Events on Wednesday, April 30

Steven Greenhouse: <em>The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker</em>

Books: Reading

Steven Greenhouse: The Big Squeeze

Wednesday 4/30 @ Harold Washington Library

While Barack Obama's recent characterization of blue-collar workers as "bitter" is still making waves, few actually discuss the economic difficulties faced... 

<em>Experiment in Terror</em> (1962)

Film

Experiment in Terror

Wednesday 4/30 @ Doc Films

Blake Edwards' name is so often associated with farce, it's easy to forget that the director followed 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's... 

Two Surly Horses and a Goose: A Midwest Brewmasters Dinner

Food/Wine

A Midwest Brewmasters Dinner

Wednesday 4/30 @ Uncommon Ground

In this fast-paced world, it takes a pretty good reason for people to stop and smell the roses — for Chicagoans,... 

President Jimmy Carter

Books: Reading

Jimmy Carter

Wednesday 4/30 @ Borders

Drawing the ire of the Anti-Defamation League and grammar snobs alike, Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid became a bestseller despite... 

Ongoing Events

<em>Baby Mama</em>

Film

Baby Mama

Wednesday 4/30 @ Various locations

With their smart mouths and hyperactive wit, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have already proven irresistible as a comic team, most... 

<em>A Steady Rain</em>

Theatre

A Steady Rain

Wednesday 4/30 @ Royal George Theatre Center

Most playwrights would kill for the rave reviews that have been heaped upon Keith Huff's A Steady Rain. Happily, the only... 

Ben Gest

Art: Photography

Ben Gest

Wednesday 4/30 @ Stephen Daiter Gallery

Ben Gest's portraits of friends and family are carefully orchestrated to seem totally improvised. But where like-minded photographers Sally Mann, Tina... 

Gordon Matta-Clark: <em>You Are the Measure</em>

Art

Gordon Matta-Clark

Wednesday 4/30 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

Artist Chris Burden put it best when he said that Gordon Matta-Clark's 1978 death was "a drag" — he was referring... 

<em>Bomb It</em>

Film: Documentary

Bomb It

Wednesday 4/30 @ Facets Cinémathèque

A modern-day incarnation of 1983's groundbreaking Style Wars, graffiti documentary Bomb It moves past the boroughs of New York to survey... 

Eli Robb

Art

Eli Robb

Wednesday 4/30 @ threewalls

Chicago-based artist Eli Robb's life was going swimmingly — until his house and studio caught fire and burned to the ground.... 

Edward Hopper

Art

Edward Hopper

Wednesday 4/30 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

Edward Hopper, the quintessential American realist, receives one of the most comprehensive stateside surveys of his work in this far-reaching retrospective.... 

<em>Black Is Black Ain't</em>

Art

Black Is Black Ain't

Wednesday 4/30 @ The Renaissance Society

The subject of race seems to be on many minds of late, but in the art world, the topic is positively... 

<em>The Visitor</em>

Film

The Visitor

Wednesday 4/30 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Some character actors should really never be leading men (Jude Law), and some just haven't been given the chance. Richard Jenkins... 

<em>Strange Habit</em>

Art

Strange Habit

Wednesday 4/30 @ I Space Gallery

For Strange Habit, curator Luke Batten selected artists — Emily Kennerk, Curtis Mann, Alice Shaw, Shane Huffman, and Steven Husby —... 

Justin Cooper: <em>Thread</em>

Art

Justin Cooper

Wednesday 4/30 @ Gallery 400

Justin Cooper's installation is a combination of opposites: small-scale material creates large-scale sculpture, and conceptual performance art runs up against personal-space... 

<em>Snow Angels</em>

Film

Snow Angels

Wednesday 4/30 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema

Working with a sympathetic, clear eye, writer/director David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls, 2003) may be the best portraitist of... 

Mark Wagner: <em>Creative Accounting</em>

Art

Mark Wagner

Wednesday 4/30 @ Western Exhibitions

In the springtime, most of us use our money to catch up on overdue heating bills, but New York-based artist Mark... 

David Hockney<em>:</em> <em>Looking at Woldgate Woods</em>

Art

David Hockney

Wednesday 4/30 @ The Arts Club of Chicago

David Hockney gained recognition in the '60s for his flat, single-panel paintings of swimming pools, but he also creates more narrative-based... 

<em>Adaptation</em>

Art

Adaptation

Wednesday 4/30 @ Smart Museum of Art

It isn't just the title of a plot-twisting Spike Jonze film — "adaptation" also refers to the artistic practice of reappropriation,... 

<em>The Year My Parents Went on Vacation</em>

Film

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

Wednesday 4/30 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema

It's the summer of 1970 in Brazil, and 12-year-old Mauro's radical parents have left him at his grandfather's house so hastily... 

Ken Fandell, <em>Part II: Until It Doesn't Matter </em>

Art

Ken Fandell

Wednesday 4/30 @ Tony Wight Gallery

In part two of his exhibition at Tony Wight Gallery, Ken Fandell continues working with an image taken by NASA's Hubble... 

<em>Watercolors of Winslow Homer: The Color of Light</em>

Art

Watercolors of Winslow Homer

Wednesday 4/30 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

Winslow Homer began his career as a humble illustrator for Harper's, but he retired as the self-taught American master of watercolor... 

<em>Three Hours Between Planes: Contemporary Photography from Leipzig and Chicago</em>

Art: Photography

Three Hours Between Planes

Wednesday 4/30 @ Chicago Cultural Center

In Three Hours Between Planes, co-curators Marco Poloni and Eiko Grimberg find the common themes running through the work of 11...