Five Excellent Things to Do in Austin this Weekend

Seriously, you could just stand around outside and partake of the mild temperatures and the cool breezes slicing light and sweet through the warmth from our bright Texas sun. That would be a sort of paradise all by itself.

Especially these days, when we're still about, oh, two decades from the sort of nightmarish water-deprivation covered in Paolo Bacigalupi's dystopian, violence-riddled thriller, The Water Knife – due out in August from Knopf.

But if weather's more like a background – and, after a while, no matter how lovely it is, weather inevitably becomes a background – then we're glad to be providing five suggestions to spike some art and culture and excitement into your Saturday and Sunday:

1. PRINTAUSTIN: PRINT EXPO The annual PrintAustin initiative continues in galleries throughout the city, and this day the epicenter – Big Medium's Canopy compound on Springdale – is throwing an afternoon party sure to complement the wide array of creative work on display. Sat., Feb. 7, noon-6pm. 916 Springdale.

2. THR3E ZISTERS Our theatre reviewer Elizabeth Cobbe assures us that this tongue-in-cheek critique of the playwright Anton Chekhov – in which his famous three sisters are dug up, literally, and turned into zombies – is a show worth seeing, regardless of your knowledge of Russian drama. Sat., Feb. 7, 8pm. Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd.

3. ART ON THE EDGE: GALA AFTERPARTY Okay, this is one of those high-end, black-tie fundraiser-type deals that'll set you back a stark C-note to attend its posh, food-and-cocktail-studded finery amidst the brilliance of that Blanton Museum's soaring walls. But maybe your new suit or dress has been waiting for an opportunity like this – especially one that helps support such overwhelming goodness as The Big B's recent Brain Trash exhibition? Sat., Feb. 7, 8:30pm. 200 E. MLK.

4. SCOTT MCCLOUD AT AUSTIN BOOKS The "Aristotle of Sequential Art" himself, the man whose Understanding Comics started untold fires of creativity in comics and related graphic-design fields, presents his new book and talks shop and culture with the Chronicle's W. A. Brenner. Sun., Feb. 8, 2-5pm. 5002 N. Lamar.

5. THAT'S AMORE: AN EARLY VALENTINE Tell you what: few things are quite as romantic as music from Italian operas, especially when that music's performed on period instruments by the virtuosi of the Texas Early Music Project. It's the perfect harbinger of what St. Valentine has in store for your lovesick ass later in the week, capisce? Sun., Feb. 8, 3pm. First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa.