By Steve Rhodes
“AAHH! Fest won’t be rocking Union Park this month as organizers say they’ve had a ‘very demanding year,'” the Tribune reports.
“The West Side festival, which featured comedian Dave Chappelle and Chicago natives Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Jennifer Hudson last year, will return in September 2016, fest spokeswoman Micaeh Johnson said in an e-mail to the Tribune. Auditions slated to be held this month were canceled.”
From last year’s Fest:
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Wilmette Talks To Winnetka
“Mega country star Toby Keith kicks off the return of WTTW/11’s Soundstage on public television stations with Thursday’s first taping at the station’s Grainger Studio in front of a live SRO audience,” Reel Chicago reports.
Really? Toby Keith? There’s a bunch of guys from the AAHH Fest! who are suddenly available, maybe give one of them a call.
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WTTW: Whites Talking To Whites.
The Mystery Of Mystery Train
“The book I wish I could read again for the first time – and the book, I’ve long felt, I most wish I had written – is Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, by Greil Marcus,” Dwight Garner writes – and beautifully so – for the New York Times.
“Anecdotally, I’m aware that Mystery Train has meant a lot to many people. Less anecdotally, I’m aware that most critics and serious listeners think it’s almost certainly the best book yet written about American music in general, and about rock in particular.
“This may seem like only moderate praise until you consider that for some, myself included, that’s not so far from remarking that Mystery Train is the best book ever written about being alive.”
The book Garner describes is one I could easily make my bible. Unfortunately, I own Mystery Train and I’ve tried to read it a handful of times and I can never get past the first few pages before wondering if there’s a wall of drying paint somewhere I could go watch instead.
Magic Mando
“Mandopop needs no introduction and even less in the way of PR,” the Georgia Straight writes.
I wouldn’t be too sure of that! Mandopop.
Moving on:
“When the six nonthreatening boys of Magic Power arrive in Vancouver on Saturday on a rainbow of sugar, hair gel, and EDM beats, this city will weather its biggest hormone throb since the ‘Chinese Beatles’ – or Mayday, as the band is otherwise known – showed up for last year’s blockbuster Pacific Coliseum gig.”
Um, ok.
I’m just here to tell you that the band’s Andrew Yeh was born in Chicago.
Oh, and boy is this awful:
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Far Out
Adler astronomer plays guitar in Ditch Club.
Now, this is more like it:
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Comments welcome.
Posted on September 3, 2015