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Ask questions, vote and discover answers about Chicago, the region and its people. From WBEZ.
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From high-speed chases to preposterous parades, Chicago dazzles on the silver screen. Last episode, we attempted to uncover the best movie ever filmed in Chicago. What we found was that it was impossible to name a definitive best, let alone name every movie that deserves recognition.
Today, we dive deeper into movies that resonate with Chicagoans with two film critics: Marya E. Gates, author of Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words and Robert Daniels, associate editor of RogerEbert.com. They argue that the city doesn’t just look good on screen, it also helps tell stories that are reflective of its residents. Gates and Daniels talk about Chicago movies that highlight crime and political tropes (like “The Untouchables,” “Medium Cool,” and “Call Northside 777”), movies that bend space and time to navigate through Chicago’s geography (like “The Fugitive” and “Blues Brothers”), and movies that follow teenagers as they romp around the city (like “Cooley High” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”). Plus, they’ve got recommendations for Chicago movies that may have flown under your radar.
It’s awards season. Time to look at some of the best movies filmed in Chicago.
Thanks to the powerful force that is Lake Michigan and the urban heat island that is Chicago, the city has witnessed some unusual and extreme weather events.
Last episode was about lake-effect snow and a phrase you hear all the time: “Cooler by the lake.” But Chicago weather definitely gets stranger than that.
We’re talking thundersnow, water spouts and even space weather. Why do these weather events happen, what makes them unusual and how can you have a little fun (safely!) when they come around? We talk with Jeff Frame, a teaching professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
You’ve heard it in the Chicago weather forecast time and time again: “cooler by the lake.” But how close to Lake Michigan do you need to be to feel that dip in the temperature? And why doesn’t Chicago get the same lake effect snow as Northwest Indiana? We look into the powerful force that is Lake Michigan.
Berlin nightclub in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood closed permanently in November 2023, after four decades in business. The closure happened amid stalled negotiations between the bar’s owners and its unionizing employees. Today, the space remains empty, and it’s unclear what will take its place.
In our last episode, Curious City looked into a mural that was a staple at Berlin for much of its existence. Today, we revisit an episode of WBEZ’s The Rundown podcast from just after the club closed. In asking some of the people who worked there, danced there and made memories there, it’s obvious that Berlin was more than just a bar.
“It felt like a secret almost,” said All The Way Kay, who DJed at Berlin for over 15 years. “It felt like something that you wanted to hold very, very close to you because spaces like that really don't exist.”
We talked with Kay, queer historian Owen Keehnen, DJ Greg Haus and several listeners who called The Rundown podcast to share what Berlin meant to them and what they hope for the future.
The large mural hung over the main bar at Berlin. Painted in the Art Deco style, the masculine and feminine figures in the painting watched over the nightly revelry at the storied nightclub until it closed in 2023.
On the morning of St. Nicholas Day, good kids rush downstairs to see what kind of gifts might be in their shoes. The bad kids? Unfortunately they might get a visit from Krampus, an ancient monster that has naughty children praying for a lump of coal instead.
The origins of this half-goat, half-man folklore character date back centuries, largely to German-speaking countries in Europe. But these days, Krampus is more popular than ever — especially in America, with parades, festivals, Hollywood horror films, Ocean Spray commercials and endless amounts of merchandise. That popularity is largely attributed to Chicagoan Monte Beauchamp, who first published images of Krampus in his alternative comic magazine, Blab!, in 2000.
“I can't believe what's taken place since I introduced Krampus in the pages of Blab! Magazine, which led to a book, and then from there it just exploded,” Beauchamp told Curious City.
In our last episode, we looked at a long-running holiday tradition in Chicago, Goodman Theatre’s rendition of “A Christmas Carol.” In today’s episode, we explore the origins of this very different kind of Christmas tradition and its curious local connection.
The Christkindlmarket, the CTA holiday train and “A Christmas Carol” at the Goodman Theatre. Chicago is full of holiday traditions. In this episode, we get an intimate look at the annual theater production through the eyes of our Chicago Sun-Times colleague, Stefano Esposito as he takes to the stage.
The Robbins Airport, just southwest of Chicago, was the first Black-owned and -operated airport in the country. Its founders were pivotal to Black aviation.
Lake Shore Drive has served as a makeshift runway for emergency landings. But it’s also been an *intentional* runway for planned arrivals. We go back to 1983 to get the story of how a Chicago institution helped turn our lakeside expressway into an airstrip, at least twice.
The city of Chicago owns thousands of vacant lots, and more than 80 percent of those parcels are in communities where the population is at least 80 percent Black. That’s according to a report from the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. Residents and organizations are investing in these lots to improve the community.
Last episode, we learned about how complicated it can be for individual homeowners to buy a vacant lot in their neighborhood.
Today, we focus on an organization that is acquiring these types of spaces. Anton Seals, Jr. is the co-founder of Grow Greater Englewood, an organization that is doing innovative work on abandoned areas on the South Side. In the name of land sovereignty and building lasting community, he and his colleagues are transforming vacant lots into urban farms, a farmers market and a nature trail.
Buying a city-owned lot seems like a simple process, but buying one might take longer than expected. The city puts a limited number of parcels up for sale each year.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: A hedgehog, a river otter and an iguana walk into a local exotic animal hospital …
Whether intentional or otherwise, exotic pets like sharks, macaws and pythons have made Illinois their home. But finding medical care for these animals isn’t as simple as visiting the neighborhood vet.
Last episode, we explored some of the out-of-place animals that’ve been found in Chicago, including a peacock, an alligator and a 20-pound vervet monkey. Today, we’re asking, what happens when they get sick?
Take a trip with us to the Chicago Exotics Animal Hospital in Skokie to meet Gomez Addams the tegu lizard and a few of his friends. Plus, hear some wild stories from the people who care for them.
Animal control is used to dealing with stray cats and dogs. But what happens when there’s a peacock strutting down the alley? Curious City explores strange animal sightings in Chicago.
Chicago passed a reparations ordinance 10 years ago for the survivors of police torture committed under the direction of disgraced Chicago police commander Jon Burge.
As we learned in our last episode, monetary reparations alone cannot heal decades of trauma.
In this episode, we take a closer look at the limits of monetary settlements and what else survivors need to heal. We also take a look at how Chicago’s reparations ordinance is looking 10 years later with Aislinn Pulley, the executive director of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, which was established as part of the reparations ordinance.
This year marks a new record, as Chicago city leaders have so far agreed to pay more than $266 million to resolve a wide range of police misconduct lawsuits. After the city washes its hands and the TV news cameras move on, what happens next? Do these payments help bring survivors closure or a sense that justice has been served?
While flying over downtown Chicago on July 18, 2018, a World-War-II era single-engine Ercoupe airplane suffered “complete mechanical failure.”
“The throttle cable completely broke off of the carburetor,” said pilot John Ginley. “There was no way to control the engine.”
Still, Ginley and his co-pilot — his then-girlfriend and now-wife Ally Ginley — managed to land in the southbound lanes of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, successfully avoiding cars, humans, and the 35th Street pedestrian bridge.
In our last episode, we heard about the history of forced plane landings on Chicago’s scenic, multilane expressway. Today, we hear Ginley’s story of escaping imminent disaster from the pilot himself.
A couple of pilots have made forced landings on DuSable Lake Shore Drive. What makes a road or any other non-airport spot the best option in an emergency?
Three stories from Chicagoans who endured a terrifying experience that they couldn’t explain, couldn’t get over, or couldn’t escape.
Karen Holt tells the story of her haunted childhood home on Chicago’s Southeast Side. Was her house simply saturated with “residual energy”? Or was the ghost of a lost boy wandering the halls?
Rachel Shuki tells the story of the haunted, now-closed school she taught at on Chicago’s West Side. A tragic disaster from the past could be the reason behind unexplained occurrences in the building.
Ben Astrachan and Jackson Zinn-Rowthorn tell the story of their Northwest Side apartment complex, the ritual site they found in the basement, and the friend that messed with it. Have they disturbed a spiritual realm they aren’t equipped to handle?
Get cozy, dim the lights and press play.
A bridge constructed for sightseeing during the turn of the century soon became known as a place for death. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
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