Go out with a bang this weekend as fireworks, parades and festivals offer plenty of ways to celebrate across the city and suburbs.

Geoffrey Baer answers viewer questions about Chicago's North suburban neighbors in this week's edition of Ask Geoffrey.

The great Mel Brooks turns 90 on Tuesday. A WTTW11 crew met him in February 2001 when this genuine genius of entertainment was just a babe at 74 years old.

It's been more than 20 years since O.J. Simpson was arrested and charged with murder, but there is renewed fascination with his trial–a fact that holds no mystery for Marcia Clark, the former L.A. prosecutor tasked with laying out the case against Simpson in 1995.

Lila Downs is an innovative singer with roots in both Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico. She studied voice and anthropology in college and marries the two interests in her culturally inspired musical pursuits. 

The multi-episode saga to build the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Chicago’s lakefront is apparently over. In a statement sent just before noon on Friday, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas himself announced that the ongoing litigation from Friends of the Parks effectively killed off the project.

Longtime U.S. Congressman Dan Rostenkowski famously called Chicago politics “blood sport.” We raise a glass to one of Chicago's own (who also happened to have one of the all-time great heads of political hair) with a Polish twist on a classic cocktail.

Starting Saturday, thrill-seekers and nature lovers will get the chance to swing, soar and climb through a new zip line and obstacle course nestled in the treetops of a Cook County forest preserve.

Students are the focus of a new mural at a CPS school that has a nationally recognized art collection. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the contemporary work.

A father and daughter travel to the far reaches of Alaskan wild and live to write about it in a new book.

Pride Month culiminates on Sunday with the 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade. Free movie screenings and concerts, a food truck fest and a celebration of encased meats are also on tap.

The conflict between the U.S. and Vietnam in the 1970s serves as inspiration for a Vietnamese artist collective that now has a show at the MCA.

In 1976, a 37-year-old suburban French teacher led an eight-month trek retracing the 17th century expedition of French explorer Robert de La Salle. Hear about the trip from two who experienced it, including the teacher who led the exhibition, and the author of a new book about the trip.

Remember the very musical von Trapp family from “The Sound of Music”? Last summer, my daughter and I met a group you might call the Chicago von Trapps. Together with their father they call themselves Cielito Lindo, which means “beautiful heaven.”

From their rise in the early 1960s at the forefront of the British invasion to the worldwide mega-tours of more recent decades, the Rolling Stones have never left the public eye. A new book takes a panoramic look at the band. 

In 1880, a 26-year-old German leather manufacturer left his hometown for America. Now, his great-great-granddaughter is recreating his cross-country journey in a 1880s Victorian dress.