Gapers Block has ceased publication.
Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
TODAY
Wednesday, November 26
Slowdown
BY DAY
Saturday, September 11 2010
Lakeview East Festival of the Arts
The sixth annual Lakeview East Festival of the Arts brings together artwork by more than 150 artists for a juried exhibition and neighborhood festival on Broadway Avenue between Belmont and Roscoe this weekend. Enjoy art, music, food and shopping from 10am to 6pm Saturday and 10am to 5pm Sunday. Free, but donations accepted. More information here.
Renegade Craft Fair
Renegade Craft Fair returns to Division Street between Damen and Paulina in Wicker Park this weekend for your indie shopping pleasure. From 11am to 7pm, peruse handmade goods from more than 300 vendors, enjoy performances by bands and theatre troupes, check out workshops and more. Free.
Sex, Power & Labor Opens @ Co-Prosperity Sphere
Intentionally and ironically falling on September 11, this show is devised as an interdisciplinary conversation addressing systematic institutional oppressions of 'other'. In addressing the 'other' through the queering of pieces, the art works re-evaluate race, gender, class and systems of power that oppress. Commencing as a one night event on the 9th anniversary of September 11, the curators have sought to bring together works, pieces, actions to negotiate a new media-ridden contemporary art space. Notably loaded and intertwined, Sex, Power & Labor are chosen categorizations to implicate the works in an intricate visual landscape. The opening and closing for this show is tonight from 7 to midnight at Co-Prosperity Sphere (3219-21 South Morgan Street) with an after party at Maria's Packaged Goods & Community Bar.
Reading With Pictures Workshop @ Sulzer Regional Library
Got a budding Stan Lee in your family? Head out to the Sulzer Regional Library for a Reading With Pictures workshop. Comic writer Trevor Mueller, marketing director of Reading With Pictures and author of the webcomic series "The Temple of a Thousand Tears" will teach kids the basics of storytelling, how to write dialogue, and how to make their own comics. There will also be a reading from his latest all-ages story "Albert the Alien is New in School," published in the Reading with Pictures anthology (copies will be available for purchase). For children ages 6 and up. It's the same weekend as Lincoln Square's German American Fest, so public transportation is recommended (by this local, anyway). Sulzer Regional Public Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Ave., 11am-11:45am. Free. Call (312) 744-7616, extension 3 to register.
Bark 'n' Bath Charity Dog Wash
The Chicago Fire Department firehouse at 605 West Armitage hosts a charity benefit for the Friends of Chicago Animal Care and Control today from 9am-2pm. For $20, volunteers will scrub your doggy, and you can take your pick of a face trim, nail cut, or blow dry from an onsite professional groomer. The dog will hate it but you won't.
Michael Zerang, Jim Baker, Edward Wilkerson, Harrison Bankhead @ Heaven
Heaven Gallery (1556 N. Milwaukee, 2nd Floor) hosts a celestial quartet exploring jazz, freedom, and improvisation. Michael Zerang (percussion), Jim Baker (piano), Harrison Bankhead (cello, bass) and Edward Wilkerson (reeds) send you to the ionosphere. Don't worry, complimentary oxygen is provided. 10 p.m., donation suggested.
The Playground Improv Marathon @ The Playground Theater
At 6:00pm today, The Playground Theater, 3209 N. Halsted St. hosts The Playground Improv Marathon. This event is in benefit of child literacy and Illinois Coalition of Reach Out and Read and the Playground Theater features nine members of K.C. Redheart who will be testing their wits, endurance and sanity. Please click here for more information!
The Glitzy Gold Coast Tour
Take a walk with the Chicago History Museum and learn about public art, architecture, early Chicago history, and Chicago's high society. The tour runs from 10 am to 12 noon. Tickets are $15 or $10 for museum members. To purchase tickets, click here.
George Gittins @ Monument 2
Come out this evening at 6pm to the opening reception of George Gittins's exhibition entitled Feeling One Way or Another at Monument 2, 2007 N Point St! His work is based on the intuitive process of creating paintings, he refrains from theatricality while advocating spontaneity. For more information, visit the website or RSVP here!
Two Hour Comedy Hour Benefit Show
This week's Two-Hour Comedy Hour is a special benefit show for Samantha Snyder, who got hit by a car while she was riding her bicycle. The show's free, but any donation will go to her. Trey Mowder hosts Mike Lebovitz, Cameron Esposito, Ricky Gonzalez, Derek Lazarski and Mike Sheehan. This free show features a fresh mix of comedians each week. There's no cover for the 21+ show - though a $5 donation is accepted - and it runs from 7-9 pm at Gallery Cabaret, 2020 N. Oakley (near Western and Milwaukee, just off the Blue Line stop). Guests are encouraged to arrive early.
Design, Drama, and Discord @ Hungryman Gallery
Come out tonight at 6:00pm to Hungryman Gallery, 2135 N. Rockwell St. to experience Design, Drama, and Discord! Featured in this exhibition are Timothy Bergstrom's paintings of cartoon figures, vernacular images and texts that meld into an anomalous potentiality. To RSVP, click here!
Bacon Take Down @ Lincoln Hall
Enter to win; buy tickets to sample. Today's Bacon Take Down (1:30pm at Lincoln Hall at Fullerton and Halsted) pairs porky goodness with 20 eager chefs competing for $1500 in prizes (the event is also a benefit for anti-hunger charities). If you can't handle the heat, pay $15 to get in and sample their wares (our own Andrew Huff and Cinnamon Cooper will be making bacon jam!).
The Chicago Outfit vs. the Sioux Falls Roller Dollz @ Windy City Fieldhouse
Tonight the Chicago Outfit skate against visiting team the Sioux Falls Roller Dollz. The bout takes place at 8 p.m. at the Windy City Fieldhouse (2367 West Logan Blvd.), and tickets are $12 presale or $15 door. As always, the parking is free and the beer is cheap.
Meet Illinois Artisans @ Water Works Visitor Center
The newly remodeled Water Works Visitor Center, 163 E. Pearson, will host art-making demonstrations and offer artisan wares for sale from 1-5 pm. Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase one-of-a kind jewelry, fiber, and ceramics pieces during the monthly program, hosted by the Chicago Office of Tourism and the Illinois Artisans Program.
International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) play Schoenberg, Boulez, others @ MCA
The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), a group known for working in the Modern (capital M) wing of 20th/21st century classical music, initiates a 3-year ensemble-in-residence project with the Museum of Contemporary Art (220 E. Chicago) with a concert featuring works spanning a 104 year period. Starting with one one of the cornerstones of modern 'avant garde' classical music, they play Shoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 1 (1906), two pieces from this decade by Dai Fujikura ("ice" from 2010 and "returning" from 2006), Pierre Boulez's Memoriale (...explosante-fixe...originel) (1985, and yes, THAT Boulez), and, connecting with the Schoenberg piece, John Adams' own "answer composition," Son of Chamber Symphony (2007). Program starts at 7:30, tickets $28. Get tickets via the MCA event page.
Sónar Chicago
Esteemed Barcelona music festival Sónar makes its first appearance in Chicago starting today. Continuing through September 11, the event brings a host of experimental electronic luminaries to Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion and the Chicago Cultural Center, including Oval, Ben Frost and Martyn. Today's events occur entirely in the Chicago Cultural Center and feature two rooms of music and one room of film screenings. Sónar Chicago occurs in conjunction with the Empty Bottle and Wire magazine Adventures in Modern Music festival. All Sónar Chicago events downtown are free, while the Empty Bottle / Wire gigs start later in the evening and range in price from $10 to $30.
