13 things to do in Philly this weekend

MUSIC

SufjanStevens
Thursday and Friday
Academy of Music
240 S. Broad St.
$35-$40, 215-893-1999
www.kimmelcenter.org
SufjanStevens earned his status as one of indie pop’s premierewunderkindsin 2005 with his masterpiece “Illinois”; he followed it up by delving into electronic sounds on his 2010 epic “The Age of Adz,” which presented an edgy, dissonant contrast to his previously gentle, folksy sound. His latest, “Carrie and Lowell,” an apparent return to form, dropped in March.

Robert Rich
Saturday, 8 p.m.
St. Mary’s Church
3916 Locust Walk
$15, 866-777-8932
www.ticketweb.com
Over the past 30 years, ambient musician Robert Rich has been highly influential on a variety of electronic music genres. He got an early start, building his first synthesizer at the age of 13, and he’s barely rested since, even while performing for sleeping audiences early in his career — performances that would last up to nine hours, seeping into the audience’s unconscious.

MOVIES

‘The Wind Rises’
Thursday, 6:30 p.m.
Claudia Cohen Hall
3620 Walnut St.
Free, 267-348-0250
www.subarucherryblossom.org
Penn screens this 2013 animated biopic by Hayao Miyazaki, which tells of the ups and downs in the life of Japanese aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A5M. The film, Miyazaki’s first solo directing effort since 2008, was a great success for the legend filmmaker, grossing more than any Japanese film of 2013 and scoring an Oscar nomination.

GOING OUT

Shots for Shots
Thursday, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Tavern on Broad
200 S. Broad St.
$10, 215-241-5738
www.una-gp.org
Have a few drinks to support Shot@Life, the United Nations Foundation’s global campaign to vaccinate children who might otherwise go unvaccinated. They’ll be offering half-priced drinks and $4 “signature shots.” Don’t listen to those fringe characters bad-mouthing vaccines — vaccines save lives! And why not get a little buzz on while helping to save those lives?

ART

Marcellus Shale Documentary Project
Thursday through May 30
Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
1400 N. American St.
Free, 215-232-5678
www.philaphotoarts.org
This exhibition shows a collective photojournalist investigation into the gas drilling in Pennsylvania’s share of the Marcellus Shale, an enormous geological formation extending across the Appalachian Basin. Six photographers contributed, meeting with a variety of people affected by the drilling, from homeowners, to doctors, to dedicated activists.

Tinga Tinga Today: Tanzanian Popular Art in Transition
Thursday through July 31
Indigo Arts
1400 N. American St.
Free, 215-765-1041
www.indigoarts.org
The Tanzanian Tinga Tinga genre is a popular style geared toward European and American tourists, usually depicting cartoon animals, that originated in the late ’60s with the artist Edward Saidi Tingatinga, who made his works with bicycle paint on masonite. In the years since his death, other artists have evolved his humorous, brightly colored, kitschy folk art style.

THEATER

‘Penelope’
Through April 26
Prince Music Theater
1412 Chestnut St.
$25-$30, 215-454-9776
inisnuatheatre.ticketleap.com
Inis Nua Theatre presents Edna Walsh’s re-imagining of part of Homer’s “The Odyssey.” The suitors of Penelope, who’s still holding out for the return of her husband Odysseus from the Trojan War, hang out in an empty swimming pool, wondering when she’s going to give up. It’s a bit like a very messed up episode of “The Bachelorette.”

‘The Shadow of a Gunman’
Thursday through April 25
Adrienne Theater
2030 Sansom St.
$15-$25, 800-838-3006
www.brownpapertickets.com
Irish Heritage Theater performs this play by Sean O’Casey, a tragicomedy set in 1923, during the Irish War for Independence. Donal, a would-be poet, takes advantage of his neighbor’s mistaken suspicion that he’s a member of the IRA, becoming the most popular guy in town. When he has to put his money where his mouth is, however, things get a lot less funny.

DANCE

Cosas de Mujeres
Friday through Sunday
Leonard Pearlstein Gallery
3401 Filbert St.
$16-$20, 800-838-3006
pasionyarte.brownpapertickets.com
The flamenco ensemble Pasion y Arte presents this installation dance piece exploring the meaning of the accoutrements of the female flamenco dancer, like the fan, shawl and long train, at a time when traditional notions of gender are facing challenges from many ideologies. The piece features original music written and performed live by San Francisco-based flamenco artist Ricardo Diaz.

COMEDY

Laugh MS Away
Saturday, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Helium Comedy Club
2031 Sansom St.
$25, 800-838-3006
www.brownpapertickets.com
This comedy fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Research Institute is hosted by Henry Foley and includes stand-up sets from Artie Lang, Joe Materese, Chris Cotton and other special guests. Cotton’s involvement has an especially personal dimension — his mother was already suffering from the disease when he was born and eventually lost her life to it.

BOOKS

Ryka Aoki
Saturday, 7 p.m.
Big Blue Marble
551 Carpenter Ln.
Free, 215-844-1870
www.bigbluemarblebooks.com
Transgender novelist Ryka Aoki, on tour from the West Coast, will read from her novel “He Mele A Hilo: A Hilo Story,” a sometimes surreal tale set in Hawaii, delving into the lives of several characters whose stories intertwine. She’ll be joined by fellow trans writers Dane Edidi, a novelist, and Tyler Vile, a poet.

FOOD

Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival
Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Manayunk neighborhood
4312 Main St.
Free, 215-482-9565
www.manayunk.com
Spring is here and that means outdoor festivals. Forty food carts will gather at this festival with options for every palate. Other attractions include a farmer’s market (featured foodstuff: strawberries), a beer garden, live music and a section for kids called Recess — because, as everyone knows, few words please a kid more than “recess.”

CONVENTION

KPOP-alypse-KON
Friday and Saturday
International House
3701 Chestnut St.
$25-$60, 215-387-5125
www.ihousephilly.org
This convention, the first-ever of its kind in Philly, is for fans of Korean pop culture —music, video games, comics, movies fashion, food and ephemeral kitsch of all sorts —with vendors, panels, live performance and everything else you’d demand from a full-on fan convention, but crammed into two days, just like people in Seoul cram themselves into those tiny, tiny apartments.