Chicago Tonight: Phunny Business

[VIDEO] This 11 minute interview on Chicago Tonight featured owner comedy club owner Raymond Lambert and John Davies who directed this documentary Phunny Business: A Black Comedy. It was the story of a Black-owned comedy club that once operated in Chicago's South Loop called "All Jokes Aside" that featured mainly Black audiences being entertained by Black comedians.

It was very successful while other comedy clubs in Chicago were closing for business. One thing that put this club on the map were the comedians who eventually went on to Hollywood such as Jaime Foxx or Steve Harvey. Will there be another incarnation of "All Jokes Aside" in the future?

It was mentioned that this film was screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center on the Saturday after this program aired on June 16th. I would've liked to check out this documentary!

FuturePundit: Olive Oil Cuts Stroke Risk?

Well I won't excerpt this one, but this is worth sharing. Cutting stroke risks is one thing, but I saw a news story on TV years ago that suggest that consumption of olive oil staves off some of the worse effects of aging. In fact this story had a 77-year-old man who said that he had taken up roller-blading. I just hope that we can all be so lucky and you out there as well!

Via Instapundit!

Two pictures of Amtrak locomotives

I was walking along Roosevelt Road and just so happen to see this Amtrak locomotive sporting an interesting livery. Then I saw the years 1971 and 2011 on the side of the locomotive with Amtrak's old logo. It hits me that Amtrak has been around 40 years already.

It was such a sight I only wish that Amtrak could have locomotives like this all the time. The current livery isn't as colorful but then again I do really like Amtrak's new logo. Still a fan of the old one and used to draw it all the time, but the new logo since the last decade is a really nice touch.

Let's hope Amtrak lasts another 40 years in some way!

Still thinking about that Star Trek movie...

[VIDEO] I intended to post this video over at the Shedd School blog. Why was it relevant there? Because my time there are the old elementary school was when I first became a Star Trek fan. Any this video was the music for the end credits from the 2009 Star Trek movie.

Between 6th & 8th grades I began to collect not only the first 6 Star Trek films, but also many of the books about the franchise as well as even motion picture scores. Now this was all before the internet and before everyone got DVD and Blue-Ray crazy. In fact, my movie collection still included VHS tapes with the first eight Star Trek movies on VHS tape. Only the eleventh Star Trek movie is on DVD.

It's also relevent at the Shedd School blog because this is the time to end the school year. Around that time Star Trek: The Next Generation was ending it's 7 season run. The next movie would feature the cast from the 2nd Star Trek series and also Captain James T. Kirk.

Another reason is that Star Trek has once inspired me to consider becoming an astronaut. Until I reached college my goal was to major in engineering. While that idea hadn't entirely changed by the time I reached the 8th grade there was another aspiration that still has a lasting effect.

After studying for the required constitution exam for both the US & state constitution, my interest in government was so great that I declared in class that I'd like to be President of the United States. The lasting effect was that my major at Morehouse College was in political science.