“A violent and concentrated action is a kind of lyricism: it summons up supernatural images, a bloodstream of images, a bleeding spurt of images in the poet’s head and in the spectator’s as well.” —Antonin Artaud in The Theater and Its Double Maher’s Lehrer comes across at first as the quintessence of loneliness. But he’s not completely solitary. Before long he’s joined by his housemate and amiable doppelganger, Jim Lehrer II—apparently not an imaginary construct but a flesh-and-blood person....

The notion of “world music” has attracted its share of criticism. Looked at cynically, it’s just a way for bougie white people to feel like culturally enlightened global citizens without actually learning anything. But I’ve had some of the best concert experiences of my life at Chicago’s World Music Festival—and I go to a lot of concerts. The joy and vitality of the Boban Marković Orkestar at Martyrs’ in 2002, or of Mahmoud Ahmed at Pritzker Pavilion in 2015, would’ve swept up those crowds no matter how the music was marketed....

On July 13 a shabby, 114-year-old house in Avondale, named Animal Kingdom by its tenants, hosted a concert in its backyard. Animal Kingdom had been an unlicensed DIY show space since summer 2012, and though this was far from its biggest event—that distinction belongs to an Independence Day bash in 2013, which featured 20 bands and a record fair and attracted hundreds of people—it would be the one that finally brought the house to the attention of 33rd Ward alderman Deb Mell....

The Ape of God Formed in 1999, Old Man Gloom is a sort of on-again-off-again experimental hardcore supergroup, cofronted by three heavy metal giants: Aaron Turner of Isis, Nate Newton of Converge and Doomriders, and Caleb Scofield of Cave In. Every few years, this beastly team will emerge from the shadows, drop a massively heavy record, and disappear once again (there was a solid eight-year gap between their last two releases, 2004’s Christmas and 2012’s No)....

Thankfully, the 40-year-old bicyclist who was struck by a Suburu driver near the Navy Pier Flyover construction site last week wasn’t seriously injured. But the crash sparked a new conversation about why the $60 million initiative to build an overpass for cyclists and pedestrians, to improve safety near Illinois’s second-most-popular tourist attraction, is taking so damn long. “We at the city have discussed this, we have debated it, we have deferred it for decades, and now it’s time to build it,” Emanuel said at the 2014 groundbreaking....

A first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. “The site of his famous ‘murder castle’ is now mostly a grassy knoll next door to the post office at 63rd and Wallace, and there’s a little bit of overlap with where the post office is. I got to go into the basement of the post office with the History Channel a couple years ago, and my recorder picked up something that sounded like a little girl singing....

Playtime The Music Box’s highly successful 70mm Film Festival is back for a second edition, and a few titles from last year’s fest have returned for your viewing pleasure, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. (If you missed one of the sold-out screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, here’s your shot at redemption.) The slate of new titles includes Lawrence of Arabia, Tron, and another Kubrick offering, Spartacus....

Read Zac Thompson’s review of Assassination Theater here. The culprit was—and is—much closer to home. In fact, says Levin, the shooter, James Files, has been cooling his heels for years in an Illinois prison. You can find him there today, serving a 50-year sentence for the attempted murder of two police officers—a cog in the once mighty Chicago mob that, according to Levin, took down Jack to get Bobby Kennedy off their backs....

Edward Arthur Wilson “Ink, Paper, Politics” 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. Krystal DiFronzo’s work Isa Giallorenzo Krystal’s work—see more at krystaldifronzo.com

Is Donald Trump willing to go back to being a birther? Though it cost Trump nothing to indulge the birthers year after year, others paid a price. The martyr of the birther movement was Terry Lakin, an army colonel court-martialed in 2010 and sentenced to six months in prison for refusing to report for duty in Afghanistan. Lakin held that the order was unconstitutional, in that it was authorized by an “illegitimate” president....

It’s shaping up to be a busy year for Chicago Cinema Society, the local programming organization that’s committed to screening rare and exotic genre films. Tonight and tomorrow at the Davis Theater at 11:55 PM, the group presents the local premiere of Kuso, the first film directed by noted musician Flying Lotus. CCS also has plans to screen work at the Nightingale Cinema and the soon-to-reopen Chicago Filmmakers in the near future....

As I was saying the other day, when Donald Trump visited the Tribune editorial board they must have laid in an extra row of chairs. Every writer itches for a piece of Trump. If you think you’ve got the chops, Trump’s the speed bag where you show them off. Gift to the Republicans, that is. By not calling him out “as the bully and bigot that he is,” said Bruni, his Republic opponents for president are blowing a “perfect chance to rehabilitate and redeem the party....

Abbey Pub’s Saint Patrick’s Day Party The Abbey Pub celebrates its 40th annual Saint Patrick’s Day event with music by Larry Nugent, the Great Whiskey Project, Kevin Flynn & the Avondale Ramblers, and more. Irish dancers and bagpipers will also join in. Sat-Mon 3/15-3/17, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, 773-463-5808, abbeypub.com, $10. Dyeing the Chicago River The Chicago River goes green for the day in one of Chicago’s most steadfast traditions....

Three years ago my wife and I rented an old bungalow in Avondale, and when we moved in, we discovered the street was lousy with rabbits—the eastern cottontail, to be exact, one of the most common species in the U.S. On one side of our house lay a weedy area that the rabbits used for cover, and on the other side stood a grassy open plot that they treated as their personal country club....

ARTIST: Francisco Ramirez SHOW: War Brides, Volunteer, Them Teeth, and the Terrible News at 1st Ward on Fri 8/21 MORE INFO: bureauprintresearchdesign.com

Tokyo-bred psych band Kikagaku Moyo have developed their music while focusing on a different aspect of the genre on each album. They started by exploring folksy strains on their 2013 self-titled first record, before engaging with flower-power bounce on Forest of Lost Children the following year. In 2016, they took a laid-back stance on House in the Tall Grass, and on their upcoming Masana Temples, due out on Guruguru Brain in October, they’ve gone relatively slick....

Distractions Distortions On Fri 4/11 and Sat 4/12, two festivals are happening in town, both featuring a massive lineups of local underground rock.

QI am a gay man and have been in a relationship with my GGG boyfriend for more than three years. We are in our early 20s and have a good sex life. I just discovered that he has been engaging in what can only be described as cyber infidelity. He had a secret e-mail account, posted on Craigslist M4M, and also had an Adam4Adam account. About once a week, while I was at work in the evenings, he would exchange photos and engage in conversations with other men....