After Hours with Rick Kogan

02/15/2025

Sunday, some extra 4:30-7 pm WGN RadioRadio will have Taylor Evans and filmmaking pals on their new documentary “The Wild Mile: A River Reborn,” the city's first floating eco-park; Dan Halperin to talk about the film he is making about his father, "Buck" Halperin.

02/12/2025

The latest print issue of Pl***oy is here, after five-year absence and more than seven decades since it was born with a young actress on its cover. Will it still find an audience?https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/02/12/playboy-magazine-print/here

02/05/2025

Scott Turow brings back old pal Rusty Sabich and they are both still among the best in the legal thriller business. This trip is on the pages of 'Presumed Guilty,' sure to be a movie sooner than later.

In this latest novel, we find Sabich pleasantly retired but dragged back to a courtroom to defend his fiancé’s adult son for the murder.

02/04/2025

'A Complete Unknown' focuses on Bob Dylan, the man and the myths, but also a chance to remember (or meet) Chicago's Al Grossman, Dylan's manager for a time, and Mike Bloomfield, whose guitarist sparked the electricity at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.

There were two Chicagoans who were important to Bob Dylan in his early years: manager Al Grossman and guitarist Michael Bloomfield.

01/29/2025

To bet or not to bet? Sportswriter, lawyer and TV star Lester Munson talks about the dark side of sports gambling: "The focus is on the next bet and while some can manage their betting there are many, many who become victims."

Lester Munson, a journalist and attorney, is among the most passionate anti-gambling voices in this increasingly wagering country.

10/30/2024

The wait is over.
Heeere's Johnny...as in Carson, captured in a book more than 20 years in the making, written by the late Bill Zehme and his pal Mike Thomas, with stories aplenty about the man who was arguably "the greatest star in television history."

Mike Thomas finished writing a book Bill Zehme started called “Carson the Magnificent,” all about the television host.

10/29/2024

There is no doubt that they killed their parents but will brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez soon get out of jail? Kim Kardashian says they should. The LA district attorney thinks the pair have “paid their debt to society.” What do you think?

“Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” on Netflix has brought this long-ago case back to the headlines.

10/23/2024

A tribute to 'Lost Chicago' author David Garrard Lowe and his love affair with Chicago. His pal, novelist Kurt Vonnegut, son/grandson of architects, once told Lowe about “Lost Chicago," “This is my favorite book in the world. I can’t stop reading it.”

His poetic photographic essay about our bygone architecture sits on bookshelves across Chicago and continues to amaze and inspire.

10/22/2024

Meet the Florida Billionaire Who Wants to Be a Newspaper Baron and who says that he believes print newspapers are “a key part of the American fabric.”

David Hoffmann has already bought 5 percent of one of America’s largest newspaper companies. Now, he wants to control the whole thing.

10/22/2024

In 'Mr. McMahon,' Netflix tries to pin down wrestling's Vince McMahon. The 79-year-old billionaire has retreated to the shadows. But there is no denying that he is an original, a self-manufactured creation only possible in the good old USA.

The new six-part Netflix documentary series is named after the alter-ego character Vince McMahon portrayed on-screen in the mid-’90s.

10/16/2024

'Chicago Stories' fine season on WTTW ends with episodes about Hefner and Pl***oy, the West Side riots of 1968, Frankie Knuckles and House music and good old Al Capone

A third upcoming program in the series, in chilling historical contrast, is “When the West Side Burned.” The fall concludes with a look at house music.

10/15/2024

Is the great filmmaker and devoted Chicagoan Andrew Davis, who gave us 'The Fugitive' among many hit movies, a good novelist? To answer that question, all you have to do is read his debut thriller, 'Disturbing the Bones.'

The movie maker is coming back home to Chicago this week to promote the book he wrote with co-author Jeff Biggers.

10/09/2024

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/10/09/column-new-book-explores-the-life-of-abe-saperstein-the-chicago-dynamo-who-created-the-globetrotters/

“Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports” by Mark and Matthew Jacob takes on a challenging and exciting subject.

10/08/2024

This wild time of year--as Halloween has grown from put-on-a-sheet-and-become-a-ghost simplicity into an all-ages bacchanal--brings back memories of the dog who came as a devil, the horse who dressed as a cab, and other pet costume delights.

A pet costume contest was held for decades at the Parkview Pet Supplies store in Chicago. Halloween has only gotten bigger since then.

10/02/2024

A terrific guy, passionate traveler, esteemed teacher (of Dave Eggers and Vince Vaugh among thousands at Lake Forest High School), and stunning writer, Peter Ferry has died at 77 but his words live on.

For a while, he wrote for the Tribune and his most recent novel was adapted into a play. But perhaps his greatest work was in the classroom at Lake Forest High School.

09/25/2024

Singer Spider Saloff came to town to play the Gold Star Sardine Bar and, lucky for us, decided to stay. She is still shimmering, her voice richer and warmer, her interpretive gifts packing greater punch and deeper understanding. Better than ever.

“Occasionally, some young person will come up to me after a show and ask, ‘Did you write such-and-such-song?’ And I’ll smile and say, ‘No, that was Cole Porter.’ Isn’t that just wonderful?”…

09/21/2024

The magic number is 120, but some Sox fans will tell you it's just a number. This season’s ineptitude has compelled everyone and their grandmother to chime in, to offer on TV and in print reasons for this “disaster,” and search for people to blame.

When your team wins, it is a shot in the arm to your self-esteem. When it loses there is a loss of self-esteem. And we carry on. Think spring.

09/18/2024

As the Morton Salt complex new got life, Sandra Steinbrecher spent three years and took 100,000 photos capturing its transformation in a stunning new book. She says, "This is the story of Chicago, its continuing vitality. It is a happy celebration.”

What’s now the Salt Shed was rebuilt from a shuttered industrial building. Sandra Steinbrecher’s new book shows how she was there to capture the change.