CCLaP

Greetings, if this is your first time to the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography; my name is Jason Pettus, CCLaP's Executive Director, and I welcome you. I thought I would take a moment, for all of you who are new, to explain exactly what the center is all about, and what exactly we do. This information is also laid out all pretty-like in a PDF brochure, for those who would prefer reading it that way; simply right-click on this link and choose "Save Link As..." to your hard drive.

CCLaP's mission is to connect underground artists of outstanding quality with the audience eagerly seeking these artists; we do this by maintaining a uniquely personal relationship not only with our artists but with our audience as well. It's to both groups that we seek advice, project ideas, tips on who to feature, even hosts of our live events, workshops and clubs. And instead of maintaining separate membership and artist-development programs, CCLaP combines the two into one, bringing both artists and patrons together in not only a professional but social way.

CCLaP's specific list of products and services can be broken down into the dozens, but roughly fall under one of the following groups:

Live events: Those we usually charge an admission fee for, unless otherwise noted. Includes the weekly CCLaP Slam; monthly CCLaP Showcases; monthly CCLaP Sessions; as well as special events. All events, unless otherwise noted, are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows.

Creative work: A growing collection of artistic work on display, made by both Members and Fellows of CCLaP, as well as fans and audience members. This collection will also be turned into merchandise, starting later this year, that will be sold online and in general gift stores in the Chicago area; it is the main way our for-profit center plans on paying our bills.

Community events: Those that are usually free to the general public, unless otherwise noted, most also organized and run by our Members and Fellows. Includes workshops on both artistic and business issues; a series of discussion and hobbyist clubs; an entire series of intelligent family events; as well as our special "CCLaP After Dark" series, specifically for those over the age of 21.

CCLaP Online: Special online features we offer only at our website. Includes a regularly-updated podcast; an ever-growing collection of frequently asked questions; a collection of over 30 RSS feeds; as well as a special section called the Sandbox, where artistic work is released under a special Creative Commons license, for other artists around the world to use legally in "mash-ups." This section will also eventually include the "Cafe Network," a new social network CCLaP will sponsor, linking visual artists with the cafes and other retail spaces in Chicago that feature artists, as well as the audience looking for both these artists and venues. It will also eventually include a wiki, maintained by our Members and Fellows, entitled "The CCLaP Guide to Being a Self-Sustaining Artist."

Publications: Starting early in 2007, there will also be a publications section to the CCLaP website, where you will not only be able to download the latest eBooks for free, but also directly order and pay for our latest paper books, to be FedExed or mailed straight to your home. (CCLaP is currently seeking a publications intern for the 2007 winter semester; to get an early jump, contact us now.)

Regular events start in September 2006; CCLaP is currently hosting a series of special one-time events throughout the summer. To learn more about any of these products or services, please click on their category in the sidebar menu.

Hopefully soon, CCLaP will be bringing you a regularly updated podcast, sometimes consisting of audio and sometimes video as well, giving you little five-minute reports from various artistic events the staff is attending this summer. Before we can do that, though, we have a crucial piece of tech that we need to buy -- the Sony Minidisc MZ-RH1, that is, a portable digital recorder for under $400, that churns out professional-quality audio. This line of recorders is quickly becoming a popular choice among serious podcasters; CCLaP will be taking the time to invest in such equipment as well.

The way we're raising the money for this recorder is through our membership program; to add $50 yourself to our $400 goal, simply click here to apply. Just as soon as that sweet little MZ-RH1 is sitting in our hands, the CCLaP Podcast will begin.

Hey, this is pretty cool; I'm happy to announce that CCLaP is an official participant in the "100 Geek Dinners in 100 Days" event taking place this summer, sponsored by a South African winery called Stormhoek. The winery has just started selling their product in America, in fact, and have come up with an ingenious way of promoting it; they are sponsoring 100 random dinners all over the country this summer, some hosted by groups and others by individuals, where they are providing enough free Stormhoek wine to get everyone involved at least half-lit. Now that's an ad campaign I can get behind!

Anyway, our dinner will be coming up in early August, hopefully on Saturday, August 5th from 7 to 9 pm; we can accommodate up to 10 guests, and are ready for your reservation right now. To RSVP, simply contact the staff; the event is free, just like all our community events are, although you will need to pay for your own food. By the way, we are seeking a restaurant who would like to host this event! If you own a BYOB restaurant in Chicago yourself, or has a friend who does, who would like to see the restaurant mentioned incessantly here in the coming months, as well as photos and videos posted afterwards at Flickr and YouTube, you should feel free to contact us as well.

Don't forget, we are also ready to accept your proposals for other "CCLaP After Dark" events; social get-togethers specifically for those 21 and older, consisting of adults being adults. Click here to learn more; or for those seeking news just about the After Dark program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's family-event program will kick into full gear, including events on at least a monthly basis organized by the center's staff. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first event proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'family-friendly?' Well, the hope anyway is that it be a smart event, literally meant for an entire family; something that engages both the parents and children, something that lets them both grow as individuals and mature as a unit. This being Chicago, of course, we imagine that events will follow a traditional seasonal schedule: that is, during the winters here, family events will mostly be indoor activities like readings and crafts, while during the summer our events will include more field trips, scavenger hunts, stamping events and the like. The point of CCLaP's family-event program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a family event as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the family-event program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's community club program will kick into full gear, including events on at least a weekly basis, some actually organized by the center's staff. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first hobbyist and discussion club proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'club?' Well, that's simply a community event (that is, free for the general public), where those with a specific interest come together as a group of peers. Perhaps that might be for discussing the arts or politics, where a different book or subject is picked for each month's salon; or perhaps all of you share a common hobby, like knitting or rubber-stamping, origami or model-making. Or perhaps you're interested in starting a local chapter of a national organization, but need help organizing and promoting it: a Chicago chapter of Great Books, for example, or Socrates Cafe, or the Esperanto Society. The point of CCLaP's club program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a club as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the club program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

Come this fall, CCLaP's community workshop program will kick into full gear, including twice-monthly workshops for working writers organized by the center's staff itself. For now, though, we are more than ready to start accepting our first workshop proposals, by all of you in the Chicago area who might be interested in organizing and running one.

What do we mean by 'workshop?' Well, that's simply a community event (that is, free for the general public), where something of interest or importance is being taught to a group of others. This could be artistic in nature -- how to be a better writer, how to be a better photographer -- or perhaps focus more on the business side of things -- how to read a contract, how to pitch to a gallery owner. The point of CCLaP's workshop program, like all the rest of our services, is to act as a laboratory; to let people in the community try new things, take chances, put together events that they think others might enjoy.

All community events are run by our Members and Fellows; or non-Fellows can run a workshop as a way of qualifying for a Fellowship, if they prefer. To propose one, simply contact the CCLaP staff; if accepted, the center will pay for all your publicity and promotion, as well as help you find an appropriate venue if you need assistance. For those who are interested in just the news here about the workshop program, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know I've been bugging some of you a long time about this now, but the day is finally here: CCLaP is now ready to start featuring your creative work, in all media. To send something for consideration, simply email it to us; or point us to a place on the web where it already exists.

The main point of sending us work, of course, is because of our Fellowship program; anyone who gives us the right to publish three original pieces, in fact, automatically qualifies for free admission to all our live events, or free copies of our first ten books as an out-of-town alternative. We then use this material to not only drive more traffic to this website, and not only to promote you and your work, but also as the basis for our merchandise program, coming later this year, which is the way our for-profit center will end up paying most of our bills.

Remember, you are not giving up final rights to this work by becoming a Fellow; you are still free to do whatever you want with it, just that you're giving us the right to occasionally reprint it as well. Also keep in mind that your work is never edited without your permission, and that your name always appears when it's published. (If you do want us to edit your work, by the way, simply ask; it's a free service we offer all Fellows.) And don't forget, we also ask artists to consider publishing at least one of their pieces in our Sandbox as well, in that case under a more liberal Creative Commons license, so that other artists around the world can use that piece in their own "mash-ups."

We accept just about every type of artistic work out there, from poems to book reviews, photographs to scanned paintings, MP3s and videos as well. No level of expertise or experience required; we simply ask that it be something interesting, something you don't mind having your name associated with. We here at CCLaP look forward to seeing what you all have been working on, and with sharing that work with the rest of our global audience.

For those who are interested in tracking just the newest creative work here, by the way, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know it's early, but I wanted to go ahead and get an entry up concerning the CCLaP Sessions, for those who are interested; the series is set to begin on September 15th, and we already have a whole collection of intriguing guests to announce.

So what are the CCLaP Sessions, you might be asking? Well, the Sessions are our attempt to highlight a side of the literary world not usually given the spotlight; the world of the intellectuals, the editors and reviewers of the industry, columnists and journalists and others who don't often get to express personal opinions in public. I in particular find this side of the literary world just as fascinating as the creative writers themselves; and based on the audiences I've seen at similar past events, I suspect that there's a large crowd out there who shares this opinion.

CCLaP Sessions are two hours apiece, from 8 to 10 pm on Friday evenings; in the first half, an interview is done with the guest on-stage by me (Jason Pettus, CCLaP's Executive Director), in a freeform conversational style in the manner of Charlie Rose or Tom Snyder. During the intermission, then, questions on notecards are collected from the audience; the second half then tackles these questions, along with more conversation. The entire thing is recorded, by the way, and complete MP3 versions released for free at the website a few days later, under a Creative Commons license and completely devoid of crippling copy-protection software.

The CCLaP Sessions will be held in the back room of Dollop Coffeehouse, at 4181 N Clarendon in the Uptown/Buena Park neighborhood; click here to see an interactive Google map of the location. And even at this date, I'm very happy to announce that we have three really great guests lined up for the first three shows, ones I hope you're as excited to see speak as I am. On Friday, September 15th, for example, we have Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, one of the first mainstream columnists in America to embrace blogging, and to this day one of the only ones to really get what blogging can add to traditional journalism. For this Session, we'll be talking with Eric about his start in the journalism industry, what led him to both the Tribune and to blogging, some of his crazier adventures as a well-known columnist, and both his intellectual and political thoughts about the future of journalism, both the traditional and the new-fangled citizen kind.

On Friday, October 13th, then, the CCLaP Sessions is proud to welcome Jonathan Messinger, the wearer of many hats here in Chicago: the Books editor of Time Out: Chicago; founder and host of The Dollar Store Show at the Hideout; and co-founder of Featherproof Books, a highly respected small press. Needless to say, this will be an event jam-packed with funny stories and interesting opinions, so make sure to get there early.

And then on Friday, November 10th, the CCLaP Sessions will be featuring a friend of mine, Andrew Huff, founder and editor-in-chief of Gapers Block, an irreverent Gawker-like guide to Chicago news, events and politics. What Andrew's done with Gapers Block is pretty amazing, I think, and is what led me to wanting to be friends with him in the first place: in just a few years, he has taken something that was essentially a personal hobby, and has turned it into a publication that has garnered national recognition, is quoted regularly by the Chicago mainstream media, and is (gasp) actually turning a profit. And he's managed to do it while being a magnanimous fellow, and both a friend and supporter of the local arts. Andrew is usually not so forthcoming about his personal opinions, in his capacity as editor-in-chief of a journalism publication; I think it'll be interesting to hear him speak on the 10th, about some subjects he maybe usually doesn't get a chance to talk about.

All events are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows. If you're interested, by the way, in just tracking the news here about the CCLaP Sessions, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know it's early, but I wanted to get an entry up about the upcoming CCLaP Showcase series, for those who are interested. Right now it's set to begin on Saturday, September 23rd, and continue monthly on Saturdays after that.

The CCLaP Showcases are a way for the staff of the center to highlight writers we think worth promoting, but who might not yet have the body of work needed for their own feature or one-person show. Each showcase is grouped around a common theme, whether relating to the writers or the work in question -- "sexy librarians," "bloggers," "politically-incorrect erotica," the list just goes on and on. Each showcase, then, will feature from four to eight such writers, hand-chosen by the CCLaP staff, each reading for about 15 minutes.

We are currently in talks with a local independent bookstore, concerning hosting the CCLaP Showcases; more details will be released here as they become available. We are also always on the lookout, by the way, for other independent bookstores and cafes who would like to host similar events, as well as our Member-led clubs, workshops and social events; doing so will get your logo shown on every page of this site, as well as select printed material. To express an interest, please simply contact us. The CCLaP Showcases are programmed and hosted by Nikki Patin, Director of Live Events. And don't forget, working writers, joining our free Fellowship program will get you first invitation to perform at such events.

Interested in just tracking the news about the CCLaP Showcases, by the way? We have an HTML page here where you can always find the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

I know it's a little early to be talking about this, but I wanted to get an entry up here at the website about the upcoming CCLaP poetry slam (known simply as the CCLaP Slam), for those who are interested. Right now it's set to begin on Tuesday, September 19th, and to be held every Tuesday after that.

And what is a 'poetry slam,' I hear many of you asking? Well, it's a joke of sorts, a gimmicky bar trick invented by a fellow Chicagoan named Marc Smith in the 1980s, as a way of getting a drunken late-night audience to be quiet and listen to poetry; over the years, though, it has turned into a legitimate competition, one with even an annual national tournament. The slam itself couldn't be much simpler: before the show starts, a number of random people in the audience are selected, who then become the "judges" of that night's slam. Poets, then, get on the stage one at a time, and have three minutes in which to perform an original poem or monologue; the judges give them a score from one to ten (highly influenced by the cheering/booing audience around them), with the higher-scoring poets moving on to the next round.

The CCLaP Slam will work the same way most traditional ones do, but with two major exceptions: that judges will actually give two scores, one for writing and one for performance; and in the case of our slam, scores will be kept secret until each round is completed. We at CCLaP feel that the slam is perhaps just a bit too weighted on the side of performance ability instead of writing; that's why we've instituted the scoring system we have, to help those competitors who may be excellent with the pen but not so hot yet on a stage. And we also believe that publicly-announced scores after each poet lead to a situation called "score creep;" where judges feel an unnatural pressure to keep increasing the score for each subsequent poet, in order to keep the howling drunken audience members at bay. By keeping the score results secret until each poet is finished performing, we hope it will lead to judges casting much more honest votes for how they think each poet did.

Six competitors will be allowed into each CCLaP Slam; after the first round this will be dropped to four poets, and then to two for the final round. The winner each week will receive a small prize, either in cash or as a gift from one of our sponsors. Weekly results will also be tallied; come May 2007, the eight Chicago poets with the highest cumulative scores will be invited to the CCLaP city finals. From those eight, four will eventually be chosen to represent CCLaP at the 2007 National Poetry Slam (or NPS), being held next year in fabulous Austin, Texas. Although this can't be promised at this point, we are also hoping to subsidize team members' expenses to the national tournament, to the point where they will only need to pay for their food and drinks while there; if possible, we will also be setting up a 10-day spoken-word tour for the team, on a straight line from Chicago to Austin in the week and a half before the NPS.

Oh, and don't forget that the slam is merely one part of a much larger overall event; each evening, in fact, starts with a 45-minute non-competitive open mic, and also contains a 30-minute featured performance, either by a local veteran or touring out-of-towner. (Out-of-town artists, by the way, can simply contact us to learn more about featuring at the slam while visiting.) The entire event lasts approximately two and a half hours, typically from 8 to 10:30 pm.

CCLaP is currently seeking a great venue for our poetry slam. Do you know of one? Please let us know! Please bear in mind that the venue needs to possess the following traits in order to be considered: a dedicated back room to hold the slam, away from the general crowd; both cheap drinks and expensive ones; within four blocks of an el stop; and perhaps most importantly, a barstaff who actually wants the slam there, and will hopefully even get up and perform themselves on a regular basis. We offer a very simple deal for any venue who's interested: that we charge a small cover fee to attend ($3; free for Members and Fellows), and the venue keep all other revenue made at the bar that night. We are also seeking either one person or a team who would be interested in hosting the CCLaP Slam each week; please contact us to express an interest.

All events are $3 for the general public, free for both Members and Fellows. If you're interested, by the way, in just tracking the news here about the CCLaP Slam, we have a special HTML page that always shows the latest, as well as a special RSS feed just for those entries.

More about poetry slams: 2007 NPS Austin; Poetry Slam Inc (national organization for the NPS); Chicago's Green Mill poetry slam (the one that started them all); Chicago's Mental Graffiti poetry slam; Kurt Heintz' An Incomplete History of Slam.

Earlier today I made mention of CCLaP's first "After Dark" event, social get-togethers we host specifically for people over the age of 21. You can click here to read the details, but it's basically a "geek dinner" being sponsored by a South African winery named Stormhoek, who will be providing plenty of free bottles of their products in exchange for you paying for your own food. I was just reminded by some friends, though, of another thing that will be happening around the same time; that CCLaP will be getting in its first official batch of merchandise, not only the t-shirts owed to Members and Fellows but also buttons (EU: badges), stickers and postcards.

And since we'll need to get those t-shirts to our community anyway, and since there still won't have been any center-wide social events at that point, I've decided to just make a two-part night out of it; to still host the Stormhoek dinner from 7 to 9 pm that night, for a total of 10 people, and then to move the activities to a nearby bar, for a much larger and drink-only CCLaP "Swag Night." This will be the community's first chance to physically meet each other; for Members to hang out with fellow fans of the arts, for artists to hang out with other artists, and of course for both groups to mingle as well. This will also be a chance for existing members of the community to pick up their promised t-shirt, as well as for new people to sign up immediately for one.

Venue not yet determined! Hmm, hmm! Know of a fun tavern-style bar where we could hold such an event, say from 9 to 11 pm on Saturday, August 5th? Please contact us to send along suggestions and recommendations. Don't forget, if you're interested in tracking just news about the CCLaP After Dark program, we have a special HTML page where you can always find the latest, as well as a special RSS feed containing just those entries.

I'm happy to announce that CCLaP has its newest Fellow -- Scott Ridgway, a writer and visual artist in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Scott and I have known each other for a few years now, in fact; I'm a fan of his work, and am glad he's decided to get involved with the center. And as mentioned below, Scott is also the organizer and host of a fun new poetry open mic in Rogers Park, every Friday evening at a place called Ennui Cafe; I'm going to be trying to make this week's event myself, in fact, and will post photos and an audio report from it here on Monday if I do.

To qualify for our free Fellowship program, Scott has ended up giving CCLaP the right to publish several great pieces of his, both stories and visual work; we'll be posting that material here to the website, then, slowly over the coming months. (Scott's first poem will be appearing tomorrow, in fact.) Don't forget, Scott now has his own HTML page here at our site, for those who are fans of his and would like to track his work and news, as well as his own RSS feed for those who would like future entries delivered in real time. This is but two of the many free benefits we offer all CCLaP Fellows, along with free admission to all our events, a free t-shirt, the opportunity to organize and run events through the center, and much more.

Below is Scott's official bio; and then in a couple of days Scott will also be writing a guest entry here at the website, concerning what kinds of creative work he's into and what things at CCLaP he is most interested in. Welcome, Scott; the center is glad to have you aboard.

John Scott Ridgway was born in 1962 in Garrett, Indiana. At seventeen, after reading On The Road, he started traveling, living in Dallas, San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bowling Green and Toledo, Ohio, and, finally, Chicago -- where he continued his studies after four years at The University of Toledo, attending Depaul, Columbia College, and Northeastern Illinois University, following a twelve-year education program that was laid out for him by the Beat poet Joel Lipman, an early mentor. He has published various short stories, edited the underground magazine Hypen, written for two television shows, and runs readings in the Rogers Park Community at Ennui Cafe, as well as writing his popular blogs, The Elves Attic and The Psycho Killer's Shit list. He has two published books: One War -- a novel that utilizes his classes in Military Intelligence to explore some of the dark underbelly of the real CIA, and his philosophy major to explain Wittgenstein's relevance to brainwashing and media manipulation by the Intelligence Community; and The Religious Psycho Killer's Shit List, a compilation of comedy and short stories.

So, earlier this week I broke the news about CCLaP's first center-wide social event: something we're calling "Swag Night," which basically means that our first batch of t-shirts will finally be ready, which we'll be handing out at a bar that's yet to be determined. And if this wasn't enough, I've now decided to throw down another gauntlet: that I, Jason Pettus, will personally be picking up the bill for the first $100 in drinks that members of the CCLaP community order.

So yes, artists, that means if you get there early and drink fast, the entire thing's free for you. And for all of you with white-collar jobs who can afford their own drinks, come down and be entertained by all the drunk artists! That's the whole point of CCLaP's social events, after all, to bring together both the creative community and those who love the underground arts, in a direct way we hope you'll find much more satisfying than some $75-for-a-totebag ripoff con job traditional membership program.

CCLaP's "Swag Night" is currently scheduled for Saturday, August 5th, from 10 pm to midnight; let us know if you own a tavern in Chicago and would be interested in hosting it. The bartender gets a 20-percent tip on top of the hundred bucks, by the way. And don't be surprised if we have a couple of great impromptu performances from local poetry slammers...those who got there early and drank fast, anyway.

I'm pleased to announce that CCLaP has its newest Fellow - it's Kathryn O'Halloran, our first international Fellow, joining us all the way from Melbourne, Australia. Kathryn and I go way back, as a matter of fact; she's been a participant in many of the projects I've put together over the years, all the way back to a lit mag I used to run in the '90s called seven stories. Kathryn is an immensely entertaining and talented writer, and I think you're going to enjoy reading her work here at the site over the coming months as much as I will.

Don't forget, Kathryn now has her own HTML page here at our site, for those who would like to track just the latest concerning her life, work and creative projects; as well as her own RSS feed, for those who would like future news about Kathryn delivered in real time. These are benefits we offer all our Fellows, along with free admission to all our events (or in Kathryn's case, free copies of our first 10 paper books, starting in 2007), the opportunity to run events in Chicago on CCLaP's dime if they want, increased opportunities to publish and tour, and a lot more. Working artists who are interested can learn more and start the application process here.

Below is Kathryn's bio; and then in a couple of days, we'll be publishing the first of the stories she's donated to the center, in return for receiving her Fellowship. Thanks for becoming a Fellow, Kathryn; I hope you have an enjoyable experience here because of it.

Kathryn O'Halloran is a writer living in Melbourne, Australia. Her chequered work history includes time as a phone psychic, a mystery shopper, a community television star, a maker of psychedelic fake fur handbags and wielding a machete on a vegetable production line. She currently ekes out a living, working in IT by day and writing at night. Okay, lets be honest, she writes by day and pretends to do IT work most of the time (intercepted with web surfing and spider solitaire).

Kathryn was once told to write what she knows; despite that, she now writes erotica. She finds the research gruelling but she goes at it with guts and determination. Currently she's working on her first novel -- a spicy chick lit adventure. So far it's taken over two years and she's not sure when it will finally be done. In between times, she has edited an erotic fiction webzine and sometimes writes short stories which have been published in places like Clean Sheets and various Australian journals. Her greatest literary achievement to date is winning a huge bundle of sex toys in a short story competition.

I'm very happy to announce that a Chicago writer named Daniel X. O'Neil has decided to become CCLaP's newest Fellow. And I'm very happy about this, of course, because this now officially brings the full cycle of the underground arts in my life into unity; Daniel, in fact, was the one who ultimately convinced me to self-publish my very first novel, way back in the mid-'90s when my literary career was just starting. I am a great admirer of Daniel, not only his artistic work but also how he conducts himself as a creative professional; needless to say that I'm very glad he's decided to get involved with the center.

Don't forget that Daniel now has his own HTML page, as well as RSS feed, for those who would like to track just his specific work here at the site. This is a free service we offer all Fellows, in fact; we appreciate you letting us publish some of your work here, in order to build awareness for our upcoming paid-admission events, and want to try to offer as many benefits as we can afford, to say thanks.

Here is Daniel's official bio, by the way:

"Daniel X. O'Neil is a poet and performer born in Pittsburgh, PA. Economics is his third book, following BRICKS: A New Book of Poems and Memo To All Employees. He has been continuously employed as an internet consultant since 1998. He buys things on sale whenever possible. He used to be a paralegal. The Chicago Bulls basketball team is personally responsible for at least 8 of the top 50 moments of his life. He teaches poetry in the schools, see poetryandtechnology.com for more. His two favorite people in the world are, by coincidence, the only two he's helped make: CXO, (4 & 1/2), and CJO, (2 & 1/2). They are parishoners at Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Chicago."

And then when I asked Daniel for some casual thoughts on the type of artistic work he's most into, he replied:

"I'm into 'derivative works,' which I practice here and define here; and basically is manifest in found poetry, internet collage and copy/paste crookery as seen here. Bottom line: we own our own experience and re-expressions of copyrighted work."

Right on, Daniel; once again, glad to have you on-board.

Okay, it took some convincing by Nikki Patin, our Director of Live Events, but I decided to put together a MySpace account for CCLaP; you can find it here. This will also now be a third option for people who want to know about our upcoming events, along with our usual accounts at upcoming.org and Google Calendar.

So why was I so against the center having a MySpace account at first? Well, it wasn't because of any particular problem with the service itself; I've been a personal user of MySpace for awhile now, although admittedly go crazy pretty quickly from all the MP3s and mismatched color/design schemes there. (I am over 30, after all, and therefore officially don't "get it" anymore.) No, the main concern is what you website visitors are seeing along the left-hand side right now; all those dozens and dozens of categories we're already tracking here at the site, even before having to give out links to external services we use.

I'm all for using external web services when they make sense; but I've deliberately tried to keep their number here to a minimum, to base the choices mostly on how useful they are, and to deliver all the rest of our information through our in-house Movable Type database. Nikki has convinced me this week, though, that it's worth us taking on a MySpace account as well, along with the extra link this will now cause in our already insanely-long sidebar; just from the sheer number of young artists and arts fans that use the service already.

Anyway, so that's good news for all you MySpace lovers out there; that you will now be able to get all the news about our upcoming events directly there now too, without having to visit our website first. Let the Friending begin!

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.

(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?!

Hey, check this out; it's a picture of my friend Susi Spicoli's multi-tiered, physics-defying photography gallery, within this rather fascinating online videogame called Second Life. For those who don't know, Second Life is a rather unique environment; one with all the real-time 3D processing power of a place like "World of Warcraft," but with no pre-designated gameplay decided for you ahead of time. There is no "point" to Second Life, no dragons to slay, no guilds to join; instead it is a blank world, with both the content and activities decided upon by your fellow game players, not the makers of the game itself (Linden Lab, this extremely cool little company based out of San Francisco).

As a result, the universe comprising Second Life (which I'll just refer to from now on by its slang term there, "the grid") is admittedly full of what you might expect -- casinos, bordellos, giant teenage dance clubs and more -- but surprisingly, has also become a mecca for smart, tech-savvy arts administrators as well. There are lots of people around the world, after all, who have always felt they had what it took to run their own art gallery or live-music center, simply that they couldn't afford the physical real estate needed to do so; but with a small parcel of land costing you only $85 a year in Second Life (that is, by upgrading to a professional account), this lowers the barrier to small-business entry quite profoundly there.

What gets all the media attention in Second Life these days is the recent explosion of artists in that virtual world; but just as important and profound, I think, is the explosion of curators, editors, talent specialists and event coordinators. Really amazing things are happening in Second Life, I think, when it comes to the subject of organizing and presenting the arts; and as mentioned, with most of it coming surprisingly not from current arts professionals but rather amateurs, college students and homemakers and office workers, who always thought it would be cool to run their gallery or performance space. And lo and behold, it is!

CCLaP of course has lots of plans for getting involved with Second Life later this fall and winter; our own physical club there, rebroadcasts of our live events in real time, a photography gallery that doubles as a poster store, as well as such exclusive in-game events as Second Life's first-ever regular poetry slam, done through Skype conference calling. And why yes, we are looking for fellow Second Lifers who would be interested in getting involved! We need a variety of specialized people for our projects, doing a variety of specialized things; from those who can bring their SL-installed laptops to Chicago events, to those who can virtually host such events in the grid, while we're busy here in Chicago hosting the physical events. We welcome architects, administrators, publishers, anyone who has the specific tech skills needed to add an element to our overall plans. As always, you can just drop us a line to let us know of your interest; or just contact me while in the grid, where I'm known as "Miller Copeland." I and my avatar look forward to hearing from you!

Happy news to report today; that the CCLaP Showcases, our monthly themed exhibition of mid-career writers, finally has a host. It's Katherine Hodges (pictured above outside the excellent Quimby's Bookstore in Wicker Park), someone who's been a friend of mine for a long time, and who I'm proud to have joining our staff.

For those who don't know, Katherine has been involved with the world of small-press and zine publishing since literally a teenager; in fact, it was a music zine she did in high school called "Spiffy" that first brought her to national attention, after her infamous article "My Mom Made Dinner for Pavement." (Her mom in fact even made Pavement a cake, with a big P made of icing on the top; when they asked what the P was for, she replied, "For Pavement!")

Katherine has been in the forefront of the basement-press community since then, regularly attending conferences and conventions on the subject around the world, as well as self-publishing a series of confessional booklets and zines, detailing such subjects as weight, identity, and moves to giant cities at a young and possibly not-ready age. (Her latest project, for example, is entitled "City of Destiny" and concerns all of these subjects; but Katherine asked me not to link to its blog, because "Oh God, I haven't updated it in such a long time, I'd just be ashamed of myself at this point." So okay, Katherine, update that blog already!)

And speaking of which, Katherine has of course asked if she can have a little extra time to get herself ready for these shows, which we're of course happy to do; and that's why the official start date for the CCLaP Showcases is now set for Thursday, October 19th. Don't forget, the Showcases has its own page here at the website, as well as its own RSS feed, for those who would like to check out the latest news concerning just that subject; and since Katherine is now a Fellow of the center as well, she too has her own webpage and her own RSS feed. I hope you're as excited as I am that Katherine is now in charge of this series; I'm looking forward to some great Showcases this fall!

Hi ho, all -- Jason Pettus here, CCLaP's Executive Director. There has been lots of little tweaking going on recently of the center's plan, as we get more involved with the final things that need to happen before our live-event schedule starts. None of them have been interesting enough for their own entry here, frankly; but now that some have accumulated, I thought it'd be okay to post them all at once.

--First, as another entry here goes into detail, we have a host for our monthly CCLaP Showcases, a basement-press and zine veteran named Katherine Hodges. She needs a little time to get up to speed, though, which means that the series will now not begin until Thursday, October 19.

--Second, we've been thinking it over for awhile, and have finally decided that we're going to change the admission fee to our live events, before they actually start; to $5 total, from the $3 it had previously been. We ended up deciding on this for a number of reasons; to put us more in line with our direct competition, so that we could earn a little more per show, and of course because it's easier to eventually lower the price for a show than eventually raise it.

--Third, as long as we're moving the start date of the CCLaP Showcases to late October, we've decided to do the same with the CCLaP poetry slam and open mic too; this will give us more time to secure a venue, and get out the first round of publicity regarding the show.

--And then finally, some fairly major and sad news to announce as well; that Nikki Patin will not have the chance to be our Assistant Director anymore. It's a story as old as time itself unfortunately; since we do not have the budget for CCLaP to be Nikki's full-time job, she simply must make her full-time jobs her main priority. Did you know, by the way, that Nikki works at some amazing places around the city already, including The Center on Halsted and Young Chicago Authors? Or that she has an amazing creative career of her own, which keeps her constantly touring or recording almost a third of the entire year? Yeah, she's awfully busy; which is why I can't blame her for not having the time to take on CCLaP as well, even though it's still admittedly disappointing news to me.

Nikki's deciding at this point if she'll have the time to still be the host of the CCLaP Slam; I'll let you know later this fall, as soon as I know myself. For those who are curious, Nikki's former duties will simply fall back to me; I'm open for maybe hiring a new Assistant Director if someone is interested (please just contact me if you are); or maybe just relying on volunteers to take on very specific aspects of operations (like fundraising, the social-event program, marketing, etc), working maybe only five hours a week, in return for a free Fellowship and all the benefits that come with that.

Anyway, that's what's going on with us! It's strange being a transparent company sometimes, I'll tell you; how the public sees every step of what's going on, before the final plan is put in place. Don't forget that our first show, The CCLaP Sessions featuring Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, is still coming up on Friday, September 15th; and we're actually getting pretty close to finalizing a new venue for the show, too, and should hopefully have the name of the place to announce just about a week from now (or a week before the show, if you want to think of it that way). Zorn's columns recently have sometimes just been side-splittingly funny in this righteous way (including recent rants against Kumbaya and Olympic gold-medalist Shani Davis); I'm really looking forward to sitting down and talking with him.

Well, here's some good news for those of you who have missed it; that I now have the time again to start regularly updating my Favorites page at insanely popular photo-sharing site Flickr.com. This has always been one of my favorite things about Flickr, in fact, and is what garnered them such big praise even from the beginning; that on top of simply sharing photos at their site, you can add a rich set of information to those photos (including now the ability to tag them to a map; here, for example, are ones from my account tagged in the neighborhood in Chicago where I live), have new photos delivered via RSS feed, keep track of your favorites from other photographers and more.

In effect it turns all members of Flickr into potential one-person curators as well, using their "Favorites" page as a virtual art gallery, where they alone are to program who's featured. It frustrates me sometimes that we don't currently have the budget to do all the things for photographers that I want; but at least I can start with that for now, with simply pointing out some of the amazing, mind-bending, thought-provoking photographers I'm always coming across, in the thousand or so new photos I peruse there every 24 hours on a good day. This fall, we'll be getting some of those people signed up here as Fellows, and featuring their work here at this site; and then some of them booked into our upcoming cutting-edge Flash-based online gallery, including MP3 audio interviews with the artists concerning each piece, and a full-color PDF catalogue/book to go with each exhibit. Later this winter, hopefully we'll add the 3D, real-time virtual gallery within the videogame Second Life; and then about four to six years down the line, if everything goes well, us finally opening our own permanent physical space here in Chicago.

Anyway, feel free to follow along with my Favorites page there at Flickr, if you want to check out some of what I think are the finest photographers in the entire system (both professional and amateur -- there's a miniscule line there, which is something else I like so much about the service). And needless to say, if you're a photographer and feel like having your work featured through CCLaP, by all means let us know; although we're headquartered in Chicago, we actually feature artists from around the world.

And speaking of one-person virtual galleries; when are one of you young enterprising programmers out there going to build a better interface for Flickr favorites pages? Flickr publishes an open API, after all, which means that third-party developers are welcome to build their own interfaces and applications; hey, Flickr even helps promote them once they're done. It'd be cool to see someone build an interface for people's favorites, that was both more useful and more creative than Flickr's current offering; one that displayed titles, descriptions and artist names, that let the member display them in a certain order, etc. Even better, marry it and a little PHP to a social-app service like Ning, and let the entire community vote on people's favorites, in effect creating a network-wide favorites page as well, like Digg but for photos.

Ooh, actually, the more I think about it, the better of an idea that's seeming. Anyone want to teach me APIs and help build it with me? I'm not joking; I've been wanting to build my first app at Ning for a year now, but simply couldn't think of something worth the time to program. A voter-based favorites system for Flickr, based off everyone else's existing favorites pages, all of it fueled off a public free API, sounds like a good idea to me.

So, I have some news to share today that I'm not particularly excited about, nor particularly happy about; that due to a lack of money, I've had to postpone CCLaP's live-events schedule to spring of 2007, versus this Friday when it was supposed to kick off. It's a frustrating decision for me, one that I put off until the last possible second -- after all, we were less than a thousand dollars away from being ready to start the live-events schedule, and I was really hoping that we might have pulled off a miracle there in the last couple of weeks. But alas, no.

Of course, this isn't all bad news; I've decided in fact to move CCLaP's publishing schedule, originally slated to begin next spring, up to the present day. So for the majority of you who interact with CCLaP (all you website visitors, that is), not much will change here; we'll still be featuring great creative work from brilliant artists around the world, and also sharing news and tips from the rest of the world of the underground arts. In fact, for those of you who live outside Chicago, you actually may be pleased by this announcement; it means not only the usual short stories, poems, essays, photos and more here at the site, but also a continual series of full-length electronic books being published by us too, all of them available for free, none of which contain crippling digital-rights management (DRM) software.

It probably goes without saying that it's been a stressful week for me; that's why I've decided to take just a bit of a break from CCLaP, perhaps a week or so, to regroup and get in touch with the authors and artists who I've been talking with this summer. As always, I appreciate the support that many of you have given the center, and hope that you'll continue to visit here this fall and winter.