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When to expect the Chicago Blackhawks making the Stanley Cup Playoffs againTodd Welteron June 1, 2022 at 1:00 pm

The Chicago Blackhawks are in the middle of a Stanley Cup playoff drought. Ever since being swept out by the Nashville Predators in their 2017 first-round playoff series, the Blackhawks have made the postseason just once.

That was only because the NHL had an expanded playoff in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goalie Corey Crawford played brilliantly to help the Hawks win their play-in series over Edmonton. Still, that Blackhawks team was not good enough to make a postseason run and was disposed of quickly by the Vegas Knights.

Outside of the pandemic year, the Chicago Blackhawks have now missed out on playing in one of the best playoffs tournaments four times.

Despite the missed time, the Blackhawks are still ranked in the top-5 of the most playoff series wins over the last 16 years.

Will the @TBLightning climb into the top spot this year? ? #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/nLmGKavXAT

— NHL (@NHL) May 31, 2022

This year’s playoff run has been frustrating to watch as many former Blackhawks are thriving.

Instead of cheering on the actual Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs, Hawks fans were forced to cheer for the Minnesota Wild to get into the Western Conference Finals. They failed and now the Blackhawks come away from the Marc Andre-Fleury trade with a second-round pick instead of a first had the Wild advanced that far.

Hawks fans now need the Oilers to make the Stanley Cup Finals. If that happens, the Chicago Blackhawks get a second-round pick as part of the Duncan Keith trade-and also a chance to see the Hawks legend get a chance at a fourth Stanley Cup.

From 2009-2017, this used to be a time Hawks fans watched glorious moments on the way toward winning three Stanley Cups. Sure, there were heartbreaking exits in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014 but it was still fun to watch the Hawks compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Poor personal decisions by previous general manager Stan Bowman and a decline in production to the Hawks’ Stanely Cup core have led to this playoff hiatus.

New general manager Kyle Davidson is overseeing a full-out rebuild the Blackhawks should have done five years ago. He plans on not making the same mistakes his previous boss did.

Kyle Davidson has asked his scouts to look for a different type of player than Stan Bowman did as general manager. This is why Davidson’s changed the Blackhawks’ scouting philosophies: https://t.co/oVt7588gTG

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) May 23, 2022

A rebuild is desperately needed but maybe looking at the four remaining teams in the playoff is how long can Blackhawks fans can expect to wait before Chicago is back in the playoffs.

Edmonton Oilers

Current postseason streak: 3Longest playoff drought before contention: 2007-2016 and then missed playoffs in 2018 and 2019Biggest moves that got them moving towards playoff contention: Drafting Connor McDavid first overall in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and hiring Ken Holland as general manager in 2019.

Colorado Avalanche

Current postseason streak: 5Longest playoff drought before contention: 2011-2013 and 2015-2017 when they were real bad.Biggest moves that got them moving towards playoff contention: Drafting Nathan MacKinnon first overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft and hiring Joe Sakic as general manager in 2014.

New York Rangers

Current postseason streak: 1 (but they have made the postseason 13 times since 2006)Longest playoff drought before contention: Missed postseason in 2018, 2019, and 2021.Biggest move that got them moving towards playoff contention: Naming Igor Shesterki starting goalie.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Current postseason streak: 5 and they have won the last two Stanley Cups.Longest playoff drought before contention: 2008-2010 (and they were also bad in 2012-2013)Biggest moves that got them moving towards contention: They followed this plan and drafted really well.

Rebuilds can last two to three seasons or almost 10 years depending on well the plan is executed. One thing these teams have in common is they drafted their cornerstones players and developed them properly.

Drafting and patient development is something Davidson hopes to do in this rebuild. That is something previous leadership did not do and that is why the Blackhawks have missed the playoffs all these years.

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When to expect the Chicago Blackhawks making the Stanley Cup Playoffs againTodd Welteron June 1, 2022 at 1:00 pm Read More »

How Nikola Vucevic can still be a crucial Chicago Bulls pieceAnish Puligillaon June 1, 2022 at 12:00 pm

The Chicago Bulls are in an extremely interesting position as a team this summer. With a combination of players in different stages of their careers, they are currently riding the fence between trying to win now and developing their young talent to construct a perennial juggernaut.

They’re spearheaded by their vets in DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic. Zach LaVine is the young star that was brought to Chicago to support. Waiting in the wings to take over are the likes of Patrick Williams, Lonzo Ball, and Ayo Dosunmu.

However, the Bulls have a problem. The mismatch of talent and experience across their roster makes free-agent and other front office decision-making even more difficult as AKME has to weigh the promise of the future with their goals today.

No one player speaks to this conundrum more than Nikola Vucevic. Vucevic, who was brought to the Bulls via trade at the all-star break in 2021, was said to be the prolific and dominant big man Zach LaVine has never had in Chicago.

Coming off back-to-back all-star seasons, he was a sure-fire member of the big 3 and a player that kicked off the process for Chicago to land Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan.

Unfortunately, and by his own admission, Vucevic did not play up to his usual standard in 2021-22. While he still averaged around 17 points per game and pulled down double-digit rebounds, he was a liability from three-point range.

It was a shot that opponents began willingly giving up to him as the Bulls began their tumultuous fall down the Eastern Conference standings in March.

He additionally isn’t the greatest defensively but gets way too much criticism for his play on that end of the floor when a good portion of it should be directed to those on the perimeter letting themselves get beat consistently.

While he did bounce back in the playoffs with a decent showing against Milwaukee, where the Bulls go from here and how they see Vucevic’s role going forward are major unknowns especially as he is set to enter a contract year in 2022-23.

Nikola Vucevic’s future role for the Chicago Bulls in 2022-23 is unknown.

While Vucevic is only 31 and likely has a couple of years of his prime left, one role I could see him thriving in and helping the Bulls be even better is in an ‘Al Horford’ type role.

One thing most Chicago Bulls fans should be picking up on, if they’ve been following the eastern conference playoffs, is that the now Eastern-Conference champs Boston Celtics are a final form version of the Bulls roster.

With a deep bench of defensive wings and guards, two prolific scorers in Tatum and Brown on the wings, and an all-defense point guard in Marcus Smart they have a tough, sound championship-level team.

However, in addition to all that they also have a rotation of big men with Robert Williams, Al Horford, and Daniel Theis who all contribute in some way offensively and defensively.

If the Chicago Bulls were able to figure out a way to land someone like Mitchell Robinson (who can be that defensive anchor) and let Vucevic work in that ‘Horford’ role, the Bulls would all of a sudden have an extremely formidable frontcourt.

They’d still need another ‘big man’ who can rotate in with them but the Bulls’ frontcourt would become a major strength for this team.

A lot is yet to be seen with what the Bulls want to do and even if they did want to do this, it’s tough to know whether or not Vucevic would accept this role.

Being that he is 31 and Horford is 35, he may feel insulted at the prospect of playing a lesser role. However, should everyone opt-in, this type of scenario could resolve the Chicago Bulls’ frontcourt problems.

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How Nikola Vucevic can still be a crucial Chicago Bulls pieceAnish Puligillaon June 1, 2022 at 12:00 pm Read More »

BARNSDALL ART PARK FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES PLANTING OF 40 OLIVE TREES AS PART OF COMMUNITY INITIATIVE TO RESTORE HISTORIC OLIVE GROVE

BARNSDALL ART PARK FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES PLANTING OF 40 OLIVE TREES AS PART OF COMMUNITY INITIATIVE TO RESTORE HISTORIC OLIVE GROVE

Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell Joins Barnsdall Art Park Foundation and Los Angeles Parks Foundation for A Tree Planting Ceremony on June 16 at 8am

 On June 16, Barnsdall Art Park Foundation (BAPF) in partnership with the Los Angeles Parks Foundation, Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and Department of Cultural Affairs will plant 40 olive trees currently missing from the Historic Olive Grove at Barnsdall Park (4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027). 

The planting takes place from 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM and a ceremony will be held from 8-9 AM, marking the next phase of a bold collaborative effort to restore and sustain Barnsdall Art Park’s historic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed landscape, the cornerstone of which is the grove of olive trees that first gave Olive Hill its name back in the 1890s.

The world-renowned 11.5-acre park and cultural destination in East Hollywood includes Hollyhock House, created by Frank Lloyd Wright for Aline Barnsdall, which is Los Angeles’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. As part of this ambitious undertaking, which began in 2021, the Olive Grove’s irrigation system was improved while the 463 existing olive trees were fully pruned and dead stumps removed, making way for this new planting to occur, bringing life and beauty to Olive Hill.

BAPF has raised and contributed $33,000 to plant and maintain 40 new olive trees, which includes 2 years of follow up care, through the Los Angeles Park Forest program, created and managed by the Los Angeles Parks Foundation (www.laparksfoundation.org). Los Angeles Parks Foundation’s mission is to enhance and preserve public parks for the City and their Los Angeles Park Forest initiative adds trees to city parks to offset the carbon footprint, cool surface air temperatures, and educate the public about climate change. The Barnsdall Olive Grove Initiative will improve the air quality of the East Hollywood community and support the ongoing tree planting goals of L.A.’s Green New Deal.

“Barnsdall Art Park is a unique and priceless gem in the City of Los Angeles, and this Olive Grove Initiative is yet another reminder as to why,” said Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell. “Preserving the existing trees and propagating new, healthy olive trees into the campus’s landscape is an essential step in preserving this historically significant grove that is an essential contributor to this cultural resource we all cherish, Barnsdall Art Park, and UNESCO World Heritage Site Hollyhock House.”  

A number of individuals have donated trees in honor of loved ones. Nathan Miller, CEO of Miller Ink, will be donating and planting a tree as part of the event in memory of his late grandmother, Harriet Miller, who worked as a trailblazing Director of the Barnsdall Park Junior Art Center for many years. 

Planting trees is one of the most important investments we can make in our communities and this initiative is both an environmental justice and a climate action program. Barnsdall Art Park Foundation invites Angelenoes to support the ongoing revitalization of the Barnsdall Olive Grove through donating at www.barnsdall.org

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BARNSDALL ART PARK FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES PLANTING OF 40 OLIVE TREES AS PART OF COMMUNITY INITIATIVE TO RESTORE HISTORIC OLIVE GROVE

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A dynasty reborn or an 18th banner? Experts’ picks for the Warriors-Celtics NBA Finalson June 1, 2022 at 12:59 pm

Which team will be this year’s NBA champion?

The 2022 Finals features the league’s top two defenses throughout the regular season, but the Golden State WarriorsBoston Celtics clash will focus on some of the most dangerous offensive threats in the game.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, their Splash Brothers partnership whole again after Thompson missed more than two seasons with ACL and Achilles’ injuries, are making nearly eight 3-pointers per game during Golden State’s run to the Finals, while Boston’s dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each have a 40-plus point performance on their 2022 postseason r?sum?.

This series also presents a host of lineup decisions for coaches Steve Kerr and Ime Udoka. Will the Warriors go heavy on smallball, with Draymond Green at center? Who will be the primary defenders on superstars like Curry and Tatum?

Which side will prevail? Our experts are making their predictions for the Finals winner and which player will be named Finals MVP.

MORE: What to know for the Finals | Schedule and news

Kendra Andrews: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Stephen Curry

Jerry Bembry: Celtics in 6 | MVP: Jayson Tatum

Tim Bontemps: Celtics in 6 | MVP: Tatum

Nick DePaula: Warriors in 6 | MVP: Curry

Nick Friedell: Celtics in 6 | MVP: Tatum

Kirk Goldsberry: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Israel Gutierrez: Celtics in 6 | MVP: Jaylen Brown

Baxter Holmes: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Tim Legler: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Andrew Lopez: Warriors in 6 | MVP: Curry

Tim MacMahon: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Bobby Marks: Warriors in 5 | MVP: Klay Thompson

Dave McMenamin: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Kevin Pelton: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Omar Raja: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Jorge Sedano: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Ramona Shelburne: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Thompson

Andr? Snellings: Celtics in 7 | MVP: Tatum

Marc J. Spears: Warriors in 7 | MVP: Curry

Ohm Youngmisuk: Warriors in 6 | MVP: Curry

Finals winner: Warriors 15, Celtics 5

Finals MVP: Stephen Curry 13, Jayson Tatum 4, Klay Thompson 2, Jaylen Brown 1

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A dynasty reborn or an 18th banner? Experts’ picks for the Warriors-Celtics NBA Finalson June 1, 2022 at 12:59 pm Read More »

3 trades that send Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine to DallasRyan Heckmanon June 1, 2022 at 11:00 am

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The 2022 NBA Playoffs have been a wild ride, with neither number one seed making it to the Finals. Although the Chicago Bulls missed out on a deep postseason run, their season can be considered a success based on where they ended a year ago.

In order to become a Finals team in the near future, the Bulls will have to gel more as a group. In addition, they will have to figure out how to add more talent around their current core.

Adding talent to this core, though, may be tricky. The offseason outlook is a bit murky right now, with both Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball having uncertain futures; each for a different reason.

While Ball’s is health-related, LaVine’s future depends solely on his decision in free agency. Should he choose to stay, the Bulls could run it back and look to make it even further. But, if LaVine chooses to leave, things become clouded.

The Dallas Mavericks have been rumored as one of the top landing spots for Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine in free agency.

Recently, NBA insider Marc Stein wrote that he believes the Dallas Mavericks are one of the most likely landing spots for LaVine. However, it would come via sign-and-trade, which is a method we saw teams take advantage of a year ago.

LaVine leaving the Bulls would not be an ideal scenario for Chicago who, again, need another offseason to come together as a team that added many new pieces a year ago.

But, it’s a reality the Bulls could be forced to live with, and the Mavericks are a team that make a lot of sense. LaVine playing next to Luka Doncic could be exactly what Dallas needed in order to get past a team like the Warriors.

If LaVine does end up in Dallas, one of these three sign-and-trade packages could end up coming back to Chicago.

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3 trades that send Chicago Bulls star Zach LaVine to DallasRyan Heckmanon June 1, 2022 at 11:00 am Read More »

The baby formula and feral pig edition of The Month in Review

The baby formula and feral pig edition of The Month in Review

When you looked back on some of the ridiculous behavior in the first quarter of the year, you would think it couldn’t get worse. Then came the month of May. Take a look.

In celebrity violence, comedian Dave Chapelle was attacked while on stage during a performance. Chris Rock’s snarky response to this: “Was that Will Smith?” Then, before a baseball game against San Francisco, Cincinnati outfielder Tommy Phan slapped Giant player Joc Pedersen because of a dispute over a high-stake Fantasy Football league. It looks like 2022 will be the year of the slap….and we still have seven months to go.

One of the month’s biggest stories is the shortage of baby formula. Naturally, Fox News commentators felt a need to chime in with their misguided opinions lies.

Sean Hannity: “Look at that. Pallets and pallets of baby formula for illegal immigrants and their families.” Ummmm….Sean…it wasn’t baby formula in those pallets and you knew it. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Jesse Waters: “The Biden administration is feeding illegal babies.” Hmmm…what’s an illegal baby?

The formula shortage is bad enough without lies making it worse. Plus, does Fox News really want any babies to starve? How compassionate of them.

Everyone occasionally says things they wish they could take back. Most of us are only embarrassed in front of family and friends. But when you’re in public life, it sticks with you. Here are some doozies and head shakers:

Golf legend Greg Norman is the face of a new golf league that is bankrolled by the Saudis. Yep, the same people who murdered and dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, When questioned about this, Norman responded with “We all make mistakes.”

Women’s reproductive health has been a hot topic. Louisiana has an extremely high rate of pregnancy-related deaths. One of their senators, Bill Cassidy explained what he felt was the reason for this: “If you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it otherwise appears.”

We aren’t done with Senator Bill. Obviously, guns have been the biggest topic since last week. The murders of nineteen fourth-grade children and two teachers have rocked the nation to its core. Since then we’ve been hearing a multitude of reasons from Republicans as to why more regulations on guns, specifically assault guns, are not needed. Cassidy left most of us speechless with this bizarre explanation: “Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you take it away from them? I’m law-abiding, I’ve never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.”  

In Chicago, we’ve had our share of crime and violence. In response, there is now a curfew of 10 pm that applies to ages seventeen and under. Alderman Jason Ervin had this response to the curfew: “Nothing is open after ten but legs and liquor stores.”

These guys should have checked out Abe Lincoln before spouting their crap. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.

Finally, again in Chicago, Alderman Michael Scott resigned his position on the city council. It was believed that he did this so Mayor Lori Lightfoot could choose his replacement. I think it was because he decided to move to Colorado to be with Holly. At least that’s what she said…..

That’s the news for May. I can only imagine what June will bring.

Related Post: The Ron DeSantis edition of The Month in Review

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How the Cubs’ veteran lefties have influenced Justin Steele

Take it from Drew Smyly: “All lefties kind of stick together and gravitate towards each other. I don’t know why. Everyone calls this weird. But there’s some secret recognition lefty to lefty.”

A week ago, the lefties in the Cubs’ rotation outnumbered the right-handers. On Tuesday, when southpaw Justin Steele took the mound against the Brewers, he was the Cubs’ only healthy left-handed starter left.

Wade Miley had gone on the 15-day IL over the weekend with what the Cubs called a left shoulder strain. Smyly left the second game of a double header on Monday with right oblique soreness. Cubs manager David Ross said the team would determine next steps for Smyly after it got back imaging on the injury.

Steele, in a way, is a product of both the veteran lefties he shared a rotation with.

Smyly, who signed with the Cubs this spring, remembers seeing on TV that Steele was in the big-leagues last year and thinking, “I’m glad he made it.”

They’d rehabbed from Tommy John surgery together in 2018. Steele, 22 at the time, had played as high as Single-A. Smyly was already established in the major leagues and was only temporarily with the Cubs, who he wouldn’t suit up for until 2021.

“I remember his rehab went a whole lot smoother than mine,” Smyly said. “I think maybe because he was younger, I don’t know. Everyone’s different. … My elbow hurt every day of the rehab process. And every day he’d come in and just be throwing super hard and just feeling great, brand new. I was like, ‘Why is it like this for me?'”

Smyly laughs about it now.

“He was pretty mature back then,” Smyly said. “He was young, but personality-wise, he seems very similar [to now.] Hewas funny, very laid back and confident. But I remember I never wanted to play catch with him. Because he was hard to catch, he threw it really hard at you.”

Miley and Steele don’t go back as far, only becoming teammates when Miley signed with the Cubs in December. But their hometowns (Hammond, Louisiana and Lucedale, Mississippi) are only about a two and a half hour drive apart, which gave them “some common ground,” as Steele put it.

“His stuff’s good,” Miley said last week, adding how much he’s enjoyed watching Steele’s progress this season. “He does throw hard, he has all the nasty stuff, and now he’s learning how to use it. And I’m excited for that kid’s future because I think he’s got a really bright outlook ahead of him.”

Early in the season, Steele was fighting a tendency to rush to the plate in his delivery. Then Miley gave him the cue that clicked for him: Keep your back ear over the rubber.

He told Steele that was the cue he’d used early in his career when he had the same issue.

“Different things click with different players,” Steele said. “That’s why baseball is so weird. Because you take [two guys who are] doing the same thing wrong, you tell them the same cue to fix it. It’ll work for one, but you’ve got to say something different for the other one. That’s just what’s great about this game.”

Consistency will be a big focus in Steele’s development. In two starts against the Diamondbacks, Steele recorded a combined 19 strikeouts. The next week at Cincinnati, he gave up seven runs in two innings.

On Tuesday, he held the Brewers to three runs through five innings, despite walking four batters.

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Chrissie Dickinson died with too much writing yet to do and too much art yet to createCynthia Jenkinson June 1, 2022 at 1:41 am

Chrissie Dickinson was a multimedia artist and award-winning country and rock ‘n’ roll critic whose work appeared in the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, Newcity, the Boston Phoenix, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. She died on May 19, 2022, from heart failure. She is remembered here by friend and creative partner Cynthia Hammond Jenkins.

It was Halloween 1980. I was 18 and a freshman at Indiana University.

I was dolled up in a pink vintage minidress with diagonal mirrors sewn all over it and a pair of suede ankle boots, both of which my new friend Angi had loaned me. She had just painted a colorful, pop-art flower over my eye, transforming me into 60s supermodel Twiggy. She was going as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.  

I’d met Angi a few days before at the IU student union grill, where she was flipping burgers in an old-school hairnet. In a southern Indiana twang, she asked me who my favorite band was. I told her it was a tie between the Stones and the Who. Angi immediately invited me to join her that Friday for my first off-campus party. 

When we arrived at that art-school shindig, the crowd was spilling onto the front porch and sidewalk. Kids were smoking, drinking keg beer, and jamming to “Mirror in the Bathroom” by the English Beat. Some were dressed for Halloween, but others were simply letting their freak flags fly. Angi pointed out a girl across the room—someone she said she couldn’t wait for me to meet. 

Chris Dickinson.

Chris was talking to a friend. I watched her hands dance around with a lit cigarette as she told a story. She threw her head back and laughed.

She was wearing a black leather jacket, straight-leg jeans, and Beatle boots. Her hair was feathered and blondish. She looked like Suzi Quatro, the Detroit rock bassist who’d played Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days.

I smiled as she crossed the room toward me. Her first words were, “Why are you wearing my dress?” As I scrambled to make sense of her question, she added, “Are those my boots too?” 

I looked down at my outfit, embarrassed. “I didn’t know,” I said lamely.

She turned to Angi, who mumbled a long-winded excuse—she thought it’d been another friend, Julie, who’d left the clothes in Angi’s dorm room. “No, Angi,” Chris answered. “That was me. It’s OK. Just return them tomorrow.” She walked away in a plume of cigarette smoke.

The next Sunday, Angi invited me over to her room, knowing that most of the other dorm kids would be off campus for dinner. She invited Chris too, saying she wanted to make things right with us because we were destined to be great friends. 

Chris showed up with a smile and a milk crate filled with albums. We laughed about the Twiggy dress fiasco.

She played us the Clash’s London Calling and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols. She dropped the needle onto the first albums by Elvis Costello, U2, and the Police. She pulled out Marvin Gaye, the Jackson Five, and the Temptations. She turned me onto Loretta, Dolly, Tammy, and George. But it was Patti Smith’s poetic, punk Horses that sealed the deal. 

I had to pee and raced down the hall, where I discovered the primo acoustics of the ancient dorm’s bathroom. I could hear Smith’s “Elegie” playing from the stereo in Angi’s room, and I joined its lament, my voice echoing from the tiled loo out into the empty corridor.

By the time I got back, Chris and Angi had decided that we were going to be a band. Chris on guitar, Angi on drums, and me on bass. A power trio. No worries that I had never picked up a bass. We’d figure it out. 

We called ourselves the Altered Boys. Our first gig was in spring 1981. We banged out a set of four originals and two covers—“Not Fade Away” and a punked-up version of “Love Me Do.” Angi had a bleach-blonde Mohawk and hammered away on a patched-up floor tom and a metal sink turned upside down. I was playing a borrowed Höfner bass. Chris rocked her 1965 Music Man. Our passion was contagious, and the audience clapped and hollered for an encore. We were hooked.

Sally’s Dream: Cynthia Jenkins (aka Cyn Hammond), Chrissie Dickinson, Emily Jackson (upper right), and Jenny Davis (lower right) Credit: Courtesy Cynthia Jenkins

We tumbled hand in hand into the verdant music scene in Bloomington, Indiana. Altered Boys morphed into Glass Factory, and by 1983 Chris and I had found a long-term musical home in the band Sally’s Dream, with Jenny Davis on keyboards and Emily Jackson on drums. 

We toured the midwest and the south in Stella, our faithful step van, playing the legendary rock ’n’ roll dives of the day. The stories that Stella could tell . . . 

At the same time, Chris began her career as a journalist in Bloomington, the land of Hoagy Carmichael and Ernie Pyle. She started writing about music at IU’s newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student

Her editor there, Karla Fisk, remembers her well. “As a guitarist and songwriter, Chris understood rock and punk from the inside out,” Fisk says. “In 1982, Richard and Linda Thompson came to Bloomington. Chris’s review of that performance was one of her first reviews ever. She soared from there, becoming a music writer of great perception and range.”

Sally’s Dream opens for Romeo Void at Jake’s Nightclub in Bloomington, Indiana, in the mid-80s. Left: Chrissie Dickinson; right: Chrissie Dickinson and Cynthia Jenkins.
Credit: Jeff Mathews

In 1987, Sally’s Dream packed up our instruments and moved to Boston to seek our fame in the grungy rock clubs that surrounded Fenway Park and Cambridge. After four adventurous years, Chris and I returned to the midwest and settled in Chicago. We had ill and aging family members and wanted to be closer to home. Sally’s Dream never officially broke up; life just got in the way.

In the mid-90s, Chris was recruited as the pop music critic at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering all genres of popular music. Then Nashville called her name. 

A Chrissie Dickinson original from 2018

In the 90s, the Country Music Hall of Fame was a funky little barn on Music Row, bursting at the seams with history. It also housed the office of the Journal of Country Music, an influential magazine for which Chris wrote and served as editor for five years. In 2000, the journal published her pioneering article “Country Undetectable: Gay Artists in Country Music.” 

“She was an absolutely fearless writer and ahead of her time in her groundbreaking coverage of women artists, people of color, and LGBTQ+ folk in country music,” says Lauren Bufferd, former director of the library and collections at the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

Chris returned to Chicago in September 2001 and began using the byline “Chrissie Dickinson.” She continued writing her smart and insightful articles for the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, TONEAudio Magazine, and the Washington Post, among others. 

But most important, Chrissie was a passionate artist, constantly creating her own lyrically bold and brilliant music, haunting and evocative videos, and hilarious and heartbreaking characters. Some of her videos are available on YouTube. My favorite is “The Endless Summer (of Joni Mitchell).”

Chrissie Dickinson’s “The Endless Summer (of Joni Mitchell),” which she posted in 2013

In the heart of the pandemic, Chrissie and I started playing around with an essay that she had written called “The Far Side of Forty.” Using shared docs on the Internet, we wrote a novel called Girl Rock Reunion, about lifelong friendships between former bandmates. We were on our final draft when Chrissie’s illness took hold.

Chrissie died of heart failure on May 19 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, with her two surviving sisters, Lore and Marie, at her side. She leaves behind hundreds of friends, colleagues, and readers longing for what she still could’ve created as a writer and artist.

Chrissie Dickinson recorded this song at her home with Cynthia Jenkins in summer 2009, when Jenkins still lived in Chicago and the two of them got together every Saturday to make music.

I think about those early days and how lucky our circle has been to have Chrissie for four decades of friendship, music, and laughter. I was madly in love with her from that first Halloween in 1980. I thought we would grow old together—two aging punk ladies, still rockin’ after all these years.

Chrissie Dickinson and Cynthia Jenkins on the lakefront near Hollywood Beach in 2013 Credit: Matt JenkinsRead More

Chrissie Dickinson died with too much writing yet to do and too much art yet to createCynthia Jenkinson June 1, 2022 at 1:41 am Read More »

Cubs went — in exactly a year — from a thrilling night to an unrecognizable sight

For the Cubs, nothing about the 2021 season was easy. After a while — the trade deadline looming — every day became more awkward than the last. What would happen to the team’s core? Was it really going to be goodbye? It was all just too much.

But May 31 at Wrigley Field was magical. It was afternoon baseball, the weather was right and the red-hot Padres — the talk of the league at the time — were in town. The game itself would deliver so much on top of all that.

Anybody remember who homered twice? It was Patrick Wisdom, who capped his first week as a Cub with career homers Nos. 2 and 3 as the Cubs won 7-2.

But Wisdom wasn’t the only one. Javy Baez — like teammate Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant, a pending free agent — stepped up in the third inning and, with the count full against righthander Chris Paddock, took one 455 feet, standing at the plate and watching until the ball was rattling around the camera well high above the shrubbery in dead center. After homering again — his 13th already — in the seventh, Baez received a curtain call from the crowd of 24,824, which was maxed out at 60% due to pandemic restrictions.

“It felt like a playoff game,” he said afterward.

Bryant also homered — he used to do that sort of thing now and again, you know — and the Cubs finished the month at 30-23 and in first place in their division.

June swoon? Not gonna happen.

Break up the team? The front office better start embracing a winning Plan B.

Or so one wanted to believe after a game like that. Ah, well. The Cubs haven’t stopped swooning since.

Exactly one year later, the inconsequential Cubs were back at Wrigley, where they’ve stumbled and bumbled and — with the first-place Brewers in town and the second-place Cardinals on deck — undoubtedly will continue to be humbled.

The gap between these teams is nevertheless almost startling. The Cubs took the field Tuesday with a record of 19-29, 10 games under .500 before June for the first time since 2014. The Brewers were flashing a 32-18 mark, only 2 1/2 games off the league-best paces of the Dodgers and Yankees.

The Cubs are in a full-blown rebuild while president Jed Hoyer twists himself into a rhetorical pretzel posturing as though the R-word doesn’t fit. The Brewers don’t know how to say “rebuild,” either, because all they do is win and keep going for the gusto. It will surprise all of baseball if they don’t reach the postseason for the fifth year in a row, and just imagine if they win their first-ever World Series. If they can pull that off, there will be a debate worth having about which run was more impressive: the Cubs’ one that’s over-and-out or the Brewers’ one that’s still at full throttle.

But what there’s no argument whatsoever about is which of these teams is relevant in 2022 and which isn’t. Not to mention which of these clubs repeatedly rises above its market size and limitations, and which slinks along below it.

It was all too fitting in Game 3 of this brutal homestand that the Cubs’ 26-year-old lefty starter, Justin Steele, took the mound with a record of 1-5 and the Brewers’ 26-year-old lefty starter, Eric Lauer, followed him there at 5-1.

Will Steele be here two years from now, one year from now, two months from now?

Will the who’s-who of “who?” that is the Cubs roster stick around, come and go, fade into oblivion?

It’s a cute story that Matt Swarmer — who started a game Monday as the Cubs dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Brewers — pitched against 40-year-olds in a rec league to try to stay sharp in 2020. It would be even cuter if it were possible to take a few liberties with his surname, turn him into Kyle Schwarber and plant him back in left field.

And did you see that backup catcher P.J. Higgins is Swarmer’s guy, has been his battery mate for years? It’s nice. OK, so it ain’t David Ross and Jon Lester.

Are we to pay any attention at all to the bromance between young prospects Christopher Morel and Nelson Velasquez? Or is it safe to assume we don’t have quite the next Bryzzo on our hands?

Or maybe they’ll pan out and everything will be great. Until then, there is no joy — no magic — in Mudville.

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Statue honoring victims of Our Lady of the Angels fire returns to site of blaze

Leo Sorce was just 13 years old when he stood across the street watching flames rip through Our Lady of the Angels School in the winter of 1958.

He recalled being surrounded by dozens of his classmates who laid on the ground dying — if not already dead — but he said his inability to remember details of the carnage in front of him was a gift from God.

“My feeling is that we must always remember, we will never forget,” Sorce, 77, said through tears. “We have to honor our classmates and our sisters who lost their lives.”

On Tuesday, a statue memorializing the victims of the Catholic school fire that claimed 95 lives and injured hundreds more returned to the site after more than 20 years.

The Blessed Mother statue was displayed at the Church of the Holy Family, 1080 W. Roosevelt Rd., since 1999. It was moved there after Our Lady of the Angels Parish School closed.

It now sits at the entrance of the newly renovated Mission of Our Lady of the Angels’ Outreach Center. The center is on the grounds of the former school building at 3814 W. Iowa St.

A procession of Chicago Fire Department firetrucks drove the statue from Church of the Holy Family to Mission of Our Lady of the Angels’ Outreach Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Members of the Chicago Fire Department carry the Blessed Mother statue into the newly renovated Mission of Our Lady of the Angels’ Outreach Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, May 31, 2022. The Blessed Mother statue, which serves as a memorial for the victims of the 1958 fire at Our Lady of the Angels School, where 92 children and three nuns died and hundreds were injured, was blessed and installed at the outreach center Tuesday.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

A few dozen parishioners smiled as the firetruck, with its sirens blaring, turned onto Iowa Street with the statue hitched to the front of the truck. Some clapped as others held their cell phone out to record its arrival.

Many are fond of the statue that memorializes the 92 elementary-school students and three nuns killed in the devastating blaze that ravaged Our Lady of the Angels school in 1958. The devastating blaze triggered stricter fire safety codes nationwide.

It took several men to unhitch the 400-pound-marble statue and lift it onto its 200-pound-granite base, which has the names of every victim inscribed on it.

Third grade students from nearby Maternity BVM School sang hymns throughout the ceremony, and once the statue was remounted on its base, one student climbed a step ladder with the help of a firefighter to place a crown made of roses on the statue’s head.

Cardinal Blase Cupich blessed the statue and led parishioners in prayer. He also said the fire was the catalyst for many fire prevention policies in the Chicago area — like sprinkler systems, fire resistant doors and stairwells being closed off.

As for Sorce, he said it is somewhat of a bittersweet moment for him and many other survivors. He’s happy to see the statue home but saddened when he looks at the names of his former classmates.

Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich and Auxiliary Bishop Robert Lombardo, who is the founder and director of Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, stand beside the Blessed Mother statue during its blessing at the newly renovated Mission of Our Lady of the Angels’ Outreach Center in the Humboldt Park neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

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