Until last Wednesday, I had never seen T. J. Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi’s famous iO show TJ & Dave. I’d seen each of them perform in other settings—at The Second City, in Jagodowski’s many commercials for the Sonic fast-food chain, or at the Chicago Improv Festival—but never their two-man, one-hour show on Wednesday nights at 11 p.m., mainly because it conflicted with falling asleep on the couch and watching SportsCenter…
The 36-seat venue that plays host to Facets classes—six-week-long film series with facilitated discussions—is the most uncomfortable theatre ever. Some of the seats are broken. The ceiling has decades-old water stains. The room is usually too hot, although once in a while it’s too cold. The ladies’ bathroom has all sorts of warnings about slow flush and seems always on the verge of running out of paper. Even the popcorn is bad…
Hey, Chicago, did you hear? Craft beer in the Windy City is kind of big now. With last month’s Stout Fest, last week’s Craft Brewers Conference, and the opening of three breweries in the past two years (Metropolitan, Half Acre, and, most recently, Revolution in Logan Square), it’s easy to feel a bit saturated—in suds…
I’m still slogging my way through Oprah: A Biography, Kitty Kelley’s latest O-pus (524 pages in length), which hit bookstores yesterday. So I don’t profess to know all that she spills therein. However, I do know the Kitty Kelley methodology, which I studied extensively in the spring and summer of 2008…
Our top five picks for things to do this week: The CSO hires its first DJ in residence (or close enough), plus a new Aaron Sorkin play at Timeline, Hot Chip, Neil Gaiman, and more
Two-and-a-half hours into Billy Elliot, the Elton John-composed musical that just opened its run at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts/Oriental Theatre, the star of the show—who’s 13, mind you—has to pull off a finale sequence of 16 grande pirouettes followed by a series of passé pirouettes…
Rebecca Gilman, the Chicago playwright who gained national prominence a decade ago with her drama “Spinning into Butter,” is back with a new play at the Goodman examining a 19th-century disaster whose lessons feel hauntingly contemporary
Last night, green was blue—as in the organic blueberries muddled with lemonade and organically produced Rain vodka, then poured into a chilled martini glass. Uncommon Ground, the eco-fashionable Edgewater restaurant, was calling it The Agripolitan…
A woman in the crowd at The Vic Theatre this past Tuesday night yelled to the man shambling about on stage: “Can’t wait to see you at Lollapalooza!” Julian Casablancas mumbled back something incomprehensible…
Our top five picks for things to do this week: The Flying Wallendas aim to cheat death in Lookingglass’s Hephaestus; plus, Sonny Rollins rolls into town, 2010’s Golden Gloves contenders, more
