We see the latest update for the popular Hipstamatic iPhone app includes the option to download the Wicker Park HipstaPak. It features the Lucas AB2 lens, Jolly Rainbo 2X flash and Damen camera case. We can't make this stuff up. We're now just as cool as Williamsburg and Austin! our only question is since the majority of Wicker Park's (and, erm, Williamsburg's) population is stroller pushing yuppies should they still be allowed to use the app? more ›

This seems more like a someecards holiday than a Hallmark holiday; June 1 marks the first annual Punch A Hipster Day. more ›

We were going to review last night sold-out show with Cut Copy and Matt & Kim, but you can already pretty much guess that we loved it. Well, most of it. Cut Copy slayed, duh. Matt & Kim tried their best, but their hyper-amped super-sunny two-instrument attack just wasn't big enough to fill The Vic. more ›

From Helsinki to Tokyo, Brooklyn to Copenhagen, the fast fashion inspiration of street style websites is everywhere. Even on Chicagoist! And these photoblogs of everyday people randomly grabbed for a quick fashion pic are changing how we dress. more ›

Chicago has its fair share of witty literates, all vying to impress you, Dear Reader, with an outpouring of wit, candor, and originality. What with all the 'zines, blogs, and hipster rags about, the mountain of potential reading material is astounding. more ›

For many, going out New Year's Eve can be like going to junior prom over and over again; it's lots of fussy build-up with little payoff, leaving you with nasty hangovers, tacky swag, and, possibly, an awkward goodbye come morning. If swanky soirées aren't your thing, head to The Old Town School of Folk Music for The Punch Brothers for a refreshing alternative. more ›

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the... more ›

We always appreciate when the New York Times Travel Section takes time out of its busy day to come and visit our little Midwestern city. The last time they stopped by they discovered that the West Loop is cool! This time, they send "the frugal traveler" to answer one of life's big questions: Is it possible to spend a weekend in Chicago and spend less than $500? The answer, of course, is not only that... more ›

Intonation is back! And they’ve partnered with the MCA to put on a big ‘ole party as part of the museum’s 40-year celebration. Even better? The whole show is as free as air. Intonation’s Rock/Art kicks off on tomorrow at 1 p.m. with a whole slew of local bands, representing some of the most notable sounds to come out of Chicago in the recent past. When you get there, check out the new Sympathy... more ›

Girl Talk, aka one Greg Gillis, has been wowing audiences from the Empty Bottle to the Pitchfork Music Festival with his wildly popular brand of mash-up wizardry. Just try to hold a stoic cool-kid pose when Gillis brings his one-man jammin' train through town in January, with newly minted prince of the hipster dance party Dan Deacon in tow. Metro, January 26, 7:30 p.m. (all ages) and 11:30 p.m. (18+), $16. On sale Saturday.... more ›

If you want to usher in the fall weather with an almost guaranteed good time, bust out your jeans and autumn jackets and head down to Division Street this Saturday and Sunday, where two of West Town's best attraction, the Renegade Craft Fair and Do-Division Street Fest, have joined forces for a weekend of crafty goodness, musical enjoyment, and plenty of hipster-watching. Held on Division from Damen to Wood, Renegade Craft Fair will bring together... more ›

We've gone around and about a lot of times about a couple key subjects: How relevant losing Marshall Fields is in the grand scheme of things, Hipster/Yuppie, where does Whole Foods play into the life of a person looking to eat healthy and live on a budget? But another topic that never fails to get someone's ire up is that of biker vs. driver vs. pedestrian vs. driver vs. biker. Most people realize that there... more ›

Usually we wouldn't just post a video with such a tangential connection to Chicago, but considering how insane the hipster versus yuppie debates can get around these parts, we thought it was fitting. Whether you're hipster, or yuppie, or neither, we're reasonably sure this is one short we can all share a chuckle over.... more ›

Great. Another bar/restaurant with a funky name, overpriced menu, and hipster vibe in the Bucktown/Wicker Park corridor. That’s probably your first impression when you heard of the recently opened Bluebird Bistro and Winebar on Damen in Bucktown. In actuality, though, this casual, rustic spot from owner Tom MacDonald of the popular Webster’s Wine Bar in Lincoln Park will knock those stereotypes right out of the floor-to ceiling-glass window next to the front door. That’s... more ›

The weekend is here, and for many that means packing up the available vehicle and getting out of the city. If camping or fishing or what have you aren’t your style, make a city-to-city musical jaunt up to Milwaukee. Kick it off with a mix of solid Mil-town artists like the Violent Femmes, The Promise Ring, and The Obsoletes for the 90 minute ride and get ready to discover that Milwaukee’s music scene proves that... more ›

Alert: This post is not about Pitchfork. We know you are disappointed. Tonight's show at the Empty Bottle is designed to get us back into club mode — where we watch bands play on small stages in small venues and are able to tie their shoelaces or count their beads of sweat if we want to. To begin, we have Empty Bottle virgins The Sharks, who have been in the middle of quite an upswing... more ›

We entered the Pitchfork Music Festival grounds a little late Saturday, since the CTA saw fit to make sure all the buses we needed to take were running extra slow, while suspending Blue Line service between Western and Clark/State. They picked a bang-up weekend to make sure they removed the primary vein of public travel right from the heart of the hipster corridor. As we arrived though, we were dually serenaded by the noise of... more ›

While most Pitchfork Music Festival coverage will undoubtedly focus on the headliners, we think it would be a shame to not mention our favorite part of the festival: the side stage. The Balance Stage, aka “the tent,” has been our escape at the past two Pitchfork-involved festivals. During the afternoon, much of the Union Park field is full of immobile patrons only half-interested in who’s on the stage, making walking around the festival a mile-long... more ›

Since our hipster cred went down the drain last night when we saw The Police at Wrigley, we decided to just join the ranks of our parents and give up. The on-sale listings from Ticketmaster confirmed this for us when all we found were shows at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora. Shows that would have excited us about forty years ago, but who's to say grandpa and grandma don't deserve a great night out. The... more ›

Your hipster and/or Chad beer options just got more crowded this week with the launch of Shiner Bock in the city. To help you out in hunting the Texas brewery selection down, Shiner has set up a neat little website briefly describing the beer, its history, and - most important - a list of locations where you can find Shiner Bock. The list, which we're hoping is partial, is sort of the lowest common denominator... more ›

Chicagoist has a nice variety of friends who provide myriad viewpoints on myriad subjects, including new music. Our college friends, for instance, hit us up for tickets to the Daughtry show at the Double Door a few weeks back, while our snobby (geeky?) hipster pals were trying hard not to get caught enjoying themselves at Lily Allen in Austin during SXSW. Chicagoist’s good-times party-gal sister likes anything with a “fun beat,” from commercial country to... more ›

Download the original attachment We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment... more ›

Somebody alert the IOC – Chicago’s got another feather in its civic entertainment cap, but did anyone here even notice? Last week at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, the South by Sundance Break of the club and electronic music world, our very own SmartBar collected the 2007 Club World Awards honor for “Best Club.” Guess that winter makeover really paid off, as Club Awards representative Kerri Mason put it: “When SmartBar revealed its new... more ›

Jean Twenge is a San Diego State University professor and lead author of the study that says that the generation born after 1982 is "the most narcissistic generation in recent history." OK, we've got to do some thinking about that. On one hand, we agree. Chicagoist finds it extremely odd that even in the most casual of conversations about the most inane of pop culture references ("Fantasy Island," "Little House on the Prairie"), a lot... more ›

It’s been a harsh week, hasn’t it? First, we had to walk through a blizzard, prove our love on Valentine’s Day and then it got cold again. The rest of the week they piled work on us here at the office, and now we have to decide what tickets to buy for upcoming shows. Life is just hard sometimes. Too bad the John Legend and Corinne Bailey Rae show didn’t go on sale earlier; it... more ›

Despite a preponderance of stories lately, we swear we’re not trying to become Chicago’s next knitting blog. We swear. However, when we caught sight of these handy mittens on CTA Tattler today, we just had to mention them. Colleen Meagher, a Bostonian who runs the blog, Subway Knitter, developed some knitted mittens with a perfectly sized pocket to hold her Charlie Card (Boston’s equivalent of the Chicago Card/Chicago Card Plus). Ms. Meagher’s mittens are sadly... more ›

What was formally Bar 13/Mad Jack's Tavern has now become Easy Bar (1944 W. Division St.), the newest endeavor from the team of guys behind Estelle's and AliveOne. When it was Bar 13, the venue was made over for a short-lived A&E show, resulting in Mad Jack's Tavern. Mad Jack's may be gone, but the redesign is still there, with the deep red walls, large framed posters, lounging area in the back and sleek flat... more ›

What a great week for indie-pop. We are seriously psyched to revisit some old favorites while experiencing some newer friends for the first time. Robbers on High Street have garnered a lot of buzz, and while their latest digital-only EP is not an entirely convincing justification for their acclaim, it’s certainly strong enough to pique our curiosity. Expect Subterranean to be pretty crowded as everyone tries to discern whether these cats have the legs to... more ›

We were worried that last night’s Lily Allen show would be one of those dreadful affairs bloated with hipster ennui and slimy label types trying to sell the latest British import to various radio stations and corporate music buyers. When we walked into Double Door, we were greeted with some faceless, booty-thump DJ spinning a disappointing blend of lame beats, so our hopes for a shiny, fun-filled evening looked in danger of deflating. Then... more ›

Speaking of on-location filming in Chicago, the Omaha, NE, band Tilly and the Wall recently filmed a video for “Sings Songs Along” in various locations around the city while they were here for a recent performance at Abbey Pub. Just in time for Halloween, the clip proves that zombies may be scary, but like the woman from the Don Henley song, all they want to do is dance. After being pelted by Halloween candy,... more ›