It's sad moment for fans of Twin Peaks and Stargate SG-1. We've just learned that character actor Don Davis passed away on June 29. The cause of death was a massive heart attack. Davis appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows over years (including The X-Files), but we'll remember him best as buttoned-down, extraterrestrial-hunting Major Briggs on Twin Peaks. He had one of the best lines of dialog in the whole series, delivered in his usual warm and burnished baritone, "To have his path made clear is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence." The role of Major Briggs lead directly to being cast as a very similar character on Stargate SG-1. He played Maj. Gen. George Hammond in over 80 episodes (!) more ›

The Hideout is one of Chicago's more curious rock venues, presenting live music in a space that’s one part Elks Lodge, one part Uncle Dan’s rec room. But the strangely homey, lived-in space lends depth to Walkabout Theater’s “site-specific” production of Mark Guarino’s “Overnight Lows,” an insomniac tale set in a seemingly familiar but subtly off-kilter world. Extracting drama from everyday locales is Walkabout’s bread-and-butter; the company previously examined mundane daily rituals in a laundromat... more ›

Some fairy godmother at the Siskel must be granting wishes lately. Not only did they bring Helvetica to town and decide to mount an Antonioni series (including the radically awesome, hard-to-see Zabriskie Point) but now we've learned that next week they're launching "Lost Highways & Wild Hearts: The Films of David Lynch." Wild at heart and weird on top; or, as Gordon Cole might exclaim, "This is like some sort of miracle. A ...a phenomenon."... more ›

There’s been a lot of ink spilled about Chicago’s cornucopia of music events this summer, but yesterday’s RedEye also clued us in to several film festivals that are happening in the next three months, including ones we’ve covered like the Silent Film Festival and the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival as well as upcoming events we haven’t like Reeling’s Gay Games fest, the Onion City Experimental Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival. Here are... more ›