Whether you’re a real go-getter or more the sedentary type, moving options this weekend include activities related to basketball, bicycles and trains. Whew, I’m bushed already.
Or you can sit relatively tight and still be moved by strapping aerialists or stirring musicians who, in their own amazing ways, know how to lift you out of yourself. Don’t worry, its only temporary.
Can you get it all done before Monday? Maybe. Have you had your Wheaties? It couldn’t hurt!
1. 2017 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Basketball is a fast-moving game, but some of the big names in the sport will last long after the skeletons attached to them have “shuffled off this mortal coil.” Quick digression: Would Shakespeare have gone for basketball? Heck, he would have written a play about it: “To dunk, or not to dunk, that is the question.”
To date, nobody’s penned a moving piece of theater about the roundball life. Yet many of those who’ve authored greatness on the court have gotten their everlasting due, including the latest crop of consummate ballers to be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City.
Maybe you’ve never hit a game-winning jumper at the buzzer, but you can be there to get out of your chair for fabled college players Tim Duncan (Wake Forest), Cleo Hill (Winston-Salem State), Scott May (Indiana), Rick Mount (Purdue), Paul Silas (Creighton), John Stockton (Gonzaga), Jay Williams (Duke) and coach Bo Ryan (Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Wisconsin-Platteville). Wear a ref’s jersey at your own risk.
Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland, 1228 Main St., Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $30-$150.
Experienced model train maniacs and novice mini-choo-choo fans alike will be energized by the nationally-touring Great Train Show, where they can find giant working model train displays, a LEGO train layout and hundreds of tables of tiny locomotives and accoutrements for sale and on exhibition. There will workshops and demos for enthusiasts of all ages, but you have to be a wee one to jump on the riding train for kids. Sorry, dad.
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 pm.; KCI Expo Center, 11730 N. Ambassador Drive, Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $10 Saturday (good for both days), $9 Sunday, ages 11 and younger free.
This annual cycling event invites bicyclists to get cranking and collect, transport and deliver as many groceries as they can for donation to the St. Peter’s Social Services Food Pantry. The cyclist bearing the weightiest load of foodstuffs is deemed the winner. But everyone who participates can be moved by the effort to help families in need at Thanksgiving. Not a cyclist? You can still be part of the action plan – with your own food donation in hand – at the Cranksgiving KC “beer & chili feed” after party.
Saturday, 12:30-6 p.m.; St. Peter’s Catholic Church, 815 E. Myer Blvd., Kansas City, Mo.; admission: free.
With Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus now out of business, that leaves room for the Shrine Circus to run in and take the traditional circus spotlight. Gasp in awe at daring aerialists and acrobats! Gasp with delight at the hijinx of the Shrine clowns! Gasp for breath while inhaling way too much cotton candy! It’s OK, the circus is as fine a place as any to go a little overboard, and in so doing lend a helping hand to Shriners Hospitals for Children and other commendable works undertaken by the men in fezzes.
Thursday and Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m., 2:30 and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 1 and 5 p.m.; Silverstein Eye Centers Arena, 19100 E. Valley View Parkway, Independence, Mo.; tickets: $12-$45.
5. Cindy Wilson
Are you ready to weirdly glide around on the dance floor to strange modern rock performed by classic new waver and co-founding member of the B-52s, Cindy Wilson? A simple "yes" will do! The ever-partying B-52s were at the Uptown Theater only last month, and now comes a far more subdued Wilson with her own backup band promoting the lush, psychedelic throb of her new solo album, “Change.” Which probably means we won’t get a shred of B-52s … unless she’s inexplicably moved to launch into “Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland,” which is certainly trance-inducing enough to be squeezed into her fresh guise. The evening’s opener will be Olivia Jean, who’s touring in support of her debut album, “Bathtub Love Killings.” Nice.
Friday, 8 p.m.; the Riot Room, 4048 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: $20-$35.
6. Queen’s Greatest Hits with the Kansas City Symphony
You may have to dive deep into your wallet to snag tickets on the secondary market to this much-anticipated concert featuring the kinetic songs of historic rock band Queen as vigorously performed by the Kansas City Symphony. Or maybe just show up early and take your chances at the box office, in case someone couldn’t get a sitter and had to return their face-value tickets at the last minute. Already have seats? Good move!
Saturday, 8 p.m.; Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway, Kansas City, Mo.; tickets: starting at $40.
Brian McTavish is a regular arts and culture contributor for KCUR 89.3. You can reach him at brianmctavish@gmail.com.
