News & Politics

Where & When: What to Do this Weekend

Dinner with Top Chef's Carla Hall, an electro-dance party, a free Wayne's World screening, and lots more on tap for this weekend.

Thursday: The Capitol Riverfront Farmers Market, held every Thursday through November, opens today at the intersection of New Jersey Avenue and M Street, Southeast. The ten vendors will sell produce, baked goods, herbs and spices, and other products. The first 50 customers receive a $5 coupon for any purchase. The market runs from 3 to 7.

For free beer, check out the Day After Cinco de Mayo happy hour at H Street Country Club, hosted by What’s the Deal and United Social Sports. Signing up for this listserv guarantees you two free draft beers. 6 to 8.

Join Top Chef alumni Carla Hall, Chris “CJ” Jacobson, and Fabio Viviani at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel for the Celebrity Chef Tour dinner. The event includes a cocktail reception in the hotel’s mezzanine, followed by a four-course dinner (with wine pairings) in the Chinese Ballroom. A portion of the proceeds benefits the James Beard Foundation’s educational programs. The dinner starts at 7. For information and tickets ($175 per person), click here or call 720-201-1853.

At the Phillips Collection, you can sip cocktails while appreciating the museum’s Georgia O’Keefe exhibit—which closes this weekend—as part of the Phillips After 5 series. Live music is provided by the KREation Ensemble, and the event also includes a multimedia performance and video installation. For more information, go to phillipscollection.org.

The first Takoma Park-Silver Spring Experimental Film Festival kicks off tonight at 7:30 at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. Tonight, you’ll see nine short films in the festival’s “Contemplating Landscapes” category. The festival, curated by the local experimental filmmaker Chris Henry Lynn, runs through Saturday. For a schedule or more information about the festival, click here. All screenings are free.

Travel Channel hosts Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods and Dhani Jones of Dhani Tackles the Globe join 16 of Washington’s top restaurants for an evening of tapas, cocktails, and goodwill. Proceeds benefit Global Explorers, a nonprofit that helps low-income students travel abroad. Participating restaurants include BLT Steak, Brabo by Robert Wiedmaier, Brasserie Beck, Co Co. Sala, Chef Geoff’s, Etete, Equinox, Founding Farmers, Marcel’s, Proof, Rasika, Restaurant Eve, TenPenh, and Zengo. The event begins at 7 (VIP reception at 6) at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. For information and to purchase tickets ($100 for general admission; $200 for VIP), click here or call 877-627-1425.
Friday: The Human Centipede—a Dutch horror film about a crazy doctor who tries to surgically conjoin three people to make a human centipede—has picked up some serious cult buzz as one of the most disturbing/graphic/violent/gross horror films of the past few years. Horror-film aficionados who (think they) are brave enough to handle the film should check out this guide before watching it Friday at E Street Cinema. It plays at midnight, and tickets are $10. The film is also available On Demand, if you’re more comfortable dry heaving without an audience.

Dirty Dancers, pay attention: RAW, the self-proclaimed “sleaziest electro-dance party” in the city, happens at Green Lantern the first Friday of every month. The mostly-gay-but-straights-welcome party features go-go dancers and a rotating set of DJs. Organizer Karl Marks, of Guerilla Queer Bar and Taint fame, will offer free shots to those willing to trade their shirts for a drink. Free admission before 11; $3 after that.

Last weekend it was Clueless, and now another seminal ’90s movie gets the outdoors treatment at Rosslyn Gateway Park: Wayne’s World, starring Mike Myers, is playing at 7:30 as part of this year’s Rosslyn Outdoor Film Festival. Screenings at the park are free, and people are encouraged to bring blankets and low chairs to picnic before the show. For the complete schedule of upcoming films, go here.

Celebrate Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month at the National Museum of Natural History Friday. You’ll see tons of free demonstrations, including Laotian banana-leaf folding; Chinese paper cutting; Japanese doll making and origami; Mongolian watercolor painting and mask making; and Thai soap making, fruit carving, and umbrella painting. The arts-and-crafts day goes from 10 to 3:30. Free.

Films submitted for competition to this year’s installment of the 48 Hour Film Project—in which aspiring filmmakers make short movies from a given genre, prop, character, and line of dialogue—are showing at the AFI Silver Theatre at 7 and 9:30. Tickets ($10) can be purchased here.
Saturday: If last year taught us anything, it’s that there ain’t no pool party like a BrightestYoungThings pool party. Luckily the scenester Web site’s pool-party series, Summer Camp, is back at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. Dubbed the Ocho, this week’s party is all about belatedly celebrating Cinco de Mayo with margarita-guzzling and nacho-eating contests, a mariachi band, and the FatBack DJs making a special appearance as Chupacabra. Admission is $15 at the door.

Stick it to the volcano Eyjafjallajökull by travelling to Europe without setting foot on a plane. The European Union Embassies’ Open House Day kicks off a week of festivities in honor of Europe Week. This year’s theme is Green Europe: Good for the Economy and the Environment and will address issues related to climate change, greenhouse-gas emissions, and the possibility of a clean-energy economy. 10 to 4.

The actess Betty White (you might remember her as Rose from Golden Girls) hosts Saturday Night Live tonight, and the folks at the Duplex Diner in DC;s Adams Morgan are celebrating the momentous occasion with Betty White-themed drink specials, prizes, a Betty White costume competition, and more. There’ll be live music by DJs Shea Van Horn and Aaron Riggins. 10 PM.

Sunday: We hope you didn’t forget about Mother’s Day! If your mom is anything like ours, the way to her heart is through her stomach. Check out our guide to Washington restaurants that are offering special menus.

Bring your best Ian MacKaye impression to U Street Music Hall for Salad Days, an ’80s-and-’90s-inspired-music night. In addition to punk-rock karaoke hosted by Government Issue frontman John Stabb, there’ll be a live performance by Death Set and tunes by DJs Dave Nada, Stereofaith, and Denman. 3 PM; $5.

The Pocket Gays’ Sunday School party at Local 16 party features music by DJs RAD and Bradley Portnoy. There’ll also be drinks, prizes, and games (think shirtless finger-painting competition). The party runs from 3 to 9. For more information go here.