For those who are missing our Uptown neighbor, Studs Terkel, there'll be a tribute to him next week. From the Trib:
A who’s who of Chicago theater will assemble Monday at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company to pay tribute to the late Studs Terkel. The theater will present a free staged reading, with music, of Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Terkel’s primer on death and dying, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Cultural luminaries taking part include David Schwimmer, Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, Tribune writer Rick Kogan, Victory Gardens artistic director Dennis Zacek, folk singer Michael Smith, director Joyce Piven, and an array of Steppenwolf ensemble members and actors, including K. Todd Freeman, Robert Breuler, Tom Irwin and Alan Wilder.
Tickets are available to the public, beginning Wednesday, from the Steppenwolf box-office at 312-335-1650.
During the last decade or so, Studs rather reminded me of the free-associating Grandpa Abe on "The Simpsons."
ReplyDeleteThis one-time engaging speaker and writer seemed to chiefly serve as a "tool" for aspiring radio journalists, who would stick a microphone in his face and let him ramble from one subject to the next . . . "The Weavers" . . . . "Emma Goldman" . . . . "the Haymarket Riots" . . . . yada yada yada.
Studs is surely a Chicago icon, but he ceased being truly relevant about two decades ago.
I took special note of the lead item on this blog as of 8:27 am on 11/12.
ReplyDelete"Labor Ready Midwest Inc. has scrapped plans to move into a couple of storefonts in Uptown at 4830-4 N. Sheridan. The plan was controversial with neighbors, who organized against the company's application for a special use zoning permit."
Studs Terkel, champion of the working class, is rolling in his grave.
I have a hard time thinking of David Schwimmer as a "Cultural Luminary".
ReplyDeleteYou must be kidding @ 8:27, Billy Joe. ? The phenomenal growth of the day labor industry (with these firms being listed on financial exchanges) comes from the growth and power of the neo-liberal state. Labor Ready is the "answer" to public sector retrenchment. Plus, this is all coming at a time when unions and occupational health protections have eroded and US and international law is playing catch-up with globalized economies.
ReplyDeleteGet your facts straight, buddy. People who are champions for the working class are very critical of companies like Labor Ready. Find a progressive news source or organization anywhere in the nation that sings their praises before you start talking about Studs rolling in his grave.
Wow, billyjoe, your opening comments seem a little bit insensitive, considering there are friends, family, and neighbors of Studs who read this blog.
ReplyDeleteBJ:
ReplyDeleteIf he's irrelevant, why use him as a prop in your pro-Labor Ready (or anti-anti-Labor Ready) comment?
Make up your mind.
I don't think I discount Stud's great contributions to popular culture. But I do think he was ill-used by amateur interviewers in his later years.
ReplyDeleteMy comment about Labor Ready was in reference to Stud's lifelong championing of the down and out. Denying needy folks the opportunity to earn a day's wage in the very neighborhood where Studs dwelled seems highly ironic.
Rocket man claimed Studs would be against an organization like Labor Ready. As I'm not totally up on the background or purpose of this organization, I guess I'll just have to accept him at his word.