Events on Thursday, December 25

Chicago Cycling Club: The Bagel Ride

City Gems

Chicago Cycling Club: The Bagel Ride

Thursday 12/25 @ Clock Tower

Go on, saddle up the pony. Your bike misses you, it's not that cold out, and you've been loafing on your... 

Something Else! Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

Something Else! Festival

Thursday 12/25 @ Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies

On the one day of the year that it seems the entire city shuts down, the Spertus Institute's Something Else! festival... 

Ongoing Events

Joseph Grigely: <em>St. Cecilia</em>

Art

Joseph Grigely: St. Cecilia

Thursday 12/25 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

Joseph Grigely's artwork has a definite visual appeal, but sound — or the absence of it — drives his practice as... 

Michael Wolf: <em>The Transparent City</em>

Art: Photography

Michael Wolf

Thursday 12/25 @ Museum of Contemporary Photography

Photographer Michael Wolf transitioned from keen observations of Hong Kong in his Architecture of Density series to a... 

Melissa Dean: <em>Second Nature</em>

Art

Melissa Dean

Thursday 12/25 @ Peter Miller Gallery

Like the "viral components of consumer desire" she hopes to underscore, the familiar forms of domestic objects are omnipresent but elusive... 

<em>Meet Me in St. Louis</em>

Theatre

Meet Me in St. Louis

Thursday 12/25 @ Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place

If you like your holiday entertainment gentle, heartwarming, and family-friendly, this is the show for you. Based on Sally Benson's short... 

<em>Made in Chicago: Photographs from the Bank of America LaSalle Collection</em>

Art: Photography

Made in Chicago

Thursday 12/25 @ Chicago Cultural Center

For years, the photographic collection of Chicago's LaSalle Bank has been one of the small number of corporate art collections to... 

Robert Lostutter: <em>Early Girls</em>

Art

Robert Lostutter

Thursday 12/25 @ Corbett vs Dempsey

Rising alongside the Chicago Imagists in the late 1960s, Robert Lostutter is known for his richly rendered, subtly unnerving watercolor portraits... 

<em>I've Loved You So Long</em>

Film

I've Loved You So Long

Thursday 12/25 @ Landmark Century Centre Cinema

English actress Kristin Scott Thomas possesses a bristly elegance that has always restricted her options in English-language films. So it makes... 

<em>Twisted Into Recognition: Clich&eacute;</em><em>s of Jews and Others</em>

Art

Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others

Thursday 12/25 @ Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies

Hoping to eliminate stereotypes about Jewish people — they all subsist on gefilte fish and bagels with lox, for example —... 

<em>Frost/Nixon</em>

Film

Frost/Nixon

Thursday 12/25 @ AMC River East 21

Showing a human, fragile and, to some extent, remorseful side of the former president for the first time, David Frost's 1977... 

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

City Gems

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

Thursday 12/25 @ Millennium Park

A trip to the McCormick Tribune Ice Skating Rink at Millennium Park is quickly becoming a quintessential Chicago winter experience. Presenting... 

<em>Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum</em>

Special Event

Chic Chicago

Thursday 12/25 @ Chicago History Museum

In this glittering costume exhibition, the Chicago History Museum presents a rarely seen collection of haute couture fashions designed for the... 

<em>Dr Wax captures the big and small machines for the enjoyment of the people</em>

Art

Dr Wax

Thursday 12/25 @ DOVA Temporary

A unique collaboration between the Hyde Park gallery DOVA Temporary and Dr Wax, a used record store (and the hip-hop, jazz,... 

<em>Deceptive Design: Experiments in Furniture</em>

Art

Deceptive Design

Thursday 12/25 @ Chicago Cultural Center

Can a chair be more than just a place to sit and rest your feet? In a modern-art exhibit, the answer... 

<em>No End in Sight</em>

Art

No End in Sight

Thursday 12/25 @ Sullivan Galleries, SAIC

Chicago is quietly producing some of the nation's most innovative and thoughtful young curators, and it's evidenced by No End in... 

Smart Home: Green + Wired

City Gems

Smart Home

Thursday 12/25 @ Museum Campus

Just admit it, you've ogled the sleek modern houses you pass on certain streets and wished you could peek inside. The... 

Scott Fortino: <em>Elements: Earth, Sky, Water</em>

Art: Photography

Scott Fortino

Thursday 12/25 @ City Gallery

Scott Fortino, a Chicago cop who used his insider's access to photograph jails, jury rooms, and public schools for his book... 

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

City Gems

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

Thursday 12/25 @ Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

If nothing else, taking up birdwatching gives you a convenient excuse to bring terms like "Magnificent Frigatebird" and "Purple Gallinule" into... 

Ulf Puder

Art

Ulf Puder

Thursday 12/25 @ Kavi Gupta Gallery

Ulf Puder is often lumped with the "New Leipzig School," a loose affiliation of artists celebrated by the art world —... 

<em>Dublin Carol</em>

Theatre

Dublin Carol

Thursday 12/25 @ Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Sure, many people find the holidays depressing, but at least you're not a functionally alcoholic Dublin undertaker whose estranged daughter shows... 

<em>Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children's Books</em>

Special Event

Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Childrens Books

Thursday 12/25 @ The Newberry Library

The Newberry Library's celebrated collection boasts copies of Shakespeare's first folio and the Popol Vuh, but a new exhibition showcases a... 

Omer Fast

Art

Omer Fast

Thursday 12/25 @ Betty Rymer Gallery

Omer Fast rightly grabbed the grand prize at the 2008 Whitney Biennial for The Casting, a challenging four-screen video piece that... 

<em>A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant</em>

Theatre

A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant

Thursday 12/25 @ A Red Orchid Theatre

A bunch of children singing carols about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard sounds like the recipe for an episode of South... 

Jenny Holzer: <em>PROTECT PROTECT</em>

Art

Jenny Holzer

Thursday 12/25 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

Her art may blend in with Las Vegas-strip-style lighted advertisements, but Jenny Holzer's brightly colored Truisms and arresting catchphrases are unlike... 

<em>Let the Right One In</em>

Film

Let the Right One In

Thursday 12/25 @ AMC Loews Pipers Alley 4

A pitch-perfect suspense film from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In is that rare bird: a chiller with... 

Mickalene Thomas: <em>Girlfriends, Lovers, Still Lifes and Landscape</em>

Art: Photography

Mickalene Thomas

Thursday 12/25 @ Rhona Hoffman Gallery

Beautiful young black women level their gaze at the viewer from within Mickalene Thomas' large paintings. Covered with glittering rhinestones, Thomas'... 

<em>Displacement: The Three Gorges Dam and Contemporary Chinese Art</em>

Art

Displacement

Thursday 12/25 @ Smart Museum of Art

China's Three Gorges Dam has become a dark muse for many artists. One of the largest engineering efforts in history, it... 

<em>The Seafarer</em>

Theatre

The Seafarer

Thursday 12/25 @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

If the classic Christmas stories are starting to seem like cloying guests that have overstayed their welcome, The Seafarer at the... 

Graceland Cemetery

City Gems

Graceland Cemetery

Thursday 12/25 @ Graceland Cemetery

Hidden away on Chicago's north side, this secret memento of the city's architectural history is a large, rambling Victorian-style cemetery. Filled... 

Cecil Balmond: <em>Solid Void</em>

Art

Cecil Balmond: Solid Void

Thursday 12/25 @ Graham Foundation

Labyrinthine hedges of gleaming, die-cast metal fill the ground floor of the Graham Foundation's Prairie-style mansion, like viral arabesques from a... 

<em>Synecdoche, New York</em>

Film

Synecdoche, New York

Thursday 12/25 @ Landmark Renaissance Place Cinema

Not everyone adores the sprawling stories-within-stories that identify Charlie Kaufman's screenplays (e.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John... 

Doug and Mike Starn: <em>alleverythingthatisyou</em>

Art: Photography

Doug and Mike Starn

Thursday 12/25 @ David Weinberg Gallery

Conventional wisdom has it that art and science don't get along. For years, artists/twins Mike and Doug Starn have been gracefully... 

<em>Milk</em>

Film

Milk

Thursday 12/25 @ Various locations

Gus van Sant's highly anticipated biopic of Harvey Milk — the nation's first openly gay man to hold a major elected... 

I&ntilde;igo Manglano-Ovalle

Art

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

Thursday 12/25 @ Donald Young Gallery

In Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle's current exhibition, dusty cultural icons like the atomic bomb and Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome are reborn as sleek... 

<em>America: All Better!</em>

Comedy

America: All Better!

Thursday 12/25 @ The Second City

The 2008 election may have delivered a ray of hope, but storm clouds still hang above us. That's the uneasy premise... 

<em>If Artists Ran the Media</em>

Art

If Artists Ran the Media

Thursday 12/25 @ C33 Gallery at Columbia College Chicago

If artists ran the media, would Fox News actually be fair and balanced? And where would the voices of Sean Hannity and... 

<em>Sunday Painters: Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs</em>

Art

Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs

Thursday 12/25 @ Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art

Whereas most found-art exhibitions make aesthetic objects out of forgotten knick-knacks, the focus of this exhibition is, more literally, fine art... 

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

City Gems

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

Thursday 12/25 @ Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

Escape the roaring cars on Lake Shore Drive and the crowds at Lincoln Park Zoo by slipping through the unobtrusive entrance... 

<em> Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Art and Photography of Paris</em>

Art

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Thursday 12/25 @ The Art Institute of Chicago

A canonized master of photography, Henri Cartier-Bresson's legacy includes a staggering number of great images, as well as his influential idea... 

<em>The Wild Child</em> (1970)

Film

The Wild Child

Thursday 12/25 @ Gene Siskel Film Center

François Truffaut's exquisite L'Enfant Sauvage is based on the true(ish) story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron, an 18th-century feral child...