By: Quintin Slovek

The Oscars are arbitrary, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love them. It’s like March Madness for film geeks, but unlike college basketball you can’t rely on any empirical data like stats. It’s all randomness; it’s all an ...

By: Alex Benson

Shout Out Louds’ latest album Work doesn’t feel overworked at all. Their basic, stripped down sound gives the impression of a bunch of friends just getting together and jamming. Without resorting to gimmicks or high concepts, Shout Out Louds h...

By: Laura Butler

Though Joanna Newsom’s fans have been waiting for Have One On Me for a few years, they may not have been expecting an album quite like this. Newsom’s latest release, her first since 2006, is a sprawling, ambitious triple album that delves deep...

By: Dustin Parmenter

 Standard is the word that first came to mind upon exiting last week’s preview screening of The Crazies....

By: Victoria Wright

When the weather is lousy or you’re generally in a bad disposition, a method of escapism becomes a necessity....

By: Stan Golovchuk

I visited Dixon, Ill., last Friday. It is a sleepy little town, about two hours west of Chicago. People can reach Dixon via the I-88, but I just used Google Maps....

By: Quintin Slovek

Shortly after his performance in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, we lost one of the better actors of our generation, Joaquin Phoenix, to the destructive allure of a music career. Oddly enough, he went into hip hop, of all things. Yet with an album s...

By: Stephanie Sanford

Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of A Separate Peace is full of WASPy adolescents, preppy outfits, friendship and betrayal....

By: Alex Benson

William Eggleston’s photographs are simple. They offer a snapshot of the nouns (people, places and things) of the South....

By: Cara Ray

Josiah Wolf, drummer of the indie and alternative hip hop band WHY? released his first solo album, Jet Lag, on March 2. ...

By: Annah Hackett

Before I attended the Lyric Opera’s production of Hector Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, my closest association with opera was Elmer Fudd’s rendition of Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries (“Kill de wabbit, kill de wabbit .....

By: Jack Connealy

Risky” is probably the best way to describe Bohrs Hoff’s production of The Life and Death of King John....

By: Alex Benson

Is a date still a date if it involves three people? Not sure....

By: Felipe Fisher

With the Oscars looming ever closer, Diversions has decided to take this opportunity to offer up its assessment of the past year in movies, with due consideration to those contenders vying for the golden statuettes come Mar. 7....

By: Alex Benson

Don’t be confused, The Return of the Wu & Friends is not a totally new Wu-Tang album. But in some respects, it is new. The latest album featuring the Wu name is more of a remix album than anything else. Compiled by the group’s main produce...

By: Stan Golovchuk

There are a few big names on the Internet that everyone should learn. Biz Stone is the co-founder and creative director of Twitter. Chad Hurley is the CEO of YouTube. And of course there’s the pope, but that one is obvious. In early 2009, the Vatica...

By: Quintin Slovek

We’re more familiar with documentaries than we might think. Just look at our televisions. Not only do we have Ken Burns’ PBS opuses like The National Parks: America’s Best Idea topping off a list of famous treatments of such all-American...

By: Karis Hustad

Rock stars are notorious for addictions....

By: by Cara Ray

If you are a minimalist who doesn’t enjoy looking at visuals with bold form and color, you might want to stay away from the new exhibition at the National Museum of Mexican Art. In Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralists, gr...

By: Annah Hackett

Perhaps there is poetic justice in the fact that the Raven Theatre’s production of Twelve Angry Men is so lopsided....