So I bought some of that Georgian (Republic of, not State of) Ajika spice blend from Trader Joe's a while back, and not wanting to work too hard on dinner Friday, I thought "I'll just put this on some chicken thighs and make a Georgian vegetable dish to go with." Rejecting Georgian eggplant stew on the previously-noted grounds of not wanting to ( Read more... )

I've gone a little theater crazy recently -- I caught a preview of the entire Hammer Trinity (all three plays in a row) at The House Theatre of Chicago thanks to Steven Townshend and then followed up tonight with Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play at Theater Wit thanks to a rave review by nihilistic_kid of the ACT staging in San Francisco ( Read more... )

So after leaving All Our Tragic last night, my senses were insanely heightened and seemed to center themselves about an inch outside my body; the closest I've experienced such a sensation was right after a sauna in Finland. (And this was un-medicated -- I didn't need any cold medicine, but my cold was recent enough that I only drank two glasses of ( Read more... )

Much as I would love to be plugging an alternate-history all-Communist World Wrestling event, what that acronym actually signifies is the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, which happens this weekend in Rosemont, which is not technically in Chicago, but close enough for jazz, right ( Read more... )

[INTERIOR: THE #6 BUS ABOUT 9:15 PM ON WEDNESDAY NIGHT ( Read more... )

Just a quick post to let folks planning to hit C2E2 this weekend know that I, mforbeck, and wordwill will be holding forth on two panels on Friday:

2:30-3:30 PM: Living the Dream: Making a Living as a Kickstarter and Freelancer

5-6 PM: The State of Play in Tabletop Roleplaying Gaming

I'll be around and about for most of the show, I imagine, so hope to see you

My mom is visiting us for our birthdays, and she took it into her head that she wanted to go look at the beautiful Tiffany glass domes in the Chicago Cultural Center.

Which, as it turned out, is hosting a Louis Sullivan exhibit -- Louis Sullivan's Idea -- designed by the one and only Chris Ware. Which, as a moment's thought will indicate, turns ( Read more... )

No, this is not yet another lament for the vanished glory that was Veronica Mars, or even an expression of anarchic glee at It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. This is (gasps, murmurs) a plug!

I'm apparently going to be a guest on Chicago Tonight tomorrow (Tuesday the 29th), airing at 7 p.m. Central Time on Chicago's public TV window to the world, ( Read more... )

Less than a year after adding my name to their masthead, Weird Tales has won the Hugo Award.

Just sayin,' is all.

(Congratulations are properly due to stephenhsegal and Ann Vandermeer. So, congratulations!)

And should you not be aware that I'm writing the "Lost in Lovecraft" column for Weird Tales -- excuse me, for the Hugo-Award-winning magazine Weird Tales ( Read more... )

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm right in classifying some of Olafur Eliasson's most successful installations as a weird subset of film: light and motion. A couple weekends ago yukon_jack and the lovely A. were in town, and since yukon_jack operates at a truly rarefied level of Kultur, the agenda included a trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see ( Read more... )