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Any Tweedy Fans in Chicago?


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Hey all,

Just wanted to give everyone who lives in Chicago a heads up. This Tuesday, 6/2/15, at 8 pm, Jeff is going to be doing a reading of Chicago author George Saunders' work at DePaul University's Lincoln Park campus. Apparently, George Saunders wrote one of his most popular stories ("The Tenth of December") while listening to a Wilco track on repeat for like a whole day. Jeff will be reading that story. Here's the details about the event:

 

From 8:00 p.m. June 2 until 8:00 p.m. June 3 (in room 120 of the DePaul Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Avenue), the DePaul Humanities Center will be hosting “24 Hour George Saunders,” a marathon, public reading of everything that best-selling author and MacArthur “genius grant” winner George Saunders has ever published, culminating in a new lecture by Saunders in the final hour entitled, “Why the Humanities? Why Art?.”

 

Please see and share the attached flyer. This event is free and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come, first served basis throughout the 24-hour reading, and capacity will be limited.

 

Celebrity readers include Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Academy Awardâ nominee Jesse Eisenberg, and a special surprise guest reader in the penultimate hour.  Other Chicago artists, authors, scholars, and celebrities will also be reading for an hour according to the following schedule:

 

JUNE 2

 

1. 8-9pm:                     Jeff Tweedy

2. 9-10pm:                   Michael Arndt

3. 10-11pm:                 Sara Levine

4. 11pm-12am:            Joe Gondolfi

 

JUNE 3

 

5. 12am-1am:              Elizabeth King

6. 1am-2am:                Danielle Meijer

7. 2am-3am:                Sean Kirkland

8. 3am-4am:                Rick Lee

9. 4am-5am:                Tristan Fischl

10. 5am-6am:              Logan Breitbart

11. 6am-7am:              Evan Edwards

12. 7am-8am:              Casey Hudetz

13. 8am-9am:              Shailja Sharma

14. 9am-10am:            Julie Moody-Freeman

15. 10am-11am:          Anna Vaughn Clissold

16. 11am-12pm:          Maryse Meijer

17. 12pm-1pm:            Lindsay Hunter

18. 1pm-2pm:              Jesse Eisenberg (via remote from NYC)

19. 2pm-3pm:              Kevin Madden

20. 3pm-4pm:              Christian TeBordo

21. 4pm-5pm:              Adam Levin

22. 5pm-6pm:              Lucy Rinehart

23. 6pm-7pm:              SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST READER

24. 7pm-8pm:              George Saunders, “Why the Humanities? Why Art?”

 

George Saunders is a New York Times bestselling author who is known for his collections of short stories. His works include “Congratulations, By the Way,” “Tenth of December” and “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.” Born in Amarillo, Texas, Saunders grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. He earned a degree in exploration geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines. After spending time as a geophysicist on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, Saunders returned to the United States to pursue a writing career. In 1992, his short story “Offloading for Mrs. Schwartz” became the first of many of his works that would be published in The New Yorker.  In 2001, Saunders was selected by Entertainment Weekly as one of the 100 most creative people in entertainment, and by The New Yorker in 2002 as one of the best writers 40 and under. In 2006, he was awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2009, he received an Arts and Letters Award in literature (formerly Academy Award) from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Saunders earned a master’s degree from Syracuse University, where he has been teaching in the Master of Fine Arts program since 1996.

 

More information on George Saunders at http://bit.ly/15PE4OS.

 

Guest readers will include:

 

June 2

•           Jeff Tweedy, 8-9 p.m. The singer, songwriter and producer will help open the event. Best known for the bands Wilco and Uncle Tupelo, Tweedy is currently touring with his son Spencer in their band, Tweedy.

•           Michael Arndt, 9-10 p.m. Editor of Crain’s Chicago Business, Arndt was previously senior editor and writer at BusinessWeek and business editor at the Chicago Tribune. 

•           Sara Levine, 10-11 p.m. Levine is the Chicago-based author of numerous essays, the novel “Treasure Island!!!” and the short story collection “Short Dark Oracles.” Levine teaches in the writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

June 3

•           Lindsay Hunter, 12-1 p.m. Hunter is the author of “Ugly Girls” as well as the collections of short stories “Daddy’s” and “Don’t Kiss Me.” She is originally from Florida and currently lives in Chicago.

•           Jesse Eisenberg, 1-2 p.m. Eisenberg is an Academy Award-nominated actor who is best known for his starring role as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the film “The Social Network.” He has also starred in “Zombieland,” “30 Minutes or Less,” and “Now You See Me.” He will be portraying Superman villain Lex Luthor in next year’s “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

•           Kevin Madden, 2-3 p.m. Madden is the Defense Intelligence Agency Chair at the United States Air Force Air University, and a professor at U.S. Air Force Air War College.

•           Christian TeBordo, 3-4 p.m. TeBordo is an author and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Roosevelt University. His most well-known work is the short story collection “The Awful Possibilities,” which was nominated as an American Library Association Notable Book and received accolades from Publishers Weekly and Booklist.

•           Adam Levin, 4-5 p.m. Levin is an author well known for his short story collection “Hot Pink” and the novel “Instructions.” Levin teaches Creative Writing and Literature at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

 

The DePaul University Humanities Center fosters discussion and research in the arts and humanities on campus and among the greater community. More about the center at http://bit.ly/18uWztK.

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Cool for you Chicagoland people. Jeff is really doing some interesting non-musical things these days.

 

I wonder what song George Saunders was listening to on repeat? By the way, this is a great collection by an masterful writer of short stories. I think this is the last story in the book and I haven't gotten to it yet, but some of the others are just wonderful.

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The song on repeat was "One Sunday Morning."

 

Saunders: "I had that album and I was chain-listening to it for the whole period I was finishing that story. Whenever I listened to it, it put me into the mindset of the story right away. It’s a great song, but they’re also just a great band."

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The song on repeat was "One Sunday Morning."

 

Saunders: "I had that album and I was chain-listening to it for the whole period I was finishing that story. Whenever I listened to it, it put me into the mindset of the story right away. It’s a great song, but they’re also just a great band."[/size]

Well then, I have one thing in common with George Saunders. Prior to the release of The Whole Love, Wilco streamed the album for some very limited period. For some reason, my computer held on to the last song on the album, which I listened to over and over and over. I couldn't get enough of it, plus I thought it would disappear at any moment. Too bad it didn't inspire any great works of art from me, but I still never get tired of listening to that song.

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