Neo flyers up 'til now

The following are all the flyers I've made for Neo events in the last year or so. I've really come to enjoy getting my Photoshop on with these. I think I had the most fun with the one for the holiday party. Fun fact: the Santa Claus in that is the same guy, Charles, as in the Blackout Wednesday poster. The Smiths/Cure one was probably the most difficult, but through that, I taught myself the snap tool, which was way worth it for future projects.

 

Photo credits: 

"Smith-o-Lantern" by Magpie-Moon

Santa Charles by Kelly Reardon

Santa and friend by BD Miller. Models: Charles Kedney and Peggy. 

I believe I took the photo of Kitty Zombie from his Facebook photos. 

Everything else is stock photography, probably from Corbis. 

Serving Chicago's underground since 2011.

Since graduation, I've been spending lots of my time doing PR and social media marketing for Neo, "Chicago's oldest nightclub." I've learned a lot about managing a facebook account from the business side and what kind of tactics will get people to sit up and pay attention. I've also been having a blast sharing music and entertainment news with a Chicago rock and alternative audience and basically being lucky enough to be allowed to play in with the folks behind such an iconic Chicago institution.

One of the biggest undertakings has been creating an archive for their amazing collection of advertising materials. Combing through 30+ years of flyers and posters has been a real treat. Here's a flyer I made for a recent event:

Please visit their page to see more of where I've been trying to take their editorial voice and place in the facebook sharing world. And don't forget to fan us!

If you can't beat 'em, stop 'em where they stand

Human breast cancer cells treated left to right with dasatinib. The same samples are dyed to highlight different proteins. Photo courtesy of Dr. Corey.

Medill Reports Chicago

Republished in : Science in Society, Evanston Trib Local

Researchers at Northwestern University are pioneering ways to shoot out the tires from breast cancer’s getaway car in a high-speed chase of drug assassins and carcinogenic criminals.

Dr. Seth Corey, M.D.

That’s because breast cancer itself doesn’t kill until it metastasizes, or travels, to other sensitive organs, invades and then grows. But a new clue to stopping this destructive spree surprisingly came from children.

Dr. Seth Corey is a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Memorial Hospital and professor of cellular and molecular biology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He and his researchers saw similarities between the travels of breast cancer and another notorious roamer – leukemia. They found that dasatinib, a drug already used to eliminate leukemia in the bone marrow, may also prevent mobility in breast cancer, keeping it from jumping the mammary ship to invade vital organs and kill.

But even though dasatinib is FDA-approved for the treatment of leukemia, the likelihood of your doctor prescribing it for breast cancer just yet is slim. The Northwestern research team hopes to take advantage of dasatinib’s clinical breast cancer trials to determine what responds best. By mapping the biological signatures of varying cancer types this way, fingerprints of these malignant flight-risks to assist in diagnosis and further targeted treatment may not be far off.

Rock local - open mic night at Rogers Park's Red Line Tap

Final project for Wynne Delacoma's arts reporting class. The assignment was to make a video or slideshow about a live performance. I chose slideshow because it forces you to listen to the performances more and, to me, it's easier to make someone "there" with just pictures and sounds sometimes.

By the way, in case you're wondering why Brad Norman's voice sounds familiar, he now plays "Chad Ridgeway," the broker character in the Scottrade commercials. He told me during our short interview that he had just done an audition in California that he was waiting to her back about. I guess it went well. Good for him.

Alley Cat: Mark Thomas's lucky 7

Click to enlarge!

Mark Thomas pushes aside a rack of floor-length motorcycle jackets to reveal a door. “I just like weird shit.” A dingy staircase slathered in a garish shade of tennis ball winds upward on the other side. By the top, the ceiling is barely high enough to stand upright. Like Willy Wonka’s biker uncle, Thomas unlocks one coded door after another leading to his “cave,” a dusty, windowless office above his oldest store.

Thomas owns The Alley, the collection of punk/kitch/whatever stores on the corner of Belmont Ave. and Clark St. in Chicago that have attracted generations of suburban teens on their first pilgrimages to the big city.

After minding hell’s gift shop for three decades, Chicago’s godfather of alternative culture has enough keepsakes to fill four offices and stories to fill each one of his many shops. High above the driving music and scent of leather in the main Alley store, he reminisces about the toys in his attic.

Harder, better, faster, stronger: I:Scintilla grows with age, but is the world ready?

I:Scintilla press photo/ISCINTILLA.COM

Industrial corn school transplants I:Scintilla have a cult following and goth cred to spare. Too bad everyone around them doesn’t seem to be up to their level.

The 1300 block of West Lake Street is an odd place for an underground music venue. Not as out-of-place as Chinatown is for Reggie’s, but almost.

A family like his

Medill Reports: Chicago

Kijan Jonovich is a natural musician. Though he’s not old enough to talk much, he scoots his toddler-sized racecar across the wood floor and sings along as it plays “The Wheels on the Bus.”

But the batteries in the car are dying and as he turns the big yellow key that plays the song again and again, rolling his hands over each other at the part that goes “round and round,” the wheels on this bus sound like they’re melting. The sound becomes more and more garbled and strained and it seems Kijan’s little friend needs a jump. Mom decides that’s enough.

Two doors down, two different worlds

Medill Reports: Chicago
Story by: Abby Sewell
Video production: Jessica Krinke



It’s dusk on West Lawrence Avenue, and Wafeeqa Saadeh is preparing to close up shop for the night.

Saadeh, a Palestinian immigrant who settled in the neighborhood in 1978, runs the El-Jeeb Hijab and Gifts with a handful of relatives, including her sister, niece and nephew. Her small, family-owned store in Albany Park is crowded with embroidered robes and head scarves imported from Jordan. It’s one of a handful of spots in Chicago that specialize in Muslim women’s clothing. The family has also owned a grocery store in the neighborhood for 25 years.

Two storefronts down, behind an unobtrusive façade bearing the legend “Admiral Theatre,” in a high-ceilinged lobby done up in blue and gold, cashiers are setting up for the night. Scantily clad Egyptian sirens watch them from the paintings on the walls. In a little while, tourists, businessmen, sailors and college boys heading out for a night on the town will begin lining up for another show at Chicago’s oldest strip club.

Chicago's changing face of HIV

By: Camille Doty and Jessica Krinke

(Please view the companion video by Camille on Medill Reports!)

Cited in: Chicago Now

Yvette Williams, courtesy her facebook page.

Yvette Williams prepares for the holidays by decorating her home with Christmas lights. Her welcome mat plays "Joy to the World," and every holiday season brings more joy than the last since she was diagnosed with HIV.

Williams said that feeling sorry for herself was never an option and her diagnosis was an opportunity to learn. "It's not a death sentence. You can live with it or die from it. You only stop living when you choose to." The 42-year-old ministry assistant embraces a healthy lifestyle with exercise and a well-balanced diet.

Williams represents the changing face of HIV. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, almost 2,500 black women in Illinois are living with the virus – and the numbers continue to climb as the leading cause of death for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 34.

Windy City Horrors

For my second quarter interactive class, my main project was designing a website based on a long, in-depth profile. I chose the culture in Chicago around horror movies and horror-themed social events and clubs. The website doesn't quite exist anymore since it was designed around the URL's of the class's website (that disappears at the end of every semester) so I have to rebuild it someday. However, I don't want all the reporting and work to go to waste so here's the parts of it I can share here.

Giving voice to the silent 'T' in LGBT

Christina Kahrl is the Transgender liaison for Center on Halsted.
She is a sports writer and a transgender woman. 

Medill Reports: Chicago

Republished in: The Primrose

Transgender individuals still face many hurdles, even within the LGBT world. And the photo identification policy at northwest suburban Hunters Nightclub has come to represent some of them.

Hunters is a popular gay bar in an unincorporated area near Elk Grove Village that has come under criticism recently for tightened ID policies that some in the transgender community say is discriminatory.

Claiming that their liquor license was in danger, the establishment no longer admits patrons who don’t look enough like the photo on their IDs. The policy has come to be known as the “Two Faces, Two ID’s” rule and makes it necessary for gender variant people to obtain a second valid photo ID.

Science never tasted so good

By: Amy Enchelmeyer and Jessica Krinke
(Please view Amy's companion video on Medill Reports!)

Hundreds of hungry home cooks crowded every floor of the four story Borders on Michigan Avenue for a chance to meet their favorite TV chef.

Alton Brown, star of The Food Network’s “Good Eats” signed copies of his new book based on the hit show, “Good Eats: The Early Years,” for 500 fans late into the night on Oct. 15.

True 'Spirit' of Halloween haunted by profits?

Geoff Graves plays "Kitty Zombie" at Chicago horror events.

Medill Reports: Chicago

POLL: Should the date change?

While Halloween has become arguably the most commercial party holiday of modern American culture, does it warrant an entire Hallow-weekend? One costume company thinks so.

Spirit Halloween, owners of  many Halloween stores that vanish as mysteriously as they materialize in strip malls across America come Nov. 1, has launched a proposal to permanently change the date of All-hallows Eve to the last Saturday in October instead of Oct. 31.

Elementary school spooks and goblins eagerly await Saturday Halloweens, but not everyone in the Chicago Halloween and horror industry hopes this year’s weekend Halloween will be permanent.

'Toilet Theater' transgresses the limits of gender

Jason Hosking/CORBIS

Medill Reports: Chicago

The bar is crowded and music assaults your poor, inebriated ears. That last beer is nagging you not so quietly toward the bathroom, but there’s a painfully long line. The opposite sex’s door swings open, taunting you with its emptiness.

Would you use it if you knew you’d be alone? Would you if you knew you wouldn’t be? Or are you just going to stand there hopping up and down like a fool while there’s a perfectly good toilet with no one using it.

Education is a community effort for Lovett Elementary

African Americans in Chicago’s North Side Schools have made significant gains in Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) scores from 2004 to 2008. Joseph Lovett Elementary School in western Logan Square and the surrounding community could serve a model for success in elementary education.

The percent increase in African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores for 40 Chicago’s North Side schools is 53.9 percent from 2004 to 2008, according to analysis of data collected in Chicago Public Schools Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability research data.

Lovett Elementary at 6333 W. Bloomingdale Ave. is made up of 89.9 percent African Americans. It could be a model example of the gains that African Americans have made in ISAT scores.  The percent increase of African Americans meeting or exceeding ISAT scores was 75.3 percent, from 2004 to 2008.


View Lovett in a larger map

The ISAT is administered to students in grades three through eight and tests reading, math, science and writing.  Science and writing are administered only in certain years, but reading and math are tested all six years.

Behave! Chicago's queer burlesque queen

Brian C. Janes/ Ms. Bea's flickr

I sat down Thursday night for sushi with “The Great Chicago Fire,” Ms. Bea Haven. Haven is the producer of Girlie-Q, Chicago’s only all-queer burlesque troop, that performs on the city’s Northwest Side.

So, why burlesque?

My then-partner started directing queer burlesque shows in Chicago. I was not in the show because I was too nervous to take off my clothes. I didn’t want to do it, I wanted to read some sexy poetry or something like that. They were like, "Here’s burlesque. This is what we’re doing. Go."

Recession may be good for print media

When times are bad, Northwest Siders say books and reading are things they won’t do without.

In an informal poll of about ten people at the LincolnVillage shopping center in West Rogers Park Thursday afternoon, Northwest Side residents said that if they were to lose everything due to the economy they would take advantage of free options to entertain themselves.

Mexican Muralist Oscar Romero

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NOTES:

A video profile for Medill methods, the very first I have ever done (as if that wasn't obvious).

Congress Theater's beauty is on the inside

Tenants of the Congress Theater complex don’t have to go far to work. Many of the employees who set up for shows such as the upcoming “Stimulate This! Tour” live right in the building.

These employees devote their days to setting up for shows and fixing the constant problems that arise in a nearly century-old building, said Max Wagner, who handles community relations for the 83-year-old theater.

“The place was largely ignored for the better part of 50 years,” Wagner added. But no longer. The new management has plunged millions of dollars into The Congress. Most of the improvements are not directly related to entertainment, and include much-needed infrastructure upgrades in the form of new bathrooms and a re-tuned ventilation system.

North Side arts groups band together in hard times

For the Lifeline Theater, in Rogers Park, Gov. Pat Quinn’s $1 billion in budget cuts came as a serious blow.

In the midst of the economic downturn, as consumers cut back on entertainment and other discretionary spending, “We realize we do not have a stable product. We’re not selling widgets here,” said Allison Cain, Lifeline managing director.

Quinn’s 50 percent cut in state spending for the arts in 2010 to $7.8 million,  will mean Lifeline will need to reduce its operating costs and band together with other local theater groups to save money.