Friday is here. The Blackhawks won. It's only snowed once so far. As you plan out how to spend your weekend, here are five cultural tidbits and goings-on worth keeping on your radar. May you be always entertained.
See: Mick Jenkins and Saba at the Portage Theater
These local emcees and frequent collaborators both released flooring sophomore mix tapes this year—The Water[s] from Jenkins and ComfortZone from Saba—and the former is poised for a national breakout. Saturday's going to be beautiful; spend it in Portage Park and check out the show. 8 p.m. Portage Theater, 4050 N. Milwaukee. $10.
Listen: Hieroglyphic Being's new album
Now that the concert season is over, stay inside and listen to local sound artist Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) who released his new and highly weird album The Seer of Cosmic Visions on Tuesday. The thing sounds like cabin fever feels. Stream a track below, read Chicago's May bio of Moss here, and check out the whole album on SoundCloud.
Read: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize–winning opus is the focal point of this year's One Book, One Chicago, which is more or less an extended, city-sanctioned book club. OBOC kicked off last night at Harold Washington Library with a visit from Chabon himself, but there are tons of lectures, screenings, and discussions about the book through Spring 2015. Check out the listings here; there are even a few this weekend.
See: 100 screenings at the Chicago International Film Festival
The Chicago International Film Festival has officially begun, which means there's pretty much zero excuse for boredom until October 24. There are roughly 100 screenings running today through Sunday at the AMC River East, and two of them (Why Be Good? and Words With Gods) come recommended by programming director Mimi Plauché. Use CIFF's downloadable schedule to see what's playing when (page 47), and read the rest of Plauché's favorites here.
Listen: WBEZ's Serial podcast
New from WBEZ Chicago and This American Life is Serial: the True Detective of podcasts. The gist of Serial is rather than telling several stories over the course of an episode like on This American Life, host Sarah Koenig reports one long story over the course of a 10ish-episode season, like a nonfiction radio drama. Season one rehashes the mysterious 1999 murder of a Baltimore County honor student. The first two episodes premiered last Friday, and the third went live yesterday. Stream episode one below, and good luck not binging on the next two at serialpodcast.org after that.