Clik here to view.
Did you read about the Onion, Jelani Cobb on Barack Obama, and Siberia's...
Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.Hey, did you read:• An alt-weekly goes the "Snowfall" route? —Sam Worley• That it's the Onion's 25th anniversary today?…[ Read more ][...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 O'Clock Track: Black Wing's celestial anti-chillwave tune "My Body...
A couple years ago I got hooked on Enemies List, a tiny Connecticut label that specializes in experimental projects steeped in metal and usually recorded at home. I've become quite enchanted by a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A touchdown's worth of thoughts on the start of the college football season
1. Sometime during the Cubs' eighth loss in ten games the other night, I had a thought that lifted my soul just a little: hey, it's time to brush my teeth and go to bed!As I was doing so, I had another...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wrestling With My Father: The best four and a half minutes you'll spend at...
I laughed more during Charles Fairbanks's four-and-a-half-minute video Wrestling With My Father (screening this Saturday at the Nightingale as part of a program of Fairbanks's work) than I did during...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Low Down Hoe Down celebrates its tenth anniversary this weekend with Sweet...
The Low Down Hoe Down, an all-day and all-night collision of punk rock, skateboarding, and organic farming, is happening this Sat 8/31 at Peasants' Plot farm in Manteno, Illinois, and this year it'll...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ciauscolo, the other spreadable salami
This summer I smuggled a trove of salami procured from the great Quebec charcutiers Les Cochcon Tout Ronds over the Canadian border. You can't really sense it at their kiosk in the open-air Jean Talon...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cheer-Accident reaches out to the Internet
Last week the New York Times ran an article about an interesting new model for musicians to sell their work directly to the public. The piece focused on Rabbit Rabbit Radio, a cool online subscription...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chicago soul singer Doug Shorts shows off his karate moves in his first music...
Back in June I wrote a B Side cover story about 62-year-old Chicago soul singer Doug Shorts, whose career is only now beginning to take off after decades of struggling to get his music heard. This fall...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An urban commune for the arts (partially on stilts)
A north-side collective's sprawling loft is as much a living, breathing art project as it is a place to lay your head. by Kevin Warwick A multidisciplinary collective in which a cast of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
County Barbeque is smoking something
An ersatz barbecue shack from the DMK group by Mike Sula It didn't take long for a perspicacious 14-year-old acquaintance of mine to sit down and absorb the vibe in County Barbeque before she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cocktail Challenge: Essence of Dirty Streisand
Clark Street Ale House barkeep David Hermach tackles a mixological mystery, the Dirty Streisand. by Kate Schmidt"I have an unorthodox request for the ingredient," said Jason Cevallos, who tends bar at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reader's Agenda Fri 8/30: North Coast Music Festival, boundary-less family...
Looking for something to do today? Agenda's got you covered:As the Chicago Jazz Festival grooves along across town, the North Coast Music Festival kicks off in Union Park.…[ Read more ][ Subscribe to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Everyone has an Ina story
Everyone has their Ina Pinkney story, though I didn't have one until well after I went to Ina's restaurant a couple of times. The first one I remember hearing was Barry Sorkin's: he said that as soon...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A couple of smoke screens and the rest of this week's movies
I realized only after this week's issue went to press that I'd employed near-identical phraseology in my long review of Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster, which opens today in wide release, and my capsule...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did you read about Seamus Heaney, Dave Chappelle, and black metal?
Reader staffers share stories that fascinate, amuse, or inspire us.Hey, did you read:• That poet Seamus Heaney has died? —John Dunlevy• About this cool bicycle-powered treehouse elevator?…[ Read more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
12 O'Clock Track: "ODB" is a brand new, drugged-up album preview from Danny...
On Wednesday, Danny Brown released another preview track from his upcoming record Old, due out on 9/30, and, just like the other handful of songs that he's been slowly sharing, it's really great. It's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sharing a vodka with Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812
Reduced to its component parts, Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 looks like an experiment in perversity. Here, adapter/composer Dave Malloy seems to have told himself, see if you can make...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The contemplative beauty of Charles Lloyd, boxed
The veteran saxophonist and flutist Charles Lloyd headlines the Chicago Jazz Festival tonight in a performance with his malleable trio of bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Eric Harland, with special...
View ArticleClik here to view.
If the past is another country, why aren't there guidebooks?
One of the best parts about reading a history book, aside from finding out some good gossip about famous dead people, is getting to imagine yourself into the past. Obviously life now is safer and more...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hey, Mr. Mayor: Don't mess with Wendy Katten!
In case you missed it, there was a televised toe-to-toe battle the other day on the future of public education in the age of Mayor Emanuel. It took place on the August 26 episode of Chicago...
View Article