Banned Books Week: Writers Recall the “Forbidden” Books of Their Youth
It’s Banned Books Week, and while it’s not a week to celebrate, per se, it’s one to faithfully observe. Those who would ban books offer different reasons for their desire […]
Review: Queens of the Stone Age Tone it Down With Spellbinding Chicago Theatre Show
On the opening night of Queens of the Stone Age’s Catacombs Tour at the Chicago Theatre, you could hear crickets chirping…and that was by design. The band’s set began with […]
Quick Spins: Tamar Berk, Bobby Conn, Sloan, Rocket, and Ryan Allen
Quick Spins takes a quick look at recently released albums to make certain you’re listening to all the quality music being released these days. And with today being Bandcamp Friday, […]
Review: Cillian Murphy Leads a Heavy but Human-Centered Steve About a Boarding School on the Brink
Though he’s broken through to the mainstream moviegoer’s radar since his Oscar win for Oppenheimer (and perhaps beforehand for his leading role on the much-loved Netflix series Peaky Blinders), Cillian […]
Review: The Great Daniel Day-Lewis Returns to Acting in Anemone, Co-Written With and Directed by Son Ronan
There’s an interview clip floating around this week where Oscar-winner (and one of our best living actors) Daniel Day-Lewis takes umbrage with having the term “retirement” attached to his recent […]
Review: Dwayne Johnson Delivers a Career-Best Performance in Benny Safdie’s Genre-bending Sports Film The Smashing Machine
Based on the 2002 documentary of the same name, The Smashing Machine does something different in the sports-movie genre by simply dropping us in the middle of the life of […]
Review: Young People’s Theatre Opens New Season with Heart, Fun and Celebration of all Things Elephant and Piggie
I like to think of Mo Willems’ beloved character the Pigeon as the Gordon Ramsay of the children’s literature world. He has a seemingly hard, brutish shell, but he is […]
Your Chicago Curated Weekend: 10/2 and Beyond
It’s the scariest time of the year as we head into the first weekend of October! Get ready for all the Halloween and fall events flooding the city. Whether your […]
Review: Wicked Drawl Closes the CheckOut Opening Festival with an Evening of Virtuosity
I was not ready. It was Sunday, September 28, and I was feeling in need of a pick-me-up for the week ahead. I had not heard Wicked Drawl previously, but […]
Words of Survival: Chicago Bookstores Respond to COVID and Book Bans
This is the third in our series of articles on The Art of Survival, in which we explore how small Chicago arts organizations are surviving post-COVID and weathering the anti-humanist and anti-diversity […]
Preview: Ear Taxi Festival Is Back!!!
For the first time since 2021, the Ear Taxi Festival will give Chicago audiences an incredible opportunity to experience its deep and extensive contemporary classical art music scene. Starting this […]
Review: Carla Gordon and Friends Round Up the Fun at the CheckOut Festival of Music
The art of cabaret has always been a vital part of the musical world in Chicago, and Carla Gordon is a headliner on that scene. Cabaret is more than singing; […]