Faces in the crowd.

As it turns out, people REALLY like RedEye.

Time to Settle Accounts

May 25, 2012: Faces in the crowd

It was nearing midnight. I was on the North Ave. bus heading west, back to Wicker Park. I’d had a thrilling night, shooting the pilot episode of a new sports podcast in the spirit of the old Sportswriters on TV. The shoot was a complete success, and I was buzzing. I stopped off for a celebratory drink and then walked the rest of the way to the bus, taking a seat alone in the back.

The Lyricist Olympics at Lit After Dark

Poster designed by Xack Gibson/Bag Fry Productions.

CHICAGO, IL – Music fans! When the sun sets on the 2012 Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday June 9, stick around for the Lyricist Olympics at Lit After Dark, a celebration of freestyle lyricism. Featuring eight of Chicago’s finest MCs, the Lyricist Olympics will showcase the spontaneous creativity and lyrical ingenuity of Chicago’s hip-hop community. The event begins at the RedEye tent at 9 pm. For updates and additional information, check in with @readjack.

The season that never happened.

Taj Gibson reacts to the foul call that sent Andre Iguodala to the line to slaughter the hopes and dreams of Bulls fans. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The following is my final story on the 2011-12 Chicago Bulls. For my full RedEye archives, click here.

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The season that never happened.

By Jack M Silverstein

May 12, 2012

Maybe that didn’t just happen. They called a foul, right? C.J.’s going to the line for three… right?

Because if he isn’t, then this game just ended like THAT. With the Bulls losing and the season expiring. And there’s no way THAT happened.

Right?

Those were my first thoughts after C.J. Watson’s half-court prayer fell softly to the floor. There had to be a foul, a whistle I hadn’t heard, or a late call coming. But there was no foul. No whistle. And no more games for the 2012 Chicago Bulls.

Kobe vs. LeBron vs. Jordan — playoff scoring lows

LeBron vs. Kobe vs. Mike…

“would you looka here @readjack..Game 7, and the Bigs for the #Lakers had to come to the rescue once again…hmmmm”

That tweet came from my pal Shaun Davis as part of an ongoing discussion between the two of us concerning Kobe, LeBron, and the definition of hoops greatness. Mr. Davis was referring to Kobe Bryant’s 17-point Game 7 performance against the Denver Nuggets Saturday night, a truly poor showing for one of the League’s all-time greats, especially when you consider that Kevin Garnett — with one more NBA season to his name (and his legs) — posted a 28-14 with 5 blocks to close out Atlanta two nights before.

Shaun’s tweet got me thinking about Kobe, LeBron, and the gold standard Mr. Jordan, and put me in a mood for some statistical research concerning the low scoring playoff games of the League’s premier star and his two high profile successors. The sample section is every postseason game (through the first round of this year’s playoffs) in which the player in question played at least 30 minutes.

I’m going to leave the conclusions to you, the reader, and simply provide the findings.

– JACK

Up on cripple creak.

Time To Settle Accounts

May 2, 2012: Up on cripple creak.

Wabash Avenue Bridge.

I was walking past Trump Tower heading to Clark & Lake when I saw southbound traffic at a standstill on Wabash. It was a hot, sticky afternoon, and drivers honked horns and dipped their sweaty foreheads out of their open windows, squinting ahead.

6. No more giants (Chicago: City On The Make… Nelson Algren, 1951)

Chicago: City On The Make

Nelson Algren's "City on the Make"

by Nelson Algren, 1951

transcribed by Jack M Silverstein

5. Bright faces of tomorrow

It used to be a writer’s town and it’s always been a fighter’s town. For writers and fighters and furtive torpedoes, cat-bandits, baggage thieves, hallway head-lockers on the prowl, baby photographers and stylish coneroos, this is the spot that is always most convenient, being so centrally located, for settling ancestral grudges. Whether the power is in a .38, a typewriter ribbon or a pair of six-ouncers, the place has grown great on bone-deep grudges: of writers and fighters and furtive torpedoes.

Freelance Archives: RedEye, 2012 – present

Freelance archives

RedEye (all titles are links)

2012 – present

“The Rising Star” mural at Harold’s #45, Western & 79th St., by Charles Pruitt.

21 MAR 2012 — On Brandon Marshall and NFL violence