11 Best Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Weekend

New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Friday, July 15, through Sunday, July 17. For more events, see our curated online calendar. 

Science with a Twist
Whether you grew up watching Bill Nye the Science Guy or reading Carl Sagan, there’s no rule that science stops being cool once you hit puberty — let alone adulthood.

Expanding on the Arizona Science Center’s Adults Night Out series is Science with a Twist, a 21-and-over grown-up geared evening of presentations and participation on Friday, July 15.

July’s “H2O” theme features stations for learning the chemistry of beer brewing with Four Peaks Brewing Company and testing your skills on the AZ Bounce Mechanical Surf Board. Central Arizona Project will give a limited-seating talk about bringing water to a thirsty desert, while strong-stomached students can try their hands at squid dissections.

The big kids take over from 6 to 10 p.m. at 600 East Washington Street. Tickets are $12 for non-members ($10 with membership) and include discount entry to other exhibits. Call 602-716-2000 or visit www.azscience.org/sciencewithatwist for a list of future themes. Janessa Hilliard

"Nature in Notion"
Seinfeld fans know how desperately George Costanza didn’t want his worlds to collide, but for artist Thuong Nguyen, it is the combined elements from his life in Vietnam and here in Arizona since his arrival as a refugee in 1975 that inspire his mixed-media artwork. His current exhibition, “Nature in Notion,” incorporates both Western and far Eastern imagery and materials, to examine his own sense of place. Nguyen’s abstract pieces are complex and involved, exploring the differences in the two cultures, along with man’s relationship to nature – they often include a simultaneous mix of specific patterns and bold, unhinged brush strokes. View the art and meet the maker from 6 to 10 p.m. on Friday, July 15, at Chartreuse, 1301 Grand Avenue. Admission is free. Call 480-544-2162 or visit www.chartreuseart.com. Amy Young

Cosmic Archery
Since archery has become kind of a thing over the past few years, it’s just about time to add in another element. What about strobe lights, blacklights, and high-energy music? Perfect.

Get stoked for Cosmic Archery on Friday, July 15, at Archery Headquarters Academy, 6401 West Chandler Boulevard in Chandler. Participants get 15 minutes of instruction, followed by 45 minutes of intergalactic shooting from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. – though it’s required you arrive 15 minutes early.

The event is designed for beginner-level shooters ages 8 and up, with all equipment provided by AHQA. Tickets are $30 at www.orgmyrange.com, and may the odds be ever in your favor. For more information, call 480-940-1814 or visit www.archeryhq.com. Lauren Cusimano

Daniel Silva Book-Signing
Globetrotting art restorer and spymaster Gabriel Allon returns in Daniel Silva’s latest political potboiler, The Black Widow. In this 16th entry in the Silva’s acclaimed series, Allon is recruited by the French government to assassinate Saladin, the mysterious mastermind behind a horrific terrorist attack in Paris. To accomplish this, Allon recruits the titular Natalie Mizrahi, a beautiful doctor, to infiltrate ISIS’s inner circle to strike her prey, who is planning an even bigger attack. 

Silva is signing copies of The Black Widow at the Poisoned Pen, 4014 North Goldwater Boulevard in Scottsdale, at 7 p.m. on Friday, July 15. Hardbound copies are available for $27.99. Call the Poisoned Pen, 480-947-2974, or visit poisonedpen.com for more information. Michael Senft

Iron Boy 34
In person, a boxing match is a stunning, visceral thing. The slap of hard leather against skin, the shuffle of rubber shoes across the mat, the hiss of breath after a fighter’s lightning-fast jab. When you’re breathing the same air as the men and women battling inside the ropes, you feel every punch as if you were taking it yourself. Real bouts, like the ones featuring local talent you’ll see at July 16’s Iron Boy 34, are something not only to be watched, but experienced. And if you’re able to experience them at a venue like Celebrity Theatre, where the ring is viewable in the round, all the better.

Experience Iron Boy 34 at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Celebrity Theatre, 440 North 32nd Street. General admission tickets are $29; ringside is $54. Call 602-267-1600 or visit celebritytheatre.com for more. Zach Fowle


3D Scanning & Printing
Think doctors and TSA agents are the only people who can put you through a scanner? Turns out, that’s not the case.

Grad student Andrew Noble will be scanning volunteers with an ASU Prism Lab 3D scanner, then using a 3D printer to make miniature versions of his subjects, during a free 3D Body Scanning event from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 16, at The Gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 West Rio Salado Parkway.
Kids get first crack at it if there isn’t time to scan everyone who shows up, but it’s plenty interesting to simply watch the technology at work. And you can check out 3D figures made by sculptor Dan Collins while you’re there. Visit www.tempe.gov for more details. Lynn Trimble

7 Minutes in Heaven
We never attended a party where anyone played Spin the Bottle or 7 Minutes in Heaven. Once, at a friend’s house, we did slow-dance in the carport to Olivia Newton-John, both ending and kicking off a long dry spell.

Is there anything you can do — or observe — for seven minutes that’ll make a difference (either a good difference or a bad difference)? The trauma quotient goes way down if it comes out from behind closed doors, so that’s what Space 55 does in its ongoing 7 Minutes ... series: They toss it all onto the stage. The company itself doesn’t know in advance what the performers will do, but no matter what, each gets a mere .1167 of an hour to present it.

Showtime’s 8 p.m. Saturday, July 16, at 636 East Pierce Street. The run continues through Saturday, July 30. Tickets are $10; visit www.space55.org. Julie Peterson

Little Black Dress Party
There’s a good chance most of the female attendees were going to wear a black dress anyway, but the Little Black Dress Party! 2016 made it official for Saturday, July 16. Come back in black to Blue Martini Lounge, 455 East High Street, Suite 101, at 8 p.m. for drinks, dancing, and music performed by Ashley Red.
Donations of $5 made at www.eventbrite.com act as your ticket, which also includes a glass of champagne and a chance to win prizes like Christian Louboutin Bianca pumps and services from the Perfect Skin Laser Center. Proceeds go to The Purple Society – an information hub for childhood cancer – while sponsors include JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. For more information, call 480-638-2583 or visit www.bluemartinilounge.com. Lauren Cusimano

Vinyasa with the Beer Yogis
Start your Sunday with sun salutations and Sun Up. The Beer Yogis are coming to Phoenix to share their love of yoga practice and pints as part of their 2016 Road Trip across the U.S. Join Melissa and Mikki for a 60-minute, all-levels vinyasa class at Sun Up Brewing, 322 East Camelback Road. After practice, indulge in your favorite beer while getting to know your fellow yogis.

Practice with the Beer Yogis begins at 10 a.m. on July 17, but you’ll want to arrive a few minutes early to check in. Tickets are $25 per person and include the class along with your first pint of beer. Bring your own yoga mat and accessories. For more information or to register, see thebeeryogis.com. Katrina Montgomery

Release Pool Party
If the rinky-dink pool party you hit up over Fourth of July weekend seemed like it was missing something, we know exactly what it needed: about 300 more people and 100-plus decibels of music from Thomas Gold, Germany’s re-mixer to the stars and deliverer of stamina-soaked numbers like his applauded edit of Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” and his own Miami anthem, “Sing2Me.” Luckily, you can get both at Release, Talking Stick Resort’s weekend pool party/concert series.

Release yourself Sunday, July 17, at The Pool at Talking Stick Resort, 9800 Talking Stick Way in Scottsdale. Doors open at 11 a.m. There’s a $10 cover for men after noon, but hotel guests get free entry and ladies get in free all day. Visit releasevip.com for more. Zach Fowle

Lucha Mexico
You can buy a luchador mask at the swap meet. But the shoddy foam lining will immediately be drenched with your head sweat and soon decay, while you will never, ever be a wrestler. Americans remain fairly nuts for the sport, but nothing like Mexicans. We’d be hard pressed to choose between watching the luchadores and watching the fans, but fortunately, Lucha Mexico, a brand-new documentary that goes deep into professional wrestling south of the border, depicts both. Among other leading lights of the scene, directors Alex Hammond and Ian Markiewicz follow Blue Demon Jr., Shocker (who is "1,000 percent Guapo"), Jon "Strongman" Andersen, and Pedro “El Hijo del Perro” Aguayo Ramirez, who died last year after suffering a broken neck in the ring.

The film screens at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at FilmBar, 815 North Second Street. Admission is $9, with entry restricted to people 18 and older. See www.thefilmbarphx.com. Julie Peterson