Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
Come Thursday, Oprah Winfrey turns the big 5-0. And if she’s to be believed — and why wouldn’t she be — the world’s most famous talk show host will be embracing her well-earned day. She’ll celebrate with a special birthday show Thursday in Chicago followed by a weekend bash in Santa Barbara for 50 of her closest friends.
Chicago’s Lovehammers have done the shed-tour thing with Nickelback, experienced life on the road (including the requisite broken-down bus) and worked with greats like Steve Albini.
Twenty years after rising to fame on MTV — and 13 years after the same station refused to give the musicians tickets to its annual awards show — the original five members of Duran Duran are back with a vengeance.
Leaping and spinning her way through figure-skating routines at the 1976 Winter Olympics, 19-year-old Dorothy Hamill won hearts around the world as she won her prestigious gold medal. These days, that medal is a reminder to Hamill not of how great she once was, but of how much untapped potential she still has.
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member Tracy Morgan likes Andrew Dice Clay, does a mean impersonation of Oprah Winfrey and more than held his own against camera-hogging guest stars like Britney Spears. He may be gone from the ensemble cast, but the Not Ready for Prime Time Players lost Morgan to prime time. He’s currently working on his own sitcom, “The Tracy Morgan Show” for NBC, which is scheduled to debut this winter.
The Diceman cometh again, and nothing is safe from his vitriol — not even parsley. The maligned herb is nothing compared to his take on obese people, shoplifting and keeping up with the Joneses. How much of this is shtick vs. reality? You be the judge. He performs tonight at the Rosemont Theatre.
Somehow, you don’t imagine rock guitar god Joe Perry tanning on a beach. But on this afternoon, that’s exactly what the Aerosmith guitarist is doing three hours before a Florida concert. Taking a breather from tanning, he phoned to let us know why Chicago stores love him, his mixed feelings about downloading music and why his kids made him change his bathing suit.
When your band’s name is Kittens for Christian and one of your members is Neil Young (no, not that Neil Young), you have a bit of explaining to do. Phoning from New York during a sound check, vocalist Hiram Fleites called to fill us in.
Phoning from Athens, Ga., Patterson Hood is a little spacey. Sick and stuffy, the singer/guitarist for Drive-By Truckers was happy for a little diversion from Kleenex and chicken soup. His band will be in Chicago this weekend for a two-night stint at the Abbey Pub (call 773-478-4408) to promote their new CD, “Decoration Day” (New West Records). “We’re a Southern band,” says Hood. “Rock was invented in the South for all practical purposes, but musicians from the South sometimes get a little attitude from Northerners.”
Courtney Taylor-Taylor is the lead singer for the Dandy Warhols. But get him in a conversation about remodeling and architecture, and you’d swear the guy was an architect or an interior designer–one who peppers his sentences with liberal doses of the “F” word, that is. On tour to promote the band’s new album, “Welcome to The Monkey House” (Capitol), Taylor-Taylor had a thing or two to say about his new Portland studio, the delights of touring and his method for preventing freakouts.
Women hate trying on clothes. Women hate unrealistic sizes. But women love shopping. Comic Margaret Cho found that the only comfortable, fun clothes she could wear were ones she designed herself or had specially made for her.
The number of brides and grooms who danced to Alice Peacock’s hit single “Bliss” at their wedding receptions surely is too numerous to count. But when the Chicago resident married her husband almost six years ago, they chose “Cheek to Cheek.”
When Chicago businesswomen Sandi Hwang Adam and Noreen Abbasi decided to form Maven Cosmetics, they had a common goal–to create a makeup line that was user friendly for all women, not just white women.
The daughter of Texas blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, Shemekia Copeland is an old soul, though she was born in 1979. She made her Cotton Club debut at 8. She released her first album when she was 19. And she hasn’t stopped working since she was 17.
Had it not already been associated with the 1950s series, Margaret Cho would’ve dubbed her latest one-woman show, “Leave it to Beaver.”
Twenty-five years after Joe Jackson, Gary Sanford, Graham Maby and Dave Houghton began recording “Look Sharp,” which was released in 1979, the musicians have reunited for “Volume 4” (Restless) and a tour that brings them to Chicago this weekend. Phoning from New York, quirky singer-songwriter Jackson talked about the strains of touring, his favorite books and how he’d fare as a new artist in today’s looks-obsessed market.
Aimee Mann creates perfect mood music. “Voices Carry” set that tone in the 1980s when she fronted the band ‘Til Tuesday. Her Grammy and Oscar nod for her solo songs in “Magnolia” clinched it. Touring in support of her latest album, “Lost in Space,” released on her own SuperEgo label, Mann will perform tonight at Navy Pier’s Skyline Stage.
The name is Bond. Just Bond. The comely, classically trained lookers in Bond are the musical headliners at Friday’s Glamorama. While it’s tempting to dub the Aussie quartet the Spice Girls of the string set, there’s no doubt these women can actually play.
When we last spoke with Aaron Carter, he said he coveted his famous brother’s height. He’s almost there. The younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter stands at 6-foot-1. The 15-year-old Aaron will be in Chicago on Tuesday for an autograph session at Marshall Field’s State Street store followed by an all-ages concert at the House of Blues.
Shelton Lee always had a bit of an edge. When his schoolteacher mother began calling him Spike, even he realized the nickname fit him to a T. “I was always a little different,” Lee says, laughing. “I don’t think I knew it as a kid, but it wasn’t a bad thing. I grew up in a wonderful environment filled with love, knowledge and lots of jazz.”