2 posts tagged “wort”
Today on WORT's noon time show, A Public Affair, host Chris Dols had a much needed conversation by phone with Bob Quellos, an architect and Chicago citizen who is helping with the activist effort No Games Chicago. This was the first time I've heard in Madison a critical discussion of the City of Chicago's effort to woo the International Olympic Committee and the 2016 Summer Games. The reason it is important that this analysis be heard in Madison is because our city has become part of Chicago's official Olympic bid, having officially been named as the site of several competitive events. The governor and the mayor are on board. There has been virtually no voice on the issue other than that of those who are already sold on the idea. Predictably, from the get-go they have deployed the usual boilerplate about tourism and economic boons.
Missing is any analysis that takes into account what hosting the Games will probably mean for Chicago, and, in turn, how the crushing fiscal burden left on Chicago by the Games might affect the surrounding region. Including Madison. This lack of analysis is major problem given the anxiety bourgeois Madison feels regarding poor and working class people moving to Madison from the nearby big cities of Milwaukee and Chicago. How the economic and living conditions in those cities are managed and, in this case, maybe worsened substantially, should be of concern to people (and activists) here precisely because the demographic shifts in Madison probably correspond to those changing conditions.
Instead of blindly considering a Chicago Summer Games an automatic good, and, in the worse cases, simultaneously bemoaning the outsiders who are bringing to Madison new levels of violence and lawlessness, we should be thinking through the operations that make the nearby big cities unlivable, driving poor people out. This would include such strikingly neoliberal developments like hosting a summer Olympics. Unfortunately, even during the conversation on-air there wasn't much time spent on the regional ramifications, but it was a good start.
One of the pleasures of living in Madison is being around a lot of different kinds of music, but not having to deal with the crowds and traffic of a much larger city. But it turns out I still don't have the time to take in all the shows that catch my attention. Last weekend I had a plan to see two shows. We had a foursome set for Steve Earle at the Barrymore, and then I intended to see M.O.T.O by myself afterward at the Crystal Corner, a place I still haven't been. But adventurous, full nights of shows are just so easily derailed these days. I think I came home and just went to work, on some grant proposal or drawing. Fortunately–and maybe this is part of the problem–the listening station at home is sounding better than ever, after having recently invested in new a Music Hall turntable. So much more signal comes through that sometimes it sounds like I got a whole new record collection. And to be fair to myself, Steve Earle played quite a long show.
Speaking of records, I believe I will be buying more LPs in Madison. Or else on travels, like how the recent trip to Columbus netted me a couple of Country Gentlemen records. (Not the classic line-up, but still, it's the Country Gentlemen!) What can I say? The new 10.25% sales tax in Chicago has created a newly price-sensitive consumer out of me.
And, finally, there is WORT, which, after ten months in this town, I have come to love. Especially the Leopard Print Lounge on Tuesday nights. Today on the Friday drive time show Blues Cruise–wait, I know what you are thinking: there are so many lame public and community radio blues shows. Yes, you are right.
