21 stories by "Christopher Borrelli"
"Masquerade," anyone? We traveled to Detroit to catch this touring singular sensation before it plays a sell-out party at Subterranean.
Now when he walks out on stage there's a standing ovation, then the room grows unsettled, more awkward than expectant. He tries to get in front of this.
This year felt like a loud reminder that culture often points out where we are and what is worth fighting for.
"We deliver a story, say what happened," say some who don German uniforms at Rockford's annual World War II Days. But some historians and Holocaust experts say that kind of reasoning can be …
He took the stage in a tuxedo and boomed in his carnival barker cadence, but considering the size of the audience and squirminess that followed, it felt subversive.
In 2011, an anti-abortion billboard went up in Black neighborhoods, targeting Black women, with a picture of Obama on it.
When you think of Chicago and its relation to puppets " on the very off-chance you ever do this " what do you think of? The traveling Puppet Bike that's played local street corners for years…
Our daughter clapped for the first time at the last circus. She sat up and, without urging, both slapped her hands together and missed her hands completely. I think she was clapping for a ca…
Anna D. Shapiro, thoughtful and pushy, a hugger with a smirk never far from her face, an inquisitive art house picture tucked inside a pin-balling screwball comedy, about to become one of th…
The other morning I was standing in the lobby of the Goodman Theatre when a bike messenger glided past without a word and disappeared into the bathroom. A moment later, he reappeared and dot…
Talking to Dick Gregory these days is a chore. Not because the man rambles " he's 82 and has earned the right. Not because every question for the famously philosophical comedian and activist…
The first time I visited Chicago, about 25 years ago, I asked the clerk at the front desk of my hotel if he would point me in the direction of the John Belushi statue, the John Belushi memor…
Amanda Marcheschi looked like a Rachel. Definitely Aniston-esque. She had dark, longish hair and a self-possession that cracked slightly when she spoke, revealing a touch of uncertainty. She…
San Pascualito Rey, King of the Graveyard, Guatemalan patron saint of illness and death, probably resplendent in his cape and finery and reminiscent of a Latin American James Brown, was not …
Jeremy Wechsler is not the kind of guy you ask if he has watched the trailer for the new "Star Wars" movie yet. He's the kind of guy you ask how many times he has watched the trailer for the…
"What's the point of even sleeping?"
To find the latest performance piece by the rising experimental dance company Khecari " "rhymes with 'treachery,'" explains founder Jonathan Meyer " go to West Rogers Park on the Far North S…
In 'Bring Me the Head of James Franco,' Ian Belknap howls at the poser artists/dilettantes everywhere, but particularly at James Franco
A couple of weeks ago, Ian Belknap, who at 47 has the…
Say you had a family secret.
Last spring, during Easter dinner, my aunt leaned across the table and asked: "Chris, have you read this 'Fifty Shades of Grey?'" I said I had not but I had heard about it and, changing the …
Charles Newell's office is spotless. Unnervingly tidy. Standing in it makes you feel as though you have intruded on a magazine photo shoot about anal-retentive work environments. His desk, w…
