The Time Out Chicago blog

Meghan Trainor brought that bass to House of Blues

Look, I know we as a society are just getting over the great Is It Gold Or Is It Blue Dress Debate. But when you look at the pictures below, taken at Meghan Trainor's sold-out House of Blues show last night, you will note that her skirt is gold in one shot, blue in the others. OMG. We're going to leave it to you to decide if this is zeitgeisty optical magic on Trainor's part, or a routing costume change. It will come as no surprise that the 21-year-old closed the show with "All About that Bass," complete with giant "BASS" graphics and a jazzy dude playing a standup bass, that we were indeed all about. That was not the only No. 1 hit the rising pop star served up. She also covered "Uptown Funk" and "Stay with Me," making her tour a rolling Billboard smorgasbord. Also: CONFETTI!! Check out pics from the gig.

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7 Chicago first date faux pas

Did you swipe right on Tinder this weekend with your newest future love? Did you give your number to the hot guy by the lemons at Mariano’s? Or finally build up the courage to ask out your college crush after taking an Ambien? (This may or may not have happened to me.) Well, get prepared for your date this weekend by reading the following rules and tips for securing a second date in Chicago. Avoid these first-date faux pas and you'll be fine. Get on the calendar: People in Chicago are busy. There is nothing worse than the non-committal, “Let’s hang this weekend.” Dude, I need a date, place, and time. A text like: “Hey! Not to bother you—I know you’re busy, but let me know if you’re free this weekend. I seem to be popular this weekend, but you’re first in line. Ha ha” Really means: “Umm you said you’d call me to do something this weekend and it’s Thursday and I have yet to hear from you. WTF? I do have other friends who are asking me to do all sorts of things and I can’t wait for you to get your shit together and call me. Thanks.” I have other things going on and if you want to get on my calendar, you better do it now. I promise you, marriages start with a locked-in date, place and time. Do not insist he or she comes to your neighborhood: You live in Roger’s Park and he’s in Pilsen? Meet in Lakeview. Halfway is appropriate. Find a place that is easily accessible for both of you to get to, ideally involving no more than one CTA transfer. A majority of Chicagoans do not have a

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6 things to see at Ravinia this summer

This morning Ravinia released its complete schedule for the 2015 summer season. There are about ten dozen events slated in Highland Park between June 13 and September 12. That's a plethora of picnic options. As always, the Ravinia Festival is largely fueled by nostalgia. More '90s acts continue to go to pasture in the lawn this year, dudes like Bush, Sugar Ray, Eve 6 and Better than Ezra, Rob Thomas. It's a lineup loaded with familiar faces—Chicago, Jackson Browne, Diana Krall. Classic rock and classical is the mainstay as always. It's a lot to take in. To help, we've boiled down some (relatively) hot, high-profile shows that should go fast when tickets become available to the general public on April 28. 1) Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett It's safe to say that more kids dig Tony Bennett now than at any point in his 50-year career; chalk it up to shrewd collaborations like this one, with pop's reigning auteur, Lady Gaga. The duo's jazz-standards release, Cheek to Cheek, finds both performers in top form—we expect the same at these Ravinia dates. After a show-stopping Oscars performance, Gaga is perhaps starting to realize that being the next Liza might have more legs than being the next Madonna. 2) Steely Dan The unexpected Coachella headliners play more familiar, wine-sodden ground in our town, balancing their smooth cruise jazz-pop with a dry wit. The Dan hasn't cut a record in a dozen years, but we just want to groove to "Peg" and "Bad Sneakers." It's a steep ticket price for a

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Tour de Fat is returning to Palmer Square in July

Last year's Tour de Fat was almost canceled after torrential downpours the night before the event (the same ones that shut down Taste of Chicago) soaked Palmer Square, but hundreds of attendees still turned out to party amid soggy conditions. Today we learned that the annual traveling festival sponsored by Colorado-based New Belgium Brewery will be returning to Palmer Square Park on July 11, bringing its usual assortment of crazy bikes, offbeat entertainment and plenty of cold beer. The best part of this giant celebration of biking culture? All of the proceeds benefit a local, environmentally-friendly non-profit or charity. Time to start planning your costume and crossing your fingers that the rain clouds stay far away this year.

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A case for Chicago's red light cameras

Red light cameras are present at 174 of Chicago's intersections. When a driver runs a red light, the camera snaps a photo of the offending vehicle and its license plate. A traffic ticket is then mailed to the driver. The city touts the cameras as a means for keeping Chicago's streets safer by encouraging drivers to resist the urge to run lights. Others feel that the whole project is little more than a money grab by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration. His opponent in the current mayoral run-off, Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, recently told Reuters that the cameras are "one more way Chicagoans are pick-pocketed every day." He would only keep those cameras with a track record for reducing crashes. Presently, two bills are pending in the Illinois General Assembly, HB173 and HB487, which would prohibit the use of red light cameras. But the cameras do more than just snap photos of red light scofflaws. They record video continuously, not just when a violation is detected. That video is kept by the Chicago Department of Transportation for about 30 days before it is erased. It is remarkably simple to acquire a copy of video from a particular camera from CDOT under the Freedom of Information Act. Time and resources are saved by the parties involved and by the judicial system as a whole.   Lost in the sometimes angry debate over red light cameras is the considerable benefit victims of traffic crashes, especially bikers, often receive from them. These eyes in the sky can be enormously helpful w

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Play Pac-Man and eat "power pellets" at Level 257 in Schaumburg

Since his introduction in 1980, Pac-Man has always enjoyed chomping on power pellets, blue ghosts, cherries, pretzels and whatever else comes in contact with his endlessly masticating mouth. So, why has it taken this long for someone to open up an eatery dedicated to the little yellow video game character? When we heard that the world's first official Pac-Man inspired restaurant would be opening in Schaumburg, we knew that we had to make a journey to the suburbs to see if it lived up to our expectations. The newly-opened Level 257 seeks to be the rec room you've always wished you could afford, boasting walls lined with arcade games, 16 bowling lanes, a full bar and a menu that boasts a "Filet Mig-Nom" steak. While it doesn't boast the depth of local barcades like Emporium and Headquarters, Level 257's selection of arcade games does include some more obscure titles, like the four-player Pac-Man Battle Royale and the hybrid arcade/pinball game Baby Pac-Man. A $15 card allows you to play any game you like for an hour, but if blinking screens and joysticks aren't your cup of tea, there's a small lounge equipped with board games like Battleship and checkers. Once you've tried of playing games, you can dig into Level 257's menu, which features a selection of pizza, pasta, sandwiches and meats, as well as cocktails named after video game items and characters. We can't remember Pac-Man ever eating a cauliflower steak, but there's one of those on the menu as well. If you're craving

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Negative effects of expanded construction hours on Wrigley Field

Chicago Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said that the team will seek permission from 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney to begin around-the-clock construction on the Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboards in an attempt to complete as much work as possible by opening day on April 5. Despite the urgency and workload required to complete the bleacher construction project, the mayor's office has decided that the Cubs should not be allowed to work 24 hours a day because of the negative impact all that commotion will have on the neighborhood. Consider what a 24/7 construction project would entail: Loud noises at night: Can you imagine the kind of noise pollution night construction would cause? Between workers yelling back and forth with each other and construction equipment making thunderous noises as it operates, around-the-clock construction at the stadium would raise the noise to decibel levels the likes of which Wrigleyville has never heard. Bright lights: In order for workers to see what they are doing at night, construction companies will need to bring in artificial lighting to illuminate the area in and around the stadium. Given that the Cubs were the last team in the league to install permanent stadium lighting in their stadium back in 1988 and the city sets a hard cap on the number of night games they can have, we can see how bringing this newfangled "electricity" to Wrigley for construction might come as a shock for some residents in the area. Increased fo

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ComEd gets FAA approval to fly drones

Most of the hullabaloo around drones these days relates to military undertakings or amateur pilots capturing spectacular videos. Chicago-based ComEd is set to start flying the unmanned aircrafts for a different reason altogether. The power company announced Tuesday that it is the first public utility in the country to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate drones, which will be used to inspect power lines and assess weather-related damages.  The project is a joint effort with Illinois Insitute of Technology. The school will provide a licensed pilot on top of engineering support for the project.  In the same statement, ComEd said that it is looking into using underground robots to investigate hazardous manholes. These new robotics programs from the local power monopoly are sort of freaky, but they also sound incredibly cool. 

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Steppenwolf Theatre Company's new season: Baker, Galati, Guirgis, Letts and Norris

Steppenwolf Theatre Company has announced five titles for its 2015–16 subscription season, the company's 40th and the last to be chosen by outgoing artistic director Martha Lavey. Among the slate are the highly anticipated Chicago premiere of Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize winner The Flick, a world premiere by ensemble member Tracy Letts and the Steppenwolf directing debut of ensemble member Bruce Norris, on his own Domesticated. The season opens with Frank Galati's new adaptation of John Steinbeck's East of Eden (September 17–November 15 in the Downstairs Theatre), directed by Terry Kinney. Galati's adaptation of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath famously transferred from Steppenwolf to Broadway in 1990, winning that year's Tony Award for best play. Next in the Downstairs is Norris's Chicago premiere of Domesticated (December 3–February 7), his 2013 dark comedy (aren't they all?) about a disgraced politician and his wronged wife. In the play's premiere at New York's Lincoln Center Theater, the leads were played by Jeff Goldblum and Steppenwolf ensemble member Laurie Metcalf, and the production staged by ensemble member Anna D. Shapiro, who takes the reins as Steppenwolf's new artistic director this summer. The Flick (February 4–May 8), Baker's much-talked-about, intentionally languid three-hour portrait of employees at a movie theater, will be staged in the Upstairs Theatre by Dexter Bullard, who memorably directed Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation at Victory Gardens Theat

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Vince Vaughn poses for all your stock photo needs

Chicago-area native Vince Vaughn has been busy as of late. Last weekend, he participated in the Chicago Polar Plunge. This week, he's gearing up for the Friday release of his new movie, Unfinished Business. He carved out some time, however, to pose for some sleek stock photos along with co-stars Tom Wilkinson and the luckiest man on earth Dave Franco. Unfinished Business distributor Twentieth Century Fox paired up with Getty Image's iStock to create these clever promotional pictures.  They're releasing four stills a week for the next three weeks. The first four can be downloaded here. The photos are for "editorial use only," of course.  The pictures poke fun at the inherently cheesy nature of stock photos that are used for anything from brochures to business websites. The business-centric nature ties in with the plot of the movie in which Vaughn plays a small business owner who travels to Europe to close a very important business deal. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that everything does not go as planned.

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