I've learned a great deal at my time here on True/Slant - mostly that blogging is damn hard work and you've got to be passionate about your subject or it's not worth it for either the reader or the writer. That said, I will continue to write about the topics [...]

My old man taught me to say "so long" whenever we parted because he contended "goodbye" should be reserved for permanent occasions, like the one Emily Dickinson refers to here:

Good-by to the life I used to live, And the world I used to know; And kiss the hills for me, [...]

It feels like the last day of high school around here, or more accurately, like the high school is closing down and kicking all us kids out. As you no doubt know by now, Forbes acquired True/Slant and is shuttering the site. As they turn off the lights, everyone is getting [...]

This, friends, is my final blog post for True/Slant. I feel a bit bittersweet writing that. It’s a bit of a bummer to let Chicago Beat go, but at the same time I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish over the last 10 months, and thrilled to have [...]

Chances are you're out doing stuff on a Saturday night, and if so, good for you. But one of my favorite late night activities isn't hitting up the bars or the clubs, but unwinding on the couch, with the latest episode of "At The Movies," a.k.a. that movie review show [...]

It seems for the second time in a little over a year, this blog is moving again. As True/Slant becomes Forbes, I'm seeking out a Chicago-centered site to host One Story Up, one where I can be part of a community of people who are writing and talking about the [...]

Read the headlines on San Francisco's Housing Authority, and you may feel like you've stumbled upon a history book about Chicago's public housing. Gross mismanagement. Rents not collected. Multi-million dollar deficit. Poor upkeep. Serious lawsuits because of negligence. A real mess. Now, San Francisco is looking to remedy two of those problems [...]

"Welcome to the magic kingdom," said a ticket-taker at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Irony and humor aside, the volunteer's invocation of the idea of Walt Disney World was quite apt. Music festivals - especially multi-day fests - are often not terribly pleasant experiences. Long days on your feet out in [...]

Every where I go on the internet, I see the ads for Old Spice. Even more impressive, people off the internet can't stop talking about the "Old Spice Guy". He is every where I look, and I don't mind. I see ads on College Humor, Hulu, and Huffington Post, and people [...]

Crystal Richards takes care of her six children - 14, 9, 6, 5, 2 and 2 months - and a sick mother. And as of Saturday, she has no home. Richards is stuck in a dead zone, where clearly someone is at fault, but there's no one willing to take the [...]