Five Things to Do in Austin This Weekend

Well, of course there’s Netflix and/or Hulu or whatever, yes. That’s what good sitting alone – or with however many others – in your room can be. But sometimes it’s even better – much better – to leave that goddamn room, to head out into the bigger room with the blue ceiling, into the city where you live, and be part of all that’s going on.

Oh, look, Memorial Day weekend: Here’s five recommendations!

1) AUSTIN SKETCH FEST This annual conflagration of sketch-comedy features the best local troupes and comedy gangs from all over the country, performing their hottest bits at ColdTowne and the Spider House Ballroom when they’re not busy wolfing down our breakfast tacos or cracking wise in some dog-friendly brewpub on the way to Barton Springs.

2) THE AMERICAN SOLDIER This is Memorial Day weekend, after all, so maybe something a little more sobering onstage for part of it? Here’s a fine commemoration that brings you up close and personal to what the Day is all about: The actor Douglas Taurel at the Mexican American Cultural Center, presenting narratives of war and its consequences, based on real stories and accounts from soldiers and family members throughout history and in the present day.

3) AFS CINEMA: GRAND REOPENING At long last, the venue that Austin Film Society has been merely using has become the venue that Austin Film Society is completely in charge of – with a snazzy upgrade of the lobby and bar and kitchen and this, that, and t’other thing. With, finally, sufficient elegance and screening area to be worthy of what that moving-picture obsessive Lars Nilsen and friends will provide for this art-hungry burg.

4) COLLECTORS SHOW AT grayDUCK GALLERY An exhibition of some of the finest local visual art, as represented by the displayed collections of longtime art collectors, in one of Austin’s coolest and friendliest galleries? Yes, please. And we also previewed it here, citizen, for your voyeuristic convenience.

5) SISTERS IN CRIME: FREE MYSTERY WORKSHOP That’s right – maybe not just consume what others have conjured for public enjoyment, but learn how to create a little (literary) excitement yourself, as the local sisters of vicarious skulduggery take over BookPeople to present three professional writers who’ll help you whip your crime-riddled narratives into shape this Saturday.