May offers a mix of haute and low cuisine. First off, the New York Times filed reviews, many of them favorable, of Chili’s, Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse and more, while in Chicago, the war on goose liver is over, as foie gras will return to Chicagoland restaurants. And Slate weighed in on the worldwide food crisis by tossing a T-bone to fine diners in this piece, “The Agony of the Food Snob.” The subhead says it all: “Basque cheese at $22 per pound! Olive oil at $43 per liter! What’s a gourmand to do?”

Wow… Is the perhaps the best support song for a politician ever?
Audio - Cocoa Tea - “Barack Obama”

On the most lucrative night in the history of Sotheby’s, Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976 sold for $86.3 million dollars, as reported here by the Telegraph. This breaks all records for any other Bacon work, as well the record price paid for any piece of art made post-WWII; that record was previously held my Mark Rothko’s White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose). With the economic downturn in the U.S., the art world has been skeptical about how much equity people are still willing to invest in fine art. Looks like more than ever: the next morning, shares of Sotheby’s rose 9 percent.

Neil Diamond’s new Rick Rubin-produced album, Home Before Dark, features none other than indie-rock icon Matt Sweeney. Sweeney - who once fronted beloved 90’s rock band Chavez, played in Zwan with Billy Corgan, is one half of Superwolf alongside Will Oldham and has his hands in countless other projects ranging from metal to hip-hop - was recommended for the project by Rubin himself, who is reportedly a big fan of Superwolf. Check out what Sweeney had to say about the project here.

Hometown favorites Pelican have a new video for their song Dead Between the Walls, off their City of Echoes album. The video isn’t debuting on MTV until Saturday, but you can take an early peek at it below. (Bonus trivia of marginal importance - the “singer” in the video is head of Hydrahead Records, Mark Thompson).

Taking nothing away from Neil Young, his contributions to modern music, his impressive songwriting skills or his status as a rock icon — it’s just that, in this writer’s humble opinion, Merry Clayton’s cover of his 1970 classic, “Southern Man,” trounces the original in every possible way.
Audio — Merry Clayton - Southern Man
– Post by Ben Fasman

People talk. People make mistakes. Oceans of ink are then spilled over those mistakes throughout the media, often unfairly. But from the president equating giving up golf with wartime sacrifice to the Vatican acknowledging the existence of aliens, May has proven to be a month of memorable quotations.

Following an interview with Politico, George W. Bush is taking a clubbing for this line: “I feel I owe it to the families to be as — to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.” (In fairness, the president was replying to a question specifically about his absence from the green.)

Did Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty think before revealing this bit during a radio interview: “[My wife] loves football, she’ll go to hockey games and, I jokingly say, ‘Now, if I could only get her to have sex with me.’” Pawlenty, plenty awkward.

Stephen King was given “pinhead” status by Bill O’Reilly for his remark at the Library of Congress about literacy being a preventative measure against serving in Iraq. (O’Reilly was the latest victim of a YouTube sting when this clip of the then-Inside Edition host yelling at a teleprompter was unearthed. Related: this clip of New York newscaster Sue Simmons cutting loose during an on-air promo for NBC.) O’Reilly also lured out a quote Hillary Clinton most likely wishes to revoke: “Rich people, God bless us.”

But taking the cake (Communion?) was Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory. As reported by AP: “In an interview published Tuesday by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion ‘doesn’t contradict our faith’ because aliens would still be God’s creatures.”

“The protean artist from small-town Texas whose imaginative commitment to hybrid forms of painting and sculpture changed the course of American and European art between 1950 and the early 1970s, died Monday night” (LA Times). For more on Rauschenberg, visit appreciations from Artforum; PBS; the Guardian; and an intriguing YouTube clip featuring Rauschenberg on goats.

We usually try to stay pretty neutral on this media blog and not try to point fingers, but the recent live music / promoter debate in Chicago is worth speaking up on. Essentially, the City of Chicago is trying to pass on ordinance that require music / theater promoters to register and get licensed from the city. As with many of the ordinances passed in our fair city, the language is pretty loose, but it will require a promoter to pay a fee between $500 - $2000 dollars for a license, jump through what are sure to be countless hurdles to get the venue licensed in the first place, and to notify the police 7 days before an event, among other things. Exempt from these requirements are venues with 500+ permanent seats (which are few in the city). Follow Jim DeRogatis’ coverage of this bill here, and sign the petition here.  We understand that the city is trying to cover their collective behinds after the E2 tragedy, but some of this bill seems absolutely ludicrous.

There is renewed interest in the underground in Chicago — and not just over the Obama / Weather Underground flap. Tempers are flaring as developers, backed by Mayor Daley, aim to ravage the city’s manicured lakefront to build a children’s museum, situated underground. And at the University of Chicago, plans are underway to build a below-ground library topped with a glass dome. (This plan has been embraced, though not without skepticism: Says the chairman of the board, “The hesitation is: ‘Where is my large, drab rectangular box to have books stored in?’”) Looking skyward, the world’s tallest residential building is under construction along Lake Shore Drive.

On to matters of the home. Chicago magazine recently posed a provocative question: But Who Will Buy the Condos? “Since 2000,” writes Dennis Rodkin, “developers have flooded downtown Chicago with more than 20,000 new condos and townhouses — yet at the end of 2007, nearly 8,000 of them sat unsold.” On the bright side, explore the “Greenest Home in Chicago,” as presented by the Museum of Science and Industry.