Chicago Calling

Chicago Calling, Waiting 4 the Bus
Monday, October 4, 2010 (7 p.m.)
Café Ballou
939 N. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 342-2909

admission: free and open to the public

“Chicago Calling, Waiting 4 the Bus,” a Chicago Calling event, happens as part of the Waiting 4 the Bus series. Participants include:

•Matthew Barton (Chicago) and Duane Vorhees (Bangkok)
•Postcard from NYC — Al DeGenova (Chicago), Charlie Rossiter (Chicago), Dan Cox (Albany, NY), and Ralph Murre (Baileys Harbor, WI)
•Lisa Hemminger (San Diego) and Jeff Mroz (Chicago) — poetry and music collaboration
•Wayne Allen Jones (Chicago) and Robert Karimi (Minneapolis) — poetry collaboration
•A Mess O Poems: "from now on, we will NOT have died young" — a poetry collaboration between Elizabeth Marino (Chicago) and Sally Evans (Edinburgh)
•Buddha 309 (Chicago) and Tony Renner (St. Louis) — poetry and visual art collaboration
•Chainpoem, with Marie Countryman (Vermont), Yentz Melanov (Munich), Song Zijiang (Macao), Charlie Newman (Chicago), Francoise La Maline (Buenos Aires), Steven Schroeder (Chicago), Murray One (Calgary), Mindaugas Briedis (Vilnius), Ken Hada (Ada, OK), and David Breeden (Minneapolis)
•Shelley Nation-Watson (Chicago) and Amanda Purdom (Tulsa, OK) — poetry collaboration
•Sid Yiddish (Chicago) and John Hardwick (Bloomington, IN) — musical collaboration

Translating 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 (8 p.m.)
The Reconstruction Room at the Black Rock Bar
3614 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 348-4044

admission: free and open to the public, donations accepted

The Reconstruction Room presents Translating 2010, which explores the theme of “translations” in its wide range of permutations and possibilities: translating matter into energy, poetry into prose, time into memories, the present into the past and the future into the present, sound into words and the page into the air, promises into reality / ideals into facts, pencils into sketches into sculptures, DOS into HTML, 1999 into 2012 into The Long Now, frames into motion, and clouds into rain and water into ice.

Participants and projects to include:

•A Guest Giving Way like Ice Melting: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Laozi — Sou Vai Keng (Macao) and Steven Schroeder (Chicago)
•Erin Teegarden (Chicago), Della Watson (San Francisco), and Eric Cressley (Pittsburgh)
•Brett Foster reads a selection of his English translations of Cecco Angiolieri's poetry
•RaKel Delgado (Barcelona), Saul Aguirre (Chicago), and Luis Humberto Valadez (Chicago)
•Steven Teref (Chicago) reads translations of Serbian poetry
•Recipe Roulette — a collaboration between Catie Olson (Chicago), Meg Duguid (Chicago), and the purveyors of Lovitt Restaurant (Colville, WA)
•Eric Elshtain (Chicago) and Gregory Fraser (Carrollton, Georgia)
•Francesco Levato (Chicago) reads English translations of poems by Tiziano Fratus and Fabiano Alborghetti, and Francesco and Mariela Griffor (Grosse Pointe Farms, MI) give a bilingual reading of her poetry
•Happy 150th Birthday, Jules LaForgue, Piccolo Mountains Repertoire — Sheila E. Murphy (Phoenix), Harry Ross (London), Jenni Olson (California), and Dan Godston (Chicago)

We would like to thank Alliance Française de Chicago and Instituto Italiano di Cultura for their donations.

Aural Architecture
Thursday, October 7, 2010 (7:30 p.m.)
WNUR (89.3 FM)
1877 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
(847) 866-9687

$5 suggested donation for those attending the event, and this can be heard at 89.3FM and on www.wnur.org.

Aural Architecture explores sonic properties of buildings and how natural soundscapes relate to the built environment, and it includes musicians interacting with buildings' sounds. A sculptor will present a sculpture that pertains to this theme, and musicians in remote locations will perform together telematically via Skype, with contributions of audio recordings from inside and around buildings —


•Julia Miller (guitar), Jeff Carter(sculpture), Satya Gummuluri (vocals), Dan Godston (trumpet), Sarah Ritch (cello), Jayve Montgomery (reeds), and Anthony Poretti (drums) at WNUR;
•Berg26 at a 19th Century morgue in Berlin — Annie Goh, Florian Goeschke, Thomas Wochnik, Anna Bäumer, Patrick Muller, Daniela Imhoff, Elen Flügge, Christof Wenta, Damian Rebgetz, and Alexander Sieber;
•Marcos Fernandes and Masashi Heirakuji at the Yamagin Archive (Shimonoseki, Japan);
•audio recording contributions by Barry Blesser, Tony Schwartz and Jimmy Giuffre, and other TBA individuals

I Remember Fred
Friday, October 8, 2010 (9:30 p.m.)
Velvet Lounge
67 E. Cermak Rd.
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 791-9050

admission: $15

I Remember Fred is a concert that celebrates the life and work of the great tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson, who passed away earlier this year. This event is part of the Fifth Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival and Chicago Artists Month. Compositions being commissioned in Fred's memory will be part of this event. Performers to include:

1st set: Paul Hartsaw (tenor and soprano saxophones), Jim Baker (keyboards), Brian Sandstrom (bass), and Damon Short (drums)

2nd set: Douglas Ewart (saxophones), Ed Roberson (poetry), Renée Baker (violin and viola), and special guests

The City as Studio / Curatorial Practice in Four U.S. Cities
Saturday, October 9, 2010 (11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.)
Logan Square Small Arts and Business Incubator
Phantom Gallery Chicago Network Office
2823 N. Milwaukee, 2nd floor
Chicago IL 60618


admission: free and open to the public

Seda Röder / Burton Greene - Harrison Bankhead duo
Saturday, October 9, 2010 (7:00 p.m.)
Curtiss Hall
Fine Arts Building
410 South Michigan Ave., 10th floor
Chicago IL 60605
(312) 291-0000, pianofortechicago@sbcglobal.net

admission: $20, $10 for students

Seda Röder performs music of her native country with Listening to Istanbul: An Encounter with Turkish Contemporary Music. Eclectic composer/pianist Burton Greene (piano) and Harrison Bankhead (upright bass) perform a set of some of Burton's latest music combined with open improvisations. This is the first concert in the Experimental Piano Series. third season; EPS is organized by the Chicago Composers Forum and the Borderbend Arts Collective, in partnership with PianoForte.

Facets of Southeast Asia
Sunday, October 10, 2010 (7 p.m.)
In Your Space, 3rd floor
Zhou B. Art Center
1029 W. 35th St.
Chicago, IL 60609
(773) 523-0200
admission: free and open to the public

You are invited to attend “Facets of Southeast Asia,” a multidisciplinary event that creatively explores dimensions of this dynamic and culturally vibrant region of the world. Participants include:

•Geejay Arriola (Davao City, Philippines) and Cesar Conde (Chicago) — music and painting collaboration
•Duane Vorhees (Bangkok) and Matthew Barton (Chicago) — poetry collaboration
•Mojdeh Stoakley (Chicago) and Kamal Sabran (Malaysia) — poetry and music collaboration
•Manit Sriwanichpoom (Thailand), Jamie Kazay (Chicago), and Tim Armentrout (Ronceverte, WV) — poetry and visual art collaboration
•Basia Toczydlowska (Chicago) gives a presentation about her recent trip to southeast Asia
•Jen Besemer (Chicago) and an As Yet Unnamed artist (Bangkok)

Chicago Equinix
Sunday, October 10, 2010 (9 p.m.)
Soapbox Music
1612 N. Sawyer Ave.
Chicago, IL 60624
(773) 800-0729
admission: free and open to the public

You are invited to attend “Chicago Equinix,” when 60 Hz audio noise will travel 792 miles. New York based artist Eric Laska will create and send the sound of a 60 Hz ground hum from his New York studio to Chicago, a distance of roughly 792 miles. The 60 Hz hum is an instantly familiar sound to musicians and to almost anyone that has dealt with audio electronics in the past 100 years. While often being an annoying and frustrating sound for many, it has rarely been explored as a sound worthy of merit. Eric Laska seeks to elevate the self-esteem of this "noise" by sending it on a journey from New York to Chicago, and taking the time to ensure proper equalization and spatialization of the sound so the listener can experience the fullness and richness of what most people immediately try to eliminate or ignore. Deep listeners take note: digital artifacts, warm tubes, local interference, phase accidents. A global take on a profoundly local phenomenon.

Eric Laska is a New York based artist working in the realms of sound and digital media. He is co-founder of the electroacoustic rar record label with Reed Rosenberg as well as a mainstay of the internet collective Double Happiness. He has engineering credits for The Depreciation Guild album In Her Gentle Jaws.

Soapbox Music is an arts incubator for independent musicians in Chicago, operated by musicians Farsheed Hamidi-Toosi and Brendan Finucane. They provide affordable rehearsal and recording facilities, regular workshops, events, and residency opportunities for independent musicians in the Chicago area.

***

Chicago Calling is organized by the Borderbend Arts Collective, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to promote the arts, to create opportunities for artists to explore new directions in and between art forms, and to engage the community. Annual Borderbend projects include Chicago Calling and the Mingus Awareness Project. Other organizations partner with Borderbend to enrich and extend the reach of its project, such as the Experimental Piano Series, which is co-produced by the Chicago Composers Forum and Borderbend, in partnership with the PianoForte Foundation.

2010 Chicago Calling Arts Festival

During the 2010 Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival, Chicago-based artists collaborate with artists in other locations -- both here in the U.S. and abroad. These collaborations involve a range of art forms -- including music, dance, film, literature, and intermedia -- and they are prepared or improvised. Some Chicago Calling events involve live feeds between Chicago and other locations. 2010 Chicago Calling events include “Bicycles and the Arts” at Happy Dog Gallery, “Translations 2010” at the Reconstruction Room, “Seda Röder / Burton Greene - Harrison Bankhead Duo Concert” at Curtiss Hall, “Temperatures and Shapes” at Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery, “I Remember Fred” at the Velvet Lounge, “Chicago Calling and Waiting for the Bus” at Café Ballou, “Two Way Tarot Mirrors” at Myopic Books, “My Favorite Banned Books Abecedarian Read-Out” at the Logan Square Library, “Aural Architecture” at WNUR, and other events.

Chicago Artists Month

Throughout October, you are invited to meet hundreds of Chicago visual artists at exhibitions, workshops, open studios, tours, neighborhood art walks and more in venues across the city. Presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in collaboration with more than 200 program partners, Chicago Artists Month aims to showcase the extraordinary talent and vibrancy of Chicago’s art community.

This year's theme, "The City as Studio,” explores the impact of the urban environment on Chicago artists and their work, and the contributions that artists make to the vitality of our city. The place where art is imagined and made, whether in a physical or virtual space, affects the idea, the process and the final product. And the art, once created, leaves a mark on the place it occupies. Chicago Artists Month 2010 looks at how the city influences art and artists, and how artists transform the city by contributing to civic dialogue and quality of life.