Archive for the 'Store Events' Category

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Duncan Wilder Johnson and Dan Lockheed

Published on July 10, 2009 0 Comments
Aug ’09
8
7:00 pm

Cabildo Press, an Orono-based small press dedicated to publishing works by new and emerging writers and poets, celebrates their release of author Duncan Wilder Johnson’s “How I Fell In Love With Punk Rock. Johnson is the frontman for Boston-based band Destruct-a-thon, who recently advanced to the semi-finals of WBCN’s annual Rock N’ Roll Rumble. He has performed spoken word shows in the United States since 1999, reading with such luminaries as Jim Carroll, Eugene Mirman and Lydia Lunch. He has read in England, Scotland and Ireland.

Joining Johnson is Dan Lockheed. Through a tilted glass and a jilted sense of self actualization, he finds retrospect with his latest spoken word piece “Life in the Shit Show”. Fresh off five years in LA as a screenwriter Lockheed steps back into his Midwestern roots to make sense of his past plundering in the land of silicon dreams. After a myriad of independent films, commercials and sketch shows; including his self produced “Buck Stew” and “Coffee and Crackers”, Lockheed finally moved out west to…. take it on the chin. He feels much better now. Really, so much better… loads better actually. Lockheed currently has three film projects in play between LA and Detroit including “Getaway Girl$”, “Freakquency” and “Son of Rock” currently optioned by National Lampoon.

For more information, see Duncan Wilder Johnson: http://www.thrashachusetts.com/dwj/

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BARRY SCHECHTER READS FROM THE BLINDFOLD TEST

Published on July 10, 2009 1 Comment
Aug ’09
5
7:00 pm

A WILDY IMAGINATIVE COMEDY ABOUT A MAN WHOSE LIFE HAS BEEN RUINED BY A ROGUE FBI AGENT…AND WHAT UNCOVERING THAT PLOT MAY MEAN In the sixties Jeffrey Parker briefly attended an antiwar rally. He wasn’t all that interested, listened to a few speeches, and went home…and nothing was ever the same. In this wildly comic debut novel, Parker’s brief dalliance is the beginning of the end. He never lands a decent job. Girlfriends never stick around. He has terrible stretches of bad luck, and is the unwitting victim of just plain bizarre occurrences: once, the final page in every one of the books in his library is removed. Then Parker discovers that he’s the victim of a government plot—like the FBI’s real-life COINTELPRO, set up to harass and surveil sixties peace activists—and the obsession of a rogue FBI agent who just won’t give up. This outrageously imaginative debut is reminiscent of John Kennedy Toole’s explosive out of-nowhere farce, A Confederacy of Dunces. Part thriller, part national tragedy, and all hysterical comedy, it is devilishly entertaining even as it forces Parker, and readers, to uncover the truth not only about their country, but about themselves.

The Blindfold Test was inspired, according to author Barry Schechter, by his meetings with two people: The first was someone who claimed to have been a victim of the COINTELPRO program, “It sounded as if the harassment had amounted to a lot of very nasty practical jokes,” Schechter notes. His second inspiring encounter was “soon after that, with a woman who told me that one time, after she had cracked open a fresh egg, a perfect, white sphere about two thirds the size of a golf ball plopped out … and at that point I started thinking about how strange the life of somebody with a long-term practical joker controlling things might look. It would become very hard to distinguish between the conspiracy and the genuine oddness of everyday life.” And that, says Schechter, “is when I knew I had a novel.”

BARRY SCHECHTER is a lifelong resident of Chicago. He has written for the Paris Review, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Review. This is his first novel.

“Reading The Blindfold Test is a new and radical pleasure. Barry Schechter regards the dirty tricks with which life undoes his protagonist—the nightmare neighbors and prodigious happenings—with a kind of glee. We are reminded that Kafka was supposed to have held his sides laughing while he read friends his stories.” —Lore Segal, author of Shakespeare’s Kitchen “The Blindfold Test is a beautiful and terrifying pleasure, a metaphysically witty novel rich with melancholy joie de vivre.” —Matthew Sharpe, author of The Sleeping Father

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Comics Artists Alex Robinson, Jeremy Tinder and Josh Cotter

Published on June 30, 2009 0 Comments
Jul ’09
25
7:00 pm

Top Shelf Productions publishes contemporary graphic novels and comics by artists of singular vision. Dedicated to championing veteran creators as well as finding and developing emerging talent, the Top Shelf library is anchored by such masters of the craft as Alan Moore (From Hell, Lost Girls), Craig Thompson (Blankets), Jeffrey Brown (Clumsy), James Kochalka (American Elf, Johnny Boo), and many more. Top Shelf’s catalogue includes all-ages material and cutting-edge erotica, genre fiction and autobiography, and all that exists in-between, and has received dozens of awards. Quimby’s is proud to welcome Top Shelf artists Alex Robinson and Jeremy Tinder. Local alternative comics artist Josh Cotter will be joining the event, whose Skyscrapers of the Midwest is similar in feel, even though his publisher is Adhouse.

After graduating from art school, Alex Robinson began doing mini comics (small print run comics xeroxed and stapled by himself). He soon started working on the story that would become his first graphic novel, Box Office Poison. In 1996, Antarctic Press started publishing the serialized version of Box Office Poison. The series ran for twenty-one issues, and once the story was complete, Top Shelf Productions published the entire thing in one 608 page book. Shortly after the book was published, Alex won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition. As a graphic novel, Box Office Poison was nominated for several awards (a Harvey, an Eisner, an Ignatz and the Firecracker book award). 2005 got off to a great start when the French translation of Box Office Poison won the prestigious Prix du Premier Album award in Angouleme, France. Top Shelf published Alex’s second book Tricked in 2005. In 2006, Tricked won a Harvey and Ignatz Award. The Spanish publisher Astiberri released both of his graphic novels in handsome, one volume editions. Alex has expanded his storytelling to include fantasy, with the release of Lower Regions (Top Shelf) in 2007, and time travel/high school in Too Cool to Be Forgotten (Top Shelf) published in summer 2008.

Jeremy Tinder is an artist and cartoonist based in Chicago, IL. In 2007, he earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he now teaches classes in cartooning and self-publishing. Jeremy exhibits his artwork across the country both as a solo artist and as a member of the artist collective Paintallica. His first two books, Cry Yourself to Sleep and Black Ghost Apple Factory are published by Top Shelf Productions. New comics from Jeremy will soon appear in the fourth volume of Image Comic’s anthology series Popgun, Family Style’s Elfworld 2, and in the current volume of Black Warrior Review, published by the University of Alabama Press. Jeremy proudly contributes weekly to the jam comics of the Trubble Club.

Joshua W. Cotter was born and raised in the vast farmy nothingness of northwest Missouri, as reflected in his Eisner-nominated Skyscrapers of the Midwest (Adhouse), filling sketchbooks and painting paintings. He now resides in Chicago where he recently finished up work on his “intuitive narrative,” Driven by Lemons.

For more info: www.comicbookalex.com , www.jeremytinder.com , www.comicstripjoint.blogspot.com
www.topshelfcomix.com

Dave Reidy and Friends Host a Quaroke Reading

Published on June 24, 2009 0 Comments
Jul ’09
15
6:45 pm

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Dave Reidy’s collection of fiction, entitled Captive Audience (IgPublishing) features, among other stories, the award-winning story “The Regular.” And that particular piece is about arty nerdy introverts doing karaoke. In Chicago. In a neighborhood that sounds suspiciously like Wicker Park.

What better way to welcome this new collection of punchy literature with a night of Quimby’s Quaraoke? KJ (that’s karaoke disc jockey, folks) services will be provided by Shameless Karaoke, a husband-wife team composed of, well, arty nerdy introverts who met doing karaoke. In Chicago.

Also appearing: Claire Zulkey, Megan Stielstra and Mark Bazer

“Dave Reidy’s matchless reports from the heart of twenty-first century America, a landscape of technological obsession and performance anxiety (in many forms), are elegant, precise, cool, and funny. Here is a young writer from whom we can expect much in the future.” -David Leavitt, Author of The Indian Clerk

Dave Reidy’s fiction has appeared in Pindeldyboz and The MacGuffin. In 2007, Charles D’Ambrosio chose Reidy’s story “The Regular” as winner of the Emerging Writers Network Short Story Competition. Captive Audience, a collection of short stories about performers, is his first book.

For more info: http://www.davereidy.com

FREE EVENT

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Jason Buhrmester Reads Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock’s Greatest Robbery

Published on June 19, 2009 1 Comment
Jul ’09
17
7:00 pm

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In Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock’s Greatest Robbery, Inked magazine editor Jason Buhrmester tells the conceivably true tale of a group of small-time crooks who, against all odds, manage to pull off one of the most infamous fleeces in classic rock’s history.

Hours before the final show of their 1973 U.S. tour, the members of Led Zeppelin find all the cash missing from their safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel in New York City. The $203,000 robbery was never solved. Now, in Black Dogs: The Possibly True Story of Classic Rock’s Greatest Robbery, Inked magazine editor Jason Buhrmester tells the story. In this book of fiction, slacker Patrick returns home with the plan for one last crazy scam. He gathers his slacker buddies—Alex, Frenchy, and Keith—and convinces them to take a break from their crappy jobs, getting high, and jacking car stereos to plot an improbable robbery of Led Zeppelin. Nothing quite goes as planned, and the guys find themselves mixed up with Backwoods Billy, the psychotic, born-again leader of the Holy Ghosts Christian motorcycle gang and various other adventures, in this tale that just might shed light on one of the biggest capers in rock and roll history.

“Almost Famous meets Reservoir Dogs in Inked editor Buhrmester’s debut novel about a quartet of wannabe young criminals who probably should’ve stayed in school. Buhrmester demonstrates…a heartfelt affection for all that rocks. Casual music fans will enjoy the heck out of this hilarious and gritty tale; rock fanatics will adore it.” —Kirkus Reviews

Former editor at Playboy and current editor at Inked, Jason Buhrmester has been published in Spin, Wired, the Village Voice, and other publications. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he is working on his second novel and listening to Black Sabbath.

A helpful review of the book is here.
FREE EVENT

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