Funny Ha-Ha is a monthly reading series at the Hideout, hosted by local author and all-around funny person Claire Zulkey. more ›

When the mists were still clearing over a still developing local online media landscape there arose a great battle between a onetime Chicagoist wordsmith by the name of Scott Smith and a local musician that had seen better days. more ›

Running down a few of the great literary events going on around the city over the next couple of days. Check out more inside. more ›

Tomorrow is the Chicago Media Future Conference (register to go if you haven't yet!). In preparation, one of the conference's organizers and former Chicagoisto Scott Smith - who talked to Karl in this week's podcast - stopped by WBEZ to check out the situation at Chicago Public Radio. What he found was not quite what he expected. more ›

In this week's entry to the Chicagoist Podcast Series, we once again attempt to save the ass of journalism, or at least help out in our own small little way. Also, anyone that spent their prom night home soldering electronics, playing role-playing games or poking at their orthodontic headgear: the Chicago Geek Prom could be for you, and we'll tell you all about it. more ›

Still looking for something to do tonight? The outstanding combo of Mavis Staples and Booker T & the MG's play the Harris Theater tonight for the Old Town School of Folk Music's annual benefit. Staples is also supporting her upcoming Live: Hope at the Hideout, a recording made this June at, well, the Hideout, that's out this Tuesday. FYI - the liner notes for the disc are by Time Out Chicago's (and former Chicagoist contributor) Scott Smith. As of post time, good tickets were still available. more ›

Ah, to have the budget of a magazine to play with. Scott Smith at Time Out Chicago gets to play with dolls action figures. Now Chicago Magazine's Jeff Ruby and John Kenzie have created "The Adventures of Steak Man," the "corn-fed crusader" who bears a striking resemblance to a middle-aged Burt Ward. more ›

Chicagoist alum Scott Smith once described Morgan's on Maxwell as "a great destination for anyone who wants to take a date to dinner without missing SportsCenter." The burgers and other sandwiches here, however, have some merit. Although every time we step into Morgan's we can't help but think about all the dugouts, tube socks and "Grown Folks Music" we used to buy in the same location when Maxwell Street was, well, Maxwell Street. more ›

Chicago Magazine's February issue has a list of 171 Chicago-based websites they think are worth checking out. Naturally we're in there ... twice! Once under "News Reporting" and then again as Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis' personal picks. The thing is until today, the only place this list lived was in the magazine, even through Chicago Magazine's website has been telling us "story coming soon" for weeks now. more ›

In our experience, most people who eat at Costello's Sandwich and Sides get the same thing every time. It's their Costello's Match. Former Chicagoist editors Scott Smith and Erin Shea love the Heartland and Smokin' Turk, respectively. Our boyfriend's favorite is the Italian Grinder. For us, our Costello's Match is the Turkey Focaccia. Generally speaking, the Turkey Focaccia is a basic turkey sandwich — turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomato, vinaigrette. But what makes this sandwich... more ›

We're jetting off this weekend to see some family away from our dear Chicago, but if we were here, this is where you'd find us. more ›

So, since yesterday when we posted the literal scoop about WLUW's potential future as an independent, community, listener-sponsored radio station, we've gotten some more information. First and foremost, we got an email from Craig Kois, who relayed the following to us: "Jocelyn...Thanks for your detailing of Monday's meeting. I have forwarded the link to our staff since I was not able to take notes that evening as planned. I do want to clarify that... more ›

Nearly all of us agree that Frank Kruesi was a big DB that couldn't keep the CTA from being in a continuous state of CF always leaving everyone going WTF? And it was with great hope that Chicagoist saw Ron Huberman come on board with promises of administrative cuts and just not being Frank Kruesi. However, over at Time Out Chicago, our old pal, Scott Smith, posted that, yet again, the CTA is threatening fare... more ›

Tonight, Roger Ebert will make a public appearance at the opening of his annual Overlooked Film Festival. It's the ninth annual, and it's held at the University of Illinois at Urbana. Roger wrote a really great piece yesterday about his recent surgeries and his illness as it concerned his attendance at the festival. Cancer of the salivary gland spread to his right lower jaw, and a segment of his jaw was removed. He had two... more ›

You may remember our former editor Scott Smith's performance at Schadenfreude's December Rent Party, where he read his infamous correspondence with Richard Marx. Chicagoist is having a bad week, so we were cheered up when Mark Bazer from the RedEye sent us a link to a video of his performance that night as the Ravinia programming director. Tune in for a preview of Ravinia's upcoming season, but if you don't want to watch the... more ›

Platteville, WI is planning a Chicago Bears training-camp museum. Thanks to a $200,000 grant from the NFL Grassroots field program, the grass football field at Lane Tech will be replaced with a synthetic playing service. People are loving this idea: For $150 you can get a customized South Side Irish St. Patrick's day parade street banner. They're green and have shamrocks and white lettering and you can put family names and memorial tributes on... more ›

We must admit, we've had our setbacks this year. A new year sounds pretty enticing as we wipe the 2006 slate clean, but we figure we may as well finish off this year strong. There are multiple things going on this weekend that are notable, as always feel free to add additional events in the comments section. Start your weekend off right with some good music. Tonight at theHideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, The Venom Lords,... more ›

Chicagoist is not immune to the nostalgia that strikes all media entities at the end of the year, as evidenced by the orgy of posts this week that looked back at significant happenings in food, booze, theatre, art, music, movies and photography. The desire to pontificate on this year's newsworthy events in Chicago is a powerful one, but we're saving ourselves for tomorrow night. Chicagoist co-editors Rachelle Bowden and Scott Smith will be guests on... more ›

Although many members of our staff are involved in noteworthy projects outside of our daily blogging duties, we generally don’t report on everything we do, reserving our self-coverage to only the coolest activites. Rachelle Bowden on "Eight Forty-Eight"? Cool. Scott Smith on "Chicago Tonight"? Trés Fab. Shannon Saar’s intricate ode to Louis Sullivan in gingerbread form? Well, that’s worth telling you about. Shannon, who writes on the weekend shifts and is one of our... more ›

If you missed Scott Smith's performance at Schadenfreude last Friday, you've got to check this out. It's hysterical. Scott read his correspondence with Richard Marx and a special guest read Richard Marx's side of the correspondence. It should be noted that we invited the real Richard Marx, himself, to attend, but he declined. more ›

We can’t turn our backs for a minute without those creatives making all sorts of trouble. Good for them. Let’s catch up and find more excuses to get out of the house this winter: Comedy/Theater Schadenfreude holds their December Rent Party tonight, where Chicagoist editor Scott Smith will read his correspondence with Richard Marx. Will the mulleted 80s rocker show up? No, but he’ll be played by a special guest. The monthly showcase of local... more ›

Tune in tonight at 7pm to see our very own Scott Smith on Chicago Tonight. He'll be rapping (literally, we can only hope) with host Elizabeth Brackett about the CTA and other Chicago current events. We guess this means we'll never really know how tall Phil Ponce is. Set your TIVO! more ›

There was quite a lively discussion yesterday afternoon in the Chicagoist offices. One we wanted to share with you, gentle reader, on this most special of days. As we were talking about the Illinois Bar Association's endorsements of judges to be retained, we got to talking about how weird it is to vote for them. Some of us felt that there shouldn't be judicial elections, arguing that the Constitution intended for the judiciary to be... more ›

Last night was all about the Gutter Twins. The Double Door was packed, and the pheromones soaking the crowd served to fill in what little empty space there was. Greg Dulli's latest incarnation of The Twilight Singers has expanded to include the whiskey-soaked tenor of ex-Screaming Trees / Queens of the Stone Age vocalist Mark Lanegan, and we couldn't dream of a better aural foil for Dulli's own decadent squall. Dulli opened the show, strutting... more ›

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... more ›

Hard though it may be to believe, occasionally we at Chicagoist carry differing viewpoints. These tend to manifest themselves most strongly when it comes to discussion of the arts, though we have learned that the way to resolve contrasting opinions need not be through a duel to the death. Anymore. So with that in mind, we decided to hand associate editor Scott Smith and music critic Tankboy each a copy of the new Catfish... more ›

It’s only the second day of June and we’re already feeling overwhelmed with all the events that are on tap for this summer. This month is extra chockfull of good times thanks to Music With Meaning, a series of events to raise money for two great causes: America’s Second Harvest and Rape Victim Advocates. Music With Meaning is a series of 30 music and literary events throughout the 30 days of June. You want jazz?... more ›

The voice that breathed velvet soul is now silent. Smooth voiced Grammy-winning singer and Chicago native Lou Rawls passed away this morning after being hospitalized in Los Angeles for treatment of lung and brain cancer. Mr. Rawls was introduced to music by his grandmother and the gospel strains of church. He started singing professionally in the mid-'50's with the L.A.-based gospel group the Pilgrim Travelers, whose contemporaries the Soul Stirrers featured at that time the... more ›

In the last several years, media offerings like the Independent Film Channel and iFilm.com have made it easy for anyone to see indie films from the comfort of their own home. But for the last 28 years, Chicago indie film lovers have been enjoying interesting and provocative films from the comfort of their couch thanks to WTTW’s Image Union. Its new season begins on October 4th and Image Union is celebrating by bringing the films... more ›

With apologies to Eric Zorn if it weren’t for Phil Rosenthal’s media columns and “The Boondocks” Chicagoist’s Bridgeport correspondent would have no concrete reasoning for actually reading the Tribune. However, when someone (um, Scott Smith) clues us to an article like this from Tuesday’s edition of the World’s Greatest Newspaper (an aside to Neil Steinberg: that’s the Tribune’s slogan) and asks us if we can work a local angle into this we’re happy to oblige,... more ›