It’s been ages since I’ve done one of these little Chicago roundups, but there are so many head-splittingly good things going on this week that it seems like a dandy time to reinstate the tradition. • First up, this weekend is the opening of the brand-new Theater Oobleck show Spukt, written by the mercurial Dave […]
Entries Tagged as 'Chicago'
Chicago Notes: Spukt, Sweat Girls, Mr. Fluxus, Andy Bayiates, and More
November 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Chicago Notes: Spukt, Sweat Girls, Mr. Fluxus, Andy Bayiates, and More · Astrology, Blogs, Books, Chicago, Comedy, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Foreign Policy, Fringe, History, Journal, Lit, Neo-Futurists, News, Performance, Politics, Theater
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Coming in November: The History of Chicago Punk on Film
October 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Film, History, Illinois, Music, New Wave, Peoria, Video
My friend and colleague Chris Tillman and her husband Joe Losurdo, working under the name Regressive Films, have collaborated on a new documentary about the history of punk rock in Chicago. Titled You Weren’t There — A History Of Chicago Punk 1977-1984, the film will have its world premiere on Saturday, November 24 at the […]
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Nodilogue (and Blogscratching)
September 22nd, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Chicago, Culture, Fringe, Internet, Journal, Performance
I’m a little behind the times with this, but I wanted to offer some belated shoutings-out and linkback lurve to my fellow participants from The Nod this past Wednesday evening. Don Hall and Joe Janes did a great job of hosting the evening, making everyone feel welcome and creating the opportunity for the gaggle to […]
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Roundup: Swiftly Tilting Planet Edition
September 17th, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Swiftly Tilting Planet Edition · Activism, Books, Chicago, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Fantasy, Film, Foreign Policy, Hate Crimes, Health, History, HIV/AIDS, Infrastructure, Journalism, LGBT, Lit, Media, Nature, News, Peace, Politics, Public Transportation, Roundup, Science, Science Fiction, Tech
Eric Alterman has an outstanding column in The Nation on how the media’s mean girls (of all genders) develop the narratives they use to bring down the presidential candidates they take a dislike to. With examples of what they did to Gore in 2000, and what they’re doing to Obama and Edwards right now. Two […]
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Saturday 8/25: Grigsby Award Ceremony for David Kodeski and Edward Thomas-Herrera
August 24th, 2007 · 3 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Fringe, Neo-Futurists, News, Performance, The Partly Dave Show, Theater
If you’re here in Chicago and looking for something fun to do tomorrow evening, I’ll be participating in an award ceremony and “gentle roast” (in the words of Live Bait Theater) for those stalwarts of the Chicago solo performance scene — and my fellow Pansy Kings — David Kodeski and Edward Thomas-Herrera. The ceremony is […]
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The Money Power: Clinton, Edwards, and Obama at Yearly Kos
August 5th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Activism, Blogs, Chicago, Culture, Media, News, Politics, Video
From a story in the Washington Post on the Yearly Kos convention taking place in Chicago this weekend… I can’t believe Hillary actually said this out loud. Clinton came under attack for declining to join former senator John Edwards (N.C.), who is quite popular with bloggers, and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in pledging not to […]
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Yvonne Zipter: “A Canine Metaphysics”
August 1st, 2007 · 3 Comments · Books, Chicago, Culture, Lit, Nature, News, Pets, Poetry, Spirituality
As a sort of spiritual antidote to the horrible Michael Vicks dogfighting story, here’s a lovely poem by Chicago poet Yvonne Zipter (shared here with her permission). It’s from Yvonne’s most recent chapbook, Like Some Bookie God, which came out last year. A Canine Metaphysics In his meditative moments — nose to the air or […]
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Music: Catching Up to Yoko
July 24th, 2007 · 9 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Feminism, Human Rights, Journal, LGBT, Media, Music, New Wave, News, TV, Video
Something I’ve been meaning to post for a couple of weeks now … I’ve long thought that Monica Kendrick is the best music writer at the Reader and the spot-on writeup she turned in just before Yoko Ono’s appearance at the recent Pitchfork Music Festival only reinforces that notion: 9:00 Yoko Ono For decades her […]
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Roundup: Picketing Flamingo Edition
July 23rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Roundup: Picketing Flamingo Edition · Apple, Blogs, Chicago, Climate Change, Comics, Culture, Design, Essays, Foreign Policy, Health, HIV/AIDS, Illinois, LGBT, Music, Nature, New Wave, News, Politics, Roundup, Science, Tech, Travel
“Iraq hasn’t even begun”: Writing in the LA Times, Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford University, examines the long-term consequences of the debacle in Iraq, and concludes, “Looking back over a quarter of a century of chronicling current affairs, I cannot recall a more comprehensive and avoidable man-made disaster.” Digby on […]
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Music: Talking Heads, “Once in a Lifetime”
June 24th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Journal, Music, Neo-Futurists, New Wave, Performance, Theater, Video
Time to haul out a real classic. It’s hard to explain to someone who wasn’t around, and tuned in to the new music scene, just how electrifying this video was in the first few years of the 1980s, when you’d catch it on the scattershot music video shows that existed before MTV. I still think […]
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In Chicago: Rachel Claff Is Busting Out All Over
June 17th, 2007 · 2 Comments · Blogs, Books, Chicago, Culture, Film, Fringe, LGBT, Lit, Music, Neo-Futurists, New Wave, News, Nightclubs, Performance, Poetry, The Partly Dave Show, Theater
I haven’t done one of these Chicago Fringe scene reports in a while, so here’s what’s on my radar this week: The Neo-Futurists’ annual festival It Came From The Neo-Futurarium VI: Curse of The Neo-Futurarium, consisting of staged readings of various camp-ready old films, kicks off this Thursday, June 21 at 8pm. The first installment […]
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