11 Best Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Weekend

New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Friday, August 12, through Sunday, August 14. For more events, see our curated online calendar.

Tattoo Pool Party
Hell City is getting a little wet and wild with its Tattoo Pool Party — and the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Arizona Biltmore Waldorf Astoria Resort will play host.

With the festival on hiatus, its former after-party spot is now the main attraction, featuring swim-up bars, specialty drinks, and good ol’ fashion fun in the sun. Pool-goers may want to put finishing touches on their art though, as ink competitions have been known to happen on land or in the water.

Things start cooling off (or is it heating up?) at noon on Friday, August 12, at 2400 East Missouri Avenue. Only patrons renting rooms or cabanas are allowed in the resort’s nine pools and hot tubs; tatt-friendly attendees can use promo code “HCity” for a discounted $119 per night rate. Bookings can be made through www.arizonabiltmore.com or by calling 602-955-6600. Info on the tattoo expo, returning in 2017, is at www.hellcity.com. Janessa Hilliard

Meteor Madness
If you’ve got a lawn chair and an interest in beer and the heavens, then get excited for Meteor Madness with Dr. Sky during the Perseids meteor shower on Friday, August 12, at Lost Dutchman State Park, 6109 North Apache Trail in Apache Junction.

Put on by the Friends of Lost Dutchman State Park, the evening starts with a free beer grotto sponsored by Lagunitas Brewing Company from 8 to 9 p.m., followed by a meteor shower and asteroids presentation and live radio broadcast on Coast to Coast with Dr. Sky till 10 p.m. Shower viewing and tips on how to photograph meteors runs from 11 p.m. to sunrise.

Tent space rentals and tickets for $20 are available through www.eventbrite.com. Call 480-982-4485 or visit azstateparks.com/Parks/LODU. Lauren Cusimano

Lizzie
Forty whacks is a lot. But Lizzie Borden didn’t (even allegedly) take an axe to her dad and stepmom the legendary 81 total times — that’s a jumprope song. (Allegedly.) The murderer expended a mere 11 to 19 whacks each. It was still unusual, though, for a young woman to be charged with murdering both of her parents so violently, and so the story went the 1892 equivalent of viral.

The unsolved or badly prosecuted crime (pick your camp) has inspired, among a ton of other things, two separate modern stage musical versions of the story, as well as a 1965 opera. A/C Theatre Company introduces audiences to Lizzie, the small-cast rock setting by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner, and Alan Stevens Hewitt, through Saturday, August 27, at the Hardes Theatre at Phoenix Theatre, 100 East McDowell Road. Friday, August 12’s showtime is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 at tickets.phoenixtheatre.com or 602-254-2151. Julie Peterson

"The Fearless Individual"
With all the crazy shit going on in the world at any given time, it’s often easier to react than act. “The Fearless Individual” is an art exhibition that aims to remind guests of the important results that can occur when your approach is love-based, rather than rooted in fear. The show features painter Xandriss, whose work features a single-line style where one continuous line moves to create an object or subject, without crossing itself. Other local participating artists include Sam Itza, Jr., Tara Kosciukiewicz, Melissa McGhee, Able Ochoa, and Ronalyn Torres. Celebrate the power in courage via their artworks from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, August 12, at The Millet House, 440 West First Street in Mesa. Admission is free. Visit www.facebook.com/themillethouse. Amy Young

Phoenix Tonight
If you dig the talk-show format but need a break from the televised kind, with its same old hosts night after night, venture out into the dark and try something new.

Phoenix Tonight is a live, late-night, locally focused talk show hosted by Russ Kazmierczak Jr. that offers you all the goodies you get from traditional after-hours chat-oriented programs, like a monologue, comedic bits, and a lineup of interesting guests. This month is the show’s sixth episode, and it boasts an all-women roster of visitors, including mixologist Morgan Vinson, who will demo some summer cocktails, and sports card collector Cindy Dick. Marnee Burrus, who hosts the storytelling event, Then It Got Weird, also stops by to blab with the host. Find out more about these neighborhood folks at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 13, at Space 55, 636 East Pierce Street. Admission is $5. Call 602-663-4032 or visit www.space55.org. Amy Young

"Musical Icon: Elvis"
What do you get when you pair one of the world’s most beloved performers with one of the hippest museums around? It’s called “Musical Icon: Elvis,” and you can see it at the Musical Instrument Museum, obviously. The MIM, 4725 East Mayo Boulevard, is celebrating The King on Saturday, August 13, with a bevy of artifacts and activities spotlighting the performer’s tumultuous life. Presley crooned and gyrated his way to rock stardom in the 1950s and — in an ever-fickle industry — managed to keep his star burning bright until his untimely death in 1977 at age 42. While his demise is somewhat shrouded in mystery, his legacy most certainly is not. The museum is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, and the event is included in price of admission, which is $20 for adults. Visit mim.org or call 480-478-6000 for details. Rob Kroehler

DeSoto Garage Sale
It’s hard enough hosting a proper yard sale during the hotter months, but factor in apartment living and the logistics make it near impossible. After all, what is a garage sale without the garage?

Luckily there’s the DeSoto Garage Sale, a sell-your-stuff event at DeSoto Central Market — which was once a glorified garage itself. Oh, irony.

Think less Etsy meetup, more neighborhood marke,t and cart over everything from vintage clothing to household items to your VHS collection. The indoor sale starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, August 13, at 915 North Central Avenue. Advance sign-up is required for vendors. Spaces run $10 to $25 and require your own table, though some are available to rent for $10. For reservations, contact [email protected]. For event details, see www.facebook.com/DeSotoCentralMKT. Janessa Hilliard

Summer Swing Workshop
You might not be the next star of So You Think You Can Dance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick up some new moves. Learn to lindy hop, charleston, and balboa all in a single day at Take the Floor Dance Studio, 3153 East Lincoln Drive. This full-day immersion workshop hosted by Arizona Lindy Hop Society will teach you the basic moves, while also giving you the tools to create your own combinations.

The Summer Swing Workshop is on Saturday, August 13, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Take the Floor Dance Studio. The workshop costs $15 per person, or you can purchase a full weekend pass, which includes access to Friday and Saturday night dances, for $69 at azlindy.com. Katrina Montgomery

Never Not Funny
In the early days of comedy podcasts, there were like, three options (as opposed to the thousands available now), and one of them was Never Not Funny. Also known as the Jimmy Pardo Podcast, the weekly show hosted by comedian Jimmy Pardo and produced by Matt Belknap was created in 2006, and since it has welcomed such guests as Bob Odenkirk, Amy Poehler, Jon Hamm, and Conan O’Brien. Never Not Funny has expanded to the annual charity-based Pardcast-a-thon, taking the show on the road for live tapings.

Now it’s Phoenix’s turn. Pardo and pal will be at Stand Up Live, 50 West Jefferson Street, for Never Not Funny: The Jimmy Pardo Podcast Live. This 18-and-over live podcast experience starts at 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 14. Tickets are $20 at www.standuplive.com, and there’s a two-drink minimum. For more information, call 480-719-6100 or visit www.standuplive.com. Lauren Cusimano

Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart
A stylish French film on the big screen is a rare treat. A stylish Belgian-distributed film with French dialogue should activate similar pleasure centers. Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart, a 2014 procedural based on a true story from the late 1970s, offers the lovely, skewed ambiguity of character and motivation we find in films from other countries — that jarring, blissed-out poetry — while a gendarme follows the trail of a serial killer.

This entry in the Scottsdale Cinematheque series features reserved seating and complimentary popcorn and iced tea. Tickets are $7 for the showing on Sunday, August 14, at 2 p.m. at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 East Second Street. Screenings continue through Sunday, August 21. Visit www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org or call 480-499-8587. Julie Peterson

Slam 101
Learn slam poetry from one of Phoenix’s best slam poets this month at Wasted Ink Zine Distro, 2121 West University Drive, Suite 10. Joy Young is teaching classes on how to craft, edit, and perform a poem in a three-part workshop, Slam 101: From Page to Stage. At the end of the series, completed poems will be compiled into a chapbook, which participants can pick up for free at the beginning of September.

Check out the first class in Slam 101 on Sunday, August 14, from 5 to 6 p.m. Tickets to the full series are $25, or you can drop in on a single class for $10. For more info, check out Wasted Ink Zine Distro on Facebook. Katrina Montgomery