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Archive for June, 2010 Why Are You Taking my Fracking Photo? without comments
Why Are You Taking my Photo?, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
not supposed to borrow the photographer’s camera to sneak photos of reluctant subjects… embiggening I’m supposed to take the photos, not be subjects of them… Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by swanksalot June 21st, 2010 at 8:46 am Posted in Photography Tagged with black_and_white, Chicago, Photography
CTA Red Line fire without comments
We happened to be walking past this area, and noticed the commotion: Investigators worked late into the night Sunday to figure out what had sparked an extra-alarm fire on an underground track that sent 19 people to hospitals for smoke inhalation and respiratory problems. Five people were transported with serious injuries, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said. The injured included a 10-year-old boy who was being held overnight at Children’s Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. The extent of their injuries was not known Sunday night. “The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see across the aisle,” said passenger Dillon Johnson, 23. “We all started to sit down on the floor where the smoke wasn’t as bad.” Fire officials said railroad ties caught fire just before 5 p.m. on the northbound track between the Red Line stops at Chicago Avenue and Clark/Division. Black smoke could be seen billowing from several subway grates and vents in the area, including near Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse on Rush Street. Red Line trains and several bus routes were redirected while firefighters fought the small underground blaze. Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said it’s unclear what sparked the fire, but that railroad ties occasionally catch fire during the summer heat. (click to continue reading Red Line fire: 19 people injured in CTA track fire – chicagotribune.com.) Easily twenty fire trucks, plus various Chicago Transit Authority police cars, a couple of Water Department trucks, and police too. They had cordoned a large area off from cars, but were allowing pedestrians to still walk through, so of course I had to see what was going on. Also yesterday witnessed a large arrest of some sort on Chicago and State Streets, an arrest that involved 7 or 8 police cars and SUVs, and a dude being detained on the ground in hand cuffs. Still don’t know what that was. Oh, and earlier called 911 when we witnessed a young boy riding his bike swerve against an oncoming taxi1 and ram his head right into a street light post. We heard the collision from a block away. He was with his father and a couple of brothers, all on bikes, but we were worried he might have sustained a concussion. Didn’t stay to see however, just called for an ambulance. Crazy day. Footnotes: 1. the bikes were going the wrong way on a one way street [
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Written by Seth Anderson June 21st, 2010 at 8:42 am Posted in Chicago-esque,News-esque Tagged with 42nd_Ward, CTA, News-esque, red
THC Research continues without comments Hard to imagine another pharmaceutical that receives so much resistance to even being studied. Perhaps the problem is that cannabis is not patented by Pfizer, anyone can grow their own, in pretty much the entire world. Hard for Big Pharma to realize profits on a medically significant weed.
while the medical marijuana movement has been generating political news, some researchers have been quietly moving in new directions — testing cannabis and its derivatives against a host of diseases. The scientific literature now brims with potential uses for cannabis that extend beyond its well-known abilities to fend off nausea and block pain in people with cancer and AIDS. Cannabis derivatives may combat multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory conditions, the new research finds. Cannabis may even kill cancerous tumors. Many in the scientific community are now keen to see if this potential will be fulfilled, but they haven’t always been. Pharmacologist Roger Pertwee of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland recalls attending scientific conferences 30 years ago, eager to present his latest findings on the therapeutic effects of cannabis. It was a hard sell. “Our talks would be scheduled at the end of the day, and our posters would be stuck in the corner somewhere,” he says. “That’s all changed.” (click to continue reading Not Just A High – Science News.)
and the mechanism of action: A bigger revelation came in 1992: Mammals make their own compound that binds to, and switches on, the CB1 receptor. Scientists named the compound anandamide. Researchers soon found its counterpart that binds mainly to the CB2 receptor, calling that one 2AG, for 2-arachidonyl glycerol. The body routinely makes these compounds, called endocannabinoids, and sends them into action as needed. “At that point, this became a very, very respectable field,” says Mechoulam, now at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who along with Pertwee and others reported the anandamide discovery in Science. “THC just mimics the effects of these compounds in our bodies,” Mechoulam says. Although the receptors are abundant, anandamide and 2AG are short-acting compounds, so their effects are fleeting. In contrast, when a person consumes cannabis, a flood of THC molecules bind to thousands of CB1 and CB2 receptors, with longer-lasting effects. The binding triggers so many internal changes that, decades after the receptors’ discovery, scientists are still sorting out the effects. From a biological standpoint, smoking pot to get high is like starting up a semitruck just to listen to the radio. There’s a lot more going on. Though the psychoactive effect of THC has slowed approval for cannabis-based drugs, the high might also have brought on a serendipitous discovery, says neurologist Ethan Russo, senior medical adviser for GW Pharmaceuticals, which is based in Porton Down, England. “How much longer would it have taken us to figure out the endocannabinoid system if cannabis didn’t happen to have these unusual effects on human physiology?” Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by Seth Anderson June 21st, 2010 at 8:06 am Posted in health Tagged with cannabis, health, pharmaceutical, research
Six Planes Over Marina City without comments Six Planes Over Marina City, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Blackhawks Stanley Cup Victory Parade. The Embiggening modestly tweaked in Lightroom 3.0 Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by swanksalot June 19th, 2010 at 9:58 pm Posted in Photography Tagged with architecture, Chicago, Photography
Mark Kirk Is a Serial Liar with 2 comments Wonder if the Illinois Republican party wishes they could run the primary again? Nearly every thing Mark Kirk claims turns out to be a lie, which means more media scrutiny, and seemingly never ending embarrassments. Maybe Jack Ryan could take a few days off of his busy sex club schedule, and join in the race?
CHICAGO — A leader of the church in upstate New York where Representative Mark S. Kirk of Illinois claimed he worked as a nursery school teacher said on Friday that he had overstated his role there. The leader, Sally Grubb, a member of the administrative council at Forest Home Chapel, said Mr. Kirk, a Republican candidate for the United States Senate, had a limited role as a student while working part-time in a work-study program at Cornell University. “He was never, ever considered a teacher,” Ms. Grubb said in a phone interview after spending two days researching the history of Mr. Kirk’s association with the nursery school. “He was just an additional pair of hands to help a primary teaching person.” The Methodist church in Ithaca, N.Y., has been trying to determine whether Mr. Kirk worked there after The New York Times reported on Thursday about the brevity of Mr. Kirk’s teaching experience. Eight longtime members of the church, including two former pastors, said in interviews this week that they did not recall having a male nursery school teacher in 1981, when Mr. Kirk said he had worked there. “I don’t remember any men who worked there,” said Thomas V. Wolfe, a former pastor at the church, who is now the dean of student affairs at Syracuse University. “It was a team of women. I used to go over every morning and have coffee with them. I don’t remember him.” (click to continue reading School Says Representative Kirk Never Taught There – NYTimes.com.) Why would Mark Kirk lie about something so minor like whether he taught in a nursery school or not? There is something very wrong with his brain, which means he’ll probably become fast friends with Joe Barton and his ilk. Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by Seth Anderson June 18th, 2010 at 1:27 pm Posted in politics Tagged with Chicago, elections, politics, Republicans, Senate
Shakedown of Tony Hayward with one comment What a putz. Actually, what a couple of putzes… It’s hard to imagine anyone having a worse day than Tony Hayward, BP’s embattled chief executive, who spent Thursday in the cross hairs of an angry Congressional committee and turned in a mind-bogglingly vapid performance. But he got a run for his money from Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, who inexplicably decided to call the escrow account agreed to by BP and the White House a “$20 billion shakedown.” If Mr. Barton was trying to be supportive of Mr. Hayward, who looked like he had not slept in weeks, he failed. Mr. Hayward delivered an opening statement full of contrition for the immense damage his company has done. He then faced Henry Waxman and other veteran interrogators armed with truckloads of documents suggesting that BP had behaved sloppily at best and at worst sidestepped safety precautions to save money. Mr. Hayward insisted that he had never heard of any problems in drilling and completing the well that is now spouting 60,000 barrels of oil a day. He further confessed that he did not even know his company was drilling the doomed well until the day it hit oil. (click to continue reading Editorial – A Bad Day for BP and Mr. Barton – NYTimes.com.) Thought exercise: Barney Frank makes a criticism of a decision George Bush makes, takes the side of a foreign corporation, say Royal Bank of Scotland. Can you imagine the media storm? Exactly, the Fox News chattering heads would be yelling for Barney Frank to renounce his citizenship and move. But Joe Barton (R, Idiot) is still the ranking GOP member on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Go figure. From Reuters: Republican Joe Barton, who accused the White House Thursday of a $20 billion “shakedown” of BP, is the biggest recipient of oil and gas money in the House of Representatives. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee charged with grilling BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday has collected more than $4.2 million in political contributions from the oil and gas industry. The 60-year-old Texas lawmaker, who later apologized for using the word “shakedown,” has collected at least $1.7 million in political contributions from oil and gas interests over the past two decades, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Barton, a former oil company consultant, used his seat on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to apologize to BP CEO Tony Hayward and castigate the White House for pressing BP to finance a $20 billion fund for damage claims from its Gulf of Mexico oil spill. From OpenSecrets: Barton’s biggest single corporate contributor, Anadarko Petroleum, is a 25 percent stakeholder in the Macondo Prospect, site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Individuals and PACs associated with Anadarko have given Barton’s campaigns $146,500 since the 1990 election Other GOP want to get their time in the spotlight too It isn’t just Barton. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) called the $20 billion escrow account a “redistribution of wealth fund.” Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga) accused the Obama administration of “Chicago-style shakedown politics.” Sarah Palin has gone so far as to suggest that the real fault for the catastrophe in the gulf lies with the environmental movement. On June 1, the former Alaska governor and former vice presidential nominee sent this message out on Twitter: “Extreme Greenies: see now why we push ‘drill, baby, drill’ of known reserves & promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR [the Alaskan Natural Wildlife Refuge]? Now do you get it?” Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by Seth Anderson June 18th, 2010 at 9:17 am Posted in environment,politics Tagged with BP, oil_industry
Passport Application Redux with 5 comments Went down to City Hall again today, changed my drivers license to Illinois1 , and then went to drop off my various paperwork to the U.S. Department of State’s Acceptance Facility so that I can get a US passport. I was born in Toronto, of American parents, but my mom didn’t know she was supposed to register me with the U.S. Consul (with handy-dandy Form FS-240)2 , so I’ve been living in limbo most of my life. The rules are fairly plain: if you have parents who are US citizens, you are an American citizen as well, but the challenge is in the proving. In my case, I needed proof of my mother’s American citizenship (her birth certificate from Neenah, WI), my father’s birth certificate (Chicago, actually)3 , their marriage license from County of Santa Clara, CA, my birth certificate (the long form version, which turned out to require a Canadian citizen with certain parameters to vouch for me, luckily Emily Spring qualified), a Notarized affidavit of all locations that my mother had lived before she had me4 , which turned out to be quite a lot of places. Oh, and since the name on my birth certificate was different than the name I’ve used most of my life, also a certified copy of my legal name change order, from a Travis County judge’s office, circa 1993. Yikes. Lots of checkboxes to click. My official category is Complex Citizen, and it’s true. I’ve had a Social Security number since I was 16 or so, and a drivers license since 17, but a passport was a different beast to corral. We are planning to go to London on business at the beginning of August, so this suddenly became an urgent task to complete. In 2007, when my family had family reunion on the occasion of my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary on a cruise ship to Alaska, I had started collecting the needed paperwork, but was unable to collect everything to the US Department of State’s satisfaction in time, plus they delayed the requirement that traveling to Canada required a passport, so I abandoned the quest. Today, my photograph, actually taken in 2007, was nearly rejected by the Acceptance Facility agent5 , but when pressed, she couldn’t say why exactly, so let it go through. However, I had forgotten to bring a check, so had to pace nervously while my partner went and got a cashiers check at a nearby bank. Unfortunately, she filled it out to the wrong entity, but we corrected it with a pen, and after a few moments of discussion, the clerk took all the documents, and gave me a receipt. In 5 days I can supposedly check the status of my application, and if all is correct, will receive my long awaited passport in 3 weeks. Footnotes: 1. even though I’ve lived on and off in Chicago for nearly 15 years, I’ve maintained my Texas license for some reason [ ] 2. I don’t blame her at all – it isn’t a topic discussed in school [ ] 3. I don’t know my birth father, haven’t seen him since I was an infant, but that further complicates matters [ ] 4. originally, she created a document listing the places she had lived after I was born, and not until I was at the Department of State passport counter, did I realize this was wrong. [ 5. who was in a big rush to leave at 3:30, even though the office is supposed to remain open until 4:30 [ ]
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Written by Seth Anderson June 17th, 2010 at 6:09 pm Posted in Narcipost Tagged with bureaucracy
I’m Comic Sans, MoFo without comments There are days when I miss working in an office with other people, and not just with cats and computers. Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg. (click to continue reading Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: I’m Comic Sans, Asshole..) I’d love to print this entire rant and leave it out by the coffee machine. Sigh. People love me. Why? Because I’m fun. I’m the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business’ website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring. When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I’m banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I’m shredding “Reign In Blood” on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I’m racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who’ll kill me if I don’t cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you. Read more and giggle
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Written by Seth Anderson June 16th, 2010 at 7:42 pm Posted in humor Tagged with design, font, humor
Before Subsidizing Movies, States Scrutinize the Message without comments Meant to weave this into the Blues Brother posts from earlier this morning, but real life intervened1 I guess if you depend upon taxpayer money to make your film, you have to expect some restrictions and censorship. Make a film that the Tourism Board approves, in other words, or find your own financing.
“This film is unlikely to promote tourism in Michigan or to present or reflect Michigan in a positive light,” wrote Janet Lockwood, Michigan’s film commissioner. Ms. Lockwood particularly objected to “this extreme horror film’s subject matter, namely realistic cannibalism; the gruesome and graphically violent depictions described in the screenplay; and the explicit nature of the script.” The easy money is not quite so easy any more. Among the states that began underwriting film and television production with heavy subsidies over the past half-decade — 44 states had some sort of incentives by last year, 28 of them involving tax credits — at least a handful are giving new scrutiny to a question that was politely overlooked in the early excitement: What kind of films are taxpayers paying for? (click to continue reading Before Subsidizing Movies, States Scrutinize the Message – NYTimes.com.) In Texas too, the Film Board is becoming more discerning as well In Texas, the verdict is still out on “Machete,” a thriller from the filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, set for release by 20th Century Fox in September. In May, Mr. Rodriguez used a mock trailer to promote the movie as a revenge story targeted at Arizona in the wake of its new anti-illegal immigrant law. Conservative bloggers and others then called on the Texas film commission to deny it support under a rule that says the state does not have to pay for projects that include “inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion.” Bob Hudgins, the film commission’s director, said he had never yet denied financing to a film under the provision — though he warned the makers of a picture about the Waco raid that they need not apply because of what Mr. Hudgins saw as inaccuracies about the event and people connected with it. Mr. Hudgins said would reserve judgment about “Machete” until he sees it. Texas, like many states, doesn’t pay its share until after a film is finished. “This is tough for filmmakers to understand, but this is not about their right to make the movie,” Mr. Hudgins explained. “It’s about the public investing in it.” In an e-mail message, Mr. Rodriguez, who is still finishing “Machete,” said the objections have come from people who do not know what is in the movie. “The film is not about Texas specifically and it most certainly does not paint Texas in a negative light,” he wrote. (click to continue reading Before Subsidizing Movies, States Scrutinize the Message – NYTimes.com.) Did the Medici have restrictions on their artists in Tuscany? Probably. Footnotes: 1. If you haven’t noticed, I’m usually a lazy blogger, and if a post doesn’t get finished quickly, it usually never gets published. [
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Written by Seth Anderson June 16th, 2010 at 10:33 am Posted in Film,government Tagged with Film, Texas
iPhone 4 sold like gangbusters without comments Unfortunately, the goobers at AT&T were overwhelmed with the amount of pre-orders, and couldn’t handle 600,000 hits on their servers. Amazing, really, how poor AT&T’s website is, especially since this is the fourth iPhone they’ve sold. Didn’t they remember what happened for versions 1,2, and 3? I tried to preorder my iPhone 4 upgrade about 50 times yesterday, and never got very far in the process. This morning around 9, I tried a last time, and all went smoothly, if a little slowly. I can’t really be mad, the thing is just a fracking gadget, but still, I wasted a lot of time repeatedly entering my ten digit phone number, my billing zip code, and the last four digits of my Social Security number, only to watch the gophers at AT&T churn, and fail to process the request. Apple Inc. said it took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of its new iPhone 4 on its first day of availability, amid strong demand that overwhelmed computer systems and resulted in “many order and approval system malfunctions.” The company said “many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.” AT&T Inc. said Wednesday it had stopped taking advance orders for the iPhone 4 just one day after orders started, citing inventory issues and unexpectedly high demand. The carrier is suspending the orders “in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,” it said in a statement. It might resume taking pre-orders before the June 24 launch, depending on inventory, AT&T added. The suspension comes a day after a crush of traffic paralyzed AT&T and Apple’s Web sites on the first day of pre-orders, leaving many unable to reserve the new iPhone ahead of time while some customers inadvertently ended up on others’ account pages. (click to continue reading Apple, AT&T Cite Record iPhone Sales – WSJ.com.)
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Written by Seth Anderson June 16th, 2010 at 10:22 am Posted in Apple Tagged with iPhone, telecom
Blues Brothers and Jane Byrne without comments “The Blues Brothers (Widescreen 25th Anniversary Edition)” (John Landis) Netflix Jane Byrne was the first mayor after Richard J Daley died1 , and she was willing to do things differently than Daley. Thankfully, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi waited, or else an iconic Chicago film wouldn’t have gotten a green light. John Belushi walked into Jane Byrne’s office, sweat beading on his forehead. Dan Aykroyd waited outside the door. He gave Belushi, a Wheaton native, the breathing room to appeal to the mayor, hat in hand, local boy to local girl. Belushi was nervous. Byrne expected him to be. She sat at her desk stone-faced and silent, she recalled, offering no relief. Belushi and Aykroyd wanted to shoot a movie in Chicago, but, as everyone knew, Chicago government wasn’t exactly amenable to movie production. There wasn’t an official policy or anything. Movies did shoot here. Brian DePalma shot “The Fury” here a year earlier. A lot of commercials were shot here. There was even a cottage porn industry in River North. But the cooperation needed for a large-scale Hollywood production — the kind Belushi, Aykroyd and director John Landis had in mind, only bigger — was out of the question. It had been for years. It was 1979, and Byrne had just started her term. Mayor Richard J. Daley, the reason movie studios usually didn’t consider Chicago a viable location, had died three years earlier. Byrne, now 76, remembered that Belushi “looked kind of fat, a sweaty guy already, but he wore a suit jacket and I thought he looked sick, to be honest. To the point that his hair was getting wet. I was a fan of his. But, of course, I wasn’t going to say this right away.” So, for a laugh, she let him drown. She thought it would be funnier if she “acted like the first Daley, nodding like Buddha.” “I know how Chicago feels about movies,” the comedian said to the mayor. Byrne nodded. Belushi said the studio would like to donate some money to Chicago orphanages in lieu of throwing a big, expensive premiere. “How much money?” she asked. He said, “$200,000.” She nodded again. “And so he kept talking,” Byrne recalled. “Finally, I just said, ‘Fine.’ But he kept going. So again I said, ‘Look, I said fine.’ He said, ‘Wait. We also want to drive a car through the lobby of Daley Plaza. Right though the window.’ I remember what was in my mind as he said it. I had the whole 11th Ward against me anyway, and most of Daley’s people against me. They owned this city for years, so when Belushi asked me to drive a car through Daley Plaza, the only thing I could say was, ‘Be my guest!’ He said, ‘We’ll have it like new by the morning.’ I said, ‘Look, I told you yes.’ And that’s how they got my blessing.” And that, more or less, is how Chicago became a regular location for movie production. (click to continue reading Blues Brothers movie 30th anniversary – chicagotribune.com.) but it all wasn’t peaches and cream: Few claim “The Blues Brothers” changed filmmaking here overnight — retired casting director Alderman, for instance, pointed out that the industry has gone through dramatic swings, generating $24 million in 2003, $155 million in 2007. But few debate that those 14 weeks of production in 1979 were the turning point. Indeed, to Byrne, “The Blues Brothers” should be remembered as no less than the dawn of contemporary Chicago, “part of one big push to remind people how attractive their city was.” “I didn’t see it any different from sidewalk dining or Taste of Chicago,” both of which started during her term, she said. Landis, however, doesn’t remember it as a bright, new civic dawn. By summer 1980, he was one of the hottest directors in Hollywood. His previous film was “Animal House.” “The Blues Brothers” was then one of the most expensive movies ever made (and became a blockbuster). But as he entered the lobby after the Norridge screening, he said the tension seemed elsewhere. “These two Cook County commissioners approach Jane,” Landis said. “And they start shouting at her. They were really abusive, and you could see her getting mad. ‘How could you have let them do this?’ they screamed. ‘They ruined the floors! Troops on Daley Plaza!’ It was the most bizarre scene. She’s saying back, ‘They replaced the floors!’ A guy’s shouting, ‘No way we let this happen!’ She’s saying, ‘It happened months ago! And you didn’t even notice!'” Footnotes: 1. one term only, I think [
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Written by Seth Anderson June 16th, 2010 at 8:37 am Posted in Chicago-esque,Film Tagged with Chicago, Film, film_history
Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers memories with 5 comments “The Blues Brothers (Collector’s Edition)” (Universal Studios) Would have been fun to stumble upon The Blues Bar. Wonder which building specifically Dan Aykroyd is talking about? On the Blues Bar: “Here’s the story on that. When Second City switched companies with the Toronto company, which I had been a part of, I moved to Chicago. I lived there with John Candy. I was with Gilda (Radner), too. I fell in love with Chicago and loved being a resident. I explored the blues culture and would go to Checker Board Lounge and blues clubs on Halsted. I absorbed the culture. And at that time there was this bar on Wells, near Second City and the Old Town Ale House. It was yellow and had been one of the few houses to survive the big fire. So when we came out to make the movie, we found the lease on the place was up. So John and I took the lease and basically opened this (unlicensed) tavern. We would come to drink when we had time off. Weekends became precious to us during that shoot. We’d go across the street to see improv, wake up at four in the afternoon. We were living in Astor Towers. But the bar — we gave everything away, it was basically a promotional thing. But a lot of musicians came through. Jackson Browne. Joe Walsh.” (click to continue reading Dan Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers memories: On the 30th anniversary of The Blues Brothers, Aykroyd recalls filming the blockbuster comedy in Chicago – chicagotribune.com.)
Haven’t seen The Blues Brothers in years and years, not since before I moved to Chicago actually. Curious to how it plays now that I have some familiarity with the city and its history1 One more snippet from the interview: “Our story (Jake and Elwood get their band back together to raise money for an orphanage) came from a newspaper story. The story was that the city was going to levy taxes on orphanages with schools located in them. So this is where we came up with this idea of dealing with state and religion, because if you look at many Catholic populations, in Chicago, and in Canada, where I’m from, the two are pretty linked. I think we used that as a starting point, then dealt with other cultural characteristics and figures. Certainly when we were there, (the film) was spoken of as this great event, and the city, of course, became a character alongside all those great musical numbers and beautiful musicians, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown. The antagonists are the state, and Landis did a great job — Chicago looks as good as Paris the way he treated the architecture and drawbridges and the grit of some of the factories on the South Side. … Certainly Chicago was this known cultural entity. In Europe, they know Capone and the blues and the architecture, so I think the city was already famous, of course, but what we did was enhance its beauty while poking fun at its institutions. But it was John Landis’ picture. It wasn’t perfect, but to this day if you have someone who has never been to America before, (that film) might provide them a lot.” Footnotes: 1. Netflix [
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Written by Seth Anderson June 16th, 2010 at 8:21 am Posted in Chicago-esque,Film Tagged with Film
Clouds are Streaked with Gold without comments The Clouds are Streaked with Gold, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
Lake Michigan Fuji Velvia 100 View On Black another busy day for me, so look at the purty picture instead Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by swanksalot June 15th, 2010 at 1:19 pm Posted in Photography Tagged with Chicago
Senator Chuck Schumer and His Intemperate Gaza Talk without comments If Senator Charles Schumer were a journalist, like Helen Thomas perhaps, would there be a call for him to resign? Speaking to the Orthodox Union earlier this week, Chuck Schumer offered a revealing policy rationale for the Gaza blockade—it’s collective economic punishment of the local population: “The Palestinian people still don’t believe in the Torah, in David, in a Jewish state, in a twostate solution. More do than before, but a majority still do not. The fundamental view is, the Europeans treated the Jews badly and gave them OUR lad – this is Palestinian thinking .. You have to force them to say Israel is here to stay.” “The boycott of Gaza to me has another purpose — obviously the first purpose is to prevent Hamas from getting weapons by which they will use to hurt Israel — but the second is actually to show the Palestinians that when there’s some moderation and cooperation, they can have an economic advancement. When there’s total war against Israel, which Hamas wages, they’re gonna get nowhere. And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid and people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that’s not the way to go makes sense. “ I find these sentiments disgusting, but I don’t want to jump all over Schumer with the condemnations too quickly. The important thing in the first instance is to say that it’s good to debate this issue honestly. The Gaza blockade isn’t a security measure designed to prevent Hamas from getting rockets. It’s a collective punishment aimed at making civilians’ lives miserable, while avoiding mass starvation. You can make a case for that if you like, but that’s what you’re making the case for. I’ll note for the dozenth time that the majority of the residents of the Gaza Strip are children, so the moral logic here seems to be particularly grizzly. A policy undertaken with this rationale also seems to be clearly in violation of international humanitarian law. (click to continue reading Matthew Yglesias » Senator Chuck Schumer Wants to “Strangle” Gaza Residents “Economically” as Collective Punishment.) Yes, punish the children for the alleged crimes of the parents. What a lovely policy. Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by Seth Anderson June 13th, 2010 at 1:59 pm Posted in News-esque Tagged with Israel
Blackhawks Patrick Kane Hoisting Stanley Cup without comments Blackhawks Patrick Kane Hoisting Stanley Cup, originally uploaded by swanksalot.
and Jonathan Toews with whatever the other trophy is called decluttr From yesterday’s parade Go ahead & Share this: Email
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Written by swanksalot June 12th, 2010 at 4:51 pm Posted in Photography,Sports Tagged with Chicago, hockey, Photography, Sports, West_Loop « Older Entries Newer Entries »
Seth Anderson
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