Results tagged “bubble”

Bin 36 hosted their annual Bubbles Bash last night where 450 revelers ate and drank, then drank ome more, to their heart’s delight. Champagne, cava, prosecco, sekt, and sparklers from a full range of countries flowed for hours making a dark and drizzly Wednesday night into a scintillating celebration of friends, flavors, and holiday festivities.

This week's installment of Project Runway played out like a roller coaster of emotions. The designers were given the challenge of clothing for real people (yay!), retooling "fat clothes" from women who had lost significant amounts of weight, ranging from 45 to 160 pounds. Although the contestants tend to bitch and moan every time they're forced to design for, gasp, a non-stick frame, we always enjoy seeing what they have to offer. After all, while you, 110 pound, 5'11 model, might look good in a bubble skirt or trapeze dress, most of the women buying clothing off the racks will want something flattering and wearable for their frames.

To background, I manage a Chicago band called Tom Schraeder & His Ego, which landed a coveted spot on the 2007 bill. Though our slot was early (12:30 p.m. on Friday), the work for artists doesn’t stop once they’ve loaded up their vans (or in our case, the hearse) and exited the festival grounds. To give our esteemed Chicagoist readers a quick sketch of life deep on the Lollapalooza undercard, I kept a scribbled-note journal...

Another week, another all-you-can-eat Friday Buffet. The photo alone is giving us cravings for some shark meat. - It's National Ice Cream Month. Feeling charitable this afternoon? In the mood for ice cream? Then head over to Atwood Café between 2-4 p.m. and take part in their annual ice cream social to benefit the Fairy Godmother Foundation. Atwood chef Heather Terhune will donate $1 from every ice cream sold (graciously donated by Ciao Bella gelato)...

The big dilemma of the week is just which ironic T-shirt to wear to Pitchfork, but some Chicago bands have their dreams set on attending a different upcoming music festival. The voting for the third round of the Lollapalooza Last Band Standing Contest only lasts two weeks, and the Top 5 vote-getters will compete live at the Double Door on August 1.

The great thing about having old theatres still around is that they do funky stuff. It’s always amusing to see what the Music Box Theatre brings back, and even better, the crowd that turns out. Last time I was in the Music Box, they were showing Deep Throat. We showed up for the midnight viewing after a disco nap, hearing it was a naughty, dirty film. The audience was filled with groups of giggling people too young to know any sexual revolution first-hand. And sprinkled throughout, old men in trench coats. In trench coats, we kid you not.

The world over, there is no place we'd rather be than Chicago. Sometimes though, with spring bringing only blustery winds and rain, it's nice to bury ourselves in a book that puts us someplace warm and dry.

The NCAA started a practice a few year back that, each year, screws over one unfortunate college basketball team. This year's victims are the Florida A&M Rattlers. While the Niagara Purple Eagles will be in Chicago this week to take on the Kansas Jayhawks at the United Center, FAMU goes home without actually getting to take in the same experiences the remaining 64 schools do — in spite of winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament. They miss out on the camaraderie of being around seven other teams over the course of 4 days. They miss out on playing in front of huge crowds and seeing how they stack up against some of the best teams in the country.

Look at that, we figured out how to set the right date. Bust out the stale, crunchy bubble gum: Chicago equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners teamed up with Michael Eisner to buy the Topps baseball card company. Is Walgreen's discriminating against black employees? The county government is missing $500,000 in cash. Don't count on seeing any of the Bears playing in charity basketball games soon. Seven people were injured this morning when a freight...

Dharma Garden Thai Cuisine is a restaurant full of contradictions. And we mean that in a good way. One side of this Albany Park eatery is flanked by a long bar, although the restaurant is BYOB. Dharma prides itself on using healthful ingredients and cooking processes — the menu informed us “dharma ragsar” means “natural healing” in Thai — but 10 out of the 20 apps are deep fried. To be fair, a majority of...

Due to the U.S. General Services Administration's recent request of Chicago, we're going to have to change our ideal "crime" from intoxicated walking to allowing a street to become "a haven for illegal parking."

Apparently, people are finally noticing that elementary school children are germ factories and that the schools where they continuously pass on their plethora of abhorrent illnesses are as disgusting as taking a bath (i.e. sitting in a tepid pool of your own filth).

Doesn't it seem like last year we were getting used to writing "4704" in the dateline of our checks? Chinese New Year is Sunday. 4705 is the year of William Beavers the boar. This means that thousands of people will flock down to Wentworth to watch the pomp and circumstance of dragon processions, fireworks, marching bands, and — since every year is an election year in Chicago — politicians kissing babies, shaking hands, and buying...

Did you know if you blow bubbles outside, they freeze? Neither did we! If there is one thing that you can say about us here at Chicagoist, it's that we're kids at heart. After a friend of ours told us all about this, we just had to try this fun winter trick, what with the crazy cold temperatures and all. So we ran to our nearest dollar store and got us a bottle of bubbles. They're in aisle 6, not with the kids toys. Weirdly enough.

The news was light on Stupid this week, at least the kind we usually write about, but Bears news provided enough silliness to fill three newspapers so we decided to make this a special Super Bowl XLI edition of TWIS. After Sunday's win over the Saints, three men jumped into Lake Michigan near Soldier Field on purpose and had to be rescued. One of the men was described as "combative," which as we learned from...

"Handlebars" via pantagrapher.

With the second Body Worlds exhibit expected to attract the same droves of visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry as the first installment did, everybody seems to be noticing something — museums are cool. And because museums are cool, people brought attendance to them in Chicago up 6 percent from 2005 to 2006.

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into...

Where Can I Get a Flu Shot?

Chicagoist ate very well over the holiday weekend, a little too well, and some of our favorite Thanksgiving treats include somewhat odd flavor combinations. Or so we're told. Cranberry sauce and sour cream, anyone? No? Then perhaps you'd enjoy a helping of borscht with a side of Bazooka bubble gum, washed down with a nice orange cream soda. Mmm.

Chicagoist is not a year-round mint consumer. We'll generally take a chocolate-caramel conocotion over a peppermint patty, and opt to suck on a strawberry bon bon over a Starlight mint.

Chicagoist was intrigued by the discovery of an extinct race of hobbit-like people in modern-day Indonesia. The name defines a species of three-and-a-half-foot-tall hominids. Scientists from UIC, U of C, and the Field Museum want to spoil the fun by disproving this claim of a new species. The hobbits may actually just be the fossilized remains of some very short people, one of whom had a genetic condition known as microcephaly, which describes people with very small heads.

Okay, it's not that bad, but the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that the national average price of existing homes dropped for the first time in 11 years. That sound you hear is the dozens of blogs who made their name tracking the bubble simultaneously climaxing and then realizing that their relevance is about to expire. Sales had been slowing for months now, but August was the first month with a measurable national decline....

The photo above is a shot across the bow.

No, not that kind of hummer, you cheeky monkeys, the kind that takes up two parking spots and gives you the right to drive like an asshole. If you have an extra $1.475 million to spend on a home in Naperville, Tom and Sandi Gollinger will sell you theirs, including a brand new red 2006 Hummer H3. They're offering the suburban tank as an incentive for potential homebuyers, to make their place stand out among the 89 other homes in that price range for sale in Naperville right now. But don't go thinking the Gollingers are all that generous or desperate. Tom owns the Woodfield Hummer dealership, so we're sure he's getting a choice tax writeoff in there somewhere.

Folks, it’s going to be hot out there this weekend. If you’re out and about, drink water. Take breaks. Wear loose-fitting natural fabrics for God’s sake. You do not want to end up having to check yourself into the hospital, what with some people going out of their way to give “heat exhaustion” a bad name. Much of Chicagoist will be braving the elements out at Union Park this weekend, but the siren call of...

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy...

United States National Soccer Team Manager Bruce Arena plans to announce the 23 player roster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup tonight at 5pm on ESPN's Sportscenter. Arena is announcing the squad 13 days before the official roster submission date, when the rosters for all 32 teams will be finalized. We feel there are 13 players who can rest easy today as their place on the roster is a sure thing (denoted in italics below)....

March Madness is nearly upon us, with the conference tournaments as a little appetizer before the Big Dance begins next week. The Big Ten Tournament opened play Thursday in Indianapolis, with the 6 lowest seeds facing off to see who would advance to the quarterfinals. 9th seed Northwestern is already headed home after losing the opening game to 8th seed Penn St. 60-42. The same Wildcats team that Chicagoist witnessed take Big Ten Champ Ohio...

On Tuesday, a Chicago man was sentenced to 18 months probation for leaving his 82-year old, wheelchair-bound mother outside in the cold while he gambled for 15 hours at the Majestic Star Casino in Hammond.