FROM LITERAGO.ORG: Printer’s Ball Rocks The MCA on August 22
The party of the season for Chicago literary types and those who love (or read) them, The Printer’s Ball wants to take you for a whirl this Friday, Aug. 22. Over 100 literary and arts organizations will converge for Poetry’s huge arts-and-lit party at the Museum of Contemporary Art. From 5:30-10 p.m., ballgoers can talk, listen, dance, sip, and browse an astounding array of free magazines, journals, books, weeklies, and posters.
But don’t get your heart set on curling up under the Jeff Koons bunny sculpture with a nice poem…creative crosspollination is the main order of business at the Ball. Printer’s Ball pan-literary performances include, Killing Him: A Radio Play by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai; a return of the surprise-rife Dollar Store Reading, this time with Usama Alshaibi, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Jonathan Messinger, and Julie Shapiro; and a screen-printing demonstration by poster wiz Mat Daly. Also, don’t miss the Librarians’ Boudoir, a viewing library of limited run publications, nor the Gnoetry poetry machine (writer’s block, begone!).
Music by Pure Magical Love and Stagecoach (members from Mahjongg…no waltz, surely?), will be presented by Proximity Magazine. Sets by DJs Logan Bay, Dustin Drase, and Greg Gaffud are enabled by CHIRP, Lumpen, and Venus Zine.
The Printers’ Ball is an annual celebration of print literature in Chicago, hosted by Poetry Magazine, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Newcity. Admission is free and reserved for those 21 and over. Find the Museum of Contemporary Art at 220 E. Chicago Ave., just east of Michigan Ave. For performance times and a list of participating organizations, visit www.printersball.org.
CHIRP PREPS WEB STATION
As previously reported, the people behind the Chicago Independent Radio Project aren’t ones to sit around and just wait for great radio to happen. Although legislative decisions still need to be made about low power FM, the organization is moving ahead with a more immediate project: launching a web station.
On the CHIRP website, the industrious staff explains their plan: “As we’ve continued with our efforts to make sure we’ll eventually be able to bring a brand new low power FM signal to Chicago, we’ve always assumed that the station’s webstream would be crucial. That’s why we’ve decided to go ahead and launch a web version of CHIRP radio… We’re excited about the prospect of making CHIRP radio a reality even before we get a broadcast license.”
Slated to launch in late summer, the web station will feature “great underappreciated music across genres and eras,” while demonstrating “a true commitment to Chicago’s diverse music and arts scenes.” According to staff member Dustin Drase, the organization is currently working on programming specifics, and the group hopes to have a station launch party sometime this fall.
In another exciting development, CHIRP has found a home for the station in the historic Dank Haus building in Lincoln Square. The organization has been collecting office furniture, supplies, and computer equipment to improve the new digs, but there are still items on the CHIRP wish list. To donate equipment or funds (and stay tuned into upcoming events), visit the official website.
New York publishers engage in reverse-gentrification of the literary world
City Archive/City Engine
Exploring the form and function of classic cities with thoroughly modern tools
HOWTO: Roast Your Own Coffee Beans
Take back the slick black bean. Tips on how to roast your own coffee.
