Anne Lamott is stopping by the Oak Brook Borders tonight (one of the few Chicagoland locations that’s staying open while the company figures out all that bankruptcy stuff). She is promoting the paperback release of her most recent novel, Imperfect Birds. In this book, she continues the story of Elizabeth Ferguson and her daughter Rosie. As Elizabeth struggles with sobriety, teenager Rosie struggles with her own addiction. For more on Anne Lamott, check out our interview with her last summer. Anne Lamott reads from Imperfect Birds, Oak Brook Borders, 1500 16th Street, Suite D, Oakbrook, 7 p.m. more ›

Today would have been Alex Chilton's 60th birthday. By the time the legendary founder of Big Star (the band) passed away in March, Chilton's influence extended across two generations of power-pop groups around the world. more ›

20 years ago, renowned percussionists Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake held their first "solstice concert" in one of Links Hall's dance rehearsal rooms as a way for their friends to celebrate the holidays without having to conform to traditional (read: commercialized) ritual. It's now a tradition in itself; a Festivus for the rest of us, if you will. more ›

A recent discussion among the Chicagoist staff revealed one thing in which most of us are in agreement. We can't stand "Glee." If we were forced to watch "Glee" at gunpoint, we'd switch the channel to "NCIS," then take the bullet. more ›

Back in June, a group of musicians, artists and puppeteers staged a shadow puppet show at Three Brothers Arts Garage. The centerpiece of the show was a mesmerizing performance of "Jabberwocky," Lewis Carrol's classic poem of nonsense that added such words as "galumphing," "uffish" and "chortle" to the English language canon. The complete spectacle was brought to life in arresting visuals and the haunting narration of Sally Timms. more ›

McDonald's continues to give its stockholders reason to squeal. The Oak Brook-based company saw its profits for the third quarter increase by 10 percent, exceeding expectations and outpacing the company's performance for the same time frame last year. more ›

The equine population of Chicago has tripled this summer, thanks to the horses performing in Cavalia in the West Loop.“It’s all about natural horsemanship and movement,” said performer Casey Hackett, 26. “We’re harnessing their energy into the performance, and the show changes every time.” more ›

Mark your calendars, public art fans: Improv Everywhere is taking its spectacle-making show on the road. The annual "mp3 experiment," in which participants all download the same mp3 and convene to follow its dance-y, peaceful instructions, is coming to town. The Chicago leg of the tour is October 5, place and time TBD. Fun! more ›

Food storage is everything, particularly as we head into summer and we’ll need to be bringing a dish to share at the beach, or the park, or the neighbor’s back yard. Dixie Longate, host of the interactive drag-tastic “Dixie’s Tupperware Party,” is just the person to help you out with all your food storage challenges. Through the years, Dixie Longate (say that fast three times) has risen through the ranks to be the top-selling Tupperware “Queen.” more ›

Many would say Chicago tops the list of America’s funniest cities, so it’s fitting that our town created an awards show exclusively to honor Chicago comics. The Second Annual Chicago Comedy Awards, a three-day extravaganza taking place this weekend, sets the stage for local comedians to, well, celebrate themselves. more ›

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At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother. more ›

Lucky enough to get a few days off for the Chrismukkah holidays? Several Chicago area music entities have been kind enough to give you time-filling options. more ›

Batman flew off to Hong Kong. Here's what he'll be missing: Coming up: As we’ve mentioned, Kumail Nanjiani is a funny, funny man. Now he’s ditching us for New York. Send him off Thursday night at The Hideout, where he’ll pay tribute to Jonathan Messinger and his new book. It’s your last chance to see Kumail before he gets mega-famous or chewed up by the Gotham comedy scene. The young performers at Thirteen Pocket Productions... more ›

The largest art gallery event in Chicago that doesn’t involve Navy Pier or the Merchandise Mart, Vision 12 kicks off tonight with more than 30 gallery openings in River North and River West. New shows, plenty of group shows, run the gamut from university final projects to more established portfolios. The two week celebration of gallery goodness is presented by the Art Dealers Association of Chicago, who have, appropriately enough, chosen “the business of Art”... more ›

Dance’s big guns prance around Chicago each spring, so we won’t have to. That’s for the best, since a few too many evenings on the couch and bar stool have robbed us of our best stage leaps. At least these folks haven’t lost a step: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns to the Auditorium Theater this weekend, bringing new work and a few of their gorgeous, athletic favorites. Influences range from traditional Indian and West... more ›

OK, so we're actually stretching the truth a little. Maybe. Tomorrow at 11 a.m. there will be a ceremony outside the Chicago Theater, and Mayor Daley will present Chicago's "It" girl with a plaque in honor of "Jennifer Hudson Day." State Street will be closed between Lake and Randolph for the ceremony. more ›

That time of the year is over, we have gorged ourselves on turkey and mashed potatoes and we wouldn’t mind a little break from the family, so this weekend is the perfect time to break back into the action. more ›

No, we aren't referring to the NSA, or to the Cubs' talent scouts. We here at Chicagoist feel that it's never too early to get into the Halloween spirit. And that's why tonight you'll find us at the wonderful Siskel Film Center for the 6:00 screening of the original 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It's the next feature in the Tuesday night Fall Lecture Series; this semester the theme is Science Fiction Movies.... more ›

It's time to get creative, Chicago unsigned bands. Cingular, ABC and YouTube have teamed up to find the most creative, unsigned bands to catapult to web stardom via their YouTube Underground contest. They are asking bands to submit original videos to be voted on by YouTube's visitors in four categories: Best Song, Best Music Video, Best Live Performance, and Best Creative Work. more ›

The Emmys were last night, and if you cared, you watched. So the three of you that did can skip this post and move down the page to see what the other -ISTs wrote about last week. As for the rest of you who were catching up on episodes of "Degrassi: The Next Generation" during the big ol’ marathon this weekend, you can check out the Mo Ryan’s wrap-up here, complete with all the good... more ›

Now in its fifth year, Columbia College’s Manifest Urban Arts Festival has grown larger than most of us could ever have imagined. Then again, it's run by arts students. Their imaginations are larger than most. We’re sure someone’s done a study to prove it. Manifest is an arts festival good enough to rival any summer street fair and a graduation party large enough to make students from more conventional schools jealous. We’ve already told you... more ›

In case you missed it last night, the big awards show was incredible. No, not that awards show. We’re talking about the awards Chicagoist gave out to politicians for outstanding achievement in campaign commercials—The Campaignys. Because none of the nominees were present, the members of the Academy of Campaign Commercial Arts and Sciences accepted their awards (cans of Sparks, a drink near and dear to our blood alcohol levels) and drank them on their behalf.... more ›

Nominations for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards were announced today and thank God Kanye West was nominated several times or we would never hear the end of it. As expected, West’s “Gold Digger” picked up nods for Record of the Year and Best Rap Solo Performance while Late Registration was tapped for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album (“Diamonds In Sierra Leone” pulled a songwriting nod for Best Rap Song). Common, another member... more ›

Headed into this past weekend, Chicagoist was thinking about laying low and maybe going to see a movie. However, we were invited to attend the Lexus Press Preview event on Saturday, and our attitude changed. Sort of. When we heard that we had to get up at 7 am on a Saturday, we weren't sure we wanted to go. Really. Besides, did they know we drive a 1990 Honda Accord? Not only did Lexus not... more ›

Now that the Oscar nominations have been announced, Chicagoist plans on spending the weekend catching up on the films it’s missed so far this season. The Landmark (at Clark and Diversey) is making it real easy too; half of the films playing there are nominated for an Oscar: Being Julia, Hotel Rwanda, A Very Long Engagement, and Sideways. AMC River East has a bunch too: Being Julia; Hotel Rwanda; Closer; Phantom of the Opera;... more ›

Snow snow snow. Everybody’s cancelling plans and freaking out about the alleged “incoming snow” scheduled to income tonight/tomorrow/etc. Use extreme caution when traveling, they say. Stay home if at all possible, they say. more ›