Richard Cotovsky never did any theater when he was at Senn High School or Niles North, where he graduated. And he had nothing to do with theater at college, first at Southern Illinois, and then at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was a guitar-toting pharmacy major. But in his senior year, in 1976, perusing a course list and in need of an elective, his eye fell on Introduction to Theater....
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Much of the discussion tromped over ground familiar to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with the Alinea Story: Achatz’s childhood washing dishes in his folks’ Michigan restaurant; his formative years at the French Laundry, which taught him everything there was to know and then some about classical technique; the epiphany sparked by a five-day stage at Ferran Adria’s El Bulli — and the apparently amiable, but painful, rift it caused between him and French Laundry chef Thomas Keller....
QI am a kinky, youthful 72-year-old guy. I grew up in the Pleistocene era, when there was virtually no way to meet a kinky woman. I’ve had two vanilla marriages, and three months ago I ended a four-year vanilla relationship with the best woman I’ve ever met. I just couldn’t take not being a BDSM person anymore, and I broke up with this wonderful woman so I could do BDSM. I’ve had some fun, but no candidate for a possible LTR has come along....
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » “I write to announce and explain a new Law School policy. It is presently experimental, and will make its way into our Handbook after some experience and opportunity for feedback. I am tempted to begin with news aimed at those of you who miss the Law School while on Spring Break. We have, after all, hired some terrific new faculty, and the crews are busy in our front yard....
Every time Garin Fons dreams up a new piece of meat to cure, stuff, or process—say, nduja or goat bacon or pistachio- studded mortadella—he sends the ingredient list and the processing notes to Wisconsin state meat inspectors and waits for the go- ahead. If they don’t like something about one of these formulations—say, too many nitrates in the recipe, or a fermentation period that’s too long—they reject it. Best of Chicago voting is live now....
First impressions are always the best. Whatever you comprehend is ultimately a reflection of the type of person you are. You first meet someone and yeah, they look good or yeah, they look bad. Either way you know exactly where or how far it will go with the person. You see one that looks good, alright awesome. Then you continue on with the person. Then you look again some time later and you are left scratching your head trying to figure out when or where it went wrong, trying to figure out exactly how you got to this point and why you are spending so much time even wondering why you care to even know the answers....
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » I’ve been sticking mostly to new music when I contribute a 12 O’Clock Track, but between the death of Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys on Friday and my post yesterday about Spot’s old photos from his hardcore days, I’ve been sucked into a nostalgia vortex. Probably my favorite Philadelphia hardcore band from the 80s was a peculiar outfit known as Ruin, most of whose members were practicing Buddhists who usually dressed in all-white clothing onstage....
Meanwhile, at the corner of Wilson and Sheridan, where the gangbangers raised havoc a couple of nights ago, a local man tells Mary Schmich that “he loves the neighborhood and has come to believe that if violence is going to get you, it can get you in any neighborhood.” Which may be so, but I’m glad my daughter moved out of that one a few months ago. Best of Chicago voting is live now....
Harris Theater for Music and Dance 205 E. Randolph 312-334-7777 Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » You don’t have to be a student and you needn’t pay handling fees to get cheap rush tickets for Chicago Opera Theater’s innovative, consistently high-quality productions at the Harris Theater. Just show up at the box office at the right time—5-6 PM the same day for evening shows, noon-1 PM for matinees—and, depending on availability, which is almost always good, you’ll be able to pick up a ticket at half price....
The 29th Chicago International Children’s Film Festival presents weekday shows for school field trips, weekend shows for young children, and weeknight shows for older children. But in addition to the children’s programming, there are also some special events of interest to grown-up cinephiles. Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » The Oregon-based animation studio Laika, Inc., made its name with the macabre children’s fantasy Coraline (2009) and scored again this summer with ParaNorman....
Irreal Spacey local foursome Disappears have just shared the first single from their upcoming fifth LP, Irreal, and it’s another step forward in the band’s heady progression. Starting out as a Krautrock-influenced garage act, Disappears have grown into a minimal, weirdo-rock monster, toying with psychedelia, electronics, and industrial to create an ice-cold and hypnotic soundscape that is completely their own. The new track “Another Thought” sees the band getting even more controlled, pushing the song forward with Noah Leger’s restrained drumming, topped off with Brian Case’s hushed, eerie, spoken vocals....
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » For the last few months my pals Peter Engler and Rob Lopata have spearheaded an ambitious project: a survey of soul food joints, with a particular focus on the many little places that exist all over the south and west sides, quietly serving their neighbors with nary a mention in the media. I’ve been lucky enough to tag along on most of these forays, and so far I’ve been present for a few remarkable finds, one of which I wrote about in Omnivorous this week, recalling the momentous day when Peter found a place that sells Mississippi Delta-style hot tamales....
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » All right. I’m going to date myself and come clean with my ultimate guilty pleasure at the same time: I’m obsessed with the 90s. Lately I’ve been thinking about how the heavily used 90s phrase “sell out” has nearly vanished from our daily lexicon, and I’ve been dying for an excuse to talk about it. Luckily Hit So Hard: The Life & Near Death Story of Patty Schemel recently began streaming on Netflix, presenting the quintessential opportunity....
Vending machines in the snackroom of Google Japan Let me make this clear at the outset: I am not a Google hater. Far from it. Some of my best friends are googlers, and I myself google often every day. I consult Google Trip Planner before walking to the restroom. I have an annual checkup this Friday with my Google Doc. One of my favorite writers is Nikolai Gogol, in part because he was of Ukrainian descent, as am I....
With the economy in a free fall and jobs disappearing faster than the bubbles in a Red Bull, it was a relief to drop in on the third Seed Conference, held June 6 at IIT’s Crown Hall, and get a jolt of high-energy confidence about the future. Hosted by three cutting-edge Chicago-based businesses—Coudal Partners, 37signals, and Segura Inc.—the conference (which is expected to happen three times a year) was targeted at Web, print, and video designers, or any other entrepreneurial soul looking to, as the online promo put it, “take creative ideas and turn them into something SATISFYING & BANKABLE....
RedEye’s Got It Going On Why not give RedEye its congrats on a great distribution strategy? I hear you on Huffington Post walking the line of stealing content. But you seemed to give them credit for figuring out the digital distribution game. Seems like from your visual sweep of Chicago transit that RedEye has maximized their distribution opportunity. So could RedEye with improved content (which probably comes with a higher cost) grow its engagement with readers and deliver more value for its advertisers and increase revenue?...
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Many of the track titles simply describe instrumentation (“Snare Drum,” “Piano”), while others reference a musical approach (“Musique Concrete,” “Indeterminacy”). You can certainly identify specific sounds here and there–guitar-amp noise, metallic rustling, bowed percussion, urban field recordings–but the work revolves around abstract texture and gesture. Most of the pieces range in duration from two to five minutes, and manage to convey a rewarding sense of development in that brief time....
Renee Berger/AP Photos Shannon Hicks, a reporter and photographer for the weekly Bee of Newtown, Connecticut, was perhaps the first journalist to arrive at the Sandy Hook Elementary School last December 14 to cover what turned out to be the massacre of 20 children and six adults. She took a picture of children leaving the school that showed up the next day on the front page of the New York Times, and a couple of weeks ago she served as the entree into Rachel Aviv’s New Yorker story on the Bee‘s response to the massacre....
Our five picks for comedy Hollywood Said No! Orphaned Film Scripts, Bastard Scenes, and Abandoned Darlings from the Creators of Mr. Show How to be funny on Twitter Comedy Bang! Bang! Live! Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites » Scott Aukerman has proven himself a modern-day triple threat, mastering the stage show, podcast, and TV show with various incarnations of Comedy Bang! Bang! Begun more than a decade ago as an LA stand-up showcase called Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Aukerman’s project evolved into a unique opportunity for comedians (podcast regulars include Paul F....
The fifth annual Chicago International Movies & Music Festival runs Thursday through Sunday, April 18 through 21, at various north-side venues. Most events are $10, and one-day passes are $25. For more information and a complete schedule see cimmfest.org. Jesus Lizard: Last “Drink up, get arrested tonight, cause some car accidents, kill as many pedestrians as possible,” was among the sage advice offered by David Yow, 50-year-old front man for the pioneering noise-rock outfit the Jesus Lizard, during their final reunion performance (probably), at Metro on New Year’s Eve 2009....
