Happy Pulaski Day

So here's the Library of Congress's account of Pulaski. Notice something? Yeah, they sure as hell mention Buffalo New York, but they omit that Pulaski is the Founding Father of Chicago and also the Godfather of Richard M. Daley! Well, if you're not from Chicago, and I guess Buffalo, and you're reading this blog, which you probably wouldn't be doing anyway considering this blog is SOLELY about Chicago and Chicago happenings and what not, you probably don't know who this Pulaski guy is, besides from what I've already said. Well, he invented the horse. And the mustache. And he was Polish. Until he became American which at that point made him 167% cooler.

Anyway, my pierogis are done and I've got a hankerin' for some potatoey dumpling goodness. As they say in Warsaw, "Slainte!"

A Modern Day Casimir Pulaski

More On Graffiti

"They're defacing our community," Larry Ligas of Logan Square Concerned Citizens said. . . . The park, on Logan Boulevard under the Kennedy Expy., is supposed to be for neighborhood skate boarders but is becoming a magnet for vandalism-prone outsiders, according to Ligas and Pagan.

Holy Crap. People are putting graffiti on our fair skate park. Those BASTARDS!!!

Why don't some of these people worry more about, you know, the gangs in the neighborhood?

UPDATE: I found out who's been doing all this graffiti in Logan Square! Habitat for Humanities my ASS!!!

crappy art, but still ...

I heard about this at a show I played Friday night with The Drastics at Q4... I personally don't care for the mural ... it's not that aesthetically pleasing and seems to want to stir controversy without any cohesive motivation... For me, it looks like a collection of "controversial" images; the same kind of iconography you would see at an anti-IMF rally where half the protesters aren't really sure what the IMF even does ... Of course, this is not addressing the point (but does stroke my elitist art ego) ... the point being that a mural on private property should reserve some rights against removal (barring blatant hate mongering, swearing, etc ... I'm sure Pimpernel could weigh in more on this, he just graduated from Lawyer School!) ... When I worked on North Avenue, the entrance to our gallery was somewhat set in from the rest of the building and therefor allowed easier coverage for taggers, bums and (most recently) idiot frat boys who need to piss all over our door ... Every once in a while I'd come in and see that Daley's Graffiti Blasters had stopped by and removed all the tags from our entrance way .. I don't know if it was that we were a gallery but more "artistically" inclined taggers seemed to frequent our little vestibule ... there was some real cool stuff on those walls.. gone forever ... of course we were just renters and so also had little say in what went on outside our doors ... and since the neighborhood was beginning to gentrify in a very major and immediately recognizable way (ie a Bebe, Marc Jacobson and Intermix all going in on Damen within 2 months) I'm sure the buildings owners were trying to "clean up" and capitalize on jacking rent up as quickly as possible ... Anyway, the point is: censorship=bad ... coulda used the 400 bucks it cost to cover that mural (I'm guessing at the cost ... probably 4 or 5 guys each getting 30-50 bux an hour plus equipment etc etc) and filled some potholes or gotten rid of some ACTUAL graffiti like all the crappy gang tags ...

Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen

While checking out Driznastic's last post I noticed a cake for Hourglass and the Poisoned Pen. What the hell is that?

Hourglass is Chicago's very own "superhero tap dance opera"! Awesome! . . .kind of. I don't know if you can call something an opera if it's "told without spoken dialogue, but with narrative paragraphs flashed on a screen and giant scenery boards turned like pages of an oversize comic." Anyway, go check out some Chicago tap in hopes we can get a bit more of this sweet sweet superhero tap dance opera. Because, hey, it was a sequel so lets see if it can get enough steam to complete the trilogy!

I'd "tap" that! Get it? GET IT?!?!

PBS Explosion!

A secret, never before seen, unaired episode of Chicago's favorite restaurant review television show "Check Please!" will be broadcasting January 16th featuring your very own President-elect BARACK OBAMA!!!!!

Catch the Wave

Hey, the eighties were a pretty weird time to be alive, right? What with the kids and their mall hair and their color-changing shirts and their angry hip hop music?

But the decade provide us with at least one thing that was undeniably awesome: Max Headroom



Here in the States, we mostly know Max from coke commercials and a short-lived (but kind of cool) TV series, but he had been a celebrity character in the UK for a few years before as a host to a music channel. But let me be honest, if you have no idea who Max Headroom was, you should probably stop reading now cause its about to get weirder.

On November 22, 1987, during WGN's News At Nine, the station's broadcast signal was interrupted and replaced with an image of a dude in a Max Headroom mask. No audio, just the image. The station switched their studio link and everything was back to normal.



But not for long. Later that night, the PBS channel WTTW was broadcasting an episode of Doctor Who when Headroom gave it another shot. This time the hijack included audio and lasted for about 90 seconds before it was cut off. I would try to describe it but words cannot do justice to the level of weirdness going on here



The man responsible for the hijacking was never caught.

This was the last broadcast television intrusion in American history.

Buddy Charles

He died today. He was all sorts of awesome.

The first time I saw him was with my friend Lisa, who used to go with her dad to watch him in the early 80's at some hip jazz spot I can't remember the name of. She introduced herself in between sets and asked about a song he used to play that was her favorite. He laughed and said "I haven't thought about that song in 25 years". He started playing and after 10 seconds or so he stopped and said he couldn't remember the words. "Oh it's not a big deal, but thank you" she said and he quickly replied "No no, will you come back next week?"

We did and when we walked in, he smiled and kicked into the song with vigor that belied his 80 years, the last few of which it was clear had not treated him well.

I've never been in a room with someone where it was so obvious how everyone there just felt lucky to be seeing him, with knowing glances and smiles between strangers after every verse and song.

He was a true performer as well as being badass player. He could do a sick take on Fascinating Rhythm and put it back to back with a Noel Coward piece done with the comic timing of a classic film star.

Anyway, thanks Buddy, I'm sad I found out about you so late and I wish more people could have seen you in action.

Here's a pic (he still had that sweet mustache)

And a youtube

Blagojevich

Okey dokey, so it looks like it's my job to post about Blagojevich getting charge. Here we go . . . .

On Tuesday, Blagojevich was arrested by the FBI. He is being charged with: 1) mail and wire fraud conspiracy, and 2) corruptly soliciting and demanding bribes. Though I'm not really sure if there's any non-corrupt way to solicit and demand bribes. (Also, apparently this violates Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 666!)

Apparently the bribes revolved around the Trib selling Wrigley with State assistance in exchange for them firing some people critical of Blago. Since this likely would've involved mail/phones that can cross state lines, the feds get involved. Going back to this document, check out paragraph 13, on page 7. That's a list of all the corrupt things he's being charged with:
a) Taking bribes for state commission appointments, state contracts, etc. The next two items are going to get more attention in the press, cause they involve Obama and the Cubs, but this is the bread and butter. This is what got the FBI's attention in the first place five or so years ago. Most of the complaint involves this shit (through page 43 of 78). Apparently, Blago kicked into overdrive for this because new State Ethic laws, effective January 1, severely limit the amount of campaign contributions an individual can receive.
b) Trib/Wrigley deal. Why he'd try to extort a newspaper that could, you know, report that shit? I don't know. A good line from the complaint, paragraph 73: "During the call [regarding the Trib's editorials], ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the
background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that
fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.”" Stay classy, Peggy B



c) Selling Obama's empty Senate seat for Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama Administration. (Could be an uh-oh for Obama, or at least someone close to him.) Apparently he was also willing to take a job working for a union which a bidder was willing to try to work about for Blago and a union favored by the bidder. (Interesting, hopefully I'll remember to look in to that)


So this shit is getting mad attention in the press, as it should. (2,500 news hits in the first day) So what can I say that hasn't already been said? Let's deal with what should happen to Blago.

Lisa Madigan wants the Supreme Court of Illinois to kick Blago out. I'm not 100% sure on how this'll work and I don't think anyone else is too sure about this one either. I think she was performing her due diligence on how she can help get the jerk out of office.

Here's an article from Slate that covers the rest. Yeah, I'm copping out, but I got finals and it's my lady's birthday today and I got shit to do. More on this later and, most importantly, my thoughts on the Slate article. Pop quiz tomorrow.

Burritos By Number

I think I posted awhile ago about fivethirtyeight.com, a website monitoring the election and breaking down polls and what-not by using ridiculous math to give the chances of how things might've turned out? Well, the guy who runs that site, Nate Silver, is a Chicagoan from Wicker Park who also rates local taquerias! Is there anything this cat can't do?

jit v juke

Speakin of "Real Talk", I picked up a postcard in a record shop the other day advertising the Juke Remix of "Real Talk" ... YouTube and Google searches yielded no results unfortunately. So instead, here's a video of Jit Vs Juke. Detroit Vs Chicago. It's all in the footwork fool!



our blog is nothing but a youtube gallery. boo hiss.

But why stop now? I can't believe I didn't include this in my early 90's hip hop cavalcade. This one's for Pimpernel cause I know how much likes this song. On a side note, I never associated this song with 50s diners and black Marilyn Monroes ... until now ...



and one more ... not only is this Color Me Badd performing "I Wanna Sex You Up", it is Color Me Badd performing "I Wanna Sex You Up" live on Soul Train ... with Japanese subtitles ... this one's for Bogardus cause I know how much he likes Sam Watters ...

lookin' boy

Been meaning to post this for a while, but kept forgetting. It's pretty old now, but figure Bluntest viewers (if there's any left) weren't the type to be searchin' this shit out ... video is well worth watchin ...

yeah, it's just the dozens, and yeah, they from chicago ... what whaaaaa?

chicago style

Alderman John E. Scully wrestles a bear in 1904 at the Madison Street Carnival, which he managed, in East Garfield Park. The previous year, Scully tried to persuade the Lincoln Park Zoo to parade an elephant down Madison Street, but zookeepers thought it was beneath the elephant’s dignity.
Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum's Chicago Daily News Collection

From Chicago Under Glass

Maybe We Could Start Again

Kanye is representing Chi-Town in his new video

more chicago style

hey, so check this out! they're makin a movie about humboldt park in the neighorhood i live in, ukrainian village! here's the imbd link ... for those unfamiliar with chicago geography, humboldt park is a predominantly puerto rican neighborhood of chicago just south/west of ukie village. my ma (100% ukrainian) grew up in humboldt park in the 50s n 60s when the area was still mostly ukrainian/polish (slavic immigrants, mostly post-world war two refugees, my ma was a DP) ... regardless, the way they've set up shop in my neighborhood makes me think the scenes here are gonna play a major role in the movie. so for those of you who see it (cause i probably won't) look for a bodega with a puerto rican flag outside it. that used to be (swear to god) "ukrainian village grocery store" and was as ukrainian as they come. recently a big ol' dominicks came to my block forcing this small grocery store out of business (usually this would infuriate me, but ukie village grocery store SUUUUUUCKED! only produce they ever had was moldy potatoes and rotten garlic (literally) ... i only bought beer there) so the store front had been fallow for a few months until last week when i came home and saw "BODEGA" where the "UKRAINIAN VILLAGE GROCERY STORE" sign used to be ... anyway, it's not like humboldt park is THAT bad that they would need to shoot the film literally 8 blocks away, but i'm sure the owners of the former grocery store aren't mindin' the fat check they gettin from the producers.

and one more chicago reference (specifically to hipsters and wicker park), this one from the prolific david cross in his wired article Games Gone Wild! ... that post is via pimpernel who is havin' his hair, toes and nails did and can't blog at the moment. real talk.

Bankruptcy Info Tapes

A Chicago icon

male eagle gives virgin birth

all good chicagoans will remember this ...



i've got something for yooouuuuuuuuu........

and here's an awesome little slice of chicago nostalgia ... The (de)Evolution of The Empire Carpet Guy