O.K., not really, but he did sort of join the band during their set in Grant Park last week.......

City Council this afternoon voted 33-16 in favor of the plan to put the Children's Museum in a hole in Grant Park. What now? Alderman Brendan Reilly says he's going to court. Reilly promised a flurry of lawsuits -- and an attempt to seek a temporary restraining order blocking construction. Museum attorney Ted Novak said he does not believe the opposition will be able to meet the high legal standard needed to obtain a......

The City Council's Zoning Committee approved the Children's Museum's move to Grant Park today by a 6-3 vote after six hours of testimony. Next up, the whole City Council votes on the plan next Wednesday, and Mayor Daley says he has all the votes he needs to get the plan approved. From the Sun-Times: Prior to [today's] final vote, [42nd Ward Alderman Brendan] Reilly tried to get the Zoning Committee to put off a decision,......

Photo courtesy of eddieq Thankfully, it finally feels like early summer, making this weekend's 25th annual Chicago Blues Festival all the more appealing. For four wonderful days and nights, musical acts such as B.B. King, Buckwheat Zydeco, Omar Shariff, and the Juke Joint Duo of Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm will be spread across six stages while a seventh stage will provide presentations and lectures on blues music and its history. This fest is......

Almost daily, buildings that have stood for decades, some even for a century, are destroyed. For example, the buildings that made up the Cabrini Green housing project get a little bit smaller every day. Other famed architecture like the two Adler & Sullivan buildings that went up in flames (the Pilgrim Baptist Church and Wirt-Dexter building) in one year have also been lost to the ages. Since 2001, Preservation Chicago has fought to keep the......

The Chicago Children's Museum released a revised architectural plan today, and the new take doesn't include the 16-foot skylights from the original proposals. According to the really fancy press release, "In effect, the project involves the replacement of approximately 400 enclosed under-plaza parking spaces with 100,000 square feet of museum space and a Chicago Park District field house." The new design also includes substantially shrinking the entryway and putting it on park property, and......

Photo by blue(skied) We'll keep our eyes peeled tomorrow for new designs for the Children's Museum proposed Grant Park digs. [Crain's] The City is going to spend $1.5 million on 1,000 summer jobs for teenagers. It's one of several city-organized plans in place to help curb youth violence this summer. [S-T] Emil Jones wants a pay raise. [Trib] Northwestern has rescinded its invitation to award Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright an honorary Doctorate of Sacred......

Photo by CoryDalus The Park District announced yesterday that it approved the Daley-endorsed plan to move the Chicago Children's Museum to Grant Park. The proposal goes in front of the Planning Commission probably in May and in front of the City Council most likely in June. The meeting yesterday also confirmed that the naming rights to the museum will still be going to Allstate. The Planning Commission is pretty much set to endorse the......

Movies in Grant Park photo by JVoves The Chicago Children's Museum is moving ahead with plans to build its new facilities in Grant Park, despite serious objections from what appears to be everyone who's not the Children's Museum or Mayor Daley. We can put the Sun-Times on the list of organizations that are against the move. Today's editorial says that "[b]uilding a children's museum in Grant Park is still a bad idea," before trotting......

Photo by Viqi French Mayor Daley unleashed a barely coherent rant today in favor of putting the Children's Museum in Grant Park. Even crazier than his ramblings? Most aldermen are backing him. [Trib, S-T] A tanker truck exploded in Lemont. [CBS 2] Just when we thought Todd Stroger couldn't surprise us... A lobbyist, who just received a $110,000 no-bid contract from the Toddler, is throwing him a fundraiser. [Crain's] Are perch making a comeback......

Cartoon for Chicagoist by Tim Daly......

Oh man, we almost forgot about the Children's Museum debate! Luckily, Alderman Brendan Reilly wants to keep it front and center, which is why he sent the Museum a list of 24 possible places it could relocate that aren't Grant Park: + Museum Campus + Northerly Island + Logan Square + Garfield Park Conservatory + Pritzker Park + Washington Park + Bronzeville + Calumet Park + Englewood + State and Van Buren + McCormick Place......

Preservation Chicago announced its 7 most endangered buildings today, and on the list are surprise entries Grant Park and the Landmarks Ordinance. Also cited are Norwood Park, the American Book Company Building, the Devon Ave commercial district, the Booker Building and the Daily News building. Photo by WVAllen According to Preservation Chicago's report, Grant Park is endangered because of the plans to relocate the Children's Museum. [That plan[ would impose more than 100,000 square feet......

The biggest cultural stories of 2008 are likely less predictable than this week’s Rose Bowl. Every year we see our share of breakout artists and surprising storefront gems, and 2008 promises to be no different. But 2007 left some unfinished business and we’re eager to see how these stories play out: Stingy in Springfield Blago’s veto of the FY08 State budget reduced Illinois Arts Council funding by 30%. And a trickle-down economics of pain proceeds:......

The smoking ban isn't just for bars anymore (well ... yet): The Chicago Park District wants to ban smoking on beaches and in playgrounds, too. And it looks like the plan will be approved by Wednesday, so run over to the playground and start puffing while you still can. The ban isn't just about keeping second-hand smoke away from the kiddies: It's environmental, too. Apparently you can collect 10,000 cigarette butts an hour cleaning up......

Patrick Ivuti of Kenya won today's running of the Chicago Marathon in a photo finish over Moroccan Jaouad Gharib. Both runners crossed the finish line at the same time, but Ivuti crossed 5/100th of a second before Gharib. But Ivuti's win, and Ethiopian Berhane Adere's defense of her women's title, were secondary stories to the decision by race officials to cut short the race due to the dangers they posed to participants by unseasonably warm......

That steady wailing sound you may have heard this morning is 45,000 runners freaking out about Sunday’s forecast. For the 30th Chicago Marathon, Tom Skilling is promising record heat with a generous dollop of humidity. Runners, it’s time to dig deep and summon the strength that got you through that 14-mile training run in August or that sweaty half-marathon you conquered last month. To the thousands who fear death or worse this weekend, we say:......

We're all down with sculpture gardens. But are garden-gardens art? That’s the question artist Chapman Kelley (warning: pdf) is putting to the Chicago Park District — via a federal suit. Kelley alleges that the garden he designed and planted in Daley Bicentennial Plaza is art protected under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act. Not everyone agrees, saying that the flowers have run wild and that the garden occupied too much space. The park district reduced......

Daley’s reign over the city may seem impenetrable, but there’s one thing even he should keep in mind: Don’t mess with moms. There was a lot of commotion when Daley accused Grant Park neighbors of being racist because they didn't want the Children's Museum in the park. Despite their apparent lack of political muscle, the New East Side mommies seem ready to kick Daley's ass more than anyone. Using words like "tuchus" and explaining that......

It was about time Mayor Daley entered the fray surrounding the Chicago Children’s Museum’s proposed move to Grant Park. To exactly no one’s surprise, he favors the plan. Loves it so much he’s enlisted his good buddies false choice and specious reasoning. Make no mistake: if you oppose the Museum’s move to Grant Park, you hate children. You want them to grow up miserable, lacking any sense of civic pride or patriotism, addicted to meth,......

The debate over the Chicago Children's Museum plan to relocate to Grant Park has escalated since Monday’s neighborhood meeting at Daley Bicentennial Plaza. There, museum officials introduced plans for a more sunken, environmentally friendly design adjacent to the Plaza. The Museum’s growth has been remarkable. Founded in 1982 in two Chicago Public Library hallways, it’s since moved three times, most recently to Navy Pier in 1995. Twelve years later, they’ve apparently outgrown that tourist magnet.......

We've finally recovered (well, mostly) from the whirlwind weekend that was Lollapalooza 2007. There were certain highs, and definite lows, but overall we've still pleased that the festival has chosen Chicago as its home. In its third year many of the past problems (like sound bleed or wonky scheduling that necessitated obscene amounts of walking in extremely limited spans of time) seemed mostly solved. There were a few cruel overlaps schedule-wise, but when you have......

As promised, this post will briefly explore (in first-person singular) life on the other side of the gate at Lollapalooza. Why? Because we know you're dying to read more things about that giant music festival that took place in Grant Park this past weekend. When The Polyphonic Spree recorded part of their newest album, The Fragile Army, at Steve Albini's studio Electrical Audio, they called up local tap dancer and Chicago Tap Theatre artistic director......

Braless and wearing an oversized white T-shirt with a hand drawn peace sign and the word "Love" written underneath it, Patti Smith humbly began her set with an extra-Jamaican sounding "Redondo Beach," fumbling some of the lyrics and apologizing to the crowd for being too excited. We have been waiting approximately 26 years to see Patti Smith live, and with this spirited, yet slightly clumsy beginning, we were beginning to wonder if we waited too......

While most of the city was partying down at Lollapalooza this weekend, a different type of party was going on just a few blocks south of Grant Park: YearlyKos, the annual convention hosted by DailyKos, the netroots weblog started by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, and filled with content, news and views by a motley crew of bloggers from around the nation (including Dick Durbin!). Saturday was a big day for the bloggers by the lake, with......

While many of you shuffle back and forth from stage to stage in Grant Park this weekend, we thought we'd take the opportunity to show you how it looked about 80 years ago. It's just a touch different today, isn't it? While the landscaping had yet to take its place in 1929, Buckingham Fountain and the general layout of the park are clear. The Art Institute is in place and looks exceptionally lonely, and while......

Before we teleported up into the great nightclub in outer space, Chicagoist took a few hours to walk around Grant Park this weekend and have a friendly chit-chat with some of the many fine folks who came to Lolla this weekend. Some of them came from nearby - North Side, South Side and the suburbs. Others came from farther away, places like New Jersey. Still others came to visit us from other countries, like Ireland.......

This week, just for "guest", Chicagoist decided to tie this installment of the "Buffet" into Lollapalooza. We also have an update on Bell's, some other newsworthy items, and the usual complement of events. - A forum thread started at Beer Advocate earlier this week asked the million-dollar question: When is Bell's coming back to Illinois? Standing out among the speculation was a reply from Larry Bell himself. Bell told the forum that he's been talking......

The city's biggest music festival of the summer kicks off tomorrow, and you can feel the excitement building in the Chicagoist offices. However, we've had to put our cub reporters through some summer festival basic training, since this one blows all the others out of the water in sheer scope and size. The bands are the draw, and the primary source of fun, but there are a few other things you -- and our cub......

One of Chicago's newest aldermen, Bob Fioretti (2nd) is taking heat from one of the city's older hotels. The 14-story Congress Plaza Hotel, designed and built to accommodate visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, has been embroiled in a strike with UNITE HERE Local 1 since June 2003. According to Crain's Chicago Business, the hotel, owned by Albert Nasser Shayo, a Syrian globe-trotting businessman with residences in New York, Argentina, and Switzerland, who......