Polynesian Pop expert James Teitelbaum is looking ahead at the same time he's looking back. His previous book, Tiki Road Trip 2, has proved invaluable for scouting out tropical vibes no matter where we happen to be. Thanks to Teitelbam's advice, during a recent trip we spent a wonderful evening at Los Angeles' legendary Tiki Ti (an upcoming Properly Sauced post will feature a facsimile of a drink we imbibed there.)
When we heard about a new documentary featuring the music of Girl Talk, one of our all-time favorite interview subjects, we couldn't wait to see it. And that isn't hard: RiP! A Remix Manifesto is available online as a pay-what-you-want download. We're sure glad we did. It's the most clearly articulated work on copyright and remix culture that we've ever seen.
Cell phones and the CTA. For now, this relationship serves only one purpose: to annoy the hell out of us when people of trains and buses decided to TALK WAY TOO LOUD on their cell phones in transit. Inside voices, folks, and chances are the conversation can wait 10 minutes. But now the RTA is looking into a relationship between the two that might actually prove useful. The Tribune is reporting that the RTA hopes to one day in the very near future - as opposed to the BladeRunner future - putting in a system that allows riders to swipe their fare by cell phone rather than fare card. While the RTA is already developing a new "smart card," they're looking into a recent trial that San Francisco's BART system tried. Joseph Moriarty, the RTA's principal analyst, said, "I think it's one of the most promising technologies out there. More people carry a cell phone than carry credit or debit cards." Check out the Trib's story for more info, including what the phones in SF needed in order to correctly operate.
Google recently announced new capabilities for Google Earth that will change the way you look at Chicago. Michael T. Jones, chief technology advocate for Google, was in town this week so we sat down with him to check out some of the new tricks they created, and what Chicagoans can look for now. Besides roving the land, you can now also cruise water, space, and even time.
Ah, technology. Is there anything it can't do? Aldermen on Facebook and Mayor Daley on the YouTubes? What's next? How about a Cook County Commissioner on Twitter? Better yet, how about a Cook County Commissioner on Twitter who "live-tweets" board meetings? Thank goodness for Tony Peraica, who has taken to Twittering the board meetings using the "#cooklive" hash. You can check out Tony's Twitter here.
“I think we had email,” Natarus said. “The Haymarket Group handled all that stuff. Really, at the time, I was surprised we used television in an alderman’s race.”
You know that awful feeling you get when you have to sit and wait while the police officer writes you a ticket? Not just that adrenaline rush from being pulled over, but the sense of shame as people drive by, glancing in your direction and saying to themselves, "Man, glad it wasn't me"? Well, that feeling will always be there but your wait will be shorter soon thanks to a new electronic traffic ticket system being implemented which allegedly cuts the time taken to issue a ticket in half, thus enabling Johnny Law to get back out on the highway and issue more tickets. Officials hope to have the system in place by the end of the year. Um, hooray?
Oh come all ye tinkerers, nerdy and philanthropic, come ye oh co-ome ye to American Maker.
Motorola will have its answer for the iPhone out in the next few months, according to Crain's.
The City of Chicago is planning to drop the hammer on motorists that don't pay parking tickets, presenting them with more than just a ticket: evidence!
We're the seventh-biggest "cybercity" according to a new report, whose findings we will immediately dismiss based on their use of the prefix "cyber." What year is it, people? We ranked behind New York, Washington, D.C., San Jose, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Los Angeles. All the data is from 2006, the last year for which info is available.
Chicagoist remembers the day when we had to wait for the next morning's newspaper to see whether our team won or not, and we'd pore over the previous night's box scores while eating breakfast before heading off to school or day camp.
Get ready for WiMax to blanket our region with delicious, wherever-you-want speedy internet connections (provided you have a WiMax-enabled device). Come to mama.
State Rep Kenneth Duncan (D-Chicago) introduced a bill that would make using a cellphone while crossing the street illegal.
Finally! The CTA is introducing new machines that let you buy transit passes with your debit or credit card. Welcome to the future, CTA! By "the future" we mean "the present" or "several years ago." But welcome, nonetheless.
Who doesn't love dogs? Besides these two, we mean. Many of us here at Chicagoist have our own pups that we lavish with too much attention and expensive things to chew. There's nothing that warms our hearts after a long day at the office like the excited look and wagging tail of our canine companions.
It seems like everybody in town knows Tony Rezko's name. And why not? Besides being under federal indictment, he's a big player in Illinois politics. He's also gotten some national attention, with Former Gov. Jim Edgar musing that Rezko isn't really Obama's problem, and a photo of him with former President Bill Clinton surfacing on the Today show.
Will I Ever See My Laptop Again?
As Frank Burns says, it's nice to be nice to the nice. And it seems like people are getting on the kindness bandwagon today. First the Neighbors Project wants us to give out thank you for shoveling cards. The folks at NP will send you free postcards to pass out to your shovel-inclined neighbors to thank them for their magnificent de-snowing skills — and it's also a way to shame your blockmates into clearing...
If you need further evidence that cultural awareness is increasingly non-existent among the general populace, look no further than college blog Campus Squeeze. Following on the heels of its list of the 20 most beautiful college campuses, the site recently weighed in on what they deemed the 20 ugliest campuses in the country. While the prison-style buildings of Drexel University and the utilitarian blocks at Rochester Institute of Technology certainly didn't look appealing, we...
There are good ideas and there are great ideas. Doctors at Loyola University Medical Center have devised a way to make sure surgical sponges don’t get lost in people anymore. Hooray for medical technology! They’re going to put bar codes on the sponges, and a nurse will scan the sponge before it goes in and the system will tell the nurse if any sponges have been left inside.
Some things never change. One of those is spending Sunday nights watching "Doctor Who" on Channel 11. Twenty years ago yesterday one of those episodes (from the run of the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker) was interrupted by a video pirate in a Max Headroom mask and held the signal hostage for over two minutes. As Rick Klein at Fuzzy Memories notes, the pirate also jammed Channel 9's signal earlier in the evening, but the...
Two stories have us thinking about the continuing evolution of the cinematic experience and the differences between going to see a movie and just watching one. First off, "boutique" theater chain Muvico has signed a letter of intent to occupy two floors of the Block 37 development. The proposed multiplex would have only seven screens, much smaller than the AMC RIver East 21 for example. But (to quote Seinfeld) they'd be draped in velvet, so...
Check, Please! just launched an interactive video-based website today where visitors may send in restaurant recommendations and audition for the show. The site also contains over 300 reviews from the show's run, the one-minute segments that began running on NBC 5 on Tuesdays and Fridays (NBC 5 is a partner in the site). Now you can look up recent reviews in case you missed a recent review or just want to view a truncated...
We've decided that even though this feature is still in its nascent stages, we're giving Steve Johnson a "bye" week already. Why? It was pointed out to us that after a certain comment on this site, Johnson has suddenly started to include links in his posts.
Who gives last rites to the priest? Who installs a new crown in the dentist's mouth? Who buries the gravedigger? Or, more importantly, who gives the eulogy when a funeral home dies? If you're the family that has held sway over Griffin Funeral Home for 60 years, you give it yourself. The historic, African-American-owned parlor at 32nd and King Drive is closing its doors come New Year's Eve. Griffin has played host to such final...
The Greenbuild Expo started this morning at McCormick Place with a keynote by none other than Al Gore's president, Bill Clinton. Greenbuild 2007 brings 18,000 building professionals together for education sessions, lectures, tours of Chicago's greenest buildings, and a huge number of booths featuring new products and technology. Greenbuild says they chose Chicago because of the city's legacy of great architecture and Mayor Daley's dedication to all things green. (During his reign, the city has...
In a move sure to send ripples throughout the video game community, Electronic Arts, aka EA, is shuttering its Chicago office effective immediately. In case that leaves you scratching your head, EA is responsible for such gaming franchises as Madden NFL, The Sims, The Orange Box, and the upcoming Rock Band. The now former studio was located at 215 W. Ohio. According to EA Games president Frank Gibeau, shutting down the Chicago branch was “the...
Well, it's finally happened: the Writer's Guild of America declared a strike early this morning after midnight negotiations stalled. Naturally there's been plenty of finger-pointing, with writers claiming that the producers broke off talks while producers say that the writers were the ones who walked out. Regardless, the strike will have some very immediate effects, which the Trib has handily put in chart form. Daily shows will suffer the most at first, with programs like...
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
tweet this
add to facebook
