WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Update: Watch this event live on UChicagoLive on Tuesday night: http://www.facebook.com/uchicago?sk=app_191025314254993

One of the reasons that I enjoy acting as a co-producer for the Off-Air events is the constant education I receive by logistically maintaining live events about obscure stuff.

Before last year, I couldn't have told you the difference between House music and Hip-Hop.  Having sat in a room with some of the legendary creators of both (as interviewed by L-vis Lives author Kevin Coval) at last year's Winter Block Party, I am now "in the know."

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If you're Ken Nordine and you've spent a lifetime producing iconic TV commercials, writing poetry, publishing books, creating art, inventing Word Jazz (broadcast Sundays at Midnight on WBEZ) and otherwise blowing our minds through path-breaking aural riffs, what do you do for an encore?

You bask in the spotlight of the 47th Annual Chicago International Film Festival.

This year, the fest will honor the 91-year-old Word Jazz host and creator Tuesday evening during a special on-stage interview and film screening with festival director Michael Kutza.

The event, dubbed An Evening with Ken Nordine, is open to the public and will feature Nordine's reflections about his lengthy career, as well as an audience Q&A.  In addition, the event promises to screen some of Nordine's video works, including his memorable Levi's ads as well as some of the many acclaimed trailers he's produced for the festival over the years.

"I'm really flattered," said Nordine during a phone conversation Monday.

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"I want to ride without suspicion in national parks. I want to get seated at chain restaurants without waiting 25 minutes or longer. I want to give people the visual comfort of harmonious, racial integration without engaging in inane chit chat. Just like we see on TV. I want to have a white man by my side to back me up in academic, political and economic arguments." - from "Purchasing Power" by Ben Marshall 

The assignment was pretty simple and open-ended.

For the WBEZ Off-Air event The Art of the Political: Can the Stage Be More Than Entertainment?, we decided to hold a panel discussion on the topic and include (in the spirit of keeping the event lively AND my own personal passion for finding ways to use my gig to help support my theatrical brothers and sisters) three ten-minute plays dealing with race and class.

The All Call went out:

All plays must be limited by the following criteria:

• Playwright must self-identify as an artist of color
• Play must be ten-minutes or less in length

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Hey blog readers! It's been awhile since we went behind the scenes of your favorite public radio news quiz, so let's catch up.

WHAT'S THE SAME?

The show still sells out every Chicago performance.  We still keep rocking' it in locales far and wide (from Portland to Nashville to Fairbanks, Alaska!).  Peter is still a cranky comic genius; Carl is still the most genial, lovely man on the planet; Paula still cracks everyone up.

This past year, the show has chugged along as NPR's most popular show and every week a little over 3 million people (I'm thinking it's like 3 million people and an eight year old nerdy kid who answers every question in class) tune in and laugh out loud in their cars as motorists around them think they've lost their minds.

Ah!  but...

WHAT'S NEW?

The year has brought in some new panelists - Maz Jobrani, Alonzo Bodden, Faith Salie, Jessi Klein and my man, Brian Babylon.  They all have their own personal style and flair and the hazing has included Amy Dickinson forcing them all to take her advice, Roy Blount, Jr.

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Yesterday, we launched the Off-Air season with Chicago Chef Battle 2011 at the Goose Island Brewery Dock.  The weather held out and the music (spun by Radio M's Tony Sarabia) was festive, the Goose Island beer and root beer was flowing, the Intelligentsia coffee was piping hot, and the food (OH! the FOOD!) was absolutely delicious.  We packed the place with WBEZ listeners and their friends and it was a gas.

But what you don't know is all the moving parts - all the ingredients that come into play to make that simple, delectable plate of pork belly taco or braised goat with your cup of Matilda - are not simple at all.

Recipe for the Chicago Chef Battle 2011

Ingredients:
An Artistic Director for the Event
Five Chefs
A Venue
Promotional Materials
Volunteer Staff
Sponsors

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Before I get into blatantly teasing you, let me thank all of our listening and web audience who managed to squeeze in to one of our capacity crowd events last season.  Whether you came out to the Goose Island Brewery Dock for Chicago Chef Battle 2010, the hysterical Alternative History of Chicago Theater (Abridged), or the thought provoking Mutants, Androids, and Cyborgs discussion at Northwestern University, your presence is what makes all the planning worthwhile.  And, if you hadn't shown up, Breeze and I would be working at a local Kinko's producing copies.  So, thanks.

Also, I'd like to welcome to our little team Jessica McCloud, the new Assistant Events Coordinator.  You'll see her at Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! as well as the Off-Air events and at our three WBEZ Community Bureaus this year.  She rocks!

As always, with Off-Air there's something for everyone (except for, perhaps, fans of NASCAR, Burning Man or Rick Perry) - the return of the Chicago Chef Battle 2011 (tickets are going FAST for this one so step it up!), The Fourth Annual Winter Block Par

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