Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

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Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

" />

Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

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Rebecca Little
Mug for the Camera
By Rebecca Little

Arrested Developments
Chicago’s past and its seedy underbelly are more in tune than a mobster and his trigger finger—which goes a long way toward explaining our obsession with all things criminal. Get a dose of the dark side when the new exhibition Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots opens with a free reception, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday the 18th at Intuit (756 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 312-243-9088). Original mugshots from the 1870s through the 1960s make up the show, which represents only a fraction of New York–based graphic designer Mark Michaelson’s 10,000-strong collection. Get more of the history behind his striking...

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French Finery on Michigan Avenue
By Rebecca Little
Très Chic
Is your kitchen lacking a certain je ne sais quoi? Newly opened Genevieve Lethu (900 N. Michigan Ave.; 312-423-9948) can help. The luxury housewares store is the first U.S. outpost for the French tabletop-and-textile company. Located in the 900 Shops mall, the store is full of bright, fun tabletop items such as tablecloths, napkins, and plates and flatware sold by the piece or by the set. The company releases four to six tabletop collections a year that coordinate with previous collections, “treating housewares like fashion,” says Michaelene Nichols, the company’s manager for U.S. operations. For instance, the dinner-plate pattern called L’Amour ($25 a plate) matches a set of dessert plates ($66 for six) whose...

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Trock and Roll
By Rebecca Little

The Pocket Guide to Sex

David Sedaris’s January shows at Steppenwolf sold out long ago, but seats are still available for the theatre’s funny, poignant Traffic Series, focusing on what it means to be an American. Next up: radio personality Sharon McGhee’s The PocketBook Monologues, an African American response to The Vagina Monologues, about sex and intimacy among women of color. (The show’s title refers not to a purse but to a polite euphemism for a certain part of the female anatomy.) Showtime is 7 p.m. Monday the 14th in Steppenwolf’s Downstairs Theatre (1650 N. Halsted St.; 312-335-1650). Tickets are $35.

Best Bets for Things to Do This Week...

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Wicker Park Bubbles Up
By Rebecca Little
Clean and Cozy

It’s rare for a bath and body store to so effectively blend the masculine and feminine, but the newly opened Wicker Park boutique Pour Vous (1750 W. Division St.; 773-698-6024), with its brown and blue décor, flat-screen television, and river rock fireplace, somehow manages it. Owner Tonja Legittino left a corporate job as an insurance broker to open her relaxation haven, stocked with soaps, lotions, bath bombs, robes, and pajamas. Soaps from Splash come in enormous slabs that she cuts down to individual bars. The brand’s light soufflé body lotion ($16.95), shower gels ($9.25), bath bombs ($2.95 to $6.95), bubble bath in grown-up scents such as lavender or “island fever,” and massage bars ($8.95) are reasonably priced because of the no-frills packaging. Or try the Oliba organic soaps ($6.25) and lotions ($6.95) in lovely scents such as papaya mango and ginger pear, or the powder soaks from Biggs and Featherbelle; Legittino discovered both lines at the Renegade Craft Fair last summer. Try the sugar and salt exfoliation scrubs in...

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The Circus, Canadians Come to Town
By Rebecca Little

Outlook: Sketchy
The presents have been exchanged; the Champagne has been drained; all that remains on your holiday to-do list is embarking on those lofty New Year’s resolutions—to which we say, let the procrastination commence! One handy time filler: the seventh annual Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival. Featuring 125 sketch-comedy acts from across North America, Sketchfest gives you plenty of excuses to put off until tomorrow what you could do today. Highlights include a musical bit, Sex, Cubs & Rock ’n’ Roll, from local pH productions, Friday the 4th at 8 p.m., and the no-holds-barred festival closers, Suspicious Clowns, Sunday the 13th at 7 p.m. Performances take place at Theatre Building Chicago (1225 W. Belmont Ave.; 773-327-5252); ticket prices vary, though most shows run about $12. Visit chicagosketchfest.com for...

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Sales Check
By Rebecca Little
A roundup of sales, store openings, and shopping news in January 2008 Read more
Bucktown Gets Fancy
By Rebecca Little

Tickle Your Fancy
Need a last minute New Year’s Eve dress? You’re in luck. Recently opened Veruca Salt Fancy (1921 N. Damen Ave.; 773-276-9888), the sister store to the more casual Veruca Salt Fun (1937 N. Damen Ave.) down the street, carries cocktail dresses, trousers, and shoes that skew, well, fancy. Find a stunning Susana Monaco black leather cocktail dress ($449) and pair it with leather opera gloves ($145), or a silver pleated mini-dress ($350), or a sparkly gray holiday dress from Collective Clothing ($69.99). Dressy favorites from Rachel Pally and Sunner mix it up with more work-appropriate attire such as the classic trouser from Raven Tailored ($212), a big, buttoned white coat from A.B.S. ($349), and gorgeous cashmere from Emma & Posh ($130 for a striped sweater.) Also find jeans with a sequin clasp from Rich & Skinny ($220), and shoes from oh . . . DEER! and Sam Edelman, such as...

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Carol-oke Time!
By Rebecca Little

Marquee is packing its bags and taking a vacation, which means no newsletter the week of Friday, December 28th (we’ve included a few events below that take place through January 3rd). Marquee returns, Champagne hangover be damned, January 4th; in the meantime, visit Last Girl Standing for more last-minute New Year’s Eve ideas.

A Little Cheese is Good for You
At least once during the holidays, it’s permissible to abandon all cynicism and surrender to unabashed seasonal cheer. Do it up big-time with the 24th annual Christmas Sing-Along and Double Feature at the Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave.; 312-902-1500), a tradition as integral to Christmas in Chicago as Marshall Field’s windows once were. Back-to-back screenings of It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas sandwich organ-accompanied sing-along carols, with four showings a day between Friday the 21st and Sunday the 23rd, plus two showings on Christmas Eve. Tickets are...

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