7/23/08

DIL PICKLE CLUB TO BE REVIVED

THE DIL PICKLE CLUB TO BE REVIVED AT THE ZEBRA LOUGE

Radical "Chicago Renaissance" nightspot will be resurrected by editors of Lumpen and Stop Smiling, following the Newberry Library's Bughouse Square Debates in Washington Square Park.

ChicagoThe Dil Pickle Club is scheduled to resume activities on Saturday, July 26, 2008, at the Zebra Lounge in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood. Editors from Lumpen and Stop Smiling magazines have programmed a night in tribute to the historic
and Dil Pickle Club (Dil with one L!) featuring "short speaking" about the history of "hobohemia" and topics of controversy, new writing, piano cabaret, and performance art.

What:
The
Dil Pickle Club

Where:
The Zebra Lounge
1220 N. State Pkwy
Chicago
[Clark/Division Redline or several CTA Bus Routes]

When:
Saturday, July 26, 5 PM to 8 PM

Features:
Free Admission, Live Music by Tom King Clear, Short Speaking by Gale Aherns, New Writing by Michael Marcinkowski, Picture Show by Robin Hustle, Performance Art by Matthew Nicholas and Eric Warner, and Surprises.

Created by local artists, musicians, writers, and organizers, the
Dil Pickle Club invites interested parties to mingle and participate in a series of art parties without boundaries. The first happening will occur after the Newberry Library's Bughouse Square Debates in Washington Square Park, down the street at the legendary Zebra Lounge piano bar.

Admission is free. For more information e-mail dilpickleclub@gmail.com.

***

About the Dil Pickle Club
Founded in 1914 by former Wobbly Jack Jones, Jim Larkin, and the cadre of Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) and the Charles H. Kerr Company—and made famous by "clap doctor" Ben Reitman—the
Dil Pickle Club became known as the controversial center of the "Chicago Renaissance." Writers Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandburg, Djuna Barnes, William Carlos Williams, Vachel Lindsay, and Kenneth Rexroth, mingled with radicals, unemployed workers, prostitutes, gangsters, and slumming Gold Coast socialites at the famed "Pickle." The irreverent spirit of the Dil Pickle Club was illustrated by the motto emblazoned on the club's door: "Step High, Stoop Low, Leave Your Dignity Outside."

Although its original location (reached by squeezing "Thru the Hole in the Wall Down Tooker Alley, to the Green Lite Over the Orange Door") is long gone, the new
Dil Pickle Club will meet three times yearly, in July, November, and March, featuring works by Chicago artists and their international cohorts.

About Lumpen
Lumpen is a family arts, politics, and culture magazine based out of Chicago. Visit lumpen.com

About Stop Smiling
Stop Smiling is the magazine for high-minded lowlifes, a bimonthly arts & culture publication based in Chicago and New York City. Visit stopsmilingonline.com

7/22/08

Juan Cole | Obama in Iraq

Juan Cole | Obama in Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/article/obama-iraq
Juan Cole for Informed Comment writes about Barack Obama's visit to Iraq, as well as the recent attempt by the Bush administration to "muddy the waters this weekend regarding the interview of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki with Der Spiegel, in which he expressed approval of Barack Obama's plan to get US troops out of Iraq within 16 months of next January."

7/15/08

Wednesday Night Movies at the C-PS



Wednesday Night Movies at the C-PS
July 16, 2008 8:30pm
3219 S Morgan St.
free!

Every Wednesday at 8:30 pm a freshly curated program by Hannah Airriess of Doc Film fame will be shown in the air conditioned confines of the Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Our first program this Wednesday July 16, 8:30 pm features "Giants and Toys" by Yasuzo Masumura (1958)

Outer space Tarzan or a subsidized life? Three candy companies will stop at nothing to sell the most caramels in Japan. Initially dismissed as "Coca-Cola Cinema" Yasuzo Masumura's colorful, frenetic film is a postwar classic, an irreverent satire of consumer culture.

Neon Clan




here is some inspiration for streetcholos looking for some positive applications of mischief. thanks niels from trendbeheer!

awesome bird formation



pretty cool video of a bird formation (via yahoo!)

7/14/08

Run on banks in California



The future?
The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on Friday in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

Citing a massive run on deposits, regulators shut its main branch three hours early, leaving customers stunned and upset. One woman leaned on the locked doors, pleading with an employee inside: "Please, please, I want to take out a portion." All she could do was read a two-page notice taped to the door.

read more


Artist's Prank Punks Re-create 68, Other Activists

Agents from Denver will be sending us updates about the 2008 Democratic Convention. Seems there is some controversy starting already... and it is blowing up.

The_flyer.jpg

The attached flyer is far from subtle. The screaming slogan "WE BEAT YOU THEN! WE'LL BEAT YOU AGAIN!" appears over two images -- one of a police officer outfitted in riot gear (he looks like an extra from Rollerball), the other featuring footage of helmeted cops facing off with a crowd at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In addition, a winged insignia printed in the lower left-hand corner hovers above the rhetorical, and badly spelled, questions, "Want to 'Recreate '68'? Think your tough HIPPY?" .....

By the end of May, the artist had assembled a MySpace page based on this persona, complete with several videos: brutal footage from the Chicago DNC, an interview clip of Spagnuolo and the "Go ahead, make my day" scene from the Dirty Harry vehicle Sudden Impact. He also printed up a batch of flyers, leaving a stack in the Gypsy House Cafe, 1279 Marion Street, where he'd been told Re-create 68 sometimes meets, and posting them in the neighborhood nearby. Then, on June 5, he sent e-mails to a handful of Denver activists, including Spagnuolo and Herzoff, plus several ideologically similar advocates in the Pacific Northwest; he found all of their address via web searches. These communiqués included the flyer plus the following message

YOU HIPPYS HAVE A GROUP CALLED RECREATE ‘68?? !!

REMEMBER ‘68 HIPPY? WE BEAT YOUR ASS! WE BEAT YOU THEN! WE’LL BEAT YOU AGAIN!

THERE IS LOTS OF SISSY TALK FROM THE DENVER POLICE BRASS AND THE SISSY DEMOCRATIC POLITICOS ABOUT ACCOMODATING THE HIPPYS. WERE PUTTING OUT THIS FLYER TO LET YOU KNOW WHATS “GOING DOWN IN THE UNDERGOUND” ON
THIS SIDE OF THE NIGHT STICK!

WE BEAT YOU THEN!

WE’LL BEAT YOU AGAIN!

THINK YOUR TOUGH HIPPY?

GET READY TO GET DOWN!!

WERE CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF BEATDOWN!!

Read more here

Robocop minus 1

Robocop Minus One


London bud, Paul Peroni of Seventeen Gallery is giving us some tips. wanted to share this one.

party pics added



We want to send hugs to all of you that joined us for our little party.
here are some pics from the jam

7/11/08

Lumpen 17 years! installation shots



THE INFO ABOUT THE PARTY iS LOCATED HERE

In between getting 30 lbs of polish sausage and 5000 year brand kimchee we found time with the help of Rachael, Liz, Adi, Nate, Rand Heather Lynn and Luca to put this show together,
Here are some shots from the day before the show...

7/9/08

Daniel Ellsberg on warrantless wiretapping bill

Some people reading this blog (or read the news) might realize that surveillance is a bad thing.
Here is the big daddy of secret stuff Daniel Ellsberg talking about wiretapping and the bill that keeps us in big brotherland forever.
thanks boing boing!


What Every American Needs to Know (and Do) About FISA Before Wed., July 9th from Tim Ferriss on Vimeo.

G.A.A.G. : Guerila Art Action Group wipe your ass







We need more pissed off radical art groups today. One model to follow is the efforts by G.A.A.G.. Born in the 60s they conftonted institutional art giants and challenged them to shut down until the vietnam war was over. They highlighted the complicity of institutions being supported by the military industrial complex and they generally kicked ass. More ass than we kick today that is for certain.

I googled GAAG and found a post by our buddies from Temporary Services, the closest you will get to a G.A.A.G. today. they posted a project on how to wipe your ass. click it to read:

This scan of a text by the defunct group comes from the Summer 1982 issue of Art Journal. It was G.A.A.G.'s contribution to an issue devoted to "Words and Wordworks" that Clive Phillpot guest-edited. You can find Jean Toche's more recent publications (angrier than ever!) at Printed Matter (http://www.printedmatter.org/).


Mikel Uribetxeberria = hot shit photoshopgrapher



i like these shots a bunch.
visit his site

7/8/08

Mr. Thor Rocks out Co-Prosperity Sphere



Noted street artist and hard working cholo extraordinaire, Mr. Thor, came over and rocked out our display windows at the C0-Prosperity Sphere just in time for our 17 years of Lumpen celebration>> Catch his work here:

http://ThunderCircus.com
http://flickr.com/photos/thundercircus



He saved my life



Chicago art giant, Cody Hudson, has a new book out that was published by FIFTY24SF Gallery.
It is beautiful and you should buy one:
Cody Hudson, who designs under the moniker Struggle, Inc, is a Chicago-based graphic artist whose work has been seen on snowboards for Burton, record covers for Chocolate Industries, books for Also Known As, and foot beds for Gravis shoes. His personal work has resulted in two large-scale commissions from the City of Chicago for public art projects, and other works such as pencil drawings and found object installations. The 96-page Save My Life focuses on all facets of Hudson’s artistic output, and along with his various collaborative projects with other like-minded Chicago artists, Hudson continues his commercial projects along with personal fine art gallery exhibitions.

MOO launched fullsized business cards

Last week MOO launched their fabulous new line of full-size business cards. Also just like their classic MiniCards, you can have a different image on the back of each card and since the card is larger, you won’t need to do as much cropping of your photos.

Here’s MOO’s promo video for the new business cards:

Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation tips

The co-founders of the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom, Steve Lambert, CEO of the Anti-Advertising Agency, and Anne Elizabeth Moore, Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom, presented four FREE workshops this weekend at our oFFFices to celebrate your personal independence from oppressive working conditions! But we missed it.

The AAAFFF Presents: The Cut-n-Paste Ad Offer Responder!

If you run a website or blog, chances are your email inbox is filled to brimmin’ with offers from friendly advertisers willing to allow you a once- (or maybe twice!) in-a-lifetime opportunity to display their content on your site. Sometimes, sure, they offer to pay for the marketing work you’re doing on their behalf, but sometimes not! Sometimes, they just want to exchange links!

Now, you’re probably aware that you’re under no obligation to respond to such requests for free or underpaid labor—unless you’re really desperate for money, in which case I’d start billing the agencies the industry standard rate of $45 per hour—and saying “no thanks” can get a little old.

So here at the AAAFFF, we’ve developed a simple tool—a form letter, really—to respond to such offers. And instead of requesting the advertisers give us free or underpaid labor, we’re offering them the Anti-Advertising Agency Foundation For Freedom Award!

Get your cut and paster form letter here:

Sorry I missed your party



once in a while, just for kicks we check in on this blog

credit crunch

The Chapel of St. Martin








Wooster collective reports:

“Nothing but Printing” is a art collective formed in Berlin in 2008 working primarily in the media of screen-print. It started as a series of small parties and with the success of the beer sales, they collected enough money to invite their first guest, Dave the Chimp.

Dave offers a tribute to “Saint Martin” (the homeless saint) with a 3 color screen print on cardboard that is designed so it can be cut-out and folded into a 3-dimensional one man church, “to get away from the chaos of life.”

More info here.

20 Abandoned Cities from Around the World: Deserted Towns and Other Derelict Places

Link to article:: read about it on Weburbanist



There are many reasons why cities are abandoned; some, like the ghost towns of the American West, have become tourist destinations while others have been condemned or simply forgotten. These 20 abandoned cities of the world share an eerie, haunted quality that is part of what makes them so fascinating. For more amazing abandoned places by region visit the WebUrbanist abandonments archive.



Showbiz Pizza's robot band cameo in MGMT's Electric Feel video


MGMT 'Electric Feel' Rockafire Explosion Clip from Joel on Vimeo.

If you’re a kid from the 80’s and lived in a region where Showbiz Pizza reigned over competitor Chuck E. Cheese you probably remember the animatronic band that played while you ate pizza. It turns out they have a name — The Rock-afire Explosion and they make an amazing comeback in MGMT’s Electric Feel video after a nearly two decade long hiatus. More on Rock-afire here.

But watch the whole video here::
http://court13.com/electricfeel.mov

Daniel Q > Here is an RIP for Thomas Disch



Daniel Quinlivin recently remarked that Camp Concentration was one of his favorite phrases:

Thomas Disch the author who penned the phrase (in his book by that title) is dead.

Sf author Thomas M Disch committed suicide at his apartment on July 4. Patrick Nielsen Hayden's eulogy paints a picture of a man who was brilliant, noble, foolish, difficult and angry. I only knew him through his fiction, from which I learned a great deal. Patrick writes: I certainly read him; his SF novels of the 1960s and 70s, particularly Camp Concentration and 334, had an enormous impact on me. But “least read” may be true: according to publishing legend, his SF masterpiece On Wings of Song had a 90% return rate in its 1980 Bantam paperback edition. Despite that, he went on to hit bestseller lists with his 1991 horror novel The M.D. Just as unexpectedly, his children’s book The Brave Little Toaster was adapted into a popular Disney cartoon.

He could be hard to take, both in person and in his public interactions with the SF world. He played the game of literary politics hard, and sometimes lost badly. He frequently seemed to have no patience for his allies, much less his enemies. Of his other career, as noted poet Tom Disch, I can’t say much, except that to my mind the poetry was often good. In his later years he wrote a blog; after he began to post frequently on the depravity of Muslims and immigrants, I became unable to keep reading it.

The Disch I prefer to remember was no nicer than that, but much smarter: a brittle and brilliant ironist with a bright wit and no optimism whatsoever.


Cory Doctorow Eulogy from Boing boing:

Futurefarmer's Energy Tent



Futurefarmer's Energy Tent and Building Workshop lands at the Nature Museum in Chicago, Illinois July 20 - 22.

During 3 days Futurefarmers in collaboration with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum will host two building workshops and 4 discussion sessions led by scientists from the University of Chicago. The general public will be invited to participate in discussions with the guests in the Energy Tent. The outcome of these discussions will be a series of questions relative to the issue of "Energy" and the upcoming 2008 elections.

The questions produced in small discussion groups will be posed to larger groups in the form of a Continuum**(see below for more information). Each morning, Futurefarmers will conduct special workshops with Chicago area teenagers from the Chicago Park District TRACE (Teens Re-Imagining Art/Community/Environment) program and the Nature Museum CPS summer interns.

ENERGY PLANS is part of the Brushfire Project.
Brushfire is Provisions’ new national public arts initiative showcasing key contemporary artists whose public projects engage crucial social issues such as immigration, the war in Iraq, food, sustainable energy, housing, the electoral process, the economy, health, and the environment. Taking place in highly visible public settings such as state fairs, suburban shopping centers, public parks and highly trafficked recreational areas around the United States, BrushFire aims to enrich the environment for public discussion about the value of democracy in the crucial run-up to national elections in November, 2008.

BrushFire will culminate in an exhibition at The American University Museum in September, along with a DC-wide festival of exhibitions and arts events on key social issues.

BrushFire is supported by the CrossCurrents Foundation.

7/7/08

Toronto gallery hangs show of art in opposition to the Canadian DMCA

from boing boing:

Toronto's Edward Day Gallery has a wonderful response to Canada's proposed new copyright law, Bill C-61, which mirrors (and exceeds) the American DMCA. They've hung a show called Appropos featuring art that the new bill criminalises. The locks will prevent artistic, legitimate and legal uses of media. The Appropriation Art Coalition, a coalition of art professionals across Canada oppose Bill C-61, advocating that if the new legislation is passed, it will make it "illegal to access existing material, modify it, comment on it and/or publicly display it. Criticism, parody and satire, under Bill C-61 become criminal acts." A National Post comments reader, GeofG, suggests that since the Bill prohibits circumventing digital locks, "taking a clip from DVD for purposes of parody or political criticism is outlawed; unlocking your cell phone is banned…as is watching overseas DVD’s". Another response to the Bill from Dala concludes that "A future with digital locks is one where works go into the Disney vault and never come out again". The Appropos group exhibition is based on the work of artists whose use of imagery integrates existing popular culture products/icons. One of the purposes of the exhibition is to emphasize the crucial relevance of appropriation to contemporary visual artists and their studio practice. As revisions to Copyright Act legislation, known as the Act to Amend the Copyright Act, are currently underway by the Canadian government, there are valid concerns that the elements of contemporary artistic practice such as appropriation and "quoting" could potentially be outlawed by draconian legislation.

Conceptual art as Low intensity warfare weapon

MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) is a device that uses microwave pulses to beam sound directly into someone's head. In development by the Sierra Nevada Corporation originally under a US Navy contract, MEDUSA can apparently fill your head with incapacitating "shockwaves" or possibly even whispered messages. From New Scientist:
(Researcher Lev) Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications. Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.

Sadovnik has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to people with outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.
Microwave sound beam (New Scientist, more at Danger Room

Tibetan Olympic Swimming contest: Chinese style



Above, one of a number of elements in a new campaign said to be from Amnesty International to draw awareness to human rights abuses in China and Tibet. Each one is designed around the theme of a specific Olympic competition category. Above, swimming. In the lower right, the ad reads, "After the Olympic Games, The Fight Must Go On." Cropped image above, Click for complete image, larger size.

7/4/08

Nominations for the inaugural class of the Panhandler Hall of Fame

Everywhere I go in Chicago, I seem to be greeted by panhandlers. I attract them to such a degree that I've kept a journal chronicling our interactions over the years. A few of them have stood out, for their ingenuity, style, or brazenness. Here, I nominate the seven most memorable recurring characters for the inaugural class of The Closer's Panhandler Hall of Fame.

Mortgage Crisis and Recession Blues



Here are an assortment of links from The Conversation's popular thread "
Once Again, the Federal Reserve Saves US Economy " :

“With the increasing number of homes being foreclosed upon, what we’re finding is people vacate these homes, other people are coming in and using these homes, often times for parties and gatherings,” said David Keith of the Oxnard Police Department.

Police said the parties can involve alcohol, drugs and sometimes more, KNBC’s Gordon Tokumatsu reported.

White House threatens to Veto Senate act designed to prevent foreclosures

Mortage Ruling Could Shock US Banking Industry

Failure of the Invisible Hand as "Market Driven" Mortgage Crisis Aid Declines

Allegheny County Sheriff Disgusted by Having to Kick So Many Families out of their Homes Comes up with an Innovative Measure to Reduce Foreclosures

Arsons Flare in US Mortgage Crisis

Credit Crunch Forcing US Middle Classes to Live in their Cars

Starbucks to Close 600 Stores in US

7/3/08

Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe



Ever since we found the Whole Earth Catalog back in the 60s Lumpens have loved Bucky Fuller. A retrospective of his work is at the Whitney Museum in NY. It looks beautiful. Art Tattler has some pics.


Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe
on view June 26, 2008-September 21, 2008

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was one of the great American visionaries of the 20th century. Best-known as the inventor of the geodesic dome, Fuller devoted much of his life to resolving the gap between the sciences and the humanities, which he believed was preventing society from taking a comprehensive view of the world. His theories and innovations traversed the worlds of architecture, visual art, literature, mathematics, molecular biology, and environmental science and have had a deep impact on all of those fields.

In addition to the Whitney Museum show, there will be a number of exciting events throughout June in New York City. We will announce the details as they become available.

For more information about the Whitney show, please visit:
http://www.whitney.org/www/exhibition/upcoming.jsp

More stuff:

Buckminster Fuller Insitute
Bucky videos on Youtube

The Terrible Jobs Report



Robert Reich former Treasury Seceretary under Clinton has some bad news:
Total job losses since the first of the year are now 438,000. That's a loss of 73,000 a month. The economy needs to CREATE 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.

In other words, this hole is getting deeper.

Consumers have no money left. This is the first consumer-led recession in over twenty years. Consumer-led recessions are worse than the normal kind, where the Fed has overshot by raising interest rates too high or corporations have pulled back their spending. Consumer-led recessions are deeper and longer, which makes the case for major infrastructure spending. (The normal worry with infrastructure spending as a stimulus is the lag effect -- by the time the spending gets into the system and creates jobs, it's too late. But not this time.) LINK

7/1/08

Announcement: Lumpen is now 17!



July 11th 2008 (7pm - 2am)
Co-Prosperity Sphere
3219 S Morgan St

We are having a birthday party for the long running counter culture magazine, Lumpen.

Come celebrate 17 years of publishing, mayhem and action with us at the Co-Pro Sphere. We will release #109, the 1968-2008 redux issue and have a little celebration.

We will be exhibiting some 1968 ephemera, posters and art. Poster art from the Paris May 1968 uprising, the Lumpen 1968 issue and other Lumpen stuff (like the Boring Theoretical Party history) from the archives will be on view. You can even take some of this stuff home with you.

In the infinity room we will be featuring a solo show of recent works by Rand Sevilla, noted pioneer of weirdness.

And the rest of the evening features:

Food: 8pm
Korean Polish Bar - B Q til around 9pm....

Karoake!: all nite
the WOR team is going to man the best karoake lounge yet in our secret room right near the bathrooms.

Videos: all nite
Back in the 90s and the earl 2000s they made DVDS. We will screen some old compilations that we made.

Performances:
Pure Magical Love
Michael Perkins
Fought
Hunter Hussar and Daniel Q livin it

Membership and Sign Ups
In this year of getting active we will encourage You to sign up to various projects and stuff at the Membership in Something table! For one you regiser to vote this year with The Artists For Change Group. You can become a card carrying member of the New! Boring Theoretical Party, a Lumpen organization back in the revolutionary 90s that put out the Workers Newspaper.

a $5 donation will go towards the bands and the New Boring Theoretical Party Fund

Thanks for joining us on this auspicious occasion.