Dance Sun Nov 15 2009
In the American cultural landscape, tap dancing has fought hard to be regarded the same as other dance forms. Lane Alexander, founder and director of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project (CHRP), explains tap's global impact, and why it is finally being recognized as an equally integral part of American dance culture.
Why was CHRP founded?
I went to a tap dance festival in Portland, Oregon, but before that, I was in a tap repertory company. At this festival, there was a different kind of tap dance, taught by the masters like Charles "Honi" Cole and Eddie Brown. What they were doing was what I know now is "rhythm tap," which is more African-based. It had lots of syncopation and rhythmic complexity, as opposed to the more European tradition, (e.g., Rockettes) which was more about presentation rather than rhythmic complexity. I fell in love with these masters and this art form and said, "Why doesn't Chicago have something like this?" Now I was aware of both the Sammy Dyer School of the Theatre and Mayfair Academy on the south side, but I realized that most of the tap dancers in Chicago didn't know each other. For reasons like this, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project was founded to bring people together, using tap to create relationships.
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— LaShawn Williams /
Feature Wed Nov 11 2009
Making your own stencils for artwork and decoration is a relatively easy thing to do -- it just takes a bit of time and patience. A stencil is a form of template used to draw or paint identical shapes and patterns and is usually made of a thin sheet of material such as wax-coated paper, cardboard, vinyl or mylar. What is perhaps most important about the material is it does not allow moisture to pass through.
There are several ways to make stencils, as well as different uses for each. Here, I'll cover how to make my favorite one-time-use and reusable stencils.
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— Christian Scheuer /
Feature Mon Nov 02 2009
It is no secret that Chicago has experienced a major upsurge in youth violence; recently, I sat down with Messiah Equiano, filmmaker and founder of Operation Safe Passage, to find out what he and his organization are doing to address this issue.
Tell me about Operation Safe Passage.
Messiah Equiano: Operation Safe Passage was incorporated in June 2009. I'm also a filmmaker, and I did a documentary about a little girl who was killed in the Englewood neighborhood at her own birthday party. I've been following this youth violence issue for about three years now, which obviously, is continuing to be a problem, especially with hundreds of young people having been shot in Chicago the last two years. Seeing this devastation, I wanted to be a solution to the problem. I would see marches, rallies, etc., but in my opinion, with this generation, those things weren't necessarily working.
You came up with the idea to address this ugly reality through the theatre -- how do you hope to connect to youth in ways the marches and rallies have not?
No offense to anyone, but I wanted to try to reach them differently -- through scholarships, mentoring programs, and life-changing media productions, which is what drove my decision to write a stage play, Dreams Deferred. Also, people like to be entertained, so I wanted to create a message through entertainment.
In an "infotainment" sort of way?
Exactly.
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— LaShawn Williams /
Feature Tue Oct 20 2009
On Friday, Simple Gallery will present Unreleased Backgrounds, a show of Keith B. Evans' photography at Michelle Geoga Photography Studio. In advance of the show, we asked Keith for a few words about Unreleased Backgrounds. Selected images follow.
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— David Schalliol /
Art Thu Oct 15 2009
Mike Bancroft is an interdisciplinary community artist from Chicago and the founder and executive director of Co-op Image, a Non-Profit youth arts organization.
Gapers Block interviewed Bancroft at the site of his newest art installation, Stolen, which re-creates the claustrophobic space of a pawnshop out of a 3 car garage, executing a caustic aesthetic with ill installed faux wood paneling, low dropped ceilings, and mismatched fluorescent lighting.
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— Kelly Reaves /
Feature Thu Oct 01 2009
No stranger to comics, movies, or Chicago, it seems only natural that Gordon McAlpin would create Multiplex, "a comic strip about life at a movie theater." The Peoria native's knowledge of and deep affection for the webcomic's prevailing topics is evident: characters and dialogue have an easy familiarity to them, movement and expression coming through surprisingly well given the strip's slightly static, cartoonish aesthetic. Recently, Gordon filled me in on his history, Multiplex's backstory, and the next step in its evolution.
How did you get into comics in the first place?
I always loved superheroes from watching cartoons, specifically Super Friends. My older brother read a few comics, horror comics, he had the most copies of Gru. He was never really into it. He was more into D&D and heavy metal. In 4th or 5th grade, I got the DC Heroes roleplaying game. They kept referencing this series called Crisis on Infinite Earth, so I saved up more allowance, trucked on over to a comic book store, picked up the old Crisis books. I started hanging around Metropolis, a comic book store, then Acme, its competitor. A chain-smoking, curmudgeonly guy named Jim would recommend stuff to me. Eventually, he would introduce me to slightly more grown-up stuff, he knew I wasn't going to run and show it to my mom. I hung out there for years. Fell in love with the medium, and I always liked to draw.
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— Rose Miller /
Art Wed Sep 30 2009
If you were at the West Loop gallery openings on Sept. 11, you may have noticed a girl walking around with a dead cat on her head. As it turns out, the girl is an artist, an MFA student at UIC, and her name is Rebecca Beachy. The cat hat is one of her new pieces. I paid her a studio visit last week, and we talked about her work.
Kelly Reaves: Did you know that if you google "West Loop gallery openings," one of the first things that comes up is Alicia Eler's post on Chicago Now about you and your taxidermied cat hat?
Rebecca Beachy: Yeah, I saw that but I didn't know that it comes up when you google the art openings.
KR: Yep. You were at number three the first time I checked it but today you've moved up to the top. And your hat was also mentioned in an article on Art Talk Chicago about the openings. So I think it was a hit. How did you come up with the idea to make the hat?
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— Kelly Reaves /
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In her words:
In 1971, when parts of the Chicago Board of Trade building were about to be remodeled, a manager asked me, a young and green photographer, to take some pictures of the construction. The trading pit wasn't slated for renovation and was generally off-limits to visitors, but he got me in and allowed me to take some pictures.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Sat Sep 05 2009
Have you ever wondered what Walter from The Big Lebowski (the angry Vietnam vet played by John Goodman) would look like wearing pasties? Well, how about if Walter were played by a burlesque professional by the name of Wham Bam Pam? Titillating, perhaps?
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— Rachel Zanders /
Feature Mon Aug 31 2009
The new storefront space heralds the continuation of button-filled bliss. (Photo by Diane Alexander White)Chicago's own Busy Beaver Button Company just moved to a shiny new storefront in Logan Square, where it will continue cranking out pinback buttons for the masses. The company began as the brainchild of Christen Carter, who fostered its growth from the early days (parents' house, mom poised over the manual button maker) to fledgling independence (basement of Christen's Logan Square home) to real, live, grown-up company (now, now, it's happening now!). Busy Beaver received a Small Business Improvement Fund grant from the City of Chicago to cover half the costs of building out their remodeled storefront location, and doors officially opened in early August.
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Tue Aug 18 2009
Editor's Note: Chicago Revenant is a new occasional feature by Gapers Block writer Dan Kelly examining some of the less well-known neighborhoods of Chicago -- or as he likes to put it, "shambling through the Second City." This is the first in the series, visiting Dunning and Schorsch Village on the Northwest Side.
The neighborhood of Dunning is a perfect place for a horror film — and I mean that in the nicest way.
Situated on the northwest side, Dunning (and its next-door neighborhood Schorsch Village), will charm your pants off with gingerbread houses, neighborhood stores and pleasant parks. Simultaneously, the place hosts three graveyards, a mental health facility, a semi-abandoned troubled children's facility and a camouflaged potter's field. It's a pretty place, and I met some nice folks, but it's ripe for a cinematic boogyman.
Naturally, I took my 19-month-old son Nate with me. Blithely unaware of anything beyond fire trucks and giraffes, Nate offered little commentary during the three hours we drove around Dunning. Mostly he babbled in the car seat, or tried to outrun me on his stubby little legs whenever we made a stop. I didn't bother with explanations. I didn't need to. Nate's world consists of home and the playground, with little elaboration. It made no difference to him if the Kentucky bluegrass and dandelions he ran across covered the bones of the insane dead or not — especially if a puppy was nearby.
Dada knew better. Dunning is the name of community area 17, bordered by Cumberland, Irving Park, Narragansett, and Belmont and containing the neighborhoods of Irving Woods, Belmont Terrace, Belmont Heights, Schorsch Village and Dunning proper. The place dates back to when the Northwest Side was still a rural area on the city's outskirts. The name came from Andrew Dunning, a speculator who bought 120 acres of land there not too long after the Civil War. First Dunning built a nursery. Then, assumably fantasizing about naming a village after himself, he set aside 40 acres for future settlers. But Mr. Dunning failed to consider the effect his peculiar neighbors might have on potential homesteaders.
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— Mr. Dan Kelly /
Feature Wed Aug 12 2009
The pavilions for the Burnham Centennial join the ongoing list of dynamic and engaging exhibits that have been displayed at Millennium Park. The pavilions were commissioned to Pritzker Prize winning architect Zaha Hadid and UNStudio's Ben van Berkel. While there was some tension in the architecture community about chosing two foreign (to Chicago, that is) designers, a global city, much like the one Burnham envisioned, should integrate different sensibilities with ease. The true struggle, however, is not whether Chicago will accept the company of two talented designers, but will the designers allow Chicago to inform their own design process.
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— Carl Giometti /
Feature Mon Jul 20 2009
Sisters everywhere steal from each other's closets, and when Brenda and Billy were growing up as part of a big family outside of Rockford, Illinois, they were no exception. "When we were kids I'd 'borrow' a hairbrush or a favorite shirt," younger sister Brenda says. "Billy would get so mad."
Growing up a year and a half apart in the Klaman family: Billy (bottom left) and Brenda (bottom right) with siblings (left to right) Teresa, Syd and Bryan Klaman.Now both in their late 40s, Brenda Rowe lives in Los Angeles and Billy Goeke lives in Davis, Illinois. But these days, they work together more than ever. When Billy and her husband Dale needed renters for their two wilderness cabins, Brenda proposed a very wired solution: a web site specifically designed to entice Google, and a Threadless-style contest, where entrants could write a short essay, collect votes from their peers and win a weekend in the cabin.
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Tue Jul 14 2009
About a month ago, there were sightings of a film crew lurking around the Bridgeview Bank in Uptown, shooting scenes for what was rumored to be a new "Green Hornet" web series connected to the film being developed by Seth Rogan. We tracked down that film crew to find out what's going on.
The Green Hornet web series turns out to be produced by local indie producer Eric Neal. He and Pek Pongpaet, who plays the Hornet's sidekick, Kato, were nice enough to answer a few questions.
So, first things first: Is this directly tied to the Green Hornet film?
Eric Neal: Absolutely not. We've been very careful to let anyone and everyone involved know that we're in no way connected with the film. In fact, we'd only referred to the show by a psuedonym title until just recently, to keep those lines from crossing. Our show has been in the works for some years and it's just coincidence -- or fate? I don't know -- that both versions are congealing at the same time.
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— Andrew Huff /
Max Grinnell knows if there's one thing that makes a city great, it's its walkability. An urbanologist and Chicago historian (he literally wrote the book on Hyde Park), his latest book chronicles 24 of Chicago's greatest walking tours -- and it's not just for tourists. I asked him recently about how he chose the walks in his guide, how walkability can be measured, and what Chicago's greatest neighborhood is.
How did you go about selecting the routes that appear in these walking tours? What makes a "great walk"?
I knew I wanted to take people into some of the city's less well-known neighborhoods, and I wanted people to have a sense of the historical and architectural milieu in each place. More than a few travel books consist of the well-worn troika of "Buy This," "Eat Here," and "Go to Hackneyed Attraction That Everyone Else Has Already Seen And Buy The Same 'Made in China' Schwag I Could Find Back Home." Pretty formulaic stuff for the most part, and I can imagine that 100 gibbons punching away on laptops could come up with the same stuff, provided they had access to the Internet and strong coffee to stave off utter boredom. This I knew I could not do.
To answer your second question, a great walk is pedestrian-friendly, first and foremost. Two of America's greatest walkers, John Muir and Henry Thoreau, didn't have to contend with these details, as neither of them were big fans of cities. These days, a good sidewalk with relatively few concessions to strip malls (which don't belong in cities in the first place) and high-end condo owners who must have their cars close by at all times, is a must. Jane Jacobs, chronicler of the urban condition and contrarian spirit, always championed this in her books, and she liked to talk about the "ballet of the sidewalk."
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— Katherine Raz /
Think you could fill a Soldier Field-size stadium with people interested industrial furniture design? Well, you can. For the next three days more than 50,000 people will be descending upon the Merchandise Mart for NeoCon, the National Exposition of Contract Furnishings. It's the largest exhibition of "contract furnishings for the design and management of the built environment" in North America. In other words, a trade show for people looking to furnish (mostly) public spaces.
And it is massive. With over 1200 exhibitors featuring everything from readymade classroom murals to hospital waiting room chairs, the conference will occupy 1.2 million square feet inside the Mart from Monday the 15th through Wednesday the 17th.
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— Katherine Raz /
Feature Wed Jun 10 2009
In a small two city blocks, two architectural giants expressed their sensibility into two masterworks of building. Gehry utilized technology to create a new, overtly dynamic form, appropriate for the extroverted performing arts. Across the street to the south, Renzo Piano has created an antonymous response of transparent spaces that inspire self-awareness. Even in the smallest of galleries, a view of the city always seems to creep in, reminding one of its presence, even in the most otherworldly of exhibits. Unlike Gehry's explosive sculpture or Anish Kapoor's mirrored blob-like form, Piano relies firmly on a theory of spacial organization that is highly legible, if not outright familiar to the Gothic era.
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— Carl Giometti /
Feature Wed May 27 2009
My thinking may not tend much toward New Age philosophy, but I do try to cultivate a belief in cosmic serendipity. As a doctrine it doesn't require much discipline beyond keeping my eyes open, alert to whatever portents or talismans may cross my path; I make a point of reading flyers on telephone poles. On a spring afternoon on the north side of Chicago, one of these catches my attention. "Weekend With the Wizard," it reads, "Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in Chicago." His photograph is especially striking: posing in front of a bookshelf, sporting the requisite flowing, white beard, Zell-Ravenheart gives the impression of a low-budget Dumbledore. His purple robes and wizard's wand seem decidedly costume-shop. But there's a peculiar intensity to his gaze, something almost perversely otherworldly -- the man is obviously on a weird trip, and the opportunity to join him for the weekend seems less an invitation than a challenge.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon May 18 2009
Every once in a while I look at that big bin of scrap wood in the shop and think I should do something with them. Obviously, most are odd shaped pieces and relatively small, but it would be a waste to just through them away, so why not make some toy cars?
Kids like toys, kids like cars. Toys can be expensive, so making some toys is a no-brainer. Making toy cars isn't really hard: a piece of wood is cut into a car-like shape, and some wheels are put on to make the toy functional. Not hard at all. What I'm going to do is show how easy this can be and show some different interpretations of the idea of moving toys.
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— Christian Scheuer /
Feature Wed May 06 2009
This week in Washington, Chicago filmmaker Gordon Quinn and other advocates prepare for the next battle for filmmakers' right to quote from their culture. Mass-produced DVDs often encrypt films so that they can't be copied, and filmmakers can't excerpt them without circumventing the copy-protection. Right now, cracking into these DVDs is a crime -- even if it's legal to use the media behind the locked door. Quinn and others argue that filmmakers should be exempt from this law, the Digitial Millennium Copyright Act.
Chicago filmmaker Gordon Quinn
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Mon Apr 27 2009
by John Greenfield
Back when I lived on the South Side and hadn't explored Chicago much, Belmont Avenue was an exotic destination. One night a friend who grew up here had the blues. We hopped in her car and zoomed up Lake Shore Drive to revisit her teenage haunts near Belmont and Clark: The Alley rock and roll gear store; Scenes, a coffee shop that sold theatrical scripts; and the "Punkin' Donuts" at Clark where wild-looking street kids hung out.
Nowadays that strip of trendy shops, clubs and eateries is a nostalgic place for me, but there's a lot more to see along Belmont. At just under 11 miles it's the longest east-west street on the North Side. According to Streetwise Chicago by Don Hayner and Tom McNamee, the avenue was named after the Civil War's Battle of Belmont, in which Ulysses S. Grant took 3,000 Union soldiers down the Mississippi River and unsuccessfully attacked the town of Belmont, MO.
Recently I've been walked the length of several of the city's major streets in order to check out the sites at a slower pace than my usual 12-mph cycling speed. My biking buddy Jonathan agreed to meet me at Belmont Harbor on an unusually warm April morning to hike the avenue to the city's western boundary at the Des Plaines River.
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— Andrew Huff /
Feature Tue Apr 21 2009
The SKETCHBOOK Festival is celebrating its 9th year with the introduction of a new element: photography. SKETCHBOOK paired one photographer with each of its 14 plays to initially create a photograph to be incorporated into the festival design and then to take a residence with SKETCHBOOK to document the play throughout the festival's run.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Mar 30 2009
On January 30, an Illinois appellate court ruled that Chicago's Landmark Ordinance is "unconstitutionally vague," attracting national attention. Since then, the city of Chicago has filed an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court, while cities from around the state and preservation groups from around the country have spoken out and filed documents supporting the appeal.
We contacted Jonathan Fine, Executive Director of Preservation Chicago, to help make sense of what the current challenge could mean for architectural preservation in Chicago.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Mar 09 2009
The Encyclopedia Show is a monthly mash-up of performance -- stories, poetry, music, comedy, tragedy and all the rest - centered on a topic. Each month's topic (bears, explosives, the moon) binds together an otherwise eclectic showcase of the city's sharpest tacks and brightest bulbs. Launched in December by Robbie Q. Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney, a new show premiers each month at the Chopin Theater in Wicker Park.
Telfer graciously emailed back and forth with me about the production -- plus bearcats, beauty, and saving us all from this insane world.
Robbie Q. Telfer and Shanny Jean Maney at the Encyclopedia Show
Photo by Elizabeth McQuern
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Mon Mar 02 2009
Recently I decided that making simple furniture is something I should do more often, and in doing so, I should make some items others could do at home with a little knowledge and simple tools, or access to some other bigger tools.
This project is something that I've been thinking about for the past few months, a Slatted End-Grain Side Table with storage. I like plywood, I like it a lot, and multiple layers of wood stacked up just looks cool. Keeping with the theme, the project I had in mind was something that someone could make with limited tools and -- importantly -- stuff one could get at the local home center.
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— Christian Scheuer /
Feature Mon Feb 23 2009
From Andrzej Wajda's Man of Marble
Like the image the lone cowboy that quickly took to the romantic imagination of Anti-communist Poland, Andrzej Wajda's Man of Marble from 1976 is inseparable from the popular conception of the Polish Solidarity movement of the 1980s. Wajda, a former Senator of the republic of Poland after the fall of communism says, "the socialist climate succumbed also because I made films and Wałęsa and future members of Solidarity movement watched them." And surely no other films have made such a lasting impression on the Polish romantic consciousness. In comparison with pre-war international commercial cinema, and the formulaic films of the social-realist post-war decade, Wajda's work was an unmistakable commitment to films of historical and social relevance.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Feb 16 2009
On January 15, Christopher Hiltz started a photographic installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Court Theatre's production of Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck. The installation is comprised of predominately unposed portraits of theater patrons as they waited in the lobby for the play to begin. Each night, Hiltz photographed his subjects and then structured the processes, prints and frames so the finished images were displayed by the time the patrons exited the theater. Although every night the crowd was different, Hiltz created a unified body of images that reflect the contemplative nature of the subjects.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Feb 09 2009
I arrive to 30 shrieking teenagers and my friend Gihad Ali, shushing and reminding them to write. She gives me a look that says it is out of her hands. They are freewriting - writing whatever comes to mind - and the topic is "dead fish." I ask who selected it. She raises her eyebrows and points to a skinny guy with a goatee and a baseball cap, sprawled across a salvaged white loveseat. He looks young and I assume he is one of the students, until she introduces him as her co-instructor, Zeid Khater. He looks at my notebook and deadpans, "I have no aspirations to help anyone but myself."
Zeid Khater runs the AAAN after-school writing program for youth with Gihad Ali - Photo credit: Ayman Hussein
This is the Arab American Action Network's after-school creative writing program for teens. The Arab American Action Network (AAAN), known informally as the "Triple-A-N," and affectionately as the Merkaz, Arabic for "center," sits at 63rd and Kedzie, between brightly painted taquerias and tailor shops.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Sun Jan 25 2009
"No Kedzie is known to have been arrested as a violator of the civil law, to have been intemperate, or dependent on charity, or to have paid less than one hundred cents on the dollar," claim family records, as quoted in Chicago: Its History and Its Builders.
Chicago's Kedzie Avenue, which runs about 23 miles from the city's southern border to its northern limit, is named after one of the family's favorite sons, John Hume Kedzie. The son of Scottish immigrants, he developed parts of the North and West Sides and several suburbs, and spoke out against slavery as an early member of Illinois' Republican Party, according to the book Streetwise Chicago.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Jan 19 2009
Geoffrey Baer is writer, producer and narrator for several documentaries taking viewers on tours of Chicago's neighborhoods and characters. He sat down with GB to discuss his most recent program, "Chicago's Lakefront."
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— Carl Giometti /
Feature Mon Jan 05 2009
Josh Elder is the Chicago-based author of several graphic novels, including Mail Order Ninja, which was named one of the 25 best graphic novels for children. Here he talks about his love-at-first read relationship with comics and how to make it as a working artist.
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Sun Dec 21 2008
Jennifer Gage has been dancing ballet, jazz, hip-hop, and everything in between for decades and hit the Chicago dance community in 1991. She has performed with numerous Chicago companies, including the great Joel Hall Dancers, and started her own dance company, GI Alliance. 
She loves listening and choreographing to Metallica, got significant inspiration from a giant cast on her foot, and can touch the back of her head with her knee. GB managed to catch up with her at midnight just after she had finished performing a ballroom number in a contemporary dance company's concert.
When and how did you start dancing?
I started dancing because I was a complete clutz when I was a child and had zero coordination. My mom decided to take control and enroll me in dance classes to give me a bit of grace. I teased her when she came to see me do some professional shows when I was in my 20s. That's when it dawned on her that I'm really a professional dancer and that's what I do. She said, "I didn't know what that meant until I saw it. My daughter always had 15 little jobs and was dancing on the side. Now I can tell people my daughter is a professional dancer!"
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— Rachel Zanders /
Feature Mon Dec 15 2008
Chicago has no shortage of small theatre companies. Of this fact The Plagiarists are well aware. But when the ensemble-based company formed in early 2007, the members (Casey Adams, Kaitlin Byrd, James Dunn, Layne Manzer, Ian Miller, Gregory Peters, Justine Turner, and Lindsay Verstegen) hoped to bring some dynamic new ideas to the scene. This might sound like somewhat of an ironic mission, given that they're called The Plagiarists, but the company's approach is utterly original.
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— Laura Pearson /
Feature Mon Dec 08 2008
Amy Elizabeth Wiggins is a designer and graduate student at the School of the Art Institute. She took some time out from creating some of the beautiful things you see below to talk with us about design and the real purpose of a beautiful object.
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— Jamie Smith /
Feature Mon Dec 01 2008
Who We Were is a snapshot history of the United States that spans from the birth of relatively simple, expensive cameras in 1888 through the placement of a snapshot on the moon in 1972. We caught up with Chicago-based coauthor Richard Cahan just as NPR selected it as one of their books of the year.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Tue Nov 11 2008
Prescott Tolk is one of those guys in a creative scene who binds the rest together by setting a strong example through his own professionalism and natural giftedness, and by actively encouraging up-and-comers. His laid-back manner, on stage and off, belies his powerful comedic work ethic, which, after years of refinement, has yielded a solid and confident comic, who clicks with audiences sometimes before he's gotten the first joke out. His relaxed banter fools you into thinking maybe he's just being who he is, and just happens to be on stage. But make no mistake - Prescott Tolk is a exceptional comedian.
Tonight, Tuesday, November 11 at 9:30, Chicago Underground Comedy (ChUC) presents a special free show, Prescott Tolk Unlimited at the Beat Kitchen (2100 W. Belmont).
The special show spotlights Tolk in a rare extended stand-up set and CD release show for the Chicago comedian's debut album "I Can Complain." Thick with incisive one-liners and sometimes painfully honest anecdotes about the post-graduate pratfalls of a slacker, the album showcases the sharp material that earned him a spot on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, the Critic's Choice in The Chicago Reader, and a "Don't Miss" in Time Out Chicago.
The usual disclaimer: the author of this post is inextricably intertwined with Chicago comedy. Think of her as a wartime embedded comedy journalist who probably couldn't be 100% objective if she tried, but who sincerely vouches for the creative talent of the people she writes about.
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— Elizabeth McQuern /
Feature Mon Nov 03 2008
Emily Harris is Executive Director of the Burnham Plan Centennial and the program director for early learning for Chicago Metropolis 2020. As part of GB's continuing coverage of the yearlong celebration, Ms. Harris was kind enough to spend some time discussing Burnham, Burnham and more Burnham...
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— Carl Giometti /
Feature Mon Oct 27 2008
John Pierson writes, directs and performs original work for The Neo-Futurists, a twenty-year-old theater company that's most well-known for its late-night show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, 30 Plays in 60 Minutes. Here he talks about taking risks, embracing flaws, prioritizing process over product, and recognizing the allure of live performance.
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— Lindsay Muscato /
Feature Mon Oct 20 2008
When I asked Joey D. about interviewing in Gaper's Block, he warned me that, though he'd try to answer my questions as best he could, he wasn't "so great with words." Silver-tongued or not, Joey's skills are undeniable as he incorporates everything from acrylics to stop signs in his eye-popping art. One of Chicago's most prolific 'urban' artists, Joey's work has been seen everywhere from State Street's You Are Beautiful mural to Juxtapoz magazine. His latest show, the group effort We Need Each Other, opened last week and runs through November. Joey was gracious enough to set his descriptive doubts aside and share with us his thoughts on process, labels, and his plans for Halloween.
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— Jaime Calder /
Feature Mon Oct 06 2008
Johnny Szymanski, 28, calls Chicago home -- and it's a place where all his creative pursuits can simultaneously collide and live in harmony. He's a recording engineer, DVD editor/producer, musician and fringe theater performer who finds his way from one gig to the next, like a lot of Chicagoans searching for a life in the arts.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Sep 22 2008
Misty Tosh, a 34 year-old filmmaker (and self-described hustler, schemer and dreamer) has made a life for herself on the road - maybe you'll find her in a vintage trailer that she remodeled herself, or in the sailboat she bought for a song, or helping babies with cleft palates in Indonesia, or chowing down on tamales in Rogers Park. Wherever she goes, she brings the same creativity to her lifestyle that she brings to her artmaking.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Tue Sep 09 2008
Scrappers is a feature-length documentary that tells the stories of three Chicago men who comb the city streets in search of people's discarded-yet-valuable resources, such as iron and aluminum. Still in production, the film is the focus of a benefit being held Friday, Sept. 12 from 6-10pm at The AV-aerie, 2000 W. Fulton. In addition to scenes from the film, there will be video installations, words from the filmmakers and subjects, and musical performances by Scrappers composer Frank Rosaly, the Jonathan Crawford/Frank Rosaly/Michael Zerang percussion trio and the Friction Brothers.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Aug 25 2008
Dan Telfer, co-producer of Chicago Underground Comedy, stand-up, writer and so forth, will be staging a reading of a spec script of "The Office." Performing will be a host of strong local comedy talents, ranging -- or, "ranging" depending on your point of view, I guess -- from stand-ups to improvisers and actors to fellow writers. Telfer is a veteran of stand-up and theatrical comedy in Chicago, a description that can sound like an insult in the wrong context, or if said with quotes around veteran. But I don't mean it that way; I mean that he has written, performed in and produced well-received shows, and helps propel one of the best stand-up nights in the city.
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— Ramsin Canon /
Feature Mon Aug 18 2008
Many people know Eric Bartholomew as "that potato guy," or some variation thereof, thanks to Uber Tuber Enterprises: his potato-focused craft business. However, Bartholomew has many other interests, including collecting valuable items from people's trash -- documented in his "Junk Days" zines. Recently GB asked Bartholomew to discuss his curbside adventures.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Sun Aug 10 2008
Located at 3327 N. Broadway in Lakeview, and open since early July, Homeboy is a design store and art gallery that promotes only Chicago-area artists, designers, and businesses. Featured artists include photographer Barry Wolf, designer Amanda Vance and metal sculptor Beth Kamhi. Recently GB stopped by Homeboy to talk to owner Ripley Worthy about his dual role as proprietor and curator.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Aug 04 2008
Based in Evanston, artist Lauren Levato expresses her fascination with insects by incorporating real-life specimens into her work -- as well as bones, horse hairs, and other organic materials. Recently we caught up with her and asked her about her critter-based creations, which she calls "insect assemblages."
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jul 28 2008
This Friday, Aug. 1, 32 & Urban hosts Framed: A 59-person show featuring the work of designers, photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, painters, collage makers, muralists, installation-based artists, street artists, printmakers, graffiti artists, comic book artists, and other art makers. Gallery curator Peter Kepha gave participants frames of various sizes, then gave them two rules to follow: 1) leave the wooden frame alone and 2) produce work with the idea of presenting "great, affordable art." Recently we asked Kepha about Framed, and about his other work.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jul 21 2008
River North's many art galleries served up a ton of quality work during the Friday evening opening receptions. Here are the highlights from the shows:
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Sun Jul 13 2008
Last week, the press got a sneak-peek view of Benin -- Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria, which opened July 10 at the Art Institute of Chicago. The 220 works in the exhibit span six centuries and represent a collection amassed come from several continents. The Art Institute is the only U.S. venue to host the exhibit, which runs through Sept. 21.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jul 07 2008
Artist/designer Matt Maldre advertises his Website with the tagline, "A new idea every day" -- and he's not exaggerating. From leaving little plastic treasure chests containing messages in public places, and posting prayers on pay phones, to photography and straight-up painting and design, Maldre's pretty much a creataholic. We caught up with him to ask some questions about his many projects.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jun 30 2008
A native of Rochester, N.Y., painter Aaron Delehanty creates brightly colored, detailed landscapes that feature elements of humans' attempts at progress -- for example, factories and rock quarries -- against the backdrop of nature. His work has been featured in New American Paintings and in shows in San Francisco, Rome and Chicago, among other cities. Recently, Delehanty took a break from teaching his painting class at the Caro d'Offay Gallery in Bucktown to talk to us about his work.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jun 23 2008
Jeremiah Ketner's dreamy compositions incorporate clean lines, a muted color palette, and fanciful scenes featuring flowers and fairy-like people. Ketner's currently got a show at TAG Galleries in Baltimore, and has also recently shown at the DVA Gallery's Gala Tiki and Splat Flats' Lumbart all-day festival, among other places. Ketner took a few to tell GB about his work.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jun 16 2008
Even though his space, Gallery 40000, closed in January, gallerist and curator Britton Bertran has not stopped presenting art to the masses -- he's just moved his activities over to Bertran Projects, his online gallery. Recently Bertran received a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, where he has been consulting for the last five years, to do a feasibility study investigating the possibilities of opening a new, Chicago-based contemporary art gallery under the Foundation's auspices. He took some time out of his busy schedule to share some of the art biz wisdom he's accrued over the past few years.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jun 09 2008
Visitors to The Crooked Art of Lana Crooks won't actually find too much that is crooked, at least in the literal sense. Her plush pieces -- of animals, armies of little men, frogs, and other delights -- are soft and round, and a bit more huggable than angular. We recently spoke to Crooks about her craft.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Jun 02 2008
For the past six years, Dolan Geiman has practiced his unique breed of Southern-influenced mixed media art in Chicago. While he's surely one of the most active artists in the city, we caught up with Dolan and Ali Walsh, his business partner and girlfriend, via email amid a much needed pause during their art fair season.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon May 26 2008
Recycle Your Ideas is a two-year-old project by Chicago artist Miguel Cortez that explores the concept of recycling -- a hot topic these days, in case you haven't noticed -- through various media. Portions of the project are on display at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign until July 27 as part of the show "Landscapes of Experience and Imagination: Explorations by Midwest Latina/o Artists." Cortez recently answered a few questions about his project for us.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon May 19 2008
Oh, the life of a professional beat boxer: bookings in the UK, filming commercials in Australia, performances in Long Beach -- and daddy duty in Chicago? Such is the life of Yuri Lane, a performer whose vocal gymnastics defy easy classification. Internationally known as a harmonica-playing beat boxer, Lane is also a professional actor and the star of "Soundtrack City" and "From Tel-Aviv to Ramallah," beat box plays written and directed by his wife, Rachel Havrelock. Lane was kind enough to find a few moments to let GB know how he does it all, what he's doing next, and why he prefers bananas to shawarma.
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— Jaime Calder /
Feature Mon May 12 2008
Rosetta Magdalen has expressed herself as a flamenco artist through her dancing, teaching and choreography. Five years ago she founded and became artistic director of Flamenco Chicago, located at 2147 W. Belmont. Flamenco Chicago holds its Spring Student Showcase on Sunday, May 18 at the St. Patrick Performing Arts Centre, with its next six-week class session the week of May 26. We caught up with Magdalen to ask her about her school and her passion for dancing.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon May 05 2008
Have you heard about Lumetype but don't know what it is? An easy way to learn more about this printmaking process is to visit the Caro d'Offay Gallery between now and June 6, where "Cascade-Shatter-Flow" -- an exhibit of the work of Columbia College Professor Friedhard Kiekeben -- is on display. Or you can attend a free Lumetype lecture on May 7 given by Lumetype inventor/patent owner and gallery owner d'Offay, with a special intro by Kiekeben, or enroll in one of the gallery's classes. Recently we spoke with Kiekeben and d'Offay about the Lumetype process and its origins, and learned a bit about quantum physics as well.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Sun Apr 27 2008
Residence first, gallery second, Get Knifed is a Pilsen-based artist collective project that holds shows and workshops based around themes thought up by its founders: painter Max Bare, photographer Nate Bettinger and "other" Chris Cowgill. Get Knifed held its most recent event, "Returns," in conjunction with this past weekend's Artropolis mega-event, and will host its next show -- featuring works by Bettinger and Bare -- as part of the Chicago Arts District 2nd Fridays Gallery Crawl on May 9. Recently Bettinger spent a few minutes telling Gapers Block about his home/gallery's m.o. and upcoming activities.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Apr 21 2008
Based in Humboldt Park, the Finch Gallery is one of the many Chicago arts spots featured in Artropolis, an arts extravaganza taking place April 25-28 at the Merchandise Mart. As part of its participation, Finch put out an open call for submissions of essays and writings on the arts, independent actions, and commentary, the fruits of which will be published and distributed to the public and reprinted on the gallery's website. (The deadline for submissions is April 23; send entries to info@finchgallery.com.) Finch Executive Director Nicholas Freeman recently spoke to GB about his vision for the publication, his gallery's upcoming goings-on, and his positive spin on "money laundering."
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Sun Apr 13 2008
Is Illinois getting stingy in its arts funding? On February 20, Governor Rod Blagojevich unveiled his proposed FY2009 budget, which sets state funding for the Illinois Arts Council at $15.2 million -- 23% less than the amount of arts funding granted in FY2007 (but the same amount granted in FY 2008). What gives? Leading the charge for the restoration of lost arts funding is the Illinois Arts Alliance/Foundation, a statewide arts advocacy organization based downtown. IAAF Executive Director Ra Joy recently took a few minutes out of his day to explain the funding situation.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Apr 07 2008
Fields of grapes, race cars, wildlife, Baroque-style cherubs: Chicago muralist Augustina Droze has painted these subjects, and many others, for both commercial and individual clients that have included princes, the poor of India, a family in Naperville, and even President Bush. A Detroit native and former student at the Art Institute of Chicago, Droze has also lived and/or studied in India, Cincinnati, and Barcelona, and in her travels has adopted a style that is reminiscent of the Renaissance era. Recently she took some time out of her travels and projects to answer a few questions about her craft.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Sun Mar 30 2008
A native of Scotland, Sara Schnadt moved to the United States in 1986 with her American mother and sister, and came to Chicago in 1995 to earn her masters degree in fine arts (MFA) at the Art Institute of Chicago. By day, she serves as Webmaster for the Chicago Artists' Resource, part of the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs. By night, weekends and other free moments, she is an innovative performance and installation artist whose work incorporates body movement and dance, found objects and themes drawn from Schnadt's wealth of personal experiences. You can catch her next performance on May 2 at Looptopia 2008 from 5-10 p.m. at Macy's State St. windows (111 N. State St.), where she will be representing the Museum of Contemporary Art's 12x12 series.
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— Lauri Apple /
Feature Mon Mar 24 2008
On Saturday, March 29, trudge your unwanted garb on over to the Chicago Swap-O-Rama-Rama (SORR), a clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops that promotes clothing reuse and recycling. In exchange for a $20 donation and a bag of clothes, participants can root through the big collective pile of duds and take an unlimited amount of whatever they find -- whether it's 17 cotton Old Navy shirts, or just one Balenciaga bag. Chicago SORR organizer Katie Hawkey is a "lifetime crafter" who moved here a few years ago to jump into the theatre scene, but ended up pursuing a career in marketing and Web development. She took a few minutes from organizing and coordinating with volunteers to answer a few questions about thrifting fashion and the Chicago SORR, which takes place at the AV-aerie, 2000 W. Fulton (*310), from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Mar 17 2008
Medicine Park, located at 2659 W. Chicago Ave., is a brand-new gallery space featuring work by Chicago artists of all mediums. Run by Amy Cargill and Jackie Keothavy, the space opened on Feb. 15, 2008 with a reception hosted by pop culture painter Derek Erdman and photographer Jim Newberry. The gallery's next show, Henbane: Dialectics of the Feminine Sublime, features a mixed-media menu of drawings, photo, video, sculpture by Jenny Kendler, Meg Leary, Molly J. Schafer, Amber Hawk Swanson and Stacia Yeapanisopens. The show opens March 21 with a reception from 7-11 p.m. (Video screening at 8 p.m.) Recently A/C had a brief chat with Cargill, a friendly Oklahoma native who considers her new venture "a gift."
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Mar 10 2008
As photo sharing websites such as flickr and SmugMug increase in popularity, their coupling with daily urban life is becoming more apparent. Kevin Eatinger, a Chicago-based photographer, has been particularly involved with bridging the online and offline worlds. We caught up with Kevin after the 7 on 8 Group Show at Cafe Latakia to talk about his work and the way his photographic practice has been affected by flickr.
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— David Schalliol /
Feature Mon Mar 03 2008
Erik Newman, a 43 year-old Chicago-based artist, lives alone in one of the city's last cheap loft spaces, hidden in a nook of a warehouse on the near West Side. To enter, you'll need to call him on his cell phone and then wait for him to come downstairs and open the mechanized gate topped with barbed wire. Once inside the warehouse, you'll step into a workshop crammed full of tools, the remnants of old projects and wood waiting for a purpose. Just beyond the shop area, Newman has crafted a living space that's cheap, eco-friendly and chock-full of storied objects, including furniture he built himself, pieces of a boat he's constructing, a collection of screen-printed posters, and a fake leg (it came with a used car he once bought). The cozy, eclectic interior belies the fact that it was once a raw warehouse space.
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— David Schalliol /
