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Last month, I had the misfortune of catching the Lunchables bus. Have you seen it yet? The windows and doors are obscured by a full-wrap ad that creates the illusion of a stack of crackers, meat, and cheese moving horizontally along the street. I boarded the Lunchables bus and found my window blocked by a slice of processed ham. This was LunchaBullshit.

I love to look out the bus window. Watching the world slide by along a bus route is a major pleasure of city life. And now, my view had been snatched away by this low-rent charcuterie. It’s not just the bus, and it’s not just Lunchables. Everywhere I look, there’s another CTA vehicle fully wrapped in another ad. And every time I see one, I want to scream.

A Twitter user caught the Lunchables bus meandering through Old Town in October.

I am not protesting every CTA advertisement. Put ads on the bus! Wrap the train interiors! Cover every inch of the station! But please, please, leave the windows alone.

I fell in love with the city from bus and train windows. Public transit drew me to Chicago when I was 23. I was always a nervous driver. After a few months of utterly failing to parallel park, I got rid of my car. The CTA could get me basically anywhere I needed to go. And I discovered there’s nothing more romantic than experiencing the city through a window seat: letting my thoughts tune in and out, listening to Lana Del Rey or just the hum of people sitting around me, feeling the bus vibrate under my ass while the world passed by outside.

Of course, I’m romanticizing here. Public transit keeps me humble. Sometimes there’s piss or fights or it’s pouring rain, and the bus ghosts me once again. But looking out the window softens those humiliations. It is so wonderful to see the world. So every time I board a vehicle with window clings, I feel utterly robbed.

When you sit inside a vehicle with window clings, you can arguably still see. If you press your eyes to the interior of the tinted image, you can make out a shadow world outside. The cling blocks the sunlight from getting anywhere near you. People and cars and street signs pass by like vague approximations of themselves, haunting in their ambiguity. If it’s nighttime and the bus isn’t announcing stops? Good luck figuring out when to pull the cord, buddy.

Being forced to live inside an advertisement is just modern life, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. How dare these various billboards obstruct my reality? I boycotted my nearby Walgreens because they replaced their functional refrigerator doors with digital screens that flash and shift and barely reflect the actual inventory behind them. When I am hungover and frantically searching for orange Gatorade, I imagine some Silicon Valley snake slithering through a pitch deck about “disrupting doors,” and my blood just boils.

Our intrepid Inkling reporter tries to see the city through “wrapped” windows.

It feels baffling to defend glass windows—an invention humans have known and loved since 100 AD. I’m begging, please: let me stare through a pane of glass at whatever lies beyond!

I’ve considered boycotting every last flavored vodka and fast-food restaurant with full-wrap CTA ads. But the other week, I saw a Red Line fully swaddled in advertisements for Harry Styles’s Chicago shows. I felt a sharp pain resonating from the spot where I got a One Direction tattoo, and I thought, “Harold, my darling . . . how could you betray me?”

I’m afraid that soon, we’ll all just board a windowless box that transports us from point A to point B. Our only commute entertainment option will be to look at ads on our phones. I promise I am not some anti-phone zealot. I love my phone so much that I must force myself to take breaks. Which is why I keep my phone in my pocket when I have a CTA seat with a view. The trade-off is worth it.

When I defend my right to look out the window, I am defending my right to witness so much: front stoops, dog walkers, graffiti, rain puddles, industrial corridors, hand-painted grocery signs, school kids all in a line. The river! The lake! Bikers and joggers and drivers obliviously picking their noses! Your brain must cast a wide net to catch it all. You experience a different city when you ride public transit through it.

My favorite view comes when I ride one of the elevated trains through downtown at night. The glow of the skyscraper windows, shining rectangles suspended in the dark. My own reflection in the window, and then Chicago behind, like it’s all sliding under my skin. A deep calm spreads as I watch the city move within me and around me. How lucky, how wonderful, to be able to see it.

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The end of the year is a time for traditions that affirm social and spiritual priorities, and one of Chicago’s most enduring annual rituals comes from its music community. Since 1990, local percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang have convened at Links Hall to perform a concert that celebrates the season but doesn’t align with any single faith. Each year on the winter solstice, the duo and their audience gather before sunrise in a space lit only by candles. Drawing upon their knowledge of world drumming traditions as well as from the improvised music that they perform in other settings, Drake and Zerang play until sunlight streams in through the windows, and then pause for a moment of silence. With their frankly ceremonial aspects, the concerts acknowledge the cross-cultural significance of the end of the year, signaling farewells and renewal, but they also afford an opportunity to hear two of Chicago’s greatest percussionists sharing the essence of their art. 

While no two solstice concerts are alike, they all immerse listeners in a spontaneous manifestation of intricate polyrhythms and overwhelming sound. The number of sunrise concerts varies from year to year, and this month they’ll occur on three mornings, from December 21 till 23. On two of those evenings, Drake and Zerang will also gather in Constellation for concerts that present their new and ongoing projects. On Wednesday, Drake will play with Indigenous Mind (Expanse), a six-member ensemble that presents spiritual jazz and multidisciplinary performance in the vein of Don Cherry’s Organic Music Theatre and Alice Coltrane. Zerang will perform solo and introduce the Velvet Bell Ensemble, his quartet featuring Kioto Aoki, Tyler Damon, and Janet Bean; they’ll play new music he’s devised for large bells. On Thursday, the percussionists will colead the Solstice After Hours Large Ensemble, a ten-piece band that includes some of their new friends as well as their most enduring.

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice duos Wed 12/21, Thu 12/22, & Fri 12/23, 6 AM, Links Hall, 3111 N. Western, $35, all ages

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice evening concerts First set, Zerang solo (the Velvet Bell) and with the Velvet Bell Ensemble (Kioto Aoki, Tyler Damon, and Janet Bean). Second set, Drake with Indigenous Mind (Expanse), aka Lisa Alvarado, Zahra Glenda Baker, Shanta Nurullah, Joshua Abrams, and Jason Adasiewicz. Wed 12/21, 8 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, 18+

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice evening concerts Solstice After Hours Large Ensemble with Drake, Zerang, Zahra Glenda Baker, Molly Jones, Ed Wilkerson Jr., Ben LaMar Gay, Mark Feldman, Johanna Brock, Kent Kessler, and Mabel Kwan. Thu 12/22, 8 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, 18+

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The Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs are not in the same division or even the same league so nothing they do really affects each other. However, inner-city rivalry does exist within the organizations and they want to be better than one another. That is healthy.

Early in the off-season, it seemed as if the Chicago Cubs were going to steal the show in terms of adding to their team and improving for 2023. Well, that started off nicely for them but things have taken a turn.

The Cubs were in on everyone. Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts, Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson, Kodai Senga, Cody Bellinger, you name it. Well, they landed Bellinger and that would be a nice signing if he was a part of a larger group.

They failed on almost everyone else as Swanson is the only aforementioned name that doesn’t have a home yet. If the Cubs don’t land him, they will be having a significantly worse off-season than the White Sox.

The Chicago White Sox are having a better off-season than the Chicago Cubs.

The White Sox have signed Mike Clevinger and Andrew Benintendi (who they signed on Friday). The Cubs got Cody Bellinger and Jameson Taillon. Each landed a pitcher and an outfielder. Taillon had a better 2022 than Clevinger but has never reached the ceiling that Clevinger has.

Bellinger won an MVP three years ago but has basically been horrible ever since. You can say that his ceiling is higher than Benintendi’s but it is hard to think he will ever get there again. Lately, Benintendi has been better. Even if Clevinger never gets to where he was again either, he should be better than Taillon.

The word all off-season is that the White Sox aren’t doing anything. Well, all of a sudden they are looking much better than they were going into the off-season. Neither team is really set to go (at least we don’t think so) but the White Sox took a step ahead with the Benintendi signing.

Both teams lost their most consistent players this off-season too. Jose Abreu is headed to the Houston Astros and Willson Contreras is going to the St. Louis Cardinals. That is a miss for both organizations.

As of Friday, you can expect the White Sox to be the better team in 2023. It was looking like the Cubs might jump them with some big moves but most of the good ones are already gone. We will see what happens with Swanson.

It has been frustrating to be a White Sox fan lately but don’t count out positive regression in 2023. If that happens, this team might actually be really good. Again, we shall see.

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Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More

Last month, I had the misfortune of catching the Lunchables bus. Have you seen it yet? The windows and doors are obscured by a full-wrap ad that creates the illusion of a stack of crackers, meat, and cheese moving horizontally along the street. I boarded the Lunchables bus and found my window blocked by a slice of processed ham. This was LunchaBullshit.

I love to look out the bus window. Watching the world slide by along a bus route is a major pleasure of city life. And now, my view had been snatched away by this low-rent charcuterie. It’s not just the bus, and it’s not just Lunchables. Everywhere I look, there’s another CTA vehicle fully wrapped in another ad. And every time I see one, I want to scream.

A Twitter user caught the Lunchables bus meandering through Old Town in October.

I am not protesting every CTA advertisement. Put ads on the bus! Wrap the train interiors! Cover every inch of the station! But please, please, leave the windows alone.

I fell in love with the city from bus and train windows. Public transit drew me to Chicago when I was 23. I was always a nervous driver. After a few months of utterly failing to parallel park, I got rid of my car. The CTA could get me basically anywhere I needed to go. And I discovered there’s nothing more romantic than experiencing the city through a window seat: letting my thoughts tune in and out, listening to Lana Del Rey or just the hum of people sitting around me, feeling the bus vibrate under my ass while the world passed by outside.

Of course, I’m romanticizing here. Public transit keeps me humble. Sometimes there’s piss or fights or it’s pouring rain, and the bus ghosts me once again. But looking out the window softens those humiliations. It is so wonderful to see the world. So every time I board a vehicle with window clings, I feel utterly robbed.

When you sit inside a vehicle with window clings, you can arguably still see. If you press your eyes to the interior of the tinted image, you can make out a shadow world outside. The cling blocks the sunlight from getting anywhere near you. People and cars and street signs pass by like vague approximations of themselves, haunting in their ambiguity. If it’s nighttime and the bus isn’t announcing stops? Good luck figuring out when to pull the cord, buddy.

Being forced to live inside an advertisement is just modern life, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. How dare these various billboards obstruct my reality? I boycotted my nearby Walgreens because they replaced their functional refrigerator doors with digital screens that flash and shift and barely reflect the actual inventory behind them. When I am hungover and frantically searching for orange Gatorade, I imagine some Silicon Valley snake slithering through a pitch deck about “disrupting doors,” and my blood just boils.

Our intrepid Inkling reporter tries to see the city through “wrapped” windows.

It feels baffling to defend glass windows—an invention humans have known and loved since 100 AD. I’m begging, please: let me stare through a pane of glass at whatever lies beyond!

I’ve considered boycotting every last flavored vodka and fast-food restaurant with full-wrap CTA ads. But the other week, I saw a Red Line fully swaddled in advertisements for Harry Styles’s Chicago shows. I felt a sharp pain resonating from the spot where I got a One Direction tattoo, and I thought, “Harold, my darling . . . how could you betray me?”

I’m afraid that soon, we’ll all just board a windowless box that transports us from point A to point B. Our only commute entertainment option will be to look at ads on our phones. I promise I am not some anti-phone zealot. I love my phone so much that I must force myself to take breaks. Which is why I keep my phone in my pocket when I have a CTA seat with a view. The trade-off is worth it.

When I defend my right to look out the window, I am defending my right to witness so much: front stoops, dog walkers, graffiti, rain puddles, industrial corridors, hand-painted grocery signs, school kids all in a line. The river! The lake! Bikers and joggers and drivers obliviously picking their noses! Your brain must cast a wide net to catch it all. You experience a different city when you ride public transit through it.

My favorite view comes when I ride one of the elevated trains through downtown at night. The glow of the skyscraper windows, shining rectangles suspended in the dark. My own reflection in the window, and then Chicago behind, like it’s all sliding under my skin. A deep calm spreads as I watch the city move within me and around me. How lucky, how wonderful, to be able to see it.

Read More

The end of the year is a time for traditions that affirm social and spiritual priorities, and one of Chicago’s most enduring annual rituals comes from its music community. Since 1990, local percussionists Hamid Drake and Michael Zerang have convened at Links Hall to perform a concert that celebrates the season but doesn’t align with any single faith. Each year on the winter solstice, the duo and their audience gather before sunrise in a space lit only by candles. Drawing upon their knowledge of world drumming traditions as well as from the improvised music that they perform in other settings, Drake and Zerang play until sunlight streams in through the windows, and then pause for a moment of silence. With their frankly ceremonial aspects, the concerts acknowledge the cross-cultural significance of the end of the year, signaling farewells and renewal, but they also afford an opportunity to hear two of Chicago’s greatest percussionists sharing the essence of their art. 

While no two solstice concerts are alike, they all immerse listeners in a spontaneous manifestation of intricate polyrhythms and overwhelming sound. The number of sunrise concerts varies from year to year, and this month they’ll occur on three mornings, from December 21 till 23. On two of those evenings, Drake and Zerang will also gather in Constellation for concerts that present their new and ongoing projects. On Wednesday, Drake will play with Indigenous Mind (Expanse), a six-member ensemble that presents spiritual jazz and multidisciplinary performance in the vein of Don Cherry’s Organic Music Theatre and Alice Coltrane. Zerang will perform solo and introduce the Velvet Bell Ensemble, his quartet featuring Kioto Aoki, Tyler Damon, and Janet Bean; they’ll play new music he’s devised for large bells. On Thursday, the percussionists will colead the Solstice After Hours Large Ensemble, a ten-piece band that includes some of their new friends as well as their most enduring.

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice duos Wed 12/21, Thu 12/22, & Fri 12/23, 6 AM, Links Hall, 3111 N. Western, $35, all ages

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice evening concerts First set, Zerang solo (the Velvet Bell) and with the Velvet Bell Ensemble (Kioto Aoki, Tyler Damon, and Janet Bean). Second set, Drake with Indigenous Mind (Expanse), aka Lisa Alvarado, Zahra Glenda Baker, Shanta Nurullah, Joshua Abrams, and Jason Adasiewicz. Wed 12/21, 8 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, 18+

Hamid Drake & Michael Zerang winter solstice evening concerts Solstice After Hours Large Ensemble with Drake, Zerang, Zahra Glenda Baker, Molly Jones, Ed Wilkerson Jr., Ben LaMar Gay, Mark Feldman, Johanna Brock, Kent Kessler, and Mabel Kwan. Thu 12/22, 8 PM, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, $20, 18+

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Chance the Rapper’s youth empowerment charity organization, SocialWorks, hosts their annual A Night at the Museum event tonight at the Museum of Science and Industry (5700 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.). It’s a family-focused evening that benefits unhoused people and organizations that serve them; guests are invited to support the effort by bringing new and/or gently used coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and/or toys that SocialWorks will redistribute to area shelters. The event includes vendor booths, interactive museum activities, food, performers, giveaways, and music (including Reader staffer Shawnee Dez and her band playing at 6:45 PM!). The party happens from 6-10 PM; go to SocialWorks for more information and to purchase $15 advance tickets. (SCJ)

Evanston’s youth-oriented Mudlark Theater presents a non-balletic take on The Nutcracker by returning to E. T. A. Hoffmann’s original 1816 story. Adapted by Christina Lepri, the story follows 12-year-old Marie, whose family thinks it’s time for her to give up her imaginary world of toys. What they don’t know is that Toyland is real. The show, which was last produced at Mudlark in 2018, features a cast of mostly young actors. It runs tonight at 7 PM, Saturday 3 and 7 PM, and Sunday 3 PM at Mudlark (1417 Hinman, Evanston); tickets are $18, but the company also has a “pay it forward” ticketing system whereby patrons can access a ticket someone else has already paid for (or, in the spirit of the holiday, you can make a ticket available for someone else). Reservations and information at 847-448-0708 or mudlarktheater.org. (KR)

We may not have a white Christmas, but at least we’re getting Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, courtesy of Skokie’s Music Theater Works and opening tonight at 8 PM at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie). Based on the 1954 Bing Crosby film (though the title song was actually introduced in Crosby’s 1942 film, Holiday Inn), the 2009 stage musical features a book by David Ives and Paul Blake to go along with the Berlin score. The story of two WWII vets turned song-and-dance men trying to put on a show to save their commander’s Vermont Inn (with the help of a pair of beautiful singing sisters) could definitely use some updating; fortunately, the film’s cringe-inducing minstrel segment has been excised. Sasha Gerritson directs; it runs through Sun 1/1, and tickets are $39-$106, with half-price tickets available for those 25 and under. Call 847-673-6300 or visit musictheaterworks.com for information and reservations. (KR)

Tyler Anthony Smith won raves for his show Frankenstreisand earlier this year with Hell in a Handbag, and now he’s twisted together Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and the story of the Nativity in The Kindness of Mangers for Sweetback Productions at the Den (1331 N. Milwaukee). Smith plays “The Not-So-Virgin Stella,” who, after sister Blanche is whisked off to the mental hospital from Stella and Stanley’s New Orleans apartment, turns around to find she’s been transported to Bethlehem—and she’s pregnant. Smith’s show, directed by Stephanie Shaw (who also did the honors for Frankenstreisand), traces Stella’s struggles with a hay allergy, talking animals, and a salty innkeeper named Cathy Moriarty. The show is recommended for 18+ due to what Sweetback Productions calls “VERY VERY MATURE CONTENT.” It runs tonight and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM; tickets are $21 at thedentheatre.com. (KR)

If you’re not in the mood to go out to a show, WTTW and Chicago Shakespeare Theater will bring the show to you! The Q Brothers Collective (GQ, JQ, Jackson Doran, and Postell Pringle) and Chicago Shakes teamed up for Christmas Carol: The Remix, a recording of a live performance of the Q Collective’s “ad-rap-tation” of the Charles Dickens classic, which Chicago Shakespeare last presented at Navy Pier in The Yard space in 2019 as Q Brothers Christmas Carol. It’s airing on Channel 11 and WTTW Prime at some odd times after tonight’s 9 PM showing; tomorrow at 10 AM, Sunday at 3:30 AM, and then 12:30 PM Christmas Eve and 9:30 AM on Christmas. But heck, that’s what DVRs are for, and if you’re looking for something other than the endless marathon of A Christmas Story to watch over the holiday, this might well fill the bill. See schedule.wttw.com for information. (KR)

Read More

Chance the Rapper’s youth empowerment charity organization, SocialWorks, hosts their annual A Night at the Museum event tonight at the Museum of Science and Industry (5700 S. DuSable Lake Shore Dr.). It’s a family-focused evening that benefits unhoused people and organizations that serve them; guests are invited to support the effort by bringing new and/or gently used coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and/or toys that SocialWorks will redistribute to area shelters. The event includes vendor booths, interactive museum activities, food, performers, giveaways, and music (including Reader staffer Shawnee Dez and her band playing at 6:45 PM!). The party happens from 6-10 PM; go to SocialWorks for more information and to purchase $15 advance tickets. (SCJ)

Evanston’s youth-oriented Mudlark Theater presents a non-balletic take on The Nutcracker by returning to E. T. A. Hoffmann’s original 1816 story. Adapted by Christina Lepri, the story follows 12-year-old Marie, whose family thinks it’s time for her to give up her imaginary world of toys. What they don’t know is that Toyland is real. The show, which was last produced at Mudlark in 2018, features a cast of mostly young actors. It runs tonight at 7 PM, Saturday 3 and 7 PM, and Sunday 3 PM at Mudlark (1417 Hinman, Evanston); tickets are $18, but the company also has a “pay it forward” ticketing system whereby patrons can access a ticket someone else has already paid for (or, in the spirit of the holiday, you can make a ticket available for someone else). Reservations and information at 847-448-0708 or mudlarktheater.org. (KR)

We may not have a white Christmas, but at least we’re getting Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, courtesy of Skokie’s Music Theater Works and opening tonight at 8 PM at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie). Based on the 1954 Bing Crosby film (though the title song was actually introduced in Crosby’s 1942 film, Holiday Inn), the 2009 stage musical features a book by David Ives and Paul Blake to go along with the Berlin score. The story of two WWII vets turned song-and-dance men trying to put on a show to save their commander’s Vermont Inn (with the help of a pair of beautiful singing sisters) could definitely use some updating; fortunately, the film’s cringe-inducing minstrel segment has been excised. Sasha Gerritson directs; it runs through Sun 1/1, and tickets are $39-$106, with half-price tickets available for those 25 and under. Call 847-673-6300 or visit musictheaterworks.com for information and reservations. (KR)

Tyler Anthony Smith won raves for his show Frankenstreisand earlier this year with Hell in a Handbag, and now he’s twisted together Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and the story of the Nativity in The Kindness of Mangers for Sweetback Productions at the Den (1331 N. Milwaukee). Smith plays “The Not-So-Virgin Stella,” who, after sister Blanche is whisked off to the mental hospital from Stella and Stanley’s New Orleans apartment, turns around to find she’s been transported to Bethlehem—and she’s pregnant. Smith’s show, directed by Stephanie Shaw (who also did the honors for Frankenstreisand), traces Stella’s struggles with a hay allergy, talking animals, and a salty innkeeper named Cathy Moriarty. The show is recommended for 18+ due to what Sweetback Productions calls “VERY VERY MATURE CONTENT.” It runs tonight and Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 3 PM; tickets are $21 at thedentheatre.com. (KR)

If you’re not in the mood to go out to a show, WTTW and Chicago Shakespeare Theater will bring the show to you! The Q Brothers Collective (GQ, JQ, Jackson Doran, and Postell Pringle) and Chicago Shakes teamed up for Christmas Carol: The Remix, a recording of a live performance of the Q Collective’s “ad-rap-tation” of the Charles Dickens classic, which Chicago Shakespeare last presented at Navy Pier in The Yard space in 2019 as Q Brothers Christmas Carol. It’s airing on Channel 11 and WTTW Prime at some odd times after tonight’s 9 PM showing; tomorrow at 10 AM, Sunday at 3:30 AM, and then 12:30 PM Christmas Eve and 9:30 AM on Christmas. But heck, that’s what DVRs are for, and if you’re looking for something other than the endless marathon of A Christmas Story to watch over the holiday, this might well fill the bill. See schedule.wttw.com for information. (KR)

Read More

Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. 

Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.

Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.

Read More