The Five
If “free jazz” sounds more like an activist’s cry than a music genre, check out the third annual Umbrella Music Festival. Here are our five picks.
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That’s the Ticket: Election-Night Parties and Specials
Move over, Black Wednesday. By our estimation, Tuesday, November 4th is shaping up to be the biggest party night of the year. Even if you didn’t score a ticket to the official Obama rally in Grant Park, there are plenty of places to party with the politicos, no matter whom you vote for. Whether you end up celebrating a win or licking your wounds, you’ll want company. Get it, along with a multitude of drink specials, at these local bars—and keep reading for a quick Halloween heads-up. . .
Hope Eternal
Mavis Staples, the voice of the civil rights era, is putting out a blistering new album on election day.
Raising the Roof
A critic’s pick for some post-Thanksgiving Day fun
Gag Order
Need a laugh? Check out these 12 fresh comic talents—the best of the scene right now
Pity Parties: Drink Deals for Every Day of the Week
The economy’s in the toilet. Your mutual funds are tanking. And you can’t sell your condo because the real-estate market has crashed. But just because we’re in a tailspin doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. Bars all over town are offering bailout plans of the drink-deal kind. Our day-by-day guide…
The Annotated: Barbatuques
Performers in this true body band use themselves as instruments.
Buddha Envy
You know how they say everything’s big in Texas? Mofos ain’t never been to Thailand.
New York never sleeps? Bangkokers make Manhattanites look like my grandmother after an afternoon mahjong game.
This city is bigger and hotter and more crowded than everywhere else combined, and the throngs of humanity everywhere make virtually every moment claustrophobic. Half the people seem to be street performers, which in Bangkok leans to legless men paddling around on skateboards singing into a microphone…
Critical Mass
Noteworthy new releases in September 2008
Rock of Ages
Boomers meet creaky rockers at a summer fantasy camp