For the ninth year running, the Empty Bottle and London’s The Wire magazine are presenting Adventures in Modern Music: A Five Day Celebration of Outsider Sounds. Following closely behind the World Music Fest, this multi-day event celebrates experimental music with an eclectic array of rare performances. more ›

To say writer Nami Mun has led an interesting life would be a gross understatement. Mun was born in Seoul, South Korea and moved to the states with her family when she was young, growing up in the Bronx. A teen runaway, her jobs have included being a bartender, a photojournalist, a street vendor, an Avon Lady, and a criminal investigator. After getting her bachelors from UC Berkeley, she got her MFA form the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award for fiction and the Farrar Prize for Drama (she's also won a Pushcart Prize and earned several fellowships). Her work has appeared in The Iowa Review, Tin House, and the Evergreen Review. more ›

In a city where a bump leads to a dead innocent teenager, nothing surprises us anymore. Including a prison beating death that stemmed from a name-calling, which happened last year at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center. Prosecutors in the case of the beating death of inmate Jason Katz claim that Jason Tolen, another inmate, beat Katz to death in March 2008 after Katz called Tolen a "snitch."

Jason Katz and other inmates began teasing Jason Tolen for "snitching" to guards about another inmate's "access to laundry items," prosecutors said in court papers this week. Tolen dared Katz to call him a snitch again, authorities said. It's unclear whether Katz responded, but Tolen walked across the room and punched Katz in the head about 20 times, causing a massive brain hemorrhage and immediate death, according to prosecutors.

There isn't much sadder than this: Blythe Ann O'Sullivan, a 25-year-old Bloomingdale native, died on Thursday while serving in the Peace Corps. more ›

The Empty Bottle, in conjunction with Britain's The Wire magazine, will host this weekend's fifth annual Adventures in Modern Music festival, a self-described "celebration of 'outsider sounds.'" The festival promises to pack 'em into the Bottle for sets by groundbreaking artists both new and historic. Daily lineups, with highlights: TONIGHT (Wednesday): White Magic, Badawi, Holy Fuck, and Graveyards & Zac Davis Drag City's White Magic is fronted by the smoky-voiced Mira Bilotte, who channels a... more ›

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... more ›

We don't know about you, but we plan to pick up a slew of international brews and spend the weekend drinking and tailgating, waiting for the United States Olympic Committee 2016 Olympic Bid Decision, which is expected late Saturday afternoon. more ›

A provocative new piece by Devin Gordon in Newsweek sets out to explain why, in his view, TV is better than movies. The way he sees it, TV programming is now "bigger and bolder" than what's on display at the local theater; Hollywood has gotten lazier and more predictable, while TV has become sharper and more agile. Ira Glass claims, "The people working in television right now are the Shakespeares of the medium." (Is he... more ›

We knew it was coming. The sophomore slump. The uninspiring live tour. Who is it this time? It’s the Killers. more ›

Now that we’re finished with school, Chicagoist gets a little nostalgic this time of year. We’re always a little jealous of the kiddies we see shopping for their pencils, notebooks and Trapper Keepers, or whatever it is they’re buying these days. We would have hated that stupid Easy Button, by the way, because the shopping was one of the best parts about going back to school. We also liked catching up on all the gossip... more ›

Sure, you like to sip the bubbly, but is that as far as you go? If you think sitting on a Champagne bottle is something you’d never do, perhaps it’s time to open your mind and adopt a try-anything-once attitude. more ›

Chicagoist thinks we had more orthodontic metal and plastic in our mouths as a kid than anyone in the western hemisphere. But if we hadn't we still could have eaten with our crooked teeth. Unfortunately, if some animals aren't blessed with straight choppers, they could die. Such is the case with groundhogs, or woodchucks. Their teeth grow constantly, and they need to grind against each other to file down or else they'll become too long and useless for eating. The Brookfield Zoo's 4-year old groundhog Stormy had a problem because his bottom teeth grew into a V, leaving a gap that his top teeth fit into. No grinding, no Stormy. So a creative veterinarian fixed Stormy's problem like any other buck-toothed, overbiting pre-teen: he put on braces. more ›

In a grand gesture that we hope will usher in the warn weather, Chicagoist has broken out the wire brush and gotten to work on one of our favorite spring-cleaning chores: scrubbing and prepping the grill. We live for those long summer evenings when we come home from work while there’s still daylight and crank up the radio to some fine jazz or the Cub’s game, pour a glass of wine/ pop open a beer, fire up the coals and get ready to enjoy the evening, and a fine dinner on the porch. Grilling is great, there’s no doubt about it. The flavor is incomparable and if you do it right, you can limit the amount of cleanup to a few bowls and plates. more ›

Check out this contender for hottest AP lead of the year. "A man who says his former lover deceived him by getting pregnant using semen obtained through oral sex can sue for emotional distress - but not theft, an appeals court has ruled." So dirty! Normally we have to buy Penthouse Letters to get our daily erotic-lit fix, but today it came free over the wire. more ›