🤖 May the 4th be with you | Things to Do

This week all eyes are on the Sixers after a miracle win Tuesday night thanks to Tyrese Maxey, who scored seven points in 25 seconds. Phew! They play the Knicks again tonight at the Wells Fargo Center in Game 6.

Aside from cheering on the Sixers, this weekend you can catch the Broad Street Run, see a new version of Madame Butterfly, find goodies for Free Comic Book Day, and scope out good spots to fish in and around the city.

— Rosa Cartagena (@_RosaCartagena, Email me at thingstodo@inquirer.com)

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The Broad Street Run returns to the historic Navy Yard this Sunday with 40,000 runners trekking 10 miles. There will be tons of spectators and, of course, several road closures so here’s everything you need to know. Good luck to all the runners!

🦋 Creative classics: Two Philadelphia productions of classic plays — the opera Madame Butterfly (at the Academy of Music through May 5) and the parable The Good Person of Setzuan (streaming online through May 19) — promised to reclaim stories that have been considered racist and harmful to Asian Americans. I asked Asian and Asian American artists behind these shows about what these classics mean to them and how they approached such difficult histories. Here’s what they had to say.

💥 Nerds, assemble: Free Comic Book Day falls on May the 4th a.k.a. Star Wars Day which means it’s double the celebration for all of us geeks. Find free and discounted comics while enjoying Star Wars themed specials at Multiverse.

🪴 Plant parents: Chestnut Hill’s Home & Garden festival is this Sunday, with live music, crafts, gardening goods, and an array of demonstrations including macramé and stained glass. Find out more here.

🏇 Derby Day: We’re far from Kentucky but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy Derby Day. Bars and restaurants across Philly are hosting watch parties with themed drink and food specials, including PJ Clarke’s, Craftsman Row Saloon, Founding Fathers, and more. There will even be pony rides at Parx Casino.

🎂 Cake, cake, cake: Whether it’s your birthday or another celebration, you probably want cake. Where can you find great slices? At one of these eight excellent bakeries in Philly.

📅 My calendar picks this week: This Is Not F**king Art, Strawberry Festival, Bock Fest & Goat Race

It’s not often that a painting demands a 360-degree view, but Lansdale painter Dona Nelson’s two-sided abstract canvases do just that. Nelson, who recently retired from teaching at the Tyler School of Art & Architecture after 30 years, has made a career of breaking traditional molds and their new solo exhibit at the Locks Gallery (running through May 17) continues that exhilarating innovation. Nelson’s paintings pull viewers in close, to see the force of not just brushstrokes but other pressures that the artist incorporates, like leaving works out in the rain. Stepping around to the back provides a complementary but still distinct side, where the reflections of some colors can be seen through the material. The works are mesmerizing and magnetic.

🍹 Pop-up fun: Center City SIPS, the popular summerlong happy hour, returns for its 20th year beginning June 5. Here’s where you can find the best deals.

🎣 Gone fishing: You might be surprised to hear that fishing enthusiasts can and do find great places to fish in the city. We’ve got a guide to where you can fish in Philly and what to expect.

🛼 Strap on skates: A new outdoor roller-skating rink will open in Delco this summer. Beginning in June, Hangout Snack Bar will have a 40-foot rink and skates you can rent on site.

🔥 Chill out: We’re inching closer to summer, which will bring some serious heat in the Philadelphia region. We have suggestions for where to cool off in a heat wave.

Dan DeLuca breaks down some of the best shows coming to town this weekend:

🎤 Thursday: Stiff Little Fingers, the Northern Irish punk band led by Jake Burns that dates back to 1977, is at the Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday.

🎤 All weekend: Sing Us Home, the Manayunk gathering curated by Roxborough-raised Dave Hause with his brother Tim, has expanded to three days in its second year. The music starts Friday night on Venice Island with Dave Hause, Bucks County-bred singer Langhorne Slim, punk veteran Laura Jane Grace, and folk songwriter Amythyst Kiah. (The Hause bros, Slim, and Philly songwriter Sug Daniels are also doing a WXPN Free at Noon earlier in the day.) Saturday’s Sing Us Home lineup features an afternoon acoustic performance by Daniels and full band sets by Grace, Dave Hause, and headliners the Jayhawks. Sunday includes a reunion of Dave Hause’s punk band the Loved Ones, and superb North Carolina country-leaning Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. Asbury Park brass band Ocean Avenue Stompers roams the grounds both days.

🎤 Friday: Teezo Touchdown, the Texas rapper who’s shone on songs by Tyler, the Creator and Travis Scott and released his debut How Do You Sleep at Night? last year, headlines the TLA on Friday. Faster Pussycat — the 1980s glam metal band named after a 1965 Russ Meyer movie — will raise a ruckus at Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City on Friday. And the Kennedys — the folk-rock duo of Pete and Maura Kennedy — is playing Jamey’s House of Music in Lansdowne on Friday. Philly blues vocalist Deb Callahan plays the Delco club the next night.

🎤 Also Friday: Philly jazz and folksinger Carsie Blanton’s new album is called After the Revolution. It swings with real-world smarts and “revolutionary optimism” while bearing the influence of John Prine and Nina Simone. She kicks off a 2024 tour at World Cafe Live on Friday.

🎤 Friday & Saturday: Look up in the sky: It’s Black Crowes bros Chris and Rich Robinson, circling Philadelphia. Readers of Steve Gorman’s juicy 2019 book Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of the Black Crowes, would have assumed the band was broken up for good, but the siblings have been back on the road since 2021 and sound potent on the new Happiness Bastards. They play the Wind Creek Event Center in Bethlehem on Friday, the Ocean Resort in Atlantic City on Saturday, and the NON-COMMvention at World Cafe Live on Wednesday, and headline the Met Philly on Thursday. And if that isn’t enough, they open for Aerosmith at the Wells Fargo Center on Sept. 23.

🎤 Sunday: Sax player and bandleader Kamasi Washington, who broke through with 2018′s triple LP The Epic, has a new album, Fearless Movement, out on Friday, with George Clinton and André 3000 as guests. He celebrates the new album at Union Transfer on Sunday.

When Travel + Leisure recently named the best beaches in the country, the magazine selected Asbury Park Beach — a controversial and confusing decision. “Asbury Park is cool and all, but calling it a representative of the entire Jersey Shore is like saying a cheesesteak from anywhere but Philly is authentic. It just doesn’t cut it,” wrote deputy service editor Sam Ruland in response. Maybe it was simply the Boss’s star power that convinced the editors. But what about Wildwood and Cape May? Ocean City or Sea Isle? (I’m personally fond of Belmar, though it’s not as much of a destination spot.) Do you have a favorite Shore town? Let me know!

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This week I finally watched the beautiful, heart-wrenching Past Lives and cried just like I knew I would. The next love triangle movie on my list — it’s on everyone’s! — is Challengers.