Go Out: What to do in Memphis, Sept. 21-27
FRIDAY
Southern soul-rockers JJ Grey & Mofro return to Memphis for a concert at Midtown’s Minglewood Hall on Friday night. The band will headline a bill that also includes Crescent City combo the New Orleans Suspects. Doors open at 7 p.m. Music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets to this all-ages event are $35 and are available at the box office, minglewoodhall.com or (901) 312-6058.
Minglewood Hall is at 1555 Madison Ave.
It's been demonstrated that plenty of film buffs are eager for big-screen revivals of masterpieces from Hollywood's golden age and from Japan's Studio Ghibli. But will fans show up in profitable numbers for a grungy slasher film that originally was embraced only by the most diehard of gorehounds? We'll find out when "The House on Sorority Row," a low-budget slice-and-dicer from 1983 in which a gaggle of college girls are stalked by a killer in a clown suit, returns for a pair of screenings. The unexpected rerelease is the first in an intermittent series dubbed "Retro Nightmares," organized by the horror media website Bloody-disgusting.com.
7 p.m. Friday and Thursday, Cordova Cinema. Tickets: $12. Visit malco.com.
SATURDAY
Admission is free — yes, free — all day Saturday to a number of Mid-South institutions for those who download a ticket as part of Smithsonian Magazine's 14th annual Museum Day. Intended to be "a celebration of boundless curiosity," the initiative gives free admission to a great many museums all over the country; locally, visitors to the Smithsonian Magazine website can download tickets for the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, the Blues Hall of Fame Museum, the Belz Museum of Judaic and Asian Art, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens and the Morton Museum of Collierville History.
Visit www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday.
Showcasing 20 outdoor sculptures by New Mexico artists Jennifer and Kevin Box, "Origami in the Garden" is the latest outdoor exhibition at the Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry Road. Scheduled to be on view for the next six months, the metal sculptures have a paradoxical appeal: They are made of hard metal, but they look like oversized versions of the delicate folded paper animals and plants typical of the Japanese art of origami. The Botanic Garden will host numerous activities over the next few weeks in conjunction with the exhibit, including parties and origami classes.
Visit memphisbotanicgarden.com.
Comedian Nick Cannon presents “Wild 'N Out Live” in Memphis. Touring across the country, Cannon and the cast of the hit MTV sketch comedy show will be bringing their brand of funny to the stage of downtown’s FedExForum on Saturday night. Tickets for the show range from $16 to $127 and are on sale now at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com or (800) 745-3000.
Showtime is 8 p.m. FedExForum is at 190 Beale St.
Devoted to all-night-long cult cinema, the Time Warp Drive-In this month coughs up a quartet of occasionally intentionally hard-to-stomach feature films by the proud "Prince of Puke" and patron saint of DIY independent cinema, writer-director John Waters. Dubbed "John Waters' Trashy Sinematic September," the lineup includes "Cecil B. DeMented" (2000), with Stephen Dorff as an insane indie filmmaker; "Cry-Baby" (1990), with Johnny Depp as the title lachrymal Elvis-esque greaser; the infamous (not to mention coprophagous) "Pink Flamingos" (1972), which gives viewers as well as cross-dressing lead star Divine plenty to chew on in a story about a woman seeking to be crowned "The Filthiest Person Alive"; and the Waters-Divine team's follow-up, "Female Trouble" (1974), about a teenage-runaway-turned-mass murderer.
7 p.m., Summer Quartet Drive-In. Tickets: $10; children under 10 free. Visit malco.com.
SUNDAY
Veteran R&B singer Tamia brings her “Passion Like Fire" tour to the Bluff City. The Grammy-nominated Canadian soul diva will headline a show at downtown’s New Daisy on Sunday night. General admission tickets are $27.50, balcony seating is $44.50, and meet-and-greet packages are also available for $95. Doors open at 7 p.m., and music starts at 8 p.m.
The New Daisy is at 330 Beale.
TUESDAY
Like Godzilla, John Wick and Amanda Seyfried singing ABBA songs, the "Indie Memphis Preview Party" is baaaack! Free and open to all, the party represents a sort of communal "unboxing" with food and drink, as Indie Memphis organizers draw back the metaphorical curtain to reveal all the movies, concerts and other events scheduled for the Indie Memphis Film Festival, set for Nov. 1-5 at various (mostly) Midtown and Downtown venues.
6-9 p.m., The Rec Room, 3000 Broad. Visit indiememphis.com.
THURSDAY
Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel and Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the consul-general of Japan in Nashville, will introduce and discuss "Persona Non Grata: The Story of Chiune Sugihara," a 2015 drama about the real-life Japanese diplomat (played by Toshiaki Karasawa) who defied the empire's orders and saved the lives of some 6,000 Jews at the outbreak of World War II. A prelude of sorts to the Sept. 30 Memphis Japan Festival at the Memphis Botanic Garden, the free screening is hosted by Jewish Community Partners in association with the Japanese-American Society of Tennessee; the event represents the movie's state premiere.
6:30 p.m., Paradiso. Admission is free, but space is limited. To reserve a ticket, visit www.timemphis.org or call 901-767-3130.
Before the gargantuan special-effects-laden blockbusters from producer Steven Spielberg and director Michael Bay, there was "The Transformers: The Movie," an animated feature film from 1986 that is making a special return to the big screen. Inspired by the television cartoon series that was intended to promote a line of Hasbro toy cars and trucks that transform into robot action figures, the film has a more impressive cast than any of its live-action successors: Among those lending their distinctive pipes to the story's cast of warring Autobots and Decepticons are Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Scatman Crothers and Orson Welles.
7 p.m., Paradiso. Tickets: $13.50. Visit malco.com.