Standing Outside With Their Tix in Their Hands
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Although HotHouse itself sent out a press release Friday night saying that the shutdown may have been “politically motivated,” executive director Marguerite Horberg downplayed such charges when I spoke to her on May 13. She spent Monday meeting with representatives from the Department of Revenue, who informed her that she didn’t have the proper licenses to charge admission or serve liquor during performances. HotHouse’s business and liquor licenses technically allow it to hold theatrical performances and serve alcohol an hour before and after the show and during intermission. But the venue, which operates as a nonprofit, has been putting on concerts, with typical nightclub liquor sales, since it opened in its current location five years ago. In a Tribune story that ran May 13, revenue department director Bea Reyna-Hickey said HotHouse “basically…lied” when it renewed its licenses.
Horberg says HotHouse attorneys are trying to negotiate with the city so that the club can reopen while waiting for a May 30 hearing. At press time, however, the club remained closed. “It’s incalculably financially horrific for us,” she says. “We have a staff to retain, but we have no income.”
Gates hopes the first issue will be available in July, with a follow-up finished by year’s end; they aim to go quarterly by 2004. “We’re going slowly with it, and we’re trying to keep it on a personal note,” says Gates. “This is by no means a huge launch of a new thing to buy.” The debut will feature contributions from radio artists Joe Richmond and Gregory Whitehead, sound artist Jane Philbrick, and Chicago musicians Pulseprogramming. “It’s been really nice to work with people who are obsessed with sound and audio but who don’t come to it in a music-song context or even a music-business context,” says Gates.
Forty-third Ward alderman Vi Daley tried unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute herself. “A lot of times we can just settle things in the office,” she says. “But the neighbors were angry, so I suggested that they send a letter to the liquor commissioner, Winston Mardis.” The commissioner arranged a meeting between the parties and together they agreed that live music on weekends only would be an acceptable compromise.
