Will you be in the Chicagoland area next Friday, July 20? Stop by The Printers’ Ball and greet your friendly neighborhood ALARM booth to get a free issue of the mag!
Arts
Becca Henry Captures Carnies
After having her interest piqued with A Lil Bit O’ Naughty, ALARM’s photoessay on cabaret, vaudeville, and burlesque in the Bay Area, photographer Becca Henry has arranged a fun-filled evening to display the images printed in our summer issue. The related event, titled Carnie Life, takes place next Thursday, July 19 at San Francisco establishment 111 Minna Gallery.
Aftermodern Explores Sex, Society, and Politics
With thematic elements sure to provoke mixed thoughts, fine art gallery Aftermodern has arranged a midsummer party and review of its current exhibit for this Friday, July 13. That display, titled Emerging International Photographers, features images that delve into social, political, and sexual issues in a global and urban context.
A Lil Bit O’ Naughty: A Photoessay on San Francisco Cabaret, Vaudeville, and Burlesque
In a bar on the seedier side of town, a tattooed bartender makes a heavy drink for a couple in their 70s. Indie haircuts dot the club. Kitten on the Keys plays piano, tinkling keys and twinkling eyes. Decked out in a red and black corset, she belts out one of the many songs she’s written, “Grandma Sells My Panties on eBay.”
Jeffrey Brown Chronicles Idiosyncratic Feline Activities
In his new collection of comics, Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations (Chronicle), Jeffrey Brown follows his cat Misty as she sleeps, frolics, and grooms her way through the day. The description sounds tedious but Brown’s obsessive chronicling of Misty’s life pokes fun at both cats and their besotted owners.
Rosalux Hosts Not the Running Type
Minneapolis artist co-op gallery Rosalux is running an exhibit of new solo work and collaborations from two semi-oddly paired artists, Cheryl Wilgren Clyne and Kimberly Tschida Petters (“Stacking V” shown left), through the month of July. The exhibition features an array of media, consisting of mostly oil pastel work from Petters, and projections and video from Clyne.
Planet Puzzle League (Nintendo DS)
Tetris fans, your new addiction is here, and it goes by the name Planet Puzzle League.
Created to appease relaxed and hardcore gamers alike, this multi-faceted Nintendo DS title pushes colored blocks towards the top of one’s screen and requires their quick organization into groups of three or more.
Amy Franceschini: Art and Environmentalism Combine
Toppled buildings, charred memories and flattened dreams don’t exactly signal hope for a better future to most people. That being the case, in the aftermath of the horrific 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, few people looked at the devastated city and thought of a chance for something better. However, as Simon Winchester described in his book A Crack in the Edge of the World, there was at least one man who found hope amid the hulking piles of detritus. That man was Daniel Burnham, the eminent Chicago-based architect and civic planner. Burnham’s plan for a new San Francisco, ironically developed shortly before the great disaster, envisioned a city in which grand parks and waterways kept the Citizens by the Bay in harmony with their natural surroundings. Unfortunately, the prevailing politicians decided to build the city as quickly as possible in the same way it had been before—over nature rather than amid it.
A Lifetime of Secrets
Frank Warren cannot keep a secret. Though this would be worthy of excommunication if Warren were a twelve year-old girl, it has made his PostSecret book series an internet phenomenon, and this fall yet another collection of secrets will be published in the fourth installment, entitled A Lifetime of Secrets.
Redmoon Theater
Spectacle — it’s the swagger, it’s the back-up singers in matching costumes, it’s when too much is never enough, it’s Las Vegas and its antithetical twin Burning Man, it’s gold and gold and more gold. It’s the Flaming Lips with their dancing aliens, Santa Clauses, and rock superstars floating through the crowd in big plastic bubbles. It’s what Redmoon Theater does.
Good vs. Wiivil Wins $10K at Inaugural Nintendo Film Fest
Nintendo has announced the winner of its first-ever Short Cuts Showcase, an open-call competition that called for Nintendo-themed short films. After submissions were narrowed down to just ten finalists, a select panel of judges voted “Good vs. Wiivil,” created by Jack Paccione, Jr., to earn top honors.
Riceboy Sleeps Announces First U.S. Exhibition
Beginning Friday, August 3 at Gallery 801 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Icelandic musicians Jon Thor Birgisson of Sigur Rós and Alex Somers of Parachutes — collectively known as the art collaboration Riceboy Sleeps — will open their first exhibition in the United States.