One feature of the Hyde Park Jazz Fest that has quietly distinguished it over the last few years is the prevalence of dynamic duos, whether the pairings are new or seasoned, improvised or driven by tunes. Notable among this year’s terrific offerings is the first local performance by alto saxophonist Nick Mazzarella and cellist Tomeka Reid since the release of their superb debut album, Signaling (Nessa). The record opens with the soulful, melodic “Blues for Julius and Abdul,” a tender homage to one of improvised music’s most distinctive alto sax and cello duos, Hemphill and Wadud....

Loyola Beach in Rogers Park has one of the city’s few sea benches, a long strip of concrete seating that overlooks Lake Michigan. Spanning 600 feet along the sand, the bench was perpetually covered with graffiti until 1993, when the park started the annual Artists of the Wall Festival. On Father’s Day, four-foot sections of the bench are sold off for $30 to both professional artists and amateurs, who are allowed to paint their portion in line with an annual theme....

What makes a good Stephen King adaptation? The question has no easy answer, though not for lack of a sizable sample. At this point King has more than 250 writing credits on the Internet Movie Database. That number is slightly inflated by his practice of letting aspiring filmmakers license some of his stories for $1 on the condition that their work won’t be sold. But even so, there have been a lot of movies and TV shows inspired by King’s stories over the years, a trend that shows no sign of abating thanks to the recent success of It....

A fun thing I did this summer was don sackcloth and sit outside the Happy Place pop-up exhibition, offering to reveal the exact time and cause of death for each person that exited. I didn’t end up in many selfies, but I did my best to reset an appreciation for the malignant horror of the moment. This is all set in a kid-friendly Wonkaesque environment with magnetized lettering on the walls and bamboo bleachers like the story room in a children’s library....

JOHNATHON CRAWFORD Dave Rempis 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.

“I just like the abstractness here. I like comics that you have to spend some time trying to figure out. This comic does not use words and yet it conveys a lot.”—Eric Kirsammer, our Comics Issue curator, on why he chose Kwon’s comic (CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO READ A COMIC)

The Passage Theatre makes an auspicious debut with its revival of Mickle Maher’s deadly difficult 2003 play, a work so doggedly antitheatrical and conceptually absurd (like most of Maher’s dizzying scripts) that it seems designed to fail. Twelve dubious superheroes, with names like the Intoxicator, Fragrance Fellow, Memory Lass, and the Untangler, have apparently saved Fathomtown from archnemesis Professor Cannibal (his capture took 400 years) and are now in the midst of mounting a celebratory production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest....

Of all the local hip-hop releases that have come out during the past week few have left as much of an impression as Moon Shoes, the debut EP from Ravyn Lenae. The 16-year-old is an R&B singer, not a rapper, but as evidenced in the credits for Moon Shoes, hip-hop has a major presence on the EP. Lenae recorded the EP at Classick Studios, a west-side recording spot that’s played host to a long list of Chicago hip-hop veterans and rising acts—Crucial Conflict, MC Juice, Really Doe, King Louie, Sasha Go Hard, BBU, GLC, Katie Got Bandz, Rockie Fresh, Lucki Ecks, Vic Spencer, and all the heavy hitters in Save Money, not to mention a long list of others....

Conventional wisdom holds that the explosive, meme-enabled viral popularity of surprise hits like Baauer’s “Harlem Shake” is one of those things that simply can’t be bought, that it has to occur organically in order for people to buy in, and that the magic evaporates as soon as anyone sees a marketer’s fingerprints on it. Which is hilariously wrong—if there’s one thing that consumers of American pop culture have proven again and again it’s that they couldn’t give a shit where the stuff comes from as long as they’re sufficiently entertained....

Nineties Chicago pop-punk favorites the Smoking Popes reunited in 2005, but they haven’t made a full-length with their “classic” lineup—brothers Eli, Josh, and Matt Caterer and drummer Mike Felumlee—since the 2001 covers album The Party’s Over. On Friday, October 12, though, they release Into the Agony via Asian Man and throw a free meet-and-greet at Bucket O’ Blood Books and Records. Guitarist Eli Caterer says, “It’s the most natural and inspired album we’ve made since getting the band back together, which has a lot to do with Mike rejoining on drums....

Commonly interpreted as Shakespeare’s farewell to theater, The Tempest is the tale of a magician performing his final and greatest feat. Prospero plans to use skills acquired over a lifetime to put his wrecked world back together. When that’s accomplished, he promises, “I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.” 9/18-11/8: Thu-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 3 and 7:30 PM, Sun 2 PM (see website for additional weekday performances), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 800 E....

Assuming their schedules jibe, Queen Elizabeth II and her prime minister meet once a week to bring the queen up to speed on matters affecting the realm she nominally rules. Inasmuch as Elizabeth ascended to the throne 64 years ago, that’s a great many meetings—or audiences, to use the royal terminology. Quite a few ministers too: when Peter Morgan‘s The Audience premiered, in 2013, a dozen PMs—11 men and one woman—had shared the little ritual with her majesty, starting with Winston Churchill and reaching up through David Cameron....

Like its protagonist—a 23-year-old DJ from the San Fernando Valley—the coming-of-age story We Are Your Friends is sentimental, eager to please, and full of energy. It trades in tried-and-true melodramatic complications, yet the charismatic players deliver them with disarming conviction. Director Max Joseph and editor Terel Gibson keep the movie pulsing with a glut of eye-catching stylistic strategies: Gibson sets much of the action to the rhythms on the soundtrack (the movie often feels like a musical), while Joseph incorporates animation, onscreen text, and extreme high- and low-angle shots....

There’s plenty to do this week. Here’s some of what we recommend. Tue 4/25: Lady Gregory’s (5254 N. Clark) hosts Julia James for a book party celebrating the release of the author’s new book, The Thing About Love. Complimentary beverages and light refreshments are included. 6:30 PM Thu 4/27: At the Chicago Cocktail Social at Galleria Marchetti (825 W. Erie), guests can enjoy signature cocktails by mixologists from 20 local bars—including Best Intentions, Heavy Feather, Moneygun, and Scofflaw—plus appetizers and live music by Cage + Aquarium....

Thom Wasluck was born in and is currently a citizen of Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania. That’s where I grew up as well. It’s a coal-mining region that stopped coal mining generations back. Thirty years ago the area was still dotted with giant heaps of black slag; there were even urban legends about how kids would get sucked into it like quicksand. The Wilkes-Barre population is old and getting older—young people leave when they can....

As progressives in Illinois wage what amounts to a two-front war against President Trump and Governor Rauner, they’re always on the watch for a two-birds-with-one-stone kind of weapon. As we all know, Trump’s the only major-party presidential candidate since the 1960s not to release any of his tax returns. (Actually, I’d take it back a step further: Republican intransigence didn’t start with the Tea Party. Republicans have been unbending in their opposition to anything the Democrats propose since former congressman Newt Gingrich seized control of the party in the midterm elections of 1994....

WES FRAZER Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires 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.

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago.

Story Arc Sketch Comedy Festival Sketch group Vienna Juvenile hosts this brand-new festival combining theater and sketch comedy. 6/1-6/10: Thu 8 PM, Fri-Sat 8 and 10 PM, Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont, 773-327-5252, viennajuvenilecomedy.com, $15, $25 for all-night pass, $50 for five-day pass. Chicago Alternative Comics Expo For the sixth year this gathering (better known as CAKE) celebrates local independent comics with a weekend of workshops, exhibitions, film screenings, and panel discussions....

A celebration of the heretofore hypothetical territory where rappers, jam bands, and electro producers meet, the North Coast Music Festival has built an identity distinctive enough to stand out amid Chicago’s bulging music-fest ecosystem. Most such gatherings act as little more than tour stops for the marquee names who spend their summers playing every single one, and in its eighth year North Coast hasn’t exactly refrained from throwing its net in that pool—the dregs of the 2017 lineup include unexceptional hip-hop jester Lil Dicky....