WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Except for a fascination with Tetris that started back in the early ’90s—I dig geometric challenges, and there used to be one of those big arcade versions in the main room at 7^th Street Entry/First Avenue that was ideal for killing time between sets when I lived in Minneapolis and frequented that legendary club—I’ve never been big on videogames. I like to have something to show for my efforts, even when I’m wasting time goofing around, and the high score doesn’t really count.

And don’t even get me started on “Rock Band” or “Guitar Hero.” (The real thing is infinitely better, kids!)

Yet for all of the attention that reviewers and fans have paid to the vintage gamer references running throughout the film and the mix of digital arcade and graphic novel aesthetics that give it such a unique look, “Scott Pilgrim vs.

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While the jury of Rod Blagojevich's peers may have left a lot of people disappointed, Chicago's big five television news organizations performed their duties admirably, blanketing the airwaves with live, compelling and, for the most part, commercial-free coverage for close to three hours Tuesday afternoon.

^{lagojevich talks to reporters after verdict}

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Mark Saves Summer (photo by Mark Munger)

The summer-a-sault

If I'm not mistaken, summer comes to an end because our part of the earth tilts away from the sun.  I'm no scientist, but my guess is that this happens because all those darned kangaroos in Australia keep jumping up and down in an endless assault on the bottom half of this world, forcing it to lean in the other direction.

As I often do, I found myself puzzling over ways we could prevent the kangaroos from trampling over our summer. I thought that, in the interest of not freezing, we could organize our own Summer-a-sault. I figure that if all of us jump at one time, we can save ourselves from the trials of yet another steely cold winter. Given my own research, the best time for this would be right after dinner. . . say. . . 7:30.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

The city never sleeps. But it keeps one eye open at night, rather than two--meaning Chicago doesn't exactly roll up its sidewalks at night, but it comes close, particularly downtown.

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Here is part two of my recent chat with Chicago musician David Singer, who shares his experiences working with Steppenwolf, as well as some thoughts on indie labels vs. D.I.Y.

Singer celebrates the release of his new album “Arrows” with a show at Lincoln Hall at 8 p.m. on Thursday. (Tickets are $12, and the Interiors and Nelken open.)

Q. Let’s talk about Steppenwolf and August: Osage County. How did the scoring thing started?

A. Anna Shapiro, who is a local director of some renown, knows my music pretty well. She used songs of mine in shows of hers previously at Steppenwolf, Northwestern, and other places. She and I always talked about working together, and a show was coming up—August: Osage County –and I know [playwright] Tracy [Letts] a bit, too.

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I always enjoyed following Anupy Singla's career over the eight years she worked for Tribune Co.-owned CLTV and WGN-Channel 9, and the four years before that she worked for Bloomberg News. You don't forget a name like Anupy Singla.

^{Anupy Singla}

So I was delighted to hear that Chicago's first Indian-American news anchor is getting back in business after taking a few years off to raise her two daughters and transform herself into a food expert and author.

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