Geekend Picks: Celebrate the End of the World @ the Penn Museum & PhilaMOCA

It’s the last weekend before Christmas, and what’s a geek to do? In the off chance you have no plans and are itching to do something, don’t worry – the Geekend has you covered. Read on for full details!

ALL WEEKEND

There’s comedy going on all three days, thanks to PHIT. Philly Improv Theater’s 100% Improvised Baby Jesus’ Menorah Kwanztravaganza & Comedy Spectacular (On Ice)* will be at The Adrienne Theatre Skybox on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Friday and Saturday shows run from 9-10, and the Sunday show is from 7-8. All shows cost just $12 and, while not actually on ice, should be a fun time.

FRIDAY

Friday is all about end-of-the-world festivities, brought to you by the Mayan calendar. Start the day off at the Rotunda with their 2012 Winter Solstice Celebration (end of Mayan calendar jam, which runs from noon to midnight and costs $10. It’s full of interesting stuff, including “Clan/Band Mothers Speaking, Aboriginal Drumming and Dancing, Storytelling, M.A.C.R.O.

Members performing, Mini-Documentaries on the history and current condition of indigenous-peoples in the ‘Americas,’ Barter-Opportunities,” and, of course, the three Fs: “Food, Fun, and Festivities!”

They’re not the only ones celebrating the coming apocalypse, though. PhilaMOCA’s three-day symposium ends Friday with their panel, The End of the World, Again: The Apocalypse in Media, Science, and Culture at 7pm. It will be following by a 21+ End of the World Party, with S.T.A.R.W.O.O.D. as the musical performer, as well as complimentary refreshments and a “farewell toast” at midnight. You can do all of this for just $10. Check out the Geekadelphia write-up for more information.

Johnny Brenda’s is also vying for you to spend your final moments with them. At 5pm, they’ll be tapping Tröegs Impending Descent, which was brewed to “commemorate the expiration of planet Earth.” They encourage everyone to come and “celebrate the countdown to extinction and raise a goblet of this colossal Russian Imperial Stout as we plummet into oblivion.” Stick around until 8, when they’ll have plenty of apocalypse music to go with the beer that just melted your face off.

Of course, you could also spend your day doing something totally normal with your kid, and check out both the Whitman Gaming Club at 3 or the Central Library’s Lego Club at 3:30. Not everything has to be about gloom and doom, you know.

SATURDAY

On Saturday and Sunday, there are lots of things to do at the Franklin Institute. From 10:00-4:45 you can learn about Papermaking, and from 10:30-3:00, you can do some Solar Observing (I wish I’d been there for the meteor showers!). At 12:30 and 4:00 there’s the Liquid Air Show. At 1:30 and 4:00 you can learn about the Science of Ships, and at 2:00 there’s the Science of Fireworks Show. All of this sounds completely awesome and the events are free with general museum admission. Check out the full holiday schedule for more information.

There are tons of Christmas-themed movies to see on Saturday, too. The Saturday Family Matinee at County Theater is Polar Express, which starts at 10:30 and costs just $4. Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas will be playing at the Eastwick Branch of the Free Library as their Family Movie Matinee at 2pm. And it’s going to be a busy day at the Colonial Theatre! At 2pm for $8, you can see A Christmas Story. At 4:30, It’s a Wonderful Life is playing, also for $8 (you can also see it on Sunday at 2pm). But the real laugher will be at 8pm, with the only non-Christmas movie on the list: Joel Hodgson: Riffing Myself will be playing, with tickets costing $15.

You can read more about A Christmas Story and Joel Hodgson: Riffing Myself at their respective Geekadelphia articles.

If you’re looking to have some fun with your teenager on Saturday, take them to the Greater Olney Branch of the Free Library. They’ll be having Teen Game Day there, with access to a Wii and a PlayStation (I’m assuming they mean PlayStation 3, but hey! PlayStation games are cool, too) as well as “popular” board games.

And finally, Clash fans will definitely have a way to spend their Saturday evening. The North Star Bar will be having a show called In Memory of Joe Strummer : A Benefit for Strummerville, occurring on the 10th anniversary of Strummer’s death. The show, which starts at 8, costs $10, and will feature the music of “Joe Strummer, The Clash, The 101ers, The Mescaleros and more as performed by Split Red, The Successful Failures, The Future Unwritten, Cold Roses, Betty Iron Thumbs, Blayer PointduJour & The Rockers Galore, I Yahn I Arkestra and more.” There’s a lot of “and more” going on in that description!

SUNDAY

There’s not too much going on Sunday, which will give you a chance to recover if you’ve been running around already for two days. But in case you do want to go out, the World Cafe Live has an interesting holiday-themed event called Holidelic: Snowglobe at 6pm. For $20, you can see “the magic, the mirth, the mayhem and the memories” which is described as a “holiday funk-tacular blends the influences of P-Funk, Sly Stone and other 1970s and ‘80s funk and soul bands into original songs that celebrate diversity, mild familial seasonal dysfunction, individuality, and holiday booty shaking.”

You could also wrap up the weekend with some comedy. There’s a Yuletide Holiday Extravaganza calledA Banner Year at the ‘Ol Bender Household at 9pm. The show will be hosted by Chip Chantry and will feature sketch comedy from Camp Woods, ManiPedi, Secret Pants, and Specific Jawns, as well as a burlesque showcase with

Randi Warhol, and music from Emily and Micah McGraw. For $10, this sounds pretty awesome.

That’s it for the Geekend! We won’t be around next week, so you’re on own for finding stuff to do to ring in the New Year. See you in 2013!