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CHICAGO’S FREE WEEKLY | THIS ISSUE IN FOUR SECTIONS FRIDAY, DEC 30, 2005 | VOLUME 34, NUMBER 14
Michael Lenehan on “citizen journalism” Ben Joravsky on our lame smoking ban Michael Miner on homeland security Ted Cox on the Cubs and the Sox Bob Mehr on the RIAA’s latest victory Liz Armstrong on Liz Armstrong
The granddaddy of the graphic novel, a showcase for sustainable art, PLUS Chicago SketchFest starts, where to eat after midnight, and more Section One Letters 3 Pullout Comics Special 11 Columns New work by Ivan Brunetti, Hot Type 4 Mark Fischer and Rob Syers, Steve Krakow, Did somebody say something Paul Hornschemeier, Onsmith, Jeffrey about homeland security failing? Brown, John Hankiewicz, and more
The Straight Dope 5 Reviews Traveling cargo class? Art 28 The Works 8 “Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art” What’s being “compromised” at the Smart Museum by the smoking ban Books 30 Chicago Antisocial 10 The Contract With God Trilogy December 30, 2005 No regrets by Will Eisner The Sports Section 24 Plus Let’shear it for putting the suspense Ink Well back in baseball This week’s crossword: Sounds Like Love
ON THE COVER: ARCHER PREWITT
Modest Proposals A Year Without Journalism Let’s see what our brave new media future looks like when there are no real reporters to steal from. . FISHER MARK S
ave you heard that the newspaper business is By Michael Lenehan going to hell? It’s in all the papers, but nobody reads H the papers anymore so you might have missed the news. Assuming you still care about news, which you don’t, according to the papers. Circulation’s down, ad revenue’s down, jobs are vanishing everywhere you look. A few weeks ago the Tribune Company capped a series of buyouts and layoffs by spiking the New City News Service, formerly the City News Bureau, the venerable Chicago institution that used to train the journalists of the future. Evidently it’s not needed continued on page 26 2CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 3
m Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 312-828-9926 DECEMBER 30, 2005 f VOL 35 | NO 14 Letters @ [email protected]
Publisher Michael Crystal Editor Alison True capitalism, PowerPoint presenta- Managing Editor Kiki Yablon tions, and demographic market Senior Editors Michael Miner |Laura Molzahn | Kitry Krause In Defense Hijacking research as anything I learned in Associate Editors Martha Bayne | Anaheed Alani Sunday school. Philip Montoro | Kate Schmidt of Layoffs Christianity And most un-Christian-like, it Assistant Editors Jim Shapiro | Mark Athitakis | David Wilcox Staff Writers Liz Armstrong | Martha Bayne | Steve Bogira is a Christianity that demands John Conroy | Jeffrey Felshman | Harold Henderson If I’m understanding the num- Regarding the review by J.R. “faith” through dogmatic enforce- Deanna Isaacs | J.R. Jones | Ben Joravsky | Monica Kendrick bers right, the Trib is cutting 28 Jones of The Lion, the Witch and “Even if ment—even Jesus had his faith Peter Margasak | Tori Marlan | Bob Mehr | Jonathan Rosenbaum Mike Sula | Albert Williams newsroom jobs while creating 13 the Wardrobe [“Good Is Good,” you respect questioned. Hence the debate, Copy Chief Brian Nemtusak new online jobs, so a net reduc- December 16]: Christian from a secularist point of view, is Editorial Assistants Pat Graham | Renaldo Migaldi | Joel Score tion of 15 journalists from an edi- I read Jones’s review in agree- ideals but how this movie (similarly to The Mario Kladis | Michael Marsh | Tom Porter | Jerome Ludwig Tamara Faulkner | Patrick Daily | Stephanie Manis | Robert Cass torial staff of 540 [Hot Type, ment right up to the end of his consider Passion of the Christ) is being used Kerry Reid | Todd Dills | Katherine Young | Ryan Hubbard December 9]. A 3 percent attempt to frame the real-world the New as a marketing strategy or an eco- Miles Raymer | Tasneem Paghdiwala change? Corporate payrolls fluc- battle over good and evil ignited by Testament nomic tool (like a Christian hedge Typesetters Vera Videnovich | Kabir Hamid tuate by more than that every this new film. It is his last para- a fantasy, fund) rather than as a platform for Archivist Eben English year just by accident—what’s the graph with which I took issue, what’s the questioning, learning, and debate. big deal about this? where he noted that secularists problem I write this as no stranger to a Advertising Director Don Humbertson It’s not like any of the specific might be overreacting, to the point with those Christian-based spirituality that Sales Director Ginger Wade layoffs will have any effect on the of paranoia, over this film. “What’s ideals being demonstrates the “conventional Display Advertising Manager Sandra Goplin Assistant Display Advertising Manager Katie Falbo coverage of local, state, or inter- the problem with [Christian] celebrated morality” to which I think you Online Advertising Coordinator Renate Durnbaugh national news. WomanNews has ideals being celebrated in a story in a story refer. I grew up in a very progres- Display Representatives Jeff Martin | Christine Thiel been a waste of newsprint for that’s openly a fantasy?” he asks. that’s openly sive Episcopal church. Mine was Brad Winckler years: its silly parts, like its fash- What is at issue here, right a fantasy?” one of maybe eight white families Sales Development Manager Susan Zuckert ion coverage, were unnecessary now in the U.S., is not whether —J.R. Jones, in an otherwise all-black church in Senior Account Executives Denice Barndt | Angie Boehler Evangeline Miller | Ryan A. Norsworthy | Geary Yonker or should go to Red Eye, which is the film or Lewis’s original stories December 16 Syracuse, New York. Our reverend Account Executives Nichole Flores | Greg Saint-Victor aimed at the age cohort that (or for that matter Christianity) was a woman, and our church Tim Sullivan | Laura Swisher | Dan VanKirk cares about that stuff. Its smart present valid “conventional opened its doors to local chapters Advertising Project Coordinator Allison Hendrickson parts—from the Miss Manners morality” from which everyone of South American peace activists, Advertising Assistants T.J. Annerino | Jennifer K. Johnson column to the serious pieces could learn. Forgiveness, redemp- Buddhists, and pretty much any- Kieran Kelley | Sarah Nishiura about honor killings and female tion, and other themes in Lewis’s one who wanted to hold meetings circumcision—always should tales are certainly nothing from there. I have no problem with Art Director Sheila Sachs have been in the Tempo section which to run. The issue here is anyone putting “conventional Associate Art Director Godfrey Carmona Art Coordinator Elizabeth Tamny or the main section rather than whether those themes, those con- morality” into practice. The Production Director David Jones in a women’s ghetto. ventional moralities, have been problem with America in 2005, Production Manager Bob Cooper The business features depart- hijacked for other purposes. The as exemplified in the debate sur- Associate Production Manager Nickie Sage ment can certainly afford reduc- Christianity of the current conser- rounding this film, is that so much Production Artists Jeff Marlin | Jennifer McLaughlin | Mark Blade tion with zero impact on news vative Christian movement is not of contemporary Christianity no Benjamin Utley | John Cross | Andrea Bauer | Dustin Kimmel Josh Honn | Mike Browarski | Nadine Nakanishi | Linda Montalbano values. Does anyone think that even the Christianity of Christ, longer does. Therefore it seems to Editorial Design Jardí + Utensil two huge car sections each week, much less of Lewis. me that Christians, like Walden or four weekly sections on real The argument from the secu- Media’s Philip Anschutz, stand to Operations & Classifieds Director Mary Jo Madden estate full of wire-service copy, larist side of the cultural battle learn a lot from Lewis’s tales, Controller Karl David Wilt were improving our civic square? over this film is less concerned should they follow through with Classifieds Manager Brett Murphy The City News Bureau was with whether children will be the whole series. Classified Representatives Sara Bassick | Danette Chavez effectively abolished six years ago indoctrinated by yet another alle- Paul Lloyd Sargent Bill Daniel | Kris Dodd | Chip Dudley | Andy Hermann because the business reasons for gorical film depicting a struggle Janet Lukasiewicz | Jeff McMurray | Amy O’Connor | Scott Shehan W. Armitage Kristal Snow | Bob Tilendis | Stephen Walker its existence had evaporated. The against the temptations of evil, Matches Coordinator Jane Hanna Tribune’s attempt to keep it on which is agreeably the stuff of Back Page Representative Chris Auman life support by establishing a much Western (and Eastern) lit- Operations Assistants Patrick O’Neil | Alicia Daniel department to sell useful infor- erature and cinema. Bona Fides Receptionists Monica Brown-Fielding | Dorie T. Greer mation to competitors never The argument is also less con- Robert Jacobs |Dave Thomas | Stephen Walker Bookkeeper Marqueal Jordan made any sense. cerned with Christian messages Note that John Lavine [Hot Type, Circulation Manager Perry A. Kim They have made a very of sin, redemption, and forgive- December 16] was the longtime Circulation Fred Adams | Sadar Bahar | Neil Bagwell small trim and made it entirely ness coated in lion’s fur. The owner/publisher of Wisconsin John Barrille | Kriss Bataille | Steve Bjorkland | Mark Blade around the edges—they have argument here instead is that this dailies, including the Chippewa Michael Boltz | Jeff Boyd | Michael Bulington | Bill Daniel Tom Frederick | Kennedy Greenrod | Nathan Greer protected metro, national, and new Christianity itself has little to Falls Herald, and a former profes- Scott Harris | John Holland | Sasha Kadukov international news. They didn’t do with these ideals. sor of media management at the Dave Leoschke | James McArdle | Shane McDougall John Merton | Dave Miedzianski | Terry Nelson close any bureaus or cut the This new Christianity is one University of Minnesota. So I’m Gerald Perdue | John Roeser | Phil Schuster foreign-correspondent budget. that reacts with vengeance at not sure Lavine is any less qualified Dorian Tajbakhsh | David Thomas | Stephen Walker If anything, the movement every turn. This is a Christianity to lead a journalism/mass comm Craig White | Dan Worland of positions to the Web site may that does not remember the school than many, many other have the effect of improving Sermon on the Mount, the beati- chairs and deans over the decades. Information Systems Director Jerry Davis local coverage. So what crime, tudes, much less that whole “thou Information Systems Project Manager Conrad Hunter Michael Norman exactly, is the Tribune Company shalt not kill” part from the Old Information Systems James Crandall | John Dunlevy Professor (emeritus) Doug Fawley | Sean Phelan guilty of here? Testament. This is an evangelical University of Wisconsin—River Falls Special Projects Coordinator Lisa Martain Hoffer Christianity married as much to Name withheld River Falls, WI militarism, globalized corporate Oak Park National Advertising The Ruxton Group, 1-888-2-RUXTON PS: Not that I or very many New York |Chicago|Phoenix |San Francisco regular readers still think they are getting good value CHICAGO READER from their payroll anyway. 11 E. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60611 My wife was astounded: 312-828-0350 www.chicagoreader.com “It takes 540 professional journalists to produce that For recorded information on placing classified ads, call 312-828-1140 (24 hours). pile of dull mush each day??”
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CHICAGO READER, INC. President Robert A. Roth Vice President Robert E. McCamant Treasurer Thomas K. Yoder Executive Editor Michael Lenehan 4CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
[email protected] Hot Type www.chicagoreader.com/hottype
Burying the Bomb Homeland security failing, page 30
By Michael Miner n AP story out of posed 2,000-foot Fordham Washington on Spire. Build it, said the Sun- A December 6, 1941, that Times, to show we’re not “cav- began “If the Japanese ever ing in to the shallow threat of launch a sneak attack against terrorism.” Was putting the 9/11 Pearl Harbor, experts say it’s a Commission’s report on page 30 sitting duck” wouldn’t have been its way of showing us it still plastered across the front pages refused to cave? because no newspaper would The Sun-Times wasn’t the have accepted the premise. A only paper to misjudge the September 10, 2001, story warn- news. The New York Times ing of hijacked planes used as put its version of the missiles would have gotten an AP story on page equally cold reception. 22 of the nation- Today it’s a given that 9/11 was al edition on merely the first assault and the December 6, enemy will come again, but sto- and plenty of ries that sound an alarm still go other papers begging. This month the 9/11 didn’t think Commission did the work news- the story papers have refused to do and deserved page gave Washington a homeland- one. The Tribune security report card full of Cs, properly topped its Ds, and Fs. The story AP offered front page with the head- papers for December 6 began line “9/11 panel: U.S. not safe,” “Time, money and ever-present but it still fell short. The terror threats have done little to Tribune borrowed its story from close gaping holes in the nation’s the Washington Post, and there UL DOLAN
security system, the former Sept. was no sidebar covering the PA 11 Commission said Monday.” Chicago angle—as if a report The Sun-Times ran this story on giving the government a D for Hatch as one of a “handful of The Tribune denounced the “obstinacy of page 30, below a piece on Tom cargo and luggage screening and senators” standing in the way of Congress” and quoted Thompson DeLay and a story with the an F for communication a change in federal law that borrowed its wondering, “What’s the ration- headline “Are we ready for between first responders didn’t would allow homeland security story from ale? What’s the excuse?” movies about 9/11?” suggest one. Papers in other funds to be distributed on the I don’t know why this per- cities quoted former Illinois gov- basis of risk, instead of on the the Washington formance astonished me. On ernor Jim Thompson, a member basis of what commission chair- The Unfilled August 5 I wrote a column mar- of the panel, but on December 6 man Thomas Kean called “pork Post, and there veling that almost four years the Chicago papers didn’t. barrel spending.” was no sidebar Hole after 9/11 American newspapers The Salt Lake Tribune was a This change obviously matters still weren’t thinking seriously model of competent journalism. to Chicago. The Sun-Times fig- covering the The last vestige of Chicago’s hal- enough about homeland securi- Its story ran on page one (with ured that out in time to publish Chicago angle. lowed City News Bureau disap- ty. My exhibit A was a Sun- an editorial in the same edi- an editorial on December 7 that pears at the end of the year, Times editorial touting the won- tion), and the local angle domi- was longer than its news story when the Tribune pulls the plug ders of Santiago Calatrava’s pro- nated. It identified Utah’s Orrin the day before. The editorial on its New City News Service. CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 5
® The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams
OK, before asking my question, I have to admit that I got the idea for it from an episode of Beavis and Butt-head. Anyways, can I hop in a box, have a friend take me to the post office, and send myself to far-off destinations? If I can, would it be cheaper than airfare? I’m The Tribune says it no longer pened. First-string theater critic sure Beavis and Butt-head aren’t the first to think of this; has wants to pay reporters to provide Michael Phillips would review anyone else tried it? —Arvind Karwan, Fort Collins, Colorado content to TV and radio stations movies for a couple months, sec- that put it online in competition ond-stringer Chris Jones would with the Tribune’s own Web site. handle theater by himself, and When I wrote about New City film critic Michael Wilmington too have an admission to make: I got address in Philadelphia and News’s death sentence on would focus on Sunday essays. “I a little help on this answer from the was uncrated. He December 9 I thought the was told not to read anything into Teeming Millions via the Straight emerged and I promptly chances were good that the hole it,” Wilmington told me at the Dope Message Board. But come on, it’s been a long year. You guys can carry fainted, it was leaving in Chicago jour- time, though of course every critic me for once. bruised nalism would be filled by City affected by the job shuffle did. For reasons to be shortly elucidated, and bat- News Service of Los Angeles. I Two months turned into four, not the least of which is that travel by tered but, was wrong. City News Service and the lassitude of summer gave post makes the most dimensionally chal- thank God boss Doug Faigin tells me he way to the frenzy of Christmas lenged coach seat look like Cleopatra’s almighty, free at last. ran the numbers and decided openings. But the new order still barge, mailing yourself is not something that I can in good conscience advise. But Escape from New York. In the only way he could afford to stands. “Arts critic” Jones covers yes, it’s been done, occasionally in a September 2003 Charles D. set up shop here would be to theater. “Arts critic” Phillips cov- noble cause, although more commonly in McKinley, 25, had himself increase rates by about 50 per- ers film—with a lot of help from stupid ones. Herewith the facts, noble shipped by airfreight from cent. He rounded up 11 poten- “staff reporter” Allison Benedikt. cause first: New York to his parents’ house in suburban Dallas, his tial clients—New City News has “Movie critic” Wilmington han- Escape from slavery. From the 1851 memoir that bears his name we learn of goal not freedom but saving had 14, City News Service well dles art films and writes essays. the plane fare. This being one Henry “Box” Brown, a slave residing over 100—but they balked at “We’re happy with the way the 21st century, McKinley in Richmond, Virginia, in the 1840s. took along not water but a the price. “Their [2006] budg- things are playing out on all Desperate for freedom, in March 1849 computer and had himself ets are pretty locked in,” he told fronts,” says James Warren, Brown poured acid on his finger in order picked up at a business in the me. “It’s hard for them to come deputy managing editor for to be excused from work; then, anticipat-
Bronx. The carrier, Kitty Hawk Cargo, UG SIGNORINO ing Beavis and Butt-head by nearly 150 up with the money. More than features. Though he still flew the encrated man from Newark to SL years, he arranged for a pair of associ- one said they’d like us to contact describes the arrangement as Buffalo to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to ates to nail him inside a three-by-two- them again in late summer.” an experiment, a return to the Dallas, whence he was transported by suggests, the U.S. Postal Service is not and-a-half-by-two-foot wooden box, his truck to his folks’ house. He’d have got- the carrier of choice for human freight, At that point they’ll be writing old status quo isn’t likely. Jones only accommodations a bladder of water their next budgets, and they’ll and Phillips seem comfortable ten there undetected except that at the among other things having a 70-pound and a tool with which to bore additional last minute he apparently removed a weight limit. Package delivery firms are have a good idea how much in their new assignments, and airholes.That done, the accomplices covering of some kind, allowing the more liberal about such things (weight they’ll need the package of local even Wilmington, who got the delivered the goods to the railway deliveryperson to see him while unload- and dimensions, I mean; nobody is know- hard news and future events short end of the stick, is in a express office, presumably paid the ing the box. The jig up, the driver called ingly going to take a living person); UPS Faigin wants to sell them. “We’re job that suits him better: freight, and wired a friend in police, who arrested McKinley on some will ship up to 150 pounds. Air cargo Philadelphia to await delivery of the old warrants. A federal official conceded services generally speaking will take leaving this door open,” he said. he’s writing about ideas now male (Brown’s joke, not mine). The jour- His business plan—which he’s instead of airheaded $200 that U.S. air security measures clearly whatever you can fit on a pallet—more ney was no walk in the shade. Despite weren’t the impenetrable shield one than that if you’re willing to pay for it. hanging on to—was to operate at million blockbusters. the fact that the box was marked THIS SIDE might like in the wake of 9/11. But there’s the rub. Take our friend a manageable loss for a couple of UP WITH CARE, it was placed upside down Escape from reality. In the kids’ book Charles McKinley. Let’s suppose he wants years while his operation demon- for hours at a time (freight handlers Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown (1964), a bul- to try again and arranges to ship himself strated its competence, then Now That’s a being no more attentive to instructions letin board falls on young Stanley via UPS in a Henry Brown-size box with a start adding clients. Like maybe then than now), causing the blood to Lambchop and nonfatally flattens him to loaded weight of 150 pounds (hey, he can rush dangerously to Brown’s head. Just four feet by one foot by half an inch. Pops diet). Cheapest rate from NYC to DFW: the Tribune, which he told me Team Player as he felt about to lose consciousness, Lambchop takes advantage of this unfore- $152—but he’ll spend four days in transit. didn’t say yes but didn’t say no. though, a couple jamokes turned the box seen turn of events to mail Stanley to No way. Second-day air, still pretty And the Sun-Times, which said Last January 14 in these pages over, the better to sit on it. At another California for a visit. Stanley returns the uncomfortable: $345. Compare that to no. And the Daily Herald, which Scott Eden told the story of prep point the box was flung from a wagon, same way unscathed, proving “jet planes the best deal for a conventional flight I he didn’t ask. football guru Tom Lemming and knocking Brown cold and nearly breaking were wonderful, and so was the Postal could find on Priceline: $126 for a one- the kid he believed in, his neck. After some additional travail Service.” It’s fiction, OK? stop via ATA, and you don’t even need to the fugitive arrived at the desired Practical considerations. As the above provide your own box. Libertyville High standout Permashuffle? Santino Panico. Panico was so determined to reach the NFL he Last August the Tribune told its already had his own personal Comments, questions? Take it up with Cecil on the Straight Dope Message Board, www.straightdope.com, critics that while things were slow trainer, dietician, and speed or write him at the Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611. Cecil’s most recent compendium of knowledge, Triumph of the Straight Dope, is available at bookstores everywhere. the paper was going to shift a few coach, yet none of the major foot- chairs around and see what hap- continued on page 6 6CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
Hot Type
continued from page 5 5-6 and without a bowl invita- about something.” That day the next six months exploring center’s concerns overlap ball schools wanted him. tion for the first time in 36 years, Panico was talking up a book he the lives of unaccompanied with the IMC program’s, but Miraculously, largely thanks to and if Panico wasn’t the reason swore by, Gary Mack’s Mind minors seeking asylum in Medill listed Lavine as a mem- Lemming, he wound up at foot- for the disaster, in the fans’ eyes Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to the U.S. ber of its “journalism,”not its ball powerhouse Nebraska, play- he was a symbol. After the sea- Inner Excellence. IMC, faculty. While he was ing for a new coach who’d arrived son Callahan brought in one of Cook checked it out and gave a Last week I reported that with the Media Management too late to recruit anyone but left- the country’s top recruiting class- copies to his players for John Lavine, the new dean of Center, Lavine played a key overs. The coach, Bill Callahan, es, and Panico, reading the hand- Christmas. The book didn’t the Medill School of role in developing both the showed his appreciation for writing on the wall, dropped out hurt. Nebraska’s always strong Journalism, “comes out of” ill-fated Network Chicago mar- Panico’s sure hands by installing of the program and out of school. in volleyball. This year’s team Medill’s Integrated Marketing keting concept for Window to him as Nebraska’s punt returner. But there’s more. During that wound up 33-2 and played for Communications program. the World Communications Panico didn’t fumble away a dismal season Panico happened the national championship. That’s wrong. Lavine is the and RedEye for the Tribune. punt the entire 2004 season. But to have lunch one day with John founding director of Medill’s This record, coupled with he didn’t run any back for big Cook, coach of the women’s vol- Media Management Center, Lavine’s announced desire to yardage either. What scouts leyball team. “He was a real News Bites which, to quote the Web site, meld the journalism and IMC other than Lemming had said character,” Cook recently told “explores how to advance faculties, helps explain the about him was true: he didn’t Lincoln Journal Star columnist a The Reader’s Tori Marlan media strategy, marketing, cul- sense of unease I described have breakaway speed. Nebraska John Mabry. “Anytime he was at has won an Alicia Patterson ture and sales force productivi- among many Medill alumni had a horrible season, finishing the training table, he was talking fellowship and will spend ty,” among other things. The and some faculty members. v CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 7 8CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
The Works [email protected]
Way to Go, Tough Guy Faced with a choice between saving face and saving lives, what did our mayor pick?
By Ben Joravsky hen the City Council want to be identified when talk- finally got around to ing about Daley. “The thing W passing its smoking- with the mayor—and I say this ban ordinance on December 7, with all respect—is that once he the aldermen cheered, broke gets something in his head it’s into song, and wore themselves very hard to get it out.” out pounding each other on the But continuing to resist the back for a job well done. antismoking campaign—which I don’t know why they were so was backed by many of the city’s ecstatic: the ordinance is a restaurants, not to mention its mockery of itself. It devotes two public-health groups—got to be single-spaced pages to laying so embarrassing that even out the case for a complete ban Daley had to back off. Not com- on smoking in all public spaces pletely, of course. He conceded only to turn around and delay no mistakes, made no apolo- implementation of the ban in gies, and expressed no regrets, bars and taverns for two and a even though hundreds of thou- half years. If secondhand smoke sands of people have been kills, as the ordinance unequiv- exposed to secondhand smoke ocally states, why wait until July since he torpedoed the last 1, 2008? For that matter, why great push for a ban. Instead, didn’t the city ban it sooner? toward the end of November, he The answer to this question announced that he had no hasn’t changed since I wrote stand on the issue. about the subject in May and After several days of enter- July: Mayor Daley. Flower beds taining debate, the City Council in the middle of the street, iron was looking at two possible fences around the parks, Meigs ordinances: Alderman Ed Field ripped up in the middle of Smith’s outright ban and MIKE WERNER the night, a giant subway sta- Alderman Burt Natarus’s tion beneath Block 37—what watered-down ban, which deal. “Dunn said, ‘It’s dragged on For the record, city officials Africk, CEO of the American Daley wants Daley gets, and exempted bars and taverns. It long enough, the mayor wants it say bars and taverns need the Lung Association of what he doesn’t want we don’t looked as though the two sides over with,’” says the lobbyist. extra years to prepare for the Metropolitan Chicago. “When get. He’s opposed a ban since at were heading for a winner- “And he wanted everyone to ban. But I don’t know anyone the state of Illinois lowered the least 2002. Despite countervail- takes-all showdown at the City agree on one ordinance. He who believes this. “You’re legal limit for blood alcohol ing evidence out of New York Council meeting on December 7. didn’t want a divisive vote.” telling me they need over two content did they say, ‘OK, this City, Boston, and Los Angeles, “I think City Hall underesti- Thus the stage was set for the years to prepare for a ban? protects lives. Now we’re going the mayor clings to the notion mated our tenacity, but after a great “compromise” allowing Come on, man, don’t treat us to take two and a half years to that a smoking ban is bad for while they realized, ‘Uh-oh, patrons and employees in bars like we’re stupid,” says Harris. make it effective because we bar and restaurant business—as these folks are staying the to be exposed to another two “All you have to do is put up a don’t want to hurt bars’?” if that were an acceptable rea- course,’” says longtime south- and a half years of secondhand big old NO SMOKING sign. The delay is hardly the ordi- son to expose people to carcino- side activist Kwesi Ronald smoke, which, according to the There, that does the trick. You nance’s only flaw. Embedded gens. “I’ve been told by many Harris, who closely followed the ordinance, contains “4,000 can do that tomorrow.” near the end are three troubling different people that the mayor debate as membership chair of chemicals, 63 of which cause Aldermen, lobbyists, and vari- exemptions. One allows for eats out three or four times a the National African American cancer,” is “the third leading ous other City Hall insiders say smoking in retail tobacco stores. week, and he picks up things Tobacco Prevention Network. cause of preventable death in privately that Daley insisted on Sure enough, on the day the ban from the people who run those On Monday, December 5, John the United States,” and “is the delay to save face for himself passed R.J. Reynolds opened the restaurants,” says one lobbyist, Dunn, Daley’s chief legislative responsible for the early deaths and the businesses that had Marshall McGearty Tobacco who like pretty much everyone aide, passed word along to both of as many as 65,000 Americans long resisted the ban. “It’s com- Lounge in Wicker Park. In addi- else around City Hall doesn’t sides that the mayor wanted a annually.” Good work. pletely illogical,” says Joel tion to premium cigarettes, “the CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 9
lounge offers light food, baked of the commissioner of public Agency and the American the thick smells, but not the tiny but you will have to respond.’ goods, and a selection of coffee health and the commissioner Society of Heating, Refrigeration particles that are harmful. You They gave me one of those beverages, including lattes and of the environment, that such and Air-Conditioning would need a tornadolike venti- responses: ‘Nobody can meet espressos,” the Associated Press area has been equipped with Engineers, or ASHRAE. Once lation to get smoke particles out this test. Let them have it.’ I reported. “There are plans to sell air filtration or purification the EPA declared secondhand of the air.” fought on and they eventually alcoholic beverages.” devices or similar technologies smoke a class A carcinogen, Lawyers for the city insisted said, ‘Say whatever you want The ordinance also allows as to render the exposure to meaning no level was safe, that on inserting the ventilation about it—it’s going in.’” smoking in private clubs or secondhand smoke...equiva- argument was over. So big clause into the ordinance, This means that come late lodges. “The city insisted on that lent to such exposure ...inthe tobacco moved to a second bat- Africk and other insiders tell winter or early spring of 2008, for VFW halls and American ambient outdoor air surround- tleground—ASHRAE.” me. “In the 11th hour, with no prosmoking forces will likely Legion posts,” says Africk. “It was ing the establishment.” According to Africk, big hearing and no testimony, out of launch a debate over ventilation put to us like, ‘How can we tell With that mischievous clause tobacco companies had been purely political expediency, the in a last-ditch effort to kill the veterans they can’t have their the city walks into a dispute hoping ASHRAE would endorse city put in that ventilation looming ban in bars and tav- simple pleasures?’ We’ll be being waged between big tobac- a ventilation system that guards clause,” says Africk. “I told erns. “You watch—they’ll have watching to see if bars and tav- co and health groups. “For years against secondhand smoke. “But them, ‘You don’t understand. all these ‘studies’ about their erns try to escape the ban by and years,” Africk explains, “big in June ASHRAE issued a pro- Big tobacco is going to spend Buck Rogers ventilation becoming private clubs.” tobacco has been arguing about nouncement that the only way millions on a study to “prove” machines that work like magic,” Finally, there’s the provision whether there was a safe level of to make a room safe from sec- that blah-blah machine reduces says Harris. “The aldermen will permitting smoking in any exposure for secondhand smoke. ondhand smoke is to have no particles. And it will be fiction— sing and dance and entertain us public place whose “owner can There were two battlefronts— smoking in the room,” he says. because you can’t get the dan- all. It’d be funny if so many peo- demonstrate, to the satisfaction the Environmental Protection “Some ventilators might get out gerous particles out of the air— ple weren’t dying.” v 10 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
Chicago Antisocial [email protected]
don’t recognize her.” “No, Nicky’s with me,” he said gently. “Oh, I didn’t think she was here. But Paris definitely is.” “We’ll visit you tomorrow,” he told her, and he meant it. But in the tenderness of the moment, he forgot we were mov- ing the next day. We haven’t heard from Sandra since.
ack in August, UR Chicago B changed its format from newsprint tabloid to glossy- cover magazine. The “30 Under 30” issue was the first in the new style. This cheerfully ageist annual tradition presents peo- ple in their 20s and younger who are doing things that editor in chief Stacey Dugan and her staff deem interesting and worthwhile—turns out I was one of them, so I happily went to the relaunch party at the River West club Reserve. But at the door the bouncers were pulling some exclusive New York bullshit, letting in slick- headed dude after fake-tittied chick coming out of fancy cars with tinted windows and driv- ers, despite a long line of people behind the velvet rope, a few of
ER whom were also highlighted in AU the issue—I’m not naming names because it’s embarrassing ANDREA B Clockwise from top left: wine guzzler and bad pasties at Crobar (September), dancer at Food Mart in Wicker Park (April), cheering enough to be excluded from a the White Sox’ World Series win at Stop Smiling headquarters (October), Rotten Milk outside Big House in Lincoln Park (September) party in your honor without having people reminisce about it months later. After waiting outside for half an hour I had to pull an embar- rassing “but I’m in the maga- zine!” move with the bouncers just to get inside, where we’d been promised there would be Mistakes, I’ve Made Two free drinks and food. Surprise: there wasn’t. “Why invite people you think Sandra the Huntress gets back in touch, Reserve loses a star are special if they won’t be able to attend the party celebrating By Liz Armstrong their participation in your pub- fter an entire day and doubts, but with Sandra, as I “Great, give it to me then,” informed him that she was at a lication?” I later wrote to night of spiked hibiscus soon learned, one can never be she said. mental hospital, a real one I Dugan in an e-mail. “I think A tea and martinis with my sure). She acted like we were her “No, Sandra, I don’t know it.” won’t name here. “My lawyer choosing a nasty, selective club friend Hilary, I decided I should daughters, dubbing Hilary “OK, I’m going to the Crystal can’t get here. Will you please like Reserve did a great disserv- call my boyfriend. “Paris” and me “Nicky,” and she Palace at Madison and Pulaski. come visit with an attorney? I ice to your magazine.” “Hey, are you OK?” he asked kept telling us about her many I’ll tell the door guy they’re com- gotta get out of here.” She gave Dugan apologized and said worriedly. lovers. It was all pretty hilarious ing and have a private room set him loose directions, the land- she’d had a similar experience “Yeah,” I slurred. “Why?” and exhilarating—until Sandra up for them in the back.” marks including the White there. “I’d never been before,” she “Some woman called me say- led us to a hotel room where we I couldn’t find a listing for Castle where she was going to wrote, “although I’d heard pretty ing she’s your mom. She said you were all supposed to get it on. such a place, so I didn’t go. have her first meal as soon as she good things from others, includ- and Hilary drank Lemon Drops Then the night lost a bit of its Sandra continued to call Ringo was released. “If you can’t get me ing from yr column.” and the cops were there and she charm. for the next three days, giving out by tomorrow I’m going to It’s true: early this year I was nervous. She told me to Before we managed to disen- him addresses and times of bust out. I know how to do it— called Reserve “cozy,” “polished,” bring her $62. She keeps calling tangle ourselves, I gave her my where we should meet her. Each I’ve done it before.” and “fun,” if “a little too slick.” If me. What’s going on?” boyfriend’s number, saying it time he gave her a different I was sitting next to him, lis- it’s not too late, I’d like to take “Don’t give her a penny,” I said. belonged to my “bodyguard.” But excuse why we couldn’t—we tening to their conversation. that back. The caller was Sandra the I kind of forgot to tell him this. were out of town, we had anoth- Feeling guilty for having encour- Huntress, an excitable, leathery Sandra called Ringo the next er appearance to make, the aged a bona fide crazy person’s taying out till the wee hours legend in her own mind whom day. “I saw Paris and Nicky earli- press would be there and we paranoid delusions, I whispered S several nights in a row every Hilary and I had met in front of er today,” she said, and instructed didn’t want to deal with it— to Ringo to tell her we’d come week in search of fun, beauty, a mansion on Astor Street while him to bring us to an address on making our lives sound infinite- visit. She gave him two hospital enlightenment, and drama is staking out a celebrity for a gos- the 100 block of East Erie at 8 ly more glamorous than they phone numbers where she could hard enough when you’re driv- sip magazine. A couple months that night. really are. (My actual late-night be reached—they both checked ing the party train. Imagine ago I wrote about the wild ride “They’re in an interview right plans when I’m not working out. But after he hung up we fig- having to tag along, convincing through the Gold Coast Sandra now,” he lied. “They should be usually involve reruns of Dr. ured out there was no way we’d half-dressed drunks to pose for took us on, an adventure that done later. I’ll let them know.” Phil. It’s sick, I know, but I make it before visiting hours the camera—oh, and this will be included drinks at the Pump Sandra called him back at really love him.) were over. He called her back. for publication, OK? Andrea Room, ringing buzzers at ran- 8:30. “I stuck my head out and After that it seemed Sandra “I’m sorry,” he told Sandra. “We Bauer, this column’s official dom mansions in search of looked for the girls, but I didn’t the Huntress was out of our lives can’t make it in time.” photographer, gives up most of Jennifer Aniston (who, according see them. What’s the number for for good. Until October 28, the “That’s OK,” she said. “I’m her weekend nights to take pic- to Sandra, “wants” her), and the Crystal Palace?” day my column came out, when here with Paris. She’s really tures like the ones you see checking out a condo she He said he didn’t know, which she called Ringo again. tired. She’s been in restraints all above—some of her favorites claimed to be buying (I had my was true. “Hi, hon,” she said, and day. Is Nicky here? If she is, I from this year. v MNY TA ELIZABETH M.
—ED GREENWOOD AND FAYE PAINE-LANE
—JEFFREY BROWN 12 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
—JOHN HANKIEWICZ CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 13
—BERNIE MIREAULT 14 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
—ROB SYERS AND MARK FISCHER CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 15
—PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE 16 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
—JEREMY WHEELER AND MATT DELIGHT CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 17
—IVAN BRUNETTI 18 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
—MARK S. FISHER CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 19
—EMILY FLAKE —KEITH HERZIK
—DEAN HASPIEL —LILLE CARRE 20 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
—ONSMITH CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 21
—GRANT REYNOLDS —PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 23 24 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
The Sports Section [email protected]
Unscripted Entertainment Victory is never a sure thing, but what was great about the Sox’ victory is that it never even felt like one. By Ted Cox n hindsight, championships inning against the look inevitable. Of course the Cleveland Indians I Bulls were destined to win six in late September. NBA titles in Michael Jordan’s Without that victory, the last six complete seasons with Sox actually would have fallen them, so the dangers they behind the Tribe two days later. encountered along the way now The nerviest moment of the seem minimal. All but forgotten playoffs was Orlando Hernandez, is the way Scottie Pippen had to “El Duque,” coming on with the rally the scrubs with a 14-2 run bases loaded and no to open the fourth quarter of the outs in the sixth sixth game in 1992, setting the inning of the stage for Jordan to return and clinching close out the Portland Trail third game Blazers, who would have had all of the Red the momentum going into the Sox series seventh game. So would the and somehow Phoenix Suns the following year, working out of the jam if John Paxson hadn’t hit the trey with two pop-outs and a that won that series in six. Lost to checked-swing strikeout memory is the scare the mighty of Johnny Damon. The ANO
Bears faced in Super Bowl XX Championship Series would ALB when Walter Payton fumbled on have been entirely dif- the opening series, allowing the ferent if A.J. A MONT New England Patriots to take a 3- Pierzynski didn’t LIND 0 lead. Because the Bears scored steal first in the the next 44 points, that fumble ninth inning of the seems inconsequential today. second game and Crede didn’t fol- The Sox’ triumph—combined with the and to Rodriguez being among The great thing about the low with the winning hit. And in his public detractors, allow me to White Sox’ world championship the World Series, what if Paul season’s other top baseball story, the read into it some personal con- was how rife it was with danger. Konerko hadn’t hit his first-pitch steroid scandal—prompted me to tempt as well. Before this season, Sox fans had grand slam off Chad Qualls in the But Cubs fans who might bris- memories like the one of the second game and Scott Podsednik reassess the Cubs’ loss two years ago. tle at the possible injustice Jerry Dybzinski fuckhead catas- hadn’t hit his sayonara off Brad should remember they had their trophe in the 1983 playoffs, Lidge? The Astros would have Bartman for the moment. What Palmeiro, who did deny use in own dubious star two years ago without which the Sox would stayed alive if they’d won the third if Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez hadn’t the same hearing, tested positive in Sammy Sosa, who was even have pushed a run across for game, but Crede rallied the Sox followed the Bartman snafu with during the season. Rodriguez, more diminished in skills than in Britt Burns and no doubt won with his homer off Roy Oswalt a run-scoring single? What if the meanwhile, turned up in Detroit body this season while playing the fourth game, which would and Geoff Blum finished off Rodriguez who was named most looking more like a shortstop in for the Baltimore Orioles. have allowed LaMarr Hoyt to Houston with his homer in the 14th. valuable player of that series had oversize catcher’s gear than the Baseball finally got clean this clinch the series the following Even though the Sox led their been replaced by, say, the beast who’d beaten the Cubs. year, and even if it did so largely by day and send the Sox on to cer- division wire to wire and took Rodriguez who caught for the Rodriguez encountered the sweeping the past under the tain victory in the World Series the Series with only a single Detroit Tigers this season? Sox in their division-clinching Astroturf, it avoided a public-rela- against the aged Philadelphia postseason loss, the moments Rodriguez was a monster with game in Detroit the last week of tions calamity on the order of the Phillies. But 88 years of tragedy that linger in memory are the the Marlins. Maybe he wasn’t the season. When he seemed to 1919 “Black Sox.” It went all but schooled fans in how to savor ones where that championship built up like Hulk Hogan, but his have hurt himself sliding into unnoticed that the White Sox, things going right. Jose was in grave jeopardy. muscular back seemed a yard second base late in the game, responsible for baseball’s last great Contreras’s masterful start wide. Rodriguez was one of the Detroit manager Alan Trammel scandal, were the first champions against the New York Yankees in ubs fans remain firmly in the players named as a steroid user was noticeably reluctant to go of the reform era that’s followed August—which halted a seven- C mode of savoring tragedy, in Jose Canseco’s tell-all book out and see how he was—or to the steroid scandal. Whether by game skid and sent him on a and the Sox’ triumph—combined this year—which gained in credi- pull him from the game for a making their own breaks or taking personal nine-game winning with the season’s other top base- bility when Mark McGwire, pinch runner. There seemed to advantage of their opponents’ mis- streak extending into the play- ball story, the steroid scandal— another of the names named, be thinly veiled animosity fortunes, the Sox fully earned offs—was one critical moment. prompted me to reassess the declined to deny using steroids between the two, and while that what they achieved this season. Another was Joe Crede’s game- Cubs’ loss to the Florida Marlins in sworn testimony before was no doubt due to Trammel There was nothing funny, fixed, or winning homer in the tenth two years ago. Forget Steve Congress, and when Rafael being in his last days as manager foretold about it. v CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 25 26 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE
A Year Without Journalism
continued from page 1 many more millions of dollars by Bubble #1, in their desperation presented it as a service that bureau reporter named anymore because journalism making camera-for-sale ads obso- to maintain “mindshare” trained allows people to post “all types” Samantha Levine. But as far as doesn’t have a future. lete. And Google, which has readers to look for their news of information online and assign Wonkette was concerned, it Who’s to blame for all this? rocked the advertising world by online, for free, rather than on “attributes” to it that will make it came from Yahoo, via Sploid. Mostly Craig Newmark, the geek delivering ads to people who newsprint spread out on the easy to find. For example, you That’s the way it works in the who started Craigslist ten years might actually want to see them. kitchen table, as God intended. can post Grandma’s chicken and blogosphere. The stories are ago as an e-mail guide to “cool And online journals like Slate and Hardly a day goes by, it seems, dumplings recipe and assign to it just...out there. events” in the Bay Area. Now, Salon, and Yahoo and Microsoft, without some Web behemoth such database attributes as That item about Cheney and with just 18 employees—fewer which lurk behind their moun- announcing a major new initia- “recipes,” “chicken,” “American,” DeLay remained at the top of people than it takes to deliver the tains of cash waiting to spring out tive to suck the lifeblood out of and “traditional”; these become Wonkette for five days, thanks to Reader every Thursday— and copy anything that works for the news business. Of course it’s categories that searchers can use the long Thanksgiving weekend. Craigslist is a global juggernaut Google or eBay. And Wonkette not their intent to destroy jour- to find the recipe. Neato. Wonkette doesn’t do weekends. sucking up millions of dollars and InstaPundit and the nalism, or to bankrupt compa- What Google did not say, but A couple days earlier, David that used to go to newspaper Decembrist and all their blogging nies that employ thousands of weary newspaper people were Carr’s column in the New York classifieds. According to one friends whose idea of a good time decent, hardworking taxpayers, quick to notice, is that you can Times told of a “plague week” in much-repeated estimate, it cost is giving yourself a funny name or to force the teenage daughters also post a description and some the newspaper business, a grue- daily papers in San Francisco and distracting normal people of reporters and editors into lives pictures of your apartment on some series of layoffs, ethical alone about $50 million last year. who used to read newspapers. of prostitution. They’re just try- Dayton Street and assign to it questions, and technology- But Craig is not the only culprit. And of course there are the ing to make a better world. such attributes as “Apartments,” induced travails including There’s also eBay, which has newspapers themselves, which, Last month, when Google “Chicago,” “Lincoln Park,” “two- Google Base (but not Craig’s siphoned off who knows how back in the days of Internet introduced Google Base, they bedroom,” “$1,400.” And if you foray into citizen journalism, happen to run a rental agency which was yet to be announced). and have hundreds of apart- At the end Carr reminded his ments to list, and if you happen readers of the gaping void at the to know how to put them in a bottom of our brave new media database or have a sixth grader at future. “For Google’s news aggre- home who can do it for you, gator to function, somebody has Google Base gives you a way to to do the reporting, to make the upload your “items” (please don’t calls. ...Newsrobots can’t meet call them classified ads) in bulk. with a secret source in an under- Just in case Craigslist is not easy ground garage or pull back the or free enough for you. blankets on a third-rate burglary Craig, too, is also bent on mak- to reveal a conspiracy at the ing a better world. And now that highest reaches of government.” he has done so for job seekers, And, I would add, you can’t rely apartment hunters, and sexual on bloggers to do it, because predators, he’s turning to journal- something might happen over ism. Just before Thanksgiving he Thanksgiving weekend. let it be known that he’s involved “Tactical and ethical blunders in an online project that will use aside,” Carr concluded, “actual the same “wisdom of the masses” journalists come in handy on approach that informs Craigslist. occasion.” He’s being coy about the details, I think it’s time for actual jour- but he has dropped phrases like nalists to drive this point home. “citizen journalism,” “networks of Today, therefore, I am proposing trust,” and “reputation mecha- a yearlong journalism strike. I nisms,” suggesting that he’s talk- am urging reporters and editors ing about a cross between around the world to put down Wikipedia, the online encyclope- their notebooks, close their lap- dia edited by its readers, and tops, hang up their phones . Lie Google News, which boasts of down and be counted! Let’s have presenting “the most relevant no reporting, no editing, no news first” by compiling reports application of any human intelli- from more than 4,500 sources gence whatsoever to events pub- “solely by computer algorithms, lic or private till January 1, 2007. without human intervention.” I’m calling it the Year Without The day after Craig first talked Journalism. Let’s all relax, let go, publicly about his new project, I and float blissfully in the infor- noticed the lead item on mation-free state (excuse me, I Wonkette, about an announce- mean free-information state) ment that Dick Cheney would that our public awaits so eagerly. appear at a fund-raiser for belea- Let one of those news robots guered congressman Tom DeLay. handle the hired truck scandal I noticed that, according to and further crimes of the Daley Wonkette, the news story that administration. Let’s see if inspired her fulminations Wonkette can deal with the devi- (“Evidently the more event- ous bastards in the executive appropriate MC team of Jack branch any better than Judith Abramoff and Duke Miller did. Let’s have some of Cunningham is already booked those citizen journalists call Burt for that night”) had come from Natarus and see if they can fig- Yahoo, via Sploid. In other words ure out what the hell he’s talking Wonkette, whose blog is owned about. With no news to aggre- by Gawker Media, spotted this gate, no facts to ruminate, the news on another blog owned by algorithms and the bedroom Gawker Media, whose writer had pundits will turn on each other spotted it on Yahoo. Nowhere like mirrors, producing a perfect does Wonkette betray even the regression of narcissistic self- vaguest awareness of the person reflection, repeating endlessly, who actually reported that story adding nothing, ever shrinking, or even the “mainstream media” ad infinitum. that disseminated it. The Yahoo Meanwhile our beaten-down story came from the Associated journalists will get a much- Press, which had picked it up needed year of rest and relaxation. from the Houston Chronicle. For Or maybe some time to learn a the record, the Chronicle story new skill, like computer pro- was written by a Washington gramming. v CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 27 28 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE Reviews Art Books Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art The Contract With God Trilogy at the Smart Museum by Will Eisner
REVIEW BY KIM THERIAULT a REVIEW BY WHET MOSER E
28 TAT a 30 WILL EISNER ES Art
BEYOND GREEN: TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE ART SMART MUSEUM OF ART
Combating Cast-Off Culture Artists’ novel and attractive solutions to social and environmental issues
By Kim Theriault t’s not easy being green, but a show at the Smart Museum of I Art makes it look that way. A collaboration between the muse- um and New York-based iCI (Independent Curators International), “Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art” includes fledgling and established artists who address the issue of sustainable design, meaning that present needs are met without compromising those of the future. These 13 individual artists or groups pose sometimes humor- ous, sometimes brilliant solutions to environmental and social prob- lems. They also challenge the idea of what art can do, breaking down the barrier between aesthetic and usable designs. The many collabo- rative efforts, both local and inter- national, also defy the model of the artist working alone. Loosely, these artists’ predecessors are such groups as the German Bauhaus and the Russian constructivists. Many of the displays are inter- active, allowing viewers to explore projects further on computers, watch videos, or walk into models. The exhibition is arranged the- matically in three parts, “Objects,” “Structures,” and “Processes and Networks.” But the boundaries between these categories—and From Michael Rakowitz’s “paraSITE” series the reasons for them—aren’t always clear. No matter: the tions.” She’s been asking questions to sustain life. She’s experimented From A-Z West, a red carpet on filled with dried flowers, an empty pieces’ cleverness and insight are for a while now. In the early 90s with these concepts in two stu- the wall and floor serves as the perfume bottle, a broken porcelain their raison d’etre. Zittel created a brand, “A-Z,” dios—first A-Z East in Brooklyn, backdrop for a shelf unit made swan, and a wooden acorn. Of the established individual meant to simplify daily living by then A-Z West in California— from a large piece of plywood cut Chicagoan Dan Peterman’s artists, perhaps Andrea Zittel best reducing consumer choices. Her where she makes items from into a keylike shape. As shelves Excerpts From the Universal Lab sets the tone for the exhibit. Her “products” have included one out- found objects, recycled paper, and she uses some of the cutout ply- consists of visually compelling, wall-label quote reads: “I am not a fit to wear for an entire season, a renewable living materials like wood and three boxlike compart- intellectually engaging junk designer—designers have a social modular apartment with variable wood, cotton, and wool. Here, in ments; on the shelves she’s placed sculptures. The three “travel responsibility to provide solutions. components, and a single food Raugh Shelving Unit With Fiber felted bowls and scavenged pods” here are large, waist-high Art is more about asking ques- that has all the nutrients needed Form Bowls and Found Objects objects, such as a liquor bottle Plexiglas spheres on metal legs CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 29
fitted with wheels, making them home he and his girlfriend could various cultural institutions. movable carts. They’re filled with share, with a “love nest” in the During a three-week residency materials from the Universal Lab, center. When he found out how here that involved U. of C. and an amateur scientists’ building on much his girlfriend talked, he SAIC students, they used cast-off Chicago’s south side (closed in asked Rakowitz to change the objects and materials from muse- 2000) that in turn scavenged its design to two separate chambers ums and theaters to make a materials from the University of connected in the middle, directing cheerfully striped table and Chicago labs. Each sphere is like that it should look like a bra. chairs, now ensconced at the a sealed time capsule of science These playful yet respectful struc- women’s shelter Deborah’s Place. and technology. Travel pod three tures act as both temporary solu- Drawings and a video document contains old pamphlets from tions and billboards for the prob- the process. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight lem of homelessness. Jane Palmer and Marianne Center, slides, lightbulbs, and Learning Group (whose four Fairbanks of JAM, based here in projectors. Inside the pod a large members are American, Mexican, Chicago, put a little funk into the case holds a Type K-20 camera, Danish, and Swedish) likewise idea of sustainability. They’ve cre- made for the military during piggybacks on the existing envi- ated Jump Off, five solar-pow- World War II, and what looks ronment. Among other projects, ered shoulder bags in different like an old Polaroid. Only bits of they’ve developed a plan for grow- styles and colors, each with a flat, the pamphlets can be read, like ing mushrooms in subterranean black solar-collection panel on the headline “Experiments in tunnels under Chicago buildings. one side to power electronic Death—Soviet scholars bring This idea and others—such as the gadgets. The red bag displays a dead dogs back to life.” sandwich-board-like wearable video cartoon by Arthur Jones One of the most ingenious proj- buildings they produced in that explains the reason for these ects is Michael Rakowitz’s Japan—are documented with self-sufficient designs: to emanci- “paraSITE” series. First construct- posters and drawings. They’ve pate the user from the usual ed in 1998 in Cambridge, also instituted a collection system power sources and to challenge Massachusetts, paraSITES are for unused recyclable materials the preeminence of government portable plastic houses for the like PET plastic. On display here surveillance and aggression (the homeless made of cheap materials is a gazebo-shaped shelter, bags look like the solar-powered like vinyl, tape, and garbage bags; Collected Material Dwelling, portable communications devices one cost only $5. These cute igloo- Model 1:1 , made of recycled card- used by the military). like homes are intended to be board, bottles, fabric, rope, metal, All the artists here blur the attached to the warm-air vents of and a hose. boundaries between art, archi- big buildings, which not only Another innovative collabora- tecture, design, construction, inflate but heat them. As if he tive is the Vienna-based activist sociology, environmentalism, were a contractor creating a cus- group WochenKlausur, which cre- and activism. Or, perhaps more tom design, Rakowitz collaborates ated the witty Intervention to accurately, they recycle them all with a homeless person on each Upcycle Waste and Museum into something new. Bono may dwelling, and some of the sketch- Byproducts. Their aim was to pro- have made environmental es, other images, and stories that duce a community of artists to awareness sexy with his Edun were part of these exchanges are upcycle, or reuse without recon- clothing line, but this exhibition on display. One man wanted a Collected Material Dwelling, Model 1:1 by Learning Group stituting, the waste products of makes it smart. v 30 CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE Books
THE CONTRACT WITH GOD TRILOGY: LIFE ON DROPSIE AVENUE WILL EISNER (NORTON) The Granddaddy of the Graphic Novel A year after his death, Will Eisner finally gets some respect. By Whet Moser y the mid-1970s Will Eisner of his books, the genre he legit- in exchange for good fortune. Aiding lowed by better fortune, but only was already an eminence imized has finally legitimized its the elderly and committing himself with the help of a mob-connected B grise of the comics world. founding work: Norton, which pub- to a New York synagogue, he enjoys Italian carpenter and a down-on- He’d started out during the lished his final original novel last a modicum of success until a baby is his-luck Yankee with big-business Depression as a 19-year-old prodigy, spring—The Plot: The Secret History left on his doorstep and he under- ties who has eyes for Jacob’s drawing for the short-lived kids’ of the Elders of Zion—is now rere- takes his most generous project— daughter. Over 140 pages Jacob publication Wow, What a leasing 14 Eisner works, beginning raising the anonymous child. When endures a wedding (his son’s), a Magazine! When that folded he with a handsome hardcover volume she dies from an unknown illness, divorce (his own), a reunion cofounded a lucrative comics stu- that combines A Contract With God he spits on the contract and hurls it (with a Holocaust escapee from dio; three years later, in 1940, he with two related books, A Life Force out the window. his past), a Mafia hit, Marxist created The Spirit, a seven-page, (1988) and Dropsie Avenue (1995). Thus released from his obligation revolutionaries, and a fire. full-color weekly now famous for its Readers familiar only with the to behave morally, he amasses great At the end of the storyJacob is visual innovation. Despite a detour current generation of graphic nov- wealth and lands a pretty shiksa left in his apartment with his ex- to serve in World War II, he kept elists—with Chris Ware’s quiet, girlfriend. Near the end of his life, wife, saving a cockroach from her the strip going until 1952, launching stuttering loners or Ben Katchor’s however, he has a change of heart rolled-up newspaper. Eisner’s the career of Spirit assistant Jules dreamy, cryptic sketches of city and has a group of rabbis write him cornball fearlessness carries him Feiffer along the way. After that he life—will find Eisner very, a new contract. On the day he’s through this overstuffed, circular started a graphics company and set- well ...cartoony. While contempo- given the document, he promises nomic cycles, touching on civic narrative. It requires as much sus- tled into a teaching career at the rary artists often go for a stylized, to rededicate himself to God and corruption, the Mafia, race riots, pension of disbelief as the social School of Visual Arts in his native emotionally subtle look, Eisner is a promptly dies of a heart attack. the drug boom, and white flight. realist classics that inspired the New York City. The Eisners, the master of the outsize gesture. His As Eisner increases the number The result is a time-lapse narra- story, but the graphic novel turns comics industry’s annual awards for characters are quick to tears, quick of plot threads in each story, the tive that relies on cliche to keep out to be a good—perhaps better— excellence, are named in his honor. to violence. Aspiring to literary sig- hammy tragedies mount and the up the breakneck pace. format for such cinematic sweep. But despite his reputation as a nificance, he aped the writers of his body count increases. His story- It’s the second novel, A Life Force, Eisner, whose Spirit, after all, was a visual genius and canny business- youth, combining O. Henry’s telling is visually as well as struc- that uses Eisner’s theatrical, com- criminologist masquerading as a man, when Eisner decided to ven- telegraphed morality with the turally striking—Eisner uses the pressed narration to best effect. A superhero who lived out of his own ture back into the comics medium social realism of Dos Passos, and vertical landscape of his tenement series of interconnected life stories, grave, recognized that an inherent- in 1978 he had trouble selling his his scratchy technique hums with childhood to dramatic effect. And it’s no less than a social history of ly fantastic medium made such first property—a bleak, elliptical the vitality of the big city. in addition to his literary influ- New York during the Depression bathos permissible. quartet of stories about tenement Eisner wrote A Contract With ence, he owes a clear debt to the combined with a philosophical More importantly, the over- life titled A Contract With God. God while grieving the loss of his hard-boiled moralizing of early investigation into the self-conscious flowing drama of A Life Force Eisner wanted a large publishing only daughter to leukemia, and the Cagney movies and the operatic nature of mankind. It opens with provides its own moral—don’t house to lend legitimacy to the book is drenched in a kind of exis- excesses of the tabloids of the day. a moving if maudlin scene in sweat the big stuff, because it will ambitious, uncategorizable work, tential bad luck, a sense that the The trilogy’s final book, Dropsie which an unemployed carpenter be overshadowed by even bigger which he called a “graphic novel,” only order in the world leads Avenue, departs from Contract’s named Jacob carries on a one-way stuff. The first time Jacob rescues but had to settle for Baronet Books, things to work out the way they lean fables by charging through debate about the purpose of life a cockroach, it contrasts modestly publishers of the Great Illustrated shouldn’t. The title story concerns the history of the fictional Bronx with a cockroach that he’s saved with the narrative that follows. Classics line. When published, the an idealistic young Russian who, street where the first two take from the foot of a passerby. Later, The second time it reframes the book was critically acclaimed but orphaned and then sent by his vil- place. Beginning with the 19th- when his wife asks how his day melodrama as a modest narrative found little popular success. lage to America to escape a series of century Dutch farmers (the Van was—a day when he’s been fired— in the grand scheme of history. Eisner died this past January at pogroms, inscribes a contract with Dropsies) who originally held the he responds, “Today?? Today I Eisner’s heirs—who include 87, and this winter, in a bit of dark God into a stone he carries with land, it follows the area through saved the life of a cockroach.” heavy hitters like Art Spiegelman irony that could’ve come from one him, promising a life of good works waves of immigration and eco- This act of benevolence is fol- and Frank Miller as well as Ware CHICAGO READER | DECEMBER 30, 2005 | SECTION ONE 31
Ink Well by Ben Tausig
42.Violet variety Sounds Like Love 45.Includes on a memo 48.Having more rings, in the forest ACROSS 50.Sit at a light 1. Embattled 51. They’ve got your back 6. “Oh, how adorable!” 54.Crossed (out) 9. Domesticates 14.It may go down on one knee 56.North Avenue Beach objective 15.Acupuncturist’s life force 57.Missed Connection: You gallantly lent and Katchor—have taken a step 16.Multiple choice choices, perhaps me your umbrella during a down- back into a cooler, more subtle 17.Casual Encounter: hotel employee pour, then disappeared—my ______! 60.Back at the track form within a more mature medi- seeking partner for a discreet ______19.Cattail’s locale 62.Former Department of Homeland um. In that context his grandiosity 20.El entrance Security head seems dated, even quaint. Eisner’s 21. In Search Of: Southeast Asian boyfriend; 63. In Search Of: Lady friend for a foreign exchange student in Yorkshire— excess of ambition, however, maybe you can work out as my______23. Zeta follower where can I find my______? expanded the possibilities of the 24.The norm: abbr. 66.Astral hunter nascent genre. Social history, reli- 26.Good times 67.It may be stroked or massaged gious fable, character-driven 27.Material in a trucker cap 68.Principle 29.Make your case 69.Is inclined miniatures, explicit sexuality, cin- 32.Parts of pts. 70.Snare ematic violence—the explosion of 33. Optimal 71. “Giant” of pro wrestling narrative forms Eisner compiled 35.Broken candy dispenser DOWN into the trilogy can be as enervating 38.In Search Of: Central European guy who swings both ways; hoping to 1. Pecs’ neighbors as it is enthralling. But in creating a receive a ______2. Had confidence (in) world too big for one book, he cre- 41. Skull & Bones members, for instance 3. “Keep yer pants on!” ated a world big enough for those 4. When “Good Morning Baltimore” plays in Hairspray he inspired to make their homes in, LAST WEEK: BOOK GROUPS 5. Where film winds up and they’ve been working in the 6. King topper light of his creation ever since. v 7. Stimulate 8. Spanish con, here 9. Language of Sri Lanka 10.Addis ______34.Meadow 49.Yanks’ foes 11. To a greater degree 36.Start the keg 52.U.S. coin motto starter 12.Artificial 37.Jai ______53. Utopias 13.Downhiller’s run 39.Well acquainted 55.Mississippi triangle 18.Physical prefix 22.Crosswise, on a ship 40.How tables may be placed 58.“Couldn’t have said it better 23. Daft Punk’s label 43.Sling mud myself!” 25.TV host with a PhD in psychology 44.Craving 59.Baltic capital 28.Unclear 45.Subject of a myth about night vision 61. New driver, usually 30.Taunted 46.Danes of Shopgirl 64.Type of story or sister 31. For boys and girls alike 47.Paul Simon’s “Slip ______Away” 65.Quebec place name starter