Happy Wednesday, Chicago,
It is a big week for Chicago TV!
I’ve mentioned how much I like movies that are filmed here, but that love also extends to Chicago-based TV series.
A significant thrill of my young(er) life was when an “E.R.” episode (the doctor show Noah Wyle was in before “The Pitt”) featured Ewan McGregor as a young punk robbing a convenience store — right in my own neighborhood!
Now, we have two new TV seasons dropping this week from Chicago-set shows featuring extensive local footage.
Yesterday, Disney+ premiered the first three episodes of “Ironheart,” featuring a young Black female superhero who hails from the South Side, based on a comic written by Chicago’s own Eve L. Ewing.
Ahead of the premiere, writer Zachary Lee got interviews with Ewing, the show’s creators and producers and actor Dominique Thorne, who plays Riri, aka Ironheart herself.
And today of course, the fourth season of The Bear was released, so that we can all submerge in our usual summer binge of watching Carmy, Sydney and Richie battle it out as they aim to make their mark in Chicago’s elite culinary scene.
Are you still watching “The Bear”? What do you think of the new season? Any other Chicago-based shows/movies on your radar? Just reply to this email or send a message to arts@blockclubchi.org to let us know.
Happy viewing,
Gwen Ihnat
Arts & Culture Editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The series was filmed in the city and created with input from Chicago writer and academic Eve L. Ewing, who helped reinvent the Ironheart character. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| SPONSORED
|
|
Art rises high at Millennium Art Festival in Downtown Chicago! Get artsy with 110 original artists, live music, food trucks and cold beer! Three full festival days bring something for everyone — June 28, 29 & 30 at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street just north of Millennium Park. Enter to win art fest gift cards!
|
|
|
When We're Not Reporting, Here's What We're Checking Out |
|
|
🎸 Director of Photography Colin Boyle saw Resavoir for the third time Saturday. They performed their new album “Horizon” with Matt Gold at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave., which brought a sound unique to the jazz collective while
refreshingly new with Gold’s inventive guitar playing.
⭐️ Intern Layla Brown-Clark went to the Stay H: Trinket Fest Sunday at HAZ Cooperative Studios, 1706 S. Halsted Ave. in Pilsen. The Trinket Fest had over 20 vendors selling flash tattoos, tooth gems, Sonny Angels and other knickknacks for trinket lovers.
🎶 Hyde Park reporter Maxwell Evans attended FKA twigs’ "world's most beautiful people" convention at the Salt Shed, 1357 N. Elston Ave., Tuesday, which just so happened to coincide with a tour of her latest album, "Eusexua." Not even a last-minute rescheduling, long delays and interruptions from set malfunctions could spoil a night of artistry and sensuality from twigs
and her world-class team of dancers.
🚲 Avondale reporter Ariel Parrella-Aureli is looking forward to joining Reed Local’s cycling club for a chill, six-mile group ride through Avondale Thursday with new and old neighbors. The club meets 5:30 p.m. at the bar, 3017 W. Belmont Ave., and heads out at 6 p.m. The owners promise “cool people” and “cold drinks,” which sounds like a healthy summer combo.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MOVIES: The very 1980s patterned sweater vest went for $279,400 Tuesday after 11 bids. |
|
|
|
|
COMICS: The artist debuted a DC Comics series about Superman’s legendary pet, the same month a TV show based on his “Revival” series premiered on the SyFy channel. |
|
|
|
|
BOOKS: The Sunday event at Somos Monos Cerveceria will celebrate “books representing the power of our stories and making a space for joyful resistance,” said a ¡Viva! Los Libros co-founder. |
|
|
|
|
FOOD: The barrel has been used by at least a half dozen craft brewers, helping pave the way for wild fermentation in the U.S. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top Picks This Week |
|
|
“Beyond Closure,” a documentary on the aftermath of the 2013 CPS school closings from Borderless Studios and On The Real Film, premiered before a sold-out crowd in December at the Chicago Cultural Center. This week, there are two more chances to see the film: Wednesday at Kennedy-King College, 740 W. 63rd St. in Englewood, and Friday at the Overton Center for Excellence, 4927 S. Indiana Ave. in Bronzeville. Bronzeville reporter Jamie Nesbitt
Golden talked to the filmmakers.
Enjoy an unusual happy hour at the McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, 99 Chicago Riverwalk (the bridgetower at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive), for its special Thursday night speaker series. This week, Edward Warden, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society, will discuss “Saving Chicago's Nighthawks,” and how his group is helping to preserve one of the fastest disappearing birds in North America. More event info is here; look for a feature story on Chicago’s nighthawks population on Block Club later this week.
The Chicago Film Society has recently relocated but still is hosting a variety of interesting offerings this summer. Thursday night, the CFS is hosting “Lightning” — declared the second-best Japanese film of 1952 — at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. The Mikio Naruse film features a cheerful bus tour guide who “spends her days airily comparing the sights and sounds of postwar Tokyo to the old-world charms of Paris.” More information on this and other upcoming CFS events can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Thanks for supporting Block Club Chicago, an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible
donation. Subscribe here.
|
|
|
|
|
