Music: The Jazz Institute of Chicago is sponsoring a jazz guitar summit at Austin Town Hall this evening. Featured performers will be John Moulder, Buddy Fambro, Jeff Parker, and Curtis Robinson. more ›

The US House subcommittee on highways and transit will conduct a hearing here on October 29 to determine what kinds of transit improvements Chicago would need before we could host the Olympics. Why yes, October 29 is a mere 6 days before our public transit system starts collapsing into itself like a dying star! "Mayor Richard Daley, Blagojevich, officials from the Regional Transportation Authority, the three transit agencies and the U.S. Olympic Committee will... more ›

Is it 2007 or 1927? more ›

The Micromentalists have a devastatingly simple idea: make art affordable to everyone. Combining the best elements of progressive economies and hucksterism, the artists participating in this weekend's shows at Fifty50 Gallery and Butchers Shop Dogmatic are pricing their work to move. If you make $7 an hour, you can walk out with a $7 painting. Legal and corporate types billing $150 an hour pay $150 for the same work. more ›

Truth is stranger than fiction, and if you read The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein, you know this cliché is right on. Ballad is the true story of Attila Ambrus, Hungarian hockey player, bank robber, pelt smuggler and political-activist-by-proxy. After smuggling himself out of Romania in 1988, Attila hooks up with the Hungarian hockey team. The team is a bunch of misfit players, and Attila is the King of the Misfits. more ›

A three-alarm fire destroyed a warehouse at 1514 W. Lake St. in the West Loop this morning, disrupting Green Line service in the process. The flames came within 15 feet of the Green Line elevated tracks, causing no damage, but service was halted on a three-mile stretch near the area. A fire department spokesperson called the Reliable Plating Company building a total loss, but no one was injured. The CTA has started a bus shuttle... more ›

And not in a good way. Chicagoist, along with hundreds of other people, were forced to walk home tonight because of a fire on the rear car of a Blue Line train. No trains were running in either direction between Washington in the Loop and Damen Avenue. The alternate route is the #56 bus that runs up Milwaukee Avenue, but that was so packed that the drivers were not even stopping at the stops.... more ›

The CTA has apparently gave up trying to be a viable agency altogether, begging off on making a decision and putting a significant choice in the capable hands of schoolchildren. The result proved once again that there's always something so funny in the world that you couldn't have written it if you tried: The newest CTA branch of the L will officially be called the Pink Line. Unofficially, it will be called crude names ...... more ›

At every turn, the CTA is hawking their new staple of efficiency (excuse our sarcastic laughter) -- the Chicago Card and the Chicago Card Plus. Premise? You board buses and trains faster. You get a discount on fares -- you get the transfers that straight up cash riders don't get. You look sleek and cool by waving your card, hearing the snazzy 'beep beep' and gliding right on. more ›

When the holiday spirit has become too much, when you’ve had it with the retail hordes on Michigan Avenue, you’re through with cutesy cartoon characters, and you swear you’ll flip if you hear another celebrity Christmas album, it’s time to step back and indulge your darker and more prurient interests. The holidays are oh so temporary, but art endures, even if these nice and naughty exhibitions are closing soon. more ›

Within fifteen minutes of talking to any Oak Parker, you're guaranteed to hear the phrase, "Oak Park isn't like most places." But one month from today, Oak Park will take a shaky step towards the mainstream by opening its first establishment to serve primarily alcoholic drinks, The Abbey at 728 Lake St. Until now, only restaurants that served food could serve alcohol. more ›

Labor Day is traditionally the symbolic end of summer in Chicago, but for the local art scene it marks a major transition. Chicagoist missed a rash of summer exhibition closings last weekend but, as much as we procrastinate, don’t plan to make the same mistake this weekend. Schneider Gallery’s Portrait closes Saturday. The exhibit brings together seven photographers who capture their subjects unconventionally but in deeply affecting and sometimes freaky ways. Down the block, Saslow... more ›