Event Wed May 16 2012
In the spirit of artistic collaboration, The Coop and Gapers Block have teamed up to produce 8x8, an experiment in writing and design.
Eight Chicagoland designers (Jesse Hora, Andy Luce, Chad Kouri, Ina Weise, Letterform, Ryan Sievert, Paul Octavious and Kyle Fletcher) were paired with eight local writers (Patrick Somerville, Claire Zulkey, Kevin Guilfoile, William Shunn, Wendy McClure, Scott Smith, Gapers Block political editor Ramsin Canon and Book Club co-founder Veronica Bond) to create collaborative works, with text informing and influencing art and vice versa. The results of this experiment are presented in limited edition poster form, with writing and design back to back.
The posters make their debut at a reception Friday night, May 18, from 6pm to 10pm at The Coop coworking space, 230 W. Superior St., 2nd floor. Refreshments will be served, and sets of the posters will be available for purchase, with proceeds benefiting Open Books.
— Andrew Huff /
Comedy Tue May 15 2012
The Funny Story Show is Chicago's new hybrid stand-up/storytelling showcase and will debut on May 18th at LooseLeaf Lounge . The Funny Story Show is hosted by Caitlin Bergh, a winner of the Moth StorySLAM .
Shows will take place every third Friday of the month at 7:30pm, and feature six comics who have been invited to tell one story each. There are no rules except the story has to be funny.
The show will wrap with the funny story challenge, in which two audience names are pulled from a hat and each person will have 5 minutes to tell a funny story on any topic. The winner (by audience applause) will be invited back for a featured spot the next month.
Scheduled to perform at the debut are comedians Kelsie Huff , Chris Condren (Atomic Comics), Lisa Laureta , Peter-john Byrnes (Mayne Stage), Mollie Merkel (The Andy Kaufman Award) and Andy Fleming (Shine Box Comedy).
Admission is $5 suggested donation and doors are at 7 p.m.
More information here.
— Nellie Huggins /
Film Tue May 15 2012
The Chicago Park District released the schedule for the 2012 Movies in the Parks series. Starting with a screening of Vertigo in Belmont Harbor on June 11 and running till simultaneous showings of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in Hamilton Park and Marquette Park, respectively, on Oct. 26, 176 screenings will occur in parks throughout the city, all for free. See a full schedule here, and follow the Facebook page for updates.
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— Andrew Huff /
Theater Tue May 15 2012
In Shattered Globe Theatre's Her Naked Skin, the year 1913 finds Great Britain's suffragette movement in full force, as women in every class distinction take to the streets, and eventually to its "ladies'" prisons, in protest to demand the right to vote, to serve politically, to make their own life choices, to stand toe-to-toe with the male populace.
The suffragette's fight is far from dainty, as Britannia's iron jawed angels are met with crushing blows from the resistance of Parliament, the fists of intolerance at rallies, the frequent arrests and finally revolving door imprisonment at Holloway, where inmates are met with equal treatment at the hands of hostile matrons, sexually abusive guards, and a physician who smashes through their teeth and lungs to force feed hunger strikers — for humanitarian reasons, of course.
Photo by Kevin Viol
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— Alice Singleton /
Tuesday, May 8, Red line platform at Fullerton
— Mark Addison Smith /
Theatre Mon May 14 2012
As coincidence would have it, the day before I saw Collaboraction Theatre's presentation of Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, a close friend shared her teenaged son's physician's advice: "If you want to get a teenaged boy to talk to you, throw him in the car and drive around; he'll spill everything that's going on in his head."
Oy vey.
Precisely what dad Ky (Sean Bolger) does to son Denny (Ethan Dubin), though their Saturn sedan is more paddy wagon than therapist sofa in Dan LeFranc's two-man drama (2010 winner of the New York Times Outstanding Playwright). Divorce does strange things to families, first splitting them apart and at the same time placing the pieces of what's left in what can take the form of a Salvador Dali nightmare — all over the (confined) place, and throw in some added parts, damaged in a completely unrelated familial implosion.
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— Alice Singleton /
Previous Entry: My Chicago Bucket List: Learning Resilience from Preteens
Number 31: Ride a Bike in the City and Try to Not Die or Be Permanently Damaged
As I shimmy through 2012, this bucket list is becoming less and less things to check off a list and more and more scary things to do that freak me out of my comfort zone and into the magical. And considering the stalemate of boring I mucked around in for much of 2011, this is exactly what I needed.
My latest venture out of my comfort zone involved a Craiglist impulse buy of one red Schwinn Beach Cruiser. Ten minutes of Craigslist scrolling led me to Annie, a hefty 40-pound cruiser meant either for really slow city biking or possibly razing buildings. The first time I sat on her and attempted to pedal, I shook... she squeaked... and we swerved down Paulina Street in Rogers Park like drunk Dutch man after Cinco de Mayo.
But five miles of SLOW shaky pedaling later, I was officially a city biker; something I thought was reserved for the school children and hipsters. And it felt great and strangely liberating.
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— Niki Fritz /
Through television, feature films such as First Sunday and Friday After Next and his nationally-syndicated radio show (heard weekday mornings on Chicago's "Power 92"), Rickey Smiley regularly brings on the laughs; this week, the multi-talented comedian is bringing his talents--and the laughs--to Chicago via an entirely different "experience."
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— LaShawn Williams /
Benefit Mon May 14 2012
Travis Dow moved to Chicago in 2001 to pursue music and acting. He quickly joined the acclaimed Katie Todd Band as lead guitarist and vocalist. In 2003, Travis enrolled in Chicago's I.O. (formerly ImprovOlympic) and eventually performed with two of their Harold teams: Pestering Chester and Captain Sweatpants. Later, he enrolled in ComedySportz's training center and eventually performed for their BattleProv program.
In February, Travis received a diagnosis of Burkitt's Lymphoma, a rare type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Burkitt's is highly aggressive, but responds well to very intensive treatment. Travis is currently undergoing such treatment at City Of Hope in LA.
Even with the help of moderate health insurance, their expenses are overwhelming. Therefore, the music and comedy communities of Chicago are stepping up to help.
The Travis Dow Benefit will be held on Friday, May 18 at 8pm at Uncommon Ground Edgewater, 1401 W. Devon Ave.
Scheduled performers include Music from Katie Todd, The Damn Hoovers and Al Rose, and improv from Jeff Hedges, Nick Johne, Scott Levy, Mike Meyers, Laura Schneider Lazzara, Sarah Pfouts Sullivan, Kieran Sullivan and Kat Timmons.
A $15 donation at the door gets you an evening full of fantastic entertainment. You can view the facebook event here for more information. If you are unable to attend, but would like to contribute, you can visit the Support Travis Dow webpage here.
— Nellie Huggins /
Column Fri May 11 2012
Dark Shadows
To talk about my personal history with the Dark Shadows source material seems slightly pointless even to me, but let me see if I can bring it around to the subject at hand, which is director Tim Burton's more comedic approach to the televised story of Barnabas Collins, a New England vampire protecting his family (more like his descendants) while fending off those who would do them harm. I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode, having watched the nightly reruns that aired in the city in which I grew up. It wasn't until years later that I understood that "Dark Shadows" was a soap opera shot live on tape, thus the reels of mistakes that humorously plagued the show.
But the original Barnabas, Johathan Frid (who passed away last month), remains one of my all-time favorite vampires, with his buttoned-down manners and fierce devotion to old-fashioned morals and sensibilities. And the best thing star Johnny Depp does with his revamped portrayal of Barnabas is to capture this reserved side to the elder Collins and put him in direct conflict with the times (in this case, the early 1970s).
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— Steve Prokopy /
Art Thu May 10 2012
Coming to Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts in west Pilsen is a group show entitled 19th State of Mind. The title of this show refers to the 19th state to enter the union, Indiana, and the state of mind of the people who have grown up in this industrial, depressed area. A large portion of this show features the artists from CISA (Crazy Indiana Style Artists). I got to sit down and talk to Ish, a long time member of CISA, he spoke about the idea that Hammond, although not a "big city" like Chicago, has an inner city quality and, for some, long term effects that are directly related to the waning industry that the area was built on.
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— MartinJon /
Art Thu May 10 2012
Gapers Block's house illustrator, Phineas X. Jones, is well known for his amazing Octophant, the mascot for his poster business. Visitors to Grant Park this summer will encounter the fantastical creature as an advertisement for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, posted on the art nouveau Van Buren Street entrance to the Metra Electric station.
— Andrew Huff /
Event Thu May 10 2012
Chicago Live!, the live news/radio show produced by the Chicago Tribune in partnership with The Second City, kicks off its spring 2012 season tonight at the UP Comedy Club on North Avenue.
Hosted by veteran Chicago reporter, author and radio/TV personality Rick Kogan, Chicago Live! is a weekly stage and radio show that gathers top news makers and guests from the arts and entertainment and pop culture worlds. The hour-long show features Chicago-centric news interviews as well as comedy sketches from The Second City.
Tonight's episode features guests like Lookingglass Theatre Company artistic director Andrew White, Chicago River Canoe & Kayak founder and director Ryan Chew, Forest Preserve District of Coook County superintendent Arnold Randall with River Trail Nature Center animal handler Ryan DePauw, members of the 2012 Chicago Tribune All-State Academic Team, and musical guests, The Blisters.
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— Janna Dons /
Thursday, May 3, Red line to Argyle
— Mark Addison Smith /
