Unspun
The Spundae name bid farewell to the Windy City's club scene this week when the club promotion company announced it was parting ways with UK-based Godskitchen. In 2001, the San Francisco-founded Spundae launched Spundae WorldWide, running parties in up to nineteen different markets around the country, until last year, when Godskitchen purchased Spundae WorldWide. "At the same time," says local (now) Godskitchen promoter Lucas King, "we contracted Spundae to help with everything." This week, however, "the contract expired, and we didn't choose to renew." Spundae is returning to LA and San Francisco, and everything that was Spundae WorldWide is now Godskitchen. King says the split wasn't unexpected, and that it won't affect the local scene much. "Basically it's more or less a name change. All the exact same people are involved."

Soft landing
When Alexander Rojas' short film "Cushion" was refused by both the Chicago Underground Film Festival and the Chicago Community Cinema, he thought the 15-minute short about an internet-fueled relationship might not make it into a festival at all. That is, until local not-for-profit film company Split Pillow and founder Jason Stephens decided to take a chance on it. "It really resonated with me and a lot of people," says Stephens, who saw the film in a small screening at Columbia College. "I was kind of surprised he hadn't had more success with it." Stephens offered to have Split Pillow repackage the film and submit it to Park City, Utah's Slamdance Festival. Rojas agreed, and last month the two got a call saying the film was accepted. "After getting all these rejections," Rojas says, "It was really like, 'What an honor.'" The film will screen four times at the festival, and the filmmaker promises to represent his hometown well: "Growing up in Chicago my whole life, I've been involved in just about every kind of scene there is. I think I kind of used all those things to go into what I do."

Sugar high
Cereality Cereal Bar & Café, the media's favorite trend story since oxygen bars, announced this week that it is relocating its corporate headquarters to Chicago from Boulder, Colorado. The move, which brings it closer to sugar daddy Quaker Oats, coincides with the hiring of former Starbucks exec Tim Casey as chief operating officer, and comes on the heels of the opening of its first standalone location this month in Philadelphia.

(2004-12-14)

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