Sept. 25--Even before Spike Lee came along with "Chi-raq," the presence of the term "Chi-Town" on a billboard (usually preceded by "Hey") meant one thing: An out-of-towner wrote the copy.
Who has not cringed at some Madison Avenue genius trying to get all hip and personal and conversational to hawk rollover minutes? Or sighed as a Los Angeles-based comedian tries to get all local? "Hey, Windy City" is probably worse, and no less common. Both are classic examples of forced intimacy that rings hollow.
So a note of justifiable cynicism greeted the recent announcement that Chicago is to be granted a New Year's Eve extravaganza with the name "Chi-Town Rising," a moniker that not only rolls out the dreaded "Chi-Town" but couples it with a note of forced positivism that makes the thing sound like a youth basketball league. One can imagine the developmental conversations among the hotel executives looking to fill their rooms: "New York has a ball dropping in Times Square. That's a downer. And we can't copy that! How about we have a star rising instead? That's upbeat. That's Chi-Town."
And let us not forget the full title of this new event: "Corona Extra Presents Chi-Town Rising Hosted by Hyatt Gold Passport." A name that makes it look as if Studs Terkel himself came up with "Taste of Chicago."
Ah, the promotional mind, forgetting that the first job for any new civic celebration is to make it feel organic to the city, to reflect its complexity, to offer ownership.
No doubt those hotel executives looked out at Redmoon's not-so-Great Chicago Fire Festival of 2014, which sputtered and fizzled but, in so doing, revealed something new about the city that had largely gone unnoticed: The rising banks of the Chicago River between Columbus Avenue and LaSalle Street provide a stunning natural amphitheater and a gorgeous rectangular gathering place that can hold tens of thousands of people without shoving everyone into some defined festival space, surrounded by gates and fences. It is an asset that went largely unnoticed because the river is not one place, owned by one entity.
Especially given the improvements this year within the privately owned (but brilliantly programmed) Pioneer Court plaza (soon to be the home of that great new gathering place known as the Apple Store) and the fine additions to the Riverwalk, Chicago now has a natural home for civic events that gives us all goose bumps.
I should speak for myself: The lights, the buildings, the bridges, the watery reflections, the good-hearted people, the sense of the city of hard work on pause, collectively gave me shivers last year as I waited for the fire to start (alas, a forlorn wait). Redmoon, which would never have used a phrase like "Chi-Town Rising," was definitely on to something with that locale. Crucially, you could find your own intimate spot (or, at least, a spot that seemed intimate) to watch, making this a whole different experience from standing in a park or a field.
I'd argue that Pioneer Court is the closest thing we have now to Times Square, the undeniable center of New York and the longtime home of that other city's New Year's Eve event. But Times Square really has become polluted by tip-seeking Naked Cowboys, branches of Applebee's and the plethora of hucksters in faux-Disney attire. Times Square will always be Times Square, but the banks of the Chicago River kill Midtown when it comes to providing a backdrop.
Redmoon's festival retreated to Northerly Island this year -- a shame, in that this company was certainly trying to do something organic and draw from the city's sorrows as well as its joys. ("Chi-Town Rising" won't be so big on the sorrows, I'll wager.)
But huge events require operational prowess and corporate budgets and come with all the associated pressures to perform. Assuming the weather cooperates -- and that is one heck of an assumption -- "Chi-Town Rising" likely will go off with efficiency and might be a fun way to end the year. Even for people at home, it surely will feel more meaningful to watch celebrants cooing over the skyline and river than knocking back another cocktail inside the Navy Pier Ballroom. WLS-Ch. 7 will have to raise its game from inside that ballroom in the face of new competition from "Chi-Town Rising" broadcast partner WMAQ-Ch. 5, which might be able to stick a chopper in the air (weather permitting) and make us feel as if we're watching Sydney Harbour.
Maybe the lessons learned by the producers of "Chi-Town Rising" (John Murray's Arena Partners) can be imparted to others; there's no reason to reserve this spot for when it's likely too frigid to stay outdoors. Sure, the hotels want business in their bleak period, and fair enough. Over at the massive Hyatt Regency Chicago, they surely know that the rise of Chi-Town will be visible from the rooms, where couples from Des Moines or Kalamazoo might frolic with costly Champagne, all sexy and toasty in the rockets' red glare, peering out at the star's rise, linked through time to the revelers at the old Levee pleasure district, where they never thought to offer a decent frequent-guest program. (Maybe they did. Just of a different kind).
"Chi-Town Rising" has been devised with tourists in mind. But the banks of the river in summer and fall also make a wonderful place for working Chicagoans to be.
Not many of us feel we're rising. But we do like to commune with the beauty of our home. And one another.
Just ask Nik Wallenda. He made himself -- and the city -- look pretty good last year. He didn't need to rise, much. Just not fall like that Times Square ball. In Chicago, he just prayed to the heavens and plowed his way straight across.
cjones5@tribune.com
