All Over Albany

The week ahead

Here are a few things to keep in mind, look forward to, or keep busy with this week, from restaurant week, to the future of food and cities, to Radiohead and ballet, to Lewis Black, to Eric Carle, to Pinkerton, to all sorts of music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast:

Monday: Sunny, with highs in the lower 60s

Tuesday: Possible showers, with a high of 60.

Wednesday: Possible showers, high of 60.

Thursday: Possible showers, high in the upper 50s.

Friday: Sunny, highs in the upper 50s. .

Weekend: Sunny, highs in the upper 50s.

The colder weather is upon us.

Restaurant week

Restaurant Week in downtown Albany continues until Friday. There are 18 restaurants participating in the prix fixe fun this time around. The price is, of course, $20.11.Check listings for various places and times.

Arts and Sciences

+ Tuesday: The Nitty Gritty Poetry Slam is back at Valentine's. Sign up at 7 pm, slam at 8 pm. $5 ($3 for students)

+ Wednesday: "Can We Still Feed the World?" a talk by Swiss plant biotechnologist Wilhelm Gruissem at Skidmore. "Will it be possible to reach the needed crop yields and nutritional improvements with our current breeding germplasm under rapidly changing climatic conditions, and using sustainable agricultural production methods?" 8 pm - free

+ Thursday: "The Long Emergency vs. NYC's Resurgency: A Debate about the Future of Cities" at Skidmore. James Howard Kunstler vs. transportation planner Paul Steely White. 6 pm - free

+ Thursday: Wayne Koestenbaum will be at UAlbany as part of the New York State Writers Institute's visiting writers series. Koestenbaum's most recent book is Humiliation, about the nature and meaning of personal embarrassment.

+ Saturday: David Ferrucci -- the lead scientist on IBM's Watson project -- will be at EMPAC talking about Watson and its performance on Jeopardy. Part of reunion weekend at RPI (Ferrucci's an alum) -- but it's open to the public. 9 am - free

Schenectady debate

Democrat (and acting mayor) Gary McCarthy and Alliance Party candidate Roger Hull will meet for the only scheduled Schenectady mayoral debate on Wednesday at Proctors. 7:30 pm

Get saucy

Different Drummers Kitchen is offering a Monday evening class on the basics of making sauces. The five sauces covered in this class: cream based, stock based, vegetable puree, salsa, and jus. 6 pm - $69 Sold out.

Radio and Juliet

Radio and Juliet, a ballet performance mashup of Romeo and Juliet with Radiohead's music, is at Proctors Thursday. Here's a recent LA Times story about the choreographer's inspiration for the work. (There were performances of the work at at Jacob's Pillow a few years ago.) 8 pm - $20 and up

Lewis Black

Comedian Lewis Black is doing stand up at the Palace Friday night. He'll probably get upset about one or two things. 8 pm - $29.50 and up

Earlier: We talked with Lewis Black about Albany

Craft festival

The 2011 Northeast Fine Craft Festival will be at Proctors all weekend. More than 40 area makers chosen by a panel of jurors will be on hand with their goods. Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 11am to 5pm. $6-$7

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Saturday at The Egg: "Treasured Stories of Eric Carle," which uses "evocative music, stunning visual effects and innovative puppetry" to perform to three of Carle's famous stories (including the one about the ravenous caterpillar). 3 pm - $12

Film

+ On Saturday the New York State Museum will host the Muckman Monster Movie Festival in the Clark Auditorium of the Empire State Plaza. It will feature the films of Brett Piper, who makes "over-the-top science fiction epics, vintage drive-in flicks and tongue-in-the-cheek horror shockers." (Adults only.) Noon - $5

+ The latest in Proctors' "giant screen" movie series is Super 8, JJ Abram's Spielberg homage about small town kids making movies, a train crash, and a creature. Sunday at 2pm and 4:30pm. $5

Music

Tuesday: Weird Al Yankovic at the Palace
The best parody songwriter of our lifetimes. 8pm - $24-39

The Tedeschi Trucks Band show at The Egg Wednesday is sold out.

Friday: A tribute to Weezer's Pinkerton at Valentine's
Three acts team to play the entire classic album: Alta Mira, The Landlines, and Ben KN. 9 pm - $5

Friday: J. Cole at Washington Ave Armory
Jay-Z protege. 7 pm - $32

Friday: Rustic Overtones at Jillian's
With: The Ameros. 8 pm - $13 ahead / $18 day of

Friday: Wild Adriatic at Putnam Den
With: Around the World & Back, Cosmonauts, Party Boat. 9 pm - $7

Friday: Tift Merritt at Helsinki Hudson
Alt-country star. 9 pm - $18 ahead / $20 day of

Saturday: Marco Benevento at Red Square
Composer, organist, electric pianist.. "Sound sculptor." 9:30 pm - $12-$15

Saturday: David Sanborn at The Egg
Saxy. With: Joey DeFrancesco. 8 pm - $34.50

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 advertises on AOA.

Radio and Juliet photo via Proctors. Weird Al photo via Weird Al's Facebook page. Lewis Black photo: Flickr user Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff