Penguins on Parade; Kevin James Plays Palace; James McCartney at Club Cafe (Wed., 6/15/16)

1) As we all know by now the Penguins are the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Champions. Now it’s time to celebrate with over 300,000 of our Pittsburgh neighbors who will be on hand for the Penguins championship parade. Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, Matt Murray, and Coach Mike Sullivan will be there along with the rest of the players. The parade will proceed from the intersection of Liberty Avenue and Grant Street, down Grant, then on to the Boulevard of the Allies, where it will turn right; continuing along the Boulevard of the Allies to the parade reviewing stand at Stanwix Street. Can’t make it down? The parade will be live-streamed on pittsburghpenguins.com and on the Penguins app. It will also be broadcast live on TV station WPXI. Parade Starts at 11:30 a.m. Downtown.

2) You probably know Kevin James as Doug Heffernan, the funny parcel delivery driver for IPS on the popular CBS sitcom “The King of Queens” which ran from 1998 to 2007.  On the show James’ character had a chaotic marriage, a father-in-law who lived in the basement, and a quirky bunch of friends. Other major roles have included Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Zookeeper, and Hitch. James cut his teeth in the New York comedy clubs and pulled pranks on people as an actor on the “New Candid Camera.” Later he moved to Los Angeles where he became friends with Ray Romano, whose show “Everybody Loves Raymond” was a big hit. He guest starred a few times on “Raymond” and this led to the development of his own show, “The King of Queens.” James will be starring in a new sitcom this fall called “Kevin Can Wait” on CBS. Tonight you can catch James back on the stage doing standup. 7:30 p.m. The Palace Theatre, 21 West Otterman St, Greensburg.

3) True Beatlemaniacs should know that “James” is actually the first name of Paul McCartney. What they might not know is that it is also the first name of Paul and the late Linda McCartney’s only son. The junior James McCartney played on his father’s albums Flaming Pie and Driving Rain and on his mother’s posthumous album, Wide Prairie. James McCartney has also become an accomplished singer-songwriter in his own right with two EPs and two full-length studio albums under his belt. The most recent, 2016’s The Blackberry Train, was engineered by the alt-rock record producer Steve Albini. Albini produced albums such as The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, Nirvana’s In Utero, and PJ Harvey’s Rid of Me. You can hear Albini’s engineering on McCartney’s “Unicorn,” where the drumming veers into grunge territory. Other songs, like “Too Hard,” are more Beatlesque, as they feature psychedelic instrumentation paired with lyrical whimsy. McCartney is currently touring the States and playing intimate venues like Club Cafe, which he headlines this month. The Damaged Pies open. 8 p.m. 56 S. 12th St., South Side. (CM)

4) Hairspray – It’s time for a Roof Shindig. That’s what Filmmakers is calling their screening of this 1988 John Waters film. The movie, in case you’ve lived your life under a rock, is about Tracy Turnblad, a young girl from Baltimore who dreams of staring on a local after-school teen TV dance program as well as dating the show’s heartthrob lead… and she’s not about to let her poverty or girth stop her! Ricki Lake appears as Tracy, with Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Debbie Harry, Jerry Stiller, and, of course, the legendary Divine. The Shindig starts at 6 p.m. and takes place on top of the Theater Square Garage downtown; admission is free and there’s food, drink, local musicians Beauty Slap and HEAF. The movie starts at sundown. 667 Penn Ave., Cultural District. (TH)

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