Category: Store Events

  • Eugene S. Robinson discusses FIGHT at Quimby's Bookstore

     

     

    Friday, January 11th at 6:00 PM


    FIGHT

    Join Eugene S. Robinson as he reads and discusses his new book Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking. Crushing your enemies, driving them before you, and hearing the lamentations of their women? It doesn’t get any better than this.”
    –Eugene Robinson, ripping off John Milius

    That’s the sentiment that surges just below the surface of Eugene Robinson’s Fight – an engrossing, intimate look into the all–absorbing world of fighting. Robinson – a former body–builder, one–time bouncer, and lifelong fight connoisseur – takes readers on a no–holds–barred plunge into what fighting is all about, and what fighters live for. If George Plimpton had muscles and had been choked out one too many times––this is the book he could have written.

    When Robinson and his fellow fighters mix it up, they live completely for the moment: absorbed in the feel of muscles slippery with sweat; the metallic tang of blood mingling with saliva in the mouth; the sweet, firm thud of taped knuckles impacting flesh. They fight because it feels good. They fight because they want to win. And even if they get their asses kicked, they fight because they love fighting.

    Fight is part encyclopedia, part panegyric to fighting in all its forms and glory. Robinson’s narrative – told in his trademark tough–guy, stream–of–consciousness noir voice – punctuates this explanatory compendium of the fighting world. From wrestling, jiu–jitsu, boxing and muay thai to bar fighting, hand–to–hand combat, prison fighting and hockey fights, from the greatest movie fight scenes to how to throw the perfect left hook, Fight is a scene–by–scene tour of the bloody but beautiful underworld that is the art of fighting.

    With his aficionado’s enthusiasm and fast–paced, addictive voice, Robinson’s Fight combines compelling text with beautiful photographs to create an illustrated book as edgy and interesting as it is gorgeous.
    Eugene Robinson
    Eugene Robinson has written for GQ, The Wire, Grappling Magazine, LA Weekly, Vice Magazine, Hustler, and Decibel, among many others. He has also been Editor-in-Chief of Code and EQ. He grew up in New York City, where he first understood the surreal joy of a bloody nose obtained through fighting. The 6′ 1?, 235-pound Robinson has worked in magazine publishing, film, and television. He has studied boxing, Kenpo karate, Muay Thai (mixed martial arts), wrestling, and Brazilian jiu jitsu. Robinson is also the vocalist and front man for Oxbow, a rock group-cum-fight club whose most recent album, The Narcotic Story, will be released in 2007. He lives in the San Francisco area.

  • Dancing Girl Press at Quimby’s!

    Join dancing girl press authors, Kristy Odelius and Kathleen Rooney, as they read from their recently released collections.

    About the Authors:
    Kristy Odelius’s reviews, articles and poems have appeared in Chicago Review, Notre Dame Review, ACM, Versal, Combo, Moria, Diagram, Pavement Saw, La Petite Zine and others. Her work has been anthologised in The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century, a new volume from Cracked Slab books. She is Assistant Professor of English at North Park University, where she teaches poetry and British Romantic literature. Strange Trades her first full-length collection of poems is due out in 2008. Bee Spit, a chapbook length sequence, will be released in November 2007 by dancing girl press.

    Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press. Her first book is Reading with Oprah: the Book Club That Changed America (University of Arkansas, 2005); it will be released in a paperback with new material in Spring 2008. Her second book, That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness, poetry collaborations with Elisa Gabbert, will be published by Otoliths Books in winter 2008. Her third book, Live Nude Girl: an Idiosyncratic History of Art Modeling, is forthcoming from University of Arkansas Press in 2009. A 2003 recipient of a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine, her own poems, as well as collaborations with Elisa Gabbert, have appeared in a variety of journals, as have her essays and criticism. A chapbook Something Really Wonderful (w/ Elisa Gabbert) will be released in November 2007 by dancing girl press.

    More info at http://www.dancinggirlpress.com

  • Sam Prekop signs PHOTOGRAPHS at Quimby’s!

    Sam Prekop signs PHOTOGRAPHS at Quimby’s!

    Saturday, November 17th, 7:00 PM

    Join Sam Prekop as his signs copies of his new art book Photographs.

    This is the first photography book by front-man of the band, The Sea and Cake and all-round artist Sam Prekop. A monochrome photographic journey into Sam’s observation of Chicago cityscape where he resides combined with his continuous spontaneous experiments with geometrical patterns. Experience the subtle and fleeting beauty of the moment.
    Comes with CD of original instrumental music by Sam Prekop.

    COMMENT ABOUT THE BOOK:

    As a long-time admirer of Sam Prekop’s music and his paintings, I was surprised to find that he also takes photographs, though I wasn’t surprised to discover that they share the same relaxed, unpretentious beauty of his more familiar work. To me, the images in this book perfectly capture the utilitarian litter and clutter of Chicago life both inside and out, though distilled into moments of happenstance clarity by his sharp, and apparently unerring, artistic discrimination.
    – Chris Ware, 2007

    BIO:
    Singer-songwriter Sam Prekop is a man of diverse and impressive talents. During the past decade, Prekop has made a name for himself in the art world that is nearly as prominent as it is in the music world. His paintings have been shown at the Clementine Gallery in New York, the MCA in Houston, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Modern Institute in Glasgow, and many others. He is a musician in the band The Sea and Cake and lives in Chicago.

  • Julia Wertz signs Fart Party at Quimby’s!

    Julia Wertz signs Fart Party at Quimby’s!

    Saturday, November 24th, 8:00PM

    The Fart Party collection published by Atomic Books is available now. The book includes the 80% of comics NOT posted on the internet, interviews, funny fan letters and never before seen illustrations; plus a funny intro by Peter Bagge. Don’t buy it for yer mom.

    Check out Fart Party online: www.fartparty.org

    Julia is 24 and never went to art school, but she does have a bullshit BA that she will never use. Despite the fact that she is often angry and overreacting in her comics, in reality, her backwoods upbringing & hippie parents provided her with a healthy dose of west coast mentality that also cause her to still use words like “rad” “hella” and “dude” and she really doesn’t give two damp shits what you think about that. She’s fond of dance parties but thinks long walks on the beach are totally gay.

    Julia is also the editor of “I Saw You…” an anthology of missed connection comics being published by Three Rivers Press/Random House that is accepting submissions until December 2007 and will be out in the fall of 2008. You can buy this for yer mom.

    She will be on hand to signs books and get drunk.

  • A Year at the Wheel presents Steven Leyba at Quimby’s!

    A Year at the Wheel presents Steven Leyba at Quimby’s!

    Monday, November 5th, 7:00PM

    A Year at the Wheel invites you to join Rev. Steven Leyba as he unveils his new documentary, and reads from his book. He will also display some of his incredible art montages and gladly sign copies of his DVD and book.

    About Steven Leyba from the blurb about Unspeakable the documentary about his life and work:
    Reverend Steven Johnson Leyba is the kind of man who will paint all over the American flag then remind you that “flag etiquette” has been royally pissed on by most major designers without anyone raising an eyebrow. He will have a swastika cut into his back while reminding you that this is an ancient symbol… then he’ll wonder aloud how many people were killed in the name of the sanctified Holy Cross.  Reverend Leyba is a legally ordained Priest in the Church of Satan. He is known in the underground art world as the “Father of Sexpressionism”. The man views every kind of bodily excretion as a viable medium with which to paint. He is deeply in touch with his Native American ancestry. These juxtapositions may seem like a lot to ponder, but they represent just a scratch on the surface. For nearly two years, Reverend Leyba permitted the filmmaker’s cameras to observe his life, his art, and his infamous personal rituals. Some of this extraordinarily unique footage charts a terrain of human behavior that has rarely, if ever, been explored within the documentary form. The Reverend’s prolific and varied artistic output reflects his unyielding political and religious opinions. “UNSPEAKABLE” captures the unusual behavior of this Satanic Priest and takes a firsthand look at the issues that propel his work. The film hops from one inimitable character to the next as they grapple with topics ranging from the denial of the “American Holocaust”, to the discovery of new ways to make an explosively sexual/ political statement with a whiskey bottle. Such luminaries as Church of Satan High Priestess Blanche Barton, photographeranthropologist Charles Gatewood, and President of the Tom of Finland Foundation, Durk Dehner, guide us through a journey of Sex and Satan…a sneak peek of Radical Art and Raging Performances. The resulting portrait is of an artist with a perversely brilliant vision. He is both humor and fury. He is grotesque, yet possesses the UNSPEAKABLE beauty of a man free enough to confront and embrace his own humanity.

    More info and samples of his art at www.stevenleyba.com

    Also, in addition to Steven Leyba, the one and only MIKE DIANA will be there, as will Shane Bugbee and Amy Bugbee. They will also be signing books and answering questions.

    For more info visit: www.ayearatthewheel.com

  • Adrian Tomine at Quimby’s!

    Adrian Tomine at Quimby’s!
    Thursday, November 8th, 7:00 PM
    FREE
    Join us for a Q+A with Adrian Tomine to celebrate the release of his new book SHORTCOMINGS. After the Q+A Tomine will be on hand to sign books and comics. Irma Nunez from the Chicago reader will be leading the Q+A.

    About Shortcomings:
    Ben Tanaka has problems. In addition to being rampantly critical, sarcastic, and insensitive, his long-term relationship is awash in turmoil. His girlfriend, Miko Hayashi, suspects that Ben has a wandering eye, and more to the point, it’s wandering in the direction of white women. This accusation (and its various implications) becomes the subject of heated, spiraling debate, setting in motion a story that pits California against New York, devotion against desire, and trust against truth.

    By confusing their personal problems with political ones, Ben and Miko are strangely alone together and oddly alike, even as they fly apart. Being human, all too human, they fail to see that what unites them is their shared hypocrisies, their double standards. This gray zone between the personal and the political is a minefield that Tomine navigates boldly and nimbly. The charged, volatile dialogues that result are unlike anything in Tomine’s previous work or, for that matter, comics in general. But shortcomings is no mere polemic. Any issues that are raised stand on equal footing with expertly-crafted plot turns, subtle characterization, and irreverent humor, all drawn in Tomine’s heart-breakingly evocative style. What Tomine ultimately offers is more provocation than pronouncement—a brutal, funny, and insightful reflection of human shortcomings.

    About Adrian Tomine:
    While still in high school, Adrian Tomine started writing and drawing his mini-comic Optic Nerve. After some success Adrian began producing Optic Nerve as a regular comic book series for Drawn & Quarterly. D&Q also published Sleepwalk and Other Stories collecting the first four issues of Optic Nerve. It remains a best-seller for the company. Adrian’s work has graced numerous CD and album covers as well as magazines like The New Yorker, Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Time.

  • Lydia Lunch, Joe Meno, & Arthur Nersesian

    Akashic presents an evening of readings with Lydia Lunch, Joe Meno, & Arthur Nersesian.

    Wednesday, November 7th, 7:00 PM
    FREE

    The Swing Voter of Staten Island a novel by Arthur Nersesian is the much-anticipated new novel from New York City’s most celebrated hit downtown writer. Up until now, Arthur Nersesian’s six novels have focused on the tragicomedy of fin de siècle New York City. Now, in his boldest novel yet, he has broken through into a new landscape that at once fuses the real with the surreal, the psychological with the psychedelic. Actual characters from the ’60s and ’70s Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Daniel Ellsberg, and the Berrigan Brothers are but a few of the folks who populate this alternate version of American history.

    ARTHUR NERSESIAN is the author of six novels; including the smash hit The Fuck-Up, Chinese Takeout, Unlubricated, Manhattan Loverboy, Suicide Casanova, and dogrun. He is also the author of East Village Tetralogy, a collection of four plays. He lives in New York City.

    Paradoxia: A Predator’s Diary by Lydia Lunch with an introduction by Jerry Stahl and an afterword by Thurston Moore is the unspeakable sexual confession of underground legend LYDIA LUNCH . . .Paradoxia contains frank and often shocking confessions. LYDIA LUNCH relays in graphic detail a predator’s diary, revealing the true psychic repercussions of sexual misadventure. From New York to London to New Orleans, Paradoxia is an uncensored, novelized account of one woman’s assault on the male of the species.

    LYDIA LUNCH was the primary instigator of the No Wave Movement, and the focal point of the Cinema of Transgression. A musician, writer, and photographer, she exposes the dark underbelly of passion confronting the lusty demons whose struggle for power and control forever stalk the periphery of our collective obsessions.

    Tender As Hellfire by Joe Meno is the paperback reissue of the debut novel by the author of the bestsellers The Boy Detective Fails and Hairstyles of the Damned. Long before he established himself as an indie-publishing sensation Joe Meno brought out his debut novel, Tender As Hellfire. Here, with a re-edited paperback edition, Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down ’76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives.

    JOE MENO was the winner of the 2003 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction and is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

    www.akashicbooks.com

  • Lydia Lunch, Joe Meno, & Arthur Nersesian

    Akashic presents an evening of readings with Lydia Lunch, Joe Meno, & Arthur Nersesian.

    Wednesday, November 7th, 7:00 PM
    FREE

    The Swing Voter of Staten Island a novel by Arthur Nersesian is the much-anticipated new novel from New York City’s most celebrated hit downtown writer. Up until now, Arthur Nersesian’s six novels have focused on the tragicomedy of fin de siècle New York City. Now, in his boldest novel yet, he has broken through into a new landscape that at once fuses the real with the surreal, the psychological with the psychedelic. Actual characters from the ’60s and ’70s Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Daniel Ellsberg, and the Berrigan Brothers are but a few of the folks who populate this alternate version of American history.

    ARTHUR NERSESIAN is the author of six novels; including the smash hit The Fuck-Up, Chinese Takeout, Unlubricated, Manhattan Loverboy, Suicide Casanova, and dogrun. He is also the author of East Village Tetralogy, a collection of four plays. He lives in New York City.

    Paradoxia: A Predator’s Diary by Lydia Lunch with an introduction by Jerry Stahl and an afterword by Thurston Moore is the unspeakable sexual confession of underground legend LYDIA LUNCH . . .Paradoxia contains frank and often shocking confessions. LYDIA LUNCH relays in graphic detail a predator’s diary, revealing the true psychic repercussions of sexual misadventure. From New York to London to New Orleans, Paradoxia is an uncensored, novelized account of one woman’s assault on the male of the species.

    LYDIA LUNCH was the primary instigator of the No Wave Movement, and the focal point of the Cinema of Transgression. A musician, writer, and photographer, she exposes the dark underbelly of passion confronting the lusty demons whose struggle for power and control forever stalk the periphery of our collective obsessions.

    Tender As Hellfire by Joe Meno is the paperback reissue of the debut novel by the author of the bestsellers The Boy Detective Fails and Hairstyles of the Damned. Long before he established himself as an indie-publishing sensation Joe Meno brought out his debut novel, Tender As Hellfire. Here, with a re-edited paperback edition, Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down ’76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives.

    JOE MENO was the winner of the 2003 Nelson Algren Award for short fiction and is a professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago.

    www.akashicbooks.com

  • Get Born at Quimby’s!

    Get Born at Quimby’s!

    Saturday, November 3rd, 7:00 PM
    FREE

    This is the first official day of a reading tour embarked upon as the Get Born Collective makes their way up to the East coast to promote their monthly book of poetry entitled Get Born and their local literary collective of the same name. Join readers: Joseph Sulier, Joe Wetteroth, Mathieu Paul, and Jim Swill as they read selections of poetry.

    Get Born is both a monthly book of poetry, and an outlet for the various creative endeavors of young local poets in the city of St. Louis. There are readings held regularly at various locations in St. Louis, there are recordings of readings and noise manipulations, there is art, there is danger, there is youth, and above all there is a pure genuine love for the written word in any form.

    The Performers:
    Joseph Sulier

    Mathieu Paul

    Joe Wetteroth

    Jim Swill

    Other info from Get Born:
    You can find all of our press and current news material here and here also videos from all of our readings here

  • At The Hideout: Unmarketable Book Release Party

    Unmarketable

    Dear Target Demographic,

    Sponsorships got you down? Lackluster branding no longer giving you the thrill it once did? Psyched to join the revolution . . . the shopping revolution? Did the murky stench of corporate advertising upset the partygoers at your last soiree? Confused about which big business best correlates with your lifestyle? Can’t get rid of those greasy stains since that last meeting with the major label A&R rep? Want to sell out, but not quite sure where to turn?

    Well, the good people behind Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity can help: Just attend one of these focus groups now forming in your area, which just happens to be at The Hideout.
    This event is not happening at Quimby’s but rather, Quimby’s will be selling Unmarketable at The Hideout (1354 W. Wabansia) during this event.

    Authoress Anne Elizabeth Moore will read from Unmarketable. Opening acts Betsy Crane, Richard Fox, Mairead Case and others have some disgusting but strangely appealing offers you do NOT want to miss out on.

    ACTUAL INFORMATION FROM THE BACK COVER of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity:
    “Cultural resistance” and “DIY” (do-it-yourself) now denote both a recognizable demographic to target and a strategic way for marketers to promote their products. As the endless pursuit of the youth market demands ever-edgier tactics, whole social networks, communal economies, and value systems are put in jeopardy. Unmarketable is both a powerful critique of corporate marketing’s appropriations of and alliances with the cultural underground and a highly entertaining depiction of the absurdity produced by our advertising-saturated, late-capitalist wonderland. A longtime member of the underground, Anne Elizabeth Moore traipses through this upset landscape, interviewing the perpetrators, the victims, and the not-so-innocent bystanders of phenomena both hilarious and troubling in order to examine the underground’s changing relationship to the commercialized world and its impact on activism and integrity.

    For more info:

    New Press, Unmarketable

    www.anneelizabethmoore.com