Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part VI - Part of the Problem

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

I call this photo, No Such Thing. And that is part of the problem here in Chicago, there really is no opposition party.

Chicago Chicago Tea Party - part V

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Pioneer Court, North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part IV - Chicago Bloggers

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Anne Leary of the Backyard Conservative shown here in red up on a platform with the very cold colonist. The original Tea Party was both more dangerous politically and warmer, December in Boston.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

John Ruberry, the Marathon Pundit shown appropriately dressed in funeral black, black hat and the checked scarf standing in front of Chicago's eternal flame erected "in memory of the men and women who have served in our Armed Forces from the Revolutionary War to the present. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard Reserves."

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part III - Pioneer Court Art

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Pioneer Court contains public art including the front and rear ends of John Kearney's moose and J. Seward Johnson's God Bless America, a giant 3-D version of Grant Wood's American Gothic. The Chicago Picasso from the the protest kick off in Daley Plaza can be seen in this post. That pitch fork was needed for the Stimulus Bill.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - part II - This Family Brought a Tea Service!

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
Initially off on their own in Pioneer Court this family served tea.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
This family came prepared.

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

Tea Is Served! This family brought their own tea service to Chicago's Pioneer Court, on the Chicago River in front of the Chicago Tribune Building, inspiring the woman on the left to dump the tea. The property once held a nearly windowless warehouse that contained Chicago's Main Library.

As speeches were being made I looked around Pioneer Court and saw this family with a tea service, serving tea to passerby. Brilliant. I had to talk to those folks, they went to a protest for the same reasons the rest of went, they are concerned, alarmed may be more like it. The father is the one who commented on the difficulty even getting people who are basically "lone wolves" to publicly protest. I think he was speaking politically, as there are no survivalists left in Chicago, they headed for the hills years ago.

More thoughts and photos to follow.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris
The rally started near the famous Chicago Picasso.

The crowd of maybe 500 turned out at Daley Plaza on this cold and windy Chicago morning. The Chicago Police then escorted the crowd on a march out of the loop, down Wacker Drive and across the Michigan Avenue Bridge to Pioneer Court next to the Chicago Tribune Building. One guy said to me, "well here you have it, a protest by lone wolves." This protest was put together in less than a week by people who clearly are not professional grievance mongers, it was more "grass roots" than almost any other Chicago protests that I've witnessed. The only politician I noticed was Republican Cook County Board member Tony Peraica, but I'm sure that I missed at least one, I think he spoke while I was talking to the family that brought a tea service. More on their great move when I post their photo.

It was nice to meet Anne of the Backyard Conservative, John from the Marathon Pundit and the Econopundit.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party Today!

The Tea Party will be at Daley Plaza at 11:00 am, the march to the Michigan Avenue bridge kicks off at 11:15.

Be there.

Chicago's Chicago Tea Party - We're on a Mission From God

Well unlike Jake and Elwood Blues we may not be on a mission from God but we are on a mission for common sense, to paraphrase Elwood Blues - Our Lady of Blessed Wisdom don't fail us now! The above video shows "the Honorable Richard J Daley Plaza" and as Joliet Jake famously said, "that's where they have that Picasso!"

Hopefully the National Guard will not need to be there with tanks but then again, this is Chicago.

As Flying Debris noted Monday, the Chicago Tea Party will be held at:

Daley Plaza
50 West Washington St.
Chicago
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Friday February 27, 2009

There will be a march to the Michigan Avenue Bridge over the Chicago River, in front of the Chicago Tribune Building.

Also see the Backyard Conservative, the Marathon Pundit, Chicago Bungalow, Chicago Ray

Below is the trailer for the Blues Brothers movie.

Obama Campaign Ripped Off Chicago

The city of Chicago is still owed $1.74 million for Obama's election night party in Grant Park. Good luck getting the money of the dishonest cheats in the Obama campaign Mr. Mayor.

It is notable that the Obama campaign is still in fundraising mode, I get e-mails every few days asking me to send money to poor old Barack, yet these people won't even pay their bills. Biggest campaign warchest ever and they won't pay their bills.

Please, will somebody tell the croooked people of the Obama campaign that the bill from Chicago is not their tax bill!

Update: Maybe Oprah will pay Obama's bill, after all she was in tears during Obama's speech, or as I posted on the Sun Times site at 8:43 this morning: Maybe the city should just charge those people who are driving around with those Obama, Hope and Change bumper stickers on their cars.

I Can Agree With Obama on This One...

 I got a kick out of these comments this morning but I didn't see it on CNN so I missed the breaking news "Snow Joke" story tag.

Chicago Braces For Election Night

The south end of Chicago's Loop, which is just a few blocks west of where Obama will make his speech tomorrow night contains a number of Federal courthouse and bureaucratic buildings surrounding the Federal Plaza and this week those buildings are now very well guarded by armed Federal Police with dogs. The streets running through Grant Park will be closed and the City has said that they expect 1 million people to go downtown on election night. What will they do if he loses? As the nation has seen Chicago has more than its fair share communists and anarchists, it's an historical thing here but it's also a danger on nights like the one that tomorrow would be if John McCain beats all expectations and wins the Presidential Election. Those people like to take advantage of crowds for cover and to attempts at playing a crowd's madness.

All of the Hope and the Hype is Warm-Up For the Heist

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

The above sticker was seen last month in the trendy, liberal Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. I think that the poor guy thought that I was trying to attack his car when I took the photo, it was parked in a Walgreens lot and he wasn't happy with any attention (then don't put stickers it on your car!). In his defense the lower left corner appears that somebody has attempted to remove the sticker. He did tell me something along the lines of "all of the hope and the hype is warm-up for the heist." Amen.

Obama to Charge Press for Political Rally in Grant Park

On election night Barack Obama will hold a rally in Chicago's Grant Park which is on the shore of Lake Michigan just north of Soldier Field and west of the Loop. Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times has reported on her blog that the Obama campaign will charge news outlets for access into the event. Taxes in Chicago have done nothing but explode and now the Obama campaign will charge news outlets for the pleasure of covering this final campaign rally in a Chicago Public Park. All I want to know is, where's my check!?

On the flip side, Obama has been treating the press as "his bitches" for over four years now, so why stop now? The press seems to like it. Besides there will be no charge for the "General Press Area" including the bike racks. Well it is good of them to not rent out the city bike racks that are all over the place. Considering that I can see Grant Park from our office and the view will likely be better than from the "General Press Area" maybe we should rent it out to one of the networks.

The Chicago Board of Trade Building - the Home of Batman?

Photo Copyright: Weatherbug

Photo Copyright: Flying Debris

The Batman hype is pretty big here in Chicago, the set for Gotham City. I just drove past a guy made-up as the Joker driving down Ashland Ave. Both of the above photos are of the Chicago Board of Trade Building, I grabbed the top photo off of this web-cam last night, and the street shot I took one morning when I arrived at work to find firetrucks and police out front because an environmental group was protesting us (?) by climbing the building. The Board has been the home of Bruce Wayne's Wayne Corp (Enterprises) during this and the last Batman movie.

The statue on top of the real building is Ceres the goddess of grain, we were traditionally a grain exchange, her face is blank because nobody at the time (1930) thought that any nearby buildings would be taller than the Board's 44 stories., thus nobody would see her face. There is also a 50 foot tall painting of a half-naked, very buxom Ceres with an armful of wheat hanging in one of the inside atriums, the painting once hung in the old grain trading room on 4, plus the bar on the first floor is named the Ceres Cafe, so she has some fans in the building. There used to be a television studio up on 43, Soul Train was taped up there until the late '70s.

Showing that traders can sometimes get it all very wrong, we (I'm an exchange member) broke ground for the building a few weeks before the 1929 stock market crash. The exchange was forced to build the building because one corner off the previous exchange building on the same spot was sinking into Chicago's muck. The corner of Jackson and Exchange Pl. sank, causing the entire building to lean like the tower in Pisa, in fact the original building's front tower was taken down as a safety hazard early in the 1900s. The current building is noted for its Art Deco design which can be seen in details all over the both the interior and the exterior. I share an office that can be seen in the web-cam shot.

The Board and the streets around it make for a great movie set partially because the exchange is at the base of the t-intersection of La Salle St. (north-south) and Jackson Blvd. (east-west), the eastern terminus of Route 66 was 5 blocks east at Jackson and Michigan Ave and the world's tallest infidel building, the Sears Tower is just 2 blocks west at Jackson and Wacker Dr. The Batman crew did a lot of filming around the building last year, mostly at night during the summer. A guy I know who goes to work early used to see the five Batmobiles and Batman's wild motorcycles being put away in an underground garage behind the exchange at 4:30 or 5:00 AM.

The building and the "neighborhood" around it has been in a number of movies, you can see the Board in North by Northwest, Steve Martin got John Candy off of the La Salle and Van Buren el stop behind the building on Thanksgiving day in Trains, Planes and Automobiles and Carrie Fisher blew up the best neighborhood deli, the Dill Pickle (her targets were Jake and Elwood Blues in the flop-house upstairs) in the Blues Brothers. Sadly the Dill Pickle is now gone, replaced by a park named after a wealthy Chicago family, Pritzker Park is gated off from the street and is home to bums and pigeons. If you are going to see the movie, enjoy it, if not I hope that the travelogue didn't bore you.

New Democratic Taxes

 Here in the uber-blue Democratic utopia of Chicago today marks a new tax increase, the sales tax, a shiny new Cook County tax increase from .75% to 1.75% brings Chicago's sales tax rate to a whopping 10.25%. Add to that a restaurant sales tax of 1.25% for the "downtown" area that pays for McCormick Place and you get an 11.5% restaurant tax. At 11.5% the city and the county should pitch in, can I get Todd Stroger or Mayor Daley as a waiter? That "downtown" area covers I-55 on the south, Surf St. (2900 North) on the north, Ashland Ave. (1600 West) on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. Welcome the future that Obama envisions, sure just tax away. Lucky for me one of my local taverns is on the less taxed side of Ashland Ave.

It's the '90s in Chicago Again This Week

Two great Chicago bands from the '90s are back and playing in town this week. The fantastic Poi Dog Pondering never really left (I do recall them "breaking up" but the leader Frank Orrall was back in business with a new lineup within a few months) but the Freddy Jones Band was definitely gone, as their Wikipedia entry states. Both are fun bands with Poi Dog being the musical outlet for Orrall's world beat sensibilities and Freddy Jones fitting in somewhere on the poppish end of the jam band side of the rock world.

Both bands will be back in what for those bands are prototypical venues. Poi Dog will perform with Abra Moore at the Metro (Clark St. just north of Wrigley Field) Wednesday and Friday nights. Freddy Jones will play Martyrs' (Lincoln Ave. due west of Wrigley Field) Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights. The Freddy Jones shows are sold out but this is Chicago; meaning if you want to go and you can throw the dough, you are in. The Metro is a fantastic little theater (capacity of about 1000 including a few hundred seats upstairs) that Poi Dog played quite often including notable New Year's Eve shows from the late '80s through the mid '90s. Martyrs' is a small bar venue with good sight lines that probably holds less than 200 people. Freddy Jones surely played Martyrs' back in the day but I remember seeing them upstairs at the now defunct Wrigleyside on Clark St. just south of Wrigley. One of the numerous attractions of the Wrigleyside was that Cindy Crawford occasionally hung out there when she visited friends in the neighborhood, she also claimed it as a college bar from her days at Northwestern, seven miles north. The guys from Freddy Jones lived in Wrigleyville at the time and are all pretty good guys as is Frank Orvall. For what it's worth Poi Dog, Freddy Jones and Abra Moore are all on my iPod.

I do not know if Poi Dog still performing with the House-O-Matic dance group shown in this video:



Here is some recent video of Daydream by Freddy Jones:

Sell the Picasso!

Click to Enlarge.
Photograph Copyright is held by: Flying Debris


In January of 2005 the City of Chicago sold the Chicago Skyway in order to raise funds, last week the City Council voted to raise a variety of taxes and fees in order to raise funds and Friday's papers had stories about the city selling Midway Airport in order to raise funds. What's next? The suggestion of selling the famous Picasso sculpture in front of City Hall was only in jest, but one must really ask, what is next?

The upside is that those institutions will surely be better managed and they won't be saddled with political hiring, poorly negotiated union contracts, contracted supplies from some politico's cousin... Hey, maybe they could privatize Streets and Sanitation.

The above photo was taken from the Chicago Temple Building during the August 1967 unveiling of the Picasso sculpture in Chicago's Civic Center Plaza. The photo was taken by my father at a critical moment of the unveiling, the cloak had hung up on the sculpture and Mayor Daley (the First) was seen ordering the assembled aldermanic dignitaries to free the snagged fabric. The photo was snapped as the Aldermen raced to free the snagged cloak.

Thanks to the wonderful Dr. Sanity for inclusion in her Carnival of Insanities again this week. Go read her blog and support her "lavish blogging lifestyle"!

If You Have to Steal a Vehicle - Avoid Anything With a Trailer - UPDATE

I was just walking through Chicago's West Lincoln Park a few minutes ago when I came across this scene, a guy stole a truck with a trailer on it, got in to a Police chase and ran in to a Toyota at the intersection of Ashland and Wrightwood. From the number of cops on the scene I'm going to figure that this may not work out so well for the car thief.

Correction: the red car is a Dodge Avenger

Copyright for the photos: Flying Debris

UPDATE: Well the story was stranger than I thought, a guy was trying to steal a Bobcat from a construction site north of Wrightwood, that is why he had a trailer, I also just missed him attmpting to drag people out of cars, plus I missed helping the cops pin the guy down. Check out this Sun Times story:

As an officer got the man out of the Bobcat, the man shoved the officer, jumped into his pickup truck and tried to speed off down an alley in the 2800 block of North Ashland Avenue. A squad car blocked the south entrance of the alley so the man sped north, plowing into the front end of another squad car, the lieutenant said.

The squad car sustained “extensive damage” when it was rammed out onto West Wolfram Street about 100 feet.

After ramming the squad car, the truck took off south down Ashland Avenue.

Two officers were “shaken up” and were taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

One officer was able to get out of the squad car and pursue the truck on foot. Another squad car saw the officer, picked him up and continued the pursuit, the lieutenant said.

The truck was slowed down by increasing traffic with the squad car about two blocks behind, so the man tried to go through a red light at Ashland and Wrightwood avenues, but he T-boned one car and slammed head-on into another car. The first car sustained extensive damage.

The man then got out of the truck and tried to pull someone out of a car to steal it, but the person fought back and the man moved onto another car. A second person resisted the man’s efforts, and the squad car was able to catch up to the man.

The man aggressively tried to stop the two officers from handcuffing him, but with the help of four civilians, the officers took the man down to the ground and handcuff him, according to the lieutenant.

CTA Back on the Rails

The CTA posted a notice on their website at 6:15 AM this morning that the rail lines are back up and running.

CTA Rerouted Downtown!

The Tribune is reporting that a crane accident downtown has rerouted all el service south of Belmont on the Brown Line but due to previously scheduled construction the Red Line is running on part of the Brown Line route through the loop (it is running over Van Buren and over Wells) and all of the North Side south of Fullerton.