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 (as expected), to The Track, to the Batman, to the Blue Man, to The Wait, to the music...

Weather

Here's the paraphrased forecast:

Monday: Sunny, near 90.

Tuesday: Sunny and hot. Highs in the mid 90s. Chance of thunderstorms in the evening.

Wednesday: Cloudy, chance of thunderstorms.

Thursday: Sunny and highs in the low 80s. Cool at night.

Friday: Sunny and 80. Another cool night.

Weekend: Sunny and mid 80s.

Hey, it finally rained.

The Track

The big thing this week: the horse racing season at the Saratoga Race Course opens this Friday. It's the 144th season at the The Track. The meet runs for 40 days, through September 3. (Tuesdays are "dark" days -- no racing.)

This year's seasons includes 54 "stakes" races -- higher level races with a lot of prize money (hundreds of thousands of dollars) on the line. The biggest race of the season: The Travers Stakes, on August 25 -- it's usually the biggest crowd of the year.

A notable day at The Track this week (aside from opening day): Sunday is Hat Day -- which, of course, means all sorts of crazy hats for the hat competition.

Travers art
Thursday at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga: artist Greg Montgomery will be there to talk about his long-running series of Travers posters. He'll also be signing this year's poster, which will be available for sale. 7 pm

Theater

The packed summer theater festival season continues. A few highlights for this week:

+ The Saratoga Shakespeare Company opens its summer season Tuesday in Congress Park. This year's production is Twelfth Night. Tuesday-Saturday at 6 pm / Sunday at 3 pm - free

+ The stage adaptation of Far From Heaven opens at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. And the production of Last of the Red Hot Lovers starring (among others) Leslie Bibb and Susie Essman closes Sunday.

William Kennedy

The NYS Writers Institute summer reading series continues at Skidmore this week. Among the highlights: William Kennedy will be reading on Wednesday. 8 pm - free

Ballet

This is the last week of the season for the New York City Ballet at SPAC. A few highlight from this week's slate: multiple performances of Romeo and Juliet.

Blue Man

Saturday and Sunday at Proctors: the touring company of Blue Man Group will be in town for three shows (one on Saturday, two on Sunday). It's... hard to describe -- but in a good way. various times - $20 and up

Movies

Batman
Director Christopher Nolan's long-awaited Batman follow up -- The Dark Knight Rises -- opens Friday. It will be playing at pretty much every theater. And many of them have midnight screenings lined up for Thursday. (Yep, some of those are already sold out.) And if you're prepared to totally geek out on Batman, the Bow Tie Movieland in Schenectady and the Regal Cinemas are showing a marathon of the Nolan Batman films Thursday night -- Batman Begins and The Dark Knight ahead of The Dark Knight Rises at midnight.

Where are your friends tonight?
At The Spectrum on Wednesday: a one-time-only screening of the documentary about LCD Soundsystem's blow out last show at Madison Square Garden, Shut Up and Play the Hits (trailer). 7 pm - $10

Ballin' at the Graveyard
The documentary about the pickup basketball scene at Albany's Washington Park -- Ballin' at the Graveyard -- continues its run at the Spectrum.

Evil Dead
Saturday at Proctors: It Came From Schenectady is showing Sam Raimi's cult classics Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. 7 pm - $9 adults / $6 students

Wait no longer for The Wait

Hey, they're back. You remember The Wait. (The Idiots explain.) They're playing a reunion show this Saturday at Putnam Den in Saratoga, with John Brodeur and Five Alpha Beatdown. (And look, an previously unreleased EP.) 9 pm - $5

Music

Tuesday: Graffiti6 at Jillian's
"Gnarls Barkley-esque." 8 pm - $8 ahead / $10 at door

Wednesday: Bad Medicine at Rockin' on the River
A Bon Jovi tribute band. 5 pm - free

Thursday: Matisyahu and Dirty Heads at Upstate Concert Hall
Unlikely reggae. 8 pm - $25 ahead / $28 day of

Thursday-Sunday: Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival
Annual festival in Greene County at the edge of the Catskils. $55 / $175 full festival

Thursday: Buckwheat Zydeco at Alive at Five
Louisiana accordion music. With: Captain Squeeze & The Zydeco Moshers. 5 pm - free

The Dweezil Zappa Show at The Egg on Friday is sold out.

Friday: WEXT Birthday Party at Valentine's
Featuring Sgt Dunbar, The Hanslick Rebellion. 8 pm

Friday: Brittany Haas and Lauren Rioux at Caffe Lena
Two bluegrass fiddlers, one show. 8 pm - $15 ahead / $17 at door

Friday: Brown Bird at Helsinki Hudson
Rising indie folk duo. 9 pm - $12 ahead / $15 day of

Friday: Street Corner Holler at Upbeat on the Roof at the Tang
Roots/blues/Americana. 7 pm - free

Saturday: Death Cab for Cutie at Brewery Ommegang
Outside. Gates open at 5:30. 8 pm - $39.50 advance / $45 day of

Saturday: Bang on a Can All Stars at MASS MoCA
Featuring new commissioned works by a bunch of sound artists. 8 pm - $24 / $15 students

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.

SPAC advertises on AOA, as does Proctors.