Stay home and stay safe and healthy. Listen to our healthcare policy experts. Science matters. Keep washing your hands. And check in on 3CR, where we promote the arts for everyone's sake.
Let's stay the fuck inside and enjoy your curated weekend!
THE WHOLE SELF-DISTANCING WEEKEND, MARCH 26th and Beyond
Video Archives/Access Project @ Columbia College The Dance Center, their website, pretty much any time in the next two months, All Ages
WHAT: Some wonderful Dance Videos for your day!
SO WHAT: While The Dance Center at Columbia College can't host any of their planned live performances, you can still delight in some great past shows! The Dance Center at Columbia College is sharing full-length performance videos from their archives for students, educators, and dance lovers everywhere. There are tons to see and they will be available until the end of May 2020.
NOW WHAT: All the beautiful performance are available here!
What Chicago Is This?" Photo album by Laura Hedien @ her Facebook page
WHAT: "What Chicago Is This?" is an album of gorgeous photos of our silent city by photographer Laura Hedien. Many thanks to Laura for sharing this album with everyone. The photo above is Columbus Drive, looking south.
SO WHAT: Hedien took the 58 photos last Saturday 3/21 between 9am and noon, before the 5pm statewide lockdown went into effect. See what our city would look like under martial law. Hedien posted the album of photos on her Facebook page, noting that she walked more than seven miles around the city as she shot.
NOW WHAT: Sit back, view these on your computer full screen. Our city looks beautiful, but let us hope we never see it this way again.
Kids Make Videos for Play@Home Contest @ Chicago Children's Theatre, whenever you have some free time to have fun, All Ages
WHAT: Young artists (12 and under) stuck at home can exercise their creativity by making a 5-minute video for this CCT contest.
NOW WHAT: Write your story as a video script. Be sure to create a mythical creature, include a villain, and get family members and pets involved.
SO WHAT: See our story about the Play@Home Contest with all the rules and ideas. Deadline is April 20.
Bring the Zoo to You @ Brookfield Zoo's Facebook page, when you want to see some animals besides your pets or specifically 11:00am, All Ages
WHAT: A great way to make you and your kids' time at home entertaining and educational
NOW WHAT: Join Brookfield Zoo on Facebook every weekday at 11:00am for a "Bring The Zoo To You" Facebook Live featuring one of their animals as well as plenty of educational, informative insight from one of our Animal Care Specialists. If you can't make it at 11, that's okay. The video will be saved afterward on Facebook as well as on their YouTube channel.
SO WHAT: Just jump in to the chat at their Facebook page to learn something new
Video Archives @ Chicago Humanities Festival YouTube channel, your favorite browser or YouTube's app, any time you want some inspiration, All Ages
WHAT: Interesting conversations with interesting people!
SO WHAT: Chicago Humanities Festival brings some of the best ideas to the surface with entertaining programming that captures your imagination. All of their events through May and ticket sales have been postponed, but you can dig through their archives of amazing talk with the likes of Tom Hanks talking with Peter Sagal, Lin Manuel Miranda in conversation with Chris Jones, Alicia Garza speaking with Jenna Wortham!
NOW WHAT: Take a look at their past events here!
2666--Binge Theater Online Free @ Goodman Theatre website, your favorite web browser, whenever you have 5.5 hours of free time to binge watch this great play
WHAT: In 2016, Goodman Theatre staged 2666, a 5.5-hour adaptation of the massive masterpiece novel by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño
SO WHAT: Goodman has made 2666 available for streaming free since 2018. The production comes in four linked parts (they can be watched individually) set in five distinct time periods and geographic locations, including the Nazi era and a Mexican city where the police department is a bit lax about solving hundreds of femicides. Read our review. We called it "a stupendous display of theatrical hubris."
NOW WHAT: View 2666 here. Each segment runs 68-80 minutes.
Concerts Live-streams and Local Shows Archives @ Your House, Any time you please, All Ages
WHAT: There's tons of concerts from Chicago's yesteryear available online for your enjoyment!
SO WHAT: Oh My Rockness has done a fantastic job of cataloging some of the upcoming live-streams from the awesome musical acts out there! Check out the listings and tune in to these great shows from the comfort of home! There are also so many great local concerts recorded for posterity and what better time to check them all out than during this self isolation period. Audiotree has a fantastic and huge list of sessions with links to band's websites and merch to help support them even more. We suggest checking out the Fran, Tasha, KAINA, Divino Nino, and The Ophelias sessions to start. Then head over to their record concerts from Lincoln Hall, Scubas, and beyond to check out Orville Peck, of Montreal, and so many more! JBTV is also a fantastic resource for sessions from bands that have come through Chicago! Just take a look at this playlist of Blind Melon's '95 set at Metro! Or check out Metro's twitter as they've been sharing shows this week including the Melvins, Rage Against the Machine, and more!
NOW WHAT: Stay home, watch some live music, and be sure to check out your favorite artist's social media, you never know who might be live streaming next!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8TioFHubWFtZHMNrEuzWPXVEU1aftxQf
Sesame Street @ Your Internet connected Device, Any time the Kids need their Sesame Street Fix, All Ages
WHAT: Sesame Street helps out with their Caring For Each Other initiative.
SO WHAT: If you need a little more entertainment for your children, fret not, Sesame Street is here to help with fun videos meant to help kids with this time. A playlist full of activities, resources on how to explain COVID-19 to a younger generation, and more are available!
NOW WHAT: Play some videos and discover some great ways to spend your day!
Cooking @ Home, Your Place, Pretty Much Any Time, All Ages I Suppose
WHAT: Confined to your home and going stir crazy? Just wait, this has only just started. Being a fan of all things food and kitchen-related, I’ve got plenty of chores to keep you occupied – from cooking, to cleaning out various cabinets, condiments and spices to reorganizing your pantry. While this is clearly disrupting our day-to-day lives, it is important that we stay optimistic and make good use of our time at home.
SO WHAT: Let’s start with our spices. What better time than now to dump those jars and bags of spices from 2008? Experts confirm that spices – both ground and whole – do have a shelf life. According to WiseGEEK, the famous spice aficionado, the shelf life of spices is longer than what some might expect. They don’t actually go bad in terms of spoiling or becoming rancid; they just lose their potency. The best way to tell if they are still effective is by using your nose. Smell them. Still fragrant? If so, they are fine.
I recently went through my cabinet and chucked some older ones. That led me to The Spice House on Wells to stock up on my favorites and special blends. Rule #1: Keep spices away from heat. They are best stored in cool, dry places. The issue with this is most people use spices when they are cooking and prefer that they are convenient to the stove and oven. Either way, taking inventory of what you have and discarding that jar of celery salt from 2010 is probably a good move.
NOW WHAT: Can’t go outside to replenish? Some of my favorite spice companies offer mail order like The Spice House and Savory Spice.
- Cynthia Kallile
Reading @ Home, Still at Your Place, When You're Tired of Watching TV, All Ages As Long as You Can Read
WHAT: As Lit Editor I always have a stack of books handy to read and review. Until then, here's a quick appraisal of several upcoming titles.
SO WHAT: Publishers and booksellers are struggling right now, so consider putting in orders and pre-orders on such books as...
- Iron Circus Comics' Banned Book Club (publishing in May), a graphic novel autobiography of the writers' days as a young protestor in 1983 South Korea. Brings to mind the title of Sinclair Lewis' book It Can't Happen Here. Mmmaybe it can?
- Midwest Futures, by Phil Christman, released by Belt Publishing in April. Christman speculates on the meaning of the term Midwest and where this immense yet indefinable part of the country is heading.
- Four White Horses and a Brass Band by Violet McNeal, among their sundry works on high weirdness and creepy strangeness, Feral House offers reprints of out of print books about the Old Weird America. Published in 1947, Four White Horses and a Brass Band is the memoir of a Minnesota woman who traveled the Midwest and beyond with various patent medicine "doctors", snake oil salesmen, and other con artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
- Never a City so Real, by Alex Kotlowitz. A reprinted collection of essays by the author of There Are No Children Here, detailing a Chicago of just a couple of decades ago that no longer exists.
- He Had It Coming. Long before Bob Fosse got his jazz hands on the story and produced the musical Chicago, Tribune reporter Maurine Watkins covered four women on trial for murder. Reporter Kori Rumore and Trib photo editor Marianne Mather dug through the paper's archives and turned up a treasure trove of vintage photos and contemporary accounts of the events. Not a body stocking or bowler hat in sight.
Video Games @ Your home PC or Console, As long as it takes, Just check the game rating
WHAT: Video-games for all!
SO WHAT: Check out our games page for some recommendations of what games to download (and avoid) while we're stuck at home. If you're a PC user, head over to the Epic Games store as a new batch of FREE games was just released: Figment and Tormentor & Punisher!
NOW WHAT: Wash your hands and dive head first into some fun games
Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Movies @ Home, On most devices with a screen, Any time,
WHAT: If you haven't been catching up on movies during this free time, we think you should!
SO WHAT: There are so many movie available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and beyond (like Criterion Channel which offers a two-week free trial, Sundance NOW with a 30 day free trial using code “SUNDANCENOW30”, and the horror focused Shudder offering 30 days free with promo code “SHUTIN”)! Now's the time to catch up especially with so many recently in theater film coming to VOD! Plus You can support local theaters like the Music Box by watching Bacurau on KinoNow, who will be giving 50% of proceeds to the Music Box! Check out our the review of Bacurau here!
NOW WHAT: Grab some popcorn and enjoy from the comfort of home (but once it's safe to go out again, support movie theaters!).