I was sad to learn of the passing of Dennis Wolkowicz, the creator of the Silent Summer Film Festival which I’ve written about here before. Known professionally as Jay Warren, he came up with the idea of presenting silent films to a Chicago audience the way they were meant to be seen: on a big …
xfinity Xfi Gateway Streaming App Fix
I know the title is unwieldy, but I want to make sure this post is searchable. :). I also posted this on xfinity’s customer support forums. Like most people during the pandemic, we relied heavily on our internet connection. Both Lisa and I have been working from home, and thankfully Comcast/xfinity had been reliable through …
HP Stream Mini Desktop 200-010: An Inexpensive But Effective Media Machine
Sometimes, technology actually solves a problem. In this case, we have the HP Stream Mini Desktop 200-010, a $179 computer with the footprint that’s smaller than the average carryout box, yet delivers the goods as promised. I made my switch to being a full-time Mac user over 10 years ago, yet I still have a …
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The Ever-Changing World of Chicago Radio
It took about a year for the plug to be pulled on an ambitious (or some would say ridiculous) project: FM News 101.1. As of today, you will hear music on 101.1 FM instead of talk. The CEO of the station’s owner cited “lack of audience engagement” as one of the reasons: that’s doubletalk for …
Silent Summer 2012
The Silent Film Society of Chicago just announced its lineup for their summer film festival, one of our favorite events of the season. The festival runs on Friday nights from July 20 through August 24 at the Portage Theater in Chicago. This year will bring us some comedy from Harold Lloyd, some action from Douglas …
Emitt Rhodes – Farewell to Paradise
Today’s clip is “Farewell to Paradise” by Emitt Rhodes. Rhodes is most often referred to as “the one-man Paul McCartney,” because he wrote, performed, and recorded his music entirely on his own in his garage studio. And yes, his music absolutely has a mid-60s-to-mid-70s McCartney sound. He’s been a cult favorite since his debut album …
Discovered Cover: “Love Song” by ONJ
This is a new discovery for me: Olivia Newton-John’s 1971 cover of “Love Song.” For the longest time I was only familiar with Elton John’s version, which appeared on his Tumbleweed Connection album from the previous year. In later years I became familiar with the version recorded by Lesley Duncan, the person who wrote the …
The Rob Petrie “Milk Cake”
I’m re-posting this because it’s the time of year when a little comfort food can be appreciated, plus I whipped up one of these cakes for Lisa and Emma tonight. Here’s a link to the Hulu page for this episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show— the scene described below starts at 9:00. In the …
The Number You Have Reached…
…has been disconnected. For the first time in my life, I do not have a home phone number. Last week, we decided to drop our landline telephone service. We did an informal-yet-enlightening analysis of our home phone usage, and here’s what led to our decision: Of all the inbound calls we get in a week (according to caller …
Happy New Year!
A couple shots of the legendary cheeseburger spot in Chicago, the Billy Goat Tavern on Lower Michigan Avenue. Happy New Year!