Earlier this month WBEZ announced changes to its lineup described as the start of a five-year plan to bring more local programming to the station.
The Beachwood has obtained a confidential part of that plan outlining far more dramatic changes ahead than so far acknowledged. Let’s take a look. 6 a.m.:School Daze: Supt. Jean-Claude Brizard – or a paid stand-in – reads the day’s lunch menus, closings and turnarounds. 6:30 a.m.:Weather and Traffic on the Whines: Chicagoans whine about weather and traffic. 7 a.m.:Yuppie Worldviews: A daily rundown of First World Problems. 8 a.m.:Eight Forties At Eight: Gangstas do the news.
This was first broadcast in 2009, but we’re just catching up with it now (!) after seeing it re-posted on YouTube recently.
At the time, John Kass wrote in the Tribune:
“And without humans to tend it, Chicago wasn’t ‘Urbs in Horto‘ anymore. It was just plain old wild Horto.
“Paris, too, the Eiffel Tower cracking to the ground, and Seattle, the Space Needle falling, and New York, the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge rotting, snapping, all of it plunging into the East River in the History Channel special Life After People.
“There was Horto everywhere, Horto relentlessly triumphant, as befits seamless mass televised celebrations of the sacrament of Earth Day.”
Let’s take a look.
So: there’s an angel
in my guts,
a swan in my swamp.
White swamp, snow bog,
like rain after a blizzard.
The egrets and heron belong
but the swan
seems wrong, a slim wizard
in a fat fog,
a cherub
‘midst the bats and frogs.
Cottonmouth bastards,
croc motherfuckers
“For more than forty years, Fourth Presbyterian Church has been involved with the children and families living in Cabrini-Green,” the church says on its website.
“As an outgrowth of that relationship, in 2001 the church bought property in the Cabrini-Green community, on Chicago Avenue between Hudson and Cleveland, at 444 W. Chicago Avenue. In doing so, the church and Chicago Lights signaled their commitment to helping the neighborhood become a thriving diverse community and to ensuring that present residents are not cast aside in the process of its transformation into a mixed-income neighborhood.
“As the first step in this important endeavor, the Chicago Avenue site was transformed into a community garden, as a way to strengthen the relationships with the families and children in the Cabrini community.The Chicago Avenue property became the site for a community garden in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood in 2003, and the Chicago Lights Chicago Avenue Outreach continued to thrive as a garden through 2009.
“In 2010, in collaboration with Growing Power, a nationally recognized leader in urban agriculture, the garden has expanded to become an urban farm, with hoop greenhouses extending the growing season to nine to twelve months.
“The Chicago Lights Urban Farm provides job training and youth development. Through the urban farm, young adults not only learn about agriculture as they work with food production, but also gain life skills and job readiness. Families learn about nutrition and have access to affordable, healthy produce. And relationships in the community continue to be fostered as people of diverse backgrounds work side by side and enjoy community celebrations together.”
This video was uploaded to YouTube earlier today.
“Total attendance for the Progressive Insurance Chicago Boat, Sports & RV Show increased 7 percent despite slower days Thursday and Friday because of bad weather, the National Marine Manufacturers Association reported,” Trade Onlyreports.
“The NMMA said 35,402 people attended the event, which ran Jan. 12-16 at McCormick Place. The show switched its date pattern this year, moving from Wednesday-Sunday to Thursday-Monday to take advantage of the Martin Luther King holiday.”
*
Show highlights uploaded to YouTube this week by North Point Digital Productions:
“Segments of the 2012 Chicago Boat Show including the Scuba Emporium’s intro to SCUBA which introduced over 400 to the world of SCUBA. Wakeboard professionals entertained the crowds with their Rail Jam. Many other features – too numerous to show them all – but a great time for all at the boat show.”
And what a week it was. 1. Rahm and Michelle, WTF?
If the crux of the parlor game d’jour asks whether First Lady O is a bigger jerk than our mayor, we stand foursquare with the available evidence: Michelle Obama might be strong-willed and focused the way really smart people can be, but we know for sure that the mayor is foul-mouthed bully.
