Kevin Coval’s Everyday People book release makes for cerebral entertainment so nice you can see it twice. Tonight and tomorrow night you can witness the locally born, bred, and based HBO Def Poet in the flesh, performing various selections from his latest poetry collection. Also in on the gig: participants from Louder Than a Bomb, the annual Chicago spoken-word smackdown Coval put together to facilitate area teens’ poetic self-expression. A “talk-back” session with Coval and......

Poet Thax Douglas has long been described as a polarizing figure in the local music scene, but after viewing the recent documentary on Douglas, Thax: The Movie, we've decided that viewpoint is skewed and incorrect. While there are a number of incredibly vocal critics who deride Douglas' presence at shows, the overriding majority of musicians and concert attendees appreciate his contributions to the community. Luminaries from Ted Leo, to Josh Caterer, to Jeff Tweedy sing......

Photo by Coollead Behold, an actual Memory Lane! It's near Foster and Canfield.......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music Pat McCurdy is one of those people who have been around forever. Seriously. Literally forever. His everyman songs appeal to a wide swathe of the population, which would explain his loooong-running Monday night residency at Beat Kitchen. He's sort of like a cross between Robbie Fulks and Jimmy Buffet, if you can imagine that.......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music During the day, she's the Chicago correspondent for the Nikkei stock exchange's newpaper. After hours, Yoko Noge is one of the more adventurous musicians in the city, with an innate grasp of the blues that many folks born and raised in this city would kill to have. Singing both in English and Japanese, Noge......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Aquarium: The Shedd Aquarium is offering free admission to its general exhibits, and reduced admission to the fancy-schmancy ones, all this week! We haven't been there in a while so this is an excellent opportunity for us to check in on all the fishies and the whales. 1200 S Lakeshore, weekdays 9 a.m. until 5......

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Music: If you think we piss piss piss and moan moan moan about Mayor Daley on this site too much, then head to the Empty Bottle this evening. The bands Mayor Daley and piss piss piss moan moan moan - and their abrasive noise rock - open for the experimental noise music of Binges. 1035......

At a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Scholarship Breakfast this morning, Governor Blagojevich gave a three-minute speech, and included this charming verse, aimed at the seniors in the audience. There were some dark clouds hovering over the CTA. But those dark clouds have rolled away. Now the sun is gonna shine So you can get on the blue line, the brown line, the red line. And everything will be just fine. [Trib]......

What do you get when you combine an elaborate set design, rock and roll magicians, acoustic custom poetry, and a melange of feel-good local bands? A whole lotta awesome, that's what. Tomorrow night, newly created local label Comptroller Records debuts its new bimonthly showcase, nay, REVUE, at Ronny's, proving it represents more than just a collection of local musical acts. The show promises to include a debut set by the Spectacles, raw tracks from the......

Chicago Calling, a collaborative festival linking Chicago-based artists with international friends and counterparts, continues tonight and Saturday, the exclamation point to Chicago Artists Month 2007. The festival as exchange program is perfect for an age where Skype, Google Talk, and unlimited wireless plans have dissolving the distance between us and our European, African, and Asian friends. If you’re commuting through the Thompson Center tonight, stop by the front plaza to hear Jennifer Karmin’s “Beast Poem,”......

We hope some of you got a chance to go to something at the Chicago Book Festival last week, but if not, here’s your chance. Our take on the second week: Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst, discusses and signs his newest book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, and maybe adds a few pointers for broke Chicagoists. Monday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m., Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St., Cindy......

"When I was younger, I used to try and charm women into taking me home so I could, you know, get a look at their ... bookshelves." Troy Jollimore says this about judging people based on what books they read, and as a preface to his poem consisting of the titles of books he's read or owned. Jollimore, alongside authors Emily Flake and Rebecca Barry, read their work last night at September's Bookslut reading, nestled......

Conventional wisdom says that we should not speak ill of the deceased, but that's a tall endeavor if we're to take the pundits' criticisms of William Wirtz as law, although one has surprised us with his restraint. The longtime Blackhawks owner and liquor magnate passed away early this morning at the age of 77 from cancer. It's easy to say that Mr. Wirtz was stuck in a bygone era, treating his beloved hockey franchise as......

Braless and wearing an oversized white T-shirt with a hand drawn peace sign and the word "Love" written underneath it, Patti Smith humbly began her set with an extra-Jamaican sounding "Redondo Beach," fumbling some of the lyrics and apologizing to the crowd for being too excited. We have been waiting approximately 26 years to see Patti Smith live, and with this spirited, yet slightly clumsy beginning, we were beginning to wonder if we waited too......

Having attended the Printers Ball in the past, we knew that the free-to-all-comers event would attract more than its fair share of people. We also hoped that having Bridgeport's Zhou B Center host this year's model would allow for more accommodation of guests. We had intended to show up as the Zhou B Center is practically in our backyard, but decided to first pay our respects to the recently departed. Unfortunately, as we were making......

Sometimes we long for the old days when there were no cell phones. Text messaging was only for the über-rich Skytel set, and there was no reminder to silence your phones at the beginning of every concert, movie, poetry reading, dance recital, etc. It was much quieter then. And much, much cheaper. But in 2007 we are all carrying around computers in our pockets. Just over thirty years ago, in order to get a fraction......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Chicagoist doesn't think about poetry much. Oh, sure, we acknowledge its timeless beauty and reason for being, mostly through the cramped pages of our high school notebooks. And we recognize its innate role in the magical media of music — after all, "my hump" and "my lumps" rhyme sublimely, do they not? Surely it must be Fate. But we jest. Overall we take poetry for granted, preferring instead the down-to-earth words of novels and stories.......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese......

Chicagoist is not easily star struck. We’ve done our fair share of entertainment-biz mingling, and the last time we remember getting that knot-in-stomach, sweaty-palm, motor-mouth anxiety about meeting a “star” was when a third-string catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers visited our 5th grade class to talk about staying off drugs and saying our “pleases” and “thank yous.” Imagine our surprise last March when the old nerves started to jangle at the prospect of meeting Rocky......

Nell Taylor and Emerson Dameron, Founders of Chicago Underground Library...

Whenever Chicago gets overcast skies, our mind drifts to highfalutin' aspirations and rainy afternoons spent cuddled in an old bookstore like After-words or a creepy museum like The International Museum of Surgical Science. Here are a couple of places we'll be shedding off our rainy day blues this weekend. Chicagoist really wants more tattoos. Even if we can't afford them right now, we can drool over Mitch O'Connell's aptly named new book Mitch O'Connell's Tattoos.......

Quincy Long’s The Joy of Going Somewhere is performed sans scenery, props, and fancy costumes. In Rubicon Theatre’s production, the set is low tech: a few chairs, a table and a couple of risers on hand for quick scene changes. But out of the ether, Director Josh Johnson, his cast, and a Foley artist construct a rich world and lead a journey worth taking. It’s a mistake to assume producing such a low-tech show is......

Normally we are proud of the fact that we don't own a car, what with auto fatalities rising, global warming, and the always increasing dependence on oil. But, those things mean nothing when the wind is nipping at you like a thousand angry piranhas. So this weekend we are going to get re-acquainted with our four wheeled counterparts. After that we are going to reserve a car here, or here, and enjoy our weekend. As......

Discussions about Black History Month have become as complex as discussions about race. Debating the labels ‘black’ and ‘African-American’ lead to debates about biracial identity and, recently, whether Senator Obama, Joe Biden’s “first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” friend, is actually African-American. In the same vein, Black History Month has increasingly been relabeled African-American Heritage Month and African Heritage Month, terms emphasizing the present and future as......

Well that was quick. Little more than a week after we reported on Thax’s burgeoning singing career, Tribune reporter Kevin Pang tell us that Thax is hopping a midnight train to Chicago and returning to the city that helped make him semi-quasi-famous. Apparently, Thax was unable to find a job or continue crashing at the recording studio he called home while living in NYC. He plans to seek employment here and presumably continue his poetry......

Dammit. Our heads are reeling, and we’re feeling, don’t know, slightly under the weather … like the room is shaking, and our heads are shaking and shit … shouldn’t have snorted all that coke, feel like strangling someone, need piano wire. Where is that letter? The letter, where is it, where did we put it? That letter about this month’s Convince Us. We were reading "House of Leaves," and Scott Smith of Chicagoist wrote this......

In case you weren't paying attention earlier, the Chicago Humanities Festival begins tomorrow. Really, we’re not kidding. Judging by the long scroll of sold-out shows in the website’s festival updates section, advance ticket sales have been brisk. And at $5 a pop to see the likes of General Wesley Clark, Garry Trudeau, and Paul Krugman, are you honestly surprised? This year’s theme, Peace and War: Facing Human Conflict, speaks to growing apprehension about America's military......

Today is the first day of October and that means it is the start of World Vegetarian Day. According to Wikipedia, the day was established in 1977 by the North American Vegetarian Society. We plan on taking the opportunity to try out one of the many vegetarian friendly restaurants we haven't been to today, and you should to. Today is the final day of The 36th Annual Pilsen East Artists' Open House . The open......

Tonight at the Hideout is the final show in the “Farewell To Thax Douglas” mini-tour of Chicago. Thax will perform his signature brand of poetry before sets by Chicagoist fave Sybris, Tight Phantomz, Dick Prall, and Daniel Knox. According to a recent interview at Transmission, some friends of Thax will also throw down some musical stylings and spoken word. We’ve been following the ups and downs of Thax for the last several months, from the......