All events on Friday August 22
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- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Friday Aug 22 (8:30pm) @ Nichols Park
- Free
- Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a psychedelic mind-trip of epic proportions. The creepy black comedy/musical — based on Roald Dahl's marvelous kiddie book... View details »
- More Flavor: Party
- Francophone Melodies with Chicago Beats
- Friday Aug 22 (7–10pm) @ Alliance Française de Chicago
- Compete for the chance to receive a free language lesson while rocking out to francaise jams at this party hosted by the Chicago French Alliance.... View details »
- Music: Folk/Country
- Joanna Newsom
- Friday Aug 22 (7:30pm) @ Symphony Center
- 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 »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Sing-Along Little Mermaid
- Friday Aug 22 (5:30 & 7:45pm) @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- Without the songs, Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) would be just another vividly animated fairy tale about a pretty mermaid who falls in love with... View details »
- Performing Arts: Comedy
- Jim Gaffigan
- Friday Aug 22 (8 & 10:30pm) @ Genesee Theatre
- 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 »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- 4th Annual Printers' Ball
- Friday Aug 22 (5:30pm) @ Museum of Contemporary Art
- Free
- Chicago is awash in literary talent — it's almost as if it were blowing freely through the Windy City on those signature gusts. The Printers'... View details »
- Film
- Elegy
- Friday Aug 22 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- 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
- Eight Miles High
- Friday Aug 22 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
- 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
- La France
- Friday Aug 22 (6 & 8pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- 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
- Astra Heights
- Friday Aug 22 (9pm) @ Metro
- Giveaway
- 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 »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- The Faint
- Friday Aug 22 (7:30pm) @ Vic Theatre
- 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 »
- Film
- Hamlet 2
- Friday Aug 22 @ Various locations More times »
- With a name like Hamlet 2, a movie is bound to be either the worst piffle to be hurled down the cinematic pike, or pure... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Brown Bag Stitching Salon
- Friday Aug 22 (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 Aug 22 (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!
- Friday Aug 22 (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 Aug 22 (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.
- Friday Aug 22 (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 »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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 »
- Art: Photography
- Daniel Traub
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 (9am–5pm) @ 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 »
- More Flavor: Tour
- Millennium Park Revealed
- Friday Aug 22 (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 Aug 22 @ 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 Aug 22 (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 »
- Art
- Book and Paper Arts Triennial
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 (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 Aug 22 (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 Aug 22 @ 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 Aug 22 (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 »
- Film: Festival
- The 2008 Silent Summer Film Festival
- Friday Aug 22 (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 »
- Film
- The Dark Knight
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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?
- Friday Aug 22 (10am–5pm) @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Howard Henry Chen
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 (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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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
- Friday Aug 22 @ 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 »
