My first #picstitch

Wednesday afternoon, I explored the intersection of 63rd/Halsted. This excursion made easier by the Red Line reconstruction where I could take a shuttle bus to Garfield and then change for a train there. I could either go north from Garfield or head west into Englewood.

Over at my other blog you see this intersection at various points in it's heyday. Here's another picture of a time when it was a destination of choice for many on this part of time. Alas within the last 40 or so years this intersection has seen hard times and is still looking for something to bring it back.

The top left and bottom right corners are of Kennedy-King College, one of the Chicago City Colleges. Perhaps this is one way to revive this intesection and with an L rolling along I have always envised that this area could be as busy as the Loop where another city college is located Harold Washington College. Although granted if it were to ever happen this area as a long way to go!

BTW, check out this page on the L stop adjacent to this intersection at Halsted.

My experience on the Red Line service changes

This is the first week of the Red Line South reconstruction project. The normal trains I take to run back to the south side has been shut down for major infrastructure work and that forces many people to have to take shuttlebuses to catch a train. That is the same train that would take you downtown through the State Street subway.

You see the current alignment of the Red Line for the next 5 months almost mimicks a former alignment. Red Line trains from Howard go onto the Green Line tracks to Ashland/63 in the Englewood neighborhood. Before 1993 that was the alignment but then the Red Line South (aka Dan Ryan branch) now connects with Howard when before 1993 it used to connect with the Lake branch and remained on L tracks.

It's been a bit of a treat but still the reconstruction is a bit of an inconvenience, but at least there are some expected benefits. Trains should run faster than they had been because of deterioration tracks, ties, and ballast so all of those components are to be replaced. In addition to that they have to fix drainage, electrical and communication lines as well. Also other stations on the branch will be handicapped accessible and it's also expected to make it much easier to extend the Red Line further south in the city.

At current because the infrastructure wasn't in the best condition and it required constant care it was best to do it right and shut it down for a brief period and just get it all done. Of course what that means is that it won't be necessary to continue to delay passengers to keep doing this necessary work and most of them such as myself have somewhere they need to be at a certain time.

One thing I will say so far is that the shuttlebuses are making good time. If you are riding anytime between 4 AM to 1 AM there are express shuttles that will take you directly to your particular Red Line stop from 69th to 95th. After 1 AM you take a local shuttle which makes all the Red Line stops which takes longer and at that point in the wee hours of the morning I just want to go home!

In any event making a connection whether from shuttlebus to the train or from train to shuttlebus should be nothing less than a breeze. But I hope by October things will be back to normal with a new and improved Dan Ryan Red Line with travel times greatly improved!

President Obama speaks to the Morehouse College class of 2013

[VIDEO] Here is the President's address to the class of 2013 at Morehouse College. All 32 minutes and while I'm aware of how the President is portrayed by those who oppose him it's certainly great to have the leader of the free world speak at a graduation especially if it just so happens to be my own alma mater. I'm looking forward to seeing the full ceremonies as it's not the President who's important here, it's the graduates as they worked very hard to see this day come!

Alas, the past week haven't been very good to the President. We have the story regarding the IRS targeting Tea Party groups come out. Also the Benghazi is still in the news, that was where an US Ambassador was killed in Libya by insurgents.

I also found that someone threw politics into the momentousness of President Obama coming to Morehouse to speak to the graduates. Here's the title to an article from the New York Daily News: "As President Obama tells Morehouse grads he strives to be ‘a better man,’ Republican critics suggest he ought to". Although the article itself mentions some of the commencement address it says very little about Republican critics connecting some of what he said which some of the bad press he's been receiving as of late.

I do believe, however, that most of this criticism you may have seen in a variety of quotes seen on TV. Perhaps even FOX News it seems although I would have to corroborate this will actual videos. That's something I'm not prepared to do at the moment.

All the same, I still view the President coming to Morehouse as a positive. It causes me to cringe when anyone event the President himself referring to himself in the same vein as Dr. Martin Luther King because Obama is more of a political leader than Dr. King. King himself was certainly more of a religious or moral leader than Obama can ever hope to be. Although perhaps King's vision of a Black person or anyone becoming President of the United State by the content of his character but not because of the color of his skin is something that we could get out of this comparison.

In spite of his current problems, it was great to see Morehouse College get some international attention and hopefully this could mean that more people will see the primary mission of Morehouse in a good light. Especially to see the positivity of mostly Black males completing their college education!

My weekend at the movies: "Star Trek Into Darkness"

This past weekend I finally had the opportunity to see the latest entry in the Star Trek franchise entitled Star Trek Into Darkess at the Chatham 14 theaters. There were some unexpected surprised in this movie some plot points that were inserted into the story that's as much part of this universe even if this is an alternate reality. The antagonists of this film are muddled but still clear and as always our heroes win the day. The ending could've easily resembled Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan but thankfully they didn't stay that course and of course it's an action packed film.

As seen in the trailer or even in some promotional materials the USS Enterprise takes a serious beating in this movie. We already saw Spock in a volcano and jumping from a skyscraper in addition to him running around. Also the Klingons make a brief appearance and they look much more menacing than usual. I could see them as the universe's answer to biker gangs!

Overall a great movie, it has me thinking about seeing it again because usually once I see it at the show it's not likely to be viewed again until it's on sale as a DVD.

I noted not long ago on Twitter that when Star Trek was released in 2009 I was graduating from Star Trek. My graduation occurred on May 17, 2009 and it had premiered on May 8, 2009. And looking at my stubs that I've been collecting for years it appears I went to a show on May 10, 2009, a Sunday.

Finally a shoutout to the Morehouse College class of 2013 who had President Obama as a commencement speaker. It's something I hope to share with you as soon as I see any video of it in the next few days although I see it has been politicized already. That will be shared here as well.

Sorry for veering a bit off topic, however, the Star Trek franchise remains in good hands and hopefully we will see more Klingons in the next movie! Also even more better, now I have possession of two posters for this movie and certainly something you'd expect to have seen before this film was released. A wonderful treat for myself that excites me even more! :)

ALSO, in a recent post in showing a new trailer for Into Darkness, I referred to this film as Star Trek 13. That was incorrect as the current installment is in fact the 12TH Star Trek film. I would correct it in that post but then I figured just let it be. When the next movie is released and this blog continues that will certainly be correct! :P

Mayor Emanuel and CTA Launch Train Tracker

I think they changes they recently unveiled for the train tracker I have used frequently since it was created close to two years ago are quite nifty. Alas by Sunday, I will have to be concerned about the fact that they will shut down the Red Line South. Then again because of some of the changes that they're making should help with the frustration of the commute.

Another trailer for "Star Trek" 13

[VIDEO] This trailer looks great and I'm even more pumped to see this latest adventure of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701. It looks like it takes a beating in this movie. If this preview doesn't get you excited for this one what else will. It's premiere is a week away and I anticipate seeing it next weekend at least!

This preview was uploaded onto YouTube, however, it was published on April 16 and I'm just now seeing it. I first saw this in the previews for Iron Man 3 when I saw it at River East.

Man sues Morehouse College after they say he never graduated

They may have done things differently in the 1980s, but when I got my degree four years ago I picked mine up the same day as commencement. If this guy got a diploma that he didn't actually earn that's terrible that at the last minute something happened where it turns out he didn't actually graduate.

A man who said he graduated from Morehouse College more than 30 years ago is suing the school because the college said he never met graduation requirements. And now Morehouse is countersuing to get him to return the diploma it gave him 33 years ago.

"They can't have it back, I earned it," Terry Boyd told Channel 2's Tom Jones outside the southwest Atlanta campus.

Boyd's attorney wonders why the school gave him the diploma if it believed he hadn't met the requirements

"How do you mail something like this to someone you're professing did not complete you're requirements for graduation?" attorney Marsha Mignott said.

This all began two years ago after Boyd applied for a job paying nearly $150,000 a year and the company checked his background.

"They said they had a problem verifying my graduation from Morehouse," Boyd explained.

Discrepancy?

Morehouse said he failed an Organic Chemistry class. His transcript shows he made a D.

Boyd said he passed the class. His attorney said it appears someone changed his grade from a C to a D.

Mignott finds it odd the college would let him take Chemistry 2 if he failed the prerequisite Chemistry 1 class. 

As a result, this is going to court and Morehouse wants their diploma back and understandably Mr. Boyd doesn't want to let it go. Let's hope Brother Boyd gets to keep his degree and is not forced to give up his diploma and as a result return to school again to re-earn his degree.

Conan provides a "Star Trek Into Darkness" spoiler???

[VIDEO] On Tuesday's edition of Conan there was a sketch that involved the coming new movie Star Trek Into Darkness (STID) and done the way Conan O'Brien would do it. The thing is this sketch came with some phony credits and I'm sure Trekkies such as myself did some digging on who plays who in the coming film.

Anyway, the sketch showed an edited clip of the film's villain Benedict Cumberbatch talking to his co-star Chris Pine who plays Captain James T. Kirk. Cumberbatch's character has often been referred to as John Harrison, however, the credits used for this sketch shows Cumberbatch playing a character with a different name and certainly one familiar to Trekkies.

So on Wednesday's edition of Conan it was noted that a genre news website has picked up on this sketch and reported on the spoilers. I can only see one potential spoiler, the true villain of STID. There had always been rumors of who the antagonist of the next Star Trek film would be and it could've been anyone from Khan (who appeared in the original series episode "Space Seed" & film The Wrath of Khan) or Gary Mitchell from the Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

As for the possibility that Conan has nothing but spoilers for the 13th installment of the Star Trek film franchise you can watch his answer to that right here. That's what we get for taking that above sketch very seriously. I suppose if nothing else we shall have to wait until the movie comes out to know for certain!

Another piece of big news the date for STID's release was already set as May 17th, but it has recently been pushed up a day to May 16th.

Was a commencement speaker at Morehouse College disinvited?

While it's great that my alma mater was able to get the President of the United States to speak at this year's commencement ceremonies it's unfortunate that it's hit the press that there's some controversies around one of the other speakers.

A prominent pastor was allegedly disinvited from speaking at Morehouse College’s baccalaureate service this week after he criticized President Barack Obama, who will deliver the school’s commencement address.

The Rev. Kevin Johnson, a Morehouse alumnus and the senior pastor of Bright Hope Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, Pa., wrote an opinion column earlier this month in the Philadelphia Tribune accusing Obama of neglecting the black community in his cabinet picks–they’re overwhelmingly white–and broader political agenda.

The day after the article ran, Johnson said, Morehouse President John Silvanus Wilson, Jr. phoned to express reservations about his “untimely” comments regarding President Obama. Johnson asked administrators to honor their invitation, but learned days later he had been replaced by three alternate speakers.

Now, a group of two dozen pastors who lead churches across the country are demanding Morehouse re-invite Johnson.

As always, I realize there are always two sides to every story and the current President of Morehouse denies that Rev. Johnson had been disinvited:

That being said, I pause to write to you now regarding a related matter that is germane to our educational mission, but one that has regretfully generated quite a bit of distraction in recent days. In brief, I extended an invitation to a distinguished alumnus to speak at our upcoming Baccalaureate service. I subsequently made a decision to adjust the format of the Baccalaureate program and opted for a more creative, multi-speaker approach that is used by many leading institutions.  This sharing of the stage comports with the spirit of upholding democratic ideals, including freedom of speech and expression, and is entirely consistent with the spirit of camaraderie that Morehouse holds dear.

As president, I believe this is in the best interest of the college. In this instance, I decided to ask this invited speaker to share the Baccalaureate stage with two other speakers so as to reflect a broader and more inclusive range of viewpoints.

To my chagrin, my decision has been wrongly construed by some as an effort to “disinvite” this individual. He was not disinvited, but rather declined to participate in the format. Worse yet, this decision has led to allegations of censorship, which of course has no place in any viable academic institution. These allegations are fundamentally deleterious and are undeserved.

I first got wind of this story via Instapundit earlier this week. Just to note it's considered a right-wing blog!

Morehouse athletes accused of rape

I'm not sure what to say to this. I remember when I was still attending school there, a march occurred where students from Spelman College marched on campus to draw attention to a sexual assault incident. My understanding of this case was that incident was proven to be false. In this incident with several alleged incident of sexual assault and with four Morehouse College students charged this is difficult to sweep under the rug! Hopefully all the necessary facts will come out and hopefully the ones who are innocent aren't forced to suffer if they had no part in these allegations!