It is the good, unhurried part of August, the evenings finally cool enough to sit out past dark, and this weekend the best stuff is scattered clear across the map instead of piled downtown.

There is a pro soccer match with a full fireworks show over the Mon on Saturday, a free star party on a hilltop in Tarentum on Friday, and close-up magic happening a foot from your face in a tiny downtown parlor all weekend.

If you want the neighborhoods showing off, take your pick: block parties in Wilkinsburg and on the North Side, a Caribbean dance night up in Squirrel Hill, and a working blacksmith forge out in Braddock. Wear sunscreen, pace yourself.

In today's What's On Pittsburgh:

Let's get to it. - Madison Johnson

🦕 Dinosaurs! scatters more than 30 life-size animatronic dinosaurs across the Pittsburgh Zoo, a baby Triceratops up to a full-grown T. rex lurking around the bends, all of it included with regular admission through early September.

🎩 Jon Tai in Road Signs takes over Liberty Magic, the Cultural Trust's tiny downtown parlor, for an intimate close-up magic run, the kind of room where the trick happens a foot from your face and you still cannot catch it.

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The pop-rock polymath behind "Hello It's Me" and a lifetime of studio experiments brings his Damned If I Do tour to Stage AE, still restless and still touring hard well into his seventies.

The Amateur Astronomers Association opens its Tarentum hilltop to the public, telescopes trained on whatever the August sky is showing. Bring your own or just borrow an eye at theirs, and hope the clouds cooperate.

The stand-up and "Cobra Kai" actor plays two shows at the Improv out on the Waterfront, leaning on the loose, road-tested crowd work he is known for. Twenty-one and up.

Pittsburgh's pro soccer club hosts the Charleston Battery down at Highmark Stadium, and they are sending everyone home with a full postgame fireworks show over the Monongahela.

The New Hazlett Theater and the Children's Museum throw open Allegheny Square for a free neighborhood arts party, makers and music and the North Side out in force.

Community Forge turns Franklin Avenue into a free block party, billed as its love letter to Wilkinsburg, with family activities, food, and a whole afternoon of neighbors out on the street.

USA Dance Pittsburgh throws its Caribbean-themed social in the Wightman School ballroom, a bachata lesson first for the nervous, then a DJ and an open floor into the night.

Braddock's Battlefield History Center fires up a working blacksmith forge for the afternoon, a parade and food alongside it, and hammered iron you can watch cool and then take home.

PureSoul brings a live tribute to Mary J. Blige, Brandy, SWV, and TLC to City Winery for a Sunday brunch, the whole golden-era R&B songbook served up with the food.

Phipps builds its entire summer conservatory around Alice, topiary and blooms tumbling down the rabbit hole, and it photographs absurdly well if you time the light right.

A live band and full production put Elvis back in concert on the Harris Theater screen, the archival footage and the sound cranked all the way up for the faithful.

🍷 The Original Pittsburgh Winery closes for good on August 15 after years as a Strip District winery and live-music room, co-owners Tim Gaber and Anthony Jardine thanking the crowd on the way out.

🍸 Sea Monkey, a new Strip District spot, opens as a restaurant, cocktail bar, and speakeasy all at once, three ideas crammed into one room.

👞 Rex Streno, the 67-year-old still running Ullrich Shoe Repair in an age of throwaways, just self-published a memoir called "Cobbled: The [mostly] True Tales of the Shoe Guy of Pittsburgh."

🎾 Greater Pittsburgh hosted the first U.S. Blind Tennis National Championship, players tracking a beeping ball by sound across the court.

🏃 The Pittsburgh Marathon opens registration for its 2027 race this week, so the die-hards can lock in a bib nine months out.

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