Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
The song doesn’t always remain the same on Radio Disney. For instance, Lou Bega’s sexually charged “Mambo No. 5” was re-worked–with the artist’s cooperation–so that it is no longer about a string of one-night-stands, and now includes popular Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and his girlfriend Minnie.
Let’s get this out in the open now: I am three times older and twice as tall as many of the ‘N Sync fans who attended the band’s sold-out show Tuesday night at the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. I do not listen to their records at home. Nor do I own any of their collectible dolls, T-shirts or posters. But once or twice a year, when the Sun-Times sends me out to review their concerts, darned if I don’t end up having a good time.
Will the real Slim Shady please shut up? That’s the request a Christina Aguilera clone raps on “No Reply.” Sung from Aguilera’s perspective, the parody of Eminem’s hit single “Real Slim Shady” is enjoying its 15 minutes of fame, thanks to a singer who sounds young enough to be Aguilera and some funny lyrics that mock the controversial rap star.
Bindi there, done that? Get ready for the next wave of decorative body art. The latest trend is adorning bodies with ready-to-use and easy-to-apply skin jewelry–temporary tattoos, glittery designs and tiny gems.
It’s time to finalize phone-a-friend lifelines. We get to name up to five people, and may use one if we get to the hot seat and are stuck on a question. On the day I qualified, I’d asked Phil Blanchard, the Sun-Times telegraph editor on whom I plan to lean for geography, current events and general arcane knowledge. My others will be Darel Jevens and Jae-Ha Kim from the Sun-Times features staff, John Lavalie, a librarian friend in Des Plaines, and George Vass, an author and retired sportswriter and copy editor who is my backup on classical music, literature and history.
SuperStand wants to be to magazines what Blockbuster is to videos. To that end, the Texas-based chain of “America’s Magazine Superstore”–which has five stores in Houston and four in Dallas–has expanded to launch its first out-of-state stores right here in the Chicago area.
Before No Authority, there was “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.” For Ricky G., anyhow. The 19-year-old member of the boy band No Authority had an acting career going for him before he decided to concentrate solely on the group. Under the stage name Ricky Felix (his mother’s maiden name), Ricky G. danced opposite Mike Myers in “Austin Powers” and appeared in Natalie Portman’s film “Anywhere But Here.”
You think romance and you think of New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, right? Fuggedaboudit. They’re long gone. But summertime’s here and that’s even better. Think about it. There’s no one pressure-cooker day on which to pin all your romantic hopes and dreams, and you don’t have to stroll arm-in-arm swaddled in down-stuffed outerwear. There are plenty of ways to spend an enchanted, summer evening in the Chicago area, whether it’s dining at a top-notch restaurant, gazing at the stars from the city’s most awesome vantage point or slow dancing with your sweetheart.
Sure, Britney, Christina, ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys look pretty cool dancing around onstage at their concerts. But let’s face it–so could you if you had a personal choreographer showing you how to position every part of your body.
Feminine fashion has returned. This fall, pack away your clunky boots and platform heels. The ultra-casual look is being replaced by prettier, more delicate designs.
After building an empire as a celebrity shoe designer, Steve Madden finds himself in a precarious situation, teetering like someone in the platform shoes that earned him fame and $163 million in sales for his company in 1999.
The animated Imax 3-D film “Alien Adventure” is about a lot of things, but plot isn’t one of them. Sure, it has a premise: A small tribe of space gypsies called the Glagoliths roam the universe in search of a new home. The leader of the Glags – a sadistic Jabba the Hutt type – sends out a team to evaluate a potential new home. But instead of landing in a real city, the soldiers encounter “Adventure Planet” – a high-tech amusement park not yet open to the public.
You know that old adage, “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken?” Well, O, The Oprah Magazine and Real Simple aren’t listening. Just a few months after their splashy debuts, the well-received, very high-profile lifestyle magazines are replacing their top editors.
Come July 8, 12-year-old Allie Greenberg will be one of the first kids in Chicago to own the new Harry Potter book. Allie, who’ll be in seventh grade at the University of Chicago Lab School this fall, put her name on the pre-order list at Barbara’s Bookstore in Old Town, oh, a year ago.
Whitney Houston ignored the pleas of her mother, friends and drug specialists who hoped that an intervention last summer would persuade the singer to seek professional treatment, US Weekly reports in an issue hitting newsstands Friday.
Richard Hatch walked around naked, caught a lot of fish and got on a lot of people’s nerves before winning the million-dollar prize on “Survivor.” And Chicago’s gay community is loving all of the attention being lavished on a man one of his cast mates referred to as “Darth Gaydar.”
How fetching was Janet Jackson in her floor-length black leather dress? After she presented Keanu Reeves with his MTV Movie Award for best male performance Saturday, the actor paused in the middle of his acceptance speech to stare at her in awe and utter, “God . . . beautiful.”
My mission, should I choose to accept, was to test a new product being touted as a spray-on “bra.” I went to grad school for this? The “bra” in question is in quotation marks because Yves Saint Laurent’s Haute Tenue doesn’t really squirt a brassiere out of its glossy, silver can. Nor does the nice-smelling lotion (retailing for $69 per 3.5 ounce aerosal can) alleviate women from wearing the actual undergarment.
After 13 years and 92 stage productions – including the infamous “Real Live Brady Bunch” and “Coed Prison Sluts” – the Annoyance Theatre is closing its doors this weekend.
Temporarily.
When the Chicago Symphony Orchestra implemented its Musicians Residency Program two years ago, its goal was to build bridges through music. The CSO wanted to be accessible to folks who may never have attended orchestral performances before.