Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Friday, November 15
The Chicago Force women's football team is holding tryouts today at Harper College from 9am to noon. There is a $20 tryout fee, you need to bring a photo id and wear cleats and comfortable outdoor attire. More info is available on their website.
Baltimore's Arbouretum play the Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, tonight at 9pm, with Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt of The Sea & Cake opening (and probably testing out some songs from their forthcoming album). $8, 21 and over.
Tonight, hear a rare, two-piano performance of the Brahms "Requiem" at KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, 1100 E. Hyde Park Blvd. The spare accompaniment will provide all the better opportunity to focus on the fifty voices of the Chicago Chorale. The concert starts at 8pm; tickets are $20 ($12 student concession) and can be ordered online.
Students in the Northwestern University Masters of Creative Writing program are offering writing workshops all day today and tomorrow. Free, but donations (benefiting Young Chicago Authors) are welcome and registration is required: email Wisenberg [at] northwestern [dot] edu or call 847-491-5612. 405 Church St., Evanston. Click here for a complete workshop schedule.
The Chicago Public Library helps celebrate Children's Book Week wtih Bookamania, a free book festival for children and their families. Everyone will get to enjoy storybook characters, performers, crafts, magic and music, as well as authors and illustrators Chris Raschka, Jonah Winter, Sean Qualls and Laura Vaccaro Seeger. There will also be a special performance of The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. 11am-3pm at 400 S. State St. Call 312-747-4780 for more information.
Yes, that Crispin Glover. He's in town to emcee a screening of his 2005 film What Is It?, described on IMDb as "the inner and outer struggles of a young man facing villains and demons on multiple planes". Whoah. In addition to the film, Crispin will also be presenting a slide show (which he calls his Big Slide Show), and doing a book signing. Attend, if you dare! The show will happen tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30 PM. Tickets for the show are $17 in advance, $20 at the door, and can be purchased at the Music Box's Website. Music Box: 3733 N. Southport. (773) 871-6604.
Davin Youngs's photography is at once calm and charged. Calm: the images are often bathed in the sort of gauzy light you expect in a Sofia Coppola film; charged: there's an apparent intimacy that's slightly unsettling, as the viewer is foist into the artist's subjectivity (a position even present in the self-portraits, which veer between narcissism and soul-searching). Appropriate, then, that his exhibition at Darkroom in Ukrainian Village (2210 W. Chicago, btw. Damen and Western) is called "Shoot What You Know." The show, which will be up through mid-January, opens tonight with a reception from 9-11pm.
Get your holiday shopping started by browsing through the best work of students from the Berger Park Cultural Center's Lapidary and Pottery classes. Free, 10 AM to 5 PM. 6205 N Sheridan. For more information, call 773-761-0376.
Director Jose Luis Matias presents Atltzatzilistli, an 18-minute film documenting the indigenous community of Acatlan, Guerrero, Mexico, as they ritually request rain for the harvest. 11 AM, free. 60 W Walton. For more information, visit the website.
As part of Global Rhythms 2, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project presents a performance of BoomBach by Tapeplas, from Barcelona, Spain, this evening at 8:30 PM. Other percussive dance artists on the program include Jason Samuels Smith and Pandit Chitresh Das. Tickets are $24. 220 E Chicago. For more information, call 312-397-4010 or visit the website.
The CTA debuts its annual Holiday Train today. The six-car train is decorated with multicolor lights, has bows and garlands in its cars, and features a flatcar in the middle of the train with Santa Claus and his reindeer. The Holiday Train will run through December 21 on the various train lines; please see the CTA Website for a schedule of the train's appearances.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago presents its annual holiday art sale, featuring purchasable work by the school's students. The sale happens today in the ballroom of the building at 112 S. Michigan, across the street from the Art Institute. Shopping hours today are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and admission is free.
The Museum of Contemporary Art and the City of Chicago Department of Environment will host a one-day symposium, Massive Change and the City to discuss the impact of urban life on the world. The event will run from 10 am - 5:30 pm and be hosted by Bruce Mau, Massive Change guest curator, and John Callaway, host of WTTW's Friday Night and the Chicago Stories anthology series. The program will include five panels: City Planet: Urban Space and the Marketplace; Movement and Energy; Designing Evolution; and Wealth and Politics: Is Life in the City Getting Better. Tickets are available through http://www.harristheaterchicago.org/ and the Harris box office for $100, $75 for MCA members. The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is located at 205 East Randolph Drive.
The 4th annual DIY Trunkshow ("There's no junk in this trunk") happens today from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Pulaski Park fieldhouse (1419 W. Blackhawk). Dozens of crafters will be selling their wares in the gymnasiums in the fieldhouse; expect to see handmade jewelry, clothing, scarves, soap, cards, stationery, artwork, records/CDs, plush toys, dolls, buttons/badges, magnets, etc., etc., etc. In addition, there will be two workshops during the day (making chainmail jewelry and knitting), so you can learn to make your own crafts. Admission to the Trunk Show is free, but most of the vendors will be accepting only cash, so bring some dough. Parking is limited in the neighborhood, so you might want to travel by El (the Blue Line Division stop is closest) or by bus (take the Western bus to Western & Blackhawk). See the Trunk Show Website for complete details on the event and the vendors that will be selling stuff there.
To help you prepare for the holidays, the Shop at the Cultural Center is hosting trunk shows by local artisans and designers every Saturday in November and December before Christmas. Nibble on snacks as you browse.11 AM to 3 PM, 78 E Washington. For more information, call 312-744-6630 or visit the website.
Another evening of grassroots psychedelia is in the offing as the Three Million Tongues Festival presents acid-folk perennials Charalambides, fuzz-riff veteran Michael Yonkers, Dreamweapon, and Singleman Affair. There'll also be "sideshow" offerings from Hands of Hydra, J. Glenn, and Yellow Universe. See the Empty Bottle's site for info and details. 1035 N. Western. Things get started at 9:00pm; tickets are $12.