Cheaps: Block Party, Bookish Ball & Free IMAX

From today's Cheap Thrills column in le Herald, detailing a Cambridge block party, books take over Harvard Square and a Museum of Science free-for-all at the IMAX Dome.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Block Party on the Greene
Greene-Rose Park, 39 Dickinson St., Cambridge. Saturday, 1 to 10 p.m., 21-plus, $5
With the passing of Labor Day we may have officially entered cardigan season, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one more time to rock out under the open sky. The folks at networking group Illius Rock are teaming with residents of Dickinson Street to throw one last outdoor celebration before Old Man Winter sentences us to a life indoors. Catch heartthrob Will Dailey and his band the Rivals, along with the indie and rock stylings of the Wandas, the Honors, Cocked N’ Loaded, It’s From the Sky and more, all while DJs Roguewaves and Dancing on the Charles’ Randy Deshaies keep the beat alive with a sweet electro and techno mix parade.
Info: blockparty@illiusrock.com, 617-840-7668

BOOK IT TO CAMBRIDGE
Harvard Square’s second annual Bookish Ball
Saturday, 1 to 9 p.m., all-ages. FREE.
Ahh, the glorious year of 1882. P.T. Barnum purchased his elephant Jumbo, the Knights of Columbus was formed and polygamy was deemed a federal crime by Congress. Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were born, and Jesse James, Charles Darwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson died. Also, the Harvard Coop went into business. This weekend Harvard Square celebrates the Coop’s more than 125 years (and 76 years of the Harvard Book Store) with the Bookish Ball, beginning with a stroll through the area’s myriad literary houses and retailers featuring readings, refreshments and history. Eat cake with literary themes and dance to bookish beats as the day wraps up with a Grand Public Bookish Ball on Palmer Street. It’s one party where it’s OK to get a bit wordy.
Info: harvardsquare.com 617-491-3434

FRIDAY NIGHT SIGHTS
Free Film Fridays at the Museum of Science
Mugar Omni Theater, 1 Science Park, Friday, every hour from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., all-ages. FREE
OK, Cheap Thrills will admit we slept on this one last week, what with all the thrifty Labor Day things going on. But luckily, the Museum of Science’s way-awesome Free Film Fridays series continues Friday as well as Sept. 18 and 25. With a dearth of blockbusters rolling out of Hollywood this season, put on both your thinking cap and excite-goggles as the learning center rolls out three documentary explorations on a larger-than-life screen: “Mystic India,” “Deep Sea” and “Antarctica.” If you haven’t checked out the giant IMAX domed theater, the price is right and the time is now. Tickets are first-come, first-served at the box office.
Info: 617-723-2500, mos.org