Goldstar Pick o' the Week: Laugh for Less

(Original photo from Wikipedia)

The Goldstar folks reached out to me about sharing their event offers, which are about 50% off the full price -- or more on occasion. There is a fee, but you're still ahead of the game. I have used their service, so I know it works.

They offer various discounts to various performances like theater, comedy, music, etc. Yeah, you'll get emails on a regular basis. I'm sure you're dealing with other sites that email you too. (I'm about to restart the weekly e-list to subscribers.)

FYI: I will get compensated if people sign up, but I do believe in the service to save money. Expect to see a weekly Goldstar post and maybe a few events interspersed when relevant.

As I looked the the current available events that fall under the CTB $10 threshold, and I decided to highlight some comedy club offers:

Thursdays 6/7 to 6/28

8pm
"Nostalg-sick"
at Improv Asylum, 216 Hanover St. Boston (North End)
$10 Goldstar price (vs $20)

In a mix of sketch and improv, the cast riffs on the good/bad ol' days of the 90's. The show:

...combines Improv Asylum's signature audience-inspired improvisation with written sketches and songs to deliver a night of laughs that will make you appreciate both the '90s and today (much like a soft rock classic radio station).

Improv can be hit or miss, but Improv Asylum has been more hit than miss in my experience. It's also helps if you're ready to laugh. Yes, they serve drinks that you can bring into the performance area.

Also:

Hidden inside the new Central Square restaurant Moksa, there is a space for comedy and other fun (like dancing). Appearing next weekend is comedian Corey Manning (6/15 & 6/16 - $8).

WED 6/6: Ice Cream, Music, Film, Comedy, Trivia

Hey, keeping it brief to get the weekend cheapness on deck.

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WED 6/6 (and THUR 6/7)

Noon to 8pm
Scooper Bowl
at City Hall Plaza, Boston (Govt Center)
$8 / $4 for children ages 3 to 9

The sun is out (one day late), and the time is right for all-you-can-eat ice cream anyway. You know gaggles of kids will be there.

At $10 with 37 or so flavors mean that you can sample everything at approximately 27 cents per scoop...

Or it's still rather enjoyable to gorge oneself on a few handfuls of the best flavors from Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Breyer's, Brigham's, Hood, Byrne Dairy, Ciao Bella Gelato, Edy's, Friendly's, and SoCo Creamery.

Proceeds benefit the Jimmy Fund/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

WED 6/6

6:30pm
Silversun Pickups: Performance & Signing
at Newbury Comics, North Market Bldg, 4 Faneuil Hall Market Pl, Boston (Faneuil Hall)
FREE

The Silversun Pickups play pretty big-sized gigs in town, and they were on Letterman the other night. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a large queue to get in for a brief, stripped-down set and a chance for an autograph.

WED 6/6

7pm
"Wiretap Wednesday": Open Stage
at Arts at the Armory Cafe, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville (Spring Hill)
FREE

7pm -- Sign up / social time.
7:30pm -- Open stage begins
8:30pm -- Feature performer: Faulke Yue
9pm to 9:30pm -- Open stage resumes

Performers (up to 20 per night) are invited to sign up and share their best short work (5 minutes or shorter including setup) and be a live-streamed (and archived) Internet star.

Each month will also include a featured artist playing a 25-minute set. I don't know much about Faulke Yue, but the guy's rough voice and rough lyrics are soaked in attitude (and perhaps whiskey).

WED 6/6

8pm
"Beasts of the Southern Wild": IFFBoston Screening
at Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge (Harvard Sq)
FREE w/ PDF Pass

Doors at 7:30pm

Most of us haven't heard anything about it, but this film's magical realist take on a girl who survives disaster on the Louisiana coast has already won awards at Sundance and Cannes. If there isn't a feel-good ending, then the trailer is misleading.

WED 6/6

8pm
The Official & Original Pride Idol Finale
at Revere Boston Common Hotel, 200 Stuart St, Boston (Theater District)
$10

Feeling prouder yet? It's halfway through Boston Pride Week.

It would be great if Pride Idol would be bursting with camp and drama, but the contestants will be serious about singing. (Could this be less gay than "American Idol"?) The winner will perform at the Pride Festival on Saturday.

The camp will surely be supplied by the MC, Hedda Lettuce, and the judges that might include Mix 104.1's Fast Freddy and The Track Gals.

WED 6/6

8pm
"The Horse's Mouth": Stand up Comedy
at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
Donations Welcome

10pm
The Prefab Messiahs, Jesse Gallagher, Bobb Trimble's Flying Spiders
at Middlesex Lounge, 315 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$3 / 21+

Go early for some laughs or later for psych/garage that leans heavy on classic Worcester sounds with a little Apollo Sunshine thrown in. Either way it costs little to show up, so you might just want to hang out all night.

WED 6/6

9pm
"Champion Of Champions": Pub Trivia
at Middle East - Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
FREE

I wish I could tell you about these trivia dudes, because it sounds like they take pub trivia up a notch. (Combining elements that are reminiscent of Dicecapades and Cranium?)

Sounds like a lot of fun, and it's going down at the Middle East Corner on a couple Wednesdays (1st and 3rd) per month -- beginning tonight.

WED 6/6

9pm
The Bastard Suns, Josh Rosen's Melting Pot
at Milky Way Lounge / Bella Luna, 284 Amory St, Jamaica Plain (The Brewery Complex)
$5 / 21+

This gig made me do a double-take, especially after I listened to The Bastard Suns. They really are a punk band from Georgia, and Josh Rosen is a local jazz pianist who describes this group as "jazzadelic".

Kudos to the Milky Way for challenging listeners with the musical contrast! The Bastard Suns have an tight sound that might be appreciated by non-punk-fans, but we can probably assume that it's jazz first and punk afterwards.

WED 6/6

9pm
The Decent Lovers, Seer Group, Streight Angular, The Woodrow Wilsons
at Middle East - Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
18+ / $9

There's going to be a lot of love in the room tonight along with a lotta folky and synthy indie-pop and party-rock. Besides being musical buddies, the guy from Seer Group gave a kidney to the main Decent Lover.

When I first heard some of these artists a couple years ago, there was a full-on acoustic approach; listen closely and you can still hear the auto-harp in the Decent Lovers tunes. It all sounds really cool through the progression.

Now! The Transit of Venus, Last Night

As mundane the image may be, it is so mind-blowing that the advances of science allows us to see our celestial clockwork like early astronomers could only dream about. (It seems this feed is on New Mexico time.)

While it would be nice to expound philosophically, let's review Monty Python's "Galaxy Song":

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned,
The sun that is the source of all our power.
Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see,
Are moving at a million miles a day,
In the outer spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour,
Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars;
It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;
It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick,
But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.
We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point,
We go 'round every two hundred million years;
And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding,
In all of the directions it can whiz;
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth;
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

TUES 6/5: Scooper Bowl, Venus, Music, Trivia, Video

FYI: Cheapness through Friday is on the calendar.

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TUES 6/5 (thru THUR 6/7)

Noon to 8pm
Scooper Bowl
at City Hall Plaza, Boston (Govt Center)
$8 / $4 for children ages 3 to 9

There were some winter days that could've been better suited than this week, but we love all-you can eat ice cream anyway. You know gaggles of kids will be there.

At $10 with 37 or so flavors mean that you can sample everything at approximately 27 cents per scoop...

Or it's still rather enjoyable to gorge oneself on a few handfuls of the best flavors from Baskin-Robbins, Ben & Jerry's, Breyer's, Brigham's, Hood, Byrne Dairy, Ciao Bella Gelato, Edy's, Friendly's, and SoCo Creamery.

Proceeds benefit the Jimmy Fund/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

TUES 6/5

6:20pm to Sunset
The Transit of Venus
at the Surface of the Sun
FREE

The clouds may part to unveil the passing of Venus across the Sun. As far as events in our solar system goes, 105 years isn't long but some of us won't be around for the next Transit.

Last week, I mentioned a couple options in the area to watch with people who might have something intelligent to say about it.

Of course, there's a video feed on the web.

TUES 6/5

Spaghetti Dinner (6pm), The Derangers & Triple Thick (7:30pm)
at Johnny D's, 17 Holland St, Somerville (Davis Sq)
$10

Okay, you've got my interest when someone throws in a bowl of (locally sourced) pasta with a couple rock bands. Or vice versa -- however you want to think about it. This is the first of 'Spaghetti Tuesdays' to come this summer.

They're kicking it off with some kick-ass garage and surf rock.

TUES 6/5

8pm
Geeks Who Drink: "Sterling Cooper Draper Quiz: A Mad Men Quiz"
at Common Ground, 83 Harvard Ave, Allston
$5 per player

Besides their usual trivia nights at various local pubs, the GWD occasionally host a trivia night that geeks out on a specific TV show or other subject pop-culture mania.

I wonder how many people will show up in retro suits and dresses and want big tumblers of booze tonight?Teams are limited to a maximum of six "Mad Men" fanatics, and the winners could walk away with a decent cash prize.

TUES 6/5

8pm
"A Night of Music Celebrating Dinah Washington"
at The Beehive, 541 Tremont St, Boston (South End)
FREE

Feat: Michelle Wilson

Although Dinah Washington may not be a household name, she was one of the most popular and influential blues/jazz singers of the '40s and '50s with hits like "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" and "Ain't Misbehavin'".

She definitely influenced Michelle Wilson who takes her "Evil Gal" nickname from a Washington single from 1943. It should be a mix of uptempo R&B, torchy standards, and more.

TUES 6/5

8:30pm to 11:30pm
"YouTube Party"
at Atwoods Tavern, 877 Cambridge St, Cambridge (near Inman & Kendall Sq)
FREE

They describe it as an "experiment" and "video, music, innovative interactive party". I suspect it'll be an onslaught of people sharing favorite video clips interspersed with music. Not a bad night to hang out at Atwoods.

TUES 6/5

9pm
Alen of Dale, Dharma Bird, Pale Cowboy
at Middle East - Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge (Central Sq)
$9 / 18+

This sounds like a good night for country-flavored folk-rock by Alen of Dale and Pale Cowboy that occasionally takes some twists and turns. Dharma Bird is a string band with a singer-songwriter at its core. From my sampling, all of the bands pay a lot of attention to the lyrics.

Monday to Thursday Calendar

I've got something important to do on Monday, so here you go.

As far as cheapness, I can suggest a couple rock shows and a drag show (that coincides with Pride Week).

Although Boston Beer Week finished on Sunday, Milky Way/Bella Luna is offering a Mayflower 'Pint Night' on Monday. Order a whatever Mayflower they have on tap, take home the glass from 7pm to 10pm -- which coincides with the usual 50-cent wings (7pm to 9 pm) and pub trivia (8pm).

Last week, I listed a couple options to see the Transit of Venus on TUES 6/5.