5 things to do today: Wednesday, May 15
Yo-Yo Ma
COMEDY
TJ & Dave This two-man show puts master improvisers TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi together for an hour of long-form. iO Cabaret. 11pm. $5.
GAY & LESBIAN
Burly Burliness is optional at this night for bearded boys, funky folk and all other queers and allies. Gregg Medley spins punk, disco and new wave galore. The Burlington. 9pm.
Navy Pier Ferris wheel record attempt will include 'emergency pee bottle'
Navy Pier Ferris wheel
Lots of completely unnecessary Guinness World Records have been set by Chicagoans or in Chicago. On Friday, Clinton Shepherd hopes to set another. The 32-year-old South Sider will board the Navy Pier Ferris wheel at 2:30pm. If all goes according to plan, the Pier Park operations manager will ride the wheel in the sky and keep on turning continuously (save for five-minute breaks every hour) until Sunday at 2:30pm. The 48 hours spent onboard would shatter the time for Longest Marathon on a Fairground/Theme Attraction, which the Guinness Book of World Records' website says is 25 hours (though there is a Canadian claim on a 30-hour record). Of course, all of this would be a more impressive test of stamina were the ride Raging Bull at Six Flags instead of the Pier's sluggish Ferris wheel. But over the phone this afternoon, Shepherd said slow-jamming his way to a record has its own set of challenges.
Is your life one big training montage right now? Yeah, I'm trying to stay up as long as I possibly can. If I do take a nap, it's usually five or ten minutes, because I do get five-minute breaks every hour. So my goal is to stay up four to five hours straight, so if I do need a break, I can save up the time and use it when I need it. I'm also trying to get my body prepared to take care of the proper...bladder issues. Outside of that, it's just a big mind game.
Watch a fan-made documentary about Kanye West
Where The Lonely Kids Go When The Bell Rings from JW on Vimeo.
Brace yourself for Kanyemania, again. Chicago's most famous rap son hits SNL this weekend, promoting his upcoming sixth solo album, the follow-up to the critically lionized My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The word is the record is a dark and progressive masterpiece with Skrillex and odes to Kim K. Though I love every (musical) thing the guy has made, I remain skeptical. I'm expecting 808s & Heartbreak II: Bass Drops & Teardrops. What I am certain of is that pop music is a far more fascinating and entertaining world with Kanye in it. A new fan-made documentary, Where the Lonely Kids Go When the Bell Rings, confirms this. A montage of studio footage, rants, speeches and interviews, the film assembles common clips from his career into a comically hubristic whole. "Everybody wanted to know what I'd do if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know," he remarked when picking up an early trophy. Ha. Oh, Kanye, don't ever change. Never ever change.
Album of the week | Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Vampire Weekend
That Lollapalooza lineup is looking better and better. When Phoenix and Vampire Weekend were first announced, my initial thought was, Them again? But damned if the two haven't released my two favorite pop albums of the year. So far. Until next week. Both singers have a way with an exotic place name and take different shots of the upper class. Thomas Mars writes with an extra dry wit. He's French. Ezra Koenig thinks a lot about death amid the Upper West Side. Death creeps into every new Vampire Weekend track. Which is not to say it isn't a blast. Read my album review.
Chicago cycling clubs
It's National Bike to Work Week (Chicago's own celebration is in June)—just in time for the weather to stop acting a fool. If you're inspired by all the cyclists you see taking to the streets this week but you're not quite ready to go all hardcore Critical Mass, consider joining these local cycling clubs, which have some awesome-sounding rides this week and weekend.
5 things to do today: Tuesday, May 14
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper
COMEDY
Tuesday Night Thing The Annoyance assembles an explosive amount of talent for this new weekly improv showcase. Performers include Tom Blandford, Bill Boehler, Chris Day, Nancy Friedrich, Beau Golwitzer, Noah Gregoropoulos, TJ Jagodowski, Jared Larsen, Beth Melewski, Linda Orr, Mark Piebenga, Jim Scheidhauer, Rebecca Sohn and Rich Sohn. Annoyance Theatre. 9:30pm. $8.
FILM
Cremaster 1 + Cremaster 2 Dir. Matthew Barney. Barney's five-part, six-and-a-half-hour film cycle is about, among other things, gender, the nature of creativity and the amazing versatility of Vaseline. Shot out of sequence (4, 1, 5, 2, 3) over ten years, the cycle has been compared to everything from Star Wars to Wagner. Barney has called the Cremaster cycle a "narrative sculpture," so watch them in any order and look for visual motifs. In 2 (1999, 79 mins) Barney uses the Columbia Icefields (a glacier in the Canadian Rockies) as a piece of sculpture or character in the film, and its creamy, textured surface resonates with the molten Vaseline that Richard Serra scoops and splatters in 3 (2002, 182 mins). In 5 (1997, 55 mins), the rising white doves tethered with ribbons to Barney's testicles (in one of his many guises) chime with the Y-shape of American football goalposts in 1 (1996, 40 mins). Gene Siskel Film Center. 8pm. $11, $7 students, $6 members, $4 students and faculty of the School of the Art Institute, and staff of the Art Institute.
Rahm Emanuel: a midterm mayoral recap
Rahm Emanuel
When I asked David Axelrod a few months ago if he would be assisting Rahm Emanuel in a 2016 presidential run, Axe was adamant his old buddy would be "running for reelection and nothing else." Rahmbo recently said as much in a sit down with the Sun-Times's Fran Spielman: "I’m running for re-election, and I’m gonna serve out the term. And for the third time with you, I am not running for higher office—EVER. Done. ... I want Hillary or Joe [Biden] to run, and I will support either one. Whoever decides." Gee, sounds like he really means it. If only the memories of Rahm making similar remarks about not running for Chicago mayor weren't so fresh. Just as hard to believe: Thursday marks the midterm of Emanuel's reign, a trying pair of years that have included a Chicago Teachers Union strike, a school closings plan and high-profile spikes in violent crime. Two years in, what have we learned about the man who calls himself our mayor? We thought of a few things in this misty, water-colored midterm look back. Cue "The Way We Were."
Bo Burnham at the Vic Theatre | Photos
The goofy young comic Bo Burnham, known for gaining YouTube fame as a teenager with his self-recorded satirical songs, is 22 now and starring in a new MTV series, Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. Burnham brought his keyboard along for Friday night's stand-up show at the Vic Theatre. Check out our photos from his set.
Janelle Monáe replaces Aretha Franklin at CSO's Corporate Night
Following her doctor's orders, Aretha Franklin has pulled out of the CSO's 24th annual Corporate Night on Monday, May 20. Those are big shoes (and hats) to fill. But kudos to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for pulling a space ace out of their maestro's sleeve. Atlanta-based future-soul darling Janelle Monáe will step in, hot off a monster fun. collaboration (that you can't really hear her in), "We Are Young," and a fresh new jam with Erykah Badu, "Q.U.E.E.N."
She's not the Queen of Soul, but Symphony Center just got way hipper on the blogs. We have been huge Monáe fans for a while and could not think of a more exciting substitute. The 27-year-old sci-fi concept album The Archandroid was dripping with cinematic strings, so this is going to work wonders. Show times and prices will not change.
Vernon Chatman on Mindsploitation
Vernon Chatman, Mindsploitation.
Vernon Chatman's new book, Mindsploitation: Asinine Assignments for the Online Homework Cheating Industry ($12.95, Sevenfooter Press), is the funniest book we've read all year on our commute to work—and maybe the funniest we've read, period. In the intro, Louis C.K. echoes this sentiment (sort of): "This book is awesome, it's entertaining (I haven't read this book) and hilarious."
The premise, like many Chatman projects, is funny in and of itself, but the execution is what has us ROTFL...BTFOTT…SAGF (Rolling On The Floor Laughing...But The Floor Of The Train…So A Gross Floor). Chatman—co-creator of Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel, as well as the voice of Towelie (the weed-smoking talking towel on South Park)—contacted online essay-writing companies, asking them to take on various assignments: everything from crafting a slogan for a 16-foot chicken nugget to writing a sentence "scary enough to raise precisely one goosebump on the reader." Mindsploitation reprints these real email exchanges, as well as the actual assignments in all their error-riddled, idiom-mangling, misspelled glory. I recently corresponded with Chatman about the book. Our real exchange:
