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Cubs Game Post 9/22Sean Hollandon September 22, 2020 at 8:21 pm

Cubs Den

Cubs Game Post 9/22

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Cubs Game Post 9/22Sean Hollandon September 22, 2020 at 8:21 pm Read More »

Coby White wants to run the Bulls showMark Carmanon September 21, 2020 at 10:07 pm

Chicago Bulls (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
Chicago Bulls (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)

Coby White is all in on running the Chicago Bulls team that makes it back to the playoffs.

Coby White wants to be an NBA point guard. Period.

“I know thats what I want to do. I know thats my goal, I know that is what I am going to achieve,” White told Da Windy City Podcast. “I want to play point guard in the NBA and I feel I have the skills and the tools to be a really good point guard in the NBA as long as I stay humble and I keep grinding.”

White played both the point and the two-guard in his rookie season under former head coach Jim Boylen. Some basketball “experts” believe White is better playing off the ball focusing on being more of a scoring punch. White is using those opinions as motivation.

“Social media is going to be social media,” White said. “Everybody has their opinion. I don’t pay too much attention to it. I’m just going to prove them wrong at the end of the day.”

White knows he needs to get better. Despite averaging a respectable 13.2 ppg in his rookie season he shot a subpar 39%.

“My numbers finishing at the rim have to be better,” White said. “I know I can get to any spot on the court that I want but just finishing around the rim and being more a playmaker. I think that will come with time at the one. Those two things and shooting off the dribble.”

White could also use some help in the form of consistent play around him. Zach LaVine had another All-Star caliber season but Lauri Markkanen had the worst year of his career struggling in Boylen’s system. Markkanen scoring was down 4-points from 18.7 to 14.7 ppg.

“He (Markkanen) is going to get back to it, no doubt,” White said. “I see the work he puts in everyday. Just do my part, just try to encourage him as much as I can and give him the ball. Everyone knows how talented he is and everyone knows the beginning of his career what type of player he was production wise. It’s no doubt in my mind that he can get back to that in a matter of no time.”

White continues to preach patience to Bulls fans who have endured some trying times the last couple of years. White has the words of his college coach at North Carolina ringing in his ears.

“Coach (Roy) Williams used to say Rome wasn’t built in a day,” White said. “It’s a process. This is my first year in the league. This is Wendell’s second year in the league. This was Lauri’s third year in the league. It takes time, it’s not something that happens over night. This offseason especially this bubble is going to be huge for us.”

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Meanwhile, the Bulls coaching search continues. Expect White to sit down with whoever the hire is and express his strong desire to be the starting point guard.

Coby White spoke on behalf of Zenni, who is donating Zenni Blokz to students enrolled in the Chicago Park District and Eastern Wayne Middle School in North Carolina.

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Coby White wants to run the Bulls showMark Carmanon September 21, 2020 at 10:07 pm Read More »

3 Chicago area wing spots make The Daily Meal’s ‘America’s Best Buffalo Wings’ listChicagoNow Staffon September 21, 2020 at 9:02 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

3 Chicago area wing spots make The Daily Meal’s ‘America’s Best Buffalo Wings’ list

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3 Chicago area wing spots make The Daily Meal’s ‘America’s Best Buffalo Wings’ listChicagoNow Staffon September 21, 2020 at 9:02 pm Read More »

Cubs @ Pirates Series Preview: (9/21-9/24)Sean Hollandon September 21, 2020 at 9:37 pm

Cubs Den

Cubs @ Pirates Series Preview: (9/21-9/24)

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Cubs @ Pirates Series Preview: (9/21-9/24)Sean Hollandon September 21, 2020 at 9:37 pm Read More »

5 different types of camera backpacks to organize and protect gearSponsoredon September 22, 2020 at 12:39 am

Sponsored

5 different types of camera backpacks to organize and protect gear

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5 different types of camera backpacks to organize and protect gearSponsoredon September 22, 2020 at 12:39 am Read More »

For Southern Illinois, there will be fall football after allBarry Bottinoon September 22, 2020 at 2:38 am

Prairie State Pigskin

For Southern Illinois, there will be fall football after all

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For Southern Illinois, there will be fall football after allBarry Bottinoon September 22, 2020 at 2:38 am Read More »

In 1995, Gillette and 20 Fingers were the rulers of the dance floorSalem Collo-Julinon September 21, 2020 at 11:00 am

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The single "Short Dick Man" also appears on the album On the Attack, by Gillette with 20 Fingers.

Twenty-six years ago, four-man suburban DJ and production team 20 Fingers teamed up with local rapper, dancer, and singer Sandra Gillette on a record that made them all hometown heroes. As 20 Fingers, Carlos “Charlie Babie” Rosario, Manfred “Manny” Mohr, J.J. Flores, and Onofrio Lollino worked primarily with Brookfield’s SOS Records, run by Chicago house-music impresario Frank Rodrigo. In 1994, Mohr and Rosario wrote the single “Short Dick Man” and quickly found a singer in Gillette, an old friend of Flores who was working as a receptionist and living in Berwyn. When Bill Wyman wrote a Reader column about the song in February 1995, Mohr talked to him about it: “Charlie and I wanted to say something that would make up for all the bad things that are said about women.”

Gillette’s sassy delivery of the song’s unambiguous lyrics (“What in the world is that fucking thing? / Do you need some fucking tweezers to put that little thing away?”) and 20 Fingers’s minimalist hip-house beats made for a killer combo. The single took off in the clubs–first locally, then internationally, as Gillette’s subsequent album On the Attack (billed as “A 20 Fingers Production”) climbed European and South American dance charts.

The group enjoyed crossover success in the American mainstream after an enthusiastic program director at B96 (then still a refuge for house- and dance-music aficionados mourning WBMX) asked for a radio-ready version. They complied with “Short Short Man,” and Gillette went on to make numerous television appearances. The most notorious (at least on the Reddit side of the Internet) was on Brazilian show Xuxa Hits, a kiddie-oriented American Bandstand knockoff. Gillette and her dancers do a choreographed number as she lip-syncs to a crowd of cheering youngsters, some of whom appear to be singing along–to the original version, in English.

The song has been a balm for this listener as of late, because it’s funny and ultimately a bit meaningless–a necessary tool for facing the ridiculousness of our COVID-flavored American lives in the year 2020. I wasn’t able to find out what Sandra Gillette is up to these days, and rumor has it she’s retired from showbiz. But “Short Dick Man” lives on at the karaoke bar, or at least it will when we have karaoke bars again. The audience for the February 2014 Drag Carnage show at Hydrate was also privileged to see an amazing lip-sync cover by a pre-Rupaul’s Drag Race Pearl, who mopped up the stage with her neck-tic move locked into 20 Fingers’ beats. v

The Listener is a weekly sampling of music Reader staffers love. Absolutely anything goes, and you can reach us at [email protected].

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In 1995, Gillette and 20 Fingers were the rulers of the dance floorSalem Collo-Julinon September 21, 2020 at 11:00 am Read More »

Napalm Death call for empathy and action in a troubled world on Throes of Joy in the Jaws of DefeatismJamie Ludwigon September 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm

Two days after the 2016 election, when I caught a package tour headlined by British-American grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, the night seemed to encompass the best and worst of the moment: After witnessing a presidential candidate openly lean into hate and emerge victorious, the sound of hundreds of people belting out “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” during the band’s brutal cover of the Dead Kennedys classic felt grounding and cathartic. That relief was eighty-sixed when I ran into an acquaintance who’d been subjected to race- and gender-based harassment in the pit. No show or scene is immune to such vile behavior, but for more than three decades Napalm Death’s unshakable humanitarian politics have been nearly as loud as their pulverizing blastbeats–a combination that’s helped them shape the course of heavy music and endeared them to an international fanbase. Against the backdrop of the election, that harassment felt less like an isolated incident and more like a punch-in-the-gut reminder that the country was in for a rocky ride. And it’s not just the States: since Napalm Death released 2015’s Apex Predator–Easy Meat, most places on Earth have experienced escalating adversity, whether it’s the accelerating impact of climate change, growing poverty and inequality, or the rise of authoritarianism driven by fearmongering and “othering” entire groups of people (if not all three). On their new 16th album, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, the band confront that troubling global picture with an unflinching mix of face-peeling grindcore and vibrant experimentalism. The album bursts open with an urgent trio of songs that threatens to break the sound barrier, starting with “Fuck the Factoid,” a takedown of public figures who contort reality to suit their personal agendas. From there, things really twist and turn. “Contagion” is a full-bodied metallic take on the plight of migrants risking it all in the face of exploitation from political leaders and everyday pond scum alike. “Amoral” ventures into the darkly gleaming postpunk of Killing Joke as it ponders the compromises we can fall into when we fall for deception and give in to our basest emotions. The skittering “Joie de Ne Pas Vivre” goes still further, imagining being fucked-up enough to derive ghastly pleasure from others’ pain. And even “A Bellyful of Salt and Spleen,” which pairs industrial skronk and exploratory metal with frankly murderous lyrics, represents another round in Napalm Death’s fight against deadly prejudice. Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is a force of a record, and its biggest triumph may lie in its staunch assertion that even when things are most dire, we still have the tools of compassion, empathy, unity, and even rage to help us build a better future. v

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Napalm Death call for empathy and action in a troubled world on Throes of Joy in the Jaws of DefeatismJamie Ludwigon September 21, 2020 at 1:00 pm Read More »

Hardcore, metal, and punk bands unite for Shut It Down: Benefit for the Movement for Black LivesMonica Kendrickon September 21, 2020 at 5:00 pm

When Racetraitor formed in Chicago in the mid-90s, their uncompromisingly antiracist politics weren’t always warmly received in the hardcore scene, but after their breakup in 1999 their influence continued to spread (especially once drummer Andy Hurley joined occasional Racetraitor bassist Pete Wentz in Fall Out Boy in 2003). More than a decade later, the burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement surrounding the Ferguson uprising and the white surpremacist agenda fueling Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign inspired Racetraitor to reunite to help combat the hate. To that end, front man Mani Mostofi (who also works as a human rights lawyer in New York) has assembled Shut It Down: Benefit for the Movement for Black Lives, a sprawling compilation of metal, hardcore, punk, and noise benefiting the Movement for Black Lives–a coalition of more than 50 Black organizations working together to catalyze structural, cultural, and political improvements for Black communities in the United States. Mostafi says that more artists than he could’ve anticipated were eager to participate in the Bandcamp-only release, which includes a whopping 46 tracks. Along with Racetraitor, the compilation features plenty of hardcore bands who have mixed their interest in music with local grassroots activism, including St. Louis’s Redbait, Baltimore’s War on Women, San Antonio’s Amygdala, and Chicago’s La Armada. Among the metal bands are established heavyweights Sunn O))), Rwake (who contributed their first new track in nine years, “Infinice”), and Primitive Man as well as rising names Dawn Ray’d and Vile Creature. Chicago black-metal rattlers of the alt-right cage Neckbeard Deathcamp also make an appearance with “MAGAphobe,” with Hurley as a special guest. The mix of sounds provides vast rewards and surprises, especially if you put the album on shuffle. I keep coming back to the majestic metal angles of “Gaida Taskar Chutkeli” by Nepali grindcore band Chepang, the blistering punk of “Welfare” by Afro-Brazilian New York group Maafa (their name, which means “catastrophe” in Swahili, also refers to the African slave trade, and their vocalist, Flora Lucini, gave Shut It Down its title), the uncharacteristically atmospheric “Screen Door” by Michigan grindpunk band Cloud Rat, and the beautiful cover of “Kerosene” (the Bad Religion song, not the Big Black one) by New Orleans doom-metal group Thou. v

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Hardcore, metal, and punk bands unite for Shut It Down: Benefit for the Movement for Black LivesMonica Kendrickon September 21, 2020 at 5:00 pm Read More »

Video of fatal police shooting captures intense exchange of gunfire in PilsenSam Charleson September 21, 2020 at 10:31 pm

The agency that investigates uses of force by Chicago police officers released several videos Monday capturing an intense exchange of gunfire in Pilsen last month that ended with a man fatally shot by a CPD officer.

Miguel Vega, 26, was shot and killed by an officer on Aug. 31 in the 1300 block of West 19th Street in Pilsen.

CPD officials said officers went to the block around 10:45 p.m. after someone called 911 to report a “suspicious person.” Responding officers, who were traveling in an unmarked squad car, saw five people standing outside when they arrived.

Once officers got out of their car, someone started shooting at them, striking the squad car, CPD Deputy Chief Daniel O’Shea said at a press conference that night. One officer returned fire, striking Vega in the head.

Video released Monday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability shows the squad car’s front passenger window being shot out as soon as an officer opens the door, although there is no audio at first.

One of the officers then runs out of the squad car and opens fire, striking Vega, who is later seen lying face-down and motionless, with blood pooling near his head on the sidewalk.

The officer who fired the shots can be heard telling his colleagues: “My whole window’s shot out. Good thing I f- – – – – – ducked.”

The officer later walks over to Vega and says: “We’ve got an ambulance coming to you, brother. Keep talking to me, man. Keep talking to me, brother. You’re going to be all right. You’re going to be all right.”

Vega was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

WARNING: The following video contains graphic images and language.

His family was able to view the footage before it was publicly released, though they did not respond to an interview request. All told, COPA released 11 videos, including one from each of the first two officers to arrive at the scene.

Vega’s family had previously cast doubt on the CPD’s version of events. Earlier this month, Vega’s younger brother told supporters that police were “scared” to give his family more information about how officers came to fatally shoot Vega.

Days after the shooting, the commander of the CPD’s Near West District issued a warning to officers that said members of the La Raza gang may be targeting cops for retaliation.

With some exceptions, COPA releases footage of police shootings 60 days after the shooting occurs. If an incident results in criminal charges, a judge will order the footage be withheld.

COPA opted to release footage of the Vega shooting just 21 days after it occurred, and less than a week after the city’s Office of the Inspector General criticized the agency for its occasional failure to release video footage in a timely fashion.

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Video of fatal police shooting captures intense exchange of gunfire in PilsenSam Charleson September 21, 2020 at 10:31 pm Read More »