Last month we wrote about the Opportunity Shop, a temporary art and community space in Hyde Park that was supposed to last only through the end of April. It proved so popular, and the donations proved so plentiful, that the Op Shop was extended through the beginning of June. This Saturday night is the Op Shop’s second-to-last party, and they’ve booked a handful of local bands to play: Lakesigns, the Names that Spell, Jesus Crisis, and Squat the Condos. The show starts at 8, with doors opening a half hour before that. A $2 suggested donation will get you in, or a $5 suggested donation will get you admission and “a Dixie cup to fill with whatever you want (there will be fillings),” according to Lakesigns multi-instrumentalist Eric Mayer. And mark your calendars a week from Saturday for the art space’s closing event, the Op Shop Ball.

(Laura M. Browning/Chicagoist)

The good folks over at Chicagoist have started showcasing the many murals on the South Side. This week’s entry in their mural series is located at the Metra underpass at 56th Street and Stony Island. The mural, Childhood is Without Prejudice, features children of many races with their faces interlocked in Venn diagrams. William Walker, the artist, was one of the founders of the community art movement in the 1960s and painted many notable murals throughout Chicago, such as All of Mankind (1972) on the Strangers Home Missionary Church and the Wall of Respect (1967), now demolished.

The last mural showcased, Where We Come From… Where We’re Going (1992), also has an incredibly interesting story. Artist and UIC professor Olivia Gude, who has written a book about urban art in Chicago, stood outside the 56th and Lake Park Metra underpass and took down the stories of the passersby. She then painted their stories, omitting any names.

Childhood is Without Prejudice was restored last year, and the Chicago Public Art Group is behind many of the restorations that have taken place around the South Side. In addition to restoring historic public art, CPAG does quite a bit of work encouraging new artists, designing public art projects, and encouraging community development. They also have a handy map of all the public art around  the Chicago area.

(Dan Forbush)

According to an article in yesterday’s Tribune, the Shoreland’s developer has hired an architect for the former hotel and dormitory’s renovation. Antheus Capital has hired Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects, designer of the award-winning Aqua residential tower downtown, to redesign the Shoreland’s interior for 350 rental units. Proposals include turning one of the ballrooms into a restaurant or event space and adding ammenities like a small bank and gym, but Antheus and Gang still have to convince the community to get on board. U of C students don’t come off too well in the article:

The Shoreland was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, an honor that meant little to undergrads. One student’s fond Shoreland memory, posted on a blog, was of hurling cans of Schlitz over the fire escape to the street below while taking in the downtown skyline.

At least they were having fun. (via Gapersblock)

A former Chicago Weekly writer and Features Editor like Katie Buitrago! All of us at the Weekly want to congratulate Katie on her excellent feature in the most recent Chicago Reader, “What sort of woman reads Playboy?” It’s about Peggy Wilkins, a forty-something Hyde Park resident and University of Chicago Library server technician, who has worked her way to the top of Playboy Magazine fandom. She’s even had to rent an second apartment above the one she shares with her boyfriend to store her exhaustive collection of magazines and posters. So what drives Wilkins’s passion? Read the article to find out!

Do some good for Haitian disaster relief–and your sweet tooth–by checking out the charity bakesale held tomorrow from 2-6 pm at the Medici on 57th Bakery (1327 E 57th St.)  All proceeds are given directly to Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, and goodies will be available from individual volunteers and pro bakeries from across the city, including Bleeding Heart Bakery, Jimmy Jamm Sweet Potato Pies, and Luscious Layers Bakery. More info, including the full list of participating bakeries and items (gluten-free goods should be available too), is here.

Maoist polemicist Raymond Lotta issued a reply to Keith Jamieson’s recent essay, Everything You Know About Communism is Right, and had it passed out in front of the University’s Cobb Hall today.

The reply argues that the atrocities carried out in the last century by Communist revolutionary governments are part of the “learning curve” of the revolutionary project, and corrects the claim that Stalin killed millions of people to reflect the mere 700,000 or so death sentences carried out between 1937 and 1938. He asserts that regardless of the atrocities of communism, people have been lied to about it, and that the record needs to be corrected. His rebuttal also corrects some factual errors from his recent speech.

One of Lotta’s fellow Revolutionary Communist Party members and polemicists (who is curiously unnamed on the flier) will be on campus to informally “take on all comers” next Tuesday, Dec 1, 11am to 3pm in Hutchinson Commons at the University of Chicago.

This year’s Chicago Humanities Festival, which begins today, is devoted to a topic everyone can relate to: laughter. The kick-off begins appropriately on the South Side (where the roots of improv grow deep).  Here’s the breakdown:

• Tim and Tom: A Comedy in Black and White will take place from 2-3pm today at the DuSable Museum of African American History at 740 East 56th Place. Tim Reid was a Dupont Marketing Manager, and Tom Dressen was an insurance salesman when they met in 1968.  They were at a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting in Chicago and decided to form a comedy duo, Tim and Tom. Through the increasingly tumultuous ’60s, they were the first (and only) black and white comedy duo. Here, they’ll reflect on their time together through an exciting period in Chicago’s history.

• From 4:30-5:30 PM at the International House at 1414 East 59th Street, An Incomplete History of Comedy in Hyde Park will feature Anne Libera, executive artistic director of The Second City Training Centers, and Sheldon Patinkin, founding member of The Second City and chair emeritus of the Columbia College Chicago Theater Department as they take the audience through the history of Hyde Park’s role in comedy.Chicago comedy might bring up associations with the impov group Second City, but Hyde Park was actually a pivotal place for the development of improvisational comedy. Second City itself came out of a comedy group at the University of Chicago in the 1950s. The evolution and development of Second City included the Compass Players, with Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine, Wait Until Dark), Elaine May (Primary Colors, the Birdcage), and Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Charlie Wilson’s War), and has concluded with the current form of improv we see today.

Despite the cold weather, Shawn Michelle’s seemed to be doing good business yesterday when we saw (and sampled) their ice cream truck parked in Kimbark Plaza in Hyde Park. They were back today as well. We’ll try to confirm whether they’ll be in the same place every weekend and for how long into the season they’ll be around—hopefully they’re planning to come back when the weather’s warmer, because that ice cream is good.

Update, 10/14: The plan right now is to have the truck in Kimbark Plaza 2pm-10pm, Wednesday through Sunday, and they’ll be year-round. They also said they’re working on some things like hot fudge to warm up the winter months.

RECYCLES bikes outside of the Regenstein library. (Sam Bowman)

The University of Chicago’s Office of Sustainability opened a pilot bike sharing program on campus for University affiliates at the end of the summer. The twenty bikes can be checked out for free from Ratner Athletics Center, the Regenstein library, the School of Social Service Administration and the NSIT/TTI-C building at 6045 S. Kenwood Ave. The bikes are used and are mostly medium to small mountain bikes from the nonprofit Blackstone Bikes.

During the pilot program restrictions on usage are fairly strict. Cycles can be checked out only from 8:30am to 5pm on weekdays, and must be returned to their starting locations, though this may change once the pilot ends in the spring.

University ID holders are eligible to register for the program online at universitybikeshare.com.

Shawn Michelle’s Homemade Ice Cream, which we wrote about in last year’s Best of the South Side issue, has some of the most delicious ice cream I’ve ever tasted. Unfortunately it’s located so far south, at 119th and Western, that I rarely get down there. Now, presumably because of some good karma I’ve been accumulating, Shawn Michelle’s is getting its first ice cream truck specifically in order to serve Hyde Park! Founder Yahya Muhammad explains, “This truck is intended to be a mobile extension of Shawn Michelle’s, targeting those who have an appreciation for distinctive ice cream.” In addition to their “Sweet Sixteen Flavors,” Muhammad says the truck will offer “several perfect combinations.” Hopefully this will include the “Barack Supreme” (made up of Melanin Magic and Butter Pecan Supreme), which I tried for the first time last week and have been craving ever since. The truck begins its route within the next two weeks.

Kimbark Liquors: Where fun gets resurrected

Kimbark Liquors: Where fun gets resurrected.

The popular Hyde Park beverage establishment, nicknamed Kim’s Liqs by some UofC students, has a new line of T-shirts referencing the University’s unofficial slogan. The shirts cost $15, or free with party-size supplies of alcohol.

Poster by David Jensen

Sarah Murray founded the Slow Bicycle Society last spring, a year after car accidents, engine fires, and lemons drove her to start commuting by bicycle. The group is the Chicago branch of an international movement for relaxed biking, akin to the Slow Food movement. “What is the rush? Why is everyone clipping along? Are they late? Does it matter? Are they enjoying the ride?” asks Murray. “These are critically important issues.”

The society’s first seasonal ride, the Summer Slowterium, included a picnic stop and a meal at Jane’s Restaurant in Bucktown. For the second, the Autumnal Slowterium, participants will gather at the 31st Street Beach this Saturday at 10am and head down along the lakefront to 55th Street at speeds no faster than 8 mph. In Hyde Park, the society will pick up lunches from Rajun Cajun and picnic at Promontory Point before partaking in the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. For more information, see the Facebook event or email Murray at slowbicyclesociety@gmail.com

The New York Times is reporting that the Grimshaws, Barack and Michelle Obama’s next-door neighbors over on Greenwood, have put their house up for sale. You might think it opportunism, but that’d be a stretch: they bought the house for $35k in the seventies, and the effects of old age have made the upkeep on this mini-mansion more than they can handle.