Ramin Bahrani is that rare dramatist who understands street-level economics. Raised in North Carolina and educated at Columbia University, the Iranian-American filmmaker made his feature debut with Man Push Cart (2005), the story of a Pakistani immigrant who scrapes through life selling bagels from a cart in midtown Manhattan. Chop Shop (2007), his second feature, followed a 12-year-old Puerto Rican orphan and his older sister as they try to pull together a life for themselves amid the auto garages and scrapyards of Queens....

Last month Riot Fest announced its first wave of artists, which included a few great headliners—most notably the reunited Jawbreaker. The influential Bay Area pop-punk band will play their first show in 21 years—and I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention that my 2015 oral history of Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy for Pitchfork’s defunct print quarterly is now available online. Among the other bright spots in that first wave were Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, TV on the Radio, New Order, Ministry, and Vic Mensa—but we’ve had to wait till today to see what else might be worth seeing at Riot Fest....

Leor Galil: Rain’s drenched two of the last three Riot Fests, and though the clouds were breaking as I approached Douglas Park early Friday around one o’clock, the morning’s downpour had already wreaked havoc. The mud spread as more and more people entered the festival grounds—though the damage paled compared to that in last year’s site, Humboldt Park. This year hasn’t been without its little bumps. Food vendors are using tickets instead of cash, and around dinnertime a couple of them ran out of stubs....

Michael Gebert Some sliders at Barcito I was just writing about how few major closings our a-go-go restaurant scene has had in the last few years. And now comes a biggie: Tavernita, the River North hot spot with a Latin-Spanish tapas feel from the fast-growing (until now) Mercadito Hospitality group, abruptly shut down Thursday over nonpayment of a $75,000 tax bill and the concomitant loss of its liquor license.

Street View is a fashion series in which Isa Giallorenzo spotlights some of the coolest styles seen in Chicago. Isa Giallorenzo

DJ Oreo seems to be everywhere all the time. Just this year I’ve run into him at the Era’s Lab Sessions (an informal footwork gathering at High Concept Laboratories in Pilsen), seen him spin an unannounced, impromptu set during Fake Shore Drive’s showcase (at Lincoln Hall with Cam’ron, SD, and ShowYouSuck), and spotted him side stage or in the crowd at more rap shows than I can count. Given that Oreo handles the ones and twos for Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper, he’s often on the road and could easily have his eyes trained on opportunities on the coasts—but he remains grounded in the Chicago scene....

We hated the proposed Lucas Museum lakefront blob the first time around, so architect Ma Yansong went back to the drawing board. On Thursday—voila!—museum officials released this rendering of a drastically new and improved version . . . So everything’s good now.

Though he was born in New York city, Studs Terkel exemplified Chicago. His pioneering work in print, radio, and TV chronicled the history of this patchwork city and its residents. The late media legend would be 102 on Monday, and to celebrate, the U. of C. has organized the free, weekend-long celebration Let’s Get Working. Closing out the fest is a “live broadcast” of a new episode of Studs’ Place (Sun 10/11, 7 PM), the fourth in an ongoing revival by the tour and reenactment outfit Pocket Guide to Hell, at the Hideout....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Friday, April 14, 2017. City Council Black Caucus members want to change police union contract Meanwhile, members of the City Council Black Caucus are calling for changes to the police union contract that would make it easier to report police misconduct. All 18 members of the caucus will vote against the police union contract if Mayor Rahm Emanuel declines make the changes, caucus chair alderman Roderick Sawyer said....

You can be forgiven for not knowing that psychedelic spell casters Verma have a new album coming out tomorrow. Because they’re a Chicago band, you’d expect to be alerted to such a development by the appearance of a release party on the calendar of a local venue—but Verma don’t have any shows lined up at all. The reason for that is pretty simple: late this summer bassist Rob Goerke moved to Los Angeles, where former member TJ Tambellini has lived for a few years now....

Saul Steinberg was behind one of the most famous magazine covers ever: the March 29, 1976, issue of the New Yorker, which featured his depiction of big, bustling Manhattan against a background of fly-over country. And yet the cartoonist once said, “I don’t quite belong to the art, cartoon, or magazine world, so the art world doesn’t quite know where to place me.” The current Art Institute show commemorating the 100th year of the artist’s birth supports Steinberg’s statement....

If you spent even a sliver of time within a few miles of Soldier Field this past weekend, then you know that it was impossible to ignore the Grateful Dead’s three-day good-bye, “Fare Thee Well.” The unparalleled tie-dyed presence could be an annoyance for those folks who have no tolerance for jam bands—but who among us wouldn’t want to see a band we love bid adieu with the same sense of import and celebration that surrounded these “Fare The Well” shows?...

The band Soulside emerged in the D.C. punk community in the mid-80s, making headway after the Revolution Summer of 1985 redirected the young, fervent scene away from hardcore’s bleak, macho assault and toward a fluid posthardcore aesthetic that prized melody and politics. Coliseum and the Poison Arrows open. Sun 11/11, 8:30 PM, Subterranean, $20. 17+ READ THE REST OF OUR FALL PREVIEW

Schmitz is soon joined by his associate, Eisenring, who doesn’t even try to finesse Biedermann, knowing that his host will do the work of lying to himself even if he’s told the whole, apocalyptic truth. Or sees it, for that matter: an attic full of detonators, fuses, and 55-gallon drums of gasoline can’t shake Biedermann out of denial. He remains convinced he can befriend his executioners. Through 9/27: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PM Strawdog Theatre 3829 N....

Ever since Mayor Michael Bilandic lost reelection to Jane Byrne after the great blizzard of 1979 paralyzed Chicago, snowplowing has been a highly political matter in our city. Here at the Reader we were curious about exactly how the city manages to clear the major streets so efficiently after a major snow event. So I checked in with Commissioner John Tully of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, which spearheads plowing efforts on a route system of more than 9,400 lane miles, to get the skinny....

They get hitched under his family chuppah in the window of a storefront theater in Andersonville, the same neighborhood where they’ll live with the baby, born two years later. There are candles and flowers, and strangers walk by, gawking; the woman wears a long dress. A week later, she’ll move to Istanbul and the man will stay here; but that night, they sing along to Tom Waits. A flight attendant hands her a Turkish breakfast....

Two months ago Marea Stamper, better known as the Black Madonna, took over Gramaphone Records to celebrate the release of the 12-inch single “He Is the Voice I Hear.” The store was the only place with copies of the record, at least on that day, and by closing time it had sold out—which I discovered when I dropped by Gramaphone a couple weeks later and asked if they had any tucked away in a corner....

Welcome to the Reader‘s morning briefing for Tuesday, May 30, 2017. CPD superintendent Eddie Johnson expects to undergo a kidney transplant within a month Chicago Police Department superintendent Eddie Johnson said on Friday that he’s ready to undergo a kidney transplant within a month. “I’m ready to get it done and get back to work,” Johnson said. Doctors are reportedly considering three potential donors, including Johnson’s son. [DNAinfo Chicago]

Even though William A. Wellman directed more than 80 films between 1920 and 1958—including the first Oscar-winner, Wings—he’s still best known for the iconic 1931 James Cagney gangster film The Public Enemy. Streaming channel FilmStruck features Wellman as their “director of the week” and we’ve picked five of his 1930s pre-Code films, when he was at his best. The Public Enemy Time hasn’t been terribly kind to this 1931 gangster drama, which suffers more than it should from the glitches of early sound....