“Wish I Was Here” came out July 25. (image via)
Zach Braff came under fire last year when he successfully launched a $2 million Kickstarter to bring his latest project to life. This might not have been controversial except that Zach Braff is, ostensibly, a famous person with money, and this film was “a follow-up to ‘Garden State’” at best and a vanity project at worst.
Over the past year it’s been increasingly common to see Comedy Central’s programming pointed to as among the best on cable. Key & Peele, Inside Amy Schumer, Kroll Show, Review, @Midnight, Nathan for You, and Broad City are all relatively young shows that push at the boundaries of what TV comedies can do, while still being gut-bustlingly hilarious. Throw in those venerable stalwarts The Daily Show and the soon-to-be-departed Colbert Report, and it’s not hard to look at Comedy Central’s lineup and say it’s the equal of HBO, Showtime, or FX.
Drunk History is not as ground-breaking as some of its sibling shows, but it might be the most purely enjoyable show in Comedy Central’s lineup. It’s a sketch show where host Derek Waters gets comedians blitheringly drunk and has them tell stories from American history. Waters and a wonderful cadre of guest actors then act out the stories in full costume using the drunken soundtrack recording as both dialogue and narration. It’s a goofy concept, and doesn’t always hit, but when it does the show just soars. The slurred speech and wild excitement of the speakers (especially Drunk History all-star Paget Brewster) lend the action a pleasantly loony atmosphere. The real fun, though is seeing actors like Jordan Peele, Retta, Weird Al (as Hitler!) and Charlie Day perform the loopy action described by the narrators. Nothing on TV right now is funnier than the moments where a skilled actor mouths along to a drunken digression that utterly shatters the fourth wall.
Jenny Lewis, “The Voyager” (image via)
Full disclosure: I love Jenny Lewis. She is my musical alter ego, and an indie rock goddess. Her lyrics are poetry and they say everything I could ever want to say but can’t.
Lewis writes about insecurity and falling in and out of love and the impermanence of everything, including and especially ourselves. At this time, I’d like to thank my junior year college roommate for constantly playing the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack because it contained “Portions For Foxes”; thus began my journey into the depths of Rilo Kiley, the now-defunct band Lewis co-fronted.
I know the best place in town to hear music and try literally dozens of beers, and it is not Taste of Chicago. Tonight, I checked out the Square Roots Festival in Lincoln Square, and it was awesome. The Square Roots Festival runs from Friday, July 11 through Sunday, July 13, and you (yes, you) should check it out. Despite getting there shortly after 8:00 p.m., music was pumping out of the north stage and there were hundreds of people in the street between Montrose and Wilson on Lincoln Ave. Most of the vendors were still open, including an amazing line up of food trucks, tents, and…oh, right, the beer: Fifteen primarily local breweries each with at least two of their lineup for you to try.
Most street festivals and art shows in Chicago put forth the same line up of art vendors, and this festival isn’t much different, save that a number of local vendors from Lincoln Square have tents offering their wares. A score of local restaurants have food stations lining the street, including Lincoln Square favorites Bistro Campagne, Fountainhead, Gather, and Cheesie’s Pub.
Music, however, is the biggest draw for the festival, proceeds from which will help support the Old Town School of Folk (full disclosure: I take guitar lessons at the school). Tonight, Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate were creating amazing African/hip hop/reggae awesomeness (that’s a thing, right?) to a crowd of well over two hundred. They were followed by Ivan & Alyosha, a Seattle based group with a fantastic name (any other Literature geeks get the reference?), a remarkably upbeat folk band whose album I’ll be purchasing as soon as my bank account will allow. Tomorrow’s headliner is Bobby Bare, Jr’s Young Criminals Starvation League. You can check out “Valentine” on YouTube.
Folk and World Music bands aren’t the only acts getting stage time. Old Town offers a number of awesome music ensembles and classes. Sunday will feature their Brazilian Folk Ensemble with Paulinho Garcia (5:00-5:45 p.m); visitors can try out their African Dance (1:30 – 2:30 p.m) or Flamenco classes (2:45- 3:45 p.m), or just hang out and watch Aloft Circus Arts (8:00 – 8:30 p.m). If you want to catch up with Travis and me, you’ll find us in the 2nd Half Guitar Jam (1:30 – 2:15 p.m).
There’s always something to do on summer weekends in Chicago. There’s a street fest happening almost every weekend, and this weekend there’s Taste of Chicago to compete with as well. If you want over-crowded places with absurd food prices and too many tourists, go to Taste. If you want a chill atmosphere, great beers, and an amazing musical experience, then go to Square Roots.
Alex and his wife Becky watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. But that means that they sort of know what they’re talking about when the annual Emmy nominations come out. For reference’s sake, Becky has seen 24 of the programs we talk about here. Alex has seen 12. He may be talking out of his ass a lot more.
Comedy Series
Should Win: Uh…we really, really like Louie and Orange is the New Black, but it’s a stretch to call this past season of the former a comedy and the latter is a drama through-and-through. Of the nominees, we vote for Louie, but the consensus choice for us this year was Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Will Win: Modern Family has won four in a row, which is apparently the cap on a series winning consecutive awards at the Emmys. Plus, it’s remained pretty damn mediocre since…season one. Another win would be awful. So we think that Orange is the New Black will prevail. Huge buzz and fandom, groundbreaking gender and sexuality politics, and new blood in a stale category.
WTF?: Why is Silicon Valley here? Alex watched the pilot and Becky watched one other episode, but it seemed like…not much. Maybe we missed out, but this feels like it got nominated solely for being on HBO.
Image via.
Hey! It’s almost time for the Spiel des Jahres!
You know, Spiel des Jahres? The Oscars of board games? Except that it’s international, so maybe it’s actually the Golden Globes of board games? Erm, hold on…
Okay, that attempted contextualizaion fell apart rather quickly. Let’s just go with the fact that it’s a big deal to be nominated or even recommended for a Spiel des Jahres (German for “Game of the Year”), not to mention actually winning one. If you’re a game designer or publisher, you will wear that little awards logo like a badge for the rest of your life. Literally. Whoever wins the award this July 14th will stick it onto their box design FOREVER.
Which brings me to today’s game spotlight. It’s been a while since we’ve talked about tabletop games here on the Recorder, and more’s the pity. With Walsh and Karen on staff, perhaps we can try to be a Great Lakes version of Shut Up & Sit Down review. Ah, dreams. In the meantime, however, I’m going to take a look at one of this year’s Spiel des Jahres nominees, Splendor.
The stage is bare.
Well, not completely bare. A single table draped with a black tablecloth sits center-stage. Two bottles of water await the performers. There are two microphone stands, both positioned to broadcast the acoustic instruments that will be played throughout the two hour-long sets. Beyond that, there is nothing to suggest any finery — the backdrop is a single black curtain. Various backstage elements – a step ladder, touring crates, a trash can – are visible from the edge of the audience. All of these aesthetic choices suggest a haphazard conception, yet there is intention to everything. Gillian Welch’s strength lies in the contrast between the minimalist qualities of her musical performance and the soaring strength of her rich, smoke-flavored voice. The staging only enhances this.
When she takes the stage, she carries an acoustic guitar. Neither her instruments, nor the multiple guitars played by accompanist/collaborator David Rawlins, are connected to any amplifiers. The very presence of a microphone seems a violation of the intimacy of her music. One gets the feeling that the best way to listen to the music of Gillian Welch would be to sit in a parlor room in Nashville as she and Dave play their latest offerings for family and friends. We are not at a concert — we’re at a family talent show, invited guests, and what we’re hearing is as fresh as the moment it was conceived.
Ultraviolence, which debuted this week at #1 on the Billboard charts, is as unlikely a number-one album as any you could imagine.Its songs are not made for the radio or the dance floor. Almost all the music is slow enough to induce narcolepsy and the lyrical content is R-rated, troubling, and fierce. Lana Del Rey is simultaneously creating pop music and commenting on its culture and values.
-J., staff mixologist
The Addison Recorder turns two this year and to celebrate, the staff and their spouses gathered at Travis and Andrew’s pad in Wrigleyville where we had a little cocktail party. What better way to celebrate a milestone than with friends, drinks, cake, and cheese?
Group G. The most important group. The Group of Death, Part II (Electric Boogaloo).
Within this group is Team USA, and thus the most important cocktail selections will be within this group. The United States (and those other teams’ countries) offers up a plethora of liquor options and a storied drink-mixing history. But for me, there choice is clear. This group’s cocktails will be built with a booze our Founding Fathers distilled and drank: brandy. Glorious brandy.
Now, as a child of Wisconsin, my heritage dictates that I am an expert on things like supper clubs and brandy. Even if I did move out of state prior to being able to legally drink brandy at a supper club, it matters not — distillate derived from fruit is in my blood. Literally, as I’ve just tested the recipes listed below.
Behold: the supper club. (I think this was actually Albright’s Tavern back when I was a kid…)
Brandy isn’t a new ingredient in this series; slivovitz, pisco, and some aguardiente would fall under the classification of brandy or eau de vie.
Or “schnapps.” It’s a word derived from German, and tends to be a generic term for a strong distilled liquor. One of the more common spirits in Germany associated with this term is kirschwasser (or just kirsch) — an unaged cherry eau de vie. It’s not uncommon to see it referred to as “dry cherry brandy” here in the States, to distinguish it from flavored liqueurs that are sometimes called fruit “brandy.” [Read more…]
