Page 42 - Chicago Reader News Today

Pixel Grip: Jonathon Freund, Rita Lukea, and Tyler Ommen In the world of Chicago goth dance trio Pixel Grip, "the arena" is more than a literal venue where spectators gather to delight in competition—it refers to any context our society envisions as a zero-sum game, where no one can win without someone else losing. The bands sophomore album, Arena, proposes the club as a sanctuary. Over ten darkly electrifying tracks ("Alphapussy," "Dancing on Your ...

How going viral became the industry’s most crucial ingredient

We didnt need the death of architect Helmut Jahn to bring the plight of the James R. Thompson Center to our attention. The states May 3 request for proposals to buy the iconic structure—minus any stipulation that it not be torn down—had already drawn widespread notice. But the bicycle accident that killed Jahn just five days later put an exclamation point on the arguments of architects and preservationists who want to save it. Theyre asking Governor J.B. Pritzker now, as they were before Ja...

As bad as things get around Chicago, does anyone think we’d be better off with fewer reporters walking the streets and corridors of power in this city?

Warmonger Rahm Emanuel Is an Abysmal Choice for US Ambassador Then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a news conference at a Chicago Police Department district station on August 6, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. Joshua Lott / Getty Images Remember the song about the cat? Well, the cat came back the very next day / Oh, the cat came back, they thought he was a goner but the cat came back / He just couldn’t stay away… Well, it won’t be official for a few weeks, but the word landed yester...

Laid bare: Madonna hid nothing from the cameras Credit: AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo Madonna and Britney Spears had a lot in common even before their staged snog at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, in which Madonna clamped her mouth around Britney’s like a rapacious lamprey.  Both female pop stars were publicly upbraided for celebrating their sexuality, and both then appeared in raw and provocative documentaries which led people to question their clichéd perceptions of celebrities in th...

Ganser, clockwise from upper left: Brian Cundiff, Alicia Gaines, Charlie Landsman, and Nadia Garofalo Kirsten Miccoli At one point in our e-mail back-and-forth, Ganser bassist and vocalist Alicia Gaines says, "I miss green-room conversations." Weve been talking not just by e-mail but also over Zoom and via Twitter DMs. In any other year this might feel an excessi...

Trans Latina Frances D’allesio talks survival, mental health, and food.

Writers, biographers protest W.W. Norton’s decision to “permanently” remove Blake Bailey’s biography of Philip Roth from print On April 27, publisher W.W. Norton announced it was “permanently” removing Blake Bailey’s biography of American novelist Philip Roth (1933–2018) from print. Several individuals have accused Bailey of sexual wrongdoing, including rape. None of them have come forward with any evidence to back up the claims. Blake Bailey, 2011 (Photo: David Shankbone) We ar...

The Crime Novelist Who Wrote His Own Death Scene Eugene Izzi’s unpublished manuscript described a death almost exactly as his own. Did the writer predict his own demise, or was this all an elaborate, attention-getting ruse? By Philip Caputo Esquire This article originally appeared in the May 1997 issue of Esquire. Get access to every Esquire story ever published at . He was a powerfully built man, six feet tall and two hundred pounds, with thick, dark hair, a prominent nose, pierci...