The title came first for the latest Plain White T’s album, The Wonders of the Younger . T’s songwriter and singer Tom Higgenson had just watched Cirque du Soleil’s “O” in Las Vegas when the phrase popped into his head. Higgenson says he didn’t quite know what the term meant, but he knew it was […]
Posted inMovies
Fact and Diction
Remarkably unremarkable and tonally mundane, director Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech was seemingly genetically engineered by a mad scientist named Juan Tan-Oscar. Quasi-historical and wholly predictable, the film would have been dismissible as icky chum for suit-wearing Academy sharks were it not for Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth. Their tête á têtes are more frosty […]
Posted inMusic
Digital Leather announces album release plans
* Digital Leather is finally able to let loose plans for its follow-up to 2009’s Warm Brother . The new record, Infinite Sun, is due out in June or early July on Chicago label, Tic Tac Totally. After Shawn Foree and his bandmates recorded the album, they took to fundraising website kickstarter.com to pay mixing […]
Posted inFood
Boiler Room, Crescent Moon
* Everyone wants an escape from Nebraska at the moment, right? The staff at downtown’s Boiler Room took a week out of the restaurant to travel to San Francisco to do some foodie research. Last year, the team visited Chicago restaurants and speakeasy-type bars to influence their menu and drink list. San Francisco is sure […]
Posted inFood
Hy-Vee Food & Wine
* Even if, or especially if, you don’t know your Cabernet from your Chardonnay, you should really consider checking out Hy-Vee’s Wine and Food Experience festival next month. The event is Saturday, Feb. 5, from 1-6 p.m. at the DC Centre, 11830 Stonegate Circle. You’ll be able to sample practically every wine Hy-Vee carries, the […]
Posted inMusic
PWF Update and Hot Music for Cold Nights
Hoodoo previously announced the Playing With Fire concert series is winding down, with only one concert planned for this summer. The show is set for Saturday, July 16, with a just-secured booking that should be a real crowd pleaser. Soulful Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings are set to headline. They will appeal to blues […]
Posted inSpecials
Cosmic Forecast for Jan. 27-Feb. 2
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year of the Cat, Feb. 3, falling (as the Chinese New Year always does) the day after the New Moon in Aquarius, which is at 8:31 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2, taking us from the wild, intractable, ferocious El Tigre to the domesticated, aloof, serene La Gata. Get the […]
Posted inSpecials
Flu Season: It Doesn’t Add Up — and other news
It’s a topic visited here many times. But a recent article in The Atlantic , titled “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science: MUCH OF WHAT MEDICAL RESEARCHERS CONCLUDE IN THEIR STUDIES IS MISLEADING, EXAGGERATED, OR FLAT-OUT WRONG,” has led us down this path once more. I’ve just spent hours scanning the web for a shred […]
Posted inCulture, Visual Arts
Bemis, V-Day, Art and Bubbly
* The Bemis Underground has a new curator. Joel Elia Damon took over the space after Brigitte McQueen left at the end of 2010. Damon says he’s excited to build on the Underground’s momentum while continuing to grow the space. “I’m extremely honored to be in this position,” he says. And he’s jumping right in […]
Posted inMovies
Falling in Lust
Director Ivan Reitman is best known for ridiculous, male-dominated comedies like Ghostbusters and Stripes , but his latest, No Strings Attached , is like a romantic-comedy masterclass. Not that it’s a masterpiece of the genre, but it so expertly strikes all the right nerves that it’s still a little irresistible. One drunken night and one […]