let it stand

The Awkward Phase Story Telling Night at The Annoyance Theatre on May 13th at 8PM. Address: 4830 North Broadway  Chicago, IL 60640

  Performances by Ted Tremper, Brianna Baker, Wes Perry, Shaun Sperling, Patrick Rowland, Caitlin Bergh, and Tim “TinTim” Jones-Yelvingtion.

  “The Awkward Phase” was recently chosen as a runner-up in Chronicle Books “Great Tumblr Book Search.” While we want to celebrate #TheAwkward Chicago, the event also hopes to generate submissions from the community in an effort to develop the Tumblr into a real, actual, in-your-hands book.

  Hosts/The Awkward Phase co-creators: Claire Meyer and Tyler Gillespie

  You can send your submission to [[email protected]] (Yes, that’s with a “z”) You can also email us here if you want to ask our opinion on most flattering color for your new braces.

  Links to the Performers:

Ted Tremper

Brianna Baker

Wes Perry 

Caitlin Bergh

Shaun Sperling

Tim “TinTim” Jones-Yelvington

Patrick Rowland

  Keep up with the Awkwardness on Twitter #TheAwkward

Awkwardness is inevitable and blossoming can be a struggle…

Reporting the News First is Not Most Important

As reports of today’s tragedy rapidly travel across the internet, we’re reminded once again of the importance of slow news, and how getting the facts right is far more important than getting the facts out. 

We’ve said it before and we’ll do it again: Slow down the news. Misinformation taught us that during the Arizona Shootings, during the Supreme Court Ruling on Affordable Care Act, and when scandal gets hyped.

Dan Gillmor breaks it down here and here:

We all want to know what’s going on, and the bigger the calamity the more we want to know. Nothing is going to change that, and nothing should… But the advent of 1,440 minute news cycle (should we call it the 86,400 second news cycle?), which brings with it an insatiable appetite for something new to talk about, should literally give us pause. Again and again, we’ve seen that initial assumptions can be grossly untrustworthy.

We all know that the Texas shooter wasn’t killed during his rampage, as was first reported. That’s because the story was still fresh enough, and the saturation coverage was ongoing, when it emerged that he hadn’t been shot dead by law enforcement.

But we all “know” things that were subsequently found to be untrue, in part because journalists typically don’t report outcomes with the same passion and play that they report the initial news. 

FJP: Today’s events continue to horrify us. The least we can do when we don’t know what to do is get our information right.

“Gurrrrrrrrrl.”

— Tim

The Straight and Narrow

WHEN: December 27th at 8PM

WHERE: Stage 773 — 1225 West Belmont Avenue  Chicago, IL 60657

WEAR: Your best lqqk

Tickets: General Admission — $12

Cher- Dark Lady