All events on Thursday September 11
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- Ra Ra Riot w/ Walter Meego and Pepi Ginsberg
- Thursday Sep 11 (9:30pm) @ Subterranean
- Following the untimely death of drummer John Pike last summer, fans of Syracuse's Ra Ra Riot feared that the band might not survive the tragedy.... View details »
- Film: Animation
- The Films of Robert Breer, 1957-86
- Thursday Sep 11 (6pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center
- When you watch a Robert Breer film, you don't want to blink. Every second is a rapid-fire barrage of images, each frame a mere blip... View details »
- Music: Experimental
- Black Moth Super Rainbow
- Thursday Sep 11 (9pm) @ The Empty Bottle
- Black Moth Super Rainbow's heady sound is by turns funky and psychedelic, with sundry analog synthesizers flying about in the warm, spacey ether. The Pittsburgh... View details »
- More Flavor: Lecture
- Amy Goodman
- Thursday Sep 11 (5–6:30pm) @ UIC Student Center West
- Free
- Lots of so-called political provocateurs either self-censor or end up muzzled by whoever signs the checks. Not so in the case of Amy Goodman, longtime... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Thursday Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 »
- Film
- Tell No One
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 Sep 11 (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
- Mónica Herrera: Strings
- Thursday Sep 11 (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 »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 »
- Art
- Art of Democracy
- Thursday Sep 11 (10am–5pm) @ Loyola University Museum of Art More times »
- Whether critiquing economic injustice, spotlighting social issues, satirizing public officials, or inspiring change, 20th-century printmaking has a long and storied history of disseminating ideas to... View details »
- Film
- The Dark Knight
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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: Photography
- Alec Soth
- Thursday Sep 11 (11am–6pm) @ Stephen Daiter Gallery More times »
- Free
- In 2002, after finishing his breakthrough series Sleeping by the Mississippi, photographer Alec Soth traveled to Bogotá, Columbia, to adopt a baby girl. During his... View details »
- Film
- Brideshead Revisited
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 Sep 11 @ 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 »
- Film
- XXY
- Thursday Sep 11 @ Facets Cinémathèque More times »
- 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 »
- Art
- Angles in America
- Thursday Sep 11 (10am–5:30pm) @ Rhona Hoffman Gallery More times »
- Free
- You may find this show's title easy to misread, and that's by design — such ambiguity is all part of the game for the exhibition's... View details »
- Art
- Are We There Yet?
- Thursday Sep 11 (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 »
- Art
- Stan Shellabarger: Walking Books
- Thursday Sep 11 (11am–6pm) @ Western Exhibitions More times »
- Free
- Artist Stan Shellabarger repeats mundane actions over and over again, turning them into extreme undertakings. For his second show at Western Exhibitions the artist displays... View details »
- Film
- Elegy
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 »
- Art
- Scavenger Constructs: Site-Specific Sculptures
- Thursday Sep 11 (9am–7pm) @ Glass Curtain Gallery at Columbia College Chicago More times »
- Free
- Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans turned mass-produced objects into meaningful art. With this transmutability in mind, Scavenger Constructs features five artists who give new meaning... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Bill O'Donnell
- Thursday Sep 11 (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 Sep 11 (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 »
- Film
- Viva
- Thursday Sep 11 (8:15pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
- It's hard to keep a feature film running on camp alone, so credit Viva's writer, director, and star, Anna Biller, for getting every shag... View details »
- Art
- Chances Are the Comets in Our Future
- Thursday Sep 11 (10am–6pm) @ Gallery 400 More times »
- Free
- Music may come first for Chicago-based Drag City — the record label has championed singular talents like Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bill Callahan/Smog for years... View details »
- Art
- Light from Inside: Art from Illinois Prisons
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 »
- Art
- Conrad Freiburg
- Thursday Sep 11 (11am–5pm) @ Linda Warren Gallery More times »
- Free
- Conrad Freiburg's clever contraptions require audience participation, but viewers' actions can sometimes lead to destruction. The artist's exquisite handiwork doesn't exist for its own sake... View details »
- Film
- Hamlet 2
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Panorama of Modern Brazilian Architecture: From the 1950s to the Present
- Thursday Sep 11 @ Crown Hall More times »
- Free
- This exhibition provides a thorough visual survey of Brazil's modern architecture. Photographs, drawings, and design concepts profile the work of well-established Brazilian architects such as... View details »
- Art
- Rashid Johnson: The New Escapist Promised Land Garden and Recreation Center and Cosmic Slops
- Thursday Sep 11 (11am–5pm) @ Monique Meloche More times »
- Free
- Rashid Johnson is one of the more promising young artists to emerge from Chicago in recent years, with photographs and sculptures in exhibitions across the... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Gore Vidal's Weekend
- Thursday Sep 11 (7:30pm) @ TimeLine Theatre More times »
- Gore Vidal's cutting political satire Weekend was written (and is set) during the fraught 1968 presidential campaign. Weekend follows a Republican senator as he prepares... View details »
- Performing Arts: Theatre
- Buddy
- Thursday Sep 11 (7:30pm) @ Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place More times »
- Mamma Mia! and Movin' Out conquered Broadway even though their books are, respectively, a silly romantic melodrama and a confused narrative told through dance. Their... View details »
- More Flavor: City Gem
- Smart Home
- Thursday Sep 11 @ 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 »

















