Leah Pickett

Prepping for Chicago festival season

By: Leah Pickett | Apr. 11, 2013

Apr. 11, 2013

With the start of Chicago festival season less than one month away, Metromix has released their preliminary list of street fests to whet our summer appetites.
 
Some focus on music (from block parties like Do-Division and Wicker Park Fest to festival giants like Pitchfork, Taste of Chicago and Lollapolooza) while others revolve around food or fine art, but all are guaranteed to bring crowds of joyful Chicagoans together for some long-awaited fun in the sun.   
 
Since it's never too early to start planning your summer activities, here's what you can expect from the four-month long bombardment of festivals this year:
 

1. Day drinking 

And lots of it. Pace yourself (pounding Jägerbombs before 10 a.m. is never a good idea) and remember that obnoxious drunk people are slightly more tolerable if you have a buzz going yourself.

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Before 'Fifty Shades' there was 'Secretary'

By: Leah Pickett | Apr. 10, 2013

Apr. 10, 2013

If you haven't seen Secretary, the 2002 indie film starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader as BDSM soulmates, then prepare for an experience that is infinitely more complex and heartbreaking than any of the Twilight fanfiction tripe peddled out to the masses via Fifty Shades of Grey. 
 
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past two years (a rock I would very much like to hide under most days), Fifty Shades of Grey has been hammered into your cultural psyche.

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The 'Mad Men' complex

By: Leah Pickett | Apr. 8, 2013

Apr. 8, 2013

The hit AMC drama Mad Men returned for a sixth season on Sunday night, and fans flocked to viewing parties all over the country to celebrate the occasion. In Chicago, venues like the Public Hotel and Logan Theatre opened their doors for late-night soirees, serving retro cocktails on the rocks and welcoming Mad Men enthusiasts in their finest sixties attire.

After four consecutive Emmy wins for Best Drama and a popular Banana Republic clothing line, the show has a rightful position in our cultural zeitgest alongside other fan-favorites like Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones.

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Almost legal Chicago rockers

By: Leah Pickett | Apr. 5, 2013

Apr. 5, 2013

In a recent interview with Pitchfork, the onetime teenagers of Chicago glam-rock band Smith Westerns are suddenly all grown up. The baby-faced trio surfaced on the local music scene with a self-titled LP in 2009, then catapulted to indie stardom with Dye It Blonde in 2011.
 
Today, the boys of Smith Western have matured into full-fledged adults: settling into apartments in Logan Square, toning down their hard-partying ways and delving into more personal and lyrically-reflective themes on their third album, Soft Will.

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'Transformers 4' to film in Chicago

By: Leah Pickett | Apr. 1, 2013

Apr. 1, 2013

Attention: Mark Wahlberg (Dirk Diggler of Boogie Nights) and Channing Tatum (the titular male stripper of Magic Mike) are coming to Chicago this summer.

Wahlberg will be in town for Transformers 4, along with Irish newcomer Jack Reynor and everybody's favorite love-to-hate director, Michael Bay.

Tatum is set to arrive around the same time as Wahlberg for Jupiter Ascending, a sci-fi action fantasy from the creative team of Andy and Lana Wachowski (the Matrix trilogy, Cloud Atlas

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Sheryl Sandberg tells Chicago women to 'Lean In'

By: Leah Pickett | Mar. 29, 2013

Mar. 29, 2013

Is Sheryl Sandberg the most radical feminist to ever challenge the status quo of a man's world?

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Police official: Congress Theater lied about serving alcohol

By: Leah Pickett | Mar. 27, 2013

Mar. 27, 2013

A Chicago Police Department official has accused the Congress Theater of failing to cooperate with officers during an investigation into underage drinking at the venue.

Sgt. Joseph Giambrone testified that Congress staffers lied about serving alcohol when his unit arrived to investigate suspicions of underage drinking during a DJ Rusko set in the early hours of May 6, 2012.

Giambrone’s testimony came during a disciplinary hearing at City Hall Tuesday morning, the second conducted by Chicago’s Liquor Control Commission looking into alleged illegal activities at the Congress.

During his testimony, Giambrone described a call from the emergency room of Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center in Wicker Park that reported several concertgoers “of various ages” arriving from the Congress Theater via private ambulance with symptoms of extreme intoxication, many of them “barely breathing.”

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Who are your role models?

By: Leah Pickett | Mar. 25, 2013

Mar. 25, 2013

The gymnasium of Barrington High School exploded with Beatlemania-like screams on Friday as Rihanna, pop princess of the Billboard charts and racy queen of the tabloids, made her grand entrance.
 
Never mind that she was over three hours late, a delay she attributed to "Chicago traffic" in an Instagram photo she posted just an hour prior.

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