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Friday, March 29, 2024

whitespaceAggregation No. 1Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with arts, crafts, kids and no beer. Yeah, yeah, St. Patrick’s Day: beer, green, vomit. Swell. If you’re feeling a bit of beery backlash and/or have kids, try St. Patrick’s another way and stop by a free St. Patrick’s-themed Local Artist Market at noon Saturday at The Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. The 4-year-old artists market will have Irish-themed work as well as the usual array of work by local painters, photographers, jewelers, knitters and other creative types, and there will be live bluegrass music while you shop. (The Burren also has a $5 market day lunch special.)

As for the kids, there are stories to hear and crafts to make at 11 am. Saturday at The Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square, and a themed treasure hunt from 3 to 4 p.m. at The World’s Only Curious George Store, 1 JFK St., Harvard Square. Curious George himself will be there to delight and/or terrify the young ones.

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Aggregation No. 2Indulge your musical theater sweet tooth with “Antiphony.” The North Cambridge Family Opera’s “Antiphony” has a two-weekend stand starring a new generation of young performers and their parents. The show – a clever, all-musical variation on fables of industrious ants and various other distracting insects – was also put on in 2002 and 2006. Rest assured: This is musical theater with kids in some starring roles, and the overall sweetness of the play (music by Graham Preskett, book and lyrics by John Kane, and directed by David Bass and David Cash) could put even the most cynical watcher into sugar shock. But you’ll also be impressed by the group’s production values and level of talent. There are always extremely impressive voices in the cast, even among the youngest performers, and the creative team keep things smart, fun and fast. If your heart isn’t completely curdled, you’ll likely find yourself utterly charmed.

Shows are at 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday, and at the same times next weekend. General admission tickets free, but there is a suggested donation of $5 for children and $10 for adults; tickets are available here. Performances are at The Peabody School, 70 Rindge Ave.

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Aggregation No. 3See what a director can do with $6,000 and a bit of braaaaaaaaains. Which fills you with more dread: the idea of a zombie attack, or the idea of watching another film about zombie attacks? If it’s the former, super-low-budget zombie flick “The Battery” might fill you with more delicious dread than you can stand. If it’s the latter, “The Battery” might redeem the genre for you. George Romero, who gave birth to the modern zombie with the 1968 “Night of the Living Dead,” had a “shoestring” $114,000 budget (which is $766,444 in today’s dollars). Yet despite having cost all of $6,000, writer and director Jeremy Gardner’s “The Battery” is getting plenty of positive reviews from such venues as quietearth.us and Dread Central, where Brad McHargue called it “one of the best – and most ambitious – ‘zombie’ movies in recent memory.” McHargue put it on his “Best of 2012” list for its “humorous dialogue, great music and stunning practical effects [that] build to an exceedingly tense and dramatic climax.” Or, as presenters All Things Horror puts it:

At the risk of overselling it, “The Battery” makes you realize how lazy “The Walking Dead” is, and how no one on that show has any idea how to write dialogue for anyone remotely resembling a human being. “The Battery” pays attention to the little details, making the film a joy to watch. Even if you’re burned out on the glut of low-budget zombie movies, this film will prove that it’s still possible to make smart, scary indie horror.

Good thing! This area has its share of the genre between student films such as Geena Matuson’s “Big Bad Wolf” and the larger-scale “Ten” by local rockers Michael J. Epstein and Sophia Cacciola

“The Battery,” with a Q&A session with the director, screens for $10 per person at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square.

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Aggregation No. 4Take in some unforgettable art. The Nave Gallery opens its “Memory Palace” group exhibition Saturday with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. with music by Audrey Ryan as well as the chance to meet painters, photographers, video artists and sculptors Natalie Andrew, Kathy Desmond (whose work is pictured above), Chris French, Lee Kilpatrick, Amy Lovera, Rachel Shatil and Chadwick Williams.

All were asked to create works using familiar images and objects to help reveal the unfamiliar. The title of the show refers to an ancient mnemonic technique called “the method of loci” that links memories with physical items or places.

The regular hours at the free gallery are 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The Nave Gallery is at 53 Chester St., Davis Square, Somerville.

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Aggregation No. 5Get your Fox fix at Passim. Early last month came an Oberon event with aerialists, animation, burlesque, dance and booze, all powered by steampunk soul band What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? for the release of its album, “Little Bit Of Blue.” (The video for the album’s “Deep Waters” is above.) This time it’s less spectacle, same great music and all-ages allowed (as well as delicious Veggie Planet food) as the band plays Club Passim. The opener is the rootsy Chelsea Berry, a singer/songwriter who performs with Chris Isaak and Livingston Taylor, among others. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $13 to $15. The club is at 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square.