Events on Friday, January 2

Mannequin Men w/ The Living Blue and Team Band

Music

Mannequin Men

Friday 1/ 2 @ Schubas

Mannequin Men's swaggering stomp-alongs bring to mind midwestern brethren like Naked Raygun and MC5. The Chicago quartet's sophomore album, Fresh Rot,... 

Ongoing Events

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

Art: Photography

Doug and Mike Starn

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

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

Art: Photography

Michael Wolf

Friday 1/ 2 @ Museum of Contemporary Photography

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

Baby Wants Candy

Comedy

Baby Wants Candy

Friday 1/ 2 @ Apollo Theater

Whether you love or fear musicals, you can delight in Baby Wants Candy, a fully improvised comedy show with song, dance,... 

Ulf Puder

Art

Ulf Puder

Friday 1/ 2 @ Kavi Gupta Gallery

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

<em>The Seafarer</em>

Theatre

The Seafarer

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Children's Books</em>

Special Event

Artifacts of Childhood: 700 Years of Childrens Books

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

Smart Home: Green + Wired

City Gems

Smart Home

Friday 1/ 2 @ Museum Campus

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

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

Art

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Heavy Traffic</em> (1973)

Film: Animation

Heavy Traffic

Friday 1/ 2 @ Music Box Theatre

Perhaps the perfect midnight movie, animator Ralph Bakshi's X-rated Heavy Traffic plays like a cross between a gritty Bukowski novel and... 

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

Art

Joseph Grigely: St. Cecilia

Friday 1/ 2 @ Museum of Contemporary Art

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

Bing Faithful's Very Merry Nondenominational Holiday Special!

Comedy

Bing Faithful's Very Merry Nondenominational Holiday Special!

Friday 1/ 2 @ The Annoyance Theatre

As Mystery Science Theater 3000 proved, there's gold to be mined from failed art; cringeworthy entertainment can be so bad it's... 

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

Art

Displacement

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Dr Wax captures the big and small machines for the enjoyment of the people</em>

Art

Dr Wax

Friday 1/ 2 @ DOVA Temporary

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

Graceland Cemetery

City Gems

Graceland Cemetery

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

Free Admission to Park District Fitness Centers

Sports

Free Fitness Centers

Friday 1/ 2 @ Various locations

Get a kick start on your New Year's resolution to lose last year's weight gain with two free weeks at the... 

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

Art

Twisted Into Recognition: Clichés of Jews and Others

Friday 1/ 2 @ Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies

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

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

City Gems

Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

City Gems

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink

Friday 1/ 2 @ Millennium Park

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

<em>Dublin Carol</em>

Theatre

Dublin Carol

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>If Artists Ran the Media</em>

Art

If Artists Ran the Media

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>No End in Sight</em>

Art

No End in Sight

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Frost/Nixon</em>

Film

Frost/Nixon

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

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

Art: Photography

Scott Fortino

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Meet Me in St. Louis</em>

Theatre

Meet Me in St. Louis

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

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

Art

Melissa Dean

Friday 1/ 2 @ Peter Miller Gallery

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

Naked Raygun w/ Hot Water Music

Music

Naked Raygun

Friday 1/ 2 @ House of Blues

Big Black may be the most lauded Chicago act to have emerged from the '80s American underground, but Naked Raygun is... 

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

Art: Photography

Made in Chicago

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Amarcord</em> (1973)

Film

Amarcord

Friday 1/ 2 @ Music Box Theatre

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1975, Federico Fellini's Amarcord is his most sentimental and unabashedly... 

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

Art

Jenny Holzer

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Milk</em>

Film

Milk

Friday 1/ 2 @ Various locations

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

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

Art: Photography

Mickalene Thomas

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>America: All Better!</em>

Comedy

America: All Better!

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Chic Chicago: Couture Treasures from the Chicago History Museum</em>

Special Event

Chic Chicago

Friday 1/ 2 @ Chicago History Museum

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

Prairie Avenue House Museums

Get Social

Prairie Avenue House Museums

Friday 1/ 2 @ Glessner House Museum

Chicago's historic Prairie Avenue district — the site of the 1812 Fort Dearborn Massacre — became known after the Great Chicago... 

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

Art

Deceptive Design

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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... 

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

Art

Cecil Balmond: Solid Void

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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>Let the Right One In</em>

Film

Let the Right One In

Friday 1/ 2 @ 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...