News RoundUp • Chicago Police Rescue Ducks, Not People, Eryn Allen Kane Announces Tour & More
Memorial Day weekend is infamous for it's high murder rate which spikes annually around the three-day holiday weekend and this weekend was no different, with 40 Chicagoans hit by gunfire by Sunday morning. In the midst of all the bullets, Chicago Police found time to look out for a different side of the city's population: the ducks. Yes, at 10 AM on Saturday May 29, as guns blasted up and down the west and south sides of the city no less than five CPD officers took time out of their day to fetch a family of ducklings from a sewer on the northwest side near O'Hare.
Widely reported as a human interest story on traditional media sites like DNAInfo, the story underlines the kind of useless time spent by CPD in a city that is literally busting at the seams due to gun violence. Three years ago I wrote a piece for Complex asking the question of why south side officers were following the rapper to Skokie and the suburbs unnecessarily while real crime was committed. With Keef out of town seemingly permanently, it appears the cops have found someone new to bother while forgoing their actual duties.
Eryn Allen Kane Announces Tour
Eryn Allen Kane has established herself as one of the pre-eminent voices here in Chicago currently and will be taking her show on the road at long last with her first long-form official tour, which was announced over the weekend. Joining her for the co-headlining affair will be L.A.-based all-female band KING.
In what should prove to be one hell of a lot of soul for one show, the tour kicks off in late September in San Diego and takes them through to Austin, Texas just before Halloween which will stretch them to about a month, definitely a nice move after completing a recent four city tour after her debut City Winery set. Eryn's on the way up and we just might have something new coming from her soon, keep it posted to TheseDays for more.
Smino Teams up with STA Travel for New Video
Smino recently went overseas to Europe for a string of shows and it appears, like most other early twenty-somethings who skip across the pond, he hooked up with STA, the company that often provides college students' study abroad experiences. Well, in the spirit of keeping up with their client-base, it appears STA is also dropping their own original content, because who can't be a label these days, right?
Anyway, the exclusive visual is for Smino's single "Poppa" and is actually a really impressive offering that arrives just as the St. Louis product's recent Blk Juptr project reached Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music. Dude's been on a steady rise for the better part of the last year and if one thing's for sure, it's that there's plenty more ears listening to him from outside his native STL. Check out the video below.
