Slumgullion #8

Heart will be at Lilith Fair in Chicago. Photo from Heart's official website.

As the weekend arrives, here’s another heaping bowlful of entertainment offerings and oddities.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow for Lilith Fair’s July 17th Chicago area stopover at First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park. This is a classic example of the glass being half empty or half full. Certainly, we can’t complain about a line-up that includes the Fest’s co-founder Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power, Mary J. Blige, and Heart, but it’s hard not to lament the absence of other Lilith Fair acts like The Bangles, The Go-Go’s, and Metric.

The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is now selling t shirts and mugs honoring the 2010 Inductees. That’s good news for fans of ABBA, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, The Stooges, and The Hollies. The mugs are $8.99 and the t shirts, which have the RRHOF logo on the front and the inductees on the back, go for $20.99.

A recent announcement regarding the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2), which is coming to Navy Pier April 16th - 18th at Navy Pier, will give Star Wars fans reason to celebrate. Performers from the films, including Carrie Fisher, Ray Park, Daniel Logan, Amy Allen, Orli Shoshan, and Peter Mayhew will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs. C2E2 will also have a special BBC America screening of the first two episodes of the latest incarnation of Doctor Who.

Chad and Jeremy are coming to FitzGerald’s in Berwyn on May 7th and will be at SPACE in Evanston on the following night. The British Invasion duo, who had hits with “Yesterday’s Gone” and “A Summer Song,” have seven gigs scheduled through April and May. That includes a May 29th Gordon Waller Tribute at The Cannery Casino in Las Vegas that will also feature Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon, Terry Sylvester of The Hollies, original Moody Blues vocalist and former Wings member Denny Laine, singer-ukulele player Ian Whitcomb, John Walker of The Walker Brothers, and Elvis Presley’s drummer, D.J. Fontana. Admission is free. Chad and Jeremy have recorded three new songs, “You Are She,” “Dragon Wanted,” and “Another Time,” which are available for downloading at Chad & Jeremy’s Digital Store.

Author Clay Eals noticed my item in last week’s Slumgullion about a Chicago post office being named in honor of the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman. Eals wrote Steve Goodman: Facing The Music, an 880-page bio of Goodman that includes 575 photos, and says his 1,050 sources include Arlo Guthrie, Hilary Clinton, Steve Martin, and Studs Terkel. The book, which sold out its initial run of 5,000 copies, won a 2008 IPPY (Independent Publishers Association” silver medal for biography. It’s now in its second printing.

Another visitor to my blog recommends the co-ed British indie band Burgess & Maclean, whose melodic music can be sampled on its MySpace page. As song titles like “Capitalistic Weekend,” “My Hair My Nude,” and “Little Mermaid Tells A Lie” would suggest, Burgess & Maclean exude a quirky and at times, childlike sense of humor. My favorite track was “Whisper In The Night,” which brings to mind the songs of XTC. Burgess & Maclean’s latest CD is Outtakes In His Sickroom.