Even the cops can't get enough Wilco. While our Chicagoist photographer sat in line waiting to get into Friday night's show, a CPD cruiser drove by by with the intro to "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" planking away on it's megaphone, eliciting a roar from the crowd. The band is playing a 5-night stand at The Riv that looks to span the group's collected works. Tonight's show is being broadcast live on......

Nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-nunuh-Batman! We are going crazy for full-length trailer for Batman: The Dark Knight. [Bigger, better-looking official version] Heath Ledger is scary as all get out (that slow blink at :57 is killing us), Christian Bale looks like a golden Adonis, and that burly Bat chopper is testosterone and conflict made into a vehicle. Here's a grainy, cruddy bootleg of the six minutes of Dark Knight that play before the IMAX version of I Am Legend.......

We love us some Xmas movies; but frankly there are plenty of swell, non-Holiday movie events coming up as well: -- The new Will Smith flick I Am Legend opens. Big deal, right? Well, if you're a fan of the Richard Matheson novel or of the previous cinematic incarnations like we are, then yes it is. To sweeten the deal we've just learned that a six-minute prologue for The Dark Knight will be shown beforehand,......

We're not sure if people are starting to come down with SAD already or what, but this week's Missed Connections were less outrageous than normal. Even so, there are a few people out there willing to put it all out there in the name of ... love? We begin with a simple reminder: Don't put your photo in your MC post. It is creepy beyond belief. Pair it with this text, and you're basically begging......

Kanye just completely ganked his second performance on Saturday Night Live. He started "freestyling" on "Everything I Am," and boy was it not pretty. Time to start trolling for video. Thoughts?......

When Chicagoist had the opportunity to receive and perhaps review a cookbook featuring raw cuisine, we thought, "why not?" Not raw foodists ourselves, we still figured it would be fun to give it a shot. Just because we like meat, dairy, eggs and hot food didn't mean there wouldn't be something in the book worth our efforts. This turns out, in theory, to be true. But in actuality Chicagoist found Terces Engelhart and Orchid's I......

It's all in the timing. Chicagoist stayed a little later at work yesterday to get some exercise time in (believe it!), so we ended up taking the Purple Line home at around 6:45 p.m. As we traveled through the Loop, the conductor informed us that we wouldn't be stopping at Adams & Wabash. When we got there, it was easy to see why. Fire trucks galore were piled up back to the Art Institute. A......

Standing on the bus this morning, we glanced at another rider’s Red Eye, where a Golden Globes article was visible. The images featured Borat and Chicago native Jennifer Hudson, with a headline to something of the effect of “surprise nominations.” While the movie about a crass Kazakh is a bit perplexing, Hudson’s nod is anything but a surprise. While we are waiting like everyone else to see the much-lauded film version of the hit 1981......

We love getting our blocks knocked off by bands we’ve never heard of. We love getting CDs in the mail from unknowns that grab us by our lapels (fully staffed by various band buttons, of course) and shake us out of the stupor that usually attends the hours-long sessions when we wade through all of the week’s new music arrivals. We love bands that sound classic while still sounding like no one else. Earl Greyhound......

As prelude to last night’s Jeff Equity Awards, the Tribune published a love letter to Chicago’s theater community rebutting the notion of its inferiority to New York counterparts. To paraphrase, our stages have more street-level character, our productions ooze talent and substance, and our improv troupes put them to shame. So it’s disappointing that the Trib hasn’t seen fit (as of this writing) to follow up their big wet kiss with any news from last......

Dear Chicago International Film Festival: Hey, baby. It’s Chicagoist. Look, we know this is going to come as a shock but you deserve to hear it from us first. We’re not going to be able to spend every weekend with you when you visit here in October from the 6th to the 20th. It’s not that we don’t still care about you, we do. We’ve had some good times over the last 41 years, haven’t......

At Chicagoist, we have a lot of love in our hearts: for our friends, our colleagues, our readers, and even our critics. It’s not always easy to express our appreciation for everyone who visits our humble little site. So we’re grateful that the fine artists at You Are Beautiful provide a memorably whimsical way of showing the love. The anonymous collective has been spreading those three words all over Chicago and mailing mountains of stickers......

No weekend is complete without some cross-dressing action. Fortunately for you, "I Am My Own Wife" has extended its run at The Goodman Theatre through February 20. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, playwright Doug Wright travelled to Berlin and met transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Born in 1926, stage14x.html">Lothar Berfelde adopted the transvestite life during his teenage years, becoming Charlotte. Such "sexual deviants" were often killed by both Hitler's Gestapo and Communist dictatorship, but......

After yesterday�s �curiosities� we were beginning to doubt the Tribune�s commitment to Sparkle Motion. Um, the Loop. Anyway, they get back in the groove today with an �Unusual Tour.� While it�s pretty tough to get off the beaten path while on the city�s most beaten path, the Trib gives it a good try. As promised, the recap; drum roll, please. � Picking the ugliest buildings in the Loop is like picking the trashiest woman at......

Greg Kot is a busy man. Not only does he both serve as the Tribune�s rock critic and co-host of WXRT�s weekly Sound Opinions with the Sun-Times� Jim DeRogatis � a successful attempt to recreate Siskel and Ebert�s dynamic with pop music � he is also a full-time aficionado of Chicago�s own Wilco. (And with all the drama this band has produced of late, being an aficionado is a full-time job.) He�s written so......