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Green City Market, Saturday, May 15th at 11:30 a.m.; 61st Street Market, Saturday, May 22nd at 11:30 a.m.

Each button will have a number, and after the events above, she will draw 25 winning numbers and post them on www.stephanieizard.com Monday, May 24th. Each winner will be‚ invited to one of the friends and family parties date TBD with a guest.

But you, loyal reader, have a chance to score two tickets to the event simply by telling me why you should go. 

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Dick Biondi still remembers when fans would stand in the alley outside his old radio studio on Michigan Avenue and yell up to him through the fifth floor window. Soon the legendary disc jockey will be able to call that spot his own.

The Chicago City Council approved a resolution Wednesday to name the area just off Lower Wacker Drive near East Lake Street and Garland Court "Dick Biondi Way." It's adjacent to the‚ 360 North Michigan Avenue building that housed the studios and offices of WLS-AM (890) for decades.‚ It also housed the famed London House night club, where top music acts of the '60s played.

Biondi, 77, who earlier this month celebrated the 50th‚ anniversary of his first broadcast on WLS, said he was overwhelmed by the honor. "That is so great," he told me just after the vote made it official.

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As the New York Times reported this morning, Chicago's "Top Chef Master" and Authentic Mexican food ambassador Rick Bayless is headed to the White House next week to cook the Obama administration's second state dinner for visiting Mexican President Felipe Calderón on May 19.

Dinner for 200 will be a challenge for the veteran, since he can't make anything ahead of time and ship it frozen (security concerns, and all). In that case, Bayless will fly back from L.A. on Sunday morning (where he's opening his first restaurant outside of Chicago Red O), prep on Sunday, then fly out to‚ D.C. first-thing Monday morning, according to his publicist Jennifer Fite, where he'll have to create just about everything there, on-site. "It's a little crazy right now," Fite told me by phone from L.A.

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(photo by Lee Bey)

The main branch of the Chicago River--that watery canyon with walls of steel and glass--gets all the attention. With its tour boats and river walks, the Main Branch is almost a second lakefront; a place so scenic, we forget the river was once a rough and tumble industrial waterway on which Chicago depended for its survival.

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Thirsty? Next week there are no excuses, especially at Small Bar (photo by Steve Dolinsky)

On the heels of the Craft Brewing Conference last month, comes "American Craft Beer Week," just in case one weekend wasn't enough for you. Beginning next Monday, and running until May 23, dozens of local brewpubs, bars and restaurants will be celebrating hand-crafted beer by hosting a number of special dinners and tasting events.

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Robservations on the media beat:

^{Bruce Wolf}

• Bruce Wolf, the veteran Chicago broadcaster and erstwhile contributor to this humble blog, has been filling in on stations all over town while seeking a regular gig. Now it looks like he has one: Starting this weekend, he'll be spewing his right-wing venom -- excuse me, discussing issues -- with co-host Dan Proft from noon to 2 p.m. Saturdays on Citadel Broadcasting news/talk WLS-AM (890). Also new to the station's lineup will be CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow, who replaces Bob Brinker's "Money Talk" from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturdays. (Brinker continues from 3 to 6 p.m. Sundays.) Never at a loss for words, Wolf said of his new role:

"I hope to make enough money from this weekend gig to buy the stations of my alma mater, Emmis Communications, which I recently read on Vocalo.org are for sale. This market needs‚ FM sports talk and‚ news talk. So‚ I would then do my own sports talk show on the Loop and political talk show‚ on WKQX at the same time (with some imaginative editing and staggering of commercials). Why would I do it? Because I can."

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Thomas Conner, a highly regarded editor and writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, has been named to succeed Jim DeRogatis as the paper's pop music critic.

DeRogatis announced his resignation last month to join the faculty of Columbia College Chicago and become a blogger for Vocalo.org. He continues as co-host of Chicago Public Radio's nationally syndicated "Sound Opinions" with Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune. Asked to comment on his new role Tuesday, Conner said:

"I've been DeRo's editor for five years here, so I know the exact size of the large shoes I'm expected to fill. But I have a fairly well-traveled pair of my own. I've been writing music criticism for (yegods) almost 20 years now, and I'm eager to embrace it again as a full-time pursuit. Of all American cities to tune into, this is the most exciting and diverse. The Sun-Times has always had its ear pretty close to the ground, and I plan to get out there and explore some street-level sounds as well as whatever lumbers into Soldier Field."

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