NOVEMBER
22 SATURDAY
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“Big Time Sarah” Streeter will perform tonight in a benefit for Evanston-based BEHIV (Better Existence With HIV), which provides preventive education and finds shelter and health care for people with HIV/AIDS. Streeter, born in Coldwater, Mississippi, and raised on Chicago’s south side, jumped from gospel singer to club performer at age 14. She delivers a raunchy, old-fashioned electric blues that gets the audience going. Admission includes two drinks and a buffet dinner from Evanston restaurants Prairie Moon, Lulu’s, Merle’s Smokehouse, and Tommy Nevin’s Pub. The benefit runs from 4 to 7 at Bill’s Blues Bar, 1029 Davis in Evanston. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door; call 847-475-2115 or order tickets online at www.behiv.org.
You can get a powerful, wet smooch from an elephant at Three Ring Adventure, an interactive show that starts an hour before the main event at this year’s Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. The design of the formal show looks a lot more like Cirque du Soleil these days (this edition, the 133rd, is said to be inspired by the film Moulin Rouge), but there are still clowns, tigers, and ponies–not to mention aerialist “sky surfers” and a don’t-try-this-at-home flaming cannon shoot. Shows today are at 1 and 5; the second’s a bilingual performance in Spanish and English. Tickets range from $10.50 to $50 (312-559-1212), and the show runs through November 30 at the United Center, 1901 W. Madison in Chicago.
Since some plants need a third party to procreate, they use everything from traps and deception to killing to coerce bees and other insects into pollinating them. “In nature there are a lot more soap-opera-ish things going on than you’ll ever find on TV,” says Lynn Hepler, director of education at the Lake County Forest Preserve. “Although I don’t think there are as many cases of amnesia.” She’ll give a free talk called The Sex Life of Plants tonight at a meeting of the Evanston North Shore Bird Club. It’s at 7:30 at the Ecology Center, 2024 McCormick in Evanston, 847-864-5181.
