We love to see chefs helping each other out. Last night, we received word that Brandon Baltzley, formerly of Mado, is hosting another pop-up dinner at Yuca Cafe in Bucktown tonight at 7. After the awesomeness that was his last pop up dinner, we were very excited. It got even better - Baltzley later informed us that he is just acting as backup for his friends, Jose Cervantes (former general manager of Rosebud) and Emmanuel Cadengo (former sous at Mado). He's bragged up Cadengo to us before, and it's great to see that sort of support. Whomever actually cooks your plate, the dinner will be six courses of Mexican food. Dishes like fish tacos, pozole, green mole with chicken and plantain, porkbelly with huitlacoche and white mole and bistec a la mexicana will fill out the $50 menu. The dinner will allow guests to BYOB, but wine pairings from Life's a Cabernet will be available for $22 dollars. more ›

Was it a mole or an "artifact"? That's the question that was batted around in court yesterday as the case turned its focus to a blemish on the back of the individual in the alleged R. Kelly sex tape. Kelly has "a caterpillar-shaped mark" along his spine. While the back of the man alleged to be Kelly is only visible on the tape for less than one second, both the prosecution and the defense have now presented expert witnesses to back their own case. The prosecution witness showed a freeze frame of the video which seemed to show a blemish along the man's spine. The defense's expert, forensic video analyst Charles Palm, broke the half-second of footage into separate frames (sounds exciting!) and only in two of those frames is the blemish visible before disappearing. Palm claims the alleged blemishes are "artifacts that bled into the image" created as a result of the poor quality and multiple reproductions of the tape. When we think of them flashing back and forth between "blemish-frame" and "no-blemish-frame," we can't help but to envision Kevin Costner's scene in JFK: "Back and to the left" over and over. "Mole, no mole. Mole, no mole." more ›