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It might feel like everything is grinding to a halt while we’re hunkering down in self-isolation, but there are plenty of local stores that are keeping business going! Browsing the home goods these 10 Chicago general stores sell online is sure to brighten your day (even if you’ve forgotten which day that is).

CarefulPeach Boutique

Keep your home life looking peachy with apparel, accessories, and home goods from this independent Oak Park boutique. Their online shop is worth browsing through.

The Silver Room

Located in Hyde Park, this Chicago institution has been selling handmade art, jewelry, clothes, and more since 1997— and is continuing to do so online during the shelter-in-place order.

Neighborly

In addition to home goods and gifts, this store’s online shop features a selection of products made to reduce waste and support sustainable living. They also have care packages available that you can send to a loved one or healthcare worker.

Notice

The family-run store Notice is stocked with clothing and jewelry— your fresh new look is sure to get you noticed by someone on your daily quarantine walk (or maybe just by your cat).

E.E. Mercantile & Co.

This store in Ukrainian Village sells goods that are cruelty-free, fair trade, and often organic. What’s not to love about good-smelling soaps and bold cocktail bitters? Shop their online inventory for something new.

Sacred Art

Find locally-sourced and handmade goods to make you smile at this Lincoln Square art gallery and gift boutique (or, rather, on their website). You can support local art while supporting the coziness of your own home!

Shop Small Chicago

Featuring a curated collection of clothing, accessories, and more online, Shop Small Chicago selects and sells brands and creations predominantly from women and minorities.

BeauLou Designs

This Andersonville shop sells all-handmade designs, including note cards and other gifts to send to loved ones when you’re feeling particularly socially-distanced.

Milk Handmade

A women’s boutique in Andersonville, this spot features creations from independent local designers. The neutral Instagram aesthetic of their online shop is super satisfying.

Zefiro

The Bucktown shop specializes in household products meant to reduce waste and protect the environment. Chicago’s first! Shop online to start saving the earth and supporting a local business.

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Chicago Bears (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Chicago Blackhawks: Kris Versteeg’s retirement brings back memories by Vincent Parise

Chicago Bears: Trey Burton release signals big move coming by Ryan Heckman

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Chicago Bears (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

With the Chicago Bears having two second-round picks in the 2020 NFL Draft, what are five players to consider at 50th overall?

Here’s the deal: In a loaded draft class, despite not having a first-round pick, the Chicago Bears are still lucky to have two second-round picks. And in what is considered to be a deep draft class, the Bears will have their options of what position to address.

Here’s what we know: Don’t rule anything out when it comes to the 50th overall pick. There are a number of prospects who could be available that could interest the Bears. Additionally, the Bears have needs at positions such as tight end, right guard, and cornerback. Then there are positions such as quarterback and wide receiver, which are not major needs for the Bears but depending on how the board falls, they could add someone to the position.

It’s also very possible that the Bears decide to trade back with the 50th overall pick. Doing so would allow for the Bears to still remain in the second round but then also get a third or fourth-round draft pick in the process.

If the Bears do decide to trade back at 50th overall, it would mean that their draft board would be different depending on how far back they’ve traded. Since the second round ends with the 64th overall pick, the Bears can only trade back 14 spots unless they hope to move into the third round.

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As the 2020 NFL Draft gets closer, what are five players that the Bears should consider with the 50th overall pick? Why should the Bears consider these players and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each prospect? Let’s break it all down.

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CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 15: Kris Versteeg #23 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates by hoisting the Stanley Cup after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning by a score of 2-0 in Game Six to win the 2015 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the United Center on June 15, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Chicago White Sox Draft: J.T. Ginn would be steal of the first round by Ryan Sikes

Chicago Bears: Five players to consider at 50th overall by Usayd Koshul

The Chicago Blackhawks had many important role players during their dynasty. Kris Versteeg is certainly one of them during two Cup runs.

The Chicago Blackhawks have had some legendary players come through. The fact of the matter is those elite players are allowed to turn into legends thanks to the play of their teammates. Role players are very important to teams winning the Stanley Cup in the National Hockey League. The Hawks have certainly have had plenty of those types of players when they were a modern-day hockey dynasty.

Kris Versteeg was one of those integral parts of the Blackhawks’ very impressive run. He wasn’t a superstar player like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, or Duncan Keith but he was still very important. He was a good player to have because of the fact that he could play anywhere in the lineup. He was best suited for a third-line role on any team he was on. He scored anywhere from 15-20 goals multiple times which is glorious for a role player.

Versteeg announced his retirement from the National Hockey League on Wednesday. It was a long time coming because he really wasn’t able to stick in the NHL anymore but while he was in his prime he was a great player. He won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010 and 2015. He was sent away for salary cap reasons in the middle but his re-acquisition went a long way in helping this team become a dynasty in 2015.

In his 11 year NHL career, five of them were spent with the Blackhawks. In 294 career games with Chicago, he had 68 goals and 96 assists for 164 points. Versteeg is one of those guys who will also be remembered for his play that doesn’t involve his numbers. He was one of those guys who played so hard despite being a little guy. He worked so hard every shift and it helped him make a great NHL career. He was there before they won any Cups so when you remember any of the days that made people have hope for the Hawks, Versteeg was apart of it.

Hot: The Chicago Blackhawks could draft some defense this year

Versteeg is also a sign of what you need on a hockey team. There are players on the Blackhawks right now that have much more size, speed, and skill than Versteeg but they are far less impactful because of their work ethic and toughness. They need to find themselves some players of that caliber for the modern-day team. Congrats to Kris Versteeg on an incredible career.

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Chicago Bears (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Chicago Bears: Five players to consider at 50th overall by Usayd Koshul

The Chicago Bears surprisingly decided to release tight end Trey Burton. This opens the door for a big move soon to come.

For a team with so many tight ends on their current roster, you would think the position isn’t exactly a need. But, the Chicago Bears are in a completely different circumstance, believe it or not.

The Bears had 10 tight ends under contract prior to Friday night. What happened Friday night? They decided to part ways with veteran Trey Burton, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Still, the position remains a need.

Burton will likely be a post-June 1st cut, saving the Bears upwards of $2.8 million, per ESPN’s Field Yates. If they cut him before that date, they only save about $1 million.

After struggling with a nagging groin injury that just hasn’t completely gone away for over a calendar year, Burton was unable to be fully healthy in 2019. The Bears signed him in 2018 to be their go-to player at the position, and in his first year, he showed he was capable. However, this last season saw him fall out of favor with the Bears due to health.

Without Burton, veteran Jimmy Graham likely steps in as the starting tight end. The Bears signed him to a lucrative 2-year deal worth $16 million, so of course he’s going to play a big role. But, beyond Graham, the Bears don’t have anyone of note within the group.

It makes you realize, now, that general manager Ryan Pace is up to something. He isn’t going into this season with Graham and a bunch of no-names. He’s going to make a move. In fact, he could make a move very soon.

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With the 2020 NFL Draft coming up next weekend, the Bears definitely have options. They could opt for one of several tight end prospects like Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet, Washington’s Hunter Bryant, Dayton’s Adam Trautman, Purdue’s Brycen Hopkins, among others. I would bet a large sum of money that Pace drafts a tight end within the first four rounds (yes, that means he trades back, too).

On the flip side, Pace could also decide to make a trade for another veteran tight end like David Njoku of the Cleveland Browns or O.J. Howard of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Just days ago, the Bucs were reportedly fielding offers for Howard — a sign he is on his way out.

The Browns, meanwhile, signed Austin Hooper to a gigantic contract this offseason, which makes you wonder whether or not they want Njoku around for the long haul.

It would be no surprise to me if Pace went out of his way to land one of Howard or Njoku over the next few days. What would it take to get either one of them? My assumption is a second-round pick.

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Both are talented, athletic guys at the position who have shown plenty of flashes, yet haven’t gotten the chance to truly break out just yet. On a team like the Bears, who are starved for talent at tight end, Pace could absolutely land one of them to solidify the room. No matter what, though, I think Pace is going to make a significant move in the near future.

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If you spent much time in Chicago’s artsier north-side enclaves, you’ve likely crossed paths with Chicago rapper Brian Wharton–he goes by Sharkula, but he’s also sometimes known as Thigahmahjiggee. And if you’ve ever talked to him, he’s inevitably tried to sell you something: a homemade CD-R, a T-shirt he’s drawn on with Sharpie markers, or (more frequently these days) a graffiti-indebted painting on canvas or a piece of cardboard. And if like me you devour old-school hip-hop, fringe music of any genre, and artwork by iconoclasts, chances are you at least own a few of those CD-Rs, bought from Sharkula on the sidewalk, on the Blue Line, or in a bar he’s wandered into, selling his wares out of a bag like the Tamale Guy. Sharkula has become such a frequent presence in my everyday life that he defines my picture of Chicago as much as our stalagmite skyline, even as we’re sheltering in place; a couple weeks ago, I ran into him outside the Dill Pickle in Logan Square, where he’d brought his art to sell to the few pedestrians in sight. Thankfully his music is also accessible online, which is all the more important now that the social interactions that typically fuel his sales have temporarily vanished. (On Tuesday, April 14, Natalie Figueroa and Mike “Shazam” Bangles launched a GoFundMe to help Sharkula during the pandemic.) At the end of March, Sharkula released a new full-length, BBQ Fingaprints, on local label Static Switch. Sharkula famously colors outside the lines in his songs, with non sequiturs that sometimes clash with his beats and a flow that sometimes departs from logic, but on BBQ Fingaprints his free-associative raps are a little easier to follow than usual–and as charming as ever. v

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Contemporary music informed by cultural traditions that have withstood the test of centuries uplifts my spirits like nothing else; in these times, it seems to hold a magic that can help us all withstand adversity. Lido Pimienta’s new third album, Miss Colombia, is the highly anticipated follow-up to her Polaris Prize-winning La Papessa. The Barranquilla-born, Toronto-based Afro-Indigenous multimedia artist recorded the album in her home studio as well as in San Basilio de Palenque, a Colombian village founded in the 17th century by escaped enslaved persons. On Miss Colombia Pimienta further evolves the hybrid electronic and Afro-Indigenous sound she established on La Papessa and 2010’s Color, but she takes a more organic and sensual approach to electronics, surrounding her vocals with lush, rounded effects and beats. Her soaring vocals, which are front and center here, are grounded in the ecstatic chanting of Afro-Colombian spiritual music as well as references to Caribbean Colombia’s musical traditions, including horn-rich cumbia subgenre porro and the percussion-centered bullerengue–a precursor to cumbia born in San Basilio de Palenque and traditionally danced only by women. To perform her compositions, Pimienta has enlisted Cuban-Colombian jazz band Okan, members of San Basilio de Palenque’s famed Sexteto Tabala, female singers from Cantaoras Grupo Raices de Palenque, the Road to Avonlea Choir, and front woman Li Saumet of punk cumbia act Bomba Estereo. “Eso que Tu Haces” (“That Thing You Do”) features porro-infused beats that swell majestically amid swirling, lush, orchestral horns. “Pelo Cucu” is a slow, mournful bullerengue that celebrates the African texture of the singer’s hair and defends it against unwanted touching. Pimienta makes music that offers the promise of overcoming struggle. The lyrics to “Resisto y Ya” make me feel especially hopeful: the lines “Nunca se acaba la luz de lo que vuelve . . . en la luz, resisto, y ya” translate to “The light of what returns never ends . . . in the light, I resist, and that’s it.” I’ve had that track on repeat, so I can savor how its chants and percussion seamlessly veer into an electro-bullerengue pop bop blessed with a sunny, supremely danceable groove. v

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It may be a while before the sort of all-out raging rock show that’s so hot and packed you leave smelling like other people’s sweat is once again part of human existence, but Newcastle Upon Tyne five-piece Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (or, more concisely, Pigs x 7) won’t let that feeling fade into memory without a fight. Formed in 2013, they mix heavy rock, metallic riffs, and a little spacey psych with ample amounts of weirdness and fun–they’re the sort of band you wish were a regular presence on your local circuit, whether you ordinarily listen to their style of music or not. The title of Pigs x 7’s new third album, Viscerals, feels like the perfect choice. Right from the opening track, “Reducer,” which is anchored by a blistering, Stooges-worthy groove and searing lead guitar, the record sounds so raw you can practically smell the grimy clubs and basements that normally host this sort of band, and its sky-high energy level can make the walls of wherever you’re self-quarantining feel infinitely more confining–and in this case, that’s a good problem to have. The hard-rock chorus of the anthemic “Crazy in Blood” practically demands cheap beer and a cheesy music video, but the punk-addled vision of Pigs x 7 makes it feel like a deliberate goof rather than self-satire. Things also get a little absurd on “Blood and Butter,” a horror story of social anxiety and well-mannered poisoning that’s mostly spoken word, drums, and reverberating rumbles. The album isn’t all over-the-top silliness, though: Pigs x 7 get more complex on long-form burner “Halloween Bolson.” So what if you can’t go out? Crank up Viscerals (on headphones if necessary), and try not to bash your head against the ceiling as you let off some pent-up energy. v

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A few years ago, Haley Fohr, who makes experimental rock music under the name Circuit des Yeux, introduced a new project where she inhabited a drifter-turned-drug-pusher alter ego named Jackie Lynn. Her 2016 album under that name mixed dejected pop and stripped-down electronics with off-kilter alt-country; its second half in particular had a mysterious, dangerous vibe, and listening to it felt like picking up a hitchhiker on a deserted highway not knowing whether they were harmless or a serial killer. So when I heard that Fohr was releasing a second Jackie Lynn album, I imagined that her musical antiheroine’s latest adventures would have taken her further down the rabbit hole of darkness. Instead, the record feels brighter than its predecessor, even a little glamorous–an about-face that’s even implied in the more genteel spelling of her name, Jacqueline. Much of this has to do with the fact that Fohr has expanded the project into a full band with help from Bitchin Bajas members Cooper Crain, Rob Frye, and Dan Quinlivan. Opening track “Casino Queen” immediately plucks the Jackie Lynn of yesterday from her smoky backroom poker games and drops her among the red-velvet ropes and twinkling lights of Vegas, while other songs lack any tinge of society’s underbelly: the orchestral “Dream St.” feels more like floating down a river than flirting with trouble, and the hook-laden “Shugar Water” is practically uplifting. Fohr has described Jackie Lynn as a long-haul truck driver in this chapter of her story, and each song is a snapshot of a day in her life. So while the darkness may return down the line, this independence and freedom suit her well. v

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Margaret Killjoy, the self-described “mistressmind” of North Carolina-based Feminazgul, announced on March 16 via Facebook that due to the pandemic-slash-shitstorm, her atmospheric black-metal band would release their first full-length, No Dawn for Men, ahead of schedule and make it available for purchase on a pay-what-you-can basis. Killjoy, a trans woman, also writes queer anarchist steampunk and folk horror, which helped Feminazgul’s debut EP, 2018’s The Age of Men Is Over, make big ripples in subcultures beyond the metal scene. The themes she explores in her prose often bleed into her songs; the new album’s monumental “Bury the Antlers With the Stag” reminds me of her 2017 novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, in which a rural squatters’ commune is terrorized by a vengeful spirit in the shape of a stag with three antlers. Though Killjoy made The Age of Men as a solo endeavor, on No Dawn for Men the Feminazgul lineup includes lead vocalist Laura Beach and California-based violinist and theremin player Meredith Yayanos–and the fleshed-out instrumentation lends an ethereal dimension to the hair-raisingly shamanic “The Rot in the Fields Is Holy.” Killjoy enjoys playfully appropriating quotes and imagery from mythology and classic fantasy to flavor her anti-patriarchal, anarchist message–both of her album titles are quotes from The Lord of the Rings, and the band name of course riffs on the word for the Ringwraiths in the Black Speech. On No Dawn for Men she deals with vengeance, defiance, the ascension of nature, and the acceptance of death: opening track “Ill, Mother of Death” begins with a pastoral idyll and turns into a Maenad-mad invocation of a death goddess. Lovely instrumental “Look Not to Erebor” provides an eerie and melancholy respite after the renouncing fury of “Forgiver, I Am Not Yours.” This is a rich and unsettling album, full of horror and beauty, and I’m going to be revisiting it a lot. Killjoy also expresses her worldview through other musical endeavors, making neofolk as Alsarath (the EP Come to Daggers dropped in January), blackened doom as Vulgarite (the EP Fear Not the Dark nor the Sun’s Return came out the same month), and electronica as Nomadic War Machine (the track “The Flood Came Over Me” arrived in March). Killjoy has a methodical bent to her prolificacy; she sorts and organizes the different aspects of her creativity into categories, and uses varying sounds to conjure varying energies. As in her work as an author, she tailors the style of her prose to the vibe of the story at hand. v

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British singer Dua Lipa released her second album, Future Nostalgia, on March 27–a week earlier than she originally planned, but right on schedule to give the world a much-needed dose of bubblegum poptimism. The title track opens with a promise: “You want a timeless track, I want to change the game.” From there, the album’s 11 songs blend disco beats and 80s synths in a throwback sound that channels late-night dance clubs and Jazzercise classes. Lipa intended Future Nostalgia to soundtrack a springtime when people could bop with friends at clubs and house parties, instead of alone in their living rooms–but while these dance tracks feel a little discordant with our cooped-up reality, the album’s title feels almost prophetic. Who knows what we’ll feel nostalgic for in the coming days? Throughout Lipa’s career, she’s displayed an effortless cool, and with Future Nostalgia she takes another step toward becoming a top-tier pop star. “Don’t show up, don’t come out, don’t start caring about me now,” she sings to a salty ex-lover on nu-disco lead single “Don’t Start Now,” which dropped last fall and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Six months after its release, the lyrics seem to be directed at all of us. v

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