It’s July, which can mean only one thing: summer is in full swing. With concerts, street fests, and art events galore, there’s no shortage of activities to keep you distracted from the overwhelming heat. Here are ten can’t-miss events, and be sure to check out our Summer Guide for a complete rundown of midwest road trips, beer gardens and alfresco restaurants, and everything else that’s happening. Wed 7/8-Sun 7/12: Wed-Fri 11 AM-9 PM, Sat-Sun 10 AM-9 PM, Grant Park, Columbus and Jackson, cityofchicago....

On the third day of rehearsal for the Goodman Theatre’s new production of Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, the director Kimberly Senior took her cast and stage managing crew on a field trip to the Art Institute. “The landscapes are very fertile,” says Bernard White, who plays Amir, as he examines a drawing by Constable. It’s a line from the play, and everyone snickers. “In the museum, there’s this idea of continuity,” says Senior....

There’s absolutely no way I’ll be able to describe the Chicago Women’s March today in any authoritative fashion. The closest I could get to the stage was still a quarter of a mile away, so I didn’t see or hear any of the speeches or speak to the organizers. I couldn’t get Internet access on my phone, so I didn’t learn the march part had been canceled until I’d marched with the crowd for several blocks up the middle of Michigan Avenue and a stranger with better service told me....

Chicago dance-music collective Tied (aka Mantas Steles, Max Jacobson, and Ari Frank) have kept busy as DJs, producers, podcasters, and party starters for three years now. This year they were named “Best nomadic collective for weird, druggy, hard-hitting underground techno” in the Reader‘s Best of Chicago issue—no small feat, considering how lonely nomadic lifestyles can be. Just ask your nearest wolf! Tied throw an anniversary party Saturday, November 28—they haven’t announced the location—where they’ll spin and host a five-hour set from Berlin-based house and techno wizard Shaun Reeves....

State representative Ken Dunkin says Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police chief Garry McCarthy have shown “abysmal ineptitude” in dealing with violence. State rep Ken Dunkin says he’s had enough and so have his constituents. “After three years now, this mayor and this so-called chief of police can’t figure out what the hell to do,” he says. “The least the mayor could do is terminate Garry McCarthy immediately and get a superintendent who knows this city and is moving toward some strategies that will save it....

These Birds Walk 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.

JOHN JOH The Taste of Chicago The Taste of Chicago The Gene Siskel Film Center screens a true gem tonight: Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia. Directed by Nicholas Wrathall, the movie explores the life of one of America’s famous writers.

“I owe my life to the comrades in this room—and to Nelson.” Monje spoke a few feet from a small spread of memorabilia from Peery’s life, including a side-by-side World War II veteran’s baseball hat and a Soviet Army officer’s cap adorned with a hammer and sickle. Attendees at the memorial service remembered seeing Peery wherever the action was. A nephew, Joe Peery, once came to visit Nelson in Los Angeles, where he and his late wife, Sue-Ying, lived and organized at the time of the 1965 Watts riots....

In general, people go to steak houses for two reasons: for work, or to celebrate something. Technically, I was at the Barn in Evanston for the first reason, but everybody else was there for the second. The enormous wire chandelier covered with little white bulbs like a Christmas tree made the message clear: we were all here to enjoy one another’s company, and many of us were also going to eat enormous slabs of meat....

Where taxi drivers see a problem, Uber sees an opportunity. The rideshare behemoth encouraged its Chicago drivers to take advantage of a planned taxi strike Thursday. Taylor told Uber drivers they could earn extra money by referring new drivers Thursday, and sweetened the deal with free coffee and doughnuts. (Apparently, Uber runs on Dunkin’ too.)

AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service Putin may be “on the wrong side of history,” as President Obama states, but the fervor he’s incited might be on the other side. When President Obama said Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the Crimea put him “on the wrong side of history,” it made me wonder what those two sides consist of. I suppose there’s the dark side, on which the sun is setting, in which history is made by force of arms....

I realize it doesn’t feel much like spring at the moment, but the fact is, winter ended more than three weeks ago, and Spiteful Brewing is celebrating the thaw with its newest beer, an English-style barleywine called Dibs Are for Dummies—a dig at the Chicago postblizzard tradition that presumes some sort of parking-related equivalence between lawn furniture and a car. Bomber bottles shipped late last week. Spiteful currently has a modest two-and-a-half-barrel brew house, with seven five-barrel fermenters....

Open Mike Eagle lives in LA, but he grew up on Chicago’s south side—and this city is never far from his heart. Its problems aren’t far from his head either, and they pop up early on his brand-new album Dark Comedy. On the opening track, an absurd trip through society’s technologically enhanced ills called “Dark Comedy Morning Show,” he raps, “There’s shootings on the news / Unless it’s in the Chi cause blacks and Mexicans can die....

This weekend, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples played two sold-out concerts at Metro as part of his Life Aquatic tour. Intrepid photographer Bobby Talamine was on hand to capture the impressive visuals at the 23-year-old’s lean, mean Saturday-night show. Vince Staples brings Long Beach to Chicago in sold-out Metro show

Key Ingredient Cook-Off 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.

The pinnacle of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s artistry and commercial success was their 1995 album E. 1999 Eternal, a smooth and spooky smash hit dedicated to the death of the group’s mentor, gangsta rap pioneer Eazy-E. Anchored by the unstoppable and timeless singles “1st of tha Month” and “Tha Crossroads”—an instant classic that probably even had your squarest middle-school teacher musing about how badly the Cleveland group missed their Uncle Charles—E. 1999 Eternal showcased the wide range of personas and voices of Bone Thugs, from the unhinged Krayzie Bone to the beyond smooth Layzie Bone to the rapid-fire rhyming of Bizzy Bone over smoky, snappy DJ U-Neek beats....

Even viewers with the heartiest intellectual appetites may grow tired of chewing through the nearly three hours of overcoats, dirges, and sorrowful lamentations that make up Chris Hannan’s new adaptation of Crime and Punishment, presented by Shattered Globe Theatre. Beyond just the sheer inviting challenge of staging Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel, it’s not hard to see why his provocative, radical ideas would appeal to artists and audiences in 2018 America. The philosophical parable interrogates the thresholds of mankind’s moral relativism and its inclination toward utilitarianism, particularly when it’s squeezed by poverty....

Last week I was lifted from obscurity to semiobscurity when the website Vocativ announced that I was the most reliable movie critic in the country. “Screening for Hacks: America’s Movie Critics, Rated” is based on a formula that writers Adam K. Raymond and Matan Gilat concocted using numerical data from Metacritic, one of those sites that harvests reviews, converts them into number values, and averages these to rank new releases. I’ve always thought such sites are ridiculous, not to mention a little demeaning: as film editor I try to persuade my contributors that we’re writing literature, not consumer advice....

Friday:BeckAvey Tare‘s Slasher FlicksGiorgio MoroderSun Kil MoonFactory FloorDeath GripsThe Haxan CloakSharon Van EttenIsaiah RashadHundred WatersSZA Saturday:Neutral Milk HotelThe FieldFKA TwigsSt. VincentDanny BrownKelelaTune-YardsThe RangePusha TThe Julie RuinCloud NothingsMas YsaWild BeastsCirculatory SystemEmpress OfKaTwin Peaks Sunday:Kendrick LamarHudson MohawkeGrimesDJ Rashad & DJ SpinnSlowdiveReal EstateJon HopkinsSchoolboy QDum Dum GirlsEarl SweatshirtMajical CloudzDeafheavenPerfect PussyDIIVSpeedy OrtizMutual Benefit