For every suburban dwelling swathed in the ubiquitous builder-beige color palette, there’s a soccer mom and dad who hope to stamp their home with their own personal style. Problem is, this style seems to be shared by everyone in their ZIP code, which means McDesign for your McMansion. If blendin’…
If you’re a one-percenter chain gang with full-body tats, you’re not gonna be welcomed with open arms by many retail establishments — especially ones located in the ´burbs that include the word “Fine” in the title. So we were frankly surprised to learn about Stogie Cutter Bike Night. Every Thursday,…
No argument that our collective body-consciousness has, indeed, reached a vulgar place. You can’t channel-surf these days without hitting Dr. 90210 or a countdown of the 100 hottest Hollywood bodies — shows that surely will make you panic at the sight of your own nakedness. But our obsession with bodies…
“We’re Americans. We go into other countries when we need to. It’s tricky, but it works.” So declares Michael Moore in the midst of his new documentary, Sicko. Moore may be riffing on the war in Iraq, to name only our most recent intervention, but he’s actually referring to U.S…
Parked uneasily between sensitive indie and studio chick-flick, Lajos Koltai’s Evening makes star-studded hash of Susan Minot’s beautifully written, if emotionally constricted novel about a terminally ill woman trying to wrestle meaning out of the shards of her memories. Floating in and out of delirium in her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home,…
“Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.” So goes the personal mantra of the late celebrity chef Auguste Gusteau, whose disembodied spirit materializes, Jiminy Cricket-style, to guide the rodent hero of Brad Bird’s Ratatouille toward his goal of gastronomic excellence. He also seems to be guiding Bird,…
It takes Bruce Willis a while to get warmed up. He’s always just a bit below room temperature — a cool brother, dig, dating back to his Moonlighting days as a private dick belting out “Tighten Up” while going undercover as a man of the cloth in Wayfarer shades. He’s…
Lisa Marie Sipe, 32, is sweet, cheery and likes to mess with melted wax. Three years ago, she started working with encaustic — in which pigmented wax is poured, painted or dripped to create colorful, nature-inspired patterns. Her well-organized garage studio smells like sweet, melted beeswax. For months, in preparation…
Everyone’s got a different sense of what makes a killer party. For kids, maybe it’s whacking a piñata and overdosing on cake. For adults, it could be sticking a beer bong down your gullet and declaring yourself Mayor of Schlitz City. But since 1999, the Mario Party series has served…
Black Snake Moan (Paramount) The best place to see Craig Brewer’s mash-up of blood-boiling exploitation elements would be a Mississippi drive-in circa 1972. His tale of a black bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who chains up a seething, scantily clad cracker nympho (Christina Ricci) would’ve had the lot under martial law…
“4th Annual Mail Art Show” at The Trunk Space: These days, receiving anything worthwhile through snail mail is a novelty. But theres a little art fad going on that is bringing mail back, baby, and Trunk Space has tapped into it. This show invited artists from all over the globe…
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series (Shout!) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Anchor Bay) Dead Silence (Universal) Echo & the Bunnymen: Dancing Horses (MVD) Film School (Docurama) Frankenstein Conquers the World (Tokyo Shock) Going Under: Unrated Version (Blue Underground) High School Musical: The…
Do you avoid discussing Big Issues? Embarrassed about the size of your . . . well, you know. Hey, it happens to everyone, but there’s good news: Art appreciation is your sneaky ticket to erudition. In minutes a day, even a 98-pound intellectual weakling can build an understanding of global…
Who wants to see John Travolta create drag travesty as Edna Turnblad in the upcoming big-screen remake of Hairspray? The original Edna, portrayed by the wickedly delicious Divine in the 1988 original, was, shall we say, truly divine. Irony draped in satire, Divine was born to wear Edna’s charmingly frumpy…
Several years ago, I moved to Chicago. Most of the friends I made had never traveled west of Omaha, so they liked to tease me for being a cowpoke from Arizona. One so-called pal wondered if I missed my pet tumbleweed. Another asked if I grew up next to the…
Give a kid couch cushions and a blanket and you’ll inevitably see some masterful fort-building. What child can resist? Creating new spaces that offer protection, mystery and ample opportunity to flex the imagination is — and always was, for my part — too much fun to pass up. So, the…
Do we need another movie about the liberal West watching in horror as something that befalls helpless bystanders all over Africa, Asia, and the Middle East happens to one of us? Yes, we do. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by Islamic jihadists in Pakistan while researching…
Mike Enslin, the travel writer played by John Cusack in 1408, could use a better travel agent. Every hotel room in which he finds himself booked is said to be occupied by the ghost of some suicidal creep or a murderous goon who left behind a pile of bodies in…
Evan Almighty, the follow-up to Bruce Almighty, is the work of an angry God. At 89 minutes that last a lifetime, it’s a sanctimonious sitcom dolled up as the most expensive comedy ever made — $175 mil, so they say — and marks an unfortunate low point in the history…
I guess I’ve been asleep on the job. I knew that Theater Works had, at last, moved into its new, permanent digs at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts (which — I know! — sounds like the punch line to some kind of joke but is really sort of…
Once upon a time, the world breathed magic. Some believed this magic should belong only to the powerful, while others felt it was for everyone. So all the world’s beings went to war. The first battle took place in Brazil, where a lone elf with a sniper rifle notched an…
Die Hard Collection (Fox) You don’t need to watch the included preview of Live Free or Die Hard to know it’s going to blow; as this set proves, only odd-numbered Die Hards are any good. The first one, of course, is the perfect popcorn flick, and the bonus-disc extras here…
