It’s going to be a quiet weekend, except for the thunder and Lightning (Go Bolts!). It’ll be a good time to go to a museum, curl up with a good book (or a good magazine) and plan for the future. Because, whaddya know, the end of September and the coming weeks of October are looking like an actual fall A&E season!

Sports! The Lightning made it to the Stanley Cup finals, the Rays are headed to the playoffs, and Sunday is the Bucs’ home opener — which (trying to stay optimistic here) can’t go as badly as their season opener. Can it?

Music (and Comedy, too)! The best news we’ve heard in a while: The Palladium is re-opening! In October, look for three Saturday night shows in Hough Hall: blues guitarist Jose Ramirez Oct. 3, stand-up comedy with Ward Smith and Friends Oct. 10 and Bossa Nova Guitar with Nate Najar and Phill Fest Oct. 17.

Art! The MFA is reopening to the general public this weekend with two must-see shows. The Dunedin Fine Art Center is chockablock with exhibitions both cerebral and fun. And there’s still time to relive (or reinvent) your memories of prom at MIZE Gallery‘s Homecoming show through Sept. 26 (with VOTE following in October).

Theater! Next weekend, Innovocative Theatre and LAB Theater Project kick off the fall theater season with Underneath the Lintel, a “twisty mystery” by Glen Berger about a librarian on a unique quest; you can watch it in person or virtually. Jobsite takes to the Tampa Riverwalk starting Oct. 2 for fractured Shakespeare and freaky Frankenstein. freeFall debuts “a live drive-in radio experience” with War of the Worlds, opening Oct. 23. And American Stage, whose online summer theater offerings were so excellent, opens its new Digital Series in October with Letters to Kamala, an original play by Rachel Lynett commissioned by the theater.

Fashion! Sept. 23-26 is Tampa Bay Fashion Week, Digital Edition. And on Oct. 3, fashion meets theater in StageWorks Stylized. Three designers have built fashion lines based on six Stageworks shows, including Psycho Beach Party and The Great Gatsby, and you get to choose between in-person or digital attendance.

Movies! Two important filmfests are coming up any minute, both going virtual this year. The 15th Annual Sunscreen Film Festival runs Sept. 24-27, and the Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival is Oct. 2-18.

Emmys! So you’ve been watching a lot more television lately, you say? Root for your favorites on

ABC’s virtual telecast Sunday night at 8, and meanwhile see if you can finish up HBO’s mind-blowing Watchmen before it runs away with all the awards.

Bookstores! Make an appointment to browse the shelves at Tombolo, or settle in with a good book and a glass of wine at Book + Bottle, where I recently discovered both a great Riesling and a great novel, Richard Powers’s The Overstory, which has forever changed the way I look at trees. (Tip: For more good reading, check out the store’s entertaining blog.)

duPont Registry Tampa Bay‘s Home Design Issue 2020! Arriving soon in fine mailboxes all around the Bay, this edition of the mag is a whole lotta fun if you like to look at fancy digs, meet creative people and acquire tips on making your own domicile more habitable. And the digital edition is live right now!