Go & Show: Decoys and sporting collectibles show and a film festival are things to see

Last year for the first time, I had a chance to experience the storied room-to-room experience of the North American Vintage Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show, which opens Tuesday, April 23, and runs through April 27 at the Westin Chicago Lombard.

The show has some formal aspects to it. Guyette and Deeter, Inc.'s North American Decoys at Auction opens with a reception on Wednesday, April 24, then has the auctions the following two days. The main event, the North American Vintage Decoy & Sporting Collectibles Show, has its public days on next Friday and Saturday, April 26-27.

But the real wheeling and dealing, bartering, buying and selling, and story swapping is in the evenings from hotel room to hotel room, beginning Tuesday evening. It is quite the thing, even for someone who is not a collector.

In other news, the One Earth Film Festival, which opened Wednesday night, runs at varied sites through Tuesday, April 23. It is an eclectic mix of films that bills itself as “premiere environmental film festival.”