November 2, 2017: The End of an Era

This morning's meditation. 

To put it lightly I’m devastated about the end of Chicagoist. It’s where I met my husband. It’s where I found my voice. It’s where I found my people. It’s a hit to the entire Chicago media landscape and unfortunately just the latest loss in the bigger decimation of written journalism.

Writing has been my heart for the last decade and now my outlet is gone. I don’t know what the future holds, but I can only hope that I one day find another outlet where I feel like I fit so well. Even as the site changed over the years, we were still a community. I met so many different people with some similar interests and some widely different ones, but we were a family, and we were and are friends.

Given the time of year, I have to look back and be thankful for all Chicagoist has given me. It made me a better writer, gave me more confidence, I got to interview amazing people, got to see world class performance art on a regular basis, I got recognition for my hard work, a reputation for my dance and music writing and curation of a running events guide. I met so many amazing people that I feel lucky to still have in my life.

Onward to the next chapter.

8 Of My Favorite Things To Do In Chicago This Weekend

Well, I wrote this, so I may as well publish it somewhere. Here's 8 fun things to do in the city this weekend. 

Revolution Craft Show

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 3

SOFA EXPO: More than 80 galleries converge for SOFA Chicago at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall this weekend. Contemporary art and design including glass blowing, ceramics, wood, glass, fiber, jewelry, metal, design, painting, photography and more will be showcased at the long-running “Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art and Design” fair. Tickets are $20 in advance.

RED BULL SOUND SELECT FESTIVAL: Red Bull Sound Select has chosen Chicago for it’s 30 Days Festival. That’s right, a full month of music, photography and more all over the city. In addition to concerts, the festival is highlighting local outlets including Fake Shore Drive’s 10th Anniversary show and the Crate Diggers Record Fair. Tickets are $15 or less per show. Check out their website for more information and schedules.

CINEPOCALYPSE: Horror film fans will flock to Music Box Theatre for the debut Cinepocalypse Genre Film Festival beginning Thursday. The Chicago-based festival runs through November 9 and includes films like Sweet Virginia and Beyond Skyline. Visit Music Box’s website for the full schedule.

LEAGUE OF LADY ARM WRESTLERS: The Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers is back with CLLAW XXVIII: Fall of the Patriarchy at Logan Square Auditorium. Watch Dr. Beverly Crush-her, Elton Brawn, Lady MacFist, returning CLLAW champion WinaFight Sanderson and more face off for the title. Tickets are $15 in advance.

CHICAGO CARTOONING LEGEND: Chris Ware isn't yet 50, but he's already cemented his reputation as one of the great treasures of modern cartooning and the graphic arts. He initially grew to fame drawing strips for both Newcity and the Chicago Reader. If Ware's name doesn't ring a bell, his work on his Acme Novelty Library and Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth—or even more recent pieces for The New Yorker—should. Ware has just published Monograph, which appears to be part memoir part history lesson? The publisher describes it as, "A flabbergasting experiment in publishing hubris, Monograph charts the art and literary world's increasing tolerance for the language of the empathetic doodle directly through the work of one of its most esthetically constipated practitioners." Trust us, it's probably great. Ware will be appearing at Quimby's this Friday to sign copies of the new book, so you can see what it's all about for yourself.


SATURDAY NOVEMBER 4

CHICKEN + CHAMPAGNE FEST: Join a dozen award-winning local chefs as they fry up the main course for Kendall College Trust’s Fried Chicken and Champagne Fest from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The third annual fundraiser for the educational nonprofit features dishes from chefs Dylan Lipe (The Budlong Hot Chicken), Christine Cikowski and Josh Kulp (Honey Butter Fried Chicken and 2015 and 2016 People’s Choice Award winner), Ryan McCaskey (Acadia and 2016 Golden Hen Award and Best Table Decor winner) and more. Tickets start at $85.


SUNDAY NOVEMBER 5

REVOLUTION CRAFT SHOW: Shop more than 45 local artists at the Revolution Craft Show this Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. There will be vendors with jewelry, decor and of course beer at the Revolution Tap Room event. They’ll also have food trucks parked out front. Free.

CEMETERY TOUR: Take a tour of the Bohemian National Cemetery after the gates are locked with this event from the Chicago History Museum. Historian Al Walavich will lead the tour highlighting the historic gatehouse, magnificent mausoleums, and emblematic treestone grave markers. BYO flashlight or head lamp. Tickets are $25.

Back To The Future Day Is Nigh

As the world already knows, the Cubs beat the Cardinals to advance to the NLCS, putting them one step closer to fulfilling the 2015 'Back to the Future II' prophecy. They're two games down to the Mets, but they come home tonight, so there's still hope.

I wrote a little something for the occasion for Chicagoist, basically wondering if we're in the right timeline according to the movie, or if we're in the skewed alternate timeline where a blonde butthead hotel entrepreneur rules...

It might look like I'm a Cards fan rooting for the Cubs, but I'd call it more of a plea. A plea to a baseball team to prove that we're in the correct space time continuum. Ok, maybe I'm really just a big fan of the game and of the Back to the Future movies.

'Back To The Future' Day Is Upon Us, But Which Timeline Are We In?

Back at the -ist

I've been back in the saddle at Chicagoist writing about dance going-ons in the city and helping out with summer music festival coverage. I guess you could say I took a break during wedding planning (and event recovery), but I'm excited to be writing again. I've got some cool stuff coming up this fall that I'm excited about, too.


Here's some of my recent dance coverage:
'So You Think You Can Dance' Tour Comes To Chicago Theatre This Fall 
Watch World-Class Dancers For Free At The Chicago Dancing Festival 
The Dancers Breaking The Color Barrier In Professional Ballet (my interview with the Joffrey Ballet's Erica Lynette Edwards about Misty Copeland's historical promotion to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater) 

And all our group previews and reviews from Pitchfork and Lollapalooza:
Lollapalooza 2015: Previewing The Undercard For All 3 Days 
Lollapalooza 2015 Day One: The Party Starts Earlier And Earlier 
Lollapalooza 2015 Day Two: A Raucous Ruckus 
Lollapalooza 2015 Day 3: Rock And Stormy Roll 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Preview: Friday 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Preview: Saturday 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Preview: Sunday 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Day One: It's Hot! And The Temperatures Are High Too 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Day Two: What A Roller Coaster 
Pitchfork Music Festival 2015 Day Three: A Strong Finish

Party Time Excellent

Busy October had me busy, but much happened that will hopefully make it to the blog at some point. What could not wait though is our Chicagoist ten-year anniversary party! Tomorrow night at Emporium! This party has everything: hosted bar, raffle prizes that benefit a place to help kids write good, food trucks, live music, recorded music, and some of the best darn writer people in town.

Be there!

Decadepalooza

Me in front of the good 'ol inflatable Lolla sign.

So...guess who ended up going to Lollapalooza last weekend. That's right, me. The ten year streak is alive! I just couldn't stay away. Is it FOMO? Maybe a little, but I really wanted to see live music in an environment that I feel comfortable in, and mentally let go for a couple of days. This year I realized that for a lot of people there, especially the young ones, Lollapalooza is something for them to experience, while for me, it's a place I can go to feel at home in my own city. I've spent most of my adult life in this city, and this festival has been an annual celebration for every year that I've been here.

I joined the Chicagoist-team on Lolla coverage and this year we did something a little different. It was a time-stamped write-up of band reviews and general festival experience. It ended up being a really cool post that provides different perspectives and let a little bit of each person's personality and approach to the festival come through. Nice job, team!

Read about Friday here, Saturday here and Sunday here. Oh yeah, I also got to see Spoon at Metro on Friday!

Riot Fest Tops The Rest

The lineup for this year's Riot Fest was announced this week and it's a doozy. Just when you thought the music festival bubble had burst, that every fest had morphed into the same cookie cutter lineup, this happens. And get this...instead of Perry Farrell playing his own festival's tenth year in Chicago, Jane's Addiction will play Riot Fest's 10th Anniversary. Jaw. Drop. Mind. Blown.

It was a big week for Tankboy and Chicagoist with the initial lineup announcement (yes, that's yours truly posing as "an excited Riot Fest fan"), an interview with the fest's founder, Riot Mike, and this latest announcement that ten of the bands will be playing full album sets in honor of the tenth anniversary.

I don't want to wish summer away, but I'm excited for September to get here!

On Not Freaking Out

This was supposed to go up like a month ago, but I think I burned myself out from editing all the things that I was working on! I guess I needed a little break. I was covering some pretty crazy things for Chicagoist and well, for myself.  Stuff I never thought I 'd have the opportunity to do, and honestly didn't even think I wanted to do, but when the opportunities presented themselves, when those invites came in, I just said yes. I challenged myself and faced my fear of falling on my face.

The first was was an event for the television shows Chicago Fire and Chicago PD--a panel with the casts of both shows and Executive Producer Dick Wolf complete with a red carpet beforehand. Once I realized this red carpet "interview opportunity" was basically Access Hollywood-style, I was anxious, but I showed up and got through it. I ended up with zero interviews since it was basically one long photo op that I wish I had brought a real camera for, but I made the best of it. I also learned that the business of covering television is a weird place. I now know all the character and actors' names from both shows. I feel like I know a little TOO much about these people.

(Todd Rosenberg)

The following week I got an out of the blue invite from Hubbard Street Dance to observe rehearsals with celebrity guests Nigel Lythgoe and Jenna Elfman. They were in town for So You Think You can Dance auditions, but came to Hubbard Street representing the Dizzy Feet Foundation. I brought my SLR for this one, but ended up with an eight minute interview with the pair instead, that I was of course, unprepared for. It turned out great though, they were both really nice and the conversation went well. The tough part was compiling all the material into a cohesive write-up. I'm still kicking myself for not including one of my favorite quotes from Lythgoe about SYTYCD*, but sometimes when I'm writing something--considering my focus, support points and what quotes to use--all the puzzle pieces don't quite fit together. Sometimes the points I find the most interesting don't serve the piece as a whole (or maybe I need to listen to what I'm saying here and change my approach. Chuck literally said in a note to the Chicagoist staff today, "I've always said if you find something interesting, the readers will.").

I'm learning how to conduct a better interview through experience, too. Sometimes you have zero research or not much time with your subject and have to stick with general questions while others you can get more in depth (like this kickass interview I did with choreographer Brock Clawson). I've even been paying more attention to the interviewer when reading or listening to interviews lately. The most important question I ask myself is...what would I be most interested in knowing about this person? This is your one opportunity to ask them!

I'm also learning that when you get to meet a celebrity or someone you admire, you don't necessarily get as overwhelmed as you might think because you have a job to do. But as a friend said to me one day when I was freaking out.... they're just people doing their job, they just have weird jobs.


*and that quote is: "We have to do something that is much more commercial, we have to appeal to a far wider audience than Kylian or ballet or anything otherwise we'd never get on television. It’s a very niche audience, ballet in particular is very sort of white elite in this country. We've got to appeal to a far greater audience than that so we try every now and again to educate as well as entertain and that’s a difficult thing to do, you don’t want to feel like you’re talking down to anybody, your viewers. At the same time when we talk about a pirouette we always say ‘you know when you did that turn, the pirouette,’ and then ‘when you were there with your leg up there in the arabesque,’ and so we always try and give the right terminology at the same time as helping people understand what the hell we’re talking about. It’s a fine line.”

Recapping Chicago's Biggest Music Weekend

I shared some of my thoughts on Lollapalooza and life in a music scene yesterday, and believe me, there are so many aspects of that post that I could develop into different longer-form pieces if I was more focused and less lazy. Perhaps one day...

But here I want to share our cumulative reviews of the weekend on Chicagoist. With the different views of Chuck, Jim, Jessica and me, I think we offered a well-rounded recap. I didn't write about every single thing I saw, but all was at least covered by someone else. One act I'm bummed I did miss though was HAIM. Hopefully they come through town again soon, and ya know, I can see them in a smaller venue.

Lollapalooza 2013 Day One: Yup, It's Massive

Lollapalooza 2013 Day Two: The Highs And The Lows

Lollapalooza 2013 Day Three: Everything Must End

Bonus: Watch Lollapalooza Security Tackle A Stage Crasher

Dance Away

I've been busy covering a bunch of dance stuff for the ol' -ist lately, and totally neglecting to talk about of any of it on the ol' blog. Here's some of what I've been up to:

Shaping Sound

• Tonight we're headed to Cirque Shanghai: Dragon's Thunder at Navy Pier, but last night we were at the Harris Theater for Travis Wall (of So You Think You Can Dance fame) and friends' new company, Shaping Sound. Here's my interview with Wall from last week.

• Saturday was opening night for Chicago Dance Crash's new program, The Cotton Mouth Club, and as usual they stun and delight with an unconventional mix of disciplines. Check out my review here.

• I also reviewed Joffrey Ballet's Othello last month, and while that run has ended, you can still look at the pretty photo gallery we had. 

Bloody Bloody Marys

Today we posted a list of our favorite Bloody Marys in the City on Chicagoist as part of our "Best Of" series. Man, do people have strong feelings about their bloodys. As Chuck says, we almost got into a virtual fist fight on the list over it. I am very particular about my bloodys as well, and my contribution had to be edited way down, but here are my complete feelings on the drink, and my favorite in the city. 


I’m picky about bloody marys, but I’m no good pinpointing exactly what it is that I love. I can tell you what I don’t like: one that’s too watery, too thick, too much worcestershire, not enough worcestershire, too lime-y, too spicy with not enough flavor. I don’t mind a little bit of beer in there, but what am I supposed to do with that beer back?? If I want a tiny beer, I’ll order a half pint. Don’t bother with all those meats and cheeses either, I ain’t looking for a meal here, or even a celery stick. Just stick a pickle wedge in there and be done with it.

While appreciate the concept of a Bloody Mary Bar (you’re in control! make it how YOU like it!), I don’t want to be responsible for ruining my own drink, and I’ve ruined plenty of bloodys. When I’m hungover on a Sunday, the last thing I want is a crappy bloody mary, especially one that I paid for and ruined. I want a bartender that can make me a rich, tasty bloody that is consistently delicious.

Enter AJ at the Corner Bar in Bucktown. He’s usually manning the bar on Sundays for whatever sporting event is going on (sometimes they’ll even have Popeye’s chicken), and he makes a mean (read: delicious) bloody mary. You won’t find any pre-made mix in a jug here. He makes each one from scratch: tomato juice, vodka, worcestershire, horseradish, (I’m sure I’m missing lots of important things here), a celery salt rim, and of course, a pickle. I’ve watched him make 'em many times, but I still can’t put it together as well as he does.

Like A Heat Wave

Summer is officially in full swing with a 100+ degree heat wave hanging over Chicago and most of the mid-west as we speak. As summer is swinging, I also find less and less time to sort through my thoughts and post! So, here's a little of what's been going on!

• Tankboy's 40th Birthday Bash at Darkroom on Saturday was a wild success (if I do say so myself as part of the planning committee). Memories were made from the inception of the plan (the guest of honor learning of the surprise show one day early!) to the night of the event (a sleeping Tankboy almost missing his own party!). Thanks again to everyone who helped, all the bands who played, and everyone who came out to make it a special night for Jim. Special thanks to Rudy, Kip, JB, Sam, Ivan, Pogo and Kenny. 

• Thanks to Debby for making our Disney vacation memorable for a different reason.  Instead of relaxing by the pool on vacation with my fam, we rode out a tropical storm that stalled over the state. Even though I didn't come back with a tan, we still managed to have fun once we put our expectations on a shelf, threw on ponchos, and ran to the parks to ride whatever rides we could!

• I made my inaugural visit to Milwaukee's Summerfest for Robyn with my girlfriends. #fembotsroadtrip

• I got to see the Paris Opera Ballet perform Giselle at the Harris. 

Here's a song to help get you through the heat wave. Take with Chicagoist's so hot playlist. Repeat as needed. 

At the Ballet

Rory Hohenstein in Incantantions

I got to go to the Joffrey again for their Spring program, and Chicagoist has my review. I've also included some more press pics below!

I also put together a weekend round up of dance events around Chicago this weekend. In related news, how did I never know of Karole Armitage?

Fabrice Calmels & Victoria Jaiani 

He actually caught her like that!

April Daly & Miguel Angel Blanco

The Joffrey Piece

I was totally geeked to be invited to a rehearsal at the Joffrey Ballet a couple of weeks ago. I've sort of turned into the default dance writer at Chicagoist which is just fine since I enjoy covering all arts, not just music. They have a new program, Winter Fire, beginning on Wednesday, so they reached out and of course I jumped at the chance. (Read my preview AND interview with the choreographer!) Getting to watch these dancers up close in a rehearsal atmosphere was such a treat. I was a competition dancer up until the time I turned 18, but I've still taken ballet classes here and there over the years. 16-year-old-me basically wanted to be these dancers, who am I kidding, today-me still dreams of dancing like that! It all just gives me a greater appreciation of the ability on display.

Here are some rehearsal photos sent to me by their publicist, and some from the Sun Times which are from the space I saw them in. Enjoy!

Tonight: Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up!

Oh, all the things I've been meaning to post here on the blog... Time, laziness and other various distractions (ooh look, something shiny!) are all major constraints... I'll get to all those events and photos and topics at some point...

But tonight! Tonight is the first-in-a-while Chicagoist Reader Meet-Up! Join me and the rest of the staff at supernewtrendy The Owl where there will be free beer, but most of all, good company. Plus you could win a copy the entire Pink Floyd catalog. Pretty sweet. RSVP for the event and the giveaway here and here.

The Owl:
2521 N. Milwaukee
Chicago

Hoot Hoot.

Chicagoista

Even though I've already penned the occasional piece over at Chicagoist, today is my "official" debut with a preview of Reggie Watt!

All I can say is that it took me some time, and almost a year off from writing regularly, to finally accept the invitation. One year Lollapalooza burned me out, the next made me miss it.

I guess, as a friend said, it's come full circle. We used to refresh Chicagoist all day long at work (shhh...don't tell my bosses!). It's how I met my boyfriend, and now he is my editor. That was one of the obvious reasons it took me some time, but I was able to cut my teeth and create my own voice over at Transmission, and he was a mentor the whole time. So I'm pretty confident we won't "fight more" (unless it's over who's going to cover a show!).

N-E-WAY, enjoy this little Reggie Watts ditty as a preview for his shows this weekend:

Summer is HERE!

Summer is here, which means I am going to be busy busy busy!

Summer in Chicago is unlike anywhere else since we hibernate alllll winter, we are so excited about being able to leave the house without cringing and see other people and enjoy all the festivities that the city has to offer!  Street festivals, MCA Tuesdays on the Terrace, free concerts in Millennium Park, Pitchfork, Lollapalooza... and that's on top of the fact that we have BEACHES!  The best part is that most of the events are focused around music and art.  I'll try to keep you up with all the goings-ons as they happen. 

This weekend kicks off the season with the Do Division Street Festival.  Empty Bottle presents the bands playing, so you know the lineup is great.  I'm particularly excited to see Handsome Furs and White Rabbit.  

Also this Saturday is Chicagoist's 5th Anniversary Party at The Whistler in Logan Square.  Grammar and The Interiors will play with Chicagoist DJs Tankboy, Superbird and Pocket Taco.  Whistler is quickly becoming known for it's fancy drinks and laid-back atmosphere, but the place is tiny so get there early!