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A colleague of mine at F Newsmagazine recently found this curious and alarming bit of information — and it’s such a shocking and bizarre story that I feel I have to share it here. This information originally came from the American Journal of Public Health, though at this point my source is via the Center [...]

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On August 5 we ran a short post with links related to the late Brendan Scanlon (aka Solve), Chicago street artist who was murdered on June 14, 2008. I mentioned in the post that the shrine to Solve — on the side of a building at Grand Avenue at Milwaukee Avenue — had been torn [...]

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The United States might be staring down the seasonal gauntlet of a mighty freezing winter for 2008-2009, but it’s not TECHNICALLY the Farmers’ fault.
Or is it?
After all, there’s nothing wrong with shooting the messenger.
The Farmers’ Almanac has predicted a particularly chilly one coming right around the corner:
LEWISTON, Maine - People worried about the high cost [...]

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Northwestern University, Evanston… this photo was captured in the rain on Friday 22 August 2008. I know Chicago has THE LAKE so no one is too worried about excess water consumption.
But sometimes I see things that make me, a water-saving obsessed Australian, weep.
Is the fresh-water goodness of Lake Michigan really a never ending resource? Not [...]

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Two parents overheard on the 12th floor of the Sullivan Center:
Father: “…. It’s scary!”
Mother: “Well, Tom, at some point we just have to realize - they’re people too.

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I found out about CHIRP: Chicago Independent Radio Project at the recent Wicker Park Festival, ostensibly because I went up to their table to grab a freebie bottle opener. But any independent radio action is worth knowing about, so I’m finding out a little more:
Chirp is planning to launch an online radio station this fall, [...]

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An article on August 20 in the Chicago Sun Times suggested that Chicago Tribune Co-Chairman and media mogul Sam Zell was considering selling the Tribune Building to a residential developer (not simply arrange a sale-leaseback deal, which was the former plan). Apparently about 1/3 of the building is empty presently, and as the Chicago Tribune [...]

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The next Chicago Critical Mass is on Friday, August 29, starting at 5.30 p.m. at Daley Plaza. I’m going. You should come too. Does anyone know any skilled web developers who would like to spare some time to fix up Chicago Critical Mass’ website? It needs a makeover.
Happy Friday!
- Jesse Stein (photo of April 2008 [...]

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Oh how the mighty have fallen.
After climbing up on my moral-highground-environmentalist-dead-keen-recycler-pedestal to write about recycling in Chicago (see one of my recycling articles here) and about the changes to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s recycling contractor (see that article here) … I now find myself committing a cardinal sin of anti-recycling badness.
You [...]

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The next print issue of F Newsmagazine is due out in the beginning of September.
Ok, I’m not going to give too much away … but it’s going to be quite an entertaining issue, especially for new students to SAIC.
As the annual DISORIENTATION orientation issue, it will include everything from

An interview with the new President of [...]

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Sigh. I just saw Michael Phelps break another World Record. It’s a bit like putting some toast in the toaster and KNOWING it will come out toasty. Except this piece of toast goes really fast and has funny ears.
But it got me thinking…
If every year - or every four years - a bunch of World [...]

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Photograph taken by John Deal, for Strange Maps http://strangemaps.wordpress.com

One of my all-time favorite blogs, Strange Maps, has recently run a post about TV set news background maps-of-the-world, and how truly awful they can be. I’m so enamored by this blog, and by this particularly delightful post, that I am doing the worst thing a blogger [...]

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I have been living in the U.S. for a year now, but I still find I regularly encounter communication challenges in terms of translating American-English to English-English or Australian-English, and visa-versa.
And then there is Australian slang. This last week has been particularly bad, which involved me having lengthy, befuddling discussions with people about abattoirs (slaughterhouses) [...]

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If you’re missing the street art of Brendan Scanlon (aka Solve), there are a bunch of Flickr photo-streams that have recorded much of his work, including a shrine to Solve that was at the corner of Grand and Milwaukee (the shrine is currently destroyed - pulled off and/or over-painted with brown paint - but it [...]

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A little story to remind us that public transport sucks in other cities too, not just in Chicago…
SYDNEY — 6 June. That was a Tuesday. Usually the moments set aside for paper correspondance happen on trains, but this time, it’s far too crowded to write. I will write this later, at breakfast on Wednesday, sitting [...]

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Strange times this lunchtime. I was waiting in line at Under 55 (that’s the underground food hall of 55 E. Monroe St, Chicago - which is a regular haunt for downtown 9 to 5-ers in the Loop, and occasionally an ill-fitting assortment of SAIC students buying sushi… ) in any case, I was waiting [...]

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A pattern is beginning to emerge…

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Here are a few shots and a little footage from Lollapalooza day 1, August 1 2008.

Stephen Malkmus appears to have a headache

Kele Okereke (Bloc Party) dons some Obama support, and is one of the many lead singers to say “Um. We’re from England…”
This has got to be the first time that I’d heard a [...]

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