Letters

The Straw Man

Why everyone in every race seems to be running against Todd Stroger.

Savage Love

Restaurants: In the Neighborhood, March 5, 2009

Ten restaurants on or near Fulton

Wednesday Journal Inc. dropping three Chicago papers

Wednesday Journal Inc. is dropping three Chicago neighborhood papers, but Inside Publications is probably picking up two.

You Shoot: Milwaukee Avenue 33

You Shoot: Milwaukee Avenue 33

Pitchfork partway

The Pitchfork fest's first acts are announced.

The White House Film Festival

What was in Gordon Brown's box of DVDs.

Therapy for iPod Syndrome

Slow Listening in Sharp Darts

Art Institute hike update

Higher Art Institute fees: it's a go! The Park District Board approved the Art Institute's request to up its admission fees at its meeting today. The new prices go into effect May 23.

Upon further inspection

The debate (if you want to call it that) over the latest proposal to strengthen the role of the inspector general centers on whether the office should be allowed to investigate aldermen. But the effectiveness of the measure really hinges on a provision that would expand the office's budget and shield it from a politically inspired axe. The proposal from Joe Moore and his allies would do more than protect the office's budget--it would hike it dramatically. This year it would go up 50 percent, from $5.9 million to nearly $9 million.

Victory Gardens hosts William Ayers forums

Former antiwar radical William Ayers will speak in conjunction with new play about the 1960s.

Beard cakes from Baking for the Taking

Bearded cupcakes benefit Things My Beard Can Lift

What Jon Stewart and Rick Santelli are really fighting about

The terrifying disaster behind the amusing Jon Stewart - Rick Santelli - CNBC feud.

On fashion writing

Why is fashion writing so pretentious?

David Gatten screening relocated

David Gatten program moves from Nightingale to Chicago Filmmakers.

Win free tickets to Chicago Opera Theater

Win free tickets to Chicago Opera Theater's spring season

Al Sanchez's Olympic games

The morning's news of scandals and budget deficits as the city gears up for the Olympics.

Bankruptcy 2.0

Your blog comments are unlikely to stand up in a court of law as a barometer of morale.

That reform bullshit

Some aldermen call for a more independent, better funded inspector general; another says it's "bullshit." So who are the reformers?

Even better than the real thing

The story of a rogue Bono impersonator

Wednesday re-coldening afternoon playlist

French garage rock, Swedish krautrock, and new sounds from old indie rockers.

Try a Little Tenderness

Richard Pegue's funeral features songs, speeches, and tears.

Is it really necessary to send reporters to fashion week shows?

Why newspapers should still send reporters abroad for fashion weeks.

Lollapalooza passes: Early bird alert

$60 Lollapalooza tickets are on sale now ( . . . and now they're sold out)

Government For Nothing

David Leonhardt's article on federal taxes applies to Chicago with a twist: We want government services, but pretend we don't pay for them.

Reader reviews

The Reader reviews theater, dance, and a Beatles tribute show.

3/12 -- French Quarter Burlesque

3/12 -- French Quarter Burlesque at Blue Bayou Bar & Grill: local burlesque performer Red Hot Annie will perform along with Donna Touch, Wham Bam Pam, Bonny Babs, The Honey Buns, and Paris Green in Vaudezilla's Erin Go BraLess.

Have I got a deal for you

The media, Block 37: Still screwed.

More to see, but it'll cost ya . . .

Art Institute of Chicago wants to raise admission fees by 50 percent and more.

3/6 -- Richard Bellia opening and film screening

3/6 --Richard Bellia opening and screening of "But We Have the Music" at ThinkArt

Pitchfork gets a facelift

Pitchfork debuts a new look.

Tape operator

Sami Havia's cassette art

Local man new nat'l barista champeen--and a story from the archives

New nat'l barista champeen hails from the Chicago Broadway store.

Don't knock the rock

More notes on CIMMFest.

3/12 -- Win a chance to dye the Chicago River green

3/12 -- Win a chance to dye the Chicago River green

3/9 -- Ars Scientia: The Magic of Perception

3/9 -- Ars Scientia talk at the Cultural Center

About Face Update

About Face Theatre is one-third of the way to survival.

Whet Moser -- a must read

The best piece of thinking and writing that I've seen emerge from the Chicago Journalism Town Hall is the long blog essay by the Reader's Whet Moser that's running on the cover of this week's print edition. Moser walks us through journalism in the online era, explaining some things that aren't easy to get our minds around, and offers some inconvenient opinions. Such as -- "Traditional journalism, in 2009 AD, is boring and kind of uninformative"

Some love for Afghan Kabob

Before landing here in Chicago in 1982 Nasir Raufi and his wife fled the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan for Iran, and then Germany. He owned a furniture store for a long time, then he opened Afghan Kabob almost three years ago at the intersection of Elston and Montrose. As far as I know it's the only Afghan restaurant in the region, ever since the demise of Devon Avenue's Afghan Restaurant, and the (supposedly) in-the-process relocation of Skokie's Kabul House. Its novelty may be part of the reason they pull in a multiethnic range of customers from all over the city and suburbs, but it's more likely the solid, careful execution of his country's cuisine that keeps them coming back.

Neil Innes plays Abbey Pub

Monty Python songwriter Neil Innes performs a solo show at Abbey Pub.

3/11 -- Find the G-Spot

3/11 -- Find the G-Spot at the Pleasure Chest

As Journal pulls trigger -- Tribune makes itself too easy a target

Wall Street Journal takes shot at Chicago Tribune's "diminishing quality" the same day the Tribune demonstrates it on page one.

Drama in Tampa...

Future ownership of the Reader is at stake in a bankruptcy court hearing in Tampa

New Reader reviews

New Reader reviews

Today in Chicago hipster news

Cool Kids, Flosstradamus, and Claychella

3/7 -- Free wine, beer, and spirits tasting

3/7 -- Free wine, beer, and spirits tasting at Pastoral

The AP has jobs to fill in Chicago. However . . .

The Associated Press is hiring in Chicago -- but absorbing work there that used to be done in other cities.

This gun for hire

Sharon Keller, a Texas judge whose court was criticized by the Chicago Tribune in 2000, has been accused of discrediting the judiciary and may lose her job.

Chicago Dramatists appeal

Chicago Dramatists stages a preemptive funding appeal now, before the worst hits.

Big closings, little openings

There's at least some good restaurant news out there if you look for it.

More Falls fallout

The discussion about Bob Falls's call to WBEZ critic Kelly Kleiman--and Tony Adler's response to it--continues.

Richard Pegue Services

Richard Pegue's funeral service will be Monday, March 9.

Chicago Public Library seeks poster art

The library's holding a poster design contest and Jay Ryan's judging.

3/10 -- Bingo Tango

3/10 -- Bingo Tango at the MCA.

Movin' on up (movin' on up) to the sky

What to look for in a $775k condo: inspirational walk-in closets.

Oh my

Word's out that the mayor's brother might run against Roland Burris.

Where's the Chicago High School for the Arts?

Chicago High School for the Arts is slated to open in the fall, but where?

God Bless Mayor Daley!

Election day was a bad day for the ward bosses last week, but still too many Chicago voters think we'd be lost without Daley.