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 the weather (just... nice), St. Patrick's Day, ravioli, stories, comedy, madness, and music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast:

Monday: Sunny and 60s.

Tuesday: Cloudy and 60s. Maybe some rain.

Wednesday: Sunny and 60.

Thursday: Repeat.

Friday: About the same, but with a chance of rain.

Weekend: Sunny and 60s.

Hope you like sunny and 60.

St. Patrick's Day

It's this Saturday. There will, of course, be much celebrating around the Capital Region. Elisabeth has pulled together a bunch of local ways to celebrate the day. A lot of people will be looking for the Albany parade -- it starts Saturday at 2 pm at Quail and Central Ave, and runs down Central into downtown.

About the holiday itself
The religious day -- the Feast of St. Patrick -- is the celebration of the arrival of Christianity in Ireland in the 5th century. And the missionary said to have been responsible: the man would become St. Patrick. He wasn't Irish -- he was a Roman-Briton born in northern England who had been kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. As the story goes, he escaped, went back home, had a dream that the people of Ireland wanted him to return, became a priest, and eventually returned to convert many in Ireland to Christianity. (As it happens, many of the stories associated with Patrick might actually have involved another guy, Palladius, who was the first bishop in Ireland.) March 17 is said to be the day St. Patrick died.

Of course, here in the United States, the holiday has become a celebration of Irish-American heritage and culture. And green beer.

Names

The Front Parlor Storytelling series is back at the Ale House in Troy Monday night. This month's theme: "Names." 7:30 pm

Storytelling conference: The Northeast Storytelling Conference is Saturday at the Ramada in Albany. It includes a "regional story slam" -- theme: "E-erie Nights" -- Saturday night. 9:30 pm - free

Writing what you know

One of Marion Roach Smith's popular writing classes at the Arts Center of the Capital Region starts this Wednesday. "This course will help you dig among your stuff and get it down on paper in some interesting, funny, enlightening, compelling, readable and possibly saleable way." It runs through April 18 on Wednesday nights. 6:30 pm-9:30 pm - $310

Laughs

The Laughs on Lark show returns to Elda's this week (it had to skip a month because of that permit situation). The lineup this time around: Tony Rogers, Morgan Williams, and the one and only Ethan Ullman. Hosted by Matt Kelly and Jaye McBride. 9 pm

Royal Comedy Tour: The Royal Comedy Tour -- featuring Sommore, Earthquake, Arnez J, and that guy from Hanging with Mr. Cooper -- is at the Palace Sunday night. 7 pm - $38 and up

Food

Ravioli
Thursday at Gio Culinary Studio in Vorheesville: a class on making fresh ravioli -- specifically, mushroom ravioli, three cheese ravioli, and lobster ravioli. The class includes hands-on learning. 6:15 pm - $45

Carmine's Brazilian Grill
The new Brazilian-style churrasco restaurant from Carmine Sprio has a soft opening this week that starts Thursday with a benefit for Equinox. There will be two seatings, at 5:30 pm and 8:30 pm. $75 at the door, check payable to Equinox

Wild game
The City Beer Hall in Albany has another beer and wild game dinner lined up for Thursday night. This month it's four beers from Crossroads Brewing Company (which is in Athens, New York) paired with a wild game tasting menu. 6 pm - $60 (tickets available online)

Jersey Boys

The two-and-a-half week run of the touring company of the Broadway show Jersey Boys finishes its run at Proctors on Sunday. The musical tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. check for times - $20 and up

March Madness

The NCAA men's basketball tournament starts on Thursday -- the games begin around noon and run through the night. It's not a bad day to, you know, be feeling under the weather so that you have to stay home from work. A popular remedy for that sort of illness: drinking a beer at a bar while watching basketball.

Syracuse: The Syracuse basketball team is the #1 seed in the East bracket. The Orange play #16 seed UNC-Asheville Thursday in Pittsburgh at 3:10 pm.

Music

Tuesday: Elliott Brood at Valentine's
"Scuzz-country revival." 8 pm - $10

Wednesday: Celtic Woman at The Palace
Of PBS pledge week fame. A group of women singing Irish music. 7:30 pm - $33 and $63

Wednesday: Dangermuffin at Putnam Den
Southern jam band. Also: their name is Dangermuffin. 9 pm - free

Thursday: Ravi Coltrane at the Massry Center
Jazz saxophonist, son of John. 7:30 pm - $25

Friday: Joseph Arthur at Helsinki Hudson
Alt singer/songwriter. If he wasn't real, someone would make him up. 9 pm - $15 ahead / $18 at door

Friday: Enter the Haggis at The Egg
Canadians who play Celtic rock. 8 pm - $24

Friday: Nappy Roots at Northern Lights
The best-selling hip-hop group of the year -- 10 years ago. 8 pm - $20 ahead / $25 day of

Friday: Bassfix at Red Square
Two rooms. Ten DJs, including Jen Haley and Milkdud. 8 pm - $6 before 11 pm / $9 after

Saturday: Sean Rowe at Steamer 10
He's back and kind of famous now. With Babe City (Olivia Quillio, Meagan Duffy, MaryLeigh Roohan (Mary Leigh & The Fauves) and Caroline Corrigan (Red Lions)). We're guessing this show will sell out. 8 pm - $13 ahead / $15 at the door

Saturday: Sarah Jarosz at The Egg
Bluegrass instrumentalist. 7:30 pm - $20 / $15 students

Saturday: The Led Zeppelin Experience at The Egg
A "two and a half-hour multi-media retrospective of Led Zeppelin with selections from every album," performed by Hammer of the Gods (a Zeppelin tribute band). 8 pm - $34.50 and $39.50

Saturday: Albany Symphony Orchestra at the Troy Music Hall
The ASO will premiere a new trumpet concert by resident composer George Tsontakis. It will also be playing selections from Beethoven, Debussy, and Stravinsky. 7:30 pm - $19 and up

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.

photo: Flickr user NeitherFanboy via Wikipedia

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