This play, set in 1957 in Pittsburgh, features some of the tightest, most insightful writing in August Wilson’s ten-work cycle on 20th-century African-American life. It’s anyone’s guess why it hasn’t been done here professionally since the Goodman Theatre hosted a pre-Broadway tryout in 1986. In a legendary performance, James Earl Jones played Troy Maxson, the embittered ex-Negro League ballplayer-turned-garbage-collector at the heart of the story. Now longtime Chicago actor A.C. Smith smacks it out of the park in this Court Theatre revival, beautifully directed by Ron OJ Parson....

Across the nation and beyond, the name of Chicago is now linked to police torture. “Probe: Black Chicago suspects tortured,” said a headline in the Houston Chronicle. “Police tortured black suspects,” said the Herald in Glasgow, Scotland. Perhaps a delegate to an Olympic site-selection committee will recall these stories and think, “Not on my watch.” Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The report has its villains....

On April 4, Dan Dietrich lined his new 9,000-square-foot recording studio, Wall to Wall Recording, with kegs of beer and opened its doors to music fans for a party featuring three bands–local acts the Redwalls, Clyde Federal, and the New Constitution. It was pretty much what you’d expect from a studio opening. But guests wandering around the plushly carpeted hallways, some getting momentarily lost as they moved from one professionally appointed recording room to another, couldn’t be blamed for wondering what, exactly, Dietrich could have been thinking opening this place–especially now....

Let’s see: religious intolerance, the horrors of war, the commodification and exploitation of sex–sound familiar? It seems the only elements separating our society from Francisco de Goya’s, depicted in his 1799 satirical series “Los caprichos,” are a few witches and the Inquisition. In her savage new Sleep of Reason: GoyaDances, based on 13 of Goya’s 80 etchings, Hedwig artistic director Jan Bartoszek addresses these timely matters, essentially animating the scenes Goya delineated with such theatrical flair....

Richard Cahan and Michael Williams When Thu 11/30, 5 PM Info 312-922-3432 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The story of Richard Nickel’s tragic end often overshadows his work. He was born in 1928 to a working-class family; his father drove a truck, his mother was a factory worker. After a stint in the army, he used his GI Bill benefits to enroll in the Institute of Design, which turned out not to be a vocational school, but an offshoot of the New Bauhaus, founded in Chicago in 1937 to teach the curriculum of the original German Bauhaus, the modernist bastion that had been shuttered by the Nazis....

Dragon Court2414 S. Wentworth | 312-791-1882 $Chinese | Lunch, dinner: seven days | Open late: Every night till 11 | BYO Evergreen2411 S. Wentworth | 312-225-8898 The Bull has something for both the beef-and-broccoli set and those seeking a challenge like frog with yellow chives. A variety of impeccable Chinese greens are always on offer (usually pea pod shoots, water spinach, mustard greens, and watercress). Fried smelt, steamed whole sole, and deep-fried chicken are customer favorites....

James Talley hit Nashville in 1968, armed with a fine arts degree from the University of New Mexico and an unshakable belief that he somehow personified the romantic populist spirit of country music. In 1975 Capitol picked up the Oklahoma native’s self-released Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, but We Sure Got a Lot of Love, and the following year his Tryin’ Like the Devil got rave reviews. With characteristic chutzpah he mailed a copy to presidential candidate Jimmy Carter–who invited him to play at the 1977 inaugural ball....

When Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino loaded up a station wagon and U-Haul in 1956 to bring an American style of ballet to the masses, they couldn’t have known their new company would enjoy the incredible longevity it has. Forty-three years later the company started dancing a work by a choreographer also emblematic of American dance in the 50s, Alwin Nikolais. A former puppet master alarmed by the emotionality and sexuality of modern dance at the time (think Martha Graham), he used masks, lighting, and props to obscure the individual performers and create abstract designs onstage....

There are so many curves and anomalies in this unpredictable low-budget independent feature (2001) by Chicago actor Michael Gilio that I’m tempted to call it an experimental film masquerading as something more conventional. If it’s a comedy–and I’m not sure it is–there are far too many close-ups, though this is also very much an actors’ film. If it’s a road film–and I’m not sure it is–it never gets very far on any given route, though that’s surely deliberate....

Unless otherwise noted, all screenings are free and will be shown by video projection as part of the Chicago Park District’s “Movies in the Parks” series. Films marked with an asterisk (*) are highly recommended. Barbershop painted an affectionate portrait of a black community centered on a 40-year-old barbershop in South Shore; this sequel ups the ante, asking whether urban renewal means anything now other than turning neighborhoods into giant malls....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » It’s been a while since the Fake Fictions sent me demos for their upcoming second album, Krakatoa, which they probably would’ve finished by now if they hadn’t lost a bunch of gear in a practice space fire. They’re regrouped and regeared now, and have just started tracking in their new space with an old eight-track recorder (a Tascam 488 mk I, to be specific)....

Dear Ms. True: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » It is with great dismay that I read your article on Skydive Chicago and Roger Nelson [“Look Before You Leap,” April 2]. While most of the facts were accurate, the tenor of the article, particularly the emphasized passages, cast an inaccurate and untrue impression as to Roger Nelson, Skydive Chicago, and the accident which tragically took Roger’s life....

“I think the most successful rock show would be one where people forget that there’s even anyone onstage,” said Sea Ray bassist I-Huei Go in a 2002 interview. And the Brooklyn-based chamber rockers do their best to distract your eyes while they play, projecting psychedelic videos over their bodies and onto two enormous screens. You’re not alone if such a setup reminds you of Warhol and the Velvets’ Exploding Plastic Inevitable–but it’s not 1966 anymore, and Sea Ray has ditched the frenzied go-go dancers and added doses of Britpop, shoegazer drone, and space rock....

Derek Kassebaum used to help people get new businesses off the ground; nowadays he’s finding his way through his own start-up. He still sits at a desk, but the onetime consultant is less likely to be typing out a business plan than using the surface to peel lemons. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “It’s doing great,” says Phillip Patti, manager and liquor buyer for Wine Discount Center, on Elston....

I was surprised and disappointed to see that the underpass at 47th Street was completely whitewashed [Chicago Antisocial, September 29], but I couldn’t help wondering if it was because of something I had seen there earlier in the summer, which really shocked, scared, and sickened me. It was an illustration under the title “Kill Whitey,” which depicted someone literally blowing someone’s head apart with a gun. It was obviously not part of the approved artwork, but it was well done–ironically, white paint or chalk on a black background....

The only reasonable explanation for why Michael Barrett punched A.J. Pierzynski last Saturday is that Barrett was acting as one possessed by the bitterly frustrated spirit of Cubs fans. The White Sox entered the city series the defending World Series champions, and after winning Friday’s first game had a record as good as any in baseball. Add to the envy felt by Cubs fans the spectacle of their own team off to another difficult start: A quarter of the way through the season, the Cubs were six games under ....

Some scoffed when the Lyric Opera announced it was substituting this operetta “fluff” for the previously announced Berlioz rarity Benvenuto Cellini. But box-office concerns aside, this Lyric premiere fully justifies the decision. William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were the fathers of modern musical theater, and their work belongs in the best hands available; this production achieves a rare confluence of comic theatricality and topflight musicianship. Sullivan’s music is played and sung ravishingly under the baton of world-class conductor Sir Andrew Davis, and Gilbert’s loony libretto comes through crystal clear thanks to the singers’ fine diction....

Friday 1 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » STARLISTER Last summer in this paper, I wrote about Starlister front man Loren Wilson, who used statistical software to analyze record reviews on Pitchfork, generate guidelines for writing critic-pleasing songs, and whip up some would-be critic-pleasing songs of his own. Starlister’s “If I Leave Without You,” a track on Hyde Five, a compilation released in April on Wilson’s Mr....

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Earlier this year Zerang released a collection of duets with various Lebanese players, Cedarhead, on Kerbaj’s Al Maslakh label. Most of the Lebanese folks favor a decidedly abstract brand of improvisation, where the trademark sound of a given instrument is frequently destroyed or forfeited in favor of amorphous noises, hums, clatter, and whinnies. Mostly Zerang, who loves Arabic music and was born to Assyrian parents, follows the “when in Rome” rule–there’s hardly a traditional Middle Eastern sound to be found....

San Francisco’s Avengers may have been the best straight-ahead punk-rock band this country ever produced, a stripped-down, full-throttle four-piece made unique by the charisma, sarcastic rage, and concise, razor-sharp melodies of front woman Penelope Houston. But they released just one three-song single during their two-year existence, and though a handful of compilations have come and gone since their breakup in 1979, the group has remained relatively obscure. Most recently DBK Works released The American in Me, which collects some hot-shit tape from one of their final gigs as well as some previously unissued studio work....