Web site will knock your Sox off
Witness the new Web site that has "mysteriously" come to life at www.thesouthsidechicagoboardoftourism.com. It appears to be a site hoping to boost tourism in our fair city's southern sector.
But the Web site is not the brainchild of the fictitious Southside Chicago Board of Tourism, but rather the creative department at Two by Four/Chicago, which also happens to be the agency of record for the Chicago White Sox, which also happens to play all its home games at U.S. Cellular Field on the South Side.
The tongue-in-cheek Web site is really aimed directly at all those snooty North Siders and suburbanites who, until the White Sox suddenly became a winning team and world champions, wouldn't have dared visit the South Side. The new site addresses all the fears and concerns of those remaining holdouts who still might not be brave enough to make the trek southto see the White Sox play. Or whatever.
We especially liked the transportation link at the site, which attempts to address "Dave in Lincoln Park's" concern about how to get to the South Side. The unexpected answer to Dave's question involves deciduous trees and moss, but we'll let you have the pleasure of reading it for yourself, along with the rest of the material in other links devoted to dining, technology, unique sights. And more!
We especially liked the transportation link at the site, which attempts to address "Dave in Lincoln Park's" concern about how to get to the South Side. The unexpected answer to Dave's question involves deciduous trees and moss, but we'll let you have the pleasure of reading it for yourself, along with the rest of the material in other links devoted to dining, technology, unique sights. And more!
We've heard from some folks who saw the Chicago video, which we graded with a "D+" vs. the "A-" we gave to the L.A. effort (Media Mix, March 7). And readers responded. Herewith are "dueling letters" on the matter:
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Your "No Gold Medal for Chicago Olympic Film" is stupefying. Let me see if I get this straight. You're saying L.A., the "movie capital of the world," put together a "super-slick, high-energy, emotionally charged and thematically focused film"?
Are you stupid or something? Of course L.A. put together a "slick" presentation. If they did not, that would be worthy of nothing. But movies are not what the Movement is about. It is about people. It is the interaction of peoples and their culture, tradition and customs in the common language of sport. The Movement is not trying to sell some "slick" veneer of what we are not.
We want peoples from all over the world to come and visit Chicago, warts and all, in our heartland. They need to see and experience firsthand how "The City That Works" works. They need to see the things we've done right and the things we've done wrong and build upon them. Frank's View of "Lew's View" of promotional videos? "F"
Frank Madeka
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Your article regarding Chicago's Olympic film was spot on! I saw the film, and it was a big "snooze fest."
I can only imagine what the United States Olympic Committee thought of the film after just seeing the high-energy and super-slick film that Los Angeles submitted. Knowing that we were competing against L.A., we should have pulled out our own local star power.
For one thing, I would have had Oprah Winfrey narrating the film, and I would have absolutely had Michael Jordan somewhere in the film.
The filmmaker should have found out who shot the film they show to tourists in the Sears Tower Sky Deck tour. That film makes Chicago look like a high-speed big city from every angle.
I couldn't have said it any better than you that the film shows Chicago as a "nice town." YAWN!!!! Chicago is a world-class city. Why wasn't the city spotlighted that way? We are not Des Moines. We do not need to constantly try to portray Chicago as some nice, middle American town. It's not!
Enough with the warm, fuzzy, Midwestern, "down home" nonsense!
When we start acting like Chicago is a world-class international city, we'll have a chance of hosting the Olympics. Until then, the Olympics will be held in Los Angeles for a third time.
J. Bury