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Ravinia District Highland Park: Thursday night Food Truck line-up for 2021on June 14, 2021 at 4:30 pm

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Ravinia District Highland Park: Thursday night Food Truck line-up for 2021

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Ravinia District Highland Park: Thursday night Food Truck line-up for 2021on June 14, 2021 at 4:30 pm Read More »

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova moves up in WTA rankingson June 14, 2021 at 3:24 pm

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova’s twin titles at Roland Garros earned jumps in the WTA rankings to No. 15 in singles and No. 1 in doubles.

The women’s and men’s rankings released Monday determine which players are eligible to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, which start next month. Each country can send as many as four women and four men in singles, and 17-year-old Coco Gauff rose two spots to a career-best No. 23, which makes her the fourth-highest woman from the United States.

Gauff is behind No. 5 Sofia Kenin, No 8 Serena Williams and No. 14 Jennifer Brady. Jessica Pegula is No. 26, with Madison Keys at No. 28.

The WTA Top 10 didn’t change, including Ash Barty at No. 1 and Naomi Osaka at No. 2.

Novak Djokovic remained at No. 1 in the ATP rankings after claiming his second French Open title — and 19th at a major tournament — by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in Sunday’s final.

Tsitsipas went up one spot to No. 4, his best, swapping places with 2020 U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem.

Daniil Medvedev stayed at No. 2, followed by Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer is No. 8.

Roberto Bautista Agut rejoined the Top 10 by rising one notch from 11th; Diego Schwartzman slid from 10th to 11th.

Krejcikova, a 25-year-old from the Czech Republic, is the first woman since Mary Pierce in 2000 to win both singles and doubles trophies in Paris.

Krejcikova rose 18 spots from 33rd in singles to a career high after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in Saturday’s final for her first Grand Slam singles title. In doubles, she went from No. 7 to return to the top spot, which she first occupied in October 2018, after teaming with Katerina Siniakova to defeat Iga Swiatek and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday for their third major championship as a duo.

The unseeded Krejcikova was participating in only her fifth main draw at any Grand Slam tournament in singles; she’d once been as far as the fourth round previously. But she eliminated a string of seeded players, including Gauff, Pavlyuchenkova, Elina Svitolina and Maria Sakkari.

Pavlyuchenkova’s first appearance in a major final — she had been 0-6 in quarterfinals previously — allowed her to go from No. 32 to No. 19.

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French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova moves up in WTA rankingson June 14, 2021 at 3:24 pm Read More »

Fire at Rockton chemical plant forces evacuation of nearby residentson June 14, 2021 at 3:39 pm

Authorities have ordered a mandatory evacuation of residents within a mile of a massive fire at a chemical plant Monday morning in Rockton, a suburb 10 miles north of Rockford.

The fire happened at Chemtool Inc., 1165 Prairie Hill Road, police said in an alert to residents.

There was no immediate word of injuries.

“Rockton Fire has ordered a mandatory evacuation for area south of Chemtool due to an industrial fire. This notice affects all residents and business south of Chemtool on Prairie Hill Road. Traffic is advised to avoid area,” the alert states.

Evacuated residents were advised to go to Stephen Mack Middle School.

Rockton-based Chemtool Inc. manufactures greases and industrial fluids, and has a plant in Chrystal Lake in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

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Fire at Rockton chemical plant forces evacuation of nearby residentson June 14, 2021 at 3:39 pm Read More »

GGTB A Chicago White Sox Podcast – Episode 106 – Next Man UpNick Bon June 14, 2021 at 2:39 pm

The White Sox are rolling after a sweep of the floundering Tigers. This is what all Sox fans have been waiting a long time for! Enjoy the ride with the Good Guys Talk Back crew!

The post GGTB A Chicago White Sox Podcast – Episode 106 – Next Man Up first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More

GGTB A Chicago White Sox Podcast – Episode 106 – Next Man UpNick Bon June 14, 2021 at 2:39 pm Read More »

Chicago Bears: 5 breakout candidates who could be cut too earlyRyan Heckmanon June 14, 2021 at 2:28 pm

The Chicago Bears have a sneaky good chance of being a contender this upcoming season. Most of the national media may not believe it, but if a few things go right, these Bears could be right back in the thick of the NFC contenders. Of course, the biggest factor in all of this is when […]

Chicago Bears: 5 breakout candidates who could be cut too early – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & More

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Chicago Bears: 5 breakout candidates who could be cut too earlyRyan Heckmanon June 14, 2021 at 2:28 pm Read More »

Rachel Baiman reflects on the ‘Cycles’ of life in latest releaseMary Houlihan – For the Sun-Timeson June 14, 2021 at 1:30 pm

Rachel Baiman grew up in Oak Park and attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, and while she performed with various school orchestras, fiddle music was her first love.
Rachel Baiman grew up in Oak Park and attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, and while she performed with various school orchestras, fiddle music was her first love. | Gina Binkley

The new songs on “Cycles,” are still folk-tinged but also show Baiman expanding her songwriting and instrumentation.

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Rachel Baiman had finished recording the songs for her new album, “Cycles,” and was in the process of mixing and mastering when everything came to a stop due to the pandemic and she hopped on the “emotional rollercoaster” like every other musician.

“It was so hard not knowing what was going to happen,” Baiman recalls. “But it did give me the freedom to play with the album for awhile because there was no hard deadline to get it out. Everything was up in the air.”

As things now get back to normal, Baiman and band return to the road to celebrate the release of “Cycles” (due out June 11) at a free outdoor show at FitzGerald’s on June 19. She’ll perform with Jacob Groopman (guitar), Miss Tess (bass) and Lauren Horbal (drums).

“Cycles” is a collection of songs, co-produced with Olivia Hally (the front woman for the indie-pop band Oh Pep!), that reflect on the cycles of life — at times heartbreaking, at times celebratory.

“There were all these cyclical themes that I was seeing in the songs — the loss of a child, remembering my late grandmother, the cycles of racism and progression,” Baiman says.

As compared to her first solo album, 2017’s “Shame,” which was a siren call to the American female experience, she notes, “Now I feel I have more of a zoomed out view of a lot of things after the past few years which have been so intense in this country.”

“Now I feel I have more of a zoomed out view of a lot of things after the past few years which have been so intense in this country,” says musician/songwriter Rachel Baiman.
Natia Cinco
“Now I feel I have more of a zoomed out view of a lot of things after the past few years which have been so intense in this country,” says musician/songwriter Rachel Baiman.

Baiman grew up in Oak Park and attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, and while she performed with various school orchestras, fiddle music was her first love. From a young age, she took lessons with Mike Casey, one of the founders of the Oak Park Farmer’s Market bluegrass circle that gathered on Saturday mornings to entertain shoppers.

“Mike was a great teacher and invited me to join in the bluegrass circle,” Baiman says. “It was a pretty funny scene. Mainly it was 12-year-old playing with a group of much older men and a few women. But they were all really sweet, and everyone helped me learn the basics of playing in an informal folk ensemble.”

Baiman attended Nashville’s Vanderbilt University where she studied anthropology: “I know it’s a little bit random but I think it actually helps my songwriting in terms of the perspective it has afforded me of humanity,”

Still deeply interested in music, she soon realized how close she was to the Nashville music scene yet so far away. Underage and without a car, she spent most of her time in the “Vanderbilt bubble.”

“I knew that there was all this music going on around town and I was so frustrated because I couldn’t access it,” she says. But then she spent a semester in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she was of age at 20 and the city’s music scene welcomed her with open arms.

“I was going to pubs and playing fiddle and meeting all these cool musicians. When I got back to Nashville, I told myself ‘If I can find a music scene in a foreign country, I can do it here’.”

Since then, Baiman, 31, has settled into the Nashville scene just fine: first as a fiddle player and instrumentalist (she is known in the bluegrass and old time world as a member of 10 String Symphony along with fellow fiddle player Christian Sedelmyer) and more recently as a singer-songwriter inspired by the thriving songwriter scene in Nashville.

Baiman says it was listening to the music of John Hartford that first inspired her to try her hand at songwriting.

“That was the bridge for me between old-time fiddle playing and songwriting,” she says. “I realized a song didn’t have to be technically perfect for it to be beautiful and impactful.”

As she dove deeper into songwriting, her devotion to the fiddle turned out “to not be a priority. It was like a pendulum swinging the other way.” The new songs on “Cycles,” are still folk-tinged but also show Baiman expanding her songwriting and instrumentation.

“I really enjoy the freedom to make musical decisions without worrying how it could work on fiddle,” Baiman explains. “There came a point when I just wanted to be able to think about the art I wanted to create and the craft (her fiddle) became secondary.

“It took me a while to come to that realization and now I feel really comfortable just moving between whatever instrumentation feels right for the song.”

And that aforementioned “emotional rollercoaster” of the past year is about to come to a screeching halt.

“To be on the road again after so much time is going to be an amazing feeling,” Baiman says. “I’ve been sitting on this project that I’m so proud of for so long. It’s going to feel great to finally perform the songs live before a hometown audience.”

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Rachel Baiman reflects on the ‘Cycles’ of life in latest releaseMary Houlihan – For the Sun-Timeson June 14, 2021 at 1:30 pm Read More »