Monthly Archive for October, 2005

GONE TOMORROW, the Hidden Life of Garbage with Heather Rodgers

Oct ’05
31
12:00 am

Heather Rodgers author of GONE TOMORROW, the Hidden Life of GarbageWednesday Nov. 9th 7PM
 
The United States is the world capital of garbage; with just 5% of the planet?s population America generates 30% of the its trash. The average American creates a staggering 4.5 pounds of rubbish daily, but garbage is a global problem. Consider that the Pacific Ocean is now six times more abundant with plastic waste than zooplankton.
 
Everyone makes garbage. It?s there all the time, in the corner of our kitchens, in the bins next to our desks. But trash is also always in the process of disappearing?getting quickly, almost imperceptibly whisked out of sight. But where does it all go? And what is the impact of garbage on the planet?
 
In GONE TOMORROW journalist Heather Rogers addresses these questions by guiding us through the grisly, oddly fascinating underworld of trash. Excavating the history of rubbish handling from the 1800s?an era of garbage-grazing urban hogs and dump-dwelling rag pickers?to the present, with its brutally violent mob-controlled cartels and high-tech ?mega-fills? operated by multi-billion-dollar garbage corporations, Rogers investigates the roots of today?s waste-addicted culture.
 
Over the past 30 years, garbage output in the US has doubled. GONE TOMORROW explains that, despite popular wisdom, this explosion of rubbish is not the sole responsibility of the consumer. In fact, shoppers often have little choice in the wastes they generate. Consider packaging: tossed cans, bottles, boxes and wrappers now take up more than a third of all landfill space. More prolific today than ever before, packaging is garbage waiting to happen.
 
Once buried or burned, trash is hardly benign. Landfills, even the most state-of-the-art, are environmental time bombs. They spew greenhouse gases, and leach hazardous chemicals and heavy metals into groundwater and soil. Waste incinerators are no less disastrous. They emit 70% of the world?s dioxin, and pollute the air with toxic particulate matter and a host of gases that cause acid rain.
 
GONE TOMORROW also explores the politics of recycling, which is widely embraced?more Americans recycle than vote?but has serious limitations, and, as Rogers points out, should only be seen as a first step toward more fundamental solutions.
 
Part expos?, part social commentary, GONE TOMORROW traces the connection between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our disposable lifestyle. Read it and you?ll never think of garbage the same way again.
 
Heather Rogers is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker. Her documentary film Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage (2002) screened in festivals around the globe. Her articles have appeared in Utne Reader, Z Magazine, the Brooklyn Rail, Bad Subjects, Punk Planet, Third Text, and Art and Design. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Stencil Workshop @ Quimby’s Bridgeport

Oct ’05
30
12:00 am

Quimby’s Bridgeport is at 3201 S. Morgan, which is south of W. 31st street and west of Halsted, between and S. Aberdeen and S. Lituanica Ave.
 
Sunday Oct 23rd 6PM
Stencil Workshop:
Free
We will have some cardboard and cutting utensils you just need to bring
images to work with and learn the basics of stencil making, Marty Garcia
from the Southside artist collective “House of Payne” will be your will be
leading the workshop. Check out www.casadepayne.org
 
This event is part of Select Media Festival, full line up and info can be found atwww.selectmediafestival.org

Randall Bailey @ Quimby’s Bridgeport

Oct ’05
29
12:00 am

Quimby’s Bridgeport is at 3201 S. Morgan, which is south of W. 31st street and west of Halsted, between and S. Aberdeen and S. Lituanica Ave.
 
Sunday Oct 30th 5PM
Free
Randall Bailey local artist behind “Slitte” & “The Christopher Worm”
presents an interactive presentation with a sort of artificial intelligence
– in that a sort of communication is established between the viewer and
what is being viewed. Using original drawings, sound and collage Randall will do something strange to your mind.
 
This event is part of Select Media Festival, full line up and info can be found atwww.selectmediafestival.org

Exquisite Corpse making with Grant Reynolds

Oct ’05
29
12:00 am

Exquisite Corpse making with local comics artist Grant Reynolds Wednesday, September 7th, 7PM
FREE
 
Grant Reynolds is twenty-six (26) and has lived in more apartments than years he\’s been alive. He\’s been drawings comics since at least fourth grade, mostly in the form of newspaper comic strips and short-run minis. His first professionally printed book Smaller Parts is totally available like, right now. As for street-cred, Grant has boatloads, and he owns almost two pairs of sturdy pants, though he has almost no money of which to speak.
 
For this event Grant will be hosting a night of exquisite corpse making. It\’ll go down something like this: a space will be cleared for folding chairs and a table. On the table the following will be placed: clipboards (near twenty), a stack of blank paper (folded into thirds), some Bic-type pens, and two baskets. The event will be contained to the back half of the store and will carry a very chill vibe of good, clean fun (although Grant is sure almost nobody will be able to resist the impulse to draw giant excruciating looking genitals on the corpses at least once during the event). The rules of exquisite corpse making will be briefly explained at the beginning of the event (and throughout as needed). They are these: take a sheet of folded paper from the Unfinished Corpse basket and do a drawing on the top third of the sheet (also write your name in the corner), then fold appropriately so that the drawing is all hidden from view and place the sheet back into the Unfinished Corpse basket. Everyone keeps doing this on different sheets of paper until all three panels are finished by three different people. Then the finished drawings are placed in the Completed Corpse basket, where they will be revealed at the end of the event. Everyone gets to take home their respectively named drawing to put on their refrigerators at home. Grant?s books will be signed and sold throughout the evening. Also, during the event the band The Ink Spots will be piped in through the overhead, and some sort of complementary warm cheap beverage in cans will be served.
 
Additional information on Grant and his comics can be accessed at www.grantreynolds.net

Adrian Tomine & Seth!

Oct ’05
28
12:00 am

Mon, Nov 7th, 7PM
Join Seth (Palooka-Ville, Clyde Fans, Wembelton Green) and
Adrian Tomine (Optic Nerve, Summer Blond, Sleepwalk)
as they sign books and comics at Quimby?s
 
While still in high school, Adrian Tomine started writing and drawing his mini-comic Optic Nerve. After some success Adrian began producing Optic Nerve as a regular comic book series for Drawn & Quarterly. D&Q also published Sleepwalk and Other Stories collecting the first four issues of Optic Nerve it remains a best-seller for the company Adrian?s work has graced numerous CD and album covers as well as magazines like The New Yorker, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Time.
 
Aside from the forthcoming issue of Optic Nerve, Adrian has recently edited The Push Man and Other Stories the debut volume in a groundbreaking new series that collects Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s short stories about Japanese urban life.
 
Seth was a childhood fan of “Peanuts” and Jack Kirby?s “Eternals,” Seth was also influenced by the work of R. Crumb, Edward Gorey, the Hernandez Bros., Herge, Yves Chaland, John Stanley, and the cool, wry wit of mid-century “New Yorker” cartoonists. Drawing from this disparate group of inspirations Seth has distilled one of the most distinctive and recognizable cartooning styles of the past decade and has his illustrations in The Washington Post, Details, Spin, The New York Times, and the New Yorker. He is the author of Palooka-Ville and its two collections Clyde Fans and It’s A Good Life. He the lead designer on the 27 vol. project The Complete Peanuts, Seth lives in Guelph, Ontario with five cats, a huge collection of vintage records, comic books.
 
With his new Graphic Novel Wimbledon Green, Seth creates a farcical world of the people whose passion lies in the need to own comic books and only in pristine, mint condition. A charming and amusing caper where comic-book collecting is a world of intrigue and high finance. Part riotous chase, part whimsical character sketch, Wimbledon Green looks at the need to collect and the need to reinvent oneself.