All events
- Film
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Barry Lyndon
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Wednesday Aug 20 (1:30pm) @ Music Box Theatre
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If the late Stanley Kubrick has a spot in filmmaker heaven at this point, his underrated masterpiece Barry Lyndon helped secure it. Based on a... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Flobots
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Wednesday Aug 20 (6pm) @ House of Blues
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Classic hip-hop, with its no-frills rhythms and shell-toe Adidas, seems anachronistic in an age ruled by shiny grills, stripper poles, and pimp cups overflowing with... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Ghosty
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Wednesday Aug 20 (8pm) @ The Bottom Lounge
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Considering the recent personnel upheavals (including the departure of co-founder and songwriter Richard Gintowt), it's a miracle that Lawrence, Kansas, indie-poppers Ghosty still sound so... View details »
- Film: Animation
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Yard Work Is Hard Work
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Thursday Aug 21 (9pm) @ The Hideout
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Pixilation, an animation technique that uses live actors as stop-motion "puppets," is an adorable art form — check out Mike Jittlov's dazzling short The Wizard... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Bobby Conn
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Thursday Aug 21 (9pm) @ Reversible Eye
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Equal parts avant-popster and performance artist, Bobby Conn is a veritable Chi-town art-house institution. Since 1997, the Chicago son's bizarre live shows — boasting everything... View details »
- Music: DJ
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DJ Distance
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Thursday Aug 21 (10pm) @ SmartBar
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Distance's album for the stalwart label Planet Mu is steeped in the zeitgeist of the UK dubstep movement, and consists of a snarling mass of... View details »
- Film
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Eight Miles High
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Friday Aug 22 @ Music Box Theatre
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German model/actress Uschi Obermaier could have been dismissed as a classic '60s groupie — running away from her Bavarian parents to sleep her way through... View details »
- Film
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Elegy
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Friday Aug 22 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema
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Elegy is what happens when a female Spanish director (Isabel Coixet, My Life Without Me) adapts, of all things, a Philip Roth short story. Renowned... View details »
- Film
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La France
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Friday Aug 22 (6 & 8pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center
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Forgoing the grandeur or gravitas of most WWI movies, La France is an intimate, unconventional fable about being lost. After receiving an ominous letter from... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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The Faint
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Friday Aug 22 (7:30pm) @ Vic Theatre
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The synth-loving new-wave enthusiasts in the Faint have finally left Omaha's scenester Saddle Creek Records in favor of their own blank.wav label — but the... View details »
- Music: Folk/Country
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Joanna Newsom
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Friday Aug 22 (7:30pm) @ Symphony Center
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Plucking a 12-foot harp and singing Appalachian-inspired tunes may not be the fastest way to ignite a commercial audience, but psych-folk queen Joanna Newsom has... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
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Jim Gaffigan
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Friday Aug 22 (8 & 10:30pm) @ Genesee Theatre
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Comedians can be a pretty pissed-off bunch: think of Sam Kinison's vein-popping rants or Lewis Black's eye-bulging rage. But Pale Force funnyman Jim Gaffigan isn't... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Astra Heights
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Friday Aug 22 (9pm) @ Metro
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When the May Fire's frontwoman Catty Tasso sings “I wanna riot” over a thudding bass line and squirrelly guitar distortion that wouldn’t be out of... View details »
- Film
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Medium Cool
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Saturday Aug 23 (11:30am) @ Music Box Theatre
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Haskell Wexler made Medium Cool during one of the most turbulent periods in American history. A rash of assassinations, escalating war in Vietnam, and violent... View details »
- Music: Festival
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Chicago Reggae Festival
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Saturday Aug 23 (noon–10pm) @ Union Park
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Dub beats and syncopated rhythms resonate from Union Park this weekend during the second annual Chicago Reggae Festival, a New Roots Productions event that donates... View details »
- Film
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Ashik Kerib
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Saturday Aug 23 (3:15pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center
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Sergei Paradjanov's final film Ashik Kerib is a Rubik's Cube of color — although it's a whisper of his earlier, more complex films. The film... View details »
- Music: Hip-Hop
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Aesop Rock
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Saturday Aug 23 (9pm) @ Abbey Pub
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Aesop Rock is one of Def Jux's most consistently brilliant voices, with a gritty, futuristic take on left-field hip-hop. His flow is supremely confident, and... View details »
- Music: DJ
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A-Trak
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Saturday Aug 23 (10pm) @ Subterranean
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After winning the DMC DJ Championships at age 15, A-Trak embarked on a meteoric rise that continues to this day. The Montreal native has manned... View details »
- Film
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Showgirls (1995)
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Saturday Aug 23 (10:30pm) @ Music Box Theatre
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Cringe-worthy acting, trite dialogue, and shamelessly explicit nudity aren't enough to turn a box-office bomb into a cult classic, but Showgirls has all that and... View details »
- Film
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Raiders of the Lost Ark
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Sunday Aug 24 (2pm) @ The Oriental Institute
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The allure of Indiana Jones' adventures seems almost endless — after all, an aging Harrison Ford reprised his role as the daredevil archaeologist in a... View details »
- Film
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Tommy
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Sunday Aug 24 (6pm) @ Delilah's
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The Who quickly outgrew their title of world's greatest all-white R&B band — 1966's nine-minute opus, "A Quick One While He's Away" betrayed a songwriter... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Tara Jane O'Neil
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Sunday Aug 24 (9pm) @ Schubas
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Even by indie-rock standards, Tara Jane O'Neil (formerly of Rodan and the Sonora Pine) has kept a low profile. She has spent years quietly putting... View details »
- Music: Global
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Habib Koité & Bamada
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Monday Aug 25 (8pm) @ Martyrs'
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No place outside the Delta has produced such beautiful, soulful blues music as Mali. Born in the lineage of African griots (storytellers), Habib Koité is... View details »
- Film
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Shall We Dance (1937)
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Tuesday Aug 26 (8:30pm) @ Berger Park & Cultural Center
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This cinema classic features iconic rug-cutting pair Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as dancers who secretly get married after falling for each other on a... View details »
- Reading
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Joan Marie Johnson
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Wednesday Aug 27 (7:30pm) @ Women & Children First Bookstore
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Although the efforts of Greater New England-based first-wave feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony are well known, the story of southern suffragettes... View details »
- Film
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The Fall
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Wednesday Aug 27 (7:30pm) @ Beverly Arts Center
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In The Fall, a paralyzed Hollywood stuntman convalesces in a hospital where a young Romanian girl heals from a broken collarbone. To compel her to... View details »
- Music: Folk/Country
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Jana Hunter
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Wednesday Aug 27 (9pm) @ Schubas
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Jana Hunter has been a mainstay in neo-folk circles since the genre (however gleefully un-unified it may be) picked up critical steam almost five years... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Don Caballero
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Saturday Aug 30 (9:30pm) @ Subterranean
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When Don Caballero burst onto the scene in the early '90s, their heady, precise, neo-classical metal (unfortunately tagged "math rock") seemed from a different planet,... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Death Vessel
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Saturday Aug 30 (10pm) @ Schubas
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Joel Thibodeau's stratospherically high voice and bright delivery don't sound particularly funereal, but he carries his Death Vessel moniker with unflinching pride. His 2005 release... View details »
- Music: Classical
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Kronos String Quartet
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Wednesday Sep 3 (8pm) @ The Pavilion at Ravinia
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In their 30 years together, the Kronos Quartet have single-handedly maintained the string quartet's cultural relevance. The San Francisco ensemble's dossier of past collaborations gives... View details »
- Film
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XXY
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Friday Sep 5 @ Facets Cinémathèque
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If Ingmar Bergman had directed an Argentine movie about a pubescent hermaphrodite, the result might have been XXY. Alex is a wild-eyed teen who resides... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Sons and Daughters
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Saturday Sep 6 (9pm) @ Double Door
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Sons and Daughters are the offspring of Arab Strap, the gloomy Scottish band that successfully married pub-life pessimism to sharp indie-rock hooks. The new group... View details »
- Music: Hip-Hop
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GZA: Liquid Swords
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Sunday Sep 7 (9pm) @ House of Blues
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GZA stands for "God Zig-Zag-Zig Allah" in the Supreme Alphabet. But to most, he's simply "the Genius." The Brooklyn artist and founding Wu-Tang member is... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
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Mike Birbiglia
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Thursday Sep 11 (8pm) @ Lakeshore Theater
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Any wiseacre collegian can get drunk, jump onstage at a student union open mic, and perform a few minutes of standup comedy. Some might entertain;... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
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Balkan Beat Box
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Monday Sep 15 (8pm) @ Logan Square Auditorium
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Mixing electronic grooves and hip-hop beats with elements of Eastern European and Gypsy music, Balkan Beat Box deliver a fresh take on traditional tunes. The... View details »
- Music
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k.d. lang
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Friday Oct 17 (8pm) @ The Chicago Theatre
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What began as k.d. lang's controversial, if slightly campy, romp through country music's hallowed halls has since seen the singer appropriate every musical genre available... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- Art
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Jeff Koons
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art
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It's easy to forget that art star and auction darling Jeff Koons made his name as a provocateur. His Made in Heaven series includes photographs... View details »
- Art
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Jay Davis
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Wednesday Aug 20 (11am–6pm) @ Bucket Rider
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Brooklyn-based artist Jay Davis returns to Chicago with new paintings on vinyl. His colorful, mystical pieces are complex and full of life, vibrating with recurring... View details »
- Art: Photography
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Bill O'Donnell
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery
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Bill O'Donnell's color photographs offer a world of spooky little vacation homes, troubling the eye with mixed-up scales and half-focused views. This series, on display... View details »
- Art
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Howard Henry Chen
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art
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Howard Henry Chen's exhibition at the MCA is made up of just four artworks — a photographic triptych and three sculptural ensembles — but that's... View details »
- Art
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Collecting for Chicago
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10:30am–5pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago
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You may not have noticed, but the Art Institute's Department of Prints and Drawings has been running in stealth mode — its world-class collection was... View details »
- Art
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Mario Ybarra, Jr.
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10:30am–5pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago
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In his first solo museum exhibition, Mario Ybarra, Jr. presents a witty comparison of Chicago and Los Angeles through the exploits of William Wrigley, Jr..... View details »
- Film
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Tell No One
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Wednesday Aug 20 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema
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Herein lies living proof that the French can spin a gorgeous existentialist drama in any genre. Pediatrician Alex (François Cluzet) has never gotten over the... View details »
- Art: Photography
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Daniel Traub
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–5:30pm) @ Catherine Edelman Gallery
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... China becomes a major player in global culture, attention shifts towards its booming cities. In a new series of photographs, Daniel Traub looks farther... View details »
- Art
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Mónica Herrera: Strings
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Wednesday Aug 20 (9am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center
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For her interactive sound installation at Hyde Park Art Center, Mónica Herrera transforms the gallery into a giant musical instrument and invites viewers to play... View details »
- Film
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What We Do Is Secret
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Wednesday Aug 20 @ Music Box Theatre
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In his biopic of LA punk legends the Germs, Rodger Grossman faces a tough assignment: balancing perspective on spitfire singer Darby Crash's suicidal tendencies with... View details »
- Film
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The Wackness
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Wednesday Aug 20 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema
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The Wackness is the sort of movie whose most redeeming qualities are least likely to be advertised in its trailers. About a teenage weed dealer... View details »
- Art
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Book and Paper Arts Triennial
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–6pm) @ Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts
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This juried triennial exhibition, dedicated to paper preservation and innovation in an increasingly paperless world, opens today at Columbia College Chicago's Center for Book &... View details »
- Art
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Are We There Yet?
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Wednesday Aug 20 (10am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center
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Curated by photographer Dawoud Bey, Are We There Yet? is a group show of lens-based work that touches on issues of mobility. It's a timely... View details »
- Film
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Bottle Shock
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Wednesday Aug 20 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema
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In 1976, British oenophile Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) hosted a much-ballyhooed blind tasting between France's finest wine and California's — including one made by small-vineyard... View details »
- Film
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Brideshead Revisited
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Wednesday Aug 20 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema
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For fans of the book and miniseries, it's hard to imagine how Brideshead Revisited could conform to a two-hour feature-film format. The story of the... View details »
- More Flavor: Tour
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Lurie Garden
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Sunday Aug 24 (10am–1pm) @ Millennium Park
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Making good on Chicago's motto Urbs in Horto (City in a Garden), the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardeners offers 20-minute guided tours around Millennium... View details »
