9:00 PM, $7 suggested donation

Songwriter Showcase featuring Eric Ziegenhagen and Isaac David Lyons

Justin Petertil of Love Raid and Office hosts our regular Songwriter Showcase and Open Mic featuring Eric Ziegenhagen and Isaac David Lyons.

Eric Ziegenhagen has a unique skill for narrative in his songwriting. Ziegenhagen’s lyrics are filled with mundane objects like street corners, breakfast dishes and dresses hanging in a shop window. And his themes are often not much grander than his imagery – he writes of small moments that quickly pass through the day and quirky thoughts that pop into our heads. His songs reveal and explore the deep emotions that so frequently accompany our everyday routines and quiet aspirations.

Isaac David Lyons writes piano music much in the vein of Tom Waits. His songs recall taverns and bar rooms from the last century, while his lyrics are simple and humble. Lyons charm lies in the honesty of his songs and the bravado with which he belts out tales of love lost and isolation found.

8:00 PM, $7 suggested donation

The YouTube Assembly featuring Jesse McLean

The YouTube Assembly consists of screening web-based video for a live and participating audience. Each event features a guest host presenting a collection of YouTube clips that elaborate on a project or theme in which they have some expertise or interest. In the spirit of the popular YouTube interface, audience members are encouraged to comment on the videos they watch, except out loud and in real time with no anonymity. After the presentation the host then invites audience members to share their own clips. Like karaoke or an open mic, the YouTube Assembly creates a situation in which people take turns entertaining each other, thus bypassing the arguably isolating aspect of online networks like YouTube and encourage real, face-to-face interaction.

The YTA is sponsored by Homeroom Chicago and is hosted by the Nightingale.

Thematically based around fan culture, this screening will take a look at both fans and fan-created videos. Through our own cloudy voyeuristic lens, we will explore what it means to admire, to emulate and to obsess.

Jesse McLean’s work is motivated by a deep curiosity about human behavior and relationships, especially as presented and observed through the mediation of found footage. Her recent work interpolates the production, proliferation, and consumption of televisual experience, investigating how this transfer of information creates a bind of complex relationships between maker and viewer. Interested both in the power and the failure of the mediated experience to bring us together, McLean’s work asks the viewer to walk the line between voyeur and participant.

Jesse McLean received her MFA in Moving Image from University of Illinois at Chicago. Her work has been shown extensively throughout Chicago, as well as numerous film festivals around the country and beyond.

9:00 PM, $5 suggested donation

101 featuring Mairead Case

101 is a monthly lecture series organized by Homeroom in partnership with YouMeThemEverybody(a Chicago arts and music podcast). Each event features a different speaker who, in open dialogue with the audience, will give a short talk about not just what they do, but how and why they do it. Occasionally, 101 speakers also discuss other arts and culture makers that inspire and influence them. 101 takes place the second Monday of each month at the Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont) from February through May.

Mairead Case is Managing Editor at Literago.org. The former Managing Editor at Proximity and Books Editor at Venus Zine, she’s published fiction and criticism at places like featherproof, Pitchfork, Punk Planet, Village Voice Media, and Vice; started a writing program at an Indiana juvie; sold pumpkin pie wholesale; taught fangst lit to youth in libraries; and curated a radio show about dreams for Neighborhood Public Radio at the 2008 Whitney Biennial. She will be speaking about the Greenwich Village folk music scene pioneer Karen Dalton.

9:00 PM, $5 suggested donation

101 featuring Michelle Garcia

101 is a monthly lecture series organized by Homeroom in partnership with YouMeThemEverybody (a Chicago arts and music podcast). Each event features a different speaker who, in open dialogue with the audience, will give a short talk about not just what they do, but how and why they do it. Occasionally, 101 speakers also discuss other arts and culture makers that inspire and influence them. 101 takes place the second Monday of each month at the Hungry Brain (2319 W. Belmont) from February through May.

Michelle Garcia opened Bleeding Heart Bakery with Vinny Garcia in West Town in 2004. A popular success, the business has thrived, and the enterprise has expanded to three locations around the city. Bleeding Heart’s mission, based on the Garcia’s strong ethical and activist beliefs, is to use local, sustainable and organic ingredients in all of their pastries. Michelle Garcia will talk about her experience as a punk rock-trepreneur as well as her commitment to local and sustainable food culture.

Michelle Garcia is a graduate of the French Pastry School and has spent years traveling, baking, learning and teaching. She was named ACF Regional Pastry Chef of the Year in 2006 and Chef in Focus by North American Pastry Art and Design.

8:00 PM, $7 suggested donation

The YouTube Assembly featuring Jon Satrom

The YouTube Assembly consists of screening web-based video for a live and participating audience. Each event features a guest host presenting a collection of YouTube clips that elaborate on a project or theme in which they have some expertise or interest. In the spirit of the popular YouTube interface, audience members are encouraged to comment on the videos they watch, except out loud and in real time with no anonymity. After the presentation the host then invites audience members to share their own clips. Like karaoke or a traditional performance open mic, the YouTube Assembly creates a situation in which people take turns entertaining each other, thus bypassing the arguably isolating aspect of online networks like YouTube and encourage real, face-to-face interaction.

The YTA is sponsored by Homeroom Chicago and is hosted by the Nightingale.

Jon Satrom performs realtime audio/video, spends time data-bending, makes kludgey work-flows, creates colorful glitch-ware, and enjoys working within collaborative projects and open systems.

He spends his days fixing things, making things work, and teaching. He spends his evenings breaking things, learning, and searching for the unique blips inherent to the systems he explores and exploits.

Satrom is a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, runs a small production studio called Studio Thread, and is involved in various collective new-media efforts around Chicago.

9:00 PM, $7 suggested donation

Songwriter Showcase featuring Lily Schaffer and Roy Ivy

Justin Petertil of Love Raid and Office hosts our regular Songwriter Showcase and Open Mic featuring Lily Schaffer and Roy Ivy.

Lily Schaffer is a Chicago songwriter who channels skepticism and self doubt into broad melodies and rigid pop forms. Her strong voice rarely reaches; Shaffer alternates between a sung/spoken style and an effortless, airy voice. Even in her louder songs, she always maintains a sense of intimacy and vulnerability.

Roy Ivy is a songwriter from Texas where he was a founding member of Polyphonic Spree and The Tah Dahs. Ivy’s songs are often whimsical and avoid typical song structures. But his lyrics reveal darkness, loneliness and a general disgust with the crudeness of humanity and his own flawed nature. Ivy is anything but apathetic – his songs teem with frustration and hope expressed through his warm voice and simple guitar work.

At Elastic Arts (2830 N Milwaukee, 2nd Floor.)