5 Things to Know Today

Good morning, Bethlehem. Here comes the weekend.

1. Today is Friday, June 10, 2011. Happy 83rd birthday, Maurice Sendak, children’s author and illustrator, perhaps best known for writing “Where the Wild Things Are.” He also wrote two of my personal childhood favorites: “Chicken Soup With Rice,” and “In the Night Kitchen.” Born on this day 101 years ago was Chester A. Burnett, better known to blues music fans as Howlin’ Wolf, one of the all time great and influential musicians and singers to come from the classic Chicago blues scene of the 1950s. Today is also the 19th birthday of Kate Upton, who was the “rookie of the year,” in the most recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. I personally thought the award was well deserved. Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, today we also mark the birthdays of former presidential contender John Edwards, who is currently under indictment for breaking campaign finance laws, and former New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer. Insert your own joke here.
2. Local 60's band cover favorites, the Large Flowerheads, play a free concert in the Sculpture Garden, just east of at 10 E. Church St. beginning at 6 p.m. Bring a lawn chair or a blanket to enjoy this show sponsored by the city’s Fine Arts Commission.
3. Blues belter Alexis P. Suter brings her 7-piece band and larger-than-life stage presence to tonight at 8 p.m. Club insiders tell me she and her band blow the roof off the place every time they have a show there. Tickets are $20.50.
4. It’s Shark Night at the as Movies Games and More brings its portable cinema to show “JAWS,” the 1975 thriller starring the biggest, baddest great white shark of your nightmares. You can also hear Dean Fessler from the Shark Research Institute give you a more realistic depiction of these eating machines from the deep. Admission to the pool for this event is free. It all starts at 6 p.m.
5. And if a giant, man-eating shark isn’t enough to scare you out of your wits, how about a cinematic tale of horror based on a short story by 19th Century master Edgar Allan Poe? The Frank Banko Alehouse Theaters at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks shows the “The Pit and the Pendulum” as part of its “Revenge of the Late Night Horror Film” series both tonight and Saturday at 11:15 p.m. The 1961 classic stars Vincent Price and was directed by low-budget horror auteur Roger Corman. Tickets are $9.50 or $7 for ArtsQuest members.