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02/22/12--12:11: Gig poster of the week (chan 1510340)



ARTIST: Francisco Ramirez
SHOW: Cooler by the Lake, Sweet Cobra, Deminer, Full On, and Party Downers at Empty Bottle on 2/4
MORE ONLINE: bureauprintresearchdesign.com

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02/22/12--12:50: Margaret: teach your children well (chan 1510340)



This week the Bleader presents a series of commentaries on Kenneth Lonergan's drama Margaret (2011), which screens through Thursday at Gene Siskel Film Center.

Watching Margaret for the second time this weekend, I was struck by how much screen time is taken up by teachers. The main character, Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin), is an upperclassman at a place she describes as "a private school for rich Jews" (if memory serves), and writer-director Kenneth Lonergan includes numerous scenes of her classes, which are relatively small and all seem to center on student discussion.…

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02/22/12--14:18: Chicago has yet to receive a dime from the feds for NATO and G8 (chan 1510340)



Zilch.

That’s how much federal aid Chicago officials have procured so far to cover the costs of preparation and security for the NATO and G8 summits.…

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02/22/12--16:00: Give 'em the finger (chan 1510340)



On the heels of M.I.A.'s now-infamous Super Bowl up-yours (I'd again like to thank the rewind control on my DVR for being so special), Adele gave her own middle finger yesterday at the Brit Awards when her speech was cut off just after she won album of the year—the live broadcast had run over and the recently reanimated corpses in Blur needed to be carted onstage to perform. Her flip of the bird wasn't overly snide or hateful, but instead a "Well, this fucking sucks" kind of moment; it actually looks like her brain and finger weren't on the same page at the time.…

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02/23/12--02:00: An underrepresented cuisine, represented (chan 1510340)

At Bridgeview's Sheeba, The Aljahmi brothers turn out authentic Yemeni stews, roast meats, and tanoor-baked bread. by Mike Sula Culinary foams weren't invented by El Bulli's Ferran Adria, the groundbreaking Spanish chef most associated with the modernist cuisine movement. White bean foam, chocolate air, and granadilla clouds may have gobsmacked diners on the Costa Brava coast 18 years ago—and there are carrot, smoke, and potato foams on the menu at Next Restaurant's El Bulli tribute.…

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02/23/12--02:00: For the love of pinball (chan 1510340)

As the pinball industry struggles, will rock 'n' roll be its salvation? by Miles Raymer Walking through the Stern Pinball factory, you're rarely out of sight of Angus Young's sneering gaze. It's the very same sneer that appears on the cover of AC/DC's 1979 album Highway to Hell, only here it's rendered in silk-screened and airbrushed paint on large wooden boards.…

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02/23/12--02:00: The naked truth (chan 1510340)

With Crazy Horse, Frederick Wiseman documents a legendary nude cabaret by J.R. Jones Even Frederick Wiseman needs a fantasy life. Revered for his ascetic narrative style (no clips, no voice-over, no talking heads, no score) and probing examination of American institutions (high school, the military, the court system, public housing), Wiseman has taken detours into the dance world before with Ballet (1995) and La Danse (2009).…

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02/23/12--02:00: Pennsylvanian sunsets, cigarettes, and country music (chan 1510340)

Molly Shanahan premieres The Delicate Hour at the Dance Center of Columbia College by Laura Molzahn Molly Shanahan has been exploring the alchemy of transformation for several years. But in her new The Delicate Hour, inspired by sunsets she watched at an artists' retreat in rural Pennsylvania, she intentionally occupies an shifting, slippery space.…

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02/23/12--02:00: The Reader goes to charter school (chan 1510340)

The Reader goes to charter school by Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky In the spirit of diplomacy—think Sadat going to Israel, Nixon to China, or Obama to Congress—the Reader recently paid a visit to an UNO charter school. The United Neighborhood Organization is the former Alinsky-styled community group that's built an empire of 11 charters and counting through what executive director Juan Rangel describes as years of "hard work."…

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02/23/12--02:00: This week's Key Ingredient: a chef-to-chef challenge to cook with dried limes (chan 1510340)

Challenged with Middle Eastern dried limes, Iliana Regan of One Sister improvises a panna cotta dessert by Julia Thiel The Chef: Iliana Regan (One Sister) The Challenger: Brandon Baltzley (Crux)…

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02/23/12--02:00: This week's Culture Vultures recommend . . . (chan 1510340)

In-the-know Chicagoans recommend "Charles James: Deconstructed," the Poetry Foundation, and Home/Land by Drew Hunt and Joey Jachowski Emma Batia Arnold, Très Awesome editorial and creative director, is entranced by: "Charles James: Deconstructed" I just got back from New York Fashion Week where I saw tons of fresh designers and amazing looks.…

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02/23/12--02:00: Artist on Artist: Diamanda Galas talks to Mark Solotroff (chan 1510340)

Diamanda Galas talks to Mark Solotroff of Anatomy of Habit Diamanda Galas could have been famous just for her beautiful, phantasmagoric voice: ranging from a guttural multiphonic growl to a nerve-shattering shriek, it's powerful enough to contain oceans of horror and grief, yet so razor-sharp and tightly controlled it could carve an epigram into a wedding ring. But Galas is much more than a singer.…

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02/23/12--02:00: A duality so big they had to put it in two galleries (chan 1510340)

Outsider show "Heaven + Hell" runs at both LUMA and Intuit by Sam Worley Art inspired by the great Christian duality should be as grand as possible, or what's a heaven (and hell) for? And so the biggest pieces in "Heaven + Hell"—a show that sprawls across two galleries, the Loyola University Museum of Art and Intuit—are a couple of 9-by-12-foot paintings by William Thomas Thompson, depicting the titular concepts.…

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02/23/12--02:00: The Secret History of Chicago Music: Blind Joel Taggart (chan 1510340)

Gospel singer and bluesman Blind Joel Taggart may have been the first guitar evangelist ever to make a record by Plastic Crimewave

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02/23/12--02:00: Has my coprophiliac boyfriend gone too far? (chan 1510340)

Dan Savage counsels victim of poop fetish by Dan Savage Q I'm a straight 24-year-old female who has known my fiance since freshman year of college. He has a fetish where he likes to watch women use the bathroom.…

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02/23/12--02:00: In Rotation: Baby Teeth front man Abraham Levitan on M.I.A.'s Fingergate (chan 1510340)

Baby Teeth front man on M.I.A.'s Fingergate, a sixth-grader on the merits of Adele Kevin Warwick, Reader staff writer Friday Night Lights theme song It officially feels like winter when I'm plowing through episodes of a critically acclaimed, now-defunct TV drama.…

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02/23/12--02:00: The cop who loved women (chan 1510340)

Woody Harrelson is a cop with woman problems in Oren Moverman's Rampart by J.R. Jones We've all seen this movie before: a hard-nosed cop bends the law to keep bad guys off the street, blasting the cowardly suits in the department who privilege political correctness over public safety. When he walks into an interrogation room, everyone finds somewhere else to be; when he comes back out, the brutalized suspect has given up the information they need.…

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02/23/12--02:00: HoZac’s got junk in the trunk (chan 1510340)

A HoZac comp of one-off bands, another Smith Westerns record, and a Dylan cover with Tim Heidecker by Jessica Hopper and J.R. Nelson The Blackout Fest isn't the only big thing HoZac Records has cookin'. The label's 100th release, now being mixed, comes out this summer, and it's a doozy!…

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02/23/12--02:00: Zoom in: Avondale (chan 1510340)

Big Smile Dental's toothy grin in Avondale by Kevin Warwick No one wants to go to the dentist, ever. Filling and root canal procedures aside, there is no more objectionable a sound than that of a dental scaler scraping crud off your teeth.…

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02/23/12--02:00: This week's Chicagoan: Melineh Kano, program director for Refugee One (chan 1510340)

Melineh Kano, program director for Refugee One and former refugee by Anne Ford A first-person account from off the beaten track, as told to Anne Ford. "A lot of people don't understand that refugees are here because they had no choice.…

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02/23/12--02:00: The Associated Writers & Writing Programs conference and book fair (chan 1510340)

Public offerings from the Associated Writers & Writing Programs conference by Sharon Lurye One of the "biggest and liveliest literary gatherings in North America" is hitting Chicago. The conference and book fair of the Associated Writers & Writing Programs is expected to attract 9,500 attendees to over 400 readings, lectures, panel discussions, and book signings.…

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02/23/12--02:00: Show us your . . . home brewery (chan 1510340)

Each week, we ask you to show us something. This week it's Josh Garrett's home brewery by Kevin Warwick Last month's "underground" home brewers' event, Brew Ho-Ho, was crammed with self-appointed beer connoisseurs (not terribly unlike myself) looking to sample every pomegranate-infused triple IPA and red-velvet-cake double porter available. With little room to explore, I camped out near Josh Garrett's Powell Brew House booth, repeatedly sampling his various milk stout concoctions—the best was the vanilla, the strangest was the peanut butter cup.…

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02/23/12--02:00: Our itch to write about jocks (chan 1510340)

Sportswriters are our high priests in the business of establishing meaning by Michael Miner Big-league sports can't figure out what to do with their all-star games. The NFL's Pro Bowl is a dog because when football players go through the motions the game is unwatchable.…

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02/23/12--02:00: A big baby, a returning vet, and gays in revolt (chan 1510340)

Steppenwolf Theatre's Garage Rep offers productions by three local troupes by Tony Adler It's not as if these three companies couldn't find places to perform. One of them, Theatre Zarko, even has a little studio of its own, suitable for putting on shows.…

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02/23/12--02:00: Back Two Back (chan 1510340)

Solution

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