Carved ornamental wooden capital in the Auditorium Building, 430 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Adler & Sullivan, architects. Via Atelier Teee on flickr.

James and I headed to Chicago for a few days on an art and architecture vacation. We're also seeing the Chicago Opera Vanguard's production of "Greek" by Mark-Anthony Turnage. We're meeting people for drinks on the 4th. E-mail for details if you would like to join us.

The Civilians are holding their annual performance and benefit party on Friday, April 17th at Galapagos DUMBO. Their current projects include an investigation of the monstrous Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn and its effects on the surrounding communities.

Please join us at the newly reopened Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO for a one-night-only performance created from your stories. After a season spent investigating community in Brooklyn and Colorado Springs, we turn our attention to you and invite you to participate in an original Civilians piece by sharing personal insights about what HOME means to you.

They also have a silent auction page up for bidding. Items include theater memberships and a print by Mixed Greens artist Coke Wisdom O’Neal.

Large poster of Hindenburg during the first ballot of the Reich presidential election, March 13, 1932

I am really enjoying looking through the images provided by the German Federal Archives to Wikimedia Commons. Look at that building! We can barely get anything that modern in New York in 2009!

Louise Fishman, Angry Bertha, 1973, acrylic on paper, 26.5 × 40.25 inches

Next weekend, the Chelsea Symphony (we think they're awesome) is honoring artist Louise Fishman for her 70th birthday. The program includes a new work by Aaron Dai based on a text by poet and former presidential candidate Eileen Myles inspired by Louise's "Angry Paintings".

[photo by James Wagner]

This looks like a great weekend of performance, curated by Chase Granoff and Chris Peck:

LAPS: Live Sh-- Alternative Presenter Fair

Saturday January 10 6-10pm & Sunday January 11 4-8pm

FREE admission, homemade chocolate chip cookies and cheap drinks!

The Chocolate Factory Basement
5-49 49th Avenue
L.I.C., NY 11101
Directions

Live Sh-- invites a number of independent presenters (including performance series, record labels, galleries, and collectives) to share video and documentation from their associated artists in a casual fair format. The event will include informal discussions with presenters from around the country, including institutionally-affiliated guests. LAPS is a direct response and alternative to APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters).

LAPS will likely include the following:

Ana Keilson / the zine
AUNTS
Basekamp
Bowerbird
Catch
Chocolate Factory
Daghdha Dance Company
EkS Scena
Evolving Ear
International Festival
itch journal
Lucky Trimmer / Clint Lutes
MGM Grand
Outpost for Contemporary Art
PAIN / BLIK
Show Box
Throw
and more...

[photo courtesy of Live Sh--]

Velda Setterfield, photo by Steve Gunther

Q: Will he toe the mark?
A: Not if he can find it.

Do NOT miss David Gordon's re-imagining of his 1982 piece "Trying Times" at Dance Theater Workshop through December 20th. Parts of it are hilarious -- as in the quote above during a mock trial of his postmodernist tendencies -- and one duet was so beautiful I got tears in my eyes.

Here is a quote from my current fiction reading, Alisdair Gray's Lanark.

Art is the only work open to people who can't get along with others and still want to be special.

-- Book 3, Chapter 1, Lanark

I came across Gray's work thanks to the political / science fiction writer Ken MacLeod.

We first put up the website, and had a few sites in addition to ArtCal, in August of last year. We've now reached over 40 sites with over 400,000 unique visitors and 1 million page views each month. Here is the official launch press release.

1. Listen to David Behrman. [If you're using a feed reader to see this, you may not see the music widget below.]

2. Go see Half of the People Are Stoned and the Other Half Are Waiting for the Next Election in Brooklyn, July 1 at 8pm. The title of the evening comes from the text of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.

"He loves you, and he needs money!"

"Results like this do not belong on the resumé of a supreme being."

[click here if you don't see the video above]