With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did. Austinist wasn't as the NY Times dissed them and a local Tex-Mex institution sold out. Making them feel better was music, sweet music and the local theater getting name checked on "Heroes." Chicagoist tried to wrap their heads around a religious movie being banned from a Christmas themed park. To wash that... more ›

If you’ve been keeping up with the site this week, you know that Chicagoist made a new friend in local rocker Richard Marx. And though we’ve had a bit of fun at his expense (and he at ours), we’ve also been spending quite a bit of time going over his old videos. So it seemed only right to make this week’s Friday Afternoon Diversion all about him. The “take this job and shove it”... more ›

The return of fall means no more suburban sheds or city parks filled with the sounds of rock. Instead, it’s time for live music fans to head inside to dark clubs that smell of cheap menthols and stale beer. We couldn’t be happier. Apparently, we’re not the only ones, as shows from Sufjan Stevens and Social Distortion/Supersuckers are already sold out. Here are a few with tix still available. We've never really bought what Cursive's... more ›