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The [Thursday] Papers
"A white kid had to be tough, confident and maybe a little nuts to venture into the South Side blues clubs in Chicago during the heyday of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf and try to go toe to toe with the masters," Greg Kot writes for the Tribune.
But the late Paul Butterfield had attitude to burn and a reverence for the blues that cut deeper than any fear he might've had. The blues masters gave him a shot, and they realized the kid not only had guts, he had chops. No one played blues harmonica quite like 'Butter.'
Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story, directed by Emmy-winner John Anderson (whose previous credits include the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy), tells the story of a transformation. Through Butterfield's experience, it shows how white kids discovered and embraced the authenticity and passion of an art form created and lived by African-Americans. The masters had migrated from Southern sharecropping poverty to big northern cities such as Chicago in search of jobs. At night and on weekends, they plugged in and poured out their pain and joy in electric blues that thrived in South Side joints such as Silvio's and Pepper's Lounge.Then a few young white faces started showing up, hungry to rub shoulders with musicians they viewed as mentors, worldly adults who had experienced more than they could imagine and expressed themselves in a way that took their breath away.
Butterfield was among them.
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See also: Horn From The Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story. Trailer included.
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Public Art Dart
"Kerry James Marshall wasn't just upset when the city of Chicago revealed it was going to sell the painting he made for the Legler public library on Chicago's West Side back in 1995. He was so disillusioned that he vowed never to make a public artwork again," Artnet reports.
"It just seemed like a way of exploiting the work of artists in the city for short-term gain in a really short sighted kind of way," Marshall told the Chicago Tribune. "And so I made a decision at that time I would never do another public work."And the artist hasn't changed his mind, even after news broke this week that Chicago had had a change of part and wouldn't be selling the work after all.
"There's too many contingencies that go with public art, and there are more compromises than I think I'm going to be willing to make from here on out," Marshall explained. Earlier this year, the artist unveiled a public art piece, dedicated to the country's first bar association for black lawyers, in Des Moines, Iowa. Titled A Monumental Journey, it had been in the works for 12 years, plagued by delays even after Marshall personally paid for an expensive water feasibility study for the project.
Heights And Weights
"A new book offers an insider's view of when organized crime operations in south suburban Chicago Heights began to decline during the 1960s and 1970s," Ted Slowik writes for the Daily Southtown. "The author claims to know the answer to a notorious unsolved murder of a Chicago crime boss.
"Chicago Heights: Little Joe College, the Outfit, and the Fall of Sam Giancana, is a memoir by Charles 'Charley' Hager. The book was co-authored by Kentucky writer David T. Miller and published by Southern Illinois University Press."
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"Hager wrote that when he was 13 in 1961 he moved to Illinois to live with an uncle who ran a mob-connected bar in Chicago Heights. Mob boss Albert Tocco gave Hager the nickname 'Little Joe College' because of his street smarts.
"'I began my life as a rather naive, apprentice criminal,' he wrote. 'I moved cars and packages from one place to another, never knowing what was in them, and I was smart enough not to ask.'
"He eventually realized he was moving cash or cars that were headed for chop shops. At the time, the mob controlled police departments and judges, he wrote. Eventually, he claims he became an expert in fixing harness races at Balmoral Park in Crete."
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Also:
From the leg-breaking to the loan-sharking, I played a role in it all. I was very deep in it. My big thing that got me on top was horse racing. I was a great earner with that. Something about being raised up in West Virginia and being around horses a lot - I got a lot of tips which [most] people wouldn't have gotten, and made a lot of money [at the] Balmoral Race Track in Crete, Illinois. I was the go-to guy. I was the fixer. Things moved from the streets to an office job because I was the golden goose for them.You're the man, you're doing things. You're getting away with it. It's a thrill. It's almost like a man being on heroin or taking drugs, which I never did. That was a no-no for us. I was the prize for them. It's as simple as that.
But it started out as a bagman, a chauffeur. It started out popping a few heads. Then you moved onto the heavy stuff, which I won't get into, but in order to become an associate . . . I think the whole world knows what you got to do.
Rock Doc
"[H]ere be a literary songwriter of the first rank whose pipes benefited from his long break and who's reeled in enough fine musicians to execute his ambitious arrangements," Robert Christgau writes for Noisey in his A- review of Chicago neonatologist Rich Krueger's NOWThen.
See also: Chicago Neonatologist To Release Second Record.
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New on the Beachwood . . .
Campaign Notebook
I'm this/close to finishing what I hope is merely the first installment of a series of campaign notebooks, looking back at Tuesday night's results as well as forward into the mayor's race. Stay tuned!
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ChicagoReddit
Has anyone used a hover board, electronic skateboard, or anything like that on your commute? How did it go? from r/chicago
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ChicagoGram
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ChicagoTube
When Local TV News Discovered House.
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BeachBook
Chicago Producer Victor Cervantes Is 17 And Taking Off Like A Pop Music Rocket.
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TweetWood
A sampling.
50 Years Later, #Chicago Artists Are Getting Their Due https://t.co/SHZDMLHUq3
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 8, 2018
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Reports: The Chicago White Sox Exist https://t.co/Rw0gFX0TY1 via @deadspin
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 8, 2018
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I knew the new frontier of of using instant doctored video to alter future consequences was on the horizon. Did not expect the first major example would emanate from the White House. There is no bottom. https://t.co/wWdeiTYf3G
— Dean Barker (@deanbarker) November 8, 2018
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1 p.m.: bans press corps from White House. 2 p.m.: suspends U.S. House. 3 p.m. fires Bob Mueller. 4 p.m. leaves for long weekend at golf club. https://t.co/0gPl78p9o5
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 8, 2018
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Trump distracting us from the real news https://t.co/KD5dPIZ8hC via @WGNNews
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 8, 2018
See also:
* @TastyRib.
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The Beachwood McRibTip Line: Structured.
Posted on November 7, 2018
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