Story week is here! Let's check out what's going on in this year's program. more ›

Columbia College students frustrated by proposed cutbacks and what they say amounts to “corporatization” of the downtown college will host a “Take Back Our School” rally 2 p.m. today at 33 E. Congress. more ›

A suspicious call made to Columbia College Chicago over the weekend led to the closing of one of their campus buildings at 618 S. Michigan until 5 p.m. today. We'll be following this story for further updates. more ›

We’re going to cop to some very enthusiastic fist-pumping when we heard news that music legend/”Punk Rock’s Poet Laureate” Patti Smith would be coming to Columbia College next month. When the folks at the Reader picked up the news, we were quick to agree with Miles Raymer’s assessment on the awesomeness of Patti Smith: more ›

Catch up with the places to read and be seen on the literary scene with our rundown of local events centered around all things written. more ›

There's a whole lot of movie events happening so we do our best to round up the cream of the crop. more ›

At the typical Literary Death Match, spoken and written word geniuses duel until only one single man or woman remains. The duel may be a lemonade-off. Or muzakal chairs. Maybe even a hoopstravanganza. Really, the final round can be almost anything, but strangely, it's never literary-related, even though the word "literary" is in the event's title. more ›

We jest, we jest; there's no indication that the final agreement wasn't anything other than amicable. But Reel Chicago is reporting that Chicago's Flashpoint Media Arts Academy has a new name after Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's New York-based Tribeca Enterprises became a 50% partner in the school. Now known as Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, the institution has a cutting edge film/entertainment training facility located smack dab in the Loop, comprising 75,000-square feet of space on two floors. more ›

The cliché of pretentious creative self indulgent artists is slowly fading away from Columbia College Chicago’s film program. Last fall, the film and video department changed its curriculum centering on group collaboration with an emphasis on storytelling over technical mastery. The college’s program has a long standing reputation of hard work focusing on the technical nuts and bolts of production. The goal is to maintain that while underscoring creative collaboration. “We can teach skills, but people forget it’s how a filmmaker works with others that gets a movie made,” said Bruce Sheridan, film and video department chairman, in an interview with the Tribune. more ›

Columbia College, 916 South Wabash Building, room 150, 7 p.m., free more ›

If you don't really get what zines are all about, we shall enlighten you: Zines are short for fanzine or magazine. They are little stories, often with pictures, about bearded ladies, or junk drawers, or deer wolf bear sharks, or whatever. Zines are self-published. They're cheap. And anyone can make them. Says Neil Brideau, one of the organizers of this weekend's inaugural Chicago Zine Fest, "it's open to essentially anyone who has a pen and paper and some coins for photocopying." more ›

Feeling annoyed at the lack of progress for LGBT-centric legislation such as Don't Ask Don't Tell, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and same-sex marriage in Washington? Energized by the first legal gay marriages in our nation's capitol? Just want to hang out with some fabulous gay people and learn something? This weekend, the Columbia College campus will play host to the Unite + Fight Conference, a gathering of LGBT activists from across the Midwest discussing their next strategies in organizing for increased legal recognition. more ›

Another one for the You Can't Make This Stuff Up File. Columbia College's Cinema Slapdown series (a film screening followed by a pro/con debate between two participants) has included some pretty choice movies. Showgirls was quite memorable, but on December 16 things will be taken to a whole new level with Viva Las Vegas. In a stroke of genius, the Elvis Presley/Ann-Margret musical will be defended by no less than Rod Blagojevich himself. His opponent? Film & Video faculty member Dan (“Elvis has left the building!”) Rybicky. It's Elvis' gaudiest movie (duh) and includes a mesmerizing bit where Ann-Marget sheds an enormous fur coat to reveal ... well, we don't want to spoil the surprise. more ›

When she was 24 years old, Laurie Lindeen was walking down a snowy Wrigleyville sidewalk en route to the Metro, getting ready to check out a show with some friends, when suddenly she couldn't move her legs anymore. Within days, doctors diagnosed her as having multiple sclerosis — an incurable autoimmune disease that robs many people of their ability to walk. Lindeen treated her illness as a permission slip to live life to the fullest, and on her own terms: She moved from Madison, Wisc. to Minneapolis, taught herself guitar, and with her best friends formed a rock band, Zuzu's Petals, that released two records and toured two continents before disbanding in 1995. Post-Zuzu's, Lindeen got married, had a child, and set about pursuing her other passion: writing. She earned her MFA and, in 2007, released Petal Pusher — a critically acclaimed memoir about being an artist, growing up, dealing with discomfort (from physical pain to sketchy hotel rooms), and learning how to stay true to one's self. Currently, she's working on two collections of essays, teaching writing in Twin Cities schools, being a rock and roll mom, and living MS symptom-free. Last year, she was a finalist for the Bush Artistic Fellowship. more ›

If you were a reader of Punk Planet, you might be familiar with the Chicago-based subculture zine’s co-editor Anne Elizabeth Moore. No? Maybe you’ve seen her get “forcibly ejected from retail establishments.” She also wrote a book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity, which you can hear her discuss with the folks of Bad at Sports right here. more ›

A hundred years after he was born, could Nelson Algren finally be getting some of the respect he so richly deserves? more ›

Sometimes you’ve just got to have a parade. But if you’re Columbia College’s Manifest Urban Arts Festival, you have the Spectacle Fortuna Parade of Creativity. Wishing good fortune upon seniors and graduate students before they hit the brick wall that is a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, the Spectacle Fortuna will fill the streets with hundreds of Ray Bradbury-inspired giant puppets, the punk marching band, Mucca Pazza, and ephemera created by the talented students, faculty and staff. more ›

Columbia College Chicago's Hokin Gallery and Annex Neighborhood, 623 S. Wabash, Thursday, Feb. 19, 6 p.m., $3 suggested donation. [Ed. note: THREE BUCKS! That is a steal! Go go go go!] more ›

With a couple of endless wars abroad to discuss, a defenestration-inspiring economy freaking us out and so many dreamboaty candidates and First Spouses to drool over, the War on Drugs -- arguably the nation's longest endless war ever -- didn't receive much spotlight time this election season. But while we were hearing about Sarah Palin’s fancywear and debating the long-ago bombing habits of Bill Ayers, tens of thousands of people ended up spending part of the campaign behind bars for committing nonviolent drug offenses. According to NORML, in 2007 arrests for marijuana violations alone reached 872,721 – about 100 people per hour, an all-time high (no pun intended). Expect 2008 stats to surpass that figure. Oh, and almost 90% of those 2007 arrests were for possession only. "Cha-ching!" says Mr. Cash Register to Mr. Prison-Industrial Complex. more ›

Exhibits more ›

course, sure to become the blow off class du jour. more ›

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 ourselves. Go get 'em, kids! The reading is free and open to the public. more ›

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. more ›

Banks collapsing. Economic uncertainty. A widening gap between the rich and the poor. Which era are we describing? more ›

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 call in sick to work and attend some events to awaken your inner great American novelist. more ›

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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 successful. Luckily we live in a city that gives us a chance to here these talented scribes read! more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›