First Draft Pinkfest Schedule - comments, please ...

[annie]

Here's the first draft of the Pinkfest schedule for 2011.

Please look this over and comment, particularly on a few items noted below.

If you have any questions or concerns on any of the activities, please say so, and the sooner the better.

Wednesday, October 19:
6:00pm: Happy Hour (Chicago Chop House) - ms
7:00pm: Chicago Chop House Dinner (Chicago Chop House) - ms
9:00pm: Quality Social Time (TBA)

Thursday, October 20:
1:00pm: Lunch With Ginger (Ed Debevic's) - ms
6:00pm: Happy Hour (Cheesecake Factory) - ms
7:30pm: The Great Fire (Looking Glass Theater) - ms
9:30pm: Dinner (Gino's East on Superior) - ms
11:00pm: Quality Social Time (Grape Street Lounge) - ms

Friday, October 21:
11:00am: Lunch With Ginger (Berghoff's) - ms
1:30pm: Chicago Symphony (Chicago Symphony) - ms
6:00pm: Happy Hour (Mercat) - ms
7:00pm: Dinner (Mercat) - ms
9:00pm: Quality Social Time (Signature Room) - ms

Saturday, October 22:
1:00pm: Lunch With Ginger (Ann Sathers) - ms
3:00pm: Makeover Sessions (The Center) - sv
6:00pm: TransCinema (The Center) - sv
9:00pm: Quality Social Time (Big Chicks) - sv

Sunday, October 23:
1:00pm: Lunch With Ginger (Winberies) - ms
2:30pm: No Dumb Questions (Oak Park Public Library) - ms
6:00pm: Happy Hour (Bar Louie Oak Park) - ms
7:00pm: Dinner (Bar Louie Oak Park) - ms

A few items where comments are requested:

1. We have "TBA" as the venue for our after-dinner social gathering on Wednesday evening and there are two possibilities. We would like your feedback on this. One option is a new River North bar called "The Downtown Bar" (tres imaginative, I know) in the old Gentry location, a very easy walk from the Chicago Chop House.

The second is Club Krave in Blue Island in the southern suburbs. The reason for considering this is that although the Island Girls is disbanded, a group still gets together on Wednesday nights in their memory and we would then be joining them. This would be about a half-hour drive, mostly expressway with nothing tricky, or a train ride from LaSalle Station.

We would like to decide on one or the other, to announce one and only one after-dinner venue to keep the group together as much as we can on the first night.

2. For the Friday afternoon timeslot we have penciled in the Chicago Symphony's performance of Mahler's 4th., but we discussed having a tour of the Art Institute. We would like to know which of these you would prefer.

The Symphony would require a hoop-jump in the form of a ticket purchase. Our concern about the Art Institute is that there would not be enough time that afternoon to do it justice.

Comments on both of the above, please.

[annie]

I would like to personally comment on a couple of the proposed activities, in particular two of them which may not appear to be very "exciting" to newcomers, but both of which I would like to highly recommend.

> Saturday, October 22:
> 6:00pm: TransCinema (The Center) - sv

First is TransCinema. This is a monthly screening of a TG-related film at the Center On Halsted. This has become quite popular with the locals and has gained quite a bit of traction as a recurring event. For those who may think the Center On Halsted might not be stimulating enough or "mainstream enough" for a Saturday evening, I can assure you that The Center is a very active and vibrant community center in the trendy Lakeview community on the north side of Chicago.

June has also stated that our group has input on the particular film to be shown that night.

Plus, it's free! Can't beat that! (Donations to The Center accepted, of course, but not required.)

> Sunday, October 23:
> 2:30pm: No Dumb Questions (Oak Park Public Library) - ms

Second is the screening of No Dumb Questions at the Oak Park Public Library. This has become another popular recurring event, and consists of the film plus a presentation and discussion. This year there will be a second film shown. Last year a similar screening drew quite a crowd of both GLBTers and "normals", and yes, it's free.

We'll be starting off the afternoon with Brunch at Winberies, which is a Pinkfest favorite, and doing dinner and Quality Social time at Bar Louie, a couple of blocks away, after the screenings.

I would highly recommend both of these for all Pinkfest attendees. I was pleasantly surprised at both of these last year.

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Evette
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>The second is Club Krave in Blue Island in the southern suburbs.

I vote for the second option....

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[External Poster]

This posting is from: Linda1Lee2
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This will be my first pinkfest. I vote for Club Krave and the Art
Institute. There seems to be enough time with the whole afternoon
available.

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(This posting was entered by Linda1Lee2, an external user of MyDLV.)

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Elena
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Here are my comments:

There are no longer any group getting together at Club Krave. The
ChicagolandTGirls tried keeping the socials going but they gave up after
low attendence. Club Krave is very t-friendly and there might be a
couple of t-girls there. It just seems like a long drive to go to a
neighborhood bar.

You have a late night of drinking scheduled Thursday night followed by
an early 11:00 a.m. lunch Friday. Sounds like a bad combination to me,
especially since I will have to drive back and forth from the suburbs.
I would prefer a later lunch and then the Art Institute. You won't be
able to everything there, but there will still time to see a lot and we
will be better rested.

Dinners will be very late on Thursday and Saturday. You may be trying
to schedule too much those days.

Question: What does "ms" and "sv" mean?

I do think it is cool you are coming up with some different events for
this year's Pinkfest.

Elena

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[annie]

> You have a late night of drinking scheduled Thursday night followed by
> an early 11:00 a.m. lunch Friday. Sounds like a bad combination to me,

The early lunch is based on the start time of the Symphony. If the Art Institute is subbed in here, then LWG can be moved back to its usual timeslot.

> Dinners will be very late on Thursday and Saturday. You may be trying
> to schedule too much those days.

Only time they fit, really. The one on Thursday is based on the timing of the play.

> Question: What does "ms" and "sv" mean?

I probably should have edited those out.

This year I'm testing some new schedule features for the DLV schedule and I am using the DLV schedule things for the Pinkfest schedule as a proof of concept. I'll be posting a link to the new on-line interactive schedule shortly, which has a tabular format with drill-down to activity info, venue info, and map. The schedule I posted is the output of the textual schedule generator.

"sv" means Safe Venue, one that is "safe" for beginners and those not comfortable with general public exposure. "ms" is Mainstream. There are a couple others but they don't apply to Pinkfest.

> I do think it is cool you are coming up with some different events for
> this year's Pinkfest.

I think it's very important to have a mix of old favorites and new things. Last year we had a number of new ones which worked out well.

[External Poster]

This posting is from: Ginger
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The Art Institute is so large with so many famous and interesting
paintings and other art objects it really requires more than four hours.

I think it will take most of four hours to see the special exhibits that
are scheduled for October 21. These include

Belligerent Encounters: Graphic Chronicles of War and Revolution,
1500-1945, Galleries 124-93127 Eija-Liisa Ahtila: The House, Gallery
186

Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945,
Regenstein Hall

By the way these exhibits are on now and will end on October 23.

One option would be to spend the entire day At the Art Institute, even
though you still won't be able to see every thing you will want to see.
We could have lunch inside, but it the reviews say the food is expensive
and not very good. The hours on Friday are 10:30-5:00, admission for
adults is $18.00, seniors $12.00 with a discounts for Chicago residents.
Does anyone know if you can leave the Art Institute and return? If so we
could have lunch outside and those who wanted to go early and come back
after lunch could. I don't think anyone is going to want to pay twice.

Symphony admission is $25 up, but the $25 seats for the 1:30 performance
are going fast and the cheap seats will likely be $33 up by the time we
make a decision. The symphony will be honoring the 100th anniversary of
Mahler's birthday with his Symphony No. 4.

I see no reason we can't put both on the schedule and let people choose
since we will not be siting as a group at the symphony since each person
will have to buy his or her own tickets individually or in informal
groups and we will become separated as we tour the Art Institutes' many
exhibits anyway. The only time we might be together is for lunch at an
agreed on time and place.

Ginger

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[External Poster]

This posting is from: Laura Wright
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Sounds good to me Ginger.

Berghoff's is a wonderful Chicago tradition .3 miles from both the
symphony & art institute which are across the street from each other.

Mercat for dinner is also just down Michigan from both.

I love the art institute - world class. But I am leaning to the
symphony. I recommend a group tour for the art institute as the docents
are exceptional from past experience.

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(This posting was entered by Laura Wright, an external user of MyDLV.)