March 22, 2012
I had no idea The Onion is moving (back?) to Chicago, and from this article it sounds like a hard move for everybody involved. Fascinating to see how one of the greatest humor sites of all time handles its core staff. Also, I’m from that Chicago place.
EDIT: Founded in Madison WI, moved to New York City right before 9/11. The creative side of The Onion has never been Chicago-based, just The A.V. Club and the business offices.

I had no idea The Onion is moving (back?) to Chicago, and from this article it sounds like a hard move for everybody involved. Fascinating to see how one of the greatest humor sites of all time handles its core staff. Also, I’m from that Chicago place.

EDIT: Founded in Madison WI, moved to New York City right before 9/11. The creative side of The Onion has never been Chicago-based, just The A.V. Club and the business offices.

November 21, 2011

motherjones:

Barack Obama on “Check, Please!” in August 2001.

Future leader of the free world:

“I’m not looking for some fancy presentation or, you know, extraordinarily subtle flavors. I mean, what I’m looking for is food that tastes good for a good price.”

That’s having your finger on the pulse of America.

Check, Please! is the hit show for grown-ups on WTTW Channel 11, the main PBS affiliate in Chicago.  A couple of Chicagoans are guests each week, they each pick their favorite restaurant in the city, and then the host and guests eat at each place together and talk about it afterwards.

I worked as an intern on the WTTW nightly news show, Chicago Tonight, in the summer of 2008.  Most of my time there had much more to do with how nutty Rod Blagojevich was, but everybody who worked there full-time had some kind of experience with Obama, mostly from when he was a young state senator, or from the crazy 2004 U.S. Senate race (most Senate races don’t involve the unsealed divorce papers of the lady who played Seven Of Nine on Star Trek Voyager, or Bears great Mike Ditka coming thisclose to becoming an 11th hour replacement candidate). 

A couple months later Barack Obama was elected President, and WTTW re-ran this episode of Check, Please!, without any kind of commentary, just as a little retrospective on how far he had come in seven short years.

No point to this, I guess, except that in a republic you’ll run across future Presidents in some funny places if you pay attention.

July 23, 2011

patrickmerryman:

alexwatt:

Quite possibly my favorite commercial of all time. 

if your childhood summers cant be summed up by the first 6 seconds of this commercial then your parents probably loved you more than mine love me.

Going back home last weekend reminded me of how the humidity just sits on you all summer in Chicagoland in July/August.  And then this commercial reminds me of every other aspect of my childhood.

May 16, 2011
Congrats to Rahm Emanuel, sworn in today as Mayor of Chicago.

And bigger congrats to now-outgoing Mayor Richard M. Daley, who’s only been the Mayor of Chicago SINCE I WAS ONE YEAR OLD.

May 16, 2011
 

Franklin & Bash’s Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer on Chicago’s very own WGN. A show I’m associated with on a station I’ve seen many times based in a city I’m associated with…amazing!

March 7, 2011
Splitsider: Tina Fey's Two Types Of Comedy Writer

“If Harvard is Classical Military Theory, improv is Vietnam.”

January 2, 2011
Me and that blurry guy on the right (my brother) goofed around all of last night, finishing up with a Neofuturists show (as always great). Good last night before heading back to LA.

Me and that blurry guy on the right (my brother) goofed around all of last night, finishing up with a Neofuturists show (as always great). Good last night before heading back to LA.