In the Loop

Piece Pizza is being sued for unauthorized performance of songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer and Willie Nelson at a karaoke night last year. We discuss music performance licenses -- and whether your local business needs one.

Abraham Lincoln has inspired 5 generations of politicians, scholars, and regular folks. But did you know he inspired legions of composers and musicians? Roosevelt University music professor Thomas Kernan has logged more than 1,000 pieces dedicated to America’s 16th president, and he’s still searching for more. Tom Kernan joins us to share more about the project.

From a public display of being blasted with a firehose, to his earlier work that invited the general population to step right on top of the American flag, Dread Scott has been deemed a controversial artist. This New York based artist definitely made his mark on Chicago. Scott stops by to talk about his work, the way it relates to social issues and how he’s using it to spark change. (Flickr/Jason Marck)

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art seems to be one step closer to not being built in Chicago. Court proceedings this week reveal that the officials behind the attraction are considering other cities and sites for the project. We discuss. And is drug addiction covered in the media and looked at differently depending on the community? Is structural racism a factor? According to Kassandra Frederique, “Blacks and Latinos stand by, watching as public health officials rush to bring an abundance of resources in to help predominantly white communities.” When you break out the new album from the Minneapolis-based band The Pines, you’re transported to a place that’s chilly and wind-swept. They join us to talk about their new album and play a few songs.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art seems to be one step closer to NOT being built in Chicago. Court proceedings this week reveal that the officials behind the attraction are considering other cities and sites for the project. Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin joins us to talk us through the latest developments in this story and to take listeners calls about whether they’d like to see the museum stay or go.

Is drug addiction covered in the media and looked at differently depending on the community? Is structural racism a factor? According to Kassandra Frederique, “Blacks and Latinos stand by, watching as public health officials rush to bring an abundance of resources in to help predominantly white communities.” Frederique and Professor David Tuller of UC-Berkeley discuss race and the war on drugs.

When you break out the new album from the Minneapolis-based band The Pines, you’re transported to a place that’s chilly, wind-swept. If you close your eyes, you’ll see vast, flat expanses of land, and long rows of barbed-wire fences, with only the occasional tree or farm house popping up to break the horizon. The album is called Above the Prairie, and it’s the first from The Pines in 4 years. The recording was a bit of a family affair. We find out about that and hear the music they played live in our Jim & Kay Mabie studio.

This week, Reclaimed Soul’s Ayana Contreras brings us some of her favorite new acquisitions, and the stories behind them.

L.A. Reid is behind some of the biggest names in R&B and rap -TLC, Toni Braxton, Outkast. Those were acts that Reid and his partner Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds put out on their label LaFace Records. L.A. Reid chronicles that time, and those artists, in his new book 'Sing to Me: My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who’s Next'. He joins us to talk about the book, and he shares some memories of coming up in the music business. (Flickr/Jason Marck)

Research shows that imaginative social play and getting outside are key components to a good learning environment for preschoolers. At Chicago’s only “forest playschool,” nature is literally the classroom. Kids spend the entire day outside in the woods and a prairie, and the focus is on collaboration, not competition. We talk with Teresa Weed, the director of the program at the North Park Village Nature Center.