While many of the lectures and panels for this year's Chicago Humanities Festival are already sold out, there still seem to be plenty of tickets left for the film series. The theme is “Peace and War,” a subject which is (unfortunately) as timely as ever, and Facets program director Charles Coleman has put together a superb lineup. All of the chosen films guarantee plenty of food for thought, some to an uncomfortable degree. We'd like to call attention to just a few. more ›

This year, Sufjan Stevens solidified his status as an indie critic’s darling with Illinois, the second album in his Sisyphean “50 States” project. While Illinois did plenty of name-dropping, it left the history of the state largely unexplored. Operating on a smaller scale, recording artist Stace England focused on just one Illinois town: Cairo (pronounced kay-row) to create an album that’s more accessible and just as satisfying as his indie rock counterpart. England spent five... more ›

Back in August Outside Magazine listed Chicago as one of the top "Dream Cities" in America. Translation: We've got a lot of enviromental stuff and easy access to lots of outdoor activities. more ›

As we reported yesterday, the 5th annual Chicago Outdoor Film Festival begins tonight with Howard Hawks' great screwball comedy and Chicagoist favorite His Girl Friday. As any of the 30,000 attendees of the legendary Radiohead show at Hutchinson Field in 2001 will tell, the beautiful Chicago skyline is an ideal backdrop to any summertime cultural event. But if you don't want to deal with the mosquitoes, the people, or trying to discern the tipping protocol for free bike valet parking (?), head down to Facets to see a movie the old-fashioned way: inside. And, ironically, the movie to see there is about the great outdoors. more ›

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