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On Saturday, August 1, The Heavy Boxes are very excited to play a full set to close out the latest edition of the Chicago Ukulele Cabaret. The Uke Cabs are always highlights for us anyways, but now we'll have an opportunity to throw together a whole bunch of crazy stuff for you. All the other performers throughout the evening will also be great, of course. This time, the theme is Ukers Wild - design your own theme. It starts at 9 p.m. at Silvie's Lounge, 1902 W. Irving Park Rd. We'll likely go on at some point after 10:30. No cover!

On Thursday, April 23 my extraordinarily popular WTF? series continues with a very very rare screening of Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age. "One of the earliest and rarest of DeMille's sound features, This Day and Age is a wild paean to vigilante justice and mob violence masquerading as an inspirational high school story. When a few teenage boys witness the murder of a Jewish tailor at the hands of the local mob, they vow to take revenge by creating a grand coalition of all the high school students to do unspeakable things to the criminals' leader. The jawdroppingly insane plan they enact, followed by their triumphant victory march, has led more than one reviewer to compare the film to Hitler Youth propaganda." It will be preceded by a short called The Owl. Doc Films is located at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E 59th St. in Chicago. Tickets are $5.

On Thursday, April 2 at 9:00 p.m., Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda? kicks off my series at Doc Films called WTF?: The God-damnedest Things Ever Seen. "The legendary Ed Wood offers this bizarrely incompetent attempt to explain his own penchant for transvestitism—particularly for angora sweaters. A morphine-addled Bela Legosi, spewing out nonsense in an inexplicable role as a scientist "pulling the strings" of the action, is the best actor of the cast, which even includes Wood himself as the titular Glen/Glenda. There is no discernible structure, and stock footage makes up a good chunk of the actual screen time. Yet despite his lack of technical or narrative skill, Wood's obvious sincerity is what makes the film so endearing." Doc is located at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E 59th St. in Chicago. Tickets are $5, or $26 for a quarterly pass.

This month's Encyclopedia Show, where I lead the house band The Encartagans, presents poems/songs/stories/artwork/puppets about The Future. Derrick Brown, one of my favorite performance poets, will be making an appearance. It's on Wednesday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Chopin Theatre at 1543 W Division in Chicago. Tickets are $5.

Once again, I'll be playing in The Encartagans, the house band of the Encyclopedia Show, a monthly showcase of new work by poets, writers, musicians, visual artists, and etceteras all based on a theme. It's happening on Wednesday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago. This month's theme is EXPLOSIVES...and we juuuust might be palling around with a certain special guest/Hyde Park resident who happens to know a thing or two about explosives...

Heaven Can Wait, Ernst Lubitsch's only completed Technicolor film, screens February 26 at 7 p.m. in the Thursday night Americanarama! series I programmed at Doc Films. This should not be confused with the Warren Beatty film Heaven Can Wait, which is itself a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which is an adaptation of the play Heaven Can Wait, which should not be confused with the play that the Lubitsch film is based on, which is called Birthday.

Orson Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons screens February 19 at 7 p.m. in the Thursday night Americanarama! series I programmed at Doc Films. There is no reason for you not to see this. It is very possibly the greatest film ever made. And it's not on DVD, either. Seriously, you just have to come.

If all goes well, The Heavy Boxes will be returning to the Chicago Ukulele Cabaret to play a three-song set on Saturday, February 14th. It's at Silvie's Lounge (1902 W. Irving Park Rd.) at 9 p.m., and there's no cover. This time, the theme is, appropriately, Uke Valentino - songs of love, lust, betrayal and heartbreak.

Mitchell Leisen's Remember the Night, starring Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanywck, screens February 12 at 7 p.m. in the Thursday night Americanarama! series I programmed at Doc Films. It's a Christmas movie and it's supposed to be a real :'(-jerker. It was the last film that Preston Sturges wrote before turning to directing. Also, it's my half-birthday!!!

Leo McCarey's Ruggles of Red Gap, starring Charles Laughton, screens February 5 at 7 p.m. in the Thursday night Americanarama! series I programmed at Doc Films. This should be a real sweet treat. It's only available on DVD in France.