Five Reasons to Leave the House This Weekend


The 5K Run for Your Lives obstacle race. (Photo by Happy Go Lucky.)

Zombies
Run For Your Lives

Best. Idea. Ever. This 5K obstacle race in Amesbury isn’t until May 5 and 6, but registration ends in a mere three weeks on April 13, so consider this your official heads up. All you need to know is that race participants — wearing three flags on a belt, just like ye olde days of flag football — will have to navigate a series of obstacles and make strategy calls on the quickest way to the finish line. The best part? All runners will be chased mercilessly by zombies. Hungry for brains. And those flags. Oh, and guess what happens if all flags are to the living dead? Zombie conversion, duh. Not a runner? No sweat — spectators are welcome.
$87 (runner), $32 (spectator), Amesbury Sports Park, 12 South Hunt Rd., Amesbury, runforyourlives.com.

Film
13th Annual Irish Film Festival
St. Patty’s has come and gone, but any lingering desires to celebrate all things Irish can be sated with this film fest — the largest of its kind outside of Ireland. Four days of short and feature length films, documentaries, and animation will highlight the cream of the contemporary Irish cinema crop and after parties will ensue at local watering holes like The Burren, Magoun’s Saloon, Grafton Street Bar & Grill, and Orleans.
$10 per screening, Thursday, March 22 through Sunday, March 25, Somerville Theater and Brattle Theater, check irishfilmfestival.com for tickets and times.

Good Cause
An Evening at Le Cordon Bleu to Benefit the Children of Haiti
Master chefs from Le Cordon Bleu will be whipping up four courses of French cuisine (think vichyssoise and oven roasted salmon with herbed cous cous and fennel agre dolce) alongside wine pairings courtesy of the the famous culinary school’s sommelier. Expect live Haitian music and raffle prizes like tickets to a Celtics game and PAX East, fine art, a private yoga lesson, and more. All proceeds will be donated to Free the Kids, a nonprofit raising money to benefit children in Haiti. And while we’re on the subject of good causes, have you watched KONY 2012?
$80, tickets for wine pairings are an additional $25, Saturday, March 24th, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m., Technique Restaurant at Le Cordon Bleu, 215 First St., Cambridge, 617-218-8088, freethekidsfundraiser.com.

Music
Blind Boys of Alabama
This gospel and country-influenced sextet formed in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind — and have been performing ever since. It’s impossible to ignore the group’s history — these contemporaries of Sam Cooke have swooped up Grammy awards, performed for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and collaborated with the likes of Eric Clapton, Tom Waits, Solomon Burke, and Lou Reed, among others. They say the five senses dictate how we perceive the world around us. Think of the Blind Boys as music for your sixth sense: the soul.
$30-$42, Friday, March 23, Berklee Performance Center, Boylston St., Boston, berkleebpc.com.

 

Imbibing
Let’s Hear it for the Girls!
Pony up with Kirsten Amann and Joy Richard of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC) for a look at the role of women in the beverage industry. Richard, the bar and beverage manager of Citizen Public House & Oyster Bar, and Amann, the founder of LUPEC, will cover the stories behind lady-made wines and spirits, which will be mixologized (yes it’s a word. A word I just invented.) and tasted alongside small plates from Citizen House.
$15, Sunday, March 25, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., The Urban Grape, 7 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill, 617-232-4831, letshearitforthegirls.eventbrite.com.