Weekly Wilson

The collaborative effort “Ghostly Tales of Route 66″ which Michael McCarty and I have been working on for over a year has finally reached us. It has not yet reached Amazon.com or other such order services, but my box of books arrived two days ago and the stories are actually bound in book form.

On October 4th, I will read from the book at a celebration of the Route 66 bridge in St. Louis. I will be at the original Route 66 Mississippi River crossing, the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. The bridge, now closed to auto traffic, is used for hiking, biking and walking.  Classic cars will be displayed on the mile-long bridge and the exhibits, stages, live music, vendors and speaker tents will be located on park grounds on both the Illinois and Missouri lead-in to the bridge. I will read one story about Webster Groves, Missouri ghosts on one side of the bridge and then read the story of the Lemp Mansion Curse on the other side of the bridge. It should take about 15 miinutes to read each story. I’m excited to have been asked and I will be selling copies of the books (which are only $10) at the event, as well as sending one to you, should you ask. (contact me at EINNOC10@Aol.com).

After the event is concluded, we will travel on to Nashville for the Town Hall meeting involving Obama and McCain on October 7th.

I’ve been in Las Vegas lo these many days past, taking in Jay Leno’s show at the Mirage, the Beatles “Love” show, and watching then film an episode of “Prison Break” in our hotel, Planet Hollywood.

The gambling did not go so well for Yours Truly, although the husband claims to have won $700. (One never knows.)  I was content to watch the Olympics, which began the day we arrived (8/08/08) and to tour friend

Dan Decker’s new downtown theater project, where he hopes to mount plays in as little as twelve weeks.

I have beaucoup photos to post, if and when I can figure out what happened to the cord I need to use to post them. For now, suffice it to say that the group of 8 enjoyed all the sights and sounds of Sin City, and, despite the fact that our luggage was lost for a while and we had to fly through Lincoln, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado and then fly back at midnight, a good time was had by all.

An update to the storm I suffered through in a basement in Bridgeport, a southwest suburb of Chicago (home of the White Sox and Mayor Daley’s birthplace) on Monday, August 4^th (article posted on www.associatedcontent.com).

It was some storm! I was impressed with the lightning. I learned that, over four hours, about a half-year’s worth of lightning bolts bombarded Chicago. It was truly a historic thunderstorm, with 90,000 thunderbolts hitting northern Illinois (according to the Lightning Detection Network).

At the storm’s peak, it was detonating 800 bolts per minute. In six months’ worth of time, we usually don’t have that much lightning.

WGN meteorologist Tom Skilling (brother of the OTHER Skilling of Enron fame) said on Tuesday, August 5th, “There was no precedent for this. In every way imaginable, that storm last night was in its own league.”

The amazing thing: nobody was struck by lightning and no fatalities were reported due to the massive and truly awesome display of electrical tension, which began when positively charged ice crystals at the top and negatively charged water droplets at the bottom created a volatile mix. As the warm, moist air floated to the clouds, the powder keg exploded. Most lightning is negatively charged, but there are indications that ,during parts of the Monday storm, there was more than two and one-half times the usual percentage of positively charged lightning bolts which are more powerful.

Skilling said, “Not only were the total numbers just off the charts, but there was a disproportionate number of strokes that were positively charged. That was an especially dangerous lightning display.”

Nearly 10,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the 10 miles around Chicago’s loop, one of the highest totals ever seen for an area of that size. While there were at least 7 fires caused by the lightning hitting homes that burned down (Woodridge, Lisle, Aurora, Schaumburg, Frankfort, Barrington and Lemont) the wind did more damage. Some good quotes were obtained from employees of the Signature Room on the 96^th floor of the Hancock Building. Apparently, the patrons thought it was all great good fun and filmed the bar glasses as they moved back and forth.

Manager James Kuehner said, “You could tell when the building was getting hit, because everything was bright light and thunder at the same time.”

Yikes! We almost walked over to Chinatown, but the tornado sirens did not enhance the experience, for me, so, instead, we sat on the floor of an interior hallway, away from the windows, cranking the weather radio I had just bought at the Natural Disasters exhibit at the Field Museum. (We learned that cranking it did not work that well, but putting batteries in it did.)

I walked down to the Bennigan’s opposite the Art Institute in Chicago on Tuesday, July 29^th,  planning on having a nice lunch inside this always-busy restaurant, which, I have learned, was, in fact, the busiest restaurant in the entire chain.

Imagine my surprise when, taped to the window (see picture) was a sign that told me it was closed. I haven’t been that surprised since…well, since I drove to Cheddar’s in Davenport, Iowa—another very busy and popular restaurant—and had exactly the same experience.

Bennigan’s filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Tuesday (apparently) and closed all 150 of its corporate-owned stores, including the Jewel in its Crown, the Bennigan’s in Chicago at 225 N, Michigan Avenue. The stark sign said it all: “Closed for business as of Tuesday, July 29.”  Apparently even the employees were surprised, because one of them, Caleb Kosek, age 24, had just shown up for his first day of work, only to learn that the Metromedia Restaurant Group, which owned 150 of the cafes (another 140 are franchisee-owned) was now defunct.

Metromedia is owned by a billionaire named John Kluge, but he wasn’t responding to requests for comments on Tuesday. There were lots of Bennigan’s in the Chicago area, but only one (in Elgin) and three in northwest Indiana are owned by franchisees. It is also true that the area around the Art Institute is not exactly lousy with restaurants, so this location was primo.

Other restaurant chains in the “medium” price range are suffering as well, most notably Cheddar’s, mentioned above, Steak & Ale and Village Inn. In the chilly economic climate we are experiencing, people are either eating at fast food chains like McDonald’s or they are eating at home. Ruby Tuesday and Applebee’s stock (I own one share) were trading at their lowest ever, as a result of the glut of restaurants like these and T.G.I.F. abroad in the land at a time when jobs are in short supply, the minimum wage has been raised and food prices are soaring faster than the ice cap is melting.

But watching Bennigan’s on Michigan Avenue and a chain in business since 1976 go belly-up is still painful for those of us with a yen for a MonteCristo sandwich.

     John (Cougar) Mellencamp played to a packed house at Chicago’s Northerly Isle Pavilion on Tuesday night, July 22nd, in the outdoor venue that is just right: not too big, not too small. If the concert is on a Wednesday or a Saturday, you’re also going to be treated to the fireworks from Navy Pier, and it is one of the best concert venues in town, bar none. The “Chicago/Doobie Brothers” concert just a week or so ago was similarly good on a wonderful night for a concert outdoors, rain or shine.
There was a lead-in singer who was a Sheryl Crow wannabee. She was unimpressive, singing a song with a lyric about “taking my joy” (If you want to know who was ‘taking the joy,” it was the singer, whose name was Cindy or Lucinda Williams) and also singing about bumblebees. The crowd did not seem to get in to her set, but, mercifully, it was short.
Then, some comic from Los Angeles came out and wanted to read the crowd a poem. The poem primarily consisted of repeating the lyrics to John Mellencamp’s well-known songs and he was a perfect example of an L.A. Ego Gone Wild. His “poem’:was not good and the crowd wanted him to quit with the pontificating and get off the stage. It soon began to resemble the Apollo Theater talent competition, where those lacking in talent are booed off the stage. It was hard to feel sorry for the guy, though, as he even was in to discussing how tall he is (like anyone cared.)
We were in the bleachers this night. The thing about Northerly Isle is that, in the bleachers, you have plenty of room. On the main floor, they pack the folding chairs in so tight at times that you feel like you’re on a bad airline. I’d rather be in the bleachers, and it has nothing to do with the price of the tickets, although they are cheaper there. There is also a staircase that leads down to the VIP room and to the rest room trailers, which are among the cleanest and best maintained concert rest rooms anywhere. (The worst I have ever encountered were at a Rolling Stones concert in the Metrodome or Hubert Humphrey Dome or whatever it is dubbed in Minneapolis, years ago, which were filthy; that is the inflatable dome that will collapse if everyone leaves at once, supposedly.)
Mellencamp did not disappoint on this balmy spring night, and he sang almost all his hits. He even brought out his 13-year-old son, whom he referred to as “Speck” to play near the end of the show. The only song that this Mellencamp fan did not hear was “Hurts So Good.” He opened with “Little Pink Houses” and closed wth “The Authority Song.”
All-in-all, it was a great concert on a slightly breezy night, but one that seemed to please everyone present (except possibly the guy who tried to read the boring poem that had nothing to do with anything and held up the appearance of the headliner while he hogged the spotlight.)

Bill Maher, the acerbic comic whose “Politically Incorrect” television show launched a thousand controversies, played the Chicago Theater for one night only on Friday, July 25^th and delighted a sold-out crowd.

Where to begin with an analysis of Maher’s ability to offend with his cynicism? He aimed many barbs at politicians, of course…even Illinois’ own Barack Obama, although, this night, he did end his stand-up routine with the comment, “Thanks for the candidate.”

Poor John McCain received the butt of the ribbing, with age-related comments that I won’t repeat, as they were pretty much what was to be expected. What was not expected was Maher’s criticism of some of Obama’s votes, and his follow-up comment, “I don’t make this stuff up, Folks. I just report it.”

In the middle of the show, Archer Midland-Daniels was mentioned, and a loud shout of support rose from a crowd member, whom Maher then crucified, expressing a great deal of dislike for the giant corporation. He also came down hard on corn. Yes, corn. He doesn’t like corn, apparently, whether it is as an alternative fuel or a foodstuff. He just does not like corn. What can I say? Take it up with Maher.

About the time that he was ragging on corn and farmers (whom he criticized as the biggest welfare queens) and all corn-related topics, someone heckled him from the midwestern crowd filling all the seats this night. Maher looked calmly into the crowd, found the heckler and said, “Now, that really didn’t add anything to the show, did it?” very calmly, as though this happens to him all the time. Cool.

I used to go to a chat room online called “Hollywood Café” and some of Maher’s writers were not glowing in their praise of him. However, his riff on religion and marriage, both topics he has addressed on his show (to say he is “a confirmed bachelor” is putting it mildly) were familiar and funny.

We were 3 rows from the top of this many-tiered palace of entertainment. I had just made a trip to the restrooms located in the bowels of the theater, which were another 3 to 5 flights of stairs. By the time I had climbed from the basement to 3 rows from the top, I needed oxygen. I don’t think I was alone. I could almost touch the Indian mural on the ceiling and the chandelier near it. Maher looked like a speck onstage, wearing what appeared to be a tan tee shirt with some sort of logo that I would have needed binoculars to make out.

His voice, however, rang out loud and clear, as did his lampooning of everything from gas prices to the demise of George W. Bush (let’s understate his comments and say that he is not a big Bush supporter), to why his married friends’ wives don’t like him hanging around, reminding their husbands of what they are missing.

It was vintage Maher on his one stop in the Windy City, and, Democrat or Republican, Christian, Jew or Muslim, there was enough material in his act to offend everyone at least once, and all of it was funny.

“The Pineapple Express” was sneak premiered for members of the Chicago Cinema group, and I was there (on Thursday, July 24^th). As Seth Rogan’s new film (”Superbad,” “Knocked Up”) my companion and I had high hopes for humor.

Unfortunately, while there are some laughs to be had, the overall storyline is weak. It has to do with a very rare breed of pot called Pineapple Express, which Seth buys from his dealer, a badly miscast James Franco.

Here’s my question: James Franco, who is a dead ringer for the young James Dean when he is cleaned up (and has played him on film) is cast as the scrungy-looking drug dealer. There would have been comic possibilities in the casting of “McLovin” (from “Superbad”) or, really, anyone who looks “funnier” than James Franco, who merely looks unclean in this film.

Seth Rogan, who is a process server, unwittingly witnesses a murder committed by crooked cop Rosie Perez and her boyfriend, drug lord Gary Cole. He can be tracked because he throws a half-smoked roach out the window of his car, and the Pineapple Express brand of Mary Jane is being sold only by one dealer (Franco) and has been sold to only one customer (Seth Rogan).

The problem is that the movie seeks to be an outright comedy, but there are shootings and deaths galore, which don’t add up to Com-e-dee. There is also one character who is repeatedly shot and yet remains upright and ambulatory. Not only does this defy logic and believability, it isn’t really that “funny.”

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I was disappointed in this new film, because I really loved both “Knocked Up” and “”Superbad.”

   Good friend and Associated Content buddy Tyler Mills, a fellow Iowan (or is it Iowegian?) asked me to post this link, which is a charitable fundraiser. Being the kind, compassionate soul that I am, I said, “Sure.” (I didn’t tell him that nobody is reading this blog, based on the clicks on the ads, which would have been a real downer for us both.)

Prove me wrong about the readership. A couple of you have written some very nice things on my Charlie Crist for VP piece. I’m just surprised that I’m getting these comments now, when I wrote that article months ago, but, hey! Take it where you can get it, right?

Good luck with this charitable endeavor, Tyler, and kudos for “doing the right thing.”

Here’s the link:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/898939/alonzo_mourning_charities.html?cat=48

So, I DID drive home when I left at the break (Quad Cities of IA/IL) and, of course, we were hit by a ‘mini-tornado” at 6 a.m. on Monday that knocked out power to 100,000 homes, including ours. It blew trees down in our back yard and through people’s cars and bedrooms and houses, (in 3 cases, homes of people I personally know.) Neighbor across the street: tree down. Neighbor next door: tree down. Mother-in-law: tree down.  One young couple had to fly home from Vegas when the news reached them that their house had had a HUGE tree fall on it and there is only one crane in town large enough to hoist it off their house (and, of course, THAT crane was already occupied. Isn’t that always the way?)

 I had to use a Coleman lantern to pack to leave for Chicago on Monday, and we had no A/C until 11 p.m. last night. The winds reached 94 mph. Moline declared a State of Emergency. (In East Moline, nobody thought to turn on the sirens,. Typical.) Across the river in Davenport, Iowa? Fine, just fine. No problems at all. Weird.

The fast food joints were JAMMED with people lined up 20 cars deep at 2:30 P.M. when I left to drive back here on Monday. Why so many people lined up at Hardee’s and McDonald’s? My husband theorizes that it was because nobody could cook. Our freezer full of meat: gone bad. He had to sleep in the basement and said he went outside on the deck and listened to the Cubs game on a transistor radio until it got dark and he couldn’t read any more. No TV. No computer. No fun. They closed the MALL, for crying out loud! The MALL. OH THE HORROR! Hospitals had to operate on generators, as did the supermarket (where I picked up a refill for my prescription of sleeping medication.)   100,000 people without power and they say it might take “3 to 4 days” to get it back on.  My sister had an electrical wire on fire outside her house and, when she called it in, it took 2 days to get electricians to come fix it because of the vast numbers of others without power. It was a larger power outage than the huge one we had during an ice storm last winter.

I finally got a “wrap” at a Subway in Colona, Illinois, where the two Indian (or Pakistani?) boys minding the store were doing so in about 100 degree heat (no A/C). They said, immediately, “We don’t have any bread,” Why no bread? Apparently, they bake it, and the ovens wouldn’t work. Only one microwave worked, and they had 2 cookies left (which I bought.) The younger of the two said, “I think we could just lay the bread dough out here on the counter and it would cook.” (True statement). We were all like pioneers, and the Indian boys described how they had been CAMPING with 15 family members near Lake Kenyada when the winds hit and BLEW THEIR TENT INTO THE LAKE. I’m not kidding. They ran for their cars and sat it out. (I always hated camping. My idea of roughing it is black-and-white TV. Or NO TV. Or sleeping on the floor of a college-aged group for 5 days in Denver.)

Me?  I went to bed at 2:30 a.m. on Monday morning after extensive posting on several blogs and slept through the entire thing. I did notice it when I was trying to pack in a dark interior room the next day, however. Had to dry my hair outside in the sun and a Coleman lantern really does not give off enough light to pack your suitcase by.

The new Batman film “The Dark Knight” had its World Premiere at Navy Pier in Chicago on Wednesday, July 16^th, and I was there. The screaming fans in front of the entrance got to see Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and the film’s director and writer, Christopher Nolan (”Memento”) who wrote the script once again with Jonathan Nolan (as they did for “Memento”) and whose soaring vision displays Chicago to good effect.

Much has been said about the memorable performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, and he may well earn that posthumous nomination and Oscar for Best Actor. Certainly the film is as much about the Joker as it is about Batman, and it also has an added allegorical layer of meaning as it displays Chicago filming sites like the (still under construction) Trump Tower, the Sears Tower, the former Brach’s Candy factory at 401 N. Cicero Ave, which doubles as Gotham City Hospital and is blown up. The fancy party that the Joker crashes was inside the Illinois Center Buildings, Building 2 at 111 E. Wacker Drive. The aerial shots of Batman’s secret underground lair are 1500 S. Lumber St. The old (abandoned) Chicago Post Office at 404 W. Harrison St. doubled for the Gotham City Bank in opening heist sequences, and, in addition to the funeral procession down LaSalle Street and the chase scenes on lower Wacker Drive, there were various location shots at 330 N. Wabash Avenue, which was once known as the IBM Building. These included the Mayor’s office, District Attorney Harvey Dent’s office and the boardroom of Wayne Enterprises.

The movie created about 4,500 jobs in Chicago last year, which meant $17 million to the city. There were more than 300 Illinois vendors involved, from security providers to cleaning and catering services ($22 million in sales).

The political subtext of the script is there for anyone to see and hear. There is the issue of the invasion of privacy, which causes the character played by Morgan Freeman to tender his resignation rather than unethically use a sonar device he has created to spy on the public. (Shades of recent legislation involving amnesty for the telecommunications industry!) Lucius says, “This is too much power for one person. Spying on 30 million people isn’t part of my job description.”

Here are just a few of the politically charged lines: “Do I really look like a man with a plan? I’m like a dog chasing a car. I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I caught it.” This line (spoken by Ledger’s Joker character) certainly smacks of “W’s eight years in office.  Ledger goes on to say, “I’m an agent of chaos, and you know the thing about chaos, it’s fear.” (Orange alert, anyone?) Another line that resonated, for me, was: “You should have thought of that before you let the clown out of the box.” Indeed, we, as a nation, should have. The Joker also says, “It’s not about money; it’s about sending a message” and “I’m not a monster; I’m just ahead of the curve.”

Batman (Christian Bale) says, “I was meant to inspire good. Not madness. Not death” as we learn that, in the inevitable  sequel, he will have a “bad” reputation, since he is taking the fall for the mayhem another character has created.

Harvey Dent, the crusading District Attorney, is played by Aaron Eckhart (”Thank You For Not Smoking”), who says, “In their desperation, they turned to a man they don’t fully understand.” Harvey is in love with Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), but so is Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).

Repeated more than once is the line, “You either die a hero or you live long enough to be a villain,” and that seems to be the script key for the next installment of the Christopher Nolan-directed series. Nolan has single-handedly taken the franchise to new heights, aided by truly wonderful special effects, gorgeous aerial photography of both Chicago and Hong Kong (some shooting, also, in London and Cardington in the UK).

Here’s another politically charged message: “I told you my compound would take you places. I never said it would be places you’d want to go.” (The Joker). Another good one: “Know your limits. What’s gonna’ happen on the day that you find out?” How about this one that could well have been uttered by the “Decider:” “I don’t get political points for being an idealist. I have to do the best with what I have.”

There are a few clunky lines that will sound familiar (”The night is darkest just before the dawn, but I promise you, the dawn is coming,” as articulated by D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). There is also, “I know the truth. There is no going back. You’ve changed things forever.” (Ain’t it the truth?) Harvey Dent declares, “The Joker’s just a mad dog. I want whoever let him off his leash.” (That would be Dick Cheney, for openers, and Rumsfield aiding and abetting.) With talk of “a misplaced sense of self-righteousness” and “decent men in an indecent time” where “the only morality is chance” a plot is woven that combines terrific action sequences with great special effects and wonderful music (James Newton Howard).

Again and again, the critics have pointed to the fine acting by one and all. Christian Bale as “the Batman” is set to continue this series and even to take on another sacrosanct movie of yesteryear, playing John Connor in “Terminator Salvation.” Michael Caine, as the Butler Alfred, turns in his always-competent support, and Gary Oldman as the Lieutenant who becomes Police Commissioner is good. But the best is Heath Ledger’s Joker, matching Jack Nicholson’s demented work that preceded this portrayal.

“The Dark Knight” made a record $18.5 million from 3,040 theaters, according to Warner Brothers (distributors of the film), as of Friday, July 18^th. That bests the 2005 “Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith” ($16.9 on 2,915 screens) and puts it on pace to clear more than $100 million on a non-holiday weekend, placing it in the top ten.

The movie is beautifully made, finely crafted, well-written, has great music, is well-acted and plotted and…most interestingly for me…makes some strong social commentary, as when we hear lines like, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” You can hear that simply as dialogue from a Super Hero movie, or you can really pay attention to the messages this movie is sending out, loud and clear in this, a political year unlike any other. When supporting players like Eric Roberts (”King of the Gypsies”), Maggie Gyllenhaal (”Stranger than Fiction,” “Sherry Baby”), William Fichtner (”Prison Break,” “Invasion” on television) and the leads mentioned above add their expert thespian talents to the mix, you’re watching one of the best movies of the summer and the year.