Holy shiznit. There are mash-up and video remixes and then there is THIS.
Friday Afternoon Diversion
Lately In Strange And / Or Unsettling Theatrical Choices
It seems like every other day we're reading about yet another theatrical project that makes us wonder if the success of Glee has caused some kind of collective brain short-circuiting. [Ed. note: I can't wait for Glee to die. How has no one else noticed it's just a cross between American Pie and the 4th season of Ally McBeal?!] Read for yourself.
It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Zing!
There were three and a half long hours of the Grammys last night where the performances took top billing to the actual awards. Did anyone actually watch past The Police? Well, we did. Until a little after 10:00 when our eyes just wouldn’t stay open anymore. As we watch the Grammys we try to guess who might win based on which band just performed or if there is some sort of trend with the presenters...
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-verse
Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to...
Paying the Rent
While the CTA’s budget woes are well-known, the cries of poverty that occasionally emanate from its suburban counterpart often go unheard by those in the city limits. So Metra has to find creative ways to make ends meet like picking up some acting work. Various Metra trains and stations appear in the Jennifer Aniston/Clive Owen film Derailed, which comes out this weekend.
Mash It Up
Everybody loves his mashup albums these days. There have been countless revolving around Jay-Z and his "farewell" The Black Album, from The Slack Album (Jay-Z meets Pavement) to The Black and Blue Album (Jay-Z meets Weezer, a.k.a. Rivers Gets a Cap in his Ass) to Danger Mouse's justly heralded Jay-Z meets the Beatles project The Grey Album. (Chicagoist thinks these albums come into being when the DJs behind them think up a clever album title.) There was even the Jay-Z-Metallica mashup The Black on Black Album. Jay-Z – we're getting real tired of typing "Jay-Z" – ever the brilliant marketer, made all this possible by making a-cappella versions of Black Album tracks readily available.
She is a Material Girl
Fresh off her recent children's books/Kaballah propaganda, Madonna (or, as she's now called, Esther – way to desexualize her, religion!) is performing two more shows in Chicago tonight and tomorrow at that most intimate of venues, the United Center. Reports from Ms. Ciccone's first shows here have been decidedly mixed, but the overwhelming opinion seems to be that she's (gasp!) favoring style over substance. The show features, in some capacity, all of the following: bagpipes, explosions, a skateboarding ramp, video screens, and an electric chair. Yowza! Now that's entertainment!

