The Newberry Library has countless fascinating objects within their collections, but one of the coolest is an Oscar. Yes, an actual Academy Award, given to Ben Hecht for Best Original Story for Underworld (1927) at the first Academy Awards. It ended up at the Newberry with the rest of the Ben Hecht Papers, bequeathed to the library by his widow Rose. The collection was in a state of disarray at the time it was acquired; in fact there's a memorable photo that shows Hecht's Oscar being used as a doorstop! more ›

"I suppose I should say that all my roots are all in Chicago," Wallace Shawn told us. "Both sides of my family. My parents were very identified with being from Chicago, really. My childhood memories of visiting the relatives in Chicago are central to my being. And all sorts of things that some people associate with New York, I associate with Chicago, like going to hear jazz. I went with my uncle to hear Erroll Garner in Chicago." Shawn is usually thought of as the quintessential New Yorker (in fact his father William was the long-time editor of The New Yorker) but his new book is published by Chicago-based Haymarket Press. Essays is Shawn's first all-nonfiction collection, with pieces about the theater and writing, and impressions of living in post-9/11 America. more ›

-- The DVD release of local indie short film You Can't Outrun Bullets is being celebrated tonight at 7:30 with a party at Strawdog Theater, 3829 N. Broadway. Stalker paranoia, fate and chance collide on a dark night when Alan bumps into a stranger at a bar, a stranger he's convinced has been following him. It's director Tim Bruns' fifth short film. It'll be shown every 30 minutes until 10:30, with snacks and a cash bar. Tickets are $10; cash only at the door. more ›