Monthly
Media: May 2021 • “Call Him Dash”
First of all, let’s get an explanation of the name. The night jock at WTMX is named Dash. “All my life, when I told people my name,” he explains, “I would say Jordan Gabriel Orman-Weiss. The dash was part of my last name. That’s where the name Dash comes from.” Secondly, Dash is a […]
Cover Story: Del Amitri • “In The Flesh”
Over the years, Justin Currie seems to have survived the turbulent music industry on his shrewd wits alone. And he does not suffer any less street-savvy fools gladly. Take, for example, when the Del Amitri frontman was padding his income a few years ago, working part-time as a bartender in his native Glasgow. If […]
Spins • Rob Zombie: “Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy”
Rob Zombie Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy (Nuclear Blast) For the past three decades, Rob Zombie has been music’s master of macabre. He’s built his career on disco metal groove songs about witches, monsters, and sexy mamas. He excels in disco sleaze groove metal horror-inspired songs to shake your ass to. And that’s exactly […]
Media: April 2021
It’s hard to describe everything Jon Hansen brings to Chicago media. He’s really a Jon-of-all-trades, able to shift from television to radio to just about anything else that requires a microphone. First and foremost, he’s one of the stars of the nightly gabfest (6-7 pm), The Jam on WCIU-TV. “It’s your Twitter feed on […]
CinemaScopes: April 2021
New film releases are finally starting to pick up, with more cinemas opening around the country (specifically on the West Coast). The backlog of film debuts begins this month as we lead up to the summer season. Here are some top picks for April. Concrete CowboyDirected by Ricky StaubRated RApril 2nd on Netflix Inspired by […]
Stage Buzz Review and Photo Gallery: Todd Rundgren Clearly Human Livestream from Chicago
Todd Rundgren Clearly Human Virtual Tour Private Venue, Chicago, IL Friday, February 26, 2021 Review by Jeff Elbel Photos by Jim Snyder Celebrated innovator and musical polymath Todd Rundgren is conducting his 25-date “Clearly Human” tour entirely from an unnamed theater in Chicago. Each show has featured all of the songs from 1989’s Nearly […]
Media: March 2021
Bob Sirott has been part of the Chicago media landscape now for a half-century. “Geez, don’t remind me,” he says. “Yeah, that’s true. 1971 was the first year on the air at WBBM-FM. First, it was just doing weekends, and fill-ins, and summer stuff, and at the end of the summer, they either rewarded […]
The Lockdown Interviews: Steven Van Zandt
As anyone familiar with his anecdote-spiked DJ sets on his retro-rocking Underground Garage Sirius XM station can attest, Little Steve — AKA E Street Band and Asbury Jukes guitarist Miami Steve Van Zandt — has got stories. LOTS of serpentining stories, probably more than Aesop, Uncle Remus, and Grandpa Simpson combined. So naturally, all the […]
CinemaScopes: February 2021
CinemaScopes – Dinner & A Movie Month! February is traditionally the month for relationship movies, given Valentine’s Day is on the 14th and dinner and a movie is a perfect date night for many couples. Theaters in the Chicago area are open, but with most of us still avoiding public places, streaming and VOD releases […]
Media: February 2021
Former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce had an extremely memorable run on Chicago radio during the mid-90s. Still, since his time here, Danny has done radio in Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and now for the last decade, he’s been the morning man in Seattle at KZOK (102.5FM). “I think this is my longest run […]
Cover Story – Pale Waves
If anyone didn’t know it when she first got into showbiz as a wide-eyed, small-town British naif, they know it now — Pale Waves front-vixen Heather Baron-Gracie pulls no punches, suffers no fools gladly, and always shoots straight from the hip. She’s justifiably proud of her newfound industry acumen, and she’s even developed an alter […]
Featured: Beki Hemingway
Earth, Asphalt, and Places in the Soul The tall tales and small stories captured on Beki Hemingway’s new album Earth and Asphalt suggest that her audience has a lot of catching up to do, with the assurance that it will be time well spent. Much has happened since the release of 2017’s Whins and Weather, […]
Media: January 2021
After twenty-plus high-profile years in radio and television, Melissa Forman is an important part of the Chicago media landscape. “Twenty-plus years?” she responds. “Yikes. It’s going fast. My Dad always said to me: ‘Life is like a roll of toilet paper. In the beginning, it moves slowly, and in the end, it moves very […]
Cover Story: George Thorogood
By all accounts, it was a triumphant prodigal-son homecoming: The night of November 23, 1982. when the newly-crowned Tazmanian Devil of roadhouse-scruffy blues George Thorogood and his backing band The Destroyers tornadoed back into their adopted hometown of Boston sprawling, 27-song set at a club then known as the Bradford Ballroom. After making his mark […]
CinemaScopes: January 2021
2020 has changed our lives forever, and it has altered the way we now view and regard cinematic excellence. While we may not be watching films on the big screen, we devour them at home via streaming and VOD. Ironically, none of the films on this list would be considered big blockbusters or similarly noted […]
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