Where the dead mail goes

Despite ripe context and brilliant set, new play doesn’t know what it wants to be

06/16/2010

Theater
How do you reach anyone down here?” asks a character in Philip Dawkins’ slapdash new play, holding up her cell phone and railing against the painful metaphor of a bad mobile connection.
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Our lit picks

Who we like at this year's festival

06/09/2010

Book fair
Every year in the Chicago Journal offices since time immemorial (or at least since the summer of 2001), staffers have gathered to scrutinize the Printers Row Book Fair listings - sorry, it's Printers Row Lit Fest now - and marked a few of the writers and readers that we think deserve extra attention.
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Sound and fury on the lakefront

5 acts you won't want to miss this summer

06/02/2010

Chicago is second to none when it comes to the quality and quantity of its summer music festivals. A weekend doesn’t pass without a street or park being rocked supreme. Our five favorites for this summer make us sweat just thinking about them.
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Rhawwarh!

For iconic Field Museum T. Rex Sue turns 10th birthday, a 3-D film and robotic dinosaurs

05/26/2010

For dinosaur lovers who have always wanted to visit a real life Jurassic park, without the danger of death, the Field Museum wants to grant your wish. To celebrate the decennial anniversary of the Tyrannosaurus rex fossil known as Sue, officials have enlisted high-tech robots and 3-D technology.
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Connecting Chicago to coral

Students here, in Fiji, will examine reef issues through the Web

05/19/2010

It's a scene right out of "Finding Nemo," with sea turtles and jellyfish float along above eye-popping coral reefs. Except this is a virtual world and behind the screen sit Chicago high school students exploring the depths.
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With the renters

Home hunting as great theater in "The Pigeons"

05/12/2010

Theater
Chicago renters often go through hair-pulling ordeals trying to find the perfect apartment in the perfect neighborhood surrounded by people perfectly suited to their own lifestyles - all at the right price.
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Layered complexity

Romare Bearden arrives at the cultural center

05/05/2010

A traveling exhibit that gathers more than 75 of artist Romare Bearden’s works arrived at the Chicago Cultural Center this month, allowing a fascinating glimpse at the visual worlds created by one of the 20th century’s most important black visual artists.
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The man behind the colors

Doc examines a Chicago legend

04/28/2010

Film
You’ve probably seen him — the tall, lanky man with white hair, deep-set eyes and a perpetual grin clad in wild, brightly colored suits is a Chicago fixture.
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Sushi 'pub' keeps it simple

Masu Izakaya focuses on small-plate offerings

04/21/2010

Food Review

Masu Izakaya is named for the square boxes, or masu, that Japanese drinkers perch their glasses of sake in. Once used to measure out rice, the boxes catch the liquid that spills over the glasses’ sides from overgenerous pours. At the end of the night, drinkers swallow the lukewarm accumulated slosh.
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A new standby

Flaco’s Tacos is great for friends, affordable and tasty, if inconsistent

04/14/2010

It’s a world where diners are getting more and more finicky about their Mexican food. A master like Rick Bayless and his famous Frontera Grill and Topolobampo on North Clark Street have set a standard — providing guidance for knock-offs like Adobo Grill (in Old Town and Wicker Park) and Zapatista on South Wabash.
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