The listed events were chosen by the editors of Chicagoist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla. Film Have you heard the new place to play hooky is the Portage Theater's classic Wednesday matinée series? Last week it was the Marx Brothers at their most anarchic. This week Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald star in "I Married an Angel." This classic 1942 fantasy features some classic Rogers and Hart songs sung beautifully......

Let's start things off right this weekend with a grappa tasting this evening from 6-7:30 p.m. at Taste Food and Wine in Rogers Park, shall we? Yes, we shall. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau's first restaurant week, Eat It Up, begins this evening. Through next Friday, participating restaurants three-course price fixe lunches for $21.95 and dinners for $31.95. Congratulations to Provenance Food and Wine, which celebrates......

Fish on Fridays and denouncement of vices may be just for Catholics in the upcoming Lenten season, but luckily the preemptive celebration of Mardi Gras seems to span all religious sects. And this Tuesday’s celebration is set to pack an extra punch considering it’s not just Fat, it’s Super. If your presidential pick is pulling up the rear and you need a place to drown your sorrows, check out our choices for the best Mardi......

Who among us hasn't accidentally forgotten to do something that we then really feel guilty about? Like maybe failing to call our Mom on her birthday? Or forgetting to include one of our favorites on our Hall of Fame ballot and almost seeing him forever dropped from the ballot? OK, so maybe we don't yet have to worry about the former quite yet, but Phil Rogers wasn't so lucky. The Tribune baseball columnist felt the......

More bad news for and from the Sun-Times: business editor Dan Miller, a 2006 inductee into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame, resigned today as seven non-union employees were laid off, including editorial board members Michelle Stevens, Lloyd Sachs and Michael Gillis, and Assistant Managing Editor Avis Weathersbee. Miller wrote in an email that he thinks the Sun-Times will be sold in a matter of months. [Crain's, Trib] You can own a piece of......

Even though Barack Obama came in second last night in New Hampshire, he's still number one in Chicago. In fact, the City by the Lake loves Obama so much that we're throwing him a $1000-a-plate fundraiser "Welcome Home" dinner this Thursday. Peoples Gas Co. President Desiree Rogers will be hosting Obama in her Gold Coast home on January 10. Also listed on the invitation are some of Obama's more monied backers, including developer Neil Bluhm,......

Tonight, as the Bears take the field against the Minnesota Vikings, we get to witness the beginning of the second reign of Kyle Orton as Bears starting quarterback. In 2005, Orton lead the Bears to a 10-5 record in his starts as a rookie. Much like a father handing over only the valet key when his teenage son wants to borrow the Porsche, the Bears turned over only a portion of the offensive playbook to......

Now this brings back some memories. We've always had this fascination with old movie houses. It probably started with Sunday family days at the Will Rogers Theatre at 5641 W. Belmont in the mid-70's. It was the perfect capper to a day in Belmont Central. Mom would take us shopping for clothes at Goldblatt's — those stores were actually respectable then — or Jack Robbins, maybe have some lunch under the Golden Arches. Then......

As Frank Burns says, it's nice to be nice to the nice. And it seems like people are getting on the kindness bandwagon today. First the Neighbors Project wants us to give out thank you for shoveling cards. The folks at NP will send you free postcards to pass out to your shovel-inclined neighbors to thank them for their magnificent de-snowing skills — and it's also a way to shame your blockmates into clearing......

Or, in honor of the start of holiday shopping season, we should probably christen this week's installment the "Black Friday Buffet". Anyway, let's get to it. West Lakeview Liquors weekly tastings will focus on Christmas ales (tonight) and whiskies (tomorrow). The French Wine Society is sponsoring a wine and cheese tasting at Taste Food & Wine in Rogers Park from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Cost is $30 for Wine Society members; $35 all others ChicaGourmets and......

Extortion is funny, violence is hilarious, and murder provokes a smirk in Bad Guys in Suits, Hobo Junction’s quirky late-night tribute to the hardest times our hard-time town has ever known. It’s 1933 and the mob rules Chicago with an iron fist. When you’re not waiting on a bread line or begging for work, you take solace in a radio voice urging you to keep your chin up. Sound like a riot? Writer Josh Zagoren......

Todd Stroger, today is not your day. The panel he appointed to analyze Cook County healthcare announced today that an independent board should take over because the County has so royally fucked it up. Oh, and his tax plan ain't so hot either; the $4 per phone line is actually illegal. Two people were arrested for stealing vases from Chapel Hill Cemetery in Oakbrook Terrace. Loehmanns! On State Street! The old lady in all......

From Rogers Park up north to Pullman in the wild-wild hundreds, Chicago is a town full of renters. But there is a problem. The Center for Housing Policy, a national organization that examines housing policies and programs, has reported that Chicago ranks 17th out of 31 areas studied in their Least to Most Affordable Rental Markets. Even more distressing is their finding that 43,000 families are spending more than half their income on rent. Another......

First person to name the song those lyrics in the headline came from gets a no-prize. Own some of Billy Corgan. Really. It's not a good idea to e-mail a Playboy playmate via Myspace, especially when said playmate is dating the Bears' Adam Archuleta, you're from Aurora, and type in bold threatening capital letters. Some Wisconsinites have a unique take on the designated driver. What did you do on your summer vacation? (via) Give......

Just in case we’ve all forgot how to play in the neighborhood, a new non-profit organization is helping to teach people how to be better neighbors. The Neighbors Project mission is to inspire, support, and connect people in their 20s and 30s who want to take on both large and small projects that will help to improve their neighborhoods. This afternoon, they’ll be hosting the “Block Party Party” from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at......

As the week winds down, here are some things of note while we go out and find a fuck lion. Mayor Daley presses Springfield to approve a sales tax increase for the Chicago area to stave off the proposed Doomsday scenarios of CTA and Pace. Bank of America’s pending acquisition of LaSalle Bank could cost the metropolitan Chicago area over 10,000 jobs over the next two years when completed. Chicago Public School teachers voted......

When we were kids, we used to visit many of the neighborhoods around Chicago as part of our parents endless quest to eat food from as many cultures as possible. Pierogi in Avondale, tortas in Pilsen, souvlaki on Halsted, dhal on Devon, and the biggest polish-with-kraut you ever saw on Maxwell are just a taste of what we've had the good fortune to eat over time. It isn't the food that sticks in our minds......

Crossing California Stage Adapter Alan Donahue...

We Chicago sports fans sure didn't have very long to mourn the end of the Bulls season. Barely 12 hours later, the trash talking is reaching a fever pitch, as the Cubs and White Sox face off for the first time in 2007. Wrigley Field hosts the first installment of the city's annual crosstown showdown, beginning with Friday's matinee. The teams enter this weekend's series on opposite trajectories, with the Sox having won eight of......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Yawn. That’s our initial response to the free music at the Taste of Chicago this year. We know not every concert should cater to us alone, but should we suffer because of the need to cater to the balding, khaki-wearer’s bland taste in music? Thanks, XRT, for taking this to a new level of disinterest. Who’s having the BBQ? That’s where we’ll be instead of Grant Park. The Taste of Chicago has released the Fourth......

Outside.in, the aggregator of all things in neighborhoods across the country, recently tallied their numbers of neighborhood specific blogging and released the top 10 "bloggiest" neighborhoods in the country. Coming in at number 5 was Rogers Park/North Howard. Outside.in describes the neighborhood as, "Located in one of the last remaining pockets of poverty in Chicago's North Side, it‘s home to a culturally diverse group of residents that have very mixed feelings about the rapid gentrification."......

While we've been busy enjoying the nice weather over the weekend, and trying to get back in the groove this week, lots of other newsworthy stuff has happened here in the City by the Lake. Let's take a look back at everything that's happened so far this week: Daley Picks a New Chief of Staff; Local Press Makes Bad Sports Jokes. As Daley promoted Ron Huberman to try and save the CTA's ass, he's tapped......

This election has been one of the most significant in recent memory. With seven new aldermen set to take office in May, including the wife of Jesse Jackson Jr. in the 7th Ward, the stage is set for a new power struggle in Chicago. This year, more than any other, saw the city's labor movement — especially the service-sector unions — flex their political muscle. The result? A record-low turnout in the mayoral vote, and......

It's tax week, everyone. It's also a busy weekend for food and drink events in the city, between WhiskyFest and the IACP Cookbook Expo. Some of you are probably shedding tears in your beer after writing yet another check to the Man. In the spirit of empathy, we have a wine-and-spirits intensive edition of "YFFB" to take your mind off things. It's Still Alright to "Head For the Mountains of Busch": Sometimes it pays......

Boy oh boy, the shit is starting to fly! Now that the Aldermen and their challengers have taken the gloves off, you better believe it's game on in your neighborhood! This week, we dedicate this edition of the Hump Day Political News Roundup to kickin' ass and talkin' shit. Yee Haw! 32nd Ward Candidate Sues Incumbent. That's right, Scott Waguespack has had it with Steady Teddy's bullshit. So he's filed a $5 million lawsuit against......

Labeling young, successful artists as The Next [insert name of popular artist] is as common a practice as it is unfair. Few up-and-coming writers, directors or actors mind the attention and praise, but many hope to succeed on their own terms. Theatre Seven of Chicago’s Is Chicago, which presents Marisa Wegrzyn’s latest play alongside one of David Mamet’s earliest and most talked about scripts, prompts two reactions. It takes some chutzpah to invite comparisons to......

Thirty years ago when they were both teens, Fred Rogers stabbed Kenneth Hellstrom to death then disappeared. After a routine traffic stop, he's back in police custody and charged with the murder, although it's up to a judge as to whether he should be charged as a juvenile or adult. A hacker broke into a state government site and accessed personal information for 7,100 health-care workers. The Trib has a new CTA blog. Remember......

At the age 14 or 15 our parents told us they would put $1500 towards a car, although it was years away we dreamt of the day when the girls would gather around and a constant battle would be waged over who got shotgun. Needless to say we spent hours and hours perusing through the latest auto trader and watching the weird classified ad channel that showed shiny sparkling new vehicles. Occasionally the showing of......

It looked like the Cubs and Carlos Zambrano were headed to a contentious arbitration hearing yesterday, but the two sides negotiated right up to the hearing's start time and came to an agreement on a 1-year, $12.4 million deal. Zambrano had asked for $15.5 million, and the Cubs offered $11.025 million, so the deal was closer to the Cubs' price. Had the case gone to arbitration, the arbitrator would have decided between the two submitted......