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RIP Lee Sandlin, longtime Reader writer
Like Walt Whitman, whom he resembled in beard and girth, Lee Sandlin was immense. He inhaled the world, and exhaled in language he was prickly in defending against editors, word by word.…[ Read more ][...
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Aaron Kromer did what the press wants from a source, but was that the right...
Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer dissed quarterback Jay Cutler to the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, then later apologized to the team. The Tribune's Brad Briggs broke the story, comment...
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Yes, Marz Community Brewing aged a mushroom stout in soy-sauce barrels, and I...
In September, when I wrote about the launch of Marz Community Brewing, I included this aside: "They're developing a frankly insane-sounding 'umami' stout with Against the Grain in Louisville—it'll...
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Chef Kevin Hickey discusses the Duck Inn's roots in Bridgeport
The Duck Inn, a tavern and restaurant in Bridgeport that opened last week, is the latest place from Rockit Ranch, the restaurant and bar group led by TV personality and symbol-of-the-party-lifestyle...
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Best Films of 2014, number ten: Cheap Thrills
Our big year-in-review issue hits the street on Thursday, December 24. I know you can't wait, and neither can I, so every weekday until then I'll be writing about one of my favorite films to premiere...
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In Bare-Knuckled Lit, Write Club's greatest hits pack a wallop
Write Club's greatest hits pack a wallop in the new essay collection Bare-Knuckled Lit. by Janet Potter Descriptions of Write Club tend to focus on the raucous atmosphere of the live-lit series. The...
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Behold the cheese chicharron at West Town's El Metro
Did you know there's a breed of magic pig in Mexico that's made out of cheese? When you fry the skin you get cheese cracklings or, as they say in Español, "chicharrones de queso."…[ Read more ][...
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The Auditorium Theatre: From wonder of the world to bowling alley and back
As Roosevelt University reduces its suburban campus, one of its prize assets celebrates 125 years. by Deanna Isaacs The Auditorium Theatre threw itself a 125th birthday party last week, on its own...
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Lee Sandlin, scourge of the small screen
You may already have read about the death of Lee Sandlin, one of the best writers the Reader ever published; Michael Miner wrote a lovely piece about him yesterday, with links to some of the epic...
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Chef Kevin Hickey on making haute bar food at the Duck Inn
One of the things that was most striking about a preview event a couple of weeks ago at Kevin Hickey's the Duck Inn in Bridgeport was simply that everyone wasn't 28 years old. That's rare for preview...
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Did you read about Jackie Robinson West, the National Spelling Bee, and...
Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.Hey, did you read:• That Jackie Robinson West is being accused of pulling kids from the suburbs to assemble a superteam?…[ Read more...
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Farben Presents James DIN A4: The most overlooked electronic-music LP of 2014
Berlin musician Jan Jelinek has been making music under various guises for almost 20 years. Early on (meaning the late 90s and early 00s), Jelinek was primarily known for being one of the pioneers of...
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Preeminent children's folk musician Ella Jenkins reveals another talent
For our People issue, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ella Jenkins, the legendary children's folk musician who turned 90 in August. When I looked through old news stories to prepare for the...
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Best Films of 2014, number nine: Everyday
Our big year-in-review issue hits the street on Thursday, December 25. I know you can't wait, and neither can I, so every weekday until then I'll be writing about one of my favorite films to premiere...
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The last hour of The Newsroom is beyond criticism
My wife and I are faithful viewers of The Affair, the Showtime miniseries that wraps up this Sunday, but there hasn't been a moment of it that we'd call romantic. "It's too full of anxiety and guilt,"...
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While the city sleeps on Thanksgiving Day, lonely souls rule the neighborhood...
Every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas, the City of Chicago celebrates what I like to call antiholidays—with most businesses closed and few cars on the streets, the town seems to be shunning its own...
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Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt's six-decade career gets two concurrent exhibits
Shows at the MCA and Cultural Center look back on 60 years of Richard Hunt’s transformations of industrial metal into art. by Aimee Levitt When the sculptor Richard Hunt was still a student at the...
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Steppenwolf's Airline Highway goes for a big lesson in the Big Easy
But Lisa D'Amour's Broadway-bound drama unwittingly grounds itself. by Justin Hayford In the contemporary New Orleans of Lisa D'Amour's new drama Airline Highway, given an alternately stagnant and...
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How investment bankers told Rahm that class size matters
Mayor Emanuel's deal to fund preschool may give away too much money, but at least it shows what's needed to help poor kids. by Ben Joravsky Several readers have written to complain that I have a bias...
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Did Hanukkah hip-hop peak with 'Dreidel Rap '89'?
Jews and rap go way back together, but holiday songs usually turn the combination into a dumb punch line. That makes this 25-year-old Chicago cassingle an especially welcome find. by Leor Galil Each...
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