The Weakerthans Live at Bottom Lounge on 2003-09-28 https://archive.org/details/ajc03204_theweakerthans_2003-09-28

My old union, the UIC Graduate Employees Union (UIC-GEO), is going out on strike today after spending just under a year (364 days) negotiating for a new contract and working without one since August 2025. www.uicgeo.org/2026-strike/...

I'm so proud of all the hours my mom dedicated to securing commitments & funding for this project during her tenure as GPCA's development director. I hope the new children's garden leads to many happy days for kids & families all across the city. blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/22/g...

Pls donate and support abortion access, not just for Chicagoans, but for those who come to our city for the health care they need because they can't receive it elsewhere. fund.nnaf.org/fundraiser/7...

Or!! If you're in Chicago, you can join our team at one of our fundraising events—including karaoke on May 7! Can I actually hit all the notes in Adele's "Someone Like You"? Find out! 🎤🎵 www.eventbrite.com/e/sing-a-tho...

There are so many ways to help! You can donate to my page linked above! OR you can buy one of the T-shirts I designed in tribute to the Alderman who said in 2022 he didn't want to see Illinois become the abortion state of the Midwest lol www.bonfire.com/from-the-peo...

✨ bc I love doing 1 mil things, I'm so pleased to share that I'm raising money for @chiabortionfund.bsky.social as part of this year's Fund-a-Thon! ✨ If y'all help me exceed my goal, maybe I'll debut my Wile-E-Coyote/Road Runner burlesque routine or something. fund.nnaf.org/fundraiser/7...

Tell CMAP to pump the brakes on 'Redefine the Drive!' No highway on our lakefront! act.betterstreetschicago.org/cmap-dlsd-ac...

The New York Islanders took a moment during their final game of the season to promote a fundraiser for a former NYPD sergeant who was recently convicted of manslaughter.

The Islanders race to the bottom includes more than just missing the playoffs -- really evil stuff www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/...

HIGHLY recommend Vicky Osterweil's "The Extended Universe" which comes out this week from @haymarketbooks.org. Great blend of research and cultural criticism that gets into how Disney has shaped global policy w/ reach far beyond Hollywood by dissecting the business principles of IP.

Hey, remember me? I'm Natalie, I'll be your driver... through a VERY fun guest spot on @daniellamazzio.bsky.social's wonderful Michael Shannon podcast, talking about John Waters' CECIL B. DEMENTED! Come for us extolling "Mike" Shannon, stay for our diatribe on the state of film funding and IP hell!

MINNEAPOLIS: Tomorrow night, Natalie is introducing a screening of PINK FLAMINGOS at The Heights Theater. Even if you aren't in MN, go anyway! heightstheater.com/lnh/?ref=roo...

Lots of talk about the state of Hollywood in this one. If you can imagine, things are bleak. BUT we love this movie, and we love Mike in this movie! Listen now: room-tone.ghost.io/hand-me-the-...

🎶 We're baaaaaaack 🎶 On the newest, LATEST, Hand Me the Mike, I am joined by stellar writer and journalist @nataliesnotinit.bsky.social to talk about John Waters' CECIL B. DEMENTED! One of my favorite conversations so far. 🔗 below!

It’s been fascinating to watch this AP story circulate through the web this week and horse-shoe back to the local press. I broke the story about the effort to digitally preserve Aadam’s collection 15 months ago. Glad more folks are digging through his recordings!

With Rush University Medical Center nurses announcing that they're forming a union, check out @gabrielwinant.bsky.social's book, The Next Shift, & the Q&A I did with him last week for @chicagoreader.com that touched on careworker union organizing. chicagoreader.com/news/politic...

The Northwest Side Rapid Response Team reported a detention of a family (two adults and one child) near the 606 at Spaulding.

While killing dozens of people in Lebanon (MOPH says 112, civil defense counts 250+, until now), Israel still found time to kill another one of our colleagues in Gaza.

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

Can't tell you how many members of Congress who *at best* had nothing to say when I asked about the Minab girls school attack. There is a profanely cold detachment inside Capitol Hill, a mode completely unrecognizable to common human decency I wish I could properly convey to you.

straight line from doing nothing after Sandy Hook

New from me: About 9 months ago, I set out to write about how NEA funding cuts would impact the film industry. The more I researched, the more I realized the history of NEA support is key to the bigger picture of indie filmmaking in the U.S. ➡️ Part One: room-tone.ghost.io/cut-the-hist...

(202) 224-3121 is the capitol switchboard for connecting to any senate or house office; even if you've never called; even though the lot of them are useless. no abominable war crimes, no war, no.

“A whole civilization will die tonight” is the most vile thing a US president has ever said, certainly during the post-1945 era when they’ve had the power to kill civilizations with the dropping of a bomb. I’m staring into the darkness. May this not be one of the most fateful days in human history.

"Romanian director Radu Jude...has depicted the absurdity of late capitalist life three decades after 'the end of history' in his own country (& our crumbling empire) better than almost anyone else...Kontinental ’25, is perhaps his most damning work yet." chicagoreader.com/film-tv/movi...

"Israel has killed 53 medical workers, destroyed 87 ambulances or medical centres, and forced the closure of five hospitals, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health."

In my second piece for the @chicagoreader.com this week, I wrote about Radu Jude's Kontinental '25. It might just be the quintessential movie of the moment and it's playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center this weekend, Monday (the 6th), and Thursday (the 9th). chicagoreader.com/film-tv/movi...

"So, the question, to my mind, is: How can we adjust the rules of our society to recognize that there are things we value that are not necessarily profitable but matter and that we can actually afford?" - @gabrielwinant.bsky.social chicagoreader.com/news/politic...

With a new hospital set to rise from the former foundries of the US Steel South Works plant, I spoke with writer & labor historian Gabriel Winant about his book, The Next Shift, & the future of healthcare for @chicagoreader.com. chicagoreader.com/news/politic...

new: officials say a hospital planned for the quantum computing campus will bring new jobs + expand care. but in a q&a with historian gabriel winant, @joeengleman.bsky.social looks to pittsburgh to explore whether the hospital is really a symptom of, rather than a treatment for, economic decline.

CHICAGO! Left Media Under a Hostile Regime Join @sunraysunray.bsky.social, @bloomekatz.bsky.social, @mayaschenwar.bsky.social, and Damon Williams & Daniel Kisslinger for this discussion. Live from @haymarkethouse.bsky.social Tues, April 7 at 7 PM CT RSVP:

Desperately need Loop to tell anyone and everyone that they don't need to bag their recyclables

“Trans people in prison are experts on organizing under conditions of extreme censorship, surveillance, and repression." --Pooja Gehi of @arcgenderjustice.bsky.social (in a crucial piece by Gabriel Arkles) truthout.org/articles/tra...

I briefly mentioned that tour in this story

Halloween weekend last year, Good Flying Birds (Indy), TV Buddha (Chi), and Parking (Louisville) did a brief tour as the Velvet Underground. Hallogallo Tapes put out a live recording of the collaboration, now on YouTube

Project 2052, the new literary journal from @genderhorizon.com @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social & @commonnotions.bsky.social, is wrapping up their launch week this evening with a reading, fundraiser, and party at @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social tonight withfriends.co/event/276791...

I seem to recall reading somewhere (I think *on here*) before the city destroyed the Gompers Park encampment that the people pushing for the demolition had a publicist/PR person working with them. Did that get reported in an outlet anywhere or did that come about from FB screenshots or emails?

If the federal government did this, the nation’s transportation funding backlog—already expected to be $436 billion (!!!) over the next decade www.urban.org/urban-wire/c... —will get even worse.

And new episodes are coming soon, I swear!!

It was my profound joy to go long on Michael Mann's THIEF for @chicagpodfilm.bsky.social. 🎧 Listen for my takes on the film, capitalism, Chicago (greatest city in da world), Mann, and somehow also David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, & Jim Belushi. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

Marya and Robert are almost close to the finish line. Help them cross it, especially if you are a cat lover. Come on, look at that kitty... ain't she a cute one?

you are loved, and we will win

Has anyone had the experience of trying to speak and/or reason with a neighbor living across the hall who decided to install a Ring camera on their interior entrance door that can see inside your apartment any time you open the door?

Tapping the sign on this Q&A I did a few years ago again because the billionaire, future owner apparent of the White Sox appears to be buying a massive amount of South Loop real estate per Crains

Thanks to the Reader for including us in this cool write up of a very cool project. Read the article and then check out the Chicago launch event with our pals at @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social chicagoreader.com/books/lit-fe...

Love to be quoted alongside our buds at @skunkcabbagebooks.bsky.social about the new project based on the legendary EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE by M.E. O’Brien and @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social. Don’t miss the launch at PCB on 3/28!

I wrote about this. The TLDR is: the Left has a decades-long abuse problem and without pushing for and achieving a true intersectional movement, this type of shit is going to continue. Let's figure this shit out, for Pete's sake

🕯️As Daniella & I light our Scent Queens Miguel candle🕯️ State Representative Miguel Alvelo Rivera has a pretty good ring to it

I'm very fortunate to know Miguel. Miguel is about as kind, thoughtful, & creative a person as you could find running for public office. He's dedicated to protecting our most vulnerable community members, day laborers, fully funding transit, & so much more.