Betty Crocker is perfect. She bakes flawless pies and gives sage advice, such as: "A fricasse without dumplings is like a wedding without a bride." Also, unlike another domestic goddess that we know of, she’s never been in the slammer. It’s easy to be the perfect woman, though, when you don’t actually exist. An invention … Read more
One muggy Minnesota morning during the summer straddling the scrawny divide between my fanciful childhood and jaded adolescence, my best friend Robby and I found religion. It’d been hiding, not surprisingly, inside the whitewashed pine chapel of Lake Bronson Galilee Lutheran Bible Camp. Robby and I first met, with a magnetic force, five years earlier … Read more
"I’m probably more middle of the road than most people I went to film school with," says Dan Orozco, host of Butter City, the hottest talk show to cover filmmaking since Siskel and Ebert ruled the airwaves, "I like movies that I can eat a whole thing of popcorn and drink a whole can of … Read more
The first thing I do is research the customer service program of the company that makes that new car I have my eyes on. The last thing I want to do is buy a product that makes one go to the dealer and pay $100 to ask a question. The Internet and all its frauds … Read more
In his latest documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris is addressing questions no one has bothered to ask and finding answers no one has bothered to tell. With an Academy Award under his belt for Fog of War, Errol Morris continues to investigate and research stories that many people have undoubtedly turned away from. Standard … Read more
Ra’mon-Lawrence A. Coleman Hometown: Chicago, Il. (born and raised on the South Side) Alum of the distinguished School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ra’mon-Lawrence A. Coleman received concurrent Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Fashion Design and Performing Arts. Previous to this he attended the University of Iowa, where he studied Biology and Art … Read more
I was a street artist. If you prefer, I was a vandal. I started out, as most artists do, humbly. A can of russet Rustoleum with a couple of friends, scrawling vague leftist slogans on the abandoned railroad factory buildings in my hometown. Alleyway dumpsters and streetlit governmental properties were my first canvases. Then came … Read more
The antithesis of Milwaukee Avenue—the Seward neighborhood’s secret boulevard of late 19th century homes—is the Cedars 94 apartment complex, located just across from Milwaukee on Franklin’s north side. Where Milwaukee Avenue has dozens of brick homes with low front porches and gingerbread gables, the apartments have faded wooden shingles and a chain-link security fence. Where … Read more
Aaron Eckhart doesn’t like too much attention. It makes him uncomfortable, which oddly enough, isn’t such an odd thing for an actor. Sure, there are artists that live for the limelight, but then there are others that live for the art (not that you can’t live for both, mind you). Eckhart is not a spotlight … Read more
Auralee Likes is co-owner of Hymie’s Records, one of the few places in town where you can still unload a box or two of records, or stumble upon some amazing finds. While processing records in the store we get exposed to zillions of records in every genre imaginable, but this list is the stuff I … Read more