All events on Thursday August 21
Previous day|Next day- Film: Animation
- Yard Work Is Hard Work
- Thursday Aug 21 (9pm) @ The Hideout
- 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
- Bobby Conn
- Thursday Aug 21 (9pm) @ Reversible Eye
- 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
- DJ Distance
- Thursday Aug 21 (10pm) @ SmartBar
- Giveaway
- 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 »
The following events are ongoing.
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Thursday Aug 21 (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 »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Campaign Supernova!
- Thursday Aug 21 (8pm) @ 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
- Thursday Aug 21 (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
- Mario Ybarra, Jr.
- Thursday Aug 21 (10:30am–8pm) @ 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 »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Thursday Aug 21 @ 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 »
- Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
- The Improv Match Game
- Thursday Aug 21 (10pm) @ The ComedySportz Theatre More times »
- Although Improv Match Game panelists concoct impromptu answers to broad questions, it's less an exercise in traditional improv comedy than a faithful revival of the... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Daniel Traub
- Thursday Aug 21 (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 »
- Art
- Mónica Herrera: Strings
- Thursday Aug 21 (9am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- 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
- What We Do Is Secret
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- 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
- The Wackness
- Thursday Aug 21 @ 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: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Thursday Aug 21 @ 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
- Thursday Aug 21 (11am–7:30pm) @ 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 »
- Art
- Book and Paper Arts Triennial
- Thursday Aug 21 (10am–6pm) @ Chicago Center for Book & Paper Arts More times »
- Free
- 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 »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
- Thursday Aug 21 (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
- Thursday Aug 21 (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
- Thursday Aug 21 @ 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 »
- Film
- The Dark Knight
- Thursday Aug 21 @ 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 »
- Film
- Brideshead Revisited
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- 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 »
- Film
- Bottle Shock
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- 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 »
- Art
- Are We There Yet?
- Thursday Aug 21 (10am–8pm) @ Hyde Park Art Center More times »
- Free
- 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: Festival
- Black Harvest International Festival
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- All month long, the Gene Siskel Film Center screens critically acclaimed movies that focus on the black community. This is the 14th year that the... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- On an Average Day
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Greenhouse Theater More times »
- Route 66 Theatre Company's production of John Kolvenbach's On an Average Day sold out its inaugural run in Los Angeles, where critics lauded it as... View details »
- Art
- A Declaration of Immigration
- Thursday Aug 21 (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: Photography
- Beyond the Backyard
- Thursday Aug 21 (10am–8pm) @ 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
- Howard Henry Chen
- Thursday Aug 21 (10am–5pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art More times »
- 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: Photography
- Bill O'Donnell
- Thursday Aug 21 (10am–6:30pm) @ City Gallery More times »
- Free
- 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 »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Fake Lake
- Thursday Aug 21 (8pm) @ Welles Park More times »
- What do you get when you combine a Lincoln Square swimming pool, a dam in Utah, and the alternative theatre of the Neo-Futurists? You get... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Death + Extinction
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Chicago Art Department More times »
- Free
- With the death knell sounding for Polaroid film, there's been an upsurge of exhibitions centering on those much-loved instant photos. But rather than waxing nostalgic,... View details »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Design in the Age of Darwin
- Thursday Aug 21 (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 »
- Art
- Light from Inside: Art from Illinois Prisons
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Chicago Cultural Center More times »
- Free
- For those whose impressions of prisoners have mostly been shaped by watching Oz, this exhibition provides a look at prisoners' creative talent and dedication. Light... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Smart Home
- Thursday Aug 21 @ Museum Campus More times »
- Just admit it, you've ogled the sleek modern houses you pass on certain streets and wished you could peek inside. The Museum of Science and... View details »
