Five Recommended Arts Events This Weekend

So, yeah, school’s back in session. And, anyway, the rest of us long-graduated townies are, ready or not, caught up in the flood of So Much Good Shit Going On In Austin Right Now.

But there’s the whole of the Austin Chronicle’s listings to guide you, right? The Arts listings, the Community listings, the Music listings, the Film li – oh, you get the idea, citizen.

So why not let me – Brenner, your humble AF local journo – mitigate some of the FOMO, that tyranny of choice, you might be suffering?

I mean, HERE’S SOME OF THE BEST ARTS-RELATED PROGRAM ACTIVITIES THIS WEEKEND:

1. Interference Festival This multimedia festival is a gathering of support and appreciation for all women, featuring sound and poetry, performance art, dance, and film made by women from across Texas and beyond. Listen – Michele Mercure is part of this two-day event at The North Door, so you know it’s as worldclass as it is female-forward.

2) Virtual Reality Fondue That wandering Kyle Marler of FLATSITTER brings his VR phenomenon back to the ATX with new footage and experiences, gustatorily enhanced by pots of IRL cheese fondue (and many veggies for dipping) while you’re tripping the light and sound fantastic. Technology in service of art, FTW. Bonus: This gig’s at the Museum of Human Achievement, where you can also catch (on Friday, anyway) Sarah Lim’s luminous Neon Dreamin’ installation.

3) Canopy Open Studio Did I mention MOHA directly above? Yeah, well, the popular Canopy compound next door to that quasi-clandestine venue will open their artist studios to the public that same Friday evening. And anchoring gallery Big Medium will debut the new "Sanctum" exhibition then, too. So it's gonna be one hell of an enjoyable shindig, tell you what, and you could fuel yourself up right (I suggest) by getting an Ohayo at Sa-Ten just ten steps away.

4) Farmer as Artist Meanwhile – or, rather, on Saturday – the Prizer Arts & Letters Gallery on Cesar Chavez is presenting the seventh annual “Farmer as Artist” show that features, duh, works of art by local farmers. You guessed that from the title of the event, right? But, in case you’ve never seen this thing before, let me reassure you: Some of the work, at least some of the work, it’s like, Whoa, how the hell do these people have time to work a farm and develop skills to create such stunning visual wonderments? Yeah: You’ll be surprised and graphically nourished.

5) Arcos Dance: Ether Junk OK, admittedly, I’m an oldschool cyberpunk wannabe and still faintly glowing from having interviewed William Gibson a few years ago. But this is an Arcos Dance event, see, and I wouldn’t care if they were filling the MACC stage with their movement-focused version of Hee-Haw, I’d still be jonesing to see it. Because that company, you know? They manifest the kind of gorgeous and compelling danceworks that should always be what’s meant by the term “cutting edge.” What a great excuse to be AFK this weekend.