All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

Whether it's a two-day or three-day weekend you've got on tap, there's plenty to keep you occupied. From drag queens and butterflies to Winter Carnival, mac & cheese, and the Dance Flurry.

After the jump, our list of things we thought might interest you. Got something else planned? Let us know.

And whatever you're up to, have a great weekend.

Dance Flurry
This weekend in Saratoga: the annual Flurry Festival, all sorts of dance and music all over town. Friday-Sunday - $95 (full festival), day tickets also available

Mac & Cheese Bowl
Taste mac-n-cheese from over 30 different restaurants from around the Capital Region and vote for your favorites at the annual timesunion.com/Table Hopping Mac & Cheese Bowl to benefit the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York. Bring your own cholesterol meds. Saturday at the Albany Marriott on Wolf Road. $15, $5 5-12, under 5 free.

Winter Carnival
It's weekend number three of the Lake George Winter Carnival with helicopter rides, giant kites on the ice, motorcycle and ATV races, a chowder cook-off, a bonfire, and more. Saturday and Sunday.

Theater

Priscilla
The touring production of the musical Priscilla, Queen of the Desert continues a wraps up its run at Proctors this weekend. The Broadway show is an adaptation of the 1994 film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The story follows two drag queens and a transexual as they take a bus trip across the Australian outback (Priscilla is the bus). Friday-Sunday various times - $20 and up

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, based on the Steve Martin movie of the same name, closes this weekend at Schenectady Light Opera. Friday & Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm - $18-$28

The 39 Steps
Molly McGrath stars in Home Made Theater's presentation of The 39 Steps this weekend. Friday & Saturday at 8 pm - $26, $29

The Laramie Project
Albany Civic presents The Laramie Project, Moisés Kaufman's play about the the 1998 kidnapping and murder of Matthew Shepard. Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 3 pm - $15

Comedy

MopCo: Unpredictable Love
Mop & Bucket Company takes on one of the greatest improvisations there is -- love. In Unpredictable Love, the improv comedy troupe will create stories, songs, and games in honor of romance. Underground at Proctors. Friday at 8 pm - $14 Adults, $6 Students & Seniors.

Improv at The Comedy Works
Mop & Bucket opens a weekly short form improv comedy show on Saturday night at The Comedy Works on Northern Blvd in Albany. Think Whose Line is it Anyway. 8 pm - $15-$20

Gender Defenders
The Palace brings in The Gender Defenders, four headlining stand-up comics -- two male and two female-- to share "their unique views on relationships, love and life." Saturday 8 pm - tickets start at $20

Music

Friday: Gospel Gala at The Palace
Ten choirs and groups from around the Capital Region performing in honor of Black History Month. 7 pm - free

Friday:Willy Moon at Dinosaur Bar-B-Q February 15
As heard in the iPod commercial. A free show (21+) thanks to EQX and a beer company. 10 pm - free

Friday: The Manhattan Project at Red Square
Electronic. With: Wobble Sauce. 8 pm

Friday: Ensemble ACJW at Skidmore's Zankel Center
Ensemble of young classical musicians in a program backed by Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. 8 pm - $8

Saturday: The Wiyos at The Egg
Vaudeville-esque. With: Mike & Ruthy. 7:30 pm - $24

Saturday: Red Molly at Proctors
Bluegrass/folk/jazzy western trio. With: Steel Wheels. An 8th Step show. 7:30 pm - $26 ahead / $28 day of

Saturday: Zephyros Winds at Skidmore's Zankel Center
Chamber wind ensemble. 8 pm - $8

Saturday: Temptation of the Muses at Troy Music Hall
Collaboration between choreographer Nai-Ni Chen, the classical ensemble The Ahn Trio, and composer Kenji Bunch. 8 pm - $15 and up

Saturday: Festival of Polychoral Music at Union College
Music written for multiple choirs, featuring Union College choirs as well as the College of St. Rose Madrigal Singers and Castleton Chamber Singers. 5 pm Memorial Chapel - free

Sunday: Sunny Side of the Street Band at Red Square
A thank you show to the Americana band's supporters on Kickstarter. 5 pm - $5 (if not a Kickstarter supporter)

Brian Rogers/The Chocolate Factory: Hot Box
Chocolate Factory artistic director Brian Rogers brings his Hot Box to EMPAC this weekend. From the blurbage:

Hot Box is loud, dark, foggy, sweaty, and very live. Hot Box draws inspiration from a cinematic vocabulary--pans, zooms, cuts, etc.--while attempting to find a sustained stillness in an uncomfortable environment. Inspired by films like Apocalypse Now and Fitzcarraldo, a live performance situation is constructed that is violent and chaotic; and from that chaos, it attempts to compose a sequence of video images that are quiet, sustained, focused, and organized.

Friday and Saturday at 8 pm - $18

Shaken, not stirred
The Crandall Theater is hosting a James Bond festival this weekend. Saturday afternoon they're showing Dr. No and From Russia With Love. On Sunday afternoon it's Goldfinger and Casino Royale. There's a costume contest with prizes and following the Saturday screenings there's a martini party at the Peint O GWRW.

Hockey

Binghamton Senators at Albany Devils
Sunday afternoon the Albany Devils take on the Binghamton Senators at the TU Center. 3 pm - tickets start at $5

Brown Bears at RPI Engineers Hockey
The RPI Engineers play the Brown Bears Friday night at Houston Field House. 7 pm - $12, $9 for kids and seniors.

Mechanical Bull Riding Competition
The City Beer Hall is hosting a mechanical bull riding competition on Saturday to benefit the Boys and Girls Club. Here's a little more about the bull, and the guy who operates it. There will also be beer tastings by Harpoon Brewery and door prizes. Saturday at 3 pm - $30 per person or $100 per team

Butterflies @ MiSci
The butterfly house inside the MiSci (formerly the Schenectady Museum) opens this weekend. Saturday 11a.m. to 5p.m., Sunday Noon to 5p.m. Free with museum admission

More museums

Currier and Ives
The Albany Institute of History and Art's new Currier and Ives exhibit, "The Legacy of Currier & Ives; Shaping the American Spirit," opens on Saturday. The exhibition of 64 Currier and Ives prints "introduces the visitor to the firm of Currier & Ives and illustrates, through interpretive and educational materials, how their imagery became ingrained in the national consciousness."

Gordon Parks photography at the NYS Museum
The New York State Museum's exhibit of photos by Gordon Parks continues this weekend. Gordon Parks: 100 photos -- a collection of work by the famous photographer/director and Life magazine's first African American staff member -- highlights photos taken in Harlem and Washington DC during the early 1940s, "when both cities were going through significant changes--arising from post-WW II urban migration, the expansion of the black press, concern for children's education, and entrenched segregation and economic discrimination."

While you're there you can also check out the exhibit of work from the Hudson River School. It includes works from the institute's collection as well as works from private collections. The exhibit runs through August 18.

Someday is Now
A exhibit featuring work by Corita Kent is currently at the Tang Museum at Skidmore. The Tang is open noon-5 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Snow Box Derby 2013
Make a cardboard racer and ride it down the mountain at Maple Ski Ridge -- or drink hot chocolate and watch while other people ride cardboard racers. Prizes for the best decorated and fastest. Saturday from 1 pm-3 pm

Get your Oscar nominees in
If you like to see the nominees before the Oscars, this is your last weekend. The Spectrum is screening the Oscar nominated shorts -- both animated and live action -- and you can still see Argo, Rust and Bone, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty and other nominees at local theaters.

Make truffles
Different Drummer's Kitchen is hosting a truffle making class on Saturday. 3 pm - $65

Farmer-Brewer Workshop: Barley
The Carey Center for Global Good in Rensselaerville is hosting a session on growing, processing, and procuring barley for craft brewing. There will be presentations, panel discussions with brewers from C.H Evans, Farmhouse Brewery, and others. Saturday 10 am-3 pm - $20 includes lunch

Ice skating
Weather permitting, there's ice skating at the rink on the ESP. Regular hours are 11 am-8 pm. Here are other ice skating spots around the Capital Region. Be sure to dress for the weather.

Comfort food
Find delicious things that keep you warm. Like hot chocolate, dukbokki, or mac & cheese.

Proctors, the Troy Music Hall, the Spectrum, and Skidmore advertise on AOA.