Peoria Illinoisan

Considering how unlikely it is that the Peoria trail advocates are going to succeed in tearing out the Kellar Branch, I thought I’d take a moment to show how a similar project was done in Madison, Wisconsin with some photos courtesy of my Madisonian brother.

Looking down on the bike path running through a residential neighborhood, such as we have in the north Peoria/Alta area where the Rock Island Trail currently exists.

Scenic view of the bike path running alongside Lake Monona, similar to our own path along the riverfront.

This is the what was known as “the missing link,” i.e. the section needed to connect opposite ends of the trail through the heavy industrial part of downtown. Notice the lack of fencing and the close proximity of the trail to the railroad cars.

To me, this is one of the most interesting portions of the trail. This is the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Convention Center, and is utilized as part of the trail. During conventions I’m told you’ll find a bunch of suits on the balcony taking smoke breaks while bikers weave their way through the crowd.

The point I’m trying to make is that they faced similar obstacles in Madison as we do here in Peoria, but instead of wasting their time trying to rip out viable rail lines of which they have no authority to do anyway, they put their collective heads together and figured out a solution, even if that meant butting the trail right up against the railroad tracks and using a portion of the Civic Center’s porch.

In the email containing these photos, my brother shared these thoughts:

In order to make a bike path fit into a pre-established city (as opposed to be planned into a new subdivision/suburb at the same time that the houses are being built and roads paved) the planners need to be flexible as cities are not cookie cutter. In Madison they’ve made what seems to have been the best choices given the logistics. Over the course of my 5 mile each way commute, the trail runs over converted train track, alongside existing tracks, on the street, on a widened sidewalk and even on an observation deck of the convention center. Sure it’s not all pretty & scenic, but the point in Madison at least is that the trail serves as a safe, efficient multi-use conduit in the city center for bicyclists, joggers, in-liners, walkers etc… Sure we have tourists who come to ride the network of trails, but mostly it’s a quality of life enhancer for Madisonians.

I say we invite someone from Madison to the next Peoria Park Board meeting to show them how it can be done, since obviously Peorians either doesn’t have the ingenuity to pull this off or we just don’t want it bad enough to make it work.

Today’s ‘album of the day’ on XM Channel 40 (Deep Tracks) was the classic Derek and the Dominos album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. One might think that when the album of the day is Layla that the song Layla might get some airplay. Well it did, but not before a lecture from DJ Earl Bailey about how this song has been, in his words, “stolen from us” by excessive FM airplay. He continued to say that he has not played this song even once in his seven years as DJ at XM, which speaks to why I love this channel and to a greater extent, why I can never go back to FM.

Layla was followed up by the song It’s Too Late which is the track previous to Layla on the original album, and Thorn Tree In The Garden which is the final track on the album immediately following Layla.

Other songs never heard on XM40: The Boys Are Back In Town, Stairway to Heaven, Brown Eyed Girl, Bohemian Rhapsody, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Paradise by the Dashboard Lights, Hotel California, Maggie May, Born To Be Wild, Freebird, La Grange, Margaritaville, Wonderful Tonight, et al.

With the 200th Name This Peoria Landmark post fast approaching, I figured it was a good time to publish my first of two retrospective videos.

Music by The Smothers Brothers from their 1961 album Live at the Purple Onion.

Narration by former WMBD radio host John Williams from the incredibly cheesy 1991 Peoria Convention and Visitors Bureau album Taking Pride in Peoria.

WIRL jingle dated November 27, 1964.

On Sunday, the 18th, a mob assembled in Peoria and proceeded to demolish several houses of ill-fame and drive their inmates into the streets. No effort was made by police authorities to quell the disturbance; but on the contrary, the Mayor in person appears to have winked at the unlawful proceedings. The mob first proceeded to a house kept by a person named Cleveland, where, after breaking the windows and doors, a fire engine was brought, and the house flooded with water. This drove out the inmates. The mob then entered, carried out the furniture, embracing sofas, pianos, of which there were two very costly ones, chairs, trunks, bedding and every available article, and piling it up, set fire to it and burned it to ashes. The house was completely riddled and sacked, and the property destroyed in this single instance was not less than $5,000.

Eight or ten other houses were treated in a similar manner, regardless of the remonstrances of their owners, who, in some instances, had let them without knowing the character of their tenants. The work of destruction was continued on Sunday night and Monday, and, although by the Mayor’s order, a military company was in reserve, such was the character of the mob and those who countenanced the proceedings, that no opposition to the proceedings was made. The cyprians thus turned into the streets, have, most of them, fled to Chicago.

April 26, 1858

Reprinted from the New York Times archives.

*editors note: it was not my intention to write another prostitution related post; it just happened to be one of the more interesting older articles.

A.P.: “A composite image shows, at right a bonfire which locals believe resembles the silhouette of late Pope John Paul II making a blessing, in a picture taken by amateur photographer Grzegorz Lukasik, atop Matyska mountain in southern Poland, on April 2, 2007, during a vigil marking the second anniversary of the Polish pope’s death. Data on Lukasik’s digital camera says the picture was taken at 21.37:30, exactly the hour when the pope died. Picture at left shows Pope John Paul II waving to faithfuls as he leaves the Vatican, in this Aug. 8, 2001 file photo.”

P.I.: “A composite image shows, at right, a satellite radar image which I believe resembles the silhouette of a cow in an image captured by amateur blogger PeoriaIllinoisan sitting at his computer desk on October 13, 2007. Data on P.I.’s computer shows the image was downloaded at 10.26:43, exactly the hour when a cow flatuated. Picture at left shows the guilty cow.

Have you been following the wild fires? I began watching the reports on Sunday about the fires in Malibu when Castle Kashan was destroyed and have continued following the story by listening to SanDiego’s ‘news and talk’ 600am for the past couple of days. I don’t know the street names or the Mountain ranges that are constantly being bantered about, but it’s still fascinating to listen to firsthand accounts, as only AM radio can bring it. Frequent commenter JW is a recent San Diego transplant and checked in on Peoria.com forums to give us his account of the situation.

Well, it’s hell!

The 3 counties of the tri-county have a population of about 350,000 and cover 4,844 square miles. San Diego county has a population of just over 3,100,000 in 4,526 square miles. If you have ever been here, or looked at a map, you will know that we are closed in on the west by the Pacific Ocean and the south by the Mexican border. To the east are mountains and desert, to the north are Orange and Riverside Counties, both of which also have large fires going.

Imagine going to bed one night knowing there is a small fire outside Edelstein. A friend of yours wakes up the next morning, in their lovely Glasford home, to find that same fire in their backyard.

And the wind is blowing east, toward the city of Peoria, sometimes at a crisp, sustained speed of 70 miles per hour. People in the city of Peoria can smell the smoke. At dusk, the setting sun in the west is a blurry orange ball, if visible at all. You are uneasy knowing that all the fire fighting equipment in the city is out fighting the fires (if the house next door catches fire, as some houses do, you are out of luck).

You, living near Northmoor Road and Sheridan (I threw a wad of gum at a map) start to pack up the important stuff, track down the outdoor cat, wag your finger at the kids that you are “serious” and wonder where the heck you would go, if need be.

Local TV tells you that embers from the fire are as big as basketballs and can travel a mile. Fires break out here and there, just west of the airport, north of the Wildlife Prairie Park, and another within view of the Shoppes at Grand Prairie.

It’s too windy for an air attack, water pressure begins to drop. Fires start to burn large power towers. You are told to conserve power and water and all the schools are closed. By afternoon, officials are urging everybody to not work the next day, to keep the roads clear for emergency vehicles. Bradley students are ordered to stay on campus.

Then the governor comes, gathers every local person ever elected to any office, holds a press conference, only to thank all those present for their hard work. Oh, and the president sends his regards.

You learn that 15% of the people in the county have been evacuated, over 1200 homes and 300 commercial buildings have burned down, 1 is dead, 37 are in the hospital, the winds are not changing and you are told it will take a week to put out the fires now burning.

But…your local professional football team has been evacuated to a nearby state so they can practice for the game this Sunday, which is in your local stadium, which is currently filled with evacuees.

And worse, all the local TV stations repeat the same coverage over and over and over, all night. You don’t get to watch Marie Osmond faint on Dancing With The Stars. Life sucks!

I have to go blow ember residue out of my nose now.

As of this writing Southern California has approximately 950,000 people evacuated, leaving 350,000 homes behind, with 1300 homes destroyed and two dead. Nearly 600 square miles have been burned so far.

In the comments section the Peoria Journal Star’s review of Bob Dylan’s recent concert in Bloomington were some idiotic remarks about him not being particularly talented or influential to other musicians both [here] and [here], so I thought I’d see what some other musicians, influential in their own right, had to say about him:

“For a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and a saw are to a carpenter.” - Tom Waits

“Dylan is so brilliant. To me, he makes William Shakespeare look like Billy Joel.” - George Harrison

“When Another Side of Bob Dylan was released Pete played it endlessly, especially the track ‘All I Really Want To Do.’ Dylan and particularly this track spurred him on with his own song writing.” - Pete Townsend’s roommate Richard Barnes, 1964

“It almost makes me furious sometimes, how good his lyrics are. You know, you aspire to things. I’m trying and trying [to write a song], and I’ll get something and I’ll say, ‘That’s pretty good,’ and then I’ll listen to Blood On the Tracks and think ‘Who the hell am I kidding? What the hell am I talking about?’” - Dave Matthews

“This man can rhyme the tick of time. The edge of pain. The what of sane.” - Johnny Cash

“There’s no concession to the fact that Dylan might be a more sophisticated singer than Whitney Houston, that he’s probably the most sophisticated singer we’ve had in a generation. Nobody is identifying our popular singers like a Matisse or Picasso. Dylan’s a Picasso - that exuberance, range, and assimilation of the whole history of music.” - Leonard Cohen

“I never showed any interest outside of the blues until I heard Bob Dylan.” - Eric Clapton

“Dylan’s an extraordinary man. I don’t know if he’s going to sell, but he has something profound to say.” - John Hammond

“Bob Dylan’s one of the greatest blues singers of the western world; ancient art, on-the-spot improvisation, mind quickness, endless variation, classical formulae, prophetic vision, mighty wind-horse.” - Allen Ginsberg

“That boy’s got a voice. Maybe he won’t make it in his writing, but he can sing it.” - Woodie Guthrie

“If Woody Guthrie set the bar for American songwriters, Bob Dylan jumped right over it. No one I know will ever come close to possessing the beauty of melody and the use of language that Dylan shares with us, with ease.” - John Mellencamp

“When I heard the first album, I thought, ‘Wow, this is terrible.’ Nobody sang like that. After a while, I loved it, but it took a little time.” - Arlo Guthrie

“It began of course with Bob Dylan, and that must have been an incredible time; I think everything that’s happened since then came from that energy.” - Shawn Colvin

“The Basement Tapes was a big influence on me, because again, it was a seamless mixing of all these American musical forms. And they were doin’ it so easily. It was like, ‘Oh, we’re just goofin’ off,’ which is why I think it worked so well.” - Dave Alvin of the Blasters and X.

“The only way to explain his contribution is by playing his songs.” - Eddie Vedder

“After he wrote those images, thousands of young kids scribbling on their pads have tried to duplicate that and nobody’s been able to. He’s influenced every songwriter in rock and roll and folk. And whether or not he was involved in social action or not, he wrote this artillery for us.” - Joan Baez

“I’m an intense Dylan fan… I think Infidels is one of the most remarkably written albums I’ve ever heard.” - Rodney Crowell

“If I had an axe on the evening at Newport when [Dylan] broke out the electric guitar, I’d have cut his cable.” - Pete Seeger

“I always wanted to do in rap what Bob Dylan did for rock, when he picked up the electric guitar and everybody booed him, and yet he just played on, and he broke down that barrier.” - Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC

“He was no longer doing this nasally folk thing. He was screaming his songs through the rafters, and it was like thunder. It was very dynamic, very violent, and very exciting.” - Robbie Robertson

“…You couldn’t help being influenced by Dylan.” - Al Kooper

“Coming from my background of rock and heavy metal and then blues and jazz, I wasn’t really hip to folk music in general. But when I heard ‘Positively 4th Street,’ it totally blew me away. I don’t know if it’s popular, but it’s an amazing song that everyone should know about.” - Kirk Hammett, guitarist for Metallica

“I don’t think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn’t really escape the influence.” - Paul Simon

“Overall, Dylan’s probably my favorite of everyone. The Basement Tapes are something I can’t get enough of and all the unoffical, unreleased basement tapes too. Desire is one of my favorite records of all time.” - Jeff Tweedy of Wilco

“Now 30 years, 38 albums, and almost 500 songs later, Bob Dylan is universally recognized as one of the most powerful creative artists of our time.” - Kris Kristofferson

“Great tunes like ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,’ or ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ for that matter, or ‘Chimes of Freedom,’ taught me a whole lot of what songwriting essentially is about: a three-way marriage of melody, harmonic progression, and lyrics.” - Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead

“Dylan was a revolutionary… the way that Elvis freed your body, Dylan freed your mind.” - Bruce Springsteen

“But there’s still some people I admire and listen to who can’t be ignored. Dylan is the greatest living poet. It was interesting because I’d stopped thinking about the whole music business, making albums. I was quite fed up with it. Then I saw him recently and I thought, ‘Well, here’s somebody who’s still doing it and he’s good.’ It sort of gave me a kick in the ass.” - Van Morrison

I think I put that argument to rest, don’t ya think?

1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
2. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
3. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
4. Tangled Up In Blue
5. ‘Til I Fell In Love With You
6. When The Deal Goes Down
7. The Levee’s Gonna Break
8. Workingman’s Blues #2
9. High Water (For Charlie Patton)
10. Spirit On The Water
11. Highway 61 Revisited
12. Ain’t Talkin’
13. Summer Days
14. Masters Of War
(encore)
15. Thunder On The Mountain
16. All Along The Watchtower

As much as I detest the Disney-like corporate feel of Tanners and Apple Blossom Farm, we visited the corn maze at Apple Blossoms, located on Rte91, again this year. Admission: $5 and $3 for kids under 12.

This years theme was the Wizard of Oz. After the adventure of actually finding the entrance to the maze, you follow a map to find 30 placemakers with trivia questions relating to the topic of the maze. Since the last time we saw the Wizard of Oz was at a Peoria Players Theatre event a few years back, we didn’t do too well on the trivia, but we still had a jolly ol’ time wandering amongst the maze of 8ft tall corn stalks. We only felt like calling ourselves in as missing persons twice, so I think we did pretty well. A compass might be a good addition to our survival kit next year.

My kids already knew that I wasn’t going to pay $5ea to let them play on a glorified playground, but we couldn’t get away without buying some donuts and cider. 6 donuts cost $4 and a half gallon of cider cost $3, so when it was all said and done, I only ended up $21 in the hole… a small victory in my mind.

No apples and no pumpkins. We saved that for next weekend when we’ll make our annual pilgrimage to the Christ Orchard where true old fashioned family fun exists and traffic cops aren’t needed.

As a rule, I try to take my camera with me when I’m driving around town, going to work or taking care of a honey-do, because you never know when a photo-op will appear. I generally never pull it out, but invariably it’s the times that I don’t have it handy is when I really want it. I brought my camera with me recently when I decided to surprise the kids with some Krispy Kremes and happened upon a few things I found curious.

The smiling one eyed alien squawk box:

…and a possible new Krispy Kreme add campaign: “Even fork lift drivers love our donuts!”

1470WMBD:

All-time high quarterly numbers at Caterpillar

Caterpillar is reporting record third quarter sales and revenues and the best ever third quarter profit per share. Caterpillar Friday reported third quarter 2007 sales and revenue of 11.4 billion dollars. Third quarter profit totaled $927-million or $1.40 per share. 2006’s third quarter profit was $10.5 billion, or a $1.14 per share. Caterpillar is expecting 2007 to close out with sales and revenues of about 44 billion dollars and a profit per share in the range of $5.20 to $5.60. Dugan says the company is already turning an optimistic eye toward 2008.

Reuters:

Caterpillar net disappoints; profit forecast cut

Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N: Quote, Profile , Research), the world’s top maker of earth-moving equipment, diesel engines and gas turbines, posted disappointing quarterly earnings on Friday and cut its full-year forecast, sending its shares down 3.5 percent.

Both articles are accurate in their information, but the report from WMBD tells me that they are either cheerleading for Cat, or they didn’t understand exactly what they were reporting as there is no indication of what those numbers actually mean.

On a related note, can someone explain to me why Caterpillar holds their stockholder and analyst meetings in Chicago and not Peoria? I don’t buy the argument that it’s a transportation issue, and there is no lacking of meeting space in town. Cat certainly has the clout to bring the big whig analysts here, so is it that they have the same thing so many Peorians have- a disfunctional view of and attitude towards Peoria?

Peoria Zoo
5:30-8:30 pm
$2/members or $3/nonmembers
Join us at the Peoria Zoo for our annual spook-tacular event meant for all ages. See the Zoo transform into a fun-filled place with games, mazes, and gobs of candy! Costume contest each night at 7:00 pm.

I’ll be there dressed as a blogger, cheetos in hand.

Journal Star:

A Macomb woman who has previously been convicted of felony prostitution in Peoria County was jailed over the weekend for allegedly stealing the McDonough County Democratic Committee’s credit card. Hollibeth Dorner, 27, allegedly stole that card and a personal credit card belonging to McDonough County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Frier on Friday. Police said Dorner was at Frier’s house after the two had been drinking together at a bar. […] She was sentenced to more than a year in prison for a 2005 felony prostitution case in Peoria County.

Moral of the story: If it seems too good to be true, sometimes it is.

Alternate moral of the story: If you wouldn’t bring this girl home to mama, maybe you shouldn’t take her back to your place.

2nd alternate moral of the story: If you’re a young man in a position with a hope of possibly moving up the political chain, you need to be a bit more careful about who you date.

In light of recent accusations of poor service [link] [link] [link] at Bar Louie, and after a recent $150,000 kitchen fire, I found this job listing on CraigsList to be particularly humorous.

Bar Louie is now hiring a Kitchen Manager!

We are looking for an individual w/ the following experience:

1. At least 3 years of restaurant/bar kitchen management experience
2. Strong knowledge of BOH operations
3. Experience w/ ordering and inventory
4. Ability to lead and motivate a team
5. Excellent commmunication skills
6. Experience working all stations in a kitchen

Interested applicants please send resumes to restaurantresumes@comcast.net with salary history

Apparently having “Excellent commmunication skills” doesn’t include knowing how to spell the word communication.

Hat tip: Chef Kevin

“The Bombay Company said it will liquidate all its U.S. stores but keep the Canadian units open under an auction deal that seeks bankruptcy court approval this week. Bombay said it will submit the agreement for U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval early this week and expects to begin store closings this week, too.” [source]

The Bombay Company has a store at Grand Prairie which I am certain I have never stepped foot in.