Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 got under way Friday afternoon in Union Park, marking the return of the West Loop staple after COVID forced its cancelation in 2020.

The eclectic lineup promises a mix of hip-hop, R&B, indie rock and more.

And hot on the heels of Lollapalooza last month, the music festival has strict COVID-19 safety protocols in place, requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative test within 24 hours for each day of the fest in order to gain entry. Masks are encouraged at all times, per the festival’s website and signs posted at entry.

In addition to music, a popup art fair featuring the work of local artists made for perfect summertime shopping and browsing.

Here’s a look at the sights and sounds of Friday’s festival:

Frances Quinlan of Hop Along performs on day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Tyler Long of Hop Along performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Jason Balla of DEHD performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Festival-goers check out art by local artists on day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Emily Kempf of DEHD performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Festival goers shop at a fair on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A sign asks people to wear a mask when shopping at a fair on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Masks are visible throughout the crowd as fans watch DEHD perform on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Festival goers wait in line buy a t-shirt on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday in Union Park.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A festival-goer dances with hoops at Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021. Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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Two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and America got scared.

Oh, we looked noble and resolute at first. We mourned our dead and rallied around our firefighters. We gave speeches about standing together. Rudy Giuliani, then the mayor of New York, seemed to speak for us all when he stood amid the rubble and quietly said, “The number of casualties will be more than any of us can bear ultimately.”

We vowed to get the bad guys, and polls reported a boost in patriotism. Eight out of 10 of us displayed an American flag after our nation launched airstrikes a month later against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Then we took the low road. We turned on each other. We went looking for scapegoats. We turned against Muslims first, here and abroad, and then against any perceived outsiders. We conflated terrorists with immigrants. We found our chance to indulge our prejudices, to act on our worst impulses, and we took it.

Not all of us, of course. Far from it. But many of us. Egged on by right-wing politicians, right-wing radio talkers and right-wing cable TV hosts. They knew how to make hay of America’s trauma, how to ride the fear and anger.

Where failures lie

But wait. Wouldn’t it be more fair to say mistakes were made all around? Not really. And we won’t play the game of false equivalency.

Without a doubt, Americans across the political spectrum failed the test as leaders and citizens in the first months and years after the 9/11 attacks.

Too many Democrats in Congress voted alongside almost every Republican for the infamous Patriot Act, which clawed away at our privacy rights out of a false choice between liberty and security. Too many Democrats voted with almost every Republican for the war in Iraq, though they knew there was nothing to the Bush administration’s insistence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.

Too many Democrats joined Republicans in looking away from the CIA’s black sites in foreign countries, where people were tortured. And all Americans should be ashamed of how we looked away as our government piled up terrorist suspects at Guatanamo Bay Naval Base without charge or due process for now going on 20 years.

But it was right-wing propagandists who fed the fear and distrust, baking it into the American psyche. It was way too many Republican leaders who drove the bus down the low road.

As a writer in the Washington Post recalled last week, President George Bush’s attorney general, John Ashcroft, had this to say weeks after the 9/11 attacks: “Let the terrorists among us be warned: If you overstay your visa — even by one day — we will arrest you.”

It was treacherous for Ashcroft to lump together people who overstay their visas with terrorists.

From 9/11 to the Capitol

A direct line can be drawn from the divisive and reactionary politics pursued after 9/11 — the demonizing of Muslims, the championing of an exclusionary nationalism, a readiness to justify any means to an end — to the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of this year.

There is no distance between Donald Trump’s false claim, when he was still just a New York real estate developer, that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims cheered in New Jersey when the twin towers fell and his later claims as president that undocumented immigrants were rapists and murderers.

There also was nothing new in this. Fanning the fears of the masses is older than the red-baiting of Sen. Joe McCarthy. Compromising our nation’s principles to gain a feeling of security is older than the Japanese American internment camps during World War II. Loathing the latest wave of immigrants is an American pastime.

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Muslims terrorists were suspected immediately, and politicians and commentators railed against foreigners and immigrants. Until we learned the bomber was a homegrown white supremacist, Timothy McVeigh.

But in the days after 9/11, the worst of us ran with the worst of it — the falsehoods, the small-minded meanness and the trashing of democratic norms — and they have yet to quit running.

If they could convince 66% of Americans that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks, what was to stop them from selling the lie that Barack Obama wasn’t born in this country, that Hillary Clinton was involved in child sex trafficking, that Trump won the 2020 election or that the mob that overran the Capitol was a cheerful bunch of tourists?

The sale has become so much easier to make. As a result of congressional district gerrymandering, more politicians no longer have to appeal to a wide spectrum of voters, but only to that narrow ban of true-believers who decide primary elections.

Finagle an interview on Fox News. Throw around a little bile on Facebook and Twitter, which didn’t exist before 9/11. And you’re a shoo-in.

Open to political violence

Twenty years after 9/11, according to a Washington Post poll, a plurality of Americans — 46% — think our nation has changed for the worse. And we are also today more divided.

One month after 9/11, 74% of Americans said the United States was “united” as a country. Today, only 11% of us believe that. We appear to be at loggerheads on just about everything, from how to run an election to when to wear a mask.

Twenty years later — and this should worry us the most — more Americans are willing to endorse violence to get their way in politics. Thirty-six percent of us, according to a poll by the Survey Center on American Life, now say the “use of force” may be necessary to stop the “decline” of America’s traditional way of life.

Twenty years after 9/11, the fear, the fear-mongering and rank opportunism rage on.

Send letters to [email protected].

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As Illinois’ Delta variant resurgence of COVID-19 keeps pushing some hospitals to the limit, public health officials on Friday reported the state’s first week-to-week decline in cases this summer, suggesting the latest coronavirus wave could be cresting.

A total of 26,062 Illinoisans tested positive over the last week, dipping 14% from the 30,319 residents diagnosed the previous week. That came along with a 5% decrease in the number of tests performed during a seven-day stretch including the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The average case positivity rate, which experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading, fell from 5% to 4.5%, as low as it’s been since the first week of August.

Regional rates vary, though. While Chicago is back below 4%, the southern Illinois region — which has the state’s lowest vaccination rates — is still soaring over 10%.

But taken collectively, the state’s case numbers took the first sustained step in the right direction since the third week of June, when Illinois recorded fewer than 1,700 new cases and the positivity rate bottomed out at 0.6%.

That was shortly after Gov. J.B. Pritzker allowed the state to reopen June 11. Cases have been on the rise ever since — exponentially so for most of August as Delta gripped unvaccinated communities. The dangerous variant is thought to be responsible for more than 99% of new cases.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Despite the slight weekly case drop, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still considers transmission high in all 102 Illinois counties, along with nearly 94% of all counties nationwide.

School outbreaks keep piling up, too, with the state now identifying 128 clusters, up from 81 last week.

Even if the state’s surge has plateaued — as Pritzker has said he’s hopeful is the case — thousands of families will continue feeling the effects of the surge for weeks to come as hospitalizations and deaths keep rising.

Nurse Tamara Jones checks blood sugar levels for a 73-year-old woman with COVID-19 last fall in the Intensive Care Unit at Roseland Community Hospital. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Those metrics are considered “lagging indicators” of the pandemic because it takes several weeks for spiking cases to deteriorate into more serious infections, meaning those figures are likely to keep going up even as cases go down.

Illinois hospitals are indeed still filling but at a slowing pace. The 2,346 beds occupied by coronavirus patients Thursday night were the most since Feb. 2, marking a 3% increase since last week. Only five intensive care unit beds were available for all of southern Illinois Friday, but that’s actually a slight improvement from the single ICU bed open last week.

Deaths remain on an upward trend, too. The virus claimed 197 lives last week, an 11% jump from the previous week. More than 7,800 Illinois lives have been lost to COVID-19 so far this year. About 96% of those victims were unvaccinated.

About 22% of eligible Illinois residents have yet to get a shot. Almost 61% of residents 12 or older are fully vaccinated.

At an unrelated news conference in downstate Montgomery County — where just 42% of residents are fully vaccinated — Pritzker said he supports President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees and large employers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference at the Thompson Center last month.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

“We’ve got a lot of challenges today with the number of people that are unvaccinated who could be vaccinated,” he said. “I’ve taken steps incrementally across our population with teachers and with those who are serving the most vulnerable to make sure that they’re getting vaccinated.

“I do believe everybody should go get the vaccine. I think anything we do to encourage that, to push that, is helpful.”

Officials are offering $100 in Visa gift cards to those who roll up their sleeves at city-run mobile vaccination events or who sign up for in-home shot appointments at (312) 746-4835.

For help finding a shot in suburban Cook County, visit cookcountypublichealth.org or call (833) 308-1988. To find other Illinois providers, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

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A suburban imam says there’s still an element that ‘kind of doesn’t want American Muslims to be part of that remembrance and grieving process. They want Islam to be the enemy.’

By

Elvia Malagon

Sep 10, 2021, 6:39pm CDT

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Matt Nagy is asking you to trust him.
That’s a hefty request from the coach who wobbled to a 16-16 record over the last two seasons, when the Bears scored the seventh-fewest points in the NFL and neither passed nor ran with any proficiency.
While that’s not entirely Nagy’s fault, most of it is. All the Bears’ biggest problems fall under his purview. He’s calling the plays. And it got so bleak last season that he admitted he might not be the right man for that job as he handed authority to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. It’s been a precipitous plunge from 2018 when he was the darling of the city.
Now, after an offseason of introspection — and surviving his seat getting dangerously hot late last season — he’s eager for a comeback. He’ll call plays again starting with the season opener Sunday at the Rams.
But in typical Nagy vagueness, he can’t — or won’t — explain why.
“I don’t know if I have an exact answer for that,” he said.
You’ll just have to trust him, which is pretty much what George McCaskey said when he rebuffed public pressure to fire Nagy in January.
It was the Rams game, incidentally, when the alarms really went off last season. The Bears opened 5-1 before a thudding 24-10 defeat at SoFi Stadium in which they didn’t score an offensive touchdown.
In the final minutes, broadcaster Brian Griese mentioned that quarterback Nick Foles told him some of Nagy’s plays were doomed from the start.
Griese quoted Foles saying, “Sometimes play calls come in, and I know that I don’t have time to execute [them]. I’m the one out here getting hit. Sometimes the guy calling the plays, Matt Nagy — he doesn’t know how much time there is back here.”
Foles downplayed that comment and said it didn’t reflect what he meant to convey, but confirmed the conversation with Griese nonetheless.
And it did seem that even Nagy conceded there was some truth to it. Two weeks later, when the Bears were 5-4 and had scored the third fewest points in the NFL at 19.8 per game, he stepped aside. Under Lazor, their scoring average jumped to 27.7.
That’s not a fair comparison considering five of the final seven opponents had some of the NFL’s absolute worst defenses, but elements of that performance would’ve translated against tougher teams. Lazor managed the offensive line more effectively and utilized Mitch Trubisky’s mobility. The Bears also averaged 4.7 yards per rush, up from 3.7 over the first nine games.
It appeared Nagy’s move paid off. And now he believes he has regrouped.
“It was a gut decision,” Nagy said. “I go back and I reflect on it, and you learn in those situations… I know going into this year I feel really good with where I’m at as a play-caller.”
Again, you’ll have to take his word for it.
It is possible, though, that his scheme will improve with more competent personnel.
While everyone fixates on Justin Fields, the fact remains that Andy Dalton is a definitive upgrade over Trubisky and Foles. The Bears have filtered out other unreliable players, like wide receiver Anthony Miller, and have seen strides from young talent like tight end Cole Kmet, wide receiver Darnell Mooney and running back David Montgomery.
“You get these players that understand what you’re looking for,” Nagy said. “As a play-caller, there’s a trust for me to call a play [and] know that that guy knows it like I know it.
“You get guys that are able to really understand the nuances of the offense… That’s probably why it feels better.”
It feels better in practice, he meant. There wasn’t enough evidence in the preseason to make any kind of judgment on whether his renewed confidence will translate to a viable offense. The real test of that comes Sunday.

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Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 got under way Friday afternoon in Union Park, marking the return of the West Loop staple after COVID forced its cancelation in 2020.

The eclectic lineup promises a mix of hip-hop, R&B, indie rock and more.

And hot on the heels of Lollapalooza last month, the music festival has strict COVID-19 safety protocols in place, requiring proof of full vaccination or a negative test within 24 hours for each day of the fest in order to gain entry. Masks are encouraged at all times, per the festival’s website and signs posted at entry.

Here’s a look at the sights and sounds of Friday’s festival:

Frances Quinlan of Hop Along performs on day one of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Tyler Long of Hop Along performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Jason Balla of DEHD performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Emily Kempf of DEHD performs on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Festival goers shop at a fair on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

A sign asks people to wear a mask when shopping at a fair on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Masks are visible throughout the crowd as fans watch DEHD perform on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Festival goers wait in line buy a t-shirt on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday in Union Park.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

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As Illinois’ Delta variant resurgence of COVID-19 keeps pushing some hospitals to the limit, public health officials on Friday reported the state’s first week-to-week decline in cases this summer, suggesting the latest coronavirus wave could be cresting.

A total of 26,062 Illinoisans tested positive over the last week, dipping 14% from the 30,319 residents diagnosed the previous week. That came along with a 5% decrease in the number of tests performed during a seven-day stretch including the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The average case positivity rate, which experts use to gauge how rapidly the virus is spreading, fell from 5% to 4.5%, as low as it’s been since the first week of August.

Regional rates vary, though. While Chicago is back below 4%, the southern Illinois region — which has the state’s lowest vaccination rates — is still soaring over 10%.

But taken collectively, the state’s case numbers took the first sustained step in the right direction since the third week of June, when Illinois recorded fewer than 1,700 new cases and the positivity rate bottomed out at 0.6%.

That was shortly after Gov. J.B. Pritzker allowed the state to reopen June 11. Cases have been on the rise ever since — exponentially so for most of August as Delta gripped unvaccinated communities. The dangerous variant is thought to be responsible for more than 99% of new cases.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Despite the slight weekly case drop, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still considers transmission high in all 102 Illinois counties, along with nearly 94% of all counties nationwide.

School outbreaks keep piling up, too, with the state now identifying 128 clusters, up from 81 last week.

Even if the state’s surge has plateaued — as Pritzker has said he’s hopeful is the case — thousands of families will continue feeling the effects of the surge for weeks to come as hospitalizations and deaths keep rising.

Nurse Tamara Jones checks blood sugar levels for a 73-year-old woman with COVID-19 last fall in the Intensive Care Unit at Roseland Community Hospital. Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Those metrics are considered “lagging indicators” of the pandemic because it takes several weeks for spiking cases to deteriorate into more serious infections, meaning those figures are likely to keep going up even as cases go down.

Illinois hospitals are indeed still filling, but at a slowing pace. The 2,346 beds occupied by coronavirus patients Thursday night were the most since Feb. 2, marking a 3% increase since last week. Only five intensive care unit beds were available for all of southern Illinois Friday, but that’s actually a slight improvement from the single ICU bed open last week.

Deaths remain on an upward trend, too. The virus claimed 197 lives last week, an 11% jump from the previous week. More than 7,800 Illinois lives have been lost to COVID-19 so far this year. About 96% of those victims were unvaccinated.

About 22% of eligible Illinois residents have yet to get a shot. Almost 61% of residents 12 or older are fully vaccinated.

At an unrelated news conference in downstate Montgomery County — where just 42% of residents are fully vaccinated — Pritzker said he supports President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal employees and large employers.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during a news conference at the Thompson Center last month.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file

“We’ve got a lot of challenges today with the number of people that are unvaccinated who could be vaccinated,” he said. “I’ve taken steps incrementally across our population with teachers and with those who are serving the most vulnerable to make sure that they’re getting vaccinated.

“I do believe everybody should go get the vaccine. I think anything we do to encourage that, to push that, is helpful.”

Officials are offering $100 in Visa gift cards to those who roll up their sleeves at city-run mobile vaccination events, or who sign up for in-home shot appointments at (312) 746-4835.

For help finding a shot in suburban Cook County, visit cookcountypublichealth.org or call (833) 308-1988. To find other Illinois providers, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

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There were tears in the visitors’ dugout at Nationals Park in late July when he learned he’d been traded at the deadline.

There were tears outside the visitors’ dugout at Wrigley Field on Friday as the Cubs welcomed him home, if only for the weekend.

Kris Bryant’s tears. Ever the sentimental superstar, this guy.

“This place is home,” he said before the start of a three-game series between the 90-win Giants — owners of the best record in baseball — and the 65-win Cubs. “It always will be.”

Bryant was batting in the No. 5 hole and playing left field for his 32nd game with the Giants. He wears No. 23 across his back these days.

No. 23 in your scorebook, still No. 17 in Cubs fans’ hearts.

“There’s no disappointment, no,” he said. “I feel like I’ve made the choice to look back on my time here and just smile at it, because it was nothing but smiles. There were definitely some harder times, but if you were to tell me when I got drafted I would spend 6 1/2 years here and win a World Series and an MVP and a Rookie of the Year, four All-Star Games and tons of great memories, I’d tell you, ‘You’re crazy. Is that really going to happen to me?’ Now I’m sitting here today — and that actually did happen.”

A video tribute displayed on the big board in left after the national anthem visibly moved Bryant as he watched from near the on-deck circle. Whether or not the ensuing hug he got from Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts made him feel anything, we’re left to wonder. Bryant smiled alongside Ricketts and executives Jason McLeod and Crane Kenny for a home-plate photo op and was presented with a 2016 World Series banner and a No. 17 scoreboard panel.

“I don’t feel ill will toward anybody,” he said.

Bryant texted before the game with Cubs manager David Ross, whose absence stood out as both Ross and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer were quarantined after positive COVID-19 tests.

“I guess it’s kind of the theme of the weekend,” Bryant said. “There’s a lot of new [Cubs players]. Rossy not being there kind of fits the weekend.”

After arriving on the Giants’ bus and walking into Wrigley through an unfamiliar entrance behind right field, Bryant was “lost.”

“I’ve never even set foot on that side of the concourse,” he said. “I had no clue where I was going. [With] all these cameras in my face, I tried to play it off like I knew what I was doing.”

But Wrigley will always be — on some level — home. Even if it’s a home away from home. For now, Bryant is stuck with the Giants, who happen to be the best surprise in baseball as they continue to hold a lead over the mighty Dodgers in the dynamite National League West.

It could be a heck of a lot worse. (See: the Cubs.)

But would Bryant, a free agent as season’s end, be open to returning for real?

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s a possibility. It always is. I’m never closing the book on this place ever.”

The book is probably nailed shut, truth be told. Maybe it’s just as well.

“[The end] finally happened, and now I can move on,” he said. “Ultimately, I think it just really helped me grow as a player and a person in how to deal with certain things. It just made me better.”

But being in a different team’s uniform now? Wearing different colors and a different number for different fans in a different part of the country. It’s got to be kind of weird. Not to mention different.

“It really isn’t,” he said. “The first couple days, I was getting used to everything. But now it’s just playing baseball. It’s a lot of the same stuff I’ve been through [with the Cubs]. We’re chasing a division; I’ve been [here] doing that before. A lot of the emotions and feelings are the exact same.”

An hour or so later, the tears in his eyes said otherwise.

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This year’s Pitchfork Music Festival kicked off Friday in the West Loop, where thousands of mostly-masked festival-goers converged in Union Park.

A nearly 15-year-old summer tradition typically set in July, Pitchfork Fest organizers canceled last year’s iteration due to the pandemic and pushed this year’s to September, citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Friday’s festivities were happening amid rising COVID-19 cases, the recent reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the recent COVID vaccine mandate for city workers by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the recent return to schools for Chicago Public Schools families, and the addition of all 50 states to the city’s travel advisory.

In the months and weeks leading up to the festival, Pitchfork announced its own COVID protocols, similar to those announced by venues and other festivals in the last few months. Festival-goers are asked to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test obtained within 24 hours of each day they attend.

Organizers also recommended and encouraged attendees to wear masks “except when actively eating or drinking.” Signs were posted at entry to emphasize the message. A line for the festival had stretched down Ashland Avenue by noon Friday, as a majority-masked crowd waited to be let in.

Security checks vaccination cards on Day 1 of the Pitchfork Music Festival on Friday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Among those masked and waiting in line was Anna Ives-Michenver of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The 21-year-old had already flown in from the East Coast for Lollapalooza in July and decided to make the trek again for Pitchfork. She said it was important for her to experience concerts in person.

“It means a lot. That’s pretty much the one thing that I really love to do — is go see live music. So not being able to see live music for a year and a half was awful,” she said.

Further down the line was 23-year-old Chicagoan Gabriel Schubert, who said they’d been to several festivals this summer, including Lollapalooza. Schubert said that they felt comfortable with the way summer festivals had been taking COVID precautions, although they ended up contracting the virus while in Iowa for the Hinterland Music Festival in early August.

“Funny enough, I actually got COVID while I was in Iowa. But you know I quarantined and everything — feeling all good now,” Schubert said. “If you’re vaccinated, it’s not as bad. Not as horrible. You’re not gonna go to the hospital, probably; fingers crossed.”

By the time the gates opened around 12:25 p.m., many continued to wear their masks as they stepped up to security checkpoints for what amounted to a slow, steady flow of fans.

Security checked proof of vaccination or testing and IDs multiple times, before sending festival-goers on to another lineup of security checking bags and frisking, while Pitchfork volunteers scanned tickets and handed out schedules.

To 20-year-old Andrew Lindaas, of Madison, Wisc., the process actually felt thorough, noting security checked proof of vaccination and IDs more than once for many fans moving through the line.

Haley Leonhard (left) of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Andrew Lindaas, of Madison, Wisconsin, pose for a photo at the Renegade Craft Show popup at Pitchfork Music Festival.Matt Moore/Sun-Times

“They checked the vax card a lot,” Lindaas said in between checking out vendors the Renegade Craft Fair popup inside the park. “It was better than most establishments I’ve been into that do require that.”

Artists like Philadelphia’s Hop Along have enacted their own COVID precautions for their shows, which mostly align with Pitchfork’s. Before heading out on tour last week, the band shared on their social media that they would be requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter their shows, and requesting audience members to wear masks.

“Please don’t be the unmasked person in the center of the front row,” the band wrote in a recent Instagram post, saying their lead singer “doesn’t want to have to call people out every night.”

For 29-year-old Ben Stevens, a five-time Pitchfork goer from Dayton, Ohio, the festival felt like “a going away to the summer months,” and a chance for fans to support artists who have struggled through canceled tours and show dates.

“I think that people are appreciative,” Stevens said, “because they know a lot of the artists have canceled shows and canceled tours and this is an opportunity for you to see a lot of artists in a little bit of time.”

It’s just important for fans to remain safe and respectful of the protocols, Stevens added.

“I’m hoping that people will follow the rules and realize that there’s less for us to enjoy so let’s really enjoy the things that we can enjoy.”

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Chicago Park District General Superintendent and CEO Michael Kelly speaks at an August 2021 press conference. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Today’s update is a 5-minute read that will brief you on the day’s biggest stories.

Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be sunny with a high near 81 degrees. Tonight will be mostly clear with a low around 63. Tomorrow will be sunny with a high near 89, and Sunday will be mostly sunny with a high near 88.

Top story

Park District to install life rings on Pratt Pier in Rogers Park in wake of Cisneros drowning

The Chicago Park District will install life rings in staffed locations along the lakefront and on Pratt Pier in Rogers Park — where swimming is off-limits — to prevent a repeat of the drowning that killed 19-year-old Miguel Cisneros.

A rower at St. Ignatius College Prep who spent his freshman year at Columbia University taking classes online, Cisneros drowned on Aug. 22 after jumping off Pratt Pier in Rogers Park where swimming is prohibited.

There were no life rings on the pier at the time. In fact, the Park District had removed life rings that had been installed by Rogers Park residents.

Today, Chicago Park District Supt. Mike Kelly reversed that decision.

He announced that life rings would now be installed on Pratt Pier and at staffed locations along the lakefront and at Park District-controlled areas along the Chicago River as part of a six-point safety plan.

The plan also includes “restricted access” through installation of fencing; additional signs; adding swimming regulations to all e-registration forms; and educational outreach that includes teaching more kids to swim by the time they reach fourth grade.

“There will be a life ring at Pratt Beach, which is normally a manned location. There will be a life ring on the pier as well. I don’t love that decision. I cannot stress enough, folks. We’re in the life-safety business. We’re in the teach-kids-to-swim business. Anything that gives a semblance of comfort to going in that water where it says, `Do Not Swim’ [encourages people to break the rules], but we’re gonna do it,” Kelly said.

“I’m not above the city. I’m not above the citizenry. … I have a loved one who was saved by a life ring years ago on the Chicago River. So, I get it. It doesn’t make my job any easier as the head of the Park District. But this decision needs to be made. There will be a life ring on the pier. there will be a life ring at the beach. There will be life rings on all manned beaches.”

Read Fran Spielman’s full story here.

More news you need

Chicago police said today they are speaking to a person of interest in the murder of 19-year-old Yarianna Wheeler, whose body was found in Lake Michigan last month. Police did not release any other details of the investigation.

Former Niles mayor Andrew Przybylo spoke to our Manny Ramos about how his family continues to deal with the loss of his niece, Vanessa Kolpak, who was only 21 when she died in the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. Przybylo told Ramos that he wonders how his niece might have changed the world if she’d had the chance.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said today she has asked departing Inspector General Joe Ferguson to investigate profane, threatening and misogynistic text messages sent by Ald. Jim Gardiner. The messages had been exposed recently by an anonymous blog that bills itself as a political watchdog on the Northwest Side.

An argument over unpaid debt led to a Near West Side double shooting that left one man dead, prosecutors said today. Matthew Hendrickson has the latest on the case.

A pair of men from downstate Illinois pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from the breach of the U.S. Capitol. The two men admitted to spending about 20 minutes inside the building on Jan. 6.

Risa Lanier, a veteran Cook County prosecutor, has been appointed first assistant to State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Lanier has argued several high-profile cases during her more than 20 years with the office.

A bright one

For Milwaukee Avenue mural, here’s what you get when 2 artists meld different styles

Artists Matt Dean and Thomas Turner hadn’t even met before they worked together in August to create the eye-catching mural that now covers 2,500 square feet of a wall of South Side Control Supply Co., 488 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Dean, who is from Los Angeles and works under the name Kiptoe, and Turner, who’s from Atlanta, had been invited to be part of Chicago’s third Titan Walls festival, which brought in and set loose 14 artists over five days.

They were told: You can each get half of the wall, or you can work together on the whole thing. Together, they said.

Muros
Thomas Turner and Kiptoe’s untitled collaboration at 488 N. Milwaukee Ave. The two artists, working together for the first time, painted the 100-feet-wide mural during the Titan Walls festival Aug. 21. It features a photo-realistic cow and butterfly on one side and several animals in a more animated style on the other.

“Most of the time, we’re painting by ourselves, and it’s super-lonely and can get really frustrating and exhausting,” Dean, 30, says of mural work. “But when there’s someone there to go through it with you, and they’re painting also, and you can vibe off each other, it just makes it so much more fun.”

Turner started sketching. Dean came up with a sketch he’d previously done for a project that fell through. They started figuring out ways to bridge the two parts.

The result: Two different styles — one featuring a photo-realistic cow and butterfly, the other depicting animals in a more animated fashion — melded into one piece on the wall at the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning supply business.

Read Zack Miller’s full story here and check out our ongoing series on murals and other public art in the Chicago area.

From the press box

Perhaps no one on the Bears’ roster is more excited for the season to begin on Sunday than pass rusher Robert Quinn. Patrick Finley looks at the stakes for Quinn, who’s trying to bounce back from a disappointing first year in Chicago.

What jerseys will be the Bears wear this season? For the first four weeks, it’ll be the classic navy, both home and away.

More Bears-Rams preview content: David Montgomery is coming into his own, broadcaster Al Michaels on the Bears and moving from Mondays to Sundays, and the Rams’ offense won’t be messing around with Matthew Stafford under center this year.
Simeon High School’s impact on the world’s best basketball league extends well past Derrick Rose. Read Joe Henricksen on how a unique Chicago-to-NBA pipeline keeps thriving.

Your daily question ?

Where’s your favorite place to watch a Bears game? Why?

Send us an email at [email protected] and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

Yesterday, we asked you: How did Sept. 11, 2001 change your life? Here’s what some of you said…

“Increased respect and admiration for firefighters and first-responders!” — Nathaniel Thomas Jr.

“I’m a Muslim educator/speaker. The easier question is: How didn’t it change my life?” — Omer M. Mozaffar

“No longer could we freely enter buildings without an ID. Security at airports tightened — having to go through X-ray and taking shoes off. Made me aware of terrorism, which never seemed real to me. But those in the towers, on the planes — they lost their lives. I will never forget.” — Susan Harris Fiege

“I lost my job. I was a travel agent at the time. I still get tears in my eyes when I hear stories of people that lost their loved ones.” — Karin Rios McNeil

“My love for humanity and being an American grew exponentially. Watching us all come together as a nation to support each other taught me that we can overcome anything thrown our way instead of dividing over race, color, creed, religion, etc.” — Robin Pressley

“Made me care about my country more.” — Laurence Stom

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