The Weekendist: Autumn Is In The House Edition

Christy Frink

It’s the first weekend of the Fall and the lineup is fixin’ to make our heads explode, so let’s get right to it.

FRIDAY, September 24th:

  • Chelsea Handler: Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang. Bridgestone Arena, 8pm, $45-$75. Fresh of her VMA-hosting stint, stand-up comedian and TV personality extraordinaire Chelsea Handler comes to Nashville and hilarity ensues. And there are still plenty of tickets left!
  • Flea Market at the Fairgrounds. State Fairgrounds, 8am-5pm, FREE (but parking is $4). We might not have a State Fair at our State Fairgrounds, but we still have one heckuva flea market. If you know how to dig, you might just find something awesome. Runs all weekend.

SATURDAY, September 25th:

  • Women’s Running Magazine Women’s Half Marathon. Downtown, 7am, registration $95. Though you’ve probably already registered if you’re planning to run, the rest of us can cheer on these women as they complete Nashville’s first women’s half marathon. Also be aware of road closures (PDF alert!) taking place from 6am-11:30am.
  • Preds Fest 2010: Open Practice & Open House. Bridgestone Arena, 10am-1pm, FREE. The Preds welcome fans back to Smashville by hosting several days of fan-centric activities. Watch them practice on Saturday morning, tour the arena, and basically just get excited about hockey season. Later on Saturday night, they’ll take on the Washington Capitals and hopefully do better than they did on Thursday.
  • 32nd Annual TACA Fall Craft Fair. Centennial Park, 10am-6pm, FREE. Loads and loads of artists who make loads and loads of crafts ranging from woodcarving, stained glass and pottery to tie-dyed-everything-under-the-sun. Runs through Sunday.
  • Grimey’s & The Basement’s Fall Festival & Big-Ass Sale! Grimey’s, 10am-8pm, FREE. It’s no secret that we’re kind of in love with Grimey’s, and these backyard BBQs are one of the many reasons. Super cheap music strewn about in bins, live music crankin’, Yazoo, Mitchell’s Deli, and tons of other stuff going on all day long. Just carpool or bike over if you can, since parking is guaranteed to suck.
  • Mimosas, Marys and a Movie. Belcourt Theatre, 11am, $20 members/$25 non-members. Part of a whole slew of Belcourt events during the nD celebration of independent fashion, film and music. We wish we’d had time to write about this a little more this week, but you can get the full listing of events over at Belcourt.org. The entire thing benefits the Belcourt so that they can keep bringing us awesome independent film and hopefully buy more of those fancy new chairs.
  • Michael McDonald & the Nashville Symphony. Lipscomb University’s Allen Arena, 8pm, $40+. The Nashville Symphony still doesn’t have a home, but that’s certainly not holding them back. And though we were but twinkles in our parents’ eyes when Michael McDonald won his first Grammy, we can appreciate a legend when we see one. Help a symphony out.
  • Jenny & Johnny, featuring Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice. Mercy Lounge, 9pm, $15. This one’s pretty self-explanatory and also pretty great, but you might recognize Jenny Lewis from a few other notable projects like Postal Service and Rilo Kley. Head over to Myspace for some sample tunes if you like.
  • Joel McHale and Brooks McBeth. Vanderbilt University’s Langford Auditorium, 9pm, $15 students/$30 everyone else. We’re huge fans of both Community and The Soup here at Nashvillest, so we can tell you that Joel McHale is a very funny guy. We don’t know a whole lot about the other guy, but he’s probably funny too.

SUNDAY, September 26th:

  • Jenny & Johnny ALL AGES show. Third Man Records, 6pm, $3. For the younger ones among us, or the thriftier, or the folks who simply aren’t available on Saturday night, J&J return for round 2. And folks who go to this show will have three days to come back and order a special vinyl of the show.
  • Bumps, Bruises & Bedtime Stories. Zanies Comedy Club, 7:30pm, $15. What happens when you round up a few former Preds players and make them tell funny hockey stories in a comedy club? Guess we’ll find out! All proceeds benefit the Nashville Jr. Predators.
  • of Montreal & Janelle Monae. Cannery Ballroom, 9pm, $25. For some reason, there are still tickets left for this show which is actually too good to miss.
  • Matthew Perryman Jones and Amy Stroup. 3rd and Lindsley, 8pm, $10. But if you do for some reason miss that show, it should be because you’re at this show with a couple of our favorite Ten Out of Tenn’ers.

Photo by Here On The Road.