New Jersey native Harry James Brenner found his footing in Chicago’s music scene partly by playing in art-rock group Chandeliers; he joined in the mid-aughts as a percussionist, and he’s since played keys for them too. The sharply defined clatter of Brenner’s drums has kept Chandeliers’ mercurial instincts from running away with them, giving even their most ostentatiously experimental escapades an irresistible groove.…Read More
This week’s featured gig poster was designed by Jordan Fann of Vector Management and features a photograph by Scarlett McDonald.
This week’s gig poster is for a livestream birthday celebration by legendary singer and record producer Michael McDonald, perhaps best known as a longtime Doobie Brother.…Read More
Chicago writer and theater artist David Blixt uncovers a trove of previously unpublished novels by the original Lois Lane.
In 1885, the Pittsburgh Dispatch ran an op-ed under the byline “The Quiet Observer” entitled “What Girls Are Good For.” In the view of Erasmus Wilson (owner of the pseudonym), the short answer was essentially staying home and making babies, where they could “play the part of angel.”…Read More
Theatre Above the Law’s production lets its leads drop the masks for one moment in time.
In COVID times, gestures that would have been banal and forgettable a year ago now arrive embedded with loaded backstories—even those (especially those?) that play out on stage.…Read More
Chicago writer and theater artist David Blixt uncovers a trove of previously unpublished novels by the original Lois Lane.
In 1885, the Pittsburgh Dispatch ran an op-ed under the byline “The Quiet Observer” entitled “What Girls Are Good For.” In the view of Erasmus Wilson (owner of the pseudonym), the short answer was essentially staying home and making babies, where they could “play the part of angel.”…Read More
EA Sports announced it is reviving its college football video game franchise. | EA Sports
According to ESPN, a return date or date to announce when the return will happen hasn’t been set. The game will not be available for the 2021 college football season, however.
In a move that’s already lighting up the gaming world, EA Sports announced it would be rebooting its popular college football video game that had been discontinued since 2013.
According to ESPN, a return date or date to announce when the return will happen hasn’t been set. The game will not be available for the 2021 college football season, however.
“As we look for the momentum that we’re building on in sports, it all starts with the passion of our fans and the opportunities of what they are interested in,” EA Sports vice president and general manager, Daryl Holt told ESPN. “I don’t think a visit where I go outside wearing a piece of EA Sports branded apparel, that someone doesn’t go, ‘Hey, when is college football coming back?’ “
EA Sports has partnered with CLC, a collegiate licensing company, so that it could include the FBS programs, uniforms, traditions and playbooks, according to ESPN. More than 100 teams will be available.
The last college football game the vide game franchise produced was NCAA Football 14 with former Michigan Wolverine quarterback Denard Robinson gracing the cover.
The series was discontinued as the debate over student athletes being compensated for their names, images and likenesses (NIL) continued around the country and in legislative bodies. The old video game franchise did not use actual college football player names, but the roster closely mirrored the actual ones with player numbers and positions tied to general physical appearances of those playing on fields on Saturdays.
Legislation has advanced on the NIL issue, which could offer student athletes a chance to profit off of their time playing college football. Current NCAA rules forbid student athletes from selling their name, image or likeness while they are eligible in any athletic program.
Holt told ESPN that EA Sports would monitor changes to the NIL rules, but that the game would proceed either way.
“We’ll just keep tabs on everything as it develops and we’ll be ready,” Holt told ESPN. “That won’t be a problem for us. But it’s really, that’s not an answer for us right now to decide. We’re as much passengers as anyone else.
“So we make sure we deliver what our college football game players would want in a game. And that starts with just a very immersive experience and there’s lots of things we can do to bring the true college game play and game day to the virtual world.”
If certain NIL rights are changed, it could open the path for college football players to have their names, images and likenesses used in the game for monetary gain.
According to ESPN, the name of the franchise will change, with the plan to rebrand it as “EA Sports College Football.” ESPN also reported that the game is in its very early developmental stages.
Vincent DelGiudice, right, walks with his attorney, Carolyn Gurland, out of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse in March 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times file
Vincent DelGiudice pleaded guilty Tuesday to a gambling conspiracy and money laundering.
The lead defendant in the sports gambling case that led last year to charges against Casey Urlacher pleaded guilty Tuesday to operating a multimillion dollar illegal sports gambling ring around Chicago.
A federal indictment early in 2020 accused Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGiudice, 55, of running the gambling business that allegedly involved as many as 1,000 people. Prosecutors said DelGiudice paid more than $10,000 a month to a company in Costa Rica for the website unclemicksports.com used by gamblers to view odds and place bets.
DelGiudice pleaded guilty Tuesday to a gambling conspiracy and money laundering.
After Urlacher’s pardon, DelGiudice said in a statement through his attorney, “I am happy for him and his family. God bless them.”
Prosecutors said DelGiudice, of Orland Park, recruited Urlacher along with several other “agents” who then recruited gamblers. DelGiudice paid his agents and others a commission based on a percentage of the losses incurred by the gamblers they recruited, according to the feds. They also said he used coded language and employed an encrypted telephone application to communicate with people affiliated with the company he paid for the website.
Prosecutors said authorities found more than $1 million in cash at DelGiudice’s home in April 2019, along with $92,623 in gold coins and $347,895 in silver bars and jewelry.
DelGiudice’s father, Eugene “Geno” DelGiudice, pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to conduct an illegal gambling business, becoming the first defendant in the case to be convicted. Ten people were charged in all. In October, a judge gave Eugene DelGiudice three months of home detention.
Last month, the judge ordered another defendant in the case held behind bars after prosecutors said Chicago police officer Nicholas Stella “violently assaulted his girlfriend.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Terry Kinney also told the judge that, when another judge issued a search warrant for Stella’s phone in the gambling investigation, Stella destroyed it “before we were able to execute the search warrant.”
