Friday 22
The Hollywood Casino continues to turn sleepy Aurora on its head with a day of country and western folderol in honor of Willie Nelson’s two sold-out appearances at the Paramount Arts Centre tonight and tomorrow. The Wild, Wild Westfest, which runs from 10 to 10 today out in front of the Paramount, 23 E. Galena, offers movies (The Electric Horseman at 10:30 AM, High Noon at 12:30, and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral at 3:30), square dance lessons and a stunt demonstration (at 2), performances by various lesser-known C and W bands, and a Tex-Mex barbecue. Everything is free. Call 800-888-7777 for details.
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You can see the horrific expressionist story of Dr. Caligari and his maniacal designs on the hypnotized Cesare when the 1919 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari plays at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel tonight at 7 and 9:30. Wolfgang Rubsam, internationally known recording artist and concert performer, professor of church music and organ at Northwestern, and the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel’s organist since 1981, will improvise accompaniment on the chapel’s E.M. Skinner organ. A share of the $7 ticket ($5 for students) goes toward restoring the organ. The chapel is at 5850 S. Woodlawn. Call 702-2100 for information.
The Mid-South Hunger Walk is designed to be “more than just another walk along the lake for a good cause,” say organizers. The event, for which participants collect pledges for south-side hunger organizations, begins at the First Presbyterian Church, 6400 S. Kimbark, and goes through Woodlawn, Hyde Park, Washington Park, and more before it reaches the Saint James United Methodist Church, 4611 S. Ellis, where there’ll be supper and gospel music for participants. Walkers start moving at 1:30; for more info, call 363-6063.
Morning Edition host Bob Edwards has a book out called Fridays With Red: A Radio Friendship, and Kroch’s and Brentano’s Wabash store has a new coffee bar on its mezzanine. The two come together tonight when Edwards makes an appearance at 5:30 to talk about his book and his relationship with the late sportscaster Red Barber. Tomorrow, same time and place, political scribe Richard Reeves peddles his new book, President Kennedy. Both events are free; the store is at 29 S. Wabash. Call 332-7500.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, those 2,000-year-old bundles of manuscripts on papyrus, leather, and copper that include much of the Old Testament and many other documents about life at the time of Christ, have for years been in the hands of a small cabal of scholars, but this lock was recently broken by an enterprising professor and a computer program. The story of the scrolls’ liberation is the subject of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discovery and Controversy, a lecture by Joseph Fitzmyer at Loyola tonight. Fitzmyer is a biblical languages lecturer at the Catholic University of America in D.C.; his talk is Loyola’s 18th annual Edward Surtz Lecture. It starts at 7:30 in the Crown Center for the Humanities, 6525 N. Sheridan, and it’s free. Call 508-2239.
