• Pubcasting is not happy with the FCC’s spectrum auction report, with three of the system’s major organizations saying June 6 that the new rules violate the Public Broadcasting Act. “We are obliged to express our profound disappointment that the Commission has rejected one of public television’s most important policy goals in the auction process — our request that the Commission ensure that no community find itself without free access to public television service in the aftermath of the auction,” read a joint statement from the presidents of the Association for Public Television Stations, CPB and PBS.
This year’s “Bob Ross Bar Crawl,” honoring the pubcasting icon, is set for September in Chicago. (Photo: Bob Ross Inc.)
• The second annual “Bob Ross Bar Crawl” will take place Sept. 30 in Chicago. Ross fan Jimmy Barrett got the idea for the event after holding a Halloween party in which two of his friends coincidentally both dressed as the Joy of Painting star. Attendees will ride a rented trolley around Chicago’s North Side, decked out in beards and Afro wigs, according to DNAInfo Chicago. Last year’s crawl drew 28 attendees.
“It’s a pretty silly thing, in the end,” Barrett told the site. “Basically, it’s a bunch of people who dress up like Bob Ross, have some drinks and have a good time. It’s almost like a little Bob Ross parade.”
• Vice reporter Angelina Fanous was starstruck when she met Cookie Monster at a Sesame Street gala. She interviewed him while drunk and tried to get him to pick a favorite between Chicago and New York–style pizza. “Me love Chicago pizza — and me love New York pizza. You not edit that,” he said. (Cookie also had no idea what Vice was, not unlike Bill Buzenberg.)