Pencil This In

REMINDER: Tickets are still on sale for this Saturday's music tribute to Arthur Russell at The Kitchen. You can purchase them here.

EVENT: Today's interviewee, John Darnielle, brings his band The Mountain Goats to the Brooklyn Masonic Temple tonight. Joining him for the AIDS Walk NY Benefit are the Daily Show's John Oliver, comedian Dave Hill and Toronto band Rock Plaza Central. Tickets are still on sale.

Friday // 7:30 p.m. // Brooklyn Masonic Temple [317 Clermont Ave, Brooklyn] // $25

MUSIC: Candian band du jour, Plants and Animals (pictured), are heading down to New York for a weekend of shows. Tonight they play Mercury Lounge with Ben Sollee, and tomorrow night they play Union Hall with Rock Plaza Central and These United States. Give them a listen, they're currently on a tour that won't have them back in the area for a long time.

Friday and Saturday // 8 p.m. // Mercury Lounge [217 E Houston St] and Union Hall [702 Union St, Park Slope] // $10

FOOD: Maybe it will stop raining by 11:30 tomorrow morning and the Taste of Tribeca block party can proceed as planned. And don’t hate it because it’s a street festival – this one’s not like the others. First off, proceeds go to Tribeca’s public elementary schools. Second, the party features food from fifty neighborhood restaurants, including Chanterelle, Duane Park, Bouley, and Tribeca Grill. There’s also live music, crafts, games, face painting, custom-made designer T-shirts by Steven Alan and Don Zinzell and, inexorably, a blog. A $40 tasting card lets you hit up six of the participating restaurants. – John Del Signore

Saturday // 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. // Duane Street [btwn Greenwich and Hudson] // Tasting cards are $40 adv, $45 day-of

EVENT: For the second year, the skateboarding community will gather under the Manhattan Bridge to celebrate the life of legendary skater Harold Hunter. You're encouraged to bring a board and ride as Deejays Neil Nice, Vinny Ponte and Pete Rock tend to the decks. Head over to the after party at KCDC Skate Shop when you're done.

Saturday // Noon to 6 p.m. // Manhattan Bridge Skatepark // Free

MOVIE: This Saturday the L.E.S. delivers a free outdoor movie (rain date is Sunday). Fittingly, the film they've chosen is Crossing Delancey, the 1988 film where "a Manhattan single meets a man through her Jewish grandmother's matchmaker."

Saturday // 8 p.m. // Outdoor lot on Broome between Essex and Ludlow // Free, RSVP here

THEATER: David Grim’s new comedy Steve & Idi has a clever premise to match its clever title: A down-and-out playwright (Steve) is about to kill himself on New Year’s Eve when the ghost of Ugandan dictator General Idi Amin crashes through his window with demands from the beyond. Besides a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Amin wants Steve to stay alive so he can write a play redeeming Amin’s barbaric reputation. The Village Voice’s Michael Feingold says that while the play is “more setup than payoff… Grimm squeezes as much fun, and as much horror, as he can out of it.” – John Del Signore

Saturday // 8 p.m. // Rattlestick Theater [224 Waverly Place] // $40

MUSIC: Bring your kid, or borrow one, to the last Kidrockers show of the season. This Sunday's lineup features Los Campesinos! and Pela; "its a mash up of UK punksters and working class Americans." The afternoon is hosted by Seth Herzog and Craig Baldo, and the recommended age group is 3 to 13. Bonus: free Fizzy Lizzy for all kidrockers at the show and a free Time Out Kids subscription with ticket purchase.

Sunday // 1 p.m. // the Living Room [154 Ludlow St] // $9

GIVEAWAY: After the jump, we're giving away five pairs of tickets to tonight's 7:30 screening of Poultrygeist, Night of The Chicken Dead. Shot and screened on 35mm, Poultrygeist blends the feather ruffling politics of Fast Food Nation, the satire of Shaun of The Dead and the show-stopping musical numbers of Spring Awakening to skewer the fast food industry, limousine liberals, and almost everyone else in American society.

Photo of Plants and Animals by Caroline Desilets.