Rahm win, inner-city Chicago both get pot shots aimed at Second City image

I couldn’t help but notice a pair of Chicago Tribune stories about entertainment industry personalities taking their shots at the public image of our fair Second City.

Jon Stewart, the actor and soon-to-be former person who anchors the “fake news” Daily Show on Comedy Central, did a commentary this week denouncing the people of Chicago.

OR AT LEAST the 56 percent of those who bothered to vote for mayor who cast their ballots for the re-election of Rahm Emanuel for another four-year term.

Does this mean the 44 percent who wanted Chuy Garcia as mayor, along with the roughly 60 percent of registered voters who didn’t bother to vote and the just over half of Chicago who aren’t even registered to vote are somehow forgiven for what was done to them in the name of Democracy?

Stewart, who in the past has mocked the idea that his entertainment-oriented program is viewed as serious news programming by anybody, said on Wednesday that Emanuel has “a terrible record and a universally recognized abrasive personality.”

Which is all true enough. Although I don’t think that, in and of itself, makes for a compelling argument of condemning Chicago as a whole for his re-election – which just about anyone with sense saw happening.

THE ONLY REAL question is with the opposition being unable to garner enough support to win the run-off election held Tuesday, why couldn’t Emanuel just get enough voter support back in the original municipal election on Feb. 24?

If it was going to be nothing more than a repeat of Rahm for “four more years,” why go through the hassle of the second election? At the very least, I’m sure the past few weeks aggravated the ulcers of a few politically-oriented Chicagoans.

Although I don’t think Chicago was really being lambasted all that much. Stewart plays his material for laughs – even if it is at the expense of public officials. Whom quite frankly are often people who are worthy of our public derision!

If anything, Stewart’s funniest line might have been at Garcia’s expense – pointing out that had he won, he’d be the fourth-most prominent Chuy in the United States. Behind the Chewbacca character, chewy granola bars and the dwarf that third-rate entertainer Chelsea Handler often uses as a punch line for her own material.

BUT I’M NOT concerned about Stewart’s blow as much as I am about the announcement that film director Spike Lee has a new Chicago-oriented project he’s making – one that will feature actor Samuel L. Jackson, along with area natives Jeremy Piven and Kanye West.

It’s going to be called “Chiraq,” as in the name that many inner-city residents have taken to using to refer to Chicago. It plays off the name “Iraq” and is meant to imply that our city’s level of street violence is comparable to the Middle East war zones where U.S. troops have died.

It may just be a movie. It may just be a work of fiction.

But Lee is invariably going to be turning public attention to the segment of Chicago that many of us like to pretend either doesn’t exist or is somehow isolated enough from the rest of us that we don’t have to think about it.

THE REV. MICHAEL Pfleger has pointed out that Lee was in Chicago at his Auburn/Gresham neighborhood parish church back in January and spent a day interviewing local residents who have to cope with street violence every day of their lives.

Regardless of how over-the-top the Spike Lee film may wind up being, there’s going to be a touch of reality reflected in the project – some of which was noted in Stewart’s denunciation of Emanuel voters.

That reality may wind up hurting us far more than any rant from Stewart; who is, after all, the clown who thinks there’s anything particularly special about pizza in New York.

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Aldermanic take on a bachelor party, what will Stephen Colbert do w/ this?

Not exactly something Jason Ervin wants to put on his campaign mailings

Be honest! Prior to a couple of days ago, who amongst you had actually heard of Jason Ervin? Or could have picked him out of a group shot of Chicago's 50 aldermen?

But now? Ervin may be the biggest-name member of the rarely-illustrious Chicago City Council, all because of that bachelor party he attended a couple of years ago -- the one that turned up on YouTube video and has some people trying to imply that he's using taxpayer dollars to pay for such sex parties!

PERSONALLY, I'M NOT all that offended. Not so much because I enjoy pornography (I find most of it tedious). But because insofar as bachelor parties go, it wasn’t that big a deal.

Scantily-clad girls exposing themselves and mimicking sexual acts. A batch of guys standing around, acting borderline stupid. (And the answer is “Yes,” I am "sworn to secrecy" about a few bachelor party activities I have witnessed during my lifetime). If it weren't for the political connection, involving an alderman who's going to be seeking re-election in next year's municipal cycle, we wouldn't care in the least.

But with WMAQ-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times reporting about this moment, we’re all supposed to get so offended at the very concept. We’re supposed to think that the “honorable” Jason Ervin of the 28^th Ward is now doomed to defeat – even before his re-election bid even begins.

For the record, it seems that back in November 2012, there was a bachelor party, held in the same building in which Ervin maintains his ward office. Not in the office, but two floors upstairs.

WHICH ISN'T UNCOMMON. Political people often rent multiple spaces within a building, with one designated the official government “office” covered by taxpayer dollars, and another space for private events. It’s part of the idea of keeping government funds from paying for non-government activities. Which this particular party most definitely was.

Like I already wrote, this party seems fairly innocuous. No acts of prostitution took place. No illicit drug use. Which we know because of the video snippet (a couple of minutes) that exists because someone decided that naked dancing girls was exactly the moment to pull out that cell phone and take some cheap video.

Which is really the only interesting aspect of this whole tawdry affair.

An alderman is seen having a naked girl dance suggestively before him. The video snippet, according to news reports, ends with a woman telling the guy to quit shooting video because it could turn up “on the Internet.”

IT SEEMS SHE was right. It did. And now, we’re supposed to be shocked and appalled. Even though by Internet standards, this video isn’t all that graphic. Video snippets on the Internet of bachelor and bachelorette parties (particularly those involving male strippers at women’s parties get more explicit to the point that I’m convinced they’re the male fantasy of what a bachelorette party ought to be like) are so graphic that I wonder how they get disseminated without violating laws against public pornography.

As for Ervin. It all seems so tame, by comparison.

Part of my problem in terms of dealing with this particular happening is that I regard the idea of pornography on the Internet to be monotonous.

Even the not-quite-classic porn films of the 1970s could be entertaining for their cheesiness factor. The repetitiveness of these things -- particularly if you are watching from the privacy of your computer right after reading this commentary -- is just mind-numbing, rather than erotic.

THEN, THERE’S THE factor of the need for someone to whip out their phone to take pictures. It is something I just don’t get.

I have a smartphone and have used it on occasion for pictures and video. But most of what I see people shooting images of is just so pointless. I can’t quite figure out why anyone really felt the urge to take pictures of Ervin’s moment.

I noticed the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield pointed out that Ervin himself has engaged in political attacks on people the border on outrageous, and that perhaps this video is some sort of karmic payback.

This really does seem to be an incident where the only person thinking logically was that aforementioned woman who coordinated the strippers at the bachelor party. This moment is now a part of our political lore. Ervin won't be forgotten because the tale is being spread.
 

How cheap a gag will Colbert get?

BY CHANNEL 5 News, the Chicago Sun-Times, many other news outlets, then the fake news shows. Not exactly the kind of attention a political person usually desires.

Just think of what the Daily Show (or Colbert Report) crews will do with this on Comedy Central? Or maybe Evans will warrant a full-fledged sketch on Saturday Night Live.?

So much for the idea that one needs to do something of substance politically (or even criminally) to gain their moment in the public eye!

  -30-

 
EDITOR’S NOTE: Go look up the YouTube video of this party for yourself. I seriously believe that if you do take the time to watch it, you’ll wind up wishing you could have those few moments of your life back.