We made our way to Kohan to capture some of its food and drink for your eyes. While known for its sushi and teppan grill dishes, it also serves authentic Korean food, as well. Martinis are $5 (1/2 price!) all day Friday and Saturday. [Previous Chicagoist coverage of Kohan: 1, 2] Kohan is located at 732 W. Maxwell Street, in University Village.......

Christopher Hiltz earns his bread and Nutella as an events photographer. But in his free time, he gets more experimental, using extended exposure and camera shakes to transform his shots of everyday objects into abstract expressionist pieces. On Saturday, September 20, Hiltz's first solo exhibition, "Everyday Ago," opens at Believe Inn, the cozy Bucktown Gallery run by ITSOK mastermind Sighn and Multi-Polar Projects. As part of the action, Hiltz will deposit around 100 of his......

Recently Chicagoist stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to check out Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe, the collection of 300 photos and works documenting the tragic bombshell's icon status and ineffable glamor. Organized by Artoma in Hamburg, Germany, and circulated by International Arts & Artists, the exhibit has passed through six countries before stopping at the CCC, where it remains until September 21. The non-photographic works presented in LaL include few highlights -- for......

Photo by Pinholay What a cool pinhole shot of downtown.......

These vintage Stereoviews from the 1933 World's Fair are mesmerizing. How come there isn't alligator wrestling in Chicago anymore? Bo-ring. More here.......

We recently had friends in town and decided to take advantage of Marche's fixed price menu on Monday and Wednesday nights ($28.95 for a three course meal). Photos taken by our much more talented photography friend, Chris Lynch, AKA "LynchSeattle". Marche is located at 833 W Randolph.......

Officials for the Indiana State Fair win today's WTF award. The pulled this wedding photo (click to embiggen), which was the state contest's highest-scoring picture, because, according to fair officials, people complained about its content. You know, because it's a...married couple sitting? The hell? Photographer Randy Baughn says he's as lost as we are. "I went to the fair last Thursday with my wife, and we went to the exhibit, and the print wasn't......

Yesterday marked the second anniversary of Weegee's Lounge, one of our favorite cocktail lounges in the city. While others like Violet Hour change out the cocktail menu with the season, Weegee's sticks to the time-honored classics and does them exceptionally. On a visit Saturday night a friend read the menu and remarked, "This should be considered one of America's true contributions to the world." Formerly a Polish bar, Weegee's is named in honor of photographer......

Roll by Threadless in May, and you will get treated to a display of photography by Chris Eichenseer, who for years has been helping to shape the visual identities of artists in the Chicago independent music scene. Eichenseer, after studying fine art photography at Uni IL – Urbana, veered into creating art for the music industry, and founded Someoddpilot Design & Photography in 1999 after the commissions started piling up. Since then, Eichenseer has stuffed......

One of our favorite Chicagoist flickr-ers, Carey Primeau, has a photography show opening tonight. We're huge fans of his Chicago-set work (one, two, three, Uptown theater pictured above) depicting abandoned buildings, and "Neglected Beauty" documents Belgian buildings that are similarly "forgotten," according to Primeau's description. The exhibit is up at the Tapestry Center, 3824 W. Irving Park, through May 3.......

One of the best things about good art is that it transports you to another world, even if it's a realistic world, that you see through someone else's lens. That concept is especially true of the work of James Spicer. His photography focuses on urban life through miniature scenes (like Rush Hour right). James, 36, was born across the street from Oz Park and thinks the best two places for hot dogs are Hot Doug's......

A little historical perspective never hurt anyone, and we're especially big fans of the photographic kind. Camera jockey Larry Schorr has ensured that we'll get our fill tonight at Small Bar, where he'll be presenting a show entitled "The Wild, The Beautiful, and the Damned," to the delight of rock 'n' roll history buffs everywhere. Schorr was front and center for the birth of America's punk tradition in the San Francisco Bay area, and through......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music The Abbey Pub will be rocking the 18-and-over goodness this evening as Flosstradamus kicks off their third annual "FlosstraPROMus," a fundraiser for the Chicago Indie Radio Project. The featured Djs for the evening are Murderbot and DJ C. Video mixing will be handled by Thunderhorse, while Clayton Hauck of everyoneisfamous.com is providing the photo......

The Illinois High School Association is coming under fire from the media this week with a story in the Reader and an editorial in the Trib about the organization's recent decision to ban photographers from high school sporting events unless they sign a document promising not to sell their photos. Yikes. The IHSA has a contract with VIP, a Wisconsin-based photography firm that takes photos at high school sporting events and sells them to athletes......

"Simone de Beauvoir in Chicago, 1952" by Art Shay Last week's "Flashback" installment on Art Shay proved to be pretty popular with fans of the famed photographer. We made mention of one of our favorite Shay photos, snapping French author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir au natural in "Nelson Algren's bathroom" from 1952. An Art Shay fan page linked to the post, which drew a response from Shay himself, clarifying some misconceptions of his......

Slideshow after the jump.........

This was a good year to be a large cultural institution. If cuts in state arts funding and unstable financial markets made a dent in Chicago’s largest museums, they sure weren’t letting on. The Art Institute remained one of the city’s prime attractions, attracting hordes of frugal visitors on free Thursday nights to piece together Richard Misrach’s disorienting beach photography and William Pope.L’s naïvely charming travelogue, or to enjoy Jeff Wall’s mind-bending photography — his......

The New No. 2, above, and Green Bicycle, below, both capture the urban photographer in its natural habitat.......

Skwp (above) and WVAllen both have our fine feathered friends on the mind.......

We're leading off today's awesome round-up by reminding everyone that, as Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier says, it's alright to cry. People seem very stressed out today — Holiday stuff? Lack of daylight? Weird diet? — but don't keep it bottled up. Let it out, and recover with some things that should cheer you up and quick: Ah, real-time graphs, how we love you. Like this one, which displays the real-time gage height of the Chicago......

Now this brings back some memories. We've always had this fascination with old movie houses. It probably started with Sunday family days at the Will Rogers Theatre at 5641 W. Belmont in the mid-70's. It was the perfect capper to a day in Belmont Central. Mom would take us shopping for clothes at Goldblatt's — those stores were actually respectable then — or Jack Robbins, maybe have some lunch under the Golden Arches. Then......

Today is a momentous occasion in Chicago Cubs history. It was on this day eighteen nineteen years ago that the Cubs recorded their first official night game at Wrigley Field, beating the New York Mets 6-4 on a national stage; the game was broadcast on NBC with Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola in the booth. Note the use of the word "official." Their first night game was actually scheduled the previous evening against the......

Spring is just around the corner, but that means that we still have just enough winter weather to push cabin fever into high gear. Fear not, we here at Chicagoist will gladly provide you with some activities that get you out of the house, but also keep you warm — a little something to pass the time until we can put that parka away for the season. Get out of the cold and into......

So, today is Presidents' Day. All you lucky financiers, government employees, library workers and Chicago Public School kids have the day off. We're pretty sure when we were kids, we got both Lincoln and Washington's birthdays off as separate holidays! Sweet. Talk about a short month. We don't really get it so much anymore, though. What exactly are you supposed to do on Presidents' Day? Have someone recite the Gettysburg Address? Think about all presidents......

Valentine's Day is such a gut-wrencher. We hardly know anyone who likes it. The Just Broken-Up With are bitter and lonely, wishing that the whole coupled world would go to hell. Or The Sad And Desperate, bemoaning the fact that they'll never, ever find someone to love them ... ever. There's The Newly Dating, who are excited to be with someone, but are unsure what exactly to do ... is this gift too much? Is......

It's October, which means Chicago’s arts community is once again collaborating with the City to promote its glorious self during Chicago Artists Month. Through Halloween, you may discover (or be reminded) how accessible and downright friendly that community is and, if they have their way, you'll spend the frigid months touring galleries instead of watching shameful TV. There's simply not enough time for us to visit every event in every corner of the city, but......

We’ve been patiently waiting for The Hottest Moms in America television show to post a gallery of audition pictures from its recent Chicago stop this past weekend. All week, we’ve been seized with the possibility that perhaps the women of Chicago are not as hot as we think they are. Is this some kind of payback for eschewing the skinny black pant faux-trend? Luckily, local photog Rich Mohr is picking up the slack with......

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......

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......

In case you hadn’t noticed, Valentine’s Day is a week away. Yeah, we're sick of it already too. Human companionship can be so exhausting. Pets are so much easier to love. Chicago shelters and rescue groups are holding several events this week – whether you’re in a relationship or still looking – to celebrate that special day. Haven’t found the perfect partner? The Anti-Cruelty Society will host its Sweet Hearts & Furry Paws adoption event......