“Murder, ReWrote”/Photo: Hell In A Handbag Productions
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ART
Theaster Gates’ “Min | Mon” At LUMA Arles
Theaster Gates’ “Min | Mon” exhibition in France gets an appreciation, including a range of sake, here. “Temple, a sake bar and DJ booth, holds Gates’ personal archive of vinyl containing more than 2,500 albums of soul, funk, and R&B records. Uniting two key strands of his artistic interests, the structure houses an intimate yet public space that blends preexisting cultural conventions. MON—a new brand of sake produced by Gates in partnership with the Hakurou company—is crafted in Tokoname, Japan, the town where Gates studied ceramics. Offered publicly for the first time at LUMA, MON sake exemplifies Gates’ ongoing exploration of ritual and ceremony distinctive in Eastern culture and philosophy.”
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art Opens At Notre Dame In November
The former Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame will be reborn as the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art on November 30. “Classically designed by the award-winning Robert A. M. Stern Architects, the 70,000-square-foot facility’s galleries will allow for innovative exhibition strategies and encourage ongoing dialogues with works of art,” the museum relays. “The November opening will mark the completion of the first phase of the two-part building project. The Museum’s new location will serve as a gateway to Notre Dame’s expanding arts district, joining the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, Matthew and Joyce Walsh Family Hall of Architecture and O’Neill Hall of Music.” “The opening of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art promises to be a transformational experience for the University of Notre Dame as well as the entire region and national arts audiences,” Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director of the museum, says in a release. More here.
Carmen Winant Showing At Minneapolis Institute Of Art
In “The last safe abortion,” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, artist Carmen Winant will consider the labor of women’s health clinics and abortion providers in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota and Ohio, PATRON Gallery relays. “Drawing upon thousands of historical photographs from archives across the Midwest, as well as from photographs made by Winant since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the artist studies what physicians and staff refer to as ‘the work of the work’: answering phones, holding training sessions, scheduling appointments, and handling logistics. In assemblages made with print photography and ordinary office supplies, the everyday nature of Winant’s materials–as well as the activities they embody–contrasts with their vast individual, social, and political impact, creating a visual language that recognizes and honors abortion work.” Minneapolis Institute of Art, August 5-December 31.
Michigan Gallery Owner Headed To Jail
“A former prominent Birmingham art gallery owner faces up to twenty years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud,” reports the Detroit News. “Wendy Halsted Beard, fifty-eight, who owned the Wendy Halsted Gallery, was accused of swindling a $1.6 million collection of more than a hundred rare fine-art prints—including black-and-white Ansel Adams photographs—from clients.”
DESIGN
Deep Tunnel? Not Deep Enough
“Hours before heavy rains swamped Chicago and Cook County suburbs on July 2, the region’s $3.8 billion flood-control project appeared ready as can be to bottle up storm runoff,” reports the Tribune. “The Deep Tunnel’s massive sewers, capable of holding 2.3 billion gallons, were almost empty… When construction of the Deep Tunnel began in 1975, leaders of what then was called the Metropolitan Sanitary District vowed their subterranean labyrinth of tunnels alone would keep pollution out of the Chicago River, and in particular, Lake Michigan. Our changing climate is scrambling weather patterns, though. Recent storms suggest rain can now fall so quickly that stormwater tunnels can’t move runoff to the reservoir fast enough to prevent sewage overflows and basement backups in the 252 square miles of Chicago and County served by the main part of the system.”
Chicago And Other Cities Face Buses Without Terminals For Riders
“Greyhound has begun picking up passengers at the curbside in many places, following the model of its competitors,” reports Governing. “Other big cities will soon be dealing with the issue. [One expert] is particularly worried about Chicago, where a major intercity hub downtown is being marketed for sale. Closure of the station could mean more people out on the streets at night, in the cold, waiting for buses, he says. ‘The operation of the hub is too big and complex to support moving things out to the street… Low-income groups, immigrants and travelers with mobility impairments will take it on the chin and feel the worst of it.’ He’s hoping Chicago will find the money to buy the station and keep it operating as a transit hub.”
Ninety-Percent Of Videogames Before 2010 Can’t Be Played
“Games released before 2010 nearly as hard to find as pre-WWII audio recordings, new U.S. study finds,” reports the CBC.
Madison Home Prices Increased The Most Nationwide
“Of the hundred largest housing markets in the U.S., only one—Austin, Texas—saw a decrease in home prices between April and May. Midwest markets including Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago led the nation in month-to-month home price increases due in large part to the relative affordability and availability of housing compared to metro areas in the West such as San Francisco and San Jose,” reports the Cap Times. “Madison led the nation with the sharpest home price percentage increase from April to May.”
DINING & DRINKING
Mapping Twenty-Five Chicago Locales In “The Bear”
“Content” that keeps giving: Eater Chicago’s got a map of civic citations in “The Bear.” Meanwhile, River North’s former Al’s Beef site is getting a rehab for a new single-story resto.
Chef BBQ Returns To Lincoln Park
City Market’s Chef BBQ returns on September 7 with expanded hours from 6:30pm-9pm. Featured talent for the 2023 event include Momotaro, Itoko, Rose Mary, Daisies, Galit and Soul & Smoke. All proceeds benefit Green City Market’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit mission to secure the future of food by deepening support for sustainable farmers, educating our community, and expanding access to locally grown food. More here.
Taste Of Greektown Is Back
Greektown Chicago’s Taste of Greektown festival returns for its thirty-third year, the city’s largest celebration of Hellenic cuisine and culture. The neighborhood’s acclaimed Greek restaurants are the stars of the show, along with live music and entertainment, Greek dancing, unique shopping and retail and family-friendly activities. Friday, August 25, 4pm-10pm; Saturday, August 26, noon-10pm; and Sunday, August 27 from noon-10pm. More here.
FILM & TELEVISION
Strike Against Studios For Living Wages Continues
“The producers want to turn the clock back sixty-three years. That’s just not humanly possible—or, as [returned Disney CEO] Bob Iger might put it, there’s a level of expectation that is just not realistic. The people who create this work need to make a living,” writes Ben Schwartz at The Nation. “Iger responded to the AMPTP’s failed negotiation with SAG with [a] breathtaking inability to read the room. ‘There’s a level of expectation that they have, that is just not realistic,’ said the man who just personally pocketed over $40 million from one of the largest media companies on the planet. ‘And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive.'”
Strike newsletters, gratis: The Illinois Production Alliance is producing a strike news weekly edition (here); industry subscription newsletter The Ankler is offering a “Strikegeist” daily update for the duration of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes here.
The New York Times sounds alarms, functioning as “executive whisperers,” that the strike needs to be settled before Labor Day to forestall disruption in streaming content, filmmaking and awards-season promotional rituals. “Three studio chairs who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the labor situation, said Hollywood’s content factories could sit idle for little more than a month—roughly until Labor Day—until there would be a serious impact on the release calendar for 2024, particularly for movies. A work stoppage that stretches into September could force studios to delay big projects for next year by six months, making 2024 resemble the ghost town… set off by the pandemic… One of the studio executives… predicted it could imperil at least one of the national cinema chains.”
The Guardian points out a raging flaw in streaming: “Who knew that convincing audiences they no longer need to go to the cinema would torpedo a blockbuster movie model that’s been in place since the mid-1970s? Well you can’t say nobody warned us.”
Cards Against Humanity Has $100,000 For One Short
Chicago-based Cards Against Humanity has announced a Cards Against Humanity Short Film Festival, reports Block Club. More details on how finished films can be submitted until July 25 are here, where you can submit your forty-dollar application fee. “The application would be free, but according to a Cards Against Humanity spokesperson, people would send them garbage if they did that.”
MUSIC
Ides Of March’s Jim Peterik Collapses Onstage In Des Plaines
“Jim Peterik of the Ides of March collapsed from apparent heat exhaustion while performing Sunday afternoon at the Des Plaines Theatre,” reports the Daily Herald. The seventy-two-year-old performer “had been on stage for a long time and was wearing a heavy costume. A doctor said the collapse likely was the result of heat exhaustion and dehydration.”
STAGE
Joffrey Ballet Names Two Life Directors, Two New Board Members
The Joffrey Ballet has appointed Nichelle Hughley Mayberry and Sarah Wills to the Joffrey board of directors for the 2022–2025 term, as well as Zachary Lazar and Maureen Dwyer Smith as Joffrey Life Directors.
ACE Fellowship in Dance Awarded to Julia Rhoads Of Lucky Plush
Trillium Arts has announced Julia Rhoads, founding artistic director of Lucky Plush Productions, as the recipient of its fourth annual ACE (Asheville-Chicago Exchange) Fellowship in Dance. Julia will be joined by six members of the Lucky Plush ensemble in residence at Trillium September 10-16. The Ace Fellowship provides established Chicago-area choreographers and their dancers with a full menu of resources and benefits. Each ACE Fellowship is seven to nine days in length, providing space and time to rejuvenate and deepen creative endeavors in the Blue Ridge mountains. More here.
Drunk Shakespeare Troupes Organize
“Chicago’s branch of Drunk Shakespeare, a popular party theater brand with outposts all over the U.S., was the first to call for unionizing,” reports American Theatre. “‘We have had so many conversations with our upper management about the issues we are trying to fix, and once it became clear that they would not budge on these issues, unionizing became the obvious choice,’ said Ella Fent, Drunk Shakespeare United union leader and Drunk Shakespeare Chicago server… ‘We had an unsuccessful meeting with our upper management, and it became clear that we needed external support. So I reached out to EWOC (Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee), and they gave us a fantastic start to our unionizing process.'”
Hell In A Handbag Opens World Premiere “Murder, ReWrote”
Hell in a Handbag Productions will conclude its twenty-first season with the world-premiere musical parody “Murder, ReWrote,” August 10–September 16 at The Den Theatre. The spoof features book and lyrics by Ed Rutherford, music and lyrics by George Howe, direction by Anthony Whitaker and music direction by Andrew Milliken. The cast includes ensemble members David Cerda, Grant Drager, Ed Jones and Tyler Anthony Smith, with Mark Bartishell, Britain Gebhardt, Caroline Kidwell, Matt Patrick and Cathy McNamara. Tickets here.
Indy Rep Artistic Director Exits
“There’s a bittersweet tinge to Indiana Repertory Theatre’s fiftieth anniversary season. Though the celebratory season featured production highlights like… a season-concluding hit in the classic whodunit ‘Clue,’ the season also marked the final hurrah for IRT’s longest-running artistic director Janet Allen, who has, in some way, shape, or form, been around IRT for four of its five decades,” reports American Theatre. “We serve a multi-generational audience and we serve a very, very broad audience,” Allen tells the magazine. “We serve people who go to the theatre all over the world and are very sophisticated arts consumers. But we also serve people who have never been to a city and never been in a parking garage and never eaten in a city restaurant and who come to see ‘Christmas Carol’ because it’s a big treat they’ve heard about from other people. It is really hard to get your arms around all those ends of the spectrum. Ben [Hanna, Allen’s successor] came with already a lot of experience in multi-generational [audiences], and that was key. You have to have that.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
West Siders Want Piece Of DNC
West Siders are “trying to figure out how to get a seat at the table with the decision-makers to ensure they get their say, while local members of Congress also are attempting to make sure the West Side residents and businesses aren’t left out,” reports the Trib. There’s historical precedent: “While development was already underway in the vicinity of Fulton Market and West Town, that trend exploded in the aftermath of the 1996 Democratic shindig and then-Mayor Daley’s big spending to beautify the scruffier parts of the area so delegates and members of the national media traveling from their downtown hotels to the arena would get a more flattering view. Daley splashed out more than $60 million to pretty up the city ahead of the 1996 convention… In addition to a tree-planting spree in the West Loop and downtown, artisanal street lamps cost more than $1 million in public funds, while spending on bridge makeovers and renovations to Daley Plaza and State Street downtown climbed into the tens of millions.”
The Millions Behind Pickleball
“Pickleball has been deemed the ‘fastest-growing sport in America’ and, according to a 2022 Sports & Fitness Industry Association report, the number of players has increased nearly forty-percent over the last two years alone. Outside of its turf wars with the tennis elite, pickleball has enjoyed a relatively squeaky-clean image,” writes Emily Leibert at Jezebel. But “when Fortune referred to the pickleball boom as a ‘gold rush,’ that gold isn’t so much intended for the sport’s budding roster of all-ages players as it is for its lengthy list of wealthy investors like LeBron James, Eva Longoria, and Tom Brady. Pickleball has also been called ‘a venture capitalist’s dream.’ It was invented as a pastime for the rich and the bored… The hype cycle isn’t just attracting more bodies: It’s actively changing urban and public space planning.”
Northwestern Football Sexual Hazing Scandal Could Affect School; Repairing “Brand” Will Take Time; Civil Rights Attorneys Now Involved
“I’d like to think this will not hurt our academics reputation. But it’s concerning,” Ceci Rodgers, Northwestern’s faculty senate president tells the Tribune. “The question it could raise in prospective students’ parents’ minds is, does this university respond adequately to concerns or allegations that [affect] the safety of my child, not just the athletic students, but all students?” Fired coach Pat Fitzgerald is investigating ways to sue the University, the paper reports. Putting aside matters of human cost, the Trib elaborates, “Part of the scandal’s fallout will be the incalculable cost to the Northwestern brand… Repairing the school’s brand will take both decisive actions and time, according to Michael Sitrick, who leads one of the top crisis PR firms in the country.” Reports Crain’s, “Civil rights attorney Ben Crump joins Chicago firm taking aim at Northwestern in hazing scandal; Crump and Chicago-based law firm Levin & Perconti are partnering to represent eight former football players and say more are expected to follow.”
United And Pilots Agree On Pay Raises Up To Forty Percent
“United Airlines pilots reached agreement with the company on Saturday on a contract valued at $10 billion that would increase pay up to forty percent over four years,” reports the New York Times. “The substantial raises are a reflection of a shortage of pilots in the United States and the strong recovery in demand for air travel. In addition to the higher compensation, the agreement provides better job security, work rules, vacation, retirement and other benefits.”
Supreme Court Will Decide Case That Could Aggregate All Federal Rule-Making To Itself
The Supreme Court has “a case on next term’s docket through which the justices may vastly expand their power while also accelerating the continuing collapse of public confidence in the Court,” reports the American Prospect. “In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court may end the judiciary’s deference to expert, federal agencies—such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Labor Relations Board—when such agencies must construe parts of laws that Congress left unclear. By denying administrative agencies that authority, the justices would arrogate it to themselves—thereby expanding their power at the expense of the political branches of our government. The paradoxical result would be that even more divisive issues will be decided along partisan lines by unelected judges.”
Insurance Industry Collapses In Florida
More bad news for homeowners that could spread across the country: “AAA will not renew the auto and home insurance policies for some customers in Florida, joining a growing list of insurers [reducing] their presence in the Sunshine State amid a growing risk of natural disasters,” reports CBS News. “The company is the fourth insurer over the last year say it is backing away from insuring Floridians, a sign extreme weather linked to climate change is destabilizing the insurance market.” Farmers Insurance “will no longer offer coverage in the state, affecting roughly 100,000 customers.”
