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DESIGN
Palmer House Retail Space Seized
“A massive foreclosure lawsuit against the owner of the Palmer House enters its fourth year,” reports Crain’s, and “the hotel’s State Street retail space is poised to be seized by a lender. Miami Beach, Florida-based special servicer LNR Partners submitted the high bid of $29.5 million last week in a sheriff’s sale of the Palmer House retail shops along the 100 south block of State… The court-ordered sale came more than two-and-a-half years after… Wilmington Trust filed a foreclosure complaint alleging the retail property’s owner defaulted on its $62 million loan… Wilmington Trust is a trustee representing bondholders in the loan, which was packaged with other mortgages and sold to commercial mortgage-backed securities investors.”
Lee Bey’s “Building Blocks” Doc Nominated For Midwestern Emmy
“My WTTW architecture special, ‘Building Blocks: The Architecture of Chicago’s South Side,’ has been nominated for a Midwest Emmy,” Lee Bey relays on Instagram. “Congrats to Tick Tock Filmworks and Kurtis Productions as well.”
DINING & DRINKING
Thattu And Daisies Make NYT’s 2023 “The Restaurant List”
Among its third annual list of “the fifty places in the United States that we’re most excited about,” the New York Times lists two in Chicago. Daisies: Joe Frillman’s “Italian-inspired cuisine is authentically Midwestern… The pastas include pierogi, and you’ll find fried whitefish from the Great Lakes. But the extreme locavorism is not shallow trickery. Daisies’ cooking is as adept as any you’ll find in Chicago.” Thattu: “This former food-hall stand serving fare from the coastal southwest region of Kerala in India has found a larger home for its loud flavors, courtesy of the owners Margaret Pak and Vinod Kalathil. Everything here, down to the stainless steel plates the food is served on, feels homestyle. ”
Dom’s Does River North
“Dom’s Kitchen & Market, the upscale, downsized Chicago grocer, plans to open a store in a former River North Whole Foods,” reports the Tribune. “The store will be the third for Dom’s, which was launched by Mariano’s founder Bob Mariano and former Dominick’s affiliates in 2021.” Dom’s will be on the ground floor of One Superior Place, 30 West Huron. The 25,000-square-foot location, Dom’s advises, will feature a lineup of local vendors including Anthony Marano Company, Ayo West African Foods, Linz Meats, The Seafood Merchants, Eli’s Cheesecake, Brown Sugar Bakery and Hexe Coffee.
Goddess “Boobies” Redux
The Goddess and Grocer promotion to raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Awareness Month returns: Throughout October, “Boobies For A Cause Cupcakes” will be available at the Fulton Market, Bucktown, River North, Gold Coast and O’Hare Terminal 5 locations. “They are $5.95 for a two-pack of boobies in four varieties of skin shades to celebrate all women and $2 from each sale will be donated to Equal Hope. Equal Hope strives to save lives by eliminating health inequities.”
Kraft Singles Could Choke Consumers
“Kraft Heinz is recalling about 83,000 cases of its individually wrapped Kraft Singles American cheese because they might pose a choking hazard,” reports CNN. “The company said in a statement that a ‘temporary issue’ with one of its wrapping machines means a ‘thin strip of the individual film may remain on the slice after the wrapper has been removed.’ If that isn’t removed, it could be ‘unpleasant and potentially cause a gagging or choking hazard.'”
FILM & TELEVISION
Chaplin In Uptown
For Chicago magazine, novelist Kathleen Rooney makes a personal trek to the history of Charlie Chaplin and his Essanay Studios on West Argyle: “Today the building contains an auditorium named after Charlie Chaplin, but over a hundred years ago—for an ephemeral span—it contained the man himself.”
Milwaukee’s Oldest Theater, The Downer, Closed
“The Landmark Downer Theatre, Milwaukee’s oldest movie theater, closed Tuesday night, after more than a century of showing movies on Milwaukee’s east side,” reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Opened in 1915, the Downer “was best known as an arthouse theater, from showing European fare (sometimes risqué) in the 1950s and sixties to imports and indies from the 1970s until today… In 1990, the year after Landmark Theatres acquired the theater, the Downer was converted into a two-screen cinema. Landmark was acquired by Cohen Media Group in 2018… The Downer is the second movie theater in the city of Milwaukee to close this month.”
Ongoing Strike Hits Mechanics Local; Also Great Britain
Is the strike by writers and actors for pay and protections at fault, or the seemingly unmovable studios, via the AMPTP? Judging from the tone of this Crain’s update, it’s the workers’ fault: “As Hollywood unions continue to strike, halting film and television productions across the country, a Chicago union that services the industry is quickly becoming collateral damage. The IATSE Studio Mechanics Local 476 of Chicago is the foundation of Illinois’… entertainment industry, supplying the sets, lighting and makeup for such [locally produced] shows as ‘Chicago P.D.’ and ‘The Bear.’ But as writers and actors remain on strike, behind-the-scenes crew workers are struggling as the absence of work forces some into food insecurity and health insurance plans near a breaking point.”
Crain’s analysis suggests “the state stands to see a decline of some $500 million spent by the entertainment industry when compared to a year ago… Add the roughly 2,000 full-time and part-time members of the Local 476 to the 5,500 actors and writers in the Midwest and the ripple effects of the strike extend far beyond the scope of production budgets. But despite the dire financial impacts, the union stands in solidarity with the striking actors and writers.”
The strike is also affecting the industry in the United Kingdom, reports the New York Times, where its many stages have fallen dark. “Productions including ‘Deadpool 3,’ ‘Wicked’ and Part 2 of ‘Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning’ stopped filming… Soundstages at Pinewood, Britain’s largest studios, were instead nearly empty.”
LIT
“Peepshow” Creator Joe Matt Passes At His Drawing Board
“Comic book creator and cartoonist Joe Matt, creator of Peepshow, has died at the age of sixty a heart attack at his drawing board,” reports Bleeding Cool. Comics artist Mari Naomi: Matt “had been complaining of chest pains for months, but didn’t want to (or couldn’t afford to) see a doctor. fucking america… joe was like a problematic, pesky little brother who was older than me. he was cheap as hell, just like he portrays himself in his comics, but maybe even more so. when we met at a fancy bakery, he brought his own coffee and cookies, which he even offered to share. he used bubble wrap to protect his new-to-him cell phone.” Naomi posts an extended, enlightening letter that Matt wrote about his process for a class she was teaching: “It’s a proven fact—talk is cheap, and I’d advise any writer not to speak of their work before doing it. It’s death to the process. Okay, speaking of death—I guess I’m done here!”
Missouri Republican Wields Flamethrower, Promises To Burn Books If Elected
“A Republican candidate for Missouri governor on Monday vowed to burn books if elected after he was criticized for a video showing him burning cardboard boxes with a flamethrower,” reports the Kansas City Star. “The video, which has gone viral on social media, shows state Senator Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican who is running for governor in 2024, and state Senator Nick Schroer, a St. Charles Republican, using flamethrowers to torch a stack of boxes at a fundraising event in Defiance in St. Charles County.”
Book Bans At Record High, Says American Library Association
“Book bans and attempted bans continue to hit record highs, according to the American Library Association,” reports AP. “And the efforts now extend as much to public libraries as school-based libraries. Through the first eight months of 2023, the ALA tracked 695 challenges to library materials and services, compared to 681 during the same time period last year, and a twenty-percent jump in the number of ‘unique titles’ involved to 1,915. School libraries had long been the predominant target, but in 2023 reports have been near-equally divided between schools and libraries open to the general public.”
Texas Teacher Fired For Reading Illustrated Anne Frank’s Diary
A Texas middle school teacher has been fired for reading Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman’s 2018 illustrated version of “Anne Frank’s Diary” to her class, reports the Houston Chronicle. “As you may be aware, following concerns regarding curricular selections in your student’s reading class, a substitute teacher has been facilitating the class since Wednesday, September 13,” read a district statement sent to parents… “The district is currently in the process of posting to secure a high-quality, full-time teacher as quickly as possible… The reading of that content will cease immediately. Your student’s teacher will communicate her apologies to you and your students soon, as she has expressed those apologies to us.”
Specialized Bookstores Grow In Resistance Of Ban Surge
“Author Leah Johnson wasn’t planning on opening a bookstore this year,” reports the Indianapolis Star. “Owning her own bookstore was a dream she’d had for a long time… but she was too busy writing a book a year and speaking at events all over the country. Then came the 2023 legislative session. Johnson said watching her mom, State Rep. Renee Pack, D-Indianapolis, fight against legislation to ban books and gender-affirming care in the Indiana Statehouse every day inspired her… Johnson said issues targeting the LGBTQ+ community are personal for her as a Black, queer author. Her young adult novel ‘You Should See Me in A Crown’ was challenged for so-called ‘obscene’ content in Oklahoma.”
Oak Park: A Capital Of Little Free Libraries
“A recent informal survey (conducted by bike) revealed that Oak Park has more than 140 LFLs within village borders,” reports Wednesday Journal. “The Little Free Library movement was launched in 2009 by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin, who designed the inaugural book box to resemble a schoolhouse… The LFL movement has grown to become an international nonprofit with more than 150,000 registered libraries in 115 countries.”
MEDIA
Former Sun-Times Editor-Publisher James Hoge Was Eighty-Seven
“James Hoge, who was a blue-blooded editor and publisher of blue-collar newspapers in Chicago and New York for a quarter-century and then long guided a leading journal on international relations,” was eighty-seven, reports the New York Times. “Few editors at major American newspapers have been as young as Mr. Hoge was when he rose to the top at The Chicago Sun-Times, a tabloid aimed at a working-class readership. He became the city editor at age twenty-nine, editor-in-chief at thirty-three and publisher at forty-four. He shook up the staff, strove for sprightlier writing and, like other newspaper editors in the 1970s, introduced new sections on business, food and fashion. ‘I am always agitating,’ he said.”
In These Times Turns Forty-Seven
Midwestern progressive mainstay In These Times will celebrate its forty-seventh anniversary with an event with its executive director, Alex Han, in conversation with Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and filmmaker Lilly Wachowski. More here.
MUSIC
Little Howl’n Wolf Was Seventy-Three
“He played the saxophone (sometimes two at the same time) on the Northwest corner of the Michigan Avenue bridge for more than thirty years and bounced around the South Side playing the blues in bars back in the day,” relays filmmaker Willy Laszlo of his friend James Pobiega, better known as “Little Howl’n Wolf.” He composed original music for Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s last performance, “American Buffalo”; Wolf studied at the Goodman Theatre of Arts in 1968 and acted with Joe Mantegna. “Wolf’s six-foot-six, 285-pound frame easily stood out as a presence anywhere, but his persona captivated your attention,” Laszlo writes. “If you met Wolf for the first time, you remembered him for the rest of your life. He became a part of communities. The stories he told and the stories told about him are endless.” One he cites: Wolf “joined a semi-professional football team in Joliet called the Buccaneers at the age of forty-five. He sang the national anthem before the games he played. I think he lasted half a season before injuring his leg.”
Family Vineyard described Wolf: “He self-released at least thirty-two 45s and two LPs, ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Cool Truth.’ The LPs show a unique and visionary take on emotive, raw, dissolved blues… Wolf is so complex and separating the facts from his brain is real difficult … 6’9″ Polish south side Chicago badassnessed… invented breakdancing… wrote original ‘Bad to the Bone’… inspired the ‘Deacon Blue’ song… drunk and drug addict street musician from the eighties to the nineties… he is the master of mind-blowing lo-fi off-kilter weird jam rooted in down-to-earth soul.”
CSO Musicians And CSOA Ratify Three-Year Agreement
The musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—members of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local 10-208 of the American Federation of Musicians—and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association have announced the ratification of a three-year collective bargaining agreement, effective September 2023 through September 2026. Under the terms of the newly ratified agreement, CSO musicians’ annual salary will increase by three percent in each of the three years of the contract. More here.
DJ Don Crescendo Killed In Avondale
“Chicago’s queer nightlife community, friends and loved ones are rallying around the family of Donovan Taylor, a popular musician and DJ known as Don Crescendo who was fatally stabbed last week in Avondale,” reports Block Club Chicago. “Known by many as Don Crescendo, his musical alias, Taylor was a fixture of Chicago’s queer nightlife scene who frequently spun and hung out at bars and clubs around town, from The Whistler to Smartbar, always making new friends along the way.”
Police Scuffle Damages Instruments Of South Side Mexican Band
El Malo, “a young Mexican band from the city’s South Side, was in the middle of singing the upbeat song ‘Pelotero a la Bola’ in Gage Park when a group of police officers with shields and sticks in their hands began pushing Mexican Independence Day revelers out of the way. They abruptly approached the band,” reports the Trib. “The police disconnected the speakers and, as band members and the crowd around them pushed back, the band’s new speakers, mixers and a tololoche—a traditional musical instrument from southern Mexico—were damaged.” An internal investigation is ongoing. The group “estimates there was more than $10,000 worth of damage to their equipment, which the band had worked years to buy.”
Behind the Scenes With The Cubs Organist
“Wrigley Field organist John Benedeck is showing fans how he provides the soundtrack for Chicago Cubs home games” in viral material, reports Axios. What can’t he play? “‘Three Blind Mice’ after a bad call by the umpire. (He says playing that is a good way to get fired.)”
Longtime Lyric Chorus Master Retires From Met
Metropolitan Opera chorus master Donald Palumbo will step down from the full-time role that he has held for the past seventeen years at the end of the 2023–24 season, reports Opera Wire. He was responsible for the chorus’ “preparation and performance in nearly twenty-five productions each season… A native New Yorker, Palumbo launched his career at the Dallas Opera in the 1980s… He joined the Met in 2006, following a sixteen-year tenure as chorus master at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.”
STAGE
Brooklyn The Second City Opens In November
“The new Brooklyn-based location of The Second City, which is set to feature two cabaret-style live theaters, seven Training Center classrooms, and a full-service restaurant and bar, has announced its slate and cast,” relays the Hollywood Reporter.
ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.
American Child Labor (And Grave Injuries) In Small Towns Kept Quiet
“‘If companies like this looked too closely at who was working, no company would be able to keep going,'” reports the New York Times Magazine in an extensive investigation. “While teenagers work legally all over America, [many of these jobs are] strictly off limits. Federal law prohibits fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds from working at night or for more than three hours on school days. Older teenagers are allowed to put in longer hours, but all minors are barred from the most dangerous occupations, including digging trenches, repairing roofs and cleaning slaughterhouses. But as more children come to the United States to help their families, more are ending up in these plants.”
“Throughout the company towns that stud the ‘broiler belt,’ which stretches from Delaware to East Texas, many have suffered brutal consequences. A Guatemalan eighth grader was killed on the cleaning shift at a Mar-Jac plant in Mississippi in July… A fourteen-year-old was hospitalized in Alabama after being overworked at a chicken operation there. A seventeen-year-old in Ohio had his leg torn off at the knee while cleaning a Case Farms plant. Another child lost a hand in a meat grinder at a Michigan operation.”
