CCLaP

So, both good and bad news to report at once today; that I am no longer working for MetroProper, the company where I had been working this summer. (For details, please see my personal website.) I won't dwell on the bad news, but skip right to the good; that this means I can get back to daily updates at this website, as well as the final steps towards our live-event schedule starting up next month.

And it's about time, I say! Because unbeknownst to many of you, we've been having quite a few things happening here at CCLaP; new Fellows to announce, new artwork to get up to the site, a new staff member to introduce you to, even our first paying Member. All of this has been just sitting around my hard drive this summer, as I put in the tremendous hours I did at my last job; now that I'm disentangled from that, I can get back to getting all this new stuff posted.

So that's what I'll be doing over the next couple of days, is just trying to get back to zero, as far as the things that are waiting to be posted here at the site. And in the meanwhile, we've still got our Stormhoek-sponsored "geek dinner" coming up (which got delayed again because of my previous job), the first CCLaP Session in about three weeks, the first CCLaP showcase in four weeks, and the first CCLaP Slam in five weeks. Yikes!

I'll be detailing all of the above here over the next several days, as well as continuing to point out other interesting things going on in the arts, as well as getting the rest of the CCLaP staff finally signed up as contributors here, so that they too can start posting blog entries for all of you to check out. As always, I appreciate you sticking in with us this summer, as things suddenly got busy in all the CCLaP staff's professional lives; now that things are quieting down again for all of us, we're hoping to throw that energy right back into this center, and making it as great a place as we can. I thank you for wanting to be a part of it yourself.

The New York Times has an interesting article up right now, overviewing the various collective organizations out there creating free audiobooks of public-domain works. It's definitely worth a read, especially if you didn't know of this underground phenomonon already; of the countless literary lovers out there, volunteering their time to both type out and read public-domain books, for such organizations as Project Gutenberg and LibriVox.

But hey, why stop at public-domain books by a bunch of dead people? You're a writer; you've got two lips and a tongue! Why not make an audiobook out of your own work, then release it for free as a series of MP3s? This is a perfect thing for an underground writer to release at a personal website or blog; a way to stand out from all the mainstream writers out there, and to build a larger fan base who will take a greater interest in your entire ouevre. And if you don't have your own site, might I humbly suggest releasing it through us? We'd love to post audio versions of writers reading from their work here, and would be happy to count it towards the work donated in return for a free Fellowship.

Anyway, some food for thought. And definitely check out the organizations mentioned in that article; all of them are definitely worth your time.

For those who don't know, CCLaP actually has a number of cutting-edge experiments planned for the website this fall, using the latest in so-called "Web 2.0" technology to help in our continuing mission to support underground artists. These projects are so cutting-edge, in fact, that I don't know how to program them myself; I thought, then, that I would maybe make a mention of the projects here, for any of you with tech/programming backgrounds who would like to help out the center. Don't forget, such projects count towards earning a free Fellowship; build one of these for us, and we'd be happy to give you free admission to our live events for a year (or free copies of our first ten books for those who live out-of-town), a free t-shirt, and all the other things that come with the program.

1) We want to build an in-house wiki here, entitled "The CCLaP Guide to Being a Self-Sustaining Artist." This will basically be a giant interactive document, explaining in detail many of the issues that come with being an underground artist; how to create chapbooks, where to publish your own full-length book, how to book your own tours, what to look for in contracts you sign, just all kinds of things like that. The trick, however, just like with other wikis, is that it's our Members and Fellows actually contributing the information, not just the CCLaP staff.

2) We want to build a social network here, entitled "The Chicago Cafe Network." This would basically be for visual artists in the Chicago area, as well as the cafes, restaurants and bars in Chicago that feature visual artists; a way to streamline the process, in other words, so that not only artists could search for businesses that feature their type of work, but business owners could search for artists that create the type of work they want to feature.

And 3), we want to build a micropayment system here, called "Shoutouts." Micropayments, for those who don't know, are basically loopholes in the credit-card transaction process; a way for two people to exchange just tiny amounts of money (a dime, a quarter, etc), without either party having to incur a heavy transaction fee for doing so. The way it'll work at CCLaP is actually quite simple; for $5.50, you'll have a chance to buy 20 "shoutout credits" worth 25 cents apiece, with the extra 50 cents going towards a one-time transaction fee for those 20 credits. Then anytime you stumble across a poem or story or piece of visual artwork here that you like, you'll simply be able to click on a link saying, "Send this person a Shoutout!" to pay that artist 25 cents. It's not a big moneymaker for sure; but definitely a way to send at least a little compensation to the CCLaP artists you most admire.

Anyway, we're looking for both back-end people (PHP, MySQL, etc) and front-end (Ruby On Rails, AJAX, etc), who would be interested in taking on one or more of these projects, in return for a free Fellowship and our undying thanks. And hey, you even own the code afterwards; sell it commercially, put it on your resume, use it at other sites, we don't care! If you're qualified and interested, simply contact us and let us know. Thanks!

So, I won't lie; we here on the CCLaP staff are starting to feel a wee bit panicky. And that's because our first event, an interview with Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, is coming up in two and a half weeks; and at this point we still don't have nearly the amount of audio and other tech equipment we need to pull the show off. This was supposed to have been paid for with the money I had been making at my day job this summer; but then the owner of that company screwed me out of the money I was owed, which means that we are back to being broke and without equipment.

We are in desperate need of the following, before September 15th:

--Decent-sized speaker;
--Amp;
--Basic mixing controls;
--Four microphones;
--Both full-sized mic stands and desktop ones;
--Mic cords;
--High-quality digital audio recorder;
--A dolly to transport it all.

You wouldn't happen to own any of this equipment yourself, would you? Maybe sitting in a box or a dusty shelf in your basement, where it's not being used? Any chance of...you know, donating it to us? I won't kid you; at this point I'm not sure how we're going to be able to get all this equipment on our own by September 15th; we need help, frankly, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Anyway, as always, just contact us if you could be of service, and as always you get our eternal thank-you and a free Fellowship for your efforts. And don't forget, as a for-profit center we are allowed to take on commercial sponsors as well; if your business would be interested in sponsoring/underwriting one of our regular shows, you should also feel free to contact us.

Hey, Chicago-area undergrads! Feel like getting your hands dirty, pulling off some pretty incredible things, and getting college credit for it to boot? Why not become a CCLaP intern? We're looking for someone pretty special as we speak, who would be interested in putting in about 10 hours a week helping to make this organization run smoothly.

Grades aren't important, and neither is your major; what's of most importance to us, in fact, are your ideas, as well as your philosophy about the future of arts administration. As anyone who's read through our PDF brochure knows, we're not your usual arts center, and we're not looking for your usual intern either; we're looking for someone with smart, innovative ideas, ones that are untested but with an inherent logic behind them.

As our intern, you'll have a chance to actually put such ideas into action; you will also be helping the existing staff with scheduling, fundraising, and the actual running of the shows themselves. Unfortunately there's no pay involved; but like I said, we'd be happy to work with your college or university, to make sure you get class credits for your time with us. And of course, in the future as we expand, this internship is the number-one way to guarantee future paid work with us.

To express an interest, please drop us a line in the usual way. Why yes, we are looking for someone right now!

Wow, hard to believe, but after two years of working on the plans for this arts center, our live-event schedule finally begins in a mere two and a half weeks. Yikes, I'm nervous! And that's because we still have a lot to do before the first event happens, including finding venues for our three ongoing shows. Want to help? Got a place in mind? Here's how the month of September is looking, for those who are interested...

--To start, on Friday September 15th will be the first CCLaP Session, in this case featuring Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn. This was formerly scheduled to be held at a coffeehouse in the Uptown neighborhood, owned by the boss of my last day job; but he and I have ended up having a falling-out, so now we're back to having no venue. (It's this previous day job, in fact, that has ended up causing all these problems with CCLaP in the first place; namely, that I ended up putting in over 420 work hours at it in two months, leaving me with just absolutely no time at all this summer to work on these final details.)

--Then on Thursay, September 21st will be the first of our CCLaP Showcases; three to five mid-level writers, many with their own books and zines, each reading on a common subject picked in advance. And yes, once again, we currently have no venue associated with this show.

--And then on Monday, September 25th, comes the date that I know many of you are looking forward to -- the first CCLaP Slam and open mic. And no, we don't have a venue for this yet either!

After this, then, CCLaP settles down into its regular schedule; the Slam every Monday, the Showcases the third Thursday of each month, the Sessions the second Friday of each month. Anyway, that's the latest; and if any of you either own or work at a venue in Chicago that would be interested in sponsoring one of these shows, or simply know of a cool place that you think will likely say yes, by all means please let us know. By all means let us know!

Well, so in a day of bad news and entreaties for help, here's at least one good piece of news I can share: that the CCLaP podcast finally has a start date! It's this coming Tuesday, in fact, September 5th; or for you Americans, the day after Labor Day.

For those who don't know, our podcast is not going to have a standard format so much, but rather be like a little network; a combination of field reports from interesting artistic events, recordings of our own live events, interviews with touring artists, studio-produced "shows" and the like. Our first episode on Tuesday, for example, will be of one of these studio-produced shows; it'll be a weekly "talk show" done from the apartment of our director of live events, Nikki Patin. Each week we'll be inviting three or four interesting people to come hang out and drink over at Nikki's place (yeah, just like Digg); we'll then have a half-hour roundtable discussion about various issues in the news that week, and then broadcast the results here every Tuesday.

And speaking of which, have you ever wanted to do a weekly show on the arts yourself? Now would be a good time to let us know, before our schedule fills up! We're up for just about anything arts-related you want to suggest; studio shows, ones done in the field, by yourself or with friends. Just let us know.

Anyway, hope that all of you will end up enjoying our upcoming podcast, and become regular listeners. And don't forget, we also have an RSS feed just for the podcast too, for all of you who would like to fire up your iTunes and other podcast software in advance. Onwards and upwards, my fellow lovers of the arts!

(Click the above image to see a larger [700-pixel] version.)

I'm happy to announce that CCLaP has its newest Fellow; it's Chicago-based visual artist and fashion designer Brian Heiser. Brian and I met at a local cafe where he works, through mutual friends of ours; I'm a big fan of his work, and am sure you will be as well. Don't forget, Brian has his own category page here at the site now, a central page where you'll be able to find all the latest news and work by him; he also has his own RSS feed, for those who would like to get the latest from him delivered in real time. This is a benefit we give to all Fellows, in fact, along with free admission to all our live events (or copies of our first ten books, for those who live out of town); those who are interested can click here to learn all the details.

I asked Brian if he would give us a few thoughts on the subject of art and creativity; here's what he had to say...

"Art is visual, something different, abstract, or unharmed. To define yourself as an artist is somewhat indifferent; everyone is an artist in and of themselves. It's the people who see things in an obscure way, making an environment look completely different in which no one else could see makes them specific in that understanding. People everyday say that they themselves are artists, but when in fact they are just replications of what someone else did, but I guess that could be defined as art as well. I don't want to pronounce myself in those limited terms, but I want my visual ideas to be out there for people to view. What I see in the world is raw and the naturalness thereof can be beautiful, through that I am inspired and use it to an advantage. I appreciate small simple things and with that my inspiration flows. I have no prerequisites to show for, all I have is myself. Simply look, take in, like or dislike. But in the end remember we are all the same, just some see things a little differently and through that art is made."

Well put! Brian's donated quite a bit of work to CCLaP, by the way, over 20 photographs altogether; we'll be slowly getting that work posted here to the site over the next few months. Thanks again for joining, Brian, and I hope you enjoy your Fellow experience.

Happy day! CCLaP has its first Member! It's Patrick Spiroff, as a matter of fact, a musician and corporate worker who lives in the near Chicago suburbs. I met Patrick originally through my personal website; he was one of the first supporters of this center, way back when it was nothing more than an idea on a piece of paper, and I'm proud to have him be our first official Member as well.

Don't forget, Patrick now has his own category page here at the site, where you can always find the latest concerning him; he also has his own RSS feed, for those who would rather subscribe and get the latest delivered in real time. Also, I wanted to mention that Patrick is a habitual player of the alternative-reality videogame Second Life, just like myself; he will be helping CCLaP with our virtual events there later this fall, once we're finally up and running there.

I asked Patrick if he'd give us a few thoughts concerning creativity and the type of work he likes; I found his answer both funny and touching...

"As you can see from my photo, I fall into that ever elusive category, old fat white guy. As a matter of fact, my opinion on anything no longer matters since I've slipped out of that all important 18 to 49 demographic that advertisers so dearly cherish.

"At one point in my life I wanted to be rock star. I was a singer/songwriter heavily influence by Elvis Costello and Mr. Springsteen, as all my contemporaries say, back in the day. But after years of being a starving artist it lost its charm. I didn't so much as give up my dreams as wrapped them in plastic like a used wedding dress and put them in the back of my closet.

"Now I have no greater aspiration than to be a great father. I have two wonderful daughters, ages 12 and 9 and a wife I still adore after 16 years. It is their company I cherish the most.

"I have a job that pays me fairly well but never defines who I am.

"Actually, I'm still a songwriter, just I've limited my audience to my daughter dancing in the living room. But I'm still passionate about music. I purchase on average two CDs a week [yeah I'm old school in that way that I still like to hold something in my hands]. Unlike most people I know however, my taste did not petrify the year I graduated college. I'm sure I skew to the right of pitchforkmedia.com's target market but find I agree with their many of their critiques nonetheless.

"My other passion is literature, ever since I realized in 6th grade, after finishing Dickens's Great Expectations, it had the power to make me cry."

Thanks for your support of the center, Patrick, and I look forward to seeing you at many of our events. Don't forget, for the low price of US$50, you too can become a Member of CCLaP; in return you receive a free t-shirt, the same online benefits as Patrick, plus free admission to all 60 of our live events over the next year (or free copies of our first ten books, for those who live out-of-town). Those who are interested can click here to both learn more and to apply this instant.

The city of Chicago just announced their latest pick for the 'One Book One Chicago' (OBOC) program, and it's a doozy; it's the short-story collection Interpreter of Maladies by Pulitzer winner Jhumpa Lahiri. An Indian-American who hopped between Boston and Calcutta during her childhood, Lahiri's book is full of ambiguous, intriguing stories about the immigrant experience, both from the perspective of America and other countries; I've already read several of these stories in the past, and am looking forward to sitting down and reading the whole book.

For those who don't know, by the way, the OBOC series is a pretty cool thing, and something that's been perpetually popular here since introduced. The brainchild of the Chicago library system and our mayor, Richard Daley, about four times a year the city picks what it thinks is an intriguing piece of literature, then throws massive government resources into convincing the entire city to read the book at the same time. The series started off with a bang several years ago, with the selection of To Kill a Mockingbird, and has continued to be popular since; it's not unusual at all, for example, to ride a random el here and see five to ten people all reading the current OBOC selection at the same time.

By the way -- why yes, CCLaP would love to host a discussion club or other event concerning this book! If you're interested in hosting or organizing such an event yourself, with the center picking up the publicity costs and even helping you find a venue, by all means let us know. We're also very intersted in posting reviews of this book here at the website; those of you who are interested should feel free to contact us as well.

Two lovers attend a county fair; one of them gets more than they bargained for on the rollercoaster. "Shiny Things," a new story by CCLaP Fellow Kathryn O'Halloran (bio, category page, RSS feed). CAUTION: This story contains explicit language.

(Photo courtesy Windy City Times)

Just some small news I wanted to pass along, for those who are interested; that Nikki Patin, CCLaP's Director of Live Events, has recently gotten a promotion here to Assistant Director! (Yeah, too bad for her it doesn't come with a pay raise.) It just makes more sense, when all is said and done -- she's ended up doing a lot more for the center than simply working on the live events, and I thought it was time that her title here reflect that.

Don't forget, Nikki's crazy summer of touring and recording is finally starting to come to a close; near the end of September we'll be getting her signed up here as a regular contributor, and then she too will be posting all kinds of fun entries about things happening in the Chicago arts. And of course, those of you here in Chicago who are planning on attending our events will be seeing a lot of Nikki as well; after all, she's still technically in charge of those, and will be trading off with me as far as working the door at these events.

Anyway, make sure to congratulate Nikki the next time you see her; and will you tell her to stop bugging me about a 401K account?!