Today I’ve been busy launching a new experiment I’m trying on Chicago. Chicagorag.net is a blog with a “curated selection of Chicago events”. When I visited NYC a month ago I found the product of NonsenseNYC fascinating. The group aggregates a choice selection of unique events. From the nonsense about page:

Street events, loft parties, puppet shows, bike rallys, costume balls, interactive art shows, movies in unusual places, parades, outlaw dancing, guerilla theater, burlesque and variety shows, loser open mikes, cirkuses, and absurdist pranks. Nonsense covers the stuff that has no name, or a name that you feel really awkward and self-conscious saying out loud, like “underground”.

I’m a fan of the less ordinary.

So I whipped up a wordpress site over the weekend and assembled my first event list covering Friday May 1st through Thursday May 7th. I’m keeping the site simple and pure, which means no calendar, no user profiles, no crowdsourcing, no fancy graphics. This is just a simple blog with RSS feed and email newsletter. Most events, of course, happen on Friday and saturday so I will release updates each week on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning-ish. I have found the manual process of sifting through dozens of websites, blogs, email newsletters, facebook, myspace, and other various periodicals to be really time consuming. I think after a few weeks I’ll get the process more streamlined but I’m going to be relying on people sending me tips and co-editors to maintain a fresh supply of cool events.

I’m considering adding “event reports” to the mix, where editors write a review of a party and add pictures or video, which might give readers more insight on choosing future events, but I’m worried about corrupting the objectivity. One staple value of Chicagorag.net is the unbiased selection. I, and any co-editors that may join me, are not paid promoters. This is just a hobby. Perhaps I should limit subjective reviews and reports of my personal experiences at the events listed on Chicagorag.net to this personal blog.

Email me your thoughts on the idea or post them as comments.