All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

It's shaping up to be a nearly perfect summer weekend. After today the skies should be clear with temperatures in the upper 80s and a ton of great stuff to do.

As usual, our picks are after the jump. Got something else planned? Let us know about it.

Stay cool, and have a great weekend.

Troy Night Out
Before you run out of July, head over to the Collar City for Troy Night Out. And Daisy Baker's hosts the official/unofficial TNO after-party.

Sunshine Fair
The Schoharie County Sunshine Fair gets underway today. Fair food, animals, music, shows and a midway. Passes start at $12.

Music
+ Today-Saturday: The Big Up Festival in Ghent
It's an electronic music and arts festival on a farm in Columbia County. There are a bunch of acts on the lineup. A Saturday day pass is $65, otherwise 3-day tickets at the gate are $120.

+ David Hyde Pierce comes home to Saratoga tonight to host the Philadelphia Orchestra's A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra at SPAC. On Saturday the orchestra performs a Mozart piano concerto and Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." Tickets start at $20.

+ Today: Mountain Man at Helsinki Hudson
Three ladies who "have perfected a bare, unadulterated sound composed of little more than three-part vocal harmonies." 9 pm - $18

+ Tonight : Black Mountain Symphony at Red Square
With Maryleigh and the Fauves, In Color. 8 pm

+ Tonight: Sirsy at Jillian's. 9:30 pm

+ Tonight at Valentine's catch a free show by New Red Scare, the Killerados and The Chase Bastards. 8 pm

+ Saturday: The Head and The Heart at Bearsville Theater
Folk pop from Seattle -- "a breakout success story just waiting to happen" and, possibly, Seattle's "next big band." 9 pm - $15

+ Saturday: Helado Negro at Helsinki Hudson
"Gauzy textures, gently aloof vocals and vintage-pop-recorded-in-a-bathtub-on-an-alien-planet ambiance." He's on Asthmatic Kitty, so Sufjan's probably a fan, too. 9 pm

+ Saturday: album release party for MR Blackout at Red Square
With a bunch of guests, including Ghoul Poon and DJ Trumastr. 8 pm - $7

+ Sunday: The Decemberists at Mountain Park
Mountain Park is in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Note close, but probably not too far if you're a fan of Colin Meloy and company. 7 pm - $32.50

+ Sunday: Goo Goo Dolls at SPAC
With: Barenaked Ladies, Michelle Branch, and Parachute. 7 pm - $35 and up

+ Sunday: Olivia Quillio performs with Sympathy for Achilles at at Trickshot Billiards in Clifton Park. 6 pm

A Day at the Races
Races start a little late today -- 2:30. The last race will be a twilight race, and afterward, NYRA is hosting a party in the park -- free with your $3 track admission. (Today is also "College Day" -- free grandstand admission with a valid college ID.) Saturday and Sunday post time is 1 pm.

Swim
Here's the list of all the pools, beaches and sprinklers in the region.

Cool off in a museum
+ Union College has a new exhibit of pulp fiction paintings at the Mandeville Gallery in the Knott Memorial.

+ The Albany Institute of History and Art has started up its Free Fridays and Half Price Saturday admissions for the summer. You could chill with the mummies or check out new work by artists of the Hudson-Mohawk region.

+ Pissarro's People, portraits by impressionist Camille Pissarro, is the big exhibit this summer at The Clark, but while you're there, be sure and check out Spaces: Photographs by Candida Hofer and Thomas Struth. The large scale photographs kind of bent our minds recently. The photos examine how people interact with spaces, history and the passage of time.

+ The Hyde Collection's big summer exhibit, New York New York: The 20th Century, includes over 60 works of art that depict New York City and human interaction with it.

+ MASS MoCA's Bang on a Can Music Festival wraps up this weekend with a marathon of cutting edge music on Saturday from 4-10 PM. Tickets are $24, $35 with gallery admission. The galleries are open until 8 for this event.

Theater
Summer theater festival season is in full swing. Here's some info to help you decide what you want to see. A few things you can catch this weekend:

+ She Stoops to Conquer just opened at Williamstown Theater Festival ($54). You can also see Lili Taylor in Ibsen's A Doll's House on WTF's Nikos Stage ($35).

+ The Producers continues its run at Park Playhouse in Washington Park. Get a seat early and see it for free or reserve a seat for $5. 8 pm

+ Bakerloo Theater Project in Troy presents The Love of the Nightingale tonight at 8 and Saturday at 2. They'll perform Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on Saturday night at 8. $15

+ Leslie Uggams is at Capital Rep with her two-act solo musical Uptown, Downtown.

Baseball
You can catch a Tri-City Valley Cats game tonight or tomorrow night at 7 and Sunday at 5. Tickets start at $6.

Drive-in
Looks like a great weekend to head for the drive-in.
+ The Malta is showing Cowboys and Aliens and Horrible Bosses on one screen and Captain America and Harry Potter on the other.
+ The Jericho has a double feature of Captain America and Transformers.
+ The Hollywood is showing Cowboys and Aliens and Bad Teacher.

Do The Time Warp in the great outdoors
Maple Ski Ridge in Rotterdam is hosting an outdoor screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday with shadow-cast The Whip-It Outskirts. $10

Farmers' markets
Saturday: Troy, Saratoga, Delmar. Sunday: Schenectady and the new Malta Drive-in Market.

Road trips
It should be a great weekend for a drive. Take a shopping trip to Northampton or spend 12 hours in Ulster County, Bennington, Vermont orColumbia County.

People watching
Find a deck and a drink in Saratoga and watch the world go by. Or tuck yourself away in a quiet corner of The Adelphi for a strawberry daiquiri.

Brunch
Spend a lazy morning/afternoon lingering over brunch and a Bloody Mary or enjoy a great diner breakfast.

Stargazing
Saturday could be a good night to check out the sky from the Hirsch Observatory at RPI. Or you could try stargazing from one of these spots.

SPAC advertises on AOA.

photo via Partisan Records