Guess what? We've got the dates for next year's Lollapalooza! So get your calendars out and mark off August 1-3, 2008, and start picking out your outfit now.

OK, that's all we've got for now, but we just knew you would want to know.

As being "green" continues to grow in trendiness, even clothing designers are hopping on the bandwagon, offering up pieces in everything from tree fibers to our state's favorite crop, corn.

Tomorrow, the Notebaert Nature Museum plays host to Sustainable Convergence '07, a party that brings together people with sustainable subjects on the brain for socializing, networking, inspiration, and of course, some old fashioned boozing. The highlight of the party is EcoModa, an exhibit of "eco friendly fashions," featuring off-the-rack pieces, retooled accessories and one-of-a-kind designer duds made from everything from bamboo to hemp to wool dyed with organic teas.

If you're feeling crafty and earth-conscious, don your own sustainable design for a chance to win prizes in the event's DIY Fashion Contest. Register today, and you'll get in for $40 ($10 off the door price).

Check out EcoModa, part of the Foresight Design Initiative's Sustainable Convergence '07, held from 5:30-9:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Notebaert Nature Museum (2430 N. Cannon Drive). Preregister today, and get your tickets for $40 (students, $25). Tickets available at the door for cash or check only for $50.

Photo of designer Tracy Jennings' dress, made entirely of corn, by Eileen Molony.

For all you Chicagoist fans who love to bitch--whether it’s about the CTA, Macy’s, Comments by Guest #2, or a typo right here on Chicagoist--we’ve found a new forum for you: The Complaints Choir of Chicago. Artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen will work with local musician Jeremy Jacobsen to create the first choir of complainers in the Midwest.

No singing experience is needed, just a good gripe. The choir will meet during five workshops in October. The grand premiere of the Complaints Choir will be November 3 at the MCA, as part of the Humanities Festival.

Chronic complainers are encouraged to send their complaints to complaintschoir@yahoo.com, and all complaints, from daily irritations to global nuisances, will be stitch together with all participants during the workshops.

Wonder what a complaint choir sounds like? Check out other cities'.

Photo by apgroner.

Got a dollar? Spend it tonight at Steppenwolf's Garage Theater, where the Listening Room presents the 2007 TCF ShortDocs: Dollar Storeys. The two-headed beast child born of the union of The Dollar Store reading series and Third Coast Audio Festival, Dollar Storeys are sweet radio segments based on purchases made at dollar stores. Tonight's event features highlights from the contest, stories from Chicagoist's pal and Dollar Store mastermind Jonathan Messinger (here's some trivia: Jonathan was at our very first happy hour ever! Wowza!), and local applicants will share some of their material as well.

Too lazy? House-bound by your cankles? You can listen to the submissions from the comfort of your own internet. Our favorite is #74, "Little Voices, Far Far Away," which includes mouse-voices singing "Space Oddity." Pretty fabulous.

A few days ago we unwittingly created a monster when we expressed our frustration about having to wait to see the schedule for this year's Chicago International Film Festival, which runs October 4-17. Well, we finally have a copy of said schedule in our hot little hands. What follows is a very brief, cursory summary of what you can expect this year (the full schedule will be online within the next few days).

Regardless of what shenanigans might or might not be going on behind the festival's scenes, this year's lineup looks remarkably strong. Opening Night will see the U.S. premiere of The Kite Runner, directed by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Stranger Than Fiction) from the bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini. That's a definite coup for CIFF. Roger Ebert will be on hand to receive a special honor. The Closing Night movie is The Savages, starring Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. We loved Tamara Jenkins' earlier film The Slums of Beverly Hills, whose lip sync sequence left us breathless with laughter. Another solid get.

Incidentally Philip Seymour Hoffman is also in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a suspense thriller co-starring Ethan Hawke. There seem to be a lot of crime movies and paranoiac political thrillers this year. Noise (from Australia), Eye in the Sky (Hong Kong), and the American Home of the Giants sound like variations on the crime-gone-wrong setup, while other movies involve surveillance cameras (like Look and the aptly-named Surveillance) and conspiracy (Heartbeat Detector, Black Butterfly and The Aerial). Surprisingly there are few movies dealing with the Iraq War (one of which is a Hollywood movie, Grace is Gone with John Cusack).

It's very heartening to see several films from Africa on the schedule, an entire continent with films that remain all but unseen even on art-house screens. Dreams of Dust, about the brutal existence of gold miners in Burkina Faso, is definitely on our must-see list. Another must-see is the documentary A Walk Into the Sea, which sketches the mysterious life of Danny Williams, a young filmmaker who was part of Andy Warhol's circle until he disappeared in 1966. In the "Restored & Rediscovered" sidebar is a special, once-only screening of Renoir's masterpiece The River. It's a film with color cinematography so beautiful you might begin to levitate in your seat. And in the "Late Night Screamings" series is Chicago-native Stuart Gordon's (Re-Animator) queasy new film Stuck, a blacker-than-black horror comedy about a young woman driving home one night who accidentally hits a homeless man — and leaves him stuck in the windshield of her car.

There are 160 movies unspooling this year, and we just don't have the space (or stamina) to tell you about any more of them just now. But check back here for reviews and updates over the coming weeks, and we'll do our best to keep up.

CIFF runs October 4-17 at various theaters (mostly the Landmark Century, River East 21 and the Music Box). Full details, including ticket info, right here.

When we first began writing this post we considered giving it another title: "Get on your hands and knees and crawl". We decided against this title because the actual subject of the post wouldn't be immediately clear, and the event we speak of deserves perfect understanding. If you like sweets, the Andersonville neighborhood or the Swedish American Museum, then the Andersonville Dessert Crawl is right up your alley. For $20 (in advance) or $30 (at the museum door) you can join other like-minded people on a tour around Andersonville-area restaurants and bakeries. You may literally be crawling at the end; with twenty-six businesses participating, your belly may start dragging you down to all fours. Try treats from a diverse number of establishments including En.Thai.Ce, Fireside Restaurant, Sweet Occasions and, of course, Ann Sather's. Yes, folks, this Sunday, September 23, from 4-7, you can attempt to go to all participating restaurants/bakeries/cafes and get a tasting-sized portion of their most delectable sugar concoction. This is the second year of the crawl, and it benefits Andersonville Development Corporation, "a non-profit whose mission is to foster sustainable community and economic development in the Andersonville commercial district." Mmm, sustainable sweets. We know, we know, that's not what they mean. If you would like to order tickets in advance go here. If you're willing to spend an extra ten bucks, simply go to the Swedish American Museum and pick up your Dessert Crawl "passport." If you choose to wait until the day of the event we suggest you call them to make sure tickets are still available (773-728-7552). So go on, get your sweet on in Andersonville while the weather remains relatively warm and eating ice cream on the street still makes sense.

If you want to usher in the fall weather with an almost guaranteed good time, bust out your jeans and autumn jackets and head down to Division Street this Saturday and Sunday, where two of West Town's best attraction, the Renegade Craft Fair and Do-Division Street Fest, have joined forces for a weekend of crafty goodness, musical enjoyment, and plenty of hipster-watching.

Held on Division from Damen to Wood, Renegade Craft Fair will bring together over 200 of the country's coolest crafters. Don't come expecting crocheted potholders or needlepoint mantle decorators; instead, wares from vendors (who applied and were specially selected to sell) skew toward hipster-chic, trendy and modern, with purveyors offering up unique body care products, dreamy paintings, cool jewelery, and adorable babywear.

If your craft-obssessed friend or significant other drags you along begrudgingly, don't despair. The Do-Division side of things will let you indulge in food and drink to the sound of live music, with Urge Overkill headlining on Saturday, and Camper Van Beethoven laying it out on Sunday, with a slew of other bands throughout the weekend.

Kids tagging along? The rather bluntly named KidFair promises enjoyment for the wee ones, with games, rides, a petting zoo, puppet shows, and craft activities there to keep them entertained for at least a few minutes.

Renegade Craft Fair and Do-Division Street Festival will be held this Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 10 p.m. daily. Admittance to Renegade is free; Do-Division is $5 per day. More information is available on the Website.

Pocket Sundress in black boucle by Renegade exhibitor, Squasht by Les.

For years, we've heard about the Green Tie Ball and wondered if we'd ever get to go to something so fancy. Turns out we will, and we're excited about it. The Green Tie Ball is an annual charity event held by Gateway Green. According to their website, "The Green Tie Ball is the signature fundraising event for Chicago Gateway Green."

Gateway Green is a non-profit working for "the beautification of the city." The proceeds for tomorrow night's event will directly benefit the Expressway Partnership. It's a public-private partnership dedicated to turning roadways into parkways. This year's 16th annual Ball will have a "Garden of Good and Evil" theme.

VIP events start tomorrow at 6:30, and the gala will kick off at 8:00. There will be a live auction and charitable gambling as well as over 75 restaurants showing off their wares. If you'd like to get a ticket (prices range from $140-250), call 312-902-1500 or go to www. greentieball.org.

"green tie and chapped lips" by MB!

Grab your quirky t-shirts and head over to the Metro tonight to celebrate the grand opening of the first Threadless store at 3011 N. Broadway in Chicago. To really tee it up and kick it off right tonight, Threadless and Metro are bringing you two free shows. Tonight's lineup will feature Hey Mercedes, Anathallo, Freer and host Marcus Monroe. It starts at 6:00 p.m. and is open to all ages, but you will have to stop by the Threadless store to pick up your free ticket. But that's not all! Following the early show, there's another FREE party, with a lineup consisting of Office, White Hot Knife, The Assembly and the Life During Wartime DJs. The show is at 10:30 p.m. and is 18 & up. No ticket is needed for the later show. We recommend both, especially at the enticing price of free.

Founded in 2000 by two Chicago-area designers, Threadless is essentially an ongoing design competition. Submit your t-shirt design, visitors to Threadless.com vote on it and other designs, and voila, four to six designs are chosen for print each week. Aside from the glory and fame of having your work chosen, you also get a cool $2,000.

Threadless is doing an amazing job of taking the community feel of their website and bringing it to a physical locale. The store will feature new tees every Friday, an upstairs gallery for Threadless designers' work, design classes, weekly window paintings, and discounts for reusing your bag. Now if we just have to snag our favorite designs before they are gone.

Of all the city-sponsored music festivals, few utilize as much of the city limits like the World Music Festival (check out the festival's Myspace page, also). In its nine years, World Music Fest has become a showcase event, even though it lacks the resources the city pours into Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, and Viva! Chicago. Its drawn visitors to the city from around the world, done a remarkable job in shining a much-needed spotlight on Chicago’s numerous music venues (the only festival in the city to truly do so on a regular basis), introduced Chicago residents to neighborhoods they would not have otherwise visited, raised awareness and created fans of so-called “world music” and proved that Chicago has an audience base with the interest to sustain and support many of the acts featured in previous versions.

World Music Fest 2007 will also mark the first version of the festival without the participation of HotHouse, still “itinerant” since it left its South Loop digs in July. Long before there was a World Music Fest, HotHouse was the only place to go to find a wide array of musical styles from around the world. But the show must go on, and following the jump we have a list of recommended performances for those of you interested in participating in what, to this Chicagoist writer, is the best musical festival in the city. The artists' names link to their respective websites or Myspace pages.

The new beige will be on display when the Chicago Luxury Home Tour opens its doors for a three-week run this weekend. The tour highlights twenty-nine $1 million-plus homes in the Chicagoland area, and features the latest in home construction to home design trends.

A wide variety of architectural styles are featured in homes built by multiple builders. With houses located from Lake Bluff to Yorkville, from Barrington Hills to Hinsdale, the homes, all outside 294, are accessible to anyone with a car, and highlight the finest in suburban living.

There are plenty of innovative home features we love, which can be seen on the self-guided tour, including elevators, wine cellars, retractable media screens, mud rooms with custom lockers, and classic “aged” brick detailing. Stuff we won’t find in a Chicago walk-up.

Tickets are $15 in advance ($20 at the door), and available at any Chicagoland Caribou Coffee location. The homes are open to the public on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 7-9, 14-16, and 21-23 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The tour benefits American Public Media, the nation’s premiere public media producer.

Suburban Lifestyle photo courtesy of rutabegabunny.

Here’s what you missed while you were sneezing and burning:

• Guest #18, your comments are hilarious, but how do you fare with a live audience? If you think you’ve got the chops, submit a 1-2 minute video to Time Out Chicago by September 20. Best entries will be screened online for their discerning website visitors. The top four will compete live for the chance to be crowned “Chicago’s Funniest Person.” (... at least according to TOC)
• The Joffrey Ballet kicks off Millennium Park’s Blockbuster Week Wednesday night. The Steppenwolf and Chicago Children’s Choir take the Pritzker Pavilion stage Thursday, the Lyric Opera’s stars perform Saturday, and the Chicago Symphony and Savion Glover reunite Sunday. All performances and rehearsals are free and open to the public. Full schedule here.
• Part gallery, part storefront, part young artist showcase, the Golden Age Store + Studio opened last week in Pilsen. Store hours are Wednesday – Sunday, noon – 8 p.m., but that might change.
• The fourth annual Authors and Artists Chicago, the largest gathering of self-published and independent authors in Chicago (and the largest A & A to date), comes to Little Black Pearl Art Design Center October 6. Admission to this afternoon of (potentially) great reads and fabulous prizes is free.
• Chicago Public Radio and WTTW go suburban for this fall’s Chicago Matters series, examining how immigration is affecting Waukegan, Palatine, Elgin and Cicero/Berwyn. The Chicago Reporter will publish related stories and the Chicago Public Library will host community forums and highlight related collections.
• From Opera News, Richard Christiansen interviews uberdirector Mary Zimmerman on the eve of her Met debut.