WBEZ | Mark Bazer

My final WBEZ blog (please, don't cry)

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 10:00:00 -0500

So, this is my final blog for WBEZ.org. There are many reasons for my decision to give up my space on this great site, but I’ll share with you just a few of them.

Mistakenly thought I’d get same reaction as Car Talk guys upon retirement
Couldn’t be on the same site with a blogger who doesn’t understand the genius of Springsteen
Want to spend more time with my kids, as that involves no mental energy
Going off to write the Great American Novella
Going to put all my writing energies into live-tweeting from Graham Elliot restaurants
Want to be able to regret a decision three months from now
Got access to a friend’s HBO GO account
Going back to RedEye after they promised to extend column length to 28 words
Reader comments made me cry
Devoting all my time to using expiring Groupons
Ran out of opinions
Lost ability to write in complete sentences; hope to be dubbed “The Steve Sax of Bloggers”
Also apparently lost ability to include references to things less than a decade old
Not much going on in the U.S. this coming fall to blog about
Spent more money in getting over to WBEZ than they paid me
On deadline to write a blog entry; only idea I came up with was “Why I Am Quitting the Blog”
Think the Internet is a passing phase
My typist quit
It’s so hot outside
Hired by Mel Gibson to be Jewish friend
After Alec Baldwin shut down his Twitter account, what was the point?
Opening a high-end donut shop or Auntie Anne’s franchise
Hate blogging
Like quitting
You’re looking at the new Mrs. Tom Cruise

Thank you for reading this space. I appreciate it. Meanwhile, the next Interview Show is Friday, Aug. 3 at The Hideout. If you want to join the mailing list for updates, please shoot me an email at mebazer@yahoo.com. Thank you. And a big thanks to WBEZ for this opportunity.

The Hood Internet's STV SLV shows off duo's new direction

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:34:00 -0500

STV SLV, one half of the DJ/production duo The Hood Internet, stoped by The Interview Show to talk the group's history, his teenage dancing days and how he and partner ABX are moving beyond the mash-ups they're known for.

With a Hood Internet album of original music featuring collaborations from many of their favorite artists coming this fall, STV SLV also showed off the duo's new direction with a live performance featuring Chicago rapper Psalm One.

Tony Fitzpatrick: From artistic beginnings to a new Steppenwolf show

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Tony Fitzpatrick can do it all: visual art, etchings, collages, album covers for Steve Earle and The Neville Brothers. He’s been in major motion pictures and acted in theaters here in Chicago. He’s a prose writer and a poet. He designs tattoos. If he weren't such an awesome guy, you'd resent the hell out of him.

I loved talking to him a few weeks ago about his career, his relationship with Studs Terkel and Nickel History: The Nation of Heat, the third part of his autobiographical American trilogy coming to the Steppenwolf Garage on July 19.

Opposites detract: Romney-style

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 09:35:00 -0500

“Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has said he will do ‘the opposite’ of Barack Obama when it comes to Israel.” — The Guardian, June 17

Below, Mitt Romney elaborates on what he meant:

That’s right, my fellow-but-poorer Americans, the very opposite of what Barack Obama has done!

When the president says he supports Israel, I will say, well . . . I will also say I support Israel but in a way that is somehow the opposite.

When the president says it’s unacceptable for Iran to get nuclear weapons, I will again say the same thing but in a wholly opposite manner. “Iran in weapons nuclear against am I,” for example.

Here in the U.S., Barack Obama does little to support the Israeli people. Yet when he actually goes to Israel, he cowers and lets them dictate everything he does, including reading words from right to left.

That is not the way we in America read, and when I’m in Israel, I will always read left to right!

Indeed, I will not bend to the will of any foreign countries the way Barack Obama does.

We’ve seen the president bow before foreign leaders. Literally bow! When I’m around foreign leaders, I will do the opposite, jumping high into the air as I stand before them, perhaps on a pogo stick.

Here at home, we’ve seen the president kowtow to the pro-environment, pro-gay-rights and pro-union lobbies. When I’m president, I will never kowtow to these lobbies — only to completely different ones.

When I’m president, rest assured, I will be the opposite of Barack Obama in every conceivable way.

Where he is weak, I will be strong.

Where he is opaque, I will be transparent.

Where he is fake, I will be real.

Where he is clockwise, I will be counterclockwise.

Where he owns no book of antonyms, I will bring my copy to the White House.

The president rammed through a health care bill that only pinkos in Massachusetts could support. It mandated health insurance for everybody! Including, unbelievably, people who are very ill.

When I’m president, I will propose a new health-care bill that mandates that nobody in this country can have health insurance except for people in Congress.

The president recently granted what amounts to amnesty for at least 700,000 illegal immigrants.

When I’m president, I will personally carry all 700,000 of those people across the border — on the roof of my car if necessary. (Sorry, the person putting words in my mouth here couldn’t resist.)

The president would like to raise your taxes. When I’m president, I will do the opposite and lower my taxes.

The president would like to regulate your business. When I am president, I will deregulate the businesses that will take over your business.

The president has never once placated the wackos on the extreme religious right.

When I’m president, I will . . . um, let’s move on.

Look, the president leading our country down a path to ruin. Elect me as your president and I will take this country off the path, rent us a private luxury jet and get us to ruin a whole lot quicker!

Nobody embraces the 'chefs are the new rock stars' more than Graham Elliot

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:25:00 -0500

Some people say chefs are the new rock stars. I don't know what that makes rock stars now, but as far as chefs go, it makes sense.

"Celebrity" chefs can be charismatic, ornery, loud, funny, a little bit nuts and. . . talented at multiple things: cooking, of course, but also self-promotion, business savvy and showmanship.

And when it comes to that suite of talents, Graham Elliot fits the bill. The Chicago-based chef behind Grahamwich and his self-named upscale restaurant has a brand-new space, G.E.B., in the West Loop. Here he talks Grahamwich, food at Lollapalooza and more.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Author Rich Cohen talks United Fruit, Sam Zemurray . . . and bananas

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:16:00 -0500

Here's what I'm sure about: You've never thought about reading a book about the banana business and/or Sam Zemurray, the guy perhaps most responsible building it.

Here's what I'm also sure about: You absolutely should read The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King, by Rich Cohen.

It's the story of a Russian immigrant who started as a lowly fruit peddler and became one of this country's biggest businessmen — one you feel like celebrating one moment and condemning the next. It's also the story of the United States as it rose to dominance in the 20th century. And Cohen is a writer whose passion for his subject bleeds through on every page.

Here Rich Cohen talks about the book — under The Interview Show's new lighting and camera set-up! (Big, big thanks to Ben Chandler and Kevin Viol and for Adam Peindl for helping out with the cameras.)

Synth band Nova Social will take you to The Delano

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:06:00 -0500

I'll probably get in trouble for calling New York City's Nova Social a synth band. But I was never that good at describing music.

What I can say is that the band, fronted by David Nagler, takes me back to the 1980s (without wallowing in nostalgia) and the songs hypnotize me. Check out the performance below from last month's Interview Show in Brooklyn.

And if you live in NYC or know someone there, the band plays Joe's Pub on Wednesday, June 20, at 7:30 p.m.

Sex advice columnists Em & Lo talk about. . . things we can't mention in this headline

Thu, 31 May 2012 09:57:00 -0500

Em & Lo have made careers out of talking sanely and humorously about sex and love. They are, as they describe themselves on their site, "opinionated but not (too) judgmental, philosophically complex yet down-to-earth, sexy but never sleazy, progressive and ethical."

The duo appeared on The Interview Show earlier this month and helped me feel better about my own sexual hang-ups.

Our interview is below. May be NSFW:

The Interview Show is back at The Hideout Friday June 1 at 6:30 p.m. with author Rich Cohen, artist Tony Fitzpatrick, chef Michael Kornick and more.

Making comedy out of history with stand-up Charlie Bury

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:37:00 -0500

Comic Charlie Bury, one of the newest cast members of The Lincoln Lodge stand-up show, stopped by the Hideout for The Interview Show last month with material inspired by his love of history.

If you haven't see a show at The Lincoln Lodge, get there now. Well, not now, but when the show is happening. Charlie appears Friday May 25 at 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Killing Pigeons Softly in Oak Park

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:32:00 -0500

Oak Park, the town — or, excuse me, village — I proudly call home, is known for a few things.

For starters, there’s Frank Lloyd Wright. People come from all around to take the “See the Homes that Frank Lloyd Wright Was a Jackass in” Tour.

Oak Park is also the boyhood home of Ernest Hemingway; if it weren’t for Oak Park schools teaching him the alphabet, he never would have written any books.

More importantly, the village has also long been known for being a warm and inclusive community.

Now that wonderful and well-deserved reputation is being threatened. Don’t get me wrong: People of all kinds are still welcome and encouraged to make Oak Park their home.

But . . . this week, the village board considered an ordinance that calls for KILLING — or, excuse me, euthanizing — pigeons.

It appears that there is, to quote the Wednesday Journal’s Anna Lothson, “a continuing presence of a flock of pigeons under the newly upgraded Marion Street el viaduct.”

Don’t these pigeons realize how perilously close they are to the finest wine and cheese shop the village has to offer?????

As someone who moved to Oak Park at least in part for the pigeons, this obviously has me enraged. Not enraged enough to have attended the village board meeting, but enraged.

To me, pigeons are one of the telltale signs of a great city. Name a great city and I’ll show you pigeons slightly ruining the quality of life.

Now, name a, well, not so world-class city. You won’t find any pigeons, I guarantee. When was the last pigeon that called Toledo (sorry, Mom and Dad) home? They’d only improve the quality of life, so what would be the point?

Some, like Oak Park trustee Bob Tucker, might wonder why Oak Park can’t just move the pigeons someplace else, like to Berwyn.

Again, to quote the Wednesday Journal, Mike Charley, environmental heath supervisor in the village, “said it’s proven pigeons return home.”

So, the answer is to just kill them? What’s next, Mr. Charley? Doing the same to our kids upon graduating college without jobs?

Instead of seeking to humanely remove as many pigeons via death, Oak Parkers should be thankful. Thankful that we don’t have kleptomaniacal monkeys roaming the streets, like they do in New Delhi.

This, according to The New York Times, mere hours after the Great Pigeon-Killing Ordinance meeting: “The monkey population of Delhi has grown so large and aggressive that overwhelmed city officials have petitioned India’s Supreme Court to relieve them of the task of monkey control.”

The Hindu religion, the article reports, says that people should feed monkeys on Tuesday and Saturdays.

“(Veterinary Services Director R.B.S.) Tyagi expresses impatience with residents who feed the monkeys one day, then complain to the city when the monkeys steal their clothes on another day.”

One solution in New Delhi is to hire a bigger kind of monkey to urinate around your home. The urine repels the smaller monkeys causing all the problems. The one drawback: The urine also repels people.

In any event, the official vote on whether to destroy pigeons is coming June 4. Write your congressman.

(The next Interview Show is Friday, June 1, at The Hideout, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Guests include chef Michael Kornick and author Rich Cohen.)