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 »

To describe Dream Theatre Company’s theatrical double-feature “Aelita” and “Shiny Boxes” as two plays is perhaps slightly inaccurate. The two shows, which opened February 4 at Pilsen’s Dream Theatre Company, desperately seek a postmodern audience as they align more with stage dramatizations of abstract, disturbing poetry.

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Chicago’s art scene continues to elude easy characterization, but the creative crosstalk between our own art community and those of smaller Midwestern cities is turning Chicago into a regional center of creative dialogue. Tapping into this teeming reservoir is Pilsen’s No Coast Collective, whose new series of gallery shows, “Exhibitions and Editions,” is devoted to presenting the work of artists from Chicago, the Midwest, and beyond. The series starts off on Saturday, February 13, with an exhibition of work from Minneapolis-based printmakers and designers Danimal and Jes Seamans, entitled “Look Into the Light.” 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 »