When I’m not writing movie reviews, I’m working as a journalist publishing news stories. Here are just a few of the things that I’ve covered in my lifetime.
1
Below is one of the more recent news pieces that I wrote for Streetsblog Chicago. This was an idea that I came up with by browning current transit topics on social media and pitched to my editor. I also had the idea to consult a transportation expert for this story.
Divvy recently announced that it will be raising its prices on February 5, with regular annual memberships going up by about 10 percent.
“Together with our city partners, we continue to ensure Divvy remains a financially sustainable system that provides world-class service, enhanced value for members, and equitable access for clean transportation options,” a Divvy spokesperson told Streetsblog Chicago. Below is the breakdown of how Divvy prices are going to change next month.
First, let’s look at the price changes themselves. The annual regular Divvy membership price will increase from $130.90 to $143.90. The Day Pass price will increase from $16.50 to $18.10. There are many other relatively minimal price changes.
The one thing that will stay the same is the Divvy for Everyone (D4E) program, which, as always, offers $5 yearly memberships to lower-income residents. Currently a single Chicagoan making $35,310 or less a year is eligible.
“Innovative efforts like Divvy for Everyone have made Chicago’s bike share system much more accessible to low- and moderate-income people,” said Jim Merrell, managing director of advocacy for the Active Transportation Alliance. “We must build on that work to create an equitable bike share system.”
The higher prices won’t impact lower-income residents, but they could be a barrier for working-class Chicagoans who make too much money to qualify for D4E, but not enough to easily afford $143.90 a year.
DePaul University transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman said his “hunch” is that most people who currently have Divvy memberships won’t have major problems with the price increase. “The demographics of Divvy tend to be heavily skewed towards middle- and upper-income residents, particularly those with education… And we see that with the use statistics heavily skewed toward the central area, and the Northwest and North sides.” He argued that keeping D4E memberships virtually free, subsidized by higher rates for mostly middle- and upper-income residents and visitors, is an equitable practice.
Schwieterman thinks that the price change is “mostly aligned with inflation.” He added, “The price of steel has risen and just the cost of manufacturing goods has risen. And then Divvy bikes and scooters tend to have fairly short lifespans so they need to be replaced. [That’s not really true of non-electric Divvy bikes, some of which have been on the street for the better part of a decade. – Ed] Also there’s the bitter reality that batteries don’t last long and there’s Chicago’s notoriously bad weather. So they’re out and they’re exposed to constant temperature change and things like that, affecting the durability of the battery.”
Merrell is concerned that raising prices will put Divvy out of reach for thousands of people who would otherwise benefit from using bike-share as a sustainable transportation option. Instead, he argued, more people should be able to use Divvy “two-wheeled public transit” by making it more “affordable, accessible, and reliable. By keeping prices affordable, we not only promote social equity but also encourage a shift towards sustainable transportation choices, contributing to reduced carbon emissions, improved air quality, and enhanced public health.”
Chicago resident and Divvy member Rosie Nolan said she uses bike-share every day when it’s nice out and about once a week during the winter. The upcoming price change has her frustrated because she believes Divvy’s already “prohibitively expensive” for non-members. Nolan said that she might cancel her membership and just buy her own bicycle. She hasn’t done that so far because of the convenience of biking to a destination, then being able to take a bus, train, etc. back to her starting point.
“It’s frustrating that the CTA is kind of falling apart right now,” Nolan added. “And the city needs to be finding ways to get money for transportation.” She argued that a good way to alleviate CTA challenges would be to make bike-share more accessible to all Chicagoans. On the plus side, last spring the system expanded to cover the entire city.
2
Here’s a piece I did for MovieWeb. As a fan of Kyra Gardner’s Living With Chucky and almost all of the films that Tony Gardner has worked on, I thought their new podcast would be worth reporting on. So, I went through the first episode and picked out the anecdotes I thought would have the broadest possible appeal.
The first episode of new podcast series “Flesh & Blood & Bone” by Tony and Kyra Gardner has been released. Tony Gardner, the mastermind behind many makeup and antimitotic effects for a wide variety of horror movies such as Seed of Chucky, joins forces with his film and music video director daughter Kyra, to delve into the secrets and anecdotes they have to share about working in the industry. Explaining the purpose of the podcast, Kyra said:
“And we wanted to start this podcast because I went into film and I’m in directing and it’s been so nice to have a dad who’s in the industry and can give me advice or just share stories that are super interesting. And a lot of the stories he tells are really fun. So I wanted to be able to share that privilege and those stories with other people, but also bring you guys the perspective of somebody who’s been in the film industry since the 80s, a long time ago, and somebody who’s just starting in it, and we can bring you both the perspective of different genders.
During the podcast, Tony shared a story about this college classes, including the time a director was brought into talk to the group about a new film they had been working on. While he did not mention the direction by name, the elder Gardner noted that one scene they were shown featured a female singer in a nightclub.
“And I remember the director saying she started like a local personality and she’s really good and super talented. I feel like she’s really gonna be big someday and she goes by the name Madonna.”
The same class involved Gardner having to write a paper, and he decided very quickly that the paper was his best ticket to being able to meet some of his heroes, including the likes of George Lucas and Rick Baker. Therefore, the subject for his paper became “Using Mechanical Effects as a Character.”
RELATED:
Kyra Elise Gardner’s Living With Chucky Acquired By Yellow Veil Pictures
Tony Gardner Had to Acquire Some Big Interviews
Having a paper, a thesis, and a list of people to meet was one thing. Actually interviewing the people in the days before cellphones and Zoom calls was another. To try and secure his interviews, Gardner had to do it the old fashioned way, driving to the cities their shops were located, and looking them up in the phonebook.
“How many Rick Baker’s are there in North Hollywood?” Gardner asked himself. Answering his own question, there were a lot, and he just needed to guess which one sounded like someplace the people he was looking for would live.
“So I was able to set up a meeting with Carlo Rambaldi and Steven Spielberg, and the Carlo Rambaldi one actually happened as planned and was hilarious because he was pretending it in speaking English. It was pretty funny. And then the one with Spielberg was just always getting canceled, and I would go to the office so much that I ended up having friends with the secretary Kathy Schweitzer who I ended up cat sitting for after school was out.”
During one of his attempts to contact Steven Spielberg, Gardner got into a conversation with Gremlins star Zach Galligan because he was the only person there to talk to. Gardner didn’t realize he was speaking to an actor until Galligan got called back to the set of the 1984 smash hit. Similarly, when attempting to contact special effects wizard Rick Baker, Gardner originally met with his father, Ralph Baker. However, this meeting was one that eventually paid off, when Rick Baker later called up Gardner and after talking for a while offered him a job.
“He’s like ‘you’re all over the place. You want to do music and you wanna do theater and you want to do effects and you want to do film’ and he’s like, ‘this is only a four week job but maybe after four weeks, you’ll know this is one of the things that you want to do or not.’ “
The job was driving around and picking up supplies for a little music video by the name of Thriller, a story that Gardner promises to tell in the second episode of the podcast next week. In the meantime, you can catch the rest of the first episode on Kyra Gardner’s Youtube page or listen to it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
3
This is the story that I did for MovieWeb that I’m the most proud of. I was one of the first people to report on Jen and Sylvia Soska working on an American Mary tv show. I’m also proud of the catchy header that I came up with for the article. “The news comes via the Twisted Twin’s Twitter” (this was before Twitter became X).
Warning: Spoilers for American Mary Ahead
Jen and Sylvia Soska recently shared some great news with fans, as they plan to adapt their feature film American Mary into a television series. The news comes courtesy of the Twisted Twins Twitter account. The film’s premise followed Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle), a medical student strapped for cash, so she becomes involved in extreme body modification for some extra money and, later, revenge.
The announcement was in light of Twitter user @SunriseMendoza asking them to remake their second film, but with a slight twist. They wrote, “@twisted_twins can you guys remake American Mary but change the ending so we can get a second movie or make a mini series with @netflix @hulu @hbomax.”
The reason for asking for a different ending is the unfortunate end of the film, with the husband of one of Mary’s first patients being displeased with her work and stabbing her with a knife. Mary’s last act, after killing her attacker, was to try and stitch up her own wounds. A medical doctor to the very end.
Questions, But Sadly No Answers (Yet)
In their tweet, the Soska Sisters said that the TV series would pick up right where the film leaves off and that they “always wanted to expand Mary’s world for a few seasons to really dig into her journey.” So it seems as though she’s going to be in the series, for those wondering if there was going to be American Mary without Mary. But still, that begs one major question.
How will they explain the dead main character if the series won’t be a remake or direct sequel? Well, they haven’t officially revealed anything yet and probably won’t for quite some time. But, of course, multiple characters in both films and television have been brought back from worse, so there are always possibilities.
Another question that’s sure to be on fans’ minds is if Isabelle is coming back. That seems likely, as Isabelle received rave reviews for her performance in the role. She earned a reward for Best Actress from Screamfest Horror Film Festival, Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Fright Meter Awards, and Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. The role was also written for her in mind for the part. However, it’s too early to assume anything regarding her possible return. A lot could happen between now and filming, so fans and viewers alike will have to wait for further updates.
4
Below is another one of the pieces I wrote for Streetsblog Chicago. Since this story happened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, I made sure to wear a facemask when interviewing people. Besides that, I was also in charge of taking photos of the event.
During the recent demonstrations against police brutality, bike rides have become an increasingly common platform for protest. The Black Rides for Black Lives event that gathered on Saturday, June 27, in Chicago’s Union Park, was a great example of the effectiveness of cycling as a vehicle for social change. “We are outraged that even in one’s own home, being Black could be a death sentence,” stated the Facebook invite.
“One biker may not make a big difference, but five bikers, ten bikers, you notice,” said co-organizer Lee Rayford. “When you’re in the road, driving, you notice bikers, and so, the great thing about it is we have all of these bikers here, we’re visible. [Drivers] are going to notice us. People are going to notice us. We have bells. We have music. It really draws the eyes.”
The goal of the Black Rides demonstration was to demand the creation of a Civilian Police Accountability Council to oversee the Chicago Police Department, as well as reducing or eliminating funding for the CPD and reallocating the money to social services. Along with Rayford, organizers included Dayna Dane Jr., Matt Whalen, Marcus Will, Jessy Bacon, Rachel Reed, Xavier Reed, and Jessica Stein.
The peaceful protest did not endorse violence of any kind. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants were encouraged to bring and wear a mask throughout the event. They rode for eight miles to honor George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Laquan McDonald, and others whose lives were lost due to police brutality.
“We’re out here today because a man was killed in the streets of Minneapolis,” said Toriano Sanzone, one of two people who spoke during the protest before everyone rolled out. “We’re out here today because a man was shot in a Wendy’s parking lot in the back. We’re out here today because a woman was shot eight times in her house, sleeping. We’re out here today because a man was shot jogging. That’s why we’re out here today. We can go on and on and talk about all the tragedies against Black folks, but it’s not about Black folks. This is a tragedy against humanity.”
According to Rayford, Black Rides came together organically. All the organizers had been involved with the Black Lives Matter protests that were happening across Chicago and the nation at the beginning of June.
“We were in a joint Facebook group together, and we felt the need to continue to organize, obviously, because we wanted to keep things rolling,” Rayford said. “We wanted to keep the movement going. And a bunch of people responded to a thread on a protest, we came together, and that’s how our little organization started.”
In addition to the cyclists, the Black Rides event included medics and law students who volunteered to offer legal advice on location as well. In case of police arrest, riders were given the number of a lawyer’s guild to call. They were also advised to keep the number somewhere other than on their phones in the event they were confiscated.
“I think [the funds currently going towards the police] should be relocated in a number of areas,” said ride participant Ryan Lenhart. “Probably into the communities that are most hurt by the over-policing, a lot of West Side, South Side communities that really don’t have the same investments… and resources as some other neighborhoods might,” Lenhart mentioned the need to better fund quality education and healthcare, including mental health facilities, in underserved neighborhoods to make it accessible to all, as well as the need for better public legal representation.
Sanzone added that current policing funds should be reallocated to help people negatively impacted by the war on drugs. Rayford said funds should also go towards housing for individuals experiencing homelessness and drug abuse rehabilitation programs.
“I think people need to know that this is not just a moment, it’s a movement, and we have to keep that up all the time and on a consistent basis and not just let this be a one-off,” said Sanzone.
“You see all these people out here today who are willing to make that change and that difference, and that makes me super happy.”
Rayford said he felt the bike protest was a complete success. Though police cars trailed the cyclists for the ride’s entirety, the event was completely peaceful and effective in spreading the message about the need for police reform and funding reallocation. Read more about the CPAC movement here.
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