Steppenwolf brings Pulitzer-prize winning play to Chicago

A riff on 'A Raisin'

09/28/2011

I wish that I didn't have to be a critic sometimes. Don't get me wrong: I’m not sick of the work. I get no greater pleasure than heading to the theater, soaking in the results of months of collaboration, letting the experience percolate and then transforming rambling thoughts into coherent - occasionally incoherent - criticisms during coffee-fueled writing explosions.
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Chicago Avenue's Leopold does food right

More gastro than pub

09/21/2011

When Leopold hit town earlier this year, Chicago Avenue got what seems like the city's gazillionth gastropub. With so many great go-to gastropubs already in town - Longman & Eagle, the Publican and The Gage come to mind - it took me a few months to muster up the enthusiasm to check out their new Belgian cousin.
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Tour finds big flavor in Chicago's little Chinatown

Chinese food 101

09/14/2011

Have you ever found yourself hungrily wandering around Chinatown, popping in the closest restaurant because they all seem the same? Inside, you flip through the menu as if you are not going to get your gazillionth order of General Tso's chicken?
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Cop and photographer who witnessed 9-11 attacks curate Field Museum tribute

Tragedy, 10 years later

09/07/2011

On the upper level of the Field Museum, wedged between the collection of Pacific Spirits artifacts and the reconstructed tribal Maori Meeting House sits a new exhibit that hits a lot closer to home. Last week, the Field opened Ground Zero 360°, a photo exhibition created by a photojournalist and a police officer from their combined experiences on Sept. 11, 2001.
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Jazz Festival returns to Chicago's front yard

Grant Park groove

08/31/2011

The Chicago Jazz Festival will be turning 33 this year, and while it was born as a way to remember the dead, this year its performers are celebrating some milestone birthdays. The festival was sparked by the death of New York composer and bandleader Duke Ellington in 1975 inspired a memorial festival a few weeks after in Grant Park.
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South Loop's black comedy

Tale of influential club’s rise and fall highlights Siskel Center’s Black Harvest Film Festival

08/24/2011

The Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video has been rolling full strength at the Gene Siskel Film Center all month. Now in its 17th year, the festival has grown into one of the country's premiere showcases for independent feature-length films, shorts and documentaries that celebrate and illuminate the black experience.
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Adler Planetarium delivers with new space experience

Out of this world

08/17/2011

Wow. This tiny word sums up the huge out-of-this-world experience at Adler Planetarium's new Deep Space Adventure show. Using advanced digital technology, real scientific data collected from space and storytelling that holds even short attention spans, if Adler’s new movie was any more real you'd actually feel the blast from the explosion as a star is torn apart by a black hole.
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Lollapalooza 2011: More space means more fun

At least for one day, fest satisfied in Grant Park

08/10/2011

Another Lollapalooza is done. And of the Lollapaloozas that this reporter has covered since the once-roaming festival set stakes in Grant Park, this year's was the most enjoyable. True.
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Lollapalooza memories

Nostalgia (and hundreds of thousands of fans) set to pack Grant Park

08/03/2011

Lollapalooza is a sell-out. For the first time since setting up in Grant Park in 2005, the music festival has sold out all advance tickets for its three-day run. What does this mean for folks attending the fest and Chicagoans in general? People. Lots of people. Everywhere.
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Anthony's Italian Ice in Lake View fixes up summery treats in house

Making it cool

07/27/2011

Michael Mednick, 44, acquired Anthony's in 1993 when it was located on the corner of West Armitage Avenue and North Bissell Street in Lincoln Park. Back then, Anthony’s served up Mama Tisch's Italian Ice. A novice in the art of Italian ice, Mednick says he "learned on the fly," and was determined to produce his own.

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