Photo by skellyb What's it like to ride a skateboard from Chicago to New York? "Sometimes you get the finger." [Pioneer Pres] Around 50 women and teenagers were involved in a brawl on 81st and Laflin last night. They were "beating each other up for an unknown reason," and one has been charged with a misdemeanor. [WBBM] "The American Mall, produced by the team responsible for the tween-loved High School Musical series, is a......

Chicago-based Pitchfork, ye olde guardian of all things indie rock and general critical force to be reckoned with, is launching Pitchfork.tv on April 7. When we first saw the press release hit our inbox, we admit our initial reaction was one of great skeptical cynicism. Recently Pitchfork gave a rather naked endorsement to a video game that they just happened to choose the soundtrack for, so the move in to territory dangerously similar to MTV-land......

Photo by Alforque Shake-ups and oustings continue at the Trib. The latest casualty: Tribune Interactive President Tim Landon. [Trib] A missing Chicago 4-year-old was found dead in a relative's home in Milwaukee. [CBS2] A Little Village man faces two counts of murder; one for stabbing a man he says attacked him months ago, and one for accidentally stabbing his brother during the fight. Jesus. [Trib] Former Sun-Times publisher David Radler is suing Donald Trump.......

Waaaay back when we were still aspiring animators, just getting over our Disney / WB phase and into our Fleischer Studios / Ralph Bakshi / Nelvana phase, Bill Plympton's early MTV cartoon shorts made a really big impact on us. We specifically remember "How to Kiss" and "25 Ways to Quit Smoking," two cartoons filled with dark whimsy and a loose line style allowing a freedom of movement, and a realistic mimicry of the absurd......

Treaty Of Paris is one of those bands that doesn't get a lot of critical acclaim, despite the fact that they've been plugging away at the local scene for a number of years, under a couple different guises. We suppose one reason for this is the band's chosen genre, which we would say falls somewhere on the FUSE-friendly emo-pop-punk radar. What we're trying to figure out is when exactly that sort of thing became a......

One of our favorite rock albums of the last year was created by two guys who don’t play a single conventional instrument. To add insult to injury, the gentlemen in question also come from a nation that despises the phrase “freedom fries.” Worse yet? They threw one of our own fair city’s preeminent hip-hop celebrity missionaries into a tizzy when they snatched an MTV Europe award from his hands last year, spiraling said local celeb......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

You’ve got to hand it to the University of Chicago for releasing the findings of a study that calls out the City of Chicago for not nurturing its hometown music scene, right on the heels of the most lucrative 3 days on the city’s annual music calendar. The study examined the economic impact of the music industry on the 50 most populous metro areas of America, pulling together data like number of jobs related to......

Ever wanted to be in the movies? Well here’s your chance. Fresh Films, a national filmmaking project for teens, is holding a casting call this Sunday for a short film. Needed are males and females in their early twenties; a total of five roles are up for grabs. More info here but it says that previous experience is not required. A casting director as well as the teen filmmakers themselves will be present. The......

Happy Father's Day! For those of you who have dads, are dads, or know dads, this one's for you, from all of us at the Gothamist network." It was a week of bizarre, embarassing headlines at DCist. The trial of the local administrative law judge who sued his cleaners for $54 million over a pair of missing pants left everyone shaking their heads. Then the capital city was nearly brought to its knees, twice, by......

If Monday’s holiday has you cramming five days of work into a four-day week and the headlines are only aggravating you further, you need to put the laptop away and get yourself to a comedy show this weekend. The Blerds, a cabal of mostly Chicago-based comics and a film producer, are celebrating their Paper Anniversary Saturday night at The Spot. Drink specials have been promised. The good people at The Bastion are totally crushing on......

Chicagoist isn’t afraid of riding coattails. In fact, we have a lot of friends that we’re just waiting to get famous so we can ride their tails all the way to L.A. It’s not that we don’t think we can make it ourselves. Of course we can — Chicagoist is very resourceful — but wouldn’t it be so much easier for someone else to make it so we can hang out? The coattails question is......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists. Austinist happily anticipated fall's Austin City Limits, even though they're not fully recovered from South By Southwest. In other......

Lake Michigan Structures?...

We beg Flannery O’Connor’s forgiveness from the great beyond for that headline, but a few tidbits we stumbled across recently just go to show that, in the weird world of TV, all paths eventually cross. You just can’t make this stuff up: Tonya Cooley of MTV’s “Real World Chicago” has gone soft-core, appearing in the Cinemax opus The Erotic Traveler 02: Lost in Ecstasy. (We would argue that “Real World” is itself soft-core, but what......

About an hour after our post on Chicago theater coping with the theater of the gridiron, we discovered the Tribune’s list of Super Sunday alternatives. We won’t even pretend that any of these events are more momentous or worth your time than the biggest Bears game since MTV was cool. But we still think they’re better than hearing yet another story about South Beach “sabor.” Are frostbitten extremities worth saving $27.50? The Shedd Aquarium, rarely......

As the world holds its breath, teetering precariously on the cusp of the Super Bowl (well, at least in America), the wheels of the -ists keep on turning. Austinist was in a musical frame of mind as they listened to the new Shins album, updated the SXSW band listings and got called "punk rock" for their efforts by MTV. And an ice storm swept through the area. Bostonist said goodbye to John Kerry's plans......

Just like Christmastime, each year Oscar season seems to start a little bit earlier. Some people were even making predictions way back in November, but we've done our best to hold our tongues. Why? Well, the Oscars are much less like a horse race and much more like just a good excuse to throw a party. If you're a film lover, it's better for your own sanity to care less about winners and losers and......

In a perplexing marketing move, some of the cast of The Real World Denver will be at Crobar on Friday for a “Premiere and Holiday Party.” Now, we’re not here to make fun of the higher-ups at MTV for having a premiere party three weeks after the actual premiere. We’re not even here to poke fun at Colie for making out with Alex and thinking they were actually going “steady.” And we’re still not here......

It's easy to watch a lot of crappy comedy on TV. "The Daily Show" is always reliable for some laughs, and "30 Rock" and SNL have their moments. But by and large contemporary TV comedy is a wasteland of retreads, anemia and laughless vulgarity. We're becoming increasingly convinced that the future of television isn't television at all. It's the internet. Because there's plenty of really funny stuff online, and most of it is even free.......

The Sun-Times is reporting that Oprah is moving out of her Water Tower Place condo to a new apartment a couple of blocks away on East Lakeshore Drive. Sale price: $6.2 million. A couple of thoughts: 1. First of all, we thought that Oprah lived at that curvy tower across from Navy Pier. The fact that she lived at Water Tower Place was news to us. A quick search for "oprah lives" on Flickr doesn't......

It used to be our fantasy — being a VJ on MTV. We could meet every band. We could go to all the parties, not to mention getting into every concert for free with backstage passes. Sure we’d have to talk to Kurt Loder, but every job has its not-so-glorious aspects. The undying adulation from Bono about our insightful comments regarding the latest U2 album would be enough to get us through those dark times.......

Dear Kanye, We love you. We’re your hometown fans. We get that you have to have vision and determination to make it to the top in the music industry. We understand the ego that goes with great talent. But, it’s time for a carefrontation. There was your issue with losing the American Music Awards' Best New Artist category to Gretchen Wilson. We thought it was a little bit odd to threaten the Grammy voters right......

Well, we’re halfway through Rocktober, and things show no sign of slowing down. Tonight’s much-hyped appearance by Lily Allen at Double Door is sold out, so if you don’t have tickets there’s no way you’re going to be able to weigh in with all the other bloggers tomorrow morning. Don’t worry, we’ll be there, and we’ll let you know how it went. If you didn’t get tickets for that, though, stop by Liar’s Club for......

Hey, have you registered to vote lately? We're just checking because the voter registration deadline for Cook County is upon us ... as in, today. Yes, yes, we realize that while you were trying to figure out if Stroger really does look like Urkel or whether foie gras is that thing you did one drunken night with your roommates in college, registering had plum slipped your mind. But don't worry; if as you read this......

Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black...

TGIF! Here are a few of the reasons why we're saying, "Hangover, be damned!" and getting up early tomorrow to feed the monster that is Ticketmaster. 30 Seconds to Mars Head Automatica Oct. 20, Congress Theatre, 6:00 p.m., $21, All Ages After a theatrics-filled set at Lollapalooza this summer, we need more of the Leto brothers. Luckily, they are returning with a slew of openers for an MTV $2 Bill show. Of course, we'll need......

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......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. Torontoist (where it's 75 degrees F as of this writing)......