10 Things to Do for $10 This Weekend in St. Louis, July 23-25, 2010

We've got kids games and space rock and Japanese movies, Artwork and DJs and rock very bluesy, Prizes and park tours and pictures so pretty. My, what a fine week to live in this city!

Focus on Photography (All Weekend)
The photography exhibit at Washington University's Kemper Art Museum is closing on Monday, so you've only got one weekend left to see shots such as Andy Warhol's Polaroids. Also on exhibit are photographers who shot subjects as varied as Native Americans of the early 1900s and South Africa after apartheid. Admission is free.

Scrabble Mania (Friday)
Grab three word-smithing friends and head over to Chesterfield Arts for a celebration of geeky vocabulary. Scrabble Mania will feature plenty of boards and tiles as well as games, prizes, and a cash bar. Tickets are $15 a pop, but you can get a table of 4 for $40, so it's $10 each. The event starts at 7, but you must make a reservation. To help you get started, the RFT found the highest scoring single word of all time: Quixotry.

​Hidden Fortress (Friday)
Webster University is screening this 1958 Japanese film drected by Akira Kurosawa on Friday at 7:30 in the Moore Auditorium. Reviewer Paul Friswold likens the movie to Star Wars, except, you know, Japanese. And from the 50s. Two guys trying to save a princess from a deadly horde of enemies with a ruthless leader? We can see why Lucas might have cribbed some details. Tickets are $5-6

Treasure Fingers (Friday)
DJ Treasure Fingers (of "Cross the Dancefloor" fame) will be behind the turntables at Sol Lounge on Friday night. Joining him will be Kid Color and Cor(e)yography. Doors open at 9 and cover is $10. The party runs until 3 and is 21+.

Be/Non (Friday)
The band's latest album, A Mountain of Yeses is described by Shae Mosely as "an abstract, intergalactic journey toward self-actualization." You can hear the space rock odyssey at the Firebird at 9 on Friday night. Cover is $8
 
The Lego Games Summer Tour (Friday and Saturday)
Legos are in the board game game now, and this weekend they'll be bringing
life-sized versions to St. Louis. (Luckily, Tornado
Rex has not been slated for enlargement.) Even better? Family will
be pitted against family to win prizes. So bring the blockheads in your
family down to Soulard Market park on Friday and Saturday from 8 to 5.
It's free.

Henry Shaw's 210th Birthday Celebration (Saturday)
Enjoy Victorian amusements - silhouette-portrait-makers, puppetry, stilt-walkers, and jugglers - at Henry Shaw's birthday party on Saturday from 10 to 3 at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. The gardens are honoring their founder by offering free admission to the main and children's  gardens. Join up with a tour and you can even visit Shaw's home, The Tower Grove House.