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Local rapper Apoc (born Patrick Felsenthal) of hip-hop duo the Ritz has an interest in film noir that borders on obsession. “I have over 200 of them in my collection,” says the MC, who attended a year of film school at Columbia College and routinely works at the Telluride and Sundance film festivals. “I’m drawn to them because there are no heroes. Nobody’s totally clean. Everybody has some dirt in their past.”

These seedier elements inform the recently released “The Night of Day,” an album awash in drugs, booze and women. “All things I do well,” jokes the rapper. Buoyed by dark, evocative beats courtesy of producer/bandmate Rel (Rory Miura), a certified black belt (his father is renowned karate instructor Miyuki Miura) with a knack for constructing club bangers, the album also makes smart use of vocal samples, drawing on classic film noirs like “The Big Sleep” and “Out of the Past.”

Despite the inherent strength of the music, there were moments when the MC wondered if the record would ever surface. Though recording was completed in late 2006, the album was caught in purgatory when a label deal fell through at the last minute. “We considered just releasing it digitally,” says Apoc, recounting the brainstorming session that followed the deal’s collapse. “But we never talked about shelving it. Once the label thing folded we decided we could do it ourselves better.”

In the interim, Apoc kept himself busy recording; the rapper says he has five full albums at or near completion.

Even though Apoc began composing his own songs at 13, it wasn’t until he was a freshman at York Community High School that he first rapped in front of a crowd, trading freestyles with friends in the school cafeteria. In those earlier days, the MC garnered frequent comparisons to the likes of Slug and Atmosphere—a trend he didn’t necessarily embrace. “At first I was like, ‘I’m my own [rapper]. I can’t hear it.’ But I see it now. It was derivative,” says the rapper. “That really pushed me to over-saturate myself with music. Now I’m more comfortable. I know the direction I want to go in.”

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Ready to drop the d-bomb? It’s possible the athletes have defected, and it wouldn’t be the first time Ugandan athletes fled their teams during international competition. Plus Avagyan’s family didn’t seem worried when police contacted them, which indicates to authorities that Avagyan is A-OK.

The picture above is from one of this week’s bouts, and if that looks like a good time to you, there’s still plenty of fights to be had. We tend to be less about punching, more about Chicago history, so we’ll settle for a surprisingly absorbing chronicle of the history of boxing in the Windy City.

Chicagoist: Three Boxers Missing

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For Eddie Kurland’s girlfriend, exactly what happened on the night he was fatally shot in their Logan Square apartment is a blur.

She recalls seeing two men–one frighteningly clearly–as she was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. She screamed, and Kurland came running down the hall. A gun was fired.

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“That’s all I remember,” said the woman, a 27-year-old student who is not being named because she is a witness to the August slaying. “I didn’t see anything until they were gone and he was on the ground.”

Within an hour, Kurland, 27, was dead.

Though a motive wasn’t immediately clear, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office says Kurland’s shooting was essentially horrible luck. Armond Williams, 18, and Darius McDonald, 22, were trying to rob another apartment in the three-story brick building, Assistant State’s Atty. LuAnn Snow said.

“They just entered the wrong apartment,” Snow said. “They weren’t aiming for them.”

Arrested in early September, Williams was indicted Friday on charges of first-degree murder, attempted armed robbery and home invasion. Williams, who is accused of firing the shot, has been linked to the scene by fingerprints and has been identified by the girlfriend, Snow said.

McDonald is scheduled to appear in court this week. Prosecutors say the attempted robbery was his idea.

A day after the shooting, Kurland’s girlfriend moved back to her parents’ home in the suburbs. She breaks down when recalling the early hours of Aug. 25.

“I know it was a freak thing because of the circumstances,” she said. “But it makes me really angry. I don’t understand why something like this would happen to us. We’re nice people; we keep to ourselves and have no money.”

The couple had been chatting on their back porch in the 2500 block of North California Avenue until about 2:30 a.m., when they decided it was time for bed, she said.

Minutes later, she saw movement behind a translucent curtain that hung between two rooms in the apartment. After she screamed, Kurland ran down the hall to see what was happening. The shot was fired almost immediately.

Williams and McDonald had entered through the unlocked door to the back porch, the girlfriend and prosecutors said. The couple had always checked their locks before bed but hadn’t yet done it that night, the woman said.

“I don’t understand why they didn’t just turn and run when I screamed,” she said. “They had the chance to.”

The neighborhood quickly banded together to decry the violence. Aldermen and residents marched, a nearby church offered counseling and Kurland’s landlord replaced locks and installed security cameras.

Once plagued with crime, prostitution and drug sales, Logan Square has largely replaced those scourges with upscale restaurants and rising property values. Neighbors said they were nervous for two weeks after the shooting, but since then, not a lot has changed.

“I still feel safe,” said Samantha Cummings, 18, a freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago who lives in the building where Kurland was shot. “I still stay out as late. I’m just a little more careful about locking my door.”

Kurland’s girlfriend said she, too, had felt comfortable in the middle of Logan Square. With so many storefront businesses, like the Italian restaurant and Starbucks below their apartment, things always seemed so bustling.

“We would walk the dogs a lot, and you would always see the same people out,” she said. “Everyone seemed so friendly there. It felt safe.”

Friends said Kurland was a versatile musician who loved animals and didn’t eat meat. He managed a Northwest Side Radio Shack and recorded his own songs in his free time. For Christmas 2004, he distributed a disc of his material to friends and family.

Working on a second bachelor’s degree, Kurland’s girlfriend had planned to take a few classes this semester but has scaled back to just one. She works from home as much as possible and sees friends–who are also Kurland’s friends–on weekends.

Her appetite is finally starting to return.

“You can’t describe it,” she said. “I can only do a few things a day. And then I’m just mentally and physically exhausted.”