Category: Store Events

  • James Kennedy and Jonathan Messinger Read

    James Kennedy is the author of THE ORDER OF ODD-FISH, a fantastical YA comedy that was one of the Smithsonian’s Notable Books for Children 2008. Booklist praised ODD-FISH as “hilarious . . . readers with a finely tuned sense of the absurd are going to adore the Technicolor ride” and Time Out Chicago described it as “a work of mischievous imagination and outrageous invention.” He also plays bass in the Chicago art-punk band Brilliant Pebbles, which has been described variously as “melodramatic video game music,” “moon-man opera,” and “gypsy sex metal.” He lives in Humboldt Park in Chicago.

    Jonathan Messinger is the author of the short story collection, HIDING OUT, which was named one of the best books of 2007 by the Omaha World- Herald. He’s also the books editor of Time Out Chicago and founder of  The Dollar Store Show. He co-publishes Featherproof Books, a small press publishing novels and downloadable mini-books, and is currently
    at work on HIDING OUT 2: HIDING IN and HIDING OUT 3: DON’T STOP HIDING.

    For more info:
    www.jameskennedy.com

  • Just Added Event! Eames Demetrios Presents Kcymaerxthaere

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    Explore Kcymaerxthaere, the first global work of three-dimensional fiction, a collection of stories from Geographer-at-large Eames Demetrios. Eames travels the linear world installing bronze markers and entire historical sites that honor events from a parallel world in our linear world. Join us as Eames takes us into his alternate universe, Kcymaerxthaere! And yes, that spelling is correct!

    Steven Haulenbeek, who may or may not be in some way related to Eames Demetrios, is here this weekend for, among other things, NeoCon, Chicago’s largest design fair.

    For more info:

    www.eamesdemetrios.com

    www.kcymaara.com

    www.thepromiseofthismoment.com

    www.themightybearcats.com

    www.objectdesignleague.org

  • James Hannaham Reads From God Says No

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    In God Says No (McSweeneys) by James Hannaham, Gary Gray marries his first girlfriend, a fellow student from Central Florida Christian College who loves Disney World as much as he does. They are nineteen, God-fearing, and eager to start a family, but a week before their wedding Gary goes into a rest-stop bathroom and lets something happen. God Says No is his testimony—the story of a young black Christian struggling with desire and belief, with his love for his wife and his appetite for other men, told in a singular, emotional voice. Driven by desperation and religious visions, the path that Gary Gray takes—from revival meetings to out life in Atlanta to a pray-away-the-gay ministry in Memphis, Tennessee—gives a riveting picture of how a life like his can be lived, and how it can’t.

    James Hannaham has written for the Village Voice, Spin, New York Magazine and once, circa 1997, a tiny sidebar in the front section of the New York Times Magazine. His fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Nerve.com, Open City, and several anthologies.

    For more information about James Hannaham, see www.jameshannaham.com.

  • Megan Milks and Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf Read

    Megan Milks, a true gem in the Chicago literary scene, marks a new kind of adventure with her chapbook, “Kill Marguerite.”  The story runs with its variations on a theme and bends them with a retro twist: life in an old school video game. The result is a fresh, entertaining story with a heroine the reader lives and dies with, again and again, while continually forgetting that she is nothing but a pixelated image on a screen, whose volition is tied to the trivial push of an A or B button.

    Semi-professional mascot and full-time whiz kid Tobias Amadon Bengelsdorf is currently getting his MFA at the School of the Art Institute, but more importantly he writes short little things that have been assembled in “An Implausibility of Gnus.” The book is the product of Bengelsdorf’s compulsive pick-pocketing from the coats of the American psyche. Over 30 stories pack into the collection, each revealing sparkling tidbits of the ordinary or ordinary disclosures of the fantastical.

    An Implausibility of Gnus will be available in late June from Another New Calligraphy. “Kill Marguerite” is out now. Another New Calligraphy is a new non-profit project that supports Chicago writers and musicians.

    For more info about this event, see www.anothernewcalligraphy.com
    For more information about events at Quimby’s, see http://quimbys.com/blog/store-events

    This event, as all events at Quimby’s, is a FREE EVENT.

  • Bob Odenkirk Signs Here!

    BOB ODENKIRK COMES TO QUIMBY’S TO SIGN COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS© BOOK-ON-TAPE CD
    (With Possible Special Funny Guest!)

    With the belief that “true creativity comes from simple formulas and the memorization of data,” COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS© BOOKON-TAPE CD! is nothing short of an indispensable audio guide on how to be funny. Prof. Eric Hoffman & Dr. Gary Rudoren first reduced comedy to an easy-to-follow manual in the McSweeney’s humor bible COMEDY BY THE NUMBERS©, and now, for the first time ever, their work has been lovingly adapted to the medium of sound with the help of the brightest stars in the comedy galaxy. Would you like to make your co-workers laugh but have zero sense of humor? No problem! Take a tour of comedy history as you discover the power of such tried-and-true humor staples such as; “#-14-Catch Phrases,” “#16-Clowns,” “#86-Novelty Items,” “#24-Cursing,” “63-Jews & Their Idiosyncracies,” “#95-Pathos,” “#144-The Double Take,” “#82-Movie Spoofs,” “#101-Pie In The Face” and much, much more!

    Guest readers featured on the CD include: Sarah Silverman, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Andy Kindler, Paul F. Tompkins, Matt Walsh, McSweeney’s founder Dave Eggers and many more!

    The question isn’t, “Can I live without this book-on-tape CD?”
    The question is, “How have I lived this long without it?”
    Executive producer by Bob Odenkirk (of “Mr. Show fame) will be on hand to sign copies of the CD with a special guest!

    For more info on the CD: www.astrecords.com

    This event is free.

  • ARCHER PREWITT SIGNS WORK ON PAPER

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    Multi-talented Chicago artist Archer Prewitt (The Sea and Cake, The Coctails) signs his new book, Work On Paper!

    Not many people will know that the author of crazy and perverted comic, Sof’ Boy, is the same man who drew the beautiful and delicate nymph-like girl from the artists’ own music album, Wilderness. But look carefully and you will notice that the most intricately drawn fine lines and dots are mutual features of much of his work; the same organic, subtle, sophisticated and tender sensibility shine through in all of Archer Prewitt’s creations and never ceases to charm us.

    This book collects 32 of selected works from a group of minimal drawings he has been working on for almost 20 years.

    Foreword by Jim Harris (Courtauld Institute of Art, London).

    Work On Paper (PressPop)
    Hardcover, 48 pgs, color, deboss stamping on front cover
    Japanese/English
    Size: 8 inches x 8 inches
    For more info: http://www.presspop.com

    FREE

  • Drawn + Quarterly Artists Adrian Tomine and Seth at Quimby's

    Please join Quimby’s and Drawn & Quarterly at an event with Optic Nerve cartoonist Adrian Tomine and Palooka-Ville cartoonist Seth. The two New Yorker illustrators will be celebrating their own new releases – Tomine’s new editions of Shortcomings and 32 stories and Seth’s new graphic novel George Sprott 1894-1975 as well as the releases of the books they have edited and designed – Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life (edited and designed by Tomine) and The Collected Doug: Canada’s Master Cartoonist (edited and designed by Seth). The two authors will be in conversation, take questions from the audience and will sign books.

    This event is free!

  • Russell Howze Brings Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art to Quimby's

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    Russell Howze will be on the road this June, giving his slide presentation for “Stencil Nation.” This one hour presentation will give a great overview of the art form, using examples from the book as well as other outside sources, materials, and interesting items. Russell will also have actual cut stencils and will allow time for questions about all things stencil.

    Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art packs over 500 full-color photographs in a 192 page, 8 inch by 8 inch pound of paper and ink. The book presents work by more than 350 artists from 28 countries. Without a doubt, stencils are the fastest, easiest, and cheapest method for painting an image on a wall, a sidewalk, or almost any object anywhere. Stencil Nation focuses on the unexpected mix of this lively, accessible medium to reveal engaging aspects of an intentionally secretive international creative community. With dynamically illustrated perspectives from diverse niches of the art form, hundreds of photographs and numerous essays have been curated by StencilArchive.org’s founder, Russell Howze. Stencil Nation builds upon previous published works to give the most extensive and up-to-date history of stencil art, as well as how-to tips from the artists who work within the art form.

    Russell Howze saw his first stencil in 1990, which was J. R. “Bob” Dobbs on an apartment wall in Clemson, SC. In 1995, Russell saw an amazing sight on the exterior wall of the Reichstag in Berlin: a huge stenciled Bertolt Brecht poem. He snapped a photo of that stencil, then found one in Budapest, Hungary. Then a few more stencils appeared in Basel, Switzerland. When he landed in San Francisco in 1997, he found dozens on the sidewalks of the Mission and Haight neighborhoods. In 2002, Russell created the first version of Stencil Archive, thinking that he would have time to scan and upload his own collection before anyone discovered the site and submitted their own work. He was gladly mistaken, so Stencil Archive (www.stencilarchive.org <http://www.stencilarchive.org> ) took off, outgrew its parent site HappyFeetTravels.org, and ended up becoming a site with over 12,000 uploaded photographs.

    For more info:
    http://www.manicdpress.com
    http://www.stencilnation.org
    http://www.stencilarchive.org

    ALL EVENTS AT QUIMBY’S ARE FREE

  • Mike Edison Reads From I Have Fun Everywhere I Go

    Quimby’s is excited to welcome Mike Edison, author of I Have Fun Everywhere I Go: Savage Tales of Pot Porn Punk Rock Pro Wrestling Talking Apes Evil Bosses Dirty Blues American Heroes and the Most Notorious Magazines in the World.

    A rollicking, high-octane, always irreverent journey through the seamy side of the publishing industry. Mike Edison’s resume spans twenty years and a slew of notorious titles, including Screw, High Times, Penthouse, and Hustler. An Ivy League dropout who’s never looked back, Edison embarked on a career that’s landed him in the producer’s chair for one of the worst B movies of all time; on tour with the likes of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, GG Allin, and the Ramones; undercover at a religious cult; on a bender with Evel Knievel; feuding with Hulk Hogan; smoking dope with Ozzy Osborne; and authoring some twenty novels you wouldn’t want your mother to catch you reading—let alone writing. I Have Fun Everywhere I Go combines the fear and loathing of Hunter Thompson’s journalistic thrill rides with the acerbic insider voice of Toby Young. It’s an eye-opening, gleeful view of life on the edge—and the outlaws and oddballs encountered there.

    “If you have any interest in pot, pornography, punk rock, or professional wrestling, just buy this fucking thing.” —Nick Tosches

    Mike Edison is a writer, editor, and musician. He lives in New York City. At his event here at Quimby’s, he will be accompanied by the Interstellar Groove Machine, a “Rube Goldberg contraption built out of an electric organ, a tape loop generator, and theremin.” Expect literary mayhem of the highest order.

    Check out his video here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_0_gtMMdE

    For more info: www.mikeedison.com

    FREE EVENT

  • Hal Niedzviecki, author of The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors Reads

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    The Peep Diaries: How We’re Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors is the story of one man’s journey through a rapidly transforming culture of lying, spying, revealing, and confessing.

    We have entered the age of “Peep Culture”: a tell-all, show-all, know-all digital phenomenon that is dramatically altering notions of privacy, individuality, security and even humanity. Peep culture is Reality TV, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, over-the-counter spy gear, blogs, chatrooms, amateur porn, surveillance technology, Dr. Phil, Borat, cellphone photos of your drunk friend making out with her ex-boyfriend, and more. In the age of Peep, core values and rights we once took for granted are rapidly being renegotiated, often without our even noticing.

    With hilarious, exasperated acuity, social critic Hal Niedzviecki dives into Peep, starting his own video blog, joining every social network that will have him, monitoring the movements of his toddler, selling his secrets on Craigslist, hiring a private detective to investigate him, spying on his neighbors, trying out for reality TV, and stripping for the pleasure of a web audience he isn’t even sure exists. Part travelogue, part diary, part meditation and social history, The Peep Diaries explores a rapidly emerging digital phenomenon that is radically changing not just the entertainment landscape, but also the firmaments of our culture and society.

    The Peep Diaries introduces the arrival of the peep culture age and explores its implications on entertainment, society, sex, politics, and everyday life. Mixing first-rate reporting with sociological observations culled from the latest research, this book captures the shift from pop to peep and the way technology is turning gossip into documentary and peeping toms into entertainment journalists. Packed with stranger-than-fiction true-life characters and scenarios, The Peep Diaries reflects the aspirations and confusions of the growing number of people willing to trade the details of their private lives for catharsis, attention, and notoriety.

    HAL NIEDZVIECKI’s writings on culture have appeared in newspapers
    and magazines across North America. He is the founder of Broken Pencil magazine and has published numerous works of social commentary and fiction, including Hello I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity and We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture.

    FREE