FAMILY FUN
HASCON
The Pawtucket-based Hasbro Corporation is a behemoth in the world of toys and games, possessing such hot properties as Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, Dungeons and Dragons, Transformers, Nerf, Play Doh, Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony—and it goes on. All those universes will collide at this convention, boasting such primo celeb guests as Mark Wahlberg, David Ortiz, Stan Lee, and others.
Sept. 8-10, Rhode Island Convention Center/Dunkin’ Donuts Center, Providence, $30-$165, hascon.hasbro.com
FESTIVALS
Boston Arts Festival
Inaugurated by Tom Menino in 2003, this annual celebration of what the Festival affectionately refers to as “the ahts,” features dozens of visual artists, craftspeople and musicians, showcasing the ever-vibrant artistic scene of a city better known for its colleges, historical tourism, and corporate powerhouses. Past festivals have brought as many as 50,000 aht-lovahs to the waterfront.
Sept. 9-10, Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, Atlantic Ave. at Mercantile St., Boston, free, thebostonartsfestival.com
Cambridge Carnival
This is the 25th annual Cambridge Carnival, a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture that starts with a spirited parade from Central Sq. to Kendall Sq., famed for the colorful, handmade costumes of its participants. Then the festival kicks off in earnest at Kendall, with tons of live music, food, crafts vendors and everything else you’ve come to expect.
Sept. 10, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., various locations, Cambridge, free, cambridgecarnival.org
THEATER
WARHOLCAPOTE
True story: when a young Andy Warhol saw an also-young Truman Capote’s notorious first author photo (Google it), he was transfixed. It took years for them to become friends, but by the late ’70s they were even working on a Broadway musical. This American Repertory Theater production is adapted by Rob Roth from hours of taped conversations around that time.
Sept. 9-Oct. 13, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, $25-$85, americanrepertorytheater.org
COMEDY
Boston Comedy Arts Festival
This annual comedy blowout at Improv Boston is a feast of both performances and workshops. There are more than 300 artists in all, some international. Improv is best represented, with one night devoted exclusively to the immortal Harold, but there will also be sketch and stand-up showcases, musical comedy, a couple live podcast recordings and even a little juggling.
Through Sept. 10, ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St., Cambridge, $14-$22, bostoncomedyfestival.com
Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin
This Los Angeles comedy duo, known for their YouTube channel Just Between Us, describe themselves as “co-dependent besties.” They perform as a classic “odd couple”—Gaby the more worldly, Allison the more conventional—providing amusing, roundabout answers to viewers’ relationship questions. Now they’ve published a book whose title, “I Hate Everyone But You,” would definitely be an intense text to get.
Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m., Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, $17-$82, thewilbur.com
MAGIC
Joe LeDoux
Local magician Joe LeDoux has an generously unorthodox sense of his art form’s scope, even considering skateboarding a form of magic, which is probably why he’s at Maximum Hesh tonight, where he’ll show some of his visual art and films as well as perform his signature conceptual illusions, by which he hopes to leave his audience, in his words, “feeling animated.”
Sept. 8, 7 p.m., Maximum Hesh, 378A Highland Ave., Somerville, $5, joeledoux.com
MOVIES
Paper Lanterns
Director Barry Frechette and producer Peter Grilli will appear live at this screening of their film about Hiroshima survivor Shigeaki Mori’s quest to identify the 12 American prisoners of war who were killed in the singularly horrific 1945 American bombing. It’s a story that confronts the limits of war’s senseless savagery and the heights of human goodness that can still emerge in its wake.
Sept. 7-8, Anchor Room, 50 Milk St., Boston, $10, japansocietyboston.org
The Warriors
In 2017, the not-yet-gentrified New York of 1979’s gangland fantasia “The Warriors” seems to exist not just in another decade, but in another country altogether. The film was, reportedly, so evocative that its release provoked vandalism and even murders—something that director Walter Hill has attributed to the fact that rival gang members would both unwittingly attend the same screenings!
Sept. 8, 11:59 p.m., Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, $13, coolidge.org
MUSIC
JP Music Fest
Allston will always be Rock City—well, at least as long as bands can actually afford to live there—but JP’s no musical slouch, as this annual festival attests, with a seriously diverse array of performances in jazz, rock, folk, world, Americana, rockabilly, Afro-pop and on and on—nearly 20 bands in all, on two stages. It seems like a fine way to bid summer adieu.
Sept. 9, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m., Pinebank Field, Jamaica Pond, Perkins St. at Jamaicaway, Jamaica Plain, free, jpmusicfestival.com
Bayside/Potty Mouth
This bill is a mini-history lesson in recent punk pop history. Bayside emerged from Long Island in the early ’00s, with a cathartic pop/hardcore fusion similar to peers like Fall Out Boy or Taking Back Sunday. Potty Mouth emerged from western Mass. in 2013, representative of the many punk-pop bands in this decade who’ve exchanged hardcore influences for indie pop, garage and 90’s alt-rock.
Sept. 10, 6 p.m., Paradise Rock Club, 967 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, $23-$27, all ages, crossroadspresents.com
SHOPPING
Rock and Roll Yard Sale
Hipsters, your yard sale is here, with vendors distributing all that stuff ya’ll like, like vinyl records, vintage clothing and DIY everything. Even those who’ve combed through everything at In Your Ear and the Garment District may be pleasantly surprised. There will be a DJ and three live bands: the Low Cards, the Silks and Willa Mamet and Paul Miller.
Sept. 10, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Union Square Plaza, 90 Union Sq., Somerville, free, facebook.com/SomervilleRockAndRollYardSale
