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Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Casualties Debut New Track--Play Riot Fest Chicago 9/15
Wizard World Chicago Comic Con-Saturday Costumed Crowd Shots & More #photo feature
Another Comic Con has come and gone. It was a whirlwind weekend at Wizard World Comic Con 2012.
Saturday the people watching was prime.
We dig seeing the rampant creativity.
And the mash ups are hilarious.
Poor Spider Man got ganged up on by a band of armed villains in the lobby.
Some of our favs were the families who all got in on playing dress up!
Of course we dropped back to see our friends at the World of Traegonia booth. The author was there again, with her daughter this time.
And we got a chance to see their new Traegon costume.
Check out the videos on their site to see her in action and watch their sweet animated short.
This series is highly recommended, mid grade fantasy, chapter books. We read them as family bedtime stories and got thoroughly engrossed in the highly imaginative, artistic, eco-friendly, creative, inventive, magical, World of Traegonia.
Dino, the illustrator and sculpture maker.
Check back with ChiIL Mama & ChiIL Live Shows like we vote in Chi, IL...early and often. We're still hammering out the details but it looks like we'll be able to run a give aways later this fall. Either way, we'll have a full review of both of these awesome books up for our readers shortly.
We also dropped in on our friends at Threadless and bought 3 new designs to celebrate back to school.
The all navy or white polo uniforms & navy bottoms leave something to be desired in the creative clothes department, so we make the most of our after hours with fun, colorful t's. Like we said in our prior Comic Con coverage here, Threadless is great about giving back to the community and holding free kids' workshops with local non profits like Girls Rock! Chicago and 826CHI, so we're extra happy to kick them our business.
We also saw our Pinups for Pitbulls friends and bought a bunch of buttons. I also snapped a pic with them--I wore my Pit 7 Seconds "Walk Together" Tee and they said they'd send it on to Kevin Seconds. Check 'em out if you haven't already. They have a cool mission statement. We're all about rescue dogs and have a rescue Husky ourselves. We don't have a pit bull, but we do have a 110lb. Akita, another breed sometimes misused for fighting, feared and misunderstood, who is the sweetest family dog ever. So we get it.
Finally we said hey to our Gorilla Tango Burlesque Peeps and snapped a few more shots.
After the Con, I had a chance to spend the evening with a group of true Con Connoisseurs. We hit up the bar in the Hyatt Hotel adjoining The Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, and talked about their hobby. The guys had what I jokingly called "Star Tracker"....like train tracker which alerts you on smart phones when trains are incoming. These guys had a small network of spies stationed around the hotel lobby, after party and bar, all texting each other whenever a celeb showed up. And there were plenty!
Unlike star stalkers, these guys are collectors and just want a quick photo and maybe an autograph. They have extensive collections and like other collectors, long to finish their "sets", generally particular segments of a sci-fi show cast. Some celebs are rare and hard to get, and these guys have traveled as far as England for some Cons, based on who was signing. They were all nice, pretty normal guys, although one conceded his wife thinks his collection obsession is a bit nuts. So do all of their co workers. But it brings them a great deal of enjoyment and doesn't hurt anyone, so whose to say collecting photos and autographs is any odder than other things people have been known to amass.
The did say there's a subset of Comic Con diehards who cross over from collectors to crazies, going so far as to pay off the maids to bring them celebs garbage! They also conceded that Wizard World is so massive they only loosely include it in the Con Genre. True collectors do better abroad, where the fans are more laid back and there's a genuinely good chance you'll get to hang out and have drinks with more than a few famous folk.
Even the smaller, themed weekends, just centered around one show ie: Dr. Who, are more to their taste and maximize the amount of collecting, formal signings and candid star shots they can do. It was eye opening and enlightening for me to hang with them for an evening. It felt a bit like hangin' with the fire department--all of us hanging out, talking, then a sighting text would come in and they'd all run off ASAP, and reappear with a hit or miss tale.
What Wizard World Chicago Comic Con does well is put on a great party....bringing together a diverse and colorful crowd, a sweet assortments of speakers and workshops, and unprecedented numbers of stars. All in all, it was a fun weekend for the star trackers, casual and serious collectors, gamers, families, spandex fans, and people watchers. Till next year.
Chi, IL Live Shows On Our Radar--Callers at Sub-T 9/15
CALLERS
Photo Credit: Aaron Stern
This September, Callers are hitting the road with Wye Oak for a string of North American tour dates in what is the first series of live performances to celebrate the release of their new album, Reviver. Out October 9th on Partisan, the record bursts with charisma, highlighted by its bold instrumentation and the unmistakable electricity of Sara Lucas' soaring vocals, evident in their current single "Howard 2 Hands." That voice, combined with the addition of two new members, makes for an ambitious live show that will intrigue even the toughest of critics.
And in another sonically fitting match, Callers will be playing with Dirty Projectors this Sunday, August 19th, in Boston at the Paradise Rock Club. Check out their full run of dates below and don't miss out on a chance to see some truly exceptional musicians take the stage.
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Monday, August 13, 2012
Schubas Monday Showcase is Back
Check out sweet local bands the next 3 Mondays for just $6 a night (21+).
CHI, IL LIVE SHOWS ON OUR RADAR--Schubas new folk & practice space Monday nights continue TONIGHT. We'll be there to shoot. Come early and catch Chi-Town fav Jonas Friddle
- The New Folk & Practice Space present:
- COMMON SHINER
- BRIAN WHEAT
- JONAS FRIDDLE
Brand new Acoustic album out now! Although the individual members of Common Shiner hail from different cities, in 2008 they decided to make Chicago, IL they're musical home. It's here that they've crafted their sound and came up with the notion that Pop music can be more than just a hook…it can be meaningful as well. Influenced by not only the music they listen to, but also by their friends and the wonderful community of artists they've discovered through local shows and open mics, Common Shiner is ready to bring their music and bare their souls to the world. Having recently released an acoustic album "Before They Sold Out (Part 1)" full of brand new material, Common Shiner is showing just what can be done with a song when it's stripped to its core. Their calendar is planned with playing all the shows they can in their great region of the Midwest, and later in the year recording another full-length album….this time with all their instruments.
Next Monday
- Practice Space presents:
- The New Folk
- Jackpot Donnie
- BandCalledCatch
- MONDAY 08/20/2012 8:00 PM
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- 21+
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- $6.00
The New Folk celebrates the release of their debut album Sea Fever with an August 2012 “Practice Space Presents:” residency at Schubas, but the story behind The New Folk began in 2005 as Singer/Songwriter Todd Kessler went in to the studio to record his debut album. That album, entitled We Are The MusicMakers, was released in 2006 and with the backing of his original band helped Kessler to make his name and music known in the local Chicago music scene. In 2007 and 2008, in the midst of touring the Midwest, Kessler teamed up with Producer Greg “G-Ball” Magers to record his next two albums, The Veronika EP and Boomerang, only garnering him more praise and recognition on the road and at home. It was while recording The Veronika EP that The New Folk began to take root with the addition of Bob Parlier on Drums, Sam Smiley on Guitar and Graham Burris on Bass. The quartet began playing out in 2008 in support of Boomerang, still under the name of Todd Kessler, but it was during the next two years and the addition of a String section (Elana Hiller and Chris Bauler), a Horn section (David Ben-Porat and Ben Bell Bern) and a second vocalist (Molly Parlier) that the band began to make waves with their signature Alt-Folk-Pop sound. 2009’s double-single release Golden Bird, along with headlining shows at Schubas, Lincoln Hall, Double Door and Millennium Park, solidified the bands place as a respected group in Chicago, and in 2010, the band began playing shows under the name Todd Kessler and the New Folk. With over two years, countless shows and a slew of new material, the band, now billed simply as The New Folk, teamed up with producer Manny Sanchez to begin work on their debut album, Sea Fever, in August of 2010. Two years and hundreds of studio hours later later, Sea Fever will be released this August under Kessler’s label Wyzguy Records.
DRAGONY Debut Album Legends Streaming In Full
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