In the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago gangs distributed
gang cards to stake their neighbourhood claim. Full gallery available
here.
posted by gman
on Jan 20, 2012 -
44 comments
This week has seen a lot of discussion of the American criminal justice system and its failings, and a lot of concern about what can be done to fix it.
In 1947, a working class black man looked like he was about to have the full weight of the system brought down on him for taking justice into his own hands. But after Chicago leftists - including labor unions, religious leaders, artists, civil rights activists & others - launched a movement,
James Hickman was set free after an all-white jury, in a trial presided over by a white judge, failed to convict, and the DA chose not to re-try because of the magnitude of public support for Hickman.
According to a
review in The Nation,
a new book tells the story in a way that turns the typical right-wing biases of the true crime genre on their head.
[more inside]
posted by univac
on Sep 22, 2011 -
11 comments
Adler Planetarium,
founded in 1930, was the first planetarium in the western hemisphere, and is
a US national monument. Until recently, the planetarium was run with a
Zeiss Projector (
Mark IV) that was
around 40 years old. The proposed upgrade was
controversial in the 2008 presidential elections, as $3 million in federal funding was earmarked for the $14 million project. In the end, the high-tech projection system was funded. The result:
the world's most advanced planetarium system, with a 64 megapixel resolution display, provided by 20 individually modified projectors, 42
GPUs and run with the help of 84 servers. And it can be
controlled from an iPad or
X-Box controller.
posted by filthy light thief
on Jul 12, 2011 -
30 comments
Scott Newman's
Jazz Age Chicago is a guide to every major movie theater, department store, sporting arena, amusement park, grand hotel and dance hall that operated in the Windy City during the 1920s.
posted by Iridic
on Jul 11, 2011 -
13 comments
If you're a Chicagoan or have even a passing interest in Chicago's 'L',
Chicago "L".org is an amazingly comprehensive resource for anything you might want to know about the Second City's rapid transit system. Highlights include
historic route maps, details on
rolling stock past and present, and more than you could ever want to know about every
station.
[more inside]
posted by kmz
on Jun 23, 2011 -
41 comments
Ben Hecht, arguably one of the greatest screenwriters in Hollywood history, started his career in the (sometimes literally) cutthroat world of Jazz Age journalism at the Chicago Daily News. Throughout 1921 he wrote a series of remarkable vignettes collectively titled the
Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago: stories of drifters, fops, and artists from Michigan Avenue to Chinatown, but most of all a fond portrait of the city itself. Collected in book form and gorgeously illustrated, the
Thousand and One Afternoons are in the public domain and readily
available online. Each story is four or five short pages in length, and goes great with coffee.
posted by theodolite
on May 31, 2011 -
10 comments
Popular Chicago Brewery Goose Island has
been bought by Anheuser-Busch. Moreover, brewmaster Greg Hall has resigned and will be replaced by Brett Porter, former head brewer of Deschutes Brewery.
posted by IjonTichy
on Mar 29, 2011 -
139 comments
There is
Housing Works in NYC, which raises money for community based AIDS/HIV treatment and housing for the homeless. Here in Chicago we have
Open Books, who uses the money raised from selling donated books to run literacy programs and tutoring programs for children.
Now Minneapolis is getting
Boneshaker Books; an all volunteer run radical bookstore that will house the
Women's Prison Book Project and offer bike book delivery.
posted by bibliogrrl
on Jan 11, 2011 -
17 comments
Hearing him discuss films one day in the Lake Street Screening Room used by Chicago critics, Ebert said, "I was struck by the depth and detail of his film knowledge, and by how articulate he was." After reading his work online, Ebert was sold.
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, 24,
will co-host the revival of
At the Movies with Christy Lemire.
[previously] [more inside]
posted by Iridic
on Jan 4, 2011 -
35 comments
"It's a stretch of pavement both enriched and torn apart by class and ethnic divisions. When you go over a bridge or under a viaduct on this street you've left one country for another. It's the American melting pot at full boil."
Halsted Street USA. (1995, 56 minutes, Color)
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Dec 31, 2010 -
13 comments
Curt Teich (1877-1974) was a printer who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1896. Curt Teich & Company, opened in 1898 in Chicago, was the world's largest printer of view and advertising postcards. Teich is best known for its "Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors, and bold style. Flickr user amhpics has archived nearly 2000 Teich linen postcards in his set
Vintage Curt Teich linen postcards 1930s-1950s.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Nov 28, 2010 -
5 comments
"When we started Windy City, it was a means to an end, because there wasn't a distributor in Chicago that wanted to touch craft beer," Mr. Ebel says. "We went around to bars and they said, 'Great beer. How many free cases can you give me?' We just had to walk out of those accounts, set a price, and stick to it. And nobody asks us that anymore."
Pay-to-play contreversy in the Chicago beer scene, with appearances from a who's who of Midwest beermeisters: Tracy Hurst of
Metropolitan Brewing Co., Deb Carey of
New Glarus Brewing Co., the Ebel Brothers of
Two Brothers Brewing Co., and Josh Hall of
Goose Island Brewing Company
posted by d1rge
on Nov 22, 2010 -
30 comments
The Complaints Choir phenomenon, started by the Finnish artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, has
spread all over the world since
last we paid it any attention, from
Birmingham to
Helsinki,
Hamburg,
St. Petersburg,
Poikkilaakso,
Bodø,
Penn State,
Canada,
Juneau,
Gabriola Island,
Sointula,
Jerusalem,
Melbourne,
Budapest,
Malmö,
Chicago,
Florence,
Copenhagen,
Vancouver (
2),
Philadelphia,
Sundbyberg,
Milano,
Åland,
Hong Kong,
Tokyo,
Rotterdam,
Basel,
Umeå,
Ljubljana,
Gdansk,
Arizona State University,
Washington, DC,
Horace Mann School,
Durham-Chapel Hill,
Auckland,
Toronto theatre students,
Kortrijk,
Cairo (
2),
St. Pölten,
Maribor,
Port Coquitlam,
Ústí nad Labem,
Columbus &
Kauhajoki (
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8). For more information, including a
9 step guide to forming your own complaints choir, go to the
Complaints Choir website. Finally, here's the
Singapore Complaints Choir, whose performance was banned by the Singapore government.
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 19, 2010 -
40 comments
Security alerts have been declared at Airports in the US, UK and Middle East after the discovery of suspicious packages originating in
Yemen. The packages, modified toner cartridges, have been
described as "definitely not a complete bomb" but being "potentially sinister".
posted by Artw
on Oct 29, 2010 -
291 comments
Typographic Maps. "These unique maps accurately depict the streets and highways, parks, neighborhoods, coastlines, and physical features of the city using nothing but type."
posted by jacquilynne
on Oct 14, 2010 -
32 comments
