Chicago 6 Corners

Summer Solstice Art Fest 2009, June 20-27
A Celebration of Arts & Music to Benefit Chicago 6 Corners

By Your Friends at Chicago 6 Corners  (David & Scarlett), June 15, 2009

David Shuey here, offering the gist of the Summer Solstice Art Fest: 7 unique events over 8 nights. The bands will be blazing. The DJs sizzling. The short films, poetry and visual arts, soul stirring. It's BYOB and NO charge at the door, so that means NO excuses. However, if you bring a pocket of $1s and $5s – and your check book and love for art during the week-long auction (UPDATE: see photos here) – then you can personally contribute to Chicago 6 Corners. All proceeds go towards maintaining the website, and keeping you informed on local happenings. 

Who knows? Maybe you'll be inspired and contribute your future talents to the C6C webzine. Reach us here to contact an editor, or see what topic may be of interest.

Where: Scarlett's Pad, 2649 W. Leland Avenue, Top Floor, Chicago, Illinois (just around the corner from the Brown Line Rockwell stop)

Again, click the flyer to the right for schedule or skip below for full write-ups on the bouillabaisse of artists. Ok, Scarlett Stoppa, our Dandy Warhol of curators, kick it ...

Curator’s Note: Two years ago I found myself in a particularly blissed-out in-love-with-life moment prompted by the range of creative talents surrounding me. Chicago, it seems, is both a Siren Call to artists and a Renaissance Incubator – rare is the local who  doesn’t possess a range of skills in several mediums. Like a collector, proud of his good taste, I wanted to show off this impressive posse surrounding me. But I also wondered at what might be created if all these creatives came together. New friendships, fresh love, spontaneous collaboration, symbiotic partnerships, dancing, laughter, creative courage where once there was fear of failure – the possibilities were limitless! Out of this dewy-eyed admiration and innocent optimism the Summer Solstice Art Fest was borne. Year One was a modest affair, a few friends, some loose gatherings. Year Two required a schedule, a spreadsheet, more help and several Flickr photo albums. This year’s fest – the 3rd Annual – had me convinced we’d reached the Final Hoorah. Something that had started simple and spontaneous had tangled into a complicated production. Then the art began to trickle in. And I remembered why I love instigating this collaboration: each lovingly produced painting, poem, pot, pinata, photo, poster, song, shoe, bike, book, craft and film represents our human attempts to open hearts, make connections, rally change and express that expansive feeling that comes in those moments when we are overwhelmed with love and wonder.

Chicago 6 Corners would like to extend thanks to all artists and art-lovers who contributed their time and creations to this collaboration, with a special thanks to those who made generous donations of their work for an art auction that will help Chicago 6 Corners to continue covering local issues, events, and people overlooked by both mainstream media and Chicago’s blogosphere.

Save-the-Date: Summer Solstice Art Fest 2009, June 20-27
Click on Graphic Below, Jot Favorite Event on Hand-held/Calendar/Back of Hand, Repeat As Needed

By Your Friends at Chicago 6 Corners, June 10, 2009

Look for updates with links to artists and performers next week!

Call to Action: Write Your Alderman to Increase Citizen Participation in Decisions Concerning Public Assets

By Adam Snow, May 6, 2009

Seven months ago I started an anthropological documentary about democracy in Chicago. This has led me to discover many things about the city (and the state) that have surprised me. The privatization of the city's parking meters to a corporation that hither-to-for was not in the parking business is just the latest in a series of deals that were rubber stamped by the city council with little or no public debate. (See How Much of Our City Is for Sale?)

Last week the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial announcing that undisclosed aldermen were considering an ordinance requiring a 30-day period of review for any proposed privatization of city assets, works, and so on. Since this editorial, I have contacted the office of the city clerk (the office that sets the city council's agenda on these matters) to find out where this proposal is in committee, who the sponsor is, and when it may come for a vote. So far, i have been told 'I will look into it and get back to you'.

Signage of the Times

By James Sandrolini, April 29, 2009 

One needn’t peruse the shrinking daily paper, watch cable news or log into their favorite website to receive the gut-punch that is today’s stark, economic end-times. Possibly the best way to experience our deeply sobering financial zeitgeist is simply to drive around the ever haunted streets of American cities and towns. On this side of the street, signs informing dead-eyed consumers that Everything Must Go!, Prices Slashed! or simply For Lease in place of For Sale. Over there, an optimistic Coming Soon! sign for a business that, like Godot, never arrives. All around us, we know the Big Party of the Reagan/Bush, Sr./Clinton era has crashed to a halt; the hangover is excruciating and the massive bill has come due.        

Only a year or so ago, it seemed like pretty much everything was for sale in the Land of the Free. Super-sized retail chains, giant, monolith condos and thrusting, Freudian skyscrapers pierced U.S. town and city skylines. Gordon Gekko-style, Wall Street uber-capitalism was unquenchable and unstoppable. That was then. These days, with 12 million Americans unemployed, house foreclosures up 81% since early '08 and 1 in 10 Americans on food stamps, few are buying much of anything. Even fewer seem to be buying the hopeful promise of the government economic stimulus package put forth by the hundred-day-old Obama Administration. Meanwhile, the paleolithic Republican Party has no real plan or ideas to counter Team Obama … but that certainly hasn’t stopped the right-wing online juggernaut from barreling full steam ahead like the careening bulls of Pamplona to Obama's dazed toreador.

Local Hero, Intelligentsia Savant Michael Phillips Places Third Best in Coffee Universe (Okay, World)

By David Shuey, April 20, 2009 

VIA TEXT TO ME @ 4:27 p.m. April 17, 2009: Yeah, She's a cutie. Her teammates are also hotties. I go on around noon! [Saturday]

Good to know a hard-working man, isn't completely losing his libido. In between texting his friends about attractive Russian baristas, Michael, ahem, Mike Phillips was on his way to winning 3rd – THIRD! – in the World Barista Championship competition. That's like saying your friend down the street is, oh, I don't know, the Michael Phelps of the coffee world. We just won't print the naughty pictures. (Which ones were you thinking?) Just the inappropriate texts, which, I admit, I baited him on the Russian, as that's the only round I saw Friday before gearing up for his Saturday sensational showdown of espresso-pulling skill and finesse.

The all-male final round of six only had two hotties, and Mike was clearly one of them. Certainly, his hometown crowd at Intelligentsia on Broadway, and his friends in Ukrainian Village were thinking so (and saying so). Mike was only 5 points shy from beating the winner from the UK, who had 623 points. I'm not sure how the points are extracted and totaled – and don't ask how the 4 espresso, 4 cappuccinos, and 4 "signature" drinks are judged in the 15-minute performance of shots, hip music, and articulate explanations of Rwandan beans – but I do know 618 to 623 is flipping close. Considering there were 52 contestants, representing 52 countries, this is nothing short of the immaculate reception for this Chicago coffee Renaissance Man.

Joe Pug to Play Midnight Show in a Living Room Near You* – THIS Friday, April 17, 2009 (BYOB)

By Emily Grider, April 14th, 2009

Joe Pug is a force of nature. Don’t believe me? Pick a track at random from his EP Nation of Heat and give it a listen. Go ahead. I’ll wait… Finished? Awesome, right? You’re welcome! Here's some more while I'm at it.
 
A rare and raw musical talent, Joe possesses a wordsmith's gift for crafting compelling and powerful lyrics. Seeing him perform in an intimate setting is an opportunity not to be missed. 
 
If you would like to hear Joe play, please come out to Lincoln Square this Friday. The show will start promptly at midnight, so we suggest that you arrive by 11:45 p.m. to ensure everyone is situated before the music begins. Also, there will be a couple of cats in attendance (they're huge fans), so pop some Benadryl beforehand if you're allergic.
 
Joe will have his EP and tickets for his May 1 and 2 gigs at Schuba's Tavern available for sale. PLUS, he'll be giving away complimentary two-song sampler CDs, while supplies last. This is your chance to see Joe play up close and personal before he releases his full length album and starts selling out amphitheaters – or, at the very least, goes on tour!
 
What: Joe Pug Acoustic Living Room Show (BYOB!)
When: Midnight, Friday, April 17, 2009 (Joe goes on AT midnight, so get there early to secure a good spot)

Where: Scarlett's House, 2649 W. Leland Avenue, Top Floor, Chicago, Illinois (just around the corner from the Brown Line Rockwell stop)
Why: You should already know the answer to this question

* Provided that you live in or near Lincoln Square

She Likes to Kiss AND Tell: So Catch AND Hear it Yourself on April Fool's at Rec Room's 5th Anniversary Show

By David Shuey, March 31, 2009 

She's here. She's got no fear. And she's ready to deliver some spoken word goods – and sordid details of "her" "love" "life" – for the Chicago scene. Introducing: Paula Varjack. Come if you dare. Her media-saturated myspace page will tell you right away if she's your kind of Berlin (by way of) London (by way of) Washington, DC, subterranean culture astronaut. Yes, she's that far outta sight.

This week, our former poetry editor, Mike Haeflinger, has kindly sent his fellow expat dwelling in Berlin to us (U.S.!). More specifically, to rest in our spare room in-between good times in Chitown. We couldn't be happier. Paula's performing 3 times in 2 days, so check her out. (Trust us, she's really nice. Offer a smoke and say "Hey.")

Tuesday, March 31: At YCA at 7 p.m. (for the kidz!)
Wednesday, April 1: (... and for the rest of the adultz!) at 7 p.m. she hits Chopin Theater for the Encyclopedia Show, but really she wants you at gig #2 at Black Rock Bar after 8 p.m. curated by the Rec Room Inner Circle celebrating their 5th anniversary. The featured performers are some of the best-and-brightest of Chicago's spoken word scene.
Location: Black Rock Bar, 3614 N. Damen, Chicago
Offering: Besides flirty stories, she'll be selling CDs and DIY poetry books. The sass is free.

EXTENDED thru March 21: Sub-Prime Youth Explores Foreclosures, Family at Free Street Theater 

By David Shuey, February 28, 2009 

Stop honoring thy father.
I will catch him when he falls.

On Valentine's Day I walked up three flights of ramshackle stairs at Pulaski Park  – follow the hand-made signs – to witness community theater at its most daring. Sub-Prime Youth, a play written in collaboration with the youth actors at Free Street Theater, is both hard-hitting and deft in its treatment of teenage characters dealing with their intimate loss of "home" in the last days before the sheriff kicks them out. It's a free-verse explosion of ideas, mashed up with the harsh economic realities confronting Chicago and communities everywhere today. Two siblings await their unseen father's literal and metaphorical fall from grace in light of his failure to take care of the family – and the mortgage payments. Amid moving boxes, their extended family of friends (and their inner thoughts represented as the tactile non-dreamgirls, the five-closures) surround them with rapid-fire takes on a situation far too many Chicago households are facing. An pre-play slideshow provides cold stats and charts on the housing debacle. Sub-Prime Youth is the hot, raw nerve aftermath.

Look for a future interview with the artistic director, Ron Bieganski. For now: Just Go!

Tickets:  $15 General, $5 Students, Free if home is in foreclosure!
Where: Free Street Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk, Chicago (map), 3rd floor Pulaski Park
Buy Tickets: online or call 773.772.7248

Extended Dates & Times:
Friday, February 27, 7 p.m.
Saturday, February 28, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 7, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 14, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 21, 2 p.m.

More photos and cast list after the fold. Click once to enlarge.

Baby Teeth and Others to Perform at Benefit for Dill Pickle Food Co-op

The opening-its-doors-oh-so-soon Dill Pickle Food Co-op jubilantly announces the line-up for its upcoming benefit concert at the AV-aerie. On Friday, February 27, 2009, Baby Teeth, Tim Kinsella, and Willis P. Jenkins, will grace the stage all in the name of the Dill Pickle. These live sets will be followed by a late night dance party (from about 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.) deejayed by Damon Locks of the Eternals. The gracious donation of time and talent by these great Chicago artists will give this Logan Square-based food co-op needed financial momentum before its opening, expected by the end of this Spring.

The benefit is at the AV-aerie, located at 2000 W. Fulton, on Friday, February 27, 2009, and will be open to all ages. There will be a suggested donation of $12 for admission. There will also be a donation bar for people with a valid photo ID. Doors open at 8:30 p.m.

Soup and Bread: Winter Wednesdays at the Hideout

By Scarlett Stoppa, February 25, 2009

Chicago 6 Corners had grand plans to use its time and this space to report on the Social Workers of Illinois Advocacy Day that is happening today, and around this time every year, down in Springfield, but mixed messages on departure time meant this reporter missed the bus. Instead, for your consideration, here is but another example of Chicago citizens applying their creative "stock" to a worthy cause.

Soup and Bread is a weekly winter fundraising event hosted by the Hideout, to which three guest cooks--local chefs and soup hobbyists--bring their tastebud-pleasing concoctions. Pass-the-hat donations go directly to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which could use some extra help after the salmonella peanut butter epidemic forced the organization to discard a large share of recent food donations.

Tonight's featured soup chefs include Cinnamon Cooper and Robyn Nisi, who write tasty foodie blogs under the Drive-Thru crew umbrella on Gapers Block; Columbia College film professor Dan Rybicky; and dietician Bettina Tahsin. Tonight's bread is lovingly provided by Food on the Dole's writer and chef Hugh Amano. Join the queue between 5 and 6 p.m.

If you can't make it tonight, never fear, Soup and Bread Wednesdays are scheduled to continue through April 1st. OR you can cherry-pick your favorite soup recipes from the guest cooks on Hideout bartender Martha Bayne's weekly Soup and Bread blog. Bon appetite!