“Prise de la Bastille” by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel. (Via Wikipedia)
FRIDAY:
DRIVE-IN MOVIE: Union Market’s (1309 5th Street NE) new drive-in movie experience (complete with car hops on rollerskates) kicks off tonight with Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb projected on their 3-story wall. Cyclists and walkers welcome, and a picnic area is set up for people to bring blankets and chairs. Drive-in events (music and contests) start at 7 p.m., parking lot opens at 8:00 p.m., and the movie starts at 9 p.m. Free.
MUSIC: Consisting of former members of The Mars Volta and Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes, Bosnian Rainbows, who will headline U Street Music Hall, functions as a super group of sorts for the experimental rock crowd. Expansive rock numbers pepper their self-titled debut that was released earlier this year and if the sum of this group’s parts are any indication, the live show should be a force to be reckoned with. $20, 7 p.m. (Andy Hess)
COMEDY: Cecily Strong might be best known as “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party,” the vacant, word-slurring, character she portrays on Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update. Strong, on break from her freshman season on the late-night juggernaut, brings her tour through the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse (2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington) tonight. But this is no summer stand-up, as many SNL cast members are wont to do; Strong is on tour with a few friends from her days in the Second City and iO Chicago Theater companies. Shows at 7:15 and 9:15 p.m. Tickets $15-20.
SATURDAY
CLUSTERTRUCK: Twenty food trucks, those regulation-fighting conveyances, will line up for the Curbside Cookoff. And now that they don’t have to worry about fighting the man, the trucks’ operators can focus on dishing out their mobile fare at Capitol Riverfront (200 K Street SE). Get an all-you-can-drink wristband for $20. And now that the food trucks don’t need to raise money for their legislative fight, they’ll be taking donations to benefit Miriam’s Kitchen. From noon to 9 p.m.
FILM: Over the next several weeks, the AFI Silver Theatre and the National Gallery of Art will screen 35-millimeter prints of the nine surviving silent movies from the Master of the Macabre, each with live musical accompaniment. On Saturday, the AFI Silver Theatre (8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring) screens The Manxman (1929), a love triangle set on the Isle of Man. The film stars Czech actress Anny Ondra, who would next appear in Hitchcock’s first sound feature, Blackmail. Sunday, the National Gallery presents a Ciné-Concert of The First Born (1928) followed by Easy Virtue (1929). This weekend’s AFI and National Gallery screenings of silent Hitchcock will be accompanied by Stephen Horne. (Pat Padua)
AUX ARMES, CITOYENS!: Perhaps in deference to people who need to pack it in early on Sunday night, all the Bastille Day festivities are happening on Erev Bastille Day. We’d deserve the guillotine if we didn’t lead off with L’Enfant Cafe and Bar’s annual Bastille Day Bash, featuring, of course, the French Maid Relay Race down 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan. The street-long party starts at 15h and, for a $6 cover charge, includes access to a beer garden, a lineup of food trucks, can-can dancers, and a masquerade ball. The relay race takes place at 6 p.m. 15h à 23h
LA MORT AU ROI!: Celebrate Bastille Day a day early with dance performances by the New York Baroque Dance Company, live music, French games, and hands-on art projects at the French Festival at Hillwood Estate Museum and Gardens (4155 Linnean Avenue NW). 10h à 17h. $5-$18.
MANGEONS LE GÂTEAU: Central Michel Richard (1001 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) hosts its sixth annual Bastille Day feast, with a prix fixe menu featuring gougeres, tomato tartare, rack of lamb, and cherry vacherin. 17h à 23h
DIMANCHE:
BASTILLE DAY: C’est aujourd’hui la vraie Fête Nationale. Allez à Bistrot du Coin (1738 Avenue du Connecticut) et enivrez-vous.
For more ideas of what to do this weekend, see the Weekly Music Agenda, This Week in Jazz, and Popcorn & Candy.
