MeTV has been a not-so-guilty pleasure of ours for awhile. Its non-stop parade of vintage TV is a balm to our soul. In fact, we have a Sunday evening routine of sorts. If we're at home, at ten minutes before 5 we fix ourselves a dry martini, with two bleu-cheese stuffed olives, and settle down for back-to-back episodes of Night Gallery (occasionally continuing on for some Twilight Zone if we're feeling especially couch potatoey). more ›

This is part of Chicagoist's continuing coverage of the Chicago International Film Festival. more ›

The Chicago International Film Festival begins on Thursday with The Kite Runner, a movie you'll be hearing a lot more about after the Oscar noms are announced. That's why we won't be seeing it. You see, we've got a strategy, and after many agonizing days we've got our "to-see" list all drawn up. The Kite Runner will be opening far and wide in November anyhow, so we'll wait. To us, the festival is a chance... more ›

Packer Jennings’ gleefully subversive panels, journalistic mash ups, and participatory projects hearken back to Abbie Hoffman’s Vietnam-era jabs at The Man. Jennings claimed he was unfamiliar with the Yippie agitator when we made the comparison at Three Walls last weekend, but Corporate America’s most aggravating philosophies and practices haven’t changed much since Hoffman’s klepto manifesto started disappearing off bookshelves. Three Walls’ latest exhibit features Jennings’ instruction panels for the aspiring revolutionary. Our favorite series imagines... more ›

Download the original attachment We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment... more ›

Who do you think of when you think of the average anti-war protestor? We know these days, those sentiments encapsulate more than the usual suspects. But let's scale it down a bit. S/he might be rising up against The Man, maybe biting off more than s/he can chew, maybe even a little... forgetful, for whatever reason? Who knows. We do know, however, that while hundreds of police officers showed up on Saturday at an anti-war demonstration in Washington Square, the actual protestors did not. more ›

Or as we like to call it, just another Saturday night at the Chicagoist offices. Head on over to Chicago Filmmakers this Saturday at 8:00 and catch Columbia College's Best of Doc, an evening of documentary short films by CC students. The school's Rabinger Center for the Documentary is an overlooked treasure among college film programs. Unlike L.A., which is centered on the manufacture of fantasies, we've always thought of Chicago as a quintessentially documentary... more ›

OK. Who told? more ›

Tonight's edition of the Midwest Independent Film Festival will be featuring the Chicago premiere of a few new short comedy films. more ›

First it was Mark Buehrle, who the Sox fined for using the on-field tarp as a Slip-N-Slide during a rain delay on Sunday. Buehrle told the media after the game, "I don't know if I should be talking about this. I got in trouble. … I can't be out there anymore and I can't have any fun." more ›

Chicagoist hasn’t posted much about the Oscars this year, and we think we’ve figured out why. more ›

On Monday, a City Council committee approved an ordinance allowing the Traffic Management Authority to use cameras to catch speeders. City Hall could use vans with cameras mounted inside, or equip stoplight cameras with speed detection equipment. Either way, Chicago drivers need to lay off the gas because THEY'RE WATCHING YOU. Speeding tickets produced by the cameras would include a $90 non-moving violation (what?), pending an administrative hearing at which no one will ever show. The cameras could generate millions in addition to the $13.9 already raked in by the red light cameras. more ›

A Chicago FBI agent who was almost fired for criticizing the bureau's counterterrorism efforts got his job back, but he seems a little skittish. "I look forward to going back to my squad," Robert Wright told the Tribune. "I look forward to doing my job. That's all I'm going to say." Though he will still be punished for his actions, he didn't discuss the conditions of his return because the part of his brain the... more ›

The water bottles and beer cans have all been cleaned up from Hutchinson Field so Grant Park is ready for the continuation of the Chicago Outdoor Movie Festival with another of Roger Ebert’s favorites: John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Ebert highlighted this film in one of his Great Movies commentaries. It tells a story (though perhaps not the story) of the events in Tombstone that led to the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral. Its strength lies in its ability to flesh out the relationship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and is “more about everyday things--haircuts, romance, friendship, poker and illness.” more ›

Is bringing a live version of a song cycle about Illinois to Illinois like bringing coal to Newcastle? If so, then let’s hear it for redundancy as Sufjan Stevens will be appearing at Metro on September 16th following the release of his album Illinois on July 5th. Part of a series of albums Stevens is releasing as part of his 50 States project, Illinois is the audio equivalent of the movie Waking Life: a version... more ›

Chicagoist doesn’t mind sequels. Superman II was a formative experience for us, The Empire Strikes Back was awesome and hell, we even liked Rush Hour II. But then there are the sequels that no one seems to be asking for. Like Highlander II. And a sequel to Dick Tracy. more ›

Tomorrow on your lunch break head over to Daley Plaza where they'll be celebrating Chicago Moves Day with activities from 11am - 1pm. more ›

As the organizers of Lollapalooza struggle to dot their I’s, cross their T’s, and leave the bags of money behind the correct trees, Pitchfork does them one better by announcing they’ll be “curating” the first Annual Intonation Music Festival on July 16th and 17th at Pulaski Park. (Curating? Huh. So that’s what pretension smells like). But let’s leave our own sarcasm aside for a moment because Pitchfork has done something really crazy and released a... more ›

While pitchers and catchers reported last week, today is the day for the rest of the players to arrive for spring training. Both the Sox and Cubs camps will have plenty of new faces, but perhaps the biggest change will be the silence in the Cubs clubhouse that'll be without Sammy Sosa, and his infamous boombox. Sosa might want to throw that in with the condo however, because his new manager has laid down the law in the Orioles locker room. Lee Mazzilli requires all music to be listened to via headphones only. And that even means Sosa. more ›

It’s the event that Chicago film geeks and star watchers wait all year for: The Chicago International Film Festival. This year the fest celebrates its 40th Anniversary with an expanded program featuring more galas and historical retrospectives as well as films that please both your mom and your college film professor. Opening Night is this Thursday, October 7th as the film Kinsey starring Liam Neeson lights up across the Chicago Theatre. Screenings are held at... more ›