Results tagged “spokenword”

Park West, 322 W. Armitage, January 12, 8 p.m., Tickets $30-$50

You meet, you woo, and a soul-consuming love blossoms. Then you break up. And why is it you suddenly have so much to say to the very person you swore you’d never speak to again?

At the risk of feeding the hype machine, we still have to offer a congratulations to Mr. Kanye West for pulling in some Grammy gold last night. While we still don't buy the Grammys as an accurate barometer of the music industry and what's actually, you know, good in music these days, it's still the industry's main award show so there's something to be said for coming away with multiple trophies. While the night's big winner was Amy Winehouse, Kanye still managed to pull in four awards, as well as one of the night's most memorable acceptance speeches (surprise!) when he gave producers the verbal smack-down for trying to run him off in the middle of a tribute to his mother.

Saul Williams went the Radiohead route with his last Trent Reznor produced disc, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. The "pay what you want" model didn't move as many units as Radiohead did, though it probably raised Williams profile much higher that it's ever been before. The disc itself is pretty mesmerizing. Reznor creates jarring soundscapes for Williams to lay his own brand of street poetry over, and it's one of the best collaborations we've heard, especially considering how unlikely the pairing seems. Reznor's industrial pop bumps and grinds under Williams throaty vocals, creating an effect both vivifying and chilling.

We can still remember with vivid clarity our parents sitting us down for the two major "talks" (sex and drugs) of adolescence. In our family, both talks were equally jarring and minimally helpful. Now imagine having to sit down and talk about drugs and/or sex with Bill Cosby. The Cos has long been a fan of jazz and at times dabbled in singing and scatting; his comedic talent and mugging for kids also masked for...

Tonight kicks off a fest that's all about the ladies. Wait. You've heard of this concept before? Innovative or not, the festival appeals to the large number of people out there who feel like women need to continue to form communities and alliances within the art world and that females are not always represented as prominently as men. Ladyfest began in Olympia, Wash., seven years ago and has since spread to 50 cities worldwide. The...

Chicagoist doesn't think about poetry much. Oh, sure, we acknowledge its timeless beauty and reason for being, mostly through the cramped pages of our high school notebooks. And we recognize its innate role in the magical media of music — after all, "my hump" and "my lumps" rhyme sublimely, do they not? Surely it must be Fate. But we jest. Overall we take poetry for granted, preferring instead the down-to-earth words of novels and stories. Maybe that standing will change in our mind once the Chicago Poetry Foundation puts up their new building in River North.

Tonight at the Hideout is the final show in the “Farewell To Thax Douglas” mini-tour of Chicago. Thax will perform his signature brand of poetry before sets by Chicagoist fave Sybris, Tight Phantomz, Dick Prall, and Daniel Knox. According to a recent interview at Transmission, some friends of Thax will also throw down some musical stylings and spoken word. We’ve been following the ups and downs of Thax for the last several months, from the...

Convincing your significant other to spend an evening with you and a room full of sex workers might be tough. Did you mention it's for a good cause? Then head over to Andersonville where you both can admire the talents of adult film stars, strippers, internet models and prostitutes, for your cultural enrichment.

In one of the biggest upsets at last night’s Grammys, one of Chicago’s most talented artists was robbed of the top honors for his stellar work in the past year. As unbelievable as it might seem, Eddie Blazonczyk’s Versatones didn’t win the Grammy for Best Polka Album. And Kanye West is gonna have a problem too, ya'll. Unlike last year, we chose not to subject ourselves to the Grammy awards so we’ve been catching up...

Nominations for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards were announced today and thank God Kanye West was nominated several times or we would never hear the end of it. As expected, West’s “Gold Digger” picked up nods for Record of the Year and Best Rap Solo Performance while Late Registration was tapped for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album (“Diamonds In Sierra Leone” pulled a songwriting nod for Best Rap Song). Common, another member...

With more court action overshadowing his latest release, Chicagoist is almost—almost—starting to feel sorry for R. Kelly. Yesterday a Cook County judge ordered Kelly to give a deposition in a civil case brought against him by a woman who claims he videotaped her without permission; the woman was of legal age at the time (and my God we can’t believe that’s a clarification we actually have to make). Kelly’s lawyers argued that the statute of...

Back in April, we wondered if genius or madness would show up on June 24th when Lauryn Hill was to take the Taste of Chicago stage. In today's Sun-Times, Bill Zwecker answered the question with the news that Lauryn Hill has “reportedly” been replaced in the Taste of Chicago lineup by LL Cool J.