chicago

Get ready to start your engines, Brides-to-be! The Hilton Rosemont is hosting a bridal expo on Sunday, January 22. The Bridal Sampler Wedding Expo is guaranteed to be an intimate affair that will bring you seats away from the hem of your perfect gown. Hosted by TBS Bridal, the Expo will feature a fashion show, several beautiful exhibits, tastings, live performances, and exciting prizes. This year’s Grand Prize winner will walk away with a trip to Mexico for two.

If your anything like me, you can find yourself in the liquor store on any given night spending as long as ten Chicago minutes to decide what the heck you actually want. You walk in, look around for something appealing in the front first, you’re feeling adventurous so you wander over to the import beers, no sales, and you quickly talk yourself out of to drinking a beer you can’t pronounce all night. You shift to the domestics where you start calculating ounces to dollars, looking for that hidden sixer of tall boys that saves you a buck from the 12 pack… college budget. Then, next thing you know, you’re sitting on your couch watching a game with the usual Budweiser in hand… real adventurous.

On January 21^st from 12 pm to 6 pm the 4^th Annual Winter Block Party for Chicago’s Hip-Hop Arts is going down for FREE at the Metro! Thousands of people attended WBEZ 91.5’s Off Air Events Series last year and 2012 will be no different. This free party will feature graffiti galleries, breakdancing performances, a film screening of “The People Speak”, and the best music by some of Chicago’s BEST DJ’s. The list of fun & free things to do goes on and on but what caught my eye was the Emcee Olympics hosted by Urban Music & Hip-Hop Barbershop!!

The Beatles were an astounding British group that brought fans to their knees as soon as they came on stage. John, Paul, George and Ringo made the front page several times for their outrageous following and funky tunes. This Saturday and Sunday Jan. 21 & 22 the Old Town School of Folk Music will give you the chance to sing along to your entire collection of Beatles tunes from 1963-1970. Every album being sung will have a different set of teachers and students, and will be under the supervision of resident guitar guru Steve Levitt. Saturday at 7pm will cover all of Beatles for Sale, and Sunday at 5pm will cover Magical Mystery Tour. It’s guaranteed to be a great two days, and you’ll even get to hang out with tons of Beatles ensemble members from the past few decades! The event will be a grand scale sing-a-long inside of the beautiful Myron R. Szold Music & Dance Hall located at 4545 North Lincoln Ave from 3pm to 11pm both nights. There’s a suggested donation of $10 at the door, and you’re encouraged to bring your own instruments, voice and love.

I found the perfect lunchtime getaway! Most of us have less than an hour to chow down on whatever Chicago grub we set our eyes on but with this good find you can literally “Eat to the Beat”. On...

Having a hard time dealing with the absence of All My Children on ABC? Then buy your ticket to A Tribute to Pine Valley and ask the cast of your favorite soap opera all the questions you’ve been waiting to ask for years! All My Children was an amazing and ground breaking soup opera that was filled with as many characters as there are people on the streets of Chicago, and now's your chance to meet the cast.

The Gift Theatre Company, one of the smallest equity troupe’s in the Chicago, is celebrating their anniversary of ten successful years and are inviting all to experience it with them. The theatre’s newest performance, appropriately titled “Ten” is a quick sampler of short ten minute plays written by, ten playwright phenoms, David Rabe, Eric Bogosian, JT Rogers, Craig Wright, Caitlin Montayne Parrish, Andrew Hinderaker, William Nedved, Jenny Connell, & Maggie Andersen.

There’s no better way to spend your Saturday than basking in beer samples & treats… for FIVE hours. Next Saturday, January 21^st from 2-7 pm the Chicago “Brew Ho Ho” event is going down. For just $20 at the door you get 10 beer sample tickets & 5 treat tickets and a sample of Angel’s Envy bourbon. Everyone’s invited but you must [email protected] at which time you’ll receive an email confirmation with the location of the event.

It’s January 26th, 1967 in Chicago and snow has been falling for five hours. Four inches of snow had been predicted, but it’s clearly risen above that calculation. You’re caught in a carpool in the middle of the blizzard with three work rivals. The good news is if they freeze to death before you do then that sweet promotion you’ve been waiting for is right at your fingertips! This is the melodrama that follows created by Chicago veteran Jon Steinhagen and directed by Russ Tutterow the Artistic Director of the Chicago Dramatists. Blizzard ’67 is sure to keep you warm and cozy as you enjoy the mind games played by four businessmen inside of a car during the blinding Windy City blizzard of 1967. Watch these strong men crumble under the pressure of the devastating blizzard and enjoy the psychological changes they go through during the storm.

I heard the news on the radio.  Taste of Chicago is going to be revamped (again) for 2012.  The Taste will be chopped from 10 days to 5, and moved from the 4^th of July week to mid-July (July 11-15 to be exact).  I had always thought that the excitement from the Taste came from its grand proportions – of food, music and crowds. Yes, I said it, the crowds.  The immense, hungry crowds walking their way into Grant Park, bibs tied on to catch the drool, in anticipation of sampling the flavors that make Chicago the dining capital of the world!  The Taste was the thing to do leading up to the 4^th of July.