VOTE
If you do not vote in the February 26, 2013 primary, there is no reason to vote in April.

By this, I mean, if you want a choice, you better take the Democratic ballot in February.

Your only choices will be amongst the Democratic ballot.

If you want to vote for the current Administration, go for it.

Otherwise, if you want people who actually care about you, vote Democratic as follows:

Berwyn Township

President: Linda Callahan Kampe

Assessor: Alan J. Kveton

Township Trustee(only vote one): David J. Miklos

Berwyn

Treasurer: Michael A. O'Connor

1st Ward: Gerald F. O'Connor

3rd Ward: Margaret Paul

4th Ward: Robert W. Fejt

6th Ward: Jeanmarie Hajer-O'Connor

7th Ward: Alexandra 'Sandi' Radtke

If all these Alderpeople were to win, the current and future Mayor will have a much more difficult time governing and perhaps, won't be able to raise our taxes 20% in two years.

Any questions, feel free to contact me at markweiner1@hotmail.com

I apologize for this non-arts' post, but it is important to have effective government.

By the way, early voting takes place until February 23, 2013 at the Berwyn Public Library, 2701 S. Harlem, Monday through Saturday, 9am to 5 pm.

If you choose to vote on February 26, 2013, please note that if you are in the following locations in Berwyn on February 26, 2013:

Berwyn Township Ward 3 Precinct 1
Berwyn Township Ward 3 Precinct 4
Berwyn Township Ward 4 Precinct 2

you can not vote at your normal location. You must vote at the

Liberty Cultural Center, 6445 27th Place.
- posted by Mark @ 3:43 PM 27 comments

 
Weekend and Beyond
Octoberfest takes place in the depot district Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. Plenty of music, both local and beyond. Food, drink.

Saturday, September 15th at Cigars and Stripes, on Ogden near Oak Park, 6715 W. Ogden, there is the September Art Show, that will take place under the tent next to Cigars and Stripes. Featuring 20 plus local artists. Music by Holiday House and Brian McDermott.

No prizes, no contests, no cover. 11 am to 6ish pm. If you like chicken wings and beer, Cigars has the best in the area. Period.


Finally, the 6th Historic Bungalows and More Tour will take place Sunday, September 23rd, 2012. As always, I will be working in a house; this year, I will be at 1645 Elmwood, which also gives you an idea of where the houses will be this year.

Noon to 5 pm. Tour goers will learn the history of each home, while gaining valuable ideas and insight for restoring and maintaining their own vintage homes. Don’t miss your chance to see some distinguished houses including one featured on the popular website, apartmenttherapy.com

Advanced tickets prior to the tour are $20.
Buy Tickets Online: berwynbungalow.org.

Or visit these local stores to purchase tickets in person (cash or check only):

Berwyn Ace Hardware
6316 Ogden Avenue
Berwyn, IL
708.795.6060

James & Williams Jewelers
7020 W. Cermak Road
Berwyn, IL
708.788.9200

Over the Rainbow Ice Cream Parlor
6836 Windsor Avenue
Berwyn, IL
708.795.6836

Green Home Experts
811 South Blvd.
Oak Park, IL
708.660.1443


Tickets on the day of the tour are $25 at check-in:
At the NEW Berwyn Historical Society Building
1401 Grove Ave., Berwyn IL 60402


- posted by Mark @ 9:27 AM 16 comments

 
Weekend
Just wanted to give you some time to make plans for this Thursday, August 16th in north Berwyn at the Friendly Tap Listening Room. Two top-flight Chicago songwriters will be joining me on stage for a free night of original music:

Thomas Pace


Hannah Frank


As you know it is a Listening Show where just like in Nashville, the focus will be for the audience to very quietly listen to and allow everyone to enjoy the music. Talking is not allowed during the playing of a song but the beer is cold and the setting intimate where the writers share stories and a unique experience is had by all...

I use my best judgment to bring in quality players that will be very enjoyable and once again, you will not be disappointed. Thomas just released a new CD and Hannah will be performing her "poetic passive-aggressive masterpieces."

It should be a great night and it is free.

Show will start somewhere after 8:30 and if you have never been, The Friendly is a great joint to hang out in.


Performing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week at Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights is Tanya Saracho's Enfrascada (A Hoodoo Comedy of Jarring Proportions) 7:30 PM August 13 - 22 only.

"Love can't fix you, but it's hard to heal without it." This is one of many lines resonating with audiences from Arlene Malinowski's "thoroughly compelling one-woman show" All Kinds of Crazy.

"There’s revelation, tragedy and ultimately redemption woven through her family’s secrets and successes, and Malinowski plays various members – including her deaf parents – with wonderful vividness.

'Crazy' deserves a longer stay." -- Catey Sullivan, Chicago Theater Beat. Post-show dialogues this Thursday and Friday. Tickets going fast! Closes Saturday at the 16th Street Theater.
- posted by Mark @ 2:32 PM 17 comments

 
Weekend
Music, Art & Vintage In The Street

Live Bands! Talented Artists! Vintage! Great Food!~

July 22, 2012, noon to 7 pm

On Grove and Stanley in the Depot.

20 artists under the HUGE tent.

20 dealer vintage displays. Appraiser will be available
for free appraisals.



Spring Bulbs

I do not think I have ever appealed to you to give, but
the place where we bought our dog, A Caring Place, is
seeking money.

You can purchase beautiful, quality bulbs for your spring gardens and help
support A Caring Place Humane Society.

All you need to do is select and order your bulbs online with Dutch Gardens through this link:

http://www.flowerpowerfundraising.com/campaign?campaign_id=11675


Cut and paste if you have to. It works. Or not.
- posted by Mark @ 12:19 PM 0 comments

 
Weekend
Tonight: Every third Thursday, Berwyn resident Matt Scharpf hosts a Nashville-style Songwriter's Night where hiself and two or three other Chicagoland songwriters will share the stage and take turns performing and talking a bit about their respective songs.

Please note that “Nashville-style” does not necessarily mean Dwight Yoakam covers all night. It means that just like in Nashville, the focus will be for the audience to very quietly listen to and allow everyone to enjoy the music. Talking is not allowed during the playing of a song.

And Matt will use his best judgment to bring in quality players that will be very enjoyable to listen to.

It has been and should continue to be a great night and it is free.

Show will start somewhere around 8:45 at The Friendly at 6733 W. Roosevelt Road, and if you have never been, The Friendly is a great joint to hang out in and Autre Monde is literally steps away for a memorable dinner before hand.


Starting this Friday 22 will be reopening its space as SHOP 22. For the next couple of months it will be operating as a retail store featuring unique designer goods and affordable artwork. Many of the featured designers are from Chicago, with a few from right here in Berwyn!

To celebrate the reopening, 22 will be having a Launch Party on Saturday June 30th from 7-9 pm.

SHOP 22 - Hours
Tuesday 1-5 pm
Wednesday 1-5 pm
Thursday 1-5 pm
Friday 1-7 pm
Saturday 1-5 pm

6910 Cermak Rd.
Berwyn, IL 60402


Come to the Arthur J. Dunham Home in Berwyn to benefit your theater on 16th Street. Featuring wine and beer, performances, a jazz trio, treats and sweets, and a fountain by artist Mike Helbing!

Saturday, June 23, 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
3131 Wisconsin Avenue, Berwyn, Illinois 60402
Advance Tickets: $40 for individuals / $75 per couple
At Garden Gate: $45 for individuals / $80 per couple

Purchase tickets online, or to avoid the credit card fee, drop your check made out to "The 16th Street Theater NFP" to: 16th Street Theater,1619 S. Wesley Ave., Berwyn, IL 60402.

For reservations, call Ann or Eddie at (708) 795-6704 x107.

Sunday: The brass band enjoyed at Christmas at Trinity Community Church will be preforming this Sunday the 24th at Trinity Church, outside weather permitting and hopefully it will not be too hot.

This event will start around noon and the board of missions will be offering lunch and snacks at reasonable prices. You will be hearing a lot of Patriotic songs some of which you will be asked to sing along with.

Please bring a lawn chair so you can be comfortable as this event lasts an hour. Bring your friends and neighbors to this FREE event.

Come on out and have some fun and get in the spirit for the 4th of July, our independence day. Hope to see you there.

Trinity Community Church, United Church of Christ
7022 Riverside Drive, Berwyn, IL 60402
TCCUCC.com 708-484-1818 tccBerwyn@yahoo.com
- posted by Mark @ 9:07 AM 0 comments

 
Oddball
The Tamale Hut Café Reading Series is happy to welcome our Berwyn neighbor, Jerry Pohlen, author of Oddball Illinois, for a special event Saturday May 26th. at 7:00 p.m., 8300 W. Cermak Rd., in North Riverside. No Open Mic for This Event.

You probably already know that Illinois is strange, but do you know how strange? Have you ever visited Henry’s Rabbit Ranch, the World’s Largest Sock Monkey, or America’s One and Only Hippie Memorial? Pohlen’s new and updated travel guide to all that is weird in the Land of Lincoln has just hit bookstores.

And for the Tamale Hut Café’s Reading Series, he will give an informative and goofy slide presentation of summer travel ideas, from the Popeye statues in Chester to the dancing truck stop marionettes in Morris, from the double-decker outhouse in Gays to the coin-operated, fire-breathing dragon in Vandalia.

If you’ve grown tired of the Dells or antiquing in Galena, why not travel around the world— to the Leaning Tower of Niles, the Egyptian Theater of DeKalb, and the miniature Washington Monument in Mt. Vernon? They’re all less than a gas tank’s drive away!

Come out and support the reading series and Jerry Pohlen. In addition to his presentation, he’ll happily answer any questions you have, and books will be for sale. And as always, bring an appetite for Tamales, Tinga, and Travel Tales. There will be free beer for guests, but also feel free to BYOB!

Northeast corner of 1st Avenue and Cermak.
- posted by Mark @ 11:50 AM 2 comments

 
Happenings
Berwyn's own Matt Scharpf will be hosting a Nashville-style Songwriter's Night where he and two or three other Chicagoland songwriters will share the stage and take turns performing and talking a bit about their respective songs on Thursday, May 17, 2012, at Friendly Tap, 6733 Roosevelt Road.

Nashville-style does not necessarily mean Trisha Yearwood covers all night. It means that just like in Nashville, the focus will be for the audience to very quietly listen to and allow everyone to enjoy the music. Talking is not allowed during the playing of a song.

And Matt will use his best judgment to bring in quality players that will be very enjoyable to listen to.

The inaugural night is no exception.

Ryan Anderson is from the band Go Long Mule and Lee Ketch is from his band, Mooner.

They are both exceptional writers in the vein of Wilco and Alt Country and the school of New Folk.

It should be a great night and it is free.

Show will start somewhere around 8:30 and if you have never been, The Friendly is a great joint to hang out in and Autre Monde is literally steps away for a memorable dinner before hand.


Enfrascada in its last week at the 16th Street Theater. Thursday, May 17, 2012, there will be readings by Monica.


BAC Spring Artist Series: May 18th, 2012

BAC presents Peter Craig. Save the date and join us on May 18th, 2012!

The show will be up for one week and opens at 5:30 PM through 9PM on Friday, May 18th, 2012. The show will be hosted at Berwyn's Route 66 Museum, 7003 Ogden Ave, which is also the home of the Berwyn Arts Council. Invite your friends and family!!

Cool stuff.


Tamale Hut Cafe’s own Christopher Krazmus reads from his self-published Selected THC Readings, Saturday, May 19, 2012.

For the past eight years Christopher Krazmus has been helping immigrants and extended-stay visitors here in the USA from all over the world improve their English language and better understand America’s unique way of life. He has worked with frightened asylum seekers and cocky global businessmen; manual laborers with little education and doctors working on advanced research; underpaid domestic help and self-made entrepreneurs. He is fascinated by novelty and distance, whether great or small; geographical, cultural, or chronological.

Writing has been a hobby of his (on and off) since late childhood and he’s been an active participant and regular open-mike reader at Tamale Hut Cafe Presents since its beginnings in early 2007. His self-published short story collection, Selected THC Readings, is a collection of short stories he’s read here. The stories are based on his experience with foreignness, whether his own, other people’s, or imaginary; in the USA, Europe, on Earth or elsewhere.

BYOB and bring an open mind ready to be stretched to the limits of imagination, or at least in that direction.

Hope to see y’all there at 7pm Saturday May 19th, only at the Tamale Hut Cafe, 8300 W. Cermak Road.


Opening Reception at 22, 7 to 10pm, Friday, May 18, 2012, featuring four Berwyn artists, three who are friends of mine.

Located at 6910 Cermak Road.

Mike Helbing is a sculptor whose pieces combine metal work, assemblage, found objects, and kinetic elements.

Robyn Oliver holds a Ph.D. in psychology, and her scientific background informs her art, particularly in terms of perception and visual cognition.

Tommaso Lesnick’s "Fellow Travelers" project consists of 150 photographs taken of commuters on a daily route over the course of a year. The variety of people within these photographs blend together into a singular "commuter," drawing on aspects of ritualistic behavior in the process.

Mr. Walters works in a variety of mediums, including comics, graphic design, and T-shirts. He’s also been making one drawing a day since 2005. As part of Home Town, Mr. Walters will be exhibiting the entire collection of daily drawings from 2011, providing a great opportunity to see inside one person’s creative mind.



If that is not enough, check out next door, 2012 Riverside Arts Weekend Saturday - Sunday May 19 & 20

Guthrie Park and on Bloomingbank Road.













- posted by Mark @ 9:23 AM 0 comments