Features Before They Were Famous by Michael Austin and Jennifer Wehunt We open up the yearbooks, talk to the classmates, and reveal what Jenny McCarthy, Donald Rumsfeld, Donovan McNabb, Lara Flynn Boyle, David Hasselhoff, and a host of other Chicago high-school students were really like when they were still just the promising kids-or in some … Read more
Features The Food Lover’s Guide to Chicago Our best attempt to catalog the city’s finest food and where to get it-from great butchers to a tiny Mexican cremería in Pilsen. As lists go, this one is not nearly comprehensive enough, but you won’t find a better place to start. A Quirk of Nature by Marcia … Read more
In his new one-man show, comedian Kumail Nanjiani dares to get personal.
A field guide to Chicago after dark
The director Robert Falls made his name putting on groundbreaking shows that examine the psychological wreckage of tortured souls. Now, celebrating 20 years with the Goodman Theatre and settled into fatherhood, he is tackling the story of one of the most tormented fathers ever
Photography: Lautman Marc Hauser Once dubbed Manhattan’s “downtown princess of darkness” for her literary forays into psychosexual subjects, Mary Gaitskill has since retreated to the bucolic countryside of upstate New York and to a professorship at Syracuse University. Her writing, however, remains finely honed, mesmerizing, and brutally honest. Veronica, Gaitskill’s second novel, snagged a National … Read more
After 25 years, the influential indie label Touch and Go still rocks. PLUS: Critic’s Playlist
Mancow wasn’t the only local radio icon knocked off the dial this year. Here’s a scorecard to keep up with who’s out—and who’s on.
The 1960 Nixon-Kennedy presidential election proved that a successful candidacy cannot be had without photogenic appeal. But in the coming gubernatorial race, both major-party candidates seem equally challenged when it comes to having a bad hair day.
Madrid St. Angelo started a theatre. Now he’s busking to fill the seats.
