Mark Twain's autobiography apparently reveals several juicy and candid details about his life. But very few people have read it. He asked that it not be published until a century after he died. The 100th anniversary of Twain's death just passed in April, so the University of California, Berkley is removing the manuscript from their vault and is publishing the first volume of the trilogy this November. The Independent reports that Twain left 5,000 unedited pages, and more than half of edited trilogy will be new material that has never been published. more ›

Like a lot of you, we took advantage of yesterday's weather, donned some shorts and ate brunch (Vella). On the way home we decided to make a detour and taste some wines. The weekly tasting at Lush focused on the staff picks for 2007. more ›

Paris in the Springtime in Chicago? more ›

To violently paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Lupe Fiasco’s illness were greatly exaggerated. According to MTV, Fiasco was diagnosed with strep throat on Friday and cancelled several appearances over the weekend, but still managed to hit his hometown for appearances here. We reported on Tuesday that he’d likely be taking it easy during his show at Metro that night, but according to an article on Pitchfork, Fiasco took care of business. Though he rapped along... more ›

September is traditionally the start of Chicago’s theater season. But since there’s no real off-season, we can simply take heart that local houses big and small are rolling out their big guns and, for the next few months, we’ll never have an excuse not to get our butts in the seats. The theater community has all sorts of personalities, here are just a few: This weekend The Grand Dame: Shakespeare Theatre Hamlet by You Know... more ›

For most of Chicagoist, not to mention the majority of its readership, our first exposure to Richard Pryor was not that of the man who combined his own personal pain with what the Tribune's Allan Johnson calls "the human condition" to create some of the most important social commentary in American history but rather as the balloon vendor in The Muppet Movie. It would be several years before we were not only able to get... more ›