All events on Friday July 18
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- Pat Benatar
- Friday July 18 (9pm) @ House of Blues
- Oozing the kind of fiery confidence that would later become known as "girl power," '80s icon Pat Benatar shimmied her way through much of the... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Daniel Traub
- Friday July 18 (10am–5:30pm) @ Catherine Edelman Gallery More times »
- Free
- ... 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 »
- More Flavor: Festival
- Pitchfork Music Festival
- Friday July 18 (5–10pm) @ Union Park More times »
- Indie kids: if you so desire, it is possible to cram a year's worth of show-going into one sweltering weekend. The Pitchfork Music Festival returns... View details »
- Film: Festival
- The 2008 Silent Summer Film Festival
- Friday July 18 (8pm) @ Portage Theater More times »
- The annual Silent Summer Film Festival resurrects the glory of film's Golden Age, screening classics from the silent era. Comedies, dramas, and sci-fi flicks are... View details »
- Reading
- Miles Harvey
- Friday July 18 (7:30pm) @ Women & Children First Bookstore
- Free
- Author and Northwestern University professor Miles Harvey broke onto the scene with the nonfiction tale of a maniacal map thief in The Island of Lost... View details »
- Film
- The Dark Knight
- Friday July 18 @ Navy Pier More times »
- The Dark Knight might go down as Heath Ledger's final film, but it would be a shame if the actor's tragic death overshadowed its prodigious... View details »
- Art
- Peace Salon
- Friday July 18 (noon–4pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- Free
- There's a new way to show your commitment to peace — all you have to do is lose those locks. Interdisciplinary artist Genevieve Erin O'Brien... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Indestructible
- Friday July 18 (8pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- "At 31 years of age, I was diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease that kills 90% of its victims within five years... Nine months later... View details »
- Music: Punk/Metal
- Lower Class Brats
- Friday July 18 (5pm) @ Reggies Rock Club
- There are two kinds of people in the world: those who gag at the slightest whiff of BO, and those who lap it up. Lower... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- HEALTH
- Friday July 18 (10pm) @ The Hideout
- Since the release of Crystal Castles' remix of "Crimewave" last year, LA-bred noise quartet HEALTH have achieved international fame (the song even made it to... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- Ed Harcourt
- Friday July 18 (10:30pm) @ Schubas
- Singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt has released multiple albums and toured with big-name artists (R.E.M., Wilco, Snow Patrol), and yet he still isn't a household name. At... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Brown Bag Stitching Salon
- Friday July 18 (noon–1:30pm) @ Jane Addams Hull House Museum More times »
- Free
- This bring-your-own-lunch gathering of handicrafters is held in honor of artist, educator, and social activist Ellen Gates Starr, who historically co-founded the progressive community Hull... View details »
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Friday July 18 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- 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 »
- Film
- The Visitor
- Friday July 18 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Some character actors should really never be leading men (Jude Law), and some just haven't been given the chance. Richard Jenkins (I Heart Huckabees, 2004)... View details »
- Art
- Ladylike
- Friday July 18 (1–6pm) @ Gosia Koscielak Gallery More times »
- Free
- In a post-third-wave landscape of mommy wars, Sex and the City fever, and continuous political upheaval, feminism is having a bit of an identity crisis.... View details »
- Art
- Christa Donner
- Friday July 18 (10am–4pm) @ International Museum of Surgical Science More times »
- For decades, the International Museum of Surgical Science has spotlighted the macabre wonders of invasive surgery. But along with historical displays of bizarre artifacts and... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Campaign Supernova!
- Friday July 18 (8 & 11pm) @ The Second City e.t.c. More times »
- From the director of the recent hit Between Barack and a Hard Place comes another election-season winner, Campaign Supernova!, performed by Second City. Where... View details »
- Art
- Collecting for Chicago
- Friday July 18 (10:30am–9pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- 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
- Videodance
- Friday July 18 (9am–5pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- Since 1978, the Centre Pompidou in Paris has paired visual artists with choreographers and dancers at its annual Vidéodanse festival. The results of these... View details »
- Art
- Mario Ybarra, Jr.
- Friday July 18 (10:30am–5pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
- Free
- 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 »
- Art
- Alex Katz: Subject to Reversal
- Friday July 18 (10am–4:30pm) @ Richard Gray Gallery More times »
- Free
- At 81, Alex Katz has only recently emerged as one of America's major contemporary artists. The Richard Gray Gallery shows why the artist's profile has... View details »
- Art
- Jim Tansley
- Friday July 18 (8am–6pm) @ Chicago Cultural Center More times »
- Free
- Jim Tansley's abstract paintings and drawings combine seemingly familiar lines with expanses of soft color to create arrangements that appear both carefully structured and completely... View details »
- Art
- David Hockney
- Friday July 18 (11am–6pm) @ The Arts Club of Chicago More times »
- Free
- David Hockney gained recognition in the '60s for his flat, single-panel paintings of swimming pools, but he also creates more narrative-based work, like pieced-together canvases... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Brian Ulrich and Jason Lazarus
- Friday July 18 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery More times »
- Free
- Jason Lazarus and Brian Ulrich take an irreverent glimpse behind the scenes of the art market with About Art, their photographic exhibition at City Gallery... View details »
- Art
- Michael Jones McKean
- Friday July 18 (11am–6pm) @ ThreeWalls More times »
- Free
- Michael Jones McKean's ramshackle constructions combine disparate found objects with wood, clay, and papier-mâché. His work has a strong physical presence, and the unusual artifacts... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Gutenberg! The Musical!
- Friday July 18 (8pm) @ Royal George Theatre Center More times »
- Aspiring Broadway composer/lyricists trying to attract angel investors usually consider more contemporary material than Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Yet that's the sputtering... View details »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Friday July 18 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- 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 »
- Film
- Brick Lane
- Friday July 18 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- With its sunflower hues poking through England's grime, Brick Lane cleaves to the trajectory of an East-to-West immigration tale. Teenager Nazneen leaves her small Bangladeshi... View details »
- Art
- Jane Fisher
- Friday July 18 (11am–5:30pm) @ Packer Schopf Gallery More times »
- Free
- Figurative painter Jane Fisher returns to Chicago with her latest series of paintings: a simple celebration of humanity entitled Big Heads and Bigger Women. The... View details »
- Art
- ISN'T IT
- Friday July 18 (11am–5pm) @ Tony Wight Gallery More times »
- Free
- At first glance, ISN'T IT appears to be a loose collection of sculptures that brings modest materials to life. But the exhibition rewards close viewing,... View details »
- Film
- My Winnipeg
- Friday July 18 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- In My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin fashions both a valentine and a Dear John letter to his hometown, with a hypnagogic blur of sliding typography, found... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Up the Yangtze
- Friday July 18 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- Earthquakes and social protest make headlines, but a far more complex and subtle catastrophe is taking shape in the shadow of China's Three Gorges Dam,... View details »
- Film
- The Wackness
- Friday July 18 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- 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 »
- More Flavor: Tour
- Millennium Park Revealed
- Friday July 18 (11am) @ Chicago Architecture Foundation More times »
- Millennium Park has only been open officially for four years, but it's already a Chicago landmark. And like most things in the Windy City, its... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Friday July 18 @ Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary More times »
- Free
- If nothing else, taking up birdwatching gives you a convenient excuse to bring terms like "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Purple Gallinule" into conversation. In this sancturary,... View details »
- Art
- Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
- Friday July 18 (11am–5pm) @ Intuit More times »
- Free
- Whereas most found-art exhibitions make aesthetic objects out of forgotten knick-knacks, the focus of this exhibition is, more literally, fine art that's found. Discarded Paintings... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
- Friday July 18 (7:30am–7:30pm) @ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool More times »
- Free
- Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance to the Alfred Caldwell... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Flower Power
- Friday July 18 (9am–5pm) @ Garfield Park Conservatory More times »
- Free
- If the concrete trek and throngs of spectators at Friday's Fourth of July festivities leave you pining for something a little more spacious and herbaceous,... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Superior Donuts
- Friday July 18 @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre More times »
- Chicago theatergoers might know better, but for a long time, most people only recognized Tracy Letts as "that guy from the Festivus episode of Seinfeld."... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
- Baby Wants Candy
- Friday July 18 (10:30pm) @ Apollo Theater More times »
- Whether you love or fear musicals, you can delight in Baby Wants Candy, a fully improvised comedy show with song, dance, and a live band.... View details »
- Art
- Several Landscapes and 3 Landscapes in the Modern Style
- Friday July 18 (noon–6pm) @ Western Exhibitions More times »
- Free
- If you relish summer group exhibitions and air conditioning, head to the two landscape-themed shows at Western Exhibitions. Director Scott Speh works with several artists... View details »
- More Flavor: Festival
- We (heart) Chicago Festival
- Friday July 18 (10pm) @ The Empty Bottle More times »
- Chicago never disappoints come festival season. Even the smaller satellite fests — like this week's three-day We (heart) Chicago — come stacked. Tonight opens with... View details »
- Art
- Gisela Insuaste
- Friday July 18 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- Local artist Gisela Insuaste mines the terrain of personal recollection and material culture for her multidisciplinary installations. In painting, drawing, and three-dimensional forms, Insuaste conjures... View details »
- More Flavor: Sports
- Taste of Fitness
- Friday July 18 (6pm) @ Various locations More times »
- Free
- Let's be honest — exercising in gyms is boring and expensive. But the Chicago Park District has a solution to the ubiquitous dilemma: free outdoor... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Bloody Bess
- Friday July 18 (7:30pm) @ Storefront Theater More times »
- Bloody Bess isn't a pirate story for children, and it's definitely not your standard, polite downtown theater — the show's full of swashbuckling swagger, clamoring... View details »
- Art
- Boys of Summer
- Friday July 18 (11am–5pm) @ Monique Meloche More times »
- Free
- A good group exhibition can feel like a free buffet serving top-quality market produce; it all looks so enticing, and you don't know where to... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- Gonzo
- Friday July 18 @ Various locations More times »
- The father of gonzo journalism and a '60s-counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson revolutionized American prose with his drug-fueled, first-person narrative style. His maverick ways allowed... View details »
- Art
- A Declaration of Immigration
- Friday July 18 (10am–5pm) @ National Museum of Mexican Art More times »
- Free
- It may be a country founded by those who arrived from elsewhere, but the United States arguably has a long way to go when it... View details »
- Art
- Chicago Imagism: 1965-1985
- Friday July 18 (10am–5pm) @ Russell Bowman Fine Art More times »
- Free
- Chicago Imagism began with a group of artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who first showed their work at the Hyde... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Beyond the Backyard
- Friday July 18 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Photography More times »
- Free
- Recognized as a fixture in Americana, the backyard has, over the previous two decades, become a space favored almost as much by postmodern thinkers as... View details »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Design in the Age of Darwin
- Friday July 18 (10am–8pm) @ Block Museum, Northwestern University More times »
- Free
- What effect did Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species have on the development of early modern architecture? What can we make of the canon-splitting... View details »
