Since everybody is apparently going apeshit over the 76th birthday of Elvis Presley today, we thought we would honor the King with a video tutorial of how to make Elvis' favorite sandwich, the Fool's Gold Loaf, with the help of a 46 inch tall Elvis impersonator. more ›

As it's Elvis' 75th birthday today, we thought we'd try to see exactly what was shaking in the city during the birth of rock music. The Sun-Times has an interesting piece about the birth of "In the Ghetto," but we wanted to go back further. So we poked our Lexis Nexis account with a stick and peered back through time, back to the beginning of it all in 1956. more ›

We really hope the Nederlander Theatre isn’t cursed, like we said last week. After the fateful closing of Cromer’s plays, another Chicago show will fill the theater. Million Dollar Quartet, which celebrated its one-year anniversary at the Apollo Theater last Thursday, is making the Broadway transfer in the spring. more ›

A mountain of peanut butter and banana sandwiches were waiting for runners as they completed the 10th Annual Elvis Is Alive 5K Fleet Feet race yesterday in Lincoln Park, which benefit Rock for Reading, a non-profit group fighting the trend of illiteracy and working to renew interest in reading. more ›

The dog days of August are here. And we've got some ways to beat the humidity or, even better, give it a big ol' raspberry. We've also got some food news for you. Let's get started. - From Crain's, Jon Young and Helene Albert, the folks behind Kitsch'n and Volo have a new gastropub opening later this month. The two-story Paramount Room at 415 N. Milwaukee in River West will center on pairing upscale pub... more ›

There's been some lamenting lately both in print and on-line about the steady decline of taverns in city. Years ago when this writer lived in "Liquor Park" there was a nice selection of dives that offered the opportunity to treat the liver like a one-night stand for under ten dollars. The Artful Dodger closed its doors nearly two months ago. Nick's on Milwaukee used to house Club Dreamerz. Estelle's was seemingly raided by the cops every other weekend, and Tuman's Alcohol Abuse Center served $3 Guinness pints to bikers and yuppies alike; both are shadows of their former selves. All these dives had nasty bathrooms, sweet jukeboxes, cheap drinks, enough second-hand smoke floating around to kill a rhino, and laid-back character in common. more ›

Since all eyes in the entertainment world were focused on the Oscars this weekend, a piece by Tribune freelancer Allison Stewart on the quasi-autobiography from Tori Amos might have been unjustly ignored. In a fairly short span of time, mentioning Amos’s stint with Y Kant Tori Read has gone from the mark of the wise to rock writer cliché and Stewart smartly chooses not to dwell on it. Instead, she acquits herself as a true fan (of music, if not Amos herself) in being able to spot the good (the freeform conversational style with New York Times critic Ann Powers) and the bad (no backstory on “Me And A Gun”) before dovetailing into a quickie review of Tori’s latest album. more ›