Snow at the start of the week, then beautiful warm sunshine , now back to cool rainy days. The weather may be erratic but the events are just as great as they […]
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 4/18 – 4/21
Review: I Just Wanna Bang on the Djembe! All Day
Djembe! is a Disney-like journey through the history of the West African drum, a kind of “Around the Drum in 80 Minutes” diorama, and that’s OK. The intermission-less musical, in its US […]
Giveaway: Spring Awakening Music Festival 2019
The weather has been absolutely crazy this week, from snow to temps in the 70s! No matter how crazy things get, you know that festival season is fast approaching. We’re actually under […]
Restore to Factory Settings – An Evening with Wax Trax Records
This past Saturday was Record Store Day. I don’t own vinyl or a record player but the excitement of the day and the celebration of music and the frustration towards the music […]
Review: Shattered Globe’s Hannah and Martin, an Intellectual Romance and Ideological Battle
Hannah Arendt is having a moment. There’s renewed interest in this brilliant 20th century political philosopher, probably best known for her writing on the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel, published in her […]
Review: Soul’d Out – Durand Jones and the Indications Take Thalia Hall
On a rainy Thursday evening I was riding the train home from work noticing all of the people sharing the car with me. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, uncles, someone’s something. Some wore suits, […]
Third Coast Kitchen: The Adventures of Cast Iron Man
By Bob Benenson Some men were born to battle. Some were born to run. I, apparently, was born to be a home cook. And these days, I do almost all of my cooking […]
Review: Mike Leigh’s Historical Drama Peterloo Tries to Do Too Much
Mike Leigh’s last film, 2014’s Mr. Turner, was a lush biopic about the final decades of painter J.M.W. Turner’s life, with British character actor Timothy Spall elevated to a lead role that garnered […]
Review: A Moving Meditation on Death in Diane
Just a few weeks after Sebastian Lelio gifted us with an English-language remake of Gloria Bell, about a woman in her 50s looking for love and connection in Los Angeles, writer/director Kent Jones […]
Review: The Early Life of a Jazz Age Star in The Chaperone
Admittedly, most of the people who go to see The Chaperone probably don’t know much about the pre-fame life of silent film star Louise Brooks (played here by Haley Lu Richardson, most […]
Review: Let the Spirit – and Aretha – Move You in Amazing Grace
If I have to convince you to go see this documentary chronicling the two Aretha Franklin performances at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that […]
Review: Laika Continues a Strong Run with Adventurous, Friendly Missing Link
As far as animation houses go, the stop-frame animation loyalists at Laika have a perfect record in my book, with a run that includes ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, […]
