If you thought ‘MacArthur Park’ with Richard Harris was annoying, wait until you hear this cover edition from the Chute Middle School Orchestra of 1977! Jim Nayder bets you’ll jump off the time-machine, long before the last note is struck!

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Charlie Trotter called us this morning and made an incredible offer.  For the first person who calls in with a gift of $10,000 – you will get dinner for 10 at Charlie’s home in Lincoln Park!!!!

It will be a 10 course meal paired with wine from Charlie’s personal cellar. You work with Charlie on a mutually agreed upon date and Charlie will personally prepare this meal.

His restaurant is regarded as one of the finest in the world. This is the chance of a lifetime!!

Because there is only one of these to give away – you must call in your donation to take advantage of Charlie’s generous offer.  Thank you! 1-888-915-9239.

UPDATE: This offer has been claimed! Thank you, Chicago!

The spring membership drive is hitting the stretch run. Once we hit our goal of $1 million, we will end the drive. I kind of see this programming as a way to remind people that public radio is a free service that needs support. And nothing in this world comes free, right?

I mean, sure, you can find free stuff. But sometimes it’s better to pay for it (hit play button):

Tags: shirtless, muscular, hairy chest, shirtless, hot body, perfect 10, Will Oldham.

Okay, we are now completely swept up in pledge drive fever on the blog. We’ve avoided it up until now, but we had to contribute. And instead of just writing about why you should pledge or doing our best Ira guilt-trip impression, we thought we would try to get to you with comedy under :30 seconds. This was a quick, fun video that filmmaker Steve Delahoyde and Schadenfreude (my comedy crew) put together.

If you are cruising the web right now looking for word of live-blogs for tomorrow’s state budget address, this is for you! Our new on-line chat show “The Lunchbox” will feature a live-blog covering the events from Springfield. This will be a nice compliment to what we have on-air, which is the live broadcast of Governor Quinn’s speech. The Lunchbox is like “The View,” but with a 1996 AOL chatroom motif. Tomorrow’s guest panelists will be (and not limited to): Marcus Gilmer (Chicagoist), Ramsin Canon (Gapers Block), Anna Tarkov (Windy Citizen), Dan Sinker (Columbia College, Punk Planet), Mike Fourcher (Purely Political) and many, many more.

12noon tomorrow. Join us. Public comments/questions are welcome.

We took a week off to regroup, but we are back! It’s time to continue our mega-popular Chicago non-hall of fame sports hero challenge!!! We give you two athletes that contributed to the Chicago sports landscape and put them in the proverbial cage to battle it out for blog votes. The winner moves on to the next day (Jeopardy! rules) to face a new Chicago non-hall of fame sports hero.  Today? We pick up where we left off with winner Norm Van Lier taking on…Billy Buck.

Norm Van Lier: His Bulls basketball career spanned over several decades (playing in 70s, broadcasting in 90’s/00s). Norm was a defensive marvel, named to three all-defensive teams. He also had a magnetic personality, one that made him a star before basketball in Chicago was king. According to Wikipedia: Van Lier held the record for the longest field goal in NBA history (84 feet) for 24 years until Baron Davis broke the record on November 17, 2001 (89 feet). Stormin’ Norman Van Lier also made a name for himself with his broadcast duties during the championship runs, as well as after.

Bill Buckner: Let’s forget about Buckner in Boston. He has his own fans there. But in Chicago, Buckner was a beast. He played during the down-years of the Cub in the early 80’s, but he was the star. He was a clutch hitter with a mustache to boot. I didn’t know this, but Buckner played his first game with the Dodgers in 1969! I had no idea he was in the league that long before coming to Chicago. He only struck out 453 times in his career and made the all-star team one time in 1981, while wearing Chicago pinstripes. Buckner may be a laughingstock in Boston, but he is remembered fondly on the North Side.

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March is here. Photo by Clark Maxwell

Top story: I had a stomach bug.  I’m better now, thanks. I went to the store yesterday to get some Gatorade and saltine crackers. The woman said to me, “this looks like hangover food.” It does? Since when are crackers and Gatorade hangover food? Maybe she thought the crackers were a patty melt. Anyway, the story here is the lack of compassion Julie has for my condition. I rarely get sick, but, yes, when I do, I probably act like a baby. I am my father’s son and he is notorious for acting like the heavens are opening up every time he gets a cold. But instead of getting “how are you feeling” compassion, I am getting huge sighs because there are cracker crumbs on the couch. This morning after a difficult night of restlessness, I got nothing! No “how are you feeling” or “can I make you some breakfast” or “sponge bath.” Then I realized maybe I could be more compassionate when she is sick (which is much more frequent than I). Maybe if I were nicer when she was sick, maybe I would get the basics in return. Or maybe the non-stop midnight moaning ticked her off. So, I ask you: who’s a bigger baby when they are sick – you? Or your spouse/significant other? Read the rest of this entry →

Top story: Over the weekend, the governor’s office held a press conference to start unveiling some of the proposed cuts. Today, the story is that they will look carefully at Blagojevich deals from the past administration, saying those might be on the chopping block. And of course, Quinn will push for the tax hike. But will any of it actually get passed? Read the rest of this entry →

Top story: Today is the day that the election results will be finalized for the Brady/Dillard GOP Gubernatorial primary. Everyone is just assuming that Dillard will concede, even Brady. But if the results are announced and the vote differential is under 100, what do you do? All that time and energy spent on Dillard’s behalf to lose by a precinct? This is definitely worth watching.

B story: I don’t really have a B story, because I’m off to pick up Mr. Cub at his hotel. I tried to get our Cubs super-fan to get out of directing Eight Forty-Eight and come with me, but he has too much respect for his job.

Weather: Susie An filled in for Tony Arnold on the sun rise photo today. This was taken with a cell phone. Not bad!

Sports: All right Donny! The Bears are reported to be close to signing DE superstar Julius Peppers. Dibs on t-shirt ideas: “Wouldn’t you like to be a Peppers too?”

Kicker: If you are interested, I’ll be doing a bit at the Interview Show tonight with host Mark Bazer. It’s a live interview show the Hideout. 6:30pm. His guests include Cook County Prez hopeful Toni Preckwinkle and Steppenwolf great John Mahoney. Not bad Mr. Bazer. Not bad at all.

I believe this would be a first for the Vocalo bloggers as Lee Bey showed up on Chicago Tonight Wednesday to talk about the Cook County Hospital building!