All events on Friday September 12
Previous day|Next day- Music: Electronic
- Holy Fuck
- Friday Sep 12 (10pm) @ Subterranean
- The bawdily named Holy Fuck are know for their rapturous live performances, tweezing dark Kraut disco from two giant flight-case jumbles of wires, old keyboards,... View details »
- Music: Punk/Metal
- Dianogah
- Friday Sep 12 (9pm) @ The Bottom Lounge
- If you weren't around for the halcyon days of Chicago post-rock, Dianogah might seem like a footnote in some long-passed history. Fact is, very few... View details »
- Music: Rock/Pop
- The Walkmen
- Friday Sep 12 (9pm) @ Metro
- Few bands boast the closeness of the Walkmen: featuring former members of the Recoys and Jonathan Fire*Eater, the five-piece coalition has existed in one form... View details »
- Film
- I Served the King of England
- Friday Sep 12 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
- Screenwriter/director Jirí Menzel translates this tale of a Czech waiter working through both the Nazi and communist regimes from a novel into an engaging, balletic... View details »
- Reading
- Junot Díaz
- Friday Sep 12 (6pm) @ Harold Washington Library
- Free
- It took more than ten years, but Junot Díaz finally exceeded those huge, Drown-inspired expectations with last year's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Brief Wondrous Life... View details »
- Art: Photography
- Psychodrama
- Friday Sep 12 (7–10pm) @ Golden More times »
- OpeningFree
- In personal memorabilia, frozen grins tend to dominate — smiling is the Pavlovian response to the appearance of a lens. Chicagoan Jill Frank, nodding both... View details »
- Film: Documentary
- A Magical Vision
- Friday Sep 12 (7:45pm) @ Gene Siskel Film Center
- Before it evolved (or, rather, devolved) into David Blaine's "endurance art" stunts and Criss Angel's gimmicky Las Vegas illusions, magic melded entertainment with sophisticated elements... View details »
- Performing Arts: Dance
- Convergence
- Friday Sep 12 (7pm–midnight) @ The Seldoms More times »
- Like David Byrne's Playing the Building translated into dance, Convergence finds choreographer Carrie Hanson excavating conceptual bedrock in a 15,000-square-foot garage. Inside what Hanson calls... View details »
- Music: Experimental
- Henry Flynt
- Friday Sep 12 (9pm) @ The Empty Bottle
- The criminally underappreciated bluegrass experimentalist and philosopher Henry Flynt was the first hillbilly to embrace the space-age hoedown. Single-handedly pushing old-timey twang into the modern... View details »
- Art
- Joe DeNardo and Aaron Henderson
- Friday Sep 12 (6–8pm) @ Normal Projects More times »
- OpeningFree
- Normal Projects is a new salon-style apartment gallery that spotlights video and works on paper. The space hosts two-person shows by emerging and established artists,... View details »
The following events are ongoing.
- Art
- Jeff Koons
- Friday Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Mónica Herrera: Strings
- Friday Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 @ 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 Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 (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 »
- Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
- Baby Wants Candy
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- The Dark Knight
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- Bottle Shock
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Angles in America
- Friday Sep 12 (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?
- Friday Sep 12 (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 »
- Art
- Stan Shellabarger: Walking Books
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (9am–5pm) @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (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 Sep 12 (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
- Chances Are the Comets in Our Future
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Heather Mekkelson: Limited Entry
- Friday Sep 12 @ Old Gold Exhibitions and Events More times »
- Free
- At first, it looks as if Heather Mekkelson has left Old Gold's basement gallery in a near-empty state. Gradually, it becomes clear that the artist... View details »
- Art: Architecture/Design
- Panorama of Modern Brazilian Architecture: From the 1950s to the Present
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (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
- Friday Sep 12 (8pm) @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 (8pm) @ 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
- Friday Sep 12 @ 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 »
