The liveliness of music is what moves people. An authentic, simple, yet warming tone is what Luke Ray creates when he picks up his guitar. Ray grew up in a […]

I have a lot of good memories growing up of time spent with My Little Ponies and Barbies and Strawberry Shortcake dolls. It wasn’t necessarily about the dolls, all soft […]

Last year, Ric Wilson took the stage at Pitchfork Music Festival and wowed the early Saturday crowd with an incredibly fun performance that I still think about. Whether he was […]

Chris Porterfield sings with a kind of howl. On his songs, recorded with the folk-rock band Field Report, his words come out with a ferociousness that charges the poetry with […]

Well, they’re back! November marked the one-year anniversary of Optimism Inc. by the soulful, modern indie rock band, Poor Calvin. Last Friday marked their newest single, “Get,” on all platforms […]

Robert O’Hara’s funny, snarky familyish drama Barbecue was staged by Strawdog Theatre in 2017 in Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre. It’s set in a public park where four siblings, led by one […]

When COVID-19 closed taprooms and cancelled festivals, I looked for ways to still engage with Chicago’s craft beer scene. I therefore decided to finally work my way through The Complete Beer […]

Had it been written by a man, I’m Your Woman would be a very different story indeed. Which might be stating the obvious, but hear me out. In that version of […]

Deepa Mehta’s filmmaking career spans decades, though she’s perhaps best known for her “Elements” Trilogy; Fire (1996), Earth (1998) and Water (2005) confront nearly every controversial or taboo subject in Indian culture, from homosexuality […]

Even if its overarching themes aren’t entirely unique, Breaking Surface, a chilling (and chilly) thriller about two sisters and their deep-water diving excursion gone very wrong, certainly gets points for […]

While 2020 has been rife with crappiness, Chicago-based Kartemquin Films is having a bit of a year (co-founder Gordon Quinn’s battle with COVID-19 early in the pandemic notwithstanding). In October, […]

In the first feature from writer/director Ekwa Msangi, a family must find their way home. In the case of New York City taxi driver Walter (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), his […]