Cindy Crabb Reads From The Encyclopedia of Doris 9/3

Published on July 29, 2011 0 Comments
Sep ’11
3
7:00 pm

Cindy Crabb has been writing the influential, internationally distributed, autobiographical-feminist zine Doris since the early ‘90’s. Her new book, The Encyclopedia of Doris, brings together the last 10 years of zines and a ton of new writing as well. In it, she explores subjects like consent, feminism, abortion, death, self-image, creativity, shyness, queer identity, addiction, punk and anarchism. Crabb is the editor of the zines Support and Learning Good Consent. She lives in South-East Ohio with her miniature horses, plays in the punk band Snarlas, and is a sexual abuse survivor advocate.

“…zines are a space where third wave feminist theory is emerging, and many scholars don’t recognize this because they don’t read zines.  They should read Doris.”     –Alison Piepmeier, Author of Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism

 

Cindy Crabb’s work has been featured in such places as: The Utne Reader, Maximum Rock and Roll, and Cometbus. Her work has also been in such anthologies as We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists; Experiencing Abortion: A Weaving of Women’s Word; and A Girls Guide to Taking Over the World: Writing From the Girl Zine Revolution. Her diaries and papers are housed at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe. She has spoken at colleges, libraries and community centers across the country.

For more info: dorisdorisdoris.com/

Sat, Sep 3rd, 7pm

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Christopher Boucher reads from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive with Adam Levin (The Instructions) 8/24

Published on July 27, 2011 0 Comments
Aug ’11
24
7:00 pm

By the time Christopher Boucher reaches Chicago he will have driven nearly 3,000 miles across America in his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, reading from How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, playing the novel’s theme-song on his banjo, and reading to people, roadsigns, potholes, old barns, paramedics, flowers and railroad tracks. “I see this tour as a natural extension of the book,” he says. “The novel was written in a whimsical, playful style, but it was inspired by…my father, and the sense of wonder that he instilled in me.  That sense of wonder propelled every sentence in the book, and I want it to fuel the tour as well.”

In How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive Christopher Boucher has created a zany literary universe, a place where metaphors shift beneath your feet, familiar words assume new meanings, objects talk, trees attack, and time actually is money. Modeled on the cult classic 1969 hippie handbook of the same name, How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive is an astonishing tour-de-force that calls to mind the off-kilter comedy and inspired fabulism of Richard Brautigan, Kurt Vonnegut, and George Saunders. The prose summersaults, but the book also tackles some of life’s biggest questions: How do you cope with losing a parent? What’s the secret to raising a child? How do you keep love alive? How do you get your car to start?

“Writing to save your life—and your 1971 Volkswagen—is at the heart of this wildly imaginative debut… Readers are in for a fresh, memorable ride with this inventive ‘collage of loss'”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A new, exuberant novel-world. Goofiness and grief are in perfect harmony in this impressive, moving debut.”—Sam Lipsyte

Also joining the bill is Chicago author Adam Levin, author of The Instructions (McSweeney’s).

More info: mhpbooks.com vwalive.com theboucher.com mcsweeneys.net

Wed, August 24th, 7pm

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Weekly Top 10

Published on July 26, 2011 0 Comments

1. Lucky Peach #1 Sum 11 $10.00 – McSweeney’s food periodical. Issue #1.

2. Hi Fructose #20 $6.95

3. 8-Track Mind #101 Zines vs Blogs ed. by F.R. Russ Forster $3.00 – WELCOME BACK 8-TRACK MIND!!!! Holy Moly! After a 10-year hiatus 8-Track Mind heeds the call of the Revenge of Print and pulls a fresh new issue out of the oven! Man, this was the zine that I remember reading way-back-when that REALLY made me think, “Woah, you really can make a great zine about ANYTHING.” Truly. This issue goes light on the 8-trackology but stays true to its analog-obsessed roots with a well-rounded symposium all about “Zines Versus Blogs”. -EF — Contributors: Chris Barrows, Peter Bergman, Joe Carducci, Kim Cooper, Brendan DeVallance, Tony DuShane, Sam Green, Lance Laurie, Alison Levy, Tom Lynch, Danny Plotnick, Dan Sutherland, V Vale and Lucien Williams.

4. Monocle vol 5 #45 Jul Aug 11 $10.00

5. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco) $16.00

6. Fine Fine Music by Cassie J. Sneider (Raw Art) $15.00 – “FINE FINE MUSIC is a collection of stories about the other side of rock and roll and coming of age in the land that time forgot. Lake Ronkonkoma is stuck in 1981, an alcoholic blackout of unnatually tan people waxing their Camaros to Foreigner on cassette and knowing the words to every Billy Joel song whether you want to or not. From an internship making Seamonkey costumes, a childhood fear of My Buddy dolls, and a heartbreaking crush on Aerosmith, funny lady Cassie J. Sneider delivers her tales of growing up in a land of fist-pumping Snookies with the antagonistic wit of a record store clerk.”

7. The First Line vol 13 #2 $3.00

8. Dazed & Confused #99 Jul 11 $9.99

9. East Village Inky #47 by Ayun Halliday $3.00 – Ayun gives us a Mermaid Parade 101 and plenty of scrapper parent scene reportage. Topped with tales of a sourdough starter (you know how New Yorkers like to brag about how cultured they are). -EF

10. Handbook vol 5 #3 2011 ed. by Darren Ankenbauer $6.00 – Lots of intriguing mesh garments in this issue, a back-by-popular demand culling of the creme-de-la-creme of online ads, East Village Boys interview, queer politics, long hard reader dick, and let’s not forget the meat of the issue: Derek, Joey and coverman Caedon.

Brain Frame Comics Reading at Happy Dog 7/28

Published on July 24, 2011 0 Comments

This Thursday be sure to check out the Brain Frame Performative Comics Reading at Happy Dog Gallery, right around the corner from us at 1542 N Milwaukee, starting at 8pm. It’s a great lineup of local linework from Lyra Hill, Ian McDuffie and Sara Drake and special outta-sight outta-town guest Otto Splotch, and who knows what from Nick Jackson. Maybe you should give a call and see what he’s thinking about?

Ian McDuffie – www.violetmice.com
Sara Drake – sara-drake.blogspot.com
Lyra Hill – www.lyrahill.com
otto Splotch – www.squishthefish.net
NIck Jackson – 757-284-9293

New Stuff This Week

Published on July 23, 2011 0 Comments

Tonight Cassie Sneider reads from Fine Fine Music with the always entertaining Dave Roche and Danny “Ratso” Rathbun at 7pm.

And now, new stuff this week…

Look at this cool thing we got this week: The Wolf by Tom Neely. It’s a love story in a painted novel form with horror, lore and werewolves. $25.00

ZINES!
Grabbing Good Health By the Balls by var. $7.00
BETCH Rag #1 and #2 $3.00 each
various issues of Dont Tread On Me by Ratso $1.00 each
IAM1 by var. $3.00
Beast a la Nude Coloring Book Edition $1.25
Severely Quirky Infomative Prolonged Informational Instructions by var. $6.00
Damaged Stories of Chicago No Remorse by var. $2.00
Fresh Sloth Jerkin #1 $2.00
You Should Do These Things When It’s Hot So We Can Make Money $2.00
Welcome to the Innovative Future $.01
Quitter by Rachel Tusler $1.50
Art of Ash HG #1 by ASH HG $10.00
Many Many Make One Bit By Bit #1 by Jim Swill (Now Is the Time Publications)  $4.99
Lair Molt Selected Works 2008 2011 by Brian Uhl (Now Is the Time Publications) $10.00

COMICS & (MINI) COMIX!
Issues of Future Funk #0 Exploring the Best of the Black Age of Comics and Beyond $3.00-$5.00
Lets Go Green in Da City by Turtel Onli $3.00
Alphabeta Puke: An Alphabetical Treasury for the Hour of Need by var. $1.00
Red Rogue Classics by Chad Woody $1.00
Bad Seed #1 by Marcus Howell and Chad Woody $1.00
Red Rogue Super Special #1 Pick a Path Adventure by var. $2.00
Farm Break #1 $1.00
Drama Trauma the Problem with Teen Relationships by var. $2.00
Rocketbot Demo by Ian Endsley $5.00 – Comes with a CD.
Small Advices 2010 by Sara Drake $5.00

GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPER BACKS!
Alan Moore Story Teller by Gary Spencer Millidge (Universe) $45.00
Will and Joe books (Fantagraphics) $29.99- $39.99
Gil Jordan Private Detective: Murder by High Tide by M. Tillieux (Fantagraphics) $18.99
Sibyl Anne vs Ratticus by R. Macherot (Fantagraphics) $16.99
World of Smurfs: A Celebration of Tiny Blue Proportions by Matt Murray (Abrams) $24.95
Two different authorized adaptions of Ray Bradbury books: Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Martian Chronicles (Hill & Wang) $15.95 – $24.95
Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes Miraculous Mutants and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human by Grant Morrison (Spiegel) $28.00 – OK, strictly speaking, this is not a graphic novel. But it is by Grant Morrison and is very autobiographical.
Origins of Team Blanga Heroes of the Black Age by Turtel Onli $15.00 – Includes Blanga Beatz CD Sound Track from Hard Headz.
Maffilu Chapter 1 Maffilu in the Castle of the Bees by Dafne Nesti $12.99
Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman a Celebration by Craig Yoe and Bill Watterson (Abrams) $29.95
Seeds by Ross Mackintosh (ComX) $10.99
Homeland Directive by Robert Venditti and Mike Huddleston (Top Shelf) $14.95

ART & DESIGN & PHOTO BOOKS!
Behind Every Curtain by Marcel Dzama (Zwirner) $22.00
Instead of Eros Avenged by Mark Gonzales (Nieves) $38.00
I Guess I Shouldn’t be Telling You by Stefan Marx (JRP) $39.95
Alice Cooper Suzi Simpson by Brian Kennon $18.00
Remembering 911 by Martha Cooper (MBP) $10.95 – Photographs and words from this hip hop and street art photographer.
How To Be the Best Bubble Writer In the World Ever ed. by Linda Scott (Laurence King) $14.95 – When we think of bubble writing we think of middle school and note passing. Well, you’re wrong. Street artists use it too.

CHILDRENS BOOKS!
Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh, Young Readers Edition by Hérge (LB) $8.99

MUCKRACKING, MEMOIRS, MAYHEM, MISCREANTS & MISCELLENOUSNESSESESNESS!
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade by Justin Spring (FSG) $18.00
Retromania: Pop Cultures Addiction to Its Own Past by Simon Reynolds (Faber) $18.00
Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want To Fight For by Andrew Laties (Seven Stories) $16.95 – New edition with a foreword by Edward Morrow and an afterword Bill Ayers.
The Ultimate, Illustrated Beats Chronology  by Robert Niemi (Soft Skull) $15.95 – Did you know that less than two weeks after Jack Kerouac reported to the Newport, RI U.S. Naval Training Station (the same month that the German 6th Army was surrendering at Stalingrad), he was discharged, diagnosed with a “Constitutional Psychopathic State, Schizoid Personality”? That just a few months later, William Burroughs moved from Chicago to New York, where he took a small apartment at 69 Bedford Street and began a heroin addiction that was to last until 1956? That meanwhile, Gregory Corso, thirteen and homeless, was being arrested for petty larceny, while Hubert Selby, Jr., fifteen, joined the Merchant Marines? And that the very same year, Allen Ginsberg, a new graduate from Eastside High School in Patterson, New Jersey, began his first semester at Columbia University, where he first made the acquaintance of Herbert Gold and Jack Kerouac? Packed with month-by-month and week-by-week anecdotes, The Ultimate, Illustrated Beats Chronology is a meticulous timeline detailing the life events and literary accomplishments of the writers who became known as the Beat Generation. Covering an entire century and then some, this beautifully illustrated volume is certain to be an invaluable resource for anyone curious about the Beat Generation.

FICTION!
Lights Out in Wonderland by DBC Pierre (Norton) $25.95
Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham by Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas (Dark Horse) $14.95 – A hilarious, shocking, terrifying thrill-ride across the American landscape, The Damned Highway combines two great flavors of weird: the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and the uncanny terrors of H.P. Lovecraft! Horror legend Brian Keene and cult storytelling master Nick Matamas dredge up a tale of drug-fueled eldritch madness from the blackest depths of the American Nightmare. On a freaked-out bus journey to Arkham, Massachusetts and the 1972 Presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member – Richard M. Nixon!
Happily Ever After: Fairytales Retold ed. by John Klima (Night Shade) $16.99 – Over thirty stories by, amongst others, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, Charles de Lint,  Kelly Link, Garth Nix and Gregory Maguire.

POETRY & CHAP BOOKS!
Twinning by Meg Prichard $4.00
RSVP by var. $4.00
Facts of Light by Laura Goldstein $4.00
Some Were Awake by Connor Stratman  $4.00

POLITICS & REVOLUTION BOOKS!
Revolution at the Gates: Selected Writings of Lenin From 1917 Writings ed. by Zizek (Verso) $24.95

MAGAZINES!
Bust Aug Sep 11 $4.99
Tape Op #84 Jul Aug 11 $4.95
Razorcake #63 $4.00
Wallpaper Aug 11 $10.00
Cine Qua Non #4 $10.00
CNTRMTR #1 the Photo Issue $25.00
Make vol 27 $14.99 – The DIY hacking magazine, not the Chicago-based lit journal.
Colors #81 Sum 11 $8.95
Z Magazine Jul Aug 11 $6.95
Harpers Magazine Aug 11 $6.99

SEX & SEXY!
Obsessed Erotic Romance for Women ed. by Rachel Kramer Bussel $14.95
Handbook vol 5 #3 2011 $6.00
Heat Wave hot hot hot Erotica by Alison Tyler (Cleis) $15.95
Hot Daddies – Gay Erotic Fiction ed. by Richard Labonte (Cleis) $14.95
Days of the Cougar: Outrageous Visual Diary of Sexual Adventurer Liz Earls ed. by Dian Hanson (Taschen) $39.99 – This kitty has claws. Through the cougar’s eyes: the road to sexual liberation. ‘My life had become a playground, and it was exactly what I wanted,’ writes photographer Liz Earls in the introduction to this groundbreaking book detailing her transformation from middle-aged, overweight Human Resources director to sexual adventurer, self-portraitist, and unabashed cougar.
Whip Smart by Melissa Febos (TD) $14.955 – Febos’s candid, hard-slogging debut, now in soft cover, about her four years working as a dominatrix at a midtown Manhattan dungeon cuts a sharp line between prurience and feminist manifesto.
Ultimate Guide to Orgasm for Women: How to Become Orgasmic For a Lifetime by Mikaya Heart (Cleis) $17.95