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In the Year 2011...(Part Two)

By aaroncynic in Miscellaneous on Dec 30, 2010 8:00PM

If you haven't already, check out our first set of predictions for next year!

Tony Peregrin:

  • Thanks to the repeal of DADT, plenty of military-themed Pride parties!

  • Thanks to the passage of the Civil Unions bill here in Illinois, an up-tick in gay commitment ceremonies.

  • The alternative queer-party scene will continue to thrive in 2011, most notably Queer Social Club (Archie's Iowa and Rockwell Tavern) and Northern Lights (Parlour bar), and Moosebox, now held at Hydrate as a result of Wild Pug's demise.

  • The debut of the 2011 Market Days Classic: The Chicago Gay Hockey Association will have it's first hockey tournament over Market Days Weekend.

  • Continued focus on anti-gay bullying. The Center on Halsted is working with the city of Chicago to help create a curriculum to address harassment in schools.
  • A renewed focus on gay and lesbian elders in Chicago: The Center on Halsted is also developing a new HIV/AIDS prevention initiative targeted and gay and lesbian seniors.

  • John DiGilio: Chicago is going to become a lot more "social" in 2011. With the successful launch of social dining experience Grubwithus and the newly expanding social cocktail club Speakeasy, the way Chicagoans dine and drink is taking on a new dimension. People are trying new restaurants and discovering new drink in ways that allow them to make new friends without the intimidation that is so often found in the social scene generally. This is not only good for new Chicagoans or old ones looking for new friends, but also city eating and drinking venues that are looking to attract new audiences.

    Also, we'll see the rise and fall of the Gourmet Sandwich We all love a good sandwich. Hell, I am vegetarian and I love the idea of a fast and easy meal jammed between two slices of bread.  But do I really want to stand in a long line and pay beaucoup bucks for something that is considered so far from haute cuisine? Apparently, right now, some folks do. The lines at places like Grahamwich and Which Wich indicate a sudden success for these upscale sandwich purveyors. But it this success sustainable? In a city where Potbelly serves up tasty subs that are bigger, cheaper, and more quickly made, I cannot imagine this disturbing trend lasting more than a year or two.

    Michele Lenni: My Top Ten Most Anticipated Records:

    1. Aphex Twin - TBA
    2. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
    3. Kisses - TBA
    4. James Blake - ST
    5. Lykke Li - Wounded Rhythms
    6. M83 - TBA
    7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - TBA
    8. Toro Y Moi - Underneath the Pine
    9. Kanye West & Jay Z - Watch the Throne
    10. The Strokes - TBA

    Jon Graef: Nachtmystium, the veteran local black metal outfit who in 2010 put out the superb Addicts: Black Meddle Part II, storm the castle of commercial rock radio and behead the hideous Medusa that is post-grunge. Now there’s a question that’s undoubtedly been raised in the mind’s of listeners: What’s the likelihood of radio playing Nachtmystium? Admittedly, it’s very small. But for extreme as Addicts can be - an album that starts with its singer rasping out each letter in the phrase “nothing hurts more than being born” has a long way to go toward accessibility - it’s also filled with more hooks than Andrew Robinson at the end of Hellraiser.

    Like Fucked Up’s The Chemistry of Common Life, Addicts: Black Meddle Part II both asserts and usurps conventions for a musical genre known for its inherent inaccessibility by emphasizing melody and adding surprising electronic and psychedelic touches. (Hardcore in the case of Fucked Up, and black metal for Nachtmystium). Exhibits A and B: “Nightfall” boosts a minor-key boogie and stop-and-start guitars that wouldn’t be out of place on a Queens Of A Stone Age album, while “No Funeral” --- a song I listened to 11 times in a row yesterday -- moves with a devastating disco-industrial synth-groove and a pummeling drumbeat. With Common Life, Fucked Up solidified an already-building reputation with the critical media. Addicts has definitely gotten Nachtmystium critical notice, especially in the metal community, but it would take a Christmas miracle before the band would grace the stage of Pitchfork like Mastodon did. I guess that’s the way the metal cookie dissolves into bitter nothingness. Still, wouldn’t it be great to turn the dial and hear “No Funeral” on the radio? A man can dream, can he? If Slipknot can make it, why not Nachtmystium?