5 things to do today: Thursday, June 13
AROUND TOWN
Date with the '80s Isn’t the ’90s supposed to be the nostalgia decade of the moment? (See: New York’s New Museum show “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.”) Yet the Cure and New Order are playing Lollapalooza; the Museum of Broadcast Communications is mounting a summer Gary Coleman exhibit; and through July 4, the Gene Siskel Film Center steals a little TBS steeze, screening a collection of popular ’80s movies. Yeah, you’ve seen all of these eleven films before, or perhaps you still have the VHS tapes in a closet somewhere. But think of this as an opportunity to watch some of your faves as they were shown back in the day, in 35mm. See siskelfilmcenter.org/80s for the full schedule. Gene Siskel Film Center. 2pm. $11, students $7, members $6, School of the Art Institute students and faculty $4.
BOOKS
Laydeez Do Comics Chicago This installment of the monthly women-run comics salon is a special edition in conjunction with CAKE (Chicago Alternative Comics Expo) and features Mita Mahalo and Zan Christensen. Quimby's. 7pm.
Just for Laughs 2013: The Shit Show review
Ever Mainard
The Shit Show, the rowdy monthly comedy showcase hosted by Ever Mainard and Rasa Gierstikas, got a special late-night outing on the first night of Just for Laughs. Which comic got my heartiest "Best Joke" chant? Read my review to find out.
Father's Day card cliches
The toilet figures prominently in Father's Day cards.
I hate to break it to you, but the Father's Day card sections at CVS, Walgreens and Target are already a mob scene. If you wait until Sunday to buy your card, you will be left with only the weird, sentimental, religious cards that leave Dad pretty concerned about your mental state. Go now, however, and you'll find examples of what I've determined are the seven most common Father's Day card cliches.
RECOMMENDED: Father's Day 2013 guide
Just for Laughs 2013: Pete Holmes review
Pete Holmes
Pete Holmes trades heavily on his "youth pastor" demeanor, and he might have returned to TBS Just for Laughs Chicago 2013 as something of a company man, given his forthcoming Conan O'Brien–produced TBS talk show, set to debut in the post-Conan time slot this fall. Yet while he stuck to his joy-seeking goofball persona in his first of two Tuesday-night sets for JFL, he didn't play it safe.
Holmes proves a master at working a room, getting us on his side early with some nice name-based audience interaction. He plays well with reactions, reading our collective engagement level with an ongoing bit and turning it into an instant amplification, or self-deprecatingly describing himself as he imagines we will to our friends: "He looks like Renee Zellweger with Down syndrome," or "That lesbian Val Kilmer was right!" About ten minutes into his nearly hour-long set, he pulled a move that could read as either shameless pandering or honest working comic: Pulling out his iPhone, Holmes said, "I just realized you're a good crowd, so I'm gonna record this set."
Again showing impressive on-the-fly skill, Holmes got some gold out of acknowledging a 14-year-old boy in the audience who turned out to be a big fan of Holmes's podcast, You Made It Weird. But the comic didn't let the kid's presence keep him from getting a tad blue in a hilarious later story about how bad he is at "sex texting" ("I'm sorry I'm wasting your time by saying both words").
If there's such a thing as anti-sardonic, that's Holmes; he spins stories like resetting his "joy quota" by attending an Enrique Iglesias concert with no trace of irony. He smartly hits the reset button between longer tales with irresistibly goofy bits like an impression of "a rooster possessed by Mrs. Doubtfire" and fan favorite "Pierce," which he closed on thanks to audience requests—noting with some wonder that it's a joke he's been doing since high school, and he can't believe the way it's caught on now. It'll be interesting to see how Holmes catches on as a TV host, but he's remarkably appealing live.
Holmes performs another stand-up set Thursday 13 at 8pm at UP Comedy Club and records a live episode of You Made It Weird Saturday 15 at 7pm at Stage 773.
5 things to do today: Wednesday, June 12
Scott Adsit
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. 9:30pm.
COMEDY
TBS Just for Laughs Chicago 2013: Second City Alumni The Second City assembles a dream team of improv dudes for this Just for Laughs performance, featuring Scott Adsit, TJ Jagodowski, Dave Pasquesi, Kevin Dorff and Jon Glaser. UP Comedy Club. 10:30pm.
Man of Steel reviews: Superman a 'soar' spot for critics
Man of Steel Zack Snyder’s dull-as-dirt Superman reboot feels like a straitjacketed affair.
Reviews of Zack Snyder's Superman reboot (including Time Out's take) are popping up online—and along with them, varying answers to an inevitable question: Does Man of Steel...soar?
The laden 'Man of Steel' doesn't soar—AP
Henry Cavill soars in new Superman movie—Digital Spy
Man of Steel Reviews Are In—Superman Flies High With Critics—E!
Man of Steel' flies but doesn't soar—San Jose Mercury News
This Grimmer 'Superman' Might Not Soar, But It Flies—TheWrap, Yahoo! Movies
RECOMMENDED: Man of Steel destroys Chicago, rural Illinois on the big screen.
The save-your-ass guide to Father's Day
Father's Day is Sunday, and let me guess: You have nothing planned, right? We're here to help with our Father's Day guide: 50 gift ideas for less than $50, great restaurant options so he doesn't have to do the grilling himself (again), fun outings he'll acutally enjoy and more dad-themed stuff we'll be adding all week.
5 new albums to hear this week
CSS
Jagwar Ma Howlin'
The clubs in King's Cross, the dark party district of Sydney, don't heat up until 2am. Australians like to dance, hard. The DJs Down Under are also typically—bizarrely—accompanied by a wailing horn player. Point being, most bands that come out of Australia, while ostensibly rock, are dance acts—and the grooves tend to get a little trippy. You can hear it in Cut Copy, Empire of the Sun, Midnight Juggernauts and now Jagwar Ma. Howlin' begins in a trance, at a rave, schmearing a frosting of '60s pop harmonies on muggy dub disco. In the fine tradition of hippies playing house on ecstasy, frontman Jono Ma follows in the pioneering footsteps of Primal Scream and the Beta Band. After a spell of psychedelic pop, the duo's debut heads into the jungle for more tropical foot-stomping.
CSS Planta
Speaking of which, I can't get through summer without a dollop of Tropicalia. Not that anyone will confuse São Paulo's CSS with Gilberto Gil. Still, the Brazilians are dumb summer fun. Planta recaptures the slapdash, don't-think-about-it-too-hard charm heard on the debut of the group—now an all-female quartet. It's thankfully stopped trying to be a punk band. Producer Dave Sitek adds a heatwave haze to the hammock-slack digital reggae. Lovefoxxx can't sing a lick, but her ESL sprechstimme is part of her allure. She gets by on charisma and Lycra. Though her highlight comes when she finally slips into Portuguese on "Frankie Goes to Hollywood." More of that, por favor.
10 best things to do this week
Harrington College's booth at the Guerrilla Truck Show, 2010.
African Diaspora Film Festival The fest opens at Alliance Francaise on June 13 with The Pirogue (2012, 87mins), in which a fishing captain leads a group of African migrants on dangerous journey aboard a small boat. University of Chicago grad Tukufu Zuberi's talking-heads doc African Independence (2013, 120mins) takes a broad look at the continent's distinct countries and their relationship with the world. Here We Drown Algerians (2011, 90mins) examines one of the darkest days in the war for Algergian independence, October 17, 1961, in which Paris police killed dozens of demonstrators. Facets’ annual festival, in its 11th year, encompasses titles from the U.S., Canada, France, Madagascar, Malawi, Senegal, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela. Alliance Francaise Chicago and Facets Cinémathèque. Jun 13–20. Various times. $7 at Alliance Francaise; $9, opening night at Facets $15, weekend pass $50.
CAKE: Chicago Alternative Comics Expo CAKE rules. The dessert, yes, but also the Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, which debuted last year and provided a welcome, well, alternative to the more sprawling, commercial and superhero-strewn C2E2. The weekend-long fest, held this year at the Center on Halsted, celebrates independent comics of all varieties with workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and a comics fair featuring artists, small presses and publishers from Chicago and beyond. The real icing on the CAKE is a stellar lineup of special guests, including Chris Ware, Kim Deitch, Deb Sokolow, Jason Shiga, Phoebe Gloeckner, Michael DeForge, Oily Comics and Collective Stench. For a complete schedule, visit cakechicago.com/2013-expo. Center on Halsted. Jun 15–16, 11am–6pm.
Mott St, the new restaurant from the Ruxbin crew, opens tomorrow
Chef Edward Kim at Ruxbin
Almost three years after they captured the city's (and country's) attention with their quirky BYO Ruxbin, chef Edward Kim and crew (Vicki Kim, Jenny Kim and Nate Chung) are gearing up to open their second restaurant, Mott St, tomorrow.
As we've written about before, Mott St is Ruxbin's Night Market–inspired, more casual sibling. "It has the same spirit and soul as Ruxbin," says Vicki Kim, "but the food will be more simple, more rustic in preparation." Instead of Ruxbin's traditional appetizer-entrée-dessert format, Mott St's dishes are meant to be sharable and approachable: "It's more just: Have at it," says Kim. "It's very visceral; you can just go at it with your hands. The environment is meant to be a place where you can just nosh."
And some of the things you might be noshing on are: stuffed cabbage ("You can think of it like a kimchi lasagna") with pork butt and sticky rice; whiskey-marinated pork neck with nam jim jaew, a Thai–Vietnamese–influenced sauce with tiny shrimp, lime and cilantro; crispy "Everything" wings glazed with soy and tossed with sesame and poppy seeds; steamed dumplings stuffed with pork, ginger and green onions; udon noodles tossed with spicy marinated cod roe; and crab-brain fried rice with Chinese sausage.
In contrast to Ruxbin's hyper-designed space, Mott St is "definitely DIY," says Kim. With most of their resources caught up in infrastructure, the team got resourceful with the remaining budget, sourcing chairs and tables from everywhere from Salvage One to Craigslist. The resulting look is "utilitarian," says Kim, with 64 indoor seats—10 at the bar and the rest at big, long communal tables—and 40 outdoor ones.
The outdoor area will launch serving drinks only, with food following soon. Which brings us to one of the key differences between Mott St and Ruxbin: alcohol. The crew brought on Chad Hauge, formerly of Longman & Eagle, to oversee the beverage menu, which Kim explains is "meant to go with the food, but also with the seasons." As such, selections—wine, cocktails, sake, beer—are categorized with terms like "Daily," "Seasonal" and "Always." Cocktails range from the "Storm in Spring" (a cucumber-grapefruit-ginger ode to this year's "funky" weather) to the "Extra Mart," which plays on the briny flavor of a dirty martini by incorporating water kimchi. Cheers!
Mott St (1401 N Ashland Ave, 312-200-0000) opens to the public tomorrow, Wednesday, June 12, and will be open Tuesday–Saturday from 5:30–10pm.
RECOMMENDED: photo preview of Mott St
