Impossible to work

When I think back on all of the people I met at Version this year, I remember that a lot of them were standoffish hipsters lacking good personal hygiene. But those people form a sort of ugly stinky backdrop to the tons of awesome people I did meet. I’ve mentioned Barry from the ABCO ArtSpace who is awesome, but I have yet to mention the super cool folks from the Chicago Underground Library.

Sarah and I dropped off some zines at their table and signed up for their mailing list. Last night, I got an email from them informing me (and everyone else on the list) that they have been given some space to use as a temporary home for their collection. Where is this home, you may ask? Why it will be the basement of MoJoe’s Hothouse on Belmont.

Once upon a time, about 2003-04, I lived at Belmont and Western and would walk to the original MoJoe’s on Roscoe at Oakley everyday for coffee and a crossword before heading to work. The people who run the place are great. Needless to say, I was ecstatic to learn that one group of really cool people is helping out another group of really cool people, making everyone involved generally cooler than you or me.

Better yet, the CUL (hehe I said cul) will be using this space for activities other than just housing the collection, like workshops, devil worship, and other generally wholesome things. I’m super excited and can’t wait for the space to be open!

The library needs some volunteer help too. So If you’ve been wanting to teach a workshop but just can’t seem to find a place to do it, they probably want to hear from you. They also need catalogers, funders, info on distros and publications to add to their list, and other stuff too.  If you can help out, i’m sure they’d appreciate it. All the contact info necessary can be found here.