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Shellac this year?!??! Goddammit, I gotta stay up till 4 now.

5th year attending the event for me. This is moving up in the ranks as my favorite event of the holiday season. I wonder if the Tweedy junkies will outdo themselves from last year for the amount they ponied up for the private concerts.

Looking forward to it, Heather. I'm glad you posted because I was going to call Second City this week to find out if it was still on this year.

a few questions;

what is this like? what is second city like?

so is there usually an absurdly huge lineup for this thing since its only $10? do a lot of people get turned away?

how do i get from o'hare to second city? what train do i take?

thanks!

davesec wrote:a few questions;

what is this like? what is second city like?

Second City is a comedy theater in Old Town (North and Wells) that's very famous and comedians like Mike Myers, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey got their start there. This is an event that Heather puts on every year to benefit needy families whose children have written letters addressed to Santa Claus that would otherwise go ignored at the post office. The event mostly consists of Improv sketches and games hosted by TJ Jagodowski (you've seen him in those Sonic commercials with the two guys at the drive thru and he also makes an appearance in "Stranger Than Fiction".) Very talented performer. To break up the monotony (because who can stand an hour and a half of straight improv, let alone 24?), musicians and storytellers play a few songs or tell stories (5-8 songs usually). The improvisors used to improvise around themes in the songs, but I think they've since canned that.

The biggest draw is Jeff Tweedy, who goes on towards the top of the show, so the theater is at its most crowded when he goes on. Billy Corgan did the show a couple times, but I think he might have felt out-classed by Tweedy when he was supposed to be the high-profile guy. I remember the unamused look on his face throughout Tweedy's set in 2003, even though Tweedy was telling some hilarious Michael Stipe stories.

There's also auctions that go on to benefit the cause which Heather covered. I won the electrical studio session auction at the event in 2003 and 2004. It helped me out a lot that it was a comedy setting and improv people didn't really see the value in working with Steve like a music person would. Now that more and more music people show up, it's more competitive (I think).

davesec wrote:so is there usually an absurdly huge lineup for this thing since its only $10? do a lot of people get turned away?

It gets packed for Tweedy and then it eases up. I'd imagine it's going to get packed for Shellac again too. Heather does what she can to get as many people in as legally possible. Last year I got there an hour and half before 7 and had a seat in the second row. But who knows what could happen year to year.

davesec wrote:how do i get from o'hare to second city? what train do i take?

thanks!

You can take the blue down to Damen and hit up the North bus east to Well. Or you can take the Blue down to Clark and Lake and catch a Brown back up to Sedgwick.

It's a great event for a great cause. It's a lot of fun.

I'm willing to donate $50.00; with the condition that
steve sings "Silver Bells".
Acapella or accompanied, it doesn't matter to me.
I even have the lyrics here, if they're needed:


Silver Bells-

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks.

Dressed in holiday style

In the air

There's a feeling

of Christmas

Children laughing

People passing

Meeting smile after smile

and on every street corner you'll hear


Silver bells, silver bells

It's Christmas time in the city

Ring-a-ling, hear them sing

Soon it will be Christmas day


Strings of street lights

Even stop lights

Blink a bright red and green

As the shoppers rush

home with their treasures


Hear the snow crunch

See the kids bunch

This is Santa's big scene

And above all this bustle

You'll hear


Silver bells, silver bells

It's Christmas time in the city

Ring-a-ling, hear them sing

Soon it will be Christmas day

I'll match the $50.

matt wilke totally nailed it! thanks so much!

jeff's show is always packed, but shellac will not play until 3am so it should be pretty open. i never asked shellac to play because they would be too loud for the building- but i figured i would ask if they wanted to play when everything else in the building is closed and they were great enough to say yes! it is quite gesture- todd doesn't even live here!

thanks so much for the information.

one little thing: "This is an event that Heather puts on every year to benefit needy families whose children have written letters addressed to Santa Claus that would otherwise go ignored at the post office. "

when kids write santa in the USA nobody replies?! that's the saddest thing i've ever heard!!!

here in canada kids are encouraged to write to santa. you address it to santa, c/o north pole and the postal code is H0 H0 H0. and everyone who writes santa gets written back. it totally rules. and then on christmas eve all the radios broadcast from NORAD who spend the night tracking santa down.

davesec wrote:when kids write santa in the USA nobody replies?! that's the saddest thing i've ever heard!!!

They used to go to the Dead Letter Office, along with the Dear God letters and other undeliverable mail.

davesec wrote:when kids write santa in the USA nobody replies?! that's the saddest thing i've ever heard!!!

Who's lookin out for the kids who write letters to Satan? I'd rather my money went to them, really.

davesec wrote:here in canada kids are encouraged to write to santa. you address it to santa, c/o north pole and the postal code is H0 H0 H0. and everyone who writes santa gets written back. it totally rules. and then on christmas eve all the radios broadcast from NORAD who spend the night tracking santa down.

I can just picture this in the US... federal funding going to setting up a fake postal code, paying people to write responses... all in the name of a capitalized bastardization of a Christian holiday...

HA!

I suppose if you had volunteers giving their time it could fly. Seems like it would take an awful lot of volunteers though. I imagine there's a ton of letters.

How does it work in Canada? Federal funding? Federal employees? Or is it volunteer?

As fun as stuff like Santa is for a child, part of me still thinks it's pretty crummy to have this huge icon that's an absolute fabrication, that eventually all kids have to learn about this lie...

Man, I hope no kids read this post.

I think what Heather and Steve do is pretty damn awesome. Last year the only thing I caught was Tim Midgett's solo acoustic performance. Well worth waking up so early.