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Pets gone wild! Activities this week include a doggie ice cream party, a dragon festival, an exhibit on how cats are taking over the internet, and a screening of the movie ET. There are also various outdoor activities, such as the annual Jamaica JAMS concert and street festival with more than 500 vendors. Here’s the rundown.

August 6, Passport Thursdays Outdoor International Dance, Music & Film Series, 7 pm. A screening of Mateo, a Colombian film about youngster who collects extortion money on behalf of his uncle to help out his poor mother. This action leads to some difficult choices. Free. Queens Museum, NYC Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

August 6, Central Astoria Waterfront Concert Series, 7:30 pm. A live performance by Dance Machine, New York City’s only authentic 11-piece disco band. Bring a blanket or chair, but also bring bell bottoms, polyester shirts, and platform shoes. Free. Astoria Park Great Lawn, Shore Boulevard between the Hell Gate Bridge and Astoria Pool.

August 6, The Merchant of Venice, 7:30 pm. The Hip to Hip Theatre presents Shakespeare’s story about a Venetian gentleman who has to default on a loan from moneylender. Free. Children’s program at 7 pm. Crocheron Park, 35th Avenue and Cross Island Parkway, across from Golden Pond, Bayside.

August 6, Outdoor Concert, 7 pm. Orville Davis & the Wild Bunch perform country music — honky tonk with attitude — as part of a series sponsored by the Northern Woodside Coalition. Free. Sgt. Collins Triangle, Broadway and 58th Street, Woodside, 718-205-1030.

August 7, How Cats Took Over the Internet, through Jan. 31, 2016. This exhibition, which includes screenings and live events, looks at the phenomenon of cats online and how they have transfixed a generation of web users. Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35th Avenue, Kaufman Arts District.

August 7, JAMS Under the Stars, 5 pm to 10 pm. A mega concert with Toni Ann Semple, a powerful singer who blends the nuances of her African and Native American heritages into soul, funk, and jazz; DJ Jordan Knoxx, a mixologist from Hollis; and Dallas Forte, a Christian crooner from Guyana. Free. Rufus King Park, vicinity of 153rd Street and 89th Avenue, Jamaica, www.go2ccj.org.

August 7, Free First Friday, 10 am to 8 pm. Free admission, public tours in English and Japanese, and Center of Attention, an extended conversation about a single work of art. (Noguchi’s Cloud Mountain is the topic on Aug. 7 at 7 pm.) Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Road, Long Island City.

August 7: ET, about 8:30 pm. Outdoor screening of a classic movie with Midtown Manhattan in the background. Free. Hunters Point South Park, Center Boulevard and 51st Avenue, Long Island City.

August 8, Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, through Aug. 9. More than 170 teams and 2,000 participants compete and celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. Expect racing, cultural performances, and great food. Free. Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s Meadow Lake near the boathouse.

August 8, Jamaica Arts & Music Summer Festival, 11 am to 7 pm. Expect 200,000 revelers enjoying live performances, fashion, art, and more than 500 vendors. Free. Jamaica Avenue from Parsons Boulevard to 170th Street, Jamaica.

Aug. 8, Chinese Theatre Works: Holding Up Half the Sky, 2 pm. This opera and puppet spectacle tells the story of four legendary women warriors, spanning 2,000 years of Chinese history. The piece was written and directed by Flushing Town Hall Space Grant recipients Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin. $8/$50 VIP package. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing.

August 8, Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Concert, 2 pm to 7 pm. An all-day event honoring a jazz legend who lived in the neighborhood. Free performances by Sunnyside Drum Corps, Street Beat Brass Band, Lindy Hoppers, Sunnyside Wolverines, Sunnyside Social Club, Sunnyside Arch at 46th Street.

August 8, 78th Street Play Street, dusk. The Queens World Film Festival collaborates with the Jackson Heights Green Alliance to present indie films under the stars. Free. Travers Park, 78th Street and 34th Avenue, Jackson Heights.

Aug. 8, Hindu Awareness and Swami Vivekanada Day, 3:30 pm. Entertainment program includes chanting, colorful dances, and meditation. The Hindu Temple Society of North America, 45-57 Bowne Street, Flushing.

August 8, Storytime & Craft, 2 pm. A relaxing afternoon with nature-inspired stories followed by a botanically-themed craft activity. Free with admission. Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main Street, Flushing.

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There’s no denying it: felines rule cyberspace. With viral sensations such as Caturday, lolcats, and Lil Bub, these purring pets are serious click bait.

On Friday, the Museum of the Moving Image will open an exhibition, How Cats Took Over the Internet, that takes a look at why web surfers are so transfixed by these finicky fur balls. To be on display in the amphitheater gallery through January 31, 2016, the expo will feature videos, GIFs, and images demonstrating these creatures’ undeniable cuteness. Plus, a multimedia timeline will demonstrate significant cat moments online, and interactive stations will allow visitors to share their own photos, GIFs, and videos.

More information and another adorable photo are on the jump page.

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He’s considered the best all-rounder (batsman and bowler) ever. Over his three-decade career, he played all over the world in international tournaments, professional leagues, exhibitions, and all star games. Now, he’s going to enjoy a Queens weekend.

Sir Garfield Sobers, a cricketer from Barbados who played for the West Indies squad between 1954 and 1974 and was knighted by Queens Elizabeth II in 1975, will participate in a Legends Weekend at Idlewild Park in Jamaica on Saturday and Sunday. The 79-year-old will join other phenomenons from the 1970s-1990s, such as Shivnarine Chanderpaul from Guyana, Gus Logie from Trinidad and Tobago, and fellow Barbados native Gordon Greenidge, in friendly matches against a New York City-based squad. More details on jump page.

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There’s strength in numbers, but there’s fun in words. A lot of fun.

This weekend, authors, booksellers, essayists, poets, and other verse enthusiasts will head to LIC Bar for the Queens NYC Lit Fest, a two-day celebration of the borough and its booming writing scene. Organized by Michael Geffner from The Inspired Word, this first annual extravaganza will feature scheduled readings by residents from around the borough, including Maria Lisella, the newly appointed Queens poet laureate, and Audrey Dimola, hostess of the reading-and-live-writing series Nature of the Muse. Plus, both days will begin with open mic time at 11 am. (First come, first served. Five-minute slots.) More information and another photo on jump page.

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Five-time Grammy winner James Taylor comes to Queens to give a concert this week. He might want to arrive early and leave late so he can enjoy a huge foodie event, a ghost tour, outdoor movies, festivals and concerts, and even a chance to watch top-notch cricket. Here’s the rundown.

July 30, Doo Wop Concert, 7:30 pm. Golden Oldies from the 1950s and 1960s. Free. Astoria Park Great Lawn, Shore Boulevard between Hell Gate Bridge and Astoria Pool.

July 30, Haunting Histories and Legends of Astoria, 7:30 pm. This two-hour stroll visits some lesser-known historical sites and reveals tales of the neighborhood’s grim and ghostly past. Astoria is filled with tragic Hollywood film stars, voodoo, potters’ fields, grisly murders, poltergeists, hidden treasure, and deadly waters. $20/$25 at the door, location upon registration.

July 30, I Will Not Be Silent: A Comfort Woman’s Road to Activism, 6:30 pm. Yong Soo Lee, who was forced into prostitution by the Japanese during World War II, speaks. Special presentations by Holocaust survivors. Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center, Queensborough Community College, 222-05 56th Avenue, Bayside.

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If you can’t beat them, make your own show. After a second-place finish on a Jeopardy! episode, Noah Tarnow created The Big Quiz Thing, a team-based, multi-generational trivia contest in 2002. With questions about geography, history, pop culture, science, and sports, teams (sometimes families) compete against each other — with audience participation at times — in such categories as the Lightning Round and the Text Message Challenge. There are “Smart-Ass Points” for entertaining-but-incorrect answers.

On August 4, Quiz Thing will begin a residency at Q.E.D., an eclectic cafe/working space/hang out spot in Astoria. During the kick-off, Tarnow will divide the audience into groups that will compete using an interactive app/website with tablets and smartphones. Shows will continue on the first Tuesday of each month (September 1, October 6, etc.) with no confirmed end date.

Details: The Big Quiz Thing, Q.E.D., 27-16 23rd Avenue, Astoria, August 4, 7:30 pm, $8 in advance/$10 at the door.

Photos by Ryan Muir

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It’s kind of like Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game — which pits superstars from one league against their counterparts in the other circuit — except with this challenge, everybody wins.

On August 1, Flushing Town Hall will host The Catskills Comes to Queens, a premiere farm-to-table, food-and-wine tasting with more than 20 chefs, pitmasters, and culinary artisans. Attendees will be able to walk around the venue’s outside garden, theater, and exhibition space, sampling such delicacies as rabbit mortadella hot dogs, lamb tagine, Cuban-Chinese spit-roasted goat, whole hog BBQ, and crispy tripe with Sichuan peppercorn and jalapeño.

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There’s English-speaking Hollywood. There’s Hindi-tongued Bollywood. And there’s Mani Ratnam, the man who revolutionized and popularized India’s other major movie genre, Tamil-language cinema. Over a four-decade career, Ratnam has made boundless films that criticize politicians, challenge social mores, question intellectual thought, and reap commercial success.

The Museum of the Moving Image will pay tribute to this prolific director by showing three of his most powerful works—Roja, Bombay, and Dil Se—all of which investigate romance against the backdrop of Indian politics.

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Poet and novelist George Dawes Green founded The Moth, a nonprofit dedicated to the art of storytelling, in 1997. His aim was to revive a favorite childhood pastime: spinning yarns with his buddies on his Georgia porch during hot summer nights while moths zoomed in and out of sight.

He ended up creating a phenomenon, and that’s no fish tale.

Currently, Green and his fellow Moth raconteurs run storytelling programs in almost 20 cities. Plus, they have a weekly podcast, a national public radio show that won a 2010 Peabody Award, and a book.

On Monday, July 27, The Moth spearheads a friendly “StorySlam” at Flushing Town Hall. The night’s theme is “business,” and anyone with a true (well, mostly true), five-minute narrative about a professional dealing can apply to participate.

The format is straightforward. Potential contestants put their names in The Moth Hat. Contenders take the stage (no notes allowed) after their names are randomly picked from the pool. Judges selected from the audience then choose the StorySLAM winner.

Details: The Moth StorySLAM, Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing. July 27, 7 pm, $10.

Photo by Flushing Town Hall

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It’s a chance to make history or at least take part in it.

The Greater Astoria Historical Society is going to host two unique parties this summer. From 1 pm to 4 pm on July 25 and again on August 8, all are invited to the Long Island City headquarters to scan old photos.

Do you have any pictures of the old neighborhood or beloved family members? This is the way they can achieve immortality. Agency members will scan the photos, return them to attendees, and then include the images in their archives.

It’s free, but the impact might be priceless.

Details: Summer Scan Party, Greater Astoria Historical Society, 35-20 Broadway, Long Island City, July 25, 1 pm, free.

Photo by Greater Astoria Historical Society