Things to Watch

TV

Kyle Kinane: Loose in Chicago
Brazen, brash, and beloved by Chicagoans, the Addison native returns with his TV special filmed at Metro. Amazon, Google Play, iTunes

Hairspray Live!
Englewood emigrant Jennifer Hudson revisits the form that made her famous—singing on TV—as Motormouth Maybelle in NBC’s live Hairspray reboot. December 7, NBC

The Interview Show
Mark Bazer’s longtime talk show in a bar hits WTTW for a second season of homey, free-flowing Q&A sessions. Guests include David Duchovny and Renée Fleming. Fridays starting January 6, WTTW

Patriot
“Like Daniel Craig’s James Bond meets Broadway’s Once,” the Observer wrote of the Chicago-filmed pilot of local screenwriter Steve Conrad’s series about a folk-singing war vet with a brother in the Senate and a dad in the CIA. February, Amazon

Film

Barry
If Southside with You didn’t quench your Obama nostalgia, this Netflix original about POTUS’s junior year at Columbia University should do the trick. December 16, Netflix

Things to Read

Fiction

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
Kathleen Rooney
The latest from literary star Rooney follows a twilit Manhattan stroll by an octogenarian character inspired by the real-life 1930s poet and ad woman Margaret Fishback. January 17, St. Martin’s Press

Windy City Blues
Renée Rosen
The arrival of Mississippi Delta blues in Chicago underlies this historical novel, which focuses on an unlikely romance between an Orthodox Jew and a black guitarist at the iconic Chess Records. February 28, Berkley

Nonfiction

Out of the Basement: From Cheap Trick to DIY Punk in Rockford, Illinois, 1973–2005
David A. Ensminger
A local music historian revisits the postindustrial city’s improbable underground scene and the mainstream rock that rose from it. February 7, Microcosm

Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto
Jessa Crispin
The onetime Chicagoan and editor of the late literary blog Bookslut explains her estrangement from the feminist movement, which she sees as suffering from obliviousness, irrelevance, and cowardice. February 21, Melville House

Play

Smokefall
Noah Haidle
Page through the script of this poignant family drama, which premiered to plaudits at the Goodman in 2014. January 24, Overlook Press

Things to Listen To

Music

Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl
The Champaign-born record label Polyvinyl celebrates two decades of indie-rock bootstrapping by commissioning 20 of its artists (including the Chicago acts Braid and Owen) to cover one another’s songs. November 25, polyvinylrecords.com

Blue & Lonesome
The Rolling Stones
The Stones dig into Chicago blues—the genre that first inspired them—on this cover album. December 2, Interscope

Terrible Human Beings
The Orwells
The barely legal and seriously rowdy Elmhurst garage rockers return with a third album that could be their ticket to the mainstream. February 17, Canvasback Music

Offers
Ne-Hi
Called “all of Chicago’s new favorite band” by the Tribune, the four-piece psychedelic upstart group gets even trippier on its second album. February 24, Grand Jury

Radio

“Working” Then and Now
NPR recently aired this riveting series of interviews Studs Terkel conducted for his 1974 book Working. Among the 10 subjects: a Chicago cop, a jockey, a hotel piano player, and a gravedigger, all now available to stream online. npr.org