You know that feeling when you finish a huge project, lean back in your chair, take a deep breath and think, “Finally. Now I can relax”?

Yeah. Me neither.

After a frankly unreasonable amount of tinkering, tweaking, rewriting and staring at things on a screen until words stopped looking like words, the brand-new MrAnchorage.com is live, complete with the new Mr Anchorage merch store!

And apparently I celebrated this achievement by… doing more work on a screen.

Because every week I dig through what’s happening around town and hand pick five events that I think are actually worth telling you about. Not five events an algorithm coughed up. Not five things copied from somebody else’s calendar. Five things I personally think give you a good excuse to get out of the house and enjoy this weird, wonderful city we call home.

And holy cow, Anchorage did NOT make the choosing easy this week.

In fact, one event is so big that I refuse to let it eat one of our five spots.

Where: Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER), Anchorage
When: Saturday & Sunday, August 8–9; gates open at 9 AM, festivities run through roughly 5 PM
Cost: FREE general admission

Let’s just get this out of the way: If you hear Anchorage rattling this weekend, please do not immediately assume Mount Spurr has finally had enough of us.

It might just be the Blue Angels.

Arctic Thunder is back at JBER, and this is no ordinary neighborhood air show. The U.S. Navy Blue Angels headline a weekend that also includes the U.S. Army Golden Knights parachute team, the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team, aircraft and equipment displays, food vendors and a whole lot of very expensive machinery doing things in the sky that appear to violate basic common sense.

Best of all, general admission is free and open to the public. JBER says all of the premium seating is now sold out, but you do NOT need premium tickets to attend. General viewing areas remain available, and you’re allowed to bring your own lawn chairs.

A little planning is wise here. This is a huge event, so expect traffic, crowds and noise. Hearing protection is a particularly good idea for little ears (and honestly, probably the big ones too).

This is one of those uniquely Anchorage weekends when an active military base throws open its doors and invites the whole city over to watch fighter jets dance through the sky. Even with five more events coming below, there was no way I was leaving this one out.

More Info: Official Arctic Thunder Open House

Where: F Street outdoor concert corridor, 609 F Street, Downtown Anchorage
When: Friday, August 7, starting at 6 PM

If fighter jets aren't enough to shake the windows this weekend, downtown has a backup plan.

Hippie Sabotage and Waka Flocka Flame are taking over F Street Friday night for one of Showdown Alaska’s big outdoor summer concerts.

Hippie Sabotage brings the electronic side of the equation, while Atlanta rapper Waka Flocka Flame brings approximately enough energy to power downtown Anchorage until breakup.

It’s an unusual pairing, which is exactly why I like it.

This is an outdoor downtown show, too, so we're talking summer-in-Anchorage festival energy rather than standing inside a dark concert hall wondering what the weather is doing outside.

And if you’ve been looking for one last excuse to stay out late while Anchorage evenings still actually look like evenings instead of the opening scene of a snowplow documentary, here you go.

More Info: Tixlr site

Where: Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa, 401 E. 6th Avenue
When: Friday, August 7 through Sunday, August 9; continuing Friday evening and throughout the weekend

Maybe you want a souvenir from this weekend.

Maybe you want one that is significantly harder to lose than a refrigerator magnet.

The 9th Annual Anchorage Tattoo Expo is taking over the Sheraton downtown with more than 80 tattoo artists working live throughout the weekend.

This isn't just walking around looking at tattoo flash. Artists from a variety of styles will actually be tattooing on site, so you can browse portfolios, meet artists and, should inspiration and your tolerance for needles align, leave with considerably more artwork than you arrived with.

The expo actually begins Thursday and continues through Sunday, so there’s plenty happening after our Friday-evening starting line and throughout the rest of the weekend.

Tickets are sold at the door, which also makes this one pretty easy to work into a downtown adventure.

Come for the art. Stay for the people watching. Leave with a tattoo of Mr Anchorage riding a salmon into battle.

Okay, maybe sleep on that last one.

More Info: Ink Masters Tattoo Show

Where: The Nave, 3502 Spenard Road
When: Saturday, August 8, Noon–10 PM
Cost: $15 at the door

Anchorage comedy is staging a coup.

Rubber Ptarmigan Comedy is taking over The Nave for ten straight hours of workshops, performances, improv, stand-up and a roast battle.

Yes. Ten hours.

That is enough comedy to legally qualify as a shift.

What I particularly like about this one is that it isn’t simply a touring comedian coming to town, doing a set and leaving. This is a showcase of Alaska's comedy community, with different things happening throughout the day and a ridiculously low $15 admission price.

If you've ever thought, “You know, Anchorage itself is pretty funny, but surely someone should be writing this stuff down,” these are your people.

Organizers recommend the later programming for adults, particularly after 3 PM, so keep that in mind if you're bringing younger aspiring comedians.

More Info: Rubber Ptarmigan site

Where: House of Harley-Davidson, 4334 Spenard Road
When: Saturday, August 8, 10 AM–8 PM; finale breakfast Sunday, 10 AM–Noon

Spenard has spent the entire week doing what Spenard does best:

Being aggressively Spenard.

Spenard Bike Week wraps up this weekend, and Saturday is loaded.

There’s the Kruisin’ for Katie’s Handprint charity ride, supporting Alaska families affected by childhood cancer; a burnout contest; vendors; food trucks; live music; a beer garden; prizes and the culmination of a months-long sweepstakes in which somebody is literally going home with a Harley-Davidson Street Bob.

The charity ride registers at 10 AM, rolls out at 11 and eventually lands at 907 Alehouse for lunch and an auction.

Then, after an entire week of motorcycles, music and general Spenard shenanigans, Bike Week staggers across the finish line Sunday morning with a Hangover Breakfast at American Legion Post 1, 840 Fireweed Lane, from 10 AM to Noon, where they’ll crown the new King or Queen of Spenard.

There are sentences I get to write because I live in Anchorage, and “crown the new King or Queen of Spenard at a motorcycle-week hangover breakfast” is definitely one of them.

More Info: Official Spenard Bike Week Schedule

Where: Kincaid Chalet, 9401 W. Raspberry Road
When: Sunday, August 9, Noon–3 PM
Cost: FREE

Okay, this is exactly the kind of event I love finding for this newsletter.

The Japan Alaska Association and the Consular Office of Japan in Anchorage are bringing the Japanese Summer Festival back to Kincaid, and they've packed an awful lot into three hours.

There will be authentic Japanese food, vendor booths and a flea market, but the cultural demonstrations are where things get especially interesting.

Look for Tomodachi Daiko, Anchorage's volunteer Japanese taiko drumming group, plus Japanese folk and street dancing, Radio Taiso exercises, Iaido martial-arts demonstrations and live Sumi-e, the traditional art of Japanese ink-wash painting.

In other words, you can eat, shop, watch someone wield a sword and see beautiful art being made, all without leaving Kincaid Park.

And admission is free.

Anchorage is at its best when you remember how many different cultures have made a home here. This feels like a pretty wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon celebrating one of them.

More Info: Facebook event page

So there you have it: airplanes overhead, rappers downtown, motorcycles in Spenard, comedians at The Nave, tattoo artists at the Sheraton, and Japanese culture at Kincaid getting the final word.

Pretty normal Anchorage weekend, really.

Meanwhile, I’ll be over here celebrating the fact that MrAnchorage.com is finally live, checking out the new merch store and pretending I’m going to take a couple days off before I inevitably find some mysterious plaque, abandoned chairlift or weird concrete object somewhere in Anchorage and decide I need to know its entire life story.

Thank you for reading these newsletters, sharing them and trusting me to hand pick your weekend adventures every week. I genuinely put a lot into them, and getting to see this little Mr Anchorage community grow makes all that work worth it.

Now go have some fun.

And if the whole city suddenly starts shaking this weekend, remember:

Check the sky for Blue Angels before crawling under a table like they taught us in school.

— Mr Anchorage