Monthly Archives: February 2012
BENEFIT Tonight! For Bryan Christopher Shades at Hydrate Feb 29th
Last week, ANOTHER fire struck Boystown. This is third fire in recent months, leaving people displaced.
Bryan Christopher Shades and his boyfriend Nick Freimann barely escaped the fire. I am told they lost their cat.
Bryan is in the IC Unit at University of Chicago.
Bryan has 1st/2nd degree burns on 20% of his body, mostly on his back,
and has been in the hospital for the past week. He had 70+ staples put in his back. Nick is okay and
uninjured, but Bryan’s cat Buffy died of smoke inhalation. To add to this painful situation, Bryan does not have health insurance.
Please join us on Wednesday night, Feb. 29th. Hydrate has graciously volunteered
to host a benefit to help; all proceeds will go toward Bryan’s medical
bills.
Your $10 donation to Bryan’s medical fund includes a Hosted Bar 9:00p-10:30p.
Raffle Prizes
50/50 Raffle
UPDATE 11:30 am 2-29-2012
Bryan sent us this note –
I was just released into my families care.
I guess at this point, they
say nothing else can be done for the 1st degree burns.
I have a
“bioBrain” on my back and they said, there is little more then can do
then wait for it to heal and peel off.
All I can do at this point is get
plenty of bed rest and wait for my body heal itself. I’m at my mothers in the
burbs now.
Ugh, I hope I feel better soon. I miss my life.
Bryan
Revolucion Mexican SteakHouse Comes to Lakeview
The owners of El Mariachi restaurants, both on Broadway in Lake View, are busy working on a
Mexican steak house—on Broadway, naturally— for this spring. The 120-seater
will serve classic prime steaks such as New York strip, rib eye, and
filet mignon with Mexican sides and margaritas as well as guacamole and
seviches, and will be called Revolución Steak House (3443 N. Broadway;
no phone yet). The liquor license is in place and they plan to be late Spring!
HollyWood to DollyWood FREE Screening Feb 25
Peace on Earth Film Festival (POEFF) is a not-for-profit festival
established to celebrate and encourage the work of independent
filmmakers from around the globe on the themes of peace, nonviolence,
social justice and an eco-balanced world. POEFF invites filmmakers’ challenging perspectives on issues such as
human rights, neighborhood violence, food deserts, domestic violence,
bullying, war, world politics, environment, economics and more, while
presenting alternatives of peace from all cultural perspectives.
The Film Festival takes place Feb 23 – 26, and all movies are FREE. First come, first served seating.
on Saturday, Feb. 25th – 2 great LGBT films will be shown.
INSPIRED: The Voices Against Prop 8 (89 min)
Directed by Charlie Gage
On November 4, 2008 the voters of California passed Proposition 8 revoking marriage rights for same sex couples.
The next day in Los Angeles a movement was born.
INSPIRED is a documentary film chronicling several people’s lives in the
wake of the passage of Prop 8. Arresting live footage follows average
people from all walks of life, inspired to action in ways they never
dreamed. Experience the passionate rallies and defiant marches of the
new gay rights movement as it swept through Southern California.
Intimate interviews reveal all the ways the movement comes together, and
the subtle and not-so-subtle ways it can be pulled apart from within.
INSPIRED: THE VOICES AGAINST PROP 8 goes behind the headlines and propaganda to explore the real people who make up a movement. More details about INSPIRED!
THEN, the Award Winning HOLLYWOOD to DOLLYWOOD by the Lane Twins!
On the fumes of a dream, twin brothers Gary and Larry Lane have
written a script with a plum roll for one of their idols, Dolly Parton.
Having had no luck getting the screenplay into her hands, they embark on
a cross-country journey to personally deliver it to her. They set off
from Dolly’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame heading East for Pigeon
Forge, TN. Driving an RV they (named Jolene) is friend and partner Mike
Bowen. All along Interstate 40 at rest stops, RV parks, bars, and hair
salons our intrepid band of travelers meet everyday Americans, as the
encounter everything from Floods in Nashville to an Oklahoma Tornado.
The journey is also one of discovery for the brothers, as well: their
relationship with their parents; their hopes, fears and ambitions; the
bigotry they’ve encountered; as they search for tolerance and acceptance
and the joy of realizing their biggest dream handing their screenplay
to Dolly Parton.
Featuring appearances by Leslie Jordan, Chad
Allen, Beth Grant, Dustin Lance Black, Ann walker, and maybe even Dolly
herself! Hollywood to Dollywood is a documentary of chasing dreams down
the road of life.
The film will be followed by a Q&A with the Lane Twins.
Hollywood to Dollywood official site
The festival takes place at the historic Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater, 78 E Washington. Chicago.
I would suggest getting there about 6:00-6:30 – if you want to both films.
Schedule that evening –
6:08 pm – 6:20 pm Break
6:21 pm – 6:42 pm Admissions (21 min)
6:43 pm – 6:45 pm White + Black = RED (2 min short)
6:45 pm – 8:14 pm INSPIRED: the Voices Against Prop 8 (89 min)
8:15 pm – 8:45 pm Q&A with Filmmakers of INSPIRED
8:46pm – 10:07 pm Hollywood to Dollywood (81 min)
10:08pm – 10:38 pm Q&A with Hollywood to Dollywood Filmmakers, THE LANE TWINS!
10:39pm – 10:44 pm Festival Closing
FAT TUESDAY at CREW in Uptown Feb 21
You are not in New Orleans this week?
No Problem.
Stop by CREW BAR + GRILL!
CREW BAR + GRILL
4804 N. Broadway Chicago, IL
Phone: 773 784
CREW (2739)
Boystown Mystery Series Continues with Book 4
Are you familiar with the Boystown Mystery Series of books, which takes place in Chicago during the early 1980s?
Marshall Thornton is an award-winning novelist, playwright
and screenwriter living in Long Beach, California. But he spent a number of years, living in Chicago. He is best known for the Boystown
detective series, which recently received an honorable mention in the 2011
Rainbow Awards. Book 4, A Time For Secrets, will come out in just a couple weeks.
In the first full-length novel of the Boystown series, A Time For Secrets, it’s late
summer 1982 and private detective Nick Nowak is asked to find a retired
gentleman’s long lost lover.
Instead, he finds himself embroiled in a decades old murder connected
to the man who wants to be Chicago’s next mayor. Meanwhile, an
ambitious young reporter develops a friendship with Nick’s lover Bert,
making Nick wonder exactly what where their relationship may be heading.
The previous titles –
Boystown: Three Nick Nowak Mysteries
A former police officer turned private investigator, Nick Nowak is
haunted by his abrupt departure from the department, as well as the
traumatic end of his relationship with librarian Daniel Laverty. In
these three stories set in Chicago during the early eighties, Nick
locates a missing young man for a mysterious client, solves a case of
arson at a popular nightspot, and goes undercover to prove a dramatic
suicide was actually murder.
When he isn’t detecting, and sometimes when
he is, Nick moves through a series of casual relationships. But his
long suppressed romantic side surfaces when he meets Detective Bert
Harker. Will he give love another chance? Or, will he continue to bury
himself in the arms of strangers? Stories include Little Boy Found,
Little Boy Burned, and Little Boy Fallen.
Boystown 2: Three More Nick Nowak Mysteries
In the second Boystown collection, Chicago private investigator Nick
Nowak finds himself involved with a young man who murdered his
stepfather but refuses to assist in his own defense. He’s hired to find
the murderer of a dead porno star, and, in a case that traps him between
the two men he loves, searching for a serial killer’s only living
victim. Set in the second half of 1981, Nick’s stories see him juggling
his deepening relationship with Detective Bert Harker against the return
of his ex, Daniel Laverty. Which man will he choose? And will he be
able to make any sort of choice at all? Stories include Little Boy
Silent, Little Boy Blond and Little Boy Loved.
Boystown 3: Two Nick Nowak Novellas
Private Investigator Nick Nowak is back in two novella length mysteries
set in Chicago during the early 1980s. In Little Boy Boom, Nick’s car
explodes when a thief attempts to steal it. Realizing the bomb was meant
for him, Nick sets out to discover who wants him dead only to find that
the list of possible suspects is longer than he’d like. When he begins
to run out of suspects he wonders if the bomb was truly meant for him.
In Little Boy Tenor, Nick is asked to find the murderer of a church
choir’s star tenor, while at the same time his friend Ross asks him to
find out the truth behind his lover, Earl Silver’s mysterious death. As
he juggles the two cases, he becomes increasingly disturbed by what he
learns.
Check out Marshalls blog too!
My Private Chef at Whole Foods on Ashland Feb 26
MY PRIVATE CHEF BRINGS SWEET WINTER WARMTH TO WHOLE FOODS MARKET
Chef Christopher Tong
of the upscale Chicago-based private gourmet dining service, My Private Chef returns to Whole Foods with a trio of delicious chocolate delights to carry us over to Spring.
Join Chef Tong as he presents sumptuous, decadent, and mouthwatering recipes featuring chocolate. The cooking demonstration will be held on Sunday, February 26, 2012, 12 noon at Whole Foods on Ashland in the on-site classroom.
The cost is $20 per person. To register, call Whole Foods Market
on 3300 N. ASHLAND at 773.244.4200.
For more information about My Private Chef, contact Event Services at
773.981.8131 or visit our web site: Myprivatechef.net
Become a Facebook Fan
Chicago’s Most Accomplished Luxury Private Chef
Elite Traveler Magazine – Global Black Book
Barack Obama Book By Chicago’s Hermene Hartman
How cool is this?
Fund this new book, The Barack Book, for a $25 pledge, and you get a copy of the book, when it comes in November!
It’s like putting your order in advance now – and helping bring this very awesome book to the marketplace.
In
2012 many books will be published on President Obama as he comes up for
reelection.
Chicago’s Hermene
Hartman, Bob Starks, and Derrick Baker have a unique perspective on the
man. They were there from the beginning. And Barack is their friend.
As
the long-time publisher of N’DIGO, a weekly targeted at Chicago’s black
middle class, Hartman was the first to cover the young, black Chicagoan
rising in the political ranks. First he was her friend, then he became
an Illinois senator, and then the President Obama we all know today.
Hartman and colleagues Starks and Baker recognized the political
potential of Mr. Obama early on and since 2003 have covered him from a
unique black Chicago perspective.
If
you have supported Obama from the beginning, now is your chance to
remain involved in spreading the man’s worldwide significance via The Barack Book.
Getting
books published or movies made is a tough business these days. Artists
and writers are taking it upon themselves, to get their own seed money,
to bring their products to the marketplace.
This trio of writers are using Kickstarter to fund the creation of The Barack Book
and need your involvement to help cement President Obama’s legacy.
They have less than 3 weeks to raise the $15,000 needed to get this
project off this ground. And if you pledge $25 – you will get a copy of
the hardcover book, when it comes out this November. If you can pledge
more, there are even more incentives!
Please help fund this very important book from Chicago, on Barack Obama.
Big Gay Brunch Club at Adriactic Cafe Restaurant Feb 19
Sunday Feb 19th 1pm-3pm, BIG GAY BRUNCH CLUB CHICAGO takes over Adriatic Restaurant in Andersonville!
Though the family that owns this Edgewater spot is Serbian, much of the
menu isn’t. Many of the meals do feature ingredients used in traditional
Serbian cuisine, but the owners have worked to Americanize the entrees.
The result: comfort food with a Mediterranean twist. Specialties
include the Adriatic plate, a carnivore’s dream of mixed meats such as
pork chops, chicken and liver; a daily fish special; and housemade
cevapcici.
Bottomless Sangria and mimosa’s. And an amazing buffet for $25 inclusive of tax and gratuity.
For appetizers:
Hummus
Kaymak ( homemade type of cream cheese)
Creamy rolls (made with ham, smoked meat, cheese, sour cream)
Meze ( smoked meats chicken, beef and pork, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, olives)
Spicy feta spread , Capraise sandwich, Cornbread
Salads:
Green salad, Tomato, Cucumber, Pickled vegetables, Potato salad
Soup of the day
Main course:
Sarma (stuffed cabbage), Pork schnitzel , Breaded fish, Veal with veggie, Chicken in mushroom sauce
Beans , Grilled mixed meat , Rice, Mashed potato, Grilled vegetables, Baked potato
RSVP on Facebook. $25 cash at the door.
5553 N. Clark St.
Freedom to Marry – this Sunday Feb. 12th 10:30 AM
10:30 AM, in front of Holy Name Cathedral,
735 N. State Street, Chicago
With the wins in California and Washington, some Springfield legislators say they will now make a serious push for equal marriage legislation this year in Illinois.
As they do so, we can expect that the usual suspects to loudly bray
about how “unfair” equal rights legislation is, and demonize LGBT people
in the process.
Chief among them will be Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George.
George is already on record comparing lesbians and gays to the KKK, and
repeatedly defended that insulting comparison before finally issuing
what many considered an inadequate apology. The “apology” implied that
he still thinks that many lesbians and gays are fascists, and he
justified his blasts against us by playing the victim card, saying he
was motivated by his alleged fear for “the liberty of the church.”
But he’s hardly a victim. George, as head of the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, spent tens of thousands backing
the anti-gay referendums Proposition 8 in California and Question 1 in
Maine. After the passage of the civil unions bill in Illinois, George
pompously predicted, “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in
prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”
As marriage equality moves forward this year in Illinois, look for
Cardinal George to once again take his bigotry out from under wraps,
trying to lean on Illinois legislators to vote against equality.
As a cover for this bigotry, look for him to try to play the victim
role again, falsely stating that equal marriage legislation in Illinois
would somehow force the Catholic Church to celebrate marriages it
chooses not to.
Look for him to violate the church’s tax-exempt status by using its institutional power to advocate on legislation.
We can sit back and take it –
as Californians fatefully did with the Mormon Church before the passage
of Proposition 8 – or we can proactively push back against this bigotry
now.
Please come to Freedom to Marry Day 2012 at 10:30 AM this Sunday, Feb. 12 in front of Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State Street,
and stand with the majority of lay Catholics and others of good will
who support equal rights for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
people.
This protest was initiated by the Gay Liberation Network and is supported by the 8th Day Center for Justice, the Chicago Rainbow Sash Movement, Dignity/Chicago and Equality Illinois.
For more information, email LGBTliberation@aol.com
Judy Shepard in Chicago for H.E.R. March 10th
Join Center on
Halsted for the Largest Women’s Event of the year!
H.E.R. Day is an
afternoon of workshops dedicated to Women’s health, education, and
recreation. The day will start with a lunch sponsored by a Parent IVF,
and continue on into a diverse selection of workshop topics for female
identified individuals. Your $12 H.E.R. Day ticket
will give you access to all the days events, lunch sponsored by aParent
IVF and a special keynote address from activist and mother Judy Shepard
at 11am.
In October 1998,
Judy and Dennis Shepard lost their 21 year-old son, Matthew, to a murder
motivated by anti-gay hate. Matthew’s death moved many thousands of
people around the world to attend vigils and rallies in his memory.
Determined to prevent others from suffering their son’s fate, Judy and
Dennis decided to turn their grief into action and established the Matthew Shepard Foundation to carry on Matthew’s legacy.
In her continuing
role as board president, Judy travels across the nation speaking to
audiences about what they can do as individuals and communities to make
this world a more accepting place for everyone, regardless of race,
religion, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and expression, or sexual
orientation.
Don’t miss HER day – Center on Halsted, March 10th.
| 3656 N. Halsted Street | Chicago, IL 60613 | 773.472.6469 |
GET TICKETS NOW!
BREAKING NEWS – Marriage Equality Bill introduced in Illinois
Moments ago, Representatives Greg Harris, Deb Mell, and Kelly Cassidy
filed a marriage equality bill in Illinois General Assembly.
We commend these leaders for taking yet another step towards
full equality for lesbian and gay families in Illinois, and we are
grateful to them for their leadership. This is just the beginning: the
road to marriage equality is sure to be long, but it is one that we must
travel together.
In following experiences of thousands of couples in civil unions
over the past year, we confirmed what we always suspected to be true:
that creating a separate institution to provide substantially the same
rights did not add up to full equality under the law. A pharmacist who
denied prescription pick-up to the patient’s civil union partner didn’t
think it’s the same thing as marriage. A coroner who refused to issue a
death certificate to civil union partner survivor did not think that
civil unions are the same as marriage. Tax preparers, estate planners,
employers and employees do not think that civil unions are the same as
marriage. Separate is not equal. And we at Equality Illinois will not
rest until gay and lesbian couples in every corner of the state – who
are equal in love – are also equal in marriage.
Just yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th
Circuit held that California’s denial of marriage in favor of domestic
partnerships for same sex couples violated the U.S. Constitution.
In days, weeks, and months to come, we will share with you our strategy for moving forward toward marriage equality. Please join us in this urgent and important work. We cannot succeed without you.
Very truly yours,
Bernard Cherkasov
Chief Executive Officer
Found In Town – Lost and Found Service
Did you LOSE something?
Did you FIND something?
First step –
REGISTER at FOUND IN TOWN.
What is Found in Town?
Found in Town is a community-based lost
and found program that creates an easy way to facilitate returning
lost items to their owners. FiT operates through a network of local
bars and nightclubs committed to helping out the members of their
community.
How does it work?
Users can register here for free to receive FiT tags for their personal belongings. All tags will bear a unique serial number, or FiT code, and will instruct the finder to visit found-in-town.com in the event that it’s found, where and when an anonymous message can be sent to its owner.
How many times have you left something in a cab? Found In Town (FiT)
is a new company based in Chicago that recently launched its free
online service that facilitates reuniting owners with their lost or
misplaced items. “120,000 cell phones are lost annually in Chicago taxi
cabs alone. Imagine how many keys, wallets and jackets are lost,” said
Zach Haller, of Lakeview, CEO and founder of Found in Town. “Everyone loses things.
People want to return lost items, but they often don’t know how. We make
it easy and hassle-free to be a good Samaritan.”
Zach, a Minneapolis native has stated the business is slowing growing. Less than 1000 participants signed up and he
has solicited four Boystown bars to advertise on the key-chain tags. But
the brand recognition necessary to make the service extremely helpful
isn’t there yet. “I think people may see the sticker and
think, Found in Town? I don’t get it.” – soon though, it will catch on!
SO SIGN UP TODAY. IT’S FREE!
