June 2006 Archives

On Sunday, I installed several photos at Flying Saucer on California, and wandered home from Humboldt Park through the side streets of Ukrainian Village, where crucifixes are in bloom.

Mark Tardi is from Chicago, Illinois. His first book, Euclid Shudders, is published by Litmus Press. Recently, two chapbooks have appeared: Airport music from Bronze Skull Press, and Part First-----Chopin's Feet from g o n g. He has served as an editor at Dalkey Archive Press, and is currently the book review and essay editor for Aufgabe. His work can be found in Antennae, Bird Dog, Conundrum, and Traverse.



Dear Peter,

Can you calculate an exact weight for a whisper? Is nudity a

SIXTY-EIGHT / TWENTY-EIGHT
The Life and Times of a Texas Writer and a Flat Top Box Guitar
By Vince Bell; vince bell.com

Something fascinates about a piece of gear, how we grow fond of it and come to rely on it as a friend. More than a tool, it becomes a repository of memories, times, and adventures shared together. This is especially true of boats and musical instruments, of old pickup trucks… and weapons. For Vince Bell his guitar is a weapon; he calls it the cannon. The guitar is a Martin D-28, the ‘D’ standing for dreadnaught, named after a battleship.

I recently received this in my email and I just couldn't resist posting it here. What with all the seriousness around these parts regarding really serious stuff I just thought a little schoolyard humor would do us all some good. I think some of these guys may have been clients if mine.

Truth is truly stranger than fiction.

1). A site called 'Who represents' where you can find the name of the
agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name is:
www.whorepresents.com

28 september 1932 - 24 june 2006

Sharkforum is pleased to announce the addition of John Haber to our ranks. John is an art critic from New York City. We hope you'll enjoy his writing as much as we do. - "Ed."

When an artist dies young, one wants always to remember her that way, as if she never could grow old. Everything she did comes weighted down with mortality and promise. However, she also remains oddly accessible. I feel I could still go up to her at an opening without apologizing too much. I could congratulate her, thank her for the inspiration, and ask how she ever pulled it off. What exactly goes into those thick, creepy constructions, other than fear and pleasure?

There's change in the air in Chicago, and it's not the hot political variety which gave the city its oft-misunderstood nick-name. The Architrouve is opening tonight in grand fashion - a welcome tonic to the often stultifying scenesterism that is the Chicago art scene. With an m.o. which "embraces and supports the creative process," The Architrouve promises great things both analogue and virtual. Stay tuned for more.

The opening show "Chicago Representation" features five local artists, including Sharkforum's own David Roth, who will be exhibiting works both new and old, and for the first time in over a decade. Details follow.

"Chicago Representation": Premier Exhibition featuring five Chicago artists
Urszula Lukaszuk, Michael Pajon, Jason Peot, David Roth, Peter Stanfield
The Architrouve
1433 West Chicago Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60622
V: 312.563.0977
Friday, June 23, 2006
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Some of these pieces will be on display at the architrouve, a new multi-disciplinary exhibition space opening on at 1433 Chicago Avenue.

He means, I think, there's an out,

One of our two Chief Founding Sharks, Wesley Kimler is featured in a hard-hitting and stimulating interview over at Bad at Sports.

Sara Hickman is my sister, angel, muse, hero, friend.
Sara has been known to go to department stores,
buy up a bunch of blankets
and take them personally to the homeless during the cold Winter nights.
She is also very involved in numerous charities and human rights issues...
Is a very hands on mom....
She loves to still write letters to the people she loves, in this age of e-mails.....
She is also one hell of a writer, singer & guitarist!
Sara has a new DOUBLE CD out JUNE 20, 2006.
It is a great CD and has a moody disc and a happy disc to fit you either way.
So here is a motherload of photos from our recent years as friends.

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Joanna Fuhrman’s poetry has appeared in such publications as New American Writing, American Letters and Commentary, Conduit, Lit, and Lungfull!, as well as in three collections of her own, Freud in Brooklyn (2000), Ugh Ugh Ocean (2003), and Moraine (2006) all published by Hanging Loose Press. She has taught writing on many different levels, from homeless shelters to the University of Washington, and also served as a readings coordinator for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church. She lives in Brooklyn.

You Should Have Been There for the Hangover! Moraine

I was all geeked out
in my "Poetry Rules!" T-shirt
and kneepads when the rain

A letter to my friend and former drummer (GK) whom I love.
...and a meditation on the vagueries of creativity and the devil's bargain and the constant confusion of love and inspiration...

Glenn,

Finally listened to your fine “Mobile” and I need to write, not because you need my opinion but because you took such obvious loving care making the record and some feedback seems like the very least you deserve. Also, your note – so carefully and humorously and intelligently worded, says in closing “I hope you like some of this.” Presumably this is because you know that experimental music sometimes leaves me unmoved. So, at some point we might have a lively debate about all of this. In the meantime, just this letter.

But I must confess to some slight rapacious envy given the magnitude and angle of trajectory.

The Collapsible Kunsthalle
from June 25th to September 17th 2006
will be presenting Pas tout seul!
Two solo installations by artists Steve Litsios and Mark Staff Brandl

Sharkforum's very own Dave Roth and his band the issues play their first club gig in a while.

Wednesday, June 14 2006, 8:00 PM $6.00
Martyrs' Live
3855 N. Lincoln Avenue
773.404.9494
hhhhh

Long before we started Sharkforum Mike Westerfield was cutting prodigious trails through the cyber-wilderness with his web-based radio station "Sisyphus Tracks." In addition to providing excellent broadcasting of such brilliants as Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt and the like, he has also provided more than one broadcast to up-and-comers such as yours truly. In fact, I believe so strongly in the value of this thing that I'll personally send a copy of my last disc "Fear Not The Breakdown" to anyone who pledges $60 or more. (That's a bonus - you still get to pick one of their premiums if I'm clear on that.)

It's precisely this type of application that we support here at Sharkforum, and it would be a damn shame if Mike had to pull the plug due to lack of support. Following is information on his pledge drive - please give what you can.

STRR Summer Pledge Drive: Your $ support is critical to STRR's rolling our stone not only over the coming months, but days. We are lagging well behind not only our modest goal, but our short-term needs simply to stay afloat; we thus are pulling out all stops to get your attention, and have added new book/DVD choices, in addition to the Dylan-related titles, for Stone Gold and up pledges (Willie Nelson's new book, The Tao of WIllie, and the DVD of the fascinating study of Townes Van Zandt, Be Here to Love Me), as well as an additional book - Peter Guralnick's classic Lost Highway - for Touchstone pledges. In addition, all new or renewing members will receive from 6 - 20 CDs (updated to include many of the new releases we're currently playing) to further thank you for your support. You may direct all questions to pledge@sisyphustracks.com, and you may email us your pledge (and premium) choices this way as well.

Membership Types and General Info
DVD/Book Premiums Detailed Info
CD Premium Selection List
Pledge Now

Tyehimba Jess' book of poetry leadbelly was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series, published by Verse Press in Fall, 2005. A Cave Canem and NYU alumni, he received a Literature Fellowship from the NEA in 2004. He won the 2001 Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in Poetry for 2001, and the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award. His non-fiction book African American Pride: Celebrating our Achievements, Contributions, and Legacy (Citadel Press) was published in 2003. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

John Lomax’s Recording Machine, 1933

350 lbs. of metal mockingbird,
hostage in the hold of a beat up ford,
i jerk across time’s dark ocean of heat

Queens Reigns Supreme
Anchor Books, 240 pp., $12.95

The full hip hop story in all its detailed and messy glory has yet to be told. Just as the murders of Tupac and Biggie Smalls and Jam Master Jay (of Run DMC) remain unsolved, the backstory of the last 20 years remains largely shrouded in rumor and doubt.

Even Bloomberg News is saying that the "Shortlist Is Shocking for Absence of Shock Value."

The Tate has announced the four artists who have been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2006. The artists are Tomma Abts, Phil Collins, Mark Titchner and Rebecca Warren. (Don't forget that all-important sponsor by-line: The Turner Prize 2006 is supported by the makers of Gordon’s gin.) And Abts is a painter!

To benefit ACM’s (Another Chicago Magazine’s) forthcoming 30th anniversary anthology, two of the city’s oldest literary journals host an all-night variety show featuring readings of poetry and action by John Beer, Robyn Schiff, Dan Beachy-Quick, Simone Muench, Peter Markus, and Chris
Glomski.

Special musical guests for the night are djs Birdie Num Num and The Aspirin Kid, Aras & The Volodkas, and The Judy Green.
Sponsored by Poetry & ACM. This is a special event to celebrate the Chicago literary community. Tickets are $5.

WHEN: Monday, June 12, 7pm
WHERE: The Hideout, 1354 West Wabansia
Music and readings will be staggered throughout the evening. Tickets are $5.
All proceeds to fund acm’s 30th anniversary anthology.

I’m allergic to hornets. And the first notes from Gideon Freudmann’s grungy, grinding cello on his new album make the hair on the back of my neck stand up with the memory of the time I stepped on a hornet’s nest in Vermont back in the early seventies. I soon turned pasty white (much like the face of Cesare, the somnambulist villain of this classic film) and began to swoon as the venom from twenty-five to thirty hornet bites rushed to my brain. Haunted and eerie, this soundtrack blends old world folk melodies with Freudmann’s neo-metal cello improvisations, augmented by some tasteful accordion, drums and a variety of percussion.

Groucho: "Well whadaya say girls? Are we all gonna get married?"
Woman: "All of us? But that's bigamy!"
Groucho: "Yes and it's big of me too. It'll be big of us!"

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The Defining Moment
by Jonathan Alter
pp. 366, pub. by Simon and Schuster $26.00

As many books as have been written about Franklin Roosevelt, people today seem oddly unaware of his significant contributions to America at a time when society was unravelling. Having navigated the country through both the Great Depression and World War II, it would seem that Roosevelt's place in the collective American memory would be larger and more vivid.

Chuck Palahniuk is a very nice man living in a very strange world. If you are a reader or fan of his, you know exactly what I mean. If not, the following description may help. Chuck begins his new novel, “Haunted,” with a story he swears is true. He says he heard it from a guy in a sex-addict’s support group. Chuck was attending these 12-step-style meetings in order to do research for his excellent novel, “Choke.” This early chapter in “Haunted,” titled “Guts,” is about a chronic masturbator whose favorite place to pull on himself is at the bottom of the backyard swimming pool. The lack of oxygen underwater lends itself well to autoerotic asphyxia. He squats over the grate leading to the pool’s vacuum pump and it feels to him like his asshole is being sucked as he goes about his other business. One day, as he finishes up, our narrator discovers that a snake has emerged from the vacuum pump and attached itself to his ass. If he cannot get to the surface of the pool he will drown. He looks at the snake holding him captive. It is a long, thick, gray tube of flesh. He sees inside the tube a bright orange Motrin tablet, some kernels of corn, some peanuts. It is then that he realizes no snake has come out of the pool filter to snag him. Rather, he is looking at his own large intestine, sucked out of his bowel and tethering him to the pool bottom. He then chews through his own intestine in order not to drown.

Tokyo based photographer Rikki Kasso has several regularly updated blogs online. Tokyo Undressed is one of these projects. In the tradition of Araki Nobuyoshi, Rikki juxtaposes 'typical' snapshots with highly sexualized photographs to create a compelling emotional tension.

Subterranean
2011 North Ave.
Coupleskate, STAR, The Elevens, The Patent Clerks
Tuesday, June 6
8:30pm, 21+, $6

This show is part of Music with Meaning 7 which benefits Rape Victim Advocates and America's Second Harvest you can find out more about it at www.themachinemedia.com

Sharkforum's very own Andrea Bauer is in Coupleskate. Word is she's no relation to Jack. - ed.

Catherine Wing grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, on a street bounded by two florists, one cemetery, and a Carnegie library. She received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.F.A. from the University of Washington. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Chicago Review, Field, and Poetry. Enter Invisible (Woodford Reserve Series in Kentucky Literature) published by Sarabande Books is her debut collection.


Hecuba to Him

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