Filmmaker Chris Henry Lynn is curating this year’s Takoma Park/Silver Spring Experimental Film Festival, a free community event open to the public. The festival features short films, such as UK filmmaker Nick Collins’s 10-minute, river-footage piece Mimente, which will be shown on Thursday. The festival will be held at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring.
Canadian band Horse Feathers won us over with its new album Thistled Spring, which features banjos, mandolins, violins, and cello arrangements. Catch them at the Black Cat Thursday at 9 with the folk band Lay Low. $10.
Party like it’s 1995 at Steve’s Bar Room (1337 Connecticut Ave., NW; 202-293-3150) where DJs will be spinning top tunes from the 90s—we’re expecting lots of TLC and Coolio. Music starts at 9 on Thursday night, and ladies get free Champagne until 11. And besides celebrating the best decade ever, we’re also excited that there’s no cover. Go here for more information.
Calling all comedians, musicians, spoken-word artists, magicians . . . whoever—show your stuff at Busboys and Poets’ open mic night Friday at 11 PM. It’s being hosted by soul and R&B musician Ne’a Posey. Admission is $5.
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the National Museum of Natural History on 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. This arts-and-crafts day goes from 10 AM to 3:30 PM. Free.
A photo is supposed to be a permanent reminder and preservation of an event—unless it’s being shown at American University’s One Hour Photo exhibit. Images by 128 artists will be projected for an hour each until June 6; after that, they’ll never be seen by anyone ever again. See some of the once-in-a-lifetime photos at the exhibit’s opening Saturday at 6 in the Katzen Arts Center. The event is free.
Nature fans can attend the opening Michele Norris’s exhibit Insecta Saturday from 7 to 9 PM. The New Hampshire-born artist created mixed-media collages inspired by what she calls nature’s “perfect design.” The opening is free at Gallery 4 of the Workhouse Arts Center.
The Human Centipede—a film about a crazy doctor who tries to surgically conjoin three humans to make a human centipede—sounds completely twisted and terrifying, but horror-film aficionados who are brave enough to be heavily disturbed can watch it Saturday at E Street Cinema. It’s playing at midnight and tickets are $10.
Bring your best Ian MacKaye impression to U Street on Sunday for Salad Days, an 80s-and-90s-hardcore-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. It’ll all go down at U Street Music Hall Sunday at 3 PM. $5.
The Mendelssohn Piano Trio is performing at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The program includes pieces by Haydn, Glessner, and Brahms. The show starts at 3 in museum’s McEvoy Auditorium. Free tickets will be distributed an hour before the show in the G Street Lobby.
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