tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:10:37 +0000reconstruction room reading series bloghttp://www.recroomers.com/blogindex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)Blogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-6234540769327974030Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:05:00 +00002009-12-01T16:10:37.982-06:00This post is a little belated, but happy birthday to Erin!First off, let me say that I still can't see what's so sad about a woman turning 32, or why it would sound like a sad trombone. Do men turning 32 also sound like sad trombones? I know I'm just a humorless old (I am 32, you know) curmudgeon, so I guess I just don't get the joke.But that's OK, because the sad trombone show was a hit. We http://www.recroomers.com/2009/12/sad-trombone.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-9146789236840998249Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:39:00 +00002009-10-02T10:05:09.979-05:00Eric Elshtain's Sonneteering show was a wonderful showcase of talent and poetry. I really do love that rec room allows for experimentation and collaboration in performance in ways that many other reading series do not, but every once in awhile I really appreciate a show that is just focused on the writing, and good writing at that.Even focused on a single form--the sonnet--no two poems sounded http://www.recroomers.com/2009/10/sonneteering-september-02-2009.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-9176640352677824638Sat, 19 Sep 2009 03:24:00 +00002009-09-18T22:34:31.674-05:00Hey, you guys? Remember that movie called "Summer School" starring Mark Harmon (now of NCIS fame)? Yeah, neither do I. But what I do remember is Cassie Sparkman's incredible rec room show by the same name.Cassie brought together writers & actors to interpret the writing of the students she works with. In some cases, writers used the students' poems as inspiration, writing responses or imitations http://www.recroomers.com/2009/09/summer-school.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-3645877245962388060Sat, 19 Sep 2009 02:33:00 +00002009-09-18T21:42:56.614-05:00I didn't want to list performers for this show because it was unlike our regular shows. There was no separation of audience and performer; we were all just guests. Nic invited each of us to come out that night and give a toast to whatever we wanted to toast. And even though she asked us not tom, how could we help but toast to her?This summer rec room has said goodbye to some very close friends. http://www.recroomers.com/2009/09/bottoms-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-9054356281186666371Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:42:00 +00002009-07-19T20:00:43.243-05:00A couple of months ago Katie Hartsock put together an amazing show featuring a range of performers and performances. I don't think anyone who was there could have walked away without having heard at least one--and most likely several--pieces to really like. Unfortunately, as things sometimes go, it took me too long to update this website to really do the show justice in this blog post. I'm unablehttp://www.recroomers.com/2009/07/wont-you-be-my-neighbor.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-1366387544941091961Wed, 06 May 2009 16:18:00 +00002009-05-06T11:20:25.134-05:00Tonight Wednesday, May 6th, rec room presents: "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"Curated by: Katie HartsockShow description: It’s a beautiful day for a neighbor—except when it’s not. Whether we live lawns away or narrow alleys apart, we’re exposed to—sometimes literally—a spectrum of experience through the people we arbitrarily spend most of our lives beside, above, or below. Rec Room invites readers tohttp://www.recroomers.com/2009/05/flag-this-message-reminder-wont-you-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-6945503779308674653Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:50:00 +00002009-04-24T09:09:16.460-05:00Two months ago rec room did a reading panel at the AWP conference here in Chicago. Della Watson, Krista Franklin, Erin Teegarden, Allison Gruber, Nicolette Bond and I were on the panel. Afterward we had a lot of people tell us what a great panel it was, how much they enjoyed it, how it was the most incredible thing AWP had ever offered and they were honored to be there (that might be an http://www.recroomers.com/2009/04/rec-room-shout-outs.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-2554345748467712773Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:12:00 +00002009-04-24T08:36:45.347-05:00Rather than write a recap of a great night, or try to come up with some vaguely relevant anecdote of my own, I asked Erin for permission to post the essay she read at the Five Alive show. She did such a great job of laying out our history and what we're doing (or trying to do). And, if you love rec room, I think you should take an opportunity to tell her how much you appreciate the work she puts http://www.recroomers.com/2009/04/five-alive-rec-rooms-5-year-anniversary.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-6924391125964790711Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:53:00 +00002009-03-17T18:56:44.357-05:00When I think of TV in the 80s, I think of the many things I missed out on. It’s not that I’m too old or too young—I’m in fact perfectly-aged to have been raised by television in the 1980s. The problem was that my family lived at the bottom of a valley, surrounded on all sides by wooded hills. We had a glorious TV antenna that reached up way past the house in hopes of catching those precious waveshttp://www.recroomers.com/2009/03/you-give-me-growing-pains-theodore.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-2991462239450977586Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:33:00 +00002009-02-22T20:42:42.806-06:00Erin and I repeated our mantra for the week with the conviction of religious ascetics. Because really, as you should know, it is All. About. Me.So it is no surprise that Rec Room was all over the place over the AWP weekend. First, on Thursday afternoon, Erin Teegarden joined folks from several other Chicago reading series on a panel discussing "Chicago's Literary Landscape." Later in the evening http://www.recroomers.com/2009/02/awp-its-all-about-me.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-2340136622580489979Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:44:00 +00002009-01-04T17:51:25.486-06:00There were two things that stood out about the rec room show on December 3. The first is that it was freaking freezing the back room of the bar, and the second, more importantly, is that the show was one of the funniest, entertaining and interesting shows I’ve seen anywhere.For a lot of people, speaking in front of an audience is unthinkable, let alone reading your own creative work in front of http://www.recroomers.com/2009/01/reading-bondage-only-microphone-was.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-8041330391932695491Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:22:00 +00002008-12-04T11:23:17.878-06:00It was the day after an historic day. And, like all days after historic days, people were tired and hungover. It’s something you have to concede when you have a literary performance show on Nov. 5, 2008. So, though the turn out for “Concession” was a little poor, the enthusiasm from the performers more than compensated. In addition to gathering Chicago performers, our curator, Miki Howald, got http://www.recroomers.com/2008/12/concession-november-5-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-7903028376590778424Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:50:00 +00002008-10-29T19:55:04.072-05:00When Dan asked to do a show at Rec Room as part of the 3rd Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, we knew immediately what a great idea it was. CCAF featured Chicago-based artists collaborating in performances and projects with artists living in other locations — both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations will be prepared or improvised, and some performances will involve live feeds http://www.recroomers.com/2008/10/chicago-calling-october-1-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-2827355518440025763Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:56:00 +00002008-09-28T19:57:41.348-05:00<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; http://www.recroomers.com/2008/09/in-other-wordsin-other-worlds-september.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-6936089220525762967Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:06:00 +00002008-08-20T16:07:05.045-05:00On Monday I took some vacation time and made my way over to the Lincoln Park Zoo. I’d never been there before and was skeptical of how an entire zoo could be built in the middle of a place like Lincoln Park. I have mixed feelings about the zoo—on the one hand, zoos educate people, nurse sick animals back to health, and expose people to wonderful creatures they’d otherwise never see, on the other http://www.recroomers.com/2008/08/cute-august-6-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-7562063074596936448Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:04:00 +00002008-08-20T16:05:59.064-05:00Hey everyone-I just wanted to remind you that we have moved to a monthly format, rather than bi-weekly. Rec Room shows will now be the first Wednesday of every month. Our next show is September 3 at 8:00 p.m. at Black Rock. See you there!http://www.recroomers.com/2008/08/rec-room-moves-to-monthly-format.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-4317863231586601590Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:58:00 +00002008-08-12T21:08:22.574-05:00(a letter to Olivia)Olivia- I am so, so sorry, but we lost the pictures from this show. There was a slight tragedy involving a lost memory card from the camera. It's unfair, really, because so many of rec room's old friends were back; it was like a family reunion!The show was a lot fun, too, and again I apologize not having pictures to document it all. But we heard work ranging from stories abouthttp://www.recroomers.com/2008/08/erotics-for-weirdos-aesthetics-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-47835333852141389Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:17:00 +00002008-07-14T16:18:40.566-05:00Dear rec roomer,Imagine women standing with their hands on their hips. Imagine men dressed like the Fonz. Picture a women sneezing, or a man repeatedly pushing the gas pedal. Visualize a woman making dinner, then dumping it on the floor and walking through the mess.Does any of that turn you on?If so, you're not alone. Google "weird fetishes" and you'll come across some of these specialized "http://www.recroomers.com/2008/07/erotics-for-weirdos-at-rr-june-16.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-3242236472891249267Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:04:00 +00002008-07-14T14:10:34.901-05:00Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in posts. Summer is full-on and that means holidays, road trips and general forgetfulness any time the weather is nice.In case you missed it as I did, (I spent the evening sitting with a friend in Northwestern Hospital's ER--he turned out to be fine) the June 18, 2008 rec room show was a riot. How do I know this? Rumors. Anyway, I can't write too much on it http://www.recroomers.com/2008/07/hey-everyone-sorry-for-delay-in-posts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-1098214835524761678Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:40:00 +00002008-06-17T09:41:38.971-05:00Today at the Andersonville street fair as I was leaving, a cover band was singing that 80s hit, “500 miles”. And the cover was just so-so, but it didn’t matter. As my friend and I walked out, everyone in the crowd was DAh dada DAh – ing right along, mouthing the lyrics into their beers and at their friends. I even saw one woman singing into her cell (insert eye roll here) and, in spite of my http://www.recroomers.com/2008/06/great-american-songbirds-june-4-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-3658543488993721757Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:18:00 +00002008-06-13T16:19:42.419-05:00Dear rec roomer,Have you ever tried to paint an opera, dance a photograph, sing a statue?This Wednesday at rec room, poets open themselves up to interpretation, and improvisers set themselves up for failure or glory, as we present a one-of-a-kind poetry/improv collaboration, "Your Way With Words Makes Me Act A Fool". Join us at black rock June 18 at 8 p.m. for a night where lyric poetry spawns http://www.recroomers.com/2008/06/your-way-with-words-makes-me-act-fool.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-5670352254641043759Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:55:00 +00002008-06-09T16:59:23.072-05:00Did you ever play that game where you look at people and try to decide what kind of animal they look like? For example, I went to grad school with a lemur, an orange cat, a gander, and a bull, and I also knew someone who was an ewok (I’m not sure if that counts as animal or not, though). My best friend from high school always told me that I looked like a stuffed squirrel with shiny glass eyes, http://www.recroomers.com/2008/06/bestiarum-vocabulum-may-21-2008.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-1474969044076502775Tue, 20 May 2008 17:34:00 +00002008-05-20T12:35:16.708-05:00Dear rec roomer,I once had a penny goldfish (Hermie) who lived 12 years. Other than that, I've never really had any pets, or formed any bonds with animals. Probably my favorite animal as a kid was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8aGlOj2VFo&feature=related.Nothing against animals, I'm really just more of a children and houseplants kinda girl. So this Wednesday, May 21 @ 8 p.m., as rec http://www.recroomers.com/2008/05/bestiarum-vocabulum-at-rec-room-may-21.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-8030570272176251783Sun, 18 May 2008 21:47:00 +00002008-05-19T17:31:15.918-05:00wordsmaybebeverly, we don't know. What we do know is that rec room's May 7th show, curated by Beverly Nelson, made for a delightful evening filled with thoughtful and entertaining performances. We weren’t just celebrating words and music and sound and movement, we also celebrated Beverly’s 55th birthday. Between honeybees and bats, Alex’s crooning, poems, quartets and Beverly’s raucously http://www.recroomers.com/2008/05/wordsmaybe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (recroom)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4919324896178434523.post-205734502253402373Wed, 07 May 2008 15:08:00 +00002008-05-07T10:10:41.776-05:00Dear rec roomer, What is the sound of one word clapping? What is the word for one clap sounding? What the clap is one sound, wording?? To (maybe) find out, come to black rock Wednesday, May 7 at 8 p.m. for: wordsmaybemusic, curated by Beverly Nelson. Description: wordsmaybemusic. we don't know. we are explorers. our intentions are to probe magnify scrutinize analyze or otherwise mess with any http://www.recroomers.com/2008/05/rec-room-wed-may-7.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (et)1