Author Fri May 17 2013
Every few mornings, my mom will e-mail me my horoscope.
It's not that we take serious stock in the just-vague-enough-to-be-accurate predictions. We know it's silly. It's just a nice tradition; our kooky way of keeping in touch. I don't believe in what the horoscopes say, and that is the truth.
The truth, nine tenths of the truth, almost entirely true, so help me Libra.
Okay, I don't open those e-mails expecting to learn exactly what my day holds. It's only that, after reading them, they tend to sit in the back of my mind. If my horoscope tells me my "patience will be tested," and later that day I have to wait twenty minutes for the bus, a small part of me will think, "Oh! Thanks for the heads up, Mom/Universe!"
The reason my subconscious clings to the horoscope isn't that I actually believe it, nor is it a predictive measure comparable to data-based statistical forecasting (no offense, Cosmos). Rather, this behavior, and the popularity of astrology in general, is a prime example of the way in which we as a species tend to despise uncertainty.
In his book The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't, statistician Nate Silver pinpoints this very aversion to uncertainty as a major cause of faulty predictions. We are wired to detect patterns. We are predisposed to lean towards our subjective bias. We tend to see in the data what we want to see. And considering the ever-amassing amount of information available, it is not difficult to lose the signal (true, relevant data) amidst the noise (everything else).
Horoscopes may be a hoax, but when it comes to predictions, Mr. Silver is the next best thing. He has gained notoriety throughout his career for the astoundingly accurate predictions of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, various senatorial elections, as well as the performance of many Major League Baseball players. He was named one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People" by Time magazine, and his blog, FiveThirtyEight.com, was licensed for publication by the New York Times.
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— Miden Wood /
Tonight! The Dollhouse Reading series featuring Natalie Shapero, Alexis Pope and Ben Clark.
Tonight! Naked Girls Reading presents "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" at the Everleigh Club.
Saturday! Bodies of Work Festival to feature Jim Ferris, Leroy F. Moore, and Barry Silesky at the Poetry Foundation.
Saturday! Librarian Pub Crawl, starting at Atlantic Bar and Grill.
Saturday! Celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson presents his memoir Yes, Chef
at the Merchandise Mart.
Sunday! Nate Silver reads from The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't at the Spertus Institute.
Sunday! Chicago Nerd Social Club writer's panel at Open Books.
Sunday! Leslie Zemeckis presents Behind The Burly Q: Stories of Burlesque in in America at Sheffield's.
— Claire Glass /
Events Wed May 15 2013
If you're looking to add to your cultural calendar this month the Chicago Humanities Festival is offering a special 25% discount deal on tickets to Stages, Sights, and Sounds --its international theater and performance festival.
You can get tickets to performances by any of the six international troupes by entering the code PROMO25 until Friday, May 17 at 9 am. At $5 for children and $11 for adults, tickets are already reasonable, especially considering the high quality performances the Festival delivers. 
Stages, Sights and Sounds' May line-up includes a contemporary interpretation of Sleeping Beauty by award-winning playwright Amaranta Leyva. Also catch Theatre Un•Speak•Able in a performance riffing on the literary genre, the whodunit in Murder of the Midwest Express.
— Claire Glass /
Events Tue May 14 2013
This Sunday, May 19 is the science fiction writer's panel and networking event at Open Books Chicago (213 W. Institute Place). Hosted by the Chicago Nerd Social Club, the event features Q&A with authors Wesley Chu, Wesley and Brad Sun and Mark McClelland. Panel moderated by Jeff Smith with time for audience questions and chat about current projects. 3pm-6pm.
— Rebecca Hyland /
Events Tue May 14 2013
This Saturday, May 18, the Librarian Pub Crawl meets at at the Atlantic Bar and Grill (5062 N. Lincoln Ave.) at 6:15pm; click here for complete list of stops on the tour. Since 2010, the Librarian Pub Crawl has gathered librarians and literature fans of all stripes for fun and the support of a worthy charity (this year's is Bernie's Book Bank). Costumes encouraged; think literary character or sexy librarian. Prizes awarded for best costume (or winning raffle ticket if costumes aren't your thing). Wristbands are only $10 ahead of time, $15 day of (drinks not included but raffle tickets and other goodies are). Online registration encouraged.
— Rebecca Hyland /
Events Tue May 14 2013
The success of last month's Salon Splendor has prompted Chicago's Curbside Splendor Publishing to reprise the event with another night of readings, music, and world-class tea, on Thursday, May 16, at 7:30pm. The show will take place at Madame Zuzu's 582 Roger Williams Ave. in Highland Park.
Curbside Splendor has been a partner in many reoccurring literary events such as the monthly Karaoke Idol at Beauty Bar and the seasonal Pop-up Book Fair held at the Empty Bottle.
According to Jacob Knabb, senior editor at Curbside Splendor and host of Salon Splendor, "a focused, monthly reading series has been lacking from our lives."
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— John Wawrzaszek /
Tonight! Bad Grammar Theaterreading series.
Tonight! Julia Alvarez at Columbia College's "The Big Read" Series.
Tonight! Eve Ensler reads from In the Body of the World at the Swedish American Museum.
Tonight! Ars Poetica, poetry set to music, at the Poetry Foundation.
Tonight! Stories & Queer traveling reading series at Quimby's Quimby's.
Saturday! Keith Koeneman discusses First Son: The Biography of Richard M. Daley at The Book Cellar.
Saturday! Sitting Between the Sea and the Buildings: A Symposium of Poets and Artists at the Poetry Foundation.
— Claire Glass /
Events Thu May 09 2013
Tomorrow night, May 10, Eve Ensler will be at the Swedish American Museum (5211 N. Clark St.). Best known for her international stage smash The Vagina Monologues, Ensler's latest, In the Body of the World, is a memoir about her lifelong feeling of disconnect from her body, her struggles with uterine cancer, and her work in the Congo. Poet Mary Oliver calls it "astonishing" and Isabel Allende says, "[Ensler's] heart and body are broken, her anger is like fire, and the passion of her writing rattles your soul. This is true literature and true activism." Event sponsored by Women and Children First bookstore. 7pm.
— Rebecca Hyland /
Author Tue May 07 2013
Richard Hell, the punk rock pioneer and author, read from his new autobiography Thursday night at the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square. The book, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp, begins with Hell's (born Richard Meyers) childhood in Kentucky, and later, relocates to New York to focus on his work as a poet, bass player, and singer with bands like the Neon Boys, Television, the Heartbreakers and the Voidoids.
The cozy bookstore was packed and the café's wine offerings were selling briskly. Hell's book seemed to be flying off the counter, too, at the end of the program, when the author signed books for a long line of fans. He also signed the cover of my copy of Please Kill Me: An Uncensored Oral History of Punk, right over his photo. And for the person ahead of me, he signed the jacket of a pristine vinyl copy of the Voidoids' 1977 album Blank Generation, which features a photo of Hell, shirtless, with the words "You make me _______" written across his chest.
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— Nancy Bishop /
Inspired by its current exhibition on Joan Mitchell, a 20th century abstract expressionist painter who collaborated with poets like Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery, The Poetry Foundation, in collaboration with Poetry magazine and theJoan Mitchell Foundation, present Sitting Between the Sea and the Buildings: A Symposium of Poets and Artists. The free event on Saturday, May 11 from 12pm-6pm at the Poetry Foundation, 61 West Superior Street, will include talks, readings, demonstrations and performances that investigate the intersections of art and poetry.
Taking its title from the first line of John Ashbery's "The Painter," the event will feature poets Bill Berkson, Douglas Kearney, and John Yau; visual artists Terry Adkins, Lesley Dill, and Mildred Howard; and April Sheridan and Stephen Woodall of the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago.
Be sure to stick around for the 5pm announcement of a commissioned performance piece to be created collaboratively between artist Adkins and poet Kearney with a demonstration to follow.
— Lara Levitan /
An FYI to all those with a library card, all Chicago Public Library locations will be closed this Thursday, May 9, due to staff training. Make sure you get any books due turned in before then. Locations will reopen Friday, May 10.
— John Wawrzaszek /
Events Mon May 06 2013
Gapers Block is proud to be the new sponsor of Tuesday Funk, "Chicago's eclectic monthly reading series, where good writing and good beer mix" at the Hopleaf.
The next reading is this Tuesday, May 7, and features Suzanne Clores, Mary Beth Hoerner, Robert McDonald, Dion Walton and former co-host Sara Ross Witt. Hosts William Shunn and Andrew Huff will also read.
The reading begins at 7:30pm in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St.; doors open at 7pm and no earlier. Arrive early for a table and grab a beer from Mark at the bar (where credit cards are now accepted!) Admission is always free, but you must be 21 or older. And come early or stay late after for some great Belgian-style food downstairs. Hope to see you there!
— Andrew Huff /
Tonight! Angela Davis lectures on the subject of "Feminism and Abolition: Theories and Practices for the 21st Century" Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park.
Tonight! Andrea Pitzer reads from The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov at the Book Cellar.
Saturday! Free Comic Book Day all across the land; check out your local offerings here.
Saturday! Loren Glass reads from Counterculture Colophon: Grove Press, the Evergreen Review, and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde at Seminary Co-Op.
Saturday! Dark of the Male, Light of the Female reading at Uncharted Books.
Saturday! Myopic Poetry series
at Myopic Books featuring Lauren Shapiro.
Sunday! Pete Jordan reads from In the City of Bikes: The Story of the Amsterdam Cyclist at Quimby's.
Sunday! Rick Perlstein (Nixonland) talks with Gary Willis (Why Priests?) at Seminary Co-Op.
— Claire Glass /
Events Tue Apr 30 2013
This Saturday, May 6, Loren Glass reads from Counterculture Colophon: Grove Press, the Evergreen Review, and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde at Seminary Co-Op (5751 S. Woodlawn). An alternative press founded in 1951, and still around today as Grove/Atlantic, Inc., Grove went to court several times on obscenity charges (for Lady Chatterley's Lover, The Tropic of Cancer, and Naked Lunch). Grove was also the subject of the 2007 documentary Obscene. Of Glass' tome, Stanford University English professor Mark McGurl says, "I had such a good time reading Loren Glass's study of the Grove Press, I barely noticed that he had packed a whole education in the American reception of the European avant-garde into its pages. Brimming with as many colorful and brilliant personalities as it is with good ideas and cogent analyses, this book fills in a major gap in our knowledge of postwar American culture, and will appeal to anyone who has ever felt the lure of dangerously sexy ideas." 3pm.
— Rebecca Hyland /
Events Tue Apr 30 2013
This Thursday, May 2, the Book Cellar (4736 N. Lincoln Ave.) welcomes Richard Hell reading from I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp. A stalwart of the '70s New York punk scene, Hell was one of the founding members of Television; Patti Smith wrote one of the first reviews of the group. Book Forum says "There are many shivery, illicit pleasures in this louche memoir... Hell is a virtuoso of taste, a critic with a sensibility so fine and unconventional it bordered on its own form of art...weird and singular and superbly self-aware." 7pm.
— Rebecca Hyland /
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