Hotdog Haters
The latest conflict in Pilsen, Chicago's current poster child for gentrification, is about hotdogs. It all started when Carlos Chavarria, owner of Kristoffer's Café at 18th and Halsted, found out that the building under construction across the street was to become a twenty-four-hour hotdog joint owned by Alex Lazarevski, the proprietor of the Express Grill on Union south of Roosevelt (he was unavailable for comment). Lazarevski's Express Grill is one of the last survivors of the famed Maxwell Street hotdog joints, but to Chavarria it represents something besides a hot meal and a piece of history. "We are concerned about the migration of the problems that they are currently experiencing there on Union—prostitution, shootings, congestion, garbage, graffiti," he rattles off. "We suspect that they're losing their lease." With the neighborhood's art galleries, alderman and real estate giant Podmajersky lined up behind him, Chavarria is determined to keep the hotdog stand out of the Chicago Arts District. He will state his case at a community meeting/press conference Thursday evening at Providence of God Community Church.

Start Your Engine
"Victory Gardens has had a longstanding commitment to developing writers. It's the core of our mission," says literary manager Aaron Carter. "But this is our first attempt to start a festival that hopefully will win national recognition." From August 7-10, Victory Gardens is presenting "IGNITION: Emerging Playwrights of Color," a festival dedicated to "launching people's careers, and launching lives for these plays," according to Carter. As literary manager, he participated in the panel of judges that whittled 120 submissions by unknown playwrights of color down to an eventual six winners, which will be staged this week by directors from across the city and country. "This festival will help bring these playwrights to the attention of theaters across the nation," he predicts. "I'm 32 and a playwright myself and I feel like these plays reflect the world that I live in, the immediate diversity."

Under the Sea
Confined beneath the surface of Disney’s copyrighted sea for nearly twenty years, "The Little Mermaid" is swimming to the Music Box’s silver screen at the end of this month, and after a painstaking, yet rewarding, battle with the animation empire, the latest catch for the theatres "Sing-A-Long" agenda is guaranteed to make a big splash. The theater was forced to hop over legal fences with Disney in the past in order to screen a "Mary Poppins" sing-a-long, and the process of acquiring "The Little Mermaid" was no different. "I just think that Disney is very protective of their animated films because that’s really what they’re most known for," says Brian Andreotti, the program director at Music Box, one of only two theaters permitted to screen the film. “The Disney studio locks their animated films in the vault,” and, dozens of phone calls later, the movie house has, for the second time, picked the lock. Beginning August 22 and running until the end of the month, guests are encouraged to dress up as their favorite character; goodie bags full of props will be distributed for use during the film.

(2008-08-05)

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