putting the lie to event fatigue.
we've been keeping you updated on the hideout's event calendar. and since our beers are "en résidence" there all month, we've been there quite a bit. taking advantage of the great and legendary venue and its varied performance set.
tonight, a few door tickets may be available to see andrew bird!! and the head-turning-how-the-f-can-a-voice-be-so-simultaneously-beautiful-and-powerful my brightest diamond is opening. and the whole show benefits foundations of music. the benefit tonight will pay for music lessons for a chicago student for one year.
and then tomorrow night. it's time again for the inimitable hideout dance party. what does inimitable mean? i'd tell you, but one of my friends who just began his masters program in writing, told me that your favorite mailman needs a clearer message. an editor. "there's too much brush in your letters", he says. it's like when a second-year med student uses the word diplopia when he gets drunk and starts seeing double. pretty soon he'll be correcting my typos. in this, my 5am blog.
but fuck it. inimitable means so good or unusual as to be impossible to copy; unique. and that's what the hideout dance parties are. in a way, they're a perfect representation of the hideout generally. they're legendary. and always unique. and always surprising. and always fun. this week, gramaphone records will be helming the back of the house. you'll hear so many amazing dance songs, you'll forget that the sweat on your forearm isn't even yours.
and on sunday. during the day. a live essay that's sure to be interesting. about the status of a local theater critic's press pass. should it be rescinded? the subject critic certainly misunderstands the reality of being a young black man in america. and focuses too much of her concern on white policemen. and her insistence that any social commentary on police violence against young black men make note of the violence within the black community sounds like something that ill man said yesterday as he was thrown off the bus.
... /\ ... "WHAT ABOUT BLACK-ON-BLACK CRIME??" oh. hmm. never thought of that. clever one, you are. but let's get back to the topic of state-sponsored, state-empowered, state-armed individuals shooting unarmed black men. and the unusually high rate at which they do so. i think that topic alone gives us plenty to discuss and think about. ... /\ ...
all that said, it seems very wrongheaded to me to try to take away the critic's right to criticize. to express those opinions. if we continue to hide and ignore uninformed opinions, they'll never be countered. and they'll grow like a goiter. ... anyway, go grab a middle brow beer, listen to the live essay and participate in democracy. there's no better place in town than the hideout to do so. thank goddess for it.
this picture was ripped from the hideout's website. lovingly.