Right Now, the State Senate is in the process of grandstanding before voting on the amended transit funding bill. You can read Rich Miller's updates to this point here. more ›

While some people are busy wondering if Barack Obama is in fact the Messiah, two of the Chicago Tribune's columnists/bloggers have been attending to some of the would-be next President's more immediate concerns. Eric Zorn has been polling readers all week as to what Obama's campaign theme song should be after mixed reviews of the music selection from his early campaign rallies. His choices so far have been a mix of classic but overplayed R&B... more ›

We have to admit it: sometimes we feel like we're the old man/lady these days, always thinking, "Back when we were young, there was no swearing on TV! Back when we were young, girls didn't dress like that! Back when we were young, people had more common courtesy!" Hell, for most of our lives you couldn't show hard liquor on TV, and there weren't such things as ads for prescription drugs. So, we did happen... more ›

You know how it goes. It starts off buying a Christmas present online during your lunch hour, then you remember that you haven't gotten your lovah anything. Then you think about something you'd like to see them in. Then you think maybe you don't want to see them in anything. Then why bother waiting until home, why not just check out some naked people RIGHT NOW? IS that how it goes? We don't know, because we don't look at porn at work!! more ›

Chicagoist gets plenty of press releases sent its way pimping everything from bands we’ve never heard of to ones we wish we hadn’t. We usually end up ignoring the ones laden with publicist-speak and looking into the simple requests from bands that make it worth braving the hellacious web design of MySpace. more ›

It's crunch time- three days before Christmas. You probably finished the shopping list and are getting ready for the weekend. Or, if you're like Chicagoist, you're now planning the New Year's Eve party/New Year's Day recovery soiree, want to spend as little money as possible on libations, or maybe even recoup some of the cash you spent during the holiday season. more ›

Along with everyone else, Chicagoist has been watching as Katrina formed, advanced, and finally plowed over New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Our hearts go out to everyone who was there and who lost family and friends, their homes and possessions. In some ways, this storm was reminiscent of Hurricane Andrew, a Category 4 hurricane that immobilized Miami-Dade County (and one Chicagoist staffer) in 1992. Both storms crept slowly towards their target, leaving Miami and... more ›

Didja know that today is National Hunger Awareness Day? And that June is National Hunger Awareness Month? Want to know an easy way you can help fight hunger? The Greater Chicago Food Depository is launching a month-long drive with FedEx and you'll be able stop by any FedEx Kinko's location to drop off canned food donations. The summer months are a super important time to remember those less fortunate. It seems that we all think... more ›

Why, why, why does all of River North smell like chocolate and/or brownies? I get off the Red Line at Grand and I immediately crave chocolate. Can someone please explain? more ›

Chicagoist was chatting it up with the clerk in our local video store last Saturday (Netflix is fine if you’re a movie junkie but sometimes you need a certain kind of fix RIGHT NOW) when a customer walked in and said he wanted a story that was similar to The Terminal. We tried to recommend Before Sunrise—Richard Linklater’s dictionary definition of a sleeper hit about two people who meet, fall in love, and talk a lot during a brief encounter on a Vienna-bound train—but after a few moments of listening to us with glazed eyes the customer turned to the clerk and said “yeah something like that only more fun.” Burn! What more could you ask for? You wanted a story of love, funny accents, and chance meetings against a backdrop of mass transit and that’s what we gave you! Go rent Wimbledon next time and see how much fun that isn’t. more ›

The tsunamis that swept across the Indian Ocean from Thailand to Somalia and killed more than 44,000 people so far may seem like a world away, but they are affecting people around the Chicagoland area in many ways. A couple of stories we've read with local ties - Dipak Jain, the dean of Northwestern's business school, has been in Thailand since December 15 to teach at a school in Bangkok. Jain, his wife, and his... more ›

We're kind of all over the place today, itching to get out of work Right Now, Or Even A Little While Ago. Our attention-span is shot to shit, so here are some afternoon tidbits: more ›