Even after the phenomenal worldwide success of Kanye West, in recent years Chicago hip-hop took a back seat to the sounds coming from the left and right coasts, as well as the Dirty South. You know the knock: The Windy City is the home of backpackers, granola-eating hippies and feel-good rappers like Common, Rhymefest, Lupe Fiasco, the Cool Kids, Kid Sister and Psalm One who, even if skeptics begrudgingly granted their skills, just weren’t “real hip-hop.”
It took more than three years for controversial venue owner Erineo “Eddie” Carranza to frustrate Ald. Proco “Joe” Moreno and anger Logan Square residents to the point where they have dragged the troubled Congress Theater into “Deleterious Impact/Public Nuisance” hearings with the city.
It took only three weeks from the time Carranza bought the Portage Theater to similarly turn residents of Six Corners and Ald. John Arena against him.
On Friday, Carranza served a five-day eviction notice to the much-loved current operators of the Portage, who have for years offered an eclectic bill of independent films at the 1920s-vintage theater.
UPDATE SUNDAY MORNING
Contradicting promises he made to neighbors and city officials, controversial venue owner Erineo “Eddie” Carranza has served a five-day eviction notice to the much-admired operators of the Portage Theater.
Sources say Carranza, who also owns the troubled Congress Theater in Logan Square, served notice Wednesday Friday to the operators of the Portage, which he bought on Sept. 1 for a figure a source familiar with the deal put at close to $3 million.
Partnering with hardcore film buffs in organizations such as the Silent Film Society of Chicago and the Northwest Chicago Film Society, David Dziedzic and the management team currently in place at the Portage have for years offered a rich calendar of eclectic film programming.
Despite his attorney’s talk of entrapment and claim that “This case stinks,” a suburban teen accused of trying to blow up a Loop bar was ordered on Thursday to be held without the possibility of release on bail pending trial on charges that could bring life imprisonment.
Today, alleged Hillside jihadist Adel Daoud turned 19.
I’m way late in commenting on the absurdity of Daoud choosing Cal’s—arguably more friendly to revolutionary sentiments than any other rock club in Chicago—as the perfect target to strike a blow against the West. According to the FBI, the would-be terrorist chose the place as epitomizing “the evilest people” and biggest enemies of Islam because “it’s a bar, it’s a liquor store, it’s a concert—all in one bundle.”
And here I always thought it was just a lovably grungy dive beloved of messenger bikers by day and punk-rockers by night.
Most critics and worshipful fans (which usually are one and the same) take ol’ Bobby Zimmerman way too seriously.
Yeah, sure, of course: At age 71, marking his 50th year as a recording artist and with 35 studio albums to his credit, the man from Minnesota is a living legend and a bona fide American treasure certain to be lauded and studied in the decades to come as intensely as, say, Mark Twain or H.L. Mencken. But as with those two literary lions, Dylan’s sense of humor will be a primary reason his work endures, even if too few mention that now.
The musician’s love of surrealism by way of Beat sarcasm has been there throughout his entire time in the spotlight, via his consistent embrace of the perverse and the unpredictable and a razor-sharp wit so dry and subtle that many never catch it at all. As if making one final bid to get folks to lighten up and realize that much of the time he’s just been having fun, he’s amplified the “goof quotient” in many of the songs on his last few albums—and not always with great results.
It’s official: As of a week ago Friday, Erineo “Eddie” Carranza, owner and operator of the embattled Congress Theater in Logan Square, now also owns the Portage Theater, that 1,325-seat gem of a 1920s movie palace at Six Corners on the city’s Northwest Side.
But what does he want to do with it? And, given the many complaints from the community and city officials about the way he’s running the Congress, what can his new neighbors and fans of the Portage expect?
Carranza was typically uncommunicative when I traded emails with him yesterday. Though this blogger has done five stories totaling more than 10,000 words about the Congress since March, he started by asking what media organization I worked for. (Um, that would be WBEZ/Chicago Public Media.)
“Have you ever been to Portage Theater?” Carranza responded.
Sure, many times.
