Let’s say you’ve gone to war in the mountains. You and your men have a chance for a breather. You’ve found a secluded spot, easily defensible, near water and not far from a few cowherds, from whom you’ve liberated one of their fattest animals. Everybody’s hungry and it’s time to make camp. The enemy’s not far, but you don’t know exactly where he is. He doesn’t know where you are either, but you definitely don’t want to attract his attention—so no fires, guys, sorry....

Welcome to Flopcorn, where Reader writers and contributors pay tribute to our very favorite bad movies. In this installment, social media editor Brianna Wellen and staff writer Leor Galil discuss the bizarre appeal of the Netflix holiday extravaganza The Princess Switch. LG: Can we actually describe what Vanessa Hudgens did as “playing multiple characters”? I realize she was given two roles, and one role required her to speak with an accent that suggests she’d spent a weekend in the UK, but she didn’t have much to work with, really, for either character....

This Saturday, August 15, from 1 to 3 PM, artist and designer Landon Brown and the advocacy organization 96 Acres invite drivers with black, brown, or white automobiles to participate in Park, a large-scale public art project, by parking their cars on South Sacramento, adjacent to Cook County Jail, the largest county jail in the U.S. Ideally, the vehicles will occupy half a mile of public street parking. During these two hours, the drivers will tune their car radios to a Vocalo (90....

Well, this is peculiar. If I remember correctly, Steppenwolf Theatre spent a significant part of last season trying to poke its mostly white, mostly aging, mostly bourgeois audience base in the eye with an array of well-sharpened sticks. Antoinette Nwandu’s Pass Over delivered a blow against a pale-skinned power structure designed to make life nasty, brutish, and short for urban black men. Taylor Mac’s Hir portrayed the boom-generation American male as a beast rendered harmless only as long as he’s kept in a drug-induced stupor....

Like a George Grosz drawing come to life, Tadeusz Różewicz’s 1969 satire about an old woman who wants to repopulate the world with her own progeny vacillates between over-the-top grotesque comedy, absurdism, and pitch-black existential despair. Set in a purgatory-like cafe with plasticked-over windows populated by a cast of ghoulish, beat-up looking characters who seem anchored to this wretched spot for eternity, the narrative—such as it is—centers on the Old Woman (Manuela Rentea, in a fiercely committed performance) and her quest to find a doctor who will allow her to once again give birth....

QDoes a person who acts loving only when high on weed really love you? My live-in boyfriend of three years acts sweet, loving, and caring when he’s high, but when the weed runs out, he’s mean, angry, hurtful, and horrible to be around. I’ve asked him when he’s stoned to still act like a loving person when the weed runs out, but of course that never happens. He just dismisses that he’s mean and hurtful, and he blames me for why he’s angry....

Maurice “Mobetta” Brown’s brass is boundless. The trumpeter blows seamlessly in and out of moods that sample liberally from hip-hop, blues, rock, and contemporary jazz, making him a natural collaborator for lyrical poets such as Prodigy, Jean Grae, and Talib Kweli. Brown, a native of south-­suburban Harvey, was also a founding member of Tedeschi Trucks Band, creating the horn arrangements that helped the group win a 2012 Grammy for Best Blues Album for its debut record, Revelator....

Michelle Sangster Method Man is elated. The latest incarnation of the Smoker’s Club tour, a growing hip-hop concert series cofounded by Cinematic Music Group president Jonny Shipes, stopped in at Concord Music Hall last night. Local underground star and Cinematic signee Mick Jenkins opened the show, and east coast hip-hop royalty Method Man & Redman closed out the night. The stacked bill alone made this a can’t-miss event, but if like m, you’re kicking yourself for not having gotten to Concord last night you’re in luck: photographer Michelle Sangster was on hand to capture Meth & Red as they took over the stage....

You’re hopefully not going to die of the flu this year. But the truth is that you could. Once the virus that causes the flu enters the body, it begins to multiply and cause damage to the respiratory system (nose, throat, and lungs). Children, pregnant women, adults over 65, and patients with compromised or weakened immune systems are all at risk of developing secondary complications from the flu, as damage done to the body by the flu virus can lead to increased risk of additional illness, and in severe cases death....

This is the year that the Jeff Awards, given every year for excellence in Chicago theater, kissed their venerable best actor and best actress categories goodbye and created a controversy. Shortly after that, the committee commissioned a no-holds-barred study of the Jeffs and their reputation, and in February announced that it was making changes: ramping up public communication and outreach; cutting in half the enormous time commitment for new committee members (who had been required to see 150 shows in the first year); and actively recruiting “younger and minority candidates” for the committee (which is capped at 55 members and has a waiting list)....

There are plenty of shows, films, and concerts happening this week. Here’s some of what we recommend: Tue 8/21: Hey podcast lover! At the Fest Preview Party, you can get a taste of several podcasts that will be featured at The Fest 2018, two weeks of podcasts live on stage in venues across Chicago. Also, yes, you can get a taste of beer. Presented by Third Coast International Audio Festival. 6 PM, The Hideout, 1354 W....

Your hands have always looked too big to hold those meek potatoes. Fingernails peeling and callouses dirt crusted, you hand me a bag of freshly plucked reds and yellows, caked in mud that I’ll wash off later in my Chicago kitchen sink. I still have never seen you happier than when you aren’t driving your truck and can tend to vegetables. But your hands are your dead giveaway. Those creases and cracks, gasping for water like dry riverbeds....

But they ended up pulling a fast one and splitting the headquarters in two, so that the “lucky” winners (New York City and Arlington, Virginia) only get 25,000 jobs each. Unfortunately, picking up the bill was always part of this deal. Meanwhile, ordinary New Yorkers are learning a few hard lessons from having won this contest. Before all is said and done, just about everyone in New York City—as well as in Arlington—will realize they were played like saps in a con job devised by clever corporate hustlers who masterfully worked one city against another....

AP Photo/Seth Perlman Bruce Rauner at the state fair in August. Yesterday he offered a second version of his stance on the minimum wage. When a politician says something that doesn’t go over well, he’ll often try to distance himself from his own remark. He’ll say his comment was taken out of context, or was misunderstood, or that he misspoke. This is called “walking it back.” In his interviews yesterday, Rauner said he favors tying the Illinois minimum to the national minimum, and that he’d even support efforts to raise the national minimum under certain circumstances....

Bernd Preiml My Brightest Diamond 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.

Jessica Lehrman Princess Nokia 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.

Planning this wintery week? Here are some recommendations for November 30-December 3: Tuesday 12/1: This special Tuesday-night edition of Mark Bazer’s talk show, The Interview Show, features chef Rick Bayless (Frontera, etc), pro wrestler Colt Cabana, and Mick Dumke (Chicago Sun-Times) all gabbing and drinking on stage at the Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia). 6:30 PM

It’s the time of year when theater critics gird themselves for their nth annual Nutcracker/Christmas Carol/Wonderful Life cycle. That’s not a complaint. Necessarily. I once described the yuletide season as a “psychic pogrom,” but I’ve mellowed since then. For one thing, I get to enjoy holiday shows like Strawdog’s The Long Christmas Ride Home that aren’t out to deck anybody’s halls—or wreck them, either—but to tell an interesting story really well....