We got in the holiday spirit with readings by Ira Brooker, Felicia Schneiderhan, Allison Spangenberg and featured guest Paul Barile, of the n.u.f.a.n. ensemble.
August 's RUI featured readings about great roadtrips by JOTHAM BURRELLO, DREW BAZINI, DARWYN JONES and ALLISON SPANGENBERG and RUI regulars Rob Duffer and Carly Huegelmann.
We heard fantastic readings by local authors Frank Crist, Nicholas Ladendorf, Jenny Seay, Charlie Vlahogiannis, Beth Dugan and RUI's own Rob "I love it when you call me Big Poppa" Duffer.
Everyone got a little hot and bothered at one of the best RUIs ever, when our guest was the SEXy Gina Frangello, author "My Sister's Continent."
Our guests this month were writers/editors Ira Brooker and Molly Each. Their mag is called No Touching. Check it out.
Thanks for a great anniversary, complete with pizza and 19 open mic readers. Regulars Julia Borcherts, Rob Duffer and Amanda Snyder managed to do some rounds of trivia between the readings, so we still gave stuff away. Which is always nice.
Round 9 welcomed back our Iowa-onian (Iowegian? Iowian?) Mr. Joe Tower (that's Mr. Canned Ham to you) and our guest was Brian Costello, reading from his own first novel, "The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs." You can get more info - and even buy it - at Featherproof Books.
To warm up 2006, we read writings from tropical locations. Readers this month were regulars Julia Borcherts, Carly Huegelmann and Amanda Snyder. (You might call us The Blonde Bitches.) Our guests this month were poet Bill Allegrezza and writer Bobby Biedrzycki.
Bill is a poet who teaches at Indiana University Northwest. He edits the e-zine moria and is editor-in-chief of Cracked Slab Books, which publishes experimental poetry. He writes funny bunny poems.
Bobby is a monthly book reviewer for Punk Planet Magazine and his fiction has appeared in Hair Trigger, The Ante Thesis Volumes 1 & 2 and The Banana King. Also, his poetry has been published in The Black Bear Review.
Ah the Holiday Blues. Our guest PATTY TEMPLETON rocked us out reading from her new zine XMAS EVIL:
"Venture down the wrong dark alley on a snowy December night and that's where you'll find it. Pinned under a rustic waste bin shooting flame into the frosty breeze. Step over the dead cat and snatch it before it blows away. The torn pages beckon and you can't resist. You're wondering if it's a holiday catalogue but you know that it's so much worse…XMAS EVIL is coming to get you.
Featuring 9 ho-ho-horrifying tales and the deviant art of so many others, XMAS EVIL brings horror pulp to the holidays. Wander through Santa's House of Horrors, take another look at long ago in Bethleham, or discover the destruction miniature zombies can reek on a human heart. The b-horror splendor of XMAS EVIL can be found [for $4] at Kate the Great's Bookstore at 5550 N. Broadway or by contacting [email protected]."
The smashing Beth Dugan of Time Out and UR Chicago was our kickin' round six guest. She read from Slaughterhouse Five. We love her.
Round 6 marked the return of Ms. Carly Huegelmann - tonight's emcee - from the Land of Pregnant Ladies. Guests (nearly 60 of them!) heard published selections written by Nabokov, Charles Darwin, D.H. Lawrence and Roald Dahl.
We read from hometown writers this time around - L. Frank Baum, Sandra Cisneros, Stuart Dybek, Nelson Algren and others. And on top of it all, we raised $114 for the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief efforts!
Round 4 superstars were: Julia Borcherts, Rob Duffer, Amanda Snyder, Joe Tower and newbies Keith Hernandez and The Dollar Store's Jonathan Messinger.
Round 3 was our first attempt at both trivia and a theme for the evening - suicide. (Thanks, Rob!) All the published work we read were from authors that offed themselves in one way or another. Morbid? Sure. But it sure piqued the interest of news outlets - we were plugged by The Chicagoist, metromix.com's bestbets column and flavorpill.
We read selections from: Sylvia Plath, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, John Kennedy Toole and Jack London.
RUI: Rounds 1 and 2 were developed as fundraisers for a reading we held at the HotHouse on June 10, 2005. (Check out the website for that here. It includes our bios too. If you're interested.) We read from Hemingway, Tolstoy, Dorothy Parker, Bukowski and others - but hadn't incorporated trivia yet. All it took to win a prize was knowing the author or book title. Sheesh. Too easy.