For the folks who will be in and around Nashville this weekend, here’s just a small sample of the staggering number of really cool events happening in and around our backyard over the next few days. We at Wannado have decided to highlight these for your enjoyment because they just have that “Nashville feel,” are being organized by local people and organizations, and/or are just that ridiculously awesome. Click the event titles for more information about them.

Friday 11/23/12

5 Points Friday

10am at 5 Points in East Nashville, FREE

Support LOCAL at 5 Points Friday. Participating stores will be offering discounts and specials to help you get a jump start on unique and local gifts for everyone on your list. The “Grassy Knoll” next to Bongo Java will host this seasonal block party with live music and local beers. As if that doesn’t already sound a heck of a lot more fun than standing in line at 4am in the cold, 5 Points Friday will be raising money for East C.A.N.! Cross items off your shopping list, support local businesses, benefit our puppies and kitties, and have a great time doing it. You just might end up on the nice list this year!

Red Dawn (1984)

Friday and Saturday, 12am at Belcourt Theater, $8.50

John Milius’s original RED DAWN (the remake opens elsewhere this month) is easily one of the most entertaining and satisfying jingoistic youth actioners ever filmed! In the mid ’80s as the Commie Reds parachute down onto our streets and playgrounds to mercilessly lock our fathers in concentration camps and gleefully shoot our schoolteachers in the face, a ragtag band of high-school meatheads (C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze) are ready to take to the hills and fight back against the new Soviet overlords. Grab your canteen full of deer blood, take a swig and join us. WOLVERINES!!

Will Hoge

Friday and Saturday, 8pm at 3rd and Lindsley Bar and Grill, $20

Born and raised in Tennessee, songwriter Will Hoge made his name honing a blend of soulful Americana and heartland rock & roll. After spending his childhood in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, he left Tennessee to study history at Western Kentucky University. Music drew him back home, however, and he relocated to Nashville to assemble a band.

SATURDAY (11/24/12)

Radnor Lake Volunteer Day

8am at Radnor Lake, FREE

Volunteers work on trail projects including mulching trails, removing invasive plants such as honeysuckle, trail building and occasional park/stream clean up. A lot of trails need to be rebuilt in the wake of the 2010 flood, so volunteers can expect to be moving gravel and mulch around. This work can be tiring, but is extremely rewarding! Water, gloves and bug spray are provided. Every hand helps! This project will happen rain or shine!

Starving Artist Sale

10am-7pm at Four Points Sheraton in Brentwood, FREE

Want to pick up some amazing works of art? Original, oil on canvas paintings? How about finding that PERFECT work of art for your house for about 1/3 the price of anything in a gallery around town? How about just for showing up you get a chance to win over $500 in artwork? If you answered yes to any of these questions you need to be at this sale! We are taking over the conference center of the beautifully remodeled Four Points Sheraton in Brentwood TN and transforming it into a beautiful art gallery to display over 700 works of art. Prices range from $39 to $199. Plenty of free parking and free to attend!

Laser Holidays

Saturday and Sunday, 8:30pm at Sudekum Planetarium, $8

Get in the holiday spirit with a fun, family laser show in the Sudekum Planetarium. Laser Holidays features brilliant laser animation and thousands of stars performing to the music of Lonnie Anderson, Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Randy Travis, Mariah Carey, and others in this fanciful celebration of the winter season.