AFRICAN/CARIBBEAN international FESTIVAL OF LIFE 7/3-6, WASHINGTON PARK Much more than a music festival, this annual event is a sort of giant block party, with food, arts and crafts, workshops, activities for children, and plenty of networking and leafleting. The musical lineup is wildly diverse–there just aren’t many places to see South African reggae artist Lucky Dube rub shoulders with American soul legends like the Chi-Lites and the Manhattans. Percy Sledge brings the dusties resume, Sister Carol the spiritual fire, and Third World the reggae history....

The 51 veterans who’d boarded a bus outside the Lakeside VA Medical Center at 4:30 in the afternoon on the Wednesday before Memorial Day had arrived in Washington late the following morning, gotten lost, missed breakfast at the Senate, missed their rally in Upper Senate Park, and were now sitting in a hearing room at the Cannon House Office Building grumbling at Congressman Luis Gutierrez, just as they’d done a half dozen times in Chicago....

It’s New Year’s Eve, the windchill is near zero, and I’m home–alone–painting. They’re expecting 10,000 people for a party at Navy Pier. At midnight, I’ll be able to see the fireworks from my windows, but I’m spending the last few hours of the old year putting a coat of black enamel on the windowsill in my apartment: an apartment that will have been gutted and remodeled and rented to strangers long before the next New Year’s party begins....

I’ve heard that Andrew Jackson did quite a number on the Cherokee, forcing them to relocate from as far as Georgia to what is now Oklahoma. Some have even accused Old Hickory of genocide, citing the thousands of Cherokee who died on the “Trail of Tears.” What I want to know is, how does Jackson rank among practitioners of genocide? Does he even make the all-time top-ten list? I figure he has to come in way behind Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, the Turkish triumvirate Talat, Enver, and Cemal (who orchestrated the Armenian genocide), and the recent Hutu leaders in Rwanda....

Rock, Pop, Etc. ANDREW BIRD, SHU SHUBAT, JELLYEYE DRUM THEATRE Sat 4/5, 7:30 PM, Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln. 773-728-6000. DEF LEPPARD Fri 3/28, 7:30 PM, UIC Pavilion, 1150 W. Harrison. 312-413-5740 or 312-559-1212. GUSTER, BLUE MERLE All-ages. Sat 3/29, 7:30 PM, Riviera Theatre, 4746 N. Racine. 773-275-6800 or 312-559-1212. ROBERT HUNTER All-ages. Wed 4/2 and Thu 4/3, 7:30 PM, Park West, 322 W. Armitage. 773-929-5959 or 312-559-1212....

Rock, Pop, etc. CHICAGO MUSIC AWARDS 22nd annual awards ceremony with performances by Von Freeman, Eddy Clearwater, Bandoleros, Vi3, Carl Wright, FZ4, Strong, Gizze, Masque, and others. Sat 2/8, 8 PM (with reception at 7 PM), Renaissance Chicago Hotel, 1 W. Wacker. 312-427-0266 or 312-559-1212. FUNKADESI Sat 2/8, 4 PM (children’s concert) and 7 PM (all-ages), Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln. 773-728-6000. INDIGO GIRLS, NEKO CASE Sold out....

Two French brothers who call themselves Y. and R. started the Ultra Milkmaids with a friend in 1993 as an abrasive, noisy rock trio inspired by Helmet and various acts on the Earache label. But by the mid-90s, enthralled by Coil, they’d morphed into an ambient industrial outfit. Fortunately, although their output in the last few years still reveals obvious points of reference (in particular Oval), they no longer sound like they’re leeching their aesthetic wholesale from one source after another....

Since the mid-90s guitarist Vance Kelly has been affiliated with Wolf, an Austrian label known as much for its seat-of-the-pants production values as its dedication to showcasing unheralded blues talent. Although critically well received, Kelly’s output for Wolf has never shown the breadth of his musical range or the emotional heat he’s capable of generating; his latest, Live at Lee’s Unleaded Blues, recorded at the fabled south-side nightclub in 1999, doesn’t do him justice either, but it’s a step in the right direction....

Jang Mo Nim Restaurant Hae Mool Pa Jun (squid-and-scallion pancake) 3,4 $14.95 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Mother and daughter Sun Pak and Sue Hyun have run this Korean dining room for 14 years, Pak cooking with a passion and the personable Hyun expediting service. Each order is accompanied by a vast selection of panchan, small plates of pickled vegetables and other savory nibbles....

From the outside, the Fire Arts Center is an unassuming place. It’s located on the second floor of a homely factory building on Honore just north of Berteau, on a stretch of road squeezed between the Metra’s Northern line and the el tracks. The center’s main entrance is through the loading dock. could do their work,” says Hawkins. “We had a trash can with K-wool we used for a furnace. Real basic....

On Califone’s excellent new album, Quicksand/Cradlesnakes (Thrill Jockey), singer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Rutili once again demonstrates a deep understanding of the simple elegance of American folk music; he writes tender, homey blues-soaked songs that sound shopworn yet thoroughly contemporary. His small, bittersweet croak is sewn inextricably into the music–an ever-changing fabric of dried-out string sounds (banjo, guitar, cello, fiddle, and mandolin), rickety percussion, amp buzz, feedback, and spare electronics. The band has always been fond of unruly improvisation, but now the communication between Rutili and stringed-instrument whiz Jim Becker seems downright telepathic, as do the kit- and hand-percussion creations of Ben Massarella and Joe Adamik....

The fifth edition of this annual celebration of the art of improvisational comedy brings together more than 1,000 performers from around the U.S. and abroad. (Chicago artists, of course, are heavily represented.) This year’s festival, the largest yet, is divided into several series–Mainstage, Showcase, Sketch, Solo, Duo, and Fringe–as well as an all-night improv session, an adult-oriented “Blue” show, a series of daytime Lunchbreak performances (presented in conjunction with the city’s cultural affairs department), and numerous special events, including forums and workshops....

The Chicago Symphony Chamber Players are a small, flexible group anchored by violinist Samuel Magad, who’s still going strong after 30 years as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Despite their shifting lineup (though they sometimes number a dozen or more, for this weekend’s performance they’ve pared down to five), the Chamber Players rarely waver from the level of commitment and quality one expects from CSO veterans. From time to time it’s possible to tell they haven’t squeezed enough rehearsal time into their hectic schedules–it’s one thing to play together in a full symphony, and quite another to be required to respond to one’s fellow musicians at close quarters, without the benefit of a conductor....

You can always tell the improvisers who’ve worked at ComedySportz. They’re the ones who go for a laugh even if it violates the rules of the game they’re playing. They never become so involved in the art or the process that they forget they’re in front of an audience eager to be entertained. Improv purists tend to put ComedySportz at the bottom of the food chain. On the other hand, audiences–especially rowdy, slightly drunk audiences out for a good time–really get revved up by ComedySportz shows, in which makeshift improv teams square off, each hoping to score the most points....

Here are some basic facts about adopting: If filling out yearly tax returns is enough to give you a headache or drive you to drink, don’t even try. Any 15-year-old can get knocked up and keep her kid, but you will have to be fingerprinted, get appropriate scores on personality tests, and discuss your marital and sexual life with strangers before you will be granted the permission to raise one. If your dog barks at the social worker, you may be doomed....

FAMILY TREE Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Since its inception in the late 90s, the Chicago hip-hop collective called the Family Tree has been dominated by All Natural, the duo of MC Capital D and DJ Tone B. Nimble. They’ve released a pair of acclaimed albums; last year’s excellent Second Nature, on the rock-oriented Thrill Jockey label, helped them reach beyond the hip-hop underground....

If reedist Ken Vandermark doesn’t perform here as often as he did a decade ago, it’s because his seminal involvement in Chicago’s free jazz scene has earned him playing opportunities all over the world. Vandermark came to prominence by enlisting a dynamic coterie of local musicians in a wide variety of stylistically distinct projects, including the Vandermark 5, Caffeine, and Steam. He’s still designing unique projects around specific musical mandates, but lately his collaborators have mostly been Scandinavians....

The Dutch jazz scene, known for its disruptive improvisers and able young beboppers, is also a melting pot for third-world rhythms. In immigrant communities like Amsterdam’s Bijlmer, musicians from Curacao, Suriname, and West and South Africa, among other spots, come together to jam. Most of the seven members of Fra Fra Sound–including the band’s founder, electric bassist Vincent Henar–hail from Suriname, a former Dutch colony on South America’s northern hump whose cultural mix of Native American and African strains (and rhythms) was later inflected by 19th-century waves of immigrants from northern India and Indonesia....

How to Act, Wholesale/Chicago, at the Lunar Cabaret, through August 3. This high-concept performance piece almost defies description, which I think means it’s a success. You might call Jim Strahs’s non sequitur-sprinkled free-associative script a hybrid parody of overintense acting classes and one-man shows, as one mad teacher delivers a runaway “instructional” monologue. The evening’s best moments, however, are arresting bits of genuine artistry, especially a few songs that masterfully alloy mock and dead serious....

Dear editor: Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Nonetheless, Studs’s assertion that he is among the “voices in the Jewish community” who love the Tribune’s coverage of Israel left me gasping. To my recollection (and I am something of a codger too), Studs has not publicly endorsed any concern of the Jewish community since the demise of Hitler. This is, of course, his unfettered right, but one may ask Studs: Where were you, sir, when Israel was besieged in 1967 or when Soviet Jewry sought freedom or today, when anti-Semitism is rampant in Europe and on many American college campuses?...