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Rebecca Little
Lincoln Park’s Tabula Tua Expands
By Rebecca Little
Set the Table

For nearly 14 years, Lincoln Park tabletop boutique Tabula Tua (1015 W. Armitage Ave.; 773-525-3500) has carried all the essentials for a well-appointed table. The shop has now doubled its space (expanding into the next-door spot that formerly housed the shop Faded Rose), and added fine china and formal dining flatware to its selection of everyday goods. The new space has been transformed into a wedding studio, carrying modern and colorful options from well-known brands such as Raynaud, Meissen, and Royal Copenhagen for a selection that is far less staid than a department store’s. Read more
Love and Other Crap
By Rebecca Little
Savage Garden of Love

When acerbic sex columnist—and Chicago native—Dan Savage (Savage Love) headlines a Valentine’s bill, you know not to expect the usual starry-eyed hearts-and-flowers tribute. In No Love for Love, local writers, musicians, and poets opine on a little thing called love—or the lack thereof. Performers include crime writer Kevin Guilfoile and singer/guitarist Naomi Ashley, who recently released the album Love and Other Crap. The show takes place 8 p.m. Monday the 11th at the Apollo Theater (2540 N. Lincoln Ave.; 773-935-6100). Tickets run $20 to $50, and all proceeds benefit the Poetry Center of Chicago.


Best Bets for Things to Do This Week...

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The Buzz Bin
By Rebecca Little
Kathryn Kerrigan launches a line of separates and eveningwear for tall women Read more
Sales Check
By Rebecca Little
A roundup of sales, store openings, and shopping news in February 2008 Read more
Going for Chic in Winnetka
By Rebecca Little
Uptown Girl

Simone Gensburg has opened a suburban boutique for women who want to standout. Simone’s (1060 Gage St., Winnetka; 847-446-9966) stocks only one to three sizes of each piece, “so women won’t see themselves coming and going,” she says. Specializing in top-of-the-line, hard-to-find designers, she says “everything in the store is classy, chic, and timeless.” Gensburg, an Israeli émigré and former model, was a full-time mom for 17 years before opening the boutique, and modeled the elegant, monochromatic space after her own dressing room. Look for a beautiful black satin coat with pink trim ($1,895) from Ruffian, or a simple, flattering Audrey Hepburn-esque dress from Alessandro Dell’Acqua ($1,190). She also carries pieces...

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Dukakis 2008, Chicago Onscreen
By Rebecca Little

Before the boys take the field on Sunday, women take centerstage in local productions featuring some seriously heavyweight talent.

Patty Duke—yep, that Patty Duke—performs in Blue Yonder, a series of monologues about women from all walks of life, at the Theatre of Western Springs (4384 Hampton Ave., Western Springs; 708-246-3380). Shows run 8 p.m. Friday the 1st, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday the 2nd, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday the 3rd. Tickets are $55, plus an additional $25 for a post-show reception with Duke. On Monday the 4th at 7:30 p.m., the actress gets personal in An Evening with Patty Duke and talks about her career and struggles with...

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Makeup Mavens Open Shop in Libertyville
By Rebecca Little

Lovely and Amazing

Anyone who has walked away from a cosmetics counter wearing three layers of foundation and clown lips will appreciate the focus on natural beauty at Amazing Cosmetics (601 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville; 847-680-3917, amazingcosmetics.com). “Our philosophy is less is more,” says co-founder Lisa Thurman. The line, which has been successfully selling through Ulta, Sephora, and its Web site, opens a small storefront boutique in Libertyville on Feb 1st. The company was started in 2000 when Thurman and Sue Katz, who were friends and, at the time, stay-at-home moms, launched the line from their kitchen tables. The business grew largely through guerilla word-of-mouth marketing. The pair put the product into the hands of celebrity makeup artists, which led to celebrity devotees such as Naomi Watts and Cindy Crawford. The line also won spots in the makeup rooms of Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada. Sandy Incardona, the company’s sales and marketing guru, says, “This little company in Libertyville is making Hollywood gorgeous.” The line focuses on...

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Tennessee Titan
By Rebecca Little
Tennesseein’ Is Believin’

A new play by Tennessee Williams—who’s been dead, remember, for nearly 25 years—doesn’t come around every day. Which makes the world première of The Day on Which a Man Dies a big deal. The show doesn’t open until next Friday, February 1st, but due to its limited six-performance run in the intimate Links Hall (3435 N. Sheffield Ave.; 800-838-3006), you might want to call for tickets now. (Full disclosure: A later version of the play circa 1970, significantly different but with the same title, has been produced once before, in 2001 at Connecticut’s White Barn Theater.) David Kaplan, director of the Links Hall run, has an ongoing relationship with the Williams estate, and he’s staging this production with precise fidelity to Williams’s words and notes. Completed in 1959 and inspired in part by the Japanese poet Yukio Mishima and in part by Jackson Pollock, the play includes elements of Japanese dance and...

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Marc Jacobs Opens in Bucktown
By Rebecca Little

Marc Time

A year after it was first announced and five months after it was originally scheduled to open, Marc by Marc Jacobs (1714 N. Damen Ave.; 773-276-2998) has arrived. Arguably the biggest shopping story of the past year, the opening of the boutique has inspired nervousness among local shop owners and residents who feared a chain invasion, curiosity about the company’s choice of Bucktown over the Gold Coast, and anticipation about when the store would finally open. The sleek, 4,000-square-foot space—which, together with the BCBG Max Azria next door, transformed a drab brick block into a bastion of polished newness—has exposed ductwork and light blue walls. The line has a younger, more affordable bent than its brother brand, Marc Jacobs, offering the designer’s sense of high style mixed with whimsical exuberance...

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