Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Work In Progress Get-Together

Published on April 30, 2010 0 Comments
May ’10
26
7:00 pm

We launched our new monthly working get-togetherhere at Quimby’s, which is called Work In Progress. At the first one, we had some wonderful folks sharing what they’re working on and hangin’ out withus. Comics, zines, poetry and fiction were represented, and we enjoyed snacks. Won’t you join us again on Wednesday, May 26th at 7pm?

Event!

Work In Progress is from 7-8:30pm on the last Wednesday of the month.  You can bring your current project and work on it in a social atmosphere.  If you’re looking for critiques or advice, you can get it from fellow attendees.  If you just want somewhere outside of your dark basement apartment to work on that new zine, this is the event you want to go to.

If you’re looking to meet more folks in the city who are making fun stuff, stop by!  We’re hoping this monthly series will become a positive space for self-publishers and other creative types here in Chicago.

Spread the word: Work In Progress at Quimby’s, the last Wednesday of every month!

Chris Besinger Reads The Usual Beast with Group Icky Rats and ONO

Published on April 30, 2010 0 Comments
May ’10
31
1:00 pm

Don‘t miss this dual release show featuring Chris Besinger, reading from The Usual Beast collected writings (Laughing Mouse Press) performing with Group Icky Rats from their work Group Icky Rats LP (Coat-Tail Records) with ONO.

Chris Besinger is vocalist for Minneapolis’s STNNNG. In addition to bringing copies of his new book, The Usual Beast (Laughing Mouse Press), a collection of STNNNG lyrics and other writings, with cover art by Tom Stack, Besinger will be performing with Group Icky Rats, his all-improvised rock band that is releasing its LP this month.

Group Icky Rats –Chris Besinger (STNNNG) on vocals, Jon Skuldt (White) on guitar and keyboard, and Bryan Reynolds on drums—forms, through its headlong charge into constant error, and force of will, new and gorgeous spectacular failure. That’s how it’s supposed to go when you make up all your rock songs on the spot. Wherever this vector directs the music, its components are 1) one poet dedicated, as are the finer ranters in the short history of rock—think Brewer from Saccharine Trust—to both massaging and upending the form through the formal and the informal, the situational, the “poetic” (Besinger); 2) another poet dedicated to –think Metal Machine Music—the piercing and to music-as-irritant (Skuldt); 3) and a shit-hot drummer who will crush you –think being destroyed— with total unadulterated punishing awesomeness (Reynolds). The new Group Icky Rats LP, out in an edition of 100 on Coat-Tail Records (home to releases by The Flying Luttenbachers, Xerobot, Melt-Banana, et al) will be available at the show and contains guitar from Mark Shippy (US Maple, Miracle Condition).

This event will also feature longtime Chicago way-out unit ONO, recently resurrected in what is now their nearly 30-year career, whose work –verifiable through early 80s releases and numerous performances archived on the internet— keeps re-setting the bar for total mind-bending performative fuckery.
For more info:

Group Icky Rats www.myspace.com/groupickyrats
ONO www.travistravis.com
Laughing Mouse Press www.laughingmouse.net

Cyberpunk Apocalypse’s Elwin Cotman & Daniel McCloksey

Published on April 28, 2010 0 Comments
May ’10
5
7:00 pm

Don’t miss this night of DIY speculative fiction. Fantasy writer Elwin Cotman will read from his debut short story collection, The Jack Daniels Sessions EP. Science fiction Daniel McCloksey will read from his upcoming novel. Both readers are members of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse, a DIY writers’ cooperative in Pittsburgh, PA.

Elwin Cotman is a writer, performance artist and activist from Pittsburgh, PA. Known for his energetic storytelling, he has featured at the TerPoets open mic, Artomatic, Babble-On and A Space Inside Reading Series. He has performed with musicians Bryan Depuy of “Jubilee” and Joy Toujours. He wrote a full-length story/liner notes for an album by piano-punk band Baby Killer Estelle. “The Jack Daniels Sessions EP” is his first book.

At the age of 20, Daniel McCloskey graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in fiction writing. At the age of 21, he founded the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers’ Co-op, which combines a writing residency program and a community space in order to support burgeoning writers. He currently resides at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers’ Co-op where he works to maintain the project, polish his first novel, and does freelance work.

For more info, see www.cyberpunkapocalypse.com.

Feelin’ Sappy?

Published on April 27, 2010 0 Comments

issue2callFeel this space! Tree Sapp magazine is looking for work for their upcoming second issue. Check out their website and blog and submit your watery works to their “River Beds, Sweat and Sheets” -themed issue by May 10th.

Tree Sap is a publication devoted to digging up, excavating and documenting the convergence of art & nature. Through artist features, collaborative projects, & personal narratives, we hope to offer commentary on the wild origin of our myths, sexuality, & inner lives.

-eds. Anika Sabin & John Wagner

Work in Progress Tomorrow

Published on April 27, 2010 0 Comments

We’re really excited for tomorrow’s launch of our new monthly working get-together here at Quimby’s, which we’re calling Work In Progress.

Event!

Work In Progress is from 7-8:30pm on the last Wednesday of the month.  You can bring your current project and work on it in a social atmosphere.  If you’re lo

oking for critiques or advice, you can get it from fellow attendees.  If you just want somewhere outside of your dark basement apartment to work on that new zine, this is the event you want to go to.

If you’re looking to meet more folks in the city who are making fun stuff, stop by!  We’re hoping this monthly series will become a positive space for self-publishers and other creative types here in Chicago.

Spread the word, Work In Progress is this Wednesday, and the last Wednesday of every month!