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^{Richard Dominick}

Could Bill Cunningham and Bubba the Love Sponge soon become the talk of the town? That's the latest word as Tribune Co. hopes to get back into the television talk show business in collaboration with Richard Dominick, former executive producer of "The Jerry Springer Show."

Sean Compton, who was promoted this week to president of programming for Tribune Broadcasting, met Wednesday with Dominick to finalize plans to tape pilots for two proposed syndicated talk shows at the studios of Tribune-owned WGN-Channel 9.

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For this week’s Intermission, we have a cartoon per tradition…but additionally, to tie in with today’s Elevating Music post, we also have a selection of short films that all feature Nick Gage’s wonderful music.

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While we're hanging together around the comment-section-campfire this week, I thought I'd use this week's Elevating Music slot to share something brand new on my end created by my favorite musician: Nick Gage.

Some of you had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Nick play at our "going nowhere fast" subway expedition. Many (as in many) of my short films feature/showcase Nick's music. So when it became clear to me a couple weeks ago that I needed a sort of soundtrack for my new website and general work/book stuff, I rang up Dear Mister Nick.

Here's what we're calling The Yellow Umbrella Music Video.

And now turn your gaze back to the comment section over there on the left...and keep trading those good luck wishes!

amy

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I just noticed--really noticed--Trump Tower in recent weeks.

It's not that I hadn't been aware of the building. I had been. Acutely so. I was part of untold early design meetings about Trump Tower when I was deputy chief of staff to Mayor Daley in the early 2000s. And then I worked for SOM, designers of the tower, after leaving the mayor's office and was an in-house adviser on the project. While at SOM, I was there with Donald Trump, Bill Rancic and seemingly half the world in 2004 when the wrecking crew took the first swings the building that previously occupied the site--the old Chicago Sun-Times building where previously I'd spent almost 9 years as a journalist. Believe me: I was all too aware.

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Pastries from Pastel (from left: choc pecan tart, mango-strawberry mousse, cajeta-ringed flan)

Cruising down South Pulaski, in the Archer Heights neighborhood recently, I had goat on the brain. Specifically, the wonderfully tender birria from Zaragoza. I was on my way down to do one of my Tuesday "Something You Should Eat" reports. I parked the car about a block North of the restaurant, in front of the most charming little bakery, Pastel Cakes and More. The simple brown awning out front belies the incredibly meticulous pastries inside. Maria Muniz is a graduate of the prestigious French Pastry School downtown and like many of her former classmates, she has now bestowed her culinary skills on the neighborhood she was raised in.

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^{Jim Kirk}

For an enterprise that's supposed to be all about taking a "fresh, innovative approach" and creating a brand new model for journalism, the Chicago News Cooperative continues to look a lot more like a job haven for former Chicago Tribune editors and writers.

Although it's a charge that's plagued the CNC since its startup last fall, the addition this week of Jim Kirk as managing editor adds yet another Tribune alum to a staff that includes Jim O'Shea, David Greising, James Warren, Dan McGrath, Marshall Froker, Tony Majeri, Dan Mihalopoulos, José Moré, Bill Parker, Jessica Reaves and Don Terry, among other expatriates from the regime of former editor Ann Marie Lipinski (who also happens to be a member of the CNC's advisory board.)

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(photo by Lee Bey)

A few months ago, I watched an architecture jury lavish praise on an out-of-town adaptive reuse project that turned an old factory into residences.

"Adaptive reuse" has been a hot term in architecture circles for a while now, even more so among the green element of the field. But recycling a building is old hat in the 'hood, where structures built for one purpose have had to morph into other uses, sometimes out of financial necessity. For decade after decade on the South and West sides, banks routinely become funeral homes; restaurants become medical offices, car dealerships become churches, and so on.The historic former Chicago Defender Building at 35th and Indiana was once a synagogue.

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