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ART

Rafacz Gallery Restores Storefront

Andrew Rafacz Gallery posts video of the build-out of its storefront on its Instagram stories, including news of “Nocturne,” the show opening December 16. (More here.)

DESIGN

Times Surveys Chicago Architectural Biennial

“A central aim of this citywide Biennial, titled ‘This Is a Rehearsal’ by Faheem Majeed and his Floating Museum co-directors Avery R. Young, Andrew Schachman and Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford, is to use its $2.3 million budget to develop new programs and partnerships across Chicago, or bolster existing ones, so they can live on after the exhibition ends in February,” writes Christopher Hawthorne at the New York Times (free link). “In Chicago, the Floating Museum winds up stretching architecture’s net in so many directions that it begins to fray, or at least to appear rather thin on the ground. The show’s sites are far-flung, with the emphasis on flung.”

One Of Illinois’ Last Covered Bridges Smashed By Truck

The 160-year-old Red Covered Bridge outside Princeton was severely damaged by a truck, reports the Tribune. “Generations of children used to jump from gaps in its red-clad cedar siding for a swim on hot summer days, or ice skate in its shadow when the creek froze for the winter. Today, it serves as a backdrop for wedding and graduation photos. Its image is used to draw visitors to Princeton, population 7,800, and the surrounding county, 115 miles west of Chicago… But the future of the local landmark—believed to be one of only five nineteenth century covered bridges left in Illinois—is uncertain. On November 16, despite multiple signs warning against doing so, the driver of an eighteen-wheeler tried to cross the bridge, causing extensive damage to the structure.”

Google Starts Deleting Unused Accounts

“Beginning Friday, Google is moving ahead with its plan to delete accounts that have been inactive for at least two years,” reports CNN. “Google accounts include everything from Gmail to Docs to Drive to Photos, meaning all content sitting across an inactive user’s Google suite is at risk of erasure.”

DINING & DRINKING

Terra e Mare Opens In South Loop

Terra e Mare, a modern Italian restaurant from Chef Noah Zamler (Irene’s Finer Diner) is opening in the South Loop. Terra e Mare, or “the land and the sea,” is a dream concept for Zamler, incorporating a family pasta-making legacy, lessons learned from living abroad in Rome, and his personal penchant for cacio e pepe. Zamler says he will source the finest seasonal ingredients by partnering with small, independently operated farms and purveyors like Nichols Farms, Slagel Farms, Urban Produce and Mick Klug Farms. Spuntini, or snacks, at Terra e Mare include dishes like Burrata, Salumi e Fromaggi and Beef Tartare with egg yolk jam, greens and capers served with sourdough. Tasty Instagram here.

Calumet Fisheries Intends To Rebuild; Shack Imperiled?

“Facing almost a month of lost revenue during the earlier closure, the [seventy-five-year-old seafood] restaurant almost didn’t reopen, [co-owner Mark] Kotlick said, [citing] his employees and ‘phenomenal’ customers for keeping the business afloat,” reports the Sun-Times. “‘I’m ready to move on,’ Kotlick said. ‘We just hope to continue to provide the Southeast Side with probably the best seafood in the U.S.’”

Texas Closes Oyster Reefs

“For the second year in a row, Texas has closed the majority of its public oyster reefs for harvesting due to declining populations,” reports Reuters. “Wildlife officials say these dwindling numbers are caused by extreme weather events fueled by climate change, as well as by overharvesting.”

Fast Food Isn’t Cheap Food Anymore; McD’s Looks To China

“McDonald’s menu prices are up about ten-percent this year,” reports Business Insider. “That’s on top of a ten-percent bump last year. Chipotle has raised prices five times since June 2021. Despite slowing inflation, analysts say fast-food chains won’t dial back prices… The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that fast-food prices in October jumped 6.2% over the past twelve months.” Some people who are often online “are fuming over skyrocketing fast-food prices and expressing their concern on social-media platforms such as TikTok and Reddit.”

Chicago-headquartered McDonald’s looks toward China, reports CNBC, buying out its joint venture with The Carlyle Group. “McDonald’s is increasing its minority stake in its China business from twenty-percent to forty-eight-percent. In 2017, the fast-food giant sold control of its restaurants in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao to Carlyle and [state-owned] Citic. In the five years since then, McDonald’s has doubled its footprint in China to more than 5,500, making the market its second-largest by number of locations.”

New Glarus Brewing Celebrates Three Decades In Wisconsin

New Glarus “is the twelfth-largest craft brewery in the country, even though its twenty beers are only sold within the state’s borders,” reports Wisconsin State Journal. The business, “with 125 year-round employees, is one of the most mature craft breweries in the country at a time when brewers are battling to find shelf space in retailers and tap lines and cooler space in bars and restaurants. When New Glarus began brewing in November 1993, there were only 110 microbreweries in the entire country, and the beer market was dominated by players like Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors.”

FILM & TELEVISION

Andy Davis On Why They Won’t Make A “Fugitive” Thirty Years Later

Andrew Davis’ “The Fugitive” “didn’t set out to be the third-highest-grossing film of 1993 or an awards darling,” writes the Hollywood Reporter. “Warner Bros. merely strove for a base hit, as opposed to swinging for the fences, and that philosophy ties into why the major studios no longer [make a priority of] films with [its] scope and scale.” Says Davis, “I wanted to put the St. Patrick’s Day parade in my first movie, ‘Stony Island,’ which is also being rereleased, but I couldn’t do it because Mayor Daley died, and so I shot his funeral instead… We had a chase through City Hall, and I couldn’t have it end just with Tommy going, “Oh my God, he got away.” I had to continue, and we couldn’t do a ‘French Connection’ car chase.”

“And so I knew that the St. Patrick’s Day parade was coming and that it would be a perfect and wonderful way to get lost in the fabric of Chicago. We then got the Plumber’s Union to agree to let us get involved in it, and I don’t think the city really knew what we were doing. We were so invisible. We had a Steadicam and a couple cameras hidden here and there, so we just joined the crowd and Harrison grabbed a hat and put it on. It was very, very much of the moment and also very cold. And I love the fact that Harrison walks off into the crowd and then the camera pans back to Tommy jumping up and down, still looking for him. So it was wonderful, and to hear the real sound of those bagpipes was fantastic.”

MEDIA

Mike Royko’s “Condo Man” Unit Rehabbed

“The condo where legendary newspaper columnist Mike Royko lived in the early 1980s, describing himself as ‘Condo Man’ before reverting to his traditional ‘Bungalow Man’ persona, is on the market after an extensive rehab,” reports Crain’s.”The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist lived on Lake Shore Drive in the early 1980s, observing characters he called Jogging Man and Singles Bar Man.” Asking? $1.4 million.

Popular Science Out Of Print After 151 Years

“Popular Science magazine shifted to an all-digital format a couple of years ago, and now even that’s gone,” reports the Verge. “PopSci, which cover[ed] the fields of science, technology, and nature, published its first issue in 1872… The magazine switched to a quarterly publication in 2018 and [did] away with physical copies after 2020… In a post on LinkedIn, former PopSci editor Purbita Saha commented on the magazine’s discontinuation, stating she’s ‘frustrated, incensed, and appalled that the owners shut down a pioneering publication that’s adapted to 151 years worth of changes in the space of a five-minute Zoom call.’”

MUSIC

First Major Event At Ramova Will Be “Pleasure Palace: A Slo ‘Mo NYE”

Slo ‘Mo’s Pleasure Palace NYE has been announced as the first major event at the new 1,500-seat Ramova Theatre, “and we are proud to usher in the new era with our femme-forward, queer-centered, joy-generating approach to performance and parties,” the group newsletters.”Enter 2024 with a roar at Slo ‘Mo’s New Year’s Eve bash at the historic Ramova Theatre as we transform it into our own Pleasure Palace for one night only. In the 1920s, cultural enclaves from Berlin to Bronzeville in Chicago were exploding with creativity that would define the era and genres of music and dance that endure.”

“A century later, we pay homage to those spaces, tapping into the lavish and creatively explosive era while lifting up the legacies of Black, queer, and femme icons. The grand evening will feature a live jazz band like those found in the era’s clubs and speakeasies, musically directed by Akenya, with  dance performances choreographed by Empress Darling Shear and DJ sets by Slo ‘Mo’s VITIGRRL & Icey Bby. The grand affair is hosted by our party matriarchs, Your Godmutha & Party Mom.” More here. Tickets here.

Blues Drummer Willie “The Touch” Hayes Was Seventy-Three

Willie Hayes, “a prodigy on the drums from a young age, began touring with professional musicians at sixteen,” reports Mitch Dudek at the Sun-Times. He played “with Mighty Joe Young and Koko Taylor by the time he was fourteen. At age sixteen, he went on the road with Magic Sam… Mr. Hayes, who focused on blues, jazz, funk and R&B, also played with Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, Son Seals, Lurrie Bell, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, the Temptations, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells… He also did a stint with Ike and Tina Turner.”

STAGE

Cleveland Ballet CEO Resigns Amid Allegations

“Michael Krasnyansky, president and CEO of Cleveland Ballet, has resigned just one week after the organization’s Board of Directors commissioned an independent investigation into ‘serious workplace allegations’ at the non-profit dance company,” reports Cleveland.com. “The board had suspended Krasnyansky and his wife, artistic director Gladisa Guadalupe, pending results of the investigation. Neither the board nor the ballet company has specified the nature of the allegations.”

Another Look At Chicago’s Performing Arts Struggle

“Most of the performing arts in Chicago are housed in nonprofit organizations that depend on the generosity of individual donors, corporations and foundations. Yet in the pandemic years following the murder of George Floyd, companies shifted dollars to social justice causes, arts executives say. Others have focused on the environment and sustainability. The money coming in isn’t keeping pace with inflation,” Crain’s reports in an extended takeout.

“Particularly troubling for performing arts organizations is the decline in subscriptions—down twenty-six-percent between 2019 and 2022, according to the DCASE study. Subscription revenue is money in the bank at the beginning of the season—revenue the theater can count on, notes the Goodman’s Roche Schulfer. Without that cushion, a theater has to boost marketing to sell single tickets. In the long run, dependence on single-ticket sales is likely to make artistic directors more risk-averse.”

ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.

Overnight Parking Ban Begins Friday

“The city’s winter overnight parking ban begins Friday and will be in effect through April 1,” relays Block Club. “The Department of Streets and Sanitation will enforce the ban, regardless of snow, 3am-7am daily on 107 miles of main streets… Cars left parked on designated roadways will be towed, and drivers will face a minimum $150 towing fee, $60 ticket and storage fee of $25 per day.”

American Billionaires Building Escape City In Honduras

American billionaires are building a libertarian city-state in Honduras to evade democratic constraints, reports Jacobin. ” As progressive president Xiomara Castro resists their efforts, the Peter Thiel–backed firm Próspera is suing the country for restraining its profits… Honduras Próspera is a U.S. company started by a group of extreme libertarians, backed by Thiel and former World Bank chief economist Paul Romer. The idea was simple. The group would establish a private government on the Honduran island of Roatán, allowing them to implement a libertarian free market utopia—the success of which, they hoped, would undermine big government everywhere.” (Meanwhile, Thiel’s Palantir has gotten a $415 million contract to take over the patient data of Britain’s National Health Service.)

Telecoms Not Keeping Up With Communications For Increasing “Life-Threatening” Events

“Public advocates say telecom companies aren’t meeting standards designed to keep phones and internet working during disasters,” reports The Lever. “Climate-worsened disasters are making communication systems more vulnerable to failure, and not only in California. In Maui, thousands of people lost cell service during a devastating wildfire in August, complicating emergency evacuations.”

Railroad Industry Intimidates Employees Into Putting Speed Before Safety

“Railroad companies have penalized workers for taking the time to make needed repairs and created a culture in which supervisors threaten and fire the very people hired to keep trains running safely. Regulators say they can’t stop this intimidation,” relays ProPublica in a major report.

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