While the state slashes the budgets of social service providers, and news organizations continue to downsize, StreetWise has found a way to persevere and succeed on both avenues after it was facing closure two years ago. more ›

Some readers may recall our interview last month with Vladimir Putin Action Comics creator Sam Derse. It looks like Derse is taking to Kickstarter to raise the money needed to self-publish a book collecting the strips he's produced thus far. more ›

Playboy Enterprises Inc. announced this morning that It's going along with a plan by founder Hugh Hefner to be taken private. Hefner has been working for months to put together a team of investors to take the company private, feeling that the company is undervalued at a time when its brand visibility is higher than ever. more ›

Chicago’s literary scene saw a few turns, upsets and successes this year. Here are handful of them. more ›

Venus Zine, the Chicago-based magazine focusing on women in music, culture, fashion and the DIY scene, is ceasing print operations. Editor-in-chief sent out an e-mail acknowledging the move and her impending layoff, saying that finances are the reason behind the move. more ›

The Tribune reported earlier today that Playboy Enterprises, amidst considerable profit losses, will outsource most of its business operations to the company that publishes National Enquirer, Men's Fitness, Star, Muscle & Fitness and other high-profile periodicals. The company, American Media Inc., will take over Playboy's print edition with the exception of editorial content in a five-year deal that Playboy hopes will return the magazine to profitability by the end of 2011. more ›

The city’s Department of Cultural Affairs is making a push to make Chicago a new hub of independent publishing. Can it work? They've hired Danielle Chapman, former editor of Poetry magazine, to lead the charge. WBEZ has the complete story. more ›

The former Highwater Books was one of the first publishing companies that made us pay attention to comics and graphic novels. After a financial failure, Randy Cheng, a former employee, started Bodega Distribution to continue Highwater's mission. Recently, Randy sent us a sampling of Bodega's wares, and we feel the torch is being carried well. more ›

Made in Chicago is back once again, to help you find socially-conscious and feel-good presents that will allow starving artists to buy dinner, or more yarn to knit their kid a scarf. Kristy Bowen, 33, is a poet and visual artist originally from Rockford. Bowen runs Dancing Girl Press, an online zine and publishing company committed to producing the work of female poets. She also sells delicious writerly and post-Victorian items from hand dyed slips... more ›

Like many school-age children, Chicagoist was definitely one to doodle in our notes. We filled many a sketchbook, inviting our friends to even add their own stuff, which we have to remember to check up on, in case any of those drawrings are eBay-able these days. We even kept random notebooks just because we liked particular sketches, especially at the expense of first-period Econ. As years passed, our illustrative skillz fell by the wayside, which explains why fellow female Sarah Becan is so, so much better than we. more ›

No repartee this week, all business. - We've received e-mails from concerned people and had to check it out for ourselves, and it looks as though Cereality at 110 South Wacker has closed down, only a couple years after Chicagoist (among other media) made a big fuss about its opening. There's even a "For Rent" sign in its front window. This kind of reaffirms our faith in the human race; if people won't pay $4.50... more ›

Head 300 miles south to The Creation Museum and you may be dazzled by their Because The Bible Said So, That’s Why! explanation of life’s origins. That prospect is too much for The Field Museum. On Friday they open Darwin, a new traveling exhibition focused on the man and scientist considered the creationists’ biggest gadfly. Now a household name, Charles Darwin is remembered primarily for publishing Origin of Species and Descent of Man, the most... more ›

Chicago native Jason Kanakis is one of those rare dudes who can honestly call himself a "career musician." He's has toured the world playing with the likes of KT Tunstall, Butch Walker, Rachael Yamagata, Aqualung, and an impressive heap of others. Now based in Los Angeles, Jason has an interesting perspective on how the Chicago music scene shapes up in comparison to the rest of the country, not to mention some pretty weird stories about life on the road. Fresh off a tour with Brett Dennen, Chicagoist caught up with Jason for a quick chat about touring, Chicago's music community, and Singapore's transvestite prostitutes. more ›

"Palm Terrace" via kookybites. more ›

Nell Taylor and Emerson Dameron, Founders of Chicago Underground Library more ›

As if the gorgeous weather wasn't enough reason to call out sick for the week, Columbia College give you another with its 11th annual Story Week: Cities of Words. Sunday kicked off the week of words with an alumni reading, and Monday's reading by Anchee Min about Maoist China was tender, raw and funny. With fifteen events over five days, you can't go to everything, but here's where Chicagoist will be: Tuesday: the Graduate Student... more ›

It's not that politicians and the media don't respect young people when it comes to voting. They know all about President Clinton and Andrew Dice Clay (whatever) putting their thumbs up for rocking the vote. They've even pretended to try to pretend to care that young people are "apathetic" about their vote, publishing studies about what a shame it is that none of the youngsters in this country participate in democracy how they want them to, or read the paper. more ›

In the US, February marks Black History Month, and while there are no shortage of opportunities to learn about important and significant people of African descent this month, the purpose and history behind the event is sometimes lost. While Africans have been present in North America at least since colonial times, black history had barely begun to be studied — or even documented — when the tradition formally began in 1926. It wasn't until later... more ›

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend... more ›

We’ll be on a light publishing schedule between now and the 26th as the Chicagoist staff takes time to celebrate the holidays with friends and family. We’ll be back in full force next week with more coverage of Chicago’s news, food and entertainment scenes as well as some special “best-of” wrap-ups for the year.... more ›

Chicagoist loves us some comics. So we were particularly pleased to see one of Chicago’s most famous practitioners of the art form, Chris Ware, receive a $50,000 grant for his work along with local artist Nick Cave (not that one) and 11 other visual artists. more ›

Hey there, little buckaroos! We sure do have us a whole herd a political tidbits to round up, so let's saddle up and git a rollin'! Mayor Daley has nothing but good things to say about convicted patronage chief Robert Sorich. In a press conference this week, he said they were all "fine young men," citing his personal knowledge of their families. He went to great pains, however, to avoid passing judgment over Sorich's 48-month... more ›

Amy Schroeder, Editor of Venus Magazine more ›

In case you missed it, there was an election yesterday. Chicagoist hopes you got out and voted. And after we rocked the vote, we rocked the Daily Bar & Grill at a special election night happy hour; you should have been there. That said, it was an exciting day: The Democrats have taken the House, but the Senate is still a toss-up. And yes, that means that Nancy Pelosi will be the new Speaker of... more ›

So the Cardinals won the Series. Yeah, yeah. The Cubs fans can't stand it, and the Sox fans are equally chagrined, what with just ruling the school last year and then not even making it the playoffs this year (insert sad foghorn noise here). more ›

It’s that time of year -- leaves are falling, radiators are clunking, and the Chicago Humanities Festival is raring to go. We love the fest, we really do. Chicagoist even worked for them for a few years. We don't want to look in gift horses' mouths, but we can't help wishing they would un-stuffy it up a little bit. Maybe book some more fun guests and authors. (Neil Gaiman sold out in minutes a few... more ›

Just a quick admin note: You may have noticed, but we wanted to let you know anyway: The Chicagoist staff has been working our asses off and rockin' out lately. We've been putting out 15-20 posts every weekday and about 4-7 each weekend day. That's right. We're not taking the weekends off any more, so be sure to check in on to see what's happenin'! Also, because we're publishing so many posts during the weekdays and only 10 posts are listed on the main page, scroll down, and press "Next" to see all of the day's posts and get in on the conversations. more ›

Scott C. Smith, Tribune Co.’s president of publishing, has been quite the firecracker this week. Los Angeles Times publisher Jeffrey Johnson refused Smith’s orders to eliminate as many as 100 newsroom positions; Smith flew to LA on Thursday and forced Johnson’s resignation (some would call that being fired). The Los Angeles Times, along with 10 other papers including the Chicago Tribune, are owned by the Tribune Co. Oh, they also own 23 TV stations and... more ›

While the male denizens of the Chicagoist offices often find themselves helpless in the face of the mighty trilogy of Male Kryptonite (cute girls, beer and televised sports), we do have our own post-feminist moments. We attribute this to spending our formative years around smart, witty and tough women who encouraged us to question the answers that society was feeding us, the kind of women who write for Bitch Magazine. more ›