The SS Tuesday Funk disembarked again, and ahoy matey, what a grand voyage it was. That's about all the ship metaphor I can manage.

Holly McDowell pulled us in right away with an excerpt from her YA novel Snake Eyes - about a religious girl who decides to give up the reins of her life to the roll of two dice instead of God. Ryan DiGiorgi had us cracking up with his wacky tale of man's best friend, namely a dog named Roger whose influence extended to the Oval Office. Anne Holub closed out the half with poems about travel and the reasons we should be grateful for Chicago, even though winter is coming.

We caroused, we drank Mark's booze, we waited until the very last minute to return to our seats.

Co-host Andrew Huff told us about current events in 5-7-5, and then Jasmine Davila made her 20 year high school reunion actually sound like a lot of fun... not to mention a meaningful experience. Finally, Scott Smith closed us out with a thoughtful and poignant essay on the Jackie Robinson West victory and its political and social implications.

Listen. You know you should come to Tuesday Funk. What's keeping you? Come to the next one - Tuesday, October 7th, same time, same place. We'll be featuring Mark Turcotte, Paul McComas & Maya Kuper, Lori Rader-Day, Noël Jones, and Dmitry Samarov.

Well, it's official. Summer has dumped us like yesterday's trash. Next up - the bleak, endless winter. But before all that... we can have one last glorious hurrah at Tuesday Funk #73. Don't miss it!

Create your own personal beer pairings with each reader - this month, we're featuring Scott Smith, Ryan DiGiorgi, Anne Holub, Jasmine Davila, and Holly McDowell. And, as always, your faithful co-hosts Andrew Huff and Eden Robins.

Our readings take place at Hopleaf Bar, 5148 N. Clark St. in Chicago. We get started promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge. Arrive early if you want a seat--but no earlier than 7:00 pm. Our readings are free, but only those 21 and over will be admitted. No food can be brought in from the restaurant. See you there!

Anne Holub thoroughly dismayed her parents by majoring in English and then following that degree up with an MA and an MFA in poetry. Her day job is pretty boring, but she has a not-so-secret second life as the music editor at Gapers Block (she apologizes for not coming to your band's last show). When she's not baking biscuits or ordering ham off the internet, she can be found on Twitter at @izatchu.

Please join Anne and all our ham-buying readers on Tuesday, September 2, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Scott Smith is a digital strategist and an analog opportunist. A child of the Chicago suburbs, he cites his years attending college in Ohio as his most formative, and his years since, living in Chicago's city proper, as his most enriching. In his spare time, Scott enjoys comic books, scotch and the oeuvre of The Faces. He lives on the South Side in Beverly with his wife and daughter. Follow his further exploits on Twitter at @ourmaninchicago.

Please join Scott and all our incredible readers on Tuesday, September 2, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Ryan DiGiorgi makes things for the internet. He spends most of his time trying to convince large companies to approve his robot jokes. He also writes fiction, edits comedy videos, and eats at Chipotle.

Please join Ryan and all our robot jokers on Tuesday, September 2, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Jasmine Davila is pleased to return to the Hopleaf and Tuesday Funk. She has read in venues small and medium sized for Solo in the 2nd City, 20x2 Chicago, That's All She Wrote Chicago, and Miss Spoken.

Please feel free to follow her on Twitter at @jasmined, but only if you're into pictures of cute animals, dumb jokes, and gushy tweets about her latest celebrity crush.

Please join Jasmine and all our tweetin' readers on Tuesday, September 2, 2014, upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

Holly McDowell lived in Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina before discovering the magical city of Chicago. Now she can be spotted drinking glögg, searching for the world's best tapas bar, and writing in coffee shops all over the Windy City. Her current project is a digital series called King Solomon's Wives, a modern thriller about women alive today who descended from King Solomon's ancient harem. It's full of historical conspiracy and, well, harem sex. The series is interactive--meaning readers get to vote on the direction of the story. The first three episodes are available now, and episode four comes out .... very soon!

Please join Holly and the rest of our jet-setting readers on Tuesday, September 2nd. The needle drops upstairs at Hopleaf at 7:30 pm. This 21-and-older event is free.

It may the day after Labor Day, but Tuesday Funk will be working hard for you! Join us for Chicago's eclectic monthly reading series, this time featuring Jasmine Davila, Ryan DiGiorgi, Anne Holub, Scott Smith, and Holly McDowell. And yes, Andrew Huff and Eden Robins will co-host.

The reading gets underway on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014, promptly at 7:30 pm in the upstairs lounge at Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St., Chicago. Doors open at 7:00 pm sharp -- no earlier, unfortunately, but get there as close to 7 as possible to secure a table, as the room fills up quickly. Grab a beer from Mark at the bar, and stick around afterward for dinner downstairs. Admission is free, but you must be 21 or older.

RSVP on Facebook and bring a friend. And hey, become a fan of Tuesday Funk on Facebook so you never miss an invitation to the show. See you in September!

At the August 5 edition of Tuesday Funk, co-host Andrew Huff covered Lollapalooza, rained-out films and politics.

This is Spinal Tap
screened in a downpour Tuesday.
A fitting tribute.

Mysterious sounds
float on the breeze near Grant Park.
Lollapalooza.

August is now here.
Hope your summer vacation
story's taking shape.

"We tortured some folks,"
said President Obama
on behalf of Bush.

If you're wondering why this post took so long, it's because we literally had our minds blown by Tuesday Funk #72. And I mean literally literally. Okay, that's a lie. But still. It was an awesome show.

David Daskal set the pace with a nail-biter of a story about a man's last thoughts as he goes down in a fiery plane crash, followed by Christine Simokaitis, who read three interconnected short stories about dying and living and the patron saint of hypochondria. Co-host Andrew Huff took his topical haiku hyper-local by commenting on Mark the bartender's pasta dinner, and then we were all tickled by an excerpt from Leah Thomas's upcoming YA novel about a boy allergic to electricity and his penpal... who is electric.

We took a breather. We drank some drinks, thanks to Mark's swift, booze-pouring hands.

Co-host Eden Robins ranted about the Muppet Babies cartoon, and then Britt Julious had us all rapt as she talked about harassment, black female bodies, and self-confidence. And, finally, we rounded out the evening with Hannah Gamble's funny, bittersweet poems about women and sex and being vs. nothingness.

It was a doozy of a doozy. Doozies all the way down. We laughed, we cried, we bit our fingernails, we ate mussels cooked in Belgian beer. And we'll do it all again on September 2nd, with illustrious guests Scott Smith, Ryan DiGiorgi, Anne Holub, Jasmine Davila, and Holly McDowell.