5 Things

From Rams to Spiders, from bullets to cutlasses, and from big red dogs to crazy cats, this weekend is for doers.

January 24, 2013; 6:37 AM • by Susan Howson

From Rams to Spiders, from bullets to cutlasses, and from big red dogs to crazy cats, this weekend is for doers.

1. VCU Rams vs. Richmond Spiders

You didn’t get a ticket to this sold out Game of All Games? So what! You know how many bars there are in town? A lot! Go to one of them, decide which team you’re rooting for, put on that team’s colors…then start taking off articles of clothing one by one until the owner agrees to put the TV onto the CBS Sports Network. Plus, it’ll be so loud in there, you won’t be able to hear the announcers talk about this “cross-town rivalry” in the “capital of the Confederacy,” a “sleepy river town full of stately old manses and ghosts of a gentle antebellum past.” Eff you, patronizing announcers! We are a dynamic group of people who embrace our two exciting basketball teams with tough tattooed arms! RVA forever! Go Rams! Go Spiders!

• Thurs. Jan. 24 • 7:00 PM
• Robins Center at University of Richmond/Bar near you
• Impossible/Free

2. Third Artifacts Road Show at the Virginia War Memorial

Maybe you’ve come across some old musket balls at a yard sale, or maybe you’ve cleaned out your mother’s attic and found her dad’s WWII insignia. OR maybe you just like to go to places where people are all carrying around family heirlooms like it’s no big deal, waiting for their turn to ask about their items from noted war collectable experts Jesse Smith and Robert House, while admiring one of the best views in the city. Please note! You’ll get a story about the item that will help you feel closer to your loved one/the stranger at the yard sale, but you will not be getting monetary values that will force you to choose between family loyalties and that Lamborghini you’ve been eyeing.

• Sat. Jan. 26 • 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
• Virginia War Memorial, 621 S. Belvidere St.
• Free!

3. The Richmond Symphony Presents: Scheherezade

Rimsky-Korsakov’s triumphant work of exotic romance and adventure is one of the most exciting things about the Altria Masterworks season this year. It’s easy to listen to Scheherezade and picture sands and sultans and oil lamps. It’s not easy to imagine that you’ve heard anything like it. In the words of a Wikipedia editor who was too optimistic about his reader’s general knowledge sets: “The reasons for its popularity are clear enough; it is a score replete with beguiling orchestral colors, fresh and piquant melodies, with a mild oriental flavor, a rhythmic vitality largely absent from many major orchestral works of the later 19th century, and a directness of expression unhampered by quasi-symphonic complexities of texture and structure.” Pick up tickets to this unhampered collection of piquant melodies, and don’t worry…zero complexities of the quasi-symphonic sort will be cluttering up your Saturday night.

• Sat. Jan. 26 • 8:00 PM, Sun. Jan. 27 • 3:00 PM
• CarpenterTheatre at CenterStage, 600 E. Grace St.
• $10-$73

4. Clifford the Big Red Dog’s 50th Birthday Bash

I certainly hope that when I’m 50, I look half as good as Clifford. Despite his size, the guy manages to look like a cute, cuddly pup with nary a gray hair in sight. His joints don’t hurt, his skin doesn’t sag–we gotta go to CMoR during this weekend-long celebration if only to learn his beauty secrets. Spending time at each CMoR location throughout the weekend (and into Monday) will be…and I am not joking…CLIFFORD HIMSELF OMG. No word on whether Emily Elizabeth will be joining him. Word on the street is that Clifford really, really wants you to bring a book for the Children’s Museum Book Bank, but other than that, he’s just honored that CMoR’s rolling out the Big Red Carpet.

• Sat. Jan. 26, Sun. Jan. 27, and Mon. Jan. 28 • 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
• All three CMoR locations
• Free with admission

5. Cat Power at The National

Cat Power’s Chan Marshall is a songwriting genius with a voice that defies description. She also has quite the reputation for being a loon. It’s touch and go these days, with rumors flying that Marshall’s concerts no longer include lengthy diatribes or short pauses for her to go running down the street. Well, either way you’ll get an experience to remember.

• Mon. Jan. 28 • Doors open at 12:00 PM
• The National, 708 E. Broad St.
• $25 in advance, $30 at the door

Photyo by: uistin

January 24, 2013 6:37 AM 0