Celebrating America’s independence feels better with a drink in your hand. Looking up at the rockets’ red glare and sipping a brew—that’s pretty standard. But if that drink comes with a swarm of bug bites and a flock of honking children, your liberty-fueled mood can surrender quicker than Cornwallis at Yorktown (sup). That’s why we’re suggesting that on this Fourth of July, you ditch the picnic blanket in the park in favor of a rooftop bar....

I’ve been around Chicago long enough to realize that if you want an accurate account of how our government works, you shouldn’t pick up any campaign literature during election season. In the flyer, Mitchell uses a Q&A format to claim to be a leader in the movement for an elected school board: “Question: Who represents us on our school board? Not surprisingly, the current board ends up acting as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mayor Rahm Emanuel....

In a city that prides itself on its inclusive and varied performing-arts scene, Steppenwolf’s eclectic LookOut series, which debuted this past summer at the 1700 Theatre, stands out. The last half of the winter leg, taking place from now until the beginning of April, boasts a diverse sequence of shows ranging from comedy to spoken word to music. This Sunday, Fifth House Ensemble and the Chicago-based bluegrass band Henhouse Prowlers come together to perform “Voices From the Dust Bowl....

It’s all about time,” reads the moody grayscale poster for David Lowery’s supernatural drama A Ghost Story. Nothing on the poster seems entirely black or white, except for the abyssal eyeholes in the bedsheet that represents the ghost. The film follows two young lovers, C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara), just long enough for us to care about them before C dies in a car wreck. Suddenly draped under a white sheet, its eyeholes empty and brooding, C walks away from whatever ethereal realm awaits him and, unable to let go of his previous existence, wanders back to the house that now holds his grieving partner....

Courtesy of Life or Death PR Rome Fortune One of the biggest hip-hop stories of the summer centered on Atlanta’s Makonnen Sheran, who sings and raps as ILoveMakonnen. The 25-year-old spent the end of his teenage years on house arrest with nothing to do but surf MySpace and devour Bloc Party, Lil B, and Adele tracks, and he’s filtered his eclectic tastes into a mutated pop sound that’s equal parts rap and R&B....

Gossip Wolf is a longtime fan of Andy Slater, leader of funky rock outfit the Velcro Lewis Group. Not only is he one of the city’s most entertaining front men, he’s also just written his first comic! Slater is legally blind, and his Jack Chick-style tract How Many Fingers Am I Holding Up? (illustrated by Secret History of Chicago Music creator Steve Krakow) doubles as a guide for dealing respectfully with the disabled....

BRENT KNEPPER Gamers Johann Sebastian Joust-ing Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader‘s daily Agenda page.

Brian Stoiber Eyes to the Skies Looking for something to do today? Agenda‘s got you covered. For more on these events and others, check out the Reader‘s daily Agenda page.

Thom Clark Ben Joravsky, Linda Lutton, Lauren FitzPatrick, Sarah Karp, and Mick Dumke talk schools and politics at the Hideout. This week’s First Tuesdays show at the Hideout (sensational, as always) should be required viewing for any man or woman foolish enough—I mean passionate enough—to want to pursue a career in journalism. Not even Karen Lewis packed the place like that. Thank you, one and all. And don’t get any of us started on the folly of FOIA requests....

He served the tartare with two salads: one of Sun Gold tomatoes macerated with salt, pepper, and pineapple sage; the other muskmelon and cantaloupe with corn (sauteed with Espelette pepper and pineapple sage) and a vinaigrette of champagne vinegar, coconut milk, cucumber skins, and pineapple sage. A single leaf of pineapple sage finished the dish. In a separate bowl toss the plums, peaches, cucumber, and tomato with some of the olive oil and salt....

Last night Common and producer Twilite Tone participated in a Chicago Ideas Week event called “Keeping the Peace: Music, Art and the End of Violence,” which was a discussion about the potential for art to curb gun violence. Earlier that day Twilite Tone debuted a track called “Put the Guns Down,” which features Common and a bevy of fantastic local MCs, some with a sizable national following, others that deserve one, and all of whom have appeared in the Reader: Katie Got Bandz, Saba, Tree, Noname Gypsy, Lil Herb (aka G Herbo), Treated Crew’s Mic Terror and Nick Jr....

Baywatch, now in its second week in theaters, is a pleasant time waster whose greatest failing may be that its indistinguishable from other recent American action comedies. Adapted from a dumb TV show, the film is clearly modeled after Miller and Lord’s 21 Jump Street and its sequel—it uses threadbare source material as a springboard for self-referential humor and lowbrow gags. Baywatch differs from these other, better movies, however, in that it contains a few moments of genuine pathos, a quality that’s been in low supply lately in mainstream comedies....

And here we are again. I’ve already told you about my 21 favorite new restaurants of 2015. But even the unremarkable spots usually have something memorable on the menu. After a long year of dining out and cooking from chefs’ books, this is what stuck with me—on average, something uniquely delicious nearly every other day. (71) Pizza in a Bag, (72) the Norberto, (73) the Big Jim Reeves, and (74) Chicken ParmaJon at Taco in a Bag (75) JustIce (76) Soppressata at ‘Nduja Artisans (77) Saag paneer, (78) gobi Manchurian, (79) lamb dumplings, (80) mango lassi, and (81) Sichuan tripe at Pub Royale (82) Whitebait, (83) squid bocadillo, (84) wood-grilled prawns, and (85) lardo-roasted oysters at Bom Bolla (RIP?...

Brazil Each Friday, we recommend seven Old Movies to Watch Now, all of which come recommended by one of our critics and can currently be screened online. Read the review, watch the movie, feel accomplished. • Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, the 1979 punk musical starring the Ramones.

Adele Nicholas The second cassingle in the Impossible Colors Club Growing up, Adele Nicholas loved getting tapes in the mail. She’d order them and wait, and eventually they’d come, sometimes packaged with extra stickers, buttons, or patches. “That’s what I loved about getting tapes as a kid,” she says. “You get this thing in the mail, and it might come with something you weren’t expecting. Even if it’s tiny, it feels really special....

The songs of the Marías have a laid-back vibe, but every guitar riff feels like it was precisely placed in an artfully curated sonic atmosphere that calls to mind grainy films from the golden age of Hollywood. The Los Angeles-based project of Josh Conway and María—who goes by her first name only in artistic settings, a la Beyoncé—have been breaking hearts with their dreamy psychedelic soul since 2016. In September, the Marías released their second EP, Superclean, Vol....

The eyes of the country have been trained on our city since last Tuesday, when the Chicago Police Department’s news office released the video of officer Jason Van Dyke unloading 16 shots into 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Since then I’ve heard few people capture the feeling in the air as well as Harvey rapper Ty Money does on “United Center.” Released last Wednesday, his track burns through the history of the systemic injustices that have devastated minority neighborhoods in the city and made Chicago’s streets a bleak place for the young black kids who call them home....

Before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, Chicago women in need of abortions had exactly two options: they could navigate a murky underworld dominated by often exploitative and amateur male clinicians, or attempt procedures on themselves. In either case, they faced a lonely and often dangerous process typically devoid of both counseling services and accountability for abortion providers. The collective’s female members “realized that if an unlicensed man could successfully perform safe abortions, then so could they,” Sollenberger says....

“Were you Al Pacino in the movie?” a man on the street asks John Wojtowicz, whose botched robbery of a Brooklyn bank in August 1972 was dramatized in Dog Day Afternoon. “I’m the bank robber—fuck Al Pacino!” replies Wojtowicz. Questions of identity reverberate through The Dog, a documentary by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren that chronicles Wojtowicz’s storied and terribly sad life. If you’ve ever seen Dog Day Afternoon, you surely remember its head-turning midmovie plot twist, when the Wojtowicz character is revealed as a gay man who wants money to finance his partner’s sex-change operation....

Gossip Wolf first heard the immaculate vocals of Sacha Mullin in avant-weird band Lovely Little Girls (where the Reader‘s Philip Montoro noted his “exalted and almost alien” sound) and in long-running prog-pop outfit Cheer-Accident (where he still sings). On Saturday, July 15, Mullin self-releases his second solo album, Duplex, whose oddly tuneful songs sound a bit like George Michael fronting far-out jam band Gong in a Broadway-style revue. That’s not a surprise, considering that the session musicians on Duplex include current and former members of Cheer-Accident and the similarly uncategorizable American Draft and Guzzlemug....