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The Chicago Bears have ample cap room, and far more than any other team in the NFL now that the 2023 salary cap is set.

General manager Ryan Poles has committed to Justin Fields as his franchise quarterback; at least that’s what reports have stated, and now it’s all about building around him.

The very first thing the Bears need to do is worry about how they’re going to protect Fields. Sure, he needs weapons. But, he can’t get them the ball if he’s still running for his life.

So, when it comes to this year’s free agent crop of offensive tackles, the Bears have tons of options, and they’re good ones. Let’s look at the who should be the Bears’ top three targets at offensive tackle, starting with the most prominent one.

Top free agent offense tackles for the Chicago Bears: Orlando Brown Jr., Chiefs

If the Bears want the best pass-blocking offensive tackle on the free agent market this year, then Orlando Brown Jr. is their man. Brown does have an interesting connection to Ryan Poles, too, who was with the Chiefs back when Kansas City traded for him in 2021.

Brown is just 26 years old right now, and should end up getting maybe the biggest contract of any offensive lineman this offseason, in terms of annual average.

He’s set to play in a Super Bowl, protecting already one of the greatest quarterbacks this league has ever seen. He’s played in a smart, crafty offense led by one of the best to ever do it in Andy Reid. The Chiefs will have to pay up to get him to stay, but will the Bears be able to out-do an offer from Kansas City?

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REPORT: Former Bears safety a Texans defensive coordinator candidate

A former Bears safety is a defensive coordinator candidate

The Houston Texans hired DeMeco Ryans as their head coach after they fired Lovie Smith following the season. The Texans are now looking at a former Bears safety as a possible defensive coordinator next season. Ryans and the Texans are looking to rebuild a team that finished 31st in the league–or one spot above the Bears.

According to Aaron Wilson with KPRC, the Texans have requested permission for Chris Harris to interview for their vacant defensive coordinator job. They also requested New York Jets safeties coach Marquand Manuel to interview as well.

Sources: Texans request permission to interview Commanders’ Chris Harris, Jets’ Marquand Manuel for defensive coordinator job @KPRC2
https://t.co/5Amrr0SDLV
@KPRC2 https://t.co/K8GWNFcYF9

Harris played for the Bears in two stints. He was drafted in the sixth round by the Bears in 2005. Harris would play with them through the 2006 season when the Bears made it to the Super Bowl. Harris would intercept Peyton Manning on the possession following Deven Hester’s kick-return touchdown.

(As a Bears fan in my early thirties now, that was the best position I’ve ever seen the Bears in to win a championship. But they blew it with a three and out the next offensive series and a blown coverage on the Colts’ next series; that high feeling was short-lived.)

After Devin Hester took back the opening kickoff, Chris Harris picks off Peyton Manning on the ensuing possession.
The game should’ve just ended there, the Bears obviously had this one taken care of.
#TurnoverTuesday #DaBears https://t.co/oyJTWAa7GS

Harris left after the Super Bowl to play for the Panthers. He’d return to the Bears for the 2010-11 seasons. Harris would take the devensive quality control coaching job for the Bears during the 2013-14 seasons. We’ll see if the former Bears safety can rasie up the ranks to be the Texans’ defensive coordinator.

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Classick Studios expands into the Soundscape space

Chris Inumerable of Classick Studios and Michael Kolar of Soundscape Studios Credit: Courtesy of Chris Inumerable

Last week, Classick Studios founder Chris Inumerable signed paperwork to buy the East Humboldt Park building occupied by the recently shuttered Soundscape Studios. Soundscape founder Michael Kolar had announced in late December that he was closing his studio after a 26-year run that’d made it a hub for the local hip-hop scene. Since late summer, he and Inumerable had been discussing the future of the Soundscape space. 

Their talks began in August, when the Classick Studios Instagram posted a photo celebrating its tenth anniversary at its current headquarters (2950 W. Chicago), which is around half a mile west of Soundscape (2510 W. Chicago). “I love fucking with people, so I texted Chris, ‘Congrats on ten years,’” Kolar says. “He hit back and said, ‘Thanks, neighbor.’ I was like, ‘How would you like to not be my neighbor anymore?’” 

“When this happened, I was flabbergasted, to say the least,” Inumerable says. For about five years, he’d been looking to expand Classick by adding a second location. In 2020, he made an offer for a building at Grand and Western, but someone else bought the place first. He kept looking, but he knew that even if he found a place he could afford, he’d still have to spend time and money building out a studio. Kolar didn’t just have a stand-alone building but also a fully operational top-line studio. “Building a studio of the caliber where Soundscape is right now, it takes time,” Inumerable says. 

Soundscape’s building also comes with history and prestige that can’t be bought. “I started my studio in the corner of my parents’ garage, with foam fingers glued up to the wall, cutting records on cassette tape,” Kolar says. “We’re fucking bootstraps DIY motherfuckers here.” After those humble beginnings in 1997, he moved Soundscape to two other locations—first to a factory on Fulton Street, then to a spot on South Wabash—before settling at the Humboldt Park spot. 

In the late 2000s, Soundscape became a hub for MCs throughout Chicago and beyond, in part due to a partnership Kolar developed with Chicago hip-hop blog Ruby Hornet. In 2009, that partnership birthed a more-or-less monthly series of recordings called Closed Sessions, which in turn evolved into one of the best indie labels in the city. And Soundscape’s Rolodex includes lots of locals who’ve shaped Chicago hip-hop, including King Louie, Kidz in the Hall, Crucial Conflict, Chance the Rapper, and Vic Mensa. Several of those artists have also worked with Classick Studios.

Inumerable first crossed paths with Kolar at a late-2000s GLC listening party at Chicago Recording Company, where Inumerable was then interning. “I heard a lot about Mike,” Inumerable says. “[He] kind of paved the way for a lot of people in my generation who really wanted to get into the music game.” 

Like Kolar, Inumerable founded his recording empire on his own. He started Classick in 2005, building out a studio in his childhood bedroom. Two years later, he moved the studio into the basement of that home. In 2010, he installed Classick’s headquarters in a different house, this time taking over the whole thing; the basement became the studio, and the living quarters housed collaborators. By the time Classick put down roots on Chicago Avenue in 2012, Innumerable and his studio were integral parts of the local hip-hop scene. He also developed a tight bond with a talented rapper-singer from Saint Louis named Smino, who recruited Inumerable to be his manager. Inumerable also began managing a frequent Smino collaborator, arty producer Monte Booker.

“Working with [Smino and Monte] for the last nine years, I’ve learned the ins and outs of the music business,” Inumerable says. “I feel like I want to give my own take and own perspective on how I can guide the next generation.” And Inumerable is doing that work. He’s president of Managers’ Special, a nonprofit collective aimed at helping Chicagoans who manage artists get a better foothold in the industry. A couple years ago, he began inviting local acts to perform on the rooftop of Classick’s Humboldt loft space for a YouTube series called 1Takes. And he hopes that expanding into Soundscape’s space will help him do more to build a supportive infrastructure for Chicago artists. 

“I want to be a little more intentional—a little more forward—about what I’m trying to accomplish here in Chicago, which is really build that guidance,” Inumerable says. “I want Classick Studios to basically be the studio-slash-management-slash-label in the city that people can really rely on.”

What Inumerable is doing is just the sort of thing Kolar had hoped would happen to his old studio space. “I wanted to make sure it stayed open,” he says. “The most important thing to me is elevating the music community.” Kolar’s former engineers will continue working under Inumerable, who aims to start sessions in the Soundscape space within a week or two. It’ll be the next step toward a grander goal that Inumerable has been pursuing for his entire time in the industry: to develop a local infrastructure and support network for musicians that rivals the biggest music cities in the country. 

“Everything that I do, I’m working with people in the city,” Inumerable says. “I’m not just doing it as Classick Studios. I’m trying to show people we can work together.”

Related


Elton ‘L10MixedIt’ Chueng, recording engineer

“A lot of the times, where I find success is to be as empathetic as I am, just as a person, and to have that translate on a technical level.”


Doug Malone, owner and lead engineer, Jamdek Recording Studio

“Something about a recording studio, I think it’s always overlooked as a place for community.”


Read More

Classick Studios expands into the Soundscape space Read More »

Classick Studios expands into the Soundscape space

Chris Inumerable of Classick Studios and Michael Kolar of Soundscape Studios Credit: Courtesy of Chris Inumerable

Last week, Classick Studios founder Chris Inumerable signed paperwork to buy the East Humboldt Park building occupied by the recently shuttered Soundscape Studios. Soundscape founder Michael Kolar had announced in late December that he was closing his studio after a 26-year run that’d made it a hub for the local hip-hop scene. Since late summer, he and Inumerable had been discussing the future of the Soundscape space. 

Their talks began in August, when the Classick Studios Instagram posted a photo celebrating its tenth anniversary at its current headquarters (2950 W. Chicago), which is around half a mile west of Soundscape (2510 W. Chicago). “I love fucking with people, so I texted Chris, ‘Congrats on ten years,’” Kolar says. “He hit back and said, ‘Thanks, neighbor.’ I was like, ‘How would you like to not be my neighbor anymore?’” 

“When this happened, I was flabbergasted, to say the least,” Inumerable says. For about five years, he’d been looking to expand Classick by adding a second location. In 2020, he made an offer for a building at Grand and Western, but someone else bought the place first. He kept looking, but he knew that even if he found a place he could afford, he’d still have to spend time and money building out a studio. Kolar didn’t just have a stand-alone building but also a fully operational top-line studio. “Building a studio of the caliber where Soundscape is right now, it takes time,” Inumerable says. 

Soundscape’s building also comes with history and prestige that can’t be bought. “I started my studio in the corner of my parents’ garage, with foam fingers glued up to the wall, cutting records on cassette tape,” Kolar says. “We’re fucking bootstraps DIY motherfuckers here.” After those humble beginnings in 1997, he moved Soundscape to two other locations—first to a factory on Fulton Street, then to a spot on South Wabash—before settling at the Humboldt Park spot. 

In the late 2000s, Soundscape became a hub for MCs throughout Chicago and beyond, in part due to a partnership Kolar developed with Chicago hip-hop blog Ruby Hornet. In 2009, that partnership birthed a more-or-less monthly series of recordings called Closed Sessions, which in turn evolved into one of the best indie labels in the city. And Soundscape’s Rolodex includes lots of locals who’ve shaped Chicago hip-hop, including King Louie, Kidz in the Hall, Crucial Conflict, Chance the Rapper, and Vic Mensa. Several of those artists have also worked with Classick Studios.

Inumerable first crossed paths with Kolar at a late-2000s GLC listening party at Chicago Recording Company, where Inumerable was then interning. “I heard a lot about Mike,” Inumerable says. “[He] kind of paved the way for a lot of people in my generation who really wanted to get into the music game.” 

Like Kolar, Inumerable founded his recording empire on his own. He started Classick in 2005, building out a studio in his childhood bedroom. Two years later, he moved the studio into the basement of that home. In 2010, he installed Classick’s headquarters in a different house, this time taking over the whole thing; the basement became the studio, and the living quarters housed collaborators. By the time Classick put down roots on Chicago Avenue in 2012, Innumerable and his studio were integral parts of the local hip-hop scene. He also developed a tight bond with a talented rapper-singer from Saint Louis named Smino, who recruited Inumerable to be his manager. Inumerable also began managing a frequent Smino collaborator, arty producer Monte Booker.

“Working with [Smino and Monte] for the last nine years, I’ve learned the ins and outs of the music business,” Inumerable says. “I feel like I want to give my own take and own perspective on how I can guide the next generation.” And Inumerable is doing that work. He’s president of Managers’ Special, a nonprofit collective aimed at helping Chicagoans who manage artists get a better foothold in the industry. A couple years ago, he began inviting local acts to perform on the rooftop of Classick’s Humboldt loft space for a YouTube series called 1Takes. And he hopes that expanding into Soundscape’s space will help him do more to build a supportive infrastructure for Chicago artists. 

“I want to be a little more intentional—a little more forward—about what I’m trying to accomplish here in Chicago, which is really build that guidance,” Inumerable says. “I want Classick Studios to basically be the studio-slash-management-slash-label in the city that people can really rely on.”

What Inumerable is doing is just the sort of thing Kolar had hoped would happen to his old studio space. “I wanted to make sure it stayed open,” he says. “The most important thing to me is elevating the music community.” Kolar’s former engineers will continue working under Inumerable, who aims to start sessions in the Soundscape space within a week or two. It’ll be the next step toward a grander goal that Inumerable has been pursuing for his entire time in the industry: to develop a local infrastructure and support network for musicians that rivals the biggest music cities in the country. 

“Everything that I do, I’m working with people in the city,” Inumerable says. “I’m not just doing it as Classick Studios. I’m trying to show people we can work together.”

Related


Elton ‘L10MixedIt’ Chueng, recording engineer

“A lot of the times, where I find success is to be as empathetic as I am, just as a person, and to have that translate on a technical level.”


Doug Malone, owner and lead engineer, Jamdek Recording Studio

“Something about a recording studio, I think it’s always overlooked as a place for community.”


Read More

Classick Studios expands into the Soundscape space Read More »

Chaos theory

One of the more revealing scenes in City So Real—Steve James’s insightful documentary about Chicago politics, takes place in a Gold Coast penthouse.

It’s 2019. And James, chronicling the last mayoral election, is filming a dinner party hosted by Christie Hefner.

They’re talking politics and one of the guests—Norman Bobins, a retired banker—opines that no matter who wins the upcoming election, he hopes we don’t return to the days of Mayor Harold Washington.

Too much chaos, he explains.

To her credit, Hefner pushes back, pointing out that “the chaos” of Council Wars was instigated by a pack of white aldermen who tried to sabotage Washington’s administration at every turn.

I suppose I should appreciate that in his bluntness, Bobins revealed what you could call the corporate attitude toward democracy, which goes a little like this . . . 

It’s okay in principle, but let’s not let it get in the way of grownup stuff, like electing all-powerful mayors and rubber-stamp aldermen who know how to get things done. Even though the things they get done have at best only a trickle-down benefit for most of the people who live here.

It’s good to reflect on that salon scene as we head into the final month of what will most likely be the first round of the mayoral election. As no candidate will likely capture more than 50 percent of the vote.

At the moment, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction of corporatocracy.

That is, we seem to be at least experimenting with the concept of democracy and the diminishment of the mayor’s authority. In February, for instance, we will hold the first-ever elections of police district councils that will have a say in policing decisions.

This is partly a result of the cold-blooded execution of Laquan McDonald by a police officer in 2014. And the subsequent coverup by Mayor Rahm, who sat on the incriminating evidence for 13 months until a Cook County judge ordered him to release the videotape of McDonald’s murder.

We’re also only a few years away from electing a school board, which is the by-product of years of grassroots activism that mayors (and their corporate friends) generally abhor.

So many times over the last ten or so years, school activists thought they had the statehouse votes to pass an elected school board bill. Only to see the sure thing evaporate in the final moments of the legislative session—killed at the behest of the mayor by Illinois senate president John Cullerton or former Illinois house speaker Michael Madigan, who purportedly supported the bill.

Ah, the games that Madigan played.

There’s also a movement toward democracy in, of all places, the City Council, where alderpersons Sophia King and Matt Martin have led mini rebellions against the mayor’s control of council chairs.

Few things expose Chicago’s indifference toward democracy as the city custom of allowing the mayor to determine who gets to chair a committee.

The council, remember, is supposed to be a legislative check on the mayor’s power. But since Mayor Daley was elected in 1989, it’s been a mayoral rubber stamp in part because the mayor controls the flow of legislation by controlling council chairs. The mayor chooses council chairs as a reward for their past subservience and a promise that they’ll use the power of the chair to kill legislation the mayor opposes.

This tradition continues, as we saw last November when Mayor Lightfoot stifled the attempt of leftist alders to approve, or even hold a meeting to consider approving, the Bring Chicago Home ordinance. That ordinance would pay for the construction of low-income housing by slapping a tax on the sale of high-priced real estate.

The traditional argument for all-powerful mayors is that they know how to get things done. But in the case of the Bring Home Chicago ordinance, it’s more like they know how to keep things from being done—even if that means more homeless people living in tents under viaducts.

As to Alderperson Martin . . .

He was the vice chair of the council’s ethics committee, when its chair, 43rd ward Alderperson Michele Smith, suddenly resigned last summer with about nine months left in her term. By retiring, Smith enabled Mayor Lightfoot to name a successor—Timmy Knudsen—who now has the advantage of “incumbency” in the February election.

Not sure what’s ethical about any of this.

Martin proposed that he be named council chair, as he was the vice chair. Mayor Lightfoot resisted on the unstated grounds that Martin’s never been a rubber stamp, so why should he get any privileges? 

On January 23, Martin convened an ethics committee meeting anyway, as though he actually were the chair. Mayor Lightfoot sort of looked the other way—apparently too busy with her re-election campaign to try to block Martin. 

By chance, I recently moderated a forum in the 30th ward, where four candidates are running to replace Alderman Ariel Reboyras, who by virtue of his loyalty to the last two mayors, got to be a committee chair. I asked the candidates what I called “the Matt Martin question.” 

That is—did they believe aldermen or the mayor should select council chairs?

All of the candidates said they sided with Martin.

I was impressed by their dedication to democracy until skepticism set in. My guess is that council democracy is like TIF reform—a concept candidates know enough to endorse when they’re running for office. Once in office—well, that’s another thing.

So, I can’t predict where these currents of democracy will eventually lead us. I can easily see Chicago going back to the old ways, with future mayors—cheered on by future Norman Bobins—acting as though democracy was just too chaotic to abide by.

Instead, they’ll say we need a powerful mayor and a rubber-stamp council, like in the good old days. Even though those days really weren’t so good for ordinary Chicagoans.

The Latest from the Ben Joravsky Show

Alderman Rod Sawyer–Like Father, Like Son
52:53

LeAlan Jones—Super Bowls To Come
58:36

Alderman Matt Martin—Ethical Chicago
43:52

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The best thing Alderperson Ed Burke ever did for Chicago was to leave office.


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Chaos theory Read More »

Chicago indie rockers Fran help cushion the world’s tough blows with Leaving

Maybe the Chicago mayoral campaign is getting to me, but I’m tired of candidates who think any of the city’s problems can be solved by one person. (It’s even worse when that person wants to increase the police budget again.) On Leaving (Fire Talk), the new second album from Chicago indie-rock outfit Fran, front woman Maria Jacobson confronts some of the world’s potentially terminal problems—but she’s acutely aware of the limitations of the individual. On Leaving single “Palm Trees,” for instance, she evokes the harms of climate change—in one stanza, plants are threatened by a cold front, and in the next they catch fire. She delivers these words at a brisk pace but with a relaxed delivery, her downy voice providing a soft landing for her blunt descriptions. What can anyone do? It’s as though she’s gently asking that question, and gently answering: You may feel powerless to effect change alone, but we can find faith in one another and in our shared moment. All of Leaving seems to draw its strength from that hope, rooted in the collective will. On the album Jacobson worked with an ensemble of gifted locals—including members of Bret Koontz & Truancy Club, with whom she’s recorded as a flutist and vocalist—and the detailed delicacy of the subtly folky music will nudge you to savor every bit of its ephemeral beauty.

Fran The Hecks open. Fri 2/10, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N Western Ave, $15, 21+


Read More

Chicago indie rockers Fran help cushion the world’s tough blows with Leaving Read More »

Chaos theory

One of the more revealing scenes in City So Real—Steve James’s insightful documentary about Chicago politics, takes place in a Gold Coast penthouse.

It’s 2019. And James, chronicling the last mayoral election, is filming a dinner party hosted by Christie Hefner.

They’re talking politics and one of the guests—Norman Bobins, a retired banker—opines that no matter who wins the upcoming election, he hopes we don’t return to the days of Mayor Harold Washington.

Too much chaos, he explains.

To her credit, Hefner pushes back, pointing out that “the chaos” of Council Wars was instigated by a pack of white aldermen who tried to sabotage Washington’s administration at every turn.

I suppose I should appreciate that in his bluntness, Bobins revealed what you could call the corporate attitude toward democracy, which goes a little like this . . . 

It’s okay in principle, but let’s not let it get in the way of grownup stuff, like electing all-powerful mayors and rubber-stamp aldermen who know how to get things done. Even though the things they get done have at best only a trickle-down benefit for most of the people who live here.

It’s good to reflect on that salon scene as we head into the final month of what will most likely be the first round of the mayoral election. As no candidate will likely capture more than 50 percent of the vote.

At the moment, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction of corporatocracy.

That is, we seem to be at least experimenting with the concept of democracy and the diminishment of the mayor’s authority. In February, for instance, we will hold the first-ever elections of police district councils that will have a say in policing decisions.

This is partly a result of the cold-blooded execution of Laquan McDonald by a police officer in 2014. And the subsequent coverup by Mayor Rahm, who sat on the incriminating evidence for 13 months until a Cook County judge ordered him to release the videotape of McDonald’s murder.

We’re also only a few years away from electing a school board, which is the by-product of years of grassroots activism that mayors (and their corporate friends) generally abhor.

So many times over the last ten or so years, school activists thought they had the statehouse votes to pass an elected school board bill. Only to see the sure thing evaporate in the final moments of the legislative session—killed at the behest of the mayor by Illinois senate president John Cullerton or former Illinois house speaker Michael Madigan, who purportedly supported the bill.

Ah, the games that Madigan played.

There’s also a movement toward democracy in, of all places, the City Council, where alderpersons Sophia King and Matt Martin have led mini rebellions against the mayor’s control of council chairs.

Few things expose Chicago’s indifference toward democracy as the city custom of allowing the mayor to determine who gets to chair a committee.

The council, remember, is supposed to be a legislative check on the mayor’s power. But since Mayor Daley was elected in 1989, it’s been a mayoral rubber stamp in part because the mayor controls the flow of legislation by controlling council chairs. The mayor chooses council chairs as a reward for their past subservience and a promise that they’ll use the power of the chair to kill legislation the mayor opposes.

This tradition continues, as we saw last November when Mayor Lightfoot stifled the attempt of leftist alders to approve, or even hold a meeting to consider approving, the Bring Chicago Home ordinance. That ordinance would pay for the construction of low-income housing by slapping a tax on the sale of high-priced real estate.

The traditional argument for all-powerful mayors is that they know how to get things done. But in the case of the Bring Home Chicago ordinance, it’s more like they know how to keep things from being done—even if that means more homeless people living in tents under viaducts.

As to Alderperson Martin . . .

He was the vice chair of the council’s ethics committee, when its chair, 43rd ward Alderperson Michele Smith, suddenly resigned last summer with about nine months left in her term. By retiring, Smith enabled Mayor Lightfoot to name a successor—Timmy Knudsen—who now has the advantage of “incumbency” in the February election.

Not sure what’s ethical about any of this.

Martin proposed that he be named council chair, as he was the vice chair. Mayor Lightfoot resisted on the unstated grounds that Martin’s never been a rubber stamp, so why should he get any privileges? 

On January 23, Martin convened an ethics committee meeting anyway, as though he actually were the chair. Mayor Lightfoot sort of looked the other way—apparently too busy with her re-election campaign to try to block Martin. 

By chance, I recently moderated a forum in the 30th ward, where four candidates are running to replace Alderman Ariel Reboyras, who by virtue of his loyalty to the last two mayors, got to be a committee chair. I asked the candidates what I called “the Matt Martin question.” 

That is—did they believe aldermen or the mayor should select council chairs?

All of the candidates said they sided with Martin.

I was impressed by their dedication to democracy until skepticism set in. My guess is that council democracy is like TIF reform—a concept candidates know enough to endorse when they’re running for office. Once in office—well, that’s another thing.

So, I can’t predict where these currents of democracy will eventually lead us. I can easily see Chicago going back to the old ways, with future mayors—cheered on by future Norman Bobins—acting as though democracy was just too chaotic to abide by.

Instead, they’ll say we need a powerful mayor and a rubber-stamp council, like in the good old days. Even though those days really weren’t so good for ordinary Chicagoans.

The Latest from the Ben Joravsky Show

Alderman Rod Sawyer–Like Father, Like Son
52:53

LeAlan Jones—Super Bowls To Come
58:36

Alderman Matt Martin—Ethical Chicago
43:52

RELATED STORIES


Real Chicago

The scariest thing about our city is how our political system works.


Good riddance

The best thing Alderperson Ed Burke ever did for Chicago was to leave office.


Hocus-pocus

All the usual TIF lies come out on both sides in the debate for and against the Red Line extension.

Read More

Chaos theory Read More »

Chicago indie rockers Fran help cushion the world’s tough blows with Leaving

Maybe the Chicago mayoral campaign is getting to me, but I’m tired of candidates who think any of the city’s problems can be solved by one person. (It’s even worse when that person wants to increase the police budget again.) On Leaving (Fire Talk), the new second album from Chicago indie-rock outfit Fran, front woman Maria Jacobson confronts some of the world’s potentially terminal problems—but she’s acutely aware of the limitations of the individual. On Leaving single “Palm Trees,” for instance, she evokes the harms of climate change—in one stanza, plants are threatened by a cold front, and in the next they catch fire. She delivers these words at a brisk pace but with a relaxed delivery, her downy voice providing a soft landing for her blunt descriptions. What can anyone do? It’s as though she’s gently asking that question, and gently answering: You may feel powerless to effect change alone, but we can find faith in one another and in our shared moment. All of Leaving seems to draw its strength from that hope, rooted in the collective will. On the album Jacobson worked with an ensemble of gifted locals—including members of Bret Koontz & Truancy Club, with whom she’s recorded as a flutist and vocalist—and the detailed delicacy of the subtly folky music will nudge you to savor every bit of its ephemeral beauty.

Fran The Hecks open. Fri 2/10, 8:30 PM, Constellation, 3111 N Western Ave, $15, 21+


Read More

Chicago indie rockers Fran help cushion the world’s tough blows with Leaving Read More »

The Chicago Bears didn’t have much success with Matt Nagy as their head coach. They had one good year in 2018 where they dominated their way to the NFC North title but fell off very quickly. It was more than just the head coach but he was a big problem by the time 2021 was complete.

Once he was let go by the Chicagoo Bears, he found himself back with the Kansas City Chiefs where he was before coming to the Bears. Now, he is back in the Super Bowl with them after defeating the Cincinnati Bengals last week.

On Monday, some videos of him talking to the media started to leak. He talked about a variety of different topics but Justin Fields is obviously the one that people are going to want to hear the most about.

Fields obviously had just one year with Nagy in charge and it didn’t go very well for anyone. There was a quarterback controversy and a lot of horrid showings from everyone.

Matt Nagy is still saying nice things about Chicago Bears’ QB Justin Fields.

Matt Nagy on if he sees a #SuperBowl in the future for Justin Fields. Check out more from Nagy tonight on @GNSportsTV at 10:30pm on @WGNTV. @WGNNews #Bears #SBLVII #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/5TMZLX9rHl

— Jarrett Payton (@paytonsun) February 7, 2023

People might not take any stock in what he says but it is cool to see Matt Nagy talk about Justin Fields in this way. Believing that the Bears can win a Super Bowl with him at the helm is a big thing for him to say. He is not obligated to say anything nice about his former team.

If there is one thing that he knows it is good quarterback play (sometimes). He knew that the Chiefs needed Patrick Mahomes when they drafted him and the franchise luckily believed him. Now, with Fields, it would be nice to see him be right about another one.

We’ll have the full interview out soon, but here’s a clip of Matt Nagy talking about Justin Fields and whether he has any regrets on how he handled him. pic.twitter.com/pK7li1Ghu5

— CHGO Bears (@CHGO_Bears) February 7, 2023

In this particular video, you’ll hear Nagy talk about how he handled Justin Fields and the rest of the quarterbacks on the team. It does sound a bit like he knows the mistakes that he made and that he can learn from them.

Although some of his ways of handling things were horrible, Nagy does seem genuine when he talks about how he wanted to do what he can to help the quarterback succeed. Sometimes, things just don’t work out.

Now, Nagy’s Kansas City Chiefs team is getting ready to face off against the Philadelphia Eagles who are also very good. This is an incredibly hard matchup to predict for a variety of reasons.

Bears fans might not be rooting for Nagy any time soon but it is nice to see him still have some good evaluations of the team.

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Bulls win laugher over the Spurs, but questions grow as deadline looms

Andre Drummond had no clue what the Bulls roster would look like by Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

That included the veteran big man talking about himself.

All the reserve center knew was he had packed for the three-city road trip, unsure who exactly would finish it out.

“I’ve preached the same message even when I was in Detroit,” Drummond said of the looming deadline and rumors surrounding it. “It’s the part of the season I can’t control. See what happens, play the game of basketball, the thing I can control, and let the cards fall where they may.”

Where they fell on Monday was directly on the heads of the struggling Spurs, as the Bulls (26-27) overcame a sluggish second and third quarter, to pull away in the fourth and turn it into a 128-104 laugher.

The team’s third-straight win, as well as their fourth over the last five games.

A loud enough statement for the front office to be buyers instead of sellers? Maybe, but as the Sun-Times has been reporting, all indications over the last few weeks were the Bulls were not looking to be aggressive sellers, even with all the inconsistencies this season.

Executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas likes to play things close to the vest, and as of Monday, making some smaller tweaks to the Bulls roster was the possibility that had picked up the most steam around the league.

One of those tweaks could involve sending out Drummond, even with the big man playing one of his better games of the year against the Spurs, scoring 21 points and grabbing 15 rebounds.

Even with Karnisovas and coach Billy Donovan publicly insisting they had an open-door policy for any players with those kinds of questions, Drummond didn’t sound interested in knocking.

“I don’t think that’s my job to do,” Drummond said. “If anything it’s the agent’s job. As a player, I don’t think I should be asking those kinds of questions.”

Not that the Bulls made the entire night easy on themselves, but against lesser competition they seldom do.

Building a 12-point first-half lead, the slippage actually started late in the second quarter, when they let the Spurs gain some momentum and actually outscore them by eight points in the stanza.

That inconsistent play carried on through the third, with San Antonio (14-40) actually grabbing the lead with 4:31 left thanks to two Zach Collins free throws.

Then DeMar DeRozan said enough was enough, as the veteran hit a jumper with 1:33 left in the third to reclaim the lead, followed by the hoop and harm a minute later, and a 16-footer with eight seconds left in the third.

When the smoke cleared around DeRozan, the Bulls entered the fourth back on top 90-85.

Less than three minutes into the fourth, the Spurs’ youth and inexperience was completely exposed, and the Bulls built the lead back to 12, taking advantage of turnovers and empty possessions.

“I thought we were much more active defensively,” Donovan said of the turnaround. “We had a hard time for maybe two-and-a-half quarters when they were just coming downhill. I just thought are defensive intensity changed, our presence at the basket changed, and took away opportunities for them to pass.”

According to Spurs Hall-of-Fame coach Gregg Popovich, the current issues with his team goes much deeper than turnovers.

“These guys think they’re all stars in their own right, and the first thing before they’re even coached, they have to learn it’s not about them,” Popovich said of the growing pains he’s been going through with his roster. “They’ve got to get over themselves, they’re not that great. I don’t see Kobe or LeBron out there, so we’ve got to do it together. All those things.”

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