It all first started when she started seeing apples from New Zealand in her local supermarket. “It didn’t make sense. We live in an apple-growing region,” said Alisa Smith (pictured above), half of the writing team of “Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally” at a lecture/book signing Monday night at Fox & Obel. Add to that a spur-of-the-moment meal they had to whip up for friends at their wilderness cabin in British Columbia with only the food they could forage, and the light bulb started flashing for Smith and her partner James MacKinnon. “It was the most delicious meal and was the first time we knew everything about the food on our plate,” she recalled. more ›

We don’t want to be stuck inside today, but there are no baseball games to sneak off to this afternoon. Instead, we will ponder where we could spend that paycheck besides the usual beer gardens and brothels. We haven’t seen Bumpus play live since Rachel Yamagata left to forge her own path. From the sound of things we need to get back on the funkwagon. Contriband, a Chicago experimental hip hop group, and Doko Benjo,... more ›

Chicagoist knows you have wasted a Saturday watching all the Rocky movies or watching a marathon of ESPN's "The Contender." Now it's time to get off your couch and get in the ring for the workout of a liftetime. Get started by heading down to the Chicago Athletic Association next Monday to hear John E. "The Pecos Kid" Oden talk about the sport of White Collar Boxing. Oden will also be signing copies of his book White Collar Boxing: One Man's Journey From the Office to the Ring. more ›

Chicagoist finally caught the teaser trailer of the final Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith, at the theater this weekend. Damn, it was cool. When Darth Vader showed up, we almost peed ourselves. And that hasn’t happened since…well, last week. But it wasn’t because of Darth Vader. more ›