EXTRA: Independence Day, Year 243

Not quite so festive in reality this year

16 shot, 2 fatally in Fourth of July gun violence across Chicago – Chicago Sun-Times
At least 5 killed, 30 wounded by gunfire so far in Chicago over Fourth of July weekend – Chicago Tribune
2 boys, 1 man stabbed outside Navy Pier after Fourth of July fireworks; 14 others injured in stampede following false reports of gunfire – Chicago Tribune
3 stabbed, 14 trampled at Navy Pier after Fourth of July fireworks – Chicago Sun-Times

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A few sample hedlines from the Chicago press on this day after Independence Day, just to give you a taste of how inane things were capable of becoming on this holiday where we celebrate our national existence. And if the threat from gunfire mixed in with explosives wasn't enough, there also was the absurdity at Navy Pier Thursday night.

And just in case you need the knowledge for future reference, there also was this report – Gunshots or Fireworks: Learn to Tell the Difference -- Patch

NOW WE BEGIN the next holiday countdown -- only 59 more days until we honor the workers in our nation.

Happy Labor Day!!!

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A glorious new year from the Imps

It's 2019, a brand-new year. Some may think we should be looking forward.

And yet, I can't help but get a kick out of this musical number of old. From Hellzapoppin' 1941,  turning the ever-traditional Auld Lang Syne into a jazzy dance number.

AS FOR THOSE of you who will find Satanic imagery a bit much, I can't help but think you should lighten up a bit. It's too comical to take seriously. Particularly the cutesy dogs being chased about by Satan's little helpers (and no, I don't mean Bart Simpson's pet dog) as they exit an automobile.

So enjoy, as we enter into another new year. And here's hoping that 2019 turns out to be a far-better year than the one we had a century ago -- when 1919 saw serious race riots on the South Side AND the Chicago White Sox losing the World Series that some are determined to forevermore lambast the ballclub for.

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Illinois gave us a low-key Bicentennial

Illinois officially turns 200 years old Monday, and there will be a celebration.

In fact, there have been activities taking place during the past year leading up to this day that are meant to make us fully aware of what a truly intriguing history our state has experienced during those two centuries of existence.

YET I WOULDN’T be the least bit shocked to learn that most of you weren’t the least bit aware of that – or of the activities that will take place at Navy Pier in the name of giving Illinois a proper birthday celebration Monday night.

For perhaps it is the result of the fact that Illinois isn’t exactly the most-unified of states. We’re certainly not Texas, with a strong self-awareness of who we are. Those of us from Illinois most often identify with the particular region of the state that we come from, rather than the notion of Illinois as a whole.

I suspect that has inhibited any true appreciation of Illinois’ existence through all those years. Too many of us probably wonder why any attention is being paid to the rest of Illinois, and not just our home region.

I’m sure I’m just as guilty of this as anyone else. I’m not only Chicago-born, I’m specifically of the South Side (the South Chicago neighborhood, to be exact). I’m just as likely to think of a West Side neighborhood as alien turf as much as something in Southern Illinois.

Bicentennial celebration location historic in its own right

WHILE SOMEONE FROM central Illinois, I’m sure, thinks all of us are alien to his/her experience of what our state is all about.

Personally, I’m inclined to think the significance of Illinois’ existence is the way it has managed to incorporate all these different experiences into a single way of life. Almost as though what makes Illinois unique is that we have figured out a way to incorporate a bit of everybody into our state existence.

From an urban Chicago experience to parts of the state that aren’t too different from Appalachia – and to parts of central Illinois that actually give us those corn fields that too many people think are the entirety of the rural Midwest.

A long-gone part of what made Chicago and Illinois so significant

Then, there’s always the land of Forgottonia – as in the rural western part of the state that got that label as almost a joke of just how isolated it is from the rest of us.

THIS IS THE experience that will be in display Monday night at Navy Pier – where the program will try to give us a taste of bipartisanship (if such a thing can actually exist in Illinois these days). Both Gov. Bruce Rauner and Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker are expected to be on hand for the festivities.

Unless someone decides to have a political hissy bit and not show up – which always is a possibility.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon (which got its beginnings as just a band on the local music scene in Champaign) and bluesman Buddy Guy all will be amongst the performers.

We’ll even get acknowledgement of the musical “Hamilton” including Chicago as being amongst the places where it is being performed, and a historic program narrated by Bill Kurtis – whose deep voice is to a certain generation the sound of a quintessential Chicago newsman (unless you’re of the type who was watching Fahey Flynn) instead.

AND SATURDAY NIGHT Live, of sorts, will be included, what with George Wendt and Robert Smigel giving us a riff off their old “Superfans” sketches. Too bad that Mike Ditka himself couldn’t be on hand, what with him still recovering from a recent heart attack.

As for edibles, it should be noted there will be a 1,000-pound birthday cake from Eli’s – the place that many of us think is the ultimate for cheesecake.

Which could lead to questions about why we can’t have deep-dish pizzas – which some like to think is the ultimate local food item. Yet I can already see the problem with its’ inclusion.

We’d get into a serious quarrel over whether or not thin crust is truly more representative of Illinois, and whether it should be cut into slices or squares – a debate that likely will linger on to Illinois’ tricentennial some 100 years from now.

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Happy Holidaze. Go do something real!

There won't be this Holiday bustle around Daley Plaza come Wednesday. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

If it’s Wednesday the 25th and you’re actually reading this, I have but one thing to say. Get a Life!!!!!!

This is quite possibly the holiday of holidays. You ought to be out in the real world doing something enjoyable. The last thing you should be doing is logging yourself onto a computer (or any other kind of device) and paying any attention to the digital world.
 

THIS IS THE most analog of all holidays. Do something with others. Enjoy yourself. All the nonsense you think you’re going to read today will still be there on Thursday.

And as for many of those Twitter tweets and Facebook postings? Your life will probably be better off without them.

That’s why I’m not posting fresh commentary for Wednesday. It will return on the 26^th. It would probably take something along the lines of a Barack Obama/Rahm Emanuel brawl to inspire me to write on this holiday.

Actually, even that could probably wait until the Day after Christmas.

AS FOR THOSE of you who don’t celebrate Christmas (particularly those of you whose festive moods were satisfied a couple of weeks ago with Hanukkah), I also think you should find some relaxation in the real world.
 

Even if you live up to that stereotype of going to a movie theater, then hit a Chinese restaurant. That sounds like a fun afternoon to me!

On a final note, I’ll leave you with some holiday-related videos from our childhood – particularly those who have fond memories of the late Ray Rayner. As for those of you younger types who are going to mock the idea of black-and-white “cartoons,” I have but two things to say.
 

 

Take whatever device you use to access content and “Stuff it!’ And, “Kid, you don’t have a clue what you missed without the great Ray to kick off your morning every day before going to school.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: A trio of favorite holiday-related tunes (none of which involve barking dogs are the late Celia Cruz' take on "Jingle Bells," Chuck Berry's "Merry Christmas, Baby" and the future Catwoman's sultry tones on "Santa Baby." Enjoy!

 

Holidays are meant to be enjoyed in real world, not on the Internet

Chicago's official Christmas tree. Photographs by Gregory Tejeda

If, by chance, you are reading this on Tuesday, all I have to say is, “Get a Life!” It's Christmas!

You need to log off your computer, or whatever other device you happen to be reading this weblog on – and get out into the real world on this holiday.

MAYBE I’M A bit too much of an “analog-type guy who sees all the flaws of the digital world that we’re all too rapidly becoming. But this ought to be that one magical time of the year when we get away from whatever screen we read or watch things off of to reflect upon the enlightened spirits in our lives.

The New Year holiday could be that moment of reflection – except that too many people are concerned with showing how much alcohol they can imbibe in to take such action seriously.

So for those of you who are celebrating, here’s hoping that you have a “Merry Christmas.” For those who don’t, I’m sure you could use a day off from the daily routines we all get stuck in.

 

The city's official Menorah remained in place even after Hanukkah was complete

For those who had their Hanukkah celebration a couple of weeks ago, I hope it was a very joyous occasion. I know it was for my father and step-mother and the other portion of my overall family who are Jewish.

Even political people felt the holiday spirit

AND FOR THOSE who came here to this weblog in search of commentary or analysis of Chicago, be rest assured that everything wrong with this city will still be here on Wednesday.

Any thoughts that could have been expressed here on Tuesday can wait a day!

 

I'm sure the people who want to go through life ranting against Rahm Emanuel or Barack Obama -- or crying over how the Chicago Cubs could be so awful for a century-and-still-counting -- will still feel their gripes just as intensely.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: For those of you who feel compelled to re-see Suzy Snowflake (my brother, Chris, usually makes a crude remark about her) and her black-and-white animated Christmas holiday friends, the Capitol Fax newsletter offers up a chance to reminisce about seeing them while watching Ray Rayner on early-morning television.
 

It just doesn’t “feel” right

I comprehend the idea of a shorter Taste of Chicago as an event that fits better within the budget of city officials.



Grant Park's pristine beauty will be besmirched for a few days this week for our city's annual, but abbreviated, food fest



I’m sure there are many people who only go one day per year. So they will still have five days to pick from beginning Wednesday, and they will have the option of gorging themselves on whatever edibles they choose to spend lots of money on.

AND AS FOR those people who work downtown and like to make several stops, they’ll still be able to do that for a few days this week.

But somehow, I can’t help but think that this year’s Taste of Chicago just doesn’t feel right. And it’s not because of the fact that the guy who cooks those ridiculously huge turkey legs (bigger that some peoples’ heads) won’t be among the event’s vendors.

It’s the timing of the event. I can’t help but think this is taking place a week late. Monday should be the day that we do the final review of how much cleanup had to be done to restore Grant Park to its potentially-pristine condition. Because it should be over by now.

But it isn’t. It hasn’t yet begun.

IT’S GOING TO take some getting used to.

Because in my mind, and those of many other Chicago residents, the Taste of Chicago is a summer-time event that coincides with Independence Day celebration.

It was a 10-day string that would be scheduled to include the July 4 holiday proper, along with the July 3 fireworks display along the lakefront near Navy Pier.

Chicago knew how to throw an Independence Day party. But that is all now history.

FOR CITY OFFICIALS gave up a couple of years ago on the downtown fireworks display – leaving many Chicago-area residents who used to converge on the central and near North part of the city to have to resort to whatever nearby suburban village was having its own fireworks show.

And now, we’re waiting until after Independence Day is over and done with before even beginning the Taste of Chicago. Although I suppose those people who show up on Saturday can claim to be celebrating Bastille Day!

Even if, to the best of my knowledge, none of the restaurants whose foodstuffs are being offered up are serving anything even remotely resembling French cuisine

For those who want to rant that it would be wrong to celebrate a French holiday, keep in mind that Milwaukee has an official festival for that date each and every year.

AND IT WAS the French who were the original European colonizers to much of the Midwestern U.S. Does anyone really believe that the English would have come up with a name like Illinois?

Even if they tried to use variations on native tribal names, they likely would have come up with a more Anglicized spelling than anything ending in an “ois.”

Not that I’m pushing for a Bastille Day celebration in Chicago any time soon. Or that I even care all that much personally about the idea of a shorter Taste of Chicago.

It just seems that we’ve lost something that made the event rather special by having it tied into the holiday in which we celebrate our nation’s birth.

BECAUSE WITHOUT THAT tie, the event becomes nothing more than a chance to feed one’s face with too many variations of pizza and barbecue, along with various takes on ethnic cuisines ranging from Italian to Mexican to Irish to African.

And, of course, fried chicken from Harold’s – which portrays itself as the ultimate South Side joint.

Although if Taste of Chicago officials really wanted good chicken from a neighborhood joint, they’d include a stand from Hienie’s -- located around 104^th Street on Torrence Avenue, for those of you who never venture south of Roosevelt Road.

Smothered in the store’s “hot” sauce (forget the mild version), it is a treat I don’t get all that often. But is something that adds to the cuisine character of Chicago. Which is what this event is supposed to be all about!

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Happy boit’day, dear She-caw-go

Still a recognizable image, all these decades later

I am a Chicago native by birth, and one who has lived in the metropolitan area (both city and suburban) for the bulk of my life. Even those times when I have left Chicago, it has always been in my brain that I would return (and I did).

So what is it about this metropolis in Illinois (not to be confused with Metropolis, Ill., at the state’s southern tip) that makes it so appealing that I never felt I needed to move to New York in order to consider myself successful?

WHY DO I fully comprehend the idea that people from across the Midwestern U.S. feel compelled to relocate here for an adult life?

It doesn’t even have to be Midwesterners. Take our current president, a Honolulu native who saw our city as being ever so attractive to live (although I wouldn’t be surprised if someday, after the kids are grown, Barack and Michelle wound up retiring to the Hawaii islands).

To me, the appeal of Chicago has always been its variety – the fact that there really isn’t any such thing as the quintessential Chicagoan.

You can take two people who have lived here their entire lives and feel completely devoted to life lived north of 138^th Street (or south of Howard Street) who have next to nothing in common.

OTHER THAN THE fact that they can use the label of “Chicagoan.”

My point being that there is such a variety to this city. One can never have truly experienced it all. There is always something new to see or hear. It can never get dull – unless you are the kind who is inherently dull yourself.

In which case, you’d probably be bored anywhere.

Keep in mind that when I talk about a variety of types of people, I’m not thinking much of (if at all) the varied ethnic and racial beings who populate our city. Although I have always felt the fact that there is no predominant ethnic group for Chicago (no matter how much the Irish want to dream it’s them) is what makes us unique.

“WE ARE THE World” isn’t just the title of a tacky ‘80s musical number. It is an accurate description of our current composition (the 2010 Census Bureau population count for Chicago has it at 33 percent African-American, 32 percent white and 29 percent Latino, with the bulk of the remainder being Asian).

That is roughly where the nation, as a whole, is expected to be by century’s end. In Chicago, we’re leading the way. Perhaps our racial and ethnic outbursts are the nation working out the kinks of how well we behave together.

Just as a part of me wonders if the “Council Wars” of the mid-1980s was a test run for the partisanship tactics now taking place in Washington, D.C. between Obama and those who desperately want to dump him from office. Only the modern-day ideologues are less blunt in their language.

There’s also the fact that Chicago has its elements of high society and sophistication – certain aspects that can only be found here and to which the people of places like London, Paris, Tokyo or New York (just to name a few) must look toward us to experience in their ultimate form.

YET THOSE ELEMENTS don’t totally predominate our existence. Because there also are “very Chicago” places where the locals could care less about anything quite so elite or “hoity-toity” as the world-reknowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And anyone who would suggest doing away with those places would be missing the point.

They add to the ambiance that is Chicago. We’re better off for it. The Cubs are NOT quintessential Chicago. The tensions between White Sox and Cubs fans as they co-exist are.

Chicago wouldn’t really be Chicago if it had ever fully appreciated the literary work of Nelson Algren; which in-and-of itself is odd because Algren’s work often championed those “working classes” who wouldn’t have wanted Chicago to get too effete.

Yet we’re also not the types who are eager to linger in the muck for too long. It is a place whose people are constantly remaking themselves – except for the political people.

ONCE SOMEONE GETS elected to public office in Chicago, it seems a foregone conclusion that their grandchildren will be running for office.

Just the other day, I used my “early voting” ballot to refuse to vote for Patrick Daley Thompson – the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and grandson to former Mayor Richard J. – for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

How inherently Chicago that is!

So what is inspiring this love-letter, of sorts, for my home city?

IT IS THE fact that we’re in the weekend that marks the 175^th anniversary of the signing of the articles of incorporation that made Chicago an actual municipality (population: 4,160), rather than just a trading outpost with a few cabins built nearby.

I don’t know if I’ll still be around (if I am, I’ll be 71) when Chicago hits its bicentennial. So now is the time for me to leave my mark on Chicago’s uniqueness – although no one is likely to match the Carl Sandburg poem of old.

We might not literally be the “City of the Big Shoulders” and “Hog Butcher for the world” any longer. But it’s still a sense of what we aspire to be, and I can’t think of any other city with a more noble goal for itself.

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