The following message is relevant for the week beginning on… Thursday… September 13 and ending on… Wednesday… September 19. The following items have been selected to heighten your personal amusement and to make the most efficient use of your personal leisure time here in beautiful… Richmond… Virginia.

Recommendations made by the LeisureBot 5000 are meant strictly as suggestions and have been based on a patented 35-point entertainment merit system developed by Automated Leisure Industries and licensed exclusively to… Brick… Weekly. Automated Leisure Industries and… Brick… Weekly… assume no responsibility for misinformation, cancellations or false claims on behalf on the following event organizers and participants. The following recommendations are meant only as suggestions and in no way reflect an endorsement by Automated Leisure Industries and… Brick… Weekly.

Selection #091307-01 – Artist and photographer Rosamond Purcell will present a lecture entitled, “THINGS is where it’s at” on Thursday (9.13) at 4pm on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Oliver Hall (1001 West Main Street) Room 1031. Purcell has been called the “doyenne of decay” as a tribute to her fondness for photographing dead things, weird things and old dead weird things. 

Selection #091307-03 – Comedian Brett Butler will perform humorous recitations at the Richmond Funny Bone (11800 West Broad Street, Suite 1090) from Thursday to Sunday. Best known as the star of the television sitcom “Grace Under Fire,” Butler is also famous for her deep voice, Southern drawl and former alcoholic shenanigans. Show time and ticket information is available at http://www.richmondfunnybone.com

Selection #091407-01 – A screening of the documentary motion picture, “Into Great Silence,” (introduced by Dr. Nancy Klein Maguire, author of “An Infinity of Little Hours” ) will occur this Friday at 6pm at The Library of Virginia (800 East Broad Street). Both the published work and the film deal with the daily life of the Carthusian monks, a community of religious hermits who spend most of their time praying, gardening or flogging themselves. Warning: the film does not feature husky actor/comedian Jack Black, a climatic fight scene on the Golden Gate Bridge or a hit theme song performed by the rock group Nickelback. It does feature elderly and devout religious men. Proceed at your own risk.  Tickets are $15 ($10 for students) and include food and fancy beverages.

Selection #091407-02 – The Diavolo modern dance troupe performs at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond on Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm in the Alice Jepson Theatre. The performance is officially described as such: “…doors, chairs and stairways provide the back-drop for dramatic movement—leaping, flying, twirling—that creates metaphors for the challenge of relationships, the absurdities of life and the struggle to maintain our humanity in an increasingly technological world.” In other words, the elaborate stage performance will act as therapy for an entire nation of people who have anxieties about programming video cassette recorders, answering cell phones during sexual intercourse and worrying if their repetitive joint injury colloquially known as “Blackberry thumb” will ever heal. Interesting.

Selection #091507-01 – The ¿Qué Pasa? Festival of Virginia will be held Saturday at the Science Museum of Virginia (2500 West Broad Street) from noon until 8pm. Organized by the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the festival is designed to celebrate the culture and contributions of Hispanics. Details on the specific vendors were not available, but logical calculation concludes there will be a heavy representation of spicy foodstuffs. Entertainment will be provided by an Afro-Caribbean Orchestra, a mariachi band, the Latin Ballet of Virginia, Capoeira dancers, a Guatemalan rapper and a giant piñata shaped in the likeness of CNN television news personality Lou Dobbs. Consult http://www.quepasafestival.com for ticket information.

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