Sears Tower set to receive a $500 million makeover
(from timeout.com)
The city is hoping a proposed $500 million renovation of the Sears Tower will make the iconic, yet formidable looking building feel more open and accessible to the public. Plans for Chicago’s tallest building include six levels of new retail and entertainment space, enhancements to the famous Skydeck observation area and a 30,000-square-foot outdoor deck and winter garden. On Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel disclosed some specific details of proposed upgrades to the building, which is owned by private equity and real estate investment firm Blackstone. “[Blackstone] is investing half a billion dollars in an iconic building,” Emanuel told the Sun-Times. “It’s an investment in the South Loop… [Sears Tower] will be more receptive to foot traffic for people coming, staying longer and also not going outside the South Loop for lunch. It’s gonna be a tremendous draw.” (MORE HERE)
Can I suggest a FAST PASS for locals trying to take their cousins to the Sears Tower real quick before they have to be on a plane back to Boise. Also how about a roller coaster!?!
Facebook plans to be more like YouTube than Netflix as it pays for video
(from techcrunch.com)
“We’re focusing more on shorter form content to start” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on today’s Q4 earnings call where he was repeatedly questioned about Facebook’s video strategy. One thing’s clear, Facebook will invest heavily. “I see video as a mega trend” said Zuckerberg. Facebook will both pay video makers up front and through ad revenue sharing to get their content into its News Feed and video tab. Despite reports that it’s been in talks with TV studios and is building a set-top TV box, on today’s earnings call, Facebook isn’t going to immediately dive into funding a ton of TV shows and movies. Zuckerberg noted “Over the longer term…people will experiment with longer form of video as well in all kinds of different things.” But quick, snackable clips are “the primary focus for the foreseeable future.” Essentially, Facebook is more interested in the YouTube model of collecting tons of quick video clips than investing in long-form shows or films like Netflix. (MORE HERE)
It’s about time!! As a daily YouTuber I have waited for awhile for this program. I’m worried that any revenue generated from content at first will have to be used to pay for videos to show up in the News Feed as that seems to be the way the Facebook algorithms work now. Though I never seem to miss my mother’s political posts 9 times daily.
AFI
Photos: Julia Simone Paul
Twenty One Pilots
VIDEO: Dave Grohl listening to late 80’s demos of himself
A new video unearthed from the sessions of the HBO music series starring the Foo Fighters “Sonic Highways” shows Dave Grohl listening to one of the very early recordings years before he gained worldwide success. The song goes back in the late 80’s, pre-dating his time in Nirvana. It’s refreshing to see someone making fun of themselves and remarking at how they’ve progressed as a person, let a lone a seismic-shifting musical figure like Grohl. He even joking quips here that his vocals on the song entitled “Gods Don’t Look Down” that he sounds “like a girl” and how he was sure if he had physically hit puberty when it was recorded.
Foo Fighters are set to headline the Bottlerock Festival this spring with several other festival dates already announced in Europe as well. Grohl and company will also be working on a new music in 2017.
The vidoe is from the Laundry Room Studio youtube channel. This acclaimed music studio in Washington state is quite familiar to Grohl and other established Seattle-area musicians, The Foos released an EP of covers and alternate version of established tracks recorded at this special studio in 2015 for Record Store Day, You can listen to it here.
Queued Up #212
1. Grouplove – Good Morning
2. Morgxn – Home
3. Biffy Clyro – Howl
4. Cemetery Sun – Fake Love
5. The Head and the Heart – Rhythm & Blues
6. Missio – Middle Fingers
7. Sundara Karma – She Said
8. SWMRS – Palm Trees
9. Silversun Pickups – Latchkey Kids
10. Common Kings – Lost In Paradise
11. The Maine – Bad Behavior
12. Glass Animals – Pork Soda
13. Mother Mother – Love Stuck
14. Cage The Elephant – Cold Cold Cold
15. The XX – I Dare You
1. Arcade Fire – I Give You Power
2. Phantogram – Same Old Blues
3. The Wrecks – Favorite Liar
4. The Shins – Name For You
5. Moose Blood – Knuckles
6. AFI – Dark Snow
7. Paper Route – Balconies
8. Pepper – Wait
9. Spoon – Hot Thoughts
10. Hippo Campus – Way It Goes
11. Marian Hill – Down
12. Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes – Lullaby
13. Goldfrapp – Anymore
14. Trapdoor Social – Winning As Truth
15. TOP X MM – Ride
Taking Back Sundays – 1.29.17
1. Paramore – Misery Business
2. Coheed and Cambria – The Suffering
3. My Chemical Romance – Helena
4. Plain White Ts – Hey There Delilah
5. Death Cab For Cutie – Soul Meets Body
6. Fall Out Boy – Sugar, We’re Going Down
7. Story Of The Year – Until The Day I Die
8. Pierce The Veil – Cirlcels
9. Twenty One Pilots – Car Radio
10. Brand Dew – The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
11. Angels and Airwaves – A Little’s Enough
12. Blink 182 – First Date
13. Unwritten Law – Celebration Song
14. Saosin – Voices
15. Against Me! – I Was a Teenage Anarchist
Ben Affleck Not Directing “The Batman”
Ben Affleck says he is stepping down as director for the upcoming Batman movie. He’s still producing it and he’s still wearing the costume. Just doesn’t feel he can handle playing a character lkie that and directing the whole thing at the same time. The Hollywood Reporter has more HERE. Before all that, though, he’ll be back in the cape for the Justice League movie coming in November.
-Lou
Game Day Recipes That Really Will Make You Hungry!!
(from sherryboswell.com)
The Touchdown: Buffalo Chicken Dip
Ingredients:
1 package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup blue cheese dressing
1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce
1/2 cup blue cheese
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
Cook chicken and shred well. Mix cream cheese, blue cheese dressing, and buffalo wing sauce. Add in 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese and shredded chicken.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips.
David Ross Joining ESPN As An Analyst
(from chicago.cbslocal.com)
Ross is joining ESPN as a baseball analyst, according to ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers. One of the most media-friendly and insightful players in the game, Ross takes on this new role after he retired following the Cubs’ championship this past November. “I’m excited to dive right in and start talking baseball with my new colleagues at ESPN,” Ross said in a statement posted to ESPN.com. “It truly is the worldwide leader in sports, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to join this incredible team. We’re going to have a lot of fun this season.” (MORE HERE)
He can still come back and run for mayor of Chicago though right?
My top 5 current TV Shows
I was in Wrigleyville today at a coffee shop chatting with my friend Abby and she asked me what my top television shows were. After careful consideration over an oatmeal and a drinkable, Swedish yogurt I decided to choose the first 5 shows that popped into my head that I watched an episode of and enjoyed over the weekend.
Disclaimer: I love television! These shows are just the tip of the iceberg of television shows I watch and enjoy. I tend to gravitate toward shows that create a world with characters that I could see myself comfortably living in. I watch a lot of ensemble shows made up of people that I think would be interesting, fun and artistically fulfilling to work with. All of these shows feature ethnically diverse casts with forward thinking writers/producers that try very hard to break stereotypes.
- Brooklyn 99: Procedural Cop Comedy that teeters very gracefully on the line of absurd and serious.
- Jane the Virgin: It’s a telenovela, but in English. It’s an absurd show with a whole lot of heart.
- The Good Place: It’s about a mediocre woman (Kristen Bell) who dies and accidentally gets sent to heaven. I was raised Catholic by a philosophy teacher. Since the dead can’t talk, I am fascinated with all life after death theories.
- iZombie: It’s about a doctor that was bit by a zombie and is now undead. These zombies take on the characteristics and memories of the people they eat. She now works in a morgue and eats dead people’s brains to help solve their murders. Every week the main character gets to play her character with the mannerisms and memories of other people; pretty cool!
- Superstore: It’s about employees that work at a superstore. The show has really hit it’s stride this second season. It’s a comedy that delicately deals with very topical and very serious issues.
Honorable mention aka shows I’ve watched an enjoyed within the past couple of weeks: The Walking Dead, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Fresh off the Boat, The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Black Mirror, Community…
Conor McGregor on Maywether fight: ‘This Is Happening’
The always-outspoken UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor held a live Q&A with fight fans this past week in England, where the Notorious one continued to stir buzz for a massive fight with boxing main eventer Floyd “Money” Mayweather. The fight has been rumored for months with both fighters saying they want it to happen, but many saying it may be hard to pull off with McGregor’s current status in MMA and the sheer size of pulling off such a huge bout. McGregor though cleared the air, and saying they are still trying to make it happen according to a report from Rolling Stone.
“Me and Floyd have got to get together and talk to figure it out, the same way him and Manny [Pacquiao] figured it out…Once we come to a set number that I’m happy with and he’s happy with, then we go to the customers, then we go to the promoters, the buyers, then we get it done. So that’s next. I’ll go to Vegas, we’ll figure the situation out and we’ll come to a dotted line and then we’re going. This is happening.” said McGregor.
Mayweather who is 49-0 in his pro boxing career, is keeping the hopes up for the billion-dollar battle himself, appearing before a boxing match this weekend on Showtime. Mayweather in this brief interview, also makes it clear that “the fans want this fight” and let’s give them what they want to see.
The real challenge in all of this, if it even happens, is how does McGregor make the arduous leap into the sport of Boxing against not just any boxer, but the boxer. Only time will tell if this can actually happen if it does, it could break the money mountain records of the 2015 fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. On top of that this could delay any other major UFC fights that McGregor could have in the foreseeable future.
Twenty One Pilots Play Mario Kart 64 At The United Center – 101WKQXPERIENCE
Congrats to Neal from Hammond, Indiana for winning our 64 player tournament! But did he have what it takes to beat Tyler from Twenty One Pilots, in front of thousands at the United Center? Big thanks to Headquarters Beercade for letting us live out our Mario Kart 64 dreams!
WATCH: The Strumbellas, CBC’s Backstage Pass
Perhaps you have the greatest cable/satellite system known to humankind — if you do, you see everything first….we get it. But for the rest of us in the United S of A, here is the CBCMusic’s Backstage Pass with The Strumbellas from earlier this month.
Oh…and at 101WKQX, we have our own special performance venue – The Lounge. Check out The Strumbellas, plus two dozen more acts! — [@erickristensen]
BEST SOCIAL POSTS FROM TWENTY-ONE PILOTS / 1.28.17 @ United Center
Looks like another amazing night for Twenty-One Pilots and their faithful ‘clique’ who sold-out the United Center. Here are some cool stuff posted from last night show across the social media tubes.
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LISTEN: Great cover of the 1975 in the style of Blink-182
It’s one thing to do a cover of a band you admire, it’s another thing to do this cover in the style of another band you admire. That’s what we saw this week when Cameron Hurley of We Are The In Crowd posted a cover of the 1975’s “Girls” in the style of Enema of the State Blink 182. The track has gotten love from Matt Healy of the 1975 and Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 who tweeted each other about the exceptional cover. Shout-out to AltPress.com for turning us onto this.
Mate have you heard this I'm in love @markhoppus https://t.co/XQUW7kwiQR
— matty (@Truman_Black) January 27, 2017
This has been brought to my attention. @the1975 I think we should cover our/your/his song.https://t.co/4q2VaJLcJZ
— Mark Hoppus (@markhoppus) January 28, 2017
Listen to it here
VIDEO: Meet the voice of Mario from the Nintendo games
Charles Martinet is a Hollywood actor with decades of work under his belt, working in theater and film but you likely don’t know him from any of his on screen roles but you have heard his voice in many of the biggest video games of all time. Martinet has been the playful voice of Mario from the ‘Super Mario’ video game series, and this interview with Great Big Story, shows off the familiar plumber adventurer’s voice in all of it’s over-the-top glory. There is an odd disconnect when you actually see the voice from the Nintendo games just coming out of a real person mouth, but it’s really neat to see the craft of bringing this character to life.
Get the lowdown on the first Mario game for mobile devices, ‘SUPER MARIO RUN’ here
We are on such an Nintendo kick this week. This past Thursday at Headquaters Beercade in River North, Neal from Hammond won our massive Mario Kart N64 tournament to win the opportunity of a lifetime to compete against Tyler from Twenty-One Pilots at the United Center on stage.
