OCTOBER
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“There are a lot of poker books out there,” says Jake Austen, “but they’re all about how to win in Vegas, and have a lot of math and stuff.” Austen, publisher of the zine Roctober and producer of the cable access show Chic-a-Go-Go, put together A Friendly Game of Poker: 52 Takes on the Neighborhood Game after the idea was tossed out by the host of his regular game–Chicago Review Press editor Yuval Taylor. The book, published by CRP last month, features contributions from 44 writers and artists on subjects ranging from appropriate poker drinks and snacks to how to kick an unwanted player out of the group to poker as a country-music metaphor. “The only way this book would help at a poker game would be as a conversation starter,” says Austen. “Or you could use it for misdirection–like bring up an interesting story so the other players don’t see that you have an inside straight.” Austen, Taylor, and contributors Dan Kelly and Starlee Kine will read tonight at 7:30 at Quimby’s, 1854 W. North, Chicago. There’ll also be music by one-man band Bud Melvin, Kenny Rogers karaoke, and a nickel poker game. It’s free; call 773-342-0910.
11 SATURDAY
“Five hundred Italian grandmothers just seemed like a funny number to us,” says a spokesperson for Joe DiPietro’s stage show Over the River and Through the Woods, about a quartet of sly oldsters who try to keep their grandson from leaving town. DiPietro’s hoping to get 500 nonnas to turn out and march with him in Chicago’s 50th annual Columbus Day Parade; everyone who does will receive a free ticket to the show. He’ll be organizing marchers at 11:30 AM at Columbus and Balbo (the parade starts at 12:30) in front of floats 22B and 22C. Call 773-477-7666 for more information.
Art Resources in Teaching has been providing visual-art residency programs for Chicago schoolkids since 1894. These days their artists work with some 30,000 children in 110 schools, and next year they’ll expand to the suburbs. Tonight the group is holding a fund-raiser where the speakers will be sculptor Martin Puryear (who’s working on an image of Jean Baptiste Point DuSable for the state of Illinois) and ceramic artist Ruth Duckworth, who’ll be presented with the group’s Arts in Education Award. It starts at 6 at the Art Institute’s Rubloff Auditorium, 111 S. Michigan (enter on Columbus) in Chicago. Tickets are $25 for the lecture; $150 for the lecture and the reception with the artists that follows. Call 312-332-0355 for more.
