Best coffee in Chicago? The La Colombe Cafe
Reader Find
Warehouse district! Restaurant corridor! Warehouse district! Restaurant corridor! Either way you look at it, Randolph and Halsted in Chicago is one of the best areas to store your … whatever, or find the newest and best places in the city to eat. But even better than that, you can spend a long and quiet afternoon sipping what is undoubtedly the best coffee you’ve ever tasted served by the friendly and eclectic staff.
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Long-exposure photography by Xavier Nuez
Contributor
The Alleys and Ruins series by Chicago-based photographer Xavier Nuez might be my favorite series of photographs. I’m a huge fan of long-exposure photography, and I love how Nuez’s photographs are dark and colorful at the same time. Nuez ventures out to high-risk locations to capture these amazing images, and he’s faced many dangerous encounters in the process. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase a print of my favorite image in the series, the lead image in this post, when Nuez was at Artisphere in Greenville, SC.
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Gallery Provocateur: showing erotic art in Chicago
Reader Find
Chicago used to be well-known for its many small theaters, which offered almost week-long incursions into the arts. But things change, and so does the city. In this case, Gallery Narcisse has transformed (and transported) from one part of the city to another, becoming Gallery Provocateur, voted Best Little Gallery in Chicago 2012. Provocateur, difficult [...]
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Chicago’s Bittersweet Cafe serves tasty works of art
Reader Find
Is rap music ‘music’? Is pop art ‘art’? Here’s another insoluble: suppose a pastry chef uses flour, water, sugar, chocolate, frosting, and other yummy fixins to create a cake. When the cake is presented, is it a piece of art?
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Rotofuji Gallery: the funnest place in Chicago
Reader Find
According to Krusty the Klown, the funnest place on Earth is Tijuana. But the funnest place in Chicago is the Rotofugi Gallery. Whether you pronounce is with a hard ‘g’ or a ‘j’, the Rotofugi Gallery is the city’s focal point for all things vinyl toy, low brow, and otherwise disrespectful.
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New music by Chicago-based band Blane Fonda
Reader Find
Blane Fonda is a five-piece dance rock outfit based in Chicago. The band’s debut LP, Foolish Croon, and stand-alone single “Sounds Like Static” follow the 2009 EP Master of Stars and Broken Arms. The surrealist documentary The Tall Tale of Blane Fonda was written and illustrated by lead vocalist Mark Wetzel and animated by Ian Pfaff.
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Winter Sessions: a line of bags, aprons, and wallets
Reader Find
Chicago designers Tanya Fleisher and Roy Katz produce a line of detail oriented bags, aprons, and wallets. Their work is informed by an ethic of form following function, durable craftsmanship, and a modern aesthetic. The majority of their materials are sourced from US manufacturers, including their leather, which comes from a tannery just down the street from their workshop.
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Flour and Bones: a new restaurant in Chicago
Reader Find
I first encountered Abe Conlon and Adrienne Lo’s cuisine at one of their X-Marx underground dinners. I recall being blown away by their hot Caesar salad soup accompanied by deep fried anchovies. Now they are opening Flour and Bones, a permanent restaurant in Chicago. Expect fantastic casual but creative dishes, influenced by their recent culinary [...]
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Awesome self-portraits by Kyle Thompson
Contributor
These ridiculously awesome self-portraits of 21 year-old Kyle Thompson from Chicago are magical stuff. If he is, indeed, as My Modern Met reports, a pizza delivery guy, he needs to rethink his line of work immediately. On his Flickr page, Thompson says, “I like taking photos in abandoned houses and empty forests”, which explains the backdrop for many of his shots, but doesn’t quite explain how he does all this amazing stuff with fabric to get them to move rather beautifully.
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All We Ever Do Is Fight: a new art series by Steve Seeley
Reader Find
I got the chance to meet Steve Seeley during an exhibition of his work, titled All We Ever Do Is Fight, at the Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago a few months back. Not only is he one of the nicest guys I’ve met, but the precision of the line-work and the perfectionist execution of his work is inspiring.
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Down in the Valley as performed by The Congregation
Reader Find
I recently had the pleasure of listening to Chicago-based band The Congregation in a small venue near my studio in Pilsen. The brass was sharp, the guitars were bluesy, and Gina Bloom really knows how to belt out some gut wrenching material. The Congregation is what happens when you combine that undefinable soulful presence with [...]
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Photos of Chicago, New York in the 50s and 60s
Reader Find
Vivian Maier has one of those bodies of work that is hard to overlook. The mysterious, and only recently discovered, nanny-photographer has left behind an incredible collection of photographs from the streets of Chicago and New York during the late 50s and 60s. I’m invariably refreshed when I stumble across a strong female photographer, and Maier’s impressive legacy of work is no exception.
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Zoe Boekbinder covers Beyonce’s Single Ladies
Reader Find
Oakland-based musician Zoe Boekbinder charmed an intimate crowd when she played at The Yellow Book Store in Chicago last October. If seeing her live performance didn’t already hook me, here’s a Youtube video of her cover of Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
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Whacky animal caricature art by Darick Maasen
Reader Find
I love these pieces by Chicago-based artist and caricature do-er, Darick Maasen. Some of his work pokes fun at well-known characters, showing them, as he does, in a most different light.
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ZIA Gallery in Winnetka, Illinois
Reader Find
Great galleries come in all sizes, but most of their greatness often resides in a state of constant flux, otherwise known as perception. Many perceive the best art to be held in cities like L.A., New York or Berlin. Chicago has some scratching their heads with the cancellation of Art Chicago, but just north of downtown, ZIA|Gallery of Winnetka, Illinois, forges ahead with thought and conversation provoking exhibitions in photography, painting and mixed media artworks.
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