We know when our kids grow up and go to college, we would be absolutely thrilled to pay over $600 a credit hour to have them study 5th grade level literature. So hopefully they'll make our dreams come true and go to Columbia College, where they can sign up for Columbia's Harry Potter course, sure to become the blow off class du jour. Students spend their time picking through Rowling's text, trying to find hidden......

To celebrate the release of their 4th Annual Story Week Reader, the Columbia College Publishing Lab of the Fiction Writing Department (phew!) is hosting "Little Stories in a Big Journal: An Afternoon of Student Storytelling." The reading will consist of students reading works form the Story Week Reader journal, which can also be read (in PDF format) at the website. We're suckers for student writers, being products of a few creative writing and journalism programs......

Columbia College will be putting on Round 10 of its fantastic Cinema Slapdown series this Friday, April 18th. This edition features Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums followed by a spirited debate between Sheldon Patinkin and Tim Kazurinsky (Sweetchuck!) over the movie's merits (or lack thereof). Previous entries in the series have included Crash, It's A Wonderful Life, and SuperFly. We've always considered ourselves fans of Anderson's work (even his commercials) and have greatly enjoyed repeat......

Banks collapsing. Economic uncertainty. A widening gap between the rich and the poor. Which era are we describing? Roosevelt's New Deal constituted a whole series of programs and initiatives aimed at getting the country back on its feet. The Works Progress Administration gave regular employment to many artists, photographers and filmmakers. Columbia College has organized a 75th anniversary program of many New Deal films, which runs this Wednesday. Included are several influential but hard-to-see......

It's that time of year once again. Spring is on the upswing, and the city is ready to brush the sleep from its eyes and starting to shake off the winter hibernation. This means lots of readings and festivals. And next week our alma mater Columbia College Chicago hosts its annual Story Week, a series of panels, discussions and of course, readings by authors from all over the country. All events are free, so......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music The Riverboat Gamblers fucking slay, there's no debate there. Lead singer Mike Wiebe channels Iggy Pop's figuratively red-headed step-child as he thrashes and throws himself across the stage belting out hook-filled punk rawk anthems. No song breaks the 3-minute mark because there's no point in pushing the riffs any further than they need to......

We love to read and write, and not just our own posts here on the World Wide Webs. We’ve been working on our first novel for years. It’s a love story involving time-traveling unicorns and so far we have about 850 pages of it written, but we don’t know when we’ll get it published (fingers crossed!). As such, we have a soft spot in our heart for local writers who have been a tad more......

We've never sent a letter of admiration to anyone before, but we might start. That's what Marc Fischer, head of Public Collectors, did to vagabond Parisian artist Bruno Richard. Over ten years he sent a wealth of papers, letters, art, trash, and anything else he could stuff in an envelope. And now you can see some of this correspondence on display. Why would you want to go look at someone's trash? First, because Richard......

KISS-FM's "Radio Boy" Michael Wawrzyniak has been charged with indecent solicitation of a child for allegedly trying to arrange a meeting for with a 13-year-old in Carol Stream. It wasn't a 13-year-old, though. It was a cop. Wawryzniak, of 1720 S. Michigan Ave, was arrested Friday "without incident." According to Chicago Suburban News, [Carol Stream Deputy Police Chief Kevin] Orr said the charges were filed after an “extensive” online investigation. Orr said detectives were solicited......

Countdown to Smoke-Out 2008! In case you forgot, or were outside smoking when someone shared the news, come January 1 there will be no more smoking in public places, including bars, restaurants, casinos, dorms, stadiums and anywhere else that is inside, aside from personal homes and cars. No idea yet on whether there will be smoking shanties outside of bars frequented by die-hard smokers, or if bars frequented by die-hard smokers will really obey the......

Looks like some of the Columbia College dancers had a leeeetle trouble in the parade. Via Emily Rehm......

Old-school local newscasters Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson will be teaching a class in broadcast journalism at Columbia College. The duo co-anchored the WBBM 10pm news in the 70s and 80s, but now Jacobson is retired and Kurtis is busy hosting crime shows on A&E. They'll recreate the magic just for the month of January, (when Columbia has its intensive -study J-session) but we're convinced the legendary team will realize--after all these years!--that they......

Here at the Chicagoist offices, several reality shows are popular among the staff, but our devotion for the majority of programs pales in comparison to our love for the crème de la crème, Project Runway. Bravo's hit show returned last night for its fourth season of designing, measuring, catwalking strutting and drama, with two Chicagoans vying for the chance to take it home at New York City Fashion Week. The first episode was the usual......

The Reeling Film Festival is in its last days, but there's still time to catch what's sure to be one of the most fascinating movies in the program. Quearborn & Perversion, a new documentary by Columbia College alum Ron Pajak, tells stories of lesbian/gay Chicago life spanning the years 1924-1974. It's surely a beautiful irony of history: what is today the epicenter of the Viagra Triangle was, in the 50's, the epicenter of gay life;......

Why is WBEZ warning us about "sensitive language" in a story about a sexually-charged art exhibit? On 848 Gabriel Spitzer said the language might be "offensive." We've listened to the coverage of "Girl on Guy: the object of my desire" twice now, and we have no idea what the hell they're talking about. Does saying "genitalia" really warrant a warning? Is uttering the word "porn" really so scandalous? Lisa Labuz said "sodomize" a few minutes......

Aurora's Planned Parenthood can open immediately. How bad do things have to get before Daley will denounce what's going on with the Chicago Police Department's Special Operations Section? Even the Associated Press is saying, "Not since club-swinging cops in baby-blue helmets chased demonstrators through clouds of pepper gas at the 1968 Democratic National Convention have Chicago police been so awash in trouble." Dayum. And yet Da Mare has given no indication that he'll disband......

Drama at Columbia College is par for the course, with lots of creatives going there to get their degrees. However, we don't think they want this kind of drama. Professor Reid Hyams contends that his recent firing from Columbia College was due to pressure from other faculty members and was out of line with school policy, because it was his first offense. He's filed a lawsuit which contends that his credentials (e.g., has been involved......

Here’s what you missed while you were gawking at fallen trees and the troubled lives of Michael Vick and Owen Wilson: The first signs that fall’s on the way: cooler temps, fading leaves and university gallery art openings. Two shows open today at Columbia College’s Glass Curtain Gallery and C33, and a new exhibit of Carol Jackson’s ‘signatureless’ work opens at UIC’s Gallery 400 tomorrow. When Thursday’s storms cut power to Belmont Avenue businesses, Bailiwick......

- Say hello to Cuppy's. Another coffee chain opens its first Chicago location. - Taking parenting advice from Britney Spears, a 26-year-old woman left her kids in the car with the windows up and hot air blowing while she went to Cook County Criminal Court on the south side. - Oak Park/River Forest High School alumni Charles Simic was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress. - Keep drinking your beer, Cubs fans.......

Movies in the summertime. Comic book heroes? Check. Cuddly computer animation? Check. Bloated running times? Check. MOTS? SOS? Double-check. With scads of movie franchises so stale yet so expensive they give McDonald's a bad name, it's no wonder that we'd rather catch up on our reading than check out what Hollywood has deigned to fob off on us this season. (We do confess to being excited about Ocean's Thirteen however; director Steven Soderbergh always keeps......

Author Ben Tanzer...

Author Audrey Niffenegger...

Author John McNally...

Tonight is AMPED! Columbia College’s Third Annual Battle of the Bands which is part of an ongoing series that invites participation from area high school students interested in arts and communications majors. Six bands comprised of local students will be competing at Hothouse for the princely sum of a $50 gift certificate per band member and, of course, the bragging rights of being Chicago’s best band! Chicagoist will be there as a “celebrity judge” to......

Dance’s big guns prance around Chicago each spring, so we won’t have to. That’s for the best, since a few too many evenings on the couch and bar stool have robbed us of our best stage leaps. At least these folks haven’t lost a step: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Auditorium Theater this weekend, bringing new work and a few of their gorgeous, athletic favorites. Influences range from traditional Indian and West......

Chicago's DJ collective, Flosstradamus, featuring DJs Josh Young (a.k.a. J2K) and Curt Cameruci (a.k.a. Autobot), and Melissa Young (a.k.a. club rapper Kid Sister and actual sibling of J2K), grace URB's April 2007 issue, "The Next 1000." These eclectic artists blend electronic and hip-hop beats, while sampling lyrics spanning several genres from crunk to punk. Flosstradamus thrills hipsters and hip-hop heads alike with their unique blend of genre-hopping. The duo employs a three-turntable set up with......

As if the gorgeous weather wasn't enough reason to call out sick for the week, Columbia College give you another with its 11th annual Story Week: Cities of Words. Sunday kicked off the week of words with an alumni reading, and Monday's reading by Anchee Min about Maoist China was tender, raw and funny. With fifteen events over five days, you can't go to everything, but here's where Chicagoist will be: Tuesday: the Graduate Student......

This past weekend reinforced why we live in Chicago. Everything may still be brown and muddy, but the fact remains that the blue skies and warm sun reminded us why this city rules. Here are two more reasons why Chicago is awesome, just in case this weekend wasn’t enough for you. Lawrence Weschler, Artistic Director of the Chicago Humanities Festival, won the National Book Critics Criticism award for his book Everything That Rises: A Book......

A+D Gallery's "Pass It On" DIY Exhibit Curators...

Joel Bleifuss, of In These Times, released a "‘how-to’ guide to avoid offending anyone" offering wordsmiths around the Chicago area the opportunity to offer their expertise on political correctness (PC) and how PC has shaped the way we communicate. Rinku Sen from Colorlines, Tracy Baim from Windy City Times and Lott Hill from Columbia College in Chicago In These Times, by far one of the boldest of the cities publications, focuses mainly on the cultural......