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Rating: 
Summary: It's a Shopping Guide!
Review: This "guide to living and working" is also a guide to shopping in Chicago, but the cover wisely avoids the dreaded s-word in an effort to attract wanna-bes of every artistic persuasion. Langer's guide provides lots of contact information for schools, groups, and companies: in short, stuff you can get out of the phone book, as well as a lot of snide commentary, which you can't get out of the phone book. He also interviews some promenent people (the Smashing Pumpkins' D'Arcy, for example), focusing on daft questions about the "Chicago scene." Many pages are given over to questionable "must-haves": because I am a writer, he thinks I might be interested in aspirin, coffee, a dartboard, a vintage bicycle, and a nice place to play pool, in a thinly disguised, not very clever attempt to advertise hip North Side stores and bars. There's a section in back on "where the artists are" which might better have been titled, "where the pretty people hang." Here's a listing Langer didn't include: the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State, where this book may be best perused but not bought.
Rating:
Summary: It's a Shopping Guide!
Review: This "guide to living and working" is also a guide to shopping in Chicago, but the cover wisely avoids the dreaded s-word in an effort to attract wanna-bes of every artistic persuasion. Langer's guide provides lots of contact information for schools, groups, and companies: in short, stuff you can get out of the phone book, as well as a lot of snide commentary, which you can't get out of the phone book. He also interviews some promenent people (the Smashing Pumpkins' D'Arcy, for example), focusing on daft questions about the "Chicago scene." Many pages are given over to questionable "must-haves": because I am a writer, he thinks I might be interested in aspirin, coffee, a dartboard, a vintage bicycle, and a nice place to play pool, in a thinly disguised, not very clever attempt to advertise hip North Side stores and bars. There's a section in back on "where the artists are" which might better have been titled, "where the pretty people hang." Here's a listing Langer didn't include: the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State, where this book may be best perused but not bought.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for visual artists
Review: This is an excellent book if you're looking to live and work in Chicago as an artist. The chapter called "Where the Artists Are" is a terrific guide to the neighborhoods of Chicago. I collect Chicago guidebooks, and this is by far the BEST look at Chicago's neighborhoods. It is honest and informative. It does tell you where artists tend to clump in Chicago, plus alot of other helpful info. Heck, it actually helped me to decide where I live now. The section "A cross-section of galleries that every artist should know about" is well-written and even includes a snob rating for each gallery. Although it doesn't list all the galleries in Chicago, it does include alot of the major and minor players. Plus, that snob rating just cracks me up, but it really is incredibly helpful and insightful. "Getting schooled" has a good listing of art schools (if ya want to take a class in the summer, or any other time). His reviews aren't as informative, but they are still funny and honest. (Look forward to artiwu publishing a more detailed guide to chicago art schools soon.) The compliation of "Publications and Other Resources" is one of the best and very definitive. There are also sections for writers, actors, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers. But they don't water down the book. The section on the fine arts is definetely worth the money. Overall, this book is a pure gem. It has lots of great information for the artist starting out in Chicago. The humorous writing and jam-packed info will make you want to read it. I rate it a 5 out of 5, "An absolute buy."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for visual artists
Review: This is an excellent book if you're looking to live and work in Chicago as an artist. The chapter called "Where the Artists Are" is a terrific guide to the neighborhoods of Chicago. I collect Chicago guidebooks, and this is by far the BEST look at Chicago's neighborhoods. It is honest and informative. It does tell you where artists tend to clump in Chicago, plus alot of other helpful info. Heck, it actually helped me to decide where I live now. The section "A cross-section of galleries that every artist should know about" is well-written and even includes a snob rating for each gallery. Although it doesn't list all the galleries in Chicago, it does include alot of the major and minor players. Plus, that snob rating just cracks me up, but it really is incredibly helpful and insightful. "Getting schooled" has a good listing of art schools (if ya want to take a class in the summer, or any other time). His reviews aren't as informative, but they are still funny and honest. (Look forward to artiwu publishing a more detailed guide to chicago art schools soon.) The compliation of "Publications and Other Resources" is one of the best and very definitive. There are also sections for writers, actors, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers. But they don't water down the book. The section on the fine arts is definetely worth the money. Overall, this book is a pure gem. It has lots of great information for the artist starting out in Chicago. The humorous writing and jam-packed info will make you want to read it. I rate it a 5 out of 5, "An absolute buy."
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