Friday 2/11 – Thursday 2/17
FEBRUARY
By Cara Jepsen
11 FRIDAY Last September, Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts relocated to William Le Baron Jenney’s Ludington Building at 1104 S. Wabash, built in 1891. Fittingly, Archibookture, the center’s inaugural exhibit, features work by artists and architects that combines elements of books and buildings. It opens tonight with a free reception at the center from 5 to 7. Call 312-344-6630 for more.
A new program from chamber ensemble Fulcrum Point, Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here to Stay, includes works ranging from Igor Stravinsky’s Fanfare for a New Theater to Frank Zappa’s The Black Page. The ensemble will also premiere Michael Daugherty’s Motown Metal, which the compo-ser says has “a funky polyphony of tuba, glockenspiel, and anvil, while the trumpets, horns, and trombones play big-band staccato chords.” The program starts at 7:30 at HotHouse, 31 E. Balbo (312-362-9707), and is followed by a free dance party. Tickets are $15.
Sorrel Alburger probably has no trouble hailing a cab: one of the multimedia performance artist’s unique talents is whistling, which she’s done for the public from the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the top of the World Trade Center. Tonight Alburger will add a computer and an LCD projector for her Chicago debut, “My Little Opera.” It’s part of Asimina Chremos’s Ladylike 2000: Good Wild Stuff From the Heart performance festival, which will also include pieces by Kelly Hayes, Tracey Rose, the Bird Family Baby Bird puppet troupe, and Chremos as host Mister Mina. It’s at 8 tonight and tomorrow at Link’s Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield; tickets are $10. The artists will also offer an intensive workshop from noon to 2:30 tomorrow for $15. Call 773-281-0824 for more on both events.
12 SATURDAY It’s time again for the world’s automakers to unveil their prettiest models at the Chicago Auto Show, which runs from 10 AM to 10 PM through the 20th at McCormick Place South, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive (admission is $8; call 630-495-2282). Also today the antiauto activists of Chicago Bike Winter host Say No to the Auto Show, a ride to the convention, where participants will “educate show attendees about alternatives to the private automobile.” The free ride starts at noon at Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington. Call 312-278-1367 for more.
Many difficulties can present themselves if you cohabit with a kitty (such as my pet’s new fancy–early-morning vomiting). Feline behaviorist Pam Johnson-Bennett provides solutions in her new book Think Like a Cat. She’ll discuss them at a free presentation with WGN radio Pet Central host Steve Dale today at 2 at the Anti-Cruelty Society, 510 N. LaSalle. Call 312-644-8338, ext. 301, to reserve a spot.
In his new book, Abraham Lincoln: A Constitutional Biography, local legal scholar George Anastaplo looks not at Abe’s stormy personal life but at the evolution and effects of his legal and constitutional thought. He’ll discuss it today–Lincoln’s actual birthday–at 3 at 57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th (773-684-1300). It’s free.
13 SUNDAY Twelve years ago my boyfriend and I had the honor of chauffeuring documentary filmmaker Errol Morris around town. In no time at all he had us telling him things no stranger should know–simply because he listened and acted interested. That’s his basic modus operandi, and it worked wonders for his first effort, 1978’s Gates of Heaven, a riveting look at pet-cemetery owners in California. It’ll be screened Saturday and today at 11:30 AM at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport (773-871-6604). Tickets are $6.
Defending his decision not to boycott the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the head of the American Olympic Committee said that U.S. athletes shouldn’t get involved in what he called a “Jew-Nazi altercation.” The exhibit The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936, curated by the United States Holocaust Museum, focuses on the boycott debate as well as the role sports played in the Aryan myth and Hitler’s use of propaganda during the games to hide the Nazis’ persecution of Jews and other groups. It opens today at the Spertus Museum, 618 S. Michigan, with a reception at 1:15 and a program at 2. Admission to the opening is free but reservations are requested; call 312-322-1747.
14 MONDAY Today at 4:30 young visitors to the branch of the Chicago Public Library named after abolitionist and human-rights trailblazer Frederick Douglass will celebrate the onetime slave’s 182nd birthday by making bookmarks and posters, reading his speeches, and watching a film about his life. Admission is free; the Douglass branch is at 3353 W. 13th (312-747-3725).
Though he’s most famous for pioneering the art of assemblage, Joseph Cornell collaborated with filmmakers to make experimental movies as well. Tonight the University of Chicago’s Doc Films will show a selection of them, including Centuries of June, Carousel, Jack’s Dream, and Thimble Theatre, as well as Stan Brakhage’s The Wonder Ring and Cornell’s re-edited version of it, Gnir Rednow. The program starts at 7 at the University of Chicago’s Doc Films, 1212 E. 59th (773-702-8575). Admission is $3.
Writers Cynthia Plaster Caster, Yvonne Navarro, Richard Gilliam, Martin Mundt, Rick Reed, and Jerry Gilio will read their erotica at tonight’s special Valentine’s Day version of the weekly “Twilight Tales” series. Red Light Night starts at 8 at the Red Lion Pub, 2446 N. Lincoln (773-348-2695). Admission is $3 ($2 if you wear a “fetish costume”).
15 TUESDAY New businesses can’t just open their doors anymore; they have to create buzz with an event. That’s what James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II say in their new book, The Experience Economy, which offers business strategies for companies that must constantly outglitz and outdo each other to lure customers and remain competitive. Gilmore will discuss and sign the book today at 12:30 at Borders Books and Music, 830 N. Michigan (312-573-0564). It’s free.
16 WEDNESDAY How do you memorialize the unthinkable? One way a new generation of German artists has dealt with honoring Holocaust victims has been to create “countermemorials” designed to confront and engage the viewer. Jochen Gerz and Esther Shalev-Gerz created a column that visitors were encouraged to write comments on; the column eventually sank into the ground. Tonight University of Massachusetts English and Judaic studies professor James E. Young elaborates on the concept at a slide lecture called Memory, Counter Memory and the End of the Monument. It’s at 7 at Northwestern University’s Lutkin Hall, 700 University Place in Evanston. Admission is $10, free for full-time students. Call 847-491-5209.
17 THURSDAY “Black DJs were known for their influences on our language,” says Michigan State University professor Gilbert A. Williams, who penned the book Legendary Pioneers of Black Radio. “They determined which words were considered ‘hip’ and when they were picked up by the mainstream white culture, they were quickly replaced.” He’ll discuss the contributions of a number of pioneers (such as Chicago’s Al Benson and Tom Joyner) tonight with Radio Hall of Fame inductee Herb Kent, who also rates a section in the book. It’s from 5:30 to 7 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, inside the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. It’s free; reservations are encouraged. Call 312-629-6023.