The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Gypsy jazz guitarist Alfonso Ponticelli and his band, Swing Gitan, are one of the go-to acts to fill in at the Green Mill whenever Kurt Elling is out of town for his regular Wednesday engagement. Ponticelli's faithful recreations of old Hot Club of Paris numbers, complemented with original compositions, are fresh and accessible without......

What started as Chicago actor and director David Blixt’s creative inquiry into the Capulet-Montague feud quickly became so much more. The Master of Verona, Blixt’s debut novel set in 14th Century Italy, explores Italian political life, conspiracy, the life of Dante, and the possible backstory for Romeo and Juliet. While directing the aforementioned Shakespeare play years ago, he found its all-consuming resolution fascinating and troublesome, hinting at but never revealing the source of the families’......

Ugh, finally: 28 aldermen are filing a petition to U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow demanding the City release the names of the most-complained-about police officers. The Sun-Times's spot-on editorial is completely degraded by heinous illustration that accompanies it, from the same "artist" who also did yesterday's ricockulously bad Stroger drawing. The Book Cellar is hosting "Chicago’s Wittiest Women Writers" tonight. We deeply resent not being invited to participate, but cannot deny the wit of Stacey......

Hopefully, you already love Found, the magazine and series of books created completely out of found items submitted by readers. The Found magazines and books play on a voyeur mindset of peeking at all the things that are none of your business. Items within the series, include a list about a budget with $600 set aside for crack, and other more poignant items, such as a letter found attached to a floating balloon addressed to......

The “Chicago theater season” is as anachronistic as our Columbia House Record Club membership. August was simply a lull before the crush of Fall openings coming to major institutions and their well-funded houses, who'll receive sufficient ink and column inches in the daily and weekly papers. We’re turning an eye to those less heralded venues doubling as rental space, educational resource, and meeting locale. None of these theaters are named after deep-pocketed donors, but that......

All year we’ve been hearing the hype and the promises. This week, two Chicago cultural institutions invite the public to see the results of their high profile face lifts. The venue once known as the Chicago Historical Society regularly provided modest, helpful insights into local and regional history. Now it’s been renovated and renamed the Chicago History Museum, sporting 16,000 shiny new square feet for robust programming, heeding Burnham’s command to “Make no small plans.”......

Victory Gardens Theater is shedding its identity crisis. Up until now, it was entirely possible to see show after show by the Lincoln Avenue hub’s resident companies without ever discovering a VG original. That’s too bad, since they’ve been breaking Chicago playwrights like Charles Smith and James Sherman for over 30 years. They also cast that guy from CSI years before he was popular and that guy from The Cosby Show years after he sported......

City officials have been known to capture the excitement of a cultural festival by declaring “Today we are all Irish!” to a crowd in Beverly or “Today we are all Polish!” to Jefferson Parkers. It’s amusing to think we’ll hear a Commissioner proclaim “Today we are all gay!” when the Gay Games open Saturday night, but Mayor Daley expressed his more than symbolic support earlier this week, thanking the out and proud (and commerce seeking)......

The art world is getting a little more casual with the arrival of summer. This weekend we’re looking forward to seeing quality work and engaging in stimulating discussion in a more casual environment, and maybe laughing our ass off. This weekend we're making time for the Chicago Photography Center's Spring Show, featuring 11 emerging Center artists. The CPC seemingly came out of nowhere a couple of years ago and has quickly become one of the......

The amber hues inside the Bad Dog Tavern offset its cool décor, as does the friendly staff – enabling this Lincoln Square tavern to be both welcoming and trendy. At 4535 N Lincoln, the Bad Dog Tavern is outfitted with dark woods, granite floors, metallic frames, copper-colored tiles and low lighting. When Chicagoist stopped by for lunch on Sunday – although sunny outside – the tavern was dimly lit. The bar is spacious, with......

Any best-of list is subject to extreme reactions – those of total agreement, as well as complete disapproval. But, in Esquire’s June issue, its list of the Best Bars in the Midwest included a handful from Chicago. And, our reaction? A resounding “Yeah, OK, why not” and a shrug of the shoulders. Certainly, some of the picks seemed more worthy of “best” status than others, but nothing was so off-the-charts wrong that we needed to......

We had a little bit of an obsession over Rock Star: INXS because of local talent Marty of the Lovehammers. We want you to be our next obsession. Head on over to the Elbo Room at 2871 N Lincoln Avenue this Saturday (March 11th) between 10 am - 4 pm to be the lead singer of a rock "super-group". Rock Stars in the making must be able to sing three songs performed to a track......

Three photography shows have come across our radar within the last day and we'd like to share them with you. They're each very different from one another but all seem worth checking out. The first is helping celebrate Black History Month. "The Journey: The Next 100 Years" is a photo exhibit on display at Roosevelt University and shows life in the black community, Chicago through the eyes of African-American photographers. The opening ceremony is on......

Costello Sandwich and Sides, 2015 W Roscoe [Roscoe Village] and 4647 N Lincoln [Lincoln Square] , was one the first places from which Chicagoist ever ordered carryout when moving to this fair city. In 1999, this oven-baked sandwich shop in Roscoe Village was a year old and one of Chicagoist's friends worked there and swore, in all of her years of working a food line, that the food was as fresh as she's ever......