Friday, April 30, 2010
Chicagoland Sports QOTD: Tom Ricketts on the Wrigley Sign
Posted by Whet Moser on 04.30.10 at 06:26 PM
FWIW, I'm pretty sympathetic to Ricketts, given that he's taken over a team that, in recent history, has been both expensive (the $2m Ricketts expects to make from the not-billboard would, using 2009 numbers, pay for about 14 games of Soriano's season*) and mediocre. I'm more in favor of the strict preservationist argument (it's ugly) than the purist argument (Wrigley is a shrine etc; I think it's been all downhill since it stopped being Weeghman Park), but realistically speaking, people will get used to it. Heck, the Citgo sign above the Green Monster is iconic. I'm just surprised he's surprised.
* 116 games at $17m, per Baseball Reference
Chicagoland Food Chain Film Music Food & Drink Performing Arts Arts Dinner & a Show: Friday 4/30
Posted by Whet Moser on 04.30.10 at 04:04 PM
Show: Exit Through the Gift Shop "Since Exit Through the Gift Shop premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, some have suggested that the whole story, including the emergence of Mr. Brainwash, is an elaborate hoax engineered by Banksy to satirize the commodification of art. If so, it’s a brilliant one," writes J.R. Jones.
Landmark's Century Centre, 2828 N. Clark St., 773-509-4949, 4:30pm, 7:45pm, 10:15pm
Dinner: Bolat African Cuisine Nigerian-Ghanaian eatery serving a range of soups and stews with traditional starchy sides like fufu; after a recent renovation, there's now a full bar.
3346 N. Clark St., 773-665-1100
Sports Free Shit Other Stuff Apropos of Nothing Swag 5/1 — Free Pilates Day Events
Posted by Sam Worley on 04.30.10 at 12:03 PM
- heliosmovement.com
From 9 AM to 3 PM, Body Endeavours (1528 N. Halsted) is offering free mat classes, massage, acupuncture, and equipment sessions, as well as food and drinks. Register online and check out the full schedule of events.
Posture Perfect Pilates (1247 S. Wabash) is holding a free open house from noon to 5 PM, with food and drinks, a free mat class at 10 AM, and free cardiolates at 1 PM. Register for the classes by calling 312-675-2981 (no registration necessary for the open house).
Helios Movement is hosting a free mat class in Hamlin Park (Damen and Barry) from noon to 1 PM. E-mail info@heliosmovement.com for more information or to register.
Media News Bites Two Cheers for Vocalo
Posted by Michael Miner on 04.30.10 at 08:00 AM
I've been no friend of Vocalo, the ne'er-do-well Mr.Hyde to WBEZ's urbane Dr. Jekyll. It's the expensive vision, passion, and — I've invited readers to conclude — folly of Torey Malatia, CEO of the parent Chicago Public Radio.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Film This Week's Movie Action
Posted by J.R. Jones on 04.29.10 at 07:42 PM
- Bob Bowdon
New Jersey journalist Bob Bowdon appears at the Landmark on Friday night to introduce the 7:30 PM screening of his excellent documentary The Cartel. It's a factual and fair-minded conservative critique of the education crisis in America that takes as a case study Bowdon's home state, which is number one in the country for per-student spending but still produces dismal classroom results.
Style Kids These Days
Posted by Heather Kenny on 04.29.10 at 05:33 PM
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The bar for fashion success just got younger: today the Today Show profiled ten-year-old designer Cecilia Cassini. I'm impressed with any pre-teen who can sew, but one wishes her affect were a little more Tavi and a little less The Hills.
Politics Clout City News Is Walmart the Only Retailer Interested in Pullman? Maybe Not.
Posted by Hunter Clauss on 04.29.10 at 04:36 PM
The fight over a proposed new development in Pullman on the far south side has so far been focused on whether it should include a new Walmart store, and the development’s main cheerleader in the City Council, Ninth Ward alderman Anthony Beale, has defended the inclusion of the controversial retailer by saying it's his only choice—he's reached out to other big-box firms and they’ve all turned him down. Beale has made it sound like he's in a mad dash to find a date for the high-school prom and all the pretty girls were already taken so he got stuck with Walmart.
But not everyone is buying his version of events—starting with the very retailers who supposedly spurned him.
Chicagoland Lit & Lectures Sports Books Mike Royko on Jackie Robinson
Posted by Whet Moser on 04.29.10 at 03:08 PM
I had to see Jackie Robinson, the man who was going to somehow wreck everything. So the next day, another kid and I started walking to the ballpark early.We always walked to save the streetcar fare. It was five or six miles, but I felt about baseball the way Abe Lincoln felt about education.
[snip]
He swung at the first pitch and they erupted as if he had knocked it over the wall. But it was only a high foul that dropped into the box seats. I remember thinking it was strange that a foul could make that many people happy.
—Mike Royko, "Jackie's Debut a Unique Day," 10/25/72
Roger Ebert says that sports isn't art, and while I don't disagree with him, sometimes its simplicity—and lack of inherent meaning—abstracts the world around us into something comprehensible* in the way that art sometimes does, or intends to (h/t @nocoastoffense, @ebertchicago).
* "Art alone can turn those thoughts of disgust at the horror or absurdity of existence into imaginary constructs which permit living to continue."
Chicagoland Food Chain Lit & Lectures Film Music Food & Drink Performing Arts Arts Books Dinner & a Show: Thursday 4/29
Posted by Whet Moser on 04.29.10 at 01:55 PM
- Matt Barnes
- Jason Collett
Show: Jason Collett On his latest solo album, Rat a Tat Tat (Arts & Crafts), Jason Collett continues to indulge his singer-songwriter side, something he has a hard time doing as a charter member of the indie-rock collective Broken Social Scene.
9 PM, Schubas, 3159 N. Southport, 773-525-2508, $15
Dinner: Que Rico is a Mexican restaurant with Argentinean and vegetarian influences that come together in, for instance, an empanada stuffed with spinach or other veggies. Berenjenas al ajo is like an Argentinean baba ghanoush-bright green eggplant chopped with a little garlic and lemon.
2814 N. Southport Ave., 773-975-7436
Visual Art Free Shit Other Stuff Apropos of Nothing Swag 5/1 — Free Chicago Style Crafters Show at Cole's Bar
Posted by Sam Worley on 04.29.10 at 01:16 PM
- ChicagoStyleCrafters.com/
