Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.
Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.
With support from our sponsors
Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.
Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.
Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.
With support from our sponsors
Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.
Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky riffs on the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty, and interviews politicians, activists, journalists and other political know-it-alls. Presented by the Chicago Reader, the show is available by 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays at chicagoreader.com/joravsky—or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss Oh, What a Week!–the Friday feature in which Ben & producer Dennis (aka, Dr. D.) review the week’s top stories. Also, bonus interviews drop on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays.
Chicago Reader podcasts are recorded on Shure microphones. Learn more at Shure.com.
With support from our sponsors
Chicago Reader senior writer Ben Joravsky discusses the day’s stories with his celebrated humor, insight, and honesty on The Ben Joravsky Show.
A winning record is on the line for the New England Patriots in Week 7. The Patriots will host the ChicagoBears on Monday Night Football with a lot on the line. The Patriots struggled in their first few games, but rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe seems to have breathed new life into the team that has won two straight games. Bill Belichick will have tunnel vision about winning that game for the 2022 Patriots team. However, another prestigious record will be on the line for the head coach.
According to the NFL, Belichick is now tied with Bears legend George Halas for the second most all-time wins by an NFL head coach.
With the Patriots’ dominant 38-15 victory over the Cleveland Browns, Belichick tied legendary Bears coach George Halas for second on the all-time wins list (regular and postseason). Belichick and Halas are tied at 324. Only Don Shula remains in front of Belichick with 347 wins.
Bill Belichick reached that number after 483 games of coaching. Halas coached in 506 games. This storyline will be one to follow during the Monday night game as Belichick can pass record against Halas’ former team. According to Draft Kings, the Bears will head to Foxborough as +7.5 underdogs to the Patriots. The Bears have lost three straight and seem to be in shambles on offense. The Patriots have won two games in a row in a dominating fashion. Belichick will likely take the record against the Bears.
As for Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, he has a while before he catches Belichick. Eberflus can reach a tie for the 379th most-winningest all-time coach with a win over the Patriots. That would put him in company with Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino.
What will the 2022-23 NBA season be remembered for? Some teams will look very similar, but the landscape of the league is never exactly the same two years in a row.
An offseason full of big trades and a handful of star players returning from injury is bound to shake up the NBA standings.
Utah’s deals that sent Rudy Gobert to Minnesota and Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland will likely drop the Jazz out of the playoff race, while the Timberwolves and Cavaliers will seek to take another step toward serious contention.
The Nets will look to reestablish themselves as title contenders. Kyrie Irving‘s vaccination status won’t hold him out of any home games this season, and Brooklyn will see how Ben Simmons fits into the lineup for the first time since trading for him in February.
And all eyes will be on LeBron James and the Lakers in another storyline-filled season in Los Angeles. James is projected to break the NBA scoring record and, alongside Russell Westbrook, will try to help the Lakers bounce back from a disappointing campaign.
Here’s a look at every team’s outlook for the upcoming season, including the most important offseason moves, big questions and which players could be facing a make-or-break 2022-23.
Note: Rankings are based on where members of our panel (ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin, Kevin Pelton and Ohm Youngmisuk) think teams belong heading into this season. Title odds and win totals for 2022-23 by Caesars Sportsbook.
Most impactful offseason “move”: Lonzo Ball’s knee surgery
Injuries derailed a promising first half for Chicago and are already threatening to jeopardize this season. Ball underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee at the start of training camp, his second since January, and neither he, nor the Bulls, have much clarity on when he’ll return.
Chicago was not the same team without Ball last year (27-13 before the injury; 19-23 after). The trio of Alex Caruso, Ayo Dosunmu and veteran Goran Dragic, whom the Bulls signed in free agency, will try to fill the playmaking void.
2022-23 is a make-or-break season for …
Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls’ move to acquire Vucevic from the Magic at the 2021 trade deadline has provided the jolt the franchise had envisioned. Chicago didn’t make the play-in tournament in 2020-21 — ceding the No. 8 overall pick to Orlando, which turned into breakout candidate Franz Wagner — and although they got back to the playoffs last year, Vucevic struggled as the third option alongside DeRozan and LaVine. Vucevic shot 47.3% from the field 31.4% from 3, his lowest totals since 2017-18.
The Bulls are counting on Vucevic to have a bounce-back season in the final year of his contract.
Quote that will define their season:
“Last year, we were not surprised we made the playoffs. A lot of people were surprised. Nor should we be surprised to make the playoffs this year, but what we want to see is improvement. Once you get to the playoffs and you have healthy bodies a lot of things can happen; we have to do better than last year.” — Bulls vice president Arturas Karnisovas
Despite some large question marks entering the season, especially surrounding Ball’s health, the Bulls have their sights set not just on getting to the postseason again, but advancing in the playoffs as well. It’s a natural progression to build on from last season, but also high internal expectations for a team with more than a few unknowns — at point guard, whether Vucevic will bounce back and the growth of young players such as Patrick Williams and Dosunmu. Chicago led the East for most of last season’s first half, but injuries to Ball, Caruso and LaVine kept the Bulls from playing at full strength down the stretch and in the postseason.
— Collier
When we last saw them … the Knicks failed to build on their surprising surge to fourth place in the East two seasons ago. Last year’s 11th-place finish was headlined by a steep regression from Julius Randle following his All-NBA performance in 2020-21.
The women of Automatic were born to be in an art-punk band, but they’re still finding their footing. Much of the Los Angeles group’s press coverage has treated them like they’re learning their craft in real time while growing an audience through social media and handshakes. While that may be true, they’ve also had more career and creative advantages than your average indie outfit. Drummer Lola Dompé is the daughter of Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins, and singer and synthesist Izzy Glaudini is the daughter of playwright Robert Glaudini and sister of Criminal Minds and Sopranos actor Lola Glaudini. Suffice to say they’ve had a leg up accessing artistic tools and professional guidance.
Still, Automatic aren’t aspiring to be arena rockers. Much of their charm comes from how they try to reconcile the inspiration they’ve found in DIY music scenes with their inheritances—not just a certain amount of industry access but also upbringings that included being exposed early to groundbreaking countercultural bands such as Suicide and Devo. On their 2019 debut album, Signals, they lean into an energetic, bass-heavy postpunk minimalism while halfheartedly brooding about how capitalism organizes everyday life. Their latest album, June’s Excess, embraces a poppier sensibility while wrestling with the social realities of the pandemic and climate change. It’s sometimes interesting, but it’s rarely adventurous—and it lacks the cohesion of Signals.
Their vision comes through better in their music videos, which borrow from Warholian poptimism (“Venus Hour”) while toying with a Cold War aesthetic of anxiety (“New Beginning”). Automatic’s videos are flirty and fun, and they demonstrate a studied understanding of the roots of their audio and visual aesthetics while trying to situate them in the “now.” In “New Beginning” they head to outer space to escape a world on fire, drawing a parallel between the nuclear arms race (where the video gets much of its visual language) and present-day global warming. The video also functions like a survey of counterculture ideas from the past 60 years, most overtly in its literary references, which include Soviet urban-planning magazines and Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor’s book The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. It questions to what extent money or technology can save us.
While Automatic are still maturing as a band, they’re consciously trying to make the most of their advantages while proving they have something to say. The group shows a lot of promise, and it’s worth your time to watch them come into their own.
Automatic The Mall opens. Sun 10/23, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $15, 21+
The women of Automatic were born to be in an art-punk band, but they’re still finding their footing. Much of the Los Angeles group’s press coverage has treated them like they’re learning their craft in real time while growing an audience through social media and handshakes. While that may be true, they’ve also had more career and creative advantages than your average indie outfit. Drummer Lola Dompé is the daughter of Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins, and singer and synthesist Izzy Glaudini is the daughter of playwright Robert Glaudini and sister of Criminal Minds and Sopranos actor Lola Glaudini. Suffice to say they’ve had a leg up accessing artistic tools and professional guidance.
Still, Automatic aren’t aspiring to be arena rockers. Much of their charm comes from how they try to reconcile the inspiration they’ve found in DIY music scenes with their inheritances—not just a certain amount of industry access but also upbringings that included being exposed early to groundbreaking countercultural bands such as Suicide and Devo. On their 2019 debut album, Signals, they lean into an energetic, bass-heavy postpunk minimalism while halfheartedly brooding about how capitalism organizes everyday life. Their latest album, June’s Excess, embraces a poppier sensibility while wrestling with the social realities of the pandemic and climate change. It’s sometimes interesting, but it’s rarely adventurous—and it lacks the cohesion of Signals.
Their vision comes through better in their music videos, which borrow from Warholian poptimism (“Venus Hour”) while toying with a Cold War aesthetic of anxiety (“New Beginning”). Automatic’s videos are flirty and fun, and they demonstrate a studied understanding of the roots of their audio and visual aesthetics while trying to situate them in the “now.” In “New Beginning” they head to outer space to escape a world on fire, drawing a parallel between the nuclear arms race (where the video gets much of its visual language) and present-day global warming. The video also functions like a survey of counterculture ideas from the past 60 years, most overtly in its literary references, which include Soviet urban-planning magazines and Monica Sjöö and Barbara Mor’s book The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. It questions to what extent money or technology can save us.
While Automatic are still maturing as a band, they’re consciously trying to make the most of their advantages while proving they have something to say. The group shows a lot of promise, and it’s worth your time to watch them come into their own.
Automatic The Mall opens. Sun 10/23, 8:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, $15, 21+
