We at the Reader have compiled some of the best, biggest, and oddest music stories of the week. Downtown aldermen advance a push to ban street musicians from the Magnificent Mile and State StreetAldermen Brendan Reilly (42nd) and Brian Hopkins (2nd) want to block street musicians from some of the most heavily trafficked areas of the Mag Mile and State Street, claiming that their presence makes it impossible for some people to sleep or work....

City of Chicago Picasso had an idea for public art in Chicago. Got an opinion about public art? The first is scheduled for tomorrow (March 26) at 6 PM at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington). The second meeting will be held at 6 PM on April 30 at the Washington Park Arts Incubator (301 E. Garfield).

What Rahm Emanuel, Steve Albini, and Lauryn Hill have in common?

In the art world, as in the real world, women are often underrepresented. Only around 5 percent of the artwork in major U.S. museums is by female artists, even though, according to a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts survey, 51 percent of visual artists are women. And on average, they earn 81 cents for every dollar a male artist makes. In light of this bleak picture of gender parity, “Woman As Warrior,” a group show at Bridgeport’s Zhou B Art Center, seems to be a step in the right direction....

Since 2004 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place. Older strips are archived here. 

Liz Lauren/Chicago Opera Theater Karen Marie Richardson in the strange story of Queenie Pie Queenie Pie, the Duke Ellington “street opera” completing its Chicago Opera Theater run this week after being delayed by the electrical fire at the Harris Theater last month, has a pretty strange libretto. She also noted that it’s “very autobiographical.” According to Teachout, when Ellis caught wind of Ellington’s affair with a newer lover, Fernanda de Castro Monte (also known as “the Countess”), she is said to have hopped on a plane to Tokyo, where she found them in bed together and pulled out a gun....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Thursday, February 16, 2017. Authorities: Eleven-year-old Takiya Holmes was killed by gunman aiming for rivals Antwan C. Jones, 19, was trying to shoot three members of a rival gang Saturday night when he fatally shot 11-year-old Takiya Holmes instead, according to authorities. A stray bullet hit Holmes, who was sitting in a van with her mother, aunt, and brother. Holmes died Tuesday at University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital after being taken off life support....

Miss Julie 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.

It’s uncanny the reunions that have taken place across the pond since shoegazing trailblazers My Bloody Valentine re-formed in 2007 (the same year as Scotland’s the Jesus and Mary Chain, who predate the movement but possess many of the genre’s sonic attributes). Swervedriver, Slowdive, and most recently Ride are all working the reunion circuit. Ride’s debut, 1990’s Nowhere—with its bleak and cryptic cover art depicting a nearly colorless wave waiting to break—remains one of the canonical works of shoegaze....

“What are your favorite overlooked Chicago hip-hop releases of 2015?” I posted that to Twitter as I listened through my own choices for the year, and the wide range of responses I got reminded me that my question isn’t as simple as it seems. Some folks named projects I’d considered well-loved and thoroughly covered, among them Sicko Mobb’s first mixtape of the year, Super Saiyan Vol. 2, which earned praise from Pitchfork....

Cecilia Roth and Antonia San Juan in All About My Mother Something unexpected happened during the revival of All About My Mother that I attended at the Siskel Center a couple weeks ago. About one-third of the way into the screening, the film skipped a reel, transporting the audience several weeks into the characters’ future and eliding a few key plot developments. I thought again of the French surrealists’ moviegoing game as I tried to imagine what I’d just missed—searching for clues in the dialogue and onscreen behavior—and, before that, as I briefly fell out of sync with the plot and had to enjoy the acting, sets, and costumes for their own sake....

I wouldn’t call myself obsessive-compulsive, but I do have patterns. If I don’t follow them, I get nervous, my skin feels wavy. Train rides are the worst. Maybe because my mind is free to wander. Music being pumped directly into my ears via tiny white speakers while I’m being chauffeured over and under the city streets only heightens things. There are two things I must do in order to keep myself settled:...

Blood Rage This past weekend the Music Box dedicated half of its midnight programming to the seasonal standby Halloween, John Carpenter’s trendsetting masterpiece. The slasher film to which all others are compared, Halloween sparked a glut of similar kinds of pictures, and though many of them are mere imitations and copycats looking for a cash grab, a fair amount were legitimately inventive and wholly original works. The genre proved popular for decades after, but five or so years following Halloween‘s 1978 release represents a sort of golden age in slasher cinema....

Paul Brissman Marcus Samuelsson is one of the first speakers confirmed for this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival. The Chicago Humanities Festival, to many minds (including this one) the very best of Chicago’s many, many festivals, announced this year’s theme this morning: Journeys. The full schedule of events will be released in August.

In case three full days packed with loud music and drinking in the sun aren’t enough for you, Pitchfork weekend comes with a full slate of aftershows. There are a dozen official events around town, plus a handful of unsanctioned concerts with festival artists, including gigs at the Virgin Hotel (Vic Mensa, Ex Hex) and an RSVP-only hip-hop party on Friday at First Ward that features ILove­Makonnen and a collaborative project called Superchef with Lil B, Sonny Digital, and more....

There is no food more adaptable to the human requirement for joy than pizza. You can share it, hot and steaming, with your best friends, and it’s near guaranteed that before you’ve finished, you’ll all burst out laughing together for some reason or another. You can stumble out of bed in the middle of the night, sleepless from the ghosts moaning in your head, and the holy light of the refrigerator will spill upon a cold leftover slice on a paper plate, and for a few minutes those ghouls will be silenced, along with your hunger....

Last spring, when Prince died, I wrote about all the near misses I’d had trying to see him perform live. I never managed it, and in writing that piece, I couldn’t help but start a mental inventory of other great artists I had yet to see—a sort of “please don’t kick the bucket” list. On that list, PJ Harvey is definitely near the top. So when Pitchfork announced this year’s festival lineup, she became my must-see....