The Local Tourist Restaurant Week Begins

C-House, Mercat a la Planxa and LM are among the businesses participating in Local Tourist's Restaurant Week, which begins today; the week-long event boasts $25 lunch and $35 dinner menus, and 10% of each meal goes to pediatric cancer charity Endure To Cure.

Gregory Jacobsen's Prostrate @ Zg Gallery

Gregory Jacobsen's fifth solo show opens tonight at Zg Gallery. Titled Prostrate: New Paintings & Drawings, the show features new works from his botanical heaps series-- still life bouquets composed of such disparate elements as meat and muscle tissue, wigs, secreting organs, petit-fours, flora, fauna and various food stuffs, set in romantic landscapes, tenderly gathered into bundles and tied with ribbons. The show opens tonight at Zg Gallery (300 W. Superior.) The public reception will go from 5:30 to 7:30pm. For more information, visit Zg's website or call them at (312) 654-9900.

Hot & Heavy Burlesque: Pink Floyd's The Wall @ the Viaduct Theater

Hot & Heavy Burlesque presents a spectacular tribute to the iconic Pink Floyd album, The Wall. The classic album will be performed, in its entirety, by a bevy of burlesque beauties including Viva La Muerte, Red Hot Annie, and Donna Touch. 'The Wall' opens tonight, Friday January 8th at 10 pm and runs Saturday January 9th, Friday January 15th, and Saturday January 16th at the Viaduct Theater (3111 N. Western Avenue). Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Visit Vaudezilla's website for more details and to purchase tickets.

SketchFest

Today's SketchFest picks:

Today's a real good day for sketch comedy. Start off with the powerhouse of Stir-Friday Night! at 8 pm in the North Theater and stick around for Heavyweight, which is all anybody's talking about this year. If you get shut out of that one, hit the South Theater for The Cool Table, a Chicago-grown group that recently split when half of 'em moved to LA -- but they're back to blow things up. At 10 pm, see Pangea 3000 in the West Theater. Seriously. Close out the 11 pm slot with Bri-Ko, where no one says a word, but everyone laughs out loud.

SketchFest, the world's largest sketch comedy festival, covers two long weekends with 100 sketch groups and 125 shows. Tickets are $12.50 for each timeslot and a limited number of festival passes are available. Buy tickets and see the entire schedule here. SketchFest runs through Jan. 17 at the Theater Building, 1225 West Belmont. HOT TIP: Call the box office at 773-327-5252 for tickets and you'll a) be treated like a real person; b) get a solid recommendation on what shows will suit you best; and c) avoid a fistfull of Ticketmaster fees.

Vespine Gallery Farewell Party

Vespine Gallery, 1907 S. Halsted, will be closing at the end of January, and is having a farewell party tonight from 7pm to 10pm. The gallery's final exhibition, Retrospect, runs from Jan. 2 to Jan. 29.

Brent Puls @ The Hideout

Brent Puls will bust out some solo material tonight at The Hideout. If it's anywhere near as catchy and endearing as what he wrote with the band Grammar, you're in for a treat. Brent opens for Horse in the Sea. Ashley Brooke Toussant also plays. Show starts at 9pm. Tickets are $8. 1354 W. Wabansia. 21+

Elvis Fest

Today the King would have turned 75, and The Original Mother's (26 W. Division St.) is celebrating with Elvis Fest. Seminal DJ Dick Biondi from Oldies 94.7 will broadcast live from 7pm - midnight, and the evening will include Elvis tributes, Elvis karaoke, an Elvis costume contest (winner receives a trip to Graceland), a peanut butter and banana buffet, birthday cake, and more. Doors open at 6pm. The event is free, but a recommended donation of $5 will go toward the New Orleans Musicians Clinic. For more information call (312) 642-7251.

Mucca Pazza and Friends @ The Empty Bottle

Chicago's beloved gypsy-circus-punk-marching-band Mucca Pazza return to The Empty Bottle tonight to tear through their raucous set with a gaggle of trombones, trumpets, woodwinds, and cheerleaders. The thirty-some piece group is known for putting on memorable shows, occasionally with members perched atop bars and cheerleaders swinging from rafters. Fellow local stop-and-go post-punkers Paper Mice are expected to put on an equally impressive performance. Andrew Taylor opens. The show starts at 10pm and admissions is $12. The Empty Bottle is located at 1035 N. Western Ave. 21+.

Jason Lahr, Tim Vermeulen, & Gene Hamilton @ Packer Schopf Gallery

Today at Packer Schopf Gallery three shows of interesting-looking work by three artists open. On display are paintings and drawings of and about the crisis of manhood, pop culture, Moby Dick, the meaning of life, and ventriliquist dummies, among other things. Jason Lahr shows DEATHMETALHIPPIEKILLER, Tim Vermeulen shows Moby Dick, and Gene Hamilton shows Vent Figure Fun! (Ventriloquist Dummy Portraits). The opening is from 5-8 tonight at Packer Schopf: 942 W. Lake. Visit their website for more information.

iPhone Therefore I Art @ CAD

iPhone Therefore I Art is an exhibition of new art (of various forms) made with iPhones by 25 artists from around the world. The show, curated by Mike Nourse of the Chicago Art Department, is the culmination of an iPhone art class he led at CAD. Go to the opening at CAD tonight to see how yet another use for the ubiquitous iPhone has been discovered. CAD is located at 1837 S. Halsted, and the opening is from 6-10pm.