In 1962 when it was announced that Tippi Hedren would be playing the lead in The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock's followup to Psycho, the general reaction was, "Who's that?" A hitherto unknown blonde model, Hedren was launched into stardom almost overnight after Hitchcock happened to see one of her television commercials and cast her in the film. And just as the director intended, she burns like a cool fire at the center of the movie. Even as the bird attacks grow more vicious, she maintains her coiffed, finely calibrated elegance. Until the climax, that is, a harrowing sequence in an attic room that, in our view, tops even Hitchcock's notorious shower scene as a pure tour de force of film editing. more ›

Corrosion of Conformity's original lineup returns to Double Door March 7. Drummer Reed Mullin talks about the evolution of his band, the current state of metal, politics, and touring in the early days with with Suicidal Tendencies. more ›

When twenty-something Rachel Bertsche first moved to Chicago she was thrilled to finally be sharing a zip code with her boyfriend, but shortly after tying the knot Bertsche—a journalist and former editor for O: The Oprah magazine—realized that life in her newly adopted hometown was missing one important thing—friends. more ›

WTTW will premiere Chicago’s Loop: A New Walking Tour, the latest in Geoffrey Baer's series of tours, tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. We discussed the new documentary with Baer. more ›

On the occasion of his new album Spacer, we interview the Chicago jazz musician who makes playing the vibes sexy as hell. more ›

Read Part I of our interview with Dmitry Samarov from last Friday more ›

We sat down for a chat with one of the stars of this Tennessee Williams send-up, previewing at the Athenaeum Theatre next week. more ›

Jazz Institute of Chicago Executive Director Lauren Deutsch speaks about programming this year's festival, working with the city and what artists she's most looking forwad to seeing. more ›

Lizz talks to the Fiery Furnaces' frontwoman in advance of her show tonight at the Hideout. more ›

An interview with Lupe Fiasco is making headlines for what he said about President Obama. But is Lupe right? more ›

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos was able to snare the first national television interview with Mayor Emanuel, which we're sure had nothing to do with their mutual ties to the Clinton White House. more ›

The immensely talented, hard living singer-songwriter took a few moments to talk with us in advance of his gig at Millennium Park tonight with Andre Williams and the Goldstars. more ›

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was taped last week, aired today. The show led off with the already seen clip of Winfrey asking the President about the release of his birth certificate, which the President said "it seemed unlikely my 18-year-old mother had plotted at the time" for him to be a Manchurian candidate and Michelle Obama called "ridiculous." From there, the appearance settled down into a discussion on the Obama's stay at the White House, the pitfalls and advantages of living in the White House, raising a family inside the bubble of the Presidency and what they hope the future holds for them. Here are some of the highlights. more ›

Trust us, a redesign can be a bit cathartic. The Chicago Reader launches an all new redesign of its print edition, with several events across the city to celebrate the relaunch. It's a marked facelift from the tabloid format in which it's lingered in recent years. The glossy covers and stapled pages suggests more of a magazine than a newspaper, which Creative Loafing chief sales officer Alison Draper told Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal is intended to make the Reader less disposable than in the days where folks would pick up copies of "The Old Gray Doorstop" and pocket the music section as a reference guide. In addition to the redesign, including two glossy covers, column names have been dropped in favor of the columnists names and the music section, long one of the Reader's strengths, has been expanded and re-branded. Now known as the "B-Side," Editor Mara Shalhoup told us that the expanded music coverage is one of many links between the paper's past, present and future. more ›

Today we feature photos chosen by Jason Martini, aka "mr._martini" on Flickr. more ›

We were able to sit down with author David Sirota and ask some questions about the ideas behind his new book Back To Our Future: How The 1980's Explain Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything. more ›

When Alan Arkin moved to Chicago in the late 50's it wasn't part of a quest to learn cutting-edge improvisational theater techniques. It was strictly a way to put food on the table. He recently released his memoir and we were lucky enough to field a few questions to Mr. Arkin about his time in Chicago, the nature of improv, and the difficulties of film-making. more ›

Bill Murray called in to the Howard Stern Show this morning to promote the DVD and Blu-ray release of Get Low. Stern (in our opinion, the best interviewer around) and Murray talked for over an hour about why Murray fired his agent, how Andie MacDowell's hair annoyed him on the set of Groundhog Day, how his experience at the Second City and Saturday Night Live was the best acting education he ever had, and the status of Ghostbusters 3. Turns out that the ball is in Murray's court. He just doesn't find it to be a priority. more ›

State Rep. Deb Mell, while happy that Gov. Quinn is signing the Civil Unions Bill into law Monday at the Chicago Cultural Center, told WBEZ that Illinois still has a way to go in the gay rights department. Mell still plans on traveling to Iowa, where gay marriage is legal, to wed her fiancée. "(We) sat down with our accountant recently to fill out forms and we had to check 'single,'" Mell said. "And that wasn't true." more ›

For the latest in the “Women Behind the Stove” interview series, I sat down with Chef Carol Wallack. Chef Wallack is the Executive Chef and owner of Sola and the soon-to-open Ohana, and is possibly the most fun interview subject I have ever had the good fortune to drink coffee with. I would rouse rabble with her any day. Chef Wallack and I talked about the “lifestyle” of being a chef, the challenges for women in the kitchen, and why no one should ever start screaming in her restaurant. more ›

Today we launch a new series in which we talk to notable Chicagoans about what they love about winter in Chicago, and why they stay in the coldest months of the year. more ›

I have a confession to make - this interview isn't even a little bit objective. North Pond has been one of my favorite spots in Chicago for years, and it was the first fine dining restaurant I ever wrote about. When I got a chance to interview Bruce Sherman, the chef and co-owner of North Pond, I screamed like a little girl at a Justin Bieber concert - though not in front of the chef. Despite my enthusiasm, I had some serious questions for Chef Sherman. We talked to Chef Sherman about staying relevant, the challenges of owning a restaurant on park district land and why he is not a locavore. more ›

It's a common problem that this town's musical elite like to leave us in the dust for the bright lights of the coasts, but Patrick Stump is a curiosity among Chicago-bred "rock stars" - he's seen the world and then some, but his heart and his home remain here. Since Fall Out Boy called it quits last year, former singer and songwriter Stump has been hard at work at Lakeview's I.V. Labs studio prepping his debut solo album and revisiting the influences that lead him to make music in the first place. Earlier this year Stump released two versions of lead single "Spotlight" and asked friends, fans and new listeners alike to vote on their favorite version. This sort of egalitarian approach and the new opportunity to make music on his own terms has the 26-year-old feeling renewed about the possibilities, and Chicagoist caught up with him recently to chat about Star Wars, starting over, living through your awkward phases and just how solo "solo"really means. This is the first of a two-part interview. more ›

A couple of weeks ago, while perusing the Green City Market at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, we had a chance to sit down with Lyle Allen, the director of the market. We asked him about the future of the market, how they set their policies on local food and what it takes to run a sustainable local market. more ›

Jesse Jackson, Jr. gave a rare interview to the AP over the weekend after delivering a Christmas message to detainees at Cook County Boot Camp. Jackson has been pretty quiet since he acknowledged he was named in the criminal complaint against former Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2008. During the Blagojevich trial, Jackson was said to have been mentioned by a businessman at a meeting discussing fundraising for Blago and Jackson’s desire for the seat. Blagojevich’s brother Robert testified that businessman offered to raise up to $6 million for Rod in exchange for Jackson’s appointment. more ›

In the next installment of “women behind the stove,” we talk with Chef Nicole Pederson, Executive Chef of C-House. Nicole has been at the helm of the restaurant for a little over a year, and we talked to her about her background, the differences between men and women chefs, and why it’s a bad idea to screw around in her kitchen. more ›

Earlier this year, when everyone in the city was lining up to run for mayor, Cook County sheriff Tom Dart seemed like a natural front-runner. Popular with independents, liberals, South side ethnics and African American voters, he seemed like a sure thing to challenge Rahm Emanuel's powerhouse run for City Hall. And then he dropped out of the race, citing family obligations. more ›

Last month I was given the proverbial offer I couldn't refuse: the chance to work on something with the legendary radio personality, Steve Dahl. For a generation of radio listeners, Dahl's partnership with Garry Meier was appointment radio worth all the detention hours I racked up at Lane Tech listening to them in class, and the overnight rebroadcasts of Steve and Garry on WLUP-AM 1000 made the homesickness of my first couple of years of my Navy hitch bearable. I even followed the Stever through the post-Meier solo years with Buzz Kilman, Wendy Snyder and eventually the final show on Jack-FM and into his current run as a podcast pioneer. Seriously, check out the Dahl Twitter feed and Facebook pages. He and his team have adapted to social media like a duck to water. more ›

In the wake of the did-they-or-didn't-they-offer-six-billion week of news stories about Groupon and Google, Andrew Mason took to the airwaves of NBC's Today Show to talk about...nothing, really. Matt Lauer sat Mason down and everything started fine, with Lauer discussing the site's operation, and he managed to get an answer about Groupon users. Then things got a little weird. more ›

Fear No Art Chicago launched a podcast series yesterday with a major get. Host Elysabeth Alfano sits down for a chat with David Sedaris, where they talk about his years in Chicago, advice Sedaris offers to young authors and liberal plugs of his new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary more ›