Category: Store Events

Perpetual Motion Roadshow #37 FeaturingElliot Harmon, Ocho, and Dave Fried at Quimby?s!Saturday, October 14th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
Perpetual Motion Roadshow #37 featuring: recovering slam poet ELLIOT HARMON from San Francisco! irreverent guitarist OCHO from Minnesota! zine-making punk DAVE FRIED from Chicago!
 
Elliot Harmon is a poet and, more sporadically, an actor, a Musician, a playwright, a teacher, a graduate student, and a director. He grew up in South Dakota and developed national recognition through the Omaha poetry-slam scene. Since then, he’s been featured at numerous readings and slams across the Western U.S. His allusions to Brecht and Chekhov (not to mention his San Francisco street address) do little to hide his true country-boy poetic sensibilities. His backpack includes several copies of his two chapbooks, Luke, Don’t Settle! and Summer of the Pterodactyl, and his CD, But You Don’t Understand. harmon.idiolexicon.com
 
Ocho has been performing original songs for almost ten years. His songs reflect a mind that’s upbeat, thoughtful, irreverent, frustrated, and inspired. They give the listener something to laugh at, like the futility of survival in the modern world, and the lack of answers to important life questions: “What’s our ultimate purpose?” and “How can I make money without really DOING anything?” At 16, he unwittingly started a punk-rock scene in a rural South Dakota town that still thrives. He recently received his Master’s degree in counseling psychology. His latest CD, “GoriillaBuddha,” explores the stupidity and healing power of that science. www.myspace.com/ocho
 
Dave Fried has lived in Chicago, Illinois for the past nine years. His favorite things in life include (in some order of importance): eating tacos, riding bikes, d-beat punk, and bowling. He’ll most likely want to try the regional food in your area. He made his first zine in 1994 after reading about Riot Grrrl, making the connection between punk and zines. He writes the queerpunk perzine Black Carrot and helps fill the void with Grilled Tuna Tape distro. If you ever want to get his blood moving, put on some Finnish Hardcore, offer a coffee and take him bowling.

John Gall author of Sayonara Home Run!Saturday, October 7th, 7:00 PM
Author of Sayonara Home Run! The art of the Japanese Baseball Card John Gall, is the art director for Vintage/Anchor Books. His award-winning designs have been recognized by the AIGA, Art Directors Club, Print, Graphis, and ID Magazine, and are featured in several design surveys. His writing, on topics ranging from the history of Grove Press to contemporary skateboard graphics, has appeared in Print and Critique.
 
Sayonara Home Run! introduces curious fans to Japan\’s national pastime through the lens of the country\’s playfully beautiful baseball cards. A fascinating text traces the roots and cross-cultural history of the Japanese game, while hundreds of illustrations showcase gorgeous vintage cards. Woven throughout are profiles of key Japanese players, features on important U.S. team tours of Japan (with Japanese cards of players such as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio), and insights into the social history of the cards. Including primers on Japanese player nicknames and baseball terms, and the fine points of the Japanese game, Sayonara Home Run! is a must-have for anyone interested in baseball, Japan, or this unique chapter in popular design.
 
This will be a book signing with free vintage, totally authentic, Japanese baseball card giveaway. Snacks and refreshments will be provided too.

A plain old reading with Brian Costello, David Frank and Jonathan MessingerTuesday, October 4th, 7:00 PM
 
Brian Costello is the author of the novel “The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs.” His writing has been featured in the Chicago Reader, New City, the2ndhand, Bridge Magazine, and other publications. He is the host of America’s First and Only Live Talk Show: “The Brian Costello Show with Brian Costello.” He is an adjunct professor in the Fiction Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago.
 
After getting clean off heroin almost two years ago, David Frank has used his experiences as a neurotic junky as the focus of the zine “Rocks and Blows.” David graduated from DePaul with a BA in Sociology, and has been published in the “Journal of Ordinary Thought” & “the2ndhand.” He is currently working on his first novel.
 
Jonathan Messinger is the books editor of Time Out Chicago. He is also the founder and co-host of The Dollar Store Show, a literary and comedy series featuring performers inspired by junk purchased from a dollar store. He is co-publisher of Featherproof Books, a Chicago-based small press publishing full-length fiction and downloadable mini-books. His fiction has appeared in numerous local and national literary magazines,
most recently in Resonance, Rainbow Curve and Awake!, a forthcoming anthology from Soft Skull Press.

Van Gogh?s Ear presents an evening of PoetrySaturday, September 23rd, 6:00 PM
 
This is a poetry reading by four contributors to Van Gogh\’s Ear, an international literary journal based in Paris (www.frenchcx.com/press) and released annually. The four poets reading will be: Marc Smith, Robin Metz, Larry Sawyer and Lina Vitkausas.
 
MARC SMITH (www.slampapi.com), single handedly reignited performance poetry as a popular art form by bringing to the poetry community a new style of presentation that has given birth to a literary movement known as Poetry Slam. Evolving as a poet, Smith found a home in 1987 at the Green Mill Tavern for his own unique style of performance poetry, and Poetry Slam was born. Since then performance poetry has spread throughout the country to more than 150 American cities and each year teams compete in the National Poetry Slam.
 
ROBIN METZ has published poetry and fiction in The Paris Review, International Poetry Review, Visions International, Epoch, Other Voices, Rosebud, Abiko Quarterly, New Welsh Review, The Wolf and numerous other US and international journals. His book Unbidden Angel was awarded the Rainer Maria Rilke International Poetry Prize and selected as one of one of twenty-five recommended books for the Clinton White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Health.
 
LARRY SAWYER has escaped from the display case. His bathtub overflows with gardenias and his poetry and critical reviews have been published in Jacket, Exquisite Corpse, Shampoo, The Prague Literary Review, NY Arts, Skanky Possum, Big Bridge, Tabacaria, and elsewhere. In his spare time he is the editor of the online literary magazine, milk (www.milkmag.org).
 
LINA RAMONA VITKAUSKAS is a Lithuanian-American poet and short fiction writer with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wright State University. She is the co-editor of the online literary magazine, milk (www.milkmag.org), with editor, poet, and critic Larry Sawyer. Vitkauskas? work has appeared in numerous publications, including: The Prague Literary Review; The Chicago Review; Yalla; Bridges; and In Posse Review Multi-Ethnic Anthology. Her most recent chapbook is Shooting Dead Films with Poets. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Amy Guth author ofThree Fallen WomenThursday, September 21st, 8:00 PMFREE
 
Amy Guth will be reading from THREE FALLEN WOMEN (published by So New Media).
 
Guth’s violent and shimmering debut novel is the story of three women caught in the vortex of breaking down. For Helen,a painter reawakening after a long period of self-destruction, peace is the choice between the love of her life and her new-found freedom. For Carmen, addiction will define the final throes of her broken heart. And for Frieda, the perfect housewife, catharsis is defined by sex and murder.
 
THREE FALLEN WOMEN unapologetically weaves graphic adventure with heartbreak and sweetness to fashion a new brand of fiction. Equal parts feminist battle cry, anti-love story, and twisted metamorphosis, this is a novel that refuses conventional storytelling and lands a hard suckerpunch in the gut of the patriarchy.
 
Amy G?th has written about sex, racism, hate crimes, art, blaxploitation and cult films for The Believer, Monkeybicycle, and Four Magazine, among others. She currently writes a monthly socio-feminist column called ?Elethromaniac? for OutCry Magazine. You can read her sarcastic rantings and vague questions to nobody in particular on her blog: www.bigmouthindeedstrikesagain.blogspot.com.
 
She has garnered a solid reputation in indie-lit circles as a consistently dynamic and entertaining live performer. Her readings are nothing short of performance art spectacles, including audience participation, props, and a punk rock energy that always attracts a large and enthusiastic crowd.
 
More details can be found at www.guthagogo.com.

AYUN HALLIDAY event for Dirty Sugar CookiesWednesday, September 20th, 7:00 PMFREE
 
AYUN HALLIDAY is the author of THE BIG RUMPUS: A MOTHER?S TALE FROM THE TRENCHES, NO TOUCH MONKEY! AND OTHER TRAVEL LESSONS LEARNED TOO LATE, JOB HOPPER: THE CHECKERED CAREER OF A DOWN-MARKET DILETTANTE, DIRTY SUGAR COOKIES: CULINARY OBSERVATIONS, QUESTIONABLE TASTE and the creator and sole staff member of the award-winning quarterly zine THE EAST VILLAGE INKY. Halliday is BUST magazine?s Mother Superior columnist and has contributed to NPR. Her work has also appeared in PENTHOUSE, BITCH, UTNE, and HipMama and more anthologies than you can shake a stick at without dangling a participle. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the playwright Greg Kotis and their well-documented children.
 
About Dirty Sugar Cookies:
 
How does a picky eater morph into a low-budget epicure whose digestive indiscretions are a matter of public record? Just how far can a pregnant woman stray from the Best Odds Diet until a food-borne bacterial infection lands her in the hospital? Can a serial monogamist really keep track of every post-coital breakfast she’s ever enjoyed?
 
An omnivorous, rollicking chronicle of culinary awakening, Dirty Sugar Cookies is an oil-splattered, accidentally-dropped-on-the-floor, self-mocking love letter to everything Ayun Halliday has ever eaten ? and a few of the things she wishes she hadn’t.
 
This is a Reading/Signing for new book, Dirty Sugar Cookies
 
For more info: www.ayunhalliday.com
 

Tuesday Sept 19th 7PMFree
 
Arkansas author Danen Jobe will be reading from and signing copies of his new book, Niagra Blues: Slingerland. The short novel is a fictional history of legendary ?outsider? musician Jandek, imagining the performer as a young man in the Ozark Mountains developing his unique musical ideas against a backdrop of cultural change and family turmoil. It is published by Single Cell Press, and is projected to be the first in a series tracing an imagined life for the performer.
 
Not intended to be taken as the ?real? story of Jandek, this book offers a unique approach to the artist based principally on gleanings from his music, and the project has been written with the consent and cooperation of Corwood Industries, the sole publisher of Jandek?s catalog since 1978. It is also a story of the people who came from rural Arkansas and the folk and blues music that formed a soundtrack to their lives. Among the other characters represented in the book are legendary blues Founder Son House and the celebrated southern poet Frank Stanford.
 
National Book Award winner Ellen Gilchrist, who mentored Jobe at the acclaimed Writing Program at the University of Arkansas, calls Jobe ?the most curious and inventive student I ever had.? Jobe teaches English and Literature at the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, and lives with his wife and two children in the country outside Fayetteville.
 
Jandek is a notoriously reclusive musician who has released forty-six albums between 1978 and 2006. Granting only one interview in 1985, the Houston-based performer has maintained an anonymous identity and did not perform live until October, 2004. He has previously been the subject of a documentary, Jandek On Corwood, released in 2003. The artist approved of that project as well, though he did not contribute directly to it.
 
Jobe?s reading is designed to coincide with Jandek?s appearance in Chicago on September 20th at the Empty Bottle, located at 1035 N Western Ave. Tickets to Jandek?s show are $15 and can be purchased at the Empty Bottle, or on the net at www.ticketweb.com. Jobe?s reading is free to the public.

Saturday, September 16th, 7:00 PM FREE
 
Perpetual Motion Roadshow #36…featuring: troubled troubadour TROY CURTIS from San Jose, zinestress extraordinaire CHINA MARTENS from Baltimore, faithful urban scribe ERIC LAB RAT from Chicago, and local opener brainiac girl genius KATE SANDLER from Chicago!
 
Troy Curtis has settled in San Jose, California after years as a rambling poet and musician. Born in the small blue-collar town of Rockville, Connecticut, Troy’s desire to perform stems from his parents’ sacrifice of their artistic dreams. With a voice that perilously floats, Troy’s titanic lyrics sink into one’s heart like stolen treasure. Recorded in an abandoned church, Troy’s first album Songs for Girls Who Don’t Deserve Them is presented live and unedited. The album was created to replace mixed tapes and CDs as the preeminent way to express loss at the unfortunate endings to romantic relationships. www.myspace.com/troycurtis
 
China Martens is the editor of The Future Generation: A Zine for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others, and is expecting her first book out this winter ? an anthology of the last 16 years of The Future Generation — with Atomic Book Company. She also writes a column for Slug and Lettuce and puts out numerous other one-shot zines and chapbooks like Dustbunny, SuperMarket SuperModel, and the Baltimore City Paper “Best Zine” award-winning I was… a Student Nurse!
 
Eric Lab Rat traverses his native Chicago on a blue Schwinn tricycle, meeting interesting people and collecting curios from dumpsters. He splits time between stints as a DJ, math tutor, and landscaper. On Tuesdays, he hosts a soul show on WLUW; on Fridays he throws down on the legendary freeform station WZRD. His set may include letters written to concepts, God, and government; poems about ghosts; and songs about celebrity vaginas. His work can be found under a variety of aliases in Gapers Block, the Banana King, and The 2nd Hand. A couple of times a month, he unloads on reverendlabrat.blogspot.com.

Josh Karp author ofA Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy ForeverTuesday Sept. 12th 7PMfree
 
Join Josh Karp as he reads and signs his new book “A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever” a history/bio of the rise and fall of NL and its founder Doug Kenney – the golden boy of 1970s counterculture comedy – who wrote Animal House and Caddyshack before falling mysteriously to his death at the age of 33 in 1980. It’s published by Chicago Review Press.
 
The ultimate biography of National Lampoon and its cofounder Doug Kenney, this book offers the first complete history of the immensely popular magazine and its brilliant and eccentric characters. With wonderful stories of the comedy scene in New York City in the 1970s and National Lampoon?s place at the center of it, this chronicle shares how the magazine spawned a popular radio show and two long-running theatrical productions that helped launch the careers of John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner and went on to inspire Saturday Night Live. More than 130 interviews were conducted with people connected to Kenney and the magazine, including Chevy Chase, John Hughes, P. J. O?Rourke, Tony Hendra, Sean Kelly, Chris Miller, and Bruce McCall. These interviews and behind-the-scenes stories about the making of both Animal House and Caddyshack help to capture the nostalgia, humor, and popular culture that National Lampoon inspires.
 
Josh Karp is an Evanston-based writer -his work has appeared in the Atlantic, Premiere, Salon, LA Times Sunday Magazine, TimeOut New York, the Sun-Times, Chicago Magazine and numerous other publications.
 
Check out www.dougkenney.com
 

Fractal Edge Press presents a night of readings withFrancesco Levato,Lauren Levato andCharlie NewmanSaturday, September 9th, 8:00 PMFREE
 
Bios:
Francesco Levato is the author of Marginal State (Fractal Edge Press 2006), a collection of poetry. He is the founder of the Street Level Series, a reading series of poetry that engages social issues, and is the founding editor of the literary journal Ink & Ashes :: a journal of the senses. Some of his work has appeared in Witness: Anthology of Poetry (Serengeti Press); Out of Line; Poets Against the War; Voices in Wartime; Snow Monkey; Poems Niederngasse; and After Hours. His awards include a poetry fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center.
 
Writer, artist, and feminist activist Lauren Levato is literary editor for Ink & Ashes :: a journal of the senses, arts editor for PISTIL, and director of the 2006 Chicago Art Open. Her writing has appeared in After Hours, The Pedestal Magazine, Poetry Midwest, and Wicked Alice. She holds degrees in professional writing and women\\\’s studies from Purdue University and studied political journalism at Georgetown University. Her awards include a poetry fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center.
 
Charlie Newman was born in Newark, NJ in 1943. He started writing poetry in 1956. His 5th book and 3rd CD, deadmachinecity, was released by Fractal Edge Press in 2005. He?s performed at The U.N. Dialogue Through Poetry; Insomniacathon (2001, 2003, 2004); The New York Underground Music & Poetry Festival; The London International Poetry & Song Festival; ChicagoPoetry.com Poets Against The War; ChicagoPoetry.com Earth Day Event; ChicagoPoetry.com Chicago Poetry Fest (2003 & 2004); and ChicagoPoetry.com Caf? Cram 1, 2, 3 & 4. He hosts Tuesday night open mics at The Caf?, and 1st Friday poetry shows at DvA Gallery. He was named 1 of Top 15 in The Chicago Poetry Scene by Third Coast Press.
 
www.francescolevato.com
www.laurenlevato.com
www.fractaledgepress.com/CharlieNewmandeadmach.htm
www.fractaledgepress.com