Hobnob Market is coming to Springfield this weekend – a great time to start your holiday shopping!

The market sells stylish goods with a vintage edge and clothing from boutiques. This year, there will be over 120 handmade and boutique vendors at the market.

The market will be open from 4-8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4. The market is located at the Illinois State Fairgrounds inside the Expo Building.

The first Hobnob Market was hosted in November of 2012, and the event drew 800 shoppers. In the last decade, the market has grown substantially.

Hobnob Market was created by Scott and Holly Snelling. They began the market in 2012 after soul searching on how they wanted to live their lives and raise their children. They like to encourage anyone dreaming of starting a business to just do it, because while making risky decisions can be scary, but it is also often worth it.

For more information on the Hobnob Market, please visit https://hobnobmarket.com/.

The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual festival held every fall. It was founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, and is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America.

This year, the festival takes place from Oct. 11-22, and is the 59th installment of the festival.

Kutza started the Chicago International Film Festival as an alternative to the commercial Hollywood movies that dominated Chicago’s theaters. Seeking out the best of international cinema, the festival has made it possible for a world of film previously unavailable in Chicago.

This year, there are more than 100 feature films and 60 shorts films from around the world. There are 60 movies in English being played at the festival this year, from animation, documentaries, comedies, dramas, horror and more.

This year’s line-up of movies is full of contenders for Academy Awards and box office hopefuls.

Some highlighted films at the festival this year include “The Boy and the Heron” directed by Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki, “Eric LaRue,” which is actor Michael Shannon’s directorial debut, “All of Us Strangers” from David Fincher, and “Poor Things” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.

There was also a free block party, in commemoration with the festival, on Wednesday Oct. 11. The party took over Southport Avenue with live music, festival highlights, food, and goods from local vendors.

The Chicago International Film Festival is a great opportunity every October to enjoy a bit of Chicago’s culture and explore new films.

Chicagoans have reported spotting a sea serpent in Lake Michigan for more than 100 years. The monster is described as “eel-like,” and somewhere between 30 and 60 feet in length.

However, it has also been pointed out that the “sea-serpent deception” has been used often to draw tourism to towns. For example, months after a sea serpent was alleged to be spotted in 1904, an observation was made that more people were using Lake Michigan as a summer resort than ever before.

The Great Horned Serpent is a legend told by many Native American tribes. The creature is said to resemble a huge dragon or snake, is covered in large scales, and has prominent horns and long teeth. The creature is also said to have supernatural powers, such as the ability to control the weather, shapeshift, and turn invisible.

When settlers from Europe started showing up in the Great Lakes region in the late 1600s and early 1700s, stories of monstrous beasts started to creep through surrounding settlements.

In August 1867, three articles were published in newspapers about sightings of a strange creature in Lake Michigan.

A shift in believability started to appear within reports on the Lake Michigan monster, starting in 1885.

H.R. Brinkerhoff, a lieutenant for the Ohio Infantry, observed a “very large” black speck among the waves of Lake Michigan in March of 1893. He described his depiction of the monster as having an alligator’s head and being about thirty feet long.

In 1903, a fisherman reported seeing a sea serpent in the lake. However, the Chicago Tribune reported 90 years later that the creature had actually been a sea lion named Big Ben, which had escaped from the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Then in September of 1934, Captain G.E. Stufflebeam of the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt spotted the sea serpent. He said that the serpent was wriggling and twisting around, and swimming faster than the ship was going.
Various reported sightings of a sea monster have been made since 1934, but the reports largely dwindled.

But in the summer of 2019, a video went viral of the South Haven Pier, where a large, dark snake-like figure is seen slithering through the water’s current.

The Lake Michigan sea monster has also been the star of a 2018 movie, “Lake Michigan Monster.” This black and white adventure comedy horror film is about an eccentric man that creates a team to track down and kill the Lake Michigan monster out of revenge for the death of his father.

So, what do you think? Is the Lake Michigan sea monster real, or a hoax?

Unbeknownst to many, Central Illinois has quite a bit of history tied to Juneteenth.

Peoria-based historians discovered the first slaves to be emancipated by Abraham Lincoln, who was an attorney at the time, was Nance Legins-Costley, a woman from Pekin, Illinois, and her infant son William “Bill” Costley.

Nance was freed on July 23, 1841, as a result of the Illinois Supreme Court case Bailey v. Cromwell. This ruling by Justice Sidney Breese was extremely significant in our state’s history for declaring that Illinois was a free state where slavery was illegal, causing other states to follow.

The Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued by then-President Lincoln on Jan. 1, 1863, declared that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were free. However, Texas was not under Union control at the time, so the Emancipation Proclamation did not take effect there until June 19, 1865, when federal troops under the command of Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced that all enslaved people in the state were free. Nance’s son Bill was among Union troops on that day.

Across Illinois there are hundreds of Juneteenth celebrations, commemorating the emancipation of ensalved African Americans, which has been observed for 160 years. Come celebrate the importance of this day in your local community near you! If you would like to learn more about Illinois' history to Juneteenth click here.

Friday, June 16:
Juneteenth Illinois Scholarship Reception
-When: 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
-Where: 540 W. Madison St, Chicago
Registration: bit.ly/3ZZV9EB

Juneteenth Lake County & The African American Museum at The England Manor Juneteenth Celebration
-When: 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
-Where: 2400 Dowie Memorial Drive, Zion

Illinois State Museum Art Fair - Noir Art Fair
-When: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
-Where: 501 S Spring St, Springfield

City of Blue Island Juneteenth Resource and Health Fair
-When: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
-Where: John D. Rita Recreation Center - 2805 141 St., Blue Island