6 Chicago pizza places make The Daily Meal’s ‘101 of the best pizzas across America for 2020’ listChicagoNow Staffon September 16, 2020 at 7:44 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

6 Chicago pizza places make The Daily Meal’s ‘101 of the best pizzas across America for 2020’ list

ChicagoNOW

6 Chicago pizza places make The Daily Meal’s ‘101 of the best pizzas across America for 2020’ listChicagoNow Staffon September 16, 2020 at 7:44 pm Read More »

Chicagoans proudly share photos of themselves wearing masks on social mediaChicagoNow Staffon September 16, 2020 at 8:05 pm

ChicagoNow Staff Blog

Chicagoans proudly share photos of themselves wearing masks on social media

ChicagoNOW

Chicagoans proudly share photos of themselves wearing masks on social mediaChicagoNow Staffon September 16, 2020 at 8:05 pm Read More »

Cubs Game Post 9/16Sean Hollandon September 16, 2020 at 9:50 pm

Cubs Den

Cubs Game Post 9/16

Cubs Game Post 9/16Sean Hollandon September 16, 2020 at 9:50 pm Read More »

Chicago Oktoberfest Beer Weekend, September 18-20Mark McDermotton September 16, 2020 at 11:24 pm

The Beeronaut

Chicago Oktoberfest Beer Weekend, September 18-20

Chicago Oktoberfest Beer Weekend, September 18-20Mark McDermotton September 16, 2020 at 11:24 pm Read More »

Sandra Trevino, DJ and founder of Latin-music site EnchufateLeor Galilon September 16, 2020 at 11:00 am

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE MANRIQUEZ

Sandra Trevino, 48, has run Latin-music site Enchufate since founding it in 2005. She also contributes to Vocalo and two Lumpen Radio programs and DJs as part of Latinx arts collective Future Rootz.

I was born in Chicago, but we moved to Texas when I was ten, so I grew up there. When I came back, I met someone who introduced me to local shows. I started going to local rock en espanol shows. One of the bands, Descarga, I started following them a lot. One day the singer, Hector Ivan Garcia, came out of the show, and I was standing outside, and he was like, “Would you like to be a band manager?” That’s where it all started for me, as far as covering music, being involved in music management, and booking shows and all that–that was in the early 2000s. I was with them for about 13 years.

I remember one of the first things they asked me to do was to cold-call someone that they knew and just ask if they could play. I was like, “I’m the band’s manager–I want to know how this works.” He was very nice and told me how they did the booking and how they paid out.

I realized that a lot of the bands weren’t reaching out to venues that they didn’t know because they thought the venues would automatically say, “Rock en espanol, that’s not something we know, so no.” I approached it like, “Why are you saying you’re a rock en espanol band–you’re just a rock band.” And that’s when I started to get bigger bookings. We did the first rock en espanol showcase at Double Door–I was so happy and so proud.

When we saw the lack of coverage for the rock en espanol community–nobody was reporting about it, we weren’t getting written up–the band’s singer and myself decided to do something about it. He studied cinematography at Columbia College and he’s like, “I know how to do video. If you’re interested in interviewing bands, why don’t we cover the community?” We started a TV show on channel 25 called Errores no Eliminados, which means “Errors not Eliminated.” We started covering local shows–going to every single show out there, interviewing all the bands. That’s where my love for covering artists that weren’t being covered comes from. Now that’s what I do all the time as a music journalist.

The TV show was in 2002. We were on the air for about two years, and then we stopped. We wanted to do it again, and we came back with a bigger team–we had a dozen volunteers. We decided we were gonna do it in one location for a certain amount of time, so we would do a month at Cobra Lounge, a month at this other venue, and different venues; the bands would just show up, do their performance, then do the interview. So we did that for about a year. The local rock en espanol community wasn’t interested in us doing that, so we just started adding bands that were outside of that specific genre. At some point, we were like, “People aren’t really interested,” so we stopped. But before that, I did start my website, Enchufate.

I started it to cover music that I liked–music outside of rock en espanol, which is what we call Latin alternative. I liked it because it wasn’t just the hard rock and metal that we were used to seeing at the Latin rock shows; there was stuff that was electronic, a little pop, just different fusions of music that I loved, but that wasn’t accepted by the people that loved rock. That’s why I started Enchufate–to promote all these other amazing artists that were doing music that had a Latin background.

I kept doing it on Enchufate, and then I started working with Gozamos, which is a Latin outlet for art and culture. Eventually Vocalo reached out. Jesse Menendez, who used to work there, reached out and said, “Would you be interested in coming in so we can interview you?”

After that, he asked me if I was interested in coming in to talk about Latin alternative music once a month or once every two weeks, and that’s how my segment started on Vocalo. Now I have the privilege of doing the Friday-morning segment on Latin alternative music, and I’ve been doing that maybe seven years.

I got into radio through them. I started working with Radio One Chicago on WLUW–I was with them for a few years. And then Lumpen Radio happened. Me and my DJ partner, Stephanie Manriquez, we decided we wanted to push women-fronted music, mostly from Latin America and South America. We were asked to DJ at a show, and then when Lumpen Radio popped up, we submitted our show idea; we called ourselves the Ponderers, because we were always pondering about music.

Now I work with Future Rootz. I’m part of their DJ crew–I’m also a DJ. I started DJing because when we would go to clubs or venues and it was supposed to be a Latin night, they would play the same thing all the time. It got to the point where we would get to the show, and we were like, “OK, he’s gonna play this next, this is next, and now this is next.” And sure enough, that’s the way it was. Again, it was the singer of Descarga who was like, “Why don’t you start bringing your CDs and playing when we have a show?” And that’s how it started, and I’ve expanded to vinyl, which is great.

I love that I can share the music that I love, and that once people hear it they’re gonna love it too. But my love isn’t just rock en espanol–Latin alternative music, tropical music, some global bass here and there. Cumbia is my favorite. I have the Future Rootz radio show as well, on Lumpen. And I write with whoever wants me to write for them about Latin alternative music, mostly because that’s my favorite thing to write about. v

Sandra Trevino, DJ and founder of Latin-music site EnchufateLeor Galilon September 16, 2020 at 11:00 am Read More »

Hinsdale South football player tests positive for COVID-19Michael O’Brienon September 16, 2020 at 1:34 pm

Hinsdale South officials have confirmed that a football player tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.

The student was participating in a football camp at the school. The Illinois High School Association recently allowed sports not currently in-season to conduct 20 days of workouts supervised by coaches.

Arwen Pokorny Lyp, the Hinsdale South principal, sent a letter to families in the football program on Monday.

“We are coordingating our efforts with the DuPage County Health Department to promptly identify and monitor individuals who have had recent contact with this student to prevent further spread within our school and community,” Lyp wrote. ” We will be suspending all football-related activities for 14 days and requiring all students and staff who participated in the camp to quarantine through September 24.”

There have been a handful of rallies to bring back football, other fall sports and in-person learning in the Hinsdale community over the past week.

More rallies are scheduled all over the area this week, including one at the Thompson Center on Saturday that is expected to bring a large crowd.

Those movements don’t seem to have made any impact on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to move football to the spring.

“I’m not willing to sacrifice people’s lives or their health,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Neither the children nor their parents who would be affected also. We are being careful about it but I’m relying on doctors and researchers to give us the information. This isn’t a political decision. I know that there are people who would like me simply to make a political decision to allow people to endanger themselves.”

Every state that borders Illinois is now playing high school football. That hasn’t changed Pritzker’s mind. The current plan is for Illinois to begin the football season in February.

Hinsdale South football player tests positive for COVID-19Michael O’Brienon September 16, 2020 at 1:34 pm Read More »

Big Ten reverses course, announces plan to play football beginning Oct. 23-24 weekendAssociated Presson September 16, 2020 at 2:45 pm

Big Ten is going to give fall football a shot after all.

Less than five weeks after pushing football and other fall sports to spring in the name of player safety during the pandemic, the conference changed course Wednesday and said it plans to begin its season the weekend of Oct. 23-24.

Each team will play eight games in eight weeks and the conference championship game will be held Dec. 19 — if all goes well. That should give the Big Ten an opportunity to compete for the national championship.

The Big Ten said its Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously Tuesday to restart sports. The vote last month was 11-3 to postpone, with Ohio State, Iowa and Nebraska voting against.

The decision to play came after sharp pressure from coaches, players, parents and even President Donald Trump, all of them pushing for a Big Ten football season. The conference is home to a number of battleground states in the November election, and Trump swiftly applauded the move in a tweet.

The emergence of daily rapid-response COVID-19 testing, not available when university presidents and chancellors decided to pull the plug on the season, helped trigger a re-vote. The Big Ten said it will begin daily antigen testing of its athletes, coaches and staff on Sept. 30.

Team positivity rates and population positivity rate thresholds will be used to determine whether teams must halt practice or play. The earliest an athlete will be able to return to game competition would be 21 days following a COVID-19 positive diagnosis.

“Everyone associated with the Big Ten should be very proud of the groundbreaking steps that are now being taken to better protect the health and safety of the student-athletes and surrounding communities,” said Dr. Jim Borchers, team physician for Ohio State.

The Big Ten will take a bow, but the conference has been battered for a month.

First-year Commissioner Kevin Warren was the main target, criticized for a lack of communication within the conference and not providing enough information to back the initial decision.

The Big Ten postponed Aug. 11, indicating it would try to make up the season in the spring. But there was no plan in place.

The Pac-12 followed the Big Ten in postponing, but was far more detailed in its explanation and also had more obvious hurdles to clear. Half the Pac-12 schools are still operating under statewide restrictions that make it impossible for teams to practice.

Meanwhile, as the Big Ten and Pac-12 bailed, the three other Power Five conferences forged ahead, along with three other major college football leagues. Games have started, with the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference kicking off last week. The Southeastern Conference is scheduled to start playing games Sept. 26.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten was on the sideline, with coaches struggling to explain to players why other teams could play but they could not.

“We’re excited and we can’t wait to get started,” Michigan State linebacker Antjuan Simmons said.

In Nebraska, eight players had filed a lawsuit against the Big Ten over its decision to postpone. Glen Snodgrass, father of one of the players, Garrett Snodgrass, was teaching a class at York (Nebraska) High School when he received word of the reversal.

“This is what a lot of people have been fighting pretty hard for,” he said. “I can’t say enough about those eight boys and what they had the courage to do. They worked their entire lives to get where they are, and they just wanted to play.”

Nebraska was at the forefront in opposing the Big Ten’s original decision. The university had put out a joint statement from the school president, athletic director and coach Scott Frost expressing disappointment. Frost had also suggested Nebraska might look outside the Big Ten to play games.

Big Ten reverses course, announces plan to play football beginning Oct. 23-24 weekendAssociated Presson September 16, 2020 at 2:45 pm Read More »