We're Old: Bleader, Chicago Reader

12 O'Clock Track: The NBA theme song for the Jordan era, John Tesh's "Roundball Rock"

Kevin Warwick — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:00:00 -0600

Two weeks after Michael Jordan's 50th birthday—and two weeks after the onslaught of ESPN specials and commemorations, including a truly excellent profile of the modern-day Jordan by Wright Thompson—it's time we return to talking about an incomparable, dominant body of work produced during the NBA playoffs of the 90s, and maybe not worry so much about dissecting a presently tormented owner of one of the league's worst teams. How to trigger that return?…

Oscar-nominated documentary shorts: kvetching past the graveyard in King's Point

J.R. Jones — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:05:00 -0600

All this month we'll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for the best animated, live-action, and documentary short films, alternating daily between categories. Check back tomorrow for the next installment.

Poverty, homelessness, suffering children, terminal illness, and the loneliness of dying—yes, it's the Oscar-nominated short documentaries for 2013.…

How old is too old to rock?

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:00:00 -0600

Today is the day—the Rolling Stones are about to play their first U.S. show on their 50th-anniversary tour. They've been a band for 50 YEARS. Charlie Watts is 71, you guys.…

One last look at the old Seminary Co-op Bookstore

Asher Klein — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:39:00 -0600

The Seminary Co-op Bookstore closed its doors yesterday, to reopen next week a block away in a larger, airier, and far more accessible location on the first floor of a building next door to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. Much like reading itself, the move looks better on paper.…

Motorcycle season hangs on

Kevin Warwick — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:00:00 -0500

Dear God, it's pleasant outside. A little swampy, sure, but an early summer day one week before Halloween shan't be grumbled about.…

The challenges of Hope Springs

Ben Sachs — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 13:06:07 -0500

I can't bring myself to recommend the new release Hope Springs (imagine an ABC sitcom about your parents' sex life), though I'll admit it's something of a master class in screen acting. The film calls upon Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones to bring depth to characters who aren't very sympathetic or even all that interesting, and the veteran performers apply all their resources to the challenge.…

The Reader is looking for fall interns. Yay!

Asher Klein — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:21:52 -0500

Heading back to school in a couple of weeks? Wish you were doing something more practical, more substantial, more meaningful than [insert your course of study here]?

You should apply to be a Reader intern!…

Kate the Great: don't laugh at the javelin

Kate Schmidt — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 06:45:00 -0500

When I was a kid I wanted to be Billie Jean King. I bought a pair of blue Adidas with money I'd saved from my paper route, and took to thwacking a tennis ball against the wall down in the basement.…

Rogers Park, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:29:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the entry for Rogers Park:

Once predominantly Jewish and solidly middle class, Rogers Park has experienced an influx of students and young working people over the last five or six years.…
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Kenwood, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:34:11 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the entry for Kenwood:

Kenwood is the area immediately north of Hyde Park, extending west to Drexel Boulevard and north to 47th Street.…
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Lincoln Park, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 07:37:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the entry for Lincoln Park:

Fat City.…
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Hyde Park, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 07:30:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the entry for Hyde Park:

Chauvinistic, isolated, and self-consciously intellectual, Hyde Park is dominated—some would say controlled—by the University of Chicago.…
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Pilsen, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:37:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the one on Pilsen:

Once a Bohemian enclave, now a Latino community centered around 18th Street between Halsted and Blue Island, Pilsen is full of sturdy brick cottages that date back to the 1860s.…
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Old Town, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:14:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2 by Tem Horwitz, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the one on Old Town:

To tourists, conventioneers, and suburban teenagers, "Old Town" means the tacky stretch of Wells Street between Schiller and Eugenie.…
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Lakeview, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 13:06:00 -0500

More neighborhood nuggets from Sweet Home Chicago 2 by Tem Horwitz, published by Chicago Review Press in 1977. Here's the one on Lakeview:

Lakeview is . . .…
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Uptown, 1977

Jerome Ludwig — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 07:34:00 -0500

I've been going through the reference shelves at the Reader office (yes, occasionally we use real books for reference) and I've found lots of old, interesting guidebooks to the city. Surely they're out of date and practically useless, I think.…

Roundup of today's media news

Alison Marcotte — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:40:16 -0500

Today the Reader was sold to Wrapports, LLC, which also owns the Sun-Times. Dull the ecstasy/pain/ambivalence with some of the day's other media-related news:

Poynter reports that Denver's remaining daily newspaper, the Denver Post, is eliminating it's [SIC] copy desk!…

My mother and Dark Shadows

J.R. Jones — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:30:00 -0500

For years my mother and I battled over whether I'd be allowed to watch Dark Shadows, the supernatural soap opera that ran on ABC from 1966 to '72. She probably thought it would scare me, but we were also devout Catholics and she disapproved of anything with occult themes.…

Englewood: bane of Amtrak

Asher Klein — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:22:20 -0500

A really interesting Tuesday New York Times story about the horror that is shipping freight by rail through Chicago pointed out that it takes almost as long to ship your cargo across our fair city as it does to travel from LA to Chicago. Best of all, it made note of this little nugget: Englewood is home to the country's most congested Amtrak intersection.…

American Reunion: throw that pie in the microwave

J.R. Jones — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:16:24 -0500

The American Pie franchise returns after a nine-year hiatus to answer such haunting questions as “Can love survive the ravages of time?” and “What household object will Jason Biggs shove his dick into now?” Having tied the knot in American Wedding (2003), Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) now share a cute toddler and a rapidly cooling sex life; when Jim and his old buddies converge on their hometown for a high school reunion, he’s tempted by a young hottie whom he used to babysit when she was a child. As usual, the main attraction is Seann William Scott as the giggling, loathsome Stifler.…

And the clock ticks on

Kate Schmidt — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:12:00 -0500

My aunt and uncle, one of my dad's brothers, lived in Greenfield, Iowa, where they had a farm. Greenfield's biggest claim to fame was (is?) having served as the location for the 1971 movie Cold Turkey, directed by Norman Lear and starring Dick Van Dyke.…

The Wedding Present plays Seamonsters on Tuesday

Bill Meyer — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:14:15 -0500

David Gedge, singer-guitarist and sole constant member of the Wedding Present, has been making records about romantic anxiety and infidelity for 27 years, which means that the band has lasted longer than an awful lot of marriages. On Tuesday the quartet will play their third album, Seamonsters, which is now old enough to drink, in its entirety at the Double Door.…

Happy 175th Chicago

Deanna Isaacs — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 12:32:00 -0600

If the Loop's looking like a giant blue light special, here's why: Chicago was incorporated on March 4, 1837, and is celebrating its 175th birthday this weekend. Through Monday night, major buildings, including Willis Tower, the Hancock, the Merchandise Mart, and Trump Tower are going blue in honor of the occasion.…

"Every boy will walk tall, when he wears a holster and pistol . . ."

Kevin Warwick — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:00:00 -0600

It’s been just over 23 years since section four of the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988 went into effect, forcing manufacturers of toy guns to implement both a solid “blaze orange” muzzle to the end of the gun’s barrel as well as a “marking permanently affixed to the exterior surface of the barrel.” While New York City had already instituted a ban in 1955 on the sale, use, and possession of toy and imitation guns that resembled firearms, the iron fist of federal law forced the rest of the country to follow suit in the late 80s, and toys like the NES Zapper morphed from its original dark-gray model to a bright-orange monstrosity—of course, the Zapper still killed video-game ducks, but it was in a strange, different kind of way.

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January 28, 1977

Vera Videnovich — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:00:00 -0500

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