Good morning, Chicago.
While the cable provider for much of Chicagoland has yet to come to an agreement to carry CHSN, the new station that replaced NBC Sports Chicago as the outlet for three of our legacy teams, the Tribune’s Paul Sullivan turned to another option for broadcast: an antenna.
The last time he installed an antenna was about 55 years ago. His dad purchased a giant TV antenna to pull in the blacked-out Bears games from a South Bend, Ind., station, and asked Sullivan to come up and hold it while he attached it to the sloped roof. Sullivan can still hear his mother shouting up at them: “You’re going to break your necks, the both of you.”
He details his 2024 installation process in his latest column.
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Southerners stay in touch the old-fashioned way after Helene cuts roads, power, phones
Isolated and without electricity or phone service since Hurricane Helene inflicted devastation across the Southeast nearly a week ago, residents in the mountains of western North Carolina are relying on old-fashioned ways of communicating and coping.
At the town square in Black Mountain, local leaders stood atop a picnic table shouting updates about when power might be restored. Alongside a fencerow, a makeshift message board listed the names of people still missing. And mules delivered medical supplies to mountaintop homes. Residents who haven’t been able to shower in days were collecting water from creeks to flush their toilets.
- Hurricanes like Helene are deadly when they strike and keep killing for years to come
- Hurricane Kirk could cause dangerous surf conditions along the US East Coast
Union targets aldermen over support for climate change-focused ordinance
The union representing Chicago gas pipeline engineers is sending a message to voters and aldermen alike in an effort to finally quash a climate change-focused ordinance that would severely curtail gas fixtures in new buildings in the city.
Chicago police chase crash set to cost taxpayers another $1.7 million in settlement
A car crash sparked by an Avalon Park police chase allegedly in violation of department rules is on track to cost Chicago taxpayers $1.7 million.
Aldermen on the City Council’s Finance Committee approved the hefty settlement, alongside two more deals to settle lawsuits alleging police misconduct. If approved by the full council next week, the agreements will cost the city over $2.5 million.
Amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, convictions vacated for final defendant charged in 2011 slaying of CPD Officer Clifton Lewis
During a tense hearing in front of a packed courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, a Cook County judge ordered a new trial for a man convicted of killing Chicago police Officer Clifton Lewis in 2011, after prosecutors agreed to a defense request amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Prosecutors told the court they don’t intend to retry Alexander Villa, 36, meaning that the Chicago man will be released from prison nearly 13 years after Lewis was shot just after Christmas by masked men while working security at a West Side convenience store.
Illinois treasurer’s home defaced hours after protest over state’s investments in Israel
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ home on Chicago’s North Side was defaced with paint by a group of people early Tuesday, just hours after pro-Palestinian activists staged a protest outside a fundraiser for him at a downtown bar because of his oversight of the state’s investments in Israel.
Top Chicago Blackhawks prospects Kevin Korchinski and Frank Nazar will ‘get to work’ at Rockford after being cut from training camp
Defenseman Kevin Korchinski and forward Frank Nazar, two highly rated Chicago Blackhawks prospects, will start their seasons with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs after they were among the latest cuts from training camp Wednesday.
Defenseman Louis Crevier also was shipped to Rockford, and forward AJ Spellacy returned to his junior team, the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, after emerging as the surprise discovery of camp.
Punter Tory Taylor — named NFC special teams player of the week — is out to make the Chicago Bears ‘look like absolute geniuses’
Quarterback Caleb Williams said with a smile Wednesday that he watched a punter’s highlight tape for the first time the night the Bears drafted Tory Taylor. It was revealed that week that Williams joked with Taylor he wouldn’t be punting much.
But Williams has been “super happy” to see what Taylor can do.
‘The Franchise’ review: What’s the opposite of satire? HBO’s comedy skewering the movie business attempts to find out
Hollywood loves a navel-gazing satire about the movie business. Audiences do too, when given a good reason, from the upbeat mockery of 1952’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” to the excoriation of a studio executive in 1992’s “The Player,” to the empty platitudes about representation in 2023’s “American Fiction.” But don’t look for any of that wit or bite in HBO’s eight-episode series “The Franchise,” which is little more than the TV equivalent of a boiled piece of chicken, writes Tribune TV and film critic Nina Metz.
‘Saturday Night’ review: Skimming the surface of the very first ‘SNL’
Making a movie about famous funny people: super hard. Audiences spend half the time watching it performing stupid checklist tricks in their minds. (Is the nose right? Did that really happen? Wasn’t the real person taller? Sexier? More talented?) It’s no way to give any docudrama, or docu-comedy, a fair shake.
Backstage stories about those famous funny people: even harder. Capturing the personalities and the vibe behind the fingers-crossed launch of an extraordinarily influential TV phenomenon has — as Desi Arnaz used to scold Lucille Ball on “I Love Lucy,” in earlier show business era — a lot of explaining to do, and deciding, writes Tribune film critic Michael Phillips.
Review: ‘Leonora’ at Chicago Opera Theater is a shakily delivered discovery
In a stroke of collegial brilliance, Lyric Opera and Chicago Opera Theater present two versions of the same story this week: Beethoven’s more famous “Fidelio” (1805, revised through 1814) and his Italian contemporary Ferdinando Paër’s “Leonora” (1804).
That’s good news for opera lovers who want to hear Paër’s rarity in full: These performances mark its North American premiere. The cross billing also allows curious listeners to compare and contrast Paër and Beethoven’s accounts, both based on the same source text and scenario, writes Hannah Edgar.
