Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
There’s a scene in “Bull Durham” that encapsulates why women enjoy getting pedicures so much. Kevin Costner is cradling Susan Sarandon’s foot in his hand while he carefully paints her toenails red. The scene is sensual, but also surprisingly relaxing and comforting.
It’s 8 o’clock on a Friday night. Chris’s Billiards on Chicago’s Northwest Side is full of some serious pool players. They glance at our table. If they’re thinking we’re uncoordinated players, they’re too polite to point that out. Instead, a kindly gentleman walks over and suggests we take a bit more time to focus before we hit the ball. “It just takes a little getting used to,” he says. “You’ll get used to it.” Though my friend and I have only played pool a combined total of five times–ever–we’re having a ball.
Mark Lyman had a simple concept in mind when he founded the International Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art nine years ago: Make fine, functional art available to the public. While highbrow types might have wondered whether there was enough of an audience for such an ambitious project, Lyman was confident.
The club is thumping, and everybody’s having a good time: You spy a woman across a sea of beautiful people and want to meet her. Do you: a) look in her direction until she smiles at you; b) send over a friend to see if she likes you, or c) saunter over to her and scream, “Wazzup?” You’re probably going home alone if you answered (b) or (c), but both are better than what a lot of people do: stare. “Many people walk into clubs with a defensive mind-set,” says Rodney Battles, author of Night Games! A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Nightclub and Bar Scene (Brown, $19.95), which hits stores later this month.
Forget about a fruit basket. Today’s stars expect to be treated to a lot more when they appear on awards shows. And MTV delivers.
The Friends of the James Jordan Boys and Girls Club made quite the splash with their first Beach Blast. Held at Phil Stefani’s kicky Castaways Restaurant at the North Avenue Beach–a favorite hangout for the Chicago cast of this season’s “The Real World”–the benefit attracted almost 200 revelers wearing their best casual beach attire. Surveying the crowd, Deloris Jordan appeared particularly chic and cool in a crisp summer suit.
Aging gracefully can be pretty … if you’re Tina Turner. But for the rest of us who never foresaw a future of thinning hair, wrinkles and expanding feet, growing older might be easier to deal with if we knew what we were in for. With that in mind, we asked some experts to warn us about what we may expect as we approach middle age.
Pamela Anderson plans to be injected with powerful antiviral drugs to treat hepatitis C–a sometimes fatal liver disease she blames on a tattoo needle she shared with ex-husband Tommy Lee.
All the trendy fashionistas have a taste for Juicy Couture. The eight-year-old line of casual wear recently got the kind of publicity money can’t buy when Hollywood hotties such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Gwen Stefani were photographed wearing their favorite Juicy pieces. Lara Flynn Boyle has proclaimed Juicy her preferred comfort-wear. And Sarah Michelle Gellar went so far as to say Juicy is the only thing she’ll wear to her early morning calls on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
At the best spots where singles mingle, people are focused on something besides meeting a date. With something (ostensibly) in the air besides romance, sparks can fly as if by serendipity. Here are some fresh ideas for getting out and about, along with some hints about who’s there and what to wear. The rest is up to you.