Filed by Lance at 2:36 pm under Fightin' Words, General, Hatemail, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Tip Your Waiter is hosting a recording session for our ongoing, collaborative project called Hatemail on the last Sunday of every month, and here’s what happening this time around:
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 7:58 pm under Pop Culture, Shameless Plugs, Social Issues, The Arts
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Good people of Cyberspace, prithee, look to the right side of thy screen and hark! You’ll notice we are holding an open recording session for actors to read some hatemail for us. Inquire within for more info if you’re interested. It’s from 2 to 5 PM at Trevor’s live-in recording studio (AKA his apartment). There will be coffee.
For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about it a gajillion times already, the premise is this: we get people to send us hatemail intended for someone else (anyone in the world can participate). Then, we get local actors to give them dramatic readings (any actor in town can participate). Once we have recordings, we get local musicians to underscore them (any musician in town can participate). Finally, we get local visual artists to make something pretty/grotesque/interesting for them (any visual artist in town can participate). It’s pretty simple, really.
Now then.
You know those people who claim to have read “1984″ and say that the future Orwell presents is the scariest thing they can think of? I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit on that one.
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Filed by Lance at 10:41 pm under General, Love, Religion, Stuff to Read, The Arts
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I remember a story told about one of my favorite composers, Arvo Pärt, that when he was just beginning his career, he went to see a monk. He told the monk, “I would like to learn to write prayers, because I think it could help my music.”
The monk said, “No, no. Every prayer has already been written.”
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Filed by Lance at 2:45 pm under General, Pop Culture, The Arts, The Media
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Here’s a clip of the most recent episode of The Cleveland Show. The point here is not the relative merits of Family Guy or American Dad! versus this MacFarlane project, but this clip is a classic rule of three with a nice button at the end.
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Filed by Bil at 5:07 pm under The Arts
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Let’s be honest; this is not an industry blog so much as a personal blog with contributors who happen to be part of the Chicago theatre community. As such, this is not really the place for theatre reviews. It’s inappropriate, especially when friends and peers are involved, because nobody asked me for my criticism and it’s a public article for anyone to see. Even if I wrote only positive reviews, one could infer by the absence of a review of a show they know I attended that a negative opinion existed. So, generally, I will happily see a show and then happily keep my online mouth shut.
However, every so often a show will blow my mind just enough that I can’t shut up about it, so I tend to break my own rule here. My apologies in advance if there’s anyone out there who was NOT a part of Awake and Sing! at Northlight Theatre. I mean no offense to the rest of you.
In a nutshell: go see this play. See it as soon as possible.
(Keep reading…)
Filed by Bil at 8:36 pm under Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Coming off of the artistic high of Infamous Commonwealth’s marvelous 24-hour fest at the Vittum Theatre down in Wicker Park this weekend, I find myself once again at odds with technology. The organic flow of creative thoughts and human connection has ceased, and in its wake you see me, here, struggling to find a way to get the massive video file condensed into a web-appropriate file size and uploaded for the general public’s pleasure.
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Filed by Bil at 12:40 pm under Love, Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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If you haven’t already donated money to help Haiti (or even if you have, but want to donate more), I recommend one of two things:
A) Text the word “HAITI” to 90999. This will give $10 to the Red Cross. The $10 will show up on your cell phone bill. You’ll probably never even notice the $10, but every little bit will help get them through this disaster.
B) Go to the We Can Build An Orphanage homepage (http://wecanbuildanorphanage.com/) and follow the links to donate. This is a charity that was already in the process of building a home for AIDS orphans in Haiti when the earthquake hit.
If you’ve already helped Haiti and are now looking to help yourself, I strongly recommend the INFAMOUS COMMONWEALTH THEATRE’S 5TH ANNUAL 24-HOUR PROJECT going on Saturday night (the 16th) at 8 PM. I will be one of four playwrights on the bill, and Trevor will be one of the musicians. The theme is REDEMPTION, so this will probably make you a better person if you come and watch it.
Saturday, January 16, 8PM
Vittum Theater
1012 N. Noble St
Tickets are $20 (student discount available).
Call 312-458-9780 or email info@infamouscommonwealth.org
for ticket reservations.
Filed by Bil at 1:27 pm under Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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Ordinarily, I don’t like to post articles here on tipyourwaiter.org unless I feel that I have something of accessible importance to say, or else when I have a show to promote.
But this is just too magnificently geeky to pass up. One of my favorite aspects of my young life (prior to college) was my time in marching band. And one of my increasingly favorite bands, coincidentally hailing from my current home city of Chicago, is OK Go.
Like Voltron, these two separate elements have fused together to create an ultra-powerful super-robot of a music video. Behold…
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.
Filed by Bil at 10:19 am under Shameless Plugs, The Arts, The Media
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Nothing flavors a meal quite like your waitress delivering your food to your table, checking to see if you need anything else, then making a beeline for the bathroom while muttering a little too loudly to herself that she’s going to weigh three pounds less by the time she comes out of there.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Start the year right for us, Little Dragon:
Filed by Bil at 2:45 pm under Shameless Plugs, The Arts
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This is a plug for a show I’m not even directly involved in…but since I am an active Dream Theatre Company member, and since it’s very possible I won’t be seeing any other holiday-themed shows this month, I thought I’d give it some love.
“Cold” by playwright and DTC Artistic Director Jeremy Menekseoglu is not your typical Christmas play. It’s about lonely people. Plain and simple. It’s not about finding the secret meaning of Christmas. It’s more about using a special time of year as an excuse to deal with your personality disorders. It’s about taking steps away from warmth and safety, and into the unknown or the terrifying. There are no holiday spirits. There are no cute children. There is plenty of eggnog.
It’s an unexpected romantic comedy, and - believe it or not - probably one of the best date plays in town at this time of year, despite the humor being rather dark and biting. It is, by the end of it, remarkably heartwarming…But you don’t have to take my word for it:
Also - check it out, this is super-cool: the cast of Dream Theatre was on local radio talking about the show. You can listen at Vocalo.org’s website, where they discuss not only the current production, but also the accepted spellings of the word “theatre.”
Listen to their radio interview on VOCALO 89.5 FM
Check back to this radio station this coming week, as the cast will be back to perform the show in radio-drama format! Old-timey style!
