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Music, Music Review Dec 7, 2020
Recommended
Sour hearken back to thrash metal’s glory days on their self-titled debut
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Review, Sour, Aurora, thrash, heavy metal, thrash metal, Timothy Burke, Sinclair Media, Danny Schwartz, Juanangel Perez, Jake Velez, Recommended

Music, Music Feature Mar 3, 2020
Chicago postpunk gets its Wu-Tang Clan

Local label Chicago Research has built a powerful, tight-knit collective of dark underground rock and electronic artists.
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Feature, Chicago Research, Blake Karlson, Civic Center, American Dreams Records, Jordan Reyes, Club Music, postpunk, industrial, electronic, Conjunto Primitivo, the Arno, Rubio Woods, Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, record label, label, Natural History, Understudy, Bruised, Death Valley, CR001, Hen of the Woods, Product KF, Beyond New Beat, Cesar Robles, Beau Wanzer, Hot on the Heels, Ariel Motto, Macklin Reed, Plastic, Aurora, 86 Gemini, High Fashion Industries, DIY Chicago, Not Normal, Plastic 2.0, Animated Music, Electronic Circus, Viper, You’ll Cowards Don’t Even Smoke Crack, Manhattan Research, Raymond Scott, Ministry, Ways of Perfection, Lily the Fields, Drew Ryan, Neobeat, Trisomie 21

Film, Movie Feature Jan 28, 2020
Ben Sachs’s 25 favorite movies of the decade

You might have missed some of the most groundbreaking and innovative films of the 2010s.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Feature, Life Without Principle, Toni Erdmann, Fish & Cat, Til Madness do Us Part, Bitter Money, Dead Souls, Inherent Vice, In Another Country, Nobody's Daughter Haewon, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Sunset, Rambleras, Aurora, Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, The Image Book, Zama, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, Nocturama, Computer Chess, Sack Barrow, The Wind Rises, Goodbye First Love, At Berkeley, Hard to Be a God, Sully, The Mule, Ash is Purest White, The Apostate, A Simple Life, Tabu

Blogs, Bleader Jun 14, 2018
Chicago corruption for sightseers: Walking tours show seedy underbelly of the city’s politics

"I lure them in with promises of wacky Blagojevich stories, and leave them with civics," journalist Paul Dailing muses.
- By Matt Harvey
- Tags: Arts, History, News, Politics, The Trump Era, Paul, Dailing, Paul Dailing, corruption, Chicago, Chicago corruption, walking tour, tours, tour, Sun-Times, Brehon Pub, 1001 Chicago Afternoons, Kane County, Aurora Beacon, Aurora, the Triibe, Triibe, redlining, housing, segregation, Chicago Lawyer, Chicago Lawyer magazine, Mirage Tavern, Big Bill Thompson, Willie Cochran, Ed Burke, Tinley Park, riverboat, Shoreline tours

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Oct 10, 2017
Video
Decades after Stumpwater put out their only single, the Aurora folk-pop group ride again

Dan Berg, Dan Haligas, and Joe Gloor released two songs in 1975 and split up in '80, but now they're back to writing, recording, and gigging.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Stumpwater, folk, pop, rock, Dan Berg, Dan Haligas, Joe Gloor, Ron Cimo, Aurora, East Aurora High School, Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Steve Goodman, Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull, Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else's Troubles, Crosby Stills & Nash, Beef 'n' Barrel, Ground Round, White Washed Afternoons, Watchers Brawl, Big Rock Studios, Tom Rapp, Pearls Before Swine, Gene Clark, Harry Nilsson, Drive In Show, Midtown Pub and Grill, Independence Tap, Video

Blogs, Bleader Apr 7, 2017
Video
Billionaire J.B. Pritzker makes his 2018 gubernatorial run official, and other Chicago news

Also, a Toronto-to-Chicago flight was grounded after a fake bomb was found in a passenger's luggage.
- By Kate Shepherd
- Tags: News, Did You Read __________?, Chicago, J.B. Pritzker, Election 2018, Democratic gubernatorial primary, Chris Kennedy, Daniel Biss, Ameya Pawar, Bob Daiber, Hillary Clinton, Jan Schakowsky, Illinois, Michael Reese Hospital, Toronto, United Airlines, Aurora, Harry Potter, Empire, Morocco Omari, restaurant openings, Mexican food, Dos Toros Taqueria, Video

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Sep 27, 2016
Chicago protopunks the Crucified released a notorious EP in 1977

The Crucified predated the codification of punk as a musical style, so to modern ears their only record sounds more like great, no-frills hard rock.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Crucified, The Crucified, punk, protopunk, Sounds Good, Heartbreakers, Voidoids, Dead Boys, The Fall of Punk, S.A. Barker, Dave Bahlken, Steve Virgilio, Nicki Michaels, God, I Can't Spell Fuck Without You, Slade, Roxy Music, Creem, Runaways, Joan Jett, Saint Joan, Let the Kids Play, Sex Pistols, B'Ginnings, Schaumburg, Big Rock, Killed by Death, Aurora, Todd Von Ohlen, Stooges, Patti Smith, MC5, Power Records, Chuck Firth

Film, Movie Sidebar Apr 16, 2015
Our guide to the Chicago Latino Film Festival, week two

South American sci-fi dominates this week's roundup of the 31st editon.
- By Drew Hunt, J.R. Jones, and Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Sidebar, Chicago Latino Film Festival, The Incident, Blue Desert, Aurora, Open Wound, The Hand That Feeds, Lock Charmer

Columns & Opinion, On Politics Jan 28, 2014
Rahm's school board and the teachers' union actually agree on charter law

Chicago officials don't want their hands tied by state charter rules.
- By Ben Joravsky
- Tags: On Politics, Advance Illinois, Aurora, Becky Schlikerman, charter schools, Chicago Math and Science Academy, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago School Board, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Teachers Union, Concept, CPS, CTU, Dan Mihalopoulos, David Vitale, Elgin, Heather Steans, Illinois General Assembly, Illinois State Charter School Commission, Illinois state law, Karen Lewis, labor unions, Linda Chapa LaVia, Naperville, Pat Quinn, Rahm Emanuel, Robin Steans, Rogers Park, Saint Charles, school boards, suburbs, unions, Virtual Learning Solutions

Blogs, Bleader Oct 16, 2013
Essential versus arbitrary mystery in contemporary art house cinema

Reflections on trends in contemporary art house movies, as observed in this year's Chicago International Film Festival and Doc Films' ongoing Hou Hsiao-Hsien retrospective
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Art House, Foreign, Film, Chicago International Film Festival, Chasing Fireflies, "slow cinema", Pedro Costa, Cristi Puiu, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Dust in the Wind, Honey, Starlet, Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry, art house cinema, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Lisandro Alonso, Los Muertes, Liverpool, Aurora, Doc Films, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Blogs, Bleader Jun 23, 2013
Reader's Agenda Sun 6/23: Michael Palascak, Chicago Gospel Music Festival, and Chicago beer festivals

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Sunday, June 23
- By Tosten Burks
- Tags: Do This, Arts, Agenda, Michael Palascak, Zanie's, Chicago Gospel Music Festival, GMAC Mass Choir, Millennium Park, Chicago Craft Beer Festival, Two Brothers Summer Festival, Aurora

Blogs, Bleader May 2, 2013
This weekend's must-see revival: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie on 35-millimeter

John Cassavetes's personal take on the crime film screens Friday and Sunday at the Patio Theater.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Crime, Do This, Film, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Patio Theater, Chicago Cinema Society, Ray Carney, Gloria, The Godfather Part II, Sans Soleil, Fantastic Planet, Touch of Evil, Orson Welles, crime film, revival screenings, repertory screenings, Frank Capra, Aurora, Cristi Puiu, Philip Lopate, Criterion Collection, film noir, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Music Box Theatre, Doc Films

Film, Movie Sidebar Apr 10, 2013
Our guide to the Chicago Latino Film Festival

The annual event kicks off Friday at 600 N. Michigan.
- Tags: Movie Sidebar, 29th Chicago Latino Film Festival, International Latino Cultural Center of Chicago, The Devil's Hole, Francis Disla Ferreira, A Long Journey, Lucia Murat, Athens, Sydney, Kabul, Rishikesh, New York, On the Line, Ecuador, Guayaquil, David Nieto Wenzell, Orange Honey, Flame & Citron, Winter in Wartime, Imanol Uribe, Porcelain Horse, Javier Andrade, SofÍa and the Stubborn Man, Almodovar, Carmen Maura, Giulietta Masina, Nights of Cabiria, Things the Way They Are, William Vega, Lisandro Alonso, Los Muertes, Cristi Puiu, Aurora

Arts & Culture, Show us your [____] Mar 20, 2013
Show us your . . . BDSM dungeon

This week the Leather Rose Association shows us its BDSM dungeon, filled with bondage furniture.
- By Gwynedd Stuart
- Tags: Show us your [____], Leather Rose Association, BDSM dungeon, Saint Andrew, Min, Aurora, International Mr. Leather, fetish

News & Politics, Feature Feb 14, 2013
Anatomy of a heroin ring

Dana Bostic's gang-affiliated west-side drug organization employed dozens of residents, served thousands of customers, established ties with Mexican drug cartels, and relied on violence to stay in business.
- By Mick Dumke
- Tags: Feature, 11th police district, antihistamines, Aurora, Austin, Berwyn, Black Gangsters, Brandon Richards, Bucktown, cannabis, Charles Cowart, Chicago Police Department, Chicago Sun-Times, Cicero, Cornelius Thomas, CPD, crack, crime, Curtis Ellis, cutting heroin, Dana Bostic, Davon Taylor, DEA, Dirty Unknown Vice Lords, Dormin, druck trafficking, drug cartels, drug dealers, drug dealing, Drug Enforcement Agency, drug runners, drug use, East Garfield Park, ecstasy, Eddie Valentino, Eleazar Alves, Erik Guevara, Excalibur, gang violence, gangs, guns, heroin, homicides, Jerry Bischoff, jobs, Joe Gorman, K-Town, Ladonta Gill, Lee Floyd, Mahogany Barbee, marijuana, Matthew F. Kennelly, Maurice Davis, Mexican drug cartels, murders, New Breeds, Operation Bird Cage, poverty, River North, Rock 'n' Roll McDonalds, schools, Sinaloa cartel, Stroger Hospital, Takers, Taste of Chicago, Tony Allen, U.S. Attorney, Undertaker Vice Lords, unemployment, Vice Lords, West Garfield Park, West Humboldt Park, west side, White Palace Grill, Woodridge

Blogs, Bleader Jul 23, 2012
The worst-timed press release ever?

Now's maybe not the best time to publicize a designer gun holster
- By Heather Kenny
- Tags: Style, Machine Guns Vegas, Louis Vuitton, press releases, PR hacks, Aurora

Blogs, Bleader Dec 27, 2011
Best of 2011, number 1: Aurora

Our year-end review concludes with Cristi Puiu's Aurora.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Film, Aurora, Cristi Puiu, Best of 2011, Chicago Reader, Ben Sachs, internet age, Romanian New Wave, EU Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center

Film, Movie Sidebar Mar 10, 2011
Video
European Union Film Festival, Week Two

The 14th European Union Film Festival continues Friday, March 11, through Thursday, March 31.
- Tags: Movie Sidebar, European Union Film Festival, Gene Siskel Film Center, Cristi Puiu, Aurora, Change Nothing, Pedro Costa, Illegal, Olivier Masset-Depasse, Kawasaki's Rose, Jan Hrebejk, To Die Like a Man, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Two in the Wave, Emmanuel Laurent, The Clash Live in Italy 1978 & Japan 1982, The Clash, Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, Martin Landau, Richard Burton, Jospeh L. Mankiewicz, Cold Weather, Video

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Local label Chicago Research has built a powerful, tight-knit collective of dark underground rock and electronic artists.

You might have missed some of the most groundbreaking and innovative films of the 2010s.

"I lure them in with promises of wacky Blagojevich stories, and leave them with civics," journalist Paul Dailing muses.

Dan Berg, Dan Haligas, and Joe Gloor released two songs in 1975 and split up in '80, but now they're back to writing, recording, and gigging.

Also, a Toronto-to-Chicago flight was grounded after a fake bomb was found in a passenger's luggage.

The Crucified predated the codification of punk as a musical style, so to modern ears their only record sounds more like great, no-frills hard rock.

South American sci-fi dominates this week's roundup of the 31st editon.

Chicago officials don't want their hands tied by state charter rules.

Reflections on trends in contemporary art house movies, as observed in this year's Chicago International Film Festival and Doc Films' ongoing Hou Hsiao-Hsien retrospective

What's on the Reader's Agenda for Sunday, June 23

John Cassavetes's personal take on the crime film screens Friday and Sunday at the Patio Theater.

The annual event kicks off Friday at 600 N. Michigan.

This week the Leather Rose Association shows us its BDSM dungeon, filled with bondage furniture.

Dana Bostic's gang-affiliated west-side drug organization employed dozens of residents, served thousands of customers, established ties with Mexican drug cartels, and relied on violence to stay in business.

Now's maybe not the best time to publicize a designer gun holster

Our year-end review concludes with Cristi Puiu's Aurora.

The 14th European Union Film Festival continues Friday, March 11, through Thursday, March 31.

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