It’s been a rough few years for Chicago Cubs fans who no doubt have a few things to say to the organization, owners and players. Here is a Cubs fan’s 65 theses (because honestly, who has time to read 95?) With the departure of beloved figures in the Chicago Cubs organization like play-by-play announcer Len […]
The art Webster is currently producing is music-driven, but he also enjoys other forms of storytelling like journalism, videography, documentaries and building websites.
Zachary Webster is determined to bring innovation to Chicago through the arts.
The 17-year-old high school senior at Gary Comer College Prep is a member of Free Spirit Media, an organization providing teens and young adults in communities on the city’s West and South Sides with a foundation in media literacy through hands-on media production experience. The program offers in-school art education, after school programs, summer digital media courses and advanced creative workforce development programs.
Webster credits his motivation to create to a solid friend group and the network of other teens at Free Spirit Media.
“I put myself in a circle of people that have really great work ethic,” Webster explains. “It pushes me forward to create amazing projects. My friend group is business-oriented as well as artistic, so we all create different types of art.”
The art Webster is currently producing is music-driven, but he also enjoys other forms of storytelling like journalism, videography, documentaries and building websites.
“What really interests me most is music,” Webster says. “I am naturally into writing so this directly relates to my music. It catches my interest because of how fast paced music can be and how fast paced you can push out content.”
“I decided I was going to take my phone and headphones and make an EP [extended playlist],” Webster explains. “I studied how to release content on Apple Music, and in three days I successfully put out an EP. Now some of those songs have over 10,000 plays. It’s crazy how you can reach people all the way in Australia or China. It made me realize that anything is possible if you have the right mindset and are willing to work toward that goal seriously.”
Developing a strong sense of self has been an ongoing journey for Webster — one that was pushed forward by one of his biggest inspirations, Chicago-born rapper Juice Wlrd who died at 21 last year after suffering cardiac arrest.
The late rapper provided Webster with reassurance.
“We came from the same community and shared a lot of the same struggles,” Webster says. “To see someone like him have success and make such an impact on music and art in general is inspiring. He impacted so many lives and brought out the confidence in me to do the same.”
As a shy child growing up in south suburban Calumet Park, Webster was hesitant to speak up, did not want to be on camera and was nervous to receive lots of attention. Now, with his newfound confidence, he is spearheading storytelling concepts with Free Spirit Media and dedicating his craft to enhancing the arts in Chicago.
“I really want to change the sound of music in Chicago,” Webster says. “I don’t want to add on to the same sound that has been going around. I want music that pushes feelings out of you and creates a whole new identification for Chicago. I want to be that mark on the world and make an impact.”
Working toward this goal has been challenging due to COVID-19, but Webster is doing his best to stay positive and find ways to use the arts as a form of healing during the pandemic.
“Art is a therapeutic thing,” Webster says. “If you have something to push out that others don’t know about, you can do it in an artistic way to gain awareness to that issue that people may have not known about before.”
Growing up, it was Webster’s sister’s love of drawing that sparked his own interest to learn more about art.
“I was always around art,” Webster explains. “I would literally stay up all night just studying music videos and listening to music to see what the lyrics were saying and how they made me feel. That’s why I love jazz so much. Sometimes you don’t even need words, it’s about the feeling.”
Webster is also utilizing social media as a way to create meaningful music during coronavirus and keep in touch with others in the music world.
These relationships motivate Webster, as does his mother’s ongoing support. She encourages his love of music and helps him work toward his ultimate goal of going to college to pursue a media career.
“I want to graduate from college and start a record label,” Webster says. “I am hoping I will be able to affect as many lives as I can with music. I want to be more of a leader in my community. That’s why it’s so important to tell young people, as cliche as it might sound, that you can do anything. I used to not have the confidence in myself but once you put yourself to the test and put aside the negativity, you start to realize you can do whatever you want as long as you take it and yourself seriously.”
Francesca Gattuso is a writer for the Sun-Times marketing department.
The news keeps getting worse and worse for the ChicagoBlackhawks ahead of 2021. Things have not been good in 2020 for a lot of people for a lot of obvious reasons. Well, the year really isn’t ending strong for Chicago Blackhawks fans as things keep getting worse and worse. They probably wouldn’t be that […]
Green Bay Packers outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith (55) pressures Chicago Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky (10) during the second quarter on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.
The ChicagoBears face off against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday for a shot at the playoffs. Here’s why they are in a nightmare scenario.
For any football fan, a shot at the playoffs is typically a dream come true. It’s the ultimate goal of the season.
Few things in sports are better than those three meaningful hours of postseason football on a weekend in January.
But as the Chicago Bears get set for their tilt with the hated Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on Sunday, it’s tough to envision anything good happening in the long run.
Yes, there is the minute possibility that the Bears knock off Green Bay and dance into the playoffs. They also could make the playoffs with an Arizona Cardinals loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Though Arizona QB Kyler Murray‘s status is in question for Week 17, we already know that the Rams will be without starting QB Jared Goff on Sunday. The Rams will instead start John Wolford, who has exactly zero snaps in the NFL.
The Rams also announced that WR Cooper Kupp was placed on the reserve/Covid list, meaning that they’re already without their QB and No. 1 wide receiver. Kupp finishes the regular season with 974 receiving yards.
The Packers enter Sunday as -245 favorites against the Bears. In terms of probability, that’s about a 71% chance of beating the Bears.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance?
Yes.
Those chances aren’t great, however.
Statistically speaking, the most likely scenario is that the Bears lose to Green Bay, Rams lose to the Cardinals and the Bears finish the season at a disappointing 8-8.
At the moment, the Bears have the 20th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. And even if they don’t make the playoffs, they move up to only the 17th or 18th pick.
There is no ideal scenario for the Bears from here other than making the playoffs and going on a run, which is extremely unlikely. The Bears will be heavy underdogs if they do manage to make the playoffs.
Sure, the Bears have won three in a row. Their offense has finally broken out and has scored 110 points in their last three games.
But fans seem to have forgotten that the last three games have been against the Texans, Vikings and Lions who are a combined 15-30 this year. And two of those wins were the Lions and Vikings over the Bears.
So, there’s three scenarios here.
A) The Bears don’t make the playoffs, fall to 8-8 and take a mid-round pick in the first round. Woof.
B) The Bears do make the playoffs, take a pick somewhere in the 19s to early 20s, and get eliminated in the Wild Card Round
or
C) The Bears make the playoffs and go on a run in the postseason.
Unless it’s C (which is as we discussed is highly unlikely), then the 2020 season was a total waste for the Bears and they’ll have another year of being stuck in purgatory without a sense of direction, a completely inconsistent team and an unexciting mid-round pick for next year.
Combine that with zero clarity around the true abilities of GM Ryan Pace, head coach Matt Nagy, QB Mitch Trubisky and a defense that has regressed under Chuck Pagano and the Bears are really in a no-win situation.
Ideally, the Bears shock Green Bay and go on a run in the playoffs. At this point, there’s no point in losing just to move up a pick or two in the draft. But the odds are stacked against them.
And you know, there’s that whole very possible scenario in which the Packers crush the Bears playoff hopes yet again and we have a whole offseason to stew in the fact that the moldy Cheese fans that eat raw meat for the holidays destroyed another Bears playoff dream.
One could certainly argue that the Bears would have been better off just tanking in 2020, as they could formulate a plan to contend in the future. But as we head into Week 17, all Bears fans can do is hope and pray that they shock the league and play at an elite level.
After all, Chicago sports fans need it after this year and past week.
The Chicago Cubs must come clean to their fans and be entirely transparent about the extent of their pending “rebuild.” If they don’t, they run the risk of alienating a large portion of their fanbase who may not return to the same extent they otherwise would if the team was honest about their intentions.
For starters, it is clear the Cubs are entering a full-on rebuild. While there may have been a school of thought that the Cubs could attempt to “reload” similar to what the New York Yankees did a few years ago when they dealt Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs, and stayed competitive, the North Siders latest move signals that is not going to be the case.
After sending Yu Darvish to the San Diego Padres for a bag of empty peanut shells, it seems clear the team is going to shed many of their high-paid players, leaving many to speculate a Kris Bryant deal is inevitable.
If so, then ownership must be transparent and sell the fans on their vision. You may recall Theo Epstein was very open about his plan to make the Cubs contenders and how long it would take.
The Cubs must do the same here for a few reasons.
First, when fans return to the stands, they will likely be asked to pay even more for their tickets as teams try to recoup their 2020 losses.
It will be a hard sell to the average fan that he or she should pay a premium to help a billionaire recoup losses if they don’t feel the team has a vision they are working toward.
Second, the Ricketts family needs to improve their image and standing with their fan base. They are, at the moment, very unpopular owners. To regain the trust of the fans and prove they are not only interested in maximizing profits (which they may be) they should lay out their plan for when they anticipate beginning to spend more.
Fans are very loyal and can be extremely patient when they feel they have hope or something to look forward to. But when your team’s billionaire owner sells off its star players to save moment, without any defined plan, fans will lose patience quickly.
I tried to tally up the total number of releases by noise wizard Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow, and polymorphous metal trio Boris before I started writing about their new joint album, but it proved to be a fool’s errand. These Japanese artists are among the most prolific musicians in modern history, and their combined catalogs include hundreds of titles.…Read More
This undated file photo provided by Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. In news reported on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of an officer who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to the apartment where Taylor was fatally shot. | Courtesy of Taylor Family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP, File
The shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her home sparked months of protests in Louisville alongside national protests over racial injustice and police misconduct.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of two officers connected to Breonna Taylor’s death — the one who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to her apartment and another found to have opened fire.
Detective Joshua Jaynes received a pretermination letter, media outlets reported Tuesday. It came after a Professional Standards Unit investigation found he had violated department procedures for preparation of a search warrant and truthfulness, his attorney said.
Detective Myles Cosgrove also received a pretermination letter, media outlets later reported, citing his attorney, Jarrod Beck. Kentucky’s attorney general has said it was Cosgrove who appeared to have fired the fatal shot at Taylor, according to ballistics tests.
The shooting death of the 26-year-old Black woman in her home sparked months of protests in Louisville alongside national protests over racial injustice and police misconduct.
Jaynes has a hearing with interim Chief Yvette Gentry and her staff on Thursday.
“Detective Jaynes and I will show up for the pretermination hearing to try to convince acting Chief Gentry that this action is unwarranted,” attorney Thomas Clay told the Courier Journal. “Jaynes did nothing wrong.”
Jaynes was not present during the shooting at Taylor’s apartment in Louisville. About 12 hours earlier, he secured a warrant with a “no-knock” clause from a judge.
In Jaynes’ pretermination letter, Gentry said, the officer committed “extreme violations of our policies, which endangered others.”
“Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the department,” she wrote. “Your conduct has severely damaged the image our department has established within our community.”
Officers were serving a narcotics warrant on March 13 when they shot Taylor, but no drugs or cash were found in her home. Taylor was an emergency medical worker who had settled in for the night when police busted through her door.
Former officer Brett Hankison was charged by a grand jury with wanton endangerment, a low-level felony, for firing into an adjacent apartment where people were present. The two officers who shot Taylor, according to ballistics evidence, were not charged by the grand jury. One of those officers was shot by Taylor’s boyfriend during the raid and returned fire. Taylor’s boyfriend said he thought an intruder was breaking into her apartment.
Melissa Leilani Larson and Lavina Jadhwani reimagine a classic for BIPOC voices.
More than 30 years into this gig, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice adapted for the stage. The Regency-era author’s enduring popularity isn’t a mystery: Austen’s novels championed women in an era when women’s options for generating income faced draconian limitations.…Read More
The Padres’ odds of winning the Series moved from 12/1 to 7/1, according to SportsBetting.com. The odds for world champion and division rival Dodgers moved from 7/2 to 4/1.
Losing Darvish moved the Cubs to 40/1 from last week’s 25/1 odds. The Rays’ odds now stand at 14/1, falling from 11/1 before the Snell deal.
