Chicago-via-New York producer Folie belongs to a loose collective of artists who’ve put out playful inversions of pop music through Dog Show Records, a Mad Decent imprint run by 100 Gecs cofounder Dylan Brady. Folie made her way onto Dog Show’s roster with some assistance from producer Gupi; in the mid-2010s, they both worked with an eclectic dance label called Rora Team, and after Gupi joined the Dog Show family in 2019, he urged Folie to send her stuff to Brady.…Read More
In a 2020 filled with unwanted surprises, one bright spot was the unexpected reunion of experimental metal group Genghis Tron after a self-described “indefinite” hiatus. Dream Weapon, the New York-based band’s first album in 13 years, departs from the sound of their earlier records in a way that may startle the group’s patient fans, but it’s worth the wait.…Read More
With the new video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” Lil Nas X uses his giant platform to blow assimilationism out of the water.
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The video for “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” directed by Tanu Muino and Lil Nas X…Read More
Weirdness and wonder abound in Matei Vişniec’s Decomposed Theatre at Trap Door, but be prepared for creepiness, too.
With nearly 40 actors, eight directors, and an overall roster of artists spanning five countries, Trap Door Theatre’s sprawling, eight-episode streaming production of playwright Matei Vişniec’s Decomposed Theatre offers a deep dive into the drama, absurdity, tragedy, and undeniably relevant work of the contemporary Romanian-French dramatist. Vişniec’s personal history bears mentioning: With all of his work censored during the brutal lengthy regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the playwright eventually fled to France and asked for political asylum.…Read More
A fire broke out at 64th and Troy street March 30, 2021. | Chicago Fire Department
Initial reports indicated children may have been trapped inside but firefighters have not found anyone so far, officials said. Searches are still underway.
Crews battled a fire Tuesday afternoon in Marquette Park after reports of children trapped on the Southwest Side.
The blaze broke out at an apartment building at 64th and Troy streets, Chicago fire officials said on Twitter.
Initial reports indicated children may have been trapped inside but firefighters have not found anyone so far, officials said.
The blaze was extinguished by 3 p.m., and searches are still underway, officials said.
Four groups remain in the running to develop nearly 21 acres at Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file
After reviewing community remarks, the city’s Planning Department has left four development teams still competing for vacant property at Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue.
City officials have drawn up a short list of four investor teams vying to develop nearly 21 vacant acres at Roosevelt Road and Kostner Avenue. They narrowed the field after North Lawndale residents emphasized the site should attract substantial job growth with a creative design and involvement from minority-owned companies.
One prominent contender, a proposal from the Chicago Cubs with business leader Penny Pritzker, failed to make the cut.
The Cubs’ charitable arm had joined with Pritzker Realty Group to suggest splitting the property, the largest empty parcel on the West Side, between a youth baseball academy and an industrial building. Evaluations from residents, summarized on the city’s web links for the project, questioned whether the plan would create enough jobs to suit community needs. Others wondered about participation by minority-owned firms.
Proposals making it to the next review stage generally emphasized a larger industrial complex and a site for community use. One from Chicago developer Dan McCaffery included a residential element — 60 units of what he termed “workforce housing.”
A submission from Matanky Realty Group included a baseball field on the roof of an industrial building. A city-written summary of residents’ comments said the proposal “feels novel if both challenging and tacked-on.”
Cubs spokesman Julian Green said Tuesday, “We believe in the promise of this academy and hope we can work with the city to identify another location.” A Pritzker representative did not respond to a message. Also eliminated from consideration was a joint plan from nonprofit developer Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives, known for bringing jobs to Pullman, and East Lake Management.
The Department of Planning and Development pledged to consider residents’ comments in deciding who will get the city-owned property. Once associated with the 1990s Silver Shovel scandal involving illegal dumping, the land still requires an environmental cleanup that the city believes will cost at least $5 million.
City planner Ethan Lassiter told residents at an online meeting March 22 that officials must evaluate a range of factors, from a project’s design to its financial feasibility. Legally, it’s not a matter of seeking a high bidder. “Getting this right is important,” he said.
The four finalist teams will get several weeks to refine their proposals. The city hopes to have another public review in May.
Ald. Michael Scott Jr., whose 24th Ward includes the site, said he hopes for a “transformative” project that won’t require excessive city subsidies. “What we need to do is figure out what is feasibly done, what the city has to bring to the table, what the developer has to bring to the table and then add those community elements that may not have been there before,” Scott said at the online meeting.
The four teams making the short list:
• McCaffery with KMA Cos. and the nonprofit group A Safe Haven. They would build 729,000 square feet, the most ambitious of the proposals, including a community center it calls the North Lawndale Wealth Engine.
• Matanky with Safeway Construction and WBS Equities. They foresee five buildings totaling 473,000 square feet, including a mechanics’ training center.
• Related Midwest with 548 Development. They would build 327,000 square feet in two large industrial buildings and would donate a Lawndale Innovation Center.
• McLaurin Development Partners and several others. They promise warehouses and cold storage, a recreation center and a minority-owned coffee shop and coworking space.
Two other partnerships replied to the city’s call for plans in January, but they dropped from consideration.
NFL owners voted to expand the 2021 season schedule to 17 games Tuesday — an expected move that already has drawn criticism from the league’s players.
The Bears are expected to play their 17th game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, according to a widely reported AFC vs. NFC formula.
The expansion to a 17-game schedule was considered inevitable after the NFL and the NFL Players Association signed the current collective bargaining agreement last March that included a provision for it. The league’s financial straits caused by the coronavirus season with few fans in the stadiums likely hastened the move for the 2021 season.
Because the league did not add a bye week to accommodate the extra game, NFL teams will play 17 games in 18 weeks. The start of the regular season has been pushed back a week, so Super Bowl LVI will be Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
The schedule expansion is the first for the NFL since 1978, when it increased from 14 games to 16. It will generate additional revenue to mitigate the damage of the coronavirus season — after several years of $10 million increases, the NFL’s salary cap dropped from $198.2 million in 2020 to $182.5 in 2021. But the 17th game already has come under fire in light of the general concern — shared by the league — for player safety.
The NFL shortened the preseason from four games to three — with the possibility of another game being cut in the future — in an apparent attempt to mitigate the wear-and-tear and injury factors. But that doesn’t quite compute in today’s NFL. Starters often play sparingly in the preseason. In 2019, for instances, Bears regulars played a total of 55 snaps in the preseason — with 14 players not playing at all and only rookie running back David Montgomery (13) and second-year wide receiver Anthony Miller (seven) playing more than a token five.
So for most starting players, the schedule expansion only adds another 60-70 snaps at game speed. Predictably, players criticized the move, even before the owners made it official. Former Bears safety Adrian Amos, now with the Packers, tweeted his protest Monday. In a response to a tweet by ESPN’s Adam Schefter regarding the extra game, Amos tweeted “We really let this happen” with a face-palm emoji.
Eagles cornerback Darius Slay responded to Amos’ tweet with a barb of his own: “That’s wth i’m sayin” with his own face-palm emoji.
Former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, a regular and popular participant in NFL discussions on social media, probably said it best when he tweeted, “No surprise. More football. As a fan, love it. As a player … good luck with the extra week”
But the players have their own union to blame. The NFLPA ratified the CBA that included the 17th-game option (along with two additional playoff teams starting in 2020). That vote was close — 1,019-959 — so it’s expected that the criticism of the extra game will mount as the reality of the 17th game hits home.
The 17th game is awkward on other levels as well. Not only will it distort “season” records (as did expansion from 12 games to 14 in 1961 and from 14 games to 16 in 1977), but the odd number creates a situation where some teams will play more home games than road games and vice versa.
According to the 17th-game formula, the Baltimore Ravens will play nine home games in 2021 — on paper an advantage for a team that is 27-13 at home and 19-21 on the road over the past five seasons. The NFL has not had an odd-game schedule since 1946, when each team played 11 games. The league went to a standardized 12-game format the following season.
The NFL has considered expanding the international series to fill the 17th game with neutral-site games. In 2019, there were four international series games — including the Bears against the Raiders at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The series was cancelled last season because of the coronavirus.
The CBA that was ratified last year runs through 2030. The 17th game formula will continue to be an inter-conference game based on league standings from the previous season — first place vs. first place, second-place vs. second place, etc.
Two years ago, peaceful, law-abiding gun owners across the country became felons overnight, thanks to the Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks. But as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit recognized last week, Congress alone has the authority to define new federal crimes, while the president and his underlings are charged with enforcing those laws.
Combining both powers in a single branch is a license for tyranny — a danger the Framers tried to avoid by carefully separating the legislative and executive functions. Regardless of their views on gun control, Americans who care about the rule of law should be troubled by the implications of letting unelected bureaucrats unilaterally and arbitrarily criminalize previously legal conduct.
In-depth political coverage, sports analysis, entertainment reviews and cultural commentary.
Bump stocks, first patented in 2000, allow rifles to slide backward, propelled by recoil energy, after a round is fired, which resets the trigger. The sliding stock facilitates a rapid firing technique in which the shooter maintains forward pressure on the rifle, causing his stationary finger to repeatedly bump against the trigger.
These accessories were mainly of interest to hobbyists, regulators and industry insiders until October 1, 2017, when a gunman murdered 60 people in Las Vegas. Because the killer’s rifles reportedly were equipped with bump stocks, Donald Trump responded to the massacre with a promise to ban them by administrative fiat.
Tasked with inventing a legal rationale for a ban the president already was determined to impose, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms reinterpreted the statutory definition of machine guns to cover bump stocks. But as the ATF itself had repeatedlyrecognized over the years, that reading of the law was inconsistent with its plain meaning.
Under the National Firearms Act, “the term ‘machinegun’ means any weapon” that fires “automatically more than one shot…by a single function of the trigger.” The definition also includes parts “designed and intended” to convert a weapon into a machine gun.
A rifle equipped with a bump stock, however, fires just one round for each “function of the trigger,” which must be reset before the weapon can fire again. The ATF tried to get around that problem by defining “a single function of the trigger” as “a single pull of the trigger,” defining pull to exclude what happens during bump firing, and treating the shooter as part of the rifle mechanism, ignoring his active participation in the process so that the gun could be said to fire “automatically.”
The ATF maintained that the 6th Circuit was bound to accept this highly implausible interpretation under “Chevron deference.” According to that controversial doctrine, courts must accept an agency’s “permissible” interpretation of an “ambiguous” statute.
Critics of that doctrine argue that it undermines the separation of powers, inviting administrative agencies to interpret laws, which courts are supposed to do, and even rewrite them, which is Congress’ job. That danger is especially acute, the 6th Circuit noted, when an agency threatens to fine and imprison people based on its own idiosyncratic understanding of the law.
As a result of the ATF’s ban, continued possession of bump stocks — products the agency had previously deemed legal — is punishable by a maximum fine of $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison. In this context, the appeals court said, deferring to the ATF’s new interpretation of the law would violate the “rule of lenity,” which says ambiguous criminal statutes should be read to favor defendants.
In light of those concerns, the 6th Circuit said, “an agency’s interpretation of a criminal statute is not entitled to Chevron deference.” And without the benefit of that doctrine, it concluded, the ATF’s redefinition of machine guns cannot be accepted, since it is clearly not the “best interpretation” of the law.
The issue here is not whether banning bump stocks is a good idea but who has the authority to do it. As the appeals court noted, “that judgment is reserved to the people through their duly elected representatives in Congress.”
Jacob Sullum is a senior editor at Reason magazine.
“Grey’s Anatomy” producers were looking for a new, diverse and fresh cast of interns to debut on season 17, so the role of Sara Ortiz was written specifically with an afro-Latina actress in mind.
So when Chicago native Melissa DuPrey opened an email from her agent about the role on the ABC hit, she was ecstatic. In 2014, she was recruited by ABC’s Diversity Showcase, which helped prioritize her audition tape, and within days she got the news that she was the producers’ top pick for the role.
DuPrey’s excitement over being chosen to be a part of the “Grey’s Anatomy” cast was very personal.
“This was a show that my mom and I used to love to watch together,” DuPrey said. “When I was in college we would have dates to watch it. She passed away four years ago and I just feel like she made this happen. I grew up with this show, you know? It’s [over] 17 years long and just to be able to be on set with some of these original cast members is really just breathtaking.”
DuPrey, 36, described her character, Sara, to be very much like her real self.
“My character, the way that I’ve been introduced, was that I was so eager to be perfect that I’m constantly fumbling. I’m accident-prone and that is not far from Melissa DuPrey proper,” she said.?
Those familiar with DuPrey’s work know that she does not shy away from being unapologetically herself. DuPrey, who spent some of her childhood in Humboldt Park and resides there now when she’s not busy with “Grey’s,” has worked in Chicago for years with the all-Latina theater company Teatro Luna and with Free Street Theatre, and she even starred in “Brown Girls,” a short web series from 2017. She’s a wealth of talent as a locally known comic, actor, playwright, producer, organizer and spiritualist.
Melissa DuPrey has performed with several Chicago theater companies and toured the country as a stand-up comic.Provided
She’s starred in multiple solo shows as well, including “SEXomedy,” “SUSHI-frito” and “Good Grief,” and traveled across the country as a stand-up comic.
“It was super emotional for me to get this recurring character who’s intentionally written as afro-Latina, as if it was meant to be mine,” DuPrey said. “It’s so important for me to be here.”
DuPrey stars alongside her on-screen mother, Dr. Alma Ortiz (portrayed by Lisa Vidal), a social worker with over 30 years of experience who decided to go into practicing medicine. To their surprise, the mother and daughter got placed at Grey-Sloan Memorial at the same time.
?Dr. Tom Koracik (Gregory Germann) quickly offers up a nickname for the dynamic duo: “Mama and Young Ortiz.”
Once cast, DuPrey met with Vidal to brainstorm very intentional ways to bring bits of themselves to their characters. Both proud Puerto Rican women, they’ve found ways to make their heritage obvious by sprinkling phrases in Spanish throughout the script.
DuPrey said they want to bring authentic representation to their characters “in ways that don’t show up in a damaging trope or some kind of Puerto Rican archetype. The goal is to expand the representation of the diaspora as incredible, diverse humans that are capable of being in this space in this room as Black Latinas, and that’s what we’re gonna shoot for.”
“Grey’s” writers are known for expanding upon the stories of interns. DuPrey said that she hopes viewers can keep getting glimpses of Sara’s life and learn more about her as a person, as her recurring role has only granted her appearances in a few episodes, including the one airing this Thursday.
Season 17 of “Grey’s” kicked off filming last year during the pandemic, but after COVID cases began to rise to record numbers in Los Angeles in November 2020, ABC put the show’s filming on hold until spring 2021.
Finally back in Los Angeles for filming by January, DuPrey said that the rules on set are very strict. “Grey’s” is one of the few shows on air that is able to keep pumping out new episodes because of the precautions being taken by producers, according to DuPrey. Not all television series can afford the costs of following the union-specified safety requirements, like rapid testing.? DuPrey gets tested three times a week — Monday, Wednesday and Friday — just as her castmates do, to ensure that they are all working COVID-free.
When she is back in Chicago later this year, DuPrey will be the first Puerto Rican playwright from Humboldt Park to have a full-length play produced with Urban Theater Company, a home for Latinx actors who want to bring more representation to the stage.
DuPrey will be performing “BRUJAJA,” a story about an accidental witch who discovers that brujeria can help her fight against oppression. It will premier virtually this winter as a part of the theater’s annual Destinos festival, and it will feature programming and partnerships with local community organizations and businesses.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22408728/MelissaDuPrey.png)