Friday Night's Printers' Ball Celebrates The Art Of Printing With Free Beer & Performances
By Caroline O'Donovan in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 21, 2012 6:00PM
Just how much free beer could a person have at the 8th Annual Printers' Ball? So much that the open bar event at Reggie’s afterwards was practically empty.
The Printers' Ball is an annual event hosted by the Poetry Foundation that serves as one part party, one part live performance, and one part Columbia College open house. When I asked revelers what brought them to the Ball last night the answer was resounding: Free. Free tote bags, free posters, free magazines, free beer.
Free is essential for art students, of course. Columbia kids have the option of trying to make an extra buck by selling what they make in a student store. Some of their wares were on display last night; I personally considered buying a card for family on the east coast that was printed with Chicago on a U.S. map and the words, “It’s not that far.”
Columbia alumni volunteer to staff the event, and they ushered visitors through book-binding rooms and paper-making labs with a clear sense of pride. One of them, Joseph Lappie, helped Ball attendees make broadsides on an electric Vandercook cylinder press. Only five institutions have a printing program, Lappie told me, and Columbia is one of them (the others are Iowa, Mills, Alabama, and UArts in Philadelphia). Lappie himself is currently in the process of starting a program of his own design at St. Ambrose University.
It’s hard not to look at the enormous printers—which you had to use two of to create just one broadside—and boxes upon boxes of type and wonder if there isn’t altogether a little too much celebration of objects going on in what Lappie called “this world of modernity.” I was intrigued, however, by the photo polymer printouts Lappie was using to create the broadsides. Any design you can make on InDesign can be printed, inked, and used in the press.
Partiers on the first floor of the ball who came for beer and dancing might never have guessed such painstaking work was going on only a floor above them. Miss Mia and Ratso of Chica-go-go fame got the crowd dancing to some soul beats, after which all thoughts of the nature of the printed word in the Internet age had pretty much evaporated.
Just before that, Paul de Jong—formerly one half of the band The Books—took the stage for a mixed media performance. De Jong was invited to craft a piece that celebrated 100 years of Poetry Magazine. “All of their editions ever are online,” the Norwegian native told the crowd, “it’s amazing.” De Jong took inspiration from his own poetry, and using key terms like DOG, DIRGE, and DOOR, searched the Poetry Magazine archives online and wedded his own work with what he found to create “Don’t Let the Dogs Get You Down.” Unfortunately, technical difficulties were such that de Jong was unable to finish the performance (“This is not my video,” de Jong said cheerfully, “This is an ad for Sony DVD player”), not that anybody noticed. When I remarked that it didn’t seem like anyone in the room was listening, someone remarked, “I’ve paid 30 bucks to hear this guy play before, and now I can’t even hear him.” For his part, de Jong said he loves Chicago, and will return soon on tour with a new solo project.
The much-awaited act of the evening was Quintron and Miss Pussycat, a New Orleans puppetry-and-organ-music duo who wrapped up a tour at the Ball last night. Their particular brand of sparkle, gold maracas and jamming drew more of the crowd's attention. For those who couldn’t quite hear the puppetry portion of their act last night, here’s a video of a performance given in Florida. It’s spellbinding.