After our morning at the Capitol, we made our way over to the Lincoln Memorial for the "We Are One" Concert which was to feature a range of political, celebrity, and musical appearances before an expected crowd of up to 500,000. We were plenty early as we made our way through the masses and it gave us a chance to scan the hundreds of items available to buy from the countless vendors. Shirts, towels, buttons, flags, you name it, it probably has Obama's picture on it and you're going to pay a a lot of pennies for it. Once inside the grounds, we found the press section nestled below the right side of the stage with a nice view, though the set pieces and a jumbotron obscured our view of one of the two onstage podiums as well as the actual Lincoln Memorial, but, still, we weren't complaining. We dodged CNN's John Roberts as he filmed a report from our corral and set up position for the show. more ›

Friday, April 25: more ›

Remember when there was that big launch last October of (PRODUCT)RED? And Oprah and Bono showed up at the Michigan Avenue Gap and acted like douchebags? Do you remember that? We do. We also remember seeing a litany of celebrities — Steven Speilberg, Christy Turlington, Mary J. Blige, Penelope Cruz — in advertisements wearing the (PRODUCT)RED clothing. And we thought to ourselves, are we really supposed to be feeling good about buying clothes to benefit... more ›

"Solitude." "Mood Indigo." "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing." Even Mary J. Blige covered "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me." These are all standards composed, of course, by Duke Ellington, arguably the greatest American composer of the 20th century. Yet he did not write his band's theme song, "Take the 'A' Train." That composition is by Billy Strayhorn. For 29 years he worked with Duke, shunning the spotlight even as he created or co-created some of the Ellington's greatest moments on record. Strayhorn was only 51 when he died of esophageal cancer. His best-known song "Lush Life," which he wrote while still a teenager, continues to live on in versions by the likes of Queen Latifah. more ›

Ice Cube vs. Oprah. The ultimate Celebrity Death Match. more ›

In one of the biggest upsets at last night’s Grammys, one of Chicago’s most talented artists was robbed of the top honors for his stellar work in the past year. As unbelievable as it might seem, Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones didn’t win the Grammy for Best Polka Album. And Kanye West is gonna have a problem too, ya'll. Unlike last year, we chose not to subject ourselves to the Grammy awards so we’ve been catching up... more ›