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Chicago Public Radio Meeting: Thursday, May 18!!

May 17, 2006 by Dave!

This Thursday, May 18th at 6:00pm is the public Community Advisory Board Meeting. Here are the details:

    Chicago Public Radio Advisory Board Meeting

    Columbia College School of Media Arts

    600 S. Michigan Ave., Room 401

    Thursday, May 18th

    6:00pm-7:30pm

I spoke with Daniel Ash, the Director of Communication for CPR and he said Torey Malatia (the man who killed the music programming) will be on-hand to answer member questions. Please come out and make your voice heard!!

Also, you can visit Boycottcpr.com to send letters of protest to the Chicago Public Radio Board of Directors. And please sign the Save the Music Petition!

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago cpr npr public radio wbez

Chicago Public Radio Double-Speak

April 18, 2006 by Dave!

The Chicago Tribune ran an article over the weekend called, “Fans dial up anger over format change“. In the article, Torey Malatia, president and general manager of Chicago Public Radio discusses their plans to *drop music programming* from the station’s line up. Needless to say, many listeners are outraged.

Chicagoist had a post about the news “WBEZ: Now With Less Music, More Talk” and also ran a follow-up interview with Daniel Ash; Vice-President, Strategic Communications; Chicago Public Radio. My initial reaction is on Metroblogging Chicago, “WBEZ: What are you smokin’??!?!.

Having read the follow-up interview with Ash, I’m still flabbergasted at the way CPR has handled this “idea”. My specific gripes (which I’m sure are echoed by many CPR listener members) are:
1. Why did CPR wait until *after* the Spring Fund Drive to make the announcement? Obviously Malatia talked to the Tribune, even if it wasn’t officially announced, he could have easily said they were only talking about new ideas of how to integrate music and discussion.

That’s not what he said, he said: “I don’t want to mislead people that there will be sets” of music on any of the stations. Instead, he says, the emphasis will be on conversation, with some musical excerpts interspersed, as in the case of “Sound Opinions,” which will remain on WBEZ.

In his interview, Ash says, “We have no intention of creating a station where people talk about music. That’s exactly the opposite of the direction we want to go.” Well, which is it?

2. Listeners of WBEZ should be used to the tag line “listener supported radio”. In fact, we don’t “donate” to Chicago Public Radio, we become _members_. So when I read statements from Ash like, “We’ve developed a list of folks we want to consult. We want to talk to leaders and we want to talk to practitioners, people who are active in their community.” I’m personally insulted. Where are the _members_? When did the expect to consult with us? Why did they choose to go public without consulting members first? I’ve talked to a lot of people and the best reaction I’ve heard so far, from _one_ person out of dozens is, “well, I’ll hold back judgment until they actually do something.” Everyone else has been outraged. That doesn’t indicate to me they consulted with the people who fund CPR: the listeners.

3. It really saddens me that the proposed change means we’ll be losing mainstay music programming like “Passport”, “All Songs Considered” and my personal favorite, “Afropop Worldwide”. As many people have said, and I don’t know the source of the original quote, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
I understand that CPR is trying to find new ways to appeal to a broader cross-section of the community. I also understand they are trying to find new ways to stay relevant in an increasingly media savvy society. But what really upsets me is the way the whole idea has been handled by Chicago Public Radio management. The quotes in the article and in the interview show absolutely no respect for musicians and artists who are currently contributing to the station’s line-up. Management’s statements also show no respect for the people who are currently listening and supporting Chicago Public Radio. They went public with a nascent idea which (depending on the final form) may or may not have merit, but as it was presented just sounds like a plain bad idea and now are acting shocked that listeners are outraged.

Here’s what *I* would like to see happen: I’d like to hear Torey Malatia go on Eight-Forty-Eight and (1) apologize to the listeners for the botched way this “announcement” was handled by station management; (2) explain to the listeners *exactly* what he has in mind for this new vision, maybe with a little sample; (3) take listener calls and get some feedback from the people who tune in everyday and whose dollars support Chicago Public Radio.

Update: The programming change has been officially announced on the Chicago Public Radio website. I’m only linking to the announcement for references; until Torey Malatia provides the membership with some concrete plans and allows for actual input, I will not be linking to their site or supporting Chicago Public Radio in any way.
Update: Boycottcpr.com and Save the Music Petition.

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago cpr npr public radio wbez

It’s Roman Polanski Day!

March 6, 2006 by Dave!

Well, actually, it’s Casimir Pulaski Day. But if you don’t live in Chicago, you probably didn’t know that. And even if you do live in Chicago you might not have known it. Unless, of course, you’re a fan of Sufjan Stevens.

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago humor

So Long, TAL…

January 27, 2006 by Dave!

Gak! What is with Chicago these days? First Marshall Field’s, then the Berghoff, and now something I actually care about: This American Life.

The move is apparently precipitated by deal with Showtime (Showtime??!) for a one hour television version of the show. I’m happy to see the show expanding and I think some aspects of it will work well on television, if done right. However, I call bullshit that it needs to move to NYC to do it. Chicago has an extensive production community, including a huge array of post-production houses. If the format of the television show stays true to the radio format (i.e. correspondents and field stories) then there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the show could not remain in Chicago… the community that’s loved and nurtured it all these years.

And worst of all, I don’t even get Showtime!

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago npr

Zapatista

October 1, 2005 by Dave!

There’s a new Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood, called
Zapatista so my wife (who loves Mexican food) and I decided to try it out tonight.

The head chef is from the less-than-stellar Adobo Grill and there are several touches that give that away… like the guacamole made fresh table side. Only in our case, it was made fresh 15 feet away at the bar and brought to us, I don’t know why. We ordered it “hot” (as we are wont to do) and it was anything but. Seriously, I’ve had hotter oatmeal. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t good–the ingredients were all fresh and it was quite tasty. But not hot.
My wife had the chilies rellenos which were decent, but nothing special. One was cheese, the other stuffed with chicken, and while good quality, they just weren’t very flavorful. The same, however, could not be said of my fajitas, which were incredible (with one flaw I’ll get to in a minute). The meat was stewed along with cheese and onions in this stone? iron? pot and the flavors were really outstanding. However, their tortillas bite. I mean, they suck. Seriously, how can you have bad tortillas at a Mexican restaurant?! I don’t know, but they do. Awful.
In the end, it was a decent meal (despite my tortillas). A little pricey for the inconsistent quality; however, I might return in a few months after they are more settled-in to see if the minor inconsistencies have been worked out.

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Filed Under: Chicago, Restaurants Tagged With: chicago food restaurants

Troubled Hubble

September 28, 2005 by Dave!

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Troubled Hubble will be playing their last show tonight at Schuba’s. I first saw these guys over four years ago at the Hideout, and let me tell you, they are a blast. Totally infectious pop-riffs and just so much energy it’s impossible not to love them.

They are calling it quits citing personal and health reasons. Let’s hope “health reasons” means they are tired from touring and need a break and not anything more serious. If you haven’t seen these guys, go… they are a fun, up-beat band, and it’s a shame they have to call it quits. Best of luck to all of them in whatever projects come next!

[Via Chicagoist]

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Filed Under: Chicago, Music Tagged With: chicago music

Chicago Crime

May 20, 2005 by Dave!

If you live in Chicago (or are just curious) there’s a new service at chicagocrime.org that combines Chicago Police Crime stats with Google Maps to create very detailed maps of crime in Chicago. You can look at crimes by crime type, street, date, police district, location, or view a city map. You can even get RSS feeds. Incredibly cool and kind of creepy, all at the same time.
[Via beSpacific and What are you loooking at?]

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago technology

Behind the Blue Lights

May 9, 2005 by Dave!

The first time I saw them, I was with my wife coming back from an evening in Oak Park. We’d taken the most direct route back to our place, which was along Chicago Avenue.

Chicago Ave. runs east-west toward the city. On the way, it passses through some of the worst areas in Chicago. People always think of the gritty, working-class South Side, but in reality, many of the worst areas are on the West Side.

The route takes you directly through a heavily impoverished area where the church/liquor store ratio nearly 1:1, and we stopped counting the churches at a dozen. All of the buildings have gates and bars or are boarded up. People mill about outside the liquor stores and don’t seem to have anywhere to go.

As we drove back toward our home, we noticed something very curious: the blue lights. For several blocks, in the heart of the worst area, there are these curious, flashing blue lights sitting atop boxes mounted on the lamp posts.

While the blue light on the top of the box flashes away, in a small, black orb at the bottom of the box, there sits a video camera, which may or may not be panning, tilting, and zooming in on the action in the street below. These boxes house survailance cameras used by the Chicago Police Departement to monitor the neighborhood.

Blink. Blink. Blink. They never stop. Somewhere, on the other end, a CPD officer watches the scene, noting suspicious activity and sending out squad cars if necessary. All the while, the people on the street seem oblivious to their presence. They still stand in doorways of buildings, glancing nervously around. They mill about outside the liquor stores, hanging on cars that slowly cruise around the block all night. The cameras don’t seem to impact their lives at all, one way or the other.

Or do they? I have no idea what it must be like to live around there. Life under the watching eye of the CPD all the time probably doesn’t register much compared to the other obvious hardships of life on that stretch of Chicago Ave. But then again, maybe it does. What is the effect on a person when they seek something higher, cast their gaze toward the heavens to escape, if only for a moment, only to find that someone is always looking down on them.

[A Chicago Story via DefenseTech.org]
[Spycam Force via WIRED]

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago technology

Chicago’s Special Day

March 7, 2005 by Dave!

Today is Casimir Pulaski Day. In case you didn’t know, Casimir Pulaski was a hero of the American Revolution, up there with Lafayette, et. al. And since Chicago has the largest ethnic Polish population outside of Poland, his day is celebrated city wide: kids get a day off school and most city offices are closed–including the courts.

Well, my wife was going to file some motions today, forgetting it was Pulaski Day. When she got to the Court it was locked. There was another woman, walking away, so my wife turned to her and said, “Is it a holiday?”

The woman looked at her and said–completely seriously, “Yeah, it’s Roman Polanski Day. I don’t know what the hell he ever did to deserve a special day,” and walked off.

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago humor

Is this bean your bean? No… aparently not.

February 9, 2005 by Dave!

If you haven’t seen “the Bean” at Millennium Park (which is actually by Anish Kapoor and called Cloud Gate) you should. It’s damn cool. Don’t go until summer, it’s undergoing work right now, and besides, it’s cold here.
But when you do go, be careful what pictures you take:

Karen Ryan, press director for the park’s project director:
“The copyrights for the enhancements in Millennium Park are owned by the artist who created them. As such, anyone reproducing the works, especially for commercial purposes, needs the permission of that artist.”
[Via IP News Blog courtesy New (sub)Urbanism]

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Filed Under: Chicago Tagged With: chicago copyright
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