Back to the Future: Lawrence and Broadway

Coming somewhere sometime soon...John Pappas and Michael Bisberg of Northwestern University have finished their documentary on the history of the Uptown Theatre, Uptown: Portrait of a Palace. Though no screening date has been announced, a trailer with a breathtaking glimpse of the Uptown's lobby and voices of Uptown supporters, preservationists, and activists can be watched at the Compass Rose website, which also contains general news on the theater.

Jewish Book & Author News

Literary agent Anna Olswanger's Jewish Book & Author News, is a free periodic e-newsletter with announcements about events in the Jewish book world that might not be readily available in other publications or online at the Jewish book sites. Sign up here.

Olswanger's website includes links to interviews with industry professionals and others of note, book reviews, Jewish lecture bureaus, Jewish podcasts, Jewish book publishers, Jewish booksellers, Jewish libraries, and Jewish literary magazines, with a particular eye for small, independent enterprises not on everyone's radar screen.

Ring Them Bells

Follow the online diary and photo journal of two Chicago guys who headed South to make a dent in the massive amount of clean-up work still necessary in New Orleans before re-building can begin.

Likely Stories

Booklist is a 100-year-old journal, published by the American Library Association, whose core mission is to provide public and school librarians with reviews that help them decide what to buy. Located in Chicago, literary types we know pass through the Booklist doors for employment from time to time. One such pal is Keir Graff, a favorite writer on things local, things found in poolrooms, and liquids found behind a bar; he's contributed loving entries on antiques, billiards, neighborhoods, and restaurants for our A Native's Guide to Chicago. And now he's taking those chops to Booklist's spiffy new website to post daily book review musings on their Likely Stories blog.

Chicago Paperback Writers Cocktail Cruise

The Chicago Paperback Writers Cocktail Cruise
On the Chicago River
Saturday, May 20, 2006, 5:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.

Mingle with your favorite Lake Claremont Press authors during the city's Great Chicago Places & Spaces weekend. Enjoy the music of acoustic duo Paperback Writer performing Beatles tunes, appetizers, and a cash bar, while floating down the Chicago River on a Wendella Boats sunset cruise.

These authors will be on hand selling and signing their books and talking with guests about all things Chicago: Arnie Bernstein (Hollywood on Lake Michigan, The Hoofs & Guns of the Storm), Ursula Bielski (Chicago Haunts, Graveyards of Chicago), Chuck Billington (Wrigley Field's Last World Series), Grace DuMelle (Finding Your Chicago Ancestors), Libby Hill (The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History), Ted Okuda (The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television), Marilyn Pocius (A Cook's Guide to Chicago), and Joseph Schwieterman (The Politics of Place: A History of Zoning in Chicago).

For tickets, call 312/337-1446. Tickets are $40.

"Avoid Mistakes - Pay When Served": Velvet Lounge Artifacts Sale

Velvet Lounge Artifact Sale
2128 1/2 S. Indiana Ave.
Sunday, April 23, 2006

First-come, first-served at 3 p.m.

Historic bar top $1,000 OBO. Other artifacts will include beer signs, t-shirts, posters, postcards, photographs, art, tables, chairs, barstools, booths, the decorative windows/room divider, handbills, a freezer, a keg cooler, stage risers, an extension ladder, mirrors, a cabinet, decorative wood trim from the bar, and -- yes -- a limited quantity of wallpaper fragments. If you can think of anything else to take, you are welcome to make owner and musician Fred Anderson an offer. Cash only. "Avoid Mistakes - Pay When Served."

The theme is to help Fred "open debt-free" at his new location, 67 E. Cermak Road. Every dollar will help. They still have a wish list that will help the Velvet re-open sooner rather than later.

Sunday Afternoon Fever

If Jitterbugs, Kangaroos, and Wiggleworms mean dancing to you, you'll be happy to learn about Baby Loves Disco. Beginning April 9th, Baby Loves Disco will transform Park West into a childproof disco party for toddlers, pre-schoolers, and parents on the second Sunday of every month. With a DJ spinning classic disco anthems, bubble machines, snacks from Whole Foods, and lots of grooving, you'd best introduce your kids to butterfly collars and platform shoes.

P.S. The Old Town School's next session of classes begins April 24th and runs through June 18th.

Mike Royko on Chicago softball

If you're waiting for this:

Rick Kogan's tribute to the Billy Goat Tavern, A Chicago Tavern: A Goat, A Curse, and the American Dream (Lake Claremont Press, due May 2006),

you'll like this:

The Week Behind has posted a video filmed in 1982, Royko at the Goat, of Mike Royko drinking with his Chicago Sun-Times softball teammates a the Billy Goat, going on and on about the joys of softball (16", of course).