Saturday, November 7, 2009
Lit & Lectures, Free Shit 11/9 — Free "So You Think You Have Nerves of Steel" Kickoff at the Whistler
Posted by Robyn Chang on Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 12:34 PM
The first installment in what will be a regular monthly Monday series at the Whistler (2421 N. Milwaukee)—one featured writer a month riffs on the question "so you think you have nerves of steel?" in whatever manner he or she deems appropriate—starts this week.
Featuring host Harold Ray (aka ACM fiction editor Jacob Knabb), The2ndHand contributors Chris Bower and Jill Summers, and "literary stalker extraordinaire" Amanda Marbais.
Musical backing throughout will be provided by Nora Barton on cello, Eliza Bangert on clarinet and Allie Deaver on flute. Billie Howard of Paver assists.
Music starts at 8 PM, readings begin at 9 PM. Presented by The2ndHand.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Music, Post No Bills Locust Music Hosts an Eclectic Saturday Showcase
Posted by Peter Margasak on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 6:04 PM
- Starless & Bible Black
Media, Lit & Lectures, News Bites Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, Chris Ware, and Jules Feiffer in a discussion Saturday at Parker
Posted by Jerome Ludwig on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:29 PM
- Chris Ware Self-Portrait
I don't know if the auditorium at Parker can hold that kind of turnout, but tomorrow the two will return for a CHF panel discussion moderated by the Reader's Michael Miner.
Onstage, Free Shit, Performing Arts 11/9—"Site Unseen" at the Chicago Cultural Center
Posted by Sam Adams on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM
Monday from 6 to 9 PM the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E. Washington, wheelchair accessible entrance on Randolph) will host Site Unseen 2009: (Dis)abling Conditions, featuring "performances, installations, and video works consider[ing] issues around disability . . . created specifically for the rooms and architecture of the Chicago Cultural Center."
Free Shit 11/9 — Free Facials at Macy's on State
Posted by Robyn Chang on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 4:35 PM
Crickets, Music Flag as: Confusing to My Brain
Posted by Miles Raymer on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Before you watch the YouTube video after the jump—and you really do need to watch this video—please make sure to make note of its title: "Afghan Women By Ron Artest edit By Lucky."
Crickets, Music What Are Record Stores For?
Posted by Miles Raymer on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 2:24 PM
The University of Michigan's newspaper, the Michigan Daily, has a good article that uses the microcosm of the Ann Arbor record-store scene to talk about the business of selling music on a macrocosmic level. Most of the piece isn't too encouraging, as you'd expect, but I still got a warm feeling just from thinking about the great Ann Arbor music stores I used to spend so much time in. Wazoo Records was huge for me when I was growing up near the city, and I've probably bought more music from them than from any single other record store. And the meticulously organized and haphazardly shelved (literally) tons of records at Encore are basically a shrine to both the vinyl album and the obsessive hoarding of it. It's one of the single best record stores ever. Here is a perfect description of the store and its joys from the Daily piece:
"There's something about walking into Encore, in a space where the titles are almost falling down because the stacks are so high," [U. of M. assistant professor of musicology Mark] Clague says. "And you get a visceral sense, a physical sense, a psychic sense of the kind of legacy and amount of art that's been created that there is to grasp . . . If you just started at one end and tried to listen your way through the store, you'd die before you made it 10 feet past the front entrance."
If you're enough of a record geek that a four-and-a-half-hour drive seems like a fair trade for some serious crate digging, you owe it to yourself to make a pilgrimage there.
(via the Daily Swarm)
Music, Post No Bills Matthew Shipp on His Own
Posted by Peter Margasak on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:43 PM
- Matthew Shipp
Music, Free Shit 11/9 — Free White Mystery Show at the Empty Bottle
Posted by Robyn Chang on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 1:39 PM
White Mystery bring their "gleeful (Billy) Childish-ness and swaggering Monks-y stomp" to the Empty Bottle for a show starting at 9:30 PM Monday. Opening are girl group Hollows (recently featured in the Reader) along with Bird Talk and DJ Emilie Fabulette.
Media, News Bites Is This the Future of Chicago Journalism?
Posted by Michael Miner on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 12:22 PM
The Chicago Community Trust is scattering half a million dollars in seed money to support 12 innovative local journalism projects. It's a new program, Community News Matters, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation ($250,000) and the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation ($100,000) as well as CCT; spokesperson Vivian Vahlberg says satisfying all 86 grant applications would have required $5.7 million. "The amazing thing is there were so few dogs among the proposals," she tells me. "So many good ones, so many interesting ones."
