Lyric Opera Chicago’s Women’s Board Opening Night Opera Gala 2020 with Heather Headley and Doug Peck on piano/Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography 2020
ART
Columbus Museum of Art Announces Executive Director And CEO
The board of trustees of the Columbus Museum of Art has named Brooke A. Minto as the Museum’s executive director and CEO, the museum relays in a release. Minto brings over twenty years of experience as an arts administrator, art historian and educator working across U.S. and international museums. Minto takes charge May 15, succeeding Nannette Maciejunes, who served as executive director for twenty years. The museum says that Minto’s skills and experience align with the Museum’s critical priorities, which include “articulating an inspiring institutional and curatorial vision for a sustainable future, forging and maintaining valuable partnerships at the local, regional, national and international levels, exhibiting strategic and compassionate leadership both inside and outside the Museum and driving the realization of diversity, equity and inclusion across the Museum’s people, policies and programs.”
DESIGN
Chicago Fire Will Build Soccer Practice Facility On CHA Property
“The Chicago Fire signed a lease with the Chicago Housing Authority to build a twenty-three acre soccer practice facility on the Near West Side. The Chicago Fire will use the land bordered by Roosevelt Road, 14th Street, Ashland Avenue and Loomis,” reports the Trib, for “a 53,000-square-foot, two-story performance center with multiple soccer pitches in Roosevelt Square on the site of CHA’s former ABLA Homes housing complex… ‘The Chicago Fire, one of our city’s greatest sports teams, deserves to have a high-quality training facility that not only meets their needs but fosters the growth of talented athletes,’ Mayor Lightfoot said in a news release.” The Sun-Times: “Besides paying $8 million upfront, the Fire will pay annual rent to the CHA. It will start at almost $800,000, with increases in future years. The lease extends forty years with two ten-year renewal options and is expected to generate $40 million in revenue for the CHA over the next forty years.”
Neighbors Fight Zoning Change For Royal George Apartments
“Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) won’t support the proposed redevelopment of a historical theater until developers address neighbors’ concerns about its design, size and impact on parking,” reports Block Club. “More than a hundred neighbors attended the meeting about the redevelopment of the closed Royal George Theater, 1641 North Halsted. The community forum was hosted at nearby Steppenwolf Theater… Some argued the new building wouldn’t fit the character of the neighborhood and would not provide much benefit to the community.”
Oak Park Bans Gasoline-Powered Leaf Blowers A Couple Of Years From Now
“The village of Oak Park has officially and totally banned the use of gas-powered leaf blowers,” a ban that doesn’t go into full effect until June 1, 2025, reports Wednesday Journal. “The delay is intended to give ample time for bilingual outreach and time for landscaping businesses to phase out current equipment. The time frame also allows for the village to conduct a diversity, equity and inclusion analysis of the ordinance.”
DINING & DRINKING
Lebanese Tasting Menu Coming To River North
Beity, which translates to “home,” hopes for a summer debut in River North, reports Eater Chicago. The first venture from twenty-five-year-old Ryan Fakih “spotlights the nuances of Lebanese cuisine, which the chef says is… often lumped in with little fanfare under a banner of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food. Beity [will provide] Fakih a platform to challenge diners and demonstrate the French cooking techniques he learned as a student at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.”
Mt. Prospect Man’s Boneless Chicken Wing Lawsuit Perks Up The Times
“The plaintiff claims Buffalo Wild Wings is falsely advertising its boneless wing products, which he says are more like chicken nuggets,” reports the New York Times. Had he “‘known that the products are not chicken wings, he would not have purchased them, or would have paid significantly less for them,’ the lawsuit said. ‘As a result, [he] suffered a financial injury’ because of the restaurant’s false and deceptive conduct.”
FILM & TELEVISION
Sixteen-Season “Married At First Sight” Casting In Chicago
“Reality television series ‘Married at First Sight,’ which features people who agree to legally marry a complete stranger, is holding an upcoming casting call in Chicago,” reports NBC 5.
MEDIA
Playboy Magazine Relaunching To Compete With OnlyFans
“Playboy is relaunching its iconic magazine as a digital-first publication—as the racy lifestyle brand takes on OnlyFans,” reports the New York Post. “The revamped magazine, which shuttered in 2020 and ceased printing, will debut later this year. The online publication will serve as an entry to Playboy’s ‘creator platform,’ which the brand is selling as an ‘elevated,’ ‘safe’ and ‘exclusive’ alternative to OnlyFans… Instead of Playboy ‘bunnies,’ you’ll have Playboy ‘creators,’ who will post adult and non-adult content on their pages… Playboy told The Post it is dropping the name ‘Centerfold’… The big difference between OnlyFans and Playboy, the brand says, is that while anyone can become an OnlyFans creator, Playboy’s creators have to apply and be accepted by its editorial team.”
Meta-Facebook-Instagram Continues Job Slashes With 10,000 More Jobs
“Facebook parent company Meta plans to lay off 10,000 workers starting Wednesday, part of a months-long downsizing and restructuring effort to remake the social media giant in an increasingly crowded social media market,” reports the Washington Post. “This will be tough and there’s no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.”
MUSIC
Artists Battle For Trax Cash
“Trax Records helped launch Chicago’s own musical genre, but the artists behind the influential label say they weren’t fairly compensated. Now they’re fighting for what’s theirs,” writes Mark Caro at Chicago magazine.
STAGE
Lyric Sets Season
Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced the company’s 2023-24 season, a global tour of opera in six different languages. The company’s sixty-ninth season opens with Wagner’s “The Flying Dutchman,” conducted by music director Enrique Mazzola, who leads his first Wagner opera at Lyric. Directed by Christopher Alden, the production stars Tomasz Konieczny in the title role, Lyric favorite Tamara Wilson as Senta, and Robert Watson in his Lyric debut as Erik. Additional productions include “The Daughter of the Regiment,” “Jenufa,” “Cinderella,” “Champion,” “Aida,” Mozart’s “Requiem” and An Evening with Audra McDonald. Season casting includes Justin Austin, Jamie Barton, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Michelle Bradley, Lawrence Brownlee, Lise Davidsen, Tomasz Konieczny, Whitney Morrison, Lisette Oropesa, Eric Owens, Nina Stemme, Russell Thomas and Tamara Wilson. More here.
Signature Bank Collapse Startles Broadway
The failed Signature Bank is one of two banks that work with Broadway productions, writes the Hollywood Reporter. “Broadway owes the federal government another thank you note, because I think had they not come in and taken control of it, today would have been a nightmare,” a general manager on Broadway told the trade paper. “The panic happened over the weekend, as members of Broadway shows saw the news of Signature Bank failing and were concerned about how it would [affect] their ability to meet the weekly cast and crew payroll, as well as pay other operational expenses… in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Broadway vendors also wanted to be sure theaters could pay their bills. Some calm came as “the bank continued to be largely operational and as Broadway productions were able to send wires. Greater reassurance came from the fact that in taking over the bank Sunday evening, regulators promised that ‘all depositors of this institution will be made whole.'”
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
Notorious Mob Hitman Nicholas Calabrese Was Eighty
Nicholas Calabrese, “who took part in a hit made famous by the actor Joe Pesci in the movie ‘Casino,’ had a target on his back and remained out of sight since he ratted on the mob,” reports the Sun-Times. “Details of the hitman’s death are not available. And for good reason. Mr. Calabrese entered the federal government’s witness protection program after he began cooperating with prosecutors before the bombshell Family Secrets trial in 2007. At trial, he testified against a group of top mobsters that included his brother, Frank Calabrese Sr., who he claimed committed the majority of the fourteen murders alongside him. For his cooperation, Nicholas Calabrese was spared life in prison, but he did receive a twelve-year sentence that he served under special federal protection. It’s unclear exactly when he was released from prison or what his life [was] like since.”
Debt Payments For Soldier Field Remain In Taxpayers’ Hands
“Due to refinancing and years of primarily paying interest instead of principal, the debt owed for Soldier Field has ballooned from the original $399 million to $631 million,” reports the Trib.
San Francisco Proposes Black Reparations Plan At $5 Million Per Eligible Person
“A controversial draft reparations proposal that includes a $5 million lump-sum payment for each eligible Black person could make San Francisco the first major U.S. city to fund reparations, though it faces steep financial headwinds and blistering criticism from conservatives,” reports AP.
Is Chicago Winter Over? As In Over, As In Over Over, Over And Done? Done For Good?
“Chicago’s brutal winter reputation may be a thing of the past,” reports Block Club. “Cole Stallard, commissioner of the Department of Streets and Sanitation, said the agency has only used 135,000 of the 400,000 tons of salt it has… ‘Believe me, I’m not complaining. This has been a good winter [but] winter is not over. We’re just two big storms away from catching up on inches. You can never take your foot off the gas with snow.’ … ‘The leading theory why is that warmer air holds more moisture. So a warming climate means we’re more likely to get clouds, and clouds overnight are really good at trapping heat like a blanket on Chicago’s coldest days,'” an atmospheric scientist said.
