5 things to do today: Saturday, May 25
Fourth of July fireworks at Navy Pier
AROUND TOWN
Navy Pier Fireworks Don't waste gas treking to Indiana or Wisconsin to buy your own (illegal) fireworks. Each Wednesday and Saturday, from Memorial Day to Labor Day (and a special show on July 4), Navy Pier makes the rockets red glare and bombs burst in air. They blowed up real good! Navy Pier. 10:15pm.
CLUBS
Blowoff Among his many non-rock pursuits, former wrestling script writer Bob Mould (Sugar, Hüsker Dü) formed DJ outfit Blowoff with Richard Morel while living in Washington, D.C.—they've issued an album and various remixes, but Blowoff is best known as the polysexual dance party they popularized in Chocolate City. Metro. 11pm. $16.
Congress Theater in peril as city revokes liquor license
It's not impossible to run a music venue without a liquor license, but it certainly is not profitable. Last month, the city issued an emergency motion to Congress Theater owner Eddie Carranza, listing 26 violations including shocking shortcomings with the venue's electrical system. Just yesterday, the Sun-Times reported the Congress was close to being cleared of the violations.
Early today, local music critic Jim DeRogatis, who has been at the head of the crusade to shutter the problematic rock venue, announced on WBEZ that the Congress has lost its liquor license. This Twitpic of the venue's front doors from Do312 confirms the news.
What this means for the slate of upcoming shows is uncertain. Country act Montgomery Gentry is slated to play next Friday, May 31. Other upcoming concerts include Marilyn Manson and Adam Ant.
Congress Theater has been a hub for EDM in the city, hosting concerts by Major Lazer, Amon Tobin, Girl Talk, David Guetta and more. Click here for more photo galleries of Congress Theater concerts. You might not see many more for a while.
UPDATE: In DeRogatis's latest report, Carranza notes that he will appeal the decision. State law allows the venue to continue to sell alcohol during the appeals process.
Alton Brown stage show coming to Oriental Theatre
Alton Brown Live!
Foodie TV personality Alton Brown has a new stage show that's headed to the Oriental Theatre in February. The host of Good Eats and Iron Chef America will make a one-night Chicago stop February 8 as part of his "Edible Inevitable Tour," said to feature culinary instruction, stand-up comedy, live music and "food experimentation." Tickets for the Chicago performance go on sale June 7 via Broadway in Chicago.
Best festivals Memorial Day weekend in Chicago
IML, Gay & Lesbian
International Mr. Leather Weekend Chicago's tribute to the leather lifestyle has grown into a full-blown global event attracting leathermen and fetish enthusiasts from around the world to both compete in the International Mr. Leather contest and also to partake in a weekend of meet-and-greets, workshops, parties and so much more (just hanging around the hotel can make for a wild afternoon). The price of a weekend package is stiff (pun intended), but tickets to the Leather Market and most of the parties can be purchased individually. Most events take place at Chicago Marriott, 540 N Michigan Ave. May 24–27, 11am. Weekend packages $175–$205.
Electric Daisy Carnival The biggest brand in EDM festivals plants its stake in Chicago (well, Joliet) for the first time. Does a metropolis with the Spring Awakening and Wavefront festivals truly need another massive electronic tent? Well, each has its own shade of untz. EDC leans hard on trance, the tried and true sounds of Europe, as opposed to the more dubstep and underground flavors of the other two, respectively. Case in point: The big guns here are millionaire fist-pumper Tiësto, French simple-pleasures man David Guetta and precocious luxury-goods-pimper Avicii. The rest of the bill is short on such major names, but there are gems, such as DJ Koze, a far more nuanced and weird technician whose latest, Amygdala, arrived as an immediate techno classic. Whether he's worth sleeping at a racetrack for, well, that's up to you. Chicagoland Speedway. May 24–26, 5pm. 3-day pass $175, 3-day pass with camping $295, 3-day VIP $299, 3-day VIP with camping $419.
5 movies opening in Chicago
Here's what our critics are saying about this weekend's big new film openings:
"Daringly plotless and disconnected (“just like my life!” squeals the target audience), Noah Baumbach’s latest, a breeze, feels a lot less self-absorbed than usual, mainly for not having a neurotic at its core."
"Now most of the stunts are digital and the pleasures are video-game-stupid: Cars pounce like panthers over demolished bridges; they get flattened by a tank; they dangle like tin cans off a just-married bumper (if that bumper were a Russian cargo plane)."
"You’d think that a Vegas reprise might channel some of the first film’s gonzo energy, but other than an early giggle-inducing shocker (two words: giraffe decapitation), Part III has curiously little interest in being even remotely funny."
Click the links in the slideshow to read more, and check out all of the new reviews in Film.
5 things to do today: Friday, May 24
ART & DESIGN
"Theaster Gates: 13th Ballad" As an extension of his 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, coproduced by the MCA and exhibited at Documenta 13, Gates takes over the MCA's front atrium, installing a wooden, neon-lit double cross containing objects from Huguenot House (the abandoned South Side building he has worked to restore), alongside repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s Bond Chapel. They function as seating for three performances that are part of the project, and places for R&R&R (rest and relaxation and reflection) during non-performance times. Museum of Contemporary Art. 10am–5pm.
CLUBS
Mayhem at the Mid: Qbert + Shortkut + Zebo Scratching, breakdancing, crooked baseball hats. Old school hip-hop heads, B-boys and connoisseurs of Electric Boogaloo should flock to the Mid for another edition of Mayhem at the Mid, an evening flashy turntablism and crew dance battles. What, no graffiti exhibition? San Francisco veterans and scratch icons Qbert and Shortkut cut it up on the decks. Crew registration begins at 8:30pm. R.S.V.P. at bit.ly/YkEZjf. The Mid. 9pm. $10.
Of Monsters & Men at Aragon | Concert pictures
In case you couldn't tell by how Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir is a dead ringer for Björk, Of Monsters & Men are from Iceland. The small island nation has given us more than its fair share of beautiful music. So thank you, Iceland. Out of the entire new wave of neo-folk acts, this quintet stands out as the best to our ears. The band played to a full house last night at Aragon, amidst a set of large glowing spheres. It's a bubbly group. Cousin Daniel was there to snap some lovely pictures.
Best weekend events in Chicago
Theaster Gates, 12 Ballads for the Huguenot House, 2012. Installation view, Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany.
Photo courtesy of Kavi Gupta CHICAGO | BERLIN
FRIDAY
"Theaster Gates: 13th Ballad" As an extension of his 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, coproduced by the MCA and exhibited at Documenta 13, Gates takes over the MCA's front atrium, installing a wooden, neon-lit double cross containing objects from Huguenot House (the abandoned South Side building he has worked to restore), alongside repurposed pews from the University of Chicago’s Bond Chapel. They function as seating for three performances that are part of the project, and places for R&R&R (rest and relaxation and reflection) during non-performance times. Museum of Contemporary Art. 10am–5pm.
Mayhem at the Mid: Qbert + Shortkut + Zebo Scratching, breakdancing, crooked baseball hats. Old school hip-hop heads, B-boys and connoisseurs of Electric Boogaloo should flock to the Mid for another edition of Mayhem at the Mid, an evening flashy turntablism and crew dance battles. What, no graffiti exhibition? San Francisco veterans and scratch icons Qbert and Shortkut cut it up on the decks. Crew registration begins at 8:30pm. R.S.V.P. at bit.ly/YkEZjf. The Mid. 9pm. $10.
5 things to do today: Thursday, May 23
CLUBS
Stardust Scott Cramer's freaky party goes late and features nightlife superstars from the past and present. It's a bit like Warhol's Factory resurrected. Cheap drinks abound, and the regulars come to dance and schmooze with host Trannika Rex. Tonight's theme is Acid Dreams, with guests Scott Zacharias and Kevin Starke. Berlin. 10pm. $10, R.S.V.P. at do312.com for free admission.
COMEDY
Never Been to Paris Sean Flannery recounts his misadventures in drinking and living via slideshow in this hilarious ongoing show. The Comedy Bar. 10pm. $15, in advance $10.
Haskell Wexler on the Criterion Collection release of 'Medium Cool'
The Criterion Collection released a 4K digital restoration of Medium Cool on May 21.
Haskell Wexler had already won the first of two cinematography Oscars (1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and '76's Bound for Glory) when he decided to return to the place of his birth, Chicago, and direct his first fiction feature, Medium Cool (1969). Written by Wexler, then 46, the counterculture classic remains a vibrant hybrid: characters (many of them non-actors) are put in the midst of real events, most famously the chaos of the '68 Democratic National Convention riots in Grant Park. Wexler himself was tear-gassed during filming.
Against that backdrop of social and political unrest, a hard-bitten television news cameraman pursues an Uptown Appalachian woman and awakens to a number of insights about the media, namely that the electronic eye dehumanizes its subjects, keeping TV producers and viewers at a dispassionate arm's length from the impact of the events captured. Speaking directly into Wexler's lens, an African-American activist schools the movie's cameraman, John Cassellis (Robert Forster)—and, in turn, the audience: "When you come in here and you say you've come to do something of human interest, it makes one wonder whether you're going to do something of interest to other humans or whether you consider the person human in whom you're interested."
Yesterday, the Criterion Collection released a restored 4K digital transfer of Medium Cool, along with extras including a commentary track from Wexler, excerpts from the documentary “Look Out, Haskell, It’s Real!” by historian Paul Cronin and "Medium Cool Revisited," a short film essay by Wexler comparing what he saw in '68 to the demonstrations during last year's NATO summit in Chicago.
We phoned the 91-year-old—whose cinematography résumé includes In the Heat of the Night and Days of Heaven—at his Los Angeles office to talk about the making of Medium Cool, his beloved hometown and how Studs Terkel became "Our Man in Chicago."
