Shaw’s Oysterfest is an annual event held near the long-time River North crab house of the same name, and besides local oyster shuckers (like, well, Shaw’s), they bring in oyster purveyors of various types from all over the country . . . or, in this case, the country directly to our north. I got to talk to two of the visiting suppliers before the festival began last Friday; today it’s Daniel Notkin, who co-owns Montreal’s Notkin’s Bar à Huîtres (oyster bar) near the Place d’Armes as well as the seafood importer the Old Port Fishing Company....

ARTIST: Sarah Squirm SHOW: Helltrap Nightmare at Hideout on Thu 1/12 MORE INFO: sarahsquirm.tumblr.com

The Planned Parenthood of Illinois bake sale was supposed to start selling cookies Monday. But by late last week, the bake sale had already made more than $37,000 and sold out of cookie boxes, days before the sale was officially supposed to start. Amanda Shepard, a pastry chef at Lula Cafe, says that when Behlke came calling there was no question as to whether Lula would participate. The plan was to sell cookie boxes over the course of the next month, starting Monday, and have cookie boxes available for pickup the weekend of March 11....

Allison Shelley/Getty Images Former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens John Paul Stevens, the retired Republican Supreme Court Justice who’s remembered as a liberal because the Court turned so conservative while he was on it, has written a book proposing changes to the U.S. Constitution. One would eliminate political gerrymandering, which Stevens, like so many others, regards as a bad thing. He wants the Constitution to demand “compact” districts “composed of contiguous territory”; exceptions could not be made if the reason for them were “enhancing or preserving the political power of the party in control of the state government....

There’s plenty to do this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Tue 3/7: The monthly reading series Tuesday Funk at Hopleaf (5148 N. Clark) features eclectic works by local writers. February’s lineup includes Lori Barrett, Steve Bellinger, Naomi Buck Palagi, Tori Szekeres, and Ted McClelland. 7:30 PM Thu 3/9: Local singer-songwriter Phillip-Michael Scales hosts a live performance of his music podcast The Company You Keep at Uncommon Ground (3800 N....

The 1906 French short Obsession d’Or screens Saturday night as part of the conference’s first film program. Domitor, an international organization for scholars of early cinema, has chosen Chicago for the site of its latest biennial conference. Beginning Saturday and running through Wednesday, the conference brings together academics from across North America and Europe to speak on films from 1890-1915. Also scheduled are four programs of early films. The first two take place at the Logan Center for the Arts at U....

Q I’m a boring person by your column’s standards in that I’ve always identified as a straight male into typical relationships. I’ve realized, after multiple long-term relationships that were unsatisfying, that monogamy isn’t for me. I would like to have a main, fulfilling, and committed relationship without limiting myself sexually or emotionally. I’ve struggled to remain faithful in the past and don’t want to cheat on anyone. I just want the rules to fit me so that I don’t have to be considered a cheater....

Pianist Håvard Wiik, a Norwegian native who lives in Berlin, is best known for his key role in the Scandinavian free-bop quintet Atomic, for which he writes much of the material. In that context he’s exhibited a strong interest in 20th-century classical music (you can’t miss his love for Morton Feldman), but his roots are in jazz, and he leans hard on that tradition on last year’s This Is Not a Waltz (Moserobie), his first album in more than a decade with his long-running trio, which includes bassist Ole Morten Vågan and drummer Håkon Mjåset Johansen....

There’s a certain music festival in town (rhymes with, “Lollapalooza“), but this weekend also brings the Reader‘s Made in Chicago Market, a secret spy lunch, and many more events: For more stuff to do this weekend—and every day—check out our Agenda page.

In the mid-2000s, the banks that serve as the pillars of the U.S. financial system defrauded the American people, caused the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, and essentially got away with it. Only one executive went to jail for a calculated and widespread corruption that tainted every echelon of the U.S.’s top-tier financial institutions, from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to the since- collapsed Bear Stearns, AIG, and Lehman Brothers....

The volcano rabbit is one of the smallest rabbits in the world. It has rounded ears, eats leaves and bark and what domesticated crops it can get its teeth into, and makes a high-pitched sound rather than thump its feet to signal danger. It is most active at dusk and dawn. The rabbit lives only on the pine-studded slopes of four volcanos near Mexico City, and there only tenuously: it’s being pushed up the mountain slopes by habitat encroachment, overhunting, and climate change....

“[A]s if life isn’t hard enough without us being deliberately hurtful and cruel to each other.” —Fred, in Downstate The subject that dare not speak its name in Downstate is pedophilia, especially as it’s regarded by our culture and punished by our laws. Four men—Fred, Dee, Gio, and Felix—are convicted sex offenders, having served out sentences for everything from father-daughter incest to carrying on a long-term gay relationship with a teenager....

See our sidebar for a rundown of the bands playing the Chicago International Movies & Music Fest. Boyce & Hart: The Guys Who Wrote ‘Em Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart penned some of the Monkees’ biggest tunes—”Last Train to Clarksville,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” the TV show’s “hey-hey” theme song—and later scored a few hits as a performing duo themselves (“I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”) before shuffling off to Vegas for an act with Zsa Zsa Gabor and finally calling it quits in the early 70s....

CHEMA SKANDAL Riot Fest 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.

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons A Day in Avondale 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.

Gustavus Franklin Swift was the Chicago meat-packer who coined the phrase “everything but the squeal” to describe how efficient his slaughterhouses were at turning whole live animals into meat, soap, fertilizer, glue, and oleomargarine. Swift was also the guy who figured out how to ship butchered cows in refrigerated railcars, and is thus largely responsible for turning us into a nation enslaved to cheap meat. The brassy, wood-paneled, multitiered curvilinear space features multiple dining rooms, a subordinate “Tavern” (aka the bar) with its own abbreviated menu, an embedded adjunct seafood-focused restaurant called Cold Storage, and a working concierge desk to help you score theater tickets, or maybe tell you where to get a good steak....

In a city segregated by race and class, one theater festival hopes to create meaningful relationships across identities and locations: the Chicago Home Theater Festival, a 15-day event running from May 14 to May 29. This year, the series takes place in 14 different Chicago neighborhoods. Unlike theater festivals that rely on established performing arts venues, CHTF takes place entirely in the homes of artists and activists throughout the city. Hosts open their residences to complete strangers in order to share a meal, experience performances rooted in social justice, and introduce community outreach organizations to audiences in an attempt to encourage involvement after the show....

On a drizzly day in early February, state representative Will Guzzardi stood in front of a group of housing activists and community organizers in Bronzeville to announce his new bill, which is just seven words long: “The Rent Control Preemption Act is repealed.” The act, he said, was passed in 1997 by state legislators in fear of “the bogeyman of rent control.” Days after the announcement, it became clear that the bogeyman is alive and well, as Guzzardi was inundated with a flood of protest e-mails and calls ominously predicting that his bill would spell the end of development and rehab of the state’s housing stock....