Friday, November 5
Go po-mo at SOFA Chicago, which features sculpture objects and functional art (get it? S.O.F.A.?!) from far-off lands like Scandinavia and Israel. The exhibition at Navy Pier Festival Hall opens today and runs through Sunday. (11 a.m.-8 p.m., $12, Navy Pier Festival Hall)
Thrash metal band Slayer is playing at the Aragon Ballroom. They don’t hold a candle to Cannibal Corpse, but that’s just my humble opinion. (6 p.m., $32.50, all ages)
STD made a boo-boo last week and forgot to mention that Reeling 2004: The 23rd Chicago Lesbian & Gay International Film Festival began yesterday. But never fear, because there’s still six days left to catch the best queer films from all corners of the globe. (Go to www. reelingfilmfestival.org for times and venues; through November 11)
An East German man tries to convince his fragile mother—who has just come out of a coma that lasted through the fall of the Iron Curtain—that nothing has changed since she’s been asleep in this comedy called Goodbye Lenin! (6:30, 9, 11:30 p.m., $4, Max Palevsky Cinema)
This weekend at the Film Studies Center, JPEX: Japanese Experimental Film and Video 1955-Now will bring you dozens of short films and a round table with scholars from across the country on Saturday night. Tonight the theme is “Expanded Visions.” (7 p.m., free, Cobb 307, go to http://filmstudiescenter. uchicago.edu for other times)
Le Tigre—and I don’t mean the polo t-shirt—will be at the Vic tonight. The Gossip is opening for them. (7:30 p.m., $21, all ages, 3145 North Sheffield)
Le Concert Spirituel, whose popularity in France is growing to rival Les Arts Florissants as the premier early music ensemble, comes to Rockefeller. (8 p.m., $11, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel)
Jonathan Richman might cry on stage. He will sing in Spanish and Hebrew. And he will sing about little dinosaurs. Or perhaps about New England—which happens to be my favorite place these days since my future Neanderthal husband Johnny Damon lives there. (Oh, shit, I didn’t type that.) He also might sing about bakeries. He is definitely singing at the Double Door. (10 p.m., $14, 21+)
Saturday, November 6
Head north to Wicker Park’s Heaven Gallery for the Apple Cider Video Screening, where you can drink (you guessed it) apple cider—while also catching some new videos from Chicago filmmakers Jim Finn, Doug Lussenhop, Eric Henry, and others. (7 p.m., $6, 1550 North Milwaukee Avenue)
Think it’s time you took up contra dancing again? Walter Hojka and his band, Good Gravity, will get you on your feet with Indiana’s Barry Dupen calling. No experience necessary. (7:30 p.m. informal lesson, 8 p.m. dance, free, Ida Noyes Hall Third Floor Theater)
Sunday, November 7
Alternative Nebraskan sweetie Matthew Sweet is playing at Park West. (7:30 p.m., $23.50, all ages, 322 West Armitage)
Monday, November 8
The annual Regenstein Library Book Sale starts at $20 hardcovers, $10 paperbacks, and $5 maps—continuing until Friday, November 12, and decreasing in price every day. (9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Regenstein Library)
The popular Nordic film series continues with one of its finest, Aki Kaurismaki’s The Man Without A Past. This Academy Award-nominated Finnish film is about an amnesiac who listens to a lot of cool music and becomes buddies with soup kitchen workers. (7 p.m., $4, Max Palevsky Cinema)
Stephanie Rayner, a Toronto artist and lecturer, is best-known for her watercolor monotypes, representations of spirituality and science, and storytelling abilities. She gives a lecture entitled “Religion, Science, and Art” as part of the Epic of Creation lecture series at the Lutheran School of Theology. (8:30 p.m., free, 1100 East 55th Street)
Tuesday, November 9
British poet Tom Pickard reads for the Poem Present series. (5:30 p.m., free, Wieboldt 403)
Ben Kingsley (what?!) plays the title character in Ghandi, the Westernized lawyer who used peaceful resistance to try to secure civil rights for Indians in the British empire. (7 p.m., $4, Max Palevsky Cinema)
Wednesday, November 10
University Theater begins four days of workshops: Productions with minimal tech and less rehearsal than usual. Tonight we’re seeing Bill of Fare, written and directed by Chris Steele, Soap Opera, written by David Ives and directed by Rachel Levine, and an Ensemble Project. Same program on Friday the 12. (8 p.m., $5, Reynolds Club First Floor Theater)
Poets Alselm Hollo and Ron Padgett will be reading at the Ballroom of the School of the Art Institute tonight. Hollo’s most recently published collection, Notes On The Possibilities And Attractions Of Existence: New And Selected Poems 1965-2000, received the San Francisco Poetry Center’s Best Book Award for 2001. (6:30 p.m., $10, 112 South Michigan Avenue)
If you liked Wet Hot American Summer and could not refrain from watching I Love the ’90s: 1993 a third time, well, you should definitely check out the hilarious Stella Comedy Show at the Metro. Stella features Wet Hot co-writers/co-producers Michael Showalter and David Wain, as well as Michael Ian Black and Eugene Mirman. (9 p.m., $18, 18+)
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, of Angels in America fame, is speaking at Harold Washington Library. (6:00 p.m., free, reservations recommended)
Thursday, November 11
Soprano Jess Cullinan and pianist Richard Plotkin perform the best of 1933—including selections from Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, George and Ira Gershwin, and more—for the Noontime Concert Series. (12:15 p.m., free, Fulton Recital Hall)
Tang Xiaobing, associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, lectures on the subject of “China Today” at the Gallery Teach-in. His talk is in conjunction with the current exhibit on new Chinese photography. (6:30 p.m., free, Smart Museum of Art)
New documentary The Hittites: The Empire that Changed the World premieres in the Oriental Institute. Narrator Jeremy Irons won’t be there, but Professor of Hittitology and Editor of the Chicago Hittite Dictionary Theo van den Hout will introduce the film. Tolga Ornek, the writer, director, and producer, will also attend. (7 p.m., free, Breasted Hall in the Oriental Institute)
UT’s Workshop Week continues with A (Serious) Game for Three (Really Four) Players, written and directed by Jeremy Cohan. Same on Saturday the 13. (8 p.m., $5, Reynolds Club First Floor Theater)
My favorite musical couple, Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel—who make up indie pop band Mates of State—are playing at the Logan Square Auditorium tonight. (8:30 p.m., $14)
