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Late in the day Tuesday, as the “storm of the century” bore down on Chicago, the Daley Administration unleashed a small blizzard of its own—one of inexplicable b.s.—as it announced its rejection of the bid it had asked for to privatize Chicago’s Grant Park music festivals.

The Tribune broke the news that the city has turned its back on the one and only bid to privatize Taste of Chicago, the Blues Festival, and the five other free music festivals submitted by a world-class partnership consisting of the Illinois Restaurant Association, Chicago-based concert promoters Jam Productions, and national concert promoters AEG Worldwide.

That trio’s vision: To remake the Chicago events into something the Windy City could be proud of, akin to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (which AEG co-promotes) or Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

And, really, how is it that freaking Milwaukee has a better summer concert festival than Chicago, which ranks beside New Orleans and Austin as the finest live music city in America?

Oh, wait: Milwaukee charges for Summerfest, and Mayor Daley is saying that the reason that Celebrate Chicago’s proposal was rejected was that the festivals must remain free.

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As noted prior to yesterday’s short self-promotional blog blurb and mentioned in my Desert Island Jukebox pick on last week’s “Sound Opinions,” I’ve spent the tail end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 in moving hell. At some point amid all the packing and hauling, I calculated that this was my 14th move since the age of 22, and let me tell you, in the intervening two and a half decades, a lot of crap has accumulated from this job of rock critic, not the least of which are several hundred books and tens of thousands of CDs (plus LPs, 45s, and even cassettes—still!). And the only thing I can think of that’s worse than moving all of them in general is moving them in Chicago in January.

It seemed like a good idea at the time when Vortis took a gig last Friday at Cal’s, a lone outpost of weirdness in the staid business district of the Loop, grungey bike messenger bar by day and even grungier punk-rock dive by night, and pretty much the Vortis definition of paradise 24/7.

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 Still struggling to return to the land of the living after spending the first few weeks of 2011 dealing with the hell of an unexpected move—hence the infrequency of my blog posts of late—I’ll be taking part in a fun event tonight at Schubas, and it’s one that I’d be plugging even if I wasn’t involved.

“First Car” is the latest installment of the Chicago Independent Radio Project (a.k.a.

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When the news broke Wednesday morning that Lois Weisberg is resigning as commissioner of the newly merged office of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, it came as a shock—not so much because Chicago’s legendary empress of the arts isn’t ready for retirement (she is 85 years old), but because of the thorny comments she made in her announcement about the merger of her department and the Mayor's Office of Special Events and the Daley administration's push to privatize the city music festivals.  (As far as I can tell, none of the local news organizations have run that statement in its entirety; I’ve tacked it on here at the end of this post.)

Well, if you thought Weisberg was unusually outspoken for a veteran political operative in that press release, read on to see what she said to this reporter during a long and frank interview this morning, the transcript of which follows unedited and in its entirety.

Q. Hello, Lois. How are you?

A. Good; how are you, Jim? I’m sorry to have put you through this, not being able to talk to you, but I just couldn’t talk to you. I did not have the information that I needed.

Q. I’m sorry to have been harassing you; I was just trying to do my job.

A.

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As reported yesterday, Mayor Richard M. Daley shot down the proposal by Celebrate Chicago to charge admission at Taste of Chicago, condemning the idea of an admission fee in no uncertain terms--"The Taste of Chicago will always be free”--and once again showing his complete and utter disdain for music in the process: "We’re not into music."

But I went back to comments he made in November in a Sun-Times piece I've linked to before, and he was singing a different song then:

Mayor Daley said Wednesday he plans to forge ahead with his plan to privatize Taste of Chicago -- even if a private operator imposes an admission fee.

"You have to. The cost factor was enormous for Taste of Chicago. No one made any money," the mayor told reporters after a City Council meeting.

Daley said he has "no idea" how high the entrance fee would be or whether a private operator would impose one at all on Taste patrons.

But, he said, "If it costs you more and more money every year for city services, how are you affording this- We're laying people off.

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So spoketh the mayor a few hours ago when announcing that he firmly opposes the plan by Celebrate Chicago, the only bidder to respond to the city's request for proposals to privatize the seven free city-run summer music festivals, to charge for those events. "The Taste of Chicago will always be free,” the mayor said, seemingly ignoring the fact that his tenure in office now can be measured in weeks instead of decades.

Actually, Mr.

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UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL ON THE PRICING PLAN TUESDAY MORNING

As this blog reported shortly after Christmas, only one bidder responded to the city’s request for proposals to privatize Taste of Chicago, the Blues Festival, and the five other (soon-to-be-formerly) free city music festivals by the 4 p.m. deadline on Dec. 27. The bidder is a company called Celebrate Chicago, LLC, but since its corporate registration has not yet been made public by the state, the specifics of the bid do not have to be made public by the city, and absolutely no one is talking, the group’s identity remained a mystery.

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