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  Daley’s Chicago

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  Mayor Richard M. Daley’s decision last week not to run for another term marks the end of an era for Chicago, which Daley has run for 21 years. By the time he gets out of office, Daley will be the longest serving mayor Chicago has ever had. To get Daley’s perspective on Chicago before he was mayor, we’ve put together a series of TV commercials from Daley’s campaigns. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkSa9eer-xQ] You can also watch a documentary about Richard J. Daley on […]

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  This Week’s Discoveries

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  Media Burn is proud to announce that we have received a grant from the Illinois Historical Records Advisory Board for an exciting project to make our paper document collection accessible for the first time. These rare documents chronicle the history of portable video and independent TV, featuring pamphlets, newsletters, notes, magazine and newspaper articles, correspondence, and more.  We have several thousand of one-of-a-kind documents and pictures that will be online someday. We’ve found some neat things already (click on any […]

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  Cajun Legend Nathan Abshire, 1975

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  This week, enjoy some of the best of Cajun music in a video by TVTV called “The Good Times Are Killing Me.” TVTV was an ad hoc assemblage of “video freaks” who came together from around the country in 1972 to use the brand new technology of portable videotape to create the first non-network produced video broadcast of the Democratic and Republication National Conventions.  It was an audacious experiment with creating television from an outsider’s perspective and a first step […]

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  Congressman Dan Rostenkowski (1928-2010)

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    This has been a summer full of deaths that have a close connection to Media Burn.  Yesterday, we were saddened to hear about the death of former Congressman Dan Rostenkowski. Dan Rostenkowski was one of the most powerful Congressmen in Washington for 36 years, serving as the Chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee. His seat in the 5th district of Illinois continues to be a national and local locus of power, having been filled by Rod […]

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  Hester Street Chronicles

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  Mary Polon recounts a story from her childhood as a Polish-Jewish immigrant in New York, involving two calamitous trips to Coney Island, her mother’s ingenious hiding place for her prized “screws,” and a lifelong feud with their downstairs neighbor. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSz3kvSaer4] Mrs. Polon lived at 88 Hester Street, in New York, which used to be the center of an Ashkenazi Jewish neighborhood, but in recent years the street has become part of Chinatown.  Today, the tenement and the fire escapes that […]

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  Television Legend Bob Wussler (1936-2010)

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  Tom introduces a piece on television legend Bob Wussler, who passed away in early June. Wussler was one of the architects of modern television. In these telling interviews, Wussler talks about the evolution of television from the 1960s through the 1980s and shares his thoughts on global television and the future. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnOU551u0lc] To watch the 1976 interview, click here. Bob Wussler’s New York Times Obit

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  Remembering Dick Buckley

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  Longtime WBEZ all-night jazz DJ Dick Buckley (1925-2010) passed away today, at the age of 85.  Buckley’s jazz program was a fixture on Chicago Public Radio every Monday through Friday night, from 1977 to 2008. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNOdTu4NDEE] This short clip of Buckley in the WBEZ studio is from the 1989 documentary Radio Faces.  To watch the entire documentary, go to:  http://mediaburn.org/Video-Preview.128.0.html?&uid=4927

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  Waiting for the American Dream

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  What do immigrants expect of America, and how does it differ from their home countries? Videomaker Skip Blumberg asks applicants for citizenship at a New York immigration office in “Waiting for the American Dream”: If you want to watch the full version at Media Burn, click here. This video blog was inspired by Act 2 of an episode of This American Life, “True Urban Legends.” “Fleeing is Believing” starts at 35:32. In 1991, the U.S. opened a one week window to […]