Eiren Caffall
2009 Orgie Theatre Awards announced
The Happy Family Series, which we played back in November and December, just won an honorable mention in the Orgies! Congrats to the Magpies, for, as the award says, "providing a stage for some of Chicago’s most quirky and provocative talent."

I'm happy the band was quirky and provocative enough to be involved. We had a great time.

Read all about the Orgies here.


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Tomorrow Night
Our show at the Hideout is tomorrow. You can still get tickets from the Hideout's website.

March 5th, 2010, show starts at 9:00 pm and we play first.
The Hideout, 1354 West Wabansia, Chicago, IL 60622

Really, you should be there.

Judson Claiborne's record release is discussed this week on Gapers Block and their posters are up all over town. You know you want to see this show. I would be there even if I wasn't playing, so get tickets, enjoy the spring air and come out and see us.


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Check out the Facebook event page for our gig at the Hideout on March 5th with Judson Claiborne, Sonoi and DJ Jacob Ross. And remember, you really do want to get advanced tickets.

Also, we'll be playing in April! On April 22nd, we're at the Uncommon Ground in Wrigleyville, the other band is TBD, more details when I have them.




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March 5th!

Our show at the Whistler was sold out.

It was a cozy night all around. Rachel Ries was wonderful, so was The Counterpane, lots of friends in the crowd, and warm glowing bar to hang out in, terrific cocktails (even if I wasn't drinking, I heard tell).

The only downside was the line outside. And the temperature was hovering around 9 degrees. Lots of folks waited to see us outside in the freezing cold. Apparently the line wasn't moving, and so quite a few missed the show altogether.

Not to worry! If you come to the show on Friday, March 5th at the Hideout you have the option of buying your tickets early.

Don't wait. This show will be packed. Judson Claiborne is fantastic, Sonoi is fantastic, Jacob Ross is spinning records between sets. And, this is no ordinary Judson Claiborne show, it is a record release.

Get those tickets. Missing out on this one would be an awful shame.

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Our next show is Thursday!

So, the weatherman says it will be cold on Thursday. Seventeen degrees, anyone?

But, as our facebook event page says, this will be a bright warm lantern of a show in the winter dusk.

So, here's what you'll get, us, Lawrence on drums, Josh on guitar and the beautiful Ari Bolles on bass.

Also, it is free, and there will be posters and records to buy.

But, best of all, it will have the lovely Rachel Ries, singing songs about the prairie and The Counterpane to keep you warm. You can't go wrong.

Well, you can if you miss it.


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January 28th, 2010
Our show at the Whistler is fast approaching. Hope we'll see you there.

We have the world's best poster, made for us (through the organizing efforts of Lawrence Peters) by the amazing Kathleen Judge.

You can se it on the facebook page for the event or on the gig posters page. Yum.

If you come to the show we might let you buy one. And if you are very good, you can get a fresh copy of Civil Twilight for your very own. See you on Thursday.


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January Show
Upcoming show update:

Come and see the new band (the incomparable Lawrence Peters on drums, Ari Bolles on stand-up bass, and Joshua Dumas on guitar) play the Whistler this January 28th.

Playing that night will also be amazing performers The Counterpane and Rachel Reis.

I can’t think of a more perfect bill for a snowy winter night in Chicago. Cozy up with warm music and, might I suggest, a whiskey.


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Happy Family Series
I'll be playing on November 15th and December 6th as part of the Happy Faily Series from the Magpies. Read all about it here.

The Magpies Upcoming Shows

THE HAPPY FAMILY SERIES | Demonstrations Exploring"Harmonic Antagonisms"

NOVEMBER 13 – DECEMBER 6
FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS AT 7:00 pm • SUNDAYS AT 3:00 p.m.
VIADUCT THEATRE
3111 NORTH WESTERN AVENUE
(773) 296-6024 FOR TICKETS & INFO
$12 or 3 shows for $30
 
NO SHOWS THANKSGIVING WEEKEND (NOV 27–29)

Featuring over thirty artists in three weeks, The Happy Family Series is a brimming collection of big-hearted demonstrations exploring "harmonic antagonisms," the awkward equilibriums, true or false, that we forge with our loved ones/enemies.
With performative lectures, scroll storytellings, multi-media monologues, live music ranging from cabaret to country, one-act plays, videos, puppetry, improvisational bits and more, the series is a veritable vaudeville of delivery systems coming together to tackle a common theme from all theatrical angles: P.T. Barnum's famous American Museum exhibit, "The Happy Family."

According to the official guide book to the museum, Item No. 884 - The Happy Family was "a miscellaneous collection of predators and prey, living together harmoniously in one large cage, each of them being mortal enemy of every other, but contentedly playing and frolicking together, without injury or discord."
Information that exists today about The Happy Family exhibit is conflicting. But what can be deduced from varying reports is that anywhere from 60–200 beasts and birds were housed together under one roof. Species that have been cited as part of the exhibit include: doves, owls, rats, cats, dogs, hawks, rabbits, roosters, lions, guinea pigs, raccoons, alligators, ant eaters, porcupines, bears, woodchucks, opossums, armadillos, and all kinds of monkeys.

"We could learn a thing or two from these dumb animals!" Barnum would often blurt out over the pumped in classical music to astonished crowds. But rumor has it, that when the museum closed for the night and everyone had finally gone home, the tamers would sneak into the exhibit with their whips and beat the happiness into the beasts. Many eyewitness accounts state that the animals often looked too exhausted or malnourished to put up much of a fight.

Participants of The Happy Family Series have been given one simple directive, to extrapolate "harmonic antagonisms" from the "The Happy Family" exhibit in any way they see fit. The result is a profound collection of work that includes such topics as The Six Days War, animal husbandry, prison stints, Versailles, Thanksgiving, Noah's ark, President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Alexy Kosygin, Xanax, Byzantine history, city planning, The Swiss Family Robinson, winter's discontent, drunken romance lullabies, and much, much more.

Curated by Shawn Reddy
Emceed by H.B. Ward A.K.A. "The Tamer"
Featuring work by Martha Bayne, Ian Belknap, Dave Buchen, Chris Bower, Eiren Caffall, Mark Chrisler, Robin Cline, Barrie Cole, Elvisbride Band, Idris Goodwin, David Isaacson, David Kodeski, Jenny Magnus, Brian Nemtusak, Beau O'Reilly, David Pavkovic and Vicki Walden (of DOG), The Lawrence Peters Outfit, Diana Slickman, Edward Thomas-Herrera, and David Wilcox.


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More reviews for *The Time After*
The Time After continues to get conversations started. Doug Fogelson was recently interviewed at The Rumpus, and there is a nice exchange in the conversation about my essay. Derrick Jensen's essay is reprinted in its entirety on The Rumpus as well.

There have also been reviewed at Beautiful Decay and Publish Chicago. I may not agree with all the reviewers had to say about the book, but it is nice to know we're being read.

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The Time After - honors, reviews and news
The Time After is now available!

In case you've missed it, this book is a lovely meditation on how we might begin looking at the world through the lens of climate change. It is based around photographs by Doug Fogelson, and features essays by myself, Bridgette R. McCollough and Derrick Jensen, and design by Tim Hartford. You can read previous news posts to see a review that describes the book in more detail.

It is a mournful and elegant work, one that I feel as if I can disappear into for hours; I feel lucky to be part of it.

You can go to the website for Front Forty Press and order one of your very own any time you'd like. This is a limited run of only 2000 copies, and they are a very reasonable $55 each, a bargain for the beautiful images, gorgeous design and great writing contained in this hardcover art book. You can also buy it through the distributor University of Chicago Press.

The Time After is the recipient of an honorable mention at the 2009 Green Book Awards.

It has been recently mentioned at Beautiful/Decay.

And, coming this week, Doug Fogelson and The Time After will appear in Time Out Chicago.


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The Time After available soon...
Doug Fogelson's Front Forty Press will shortly be releasing Doug's gorgeous book The Time After which will feature an essay by yours truly, along with essays by Derrick Jensen and Bridgette McCullough.

Steven Nash, the Executive Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum in California, has this to say about the book:

"Doug Fogelson’s The Time After may seem self-contradictory. It is a beautiful book that stares into the bleakest dark hole imaginable to humans, the destruction of our earth. It does so through a combination of Fogelson’s own photography – vivid, multilayered and prismatic panoramas exploring cycles of life in the worlds around us – and texts by three gifted writers – frightening, enlightening, and mournful, but never maudlin. As Eiren Caffall puts it in her eulogy to the planet, “We have done things to this place we love that we can never make right. We are losing what we knew, and the end, as it arrives, is beautiful and terrible.” The Time After helps us grasp our shared responsibilities and loss in a tragedy whose outcome is perhaps all too inevitable. Fogelson’s gorgeous photographs are especially effective, leading us from complex manmade congestion and chaos to the song of forests renewing themselves to the last word of the conscience-free power of nature -- climate, tides, time, and day becoming night."

More soon: reviews, publication date, and where to buy your very own copy.


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Readings and Shows in December
After four years in hibernation, waiting for the Bush Administration to be over, I think I'm finally ready to start playing out again. So, in honor of the new spirit of hope in the air, I'll be playing a short set at a benefit. Come on out and help the homeless, see me play, celebrate the season, and raise a glass with me to toast the new era.

Coming in December:

Hope!Hope!Hope! A Rock Show Benefiting
Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Empty Bottle
TuesdayDecember 23, 2008
9:00pm $10

I’ll be playing a short set at 9:00 pm! Don’t be late!

The Musical Acts Include:
MC Ratso from Chic-A-Go-Go
Jyldo & Matthew Hollis
John Battles
Oishi
WoodenSleepingBag
The Dolce Veeta Band
Monzingo
Quietly Mine
Kim
John Greenfield
Radar Eyes
Ellie Maybe Holiday Experience
Blasted Diplomats
Favorite Saints


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Not enough detail? Want to know who all the performers are?
Read more below from the lovely Miss Mia Park, founder of the feast:

"Hope! Hope! Hope!"
A Holiday Rock Show Benefiting Chicago Coalition For The Homeless

Who: Over 35 local dancers, artists and musicians volunteering their
time and talents:

MC Ratso from Chic-A-Go-Go: www.myspace.com/chicagogoshow
The rat puppet host of this music TV show emcees with knock knock
jokes and the help of show creator, Jake Austen.

Jyldo & Matthew Hollis: Performance artist Jyl Fehrenkamp and friend
dance to their own drum.

John Battles: www.myspace.com/johnrpmf
This experimental guitarist and vocalist performs with high energy and a growl.

Oishi: www.myspace.com/oishimusic
Vocalist Carly Oishi and guitarist Jon Monteverde play lovely, moving songs.

WoodenSleepingBag: www.myspace.com/woodensleepingbag
Noah Tabakin from Mucca Pazza is the one man force behind this project.

Eiren Caffall: www.eirencaffall.com
This slide guitarist has an angelic voice, floating melodies and heart
warmingly honest lyrics.

The Dolce Veeta Band: www.myspace.com/thedolceveetaweddingvarietyband
Robin Bienemann, Rob Cruz, George Lawler, Eve Monzingo, and Joey
Spilberg play wedding polka-disco.

Quietly Mine: www.myspace.com/quietlymine
Chiyoko Yoshida and Jeff Carleton from Sweeder reunite for another
gorgeous musical project.

Kim: www.myspace.com/kimchicago
Yanti Arifin, Janet Kim and Mia Park reunite Chicago's only Asian
American female indie pop trio.

John Greenfield: www.myspace.com/johngreenfieldchicago
This prolific rock singer and songwriter writes compelling lyrics with a wink.

Radar Eyes: www.myspace.com/radareyeschicago
Natron, Anthony, Shelley and Kenny rock the roll with a touch of garage.

Ellie Maybe Holiday Experence (sic): www.myspace.com/elliemaybe ,
www.elliemaybe.com
Ellie Maybe, Vee Sonnets, Leilani Frey and Emily Agustin drive rock
with sweet harmonies.

Blasted Diplomats: www.myspace.com/blasteddiplomats
Christian Brandt, James Deia, Greg Hamilton, Dan Worland play straight
up rock and roll right.

Favorite Saints: www.favoritesaints.com , www.myspace.com/favoritesaints
David Johnson, Alison Rich, Scott Venvertloh, Jessica Butler, G. Allen
Johnson perform intricate, pretty music.

Nadine Y. Nakanishi: yoneko.net, www.sonnenzimmer.com
This creative illustrator and artist donates handmade artistic posters
for the show.

Busy Beavy Buttons: www.busybeaver.net
This woman owned, independent company donates buttons to sell at the benefit.

What: "Hope! Hope! Hope!" is a fund and awareness raising event for
Chicago's homeless. All proceeds benefit Chicago Coalition for the
Homeless ( www.chicagohomeless.org ). Chicago Coalition for the
Homeless (CCH) organizes and advocates to prevent and end homelessness
based on our belief that housing is a human right in a just society.

Where: Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave, Chicago, 773-276-3600. CTA:
#70 (Division) bus to Western, walk 1.5 blocks south; #49 (Western)
bus to Thomas St.

When: Tuesday, 12/23/08, 9:00PM SHARP; $10, 21 and over show

Why: Homelessness affects everyone, especially during challenging
economic times and the holiday season. Often, artists and performers
aren't in financial positions to donate monetarily. These contributors
are excited to have the opportunity to volunteer their time and talent
to the only organization in Chicago that runs regular outreach to
homeless families, unaccompanied youth, ex-offenders, prostitution
survivors, and single adults.

and...

Coming in January:

I'll be Reading from my Song Studies
Gothic Funk Reading
Flourish Bakery
January 6th, 2009
7:00 pm
details to follow

Have a great winter.

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