hoekstra
Dave Hoekstra biography
Dave Hoekstra has been a Chicago Sun-Times staff writer since 1985. His work has also appeared in Playboy magazine, the Chicago Reader and the Journal …
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End of the road for ‘Cul de Sac’ as cartoonist retires his pens
A cul-de-sac goes round and round, but the end has come for Richard Thompson’s comic strip of the same name. The cartoonist decided to end “Cul de Sac” because of his battle with Parkinson’s disease, first diagnosed in 2009. Thompson is 55 years old. He …Read More
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New York City’s oldest piano player grows younger as he performs
There are a thousand things to do when visiting New York, but you must stop at Nino’s Tuscany on West 58th Street. A lovely piano player named Irving Fields, 97, is the oldest piano player in New York.
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Producer called to majors to direct Clint Eastwood in ‘Curve’
Look between the white lines of “Trouble With the Curve,” and you see that it is more than a baseball movie. Clint Eastwood plays an aging baseball scout who is developing macular degeneration, among other ailments. Amy Adams is his daughter who takes on life’s …Read More
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One more piano bar option in NYC
People are certainly face to face at Brandy’s Piano Bar, 235 E. 84th St. on New York’s Upper East Side (212-744-4949; www.brandyspianobar.com). I wandered into Brandy’s around 11 p.m. on a Friday and the place was packed with neighborhood 20- and 30-year-olds and a table …
Artists create slightly insulting posters for Chicago neighborhoods
Look out, Logan Square. Heads up, Rogers Park. It takes a sense of humor to appreciate the slogans sticking it to 35 different neighborhoods, and more are on the way.
For Polynesian flair, San Diego’s Bali Hai reigns
SAN DIEGO, Ca. — Life is a countdown. And it is a great day when all the numbers add up. Maybe Tom Ham knew there was little time to waste. In 1955 the Los Angeles accountant bought the Bali Hai Restaurant in San Diego, now …
City Winery caters to mature fans who’d rather sip than slam-dance
At the new music venue on Randolph, audiences of a certain vintage will be able to dine and enjoy wine made in-house during concerts by easygoing acts. Owner Michael Dorf, 50, spun it off his similar club New York and says, “I’m very selfish. I want to sit and drink wine in a real glass” while hearing live music.
A grape moment for Waco Brothers
The Waco Brothers are the Midwest’s premiere insurgent, hard country-punk band. So what are they doing at an Aug. 28 wine pairing at the upscale City Winery? This, after all, isn’t Carol’s Pub. The Chicago-based anarchists will perform the music of T. Rex, paired with …
‘Tommy Bartlett Show’ celebrates 60 years at the Wisconsin Dells
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — The “Tommy Bartlett Show” has survived video games, water-themed parks and a 2008 celebration that was ruined when rainfalls broke the Lake Delton shoreline. The 12-foot deep lake emptied into the Wisconsin River. Water skiing was curtailed, but acrobats and jugglers …
Tommy Bartlett’s Chicago TV roots
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wis. — Tommy Bartlett did not want to make waves. But he did not like water. The founder of “The Tommy Bartlett Show” was born in 1914 in Milwaukee and spent most of the 1940s as an announcer for WBBM-AM in Chicago. He …
Curtis Mayfield on his greatest hits
It was a spiritual pilgrimage for sure. Since I began buying music, the songs of Curtis Mayfield had touched my soul. In February 2003, I drove from Chicago to visit Mayfield in his home in Dunwoody, a suburb of Atlanta, Ga. Notoriously shy, Mayfield did …
Big plans for Motor Row live inside Cheap Trick’s heads
The band wants to put its name on $13 million complex with a restaurant, music venue and museum in the South Michigan Avenue entertainment district. The developers’ plans, also including a $30 million hotel, could be ready to rock next summer.
Sugarland, Radiohead tragedies elevate fears about temporary stages
The manager of Cheap Trick, which survived a scare in Ontario last summer, says the band is approaching outdoor shows “with more caution than we did before.” For this weekend’s Ribfest in Naperville, organizers upgraded the stage because “we realized we were at the risk of having something terrible happen.”
Earl Pionke: The man, the pub
Earl “Jesse James” Pionke is an essential figure in the history of Chicago popular music. From 1962 until 1984, Pionke owned and operated the Earl of Old Town. A community will come to sing for Pionke, when his 80th birthday is celebrated June 24.
Inn, historic district are redefining Detroit
DETROIT, Mich. — The Inn On Ferry Street is a beautiful vessel that shines in rough waters. That is why I loved it so much. The Inn, along East Ferry Street in the historic district of midtown is actually four restored Victorian homes and two …
Saloon felt authentic but not quite perfect
John Jeremiah of the Alliota-Haynes-Jeremiah folk group, famous for the 1971 hit “Lake Shore Drive,” once pointed out that his name was misspelled in the Earl of Old Town’s window. Earl Pionke responded by showing Jeremiah the huge misspelled sign (seen at right) promoting “Enterainment …
Earl hot-dogged for Second City crowd
About the time John Belushi, on break from filming “The Blues Brothers” (1980), was hustling folks into Sylvester’s Sneak Joint, the after-hours bar behind the Earl of Old Town, Earl Pionke was hustling hot dogs from his stand in front of the Earl. “It was …
Belushi’s home for late-night bits
Iconic Chicago folk singer Eddie Holstein used to command the late-night ship over rough waters at the Earl of Old Town. In 1970, after John Belushi would finish his last show across the street at Second City, the actor would regularly visit the Earl. “Me …
Black Ensemble Theater spotlights Marvin Gaye’s music, complex life
The late singer’s former wife plans to attend the opening and says she’s excited about the new revue after hearing great things about the company’s “Jackie Wilson Story.”
Out of the Past Records a vinyl destination
DAVE HOEKSTRA: Music fans come from all over, even Europe, to shop the endless, dusty shelves of records, cassettes, CDs and 8-tracks at Charlie Joe and Marie’s store in West Garfield Park.
