By Andrew Schroedter
Can technology ease the traffic crunch? A Chicago business and a local university hope so, but don't expect the time you spend in the car to plummet soon. Read more
August 2008
 |  |
I’m a sucker for the words “Paris flea market” or “Paris café.” Use them in the description of your product and I’m like Pavlov’s dog with measuring tape. Yes, I’m very nostalgic about the several months I spent living in Paris after college (though I don’t miss stepping in Pavlov’s dog's poo every day as perfectIy dressed and irritatingly smug Parisian women looked on pityingly). Anyway, I love these chairs not only for how they look, but for their associations. The white one, described on the Willow website as “styled after a 1940's Paris flea market treasure,” caught my eye yesterday while I was checking out Willow’s new offerings online. The galvanized steel chair has been on my radar for a long time. It’s available at DWR and through the Sundance Catalog, where it is described as follows: “First manufactured in 1934, these ever-stylish steel chairs were designed to withstand the wear-and-tear of bistro and brasserie patrons while remaining ever-recherché.” They are still made in France today. Oh charming chairs, take me away!
—Gina Bazer
Photos courtesy of Willow and Sundance
Read more
List Price: $11,995,000
The Property: Originally built in the 1890s by a retired Confederate general as a small summer cottage book-ended by two chimneys, this house grew in several directions over the years. By the time Tim and Gail Anderson bought it in 1999...
 |  |
Nothing is more fun than decorating a kid’s room… that is until that scary moment when the munchkin becomes aware of his own tastes and interests (carefully nurtured by the likes of Disney) and suddenly, his darling little nursery turns into a shrine to Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, and the movie Cars. But let’s focus on the sweet window of decorating opportunity that occurs before all that.
Foursided, as I discovered recently, is not only a great place to buy gifts, cards, vintage educational maps and charts, and original collages by local artists (including shop owner Todd Mack) but also kid-appropriate art. Whether original, reproduction, or vintage, the options have a soft, nostalgic appeal (I was drawn to the vintage alphabet pictures shown above). A few doors north of Foursided’s Andersonville location (the other one is in Lakeview), the new eco-friendly kids’ clothing store Green Genes (opened by a former Red Ballon Co. staffer) also has some fun tot art. Both the owner and I agreed that if the kiddies don’t like the old-fashioned circus posters, we’ll take ’em!
—Gina Bazer
The Great Barrier Reef. You hear a lot about it, but what do you really know? It's in Australia and it's visible from outer space: that's about the extent of it for me. I always associated the reef with sharks and scuba divers, two species that don't terribly interest me. As we were taking a ferry from Cairns, the city nearest the reef, to some island resort where Sarah had made reservations, a refrain from the Old 97's entered my head: "What's so great about the Barrier Reef?" I sang it repeatedly to Sarah, who finally told me to shut up...
Read more
Lollapalooza style was dominated by the usual crowd of hipsters and hippies dressed in vintage accessories and boho best. But even with the dreads, sari-esque wraps, and bandanas, there was still enough khaki, camo, and greek gear in the crowd to remind us that we were at Lolla and not at Bonnaroo. From aviators to V-necks, here are eight trends we liked at the fest...
Read more