By WNET

Chicago area native Nia Wordlaw is one of 15 women featured in American Masters: The Women’s List premiering nationwide Friday night at 9 p.m. on PBS & locally on WTTW. The film is available same day on DVD via Perfect Day Films Inc. at shoppbs.org and will be available to stream on the American Masters website September 26.
Wordlaw is one of approximately 25 black female pilots flying for a major airline in the U.S. today.
She attended Lindop Elementary School (Broadview, IL), Oak Park and River Forest High School (Oak Park, IL), Lewis University (Romeoville, IL) and is an alumnus of Southern Illinois University, where she did her flight training. She moved to Houston in 2007 and is currently employed by United Airlines.

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Posted on September 25, 2015

Ridiculous Stereotypes, Crude Humor

“There were songs. There were silly hats. Confetti and El Chacal, even. But the man of the three-plus hours did not cry,” Yvonne Villarreal writes for the Los Angeles Times.
“Mario Kreutzberger, better known under his stage name Don Francisco, closed the decades-long book on Spanish-language mainstay Sábado Gigante with an emotional send-off celebration Saturday night at Univision studios in Miami.
“After 53 years of being a familiar glow – lit up by zany sketches, scantily-clad women, bizarre TV characters such as El Chacal, and Kreutzberger’s raucous stage persona – that had been a fixture inside millions of Latino homes on Saturday nights, Sábado Gigante will beam no more.”

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Posted on September 22, 2015

By RT America

The Occupy movement was dismissed by the mainstream media, but it’s message – and nomenclature – is now front and center in American politics.

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Posted on September 18, 2015

“Racism In The U.S.”

“An elderly Sikh-American man was brutally injured and allegedly called a ‘terrorist’ and ‘bin Laden’ in an apparent hate crime case in [suburban] Chicago.”

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Posted on September 11, 2015

By The Andy Kaufman Award

Comedic Award Show Set for October 11, Celebrating 40 Years since Andy’s Feature on SNL’s Debut
(New York) – The submission deadline for the 11th annual Andy Kaufman Award is next Tuesday, September 15, 2015. Comedic artists are encouraged to submit their entries online at andykaufmanaward.com.

The Andy Kaufman Award will take place on Sunday, October 11, 2015 at the UCB East in New York City where the finalists will perform in front of a live audience and a panel of notable judges.
Interested comedians must submit a video of them performing original material. Video submissions must not exceed six minutes in length, and the use of vulgarity is discouraged.

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Posted on September 10, 2015

Set In LA But Outta Chicago

“What’s Happening!! is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from August 5, 1976 to April 28, 1979,” according to Wikipedia.
“The show premiered as a summer series.”
Here’s a promo for the premiere, uploaded to YouTube this week by The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

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Posted on September 3, 2015

Plus: Oops Dance Girl, Worldstar Hip Hop Questions

1. Tachuelita TV.

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Posted on September 1, 2015

By Last Week Tonight

“U.S. tax law allows television preachers to get away with almost anything. We know this from personal experience.”

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Posted on August 24, 2015

By Marcelo Rochabrun/ProPublica

David Simon’s new HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, which premiered last Sunday, is the harrowing tale of a hopeless battle. Based on a nonfiction book of the same title – written by former New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin – the show dramatizes the real fight that took place 25 years ago in Yonkers, New York, after a federal judge ordered public housing projects to be built in the wealthier (and whiter) parts of the city.
In an interview with ProPublica, David Simon discussed the legacy of the Yonkers crisis and what desegregation is all about. The transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

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Posted on August 22, 2015

By Steve Rhodes

“On Sunday, a group of male Chicago comedians attended the season premiere taping of The Steve Harvey Show in Chicago,” Kate Dries reports for Jezebel.
“These ten men were part of an audience of roughly 2,000 at the Ford Oriental Theatre downtown, who were all there for What Men Really Think – The Event! What Men Really Think, according to accounts, is that it is acceptable for thousands of them to catcall and harass 150 women onstage.
“Advertised as an event intended ‘for gentlemen of all backgrounds and ages,’ the taping appears to be a more elaborate version of a segment that was part of an episode that aired in July during It’s Raining Men Week, also entitled ‘What Men Really Think.’ That segment had featured a regular-sized studio audience of women, with men onstage who’d been quizzed on questions like ‘Which is more important, a pretty face or a great body?’ (Answer: A pretty face!)”
Click through for the rapey rest and read the rest of the horrible story.

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Posted on August 21, 2015