Category: Store Events

  • Gabriel Boyer and Malcolm Felder at Quimby’s!

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    Gabriel Boyer began his performing career at the age of eighteen, singing-Blood-Sweat-and-Tears-while-adorned-in-condiments, this period ending when, at the age of twenty-one, he discovered soul music and formed the band Extra Play with Malcolm Felder (who will also be in attendance in the band Normal Feelings with Mr. Boyer), then abandoned said musical project to relocate to New York City where he curated the spoken word portion of the DUMBO Arts Festival in ‘99.

    In summer of ‘03 Mutable Press (a company founded by Zachary Katz and Gabriel Boyer) released its first book, a collection of manifestoes edited by Mr. Boyer. In the winter of that same year Mutable Press released How to Tell the Living from the Dead, a novel by Gabriel Boyer. In the course of the following year Mutable Press released four books, among which was Seven Nights in the Bedroom, a memoir of Bedroom Theater, also by Gabriel Boyer.

    Then Mr. Boyer moved to China for a year to contemplate what he had done. Afterwards, relocating to an anarchist commune just south of Eugene, OR, where he filmed an anarchist musical entitled Free-Thinking Man as Commodity. After a brief stint working in a fish processing plant in the Bering Strait, he and Malcolm Felder recorded a radioplay, Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies in the spring of ‘08 at Shady Pines Studios. He now resides in Chicago, IL where he and Felder run Mutable Sound.

    Gabriel Boyer will read from his new book, A Survey of My Failures this Far, which is actually a collection of seven books.

    For more info:  www.mutablesound.com/home

  • Off-Site Event: COME IN THE NAME OF CRUMB! at the STOP SMILING Space

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    Quimby’s and STOP SMILING present an evening with R. Crumb (or, rather, the documentary about R. Crumb, CRUMB!).*

    The new issue of STOP SMILING features an in-depth cover-story interview with the legendary comic-artist provocateur, who rarely speaks to the press. Crumb and Celia Farber, who made her name as an investigative journalist covering AIDS research, discuss her area of expertise as well as his, which makes for a lively and telling dialog.

    The Crumb! documentary is a cinematic portrait of the artist as a weird man, and explores Crumb’s traumatized family, his strange sexual tastes, and allusions of racism and sexism that some find rampant and disturbing in his work. From his childhood home to the San Francisco streets where he started Zap Comix, the film sets Crumb in a panoply of settings, all of which come across as somehow unsettling.

    Copies of the new issue of STOP SMILING with the R. Crumb cover, as well as an array of R. Crumb merchandise from Quimby’s, will be on hand.

    WHEN: April 2, 2009, 7 p.m.
    WHERE: The STOP SMILING Storefront (1371 N Milwaukee Ave., Chicago)

    Free drinks will be provided (21+)
    To attend, email rsvp@stopsmilingonline.com (subject: Crumb)

    *R. Crumb, the actual person, will not be at this event

  • CANCELLED!! Michel Gondry at Quimby's

    Due to last minute circucmstances beyond our control, the Michel Gondry Event scheduled at Quimby’s Bookstore on Saturday, March 14th has been cancelled.

    We apologize for any inconvenience this causes, including getting your hopes up and everything. We’re just as bummed as you are, I assure you!

    XOXO,
    Quimby’s Bookstore
    Michel Gondry Event Cancelled

    Join leading filmmaker Michel Gondry as he signs his new memoir You’ll Like This Flim Because Your in It at Quimby’s

    Michel Gondry’s debut book is a functional memoir of his quest to put the tools of filmmaking in the hands of as many people as possible. At New York’s Deitch Projects, in February and March of 2008, Gondry emulated the heroic example of his characters, constructing a do-it-yourself film studio in which any visitor could assemble their own film from extant plot summaries and rent the results. His aim: “I intend to prove that people can enjoy their time without being part of the commercial system and serving it…Ultimately, I am hoping to create a network of creativity and communication that is guaranteed to be free and independent from any commercial institution.” This book chronicles Gondry’s journey towards what he calls “The Be Kind Rewind Protocol”, and serves as an inspirational guide to creativity and the art of having fun.

    Michel Gondry is the filmmaker of the features Human Nature, the Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, and Be Kind Rewind. He has created groundbreaking videos for artists including the White Stripes, Bjork, The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk. Gondry is also the author of a comic book, We Lost the War But Not the Battle, published by PictureBox. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

  • Jon Ginoli founding member of Pansy Division reads!

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    Join Jon Ginoli the lead singer and founding member of the first openly gay punk band, Pansy Division as he reads and signs his new memoir Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division.

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    Jon Ginoli sets off on a journey of self-discovery and musical passion to become the founding member of Pansy Division, the first out and proud queer core punk rock band to hit the semi-big time. Set against the changing decades of music, we follow the band from their inception in San Francisco, to their search for a music label and a permanent drummer to their current status as indie rock icons. We see the highs–touring with Green Day–and the lows–homophobic fans–of striving for acceptance and success in the world of rock. Replete with the requisite tales of sex, drugs, groupies, band fights and label battles, this rollicking memoir is also an impassioned account of staying true to the artistic vision of queer rock’n’roll.

    Jon Ginoli is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and founding member of Pansy Division, a punk rock band whose cd’s include Undressed, Deflowered, Wish I’d Taken Pictures, and more. An Illinois native, he’s played both dive bars and arenas, and his favorite color is purple. When not on tour with the band he lives and works in San Francisco.

    More info:

    John talks about the book

    Pansy Division Homepage

  • Oyez Review Event

    This is a reading/launch party for Oyez Review. Oyez Review is an award-winning literary magazine published annually by Roosevelt University’s Creative Writing Program. It features poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, and a portfolio of artwork.

    Some of the editors as well as a couple of the contributors of Oyez review will be reading poems and excepts from stories.

    more info at www.roosevelt.edu/oyezreview

  • Old School Zine Reading Night! Say What!

    Join us for a zine reading hosted by Billy Roberts of Loop Distro and Proof I Exist zine and Aaron Cynic of Diatribe zine and formerly of Fall of Autumn Distro.

    With featured zinsters:

    Andrew Mall: In between time served in grad school, teaching, writing zine reviews for Zine world, and volunteering with the Chicago Independent Radio Project, Andrew Mall consistently poses as an authority on all things hip and cool. While the most recent issue of his zine Living Proof is a year and a half old, he is currently editing the next issue with hopes for a late spring release.

    Matt Fagan: Matt Fagan is a zinester and artist from Oregon who now lives in Chicago. He runs Meniscus Enterprises, out of which he publishes his zines and comics. Matt is also the co-owner of a comic book store called Brainstorm.

    ReyRey: Rachel does a zine called Stream of Consciousness, now in its third issue.

    Liz Mason: Liz Mason manages Quimby’s bookstore, the greatest bookstore ever, publishes a zine called Caboose, and thoroughly enjoys karaoke.

  • Off-Site Event: Editors of The Nation and The Nation Guide to the Nation at No Exit Cafe

    Please note this event is NOT at Quimby’s. We’ll be there selling books. It’s actually sponsored by Drinking Liberally and Laughing Liberally.

    Part Whole Earth Catalog, part 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and part Zagat Guide, THE NATION GUIDE TO THE NATION is the essential lifestyle guide for liberals across the land, a one-stop-shop for liberals and progressives all over America.

    Inside THE NATION GUIDE TO THE NATION:
    * Studs Terkel’s favorite Chicago restaurant
    * Ray Bradbury’s regular bookstore
    * The best progressive diner in Iowa City
    * Stuart Klawans’s 25 greatest political films
    * Summer camps to foster liberal ideals in your children
    * Blogs, museums, bookstores, churches, and more

    Sat, Feb 28th, 7pm
    No Exit Café, 6970 North Glenwood, Chicago, IL 60626

    For more info: matt at headzup dot tv or jbaxter at randomhouse.com

  • 33 1/3 Event for Double Nickles on the Dime

    The Minutemen–George Hurley, Mike Watt, and D. Boon–redefined punk rock with their unique hybrid of punk, hardcore, jazz, funk, acid rock, and R&B, style perhaps best exemplified on their 1984 double-album, Double Nickels on the Dime. Though still somewhat obscure to mainstream audiences, Double Nickels has consistently been cited as one of the more innovative, enduring and influential albums of the American rock underground. With songs inspired by everyone from Shostakovich and James Joyce to Husker Du and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Minutemen presented an epic and eclectic version of punk rock before it became the cookie cutter form it is today.

    The success of the Tim Irwin’s documentary We Jam Econo- The Story of the Minutemen (2006) cemented their place in the pantheon of punk. But where We Jam Econo focused on the personal and political, Michael T. Fournier’s Double Nickels on the Dime is all about their music, in particular how this extraordinary album was written and recorded. Culling from his extensive interviews with Mike Watt, as well as artists, musicians, studio owners and fans, Fournier walks you through every song on the album, revealing details like what inspired the opening notes of “The Big Foist”(the chiming of Big Ben in London) and the original track listing (the band sat around a table, drafting their own songs, fantasy-league style). Insightful and passionate, Double Nickels on the Dime tells the story of a band that were–and are–an inspiration to any band that has piled into a van and set off to unleash their music on an unsuspecting world. It’s a must have for Minutemen fans, and the perfect introduction for the uninitiated.

    Michael T. Fournier is a writer, critic and historian. His writing has appeared in Chunklet, Trouser Press, and the Boston Phoenix. Fournier taught punk rock history at Tufts University in Boston for five semesters, hosting in-class visits from Maximumrocknroll columnist Al Quint, Mission of Burma’s Clint Conley, and Ian MacKaye. He currently lives in Orono, Maine, where he’s working on a creative writing master’s degree.

  • PANK 3 Release Event at Quimby’s!

    Join contributors from the new issue of PANK, PANK 3, as they read from work.

    About Pank:
    PANK comes from the end of the road, the edge of things, a north shore, up country, a place of amalgamation, and unplumbed depths, where things are made and unmade, and unimagined futures are born. PANK is a ghost town around the next bend. It is hidden in caves in the withered hills. It is buried under impassable drifts of snow. An ultima Thule, PANK – no soft pink hands here. It bears old scars, fresh scabs, callous, blood, and dirt. It is serene melancholy, spiritual longing, quirk, and anomaly. PANK inhabits its contradictions.

    About The Performers:

    Jennifer Pieroni is editor in chief of the literary journal Quick Fiction. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the literary journals Hobart, elimae, Word Riot, Wigleaf, Another Chicago Magazine, bateau, Frigg, and No Colony. An essay of hers will appear in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction. She was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

    Rachel Yoder is a student in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Arizona. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Sun Magazine, Cimarron Review and elsewhere.

    James Grinwis edits bateau, a new journal and chapbook press. He lives in Florence, MA.

    Sheila Squillante is a poet and essayist whose work has appeared in Phoebe, Prairie Schooner, Clackamas Literary Review, Southeast Review, Quarterly West, Glamour, Brevity, TYPO, Unpleasant Event Schedule, Literary Mama and elsewhere. Her essay, “Student/Body,” is part of the new collection, Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and the Academy. She is the associate director of the MFA program at Penn State, and a senior lecturer in the English department.

    Daniel Nester is a journalist, essayist, poet and editor. His first two books, God Save My Queen (Soft Skull Press, 2003) and God Save My Queen II (2004) are both collections on his obsession with the rock band Queen. His third book, The History of My World Tonight (BlazeVOX, 2006), is a collection of poems. His next book, How to Be Inappropriate (Soft Skull Press), a collection of humorous nonfiction, will be published in 2009. He is an assistant professor of English at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY.

    Links:

    PANK on-line

    PANK Blog

  • Matthew Vollmer, Kevin Moffett and Peter Orner read

    Join us for an evening of readings featuring Matthew Vollmer, Kevin Moffett and Peter Orner, This will be a release event for Vollmer’s new collection, Future Missionaries of America (MacadamCage), and McSweeney’s Issue 30.

    About the performers:

    Kevin Moffett was born and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. His collection of stories, Permanent Visitors, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award and was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. His stories and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, Tin House, A Public Space, Harvard Review, The Believer, The Chicago Tribune, and Best American Short Stories 2006. He has received the Nelson Algren Award in Short Fiction, the Pushcart Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction Writing.

    Matthew Vollmer’s work has appeared in Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Epoch, Tin House, Colorado Review, Gulf Coast, and New Letters. His first collection of stories, Future Missionaries of America, will be published in January by MacadamCage.

    Peter Orner is the author of the novel, The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award and Winner of the Bard Fiction Prize, and the story collection, Esther Stories, Finalist for the Pen Hemingway Award. He recently edited a collection of non-fiction, Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives, published in 2008 by Voice of Witness/ McSweeney’s. Orner’s short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and Ploughshares and twice been a recipient of the Pushcart Prize. In 2006, Orner was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship. Born in Chicago, he currently lives in San Francisco.