{"id":7559,"date":"2014-07-03T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=7559"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:46:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:46:43","slug":"ebert-now-parked-on-park-ave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=7559","title":{"rendered":"Ebert now parked on Park Ave."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Champaign Park District<\/strong> and the Virginia Theatre<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> further cement their investment in all things Roger Ebert<\/strong> later today when a formal dedication is held to introduce Bloomington, Illinois<\/strong>, artist Rick Harney<\/strong>\u2019s life-size bronze sculpture of the late Chicago Sun-Times<\/strong><\/span> film critic, now permanently installed out front of the venue that hosts Roger Ebert\u2019s Film Festival<\/strong>. The ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m.<\/strong> this afternoon, Thursday, July 3<\/strong>, as part of the Virginia\u2019s \u201cIce Cream & Independence<\/strong>\u201d Americana music concert and social event, according to The<\/strong> News-Gazette<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>. Unlike its temporary display back in April during \u201cEbertfest<\/strong>,\u201d the depiction of a thumbs-up Ebert sitting in the middle of three theater seats will rest on the northeast corner of the Virginia property, facing the intersection of Park Avenue<\/strong> and Randolph Street<\/strong>. Plaques noting Ebert as well as upper-level donors to the statue will also be unveiled.<\/p>\n

Attending will be Harney, sculpture project coordinator Scott Anderson<\/strong>, and Chaz Ebert<\/strong>, who has been touring non-stop lately to promote the Ebert documentary LIFE ITSELF<\/strong> with its director, Steve James<\/strong>. As the world is wowed by his filmed life story at high-profile screenings and festivals, and distributor Magnolia Pictures<\/strong> prepares to release it commercially<\/span><\/a><\/span> beginning tomorrow, Friday, July 4<\/strong>, the home front opportunities to watch LIFE ITSELF<\/strong> continue to multiply. In addition to the Art Theater Co-op<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span>\u2019s run starting next Friday, July 11<\/strong>, the Virginia has booked its own run from Monday, July 28<\/strong>, to Thursday, August 1<\/strong>, as listed in their just-released 2014-2015 season schedule<\/span><\/a><\/span>. No word yet as to whether other nearby theaters will play it, but<\/em> \u2013 do we really<\/em> have to vocalize this, dearest readers? \u2013 it would be best karma to spend your hard-earned dollars at our locally-owned cinemas to see this particular film.<\/p>\n

We offer a word of caution to everyone, however, in advance of the seventeenth Ebertfest coming April 15-19, 2015<\/strong>, also confirmed by the Virginia announcement. Pankoke<\/strong> don\u2019t selfie, or otherwise photograph, with $115,000 renditions of the recently deceased. Thanks.<\/p>\n

~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n

p.s.<\/em> Look for our Ebertfest 2014 review series to begin appearing on C-U Blogfidential<\/strong> next week! We\u2019ll launch the set with Brian Paris<\/strong>\u2019 impressions of LIFE ITSELF<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Ebert’s likeness will become a permanent fixture outside the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign as of today. Isn’t our community all the richer for it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,30],"tags":[1261,1072,1262,1703,564],"class_list":["post-7559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-events","category-roger-ebert","tag-champaign-park-district","tag-chaz-ebert","tag-rick-harney","tag-roger-ebert","tag-the-virginia-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}