The Bayou City has plenty to see and do this week, and you won't have to break open that piggy bank to have a good time. We've got music, improv and the lost (and found) works of Walt Whitman. There's also a cheap flick at the Italian cultural center, a documentary about Big Oil's battle at Standing Rock, and a look at emerging and established playwrights at Rec Room and Ensemble. Keep reading for ten of our favorite events that won't cost you more than $10 — and six of them are free! Check out the Houston Press calendar for even more things to do.

Music Fest
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, free
Forget the garage; H-Town's up-and-coming talent pools are jockeying for a chance to gig over in the Museum District. There's always cool art, and this CAMH Teen Council-hosted event is always live, bringing original music and edited covers to the stage. Come celebrate the awesomeness of teen arts and music communities in the Bayou City. Insider tip: Be sure to check out the Zilkha Gallery group exhibit, "Origins of the Self," with a focus on questions of personal identity.

Thirsty Thursdays #2
Rec Room
7:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday, free
See it first during this new monthly play reading series over at the Rec Room. Pony up to the bar, order a cold one and weigh in on whether this one's destined for the Alley. This Thursday we'll hear Sam Mayer's Chet's Summer Vacation, about surviving the summer heat with a cantankerous air-conditioning unit. Word on the street is that this play is sexy and sticky with a twist.

The EaDo Comedy Show
CSz Houston
8 p.m. Thursdays, $8
We did some snooping, and this is one of the most budget-friendly ways to see some of H-Town's hottest comedians. It's a high-energy show, cranking out the lightning-fast scenes without a script and with a few personal absurdities thrown into the mix. Forrest Gump's mama was right: Life is "like a box of chocolates" and — with local improv favorites like Ladies Nite and Flirt Reynolds — "you never know what you're gonna get." What we do know is that we can always count on house troupe Better Linda during this weekly long-form improv show.

Concert Band & Soldiers' Chorus of The U.S. Army Field Band
Miller Outdoor Theatre
8 p.m. Friday, free
Forget Capitol Hill. The thrill is on a different hill this Friday night when "The Musical Ambassadors of the Army," the 65-member United States Army Field Band and 29-member Soldiers' Chorus, join forces at Miller Outdoor Theatre. Their repertoire is more than just "Stars and Stripes Forever," though they've got that one down pat; they've been known to perform everything from orchestral masterworks and operatic arias to Sousa marches, jazz classics and even favorites from Broadway musicals. They have performed at presidential funerals, in all 50 states and even with the Boston Pops, but this weekend it's our turn.

Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An Auto-Biography; A Story of New York at the Present Time in Which the Reader Will Find Some Familiar Characters book signing
Brazos Bookstore
7 p.m. Saturday, free
It seems that lightning does strike twice. Zachary Turpin, a doctoral candidate in English at UH, is a sort of literary treasure hunter. Last year he discovered a previously unknown self-help book by Walt Whitman (Manly Health and Training) and now he's done it again, discovering a 36,000-word mystery novel written by the poet. Using modern-day sleuthing tools (online databases of 19th-century newspapers), Turpin searched key words from one of Whitman's handwritten journals and came upon an 1852 advertisement in The New York Times; he followed the threads, and the result, with introduction by Turpin, is finally getting its day in the sun. His M.O. seems to work; he's also discovered lost works by Mark Twain, Emma Lazarus, Ambrose Bierce and L. Frank Baum; Turpin will be on hand this Saturday to sign and discuss Whitman's novel.