The annual Windy City Wine Festival, presented by Binny's Beverage Depot, takes place tonight and tomorrow at Daley Bicentennial Plaza downtown. We've never been overly impressed by the festival, but taking a look at the cooking and wine exhibitions scheduled we might be swayed to drop by. The always entertaining Hearty Boys will be at the festival both days (tonight from 7:15-7:45 p.m. and 7:25-7:55 p.m. Saturday). Also on hand will be Steve Chiapetti of......

Despite being one of the city’s most notorious warm-weather tourist hubs, Millennium Park just keeps bangin’ out some rather impressive locally oriented programming. This week is no exception, as the Park celebrates Blockbuster Week, a celebration of some of Chicago’s “most beloved cultural gems.” Two highlights, both of which come at no charge to you: Tonight, Sept. 3, 6:30 pm - String connoisseur and whistling pro Andrew Bird takes the stage at the Jay Pritzker......

Oprah Fans, get to Millennium Park now if you want a chance for a ticket to Oprah’s 23rd season premiere staring 150 U.S. Olympic athletes. The show will tape next Wednesday. Tickets are normally only available by phone, and are hugely impossible to get. So if you want to see Oprah “welcome home” the U.S. athletes, or see Michael Phelps up close and in person, get to Millennium Park now. Certainly, Oprah will be giving......

Get lost in jazz master Sonny Rollins' sweet saxophonic stylings tonight at Millennium Park. The self-proclaimed "Saxophone Colossus" will bust out the ditties that landed him a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award – among other accolades – and propelled him to the ranks of his most noteworthy contemporaries, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk, at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The performance opens up the festivities for the 30th Annual Chicago Jazz......

Chicagoist has had a bit of a love affair with Pritzker Pavilion this summer, but that’s mostly because the Millenium Park events calendar has been stuffed with so many fabulous free events this outdoor season. Another tasty upcoming event that caught our eye: the Chicago Sinfonietta will be performing Gustav Holst’s seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets this Friday at Pritzker. The performance is touted as “a legendary sight and sound spectacular”, as the symphony will......

If you missed today’s stellar installment of Audible Architecture with The Ex at Millennium Park’s Great Lawn, never fear! You can get your fill of electronic music in the open air when the park puts on their Audio Picnic tonight, where you can witness firsthand the intense battle for local label dominance as employees of Thrill Jockey Records, Bloodshot Records, Kranky Records, and Drag City throw down their finest tunes at this musical free-for-all; rare......

Next week, there are some great opportunities to watch free dance performances, ranging from international superstars in dance and choreography to some of Chicago’s emerging local talent. 20th Century Masters August 18th, 7:30 p.m., Harris Theater for Music and Dance, free Part of the 2008 Chicago Dancing Festival, this program showcases works from five renowned contemporary choreographers, including Balanchine and Martha Graham. Although tickets were snapped up immediately as soon as the show was announced,......

Writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal has already done 17 things pretty much all on her own, but she’s looking to the people of Chicago to help her accomplish the next item on her list. Being that tomorrow is 8.8.08, she invites us to join her at precisely 8:08 p.m. tomorrow night at the Bean in Millennium Park to celebrate all that is great about 8. There’s nothing particularly historic or meaningful about this date and time,......

They speak in "lolcats" terminology. They use terms like "lulz" and "epic win." They claim that members who have been found out have had their pets killed. They wear "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes masks. They are Anonymous, and they're gathering in Millennium Park this weekend for a gathering that's one part protest, one part flash mob, two parts performance art. Who are they really? Who knows. That's the point. Anonymous will be out tomorrow......

We'll go out on a limb and declare that the best sound system in Chicago is on the lawn at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park. You can be all the way in back and it still sounds as if you're sitting in the middle of the Grant Park Orchestra. So what's even better than that? Pairing it with a movie. Next Wednesday the Orchestra will perform special guest Nitin Sawhney's original score alongside......

Last week, while at a certain Olympic bid fundraiser at Pritzker, we noticed a strange building in the south skyline. We soon realized that we were looking at the Art Institute’s new Modern Wing, and were surprised at how … done it looked. Which is a good thing, since the Art Institute announced last Thursday that its 264,000 square-foot addition to the museum will be opened to the public on May 16th, 2009. The......

The Pitchfork Music Festival kicks off its 2008 edition this weekend at Union Park, and we've been highlighting some of the "can't miss" acts of the weekend on Chicagoist over the next few days. Today we'll tackle eight acts from the sold-out Sunday line-up. But before we do, you should know that Saturday and Sunday are completely sold out and there are only a few walk-up tickets that will be available for tomorrow's show. If......

Next Monday, Millennium Park will be busting with Olympic spirit. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago are teaming up for a “Chicago Believes” fundraising event at Pritzker to support the 2016 Olympic bid. Hosted by Chicago 2016, the performance is part of a larger Olympic celebration that will include athletic demonstrations on the park’s Great Lawn, as well as a send-off to the Team USA members preparing to travel to Beijing. Lawn......

With the Pitchfork Music Fest a little under three weeks away, the fest has released its official schedule. And, frankly, we're pretty psyched for Saturday's Hold Steady-Animal Collective pairing and Sunday's Spiritualized-Spoon pairing. Nice work, kids. In addition to the fest, Pitchfork is also presenting the free lunchtime music series on Mondays, "Audible Architecture: Chicago Nightclubs at Noon" at Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion which began two weeks ago and continues through the end of......

Discounted passes for September's Chicago Gourmet event at Millennium Park will end Monday. If you want to save $20 off the $150 ticket price, act fast.......

The press conference yesterday announcing the September Chicago Gourmet festival at Millennium Park went off without a hitch. Mayor Daley brought to the conference the "Chi-CAW-go is a world class city" enthusiasm that earned us (read: him) the right to fight for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Reading the press release last night, however, caused us to break out in cold sweats. If you want to attend the festival, it'll cost you a cool $150......

Man, are we ever tired expensive, indoor, un-simulcast opera. The Chicago Opera Theater has heard these complaints and responded with "the first outdoor, large screen, live simulcast presentation of an opera in the city's history." And it's free. New pants, please! On Friday, May 9, the COT's performance of Don Giovanni will be broadcast from the Harris Theater to Pritzker Pavilion. Similar projects have been staged in Houston, New York, Washington DC and San Fransisco.......

If you haven't yet seen a performance at Millennium Park's Harris Theater, you're missing out. It's a sleek space that has outstanding acoustics, and not only are the seats comfy but there's pretty much not a bad seat in the house. An upcoming concert of recent film music makes a great reason to give the Harris a try. On Monday, April 7 the CSO presents a special program consisting of music from Francis Ford......

If you're cramming for a test, need a post-dinner pick me up or want a Paul McCartney CD between the hours of 5:30 and 8:30 tonight, you'll have to go somewhere other than Starbucks. Nearly all of the coffee chain's locations will be closed for a company-wide education and training session for employees. Dunkin' Donuts just happens to have a promotion running today and will be giving away free lattes. Our favorite quote in......

Photo by Bowl Rider Stephen Kazmierczak's professors and classmates say he seemed like a normal guy. [Trib] Wait, an office complex out by O'Hare costs $100 million? [AP] Violent crime on the CTA is up. [CBS 2] Watch out for a five-ton sand sculpture in the Millennium Park garage starting Monday. It's part of South Carolina's tourism campaign. [Crain's] Jody Weis is cleaning house at the CPD. He appointed four new deputy superintendents and......

Seriously, this is so much fun. Make a Chicago Valentine and send it in, won't you? E-mail margaret@chicagoist.com Original photo by JoeM500 Original photo by PhotoDu.de......

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Chicago's a solid art town--we have a Picasso on the street, a big mirrored bean, amazing museums, etc. The only thing were missing is the Simpson's "Escalator-to-Nowhere". So expectations were high for Wall-O-Ice. We were expecting a giant magical mosaic of ice, threatening to spill out onto the street and carve a canyon down Michigan Ave. Instead, we froze our butts off staring at a bunch of frozen Kool-Aid. Oooooh yeah. We wanted a......

Behold "The Popsicle." The massive ice sculpture that's being billed as "Paintings Below Zero," which is part of the "Museum of Modern Ice", was officially unveiled in Millenium Park Friday. Canadian artist Gordon Halloran, who started as an abstract painter, created the work out of large pieces of colorful ice, and according to the Sun-Times, "he and a team of six have been working 12 to 14 hours a day since mid-December to ensure the......

mmmmarshall captures the new Chicago winter wonderland: Millennium Park With Mega Tuesday looming, Oprah readies to hit the campaign trail again for Barack Obama, along with Caroline Kennedy. It looks as though Obama Girl's fifteen minutes of fame aren't up yet. Neil Steinberg and Eric Zorn give us a modern recasting of the Ballad of John Henry. A double dose of Drew: while attorney Joel Brodsky says recent photos acquired may show Stacy Peterson......

The sweetheart deal negotiated by the investors of Park Grill and the Park District has been covered before. But a good story is worth repeating, so we'll remind you, the taxpayer, what you're paying for at Park Grill: - garbage collection - their gas bill - half of the restaurant's construction costs (an estimated $4.2 million). Oh, they also don't pay real estate taxes. Faced with such insurmountable odds, Park Grill's investors are finally starting......

If you didn't catch Jon Brion at Hideout earlier this year, and missed him last night at Millennium Park, here's another chance to catch Jon Brion in an intimate setting at Martyr's. If you want to truly have your mind blown, you won't want to miss this. Tickets are on sale now for only ten bucks. w00t!......

Things are looking up in Margaritaville! We know, we know, wrong Buffett--but we always think Jimmy first. Sorry, Warren. Go cry in your mountain of money. Anyhow, one of the world's richest men but only second-most-famous Buffett is making a $4.5 billion deal with Chicago's own Uncle Money Pants, the Pritzkers. Buffett is buying a 60 percent share in the Pritzker's Marmon Holdings, Inc. Over the next five or six years, he's going to buy......

We were one of the few lucky enough to catch Jon Brion when he stopped by The Hideout earlier this year. His one-man band is truly an awesome spectacle top behold, and will seriously leave anyone withing earshot slack jawed. When we heard he was coming back to Chicago to play a New Year's Eve show at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park we immediately thought, "This is the show to beat." So far, no......

Listen up all you single residents of Chicago: Andy Eliason, of The Canadian, "Canada's new socially progressive and cross-cultural national newspaper," has some dating advice for you in his piece, "Things to do when you are single in Chicago." He says if you are single in Chicago, the first thing you need to do is "find someone else who happens to be single in Chicago, and you have to be willing to take the steps......