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Beginning June 7 through July 26, The Kiss Kiss Cabaret presents its summer blockbuster on Fridays at 11pm: "FilmStrips: An Evening of Cinematic Burlesque" at the Greenhouse Theater Center (2257 N. Lincoln Ave). "FilmStrips" will feature cinematic burlesque from The Kiss Kiss Coquettes and from special guests from the Indianapolis's Burlesque Troupe PUR. Hosted by the Flattery brothers and opening with a new number from choreographer Aimee Binder, the show puts a cinematic twist on the art of burlesque. Producer Chris O. Biddle says, "This is a great chance to see the sexiest movie characters strip down to their unmentionables and beyond! It's the perfect combination of cinema and burlesque!"
Chicago's only weekly burlesque and variety show, The Kiss Kiss Cabaret is an open run, Fridays at 11 p.m. at the Greenhouse Theater Center (2257 N. Lincoln Ave). Tickets are available at 773-404 7336 or www.GreenhouseTheater.org. Audiences are encouraged to make reservations early, to guarantee seating. For more information visit www.KissKissCabaret.com.
"I'm sorry I slept with your boyfriend," she says. "But, if it's any consolation, I had diarrhea that day."
"I'm sorry I didn't love you for who you are," she says.
"I'm sorry," she says.
The woman (Molly Plunk) is a contestant in The Miss Neo Pageant, the Neo Futurist's newest show, playing through June 22 on Thursdays -- Saturdays at 7:30pm. We have already seen Plunk dance, in a swimsuit -- her pageantry side. Now, it's more intimate. Created by Megan Mercier and directed by Stephanie Shaw, the show is a deconstruction of an ideal. The show gives us pageantry, but also flip(pers) it.
The other Miss Neo contestants (six in total) are woman with titles like "Miss Crispy" (Leah Rose Urzendowski Courser) who reminds me of P!nk in the best possible ways, "Miss Unbridled Rage" (Jessica Anne) responsible for a hilarious and real take-down of Anne Hathaway, and "Miss Not Gonna Cry" (Tif Harrison). The pageant has swimsuits and costume changes and Rockettes-style kick lines. It has Q&A rounds with randomly chosen female audience members, panty-trees, and feminism. The show explores female interactions while still competing against each other, mostly for attention, you know, the way girls are taught to interact with each other.
It's a prospective parent's worst nightmare: Will our baby be perfect? A missing finger or toe and many congenital diseases can be adapted to or treated, but in Smudge, Ka-Tet Theatre asks us to think about how we would deal with an even more dramatic birth--an infant that may not be quite human.
"This thing doesn't need a mother," Colby (Stevie Chadwick Lambert) says midway through this one-act, 90-minute play. "It's got tubes."
Stevie Chadwick Lambert and Scott Allen Luke; photo by Andrew Cioffi.
Smudge by Rachel Axler takes us from the late-in-pregnancy moment when Colby and Nick (Scott Allen Luke) try to decipher the ultrasound of their future progeny. "Is it upside down?" Colby asks, rotating the image. In the next scene, the baby is born and whisked away to the ICU to be cared for. Colby and Nick bring the baby home and choose the name "Cassandra" (a Trojan princess with the gift of prophecy). "Cassie" is placed in a bassinet covered in tubing, with a constantly beeping monitor. Colby refers to the infant as "it" but all we know for sure about the child is that it has one eye and is missing some limbs.
The ugly truth about the latest Will Smith film (he even gets a sole "Story by..." credit) is that it's not that bad, which is to say it's completely possible to sit through its 100 minutes and not want to tear your eyes out. It's certainly a good-looking movie, with some interesting future tech on display, and in a couple of scenes, director and co-writer M. Night Shyamalan even gives us a sense of how things work. I'll admit, when I heard the idea of After Earth, I was intrigued. I like the idea of this big-scale science-fiction film that was really just about two characters trying to survive a couple of brutal days on a planet they know little about — Earth.
As the film begins, we soon discover that the father-son relationship between Cypher Raige (Smith, the elder) and son Kitai (Jaden Smith from The Karate Kid remake) is strained. Dad is basically king of the Rangers, the military-like branch that protects the human population forced to relocated when cataclysmic events pushed earthlings off the planet about 1,000 years ago and apparently gave everyone weird accents that come and go.
Chicagoans, listen up. Do you like to dance? Are you ready for gorgeous ladies in amazing outfits? Are you ready to hear body-slamming beats that you've been missing for years, or maybe even your whole life? Fabulous Ladies of Fitness (FLOF) is where you need to be. Second Thursdays of every month at Cole's Bar, FLOF hosts a dance party that makes it impossible for you to have a bad time. Using only their dance moves, killer outfits, and their signature blend of '70s lite rock, '80s/'90s R&B and hip-hop, current dance hits (and the occasional TV theme song), FLOF will have you doing amazing line dances that make you feel super hip and also united with your fellow dancers in no time. I had a chance to ask Jennifer Boeder, Molly Kavanaugh and Dorie Silverman--the ladies responsible for this guaranteed feel-good event--about how FLOF got started and how they manage to keep making it more and more fabulous every month.
Editor's Note: This is the latest in an occasional series of columns from former GB contributor Sheila Burt, who now lives in Japan. "Letters from Japan" will discuss social and urban issues Chicagoans face and how the Japanese do it differently. Previously: America & Chicago, as Seen from Japan; Biking in the Countryside and City.
MATSUYAMA, JAPAN -- Toyama Prefecture, my former home in Japan before I moved south to Matsuyama, is part of Japan's yukiguni, or snow country. Every winter, snow falls almost endlessly in the country's central and northern prefectures facing the Sea of Japan, blanketing open rice fields and capping nearby mountains.
As much of a nuisance as it was to bike around my seaside town and walk to my junior high and four elementary schools in knee deep snow and black ice, the snow was also the setting to one of my favorite stories from Japan.
You'd figure that six films deep into a franchise, I'd have made up my mind whether I'm fully on board. But I think after having taken in Fast & Furious 6, I'm willing to say I'm a fan of this wildly inconsistent series, whose most recent two chapters did their job selling me on these films. Most of my hesitation coming out of all of these films has been due to the god-awful writing. Look, I know you don't go to Fast & Furious films for the story or character development, but throw us a bone every once and a while, if only to have something of substance to bite down on.
But what pushed me in the fan column with Fast 6 is that it actually has something of a story, characters who much actually change and grow to advance it, and a villain I really enjoyed. It's not the perfect combination, but it's enough to get you through the film between the always-mind-blowing stunt sequences.
The early to mid-90s marked a significant era for African-American comedians; from sold-out performances at comedy clubs across the country (including Chicago's now-defunct All Jokes Aside) to television appearances on shows like "Showtime at the Apollo" and the wildly popular HBO's "Def Comedy Jam," established comedians became even bigger and up-and-coming comedians emerged into household names.
Another series, however, was also popular during that period--"Comic View"--an hour-long show on Black Entertainment Television (BET) which helped shoot two "Original Kings of Comedy," D.L. Hughley and Cedric the Entertainer, into superstardom.
Being the child of an uber celebrity certainly presents unique and extraordinary challenges--and when sharing the parent's famous name is added to the spotlight, scrutiny, lofty expectations, and endless comparisons are inevitable. For singer and actor Richard Pryor, Jr., notoriety as the son of one of the world's most legendary stand-up comedians and entertainers is unavoidable, but he certainly understands that it all comes with the territory. "It's something that you try to escape," said Pryor. "I tried to escape it but it's there--it's in you--it's a part of you."
Pryor makes his Chicago stage debut this weekend in Lipstick Goes on Last, a "fierce farce about alternative families, friendships, and fidelity in the 70s;" here, he talks about growing up with his famous father, inheriting the "entertainment gene," frustrations with Hollywood, and the important message the show has for audiences.
Group interpretation, original oratory, extemporaneous commentary. These are some of the graphic titles projected to introduce new scenes throughout Speech & Debate at American Theatre Company (ATC). That may sound like a yawnfest for speech majors but in the hands of four talented performers, they signal funny but searing explorations of teenagers trying to sort out their identities. This is doubly tough in an era where online activities further complicate the growing-up process.
Speech & Debate is written by Stephen Karam, whose play Sons of the Prophet will be presented by ATC in 2014. Karam and director P. J. Paparelli cowrote columbinus, recently presented by ATC and now on national tour.
Speech & Debate brings together three students in an Oregon high school who are misfits of one kind or another. They find they have similar interests in fame and free speech and determine to expose the online life of one of their teachers. Don't think of this play as a show for teens. The characters are not juveniles nor are they portrayed as adorable problem children. They are real people and the play's insights and commentary are relevant to theatergoers of all ages.
"If the crowd isn't feelin' you, they're just not feelin' you," Patrick Rowland said when I interviewed him back in August. "All you can do is power through it."
3Peat -- an improv team Rowland is in -- probably won't have to "power through" anything during their Friday night run (through May 31) at The Playground Theater, because they are just that good. But, it's this seasoned mentality that helps make this group so much fun to watch, every.single.time. Made up of Rowland, John Thibodeaux, Nnamdi Ngwe, Nate Sherman, Brianna Baker, and Gary Richardson, 3Peat commits to each other and isn't afraid to take it there, to, you know, get personal.
On Monday nights, you can usually find throngs of hip, artsy folks smoking and chatting outside of Beauty Bar. Inside, you can find even more of them dancing and performing. Salonathon, which takes place every Monday night at the bar where you can get a martini as easily as you can get a manicure, is one of Chicago's favorite parties. Combining performance of all varieties--from storytelling to improv to live music--with a killer post-show dance party and great cocktails, Salonathon is sure to please. The founder and curator of this weekly extravaganza, Jane Beachy, not only runs Salonathon, but also produces events at some of the hippest venues in the city, including the Metro, the Logan Square Auditorium, and Steppenwolf Garage. Currently, Beachy is planning for a Pride event at Berlin and for the Two Year Anniversary of Salonathon on July 15 at Beauty Bar. I got to chat with this Chicago gal who seems like nothing short of a party expert.
Orange Flower Water is a wrenching marital drama where the bed is the heart of the matter, both literally and metaphorically. The bed is the centerpiece of each scene, with quick changes of covering signaling changes of venue. The four characters are two couples who live in the same neighborhood and whose children play soccer together. One of the partners in each couple wants to end their marriages. James Yost, in his first Chicago directorial outing, directs this smartly written play by Craig Wright, author of television scripts written for "Six Feet Under," "Lost," "Brothers & Sisters," and "Dirty Sexy Money."
Keith Neagle and Ina Strauss; photo by Claire Demos.
The 90-minute drama is a co-production between the Barebones Theatre Group, a recent transplant from Charlotte, NC, and the Interrobang Theatre Project, a three-year-old Chicago company. Barebones is merging with Interrobang for the 2013-14 season and Yost will be co-artistic director of the merged company, along with Jeffrey Stanton of Interrobang.
Stepping onto the bridge of Hank Frisco: Galaxy Defender, bright orange vinyl shines off the walls. The swiveling captain's chair, beamed up from your grandparents' basement. And Hank's wisecracking robot, Archie, is clearly a guy wearing tinfoil-covered boxes. But that's kind of the point.
"We chose to do a sci-fi series because we wanted something that gave us the freedom to do crazy, weird things and could be done cheaply," explains Scott Lynch, one of the show's producers.
Accompanied by his trusty sidekick Bonzo, the confoundingly confident Captain Hank Frisco alliterates his way through the galaxy. His mission: discover new sources of grey matter and save a dying Planet Earth.
Chicago Dance Crash, whose Gotham City was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as one of the city's best in 2012, returns with The Cotton Mouth Club, its summer performance, choreographed by artistic director Jessica Deahr and Robert McKee, in a show that combines the "prohibition-era" with the 80s, taking the audience on a journey through swing, jazz, ballet, breakdance and more. Here, McKee talks about the show, how the movie Idlewild served as inspiration, and the important message audiences will take away from the performance.
Daniel Gibson and Mary Tarpley; The Cotton Mouth Club.
When did you first know you wanted a career in dance? Was it one person or several people whom you were inspired by?
I started dancing as a kid, watching lots and lots of Michael Jackson videos, and learning the choreography and performing it for my family at family gatherings, reunions and things like that. It's kind of something that's always been in my blood. I went on to college to study more technical forms of dance--ballet, modern, jazz, and things like that.
Spectrum, the seventh full-length concert presented by Matter Dance Company, opens May 30th at Stage 773. Spectrum is appropriately titled, as it features a variety of dance styles, from tap to hip-hop to contemporary to modern. The concert includes the work of Carisa Barreca, Katie Eberhardy, Gail Adduci Gogliotti, Stephanie Gruender, Chelsea Harkelroad, Jessica McVay, Gloria Mwez, Kristin Nelson, Jacquelyn Pavilon, Greg Poljacik, Niki Wilk Mahon, and Mandy Work. Matter Dance Company, now in it's seventh year and voted "Best Dance Company in Chicago" by the Reader five years in a row, believes "dance should be created for the audience as well as the dancers."
Spectrum runs May 30-June 1, 2013 (Thursday and Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 3pm and 8pm) at Stage 773 (1225 W Belmont).Tickets: $20 for general admission, $15 for Children, Students (with valid id), and Seniors. Tickets available through the Stage 773 Box Office at 773.327.5252.
There has literally never been a day of my life when Star Trek in some form did not exist. The original television series beat me to existence by a couple of years; I was 11 years old when the first film came out. And what I always loved about the ideas behind Star Trek was that it was a place on network television where science fiction was taken seriously, even when it got silly or opted for action over philosophy. It was that rare ground where pop culture met deep thinking, and even as a pre-teen, I understood that ideas were at work here, even if I didn't always fully comprehend the deeper meanings.
And the plain, wonderful truth is that nothing can ever take that away from me. So even though the films were hit and miss, and the franchise expanded on television to other heroes and villains and versions of our future. But none of it diluted my love for what moved me the most about being exposed again and again to the series and early movies. I know it inside out, have discussed and debated it to exhaustion, and have changed my mind dozens of times about my favorite characters, episodes, villains and conceits.
Then here comes this young upstart J.J. Abrams and his team of writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, taking what Gene Roddenberry created and mixing it all up by throwing off timelines and such, and daring to show us in two movies where life began for the classic Enterprise crew. In a way, they could stop making Star Trek movies with Star Trek Into Darkness, because the film literally ends where the original series began. I'm sure more are coming, but to simply end here would be bordering on graceful.
Tonight from 6-8pm, join the DePaul Art Museum (935 W Fullerton) for a free artist talk with Mequitta Ahuja, whose mixed-media drawings are part of the current exhibition at DPAM, "War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art." Exploring constructed Asian American identities in the US, "War Baby/Love Child" is a multi-faceted project that includes a book, traveling art exhibition, website and blog. The project examines if, and how, mixed heritage is expressed in the artwork of Asian Americans. Multi-media works, including video and installation, bring to light the overlap of race, war and imperialism, gender and sexuality, and citizenship and nationality.
View a trailer for the project here:
"War Baby/Love Child" is at DPAM (939 W Fullerton) from April 25-June 30. Photos courtesy of museums.depaul.edu.
Ivywild, the new play by the ever-audacious The Hypocrites, is part carnival, part Chicago history lesson. And it is a delightful 90 minutes of fact mixed with fantasy. The full title of the show is Ivywild, The True Tall Tales of Bathhouse John, written by Jay Torrence and directed by The Hypocrites' artistic director Halena Kays.
Photo courtesy of The Hypocrites. L to r: Ryan Walters (Kenna), Jay Torrence (Coughlin), Kurt Chiang (Little Walt).
When you walk into the lower-level performance space at Chopin Theatre, you know you are in for some fun. The set is a carousel with swings, made of faux antique materials; light bulbs are festooned everywhere. Platform pieces move around and provide performance space. Before the performance begins, two audience members are asked to don white pinafore dresses so they can participate in simulated rides in the amusement park. The audience, seated close to the action as usual in this space, feels like part of the show.
Torrence plays "Bathhouse John" Coughlin, the First Ward Alderman during the 1890s and early 20th century when the 20-square block area around Cermak Rd. and Michigan Ave. was the levee district, populated by saloons, brothels, gambling houses and plenty of corruption to fund it. Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna, the precinct captain and later the second First Ward alderman, is played by Ryan Walters. (Until redistricting in 1923, each Chicago ward had two aldermen.) The two amass great wealth through the levee district businesses, political corruption and general debauchery.
Each year for 79 years now The School of the Art Institute of Chicago welcomes spring with its annual student fashion show, a celebration of conceptual and cutting edge collections for us to delight in as we thaw and shed our winter pea coats. As you might imagine from an art school, many of the garments are not so much "ready to wear" as they are physical experiments, diving head first into concept via tactile investigation. Sensible Chicago-style layers were scattered throughout the collections, juxtaposed with delightful yet completely impractical gestures -- several of the collections had the models blindly stomping down the runway with their faces completely covered, often by wigs or Zentai suits... occasionally by burka-like headgear or gas masks. As in the recent past and definitely the future, a post-apocalyptic style popped up in many collections. Perhaps it's the combination of adaptable, "ready for anything" garments and forward-thinking, futuristic design that makes the End of Days such an inspiring concept. Other trends included laser-cut acrylic accessories, iridescent and metallic fabrics, and sultry veils. Imagine 60's housewife meets manic psychedelia meets S&M cyborg. In other words, the future of fashion design is anything but conservative for many SAIC fashion students -- particularly the Juniors, who are confident enough to spill out of the box and not yet concerned with having to actually sell their work. Enjoy our favorites below:
Beloved local dance company Luna Negra Dance Theater announced today that they will be ceasing operations. Founded by Eduardo Vilaro in 1999, Luna Negra celebrated Latino choreographers and voices through contemporary dance. In a press release, Board President Jorge Solis said, "Luna Negra is very proud of having provided a wonderful medium in which to celebrate and showcase Latino inspired dance in the city of Chicago. Sharing the rich Latino culture has been a source of pride and inspiration to all those involved with the company over the last 14 years. It's been tremendously difficult to come to the conclusion to cease operations, but the financial reality could not be avoided any longer."
Three weeks ago, actor/director Zach Braff launched a $2 million Kickstarter campaign to fund his upcoming self-produced film, Wish I Was Here. With a week and a half left to go until the deadline, the project is already overfunded by nearly $600,000...and this pales in comparison to the $5.7 million raked in by a Kickstarter campaign two months ago to crowdfund a movie based on TV show "Veronica Mars."
However, despite justifications from Kickstarter and Braff himself, many people have complained about these campaigns, arguing that celebrity crowdfunding takes attention and money from projects being created by visionaries with no name recognition or Hollywood connections.
So if you're into movies that blend comedy and drama (like Braff's 2004 hit, Garden State), but agree with the criticism over these campaigns, and also want the opportunity to help fund emerging filmmakers in the way Kickstarter was intended to be used, then Party Time Party Time could use your help.
If you love burlesque, comedy, and BYOB venues, Wiggle Room at The Everleigh Social Club is where you will want to spend your Friday night. Wiggle Room brings huge talent to audiences in an intimate setting-- a stage surrounded by plush velvet sofas, beds and chairs.
Produced by Michelle L'amour and Franky Vivid, Wiggle Room features the World Famous Chicago Starlets (winner "Best Burlesque Group in the World 2010" at the Burlesque Hall of Fame) and some of Chicago's best stand-up comics, including host Adam Burke. On May 17 at 10pm, the show will be concluding their current run, with plans to come back in the fall.
I talked to Michelle L'amour about her one of a kind show, and why you won't want to wait until the fall to see it.
Very often, when the history of black cinema is discussed, typically, images of a certain kind of film, specifically, "Blaxploitation," immediately come to mind. However, for a group of aspiring black filmmakers in the 70s at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, it would become necessary to showcase a more realistic portrayal of African-American life on screen. This group, referred to as the L.A. Rebellion, embarked on a mission to show a different side of black filmmaking, with content that featured "social and cultural dynamics" as well as "black activism and militancy, everyday life and spirituality," that reflected lives in black communities everywhere.
The touring film series, L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema, hit Chicago in late April; the 12-part series, presented by Block Cinema at Northwestern University, Conversations at the Edge at the School of the Art Institute and the Film Studies Center at University of Chicago, features film screenings and shorts, as well as post Q&As and appearances by acclaimed filmmakers. Here, co-curator and Northwestern University Associate Professor, Jacqueline Stewart, talks about the significance of this cinematic series and its cultural impact.
I have genuinely mixed emotions about director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann's take on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. On the one hand, the lush look and resplendent pageantry on display is breathtaking to the point of being difficult to believe a film of this scale and indulgence can still be made; it's the Lawrence of Arabia of shallow people. On the other hand, so much of the film looks fake, and I'm pretty sure it's not on purpose most of the time. Shot in Sidney but set largely in and around Long Island, the shots of New York City and the coastline mansions where the characters all live look like they are three-dimensional version of period postcard paintings rather than the real thing. At its worse, the film resembles a pop-up-book rendering of the Jazz Age devoid of any flesh-and-blood characters for us to really care about.
When Luhrmann last worked with Leonardo DiCaprio (who plays the titular Jay Gatsby) on their version of Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, the director actually allowed the camera to pause for while to let us live and love and become enraged with the characters. But with Gatsby, Luhrmann and cinematographer Simon Duggan have ants in their collective pants, and keep the camera swinging and swooping across epic party sequences, across water and land, car chases on paved and dirt roads, and even within small rooms to convey a sense of mayhem, where no one has the time or inclination to look to closely at what Gatsby is really all about (assuming people even know what he looks like).
A Red Orchid Theatre is presenting In a Garden by Howard Korder, a fast-moving and smartly written play in nine scenes spanning 15 years from 1989 to 2004. The play portrays the frustration of an ambitious American architect (played by Larry Grimm) proposing a design for a fictitious Middle Eastern country, which might be Iraq.
Director Lou Contey keeps the action moving well, with quick scene changes made by a stage assistant, veiled and silent -- the only woman who appears. Broadcast news snippets between scenes set the time line. The tiny Red Orchid space is the office of the minister of culture (played by Rom Borkhardor), a man enamored of American pop culture and American architects. The architect and the minister develop an uneasy friendship over the years -- but the play, which starts out like a satire with many clever lines about truth and beauty, becomes darker as the scenes progress.
The architect is so desperate to see one of his designs built that he suffers through years of ambiguity and misdirection from his client (or patron, as the minister prefers). It's never clear who is making the decisions or if in fact a decision will ever be made to build the gazebo in a peaceful garden of lemon trees so desired by the minister.
In the final scene, everything has changed: the space, the architect's professional goals and the minister's status. The gazebo was finally built, but now is gone. The lemon trees remain--to be enjoyed by the office's new occupant: an American army officer.
The play runs through Sunday, May 19, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $15-30 and may be purchased online. For more information, call 312-943-8722.
Photo by Michael Brosilow courtesy of A Red Orchid Theatre.
Every Saturday at midnight, for three years and six successful seasons, audiences have flooded the iO Theater for Chicago's own premier late night talk show, "The Late Live Show" hosted by Joe Kwaczala.
Since 2010, "The Late Live Show" has offered iO's weekly audiences live late night talk show just like the pros. This small, independently-produced show has attained national recognition and welcomed such distinguished guests as Paul Feig, Danny Pudi ("Community"), Lucas Neff ("Raising Hope"), and local all-stars such as superchef Rick Bayless, Olympic speedskater Shani Davis, and best-selling author Rebecca Skloot. This sketch comedy show has become a staple in the Chicago, and has gained recognition at festivals from coast to coast. Its credits also include a writing team that has produced writers now working for such shows as "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" and "The Onion News Network."
This Saturday, after three years of laughter, "The Late Live Show" will put on its last hurrah, with a "finale full of jokes, characters, interviews, sketches," and a few special surprises, as the crew looks back at the show's run. As part of their finale and 50th show, host Joe Kwaczala and his staff will welcome back returning favorites, Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen from the Filmspotting podcast.
Don't miss your chance to see the last run of this hilarious late night performance this Saturday, May 11 at 11:59PM. "The Late Live Show" is held in iO's Del Close Theater, 3541 N. Clark St. and is only $5 online or at the door (free for iO students).
PBS' current "Masterpiece Classic" series is set a century ago in London but has a strong Chicago connection. "Mr. Selfridge" is an eight-part series about the founder and founding of Selfridge & Co. in London. The program can be seen at 8pm Sundays on Channel 11, Chicago. PBS streams the series too, so you can catch up with most of the past episodes.
Harry Gordon Selfridge, played by Chicago actor Jeremy Piven, was born and raised in Wisconsin. He came to Chicago in 1879 and worked for Field, Leiter & Co., became a director of Marshall Field and later manager of the State Street store. He sold his interest in Field's in early 1904, bought the firm Schlesinger & Mayer (including the famous store building at State and Madison designed by Louis Sullivan) and renamed it H.G. Selfridge & Co. Selfridge sold that business to Carson, Pirie, Scott by the end of that year.
People are going to poke and prod at the good and bad of Iron Man 3, the first post-Avengers work from Marvel Studios and the first of a new group of films from the comic book company that makes up what they're calling "Phase Two," which presumably ends with Avengers 2. But what ultimately makes this fourth appearance of Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) so satisfying is deceptively simple. It's not the more satisfying humor, action, plot, characters or direction (courtesy of co-writer Shane Black); it's that this is the first of this latest round of Marvel movies (aka Phase One) that doesn't feel like it's leading up to something.
Sure, technically it is leading to another Avengers movie, I guess. But it doesn't feel like simply a prologue. Hell, even the post-credits tag is more of a pure comedy piece than a transition to another film that in turn would eventually take us to Joss Whedon's next film. Iron Man 3 is its own, beautifully self-contained story. If anything, the filmmakers have opted to make this a film that arises out of and deals with history, rather than leading us into the future to a movie we won't see for two years. Here, Stark is dealing with the very real emotional and psychological repercussions of nearly dying in a worm hole into another universe and then hurtling down to earth (barely saved by the Hulk, if memory serves). He's also come to realize that he's deathly afraid of his lady love, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), becoming a target because of the world knowing his identity.
For women, simply not having kids is one thing, but to decidedly not have them is a different matter altogether. For Jen Kirkman, the choice to be child free is the subject of her funny new book, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids. Named one of Entertainment Weekly's "One of the Top 12 Rising Stars in Comedy" in 2009, Kirkman currently holds court at E!'s "Chelsea Lately" and has also performed stand-up on popular shows such as "Conan," and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." I spoke with her in advance of her Chicago appearance this weekend at The Hideout; here, the down-to-earth comedian, writer and actress talks about the world of comedy, working in late-night TV and why you won't ever catch her in "mommy mode."
Beyond Influence: The Art of Little Citywill be on exhibition in Chicago May 10-August 31, 2013 from 5-8pm at The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art (Intuit) (756 N. Milwaukee Avenue) with a free opening reception on Friday, May 10th from 5-8pm. Presented by Intuit and in conjunction with the Little City Center for the Arts (Little City), Beyond Influence is co-curated by Matthew Arient and Frank Tumino. The exhibition features the work of 11 artists, who have been creating work at Little City in Palatine, Illinois for the past 20 years. Little City aims to provide artistic opportunites to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The artists in Beyond Influence will include Harold Jeffries, Tarik Echols, and Wayne Mazurek, and their work will vary in media, demonstrating the wide-ranging capabilities of the Little City studio. Intuit describes Little City as "a place where there are no constraints in ideas, mediums or possibilities." The featured artists in the exhibition, says Intuit, "display that they are in fact 'beyond influence' - that of the mainstream art world, other's expectations, and their own limitations. "
Imagine if the designers on "Project Runway" had semesters instead of days to complete their collections and they were encouraged to think way outside the box -- like, down the street from the box -- and come up with intricate, complete looks with solid conceptual frameworks and visual interest up the wazoo. The resulting wearable, avante-garde sculptures delight, amuse, and somehow manage to still (usually) make the models look sexy and savvy. This can all be seen live, right in front of you, at The School of the Art Institute's annual fashion show, Fashion 2013 -- because "ready to wear" is great and all, but when you're paying $75 a ticket, you want a show. And art school kids (love 'em or hate 'em) are the right people to give you one, because they've been poked and prodded by some of the most talented faculty in the world to come up with strikingly fresh designs, incorporating and combining techniques from the fields of sculpture, performance, design, technology, architecture and installation.
"Our strong team of faculty and students inspires us to advance, take more risks and follow unusual directions in order to break through to new territory," said Associate Professor Anke Loh, Sage Chair in Fashion Design. "We are poised and ready to continue to experiment with our individual and collective inquiries into fashion, body, and garment."
Fashion 2013 will be presented three times this Friday, May 3: at 9am is an open dress rehearsal. Tickets are $40. Noon and 3pm shows are general admission seating. Tickets for those shows are $75. Tickets are available now at saicfashion.org and also at the door. Those of us interested in the future of fashion, the intersection of cutting-edge design and contemporary art or simply a breathtaking show make sure not to miss it each spring. It's worth playing hooky from work.
If you've been paying attention in Chicago lately, you've probably found white, pre-stamped and pre-addressed postcards scattered throughout the city--in bookshops, record stores and anywhere they can find a place to hide. The postcards have one prompt on them and a code in the bottom right corner. The prompt is always the same: "Tell me one thing you dream of doing before you die. Use this card as your canvas." You've probably figured out is that this is part of something artsy. But what you may not have known is that the postcards are part of a huge, city-wide art exhibition by Jenny Lam, one of Chicago's most impressive independent curators and a self-described "troublemaker and all-around nerd."
For months now, Lam has been collecting the postcards you send in, reading your answers, and tracking where you obtained your postcard by the code in the bottom right corner. The evidence she compiles will be part of her project, Dreams of a City, which will include a book of the postcards, a large exhibition, and site-specific installations around Chicago. Collecting postcards from every Chicagoan who is willing to send one in might seem like a daunting amount of work, but Lam has actually done this before: in New York City in 2008. Lam's current Dreams of a City in Chicago, however, promises to be bigger in scale and better than ever. Lam, who's most recent exhibition I CAN DO THAT won audience choice for "Best Art Exhibit" in the 20th anniversary edition of NewCity's Best of Chicago issue, is a pioneer of art that is interactive, collaborative and as much fun for viewers as it is for artists. She sat down to talk with me about her exciting and mysterious Chicago postcard venture.
Speech & Debate is written by Stephen Karam, whose play Sons of the Prophet will be presented by ATC in 2014. Karam and director P. J. Paparelli cowrote columbinus, recently presented by ATC and now on national tour.
If you love burlesque, comedy, and BYOB venues, 
Imagine if the designers on "Project Runway" had semesters instead of days to complete their collections and they were encouraged to think way outside the box -- like, down the street from the box -- and come up with intricate, complete looks with solid conceptual frameworks and visual interest up the wazoo. The resulting wearable, avante-garde sculptures delight, amuse, and somehow manage to still (usually) make the models look sexy and savvy. This can all be seen live, right in front of you, at The School of the Art Institute's annual fashion show, Fashion 2013 -- because "ready to wear" is great and all, but when you're paying $75 a ticket, you want a show. And art school kids (love 'em or hate 'em) are the right people to give you one, because they've been poked and prodded by some of the most talented faculty in the world to come up with strikingly fresh designs, incorporating and combining techniques from the fields of sculpture, performance, design, technology, architecture and installation. 
