Friday | April 20
By this point it’s been seared into all our squirrelly brains that at the U of C, fun dies and the only thing that goes down on you is your GPA—but now is the time to build a better T-shirt. You’ll have plenty of “inspiration” at the Hyde Park Art Center’s “Prints & Pints” event, which offers several 45-minute printmaking sessions led by artist Elke Claus, an on-site DJ, a cash bar, and free range to roam HPAC’s many galleries with a brand new slogan on your back. 5020 South Cornell Avenue. First session at 7–11 p.m., $15.
You can’t put lipstick on a pig. But at the opening of Bridgeport Art Center’s new sculpture garden you can stick it in Sarah Palin’s mouth and roast it on a spit. Ukranian Village–based artist J. Taylor Wallace created his large-scale sculpture of the former governor of Alaska’s head, complete with built-in oven, entitled
“Tea Parody,” two years ago for an exhibit in Memphis. Now it’s on the South Side and everyone, regardless of his or her political persuasion, is welcome to its porcine bounty. 1200 West 35th Street, free.
If you’re sitting at home, catatonic-like, and can’t figure out what to do with your Friday, then one very appropriate option would be to attend some or all of “In A Rut,” a daylong series of invited speakers, audience-fueled discussions, and coffee breaks in the performance penthouse of the new Logan Arts Center. The event, the last in a series of three entitled “Arts of Non-Sovereignty,” will focus on the kind of big questions that often get people into ruts in the first place, such as how and why the ordinary seems deadening, and whether critical work must always oppose established norms of thought. 915 East 60th Street. 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m., free.
Saturday | April 21
It’s easy to show your support for improving health care access on the South Side; just show up with an appetite to Students for Health Equity’s “A Night of Music” in McCormick Lounge. The entertainment will include, appropriately, a mix of student and community artists: UChicago’s Soul Umoja Gospel Choir, UChicago’s Ransom Notes a capella group, Members of FLY (Woodlawn’s Fearless Leading by the Youth) and Students of Woodlawn sax players are all slated to perform. To top it all off, (nearly) free food, catered from Cedars, The Nile, and Daley’s Rajun Cajun. 5706 South University Avenue. 7–10 p.m., free admission; $5 dinner.
If, come Sunday morning, your arm hurts more than your head does, then you probably made the responsible choice to stop by O’Malley’s Bar, host of the 13th Lady Arm Wrestling match. Winner of this battle of the bi
ceps, brought to you by the Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers (CLLAW), takes home a sash and crown, and all proceeds benefit Sideshow Theatre Company and Erasing the Distance. See for yourself why Penthouse magazine dubbed these dueling divas “one hell of a show!” 3551 North Sheffield Avenue. 9:30 p.m., $25 (includes drinks), 21+.
Andersonville’s beloved karaoke dive bar, Café Bong Ho’s, is closing its doors for good this weekend, due to rising rent. Celebrate this fine 24-hour establishment’s last night in business by chatting with owner and bartender Ginny and treating yourself to some very fairly priced Korean vodka. Don’t let this neighborhood gem slip away without drinking it in one last time! 5706 North Clark Street.
Sunday | April 22
Get out your gingham tablecloth and your wicker basket, because it’s time to save the world. Shedd Aquarium is partnering with the Nature Conservancy to bring you the Chicago leg of “Picnic for the Planet,” a global event which, in honor of Earth Day, aims at spreading environmental awareness and breaking the Guinness World Record for largest multi-venue 24-hour picnic. And make sure to show up early. Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford dives, in defense of the planet, into Shedd’s Caribbean Reef at 11:15 a.m. 1200 South Lake Shore Drive. 9 a.m.–6 p.m., $8–$34.95.
As part of its film series and running exhibit “Picturing the Past,” the Oriental Institute will screen Michael Curtis’s The Egyptian (1954). This epic tale of a distressed physician named Sinuhe who is just trying to get by and do right in the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, boasts many Odyssean twists and turns, a religiously conflicted Pharoah, and a knockout bar-maid/love interest, played by Bella Darvi. 1155 East 58th Street. 2 p.m., free for members, $3 for non-members.
