Norwegian guitarist Hedvig Mollestad has an uncanny ability to merge rock and jazz in arrangements that transcend the cliches of both genres. On her new album, Ding Dong.…Read More

Andrew “Big Voice” Odom toured internationally—and also used to drop by Maxwell Street and overwhelm the makeshift sound systems.

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.…Read More

The Chicago Bears continue to annoy fans. Ryan Pace has ruined this team and it only looks like it is getting worse. They let Kyle Fuller go and used that money to sign Andy Dalton who is in the back half of his career. That is just one of the many things that this man […]

Chicago Bears Draft: Three Alabama Crimson Tide stars to consider – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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In 1876, the Canadian parliament passed the Indian Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that still dictates how the government interacts with the First Nations bands indigenous to the country and legally defines Indian status and band membership. Though heavily amended over the years, the Indian Act initially included policies that disenfranchised Indigenous women who married outside their band, stripping them and their children of Indian status and restricting their access to native communities and traditional land.…Read More

Chicago “frog rock” four-piece Floatie talk about the lost year of COVID, finding inspiration in adventure novels, and their complicated but congenial songs.

Longtime friends make the best bandmates.…Read More

The Infinite Wrench marks an anniversary in shutdown; plus Refugee Rhapsody wins the Blue Ink Playwriting Award.

When the shutdown hit a year ago, the Neo-Futurists were one of the earliest to adapt to creating digital theater. Within days of the stay-at-home order, they were figuring out how to convert their signature late-night hit, The Infinite Wrench (itself born out of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, the original “30 plays in 60 minutes” show that was reimagined after founder Greg Allen pulled the rights) into an ongoing offering on Patreon.…Read More

Time with family. Sewing masks for others. A border collie named Willow. Board games. Prayer. A husband who makes wine. Those are just some of the things Chicagoans told us.

We asked readers: What’s one thing that’s really gotten you through the pandemic year?

Here’s what we heard. Some answers have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

“Gratitude. Celebrating the small joys that we often overlook due to the design of our fast-paced lifestyles.” — Baida Qureshi Torres

“Sewing thousands of masks and overhauling a house. Having a good partner helps a lot, too.” — Madeline Page Hunter Dittmer

“Normal times before COVID days, everyone was busy. You spent little time with your family. Spending time together as a family really lets you see the smile on your children’s faces, the love between you all — and the moments you missed because life got too busy. I think many realized it’s time to slow down and be with your family.” — Shawn Ravn

“Adding a new puppy. He’s keeping me busy.” — Cynthia Pau Arellano

“A whole lot of avocados, fantastic salsa and movie time with the kids.” — Robert Lisowski

“My crafts! They kept me busy, my mind off worrying. And I got some cute things in the process, which I gave away.” — Brenda Morajka

“Playing ‘The Sims’ for hours at a time.” — Sarah Thomas

“Buying records and books. Also having my best friend — my wife — by my side.” — Steve Zooski

“Being an essential worker with a medical linen company. My faith and power of prayer. We prayed every morning before hitting the hospitals. It got us through the year.” — Mike Kaufman

“I was considered an essential worker from the start, and it kept me very busy. Additionally, spending time with my wife, who is also my best friend. And lots and lots of cable television.” — Michael Thompson

“Kindle — unlimited subscription. Zoom. FaceTime. And lots of prayers.” — Brenda G. Whitson Marquis

“The fact my family is close, and we put away the cell phones and computers to play board games and enjoy each other’s company.” — Lisa Varga

“My music and exercising without going to the gym.” — Victoria L. Green

“Gratitude, my mother, streaming, books, wine and retirement.” — Denise Washington

“Definitely my faith. Knowing that when I thought I couldn’t handle all the garbage the world was throwing at me, God was telling me He had the stuff I couldn’t handle. To keep moving forward and the assurance that this, too, will pass.” — Bill Pionke

“Gratitude, prayer, meditation, laughter, sunshine, flowers, love, music, family.” — Amy Geinosky

“Playing guitar and writing songs.” — Staci L. Grisby

“A border collie named Willow!” — Kalli Ricka

“The Facebook group ‘View from my Window.’ Members from all over the world share photos from their windows. I have learned so much and felt so connected to people all over, and my cabin fever has been kept at bay.” — Julie MacCarthy

“Honestly, binge-watching shows from other countries on Netflix. There is a lot of very good stuff being streamed if you just move outside of your ‘American’ comfort zone and watch what other countries have to offer, especially Spain and Turkey. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.” — Gerald Myers

“Working entirely within the performing arts industry, and having 100% of my livelihood upended (for a year now), I finally recorded and released my debut solo album and am in the process of completing the follow-up.” — Christopher Peifer

“Fishing. Towards the end of last summer, I went to northern Wisconsin and caught bass on five different lakes and pike on two of them.” — Bradley Nawara

“Walking trails in neighborhood parks.” — Bridget Cortez

“Zoom calls with my 3-year-old grandson who lives in New York state. I send him books and beanies from my collection. They send me videos of him opening them. I have had both vaccinations. When they get theirs, I will visit them. I can’t wait!!” — Jan Berg

“Power-walking outside and Zoom family game nights.” — Cathy Rausch Blanton

“Nostalgia and reconnecting with friends.” — Michael R. Butz

“Reaching out to friends and relatives.” — Lynn Lehmann Funk

“Well, my husband makes wine — need I say more?” — Wanda Freeman

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Uplifting movie blends the singer’s dramatic life story, of abuse and struggle and triumphant comeback, with knockout performance clips.

We know the Tina Turner story through Turner’s bestselling autobiography “I, Tina” and the Angela Bassett-starring “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” from 1993 and the Broadway jukebox musical “TINA — The Tina Turner Musical” and countless print and broadcast profiles — and yet there’s something fresh and timely and inspiring and uplifting about the new documentary titled simply “Tina,” premiering Saturday on HBO and HBO Max.

Oscar-winning directors Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin (“The Undefeated”) revisit Tina’s life story, from her humble beginnings to her commercially successful but personally devastating partnership with Ike Turner to her incredible reinvention and rise to global superstar at an age when most rock singers are cruising along on Greatest Hits tours. The result is a documentary with more dramatic swings, more triumphs and setbacks, more insanely entertaining performance clips than most fictionalized biopics.

Through a treasure trove of archival footage, interviews with former backup singers and songwriters and other associates of Tina’s, as well as a series of interviews filmed with Turner (who is now 81) at her Shangri-La-esque chateau in Zurich, “Tina” is must-see for longtime fans and, perhaps more important, millennials who might not grasp just how much of an influence Tina Turner has been on generations of performers — regardless of gender. (After all, as the film reminds us, it was a young Tina Turner who demonstrated some killer dance moves to a young Mick Jagger.)

The first half of the film focuses on Turner’s upbringing and her years in the 1960s and 1970s with husband Ike, as the Ike & Tina review scored hits with breakthrough soul/rock originals such as “River Deep, Mountain High” and “Nutbush City Limits” as well as brilliant re-interpretations on covers of “Come Together” and “Proud Mary.” We see classic footage of Tina and her backup singer-dancers (known as “The Ikettes” — Ike really liked to keep his name upfront) lighting up the stage in concert and TV appearances.

Rhonda Graam/HBO

In public, Ike was the taciturn, rock-solid band leader, while Tina was the shining star who was equally charismatic and friendly onstage and off — but behind closed doors, Ike was a horrific monster who verbally and physically abused Tina, giving her black eyes and third-degree burns, making her feel so miserable and trapped she attempted suicide. As Ike’s drug abuse in the 1970s made him even more of a living nightmare, Tina found the courage to leave him, showing up at a motel with nothing but a Mobil credit card. The next day, she got on a plane and never looked back.

The filmmakers play audio excerpts from Turner’s 1981 interview with People magazine, in which she bravely detailed the abuse she had endured at time when domestic abuse was largely swept under the rug. (Even the magazine downplayed the stunning story. Johnny Carson was on the cover of that week’s issue, and the cover tagline for the Turner interview was: “Tina Turner: on the prowl without Ike.”) For years afterward, TV interviewers would ask her, “Where’s Ike?” and Turner finally published “I, Tina” in part to put a stop to the constant questions about her past.

All of this is a necessary and vitally important part of the Tina Turner story, but the documentary soars in the second half, as we follow Tina’s ascension to superstardom, starting with the 1984 album “Private Dancer,” which was hardly the most anticipated work of the year (we’re told one executive at Capitol Records didn’t think the 42-year-old Turner had any remaining commercial value and referred to her in the vilest of terms) but sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

HBO

In one of the film’s most entertaining vignettes, we learn the story behind the story of “What’s Love Got To Do With?”, which was originally a sappy, soulless, bubble-gum pop tune recorded by a lily-white Abba-wannabe group called Bucks Fizz — but Tina got in the studio and made it her own, resulting in a No. 1 single. When Tina takes the stage in a 1980s concert and sings “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” in front of a massive crowd that knows every word and feels every note of the song, it’s a beautifully triumphant moment.

Some 30 years later, we catch up with Tina at the home in Zurich she shares with her husband, the German music producer Erwin Bach. She sounds content and happy and at peace, and it’s just the sort of lovely epilogue Tina Turner deserves.

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