John Carruthers of Crust Fund Pizza made it to runner-up on Chopped Season 54, Episode 14: “Wanna Pizza Me?” John addresses the unforgiving Chopped counters early in the episode: “You have not one second longer than those clocks say” We…

The decades-long process to bring an arcade game to market is chronicled in the forthcoming documentary film, “Ghostlord and the Quest for Dark Presence.” The game in question is “Dark Presence,” the brainchild of Galloping Ghost owner/International Video Game Hall…

One of the most revered Chicago bands from the 1990s, Triple Fast Action, returns with a collection of demos and rarities, appropriately titled “Triple Fast Action.” The 3-record, 2-CD, collection is available on 4/21 (preorders are happening now on Bandcamp)….

River from wht.rbbt.obj joins me to talk about her band, which sounds like “Amy Winehouse meets the Black Keys and challenges them to a game of strip poker.” In short, I love this band. See wht.rbbt.obj at Summerfest on July…

“Out of the Loop” is a new documentary about Chicago’s stand-up comedy scene (available on streaming services 4/11/23). The people speaking in the doc represent a “who’s who” of Chicago comedy, including Hannibal Buress, Jeff Garlin, Deon Cole, Erica Clark,…

This episode finds me at FoxFire (17 W. State St., Geneva, IL) for a conversation with owner/chef K.C. Gulbro. Chef Gulbro talked about the restaurant’s longevity in the Geneva area, the only “right” cooking temperature for steak, the FoxFire menu…

Adam T. Siska of the Academy Is… is my guest this week! He joined me for a chat over dumplings from the Joong Boo Wang Mandoo stand outside Joog Boo Market on the northwest side. It’s one of Chicago’s best-kept…

This episode sees the return of longtime friend and Challengers Comics + Conversation co-owner Patrick Brower! For this conversation, we met at Club Lago in River North (331 W Superior St, Chicago, IL 60654). Owner GianCarlo was kind enough to…

Brian Case (singer/guitarist) of FACS joins me for a chat in advance of their new release, “Still Life in Decay.” We met for hot dogs at Red Hot Ranch, ate depression dogs and talked about: *FACS capturing the moment with…

Djunah’s second album, “Femina Furens,” is brave. It’s raw. It’s cathartic. It’s gut wrenching. It’s fierce. It’s vulnerable. Most importantly, it’s great. Donna Diane of Djunah jumped in the car outside Innjoy, in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, to…