As some of you know, I have a terminally ill niece named Becca that I am organizing a benefit for. She has a rare genetic disorder called Battens Disease that effects about 4 in 100,000 children and causes her brain to shrink. It took over 2 years of testing and visits with specialists to be diagnosed due to it's rarity. So far the effects of her brain shrinking have transformed her from being a healthy and happy normal little girl 2 years ago to her current condition of being legally blind and mentally challenged. Doctors have started her on a regimen of experimental drugs to at least slow the progression of this disorder and restore some of her quality of life. The expense caused by the long diagnosis period and experimental drug therapies are substantial already and when coupled with the daunting long term needs Becca will require are only that much harder on her family.

Location:909 North Leavitt
As it stands, we're going to watch Party Girl, unless you have a problem with that. Bring snacks. There will be gin and tonics for everyone.

Location:1935 W CHICAGO AVENUE
Wings! Tonight! Cleo's!

Let's get there at 7:30 (Jason's suggestion) as to be able to find some place to sit, and have a generally more pleasant, less shouty time.

People who live in Lincoln Park and Rogers Park get free rides home.

Location:Logan Square Auditorium - 2539 N Kedzie
I've always wanted to go to one of these Suicide Girls Burlesque Shows (Warning: It's porn, and not work safe, unless you work at nerve.com or 909 N. Leavitt.) I'm not sure how this can be an all ages show. It's possible that they don't actually get naked, which would be unfortunate and surprising. In any case, it might be worth the trip up from Champaign. I don't know anything about the bands.

FRI. 10/21/05 (9:00pm; $13 advance, $15 day of show)

Location:The Empty Botttle - 1035 N. Western Ave.
I can personally vouch for a high entertainment unit per dollar ratio for this show.

THU. 8/11/05 (9:30pm; $8)

Gil Mantera's Party Dream Suzukiton (related: Alabama Thunderpussy) Peelander Z (Japan) (label: Swell)

Inscrutable artparty outfit GIL MANTERA'S PARTY DREAM are perhaps one of the most beguiling ensembles around - sincerely ironic or ironically sincere, who can tell? But their interesting amalgamation of campish, vampish departures is compelling, and their live show takes things - and this is putting it mildly - to another level entirely. They'll be joined by SUZIKITON, a new offering from the ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY camp that has "engineered a new mechanism for the propagation of heavy metal." They'll be supporting new Crucial Blast release Service Repair Handbook. Making things odder still, Japanese (okay, they're actually from Planet Peelander, but we couldn't verify that) punk rock ensemble PEELANDER-Z will open, taking the evening's conceptual thread, um, 'further out' still. We can assure you that the evening will, by turns, astound and confound in rapid successions. One might consider wearing plastic?

Location:The Trap Door Theater - 1655 West Cortland (behind Jane's restaraunt)
Yeah, my first post on this board is plugging my sketch show. I'm a horrible human being.

Anyhoo . . .

The Whizgigges: Hard Knocks, has two more shows, Fridays August 5th & 12th! 11:00 PM! 8 bones! It's a BYOB theater (beer and wine is sold there for "donations" as well).

See the show that made the Chicago Reader reviewer violently angry. We also got that little red recommended star in TimeOut Chicago for like 2 weeks.

whizgiggers.com

Location:24175 Manning Trail Scandia, MN
If you haven't yet checked out the event website Everything you need to know is there. This is sure to be quite a good time. It's time to figure out when and how everyone is getting there. If you're driving up there this weekend please log your itinerary, passengers and any available seats in the comments. Untethered folks who haven't yet secured their seat, plead here too.

http://www.cryingwhileeating.com

Make sure to get one with music.

Okay, after my suggestion that all of us sitting around the table at Cleo's tonight pledge to post one Jeaun item in the following 24 hours, I suppose I should pony up. I will do so thusly:

The Freedom Folks.

I know we ruled out Boing Boing retreads, but this doesn't technically qualify as such, so hold with me. Dino found the site linked from a Craigslist posting. We don't know what to make of it, really. It's not blatantly offensive, unless you consider awful music with cliched, almost jingoistic lyrics offensive. Besides being extremely and unconditionally patriotic, there's nothing that gives them away as being particularly right-wing (until you check the links page).

The fuckers eat bugs, worms, bird eggs, voles, your mom (if they got twenty bucks), cereal, fish, fruit, and tortellini. Check the graph, yo: