All Over Albany

Stuff to do this weekend

Congratulations. You've made it to spring. The real spring. Honest. This weekend that large orange orb in the sky will be making an appearance and temperatures will flirt with the 70 degree mark. It's been a long time.

There are lots of indoor and outdoor options this weekend, from Sean Rowe to Hudson Valley Hops to a Hitchcock film festival to Kathy Griffin.

After the jump, you'll find a few things we thought might interest you. Doing something you don't see there? Drop it in the comments. And whatever you're up to, have a fantastic weekend.

Food

Last night of restaurant week
Friday is the last night for Downtown Albany restaurant week. Seventeen downtown restaurants will be offering special three-course menus during that span. Restaurant week tends to be popular, so reservations are a good idea.

Hudson Valley Hops
Saturday: The Hudson Valley Hops event returns to the Albany Institute Saturday.

America's Test Kitchen
A live stage show of the popular PBS program America's Test Kitchen will be at the Palace Sunday afternoon.

Roller derby double header
The Albany All Stars and the Capital District Mens Roller Derby are at the Washington Avenue Armory Saturday for a double header. Doors open at 5 pm, bout at 6 pm - $10 ahead / $12 at the door / $4 kids under 12

Comedy

Kathy Griffin
Saturday: Kathy Griffin brings her stand-up act to Proctors. Saturday 8pm - $25-$75

Theatersports
Friday: The Mop & Bucket Company is back at Proctors Underground on Friday night with a new season of TheaterSports -- in which teams of improvisors compete based on audience suggestions. (Think Whose Line is it Anyway?) Friday at 8pm - $14 / $6 students and seniors.

Theater

Gypsy
The Sondheim/Arthur Laurents musical based on the life of Gypsy Rose Lee finishes its run at Capital Rep (TU review, Nippertown review). The show features Broadway veterans and a number of talented actors from the Capital Region, including Benita Zahn and George Franklin. various times - $20 and up

Exquisite Corpse
Confetti Stage is hosting a gala at the Albany Masonic Hall, with an Exquisite Corpse -- which is not what it sounds like. It's a short play written by several different playwrights -- one picks up where the last one left off. Saturday 7:30 pm - $20

Sweeney Todd
This weekend at at C-R Productions at Cohoes Music Hall: Sweeney Todd. With kids. Yep, watch sweet, freckle faced pre-teens and teens sing about turning each other into meat pies in Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award winning musical drama about man's inhumanity to man. It's challenging material, but previous youth productions from C-R have included some very talented young people. Friday and Saturday 8pm, Sunday 2pm - $15/$20

A...My Name Will Always be Alice
The Not So Common Players closes its production of A... My Name Will Always Be Alice, a musical review starring some fabulous women, include Dashira Cortes. Friday and Saturday 8 pm, Sunday 2 pm - free

Burlesque
Saturday: The Bing Bamboo Room burlesque group is at Red Square. Seating starts at 8 pm, show at 9 pm It's $15. Then later that night it's a Scooter Pie at Midnight burlesque show.

Film

Hitchcock festival
The Madison is hosting a Hitchcock festival this weekend with The Birds, Rear Window and Dial M for Murder.

Miele
Friday: Novelist and screenwriter Francesca Marciano will be at UAlbany as part of the NYS Writers Institute visiting writer series for a screening her film Miele, and a discussion afterward. Friday 7 pm, downtown campus, Page Hall - free

"Stop calling my Shirley"
The Ballston Spa Film Festival monthly classic movie at Ballston Spa High School is the 1980 comedy Airplane. Saturday 6:45 pm - free

"So let it be written, so let it be done"
Proctors is screening Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 three-and-a-half-hour epic The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston and Yule Brenner. Rotten Tomatoes calls it "Bombastic and occasionally silly but extravagantly entertaining." Saturday 2:30 pm - $5

Music

Friday: Chick Corea at The Massry Center
Famed jazz pianist. 7:30 pm - $40 / $20 students

Friday: The Hold Steady show at The Hollow is sold out.

Friday: Gospel Jubilee at Proctors
Third annual gospel music show on the main stage. 7 pm - $20

Friday: Persiflage at Proctors
Brooklyn-based "modular ensemble" jazz group. Part of the Party Horns series. 7:30 pm - $15

Friday: Hard Soul at The Low Beat
An album release show. With: Carl Daniels Band, The Strange Neighbors. 8 pm

Friday: Mister F at Red Square
Album release show for local jam band. With: Tauk. 8 pm

Saturday: Sean Rowe at Troy Music Hall
Playing a hometown show, a benefit for the Rensselaer Land Trust. With: MaryLeigh Roohan. 8 pm - $20 and up

Saturday: Albany Symphony Orchestra at The Palace
With violinist Simone Porter. Playing a program that includes Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" and Barber's "Violin Concerto." 7:30 pm - $19 and up

Saturday: Jon Anderson at The Egg
Acoustic night with the lead singer of Yes. 8pm - $39.50

Saturday: Wild Adriatic at Putnam Den
Album release show. With: Swear & Shake, Maggie Goble. 9 pm - $10

Saturday: Banda Magda at MASS MoCA
Accordionist and eclectic international band. 8pm - $12 ahead / $16 day of / $10 students

Sunday: The Stray Birds at Caffe Lena
Americana. 7 pm - $16

Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Friday-Sunday: The Underground Railroad History Project 2014 conference "Slavery and the Underground Railroad: The Larger Context, The Lingering Legacy" runs through the weekend with speakers, workshops, and exhibits at multiple locations. various event prices

Wordfest
Sunday: Wordfest, Albany's week long celebration of the arts and the spoken word, starts Saturday night at McGeary's with a cocktail party and a reading from Up The River, the Albany Poets new literary journal. Saturday Sunday 7 pm

A year with no sugar
Friday: Author Eve. O. Schaub will be at Northshire Saratoga to talk about her memoir Year of No Sugar, about her family "kicking the sugar addiction." Friday 7 pm - free

Museums

Mummifying Animals in Ancient Egypt
One of the world's foremost experts on animal mummies (yep, there is such a thing), Salima Ikram, will give a talk at The Albany Institute of History and Art about animal mummies and what they show about how ancient Egyptians interacted with the animal world. Friday 6 pm - free with museum admission

Canstruction
The annual Canstruction exhibit is open this weekend at the NYS Museum. Sculptures are built out of cans of food that will be donated to The Food Pantries of The Capital District.

Ansel Adams: Early Works
The Hyde Collection is exhibiting early works of Ansel Adams for one more week.

Butterflies
You have one more week to catch the indoor butterfly house at miSci.

Easter egg exhibit
More than 5,000 elaborately hand-decorated Easter Eggs will be exhibited this weekend in Schoharie to benefit the rebuilding of the Schoharie Free Library from damage done by Hurricane Irene. (It will also be open next weekend.) Friday through Sunday 10 am to 5 pm - $10 family, $5 individual

Hockey
The Albany Devils are at The TU Center this weekend with games Friday at 7pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 5 pm.

Farmers' markets
Indoor markets are open in Troy (Saturday at the Atrium), Saratoga (Saturday at the Lincoln Baths in Spa State Park), Schenectady (Sunday at Proctors), and the Spa City Farmers Market -- at the Lincoln Baths in Saratoga Springs (Sunday at the Lincoln Baths).

Troy Music Hall, The Palace, Proctors, miSci, Saint Rose, Capital Rep, MopCo, and the Downtown Albany BID advertise on AOA.