Curios

Things I like, things I do, things I do that I like

Posts tagged chicago

6 notes &

I love myths, legends, fairy tales, folklore … anything that starts with an oral tradition. They are all so simple and straightforward they give your imagination the chance to fill in the gaps and flush out the world. The great illustrators of this genre have always been equally inspiring to me. Gustave Dore with his bleak and creepy carvings of Grimm’s fairy tales or Biblical stories always puts me in a very particular mood but I also love the big bright and colorful fantasies that bring out the magic of these stories. I’m really digging Chicago native Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931) today. She dropped out of high school to attend the art institute as a teen then dropped out of the art institute to care for her mother. By 19 she was supporting her family on illustration commissions. I love looking at these and imagining that all the androgynous heroes and princes she draws with their 1920’s paige boy haircuts, red cheeks and colorful eyes are really flapper heroines taking charge. Like this one where Louise Brooks slays a dragon: See more of Virginia’s work here: http://www.gallery.oldbookart.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1461And read more about her here:http://sterrett.artpassions.net/virginia_sterrett.html

I love myths, legends, fairy tales, folklore … anything that starts with an oral tradition. They are all so simple and straightforward they give your imagination the chance to fill in the gaps and flush out the world. The great illustrators of this genre have always been equally inspiring to me.

Gustave Dore with his bleak and creepy carvings of Grimm’s fairy tales or Biblical stories always puts me in a very particular mood but I also love the big bright and colorful fantasies that bring out the magic of these stories.

I’m really digging Chicago native Virginia Frances Sterrett (1900-1931) today. She dropped out of high school to attend the art institute as a teen then dropped out of the art institute to care for her mother. By 19 she was supporting her family on illustration commissions.

I love looking at these and imagining that all the androgynous heroes and princes she draws with their 1920’s paige boy haircuts, red cheeks and colorful eyes are really flapper heroines taking charge.

Like this one where Louise Brooks slays a dragon:

See more of Virginia’s work here:
http://www.gallery.oldbookart.com/main.php?g2_itemId=1461
And read more about her here:
http://sterrett.artpassions.net/virginia_sterrett.html

Filed under fairy tales Illustration Virginia Frances Sterrett Chicago art institute

6 notes &

Super Human is hosting a benefit to raise money for Chicago Women’s Health Center who is moving into a new Uptown location in early 2013. Check out this line up!Super Human with special guest Katie RichGreg Holliman and Marz TimmsWes PerrySkinny Jeansand your host for the evening Ashley Thornton November 27th 10pm at Studio BeFREE!! (all donations go to benefit the CWHC) Facebook event

Super Human is hosting a benefit to raise money for Chicago Women’s Health Center who is moving into a new Uptown location in early 2013.

Check out this line up!
Super Human with special guest Katie Rich
Greg Holliman and Marz Timms
Wes Perry
Skinny Jeans
and your host for the evening Ashley Thornton

November 27th 10pm at Studio Be
FREE!! (all donations go to benefit the CWHC)

Facebook event

Filed under Chicago Womens Health Center chicago comedy chicago comedy get wet Super Human Studio Be ladies Wes perry Greg Holliman Marz Timms Ashley Thornton Katie RIch

2 notes &

I’m excited about this!

I perform with the Rhythm Method, a musical improv group. Every other month we play on Mondays at the Playground with Bella to raise money for a different charity. This month I picked the charity and it’s the Chicago Women’s Health Center a non-profit committed to providing women and trans people access to health care services in respectful environment where clients pay what they can afford.

They have a matching grant so they will get DOUBLE anything we raise this month at the Playground. Come by and see us and the hilarious Bella and donate to this incredible organization!

CWHC provides access to gynecological health care, alternative insemination, health education, counseling services, acupuncture, and massage services.  CWHC provides care and services that people in Chicago need, but often cannot find anywhere else. Since opening their doors in 1975, CWHC’s programs have been shaped by clients’ needs for accessible, high quality health care. CWHC provides services to more than 6,000 clients annually.

Filed under CWHC chicago women's health center rhythm method improv comedy chicago

5 notes &

I’m crazy lucky because Sunday I got to see the opening night of the Hypocrite’s rendition of The Pirates of Penzance. My parents were excellent at making sure my sisters and I had a comprehensive cultural education. We may have been wearing our boy cousin’s hand me downs but the three of us knew pas de chats from Impressionists, Ann Margarets from  Jove/Zeuses and all the words to A Chorus Line before we hit double digits. A controversial piece of family history revolves around a trip to the theater to see Pirates of Penzance. My parents have no recollection of this but that evening there were 3 fire drills. THREE! On an already impossibly long show. On a school night! We all had to evacuate the theater, stand outside in the cold and wait to be given the go ahead to go back inside, sit down and listen to a hundred year old patter song. Misery. Although now that I think about it, maybe there were only 2 and the third disruption was intermission. In any case, Gilbert and Sullivan always left a foul taste in my mouth. Even though I love Mike Leigh it took 10 years for me to watch Topsy Turvy because goddamn. Few things make me have to pee from annoyance more than their music (the score to the Third Man has a similar effect on my bladder). This is all compounded by the fact that my parents pushed the film version with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt on us and one year for Christmas I got a book of all the words from every Gilbert and Sullivan play. Oh the hot tears that would not fall. My friend Zeke texted the other day asking if I wanted to see him in Pirates of Penzance. Absolutely. Especially now that I’m a grown woman and hardly ever find myself peeing out of frustration. Long story longer, the show was amazing and I am dying to get back and see it again. The atmosphere and energy were unique and infectious and the staging that required us to walk around the space to see it from as many different ways as possible was just fun as hell. Set pieces like beach balls and plastic pools (for staging and percussion) were used so well the whole thing felt natural. Like its the most natural thing in the world to be in this party basement on a Sunday afternoon watching people tear it up G&S style. The show is crisp and tight and everyone is so good its sick. Did I mention they play their own instruments?? Including a cooler? I had no idea I had so many songs from PoP lying dormant in my subconscious and that is a testament to my parent’s relentless advocacy of comic opera. By the end of the show when the actors snapped in place and sang a gorgeous reprise of Hail Poety acapella I cried a little. It was just so good.

I’m crazy lucky because Sunday I got to see the opening night of the Hypocrite’s rendition of The Pirates of Penzance.

My parents were excellent at making sure my sisters and I had a comprehensive cultural education. We may have been wearing our boy cousin’s hand me downs but the three of us knew pas de chats from Impressionists, Ann Margarets from  Jove/Zeuses and all the words to A Chorus Line before we hit double digits. A controversial piece of family history revolves around a trip to the theater to see Pirates of Penzance. My parents have no recollection of this but that evening there were 3 fire drills. THREE! On an already impossibly long show. On a school night! We all had to evacuate the theater, stand outside in the cold and wait to be given the go ahead to go back inside, sit down and listen to a hundred year old patter song. Misery. Although now that I think about it, maybe there were only 2 and the third disruption was intermission. In any case, Gilbert and Sullivan always left a foul taste in my mouth. Even though I love Mike Leigh it took 10 years for me to watch Topsy Turvy because goddamn. Few things make me have to pee from annoyance more than their music (the score to the Third Man has a similar effect on my bladder). This is all compounded by the fact that my parents pushed the film version with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt on us and one year for Christmas I got a book of all the words from every Gilbert and Sullivan play. Oh the hot tears that would not fall.

My friend Zeke texted the other day asking if I wanted to see him in Pirates of Penzance. Absolutely. Especially now that I’m a grown woman and hardly ever find myself peeing out of frustration.

Long story longer, the show was amazing and I am dying to get back and see it again. The atmosphere and energy were unique and infectious and the staging that required us to walk around the space to see it from as many different ways as possible was just fun as hell. Set pieces like beach balls and plastic pools (for staging and percussion) were used so well the whole thing felt natural. Like its the most natural thing in the world to be in this party basement on a Sunday afternoon watching people tear it up G&S style. The show is crisp and tight and everyone is so good its sick. Did I mention they play their own instruments?? Including a cooler?

I had no idea I had so many songs from PoP lying dormant in my subconscious and that is a testament to my parent’s relentless advocacy of comic opera. By the end of the show when the actors snapped in place and sang a gorgeous reprise of Hail Poety acapella I cried a little. It was just so good.

Filed under the hypocrites pirates of penzance patter song gilbert and sullivan awesome chicago plays theater reviews

0 notes &

I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick is at Ginger’s Ale House every Monday night in October starting tonight! Come down, it’s free. Shit is going to get worked out on stage tonight.

I Think I’m Gonna Be Sick is at Ginger’s Ale House every Monday night in October starting tonight!


Come down, it’s free. Shit is going to get worked out on stage tonight.

Filed under improv Chicago