How to prepare for another busy Chicago weekend

The possibilities are endless! [READER]( The Daily Reader July 26, 2023 I woke up at 7 AM on Saturday to prepare to play pickup basketball before my second full day attending a music festival. This might have been something I could do with ease before the pandemic, or before my 30s, but as I write this now, I feel a little bit hobbled from my attempts to have it all in a single weekend. I realize I’ve written about how often my summertime dreams suffer from head-on collisions with my everyday realities frequently in this newsletter, and perhaps that’s because this has been the first year since 2019 that I’ve gone out of my way to reclaim the season as I once knew it, as a time of endless possibilities that make the very nature of living in this city a thrill. I’m lucky that my job responsibilities force me to keep tabs on all the events that are sure to spike my adrenaline—and make the prospect of running around for three days straight on very little sleep and a slice of $8 pizza actually achievable. And there’s a lot more happening this weekend. The final Silver Room Block Party kicks off Saturday at Oakwood Beach ([I wrote about it for the new issue]( Wicker Park Fest starts Friday night (I’m particularly curious about Philly punks [Poison Ruin]( who perform Sunday); and before any of that kicks off, the 51st Fiesta del Sol begins on Thursday in Pilsen (notably, its house-music stage, [House of Sol, will not be a part of this year’s festivities](. If I really wanted to try to have it all, I’d attempt a trip to Whiting, Indiana, since [Smash Mouth]( is headlining this year’s Pierogi Festival on Saturday, but I only have so many hours in the day. As tiring as the prospect of holding onto all these fests and dreams can be, I find myself ready to tackle another busy weekend. Now I just have to make sure my editors are OK with me sleeping through the next couple days in order to do just that . . . Sincerely, [“The world has turned and left me here,”]( by Luke O’Neil (Welcome to Hell World) [“In the Early ’80s, A Series of Crass-Curated Comps Set the Tone for DIY Punk,”]( by Louis Pattison (Bandcamp Daily) “‘[Boom (Mouskatool),’ and how Black and queer women are leading the next generation of drill in Chicago,”]( by Mark Braboy (The TRiiBE) Agriculture, [Agriculture]( Anglophobe, [Dept. of Stairs]( Trhä, [lhum'ad'sejja]( 👋 Leor’s “[Bye, July 2023]( playlist [The Silver Room Block Party says farewell]( by [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Peter Brown is an A+ argument against dissing disco]( A genius making dance music is still a genius, and this polymath capped a string of his own hits by cowriting “Material Girl” for Madonna. by [Steve Krakow]( | [Read more]( → [Galaxy Francis leans into community to reinvent himself]( “When I realized that I could create with other people,” says the rapper formerly known as L.A. VanGogh, “I realized how much of a gift I had . . . that I owed to the people around me.” by [Alejandro Hernandez]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago percussionist and composer Sam Scranton merges introspection and jittery energy on Body Pillow]( by [Levi Dayan]( | [Read more]( → Reader July Giveaway Enter for a chance to win a Summer Reading Bundle with hard copies of the Best of Leor Galil and Ben Joravsky's Greatest Hits in a tote bag! Entries will be accepted until July 31 at 11:59 PM, and one winner will be chosen on August 1. [ENTER THE JULY GIVEAWAY]( [Issue of July 13 – 26, 2023 Vol. 52, No. 20]( [VIEW / DOWNLOAD ISSUE [PDF]]( [View this e-mail as a web page]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2023 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616