Objects Sharper Than They Appear

Over the transom.
1. From The Lumpen Times:
“Please join us as we celebrate the release of the long awaited Comics Issue of Lumpen magazine. We haven’t done one since the 90’s and we are super thrilled to see a compilation of some of the best comic artists in America all contained in one juicy newsprint concoction.
“We are mounting an exhibition of works by the artists featured in the issue. Complementary beverages will be served. There is no cover.”
Friday, January 25, at the Co-Prosperity Sphere, 3219 S Morgan Street.

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Posted on January 25, 2013

Chronicling The Shadowy Crimes Of Hollywood And God

“Robert Polito, the director of the creative writing program at The New School since 1992, has been named the new president of the Poetry Foundation, based in Chicago,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Polito will begin his tenure on July 8. The organization’s inaugural president, John Barr, who caused occasional ripples in the poetry world, is set to retire but will stay on until July and then help with the transition.
“Mr. Polito is a poet, critic and author of several books, including Savage Art, a biography of the crime writer Jim Thompson that won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1995.”
Polito then moved on to Hollywood and God in a collection of that name.

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Posted on January 24, 2013

A Mellow Moment

“Mellow Concepts co-owner Frank Johnson interviews Chicago’s K-Love the Poet in the brand’s 1st installment of the Mellow Moment interview series.”

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Posted on January 23, 2013

By The Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is pleased to present the schedule for its Winter/Spring 2013 Literary Series.
Highlights this season include a reading by current United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, a rare stateside appearance by Australian poet Les Murray, a new staged reading directed by Bernard Sahlins featuring poetry and comedy, and an appearance by poet Campbell McGrath.
In our gallery, we are very pleased to show Joan Mitchell: At Home in Poetry, an exhibition of the abstract expressionist painter’s work, letters, and other ephemera. This is the first solo exhibition of Mitchell’s work in Chicago, and the first to consider her relationship to poetry and the city itself.

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Posted on January 22, 2013

By Robert Chambers

I.
So, if you have a raspy, high-pitched baritone voice and decide to try your luck as a rock singer, what might the payoffs be? If you are Roddy Stewart, son of a north London plumber, they are considerable: Sales of 200 million records in 70 countries; concerts across the world before audiences numbering as many as 3.5 million fans (New Year’s Eve 1994, Copacabana Beach, Rio); a two-year contract for 52 concerts at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas (all sold out in a 4,100-seat venue); palatial homes in London, Scotland, Palm Beach, Beverly Hills, Spain, and all around the Mediterranean; ownership of every conceivable variety of exotic automobile (his consistent favorites have long been Lamborghinis, but there has always been room in his many garages for the occasional Ferrari, Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes, or Rolls Royce); and, perhaps best of all, virtually non-stop sex for years with countless of the world’s most beautiful women (he’s married four of them and fathered seven children, all gorgeous).
“Excess” is the word for Rod Stewart, who has since his late teen years wanted almost everything . . . and gotten most of it. Now approaching 70, Stewart is still in remarkable physical shape and strong voice (as this writer witnessed at Caesar’s only three months ago). For decades he has shown himself to be one of the world’s greatest entertainers, and the awards have continually flowed in – twice elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with his early band the Faces and on his own); many platinum recordings; an invitation to sing for the Queen; appointment as Commander of the British Empire.
And, more recently, Rod: The Autobiography, making its way up best-seller lists in several countries.

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Posted on January 21, 2013

Reporter Alleges Mayor Physically Threatened Him

“Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel allegedly grabbed a reporter by the arm in order to communicate ‘a threat of physical violence’ in the course of an interview that went south during the presidential campaign,” PressTV reports.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this in my career from an American public official,” Buzzfeed’s Michael Hastings, author of Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Barack Obama’s Final Campaign, said on Current TV.

Here’s the video:

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Posted on January 18, 2013

By Literacy Volunteers of Illinois

Low literacy is the root of many social and economic problems.
More than one quarter of Chicagoans lack the basic literacy skills to function competitively and communicate effectively in society. This affects everything from our high unemployment rate to our struggling education system to violent crime and overcrowded prisons.
The 22nd annual On the Road to Literacy conference, which will be held on March 23, 2013, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UIC Center for Literacy, 1040 W Harrison, brings together the students, teachers and tutors, and administrators of the many literacy programs across Chicago and Illinois who are tackling the roots of low literacy.

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Posted on January 9, 2013

Late And Great

Over the transom.
1. The Society of Midland Authors presents a panel discussion Tuesday on Harold Washington as we near the 30th anniversary of his landmark mayoral election.
The deets:
6 p.m. in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium of the Harold Washington Library.
The panel:

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Posted on January 6, 2013

By K. Flay

“Imagine you are really good at drawing and also really good at capturing the essence of things like unrealized dreams, debilitating self-consciousness, awkward sex, existential honeybees & missing limbs,” writes K. Flay on this YouTube upload.
“And then imagine you decided to make an unconventional graphic novel consisting of 14 separate narrative components, all of which told a different part of a big story.
“And then imagine you titled it Building Stories, partially because the stories center on a single building in Chicago, partially because the reader must literally build the story out of the different components.
“And then imagine your name was Chris Ware and that yours truly, Fristine Klaherty read it.”

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Posted on December 10, 2012

Freshly Toasted On December 9th

In conjunction with Chicago Writers House and The Chicagoan, Curbside Splendor Publishing presents:
A POP-UP BOOK FAIR!
Chicago’s finest independent publishers will be on hand hocking their goods. Quimby’s Bookstore will also stock a table with a selection of books/zines penned by Chicagoans. The bar will be open so grab a cocktail and listen to live music all afternoon as you ogle some books and satiate your bibliophiliac needs!

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Posted on December 6, 2012