We're seeking new members for our 2025 Board of Directors, as well as our founding Associate Board for young professionals 35 and under. Details and application at each of the links above.
The CHIRP Blog
CHIRP Radio writesCHIRP Radio Weekly Voyages (Oct 24 - Oct 30)
Upcoming Events:
- Tuesday October 25: CHIRP Radio welcomes serpentwithfeet to Thalia Hall
- Friday November 4: CHIRP Radio welcomes Madi Diaz to Sleeping Village
- Saturday November 5: CHIRP Radio partners with the Chicago Humanities Festival for Jerry Saltz: Art Is Life
- Friday November 11: CHIRP Radio welcomes The Dream Synicate to Lincoln Hall
- Saturday November 12: CHIRP Radio partners with the Chicago Humanities Festival for Reza Aslan on an American Martyr in Persia
- Wednesday, November 16: First Time: First Family at Martyrs'
On the Podcast:
- First Time: First Comback by Lily Be
- Mick R talks with Liska
On the Blog:
- Kyle S has dispatches from the 58th Chicago International Film Festival (here, and here, and here)
- Clarence E and Kevin F discuss The Spanish Prisoner and the cinematic con
Top of the CHIRP Charts for the week of 10/17/22:
Alvvays – Blue Rev (Polyvinyl/Transgressive)
KSanders writesFight or Flight: A Chicago International Film Festival Special Presentation of Women Talking
written by Kyle Sanders, reporting from the 58th Chicago International Film Festival
Aside from giving international filmmakers around the world a place to share their art, the Chicago International Film Festival also provides a series of "Special Presentations," or those highly anticipated films from celebrated filmmakers most likely to find their names on various short lists during Awards Season. This year, Chicagoans had the chance to catch sneak peeks of Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin, and Sam Mendes' Empire of Light. Standing toe-to-toe with those male Hollywood heavyweights, is actress/director Sarah Polley, who shared her latest work, Women Talking.
Polley and cinematographer Luc Montpellier received this year's Visionary Award from CIFF, and I got the chance to attend the event (held at the Music Box Theater) and see their latest (and third overall) collaboration. Women Talking is an engrossing drama about a group of women in an isolated Mennonite colony who gather to discuss what to do about the ongoing sexual assaults they've endured from the men of the community. It's adapted from Miriam Toews' best-selling novel, and couldn't be more prescient in a post-Roe v. Wade America.
Women Talking
D Rock: Apocalipstick Beatz writesVinyl Rules or My Pandemic Listening Project
by D-Rock: Apocalipstick Beatz
VINYL RULES: or My Pandemic Project of Listening to My Entire Record Collection
A vinyl collection is a funny thing. Lots of people have them, but what is remarkable is how unique everyone’s collection is. Each collection will tell a story, almost too personal, if you allow it to. Each record is a little slice of life; what you were doing when this came out, or what little apartment you lived in when. Sometimes it’s a particular emotion or memory that you tie an album to. Sometimes good, sometimes not, but either way, it becomes a collection that is uniquely yours.
I started collecting vinyl in college, to play on a little Crosley, similar to the Fisher Price one I had as a kid. It started out innocently enough; I’d only collect my top ten records of all time. But as more music I loved was released on vinyl and the more I was exposed to life, the bigger the collection became.
At some point while living in Chicago, to curb the amassing collection, I made a new rule that I could only buy records by artists that I had seen live at a show. This was a good rule as a way to make me go to shows even when it was freezing out, and maybe even talk to the band at the sometimes awkward, sometimes amazing merch table. And so the little collection grew larger. Then I got married, and my husband has added his musical taste to mine and so, 12 years into marriage, I ended up with a lot more jazz, Dua Lipa and Katy Perry than I ever imagined for myself.
KSanders writesChasing the White Whale: Band, The Kings of the World, and The Big Payback
written by Kyle Sanders, reporting from the 58th Chicago International Film Festival
It's good to have goals, but at what point does one's pursuit of a dream become an obsessive nightmare? The Captain Ahab's and the Willy Loman's of the world could tell you that keeping your eye on the prize can blind you from the reality of limitations, lack of resources, and just plain bad luck. Yet achievement is not always impossible--sometimes it just never arrives the way you intended it.
Band
In the d(m)ocumentary Band (Iceland), becoming an arthouse success isn't so easy for the Post Performance Blues Band, a spandex-clad trio of women all nearing forty. Despite modest success in their Reykjavik community, they raise the stakes in their ambitions of becoming avant-garde pop stars within a year's time. If they don't achieve their dream, then they'll hang up the act for good. Do Alfrun, Hrefna, and Saga have what it takes to make their dream a reality, or is this just reckless ambition doomed to disappoint?
KSanders writesOut of One’s Depth: Huesera, Fairy Folk, and A Human Position
written by Kyle Sanders, reporting from the 58th Chicago International Film Festival
The cultural conversation around gender and identity may be progressively changing, but that shouldn't suggest it has become any easier to understand. I guess you could say society is in the midst of a "transition," as old philosophies regarding gender and sexual orientation have expanded and evolved into new territories that are at once refreshing and unfamiliar. In other words, reactions to such ideas have been both celebratory and violent.
In a way, this is a dialogue that many have been anxiously wanting to have, but just never knew how to approach it. For others, the topic goes so far beyond their traditional way of thinking that it's too frightening to comprehend. It's a conversation that's been difficult to start, and its conclusion remains uncertain. Perhaps that explains why the Chicago International Film Festival features several LGBTQ+ titles from filmmakers who have taken that conversation into creative territories ranging from delightful to horrific.
Huesera
Taking the latter approach is Huesera (Mexico). Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera, this horror film involving folklore and witchcraft involves a heterosexual couple overwhelmed with joy upon learning they're going to have a baby. Mother-to-be Valeria, a former lesbian teen punk who once stood against domestication, soon begins having terrifying visions of what she believes is La Huesera, "the bone woman." While her paranoia is dismissed by her unconcerned husband and family, she desperately turns to dark magic as a means of protecting herself and the future of her growing family.