Time Out Chicago Picks Chicago's 40 Cultural Heroes

In celebrating Time Out's 40th anniversary, our colleagues at Time Out Chicago have assembled a list of Chicago's 40 Cultural Heroes, honoring Chicago's best and brightest and leaving no stone unturned. The issue focuses on "people who continue elevating our flat prairie metropolis to even headier heights," says TOC Editor Frank Sennett. The Chicagoans featured span a wide range, from Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan to Mayor Richard M. Daley to acclaimed, award-winning writer Achy Obejas.

TOC also takes time to examine a few of Chicago's best in further detail. The issue has an excellent feature on legendary film critic Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz that explores his fight against cancer, the couple's strong relationship, and Ebert's new evolving public persona. The mag also pays tribute to those legends who have left us, from Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jane Addams to DJ Ron Hardy.

The TOC website also gets in on the act with some exclusive content. There is an extensive package examining a man who needs no last name around here: simply Studs. And it goes the extra distance with a feature honoring legendary fictional Chicagoans (Ferris Bueller and the Blues Brothers? Check and check).

Starting tomorrow, you can check everything out here as well as the physical issue on newsstands around the city. You can also let them know what you think of the list and who you think got left out (where art thou, Jeff Tweedy?) here.