(First) Weekend Top Picks
The best ways to spend the first weekend in 2011
Happy 2011, all! We know that holiday weekends are generally filled with self-made fun that drains both your energy and bank account, and that you’ve probably made promises to yourself about being more fiscally responsible this year. With that in mind, for this week’s session of Revue’s Weekend Top Picks, we’ve found a handful of inexpensive, low-key activities that will get you out and about, but that will keep your budget reined in.
First Fridays: EnjoyMINT
Limiting expenditure, however, is no reason to skimp on luxury, especially if you decide to take advantage of the Mint Museum Uptown’s new First Friday events. This weekend (as part of your $10 non-member admission fee) there will be a live jazz performance from the Gary Marcus Trio, sketching in the galleries, activities for kids, and a cash bar. You can also look forward to a champagne and chocolate tasting. It’s to be simply exquisite, dah-ling.
Charlotte Checkers vs. Wilkes-Barre Penguins
In Charlotte, local hockey games have arguably the largest ratio of action to ticket cost (nosebleed seats start at just $15.55). This weekend, the Checks are, to use an expression, making like a hockey stick and getting the puck out of here; if you go to ticketmaster.com right now, though, you can still pick up seats for tonight’s game against the Wilkes-Barre Penguins at Time Warner Cable Arena. Because we Googled it, we can tell you that Wilkes-Barre is the town next to Scranton, PA. You’re welcome.
Big Stakes at the Light Factory
America may be gushing over the True Grit remake right now, but we’ll always associate pure Westerns with the olden’ days. Big Stakes, screening at the Light Factory on Saturday night, is as "olden" as it gets; the 1922 film by Clifford S. Elfelt follows a Texas cowboy who falls for a Mexican general’s daughter who won’t have him, even after he duals with her military father. When that doesn’t work out, he goes back to his hometown to rescue the girl next door (plan B, apparently) from the local Ku Klux Klan tribe. A little disjointed, but there will be live bluegrass music from the Devil Music Ensemble to accompany the silent movie. $10 at the door.
Gettin’ Sticky With It at the McColl Center for Visual Art
You know what they say: all wood things must come to an end. That means that the enormous coffee-stirrer installation by Jonathan Brilliant at the McColl is about to come to an end—but not without a little help. The McColl is asking the community to come help take down Brilliant’s work late Saturday morning and enjoy juice, sticky buns, and coffee while doing so. It’s a great, post-breakfast Saturday event for the community, and you can even take home a few sticks with you.
