Bizarre sign at the eastbound #55 bus stop at the Red Line:

6,900 DOOMS DAY C.T.A STRIKE !

Free copy of our latest issue to anyone with a plausible guess for what this means.

This week’s issue of the Chicago Weekly includes a Perspectives piece by University of Chicago alum Ryan McCarl about an attack on the UofC Men’s Cross Country team that left one student permanently injured. At press time we still didn’t have all the details on the attack, but since then we’ve found out the whole story.

Two weeks ago, on Friday, October 15, 15 members of the Men’s Cross Country team were running west along Garfield Boulevard, a route they’ve often run before. At about 3:50, when they reached Garfield and State, an eastbound green Buick sedan drove by and opened fire with paintballs. Second-year Andrew Wong turned to look at the car and was struck on the bridge of his nose by a paintball, which ricocheted into his right eye. His cornea was scratched and his iris was partially (and permanently) detached, allowing bright light into his inner eye. Wong went to the ER that night and has seen an ophthalmologist several times since then. Read the rest of this entry »

The 11th annual World Music Festival: Chicago starts today and continues through September 24. Over the next week, 57 artists will perform at 21 venues across the city. Only 3 performances take place on the South Side, but they all look like winners:

• Irish folk singer Cara Dillon has been performing since she was 14, both solo and in folk bands. She’s currently touring in support of her fourth album, which was released in the U.S. on Tuesday. Dillon performs tonight, September 18, at 8pm at the World Music Company, 1808 W. 103rd St. $15.
• The Orchestra of Tétouan plays “Andalusian music,” a North African style that uses lutes, rebabs, zithers, goblet drums, and other instruments with fun names. They perform on Sunday, September 20 at 8pm at the University of Chicago’s International House, 1414 E. 59th St. $10, or $5 with student ID.
• Tambours sans Frontières is a Congolese group based around three drummers, two of whom play the senga n’goma. Formed in Brazzaville in 2000, they later moved to Mali, Senegal, and most recently Chicago. On September 23 at 6:30pm, the group brings its intricate, repetitive rhythms to the Washington Park fieldhouse, 5500 S. King Dr. Free.