See a fire-breathing cake bear tear apart a wheel of cheese
Plus: Dolly Parton celebrates her birthday in Chicago
The current scene outside The Fifty/50
Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the workweek. Here are some things to think about as the weekend begins.
• This whole “cut the cheese” shit is funny and all, but The Fifty/50 is taking the anti-Packers sentiment a little further this weekend, with the help of the Bleeding Heart Bakery. This Sunday, the Wicker Park sports bar will be home to a 4-foot-long, 2-foot-high cake featuring a fire-breathing bear tearing apart a wheel of cheese. Patrons will get free slices of the cake during halftime. The bar will also be giving out custom-made “Green Bay Sucks” shirts to the first 100 patrons through the door on game day.
• Here’s something to warm those frozen hearts, Chicagoans. Dolly Parton reportedly celebrated her 65th birthday here earlier this week. She was in town for the opening of 9 To 5 The Musical, and joked around from the stage at the performance. Gov. Pat Quinn also named Wednesday “Dolly Parton Day,” a fact that went woefully under-publicized until after the fact. We didn’t even get a chance to properly celebrate!
• Just in time for his new take on At The Movies, Roger Ebert has gotten a new chin. He says he’ll wear the prosthetic on the show, though he accepts that everyone knows what he looks like without one, and makes no bones about it. He’s doing it, according to his blog, so that, “When people see the ‘Roger’s Office’ segment, they’ll notice my voice more than my appearance.”
• Chicago Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lois Weisberg left her post in a tizzy, loudly blaming Mayor Daley for all the recent shake-ups in her office. She railed against the decision to privatize some of the city’s festivals, as well as the merger between her department and the city’s tourism offices.
• The Chicago Rarities Orchard Project is planning a grove of “rare-fruit trees” in Logan Square, right by Lula. As to what the trees will produce, it’s anyone’s guess right now, but we’re pushing for snozzberries.
• Former Fall Out Boy Patrick Stump released a YouTube video of himself singing, a capella, all of the songs nominated for a “best song” Grammy. It’s kind of amazing.
• Chicago punks Rise Against released a new single, “Help Is On The Way,” on their MySpace page this week. It’s the first hint at what’s in store for fans on the band’s upcoming record, Endgame.
