, in which he's so far starred in more than 1,750 adult films and directed more than 135. more ›

If you're looking to add a little mystery to your holiday repertoire, this month's local author night at the Book Cellar is mysterious. The writers will be on hand after to sign books for last-minute presents and answer questions. more ›

This weekend marks a crucial point for the 45,000 registered LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Participants. Six weeks out, runners begin their six-week taper that will build up to the event on Sunday, October 7. Most runners will train for 18 weeks or more, so staying motivated is often one of the greatest challenges to participating in a marathon. Now in its 30th year, race organizers have launched a new Web site to help motivate and... more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too – two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the... more ›

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA... more ›

We know that sometimes the volume of posts at Chicagoist can be a bit much to keep up with. For that reason, we developed our Favorites page, which shows you the top ranked stories over the last day, week, month, or year. We've recently added an "all time" option — did you know that the most commented story in the history of Chicagoist.com is "Fields to Become Macy's in Fall 2006" which was posted on September 20, 2005, and got 178 comments. more ›

We all know that lists are great for pulling in readers and encouraging debate. As a matter if fact, this trend has grown into obscenely silly proportions in the MS(music)M, but we suppose they will do whatever they can in an attempt to keep themselves fresh. We’re looking at you Blender, Q, Rolling Stone, and Entertainment Weekly. (We’re letting Time off the hook for this one since their recent music list was just so obviously wrong, and people tend to turn to them for news and not music.) more ›

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. more ›

Cheetara(h) more ›

The weeks starts out right when a sucker punch on the field lands Chicagoist in the middle of a Sox/Cubs throwdown and the fists continue to fly in the comments. Despite suburban resident Ms. Pinney's best little try no books will be banned anytime soon and the El is really really gross. Houstonist is there to start compiling the punditry when when the guilty, guilty Enron verdict comes down. This guy seems to be able... more ›

In the heat of grilling season, Chicagoist gets his ribs from Moo & Oink. (Everybody, now: "Moo and oink. Moo, moo, mooo and oink"). And if you spend any amount of time watching television, the commercials are fairly ubiquitous. So we were floored when a fellow member of the Chicagoist staff told us about this jingle contest that Moo & Oink is promoting, but didn't know about Moo & Oink. Once we caught the staffer up to speed, we started to think, "Why tamper with perfection?" more ›

Is it just us, or are all the people who are looking forward to Snakes On A Plane, the once-and-perhaps-future sleeper hit of the summer, setting themselves up for disappointment? If you’re a regular reader of this site, you’re probably all over SOAP as you pride yourself on being up on the latest pop culture happenings. But for your boss, who’s currently going through the history on your browser so she can find a reason... more ›

Remember when the readworthiness of a book was judged by the number and quality of pictures it contained? Up until first grade: the more illustrations, the more colorful, the better. In second and third grade, chapter books with colorful covers and line art inside were the coolest. By fourth grade, anything with pictures was FOR BABIES, though we still enjoyed the occasional Where the Wild Things Are, or, when the season was right, The Polar... more ›

Steve James. more ›

Chicagoist has always had a love/hate relationship with the news. For all its faults, we love it anyway. Sort of like a dog that pees the rug and chews our furniture but nuzzles against us at night to tell us about our how the economic stability of Chile might affect our country’s foreign policy. And we know the big cliché in the news biz is that nothing really happens in August, but it doesn’t seem like the local and national MSM are even trying anymore (and apparently neither are we...). more ›

Chicagoist has always thought of library work as a noble calling--you gotta do it for the pure love of it, not the money. That is, until we learned about one Springfield librarian who has been raking in the dough (not to mention her own personal library) by skimming off donated materials. Lori Burger allegedly pilfered a couple thousand books, CDs, and videos from a public library in Springfield, selling about half on Ebay for... more ›

When Chicagoist tried out for the freshman girls' basketball team in high school and somebody asked if we always shot with two hands, we pretty much made the decision right then and there to just stick with track and cross country. As such, we find it difficult to imagine walking our little blonde-in-the-summertime white-girl self around Chicago looking for pickup ball games. And as such, we find the premise of Melissa King's She's Got Next:... more ›

When Chicagoist was growing up, we begged our parents to buy us a pair of parachute pants because we thought they were so cool. Nevermind that they looked ridiculous on us and didn’t fit quite right; we proudly wore them to school and were mocked openly by our classmates. We were reminded of that traumatic childhood moment this week when Oscar producer Gil Cates was forced to respond to comments Chris Rock made in Entertainment Weekly about the Oscars being “idiotic” and “a fashion show.” Cates assured the masses that Rock’s comments were just “humorous digs.” You know, the Academy got uptight when Letterman did that whole Uma/Oprah thing a few years back. So we’re wondering what the reaction will be if Rock calls Jack Nicholson “Ol’ Dirty Cracker.” But hey it’s all part of keeping it “hip-hop loose.” Yeah, that always works real well. more ›

ATA is selling off its assets at Midway in an effort to avoid bankruptcy, according to a report in today�s Financial Times. The cheapo airline, which is Chicagoist�s most-used carrier, is trying to get rid of leases on 14 airport gates and more than 30 Boeing 737-800 planes. As a side note, that image is right off the ATA website, which is horribly sad in a certain way. more ›

After all of the craptacular cinema from the last few months, Chicagoist is definitely ready to get the fall (and the Oscar party) started. I mean, what do the multiplexes have to offer right now, Alien Vs. Predator? "No matter who wins, we lose." Damn right. (See McSweeney's Internet Tendency for a funny take on that epic battle.) Entertainment Weekly's Fall Movie Preview issue, that guilty pleasure among guilty pleasures, and the recent barrage of trailers for the award season's line-up, have us really excited for what's to come. In the past day, we've seen trailers for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, I Heart Huckabee's, and Sideways all hit the web. So here is Chicagoist's Fall Movie Preview (far less glossy and pleasurable than EW, mind you) of these three hotly anticipated (by us, at least) films by three hot young directors... more ›