From the Dr. Harry Bakwin and Dr. Ruth Morris Bakwin Soviet Posters Collection, 1930-1932, at the Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

In trying economic times, the American narrative goes, we band together and lend each other a helping hand. This spirit of collaboration seems to be a prevailing theme this fall season, whether it’s the Redmoon-MCA project “The Astronaut’s Birthday,” or the Dance Center-Harris-MCA teaming up to bring a seminal Butoh dance company, Sankai Juku, to Chicago for the first time. But most noteworth is The Soviet Arts Experience, a multi-year joining of a whopping twenty-five cultural institutions, spearheaded by the University of Chicago Presents, that covers a plentitude of disciplines, in showcasing art created “under (and in response to) the Politburo of the Soviet Union.” So that’s the theme this season: People setting aside self-interest for the larger good. Just don’t call it socialism. (Brian Hieggelke)

Click here to get started with our “big ten” fall events, or jump directly to one of the sections below:

Fall Art Preview
Fall Dance Preview
Fall Film Preview
Fall Lit Preview
Fall Music Preview
Fall Stage Preview

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In an old comedy sketch called “One Leg Too Few,” a one-legged man comes in to a casting agent’s office to audition for the part of Tarzan in an upcoming show. The agent is as diplomatic as he can be given the fact that the role would best be played by a strapping young man with exceptional running and leaping skills. “It’s possible that no two-legged men will apply,” the agent tells the applicant, “in which case you could get the part.” Don’t be like the one-legged man in this story, Aries. While I usually encourage you to think big and dream of accomplishing amazing feats, this is one time when you should respect your limitations. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jason Foumberg

Chicago needs this. A grouping of four huge old buildings on the Near South Side will become, hopefully, a new Creative Industries District. This district isn’t simply an art gallery stroll, nor is it merely a rehabbed warehouse for artist studios. The proposed redevelopment plan is so big and ambitious—perhaps bigger than any current mixed-use art space in Chicago, 800,000 square feet in total—that galleries and studios will be just a small fraction of the big picture, if at all.

You don’t need to see it to believe it—because there’s not much to look at yet—but the future will spurt from this dust-caked shell of salvage, a sun-baked hulk of hundred-year-old bricks and broken windows. A picturesque ruin, perhaps. This is what condominium developments look like before the granite countertops and cast-iron balconies roll in, but no dream condos will be constructed here, and anyway, the kitchen-table art economy hasn’t gotten us much further than the front room. We won’t be art-gallery squatting in the near future. The near future has a budget, a committee, actually several committees, licensing forms and tax forms and applications, and a dada poem of acronyms—ULI, NEA, LISC, DCA, TIF, CMAP—that sounds like government bureaucracy BS, the type that we like to knee-jerk kick in the nostrils, but this time we’re going to sit on the shoulders of Big Brother. This time he’s got our back. Read the rest of this entry »

This Week’s Biggest Gainers:

1
Lou Piniella
Retiring Cubs skipper “shocked” sports pundits when he departed early, choosing to spend time with his ailing elderly mother rather than presiding over the breakup of his team.

2
Robert Blagojevich
Though he too suffered a mistrial with his brother, consensus emerged that he was more loyal family man than cold-blooded political criminal. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Why should you work harder than everyone else? Why is it up to you to pick up the slack when others are suffering from outbreaks of laziness and incompetence? And why should you be the fearless leader who is focused on fixing the glitches and smoothing over the rough patches when no one else seems to care whether things fall apart? I’ll tell you why, Aries: because it’s the Karmic Correction phase of your long-term cycle—a time when you can atone for past mistakes, pay off old debts and make up for less-than-conscientious moves you got away with once upon a time. Read the rest of this entry »

The onetime popularity of the sultry seductress on “Gilligan’s Island” notwithstanding, the redheaded among us are apparently neglected and poorly treated, for one reason or another. Accordingly, Mrs Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro, 3905 North Lincoln, (773)248-3905,  has decided that it’s high time to do something for the forsaken ones, when it throws its “Ginger Fest” party on August 28, 8pm-11pm.

“As it so happens, our general manager here has red hair and largely feels under-appreciated, I suspect,” spokesperson Sue Pitkin says. “So we decided it was a good idea to have a celebration of it.”

There will be all things red-related, including red velvet cupcakes. And to feel even more legitimized, those who embody a “height of gingeriness or perhaps a height of attractive gingeriness or even unattractive gingeriness” sufficient to satisfy this general manager, will be crowned King and Queen Ginger.

This will be the first Ginger Fest, but depending on the success, Pitkin says there could be another in the future, “if we get a lot of redheads, real or fake.” (Both will gain half off the $20 admission being charged the blonds and brunettes, which includes select beer, wine, mixed drinks and appetizers.)

But whether a firey mop can be found upon your head, or you just wish it did, with live music from The Boils, the atmosphere will surely be lively. “Any excuse is a good excuse for a party, isn’t it?” Pitkin says. (Lindsey Kratochwill)

It’s the grand opening for Greenline Wheels, an “eco-happy” bike and electric car rental and tour center in Oak Park, and the land of Wright and Hemingway looks like an active transportation utopia. Just south of the futuristic Harlem CTA stop, Marion Street is closed for the block party. A dude in a Hawaiian shirt tows kids on a pedicab, a cop rolls a Segway, folks check out a PT Cruiser-like electric buggy and a pair of cheerleaders pedals a tandem. The new venture hopes to lure visitors out to the western ‘burbs to explore architectural and historical gems, while providing locals with green transportation options. Co-owner Mary Jo Schuler tells the crowd the shop is officially designated as an LC3 “low-profit” business, a new model in Illinois. After local bigwigs cut the green ribbon in front of a phalanx of shiny new rental bikes, dozens of folks parade around the block on various non-noxious vehicles. Afterwards, Schuler explains why she started this new business, “The village of Oak Park continues to get more congested with cars and instead of whining I wanted to do something about it.” (John Greenfield)

Greenline Wheels, 105 South Marion, Oak Park, (708)725-7170, greenlinewheels.com.

Henry “Hank” Winkler (yes, that’s his real name), says that most people discover Sugar Grove’s Air Classics Museum by chance. This is certainly understandable. A slew of warplanes locked up behind a metal fence in the middle of seemingly endless farmland is not an easy site to miss.

Now in its twentieth year and still run entirely on a volunteer basis, the museum offers a diverse and dedicated clientele an extensive look at aviation history.

The planes are the main attraction. Replicas donated by locals and retired aircraft acquired through the military, including a Bell UH-1H chopper used regularly in vertical envelopment operations in Vietnam, greet visitors. Other highlights of the collection include the massive restored Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat—relocated from O’Hare—and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom with a menacing skull painted on its tail.

Two additional buildings feature sizeable collections of military garb and model planes donated by the families of aviation enthusiasts. A barn plastered with Polish Air Force paraphernalia houses two massive jet engines, one of which powered a B-52 bomber. Read the rest of this entry »

Danarvis Mitchell doesn’t own a computer. Actually, she doesn’t really know how to use computers either. Here’s what Mitchell can’t do: touch-type, email, or look for a job online. Here’s what she can do: test your hard drive to make sure it works, use Linux to wipe your hard drive, and navigate the maze of computer innards at Free Geek. Free Geek is a nonprofit in a basement in Logan Square that provides free, refurbished desktops to people willing to donate twenty-four hours of their time. Walking down the steep stairs of Free Geek is like descending into the insides of a computer: hard drives, motherboards and wires reach out from every shelf. Mitchell says her friend Donica Lyles dragged her here, all the way up from Gary, Indiana, to learn how to use a computer and build one she can keep. Mitchell says she got along fine without a computer in the past, but since she and Lyles got laid off from the casino they worked at, she realized she needs to learn computer skills so she can file for unemployment benefits online and search for jobs. At an OpenBuild session, Mitchell and Lyles chat and test hard drives, getting help from “super-volunteers”—people who continue helping out at Free Geek even after building their own computers. At first, Lyles says, she was nervous about working on computers alongside experts. Many of them are computer whizzes who want to learn more, help out others, and maybe add something to their resume. But, Lyles says, “If you don’t know [about computers], they don’t have any problems with that.” Free Geek describes itself as a “democratically run organization that uses consensus for decision-making,” and it’s hard to tell the super-volunteers apart from the Luddites. They’re all there to gain a better understanding of computers, whether it’s learning how to turn them on or program them. (Ella Christoph)

Donate old computers and equipment, buy a PC for $40, or earn a computer, and vast computer knowledge, by committing to twenty-four hours of volunteer time. Free Geek, 3411 West Diversey, (773)451-7130, freegeekchicago.org.

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the eighteenth century, the French Academy laid down rules about the differences between professional and amateur paintings. For example, it was decreed that true artists must create a “licked surface,” hiding all evidence of their brushstrokes. The illusion was more convincing that way; viewers could sink their attention fully into the image without being distracted by thoughts about the artist’s process. When the Impressionists barged into the scene in the 1870s, one of their rebellions against convention was to reject the licked surface. By making some of their brushstrokes visible, they declared they weren’t interested in upholding the artifice. They wanted their audience to get involved in their subjective interpretation of the scene that was portrayed. In the coming week, Aries, I encourage you to be like the Impressionists. Forget about trying to present a licked surface. Reveal the inner workings that are whirling and humming behind your eyes. Read the rest of this entry »