If you want to pay lots of money in exchange for being asked increasingly obscure and intellectual questions that will leave you hunched over the bar counter, drunk, broke, and brainless, Hyde Park is the place you’re looking for. The University of Chicago Pub, in the basement of Ida Noyes (1212 E. 59th), hosts an intensely competitive trivia night every Tuesday at 8pm that requires participants to draw upon their knowledge of Malaysian geography, Romantic novelists, and theoretical physics, as well as the trivia standards of one-hit wonders and Bears scores. The rewards are high—a cash prize for first place, in addition to random free appetizers and Pub merchandise—but they come at a price: each participant must pay $3 to enter, and the bar is open only to University affiliates and their guests after buying a $10 membership or paying a $3 cover. Read the rest of this entry »

All the surfaces in the lobby of Pilsen’s EP Theater are covered in vinyl, chipped polish, and at least seven layers of irony. The decorators of this room seem to have taken their cues from effete Victorian imagery and coupled it with the limp-wristed flamboyance of ’70s chic. So it came as no surprise that, before the Lights Out Theatre Company’s performance last Friday of Justin Tracz’s “Song For A Future Generation,” a woman emerged from behind the cardboard backdrop and welcomed the twenty or so audience members with the introduction: “This play is about a dance party in space, so let’s make some noise, alright?” Read the rest of this entry »

On the ground lies Geoffrey, a cat who has seen better days. His limbs are splayed out and his skin is peeled off. The apparatus that killed Geoffrey is constructed from simple materials: a plastic bag, an air mattress pump, hair, epoxy, and packaging tape. The bag is appended to the twisted form of the animal and can be inflated from underneath in a novel method of torture that only uses household materials. A table, strewn with makeshift construction materials—Styrofoam cups, a plastic fan, clothespins—faces a wall filled with sketches for various other devices. The macabre scene is part of “Inland Architect,” the new installation piece by artist Chris Smith at Pilsen’s antena gallery. Read the rest of this entry »

“After he cuts the kid’s arm off and the blood spurts everywhere, then you’re gonna roar, oh and you—you roll around this way…and you—when they fall you’re just gonna twirl the baton on down to the ground…”

This is not usual office banter. This is not an ordinary office. This is not an ordinary workday. Have You Seen These Kids (HYSTK) is not an ordinary company. Read the rest of this entry »

At a damp and dark hour in Pilsen, a few people stand in a semi-circle in the window of a storefront, drinking hot chocolate with whiskey. Over the course of a couple of hours, the group fluctuates. Artists and friends tenacious enough to brave the slush and ice come in and out, clutching warm Styrofoam cups. This is the opening celebration for “Street Level,” a series of art installations in the windows of seven storefronts that will be visible from the street to anyone who walks down Halsted between 18th and 19th Streets this February. Read the rest of this entry »

Lines are being blurred in the Chicago art scene. As demonstrated by last Saturday’s Artist Run Spaces Tour, organized by the Hyde Park Art Center, the divisions between artist and curator, studio and gallery, office and home really aren’t so defined after all. The Artist Run Spaces Tour represents HPAC’s contribution to the year-long Studio Chicago project, a collaborative project that seeks to celebrate methods and places of artistic production. Read the rest of this entry »

A lamprey is a parasite that feeds on underbellies. But in Chicago, the Lampreys are whoever is in the kitchen of Kenneth Morrison. That kitchen, though, and the building that once enclosed it, no longer exist. Morrison, Michelle Faust, and Nat Ward, the trio who started the Chicago artists’ society the Ever-So-Secret Order of the Lamprey, lost all their possessions recently in the December 17 fire that destroyed their home and the nerve-center of the Lampreys, a building in Pilsen they had christened the Whale.

For ten years, the Ever-So-Secret Order of the Lamprey has met under the auspices of a word, and, until the fire, in the depths of the Whale. Visitors to the Whale were unpredictable and members in the society changed depending on the week. The society was never a secret and there are no requirements for membership. It is characterized by the unexpected. Read the rest of this entry »

In its combination of Mexican family recipes and a focus on freshness and new styles, DeColores Galeria y Sabores marries the two sides of Pilsen. The restaurant occupies two stories with complementing characters: a brightly lit, livelier first floor and a quieter second floor with softer lighting. Since DeColores doubles as a gallery, it is no surprise that the whole interior is very tastefully decorated. Earth-colored walls, modestly elegant furniture, and some fine details like the woodwork along the stairway all add to the comfortable, yet classy atmosphere. Talented local artists, of whom there are many, provide the artwork for DeColores’s gallery endeavor. If any should catch your eye, they’re all available for sale. Also for sale are posters of a Mexican take on Rosie the Riveter that are displayed on both floors; a woman in a white blouse declaring, “¡Sí se puede!” Read the rest of this entry »