Our cinematic image preservation also gives Illinois some economic benefits

I’ll be the first to admit that I get a kick out of film and television productions where I can recognize Chicago in the background – even if it’s a Chicago of the past.

There’s even an otherwise-forgettable Bruce Willis film “Red” from a few years ago that I only remember because its story chose to have its tale of international intrigue wind up in the Second City – of all places.

POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND murder on a world-wide scale being resolved here. As if we didn’t have enough local political hacks and plots to contend with.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Because Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday tried to score himself some political points by boasting of the number of entertainment projects that are made in Chicago.

He cited $358 million being spent during 2013 – creating the equivalent of 4,200 full-time jobs. Which is nearly double the $184 million that was spent during 2012 – which previously had been considered a record-setting trend.

Are we in Chicago just that entertaining? Or gritty looking? Or are we generic enough that we can pass for the set of just about any place on Planet Earth?

I’M NOT GOING to get into the economics of it so much. All I know is that I find it amusing when I suddenly see a location on the film screen (yes, I still prefer the idea of seeing a film in a theater, rather than putting money into a red box to get a copy) that I routinely pass through.

Sometimes, even some fairly obscure spots that I’m amazed anyone else has ever heard of.

Heck, I know how residents of the Bush, a little subsection of the South Chicago neighborhood, still go on about how a little storefront once passed for the "Curl Up and Dye," a neighborhood beauty salon where actor Carrie Fisher could be seen reading technical manuals about flame-throwers and antipersonnel mines in her on-going plot to kill John Belushi's "Jake Blues" character in "The Blues Brothers."

 

For his part, Quinn went Tuesday to the set of “Chicago Fire,” a new television drama about firefighters in our fair city – which had better not dare think it could shoot anywhere else. Although anyone who ever saw the Blues Brothers sequel – “Blues Brothers 2000,” knows that the only thing worse than actor John Goodman trying to be a Belushi-like character was the sight of Toronto trying to think it could resemble Chicago.

OF COURSE, MUCH of the reason why so many productions are willing to come to Chicago is because the local government likes the idea of being used as a background for so many stories.

It’s quite a change from the days of “M Squad,” a 1950’s-era police cop show where actor Lee Marvin’s “Frank Ballinger” character gave us an image of a tough cop so over the top that one could argue that Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” character was a wimp, by comparison.

An image that helped influence then-Mayor Richard J. Daley into thinking that “Hollywood” attention just wasn’t worth the “bad” press!

Watching those “M Squad” episodes now, one realizes how limited the Chicago settings were – because film crews were usually trying to elude the authorities who would have cited them for the lack of a permit (that the city never would have issued).

IT’S NOT LIKE the later year films such as “The Blues Brothers,” which might be a simple-minded film with a sketchy story line – but which also used so many gritty Chicago scenes that the film truly is a tribute to a Chicago that isn’t truly with us anymore.

Similar to the old “Call Northside 777” film starring James Stewart as a Chicago Times reporter. Those scenes of Stewart wandering about the Back of the Yards back when it was a Polish enclave truly are something – along with other scenes depicting downtown sites that we have to think twice about what is there now.

In short, films that make the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” moments at Wrigley Field or the Art Institute look just a bit simple, and lame, by comparison.

Although one of my favorite Chicago-based films to watch may well be “Medium Cool,” a late 1960s film that definitely is dated in its sensibilities and its look.

BUT HOW MANY other films could give us real-life moments of the now-infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention (it helped create an image that resulted in us getting Richard Nixon as president) and the protests that spouted out as a result of its presence in Chicago?

And how many other films could give us a candid moment with one of its own camera crews getting caught in the teargas that police used on said protesters?

Although the beauty of Grant Park throughout the years also manages to come through, despite the chaos that took place within it.

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Will abortion, gay marriage opposition follow similar path to restrictions?

Can the same be said of marriage?

The trend seems to be that states are going to be backing, bit by bit, measures that permit gay couples the right to have legally valid marriages – just as for the past 41 years women have had the right to terminate a pregnancy, if they so choose!

Yet the reality of today’s society is that the opponents of abortion have managed to push for so many restrictions on the medical procedure that for some women – particularly those stuck living in isolated areas of the country – it can be next to impossible to obtain one.

THAT HAS ME wondering if many of the ideologues who rant about abortion equating murder are going to try to push similar tactics through on marriage.

Make it possible for gay couples, in theory, to get married. Yet make it so difficult for them to actually be able to obtain the necessary ceremony. And make it next to impossible for the trappings of marriage to take place.

To the point where some couples might just decide it’s not worth all the legalese the conservative ideologues of our society may try throwing out there.

As for abortion, I have encountered many activist-types who will admit that they’re not all that worked up over overturning the Supreme Court ruling issued 41 years ago this week that struck down all the laws across the United States that deemed abortion to be a criminal act.

ALL THOSE PEOPLE who gathered in cities across the country (including Chicago on Sunday – where they marched a few blocks from the Kluczynski Federal Building to the James R. Thompson state government building) calling for the demise of Roe vs. Wade?

It was all just for show!

Will their tactics soon spread ...

If anything, Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., may have been the most honest. He spoke at the resulting rally in Chicago, and said he’s backing a bill in Congress to permanently ban federal funding for anything remotely involved with abortion.

I’ve never understood how federal funding can be denied for anything that is deemed legal. But it has been the way things have worked in recent years, and the way Lipinski would like to see them remain forevermore.

SO ALL THE harassment has become the way the world works when it comes to an instance when a woman wishes to end a pregnancy. And where a medical doctor gets put on the spot in being required to justify that there are medical reasons involving the life of the mother that might actually require such termination at times!

... to these people? Are they largely the same?

Is that where we’re headed with regards to gay marriage?

Will we soon be getting restrictions preventing people from going elsewhere other than where they live in order to obtain such a procedure – on the off chance that the local authorities throw up such objections that it becomes uncomfortable to seek it near home?

Heck, will we get the same type of people who want their ideological beliefs reinforced on abortion trying the same thing with marriage? Perhaps they’ll argue that government funds should, in no way, be used to permit such marriages to take place.

SINCE MOST SUCH marriages are going to wind up being of the City Hall variety (since our laws do permit religious denominations to refuse to perform such ceremonies, if they wish), could they claim that county clerks are somehow using tax dollars in a manner offensive to a segment of society.

That’s a batch of nonsense, if you think of it on any logical level. Then again, logic has never been a sure guarantee that something will get enacted into law – or that stupidity will prevent something from occurring.

It was just on Monday that I stumbled into a King Day tribute where some of the people present persisted in wearing yellow buttons reading “Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman.” They weren’t actively stating such views as part of the Martin Luther King legacy.

It’s just that those buttons have become a part of their daily wardrobe – even though the larger issue is over.

WHICH IS WHAT all of the legal activity in Utah and Oklahoma are really all about – those measures that theoretically strike down efforts to permit gay marriage as being legitimate.

Appeasement of the types of people who will want to over-regulate marriage in ways that would offend them if done on other issues (firearms, anyone???) – just to appease their close-minded sensibilities.

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EXTRA: Will they let it go? Or, Ouch! Does it still hurt all these years later?

Yes, I'm too cheap to send out individual King Day greeting cards. Although they do exist. Image provided by Greeting Card Universe.

I should point out with regards to the reference I made about the pastor at a King Day celebration who previously was outspoken in his opposition to gay marriage in Illinois that he wound up speaking about the need for African-American people to honor King’s memory by striving to make the most they can of their lives.

He didn’t bring up gay marriage. Although I did notice several of his supporters wearing yellow buttons that read, “Marriage = 1 Man + 1 Woman.” Some people just can’t let certain issues go.

ALTHOUGH IT ALSO was amusing, in a warped sort of way, to hear his reference to King’s time in Chicago – particularly that rally through the Marquette Park neighborhood back in 1966.

What other city on Planet Earth greets a Nobel Peace Prize winner by hitting him in the head with a brick?

And how ridiculous does this make Chicago appear to be, even if it was nearly some 48 years ago?

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ML King on a bubble gum card? Would we really remember him otherwise?

It was a moment from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – with Schroeder saying he chose music by Beethoven for the Christmas pageant, only to be questioned by Lucy Van Pelt.

Let's hope these aren't the only reasons ...

“Beethoven wasn’t so great,” she said. “He never got his picture on bubble gum cards, did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubble gum card? Hmmmm! How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubble gum cards?”

SO I SUPPOSE it is fortunate for the memory of Martin Luther King that Topps Chewing Gum, Co., has – in recent years – come up with alternative sets of trading cards that focus on historical figures.

So King – whose birthday anniversary last week is officially celebrated with a federal holiday occurring Monday – can claim to have been on a bubble gum card.

Otherwise, I wonder if we’d be getting an argument from some quarters of our society who would want to claim that King just wasn’t that great. I really believe that our society’s memory is so short that many people don’t have a clue as to what King was truly about!

For all I know, some may think King is just a college. Or maybe just a street in a part of town they NEVER set foot in.

FOR ALL THE platitudes that will be spewed at various ceremonies on Monday, who’s to say how many of those people will even come close to describing what the real man was like.

Personally, I know that I will be working as a reporter-type person in covering a King Day rally where the keynote speaker is one of the same South Side preacher-types who last year was trying to stir up African-American state legislators into voting against the gay marriage concept.

... Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered

Although I also understand that one of King’s very own daughters has been public in her view that King’s “dream” of equality for all might not necessarily extend to gay people.

It seems like just about anybody will use the King image if they can spin it to whatever particular cause they might personally prefer. Which means many of us don’t have a clue about reality.

I SUSPECT THAT the King image has become one that most people don’t comprehend beyond the oft-quoted phrase “I have a dream,” as in the speech that we all remembered last August because it had been some 50 years since all those people congregated on the National Mall in Washington to hear him speak.

A speech that many school-children in black neighborhood-based schools get to memorize as part of youth King Day celebrations, but which others might not know beyond that date.

Two others turned from man to myth

It may well be a good thing that there hasn’t been a significant cinematic production of King’s life – yes, I’m aware of the made-for-TV miniseries that starred Paul Winfield. Otherwise the public truly would be confused, and likely would think of the actor first whenever hearing the name, “King.”

Think I’m kidding?

TAKE THE LIFE of civil rights activist Malcolm X (who also has become a community college in Chicago). For how many people has the whole image of the 1960s Black Muslim leader been reduced to the image of actor Denzel Washington saying, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us!”

Perhaps it is a good thing that film director Oliver Stone said recently that he’s dropping out of being involved in a King film that may have wound up starring Jamie Foxx. It could turned out to be more like Stone’s “JFK” with conspiracy theories more than Foxx’ “Ray,” about the life of rhythm ‘n’ blues musician Ray Charles.

What is this southpaw's card worth?

The significance of King may well be that he provides us a barometer just how much our racial viewpoints have changed. He went through his life having many in our society seriously using labels such as “Communist” to describe his thoughts.

Now, only the most ridiculous amongst us would think such a thing – although some now shift such thoughts toward Barack Obama. Some nonsense will never fully leave; but it will wither away to the point where will be like a century-old carving in stone – it will be hard to read and figure out what was actually meant.

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Tanaka coming to Chicago? Cubs fans might be better off remembering Nomo!

I find it funny to see the degree to which Chicago Cubs fans are determined to think their favored franchise is going to be a major player in the desires of Japanese baseball star Masahiro Tanaka to come to the United States.

A future Yankee, in many ways?

The Chicago Sun-Times on Friday gave us the report that pushes forth the image that Tanaka wants to play for the Cubs – even though most of the reports on this particularly issue seem to indicate he wants to be either in Los Angeles, or with the New York Yankees.

PERSONALLY, I THINK the fact that the Chicago White Sox met with Tanaka earlier this month was more about trying to create the image that they’re doing something to bolster their ball club.

I don’t think he’s going to pitch for the home team at U.S. Cellular Field. Nor at Wrigley Field.

We in Chicago will only get to see him when his eventual ball club comes here to play either our White Sox or Cubs (if not both, what with the intricacies of interleague ball).

As I comprehend it, Tanaka is a 25-year old who has played in recent seasons with the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan’s professional baseball leagues. He’s also been a pitcher for the Japan national team that has shown itself to be among the elite of the international baseball world.

BUT LIKE MANY of the elite ballplayers from other countries, they decide they want to include a stint playing in the United States.

Some will want to believe it’s because everything’s better here. Although if we’re honest, it’s because playing for a baseball team in the American or National leagues pay better (much better) than playing for one in Japan’s Central or Pacific leagues.



Chicago's best Japanese ballplayer?

So, Tanaka wants to come here for the money. Although he’s also hinted he wants to play for a team that will give him ample opportunities to play in the World Series. He wants to be with a winner!

Which ought to exempt either “side” of Chicago for the near future.

WHITE SOX FANS may have pleasant memories of relief pitcher Shingo Takatsu or infielder Tadahito Iguchi (who became the first Japanese-born ballplayer on a U.S. World Series championship club – remember ’05?).

Chicago's first

There may also be Chicago Cubs fans who still own their Kosuke Fukudome jerseys (or maybe they got cheap and bought them at a discount after he was traded away).

I just don’t see the Tanaka affair winding up being resolved in Chicago. Unless “resolution” constitutes being shut out by the potential future star pitcher of U.S. baseball.

The Cubs' first; ready for another?

In fact, about the only reason a Cubs fan ought to be thinking about Japanese baseball is the fact that Hideo Nomo – who has never gotten anything more than a few fringe votes for inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Friday officially became a member of the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame.

IT WAS THE arrival of Nomo back in the 1980s (making the same move to the United States that Tanaka is now trying to make) that created the concept in U.S. baseball that there IS worthwhile talent playing in Japan.

Plus, he was a quality ballplayer in the Japanese leagues. He had a career for sports fans worth remembering -- even though I'm sure there's a stat geek out there who wants to reduce him to a single number that just doesn't meet up to their standards.

In the United States, Nomo is thought of as a Los Angeles Dodger, the ball club he mostly played for in this country. He never played for the Cubs proper. So why should their fans care about him?

Barely a Cub?

Because there was a time, back in 1999, when Nomo was released by the Milwaukee Brewers organization, that he finished the season pitching for the Iowa Cubs – the top-level minor league affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

WHERE HE PITCHED all of three games, winning 1 and losing 1, with a 3.71 earned run average in all of 17 innings pitched. Not exactly stellar stuff.

But totally in character with the Chicago Cubs organization – a level of which even the White Sox sank to in ’13.

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Quinn gets a primary election opponent who’s left even weaker than before

The key to comprehending elections boards is not that they’re serious investigatory units that ponder the qualifications of those people who wish to appear on the ballots for various government posts.

HARDIMAN: He lost by winning?

They’re more the mechanism by which certain campaigns can be harassed into submission. Even if the candidates are able to survive the challenge, the fight to stay on the ballot can suck what little life they had right out of them!

THAT EVEN APPLIES to the Illinois State Board of Elections, which on Thursday wound up closing the case that was brought against Tio Hardiman. He’s the activist type from suburban Hillside who will now be on the March 18 Democratic primary ballot against Gov. Pat Quinn.

His campaign was being threatened because of the fact that his lieutenant governor running mate (Brunell Donald) was being challenged. It seems she moved to a new address in Chicago since the last election cycle and hasn’t bothered to re-register to vote.

Which means that technically, she can’t vote from her current home address – which is grounds for declaring someone ineligible to vote.

She could have been booted from the ballot – which would have left Hardiman without a running mate. Theoretically, that could have been grounds to make his campaign ineligible. It would have resulted in lengthy court fights to figure out if someone can run for governor without the said running mate.

BUT THAT’S NOT going to happen.

For on Thursday, the day that Donald likely was to be removed from the ballot, the attorneys representing Quinn’s interest in this matter said the objection was being withdrawn.

RADNER (as Litella): Violins on TV sensible as Donald

As the late actor Gilda Radner’s “Emily Litella” character from Saturday Night Live of old would have said, “Never mind!”

Nobody really cared if Donald lived at a legitimate address. It was just a technicality that could be used to smack her about. Now, she’s totally weakened by the matter. It doesn’t matter if she’s on the ballot, or not.

THE QUINN INTERESTS have prevailed, even if the Hardiman/Donald ticket is there to take a small percentage of votes from people who don’t want to vote for Quinn/Paul Vallas – and think the Republican candidates are a batch of dinks.

QUINN: The frontrunner, for a change

It gets worse when you get into the political world of municipal elections – because oftentimes the electoral boards consist of the political establishment that is being challenged.

Those people do each other the political favors of knocking off the would-be challengers to their allies.

At the state level, the board is a little more distant from those officials. But ultimately, they’re only able to rule on the arguments put forth by attorneys for the political interests.

THE WILLINGNESS OF Quinn allies to drop their “concerns” about Donald now that they’ve used them to beat up on her doesn’t mean the issue wasn’t legitimate.

Or that there isn’t a legitimate legal question about whether a gubernatorial candidate must have a running mate on the ballot with him/her – now that state law says candidates must name someone prior to the primary, rather than run with whoever happens to win a completely separate lieutenant governor primary.

Not that the Hardiman/Donald ticket was ever going to be competitive.

Take the latest reports about campaign finances into account. As of Dec. 31, the Hardiman campaign had only $550 in the bank, and had only raised $15,000 during the last three months of 2013. The Capitol Fax newsletter reports that only $2,000 of that was donated – the rest of it was Hardiman’s own money.

COMPARED TO THE $4.5 million campaign fund Quinn has accumulated, including sizable donations from organized labor interests.

Which means Quinn will have sufficient funds to take on whichever of the Republican challengers manages to prevail in that primary election.

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Nobody silences Jeremiah Wright! Particularly those who try hardest

I couldn’t help but be amused when I learned Wednesday that the Chicago Teachers Union has thrown its lot in with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright – the man whose rhetoric has offended ideologue America because he’s willing to call them out on their past sins against black people, rather than just let the past be the past.

WRIGHT: Obama's "kill" list??!?

The people who now go about accusing Wright of “reverse racism” are probably the grandchildren of those who would have referred to him as “uppity” in decades past for his oft-harsh rhetoric.

WHICH HE GAVE samples of on Wednesday.

For the teachers union held an event in the Roseland neighborhood meant to jump-start their political efforts concerning proposed changes in laws for special education class sizes. To help get the crowd aroused, they brought in Wright.

Whom the bulk of us remember as the pastor of the black-oriented church that Barack Obama and family attended when he was still a lowly state legislator and nowhere near a national political figure.

“God Damn America!,” is the phrase that the ideologues always want to stuff into Wright’s mouth. He did say it. But when you consider some of the things that have been done to black people throughout our nation’s history, it’s a wonder he didn’t say something even more harsh.

ON WEDNESDAY, HE told the union gathering (which also had many pastors of South Side black-oriented churches) that he wants to see a rejection of the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism<’ which is what he thinks Western society has become about.

He even accused Obama (the man whose wedding to first lady Michelle he presided over) of planning peoples’ deaths. “Every Tuesday morning, there’s a kill list that the president decides who they’re going to kill this week,” said Wright, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. How much of a headache did the president have Wednesday night after learning about that line?

OBAMA: Reaching for aspirin bottle?

That part amused me because the notification I was sent by the teachers union (with instructions about where and when I needed to be in place if I wanted to cover the event) specifically said Wright’s speech was off-limits.

But someone as outspoken as Wright is just too loud to be ignored. What he has to say will come out. And what he still is – even though he’s now technically retired and the Trinity United Church of Christ is now being run by others – is someone who views our establishment critically.

AND FOR GOOD reason!

KING: Hated just as much in his own time

Personally, I find the rhetoric that we often get from the far right of our political spectrum to be more subversive in nature than anything Wright has ever said.

It also doesn’t help the ideologues attempts to sway me in that I have heard many black preachers speak throughout the years. There is a certain cadence to it, and a certain rhetorical flourish.

The trick to comprehending it is to realize how much of it is actually of substance, and now the bulk of it is for show – to ensure that the message sticks in the minds of the parishioners or other people in the audience.

GO SO OVER the top, and some of it might actually be remembered. The larger message might get through.

So personally, I’m not about to condemn the Chicago Teachers Union for associating with Rev. Wright. I’m sure there are some people who will do exactly that (I’ve already read some of their comments – anonymous, of course – on various Internet sites).

But then again, none of those people were ever going to vote for anything in line with what an organized labor union wanted. Heck, these are the people who probably think of the teachers’ union as being led by a loud-enough mouth herself in the form of Karen Lewis.

Of course, all of this was timed to coincide with the birthday anniversary of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (which is Wednesday, even though the officially-designated government holiday won’t come until Monday).

WHICH MAY HAVE some people try to claim that King was about peace and equality while Wright is about stirring up hatred and resentment.

Then again, I suspect the people saying this now were the same ones who, back when they were younger, were the ones who used “Communist agitator” as their label of choice to describe King.

That is, when they weren’t using their preferred slur for King, Wright, Obama and just about anyone else whose melanin level is more intense than their own.

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