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Category: high wierdness
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Sam Kunkel Discusses Gustave Kahn’s The Solar Circus With Jeremy Kitchen at Quimby's on Feb 18th
Quimby’s welcomes translator Sam Kunkel, who will discuss the great forgotten Symbolist masterpiece The Solar Circus with Chicago author and critic Jeremy Kitchen on Saturday, Feb 18th at 3pm in the afternoon.
Gustave Kahn’s The Solar Circus is an 1898 French novel dripping in psychedelic images of exotic gemstones, merfolk, and phantasmagoric menageries. Inverting day for night and reality for a dazzling dream, this is the story of a solipsistic Bavarian count who falls in love with the star of a traveling circus—thereby forcing him out of self-imposed seclusion. As the lovers set out from the count’s castle, they encounter a world in transformation: peasants in rebellion, the bright lights of London’s Orpheum theater, and even an ether-swilling Jack the Ripper in an opium den. In the process, the count must come to grips with his own fragile notions of superiority and truth.
The Solar Circus is text unlike any other, one that vacillates effortlessly between wild, imagistic poetry and philosophical prose, prefiguring those seminal 20th century works of Modernist literature which would appear more than two decades later.
The Solar Circus is being published by Michigan City-based First to Knock. Its publication will mark not only the novel’s first appearance in English but also its first independent reissue since it was published in 1898. The novel has been newly translated by Sam Kunkel, a Paris-based, Chicago-born scholar of 19th century Symbolist literature.
Kunkel will discuss Kahn’s novel and its place in the lineage of circus books with Chicago’s very own Jeremy Kitchen—author, literary critic, and librarian. A Q&A will follow. Books will be for sale.
For more info:
info(at)firsttoknock(dot)com
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The Skullduggery of 1854!
Wonder what was at our address before it was Quimby’s? Who better to answer that question than one of our favorite history buffs, Quimby’s neighbor Gordon Meyer, the artist and tour guide behind Bizarre Bucktown, who says, “I was crawling thru the Trib archives and spent a few minutes looking into the history of your location. It was formerly a tire store, then an HVAC company. The latter of which might have gotten caught up in some backroom deals. Also, it appears the owner’s son was murdered at DePaul. (I didn’t go far enough to verify that these are the same folks, but it appears to be.)” How fitting that there was skullduggery related to 1854 W North Avenue before Quimby’s moved in to this very building.
Plus, also, those ads! Gum Dipped Cords! MAN SIZE COOLING!
Wonder what was at our address before it was Quimby’s? Who better to answer that question than one of our favorite history buffs, Quimby’s neighbor Gordon Meyer, the artist and tour guide behind Bizarre Bucktown, who says, “I was crawling thru the Trib archives and spent a few minutes looking into the history of your location. It was formerly a tire store, then an HVAC company. The latter of which might have gotten caught up in some backroom deals. Also, it appears the owner’s son was murdered at DePaul. (I didn’t go far enough to verify that these are the same folks, but it appears to be.)” How fitting that there was skullduggery related to 1854 W North Avenue before Quimby’s moved in to this very building.
Plus, also, those ads! Gum Dipped Cords! MAN SIZE COOLING!
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Tarot Readings by Sarah Luczko at Quimby’s May 12th
Quimby’s is proud to welcome back tarot readings by Sarah Luczko. Sarah is a poet, dancer, performance artist, bookstore owner, and Tarot reader. Her readings are down to earth, while still keeping one foot in the other world. Sarah works with querents to produce a reading through collaboration with the cards. She embraces the traveling tradition of party readings. She prefers to read in loud bars, outdoors, in a garden, at art openings, or anywhere away from more traditional settings. Follow Space Oddities bookstore & gallery on Instagram: @5paceoddities
Facebook invite for this event is here.
Sunday, May 12th, 1pm-6pm
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Adam Parfrey R.I.P.
With deep sadness we learned that landmark publisher Adam Parfrey of Feral House has passed on May 10th (as reported by the FH Facebook page). FH has always been the resource for underground, extreme and forbidden knowledge, and helped give voice to the voiceless. Without FH we would not be the store that we are. Deepest condolences to all in the Parfrey Feral House family.
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Quimby's 25th Anniversary Celebration With Founder Steven Svymbersky 9/15!
Don’t miss the Quimby’s Bookstore 25th Anniversary Event 9/15: Founder Steven Svymbersky Shares the Mayhem of Underground Press and the Beginnings of Quimby’s Bookstore!
Quimby’s Bookstore opened on September 15th, 1991, a tiny store at Damen and Evergreen, serving up weird, saucy and aberrant DIY zines, books and comics to a Wicker Park that was a very different place than it is now. Two and a half decades later, the store continues to offer subversive printed matter in an environment that fosters a creative artistic community that employees jokingly call, “a tourist destination for cool people” as well as events, all with an inclusive yet snarky DIY punk aesthetic.
Quimby’s is proud to welcome back founder Steven Svymbersky to the store on the occasion of the store’s 25th anniversary. Svymbersky will present a history of zines and underground comics as well as sharing memories of his years as a zine publisher and the beginnings of Quimby’s Bookstore.
Quimby’s has a variety of things planned to celebrate our silver jubilee, including: an exclusive Chris Ware print celebrating our anniversary, the release of an printed store history with stories and graphics, a commemorative t-shirt by artist Gabby Schulz, an artisanal Marz Community Brewing Quimby’s beer with a specially designed label by Chicago artist Laura Park and more surprises.
This event also kicks off Wicker Park & West Town Lit Fest’s second year, which celebrates the neighborhoods’ literary past and present. Events around Wicker Park and West Town include a story slam, book swap, workshops, author readings and signings and more.
For more info: info(at)quimbys(dot)com
Invite your friends with the Facebook invite!
Thurs, Sep 15th, 7pm Quimby’s Bookstore Chicago, IL quimbys.com
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Peter Sotos & Publisher Chip Smith Discuss Controversy in Publishing 3/23
Marking the roughly simultaneous re-release of Peter Sotos’ Tool and Mine, Sotos will appear at Quimby’s Bookstore with his publisher Nine-Banded Books founder, Chip Smith, to discuss the continuing role of independent publishers in curating controversial and overlooked literature.
“Peter Sotos is one of those rare writers who can say, ‘The words I write are me,’ or at least as close as anyone can come to communicating who they are in words.” –Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy against the Human Race
“For this latter-day homo sacer, wounds are not to be healed but poked and worried until they bleed. Sotos is literature’s outcast, carrying stigma like a rat carries plague.” –Mikita Brottman, author of Thirteen Girls
“…among the most important writing being done today.”
–Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled SwarmPeter Sotos is a Chicago-born writer whose work focuses on criminal psychology, sexual abjection, and the myriad aspects of pornography. (He was also an early member of the noise group Whitehouse.) Noted his unique literary style and his frank and insightful engagement with deeply disturbing subjects, Sotos’ writings are considered by many to stand as oblique social criticism. Sotos is the author of 11 published novels, including Index, Tick, Lordotics, Comfort and Critique, and Selfish, Little: The Annotated Lesley Ann Downey. He is also the editor of the Pure Filth, an annotated collection transcripts culled from the underground pornography of the late Jamie Gillis. Sotos’ writing has appeared in ANSWER Me!, Apocalypse Culture II, Funeral Party, and Ritual Sex.
And oh yeah, he often comes in to Quimby’s (always wearing a long coat) with records he bought around the corner at Reckless Records. One time it was a greatest hits from The Smiths, prompting us to fun of him.
For more info: ninebandedbooks.com and quimbys.com
Sat, March 23rd, 7pm – Free Event
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A Night of Ritual Filth: Adam Parfrey & Peter Sotos at Quimby's 10/17
Adam Parfrey Presents Ritual America & Peter Sotos Discusses Pure Filth
ADAM PARFREY presents the strange history of secret societies in America in a slide show.
“Adam Parfrey is one of the nation’s most provocative publishers.”—Seattle Weekly
Based in Port Townsend, Feral House and Process Media are two of the most adventurous, often surprising publishers in the U.S., with a bent for revealing the otherwise obscured, undisclosed or under-documented. Adam Parfrey, himself a writer but also the publisher of both these presses, comes to Quimby’s, to talk and show images from his own new book, Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society: A Visual Guide (Feral House) co-authored with Craig Heimbichner. Ritual America illuminates the context and preponderance of American males who belonged to fraternal orders and the place of things today in new ways.”Ritual America won a silver medal from the IPPY awards for American history.
For more info: feralhouse.com/ritual-america/
PETER SOTOS describes his collaborative effort with “Gonzo” porn maven Jamie Gillis.
Jamie Gillis appeared in over one hundred films, and as such was a primary performer in pornography’s “Golden Age.” Gillis is also known for inventing the “Gonzo” genre of pornography, played out in the film Boogie Nights by Burt Reynolds’ character.
Pure Filth appears as transcripts from the films Jamie produced during these early years of radical and highly personal pornography.
Extreme novelist Peter Sotos was a good friend of Jamie Gillis, and Sotos’ unusual perspective makes this volume possible.
Wednesday, October 17th, 7pm – Free Event
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"Wilson" Snack Receipt Proves There Is Order In The Universe
In an Unusual Cosmic Comics Alignment, “Wilson” sold Liz snacks for Daniel Clowes’ Wilson signing yesterday! Regard:
Weird, right? Well, being right-proper nerds, and it being a Wilson signing, we had Mr. Clowes sign our copy of this strange “Wilson” receipt:
…He also signed so many books we were all amazed he still had hands when it was over. We have a small supply of signed copies of the book still available, so pick one up quick if you missed yesterday’s event. And when you stop in you can gaze in awe at Thee Actual Snack Receipt displayed proudly and prominently on our “Wall of Holy Mysteries” in the back of the store. -
SUBMIT! Voices From the Grave #1
A new Chicago Outer Limits zine and audio zine is festering! Got something odd to share? Listen to this call from VOICES FROM THE GRAVE headquarters:
ATTENTION FELLOW SNAKES AND FOLLOWERS OF WHAT EVER
Have You Ever?
Been ridden by an old hag? Heard voices during your early morning cemetery jaunt? Had visions of long lost civilizations? Been approached by dark angels? Contracted a mysterious disease? Picked up a phantom hitchhiker? Did you find a skeleton in your closet? Did you see a fireball light up the night sky?
If you have experienced any baffling, thrilling, or extra/ordinary phenomena we would like to have you participate. All stories welcome.
LET IT OUT -WE NEED YOUR WORDS
talk@voicesfromthegrave.org
and/or
Voices From the Grave
PO Box 478811
Chicago, IL 60647
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Troy Taylor Presents The Murder & Mayhem in Chicago Series
From the North Side to the South, and from Downtown to the outer edge of the West Side, every Chicago neighborhood has at some point been home to violence, gang influence, and corruption. Local Author Troy Taylor airs all of Chicago’s dirty laundry in this five-part series, chronicling the infamous destruction of the Great Chicago Fire, the most shocking crimes of the 1800s and the rise of the mafia during Prohibition leading to Al Capone’s eventual domination in the Windy City’s underworld. Discover the notorious capers, cons and killings that terrorized a city, and unearth the brutes, bank robbers and burlesque dancers that history could never forget as the Murder & Mayhem in Chicago series exposes the Second City’s darkest sins and dirtiest secrets.
Troy Taylor is the author of more than sixty books on history, crime, mystery and the supernatural in America. He was born and raised in Illinois and currently resides in Chicago.
For more info, go to www.historypress.net
