5 Things

Festival time! Get your eyes on some good films, finally, and then go jog around town. You’ll drink all those calories back the next day, but after the symphony blows your mind, you won’t care.

April 11, 2013; 6:39 AM • by Susan Howson

Festival time! Get your eyes on some good films, finally, and then go jog around town. You’ll drink all those calories back the next day, but after the symphony blows your mind, you won’t care.

1. James River Film Festival

No, no, yeah, sure, I’m with you. The new G.I. Joe movie is playing, so yeah, absolutely. You totally need to go to that. After your mind has finished turning into a sugary soup and leaking out your nostrils, let the gracious volunteers who run the James River Film Festival do their very best to scoop up the soup, inject it back into your noggin, and fill your soul with the appreciation of actual movies, not the advertisements for idiocy, mediocrity, and smartphones that you’ll find in theaters currently. That’s their mission, after all, and we sorely need them. Show your support, and keep your brain in your head, OK?

• Thurs. Apr. 11 – Sun. Apr. 14 • see site for many, many times
• Various venues
• $8 per film

2. Reelabilities Film Festival

Not to be outdone, the Reelabilities Film Festival promises to fill in whatever gaps in your calendar that the JRFF is leaving. Check out films Anita (a story about a lady with Down syndrome who finds herself alone in a big city) and Aphasia (a regular, perfectly able guy has a stroke and now finds himself disabled in many ways). Disabilities can affect EACH and EVERY one of us, whether we’re born with them or they come upon us later in life. These fine films raise awareness and give you a chance to see movies that are actually worth the celluloid they’re burned upon.

• Fri. Apr. 12 and Sun. Apr. 14 • see site for times
• See site for venues
• $8 per movie for Weinstein members, $10 for non-members

3. Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K

What’s that? You haven’t registered for the 10K yet? Good luck with that, sister, because you’re vying with literally the entire planet’s population, who will descend upon our town, take it over in waves of one billion, and then vanish, leaving only paper cups to remember them by. Rumor has it, it’s the largest race in the universe, so you WON’T want to miss it. You also WON’T want to drive anywhere in town until Saturday afternoon. Trust.

• Sat. Apr. 13 • Dawn.
• Broad St. and Harrison St.
• $55 for walk-ups

4. Musical Tribute to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

I typed that title into Google to find out more info, and Google was clinically dead for about ten seconds. It’s a mouthful! But the event itself is soooo neat, and you can find fun ways to abbreviate it! Like MuTrib or MTC150(ep) or Jam for the Pation Mation. It’s like this: the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission of the General Assembly along with the Richmond Symphony are performing Civil War-era music with the help of 200 talented singers. And it’s free. Unlike those less fortunate than us. Yeah, I said it.

• Sat. Apr. 13 • 8:00 PM
• CenterStage, 5th and Grace Streets
• Free! (But you need a ticket)

5. Carytown Craft Beer Festival

Remember when people were into wine? Pssh, I don’t. Get out of here, grapes, with your tantalizing sweetness. Now is the time for barley and hops and…whatever else is in beer. But only in small batches. Carytown’s making it happen with their first ever craft beer festival, which rules harder than other craft beer festivals because the Carytown restaurants will be serving up some delicious, beer-complementing favorites. You can even bring your kids and your DDs! The former get in free, the latter get soft drinks and pitying looks for $10.

• Sun. Apr. 14 • 12:00 – 6:00 PM
• Cary Court, Carytown
• $15 in advance, $20 at the door (gets you a mug and all the beer you can drink)

Photo by: chidorian

April 11, 2013 6:39 AM 2