All events on Friday September 26

|
More Flavor: Lecture
Debate Watch
Friday Sep 26 (7–9pm) @ Chicago History Museum More times »
Free
With the polls showing a dead heat between Barack Obama and John McCain, the presidential debates promise to be a critical juncture in this year's... View details »
Debate Watch
Performing Arts: Dance
Luna Negra Dance Theater: Ciclos
Friday Sep 26 (8–10pm) @ Harris Theater for Music and Dance More times »
Ten years in, Luna Negra's dancers are what you might expect from Chicago's premier platform for Latino choreographers: versatile, sexy movers in the vein of... View details »
Luna Negra Dance Theater:  Ciclos
Music: Rock/Pop
Why?
Friday Sep 26 (9pm) @ The Bottom Lounge
California's genre-bending art-hop outfit Why? bring their deranged, poetic pop to Chicago in support of their latest album, Alopecia. Frontman Yoni Wolf spits wordy diatribes... View details »
Why?
Film
Shoot the Piano Player
Friday Sep 26 @ Music Box Theatre More times »
In François Truffaut's playful adaptation of David Goodis' noir Down There (1956), the French chanteur Charles Aznavour plays Charlie, a crestfallen (you guessed it) piano... View details »
Shoot the Piano Player
Film: Documentary
Derek
Friday Sep 26 @ Gene Siskel Film Center More times »
This loving elegy to one of the titans of queer cinema comes sandwiched between the June release of the... >Glitterbox set and KINO's November-slated Derek Jarman... View details »
Derek

Icon_ongoing The following events are ongoing.

Performing Arts: Comedy
Campaign Supernova!
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Campaign Supernova!
Film
Tell No One
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Tell No One
Art
Mónica Herrera: Strings
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Mónica Herrera: Strings
More Flavor: Tour
Millennium Park Revealed
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Millennium Park Revealed
More Flavor: City Gem
Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary
Art
Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs
More Flavor: City Gem
Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool
More Flavor: City Gem
Flower Power
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Flower Power
Art
Art of Democracy
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Art of Democracy
Performing Arts: Comedy/Improv
Baby Wants Candy
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Baby Wants Candy
Film
The Dark Knight
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
The Dark Knight
Art: Photography
Alec Soth
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Alec Soth
Film
Bottle Shock
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Bottle Shock
Art
Angles in America
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Angles in America
Art
Are We There Yet?
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Are We There Yet?
Art
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Friday Sep 26 (10:30am–5pm) @ The Art Institute of Chicago More times »
A canonized master of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson's legacy includes a staggering number of great images, as well as his influential idea of capturing "the decisive... View details »
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Art
Stan Shellabarger: Walking Books
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Stan Shellabarger: Walking Books
Film
Elegy
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Elegy
Art
Walead Beshty & James Welling
Friday Sep 26 @ The Suburban More times »
Free
The Suburban pairs two like-minded artists of different generations in this exhibition, which is rich with conceptual layers and enthralling in its attention to form.... View details »
Walead Beshty & James Welling
Art
Scavenger Constructs: Site-Specific Sculptures
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Scavenger Constructs: Site-Specific Sculptures
Art: Photography
Bill O'Donnell
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Bill O'Donnell
Art
Mark Porter
Friday Sep 26 @ Northeastern Illinois University Fine Arts Center Gallery More times »
Free
Fusing found objects and his own custom-made creations, Mark Porter produces one-of-a-kind pieces that gradually transform themselves — and the gallery — as the show... View details »
Mark Porter
Art: Photography
Psychodrama
Friday Sep 26 (noon–6pm) @ Golden More times »
Free
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 »
Psychodrama
Art
Chances Are the Comets in Our Future
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Chances Are the Comets in Our Future
Art
Light from Inside: Art from Illinois Prisons
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 26 (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 »
Conrad Freiburg
Film
Hamlet 2
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Hamlet 2
Performing Arts: Dance
David Dorfman Dance
Friday Sep 26 (8–10pm) @ Dance Center of Columbia College More times »
Arranging bodies and movement on a stage presents unlimited opportunities for tackling large ideas, meaning choreographers must be skilled at handling abstraction. David Dorfman is... View details »
David Dorfman Dance
Art: Architecture/Design
Panorama of Modern Brazilian Architecture: From the 1950s to the Present
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 26 (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 »
Rashid Johnson: The New Escapist Promised Land Garden and Recreation Center and Cosmic Slops
Art
Joe DeNardo and Aaron Henderson
Friday Sep 26 (1–6pm) @ Normal Projects More times »
Free
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 »
Joe DeNardo and Aaron Henderson
Art
Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others
Friday Sep 26 (10am–3pm) @ Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies More times »
Free
Hoping to eliminate stereotypes about Jewish people — they all subsist on gefilte fish and bagels with lox, for example — the Spertus Institute has... View details »
Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others
Music: Folk/Country
The Hoyle Brothers
Friday Sep 26 (5:30–7:30pm) @ The Empty Bottle More times »
Free
The Hoyle Brothers are a learned bunch of musicians, and on Fridays they go interdisciplinary with a happy-hour residency at the Empty Bottle. Listen (and... View details »
The Hoyle Brothers
Performing Arts: Theatre
Gore Vidal's Weekend
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Gore Vidal's Weekend
Film
Towelhead
Friday Sep 26 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema More times »
It's hard to imagine how director/writer Alan Ball managed to pitch Towelhead. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a 13-year-old Arab-American girl stranded in the Texas suburbs... View details »
Towelhead
Performing Arts: Theatre
Buddy
Friday Sep 26 (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 »
Buddy
Performing Arts: Theatre
Kafka on the Shore
Friday Sep 26 (7:30pm) @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre More times »
Novelist Haruki Murakami may be our preeminent purveyor of dreamlike narratives, fraught with surrealist tremors, pop-culture curios, and the echoes of history. His recent "metaphysical... View details »
Kafka on the Shore
More Flavor: City Gem
Smart Home
Friday Sep 26 @ 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 »
Smart Home