Hindman Marks Fortieth Anniversary With Expansion Plans
“The launch of Hindman New York demonstrates the firm’s commitment to fulfilling growing demand within the tri-state region for a complete offering of trusted services, including appraisals, auctions and private sales,” Hindman relays. “With the recent addition of offices in Boston and Miami, plus a new full-service auction room and exhibition space planned for Manhattan, Hindman is now present in sixteen cities across the country focused on the mainstay of the auction market: core collectible property at a range of estimates.” More here.
DESIGN
A Hundred Years Of Scandinavian Design At Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum will explore the legacy of shared creativity and collaboration in American and Scandinavian design culture over the course of the past century. “Spanning from the arrival of Nordic immigrants to global strides toward environmental and social justice, ‘Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980’ showcases more than 180 objects, including furniture, textiles, decorative arts, drawings, ceramics, jewelry, glass, and product designs that reflect the far-reaching effects of Scandinavian-American cultural exchange. Co-organized by LACMA and the Milwaukee Art Museum in collaboration with the Nationalmuseum Sweden and the Nasjonalmuseet in Norway, this expansive presentation challenges the accepted canon of design history and offers visitors a greater understanding of the transnational dialogue that has shaped American material life—particularly across the Midwest.” “Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980” will be at the Milwaukee Art Museum March 24-July 23, 2023. More here.
DINING & DRINKING
Restaurants Find New Revenue Stream In Specialized Reservations
“Want to sit in Frank Sinatra’s booth at River North steakhouse Gene & Georgetti? How about securing a window seat at Roka Akor for your next date night? Pay a little extra, and now you can guarantee it,” reports Crain’s. Some Chicago restaurants are adding technology to their websites “that lets diners pay extra to choose their seat. The company that makes the technology, Tablz, uses data to help the restaurant decide how much to charge for certain tables during prime dinner times. For restaurants struggling to offset rising costs from inflation, the technology is a welcome new revenue stream.”
Ralph’s Coffee Opens In Chicago
Ralph’s Coffee has opened its newest North American location inside the Ralph Lauren store at 750 North Michigan, next to RL Restaurant, which opened in 1999. The shop will serve Ralph’s Coffee special blends, espresso and teas, along with pastries, overnight oats, yogurts and some of Ralph Lauren’s own favorite sweets made fresh daily, including Ralph’s Brownie and Ralph’s Chocolate Chip Cookie. “Representing the timeless American spirit of the Ralph Lauren brand with a fresh, bright, authentic atmosphere, Ralph’s Coffee Chicago features design details such as coffered mahogany ceilings, herringbone wood floors, crisp wainscoting and custom wall-covering, as well as polished brass hardware,” the cafe relays. “The sixteen-seat shop welcomes guests with a custom millwork counter painted in Ralph’s Coffee signature hunter green, white marble counters and tabletops, bistro-style chairs, green channel tufted banquettes and a green marble fireplace mantle. The waitstaff will wear Ralph Lauren striped shirts and knit ties in Ralph’s Coffee green, along with denim and aprons embroidered with the Ralph’s Coffee logo.” More here.
Plant-Based “Meat” Industry Frets
Bad times for Beyond Meat, reports the New York Times: “Its stock has slumped nearly eighty-three percent in the past year. Sales, which the company had expected to rise as much as thirty-three percent this year, are now likely to show only minor growth. McDonald’s concluded a pilot of the McPlant burger—made with a Beyond Meat patty—this year with no plans to put it on the menu permanently.” In October, the company laid off 200 workers, nearly twenty percent of its workforce. “And four top executives have departed in recent months, including the CFO, the chief supply chain officer and the COO, whom Beyond Meat had suspended after his arrest on allegations that he bit another man’s nose in a parking garage altercation. What investors and others are debating now is whether Beyond Meat’s struggles are specific to the company or a harbinger of deeper issues in the plant-based meat industry.”
LIT
Agreement To Buy Simon & Schuster By Penguin Random House Expected To End
Reuters reports that Penguin Random House’s agreement to buy Simon & Schuster is about to fall through. “Book-publishing powerhouse Simon & Schuster’s owner will let its $2.2 billion sale to Penguin Random House collapse on Monday, opening the door for a new suitor to try to clinch a deal.” The New York Times: “In addition to the significant legal cost of fighting the Justice Department in court, Penguin Random House will have to pay Paramount a termination fee of about $200 million once the deal falls through… The collapse of the $2.175 billion sale is a major blow to Penguin Random House’s ambitions to expand its enormous market share, and an enormously expensive one.”
MEDIA
The Daily Twitter: Ye Returns; Also Says He’s Running
Jacob Rubashkin of Inside Elections posts on one of the most notorious returns to Elon Musk’s micro-blogging website: “Elon welcoming back Kanye with open arms after the rapper spent the last month going on antisemitic tirades and reporting came out about his years-long obsession with Hitler, and Kanye immediately getting back to antisemitic trolling. What have we learned?” Ye’s second tweet, on Sunday? “Shalom : )” Extremism monitor Patriot Takes posts: “Kanye West says he will run for president in 2024 and Marjorie Taylor Greene intern Milo Yiannopoulos is working on the campaign.” (Right Wing Watch notes the interview where he announced his intentions was with white nationalist Nick Fuentes.)
Online Mobs Now Train Sights On Student Journalists
“Young reporters are forced to contend with waves of abuse and harassment, driving some out of the industry before they even get started,” writes Taylor Lorenz at the Washington Post. “Online harassment poses [a threat] to journalists, especially those just starting out. Targeted online harassment has become a pervasive threat to newsrooms across the country. A 2019 survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that eighty-five percent of respondents believed their career had become less safe in the past five years and more than seventy percent said they experienced safety issues or threats as part of doing their job.”
MUSIC
Chicago Rapper Lil Durk Wants To Stop The Violence
Rolling Stone opens its profile of Lil Durk backstage at his big show at United Center in May. “The night’s guest performers are a who’s who of Chicago rap, from newcomers Lil Zay Osama and PGF Nuk to peers like Lil Reese, G Herbo, Dreezy, Katie Got Bandz and Calboy, all of whom give their own memorable sets… Headlining the United Center is the chance of a lifetime for Durk, whose music has long been vilified by authorities for its supposed links to violence in the city, and he’s determined to share the spotlight. ‘It was something I came up with to be on some Chicago shit… To keep the energy going, to give everybody another chance. When we were coming up, we didn’t have too many chances.’ He adds that the moral responsibility of his platform weighs heavier on his heart than ever before, as gun violence continues to afflict not only his generation of drill rappers, but Black youth in Chicago as a whole. ‘I’m going to start by getting the city together… to do my part to slow down the violence.'”
STAGE
“Priestess Of Twerk” Workshops At Links Hall
Links Hall will host “Priestess of Twerk,” a work-in-development from National Theater Project Award-winning theater-maker, vocalist and composer Nia Witherspoon. “A Black feminist temple of pleasure, ‘Priestess of Twerk’ is inspired by the ‘bad bitches’ of hip hop, the reproductive justice movement and sacred sex workers that graced ancient Egyptian temples.” In preparation for the performances, Links Hall will host Witherspoon and her creative team for an eight-day creative development residency, in partnership with the Ragdale Foundation. “It is our great privilege to partner with Nia Witherspoon to bring ‘Priestess of Twerk’ to Chicago,” says Links Hall executive director Stephanie Pacheco. “Part performance, part ritual, part wellness space, and part community action, ‘Priestess’ is grounded in the question of what pleasure and healing means for Black women, queer and trans folks of color in this city.” A “ritual concert” will be performed on December 9 and “immersive temple experiences” on December 10 at Links Hall’s Roscoe Village theater. More here.
Goodman Sets Cast For “The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home”
Goodman Theatre begins the new year with Christina Anderson’s quietly subversive story of racial justice, political legacy and family forgiveness, “the ripple, the wave that carried me home,” winner of the 2022 Horton Foote Prize, awarded to “an original work of exceptional quality.” Jackson Gay directs a cast of four, featuring Brianna Buckley (Gayle/Young Chipper Ambitious Black Woman), Christiana Clark (Janice), Ronald L. Conner (Edwin) and Aneisa J. Hicks (Helen). A co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, “the ripple, the wave that carried me home” plays January 13–February 12 in the Owen Theatre. Tickets here.
Casting Announced For Steppenwolf’s World Premiere “Chlorine Sky”
Steppenwolf Theatre Company will present the Steppenwolf for Young Adults’ world premiere adaptation of “Chlorine Sky,” adapted by Mahogany L. Browne from their book and directed by Ericka Ratcliff. The cast includes Demetra Dee, Destini Huston, Samuel B. Jackson, Tiffany Renee Johnson, Akili Ni Mali and Alexis Ward. The intimate coming-of-age story based on Browne’s young adult novel plays February 14–March 11, 2023 in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theater. Ticket information here.
New Editor-In-Chief Talks Playbill
“I’m really proud of how fast Playbill gets things up—we really want to be the first to break a big piece of theatre news, and I rely on the diligence of the team for that,” new editor-in-chief Diep Tran tells American Theatre. She sees her job as “deepening the features that we do, to really ask more probing questions of our sources, and to write longer features that may not fit on a 400-word page in the program. Right now a lot of people who work in the field are being a lot more honest about what it is to have a life in the theatre, and I want Playbill to be the place where they can voice a lot of their dreams and their concerns,” she says. “How do we give credence to both sides on this issue? The good thing is, I don’t need to opine about the state of the industry; the artists are already doing that. I think the job of Playbill is to give them a platform.”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Train Strike Round The Bend
The members of one of two of the country’s largest railroad unions voted to reject a wage deal “brokered by the White House, moving closer to a labor strike that could disrupt some supply chains as soon as early December,” relays Wall Street Journal U. S. news editor Anthony DeRosa.
How Devon Avenue Became Central To The Indian Community
“Devon Avenue has long been known as Little India, but the diverse West Ridge strip… is still evolving,” reports WBEZ Curious City. “This neighborhood is one of the most diverse places in the city, with immigrants from many parts of the world. It’s also a hub for dozens of South Asian businesses, including grocery stores, sari and jewelry shops. Like Beverly Kumar, many visitors from other parts of the city, and across the region go to Devon Avenue for a day of shopping or dining.” To learn how the hub came to be, “We met up with people in the community who have lived through several transformations and migration waves.”
Park District Vows To Get Lifeguard Hiring Right This Year
A budget approved last week provides for a benefits package to attract new employees and avoid staff shortages that forced the district to close many pools and beaches this past summer, reports Block Club.
Universities Nationwide Take Gambling Cash
An extensive report (with five bylines) from the New York Times details colleges’ capitulation to gambling interests. “In order to reap millions of dollars in fees, universities are partnering with betting companies to introduce their students and sports fans to online gambling… Ever since the Supreme Court’s decision in 2018 to let states legalize such betting, gambling companies have been racing to convert traditional casino customers, fantasy sports aficionados and players of online games into a new generation of digital gamblers. Major universities, with their tens of thousands of alumni and a captive audience of easy-to-reach students, have emerged as an especially enticing target. So far, at least eight universities have become partners with online sports-betting companies, or sportsbooks, many in the last year, with more expected.” In another part of the report, the Times says “Government oversight of sports betting offers scant consumer protections and looks to the industry to police itself… The states are not disinterested parties. They collect taxes on gambling, and the more people bet, the more governments get. One result is that states have, in many ways, given gambling companies free rein.”
John Wayne Gacy Prosecutor William J. Kunkle Jr. Was Eighty-One
“As the prosecutor who secured the death penalty for serial killer John Wayne Gacy, William J. Kunkle Jr. could have coasted on the celebrity of the case for the rest of his career,” reports the Sun-Times. “But he instead used the experience to travel the country and teach others about the infamous trial and some of its legal peculiarities.”
