Nobody Put up a Joel Quenneville Bomb on the Corner of Clark and Wrightwood

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

In this case "Nobody" is a proper noun and is the name of the graffiti artist. This the same tag as I previously blogged about, only on a black background instead of white. I like the new look and it is in the Blackhawk's colors to boot.

Great work, Nobody. The new tag looks great.







That's how I roll.

Article Link Corprolalia: Matt Taibi, Lionel Messi, a Shakespear Imposter, Banksy, M.I.A., and a Rap Song about Harold's Chicken Shack

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

This should be two posts but I'm making it one just so I can be the only blogger of all time to put these together.

First two great articles I read today. And one yesterday. And it took me damn near all day.

1. Matt Taibbi's very important read about our impotent congress grabbing its ankles for wall street and their lobbyists.

2. Sports Illustrated's awesome article about the LeBron James of soccer- Lionel Messi and his relationship with his coach, and is the Babe Ruth of Argentinan soccer, Diego Maradona (pictured above as Lego). If you more or less know most of the story, this article is well-researched (and yes, long) enough to still teach you a lot of new stuff and if you are excited about the World Cup but aren't too familiar with who is good or any storylines, this might be a good place to bone up on your knowledge to make the World Cup more interesting.


3. Not to drink too much of the haterade, but the NYT Magazine coverstory on M.I.A. is good. She had it comin.

4. these two banksy articles. This one on Slate and this one on Salon.

5. This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story about a teenager who forged a Shakespeare play in England in 1795 and it was made into a play and totally busted because it sucked. It's a sweet article. It's at SmithsonianMag.com


Now the video goods: The Chi doin big thangs in their homage to Chicken Noodle Soup, shown below.

you're welcome.





Dear TR,

They're eating chicken wings on the dance-floor, how playa is that mang?


-Delonte West.








I love that she's wearing Stan Smith's in the very beginning!








That's how I roll.

Mayor Daley is Dumber Than 95% of Zoo Inhabitants

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


You've heard of Chicago, right? The city whose leaders have speculated whether or not we need the National Guard to come save us from ourselves and our vomit-ably bad government? The city whose Mayor uses TIF slush funds to channel floods of cash to his cronies while the poor live in a DMZ? And the worst city in the world north of Juarez in which to be the Superintendent of police.

Mayor Daley just suggested he take a pay cut.

In related news, $25 for an 18" x 40" print of the image above seems pretty reasonable. Good lookin out, Ray.


"Deride and Conquer" -Banksy







That's how I roll.

Cool View From my Plane

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter

I wish this picture had come out better, but my camera phone isn't the highest-powered camera of all time.

It's the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower sticking up through the clouds.







That's how I roll.

The Chicago Banksy and a Very Handsome Blogger

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


I checked out the Chicago Banksy today. It was awesome. It's right in the Fulton Market district, which is one of my favorite areas of the city. Thank you to the friendly bystander and fellow Banksy enthusiast for taking these pictures and suggesting the pose in the top picture.








That's how I roll.

2 new Banksy pieces

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


courtesey of Maxwell Colette's Flickr page


And this just days after finding a Blagojevich bomb was put up in Lakeview, presumably done by CRO.














That's how I roll.

Blagojevich Tag Now in Lincoln Park (well Lakeview, technically)!

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


I was walking west on Diversey today (a block west of Clark) and what do I see in an alley but the work of my favorite Chicago graffiti artist?





Here was my view from Diversey




























And upon closer inspection:

A little Jailhouse Rock motif for our Elvis-loving-soon-to-be-jailed, ex-governor.


Job well done, Ray. Thanks for bombing where I live! It looks great.




That's how I roll.

My Chi-town Connect Doin Big Thangs in the Rap Game

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


This is an MTV segment about a chicago rap duo that is pretty effing dope, L.E.P. Bogus Boys. You heard it here first.

MTV Shows

That's how I roll.

This is an Uber-Doozy

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

This is just your typical, two gay guys fighting at a welfare office then when one kicks the other's ass he starts voguing to celebrate being manlier than his vanquished former opponent.

By the way, this happened in Chicago. Don't even mess the gay boys in Chicago. That's why I never go to gay bars.










That's how I roll.

Analogies

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Mario Lemieux : Sidney Crosby :: Dr. Dre: Eminem

The second analogy is that Uncle Buck is the Atticus Finch of Chicago. There isn't any secondary analogy portion. He just is. I know it. You know it.








That's how I roll.

More Rationale for why Chicago Cannot Afford the Olympics

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter



I got a tweet from the Chicago Reader today linking to this article. It basically says that the city of Chicago is broke, Mayor Daley's approval rating is 35%. That article also links to this article, which has an attention-grabbing first paragraph to illustrate how broke the city is:

Earlier this month, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley released the latest round of alarming budget numbers, this time projecting a $300 million shortfall over the coming year. The deficit led City Hall to send out 1,500 pink slips to Chicago city workers, cuts which the Chicago Federation of Labor is still working to avert. In response to the news, Crain’s columnist Greg Hinz noted that the layoffs — if finalized — would only fill “about 10% of [the] hole in the city budget.” He went on to ask: “So, where’s the city going to get that kind of cash?”

That article is very informative, but the required reading for that article, which is also linked in that Chicago Reader article by Ben Joravsky, can be found here. It explains how the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) works. It's a rather shadowy and relatively unknown tax policy of Mayor Daley's, but is arguably his most insidious. I copied the most basic, short answer of what they are and pasted it below.

OK, one more time—let's review how this sucker works. When the City Council approves a TIF—always with Mayor Daley's blessing—it freezes the amount of property tax dollars the schools, the parks, the county, and other taxing bodies get from that district for 23 years. If the schools were getting $100 from a TIF district when it was created, that's roughly all they'll get until the TIF expires. Any extra tax money, generated by rising assessments or new development, goes into the TIF fund, which Mayor Daley is free to use largely as he wants.

Think about this. If the schools, parks, and county can only get $100 from a TIF district, what do they do when their expenses go up to $200? They have to raise their levies—the amounts they each get from the property tax pie—to compensate for the money diverted to the TIFs. When they do that, property taxes go up. No matter what the city tells you, TIFs are tax hikes, plain and simple—the more you create, the higher taxes go.

It might not be so bad if we only had three or four TIFs. But there are 156—and the city is proposing new ones every month. The existing TIFs divert at least $400 million a year in property taxes. At their current rate of growth, in a few years they'll be diverting more than $500 million a year.

You may be reading all of this and thinking, "Ok, is it really evil that your mayor has your tax dollars at his disposal?" The surprising answer is "yes". As mentioned above, Mayor Daley gets to do whatever he wants with this revenue. These are what finances a lot of his grandiose, heavily-reported-on expenditures. So while government employees are furloughed, and teachers are laid off, TIF funds paid for the new park on the South Side where Mayor Daley is seen cutting the ribbon, proclaiming his championdom of the impoverished, and kissing the babies.

So when he is the guy saying, "Look, just give Chicago the Olympics, and I'll find a responsible way to pay for it, that places minimal burden on the taxpayers. Would I lie to you?", it's difficult to believe.







That's how I roll.