Let's Burn the Money!
Here comes once of the stupidest ideas ever - we covered it a few months ago, but the City is still going through with it:
- In the beginning was the notebook, and the notebook was filled with dreams, and those dreams, against all sorts of odds and in the face of red tape, carping, money-hunting and alterations, will come to fruition Saturday with an event that will become either an annual enrichment of our lives or an expensive one-time-only experiment in bread and circuses.
It is called the Great Chicago Fire Festival, and it is the doing of Redmoon Theater and the city of Chicago, supported by $350,000 from city coffers and more than $1.5 million from the wallets of a couple of dozen sponsors and donors such as the Pritzker Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Allstate, WMAQ-Ch. 5, Boeing, the Chicago Fire soccer team and Wendella Boats.
That's a lot of money, and there are some who would tell you that there are better uses for it: public schools, potholes, more police officers … the list is long.
If private citizens and their foundations want to spend money on this crap, more power to them. If publicly held companies feel like blowing through their bottom line, they answer to stockholders. But $350,000 in taxpayer cash? For this debacle? And calling it "art?"
- So, judge for yourself Saturday. It all starts at 3 p.m. with a bazaar along the riverfront featuring crafts, food and entertainment from some of Redmoon's neighborhood partners. At 8 p.m. the real action begins, as "fire caldrons" will be lowered from bridges onto boats waiting below in a river filled with kayakers pulling flaming buoys and prairie gardens. The boats will take the fire to three floating sculptures meant to evoke 1871 homes. These will be set ablaze, burning to reveal symbolic interiors. It all will take place on the water between the State Street and Columbus Drive bridges, and will involve a couple of hundred performers, singers and volunteers. It will culminate with a fireworks display. It's all free.
It ain't free - it's $2 million being lit on fire - $350,000 of it belonging to taxpayers, and Rahm still has a lot of bills coming due soon.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
66 Comments:
Rahm has to keep the masses happy least they dwell on the problems that plague the city. Worked for the Roman Emperors with the games.
I remember when half the city was on fire during the MLK riots in 1968. Is that part of the celebration too?
Can't wait for Rahm's Flight 191 Air Show, his S.S. Eastland river & lake cruise, E2 dance party & the Iriquois Theatre Mr. Blackbeard re-enactment next year
That's just plain fucked up. Accident waiting to happen.
Rahm has his wise ass, propeller-headed brain trust coming up with all kinds of itchy-minded ideas with which to light taxpayer money on fire.
Assholery. Breads. Bullshit. Circuses. Deflection. Diversion. Distraction. Fuckery...
Who's crazy?
The motherfuckers selling this shit or the people looking on in horror as this not so bright idea morphs into... Egads... Something...
May it explode into the flaming shit-show it actually is with Rahm's name writ large all over it for the world to see.
Seriously. Whoever dreamed this nonsense up needs to have many shoes and boots buffed to a shine across the seat of their pants.
Are The Police still the problem here?
With all the eye watering crazy being
passed off as the new normal here in
Chicago, we just had to ask.
Maybe the smoke will cover up the stench of the Bears Football Season?
Can we burn an effigy of Rahm in a tutu on one of those "sculptures"? I'd bring the family down to see that! Fucking idiot!
So its nice to know that
2715000 taxpayers it will around
7.75 a piece for this little venture
they should be screaming their heads off about it
Celebrating a tragedy, why not fly a plane into a building downtown and light some candles on a cake !! wtf
Oh, yippee; handcrafted 'cauldrons', spilling fire from the bridge. (Not kidding.) And kayaks pulling flaming rafts.
Idiots. We have truly lost all sense of decency and morality. EVERYTHING is an excuse to party. Reminds me of the scene in Independence Day when the fools went up to the rooftops to party while the alien ships hovered over them and incinerated them. This is just macabre.
350K is the approximate equivalent of one years Duty Availability pay for 130 coppers.
I hope every last barge holding all of this shit sinks between now and Saturday.
Fuck you, Rahm.
Actually on top of what SCC said, it also a hell of a lot of air and water pollution. Lets hope some idiot doesn't get the idea to try the real thing and tries to burn Chicago downagain again 140 years later.
Let them eat cake.
and the weather for Saturday is....
wait for it....
54 degrees with gusty NW winds 12~22 mph.
What could possible go wrong?
Dramatize a fire that killed 300 people and left many thousands homeless?
What's next, Hurricane Katina Fest- let's flood the neighborhoods and displace everyone.
Or, Indian Ocean Tsunami Fest:
Build mock resorts at North Ave Beach and have a fast moving boat create a large wake/wave to crush the shore.
Are these folks confused? Halloween isn't until the 31st. THAT's the night for bonfires and crazy celebrations, not the night the city burned down and people died.
Will someone please make sure the warrants team is down there, wouldn't want them to miss anybody with all the coverage they have now
"The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire
What a laugh, huh? Must have been fun standing out in the lake all night trying to keep your hair and clothes from catching on fire from the blizzard of live orange embers.
Maybe we can start making street parties of other disasters -- here's a good one from 1950 if you're into the "burning alive" thing.
http://images.rarenewspapers.com/ebayimgs/4.61.2010/image010.jpg
The whole Redmoon Theater cast will be trapped on a streetcar that hits an actual gasoline truck!
...or how about...
http://llnw.wbez.org/main-images/10-30--image.jpg
Chicago, IL Commuter Train Wreck, Oct 1972 - 39 Dead, 200 Hurt
"Chicago (AP) -- Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 200 injured Monday when an electric commuter train that was trying to back up after apparently overshooting a station was rammed from behind by another during the morning rush hour authorities said.
"As the toll of dead mounted, firemen worked to free passengers from the twisted wreckage. Their screams were heard above the noises of torches and wrecking bars."
The possibilities are endless.
Bring on the clowns!
Rahm Emanuel, you make me vomit.
Signed --
A survivor of Train 416
Maybe Peshtigo, Wisconsin will take up this fine idea -- they had possibly 2,000 people killed in a huge forest fire at almost the same time in 1871, but it was largely ignored because the focus was on Chicago.
http://www.peshtigofire.info/gallery/kishner2.htm
O.T. - SCC. Considering the Mayor is attempting to diminish the significance of weed arrests, than should vehicle impound fees still be $2000 plus tow fees ($150) for a cannabis arrest? If cannabis arrests are trivial, than so should the impound fees. The City should not have it both ways. Just a thought.
And that's why you don't have to worry about the PENSIONS. Amazing how Rham finds money for every pet project, so will he find the money for the Pensions. Let's see, money for so called art, parks (of course only in the ghetto), all the streets getting freshly painted and marked for pedestrians and cyclist, the CTA stations. My god it's a miracle the money suddenly appeared!
SCC says:
"If private citizens and their foundations want to spend money on this crap, more power to them. If publicly held companies feel like blowing through their bottom line, they answer to stockholders."
Here here SCC. This is why I don't give a rats ass as to how the "rich" or Rauner or even the Community Organizer in Chief spend their OWN money, but when it comes to them spending mine, crap like this tends to piss me off.
Rahm has no intention of paying that bill.
You Shitcago taxpayers are so generous.
This further demonstrates there is money to meet the City's financial obligations to its retirees - it is just being spent elsewhere.
Please Flaming TuTu send those flaming cauldrons to the West and South side. At least we will get SOMETHING for our stolen tax dollars.
San Francisco can rest easy knowing that Rahmulus Ceaser is not their mayor.
(Nitwit!!!)
If they would let some people die like in the real Chicago Fire, I would attend.
Another reason to vote NO to the contract. $350,000 set aside from public tax monies to set crap on fire. Ridiculous. Rham has money to support fires on boats. STOP.....THINK.....Would this public money be better served. YES. on anything like pensions......new hires.....more personnel ......I enjoy drawing,, painting, sculpting and so on, if they use the private funds I say nothing. But 350 K in public funds. Get the fruck outta here. Vote no. Tiny pyro has got to go. Dyla Hata
This has got to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of. Let's celebrate death and destruction, sounds like the ghetto culture has hit city hall.
Where's the EPA???!
All that's missing is the death-defying high wire walker far above trying to piss out the flames. What a bunch of goofs.
every 140 years & it won't be mrs o'leary's cow that's the arsonist this time around.
expect 10s of 1000s of the usual suspects all rarin' to go
"free" events are murder circuses nowadays.
Free = deyAllBDere
This is so symbolic in so many ways.
1. The elite don't give a flying F... about burning their money in the face public opinion.
2. Da mayor cares even less about the working class in this great city.
3. Rome is burning and da mayor is playing with the elite with his head up their ass.
4. ?
At 8 p.m. the real action begins, as "fire caldrons" will be lowered from bridges onto boats waiting below in a river filled with kayakers pulling flaming buoys and prairie gardens.
Strike everything after as and substitute "packs of shitheads beat, rob and Apple pick tourists, suburbanites, and people who haven't been paying attention to what's been going on downtown."
As the kids would say, FTFY!
Just like Jay Cutler, I don't care!
Why are a couple of paper structures and a few kayakers going to cost $2M? Seems there will be a surplus, or has it already been passed out?
This is seriously f'd up. I had a great great uncle and aunt die in that fire. How about Rahm have a nazi gas chamber celebration and river parade! Asshole!
This little devil would rather burn money then pay into the pension
An arbitrator with blind folds on can see "How really broke this city is"
.........getting ready for a Detroit-like "fright night". This will show everyone how it is done with flair!!!!
Here's the assholes who conjured up this patently offensive BULLSHIT, and waste of taxpayer's money:
Redmoon Theater
2120 S Jefferson St., Chicago, IL 60616
Phone: 312-850-8440 -- Fax: 312-850-4430
Asshole In Charge: Jim Lasko, executive artistic director
Redmoon Theater
And since most of the approx 300 people who DIED in the Chicago fire were Irish this also may be of some use:
Consulate General of Ireland
1 East Upper Wacker Dr., Suite #1820, Chicago, IL 60601
Telephone: 312-337-2700 -- Fax: 312-836-1267
Mr. Aidan Cronin, Consul General of Ireland
Consulate General of Ireland, Chicago
I read the article and this so-called artist Jim Lasko's reason and (cough) 'thinking' for having this nonsensical event and I don't buy it for a minute, as only in the twisted mind of these pinhead **artists'** could 'celebrating' a disaster like the Chicago Fire that caused so much death and destruction be rationalized. And then to name it a festival -- a FESTIVAL -- is utterly mind boggling. However, that the city buys into this crap is NOT shocking or beyond belief and their love for 'Art' has nothing to do with it.
Like it's said, 'Bread and Circuses', that's right from the Libtard Progressive Pols play-book as they have to keep the peon taxpayers from looking over 'here' at the utter destruction they leave in their wake wherever they go like Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Atlanta, etc, etc., to Tiny Dancer and **HIS** out-of-control psycho murdering voter base -- to over 'There' at the Festivals, Carnivals, Parades and oh yeah -- Free Phones.
---- I saw this at 5:30 a.m. when I first logged on but I had to leave, I was spitting nails and my head was about to explode. Plus I didn't want to write something in anger that could be taken the wrong way. ----
Fire Festivus for the rest of us.
Rahm Emanuel is a lunatic. How can a devastating great fire become a cause for celebration, unless of course his effigy is hanging in there somewhere, like a Guy Fawkes Night, and string up a ShortShanks effigy too.
How about a Pumpkinhead Deluxe Night for the Downtown Urban Youth Equinox Festival?
Vote NO Rahm-Rauner 2015
How about the 1977 Cta train crash where two trains fell off the track and onto Wabash Ave? That crash killed 11 and injured up to 180 people. Now this guy is glorifying disasters. What the hell.
The Burning Man festival charges over $400 a ticket to see the same thing and those tickets always sell out. Yes , it's a peacefully week in the tent city with no crime.
3 more million from the state to expand divy bikes to burbs!JUST STUPID!BUT NO MONEY FOR POLICE!
Fuckery of a cosmic magnitude.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
So its nice to know that
2715000 taxpayers it will around
7.75 a piece for this little venture
they should be screaming their heads off about it
9/30/2014 12:45:00 AM
Um, 'residents' does not equal 'taxpayers'.
To add to the festivities, Mrs. O'Leary will be hanged in effigy from Trump Tower, and "The Clumsy Cow," an avant-garde dance performance, will be performed by the Boystown Leotard and Spandex Troupe (B.L.A.S.T.) with a special solo ballet performance by a surprise guest!
Rahm Emanuel IS crazy...
Dear scc:
Screw you retirees and pay more in health care. Screw you coppers you dont get duty availability. Screw all of you cause im not putting a dime in the pensions cause its a broke sysyem. And what will I do with the savings? You guessed it I will burn it.
Democratic convention fest?
A tragedy that killed hundreds left thousands homeless. My long ago relatives suffered that night Thank you so much jag offs for organizing an event that trivializes a horrible event in our city's history. Because it happened over a hundred years ago I guess makes it alright to do this. You're probably thinking screw it nobody is alive from that time and it's ancient history. It is history and we should remember the night with a memorial service not a spectacle worthy of ancient Rome. Then again to people like this that support and organize this nonsense history means nothing.
With this, 9.5 has just "jumped the shark"
I just read the Redmoon website description of this event and I thought I was reading the ONION.
See f**king ridiculous.
It will be interesting to see if the event inspires some budding pyros to start fires in their hoods.
The Great Chicago Fire Festival
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx9YugmYsQw
Who the fuck comes up with this shit?
This has to be one of the stupidest ideas for a "festival" I've ever heard of.
Anonymous said...
"The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871. The fire killed up to 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles of Chicago, Illinois, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless."
~Snip~
"What a laugh, huh? Must have been fun standing out in the lake all night trying to keep your hair and clothes from catching on fire from the blizzard of live orange embers."
"Maybe we can start making street parties of other disasters -- here's a good one from 1950 if you're into the "burning alive" thing."
~Snip~
(And Then...)
Chicago, IL Commuter Train Wreck, Oct 1972 - 39 Dead, 200 Hurt
"Chicago (AP) -- Thirty-nine people were killed and more than 200 injured Monday when an electric commuter train that was trying to back up after apparently overshooting a station was rammed from behind by another during the morning rush hour authorities said.
"As the toll of dead mounted, firemen worked to free passengers from the twisted wreckage. Their screams were heard above the noises of torches and wrecking bars."
"The possibilities are endless.
Bring on the clowns!
Rahm Emanuel, you make me vomit."
Signed --
A survivor of Train 416
9/30/2014 03:31:00 AM
We remember that one...
Circa 1900 wooden coach obliterated by a high speed collision with a modern steel one...
The pictures told the tale...
Blessings to you on your survival.
You're dead on target for taking the hide off one Rahm Emanuel.
Why not have theater troupes re-enact every gang related homicide that occurred during his tenure?
4. ?
He should get a head start on getting the fuck out of office
and leaving us working stiffs alone. 300% property tax increase.
Have your fire and jump in it jagoff!
Anonymous said...
Fuckery of a cosmic magnitude.
9/30/2014 11:15:00 AM
Ahhhhh...
Some of you are actually catching on.
The charred, sulphurous odor from Rahm and his
evil doing is making a lot of eyes water.
The $25K a plate fundraiser people from the North Shore and the Gold Coast are "upwind" so they suffer no ill effect.
These people act as if they're more vested in the fate of this city than the people who do the Policing, Fire Fighting and Paramedic-ing...
We remember that one...
Circa 1900 wooden coach obliterated by a high speed collision with a modern steel one...
The pictures told the tale...
Blessings to you on your survival.
9/30/2014 04:42:00 PM
You have it backwards. The first train was a modern train, mostly aluminum. The following train was much heavier steel construction and it telescoped into the aluminum coach, acting like a meat grinder on the people inside. The old following coach was lodged inside the newer coach. Much of the interior of the newer coach simply ceased to exist. The collision occurred at a speed of approximately 40 mph. 44 people were killed.
By coincidence, the accident occurred less than a hundred yards from Michael Reese Hospital, and within a few blocks of Mercy Hospital. Medical personnel from both facilities rushed to the scene. Alerted by extra alarms, the first wave of 240 firemen arrived. They began rescuing trapped people from the wreckage – and removing the bodies of the dead.
I recall that one clearly, I was 22 years old at the time.
Illinois Central Train Wreck, 30 Oct 72
It's $350k that would be better spent by utilizing it for critical needs. Like pension contributions,equipment purchases, bill paying
But you all keep voting these people into office
"Circa 1900 wooden coach obliterated by a high speed collision with a modern steel one..."
-- 9/30/2014 04:42:00 PM
Actually, a train of the shiny new "modern" double-deck welded-aluminum-and-stainless "Highliners" overshot 27th St. Station on the local track, and stopped, then backed up -- apparently without the mandated "rear-end flag protection," someone walking a specified distance out behind that train with a flag and lantern -- to discharge passengers onto the platform.
There was a train of ca. 1926 Pullman- or Standard Steel Car-built one-level, riveted steel battleships right behind, the old dark green ones, "riding the yellow signal" assuming the next one would be green.
The next signal was red.
Also vision problems around a reverse curve where the platform/station structure hid some of the backing Highliner -- whose ends were painted black anyway. (After the accident, they sprayed the ends of everything Day-Glo Orange.}
"The pictures told the tale..."
Gave you a hint, anyway. Those old 1926 steel cars held together, and telescoped the last 40 feet or so of the last Highliner into crumpled aluminum foil, with bodies hanging out all over.
It was almost a three-train disaster -- another headed for downtown whizzed past on the express track, and when they got to Randolph Street, the crew noticed damage to the very rear of the last car of their train, handrails torn off and so forth. If that express had been a minute behind schedule, it would have been No. 3 into the pile.
Lots more to it, but...those are the basics.
"Blessings to you on your survival."
Thanks. The physical injury bothers me still today. The rest you never forget.
"You're dead on target for taking the hide off one Rahm Emanuel."
...whose 1/2 finger from a slip on an Arby's meat slicer we have been hearing about approximately forever..
Poor baby.
It's required ceremonious spectacle, with all sorts of hidden and some more not-so-subtle symbolism commanded by he high priests of the secret societies who run and control our every move...
This being Obama's designated base, and the epicenter of all things most corrupt and blatantly eugenic, the bilderbergs and the other cabal of cultists who do the bohemian grove rituals told Rahm a fire ceremony should occur to honor the dark forces that operate so successfully and unimpeded here...
and the children will witness the power, and their eyes will gleam in awe...
---
"Actually, a train of the shiny new "modern" double-deck welded-aluminum-and-stainless "Highliners" overshot 27th St. Station on the local track, and stopped, then backed up -- apparently without the mandated "rear-end flag protection," someone walking a specified distance out behind that train with a flag and lantern -- to discharge passengers onto the platform.
There was a train of ca. 1926 Pullman- or Standard Steel Car-built one-level, riveted steel battleships right behind, the old dark green ones, "riding the yellow signal" assuming the next one would be green.
The next signal was red. "
---
The next signal WAS green. The first train, the new one, overshot the station so much that it cleared the block signal, causing the signal protecting the rear of that train to switch from red to yellow to green.
That train then stopped, on the mainline and backed up without protection. Strictly forbidden without permission from the control tower downtown and having a flagman with railroad flares walking hundreds of feet to the rear. No one walked to the rear. The train backed into the station to discharge passengers.
The following train, the old style steel riveted battleship was still proceeding north at speed and failed to see the train ahead still on the mainline until it was too late. The following train went into emergency braking but only slowed a little. It sliced into the new passenger car ahead like a chopsaw through aluminum. It was hours before some of the injured finally were removed.
The dead were badly mangled. The CFD video misidentifies the date as 10 Oct, it was 30 Oct 72.
There is a great old video shot on the WBEZ history of Chicago site of a CPD boss screaming into a reporter's face to move his ass away from the scene, eventually using a bullhorn at the newsman from a distance of about one foot. Newsguy moved.
I bet the Great Our Lady of Angels Fire Festval will really be a hoot........
So the arsonist running around north side is just celebrating Rhams new holiday?
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