Pop-up retail events are super trendy these days, and I’ll be part of one in Pilsen (through Fractalspin) on Saturday just to maintain my credentials. I kid! It’s actually a craft fair called Blue Bazaar, a fundraiser for a neat entrepreneurial technology-slinging non-profit called Blue 1647. It’s a year-old nonprofit technology innovation center focused on “education, workforce development, business acceleration, and economic development in technology”-related things. What that means is they have classes, office space rental, a incubation program and three (3!!!) 5th generation Makerbot 3D printers, free computer usage for members, classrooms, and office rentals to entrepreneurs and budding organizations to aid in making their visions reality (as if the 3D printer thing wasn’t enough). Also, Harper Reed–who might have helped with a presidential thing a while … Read More
Feb. 9: Free Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor
Check out our Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor. The folks from Transistor, a cool music and bookstore in Uptown have kindly agreed to host this Meetup. Also, this Meetup will be a bit tricked up. There will be Soundcloud swag and wi-fi, so people can share their tracks. From the Soundcloud Meetup Group: Also, the folks from Soundcloud would like for us to record some audio (music, interviews, whatever) from the meetup to share with the Soundcloud community. I made a Group on Soundcloud where you can post your tracks: Chicago Innovative Electronic Music Soundcloud Group When: Wednesday, February 9, 2011 7:00 PM Where: Transistor, 5045 N Clark St Chicago, IL
Weird Wicker Park
With an Urban Outfitters and a Levi’s store recently moved in and cool-coffeehouse Filter moved out, the once artist-friendly Wicker Park might seem inevitably tipping towards the sanitized yuppification of its neighbor, Lincoln Park. However there are bits of offbeat weirdness to be experienced, from the screen print vendors who set up shop on the sidewalk (literally) to the bemusing Animal Collective-esque hippyish folk band that randomly sets up on the corner of North and Milwaukee, along with strange window displays and interesting grafiti. Here’s a bunch of photos I took of places and things in the neighborhood that are amusing and offbeat. My picks are after the jump and there’s a link at the end to the full collection.
Like robots? Here's a blog you'll love.
The creators of OhGizmo! (the niche, gadget / technology / weird things blog) have spun off a blog devoted entirely to robots. Not only is robotic technology ever-innovating, more and more people have come to develop a humanoid soft spot for our cybernetic friends (just do an Etsy search for Robot and look what pops up), so the OhGizmo! people definitely have their finger on the pulse. It’s appropriately titled “BotJunkie,” and features the tagline: BotJunkie obsessively chronicles Man’s inevitable descent into cybernetic slavery. One robot at a time. While it focuses mainly on small, consumer-oriented robots like the evil Hello Kitty Robot, I-Sobot (shown), and Spyke, there are some pop culture robot references, like “The top 50 movie robots”. No word yet on if they’ll cover military … Read More
Creating a successful demo: Electronic musicians: Here's how you don't screw it up
Promoting yourself with a demo can mean all kinds things, from selecting a couple of tracks to help connect with a collaborator to getting yourself a composing gig or record deal. Producer/musician Quantazelle herself has seen plenty of demo discs and has assembled some tips for how to make them work. If you’ve got ideas or questions of your own, be sure to sound off in comments. But the best idea of all may be getting people together for an in-person event to share music and visual reels. -Ed. A demo is short for “demonstration,†and its purpose is to show others what you can do, musically. In the past, a band with major-label aspirations would scrape together a bit of cash for a few hours in a … Read More
Where to find awesome clothes in Chicago
Here’s my list of places I’d recommend to go shopping in Chicago, and I’m a 29-year-old electronic musician / DJ / nerd / biz-geek with no kids who visits clubs and bars on a regular basis. I’ve left off a few places that I occasionally stop into but wouldn’t recommend wholeheartedly (Urban Outfitters & Crossroads on Milwaukee, and The Alley at Belmont & Halsted, for instance. While I can sometimes find an interesting pair of shoes at The Alley, for the most part it caters to suburban teens [ala Hot Topic] and Fetish-ists / Goths / Punks and Rockabillies. *yawn*) Here are some photos of me in clothes I’ve bought from the following places: [1] [2] [3] [4] Wicker Park: Milwaukee Ave. G-Star Raw (Women / Men) 1525 … Read More