B4B NYC: The 5 Best Bang-for-Your-Buck Events in New York City This Weekend

NEW YORK, NY — And just when we thought we might melt, the sun god Ra took a Xanax!

Looks like we have a pleasant weekend ahead of us, folks — highs in the mid-80s, with only a small chance of rain Saturday — so you have no excuse not to get your culture on. And listen: Only suckers wait in line for movie openings, and you KNOW the crowds for Suicide Squad are gonna be around the block, so just wait a week while you take in something a little more nutritious than that last shriveled wiener on the rotisserie at the AMC.

Here are five of the most exciting events happening around the city this weekend — in every price range — to keep you engaged, interested and plugged-in.

HONG KONG DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL

Where: Corona Park, Queens [map]

When: Saturday, 8/6, and Sunday, 8/7, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

What: Since we've all been hunkering in the dark these past few weeks like bats or, you know, CHUDs, it's finally time to get some fresh air. Here's more than enough reason: The 26th annual Dragon Boat Festival in New York, returning to Corona Park all day Saturday and Sunday. Watch over 200 teams of up to 20 crew members — including one steers-person and a drummer — celebrate the "Year of the Monkey" in style by racing their one-ton boats on the park's lake. These are serious athletes, people, and there are some major prizes — and bragging rights — at stake for the winners. Meanwhile, we landlubbers will remain safely ashore, munching on snacks from the food court and taking in modern and traditional arts performances (among them guitar badass Rob Yu at 1 p.m. on Saturday and the Shaolin monks at around 3 p.m. on both days). More information here.

How much: FREE!

CAO FEI AT PS1

A still from "Haze and Fog" (2013), Cao Fei

Where: PS1, Long Island City [map]

When: Friday, 8/5, Saturday, 8/6, and Sunday, 8/7, 12 noon to 6 p.m.

What: While the Dragon Boats are doing their traditional thing out on the lake, over at PS1 in Long Island City, influential Chinese artist Cao Fei is expressing a decidedly more nuanced experience of her homeland — in her first solo U.S. museum retrospective. At turns whimsical and dark, Ms. Cao's works illuminate the struggle faced by a rapidly modernizing China, springing from her youth spent in the industrial town of Guangzhou during a time when those Chinese dragons (and pictures of Mao) were being replaced with icons from cosplay, Manga and American hip-hop. The artist has never had a museum show in China, but talks are underway to bring this exciting PS1 exhibit there next. Tickets and info available here.

How much: $10 per person (suggested)

SEE IT BIG!: SPARTACUS

Where: Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria [map]

When: Friday, 8/5, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, 8/6, at 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 8/7, at 3 p.m.

What: There's no better film to see in glorious 70mm widescreen format than the Roman gladiator epic Spartacus, with its sweeping battles and sumptuous scenery — this weekend's offering in the Museum of the Moving Image's "See It Big!" series. Kirk Douglas stars as a slave with a real problem with authority who eventually makes life really miserable for the emperor, played by Sir Laurence Olivier. The film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, was written by Dalton Trumbo, one of the "Hollywood 10" blacklisted in 1947 for supposedly harboring Communist sympathies. Peter Ustinov won an Oscar as the scene-stealing Batiatus, a witty trainer of gladiators. More information here.

How much: $15 per person

STUART DAVIS, IN FULL SWING

"Owh! in San Pao" Stuart Davis, 1951. Photo: The Estate of Stuart Davis

Where: Whitney Museum, Meatpacking District [map]

When: Friday, 8/5, and Saturday, 8/6, 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 8/7, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

What: In 1913, Stuart Davis, a precocious 20-year-old painter, rolled up to the legendary Armory Show with a stack of gritty watercolors he'd painted in the Ashcan Style learned at the knee of his teacher Robert Henri. But the brash colors and revolutionary shapes he saw displayed nearby — from European masters like Van Gogh and Matisse — shook him to the core. He soon devoted his career to creating an American Modernism, full of letters and jazz and exuberance. In Full Swing, the large Davis show now at the Whitney, focuses on these later works. The style of his paintings evolves through time, but he never loses sight of that vigorous American buoyancy, right up through his final work, found taped to his easel at his death in 1964. Tickets and info available here.

How Much: $22 in advance ($25 at the door)

THE ORIGINALS: DMX AND OTHERS, AT THE APOLLO

Where: Apollo Theater, Harlem [map]

When: Friday, 8/5, 8 p.m.

What: You could bounce over to Stubhub and shell out a small fortune to see Drake and Future at the Garden this weekend — but then we'd run the risk of hip-hop legend DMX losing his mind up in here. First of all, he often laments the state of today's hip-hop, so there's that. But also? DMX himself is playing a one-night-only show Friday at the Apollo in Harlem, alongside other old-school luminaries N.O.R.E., Jim Jones, Jadakiss and others — and you don't wanna miss that, do you? Tickets and info available here.

And what a night for classic music this will be! Because if hip-hop ain't your jam, dude, Dinosaur Jr. are playing at 7 p.m. Friday night at Rough Trade. (I know, right!?) And it turns out you can still get after-market tickets to this sold-out show.

How much: $45 and up

And last but not least, a...

HEADS-UP ALERT!

JAZZ-AGE LAWN PARTY ON GOVERNOR'S ISLAND

Where: Governors Island [map]; catch the ferry from Manhattan here and from Brooklyn here

When: Sunday, 8/14, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

What: Dust off those boaters, fringed dresses and seersucker suits, people, because next weekend is this summer's second (and final!) Jazz-Age Lawn Party on Governors Island! Now in its 11th year, the JALP really has become one of those staple events all New Yorkers must attend once in their lives. You can bring your own picnic (but not your own alcohol) as well as lawn chairs and blankets, and you're encouraged (but not required!) to let your flapper-flag fly with period jazz-age dress. Music, dancing, artisanal cocktails and eats, all on an island sanctuary just off the tip of Manhattan. You can't beat that with a stick, fella. More information and tickets available here.

How much: $55 and up per person

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