All Over Albany

The week ahead

Here are a few things to keep in mind, look ahead to, or take care of this week -- from the weather (cloudy), to crossword puzzles, to design, to Poe, to music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast:

Monday: Cloudy. Chance of rain in the afternoon and evening -- thunderstorm possible. Highs around 60.

Tuesday: Cloudy, maybe some more rain. Highs around 70.

Wednesday: Oh, let's see... cloudy, maybe some rain, maybe a thunderstorm. Highs in the mid-70s.

Thursday: Repeat.

Friday: Sun, possibly. highs around 60.

Weekend: Sunny. Highs in the mid-60s.

Hope for May flowers.

Robert Gibbs

Former Obama admin press secretary Robert Gibbs will be giving a talk at Union College Monday evening. Gibbs was also the Obama campaign's communications director. The talk is titled: "Inside Washington: What's Next?" 7 pm - free

Will Shortz

NYT crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz will be speaking at Skidmore Monday. If the crossword puzzle world has rock stars, Shortz is like Bono. He was featured in the doc Wordplay and he appears on the puzzler segment of Weekend Edition Sunday. (According to the Facebook event page, the Shortz talk starts at 5 pm in Gannett Auditorium -- but the Skidmore calendar has it pegged at 8 pm. Hmm... maybe it's a puzzle.)

Paola Antonelli

Paola Antonelli, the curator of architecture and design at MoMA, will giving a talk at RPI Tuesday evening. The title: "Talk to me: the communication between people and objects" (also an upcoming exhibition at MoMA). Here's Antonelli answering a bunch of questions over at Big Think, and a profile from 2007. 6 pm - free

Hyper-Rainforest

Sound artist Francisco Lopez will be premiering his new work, "Hyper-Rainforest," at EMPAC this week. From the blurbage:

Hyper-Rainforest is a monumental sound piece, both in duration and in how the sounds are projected to the Concert Hall. All music in this performance stems from field recordings--but it does not simulate the natural reality of the original locations. Instead, the work creates a sonic hyper-reality, a virtual world of sound and music that goes beyond a trip to a rainforest. The original materials are observed, analyzed, and composed to create a piece that surrounds the audience, moving deep into the sounds themselves and toward new sounds still rooted in their origins. This world premiere, commission was developed in residence at EMPAC.

There are performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $15.

Selected Shorts

There's a performance of the public radio program Selected Shorts at The Egg Saturday night. The show will be all Edgar Allen Poe -- and readers will be Isaiah Sheffer, Keir Dullea and Mia Dillon. Proceeds from the show will support WAMC. 6 pm - $50

Arts and Sciences

+ The New York State Writers Institute visiting writers series brings sociologist Elijiah Anderson to the Albany Public Library's main branch Tuesday evening. Anderson will be discussing his new book The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life. 7:30 pm - free

+ Koren Zailckas will be at Skidmore Thursday evening. She's the author of Smashed and Fury, both memoirs -- the first about alcohol abuse, the second about anger (Smashed includes mention of Syracuse's very own kegs and eggs-type riot, "Livingtstock"). 5:30 pm

+ Beakman -- of Beakman's World, the old kids science show (the one with the talking rat) -- will be at Proctors Saturday for a show about "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Brain but Were Thinking too Much to Ask." 1 pm - $9 adults / $7 kids

Music

+ Pop rock band The Downtown Fiction is at Valentine's Wednesday night. For what it's worth, a review of a recent show noted that the highlight of their set was a cover of Cee Lo's "F--- You." With He is We, Cady Groves, and Amely. 7 pm - $12

+ "Wunderkind" violinist Ray Chen will be playing at Union College's Memorial Chapel Wednesday night. 8 pm - ticket info

+ Hank and Cupcakes is back in town, this time at Jillian's Thursday night. As it happens, his name's not actually "Hank," nor is hers "Cupcake." 9 pm - $5

+ The Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will be performing at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Thursday night. 7:30 pm - $40 and $45

+ The Albany Symphony Orchestra will be performing Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" twice this week -- Thursday evening at the Canfield Casino in Saratoga and Friday evening at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Both performances will feature baritone Nathan De'Shon Myers. tickets start at $19

+ "Electro rock" band Jimkata is at Red Square Thursday night. 8 pm - $10 ahead / $12 day of

+ There's a world music recital at the Skidmore's Zankel Center Thursday night. Gahanian drum master Yacub Addy and Indian sitarist Veena Chandra will be performing with their student ensembles. 8 pm - free

+ Jazz great Ramsey Lewis will be at the Massry Center at St. Rose Friday night. The solo show will be a tribute to Billy Taylor. 7:30 pm - $25

+ Rickie Lee Jones is at The Egg Friday night. 8 pm - $34.50

+ Joy Kills Sorrow -- described as a "bold young Boston-based string" bluegrass band -- is at Helsinki Hudson Saturday night. 9 pm - $15

+ "Contemporary" a cappella group Rockapella is at The Egg Saturday night. 8 pm - $29.50

Bad

Proctors will be screening The Room, "the Citizen Kane of bad movies," Thursday night. The film has apparently become a cult thing -- like Rocky Horror or Lebowski, but, you know, bad. 7 pm - $12 at the door

These are a just a few things for this week. Know of something people should be looking forward to this week? Please share!

Look for our "Stuff to do this weekend" post on Friday.

Proctors, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and EMPAC all advertise on AOA.

photo via EMPAC / Francisco Lopez