common they’d be impossible to miss during summers,” reports the Sun-Times. “Not any more — in Chicago or anywhere else in North America, where scientists say the monarch has seen its population plummet more than eighty percent over the past two decades.” Garden & Gun on what individuals can do: “Scientists hope the listing will shine a spotlight on the threats they face—and how the public can help, which can be as simple as adding a few key plants to a backyard garden… Monarchs require two things: nectar-bearing flowers and milkweed. Adult monarchs lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed, and the caterpillars then feed on the leaves of the plant until metamorphosis. Milkweed is an easy add to a backyard… It can’t be just any milkweed—it should be native to the area in which it will be planted (avoid, as a rule, tropical milkweed). Nectar is particularly important during the fall as the migration hits its stride, as the butterflies need flowering plants to replenish their energy along the way. And avoid pesticides—they’re detrimental to all pollinators.” A Chicago family has built a monarch sanctuary, the Trib reports in a photo essay: “Claudia Galeno-Sanchez, who coordinates a group called Women for Green Spaces, works to raise and release black swallowtail and monarch butterflies. Galeno-Sanchez, with her husband and two children, decided to create a butterfly sanctuary at home in Pilsen after learning they could help raise and preserve the beloved species in the city.”
