Wicker Park Bucktown Pipeline: Power Outage Reactions, Sat. Night Dispatch, Spaces and More

Bucktown Fitness Club ,
2100 W. North

West on North Restaurant.
2509 W. North

Bon Bon, 2333 W. North

Club Lucky, 1824 W. Wabansia

D& D Food & Liquors,
2006 W. Damen

The Couples' Corner,
2014 W. Damen

Cat & Mouse Game Store,
2212 W. Armitage

Out-of-Hood
VAS Foremost Liquors ,
2300 N. Milw.

NOW Studio , 2515 N. California

The Red Apple Buffet ,
3161 N Milw.

See many more places HERE.

critcal mass 4

Photo by Jon Lowenstein; visit Jon's site- thanks to Jon for donating his skyline storm front posters to the raffle

Photo by Philin Phlash

A fun time was had by all who ventured out to the Congress Theatre this past Saturday night, for the virtual pipeline e-Newsletter's first 'RealSpace' Shindig!

Donna Touch of Kiss Kiss Cabaret/

Photo by Philin Phlash

Perhaps you heard about the gathering through the pipeline, or by way of kind virtual souls who re-tweeted or shared the event, or through the evening's performers, or via the Congress which sent out this special email, or from posts like this one in the Roscoe Village Journal?

However you got there, we thank you so much for coming out in 'RealSpace' to support our virtual hyper local efforts!

Bryan, age 13, rocked out on his guitar/

Photo by Philin Phlash

Many thanks to Master of Ceremonies, "Max Flattery," his sidekick, Mr. Ken Raabe, sketch troupes Astronaut Theatre and The Show Below, comics Mike Sheehan, Jesse Baltes, Louis Rhines, Jay Harris, Azhar Usman, magician Edd Fairman, Donna Touch of Kiss Kiss Cabaret (read KKC's latest news here!), Impala Sound Champion DJs, and Bryan, an electric guitarist whom The Pipeline met the evening prior, at Wicker Mic in the park, above.

Photo by Jon Lowenstein

Thanks also to raffle and food contributors, including Cumin and Heat, whose kitchens and business suffered as a result of the weekend's power outage (more on the outages and reactions from a few businesses here), though no troops went hungry, thanks to Sultan's Market, Piece Pizzeria, Armand's Pizza Wicker Park, West on North, Crepe Crave, Pot Pan Thaii, Bon Bon Vietnamese Sandwiches, Birchwood Kitchen, and Free Beer Angel,' the Congress Theater.

Read/see many more images from the event here. If there is a next time in RealSpace, we're thinking name-tags. Or maybe not. Mysteries, like this storm documented by Guggenheim and TED Fellow Jon Lowenstein, below, can be fun.

Cheers,
Your Pipeline Team

This print by Jon Lowenstein was the talk of Saturday's raffle! If you didn't win it, but are interested in purchasing the print, send an email, subject header: STORM

RETAIL SPACES is sponsored by Eva Bergant @properties Realtor.

Good news... Summer buyers continue to find wonderful new homes at good prices and with great mortgage rates! And, even better news, sellers are pricing appropriately for the market and more homes are selling closer to their listing prices and in shorter times.

There were 11 closings in in Bucktown/Wicker Park this past week. Two were detached single family homes and eight were attached homes. The highest priced closing was a 5-bedroom, 3.1 bath home in the 1800 block of N. Winchester, which sold for $1,000,000 and was a Short Sale. Get the full rundown here.
Eva

Eva Bergant is a Bucktown resident and local Realtor with a community driven style. In addition to being president of the Bucktown Community Organization (BCO), Eva has long served as the chair of the Bucktown Garden Walk.

Do you have a real estate topic that you'd like explored in a future column? You can reach Eva by email, or 312-543-6819.

LINKYPOOS is Sponsored by

Cat & Mouse Game Store, 2212 W. Armitage

p: 773-384-4454, Tues. 10AM-10PM, Wed. 10AM-8PM, Thurs.-Sat 10AM-7PM, Sun. 11AM-5PM

DD at CM If you have kids aged 10-14 who have some time on their hands before school starts, you'll want to check out the event calendar at Cat & Mouse! Events include Game Night (great for families), the Chicago Yo-Yo Club, Dungeons & Dragons, and Combat Kids. And don't worry, Combat Kids doesn't involve attacking the neighborhood; we justhave a bunch of nice young fellows who are interested in playing some war games!

Fun times at Out of Site!, 7/29/2011,

Photo by Philin Phlash

Look out for the giant mustache walking on bubble wrap around the Polish Triangle on the evening of August 12. According to this Time Out article, the island in the middle of the Ashland/Division/Milwaukee intersection will be alive with weirdness from 5-7 p.m, every Friday night until October 14. Performance art series Out of Site, organized by DEFIBRILLATOR Gallery's Carron Little and gallery director Joseph Ravens, brings quirkiness back to Wicker Park. Read more about it here.

Our Urban Times spotted what they call a "large mobile contraption" rolling around Wicker Park last Saturday evening. Turns out it was part of the performance art experience, Red Moon.

The Marvin Envelope Building, 2040 W. North

Pipeline Reader Cheryl Miller shared a Aug. 3. Crain's Chicago Business piece by Ryan Ori, headlined "Bucktown's six corners see bursts of development." Ori details many new developments in the neighborhood's pipeline, including plans by Marc Realty to transform the Marvin Envelope Building, 2040 W. North, into the Chicago Athletic Club's Bucktown outpost. Read earlier Pipeline coverage about the Marvin envelope building here.

WPB is looking for artists to contribute their efforts for The Orange Walls Mural Project, which will involve the painting of six murals in the SSA #33 area. Each artist selected will be awarded $5,000. The deadline to enter is August 18. Learn more about it here.

Chris Nutt went to the Del La Soul and Z-trip show at the Congress Theater last Friday night and has a wrap-up of the night here including videos and some very cool pics. Chris also writes a piece about this experience with car vandalism.

Ironically/Coincidentally The Pipeline missed the bike rack ribbon cutting because we were taking photos of Critical Mass, which rolled through Wicker Park this past Friday!

Grid Chicago was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new bicycle rack corral at the six corners last Friday, which Alderman Moreno promises there will be more of in his ward, along with protected bike lanes along Milwaukee.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen wanted a bigger house and he found it in Bucktown to the tune of $1.95 million, according to this Tribune article.

Read the rest of Linkypoos by Nandika Gervais HERE.

COMMUNITY NEWS is Made Possible By Jackson Junge Gallery, 1389 N. Milw. p: 773-227-7900

A series of weekend long intermittent electrical outages kicked off this past Thursday night around 9:30PM, when Chicago firefighters from Humboldt Park's Engine 57 were called to the Milw./Damen/North intersection where an underground transformer had overheated. The firefighters were waiting for ComEd to arrive when The Pipeline walked by. Power was restored later that evening, and went off again the following day, Sat. July 30 at 1:10PM, lasting until approx. 6:50PM, and again on Sunday evening. Read more.

Do you have a way with words?" begins an email from Friends of Pulaski School. Details here.

Chock full of the latest park, pool, camp, yoga, arts fest, and talent show news is the August 2011 Edition of Holstein Happenings.

The Wicker Park Garden Club welcomes volunteers to assist with gardening in the park on Saturday mornings, from 10AM-1PM, through the fall. In other Wicker Park news, there's softball every Monday (more on this 16" blog) and the next FREE Magic Boat puppet show occurs on Sun. Aug. 14th at 11AM.

The next Movie-in-the-Park takes place Mon. Aug. 15. Read all about the movie in the Onion's AV Club.

An amazingly talented singer performs at Wicker Mic, July 29- apologies, The Pipeline did not jot down her name. Let us know if you know!

Did you miss Wicker Mic in the park this past Friday night? Check out some images and words from Wicker Mic here!

Via Twitter, we learned that "Josephinum Academy is happy to welcome back @girlsrockchi to #wickerpark for another session of girls rock music camp this week!"

There's no need to trek to your nearest grocery store for produce in the summertime when you can pop in on a great local market... The Wicker Park's Farmers' Market, 1425 N. Damen, occurs every Sunday from 8AM-2PM now through Oct. 30.

The Friends of Holstein Park are looking for volunteers during the Bucktown Arts Fest, Aug. 27 & 28. Volunteers work in pairs for a a three hour shift (10:30 - 1:30, 1:30 - 4:30, 4:30 - 7:30) in one of four areas: Balloon Sales, Water Sales, Beer Stein Sales, and at the Friends of Holstein Park Booth, which includes T-shirt sales and sharing information about the Friends of Holstein Park. Proceeds benefit the Holstein Park Fieldhouse Restoration Fund.

Volunteers are also needed for the upcoming Bucktwon Apple Pie Contest. Visit FOHP to learn more about how you can help make this Oct. event a reality. Check out a few of the photos that The Pipeline snapped at last year's event. Send an email to contest organizer Michelle to get involved.

TIDBITS/Spaces ETC.

The House Theatre of Chicago, a resident company based out of the Chopin Theatre just announced a raffle and 10th Season Details. Read all about it here.

The Pipeline has gotten a few compliments on our Level 99 shorts and Le Miserable T-Shirt this past summer, an outfit we tell others was made possible by two different trips to the RE.Stock Shop, a pop-up sample shop at 1472 N. Milw. which we were very sad to learn is closing up shop this Sun. Aug. 7. The sign says 90% savings...

Native Foods Cafe, previously mentioned on our website, in the long vacated former Burger King space, 1484 N. Milw., at the southwest corner of Milw. and Honore, is gearing up for its Grand Opening Mon. Aug. 8, and welcoming the public to seated tastings today (Wed), Thurs. and Friday. The Pipeline is excited and hopes to see readers there! We signed up for the Thursday 1PM seating.

Brandon, doing at little relaxing at Gunner's

Gunner's Bar, is now serving brunch, on Sundays from Noon-5PM, per a sign on the window offering a $10 brunch with a mimosa or bloody mary included- wow! Brandon, a local worker, was chilling out on the sidewalk patio of Gunner's, right, when we happened by this past Sunday evening.

Previously mentioned in the pipeline, though just briefly in 'Spaces,' a few months back, is a Brooklyn, NYC based craft brew arcade, Barcade , which is possibly coming soon to the storefront adjacent to longtime Barry Drugs space, at 1366 N Milw. Via this July 12, 2011 Landmarks & Zoning Planning Committee document, it appears as if there was a request to zone the property from a B-1-2 Neighborhood Shopping District to a B-3-2 Community Shopping District. The application details, "Tavern with public place of amusement: existing one story 19ft building, no parking, 1-commercial space."

Tobaccosville, Opening Soon

Milwood!

Tobaccosville, in the former Batteries Not Included space, at 1439 N. Milw., is hoping to open within the week, per its friendly owner Mike was busy unpacking boxes when we popped in.

Milwood Pizza, named for the corner of Milwaukee and Wood, relocated about two weeks ago, with the same name, albeit now located at 1608 W. North Ave., in the long-vacated taco joint space next to Infamous Ink Tattoo.

Congrats to Atomic Sketch for on its three year anniversary. Here are a few images that The Pipeline snapped this past Thursday evening at the Green Eye Lounge.

If you're still reading, you must at least glance at The Week Ahead. What would you like to see more of, or perhaps less of? Of all the sections in the pipeline, where does The Week Ahead rank in terms of usefulness? How can we make this section better?

If you have ideas for TWA's makeover, we're all ears. Thanks!!

Wed. Aug. 3
3PM: Month-long IPA FEST 2011 Kickoff (Quenchers Saloon)

Standard Bar & Grill
Thurs. Aug. 4
2-8PM: Polish Triangle Markeplace (Polish Triangle, at Ashland/Division/Milw.)
6-8PM: FUNdraiser: Karat Cake 5-5-5 (Radiance Fine Jewelry)
8PM: Performance Opening: 1001 (Collaboraction)
6:30-7:30: 1st Ward Ald. Proco Joe Moreno on Chicago Live! (downtown), followed by
1s Thursdays (Standard Bar & Grill), Details here.

Fri. Aug 5
12-6PM: Audio Sale (Creative Lounge)

5-7PM: Out-of-Site Performances (Polish Triangle, at Ashland/Division/Milw)

6-10PM: Open Studios:
First Fridays (Flat Iron Arts Building)

7:30-10:30: FUNdraiser:
Southern Summer Movie Nights: A Streetcar Named Desire
(Den Theater)
8PM: Comedy: Astronaut Theatre (Gorilla Tango)

10:30PM : Magic!: The Magic Parlour (Chopin Theatre)

Sat. Aug. 6

1-6PM: Vintage Heaven Market (Heaven Gallery)

6-10PM: Art Opening: Assembly Line Collective (OhNo!Doom Gallery)

Click to Enlarge

Sun. Aug. 7
8AM-2PM: Wicker Park Farmers Market
(Park Grounds)
2-6PM: Come Green, Go Chic Fashion Event
(Zaraz Collection)
10AM-3PM: Logan Square Farmers' Market

Mon. Aug. 8: Opening; Native Foods Cafe
(Native Foods, 1484 N. Milw.)

Thurs. Aug. 11
7-9PM: First Ward Meet-and-Greet with Ald. 'Proco' Joe Moreno (Jackson Junge)

Sat. Aug. 13

Noon-6PM: Vintage Heaven Retro Sale (Heaven Gallery)

2PM: Artist Talk: Brian Morgan of Momentum Wild (Jackson Junge)

Sun. Aug 14

Noon-6PM: Vintage Heaven Retro Sale (Heaven Gallery)

2-4PM: Literary: Uncalled-for Readings Chicago

(Women Made Gallery)

Mon. Aug. 15

Dusk: Movies-in-the-Park, Scott Pilgrim (Wicker Park)

ART WATCH:

Dina Petrakis:

A Year in Humboldt Park (Birchwood Kitchen)

Stephanie Owen (Three Birds Gallery)

Selected works by Charlie B. Thorne (Eye Want's Eyeporium Gallery)

Philin Phlash Retrospective Photo Gallery (Skewerz)

Through Aug. 25:

Momentum Wild (Jackson Junge Gallery)

PERFORMANCE WATCH:

The Next Wicker Mic in the Park is Fri. Aug. 26. Check out our dispatch from July's mic here.

Chopin Theatre's latest e-newsletter is HERE.

Consult Gorilla Tango Theatre's site for the latest shows... Are you a performance buff interested in reviewing shows from time to time, as well as keeping our listings current? Helping us out, if you must. Thanks!

*Do you have an event to share? Let us know!

Welcome to the We're in the Neighborhood booklet postmortem corner!... We were unable to print at least 15 pages of editorial due to the fact that printing costs are far more expensive (almost 100X as much!) than publishing on the 'Net. Thus, in the coming weeks we will publish stories that did not make it into the booklet, like this Up Close interview with Paula Barrington.

Put another dime in the jukebox? Or maye just program it from your smartphone?! Pictured is Marshall, who gives great tutorials on West on North's mytouchtunes jukebox. Ask him how!

Nearly everyone has been supportive and understanding of our booklet funding constraints, though if there are any folks who purchased a $10 listing and do not feel like they've received enough value and visibility for their $10, which included a printed listing in 10,000 copies, at a penny a pop, in addition to a hyperlink to your site on our 'Appreciation Roll," included in every pipeline, we will refund your $10.

In our excitement toward wanting to promote as many independent business owners as possible, we acknowledge that we "over-promised and under-delivered," in cases where we said that the plan would be to include all who purchase a $10 listing within an editorial story- a great idea in theory, but when it came down to having to personally solicit an extra few thousand dollars to fund all of the editorial pages we wanted to include (since the $10 footnotes, albeit much appreciated, weren't getting us that far), we opted to cap the fun off at 84-pages instead of the initial plan of a fatter (and more expensive perfect-bound versus saddle-stitched) 104-pages. Our dreams went the way of 'mice and men,' and we put together classified-style listings in the back of the booklet.

Copies of We're in the Neighborhood are available at Lenny & Me, 1459 N. Milw.

We're not making excuses for ourselves and are just letting folks know that we love what we do, that it was our first printed booklet, and that we're learning from every little mistake and snafu. And to the person who just wondered if she could speak to our supervisor regarding the fact the $10 listing did not come with the world attached to it, we are just going to call it a day and dash off to the train to attend a wake in the 'burbs, to remind ourselves of what really matters: family and close friends.

If there ever is to be another booklet, it will be a more improved version of the first one, and there will be a clear separation between editorial and sales departments, i.e on Thursdays and Fridays Alisa will be a salesperson, all other days a writer and photographer... and on Wednesdays she will be her own "Supervisor" too!

Thanks for sticking with us, and for your patience. We would not and could not do any of this without you. And we appreciate every single one of you, even when you are asking to speak to our supervisor. Seriously. :)

- AH


Offer Expires: WHEN SUMMER's GONE. Photos by PHILIN PHLASH