ast night I attended to the launch event for Qlix, Issue 2 at JBar in downtown Chicago. It was a pretty snazzy affair, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as you can see from my live-tweets. Check out the photos below, and apologies in advance for their low quality–I was using my new Evo and clearly I either need to figure out a better way to take pictures with it, or it doesn’t have a very good camera.

This model stood right next to the check in table with bright mannequin
lighting, and I was totally fooled. After I realized she was a model I snapped a
rather eerie looking photo.

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Chicago author Colleen Taylor Sen’s Curry: A Global History is a wonderful examination of curry throughout the ages. Full of pictures, the book details the history of curry as it spread throughout the world. The book also features several curry recipes, both old and new. Intrigued, I set off to recreate the book’s recipe for Malaysian Nonya-style Chicken Curry. The result was quite a success. More pictures from my culinary adventure after the jump.

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This year’s Printers Row Lit Fest poster.

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Victoria Lautman seemed upbeat during the final broadcast of
her successful radio show Writers on Record, stating that it
was her choice to end the program so she could pursue new
ventures in her life.

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The inspiration for this shoot was Elizabeth Berg’s novel
The Last Time I Saw You. More photos after the jump!

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I loved the color palate of Chris Ware’s cover for
Granta 108: Chicago so much that I had to
design an outfit around it. Jump for more photos!

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t’s 1985 (the year I was born, in fact). This is Diondra, the 17-year-old from Gillian Flynn’s Great Lake’s Book Award nominated novel Dark Places. It’s a fantastic book. This is a fantastic character. She’s fierce through and through, and the 1980s look left me wanting to wear a side ponytail and leg warmers to work the next day. Diondra, I don’t like you, but I want to be you. Check it out (more photos after the jump).

Shoes: Target (several years old)
Socks: Target (Fall 2009)
Skirt: Charlotte Russe (Fall 2009)
Sweatshirt: Stolen from the PC Boyfriend, Gillian Flynn would be proud
Earrings: H&M (Spring 2010)
Lipstick: Wet & Wild, from Walgreens

Jump, Jump!  You know you want to!

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couldn’t resist sharing this. Yesterday the shipment of antique furniture and art we bought at the Primitive warehouse sale was delivered, and among the things we bought was this beautiful bookshelf. It’s a Chinese antique from the 1700s.

Here’s a close-up. More pics after the jump.

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ey, everyone.  In case you didn’t get the memo, today was Free Comic Book Day (always the first Saturday in May).  Publish Chicago did a quick tour around Chicago to find out which book stores were celebrating, and if we could score some free comics.

My first stop, Brainstorm Comics, did not offer any free comics.
They had some discount if you spent over $50 dollars.  Lame. ಠ_ಠ

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Here stands the line of attendees that didn’t quite make it in

Last night I attempted to attend the One Book, One Chicago event with Colm Toibin at the Harold Washington Library. Sadly, I was turned away along with what must have been fifty other guests because the auditorium was totally packed. Needless to say, this was pretty lame. However, it makes me excited that so many people are interested in literature in our city. They say print is dead, but I’m not so sure.

s soon as I received Wanda Wen’s new book, The Art of Gift Wrapping, I knew I’d have to try some of her fantastic, eco-friendly wrapping ideas.  But was her guidance enough to turn my 2nd-grade-level skills at gift wrapping into something approaching proficiency?

Getting ready for some gift wrapping action. (More photos after the jump.)

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h, C2E2, a comic convention embroiled in debate long before its McCormick Place doors’ opened this weekend.  Before C2E2, Chicago only had one annual comics convention:  Chicago Comic Con, produced by New York-based Wizard Entertainment.  In recent years, Chicago Comic Con declined in popularity and attendees complained that the convention was being poorly managed.  This year, C2E2 swept into town and established itself–which the support of major comic producers such as D.C. and Marvel can attest to–as Chicago’s number one comics convention.

We attended this year’s first annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo to get the lowdown on the world of comics as they made the McCormick Center their home for an all-too-short weekend.

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Publish Chicago rocked it out at C2E2 this year. For more of our coverage, you can visit:

-Our Youtube channel (one video up so far, more to come!)
-Our Picasa album (because apparenlty flickr just can’t handle our awesomeness…a.k.a. upload needs)

An official review of the event is forthcoming. For now, enjoy this clip from the fabulous panel, “The Women of Marvel.” Cheers!

ey guys.  In case you’re somehow out of the loop, every year the Chicago Cultural Center hosts the “Creative Chicago Expo,” which is basically a big festival featuring all sorts of artists’ support groups, workshops to help budding artists, and consultants who will work for artists, all in one building.  It’s a great chance to network, meet some amazing organizations, and check out the Chicago Cultural Center–a historic Chicago building with breathtaking features, such as two Tiffany domes.  I, of course, speak with a little bias.  I work at the Cultural Center curating the Chicago Publishers Gallery (which is featured in one of the photos from the event).

Here are just a few photos from the event (featured in our new Flickr stream).  I hope you didn’t miss the expo this year, but if you did, make sure you hit it up next year!  For any budding artist or publisher it is an invaluable networking event.