Update (8/21/14): Due to the weather forecast for Thursday night, Bat Night at the Woodlands has been canceled.

Here’s our roundup of outdoor events in the area where you can enjoy this nice August weather and food and drinks with your friends, listen to some great music and even learn a thing or two about nature:

Wednesday, Aug 20

Penn Museum’s Summer Nights Concert Series presents Brazilian duo Minas

Penn Museum, 3260 South St, 5:00 p.m.

Celebrating 30 years since moving from Rio de Janeiro to the Philadelphia area, Minas’s innovative yet timeless sound blends folk, blues, jazz, scat, and samba, with a unique combination of Brazilian and American roots. The concert will take place in the museum’s Stoner Courtyard. $10.

Thursday, Aug 21

Dîner En Sweatpants

Clark Park “A”, 43rd and Baltimore,  5:30-8:30 p.m.

Ticketleap invites folks to a silly, FREE event this Thursday in Clark Park. Bring your picnic blankets and baskets or buy some delicious food from the food trucks after the regular Thursday Farmer’s Market! http://events.ticketleap.com/diner/

Bat Night at the Woodlands

The Woodlands Cemetery, 40th and Woodland, 6:00 p.m.

Bring some dinner and your flashlight on Thursday from 6-9 p.m. for a rare chance to spend the evening in the Cemetery after dark and see the resident bats! Also, take a walk with a bat expert and learn about special plants that will attract bats to your garden. This is a free event and sweet treats from Lil’ Pop Shop will be available for sale.

Saturday, Aug 23

Outdoor Concert feat. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah w/ Illinois, and Mo Lowda and the Humble

City Tap House, 39th and Walnut, 3:00-8:00 p.m.

City Tap House is joining forces with the booking and production team from The Blockley and Brooklyn Brewing Company to throw a couple of August, Saturday afternoon concerts on their beautiful outdoor patio space. The first concert, on Aug 23, features local indie rockers Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, led by longtime frontman Alec Ounsworth. They’ll be sharing the stage with Illinois, also Philly-based rockers. Mo Lowda and the Humble, one of the city‘s finest up-and-coming groups, will open the show at 3:30 p.m. $15. 21+. Tickets are available here.

There will be a bus substitution on the Trolley Route 10 from 63rd and Malvern to 33rd and Market from 12 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 23, through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29, according to SEPTA. The substitution is due to Philadelphia Streets Department work in the area.

During the bus substitution, Route 10 riders can use trolleys Routes 11, 13, 34 and 36 for travel between 33rd and Market to 13th and Market. Buses will take passengers between the 33rd and Market Street trolley stop and 63rd and Malvern.

There’s no word yet on the extent of the road work scheduled in this area. Stay tuned for updates.
 

West Philly kids are doing great in sports and are in the spotlight of some current and upcoming sporting events.

The Taney Dragons. (Photo from Taneybaseball.com)

• The Taney Dragons, Philly’s youth baseball team that made it this year to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., keeps winning! In their second game, on Sunday, they defeated the team from Texas. We learned that there are at least three West Philly kids on the team. According to neighborhood sources, these kids are: Eli Simon, No. 4, a student at Penn Alexander School (43rd and Locust), Tai Shanahan, No. 7 (who had the game-winning hit on Sunday), goes to St. Francis de Sales (47th and Windsor), and Carter Davis, No. 9, lives on 49th St.

We’re very excited about the success of these and other young stars on the team (their amazing pitcher, Mo’ne Davis, is on this week’s cover of Sports Illustrated!). Taney’s 3rd game is tonight, at 7:30 p.m., when they will take on a team from Las Vegas, Nev. You can watch it on ESPN. Also, there’s a free Taney Dragons Pep Rally and Watch Party tonight, 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m., in the City Hall Courtyard (Broad and Market Sts). Go Taney!

• It’s not every day when you get a chance to practice with tennis stars like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, but a West Philly kid will be at this year’s U.S. Open. Eleven-year-old Tauheed Browning, a student at Legacy Youth Tennis and Education Center, is heading to Flushing Meadows, New York, to participate in Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on Saturday, Aug 23, as part of the 2014 U.S. Open Tennis Championship. Tauheed will get to warm up with tennis professionals and another Legacy student, Brandon Caban of Drexel Hill, will compete against the pros in a target-hitting contest in the hopes of bringing back $15,000 to provide tennis and life skills education to more than 4,500 young people from the greater Philadelphia area, many of who come from low-income and under-resourced communities.

Tauheed is a student at PA Leadership Charter School, and is from Overbrook. He is one of the youngest Legacy student-athletes with very high potential, according to a spokeperson at the center.

Tauheed Browning. (Photo courtesy of Legacy Youth Tennis and Education)

Some great news, folks! No more trolley diversion to 40th and Market Streets as after almost a three-week break the trolley service has resumed in the tunnel. The tunnel was closed for Trolley Tunnel Blitz, a 17-day maintenance and construction project. The trolley diversion during this period caused some traffic delays on 40th Street, especially during rush hours. The tunnel service resumed before the rush hour this morning, according to SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch.

We’re not fully in the transportation clear yet though. Some segments of Spruce Street will be closed this week for Penn students move-in. Here are the dates, times and areas you should avoid:

Thursday, Aug. 21: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 34th and 38th Streets
Friday, Aug. 22: 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 34th and 38th Streets
Saturday, Aug. 23: 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.: Spruce Street between 38th and 40th Streets

They’re very likely going to ask you to walk your bike along those blocks and, of course, they are closed to vehicle traffic.

Now back to SEPTA news:

The “Night Owl” 24-hour weekend subway service, which is a pilot program, has been extended until November 2. The pilot was initially scheduled to run through Labor Day weekend. The extension will let SEPTA evaluate the service during fall ridership season.

SEPTA has just released a new mobile app for Android users that offers riders a variety of SEPTA travel information. The new app allows you to check your schedule, check for alerts, detours and service advisories on your route, find the location and get real-time information for regional rail trains, find the travel option nearest you, and stay connected with SEPTA. You can download the app on this page.

BTW, a new sign has been spotted on the Route 34 Trolley that reminds riders of seat etiquette:

Bandit campaign of passive aggression continues on @SEPTA_TRL_34 pic.twitter.com/iysOB3k4DL

— Amara Rockar (@arockar) August 18, 2014

A man who was allegedly approaching cars and people in West Fairmount Park and demanding money in recent weeks, has been arrested. Described as a white male in his late 30s/early 40s, the man was aggressively approaching mostly women with young children near the Please Touch Museum and other family-friendly areas, according to reports. Police were informed and were on the lookout and caught up with the unidentified man Sunday outside the Philadelphia Zoo, NBC10 reports.

Several people posted on social media about encounters with the panhandler. He approached a West Philly woman last Wednesday at Belmont and Lansdowne and told her that he was a Temple University professor and that his name was Shawn Sullivan. He told the woman, who posted about her experience on the TotLot listserv, that his wife and kids had been in a car accident and that he needed a ride to the scene of the accident or some money. He told many others similar stories, according to NBC10. He even approached the NBC10 news van and asked for cash while they were filming a news report about him after hearing of complaints. In some cases, the man was loud, looked agitated and was aggressive, especially when people refused to give him money.

We’ll update when we have more information.

Illustrious jazz drummer and West Philly native Justin Faulkner will be a featured guest at tomorrow’s (Sunday, Aug 17) Community Unity Music Festival, which will take place at Clark Park (43rd and Chester), from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. The free festival will feature a variety of local and nationally acclaimed musicians and spoken word artists (check the festival’s Facebook page for details).

Faulkner, who grew up in Cedar Park, has been a member of the Branford Marsalis Quartet since 2009. “The undertone of this festival is to give children and young people in the area other alternatives,” Faulkner told WXPN’s The Key.

In addition to live music, Sunday’s festival will feature games, food, drinks, vendors, information booths, face-painting, stilt-walkers, a theatrical drill exhibition by the Cadets of the Philadelphia Police Explorers and performances by the Kimmel Center Creative Youth Ensemble.