When used in the improvisatory style pioneered by performers such as Lionel Hampton, the vibraphone is traditionally a clanging, percussive, hard-charging instrument. The marimba is arguably best known for providing the hip-shaking backbone for many traditional Latin musics.…Read More
“I named my business Screwball Press with no thought that I’d still be working at this 30 years later. . . . I didn’t want the name to suggest that I knew what I was doing.”
Steve Walters, 57, is a Chicago artist and screen printer.…Read More
We are inside 100 days until the NFL Draft and the Chicago Bears main objective is to come away with a franchise quarterback. We have documented the difficulty in doing that with the No. 20 overall pick in April — a byproduct of a few late season wins against the league’s worst teams. But fans should be laser focused on the upcoming Reese’s Senior Bowl and Mac Jones.
Absent a trade for Deshaun Watson (which seems highly unlikely) or a trade up into the top five of the draft (not quite as unlikely but a challenge nonetheless), it appears the Bears will miss out on targets like Justin Fields and Zach Wilson.
They are likely to be outside the range of Trey Lance who will likely also require a trade up into the top 8-15. However, there is one quarterback who call be within reach at 20, and that is Alabama quarterback Mac Jones.
Jones is someone we have been touting as an intriguing candidate. The recent National Champion put together an unbelievable season, finishing with 4,500 passing yards, 41 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. He capped off this remarkable season with a 464 yard, five touchdown performance in the National Championship game against Ohio State.
He’s more than just a quarterback to put up volume stats. The analytics back up the statement that he was one of the best performing quarterbacks in college this season. In fact, he broke the Pro Football Focus quarterback record for highest single-season grade.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Bears ignored a quarterback in the 2017 NFL Draft who shined on the big stage. It is safe to say the Watson gaffe is still a sore subject within Halas Hall and there won’t be a similar mistake made this time around.
If true, then you’d have to think Jones will get a lot of attention from the Bears’ front office. That should start at this month’s Senior Bowl where Jones has a huge opportunity to silence some of his critics.
One of the biggest question marks or criticisms of Jones has been that he has had the benefit of playing with superstars at Alabama. Many doubt whether he can replicate that success if he’s not surrounded by superior talent.
Well for starters, there weren’t many who held that same fact against Joe Burrow last year. Moreover, Jones accurate passing percentage since 2018 suggests that despite playing with talented players, he is throwing the ball on target and on time.
Nevertheless, with Jones announcing he will attend the Senior Bowl, he will have the chance to showcase his talents without the immense talent he had at Alabama. Consequently, all eyes should be on Jones. However, if he performs well, it could catapult him out of the Bears reach at No. 20.
Chicago Bears fans’ eyes should be glued to Senior Bowlon January 21, 2021 at 12:00 pm Read More »
I’ve never been that interested in personality tests. Probably because I’m one of those people whose personality can be summed up in a single word: loud. I voice my opinion in meetings. I sling jokes at happy hour. I ignore the glares of my fellow brunchers at M.Henry when I’m loudly telling a story about how my dad used to needlepoint religious art while my mom drank sherry and passed out. See, when you’re a known loud person, there’s not a whole lot of mystery. People don’t leave encounters with me thinking, Huh, I wish I understood Adrienne more. Why do I need to be sliced and diced into another subsection of society when I’ve already got “divorcée” and “basic bitch” on my résumé? But because I’m barely surviving this endless quarantine with my wits intact, I realize perhaps I could benefit from a new framework for understanding what makes me tick.
The Enneagram is a system made up of nine personality types that reveal how people interpret the world and manage their emotions. I meet over Zoom with local therapist and Enneagram coach Priscilla Dean of Evergreen Counseling to get “typed” (Enneagram-speak for identifying which of the nine personalities I might be). Priscilla explains that the Enneagram is a combination of spirituality and psychology. It’s about mindfulness and inner observation — watching your behaviors, motives, thoughts, and feelings. And before I can even express any skepticism about putting people into boxes, Priscilla says that the Enneagram doesn’t put you in a box, because whether you know it or not, you’re already in one. The Enneagram helps you step out.
Well, then.
Priscilla asks me a series of questions, and it feels like a pleasant therapy session. Quickly she identifies that I like to be focused on tasks and goals and not be slowed down by feelings. Who doesn’t? (Apparently eight other personality types don’t.) We talk about how I want to be recognized for what I do, not who I am, and I legit do not understand that there’s a difference. She points out that when people get in the way of my goals, it makes me angry, and I’m like, YES, GIRL, I’VE BEEN MANAGING HOMESCHOOL SINCE MARCH OF COURSE I’M ANGRY, and that might be the point when I’m typed as a 3, a.k.a. the Achiever.
Hallmarks of a 3: ambitious, competent, energetic, status-conscious, overly concerned with their image and what others think of them, problems with workaholism and competitiveness. Ew! But also, sure, sounds about right. Just like Scarlett O’Hara, I focus on my image and the task at hand and only break for feelings when they’re misdirected at an unsuitable love interest! Priscilla wants me to get on a growth path and says to do this I need to get more in touch with my feelings. “Shame, grief, and loss — this is where your authentic felt experience is,” she says. “Your real life is here.” Something about this rings true, because immediately I’m filled with an uncomfortable shame, and I wonder if loudness is a sort of mask concealing my authentic self, who is, apparently, a 3. And if maybe, just maybe, quarantine is a perfect time to get quiet.
Enneagramming My Way Through Quarantineon January 20, 2021 at 12:58 am Read More »
“I cleared off a table in the basement to do jigsaw puzzles. It turned out to be too small to do a 1,000-piece puzzle. So I laid down posters on the floor, white side up, to have a surface. I can’t start a puzzle without finishing it. It’s the same obsessive nature that helps me write — I have that focus putting together the pieces of songs. With puzzles, sometimes that means 16 or 17 hours of sitting and standing. I would get pretty sore. Now I have a table by Bits and Pieces with room for a 1,500-piece puzzle. It has thin drawers for sorting pieces by color. My friends Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally are crazy puzzle people. I joked with Nick when I first started: ‘Do you start in the middle and work out?’ And he told me that was correct, and work clockwise. That’s puzzle humor.”
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