April 29, 2004

Find A Famous Dead Person Now!

After you've read everything you want to know about Mike Brady in Ask the Librarian, go visit his grave in Skokie. You can search for other famous Chicago celebs like Al Capone or John Belushi at findagrave.com. Did you know that someone actually tried to steal John's remains, or that Clarence Darrow's grave is behind the Museum of Science and Industry?

- bs | 29.04.04 ~ History

Tomorrow is Critcal Mass Friday

So tomorrow is the last Friday of the month, which means it's time for Critical Mass, a monthly bicycle protest thingie. This month's ride will likely focus on Lucy Parsons, a labor activist involved in the Haymarket riot. After the ride there will be a play about Lucy Parsons at the Handlebar. Also, if you want to sample a bit of Chicago's bike culture and see what's in store for the ride tomorrow, check out this month's Derailleur.

- bs | 29.04.04 ~ Offbeat/Misc. Events

Chess Records studios still active

The Tribune reports that the historic Chess Records studio at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue is still being used for recording, albeit not as frequently as its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. Yesterday marked the first time since 1989 that artists have recorded in the studio (and the musicians still had to truck in a lot of recording gear, since the studio has not been updated with new equipment). The studio will be refurbished in the coming years thanks to the Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation, a program that provides blues education to children and provides business and medical financial aid to blues musicians.

- jma | 29.04.04 ~ Music/Clubs

H.H. Holmes Documentary

After a sold-out screening at the Chicago International Documentary Festival, H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer is now available on DVD. The feature was written, directed, and produced by local filmmaker John Borowski, who spent three years on the film. For more on H.H. Holmes, check out "The Murder Castle of H.H. Holmes," an excerpt from Troy Taylor's Haunted Chicago book. Or, visit the official website for Erik Larson's best-selling book about Holmes and Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, The Devil in the White City.

- am | 29.04.04 ~ Film

Get your Matchbox cars out

Parking Spots is a silly site, one of those "waste your time while being bored to death at work" sites. Highly entertaining. It's international and you too can submit one, and there's quite a few from Illinois (scroll down to the US section). You'll have to see what I mean.

- nh | 29.04.04 ~ Found on the Web

How'd we miss this one?

Bruce Sterling, author (and blogger) of note, speaks at Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park tonight at 7:30 PM.

- jma | 29.04.04 ~ Books/Authors

Ticket not, lest ye be ticketed

The next time you find a ticket stuck to your car, consider this statistic: city government employees owe nearly $2 million in unpaid traffic tickets and water bills. To take care of this large bill, the city has filed about 4,700 wage garnishment cases against deadbeat employees, and 44 workers have been suspended for nonpayment.

- jma | 29.04.04 ~ In the News

Spring Cleaning

Spring is in the air and Chicago is cleaning itself up for the summer tourist crush. Leading the way is an ambitious plan to clean up the Chicago River involving a pontoon boat and a crew of five to help remove debris and graffiti along the river. Besides the cosmetic cleanup, water quality issues are also being discussed by city officials. Unfortunately, real progress on water quality is still many years off, but it's a good start. The city is also calling for an all-out citywide cleanup on May 1, the spring "Clean & Green Day". This event is coordinated by the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation and loans brooms, shovels and rakes and provides free trash bags to local groups to assist their volunteer clean-up efforts.

- eh | 29.04.04 ~ Outdoors/Environment

U of C to Return Ancient Tablets to Iran

In an attempt to reestablish ties with Iranian scholars and archeologists, the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago is returning up to 300 ancient clay tablets that provide information of the daily life in the Persian empire. This is described as the first U.S. return of loaned Iranian artifacts since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The tablets, inscribed with cuneiform writing from about 500 B.C., were among tens of thousands of such documents discovered by Chicago archaeologists that were lent to the institute in 1937 for translation and study.

- eh | 29.04.04 ~ Arts/Architecture

I've got the source right here

Summer must really be close; the City's Office of Special Events has just released the line-up for the 2004 Outdoor Film Festival. This year sees a collection of classics from stars who died last year (Peck, Hepburn), stars who would be 100 years old had they been alive (Grant) and stars who are, according to the city, "larger than life" (Brando). In honor of the Mouse's 75th birthday, they'll be showing a Mickey comic short before each film. Come early, come often, just come without your chair.

- sw | 29.04.04 ~ Film

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