Thursday, August 8
EXPENSIVE MUSIC: When you get to see two of the top artists of the moment live at the same time, you
don’t complain about having to drive or MARC up to Baltimore (okay, you can always
complain about driving up to Baltimore). But it’ll probably be worth it to see the
Legends of Summer tour, featuring Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake, they of semi-disappointing
but still pretty good recent albums. Tickets ($57 to $281) are available online. 8
PM.
FREE MUSIC: Every weekend this month,
Dance Place is throwing free performances. Tonight, jazz trumpeter Freddie Dunn will be at the
Brookland Metro Station during rush hour. Head there and then check out a neighborhood
you probably rarely go to. If you’re semi-fancy, grab a pizza at Menomale afterward;
if you’re not, check out Pizza Kingdom, which has the funniest restaurant Facebook
page in recent memory. 5:30 PM.
COMEDY: Standup comedy is fun, but if you get bad performers, you’re kind of stuck there
being polite for a while.
Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse has a solution: a quick hour of cheap comedy, several performers, and just an hourlong
showtime. It’s the perfect warmup for a movie or a night out across the bridge. $5.
8 PM.
FILM: The Dunes is showcasing two DC-set films from DC filmmakers:
Under the Bourbon Moon and
Saving Mr. Yamamoto. Afterward, neo-soul singer Desiree Jordan will perform. As with most things at the
Dunes, there’ll probably be dancing afterwards. Tickets ($10) are available online.
7 PM.
Friday, August 9
COMEDY: Did you know that
Dustin Diamond (a.k.a. Screech from
Saved by the Bell) is not only still alive but is now performing standup? (It beats his sex tape from
a few years ago—don’t Google that.) Judging from his promo photo, he also does Tony
Wonder-esque magic. I don’t know if he’s funny or not, but his page classifies his
genre as “rated R (mild),” whatever that means. Anyway, he’ll be at Alexandria’s Old
Town Theater for four shows this weekend. Tickets ($18 to $49) are available online
(also Saturday). 8 PM.
STORYTELLING: What happens when you combine a live karaoke band, pop songs, and sung, real-life
stories about breaking the law or otherwise doing bad? Who knows. But
Story League is going to try it anyway at Black Cat—a kind of Bad Girls Club for people with actual
talent. Tickets ($15) are available online. 9 PM.
DANCE: Bad music has hit the point where it’s ironic/fun to like it, so while there’s a market
for
Cause’s Guilty Pleasures dance night, people don’t actually feel bad about liking crappy
music. So proudly head there if you wanna dance to boy-band music, ’90s alternative,
and other songs you used to sing in the shower but now make YouTube covers of. Free.
9 PM.
INTERVIEWS: There’s a reason people like reading interviews: We are nosy by definition. Satisfy
your curiosity at
Ask Roulette, in which ordinary people sit onstage and are asked invasive questions in the hopes
of finding out a little bit about the human condition, or at least having some fun.
The
Washington Post’s Clinton Yates, NPR’s Linda Holmes, and Slate’s Dave Weigel will participate and
help move things along. It’s also a chance for you to ask Yates whether, a few days
later, he thinks he went a little overboard with his Twitter reactions to the WaPo
sale (someone please ask this). Free. 7 PM.
Saturday, August 10
ART: Learn a new skill this weekend!
No Kings Collective will be at Art Enables teaching a free “handwritten typography” course. The style
is all the rage on promo and concert posters these days. They’ll also be teaching
how to transfer that skill to large surfaces, which means you’ll be ready to become
the next big underground graffiti artist in no time. The space is also selling select
pieces for 50 percent off. Free. 1 PM.
DANCE: Was there a bigger disappointment this summer than the fact that the cicadas never
showed up?
Black Cat is remedying that with Cicadance—it’s importing thousands of cicadas and putting
them in the backstage space. The cicadas’ lovely song will be the soundtrack, and
the exits will be locked until daylight. Okay, none of that is happening, but how
cool would that be? Instead, the deejays of Cicadance night suggest you “dance, mate,
and die.” Check it out at your own risk. $5. 10 PM.
COMEDY: The
Brick Penguin comedy troupe heads to RFD to perform some brand new sketch comedy for you. Expect
weird costumes and debauchery. $5. 8 and 10 PM.
SWAP: Instead of tossing your old stuff, bring it to the Bruce Monroe Community Center for
the
Freecycle Fete, a kind of free flea market/stuff swap. It’s a good chance to get rid of stuff that
still has value, but that would be better served clogging up someone else’s house
for a while (and vice versa). Free. 2 to 7 PM.
Sunday, August 11
BREAKING BAD:
Whenever Walter White boozes, things tend to get out of hand (at least in the first
couple of seasons—we’re not all obsessed, okay?). But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t
to celebrate the beginning of the end of
Breaking Bad. Head to
Jack Rose for a viewing party of the new episode, featuring free samples of Whistlepig whiskey,
special tastings and (hopefully meth-free) cocktails, and
Breaking Bad trivia.
COMEDY: This is a good week if you’re obsessed with ’90s TV. Uncle Joey (Dave Coulier) will be at Jammin Java performing standup. Unlike Bob Saget, Coulier keeps his comedy
fairly PG. Expect some digs at his former costars and some impressions: Coulier didn’t
find steady work after
Full House, but he did do some voiceover work. Tickets ($20) are available online. 8 PM.
DANCE: From what I can tell, Cut Copy doesn’t have anything planned in DC, but for some
reason, the Australian dance band’s bassist, Ben Browning, will be here performing
a deejay set at
U Street Music Hall. We’re not complaining: They’re one of the top dance bands of the moment. $5. 9 PM.
Know of something cool going on around town? E-mail Jason Koebler at jasontpkoebler@gmail.com,
or find him on Twitter.
