5 Events To Beat The Heat This Week

After the long weekend, it’s likely that the thought of spending one solitary second outside in this rotisserie oven that we call a city makes you want to puke. The heat is no joke, and we haven’t even reached the hottest point of the year yet. As such, free air conditioning or access to cool, clear water is an important component of your post-weekend recovery.

Fortunately, the city’s theaters and art galleries are giving away free air conditioning this week, assuming that you’re willing to pick up a ticket to one of the excellent performances. While you bask in the chilled air, you can enjoy impromptu classical jams, a socially-conscious dance number, and a film about the city’s most legendary athlete. It’s already looking like a pretty cool week, assuming you survive the walk to your car without melting.

Classical Open Mic
Tuesday, July 7
Buzzbrews Kitchen
Free

You’ve probably been to so many tragically bad guy-with-guitar open-mic nights that the idea of spending your Tuesday night listening to amateur musicians doesn’t sound like a good time. But Classical Open Mic at Buzzbrews is like no other open-mic in the city. Here, professional and amateur musicians round up their flutes, oboes, violins, and other instruments that you were too lazy to learn how to play, and put on one hell of a show. Nachos and Brahms may not be the most obvious pairing, but it’s way better than you’d ever imagine.

Cheryl Finfrock: The Quiet Person’s Chronicle
Thursday, July 9
The Magnolia Theatre
Free

Free art is always something that one should take advantage of, especially when it is also conveniently located in a movie theatre, not to mention the gorgeous Ro2 Art Gallery at the Magnolia Theatre. In this series of paintings, Texas native Cheryl Finfrock examines “the picture plane as a stage and those who occupy it characters with their paradoxical moments, synchronicities, and predicaments.” If you’re not entirely sure what that means, you can ask the artist herself, who will be in attendance at the exhibition’s opening reception on Thursday.

Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot
Friday, July 10
Texas Theatre
$10

Even if you don’t know the first thing about basketball, everyone is a fan of Dirk Nowitzki. Whether it’s uncanny ability to hit that one-legged fadeaway at the most crucial of times or the fact that he made Dallas Mavericks basketball actually worth watching for the first time in history, Nowitzki is our city’s most beloved sports hero. In Nowitzki: The Perfect Shot, you’ll get an up-close-and-personal view of Nowitzki’s life, along with plenty of analysis from just about every famous basketball player on the planet. Everyone agrees: Dirk’s a badass.

The Show About Men
Saturday, July 11
Bath House Cultural Center
$18

As part of the Festival Of Independent Theatres that will take over the Bath House Cultural Center for most of July, The Show About Men is a great way to kick off this month of solid theatre, art, and dance performances. This collaborative dance piece examines the “catch-22” of toxic masculinity in our culture, which comes with a great deal of social privilege but also plenty of consequences. In keeping with the FIT structure, your $18 ticket also grants access to the performance that follows.

The Urban Slide
3400 Sylvan Ave
Sunday, July 12
$20-32

Only an idiot would turn down the opportunity to go down a 1,000 foot slip-n-slide. The Urban Slide has traveled across the country, including stops in Baltimore, Tulsa, and Cinncinati, giving adults and kids alike the opportunity to experience this insane slide up close and personal. You’ll pay $20 for the privilege of going down the slide just once, but $32 gives you a wristband that will allow you to take the plunge as many times as you like. Food trucks and other vendors will be onsite, and thank goodness. 1,000 feet of sliding is probably going to make you really hungry.