All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

We're looking at a pretty typical November weekend in the Capital District -- a little sun between the clouds, a bit of rain here and there, temperatures in the 40s and a whole bunch of stuff to do.

After the jump, a few suggestions for the weekend. Got something else planned? Share with the crowd.

Don't forget to set your clock back before you go to bed on Saturday.

And have a great weekend.

1st Friday
Tonight is 1st Friday in Albany. Shops and galleries around the city will be open late with art and performances. A few things you might want to check out: Albany Center Gallery is launching a new exhibit space in a formerly vacant building at Columbia and James streets with an exhibit called Project Art with work by RADICAL! and Patrick Porter and Alex Waters. There's an exhibit of recent work by designer Milton Glaser, who may be best known for the I (heart) NY design, at the Opalka gallery at Sage Albany, the Albany Public Library has an exhibition of Vietnam War-inspired art work and artifacts and they're hosting a 1960s era coffee house with an open mic for musicians and spoken-word artists.

Other post 1st-Friday activities: Mother Judge is performing at The University Club at 8 pm (free), Alan Thomson's Little Big Band is playing the Capital Swing Dance at 25 South Allen Street ($15), UAG is hosting Comedy Pulp! Live -- a stand-up show ($5) -- and Elda's has a Vinylmania dance party starting at 10 pm.

BUILT: Albany's Architecture Through Artists' Eyes
Artists from around the Capital Region have created works of art based on Albany's architecture for Historic Albany's annual BUILT art exhibit & silent auction at The Cathedral of All Saints on South Swan Street. In addition to the art, all based on Albany's built environment, there's a reception and a silent auction to benefit Historic Albany. Saturday 7-10 pm - $75

Next Act
The first Next Act! New Play Summit is this weekend at Capital Rep and Proctors. It will include readings of two never-before-produced plays and one musical. Also: panel discussions, and meeting and greeting. Friday, Saturday, Sunday various times - $15 / $10 students (three day pass: $30 / $21 students)

More theater

Assassins
Class Act Productions presents Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. This look inside the minds of American Presidential assassins is really an exploration of the desire for fame and the American dream. $20, $18 students and seniors.

Hello Dolly
Jerry Herman's classic musical, Hello Dolly, opens on Friday at Cohoes Music Hall. Tonight at 8 pm, Saturday 3 pm and 8 pm, Sunday at 3 pm - $25, $30

The Shape of Things
The Shape of Things opening this weekend at Albany Civic Theater, examines how far someone might go for love, or art. Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm - $15 / Student tickets (with a valid ID) $10 / Government workers (with a valid ID) can get 2 tickets for $15.

Improv
The Whose Line is it Anyway-style TheaterSports semi-final smackdown begins tonight at Mop & Bucket Company . Underground at Proctors on Friday at 8 pm - $14, $6 students and seniors

Political ads
Friday at the Sanctuary for Independent Media: Political Advertisement IV: 1952 - 2012, the latest in a long-running anthology of presidential campaign advertisements. "In this revealing survey of the American televisual campaign process, a social and media history emerges as Muntadas and Reese trace the development of the TV "spot" as a political strategy and manipulative marketing technique." 7 pm - $10 suggested donation / $5 students

Cluster
Saturday at EMPAC: Cluster, a generative video and audio work by Kurt Hentschläger. Blurbage: "A simple, yet absurd setting is proposed--3D human characters turn into a school of fish. In the weightless choreography, human figures appear mostly as a pulsing, amorphous mass, a cloud of blurry matter from body parts and light." 8 pm - $18

Film

Goodbye Dragon Inn
The Writers Institute's Classic Film Series continues tonight with the Taiwanese film Goodbye Dragon Inn (Mandarin with English subtitles) "Set in a run-down Taipei movie palace on its final day of business, GOODBYE, DRAGON INN is both a tribute to the art of film and an elegy for the end of cinema as we know it. At the time of its U.S. release, J. Hoberman called it, 'a movie of elegant understatement and considerable formal intelligence' " Friday at 7:30 pm in Page Hall (downtown campus) - free

Collar City Film Festival
Saturday at 51 3rd Street in Troy: the first Collar City Film Festival, "a 2 hour collection of short films from artists all over the capital district and slightly beyond." 7 pm - $3 suggested donation

Joan Walsh
Salon.com editor-at-large Joan Walsh will be at the Sanctuary for Independent Media Saturday night for talk about her book What's the Matter with White People? Blurbage: "What's the Matter with White People? explains how an "us vs. them" attitude has arisen in the minds of many Americans (on both sides of the political spectrum), and how that racial inequality and strife has divied our nation." 8 pm - $10 suggested donation / $5 students

Music

Friday: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion at Helsinki Hudson
Try not to let too much of the blues splatter on you. With: Daddy Long Legs. 9 pm - $18 ahead / $22 day of

Friday: Melissa Ferrick at The Linda
Folk rock singer/songwriter. 8 pm - $20

Friday: Hot Day at the Zoo at Red Square
Roots string band. With: Lucky Jukebox Brigade, Olivia Quillio. 8 pm - $10 ahead / $12 day of

Friday: Woodstock Era Experience at The Egg
Eleven acts playing as acts from the Woodstock era -- such as Janis Joplin, The Who, Joe Cocker, The Mamas and the Papas, and so on. 8 pm - $20 and up

Friday: Goldtooth downstairs at Valentine's
Golden era hip-hop meets live rock. With Boston party rappers Big Digits and Saratoga's Mr. Owl. 8 pm - $5

Saturday: Pretty Lights at the TU Center
Huge electronic music act. 8 pm - $24.50 and up

The Meat Loaf show scheduled for the Palace on Saturday has been postponed because of Sandy.

Saturday: New York Banjo 5-String Summit at The Egg
Featuring: Bela Fleck. 7:30 pm - $34.50 and up

Saturday: Chandler Travis Philharmonic at Valentine's
A 9-piece. 8 pm - $12

Saturday Bruce Hornsby at Troy Music Hall
Solo, no Range. That's just the way it is. 8 pm - $30 and up

Saturday: Nicholas Wiggins at UAlbany
Baritone and recent graduate of the Eastman School of Music. "He is a native of Clifton Park and an alumnus of the Shenendehowa Central School District where he is known as the 'football team captain turned nationally-acclaimed musician.'" 7:30 pm Performing Arts Center, uptown campus - $8 / $4 students

Nanotech
As is becoming the tradition at UAlbany's CNSE, November is... NANOvember. And the annual community open house at the Albany NanoTech Complex is Saturday. On the slate: tours and demonstrations. It's a $14 billion complex -- they probably have at least one or two interesting things to see. 11 am-3 pm - free (pre-registration)

Union/RPI hockey
The men's hockey teams from Union and RPI are playing a home-and-home this Friday and Saturday. They're at RPI Friday night, and at Union Saturday night 7 pm both nights - check for tickets.

Lightwire
Sunday at the The Egg, a kids show that might also be entertaining for their parents: Lightwire Theater will be performing The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare. Lightwire is pretty much what it sounds like -- there's a darkened stage and figures are created with light sculptures (the video makes a lot more sense than that sentence). 3 pm - $10 (adults free with a kid)

Empire State Plaza Auto Show
If you're car shopping, or you just like to look, the Empire State Auto Show is at the ESP today through Sunday. Cars from 30 manufacturers, and buyer incentives. Friday 9 am-9 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm, Sunday 11 am-5:30 pm.

Ski & Snowboard Expo
The convention hall at the ESP is hosting the annual Ski and Snowboard show this weekend. Ski resorts, clubs and vendors will be there and you'll have opportunities to buy, sell, and trade equipment. There's also a kids "fun zone." Friday 4 pm-9 pm, Saturday 10 am-6 pm, Sunday 10 am-5 pm - $8, under 10 free when accompanied by an adult.

Craft Fairs
The holiday craft fairs are starting already. Here are a couple of places you can get a jump on holiday shopping this weekend:

Boutique Noel Craft Fair
At the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm. Over 90 crafters and specialty food vendors. Free admission.

Holiday Crafts on Madison
The Woman's Club of Albany on Madison Avenue hosts a holiday craft fair on Friday from 5 pm-9 pm and Saturday from 10 am-4 pm.

Farmers' markets
Capital Region farmers' markets have moved indoors for the season, but there are still lots of autumnal flavors to be found. Among the markets open this weekend: Troy (Saturday), Delmar (Saturday), Saratoga (Saturday), and Schenectady (Sunday).

Food Swap
Tickets to participate in the From Scratch Club's monthly food swap are sold out, but there are still some tickets for the swap curious. Those tickets let you watch and sample and decide if a food swap is something you'd want to participate in sometime in the future. Sunday at Oakwood Community Center in Troy from 4-6 pm.

Make Apple Cider
The Berkshire Botanical Garden is hosting "The Big Squeeze," a lecture and demonstration on how to make hard and sweet apple cider. It will also cover the history, culture and lore of cider making. Saturday 1 pm-3 pm - $27

Cider donuts
The 2012 FUSSYlittleBLOG Tour de Cider Donut has come and gone. But now that you have the results, you can go check them out for yourself.

Apples
We're at the end of the season, and this year's weird weather resulted in large crop losses at many orchards. But many orchards have apples available for sale in their farm store.

Take a walk
The leaves are almost gone. Here are a few of our favorite autumn walks and some hikes.

Road trip
Fall is a great time of year for a road trip. Try a shopping trip to Northampton . But who needs new clothes when you have good beer and cheese -- maybe a visit to a brewery or cheese farm. And there's still time to take in a few flowers at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.

Troy Music Hall, the Palace Theatre, Proctors, MopCo, and Capital Rep advertise on AOA.

photo credit: Krystle Blackburn