No matter how long you get stuck at O'Hare or Midway (provided the airline doesn't lose track of you) and no matter what time of day or night you're sitting in the gate area, at least there's one thing you can do unencumbered now: get wasted. Besides approving that third Wal-Mart, the City Council today also unanimously approved 24-hour liquor sales at the city's two airports as well as those alcohol-filled pushcarts. Previously, alcohol sales at airports were shut down between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. every day except for Sunday when it was shut down from 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. A Sunday morning flight without a Bloody Mary to ease our nerves? The horror. Anyway, if booze is your pre-flight stress reliever instead of Xanax, all 32 restaurants at O'Hare and 11 at Midway with liquor licenses now have the OK to stay open 24/7 to keep you drunk before you hit the sky because, hey, what could go wrong? more ›

In the ecosystem of the American Cinema, blockbusters are the blue whales. They compete with one another for the vast amounts of sustenance (ticket sales) they demand while the more numerous but smaller fish fight over what's left. There's thought to be a ready-made niche in this food chain for the summer indie crossover, a beast with the budget of a guppy who swells to many times its size. We're not talking moon shots like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Usually more like the ten-times-smaller gross of Garden State. This year's best candidate for that role seems to be the affable, breezy and nearly universally-acclaimed The Kids Are All Right, which we are pretty happy to see is making lots of money on a per-screen basis but will need some more good weekends to stay afloat. more ›

The major league baseball trade deadline looms this weekend and there's sure to be some wheeling and dealing here in Chicago. The White Sox, having leaped to the top of the AL Central, are suddenly buyers while the Cubs are looking like big sellers as they head into 2011 in which they'll hope to start with a new, younger roster and a new manager. Rumors are swirling that Ted Lilly might have pitched his last game as a Cub last night. But one Cub who doesn't appear to be going anywhere is Derrek Lee. The 34-year-old first baseman invoked his rights as a 10-and-5 player (10 years in the league, five with the same team) to nix the trade; Lee also has a no-trade clause in his contract. more ›

Who needs Transformers 3 when you have a building-crushing helicopter? We're anxiously awaiting the Netflix addition of Ugandan action film Who Killed Captain Alex? for our viewing pleasure. No spoilers, please! Check our a bit more background on the glorious film here. Spoiler Alert: there's already a sequel on the way. [via] more ›

It's fair to say that of all the highly anticipated albums seeing release this summer, few have been looked forward to more than Arcade Fire's third full-length, The Suburbs. It's been seven years since the group stampeded through the ranks of indie rock with their debut LP Funeral and over three years since the follow-up Neon Bible. Add a headlining slot at this year's Lollapalooza and you've got yourself the recipe for the highest level of anticipation. And, ultimately, the band doesn't let us down, even if the record takes a few spins to sink in. But once it does, The Suburbs settles as a sprawling masterpiece that trumps Neon Bible even as it fails to reach some of the climactic heights of Funeral. more ›

Sweet corn has finally begun to appear at markets and we are eating our fill. Sweet corn is one of those foods that only tastes right when it's very fresh - preferably picked that day - because as soon as it is picked, the sweetness begins to turn starchy. After a few days, it just tastes like cardboard. We won't even try to eat grocery store corn out of season. more ›

With the wheels of local government all greased up after churning the proposal for a Wal-Mart in Pullman Park through, the City Council today gave the thumbs up for a third store in the city set to go up in Chatham by a vote of 45-4. According to the Sun-Times, Aldermen Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Ricardo Munoz (22nd), Eugene Schulter (47th) and Joe Moore (49th) were the 'no' votes. more ›

To say that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is excited about Riccardo Muti, who turns 69 today, taking over as music director this fall is to plunge to the depths of understatement. The CSO has been without a full-time music director since Daniel Barenboim's departure in June 2006, and while the orchestra hasn't been rudderless - eminent musicians Pierre Boulez and Bernard Haitink have been frequent guests - having a consistent leader will help the ensemble evolve its unique voice. And Muti's virtues go far beyond just filling a void: in Muti, the CSO is getting an established musical presence at a time when other major orchestras are rolling the dice on promising whippersnappers with shorter track records, like the New York Philharmonic's 43-year-old Music Director Alan Gilbert, the Philadelphia Orchestra's 35-year-old Music Director Designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's 29-year-old Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. So, there's good reason for the CSO to be excited, or borderline obsessive, even. We won't be so understanding if we happen upon a creepy shrine in some tucked-away corner of Orchestra Hall, but for now there's only this benign, if goofy, video sending Muti birthday well-wishes. more ›

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The PR hits just keep coming for Target. The Minn.-based, growing retail empire is already under fire for donating $150,000 to a PAC backing Tom Emmer, an anti-gay Republican gubernatorial candidate in the land of 10,000 lakes who reportedly has ties to a Christian rock group advocating the murder of LGBT people. And, as reported by The Awl yesterday, the company's CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife are also on the record for donating $10,000, the maximum allowable contribution, to Rep. Michele Bachmann. more ›

While we were big Soundgarden fans back in the day, they were also one of the Seattle bands we felt far overstayed their welcome. We know lots of folks went gaga over their last two studio albums but we lost interest in them after Badmotorfinger. Yeah, it's totally a matter of personal taste, but we admit that they were the one reunion we were not excited to see grace a Lollapalooza headline slot. Nothing against the boys personally -- we once won a dance off with Kim Thayil so he's O.K. in our book, and while Chris Cornell's post-Soundgarden career has been largely laughable he's still got that voice -- but the idea of getting this particular band together didn't seem to be driven by a mission from God. more ›

About once a year, photos from the gargantuan collection left behind by amateur photographer and Indiana University grad Charles W. Cushman, painstakingly arranged and maintained by Indiana University, crop up on one website or another. The photos, spanning 1938 to 1969 (he passed away in 1972), are a treasure trove spanning the entire country (and others) but have a particularly nice collection of photos from that period taken here in Chicago where Charles lived at several points of his life. Our pals at Gapers Block had a fantastic series where they recreated some of Cushman's shots. And Vocalo's Lee Bey took a look at the architectural aspects of Cushman's collections earlier this spring. There's also his NYC shots which have been featured on the Mothership Gothamist. So, now that we're in the dog days of summer, we thought we'd visit the archives and take a few spins through some of his photos over the next few days. more ›