Springing into the ‘Second Season’: Our Bi-Annual Theater Preview

In Chi-town the real spring fling is the theater season getting its acts together for Chicago’s semi-annual parade of premieres. If fashion struts its styles on runways, theaters make a bigger impression on a larger stage. Here’s our semi-annual take on the big show case... Full Story / Comment

Lions and lambs: The spring 2009 live performance preview

March’s lion is still roaring and baring its teeth as temperatures fluctuate between the 30s and the 60s on an almost daily basis. Nevertheless, the calendar says that spring’s arrival is imminent and promises to bring a crop of entertaining events by GLBT performers... Full Story / Comment

Spring into action: Season preview and current reviews

April: it’s not just the cruelest month in T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland,” it’s also not so nice for moviegoers. On April 3, your choices include Miramax’s 1980s period comedy “Adventureland” and the latest installment in Universal’s “Fast & Furious” franchise. Sony Pictures Classics’ “Paris 36,” a French 1930s period piece with music does, however, show promise in the second week... Full Story / Comment

Editorial

It’s about time

International GLBT communities received good news last week when the Obama administration signed onto a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality... Full Story / Comment

Letters to the editor

Yes, we’re all damned angry about bonuses to AIG executive gamblers. But let’s not forget that these obscene bonuses are also symbolic of a deep cultural problem. Greed has been seeping into the marrow of our bones at least since the Reagan years. That accounts, I think, for the wild-eyed hypocrisy... Full Story / Comment

Marketplace

Auto delinquency rates rise nearly 9 percent in 4Q

NEW YORK—The percentage of auto loans past due 60 days or more rose 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared with the prior-year period, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion. And the numbers... Full Story / Comment

Just Another Guy in the Neighborhood: Barack Obama’s Hyde Park

Has Barack Obama been good for Hyde Park—or has Hyde Park been good for Barack Obama? “I think it’s a combination of both,” says local real estate agent Bill McLenahan of Century 21 Kennedy, Ryan, Monigal. “Hyde... Full Story / Comment

Freestyle

An Indigo Girl: An interview with Emily Saliers

Indigo Girls fans who have been waiting longer than usual from the out duo of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers will find their patience rewarded with not one, but two, CDs on the band’s latest “Poseidon and the Bitter Bug” (IG Recordings/Vanguard). The first release... Full Story / Comment

Theater

CFP reviews 'Pacific Overtures', 'Horses at the Window', 'The Quiet Man Tales' & 'A Perfect Wedding'... Full Story / Comment

An education in wine at D.O.C.

It was St. Patrick’s Day and the weather was fabulous. We went for a walk and found ourselves in Lincoln Park. I wanted to have a bite to eat and a nice glass of wine yet did not want to deal with the amateur drunks who pollute pubs on that holiday. Since we were in Lincoln Park, I particularly did not want to deal with inebriated Trixie... Full Story / Comment

Travel & Leisure: Peddle pushing

Whereas, for more than a century, the bicycle has been an important part of the lives of most Americans… Whereas, today, millions of Americans engage in bicycling because it is a viable and environmentally sound form of transportation, an excellent... Full Story / Comment

‘Wanted’ women

You’ve got to hand it to original American Idol champ Kelly Clarkson. After the disappointing response to her downer (but decent) third album “My December,” she reappears with the more listener-friendly “All I Ever Wanted” (RCA/19). Not perfect by a long-shot, the disc does... Full Story / Comment

Opinion

How the protests should be

University of Chicago students recently showed us how protests against hate should be done. When the Westboro Baptist Church—the cult-like organization led by Fred Phelps—trooped to campus to declare Obama the anti-Christ (he taught... Full Story / Comment

2008 Pressies

Thanks to everyone who helped make the 2008 Pressies a success!

News

Local Briefs

Heartland Alliance is seeking donations to help release a young gay man from detention. The organization hopes to raise money in order to pay a $3,000 bond required for the release a 21-year-old gay Mexican man being detained by U.S. immigration authorities in Chicago... Full Story / Comment

US endorses UN gay rights text

WASHINGTON—The United States March 18 formally endorsed a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign... Full Story / Comment

France, Germany, UN disagree with pope on AIDS

PARIS—France, Germany and the U.N. agency charged with fighting AIDS disagreed with the pope’s comment about condoms, saying March 18 that they are a fundamental tool in preventing the spread of the HIV virus... Full Story / Comment

D.C. AIDS activist joins TPAN

Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) last week announced its new executive director, Bruce Weiss. Weiss worked as a leader of the Washington, D.C., HIV/AIDS community for over a decade. His previous work includes serving as the executive director of the... Full Story / Comment

Microbicide advocates stress options

With over 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS across the globe, advocates stress that more prevention options are needed, and a product currently in development—microbicides—could potentially save millions of people from infection... Full Story / Comment

Global activists discuss struggles

Gay and lesbian activists from around the world shared their stories of progress in the face of adversity during a global GLBT activism forum March 17. Heartland Alliance and Center on Halsted sponsored “Out Around the World,” which featured... Full Story / Comment

New documentary challenges gender stereotypes

A new documentary about the harmful effects of gender stereotypes and homophobia among high school-aged teens that aims to spark dialogue and action is making its Midwest debut... Full Story / Comment

Facing the future: About Face struggles not to close down

It could be curtains for About Face Theatre, but this non-profit theater company isn’t going down without a fight. About Face is in great danger of closing, and needs to raise over half... Full Story / Comment

Nation Report

A California gay rights activist has added new allegations to his formal complaint accusing the Mormon church of understating the financial backing it gave to help pass a gay marriage ban in California. Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, says The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hid its role in establishing... Full Story / Comment

Obit: Carey J. Nachtigall

September 27, 1955- March 16, 2009. Carey Nachtigall was a beloved advocate for Chicagoans with HIV. Diagnosed in his 20s, he had been on disability for several years when volunteer work and then a job as a paralegal with the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago allowed him to return to an energetic and purposeful life of advocacy... Full Story / Comment

Freetime

Back in the day

This week in 1971: The Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, preaches at Chicago’s Good Shepherd Parish (location unknown)... Full Story / Comment

Horoscopes

ARIES: You can keep smiling about things but inside you’re having a hard time with this. Times like these beg us to tell the awful truth. What you’re afraid to say will take guts but in the end, it’ll make everything better... Full Story / Comment

Midlife crisis #255: The Scoop on Bible Stains

In Saint-Denis de la Réunion in the French Indian Ocean, Roman Catholic believers are flocking like sheep to witness the sudden appearance of Christ’s face in the pleats of a church cushion. The parish priest of Jesus-Misericordieux Church, Daniel Gavard, claims, “This is not a miracle, it’s a sign... Full Story / Comment