How would you like to schmooze with the city's culinary elite?‚ Perhaps sample nibbles from the area's best pastry chefs and imbibe in the handiwork of a few good mixologists?‚ If you're hungry - and creative - I'm giving you a chance to score two free tickets to the‚ "Dine Around"‚ portion of the‚ Meals on Wheels Chicago Chef's Ball on October 15th, at‚ Macy's on State Street.‚
Zoë Jakes of Beats Antique
Though Riot Fest is the most exciting show looming on the horizon at the moment, there's plenty of fine noise in the clubs this weekend before that punk-rock smorgasbord gets underway in the middle of next week.
Robservations on the media beat:
Mark Edwards
In truth, I started this project several years ago. When I began then by surveying my immediate neighborhood for potential interviewees, I stumbled across a building just two blocks away that I had never noticed before, marked by elaborate and unusual stonework. The Cambodian Association of Illinois. Those of you familiar with my work in Cambodia over the past three years know that walking into it, and meeting Leon Lim, were life-changing experiences for me.
So I’m bending the rules for Leon Lim, a high-school teacher (although one could argue that Studs only ever intended to eliminate college professors from his purview of Chicagoans) and volunteer at CAI. Since I first spoke to him a few years ago, he’s done some amazing things. So, for that matter, has CAI. And Cambodia. But I can tell you about that later. First I want you to meet Mr. Lim.
Back in 1981, I volunteered to help this organization, The Cambodian Association of Illinois. Then I became the board president in 1998, when we bought this building.
He is a quiet unassuming man, thin, with dark hair and a quick smile. He dresses impeccably, a pressed button-down shirt and neat pants, and you need to lean in to hear him.
The old office is on Lawrence, too, but near Kenmore, the Uptown area—the 15-something, I forget the address. We bought this building in 1998.
Legendary film director Arthur Penn should have made more films in Chicago.
Penn, who died yesterday at age 88, is best known for the 1967 film Bonnie & Clyde–and its infamous ending. But two years earlier, Penn and his Clyde co-star Warren Beatty, took to the streets of Chicago for the acclaimed, if now seldom-seen, Mickey One. In the film, Beatty plays a nightclub comic who runs afoul of the Detroit mob–and does not know how he did–and flees to Chicago.
Mat Devine
Continuing the round-up of curious tidbits of local news and hot on the heels of yesterday's Pete Wentz post, we have the headline of another Chicago semi-celeb musician branching out with a different high-profile detour: Mat Devine, leader of veteran glam-pop band Kill Hannah, has landed a role in "SPIDER-MAN Turn Off the Dark," the big-budget Broadway rocktacular based on the Marvel comic, directed by Hollywood heavyweight Julie Taymor, and scored by (insert breathless exclamation here!) Bono and the Edge. According to Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt), he's playing the role of Vladimir Kravinoff/Grim Hunter. Er, right, sure"¦ I can see that.
Seriously now, how many people could successfully create and launch a national television network in this economy while simultaneously overseeing a top-rated and top-billing major market TV station?
Emily Barr
Exactly one: Emily Barr, closing in on her 14th‚ year as president and general manager of ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7, also is the impresario of Live Well Network, the HD lineup of original programming designed for local stations' digital-tier channels and for online and mobile apps.
