Category: Store Events

  • Derf Reads My Friend Dahmer at Quimby’s 8/9

    “If you want to read a heavy story about a disturbing teenager, My Friend Dahmer will certainly quench your dark little desires. But this book is about a lot of other things that matter much, much more: the institutionalized weirdness of the suburban seventies, what it means to be friends with someone you don’t really like, a cogent explanation as to why terrible things happen, and a means for feeling sympathy toward those who don’t seem to deserve it.”
    — Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and The Visible Man

     

    “A solid job. Putrid serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s origins are explored in this fine book. Dig it—it’ll hang you out to dry.”
    — James Ellroy, author of My Dark Places and L.A. Confidential

    My Friend Dahmer (Abrams ComicArts; March 2012; Non-fiction; Graphic Novel; Paperback $17.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0217-4; Hardcover $24.95; ISBN: 978-1-4197-0216-7) is an original graphic novel that gives a unique perspective on the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, he was “Jeff,” a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways and car rides. Using a combination of his own memories and journals, conversations with old friends, and Dahmer’s interviews and transcripts, writer-artist Backderf unveils a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man—a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a misfit who never quite fit in with his classmates—struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche.

    My Friend Dahmer:

    • offers fascinating and disturbing answers to the question, “What was Jeffery Dahmer like as a kid?”
    • raises the question “Could these murders have been prevented?”
    • touches on the issues of bullying, teen alcoholism, and the role of parents and teachers in a troubled teen’s life.

     

    About the Author:

    Derf Backderf lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been nominated for two Eisner Awards and has received a host of honors, including the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. His weekly comic strip, The City, has appeared in more than 100 newspapers over the past 22 years.

    Thurs, Aug 9th, 7pm

    The author is available for interviews, and images are available upon request. Contact: Katrina Weidknecht, Executive Director, Publicity, kweidknecht@abramsbooks.com

  • Brion Poloncic and Eckhard Gerdes Read 8/3

    Brion Poloncic’s novel Xanthous Mermaid Mechanics pushes at all of our preconceptions and misconceptions not only about the self, but also about art.  Artists are too often and too easily cast as outsiders, and Outsider Art has become somewhat of a commodity with so-called “outsiders” who seem to market their “outsidedness” for monetary gain.  One wonders if in some cases the outsider stance isn’t merely a con.  But with Poloncic, who has been called the “Daniel Johnston” of literature, we see the real thing, and it is beautiful and scary, marvelous and delightful, yet also angry, insecure, self-doubting.  In other words, this is as human as it gets.  And sometimes it as humorous as it gets as when, in the depths of his artistic quest, Poloncic begins channeling William S. Burroughs, who dictates a manuscript to him, or when he realizes that all we really need to get through our lives successfully is a sequence of form letters.  Although it is deliciously funny, the book is, simply put, both charming and discombobulating, which is a note that rings absolutely true to the ear.  Brion Polonic is also an accomplished artist and musician.  He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his dog Tinca.

    “This book was a very interesting read. At times, the author goes on a road that I don’t follow, but above and beyond, the first person narrative is brilliant. Dealing with mental illness, drug abuse and some very bad behavior without making excuses or apologies, this book chronicles parts of the author’s psyche that most of us keep locked away. My personal favorite was ‘Schizophrenia 101’. It is a step by step guide for “new” schizophrenics. Though written with humor, one can’t help but wonder if the advice and detailed guide of symptoms and meanings WOULD be a useful tool for people experiencing their first psychotic episode.”   –Kyle Muntz, Author of VII (A Novel): The Life, Times, and Tragedy of Sir Edward William Locke the Third: Gentleman.

    Also joining the bill is Chicago author Eckhard Gerdes, who will read from his new books The Three Psychedelic Novellas of Eckhard Gerdes (Enigmatic Ink Books) and The Sylvia Plath Cookbook (Sugar Glider Press).

    For more info: www.experimentalfiction.com, www.eckhardgerdes.com

    Fri, Aug 3rd, 7pm

  • Off-Site Event: Like a Secondhand Sea: A story of the River and Lake told in 3 Parts

    Pocket Guide to Hell presents Like a Secondhand Sea, a 3-part historical reenactment that uses costumes, props, and audience participation to tell the story of how human contact has altered Lake Michigan and the Chicago River on Sunday, July 15th. Using costumes, props, music, and a cast of hundreds, it tells a three-part story: Marquette and Joliet’s expedition along the original coastline of the Lake in 1673; Captain George Wellington Streeter’s founding of a squatter community on the reclaimed land that bears his name in 1886; and the Sanitary District’s reversal of the Chicago River in 1892-1900. This free and interactive event uses stories of the past to increase awareness of how human contact is continuing to change the waterways today. It’s FREE. Come whenever you want. Stay as long as you like. THIS EVENT IS NOT AT QUIMBY’S.

    Part 1: Marquette & Joliet, starts at Chicago & Michigan at 11:00 AM
    Part 2: Streeterville, starts outside the River East Arts Center (435 E Illinois) at 12:00 PM
    Part 3: River Reversal Dedication, starts at Centennial Fountain at 2:00 PM

    In Part 1 join Marquette & Joliet as they retrace the original coastline of the lake, today’s Michigan Avenue, in voyageur canoes on wheels. Part 2 brings to life the District of Lake Michigan, aka Streeterville, the outlaw and outcast community of gambling dens, saloons, and brothels that Capt. George Wellington Streeter built on land reclaimed from the lake. The Sanitary and Shipping Canal is dedicated and the Chicago River is reversed in Part 3, which restages the official ceremony inaugurating this marvel of engineering, complete with nickel-plated shovels and a marching band. Each Part leads directly into the next and will be used to highlight contemporary challenges to the health and sustainability of Chicago’s waterways.

    With costumes by Claire Schaubel, Michelle Faust, & Nat Ward and props by Kenneth Morrison and Matt Malooly.

    With performances by: Jon Langford, Martin Billheimer, Sally Tims, Tim Tuten, Alison Cuddy, Justin Amolsch, Rob Cruz, L. Wyatt, Scott M. Priz, Water Reclamations District Commissioner Debra Shore, Rich Cahan, Nick Fraccaro, Nicki Yowell, Kenneth Morrison, Matt Malooly, Nat Ward, Michelle Faust, Brant Veilleux, Tim Newberg, The Chicago Poetry Bordello, Sarah Crawford, Rich Bales, Ingrid Haftel, Kate Keleman, Meghan McGrath, Burke Bindbeutel, David Durstewitz, Tim Samuelson, Kevin Robinson, Jerry Boyle, Claire Glass, Richard Bales, Gail Spreen, Steve Mosqueda, Joe Mason, Nicki Yowell, Liz Mason, Tim Dashnaw, Rozi Cohen, Neville, Kennedy Greenrod, Justin Amolsch’s Brass Inferno Productions,  The Chicago Poetry Bordello, circus acrobats and puppeteers under the direction of Scott M. Priz,  Chris Olsen will provide tintype photographs. Water Reclamation District Commissioner Debra Shore will make a special guest appearance alongside Tim Samuelson, Rich Cahan, Thom Cmar, Richard F. Bales, and Kevin Robinson and many, many more.

    With Art & Culture cops provided by: members of the Chicago Architectural Foundation, SOAR, Quimby’s, The Hideout, Public Media Institute, Chicago Publishes, The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, Read/Write Library, and the Newberry.

    Event partners include: Quimby’s – TimeOut Chicago – The Hideout – The Streeterville Organization of Active Residents (SOAR) – Read/Write Library – Haymarket Pub & Brewery – Chicago Publishes – The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame – Public Media Institute – Steampunk Chicago

    Poster by Edie Fake. Handbill by Lyra Hill.

    Pocket Guide to Hell is a series of free and interactive walking tours and historical reenactments dealing with Chicago’s past. Last spring’s full-scale 125th anniversary Haymarket Reenactment had over 1000 participants. Pocket Guide to Hell has been written about in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, TimeOut, and Vice among other places. See pocketguidetohell.com for information about past and upcoming events.

    Interested in representing Quimby’s at this event? Contact liz(at)quimbys(dot)com

  • Miguel Conner Reads 7/21

    Miguel Conner is host of Aeon Byte, the only topical and guest radio show on Gnosticism and timeless mysteries. He is author of the critically acclaimed Voices of Gnosticism (Bardic Press),as well as The Dark Instinct Series (Warner Books). His fantasy book The Executioner’s Daughter, will be released late in 2012 (Solstice Publishing). His articles, fiction, and reviews have appeared in such publication as Reality Sandwich, The Stygian Vortex, The Gnostic Journal, Heretic the Magazine, Houston Public News, Mindscape Magazine, The Cimmerian Journal, and many others.

    Aeon Byte is an initiation-by-conversation into the dark corners of myth, magic and meaning; a crash course in cult, culture and conspiracy; a virtuous virus invoking and informing history, holiness and heresy.  Each week your host Miguel Conner commandeers your connection to bring the most accepted and rejected scholars and provocateurs to your attention. Fun, compelling, and deeply weird, this is the blow-your-mind cocktail party conversation you always wanted to listen in on. For more info: thegodabovegod.com  and aeonbytegnosticradio.com

    For more info:
    stargazervampirenovel.com

    Sat, July 21st, 7pm

  • "Bad Zine, Everyone's Fault" Zine Tour Kick Off Reading 7/20

    A night of zine readings by four zinesters setting off on their East Coast tour.

    Readings by:

    Jen Twigg writes zines about playing music as a lady-identified punx, the dubious crossroads of football and feminism, and living in two places at once. She is writing a grad thesis about Star Trek and is an organizer of the Chicago Zine Fest.

    Heather C writes Dig Deep, a zine about public libraries, street harassment, & the rad ways she’s working to create a full life. She also runs Stranger Danger, a zine distro that specializes in feminist, queer, & trans zines.

    Xavi M. writes about identity and unripened fruit in a collection of poetry called Explorers Are We.

    Leslie Perrine writes and illustrates short fiction and mini-comics mostly about talking animals.  She lives in Chicago with her cat Bum and is an organizer for the Chicago Zine Fest.

    “This is going to be a night to remember!” Johnny Misfit, founder of Two Cookie Minimum reading series.

    Check out work:

    leslieperrine.blogspot.com

    jtwiggjtwigg.tumblr.com

    strangerdangerzines.com

    www.chicagozinefest.org

    Fri, July 20th, 7pm

  • Marc Arcuri, Dan Gleason, Gregory Jacobsen, Mike McPadden & Gabriel Wallace Read 7/28

    Back and sexier than ever! The great Marc Arcuri, stylist to the stylites, keyboardist for Santana, lover of Pantera and lead singer/drummer of the English Softhearts plans to orate nonsensically at the top of his lungs! Dan Gleason, that fat sad sac ejaculator of short stories, shall read b. s. from his latest greatest hits book, ‘Dear Sweetness,’ and also some of his more recent vapid creations! Gregory Jacobsen, greaser/guido/hairball, possessor of large hands, painter, and lead singer of the Lovely Little Girls will lick your body up and down with his sensual verbosity! Mike McPadden, author of, ‘If You Like Metallica…,’ ‘Heavy Metal Movies: The 666 Most Headbanging Films from Anvil to Zardoz,’ and head writer at Mr. Skin will provide a delightful pause from that life you are leading, void of meaning, with his angelic wordplay! And Gabriel Wallace, poet/genius/renegade, dead-ringer for Taylor Negron – a. k. a. the Pizza Guy from Fast Times – author of The Great Sheboygan Panty Raid of 18977, Quack With Me (folderol) and The Waukegan Pepsodent Conundrum will mesmerize your loins with his erotic mysticism!

    The work of Marc Arcuri has been featured at Buddy Gallery, the Co-Prosperity Sphere, New Capital, the Double Door, the Burlington and at Bitchpork. Dan’s work has been on display at the Hyde Park Art Center, Antena Gallery, the Block Museum of Art, Roots & Culture and at Salon Tress. Gregory Jacobsen shows his artwork at Chicago’s ZG Gallery and Berlin’s Bongout. He’s also had stuff in Hi-Fructose and New American Paintings. Mike McPadden’s stuffs can be found in Happyland, Hustler, and Mr. Skin. He has also served as screenwriter of a number of films. Gabriel Wallace’s work has been witnessed at the Hideout, Bottom Lounge, innumerable places in the great NYC and Columbia, Missouri, and also at the magical QUIMBY’S BOOKSTORE!

    Marc: http://lit.newcity.com/2008/08/21/reading-series-orphan-schlitz-iii/

    Greg: http://gregoryjacobsen.com/

    Mike: http://mcbeardo.com/

    Dan: https://www.quimbys.com/store/1696

    Gabe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2h6ZKQrjk4

    Saturday, July 28, 7pm

  • Debate, Enlightenment and Performance from The Last Man, by W.C. Turck 7/14

    WC Turck’s new book The Last Man, warns of a world ruled by a single powerful corporation and the one man who defied it. More than fiction, The Last Man is a prophetic story, a freedom manifesto, a celebration of diversity, and reminder that one man can make a difference. With all proceeds going to support Occupy Chicago, reading The Last Man is like standing in solidarity with those who demand a better tomorrow.

    In 2011, Turck’s first play, Occupy My Heart: A revolutionary Christmas Carol made national headlines and helped change the media narrative about the Occupy movement. The Last Man continues that effort and support with the only novel endorsed by Occupy Chicago. Turck has been featured on podcasts and radio shows such as The Thom Hartman show, Words with Wings, WCPT and The Chicago Tribune. His first book, Broken: one soldier’s unexpected journey home, was recommended by the national Association of mental health Institutes for its treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Turck is also the author of “Everything for Love,” a personal memoir of the Siege of Sarajevo, of the popular WordPress blog and more.

    For more info: http://occupychi.or

  • All The Writers I Know Presents: No Pleasure Is A Guilty Pleasure Queer Literary Showcase 6/22

    Quimby’s will be hosting the next installment of All The Writers I Know on June 22nd, titled, “No Pleasure Is A Guilty Pleasure.” Readers Patrick Gill, Rosy Phinick, Mar Curran, ellie june navidson, and Jamie Royce, among others, will be reading pieces about the pleasures people find and create in life.

    All The Writers I Know is the brainchild of Gill and Phinick, who realizing their social circles contained many talented writers who had no queer-focused space to read their work, started hosting the showcase in Gill’s livingroom. As it has moved outside his home to Southside Hub of Production in Hyde Park and now Quimby’s, Gill has sought to retain the intimacy among the readers and audience the showcase was first known for. With a growing fan base and audience, audiences will recognize recurring performers such as Gill, Phinick, and Curran, while hearing new talented writers such as navidson.

    Maintaining a queer-focused space in which pleasure could be openly celebrated and embraced is important for Gill and Phinick, as well as their writers, who feel that fostering queer voices in safe spaces allows for open dialogue about pleasure and its importance in their lives.

    “Queer people are often alienated from society and culture. It’s important to celebrate ourselves and the pleasure we derive from our experience to reject dominant narratives on the value of queer folks and, more importantly, to acknowledge the real beauty in our lives,” said navidson.

    Readers will also have zines of their work available for purchase.

    For more info:

    allthewritersiknow.tumblr.com

    stuffqueerpeopleneedtoknow.wordpress.com

    Fri, June 22nd, 7pm

  • Quimby’s Bookstore Welcomes Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch 6/15

    Gloriana is a long-form poem in graphic form, and within its pages, Kevin Huizenga exposes the mechanics that underpin everyday life. His protagonist, Glenn Ganges, has conversations about dish soap and library visits that are both faithful depictions of mundane interactions and existential dissections of the units that construct our lives.
    In Gloriana, Kevin Huizenga exposes the mechanics that underpin everyday life. His protagonist, Glenn Ganges, has conversations about dish soap and library visits that are both faithful depictions of mundane interactions and existential dissections of the units that construct our lives. Huizenga has an understated, quiet approach to story writing that allows his characters (and his readers) the self-awareness to recognize the humor and tragedy of every moment.

    Huizenga’s much-lauded work is finely detailed, and in its innovative use of form, it explores the boundaries of the comic medium, deconstructing and reconstructing panels to express temporality and lived experience more fully. Presented in this expanded edition, Gloriana employs familiar settings and thorough, sometimes scientific explanations to reach thoughtful conclusions.

    Dan Zettwoch’s Birdseye Bristoe celebrates the visual complexity of our world, and the impossibility of distilling this into a single digital signal. In Birdseye Bristoe, there are homes rigged entirely from bungee cords and 3-liter soda bottles, geodesic domes that have been turned into jungle gyms, an array of lawn-mowing routes, and guessing games inspired by the ambiguity of religious and heavy metal iconography.

    It’s a story line we know all too well: “A mysterious stranger comes to town.” Only the town is not really a town and the stranger is a gigantic cell-phone tower. The town is Birdseye Bristoe—a portmanteau created from an interstate sign that points to two real towns—and it has only one real permanent resident, an old-timer known only as Uncle. A confirmed bachelor and World War II veteran, he owns most of the real estate in town. His teenaged great-niece and -nephew visit occasionally, though the town doesn’t have much to offer apart from an adult superstore, a gas station, and a tackle shop.

    Uncle reluctantly agrees to lease his land to a conglomerate of telecommunications carriers, and sets the somewhat random condition that the tower be built with a huge crossbar set horizontally into the mast, making it also the world’s largest cross. Birdseye Bristoe begins with the destruction of the cell tower and works backward to unravel the story of its fall.

    For more info about both books, see drawnandquarterly.com

    Don’t miss Kevin Huizenga and Dan Zettwoch here at Quimby’s Bookstore Fri, June 15th, 7pm

    This event is in tandem with The Chicago Alternative Comics Expo [CAKE] June 16th and 17th, celebrates independent, underground, and alternative comics. There will be comics for sale, workshops, exhibitions, panel discussions and more. Over 200 guests will be in attendance including: Carrie McNinch, Michael Deforge, Brian Ralph, Gabrielle Bell, Anders Nilsen, Laura Park, Lisa Hanawalt, Julia Wertz, Nate Powell, Secret Acres, Sparkplug, Ken Dahl, Nicole J. Georges, Kevin Huizenga, Patrick Kyle, Blaise Larmee, and The Providence Comics Consortium and more! CAKE wil be at Columbia College’s Ludington Building, 1104 S Wabash. Quimby’s is proud to be a co-sponsor, and even prouder to be sponsoring the CAKE panel “Crude and Rude: The Importance of Vulgarity with Ivan Brunetti, Lisa Hanawalt, Hellen Jo, and Onsmith, Moderated by Josh Reinwald and Justin Rosenberg of the comic Crass Sophisticate.” For more info: cakechicago.com

  • Novelist and Musician Dylan Hicks Reads from Boarded Windows and Performs from Companion Album

    Dylan Hicks’s debut novel Boarded Windows (May 2012, Coffee House Press), follows a record store clerk in 90s Minneapolis as he searches for his origins and confronts his con-man father figure. A postmodern orphan story that explores the fallibility of memory and the weight of our social and cultural inheritance, Dylan Hicks’s debut novel captures the music and mood of the fading embers of America’s boomer counterculture.

    Join Dylan for a reading from the book as well as a musical performance of some of the songs from the soundtrack, Dylan Hicks Sings Bolling Greene.

    “As a work of American iconography, Boarded Windows is a continually hilarious, hopes-dashed account of an indelible American character: the con man.”

    —Greil Marcus

    “Boarded Windows is a shrewd and soulful novel.” —Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia

    Dylan Hicks is a songwriter, musician, and writer. His work has appeared in the Village Voice, New York Times, Star Tribune, City Pages, and Rain Taxi, and he has released three albums under his own name. A fourth, Sings Bolling Greene, is a companion album to Boarded Windows. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Nina Hale, and his son, Jackson.

    For more info, visit:

    www.dylanhicks.com

    www.coffeehousepress.org

    Thursday, May 24th, 7 pm