By Steve Rhodes
I’ve actually never been to Pitchfork, but that’s not because I haven’t wanted to – though I’ve never been a big festival guy. Too many people, and usually crummy sound and sightlines.
But whatever.
I’ve been a Flaming Lips fan since the early days when they would play the Empty Bottle, and I’m proud and grateful to be able to say I saw them there way back when.
The Flips close the festival on Sunday night, meaning they are the kings of the Pitchfork universe.
Here’s some of my favorite Pitchfork preview commentary from our fine daily rock critics, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot.

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Posted on July 17, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
I have to admit that when Andy Shaw was named to replace Jay Stewart – who joined the Quinn administration – as the executive director of the Better Government Association, I was skeptical.
Andy Shaw?
Just another blow-dried TV guy, I thought.
Sure, he was a political reporter, but he never made much of a mark on me.
I have to admit now that so far Shaw is terrific.

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Posted on July 16, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
No Papers column today, but still some Beachwood treats and NBCChicago.com posts.
* If you haven’t been reading Scott Gordon’s “Serenade Of The Seas” series, you’re really missing out. Today’s installment: Hump-busting staff far up his ass.
* Mike Conklin writes today about the giant missed opportunity local sports outlets had to bond with tens of thousands of underserved fans.

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Posted on July 15, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
1. “The South Side may just be the worst place to be buried in Illinois,” the SouthtownStar reports.
“In the wake of revelations of a massive grave-reselling scheme at Alsip’s Burr Oak Cemetery, state authorities say they’re being bombarded with complaints about misdeeds at other cemeteries – all on the South Side or in the south suburbs.”
2. University of Illinois trustee Lawrence Eppley (D-Blago) will try to explain himself today.

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Posted on July 14, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Does everyone do it?
That’s what cynics always want you to think, but it’s just not true. Ever.
“Former presidents and chancellors of the University of Illinois are laying much of the blame for the current admissions scandal at the feet of trustees, calling for sweeping changes on the board and the way it is appointed,” the Tribune reports.
“The former university leaders said that while it’s not new for the university to be pressured by outside interests, the response from the current administration is different.”

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Posted on July 13, 2009

By The Weekend Desk B Team
Natasha Julius is indisposed this weekend working on her special Beachwood investigation into the effects of Xanax on drug-addicted pop stars without human faces. We eagerly await her return. In the meantime, the rest of the Weekend Desk staff remains on duty to keep an eye on things while you conduct your own drug experiments for a couple of days.
Corruption Bluster
President Obama is exhorting Ghanians to fight corruption and embrace democracy just as he did as a Chicago legislator and United States senator who put his arms around Mayor Richard M. Daley and said that he’d leave talk of corruption in the city to editorial writers and the likes of John Kass. Obama, who later brought half the Chicago Machine to the White House once he became president, told Ghanians they should watch what he does more than what he says if they want to catch his drift.

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Posted on July 11, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
Note: I’ll be guest bartending tonight at the Beachwood Inn from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
1. Welcome to the World of Motion Sicktures!
2. The news this week from Bloodshot Records, including the 411 on Exene Cervenka’s solo project.
3. “Now I walk among these downtrodden of our Tourist Economy,” our man on the rail Thomas Chambers writes of River North. “I will reach out to these souls of limited disposable dollars, providing guidance to true neighborhood spots unique to Daley City. Watch locals drown sorrows, and with good food. I’ll recruit the microphone preacher from Washington and State, for he’ll become our human Green Sheet and spread the word on pace scenarios and false favorites and PolyTrack tendencies. If one should have a need to testify with $2 on a horse, one of His great creatures, as such a man, from Ohio, did last Saturday, we will remain true to our calling and show him the way.”

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Posted on July 10, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
This week has been a clusterfuck, and I’m running so far behind that I think time is actually going backwards. Or something like that.
So first a few links, and then I’ll let stalwart Beachwood contributors David Rutter and Scott Buckner take over.

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Posted on July 9, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
–
BREAKING 10:20 A.M.: “Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is expected to announce today that she’ll seek re-election to her current office and bypass bids for governor or U.S. Senate, a source told the Tribune.”
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1. “President Obama has developed a curious habit of taking one legal position in his public statements and an altogether contrary position in the courtroom,” our very own Sam Singer writes in Obama’s Justice.

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Posted on July 8, 2009

By Steve Rhodes
A loyal Beachwood reader writes:
“This has to be the most craven bit of writing I’ve seen from an
academic in a long time:

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Posted on July 7, 2009