It's been said numerous times that chefs are the new rock stars. Chicago, then, could be considered one of the epicenters for the rock star chef. And they come in all forms: the arena gods (Bayless, Trotter, Achatz, McClain, Kahan); adult contemporary and classical (Smith, Gand, Arun, Tramonto, Nahabedian, Christophe David at NoMI); indie and experimental darlings (Segal, Carlson, Cantu, Bowles, Tschilds and Hammel of Lula) and world beat (Bahena, Nieto, Takashi, Gras, Garces, Shen).......

New Hampshire resident Ken Burns, who gained so much notoriety for using original prints and photographs in film documentaries that Apple named an effect in its iPhoto and iMovie software after him, announced yesterday that he is endorsing Barack Obama for president. Burns stated that "recent events" and the negative tone of the Democratic campaign have compelled him to come forward. "I'm really just disappointed in the tone this campaign has taken on their part,"......

Although recent polling in Iowa and New Hampshire shows her slipping against Obama and Edwards, she's not backing down. Erstwhile local gal and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be taking a spin through Chicago tonight, hosting Hillary's Holiday Cheer at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom. Because who wants to shake hands in a cold Iowa parking lot when you can kick it at the Hyatt in Chicago? Not to be outdone, the Obama campaign announced three......

It seems like the press is finally catching on that Governor Blagojevich doesn't like to venture into the public eye very much (except for Blackhawks games), where reporters might have a chance to ask him some questions about the spate of federal investigations, the inaction of the state legislature, or the recent indictment of his former chief fundraiser. An Associated Press story from yesterday outlines several "feel good" photo ops that most politicians would......

Kids in Peoria built a gigantic Lego menorah, using the big Duplo version of the blocks. We know we're assholes for having our first reaction be "Duplos don't count!" Which is why we need more good things on the list... John Kass is way, way ahead in this "celebrity" ornament auction. His beer can chicken thing is already at $435, but everyone else's piece of crap ornaments--seriously, a little effort, people--are only around $100......

Who knew "celebrity" golf tournaments could be such a flustercuck? Not Caddyshack star Cindy "Lacey Underall" Morgan. She hosted a 2006 event, which was supposed to benefit the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund, turned out to be a disaster. A giant no-money-making, friendship-ending, lawsuit-generating disaster. Morgan says only about 100 people played golf, that the Caddyshack cast members who did show (Bill Murray and Chevy Chase weren't there) left early, and now she's on the......

Out of all of our celebrity chef crushes, Gordan Ramsay doesn't really crack the top three five ten. He just doesn't do it for us. There's something about the incessant swearing and love of horse meat that isn't attractive to Chicagoist. But he does do it for FOX viewers and restaurants that need a makeover on his Kitchen Nightmares show. We learned via Schadenfreude (and apparently there was an ad in the Reader as well)......

It's all gray and misty out, and today's essentially just a waiting day until vacation time, plus people are on edge about traveling and family and blahblahblah, we know what we need to do. Brace yourself. Get ready. Gird your loins. Did you? Time for some things that are awesome! This weird old TV from the 50s! It costs $500, which puts it out of our price range, but still, the TV itself is......

We now join another one of our irregular weekend crime & punishment updates, already in progress. Weird shit doesn't only happen on Craigslist: A woman answered a newspaper ad for a roommate and ended up getting robbed and sexually assaulted. It's easy to scare people away from the big bad internet when people meet up for a "Casual Encounter" and it turns out bad. Unfortunately, the traditional classifieds don't seem much safer, now do they?......

Over on Kid Nation, the episode focused on money and greed, as the Council receives directions to go to an abandoned, bat-infested mine (eee!), where they discover a treasure chest full of the town's currency, buffalo nickels. Faced with the decision of distributing the cash among the kids or buying items that the town can collectively share, the Council takes the "big government" approach, buying toys for the town. Shockingly, the kids are A-OK with......

One of our favorite rock albums of the last year was created by two guys who don’t play a single conventional instrument. To add insult to injury, the gentlemen in question also come from a nation that despises the phrase “freedom fries.” Worse yet? They threw one of our own fair city’s preeminent hip-hop celebrity missionaries into a tizzy when they snatched an MTV Europe award from his hands last year, spiraling said local celeb......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

We're not sure if you've managed to stay outside R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet, or if you've managed to avoid the real-life "hip-hopera" of his ongoing saga surrounding a sex tape that surfaced several years ago featuring Kelly and an underage girl. If you have, kudos. Every time we think about Kelly peeing on anyone, much less a girl in her early teens, we just cringe. Golden showers are fine if that's your thing,......

We fell in love with the concept of live band karaoke way back when we saw the original crew, that Chicago's collective would be modeled after, perform at Arlene's Grocery years ago. When we discovered an enterprising young man was taking the idea and planting it in Chicago we had great hopes for it, but we honestly didn't foresee just how popular it would eventually become. Yow! The thing about regular karaoke is that, well,......

Why Can't We Go On As Three?...

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

It’s coming down to the final moments before Lollapalooza begins. We’ve emailed our Lollapalooza schedule to our friends. We’ve purchased a gallon of sun block. We’ve stocked up on water and batteries. Now we have some time to gossip about Lollapalooza. We don’t think Perez Hilton should be the only one to have all the fun while he's in town for the festival. We’ll start off the gossip talk with this one from finifinito in......

In the mid 90's we were television addicts. From soaps to sitcoms, we soaked up nearly everything the tube could offer. Our collection of VHS tapes at the time was chock full of good stuff. But in some cases it was the commercials that we loved most. One of our favorites featured Judy Tenuta drinking Diet Dr. Pepper while "working out" at the gym. The moment she proclaiming "You can't get a body like mine......

What's Carl's Itinerary?...

Now that Conrad Black has been convicted of mail fraud and obstruction of justice the real fun begins. With prosecutors asking that Black's $21 million bond be revoked, fearing the Lord of Crossharbour to be a flight risk, Black has voluntarily turned in his passport while he awaits sentencing from Judge Amy St. Eve on November 30th. Now the search for his money begins. Of course, government offices here and in Canada are in front......

Who knew that U of C's DOC Films has been showing movies for 75 years? (Rhetorical question, as we're sure that many of you already knew that.) Well, they have. In fact they're the longest continuously running student film society in the U.S. As you can imagine, they've collected a lot of cool mementos in that time. Things like letters from Samuel Fuller and Jean Renoir, movie posters autographed by Hitchcock, and old programing calendars.......

Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher seems to have a history of questionable taste in the women he gets involved with. Now one, a former exotic dancer with whom he has a two-year old son, is causing problems for the superstar. A Will County judge presided over a two-day hearing this week, in which Urlacher asked that former lover Tyna Robertson be held in contempt for violating his offseason visitation schedule with his son, Kennedy. Robertson accuses......

The Hideout plays host tonight to two of Chicago’s brightest independent collectives, Skybox and Plane. The latter have been on the Chicago and national radar since their 2004 album Shake My Ground debuted at #42 on the CMJ charts, but the going wasn't as smooth after that. Fans and critics alike were puzzled by the alternatingly hooky pop and quizzical experimentation on 2005’s follow up EP, Hello More. Never fear, however – Plane has clearly......

We are one of the few women left in Chicago – and, seemingly, America – that have not fallen under the mighty spell of Oprah Winfrey. Our coworker even snuck a pint-sized black & white TV into her office and watches it religiously; still we have not found ourselves in her thrall. We just can’t work up the enthusiasm for her superwoman, “Secret”-esque lifestyle. And what’s with all the ads in her magazine featuring thin,......

Maybe Charlie Trotter is having a change of heart as he reaches middle age, or maybe he sees how successful all the other celebrity chefs are with their multiple ventures. Either way, Trotter is inching ever closer to having "18 projects like (his) colleagues" by taking a chance on Las Vegas again, with plans to open two new restaurant concepts in the chi-chi Venetian Hotel come November. The two restaurants are Restaurant Charlie, a 100-seat......

Voting for Lollapalooza's Last Band Standing contest officially began on June 1, and Chicago is already leading the pack. Although the standings are always changing, when we last checked the leader board, four out of the top 10 bands were from our fair city, with Evanston-based Rachel Metter at the top of the list with 1727 votes at press time. The band's profile says it has "gained a fan-base among high school students in the......

Chicagoist likes to think we work on a European schedule, taking the entire month of August to hang out with the Parisist staff on the French Rivieria sunbathing and making snotty comments about Americans. Sadly, our limited vacation days don't allow us to show off our pasty legs for much more than a week. Recently while some of us were on vacation, we posted, we checked e-mail like we were important, and we stayed in......

All across the land this weekend there'll be grills firing up; hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie patties will be duly seared, oversmeared with condiments and consumed. But at Facets, another kind of feast is on display. The ingredients? A desert island. Reality TV. And hungry contestants. American Cannibal, which starts a week-long run at Facets today, wickedly skewers our society’s hunger for celebrity (pun intended). Two young writers, desperate to get into showbiz, corner a......

Last year when Chicagoist spoke with the ladies from Girls Rock! Chicago, the camp was in its first year and had been mildly successful, even though they were finding the camp difficult to publicize. This year they are in full force months ahead of the week-long workshop in August, and they'll be holding their second fundraiser of the year at The Empty Bottle on Saturday. The bill is full of bands that include strong female......

With its brightly lit blue and orange round sign serving as a beacon on the congested strip of Lawrence just east of every high school boy’s favorite strip club, the Admiral, Chicago Kalbi is instantly noticeable. Chicagoist has walked past it several times and it’s almost always looked small and crowded, which is why we shied away from it at first. But after experiencing it, we’re sure to return again soon. Upon opening the standard-store-front......