2009 American Music Awards 7-10pm, ABC. It’s music’s version of the People’s Choice Awards, including performances from Black Eyed Peas, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, Adam Lambert, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and more.

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AROUND TOWN/SHOPPING & STYLE - Modern Vintage Holiday Market
Knock out holiday shopping and pick up a little something special for yourself at this indie crafts market. Merch ranges from typical jewelry, clothing and houseware to embroidered hankies, crystal goblets and handmade ornaments. Admission includes a $10 voucher for those who spend more than $50. A portion of the proceeds go to Support Our Troops. Beaux Arts Plumbers Union Hall Building, 1340 W Washington Blvd (312-666-1200, randolphstreetmarket.com). 10am–7pm; $10, advance $8, students with ID $5, kids under 12 free.

ART & DESIGN - “Party Crashers.”
Concertina’s talented curators complement Chicago-based Miller and Shellabarger, and Carrie Schneider, with artists from Milwaukee and Canada. Concertina Gallery, 2351 N Milwaukee Ave, second floor. Noon–5pm. FREE!

GAY & LESBIAN - Brunch Gone Wild
It’s all you can stuff booze and buffet at this Sabbath foodie event. Minibar, 3341 N Halsted St (773-871-6227). El: Red, Brown, Purple (rush hrs) to Belmont. Bus: 8, 77, 152. 11am, $20.

COMEDY - Your Sunday Best
Vaunt your comic mojo at this outstanding open mike. Schubas, 3159 N Southport Ave (773-525-2508). El: Red, Brown, Purple (rush hrs) to Belmont. Bus: 9, 77. 9:15pm. FREE!

FILM - Tetro
Francis Ford Coppola’s recent return to filmmaking hasn’t exactly been treated as the reawakening of a master, but his 20009 film Tetro deserves to be seen, something that didn’t seem to happen in its super-brief commercial run earlier this year. Doc Films, University of Chicago, 1212 E 59th St (773-702-8574). Bus: 4, X4, 6, 14, 28, 59, 171. Metra: Elec Main to 59th St. Fri 20 at 7pm, Sun 22 at 1pm. $5.

Gender-interrogating electro star turned rocker Peaches brought her bad ass, semi-theatrical live show to the Metro Friday night.

Photos: Stephanie Anderson

Austin City Limits 7-8pm, PBS. Pearl Jam performs songs for the latest album, in addition to some classics.

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THEATER - The Mystery of Irma Vep
Charles Ludlam’s cult-classic play, a hodgepodge sendup of gothic-horror tropes in which two actors play eight (or more?) characters, requires split-second quick changes. See if director Sean Graney and his cast, Erik Hellman and Chris Sullivan, pull it off at tonight’s opening performance. Court Theatre, 3, 8pm, $38–$56.

AROUND TOWN - Magnificent Mile Lights Festival
Watching 1 million lights flicker on from Oak Street to Wacker Drive at 5:30pm is only part of this fest. The celebration starts early with a concert at 11am by Justin Roberts, Mitchel Musso and the Plain White Ts. Other events from 5–10pm include a lights procession with streetside entertainment, an attempt to break the world record for the largest group of holiday carolers, appearances by Mickey Mouse, and a fireworks display  over the Chicago River. Area stores keep extended hours to coax revelers to get a head start on their holiday shopping. Pioneer Court, 401 N Michigan Ave (312-409-5560, magnificentmilelightsfestival.com). 11am–10pm.

COMEDY - Audacity of Nope or How I Fell for a Pansy Scheme
Sketch troupe Gayco takes satirical swipes at same-sex marriage, religious-based bigotry and FOX News in this queer-themed show.

ART & DESIGN - “James Welling: Hapax Legomena.”
The L.A. photographer, who was featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, shows 30 works from various stages of his career. Donald Young Gallery, 224 S Michigan Ave, suite 266. 5–7pm. FREE!

NIGHTLIFE - Dimes & Dozens
Local, hipster culture website Rubyhornet.com teams with L.A. institution Dubfrequency for this monthly, indie hip-hop-centric night at Lava. For this edition Cool Kids top the bill with DJ VIPJ on the decks and MC Mikey Rocks playing host. DJs RTC and HeroGeorge are also on hand. Lava. 10pm, $5.

Those of us that signed into one of our retirement accounts this past year only to find it utterly gutted are probably not looking into the four digit price tag range for gifts to give our loved ones this holiday season—we’re just trying to keep our heads above water. But realism is only so much fun. What are some of the more decadent, indulgent—or to put it another way generous—gift ideas that have crossed my inbox in recent months. Here are a few that came to mind today.

Hommage is a men’s-only skincare line that’s already in the celeb-frequented spas and hotels of the world. The brand just introduced its emollient Relieve, a water-resistant, melt-proof, lightly scented (amber, sandalwood and tobacco flower) oil-gel for the time-challenged man who needs a spa quality shave ($40). If you want to impress a dude, nab the travel shave kit for $100 or pony up for the manly $400 Chicago shave set at Barney’s or the Trump Spa here in Chicago.

Bottle service may have gone out of style in 2009, but there’s nothing to prevent you from bringing a flashy bottle home. Belvedere introduced its new line of Polish vodka this year, Belvedere Silver, which comes in a ridiculously handsome silver bottle. This is the kind of Warholian decadence you want to prop up the pop art portion of your art book shelf.

True decadence is enjoyed on the side of a snow-covered mountain. Burton’s high-tech gear, in particular, will keep the techy and snowboarding obsessed awake at night.

The Method ($1499.95) is like the concept car of the Burton showboard line, with a half-dozen new technologies applied to make it an unbelievably light, slick, fast and strong board. You’d look silly riding this rocket without a proper Burton jacket— the military-inspired 2L Gore-Tex Maestro Jacket ($749.95) is built to last more than a season or two. It has a friggin’ lifetime warranty.

There’s nothing quite as indulgent as luxury travel—and Abercrombie & Kent can design an itinerary that’ll give your special someone something to talk about at cocktail parties for the rest of their life and then some. A&K put together a wine lover’s Signature South Africa trip that ranges from Cape Town to the Cap Winelands and includes four nights on safari—twelve days in all for $5850. If that sounds too mellow, they’re doing an Extreme Adventure trip in South Africa and Botswana that includes racecar track driving, jet fighter piloting, shark cage diving and live game viewing for $11,950 for twelve days. That’s extreme decadence right there.

Holiday get-togethers are in full swing but after indulging in more than a few drinks, the last thing you want to do is squeeze yourself onto a crowded CTA bus or drop your last $20 on cab fare home. Miller Lite Free Rides picks up where being chauffeured by your mother left off: Starting tomorrow night from 8pm to midnight, and continuing every Saturday through December 26 (plus New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day), the behemoth beer brand will offer free doubledecker bus service with stops in booze meccas such as the Loop, River North, Old Town, Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville. Miller says the free rides are intended to remind Chicago consumers to celebrate the season responsibly and to prevent drunk driving: We can raise a glass to that but there’s also much to be said for sequestering all the drunks on one big party vehicle. Let the sober folks have their lurching cabs and overstuffed buses. For route and schedule information, call 800-FREE RIDES (1-800-373-3743); text the word “RIDE” to 44636; or visit MillerLiteFreeRides.com.

There are approximately 158 Art & Design exhibitions and events happening this weekend, including opening receptions for “Jim Lutes: Half-Ass Rapture” at Valerie Carberry Gallery and “Party Crashers” at Concertina Gallery. Check out our listings if you don’t want to miss anything, and preview this weekend’s receptions in the image gallery above.

Here are selected events that didn’t make it into print. Unless otherwise noted, they’re free.

Tonight (Friday 20) in the Loop, SAIC’s Holiday Art Sale of student work continues until 7pm at the SAIC’s MacLean Center Ballroom, 112 S Michigan Ave. The sale’s also open Saturday 21, 10am–5pm.

In River West, Woman Made Gallery opens three shows tonight (Friday 20), 6–9pm: “Cross Pollination,” which highlights encaustic works; “Family Album,” curated by the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Karen Irvine, and Laurel Delaney’s solo show “Myth–Illogical.”

Joseph Piccillo unveils graphite and charcoal drawings at River North’s Perimeter Gallery tonight (Friday 20), 5–8pm.

The Center on Halsted in Boystown hosts a reception for “Pate Conaway” tonight (Friday 20), 6:30–9:30pm ($5 suggested donation).

In Bridgeport, Co-Prosperity Sphere presents “Super Bad Ass” in conjunction with the Select Media Festival. (Friday 20, 7pm–1am. Free before 9pm, $8 afterward.)

Saturday 21 in Pilsen, illustrator Craig Hansen and designer Chris May of Program Studio celebrate the launch of their book Reflection Passed at Golden Age from 7–11pm.

In Logan Square, HungryMan Gallery debuts the photo show “Creator/Curator” Saturday 21, 6–11pm.

In Wicker Park, the new alternative gallery Parking Space hosts a reception for its second show, “The Twenty-First,” and barbara&barbara gallery commemorates its first anniversary with “Self Portraits.” Both events are Saturday 21, 7–11pm.

As someone who (heresy alert!) has always had reservations about Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad, I was blindsided by Alain Resnais’s extremely hard-to-see Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime (1968), which screens at the Siskel this weekend. The movie reworks the same themes of lost love and fragmented memory as the other two films, but in a more prosaic style that only increases its power. A failed suicide (Claude Rich) is recruited to test a time-travel device; he’s set to go back one year, but he becomes, as Kurt Vonnegut would dub it in 1969, unstuck. Unlike Resnais’s flashier earlier films, it simply cuts from one scene to the next, utilizing the film medium’s inherent capacity for time travel to make its point. The chronology is shuffled; the movie sometimes jumps back half a beat or repeats footage, but every moment gets equal weight. (Not to cite another film school text, but I was reminded of Stan Brakhage’s “Window Water Baby Moving.”)

It’s been suggested that Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime provided a blueprint for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a connection almost impossible not to draw while watching it. In its structural freefall, it also holds the DNA for Shane Carruth’s Primer (a.k.a. the should-have-been cult film of the last decade), and the biomorphic time machine resembles the game pods of David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ. Indeed, this may be one of the most influential films you’ve never seen. Simultaneously a love story and a mystery, Je T’Aime, Je T’Aime is nearly impossible to parse on one viewing. You’ll have two chances: Tomorrow at 3pm and Monday at 6pm.

TOC’s own Jake Malooley spoke live last night with a presenter on BBC 5 about Oprah’s imminent departure from broadcast television. Best moment: When they asked Jake if Oprah might go into politics and become a U.S. ambassador, he said no, because she’d have to take too big of a pay cut. Listen to the segment above.