5 things

A few laughs, some tunes, a little mystery and macabre, nice brews, and a day spent honoring an American legend. Way to provide a well-rounded weekend, Richmond!

January 14, 2010; 6:00 AM • by Valerie Catrow

A few laughs, some tunes, a little mystery and macabre, nice brews, and a day spent honoring an American legend. Way to provide a well-rounded weekend, Richmond!

1. Screening of Trust Us, This Is All Made Up

If you’re funny, I will love you. If you’re funny while improvising, I will seriously consider carrying your babies if asked. If you share such tendencies, this event is for you. Trust Us, This Is All Made Up explores the working relationship between improv legends TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi and features footage of an unforgettable live performance at Barrow Street Theater in New York. Here’s the film’s trailer if you’re not familiar with it:

And while you’re at the screening, you’ll also be treated to an improv performance from Richmond’s Comedy Coalition. Thursday, January 14, 7pm, Gallery5 (200 W. Marshall Street), $3.

2. Zappa Plays Zappa

Yes, yes I know, Frank Zappa is amazing, and it’s exciting/sentimental to hear his music played by his progeny. But mostly I picked this because I can’t stop using this gentleman’s name as a profanity substitute. As in “Dweezil Zappa! Why isn’t Twitter working?!?!?!?” Thursday, January 14, 8:30pm, Hat Factory (140 Virginia Street), $35. Purchase tickets here.

3. Poe’s 24-Hour Birthday Bash

The use of “Poe” and “Birthday Bash” in the same sentence just cracks me up. But seriously, how much do we love that this guy is from Richmond? Finish out Poe’s Bicentennial with an all day, all night, (family friendly) throwdown. Highlights include a champagne toast, ghost hunts, seances, carriage rides, ZOMBIE CHEERLEADERS, and a fascinating event called the Poe Showdown which is being described as follows: “Two Poes enter. Only one survives. Witness this head-to-head competition between two Poe actors to see who is the real Poe.” I’m intrigued. Friday, January 15, 11:45pm through Saturday, January 16, 11:45pm, Edgar Allen Poe Museum (1914 E. Main Street), $6.

4. Ipanema Beer Dinner

Let’s not dilly-dally. Great beers, delicious food, and a chance to hang out with the whole RVANews crew, WHAT WHAT. Sunday, January 17, 6pm, Ipanema Cafe (917 W. Grace Street), $45 (includes beer, a five course meal, tax, and tip). Purchase tickets here.

5. MLK Day of Service 2010

Many people have the day off on Monday, so HandsOn Greater Richmond (and tons of other organizations around the country) are asking you to use at least part of the long weekend to give back to your community, all to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy. You can either find a service project on your own or make use of the HandsOn website to join efforts already planned around town. Friday, January 15 through Monday January 18, all over Richmond.

If none of these are to your liking, be sure to check out our Events Calendar for more ideas.

And as usual, if you’d like to give special shout-outs to happenings this weekend, leave them in the comments!

(Don’t forget: If you’ve got an event in the works that you’d like to see featured, send it our way.)

As the editor of RVANews, Valerie Catrow spends most of her time wrangling people over email and muttering to herself about the content calendar. She also contributes to our parenting column while maintaining her own blog, Made in Richmond. It should be noted that she loves tots, both the potato and child varieties.

January 14, 2010 6:00 AM 0