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SALUDE: Healthing Through the Arts/Radio Art Website

Check out this audio piece by Radio Arte reporter Jonathan Bucio on sex ed workshops geared toward Chicago’s Hispanic community: Download Jonathan Bucio - Neighborhood Group Talks About Health

Radio Arte is a Latino public radio station owned by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.  Bucio’s report is part of Radio Arte’s SALUD: Healing Through the Arts program which brings community youths together to use art to explore the connection between immigration and health.

Listen to Bucio’s report to see how SALUD is gearing its sex ed. workshops to the Latino community.

madame.impossible/Flckr

NBC Chicago reported yesterday on possible health risks related to skinny jeans.

Meralgia paresthetica, or “tingling thigh syndrome”, can cause pain and numbness in thights and is often brought about by constant pressue on a sensory nerve in your thigh.  According to the story, the condition is common among construction workers, police officers, pregnant women, obese people and apparently also fashionistas.

Chicago Public Radio recently covered the controversy that arose out of the painting over of a Bridgeport mural of Chicago Police Department blue light cameras and images of the crucifiction.  The Department of Streets and Sanitation has recently taken blame for the mural’s disappearance, but the whole incident raises interesting questions about where officials draw the line between mural art and grafitti.

The whole thing reminds me of the painting over of the famed Virgin Mary salt stain under the Kennedy Expressway earlier this year.

So what do we think?  Art?  Miracle?  Or simply defacement?

Has anyone else noticed the growing popularity of the brain tumor/hallucination storyline on TV?  More than ever, networks have their most beloved characters seeing cartoon characters and talking to dead people.

Here’s the count so far:

• House
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Bones
• Lost (only because people are always acting crazy on Lost, so why not?)
• The Unusuals

If anyone else is seeing crazies on primetime, please do let us know!

And, for good measure, here are the real symptons of a brain tumor, courtesy of WebMD.

The Architecture and Design gallery in The Art Institute's new Modern Wing. Nicole Cohen/Good for You

The Art Institute of Chicago will be opening its Modern Wing with a week of free admission starting this Saturday, May 16 until Friday, May 22.

Designed by architect Renzo Piano (who also designed Paris’ Centre Pompidou), the Modern Wing was built to provide more room for the museum’s growing collection (the third largest in the United States).

The $294 million project includes a bridge that links the museum to Millennium Park, an education center, and a restaurant featuring concoctions from Spiaggia chef Tony Mantuano.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  The point here is that admission is free next week, so pick a sunny day (the better to enjoy the wing’s views and naturally lit galleries) and don’t forget your canned goods (which the museum will be collecting for the Greater Chicago Food Dispensitory during its opening week).

Some highlights from the new wing:

Jeff Wall’s decidely spooky graveyeard photography.

Candyass’s (a.k.a Cary Leibowitz) “Photo Booth Fortune” featuring fortune cookie fortunes and a hairy man in a photo booth.

Steve McQueen’s video “Girls, Tricky” featuring “trip-hop” artist Tricky (a.k.a Adrian Thaws) in the recording studio and smoking what I will, for the sake of the blog, only identify as a cigarette.

Architecture and Design galleries’ (pictured above) seat-provoking chairs

Add to that the names like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and  Joan Miro and you’ll wonder how the institute every got by without this space.

litherland/Flickr

It only took hearing two different NPR reviews (here and here) of the X-Men Origins Wolverine movie for me to realize the summer blockbuster season is upon us.  And while I am looking forward to spending hot summer evenings in and out of movie theaters, I’m definitely not looking forward to paying for it.

For those out there aching for Hollywood action on a tight budget, I recommend a trip to Logan Theater on at 2646 N. Milwuakee Ave.  They may not play new releases (only movies that have been out for a couple months) but tickets only cost you about $4 and reviewers love their chocolate covered frozen bananas.

Here’s a map to cheaper movie fun:

View Logan Theater in a larger map

alasam/Flickr

Check out Julie Deadorff’s “5 alternative uses for lemons” that don’t include making lemonade.

My favorite is lemon as hangover cure. And since you asked, the New Yorker published a piece last year about how different cultures and regions tackle the hangover. It’s quite the anthropological study.

Next time you’re anywhere near the Damen stop on the Blue Line, take a minute to pop in on the Weirder Park General Store at 1539 N. Damen Ave, a novelty shop that sells handmade trinkets from their third story window.  The Web site describes the store as “Chicago’s one-stop shop for all your novelty needs!”

But how, you might ask, does one novelty shop out of a window?  Don’t fret, their site provides detailed instructions.

Our revolutionary ‘walk-up window service’ lets you make all your purchases from the streets below. Simply ring the bell, and we’ll pop our heads out of our window and help you pick out the merchandise that best suits your needs. When you are ready to go on your way, we’ll lower your purchases via a basket. Simply place your hard-earned money back into the basket, which comes back to us to ensure that we can continually add new products and services.

As of Tuesday night , Weirder Park expanded into a concert venue and co-founder Celia Rose Marks says she hopes to eventually grow into an art space as well.

“This is our first venture into what this space could potentially be,” Marks said.

Tuesday night’s performers included out-of-towners Liz Isenberg and Omnivore (or Glenna Vannostrand).  See pictures and hear their music after the jump.

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