Events on Tuesday, December 30

The Sea and Cake w/ Baby Alright

Music

The Sea and Cake

Tuesday 12/30 @ Schubas

Built from the wreckage of the late, great Shrimp Boat, arty popsters the Sea and Cake are the frothy confection their... 

Wax Museums w/ Teenage Cool Kids and Big Knife

Music

Wax Museums

Tuesday 12/30 @ Cobra Lounge

As kids, the members of Denton, Texas-based the Wax Museums clearly binged on Ramones records. As such, the band's classic take... 

Ongoing Events

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

Art: Photography

Mickalene Thomas

Tuesday 12/30 @ Rhona Hoffman Gallery

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

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

Art: Photography

Michael Wolf

Tuesday 12/30 @ Museum of Contemporary Photography

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

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

Art

Displacement

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>America: All Better!</em>

Comedy

America: All Better!

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

Graceland Cemetery

City Gems

Graceland Cemetery

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

Coats for Cubs

Special Event: Benefit

Coats for Cubs

Tuesday 12/30 @ Buffalo Exchange locations

Feeling guilty about the fur-lined gloves, vintage mink stole, or old chinchilla coat hanging in your closet? Fret not, all will... 

Smart Home: Green + Wired

City Gems

Smart Home

Tuesday 12/30 @ Museum Campus

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

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

Art: Photography

Doug and Mike Starn

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>Frost/Nixon</em>

Film

Frost/Nixon

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

I&ntilde;igo Manglano-Ovalle

Art

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>If Artists Ran the Media</em>

Art

If Artists Ran the Media

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

The Harlem Globetrotters Spinning the Globe World Tour

Sports

The Harlem Globetrotters

Tuesday 12/30 @ Allstate Arena

If you're lovingly forced to spend the weekend lull between Christmas and New Year's with your family, escape the house for... 

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

City Gems

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback</em>

Film: Documentary

Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback

Tuesday 12/30 @ Gene Siskel Film Center

With their landmark album Black Monk Time, the Monks created a unique document of the pre-Woodstock '60s, made up of Beatlemaniac... 

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

Art

Joseph Grigely: St. Cecilia

Tuesday 12/30 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

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

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

City Gems

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

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

Art

Melissa Dean

Tuesday 12/30 @ Peter Miller Gallery

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

Devil in a Woodpile

Music

Devil in a Woodpile

Tuesday 12/30 @ The Hideout

It's no wonder that Devil in a Woodpile draw a crowd each Tuesday at the Hideout, where they've been playing country... 

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

Art: Photography

Made in Chicago

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

Omer Fast

Art

Omer Fast

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>Synecdoche, New York</em>

Film

Synecdoche, New York

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

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

Art

Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>Let the Right One In</em>

Film

Let the Right One In

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

City Gems

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>The Seafarer</em>

Theatre

The Seafarer

Tuesday 12/30 @ Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre

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

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

Art

Deceptive Design

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

<em>West Side Story</em> (1961)

Film

West Side Story

Tuesday 12/30 @ Music Box Theatre

If the winter doldrums have got you down, the Music Box's weeklong run of West Side Story is sure to get... 

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

Art: Photography

Scott Fortino

Tuesday 12/30 @ City Gallery

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

<em>Milk</em>

Film

Milk

Tuesday 12/30 @ Various locations

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

Ulf Puder

Art

Ulf Puder

Tuesday 12/30 @ Kavi Gupta Gallery

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

Jeff Parker's <em>The Cushicles</em>

Music

Jeff Parker

Tuesday 12/30 @ Rodan

If for some incomprehensible reason you're feeling down on the Chicago music scene, the fact that you can see Jeff Parker... 

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

Special Event

Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Childrens Books

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

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

Art

Discarded Paintings by Gifted Amateurs

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

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

Film

I've Loved You So Long

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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... 

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

Art

Jenny Holzer

Tuesday 12/30 @ 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>Rosemary's Baby</em> (1968)

Film

Rosemary's Baby

Tuesday 12/30 @ Facets Cinémathèque

Roman Polanski opens his dad-may-be-the-devil classic with a lugubrious lullaby and a pan across Manhattan's gloomy skyline. Within a few frames,...