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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.
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Thursday, March 28

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Feature Wed May 21 2014

Pole Champs Come to Chicago

central pole championshipsBy Kara Charlton

If you love to watch beautiful acrobatic tricks performed by powerful and confident dancers, the Pole Sport Organization's Central Championships event at the Vittum Theatre May 24 and 25 is for you.

Pole dance has been gaining widespread popularity in the last few years as a great way to get fit. It tones all the body's muscle groups, and improves flexibility and endurance. The Pole Sport Organization (PSO), the US pole group that runs the championships, has been working to open this athletic art form to a wider audience since 2012. That year, the PSO held just two events; in 2013 they held five, and this year they will be hosting eight across the country. Co-founder Amy Guion is not only in charge of organizing championship events on the west coast, east coast and Midwest, but she has also been a dancer herself for seven years.

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Random Fri Mar 21 2014

Alley Golf Makes its Own Course

By Raf Miastkowski

One summer many years ago, I worked at a posh country-club located in the north suburbs of Chicago. It was a long, impeccably maintained course that met the needs of grazing law-firm partners, portfolio managers, and other cantankerous assboils. The well-off parents of young caddies generally used the country club as a day-care center. These skinny, spaghetti-legged youngsters got paid in hard cash, which they would take back to the caddy house and oftentimes use to bankroll card games. Twelve-year-olds would lose a day's earnings on a bad hand. Veteran caddies would collect up to $300 cash on a really good day of looping, which they seemed to save up for either a '90s muscle car or a brick of cocaine.

One morning, I arrived sluggishly to the club and my buddy Oli immediately launched into a story that had been going around. Apparently, Michael Jordan had pulled up in a lime-green Lamborghini Murcielago and tagged along with three accountant-types. He made it a point that everyone should throw down some cheddar, and they soon agreed to play for $50 a hole. Not an astronomical number by any means, but they were pretty much pressured into it by Mike. Turns out that one of the accountants was a pretty good golfer, and ended up besting His Airness by a few holes. Jordan promptly sped off before getting right, deeming his mere presence as sufficient payment.

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Tailgate / Comments (3)

Contest Mon Mar 04 2013

Chiditarod 2013

Gapers Chiidtarod FAV.jpg

Oh, Chicago, we suffer so much through the freezing winter but then March comes along and, although it's still hovering around 30 degrees with a winter storm warning coming along our way for this week, Chiditarod always somehow manages to prove to us all that The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place.


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Kirstie Shanley

Chicago Wed Jan 23 2013

Preview: Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers Competition

All alone this Valentine's Day weekend, or looking to do something different with your mate? Then head over to the Logan Square Auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 10pm, for CLLAW XV, and take in some pressed-flesh competition. Tickets are just $25, which gets you in to cheer on the brash beauties of the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers, and offer your future special someone a cocktail at the three-hour open bar ($10 without the drink package). Your heart will throb as you root on the likes of Lumberjack Jill as she looks to defend her title.

cllawposter.jpg

Not to mention, a portion of the CLLAW XV proceeds will benefit Girls Rock! Chicago, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering girls' creative expression, positive self-esteem and community awareness through rock music.

While you're there, impress your date and purchase a few CLLAWBUX to offer the referees some "inspiration" in deciding the outcome of your favorite arm wrestler. So whether you're a "Calamity Pain" fan, or want to root on "Bust Your Tooth" Bluth to go all the way, you'll be sure to feel the love from all of these ladies in what's sure to be a fun night of blood, sweat and beers.

Logan Square Auditorium is located at 2539 N. Kedzie Ave., 2nd floor.

Jim Crago / Comments (1)

Random Thu Jan 12 2012

Threadless Goes to College

threadless_bigten.jpgCrowdsourced t-shirt company Threadless launched a collection of college-themed shirts today, including two Big Ten schools. Alumni and fans of University of Illinois will be pleased by the big orange I, whose profile reveals the outline of the state in blue. Meanwhile, the University of Iowa Hawkeye is revealed to be made up of a squadron of birds of prey.

Other teams include Alabama, Auburn, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, University of Colorado, University of Georgia, LSU and University of Miami. The shirts are $20 apiece; 10 percent of sales go to the school.

Andrew Huff

Random Tue Jan 10 2012

The 7 Greatest Chicago Animated Sports GIFs of 2011

SBNation's Jon Bois pulled together his selections of the 50 greatest animated sports GIFs of 2011 last week. By statistical probability alone, Chicago teams were sure to be included, and they were -- though not always in the way you'd expect. So rather than force you to flip through the 11 pages of Bois' post, here are the Chicago highlights. I've preserved the original titles, but arranged them according to their Chicago-related awesomeness (Bois' original ranking is in parentheses, with a link to the original post page.) Some of these gifs are massive, so forgive the slow load times.

7. "blub" - Larry Bird (20.)

Larry Bird croak

Even famous people do weird things in the stands at Bulls games, apparently. Bois guessed that the sound Bird was making was sort of a croak. I think it looks like a ...actually, I don't know what it looks like. A stifled yawn? Considering the Pacers were in the lead, could Bird have been that bored?

Also, what's that guy in the pink shirt describing that came out of his mouth and grew as big as his head?

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Andrew Huff

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