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Chicago Tribune
6 hours ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Hindi temple complex/residential development in Elgin get thumbs down from commission
A proposal to build a Hindi temple complex and residential development will go to the Elgin City Council without the endorsement of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission. Project plans submitted by Umiya Mataji Sastha Chicago Midwest call for the construction of a 231,372-square-foot temple, a 63,422-square-foot community center and a 56,042-square-foot recreation center on 34.4 acres at 840 Galt Blvd., off Lake Street/Route 20 and about 250 feet away from the Oak Ridge and Sherwood Oaks subdivisions. The development would also include a four-story, 81-unit apartment building, 38 townhomes, 1,284 parking spaces and a 2,797-square-foot gazebo, Elgin senior planner Damir Latinovic said. The temple's dome would be 125 feet high and topped with a 25-foot flagpole. In order to be built, the site's zoning would need to be changed and 19 code variances approved. The requested changes have the backing of city staff. The size of the project is 'just a little too large-scale for me,' said Commisioner Jordan Wildermuth, one of four to vote against recommending council approval. 'While I feel the idea meets the use, the magnitude is concerning to me,' Wildermuth said. 'I would support a scaled-down version, but I don't feel it meets the comprehensive plan standards.' Also voting against it were commissioners Nancy Abuali, Beto Valez and Brian Cox. Commissioner Karin Jones voted in favor of it. The property, located on the north side of Route 20 and west of Hilliard Drive, was subdivided into 15 lots in 1988 but was never developed, Latinovic said. It is zoned for general industrial use. Currently there's only one way into and out of the site, an entrance at Lambert Lane controlled by by a traffic signal and shared by the people who live at Oak Ridge and Sherwood Oaks subdivisions. Neighboring property owners were vocal in their opposition to the development, citing the size of the project, the scale of the temple and traffic increase it would generate. Temple representatives say about 800 people are expected to attend daily prayers and as many as 4,000 might come out for special events, like its New Year celebration. That volume of traffic would only add problems to an area already grappling with crashes, speeding and unsafe road conditions, neighbors said. 'This has nothing to do with racism or hate of any type as has been implied by some speakers,' Castle Creek homeowner Michele Bach told the commission. 'I fully support this religion. I support the peaceful intentions of this religion. There is no peace in traveling Route 20.' Route 20 is a 'death trap,' Bach said, with traffic going much faster than the posted 50 mph speed limit. The addition of more traffic signals along the road will not make the Route 20/Lambert Lane intersection any safer, she said. There are plans for protected green lights, but it's not going to help at the intersection of Route 20 and Lambert Lane, Bach said. 'It will not be safe,' she said. Latinovic said Umiya Mataji Sastha commissioned a traffic study in 2022, which found the 'surrounding roadway can absorb the additional traffic and will continue to function within acceptable and designed ranges' if the temple were to be built there. Another big concern for neighboring property owners was the project's scale. The temple would be almost as tall as the Tower building in downtown Elgin and would be the size of two box stores, opponents said. Alan Cruzan, an Oak Ridge homeowner, said the 19 code adjustments being sought were the equivalent of 'putting 10 pounds of potatoes in a five-pound sack. We are asking for a whole lot of variances to do that. That's what I'm opposed to,' he said. However, Peter Bazos, the lawyer representing the temple, said the request for rezoning meets all of the city's requirements, noting that it falls under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. 'This act requires communities to have a compelling reason to say no to a religious application. I don't believe you have heard any (compelling) reasons,' Bazos said. Opponents repeatedly said their criticism had nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with traffic and size concerns. Twinkal Patel spoke in favor of the development, saying she understood the opposition but wanted those in attendance to understand why temple supporters were behind the project. 'I … want you guys to understand this is basically like a home for us. It's basically a place where we come together,' she said. Even if Umiya Mataji Sastha wins council approval, temple officials must go to court to amend a 1966 consent decree created to protect the neighborhood from manufacturing uses and ensure transition yards are provided to buffer the Sherwood Oaks subdivision from the future uses on the adjoining property, Latinovic said. 'The consent decree remains in effect,' Latinovic said, and takes precedence over the city's zoning regulations.
New York Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
David Cope, Godfather of A.I. Music, Is Dead at 83
David Cope, a composer and pioneer in the field of algorithmic composition, who in the 1980s developed a computer program for writing music in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and other Classical masters, died on May 4 at his home in Santa Cruz, Calif. He was 83. The cause was congestive heart failure, his son Stephen Cope said. Before the proliferation of A.I. music generators, before the emergence of Spotify and the advent of the iPod, before Brian Eno had even coined the term 'generative music,' Mr. Cope had already figured out how to program a computer to write classical music. It was 1981 and, struggling with writer's block after being commissioned to compose an opera, he was desperate for a compositional partner. He found one in a floppy disk. The process was straightforward but tedious. Mr. Cope started by quantifying musical passages from his own work, rendering them as numbers in a database that could be analyzed by a pattern-identifying algorithm he created. The algorithm would then reassemble the 'signatures' — Mr. Cope's name for the patterns it found — into new combinations, and he would convert those combinations into a score. It wasn't the first time someone had used a computer to create music. In 1957, Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson had employed a five-ton supercomputer at the University of Illinois to compose 'Illiac Suite,' widely considered to be the first computer-generated score. But Mr. Cope's program took things a step further: By scanning and reproducing unique signatures, his algorithm could essentially replicate style. After years of troubleshooting and fine-tuning, the program, known as Experiments in Musical Intelligence, was able to produce a full opera in a matter of hours. EMI, or Emmy, as Mr. Cope affectionately called it, was officially born. It was one of the earliest computer algorithms used to generate classical music. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance
Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance originally appeared on Parade. As frontman for the chart-topping heavy metal band Skid Row in the '80s and '90s, Sebastian Bach was known for two things: His mane of long blonde hair and his jaw-dropping vocal range. Decades later, his hair is still blonde (even if it's not quite as long as it was back in the day), but more importantly, fans are saying his voice is just as impressive as ever. In a video shared to TikTok from the M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland, earlier this month, Bach, 57, belted out Skid Row's 1991 hit song, "Monkey Business," off their second multi-platinum album, Slave to the Grind. While the singer often performed shirtless at the height of Skid Row's fame, he was dressed in a sparkly black t-shirt under a black vest with matching leather pants and cowboy boots as he stalked across the stage, banging his head. Fans were stunned by Bach's chops, with many pointing out that his voice is in much better shape than many of his contemporaries. "How does he still sound 25 and everyone else sounds 95???" one person wanted to know, with a second commenter declaring, "Sebastian was honestly always better than his peers. He's WAY better currently." "The GREATEST rocker of all time," gushed someone else, as another fan pointed out, "I guess it shows people who sing properly and who don't. Your voice will hold up better." Bach opened up about how he's preserved his voice over the years in a recent interview with Hollywood Soapbox, explaining that he still uses the same warm-up exercises he learned from Manhattan vocal coach Don Lawrence in the late '80s, which he recorded at the time. 'When digitizing came out, mid-'90s, the first thing I did was I took all those lessons, and I put them on MP3s," he explained. "So they're on my phone, and I made CDs out of them. So I warm up to myself at the age of 19 every day. I sing these lessons, and it's me before I made the first Skid Row album, singing all these scales. I did this every single show." Bach went on to reveal that other famous singers have asked him for advice. 'What's crazy is that so many other singers have heard me backstage do this warm up, and they've asked me for my warm up," he said, adding, "And Axl Rose warms up to me singing when I was does Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns. All of them have my f—ing vocal really cool to think of these other singers warming up to me as a teenager. It's cool.'Iconic '80s Rocker, 57, 'Still Sounds 25' During Epic Performance first appeared on Parade on Jun 2, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 2, 2025, where it first appeared.
South Wales Argus
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South Wales Argus
Monmouth Concert Orchestra to host 'Animal Magic' concert
The event, titled "Animal Magic," is set for Sunday, June 15, at St Mary's Priory Church, Monmouth, from 4pm to 6pm. The audience can expect a programme featuring music from Bach, Handel, and Saint-Saëns. Tickets are priced at £8, with free entry for under-16s, and are available from orchestra members or at the door. The orchestra will be raising funds for Cwmbran-based charity, All Creatures Great and Small, which rescues and rehabilitates animals. The Monmouth Concert Orchestra is made up of amateur musicians from Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and the Forest of Dean. They meet fortnightly during term time and are always open to new players, provided they are of Grade V standard or above. There are no auditions.
West Australian
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Germany's big five anniversaries in 2025
While other countries in Europe mark special occasions in 2025, Germany has noteworthy dates of its own to celebrate, with legendary talents, sights and stories coming under the spotlight. 275 YEARS SINCE THE DEATH OF BACH Decades before Mozart and Beethoven were born, there was another composer who stirred hearts and minds across Europe. That's Johann Sebastian Bach, whose tunes were the sound of the late baroque era. This year, commemorative events are taking place around Germany, including Bach festivals in the state of Thuringia, where he was raised in the town of Eisenach, and in the city of Leipzig, where he composed many of his famous works and passed away on July 28, 1750. Dresden is another focal point for the anniversary celebrations. Bach was a regular visitor to the 'Florence of the Elbe' and the landmark church, the Frauenkirche, at the heart of a city rebuilt after World War II Allied bombing, will be among the concert venues showcasing his compositions, such as the Brandenburg Concertos and Goldberg Variations. 50 YEARS OF THE FAIRY TALE ROUTE Buoyed by the success of the Romantic Road, tourism bosses conjured the Germany Fairy Tale Route, hoping it would do for the country's centre and north what the former did for the south. Winding 600km between Hanau (near Frankfurt) and Buxtehude (near Hamburg), this route is heavily driven by the lives and works of those fairytale masters, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. There are dozens of locations to visit en route, including chocolate-box towns and villages like Marburg and Steinau and the woodlands that characters like Hansel and Gretel would have played in. Other places you may have read about in your childhood include Hamelin, famed for its pied piper, and Bremen, where there's a statue of its animal musicians. Elsewhere, there's Sababurg Castle (the model, it's said, for Sleeping Beauty's home) and Rapunzel's Tower, which soars from the medieval fortress in Trendelburg, a town in the Diemel Valley. Throughout the Fairy Tale Route, you will find museums about the Brothers Grimm, open-air performances of their stories in the warmer months, and walking tours led by guides in period and character costumes. fact file + For more information on the anniversary events and to visit Germany, see .
