Chicago -
Meet Stephen Winter
“I’m From Driftwood aims to help lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people learn more about their community, straight people learn more about their neighbors and everyone learn more about themselves through the power of storytelling and storysharing.”
Posted on February 6, 2012
By Dan O’Shea
I am no beer expert. I do love to drink beer, many different kinds of beer, at all hours and under any conditions. I love trying new craft beers, and the fact that an exciting new craft beer scene is brewing (yep, I said it) here in Chicago has me just about bursting out of my skin.
I will admit, not that I need to after saying all that, to being a beer nerd. But, a beer expert I am not. I say this so that you know I’m not the guy who can accurately delineate every flavor of a particular beer from first taste to finish, or who can analyze the difference between the way one beer pours versus another, or who learns something valuable from a beer’s head, or lack thereof, when poured.
I am the guy who still sometimes calls craft beers “microbrews,” a habit which I think marks me as the 40-plus-year-old uncool guy I am.
However, I think I’m fairly representative of the modern beer drinker, someone with an abundance of interest and a distinct lack of formal beer education and expertise, but who knows what he likes, and will make the effort to seek it out rather than drinking Bud or Miller (except at the ball game, though even at The Cell and Wrigley these days, a craft beer lover doesn’t have to slum it if he doesn’t want to).
I say these things not in defense. There are plenty of beer experts out there – they don’t need me. I say these things mainly just so you know where I’m coming from when I tell you what I did with my weekend.
Posted on February 3, 2012
These Colors Won’t Run!
Uploaded to YouTube by CHGOTHNDER on Feb. 1, 2012
“The Chicago Chapter of A.B.A.T.E. of Illinois asking EVERYONE to BOYCOTT the Chicago Motorcycle Show. They have a “NO COLORS” Policy…NO COLORS NO BIKERS!”
Posted on February 2, 2012
By Steve Rhodes and Thomas Chambers
Earlier this month WBEZ announced changes to its lineup described as the start of a five-year plan to bring more local programming to the station.
The Beachwood has obtained a confidential part of that plan outlining far more dramatic changes ahead than so far acknowledged. Let’s take a look.
6 a.m.: School Daze: Supt. Jean-Claude Brizard – or a paid stand-in – reads the day’s lunch menus, closings and turnarounds.
6:30 a.m.: Weather and Traffic on the Whines: Chicagoans whine about weather and traffic.
7 a.m.: Yuppie Worldviews: A daily rundown of First World Problems.
8 a.m.: Eight Forties At Eight: Gangstas do the news.
Posted on January 30, 2012
By The Beachwood History Desk
This was first broadcast in 2009, but we’re just catching up with it now (!) after seeing it re-posted on YouTube recently.
At the time, John Kass wrote in the Tribune:
“And without humans to tend it, Chicago wasn’t ‘Urbs in Horto‘ anymore. It was just plain old wild Horto.
“Paris, too, the Eiffel Tower cracking to the ground, and Seattle, the Space Needle falling, and New York, the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge rotting, snapping, all of it plunging into the East River in the History Channel special Life After People.
“There was Horto everywhere, Horto relentlessly triumphant, as befits seamless mass televised celebrations of the sacrament of Earth Day.”
Let’s take a look.
Posted on January 26, 2012
By J.J. Tindall
A Swan in a Swamp
So: there’s an angel
in my guts,
a swan in my swamp.
White swamp, snow bog,
like rain after a blizzard.
The egrets and heron belong
but the swan
seems wrong, a slim wizard
in a fat fog,
a cherub
‘midst the bats and frogs.
Cottonmouth bastards,
croc motherfuckers
Posted on January 23, 2012
By The Beachwood 444theFarm Affairs Desk
“For more than forty years, Fourth Presbyterian Church has been involved with the children and families living in Cabrini-Green,” the church says on its website.
“As an outgrowth of that relationship, in 2001 the church bought property in the Cabrini-Green community, on Chicago Avenue between Hudson and Cleveland, at 444 W. Chicago Avenue. In doing so, the church and Chicago Lights signaled their commitment to helping the neighborhood become a thriving diverse community and to ensuring that present residents are not cast aside in the process of its transformation into a mixed-income neighborhood.
“As the first step in this important endeavor, the Chicago Avenue site was transformed into a community garden, as a way to strengthen the relationships with the families and children in the Cabrini community.The Chicago Avenue property became the site for a community garden in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood in 2003, and the Chicago Lights Chicago Avenue Outreach continued to thrive as a garden through 2009.
“In 2010, in collaboration with Growing Power, a nationally recognized leader in urban agriculture, the garden has expanded to become an urban farm, with hoop greenhouses extending the growing season to nine to twelve months.
“The Chicago Lights Urban Farm provides job training and youth development. Through the urban farm, young adults not only learn about agriculture as they work with food production, but also gain life skills and job readiness. Families learn about nutrition and have access to affordable, healthy produce. And relationships in the community continue to be fostered as people of diverse backgrounds work side by side and enjoy community celebrations together.”
This video was uploaded to YouTube earlier today.
Posted on January 20, 2012
