Chicago Venues Open This Julyon July 15, 2020 at 8:56 pm

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It’s hard to believe we’ve been cooped up in our homes for almost half of the year! But as Chicago continues to slowly reopen, most of us are eager to explore our beloved city once again. Whether it’s to catch some live jazz or blockbuster movies, here are some of the top Chicago venues welcoming guests back to their establishments. Heads up, you’ll need a face mask and must follow their rules. These businesses are taking social distancing practices very seriously (as should you!).

Music Box Theatre

3733 N. Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60613

Chicago’s premier venue for independent, foreign, and cult classic films is open with capacity restrictions. A few notable new theater guidelines include online-only ticket sales (to get rid of box office lines), plexiglass dividers, and staggered seating with the Main Theater only allowing 50 guests at a time. Get the latest showtimes and tickets here.

Photo Credit: CHI-Together Facebook Page

Soldier Field’s CHI-Together

1410 S. Museum Campus Dr, Chicago, IL 60605

The Windy City’s newest drive-in movie theatre is guaranteed to be a fun night out! Enjoy a pre-show jam session with local artists or DJs followed by a blockbuster movie like Fast & Furious or Shrek. Tickets are $55 which includes admission for one vehicle with up to 6 guests and a bucket of popcorn. Get the latest showtimes and tickets here.

View Where to Get Boozy Slushies in Chicago

Need a little something extra before the show? View where to get boozy slushies in the city.

View Where to Get Boozy Slushies in Chicago

Andy’s Jazz Club

11 E. Hubbard St, Chicago, IL 60611

One of Chicago’s most respected jazz nightclubs has reopened, running two shows per night on Wednesdays through Sundays. Get your reservations in early, the music starts at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm sharp. Some important things to note: bring a mask, it’ll be required to enter the venue and may be removed only when you’re seated. Someone will also take your temperature at the door to make sure you’re healthy. Book your table here.

City Winery

1200 W. Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60607

Your favorite wine venue is back in business! Enjoy sipping a crisp rosé on their outdoor patio or safely dining inside. Plus, City Winery’s popular summer concert series kicks off July 29th with Chicago Global Allstars. Sinead O’Connor is scheduled to perform on August 18th. You won’t want to miss the “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer’s epic return to the stage after a four-year hiatus. Get your tickets here.

Reggie’s

2109 S State St, Chicago, IL 60616

If you’re a live music fan, you already know Reggie’s is the place to be. And this South Loop hotspot recently brought back acoustic entertainment to their rooftop. They’re open Sunday through Saturday from 11 am to 11 pm. But you’ll want to get here early to catch a show since they don’t accept reservations and tables are first-come, first-serve. Green Mill Cocktail Lounge

4802 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640

Looking for some swinging sounds with a much-needed cocktail? Head over to this eclectic late-night location with tunes from the early ‘30s and ‘40. The folks at Green Mill are running nightly shows, seven days a week at 25% capacity. They’re also enforcing a few new rules: social distancing must be practiced and masks must be worn unless seated. Check out their website for upcoming shows here.

Tortoise Supper Club

350 North State St, Chicago Illinois 60654

Feeling fancy? Stop by this stylish, sophisticated, and welcoming River North favorite for a handcrafted cocktail or an elegant dinner. If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend catch a live jazz show, every Saturday from 8 pm to 11 pm. Book your table here.

At UrbanMatter, U Matter. And we think this matters.

Tell us what you think matters in your neighborhood and what we should write about next in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: City Winery Facebook Page

Chicago Blackhawks: Celebrating the greatness of Duncan Keithon July 16, 2020 at 12:00 pm

The Chicago Blackhawks are celebrating Duncan Keith on his birthday today.

Today is Duncan Keith‘s birthday! It is surprising that he is already 37 years old. The Chicago Blackhawks drafted him in the second round (54th overall) in the 2002 NHL Draft. It has been a great ride for Keith up to this point as there were many years where he was the best defenseman in the NHL. He is going to walk into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot because of all of his accomplishments.

He started his career off with the Hawks when they weren’t very good. He was one of the key pieces that they built around to become a team that would win the Stanley Cup three times in a span of six seasons. He was a key piece to all three teams as the clear cut number one defenseman.

Keith’s impact was mostly felt during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was the year that they captured their third cup in six seasons and Keith was the best player on the Chicago roster by far. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy that year as the most valuable player in the playoffs because he had such an impact on the Cup Champion Blackhawks. It was one of the best postseason runs in the history of the NHL by a defenseman.

In addition to all of the team success he has been a part of, he has had plenty of individual success to go with his Conn Smythe Trophy. He has won the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL twice. He won it in 2010 and 2014 after outstanding campaigns that year. It was a great stretch of time where he was one of the very best in the world.

Keith is also probably going to go down as the greatest defenseman in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks. In the NHL’s centennial season, the league named Keith as one of the 100 greatest players of all time. It is awesome that a defenseman like this was able to play for the Hawks in a time where kids like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane were also there.

When Keith is retired, he will be honored by the Hawks in many ways. His number two will certainly be retired and you can even make the claim that there will be a statue one day. The statue might be a stretch but you never know. All of this will be ahead of his Hall of Fame induction. It has been a great career and deserves to be celebrated on his birthday.

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Chicago Blackhawks: Dominik Kubalik will come in 3rd for Calderon July 16, 2020 at 1:00 pm

Chicago Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik is nominated for the Calder Trophy.

The Chicago Blackhawks have had some nice rookies come in through the years, despite the team not being very good. Dominik Kubalik was the latest in that long line of good Blackhawks rookies and he is being rewarded for it. He is nominated for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie for his efforts. It was a great season for him in his first year and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Kubalik’s biggest accomplishment was when he scored his 30th goal of the season. Only Steve Larmer, Darryl Sutter, and Artemi Panarin were members of the Chicago Blackhawks to have 30 goals as a rookie. Kubalik became just the fourth which shows how nice his season was. Some other young players on the team struggled to repeat what they did the year prior so Kubalik was there to make up for some of it.

Kubalik is going up against Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks. Unfortunately for Kubalik, one of those two is going to win it and the other is going to come in second place. Kubalik won the race between a few guys for that third-place spot and that is okay. Makar and Hughes are both defensemen who made major impacts on their teams so it is completely okay to finish just behind them.

Now for Kubalik, there can be some fun in the playoffs. The Hawks have their stars that you already know about but the depth on the roster is what will make or break their chances against the Edmonton Oilers. He needs to be able to score some goals and make some players around him better as he did in 2019-20.

There has been plenty of time to rest in between the pause and the resumption of the season so seeing how that helps or hurts him will be interesting. Kubalik looks like a bright young player that the Blackhawks are going to be able to keep around to score some goals for a while. Congrats to him for being nominated for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

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Chicago Bears mishandling Allen Robinson situationon July 16, 2020 at 2:00 pm

Chicago Bears (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears must re-sign their star wide receiver.

What in the name of George S. Halas is going on up in the hallways of the Chicago Bears headquarters bearing his name? It’s a legitimate question to ask considering the latest development (or lack thereof) in the saga of how the Bears have, frankly, mishandled the Allen Robinson situation.

Granted, when Robinson signed as a free agent just before the 2018 season, the Bears we’re taking a chance on him. ARob was coming off of surgery to repair a torn ACL which caused him to miss all but one game in 2017. He was also two seasons removed from his incredible 1,400 yard receiving season of 2015.

However, it’s just as important to point out that Robinson also took a chance on the Bears. While the Bears compensates him well for his services, Robinson has other offers to play for more established quarterbacks, most notably the Green Bay Packers.

Instead, Robinson chose Chicago and an unknown second-year quarterback who was coming off a season that saw him throw a grand total of seven passes in a game. Despite that, and the Bears well-documented struggles with attracting top-tier offensive free agents, Robinson came to the Windy City.

Since then, he has been the best offensive player on the Bears by a mile, a leader on and off the field, and one of the most dependable players on the entire roster.

In his first year, he caught 55 passes for 754 yards and four touchdowns. In 2018, despite being the only legitimate threat on offense and a lackluster performance from the quarterback position, Robinson hauled in 98 passes for 1,147 yards and seven touchdowns.

Despite being Mitchell Trubisky’s security blanket and favorite target, Robinson put up incredible numbers even though he was the focal point of opposing defenses.

Robinson, in just a couple of years, is cementing himself as one of the best wide receivers the Bears have ever had. He’s also expressed a desire to remain in Chicago after his contract expires after this season.

Irrespective of all those things, the Bears apparently feel no sense of urgency to negotiate an extension with Robinson, who revealed on ESPN 1000 yesterday that the Bears haven’t even approached him about a contract extension.

If that’s true, and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t, you can add it to the ever-growing list of missteps by Ryan Pace. Perhaps there are legitimate reasons why they haven’t made a firm offer, for example, salary cap uncertainty.

Nevertheless, to not have even approached him regarding an extension or to express their desire to have Robinson back is an embarrassment. Players, especially professionals like Robinson, want respect and transparency. Frankly, with what Robinson has done for this team in a short amount of time, he deserves both.

Next: Trevis Gipson could make immediate impact for Bears

Consequently, it’s imperative that Pace get in a room with Robinson and his agent and express their commitment to bringing him back and assure ARob that once whatever is holding up the negotiation process is resolved, those discussions will begin in earnest. If he doesn’t, he risks losing one of the brightest spots on this Bears team in recent memory.

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Sault’s Untitled (Black Is) is the soundtrack for the 2020 revolutionon July 16, 2020 at 1:00 pm

Sault are an anonymous UK trio who create music grounded in the tenets of Black rights and Black freedom, and there’s never been a better time than now to hear their message. Last year they put out their debut album, 5, and an almost immediate follow-up, 7, and this summer they released their third record, Untitled (Black Is)–like its predecessors, it came out on UK label Forever Living Originals without the fanfare of a typical promotional campaign. Though the band omit biographical information from their liner notes and website, the metadata buried in the digital versions of these songs reveal that they were written by Forever Living Originals labelmates Dean Josiah Cover (aka UK producer and singer Inflo) and Cleopatra Nikolic (better known as singer Cleo Sol). And if the voice on tracks such as “Black Is” sounds familiar, that might be because it belongs to fellow Forever Living Originals artist and Chicago native Melisa Young, aka Kid Sister, who’s listed in the metadata as a writer on six of the album’s 20 songs. Sault announced the release of Untitled with a short statement on their website that suggests the album is the first in a series and provides context for its release: “We present our first ‘Untitled’ album to mark a moment in time where we as Black People, and of Black Origin are fighting for our lives. RIP George Floyd and all those who have suffered from police brutality and systemic racism. Change is happening . . . We are focused.” The moving, protest-ready march “Hard Life” and the Afrofunk-infused “Bow” (featuring guest singer Michael Kiwanuka) make it clear that the revelatory jazz-soaked soul music on Untitled is a call to action. Sault have released a new album of freedom songs that we should all sing together as the revolution plays out during this Amerikkkan summer. v

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A different kind of ‘car jams’ on the gig poster of the weekon July 15, 2020 at 10:55 pm

click to enlarge

We’re featuring another “drive-in” concert for this week’s gig poster. Live event production companies Sigma Chris, Afrotrak, and Civilized Lifestyle put together a show in August to take place in the south parking lot of Soldier Field. Tickets are sold per vehicle, with a maximum of four people allowed in each. It’s a new/old way to attend larger concerts (and though it’s a more parochial concern, we’re hoping that innovative bookings like this will result in more gig posters).

We’re still happy to take your suggestions for posters to feature each week–and given how thin on the ground actual concerts continue to be, fantasy gig posters remain fair game. E-mail [email protected] with your contact information and poster submission. Even though a few venues are back in business in a limited way, please continue to support staffers who’ve lost work and tips in recent months or who still can’t return to their jobs–here’s our list of fundraisers. And don’t forget record stores! The Reader published a list of local stores that will let you shop remotely.

ARTIST: Brandon Graham at Welldamme
GIG: The Drive-In Fest featuring Lloyd, Bobby V, Pleasure P, Do or Die, DJ LMS, and DJ Sean Mac, Sat 8/22 outside Soldier Field
ARTIST INFO: instagram.com/welldamme

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Chicago Bears: One Allen Robinson stat makes an elite statementon July 16, 2020 at 11:00 am

Chicago Bears (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

No one might ever appreciate just how special Chicago Bears wideout Allen Robinson was in 2019.

When the Chicago Bears signed Allen Robinson back in 2018, they had high hopes that he would finally have strong quarterback play for the first time in his collegiate or professional career. Since being a Bear, that hasn’t exactly been the case.

Mitchell Trubisky had his best season as a pro in 2018, but there were (and still are) still plenty of flaws in his game. Robinson is notorious for being a fantastic wideout while having never played with an above-average quarterback since his college days at Penn State.

Going from Christian Hackenberg in college, to Blake Bortles in Jacksonville, and then Trubisky in Chicago is one travesty after another for the former Pro Bowler. Yet, he continues to produce at a high level.

In 2019, one particular area made him stand out above the rest, especially because of what the context means.

Highest-graded WRs on contested targets in 2019:

? Kenny Golladay – 93.0
? DeVante Parker – 93.0
? Allen Robinson II – 92.7
? Julio Jones – 91.9 pic.twitter.com/syI2frZZkT

— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) July 13, 2020

Take Pro Football Focus for whatever you will. At times, their takes can be a bit absurd. However, seeing something like this should make you stop and think.

DeVante Parker had a guy in Ryan Fitzpatrick who is a deep-pass-happy quarterback. Parker’s 2019 season was a resurgence by all accounts, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that Fitzpatrick simply gave him the opportunities to show off his talent. He went up and got the ball when it was in the air.

Kenny Golladay and Julio Jones both have solid quarterbacks. Jones is unquestionably an elite receiver and Golladay is known for making his acrobatic type catches, so seeing them atop this list also isn’t a surprise.

But, looking at Robinson, it’s a different story. Trubisky is one of the worst long-ball throwers in football, for starters. He doesn’t throw it deep as much as the average quarterback, and when he does, it’s so inconsistently thrown that Robinson probably does have to go up and make a play more often than not.

“The best thing that can be said about Mitchell Trubisky’s deep passing is that it’s no worse than his regular passing, and his PFF grade ranks around the same place in either scenario. Trubisky completed just 34.4% of his deep shots for only 10.4 yards per attempt, and that’s with Allen Robinson II winning jump balls at a high rate.” (via PFF)

Last season, Trubisky ranked 18th in the NFL in completion percentage at 63.2 percent — and that’s one of the higher ranking numbers from his 2019 campaign.

Trubisky fell to dead last in yards per attempt at 6.1 and sixth-worst in terms of passing yardage per game (209.2). The passing game in Chicago is about as dead as it can be following an abysmal 2019 season.

Robinson continues to put up incredible numbers. But, can you imagine how much worse Trubisky would look if it weren’t for his no. 1 receiver winning so many contested catches, considering many of those are likely poorly thrown balls?

If Robinson doesn’t come down with so many inaccurate passes, regardless of how far they’re thrown down field, then Trubisky isn’t even on the team at this point. Trubisky’s play would be so bad that there would have been a complete renovation at the quarterback position in 2020.