Tweets and T-Shirts

Noel Burkman and his partners started the website Coin That Phrase in July. Since then his products have been nominated for a Chicago Innovation Award, put in the Emmy Gift Bag, and stood at the center of a growing online community. But, what those products are, is hard to explain. I'll let Noel do it.

Full disclosure: I was offered a free T-shirt for doing this interview, but I probably would have done the interview anyway. Photo Credit: Project22.com

"From Chicago and Proud of It"

Darius Dennis is an artist for Novem Studios and Chicago.

This my second interview with a someone who has worked in graffiti and graphic design, our first was with Chicago artist Peter Chavez.

Photo Credit: Sam Adams (This photo comes from the cover of The Chicago Reader)

Ian Randall's August 24, 2004

Ian Randall's full interview will be up tomorrow.

Indego Africa and Social Enterprise

Indego Africa provides jobs and fair trade wages for Rwandan women. They are not just a non-profit organization, but also a social enterprise, meaning that they make a lot of the money that supports their organization not from donations, but through the work they do. Joshua Lebowitz heads Indego Africa's board here in Chicago his interview follows below.

If this interview has peaked your interest please join Josh and I at Angel's and Kings Thursday, August 27 for Who Gives a Shot. All the night's proceeds will be donated Indego Africa.

Chaos: How One Chicago Cop Survived the Riots of 1968

1968 saw the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. In Chicago 1968 was the year of The Democratic Convention. Officer Wayne Wiberg was there and he gives us the rare perspective of a policeman in the middle of a "police riot."

Download here

Photo by: Oscar Arriola

Behind the Scenes: Art in Movies

Props, sets, make-up, and all around art department person, Vanessa Conway talks about making the things that make the movies.

download here



"(We made) an entire twenty foot tree out of cardboard and muslin... pretty dangerous, but awesome"

Riot in Washington Park

Keith Fort has done a lot of shows in Chicago, and he's got about a million stories to tell.  This one is the best.

Download here

"They were up on the stage in the middle of the show and they were angry."

Graffiti and Graphic Design

Peter Chavez was a Pilsen graffiti kid. He wrote on walls, buildings, and train cars. One of those pieces of "vandalism" won him a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. Now his writing/painting/design is more likely to be in an ad or a t-shirt than a viaduct.

This interview was recorded in a cafe and you will hear that in the background.

 

Download here

"(Graffiti) was something where I could have a name and be recognized"

Upcoming Podcasts

No podcast today, but here is what you can look forward to:

7/11 Saturday Who's gonna save the world from toxic computers of days gone by? Saturday we talk to Willie Cade, the man whose company aims to save humanity from your dad's 286.

7/15 Wednesday If someone is going to cure brain cancer, or identify the DNA of killer from a crime seen they're gonna need to take a close look at a lot of human cells and the proteins within them. Wednesday I interview Zach Feiger about what it is like to manipulate and explore tiny tiny things that make up the human body.

"She Loved" or Musical Orgasm

In his interview Peter Terry talks about hoosier pride, but to me he sounds like Chicago blues. Peter speaks in a low voice, but when the man sings it's hide your daughters time.  I went to see the him at work and he stopped a minute to sing us a song. 

It takes a minute for the people in the video to realize the camera is on so stick out those first ten seconds, its worth it.

After the song Peter hung out, to talk writing, influences and magical Gnomes, that link is below.  I had just interviewed his manager Mike Pallen here, and the conversation just kind of flows from there.

Download here

Managing Musicians: "I Just Want to See People Make it to the Next Level"

Mike Pallen talks about the three Chicago artist and what he does to promote them.

Download here

Mike Manages Grimm Taylor, and Peter Terry. He also does development work for former America's Top Model contestant Sarah VonderHaar. Tomorrow we will have a follow up interview with Peter Terry, and some exclusive video, so come on back!

Today's Podcast Will Be up Later Tonight

Today's podcast will feature local band manager Mike Pallen, Should go up around 10pm central time tonight.

Ahh! Still editing podcast, but here is a rough cut of some of the material we have coming up.

Bears, Hawks, Sox, Bulls!

If you ever owned a pair of Bears Zubas or served brats and O'Douls to your guests I got a track for you.

This track is Serengeti's "Dennehy." It's a great song for Chicagoans with civic pride, and it reminds me why every time I shave I consider leaving the 'stache. This isn't the first or the last hip hop song you will hear about Chicago, Kanye and Common both have their own, but this is the only one that sounds like it could of been written by one of Saturday Night Live's SuperFans. If the beat sounds familiar it was previously featured on a Master Ace song "Da Grind" another good song for summertime reminiscing. If the story sounds familiar that's just Chicago living.

Sterch's Obituary

Sterch's or Sterch’s 66 doesn’t look like it used to.  There is a new feel to the bar and a new crowd. Usually I wouldn’t notice, but Sterch’s is something of an institution. 

I asked Sterch’s regular Adrian Bleifuss Prados if he wanted to do an interview about the changes at his favorite bar.  He told me it would be more appropriate to write its obituary.  That obituary follows below:

Sterch's is no more. The last tolerable bar in Lincoln Park, a long-embattled fortress of goodness and decency, has fallen to the barbarians. The cranks, eccentrics and aging malcontents that were the bar's regulars have mostly scattered into the tall grass, like rabbits before wolves. The rites and rituals of old have been forsaken and in their place a new, hideous order has been established. Sheepskin boots, and pink polo shirts abound. The music is intolerably loud because the patrons have nothing to say. They open their mouths and banalities flutter out like moths. 

No longer do bottles of Old Style chill in the ice behind the bar. No longer will its famous awning, emblazoned with the Sterch's carrot, flap in the wind. Today, the sign reads "Sterch's 66." Is this a reference to Route 66? A cute gesture to kitschy Americana? I do not know what it means but I know that it is evil. 

The watering hole became famous three decades ago when Lincoln Ave. was considered a bohemian stronghold. Messrs. Stern and Smerch were the original owners and "Sterch" was a portmanteau of their surnames. The carrot became its symbol when deep-fried carrots were the bar's signature snack. Many notable journalists, musicians, political radicals and small-time criminals quenched their thirst at massive mahogany bar. Hunter S. Thompson once destroyed its porcelain urinal. A urinal where Royko, Ebert, gods and giant-slayers relieved themselves. 

 "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned," so wrote Chuck Marx and Fred Engels in 1848, when they observed venerable institutions unsettled and dismantled by the constant upheavals of the market economy. Sterch's, which once seemed eternal and unchanging, has melted into air, Lincoln Avenue is now entirely the province of the enemy. We are doomed.

Wednesday Podcast: Teaching in Japan

Every highschool student in Japan has a rank, a number and a home room. Some of them have to clean their school bathroom. Former Japanese-High-School teacher Amanda McClintock explains.

Download here

Wednesday Podcast: Tom Fort Interview

Today's interview is with Chicago musician Tom Fort, guitarist, singer and one of the front men for Cobalt and the Hired Guns. We talk about the Chicago music scene, opening for Dashboard Confessional, and the third heat.

Download here

See Tom and Co. at Schuba's May 24

Old Town Ale House

If this blog is gonna be called North and Clark we ought to at least identify a place for somebody chilling on that corner to get a drink. Lincoln Park and Old Town have plenty of places to go, but if you can't find your khaki shorts and Cubs hat and want to enjoy your beer in a darker danker room good dives can be hard to come by.

Don't despair. You don't need to buy a forty from the Shell station just yet. If you walk down North Ave a little past Wells you can stop in at the Old Town Ale House.



Notable Features of the Old Town Ale House:

• A long finger-nailed bouncer who calls you baby
• Juke box filled with Miles Davis and Billie Holiday
• A dirth of Dudebros and TVs
  
• Quasi-graphic erotic paintings behind the bar

Like Austin sticking out in the middle of Texas, this is a welcome bit of weird in the middle of too much of the same.

Keep your nails long old town.

Wednesday Podcast: Robin Kacyn Interview

In today's podcast actress Robin Kacyn talks about Diversey Harbor, Theater Seven and playing herself (sort of).

Download Here

Diversey Harbor runs through May 10 so if you gonna go you best get to getting.

Icon Worship

Ok, enough hating on the CTA. This post is actually in honor of the closing of a cool local business. Erik Kittlaus will print you a t-shirt with whatever L stop you want on it, but only if you order before Sunday.

I love these shirts because so many L stops and bus lines have such an emotional cache that comes with them. Every dot on the redline is a favorite bar, an old job or an ex-girlfriend's house.

So what's your most important stop on the CTA? What bus or train stop has the best story or holds the most memories for you?

I can't see the blue line without thinking about leaving town.

Today's Podcast is in the previous post. Next podcast tomorrow, 8:00ish.

Public Transit and the Inevitable Fair Hike

How much should public transportation cost?  How long will it cost $2.25?  After looking at what the CTA has said about why rates go up North and Clark draws its own conclusions.

Public Transit and the Inevitable Fair Hike