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Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesCHIRP Radio Road Trips: Indianapolis
Pitchfork. Lollapalooza. Riot Fest. If you never left Chicago between the months of June and September, you could make more great summer music memories than some people make in a lifetime. Although we're partial to the city we call home, we here at CHIRP also understand the value of exploring the world while the weather's still nice. In our new Radio Road Trips series, we'll be profiling the music scenes and secrets of Midwestern cities within driving distance from Chicago. This week: Indianapolis.
Most Musical Neighborhood: For years, Broad Ripple reigned as the Indianapolis's go-to hip neighborhood, but a decade of gradual bro-ification rendered the once-proud strip packed with sports bars, spray tans, and backwards baseball caps. Thus, if Broad Ripple is Indianapolis's Wicker Park, think of Fountain Square as its Logan Square. Bouncing back from its nadir in the 1970s (when construction of I-465 cut the neighborhood off from the rest of downtown), the once-seedy square is now home to some of the city's most vital arts and music venues.
SKaiser writesWill You Take the Year-Long Car For Bike Challenge?
This is the moment we bring you Bill Bushnell: 2012 Tour de Fat winner of the Car Trader challenge. He sat down with CHIRP Radio to share his experience of trading horsepower for legpower and biking the mean streets of Chicago.
Read on to see how Bill's challenge lasted over a year and what it really means to show up to work with an icy beard and smile on your face.
Stay tuned over the next couple weeks as we feature Car Traders of Tour de Fat past. CHIRP Radio is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the 2015 Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11.
CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?
Bushnell: I'm living in the suburb of Elmhurst and I'm working as a web developer for a company in Glenview
CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?
Bushnell: A few years ago, gas prices were spiking and as I was standing at a gas pump watching hours of my life tick away with each gallon going into the car, I thought that there must be a better way. It sparked me to think about my commute differently, not driving my commute as a necessary, but a choice I was making everything morning. I saved up a bit, bought a relatively inexpensive bike since that's all I could afford at the time, and started commuting by bike. After a couple months of intermittent bike commuting, I was loving it, but my bike wasn't up to the challenge. I decided that the commuting by bike was something that I really wanted to do, but it was going to be all or nothing for me. So I threw my hat in the ring for the car trade, and was lucky enough to be selected. I traded the car, bought a new, more durable bike, and some accessories to make the commute easier and more feasible despite whatever weather may come out way. The rest is, shall we say, history.
SKaiser writesThe Week That Was and Will Be: What’s Happening at CHIRP Radio (6/22/2015)
NEW MEDIA:
- Shawna Kaiser interviews (the first in our series) 2014 Tour de Fat Car Trader Adam Wonak
- The First Time: First Lie with Ben Joravsky, produced by Dan Epstein
- Eddie Sayago writes Top Five Yo La Tengo Cover Songs
- Friday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday, Dave Lambert!
COMING UP THIS WEEK:
- Come out for CHIRP Night at the Whistler with Bleach Party and the Van Goghs on Wednesday, June 24th at 8:30 PM (2421 N Milwaukee)
- Become a volunteer with CHIRP Radio! RSVP to the New Volunteer Orientation at tbe Conrad Sulzer Library (4455 N Lincoln) on Thursday, June 25th at 7:00 PM
- CHIRP Radio welcomes Becca Stevens to Old Town School of Folk Music (4544 N Lincoln) on Thursday, June 25th at 8:00 PM
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesFriday MP3 Shuffle: Happy Birthday Dave Lambert Edition
For today's MP3 Shuffle we celebrate the posthumous birthday of jazz vocalist and pioneer Dave Lambert. During the Hep-Cat heights of the 1950s and '60s Jazz scene, Lambert was one of the artists who perfected a singing style called vocalese, a technique by which a singer puts words to melodies and solos originally written for instruments (as opposed to scat singing, where a vocalist makes non-word sounds and basically becomes another instrument).
Lambert teamed up with fellow vocalists Jon Hendricks and Anne Ross to form a trio whose prowess in interpreting the complex Bee-Bop charts of musicians like Charlie Parker and John Coltrane earned them a following as The Hottest New Group in Jazz (which was also the name of their biggest album, released in 1960).
Lambert tragically died in an auto accident at age 49, but he left behind a truly unique art form that's still used by vocalists seeking to expand their repertoire. Sing a few notes in his honor by taking your MP3 player, pressing the "shuffle" button, and sharing the first 10 songs you hear:
SKaiser writesWould You Give Up Your Car and Bike Year Round in Chicago?
Get the scoop of what it's really like commuting by bike everywhere from the brave souls who've experieced it firsthand: past Car for Bike Traders of the annual New Belgium Brewery Tour de Fat celebration of all things bicylce, man's greatest invention.
Over the next couple weeks CHIRP Radio is taking some time to honor past Car for Bike Traders with a little Q&A. CHIRP Radio is partnered with New Belgium Brewery for the 2015 Tour de Fat celebration in Palmer Square on Saturday, July 11.
This week we bring you Adam Wonak, challenge winner of 2014.
CHIRP: Where do you currently live and what are you doing these days?
Wonak: I'm living in the West Loop/Noble Square area. I moved here from Logan Square earlier this year. I'm working as a Software Engineer.
CHIRP: Why did you take the challenge to give up your car?
Wonak: I'd been interested in the car-for-bike trade for a number of years. I'd had the same car since college but had been using it less and less--my bike had become my primary mode of transportation a while back. The idea of living car free was very appealing to me, and the chance to ceremoniously trade in my car for a bike in exchange for a year of car-free living seemed like a fitting way to finally make that happen.