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Second straight loss spirals Salukis down eight slots in national rankingson March 29, 2021 at 4:09 pm

Prairie State Pigskin

Second straight loss spirals Salukis down eight slots in national rankings

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Second straight loss spirals Salukis down eight slots in national rankingson March 29, 2021 at 4:09 pm Read More »

Coincidental Conversation about Codependency (and more) with Ross Rosenbergon March 29, 2021 at 7:46 pm

Where Are We Going So Fast?

Coincidental Conversation about Codependency (and more) with Ross Rosenberg

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Coincidental Conversation about Codependency (and more) with Ross Rosenbergon March 29, 2021 at 7:46 pm Read More »

90 years ago, Knute Rockne’s death in a plane crash shocked America and changed aviationon March 29, 2021 at 6:26 pm

In March of 1931, Knute Rockne was riding high. The 43-year-old product of Chicago’s Northwest Division High School and former mail clerk at the Chicago Post Office had become one of the most prominent Americans of his time.

For 13 seasons, his University of Notre Dame football teams won with stunning regularity, earning three consensus national championships, including those of 1929 and 1930. The Fighting Irish owned a 19-game winning streak.

Rockne was in constant demand as a speaker. He traveled to consult with others in athletics and business, and spent weeks each summer conducting “coaching schools” on college campuses nationwide, from Williamsburg, Va., to Corvallis, Ore. The Studebaker Corp. of South Bend had hired Rockne as vice president of sales promotion, and he traveled the country in football’s off-season to rally the carmaker’s sales force.

Legendary Notre Dame University football coach Knute Rockne

In late March, Rockne was headed out to Los Angeles with a multi-purpose schedule. He was going to meet with film studios about a proposed picture celebrating Notre Dame football. There were speaking engagements, including a joint appearance with his great friend Will Rogers. Rockne would represent Chicago’s Wilson Sporting Goods at a store opening; and meet with some Studebaker dealers.

On the evening of March 30, he stopped at his mother’s place in Logan Square to help celebrate her birthday, then boarded a night train for Kansas City. From there, he would fly to Los Angeles.

Rockne knew that the rapid development of air travel in the 1920s had been fraught with danger and conflict. Aviation pioneers and stunt pilots straddled the line between testing the limits of the new technology … and death. And already, there was significant tension between the federal government’s dual roles — promoting air travel and ensuring its safety.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Anthony Fokker had become one of the best-known names in early aviation, rising to prominence as a builder of biplanes used extensively by Germany in the Great War. But reluctance to invest in research and development led to his struggles with quality control throughout his career. Flaws in both design and workmanship were traced to Fokker’s apparent insistence on using the cheapest materials and methods.

When Fokker set up shop in the United States, his F-10 tri-motor plane drew the attention of government officials; they were concerned about not being able to inspect the internal structure of the wings because it would involve removing the plywood covering and damaging the craft. The U.S. Navy tested the F-10A, found it unstable and rejected it. However, it still found a place in early commercial aviation.

On the morning of March 31, Rockne and seven other men flew out of the Kansas City Municipal Airport aboard Transcontinental & Western Airlines flight 5. The Fokker F-10A had been inspected a few days earlier by a TWA mechanic who later noted that “the (plywood) wing panels were all loose… and it would take them days to fix it, and I said the airplane wasn’t fit to fly and I wouldn’t sign the log. Nobody was safe in that airplane.”

Off it went anyway, but to reach its first stop at Wichita, Flight 5 would have to penetrate a sharp cold front — and thick clouds, fog, ice and low ceilings. An hour into the flight, its pilots radioed Wichita that “the weather here is getting tough. We’re going to turn around and go back to Kansas City.” But the Wichita station encouraged the flight to continue as planned.

The pilots responded: “It’s getting tighter … It looks pretty bad.” The flight had drifted off course, requiring navigation via the “Old Iron Compass” — the railroad track 300 feet below. A deadly situation was developing; the clouds were almost touching the hilltops. Once the crests disappeared, the Fokker would be trapped and the option of climbing to at least temporary safety forfeited, since to do so would involve a good probability of crashing into the hidden higher ground. They were being squeezed between the ground and the clouds. The failure of instruments due to icing compounded the danger.

Deprived of key references, the disoriented pilots would have been unable to keep the airliner from entering a spiral dive. The Fokker was now out of control, nose down and accelerating. When screaming engines and runaway tachometer readings alerted the pilots to their predicament, they would have pulled the throttles right back, producing the backfiring heard on the ground seconds before the plane crashed in a pasture. All eight aboard died instantly.

Local people pose with a severed wing of the plane in which Knute Rockne crashed and died, in Chase County, Kansas.
Courtesy of Knute Rockne Memorial Society

Newspaper headlines nationwide screamed, “Rockne Killed in Air Crash.” For the first time, an airline accident claimed the life of a prominent American. The public was outraged and wanted answers that weren’t immediately forthcoming. The crash site had been unsecured for hours and became a haven for souvenir collectors. In the ensuing days, the Aeronautics Branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued conflicting statements about a possible cause. Finally, crash investigators focused on deterioration of the wooden wing spar, finding evidence of delamination and failed joints. One wing had completely separated from the plane.

Rockne’s crash had an immediate and lasting effect on aviation. It was said the industry could not have had worse publicity had the victim been the president of the United States himself. All F-10s and F-10As were barred from carrying passengers until they were thoroughly inspected. The American market for Fokker’s wooden-winged planes was immediately and permanently gone. Even the all-metal Ford Trimotors were doomed, due to their resemblance to the “plane that killed Rockne.”

The Rockne crash eventually led to the design and manufacture of the Douglas DC-2, the first airliner built using all-metal, stressed-skin construction, and a host of other innovations. It, along with the DC-3, provided the safety and comfort, combined with economy, that allowed the swift expansion of the worldwide passenger airline industry as we know it today.

The role of government in requiring safer planes also took off. Spurred by the crash of March 31, 1931, the Aeronautics Branch took on greater duties in certifying aircraft and regulating the industry, and in 1934 was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce to reflect its enhanced status within the Commerce Department. Eventually it became today’s Federal Aviation Administration.

It took the crash that killed Rockne, and another four years later that claimed Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post, to create a much more vigorous role for the federal government in airline regulation, aircraft safety and crash site security, investigation and reporting.

Today, 90 years later, we reap the benefits that came out of tragedy.

Jim Lefebvre is the author of the national award-winning biography “Coach For A Nation: The Life and Times of Knute Rockne” and executive director of the Knute Rockne Memorial Society (www.RockneSociety.org).

Send letters to [email protected].

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90 years ago, Knute Rockne’s death in a plane crash shocked America and changed aviationon March 29, 2021 at 6:26 pm Read More »

Spanish-speaking social media spreads COVID-19 vaccine disinformationon March 29, 2021 at 6:15 pm

It took Maria Teresa Kumar weeks to find out why her mom wouldn’t take a COVID-19 vaccine and to convince her it is safe.

Kumar’s mother, a Colombian-American woman who runs a small elder-care facility in Northern California, received a video on WhatsApp featuring a speaker who claimed to be a pharmacist. In Spanish, the speaker warned viewers not to get the shot, because it was a “new technology never introduced into humans before.”

It was one of several alarming videos her mother shared with her, all laced with unbacked, fear-mongering claims surrounding COVID-19 vaccines.

Disinformation has been circulating on social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Experts worry it’s targeting people of color most vulnerable to the illness, contributing to vaccine hesitancy and fueling mistrust.

“It took me seven weeks to convince my mother to take the vaccine. And she’s in the health care profession,” said Kumar, head of civic engagement group Voto Latino. “She was embarrassed to tell me why. So, I think deep down she knew something was off, but she didn’t know how to explain it to me.”

According to a recent survey by Voto Latino, almost 73% of Latino people surveyed knew someone who had COVID-19, and a third knew someone who died of the illness.

Despite that, just shy of half — 47%– said they were reticent about getting the shot. Around a quarter said they would not take it at all.

“It’s a huge number,” Kumar said in a recent online panel discussion about the topic. “Of the 47%, you had a good 23% that said ‘maybe I’ll take it.’ The other part is going to be a lot harder.”

About the videos, she added, “It was also with undertones of ‘you can’t trust the government,’ ‘the government is not on your side,'” – sentiments that only fuel mistrust already planted by government-backed medical abuses on Black, Latino and Native American people.

Hector Alcala, a public health professor at Stony Brook University, echoed Kumar’s experiences.

His mother also received a concerning video she saw on Facebook. In it, a Spanish-speaking person who claimed to be a medical professional said the vaccine was being developed too quickly and cautioned the shot would cause a slew of diseases.

“I had to tell her this isn’t true, this isn’t vetted,” said Alcala, who specializes in family, community and population health. “I had to be proactive with my own family.”

Though Facebook has said in company statements it will work to fight disinformation pervading its platform in Spanish, advocates say damage has been done. They say Facebook’s Spanish fact-checking system pales in comparison to English.

Dani Lever, a Facebook spokeswoman, wrote in a statement that the platform is “labeling all content that discusses the vaccines, including Spanish-language content.” She added that Facebook offers vaccine information in “dozens” of languages and is limiting frequently forwarded messages on WhatsApp.

“We also understand that a key part of getting accurate information out is working with communities, which is why we’re providing free ads to health organizations to promote reliable information about COVID-19 vaccines,” Lever wrote.

“When you introduce that targeted social media into communities like African Americans who have natural mistrust, where the ground is fertile to receive that information, those weeds take root and grow like wildfire if there is no opposition, if there is no one uprooting the weeds,” Dr. Melissa Clarke, an emergency medicine doctor and population health expert said in another ‘infodemic’ webinar hosted by the Center for Health Journalism. Clarke is co-founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID-19.

Adding to the insidiousness of the issue, Clarke said “the best misinformation has grains of truth in it.”

History, disinformation create ‘perfect storm’ for low vaccination rates

History’s medical abuses — the Tuskegee syphilis study that withheld treatment from Black men, or coerced sterilizations of Black, Latina and Native American women — don’t help to cultivate trust.

“If you’re trying to say, ‘trust us’ – you have to have earned that trust,” Clarke said. “And unfortunately we don’t have a history in this country of earning the trust of the African-American community.”

But, Clarke noted, contemporary health care inequalities experienced by people of color also fuel vulnerability to disinformation. Studies show Black patients receive fewer referrals for life-saving treatments, such as heart catherization for heart disease, treating pain or kidney dialysis.

“That happens unequally for African-American and Latino patients – very well documented in the medical literature,” Clarke said. “A lot of times, because of those health care disparities … African-Americans don’t have a relationship with a provider that they can go to to get their questions answered. In that information gap, they’re more than likely going to turn to somebody who they do trust who might be heavily influenced by social media – and therefore, you get misinformation spreading.”

Alcala’s mother received her first vaccine dose, and her son’s expertise quelled her fears. Still, others don’t have such access.

“Right now, the main concern in terms of people of color not getting the vaccine is more an issue of access. But yes, the issue of vaccine hesitancy will become more salient and important over time and we can be proactive to address it,” Alcala said.

Alcala said “barriers combined with misinformation can create the perfect storm” for low vaccination rates.

“Ultimately what determines whether or not we get the vaccine isn’t going to be a single factor,” Alcala said. “If you think about, I’m potentially a person who is seeing misinformation online. I want to get the vaccine, but in the context of still seeing this information, I go online, find that it’s a little cumbersome and then think, ‘Well, oh well -I’m also hearing that this vaccine might actually be harmful.'”

How ‘hyperlocal’ messaging campaigns can combat COVID-19 vaccine lies

A USA TODAY-Network analysis found COVID-19 vaccination rates among Latinos lagging in Texas, particularly in the state capital of Austin.

But experts like Clarke also agree that polls shoulddisaggregate by national origin. For example, an immigrant from Ethiopia or Nigeria may not be swayed by the same lever as a Black person who is not an immigrant.

She referenced a study by George Washington University and the department of health in Washington, D.C., which has the largest Ethiopian immigrant population in the country. The study showed the population’s largest concern about the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t vaccination itself or the nation’s history of abuses, but the monetization of health care.

Understanding specific communities’ concerns can lead to more informed public health education targeted to those groups, she explained. Her group is creating polls and working on “hyperlocal” messaging campaigns for sub-communities within the African American population, partnering with trusted messengers from the communities. She also streams a weekly live show called “Excuse Me Dr.!” to debunk misconceptions.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board, has also been working to fight disinformation in her community.

The Pawnee Nation member pointed to a recent editorial written by a non-Native that claimed Native Americans specifically shouldn’t take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The op/ed, published on an American Indian news website, lacked sound science and caused alarm among communities, she said.

She worked with other tribal epidemiology centers, scientists and the American Indian Physicians Association to refute his claims, which she called “reckless and dangerous.”

“We spent time going through every single one of his allegations and creating documents to refute every single one of them,” Echo-Hawk said, adding the organizations published a scientific rebuttal and reached out to urban and rural groups to reassure them the vaccine is safe.

Similarly, Voto Latino is working with local groups to monitor and fact-check disinformation. “It becomes a feedback loop, and then we spit out the right information so that they’re inoculated,” Kumar said.

Kumar said many of the disinformation circulates in WhatsApp groups. The messages, videos or graphics are then forwarded repeatedly.

“I do believe there’s a very different strategy for non-native English speakers.” Kumar said, adding she’s seen the same in Caribbean and South Asian communities.

Dr. Alisahah Cole, system vice president for population health innovation and policy at CommonSpirit Health, said her team created a tool kit for outreach to people of color and vulnerable populations and chronic medical conditions.

“We used a stratification tool that uses some of those demographics and then said, ‘OK, if someone falls into that high-risk category, we need to reach out with a phone call,'” she said, adding it’s a way to initiate conversation and leverage a trusted relationship between provider and patient to address vaccine concerns.

“We need to be really, really thoughtful about the disinformation that is happening,” Cole said. “One of the key ways we can do that is to make sure we are reaching out directly to those patients and to those community members.”

Read more at usatoday.com

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Spanish-speaking social media spreads COVID-19 vaccine disinformationon March 29, 2021 at 6:15 pm Read More »

Chicago Cubs: Anthony Rizzo might be gone after 2021on March 29, 2021 at 5:24 pm

(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

It is hard to imagine seeing Anthony Rizzo playing in any other jersey going forward besides the Chicago Cubs one. He has been one of the most important players in the history of the team for a variety of reasons. He has been productive on the field, helped them end the 108-year curse, and has been stellar in the community. When people think of the Cubs, Anthony Rizzo is one of the first people that should be coming to their mind. When he retires, they should retire his number and build him a statue.

The Chicago Cubs might lose Anthony Rizzo after the 2021 season is over.

Theo Epstein was a big part of Rizzo’s development. He was there when Rizzo was drafted to the Boston Red Sox and he was the one who acquired him in a trade. Ever since then, Rizzo has become one of the key pieces to a championship team. They built a very good team around him that made many playoff appearances and had a World Series title.

Unfortunately, however, it sounds like 2021 could be his last year with the team. There are multiple reports out there that he is not going to come to an agreement on an extension with the Cubs and play out his last season there. He sees this as a potential last year with the franchise.

That would be a big loss for the Cubs in every way. He means more to that team than any player has in the last 25 years and maybe ever. There were some players who were slightly more talented but few were as consistent. There are also very few Cubs to ever have the off-the-field success that he has.

Related Story: The good, the bad, and the ugly going into 2021 for the Cubs

As you can see, it seems like Rizzo was very interested and productive in trying to get a new contract done. It is sad to see these quotes come out but it is what it is. The Cubs are going into this year with it potentially being the last for Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez. It sort of has “The Last Dance” vibes to it. It could end up being where they come to an agreement later as you never know what the future holds but it is sad that this is what they’re dealing with right now.

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Chicago Cubs: Anthony Rizzo might be gone after 2021on March 29, 2021 at 5:24 pm Read More »

‘I, Banquo’ revisits MacBeth via new perspective in electrifying solo show at Chicago Shakespeareon March 29, 2021 at 4:47 pm

“Just imagine,” the title character instructs near the top of Tim Crouch’s riveting “I, Banquo.” His eyes are like caverns and his tone is subtly mesmeric, so it’s not hard to go with the request. Imagine your best friend for life, he continues, your brother-in-arms who has both saved your life and you his, imagine this closest of all friends is actually evil. And you’ve been utterly blind to it. Those are the worst kind of betrayals, the hollow-eyed Banquo (Dan Waller) tells us; the ones that leave you unable to trust even yourself.

When: Through April 18

Where: Streaming from Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Tickets: $25

Run-time: 45 minutes

Info: chicagoshakes.com

That’s the betrayal at the dark heart of director Marti Lyons’ staging of “I, Banquo” for Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Anchored by Waller in a tour-de-force performance, “I, Banquo,” creates a thrilling alternate Shakespearian universe. With Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” as the bones, Crouch spins a fascinating psychological portrait while also delivering something of a genuine thriller — even if you already know how “Macbeth” turns out. The storytelling is just that good.

Much of that is thanks to Waller, holding down what is essentially a one-man show (the ghost of Banquo’s son, played by Patrick Scott McDermott, makes an eerie, brief appearance), filmed post-pandemic at The Yard via the new “ChicagoShakesStream” platform. It’s the first full-on, new season production since the theater shut down over a year ago due to the pandemic.

Certainly Shakespeare gave Crouch plenty to work with. “Macbeth” has witches, ghosts, regicide, blood that won’t wash off, daggers floating in midair and a dinner party marred by a host having full-on hallucinations. Shakespeare packs it all into a tragedy of sociopathic ambition, fueled by a supernatural forces. It’s a barnburner. There’s also Lady Macbeth, whose ambition and power over her husband make her one of the most fascinating female characters ever penned. Crouch fits all of it into “I, Banquo,” staying true to Shakespeare’s plot but telling it from a new and fascinating perspective.

From the moment Waller begins by telling the audience “Just imagine,” he’s got you hooked. “Just imagine we’re friends,” he continues with a roguish smile, cocking his head just enough so that the stream of blood trickling down his neck becomes noticeable. He and Macbeth were closer than most, he explains. They celebrated the birth of his son together. They mourned the devastating, early death of Macbeth’s own child together. They went to battle for their beloved King Duncan together. They put heads on spikes together.

He and Macbeth were coming home from battle, Banquo continues. They were exhausted. They were dirty. You can practically feel the grit under their feet and the weight of their weapons as Waller’s Banquo sets the scene. They were open to suggestion, Banquo says. That’s when the witches showed up.

Waller’s ability to conjure this twilight world of witches and war is stunning. There are passages where he barely seems to move, gripping the arms of a battered armchair, not even blinking, a world of emotion flickering across his face as clear as a hi-def movie. There’s wry, almost inaudible chuckle that follows his first mention of Lady Macbeth. Waller captures her powers with potent understatement: “I didn’t reckon on your wife, did I?” It is as if he’s invoking Hecate and it is a moment that will make your skin crawl.

Crouch’s script contains some of the some of the most familiar Shakespearian passages ever, but when Waller sinks his teeth into them, it’s with a revitalized sound and fury that almost makes it feel like you’re hearing them for the first time.

Yu Shibagaki’s minimalist set — that moldering black armchair surrounded by darkness and mirrors — is a fitting limbo, with Jason Lynch’s lighting and Mikhail Fiksel’s sound rendering a shadow world of shifting angles and dizzying reflections. At some points, it’s not clear if we’re watching Banquo, or Banquo’s reflection. The resulting sense of discombobulation adds to the eeriness of the whole thing.

Lyons has crafted a pandemic unicorn here: A show where If you turn out the lights on Chicago Shakes’ production, you could almost swear you were in a theater.

Catey Sullivan is a local freelance writer.

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‘I, Banquo’ revisits MacBeth via new perspective in electrifying solo show at Chicago Shakespeareon March 29, 2021 at 4:47 pm Read More »

How Medill’s Dean Combats Zoom Fatigueon March 29, 2021 at 4:48 pm

Each day, the dean of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications presides over back-to-back Zoom meetings to raise funds, coordinate virtual education for a global student body, and — oh yeah — debate the future of media. “People are looking to journalism schools to figure out how to save the industry,” he says. To cope with the pressure, the 62-year-old reclaimed the prepandemic time he’d spent commuting from Woodlawn to Evanston and dedicated it to his well-being.

Wake-up call

“Prior to the pandemic, I thought I was in reasonably good shape for a middle-aged man. I’m almost 6-foot-6, weighed around 216 pounds, and worked out sporadically. At my annual physical on my 60th birthday, my doctor said I could probably lose 10 pounds. That blithe remark shook me. He reminded me that diabetes runs in my family. But when my bloodwork came back and my glucose was in the normal range, I remained unconvinced, until the first few weeks of working from home. I was rolling out of bed right in time for my meetings — no shower, no shave, just sitting in front of the computer and eating chips and cookies. I’m just vain enough to say, OK, I gotta do something.”

Training routine

“Now I work out every morning for about an hour and 15 minutes. After a warm-up of running in place and jumping jacks, I do 30 minutes on the stationary bike, followed by crunches, sit-ups, and pushups. I do curls —four sets of 20 reps with 40-pound dumbbells —as well as four sets of 20 reps of kettlebell swings for shoulder development. Before I go to bed, I do a scaled-down version, sans weights — about 30 to 45 minutes of sit-ups, pushups, and biking. When I started, I could barely do 10 pushups. By the end of the year, I knocked out three sets of 30 in a span of 30 minutes. I dropped 18 pounds and lost three pants sizes.”

Breakfast bubbly

“I stopped drinking coffee during the pandemic. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I just wasn’t going by Starbucks anymore, and I don’t miss it. But I have developed a habit of pouring myself a mimosa as a pick-me-up after my workout and before my first meeting. It’s mostly orange juice, with a splash of Korbel.”

Siesta time

“Zoom was really wearing me out, so I started taking an hourlong nap between my last meeting and dinner. I didn’t realize how sleep deprived I was before, getting on the road at 7:30 p.m., not getting home until 8, then staying up to answer messages until midnight or 1 a.m. I still stay up late on email, but with the nap, I feel a lot more alert and rested.”

Racket fanatic

“I’m an avid, albeit very bad, tennis player. I try to go out a couple of times each weekend from June to late September. Finding partners to hit with has become increasingly difficult as most of my contemporaries — guys I had been playing with for the past 20 years — have complained of back and knee pain and switched to golf. I won’t: I’m committed to the frustration of trying to get better at tennis. Going out and hacking my way around the court, even if I’m just whacking balls by myself, feels tremendous.”

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How Medill’s Dean Combats Zoom Fatigueon March 29, 2021 at 4:48 pm Read More »

‘Godzilla vs. Kong’: As big screens reopen, two big beasts go mindlessly into battleon March 29, 2021 at 3:00 pm

“Kong bows to no one.” – Actual for-real line of dialogue from “Godzilla vs. Kong.”

When it comes to good old-fashioned movie monsters, even in this CGI world, King Kong and Godzilla would have to be No. 1 seeds in everyone’s brackets, right? Who are you going to counter with — some Creature from the Black Lagoon, or a Mothra or a Rodan or a Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster?

Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Adam Wingard and written by Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of creature violence/destruction and brief language). Running time: 113 minutes. Opens Wednesday at local theaters and on HBO Max.

Come on. Don’t play.

In the incredibly loud and admittedly stupid and keenly self-aware and fantastically mindless “Godzilla vs. Kong,” you’ve got your classic matchup between the two perennial powerhouses, who first faced off in the 1962 Japanese kaiju film “King Kong v. Godzilla.” (And who knows, there might even be an upstart contender trying to muscle its way into the competition, and we’ll just leave it at that.) This is the first movie I’ve screened in a theater since last summer — under COVID-19 precautions and with just a handful of other folks spaced about the auditorium — and in a way it was the perfect B-movie vehicle for a return to the multiplex. “Godzilla vs. Kong” arrives in theaters and streams on HBO Max on March 31, and though I completely understand and respect why many moviegoers aren’t quite ready to actually GO to the movies, if the conditions are right and you’re up for it, this is definitely the kind of wonderfully escapist spectacle fare that plays best in theaters with oversized screens and teeth-rattling sound systems.

“Godzilla vs. Kong” takes place nearly 50 years after the 1970s Monsterverse epic “Kong: Skull Island” (2017) and just a few years after the events of “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” (2019), and it’s more fun if you’ve seen those two films. But we’re not exactly talking the Dark Knight trilogy or even the first three “Lethal Weapon” films here, so you’ll be just fine if you come into this one cold.

Godzilla has been chilling in the waterways the last few years, but suddenly ol’ Atomic Breath attacks the Florida base of the globally influential Apex Cybernetics (I guess Acme Corp. was already taken), seemingly without reason — though we know if a monster movie features a giant tech company, said company is probably up to something nefarious.

“Godzilla is out there and he’s hurting people and we don’t know why!” exclaims Kyle Chandler’s Dr. Mark Russell, a holdover from the 2019 film, as is Millie Bobbie Brown as Mark’s daughter Madison, who is convinced there’s something amiss at Apex and teams up with her nerdy best friend Josh (Julian Dennison) and a seemingly wacko conspiracy theorist podcaster named Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) to expose the dark secrets of Apex and its megalomaniacal CEO Walter Simmons (Demian Bichir, basically playing a Bond villain in a monster movie). Meanwhile, on Skull Island — and they should have had a voice-over narrator saying, “Meanwhile, on Skull Island” — controversial scientist Dr. Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) pleads with Rebecca Hall’s anthropologist Dr. Ilene Andrews, a.k.a. the Kong Whisperer, to go along with a plan by which they’ll sedate Kong and transport him out to the deep sea where he can defeat Godzilla and save the planet.

Movie Law: The moment when a gigantic monster is sedated and shackled is the moment we know the sedative will wear off and the shackles will be broken as if they’re made of paper.

Kyle Chandler is one of the classy actors treating their “Godzilla vs. Kong” dialogue very seriously.
Warner Bros.

Kong makes for a more sympathetic creature than Godzilla, given he’s a much more anthropomorphic entity, with a vast array of facial expressions and even the ability to communicate via sign language with a young girl named Jia (Kaylee Hottle) who is hearing and speech impaired. Godzilla is more powerful, what with the atomic breath and all, but seems dumber and definitely less cuddly. Screenwriters Eric Pearson and Max Borenstein come up with a pretty clever way to deal with that issue, while director Adam Wingard wisely peppers in one gigantic battle scene after another, with bombs bursting in air and monsters squaring off as if they’re in a heavyweight title bout. The exposition scenes are increasingly ludicrous, but credit must be given to accomplished actors such as Hall, Skarskgard, Chandler and Bichir for delivering their lines with all the seriousness they’d bring to a prestige character-driven drama. (Well, most of the seriousness.)

“Godzilla vs. Kong” is the kind of movie you can pretty much forget about almost instantly after you’ve seen it — but it’s also the kind of movie that makes you forget about everything else in your life while you’re watching it.

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‘Godzilla vs. Kong’: As big screens reopen, two big beasts go mindlessly into battleon March 29, 2021 at 3:00 pm Read More »

Authorities identify man killed in drive-by shooting in West Pullmanon March 29, 2021 at 3:27 pm

A man was killed in a drive-by shooting in West Pullman on the Far South Side Sunday evening, according to Chicago police.

He was identified as 29-year-old Marcus Dixon by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was inside a vehicle in the 11900 block of South Prairie Avenue when another vehicle pulled alongside and someone inside fired shots around 6:05 p.m., police said.

He was hit several times and brought to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died, police said.

Dixon lived in the same block where the shooting occurred.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.

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Authorities identify man killed in drive-by shooting in West Pullmanon March 29, 2021 at 3:27 pm Read More »

5 dead in pair of fiery, wrong-way Eisenhower Expy. crashes Monday morningon March 29, 2021 at 3:04 pm

Five people were killed in a pair of fiery, wrong-way crashes early Monday on the Eisenhower Expressway.

One crash happened downtown about 1:40 a.m. near Wells Street, according to Illinois State Police.

A wrong-way driver on an eastbound ramp from I-290 collided head-on with another driver, causing both vehicles to erupt in flames, state police spokeswoman Gabriela Ugarte said in an emailed statement.

Both drivers and a passenger of the struck vehicle died at the scene, Ugarte said. One of the deceased drivers was a 51-year-old Skokie man, while a deceased passenger was a 24-year-old Chicago woman, state police said.

The driver and two passengers of a third car struck by the crashing vehicles, three Chicago woman in their 20s, went to hospitals with minor injuries, Ugarte said.

The eastbound exit from I-290 was closed until 6:15 a.m., Ugarte said.

Second fatal crash at Des Plaines Avenue

A half hour earlier, another fatal wrong-way crash happened on I-290 near west suburban Forest Park.

About 1:10 a.m., a wrong-way driver in the eastbound lanes hit a car near Des Plaines Avenue, Ugarte said. Both drivers died at the scene. A passenger in the struck vehicle was hospitalized with injuries that weren’t life-threatening. Media reports showed vehicles on fire in the crash.

All eastbound lanes were closed until 6:10 a.m.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office hasn’t released the victims’ names.

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