AltWeeklies Wire
Inside Chicago's Shadow Budgetnew
The Daley administration commands an off-the-books kitty of taxpayer money equivalent to a sixth of the official city budget. Now we've got documents that show what they want to do with it.
Chicago Reader |
Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumke |
11-02-2009 |
Politics
Is it Too Easy to Clobber a Cabbie in Chicago?new
Walid Ziada's fellow cabbies say his attackers are getting off lightly -- despite a new Illinois law intended to protect taxi drivers.
Chicago Reader |
Kari Lydersen |
10-19-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Electronic Duo Gatekeeper Looks to the Classic Slasher Film Soundtrack for Inspirationnew
All the flavors of synthesizer on Optimus Maximus evoke the heyday of the slasher flick in the late 70s and early 80s, when masked maniacs roamed shadowy streets, Ouija boards not only worked but inevitably summoned nameless evils, and vividly red fake blood was spilled by the gallon.
Chicago Reader |
Miles Raymer |
10-19-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Barbara Ehrenreich's Latest Book Tackles Our Oppressive Optimismnew
Rather than focus on some particular tool of oppression that's misled the masses into believing they're happy, in Bright-Sided Ehrenreich trains her ire on happiness itself.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
10-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
The Made-Up Life and Real Death of Clyde Angelnew
The identity of a popular but mysterious outsider artist is revealed. Or so it seems.
Chicago Reader |
Jeff Huebner |
10-05-2009 |
Art
How Exactly is Diablo Cody's Update of the Rape-Revenge Shocker 'Feminist'?new
In the earlier rape-revenge movies, patriarchy was an evil to be overcome. In Jennifer's Body, on the other hand, an opening voice-over tells us that "hell is a teenaged girl"—or more precisely, the friendships between teenage girls. Cody claims that's feminist, but I must confess, I don't see it.
Chicago Reader |
Noah Berlatsky |
09-28-2009 |
Reviews
Did an Army-Issue Antimalarial Drug Drive a Solider to Suicide?new
Criticism of the military's use of Lariam has continued to build since John Torres' death. "If it predisposes you to paranoia, anger, psychosis, is it appropriate to expose a company of people with automatic weapons?" army doctor Remington Nevin wonders.
Chicago Reader |
Kari Lydersen |
09-28-2009 |
War
Rod Blagojevich's Book: Think Socrates, Not Icarusnew
The Governor isn't mythological material, though it contains plenty of myth. But it's a fine warning on the pitfalls of democracy.
Chicago Reader |
Mick Dumke |
09-21-2009 |
Nonfiction
Could Less Star Power and More Depth Save the Chicago Sun-Times?new
Journalists who don't get their pictures in the paper alongside their stories tend to both envy and suspect the ones who do, believing those pictures fatten their paychecks, win them better tables in restaurants, and turn them into commodities.
Chicago Reader |
Michael Miner |
09-21-2009 |
Media
European Report Shatters the Myth of the Olympics' Economic Benefitsnew
While boosters predict that hosting the 2016 Olympics would bring Illinois $22.5 billion, a crucial report from the European Tour Operators Association came to the conclusion that "there appears to be little evidence of any benefit to tourism of hosting an Olympic Games, and considerable evidence of damage."
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
09-21-2009 |
Economy
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Reveals a Journalist Who Went Over the Edgenew
The most complex character in the movie, the one who provides the viewer with an entry point into this hothouse of violent fanatics, is herself a journalist -- Ulrike Meinhof, a columnist for the left-wing magazine Konkret who stunned her family and colleagues in May 1970 by throwing in with a cadre of self-styled revolutionaries.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
09-14-2009 |
Reviews
Chicago's Olympic Bid: What's In It for the Arts?new
Why are the city's nonprofit cultural institutions lining up behind a bid that looks dicey enough to send almost half the sports-besotted Chicago public running the other way?
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
09-14-2009 |
Sports
We Found the First Jackson Five Recording, and It's Earlier Than Anyone Thoughtnew
This was supposed to be the story of the Jackson Five's first single, cut in Chicago in 1967. But while writing it, we picked up the trail of a tape nobody knew existed: the earliest known studio recording of Michael Jackson and his brothers.
Chicago Reader |
Jake Austen |
09-14-2009 |
Music
Two Chicago Filmmakers Adapt Tom Frank's 'What's the Matter With Kansas?'new
Joe Winston and his wife, Laura Cohen, optioned the rights to Thomas Frank's best-selling book and began to ponder how they might turn the book into a documentary. "It's a brilliant book," says Cohen, but "there are no characters with arcs, and there's not really a plot."
Chicago Reader |
Andrea Gronvall |
09-01-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Jonathan Leyser Works to Finish the First Documentary on the Entire Life of William Burroughsnew
The 24-year-old is nearly finished with an ambitious assessment of perhaps the greatest literary outlaw of the 20th century.
Chicago Reader |
Ed M. Koziarski |
08-31-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
